ThurinEthir

Holy crap guys. I went away for a few hours to play some CivIV (you know, the real deal), and I come back and there's 7 more pages. You guys better not go crazy overnight, I'm not reading 20 pages when I wake up tomorrow. So I skimmed most of the posts, must say I laughed at the mentions of Taiwan, thanks for the ego boost. I'm really not well read on most of the things that the government deals with, so excuse my ignorance if it prevails. I'll try to summarize my responses to the posts directed at me, and to some that aren't... @Alliance with SAR. Seeing as you're already allied with China, I'm going to have to say no. This does not mean we're enemies, I'm not trying to antagonize you. I simply don't wish to help China in a time of war. Especially since China is the most likely nation I'll be at war against. @Taiwan/China. Yeah, you're not going to see a real alliance between China and Taiwan any time soon. I am on the younger side, so I don't have any particular contempt towards China, but I'd really like to see an independent Taiwan someday. And yep, Taiwan is also called the ROC, and I admit my acronym of ROT (didn't notice that...) is a bit...Eh. :P @Adrenal. What do you think of the SAR? I'm starting to think they're falling into the same category as China, trying to expand quite a lot. @Meol. What do you say, ally with India and I? We seem to all be slightly concerned with certain nations/organizations becoming too large... @China. Okay. We're at peace. For now. @All other nations. I do not wish to antagonize any of you. Peace is the answer, but if you should feel war is a necessary evil... You'll have to deal with my reserve army of 1.7 million soldiers (8th largest in the world - and I can draft up to 4 million more, most of whom have been trained). All pretty well equipped. And I have a fairly strong air force, not to mention the all-too-critical navy to protect the shores of my island. Some other stats concerning Taiwan... -26th in GDP. That's ahead of Ireland, to give you an idea. -Approximately .95% of the population is below the poverty line. That's the lowest recorded by the CIA in 2007. (Norway was not recorded, and I'd think that Norway would be up - or down - there too. Next though, was Lithuania with 4%) -.932 HDI, which is 23rd. About the same as Germany and Israel. Not incredible. But very nice for a small island about the size of Maryland, with as many people as Texas. Graaaaar more CivIV this thread better not have completely exploded when I'm back.

Imaginary nukes. :-$ I thought of CivIV (RFC mod) as soon as I read this thread. :P And I don't think I need to put what country I am in my sig, if I don't mention Taiwan enough in my posts, you can just look at my avatar... :|

Didn't meol claim Spain? He made a brief description of his plans, which I would consider enough. After a few days, can we start conquering unwanted lands? =P~

Oh yea, forgot about you Indians. Alliance plz? Prevent major Chinese expansion together, look into SEA together? Sounds good? Some updates on the situation in Taiwan: -I forget to mention - not only would I work on technological (computer-related, mainly) advances, but I would get my doctors/scientists to do some medical research too. Everyone knows that all Asians are doctors, so I'm sure I could make some progress. -The KMT has been defeated, the DPP is now in charge. The flag has been changed to the one in my avatar. Taiwan has no ties to the Republic of China, but is rather the Republic of Taiwan. This means a fairly liberal and left-wing government. -Though I'm maintaining a military and have hinted at a show of aggressiveness towards southeast Asia, my nation is a mainly pacifist nation. The Confucian ideal of universal peace is strongly emphasized. Education is also fairly strongly emphasized as well. -The islands that formerly were part of the Republic of China, but not necessarily part of Taiwan, are now up for grabs, should either Japan or China (or anyone else) want them. Of course, I will take them back under my wing if they desire me to. -A significant harvest of starfruit and guava has occurred! You know you like exotic fruits. ;) I think some negotiations are needed, istolethepie, by the way. Shall we attempt to build a tunnel across the Taiwan Strait? I believe we have some of the greatest engineers this world has seen in our lands. Let's show those silly Brits and French what a real tunnel is. :P

Was it not obvious? I'll take Taiwan. And while I'm at it, istolethepie, may I claim Hong Kong from you? It was only "returned" to China ~12 years ago, why not give it up again? :D (I'll give you bananas. And guava. And high-mountain tea) Who would now have the strength to stand against the armies of Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the union of the two towers? Of course, I'm talking about the Taipei 101 and the International Commerce Center. But okay, let's go with plans for Taiwan...(Is there much to improve? Taiwan has one of the lowest poverty rates in the world, it has a rapidly growing economy, and has a rather high HDI) -Improve relations with China. Assuming I've already declared independence, I'd have to suck up to istolethepie to prevent him from attacking me. Fair enough. Like I said, I'll hand over some bananas and guava. -Extend the high speed rail throughout the entire island. All the way from Taipei to Kenting, on both the east and west coast. -Continue technological development, especially for computers and stuff like that. Taiwan is already home to a few major computer companies, such as ASUS. -Institute laws enforcing environmental preservation. Running down the middle of Taiwan is a heavily forested mountain range, which proves to be an amazing landscape. Also, as an island, there are many, many beaches - definitely worth preserving. Pollution isn't a huge problem in most of Taiwan, and it's definitely been improving in the past years, but I'd continue to work on reducing it. Somehow. -Look into renewable energy more. Wind, water, and solar energy all have pretty good potential in Taiwan. This also would leave me more coal to export, which would be nice seeing as there aren't that many other notable natural resources in Taiwan. -Continue the current conscription system (assuming I understand it correctly), of training males after the age of 18 for a few years, and then placing them in the reserve force. As Indy said, looks like a good deal of you will be keeping strong militaries - I should probably keep up. And of course, people need to fear teh towerz. More or less the same for Hong Kong (assuming I receive it). It'd give me some control over the Taiwan Strait. :thumbup: (No one's looking into southeast Asia? Perhaps some annexation is in order...)

My sister's heading off to college this fall, which will leave me as an only child. But she's been gone for a good portion of this summer - she was in Taiwan by herself for a few weeks in June, she was in DC for a week a while ago, and she was at orientation a few days ago It's alright, since I'm not too fond of her, and we can still communicate online, but the biggest downside I've felt is that my parents focus so much more on me now. And it's attention I don't want, I've grown used to them basically ignoring me and dealing with my sister instead, and I kind of just want to be left alone. Oh well. My sister's only going to a college like half an hour away. So it should be fine.

Does that really matter? Rape is rape, no matter if it happens to an 8 year old girl or a 30 year old man. Someone from Liberia or someone from Kentucky. People were wondering about the culture/background of the girl and her family. I looked it up again, it appears that both the girl and the boys were from Liberian families. That says nothing about the religion, but there you go...

Sorry I don't like discussing horrible events on a Runescape forum that everyone already knows about. And everyone is just going to say the same thing...it was bad, it was wrong, bad family, poor girl. Hornay boys. Then stay out of off topic or don't look at the thread. I frequent Digg and I had not heard of this until today. You're the only one so far that has heard about this before. I actually read an article about it a few days ago, but yea, big whoop, it's a week old. The article I read (I think it was on CNN) mentioned something about how the kids (I don't remember which kids - the boys or the girl) were from refugee families from the "war-torn country of Liberia." Just thought that might be notable.

That's why I always have a bottle of water next to my bed and on my desk. Except for right now. And I'm rather thirsty. Gaaaaaaah. I was woken up this morning because my mom had some guests over, and they were extremely loud, and my mom didn't even tell me they were coming. And like you, my dad is really loud. Nearly every Saturday I'm woken up by him talking on the phone. I understand that he's talking with people about his job or something, but honestly, there's no reason to shout - I can hear him from all the way across the house. (Not like our house is that big though...) Recently, I've found that I'm quite annoyed by people who insist on talking to you even though you clearly don't want to talk.

Oh my god! Long time no see eh!? Heh, yeah. Of course this'll get locked soon enough. Glad to know you're back...For now at least. (I think Runescapeloser is at camp right now, if you're wondering...)

YOU. :

This is so true O___o Also, my Asian parents are strict and they are also controlling and manipulative. And we eat a lot of rice... Instead of grounding they hit you. Or maybe that's just us xP I don't think I've ever been grounded. When I was little, I would get time-outs...Except not your typical time-outs. I would have to stand against a wall (straight...so it was like..[Caution: Executable File]rcise...) for 5 minutes or something. Of course my parents dropped that eventually, and I don't think I've ever gotten in trouble with them since. I consider myself a fairly well behaved kid, though if I do some thing really bad...Who knows, maybe they'll bust the bamboo sticks out. Though my parents aren't that strict. At least, to me...My sister's gotten a fair deal of punishment.

Oh wait, I just remembered - I used to fight with my sister quite a lot. I think I tried throwing a chair at her once...More like dropped it on my foot.

I payed a dollar for my iPod. How'd you manage that? Perhaps a raffle? If someone were to steal something from my backpack (which is something that does happen quite a lot at my school), they would be best off taking my calculator. It's the most valuable thing, in monetary and personal terms.

So there was this ring of power... Nerdy jokes aside, I think I'm too paranoid to lose anything. The only thing I can remember right now is when I was in London some 6 years ago, I was on the tube/underground/whatever you guys call it there, with my family of course. As we were leaving the train and leaving the station, I felt my pockets - couldn't find my ticket-thingy. I started to panic, wondering if I would be able to get past the gates. Of course, the guards there were nice enough to let a little kid through. Oh, and the next day, I was on the plane home...Found the ticket in my pocket. #-o Now whenever I'm on a subway/train, I check my pockets every few minutes for my card/ticket.

Asian Lenin? That's a new one. If you're ever in Boston: -Walk the Freedom Trial. FREEDOM BABY, FREEDOM. But really, so much of the American Revolution happened around here, so there are some good historical sites. -Have clam chowder. There's no clam chowder like Bostonian clam chowder. -Visit a Dunkin' Donuts. I'm sure they exist all over the world. I've seen them in Taiwan. But DD's was founded in Massachusetts. And if you're ever in Taipei (I have no clue why you would be there, but whatever...): -Go to the top (at least the 89th floor) of the Taipei 101. Oh come on - it's the tallest completed skyscraper as of now...You can't miss it. -Go to the Miramar Entertainment Park. There's a wheel thingy there, Taipei's equivalent to the London Eye. There's also a movie theater, where I saw The Dark Knight and HP5. Oh, and my uncle helped design/overlook construction of the place. -Go to Danshui at sunset. You won't regret it. (That picture doesn't come close to capturing the epicness - I have a picture that my sister took, but it's not on this computer, I might upload it later)

I don't think I've ever been in anything you could actually classify as a fight (and I hope to never be in one)...The last scruffle (I suppose that's what it would be called) I was in ended with me snapping the other guy's pencil. Interpret that however you will.

I think I have a go set at home somewhere, though I think all I've done with it is make cool patterns with the pieces. #-o

[hide=My guesses at number 5]Weather? A storm?[/hide]

It's a free MMORPG, that means...Grinding. And more grinding. So if you're not into that kind of thing...Avoid it. The graphics are pretty good for a free game, but I didn't like it at all. I also hear the classes are really unbalanced, which really shouldn't happen. Oh, and I think it's out of beta now, but when I played, half the quests had terrible English, and one of them actually was in Chinese. :wall: Darn. :wall: . You can go ahead and try it if you want, since I didn't play enough to make an accurate judgment (and like I said, I played in beta, now it's officially released so it should be slightly better). I'd just recommend against it. (If you're looking for an okay free MMORPG, I'd recommend either Anarchy Online or Cabal Online)

As your typical Asian, yep, I play piano. I've been taking lessons for >10 years, though for quite a few of those years I wasn't dedicated to it, and my parents actually don't force me to practice or anything, so I'm not that great. I generally play classical (Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart, mainly), but I've tried printing some sheet music to learn on my own. Never really tried keyboarding though, if there's a difference. I agree with Intriguing, I think it sounds nice with a violin (which I don't play, but wish I did...), though occasionally it can sound nice by itself. Just some stuff I've played recently (past year and a half) that I've liked: Chopin's Nocturne Op. 15 No. 2 Recently, I've found that's it's actually pretty fun. It's definitely better if you enjoy what you're playing, and I really like some of the Chopin stuff I posted above.

It's a free MMORPG, that means...Grinding. And more grinding. So if you're not into that kind of thing...Avoid it. The graphics are pretty good for a free game, but I didn't like it at all. I also hear the classes are really unbalanced, which really shouldn't happen. Oh, and I think it's out of beta now, but when I played, half the quests had terrible English, and one of them actually was in Chinese. :wall:

I thought you were talking about Team Fortress 2 for a second. #-o Nadril, have you tried Mount and Blade? You probably remember the thread about it here, and the positive reviews it got. I don't know if it's your type of game though.

I lol'd irl at that. As did I. :lol:

And Noby Noby Boy. :P For no apparent reason, I've been playing some 2006 FIFA World Cup (The EA Sports game...) recently. I played through the European qualifiers and the World Cup as France, of course I won. But Uzbekistan and Nigeria both made it to the semis. And Brazil, Italy and the Czech Republic were all eliminated in the group round. And Switzerland didn't even qualify, Ireland did instead. The game isn't even that great, but for some reason I'm finding it pretty fun.