Gorth

Finished what turned out to be a double episode of Death Parade. A moderately complex story about a cop and a young man and the people they killed, why they killed them and also what the connection is between the two. The young man killed another young man who raped his sister and effectively destroyed her life. He also killed the cop, without knowing he was one, because he was the one pointed out by his sister as the accomplice of the rapist, just standing there, watching. Turns out the cop was secretly a vigilante, stalking people like the rapist, so he could kill them after the deed. Ironically, the young man beat him to it and also killed the cop, because he just allowed what happened to his sister. A story with no happy endings for anyone. No idea who went to what elevator... Morale of the story? Life sucks and then you die. Edit: Looks like Mieruko-chan 12 is out, so I guess that one is next on my to watch list.

I’m sure there is a kennel set aside for Trump to spend eternity in when he passes on some day 😝

Finished Death Parade 7+8... Episode 7 was a bit "different", as in not so much the life and death struggle for your soul in a game, as it was a "get to know the cast better" kind of episode. Very nice actually. The afterlife looks like one giant bureaucracy, where everything is follows procedures laid down by powers unknown since nobody knows when. Each and every worker with a specific (and unending) task. Nona, the supervisor arbiter has apparently been a bit naughty and when Decim was created, Nona added a little bit of humanity to him. Looks like she has a bit of a rebellious streak in her and resent always being an unchanging puppet to a system she has no say in. We also get to know a fellow arbiter of Decims (whose name I can't remember from top of my head) and the "groupie girl" from the previous episode has been assigned to him. Apparently he wasn't able to make a final call when she there the first time. The idol guy had it coming and went straight down, but... fangirl get an extra chance to prove she deserves a second chance. Episode 8 is first half of a story arc stretching over more than one episode. Two guys, an old cop and a young man shows up. Both of them killers. They story about who killed who and why is very complicated. No wonder they need more than one episode to untangle those threads... I can't remember if I mentioned that the dark haired women found out her own name. She's a human and as such doesn't belong in this place. All humans who either gets processed or stays too long start deteriorating and turn into mannequins. Usually their souls are sent on an elevator to a final destination before that though. Edit: As part of the back story, we find out who the previous bartender was, she retired because she had an alcohol problem... Edit2: The Bureau of Information is the department that stores the memories of the deceased and are responsible for sending samples to the arbiters to help them with their judgment. You get judged by your memory and how you react when put under extreme pressure (hence the random games where people who are somehow familiar to each other gets pitted against each other, believing the winner go to heaven and the loser to hell, which is actually not necessarily the case).

My friend and I went to the theatre last night, seeing something called A Midnight Visit https://amidnightvisit.com/ A kind of alternative theatre where the audience mingle with the performers and experience things up close and personal. Ostensibly about experience the dreams and life of a recently deceased person. Lots of things taking place simultaneously and people can wander around to experience different aspects of it. Someone said if all the performances were serialised if would be nine hours, but the audience only get an hour and a half. You do get a voucher at the end for 25% off if you want to experience the show again. I’m sold 😎 Dress code was practical clothes, for climbing through narrow underground tunnels, climbing, walking on graveyards etc. Show was kept in a style, like straight out of something Mr. Poe could’ve come up with. Gothic horror. Black face masks were offered to those who had white or coloured masks because of a recent tuberculosis outbreak in town 😂

Death Parade 6... Both sad and funny at the same time. A young girl gets pitted against some kind of "Idol" pop star. Unfortunately she's a "true fan girl", in the most frustrating way. Like wanting to pull your hair out while running, screaming LALALALALALA off a cliff kind of annoying. Not because she's evil per se, just completely switching her brain off when it comes to the object of her worship, said pop star guy. Who just so happens to be a womanizer and a creep of the despicable kind. In the end she offers to forfeit the game for her idol, but in a moment of weakness, he tries to save her. He's still a piece of scum of course, being the cause of someone else's suicide (her sister was apparently the one who sent the guy to the arbiters bar in a little payback action, involving a bomb). Todays game is something where they have to put hands and feet on some coloured dots on the floor. In the end, the arbiter (which is not Decim this time, but one of his colleagues) decides they take to long and suddenly all the dots have negative effects, from scalding steam and lava floor to insta deep freeze or the floor completely disappearing, revealing a very long drop to a bunch of spikes at the bottom of a pit... It ends before we get any hint where either of them is headed though.

Umm… welcome to 1921 G? 🤔

Was sitting outside in my backyard late last night, enjoying the mild weather (around 22c at 10pm). Watching the local wild life. Possums running around on the fence, a big rat beating a hasty retreat out of my garden when it noticed there was someone there and then I noticed this "little" fella on my wall. Trying to figure out what species it is. It's fairly large at around 10-12cm... doesn't really look like neither walking stick insect nor a mantis (that I recognize)

Finished Death Parade episode 5... Hints (but no facts) about the dark haired "assistant arbiter's" possible background. Shown as a children's book. Decim (pronounced dekim as far as I understand it), the bartender gets tested by upper management. Turns out the dark haired woman (who still has no name) is actually a human and that's unheard in that particular work place. Nona the supervisor arbiter is the one doing the test. We also get a glimpse of where the bar is located, inside a giant tower. Nona and some unknown being is playing a rather creepy game of pool (which Nona seems to constantly win) with the 9 planets of the solar system instead of pool balls. In a semi casual remark, Nona tells him to ask God why she always win to which he replies with an ominous 'God left a long time ago' (not verbatim, just the gist of it) I suppose the jury is still out on whether Decim passed the test. Nona meets up with some other staff in what looks like a control room, discussing operational issues and numbers. Looks like the are currently expected to process 7000 cases daily with the current death rates...

😂 Tip: Enable the Youtube subtitles, or you miss out on important information 👍

Don't feed them after midnight and don't let them get near any water...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59676772 Twitter go home, this is the real thing... Bird songs bump stars off Australian music chart An album made up entirely of the tweets and squawks of endangered Australian birds has debuted in the top five of the country's Aria music charts. Songs of Disappearance is surpassing the likes of Abba and The Weeknd - not to mention Christmas favourites Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey. Created by BirdLife Australia, the album features the birdsongs of 53 of Australia's most threatened species.

The HP Lovecraft Historical Society just makes some of the most fun Christmas songs (I bought the original boxed set they released on DVD, just to get the tentacle stocking)

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59644494 Tl;dr; if **** hits the fan climate wise, lots of people are going to get wet feet Scientists are warning of dramatic changes at one of the biggest glaciers in Antarctica, potentially within the next five to 10 years. They say a floating section at the front of Thwaites Glacier that until now has been relatively stable could "shatter like a car windscreen". US and UK researchers are currently engaged in an intense study programme at Thwaites because of its melt rate. Already it is dumping 50 billion tonnes of ice into the ocean each year. This is having limited impact on global sea-levels today, but there is sufficient ice held upstream in the glacier's drainage basin to raise the height of the oceans by 65cm - were it all to melt. I.e. if it breaks off and drifts north towards warmer waters, you don't need to waste money on post apocalyptic movies in the cinema

it sure made headlines around the world... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59646803 In a statement, the Sioux Falls Stampede and the CU Mortgage Direct bank said: "Although our intent was to provide a positive and fun experience for teachers, we can see how it appears to be degrading and insulting towards the participating teachers and the teaching profession as a whole. "We deeply regret and apologise to all teachers for any embarrassment this may have caused." ... Each teacher received at least $500, they said, adding that the teachers were each "profiled and introduced prior to the event". They will each now receive another $500, and another $500 will be given to the other 21 teachers who were not selected. Sorry my ass. Wanna bet the only thing they're sorry about, is the PR backlash?

@Malcador I didn't know Uderzo and Goscinny made documentaries 😂😂😂

Mieruko-chan 11 is out.... Miko has had some run ins with the temporary teacher in the past, being convinced that he's a notorious cat molester and therefore constantly surrounded by a swarm of dark, spiteful cat ghosts. She also arrived at the conclusion, it's the teacher and his entourage of angry cat spirits that is constantly draining her friend Hana of "life force" and make her ravenous all the time. She stalks him, confronts him, and finds out he's not a perpetrator, but a victim of an abusive mother, like a page torn out of Hitchc0cks "Psycho". She mentally abused him throughout his youth and punished him by killing kittens that he was trying to save. She keeps doing that now that she's passed on and Miko realised, the big, nasty ghost always following him is the ghost of his late mother. Ironically, it turns out later, that Zen (the teacher) thought Miko was the one killing all the cats in the neighbourhood. Realising her mistake, she makes use of her third (and last) "extra life", that she got from the shrine guardian and sics it on the evil ghost mother (by confronting her, revealing that she can see her), to free up the young man from her constantly making his life miserable, even from the afterlife.

I think the simplest way I can explain is... I like Americans as a people but not America the nation state (gross oversimplification)?. I know so many great Americans, but I think their society has some issues that requires a thorough shake up and a rethink of the country and it's future, like where do they really want to go the next 100 years. Because, as it is now, it's like the old de Havilland Comet plane. A marvel of its time when it was created, like WAY ahead of anything the world had seen at the time. The "Founding Fathers" did an exceptional job in creating a resilient and robust framework for a country, but like the airplane, eventually metal fatigue keeps wearing it down and some day will do it in. Nothing lasts forever. It's not specific to any country or empire, just a fact. Change is inevitable. The interesting parts are, when will it happen and what will be in its place afterwards. Will it become a new China with a populist strongman and a giant monolithic state (and state apparatus/bureaucracy running it)? Will it become the nation of Lousiana covering much of the south, bordered by the Grand Duchy of California and the New England Republic? Will it become 52 independent countries constantly warring with each other (like Russia and Ukraine) over territorial disputes that was effectively a non issue when being one nation? Will it become a theocracy along the lines of Iran? Or a loose federation of smaller unions of states, similar to say the EU?

The vaccination rates varies a lot from state to state. Biggest problem in Melbourne and Victoria are the neo nazi and alt right organized "anti vax" rallies, but the vast majority of people now ignore them. A few thousand might sound like a lot, but not out of a pool of 5 million people in each city, with double vaccination rates approaching 90%. It's harder in South Australia, West Australia and the Northern Territory in particular, simply because of the geographical and infrastructure challenges. Much of it desert, rain forest or otherwise sparsely populated. Queensland is to Australia what Florida is to the US. The home of the local variant of Florida man. We call them bogans. Yes, they are meme worthy too, but any vaccine that doesn't come either disguised as a six pack of beer or has the word 'BBQ' on the packaging and if it doesn't get delivered by a 1970's V12 held together by sticky tape and chewing gum is suspect and the instinctive first reaction is rejection. Need no foreign stuff polluting a gene pool carefully cultivated through generations of inbreeding!

Basically what it says in the posters other thead: For the less Russian speaking people around.

Since I'm going to have company this Christmas, we're probably going to be hanging out a bit at my place, we already got tickets for some interesting theater performances (experimental theater, where the audience is in the middle of the play), visiting Australia Zoo in Beerwah (the place created by the late Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwing), doting on said friend's little 6 month old niece (and visiting the nieces parents I guess), getting a rental car and go for some rain forest walks in the national parks north of Brisbane, making BBQ at my place, getting drunk in cider and sake... so much to do and sooo little time. Edit: And a Merry Christmas to everyone around here, whether they celebrate it or not (I don't, but I won't turn down the opportunity to have a good time with friends either, as they don't my a grumpy old agnostic like me) Edit2: With the Omicron variant around in Australia too, I should probably stockpile on toilet paper before the holidays 😁

You are as bad as McCarthy area USA when it comes to BLM. You see them everywhere the same way the McCarthyists saw communists hiding behind each street lamp and behind each window curtain, ready to tear America apart! The word is 'paranoia' I think... in a society where poverty is a crime, sometimes punishable by death if you have the wrong skin colour and politicians threatens their children with the commies comming and taking them if they don't eat their dinner, people live fearful lives. Add to that a very badly functioning healthcare system for decades (one of the worlds most overpriced and inefficient ones), the lack of workers protection, the lack of security if you lose a job, making many people working 2-3 jobs at a time (making the statistics look nice, but in truth the US workforce is under-employed (and often grossly underpaid). Lack of mental health care. Lack of social welfare. Lack of higher education for large demographic groups... oh yeah, and also knowing that every weirdo who was never questioned about anything can buy an AR-15 and use for anger management purposes. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Americans-live-in-fear You need a google or facebook account to read the related questions and anwers... Lets forget the silly, constant BLM boogie man for a moment and look back at 2016. Trump campaigned on fear. Fear of losing whatever manufacturing was left in the US, fear of immigrants, fear of Muslims, fear of empowering women and black people, fear of socialism (which was apparently everywhere as soon as daylight waned), fear of people taking your guns away, fear of a liberalization of society, fear losing status and prestige... and yes, he had this unhealthy, pathological obsession with Obama and Obama's popularity in particular It's almost like he made it his life's goal to destroy anything Obama created, being somehow an abomination in his mind. The better and more popular, the more effort was put into destroying it. **** envy much maybe? As for the bullet points: 1) The fear of "socialism" never left the McCarthy area (the 50's). It's like a cultural, collective memory thing, where there is absolutely no reasoning. If it gets labeled 'socialist', its inherently bad, regardless of any truth of such a statement. Truth is not important, the unreasoning fear is important (and exploitable by savvy politicians who keeps fanning the flames of fear in that regard). 2) Look at the number of unarmed black people killed by police compared to the number of unarmed white people? Look at the job opportunities in different layers of society? (not just burger flipping or garbage collection), look at how often people of various skin colours have been sentenced to life in jail or even executed after a death sentence, only to be cleared 20-30 years later by DNA evidence? I'll give you a hint, it's not white people who are dis-proportionally represented. 3) Unless something changes the current trajectory, yes, I think the US is perfectly capable of oscillating between the extremes until some government in the future does away with pretending and assume centralized executive power. Trump failed 2016-2020, but NOT for lack of trying. If not Trump in 2024, somebody else makes a case study of his presidency may succeed. Yes, Trump overtly supported (and was supported) by alt right groups and everything from right wing, armed militias over QAnon to The Klan.

I think I quoted all the important parts of your post... but since you already know the answer, why even bother with the question in the first place? 🤔 It's a society that spends a disproportionate part of its existence living in fear. Racism and McCarthyism is alive and well, even if it's 50 years past its best by date. To this outsiders eye, it looks like Trump got elected because he wasn't Hillary and Biden got elected because he wasn't Trump. Yet those are just symptoms of much deeper issues with a much longer history. In an atmosphere of fear, you have a fertile soil for demagogues, if history is anything to go by. Just lie, accuse, point fingers and blame anything and everyone for every woe, real or perceived (especially the latter). It's worked like a charm since the ancient Persians.

It's a long and complicated story 😂 No. We were never "partners". Nor "friends with benefits". She's the best friend I ever had though. The one you can share everything with and vice versa, you get to know inside out. She sort of dragged me out of a deep, dark place I was in about 5-6 years ago. She's half my age and could be my daughter, so no, never an "ex", just a really good friend.

Todays weather forecast for Australia (pictures from yesterday I think). Unchanged from the the stuff I posted in the weird and random thread a few days ago, it looks like it's going to follow this pattern for most of the summer (which is the other half of the year down here compared to you people up north): Warm weather in the west: And a lot of humidity in the east: Unless some yet unknown border restriction comes into place between now and the day after tomorrow, a friend of mine will arrive from Melbourne and stay at my place for a month. Really looking forward to it. Haven't seen her for almost two years, since the on and off lockdowns started. I better get used to not leaving the shower and the kitchen a mess when I'm done 😂

The Catholic Church... so removed from reality, always living in a state of denial! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59626108 Italian church apologises after bishop tells children 'Santa does not exist'