I would answer, but it really isn't any of your business.

You can buy Interview with a Vampire from most high street shops here (practically filling the bargain buckets), though obviously I've got no idea what country you're in. Either way you're not going to have a problem getting a copy on Amazon, or if you like second hand stuff, eBay.

Fair Enough

oh, thats really godd for you. i also have to wait till around june or july to get my 360 and oblivion, but it's worth the wait. and where can i see this interview with a vampire thing you are talking about.

Well this will probably get the thread closed like the other one (why do they always get closed when it starts getting interesting?), but I'd like to comment on the beggar/homeless issue.

They get closed because the posts go off-topic, personal insults appear or because of a transformation into utter spam.

I must admit I've never seen a beggar, so I haven't given any money to them. Some of you may be aware that Norway has been 'awarded' the world's best country to live in (whatever that means) for the last 5-6 years or so (Canada in 2nd place), and so there are no beggars or homeless.

Anyway after watching the news lately I've learned that begging was actually illegal in Norway until recently. Since it was allowed a few months ago there have apparently become lots of foreign beggars in the capital, Oslo. It's starting to become a problem, since the beggars mostly turn out to be quite wealthy and take advantage of the goodwill of trusting Norwegians not used to beggars.

Anyway, there is a shortage of workers in Norway, so anyone allowed to be here should be able to get work. Those who can't work for any reason at all (whether they're war veterans, chronically diseased, alcoholics, drug addicts and what have you) get a place to live and money from the government for food, clothes, medical services/treatment etc. Those who will not accept work offered by the employment office get a few chances to say no until they're finally cut off from economic support. Then it's their own fault for not making money, and should receive no sympathy. I don't believe there are many of these, but if there are they probably make money from criminal activities.

Finally regarding street musicians; they are not poor at all! I give them money if they're good, as should be the only reason for giving them any. But having been a musician for many years I know quite a few street musicians. They say that it's not uncommon to bring in about 3000 NOK (about 450 euros/dollars) on a good day. This depends on where they play of course. Stavanger (my home city) is a great place to play they say, while London is a good number 2. These are musicians that could have made a good living playing in clubs etc., but instead choose to travel the world, which is ok in my book. But believe me they are not suffering (if they are they are not good musicians and should find other work).

Anyway I understand that the world is big, and not many countries have such social benefits as Norway. If I'd lived in a country with slum and lots of poor and homeless people I would probably have given them money whenever I could, if I believed they were really poor and in need.

Olav,the last thread wasn't closed for political disscusion.A moderator could easyly just delete the political\racial posts.It was closed due to post limit (200).When a thread reaches 200 posts it automaticly need to get locked.

Never?
Well,Norway must be quite a cuntry then.

HAHAHAHA
Get into begging business!Easy money!
Seriusly,that's odd
Anyway,how much is the social help when you're unemployed i Norway?

Anybody? Even if he\she is not a citizen of EU?

It's almost the same here in Nederland

450 Euros per day? Wow,now that's business......
Anyway,Norway didn't accept Euro?What does NOK mean exactly?

Lucky you in Norway

Ok I haven't got the patience to do all the quoting, so I answer quote by quote...

- Thanks for clearing up the closing issue. I was under the impression that only 'silly coffee talk' was allowed in this thread, and not more serious matters.

- Never seen a beggar in real life, only on TV. I may have seen some when I was traveling around the world with my father who was a sailor when I was a kid, but I can't remember.

- Social welfare in Norway is not very much compared to the high prices here. I think it's a minimum of about 7-800 euros/dollars a month. This is for food etc. A place to live and medical care etc. is extra.

- Well you have to be a member of the EEC (not EU) to come here to work. Norway is not part of the EU. Or you have to be an 'approved immigrant', meaning you come from other countries and have been granted asylum for political reasons etc.

- Yes I think the Netherlands is quite similar to Norway regarding social services.

- NOK means Norwegian kroners, and no we don't use euro here...

Thank you for answering,honestly i didn't know that Norway isn't a part of EU.

It's better that way i think.I haven't been in Nederland for a long time,but my uncle tells me that it was WAAAAY better before Euro came.But,oh well....

Well there have been two elections so far where the population could vote for or against EU membership, once in the 70's and once in the 90's. Both times the no-side got a slight majority. It's still pretty equal I think, when they have those surveys.

Personally I'm for EU membership, as I believe it is a great idea that will benefit every member countries in the long run. When every country is developed properly and produce items for trade, this will benefit everyone. People will be happier and there will be less conflicts and wars. It might take decades or even centuries before everyone is equally well set, but when they are it will be a very strong union, economically, cultural, military etc.

Most Norwegians who vote no are afraid that they'll loose their comfortable way of living, selfish, those short-sighted idiots...

Dunno really.
I'm not really an expert on world economy

By the way 1234king I rented Interview with a Vampire via NetFlixs or whatever it go's by but I guess you can rented somewhere or buy it on ebay but I dont like to shop through the Internet... maybe thats just me... and yeah it is worth the wait for Oblivion... I recently played it at my friends house and it was awsome!!!!

By the way Foster I live in the U.S. and I realy havent found a copy of it jet but I'm taking into consideration stealing my friends copy... its just so damn cool... Interview with a Vampire rocks man!

Virgin should have a copy.

Who the hell is Virgin?

Virgin Megastores. It's a big shop that sells all kinds of DVDs, CDs, T-shirts and other assorted goodies.

Never heard of it... but it sounds like its my kind of store!!!

i too Mazelure have played Oblivion at a friends house and rendered the verdict that it totally kicks a$$. but alas my parents want me to do something to earn it or to make the money myself. im too lazy to make the money myself so she said i had to get straight A's and B's on my final report card which shouldn't be too hard cuz things are going splendid in school.

Hey me too... only in my case it was more among the lines "get a hair cut and a job you lazy hippie!!!" and so I did and as soon I get my greedy hands on Oblivion and a 360 I'm quiting my job.

Man I just cant wait for Oblivion and my 360 ... I just cant sleep or eat so I've been listening to metal and counting the minutes until I am able to afford it... man everything is so expensive now days... what is this world coming to...

but I guess the wait makes the game even more enjoyable once we obtain it right?

Until then I'll be rocking on with Devil Driver

Devil Driver!

*Headbangs*

If Rainer "headbangs", it is ussualy to Incantation.

well I can see that none of you have ever been out on the streets. I'm glad for you. There are so many misconceptions concerning the homeless.
Everyone criticizes them for not working, but you know, most of them want to work. The problem is ... if you go to the social services offices to get aide - they give you a form to fill out that requires at least an address and of course you don't have one - so they say they cannot help you.
When you go on job interviews, it's the same thing - how is the employer going to contact you later about a job if you have no address and no phone number? It may be better now with cell phones.
We were never bums because we worked 2 restaurant jobs each daily while living in our car. But we were smart, we got a post office box for receiving mail before we set out. But still, we had to make up excuses on why we used a P.O. Box & pretend we actually did live somewhere or no one would hire freaks living in their car.

It is so easy to slide out onto the streets homeless ... any 2 or 3 simultaneous calamities will do it for most people. It is an UNBELIEVABLE upstream swim to get back into regular society and have a job and a home again. Hope it never happens to the uninitiated here.

=====================

The person who owes so much money for college debt - hmmmm, didn't you ASK FOR MONEY in order to go to school? Why is that more acceptable than asking for money for a sandwich when your hungry?

Overall, I'd advise people not to be so harsh in your judgement of others. Your words may come back to bite you sometime. I hope you'll remember them then.

And as a veteran I'll give my opinion that the people who've kept you sleeping safe in your beds while they kept watch, deserve to live a fruitful life in the society they guarded.

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Forgot to say that Interview With A Vampire was indeed a really excellent movie. It is worth seeing twice and/or owning. The acting was superb, the plot was exciting and unexpected at times and it really just lent a window into the "humaness" of vampirism and I believe it was one of the landmark media events that made vampire-interest & the goth movement the immersive phenomena they are today.

Ah well,i feel that this was also directed to myself,so alow me to quote myself:



My relatives who live in the US tell me that social system in the US isn't as nearly that good.As you said,maybe some of them in the US want to find a job but they can't.
Here in the Neds the country will find you a job if you can't.
Who wants to work:he\she will work.Who doesn't want to work...can get an education,and country will give you that 800 Euro per month no problem.If he\she doesn't want to work or get an education......They're on thier own then.They chose it that way.


US Army didn't kept me sleeping safe.
Actualy they kept me awake.

Because I'm going to PAY IT BACK. They're just scamming money.

And my words won't come back to bite me, because if I find myself in such a situation I know how to get myself out of it (you don't need to register an address with social services, you can put 'no fixed abode'), and even if I'm completely wrong I'm happy to jump off a building or something rather than live like that.

No, I'm not advocating that they should all commit suicide. I'm just saying that I would consider that a viable option.

I've never seen anyone begging, the social services aren't that good around here but the charity services are so you can get free meals with 100% reliability. Most of them aren't there because they are too lazy to work, but rather the perfer the free lifestyle (which I can completely understand); you could distain them for relying on charity but we rely on charity for the first ~13 years of our lives, then we rely on charity everytime we go to school, everytime we go to hospitial and everytime we go to our job (with very few exceptions). And don't forget a loan is charity, you can't say you'll pay it back untill you have, especially when you don't have a job.

Now I have never met a beggar personally but I would buy them some food then ask them if they wanted me to get them a job, if they do then I'll clean them up and try to get them a job at a supermarket, letting them use my postal address (I'll claim that we never bothered connecting the phone). Though in NZ I know they can use the city mission as a postal address, but some employers will recognise the city mission address and won't hire them out of prejudgice or just because they turned up looking like compassion. Everyone who says that homeless should just get a job is another reason why they can't get a job.

Also with busking, if you have no instruments or talent then what the hell are you going to do?

that really sucks to here that you used to live in a car. when i was age 0-3 i lived in a compassionate 1 room apartment with my single mother. (my dad divorced when i was 3 months old). but then we moved in with my grandparents in Pheonix. My mom finally got a good job and after 3 years we moved to Calgary and got our own house, and things have been going really good so far. Ibis, i hope that it wasn't too bad living in a car and that you have a more wealthy and prosperous life now.

"edit" sorrry gonna be late for skool, i forgot my coffee and .

Hmm.. I don't like when people compare the USA to any other country..

Statistics lie like a umbrella seller. The Netherlands (random choice) has 16.4 million people. Thats.. 282,132,590 million people less then the US. The Netherlands population division is also..

80.8% Dutch, 5.6% other European (including 2.4% German), 2.4% Indonesian (Indo-European, Indo-Dutch, Moluccan), 2.2% Turks, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 4.2% other

America...

According to the 2000 census, the country has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. Taken from data in 2003, the largest ethnic group is white, making up 81.7% of the population. Others include black (12.9%), Asian (4.2%), Amerindian and Alaska native (1%), and native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander (0.2%).[47][49]


Trying to provide medicare, welfare, social whatever for a large majority that has been played down throught the past 3 centuries, plus that of every other downtrodden person IS AN IMPOSSIBLE number to contend with.

"Rugged Individualism" <- Providing for ones self. Iblis and her husband are nothing short of miraculous now-a-days in American (meh, world culture). They worked. FROM THEIR CAR! The point is.. They worked! They didn't expect a handout. I know far to many people that HAVE CHILDREN FOR THE SAKE OF GETTING MORE WELFARE MONEY! Thats insane!

Not only that but Social Security was a short term BENIFET. It had to of been undoutably known that as the population grew, there was no possible way to provide for the next in line.

By God.. I need to go... We can take this to the Political Debate topic if you want?

Seems it would probably make a good debate subject. Thanks for the vote of recognition.

Pisces has a good point that charities will feed, temporarily house homeless people and in some places, let them receive mail and use the address. But yeh, there is the problem that employers get to know the charity addresses. Also, we strictly stayed away from the soup kitchens and shelters because, unfortunately, the very people being helped at those places steal from and prey on each other. Some of the most dangerous places are those charity shelters. Especially if you are working & have saved a little money. You'll wake up without your money, your nice work clothes, your shoes ... it's really sick.

Also, not mentioned is that a large majority of the homeless are mentally ill, or addicted to substances. Also, there are many vietnam veterans out there who long ago lost all faith in their own government and will never come back in off the streets.

Its a shame in what is supposedly the richest country on earth at this time.

P.S.-Thank you for the kind words, Channler & 1234king. We do indeed now have a wonderful life living in a little efficiency condo on a private lake in Florida. Living in our car was a conscious decision on our part to move locations in order to further my hubby's drum career & it worked. But it was hard at times, sometimes it takes sacrifice to reach your goals. Him being in two different working bands in Orlando made our carlife worth the effort.

Time to get off-topic again!

If you want to further debate the issue of poverty, beggars, begging and Norway, please create a new, dedicated thread for that

Wow, what a strange feeling. Normally one has to tell people to stay on topic!

Okay, off topic it is.

What kind of cake is served here? It is so delicious and goes so well with the coffee, but I cannot place the exact ingredients. So delicious!

tee hee

Why?
USA is not perfect.

I think you didn't understand my point.They will provide you only if you're willing to work or take education.OR if you're sick and unable to work.
Now telling me that a country with such capacityes as USA can't temporarily provide money to those who can't make it at the moment......I'm not convinced.
There is an old chinese saying:
''Give a man a fish,and you fed him for one day.Teach a man how to catch a fish,and you fed him for his whole life.''
In modernt terms it would be:Give me money and i'll have money for one day.Teach me how to make money and i'll have money for a lifetime.

USA should be able to provide poor people education and some money while they're at school ,and make them capable to work.Or find them a job,which is even better.
Country gives you money when you need it.But when you start working,you will actualy return that money to the state via taxes you can now pay

I admire that.
But i think that the state should have helped them.
At least provided them with a decent place to stay.
And i don't mean shalter!
I mean a decent small apartment.

Hmm,OK you start a new thread.


Yes indeed.The way i was told,USA is great in some things,but it's horrible for something else.Homeless disscusion is a good example here.

For example my cousin (who lives and works in USA),tells me that you can make good money in the states,but if you get sick you're in big trouble.The hospital prices are huge,and his health insurance can't cover that (he says he has a good health ensurance).Maybe you as an American can tell me mre about this subject?

EDIT:
DOOH!!! I just read stargelman's post :banghead:

My apologies, stargelman. I only now just read the entire rules in the first post. I wasn't aware politics was not allowed in here.

Ok, time for and a strong cup of java...

I think it's marble cake. Not too dry. Fresh. Yummy.

So, what's everyone doing today? I'll spend this wonderful day playing a bit of Oblivion. My little fighter character is coming along nicely, so it's gonna be fun. Other than that, I'll probably do...well...absolutely nothing!

That sounds strangely familiar. Wait a second....... Thats what Ill be doing today!

Its my day off college and I just finished my homework so today is doss day. There is one exception though, later I might go on Baldurs Gate II again. Seems no matter how many times I play that game, Ill come back to it eventually.

Good Choice!

Well well, today we got our first exam back - the Math Exam, it was the last years Final Exam so it was pretty hard. We still haven't got the grade yet, but we got to know how much points we got. I got a pretty decent score, so hopefully the grade won't be too bad. Just waiting for the Norweigan and English exam now, get them on Monday or something I think - the day before we find out what we're going to get as our Final Exam

Rainer wonders, how many characters does everyone have?

I only got one..

Well, when Rainer gets Oblivion, he has at least 6 planned out.

All of them his fictional characters he uses.

I'm back everyone . Sorry for leaving without notice, but school got hectic, as did work. and real life in general got into a turmoil. I should be visiting more often now though.

I have had about 6-8 all pretty much the same due to having to restart through screw ups and bugs. His name is obviously Joryn, because I liked the names Foryn Gilinith and Voryn Dagoth from morrowind and since my name is Jonathan I put a J on there. I realise you didnt need to know that but.........Fleh.

Well, it is always intersting to hear trivial things. It makes for fun conversations sometimes.

However, Rainer has 8 characters, but only 6 of them can be replicated in Oblivion, and out of those 6, 5 of them will be missing wings.

If you have any other curiosities, just ask

2. I had one character, and then decided that they wern't evil enough, so I decided that basically my character would be based very much off the concept of a Trickster in mythology; that is, neither good nor ill, but rather popping up and getting involved in just about anything. It means that it makes sense to be head of five guilds, in my view.

For looks my first character was very warrior like, whilst this new one looks completly innocent - wouldn't hurt a fly type. Which makes being Listener and Grey Fox all the more amusing, and makes the bizarre collection of body parts arranged in some strange rite in my house all the more sinister.

Three.
First was Solver-Tongue-Bogy an Argonian Hitman,and he has the highest level.I intended him as a stealth char,but somewhere in the process he became an uber Jack-of-All-Trades

Second is a Vampire Breton Wizard,named Arlena,one of my Baldur's Gate 2 characters,reborn in TES SHE IS CHAOTIC EVIL!

Third......My very own first Morrowind character Kall the Redguard,back in Oblivion
I play him in modded version of the game (G_'s Loot Mod,Slow leveling,creature rebalance...).With the mods i installed imy gameplay experience is really improved!Take that ,Vanilla Oblivion!

I only play with one character at a time... in morrowing I'm a breton born under the sign of the mage...

You know what I noticed?... I look like the guy who is my avatar... only I dont have green skin... so sad... if only I had green skin...

You might need to visit a dentist. And an Optician. Maybe a style guru.

Yeah I forgot to add with a full set of teeth... so you can scratch out the dentist... the other ones seem to be in order... only you forgot to add a sphycaratist... if thats the way it is spelled!...muahahahaha!!!

Once again, thank you all very much for the concern and support. It really does help. As for my situation; so far so good. My cousin and his boyfriend (Kevin) had to move out on account of an argument with the homeowners, but this is actually a good thing. We were all getting frazzled by being so close to each other all the time. They now stay at another friend's house, and we still see eachother during and after school. As for the friend Amanda, me and her are actually dating now, so things aren't so lonely.
The apartment plan fell out though. There's no way we could get it in time. Instead we made a deal with the people we're staying with and we can now stay even longer (now that it's only 2 people instead of 4). We already found an apartment complex that will do business with us and is reasonabley priced (the apartments aren't too shabby either). We're looking for jobs in the town we're in now, so I don't have to do any moving, which is great.
All in all I think things are going fantasticly. I have everything I want, besides home and property. Thank you all very much for caring, it really lifts my spirits. Even though every time I update it's all sunshine and happiness, it's still hard and I do get bogged down by it all and when I see this it makes me feel great.

Good to see you back and that things aren't going all too bad, and congrats with the girlfriend!

Good to hear things are going your way...a bit..I wish you all luck with Amanda and the rest of your life....

I´ll be thinkg of you Stomach Ache..so you take care!

Congrats on the new girlfriend mate, and hopefully everything else ends up going so well too

Megil whats crackin!?

yea, schools gettin nuts around here as well.. they keep on talking about this.. exam thing? Whats that?

hmm life has finally been quelled for the moment. so to speak, have to find a job. and I ahve three essays to write for scholarships.

that and trying to improve on the whole art thing