Gromnir

is not bad to slavish follow a recipe. the first time we prepare a dish, we near always follow recipes as written or described. if you like how the dish came together, then is no reason to make changes to instructions provided in the recipe. the thing is, am finding we frequent make changes to recipes based on personal taste as well as our accumulated cooking knowledge. is often ways to achieve improved results by changing a described process or ingredients, but one should understand both the impact o' process and the qualities o' ingredients when making such changes. understanding process and ingredients is also helpful when ingredients is not readily available. try and find decent tasso at a market in the sacramento valley. good luck. making tasso requires minimum three days; our recipe calls for seven days. when we make red beans and rice, chances are we skip the tasso, but am recognizing what the tasso brings to the dish, so am able to fake the smoke and tang from the pickled meat. it don't take much imagination to add cheese curds to an online or cookbook recipe calling for cheese curds. as 'posed to slavish following an established recipe you took no personal part in creating, am suspecting gordon ramsey would be a bit more impressed if you convinced a group o' self-appointed wisconsin cheese pundits that the meal they just enjoyed contained cheese curds without using cheese curds. just sayin. unrelated, we had an ez cassoulet for dinner... multi-beans (royal corona, tarbais and great northern,) couple handfuls o' torn bread pieces (small pieces) from a two-day-old baguette, tomatoes (roma and cherry,) summer squash, corn and bacon were the main ingredients. we used a fair amount o' garlic and finished with fresh basil and grated parmesan. we use our insta pot to pre-cook the beans which is so much easier than an overnight soak followed by cooking. the beans require a bit less than an hour in the insta pot and is complete hands-off during cooking. the summer squash and corn cassoulet recipe we have calls for mint but we used basil. guess what? the meal were delicious even w/o mint. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

saw headlines and instant wondered if the scientist had "fallen" out o' a window or been poisoned. HA! Good Fun!

gonna admit we always thought the cheese curd hype from wisconsin folks were more imagination than real. tested our theory by making poutine for acquaintances from midwest/wisconsin. showed 'em the packaging from the sooper expensive cheese curds we got shipped from wisconsin-- two varieties. served our guests two kinda poutine, but one option were not cheese curds but rather a Gromnir house substitute involving provolone and mozzarella. when we asked our guests/guinea pigs which slight melty and covered with gravy "cheese curds" were better/more authentic, three outta four preferred our knockoff mozzarella and provolone substitute, and nobody recognized the mozz + porvolone as fraudulent. we didn't spoil the meal by informing our guests they had been used to test a pet theory. everybody left satisfied, especial Gromnir. HA! Good Fun! ps guests also preferred restaurant quality deep fried frozen fries as 'posed to made-from-scratch fries... though am admitting we did not have access to kennebec potatoes which is the variety o' tater am believing makes the best french fries. we didn't do any sorta switcheroo on the fries. not doing deceptive with fries were intentional sleight o' hand on our part as our guests were focused more on looking to determine which fries were genuine so they overlooked the possibility we had done something sneaky with the cheese.

ad&d bards were idiotic with the triple class nonsense. 2e bards were suck. we actual liked d20 bards, but only if we had a dm who made skill checks meaningful. 4e skalds made decent leaders, but almost nobody liked 4e, so... 5e bards? the most obvious criticism we got o' d&d 5e bards is that they is too good at too many different things. parental marital status aside, am observing just how stacked is 5e bards. as charisma characters with skill bonus abilities which makes 'em a good choice as a face character, bards is an excellent choice for a single-player crpg such as bg3. bards are also full casters who are able to cherry pick the best spells from other classes. with one level o' life cleric, bards is elite healers if you wanna go that route and regardless they may provide a party a few o' the best buffs available in 5e. no, bards ain't as good as fighters in weapon combat, but they is solid and may be built better than solid if you need to be an elite weapon-haver. the bard class has many pros and few cons. am not planning on playing bg3 anytime soon, but if/when we do decide to give bg3 a chance, our likely first character will be a valor bard. sure, a halfling valor bard dual-wielding hand crossbows is ridiculous, but ridiculous is a selling point from our pov. we will note how the luck quality o' halflings is serious underappreciated. sure, hobbits don't fit the power fantasy image many players is trying to create with their bg3 avatar, but from a numbers pov, halfling luck is win. make intelligence a dump stat and choose drums. name animal. if it makes you feel better, chances are we go dark urge which in a sense is bastard territory given the requisite dubious parentage. HA! Good Fun!

the last two years haven't been bad for wildfires in norcal. nevertheless, more than a few insurance companies called it quits. if you wanna live in most o' el dorado, placer, nevada or sierra counties, it may be difficult to secure home insurance which isn't cost prohibitive... may be functional impossible for new homes in certain areas, although the fair plan does offer a kinda respite. our residence is foothills, so the mountains is a short trek removed. is amazing how much difference a fifteen minute drive east on highway 50 makes in terms o' surrounding greenery and decreased summer temps. HA! Good Fun!

it is the same in CA-- the "basic check" is only involving an emissions test plus a check of computer + hud lights. if your car is old enough and you ain't got a computer to check codes, then the "basic check" is functional non existent. HA! Good Fun!

coca cola's lawyers will be contacting obsidian, DOOM and shady 'bout copyright infringement. HA! Good Fun!

one hopes pizza is excluded. tar and feathers remains the prescribed punishment for putting ketchup on a hot dog w/i the city limits o' chicago, but pineapple on a pizza or lettuce/tomato on a taco will likely result in at best a condescending sneer. ... am also admitting a full nerd moment as literal the first thing we thought 'bout 'pon reading your post were that you share malcom reed's favorite food from enterprise... silent enemy episode? something obvious wrong with our brain. HA! Good Fun!

the reason we posts as Gromnir is 'cause we were disappointed with interplay's bg2 forum. particular noobs, but anybody who had the temerity to suggest bg1 and the bioware developers were less than perfect, were treated like heretics or witches whose existence needed to be purged. so we posted Gromnir-style which annoyed the Defenders of the Faith even more than our observations 'bout bg1. worse, the biowarians were not only amused by the Gromnir schtick, but they got what we were doing and appeared to approve which annoyed the bg1 faithful even more. we will observe outrage and groupthink take hold and calcify much quicker nowadays and the scope o' the problem feels larger with "innovations" such as social media magnifying the pestiferous qualities o' gamer anger. regardless, is same issues but perhaps the scope is different. HA! Good Fun!

is precise why we don't tell guests we put prunes in the dish until after they have eaten and informed us how much they enjoyed our stew/roast/whatever. some folks know dried fruit don't belong in a braised meat dish. some are certain they don't like prunes even if they can't recall the last time they had a prune. am finding it is best to give diners a chance to taste and enjoy free o' whatever preconceptions they may have brought to our table. 'course if their preconceptions is the result o' a food allergy... HA! Good Fun!

doesn't matter 'cause is us v. them. american politics is increasingly tribal and for maga and the alt-right, the them is deep state "establishment democrats," blm protesters and illegal immigrants. facts don't matter 'cause is always alternative facts. look hard enough and somewhere on the interweb you will find alternative facts just as reliable as the facts they use. who you gonna believe anyway? the educated elite is part o' them after all. maga is outraged and the core problem we face in fixing maga and alt-right intransigence is that they got reason to be outraged. increasing income inequality and the disappearance o' working class jobs as well as family farms capable o' supporting the american dream broke many living in rural and rust belt america. the pain many maga adherents feel is real. unfortunate, rush limbaugh and his successors convinced a generation o' folks that democrats, "feminazis" and immigrants were the cause o' their problems. didn't take too much effort for the alt-right to sell grievance and outrage to maga, many o' whom had given up on hope for something better and were just trying to make ends meet. you ain't gonna get rid o' maga stoopid until you fix the larger societal and economic problems which created an increasing disaffected working class. good luck with that, eh? trump were the first national politician to come on the scene in many decades who said the quiet part out loud. the real victims o' racial bigotry is working class whites. lgbqt+ and anything else which makes maga folks feel uncomfortable shouldn't be promoted by the government (or even private corporations such as anheuser-busch and target?) white lives matter too. etc. trump said maga anger were justified and that conspiratorial thinking were legit. trump, a guy who literal descended a gold elevator in his own "gilded tower" to begin his Presidential run, somehow became the figurehead for all those marginalized red state and heartland americans and whenever he is attacked by them, right or wrong, legions will spring up to defend him. the reality o' what trump did or said is immaterial insofar as false electors or secret documents. the important part for maga and alt-right folks is trump is yet again being attacked by them. trump (and rfk jr ?) is the guy you can depend on to always fight them. so even if you aren't convinced trump is complete innocent, you know for certain they needs to be opposed. HA! Good Fun!

trump is not being charged with inciting the january 6 attack on the Capitol, so... a good reason key shouldn't respond to individual counts is 'cause is clear he don't know what is being charged. in any event, key posts read like an alt-right mad lib: "political witch hunt," "establishment democrats," "Obama," "banana republic," "Hillary" none o' that stuff has anything to do with the validity o' the various indictments, but you will always hear in a defense o' trump from alt-right sources. we didn't bother responding initial 'cause we saw key's response as eye-roll worthy at best. aside, am gonna repeat how tiresome is the hillary comparisons. serious, people need to quit it with hillary emails. hillary were mindboggling reckless to maintain a private server and fbi director comey tried to make that point brutal clear, but charging her for crimes woulda' been unique in the entirety o' the history o' relevant statutes. the biden and pence document situations is similar non analogous. the only reason the doj learned pence and biden had documents is 'cause pence and biden folks informed the doj o' the presence o' documents, after which pence and biden fully cooperated with the nara/doj efforts to retrieve docs. no obstruction. no effort to withhold documents. no attempts to destroy evidence. honest, if you see as mar-a-lago analogous, am not sure where you is getting your news. keep in mind it were only after trump spent the better part o' a year jerking the feds around as he failed to relinquish docs as is his duty according to the Presidential Records Act that any kinda criminal investigation were initiated. even after the feds realized trump had highly sensitive defense secrets in his possession at a florida resort, the doj wasted three months to final get to the point where they sought a subpoena for doc returns and according to the indictment trump then resorted to attempts to hide documents from the feds and his own lawyers in addition to his efforts to destroy evidence o' his obstruction. the most obvious criticism, and one we would hear from republicans and alt-right loons if we were talking 'bout a democrat ex-President, is why it took so long for the doj to do anything about trump and his mar-a-lago docs. senate republicans on the intelligence committee would be going ape-****e if ex-Prez obama were discovered to have been waving around pentagon attack plans for iran at a martha's vineyard resort and in response the doj did functional nothing but ask politely for doc returns. were only after the obdurate trump team's three stooges efforts to withhold state secrets and cover-up trump malfeasance were a special counsel appointed, a counsel who would choose independent to charge for the fraud and fake elector scheme as well as the mar-a-lago docs issue. only in alt-right fantasy land is trump some kinda victim save o' self harm. lord knows is not worth addressing how multiple indictments and possible convictions will improve trump electability compared to 2020, but at least that aspect is opinions as 'posed to key's clear factual fubar o' his doj weaponization narrative. oh, and we got no idea where key's suggested obama quote regarding banana republics and political adversaries originates, so am unable to discern validity or context. well, last time key learned 'bout eisenhower's military industrial complex speech thanks to Gromnir, so maybe we can learn him something new this time too, eh? baby steps. HA! Good Fun!

on the downside, am no longer able to identify our lonesome as the only person we know who adds prunes when braising meat. HA! Good Fun!

we read the georgia election interference indictment charging trump and coconspirators. were 2:00 am when we did a first read and we were keeping track o' every time an "unindicted coconspirator" were mentioned 'cause is one o' those important facts which sometimes is overlooked in media. caution: not every mention o' an unindicted coconspirator signals a cooperating witness (rat), but such is the obvious conclusion in the absence o' an alternative explanation. is difficult to identify at this stage who exact is the "rat," as such media outlets should be cautious when 'bout speculating on rat identities. is potential defamatory to make guesses w/o evidence. not every mention o' an unindicted coconspirator signals a cooperating witness, but such is the obvious conclusion in the absence o' an alternative explanation. ... we mentioned we were keeping track o' possible rat sightings in the georgia indictment, but we gave up after we hit sixty. serious. is a talky indictment, so is more detail than is ordinary, but even so there musta been at least eighty mentions o' unindicted co conspirators and given the context o' the reveals we ain't talking 'bout just one rat. half dozen? more? dunno. the georgia case is gonna be televised, so that will be must see tv... unless you suffer from musophobia. HA!

fixed sven said their audience were midcore rpg players, purposeful avoiding softcore. not hard. not soft. mid. am honest not sure what midcore is s'posed to mean. the term is possible misleading 'cause the manner in which sven uses makes it less 'bout perceived depth or difficulty as 'posed to a recognition o' broad appeal. as such one assumes larian embraces targeting an expansive goldilocks zone. 'course am thinking hardcore is kinda a weird label which is attached to games which is having little in common save for their niche appeal. am personal not a fan o' aiming for broad appeal. is how we got minivans in the 1990s and new michael bay movie every couple o' years. that said, is tough to argue with success. whether or not you thinks sven is right or wrong 'bout the midcore label, larian has managed to significant expand their audience with each new release. credit where credit is due. admission: the vehicle we got the most use outta for many years were a 1997 chrysler t&c lxi minivan. with all seats removed save driver, it were an ideal dog hauling vehicle. taupe. ugly vehicle made uglier by uglier being brown/bronze. the minivan worked for us precise 'cause it were a fugly, generalist, multitasker. no amount o' dog drool, vomit or mud were gonna make the minivan worse. am s'posing if we had to move a sofa, were a soccer mom with multiple kids, or had an airport shuttle business, the minvan woulda' worked equal well. even so, is difficult to imagine anybody genuine loving their minivan. based on what we saw in bg3 early access, am equal surprised so many people love bg3. looked like a taupe minivan from what we played. 5e weren't our personal issue with bg3. at the same time am recognizing the enduring appeal o' d20 d&d. heck, the reason paizo's pathfinder became so popular is 'cause wotc abandoned d20 and paizo continued to make games gamers recognized as feeling like the d&d they knew and liked... for all its flaws. d20 and old skool d&d love is a big enough niche that it continues to sell pnp and crpg games. regardless, midcore, not soft. HA! Good Fun!

am finding prunes is an underutilized method for adding sweetness or cutting down on acidity in meat dishes. prunes qualifies as a Gromnir pantry staple seeing as how prunes has a decent long shelf life and the frequency with which we use 'em. one o' our favorite prune recipes: the only downside to snacking on prunes as 'posed to using as an ingredient is the sticky factor. we could cut prunes into small pieces and then eat with a utensil, but doing so results in additional cleaning and fork-and-knife a prune just seems kinda pretensions. sticky fingers means am unlikely to eat prunes while simultaneous doing other tasks, which cuts down on their utility. HA! Good Fun!

https://greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/Spelljammer https://spelljammer.fandom.com/wiki/Spelljammer_Helms#Series_helm spelljammer, which has been around a long time, took starships label literal. think treasure planet "ships." edit: nautiloid info https://spelljammer.fandom.com/wiki/Nautiloid https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Nautiloid HA! Good Fun!

yes. have mentioned previous but it bears repeating that overcoming wotr difficulties is not 'bout crafting clever tactics. in spite of all the options available, wotr is not complex. the game is crude. all you need do is stack buffs of your party's ab and dc numbers while simultaneous adding debuff to foes. on the highest difficulties to make nenio one-shot demon lords, make sure you got all the mind effect and illusion boosting gear possible, and consider having a court poet in party for the int boost. the madness domain and hexes also become indispensable for debuffing. is worth considering a single level of crossblood sorc. etc. HA! Good Fun!

yes. edit: you are looking for a solution in the wrong place. the crystal's aoe stun is sonic and not psionic. ordinarily pathfinder stuns is physiological and are opposed by a fort save as 'posed to a will save. HA! Good Fun!

and am gonna suggest there is serious upside o' getting right to the action particular for cinematic storytelling. how many first episodes o' tv shows or openings o' movies has been ruined by torturous character intros and unnecessary exposition? we played bg3 early access and it didn't appeal to us, but we got no issue with the developers metaphorical throwing the player outta a plane w/o a parachute to get the story started. in the first minutes we don't need know who, what, where, when or why. what we do require is for the storyteller to make us want more. am a vocal advocate o' the show, don't tell school o' storytelling and in our opinion the one thing larian got right was avoiding the traditional, tedious, talky intro. unfortunate, they didn't make us want to see more o' their game. HA! Good Fun!

there is a solution which don't require mods, but it kinda depends on what you want from a rogue. are you choosing rogue 'cause they get a whole lotta skills including perception and open locks/disarm traps? sneak attack? an inquisitor sanctified slayer with the animal domain gets you much o' what a rogue offers in addition to a potential mount. shadow shaman is a stacked option but unfortunate you won't be getting a mount until level sixteen. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/thanadaemon/ 'course owl cat gave 'em the ability to cast horrid wilting. HA! Good Fun!

our grandfather listened almost exclusive to jazz and classical... but not star trek classical. our grandmother, on the other hand, were a bit more cool. . HA! Good Fun!

according to pathfinder 2e rulez, only half the balor damage from its death throe is subject to fire resistance/immunity. there is some funny math involved as a few balor is not doing 16d10, but somehow their death throe is based on caster level, and as already noted in another post, owlcat decided cl = hd. as most wotr foes get kinda comical hd bloat... *shrug* the balor you need watch out for is the one who does electricity damage, 'cause again, the beastie is doing damage based on a serious inflated caster level and 1/2 the damage the sparky balor does is listed as almost irresistible divine damage. angels may choose a halo effect which allows some resistance to divine damage, but the sparky balor is gonna overwhelm even that protection. beware the sparky balor. HA! Good Fun!

kinda looks like a shar-pei, but most "puppies" do. the placard is embossed pink, which +ten years ago and back as far as early 20th century would signal feminine. nowadays is bad to make such assumptions and is largely irrelevant at the moment. regardless, congrats to @ShadySands and his family on this most recent blessing. for what it is worth, you got our sincere best wishes and hopes of good health. may you and yours enjoy many years o' happiness together. HA! Good Fun!