Enoch

Read the title of the piece: ... ... Can't possibly be Arcanum-related.

I suppose I owe ya'll an update on the whole offspring thing. Project Little Brother has been a success. He arrived about 2.5 weeks ago, underweight like his brother was (2180g at birth), but dealing with it more effectively (that is, he maintained his temperature and blood sugar far better), so we were able to take him home from the hospital on the "normal" schedule. He's bulking up admirably, and actually (knock on wood) sleeping pretty well for a tyke of his age. Now we're just dealing with the challenges of a newborn and a 2-year-old in the same house. It's... not fun, but that was never the point of this whole endeavor, at least in the immediate sense. (Kids are not particularly enjoyable when they're small, so I figure we should have them close together to minimize the portion of our life spend dealing with such, while also avoiding only-child weirdness.)

Indeed, the minimum wage is a not a particularly great policy tool at achieving what it aims to address. But it remains in the public conversation because it's easy to pitch to voters (conceptually simple, and you get a dedicated core of supporters who see it as a potential windfall), and because voting for it requires no hard decisions (budget trade-offs or tax increases) by legislators. Also, alternate poverty-alleviation programs come with their own problems (e.g., means-tested programs like EITC are hugely susceptible to fraud) or look suspiciously like handouts to non-workers, which American public opinion frowns upon greatly. If you want to be seen as "doing something" for poor folks, and don't have sufficient support to actually sway some budgetary resources or tax policy changes, a minimum wage increase is a safe pitch to make.

As a matter of technical proficiency, probably. But I've got to go with style over chops: It's a scholcky song at it's core-- might as well turn the schlock up to 11.

Hmm... "Feargus the Overlord" is too obvious. "Aloysius"? "Mr. Schmooples"? "Totally-not-Sauron"? "Steve"?

So, I suppose it's been a while since I reported in. Project Little Brother's arrival will occur in two weeks, at the latest. We're scheduled for a c-section on the 29th (which would be at 38 weeks gestation) but circumstances could lead to an earlier delivery. He is being monitored very closely (twice-weekly checks on biophysical profile and bloodflow dopplers, with growth assessments every other week), and any poor results from that monitoring (or a spike in maternal blood pressure, which we're checking twice daily) could lead to an earlier arrival. (For those who may not remember my past accounts, we're firmly in the "high-risk" category, with a history of miscarriage, one 2nd trimester loss, and one living child who was under 5 lbs at birth, despite being full-term.) Odds are that the new guy is going to have to spend some extra time at the hospital-- he's measuring small, just like his brother did, which often comes with difficulties in things like blood sugar and body-temperature regulation. Apart from being a skinny dude with some indications of bloodflow prioritization (if a baby isn't getting quite the nutrients it wants through the umbilical artery, it will reduce resistance in the cranial artery, to ensure that the brain gets what it needs), he appears to be doing fine. If they had to deliver him today, he'd likely do OK, but the thinking is still that more time on the inside should mean needing less time in the NICU afterwards. We're... maybe ready? Dealing with the 2-year-old while all this is going down is going to be a management challenge, but we've got some family around who can hopefully help out. He's a pretty laid-back guy, as 2-year-olds go, but he doesn't yet understand what's going on and how dramatically it's going to change his life.

I have concerns about where you guys are putting these paninis. This would have been an awkward time for your spell checker to malfunction. Marginally related story: I was a little late getting dinner ready on Saturday, and snacking on some honey roasted peanuts. My son, now 2, seemed interested, so I offered him one. (Watching closely to make sure he chewed it, rather than trying to swallow it whole.) We played a bit, but a few minutes later he migrated back to the kitchen, pointed at the cabinet where I put the nuts away, saying "More this!" I got out the jar, showed it to him and said "You want more of these? They're called peanuts." And that's how my son discovered how to make his parents laugh a lot by yelling "More *****!" On-topic: I had brisket pho for lunch.

Thanks, folks. That all sounds reasonably consistent with what I remember from the game. I was a little concerned about the tales of the improved AI leading to opponents disregarding tanky types if they lacked the ACC/DAM to bring some hurt, but you've reassured me enough to give it a go. And the more specific pointers are welcome-- I remember enjoying many of those abilities mentioned, although I may have missed a few. As for Chanters being dull, well, we'll see how it goes. I considered other options here, of course, but I don't like how the Priest & Paladin rules tempt the player into metagaming the dialogue. (Plus, the Goldpacts are clearly the coolest Paladins, and my Druid has already explored most of the Stoic/Rational dialogue options.) And I'd like to try out the new companions, so I didn't want to double-up with a Rogue, Monk, or Barbarian. My backup is probably giving the Cipher a try if I don't find the Chanter fun, as it's apparently no longer the E-Z mode it was on release. Still, I always thought Psionicists were silly, and some of that has rubbed off on the Cipher.

I quite enjoyed my first playthrough of the game last year as a generally honest and kind Aumauan Druid who tried to keep out of melee. But I haven't touched it in 6 months or so, and I'm looking to start up a new character to see the various improvements and run through the expansions. My thinking is to build a manipulative-bastard Chanter for front-line combat use. I used Kana a fair amount in my last game, and I always felt like I was under-utilizing him, not always noticing when he had accrued sufficient chants for an invocation and neglecting his potential as a scroll-reader. Given the greater attention one typically pays to "their" character, I'm hoping that a PC chanter can change that. I'll need enough INT/RES/PER to get the "manipulative" part of my character concept down (that is, dialogue checks), which leaves me with averageish STR & CON, and probably below-average DEX. My question is whether this still makes for a feasible front-liner, after the various attribute changes and AI improvements-- Will the character be able to take the beating? Will I do enough damage to discourage enemy disengagement? S&S or Two-hander? Any other input on chants/invocations/abilities to look for or avoid in a Chanter would be most welcome.

Not sure what you mean regarding the 5th & 10th amendments, but the gun-rights argument against Garland is pretty laughable. He hasn't seen any significant 2nd amendment cases. He wasn't on the panel that decided the case that became Heller, but because he voted for en banc rehearing, some have implied that this means he disagreed with the holding. (Of note, conservative favorite A. Raymond Randolph also voted for re-hearing of that case.) And, yeah, he was on the panel that decided NRA v. Reno, but that was a statutory construction case whose only connection to the 2nd Amendment is that it was titled "NRA v. Reno." Basically, some oppo-research hatchet shop came up with smears for all of the likely "short list" names, and this was the best thing they could hang on Garland. It's weak.

But the adra is purple now!

The official site links to the Paradox forums, so these forums might just get a re-direct link, as was the case with New Vegas and NWN2. So, isometric fantasy-post-apoc, with a somewhat defined protagonist who starts the game with significant influence, and with the reactivity of the gameworld cited as a selling point. That could be fun.

I'm sitting here waiting on the Office of Personnel Management to make the call on whether DC-area federal offices are open tomorrow or not. The tyke's daycare has already announced that it'll be closed, so I'm not going in either way. So this will decide mostly whether I'll have to use Leave time, and whether I should be expected to check in on my email and maybe work a bit during naptime. The current WaPo forecast has us in the 18-30 inch total accumulation zone, but it isn't expected to start until tomorrow afternoon (and the heavy stuff won't start coming until after dark). I'm optimistic that we won't lose power-- service in our neighborhood has been quite consistent ever since they re-strung the lines after the 2012 derecho, and the winds should be high enough to keep tree limbs from falling due to snow-weight. Still, you can't account for the occasional idiot driver smacking into a pole or transformer. If we do go dark, I think we'll be OK. Our heat, hot water, and stove all run on natural gas and have worked fine through past outages. It'll just be a race to cook as much of the stuff in the freezer as we can. That said, I'm not really looking forward to a weekend snowed-in with an almost-2-year-old. He's generally a lot of fun right now-- curious, responsive to instruction, learning new words and expressions almost daily, but hasn't yet developed much of the characteristic 2-year-old defiance. But 3 days in the house is still going to get tiresome. (At his age, excursions out into the snow probably aren't going to last much longer than a photo-op.) I am continually thankful that he still sleeps 12-13 hours per day. Edit: The OPM call is in, and it's stupid. "4 hours staggered early departure" is just going to lead to a lot of resentful employees coming into the office for a half day (much of which will be spent complaining about having to be there) to avoid having to use leave or telework for the whole day, and then commuting home just as the snow starts to stick on the roads (or on public transit that will be in their midday "lower traffic expected" mode). Lovely. Ah well, there goes 8 hours of vacation time. Edit2: .

Also, just in case it needed to be made clear:

This is mostly incorrect. Most toppings need to cook in the intense direct heat of the pizza oven, not be insulated by a layer of cheese (and maybe fry a little in the cheese-grease, or boil in tomato sauce). Fatty meats should crisp up, and veggies should char.

I swear by the combination of Onions, Kalamata Olives (crappy black olives can **** right off), and hot peppers. I'll go for a sausage & peppers pie every once in a while, but most of the time I don't want to add an additional grease source-- the cheese brings plenty. Anchovies are also nice every once in a while (in place of the olives). There is also the category of artsy "premium" pizza that you get at a sit-down joint with a huge wood- or coal-fired oven. That's a whole separate discussion-- different sauces, expensive cheeses, seafood options, etc.

It's New Bowie Day! From the just-released album: (Edit: Lyrics get a bit NSFW, if I'm hearing them right.)

The Year in Weird New Frogs

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3706905&userid=17931&perpage=40&pagenumber=10 Do we know what else is considered "Ground-based"? Traps? Seals? Spells like Tanglefoot and Vile Thorns? In the link you quoted you can find the following exchange: I tried to link them to all of the abilities that seem obvious: Slicken, Tanglefoot, Binding Web, Wicked Briars, the various priest Seals. There are a few others that could arguably be in that group (e.g. Rooting Pain). Thanks. SA can't always be counted on to be work-safe.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3706905&userid=17931&perpage=40&pagenumber=10 Do we know what else is considered "Ground-based"? Traps? Seals? Spells like Tanglefoot and Vile Thorns?

Because I know Volo won't, I'll be the Giants fan around these parts to say thanks to Tom Coughlin. I can appreciate that, at 69, his time was coming sooner or later, so I can accept it if the Giants brass thinks that this was going to be the best time to transition to a new Head Coach. Tom's not a perfect coach by any stretch of the imagination (and he'd be the first to tell you that), but the chances that NYG can find somebody as-good or better to take his place are not particularly strong.

The day's best highlight.