MedicineDan

If Trump wins, I believe the senate stays in Republican hands. To be honest, the normal calculus eludes me this election. Too many variables. Too much mush in the polling. Too many people hiding their intentions and not enough people answering. If I *had* to make a prediction, by which I will stand by this statement and eat crow if I'm wrong, I would say that *if* Trump wins, the Republicans keep the senate and *might* retake the house. If Trump loses and the senate stays in Republican hands, then it's a push to the next cycle. If Trump loses and Dems sweep House and Senate, God help us all. I sympathize with voting for character. I truly do. I mean that without even a hint of sarcasm. This is the first time I have ever felt that an election was an existential fight in any meaningful way. Obama weaponized the FBI and IRS. In a way that would have made Nixon envious, he turned the executive apparatus against his political foes. Trump, for all his bluster and saber rattling, has never done that. Partly because he's a lot of talk and partly because his inner circle wouldn't go so far. The forces behind Biden have no such patriots in their number. All we have to do is convince a relatively small number of people like me to come out for Trump. That's it. I've thrown over a lifetime of speaking to people across the aisle. Seriously, if people like me convince one person to vote who might have sat this out, we'll win. If not... :shrug: history will right itself eventually, but hard times will follow. Hard times not just for conservatives. The useful idiots on the left will suffer right along with me. Some of them will even realize the error of their ways. The others will suffer for what they foolishly think is a righteous cause.

I'll throw this out there for folks. I know that my political views can be unpopular, but my ability to read the room politically speaking has been pretty good over the years. Not perfect, but better than the sizeable majority of talking heads on TV. Last cycle, I suspected that the polls were off for Hillary during the entire season. This was true. I suspected Hillary Clinton would win, but I was wrong. however, my assessment about the spread was actually perfect for the national election, just off in three states. You can guess which ones. The problem with this election is that there was a time when folks were scared to tell the truth to pollsters. I still think the polls are skewed, but I also believe the pollsters are trying to rectify the mistakes of the previous presidential cycle. That said, I think there's a real chance Trump can win this. Seriously, I know folks were all but writing his obituary a while back, but the Democrats can always be trusted to **** things up by going bat**** crazy. You figure that it really doesn’t matter who’s president. It does. Donald Trump is a sociopathic narcissist. Vote for him anyway. Biden is probably a nice enough old fellow, but don’t trust him. He’s the sheep’s clothing that hides the wolf. He’s the beard that masks an evil grin. I have this running bet with a friend. I say to her, “let’s count off the times my liberal friends tell me, ‘no one is saying ____x____.’ Then, in a few years, when it’s a mainstream Democrat policy point, we can have a bottle of champagne.” We’ve christened quite a few ships over the past several years. Biden is not a return to normalcy. Biden is normalizing the destructive forces of chaos that mean to destroy us. The Left’s desire to cancel anyone who doesn’t fall in line might make this unpleasant, but we better start speaking out before the freedoms that have been the bedrock of our society are swept away. I know! I know! “No one is saying that!”

Ah, okay! Many thanks, McSquirl!

I'm mostly playing Fantasy Grounds lately. Truly splendid! I've also been tinkering with Grounded, but I'm tempted to put it aside until the game ships. I prefer playing the finished product, but it has certainly been a lot of fun.

I didn't see this topic when I did a search, but I could swear someone posted something similar. If so, just fold my post into their thread and treat it as agreement. If not, then I suggest giving us some option to keep grass from growing through clay foundations. I built a nice base with multiple floors by clearing some of the grasslands around the strange machine. Now grass is growing all through it, which is a bummer. I can clear it out, and that's not such a big deal, but it's just plain jarring. However, the graphics are much better today. Looks a lot more polished. I also notice a few improvements in the visual cues and information. Nice job!

I have some insight into this that's perhaps a little different than Lady Rojas. As a recovering nihilist, I will say that I spend an inordinate amount of time sucking down adult beverages. By that, I mean ETOH. Okay, fair enough. That, in and of itself, should be grounds to take my posts with a grain of salt. However, I do what I gotta do in situations where I gotta do it. Doesn't make me important and sure as hell doesn't make me a hero. I'm just a guy doing a job. However, there's more to life than doing a job. I've become disciplined so that I can ruthlessly cut myself off from things in order to pursue a goal. Ask my family about that... at least the ones with whom I still speak. You should pursue the good. You should do good things. You should never sacrifice the good for the sake of the perfect. I honestly believe, Skazz, that your allotted days come from the Lord and how you dispose of them is for you to decide. I, personally, was in a deep dark hole. I dug myself out, but some part of me will always be in that hole. The part that dug himself out will always judge himself harshly. That's life, brother, but you gotta live it.

Many thanks, Sahib!

Been a while since I've had time to visit and now I come begging for money! :sheepish grin: Anyhow, I'm running this 5th edition campaign and one of my friends created an Extra Life page for it. Trust me, I did *not* come up with the name of the group. However, my buddy, Devenandar put it up. I figured, since I'm always donating to CHOC on the Obsidian thing I'd hit up folks. However, two things. One, I never want to try to shake people down for donations. If you have the cash, it's for a good cause. ...And CHOC and CH Los Angeles take low income cases too, so it's worthy. Second, I'm unsure if this pitch violates rules, so feel free to delete or edit this thread into conformity with board rules. Meanwhile, what did I do today? I was off work and no school until I start with my NP courses next semester, so I worked on my Fantasy Grounds Campaign. Simply awesome! I had hopes, but they were exceeded! Huzzah! EDIT: FG is good enough I'll probably keep using somewhat even after the accursed lockdown ends and we can properly play on tabletop again. https://www.extra-life.org/participant/414875

I agree with the idea of creating a bed. I've been steadily improving my base design. It's a shame to throw down some shabby looking lean-to in my increasingly nice looking house.

I just bought the Grounded game. It's a Steam special right now. I also broke down and bought Halo Master Chief's selction of soemthing like that. I've played a little. The action is too fast. Not that it's hard, but there's no thinking about what to do or anything. You just kind of run and gun. I kind of miss DOOM levels and whatnot. I'll try Grounded after I get it downloaded and see how Obsidian's latest endeavor works for me. EDIT: the mouse is a little too sensitive, but I'm going to try to get used to it before I adjust. Being able to turn quickly is good as long as motion sickness doesn't get me and I don't over react. I might have to tone it down.

How does Halo stand up? I was thinking of getting the latest DOOM, but I'm not sure. I like FPSes, but any other suggestions. I guess I could start Disco Elysium I suppose. I only did enough of the original to realize the main character was an alcoholic and that kind of took the charm off for me, but I still like the idea.

I finally finished Black Mesa. There were certainly some differences between the original and the remake, as it seems to me, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. I just used the default difficulty, which was way too easy, but I don't care about bragging rights. I think the last game I played on the highest difficulty all the way through was the Wolfenstein game where you had to fight some huge assed Goth giant at the end by ducking under his swipes or some such. That was stupid. Typically, I play them all at whatever difficulty to which it defaults. There were still some irritating moments and a couple times I got lazy and toobed the answer, but mostly I solved everything pretty quickly. The puzzles weren't very hard, but there were a couple times I overlooked something several times before I found it. Great game. I have a little extra time right now, so I'm considering what to play that I have or what I might want to buy. I will say that Sunless Sea was such a great game and a while back I played a lot of Sunless Skies and it was a real letdown. The idea was more or less the same, but the writing couldn't match up with the first. I really felt sad when the Presbyterian chick bit it. There was nothing even close in Sunless Skies.

Oh my God, I never realized that Redbone was a Native American Band. I saw this video for the first time and literally thought of you, Gromnir. I spend too much time on these boards! lol

Finished Darkest Dungeon and Almost done with the farmstead based xpac. I would say that it's great, but mostly just provides extra goodies, which aren't necessary. Plus, since I'm a completenic, I feel the need to play long enough to get all the town upgrades, and getting that one for the mill will be a real pain since I have not, as yet, gotten a single memory. Tons of shards. I've used the shard mercs, but I don't see why I really need them with a full roster. I'm going to wait to do the darkest dungeons until I've explored a lot more of the farmstead. Oh, and while I have the chance, I've been playing Black Mesa. Not bad. I guess it's just a spruced up Half-Life? At least I get to save some folks on this one.

Tell me about it! ...And Covid is looking increasingly more of a cardiovascular problem than pulmonary. Ugh. Not that it changes much about blood donations, but it's a topsy-turvy world. Take care of your health! We don't want *you* to need any of that blood! :broad grin:

I just got back from donating blood. I had to wait until I hadn't had 'Rona exposure for 30 days, so I haven't donated since the end of February. Double platelets and a unit of whole blood. A lot of blood banks are testing for Covid-19 antibodies for free, so that's an incentive. We really could use the blood right now. We could almost always use the blood. Also, platelets have a much shorter shelf-life, so if you can donate those, please consider it. Packed red blood cells are also vital if you have O-. Really, O+ or O-, but O- moreso. If you're in Southern California, you can go to LifeStream and donate much needed blood product *and* get a free antibody test. I'm sure there's an opportunity wherever you live to do the same. EDIT: When I say we could "almost" always use the blood, what I mean is, the need is almost always extreme. It's always needed.

Where your word speaks so swings my sword, brother. :big beefy grin:

Addictive as hell, at any rate!

Darkest Dungeon pisses me off so much! Rat bastards! Geez, the RNG is Satan in software form!

Well, I don't know if I've posted this before, but I like this song. It's upbeat and irreverent and goofy as hell. I love it!

Looking over the previous recipe, I put 1 tablespoon of yeast nutrient. I wouldn't use that much for 3 gallons. It would give kind of a vitaminy finish to the mead. I must have meant 1 teaspoon, but even that is a bit much for 3 gallons in my opinion, but my feelings about that kind of change, so I might have. Anyhow, off today and so going to Lowes and various places for things I need to do around the house. Also, I think I'll make the reservations for the Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. This is my niece's last year in high school and so we're taking her to her favorite place to celebrate. Not a big deal for rich city folk like Gromnir but a week there is a chunk o' change for the humble likes o' me. I think I'll stay home and that way the little lady can take the niece and a few of her friends. Nothing like a guy to mess up the ladies' vacation. As an aside, respect for your firearm skillz, GD!

For you, Azdeus: Let me see. I'm trying to remember if I did a 3 gallon or 5 gallon batch. I think I did a 3 gallon and put it into two 1 gallon secondary fermenters. I'm sure I have the recipe around somewhere, but I rely on my wife to keep track of it and she has no interest in helping me hunt down the exact recipe right now, but I can tell you almost certainly all of it. 3 Gallon blueberry mead (boil): 9 lbs fresh blueberries in season ~8 lbs local grown honey 4 gallons spring water (much more than necessary, but you need some leftover for other stuff) 1 table spoon yeast nutrient Wyeast Dry Mead (yeast) I think that's all the ingredients. Anyhow, fresh fruit, quality honey, and good water make a difference. Not that you need to fixate on those things. Good ol' store bought honey from the grocery works just fine also. I usually just wash the blueberries and strain out the stems and other debris. Some stems won't matter, but I like to keep tannins and astringents to a minimum. After they're washed and ready, I put them in freezer bags and crush them into pulp, lay them flat in the freezer, and let them sit overnight. The reality is that I'm lazy enough to use the frozen blueberries to help get the must into the right temperature range after the boil. If you're doing a non boil batch, you could just crush them and put them in without freezing. Also, there's some debate about whether to put in the fruit early or late. Later can mean more aromatics, but I always put the fruit in straight away. However, I sometimes do both and put non crushed berries (or whatever) in later to enhanced the aroma and to be decorative. Whether you let the fruit freeze or put it to the side, it's time to start the boil. I've made both boil and non-boil batches. I typically boil, which is a little more complicated since you certainly don't want to singe the honey at the bottom of a pan that's too hot. You have to skim the foam off the top as it boils. Non boil you don't worry about foam. You don't even need to bring it completely to a boil, and I've had several ranges I've tried. Just don't let it burn! Boiling requires bringing the must to a low enough temperature afterward that it doesn't kill the yeast when you add it. I usually do an ice bath for the pan (a big hulking assed thing) and then add the frozen fruit, which is what I did this time. Once it's cool enough you take a big funnel and put it into a carboy. Most people swear that only glass works, which is true if you're going to primary ferment for a long period of time, but my 3 gallon is plastic. I just never keep the brew in it for longer than a couple of weeks, month at most. I always transfer to a couple of 1 gallon secondary fermenters that *are* glass. At this point, getting back to this batch, the temperature is about right for the yeast which, for the one I used, I think just entailed getting it slowly to room temp while I'm doing other stuff and putting it in the must once it's in the right temperature range. Add the yeast nutrient and then put your (sanitized) hand over the top and shake like hell. Oxygen is bad later on, but getting some O2 into the batch at the beginning is good so you can get the yeast thriving. Yeast uses oxygen if it's available, but it goes to sugar if not. So, since oxygen is more efficient, getting enough in there to promote quick growth works well. After the Oxygen is gone, there's a lot of hungry yeasties to start making ethanol. We're set now. Just put in a sanitized bung and tubing. Some people use an airlock, and I do eventually, but fresh fruit can create a tremendous frothy mess and having tubing so that it can gather in a mason jar is good. Just fill the jar so that the end of the tubing is submerged and you're golden. This might sound disgusting or odd, but there's a lot of aroma and taste in the water in the mason jar during the first couple of days. I usually use the leftover water from the brew in the jar and then switch to vodka or some other spirit for the airlock. If you really want something tasty, you could use vodka or some other likely spirit for the mason jar and drink that up as the foam from batch gets pushed into it. Anyhow, this takes a couple of days if there's a lot of fresh fruit in the batch. Overall, I just kept this one in the secondary for several months before racking it. Clear bottle are cool because they really show off the color but light oxidizes and so you need to keep those clear bottles in the dark until you want to show off the goods. Anyway, I'm sure there's more stuff I'm forgetting to mention, but the important thing now is to keep the temperature from fluctuating and keep the fermenters, both the primary and secondary, in a cool, dry, and dark place. Have patience. I think it tastes best after 1 year, but you could go six months or even a few years if you're careful. I would say longer, but mead doesn't last that long around my house. I drink it up. Oh, don't forget whatever sanitizing agent you use. I think I'm still using star san. Also, keep in mind you need to have a corker or a capper with corks or caps when you rack. Hmmm, anything else? I think that's pretty much it. Good luck! Unfortunately, I can't ship to north of the border, but if any of you get back down to *my* neck of the woods, I'll have a special batch ready for you. :crooked smile with one raised eyebrow:

Fresh blueberries. ....At least I think it's blueberries. It might be blackberries, but I think that tends to look more purple than dark red. I have cherries I bought for the little lady that she hasn't eaten and they're probably *just* right for making cherry mead. That's more tart, but I put in enough honey to take off the edge and then I sometimes add dark brown sugar at racking if I want to carbonate and that has a distinctively sweetening effect. It took a while, but I love the end product now. You just have to be patient, and I was for patience made. :wry grin: Anyhow, I tend to have a lot of stuff fermenting at the same time, and I'm a bit in my cups now so I think I'll wait until tomorrow to verify. I can post the recipe if anyone is interested.d

Good God! Is it truly the fabled scaled one participating in this neck of the sandbox?! lol I have to say, I don't think anyone has experienced these times in his or her lifetime. Not to those of us South of the border, at least. I guess I should post something about my day now. Well, let's see. I'll post a picture. For all of the fact that some folks probably hate my political views, they'd be won over by a sip or two of my home brewed mead.

I was going to hop in here about a month ago and predict that Trump loses the election. I didn't believe that the polls were completely accurate. However, I didn't think the issue with national polling, which wasn't as bad as people thought last presidential cycle, were all that crazy. The important polling really is the state by state polling, and I know various organizations are trying to get a better handle in key states. I still think the election is Biden's to lose, and that's mostly because Trump is a sociopath. I'll gladly muddle through the diatribes of Trump hate around here, but I don't believe the crazy stuff Trump does as an individual have made much of a difference. Before the 'Rona, we were in excellent shape. My litmus test to see if you're a blind hater or not is if you deny actual data about the state of the economy before the pandemic. If you talk it down, you're doing so for nakedly partisan reasons. So, the big reason Trump isn't doing better is because of his personal failings, and they are many. People's lives were going well and, minus Trump's vexing persona, he would have walked away with re-election. Then the 'Rona came. He made legitimate policy mistakes that could have hurt him a little, but his incontinent character and multiple... weird statements were the big problem. The press hates him, and so any stupid mistake is highlighted. The hydroxychloroquine kefuffle was just silly. His endorsement was ill advised, but it wasn't earth shattering or even all that important. On the other hand, his crazy assed question to Birx about sunshine and bleach rightfully drew harsh criticism. No rational person would hear those comments and not be confused at best. I mean, what the hell was the guy saying? Then George Floyd was brutalized by police. Peaceful protests turn ugly and then the real motives of the left come out. Defund the police. White people must kneel and atone for sins they personally did not commit. Suggesting that all lives matter, including black lives, can lead to consequences in your life and in your job. This sort of stuff ends up hurting legitimate causes. It simply does. This is not a winning message for Democrats, which is probably why they've more or less stepped away from the strategy. Now, I'll say that, while in my opinion Trump probably loses the upcoming election, I'm not really sure. There's no way to trust current polling in this atmosphere. People are afraid to tell pollsters anything but what they think they should say. That's always true a little bit for Trump, but I'm telling you that it's gone crazy. There are people who truthfully said they weren't going to vote for Trump last month who still say it now even though their feelings have shifted. The problem for Democrats is that they tend to match crazy for crazy with Trump. I rarely resort to profanity, even in person, but the United States is a complete ****show right now. This is the one way Trump can actually cause real harm. He's capricious and crazy in an unsettled time when we need real leadership at the top. The thing is, we were already heading to where we are as a society. Trump just got us there faster. He had two things going for him that people like me felt justified all his bad qualities: he's a disruptor and he defies the relentless march of wokeness in our society. In my opinion, the quality of disruptor is like any medicine. It's got a therapeutic range after which it becomes toxic. With multiple traumas in our society, Trump as disruptor goes from harsh medicine we need into a toxic range that is disturbing to me personally. At this point, I doubt people like me can jump ship on him because we believe society has become unhinged by wokeness that is unforgiving and unrelenting. I just hope the medicine doesn't end us all. You can rest assured of one thing. People like me aren't a huge number in Trump's corner, but he simply cannot win without us. In the states he needs to win, he can't lose even the small number of us he has. If he does, I don't have to hedge my bets. He simply loses. His hardcore support is sizeable in this country, but it's not enough to put him over the top. It's not even close.