Re: The vent thread

[Nithel]

Ah. The discussion of our youth degenerating.. I wonder if this discussions changes itself through the centuries.

[Kristeas Sunbinder]

It's one of the signs of becoming old *swings around cane* darn kinds, get yourselfs and your ipads off my lawn D:

[Nithel]

It's one of the signs of becoming old *swings around cane* darn kinds, get yourselfs and your ipads off my lawn D:

Damn ipads, back in my days we played with mud, sticks and sometimes rubber. And we were happy.

[Mandui]

I'm sorry to say this but I completely disagree with what I've quoted. Who are you to decide who can have a baby or not? Maybe the baby will not live a happy and full life with bad parents, but what about the parents themselves? They will not be happy not having a baby either: having children is an innate human instinct. But also, what about people with genetic disorders? Should they be allowed to have babies? It's not so simple, ethics is a very complicated subject, and parenting and how to raise children is very subjective and relative.

I believe that what he meant was that people who are obviously unable to raise a child in a decent way, with a good upbringing and a loving environment, should refrain from doing so until they get their own shit sorted first. It really doesn't take much intelligence to know whether you or someone else is fit or capable to have children at a given point. Yes, a child does change some people's lives towards the better, but let's face it, those are exceptions. Most of the irresponsible and immature people stay irresponsible and immature even after they get a baby, which is mostly conceived by accident or depicts the fleeting desire to become a parent, which soon diminishes within a year or two.

As for people with genetic disorders, those are not a valid reason to not have babies as long as the parents are willing to invest the effort, care and love in them that they need. I have witnessed a lot more handicapped people or people with handicapped babies being much better parents than healthy ones.

[Amaryl]

And about the holidays, Amaryl, I figured it would be because of family mainly. Life here in the Persian Gulf is very relaxed. We have a lot, lot, lot of free time. We have no taxes, life here is cheap, and working hours are low, so people have a lot of time with their family. Not only that though, cause family is very, very, very important here too. Like my family go out (all my uncles, and aunts, and cousins, and my cousins' cousins) meet up at the chalet or the farm, so it's not that big of a deal if we don't celebrate this holiday or that because we see each other all the time anyways, if that makes sense? I mean, my parents used to live in the US, and they told me they never had time for anything. They used to maybe go out once a month, or not at all, but over here, we go out every single day, no problem at all. Even though a dog in the US has more social liberties than I do here, I think I still would prefer life here because it is so much easier (although in some ways, harder) in a million different ways.

fuck me... no taxes? So Social liberties vs 42% more money to spend on fun stuff... hmm...

And yeah it makes sense, its about preferences in the end, and which things matter to different people. which incidentally is rooted big time in Upbringing, both from culture and their parents, but I will not go into the parenting debate, since people tend to only see the worse and not the good, and it tends to spiral into a very polar discussion, not fit for this forum... Though I am against Using physical "violence" as a rearing method due to the harm it does. But I am just as against "being a friend to the kid" as a parent you're a role-model, a protector and an authority figure, and I understand it is very difficult to portray all 3 aspects and becoming the personification of those 3 aspects while raising your kid. and that's all that i have to say about that subject xD

And yes, I can completely understand why muslims would be so "adamant" about it, because it's not just a tradition for muslims like Christmas is for Christians. It has a lot of religious and spiritual meaning for us still, 1600 or however many years later.

First, I didn't mean the word "adamant" as negative, maybe it was the wrong choice of words, I find it commendable to stick to things you personally find important. Though I find your comparison between Islam and Christianity and the value judgement it presents Rather short-sighted and misrepresenting to the religious beliefs of christians. since last time I checked ,the Masses at christmas and easter and the like are still the most visited masses by christians worldwide.

[Jeanpierre]

rant about santa origin and misconceptions..

Hey, I'm Belgian.. I know what you're talking about We celebrate Sinterklaas as well.

But my rant is mostly against the commercialization but not 'only' against that. I'll give an analogy.. and I will give 100 gold (Ally or Horde) to the first person able to guess from which book I got it:
The rails of a train have a fixed distance and will keep that distance along the whole track. But... why do they have the given distance they have? Why not 2 meters wider, for example? Why exactly that width? Because they were designed after the original tracks for karts on roads. But... why did the tracks on the roads have that distance then? Because 2000 years ago, some Roman dude had to build roads... and he noticed that this was the distance between 2 horses pulling a kart. So because some half arsed engineer farted out a distance a long time ago, we're still stuck with his measures (more or less).

Back to the celebrations. Imagine you're 5 years old and want to celebrate the fact you're being an awesome kid. You love candy canes and thus buy a candy cane, declaring it your symbol of sweetness and reward for being an awesome kid. When your kid is 5 and is being awesome, you'll give him a candy cane for it, and a traditional celebration of awesome kids is born. Now fast forward ten generations and I bet somewhere there will be an awesome kid who doesn't like candy canes. His parent turns mad red and shouts "Eat your damn candy cane or you will be a bad kid!"

The meaning of some things is lost. That's alright with me, since times are permitted to change. It's how the traditions we have now were created in the first place. But the symbols sometimes seem to become more important than the original spirit of the celebration.

[Cyaska]

Why are Santa's clothes red? Because some dude at Coca Cola invented it as a commercial campaign and it suited their company colors better than the original green.

Wrong.

There's paintings of red Father Christmas long before it was ever associated with coca cola.

[Jeanpierre]

Wrong.
There's paintings of red Father Christmas long before it was ever associated with coca cola.

A reference or concrete name would have been helpful. But good old google and wiki helped. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

Images of Santa Claus were further popularized through Haddon Sundblom’s depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company’s Christmas advertising in the 1930s.The popularity of the image spawned urban legends that Santa Claus was invented by The Coca-Cola Company or that Santa wears red and white because they are the colors used to promote the Coca-Cola brand. Historically, Coca-Cola was not the first soft drink company to utilize the modern image of Santa Claus in its advertising – White Rock Beverages used Santa to sell mineral water in 1915 and then in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923. Further, the Coca-Cola advertising campaign had the effect of popularising the depiction of Santa as wearing red and white, in contrast to the variety of colours he wore prior to that campaign; red and white was originally given by Nast.

There are further references in the article.

[Shaelyssa]

Oh oops I'm so so so sorry, Amaryl!!! I didn't mean it like that at all. What I meant was that most people don't celebrate Christmas as a religious festival or whatever, because it's a tradition - they don't really hold any spiritual value to it, if that makes sense? The only people who I know irl who actually celebrate Christmas as a proper religious thing are my Coptic friends and Lebanese Christians.

[Kristeas Sunbinder]

Depends on how you define spirituality, if it's with religion in mind or “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”
If family is an important part of your life and you celebrate it during christmas, you aren't doing it wrong in that way. It's not like people can easily pick a certain time of the year and celebrate something extensively in the same way as for example christmas.

There are many religious holidays, most of them based because x happened or y died, because you have to do this then or else you might get angry spirits. People don't have (lack) for example the widespread belief in spirits and ghosts to have halloween in it's oldest incarnation. Holidays are, what people need them to be. When looking at the mentioned "more relaxed" stance in some countries, when it comes to being busy and having time. I see it that the "western" societies need that, time, during the holidays they can have time.

[Thonian/Gashwille/Markyth]

I hate ads. especially on TV. And on Youtube. Gah, kill them all I say.

[Torukan]

There isn't enough rage in this thread:

GOD F*****G DAMNIT ALLIANCE PUGS SUCK AT EOTS, AV AND IOC, I MEAN FFS, WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT DEFENDING A BASE? F**K

[Lavian]

Ingame rant about resto shamans as a warlock..

Fuck your cleansing spirit and its self healing. Enjoy your stupid state while it lasts.

[Cyaska]

Campers and noobtubes and massive explosions, snipers and hand grenades hiding in trees, these are a few of my favourite things...

[Torukan]

FERALS, FU YOU ALL! I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL YOU GET NERFED!

[Guest]

They gettin' buffed i think.

[Torukan]

They gettin' buffed i think.

Feral



* Berserk (instant Mangle proc) now has a new Spell Alert identifier. In addition, Berserk no longer breaks Fear or makes the druid immune to Fear.

* Pulverize weapon damage percent has been reduced to 80%, down from 100%.

Lacerate damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.

Mangle (Bear Form) weapon damage (at level 80+) has been reduced to 235%, down from 300%.

Maul damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.

Rake damage has been reduced by 10%.

Rip damage has been reduced by 10%.

[Guest]

Or not..

[Lavian]

Its really silly tho in the current state of that shaman cleanse. Seems to scale with gear too as I tried it with a guildie, He cleansed my curse and magical effect and it crit healed him for 14k and is so cheap to cast I noticed. No wonder I had trouble against this oom shaman/warrior team, jesus christ.

[Cyaska]

They gettin' buffed i think.

Feral



* Berserk (instant Mangle proc) now has a new Spell Alert identifier. In addition, Berserk no longer breaks Fear or makes the druid immune to Fear.

* Pulverize weapon damage percent has been reduced to 80%, down from 100%.

Lacerate damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.

Mangle (Bear Form) weapon damage (at level 80+) has been reduced to 235%, down from 300%.

Maul damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.

Rake damage has been reduced by 10%.

Rip damage has been reduced by 10%.

My understanding was that they reduced their DoT damage but increased their direct melee damage, so that they couldn't just apply rip and move on to the next target.

[Gunnell]

The ONLY TWO lines in the entire Underground I needed were closed for strikes. TWO. ENTIRELY. SEPERATE. FUCKING. LINES.

Pushing through the legions of morons with prams who I swear are trying to ram into my ankle, and "OH WE'RE SO CWUTE AND WUV EACH OTHER LETS HOLD HANDS AND STAND IN THE DOOR WAY OO'ING EACH OTHER" tosser couples on Oxford Street. They should make it illegal NOT to have these people culled.

I hate London.

[Ehrfürchtige Bennedict]

Weeeell.... Just got informed that I have to make a football practice schedule for the entire year, and I have to write a 10page report on how I would organise a practise session.

It has to be delivered by the 17th of january... Great, just fucking Great...

[Cyaska]

Why is it, that, while playing Bad Company 2, I always seem to join servers that are well balanced, and on a good map, like Panama Canal, or Valparaiso, not infested with snipers, and not laggy at all.

Then suddenly, they become lag ridden hell holes, on maps which were scripted by the most evil, sniper playing pieces of shit in the world, ever, swarmed with spraying medics, CG spamming engineers and god damn noobtubes.

Seriously. Why.

[Rhygel]

Maintenance nights sucks.

That's all.

[Meralynn / Ashla]

EDIT: Yeah! Answering in the wrong thread makes me so ANGRY!

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