Archon 2022?

Quite the opposite really.

"Mikhail Gorbachev revealed his dismay at seeing his life's work 'destroyed' by Vladimir Putin to a close friend weeks before his death as Russia descends into authoritarianism and military aggression."

Its from the daily mail but I can't link the url despite complying to the tag. I guess it is too long.

Thanks again for your concern. I don't have any kids (yet) but my wife is here with me. She is technically a foreigner and doesn't speak the language so I take extra time/care to make sure she is as safe as can be.

No kids.. but I did adopt a calico kitten :).

Oh and I am a young and spry 42 year old

And again, thanks everyone for your kind comments.

If they are super old Blue, take care opening them etc., and maybe wear a mask and gloves. Some of these older models have Americanium in them, which is pretty toxic/radioactive. Sure its fairly low amounts, but best not to gamble with your health. Be super careful especially if you see the ceramic/foil core cracked or otherwise compromised. Take care!

*pops up*

Hey all,

Just a little update on anyone who is interested about what is happening in Myanmar, or strangely about me.

Civil war is still escalating... latest Junta BS includes
-more or less banning USD usage by citizens and companies (and our economy tanks even more)
-forced conversions (without permission) of ALL personal bank accounts containing USD into Myanmar (Burmese Kyat) currency at a rate of 1350 per usd when the actual Black Market rate is closer to 3000 per usd and rising
-banning of expat citizens from renewing their passports unless they come to the country in person and submit to a "security check" (Shakedown if they have money, and imprisonment if they are shown to be supporting the resistance)
-more internecine fighting as rumours and heresay results in many innocent people targeted (mostly by the military but in truth some by the resistance also)
-more of the normal atrocities (Child soldiers, drug soldiers, illegal selling off of natural resources -especially rare earths - to China)
-their lack of expertise in Internet censorship (despite China's donation of a HUGE firewall/IT people) is creating random issues and thus e-commerce of any form here has stalled
-their paranoia about "black market currencies" will soon result in (from insider rumours) a ban on crypto as well for those few that use it
-COVID is running absolutely rampant as the junta arrests medical staff for specious political reasons
-they brought back the death penalty and killed 4 rebels/political prisoners. The reprecussions will result in more bombings and resistance attacks but also more junta retaliations as well.

I know it seems pretty doom and gloom, but despite all the horrendous stuff going on, we are actually more or less unified now and resisting more successfully than all the previous coups (60s, 70s, 80s). That being said, the scale of suffering is pretty enormous and I struggle daily to do the right thing while keeping my family safe. I've been trying to get back into gaming, but understandably I am having trouble trying to relax/play games while my country is literally burning. That being said, I hope to get back into some WoW and STO eventually.

On a personal level I've begun my tenure at a private university and am trying my best to introduce critical thinking and ethics to a society traditionally oppressed into a yes-man mentality.

Most of my friends and family abroad want me to come back home, but the entire reason I emigrated back here (pre coup) was to try to improve the country. I feel that leaving now would basically make my entire life a lie. To quote Kurze "Death is nothing compared to vindication."

I hope you all are enjoying good health. Hopefully (but not realisitically I guess) our situation will resolve sooner than later in an equitable manner. Until then, vive la resistance I guess.

Take care everyone and thank you as always for your interest and concern.

I was googling temperature in Toronto (my old city) and saw (yesterday) that it was 25 Degrees Celsius during the day with a huge paragraph of heat warnings issued. Then for a laugh I googled NayPyiTaw (my current home) temperature.. it was at 29 Degrees Celsius (at night!) and typical of the Junta here, no heat warnings. But then when I guess the government is trying to subdue the populace via violence, heat warnings are hypocritcal.

Of all the characters Blizz could make a statue of, they are choosing (from what I know) the least popular one.

I remember upgrading my 386 to a 486 for this game. ROTOSCOPING!

I still have the big box and the manual. Heck I loved this game so much I met some of the devs (Delphine) in France when I randomly was visiting.

Anyone remember "suck blue frog"



Also, in non gaming news, I am returning to Canada for a month and a half to visit my folks etc., Otherwise still alive and fighting the good fight.

Their captcha is broken (again) for me, regardless of browser/refresh etc.,

Oh well. I'll try again later.

I played through this game back in the day. It had a weird kinda FOV/Perspective issue for me and I couldn't play for more than 30-45m without being nauseaous. The fact that I managed to beat this (and ended up puking at least once) I guess is a testament to my days of youthful determination

This thread really warmed my heart. The concern you show to a virtual stranger and the empathy to their struggle is frankly bringing me to tears. Thank you for showing me the good side of humanity during this difficult time.

I wish everyone a safe, happy and healthy 2022.

As for Burma, our civil war is heating up. There are daily massacres from the army (burning people alive, torturing them to death, air strikes on villages, arrests of doctors/nurses, arrests of family members of suspected rebels etc.) but now the entire country is either in active revolt (training in the jungles and conducting partisan operations in loosely organized cells) or doing their best to survive the chaos. There has been many bombings and assassinations against the junta and despite their propaganda machine (which worked in the past as many Burmese had no idea how brutal the army actually was) going full strength, no one is believing their BS.

Basically we as a country and as a society are at a crossroads. Some of us still wish (vainly) for foreign intervention but many of us are now fighting and dying for our right to self-determine.

Thanks again for the messages of support and general kindness. It is greatly appreciated.

Yea this new fan project seems to be pretty balanced as well as adding new/planned features that were not released during the retail Cryptic to NCSoft eras. I'm enjoying it despite the terrible lag.

Maybe they can just update City of Heroes Homecoming and pay the community leaders to further develop it. Its still fun when I played, the only reason I stopped was due to RL issues and latency in SEA being too high to play with NorthAm community servers.

As someone who has been attacking the Myanmar Government sites and their military servers since October, I can definitely tell you that DDOS attacks are very cheap considering the damage they can cause. Mind you the Burmese government has no idea of actual cybersecurity in comparison to blizzard, but the basis of DDOS and DOS has been constant for decades. Botnets can be purchased for very cheap especially in Russia/Asia. It has costs me about $200 since October to keep many Myanmar govt/e-commerce sites mostly downed.

Not advocating DDOS attacks fyi, I'm doing it as part of a resistance against an actual tyranny. My guess is this is just the typical angry gamer DDOS against blizzard, it happens every now and then.

Look the epic games store client is shitty and poorly designed but it is not spyware. That's been debunked many many times

Also I saw the initial reddit posts years ago and the guy who posted it even said more or less he has no idea what he is talking about..

It's ultimately your choice, but imho I'm pretty sure it is not malware. Just programmed poorly.

I hope they keep their weird mercs. I liked Unusually Ruthless Reuben as my whole meta game was to put him in shitty situations and see how long it took before he got really angry and freaked out.

Lol I always thought Cutter Slade was black. Now that I think of it, when I was playing this with my computer, I was using a "booster video card", a Canopus, which literally took the vga output from my 3dfx card as an input, then had its own output. I remember it made games run a lot better and higher detail, but made them darker. I guess that's why for the longest time I thought Cutter was black.

/not race baiting etc., just thought it was funny

Thanks for the well wishes. We are surviving so far, but yea it's pretty tough. Take care all! Live long and prosper!

I'v been pretty quiet due to the situation here (#whatishappeninginMyanmar - namely civil war) but I am huge Star Trek Fan. I downloaded every single ST series before the last big Internet shut off here.

I agree that most of the new Star Trek doesn't seem Star Trek-ish at all, with the exception of Lower Decks. Yes it is a cartoon and yes it is silly, but out of all the new shows (Discovery, Picard) I've found that this one is the most Star Trek out of them all.

Anyways, I know many people didn't really watch it, but I suggest you give it a light hearted spin. Just my 2c. Cheers!