BruceVC

Never ever forget the benefits of your shift work ......remember the free and endless coffee

I am in JHB now and staying with my mom and stepdad, its been great seeing them again because I havent seen them in person for the last 8 months. I use to get really annoyed with my mom when I lived in JHB over small things but thats all behind me now and suddenly the small things that use to frustrate me around her comments and mannerisms dont bother me anymore I am also looking forward to seeing my friends over NY and partaking in the NY celebrations and revelry

I should have mentioned this earlier but the scope and scale of these fires are really concerning and much more serious than most people outside of Oz realize, I have family members and friends who immigrated to Australia and they have been updating us to the reality on the ground I see they have been ravaging parts of the country since September. I also agree with banning the fireworks over NY purely as an symbolic gesture in sympathy of what the country is going through but not from the financial cost of the NY celebration. And finally I am glad the fire fighters are getting extra money for there herculean efforts My thoughts are with you

TN you cant be serious, there is nothing wrong with your country being referred to as Holland? Remember people and particularly tourists place great credence in symbolism and for many people Netherlands is a.....complicated name Also the article says " The change of image was part of a renewed tourism strategy that aims to put an end to large numbers of visitors on cheap flights, particularly to Amsterdam, and promote more sustainable and respectful travel "...what do they mean by respectful travel? Many tourists only visit Netherlands for the liberal and open culture. The red light districts and cannabis culture is what we want to experience...you guys mustn't throw the " baby out with the bath water " in a well meaning but misguided attempt to change perceptions that frankly dont need to be changed for majority of tourists For example how would you market Netherlands outside of what I mentioned ?

I also prefer more focus on Geralt, I dont mind the Ciri story arc but I dont want that to be the primary aspect of the broader narrative In fact I am going to play the " its sexism and discrimination against men " card to focus on Ciri in a saga where the protagonist is a male

My dad since retiring from investment banking is now dedicated to leaving what he considers is a real legacy and he is really committed to conservation and addressing issues like climate change. He always says to us " people keep saying we must save the planet but the planet doesnt need saving, climate change is about saving humans or ensuring we have an enduring and sustainable future for our children "

Sounds delicious, I just need your address and what time I should arrive and we all set for a great meal And please at least let me provide the alcohol, I always like to contribute

As you mentioned you can be concerned with multiple issues and have different social and political goals that you rate in different degrees of important For example I share all your concerns except for inequality because all the ideas and solutions to address this are populist ideas where we want to " breakup the financial system" or " destroy the evil Capitalist system " ....so ostensibly its all about taking resources from others to somehow address poverty or inequality that are not sustainable or suggests somehow that free market economics is the fundamental problem when we can all easily see from history its not

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/12/24/trump-windmills-attack-jeanne-moos-ebof-pkg-vpx.cnn Classic and hilarious examples of " Trumpism " ......one of the funniest sequence of Trump quotes I have ever seen

I think you guys may be over analyzing Dandelion in a unnecessarily critical way He is a bard and would naturally be adverse to combat or try to avoid it, he also plays a pivotal role in changing the negative perception people have of Geralt through his songs and ballads...he creates or is a major contributor towards " The White Wolf " legend. I dont see him as comic relief at all considering how relevant perceptions are of people in this era ....he basically does exactly what I would expect of a bard

QFT

I just finished the entire first season of the Witcher and it really grows on you, I am very keen for the next season I didnt enjoy how the timelines seemed to jump around the place and in the beginning this confused me, they should have maybe put some dates in so viewers are aware certain events occurred in the past but my uncertainty was probably due to me not paying attention enough to characters and there journey in the broader narrative ....but this is a small criticism once you get to understand the story

How ironic, I played BeatSaber for the first time at my brothes place yesterday and I was very impressed, its early days in the development of VR but I am very excited about the future Minor things they need to address will improve. For example the headgear makes you too hot...I was basically sweating after 10 minutes

" Dr Johnny Walker " ...I like the way you operate

Pictures or its not true

I know there are so many relevant Xmas videos but I saw this on CNN and had to post it, Santas surfing in Florida and raising money for charity

Nice one Gorthfuscious, it sounds like you going to have a good time Dont forget the red wine

Salutations All Its mandatory to have a Christmas post over this festive time. What is everyone planning for Xmas and NY, this period is not just relevant for Christians but its where we can hopefully spend the time with family, friends or just relax with whoever we consider significant I am having Xmas in Durban with some of my direct family, this year most of family are going skiing in Lech in Austria so due to logistics and leave we not getting together at out beach cottage. I am not going skiing due to leave restraints so this Xmas I will be with some of my family. We going to be eating Turkey and Gammon as our main meal and for NY I will be flying to Johannesburg to see friends, we haven't decided what we will be doing yet So what is everyones plans and just as important what do you typically eat for Xmas and what do you normally do on Xmas eve and or day, I am always interested in these types of events Either way I hope everyone has a great time and here is to a good and prosperous 2020

I hear you but I havent read the books so I can only realistically compare the series to the general narrative of the excellent games

I have also started on the Witcher, episode 1 and I am enjoying it so far. I could criticize parts of the story if I made direct comparisons to the grand saga of the game but I am not going too do that as I want to judge the series on the fact its a TV adaption...so Im looking forward to how it unfolds

Thanks for commenting, this has got nothing to do with me agreeing or disagreeing but rather I am interested in the views of US citizens and what they think about the Trump presidency and the events of the last 20 years or so. I have gained some new and pertinent insights from the comments of members on this forum and this made me see certain things that I was completely unaware of which is normal for any non US citizen Your criticisms of Trump are easy to understand as we have actual comments made by Trump but this is where I would like to make a suggestion on how you can see things or rather try to see them but end of the day it is hard. Firstly using Trump as the example of these opinions is in itself problematic because by his very nature he has several dysfunctional personality traits that he will never change....he is impulsive, insecure yet arrogant, capricious but he also connects with certain countries and his supporters. But Trump won the election in an almost unusual time in the USA, just one example of this is where many of his supporters quite simply believe everything he says.....no more critical thinking or perhaps balancing certain stories but they basically automatically reject any dissenting opinion of Trump. This for me is something I consider anathema, I cannot imagine living in a world where I just believe what any president says as absolute truth But what makes it worse in Trumps case is how he has very little knowledge of events outside the USA, for example just to add to what you mentioned he is really badly informed about the history of the ME and the Israeli\Palestinian conflict which made his interventions confusing and ultimately pointless. So Trump has bumbled away at trying to resolve the interminable Israeli\Palestinian conflict by trying something different that could have worked if the conflict was about economics or a better quality of life. Trumps approach was you recognize Israeli has certain historical rights to traditionally very disputed things in the ME ...like recognizing Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel ended up changing nothing as the rest of the world rejected this and of course the Palestinians completely rejected this but to be honest there had been no meaningful discussions over the last 10 years between the Israelis and Hamas so I was interested in seeing where this would go.....well the end result is Netanyahu has now reached political gridlock and his right wing supporters have met a political impasse so thinking Trump support would sustain all there endeavors met with failure So in summary we need to try to realize that some of Trumps antics and decisions will not only be bizarre and unusual but they will ultimately fail because sometimes the normal way of diplomacy using tact and decorum is the better way and sometimes the only way

Its an interesting view to have that the Trump victory was caused by the failure of Obama, I am interested in what you define by that statement if you dont mind going into more details with examples so I understand what you mean For example yes there some things Obama did or tried to implement that became the foundation of some of Trumps rhetoric and were the political target of some of his policies but I would argue other historical and societal realities that existed in the USA played a much more relevant part in the Trump victory. I could if required give you examples of where Obama succeeded or what he did was well meaning and positive but it wasnt appreciated or was just done in the wrong way but its hard to believe anyone being objective would consider the Obama presidency as a failure ....considering the numerous examples of failed states that do exist due to bad leadership decisions like Venezuela and Cuba ? I never really understood any valid criticism towards Obama until Trump won and I spent 4-6 months trying to understand how so many people had assumed Trump would lose. The good news is I now understand how some people like myself had become blinded to certain developments in the USA and the free world and how some parts of the normal SJ narrative had become corrupted and we were unintentionally just believing certain things instead of engaging in debate and seeing some things as complex and unhelpful to label them in a pejorative way. For example attempts to implement gun control I no longer support because a lot of the push back is from reasonable people who have equally important reasons to be against reform but not because they not aware of the scourge of mass shootings but rather they see this as a slippery slope and in some cases this is how the Federal government starts to force changes to culture and or tries to erode the independence of the individual states and Constitutional rights that matter to many Americans I still truly believe in most SJ objectives but for me there is often nuance and certain realities that need to be understood before we expect people to just agree, for example I always initially supported Merkels offer to integrate 1.5 million Syrians but as time went on it was wrong to tell all countries in the EU they had to accept large numbers of refugees. This should have been optional and not mandatory....however we learn from our mistakes I now also understand Trump and how he engages and what he believes. Interestingly enough once you accept how Trump is it is much easier to see his successes and failures. If you are someone who wants Trump to be defeated in 2020 then this is critical because if you just see Trump in his normal either controversial or offensive mannerisms you could easily see Trump in a one dimensional way, for example some people will understandably say " Trump is racist and or sexist " and this becomes what people assume all he represents. But then to defeat him politically you could focus on the wrong things and that would be to his advantage as right now I see the Democrats as having the more extreme candidates who may hold some common and supported social and political policies but if somehow Warren gets the nomination once she goes one on one with Trump I believe her views will be easily undermined by even moderate Republican commentators. Ironically the rise of Warren and her IMO well meaning but unrealistic policies are mostly an outcome of Trumps perceived divisive presidency .....its a weird political reality but that is where we are. In the unlikely event Warren becomes president what do you guys think will be the consequence for the USA ? For me it will be much worse but in a different way. But in closing I would prefer if Trump didnt win in 2020 because I do believe his 2016 victory lessons have been learnt and another 4-5 years of Trump would be unnecessary but I am not convinced there are any ideal Democratic candidates with Biden still being my best candidate considering the history of the last 20 years or so I am also very interested in all comments, but especially our US members , around these 2 questions How do you see the overall outcomes of the Trump presidency, ideally we must be fair as there are some positives Do you think Trump heralds the beginning of how politics is going to be, I dont at all. Trump is more of an anomoly to me and I doubt we will see anyone quite like him again.

I have good friends of mine from JHB coming to Cape Town for about 10 days and they staying with me this weekend which Im really excited about I have several things planned and will also see what they feel like but definitely tomorrow morning Im taking them to an artisan farmers market. My friend and his wife enjoy drinking and eating out so I expect much revelry and boisterousness awaits us https://www.capetown.travel/the-oranjezicht-city-farm-market-at-granger-bay/

Sounds horrendous Barti, you lucky to be alive

Yeah, happy Thanksgiving to all our American members