• 3 Posts
  • 30 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Absolutely!

    I want to foster a community that values open, honest and civilised discussion. Civilised being the key word.

    I do not want to see extreme views espoused here, on any axis of the political spectrum. “Treat others as they would like to be treated” is a slightly different wording of The Golden Rule that I like to live my life by, and that going to be my philosophy of moderation.

    Disagreement is possible without resorting to personal attacks, and just because someone has a different point of view on a topic does not make them objectively wrong, or a bad person. Remember that anonymous user is a fully formed person with their own life, experiences, hopes, dreams and fears. They put their underwear on one leg at a time, just like you do.

    I have no intention of allowing members of this community to spread misinformation or falsehoods.

    I have no intention of allowing hate speech of any kind.

    Ultimately, my ability to moderate relies on our users making use of the report function. I am only one person and I’m not always on here. So if you see something you don’t like, please bring it to the attention of myself or Dave and we will deal with it in an impartial manner.




  • I doubt I’ll go back. The internet is vast, and with places like Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, etc, it’s easy to get stuck in that looping cycle of “well there’s nothing on Reddit, I’ll check Insta. There’s nothing on insta, i’ll check Twitter. There’s nothing on Twitter, I’ll check Reddit”

    It’s a shame that StumbleUpon is no longer around, that was an amazing tool to open your eyes to new resources and sites.



  • That’s really hard to answer objectively. Some of the artwork is nice, I guess? The mechanics are incredibly simplistic, but I still go back and play it every so often. I suspect that is more for nostalgia value than anything else.

    It is annoying getting the message that “during fighting, your ship has been shelled and insurance won’t cover the damage in a war zone” just after delivering a lovely shipment of weapons to the port of Basrah.



  • Thank you! It’s my favourite story to tell from my journey around Japan, second only to when I almost got into an altercation with someone who was clearly in the Yakuza by accidentally walking into them and spilling beer on them. But that’s for another time.

    And yes, I do not miss the sideburns.





  • I will preface this story by saying that this is the absolute truth. You can choose to not believe it if you like, and I don’t blame you if you do, it’s the internet after all and everyone lies on the internet. I can’t provide any sources or back up what I’m saying, but I am telling you that this story is 100% real and true.

    Back in 2014, I went to Japan on my own for 3 weeks, not long enough but it was all I could afford at the time. As part of that trip, I stayed in a monastery in Koyasan, south of Osaka. The second day of my stay there was my 28th birthday and I spent the entire day surrounded by incredibly beautiful temples, haunting graveyards and utter serenity. At this point in my life, I had huge sideburns. This is relevant later on in the story.

    Around lunchtime, I got a sandwich and noticed a bit of a hullabaloo near one of the temples, so being a nosy tourist I wandered over to see what was happening. Walking up the steps of the temple there was a small crowd of people, clearly waiting for someone, so I decided to wait with them.

    A few minutes go by and some obvious security personnel walk up the stairs followed by a small Asian man in yellow and maroon robes. This man was very familiar, but I couldn’t place him until he got closer.

    It was His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

    I was absolutely floored. I was maybe 3 meters away from the head of one of the major world religions, on my goddamn birthday no less. He went along the front of the crowd of people, nodding and smiling and shaking the occasional hand. Until he got to me. Now I’m a 185cm tall 120kg white guy, to say that I stood out in Japan is an understatement. When His Holiness reached me in the line, he looked up at me, made direct eye contact, put the backs of his hands to his cheeks and wiggled his fingers, then burst out laughing.

    The fucking Dalai Lama made fun of my sideburns on my birthday at a temple in Japan.

    Its possibly the best and weirdest thing that has ever happened to me.