Gromnir

same response as in 2020 it is curious that russian vocalists is expected to sound as if they is physical suffering while performing. am recalling @Gorth shared a mongolian artist who also channeled his pain aside: don't tell @ShadySandswife, but we listened to viktor tsoi 'bout a decade or so past and we didn't feel as if we wanted to hear more. gruppa krovi album? the music reminded us o' blondie from the early eighties, though with maybe less punk influence. not terrible but viktor is no debbie harry. HA! Good Fun!

"AoE spells and items didn't affect the enemies if you rested before the battle for Defender's Heart – fixed;" we mentioned this bug earlier. the thing is, the bug also disabled enemy aoe. dretch stinking clouds, which nowadays the demons spam merciless during the defender's heart battle, were similar ineffective pre patch. overall am thinking the bug made the tavern defense easier. the star rattle l00t chest being "fixed" is also maybe not such a fantabulous result as the chest is now providing goggles o' undeniable truth, which you no doubt acquired a couple islands earlier. no longer is the chest providing a broken trickster mask... which admitted were kinda broken given the level it is likely acquired. HA! Good Fun!

Walz signs universal school meals bill into Minnesota law “If you’re looking for good news, this was certainly the place to be,” said Walz. “I’m honored and I do think this is one piece of that puzzle in reducing both childhood poverty and hunger insecurity.” HA! Good Fun!

am trying not to read too much into the fact am liking 'cause it gets unexpected dark and cringy. HA! Good Fun!

cardboard boxes become useless when wet. HA! Good Fun!

vague and non-specific support o' a generalized and irrelevant observation 'bout US free speech two hundred years ago as a basis for deciding the value o' free speech in 2023? yeah, meaningless... and that is our generous response. HA! Good Fun!

no, you pointed out the notion o' free speech as existing two hundred years ago were, "delusional." you then pointed out the irrelevant observation that not everybody were free two hundred years past. you know what else happened two hundred years ago? the monroe doctrine. ... is just as relevant. there is nothing delusional 'bout observing the enduring value o' US free speech. the Constitution has been amended many times and a few such amendments guarantee more people enjoy free speech precisce 'cause it is is a good idea. china and russia both have constitutions btw and their enumerated protections o' speech, on paper, is stronger than the first amendment. it is the shared values o' US citizens which has resulted in speech being a consequential freedom. an incremental decrease in bigotry while maintaining and expanding free speech rights is cause for applause, no? so vague and non-specific as to be meaningless, particular in the present context. add some further irrelevancy regarding religious freedom? responding to platitude based argument is offering serious diminishing returns. HA! Good Fun!

slaves, chinese and others were not treated as deserving the protections o' the bill of rights two hundred years ago. the obvious response is that two hundred years ago slaves, chinese and others should have enjoyed all such freedoms, 'cause freedom o' speech were a good idea two hundred years ago and remains a good idea today. is not that free speech were a bad idea in the past but that institutionalized bigotry were the problem. again, duh. utter bassackwards. HA! Good Fun!

... duh. is why the first amendment is a prohibition on governement consequences. US first amendment don't make you free from social and employment consequences, with a few limited exceptions. bassackwards. those shared delusions is what is most important. a shared belief in justice, democracy, rule o' law is what makes such meaningful. is no objective and quantifiable justice in the universe. is not a sub-atomic rule of law particle to be found in nature nor a human rights molecule. belief is what makes shared values meaningful. and yeah, shared values is a double-edged sword. aztecs were okie dokie with human sacrifice and in the US we were okie dokie with institutionalized slavery for near a century o' years after the creation o' the bill of rights. today, women is still treated as chattel in more than a few places 'round the globe. shared values might very well be wrong and in need o' reevaluation. freedom from government punishment for expressing opinions is one o' those shared values we believe is worth keeping, but if you got an argument for dumping it, we would like to hear. recognizing that not everybody were free hundreds o' years ago is utter irrelevant to the question o' whether it makes sense to abandon or retain speech values. again, duh. we shouldn't need respond, but is 2023, so here we are. HA! Good Fun!

the radical left, as well as the young & stoopid left, is indeed abandoning +200 years o' american free speech values. am appalled. am guessing john lewis is rolling in his grave, and zombie bernie sanders is not too happy as well. no doubt most dead and undead libs is united in their disappointment at the diminution o' american free speech values by the young and/or extreme. however, is mainstream conservatives who is pushing the right's crusade versus speech. the war on wokeism, as well as the misguided and and ignorance based crt bans, not to mention the militarization o' suppression o' protests which were applauded by our resident south african, the oath keepers, maga and trump, represent real threats to US speech and even american democracy itself which is far more serious than the comical and self-defeating efforts o' a handful o' antifa clowns. vile and willful efforts to gut historic american values in general and free speech in particular should be condemned regardless o' party affiliation. isn't happening. instead from local school board meetings to red state governors and even the previous POTUS, there has been a conscious effort to knee-cap free speech in the US. the most serious threats is coming from the right and is a mainstream push as 'posed to a fringe movement. 'course not all conservatives has joined the battle to undermine free speech and core values. general mattis reaction to lafyette square: I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand — one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation. When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside. We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate." At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them. James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that "America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law. Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that "The Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.'" We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis — confident that we are better than our politics. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children. We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln's "better angels," and listen to them, as we work to unite. Only by adopting a new path — which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals — will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad. antifa morons and college-aged idiots ignore the obvious lefty role-models which is john lewis and zombie bernie sanders? those uc davis protesters should be double embarrassed that a guy such as mattis is doing more to champion american values than is the radical and young left. that said, it is the current mainstream right which represents the most obvious, organized and immediate threat directed at american speech values since ww1. mainstream right is attacking teachers, journalists as well as military leaders mattis, kelly, mcmaster and mcraven. ‘Greatest threat to democracy’: Commander of bin Laden raid slams Trump’s anti-media sentiment even so, am increasing disappointed in far too many university students at yale, stanford, berkeley and uc davis who has embraced a view o' free speech which we most assured would not have expected to become prevalent on college campuses during our lifetime. the mainstream right and their war on speech in no way absolves college kid ignorance. am genuine shocked by an anti-liberty trend 'mongst young people, regardless o' political affiliation; is unhealthy and unamerican. no excuse. no equivocation. a parting fyi for the afrikaners and maga crowd: just 'cause fox news pundits talk 'bout the right's championing o' core american values don't make it true. in case you is still unaware, fox lies. HA! Good Fun!

am extreme disappointed in the uc davis protesters. owning the libs is the goal o' folks such as charlie kirk, an uneducated yutz who likely could not gain admittance to uc davis as a student. nevertheless, kirk managed to reveal young and s'posed educated liberals as intolerant, violent and woeful ignorant regarding the meaning o' free speech on a public university campus. outmaneuvered by charlie kirk and the proud boys? the protesters at uc davis should be embarrassed by how easily they were manipulated. is nothing subtle or clever 'bout charlie kirk's provocations. nevertheless, young libs insist on allowing themselves to be baited by obvious provocations after which they got the temerity to blame the school chancellor for their own lack o' impulse control. owned by charlie kirk and the proud boys? owned by charlie kirk and the proud boys again. HA! Good Fun!

is not star trek, but battlestar galactica, an ip not known for decent pc games, had us pleasant surprised with deadlock. we even liked the music. is a strategy game, so not exact what @Hurlshot is looking for, but you do craft a fleet and there is even a kinda handwave in the direction o' story elements which ain't terrible even if the voice acting is. am recalling hurl likes xcom, yes? if you enjoyed xcom and battletech, then am suspecting you enjoy deadlock. is spring sales time for steam, yes? am not sure what is the price o' deadlock, but am s'posing is relative cheap... and unlike star trek: starfleet command, deadlock will run on a current windows rig. HA! Good Fun!

indeed. lewis observed we need live in the shadowlands while the sun shines somewheres else. ... "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world… no doubt pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument-- it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. it removes the veil. it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul." -- c.s. lewis on the redemptive power o' suffering you do have a habit o' reading quotes so they mean the opposite o' what the author intended, but am s'posing is refreshing in a way. (our quote is from memory, so is likely we got a word or two reversed. apologies.) nevertheless, unlike c.s. lewis, am actual agreeing with your observation 'bout the value o' good news. am just observing how for the genuine hopeless, good news is yet another hammer blow from fate. isn't necessarily rational, but if you ever try and cheer up a depressed person with good news, you may not get the reaction you intended. the sun shining over the next hill or down the road cements the knowledge that the depressed must endure the shadowlands and while such pain may be proof o' God for the diehard catholic, it is a cruel jest for the disconsolate. HA! Good Fun!

for a true depressive, realizing good news keeps happening to other folks will make them feel more miserable. counter-intuitive, tales o' woe have cathartic value as those who see each new day as a cause for lament is able to find some small solace in the recognition that in spite o' their isolation, only in their suffering is they other than alone. that said, and as crazy as it sounds, am having been told our pov is a bit cynical... serious. am also self-aware enough to recognize how a guy who has joyce's the dead memorized is likely not the best role model for achieving healthy warm and fuzzy. HA! Good Fun!

once a year. HA! Good Fun!

our post 2008 solution to avoiding another banking crisis is we keep all our money with tony. downside is he is always asking us to do one more job, for old time's sake. HA! Good Fun!

am not an expert on campaign finance law particularly ny law. that said, am maybe knee-jerking on this, but am reminded o' when republicans were trying to burn hillary clinton for her email stoopidity. is unreasonable to expect a prosecutor to push new legal frontiers when seeking indictments, particularly when accusations o' political bias is inevitable. you could make an argument for prosecuting hillary for her email negligence, but nobody had ever successful been prosecuted w/o actual intent to share secrets with foreign powers. nobody. evar. parse statutes as would a law school student is swell and all, but to explain how hillary were being treated different than defendants in every other previous case were gonna be an almost insurmountable hurdle, not to mention manifest unfair. hate to say it, and gives us no pleasure in doing so, but if trump haters is hoping for a felony indictment based on a novel application o' law, am predicting disappointment. a felony indictment is unlikely, and even if ny goes ahead with such an effort, am suggesting doing so would be unfair in same way were the calls to criminalize hillary. the mar-a-lago documents case as well as the georgia election interference investigations look much more likely to produce felony indictments, so don't feel as if trump is getting away with something. aside: misdemeanor v. felony is poor understood. historical speaking, a felony by definition were a crime punishable by death. misdemeanor, from a legal pov, is crimes less serious than a felony. will surprise few to hear that not all 2023 US felonies is punishable by death, yes? today the ordinary dividing line for a misdemeanor v. a felony in most states is incarcerations o' more than a year. 'course most o' us likely see a year in prison as other than a minor penalty, yes? am admitted not sure what is the penalty for the misdemeanor charges trump is likely to face in ny, but am suspecting is well short o' a year. even so, am knowing people is often surprised when they discover a misdemeanor charge may result in as much as one year o' prison. HA! Good Fun!

aside, am recognizing is unfair and imprecise to say bank deregulation caused 2008. greater oversight and bank regulation woulda' lessened the impact o' 2008 and coulda even prevented it, but is inaccurate to say bank dereg caused the housing bubble burst. were a whole lotta causes and a mess o' willful stoopid necessary to make 2008 happen the way it did. what is mind blowing to us is the collective amnesia regarding 2008 mongst banks and legislators. maybe people at the top need to go to prison for them to stop playing lethal games with the economy? dunno, but greater regulation o' banks should prevent this kinda "thievery." edit: mark grace, a player for the chicago cubs baseball team, once said, "if you're not cheating, you're not trying. and it's only cheating if you get caught." is a funny bit o' pith when is 'bout baseball, but am thinking at some point it should be beyond question that a large enough percentage o' america's ceo types is disciples o' mark grace. metaphorical locks on footlockers won't prevent all thievery by your ordinary bank ceo, but business is an extreme competitive sport and the ceo will do whatever they can get away with to "win." many is gonna push limits o' legal... and then go a bit beyond. yeah, too much regulation strangles business, but how many catastrophes do you need suffer before you realize railroads, banks and oil companies is gonna be reckless with the health, safety and welfare o' employees and customers if doing so means a positive quarterly report? we need safeguards and punishments to deter. we don't have safeguards or punishments? gosh, what could possible go wrong? HA! Good Fun!

is worse than the video makes seem 'cause while is not same bailouts as 2008, the bank deregulation which arguable caused the US version o' the 2008 crisis were all so quick forgotten and repeated. is more than likely bank deregulation is a root cause o' the current problem. dodd-frank were only passed in 2010 for chrissakes and yet in recent years we saw a return to clinton era bank deregulation? were hamstringing dodd-frank a mass hysteria event? perhaps legislators all suffer from momento kinda brain damage? is not as if we are talking 'bout a hundred years elapsing and all those who suffered the previous stoopid is dead and buried. again, dodd-frank became law in july o' 2010. unless everybody in washington and the banking industry ages via dog years, am not seeing the excuse for the kinda stoopid we saw and called out in 2018 when Congress knee-capped dodd-frank. Gromnir is a fiscal conservative and even we saw how brobdingnagian myopic were the bank dereg efforts. btw, in spite o' the hyper partisan nature o' US politics at the moment, more than a few democrats in the house and senate voted in favor o' the 2018 amendment. thanks to manchin and more than a dozen other democrats, the amendment to dodd-frank were safely filibuster proof. aside, is a whole lotta reasons to justifiable dislike elizabeth warren, but she called this. listen up to 1:30... after which she talks 'bout mortgage issues which is all too likely an inevitable future problem related to banks. https://www.c-span.org/video/?442521-7/senator-warren-banking-bill HA! Good Fun!

am gonna suggest people focus too much on the wrong content. flurry polearms for sohei is indeed nice, but it only happens at level eleven. the most difficult part o' the game is early, when you don't have many powers or abilities. so armed with metaknowledge, build experience, the right gear and an ideal supporting party, by the time you hit level twelveish, chances are you are no longer struggling. ... 'course even w/o flurry, sohei is gonna be the current win choice for monks. from start o' game, level one, sohei gets you get a horse, martial weapon proficiency and access to spirited charge. 'cause 'o changes regarding spears and charging, at level one you are gonna do 3x damage on a charge... if you choose spirited charge. you are gonna choose spirited charge level one. play as a human and you should have cleaving finish by level three. a sohei with spirited charge and armed with a longspear finnean is laughing at early game content. crpg axiom: most powerful ≠ most fun. rule o' kool should always win... unless you are playing unfair difficulty wotr. sohei might be most strongk but is it most fun? dunno. @ShadySands for the through the ashes content we had a half orc wildland shaman with a leopard. also had a sacred huntsmaster with a leopard. were two leopards and a horse in our party so we kept our naming convention straightforward: leopard 1; leopard 2; horse. not our most creative moment. leopard were our first animal companion with our angel sacred huntsmaster. gritty kitty. regardless, we wanna play a half orc wildland shaman as a main at some point in the future, 'cause is a stacked archetype. would likely choose a dog. maybe name God even if is a bit sacrilegious. wildland shaman is a serious stacked archetype. HA! Good Fun!

for the fox viewers btw, if you think you were only lied to 'bout january 6, you are being embarrassing naïve. summer 2020 protests and covid coverage? HA! Good Fun!

cameo and hard light pioneered in kane is not just a black and white thing. hardly an isolated example. edit: the first godfather film is homage to kane in terms o' lighting techniques. is worth watching godfather and kane together... at least for film nerds. literal first scene of godfather HA! Good Fun!

we mentioned this with the rittenhouse case, but there is a viscous circle o' stoopid the gun rights folks refuse to acknowledge. because americans is so well armed, every cop traffic stop is creating a reasonable fear for cops 'cause the occupant o' the car reaching under his seat for his driver's license might just as well be reaching for a gun. we pointed out how if rittenhouse had been killed 'stead o' being the killer, those who killed him woulda' benefited from the same self defense case law. some folks reflexive rage whenever there is a cops shooting o' an unarmed individual, but the law protects all american morons and not just cops. is so ez to show the possibility o' fear in any conflict, and because the possibility any american you meet has a concealed weapon, with a beyond a reasonable doubt standard benefitting a criminal defendant, americans will continue shooting each other with the full protection o' the law... presumably 'cause some folks think firearms possession makes 'em more safe contrary to any statistical evaluation o' such claims. again, americans want guns to feel safe. however, because potential everybody has firearms, there is always a reasonable apprehension o' lethal violence during any tense altercation, particular when those conflicts happen at night. we want guns to feal safe, but the fact any american might have a handgun on her person means we is all reasonably afraid. is mind numbing stoopid, but is no good way to fix the problem. HA! Good Fun!

multiclass as a slayer keeps sneak damage high, but then you likely wonder, why not just go full slayer? a few levels of mutagen warrior or demonslayer (a single level o' demonslayer is one o' the more common multiclass dips) will only slight decrease sneak damage while providing noteworthy bab advantages. worth considering. a skald party member is also an option for increasing bab. seelah, wenduag and camellia work well as skald companions. late game, a non merc skald such as seelah is gonna be providing as much as +10 to bab to your party. at level 10, you will enjoy +6 to bab and with strategic use of lingering song, you should be able to use reckless + inspired fury functional in every battle. curious, the skald is also gonna provide you with a bite attack via animal fury, and so too should ember via beast's gift. make sure your second finesse weapon choice is bite if you got a skald providing natural attacks. bards is also fantastic bab buffers, but unfortunate their granted competence bonuses won't stack with a cleric's guarded hearth which makes bard's functional less useful during the important boss battles. rando suggestions: -be sure to take outflank with all non caster party members as such will enhance attack bonuses and increase attacks of opportunity whenever a party member crits... is also a reason for possible taking kukri as your weapon even if you gotta burn a feat to acquire martial weapons. -ever ready is a serious win option, though is only gonna be noticeable later. -opportunist is another must particular as it is gonna have synergy with the aforementioned ever ready. attacking first is also a nice way to effective increase your hit chances as you will catch foes flat-footed, robbing them o' their dex bonuses to ac. assuming your are going high dex, you should already have decent initiative, but make sure to take any opportunity to increase initiative. regardless, knife master and knife master/vivisectionist builds is more than viable at least up to hard difficulty w/o taking any high bab multiclass options. knife master and knife master/vivisectionist is particular lethal as a trickster, though am admitted not a fan o' trickster. curious and mayhap counterintuitive, aeon is also a good option. strength builds have a serious advantage in wotr as they is more likely to be able to stack strength through size increases. melee rogues is particular challenging as they do not benefit from mounted combat, so w/o the pounce ability from kitsune or skald, you are often wasting your first round to reach an enemy. dex builds is requiring a bit more... finesse. btw, rogues improve serious 'round level twelve. you will have enough access to items and party member spell buffs so as to compete with high bab classes. heck, eventual through high umd or vivisectionist multi, you will have access to transformation. aside: we completed the tavern defense yet again. *groan* weird bug as persistent aoe effects is not working during that battle; good news & bad news. our ember's burning entanglement were useless and so to were a grease. at the same time, dretch spamming o' stinking cloud were also ineffective. worked in our favour and am s'posing the bug will eventual be fixed, but am hopeful is only the tavern defense battle which is similar broken. HA! Good Fun!

perhaps is a handful o' poles still twisted up 'bout the treaty of altmark, but am trying with difficulty to imagine legit examples o' modern swedish hate outside indigenous peoples. am suspecting your national ketchup fetish evokes more pity and curiosity than anger. the concocted indignity o' turkey as an excuse to keep sweden outta nato don't feel real, but perhaps am wrong. have never purchased an ikea product but the near universal pop culture knowledge that assembling the swedish furniture ordinary results in frustration might qualify as hate. maybe? is the chinese, iranians and saudis known for purchasing ikea products? is the olympic curling and cross country skiing competition cutthroat enough to inspire hate? so other than the sámi, and a few inebriated kanadian curling fans, am not sure who genuine hates sweden, but am admitted uneducated on such matters. ... converse, everybody hates norway, yes? HA! Good Fun!