The "I Just Bought" thread

"Jugoslaviens uppgang och fall"...I'm curious what this says, as I'm from Croatia, and most common outside perception is that this was the case of civil war. Always riles up a few people around here.
Eh...and I bought a few Zagor-Te-Nay comic books. You, people have no idea how much you're missing out here, with your silly Marvel comic books.
Here is a sample that some crazy Serbs shot in the woods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JJnmJH39Dg

BoboTheMighty said:

"Jugoslaviens uppgang och fall"…I'm curious what this says, as I'm from Croatia, and most common outside perception is that this was the case of civil war. Always riles up a few people around here.

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I was under the impression that the problem was several large groups with a rather deep rooted distrust for each other that, in the end, were unable to unify under one government. Basically, whoever was in charge, there would be fear of favoritism of a certain group (in this case the Serbs). (Incredibly simplified, obviously). And was it not Slovenia that basically lit the powder keg?

After asking several friends what portable console would work best for me, I ordered a Sony Vita today. It should offer a huge amount of the older rpg's that I seem to enjoy the most, and while I never miss the internet while traveling, I do enjoy being able to fire up a game when the mood strikes. Now I'll just be waiting to get my grubby paws on it!

True, it involves strong cultural, religious, political etc differences ...and after the death of Tito, they all escalated. Here, they tend to have a black&white perspective on it, while turning a blind eye to later events, especially in Bosnia.

Carnifex said:

After asking several friends what portable console would work best for me, I ordered a Sony Vita today. It should offer a huge amount of the older rpg's that I seem to enjoy the most, and while I never miss the internet while traveling, I do enjoy being able to fire up a game when the mood strikes. Now I'll just be waiting to get my grubby paws on it!

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Love my Vita - there was just a Sony sale where I picked up a couple of fun PSP games, Jeanne d'Arc (strategy) and Hot Shots Golf. Enjoy!

Yeah while I'm awaiting delivery of the Vita I've been checking out the Sony site that sells the games. Looks like they have lots of older ones from the nineties, which will be just what I'm looking for. A buddy tells me if you subscribe to their site you often can score discounts and such on new/old games also.

Carnifex said:

Yeah while I'm awaiting delivery of the Vita I've been checking out the Sony site that sells the games. Looks like they have lots of older ones from the nineties, which will be just what I'm looking for. A buddy tells me if you subscribe to their site you often can score discounts and such on new/old games also.

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You mean the Playstation Store? I'm registered there, but decent sales are few and far between.

That said, they just had an end of summer sale where I picked up a handful of old arcade games for a few bucks.

I had this awesome wall clock made for a friends birthday. He is a fan of the show so he liked it pretty much. This way it is always bazinga time.

I had underestimated the storage capacity I needed for DVD's and Blu-rays. Fortunately I had one slot left in the NAS, in which I can install a single disk (not part of the RAID). So I spent another 1 billion USD on a 6TB hard disk today. Well, that was if I had bought it in '84, assuming it was available which I'm pretty sure it was not. As I got it today it cost me somewhat less.

pibbur who unlike hard disks was not worth billions of dollars in '84 but who was available (if we for a moment disregard the wife).

Black Rune said:

I had this awesome wall clock made for a friends birthday. He is a fan of the show so he liked it pretty much. This way it is always bazinga time.

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Ahhh. I like it. FYI, I have a lot of clocks hanging on walls in my den, mostly for decorative and geeky purposes, although some of them are working. My favourite is the one going backwards. And the Dali watch.

pibbur who regrets that his binary wrist watch is no longer working as a wrist watch, due to discontinuities in the wozzname used to keep it on the wrist.

JDR13 said:

You mean the Playstation Store? I'm registered there, but decent sales are few and far between.

That said, they just had an end of summer sale where I picked up a handful of old arcade games for a few bucks.

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Not just 'few and far between' ... but 'few and generally crappy'.

In general I have found that since the launch of the PSP I have had Sony trying to constantly 'upsell' me into a PS3 and then PS4 ... that many deals are tied to having a PS Plus account, which is of questionable value unless you have a PS3 or PS4, and so on.

That said, every now and then I find a couple of deals, sometimes new stuff, other times replacing games I used to have on UMD. Like this week I grabbed the GTA 'stories' games.

I just bought this shirt:

Hahaha, maybe we should have a RPGWatch store and sell stuffs like mugs and T-shirts ?

Oh yes. That would be fun .

Today I bought "Finn and Hengest" by Tpolkien, compiled by another ancient languages academic.
That means that I'm diving even deeper into old English and old Germanic languages now ...

If you are interested in this thing : Read first LOTR, then -> Beowulf, then -> "The Monsters and their Critics" by Tolkien himself, then -> "Finn and Hengest".

I just wondered whether this name is correlated to "Hergest Ridge" in Great Britain ? "Hengest" and "Hergest" sound somewhat similar to me ...

A set of PSB M4U 2 active & passive noise cancelling headphones!
I listen to music 3-4 hours per day and this way I don't have to play it as loud nor inflict my questionable taste on other people.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Today I bought "Finn and Hengest" by Tpolkien, compiled by another ancient languages academic.
That means that I'm diving even deeper into old English and old Germanic languages now ...

If you are interested in this thing : Read first LOTR, then -> Beowulf, then -> "The Monsters and their Critics" by Tolkien himself, then -> "Finn and Hengest".

I just wondered whether this name is correlated to "Hergest Ridge" in Great Britain ? "Hengest" and "Hergest" sound somewhat similar to me ...

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That sounds really interesting. Your user name suggests your a German speaker. Is d English and old Germanic similar

Warlod said:

That sounds really interesting. Your user name suggests your a German speaker. Is d English and old Germanic similar

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English isn't really comparable to any old language, while at the same time being very comparable to most old languages. Take pigs for example:

Swine - the English collective term for many pigs or the general descriptor for animals of the pig family. Stems from the German "Schwein" which just means pig.

Pork - the English term for pig meat. Stems from the French "Porc" which, in turn stems from the Latin for pig which is "Porcum".

You get a similar situation with cows:

Cow - Stems from the german "Kuh" (or "cu" in ye olde currency)

Beef - Stems from the French "Boeuf" which in turn stems from the Latin "bos".

Because, as the words tell you, in England for many years the French ate what the Germans provided (ie: the French were the ruling class and the Germans were the working class). So, to answer your question, yes, between about 650AD and 1000AD English would have been virtually the same language as German, however, once the French took over (1066AD) they also took over the power of the word, and we all know what the French are like when it comes to language, so most texts were forthwith produced in Latin/French.

The story of the first Bible to be written in English (early 1500s) is a fascinating story of bloodshed and rebellion and ties in with the equally fascinating and bloody story of the famous German Luther. The upshot of which was an England determined to become it's own identity away from natural rivalries in Europe and the English scholars started making English the default national language, a hodgepodge of mainly Germanic and French but undeniably something of it's own identity.

Old English and Old German do have many, many meeting points - but both evolved quite some from here.

NIce that you bring up the example of "swine" here, lackblogger.
Because Tolkien wrote that "swanas"meant "in prose" something like "(swine)herd" - leading to omeone who is observing a herd of swines …
"In Old Norse, sveinn means 'boy, lad, page, esquire'; the latter - if the emendation is right - must be seen here. Old Saxon sven means 'swineherd'. Old High German svein means 'servant, herd'. The especial association of swan with "swine" is probably later in Old English and Old Saxon, and possibly due to the sound - the words swin and swan may not be connected etymologically."

As you see, there were a lot of meeti8ng points. My favourite one is the word "wrecca", which leads into German "Recke", and, as I assume, but wasn't able to find anywhere - the English verb "to wreck" like in "wrecking havoc", for example. A wrecca was some kind of a good fighter, at least an able man.
Again, Tolkien : "It implies 'hero, champion' (so German Recke), but also in Old English 'exile', almost 'outlaw'.

This book is *definitively* hard stuff. You should *not* read it unless you have read the Beowulf (at best one with a good commentary) before ! And then, Tolkien's own work "The Monsters and their critics". And the in the language thread linked Widsith poem should be read as well - both translated and un-translated. Because it lists a LOT of important European names and realms that are to a great part even forgotten by now !

But even more - you'll learn a *lot* of northern European history regarding Anglo-Saxons, Jutes, and Danes and Sweden from the 5th century which has only be preserved through these lays (or songs, as one would say nowadays).

Even more, you'll gain an fascinating glimpse on what Tolkien too for writing his own Saga : The Lord Of The Rings.

Fascinating stuff thanks...i will defo look into these books