Maedhros

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.

Looking forward to playing this, but based on how buggy it seems to be I'll wait until it's patched enough times to be playable.

I arranged a wine (blind) tasting for some friends. Bought a cheap wine for fun, just to see if they could detect it - interestingly everyone, even the wine newbies, agreed that the cheap one was by far the worst one. Winners of the night were both classic french wines, a Pinot from Burgundy (from Dennis Bachelet) and a Syrah from Northern-Rhone (Combier). The wines we tasted: 2015 Luís Seabra Vinhos Douro Indie Xisto 2014 Gérard Boulay Sancerre Rouge Cuvée Oriane 2015 Terroir Al Limit Soc. Lda. Priorat Torroja Vi de Vila 2011 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Bussia (decanted 2 hours) 2015 Domaine Laurent Combier Crozes-Hermitage Clos des Grives (decanted 2 hours) 2014 Domaine Denis Bachelet Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes (decanted 2 hours) 2016 M. Chapoutier Marius Rouge (the cheap one)

Surprised that you as a dark skinned man got a better reception in Eastern Europe, than in Western Europe. I'm betting my pride on that you didn't go to Scandinavia? If you got a frosty reception there it's probably more that we're socially awkward, than any form of racism! From what I've seen and read, Eastern Europe is far worse than Western Europe when it comes to racism - with more hate crimes and murders. Gonna be interesting to see how the world cup in football is gonna play out in Russia this summer, with Russian fans' tendency to do monkey-chants and alike.

Got a gift card from work, and decided to use it on a Switch. First console I've bought since the Xbox 360 (which I barely used). Bought Mario Odyssey and a pro controller, man what a slick and cool console this is. Surprisingly small, and I love the pro controller. Game seems good so far, controls are very similar to Super Mario 64 and Sunshine. Gonna have to pick up Mario Kart and Zelda too after a while, but other than those three I don't really see myself buying any games.

Suggestion; Sweden. Things to see; Swedes. Things to do; Swedes. Why go to Sweden when you can go to Norway though? Pretty much the same country, except with more beautiful nature. Best regards, a Norwegian In seriousness though, I love Sweden. Stockholm over Oslo any day. As for my own city, Bergen, I definitely reckon it to be among the best tourist destinations in Scandinavia. It's got cool up-and-coming "neo-fjordic" restaurants, great hiking possibilities just minutes from the city centre, an interesting history as a former Hansa city (fun museums) and the fjords nearby. Too bad it rains all the time though. I used to live right beneath where those two people are standing, waking up to a great view every day.

I think Portugal is a pretty great vacation destination. Great weather, interesting history, underrated wine, castles, amazing pastries, and perhaps most importantly - everything is pretty cheap compared to the rest of Western-Europe. I've only been in Lisbon for a week when I solo travelled, but want to go back - perhaps to Porto next time.

I wanna do this too (with my imdb ratings) ESB 10/10 New Hope 9/10 Phantom Menace 7/10 (Nostalgia wins here, it was the first SW film I saw and it's easier for me to ignore its many faults) Return of the Jedi 7/10 Revenge of the Sith 6/10 The Last Jedi 5/10 Attack of the Clones 4/10 Rogue One was for me forgettable. Very pretty to look at, but forgettable. Not gonna rate it alongside the saga as it really feels like a spinoff film (which it is of course).

Watched the first episode of the new Black Mirror season - exceptional.

My country is largely atheist/agnostic, but pretty much all of us celebrate christmas. I don't really see the need for a "war on christmas"! Merry christmas!