Welshcookie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFl0nlHaWa4


Seriously, can any American not like this song?




Edit: the first linked video was of a 2nd generation reincarnation of Skynyrd. I had to get the original. Sorry, i'm a purist when it comes to music.

I too was beginning to see a friendlier, more interesting Off Topic forum begin to arise even in the far too short time the option existed. The point of the exercise was to provide a separate location to post the controversial subject matter that was overwhelming OT and turning away those who would like to participate in an off topic discussion without it becoming an aggressive free for all, and yes, I thought it was working. The apparent vacuum in OT is only because the handful of people who are monopolizing OT - the ones who get involved in the controversial subject matters - were moved over to the controversial topic sub-forum and others had not yet realized a friendlier OT was available.. I definitely don't think there was enough time given to test the political/religious sub-forum at all - a trial should be a few days at the very least.
We do need to have some place where people can post off topic subject matter without everything becoming politicized and argumentative between just a handful of people. Right now, that doesn't exist -anymore - on VJ. OT currently belongs to just a few who monopolize it and turn almost every thread that is offered into some sort of a political or religious football to be tossed back and forth between themselves.

I also posted in there...but I didn't get the memo to join in on the staged 'attack' :lol: I blame Maven, I only went in there because I saw she had posted, I shall refrain from being enticed into threads by her from now on!
Seriously though, threads are derailed every day on OT...is it like something really important might be missed through a small derailment of this particular 'topic'?....the thought of people being banned from such a frivolous thread is hilarious

Moving to the US after 5 yrs together made our marriage somewhat different and stressful, things definately didn't turn out as we had planned once we arrived...but after almost a 3 month separation I think we both want to get our marriage back to where it was 2 years ago.

Cman peeps, this is getting out of hand. And we're beating things to death here until they're a bloody pulp. My head is spinning from all the threads.
Who wants to hit the 'reset' button and just play nice? We're all adults, do we really need to revamp TOS and get mods involved for essentially what are personality conflicts? How bout we give it a try?

I can actually see the other side of this agrument and understand it, but it doesn't make me feel any different about my own point of view....just because YOU think I'm a bigot doesn't actually make it true.

You're right...I AM focusing on that part of the argument, I have been reading it over and over again over the past few days and it negates many of points people are making in my mind, which is shame. Any article or viewpoint posted opposing the mosque in any way has been brushed off as 'bigotry'..., but par for the course on VJ, debate cannot happen without it being reduced to name calling.

I must admit to being quite surprised by the word 'Bigot' being bandied around so freely to those who don't happen to agree on a certain subject. To the handful of people here who have branded me a bigot, if you actually knew me you would know that is laughable.

Now I'm hungry going to bed!

Now I'm hungry going to bed!

I wouldn't place the entire blame on the folk labeled as bigots, they have deep rooted views that come from the times when there was little to no diversity. It's funny though, because when told that their country is a land of immigrants, they say that it's a prehistoric view...
With telecommunications booming over the last 20 years, a lot of people have explored different cultures, customs and other factors of societies around the world. Today, the only reason not to be in the know, is lack of interest, because it is more comfy to don't give a #######.
It's way more easy to hate a whole bunch of people, then to stop and just hate the extremists in this case. Don't worry, that's the extremist view as well, so what makes you better than them? That you didn't destroy a part of their house? Think again. That you are not trying to force your views or way of life into them, just like they force theirs into ours? Nope...
By this reasoning, the terrorists have won, I think it would be way more American (note that there's a difference between American and redneck) to say, ok, you screwed us over, but guess what? It doesn't change who we are or what we stand for. Just sayin'

Absolutely False --- -1

I have been vaguely following this thread and read some of Melissa's blog and of course as my title says I couldn't possibly comment...but of course I will
There have been comments by people whom I regard as friends and respect here on VJ. But, I do feel uncomfortable how this thread has somehow come down to 'convincing' Melissa that Julian is a bad choice for her. It is quite obvious to me that they love each other just as much as any of us love/loved our partners through our own visa journeys, some of us never made it, some of us made it and struggled afterwards, some of us are living happily ever after...(I'm in one of those categories, of course ).
But, can anyone truly say through any of those scenarios that no friend or loved one expressed concern and tried to talk them out of the relationship at any stage of it and did you listen? I guess not, because we all have to reach that conclusion ourselves...I personally don't buy into "hindsight", we make our choices period good or bad and we move on, have regrets yes of course. How many times have we heard friends/family say "I told you X number of years ago to leave that A@@hole" but at the time we don't listen.
Let these people sort it out, it may or may not end in disaster down the road who knows? but you/we can't save anyone from heartache as much as we wish we could.
Melissa, Julian...I wish you both well in your journey together.
P.S @Lisa....can you educate me in the correct usage of "Who" and Whom"..dang I can never figure it out :lol: love ya

I have been vaguely following this thread and read some of Melissa's blog and of course as my title says I couldn't possibly comment...but of course I will
There have been comments by people whom I regard as friends and respect here on VJ. But, I do feel uncomfortable how this thread has somehow come down to 'convincing' Melissa that Julian is a bad choice for her. It is quite obvious to me that they love each other just as much as any of us love/loved our partners through our own visa journeys, some of us never made it, some of us made it and struggled afterwards, some of us are living happily ever after...(I'm in one of those categories, of course ).
But, can anyone truly say through any of those scenarios that no friend or loved one expressed concern and tried to talk them out of the relationship at any stage of it and did you listen? I guess not, because we all have to reach that conclusion ourselves...I personally don't buy into "hindsight", we make our choices period good or bad and we move on, have regrets yes of course. How many times have we heard friends/family say "I told you X number of years ago to leave that A@@hole" but at the time we don't listen.
Let these people sort it out, it may or may not end in disaster down the road who knows? but you/we can't save anyone from heartache as much as we wish we could.
Melissa, Julian...I wish you both well in your journey together.
P.S @Lisa....can you educate me in the correct usage of "Who" and Whom"..dang I can never figure it out :lol: love ya

I thought that would be a good idea myself...but in all honesty it would just overflow into other forums anyway, it isn't the subject but rather the way certain people interact with one another on here most of the time.

It was locked because apparently pointing out facts and statistics is racism and should not be tolerated
Also, god forbid you point out casual observations either and differences that people have. GASP! This is so horrible.
People just need to get a damn grip and face reality instead of name calling because they get 'offended' on a certain issue.

Why was that thread locked?
Paul clearly stated he saw a large Asian population in Canada. Clearly something that he is not used to in Texas. Why is that offensive?

What about kicking an screaming like a little girl because people don't agree with you? Is that mature? Is there not a sheep ###### thread you could be in?

Things that I learned in this thread.
1. Rape is acceptable.
2. "NO," means shut up b*tch I'm almost finished.
3. Free speech is a universal catch phrase that is used to justify all for all manner of intolerance.
4. African American males, no matter their background or education level, are rapists.
The thing that I still haven't figured out is what is it the President has done that is so monumentally different than Bush or Clinton that it would engender such vitriol.

I think the whole ranking thing should be done away with. Or keep it, and make mods have it too.
Oh, I tried to +1 someone, accidentally hit -1, and there's no way to change it. Suckage.

She is a b1tch. Deal with it. You married a man with baggage. Deal with it. He has children he needs to support and his ex-wife is going to make life as miserable as possible for you, like she did for him before he divorced her. This is why men divorce American women and marry foreign women. If he didn't tell you that before, it is bad on him, but now you have to deal with it.
The only way for her to get less money is for YOU to get less money by him making less money. Now let me tell you what happens...
1. He takes a cut in pay and goes back to court for a reduction in child support, you have less income
2. She contests it
3. You pay a lot of money for an attorney from your lower income
4. She uses the child support you pay to hire an attorney
5. He eventually gets a $200/month reduction in child support but it costs you $5000 in attorney fees
6. You now have to report your income to her every 6 months and she will go right back to court as soon as there is a raise in pay
When the children are 18 he will no longer have to pay (except maybe for college costs) and you can tell her to pound sand up her @ss. Until then, deal with it.
How many months until the youngest is 18?

You guys will very likely want to file what is called DCF (Direct Consular Filing) directly with the US Consulate in Frankfurt.
A brief overview can be found HERE. This lets you guys file while you're both in Germany.

First, let me just say that visually the new VJ is quite pleasing, very "web 2.0." Nice job, the hard work shows. The bugs are a little annoying right now (especially reading history not carrying over between computers) but I'm confident they'll be worked out in time.
The reputation system, however, is a terrible, terrible idea. All it's going to do is turn Visa Journey into a less fun version of Mafia Wars. The fact that you can only mod a certain number of posts per day won't stop anybody, but it *will* encourage cliques to mob-mod, as well as encourage sock puppet creation.
Please drop the reputation system. The good that comes from it will be completely overshadowed by the bad.