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1 hour ago, Requiem said:

America is an amazing place. I love it and wish I could travel there more often. Most Americans are fantastic. I have obviously only met a very small sample size. For instance, without getting too political, I'm a little disturbed that Trump was elected and that caused my eyes to narrow more than Fry's in that Futurama meme when it comes to faith in your average US citizen.

Well, here's one way to think about it: of the slightly above 70% of our population that comprises the electorate, a little more than half (56%) of them actually voted. That's less than half the people in the country - around 39%. And less than half of those voted for Trump, who lost the popular vote and won based on the electoral college count. 18.5% of "us" actually voted for him. I don't mean to suggest that our previous elections have been vastly different in terms of percentages, but considering that figure and his astonishingly low approval ratings, it's fair to say his presidency isn't indicative of the priorities of the average American citizen.

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6 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Well, here's one way to think about it: of the slightly above 70% of our population that comprises the electorate, a little more than half (56%) of them actually voted. That's less than half the people in the country - around 39%. And less than half of those voted for Trump, who lost the popular vote and won based on the electoral college count. 18.5% of "us" actually voted for him. I don't mean to suggest that our previous elections have been vastly different in terms of percentages, but considering that figure and his astonishingly low approval ratings, it's fair to say his presidency isn't indicative of the priorities of the average American citizen.

True. Still, I'm not sure the guy deserved to win the local church picnic raffle let alone a single Electoral College, or whatever it's called over there. That he won more than his opposition does make one wonder. 

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17 hours ago, Requiem said:

True. Still, I'm not sure the guy deserved to win the local church picnic raffle let alone a single Electoral College, or whatever it's called over there. That he won more than his opposition does make one wonder. 

Well, then there's the whole Russian collusion angle. Whether or not he was involved (and he totally was), Russia discredited the other candidate because they knew Trump would be a better fit for them. 

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1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

In terms of being a weak, confused little shit that wouldn't even notice as they gained dominance on the geopolitical stage due to his inadequacy? Yeah.

With all of the financial ties between his family and Russia coming out, it just seems more like a greed motivation than any kind of confusion or idiocy. We elected Gordon fucking Gecko as our president, of course he's just going to line his own pockets.

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On 06/08/2017 at 7:32 AM, Requiem said:

No need to leave the house in South Australia anyway as there's nothing to do there... ;)

Yeah you're right, nothing at all, not like we've been given the nod as one of the premier wine producers in the world, have some of the finest food in Australia, and have been voted the city boasting Australia's best nightlife or anything...

 

You bloody Victorians could stand to learn a thing or two from your more cultured neighbour.

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Yesterday was the first day of my writing course. What a promising start. Some very fun writing exercises to pass the time and quality short stories to read right away. I could not be happier with how things have started.

 

Also I might be kind of an absentee this week as my cousin from Melbourne is down for the week and staying with us. I'll try to check in but obviously it won't be a priority.

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On 08/08/2017 at 1:12 PM, RelentlessOblivion said:

Yesterday was the first day of my writing course. What a promising start. Some very fun writing exercises to pass the time and quality short stories to read right away. I could not be happier with how things have started.

 

Also I might be kind of an absentee this week as my cousin from Melbourne is down for the week and staying with us. I'll try to check in but obviously it won't be a priority.

Your cousin's from Melbourne? He sounds like a great guy! 

I'm at the metal pub. Megadeth's 'Countdown to Extinction' sounds amazing on these speakers. So does Manowar! So did Motörhead a moment ago. My phone auto-corrected to put the umlauts on the 'O' just then. That's pretty cool.

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1 hour ago, Requiem said:

Your cousin's from Melbourne? He sounds like a great guy! 

I'm at the metal pub. Megadeth's 'Countdown to Extinction' sounds amazing on these speakers. So does Manowar! So did Motörhead a moment ago. My phone auto-corrected to put the umlauts on the 'O' just then. That's pretty cool.

You bloody Victorians. Werribbe specifically so we had to work throuh a lot of red tape. SA has a reputation to uphold after all. Bringing the class to this great nation.

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I have my new computer at last. Annoyingly though I've noticed the command prompts to increase magnification in my internet browser aren't working. This is a minor inconvenience since I run a HDMI so my tv acts as a monitor anyway. Still it means much shorter periods of time spent online and that may not be such a bad thing.

 

Also I now have the arduous task of consolidating many years worth of documents and music onto a portable hard drive and transferring them over.

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OK I will have to fiddle with the hibernation settings on my new computer. There's an issue when it will auto-hibernate after three minutes of 'inactivity' even if in the process of transferring files. Long story short the last three hours has consisted of me not sleeping 'cause I need to move the mouse every couple of minutes to make sure I don't have to begin the process all over again. Good news is all my documents, music, and movies have been successfully moved to the new computer. They are also backed up on the portable hard drive.

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