Calax

The Caucus can go **** right off.... The day after is going to be pure hell for us. Right now we're (Rental car compant in Des Moines) pulling cars from basically everyone we can to keep up with reservations, because every one and their brother is in town for the caucus (and I'm getting 18 emails a day saying "Come Caucus!" And a very amateurish Bernie Sanders volunteer), and they ALL RETURN THE SAME DAY. Realize, this isn't 100 or even 200 cars returning in one day, that we can deal with, this is closer to 1000 vehicles being returned to a location that usually supports 750... Also it's terrible working within 5 minutes of where everyone has their "Townhall Meetings" http://www.lhf.org/

Went to vacation in New York. While I was there, my branch manager got fired, so I got in today and got very confused but have some decent options for the future

Right now, about a 9... not quite over the edge into "drunken depression" but at the point where typing makes my mind have a few conniptions about making sure to write correctly (for some reason).

You mean one of these? <snip> What's the problem exactly? Did the Navy order one made out of glass, gold plated or the wrong size? No, we just don't need another supercarrier added to the fleet. Especially given a time where everyone and their brother is shouting "austerity, we won't make it another year without cutting budgets!" Considering the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) was christened in 2001, your objection seems just a trifle bit late. But they're building the JFK (CVN 79) with the keel laid in 2015, and a new Enterprise with the keel scheduled to be laid in 2018. And these are 18 billion a pop. No. The total program cost is $36 billion for THREE carriers and includes ~ $5 billion dollars for R&D. The actual cost for construction of the Gerald Ford was ~$9 billion dollars and the average cost for each carrier estimated at $10.45 billion. The Gerald Ford which was launched in 2013 and will be commissioned this coming year, the JFK with a scheduled launch in 2018 and the Enterprise with a scheduled launch in 2023. If you were referring to the future Gerald Ford class carriers why did you specifically mention the Ronald Reagan which is a Nimitz class and then just it's propeller? Thinking the USN was building a SHIELD Heli-carrier perhaps? If you really want to bitch about something, try complaining about the actual waste and fraud in the budget. Like the $60 billion ANNUAL waste due to Health care fraud ($10 billion from Medicaid alone) or Social Security waste where the government is making SS payments to approximately 6.5 million people who are over the age of 112. The reason I targeted the Carrier program is because it's the single largest line item in the government budget I could think of, and because it's ultimately unnecessary. We aren't shrinking our carrier fleet to deal with the outrageous budget, and pushing that money into other things, instead we're steadily increasing our military spending while crying about fraud. If you gave the IRS, or any oversight comission the amount of money that it takes for ONE carrier as their 5 year budget, you'd see massive returns and cuts in spending. But instead we get more carriers, and 68 F-35's stuck in the budget.

You mean one of these? <snip> What's the problem exactly? Did the Navy order one made out of glass, gold plated or the wrong size? No, we just don't need another supercarrier added to the fleet. Especially given a time where everyone and their brother is shouting "austerity, we won't make it another year without cutting budgets!" Considering the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) was christened in 2001, your objection seems just a trifle bit late. But they're building the JFK (CVN 79) with the keel laid in 2015, and a new Enterprise with the keel scheduled to be laid in 2018. And these are 18 billion a pop.

You mean one of these? What's the problem exactly? Did the Navy order one made out of glass, gold plated or the wrong size? No, we just don't need another supercarrier added to the fleet. Especially given a time where everyone and their brother is shouting "austerity, we won't make it another year without cutting budgets!"

..was money very well spent. If there's one thing that practically guarantees that Pakistan will never have a genuinely Taleban like government it's their love for cricket and the knowledge that those killjoys would want to get rid of it due to it 'competing' with religion; getting the same sort of mania going in Afghanistan would work wonders and many of the refugees in Pakistan had already picked up their love of the game. The Afghans not only qualified for the Cricket World Cup but actually won a game there (sadly the numpties in charge of the game promptly changed the rules to exclude all the minnow nations, but that's besides the point). Better value than half an F-35 wing or an Osprey rotor or whatever 850k would be spent on otherwise. (lol 38 page pdf on a page with a borked script? thanks for the present Rand, you really shouldn't have) a Propeller blade on the USS Ronald Reagan?

To be fair, research shows income over 70k dollars a year or somesuch doesn't meaningfully increase happiness, so there's that. It depends how much you have to work for it. Usually people have to spend significant amount of time at work, on top of a few years of experience, certificates, etc. to enter income that high. I know people basically tied to their BlackBerries (or some other similar device) and working even in their "off time". I remember myself doing stuff like waking up at 5-6 in the morning, to check some data and then push for reports to some shared service center in other timezone, which i could review before a management meeting at 10am, then you get a ton of various leads on projects, sales, etc. then in the evening you are still on the mobile phone/mail because in another timezone there might be something or someone that needs attention, etc. and then you go to sleep at around midnight. But there are also times where it is slightly slower paced and then you start to appreciate the higher income, and spend some more money on various means of entertainment or traveling - or invest in various things to retire at 50-55 and enjoy the life from there on. It is always funny when people who never really understood the concept of making money are demanding to take money from others and give it to them. Honestly, from my perspective, what's ultimately happened is that you've created this situation for yourself. You're deliberately doing the job of more than one person in order to promote yourself in the eyes of your bosses, which means you're effectively underpaid for your position, and are doing the job for "intangibles". The Studies have shown that a forced 2 week vacation every so often actually makes people happier because it allows them to reset and get their lives in order. As to the post/article I linked. My issue with it is that it doesn't differentiate between those who are working, but are still eligable for those social programs because the minimum wage is woefully inadequite for anyone to live on (seriously GD, we have two options, raise the minimum wage, or force McDonalds/Walmart to pay for the social programs their employees are forced to use), and those who are (in the words of the ex-friend) "getting free cell phones and complaining about how wealth needs to be redistributed".

This is the rhetoric from those former friends

He said he'd always call Obama, "Obola" and WoD isn't a liar. He's just Wrath of Doofus... The reason I ranted about the Republican party is because this is effectively the republican primary thread. And I have to deal with former friends who want the system to be designed to ensure the Republicans always have a chance electorally even if they never change their rhetoric or actions to match a changing landscape and population. Calax, I hope these former friends are not "former" because of their political inclinations. Are they? If so you need to seriously re-examine your priorities buddy. Politics is fun to talk about, even fight about, but that the end of the day a difference of opinion about political philosophy is no different than a difference of opinion of what beer tastes best, who makes the best pizza, or what sports team to cheer for. No they're former friend because they were ****ty friends. And because they're 2000 miles away.

Working towards assistant Branch Manager position at my job... but got told to take today off because it's stupid slow this week and we don't need a full staff. Either way even with all the various days off and half days over the week, I'm still at 40 hours per paycheck (I'm averaging about 55 right now)

He said he'd always call Obama, "Obola" and WoD isn't a liar. He's just Wrath of Doofus... The reason I ranted about the Republican party is because this is effectively the republican primary thread. And I have to deal with former friends who want the system to be designed to ensure the Republicans always have a chance electorally even if they never change their rhetoric or actions to match a changing landscape and population.

It's the difference between "prone to overcautious inaction" versus "prone to massive strategic blunders." I think you confused Trump with Hilzilla. Hilzilla voted for the Iraq war, Trump was against it and his predictions came true. He also predicted both 9/11 and the reasons it would happen 19 months before. Edit: Talk about strategic blunders. The first thing Obola did was betray two of our best allies by cancelling the missile defense system we promised them to implement, a system Russia hated, and we got nothing in return. Immediately Putin realized he was dealing with a weak ignorant half-wit. No wonder he now thinks he can have his way with the lady-boy. "Overcautious inaction"? Obola set the world on fire, now fiddles while it burns. Can you stop being childish about people who disagree with you that you've never met? And for everything you might say that Obama might have done to damage our perspective in the world view, the one thing that you can't claim is that he's somehow worse than Bush Jr. In case you forgot, GW Bush was so reviled internationally that Obama got a Nobel peace prize simply because ANYTHING was more beneficial to the world community than George W. I'm not entirely sure why this "New Cold War" rhetoric is being pushed. As much as Russia may be our opponent, militarily we can blow them out of the water with less than half our standing military. My best guess is that we haven't had an actual political regime change since the end of the actual cold War. And most of those we have running industries also entered their industries when the War was running at full steam meaning that the defense industry had a blank check to make sure we were defended against those Commies. For comparison: http://cigeography.blogspot.ch/2015/12/the-soviet-and-russian-navy-compared.html#more That's the Russian Navy's fleet size as of this year. To consider them a legitimate threat to conventional militaries of the US and Nato is laughable, and yet instead we're constantly fed this rhetoric that the big bad voodoo daddy of Putin will somehow eat our souls, and crap on our beds while Obama ignores it in favor of praying to Allah in Kenya. At the same time, Russia's economic status is based largely on selling resources to the West. Thus he's stuck in the trap that China is, if he pisses off the west to much, he winds up economically dead because the house of cards that is his economy collapses under it's own weight. The only thing that Putin has to actually trump the west, is his Nuclear stockpile, but if he hits that button he's doomed the entire world... and one thing you can say about Putin is that he's NOT that stupid. As to the actual election, The sense I get is that as much as we see these antics within the primaries, the republicans have spent to much of the past 16 years alienating immigrants, women, and becoming more extremist, to actually have a hope when the general election hits. As much as GD may shout about how untenable it may be or what he thinks the future will hold, a rise in the minimum wage plays incredibly good to those earning less than 30k a year. As does several of the initiatives that are being proposed by the democratic side to undercut the hyper wealthy in favor of those who question how they might pay their taxes each year. Republicans need to break themselves back down and rebrand if they don't want to be seen as a joke. They like to proclaim they're trying to make America great again, and are the party of austerity and fiscal responsibility. And yet their budget that they pushed out last week includes purchasing 68 new F35's, and a significant increase to the single largest expense we've got as a government... defense spending. We have both the largest, and second largest airforce under arms, but instead of maybe cutting that down a tad, the republican party wants to cut something like planned parenthood rather than NOT buy one of those F35's for the same annual cost.

Or even of somebody with the authority to kill planets. And while I am viewing this with the Tarkin/Vader view, that's because that's the closest thing within the franchise to this dynamic. Honestly he looks and acts more like he was the PR guy than the actual leader...

I love the effect Dawson Casting has had on cinema. Frat boys! Domnhall Gleeson and Adam Driver are both in their thirties. Yes and no. They might be in their thirties but the dynamic they had was like that of two old frat bros who are now running the snowboard shop that they worked at during college. I realize that JJ was trying for a Tarkin/Vader dynamic, but part of the reason that worked was because you could believe Peter Cushing could command an entire armada. The guy they got for the "General" could have been replaced with Channing Tatum (technically 3 years older than the guy they got) with almost no effect. The guy literally commands an entire planet plus an extensive military force. If you want me to take him more seriously, he needs to look and act like he's had a longer career (unless you go out of your way to explain why he's in charge, which they didn't).

Thinking on it... can i just say the political landscape of this is, quite confusing. There's the Republic (which is 5 planets), the new Order (a maybe-cult) and the Resistance (to the aforementioned cult). As to the Order, The more I think about it, the more I think that the military leader should have been older. I could accept Ren being younger due to the nature of his character and him having powers, but the General needed to be old enough that this didn't feel like "two frat bro's teaming up to take on the galaxy (with an army)." Even somebody like Alec Baldwin in that role would have made more sense (not much, but more).

KotOR did the same, but better IMO, while JJ Abrams simply crossed the line with too much of it, again IMO. My bigger gripe was with Rey, does her character have any faults at all? It was just boring. You mean the girl who kept bugging to go back to the desert planet because "she is waiting" for someone? Yeah, I'd say she has issues. She wouldn't even take the lightsaber. Sure, she was less whiny than Luke, but she has the same faults that he did. Maybe i have a higher personal bar for what constitutes as a hero's journey, but those mentioned are pretty much nothing. I am not saying that she would have to be exactly like Luke, but at least give me some suspense because i had none. That being said, it's still an ok movie. I honestly would have enjoyed if they roleswapped Luke and Han... so that "Han" was the force sensitive one rather than "Luke"

The problem is that EP IV was not only new, but also better for its time than EP VII is today. As light and archetypal as the characters are - young hero, mentor, rogue, atypical princess, iconic bad guy, robot sidekicks, they all served their purpose very well within the film. EP VII copies the blueprint but not particularly well. The bad guy is more hilarious than anything (I never thought I'd find someone more amusingly bad than Christensen), the hero's path to improvement is completely skewered, most characters are pretty undefined - the script is not as tight etc. etc. If they're going to remake something at least do it well. And, well, don't call it a sequel. When he popped of the helmet he lost a lot of the menace he had. I think that the biggest issue is that the story wanted to be built around Rey, but they had to figure out how to cram Finn in there, and a few of the other characters returning. It's never good to have your protagonist be the one who can (and does) do everything. Did they ever explain what her stick was for?

I'm available basically sunday this week, and next week it's thurs afternoon to sunday for holidays.

Its okay Calax, let the candidates insult Clinton and Obama. Let Trump continue to make offensive comments ....let the Republican circus continue As I said numerous times the best way to ensue a Democrat and Clinton victory is for Trump to become the Republican candidate then the Democrats will have there time at bashing and undermining Republican policy...and boy is Trump a big and easy target for criticism Quite frankly, I feel Trump has the better chance out of the Republican candidates. If Clinton gets elected we'll see whether all her mistakes and her husband's become public. Trump has something that no other candidate has: salt of the earth; and it is weird because he is very far away from being your average joe blue collar working man. Yet compared to two faced politicians which have driven the country into the state that it is in, his clear no nonsense approach will resonate with many that are tired of sifting through all the bull**** and want clarity. Paul seemed like he was the only one actually concerned for the legislative process. Although Christy did make the point that a lot of the senators and congressmen on the debate were acting as if they weren't members of the government during the time that Obama was the president. At least Four of the people currently within the race were those who sought to undermine the office of the President with regard to Foreign Policy when they signed the Tom Cotton letter (basically everyone with an actual seat on the senate at the moment).

There were over 20 million emails missing from extremely high level members of the government. There HAS to have been classified info in those.

Same way Bush and Cheney avoided https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controversy You know, where the White house was using a non Governmental email server to move their mail instead of the one that was secured as part of the White House?

Divinity:Dragon commander if it's still available shady.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Calaxprimal/games/?tab=all Well... that's the list of games that I own.