Gromnir

new lamplighters dev diary. HA! Good Fun! ps fixed... maybe. aside, devs says they ain't doing "camp," so am taking them at their word, but the characters sure sound and look to be humorously exaggerated while leaning heavy on the clichés. is accidental?

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torment has gotten more love than most older games which didn't sell, fallout being a noteworthy exception. https://www.beamdog.com/games/planescape-torment-enhanced/ https://www.inxile-entertainment.com/games/torment-tides-of-numenera the inxile title had actual planescpe developer folks working on their updated version. converse, josh sawyer was the web guy for torment. obsidian don't have a planescape license and their ties to the title is increasing remote. so... HA! Good Fun!

is a long list o' rich people who has gone to prison, including micheal cohen... and is worth mentioning cohen 'cause ny is gonna try and says cohen went to prison for trump. 'course convicting trump for the pr0n star hush-money is not as ez as a few pundits make it sound in part 'cause the system is rigged in favour o' defendants, as tough as that may be to believe for all the angry libs out there. european countries don't have anything like the exclusionary rule and the whole grand jury process itself went outta vogue for euros in the late 1700s. standards o' proof is much higher in the US compared to near all europe and asia. however, even in 2023, most juries assume cops is telling the truth which ain't a matter o' law but o' culture. etc. the reason(s) we got so many in prison here in the US is social, economic and cultural (and kinda unforgivable) but the US legal system is in fact far more defendant friendly than other western nations and democratic republics. however, is true you ain't getting a full and vigorous defense in the US unless you pay for it, so the rich do enjoy substantial benefits. heck kyle rittenhouse weren't wealthy but arguable one reason he stayed outta prison for his stoopid is 'cause his crowdfunding efforts resulted in a significant war chest for his criminal defense. regardless, if trump don't go to prison for pr0n star hush-money is gonna be less 'cause the rich get away with everything as 'posed to fact nobody has ever been successful convicted in ny for what the manhattan da is attempting to prosecute trump. the US Government went after john edwards for something similar in 2011 and they failed. ny faces a tougher challenge than US v. edwards, so... trump is a terrible person, but you don't go to prison for being terrible. our overcrowded prisons would have 100x as many people locked up if being terrible were enough to get you imprisoned. for those who loathe trump and want to see justice done, am recommending not holding your breath waiting for the guilty verdict from ny. the tax evasion thing is a real problem for trump if bragg went that way, but am just not confident trump ends up behind bars for hush-money payment reporting fails. edit: also is noteworthy the doj didn't choose to go after trump for the fed election/tax issues once 45 left office. am understanding the main hurdle for indictment were the fact the feds thought michael cohen were a terrible witness, and am gonna suggest that for a successful hush-money prosecution, cohen needs be better than terrible. also, as difficult as is gonna be to believe, from our pov the more significant legal news from today is not the hoopla regarding trump. dude. ... dude. "In its partial ruling in favor of Dominion, the court did determine statements made by Fox were statements of fact and were not statements of opinion." "The court also determined that Fox "cannot avail themselves of certain defenses like the neutral report and fair report privileges or the privilege for opinion"" furthermore, punitive damages were not excluded, which am thinking is nevertheless a tough mountain for dominion to climb but such damages is the kinda thing which could result in serious pain for fox and real changes to US journalism in general. fox reaction to today's dueling summary judgement rulings. HA! Good Fun!

up until 2016 we voted based on individual candidate character, competence and goals as 'posed to party affiliation, but we tended towards choosing moderate republicans more often than not. the thing is, in 2023, the republicans has become a party which downplays or even defends the the inhumane treatment o' immigrants, the use o' masked federal agents in unmarked vans to kidnap individuals w/o a warrant or even probable cause, the events o' january 6 and book banning. even if we ignore the corpulent orange elephant in the room, am not seeing how is possible to vote conscience and republican in 2023 albeit with one exception. regardless, even if you are in favour o' fiscal responsibility and small government (which is maybe not current gop values but is definite not major issues for the democrats) am seeing as near impossible to align self with the party banning the kite runner, the handmaid's tale and 1984. am also agreeing raskin is "good at this" kinda thing but admittedly the current gop makes it ez. HA! Good Fun!

The Cases Against Trump: A Guide the article perhaps oversimplifies a smidge, but am not finding fault in the overall analysis save to note am viewing the fulton, georgia case with a bit less ambivalence. "Willis has the advantage of the recording of the Raffensperger call, which is close to a smoking gun." the thing is, there is now three confirmed recordings o' trump pressuring people to find him votes in georgia. david ralston and an investigator from the georgia state secretary's office also made recordings. is a small armory o' smoking guns? how many smoking guns is needed to make one confident about a prosecutor's chances? have said previous, and am reiterating, any jury trial involving trump is gonna be uncertain. that said, we would have an extreme difficult time explaining why the people o' georgia did not pursue charges 'gainst trump. converse, we mentioned in an earlier post how am not confident 'bout the ny case, but am admitted not an expert on ny law. 'course am not even certain what is the charges which may be brought in the ny case, although the speculation 'bout crimes for which trump may be held accountable is based on decent information as 'posed to pure conjecture. even so, bragg's efforts is resulting in more angst than am thinking is warranted. mar-a-lago and fulton is where we believe trump is most vulnerable. is serious vulnerability in both cases. HA! Good Fun!

on the off chance gd is suffering from ______________, am gonna avoid describing how miserable and soul crushing is having to endure the symptoms or treatment o' ___________. ... we were engaged during our last year o' law school when we discovered we had a condition which had a high chance o' leading to significant health problems at some point in the future. ended the engagement 'cause from experience we knew how hard is such health problems on family and close friends. US health care also means even minor medical issues may financial devastate a family, and that sorta pain is disproportionate felt by lower-middle and lower income families. we don't wish serious health problems on even those we dislike. tangential related, we got our urgent ortho surgery referral today and scheduled an appointment. may 16. am only imagining what a not urgent time frame woulda' entailed. HA! Good Fun!

add us to the list o' folks who will caution 'bout the grapefruit thing. chemotherapy btw is not just 'bout treating cancer. is a number o' med issues treated by chemotherapy and not all is dire. can't speak to cancer treatment, but at least one o' those not cancer chemotherapy treatments is impacted by grapefruit in multiple ways 'cause even when one o' your meds is not immediate impacted by grapefruit, the testing you routine go through to check deviations and changes to baseline numbers may be skewed by grapefruit. HA! Good Fun!

somehow missed this until this past monday and our accountant didn't tell us 'bout the change. IRS: May 15 tax deadline extended to Oct. 16 for disaster area taxpayers in California, Alabama and Georgia is four CA counties not impacted by the deadline extension, so is worth double-checking. HA! Good Fun!

@Gorth am not a fan o' pickled herring but that spread don't look terrible. am not seeing any rotting walrus/whale blubber but you nordic peoples can be sneaky with the menu. unrelated, but as soup has made a few appearances o' late, am gonna share a couple videos from jacques pépin as he is kinda our soup pole star. had never considered the quick grits as a thickener 'fore we saw the 'bove video. also, to show how flexible is the soup approach, is another variation from 2008. is so rare one is able to use "unpretentious" and "french" to describe one individual. HA! Good Fun!

no idea. am only certain that if you play treasure isles dlc as a side quest to the main game, then the star rattle rewards post patch is the undeniable truth goggles. have not tested where the dlc is played as separate from the main campaign and am not having run through the entirety o' the chase and prey portions o' the dlc to be knowing what other l00t changes may have been implemented. HA! Good Fun!

galaxy is a dead end for us. am one o' those persons for whom it is impossible to update galaxy there is no manual update option. HA! Good Fun!

a couple lamplighter updates: Dev Diary #1: Game Vision Dev Diary #2: Your Agents HA! Good Fun!

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. 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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!