General OOC

Before or after she became hardened by all the crap she's gone through.

surely you don't want cat of the canals as a daughter?

Any Arya from book 3 on. I need kids like her to protect me when I'm old. I'm 29, that's, like, 90 in medieval years.

Jing Ming wrote:

Any Arya from book 3 on. I need kids like her to protect me when I'm old. I'm 29, that's, like, 90 in medieval years.

29?!?!?!?! Surely a witch. Kill it with fire!

Quick survey out of curiosity: do you know Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri?

Mind Worms.

So yes.

Planet Busters.

So yes.

For a somewhat similar game, I strongly recommend Star Ruler.

It's a 4x game, but it isn't of the Civ style.  Ship customization is remarkable though!

I created a custom Geth faction, with eusocial behavior (no need for goods or luxury goods!), slave labor (population produces double the labor, but doesn't need extra food!), and a random technology unlocked.  I then restarted my game until I had computers as that random technology.  So I had ships without crews, life support, or bridges right from the start.  That saved space was put to use on extra weapons!

I then proceeded to wage a genocidal war on all the species I came into contact with, but my scouts never made it farther than half the galaxy, which had 650 systems with 1-5 planets each. I only colonized about a dozen systems anyway.  The scale is amazing.

When did the post editor get changed? Seems more like a WYSIWYG editor now.

Oh well, something to adapt to.

It seems to have been in the early morning, US time.  It's all... new and different!  >.<

Being relatively close to a massive protest myself, I find this picture amusing and disturbing:

Spoiler:

I'm reading about Mithriades VI on badass of the week and wikipedia. Look at this unusual story I've learned: 

Mithriades became immune to poison by driking a daily dosis of several known. He even created an antidote. However, after losing a battles and attempting to kill himself before being captured, he drank poison but, well, was immune to it and didn't die.

That is a weird story.

Well I have missed alot haven't I? 

"Are you neo or something?" (link to video)

A: Stop doing that.
B: It's the force.
A: I know... but I want the doors to close.

I know I've never gone that off-topic, but I’d like to share some things with you war lovers. It’s been really interesting to follow the protests in Brazil. I never thought I’d see things like this outside computer games: shock troops making M&B formations (shield wall, wedge, square, the whole thing), a surreal Star Wars scenario with people firing rainbow-colored fireworks at each other, and close-ups of the MP barring the gates of some town hall. Yep, in the medieval style, with those wooden crossbars and pushing their shoulders against the gate (I thought it was a Hollywood cliché).

It's actually very fantastic, in the weird, fictional sense. People here are talking as if it were one of those Starcraft competitions: "Oh, the other 30,000 have just arrived."; "What? They should have taken the other avenue! This one bends right ahead!".

So, if you're intersted, here are some links:

Right now there are about 30,000 people trying to storm the governmental palace. Live coverage on http://g1.globo.com/jornal-nacional/videos/v/protestos-no-brasil-ao-vivo/606348 (put it in mute to ignore the annoying Portuguese).

And this is what 1,000,000 people (probably only 800,000) marching looks like:

Spoiler:

EDIT: now there are lots of people aiming long-range lasers at helicopters and police officers, in the middle of smoke. Gods, this is surreal.

Hm.

I wonder how the Emperor (or Empress!) would be faring around now!

She would tell them to eat cake.

I don't know... Pedro II seemed like a decent monarch!

Surely his great-great-great grandson's wife would be a little more sensible!

Our throne has actually two claimant lineages. It's a good thing that monarchy was the losing government format in 1993's plebiscite, else we would be in serious GoT trouble.

...yeah, we usually don't think things through in these parts.

But there wouldn't be two claims if there were still an Emperor!

Just like Napoleon XIVsomethingsomethingsomething wouldn't have to compete with his father if his grandfather had in fact been Emperor!

Well, it beats Bush v Gore at any rate...  Deciding who has the oldest ancestor is preferable to who is recounting which illegible ballots when.

I won't be coming to Brazil for WC. I'm not sure how this madness in Brazil going to end. Blame it on the government full of hardcore football fan.

That's good, I suppose. Brazilians won't see any of that money anyway. And Brazil is a capitalist country like any other. Soccer is just another means of making money, and the "fan-thing" is just clever marketing.

Right now it's very much a power game: we have +1,000,000 people protesting without any sort of leadership. And there are several groups, from moderates and anarchists to fascists, fundamentalists and communists trying to emerge as the leader. The first one who manages to steer this crowd wins. It does feel sort of like Westeros.

It must be very chaotic over there. I read news about the protests not having specific goal or direction. How's the government's reaction? 1M+ people isn't a joke. But it only portraits a small part of the people of Brazil. 

It reminds me that the government still have power over military and security is it. Even if a party managed to climb up and make a statement, the government can still take extreme measures.

What a year, protests everywhere.

It's not that chaotic, and despite what the international press is showing, about 95% of the protesters are being peaceful. The only problem is that everyday from 17:00 to 22:00 people go to the streets to protest so transportation becomes a problem in the main avenues.

The govenrment can't do much unless they shut down the internet.

Quote :

1M+ people isn't a joke. 

That's why everyone is trying to control them. Hm... we should make a movie.

Transportation. Here, from 17:00-20:00 everyday transportation is a problem. 
I'm living in one of the city with the worst traffic in the world, said every fricking foreigner that visited it once.