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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Oct 31, 2014 19:21:10 GMT -5
So my Colonial Marines costume positively awed my neighbors. Several photos of me posing with adults and kids may have been taken...
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, IGMB!
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Post by Jackal-0311 on Oct 31, 2014 19:50:27 GMT -5
Looking nice Trooper.
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Oct 31, 2014 20:09:43 GMT -5
Holy heck, you live! Welcome back!
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Oct 31, 2014 20:10:01 GMT -5
Thanks! It's surprisingly comfortable to wear too. I'm still armored up as now the older kids are starting to prowl the neighborhood for candy.
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Post by emptyhat on Oct 31, 2014 20:16:49 GMT -5
What happens to the ISS if the upcoming Russian supply launch also fails?
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Oct 31, 2014 20:25:36 GMT -5
I think they have supplies to last them a good while, so it's not urgent.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Oct 31, 2014 20:28:12 GMT -5
Yeah, I thought I heard that they've got enough supplies on hand to last until March... But I thought the Russians already got their launch off successfully right after the Antares blew up?
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Post by ElegaicRequiem on Oct 31, 2014 21:36:38 GMT -5
Thanks! It's surprisingly comfortable to wear too. I'm still armored up as now the older kids are starting to prowl the neighborhood for candy. Wipe them out. Take their candy. Howl at the moon and dance the candy dance.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Nov 1, 2014 1:39:58 GMT -5
Thanks! It's surprisingly comfortable to wear too. I'm still armored up as now the older kids are starting to prowl the neighborhood for candy. Wipe them out. Take their candy. Howl at the moon and dance the candy dance.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Nov 1, 2014 10:35:19 GMT -5
Its mind boggling they arent using modern tech, I guess its the budget issue. Americans need to be reinvigorated. In a sense, we are. Chemical rockets have been a mature technology since about the 1970s; there aren't going to be any real breakthroughs or major refinements to be made. Unfortunately, the best surface-to-orbit rocket that we know how to build is also the one that we'll never use due to its rather nasty side effects: the Orion Nuclear Pulse Engine, also known as, "old boom-boom."
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Post by jenburdoo on Nov 1, 2014 11:30:50 GMT -5
They have six months or so of supply, and Soyuz craft they can use to escape the station in a pinch. They won't be stranded or run out of air. Hopefully they'll never have to.
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Post by ElegaicRequiem on Nov 1, 2014 17:25:46 GMT -5
Wipe them out. Take their candy. Howl at the moon and dance the candy dance. I said you should take their candy and dance. You don't have to eat any.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Nov 1, 2014 17:34:18 GMT -5
I said you should take their candy and dance. You don't have to eat any. It is pointless to have candy and not eat it... <.< >.>
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Post by ElegaicRequiem on Nov 1, 2014 19:28:15 GMT -5
That's like saying it's pointless to be President and not kill everybody who bothers you.
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Post by emptyhat on Nov 1, 2014 20:01:54 GMT -5
Isn't that why Trooper hasn't run for office? (BTW, do you read Dr. McNinja?)
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Post by Jackal-0311 on Nov 2, 2014 14:59:06 GMT -5
Holy heck, you live! Welcome back! Yes sir I'm back. Was gone for a bit on some assignments (training and work), then a transfer of duty station. Been traveling allot. Was on the Eastern Seaboard for a terrible amount of time...it was summer there. Now I'm settled, body and mind are a little tiered but those is the life I chose.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Nov 2, 2014 23:28:17 GMT -5
I did some more customization on my USCM armor today: That's on the back plate, roughly in the small of the back. I still need to get around to painting the logo of the chicken being strangled on the chest plate, and then I need to add some dirtiness to the armor with some ground up charcoal, and a layer of matte sealer. I also did some customization on my Pulse Rifle: I trimmed the forearm pump for the grenade launcher to make it closer to the on-screen version, added a trigger for the grenade launcher, added some weathering, and named the gun "Charlene." Still debating whether or not to paint the grenade launcher's body black. I also added this slogan to the other side of the shroud (photo was taken before I added the trigger for the grenade launcher). I still need to bodge together a sling--research on how to make it look as close to screen accurate in placement is ongoing. I also need to remove the dummy shotgun shell in the grenade launcher and replace it with one of the replica M40 grenades that came with my armor, but that's going to require some major surgery (beyond opening up the body of the gun, which I did on Friday night and is a major female dog to do).
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Nov 3, 2014 13:02:56 GMT -5
Guess what guys! It's Midterm Elections in the United States!
First of all, that means those Americans on the forum should go vote. Just do it. Even if you don't like anyone on the ballot for any office, state or national, go vote and vote for Batman.
Second, because I'm bored, I figure I'd throw out some predictions that I can either point to and say "I told you so" with a smug look on my face, or you all can continuously taunt me about when I'm proven wrong.
Prediction 1) The Republican Party will gain control of the Senate. This is pretty much a given at this point. The party not in the White House usually picks up seats during the midterm elections, and the GOP tends to have a stronger showing in midterms than the Democrats do. I doubt it will be a super majority though. Republicans will probably pick up a few seats in the House too.
Prediction 2) The GOP will see this as validation that the majority of Americans subscribe to their platform, and they will be wrong. Look for smug faces on Fox News and doom-criers on MSNBC, and lots of articles about how Americans are "Tacking Rightward" or the GOP is "Resurgent". This is pretty much a load of bull both sides will push for their own reasons. The senate will flip for the two reasons I mentioned above, as well as Obama's lack of popularity. As a whole, though,polls show Americans are pulling more toward the center and the left on domestic issues like Gay Marriage and Minimum Wage. Things like the government's budget and which brown people, if any, we bomb, will continue to be the major areas of disagreement.
Prediction 3A) Gridlock will get worse. The first few months will be the GOP trying to ram through their agenda without working with Democrats, the Democrats refusing to work with the GOP's 'Radical Agenda', and Obama vetoing anything that the GOP gets through. This is mostly a political show of force that politicians can use during the next election, saying they stuck to their party principles by either trying to push legislation through, or by refusing to vote for the legislation. Neither side will expect to get anything done in reality.
Prediction 3B) There will be another minor rebellion within the GOP. After the whole song and dance I described above runs it's course, the more moderate wings of both parties will come together and try to compromise to get stuff done, especially as it draws closer to 2016 and they need accomplishments to take back to the voters in their states and districts. The hard right of the GOP (and to a lesser extend, the far Left of the democrats) will both try to sabotage these efforts and tar the compromisers as traitors to their party. This will be more of a problem for the GOP, since the Tea Party et al. is more likely to campaign against moderate GOP congressmen and senators, and sabotage their party's efforts in the house and senate.
Prediction 4) The Democrats will probably take the Senate and White House in 2016. This one's a bit more uncertain given how fast political careers can blow up, but unless the GOP does some major outreach, and shifts their platform more toward the center, they're unlikely to win the White House. Demographics simply aren't on their side as it stands now, and they'll have trouble adjusting to the nation's more liberal attitude on social issues. I'm calling that the Senate will flip simply because democrats vote in larger numbers during presidential elections, and they'll bring in more Democratic senators in the process of electing whoever the Democrats put up for a candidate. The House will remain republican, unless the Democrats get their turn at redistricting.
Anyway, that's just my personal opinion, which I've done my best to ground it in pragmatism rather than political dogma. What do you guys think?
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Post by cheminhaler on Nov 3, 2014 15:20:00 GMT -5
I think John Kerry still hates Bush junior for calling him a 'flip-flopper'. Is Hillary Clinton running for office this time?
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Post by ElegaicRequiem on Nov 3, 2014 15:20:06 GMT -5
Like all things political, I'm waiting for the huge backlash of all the "Vote or Die" campaigns. Instead of getting everyone to vote, the voters realize that it's become at least 51% a joke at this point, with neither party really representing the general population.
Prediction 5 (aka "the long term prediction") Voters will boycott the system. In doing so, only the most ardent of extremists will bother to vote through the boycott, and only the most radical (cowabunga!) candidates will find offices. People will riot in the streets, and anarchy will reign until the National Guard is deployed on our own citizens. Marshal law will be declared, and the US will break into federated states, essentially balkanizing the country. This attempt at failure will also fail due to pressures from the rest of the world, and all the broken pieces will be shoddily superglued back together, but a bunch of little chips will go missing.
Or
People will continue to vote for the sake of wearing that "I voted" sticker and being arrogant about it until they go home and toss it in the trash. Not once did the majority of them bother to learn about the candidates they voted for. Bitching will follow, and after that, acquiescence to a fate worse than... well, probably worse than the last guy. Until the next guy comes along, and then the previous guy wasn't so bad. Four guys later, he'll be a saint. Unless he did a bad job covering his tracks at all the shady stuff he did. Just like everyone else does. But at least we're not eating rats we had to catch with out bare hands and cook over the kindling made from a defunct constitution. Yay!
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Post by RedsandRoyals on Nov 3, 2014 15:36:22 GMT -5
@chem: No, but unless she has some sort of serious health issue or manages to explode her political career, she'll be running in 2016
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Post by cheminhaler on Nov 3, 2014 15:51:46 GMT -5
Yeah, sorry. I was jumping the gun a bit on that one ..
US style election rallies always seem to be more public-oriented than UK ones. In the UK we get door to door leaflet distributors, which I'm sure you have as well, but I can't ever remember seeing politicians in real life over here.
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Post by ElegaicRequiem on Nov 3, 2014 16:14:59 GMT -5
It balances out, since you have chavs.
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Post by cheminhaler on Nov 3, 2014 16:37:18 GMT -5
They just want to be the cripps.
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Today...
Nov 3, 2014 17:25:08 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by emptyhat on Nov 3, 2014 17:25:08 GMT -5
Yeah, sorry. I was jumping the gun a bit on that one .. US style election rallies always seem to be more public-oriented than UK ones. In the UK we get door to door leaflet distributors, which I'm sure you have as well, but I can't ever remember seeing politicians in real life over here. You could always go to the Q&A functions if they aren't going door to door. That said the prospective Labour MP dropped by during the Eurovision elections and I think I've seen canvasers (sp?) at the door the last three or four elections.
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