Gromnir

am understanding there were controversy related to the super bowl and the music selections. *eye roll* am thinking until the current stoopid which is the gop war on crt, immigrants and woke ends with a symbolic viking funeral, the nba, nfl, nhl and mlb should all agree to pause the performance o' the US national anthem and instead do homage to a prince anthem would be worth it just to hear how ted cruz would respond. 'course us military advertising dollars is an obvious obstacle. HA! Good Fun! ps prince remains our undisputed best ever artist for super bowl performances.

there is an undeserved and discouraging smugness which oozes from those it's so easy observations, no? is nothing particular clever or applause worthy 'cause some joker read online guides or has played wotr so many times they is aware o' every possible game exploit. those wotr sages feign surprise that not everybody is doing the protective luck and fortune hex exploits before boss battles, and 'course you all know the bane of spirit ring may convert your entire party's spell and weapon damage to irresistible force damage, yes? is our frequent complaint the game is tuned for difficulty bass ackwards. unfair difficulty encounters is appropriate for those players who know every loophole and is aware o' the less than obvious exploits, but core doesn't change unfair encounters save reducing the stats o' foes. what that means is players on core maybe don't need use every exploit but chances are they do need a few, or a guide, or help from a board community where they risk being mocked for not realizing how very easy __________ was. wotr is a role-play game which allows you to build characters and parties howsoever you wish, but if you build wrong or make poor crusade choices or, decide to do different than optimal, then you risk facing considerable gaming frustration. punishing the casual player is an odd design choice from our pov, but the wotr fanbase isn't exact rebelling or even complaining. HA! Good Fun!

our current favorite russian girl... woman. if you got time, her tiny desk performance is worth a view. and a fiona apple tune HA! Good Fun!

for the treasure dlc we did the optional battle where you fight the battle is kinda pre end and is not particular hidden. we did both on hard and unfair. is sorta a secret end? based on the list o' achievements, there looks to be another secret end and am assuming is standalone dlc related, but am not certain. HA! Good Fun!

fyi, geosynchronous is a misunderstood term. geosynchronous involves an orbit period o' one day and is necessarily at 42 thousand kilometers from the earth center, or almost 35 thousand km above the earth. geosynchronous is not necessarily gonna remain at a fixed point above the earth unless the satellite is located above the equator which results in geostationary. example picture o' a geosynchronous orbit path. am suspecting the bigger hurdle for a geosynchronous spy satellite meant to provide useful image data is the +22 thousand miles distant from the surface o' the earth the satellite needs be. twenty-two thousand miles is a serious distance with all kinda atmospheric interference 'tween the satellite and the target. again, am talking w/o any real knowledge whatsoever 'bout spy satellites, but am understanding a bit o' the physics and thinking distances for geosynchronous is way beyond the range o' useful images which could be collected. hundreds o' miles? yeah, sure, but 22k miles? HA! Good Fun!

am not knowing but am suspecting near all chinese satellites is known quantities and US and allies is aware to the second when they will be passing over ___________ or ___________. the chinese balloons obvious move slower, but is also gonna be more difficult to predict days, weeks and months ahead when and exact where such is gonna be in part 'cause weather baffles even the best soopercomputer models. in any event, am not a spy, and am talking out our kiester on this, but am thinking is unfortunate the balloons 'caused such a public stir 'cause if it were Gromnir in charge, we would much rather use the opportunity presented by balloons to transmit disinformation as is no doubt the case with satellites, electronic communications and human intelligence. find a mole in your organization and does the sooper spies immediate remove or do they consider ways to use the mole against whoever planted the mole? dunno. again, am not a spy, but knowing 'bout an intelligence gathering resource o' the bad guys seems like an opportunity. as long as the chinese thought they were getting one over on the US with balloons, the US could manipulate the intel the balloons were collecting, yes? HA! Good Fun!

did once. extreme meta. at launch and for sometime afterwards there were a few issues with the hand o' iomedae which am believing were bugs capable o' busting your secret end effort. you also need advance the calendar by a significant amount which has the potential to wreck your crusade morale and stats if you didn't plan ahead or resort to advancing the calendar at threshold via ad nauseum resting. etc. it is a "secret ending" so am s'posing is difficult to complain if it is ultra sensitive and easily broken. the secret ending final battle changes, so is maybe worth the effort if you have already played the game at least once and are looking for something different. if you have already done everything wotr then do secret ending is likely a way to get a bit more mileage outta the game. there is a secret ending for the treasure o' the midnight isles as well, but am believing you need do the dlc separate from the main game; could be wrong on that point as we never bothered to check. that said, is possible we give the dlc secret ending a looksee at some point... but not today, or tomorrow. HA! Good Fun!

before lent am making a few carnivore meals. is a localish store where am able to purchase quality tasso and excellent andouille, but we gotta make our own pickled pork if am wanting to have good red beans and rice. takes three days to pickle the pork shoulder. three days. if any southern folk or yanks who like red beans and rice got a great recipe or alternative for the pickled pork, am interested to hear, 'cause for us the pork is always the most time consuming part o' the dish and am never feeling as if we got it right for all the effort. am also observing how for the past six months it has been difficult to find quality bay leaves. HA! Good Fun!

the frightening thing being am not particular challenged by playful darkness anymore, even on unfair. is proof we have played wotr way too much 'cause am recalling how difficult the battle were when we first encountered playful darkness. pd is technical more difficult today than at release 'cause you need strip greater heroism to make fear attacks work and finnean is no longer brilliant energy in act iii and... is just so many wotr exploits which make a mid or late game battle you may prepare for relative ez... if you know exact how the battle unfolds, all the enemy weaknesses as well as the innumerable pathfinder and owlcat cheese options. shield maze bosses is tougher than midnight fane on unfair. example: if you don't have a leopard, you are forced to kite and pray v. the water elemental. is just so few right options at low levels. if am able to prebuff, put down a guarded hearth, utilize the fortune and protective luck cheese, plus a dozen other options, then unfair pd is not so tough... save for when the rng choose to step in and smite us. inevitable darkness were much easier than our first encounter with pd and is not 'cause inevitable were less challenging. the thing is, after having played wotr multiple times, and with the benefit o' a level twenty party able to prebuff to the max, is our party which were genuine inevitable, regardless o' the foe. 'course we did purposeful build our inevitable excess party with a merged book angel main and a party designed to make the dlc combat a relative cake walk. more cheese. HA! Good Fun!

the greatest strength o' our ketchup is also its most obvious weakness. am suspecting you are gonna wanna add something to punch it up a bit. alternative, find a store brand which has the absolute fewest ingredients, making sure all those ingredients is stuff you recognize and like, then pour into a sauce pan and add jalapenos, lime juice and cayenne if you like american-spicy, or add indian spices if you like indian or... whatever. btw, we use cherry tomatoes (canned is fine)'cause they have more sweetness than other varieties o' tomato and as you are always adding some kinda sugar to ketchup, you might as well use cherry tomatoes so you are able to decrease your need for brown sugar, molasses, etc. aside, cherry tomatoes is also the one variety o' the berry which is natural shelf stable and has not been over engineered withstand travel resulting in less tomato taste. cherry is literal the only variety o' tomato we will buy at a supermarket. HA! Good Fun!

is a slight spoiler, but you will be able to return to the midnight fane, so is possible to confront him after you level a bit. many suggestions for beating playful is gonna revolve around multiple castings of creeping doom + mark of justice. the thing is, am recalling you kicked camellia to the curb, so to make such a strategy work you need daeran with nature or you has to have had the foresight to add creeping doom to ember, nenio or some other caster by means o' loremaster. tell us what is your party config and am able to offer suggestions. IF you got sosiel, keep in mind the pillar of life spells both heals you and does damage to playful as well as undead types. no save. no spell resistance. no to-hit. the spell may be cast before combat and you may literal stack eight or more on top of each other. is a few bugs involved with meta feats and spells cast outside o' combat. am not sure if the devouring lust rod current works with pillars. the goggles of pure sight maybe were purchased from the jewelry vendor in drezen? playful has a whole lotta buffs which may be dispelled. give your best dispeller the goggles and you auto roll a 20 at least once on a greater dispel cast. guarded hearth and mark of justice is gonna be beneficial regardless o' your party... if you have access to such. HA! Good Fun!

was the ketchup for the crepes, pizza or both? is a little vague and your recent posts indicate we should not make assumptions. HA! Good Fun!

made lentils. got out our spices, measured and set 'em aside in a small bowl. we fine diced (almost a restaurant fine on the dice) six large onions and three large carrots. decided to resharpen our chef's knife after onion two. we got 'bout a half dozen chef's knives (is kinda a sickness the way we collect kitchen cutlery) and we coulda' used the damascus mac, but our workhorse knife were gonna need be sharpened anyways and we find the exercise o' working a whetstone to be curiously relaxing. no biggie. with an impeccable sharp knife we finished the onion and carrot then transferred diced veggies to a big bowl. last night we had removed six quarts o' our good stock to be defrosted and we checked to make sure it were at least most unfrozen. check. crushed up a couple pounds o' tomatoes by hand in a glass bowl; need non reactive for the tomatoes. we were just about to chop up a bunch o' italian parsley but instead we decided to pick through and rinse our lentils. ... thought to our self, "y'know, that container o' lentils looks a bit... light." already certain we were gonna be short, we decided to get out the kitchen scale and weigh the legumes. yeah, am more than just a tad light on lentils. *sigh* so, is looking like am making a trip to the store. ordinary we would go to corti brothers, 'cause they gots the best stuff, but is a 35-40 minute drive. so local supermarket it will be. current got rainfall but not particular hard. yet another logistics fail. HA! Good Fun!

this is a misinterpretation. there is no such thing as educational speech in the US. the fact that the gop is targeting teachers and education don't result a new category o' speech. state and local school districts has always been able to choose how they tailor curriculum and which books they is gonna buy for libraries and use in lesson plans. laws which says idaho ain't gonna teach crt is not prohibitions on speech per se, so please don't get confused. choose not to teach farwell to manzanar or a swiftly tilting planet is also not censorship. if a teacher in idaho talks 'bout crt in class they cannot be criminalized even if crt is not part o' the curriculum. the only categories o' speech which don't get US protection is fighting words (which ain't likely what you think it means and is a non factor 'cause no SCOTUS case has been upheld on the basis o' fighting words since the category were recognized,) obscenity (which is extreme difficult to identify and is little case law supporting,) and child pr0n... and child pr0n is banned not 'cause it is revolting or offensive but 'cause o' the inherent threat to underaged participants in crafting the media... which shocks people when they realize animated pr0n or cg which involves technical adult actors to appear younger don't trigger child pr0n prohibitions. (edit: to clarify, when am mentioning categories unprotected speech in the US am referencing those limited categories where the government don't need meet any standard to prohibit. child pr0n is verboten. period.) however, if you are genuine interested, am suggesting reading tinker v. des moines, fcc v. pacifica and the infamous bong hits for jesus case. much like child pr0n, the perceived potential victimization o' kids results in admitted fuzzy exceptions to ordinary free speech protections and those exceptions is akin to lightning strikes 'cause is no way to predict when the Court will decide young bairns need special protection. however, keep in mind that something like crt and alternative lifestyle choices is gonna skew far more readily with tinker than bethel v. fraser. is not educational speech, but there is an admitted grey area when kids is imagined to be potential victims o' harmful or disruptive utterances while involved in school activities. and you didn't read the link 'bout german limits o' press we included in the previous post, eh? Germany has some of the world’s toughest laws on defamation, incitement to commit crimes and threats of violence, with prison sentences for Holocaust denial or inciting hatred against minorities. Maas said social networks needed to stick to the law like everyone else, adding: “Those who care about protecting freedom of opinion can’t just look on as criminal incitement and threats inhibit the open exchange of views.” don't just read the euro press 'bout their fantabulous free press. recently the US freedom o' press has been rated by reporters without borders and amnesty international as less protective in part 'cause o' trump (and obama) making threats to jail reporters who leaked info... or trumps general toxic language regarding enemy o' the state. as it so happens, obama jailed more journalists than any US President since lincoln. jail, btw, is not prison. virtual all those journalists won their cases on first amendment grounds which is understandably overlooked. being jailed for reporting truth is bad even if you win freedom. 'course the main reason US ranks lower than germany and sweden and so many others is NOT 'cause o' legal protections 'gainst censorship but rather 'cause o' the very real threat o' violence american journalists face from ordinary citizens. trump speaks o' the press as a whole being an "enemy o' the people" and we even have posters on this board expressing indifference at the murder o' reporters. there is a real and embarrassing toxic anti-journalist culture here in the US and is fair to mention such insofar as penumbral freedom o' press, but such is not specific relevant to legal and Constitutional protections o' reporters and press. however, the only legal relevant aspect where the US suffers on those curious lists from reporters without borders and the like is the assange and handler issues dealing with national security. as we noted, obama and eric holder lost near all the cases involving journalists-- by definition their actions were illegal. have mentioned previous how is pretty much no legal Constitutional scholar who supports the way the 1917 espionage act has been used to attack reporters, but from a practical pov you are talking extreme rare instances. again, assange and handler is the folks who got all the attention. am knowing you still ain't getting what am talking 'bout with the strict scrutiny standard used in the US v. germany, sweden or elsewhere and so you focus instead on lists or rando examples or the text o' the constitutions. "Legally Germany has constitution that offers some of best protections for people's rights as it forbids changing those rights, but does not prevent courts interpreting those rights as limited." limiting those rights is exact why offensive and hateful speech by citizens and reporters in germany may be censored while such is not possible in the US. that said, am gonna admit strict scrutiny, while a far more restrictive bar on US government limits o' speech than near any euro equivalent has a flaw which refuses to die. world war 1 era case law remains which tells us the the ambiguous and vague national security interests related to potential espionage qualifies as a compelling government interest we mentioned is a foundational strict scrutiny query. sure, ordinary german censorship o' hate and offensive speech is gonna impact far more reporters than does national security cases just as would be true in the US. how many reporters in the US need be concerned with the espionage act? serious. even so, the espionage act stuff is gross and repugnant and not all is rearview mirror fodder akin to eugene debs. (edit: am not sure why we insist on spelling "debbs" wrong.) or schenck. HA! Good Fun!

we would have thought the chinese coulda' conjured up a storm or even a few clouds with their weather controlling balloon to protect it from destruction. one positive from all this is that donald trump jr. finally stopped spelling as "baloon," though am not sure if he and mtg understand why 60,000' up is gonna be outta range o' the ordinary second amendment honk to say nothing o' the obvious secondary problems created by uncounted hillbillies and rednecks failing to heed tyrone davis wisdom. perhaps there is enough time before the next balloon to explain the physics to trump and mtg? HA! Good Fun!

am thinking the executives get a bad rap. like it or not, aaa hollywood movies is extreme expensive to make and distribute. directors and actors is able to wax rhapsodic 'bout vision and storytelling, but there is a whole lotta people counting on the success o' the next dc movie and it is reasonable if possible self-defeating to go with safe v. auteur when folks like gunn is committing hundred o' millions o' dollars o' studio money to multiple projects. superhero movies has hit an awkward stage as fans expect all the big budget trappings from the next film or project, but they is clear getting tired o' seeing slight variations o' similar content being repackaged. to get audiences excited 'bout superheroes, gunn and others gotta do something different, but different is inherent risky. am giving warner brothers credit for brining in gunn 'cause the executives appear to recognize they cannot keep playing it safe with same old formulas. at the same time, as far as am able to tell, is not as if warner has decided to slash budgets for these films, so they has hardly avoided the spectre o' their films being too big to be allowed to fail. so, how many coin tosses does gunn get? the executives is the folks who is paid to be the voice o' reason while fans and directors may succumb to the gambler's fallacy. at what point is a "few" movies losing money untenable? the gambler fallacy is even less acceptable for aaa hollywood movies then vegas addicts 'cause movie fails is the results o' choices and not randomness. the best predictor o' future fail is past fail and holding out hope that the stars will align for the next DC film in spite o' past film performance is stoopid. going all in on james gunn, giving him free reign to fail over and over, is not gonna happen, period. like it or not, movie making is a biz. making DC or Marvel movies in 2023 is challenging 'cause the films need be spectacles but fans is tired o' the formulas which has been safe and effective for better than a decade. the executives is underappreciated for making the hard choices fans and artists is likely to abhor. we want gunn to succeed, but am not sure the current model allows for multiple fails. HA! Good Fun!

is doubtful anybody would watch the whole episode, so ff to 38:39. a young scottish physicist/chemist builds a cloud chamber after working as an unpaid observer at the ben nevis meteorological observatory, which lead to... if you watch to the conclusion, and you don't already know too much 'bout charles wilson, the end result o' the cloud chamber is surprising. wilson eventual won the nobel prize for physics most for his cloud chamber experiments though the bulk o' his scholarly work work meteorological focused. HA! Good Fun!

we lived in chicago and thought winter driving were bad, and it is, but chicago is also preternatural flat. build on a swamp and you are gonna get flat. at this point in our life is no way we would ever move to pittsburgh or cincinnati. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steepest-streets-america_n_4871559 two o' those streets is in pittsburgh and during the winter they is covered in ice. serious, what sorta deathwish must you have to drive in pittsburgh during the winter? population is something north o' 300k, so must be more than a few. downtown winter driving in pittsburgh is not terrible, but anything beyond is gonna unman us. HA! Good Fun!

lord only knows what lexx has a right to feel insulted 'bout. 'cause we asked him to identify the posters who confirm his belief that the US education system is utter garbage? ... well, maybe you don't feel comfortable naming names. fair enough. offer us a percentage or a fraction and then compare to european posters. what percentage o' US posters hereabouts exemplify the utter garbage educational system @Hurlshotis doling out daily? 90% less or more? how much less or more? if the percentage or fraction o' doltish (again, your word) US posters frequenting these boards is smallish, then don't you recognize a disconnect with you utter garbage observation? is not as if this board is invite-only mensa or rand. is fans o' a crpg developer, so am thinking we hardly represent some kinda intellectual elite. can't answer the question? why? if few US posters here is doltish, then shouldn't that cause a reevaluation o' your utter garbage observation? if not, then why not? is something special about obsidan which insulates against endemic american doltishness? if the observed doltishness for US folks is similar to that o' euro, asian, south american and australian posters, why wouldn't such make lexx at least question the utter garbage schtick? lord knows it can't be the improbably funny or bad laws passed by the democratic majority o' florida which makes you conclude the US education system is utter garbage, 'cause we already pointed out the German abortion laws which would make even a texan shudder and is not difficult to identify other equal misguided laws. how many decades elapsed 'fore germany final got around to ending the criminalization o' doctors giving patients factual accurate abortion info? germans would "never" do such myopic, stoopid and unjust? again, you brought up the german comparison. and even if you three wise monkey your way outta considering bad german laws, such still don't explain the oasis which is the obsidian boards, eh? if the US education system is such utter garbage, then where is the anticipated higher % o' utter garbage educated US posters? as for the psychological damage and emotional stress... *eye-roll* the florida law is a stoopid and is gonna fail for any number o' reasons but in part 'cause o' what we see with the empty shelves--nobody knows exact what books is resulting in criminal liability. even so, the law were passed legit by the state legislature so is gonna need go through the Courts to be struck down as unconstitutional. is highly improbable anybody loses liberty (ie. receives jail or prison time) as a result o' this law, but rule o' law has us going through the stoopid and tedious process. 'course by the time the woke book law is killed, desantis will have moved on to something just as vile, 'cause fearmongering is almost the entirety o' the current gop playbook. meaningful change is gonna require education but more immediate the economic well-being o' the mullet heads and gator humpers down in florida, texas and all too much o' the south and midwest needs to improve. like or not, those folks in florida vote and for the past couple decades they has become increasing afraid 'bout their economic future. that legitimate economic fears o' the lower and lower middle-class translates into susceptibility to the stoopid being peddled by the current gop. somebody who has a good job and has enough money to pay a mortgage and send their kids to college is more or less likely to buy into nonsense 'bout how immigrants is the root o' all evils? btw, crt, if it were being taught, would help folks understand that systemic racism is only changing when economic realities change. 'ccording to crt, racism is not a white or black or red flaw but is a natural if despicable societal certainty. particular when the dominant cultural and economic group is afraid o' losing its grip on power, racist animus tends to increase and such inequalities is not fixed with grandiose speeches so much as changing economic realities. we do wish crt were being taught everywhere as the gop fears. HA! Good Fun!

we need do this again, eh? didn't we discuss this a few years ago? example: we specific brought up speech, and speech is protected in the German Constitution (Article 5) but not the way an American would recognize such protections... 'cause land of the free and all that. we just offered an example how german doctors were criminalized if they offered abortion advice previous to 2022, yes? keep in mind that on paper both the russian and chinesse have constitutions protecting far more freedoms than does the US Constitution. Article 35 Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration. Article 31. Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to gather peacefully, without weapons, and to hold meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets. the difference is the US Constitution does in fact protect offensive speech, hate speech, nazi marches and cartoons o' mohmmad. even if is incidental regulation, we got a strict scrutiny standard which does not exist in germany much less in russia or china. in the US, the government (fed/state/local) may only limit speech if it has a compelling state interest and the means o' enforcement must needs be the least restrictive possible. we can go through examples and case law (again) but this should all be well trod. US standard for Constitutional protections creates a greater limit on government action than exists for speech, free exercise o' religion and a host o' other liberties. copy and paste the words is not meaningful in and of itself. HA! Good Fun!

... am thinking that would be bigger news than it being a spy balloon. aside @Lexx have mentioned this previous, but bears repeating that in our experience, too many europeans and kanadians, many o' whom has visited the US on holiday (maybe,) has rather specific notions o' americans and american fails. we spent many hours sitting across tables in pubs and classrooms from university students in barcelona, london and elsewhere listening to 'em discuss US politics and lamenting the scourges o' terrible US education and obesity. were almost surreal. fast forward a couple decades and this board produces same conversations. still surreal. Gromnir excepted 'course, does lexx experience on this board suggest americans in general is poor educated? yes or no? it is obvious and no surprise there is more people from the US posting here than any other single nationality, but am not seeing some kinda clear educational or insight drop-off whenever a person with US citizenship posts. anybody think that without lexx the educational and intellectual depth o' the obsidian pool would go from 3 meters to 1? is lexx just speaking o' those other americans when he complains o' the US education system? am knowing you think little o' us personal *snort* but given the numerous US posters hereabouts, does this place fail to match your expectations? do the US folks hereabouts really seem bass ackwards and uneducated? really? this is a game message board o' ordinary people and not some kinda rand or mensa invite-only gathering space. am having a hard time seeing how the europeans or kanadians who frequent this message board could have such a low opinion o' the product o' US education. HA! Good Fun!

so instead insightful brevity as 'posed to a wall o' text, your response is to engage in a trite and vacuous post sans any real support for your position save that which amounts to the equivalent o' an eight-year old blowing a raspberry or uttering "nuh-uh." way to show your education and enlightenment, eh? kinda proving one o' our points with this bit. in the US we got Constitutional limits which is non existent in germany. is euros who depend on the fickle whims o' democracy when it comes to basic freedoms. even so, yeah, am suggesting that once bad laws is passed, as is inevitable in any representative or real democracy, then we need depend on the rule o' law or subsequent votes to fix. would have thought we were explaining basic social contract stuff but maybe the german education system were lacking in this regard? crazy and bad laws that would never happen in germany? we can talk 'bout german abortion laws if you wish. you find the books in florida schools bizarre but until 2022 german doctors were subject to criminal penalties if they offered patients factual information about abortion. what? germany sounds a bit like texas in point o' fact. yeah, germany looks to be headed in a positive direction, but tell us what would never happen while ignoring what has been happening for decades is either based on ignorance or the willful obtuse. so, which is it, ignorance or obtuse? btw, am personal critical o' many aspects o' education in the various United States, which is another point you either missed or is purposeful misreading. the thing is there ain't a single identifiable US school system. ask @Hurlshort if you don't believe us but there is often incredible differences 'tween neighboring school systems w/i individual states much less 'tween and twixt states. is also a whole lotta private education which is often overlooked. even so am agreeing there is problems with US education which is why we suggested you misidentified the dolts. duh. is the ordinary and numerous dolts in florida who voted for desantis as 'posed to desantis being the dolt as your previous post suggested. desantis went to both yale for undergrad and harvard law and while is possible to be dim and graduate from those institutions, am thinking few persons with firing neurons would suggest desantis is slow witted or uneducated. sadly, desantis knows exact what he is doing, which makes worse... or maybe not. regardless, preach to the choir: too many school districts in florida and elsewhere do indeed fail at education. the dolts is most often the ordinary americans which is why we identified education as the long-term solution. again, duh... but also opposite o' your initial post. we will also observe how whatever shortcomings exist in primary and secondary education in the US, presumed european advantages (such as they are) don't translate to the university level the way many expect. when we were undergrad, we had multiple job offers in europe and asia and it weren't as if we were special. graduate better than 3.0 with a stem degree from Cal, stanford or the like and in the late 80s were a license to print money in europe but particular asia. is our understanding not much has changed. is a whole lotta top universities lists out there, and most o' them ain't worth the paper they is written on, but having taught in europe for over a year at the university level, am having a difficult time seeing a marked superiority o' european post secondary students... or faculty. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/universities-producing-the-most-nobel-prize-winners.html raise your hand if you got a degree from more than one o' those universities? HA! Good Fun!

am unfamiliar with near all tech journal citations or medical, but ap style and harvard bluebook both follow such an ordering, though even those two is different for appropriateness o' month abbreviation as well as setting off the year with commas. it may be difficult to imagine, but you could be deemed to have missed a filing deadline 'cause you failed to put those date commas in the right place. oh, and the california style manual needed be different from harvard until relative recent, so for years it were a pain in the arse having to rewrite functional same documents so as to conform to either state or fed style requirements. such grammar minutiae is all so unnecessarily arcane. HA! Good Fun!

am admitted kinda at a loss as to how am gonna use ulbrig in a future party. shifters is max bab progression and the griffon shape means the new companion is unlikely a ranged character. feels like a dedicated melee combatant, no? am making a few assumptions, but there is not an obvious replacement companion based on our usual party configurations. is improbable ulbrig fills any meaningful caster role and unless we finally decide to play a paladin, am not seeing ulbrig as filling in for any o' our typical seelah variations, 'cause am gonna be feeling emasculated w/o access to mark of justice. if ulbrig is available at level one, chances are am able to turn him into a skald or something similar, but such don't seem likely. if am playing a paladin, then seelah may multiclass as a skald with ulbrig as kinda an extra melee combatant? ulbrig would be a near seamless replacement for geybor or regill, neither o' whom we use save for their companion quests, though am admitting a sacred huntsmaster regill with high dex and every initiative and wisdom boosting item we can muster rare loses initiative to any enemy. even demon lord bosses need stand and take a smack in the mouth from regill and his velociraptor thanks to the gnome's fantastic initiative numbers. we should use regill more often. we don't use regill and am suspecting ulbrig cannot muster regill kinda initiative. HA! Good Fun!

~2/3 world population drives on right side. for practical reasons, the french switched to the right side o' the road in the late 1700s, which likely doomed any chance the brits would follow suit. most world holdouts is former brit colonies. heck, numerous us states were holdouts until the second world war. am recalling sweden is kinda a funny example 'cause a referendum were held and the people o' sweden overwhelming (90% or something near) were against switching to the right side, but the government went ahead and made the change anyways. early 1960s? oversimplification, but am suspecting 'cause o' napoleon and other english issues with the french, brit colonies are stuck enduring an anachronism. petty contrarians. HA! Good Fun!