Gorth

What's the current legislation on price fixing? I know I found a way to circumvent EA"s price fixing on ME3 (it lists one price on Origin until you log in and then adds almost 100% when you are down under), but you don't always have the option. The movie industry has been doing it for decades with their "region encoding" (sounds nicer than price fixing),

Good point, nothing is so bad it couldn't be worse I live in suburbia and commute to the commercial district, so I don't spend much time in the (Brisbane) cbd area. I stopped listening to street musicians and buskers when they started bringing ghetto blasters, sitting and miming a bit to whatever noise is blasting out through the speakers. Britney Spears has nothing on those guys when it comes to faking it in front on an audience. I've got a brother who spent a decade and a half playing music, from drums over guitars to saxophone, so I've got the general idea what's involved in playing without playback. Not to mention having seen more bands live than can be counted and several pairs of hands. If you take the crutches and rollators away from the majority of the "performers", how good are they really? Not saying nobody has any actual skill, but they drown in the masses of producer created designer bands aimed at specific markets. The people hired are but the faces and wriggling bodies used to market a product.

Surprisingly well. Not the nauseating sugary stuff you get in chocolate bars and sprinkled on top of pastry. Harder in consistency than I thought too, unlike the grated, dried stuff you normally get.

Sounds like you guys need a psychic octopus.

The law of the jungle is brutal. Gorth is feasting tonight, gorging himself on blood soaked coconut meat (I managed to cut my finger in the process). It worked surprisingly well putting it in the oven. The hard, outer shell cracks like an egg shell, easy to break off. Two or three gentle whacks with a hammer and you can break it off. Then you can use a sharp knife for cutting the softer parts into bits and pieces.

Awesome page, thanks I like "thwack" better than "tap", but I'll give it a try. It seems like the benefit of heating/freezing the nut is an easier time getting the meat removed from the shell. I might just try it with a blunt spoon first.

I finally bought this game on Steam, including the DLC's. I've just started on Legend of Grimrock, but after that, I think it's time to start as king of Denmark and conquer the world. I had a quick look at the game and wondered what the heck a lot of Danish provinces were doing being members of the HRE? My history teacher forgot to tell me something there.

That's not what it said in the manual Maybe I should buy a second coconut. Then I can try both approaches...

Yeah, once upon a time, synthesizers were something that added to the music. Then it became all synthetic and nobody knew how to make music. These days, even the darn voices are computer generated and actual singers are hard to come by. [/grumpyoldman2]

After having overcome the challenge of Pineapples, I've createe a new obstacle for myself to overcome... I've bought a coconut! According to the instruction manual, the first step is not so complicated, stick a skewer through one of the three "eyes" at then end and drain out the liquid. Sounds easy. Next bit however? Put in preheated oven at 200 degrees (celcius) for 25 minutes or until it starts cracking. I better make sure I have a fire extinguisher handy. Then tap coconut with hammer and cool of white stuff in cold water. Good thing I got some powertools. This is going to be interesting.

I suspect they would gleefully fire at both if it served their own purpose. It can be dangerous to assume these guys follows normal "logic"

Heh, the following discussion wasn't bad either.

I'm not sure that I would classify Italy as a developing, nearly or not, country. It has twice the GDP of Australia and is the worlds 11th largest economy (and that's without a disproportionately large mining sector).

I was sitting outside on my upper floor balcony (I live in a two plan house), about an hour and a half ago, reading my new Warhammer Empire army book, enjoying the last sunshine of the day. Then suddenly the screeching of tires started, seemingly going on for a long time and you know something bad is going to happen. Fortunately there is a small house on the corner property blocking the view to the crossing. When the sound of screeching tires gets replaced by the sound of metal getting twisted for a very long time, you know something bad has happened. When the screaming starts, you know somebody's day just got ruined very badly. Sort of proud that I didn't run down and stare, as I'm normally curious to a fault, but somewhere I probably knew enough about what happened and didn't need the visuals. Lots of police, ambulances, rescue vehicles with heavy equipment and eventually the "cleaners".

Bought a bit of stuff on the current promotional sales... got myself Crusader Kings II Collection (base game + bunch of DLC's) and Mount & Blade Collection (Base game, Warbands and something with fire).

Still playing a Trine every now and then. Cursing and swearing over the lack of a save game function. Wouldn't be so bad if you could at least pick up from your last checkpoint when returning to the game, but starting way back from the start of a level every time???

Vanguard is ridiculously easy. Has anybody ever played Soldier or Engineer? Edit: Damn, game is already 30% off. I could have saved some money there.

I once drove through Germany from north to south, ending up in Idar-Oberstein. Quite the experience.

Aussie band 'Spooky Mens Chorale' performing 'Dancing Queen' (a Swedish folksong) http://youtu.be/UNrAgbzMXOI

If you haven't bought Botanicula yet, check out the new Humble Bundle https://www.humblebundle.com/ It's a bit cheaper than Gog. Ah what the heck. I already had a couple of the other games from previous Humble Bundles, but it looks like a fun game. Crossing fingers and hoping that Trine 2 appears in one of these bundles too some day.

The people who like crpgs not created for the masses?

Interesting thought. Never really thought of it that way before, but it is rather spot on. We are after all talking about "unessential" stuff, like entertainment and not a new malaria vaccine. Patronage was, back then, a single wealthy individual/family giving money to an artist so they could get stuff (and probably political/superiority points vis a vis other nobles or wealthy bourgeoisie). In fact, the big publisher model is a lot closer to it than kickstarter is. I usually lump publishers together with banks, insurance companies and pension funds. They have money that they need to invest and want as much money as possible back in return. Some of them specializes and invests real estate, shares or dubious schemes like credit default swaps. Some invest in projects, like land development, ship building, movie making or video games. Usually run by suits who sometimes engages "experts", who works in advisory roles on what is currently most likely to give a return in their market segment. People may have different motives for supporting at least some kickstarter projects. I definitely don't expect to get my money back, much less with interest. If I'm lucky, I might get something close to moneys worth of entertainment back, but I'm not expecting it.

Interesting thought. Never really thought of it that way before, but it is rather spot on. We are after all talking about "unessential" stuff, like entertainment and not a new malaria vaccine.