Gorth

Same as Austria (reading the post by@majestic). We "celebrate" on the 24th, kill our cardiovascular systems and livers on the 25th and nurse the hangovers on the 26th

My Serbian friends are doing it all wrong then They (always) celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. Dang heretics!

I guess it shows my age when I think of this as "new" music...

To be honest, I *think* this is business as usual (with increased media spotlight on it). There is a reason the oligarchs have become all pliable (unlike say during the Yeltsin days). Powerful billionaires don't dance to your tune if they aren't afraid of you.

Yeah, Safari (whether you like it or not) got hit hard a few days ago. Can't post, can't react, can't do basic moderator stuff (move, merge, split etc.) At least FireFox just eats 50% of my posts and they are there if I refresh the page and click on new post again (showing the text that was supposed to go in the post inside the text box). Just hit submit again and second time it usually works without changing anything Since I'm not using my work computer at the moment, can't say how it behaves in Edge

Ah, for me it just so happened, the first time he charged me was after I saved his butt of all things (I think that was chapter v? After my date with Nocticula)

You meet a guy later in chapter iii that lets you relevel and respec your character (over and over). At no cost as far as I could see in chapter iii (he later charged you for it in chapter v iirc)

There is a long, ongoing thread in the Obsidian General forum about the board's current issues, like eating whole posts, everything past the first line or not working at all on some browsers. One thing that didn't work was using brackets without quotes around them Edit: the brackets in "(test)" without the two "'s will give you an error for example

Started my new game and made it as far as picking the Lich path (making "friends" with the old necromancer, graciously lending his want back to him). Playing as (vanilla) sorcerer at the moment, with the undead bloodline. Played through to Drezen (chapter iii) and one of the building projects seems to be a pyramid of a kind Also, romancing spider girl. I suspect she's one of the few that wont drop me like a hot potato if I turn into a walking corpse some day. Edit: The Dirge Bard looked like a very interesting alternative to Sorcerer, but I worry that the "fun" abilities wont be there until late in the leveling up process (i.e. mutually exclusive with sorcerer) if wanting the best of both worlds (and not going for Legend with it's 40 total levels). I might flip/flop a bit between the two classes later on, to see what appears to be the most fun to play

The forum software is now completely fubar on Safari (most recent IOS version from a couple of weeks ago, Australian English). You can't post, rate (like, thanks etc.) or perform several of the moderator functions

That I can wholeheartedly agree with. Those who know me know I abhor people in powerful positions acting without accountability.

There are some issues with the forum software the moment. I've been away most of the day and wanted to reply to this earlier via my phone, but Safari is now completely FUBAR for use with this version of the board software. What I had wanted to post was suggesting to make a post of it in the forum issues thread in the Obsidian General forum. Admin is collecting as much info as possible, trying to sort out some issues. Currently it eats any and all posts submitted from Safari, as well as blocks any post ratings. The only two things I've been able to do most of the day is either approve posts from new accounts or kill off suspected spam bot accounts. No moving of threads, no posting, nada, njet, nix, null, nein

That default action hiding on the left hand side of your skill bar caused me a lot of grief for quite a while at first. Until I eventually discovered I could right click it to disable said default action

I'm not really a fan of those after the fact witch hunts. Before the war, a significant number of countries thought of Russia as a perfectly profitable trade partner. Should the same kind of investigation be done to see if countries have ties or monetary interest in trading with say China (lots of stuff sold to western companies manufactured by slave labour) or Saudi Arabia (the Saudi led war in Yemen has so far cost over twice as many lives as the war in Ukraine)? Should companies be boycotted for trading with such countries or buying oil from them? Sometimes "The West" is perfectly happy to do business with the devil as long as it doesn't hurt the next election. After the fact is a different issue. The moment Russia crossed the line (literally), it was time to break all connections of any kind that might benefit it. But before that moment, it wasn't really a "crime" doing business with dubious trading partners. Edit: Tl;dr; if you want rules for conduct, apply them evenly or not at all

Australia is a bit flexible in that regard. If one of those dates falls in a weekend, we get the following Monday off instead. Whether it being Christmas, New Year, Queens Birthday (RIP) or whatever. Downside, we only get four weeks of annual leave, whereas people back in Denmark get six weeks

I know, it's still a few days off, but people being busy and all and I'm sure Ukraine and China are more interesting topics, but still... some things just are part of my upbringing, so Merry Christmas everyone (and a Happy New year to those who are too busy the next few weeks to spend time on social media, which is hopefully most of you) (and if anyone suggests this should have been some kind of flavourless 'Seasonal Holidays' instead, go stow it, Christmas gettogethers with the family is what I grew up with)

"wrong side of the road"... left hand side driving does take a bit getting used to. I was quite nervous the first few times I had to drive a rental car out of Adelaide in the morning rush hour traffic. I got the hang of it eventually and those Ford Falcons (an Aussie favourite) had a sturdy metal frame, crash absorption zones (I can't remember the correct technical English term for them) and airbags, so worst case scenario it would be having to do the embarrassing call to the insurance company. Fortunately that didn't happen. I felt more exposed when I got a motorcycle and had to navigate traffic (including roundabouts) without ABS, airbag or seat belts

The worst driver I've ever met (not traffic, just the driver of the car) was an Indian colleague of mine in Wellington (NZ). He offered a few of us a ride in his car so we could go somewhere. I swear, he drove like he was back home in New Delhi (where he was from) Probably an exemplary driver by New Delhi standards, but the three of us were scared ****less and made a point of coming up with alternatives afterwards when having to go somewhere

Those two were like meant to go together... I mean, just look at the names! That being said, I'm normally not a fan of gin, but the Japanese stuff I picked up recently (Roku Gin) is great. Good enough, that I can even drink it as is in a shot glass. Something I normally only would do with my favourite rum (Black Kraken) It's till no match for a good Cognac, but it's a good (and cheaper!!!) substitute when you feel like something on a cold and wet winter day to cheer you up. Both can be had next to a cup of warm tea.

I've been in that exact roundabout quite a few times Even the SatNav in my little Audi A1 at the time struggled to keep up with where I had to go. I think I also somehow managed to run a red light at a pedestrian crossing on one of the exit roads by accident the first time (you can't see it on this particular picture), when I just wanted to flee in sheer panic from the horror that was roundabouts nested within roundabouts It looks nice when seen from above on a picture, but at road level, with limited (or no, in case of traffic) visibility, local knowledge is definitely beneficial for your continued survival. edit: I lived in Woking at the time (working from home several days a week), but our office was in Swindon

The only time i remember wearing a suit, was about 3-4 years ago (I think) at some friends wedding. Since I expected everyone else to wear a black suit, guess who showed up in a white suit Looked rather stylish though if I have to be completely immodest about it. Fancy brown formal leather shoes and leather belt, silver tie clip and those cuff thingies I can't remember what's called (cufflinks?) The only thing I forgot was a white fedora Ah well, live and learn... Edit: I did ask the bride and groom first if it was Ok, because it's exactly the kind of thing the groom would do. He decided on a purple jacket instead, so it was all good. The other guests... boring

I know they flip a coin to determine sides at the start, but that would be rather unsporting to decided the outcome that way in case of a draw. Since duel to the death with swords is off the table too, maybe toe wrestling? The side with the strongest feet are declared the winner https://www.topendsports.com/sport/unusual/toe-wrestling.htm

Australia recently (like within the last week) had a "mass" shooting (by Australian standards, 6 dead people is a lot, although the perpetrators only accounted for 3 of the deaths, the 3 perpetrators making up the other half of the 6) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63952883 The profile of the perpetrators may sound familiar to some, especially those way too familiar with gun violence. Two brothers and the wife of the older brother set a trap for police on their remote property. Created kill zones, installed surveillance cameras and then staged a phony missing person call to lure the police to their property. Four police officers showed up and not expecting anything other than to see if the person reported missing might have been seen, two of them were shot down in a hail of bullets from rapid firing, high powered rifles. A third cop got hit in the leg and managed to drag himself to the car and call for assistance while the trio chased the last cop through the bush, setting fire to the bush trying to smoke her out. A concerned elderly neighbour who saw the smoke arrived, checking if the residents were Ok with the area around them burning. They killed him too. Eventually, the reinforcements showed up and all three attackers were killed. Sounds familiar? So does the profile of those three. Raised in a strict, religious home, "anti-vaxxers", blaming the government for the Port Arthur massacre 29 years earlier, calling it a hoax intended to take their guns away from them. Oh yeah, the online routine posting/reposting of various conspiracy theories. RIP rookie officers (they had only just been in the force for a very short time, doing what was a routine check up) Right wing extremism is the new big threat worldwide, not just in the US, but European countries and Australia too.... I remember the time during covid lockdown, where the instigators of anti-vaxxer campaigns and violent anti-government riots, especially in Melbourne, could be consistently traced back to local Neo-Nazi group leaders. Nothing like a bit of the good old Ultra Violence to create a breeding/recruiting ground for new members. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51621679 In a rare public address at the headquarters of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Mr Burgess said the threat from the extreme right was real and growing. "In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology," he said.

All those high flying subjects... something a bit closer to Earth again. German private companies offering up a new tank design, with the hope of selling it to the army. I'm still not sure how much of a place there is for tanks in the modern battlefield, but wiser heads on the subject than mine will probably have a better understanding there...

You know, your constant putting words in peoples mouths, misrepresenting what they say for no other purpose than to try to rile them up is at best petty trolling and at worst, cheapens the posts of serious posters like mamoulian war and xzar, which make well presented views and put some effort and actual thought into their posts, because you taint their position by association.