Gorth

This. Hence the "puberty" remark, for all the power they wield through their sheer size (as a market and as an economy), they are inexperienced to the point of naivety. It's like a child with a gun, a disaster waiting to happen if not offered guidance in a way that make them listen rather than being offended (I imagine it being like dealing with teenagers throwing temper tantrums). The Trojans may have a few things to say about trusting the ancient Greeks too

Looks like the Chinese economy has entered puberty (on the long road to maturity). Some hard and volatile years ahead. It's going to be interesting to see how the old guard is going to deal with the need for change. Edit: At least judging be the almost free fall the stock market seems have entered at the time of writing.

My monitor doesn't go any higher than 2560 * 1440 It's like quite a few of the special visual effects doesn't get captured by the built in screenshot functionality. Maybe I should try some day with an actual screen grabbing application.

How many miles was it the Chryslus Corvega would drive on one of those?

Honestly? Not 100% sure what you are trying to say with this post (I *think* I get it) Information is valuable, don't inflate it, nor waste it on those on whom it's wasted? (I often get accused of being a lousy communicator in real life, putting too much effort into "the point" and too little on "the packaging")

Moose is delicious http://youtu.be/CRIwuxqKyyk

Unfortunately I suck as an "in game photographer", as the back lit image doesn't show the bright green eyes nor how vividly, almost glow in the dark orange the outfit is. Ah well, introducing the barefoot jedis. All she needs now is her pet tree.

Yeah, strange things with those names. I had a Medb for years on Jedi Covenant (a level 1 toon). Rather than spending a lot of CC's on appearance change, I just deleted her and wanted to recreate her with a new race (aforementioned Togruta). Guess what, I couldn't, the name I've had for almost 2 years was "restricted". Anyway, she remains deleted and I created my new tank girl on Harbinger instead, named Springflower. I dare anyone to find that offensive (I'm usually better at making up guy names and I have a lot of those)

The benefits of not trying to view the game as some kind of profound story telling Because, I would never be able to give a rational explanation for why Bizz is my favorite companion. As a ranged tank, he's not the most useful, his voice acting is... questionable etc. Maybe it's just the absurdity of picking up a Jawa on an ice world and a bazooka toting Jawa no less, Maybe it helps if you are a Monty Python fan As for trooper companions, I took a liking to Tanno vik when playing through the trooper story first time. His no nonsense approach had its own appeal. No problem is so big that more explosives can't fix it. Second time I played through it, I actually sort of warmed up to Aric Jorgans character (even though I hated him passionately the first time, just goes to show how fickle I can be). Decided to to give the new Togruta race a spin and instantly disliking the look of the male togrutas, rolled a female jedi guardian tank. What a bunch of space hippies. Since they seem to all have vivid colours, face paint and run around barefoot to be in touch with mother nature (according to the background lore), I dressed her accordingly. The kind of looks that can make your optical nerves bleed. I guess I need to post a pic a bit later today or it didn't happen.

Not 100% sure, but I think Windows 8 happened and Microsoft is bleeding money

I can recommend a hearty Vindaloo for a blocked nose. Best ingested through your mouth though, not the nostrils

The game is so old, it's been discussed to death years ago (the game itself that is). I still played it 12 months ago with the restoration mod though and am more than happy to see the complete package so to speak on steam. Time to take it for a spin again

Heh, SCORPIO is probably one of my favourite companions of the entire bunch in the game. What's not to like about a psychotic killer robot dedicating her existence to breaking her controlling software and kill you??? So over the top its hard not to smile. It's like a mechanical Thana Vesh Problem with companions in general is the limited number of "barks" they have when summoned. engaging enemies etc. Eventually even your favourites becomes a bit tiresome to listen to when the class story is over. Apart from the never ending hassle with timezones, I should now have well geared level 60 healers and tanks on both Harbinger and Shadowlands and working on getting the few remamining ones moved from Begeren to Jedi Covenement. So if anyone is interested in running a few group activities, just give me a shout. Would probably only work weekends though. Also got two handfuls of leveling toons on all 3 servers as I don't expect the 12x xp to last forever, so they get a bit of priority at the moment.

I just don't thrive in big cities. I thought I could adapt and adjust to it and gave it a full year. But in the end, I just hate it. Moving to an area that is way more "open" and less claustrophobic for a country bumpkin like me

Found a new job and a new country (new personal record, took only 4 days from the first contact to the paperwork was signed, scanned and exchanged). Now i have to tell my soon to be ex-boss on Monday. I hate that part. Moving to the south of the UK in a few months time.

...and the Chinese owns the other 60% of American shares Just kidding. What is not a joke is the reason for why I found the article interesting. Australia's economy has become so dependent on the Chinese manufacturing sector that I expected both to come crashing down within 5 years, based on my own experiences and observation of the Australian commodity market. That was a major motivator for me to leave the country and move somewhere (anywhere) where the economy is more diversified and hopefully provides alternatives, should things turn really bad.

Thought this was an interesting blog... Commodities Collapsed Just Before The Last Stock Market Crash – So Guess What Is Happening Right Now? It's basically an observation of patterns in the economy and the belief that commodity prices are the early indicators of how the (global) economy changes when demand slows down or speeds up. Oh, and the observation that the prices are heading for a 13 year low, indicating bad things happening within the next few years. Time to bring out the umbrellas in case the sky is falling?

I used to think I was white but now I'm apparently Hispanic. Is there a support group for people that have lost their white privilege? Reminds me a bit of poor pluto. That one lost its status as a planet Compared to that, yours is an inner world problem Edit: Thought about calling it a 3rd world problem, Earth being the third planet, but that would have made the post serious

Took me way too long to appreciate legacy gear. I mostly used it to "ship" mods and augments between alts. Only discovered lately, with the new appearance designer, the beauty of having pvp legacy gear that can be shared between factions and save a tonne of commendations and credits.

Catharine, huh? The handle sounds familiar. I think I may have run into you, or thought you were insane due to your GTN asking prices, or something... Yes, my Cathar merc girl. I actually did sell the contents of a hypercrate (although I split that duty between her and Malpractise, my healer) within the last couple of months. May have been the one before the current release. Got good credits overall for the content too

I guess all those little Chuck Norris effigies I planned to sell are worthless then I've spent most of my life shamelessly abusing my "white mans privileges", coming from a functional family, having an education, a passport that opens most borders and then went ahead and used it to live a life with only the problems I create for myself. Not so much a "racist" as a cultural imperialist, believeing in self determination, self reliance and generally not being a jerk (and looking down on various "-isms"). If somebody presented me with allegations of being "privileged", my response would pretty much be, just like you, I was born the way I am and I try to make the best of it.

Dang, the only reason i picked Shadowlands over Jedi Covenant was a coin flip (no kidding, quite literally a coin flip), as i had little knowledge of the east coast servers. They looked very similar community and size wise when checking out the server forums. Most important thing for me was that the time zone difference was 3 hours less bad than the west coast. Harbinger made sense since my old Aussie friends all relocated there. Usually spend a couple of hours in the weekends doing stuff together there, in the small window of opportunity where we are all awake. All I Got is a few level 10's on JC. I could of course ship some of the Shadowlands toons there is anyone is interested in hooking up for a few runs of something. If anyone is interested in getting in touch on Harbinger, send Macroth (imp side) or Xantrailles (pub side) a message. Edit: In my experience since my first toon, levels 40-50 are the "hardest" to get through motivation wise. Edit2: If anyone wants to exchange holo frequencies on Red Eclipse, drop Wyldric (pub side) or Catharine (imp side) a line...

From Dulfys site: I can just hear Kiras voice going "Feel my Force!" when that flower vase comes flying in the direction of my Jedi Knight

Peace for our time...