MintberryCrunch

Trump calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/07/donald-trump-calls-for-banning-muslims-from-entering-u-s/?_r=0 Remember guys, this guy is the frontrunner. It's too early to call, but at this point, it's hard to imagine him dropping from the #1 spot. He's playing on the same kind of fear and paranoia that Marine Le Pen does in France (she has also soared in popularity).

Reading "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Mexican torta--picked it up after school at my favorite gas station Mexican food place. Some of the best SoCal Mexican food can be found in the most hidden and unappealing locations. lol

I'm listening to Christmas music as well. I got to sing this in our church's Christmas choral concert yesterday: R. R. Terry - Myn Lyking

Latest news reveals the female shooter pledged allegiance to ISIS. Surprise, surprise.

If there were multiple shooters, then that sets this one apart from the other recent ones; not a "lone wolf", but a group of people with a plan. But unbelievable that the last mass shooting doesn't even have time to leave the news before the next one happens. Welcome to modern America.

^Ugh, love when one of those comes on while I'm watching TV with my parents -_-

Additionally, in the days of streaming and TiVO and all that (not to mention AdBlock for internet ads), I think TV ads are becoming less relevant. 50 years ago, they also used to blatantly advertise cigarettes to kids on TV. It's not like everything was golden back then. Also @A Nonny Moose I also read a recent news story about a call for prescription drug ads to no longer be shown on TV. It would be interesting if that actually happened.

Obviously this is getting off topic, but just thought I'd chime in. Keep in mind I'm a teenager, so take what I say with a grain of salt. First of all, I've never heard of young kids playing "porn stars", but maybe we don't do that here in L.A. (Should also note that if something's not done in L.A., then it's not done anywhere--"anything goes" here). Yes, I do think that there's too much sexualization in the media and that especially girls are pressured to be "sexy" and obsessed with appearances too early and that kind of thing doesn't help at all. But the problem of teen pregnancy and all that is a complicated issue and can't just be blamed on television and the media. Furthermore, what parent allows their young kid watch HBO late at night? Parents have to step in too. They can't just let their kids do whatever they want and then blame the media for how they turn out. The kids I know who have the most problems almost always have had bad relationships with their parents: divorce, absent parents, alcoholic parents, etc. (Economic factors play a role as well). My parents are involved, but not overbearing. I know it's not impossible to be that way--I experience it. They're not perfect, but they've done a great job.

Relevant:

Mozart - Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581

Do you guys name the streets in your city using the label feature? Where do you get names from? It might seem like a waste of time sometimes, because modifying streets and buildings can cause the labels to disappear, but I still like to name the streets in all my cities. I usually wait until the city's developed a bit to do it, but I always end up doing it in the end. I get ideas from cities around here mainly. When I developed a suburban-sprawl type city, I borrowed Spanish names from OC towns, like Calle Patricia or Via Mendoza. Other times I just go with numbered streets if the city is more grid-like. In the case of my big-tile city, I divided it up into quadrants and named the streets with NE, NW, SE, SW prefixes depending on which quadrant it's in (this is the system in Portland, Oregon).

Speaking of conventions, Sonoma, CA has a strange system that I would never use: they have a Broadway in the center, and then parallel numbered streets with the same numbers on both sides counting up as you move away from Broadway (with "east" or "west" appended to the end). So there's 1st Street West, then 2nd Street West on one side of Broadway but 1st Street East and 2nd Street East on the other side...personally I'd rather just have different numbers, but at least it has some logic behind it.

Most of my grids have numbered streets going north-south and then various other names for the east-west streets. In one city, the east-west streets in the grid are alphabetically arranged: Anza, Balboa, Cabrillo, Daytona, Eddy, etc. so it has sort of the same function as lettered streets. In Sacramento, there's also streets named after inventors: Marconi, Watt, Howe, Whitney, Edison...I noticed that last time I was there

Thanks for the answers, everyone I can definitely understand how naming every street isn't appealing for many. Part of why I do it may be because I only have one region and most of my cities aren't that big...but even I haven't named every tiny street. Though sometimes I just throwout unimaginative names like "NE 224th St." just to think of something. lol

I knew it as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. But there are other versions of it, I think. Most of my cities are named after Spanish words and names and a lot of my streets are too. The SoCal influence shows everywhere. lol

Just more entitled college students being ridiculous and unreasonable--by SJW standards, no historical figure is up to par. I can't wait until I start college; you probably won't be able to say the word "pants" without offending someone.

I agree with that as well. "Religion of peace" is hollow apologist rhetoric. Most religions preach peace, but they also recognize justified violence. Saying Islam is a "religion of peace" doesn't suddenly negate all the violence committed in its name. A better thing to do would be to try and understand why people are motivated to commit violence in its name, rather than act as if the violence has nothing to do with Islam. ISIS is still motivated by their interpretation of religion. It might be "the wrong interpretation", but it's still a religious interpretation and we can't just write it off and ignore it.

Pomegranate. I extracted the seats into a bowl and eating them with a spoon. and spitting them out a second later. Weird fruit, but delicious

I'm sick of hearing people say a violent reprisal is "exactly what ISIS wants". So freaking what? A spree killer wants to be arrested and jailed so he can get his face out there, so does that mean that we shouldn't arrest him and let him continue killing because arresting him is "exactly what he wants"? A suicide bomber wants to die and take people with them too, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try and stop them. I just think it's really stupid logic. ISIS also wants inaction so they can continue to spread unabated.

Unfortunately one of my earliest cities that I made has a weird-shaped landfill that's not a rectangle. I know this is some kind of bug in the game and the garbage doesn't disappear even with the Plasma Gasification Plant. Is there any possible way to get rid of it?

I'll think about it lol. I mean, I don't refuse to have a landfill, it's just that back then I didn't know that landfills reduced HT desirability, and I put it in the middle of my industrial area and it totally prevents any HT from developing there. But it might not be such a big deal--I was just wondering.

Thanks guys, I forgot to mention I already tried the Landfill Eraser mod and it didn't work. I think it's a lost cause unfortunately. When I tried it, only some of the trash disappeared, not all of it, despite cutting off road access (I tried it several times). But it's definitely "bugged" and there doesn't seem to be a way out of it.

Something interesting from an article I was reading about ISIS (Da'esh): "The Da’esh forces are market leaders in a form of savage ideological puritanism, designed to appeal not locally or regionally, but to an archipelagic network of supporters and sympathisers scattered throughout the world. We – western and regional governments – talk about lessons learned but mostly only ever succeed in identifying them. We lack nimbleness, we sometimes lack knowledge and we seem to lack determination. Violent extremists have to adapt rapidly or die."

I would really hope so. After something like this, I can't help but think "maybe someone will do something now". But it's so much easier said than done.