Right before the war began and tensions were very high, I looked up what it was all about.
If that was correct, it is the US that caused this.

What I read... Ukraine wants to be part of the west and as such it had to join NATO, whether it wanted that or not.
NATO = US basically, forcing other countries to allow their military bases and meddling in the member countries.

If Ukraine would join the west and for that had to join NATO America could also have bases on Russia's doorstep and Russia did not want that.
Can you blame them?
I can't. Quite logical. You don't want your arch enemy that close, within shooting and spying distance.

The whole "join the west, MUST join NATO & MUST allow military bases" is what caused this shizzel to occur.

If Russia had had a similar thing with Mexico and would then be able to have Russian military bases on America's doorstep we'd have a war as well.
America would go ballistic, just like what happened with Russia & Ukraine.

They could've sorted it, saved everyone a helluva lot of money and save a lot of lives if a compromise had been made:
Allow Ukraine to join the west to trade etc. WITHOUT the military bases.

Again, if this info is correct then I totally understand why Russia did what it did.
Doesn't mean I agree with this war or what has happened and is happening, but I do agree America should take its finger out of every pie in the world.

As it is there aren't even a handful of countries that could take on America if need be.
Russia is one of them.

The ones that want & try to control the world also reside in the US for a big part, although these days I do suspect also in the EU.
That means we cannot have the US be all-powerful.

Personally I'm not chuffed about the opposing countries that (can) keep the balance, but without them America would be way too powerful.

In any case, based on that info I read, this war could have been prevented if only a compromise was reached. For instance no NATO bases in Ukraine.
I believe Russia would have agreed, albeit cautiously.
I believe the only reason it escalated is that America refused to even think of backing down from having military bases in Ukraine.

This whole "Yes, join the west, it's great!!" thing is just a (American) power scheme to get military bases in as many countries as possible.
The ultimatum of "yes you can join, but only if you allow our bases" is sheer manipulation and part of a carefully construed plan.

At least Russia is smart enough to see that.

The result of that scheme is what has been going on in Ukraine since.

Ooooh, that's a bummer! Hopefully you'll succeed at getting another one!

Thank you, Julie :)

Thank you so much, Merry! I came across a photo of a Scottish landscape and that's what I'm painting :)

I totally missed that, haven't been here for a few days.
Nevertheless, happy belated birthday, Merry!
I hope it was a memorable day full of joy!

I started a new painting a couple of days ago.
After the first session I felt like it wasn't gonna go anywhere and I considered Gesso-ing over it.
But I gave it another try and suddenly I felt it coming along :)

Lots of work left to be done of course. Third session today and it's beginning to get some "body" now.

I don't have to search on the conditions they live in in such countries as I've lived in one for 2 years.
I've seen it up close and personal every day.
I've seen people whose home was a cardboard box. Not kidding. Family with young kids.
I've been to a kampung (domestic village) that they then made sure was really tidy and clean so it'd look its best. Their homes prettied up with some drapes and stuff, not even the size of my bedroom, and trust me, my bedroom isn't big.
No electricity, no clean running water, no loos or showers, no washing machines and so on.

Our driver lived in a one-room-house which was quite normal and he had it better than most as his salary was relatively high.
Yet during rain season there often were floods that went through his and other people's home and this also meant snakes would come up.
Then the whole family had to sleep on something higher, like a table, to stay dry and safe.
The next day they still have to show up at work in clean clothes and look the part.

May be sad, but don't forget it's their normal. Bear in mind we lived in very similar circumstances ourselves not that long ago.
Both here in Europe as well as the colonists in the US.

It's also not our responsibility but their country's government's.
About half the world lives in similar way that we deem unlivable in spite of the billions the western world has pumped into them for over half a century.

I also know from living there (my stepfather was high up, had contacts in government etc.) that most of those billions truly never reach the people they were meant to reach.
It disappears directly into the pockets of the already rich & powerful. Mostly the ones running the country & rest of government.

All we're doing is milking our own poorest people to give for those poor people over there while in actual fact those hard-earned dollars only feed the rich over there.
So it's our poor lining the pockets of the rich over there.

As Gerard Butler said in the movie: "And that's the ugly truth!"

I don't typically watch scary movies as they scare me too much.
But tonight I watched "Willow Creek".
I think a very low budget movie and yet it scared the Bejesus out of me.

Clear. Thanks for taking the time to explain :)


This is normal as the pay in such countries is lower due to cost of everything there being lower too.
That's exactly the reason why many have people from such countries do our work. Helluva lot cheaper than paying their own people.
And probably no sick pay, no pension, no unemployment benefit, and healthcare costs either. All stuff an employer over here would immediately get.
People often don't understand those things.

This is from the net:
Is it cheaper to live in the Philippines or the US?
The cost of living is significantly lower in the Philippines than in the United States. The average cost of living for an individual is 72.4% lower than in the United States. For a family, the average cost of living is 68.9% lower in the Philippines than in the United States.

To be honest, I didn't know mods got paid, even if a little.
I thought you mods always said it was volunteers work.
It would stand to reason you would get some form of reward considering the amount of work & time is involved in moderating a large forum. But I do recall you (former) mods saying it was volunteering.

No matter what, it is totally rude to just cut people off without any notification or explanation.

Well, if that's how it's gonna be here now this site will sure go down the tubes very fast as well.
Won't take long for the creeps, bots & scammers to figure out there's no one monitoring the site.

I've never seen one episode of it. It always started at 22.30 and I had to go to bed that time in order to feel fit and focused the next day at school.

So Hill Street Blues starting on tv was the sign for me to go to sleep, even though I didn't want to, hihi.

Thank you, Julie!
I used different brushwork for most of this painting. Kind of an experiment.
At first I got frustrated because of it, felt it didn't work for me, yet in the end the parts where I did that worked out really well!

Thank you, Julie!

I've done more work. It's as good as done. I'll go over it to maybe do some finishing touches.

The colour of the light part of the wave has not been altered. Any difference is due to light at time of taking the photo.

The previous one isn't totally finished yet, but I did start a new painting yesterday :)
Back to acrylics, which takes getting used to again.

I'm doing a seascape, started out in another way of painting only to find out it's not really my way of going bout it.
Nevertheless I do feel it's coming along nicely!

NOT done with it yet.

I've also reported all of them and yet came across one of the posts just now regardless.

Well, this part used to be an island but got connected to the next piece of land -which was a peninsula- by landfill.
Then there's bridges which connect to the next peninsula and/or island so it's not like being on an island in the middle of the ocean or something.

If you see The Netherlands in this image, then look at the bottom left you get an idea of what I'm talking about.
All peninsula's and islands that nowadays are connected to one another by bridges, or landfill here and there in the past.

So you don't really notice you're actually on an island.

Where I live you cannot do without a car. Not that I'm completely out in the sticks, but this area only has hamlets, villages, a few small towns.
Relatively lightly populated.
As such public transport is meager. No trains, and every now and then a bus.
These days not even a regular bus connection anymore but more like a taxi service that you have to book at least 1 hour prior to departure.
If no one books, there's no bus.
We should consider ourselves lucky with that as they initially had planned to cancel any form of public transport on the island :o

So if I want to be able to make it out of this village I simply need a car.

Thanks, will do! Back in my own car which isn't as smooth as the Audi, so won't be a problem, hihi.

Little Meggie got neutered Monday.
She's doing really well :)
I'd been in 2 minds about letting her have a litter once but in the end decided against it.

She has to stay indoors for another week, then she can go out and run & play & have fun!