I confess

[RevChris77]

I confess that my computer is starting to annoy me. There's been a new problem every week since February. However, I seem to have found a solution! Huzzah!

You turned it off?

[Protagonist]

I confess that my computer is starting to annoy me. There's been a new problem every week since February. However, I seem to have found a solution! Huzzah!

You turned it off?

That would be far too easy and not nearly time-consuming enough! Anyway, I remembered that I have an old back up from when it was working fine, and I'm currently in the process of restoring it to my extra hard drive. Right now Norton Ghost claims it's at 30% and that it will be finished in 6 hours. However, it also claimed that it would be finished in 6 hours 1 hour and 45 minutes ago, so I'm slightly skeptical about that estimate.

[Xero]

I confess that I think my RAM is overheating... is 80C too much?

about 30c to much
just grab a 5$ case fan and mount it near the ram


I confess I've got a new phone and am in the process of adding numbers back to it

[Protagonist]

Update for anyone who happens to care! I have found the source of my computer troubles. It is my graphics card, as I had feared, rather than a simple matter of faulty drivers. Fortunately, it's still under warranty, so I can just take it to the store and have them swap it out.

[Aeridus]

Hooray for finding solutions!

[HentaiCat]

I ... umm.. I just had sex with a guy.... And.... I dont know HOW I feel... Ya, just going to umm, ya.. o_o

[Protagonist]

Hooray for finding solutions!

Especially when the solution is quick and easy, and involves my 8800 GT being replaced with a 9800 GT for free!

Also, hooray for Micro Center and their insistence on upgrading all of my stuff whenever it breaks!

[Aeridus]

I confess that my computer seems to be much more stable after dusting out the insides, checking all connections, and updating the BIOS.

[RavenxDrake]

I confess I'm in dental related pain... Caused by the dentist. Well, sort of.

I've been struggling with a toothache for a couple of weeks after a filling dropped (bad toothache... like "I will murder strangers just so I can earn the death penalty" bad), with no real way to deal with it without insurance or anything.

BUT, I found a local free dental clinic (it's run by volunteer doctors with dental students serving as their assistants to see basic dental procedures firsthand) and went in for an extraction.

He took the X-ray, and shot me up with Novocaine, and things were going well. Dentist is pulling and twisting and says "Don't worry, you're going to hear some nasty sounds, some popping and cracking, but it's all perfectly normal..." KRA-SHICK "What the Hell was that?!"

Never, NEVER in my life do I ever want to hear a medical professional utter the phrase "What the hell was that?!"

Turns out, unseen on the X-ray, was an extra little spur of bone, kind of like a hook. Thankfully it didn't wrap around the jaw completely, but it DID dig a nice gouge through the bone on the way out over and above the norm...

So, yeah... Ow.

But, it's still better than the toothache.

[Kittyboymuffin]

I confess I haven't had anyone professional look at my broken hard dive yet ...

[Vedius Pollio]

I confess that Eurovision pisses me off.

The Israelis nominated an Arab singer to represent them, just so they would look less racist (the singer even said that her song wasn't encouraging peace, so as not to offend her jingoistic sponsor nation).

And the Czechs nominated a gypsy band, even though they ordinarily treat gypsies in the same way that we Australians treat Aborigines (and worse! Australia doesn't have Abo sterilization campaigns; but the Slovaks apparently have a covert policy of tying Gypsy women's tubes after they have one child).

I find it pretty disgraceful how countries profit from their minority groups while treating them brutally at home. (Australia and its Aborigines, the USA and its Negroes, the Czechs/Hungarians/Romanians/Slovaks with their Gypsies, and now Israel with its Palestinian artists.)

Then again, Gypsies have a pretty unpleasant culture where "kings" are allowed to have harems of child-brides.

[Churba]

I confess that Eurovision pisses me off.

I confess that the only thing I have ever liked about eurovision is the stedicam operator who during one performance this year - i forget whose - was going at full tilt towards the stage on a segway, and seamlessly dismounts onto the stage, without missing so much as a step.

[Aeridus]

I confess that I own at least 200 games.

[Vedius Pollio]

I confess that I think I'll spend next year in Europe, most likely Spain.

My father thinks that Granada is the best place, because there are a few people (the children of wealthy Spanish businessmen) who might pay me good money for English lessons.

Originally, I was planning on living in Sydney, because that would allow me to sneak into lectures at Sydney University on subjects that would be relevant for my novel (e.g., sneak into Social Work lectures to research one of my characters: a Social Work student with cerebral palsy).

My second choice was La Corunha, in Galicia (NW Spain). Excellent seaside town, close to Peter Eisenmann's architectural magnum opus, the Ciudad de Cultura in Santiago de Compostela. Large amounts of farmland everywhere, with reservoirs and Roman ruins. Close to the route of the Pilgrimage of St. James.

But Granada has won out at the moment, for the following reasons:

* Cheap and easy access to Madrid and Barcelona, as well as other cities across Europe (am interested in visiting Cardiff, Caernarfon, and Portmeirion in Wales; Portmeirion interests me because it was used as the principal filming location for "The Village" in The Prisoner). Am also interested in visiting Lesbos, Sicily, Capri, and Hautefort Castle in the Limousin province of France. Possibly also Berlin, if only to see Daniel Libeskind's famous Holocaust museum, one of my favourite pieces of architecture ever.

* I will be able to brush up on my Spanish. I can already understand it pretty well, and my Latin isn't too bad (which is helpful), so a few months in Granada should make me pretty fluent.

* Spanish fluency will help me, because, if I become a lawyer, I would like to work in a country that appeals to me:
1. Thai is too difficult to learn,
2. I'm not sure that I'd be able to learn Persian either (although I love the Iranians and would love to work in the country with the most chances of kicking Israel's ass!),
3. Nigeria is a possibility because its court system uses English.
4. Pakistan and Afghanistan are not possibilities. Language too difficult, despite coolness factor of potential clients.
5. Jamaica? Maybe, but Rastafarians have never interested me and I have never felt the urge to get dreadlocks.
6. Russia? Have relatives there, and could probably learn to speak the language better if I tried. Maybe. (Fully support Putin's government. Russia should push its borders westward. Halt outside Vienna at very least.)

So, out of all of the countries where human beings are still strong and Mother Nature reigns free, this leaves the Hispanic world: Columbia, the Phillipines, etc, and a few other countries that are still ungentrified. Nasty countries where there are still ceiling fans fluttering over dusty offices, where people ride on camelback, where expeditions through the mountains are long and treacherous, where you can pull a Luger Parabellum 9mm on someone at the last moment and say "I'm sorry Mr. Jones, but the Nazis made me a better offer," or some shit, where you've got heaps of Klaus Kinski type dudes in linen suits and Panama hats doing crazy shit for no reason. Goddam, Colonialism was awesome!!!

So, at the moment, I'm pretty keen on Colombia as a place to retire to. Or maybe the Phillipines. Hellholes appeal to my personality.

* Granada has a long and colourful history. It was the centre of Moorish civilization at one point, and produced many great Muslim architects and philosophers. My towelhead friends will no doubt be impressed. It was also where Lorca was killed by the fascists, but Lorca isn't as interesting as the Muslims.

At the moment I'm reading Roberto Bolano's Nazi Literature in the Americas. Extremely interesting novel about South American fascists.

VP

[Churba]

6. Russia? Have relatives there, and could probably learn to speak the language better if I tried. Maybe. (Fully support Putin's government. Russia should push its borders westward. Halt outside Vienna at very least.)

I confess that I'm trying to teach myself russian at the moment, but I'm having trouble getting the basics down - but the ex-fiance had the same trouble, and said that it gets easier once you know the basics/foundations of the language.

I also confess that I'm rather happy at the moment - she broke up with the "Twat" (So named because pretty much everyone who hears about him snorts "Twat" whenever he's mentioned) for an unknown reason, I suspect the most likely being that she figured out/discovered him cheating on her - after all, it's not like he was subtle about it, Shit, I found out by accident simply because a mate of mine shares "The Mill" as one of his regular spots and recognized our old mate Twat with a girl that definitely wasn't the Ex.

[Vedius Pollio]

6. Russia? Have relatives there, and could probably learn to speak the language better if I tried. Maybe. (Fully support Putin's government. Russia should push its borders westward. Halt outside Vienna at very least.)

I confess that I'm trying to teach myself russian at the moment, but I'm having trouble getting the basics down - but the ex-fiance had the same trouble, and said that it gets easier once you know the basics/foundations of the language.

I also confess that I'm rather happy at the moment - she broke up with the "Twat" (So named because pretty much everyone who hears about him snorts "Twat" whenever he's mentioned) for an unknown reason, I suspect the most likely being that she figured out/discovered him cheating on her - after all, it's not like he was subtle about it, Shit, I found out by accident simply because a mate of mine shares "The Mill" as one of his regular spots and recognized our old mate Twat with a girl that definitely wasn't the Ex.

Congratulations Churba, I'm sooooooooo happy for you. How did you know that she broke up with him? Is she on speaking terms with you yet?

Hopefully the benzo detox will follow soonish. If anything pops up, I can assure you that me and my mother are more than happy to help.

I would not recommend learning Russian unless you can pronounce the y-vowels ('ye', 'ya', 'yu', 'yo',) well. Remember that a consonant coming before a y-vowel automatically becomes soft. (the soft 't' sounds sort of like a sneezing sound, much softer than a 'ch').

For instance, blyad' ("whore"), has a soft 'l' which does not exist in English because the 'l' is followed by a 'ya'. [Curiously, when my mother was growing up, Russian sailors used to visit Fremantle Harbour and they were shocked that Australians were always using the word "bloody", because it sounds very similar to the Russian word for whore.]

Russians tend to laugh at people who can't pronounce the soft sounds, mainly because they sound like bezgrammotnyyi Polacks and Czechs. But the grammar of Russian might be useful if you want to read it.

[Churba]

Congratulations Churba, I'm sooooooooo happy for you. How did you know that she broke up with him? Is she on speaking terms with you yet?

No, I accidentally bumped into one of her friends while taking a walk, and I was filling him in on the situation and forewarning him about the bad info/gossip that was going around about me, and he mentioned offhand that he thinks they'd broken up due to what he'd seen on facebook. I was slightly suprised, and I don't know the actual circumstances, but I can make predictions. To be honest, I don't care about the reasons - he is a lying, cheating, shitbag, and those are his better qualities. Suffice it to say, he's also known for other, less savory ways that relationships have gone with him.

Unfortunately, It was only very recently(as in, yesterday at the time of this post) that I found out, and the way her mate was talking about it, it seemed like it was a very, very recent development - I'm not sure of what she's still convinced of about me, frankly, but I can only be here if she wants to come to me - all I can do is that she figures out about all the lies she's been told, and gives it a go.

Hopefully the benzo detox will follow soonish. If anything pops up, I can assure you that me and my mother are more than happy to help.

I can only hope - it will be far easier without that gobshite blocking every attempt to resolve the issue(among other things) just because the information came from me - Seriously, dude is a fucking psycho.

I would not recommend learning Russian unless you can pronounce the y-vowels ('ye', 'ya', 'yu', 'yo',) well. Remember that a consonant coming before a y-vowel automatically becomes soft. (the soft 't' sounds sort of like a sneezing sound, much softer than a 'ch').

For instance, blyad' ("whore"), has a soft 'l' which does not exist in English because the 'l' is followed by a 'ya'. [Curiously, when my mother was growing up, Russian sailors used to visit Fremantle Harbour and they were shocked that Australians were always using the word "bloody", because it sounds very similar to the Russian word for whore.]

Russians tend to laugh at people who can't pronounce the soft sounds, mainly because they sound like bezgrammotnyyi Polacks and Czechs. But the grammar of Russian might be useful if you want to read it.

I'm aware of this, and I'm getting better with the pronunciation by listening to recordings and such - it would be easier if the Ex were able to help me, or I knew a native speaker in town, but I'll get it sooner or later, i just have to keep plugging away at it.

[Vedius Pollio]

I'm aware of this, and I'm getting better with the pronunciation by listening to recordings and such - it would be easier if the Ex were able to help me, or I knew a native speaker in town, but I'll get it sooner or later, i just have to keep plugging away at it.

Avoid, at all costs, a book called "Accents: A Manual For Actors" by Robert Blumenfeld.

When I first read it, I thought that I'd struck gold: finally, a complete guide to different English accents, and how various languages were pronounced. Then I slipped the CD into my compter and listened to Mr. Blumenfeld give renditions of various world accents.

Among his many mistakes:

*He pronounced the Russian "Ya khochu govorit' po russkiy" by stressing the 'o' of "khochu" (which is normally unstressed, and pronounced like an 'uh' sound) and pronouncing the 't' in govorit' as a hard-t instead of a soft-t. (This matters in Russian, because a verb with a soft-t is an infinitive, as in "to walk" "to speak", while a verb with a hard-t is a third person singular present: "he drinks" "she eats".)
So, he is claiming to be a linguistics expert, and writing a book for actors, without knowing how to pronounce even basic Russian.

* His Australian accent sounded like a Dutch accent or a South African accent. To demonstrate an Australian accent, he said "Gudday, I am an Australian, from Sydney, Australia." (Because ALL Australians are from Sydney, which is located in Australia.)

* My mother (who has several Iranian patients) thought that his Persian accent was unconvincing.

* His Quebecois accent sounded Mexican.

Actually, I'm being too nice. His Quebecois accent sounded like Carlos.

Anyone on this forum remember Carlos? This might jog your memory.

[Churba]

I confess I remember the Carlos Hoax. It was hilarious!

[Vedius Pollio]

I confess that my insomnia bug has mutated and is now temazepam resistant.