MTG Salvation

Well, as I said, I had to rant, I had to be facetious too because, well, it's not such an important matter to really be that serious about it.

Now, for a straighter answer:

The geographical area bounded by my country's borders?

Love it, the incredibly unique and varied geography enclosed within it, it's everything I could ask for and more. Chile's truly a good sample of what the world has to offer.

The people who live in my country

There's people I love in my country? Yes, of course there is, most of my family, and friends are here, the average chilean however? The ultrapatriotic veering on xenophobic and who has no idea on their roots nor what's going on in the world around them? Sorry, but no.

The values held by the people of my country

Guess I answered already up there, we've got some good values, yes, but they are by far overshawed by our many flaws that we keep perpetuating.

The values that I think were held by the founders of my country

Ugh, no, each and every one of them was a backstabber that got rid of the others as soon as the dust settled, fomenting a centralized power that, while organized, was extremely unjust for those who lived far from the capital, the independance only benefited the aristocracy, if any.

My country's government

It has managed to keep the economy going and us out of crisis, yes, but that's the only good thing I could say, our constitution is outdated, our government is really backwards on many matters, the politicians are on a rush to privatize everything, poor citizens be damned, truly, our country is a ticking bomb waiting to explode into recession sooner or later.

Famous people from my country

Is there any? Like, has anyone ever heard of famous chileans? There's a handful of course, the Nobel Laureats mostly, who are excellent rolemodels indeed, but even then, they are few, waay too few.

My country's devotion to a specific religion

Catholicism I guess, I've got nothing against it, then again, being faithful is mostly dependant on which region of the country you're living.

The founding documents of my country

Independance ones? Pure Garbage? the constitution that truly shaped the country? Bloody Brilliant; oppresive? Perhaps, but damn if it wasn't the right solution to the country's problems and they truly helped us get going as a country, quite well in fact.

Products made in my country

Heh, I hate typical chilean food, I like some things made in Chile I guess but, well, there's not that many products, we mostly export raw materials.

My country's military strength

Too big, particularly for a country that hasn't been on war for more than 100 years, says a lot about how paranoid the ruling class is, really.

My country's intervention in the affairs of the world for causes we consider justified

Not much to be honest, not that I consider it good or bad but truly, there's not much to say in the respect, as we mostly stay neutral.

Does it mean any or all of the above? I'd say all of it, as our country, as a whole, is this, the people that inhabit it, it's geography and the history and customs behind it.

Am I proud of my country? No, as an average we've got way too much of an inflated ego while paradoxically also having an inferiority complex regarding Europe and the 'States, that have always been taken as our model to follow, for some odd reason. There's little things that my country, as a whole, has accomplished and as such, I see no reason to be proud of.

What do these questions mean to me? Mostly the sum of all the other former questions. Is love the appropiate word to define what you feel for your country? Maybe, but in an ideal world, I'd rather it not be.

Oh funny, I haven't logged in here for months, maybe a year, but this thread certainly gave me a venue to vent and I'll certainly seize the opportunity.

See that table there? Where it says Chile is even more patriotic than the United States? It's goddamn true, terribly obnoxiously horribly true!

It's just that I can't comprehend it, it's just such an horrible sentiment, and it feels so empty; being proud of your country for what? Simply being it? Chilean culture is horrible in that respect, our jingoism such that we not only love our country in an exagerated manner, for no good reason at all in the first place, but it's most often than not expressed in disgust on comparison with our neighbors, people truly look down on our northern neighbors thinking of them as if they were an inferior race, the average citizen is borderline xenophobic, or openly so, but the government encourages it, our relations with Argentina is little better, and the worst thing is that they hate us back for it, and with reason, we think ourselves superior to them, for no real good reason truly, but damn if we're proud of our country, right?

We've got nothing to be proud of, truly, our country has little big accomplishments on it's history and those are by far outshined by the attrocities that have happened here, yet people are oblivious to them, prefering to love the country above all else because, heck, we've got a high IDH, right? We're the first country in Latin America considered a "first world one! yay! Ugh, I hate this, more often than not patriotism feels like government brainwashing to me, trying to keep the masses dumb and forming some kind of worship to such empty concept as our fatherland to, in that way, overlook our faults, because we're superior! See?. Sweeping over the rug or overlooking our faults, I can't stand that sentiment.

Now that brings me to another point, I've seen this repeated many times, for I moderate another forum for an historical strategic game modification I and some others made, and we decided to include some often overlooked countries, that showed me some harsh truth though, that when it comes to patriotism, the smaller and pettiest your country is, it seems that the more that patriotism is exacerbated.

There's countless fights I've had to dissolve on people from the Balkans fighting over who had the least-worst country, and every so often someone claims that "if it weren't for those damn turks our country would totally be a world power by now! unlike those guys from neighboring country X! I've seen it happen just so many times it's not even funny, and the same thing happens here in Latin America, Peruvians badmouthing chileans badmouthing argentineans badmouthing bolivians, they fight over such petty things even when in the grand scheme of things the rest of the world doesn't even care. (I bet most people stopped reading my rant a good while ago because, well, Chile, who cares? right?) Why being proud of your country? Even more important, why being proud of your country for no real reason at all? What's the damn point?!? The sentiment brings nothing but animosity and hate between people, it's the only thing I've seen so far.

But yeah, we've got fjords, and some damn good beautiful ones at that, maybe that justifies it all in the end?

I'm finishing the semester and moving... but it's winter here.

Quote from Pheon

Also would like to say you shouldn't underestimate the power of fetchlands in general. Deckthinning, shuffling, and even just adding a land to the grave can all be very important.

And holy hell, Marsh Flats the same price as Scrublands? Just how expensive have the Zen fetches gotten?

So that's what they are going to print in MM2...

Hookers have sex

So yesterday was the GPT I had been practicing for a couple weeks now. Once I arrived at the tournament I realized that I had left my Leylines of Sanctity at home and I was like, eh, what's the worst thing that could happen?

Cue in to playing against Valakut the whole day... Enough to say I didn't win.

As for me I believe it's not a real EDH game until there's a possibility storm, mind's eye and Knowledge Pool on the battlefield at the same time.
Some Grip of Chaos doesn't come bad too.

Quote from Lasersharp

How would you feel if I posted like this?

~Aurora, Ætherwalker

Make it Illuminations and it'd be a real surprise.

Nothing like non-euclidean geometry to make something memorable, eh?

I can't remember in wich circumstances I ended up with this avatar, but I'm sure it's not my first one, oh well, Lautaro's never a bad choice.

Most music on my computer is random folkloric songs from different countries. I rarely listen to them, I mostly have them for reference...

I heard the call for more music on this thread:

Hah, oldies, that's like the upper limit of the music that I can stand, I can't like most stuff from the last 50 years or so...

I wonder if the chinese food is the same there than here, at least the same rules applies, there's some very fancy, very costly good chinese food, and then there's the fast food, greasy, cheap version. I personally prefer the former, I always get indigestion when I eat chinese fast food.

Hey, at least it was better than the GP Santiago where it felt like we were playing inside a Greenhouse... a crowded Greenhouse.

Now that you mention it... true, I'm not quite sure what I would do in a convention, what does one normally do in them?

Never been to a convention, they rarely happen here outside Santiago, and even there it's not quite a common occurence...
Also, it's good that I acquired my Wastelands when they were still affordable, it's been fun to see how their price duplicates pretty much every year. Same with the swords, too bad I only have one mystic.