ThurinEthir

Someone want to stick me back on the map? Only Taiwan for now. Although apparently I decided to invade Bhutan. (they have an army of like 9000 people, I think :? )

That's dumb. There would eventually be no one left. I think if someone loses or surrenders, their conquered land is taken and they can basically restart with less technology, much fewer people, etc. If we're talking about how war should end, then perhaps we should make it so the "capital" can't be conquered (though it can be attacked, to simply hinder the defending player). Thank you for the responses, Japan and Holy Empire. I'm developing some new guns myself, I won't go into much detail until they're used in war, if ever. Only posting this so if I'm ever being attacked and I use this weapons, no one accuses me of hitting the "god mode" button. I don't think they're ridiculously overpowered or anything, and I'd say they're fairly realistic, more so than some of the other inventions that people here are using...

The last time I had "teams" was in 7th grade, and even then we still got lunch and recess together. Are you in high school? Waaaaaaaait you had recess in 7th grade? We had teams in middle school, I guess they were to make it easier for the teachers, and to help people make new friends or something. I moved my stuff back upstairs into my room today, I was sleeping downstairs for most of the summer due to the heat and lack of AC in my room. My sister is also officially off to college, though she gets a break next weekend and lives like 6 miles away. She also got to see Explosions in the Sky. :x Otherwise, I have to fix up my schedule tomorrow. Fun, fun, fun. At least I still have a week left before classes actually start.

Throwing this out there again. I have some new guns myself, but I won't go into much detail until they're used in war, if they ever are. (no, this isn't an invitation to invade :lol: ) And our space program is ahead of schedule, launch should be either next year or the year after.

Screw it all. I offer open borders and trade with Japan, the Holy Empire, Malaysia, and I suppose any of their allies (Aether?). Taiwan is extremely capable of mass production. *hinthint* I've now trained 6 million troops in total. 4 million are in the reserve force, 2 million are on active duty, high-alert. I have no clue what I'm doing anymore.

You could join me latino etc. as we are you closest neighbors... I would, but the reason I don't like alliances or defensive pacts is that I would probably be dragged into wars like the current one, which I may not wish to join. Though I'll consider trading. I guess I'll have to buy the fancy upgrades to my army since I'm not too interested in inventing some myself. If anyone though, yep, you guys (Malaysia and Holy Empire/whatever you're called now) would probably be my top choices for allies.

Wonderful. A world war. First off - the name of my country has changed. It is now the Republic of Changan, named after the Chinese capital of old. (translates to "long peace") I do now have 30 million people on this island, a quarter of whom are able to serve in the army. All are being trained. (half are already trained, and this is a gradual process of course) The awesome thing about being a small nation, and the awesome thing about being an island, is that it's pretty damn easy to defend. Missile shields (sky bows) have been set up, and our navy has increased to 40 ships (of various sorts), which patrol the shores of the island. We also have some 500 fighters/bombers at our disposal. The entire military has been put on high alert due to the current war, while the military leaders are still discussing whether or not to take part. Of course it would be contradicting our name (...peace, yo) if we took part in a major war and slaughtered millions of people. I've taken interest in space colonization of course, and plans are being made for our first shuttle(s). Give or take 5 years. (is that reasonable? I mean, I've been around this whole time and I'm a fairly well developed country...) I have no clue what's going on with all your futuristic uber-pwnage sci-fi tech crap, so all I'll say is that our computers and internet and cell phones ( and coverage) are awesome. Still isolationist. Though if I do end up joining this war, I hope that I will grow close relations with my allies...

*blasts Taiwan with 150 ICBM's* Nah anyways if you wanna come back in welcome :mrgreen: We're not entirely without defense, you know... :P (I know you're just kidding) And doom, that black circle wasn't even colored in on the map for a long time. :? (but yes, Malaysia has two halves - I was actually attacking the eastern half when grim decided to join...) Right now my territory only is the island of Taiwan (and the nearby islands, but I think they're far too small to color in), I relinquished control over the Philippines and my part of Indonesia when I went into my period of extreme isolationism.

I might have been lying the whole time. Taiwan might actually still be in the state (except much, much more advanced, of course) it was in 30 years ago, when this supposed "typhoon/tsunami" hit. I already was extremely isolationist, even more so than Tokugawa Japan. Though the population was projected to decrease (for some reason...), my population is now actually 30 million people. I'm still counting the size of my army... (more detailed report to come later. I'm watching the Taiwan-Cali little league game now... :P )

I was at Target last week with my family, helping my sister get some supplies for college. Naturally, so was everyone else, and it was extremely crowded. I think maybe 20 people walked out of the store, setting off the detector, but without stopping at all. And I don't think anyone cared. :?

So my friend theorized (more like heard from his sister) that we could figure out what section we were in from the list of courses that were sent to us a while back. If he's correct, then it looks like I have English, history and chem with two, if not three, of my good friends. :thumbup:

We think alike. Although I somehow had Pikachu beating Gordon Freeman in the final. :P

I kind of wish mine was that interesting. Though we do get our handful of fire alarms (not drills) and bomb threats. I had piano lessons right after I woke up today. Definitely not fun. And then I helped my sister move some of her stuff into her college dorm. She's going to Boston University, which is like...really close to my house. I'm not sure when she completely moves in, I'll be an only child from then on. That will be interesting. :|

I'd consider them more post-rock. Though I never really understood or got into the whole "MUST STICK THIS BAND INTO THIS SPECIFIC SUB-GENRE!!!" thing. But yes, they're great. Especially that song. Jesu is also kind of shoegazing, though I haven't listened to much of their stuff. I know Nadril has though. I'll try listening to some of those bands you listed, I guess. I think it's fairly similar to post-rock, which I'm quite into right now. And hey, I kind of like Snow Patrol. :P ...Apparently I'm currently listening to them...

RIP My hat goes off to him. He's been one of "my" senators for the past 10+ years, and I've agreed with him on just about every issue. And he's done quite a lot for this country - just see mage's post. He's also been through a lot - a fatal airplane crash, a fatal car crash, the assassination of two of his brothers, and of course the brain cancer that finally defeated him. As noted, he definitely wasn't too well known (less than he should've been, to be honest), but he was pretty important. At least for Americans. And he was a Kennedy...

EXCELENTE! :P I was bored so I checked my rating with everyone in the group, only found one other super...Nyosuht, whoever that is. :? (And a lot more very high/highs than I expected :thumbup: )

Agreed. Though apparently the dude who invented instant noodles (which is what this "ramen" really is) was born in Taiwan. Interesting. (I do have instant noodles semi-frequently, but authentic ramen really is the best...)

Just spent an hour beating Max Dirt Bike 2. I need to go get one of those life things.

I dont think anyone can top that. I applaud you. =D> Seriously though, thats awesome. Granted, I applied kind of late. (Only like two weeks into the summer though, and I was gone during the first week on a service trip) But it's still beyond me why you would reject free work. :?

Same... :( This was a terribly boring summer, made even worse due to the [cabbage] [wagon] job market right now. I applied to a ton of jobs but no one wants to hire someone for like 2 1/2 months. Thank god college starts up again next week. I know what you mean. I even got rejected by a supermarket. A freaking supermarket. I got rejected from a volunteer position at a library. What the hell. This was the first summer where I've really only stayed home. The past three years, I've gone back to Taiwan, and before that I either also went back to Taiwan or went somewhere else. Which means I stayed home and played computer games every single day. My eyesight has probably decreased so much. I suppose I managed to complete some nice things in some video games, which can count as achievements... ...Though I did kind of learn Python. I suppose that's the only real achievement for me this summer. I've also picked up running and swimming on a somewhat frequent basis again. Still two and a half weeks left for me, and as I'm a procrastinator maybe I can get something done.

I live just outside Boston, MA. I'll start with the city itself... I guess it's your average city. Not huge. Not tiny. Pretty diverse - downtown is full of shiny skyscrapers, while the southern side is the poorer side, and North End is home to mainly Italians. It's a coastal city, which is nice - Boston Harbor is great, and there's plenty of seafood - clam chowder. :) Plymouth is kind of nearby, and Boston itself is one of the oldest settlements by Europeans in this country. There's plenty of history here, it more or less is home to the American Revolution. (I know. It's not. But I like to say it is) Harvard and MIT aren't in Boston itself, but both are pretty great schools so I suppose it's kind of a college town. Now, for where I live. Like many of the suburbs around here, it's full of white, rich families, a good portion of which are Jewish. (I wouldn't say my family is any of those 3 though...) It's a fairly nice city, not polluted (you see Prii - is that the plural of Prius? - everywhere), though we don't have any skyscrapers or anything. All it really is though is homes and stores. We do have a lot of public transportation, one of the few suburbs to actually have subways running through, allowing for easy access to go into the real city, Boston. The weather here is constantly changing, though generally it's fairly hot during the summer and mild during the spring. Boston in the fall is awesome. Though there aren't that many trees left in the city itself, nor in my suburb, the scenery can get pretty amazing. As for winter, we get snowstorms, maybe a few blizzards. Nor'easters too. I have no clue why you would want to move here during the winter, most people don't like it, especially past the little kid stage where snow days are awesome. :P I have no clue if the accents are famous or not, but . Three of the greatest things about Boston are in that commercial - the accents, the Red Sox, and Dunkin' Donuts. :thumbup: I'd love to write some things about Taipei, but it'd simply end up with me repeating "IT IS AWESOME" over and over. Gotta have some love for the motherland, y'know?

I'm a christian, but I think it is ok. I'm the "interpret the bible in your own way" Christian. I (unlike other belief-fundamentalists) think for myself. "Our" God is one of love, and that is what sexuality (in all its forms) is all about. God is supposed to love everybody. The bible is an ancient book, some stuff might be lost in translation, and it shouldn't be taken literally. IMO, it's a book full of metaphors, and guidelines (not rules) on how to live "properly". That being said, I still find it awkward when I see 2 guys making out. I can't help it. And, along the same line, I'm quite the hypocrit just like Das. But then again, there's a lot of hypocrisy in Catholicism, so that fits :lol: You need to read the entire old testament; it is quite literal, and quite vial. You also need to know the context of the old testament. Especially Leviticus, since I'm pretty sure that verse in there is the only one that clearly condemns homosexuality.

I got a list of my courses a few days ago (I think it was Saturday?), but we get our actual schedules (as in when those courses are during the day, and who our teachers are) on the first day of school (which is the 8th for me). Apparently so many course lists have been [bleep]ed up this year that an arena to fix your schedule is being held a week before school starts. (It's always been in the afternoon on the first few days of school in the past) I might have to go. :wall: And if it's anything like what happened last time I had to go to one of these things, I'll end up waiting 40 minutes in one line for someone to tell me that no, I'm not listed under having a messed up schedule, being sent to the line for my counselor and waiting 20 minutes, having her tell me some stuff I need to know, and going back to the first line for another 30 minutes. Awesome.

To be honest, I don't think he made much sense. Either that or my Chinese sucks/I don't know Chinese slang. From what I gathered though, he (or she) is from Taiwan, and wants to speak in Chinese to other Chinese people. Which reminds me, I once talked to some random person in Chinese on Omegle. Was rather interesting. He ended up telling me that my Chinese is horrible. :P

Saw my name/Taiwan pop up a few times. I still read this thread, it's interesting. I'm just too lazy to make up plans and too uncreative to come up with awesome technology. I originally had Taiwan implode due to dividing by 0 (...), but that was only a cover-up, as no survivors were left behind to tell what really happened. (except me, of course) A tsunami (very rare in those parts, I think, but possible) and a large typhoon (if you've been reading the news you've probably heard about major typhoons ravaging Taiwan...) hit the island at the exact same time, as if the will of the gods. The island was more or less sunk due to all the water pouring down on it. But now, some strange phenomenon has happened. The island has come back. It's risen from the depths of the seas. Although, all people were killed, and 95% of the infrastructure was destroyed. It is unclaimed (Serephurus, I think in your map you included it with China - for the purpose of this game I'd separate the two) for now, and my former colonies (eastern Indonesia, the Philippines) have been restored to their former governments (which means they're open as well). I'd also like to mention a few other things: -Malaysia has part of Borneo too. I don't know if grim wants it or not, but I don't think it's been marked on the maps. -The capital system could work like it does in Civ4 (except by countries, not cities). Your first city is automatically made your capital (so the first country you start out with), and all other cities (countries) you conquer/obtain are just regular cities. However, if you lose your capital, a random city is chosen as your new capital. (I guess we can't have it be random, the player can choose) You can also move your capital at any time [by building a palace]. -Someone should be able to claim a country that isn't a capital if they want, but they'll most likely have to fight a rebellion war against the previous owner. So for example, someone could claim Saudi Arabia now, but they'd probably have to fight KOJ. (up to the two - or more - involved parties to decide, of course) Just my thoughts. I might randomly reappear again. :P