Maedhros

Probably a bit blashphemous to not have an oldschool crpg on my list, but my three are: 1. Witcher 3 2. Morrowind 3. Pokemon Blue

So...Trump doesn't seem interested in killing the conspiracy theories. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trump-is-fulfilling-russias-dream-of-splitting-the-west.html https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-g7-summit-trump-russia/trump-says-russia-should-be-in-g7-meeting-idUKKCN1J41O4?il=0

I love my christian and muslim friends, but I think religion (of any sort) is ridiculous. I can respect the positive aspects of religion (trying to follow Jesus' teachings etc) - but it's hard to fathom how people I know to be smarter than me can believe in a supreme magical being without any evidence. I'm sure they feel we heathens are ridiculous too though.

Not too into Gin, but tried a relatively new Gin called Bareksten that's supposedly the best in the world (and coincidentally from the city I live in). It's very different from any other Gin I've tasted, with lots of herbs and very concentrated and longlasting taste. (without that lingering taste of alcohol some Gins have). Loved it. https://www.masterofmalt.com/gin/bareksten-spirits/bareksten-gin/

With Bioware being irrelevant for some years now, the only thing interesting for me this E3 will be CD Project Red's showing.

Thought it was pretty interesting that Norway and Sweden, who are so alike in many ways, have such a different view here. Too bad the study is only for Western-European countries. Pretty interesting survey overall, mostly about religiosity in Western-Europe: http://www.pewforum.org/2018/05/29/nationalism-immigration-and-minorities/

You kind of want the teacher job to be attractive to ambitious and smart people though. A good teacher can save/earn the country millions of dollars throughout his/her career. Obviously not quantifiable, but there's little doubt that to many kids nowadays the teacher is basically a second parent. At least for the young ones.

https://www.apnews.com/82625458838c4ba39b58affa88473500/Dems-want-to-scrap-tax-cut-for-rich-to-fund-teachers'-raises Sounds good to me.

Didn't know this was the Breitbart comments section.

Saudi-Arabia and Israel rejoicing

Everyone can get the utterly fantastic Crusader Kings 2 for free on steam right now https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/crusader-kings-ii-is-currently-free-on-steam-and-there-is-a-sale.1086965/

I thought Ready Player One was quite bad. I liked some of the action sequences, but I didn't really get it when it tried to be deep or meaningful. The last 20 minutes were terrible.

La casa de papel (Money Heist) Very entertaining, if a bit far fetched Netflix-series that revolves around a very well planned robbery on the Royal Mint in Spain. I just found out that season 2 is coming in a couple of days, so I'm quite happy with my timing.

When one company owns several local news stations

Looking forward to that. We need more films and tv series based on books by Dan Simmons. Give me Hyperion already!!

Yeah so sick of the snow at the moment. We usually have pretty warm winters in Bergen (edit: considering its in Norway that is), but there has been snow here for like two months now. I need my spring! (Going sledding with the kids every day at work is pretty fun though, have to admit).

Genghis Khan: The Man Who Conquered the World by Frank McLynn - Pretty comprehensive book about Genghis Khan and the mongol world. It almost reads as fiction - recommended!

Annihilation on Netflix was very good! Was surprised to see a Norwegian actress in it (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0637259/?ref_=tt_cl_t9). Seen her in lots of Norwegian films and tv-series, a really good actor. Even more surprised to find out she was actually Swedish. Apparently she's just really good with dialects and languages. Does Danish films too.

Well...kind of? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/18/toddlers-kill-brady-campaign-video-us-gun-control https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/29/american-toddlers-are-still-shooting-people-on-a-weekly-basis-this-year/?utm_term=.3cb5756b63dd http://www.newsweek.com/guns-kids-third-leading-cause-death-627209 I still think the best thing ever on the gun culture in the US was a South park episode, where a "Gun show" was presented as if it was a dog pageant show, with people walking around with their guns in leashes.

hogwash. w/o constant parental supervision and correction, your kindergarten is lord o' the flies meets hieronymus bosch painting by the second missed nap time. is a Fact that kids brain develop in stages, albeit some reach stages quicker than others. little kids is not all sunshine and smiles. got it reversed. adults tend to project goodness onto children, and they do indeed have the potential for goodness, but particular for little crumb snatchers, even the capacity for ethical decision making doesn't develop until teens and even tweenties. we will agree many parents don't know how to parent, but a large part o' that is 'cause the current generation o' parents were themselves raised so fundamental different. kids ain't born with parenting skills, and the last couple generations has been learning increasing less 'bout parenting for reasons we already identified. tv and internet is increasing raising kids more than is working moms and absentee dads. HA! Good Fun! ps edit: were unfair o' us to claim "most" parents don't know how to parent. were indulging in the kinda hyperbole we frequent chastise others. corrected. ? It goes without saying that kids can be hellraisers if the grownups don't do their job. The toddlers need their sleep, structure, lots of love, and limits on their behaviour... My point was that kids are awesome if you give them the chance to be, by being a responsible adult.

Kids are awesome. Kids want nothing more than to have fun, explore, play, and learn about the world. That's my experience as a kindergarten teacher. It's the grownups who are the problem. Far too many parents don't know anything about parenting, even though many of them mean well. Modern kindergarten pedagogy makes sense, but most people seem to not be able to set positive boundaries for their kids. Too many refuse to acknowledge any sort of negative feeling the child has, it's no wonder they grow up to be so stressed as youths. Worst of all are the ones who just give them an iPad at the first sign of trouble...

We now beat the all time winter olympic record at a single event (set by the US in Vancouver) - 38 medals. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/sports/olympics/final-medal-count-norway.html

(Maybe) some insight as to why Norway are so good at these things: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/sports/olympics/norway-skiing-olympics.html Still wish we were better at Ice hockey though.

Watched three films at the cinema recently: I, Tonya Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri The Florida Project The first was rather forgettable (am I the only one who's tired of biopics? Definitely gonna skip Darkest Hour), the other two were both brilliant in their own way. The Florida Project is as good as any film made in recent times, very strange not to see it nominated for best picture at the Oscars.