Some of the calamities that have befallen you do most certainly qualify as Hell on Earth (not referring to Doom II), so sadly that does count, yes.

The prices here will send cold shivers down your spine but I'm sure you'd still like it here, lots of quaint little castles from centuries past, plus a gazillion mountains and lakes. Maybe you could even see the ibex you're so fascinated with. The country certainly deserves to be on anyone's travel bucket list. I suggest waiting till you're old & rich and visiting then.

Must be a conspiracy to troll Al Gore.

Surely, you must know that I know that you are joking and that I am joking back at your jokes. Or am I? Maybe I really do believe some people can fart rainbows :O

You know, I prefer donkeys and camels over horses as transportation methods. I've tried donkeys and they are much cheaper to rent than horses and can go in places where horses simply can't. Donkeys are like a 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser, horses may look nicer like a Jaguar/Rolls Royce but get stuck in terrain donkeys master with ease.
I also prefer camels over horses because camels are harder to fall off from and they can go pretty damn fast, too. Horses eat way too much food and that's why they are much more expensive to maintain, or so I've been told.

Would they? I don't know... If they themselves weren't stuck in the 4th circle with the hoarders, that is :/

No, not really. That was really just a joke. Actually, I know people who are twice as old as me but deserve less than half the respect of some people half of half my age. I give everyone the same basic respect, whether it's a little kid or an old person doesn't matter. What they do with that initial basic respect is entirely up to human free will :)

It is sort of hard to grasp, yes. But you're not the only one here in that regard, just a very good example. There are quite a number of others among the regulars (trentonIf, just to name another extreme example) who leave no trace of evil in their wake. And yes, I know that banter doesn't count as evil, of course.
Anway, that befuddles me as it is kinda weird to encounter people who behave -nice- on the internet. We do see a fair share of more troll-like and confrontation-happy people here too who balance things out a bit and that's fine in my book as I sometimes get weirded out by the niceness of the Gogosphere, wondering if people really are that nice or just holding back significant aspects of themselves. At what point is it manners beneficial to peace and order and at what point is it a bit unfortunate as many interesting opinions are never going to be heard, and interesting discussions never held? Such a fine line, never quite defined. Ever elusive!
Sometimes I feel that this forum could need a little more "poison" from some, and less "poison" from others, in order to achieve the perfect dose.

I wouldn't be offended if you did laugh. If it was something that I'm too uncomfortable about then I probably wouldn't have shared the story to begin with, or at least would have presented it in a less silly matter. Though being entirely un-silly is hard for me to achieve. I find a little self-parody entirely important in life, even if it's not a laughing matter. There are limits, of course.

One person who knows everything is already a lot, I couldn't claim the same. All dead hoho...just kidding.
I'd rather not know too much, lest I'd have to fend off assassins all the time due to me being a liability. Knowing that there are dark secrets (as in calamities a person has caused, not calamities that have befallen them) is enough.

Very true, you can now play stuff on a $90 tablet that required a $6000 PC 15 years ago.
Maybe I should redeem all those free games, seeing as I might change gaming tastes in the future and the next cheap laptop I get might be able to run Witcher 2 with no problems.

You're definitely included in the "people who seem to be so free of evil that it's weird" group I mentioned above :)

If all the participants from giveaways were like that, making giveaways would be even more fun than it already is.
I know a bit about your RL situation since you've mentioned it before and considering you've got quite a lot on your plate with the family and all it's even more impressive that you're so unrelentingly positive all the time. Makes me really want to shut up every time I feel like complaining, seeing as I have no other responsibilities than 'ol me to take care of.

Crochet, knitting & sewing are awesome and underrated (and extremely useful), wish I had learned this stuff as a kid. Unfortunately, I grew up in a somewhat backwards town where the boys learned woodworking - which I'm not particularly good at - and the girls learned the knitting/sewing/crochet stuff. We only switched classes during one week where the roles got reversed but that wasn't enough. The boys were supposed to machine-sew a cap and I couldn't even do it without a lot of help form the teacher. Need more time to learn that complicated stuff! On a different occasion, we learned how to make those little friendship bracelets which is really fun, it's like creating pixel art or solving a puzzle game. You feel as if you were making something as cool as the magnificent Bayeux Tapestry, even though it's only a little bracelet. Very addictive, but I only managed to make one bracelet. For myself... :D Fortunately, my friends wouldn't expect me to give them bracelets, it would have taken me years and not because of the number of friends but because I'm so slow.
And then in middle school, the girls learned to cook and us guys attended chemistry class. The girl later had chemistry class as well in a later year but the guys never learned to cook. Ultimately, I used my basic chemistry knowledge to learn how to cook, using principles rather than recipes. I've been cooking my own meals since I turned 20 and I'm still alive so it kinda works but I still wish they hadn't done that stupid gender segregation nonsense for those classes. Because even though I know how to cook, I still can't repair my socks and have to throw them away whenever they get holes that grow too big. Never had the motivation/energy to learn the stitching/sewing etc stuff myself, classes would have helped a lot!

And It's true, one can only concentrate one one thing at a time. I know people who try to do everything at the same time and that usually doesn't result in much. One can easily identify those people because they introduce themselves to you in that way "I'm a spiritual-anarchist-maoist-artisan-artist-poet-producer-DJ-etc-etc-BS-more BS". Over the course of a lifetime, one can do and enjoy a lot of things well but to bring even one thing worthy of pursuing above casual level takes very much, and to even remotely master a single thing takes an entire lifetime.
Often, we even have to sacrifice one thing for the sake of another thing. I used to play the classical guitar a lot, ever since I was 10 years old. A couple years ago, I gave up on it and haven't touched my guitar since. After many many years, the EXP needed to level up to the next level becomes exponentially larger, in the case of playing guitar it just doesn't cut it practicing for only 1-2 hours a day, you just can't progress any further unless you take it to several hours per day. Plus, I can't have long fingernails (needed for playing) on my right hand as that would interfere with sports I'm doing and risk injury to others.

A wild genki appeared? :O

I've never played any of the casual HOG adventures over on Steam etc though some have caught my attention (Drawn The Painted Tower e.g., looks pretty amazing form an artistic point of view).
Currently, I'm enjoying Lost Horizon, a casual adventure compared to more challenging classics but it's still an adventure game proper so there are games that fall in between the uninspired games you refer to and classic "real" adventures. I too often get completely stuck in those real adventures and then I don't even have fun and put the entire game on hold. Who likes to feel stupid for not progressing in a game? No one, I'm certain. Sometimes, I really dislike the entire genre for making me feel like the unseen third guy in the Dumb and Dumber duo, or trio in that case: The guy who stupidly gets stuck in adventure games. I want escapism, not frustrationism :/

Yes, I have occasionally tried to multitask but then I remember how as a kid, I was more focused and efficient and professional about interests, always going through phases that often lasted for many weeks. Dinosaurs, LEGO, building blocks, bird watching, Egyptian hieroglyphs, always one thing! Except of course drawing which I always did but I don't count that as an interest but as a permanent vocation, often used to express an interest.

Well that wouldn't be very fair to you ;) Just because my load is different than yours doesn't mean that yours is any easier to carry. We all have our own hardships, and let's face it -- stress is stress no matter what the source!

That really is a shame :( In my grade school (or primary school, or whatever you want to call it,) everyone took shop, everyone took music, everyone took art, and everyone got taught some cooking, regardless of gender or preferences. The school system where I live now has pretty much none of these for the kids :( I'm not happy with the lack of emphasis this state puts on education, but one thing that I'm VERY happy with is the services provided for special needs kids, like mine. It varies from school to school, of course, but I feel incredibly lucky to have ended up in a school district where they take special education very seriously.

That's good to know; that I'm not alone in this ;) It's normal in my family, of course. My sister was a professional student for years and years. She loves learning, but the problem was that her interests kept changing, and she was having trouble finding that one thing to inspire her for a lifetime. She finally found it when I introduced her to a friend who was a massage therapist. She was hooked. She not only became a practicing LMT (licensed massage therapist,) but she also taught massage for a while. That wasn't enough for her, though, she needed more! lol~ She went on to get a Masters in Psychology and Oriental Medicine to complement her existing degrees... which doesn't even count the degrees she got before she found massage. My sister is awesome XD As for me, I've not yet found my own "calling" -- I go full throttle into something for a while, and then after a while I don't find it inspiring anymore. *shrugs*

*giggles* Exactly!

You'd like the casual adventures, then, and Drawn is a good one, though there are three installments, and only the first is at Steam. The Painted Tower ends at a good stopping point, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if you didn't play #2 & #3. The thing about the "adventure-lites," as I call them, is that they're usually about 3 hours long; generally not worth the $6.99 price tag ($13.99 for the CE's, which don't have all that much bonus content!!) that the casual portals charge for them. You can get some good deals on them on the right days, so if you ever decide to delve into the casual games world, let me know and I'll help you get the very best price ;D I can also give you recommendations on the best ones to try. One of my favorites IS available at Steam, though -- Dreamscapes: The Sandman. I enjoyed the heck out of this one, so if you ever see a great deal on it, I highly recommend it checking it out!)

*giggle* I can't wait to see which game tempted you so much! I have a friend on another forum who started a post-Steam-sale game "diet" for January. She decided she was not going to buy ANY game, not even a bundle, for the whole month...

... She lasted less than 24 hours. *laughs merrily* She did try, though!

Yeah... those "free" games aren't really free, of course. I don't mind paying to get special things like an expanded home base, etc, but when the games are actually "Pay-to-Win," it really irks me >_< MMO's are evilly addictive. The last two I played (FaunaSphere and Glitch) both went under (neither were pay-to-win,) and I don't think I'll ever start another.

I sinned again for the new Shadowrun Kickstarter........

But I do not regret it, If Larian, Obsidian, Inxile or even CD Project Red set up a kickstarter I would gladly sin again

This really failed to work for me. I did that for a while, and I ended up just hoarding gifts. Because, you know, I might want to play them at some point. I think that one thing which convinced me to stop was when I discovered I couldn't upgrade a gift Humble Bundle. These days I just buy stuff for myself, unless I buy specifically for gifting.
Pledged $1 for that, as I do with projects I'd like to support but don't care to get the game.

I don't want to sin but... Grim Fandango!

My problem is that it's not only games. The other day I spent $12 on the One-Roll Engine bundle at Bundle of Holding. I don't play RPG's, I probably won't read it any time soon, but like the.kuribo said, he's buying games for research, and I have this dream of creating a superhero CRPG (which 99.99% won't happen, of course) and I can't resist buying superhero P&P RPG's for research. (Actually what I want to create is a superhero MMORPG, but I'm "realistic", so I have my steps planned.)

Than there's the comics bundle at Humble that I bought (at the $1 level) even though I'm unlikely to read it at any point.

So yeah, no games in the past week+, but that doesn't mean I'm not spending money on content I'm not going to consume.

The castles do sound tempting, as does the lovely countryside, but sadly I don't see myself travelling the world anytime soon. Maybe when I am grey and old I will come visit and try to hunt you down for our longbow William Tell reenactment. You will just have to hope that old age doesn't effect my aim. :-)

I know that you know that I know that you know that I know you are only joking. :-)
I just wanted to make it clear for others, in case they thought I was trying to cause any anti-Steam sentiments.

Horses do tented to eat a lot, but then they are very energetic animals. Camels have evolved in an area where there is scare vegetation and water, so they have adapted to been less demanding on feed and upkeep. When I talk about camels, it always makes me think of Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling - how the camel go his hump.

There are those of us who are free from this buying addiction, so there will always be a few to come to a fellow GOGers aid. :-)

I'm not sure you can put me in the same group as trentonlf, I'm pretty sure I saw him turning water into wine once. :-)

I'm not sure holding back on opinions would change a person from being nice. Many people do not comment on issues as they know what this will cause, they may not want to argue, to make something into a problem, or get involved in a less than civil debate with one of these "troll-like and confrontation-happy people" you mentioned. Some people have enough things going on in the real world and would rather not have to have more troubles to deal with online. But if you are thinking I am different in real life than I am on here, then the answer is no, for the most part. I behave on here as I do normally, I don't see the appeal of behaving differently, just because the internet provides me a level of anonymity.

I agree, a bit of silliness and self-parody are always a good thing. For me it helps to keep things in prospective and not take things too seriously. But as you said, there are limits to this and exceptions.

I don't think I have many secrets from anyone, in general. I'm quite open to most people, there are only a few things I don't share, and that's because they are private, not because they are dark. I don't alway volunteer information, but if people ask, then I tend to be honest and open with them. The person who knows everything about me is someone I trust completely, a person who means more to me than anything and anyone in the world. So I think it's a safe risk to trust my secrets to this person. I love having someone I can be totally honest with at all times, someone who knows me inside and out and still wants to be with me, that's something that always makes me happy. But then I don't think the secrets are anything major, just private things between us and some other things. I think many people keep things secret because of how people react to things, not necessarily because the secret is something bad.

I don't think I have ever caused a calamity on someone else, I have had them happen to me, but I have never really caused such things to others. As I said before, life is too short to be going around causing hardship on others, especially when here is little justification for such actions. What do we really gain by being jerks to everyone?

/meh

Couldn't resist Sorcery! 2 and King of the Dragon Pass on the current Humble Mobile Bundle. I'm worried that I'll never play a PC game again with that Android backlog getting larger.

What I don't get. Why not buy them?

I mean, I won't be able to play Blackguards 2 for at least another 6 months, because I started over beginning this month with Dragon Age Origins (just bought) and then want to play through all DLC followed by Dragon Age 2 (which I also just bought last weekend), then DA3? There will be Witcher3 and Pillars of Eternity as well.

Anyway, I will eventually play it and knowing it is there in the account gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Some games actual disappeared from GOG. I got Shadows Heretic Kingdoms and their publisher went down as an example.

Dragon Age Origins is a good example, because I first bought it on Steam last year. This was a disaster and never really worked. I took a leap of faith and bought it again from Origin (EA) this time and it works good/better.

I am fully booked out this year with games, that doesn't mean I won't play anything to reduce my backlog at some stage.

It all depends on how much you buy and how much you play. It's fine to buy a game you think you'll play 6 month or a year from now, but I know that I'm unlikely to play at least 90% of my PC games ever, so buying PC games at this point is not something that I should be doing.. The Android games have a better chance of getting played, so it's more justified for me, but they do compete with PC games, so buying them means even fewer games I already bought will be played. (Except for games I already own on PC, like KOTOR which I'm playing now, where playing them on Android means I can remove them from my PC backlog.)

You know what's worse than gaming sales? Assets sales!

Unity always has a daily on one asset but regularly (every 1-2month), they do a theme-sales with a bunch of discounted assets. Then you get the same situation than with games
=> "Oh this asset looks cool and useful for my future projects, I'll buy it!"=>"Ugh! Seems like I already bought it in fact..... :( "
The difference with gaming is that it cost a lot more money than a 5$ bundle :o)