Gromnir

gonna respond serious. if they were morons, then they had always been morons. they didn't become morons 'cause o' limbaugh and bannon. ... japanese internment in ww2 was a politically popular move by fdr. the patriot act were passed post 9/11. ww1 sedition acts? the great depression led to embrace o' calvin coolidge's nativism. scared and angry americans has been all too quick to abandon core values--we were always worried 'bout future wars, attacks and major economic upheavals as precipitating events which would lead to the willful diminution o' american democratic values and Constitutional rights. even so, while Gromnir were frequent pointing out how income disparity and the inevitable disappearance o' manufacturing jobs were leading to radicalization o' the morons identified in the vid, we were naïve or perhaps even moronic 'cause we also didn't see 2015/2016 as analogous to the aforementioned post civil war american crises. we were envisioning a future problem. the notion a not particular popular populist such as trump could lead american morons to willful undermine democracy in 2016 were something we warned against as soon as 45 announced his proposed muslim ban to a cheering audience, but perhaps 'cause trump were so obvious one o' the morons in many respects, we didn't realize the scope o' the problem. more fool us. just another moron. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking is all too easy to focus on symptoms as 'posed to causes. the ad is predictable misleading and vile, but the bigger issue is the recognition ads such as these, which for decades woulda' instant drawn condemnation from the leadership o' both political parties, resonate with a large % of white american voters, and hershel walker. most people is gonna condemn such ads, but the white republicans who know better are complicit 'cause they need the base if they is gonna regain control o' Congress and eventual the Presidency. since Gromnir were a wee lad, stephen miller's channeling o' calvin coolidge's ghost and the attendant nativism o' the early 20th century woulda' resulted in outrage from almost everybody willing to speak public on such matters. yeah, david duke and the like would nod appreciative at the blatant racism, but nobody worth mentioning wanted to be publicly associated with white supremacists, anti-semites and the like. nevertheless in 2022, oathkeepers and proud boys is fixtures at gop events, and their presence in numbers on january 6 and at charlottesville as well as similar loci o' infamy is hardly deserving a mention as such has become commonplace. am knowing some o' the liberals on the board see little difference 'tween robed klansmen and ordinary heartland americans who vote republican. unfair. the thing is it ain't near as unfair as it were twenty or even fifteen years past. working class americans angry 'bout the fact their manufacturing jobs were disappearing and that even if they had a job it were getting tougher every year to make ends meet, were increasing susceptible to the venom and snake oil being peddled by the likes o' rush limbaugh and steve bannon. ok, but why and how do we fix the problem? being outraged at limbaugh is swell and all, but he is dead and while bannon and miller is alive, internet vitriol directed at those folks only cement the faith o' the radicalized white voters who see lib condemnation as proof o' the righteousness o' their ill-defined cause. a large % o' white and working class americans voted for obama. that don't mean those voters were free o' the taint o' racism, but it did mean that their racism were less significant than their desire for change and they did indeed embrace a positive message o' hope: yes we can. am mentioning 'cause in a relative brief period o' time, a large % o' white voters were radicalized to the point they see democrats as more o' a threat than white supremacists, anti-semites and politicians active bent on overthrowing american democracy. serious? the advert is repugnant, but am thinking is far more important to focus on why so many salt-o'-the-earth, evangelical and white voters turned to the dark side. gonna need to look for ways to deprogram the willful embrace o' hate by the multitude and somehow convince 'em what should be oblivious-- that reflexive compare january 6 to the blm summer protests o' 2020 and/or vote for kari lake and herschel walker is something they never woulda' considered fifteen years past and is obvious wrongs. medicine dan and the like didn't wake up one morning realizing that democrats and joe bidden o' all people represented an existential crisis. is no way they thought it were okie doke to embrace proud boys, oath keepers and stephen freaking miller as brothers at arms, fighting the good fight to save america. identify stephen miller and his message as being bad is ez and is not particular constructive. the hard part is understanding how things became broken and to come up with practical solutions to fix what is broken. admission: we don't have solutions other than education. 'course the problem is education takes a long arse time to provide results and even so, the current gop is focused on undermining any kinda education which might fix the problems. HA! Good Fun!

our vote goes to the following: slams President nixon at the grammy awards with a superlative performance. HA! Good Fun!

it is possible to go from lich to gold dragon, as improbable as that sounds. our previous lich run were not a fun experience as our intention were to do a lawful lich with only as much limited overt evil as necessary, but owlcat's vision were making a mess o' our plan. even so, if am gonna ever do another lich run is gonna be with the plan o' going the gold dragon redemption route from lich... 'cause. HA! Good Fun! ps our dog is now able to stand under its own power w/o screaming when making the attempt, so we did manage a little wotr gaming even if we still don't get much sleep-- am so lucky am retired or am not certain how we woulda' handled the dog situation. point is we did have time to do blackwater with what is now our high charisma skald azata. the best joke exploit made our hard run the easiest blackwater attempt we has yet tried.

unobtanium were a thing pre avatar... 1950s skunkwork engineers? ... internet tells us HA! Good Fun!

is hard to believe malcador has not seen princess mononoke. HA! Good Fun!

proof we woulda' been willing to watch jack palance in just 'bout anything. HA! Good Fun!

gop embraces the crime issue but is not as if they got solutions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/20/oklahoma-debate-stitt-hofmeister-crime/ “So let’s talk about facts: The fact is, the rates of violent crime are higher in Oklahoma under your watch than in New York or California,” said Hofmeister, who is Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction. “That’s a fact.” Stitt interrupted twice to protest that it wasn’t true. “We’ll have that fact-checked by the Frontier,” said the moderator, Tres Savage of the nonprofit news outlet NonDoc, referring to the routine fact checks conducted by another independent media site. What was not shown at the debate was that Hofmeister was correct. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oklahoma has a homicide rate of 9 deaths per 100,000, compared with California’s rate of 6.1 and New York’s rate of 4.7. ... have pointed to fact many times how fbi crime rates is generated by self reporting state and local. those law enforcement departments fill out surveys and offer feedback on a voluntary basis and they do not necessarily follow fbi guidelines with much concern for accuracy. as such, national crime stats is not only a couple years remote but they is at best a useful general guide for trends as 'posed to set-in-stone facts. even so, those fbi numbers is the best option we got and those numbers show that during the covid year o' the trump administration, crime stats (violent crimes) increased and they has recent begun to turn around, but not in a few key municipalities... and not always the municipalities you might s'pose. regardless, crime increases were a thing even in the most red o' states and towns and is not as if the gop has real solutions to offer what appears to already be trending in a positive direction regardless. that said we observed how from the start, post floyd, the defund the police nonsense were democrats and libs punching selves in the face. clear to us were that folks such as aoc and the squad didn't actual live in the neighborhoods where crime were always a primary issue. the nyc mayoral campaign shoulda' been a wakeup call for progressives and democrats in general, but it wasn't. tough on crime has always been a positive selling point for gop and democrats, which is why so many tough on crime dems rose to national prominence based on their prosecutorial efforts more than their social conscience. klobuchar and kamala harris literal built their careers by being tough prosecutors. not outliers. none of which matters. the gop has generated a crime talking point which real or not is perceived true by too many americans for democrats to be taking lightly. the facts don't count for anything if people believe something different. americans watch fox and local news and and their fave internet sources tell 'em that crime and homeless encampments is a threat to their safety at the same time they hear a few lib voices, voices decided not biden btw, suggest defund the police is a solution. worst part for democrats were the stoopid phrase: defund the police. could'a made the issue 'bout de-escalation efforts and increased funding for mental health training and initiatives, but somehow the libs embraced a tyson fury approach to arguable legit problems. aside: the notion a majority o' americans is concerned overmuch 'bout border security is nonsense. the border is a key issue for gop voters 'cause trumpism tells adherents border security is a major problem. *chuckle* is also noteworthy that given concerns 'bout inflation from both libs and conservatives, a serious influx o' people willing to work sh!te jobs for less money would be one o' the few options other than altering interest rates which could improve the inflation situation... and sh!te-for-pay workers woulda' been far less likely to cause a recession than interest rate manipulation. at exact the moment we needed people willing to work crap jobs abandoned by americans during the pandemic, we got people willing to work those jobs. efforts shoulda' been to get as many o' those immigrants working legal 'stead o' trying to score political points. in any event, reality o' crime is not meaningful if americans believe crime is an issue. gop post trump has been focused on generating talking points instead o' solutions while divided democrats sabotage their response to key issues. is all so predictable tragic and ordinary. if gop had real solutions the situation would be less grotesque, but complaints 'bout defund the police is not a solution. red states such as oklahoma is facing same crime issues as the rest o' the nation and folks such as desantis playing fast and loose with crime stats is so not a solution. doesn't matter though 'cause while the current gop don't have solutions, or any kinda meaningful platform, they is far better at generating outrage. with inflation where it is, generating outrage were not gonna be difficult, eh? HA! Good Fun!

babylonian. base sixty and original babylonian time keeping influenced greeks, romans and others. HA! Good Fun!

unsolicited advice: alt + b is a viable option for salvaging a frozen fight. a switch to real time is the ordinary solution to a few o' the locked-up combat bugs which still happen in tb mode and is more likely if you got loads o' mounted combat options. however, there might be a time when a switch to rt don't fix the problem and when such happens during a boss fight it is more than a little frustrating. solution: alt+b, the bug submission feature, makes it possible to create a save during combat. if the switch to rt don't clear your problem, you may need to complete restart the game. creating a wotr bug submission results in a save point being generated which will protect the effort spent on your boss fight before the game predictable crapped out on you at the worst possible time... again. warning: a reload o' a save from combat will reorder initiative. HA! Good Fun!

am admitted spoiled by a few developers not owlcat. pillars of eternity were hardly bug free, but you could post regarding a bug on these obsidian boards and it were likely a developer would eventual respond and acknowledge they were looking into the problem... or they would explain how/why they couldn't replicate the issue or address the problem. is so different from our wotr experience. is more than a few bugs from wotr which has persisted since beta and am not sure if owlcat is aware or cares 'bout those bugs. maybe you find a reddit response or disqus? maybe. on the positive side, most wotr game killer bugs has been eradicated with far more speed and diligence than we woulda' credited possible given our kingmaker experiences. as such is quite possible your bug is not lethal with the less than reassuring "proof" being it has not been addressed in spite o' fact it is a persistent and seeming universal issue. pretty much every past wotr game killer bug we know of has been fixed in spite o' lack o' owlcat responsiveness. is therefore reasonable to assume if this bug were game ending, then it would have been addressed-- reasonable conclusion if not necessarily logical. feedback from owlcat is hit and miss, so is ez to assume the worst, but am gonna give the developer credit for having done a better than fair job o' fixing the major quest bugs in a timely manner. wotr mechanics bugs, on the other hand, is hit & miss with owlcat and is difficult to anticipate which issues the developer deems worth the effort to address. as such, am gonna admit how given the amount o' time which has elapsed since the bug appeared and recognizing there has been no attempted fix having been announced in any subsequent patch is counter-intuitive evidence which encourages us in our belief the bug is not lethal. HA! Good Fun!

technical, it took one year. 'course the first handheld calculator boasted extreme limited functionality. one year after debut of trek is first handheld calculator and musta felt as if with all the leaps in tech taking place, colonization o' the moon woulda' been within another decade or two. 'course nasa budget budget dwindles to negligible amounts after US functional won the space race... HA! Good Fun!

kill the giants don't trigger until you assault drezen, so one suspects you could play up to that point w/o breaking anything. even then, is a better than fair chance you know immediate whether your game is fubar at start of drezen assualt whether you got a problem as you will be able to check your journal to see if the quest is active or not, yes? make sure you got a save from before the confab in your tent and pre drezen assault 'cause such is where and when you decide if you is using regill's plan or the direct assault-- is the trigger choice which brings 'bout kill the giants. if after the confab you got uncompleted kill the giants in your journal, then your game is likely okie dokie, no? just a thought. HA! Good Fun!

there is a whole lotta exceptions to the bloodline efficacy perks. got an undead beast as 'posed to a humanoid, then chances are the undead perk is useless. need also be corporeal undead for enchantment to work. the last area we played with our enchanter build were the act iii three dragon burial ground which is populated by giant spiders and undead. our best joke enhanced hideous laughter were working quite well 'gainst the undead. but yeah, is almost more undead which is exceptions to the bloodline powha than undead which is vulnerable. HA! Good Fun!

am always kinda reflecting on just how much o' the sfx magic o' a trip to the moon remained cutting edge well into late 20th century. star trek guys didn't do all that much innovate compared georges méliès, which ain't all that surprising when you consider the following: is a 1966 calculator and ~$9000 in 2022 money. such were the state-of-the-art at the time. but yeah, am not watching the short film 'cause it is such a grand interpretation o' the jules verne tale which itself were admitted kinda bizarre. HA! Good Fun!

is why we can't watch all the right moves (1983.) is as if the writers stole our life story, and then made it much whiter... and set it in western pennsylvania instead o' south chicago. we would serious consider suing the writers/producers for theft o' our life story, but for the fact the movie were released a couple years before we graduated. also, our coach were less friendly and we sure as hell didn't have a hug-it-out moment at the end o' our career. regardless, am kinda glad the movie weren't great 'cause we get all nostalgic and misty-eyed when we watch it. ... am embarrassed to admit am only kinda joking. HA! Good Fun!

been dealing with a dog health issue, so no gaming o' late, but am serious thinking o' changing our dirge bard to skald. the competence bonus from the bard songs no longer stacks with guarded hearth, which is a serious drawback for our gameplay style particular during the boss battles. 'course we got a similar problem with our azata build and a prospective switch to court poet as the morale bonus from believe in yourself don't stack with court poet song. lethal stance line o' rage powers is also competence-based, so our preferred skald build is initial undercut. however, the reckless stance bonus is untyped and stacks with everything. the ac penalty for reckless stance is gonna be negated complete by the inspired rage power natural armour bonus, so we end up with a groovy attack bonus sans any measurable ac penalty. add all the natural attack rage powers as well for our critter heavy party and skald looks like a winner, though am taking one level o' crossblood sorc for the fey and then either the undead or serpentine bloodlines, which means we miss on the skald capstone ability which is one o' the best in wotr. will probable go human instead o' half-elf. we wanted to max enchantment dc as much as possible. unfortunate, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you'll find you get what you need. our enchantment dc will be one less than what we would see with the half elf, but the human feat and skill bonuses can't be overlooked particular as skalds receive fewer skill points than bards. odd, but after some reflection am thinking the best enchantment spells is available to the inquisitor. serious. too bad you need wait a long time before you have access to mass castigate, greater command and overwhelming presence. it is possible with loremaster to acquire hideous laughter earlyish to make use o' best joke mythic. HA! Good Fun!

speaking o' sarcasm, the goggles is arguable one o' the best pre dlc face equip able items in the game, so... chances are you only acquire the goggles of mind control late in the game, but for an enchanter or illusionist character, they become bis gear. depending on party composition and difficulty setting, the goggles may be forgettable, 'but 'cause am typical having nenio and/or ember (am 50/50 on blaster ember v. enchanter ember) built to exploit mind effect spells, the goggles has had us enduring enigma multiple times even though the thought o' another enigma completion fills us with as much anticipation as does chewing on aluminum foil. however, am gonna admit that to get real use from nenio as an illusionist or ember as an enchanter is requiring metagamey nonsense, 'cause you need every bit o' dc boosting gear to be effective at all but the lowest difficulty levels. need optional boss 1007 drops or hidden gear? sans all the right equipment and an ideal build results in nenio being more useful as a blaster than an illusionist. aside, am thinking is kinda a d-bag move for owlcat to design nenio's endgame quest with so many undead, 'cause chances are your nenio illusionist is sooper effective 'gainst undead. (<--sarcasm) for our enigma runs, heightened and selective sciroccos, glitterdust and grease get more nenio usage than does her illusion spells. purposeful design an endgame area where as a developer you know nenio will be in the party and then purposeful populate with the type o' enemy nenio is less effective 'gainst... assuming you didn't take one level o' sorc to get the kitsune the undead bloodline. why? but yeah, enigma is a slog and there has been endless complaints regarding the content is curious owlcat thinks the criticism o' their puzzles and enigma in particular is funny as 'posed to a call for change... 'cause inevitable excess were designed with more o' the most annoying aspects o' enigma being essential gameplay. if you don't like backtracking and repetitive combat encounters, then you are sure to enjoy inevitable excess. HA! Good Fun!

https://twitter.com/IJ be outraged, but these kinda ordinances is common nowadays. ain't as if the folks o' bullhead is noteworthy in their infamy. is even illegal in more than a few communities to feed homeless persons on private property unless the property is zoned for charitable efforts and/or the property owner has obtained special permits from the local municipality.

am quoting both @majestic & @InsaneCommander 'cause the observations is curious related. why is owlcat so enamored with puzzle content which does not resonate with fans? check for wotr feedback regarding the title's puzzle content and enigma specific. maybe ain't universal, but the consensus opinion is owlcat does puzzle content poor. so 'course with each new release, puzzles become more integral and ubiquitous. wait, what? at the same time, much o' owlcat design does indeed look to be laser-focused on giving their fans what they perceive the fans want. the mythic paths is munchkiny and the writing is if not parody then is embracing the cringey end o' the spectrum, presumable 'cause owlcat is pandering to their audience. almost no effort is taken by owlcat to balance pathfinder. the mythics, which is owlcat creations, go a step beyond pathfinder's already exploit riddled ruleset in making sooper builds possible. owlcat knows their fanbase and they is quite happy to create cringey and busted content if it nevertheless satisfies the base. as for ashes, am admitted unsure what were the fanbase reaction to the newish gameplay elements incorporated into the dlc. if the fans didn't like enough, then maybe ashes style is doomed. then again, maybe owlcat is as invested in ashes improvements as they is with their puzzles. fan approval o' ashes 1 and 2 may be irrelevant if owlcat believes in themselves. HA! Good Fun!

through the ashes advanced on rails, but it offered the most unique and intriguing gameplay elements o' any owlcat dlc offering thus far... and in our opinion it were arguable more impressive from a design pov than the main campaigns o' the two released pathfinder games. example: is one map where we fought almost not at all as we would lure one set o' enemies into combat with otherwise difficult monster encounters, at which point the baddies would murder each other as 'posed to Gromnir. a few o' the non-combat solutions were scripted and skill-based, but as with the cubes v undead scenario we just mentioned, other gameplay solutions were less obvious. design o' ashes were at times frustrating and even stoopid, but it were also creative and offered a glimpse o' future possibilities for a owlcat pathfinder crpg. the lowest pathfinder levels is often frustrating, with a single goblin/kobold/skeleton spear attack critical capable o' killing your wizard or sorc with a single strike. also, the difficulty o' ashes were a bit more noticeable than the main campaign. combine low-level inherent lethal + increased difficulty and ashes were bordering on less than fun when we played on hard and am gonna highly recommend playing no higher than core for anybody who ain't experimented with it thus far. positive: a second ashes dlc means am gonna be less likely stuck in a level range where even on core we feel horses and leopards is quasi-essential additions to a party am genuine looking forward to through the ashes 2nd installment. HA! Good Fun!

before the nerf, aivu caster level were = dragon level. as such her greater dispel were capable o' debuffing demon lords with with such efficacy people complained. dc were something like 60. breath weapon were also nerfed, but the greater dispel were what we thought were genuine game breaking. she also made an op healer in spite o' not having mass heal; had us alter sosiel to damage/evocation. 'course now she gets barding. ... gotta admit she were broken strong as a caster pre nerf. HA! Good Fun!

"if Men were angels, no government would be necessary. if angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself." -- James Madison, federalist papers 51 james missed something important. so long as political systems is managed or designed by humans, they is gonna have fails. recognizing people is flawed, to then have decisions made by humans or a construct designed by humans is gonna result in fails. plato's philosopher king is kinda swell, but if you got a system with power centralized in a single person, then is inevitable persons who wish for power and is less altruistic than plato envisions is gonna manage to become king at some point in near or distant future... and then what? *shrug* the whole point o' us Constitutional representative democracy (or whatever) is to put systemic limits on power. unfortunate, the current office o' the President is so not what were designed in 1787. there is wisdom in the US Constitution rejection o' athenian democracy, but were also foolishness as many o' the limits on the Presidency were based on the notion the chief executive would be selected by an actual electoral college, resulting in a kinda philosopher king for an office which didn't have much power in 1787. contrary to founder expectations and ordinary notions o' human self interest, Congress voluntarily abdicated power to the Chief Executive by drips and drabs over the intervening decades, and the President who were so not chosen by democratic process became the one national office every american citizens casts a vote to elect. point is the plan for american "democracy" looked much different in 1787 and regardless, you gotta assume people is gonna be people, eventual mucking up even the best ideas. the founders, in their wisdom, did indeed assume the people were the fundamental flaw in their design, but they foolish believed they had accounted for stoopidity and greed. fools. if a system is designed by people to govern people, it is already broken. just is. need accept that fact and recognize that inherent flawed and broken is nevertheless better than state of nature... but am thing this is the point where Gromnir and @Gorthfundamental diverge. in the absence o' a system, greedy, cruel and the multitude o' ordinary frightened people will band together for protection or power and even in the unlikely event their collective motives is benign, perhaps the next people controlling the group will be less altruistic. as an aside, clarence thomas granting a stay for lindsey graham were not a complete shock and is not some kinda indication lindsey is gonna weasel out o' testifying. however, it does indicate there is likely no unanimous SCOTUS opinion on the issue. we should know more by the end o' the week. HA! Good Fun!

you kinda sound like lindsey buckingham complaining 'bout eddie van halen while he were simultaneous recognizing eddie's "virtuosos" talent. can probable find the quote somewheres with a simple search o' both artist names. kinda reminds us o' another great artist moment, albeit a bit different. ms. raitt, a fantastic guitarist in her own right, were s'posed terrified she would f' it up at the grammy awards. no guitar from bonnie in the linked, but were a memorable performance. HA! Good Fun!

given just how much stranger things is influenced by and indulging overt homage o' 80s horror films, we would suspect we were stuck in the upside down if the duffer brother's tv show didn't qualify as horror. is one o' those consciously multi-genre shows which arguably is trying to do too much with too many characters; perhaps would have been less messy in subsequent seasons if it had benefited from more focus as 'posed to chasing elusive gestalt. regardless, horror is clear and unambiguous an intentional element. spoiler from season ... three? wait, no. is now four, yes? the seasons is all kinda merging together for us post season one. HA! Good Fun! ps am gonna admit there is ambiguous multi-genre media which has us equivocating in regards to horror label. super 8 is an example... and is another messy jj abrams nonsensical ride which we nevertheless didn't hate complete. (kinda makes us feel unclean to need admit we enjoy anything jj abrams, but is actual a couple jj vehicles we found entertaining in spite o' brain freeze levels o' stoopid.) super 8 is another 80s love letter (yes, technical is set 1979) which is embracing horror elements. even the movie the kids is making when the train wreck occurs is a zombie flick, but does it have enough horror to validate a horror label? maybe not for Gromnir, but why should our threshold be the measure? am not thinking the label matters much in the long run as we have pointed out numerous times how such labels in literature, movies and tv is artificial and kinda pointless save as an advertising tool, but if you wanna argue super 8 is enough horror to be horror, am thinking you got more room for debate than stranger things.