Mersopolis

Last night I had a dream
 
I was walking home from the bus stop when I come into paths with two guys one wearing a Manchester united shirt and hat and the other one looking pretty much like a chav. The one wearing the Manchester gear whispers something to the other one and he approaches me saying "ere mate you ever seen this lad before" my response was "I'm afraid not sorry" and i continue walking past them
 
As I kept walking home I notice some rocks flying past me and I turn around to see them throwing stuff at me 
"Can you please stop being a ****" 
 
The guy in the Manchester shirt gets really mad and says "Ow am I acting like a ****" 
"You're throwing bloody rocks at me" to which he clenches a rock and tries to throw at me as I stood still but i managed to duck under it.
At this point i got fed up and just began to run to get away from these idiots and as I run he manages to catch up with me clutching another rock in his hand but I flip him over and smash the rock off his hand. 
I scream at him "Just leave me alone for gods sakes" 
to which he responded "I won't until till you gets what coming" 
 
Thankfully I woke up at that point and was very relieved that this was all a dream
 
Now the strange part i find is the fact that the guy was from Manchester considering I don't live any where near Manchester 

I had a dream where I went to a stadium/airport (where there were about 40 blue Toyota trucks parked outside) to find out what cars were racing in the NASCAR race going on there so I could tell my friends (I think our car was racing). I couldn't see the track to check, though, because there was a carnival in the way. I decided to go through and on the way play a game. I went into a haunted house-like thing and went through a secret passageway. That was a mistake and I had to figure out how to get out of a shitload of rooms, most of which I don't remember.
 
I do remember dropping into one and seeing some kids run out through an exit that closed after them. Another was a wrecked hallway with precursor orbs (from Jak and Daxter) and Spargus rats (from the same series) hunting for me in them. I went out of that hallway via an elevator shaft before the rats noticed me, and landed in an abandoned parking garage. Then some evil force shadow being started following me and I spotted a Mario doll in a dumpster with a USB and a key. I grabbed the USB but couldn't get the key because the being was too close behind me. Every now and then another hovering being would appear and follow me (I remember an inquisitor and a customs agent being two of them). Eventually I decided to forget the key and do battle with the original being. I ran at him and started beating the shit out of him (although I don't think it did anything) then I woke up.
 
Come to think of it, that's how a lot of my dreams end. Try to run from thing -> can't -> begin battle with thing -> wake up. Wonder what it means.

For when you want to play another class?

he wants to willingly upgrade to win 10
 
kek

you literally have to wait for it to do it by itself because win10 updating is literally malware
 
t.stallman

Say it to my face. My internet face.

they're not tho

No, like Superman
 

I have no easy way to get these suckers out of the tree, and I don't do anything to grow them. Hell, they even climbed up there and got them for me. $10 for no work on a tree I don't want and got for free is a pretty good deal.
 
Somehow I doubt the Columbian man who works at the Publix down the road would have wanted to pay me ~$100 for a bunch of yellow coconuts anyway.
 
I told him "give me whatever you think is fair for them". I would have given them to him free if he asked.

Today started well. Got woken up by a Columbian man who wanted to buy some coconuts off my tree. We had a nice conversation, I got $10 out of the deal. Worth waking up for.

[Freeman's Mind in the distance]

So the company I worked for over the summer just offered me a job once I graduate.
 
5 months until Doctor Pan, Rail Engineer is true, in both sides of the Atlantic's meaning of the word.

It's scary how good a shot the whole thing was recorded as. Like the camera zoomed out and everything.
 
i mean it's scary someone got assassinated but you get what I mean

Hey, I actually made a game. The showcase day was last friday, wasnt a triple A, or an average indie, or something that looked good, but hey, it was playable and people liked it.
 
Apparently I'm now a certified video game designer.
 
Honestly, its pretty cool to make games. I'm going to work on my drawing, modeling and animation this next year. Probably going to check how to make songs too.

Having only caught up on this discussion just now, I want to throw in my 2 cents to the whole argument from a perspective outside the US. I suppose the fact that I am not American and the fact that I do not live in America could be grounds for dismissing my argument because I am not smart enough to make a comparison that is 100/100 relevant to the current state of the US, because my experience isn't with the US but rather my own country (Denmark). I hope you will read anyway.
 
The Danish people cherish some ideas that I think would be best described as the "core values" of what it means to be a Dane and how life in Denmark should be. I'm not going to go into detail of what these core values are, because that is besides the point I am trying to make. In the recent decades, Denmark has experienced an increasing influx of people from eastern europe and the middle east migrating here. Some of them have been refugees seeking a safe haven from one of the many conflicts in the world, most have been economic migrants looking for better work opportunities to support their families. Denmark is a socialist state and has been for many decades at this point. Abiding by the law and following the will of the collective community in general are things that are very important to us. This is also part of the reason why crime in Denmark has been and is very low, we nurture respect and goodwill towards the community from a very young age and most people would never even dream of stealing over here. Doors, bicycles and even cars are left unlocked in the streets, because people trust each other to that level. Of course crime exists, but it is a very, very small number of crimes that are commited.
 
But here's what happens when we receive refugees and other immigrants in our country: We try our hardest to integrate them into society. Unfortunately it seems to be the case that many of them, especially middle-eastern newcomers, are quite reluctant to "adapt" to the ways of the Danish society. I'm not saying that they should give up their cultural or religious identities, but I am saying that currently there doesn't seem to even be an attempt from the vast majority of immigrants to become a part of Denmark and her culture. I won't call our integration methods and policies perfect, but compared to other nationalities, the middle-eastern people are quite bad when it comes to this. This had since led to the creation of ghettos, criminal gangs and an overall increase in crime. These are just pure and simple facts. This causes a bit of a grumble with the Danish population, because we're used to people respecting the law, respecting our values and generally have the same outlook on what life in Denmark should be like. This grumble stirs and grows when you then add illegal immigrants into the equation. Not only do they display the same tendencies as the people who have legally immigrated, but they then also abuse our system in order to receive welfare.
 
I'm sure that many people would say that the "Danish mentality" is old-fashioned, but we're a country that likes the way things are and the way things have been. As long as immigrants go through the proper channels and attempt to participate in our integration programs, there is no problem. We understand that it takes time, people over here aren't ignorant. This has nothing to do with racism or cultural white-washing of people who aren't Danish. They're free to practice the same rituals they used to do, believe in the same god they used to do, celebrate the same holidays they used to do, as long as they don't try and shove these things down our throat. As long as they show the want and willingness to respect the country and the community that took them under its wing, they're free to do as they like (Within the confinements of the law of course).
 
From that perspective, I can sit here and nod to some of the things I see Raison writing. I don't agree with everything that is being said, in fact I don't even agree with most of it, but I can see the standpoint where it comes from. The wish to uphold some core values in a country that is dear to you and ultimately get rid of the people that are not respecting the process (Illegal immigrants fx.). I'm not defending any notions of racism or ultranationalism or whatever has been brought up in this discussion. I also think that people on both sides of the argument have allowed their passion to flare a bit too much. I hope my American friends on this board will respect that while you might have different political values, you're still countrymen.
 
I know that this post has only touched on one of many issues that are currently hot topics. It is not that I have forgotten them or do not care about them, it is just that I am not entirely sure what to say about them, so I will refrain from doing so. But please do not think that I am so narrow-minded to believe that illegal immigration is the only problem America faces, it is just the topic I wished to comment on.

I just won a scholarship from the company I worked for over the summer's charity arm.
 
 
 
HOOOolly ssheeeetttTT

Friendly reminder for everyone here that any opinion is allowed to be expressed here but pls steer clear of insults and attacks on individual posters!

you legitimately just need to stop talking. is that what you really think destroys a democracy? hitler was democratically elected. did germany devolve into nazism because of sore losers? 
 
and you better believe I'm exercising my second amendment right. donald trump has open contempt for democracy and private firearm ownership is one of the most important democratic institutions. he's advocated for disarming suspected criminals before with no trial or investigation. 
do you really think this is what's happening? that there are offices just filled with democrats around the country where they say "okay, we've been doing great importing these immigrants but I think we should aim for 10% growth this year"
 
the only people who can vote in our elections are united states citizens. if you aren't getting the most votes from united states citizens, tough fucking luck. if people aren't keen on your shit economic policy and fascist immigration plans, that's not a fault of democracy.
 
I'd just like to go ahead and point out that the electoral college was literally designed to stop donald trump from happening. in its original iteration, it would have done so. it had nothing to do with the balance of power between states and urban or rural areas -- that's what the senate is for, and each state gets an elector for each senator. but the winner-take-all system is a recent development and has to do strictly with game theory involving the two dominant parties. the winner-take-all system assures that while neither of them can win every election, third parties and unaffiliated candidates will never gain the slightest bit of traction.
 
here are some facts about the electoral college:
1. under the original plan, states weren't supposed to hold elections for president. they simply selected their electors (by the means of their choosing) and the electors voted independently of each other and independently of the electorate
 
2. under the original plan, donald trump never would have happened, because in general, any federal public official is presumed to be more educated and more intelligent than the average voter. and while they may not necessarily be more fit to choose the president than every single voter, they're doubtlessly more fit to choose him than trump voters. because electors were not allowed to hold public office and because they were so few in number, they were considered to be largely above the pathetic tactics that are used to win the presidency today: demagoguery, corruption, pandering, ignorance, etc. alexander hamilton:


 
3. let's be very clear: the electoral college was designed to disenfranchise voters. because while universal suffrage may be important to a democracy, direct election of the president is not. under the original plan, the electors could never disobey the popular vote because there was no popular vote. but today, remnants of the original plan still exist, such as faithless electors. I just want trump supporters to remember that when the electoral college convenes, most electors there have the legal option to cast their ballots for clinton, johnson, stein, etc. regardless of who their state voted for, and I'd argue that they even have something of an obligation to do so.
 
4. under the original plan, it was considered to be improbable that any candidate would sweep the electoral college majority more than perhaps once every few elections. and if a candidate managed to do so, they were considered to be the clear choice for president. this was because the electoral college itself was intended to be a check on parties (again, the electors themselves did not have any affiliation, nor any supposed obligation to vote in a specific way -- this was before the two parties managed to consolidate power in just about every state in the union). thus, there would generally be five or so people in reasonable contention for the presidency. even a candidate markedly more popular than the rest would only get, say, 40%, and the election would be decided by the house of representatives. this was considered to be a desirable outcome, given that representatives are, like electors, generally more intelligent and educated than trump voters, and they are both directly elected and directly representative of the country's population distribution. 
 
again, there are no laws on a federal level that actually require states to cast their ballots on a winner-take-all basis. it's a completely inane idea that more or less accounts to gerrymandering (albeit from a bottom-up perspective rather than top-down) and it inarguably accomplishes the exact same effect. in this election, over half of all ballots cast literally did not matter -- that is to say, three million people in california could have stayed home and no matter what the other states decided, it could not have possibly changed the election. four million people in texas could have stayed home and no matter what the other states decided, it could not have possibly changed the election. that is not democracy. the electoral college in its current state is an abomination; it was neutered when it should have been killed. it can no longer achieve its original purpose and functions now to simply consolidate power into the hands of the two major parties. if you defend it, do so only knowing that it was designed to keep you from voting, and reasonably so.