Gromnir

perhaps, but at least this way he might be able to collect unemployment benefits while he is looking for a new job. no wife or kids and still young? no major investment o' time in the company/firm/whatever, right? even so, we would take hurl's advice and substitute teach before investing any time or money pursuing a teacher credential. we has more than a couple acquaintances who regret nothing in their lives as much as their decision to become a teacher. not kidding. is clear not a job for everybody. lord knows that Gromnir would have 0 chance o' successfully teaching high school or middle school kids. little kids? perhaps. little kids like Gromnir, but little kids is also psychotic... literally. their brains hasn't matured enough to distinguish right and wrong as adults are able to do, and that should scare the p00p outta any aspiring teacher o' wee bairns. one or two kids? sure, Gromnir is exceeding patient and have mentored folks many times. find us a class o' three or less and we is your man. coaching a team? been there and done that, but kids on the team is volunteers rather than conscripts with ADD, bi-polar, autism, and near guaranteed pre-teen/teen "problems." take hurl's advice. there, we said it twice. am as embarrassed as anybody 'bout it. we kid. regardless, good luck. HA! Good Fun! ps we actual does have teaching experience, but we were teaching University students. is entire different. am not arrogant enough to think our teaching experience would translate seamlessly from the 20 somethings paying tens o' thousands o' dollars for their edjumikayshun that we has dealt with in the past, to angry little hormone factories who can't let go o' their iphone for more than 5 minutes without suffering withdrawal symptoms.

no love for the smurfs? well, they is copyright protected, so perhaps that explains their absence from gd's thanks. regardless, am glad the story had a happy ending. so few tales do. HA! Good Fun!

You're putting waaaaaaay too much stock into a few development buzzwords that rarely even get mentioned anymore and aren't even mentioned in the game proper. Let's put aside the fact that BG Paladins were listed as a Warrior sub-type and that Josh has called PoE Paladins support oriented in the past and look at what they actually do. BG Paladins were ideologues with support abilities that supplemented but did not usurp their role as capable front line combatants. Their offensive and defensive potential in D&D and BG was built almost entirely on the fact that they were mathematically well-situated to be full participants in basic front line combat by virtue of having a Fighter equivalent base chassis complete with good saves and hit points, with fighters outperforming them in damage largely due to Paladins receiving less proficiency bonuses. If you actually looked at their class features you got things that sound suspiciously like support abilities such as Lay on Hands, Remove Fear, Dispel Magic and other abilities that would be firmly classed as support in PoE. Meanwhile, in PoE, Paladins are ideologues with support abilities that supplement but do not usurp their role as capable front line combatants. They have a base chassis that's virtually identical to a Fighter's and, in my opinion, better than a Barbarian's. The 5 points of accuracy Paladins give up relative to Fighters can be trivially patched up by Zealous Focus and Paladins only fall behind Fighters in terms of damage because Fighters receive some weapon proficiency themed passive abilities. Hell, for several levels I wouldn't even be surprised to find that Paladins tend to out damage fighters--You may object to Flames of Devotion being suggested by players for some weird reason but that quality alone doesn't actually make it a bad ability. From there Paladins move onto getting the promised support abilities, most of which are analogues to the stuff they had in Baldur's Gate. Honestly, my biggest objection to Paladins isn't really their effectiveness relative to the average class, but rather that I find just being a dude with decent stats and some reactive abilities rather boring. I felt much the same way about BG Paladins. your description o' bg2 abilities is a gross misrepresentation. yes, the paladin abilities might sound like support abilities from the naming, but from any practical pov, those abilities were largely incidental. who in a ie game relied on the paladin's support abilities? insignificant healing and minor buff spells? the High Level paladin actual were getting useful spells, but not support spells 'nuff to make a paladin replace other support specailists. the same spells that could temporarily turn a cleric into a melee powerhouse eventual became accessible to the paladin. bg2 Kits for paladins actual complete changed things and further defined the paladin as a front-line combatant. the holy avenger, which most paladins were likely to use, made the paladin an extremely powerful combatant capable of dealing and taking damage on par with a fighter. sure, a pure kensai might out damage a paladin, or a dual-wielding berserker with 5 stars in hammers, but the cavalier, inquisitor and undead slayer were situationally as good as fighters against the most powerful foes one were likely to encounter. in addition, with the minimum ability bonuses, a single roll paladin were far more likely to have exceptional strength, high constitution and exceptional charisma... sadly, the wisdom bonus for mag. def. adj. were nonexistent in the ie games, so that addition were worthless save in very few dialogue encounters. even for the individual who pathologically re-rolled, the paladin would result in a character more useful in dialogs and with far better overall stats. so, the ie paladin gave up some damage output and in return he got the holy avenger, (or some similar variation in all ie games save bg... heck, there were even a lg only super-weapon in ps:t, but that clear weren't limited to nonexistent paladins) special abilities against the most powerful foes in the game, increased survivability, and better stats. the reason for choosing a paladin over a fighter in ie games were Not because o' the paltry support abilities. be fair. "The 5 points of accuracy Paladins give up relative to Fighters can be trivially patched up by Zealous Focus and Paladins only fall behind Fighters in terms of damage because Fighters receive some weapon proficiency themed passive abilities." you also underestimate the impact o' the above. fighters receive numerous abilities that might improve them either as a tank OR dps dealer... which we see as a mistake btw. are you falling into the same mistake and trying to pretend poe fighter is same as ie? regardless, choice o' talents and the inherent abilities will makes fighters better tanks than paladins, and better at dps too. rogues, whose role is actual dps, will far outstrip paladins in that role. and we note that zealous focus is an aura that improves your entire party. if you use zealous focus, you are boosting your party fighter as well... and everybody else. kinda naughty o' you to bring up zealous focus as it is a support ability, and a powerful one at that. sorry, but you is actual reinforcing the notion o' the paladin as support. HA! Good Fun!

there is an incredible misapprehension, even among Americans, regarding the actual powers of the President. in domestic affairs, the President must needs work through the bureaucracy to make changes, or he needs depend on appeals to the public and Congress. the President's greatest power is not actual in the Constitution. as the most visible member o' the Fed government, the President has a natural ability (and the public's expectations) to set the national agenda. the President can't make laws, but from a practical standpoint, if the President is speaking o' affordable health care, so too will Congress. is actual amusing when even a popular President such as Reagan can be stymied by one of his appointments. Sam Pierce were secretary of HUD under Reagan, and under Sam Pierce, corruption and scandal were rampant. so Reagan appoints Jack Kemp, who were about as conservative as a popular American conservative can be. 'course, Kemp went native instead o' following Reagan directives. you figure the one area a President would have actual real control over domestic affairs is in the executive branch bureaucracy, but even that is largely limited to appointment power and budgeting... which should be enough, but isn't. HA! Good Fun!

when you sub, you ain't so much teaching as you is baby sitting, yes? sorry, you is managing the classroom. is not as if you need understand chemistry to sub a chemistry class. is not as if you need prepare lesson plans, grade papers our counsel students as a sub. even so, sub effective gives you an idea o' the job, even though subbing is limited, typical, to classroom management? for some reason, we find that to be a little disturbing. when our family argues the native american v. indian shtick, the rationales we is bombarded with is plural rather than singular. we hear 'white guilt' frequently. however, we will agree that tribe is far more important than blanket generalization, which is kinda part o' the problem. each individual tribe must needs negotiate separate with the US government. each tribe sees self individual and may have historical reasons for loathing the __________ tribe more than the government. there is little solidarity that might be useful in public appeals. strength in numbers is impossible when a relative small population is split more than 550 ways... and some native american tribes is still not having received bia recognition. while the importance o' tribal identity to individual native americans is undeniable, the insulating effect o' the identity greatly reduces political and economic power. HA! Good Fun!

am beating on timmy. we have been reduced to beating on timmy. *sigh* but hey, there were no context stripping when you were fighting over 40% when the issue were whether western sanctions were having an impact? heck, Putin thought sanctions were having a greater impact than did zor. maybe putin don't understand basic economics... is possible seeing as how he plagiarized his thesis that were functionally an mba defense. zor focuses on 6-12 as opposed to 6-18 as if that somehow diminishes the economic crisis in russia? "which complete ignores actual problems o' the crisis, but nice try." is our rearguard attempt to prevent your irrelevancies and context stripping. am fine with 6-12, but your context stripping, particular in light o' your hypocritical condemnation should not be allowed. again, Gromnir quote: "hell, it were only a few pages ago in this thread when you were telling us that the Russian financial crisis were some kinda invention o’ western journalists, or some such nonsense. "“Yes, I hear that Russia is down to their last 376 billion! "“Always a good laugh, seeing US press (and especially Uncle Rupes' Yellow Journalists) talking their enemies down, you'd think dealing with the 18 trillion dollar (and currently increasing at more than Russia's entire external debt annually) log in their own eye would garner rather more attention.”" zor reply: Hooray for context stripping. To remind people, you were saying that Russia would be out of reserves in "six months to a year at current rate of spending". I handily refuted the "current rate of spending" pages back, now there's nothing else to do but set the alarm clock for early August- Feb 2015/6 and see whose experts were right, mine saying 18 months to two years or yours saying max a year. Whoever is wrong can feel free to admit they were an ostrich. you don't even get that you is the guy with the context stripping. is this a problem o' namby-pamby projection, or just ignorance? the context o' your quote were as Gromnir described. no mention o' time frames had entered into the discussion when you made your ridiculous statement. on the other hand, your response were clear outta context. pointless. we is quoting same stuff and all you do is insist that black is white and up is down. and o' course, you selective quote til Gromnir helps you fill-in whoat you purposeful removed, you naughty little paranoid... paranoid who is inexplicably not suspicions o' putin. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/28/with-his-dying-words-poisoned-spy-alexander-litvinenko-named-putin-as-his-killer/ and taken from the following link http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/mar/02/russia-another-dead-democrat/ November 1998: Duma Deputy Galina Starovoitova, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, shot to death in her St. Petersburg apartment building. July 2000: Igor Domnikov, reporter for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta who wrote about government corruption, dies in Moscow two months after being severely beaten. April 2003: Sergei Yushenkov, Duma deputy and co-chairman of the Liberal Russia party, gunned down at the entrance to his apartment building. Yushenkov was serving at the time as co-chairman of the so-called Kovalev Commission, which was investigating the 1999 apartment bombings in Russia and the Kremlin’s possible role. July 2003: Novaya Gazeta reporter Iuri Shchekochikhin, investigating at the time high-level corruption in the law enforcement agencies, dies from what is believed to have been poisoning with Thallium. Shchekochikhin was also a member of the Kovalev Commission. July 2004: Paul Klebnikov, American editor of Forbes Russia, shot to death in Moscow. He was investigating organized crime and its connections with the Russian government. September 2006: Andrei Kozlov, first deputy chairman of Russia’s Central Bank, who was, among other reforms, trying to put a stop to money-laundering, shot dead on a Moscow street October 2006: Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya, known for her opposition to the second war in Chechnya and President Putin, gunned down in the stairwell of her apartment building. Although police eventually arrested and convicted five of participating in and carrying out the killing, the mastermind was never identified. November 2006: Former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Putin, who had been granted asylum in Britain, poisoned by polonium-210, a highly lethal and very rare substance, which the killers inadvertently spread all over London. November 2006: Maksim Maksimov, investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg weekly Gorod, declared dead on November 30, 2006, two years after he was reported missing. At the time he went missing he was investigating the unsolved 1998 murder in St. Petersburg of Galina Starovoitova. March 2007: Ivan Safronov, apparently pushed to his death from his Moscow apartment window. A respected correspondent for Kommersant, Safronov was investigating a secret sale of Russian missiles and fighter jets to Syria and Iran. October 2008: Prominent lawyer Karina Moskalenko, who pursues cases in international courts against the Russian government for human rights abuses and has also represented the family of Anna Politkovskaya, was poisoned by mercury placed in her car but survived. January 2009: Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov shot and killed on a Moscow Street, along with a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, Anastasia Barburova. July 2009: Natalya Estemirova, human rights activist and contributor to Novaya Gazeta, shot dead near the capital of Chechnya, Grozny. She reported on extra-judicial killings, abductions, and torture in Chechnya by federal and local authorities. November 2009: Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian accountant who had made allegations about large-scale theft in the government, died while languishing ill in prison after being arrested on false charges. April 2013: Mikhail Beketov, died from apparent complications arising from a November 2008 attack by unknown assailants that crushed his skull and left him in a coma for months. Beketov was a journalist who reported on government corruption involving the highly controversial construction of a highway through the Khimki Forest, near Moscow. extreme selective suspicion is just another reason to laugh at zor. and so we do. HA! Good Fun!

no doubt you has spoken to teachers and know what you is doing, but is our understanding that teachers got one of the lowest job satisfaction rates. takes you a year or more and some student-teacher training to get a relative ill-paying job that has you working far more than school hours. and heck, if you think cheap-bastard bosses is bad, many school districts got this wonderful habit o' hiring teachers just long enough to not need give 'em real benefits. am pretty sure coal miner and horse knacker is having better job satisfaction. HA! Good Fun!

and now you know why gd uses a post hole digger instead of a hammer. am confused our self regarding indians as our younger relatives insist that the current pc term for native americans is indian. makes us feel old. HA! Good Fun!

let us guess. as you were sitting on the back porch, contemplating your fence, you saw a meteor fall in the distance, a shooting star all red and gold. it were a sign, and so you chose to follow the sign. for sixty days and sixty nights, guard dog traveled in the direction the star had fallen, and on his journey he had many fine and terrible adventures. the hero wrestled and befriended a giant white grizzly, whom he named Stu, and the bear named guard dog Meat. gd saved a beautiful indian princess from an evil witch, but when the maiden's father offered the hero the hand of the princess in marriage, he respectfully declined as his heart (or at least community property) were already owned by another. to finally reach the landing spot o' the star, gd had to level a small mountain, which changed the course of a river, which saved a dying town. the hero would be forever remembered in smurf village as the man who made the flowers bloom and the corn grow once more. finally gd reached his goal, a meteor of iron and nickle and other strange metals unknown to man or god. but the stone was ill-formed and clumsy and had no purpose until the hero put his will to it; he popped the stone into his mouth eventhough the fires it had carried with it from the heavens had not been fully extinguished. a mighty hiss erupted from gd's nose, but he kept the stone in his mouth and gave it a good chaw to cool it and reshape it. when at last the hero was finished, he spat forth a mighty hammer-head, a vital tool indeed, but he saw it were incomplete. so gd returned to the smurfs and the smurfs in their thanks imparted unto their hero a magic handle that swallowed sweat and tamed even the most ill-struck blow so that no horny vibrations would slow gd's swing. and so the hero returned to the indian princess and she gave unto him strands of her glistening black hair that shone dark and smooth as a raven's eye. she kissed the stands, each one, and affixed the mighty hammer to his... handle. the black threads, while almost as fine as spider silk, were stronger than steel cables thick as guard dog's own mighty arms. the mainden's kiss were powerful magic so that as long as her hair bound his hammer, no rust would ever blemish its surface. finally, gd returned to Stu and showed him the hammer, and Stu saw that it was a fine hammer but incomplete. Stu dealt guard dog a terrible blow that crushed the hero's arm and broke his ribs, but Stu ripped off his own arm, and plucked forth three of his ribs and gave them to Meat, and he bathed the hammer in his blood. "now you have humility. go forth and do good work." and Stu died. after all his fantastic adventures, guard dog arrived home and got started on his fence. he grabbed a post and saw that the post was good. he placed the post in a shallow hole and struck a mighty blow, intent on driving the fence post deep into the virgin soil. the post sank a fragment of a fraction of an inch. guard dog, undeterred, struck the post once again, and this time the post bounced but sunk no further. guard dog stepped back and gathered himself and all his strength. he collected the gratitude of the smurfs, the love of his princess fair, and the friendship of his dead bear companion and put it all into his final swing. ... the post laughed. well, laugh might be too strong a word. snickered? a dismissive titter? guard dog let out a terrible sigh and said, "$%@# this." our intrepid hero took his hammer to the shed and placed it in an old steel trash can in the corner. guard dog then grabbed his post hole digger and finally got started building his fence. HA! Good Fun!

woldan is, predictably, wrong about speed of elementary backstroke compared to other strokes. however, in case folks is genuine interested, the fastest swim style requires the swimmer to stay submerged and use a dolphin kick. unfortunately, every time some joker finds a loophole in the rules to take advantage o' such, the governing bodies quickly close such gaps. why? because staring at a pool with folks swimming underwater is even more boring than watching traditional competitive swim events... and there were some genuine fears about folks accidentally asphyxiating themselves. o' sure, those handful o' us old enough might recall the following with mirth however, it turns out that patrick duffy were onto something. HA! Good Fun!

2 options for giving meds to reluctant pussies 1) if the med is not liquid and/or time release, crush it up and add to tuna or cheese or whatever. can almost guarantee no headlock necessary. 2) get a syringe and cut the end off-- need a syringe big enough for the pill. you gotta be quick, but grab the varmint by the back o' the neck and jam that syringe into the back o' the critter's mouth and use the plunger to let the pill fly. gag on the pill is okie dokie if it is already past the tongue. method 2 is not perfect, obviously. we recommend wrapping your little hairball producer in a towel. HA! Good Fun! ps as far as we know, both methods work on cats too.

Nah. Two posts ago you admitted that you did use the 6-12 month figure yourself*, one of the few accurate things you've said; and, absolutely conslusively the first person to use the 6-12 month timeframe was indeed you**. The quote by me you provide as 'proof' doesn't mention a timeframe at all so you set the parameters yourself next post with your 6-12 months post immediately after. It's exactly the same thing as your claims that I said sanctions would have 'no' impact when even the best quote you've provided says they won't impact 'severely'. Lack of context is the least of your troubles at this point as you appear to have completely lost basic reading comprehension skills and resorted to just making things up. [Source for second quote only, first is from this same page] No 'not my opinion, wsj says or whatever, and from before I mentioned any time frame myself. Doesn't matter how much you regret the 6-12 month claim, you made it. And you weren't in any way shape or form suckered into doing so. If you regret doing so (and it certainly appears you do) then I'm afraid you have no one else to blame but yourself. this is getting insane. yet another example o' context stripping. we did indeed mention the prognostications o' harvard professors and imf economists observing a possible time frame o' 6-12 months. we did so AFTER your quoted material. “Yes, I hear that Russia is down to their last 376 billion! "“Always a good laugh, seeing US press (and especially Uncle Rupes' Yellow Journalists) talking their enemies down, you'd think dealing with the 18 trillion dollar (and currently increasing at more than Russia's entire external debt annually) log in their own eye would garner rather more attention.”" YOUR claims o' context stripping were, therefore, patently ridiculous as we had not actual mentioned 6-12 months until AFTER your quoted material. YOU claimed that we context stripped because we failed to recognize that the above nonsense were offered by you, "to remind people, you were saying that Russia would be out of reserves in "six months to a year at current rate of spending". " we has now shown, MULTIPLE TIMES that we made no such claim until AFTER you posted the quoted material. again, "we made no such claim that could have inspired your ridiculous quote," given your espoused context and posts regarding intent. ... you can't be this obdurate. btw, we fixed your second quote. naughty-naughty, but thanks for helping. and we don't mind 6-12 months 'cause it is backed up by actual Genuine scholars, and as we said earlier, 6-12 v. 6-18 is a complete non-factor. we like 6-12 given how much it appears oil is gonna again drop now that stored oil is adding to the glut o' crude, but we said from the start quibbling over time frame "complete ignores actual problems o' the crisis, but nice try." for chrissakes, do yourself a favor and invoke the mercy rule. do we have a mercy rule? we need one. HA! Good Fun!

bg2 paladins and poe paladins is different. poe paladins role is neither tanky or dps-- they are a support class. the poe paladin has average accuracy and good health and deflection, which sounds more tanky than dps. even so, their main contribution should be how their auras improve the defenses and/or damage potential o' everybody else in your party rather than how well they do individually at dealing or absorbing damage. as far as the support classes are concerned, paladins are more tanky than dps, and with the right talents and gear, a paladin can effectively tank, but that isn't actually their role... and dps is almost an afterthought, regardless o' the curiously tacked-on smite ability. the obsidian developers shoulda' changed the names o' the classes to avoid confusion. HA! Good Fun!

Great Quote: 'Government has no authority "to license one side of a debate to fight freestyle, while requiring the other to follow the Marquis of Queensbury Rules."' while some folks dislike his legal philosophy, scalia has been dogged consistent, with one notable exception. we honest cannot square oregon v. smith with scalia's other decisions. oregon v. smith were arguably correct, but scalia appeared to have a rehnquist moment-- he made the law fit his needs rather than letting the law settle the question. however, regardless o' personal opinions on scalia, he has had the best lines o' any Justice since holmes and/or frankfurter. "As to the Court's invocation of the Lemon test: Like some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, Lemon stalks our Establishment Clause jurisprudence once again, frightening the little children and school attorneys of Center Moriches Union Free School District. Its most recent burial, only last Term, was, to be sure, not fully six feet under: Our decision in Lee v. Weisman conspicuously avoided using the supposed test but also declined the invitation to repudiate it. Over the years, however, no fewer than five of the currently sitting Justices have, in their own opinions, personally driven pencils through the creature's heart (the author of today's opinion repeatedly), and a sixth has joined an opinion doing so. The secret of the Lemon test's survival, I think, is that it is so easy to kill. It is there to scare us (and our audience) when we wish it to do so, but we can command it to return to the tomb at will. Such a docile and useful monster is worth keeping around, at least in a somnolent state; one never knows when one might need him." "'The operation was a success, but the patient died.' What such a procedure is to medicine, the Court's opinion in this case is to law." "Legislative flexibility on the part of Congress will be the touchstone of federalism when the capacity to support combustion becomes the acid test of a fire extinguisher. Congressional flexibility is desirable, of course - but only within the bounds of federal power established by the Constitution. Beyond those bounds (the theory of our Constitution goes), it is a menace." "The Court's statement that it is 'tempting' to acknowledge the authoritativeness of tradition in order to 'curb the discretion of federal judges' is, of course, rhetoric rather than reality; no government official is 'tempted' to place restraints upon his own freedom of action, which is why Lord Acton did not say 'Power tends to purify.' The Court's temptation is in the quite opposite and more natural direction -- towards systematically eliminating checks upon its own power; and it succumbs." "The purpose of Indiana's nudity law would be violated, I think, if 60,000 fully consenting adults crowded into the Hoosierdome to display their genitals to one another, even if there were not an offended innocent in the crowd." "'for want of a nail, a kingdom was lost' is a commentary on fate, not the statement of a major cause of action against a blacksmith." we don't always agree with scalia, but he has integrity and of all current and recent Justices, his decisions is the most fun to read... while we recognize that there is probably something wrong with a person who could define such reading as "fun." HA! Good Fun!

Oh, so you are going for the 'just providing things out of academic interest defence'. Can't say I didn't predict it. I guess that's the only way you can find to bail out, not actually standing behind links you provided and trying to imply I suckered you into your 6-12 months claim when you- freely and spontaneously- posted the article yourself and spent post after post defending it until even you realised it was actually too extreme to defend. Sorry bro, only person who suckered you was you. this is getting repetitive... again. you can't read posts or graphs it seems. YOU claimed that we context stripped 'cause you were refuting Gromnir's assertion, "that Russia would be out of reserves in "six months to a year at current rate of spending." doesn't exist. we made no such claim that could have inspired your ridiculous quote: “Yes, I hear that Russia is down to their last 376 billion! "“Always a good laugh, seeing US press (and especially Uncle Rupes' Yellow Journalists) talking their enemies down, you'd think dealing with the 18 trillion dollar (and currently increasing at more than Russia's entire external debt annually) log in their own eye would garner rather more attention.”" no claim by us o' 6-12 months. you didn't say squat about 18 months in this quote we linked. we has reposted, numerous times, the only two posts we made that you coulda' been responding to. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69691-ukraine-discussion/page-13?do=findComment&comment=1569008 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69691-ukraine-discussion/page-13?do=findComment&comment=1569041 sorry, but there is absolute no way you can make a claim o' context stripping, though you has done so many times. *chuckle* when we finally did mention the harvard and wmf prediction o' six months to a year, we specifically noted that arguing over the time frame "complete ignores actual problems o' the crisis, but nice try." so your observation that $376 billion in reserves were to remind folks o' how wrong our 6 to 12 months stand were clear fallacious, and we immediate noted that quibbling over the duration (a difference of six months? HA!) were your attempt at distraction. your hypocrisy and paranoia is your most salient features. make you an honorary mini-putin? we noted how you context stripped the Kurdin quote when clear the context were that western sanctions were having a greater impact than you were claiming. you see boogeymen in western journalism and Gromnir's posts. you see... *shrug* is impossible to say anymore what you see, 'cause you don't make any sense, and you complete lose sight of your own arguments. HA! Good Fun!

This. Ranger/Cleric popularity stems largely from the fact that they were basically Clerics who happened to be better than other Clerics. In terms of ethos most people would be hard-pressed to explain what the big difference between a Ranger/Cleric and Fighter/Cleric of a nature deity is supposed to be in the first place. Ranger/Clerics couldn't even scratch the "cunning woodsman skilled with both blade and bow" itch because of their equipment restrictions. the ranger/cleric popularity were hardly just that they were clerics who were better than clerics. who in their right mind would wanna play a 2ed d&d druid? the biowarians gave the druids some nice spells and lousy kits. well, the ranger/cleric could cast all the druid spells without having to be a druid. the ranger/cleric pc were also a superior melee combatant compared to any joinable npc. am not even recalling the optimal dual-class split, but 9 levels o' ranger were likely enough to get you near max hps, full dual-wield and access to all the funky druid spells and potential the high-level abilities too. regardless, what made the ranger/cleric most appealing were a misapplication o' d&d rules. the ranger/cleric shoulda' only had access to ranger spells based on ranger level. opening up the druid catalog were a mistake even if it technical weren't a bug. get call lightning, insect swarm, ironskins, and summon woodland being while being able to wear metal armour and dual-wield the hammer of thunderbolts and the flail of ages... or improved mace o' disruption if facing undead? were broken. HA! Good Fun!

You didn't and haven't 'won' on one single point. All you've done is misrepresent, move off when shown to be misrepresenting/ goalpost shift, shuffle and repeat- as you generally do. No doubt next post you'll be back to claiming that 'not severe' means 'none' again, or similar. Oh wait, you do that again, further down. Oookay. So you post articles, defend articles, quote from articles and yet "didn't mention time frames". Then admit you actually did a couple of sentences later. Pretty much sums things up. I said I'd put my money where my mouth is and adopt an ostrich avatar for a year if the 6-12 months estimate were true- and I'll do so even if you had so little faith in wsj guy that you wouldn't reciprocate. Because I have 100% confidence wsj guy was spouting crap. And if your complaint is based on you posting that wsj article as some sort of detached academic exercise then, lol. Nope. Mine was a direct quote of an article you'd (supposedly) already read and provided a link to, made to refute the bald and contextually inaccurate '40%' claim you'd actually pulled from a paraphrasing blog. Uh, it was you who were fixated on the '40%' [sic] figure, not me. I was just pointing out that you were misquoting your expert. If you don't want that to happen then don't misquote him. *chuckle* we love the hypocrisy. talk about "context stripping." the 40% were relevant 'cause it went to substantiate that western sanctions were indeed impactful rather that your ignorant and obdurate attempts to diminish. the 40% were only relevant as a repudiation or your continued ostrich routine... your peculiar need to believe that western sanctions weren't a significant contributor to russia's growing economic crisis. even more amusing "context stripping" were you failure to put the Kurdin quote In Context o' suggesting that putin's guesstimates o' 25-30% were too little and that yes, indeed, western sanctions were hurting russia's economy a great deal. "We mustn't downplay the impact of sanctions … It's a very big blow every year to the Russian economy," might as well post that quote again 'cause the context o' kurdin's other quotes seems lost on you. btw, that is a quote from the moscow times. the 40% stuff were from the financial times. no blogs. you context strip and then accuse us o' doing so... repeatedly? is a bad habit for you it seems. *chuckle* accuse us o' context stripping (HA!) when the only context were your spontaneous ejaculation following two posts by Gromnir offering links. at the same time, your recent posts is kinda the paranoid's handbook entry on context stripping for dummies... doing obvious and repeated. reality: Gromnir quote: "hell, it were only a few pages ago in this thread when you were telling us that the Russian financial crisis were some kinda invention o’ western journalists, or some such nonsense. "“Yes, I hear that Russia is down to their last 376 billion! "“Always a good laugh, seeing US press (and especially Uncle Rupes' Yellow Journalists) talking their enemies down, you'd think dealing with the 18 trillion dollar (and currently increasing at more than Russia's entire external debt annually) log in their own eye would garner rather more attention.”" zor: Hooray for context stripping. To remind people, you were saying that Russia would be out of reserves in "six months to a year at current rate of spending". I handily refuted the "current rate of spending" pages back, now there's nothing else to do but set the alarm clock for early August- Feb 2015/6 and see whose experts were right, mine saying 18 months to two years or yours saying max a year. Whoever is wrong can feel free to admit they were an ostrich. 'course the actuality can be seen, once again, via the links: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69691-ukraine-discussion/page-13?do=findComment&comment=1569008 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69691-ukraine-discussion/page-13?do=findComment&comment=1569041 again, no mention o' time frames from Gromnir before your sudden and ridiculous observation that has every reputable economist outside russia, and even a few in, laughing themselves silly. http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/26/investing/russia-credit-rating-junk/ cnn money showing that russia is no having junk status for s&p credit. http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2015/01/06/russias-currency-crisis-continues-the-ruble-is-crashing-again/2/ is a forbes article detailing continuing ruble plight http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/warnings-of-russian-financial-crisis-spread-as-banks-start-failing/514503.html another moscow times article highlighting the impending russian banking crisis http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/us-russia-crisis-idUSKBN0KN0Q620150114 a reuteurs article quoting russian finance minister speaking 'bout the severity o' the budget gap russia is facing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/18/russias-plagiarism-problem-even-putin-has-done-it/ ok, that one is just for funsy... show putin's "doctoral" thesis were plagiarized, and the comical extent o' the plagiarizing. context stripping? russia is down to their last (less than) $350 billion in reserves, and with the glut o' stored oil being too expensive to maintain, many/most prognosticators is predicting another drop in oil prices. IF the current western sanctions is maintained, russia is in serious trouble within the next 6-18 months. you really think the extra six months makes the situation worthy o' a "good laugh?" HA! it is funny, but is black humor, and EVERYBODY but oby and a few putin apologists would be laughing at you. you is a Hoot. keep posting. is funny. am certain Gromnir will once again tire before you do, but it feels a bit like beating up a crippled and blind kid. HA! Good Fun!

the concept o' the ranger/cleric was to combine the spell-casting abilities o' TWO classes while gaining premier thac0 progression. a balanced version o' the concept? a decent melee combatant who can cast spells and wear armour sounds like a chanter. problem solved. am not seeing a need for a nature-based version o' the chanter. different stokes? HA! Good Fun!

so, you wanna make'em more like d&d rangers. *shrug* that is okie dokie. personally, we tend to agree with mr.monocle at this point. dump 'em. complete opposite o' hermit, we see fixing ranger either by making 'em a ranged weapon damage dealing class without the unnecessary ranger trappings, or cutting 'em out o' the game complete. in our estimation, animal companions and stealth and outdoor affinity is not gonna make rangers better. get rid o' the ranger crap from the crappy ranger, or get rid o' the ranger. 'course it is too late for our suggestion, so at best we is gonna get half-measures that make rangers less horrible. HA! Good Fun! I know Rangers sucked in most implementations of DnD, but think Cleric/Ranger in 2e(IWD/BG2) minus the cleric weapon restrictions. Cleric/Rangers were awesome. I also like the old 1h/no shield style, but I wouldn't try to enforce that since it seems they want classes to have freedom in weapon set-up. IWD funnily enough had a half-arsed method of simulating dual wield by giving them an extra attack with a one handed weapon and I kind of liked this better than actual dual wielding. ranger/clerics (multi-class half-elf or dual-class human) were ridiculous overpowered. they were dual-wielding melee monsters that could access both druid and cleric spells, including the cleric spells that could functional boost the ranger/cleric's combat prowess past any fighter build. vanilla druid progression were a terrible handicap, but heck, your ranger/cleric didn't need worry 'bout such trivial things. because o' the bizarre xp progression o' 2ed d&d, the ranger/cleric were functional sacrificing a single level o' cleric spell casting to not only get druid spells, but full dual-wield, exceptional strength, fighter/ranger con bonuses and weapon specialization. do Not use ranger/cleric as an example o' what the poe ranger should aspire to be. please. HA! Good Fun!

Skyrim is boring as hell, though. I don't think OP cares what you think of that game By his description, Skyrim is perfect for him. dunno about that. the genesis poster liked all the side stuff, but at the same time, he/she couldn't finish the game and thought ADD might be an issue. spine o' the world were an iwd location, so we took that as a cue in responding. if the genesis poster were unable to maintain focus in a game such as iwd, then skyrim might not be a better option after all. *shrug* when making poe, the obsidian developers drew inspiration from the old ie games. one suspects that if a player couldn't finish the ie games, there is some cause to suspect that the player will find poe to be equally difficult to finish. but as we already noted, josh could answer better, particularly if josh alb is able to get at the particulars o' what prevented him/her from finishing past ie games. HA! Good Fun!

Oby is Putin. no, no. putin is ferris bueller... but older and angrier. wake up and smell the coffee. HA! Good Fun!

perhaps it would be best to ask josh as josh knows more about the game than does any of us. *shrug* however, we suspect that if you couldn't finish iwd because it failed to hold your attention, poe will be less likely to keep you involved. iwd games, for better or worse, were considered more dungeon crawl than the other ie games. iwd were noted as an obsidian inspiration for combat and combat encounters, but less so for character interaction, quest design, story, etc. iwd games were more focused and on-rails than the other ie games, so if you couldn't finish them... even so, we suggest asking josh. HA! Good Fun!

so, you wanna make'em more like d&d rangers. *shrug* that is okie dokie. personally, we tend to agree with mr.monocle at this point. dump 'em. complete opposite o' hermit, we see fixing ranger either by making 'em a ranged weapon damage dealing class without the unnecessary ranger trappings, or cutting 'em out o' the game complete. in our estimation, animal companions and stealth and outdoor affinity is not gonna make rangers better. get rid o' the ranger crap from the crappy ranger, or get rid o' the ranger. 'course it is too late for our suggestion, so at best we is gonna get half-measures that make rangers less horrible. HA! Good Fun!

dieting isn't the hard part for most people. all the wacky solutions is to help folks find something that works for them. 1) eat less 2) exercise is not particular complicated. however, the reality is that many folks genuine don't have the time to exercise enough, and while eating less can always be done, getting enough & proper nutrition while eating less can be a tougher proposition. getting older and working hard frequent means that you are exhausted all the time. we don't pay any attention to oprah. in the past 15 years we can recall three oprah stories. tom cruise were jumping on her couch professing love for katie holes (sp?) and she claimed that a shop clerk in switzerland or somesuch treated her inappropriately and she suggested that the reason for the mistreatment were 'cause she were black. the third story were interesting 'cause o' a moment o' honesty. cnn were on our tv in the background and for whatever reason, oprah were doing some kinda silly interview; oprah's weight issues became a topic. oprah noted that she has always had weight issues. she gots a personal chef to make food. she gots a personal trainer to help her exercise, and she still has problems. the only reason the story stuck with us is that oprah mentioned how one night she got home late and were exhausted and she were hungry, so she got out some maple syrup and covered a hot dog bun with the sugary stuff. that were her meal. eat less exercise sounds easy. it is easy. the thing is, particularly for folks who has been fat in the past, changing a lifestyle to keep weight off and be healthy is frequent very difficult. is our understanding that the fat cells never go away with dieting, they just kinda shrink. once you got the fat, it is with you forever, and you is far more likely to return to fat than a skinny person is to become fat even if you eat and exercise the same. genetics and a host o' other factors is involved. Gromnir exercises all the time, and it is a chore. one o' these days we is gonna have an illness or condition that prevents us from doing the ridiculous amount o' exercise we currently do. am suspecting that we will have weight issues in our 50s or 60s, 'cause we can't keep up our current rate o' exercise, and our diet is more 'bout eating stuff that tastes good than concerns 'bout health. at the same time, if eating healthy means we subsist on kale and chicken breast, then we would rather die at 70 stead o' 80+. HA! Good Fun!

Because you are operating from the premise that since simply picking up weight and putting it down worked for you, it must work for everyone. In reality, it is not so simple. you have no idea how many times we has beaten that drum for woldan. we keep pointing out the flaws o' seeing general rules o' applicability based on nothing more than personal experience, but he don't learn. one time a virgin accidentally gets fatal knocked off a cliff or killed by a horse contemporaneous with the ending o' a drought or plague. next thing you know, the primitives is lining up their virgins yearly to bring good harvests. we woulda' hoped such nonsense had been abandoned by nearly everybody. HA! Good Fun!