BruceVC

Hi GD What is the reason you keep rabbits? For food or just as pets ?

Well so what to your so what which links to his so what which really means I'm saying so what to..... Thanks Amentep....now I'm completely confused

When I first moved to live in JHB 15 years ago I lived in a small holding in a relatively rural area. There use to be mice that lived in my place. I use to hear them running around at night, I decided to use Rat Poison to get rid of them. The one day I saw the one die slowly from the Rat Poison, it was cruel death and horrible to see. After that I left the mice alone

Thanks I appreciate the constructive criticism and I'll endeavour to do better How am I doing in response to your post?

Shame Volo, you and Malc must be really disappointed with how well Canada is doing. Well the good news is maybe they will get beaten by the USA so you can start cheering soon

Shady your wife is Latvian?, I know its one if the Baltic states What is traditional food like from the Baltic states..is it mostly meat or fish for example?

Good point, so all I want to do is to do cardio and to continue to improve on cardio, I have no interest in doing weights . I want to able to run faster in those 20 minutes and eventually get to the point where I can sprint, or max the treadmill, at 15 km\hour in those 20 minutes. At the moment I run between 10-11 km/hour. I do my running at the end of all my other cardio training, which is cycling and rowing

I still think that visiting a country is essential for considering whether or not it would be a suitable place to migrate to, but eh. To answer your question, I'd probably choose to live in Monaco. Nah, just kidding, it's not even a real country anyway. But seriously, I'd probably choose Sweden. Insane taxes but great living standards and public services. Now, what does this have to do with anything? Thanks for responding, I need you to answer one more question. If you choose to live in a particular country would any of the following effect how you view if you could live in that country persecution of the free press arrests of journalists who don't tow the incumbent party line blatant discrimination against minority groups, for example homophobia lack of rights for immigrants and abuse of there basic human rights egregious corruption and nepotism Its fine if these things don't bother you, the truth is for some people they don't. As long as they aren't on the receiving end some people can live anywhere. So please be honest about if these things would bother you and impact where you could live

A much better investment? For whom? The Germans? Some elite in Ukraine? I'm a bit tired of hearing all these buzz words and given assumptions thrown around when this sort of topic turns up. It's meaningless and repeating it over and over serves no purpose other than, perhaps, achieving the relaxing and mind-numbing effect that mantras have. And why must it be either Russia or the EU? You'd think the Ukrainians would be a bit more reluctant to give up their sovereignty again so shortly after reclaiming it. If it's such an obvious choice, why don't you dial back on the snark and explain why? Should be easy right? edit: herp derp I want to ask you a simple question so I can understand your perspective. If language wasn't a problem and you could choose between living in Russia ( or Belarus or Kazakhstan) and a country in the EU where would you choose? So basically this boils down to factors like the social conditions and where you feel most comfortable. Please don't provide any information expect for what's relevant to the question, we can get to everything else later. Anybody else can also respond to this question if they are interested Can I choose "neither"? If not, can I choose which EU country in particular? This question also seems to imply that joining the EU is magically going to turn Ukraine into, say, the Netherlands. If only it worked that way... Also, not having been to Russia, I feel I lack necessary judgment elements. Maybe I'd like Russian women better, or maybe I'd hate -50º C winters. Why is this relevant, again? From reading your other posts and opinions I consider you a highly intelligent and informed person so you don't need to have travelled to particular country to answer the question. You can choose any EU country, I just want to know the reasons why you would choose that country to make your home. I'll explain the relevance once I get your answer

A much better investment? For whom? The Germans? Some elite in Ukraine? I'm a bit tired of hearing all these buzz words and given assumptions thrown around when this sort of topic turns up. It's meaningless and repeating it over and over serves no purpose other than, perhaps, achieving the relaxing and mind-numbing effect that mantras have. And why must it be either Russia or the EU? You'd think the Ukrainians would be a bit more reluctant to give up their sovereignty again so shortly after reclaiming it. If it's such an obvious choice, why don't you dial back on the snark and explain why? Should be easy right? edit: herp derp I want to ask you a simple question so I can understand your perspective. If language wasn't a problem and you could choose between living in Russia ( or Belarus or Kazakhstan) and a country in the EU where would you choose? So basically this boils down to factors like the social conditions and where you feel most comfortable. Please don't provide any information expect for what's relevant to the question, we can get to everything else later. Anybody else can also respond to this question if they are interested

How do you figure that? Well why would you want to form an economic union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan when you could align yourself with the EU. The EU is a much better investment, its a no brainer in my books. What are we missing in your opinion?

Just BioWare. Orogun you won't get offended now that Alan has told you will you....remember you promised you wouldn't .....

It reminded me part of the great dictator speech by charlie chaplin. Yes we live in a world in which we can be more honest about our feelings, but more close to the harsh truth of life ; we are more connected phones and social media, but somehow more alone even in our homes ; and we are more open about what we want, and yet we can't seem to grasp the only thing that we need, happiness. Uhm, I am not certain how to say it right without offending anyone, but I am pretty certain that the majority of people who had it tough in the army would jump on the opportunity to go back to those days. Yes there are some scars that stays with you, but IMHO the real tough job is what comes next, going from structured system, where you had a place/purpose, friends with who you bonded/lived with for months/years and where part of your life in every way, where you work and skill set was appreciated and being regarded as hero by many outside. After the novelty of a returning from war runs out, and the reality of moving from what defined you for several years toward civilian life which in most cases completely opposite to what it used to be, it is hard. Change is hard. The point that I was going for is that while nothing good comes out of "keeping your emotions to yourself"and sharing and dealing is good, but the purpose of talking is not create excuses, make other feel sorry for you, or be a drama queen on TV, it is about getting the help you need to move from where you are to where you need to be. You've raised some good points and this discussion is very subjective. From my side What is the harsh truth of life? I don't really understand this Do you really feel more alone, I feel more connected than ever before but I do have strong circle of friends in RL. But I can understand how life may be a little lonely if you only interact with people through the Internet I think people need to define there own view of happiness and pursue it. Surly we can't expect modern society to tell us this? I agree with you about people who do there military service , often this military service gives them real purpose and identity that doesn't necessarily exist in RL

I do not think that Obsidian is doing this. I'm just joking. I wouldn't expect any romances in the game, though I'd encourage you to go into an open mind still as there's a good chance the writing will still be excellent. It just means it's a different type of story. Absolutely, I know even without Romance options the writing will still be excellent

Am I only person who was really disappointed I didn't get a change to even attempt to Romance Morte? He would really give a new definition to the phrase "to give someone head" ....

I have a question, as I mentioned I am doing 1 hour cardio 4-6 times a week and its going really well. I run for 20 minutes on the treadmill and this is my question. In order to improve my running fitness is it better to run at the same speed but slowly increase that speed or is it better to run fast for 3 minutes and then slow it down and then run fast for another 3 minutes ?

Okay I now recognise we get "good trolls" and "bad trolls", but do you get "neutral trolls"?...or is this an oxymoron by definition?

LOL what you're describing is more like the NWN2 experience. Because that's exactly how they approached the issue when that game was in development. They made no mention at all about any romances during the development cycle and the pre-release hype up. Then the game came out. Then we all started playing it. Then we started noticing that Neeshka was getting jealous whenever we'd talk to a Female NPC, so people began thinking that she must be a Romance option. But then the game throws Shandra at us. It makes her the obligatory "damsel in distress" AND the mandatory party member, AND you get to buy her a gift (her portrait). So suddenly people began thinking that she must be a romance option. But then she gets killed. Then before you realize what's going on, Elanee comes out of nowhere, informs you that she's been stalking you since you were a baby, then asks you to go to bed with her. And everyone is like: WTF! You do realize that if Alan is right than it can only enhance the Romance debate, because then we need to continue discussing Romance and the various connotations around how they could be implemented in PoE. I hope he is right

I like your prose, the angry bit about Reaganomics was good. I think you'll find my gratitude to the kids fighting out in hot, sandy places is in this thread. Mind you, I've three friends my age who've served or are serving in said conflicts. The professional 21st century grunt is digging fox-holes well into his or her forties. But man, you really did miss out on the eighties. I got the tail end of it as a twenty-year old and it really rocked. "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" This quote summarizes basically what I think about our current generation. But I want to also discuss the status of our current era. Firstly I want to say I think we are all very fortunate as we live in a world where mankind is in its greatest era for a number of reasons. But I'll focus primarily on the social improvements that we now all benefit from. We are all part of a generation where we can really be honest about our feelings and aspirations. For example its okay for guys to cry, its okay to admit you go to a psychologist, people can be honest about there sexual orientation, a single women can have a baby without being married, we discuss and debate anything and everything we decide. I can give many more examples but I think you get my point Now some people will say " guys crying on TV...what about keeping your emotions to yourself and being a man". And that's my point, we are able to redefine if its not constructive what certain preconceived definitions are. In other words why can't a man express his emotions? So what if your wife is earning more money than you? I think our ability to discuss and address certain topics and stereotypes is one of the major advantages of living in the era we now live in But this doesn't make us weak, as mentioned there are 18-22 year olds who enlisted to fight in various wars for there countries for years. So we are able to communicate but also toughen up if necessary. What are the disadvantages of our modern world? Of course IMO there are some. Some people don't want to take responsibility for there actions, they blame it on external factors. Also this great interconnected world means that some people are almost addicted to celebrity culture or are more concerned with making some video for nameless people than doing the right thing. But I still think the good far outweighs the bad of the current era we are all fortunate to be part of

Taken more generally, does this mean that you feel that it should be possible for the player to have every possible character conversation interaction be available on a given playthrough regardless of which choices were made by the player? Do you think that's what Obsidian is doing? Do you think they are pretending to say " we won't have Romance" but in fact they want to surprise us? I'm not sure if you are joking because you very seldom joke

Nah, the case for Romance is that they make for more memorable and better interaction with party members. The case against Romance is.....mmmm.....oh yes we can focus on other types of party interaction and discussion arcs .... That is all Even as someone who is nominally pro-romance in role playing games, a poorly written romance isn't going to be "more memorable and better interaction" than well written alternatives. True but as far as I know no one is advocating a badly written Romance arc But there's no guarantee that by writing a romance arc that it will be good; therefore romance as element cannot be seen as naturally additive, ie game < game + romance. The same as there are no guarantee that other type of relationships whoud be writen good. but still nobody complains And besides "badly desinged romances" are more memorable then good ones ... reaf this thres cerfuly and you see that all people complain about "bio-were cal of duty proromancers, no-lifers, etc. etc ...etc.... scum on the society" but almost no one says ... hey .. some romances was good ... for example those who fit in storyline ... The argu is about "we dont;t want romance-system like in biowere" ... but lets think a bit qhous any one be glad about "frendship" or "rivality" system ? ... i feel then no one ... I'm not sure exactly what you said in that post but I like it anyway

d There isn't going to be one of those either! lol ....I don't know if I can handle another forum discussion around a feature that should be in PoE but isn't

And that's fine. To each his own. But for me, if PoE plays out like IWD in terms of story and character interaction, I'll be bitterly disappointed. I like character interaction. I like my NPCs to have personalities and the storyline to be richly developed by intelligent writers with higher aims than creating flimsy excuses for killing new things and finding better loot. Tactical combat is fantastic, and I find I can't play the original BG2 without tactical combat mods precisely because the increased difficulty and balancing creates a much more interesting experience compared to the vanilla game, but if I thought that was the central focus of PoE I wouldn't have pledged money to the project. Not that I'm worried. Obsidian has a good track record on this front and I'm pretty sure they know, given the feedback they've gotten around here, how important good storytelling is to the people who pledged. I played IWD for the first time about 4 months ago and even though I enjoyed it there was no doubt that something was missing and what was missing was the fact there was no real interaction with your party. I doubt the longevity and success of any modern RPG without some kind of party interaction.

That's really good news and you've just made my "best good news" post of the week. I thought the bill seemed completely incongruous to the general movement we are seeing in the USA throughout most of the states where gay rights are becoming legalised in several areas like the acceptance of same sex marriage

He says while complaining the game is too much "Black Isle" not enough "BioWare". Seriously, though? I think PoE being more like BG2 and less like IWD is something the majority of people want, regardless of how they feel about Bioware or Black Isle. I loved both studios in their prime, but I never loved Black Isle for IWD very much, and in fact never finished the first game of that series because straight dungeon crawls are boring. I would be very content if PoE was like BG2, as I've mentioned numerous times that's my best RPG of all time.