Zonorhc

I give you that I am a little prejudiced. I don't make excuses for that. I believe that everyone has a responsibility to contribute to the society that provides for them, and my disapproval for people's failure in this regard isn't limited to indigenous people. However, I wouldn't go so far as to say that I think that indigenous people are "simple minded". I am well aware that there are indigenous people who contribute to society and even more (of the younger generation) who want to develop their potential to do so, but the problem lies, for the most part, in the older generation holding them back, whether out of jealously, spite for our society, or whatever reason. And I do think that we as a society are partly to blame for promoting their victim culture. Whether or not one culture is "superior" is irrelevant. If an individual wants to take advantage of the benefits of a society, they are obligated to contribute their own efforts and resources to maintaining and improving that society. If that means that they must integrate, then so be it. There is a horrifying amount of left bias in my university in general, and in the Education and Arts faculties in particular.

Diamond has some very good anthropological ideas, but they don't really pertain to how indigenous peoples integrate into modern societies. However well indigenous people can perform tasks which their culture prepares them for is irrelevant (even discounting the fact that the majority of indigenous people you meet in Sydney wouldn't have the first clue about bushcraft). What matters is that they now live as part of a Western nation with predominantly Western values, and they reap the benefits of that. We don't know if they would be happier if they remained a hunter-gatherer society. Cultural relativism is a singularly useless idea when you consider that these people have already adapted to urban lifestyles and desire the benefits of Western civilisation, as we all do, but a great many of them refuse to uphold their end of the social bargain. At this point, they have already milked history for all it's worth, and then some.

You make it sound like I'm part of some TIF version of Godwin's Law. Anyway. The big issue with the indigenous population is that they have an ingrained home culture which doesn't necessarily agree with that of the wider Australian society. The older generation of indigenous people have difficulty appreciating the benefits of education and social responsibility, and thus are unable to pass on those values to their children. Some indigenous children take steps to take control of their own lives, but the instability of home life makes it near-impossible for them to do well in school. From conversations with indigenous high school students, I can say that while the majority of them tend to fit the stereotype that their parents' generation has created for them, there are a few who exercise their ability to develop their potential as educated and responsible members of society. However, the fact that the students I have spoken to were from a school designated by the NSW Department of Education and Training as "hard to staff" (that is, disadvantaged and rife with problems that very few teachers want to work there) is telling. The vast majority of indigenous children are in such schools, largely as a result of problems at home. Either their parents' activities prevent them from achieving academically, or the parents actively prevent them from said. These problems are difficult to deal with because, as has been said, it's far too easy for the less reasonable members of the indigenous community to pull the race card the moment the government attempts to "interfere" with their culture. Nor does it help that our education system itself helps to reinforce a victim culture among indigenous people, while giving students of non-indigenous background the impression (through curricula that emphasis "valuing", "appreciation" and "celebration" of indigenous cultures) that to criticise any aspect of indigenous culture is a cardinal sin. In a country that claims to hold egalitarian values dear to heart and celebrates the idea of a "fair go", I think we may have really dropped the ball on the issue of indigenous equity. I am somewhat less hesitant to voice my opinions on this topic here because the Faculty at the university frowns on students who do not subscribe to the philosophy that the dignity of minority cultures is infallible and sacrosanct. The Rudd government made some headway with the great spectacle of the Apology, but it doesn't seem to have done enough to follow up on that. The PM has essentially said, "sorry for everything our ancestors did to your ancestors; now get over it and do something useful," however, this message doesn't seem to have been received, or the second part has been largely ignored by both the indigenous community at large as well as by bleeding heart policy makers.

The basecoat of gunmetal was painted on directly, but the highlight was drybrushed.

Quick update. Finished the first squad of the 1st Bisonian Mechanised, led by Sgt Sagat.

Fighting isn't about honour. That said: [hide=This][/hide]

I once saw a DK go into H Nexus and brag about pulling 1.3k DPS. I've never had problems with any other class.

I try.

Imperial Guard.

Updates! This is the turret, just after spraying with undercoat: After painting, on its own: Attached to the tank: Depends. Plastic kits hover around AU$30-60 if you buy from Games Workshop, but you can save 5-15% if you shop around. Paints, brushes and modeling equipment are separate.

That is why his ride is called Psycho Crusher. The regiment is called the 1st Bisonian Mechanised. It should be fine once I've actually painted it.

What do you mean? Quick update: finished converting/assembling the flamer turret today. Should have it painted in the next couple of days. The turret: Here's what it looks like mounted on the chimera:

For the mud on the dozer blade: 1. Basecoat with a 1:2 mix of Calthan Brown and Undercoat Black. 2. Light drybrush of Calthan Brown. 3. Light drybrush of 2:1 Calthan Brown and Tallarn Flesh. 4. Light wash of Devlan Mud. The scrapes are just a very light drybrush of Gunmetal, washed with Devlan Mud then highlighted with Mithril Silver. The tracks are likewise just Gunmetal with two washes of Devlan Mud.

My shaman's off-spec is resto. Real men survive with nothing but stacks of MP5.

You may remember the grey boxy thing in one of my other pictures of little mans. Here is the same grey boxy thing, painted: Front view (with my Company Commander for size reference): Side view: I am currently working on the turret, bits of which you can see in the background of the first picture. The paint job does need touching up in places, and I need to put in a few more weathering effects. This is an earlier picture, before I fixed up the mold lines on the hull flamer and gave it a scorched appearance, and before I made the tracks look dirtier:

Some people figure that if you're playing on a PvP server that you'd want to PvP. I know, I know, it's a crazy ideal. To be fair, I gank when I get the chance to. It's a load of fun to smack people upside the head with windfury, wolves and instant lightning bolts, but the PVP class balance is horribly skewed against (enhancement) shamans at the moment.

The reason will come in time. Also, this arc was preceded by the "War Running" arc from earlier in the year. And to Varrockians, siege is a state of mind. To them, until there's brutal house-to-house fighting going on, they're merely surrounded. That's what happens when they tell me to write about Runescape, instead of the GRIM DARK steampunk fantasy I usually work with.

Epeen. If you think you're having problems with getting ganked, try being a shaman sometime.

Yes you can! That said, you might end up having me as your proofreader. I can't say I have a good record in that department.

Don't you have about a billion other things sitting on the front page waiting for second chapters?

Frankly, I'd be surprised if most people did. Wouldn't kill you to start, though.

When designing a setting, you should have an idea about what makes your setting different to others. What's your gimmick? It's no good to have a detailed, developed world when it's entirely generic. What's the underlying theme? Humans fighting off monsters? Humans fighting off each other? Utopia? Dystopia? Designing a physical setting and giving names to places is the easy part. It's also one of the least important parts of setting design. You have to know what you want to do with the world and what you want the world to do with your characters before you can actually have something useful.

My sun protection consists of WoW and Warhammer 40k.

Got this title today! [hide=Large image][/hide]

You can pick out which minis I painted first. Thorvald, Gisli and Egil in the crossbow dwarves (and Harald the axedwarf) were the first minis I painted, and I think it really shows. @ hawkxs: They are all plastic minis, except for Ragnar. The dwarves are from the Warhammer Dwarf Warriors and Dwarf Thunderers kits, and Ragnar is a Dwarf Slayer. The Guardsmen are all (surprise) from Warhammer 40k. I mixed together bits from the Cadian Command Squad and Cadian Shock Troops sprues. Really should paint that Chimera soon.