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Tolya Ugajin

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Posts posted by Tolya Ugajin

    Election advice

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    5 hours ago, SkylabPatel said:

    This is a must-read for all UK residents. Britain is going to the polls today and Brexit may become a reality. In the next few hours, all UK residents should seriously consider converting all GBP - all life savings - to Linden Dollars on the Lindex.

    If the pound sterling crashes tomorrow, at least your money will be safe and you will be able to convert it to US$. Please pass this message on to everyone you see inworld, and even ask non-SL residents to consider making an account and converting all their money into Linden Dollars.

    You may not get this chance tomorrow!

    Well sign me up!  I totally and completely rely on unsolicited advice from anonymous people online with panicked advice on what to do with my life savings.  I mean, who else am I going to listen to, a financial expert?

    • Like 1
    • Haha 3

    Election advice

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted · Edited by Tolya Ugajin

    55 minutes ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

    The US didn't save Europe.  It helped by coming in when it got attacked, and then reaped the benefit of years of our hard-won victories and terrible sacrifice; on top of which it was as rich as hell.  Then it charged us interest on its loans for - what, 60 years?  I'd have to look it up.  So take that and do unto yourself what you're trying to do to us.

    The US lost more soldiers than any other allied nation except the USSR.  Granted we lost a good portion of those fighting Japan (which we did almost alone), but we were never attacked by Germany, and we could easily have ignored their declaration of war, as Germany was in no position to attack the US.  So, it's a bit disingenuous to say the US didn't "save" Europe or claim we only did so because we were attacked.  Had we not supplied the UK and especially the Soviets in 1940-1942, the Soviets almost certainly would have been forced to capitulate and the Brits would almost certainly have been forced to accept a Nazi-controlled mainland, as they could not have liberated France (even the parts not controlled by the Vichy regime) on their own.

    As far as "years of hard-won victories" - which years were those, exactly?  The handing of Czechoslovakia to Hitler?  The few weeks the Poles held out before being overrun?  The 6 weeks it took Germany to conquer France and drive the Brits out of Dunkirk?  The 23 months of almost continuously losing in North Africa, which stopped once the US entered that sector in May 1942?  The only "victories" prior to US entry into the war were fighting off the Luftwaffe and holding the line at El Alamein.  And that's just the war in the West.  The European powers did nothing but retreat in Asia until the US stepped in.  It wasn't "years" and the "hard-won victories" were very few and far between.

    As far as the loans go, France was more than happy to charge the US interest for loans during the Revolutionary War, which took us a couple decades to pay off, so, again, pretty disingenuous to whine about it when it's on the other foot.  Oh, and we only charged 2% - not exactly usurious.

    Revisionist history is seldom accurate history.

    ETA: You may be thinking of WW1 - we certainly didn't "save Europe" in that one, we just decided we needed to get in on the dying for no particularly good reason other than to ensure France and England could repay our loans for that war.

    • Thanks 1

    Election advice

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    32 minutes ago, Orwar said:

       I mean. The Roman Empire lasted close to a millennium, depending on at what point one thinks it should be called an 'empire'. The Byzantine Empire lasted for eleven centuries, the Holy Roman Empire lasted for close to a millennium. Apart from various states trying to break free from the Soviets, and a few uprisings here and there, the only inter-European conflicts past the second world war, has been what - the Icelandic-British's three 'Cod Wars'? Russian aggression in Crimea and Georgia (which both arguably aren't technically 'in Europe').

       Meanwhile, you're suggesting that a nation that has existed for 243 years, and has been in a state of war for 222 years, would have anything to teach us about not fighting each other? o.O

    Define "state of war".  You could argue that our invasion of Grenada was a "state of war" although it took, what, 45 minutes?  But, if you use that sort of definition, Britain has been in a state of war for a similar percentage of its existence, and certainly the EU portion of Europe (which is what should be considered since you're lumping it as "teach us") was continuously in a state of war for all recorded history up until the last violent revolution in its colonial empire, and France remains in such a state with its ongoing military involvements in its former empire in North Africa (they lost at least 13 soldiers in Mali just last month, for instance).

    Clearly the US has much to learn from Europe when it comes to maintaining a state of war, as we're still rookies at it by comparison.

    • Like 1

    Election advice

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    38 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

    At our house, we've been reading Will Durant's massive History of Civilization.  It's a cooperative effort, because I'll read some parts, get weary of history, then the Resident Geek will read some until he gets tired.  We share the best parts out loud.  The other day, he quoted a bit of Durant concerning the Holy Roman Empire.  They established a government that was stable for nearly a millenium...at the cost of massive, impenetrable bureaucracy.  The usual highlight of the evening news was yet another imperial assassination, the usual means of changing the titular figurehead.

    Brussels is a piker.

    By Holy Roman empire do you mean Byzantine Empire?  The Holy Roman wasn't exactly stable - it just hung around for a long time as a convenient name - and I don't recall it having a giant bureaucracy (more a decentralized feudal arrangement), whereas we get the term for such a bureaucracy, "byzantine", from the Byzantine Empire's bureaucracy.

    Take your shovel and feel it

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    On 9/9/2018 at 5:04 PM, Madelaine McMasters said:

    F***ing for a family.

    In RL, this is the most common method of obtaining a family (as opposed to the "looking" so often mentioned here), and also the most expensive. Whether it's more fun or rewarding is, I suspect, variable.

    I think this is also the most common method (RL or SL) of obtaining a Sugar Daddy/Mommy, suggesting there's a significant difference between procreation and pro-creation.

    RL children:

    2 minutes of pleasure

    9 months of discomfort

    9 hours of searing pain

    A lifetime of disappointment.

    • Haha 1

    What would you do with 7,000 unused prims

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted · Edited by Tolya Ugajin

    A short while ago, I closed down a public club/hangout I was running on my sim.  Now, my sim is mainly just housing for me and a few friends, and I have 7K+ prims paid for but unused, and I hate idle resources.

    So, being a man of little creativity or vision, I am coming to you, dear Forum dwellers, to ask for ideas, since my wife will just use it for more breedable teddy bears if I don't put it to better use.  What would you do if you had an extra 7K prims lying around?

    Maybe I'll make a contest out of it.

    Is a discussion better in SL or the forums?

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    17 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

    Do you think a discussion is better in SL (real-time typing in a 3d virtual world with body/face emotes, sounds, animations) or the forums (typing in a 2d web page with attachments and no time constraints)? 

    Just thinking of the early idea that SL was the future of the internet and if it really can't compete with even a web forum. Is it just apples and oranges? Perhaps a hybrid of the two having the strengths of both that could be made into a new feature for SL.

    It's really the same as comparing emailing a coworker to walking down the hall and talking to them in person.  If you want to put a large amount of detailed information or convey a carefully crafted point, without interruption, then email (forums) is a more efficient and effective medium.  If you want to convey more emotion and nuanced meaning in a fluid discussion, then in person (inworld, preferably on voice) is better.  But, you also have to throw in that inworld you can control who is participating in the conversation, whereas here anyone can pile on.

    • Like 2

    Write Your Own SL Obituary!

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

    My handy dandy Latin to English translator is silent on this one.  A little help?

    "I drink and I know".  For some reason Google translate can't do a decent job of "I drink and I know things".  The implication with nothing following "I know" is I know everything or at least a whole lot.

    I am also the god of ***** and wine.  George RR Martin must have been thinking of me when he wrote Tyrion's character.

    Our Weirdness

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted · Edited by Tolya Ugajin

    I'm OCD about item placement  Everything must be oriented to cardinal directions.  If something must be at an angle (like chairs in a group) then they can't just be turned randomly, they must be at specific angles.  Houses must be oriented so the back porch faces West.  In my library and gallery, book cases and pictures must be spaced at as perfectly equal spacings as I can manage.  Positions must be rounded to 0.1 or at most 0.01 meters...unless it ruins the symmetry.  The rug must be exactly centered with the fireplace.  Even landscaping tends towards this pattern.  I once put those little seashells that make beach noises out, and equally spaced them along the shore - 6 meters apart because of the number of shells verses the North/South length of the beach.  Beaches are also either on the West of East side of the sim, preferably East, oh and the land mass is almost always squarish.  Placing trees makes my eyes hurt, because symmetrical trees look unnatural and asymmetrical trees never look right no matter how I rotate them.

    Fortunately, other than my library, my girl does it all now, because she embraces chaos and clutter, and I generally just cam on her boobs anyway ;)

    Plus, she does a far better job.

    • Confused 1

    Who in SL has impacted your RL the most?

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    12 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

    . It is the greatest disease of our age, maybe, that we no longer talk to each other, but instead speak over those with whom we disagree; I very much fear that the infection will prove fatal.

    While reading a book a second, third or fourth time may be entertaining, one seldom learns much from it after the first reading.

    My deep thought of the night. 

    /me raises his glass of red and salutes you.

    I probably enjoyed Pep because in a lot of ways he's quite a bit like me.  I'm surprised he got banned, but towards the end of my time hanging in the forums he was getting more combative than argumentative.

    Did Chris pass away?  I'd heard he was ill.  He was a real gentleman.

    • Like 3

    What’s The Story Behind Your Avatar Name?

    in Your Avatar

    Posted

    On 12/2/2019 at 11:04 AM, Roxy Couturier said:

    When I joined SL, I had been playing City of Heroes. My favorite character for RP there was Poprocks, whose 'real' name was Roxy. (For those who may wonder, an Earth / Force Field Controller.)

    Someone, in SL, that I was interested in had a French Last name. So, Couturier was chosen.

    Yay!  Roxy is still alive!  Big hug!

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

    What’s The Story Behind Your Avatar Name?

    in Your Avatar

    Posted

    My real name has no equivalent in Russian, so I took the name "Tolya" in Russian classes in college.  Early on in SL I RP'd as a nasty Russian man, so it fit.

    Ugajin was just a name off the list (back when that's how you created your avatar) that I thought sounded cool.  Turns out it's some sort of Japanese fertility deity, which is oddly appropriate, given my appreciation of Japanese rope bondage and of sex.

    • Like 4

    Who in SL has impacted your RL the most?

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    So, my post this morning about writing your own obituary seems to have squicked a few people out, so I'll try something a bit more positive.

    Share with everyone who in SL has had a major impact in your RL, changed you as a person, and how/why?

    I have 3 examples:

    1:  My SL partner, whom I shall be marrying in RL in a few months.  The why should be self-explanatory ;)

    2:  Scylla Rhiadra:  This one is a little less obvious.  Scylla and I are pretty far apart on most political and social issues (at least we were years ago) and one day she challenged my stance on abortion rights by arguing for them mostly from a conservative (ie. my) point of view.  She made me realize that I had established positions on important issues without a sound foundation of values and beliefs from which to logically establish consistent and valid opinions.  As a result I reexamined the fundamentals of my beliefs and drew some very different conclusions on positions on several subjects, and any time I come across some new controversial subject, I follow that process rather than taking a knee-jerk "well, good little conservatives take this position" stance.

    3:  I forget his name, actually - I think it was Pep or something like that, used hang in the old Forums a lot.  Anyway, he was fun to argue with and taught me the value of googling anything you weren't 100% sure of, especially the meanings of words or proper grammar, a habit I now follow religiously in RL, calling out in a sportscaster voice, "Let's go to Google!".  I now look a lot smarter than when I totally misused "penultimate".

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