Gromnir

by now we has all seen the comparative transit authority figures, the nielsen ratings and aerial video/photographs o' the trump inauguration day. leading up to the event, trump made numerous false claims 'bout dress shops being sold out and hotels being unavailable. ain't the least bit surprising the media actual followed up on the President-fabulist's claims. even so, we still got folks who believe trump's narrative. *shrug* is baffling to us, but the need to believe the conspiracy theory is strong with many. the tinfoil hat brigade grows daily. this thread, while hardly representative o', well, anything actually, nevertheless has at least a couple o' dedicated stormtrumpers who is gonna obediently march lockstep regardless o' how ridiculous or unbelievable is the claims o' the new executive. HA! Good Fun!

in and of itself, crowd size matters little. however, the relative popularity of the President is gonna be pivotal in determining how much o' trump's domestic agenda is realized. most o' the stuff trump wants to accomplish requires Congressional action. the legislative branch is notorious somnolent and it takes a popular President to rouse 'em from their collective torpor. http://www.npr.org/2017/01/17/510256862/trump-polls-tweet-favorability-popular sure, trump and a republican Congress will frequent align on issues. nevertheless, trump needs to be able to lead the national debate on any number o' issues if he wishes to be anything other than a lame duck executive. first 100 days is most important for an executive during peacetime and it usual is a honeymoon period. trump is the least popular incoming executive in recent memory. crowd size is indeed a silly issue, save for the fact trump needs to be seen as popular and vital. am not surprised to see trump working hard to bolster his brand. his methods need serious work, but his fixation with his own image is actual quite reasonable given his current predicament. HA! Good Fun!

am doubting trump improved his relationship with the intelligence community by using the memorial wall as a backdrop for his dog and pony show. HA! Good Fun!

there is so many warhammer pc titles. every time we check out steam it seems as if there is a new warhammer title available. am hoping one day we get a crpg sea change for warhammer similar to the one we saw result from kotor being added to the star wars franchise. 40k would be our preference, but any warhammer cRPG would be welcome. am not sure why we we can't get a decent warhammer crpg. seems like such an obvious development opportunity. HA! Good Fun!

a good number o' republicans got elected in 2016 in spite o' the fact they public distanced themselves from trump. almost unheard of to have so many republicans up for election who were public rejecting or ambivalent regarding the party candidate for President. republicans don't need trump now more than they did in november when he lost the popular vote but republicans managed to win Congress. unlike the President, there were no electoral college for Congressman. now, as always, Congress will be fickle. whichever way the wind is blowing is how Congress will lean. and truth to tell, if the past decade is any indicator, Congress will do as little as necessary regardless. trump needs Congress and Congress will only back trump just so long as doing so improves their individual chances for reelection. trump needs to be popular and he needs to be popular fast, 'cause first 100 days is invariably the most important... baring a war or national catastrophe or somesuch. HA! Good Fun!

trump's popularity is significant. am repeating self, but Presidential power as granted by the Constitution is limited, particularly when referencing domestic policy. appointment power is both under and overvalued. in reality, a President's greatest powers is not granted by the Constitution. shape the national agenda. influence Congressional action. as the President's popularity waxes and wanes, so too does his power to alter the national agenda and to sway the legislature. widespread protests and underwhelming inauguration turnouts is reinforcing the fact o' trumps historical low popularity for an incoming President. http://www.npr.org/2017/01/17/510256862/trump-polls-tweet-favorability-popular trump needs to be popular, which is why he is trying so hard to convince folks that he is popular in spite o' polls and photographs o' small inauguration crowds and widespread protests in cities 'cross america. trump, possible more than any other President, is aware o' the importance o' perception o' popularity and power. the protests and polls won't change the election results. the protests and polls is being watched close by Congress, and that matters much. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking the scumbag % for women is same as men. even so what do we win? HA! Good Fun!

have seen estimates o' upwards o' 2.2 to 2.5 million for protests today. protests in philly and pittsburgh and ann arbor and madison. *shrug* can't help but wonder if a bit more activism a few months ago mighta' made a difference. that being said, it is very american to complain after the fact. we complain in spite o' the fact it were our own initial indifference causing the problem. 'course is not actual an american thing so much as a human failing. HA! Good Fun!

am kinda conflicted. am much in favor o' exercising free speech. am also in favor o' anything which diminishes trump's political clout as perceived popularity issues will reduce the President's legislative influence. ... protests is welcome, but why didn't the protester's freaking vote? protest with their vote woulda' been the smart thing to do. we are stuck with trump precise 'cause so many people (particular democrats) in battleground states didn't bother to get up off their arses and vote. the democratic party machine is much at fault for forcing clinton 'pon voters as their de facto candidate, but is ultimate the voters who didn't bother to cast a vote who made a trump President possible. we would laugh at the protesters for their belated efforts if not for the fact that Gromnir must also endure four years of trump. HA! Good Fun!

well, money can be had if you raze raedric's hold. go with the bloody route and kill everybody and 1007 their corpses for armour and coin. kill all at raedric's will keep you supplied with coin for a long time. am thinking there are a few spell combo threads. for a wizard, early fantastic spells is eldritch aim, chill fog, fan of flames, slicken, combusting wounds (combine with chill fog and any number o' aoe damage spells,) curse of blackened sight, and miasma of dull mindedness. the aforementioned all get much use. early druid spells is typical more 'bout damage than applying afflictions, though you can hobble many foes with tanglefoot which will then make'em more susceptible to attacks which target reflex. most likely you will use your priest to buff, your wizard to debuff and then hit foes with druid damage spells... in that order if possible. http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Wizard_spell http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Druid_spell http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Status_Effects HA! Good Fun!

kinda off-topic, but folks who think trump is some kinda unique nightmare should read 'bout the andrew jackson Presidency. now to be fair, jackson did do away with a considerable washington cronyism, but folks in the fed government had much reason to believe the death o' the new American political experiment had arrived when mobs o' deplorables swept through the white house itself during the inauguration celebrations o' 1829. 'course andrew jackson actual were popular, which makes trump a different and less dangerous creature. http://www.npr.org/2017/01/17/510256862/trump-polls-tweet-favorability-popular the american people have had to suffer any number o' horrible and/or classless Presidencies. eventually, in the distant future, we is gonna get another trump once folks forget the terrible mistake o' the 2016 election. is almost inevitable. HA! Good Fun!

pause frequent. use auto-pause for spells cast. then pause s'more. success in encounters depends on careful positioning o' your resources and use o' geography to determine the course o' battle. can't be flanked if there is a wall behind you, eh? pause. if you are having difficulty with spells which damage friend and foe alike, it is likely due to poor party placement, but there are foe-only spells. read all spell descriptions, but for example, wizard's blindness is a powerful level 2 spell which targets only your enemies. give your priest a hatchet and shield for one o' his weapon slots. unless you built durance to be competent with swords, there is little reason for you to be entering melee combat save to defend self. stick to ranged and position party so durance will not be swarmed by on-rushing mobs... but give him a shield and hatchet as well. (edit: don't have durance wielding shield and hatchett all the time, but if he does become the target o' multiple melee attackers, switch to shield and hatchet from whatever ranged weapon you had him using.) power/ability synergy is also invaluable. if you feel as if your spells ain't hitting anything, then learn how spells work to enhance the effects o' other spells. trolls is vulnerable to fire and typical have unimpressive resolve. psychovampiric shield is a low-level power which targets will and lowers resolve by 10. it also boosts your cipher's deflection by 25. so you hit a troll with psychovampiric shield and sudden your cipher has deflection similar to your tank and the troll's will has been reduced to basement levels. well then, seems like an ideal time to have durance cast divine mark. divine mark is a paltry level 2 spell which does 40-50 burn damage and lowers the enemy's deflection by 25. perhaps you had aloth cast miasma o' dull-mindedness on the group o' trolls, which is gonna have further lowered will saves to possible negative numbers. when durance casts divine mark, there is a good chance you will have scored a critical hit. even if the troll don't explode into fiery chunks, it is gonna have taken serious burn damage and the divine mark will have reduced the troll's deflection by 25 such that even your least competent ranged and melee combatants is likely to score hits. HA! Good Fun!

we have. numerous times. given the tone o' the thread, this is not the place for us to discuss our feelings regarding obama's gutting of nasa. in the spirit o' the thread, we will observe how obama deserves credit for killing the absolute asinine don't ask, don't tell policy o' the us military.

am gonna suggest a priest. only two classes benefit from being played as the main character: paladin and priest. with a large catalog o' buffs, the priest is a powerful force multiplier for a party, but the class also has offensive capabilities which have, 'til recent, been extreme underrated. take scion o' flame and burn everything with your numerous fire-based spells. seal spells count as hazards, but they target as foe-only, so you can get silly kinda accuracy from a number o' powerful spells. take your deity's weapon focus talent and you can be effective with 1-2 weapons, and the soulbound opportunities late in the game make for curious additional options. we would recommend a two-priest party for anybody wanting to play a main character priest. the party buffs for a priest are so efficacious, you will likely find yourself doing little other than buffing/healing. buffing/healing can be boring. two priests frees up one priest to do all those other things at which which priests excel other than buffs. again, only two classes benefit from being played as a main character. priest is one o' those classes. priests are extreme powerful and highly flexible. HA! Good Fun!

am also thinking we woulda' worked out something different for snowden lucky for him we weren't in charge o' anything. HA! Good Fun! ps mostly joking... kinda.

I didn't say it, I just paraphrased what a pundit said. *chuckle* been down this road 'fore. you got our sympathy. and in reference to earlier comments, yeah, libby got 30 months (don't quote us on that number, but am reasonable sure we is at least close) for perjury (2 counts?), obstruction and making a false statement to feds. not espionage. chelsea got a 35 year sentence for espionage. HA! Good Fun!

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/freshman/profiles/ other than riverside, santa cruz and merced, the median gpa is better than 4.0. gonna be similar in texas and ny and other states with major public university systems. am suspecting this is part o' the conundrum for universities when utilizing gpa. if everybody is getting good grades as kinda a participation trophy, they don't mean much. how does one distinguish students and determine likelihood o' success? we can't speak to open enrollment... at all. we know community colleges exist, and if we were to advise a young person 'bout college in ca, we would much recommend spending first 2 years at a community college, and saving a whole lotta money. from having taken a few cc classes over the years, am recollecting one needs only have a pulse, proof of residency and enough cash to cover ever increasing tuition for admissions. so am kinda confused 'bout what we are speaking o'. HA! Good Fun!

so gpa has been a factor. also, the ca system has been in place since 1971. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/index.html top 9% statewide or local, and local is not taking standardized test scores into account at all. is one reason uc had to open uc merced. ca residents were no longer being able to attend uc schools in spite o' achieving 9%. dunno. most private schools is actual more flexible and willing to take a gestalt approach as they need not answer to statutory guidelines. find a good candidate who not have ideal test scores or ideal gpa or some kinda other issue, but nevertheless impresses admissions, well then Private has always found ways to admit. and the big state schools, such as texas and ca, frequent use similar to what we linked 'bove... and is almost always tethered to class rank... which is obvious dependent 'pon gpa. HA! Good Fun!

am not aware o' the major university which had previous ignored gpa, so... HA! Good Fun!

if that were the case in real life, as 'posed to a couple o' studies, then just as many kids from schools such as Gromnir's would be having success in university as would those from exeter. we had typical bell curve. we also had many kids be accepted to university. we didn't go to our reunions, but our school, CVS (not the drug store) were part o' a study showing just how terrible were inner city schools at producing college graduates and working professionals. resulted in massive changes. grades is important as it reveals diligence 'n such. universities do not discount grades. grades is still important. many will claim grades is most important... while at same time providing median sat/act scores and acknowledging how negligible amounts o' incoming freshman score below a certain number on the standardized tests. why? universities don't have any motivation to wanna fail students. universities work very hard to increase diversity, and not simple racial. get more students from diverse backgrounds has been a goal at most universities for decades. let's not discount the studies which show how it is unfair to students to place 'em in universities where they is predictable (based largely on sat scores) gonna fail. mere recognizing such studies got Scalia in trouble, but they is real and it is clear that while Universities don't wanna be hamstrung by such, they is behaving as if sat scores is still pivotal. reliance on sat is not 'cause the folks who run Universities is dumb or obtuse. folks most likely to actual observe student success and failure at university is the ones still using sat. just as we don't discount hurl observations 'bout standardized tests being an accurate measure o' student learning, we sure ain't gonna dismiss university behavior. standardized tests is crude, and woeful ill fitting for certain subject matter. they do not reveal a student's capacity to learn. however, they do measure what students have learned, and they is still a mighty useful tool for Universities when predicting success. HA! Good Fun!

Strange but true (from the examinations on the subject I've read) - even with acknowledging grade inflation, High School GPA is a better predictor of Freshman college success than SAT/ACT scores. have seen the opposite. sure, there is an oft cited study from 2014 which claims gpa is more important, but the methodology has been called into question. understandable. 3.5 gpa at Grumm Public High School in hoboken is a far different thing than a 3.5 from St. Thomas Aquinas Private Academy. hurl is a teacher, and so too is his wife, no? she works with a less privileged cross-section o' the student demographic, no? is a B awarded for same level achievement at her school as is at hurl's? doubt it. lord knows the high school we attended were a joke. show up to class and don't get busted for drug or weapon possession would result in starting point o' a C. heck, we had to pass through a metal detector to get into our school. would be silly to assume we were getting same level o' education and being awarded similar indicative grades as the kids going to Exeter. am thinking most important is recent studies show how in spite o' the 2014 study, universities still value sat/act most. why? 'cause universities actual must place students and counsel students and fail students. universities got the actual experience o' dealing with those incoming freshman. and personal, we loved the sat. were impersonal. were bloodless. were fair. go ahead and assume Gromnir don't belong and only got into Cal 'cause of affirmative action if you want to, but be sure to compare your sat to ours 'fore you get all uppity and self-righteous. we honest considered getting our sat and lsat scores tattooed on our bicep, but we suspected our grandmother woulda' been mighty disappointed. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking the problem with standardized testing is more 'bout how, as implemented, the system influences the teaching o' subject matter. few teachers will admit, but there is significant pressure, at multiple levels, to teach the test. schools don't meet benchmarks and they suffer. teachers don't meet benchmarks and they suffer. for any number o' subjects, standardized testing is an imperfect measure o' student learning, but it is objective and far more useful than many teachers would wanna admit. literature and poetry? *sigh* fiction is rare crafted like an essay and yet we ask for similar analysis from students. different authors have different process. nevertheless, even if an author is a compulsive outliner, rare does a finished work take us where the author had original intended us to be. for many, writing is 'bout achieving a state wherein the author believes himself to be a conduit for the story or characters or poem or whatnot. ask what an author's intent is/was will be doomed 'cause author, if honest, frequent don't know complete and certain why they described __________ as ___________. ask an author ten years removed from writing and you might even get a different answer. such subject matter is not gonna lend itself to standardized testing. the thing is, much education nowadays is complete bass ackwards. particular with access to the internet, knowing facts is less impressive than it once were. 'course the internet also makes it more difficult for kids to genuine learn to learn. learn How to learn is the most important skill, and yet the internet has a tendency to stifle the growth o' such ability. before internet access, one could ask students to look for symbolism and extended metaphor in moby **** and then compare and contrast to mary shelly's frankenstein. even if your high school student were finding much on such subjects in a local school library, being able to compare/contrast shelly and melville woulda' required individual analysis by the student. today? rather detailed analysis is gonna be available for any work an instructor is likely to have access to. internet has also made such subjective analysis less so. get enough internet sources repeating a specific conclusion 'bout frankenstein and what were once an interpretation becomes the interpretation. teaching lit 20 years ago to high school students were less 'bout making sure students knew the answers, but rather it were 'bout the process o' a student discovering and creating answers to questions w/o a genuine answer. nowadays, kids will, in a matter o' nanoseconds, have access to even the most esoteric knowledge. no sweat. no toil. no uncertainty. no new pathways created in the brain as the child tries to puzzle and problem solve. teach kids how to learn should be #1 goal. standardized tests measure what a kid has learned. is a disconnect. is nothing wrong with the standardized. unfortunate, far less effort is going into teaching kids how to learn. HA! Good Fun!

more mr. hamill reading trump tweets as the joker https://audioboom.com/posts/5495377-return-of-the-trumpster in case you missed the first bit o' magic. https://audioboom.com/posts/5471405-the-trumpster-quote-1 HA! Good Fun!

or perhaps HA! Good Fun!

boxlessness is an art, but boxing is the sweet science. ah, the beautiful vagaries o' language. the only art Gromnir has mastered is transcendental napping. HA! Good Fun!