General Talk!!

[katana]

I too lost my father to pancreatic cancer some 12 years ago. Sitting there and helplessly watching him die was no fun. Fortunately, I was luckier - the treatment was rough, but it worked and eliminated the cancer entirely. Doctors say that if by now - 6 years later - the cancer hasn't come back, it probably won't.

Good to know that. You're very fortunate.

I totally agree. It's almost impossible to understand how people are today unless you know where they've been. And of course the lessons to be learned from history are incredible. I wish I could visit Russia, especially in the winter. I haven't seen snow in 12 years. 

Exactly. I have to say that people, us, do not learn (exactly as we're supposed to) from the lessons of history. Sometimes, we still do the same things that people from a hundred years ago did wrong.

@ katana
I understand, there is sometimes is boring to read that "Stalin, Zhukov, nazi, Smolensk, T-34, KGB, vodka, war, war, war", and other my talks with humbert. 
I agree with you, history is very interesting thing, but, as you implying, there is a lot of other interesting things.  As for me, there is always interesting to know, how people lives in other countries. You say that you lives in Phillipines. And, as i know now, there is a lot of bad official guys, which wants to get a bribe even when they asleep.

Okay, I admit. It's only boring if I don't know much about it.  It's my older bro who's more interested in history whereas I'm more into what people are doing (gossip ) & recent events . And, yeah! There are many corrupt politicians here, even public servants & employees. As I've said before, it seems like it has become a way of life rather than just a mere practice. But, our new president is trying to eradicate that. I know that it's kind of a losing battle but I still believe in what he can do even though I didn't vote for him.

Tell us more about your city, about your territory, what it is, is there a warm sea and how far it is from your home, is there a rainy season (I heared that they are present in tropical countries). In news I heared that here is flooding on Phillipines now, and somewhere all power and electricity is shut down and some of cities is up to meter water on the streets. Is that right? Tell us about sky of your beautifull country, it's always interesting, sky is an "mirror of nature". Tell us about religion of your country, I remember that you mentioned russian "Ortodox religion", what you mean? Tell us about anything you want. 

Well... Right now I'm in the province and the sea or seashore is less than a mile away. As of the moment, the humidity's so high I feel cranky. 

Yes, there's massive flooding in the capital city & it's surrounding areas. Lived there last year for a brief period of time. Fortunately, I came here to the province before the flooding. Still, it's sad to watch the devastation it has brought to those people living there. Those of us who aren't there can only offer them prayers and hope that the same won't happen to us.

Philippines is mostly a Roman Catholic countries though there're also other religions. I was baptized as an RC but was converted to Eastern Orthodox later on.

Your notebook isn't so old. Well, objectively it's old, but I often meet PCs with configs like this among my customers PCs. Just at 7 of August I repaired PC like this, it had a trouble with Windows (a teenager wanted to install XP by himself, so I got a HDD with 3 partitions and with a copy of Windows distribution folder on each.)
My PC is like your, an old and big steam loco too. It's a dual Intel Xeon 3GHz with two videocards and bunch of turbine-sounded fans. Scream like hell, but it's good in winter. Came to room from a frost, starts it, play about a hour in UT2k4 or something like this, and - that's it, i can take off shirt! 

It's a desktop and it's really OLD! And you, my patronizing friend, doesn't have an old machine. If you're calling that (dual Xeon) old, mine is ANCIENT! 

[Daniil]

@humbert

Makes sense. What I'm wondering about is that number they put. Clearly it's a Roman numeral. I'm familiar with them but this one I just don't understand. I wonder why people continue to use them at all.

As for Stalin, we all know that he was a madman with horrendously errant policies. How many people starved under the massive famines his policies create - especially this business of collectivization? We all know he knew the exact date and time of the German invasion but pretended the whole thing simply didn't exist. I even heard he order the death of some spies who told him about this. It's also well known that it the Soviet Union, Lenin's desire to spread Communism to the whole world was central - I think it was finally under Gorbachev that this sort of thing came to an end. Tell me more about Zhukov's crimes - you said he did a few bad things but didn't go into specifics.

The number I mentioned in fact is fake.  I intentionally type that jabberwocky, just for show how silly looks that banners.
As for Zhukov - there is three "main" his crimes. First is a failed operations in 1941-1942. Zhukov tried to make an attacking operations when he must make a defensive ops. Of course, armies under his commands was rounded, and destroyed.
The second crime is a Berlin operation. In fact that was a competition between Zhukov and marshal Konev. Zhukov, to atone his mistakes in front of Stalin, wanted to defeat and capture Berlin to the May, 1 (Soviet Celebration of Labourer class). Of course, he couldn't do that in due time, but this attempt had costs millions of casualities.
And the third crime is terrible plundering of Berlin and East Germany after the war. It was medieval-like, and was sanctioned by Zhukov. When Stalin learned about it and understood by who it was autorized, he drop Zhukov from Berlin to Odessa.

If you've traveled to a place sufficiently close to the Ecuator where the sun's rays are more direct, you'd notice that the sidewalk and street hold the sun's heat whereas the grass (or trees) don't. In a tropical construction the houses are made with materials that don't hold heat and allow breezes to flow freely inside the house. I've been to quite a few of them and I've noticed that despite the fact that the temp is easily 32° or higher, you are comfortable and not suffering from the heat despite the fact that there is no A/C. The big problem with this is that if the temp drops to as little as 18°, you're in trouble - heating this type of housing is next to impossible. This is why here in San Antonio air conditioning is almost mandatory -- due to the fact that winter temps here go well below 18°, structures with tropical construction are impossible.

How interesting! Here we have very different constructions of houses. In old houses (pre-revolution build, and also the "stalin's" houses) there is very large walls, built of bricks or even a granite. In new houses (built mostly after 1960s-1970s) here is thin walls of special concrete. It's reinforced but with expanded clay aggregate or air bags. It is for trap heat at winter. And today modern houses build of bricks again, bricks are more healthy and beauty material.


@ katana

Well... Right now I'm in the province and the sea or seashore is less than a mile away. As of the moment, the humidity's so high I feel cranky. 

Wow! I feel for you, heat and humidity always is a hard to bear. But, ocean less the two km's away is really cool!

Yes, there's massive flooding in the capital city & it's surrounding areas. Lived there last year for a brief period of time. Fortunately, I came here to the province before the flooding. Still, it's sad to watch the devastation it has brought to those people living there. Those of us who aren't there can only offer them prayers and hope that the same won't happen to us.

Philippines is mostly a Roman Catholic countries though there're also other religions. I was baptized as an RC but was converted to Eastern Orthodox later on.

Under Eastern Orthodox you mean "Православие" (Pravoslavie)? Wow... Wow!  I was shocked after Google translates "Eastern Orthodox" to me! I can't even expected, that Pravoslavnie is presented somewhere so far from Russia! It's very nice, though. I'm not religious, but Orthodox Religion is a part of our culture, so I can call you a little sister.

It's a desktop and it's really OLD! And you, my patronizing friend, doesn't have an old machine. If you're calling that (dual Xeon) old, mine is ANCIENT! 

Well, maybe, but it is not so fast for modern games. I like computer games, and I want to play in some modern games  in hi-rez and on maximal settings. So for this job my PC is old. But in other tasks it still very good.

@ all
I again faced with very interesting differences between languages. In other theme (here) i wrote for our dear friend Nawab a request for make an article about application, mentioned by him.  And again a very interesting english idiom "do you mind?". I sat for a long time, thinking how to translate russian "вы не против?" (pronounces as "vi nye prOteevf?"). Google translated it like "do you mind", and at first time I thought that that is an error! I took a vocabulary, and, yes, it's correct. But - if translate if "formally" then "вы не против" is "aren't you against me?".  From where you, english-speakers, took "mind" in that phrase? 

[humbert]

As for Zhukov - there is three "main" his crimes. First is a failed operations in 1941-1942. Zhukov tried to make an attacking operations when he must make a defensive ops. Of course, armies under his commands was rounded, and destroyed.

Hmm... I was under the impression Zhukov was in Asia when Hitler attacked, and that he was called on to defend Moscow with this Mongol soliers. As for attacking instead of defending, it seems to me this was much more a matter of bad leadership as opposed to a criminal act.

The second crime is a Berlin operation. In fact that was a competition between Zhukov and marshal Konev. Zhukov, to atone his mistakes in front of Stalin, wanted to defeat and capture Berlin to the May, 1 (Soviet Celebration of Labourer class). Of course, he couldn't do that in due time, but this attempt had costs millions of casualities.
And the third crime is terrible plundering of Berlin and East Germany after the war. It was medieval-like, and was sanctioned by Zhukov. When Stalin learned about it and understood by who it was autorized, he drop Zhukov from Berlin to Odessa.

I remember speaking to a German lady who was in Berlin at the time (she was 8 years old), even she remembers it was horrendous! Naturally she hated the Stalinist Russians with a passion.

How interesting! Here we have very different constructions of houses. In old houses (pre-revolution build, and also the "stalin's" houses) there is very large walls, built of bricks or even a granite. In new houses (built mostly after 1960s-1970s) here is thin walls of special concrete. It's reinforced but with expanded clay aggregate or air bags. It is for trap heat at winter. And today modern houses build of bricks again, bricks are more healthy and beauty material.

Here there's a similar situation. Houses built many years ago are tough and many are still around. Due to fierce competition and other market forces, construction companies now keep their expenses low by constructing houses that just barely pass government requirements. The stuff they put is meant to last just as long as the guarantee. It's a terrible situation.

Philippines is mostly a Roman Catholic countries though there're also other religions. I was baptized as an RC but was converted to Eastern Orthodox later on.

Is this the same as Greek Orthodox? I remember in Miami there were Greek Orthodox churches. I haven't seen one here yet.

I again faced with very interesting differences between languages. In other theme (here) i wrote for our dear friend Nawab a request for make an article about application, mentioned by him.  And again a very interesting english idiom "do you mind?". I sat for a long time, thinking how to translate russian "вы не против?" (pronounces as "vi nye prOteevf?"). Google translated it like "do you mind", and at first time I thought that that is an error! I took a vocabulary, and, yes, it's correct. But - if translate if "formally" then "вы не против" is "aren't you against me?".  From where you, english-speakers, took "mind" in that phrase? 

You have to be careful when you answer a "do you mind" question because "yes" means NO and "no" means YES. In other words, they're asking if it would bother you if they did this or that. In Spanish there is nothing like this, and explaining this concept to someone in Cuba, Mexico etc. isn't easy. I remember once at work, a guy who recently arrived from Puerto Rico called an American company in Connecticut. In a few minutes the guy approaches me and says "What's wrong with that guy on the phone? He asked me 'do you mind holding' and I politely answered 'yes' then he hung up." Now I had to sit there and try to make him understand. [not easy]

[Daniil]

It's Id al-Adha today, also called Qurban Bairam. I know, that this is main holiday in year for muslims. 
So, congratulations to all the forum members, professing Islam. 
Blessed be your holiday!

[Daniil]

Btw, the winter has begun!
That's view from my office window.

Very, very nice!

[Ahmad]

Thanks a lot, Daniil for your concern.
I just read it .

Wish all of you all the best. 

[Daniil]

from salaah
Daniil, I totally agree with your principle in choosing the words, especially for this forum use, If I would find the sience fiction "time machine" then I'll go back to the time when languages where invented and add a word that mean "remote friend" since it will help the humanity when they will invent the networks later.

Also, since  it is all about introducing people in this thread, I want to tell you something that might look strange to you, in most Arab countries, they say to a stranger "brother" which is more friendly than just "friend", a more strange also is that in countries like Egypt you can expect very personal subjects to speak about with someone whom you knew just an hour ago. But, be careful  in Baghdad .. they will give you even more emotions in the first meeting and they will call you "brother" or even "hey, my eyes" or "my soul", but you might get hanged or shot for nothing if you say "comrade", believe me, this word here is a crime by itself, this is because the old regime of Saddam used its Arabic translation "Rafeeq" to say this person is a "member" in the party, but now, because the Shia are ruling, if you accuse someone of being a "comrade", then he might get killed without a question, alot of people used this word to get rid of their opponents, most Arabs that lived in Iraq before where terminated by this word, especially the Palestinians, even if they are innocent.

What you told about many emotions and very friendly attitude actually not very strange for me, because here in Russia (especially in Moscow and St.Petersburg, i.e., in capital cities) also is a widespread of friendly and very polite attitude. Prases like "dorogoy" (dear) or "uvajaemiy" (respectable) is very common in talk even when peoples talk with strangers. Baghdad is a capital city too, so courteous attitude to people is shure thing.

As for your words about "brother", that is true strange for me. Thanks, now I know. (A cultural differences - in Russia "brother" is also much more friendly than "friend", but it's impolite to talk "brother" to stranger, especially someone who elder than you... )

And about "comrade"... Oh... Things you talk about is scary. Brother, can you tell, is that a government politic "line"? I mean, is attitude you describe make by Shia's government, or it's going from common peoples? Because (as for me), it looks very like two periods of russian history, and I can understand you very well... (Or if you not sure, don't talk anything. Not only us can read this forum, you understand me.)

[Ahmad]

@Salaah

Hi Ahmad,

I was just watching the youtube, I felt interested to see the new president explaining a phrase from the quran, I remembered the old explanations of Mubarak and Sadaat when they reached the damn chair, they where speaking even better -since they had only needed to speak-, "Bin Mursi" was speaking in a way that made me think he is just another one who speaks better than doing, and he does really bad, he reminded me with an Syrian song that translates: "chairs sit on chairs, a corrupted goes then a cruel comes". I wish I am wrong, I wish all the best to the simple, sweet heart, best laughing, and most "alive" Arab people; the Egyptians, I hope you will do better than us in this fight for justice.

If I will squeeze the Iraqi experience and give it in few words to the people who have just came out from revolutions, I tell you: Just kick the Americans and their allies out and you will be fine, even the devil personally cannot hurt worse than someone who follow the Black house.

Regarding our new president "Mursi", I'd love not to judge him right now. He is new and there is a huge corruption in our country left by Mubarak and his team. This corruption managed to reach everything, even people's head.

So, he has 4 years to do his best. After that, I'll decide whether he's good or not.
As for now, I hope he can eliminate that huge corruption and do more than speak. Then, we'll feel better than now.

Thanks for your beautiful words about Egyptians, and for information, people here also love Iraqi people so much.

I wish you and all your people all the best.
Be always well and safe. 

[Daniil]

Yesterday was Western, or Catholic Christmas, so, for all forum members professing Catholicism, my best wishes in that day!
Merry Christmas, friends!


Sorry for a bit late, couldn't come on forum yesterday.

[humbert]

Yesterday was Western, or Catholic Christmas, so, for all forum members professing Catholicism, my best wishes in that day!
Merry Christmas, friends!

Hey! Just for your information, Christmas is celebrated in almost all denominations western Christianity. It's also celebrated by retail stores, which is when the make the most money. People are programmed to buy others gifts they don't need with money they don't have. It's unbelievable how people just do this automatically without questioning the logic of their programming.