BruceVC

Yeah some comments also really make me laugh

Have I ever told you that your company sounds like a terrible place to work at ?

I had no idea what it means, I just thought it was some kind of occult symbol. What does it mean?

I've never asked her directly about her diet and the exact reasons she ended up in hospital, she has always alluded to certain health problems. But the issue of her health has always bothered me. Anyway thanks for the input. I will give serious thought to what I say and how I say it

To be honest, I really don't know why it's your concern and why you're pursuing it. She's given you a cue that she's not comfortable talking about it to you. I'd move on and let her come to you, not for you to continually go to her. Especially, making enquiries about her diet. I'd find that very rude. Okay just some additional input, I did chat to my GM but he doesn't feel its his place to say anything as he feels this is a personal matter. But that's what most people would say, so what is the result of that? No one does or says anything and she continues to deteriorate. So what happens if 3 months from now she dies due to a health/diet related reason. Do I just say "oh well there was nothing I could have done and it wasn't my place to say anything" To be honest I would rather she thought I was nosy then I did nothing. Of course I understand that there is a certain way I need to approach this situation so she isn't embarrassed, if my initial advice or input is totally rejected then I won't pursue it anymore

Interesting diet choice, this is like the Caveman diet? Basically you only eat things that Cavemen would have eaten, so nothing processed or artificial

This is just normal office chit-chat. I wouldn't read anything in it if she tells you about her family or what she did on the weekend. It's just being civil and breaking the ice. She might like to talk about something in her social life, but it's not a cue that you're now best buddies and can talk about 'anything'. Her being evasive is a cue to mind your own business. She doesn't want to talk about it. Normal social by the office water cooler type discussions (See above about her family or did she have a good weekend)? Yes, she doesn't mind. Personal health related stuff? No. You're prying into her affairs and going behind her back, checking up on her with other staff is really bewildering to be honest. Checking with other staff to see what she eats? That's a new one for me. All that's going to do is get staff gossiping and judging her, what she does, what she eats, etc. You say you're trying to get her away from malicious people in the office but what you're doing is making things worse in the office with all this going behind her back and gossiping about her with other staff. While your intentions may have been good, they're actually going against you and her. How would you feel if someone was being nice and friendly to you and then going behind your back, checking up and talking to other staff, gossiping about what you eat and perhaps 'tsk tsk-ing' you? Some people may think, 'very two-faced' to put it mildly. Her evasiveness should tell you she doesn't want to talk about certain issues with you. As others said, just be a friend at work. Don't talk to other staff about her weight or what she eats. I would not be going behind her back and doing it with other staff and checking up on her, especially with what seems the office staff are now judging her on what she eats. You have raised some good points and considerations. Just for the record I have been very discreet about who I asked around her eating habits, I had to ask because I wanted to be sure her diet was as bad as I thought. But I can see how my intentions may create a possibly negative environment for her. But I don't think it will as the people I chatted to know the seriousness of the situation Anyway when she is back from hospital I'll be chatting to her as a concerned friend and make innocuous enquiries around her diet with her privately

Actually that's what I wanted to say but I thought I would be diplomatic. The only consideration I would suggest is Russian expats living in the USA are different to the expats you and I know of that live in Europe and the UK

Burce aren't you going to ask for a source, or some link so you can prove it's not a lie. I thought you had a big speech about how you were all about truth now. http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/kulturdebatt/valkomna-till-ryssland-kara-krimbor/ There is original article in Swedish newspaper and original writer is Arkadij Babtjenko, here is link to Russian wikipedia about him. He has published books about his experiences in Chechen Wars and works as journalist and war correspondent for Novaya Gazeta Nice post, sorry Sarex and 2133 guess you will just have to accept this one

Hurlshot next time you are there ask the Russian doctors what they think about the situation in Crimea, I am interested to hear what educated Russians think about there countries foreign policy decisions I'm sure they'd love to talk about it. Not. Most expats don't mind talking about there home country if the questions are asked in the right way

Hurlshot next time you are there ask the Russian doctors what they think about the situation in Crimea, I am interested to hear what educated Russians think about there countries foreign policy decisions

@ Keyrock I'm impressed that you eat goat, many people would consider this type of meat too exotic. But goat cooked properly is delicious

You guys are really fortunate to have these types of conventions that you can attend with relative ease. I wish we had them in South Africa, but if you go take loads of pictures so people who can't go get a vicarious enjoyment from your outing

Wow this is a very concerning post about life in the Russian federation, I'm hoping some of it is just propaganda. But some of it is truth as well

So long as you believe mutually exclusive things- like Ukrainian gas prices should not be subsidised, except by Russia of all people; there should be freedom of speech, but things some people may find offensive should be banned etc- you're always going to come across as a troll because anyone with a grasp of basic logic is going to wonder why you're so frequently, and stridently, inconsistent and come up with the answer that you're trolling. There's a reason people are convinced Oby is a troll, he posts vast amounts of pro Russian/ anti west stuff with very little in the way of consistency or logic about it, it isn't a consistent set of beliefs that an actual person would have but rather a bunch of stuff chosen to get a reaction and to fit Russia = good/ strong, west = bad/ weak. If you take the position that the IMF mandating an end to Ukrainian gas subsidies is good, but Russia ending them is bad you're doing exactly what Oby does. Your belief does not, in fact, have anything to do with the subsidies themselves. Your actual belief is that IMF = good, and Russia = bad so IMF ending subsidies must be good and Russia ending subsidies must be bad; and you contort the subsidy issue into a logic knot to try and fit that, basic, belief and narrative. Because it quite simply does not fit and you try to insist that it does it immediately make you look like a troll, because when viewed as being about subsidies alone you are taking a fundamentally inconsistent position- until you reduce it back to the actual equation. Thanks for this post; it has been very interesting to see reasons why some people think I’m a troll. I have wondering why and now I understand, I want to take the time to explain a very important point around why this view of me is incorrect and misplaced The premise of your characterization of me is based on the view that my posts are at times illogical and inconsistent with the facts as you see them. And there is the actual problem, you think I am trolling but in fact either I’m not explaining myself properly or you do not simply understand my view. Almost every debate I’ve had around numerous issues like the definition of free speech, sexism in the gaming industry or the situation in Ukraine is not based on some strange unsubstantiated view I have or some irritating conspiracy theory. I do my research and my comments are based primarily on the facts, current reality of the situation and historical context. I get my information from various sources and I can back it up with links if necessary. You think it is trolling but the real point here is you are wrong and don’t seem to want to see the truth about certain situations in the world. Let me just give you one example to highlight as you raised it and it’s about the gas subsidies. The IMF is about to lend Ukraine tens of billions of dollars. The IMF has a prudent policy where they audit countries that they lend money to ensure they have capacity to pay the loans back. One of the steps the IMF can insist on is financial structural reforms. The IMF has some of the most brilliant economic minds in the world and they can easily identify where there are economic pressures on certain countries that need there assistance, this is not hard to understand as normally these countries are obviously struggling. But they don’t do this to punish countries, these steps make sense as transformation is needed to make sure their economies are viable and to ensure they can pay back any loan from the IMF. This is banking 101; you don’t lend money to someone who can’t pay you back. They have made it clear that in order for Ukraine to receive the necessary loans several things about how they run there economy have to change, one of them is the fact that Naftogaz has been selling gas to Ukrainians for less than they have been buying it from Russia for. This is obviously illogical and has to end. Yes this will be a negative for Ukrainians but it has long term advantages of helping Naftogaz become profitable or least not running at a loss. This is a good strategic move to help Ukraine, I’ll say it again. This is a good move to improve the Ukrainian economic situation and is part of the needed economic reform. Russia decided to inflate gas prices purely as a politically punitive move. They are doing this because Ukraine has decided to align with the EU and frankly they don’t care about the consequences, they didn’t need to do this but the IMF does need to insist on financial reform before it lends vast amounts of money to Ukraine. You talk about my comments not being logical but it stupefies me that you and others can’t or won’t see the obvious difference between the intentions of the IMF and Russia ending the gas subsidies. I can substantiate almost all points in the same way I have explained the above point so I hope this puts to rest the absurd suggestion that I troll in debates, remember being factually correct is not a sign of trolling. Finally there are times when I have been wrong in discussions, like the misplaced “Ban the Bossy word campaign” but this is not one of them

Yep, Poland for Russians is just yet another rebelled province Vistula Land inhabited by traitorous separatists. Punishment of your country for this is just question of time. Russians never forgive and never forget. Meanwhile US for us is grand enemy, but respectable and honorable enemy, our hate to them is form of our sadistic love. "Punishment of your country for this is just question of time" you make me laugh sometimes. But the scary thought is I wonder if some Russians do see Poland like this?

Instead you were raised as a Russophobic. Nah, he is a Russian pragmatist. He is informed and accurate about his assessment of Russian foreign policy

Ooooohhhhhhhhh....!!!!!!! No, not death threats, please!!! PLEASE!! All those billions are just NOT WORTH IT, MAKE IT STOPI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is the monetary value of a human life? Do you think there is one....I don't. I'm sure these death threats are just bluster and people venting but its still completely unnecessary and not nice to be on the receiving end of them

Tagaziel would complain if Russia gave the gas away for free since it would- obviously- be an attempt to curry favour and then reestablish the old soviet empire! Ah, you must have been avoiding the SJW/ Romance threads then. Most sensible. "Tagaziel would complain if Russia gave the gas away for free since it would- obviously- be an attempt to curry favour and then reestablish the old soviet empire!" You funny Zora but there is some truth in that statement if it ever happened which it won't ...but I'm not a Troll. I stand by what I say on various issues because I believe it

y I wanted to respond to Amenteps comments because he has made me realize I have made some assumptions and he has asked some pertinent questions, I still believe I am correct in my assessment of her situation but I want to share additional parts of the story This lady is our business units office administrator. She does the office admin, like load the quotes we do into the ERP financial system, and makes the travel arrangements so for example she will book hotels and flights for us. Every Friday we have our sales meeting and her and I are always at the office early, before 6 am like today, so we always chat and we normally chat about her life. Because she is new in the company, 8 months, I help her to effectively use Excel and other Microsoft office products and how certain processes work and try to steer her away from certain people who can be malicious. She in turn tells me about her family and her dad who recently passed away( it may sound strange with her sharing personal details with me but people generally open up to me for some reason and want to tell me personal things). So we are definitely "work friends" but I don't ever see her outside of work. This is an important point When she went to hospital for the first time she was off work for 1 week so everyone knew about it. When she came back I asked her why. She was a little evasive and didn't say "it was health related" but she said "it was a heart related ". I didn't pry and ask her details. About 2 months ago in the morning I saw her making a toasted sandwich for breakfast and she told me " the doctor had put her on a low GI diet ". I knew then she obviously was on some doctor instructed diet but the issue is she hasn't been sticking to it. She eats junk food everyday and even though I'm not at the office everyday I have asked the people I work with and they all unequivocally have told me that she eats badly So now she is hospital again and her husband has told us its "blood pressure and heart related". So in all honesty I don't know if its due to her diet but all the evidence and everything I have seen and she has told me indicates this. She hasn't asked for my help and part of the problem is " do I really want to get actively involved in her life" as someone mentioned. Anyway that's just some context

Funny but interesting post Bartie

You don't hold MotB on a high regard? Why? Actually that's a good question, I am interested in the answer

This is a good post, I need to respond to it because you have asked some good questions. But I'll do it later as I have an emergency home owners meeting in my complex now

That's okay I don't mind looking ridiculous because then I'll be the same as most of the other people partaking in this debate

With all due respects its irrelevant where you have lived, you obviously don't understand the reality of why Russia is doing what they are doing around inflating gas prices. Tagaziel is 100 % correct. Also the actual infrastructure that carries the gas comes primarily from Russia so its not just a simple case of Ukraine saying " that's okay, we will just use gas from another country" because the pipes and mechanisms to get the gas to Ukraine don't exist