Gromnir

the british raj lasted more than 100 years. 1200 british civil servants running a nation o' more than 300 million. want to talk horrors? we can recount ottoman empire rule in greece and armenia and various part o' the middle east. very frequent the turks were minorities in the nations they ruled. spanish and portuguese conquests and rule of indigenous peoples in central and south america were long and bloody. cortés destroyed the aztecs with ~1000 spanish soldiers, yes? 1521. 300 years later, the mexican people free themselves from the yoke o' spanish oppression. elite ruling class brutalized the native population for centuries. etc. sa is different? sure. sadly, it ain't near as unique as bruce suggests.

was there ever blu-ray for btas? on dvd we got the volumes 1-4, which is kinda confusing as it includes season 1, 2 and the new batman adventures... or that is how we recollect. we actual took a date to see mask of the phantasm when it played in theatres. needless to say, we didn't date long, but we still got fond memories o' seeing btas batman on the big screen. HA! Good Fun!

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86008-what-you-did-today/?p=1808651 is same answer todays as before. sa ain't as unique as you suggest. common men, the majority, finally throwing off the oppression o' the nobles after centuries o' degradation and suffering. that is not a new or unique historical story. ill-treated masses, after centuries o' subjugation, sudden find themselves with freedom... and all too often, those freedmen created a new tyranny and a more brutal society than the one they left behind. "reign of terror" is a common stage following most such revolutions. in a majority o' the middle east and asia where european empire builders ruled over vast numbers of people and enormous tracts of land, the majority native populations and cultures frequent found themselves with a choice 'bout how to rule in the absence 'o western devils. the evils done by the liberated peoples in such places is at least partial to blame for why we now see so much violence in what were known as the third world. in the united states, we got people preaching hate and vitriol every day. baptist minister in sacramento applauds orlando shooting. a minister in gainnsville burns quran and claims that all of the middle east should be added to the pyre. *snort* such stuff happens frequent enough, and it makes for fascinating tv, but 99% of americans is either revolted by the message, or they simple give a cursory eye roll at the news o' another fringe nutter speaking nonsense. the guy in sacramento? his church can't even seat the 49 people who died in orland. the church is in one o' those business parks where merchants common sell used auto parts or do cheap smog checks or whatnot. such stuff is news because is rare and... stoopid. the US is diverse, and big and has a great deal o' income inequality. we got far too many have nots. relative homogenous societies such as japan and much o' europe got it easy compared to the US. even so, is the United States that remains dedicated to those ideals that john mill believed to be essential to a democracy. in recent years the conflicts in ferguson and baltimore were ugly, but we shudder to think how bloody and terrible woulda' been the long-term cost if either whites or black or anybody with an opinion were forced to remain silent. yes, when the situation in ferguson were at its worst, there were people o' all colors preaching hate. fine. we would much rather have such folks shouting for change rather than shooting their enemies. sa is unique? sure it is. every nation on earth is unique. even so, certain truths is universal. guys such as mill and shakespeare weren't just talking to their fellow, centuries-old, englishmen. such enduring truths is why christianity, buddhism, islam and hinduism has all thrived. unfortunately, the truths can be... perverted. we gets radical christians and islamic extremists. and we get democracies abandoning free speech for a false security. gonna choose liberty, or tyranny? is not as complex as bruce suggests. HA! Good Fun!

'cause, y'know, criminalizing the racist for expressing themselves will make them less racist in the future, and less likely to raise their children as racists. silencing offensive viewpoints has always been the best way to make those extreme elements in society disappear... as 'posed to festering. "those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. they did not fear political change. they did not exalt order at the cost of liberty. to courageous, self-reliant men, with confidence in the power of free and fearless reasoning applied through the processes of popular government, no danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present, unless the incidence of the evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is opportunity for full discussion. if there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence." --brandeis concurring, whitney v. ca, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) attempting to silence unpopular and offensive elements in a society only leads to further polarization and increases the likelihood o' extremist behavior. if the nutters can vent, they is less likely to do harm. furthermore, those elements that the State silences has a tendency to align so that extremist groups with very little in common (perhaps even natural enemies) become allies against their government oppressors. no long-term good comes from viewpoint-based restrictions and criminalization. in a democratic nation, such attempts to silence is, at best, impotent-- politically motivated handwringing meant to curry favor with the electorate. at worst, such misguided policies lead to greater social division and likely increase violence. terrible. post the video and her identity. let society punish her the way all such societies has done since time immemorial. don't hire her. treat her with scorn and ridicule. makes her feel like the pariah she is. no violence, please, but societies has always been adept at punishing offensive elements, even when those offensive elements don't deserve punishment. for chrissakes, let society actual do some good by exercising its traditionally petty (but effective) abuses on perceived ne'er do wells. HA! Good Fun!

our initial reaction to a few o' the announced choices were ambivalence. were gonna be almost impossible to get shadow correct based on the physical descriptions. numerous characters in the book mention that they don't know what is shadows ethnic background. light eyes, dark skin and a somewhat grizzled don't-f@#*-with-me trucker/biker/lumberjack vibe. physically, mr. nancy is old, short and skinny. doesn't take much effort to make an actor appear older, though is rare done well. gotta be able to dapper and sardonic for mr. nancy. orlando jones is skinny-- leave it at that. czernobog is old, eastern-european, and having grey hair. the man is all rough edges and blunt force. peter stormare can do the rough edges part o' the character. media first appears to shadow from a tv broadcast o' an old i love lucy episode. will be kinda fun to see gillian anderson doing lucy ricardo. am a big ian mcshane fan. in the books, mr. wednesday coulda been described as a 6'6, 300 lb mexican man in his early twenties and we still woulda' approved o' ian mcshane. mr. wednesday is a morally bankrupt conman extraordinaire who manipulates... everybody. he is burt lancaster doing elmer gantry, but w/o any conflicts o' conscience. dunno. the book got a bit messy and lacked focus at times. is not our favorite gaiman. is possible that it will actual do better in episodic tv format. each cast member and unique american locale will have time to shine w/o distracting from the core story. as we noted already, a few o' the casting choices don't strike us as intuitive, but none o' the choices is necessarily bad, and we will give almost anything with ian mcshane a shot. showrunner bryan fuller were responsible for wonderfalls and pushing daisies, both o' which we loved unabashedly. kinda liked dead like me, and we heard hannibal were okie dokie. *shrug* am optimistic. not even need qualify as cautious optimistic. HA! Good Fun!

the biggest obstacle for a players trying to get the most outta their priest is that they typical only got one in their party. if you only got one priest, and you mistaken listened to min-maxer recommendations on how to build the correct poe priest, you is gonna be little more than a healer/buffer/debuffer for most o' the game. in a typical battle, by the time you buff and debuff, or vice-versa, the battle is gonna be over, at which time your low perception, high dex priest with middling might and no combat talents is gonna be a waste in combat- weapon or spell. you want a priest that can buff and do damage in both spell and weapon-based combat? make your first talent choice your deity weapon-focus for +10 accuracy. second talent is gonna be the weapon focus talent that includes your deity weapon (or in case o' skaen, weapons). you now got fighter accuracy with one or two weapons. congrats. as long as you don't min-max yourself into combat impotence by lowering might and perception into handicaps, at low levels you are gonna be able to get considerable use from divine mark (big single target damage) and iconic projection (smallish per unit damage, but considerable total aoe). and 'course any battle with vessels is gonna result in you being the party hammer with your per encounter holy radiance. as you increase in levels, take sion of flame and then use your considerable fire spell repertoire to watch the world burn. durance has one o' the most underrated weapons in the game. the burning lash is not particular special, but crush/burn of his staff is a unique quality that many people has failed to exploit. unfortunately, durance sucks with staves. swords and or arquebus is your durance options if you want him to aid in combat. but again, if you only got a single priest, chances are that you ain't gonna be able to see him/her doing damage in combats. buff. debuff. heal. repeat. end of battle. priests, even at lower levels, is potentially highly efficacious in combat both with weapons and offensive spells. need play smart... and chances are you need another support companion. HA! Good Fun!

aside: is no surprise to us that the chinese like the warcraft movie. the chinese have been retelling slight variations of the romance of the three kingdoms since the 14th century. epic story o' kings and generals and battles for control of middle earth... sorry, the middle kingdom. there is no western equivalent for the romance of the three kingdoms. as popular as been any shakespeare plays or homer, you will not see multiple yearly tv and movie projects for romeo and juliet or iliad. explain the chinese devotion to the most popular o' their four great classic novels? attribute to unique sense o' chinese respect for tradition. maybe if you is less generous you will suggest that such is an example o' lack o' creativity. doesn't matter. the point is that the chinese has been retelling the same story with minor variations for centuries. regardless o' what they tell themselves, sales figures show that the chinese is hungry for new epic fantasy. sure, the chinese tries 'new' three kingdom knockoffs all the time, but production values is typical questionable... and they is knockoffs. the hobbit: the battle of the five armies were not a great film, but it had a big release in china and it were the most akin o' the hobbit films to romance of the three kingdoms with its massive (and chaotic) battle scenes. the last hobbit film set all kinda records in china. warcraft, from all accounts, is even less coherent than the battle of five armies, but it is setting all kinda new records. the chinese clear want new epic fantasy with hollywood production values. doesn't need be particularly good neither. the chinese has been fed vanilla ice cream (yes, am knowing that dairy ain't popular in china, but just go with it for a minute) since the fourteenth century. they has had cheap vanilla and vanilla that is produced from special god cows that produce only a gallon of milk per year. they has had vanilla with every possible topping-- sprinkles, whip cream, chocolate syrup, strawberries, banana, pineapple... probably pinenuts. they has had vanilla deep fried and likely as part o' an enema treatment. regardless, is almost always vanilla. it is disrespectful not to be vanilla. westerners can make their rocky road and pecan-praline and capannari and sweet potato with torched marshmallows and stracciatella and... whatever. the chinese will all public admit that such decadent choices is nowhere near as good as a perfect chinese vanilla, but they will nevertheless consume such alternatives by the freighter load. the chinese do like the romance of the three kingdoms-- is a cultural duty to like, but is also seeming genuine. nevertheless, western epic fantasy that has similar elements, different stories and far more impressive production values is gonna go over like led zeppelin or the beatles or elvis for folks who has only been exposed to the neil diamond catalog for four centuries. is just a theory... not the least bit tongue-in-cheek neither. HA! Good Fun!

a typical 4 unit class at a university on the quarter system (10 weeks) is gonna involve 40 total hours o' class time, and depending on whether you went to Stanford or Ohio State, your total hours o' study between classroom & outside study is intended to be resulting in 120 hours o' total work, assuming we ain't talking 'bout a lab class. 120 hours for the entire quarter. 140 o' game time means you spent more effort learning poe than does the average Stanford student when they complete a typical 4-unit course. sadly, am not thinking that your poe achievement is gonna carry the same cache as completing a Stanford class. the fights in white march were more difficult than those in poe. good. the people most likely to have purchased white march expansions is those 9.5% who actual finished pillars of eternity. am thinking that if a person couldn't work up the interest to finish poe in five months, they would be far less likely to buy white march expansions than would a person who devoted the dozens of hours it took to complete poe. just sayin'. if you ain't realized it yet, these games is teaching programs. sure, no useful skills is being learned while playing poe, but you is, like it or not, being trained to overcome poe combats. after 140 hours, a developer is gonna assume that you has learned how to play poe with some level o' expertise. our personal experience for poe were that during our initial playthrough o' poe, the last third o' the game were disappointingly easy. part o' the reason the difficulty curve took such a precipitous drop at the end o' poe were the capacity to over-level w/o much effort, but another factor were simple that Gromnir were much experienced with the game. successive replays o' poe required utilizing solo and/or ironman options to maintain the difficulty we were recalling from back in the beta days when fighting beetles or cultists. predictable. as we added hours of experience, we were learning better ways to deal with poe combats. as such, am thinking that the developers had justification in believing that players such as the genesis poster would be very much skilled at poe combat before they did purchase and play white march. as such, were perfect understandable that the developers would increase difficulty as between poe and white march, no? we did find a few o' the white march battles to be highly challenging. such a result were much refreshing. sure, we were intial frustrated during a few battles-- poe's sahuagin knock-offs creamed our corn more than once, and while we laughed at little shop of horror's audrey ii, the radiant spore battle took us more than two tries to overcome. white march were more difficult. good. yeah, poe combats were, from the very start, designed to appeal to players at the more hardcore end o' the crpg spectrum. while such a choice worked for some o' us, we wonder if it were the best choice for obsidian. bg2, for instance, had a handful o' difficult battles, but most such battles could be overcome by having the correct equipment or layering the appropriate buffs/debuffs. the tactical sophistication o' bg were, in our opinion, far less demanding than poe. poe and bg2 tactical demands, while much different, were likely similar. 'course the average bg2 player probably already had dozens o' hours o' infinity engine combats experience. am understanding why many were daunted by the relentless and unforgiving nature o' poe combats. maybe obsidian erred on tactical demands o' poe. that being said, white march purchasers were gonna be poe fans-- guys with 140 hours experience and at least some positive level o' appreciation for poe style combat. am suspecting that if white march had been any less challenging, there woulda' been widespread complaints 'bout the ease o' the expansion. a black isle developer once shared that the two most frequent complaints of every crpg they ever released were as follows: the game was too easy and the game was too difficult the fallouts, ps:t, bg, iwd, bg2, etc. is a no-win situation for developers. and while many boardies, including Gromnir, finds bluepotions rant to be ridiculous, the truth is that his/her opinion is, historically, an inevitability. no matter what obsidian did with white march, many folks were gonna complain that game were too hard... and many others were complain that it were too easy. obsidian had to make white march more difficult for reasons we note above, but there were always gonna be more than a few such as bluepotions. HA! Good Fun! ps feel free to mock Gromnir for posting a serious reply to a rant post. we deserve your scorn.

... makes us feel old. we had already completed our undergrad degree at berkeley when we saw darkman. apologies for the moment o' geriatric reflection. to bring back on-topic, we will note that while the raimi spider-man films were lite on those qualities for which raimi is best known, spider-man 2 is clear in our top 5 superhero movies... most days it is gonna be top 3. in the sequel to spider-man (2002?), peter parker managed to grow as a character, and alfred molina's performance were superlative worthy. the 'raimi moment' in spider-man 2 when a surgery team attempted to remove doc ock's prosthetic arms were one o' the most memorable scenes from a superhero flick-- can't help but chuckle at the recollection. spider-man 3 were a tremendous letdown for Gromnir. am thinking that what made the final raimi spider-man so disappointing were that the impressive thomas hayden church performance were wasted. regardless, while it is still difficult for us to think o' raimi as a superhero movie director, he gots a couple movies in our personal List of the Best Superhero Movies. HA! Good Fun!

such characters is not always meant to be taken serious, but they is still our favorites when we reflect 'pon the pantheon o' superheroes. admittedly, movies is often unkind to the brooding and introspective as it can come off as cartoonish. is perhaps why such characters work so well in cartoons. nicholas cage were also excellent in kick-a$$ and am suspecting many folks hardly recall liam neeson in darkman, which is a shame. as far as non-print media is concerned, batman is our easy all-time favorite. the oldie batman: the animated series, batman beyond, justice league, justice league unlimited, and at least a few o' the dc animated movies were excellent, in large part 'cause o' batman. am also admitting that we liked the tim burton batman as well as well as the first two christopher nolan contributions. in fact, we would likely rank the dark knight as our top superhero movie to date. so far, deadpool has 'bout 2/3 of a movie we enjoyed. am suspecting that it is gonna be a long time before we place deadpool at the top o' our list o' favorite superhero film characters. HA! Good Fun!

mexico's real progress: http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/Quintonil http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/Pujol http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/Biko three in the top 50 and the cost to dine at any o' the three is ~$65. alinea in chicago set us back $275. ryugin in tokyo cost us $300. didn't pay for our own meals at estela (ny), saison (san francisco) or blue hill at stone barns (sleepy hollow... well, almost sleepy hollow), but am suspecting all were in the $300 range. mexico city is gonna be getting a visit the next time we go to ixtapa. HA! Good Fun! ps blue hill were... weird. am pretty sure that one o' the courses were tree moss and some kinda wild mushroom. were some nice food overall, but also some crazy.

ryan reynolds did do a spot on carol milford. other than the opening credits, which were amusing and clever, am admitting that the first fifteen minutes o' the movie were robbing from us all hope for the rest of the movie. mr. reynolds were doing his usual schtick, but given the comic book source material and the nature o' the deadpool character, the schtick were predictably exaggerated. it were too much to be funny? dunno. regardless, we were't conflicted or ambivalent 'bout deadpool-- we disliked deadpool. Deadpool: LOOK! Im a teenage girl, I'd rather be anywhere than here! I'm all about long sullen silences, followed by mean comments, followed by more silence! So what's it gonna be, long sullen silence, or mean comment? Go on, take your pick. Negasonic Teenage Warhead: ...You got me in a box here. a bit before the aforementioned dialogue, Gromnir started to enjoy the movie. the "box" comment were the first time we genuine laughed, but weren't the last. by the end o' the movie, we were having an unabashedly fantabulous moviegoing experience. we did watch the movie at a virtual empty theatre, so we didn't have the benefit o' group catharsis. folks wanna laugh, particularly in a group, yes? as a human being, we admit that we still fall prey to that weird thrill-o'-the-crowd effect. getting caught up in the emotions o' the group is most noticeable to us at sporting events, but can feel it at movies and plays and spontaneous bottle throwing mobs. if we had watched deadpool in a theatre surrounded by comic book geeks who were already wanting to like the movie, am doubting it woulda' taken us so long to warm up to the film. if everybody else had been laughing, so too woulda' Gromnir, if only reflexive. were less than a dozen other patrons at our viewing o' deadpool. regardless, deadpool were an almost unique experience. is numerous flicks we like for first 15 minutes but ended up loathing by end credits. is only a handful o' movies that has done for us the reverse. HA! Good Fun!

In this sense, I think its an apt comparison simply because LOTR is the only real fantasy franchise created as a multi-part story (excluding science fantasy like Star Wars). Are there better fantasy films - sure. But CONAN THE BARBARIAN wasn't created with CONAN THE DESTROYER already planned; Harryhausen never planned out a continuity between his SINBAD films. fair enough, but one must admit that by limiting only to fantasy movies with genuine planned sequels, you is fishing in an extreme small pond. even star wars (episode 4) were not having a sequels greenlit at the time of its production. heck, lucas had only vague notions o' where to take a sequel and he made significant changes to his tentative plans. for instance, the emperor, an obviously pivotal character in the franchise, we envisioned by lucas during star wars writing as a puppet o' the military-industrial complex. lotr were actual unique in that all three movies were filmed consecutive w/o waiting for box office results o' the introductory title. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnIoktZKZ6A steven seagal to the rescue in 1992. HA! Good Fun!

Well this one is black ☺ black, and as it turns out, 7.62. damnable internet. can find mini 14s with the exact same kit as the pictured 30, but in the interest o' full disclosure that weapon would be more akin to an ak-47 than a ar-15... albeit still semi-automatic. HA! Good Fun!

additional suggestion: show ruger mini 14 in our post above, and then offer the following pic explain that both is actual semi-automatic. in fact, is the same rifle. HA! Good Fun! ps (edit) found a more intriguing pic... given the side-by-side comparison

perhaps the most amusing aspect o' the video is that obviously the guy posting it didn't understand don's error. there is something sinister looking 'bout the ar-15 that makes many uneducated folks balk. the ruger below has near identical muzzle velocity and calibre as the ar-15. heck, without the pistol-grip, folding stock and flash suppressor options, the ruger ain't even subject to the previous assault weapons ban. go figure. *shrug* am always baffled when folks looks at a M1911 and somehow don't consider that such a weapon is just as much a semi-automatic weapon as the ar-15... and the M1911 has been responsible for far more us firearm homicides than the ar-15. perhaps link the following for folks: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2009-2013.xls dunno. won't help explain auto v. semi-auto, but perhaps can get folks to ease up on the semi-auto rifle fixations people gets after an orlando or san bernardino. HA! Good Fun! ps as an aside, US firearm suicides is almost 4 times greater than homicides, and suicide is, strangely enough, an act of convenience. suicide rates dropped dramatically in the 1930s. why? wasn't the great economy, that is for darn sure. nope, gas companies stopped using coal gas. ever see those old movies with guys killing self by putting their head in an unlit oven? weren't feasible once gas companies changed to natural gas in the 1930s and 1940s. no coal gas and US suicides drop by 30%. more recent, there has been a similar Spike in suicides. the spike in suicides corresponds directly with increase o' suicides by poisoning-- opioids. with the dramatic increase in opioid prescriptions by doctors in the last couple decades, there has been a corresponding increase in suicides. given even a short time to reflect, many folks change their minds regarding suicide. the easy access to firearms and opioids, more than the seeming more reasonable mental health or economic explanations, is the prime causes o' the startling US suicide figures. weird.

pan's labyrinth (2006) is another worthy o' best fantasy consideration. the more we think on the subject, the more fantastic fantasy films we recollect. am s'posing most will not consider raiders of the lost ark (1981) as fantasy? other worthies we wouldn't necessarily place in The Best category, but deserving mention is time bandits (1981), the dark crystal (1982), the secret of nimh (1982), the princess bride (1987), and edward scissorhands (1990). am thinking that all is better than any single lotr movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spHEw2n9LwE no. just, no. HA! Good Fun!

everybody these days seems to use lotr as the high-water mark for fantasy movies. am an admitted contrarian at times, but we actual liked the rankin and bass the hobbit more than any jackson film. skip "the scouring of the shire" were what we credit jackson for most regarding the lotr films. dragonslayer (1981) and conan the barbarian (1982) is, in our opinion, the best fantasy flicks evar, but only if one excludes the empire strikes back (1980). 'pon reflection, am s'posing that being john malkovich (1999) deserves a nod as well. the movie boasts excellent acting and it is crazy-arse unique. original ain't = good, but a good film that is also unique warrants recognition. HA! Good Fun! ps three other animated films deserve serious consideration for best fantasy: the last unicorn (1982), spirited away (2001) and song of the sea (2014). too often kids and/or animated movies is overlooked when discussing quality movies. is a shame. same happens with literature. pps can't believe we failed to mention brazil (1985).

in our experience, that is the case with all handguns. even highly trained peace officers miss with considerable frequency at ranges o' 6', so 6" is likely best for folks who ain't acclimated to shooting handguns in high stress encounters. actually, for folks not having training and experience firing a handgun while stressed, we suspect that one o' the most ancient o' weapons, the club (or baseball/cricket bat,) is gonna be the ideal close quarters home defense weapon. HA! Good Fun!

have eaten at a few top 50, and am hating to admit how much we enjoyed ryugin. the tokyo restaurant recent dropped from 20 to 31. is our opinion that the japanese restaurants has been considerable overrated-- the dining experience is often stressed over the food. even so, ryugin were almost flawless. am recalling that we checked the wiki for ryugin once and it mentioned something 'bout fusion. HA! is japanese, period. as is expected with high rated japanese faire, each dish were aesthetic pleasing, but it were genuine delicious as well. dishes we had experienced before were not. what me mean is that what we thought were traditional dishes were done in ways to surprise and delight. were perhaps not actual traditional, but still very much japanese. we will note that as with most elite japanese restaurants, you is made to feel as if you is one dining mistake away from having ninjas emerge from the shadows to dispatch you silent and efficient so that a more worthy patron could be taking your table. is a list o' dining dos and don'ts you is required to follow, and the staff, while efficient and polite, is anything but friendly. is also tiny. ryugin is one o' the few great tokyo restaurants that actually is. HA! Good Fun! ps 3 of top 50 is mexico city. we ain't never been to mexico city. that may need to change.

am seeing that alinea moved back up the top 50 restaurants list to number 15. am recalling doing their 13 course bit the last time we were in chicago. ... were an intriguing culinary experience, but as Gromnir were still kinda hungry afterwards, we stopped at a white castle. got 4 sliders, fries and a coke. yum. HA! Good Fun!

we got a pathological, knee-jerk, violent reaction to bees, wasps, hornets, yellowjackets and the like. one o' the many jobs we had in our youth were as a caddy at a nearby golf course. the job weren't nearly as amusing as caddyshack might lead you to believe. anywho, am recalling one particular sunny august day we worked as a caddy. the deuce ahead of Gromnir's group were a bit slow, so we had a couple minutes o' wait time at the 4th tee. we sat on a bench. the bench, unbeknownst to us, had a hornet's nest affixed to the underside. ... thus began one o' the more traumatic experiences o' our younger years. we were stung dozens o' times, including eyelid and nostril. got up our shirt, but not our pants. thank god for small favors, eh? we ran. we rolled on ground. we howled. much o' the experience is difficult to actual recall, but am certain o' the running, rolling and howling. regardless, even now, when we see a black and yellow flying insect with a stinger, our initial reaction is to kill. savage id channeling. HA! Good Fun!

Shes a big fan of Jameson's Charhouse so the family and extended family are gathering there tonight. Having a 16yo is a study in being ignored. Yes, shes allowed to date and I absolutely meet the boyfriends. Thanks! She wants to go to Columbia College IL, so I'm not looking forward to that. Its not totally outrageous but still like 10k more / year than Illinois State. south loop, yes? some kinda actor/media college? no football team, so am admitting ignorance o' the school. nifty neighborhood as am recollecting. HA! Good Fun!

so says the guy not in close proximity to a black hole. regardless, congratulations to you and your family... and try not to dwell on the cost o' a college education nowadays. HA! Good Fun!