Nokra

^

But I'd try it. Am I a hipster now?   

Unfortunately I don't have anything to contribute to the topic, but I just wanted to say it's good to see you again!

On 8/24/2018 at 9:28 PM, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

That's on my wishlist, let me know how you like it.

I finished this a couple days ago. I very much enjoyed it, and getting to look behind the curtain of diplomacy was illuminating. He says at the end that he conducted about 200 interviews for the book, including all living former Secretaries of State, and those kinds of insider insights were worth the read alone, IMO, not to mention his interview with Abdul Rashid Dostum. 

His central thesis, namely that the US is abdicating its global influence due to a focus on military solutions rather than diplomacy, and that the State Department is continually being gutted and sidelined, is probably not new information to anyone who was paying attention in recent decades, but personally I found the account of how we got here and his call for a return to this kind of old-school diplomacy to be very interesting and compelling. 

I'm having a Radler, what we know as a shandy (i.e. beer and Sprite). 

You know this brand from your time in Germany, right @Jason ? 

Kinda sad I missed this.

On a side note, they're really pushing it hard here in Germany. There are posters for it at nearly every single tram stop.

Not too surprising I guess since Germans love The Simpsons, so I suppose they're hoping for similar numbers. 

Watched this last night, really enjoyed it. I believe it was my first Spike Lee movie, and now I'm curious to check out others. 

Sometimes it felt pretty heavy-handed, but overall it was excellent, and as others said, during the closing scene you could feel the tension in the audience.

I'm reading Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Apparently it's a bit of a classic in the field. I'm only about 50 pages in but it's been really interesting to have another refresher on the anatomy of the brain and the impact of each region on one's emotions. 

I'm also still working on War on Peace by Ronan Farrow, with about 30 pages remaining. 

Welcome back!

Clearly he was thinking of the consequences of impeachment and who would assume the presidency and, misspeaking, was referring to the result being "revolting people".  

Do we need to send Alec Baldwin out there to look for it?

I lived in Chapel Hill for a few years and saw this statue very often, as my girlfriend at the time was doing her PhD (in history, no less) there.  Whenever I saw a campus tour being given, someone always asked WTF that was still doing there and the tour guides always just had to shrug. 

It was described by the university as "vandalism" but I bet they won't put much effort into its restoration. 

On 8/20/2018 at 12:55 AM, Jason said:

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-trumps-pecker-problem-20180817-story.html

Blocked in Deutschland. 

What's the tl;dr version? 

Godspeed you maverick renegade! 

Time to post officer names and addresses on Twitter?  

44 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

Oh Lord - Nietzsche in his native tongue must be something to behold!

I'll be honest, I gave up about halfway through Also Sprach Zarathustra and haven't even started on the other two.    I bought them at the same time because I was curious and they were cheap, being classics. I found that for the most part the German wasn't that bad (though certainly not easy), but of course even in one's native language they're not easy reads due to the concepts involved. So to read them in a foreign language was taking too much time when I was supposed to be studying.   I'd like to go back to them someday soon.

I have read almost all of Hermann Hesse's books in the original German though, and that is sublime.  

2 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

I just finished listening to the LibriVox audiobook for Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche

 

This is probably the best "introduction" to his "life-affirming" philosophical ideas, but even then you'll still have to do consult some external analysis. 

Does j00 liek teh Nietzsche?! 

54 minutes ago, Hurdyb1 said:

Finished Doctor Sleep last week. It was so Damm good! I was looking for a little bit more chills like The Shining, which I read in the past, but it was such a good thriller and the rising build up was excellent. I want to see how this turns out into the eventual movie we get but it was so good.

 

I need another Stephen King book to read.

Have you ever read The Stand? It was the other King book I wanted to get to because it apparently is frequently referenced in his Dark Tower books, which I loved. 

1 hour ago, Danger said:

 

I am officially out!  I am moving to Las Vegas this week and hopefully finding a job?

Awesome, congrats! How long were you in for, in total? If I may ask, are you anticipating missing anything about army life? 

And any ideas of what you'd like to do in Las Vegas? 

20 hours ago, thewhyteboar said:

Usually the new episode gets posted to Korean Netflix a day after it airs in America. Still waiting. 

Try the German Netflix. It's already up here!

I'm reading Pet Sematary by Stephen King. It's the first non-Dark Tower book of King's that I've read and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. I'm about 150 pages in. King may not be "high literature" but he knows how to create atmosphere and tell a story, and that's worth the price of admission for sure. 

I recently finished Less by Andrew Sean Greer, about a mediocre author who decides to avoid going to the wedding of his former boyfriend by accepting invitations to a bunch of speaking engagements around the world. The book follows him on his humorous adventures to Germany, India, Morocco, Japan, etc. It has a lot of humor while still dealing with some serious topics (loss, aging, relationships, forgiveness, etc.) and actually won the Pulitzer Prize for 2018.  Deservedly so I would say, it was a very enjoyable read. 

I also recently reread Foundation by Isaac Asimov. I know that @legend enjoys these, and I'm planning on reading at least the first four. I purchased them years ago and then keep getting distracted by other books, but I know they're good and easy reads. I'll try to remain focused this time.  

will become President. 

cannot be stopped

16 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

How doesn't his base ever get tired of this? Like, Jesus Christ man.

 

Even if this was something that didn't matter from a real friend in real life I would be telling them to shut the fuck up about it already. I'm tired of this. What more is there to even say? How are they not tired of this? Even if anything he said was true (which, almost none of it is) I would be tired of how often he beats these drums. 

They're probably not sick of it because they're not actually paying attention to it nearly as much as we are. This is borne out by the fact that Trump was "elected" at all. Anyone who was even half-way paying attention couldn't possibly have voted for him, right?