BruceVC

What !!! How can you ever take such a long break from the greatest gaming genre of all time ....RPG !! What have you been playing?

Yes because of a report that highlights ostensibly what the books represent The report is not written in good faith as I mentioned earlier with the example of " only white characters " in a book written by a white person

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/02/us/dr-seuss-books-cease-publication-trnd/index.html I am not comfortable with the " banning/not publishing " of the Dr Seuss books because it ignores the historical context and seems to be inconsistent with its criticism For example if you read the CNN article it says "The study also argues that since the majority of human characters in Dr. Seuss' books are White, his works -- inadvertently or not -- center Whiteness and thus perpetuate White supremacy " So if a white person writes a story that only has white characters that now translates to " White supremacy " ....sure, tell me another one Dr Seuss writes fantasy stories, its not about Whiteness, White tears or White Male Privlidege and I dont support this refusing to publish these books on principle

Couscous flavored with Chicken Stock and some beef stir-fry added in ....simple but tasty

I have a project deadline which is leading me to working late hours this week and most of next week so not much time for leisure activities Oh well, at least I have a job....mustn't complain too much

RDR2 is excellent, I spent about 300 hours on the single player and I am still logging onto the online game 3-4 times a week. Its an amazing game and the beauty of the world still causes me pause. You cannot not play the game if you like a Wild West game I have mastered all the online roles, let me know if you want any advice And their is a new expansion for GTAV ...I am considering getting it ?

Okay I need to understand something, are you saying it wasnt like your dad would tell you to help with something because with my friends who also know DIY it was because their dads or uncles made them learn certain things? But it sounds like you had an interest in learning and you watched what people did and then you did research...is that fair? And apart from its cheaper and better to do your own repairs do you enjoy being able to fix things? Sorry for all the questions but your story is interesting because it raises different reason for how a person learns DIY, does your family ask you to do DIY and is it something your other family members also know because I believe the ability of men to learn DIY is in the decline and I dont think its a positive overall change....just take this forum for example, how many forum members can do DIY and why is it like that, granted we all love our computer games so you can argue most of us are not natural DIY people but I dont think that is the reason?

Gromnir I wanted to share an observation with you about something I have noticed about how you debate and where you are convincing and where you not necessarily so Firstly would you believe I have a similar approach to any debate that you practice. I believe you should argue the facts, provide links but I try to ask " what point will I be achieving with this argument " . Anyway no one can be truly critical of you by saying things like " you dont present facts or data" you do exactly that and its based on real life experience and I have learnt several things from you that I never understood and I always appreciate gaining new insights. And sometimes this can help me change a view I had that was trenchant and well established but I can update it and include what you or others mentioned And these things may seem irrelevant if I explained them but they not to my life views around problems or solutions we face in SA so gaining insights about things like how a person can be born into a reality where their is systemic poverty or lack of resources doesnt mean that will define their life, in other words it is possible to address certain hardships and achieve real success and economic prosperity despite what reality we are born into We always hear people saying " a person is not defined by their environment and you can always change things if you work hard and make the right decisions " and of course this can be true but its much harder to do if you are actually that person who has to do that. And your journey is not unique to you, other members have not been given family help but they have worked hard and I consider them successful. Like GD and his decisions and investments. But your journey matters to me and is one of the reasons I respect your opinions on issues that have defined your life that most of us will ignore because of the moral argument, for example when you mentioned you have defended right wingers who normally espouse deeply flawed ideological views . These groups dont target Native Americans specifically but their general distain for Jews and African Americans represents a broader dysfunction and I am someone who cant or wont support certain levels of ignorance and I just leave people to their own devices I personally find as a white person the doctrines of these groups offensive and based on pseudo-science which makes it even more inaccurate. So in the same way I dont care about the defense of Islamic extremists and I would understand many lawyers from a minority group not wanting to defend an out spoken right winger. But you have been able to not let understandable biases or a real repugnance influence your greater belief in one of the foundations of most of our legal systems which states " everyone has the right to a proper defense " or something similar and that does matter and is an intrinsic part of what makes our laws ultimately effective and sustainable My counter argument to this is certain crimes should negate any normal rights suspects receive and I mean certain crimes so its doesn't get abused. And these specific crimes would include any mass shooting suspect or anyone who is part of bombing attack or other form of terrorism. People that decide on these actions should at the very least ensure they get killed in the end which is what you would expect from anyone prepared to kill innocents because of a ideological stance But sometimes nowadays people commit mass killings for Internet attention and infamy and after killing possibly dozens of unarmed innocent people they surrender and now want to be treated like a normal citizen ....its just irks me. People like Breivik, Dylan Roof and the NZ coward Philip Manshaus should be placed immediately in solitary confinement for the rest of their lives. You dont execute them but take everything away from them that matters ....that seems fair Now what I am asking is you dont seem to notice humor or levity in a persons post and adjust your views if the person is being serious because I am sure you will agree their is a difference between someone being serious and just having some fun? For example I have been following some of your and GD debates lately and they do get to a point where you can generally prove something true based on historical examples and how GD cant say for example " the USA isnt free " ....and I assume the debate is over but then GD will make a point and its not serious but he mentions you mustn't take it seriously like today with the ME image Now I dont think he meant anything personal but it was directed towards you but in a cheeky but friendly way because lately you have been very responsive to most of his posts and he wanted to avoid a misunderstanding or maybe protracted criticism around the particular point ....but sometimes things are just frivolous and dont need analysis Maybe someone is wondering why do I care about you and GD debates? Their is a reason, always a reason. I have been active on this forum for 11 years and I still believe in the importance of a debate where we can learn from each other. Not many members engage in political debates but both you and GD do so I would hate to see an outcome where you two stop debating each other because of a misunderstanding ?

I was just joking about considering defrosting a fridge being a real example of DIY, its has some considerations around length of time you keep the fridge off and what happens to food but its fairly simple ....it was a success by the way But I wasnt joking about admiring people who can do their own DIY and more importantly understand DIY principles which helps with other things that are similar. The older I become the more I see certain things that end up costing me money or I am reliant on other people for important advice on topics that directly impact me ....for example if I was experiencing some sort of intermittent water leak when it rains in my house I would have no idea how to troubleshoot it or my worst are electrical trips caused possibly by an appliance .... Did you learn DIY from your dad or what allowed you to be proficient in DIY ?

What a great combination, very few lovers of food would not enjoy that type of meal because everything compliments each other. Nice tasty vegetarian choice for people This brings me to an interesting question I want to ask everyone. The question being do you believe in eating the whole animal? So for example a pig is not just a sources of bacon, ribs and chops but everything can and should be eaten like the snout, ears, head and organs like the heart and tripe As I have mentioned before I am a huge fan of Andrew Zimmerman's cooking shows like Delicious Destinations. In some of the shows he travels and eats in numerous Central America countries and the vast depth of food and cuisine is amazing He goes to this massive food markets where people eat openly delicious but not mainstream food like heart, brain and other offcuts I would eat all that food with the exception of insects and brain but you wont find this large scale interest in most of our countries If I am not mistaken you or your family are from Central America so were you exposed to eating offcuts at an early age and do you still appreciate offcuts ? I only started eating offcuts in 2000 when I moved to JHB so I come from the opposite side of the spectrum, I was never expose to them but I forced myself to start eating and ordering unusual food choices and I can guarantee anyone who avoids these unusual food they are very tasty and often offer a unique but rewarding taste reward But I cannot convince most of my family or friends to go outside their safe choices for food like rump steak instead of steak tartare or a hearty bowl of tripe or other organs that is delicious So its an ongoing campaign to find people who enjoy and appreciate the whole animal for me

Once again you raise valid observations about a controversial topic , well around certain realities, in an objective and interesting way which is the new role and real influence of China and what we can learn from them and what we can gain from them People raise this and its a good debate. What I was reminded of during this virus is something that has always existed in China and always will but most of us forgot this as we havent had to experience it before in our dealings with China Tne CCP will always control and never compromise on the objective of controlling the media within China and also they will never automictically share or provide data on certain globally shared ways countries share information. I dont think its necessarily malicious, the CCP remembers Tiananmen square and believes incorrectly that occurred when people are allowed to think and act for themselves outside the state directive Anyway so you will notice how they just dont share certain truths like the real carnage the virus caused in Wuhan ...the CCP claims only 5k people died in Wuhan This is how their society exists and it works for them but not the rest of us as we dont live in China and freedom of speech is ingrained in our ways of life So yes outcomes and understanding effective ways to prevent the virus has not come from China in a truly meaningful way, their vaccines for example have not all gone through the normal efficacy that the global companies vaccines have. This surprised me because I assumed China would have the first vaccines having gone through tests that would be deployed But their are delays with all this testing that the WHO and CDC would need to accept but this hasnt stopped China using vaccines internally and other countries desperate for vaccines also accepting them like Zimbabwe and Pakistan But these vaccines fail the scrutiny of the global scientific community which means for any country only allowing properly tested vaccines they cannot and wont be used. We see this in SA, our public health sector has utterly mishandled the ordering of vaccines and we have massive shortages ....I wish our government could support the Chinese vaccines because then we could order millions of doses but we cant until they go through proper efficacy Personally I believe the Chinese and Russian vaccines are effective but with less efficacy like maybe 55-60 %? But in closing China wouldn't share how the vaccines can lead to a real reduction in new infections and hospitalizations like we seeing in Israel and the UK where their is open and transparent data shared where applicable. Even if all the Chinese vaccines were tested properly they just wouldn't share this information on the outcome this had around the virus spread and reinfection because as you mentioned they used draconian measures to stop the virus spreading and the vaccines had no real impact on the result Yes it was effective for China but these measure would be considered anathema and unconstitutional to most of us and our legal systems....so their is no real point in thinking you can copy the CCP enforcement of a lockdown in basically every other country with the exception of NK

Skarpen you know I am sympathetic to certain views you and Dark raise as I have changed some of my views around left and right and what this means based on current global events. I try to understand the reasoning behind a more conservative view that before Trump won in 2016 I would have ignored or dismissed as extremism or bigotry....but its better to understand the concern than to ignore it What is your concern with what Biden did, I am not really understanding the problem? For example are people saying that he acted unconstitutionally when he ordered the attack on Syria targets ....what are the other criticisms towards what he did ?

Yes you are correct and the distinction when it comes to certain global events does matter. What I noticed from 2001 onwards was sometimes you meet people who have a very negative view of the USA and only see the mistakes that sometimes the US and its allies have made but they will ignore other countries that have committed more or the same bad decisions. Also their are several conspiracy theories that have always existed around the USA and its alliances with countries like Israel and these false narratives still exist today when someone will make a statement like " the USA only intervenes in conflicts when it has concerns over oil " or what I use to come across fairly regularly after 9/11 was the view " the USA wants to destroy the Muslim world and is aligned with the Zionists and crusaders " which means for many Muslims outside the ME, like SA , they use to always phone in on talk shows and suggest that 9/11 was done by the USA to justify bombing the ME or that the US and UK are warmongers and just want to bomb everything back to the Dark Ages But that is not the truth about 9/11, we know AQ did it and why. So its not even worth being vexed about criticism towards the USA responding to Irans belligerence by occasional bombings when Russia has actively been involved in the systemic bombing and destruction of most parts of Syria not under Assad control. The Russians didnt send ground troops, that was QUDs militia and Shia fundamentalist's who committed egregious atrocities once Aleppo was razed to ther ground and slaughtered any Sunni militia left alive if they found them Sadly the same thing would have happened to the Shias in this conflict if the war had gone the other way. I have seen this in parts of the ME where their is hatred between sectarian groups of Sunni and Shia, its not everywhere but its real and brutal But I have to be honest I dont hold Russia to blame for its military strategy in Syria because that war had reached a true impasse before the Russian intervention and that impasse was spilling over to other countries and directly impacting the EU with the hundreds of thousands of refugees now looking for a new home. So you needed a country like Russia to take a side and help bring the war to an end But the reality of Syria is the West and most wealthy ME countries will offer limited resources to help rebuild Syria, you cant blame them because countries like Iran and Russia helped Assad stay on power so they must rebuild the country....and that is not going to happen in any meaningful way Nah, we dont know the actual numbers of civilian casualties in the Syrian war caused by the Russians bombing campaign but its not about the numbers because as you mentioned their have been several conflicts in the ME since 9/11 and thousands of civilians have died due to other events so Syria is just one example of needless death and truly broken country going forward But I hope you not comparing the USA and its efforts to stabilize Iraq with the Russian approach to end the war in Syria ? The objectives were different and the Russians have the finesse of a bull in a china shop when it comes to ensuring " minimal damage "

Good question, what is the drama? Their shouldnt be an issue from anyone with Biden ordering the bombing because it is retaliation for an Iran sponsored attack that cost American lives in Iraq last week Biden needs also to show the Iranian militants that he is not going to allow them to take advantage of his agreeable and avuncular nature and also its clear that the previous alliance that Trump and USA was part in the ME is no longer as important to the Democrats This unfortunately creates several problems in the ME but to honest the way Obama was treated by Netanyahu and Gulf States I am not surprised Biden is taking this new approach. But this creates uncertainty now about the best way to effectively deal with the hardliners in Iran......when Trump pulled the USA out of the Iranian nuclear agreement certain events were set in motion which I personally believe would have led to a better and more stable ME But in summary Iran has huge influence over most of the Shia factions and anti-American groups that exist in places like Iraq and Lebanon. So when American subcontractors are killed like last week the responsibility falls onto Iran as are the ones who can order these attacks. But Biden is getting criticized because he criticized Trump last year when the USA killed Soleimani in Iraq. But it was inevitable that someone like Soleimani would eventually be killed, he created and is responsible for the Iranian Quds forces and they have been both directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of US and other coalition forces since 2003. So it was justice and understandable when Trump agreed to his assassination As most of us who followed the Iraq war would know Iran interfered literally from day 1 when the USA invaded Iraq and never stopped. Iran should have stayed out of that misplaced conflict because Iraq is a sovereign country and its is interesting that no one asked " what was Soleimani doing in Iraq in the first place " but instead some people were critical of the USA for what they did

Great news for this most enjoyable franchise They must stick to what works and not be too concerned with trying to appeal to everyone like those that expect MP in the DA universe

Yes, you also know how to defrost a fridge. Its more complicated than it sounds So my insurance callout can be for any " household internal problem" like a blocked drain, electrify tripping or failed kitchen appliance and you get the first hour of labor for free but you must pay for any required parts So I have only used them about 4-5 times for plumbing problems as I use the actual manufacturer , like Kelvinator in the case of my fridge , and the item warranty period to fix my appliances normally or I use a qualified electrical engineer if its out of warranty and pay him privately and pay for parts myself

Gfted1 I know you skilled at DIY generally which is something I admire when I met people like you. I mentioned I have zero DIY skills so I rely on always paying for electricians and other artisans which is a waste of money (okay my household insurance gives me 2 free services per year for any DIY calls but its only 2 ) I decided to take a massive step forward today to start doing my own DIY outside my insurance where appropriate....and guess what ? I am defrosting my fridge , by myself. Its going well so far and I will let you know how this project progresses

Okay I see what you mean about the perceived lack of depth with quests...thats a fair point But do we need complex quests in Bloodlines, dont we need good and captivating quests but not necessarily complex quests?Their is a difference

Shady !!!! Now I am truly shocked and almost speechless....but I am never quite speechless as you know I cannot believe you think both Larian and Bethesda are subpar development studios, remember Larian created the hugely popular Divinity series... I loved D:OS 2, it offered one of the most strategic and exciting combat systems ever released and it was a very engaging RPG. I must have spent about 150 hours completing it and their was a nice aspect of Romance besides all the other worthwhile RPG mechanics Also I am so use to you always supporting and endorsing my posts I just get a little surprised when you dont agree with my pithy words ...so I apologize if I seem unfairly critical

Lexx I think you must be honest, its always best I am getting the distinct impression that you dont like Bethesda games, sorry to sound harsh but that is definitely what I am picking up? Maybe you should reframe your posts so you dont create that impression

No its for several reasons like how much I love Elder Scroll games with their committed modding community and also Microsoft doesn't like to be seen to fail like most global companies and they have the resources to fund worthwhile projects so if a decision is made to take over such a prestigious title as Bloodlines then you can be guaranteed enough resources will be thrown at the game to ensure it works and works properly

Those would be brilliant options for another development studio. But because of the legacy and complexity of this game I would think Bethesda would be the slightly better choice..not by a long way way but better I dont mind if its wishful thinking..." hope springs eternal in the human breast "

Gorthfuscious !!! Im shocked and disappointed you dont speak or understand Arabic, its very important in the interest of cultural diversity and sensitivity that we learn multiple languages in life Their are so many English speaking people who only understand and speak English and its unacceptable !!! Please put effort in to learn Arabic, their will definitely be part time courses you can take in Oz, its not like we dont have time? Keep us updated around how its going, we can do an update in few weeks on how your courses are going

Al Jazeera and Qatar getting into trouble with the Gulf States and other ME countries like Egypt was always unfair and unnecessary But its because they do try to be consistent with the principle of a free media and most countries in the ME dont like the idea or concept of news channel being overly critical or raising valid issues like human rights. But they cant be too critical to the likes of CNN because of its direct links to the USA so AJ, and by extension, and Qatar became the target. Their are still AJ journalists being jailed in Egypt without trial , do ever think you would have seen any CNN journalists being held in Egypt without trial for years ? But as I have mentioned in the past the ME is a complicated place and sometimes mistakes happen so it doesnt help to dwell on these missteps that the Gulf States and their allies sometimes make. We need to always ask " what is best way we can respond to ensure their is sustainable regional peace and stability " and that means we have to move on from certain developments and not lose sight on the primary objective....dont let yourself become distracted Zora But going to back to AJ, its an excellent news channel and I continue to support it

No egg yolk, it had the raw meat and other ingredients but no egg. I think every Steak Tartare should offer the raw egg but this restaurant sadly didnt I remember about 15 years was the first time I had Steak Tartare, the global software company I was working for had some highly skilled banking software consultants from Luxembourg come to SA to train us on a product. On the Friday night afterwards we took them to a very famous JHB restaurant called the Butcher Shop which offered the full Tartare with egg and all the accompaniments I had no idea how the egg was suppose to be mixed in with everything else and the one guy offered to do it for me because they from the French side of Luxembourg and eat meals like Tartare regularly. It was a delicious experience and I have never looked back The Butcher Shop is still hugely popular, here is the website and they still have Steak Tartare on the menu https://www.thebutchershop.co.za/index.php