Gelfling

Gelfling

Hopefully he'll keep the awesome coming (and apparently he did because he almost arm-wrestled Trump later on )
How are you Kate?
I'm good. Wishing the heat would either quit it or that I could turn my useless kitchen into a pool

He got a bump in the polls just for that

Yeah I heard that too. Well, I mostly heard about some Russian blogs trying to get it started but he's been way too open with the gay community so they can't make it stick that he's hiding something.
I know Marine LePen stopped very very short of calling his wife a pedophile at a rally but that's all we've had here regarding that.
And yeah if the genders were reversed (like our previous presidents dating or marrying younger women), nobody would even raise an eyebrow.
And really when you see how much grief that relationship has caused them since they met (he was a student in her class and she was still married to her first husband) and when you think that technically she could have been fired and even investigated because he was technically still under age when they met (even though he said he had a crush on her but they didn't get in a relationship for years), yeah for sure it'd be easier if he was gay since it's not against the law here.

well it's not as if the sex mattered

Tell Tom Cruise or John Travolta
Every time they vehemently deny it, they make it worse. As if they were being accused of being criminals

I believe that's called "overcompensating" in technical terms and it often comes with ridiculously fake hair, serial trophy wives and the pathological need to win things

I love John Oliver

Yeah I'd say your countries make Trump look like a fun one.

You mean the only "opposition" left standing is just there to make Putin look good? I'm shocked!

I wonder what their wives will think about that

they're not always good and sometimes they're really minimalist (looking at you TGW ) but man, sometimes they are just epic. Not nearly as epic as the LOTR DVD extras obviously but close enough.

The UK might be harder from now on, depending on whether they need you or not. I know medical professionals won't have a problem getting in because they were badly relying on European doctors and nurses and they are losing them fast but other than that, I don't know.
Canada is pretty easy to emigrate to if you have a high school diploma and speak two languages (one of these preferably being English or French) and life is much easier than in the US in the big cities. Plus they're very liberal and the US is just a short hop away.
Bonus points: if you are in Vancouver, it's like living on a tv set

I don't think I could live in LA. Too superficial and too urban for me. But I'd love to live in San Francisco.

There are also plenty organizations that are happy to get volunteers and you don't have to give more than a couple hours a week.

PetiteFleur

And he spoke French to Trump without a translator in that meeting, while having no problem with speaking English to May later
Such a sass

I know, that's why I said "adequate"

His show is so entertaining and educating at the same time.

Ugh, I wish. I don't think nationalism is something that could make people turn away from someone here, we have our fair share of xenophobia in this country, and he's considered a moderate one (if such a thing exists ), so. He gained popularity thanks to his anti-corruption investigations of public officials and Putin confidants, that are pretty thorough and sparked the protests in a number of cities across the country a couple of months back (which haven't happened in a few years), and he's a good social activist I guess and has paid his price for it already (although he's really bad at cooperating with other opposition figures), but as for his political views I'm not even sure what they are (apart from his strong anti-immigration stance) I remember I laughed really hard last year at one of his videos when he was wondering (rhetorically ofc) why Putin would support Trump, their political views are nothing alike: Trump is pro-gun, pro-life, anti-immigration, etc, and Putin is none of these things, and I was like... Are you sure you're making a case against Putin here? If THAT was the choice, I don't know... I would probably choose to jump out of the window or something.

On a completely unrelated note (although prompted by the thought of jumping out of the window), I live on the 8th floor, and for 3 months (THREE!) the elevator has been being repaired, and yesterday it finally started working again, and I'm so happy, you can't imagine, I want to scream about it from the rooftops

Alwayshappy

Good thing it's easier to reach the rooftop now

Went to the cinema twice this weekend. Both Pirates & Guardians of Galaxy were very enjoyable. The latest Pirates was way better than the previous one, but still not as good as the first three. Nice popcorn film anyway. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was incredible. Better than the first one. Even more humour, but yet the story felt more emotional too; the actors had more directions to tap into, if you know what I mean. The ending had me in light tears even. #softie
One more movie on the agenda so far: Dogs Purpose; going there monday afternoon

Carla, I could live in Vancouver Love Canada. Perhaps we should try looking in that direction when we have the money and other means

Gelfling

yep. By my count: Macron 3. Trump 0
(I would even count -1 because Trump's wife also scored 1, possibly 2 and these points have to come from somewhere)

it is! And although I liked it better before Trump got elected (but then that's also true of the world and it's mostly because I can't resist John Oliver so I keep hearing about Trump ) and I learned so much about so much stuff!

Heh moderate xenophobia, that's a good one.

Well, if he's a straw man, that would be the point, I'm guessing

So much for democracy, eh?

Plus now you can actually *reach* the rooftop without having to take out a lung so

That's what I heard. Not many movies get better after the third one. Usually it gets worse

I know, right? I see some people saying the first one was funnier but I disagree. I think they had an easier time writing the first one because they had the benefit of the surprise (nobody was expecting it to be that funny) and they had the whole origins story to tell. In the second one, they had to build a story from scratch and people already knew it was an action comedy so no more surprise there. And they still did great

and that was also the surprise. They knew people expected a comedy this time around so they made it more emotional.

me too. The ending had me teary eyed and it's not something that happens a lot with action movies. And I'm not ashamed

and it's much much warmer than Toronto or Quebec in the winter. The East Coast is just freezing!

PetiteFleur

Yeah, well, I live in a 9-storey building, so it wasn't an out-of-service elevator that prevented me from going there previously

She gets like 10 points for refusing to move in to the WH with him.

I knoooow! I also watch Colbert from time to time, but I've realized that while Trump is a gift that keeps on giving for comedy, I'm just too tired of hearing about him all the time.
This is gold though:


I meant "moderate nationalist", but I guess it's the same thing

Well, nothing would surprise me, especially in this country, but I personally don't think so I mean, there were a number of "candidates" over the years, that were obviously there only to make it look like we have options (and people still voted for them ), and it would be too much trouble to play such a long game as this one, and unnecessary, really. We have a number of parties in Parliament that are opposition in name only, they always vote the same as a "ruling party" almost unanimously (our Parliament is a joke and has got a nickname "rabid printer" because of the laws that were passed in the last few years), and people still support them. And then, even the party whose views I share the most, that is not in Parliament (social democratic and pro-European, and the only party whose political programme includes an article about gender equality, imagine that ) is rumored to have connections within Putin's administration and to make some compromises, so that they won't actively speak out against him and all that, although they always do, quite a lot (e.g. one of their prominent members, Lev Schlosberg (I like him so much ), was among the first who reported, with proofs, that our troops were sent to Ukraine in 2014, when the official stance was that it wasn't happening, and he was brutally beaten a few days later), and well, they only got 2% or so in the elections last autumn, because those few people who support their views don't trust them enough to vote for them and/or think that they should have changed their leader a long time ago. And others... I don't know, most people seem not to care about such things as political ideology and programme and support those candidates who shout louder about their problems and promise to solve them without getting into specifics about how they gonna do it (sounds familiar, eh?). How very classist of me Although I myself live in a relatively small provincial town (80K population is considered small, believe it or not ), and I can be considered poor even by our standards (just as 70% of the country), so it's just an observation on the people around me. But then again, that's not surprising when people are deprived of information.
Sorry, I'm just rambling at this point. I guess what I'm saying is that it's really convenient for the Kremlin to have people think that there's no one they can trust, not even those who actively speak out against the government and so on.

Democracy and liberal values are curse words here

So, Macron has met Putin. That was... interesting
("Sanctions against Russia won't help to stabilize the situation in Ukraine" - yeah, because you don't give a **** how they affect people in your country, you a**hole)

I was writing a reply (a lot of rambling as well ) in the TV thread and my computer froze, so I'm gonna be back there later (and probably with more coherent thoughts )

wardengrill

I'm good,just came back home from work And the heat is coming here too altough it's not bad yet And kitchen tourned into a pool sounds awesome

Gelfling

Hey ladies

And since it's winter most of the year there, it's not as bad

Right? I mean, Lara Croft has a whole damn secret arsenal under her kitchen, surely I can get a secret pool?

well since you had to walk up almost all the way, sure, but you wouldn't have been in any shape to do much shouting from it

Of all his hook... I'm sorry, trophy wives (that's the polite term for women who marry filthy rich older men for money, right?), she got the worst deal because she also has to pretend to like him now. Well, not all the time and she's getting a lot of money for that performance I'm sure. Still, I pity her so those little acts of rebellion are worthy of kudos.

For sure. And I also agree with Sorkin (he said that before the election), that turning this menace into a punchline somehow humanized him. I'm sure people (and those Russian hackers ) would have voted for him anyway but a lot of people who didn't vote probably still saw him as a joke and not as a threat.

at that clip. Hey he's joining Meryl Streep in the "no talent celebrity who dared criticize Trump and score points" league so he has something to celebrate alright

I never met a "nationalist" who wasn't xenophobic so I guess it is. For some reason, it seems you can't love your country without hating everybody who comes from someplace else and liked your country enough to settle there

Jesus. Now I know why Trump likes Putin so much. He wishes he could be the same. He seems to like despots.

indeed it does

well it's a big country

that's generally why despots and authoritarian regimes start by muzzling the press and why they hate the internet. Information is crucial to a democracy.

I get it. And that's why they repress any real opposition. Or the very idea of opposition

Liberal is also mostly a bad word in the US, except for some reason they also believe themselves to be in a democracy.

and he scooooooored! again. If he keeps going like this, he'll get a better popularity score in the US than the Tweeter in Chief

It's true though. Both things are true. Just like the trade sanctions against Cuba didn't serve any purpose because Castro didn't give a **** about his people living like dogs.

oh sorry to read that. It happened to me many times in long posts ofc and I now copy/paste in a text file every few paragraphs to not be ****ed by

Alwayshappy

It's what I do aswell Once spent a hour trying to type a message. A hour I will never get back

Gelfling

and at least now the servers are stable. I remember a few years ago when the servers would just go down every time an episode of Glee or some other teen popular show was on the air

Alwayshappy

Ugh, had to visit the vet this morning. Think I mentioned before that one of our cats throws up a lot (twice per week - with the result of him feeling down the entire day, including problems at the toilet, etc). Got even worse lately. Throwing up blood and even blood in the litter box. Called the vet instantly and he had a slot for us one hour later. He gave us some antibiotics. The vet thinks that he has some sort of parasite, or infection in his stomach/bowls, so if that's the case the medicine should help. Also gave us some pasta that he should lick once a day to make sure his hairballs don't get too big. If it turns out that neither of those things work he thinks it's the food. Really hope he will feel better soon. We're animal persons....seeing him like this sucks. It's not like you can tell him what's wrong, you know?

Gelfling

Awww poor little thing (I mean the cat )

I hope he gets better. Pets are like babies. When they're sick, it breaks your heart because they're miserable and you can't reassure them.

wardengrill

Hi everyone! How are you doing?

Gelfling

Hey Kate how've you been?

I'm good. Trying not to watch or read the news because I get either sad or mad at the kind of world we live in and then inevitably, I read some tweet by the Twitter-in-Chief and I go on twitter and get worked up.

Besides that, preparing a weekend with my love in a week or so and counting down to my sunshine.

How about you?

wardengrill

Good But nothing special happened I had a few days off though and finally I catched up on my list of books to read Or at least I started catching up


I understand I stopped watching any kind of news some time ago, I mean obviously I see some but I'm certainly not seeing it on purpose Mostly it's the ignorance of people that gets me furious

Jealous! Have fun