Maedhros

Any recommendations on where to start with Gavriel Kay? Under Heaven (Tang Dynasty), The Lions of al-Rassan (medieval Spain) or Tigana (reneissance Italy) are all good starting points. Depends on what kind of period and place in history you want to start with. Just avoid The Fionavar Tapestry (his weakest work) and his "sequel" novels and you'll do fine. As for Dune, I definitely recommend reading all the Frank Herbert books. The first one is definitely the best, but I really enjoyed 4-6 as well.

Sanderson, Lynch, Abercrombie, Rothfuss. I've read most of their books up until a couple of years ago, but I think that's actually what turned me away from fantasy fiction. They're all talented in their own way, but I feel they lack the "gravitas" of the best writers in the genre. In a way they remind me of the Marvel films, they're good fun to watch, offer cheap laughs but not much beyond that. Of course, you can also get too much "gravitas", like the Malazan series where everything has to be meaningful and every character has profound reflections on the world or themselves. A fantasy writer I really like is Guy Gavriel Kay. I always try to buy his newest novels. GRRM is great, but frustratingly slow and wrote himself into a corner. Other than that, Tolkien is still the Grandmaster.

Does he think they're laughing with him rather than at him? It almost seems like it.

For the 15th year in a row, UN ranks Norway the best country to live in, in their annual human development report. Do they not realize how much it rains here, and how cold the winters are? Ireland had the highest increase in their ranking, while South Asia was the fastest growing region. http://report.hdr.undp.org/

I'm just glad it hasn't reached my country yet (much) like it has in Sweden and the US, but no doubt it will. I keep getting that song from the South Park episode about Mormons in my head when I think about it. "dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb".

Interesting AMA (Ask me Anything) going on over at Reddit atm with Bill Browder https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/9f81tn/my_name_is_bill_browder_im_the_founder_and_ceo_of/

Mads Mikkelsen is a much better actor too, but I still think Cavill can be a good enough fit. The showrunner tweeted why he got the role: "This is important, and from my heart. I met Henry in April. Over the next four months, I met/reviewed hundreds of other potential leads, many of whom were amazing. But what I never forgot was Henry's deeply insightful understanding of Geralt's strength and brutality, and more importantly, his wit and vulnerability. Because as a fan of the franchise, Henry saw beyond the script pages. He saw the human connection that Geralt perpetually needs, even if he denies it, kicking and screaming at every turn. What I saw was Geralt's heart, in Henry."

Yeah, my sexual organ is definitely more racist than my brain. I think it's the same with most people. ------ Saw Silence by Martin Scorsese. I thought it was better than most of his films, which many probably wouldn't agree with. Loved the tense atmosphere and the setting. Feudal Japan is always fun.

Parents were divorced, but looks like he was living with his father (that's the home the police searched immediately after, anyway). In the divorce papers his parents apparently said that he had "significant medical problems and healthcare needs." (https://twitter.com/justin_fenton/status/1033924175176638464)

Amazing finals. Love that Notail finally won his TI (so many major wins, but no Main event before now). Always funny to check esports earnings after a TI: https://www.esportsearnings.com/players Top 50 tournament winnings are all Dota players.

Fjords, submerged tunnels, bridges and roads - the ambitious now-in-motion plan to connect Norway's west coast. I'll probably be a relatively old man when it's done...but the first stage of it will apparently be done in 6-7 years, and will reduce the travel time between Bergen (where I live) and Stavanger (where most of my family lives) by 40ish minutes or so. Anything helps, because the current travel time at around 5 hours is far too long when you take the distance into consideration.

It's still ongoing. There was a viewership increase compared to last year - 10% increase or so in the group stages.

"Socialism" and capitalism should complement each other. Investing in your citizens is not a bad idea. I mean historically I can understand why Americans are afraid of the Big Government, but come on... I'll never understand why people think private ownership of education, healthcare, prisons, etc - is a good idea. I've read that some schools over the pond even make advertisement deals with big companies to make more cash? Basically selling out your own kids. Are you fine with this?

Copenhagen is like living in a hellhole though. Wut? Copenhagen is great. Probably my favorite city in Europe. Didn't live there though, so perhaps you can elaborate? Was it perhaps the language?

I know right, just like the logic of atheists who begin praying to God when one of their loved ones are in the hospital on a deathbed, or atheists who don't believe in God yet blame God for things like murder, or what have you. The blame always seems to revert back to God or "Well if there is this in the world, God surely cannot exist" but they failed to grasp the concept that there is a satan to contrast God, there is evil to contrast good. What does that have to do with anything? I was replying to your post where you said we need God to be moral. I refuted that by pointing out that the most "moral countries" (at least in terms of crimes committed) are largely irreligious. Not sure what you're trying to say with your followup?

Strange leap of logic here. Do you only live a moral life because of what happens in a supposed afterlife? The short answer is "No." The correct way to look at it would be from this point... There isn't any purpose in worrying about such things when there is no consequences for your actions. Accountability, is in itself reason enough but as others have said, even the court cases aren't enough to bring justice to criminals whether they have killed 400 people or raped 1 innocent girl. It would also be an insult to the victims to assume there would be no further judement beyind the courtroom on the criminal. Sometimes it takes someone witnessing a tragic event to wake them up to this concept though. I understand that not many can grasp the complexity on such things. Uh oh, the thread suddenly transforms into an anti-religion argument. I can see the comment appearing again: "Take your baby murderin' god and shove em up your ***" The countries with the least crime in the world are largely irreligeous. What does that tell you? Your logic makes no sense.

Strange leap of logic here. Do you only live a moral life because of what happens in a supposed afterlife?

Great opening match by Liverpool. Mane is looking sharp, as he usually does at the beginning of the season. Hope he can keep it going. Keita looks to be a great transfer. Watching Arsenal vs City...glad I have Mendy in my fantasy team! 2 assists and possibly a clean sheet.

I like Ghost. Cheesy in a good way.

Watched the new Mission Impossible at my girlfriend's behest. Vaguely amused at the scenes in the end that are supposed to take place in India, but is clearly in Norway (Pulpit Rock/Preikestolen). As for the film it was alright, but you get the feeling you've seen it all before. Mildly entertaining, but not really worth the price of admission.

I've been a Liverpool fan since 93-94ish (barely missing out on the last time they won the league). I don't think this year will be it, because Man City are just too strong - but we're looking better and better under Klopp. He's truly transformed us into a great team again. That CL final was an absurd experience - I truly believe we'd have won it if not for the early Salah-injury.

Been reading the Witcher novels recently myself. Though I was surprised to find out that they were actually quite good. Looking forward to the Netflix series now.

They keep being told how free they are and how they are fighting for their freedom overseas, so at some point they start believing it. To be honest I very much doubt that is true for Gromnir and given his occupation he was probably talking about certain laws. Freedom of speech I can imagine, for instance. freedom o' speech is indeed different in US. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-11254419 same goes for freedom o' press and religion. we always get some person from sweden or similar telling us 'bout how much freedom o' press is respected in their country, then we show 'em case 'bout a journalist being criminalized for writing stories which offended some specific religious or social group. I'm not a Swede, but "similar", so gonna butt in here. How many examples of that can you find? I bet not many, compared to other countries. Sweden (and Scandinavia in general) are always at the top of any "press freedom" list. https://freedomhouse.org/report/table-country-scores-fotp-2017 https://rsf.org/en/ranking

Dubbing is ridiculous yeah (unless it's for children's films). It's a large part of the reason why Dutch and Scandinavian people tend to be more profecient with the English language than the German and French. Relevant map: