Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 07:49:15 PM

Yep - and if that happened to me I'd be basically be thinking about whether I need to move flat.

#2

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Tonitrus - Today at 07:47:49 PM

So this just happened:
My doorbell rang. I opened the door to find one of the men (half my age) who delivered my furniture last week standing there saying, "I stopped to say hello & tell you how beautiful you are."
Next time I buy furniture I'm requesting it be delivered by bears

Heh. that takes me back. ...

The problem with the above is not what he said, it is that he took advantage of knowledge gained in a professional/business transaction (her address) to be a creep and go back to say it.

#3

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Valmy - Today at 07:47:00 PM

But the Raz's of the world should be actively ignored.  What is so simple for a guy can be very meaningful to a woman.

Raz is a self-professed shut in though.

#4

Off the Record / Re: The Anime Thread

Last post by Jacob - Today at 07:42:22 PM

Iirc he went too over the line at one point cheering for protestors getting their heads smashed in and had a thread locked temporarily. Never banned.

That's right. He was gloating about a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and I locked his thread for a few days. It was enough for him to stop posting.

#5

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Valmy - Today at 07:37:29 PM

So this just happened:
My doorbell rang. I opened the door to find one of the men (half my age) who delivered my furniture last week standing there saying, "I stopped to say hello & tell you how beautiful you are."
Next time I buy furniture I'm requesting it be delivered by bears

Heh. that takes me back. Sometime around the year 2000 I was reading all these really negative reactions some women on the internet were making to what seemed to me fairly innocuous things said by men when they were approached. Now granted, I wasn't at any of those occasions so maybe those guys were especially scary in how they said it I don't know. And I just decided that I was just never ever going to ever approach a woman in public again. If at any time I ever made anybody feel as bad as those women clearly felt, it just wasn't worth it. I mean here this woman is acting like what seems like a fairly harmless statement is less preferable to being mauled by a wild animal.

The funny part is prior to this it would often by my woman friends going "oh you think she is cute? Go talk to her, it's cool." And I would and sure I would be terrified and all but typically the conversation was alright and usually she already was in a relationship or something, it seemed pleasant and harmless enough at the time. None of my woman friends ever mentioned that this might traumatize this woman and ruin her night. Kind of wish they had mentioned that part.

But yeah I am not in the "traumatize you and ruin your night" business. So I stopped ever doing that right there. I would meet women other ways.

#6

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 07:36:28 PM

Yeah I'm not sure the apology is a thing here. Of suspensions I'm aware of, they might apologise to the Speaker for causing them hassle basically (I think Ian Blackford, SNP leader in Westminster did this, for example) - but I can't think of any apologies precisely because they won't retract the offending words so they just take the punishment.

But the most inveterate suspended MP I can think of is Dennis Skinner who was a strong socialist MP. Also took the oath with his fingers crossed, heckled Black Rod for the state opening and would stay in his seat rather than attend the Queen's Speech or basically anything involving the royals. So with that and unparliamentary language - not really a fan of traditions but also apologising would undermine the point he'd made. He was voted out in 2019 and problematic in some ways (and, from what I've heard, not a very good constituency MP) but in other ways pretty admirable.

The other MP who springs to mind is Ian Paisley who had very different politics as a hard-core Northern Irish Unionist but similarly not going to apologise or, indeed, compromise in any way from the points he made

Edit: Having said that none of them are or ever were sitting or aspiring PMs who it feels should show respect for the rules of a place they want to be the leader of - they were more stone in the shoe type MPs.

#7

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by grumbler - Today at 07:29:14 PM

This reminds me of a discussion I had with my girlfriend some time back.

She asked me what I would do if I was walking down the sidewalk in an otherwise empty street and saw a woman walking down the same sidewalk coming towards me.  I said something to the effect of just walking normally and trying to avoid anything but the most cursory eye contact and greeting.  She asked me if I had considered crossing the street and using that sidewalk.  I said "no."  We agreed that no men we knew would think to do that, but she pointed out that every woman either of us knew almost certainly wished that that is what I (and any other man) would do.

It really opened my eyes to the need to consider what I could fairly easily do to reduce the anxiety of women who might perceive themselves to be in a vulnerable position.  I know the Raz's of the world think that women are just being hysterical about possible threats (just because only half of them ever feel that their life at some point is in imminent danger).  But the Raz's of the world should be actively ignored.  What is so simple for a guy can be very meaningful to a woman.

#8

Off the Record / Re: The Anime Thread

Last post by viper37 - Today at 07:28:44 PM

Gundam Witch from Mercury.

Such a bizarre show.

It has high reviews, very high praise.  Promising a novel story, not a retelling of a another story, it got my curiosity piked.

Space lesbians.  Umh, ok.  Forced marriage.  Students fighting in mobile suit so they can determine who's gonna marry who.  Some weird love story.  A Gundam that isn't a Gundam but a very advanced mobile suit.  My guess is it will be destroyed later on the show and rebuilt as an even more powerful mobile suit


In short:  Teenage drama in a private school where they solve their disputes by duking it out in their Mobile Suits.  No signs yet of a giant arching conflict between Earth and its space colonies.  Not much in the terms of global politics, but lots of teenage angst.

Would be perfect for Mono.

#9

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by viper37 - Today at 07:21:58 PM

You need to have means to get to America frpk house countries, though.

I am not saying the majority of Muslims in Europe want caliphate I am sure they do not. What I am unsure about is how many of them are opposed to the thought enough to work against it, but that part shan't become an issue for many decades.

But I think it's naive to think they or their families have come to Europe because of shared values. I am pretty sure most migrants everywhere are economic ones and they settle in their new countries despite and not because of the cultural differences from their original home.

Koopman's studies point to about 40% to 50% of muslims being fundamentalist.

How many of those live here vs Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and other shitholes?

#10

Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...

Last post by viper37 - Today at 07:18:55 PM

Where does that leave Sony - seemingly stuck between two stools. The PlayStation is their core platform, but it doesn't look like this gen will match PS4 sales, much less the heights of PS2.  That means hard decisions to be made on the publishing side - do they go exclusive to the console to try to flog more PS5 sales, or dual distribute on Steam for the revenue boost.  Helldivers 2 seemed to the poster child for the second strategy, but it also appears Sony is understandably scared for the long-term implications for their console if that becomes the new model.

For what it's worth, I see more and more people coming from the console space - Playstation players - coming over PC gaming, asking questions about which type of hardware they should get to play their games, dads asking questions about what kind of computer they should get for their sons at any price point, even hardware somewhat lower than PS5 sometimes.

5 years ago, it was still the opposite, young gamers wanting the overpriced console and not wanting anything to do with a PC.


If Linux manages to fix their HDR problems, it can gain even more traction.  With Steam, they are already really good as a gaming platform.