Gorth

My doctor is a bit like that. A long shopping list of things for the pathology to test for 😂 But that is Ok, I'm like $35 out of pocket for that annual expense and it's nice to know that I don't suffer from anything cholesterol or diabetes related (among the long list of things being checked). Despite my childish demeanor at times, I'm not entirely young anymore 😖 So this frail old man needs to look after his body a bit, every now and then.

Frieren 19-20-21 epilogue/end of the first test Old man Denken didn't get to where he is just by giving up easily, so he is determined to take a bird from another group before the sun sets. Being all out of mana (magical energy), it comes down to brute force. Luck is with them and they stumble across a another team, who has lost a member (one of the dead bodies they ran into previously, killed by monsters). I.e. they have automatically failed, but still wont relinquish their bird Explaining his tactics to Richter... and what do you know?... a few bruised knuckles later, Denkens group also has a bird! Some of the other teams also get a lucky break in the dying minutes of the day... Ferns group also just hiding and waiting for the day to end now... Frierens group doing their own thing... We haven't really seen much of Stark for these last, several episodes, so we just get a glimpse of him too, getting stuff off his chest, sharing with a sympathetic tavern keeper

Frieren episode 21... too many things happening to summarize in one post, so putting the wrapping up in a separate one afterwards. A word about their weird names. Whoever wrote the manga has an obsession with German words and all names, people and places (except one), that I've seen so far has been a German word that somehow summarizes it. I.e. Frieren (being cold, I assume in the meaning uninterested in the world), Fern (distant), Eisen (iron) the warrior, Heiter (cheerful) the jolly and perpetual drunk priest etc. Places that translates to the end (literally the northen end of the world), farthest away etc. Same thing goes for all the mages taking the mage test. Names that summarizes their personality. A bit jarring when you speak German 😛 Frierens team mates are the two girls Kanne and Lawine (meaning jug and avalanche, the former can manipulate existing water though she can't conjure it up and the latter specializes in ice magic). One of Ferns team mates is Ubel (mean/bad) and I don't remember the guy with the glasses name. The group Frieren is fighting is led by the old imperial court mage Denken (thinking), besides Laufen (running, the super fast moving girl) and Richter (the judge, not sure if it has other meanings when translating to English) The idea behind this particular test popped up 50 years previous, instigated by an old elf. Who just happens to Frierens masters master (Frierens master was named Flamme, i.e. "flame"). Flamme's master was Serie, who comes across as being ancient at a time when Frieren was an apprentice. She claims to know the content of almost every grimoire in existence and as a reward to those who pass the exam, she'll give each successful test taker a spell of their choice (like a genie in a bottle, fulfilling any wish you may have). Serie made the same offer to Frieren a millennia ago, but Frieren declined, finding the search for magic more rewarding than having it bestowed upon you. Having separated Kanne and Lawine (Frierens two young companions), Richter first wanted to kill one of them, to make the group automatically fail the test and seize their bird (at this point they have already stolen the bird, but they want to remove any reason for them to fight to retrieve it again). Denken orders him to not kill anyone, just keep them busy until sunset. And so he does... as mentioned in the previous post, a barrier keeps the elements out of the test area, which leaves the two girls at a major disadvantage. Richter can manipulate rock which are in plenty supply, but the barrier keeps the main tool needed by the girls away. A rather one sided affair... Old man Denken in the meantime, realizes he may have bitten off more than he can chew... Desperate measures... It was inevitable Just to establish her dominance, Frieren literally kicks his butt 😁 Seeing the old man lose, Richter decides he now needs to get serious... In the meantime, Frieren decides it's time to get their valuable prize back. She know Laufen (the fast moving girl) is hiding nearby and threatens to kill the old man if she doesn't hand back their bird. Laufen doesn't know Frieren, so she thinks she can pull off the same trick twice and snatch the old man away from her. It didn't quite work out as planned... After tying up the two mages to a tree, Frieren enacts a plan she made yesterday to help out the two young mages in her group... and destroys the barrier Serie put there 50 years earlier... Serie seems a bit bemused by that, when she senses the barrier coming crashing down Suddenly getting access to plenty of water means, the tide has literally turned against Richter... all half a million liters of it... and the sun is setting soon, marking the end of the test. Just rewards are handed out

I would say 19,20 and 21 sort of belongs together. 20 feels particularly "odd" because it has no start and no end. Like it was meant for a single 70 minute episode or something... 19 sets up the scenario, 20 is the various groups learning the nature of their target, stalking it and trying to work out how to get it and 21 is the infighting between some who has caught the elusive bird and those who wants to take it by force because they for various reasons are unable to catch their own. Also, a group can only pass the test if the group is complete. If a member dies or leaves the test area, the entire group fails the test. Around the test area is a barrier that keeps spells in and rain out (the latter being important in episode 21) My own little recap of 20... Ferns group has a run in with another group, which tries to take their bird by force. One of the mages tries to take on Fern head on. Sort of a bad idea. When one of the mages team mates asks Fern what she did to her (since she didn't come back)... Except, the Fern we all know and love is not a cold blooded killer... Fern does have quite the poker face (and dead pan line delivery) though... Fern's "special ability" is she can instantly cast a gazillion spells, offensive and defensive, hence why Frieren always let Fern deal with the monsters they encounter (it's faster and they waste less time) Looks a bit like terraforming, but it was just a poor sucker of a mage getting in the way of Ferns artillery barrage 😂 This guy starts to feel a fraction of what Stark gets exposed to on a daily basis... Frierens group also has their own problems... another group led by the imperial court mage has their eyes on the bird caught by Frierens group... The specialty of the young girl confronting them is a spell that makes her move lightning fast Frierens group is now one bird down... (will make a separate post for episode 21, which also wraps up the first test)

Not the official video, but someones "lyrics" version. Picked this one over the original, because lyrics

I’m on a quest to find my favourite vodka. So far, I’ve tried Polish, Russian, Swedish and Australian vodka. Just opened a bottle of Japanese vodka (I do love Japanese gin). Some day I’ll appoint one of them a “favourite” 🥴 edit: doing a bit of weekend cleaning, washing the shelves in the cupboard with soap and water. Noticed I have an Icelandic vodka too, to try out after the Japanese one. Didn't say anything about being fish based 🤔

I did *not* have sex with that woman… True. No idea how notorious a liar the Biden government is. Obama probably benefits from “relativity” because it felt less awful than what came before and after? But there was still something about extrajudicial international killings picking up under his watch…

Just a quick recap of Frieren 19, while waiting for episode 20 to show up (hopefully available tomorrow morning, local time)... The test takers for the first class mage exam, got split up into a number of groups of 3 mages each. The goal is to capture an elusive bird within the time limit (a few days, forgot the exact number). The bird is lightning fast, tough as nails, moderately resistant to magic, highly developed magic detection skills (in this universe, magic is a manifestation of "mana", some beings have it, some don't, those who can actively shape it tends to become mages). In short, a bunch of mages trying to catch a bird that is fast and elusive, spotting a mage from a mile away and making a run for it... Frierens group holds a strategy meeting... and in the end, agrees to Frierens plan (she got inspired when one of the young girls mentioned something about being able to manipulate water) The plan? "Poison" every water hold they can find with mana, so the birds will have to come to a water source of Frierens choice... I didn't make screenshots of blood and gore, but it happens too. Monsters prey on the test takers, using their corpses as bait and there are no rules that stipulates test takers can't kill each other, then take the bird from another group that may already have acquired one. Frierens group realizes all of them will be up in arms and come after them when they have cornered the market so speak, leaving only one place to catch the birds. Frieren has learnt a powerful bird binding spell, that should overcome the birds magic resistance. Problem is the spell has a 50cm range 😂 Hence why they needed to narrow down the possible locations for the bird to seek water. Frieren puts on the statue act, sitting at the pond shore pretending to be a rock The spell worked At this point, Ferns group has also captured a bird and general infighting breaks out amongst the mages and blood start flowing. Ends somewhat abruptly... and now waiting for episode 20

Just 50 from the world of domestic politics... https://www.crikey.com.au/dossier-of-lies-and-falsehoods/ Then there are of course international politics... similar lists from Trump, The Bushes, Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin, Modi, Bolsano etc... Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq? Brexit will be a net positive for the UK!, We will not invade Ukraine... etc. etc. All in all, whenever a new state leader swears to serve his people (when he really means serving the interest groups that got him/her in power) Then there are all the corporate ones... Former and current CEO's of Boeing, most bank CEO's and the majority of their executives, local telco CEO's lying about data leaks, outages and impacts on emergency calls etc. The church lying to the public for half a century and denying that the worlds largest pedophile ring is not doing anything wrong and diligently investigating claims to the opposite... All of which only gets exposed because luckily some journalists still dig into these things. Feel free to add to the list, but those were just what sprang to mind within the first 15 seconds. Could probably write a thesis if I felt like putting the effort into it.

If it interests you, I do consider myself one of the masses. Hence why it p.....s me off no end when I feel constantly lied to and spend a lot of time and effort fending off attempts to deceive me

While Drachinifels is my goto internet historian for all things naval warfare (iirc, his native language is Portuguese, so I guess he's either Portuguese or Brazilian), my second goto channel would be Ryan Szimanski (sp?) and Battleship New Jersey https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey For all things civilian shipping, designs, history, disasters, famous people etc. my goto channel would be Oceanliner Designs https://www.youtube.com/@OceanlinerDesigns It sort of sprang to mind, I've been subscribed there for a while and a recent video told a story I remember hearing many years ago about "Miss Unsinkable", a nurse that survived all three sisterships, Titanic, Olympic and Britannic edit: Not sure I would board a ship if I saw her boarding it 😂

It turned out to be a storm in a tea cup, the cyclone headed west once hitting the coast (instead of the expected southerly course), so dodging the bullet I guess. It's mixed. I used to have it provided by utility companies in my previous places, but this place doesn't unfortunately. Also, I like the smaller bottles (3.7kg) for my bbq) It was mostly a precaution if water and electricity supply got disrupted.

The "Rules Based Order" is a bit of a myth, just like El Dorado. Enough repetition of the phrase and some people start thinking it exists. Let's be honest though, powerful countries do what they want, when it suits them and it benefits them. Nothing's changed since the fall of the western Roman Empire there. It's always an easier sell to your population if you can justify why a lot of the serfs have to die for their lord, but in the end, it's just a way of placating the masses. Sometimes the justifications are easier to come by, sometimes they have to be manufactured and sometimes, countries just go "ah screw it, too much work" and do what they please (both England and France used to live by the credo might is right in the past). It's still very much the case today, realpolitik and powerful interest groups acts our their objective grabbing through governments (which are usually appointed by whoever controls popular opinion, again, a commodity you can buy if you have the means)

Did a bit of extra shopping the last couple of days. Looks like it’s going to get very windy and quite rainy for the next 3-4 days, so got things like bottled water, dry food, candles, batteries, lpg bottles for cooking etc.

Looks like the Boeing 737 MAX (9 series) isn't flying anywhere anytime soon. At least in the US...

Spent most of Saturday in Australia Zoo (more specifically a place called Beerwah, the zoo being founded by Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin. Nice place. Lots of animals. Lots of space for the animals... and 33C and close to 100% humidity (that's 91.4F for the colonials) Sneaky alligator wearing a Ghillie suit... African long-necked predator hiding behind a tree, waiting for unsuspecting prey to stray too close... I mentioned it was a warm day... the meerkats agreed as did the rhinos... and the dingos... A crane species iirc... A cassowary taken from a safe (I hope) distance, using quite a bit of zoom Poison dart frogs... Cheetas (probably heading for the shade) Not all animals are behind barriers 🦎 Not all animals are behind barriers 😱 Even without the animals, the landscaping done to the area is gorgeous ...and I got my 22000 steps for the day 😫

It's not a new plan... https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/10/10/denmark-election-parties-on-left-and-right-back-controversial-plan-to-send-asylum-seekers- The Danish government decided in 2022, that it was the way forward

Looks like someone found the poor old forums walking stick for it again, as it feels like it has picked up the pace! 😁

Finally finished painting another squad for my Horus Heresy tabletop wargaming army (a unit of Lernaean Termintors for the Alpha Legion). I guess finishing up my Contemptor Dreadnaught is next... For the Emperor!!!

I know, don't believe everything you read (especially on the internet), but I do remember it from geography classes from my childhood... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages https://www.quora.com/Why-do-they-say-that-the-Finnish-and-the-Hungarian-languages-are-related-to-each-other "The Finnish and Hungarian languages belong to the same language family, known as the Uralic language family. This language family also includes other languages spoken in the region around the Ural Mountains in Russia and in parts of Scandinavia. Linguists have identified similarities in vocabulary, grammar, and phonology between Finnish and Hungarian, which suggest a common linguistic heritage. However, it's important to note that Finnish and Hungarian are not mutually intelligible, meaning speakers of one language cannot understand the other without studying it." (Estonian also mentioned somewhere as being the third language spoken today, descending from old Uralic)

Isn't Hungary the closest relative to Finland (linguistically and genetically)? Being originally one tribe splitting in two, one heading northwest (Finns), the other southwest (Magyars)?

Nothing particularly exciting, but Denmark got a new head of state. They also got an Australian born queen, something the locals down here are very fascinated with. Interesting bit of trivia, Margrethe II was the first Danish monarch to abdicate since king Erik III in 1146

An interesting article by the BBC on the "tatzpitaniyot" unit. Israel's "eyes and ears" watching Gaza and reporting Hamas movements to the Israeli military and intelligence services. People asks how the intelligence services could fail so badly when the October 7th attack happened. So, the BBC went digging into this unit, being made up entirely of young female conscripts (which doesn't bear arms btw, their job is to watch and observe all day long and report whenever they spot something unusual). Turns out they spotted a lot. From the regular farmers being replaced by unknown faces setting up shop next to the wall, taking pictures to Hamas units shifting from fitness training to commando raid drills. The last two weeks before the attack, they rang the alarm bells and... the BBC couldn't find out how far up the command chain the information went, but it got somehow suppressed from above. Many of the young women in the report got killed on October 7th, but BBC got access to some of the whatsapp conversations between unit members as well as between unit members and their family (sending last farewells etc. a day or two before the attack happened) and frustration expressed by them effectively being gagged. BBC doesn't mention names (too canny for that), but leaves it to the reader to wonder someone in the Israeli government could have an interest in preventing any action being taken that could've prevented the attack (and by extension if anyone had an interest in starting a war) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67958260

Some local humour. Warning, contains Australian words...

Additionally to episode 18, Fern and Frieren gets assigned to two different groups (of mages) for the test, so not on the same team. Frieren ends up with two constantly fighting girls and Fern ends up with an imperial court wizard (that killed his opposition to get the position) and a psychopath young girl, that failed her previous graduation from class 3 mage to class 2 mage, because she killed the class 1 mage proctor of the test... We never really get any hints, that Fern is a curvy young woman besides Frierens references. Probably because she is dressed up like a Taliban bride (minus the headwear), covering her body fully. In Episode 3, Frieren "notices" the differences between the two of them Stark was a local village hero, because the village thought he subdued the dragon threatening the village (in reality, he was frozen to the spot in fear and the dragon lost interest in him). In episode 6, he gets persuaded by Frieren, that they can kill the dragon, freeing him up, so he can join her and Fern as the groups front line fighter. The plan is, he has to keep the dragon distracted for 30 seconds, giving the mages time to prepare magic for blasting the dragon to pieces. After some very long 30 seconds, Stark has unknowingly defeated the dragon all on his own and gives Frieren an earful because she is holding back and haven't delivered the killing blow yet (because he doesn't know himself, that he actually killed the dragon already, he whinges loudly that he has kept his part of the agreement, but Frieren still hasn't finished the dragon off)