Gromnir

am recalling john hamm doing comedy on 30 rock so am kinda optimistic 'bout this. HA! Good Fun!

best professor and best class we had in pursuit o' our bs in physics from berkeley were a community college american history class we took during the summer so we could graduate on-time (early). HA! Good Fun!

we would like for our carpenters and plumbers to recognize how much o' what is happening today is reminiscent o' the early decades o' 20th century USA, with increasing violent rhetoric supporting nativism and a widening gap in income disparity leading to widespread anger. ignorance at the time made americans easily manipulated by the worst political elements. democracy don't work particular well w/o an educated electorate. Gromnir worked ranch jobs and roofing for much o' our youth and university years. we learned useful skills, but more important we recognized how the folks working backbreaking jobs for little pay ain't stoopid and it were circumstances more than intellect which led our coworkers fixing barb wire fences in blizzard conditions instead o' being seated in lecture hall classrooms being taught how commodity based economies o' africa and elsewhere where doomed by systemic forces to be almost perpetual excluded from the ranks o' capital producers and service-based economies. am thinking it would be useful education for university folks to actual spend months/years doing physical demanding work if for no other reason than to disabuse 'em o' the notion education is somehow making a person insightful or special. just our opinion. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting is gonna depend on what you mean by "effectively." with fencing grace and her shaman battle abilities and spells, a camellia with maxed dex is gonna be having high attack bonus with a high crit weapon, doing admirable damage even before factoring in no-brainer elemental barrage damage. camellia may also cast genie kind to further exploit elemental barrage. given she is most likely being used to tank, the damage output is impressive. insofar as hexes, metal curse requires taking a second spirit, but is worth the effort. metal curse is a no save and no spell resistance debuff o' foe ac. along with the madness domain power, the metal curse is one o' the top debuffs in the entire game. protective luck and fortune is useful but may be exploited to increase duration to extreme periods o' time resulting in cheese level benefits. shaman has most all the desirable party buffs including the resist/protection energy communals, delay poison, true seeing, stoneskin, and all the attribute boosts. am not personal finding necessary, but take the greater enduring spells mythic and have camellia cast all the best buffs which will then last 24 hours. creeping doom and crusader's edge. ... sure, we may build a better merc or player character than camellia, but am having a hard time dismissing her usefulness and keep in mind we active dislike her writing so is not as if am affected by some kinda desire to over-inflate her contributions. in all Gromnir runs, camellia is permanent kicked to the curb after the start o' lost chapel, but is not 'cause she is ineffectual. HA! Good Fun!

have always liked billy joel. not top ten or anything, but we rare dislike a billy joel tune. another song from k-tel's 1980 rock album, one o' our favorite 8-tracks. HA! Good Fun!

if we had to choose top three most useful wotr companions we would select camellia along with seelah and sosiel, and camellia makes the best pure tank, though as already stated by mid-late game a true tank becomes increasing less necessary. crazycakes eventual gets access to creeping doom, one o' the best spells for overcoming a few o' those improbable boss battles, and she potential may take a second spirit to acquire the metal curse, which provides a scaling no-save debuff to enemy ac... -6 at level 16? serious? even so, we invariably stop using camellia in our party after act i and some limited act ii content. am s'posing one could argue camellia has over-the-top appeal, but is nothing particular subtle or clever in the writing o' her character. "would the owlcat writers go that far?" yes. yes they would, and so what? yeah, am able to see the edgelord appeal o' camellia but we don't share it. but again, camellia has the potential to be the best companion tank, as well as your most useful hexer and she has access to creeping doom. camellia is a spirit hunter, an excellent class with full spell progression capable of casting many o' the best party-wide buffs available. camellia is useful early, mid and late in the game. is many practical reasons to keep camellia around. @majestic mentioned how much he enjoyed firebirds in a different thread. we would rather watch firebirds on an endless loop than keep camellia in a wotr party a moment longer than necessary. HA! Good Fun!

hmmm we found seelah, spec'd sword and board, perfect capable o' tanking most encounters up to hard difficulty. however, for a few boss fights, the paladin were not a viable tank... and the boss fights are kinda the chokepoint for those who might not wanna min-max. seelah, particularly if you made her a mounted combatant (we used wolf most often, but for full tanky seelah, boar is a decent choice... though admitted to do non-horse you gotta multi with oracle or something else,) is gonna be an excellent tank for +90% o' all wotr encounters on difficulties short o' unfair, but is not as if you are able to ignore boss battles which effective undermine her tank worthyness. so the question is why would you build seelah as a tank in the first place? crazycakes camellia is arguable the most effective pure tank 'mongst the companions as is typical better to use a dex build for ac than to try and stack armour bonuses. y'know, the main reason we keep seelah sword and board in all our wotr runs is 'cause there is a holy avenger in the game and 'cause somebody in our party is gonna be equipping the undying love of the hopebringer. more freaking metagamey nonsense, eh? the shield is too useful for most o' our dc and fear-exploitation parties not to have the shield figure into our strategies, so somebody needs equip it and seelah is an obvious candidate. in our estimation, your best wotr tank is a summons or an animal companion. sure, you may build an angel oracle to be nigh invulnerable, but why bother? build a party to max dc and damage output is typical our strategy 'cause an overwhelming offense in wotr is the best defense-- you don't need stellar ac if you kill everything in one or two rounds... which is admitted cheesy. ... pathfinder is subject to munchkiny exploits, and owlcat took a hands-off approach to pathfinder balance... and then they added their own epic silliness which frequent complete breaks the game. this is a problem for casual gamers 'cause to make wotr challenging enough for a game with reload as well as hardcore fans who will make insane powerful trickster, demon and angle builds, owlcat resorted to bloat. well that is fine for the hardcore players who will grumble 'bout bloat as they roll-stomp through the game on any difficulty short o' unfair, but what about the casual player? wotr is designed so hardcore munchkins may nevertheless enjoy the game experience, but such design necessarily is gonna frustrate the casual and sane player who doesn't know every unique wotr exploit and stacking opportunity. nevertheless, if @Gorthis having any difficulties with battles on normal difficulty, we will offer advice, but he should be reassured to hear playing every companion straight vanilla as offered is viable. it is 'course all too ez to choose wrong feats and multi-class options so as to make your party ineffectual. is also disturbing ez to build a party which is highly effective for the first 2/3 o' the game but useless near the end. regardless, is not too difficult to fix any "wrong" choices, so don't hesitate to express frustration and ask for solutions. HA! Good Fun!

Trump Tells His Lawyers: Get ‘My’ Top Secret Documents Back “The motion he already filed is so absolutely terrible, that it’s hard to contemplate him filing something even more aggressive and even more unlikely to succeed,” says Ken White, a criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. “However,” White added, Trump is “basically trying to litigate the ultimate issue in the case, which is whether he had the right to possess and keep those things, even after he was asked to return them. It’s very unlikely that the court would accept that invitation to litigate that…He would have to prove that those things were illegally taken, and — based on what we know — that is going to be very difficult to prove…He’s going to have to make some very unusual legal arguments, which, if they’re anything like the motion that was just filed, is going to be a very uphill climb.” mr. white's description o' the rule 41(g) motion is, if anything, understating the fumbduckery displayed by trump's lawyers. and then we get the john solomon production o' parts o' a NARA letter. Biden signed off on FBI review of Trump records, National Archives letter reveals ... the gaslighting is astounding. somehow the aforementioned damning letter which reveals just how uncooperative and aware were trump regarding sensitive documents being held at a hotel in florida, is proof that "brandon lied again," according to more than a few fox viewers/readers. what? somehow a letter from may 10 in which it states the President did defer to nara and doj as to whether the fbi should review, is proof Biden lied when the wh announced the President did not have personal knowledge o' or approve the recent search warrant o' mar-a-lago? wait, what? the washington post first reported in february how the national archives were attempting to retrieve documents from trump, so discovering the wh were made aware and consulted in april is news? what does such have to do with approving search warrants or initiating investigations? have witnessed more than once the capacity o' people to read selective and ignore inconvenient facts, but the maga crowd and republican leadership reflexive need to defend any trump stoopidity is nevertheless curiously baffling while also no surprise whatsoever. one one level this document kerfuffle is no different than a parade o' similar improbable dating back to at least 2015, so it should shock nobody. right-leaning and government fearing independents will see the present stoopid as proof they is all bad. the increasing radicalized gop sees the mar-a-lago search as proof the libs are a threat to democracy. wtf? on the positive side, @Gorth videos allow us to indulge a kinda schadenfreude as we recognize endemic and willful electorate obtuseness is hardly a uniquely american quality. HA! Good Fun!

trader joes has popular cheesecake, but in sacramento, am recommending corti brothers. even if corti brothers is a bit distant, am suggesting making the trip at least once as they have a fantastic deli, excellent meats (if you don't have a favorite butcher) as well as numerous specialty items. HA! Good Fun! ps is worth reading the la times article at the linked page. as an aside, when asked where one might find the best deli sandwiches in town, corti brothers gets frequent mentions, so consider stopping by during less than peak hours and ordering a sandwich or two.

maybe you are getting distracted by the typical trappings and elements o' american westerns, which is reasonable 'cause when you look at definitions o' an american western you is gonna see reference to the setting and most people think o' the shootouts and the common themes and the cliché bad guys. tokyo godfathers is a good example o' how perhaps what many persons believe is integral to how american westerns influenced movie-making in general might be missing the mark, yes? while tokyo godfathers is inspired by an american western, it don't have any o' those aspects you think o' when you reflect 'pon what is a western, yes? kubrick were influenced much by john huston's the treasure o' the sierra madre, but is not gonna be a kubrick western found in his catalog... though were a close miss with one film. scorsese is hardly an outlier when he describes the influence o' the searchers on his efforts, and is probable not the stuff you consider when you think o' westerns which were most meaningful to a young martin watching the searchers for the first time. warning: watch only if you never intend o seeing the searchers. now admitted, the searchers were kinda unique in a number o' ways and it don't represent all or even most westerns, but what american westerns brought to film weren't just film techniques and cowboys v. indians; the influence they had were were more far-reaching than you might expect. am willing to bet that most o' the writers and directors o' the films you like best were heavily influenced by american westerns and if not directly, then by their admiration for guys like scorsese and kubrick who were direct influenced by westerns. HA! Good Fun!

obvious entries which leap forward is tokyo godfathers, shrek, crusher joe, nausicaä of the valley of the wind, ghost in the shell and mulan. am not even a hardcore film historian, so am suspecting others is gonna recognize more. am thinking is ez to confuse trappings o' westerns with what were fundamental elements. mulan may be based on a traditional chinese story, but the storytelling is far more reliant on american western traditions. just one element, but is no way eddie murphy character is in mulan w/o american westerns. and tokyo godfathers were just too ez to identify. do a search on influences for tokyo godfathers if you are confused. HA! Good Fun!

a few o' our all-time favorite movies is westerns. would include: the searchers, the treasure of the sierra madre, red river, the wild bunch. searchers is invariably top-ten for us and the other two are not far behind. a half dozen or more other westerns is vying for recognition and we have a hard time explaining why high noon, the ox-bow incident, the gun fighter and others ain't included with our top four. the thing is, many films and shows you perhaps don't think o' as westers is, or were at least western homage/influenced. kurosawa were heavily influenced by american westerns, as well as film noir and shakespeare. have mentioned previous how outland were effective high noon in space. if you like the mandalorian... etc. is also not the same thing, but if you like tarantino, then sergio leone is obvious a huge influence. HA! Good Fun!

dunno. unions were created so folks could just do their job and not need worry 'bout getting fired or passed over for promotions. unfortunate, there is more than a few jobs where working your forty don't... work. @Hurlshot no doubt is able to share experience 'bout teachers and how ordinary it is for them to work considerable number o' hours past end o' the school day. sure, once a teacher gets tenure is maybe too difficult to be fired, but many/most teachers spend considerable hours doing their job beyond the minimum requirements if for no other reason than 'cause is always kids and classes which is needing more help. ... consider for a moment a young person who is starting a new business. she paints houses. gets paid to paint houses. as a person new to the field o' residential exterior painting, she is creating a business and she is selling her services to those who need their properties to be painted. chances are for the first couple years, until she develops a clientele and acquires a positive reputation, she needs underbid competitors and perhaps even take the occasional loss on a job or two (or three) to grow her business. the painter is working more hours than competitors and making less money than her work is actual worth, and her actions is not only reasonable but likely necessary if she wants to break into a market where there is already more than a few established house painters vying for jobs. young person working at a bank or as a peace officer or as a dental hygienist is not different than the painter. sure, it seems different but with almost any job you is first and foremost selling yourself, and chances are if you wanna separate self from the competition (your fellow employees) you need work harder and better than your competition. yeah, particular for jobs where is a surplus o' labor, bosses, absent well-established and powerful unions, may engage in nightmarish levels o' exploitation o' labor. am not blind to the injustice o' the capitalist v. worker dynamic. however, 'cause am old and retired and grumpy, we can't help but think some o' the younger generation has been warped by participation-trophy silliness and forgotten how genghis khan's attribution is just as applicable today: so, suck it up buttercup and get back to work, 'cause if you don't wanna work eighty hours and go above and beyond, then chances are somebody else will do so and when is time to hand out promotions or decided who is being let go during lean times, what reasonable boss wouldn't choose the overachiever? am kinda kidding... somewhat. a little. 'course shady is in a field where businesses is falling all over themselves trying to keep qualified people, so am suspecting he gots considerable leverage even if he does bare minimum required. young painters, or lawyers, is facing considerable competition from their peers and if they don't set themselves apart from the herd at the start o' their career, the handful o' plum positions may be forever out o' reach. not fair? who ever promised it were gonna be fair? if somebody did make such a promise to you, they were liars or fools... or both. HA! Good Fun!

we made boogaloo wonderland sandwiches we got a recipe which approximates a decent version o' the sauce. atk also has a recipe which is probable more accurate than what Gromnir does. our knock-off has near same ingredients as atk with a bit more vinegar and we replace the brown sugar with dark molasses. am reducing the molasses volume 'cause while is maybe less authentic, we prefer the sauce to be more smokey and less sweet. we use also abandon the chili powder and replace with ancho chile powder. regardless, is more fun to say, "boogaloo wonderland," than to say "sloppy joes with cheese"... minus the green bell pepper but with more onions. admission: we prefer jalapeño in our sloppy joes instead o' green bell pepper, and if we weren't making the boogaloo wonderland for somebody who had never previous tasted, we woulda' added jalapeño. HA! Good Fun!

rocky balboa (2006) were far superior to rocky v. in the case o' maverick, you had different writers and a different director, so if you like the new writers and director, that might be cause for optimism. that being said, recognizing that there is indeed a few sequels which is noteworthy superior and/or different than the preceding film, the odds suggest it is best to expect mediocrity or worse from a sequel to a mediocre film. HA! Good Fun!

'tween having to take the 5th +400 times in the ny civil case deposition, and weisselberg's plea + agreement to testify, the trump organization as a whole is in serious jeopardy. even w/o weisselberg's agreeing to testify, the plea woulda' been devastating for the trump org. why weisselberg is holding the line insofar as his refusal to cooperate against trump personal remains a mystery, but this news is most certain not gonna be greeted with cheers by donald and the trump klan, even if it does represent trump having avoided the worst-case-scenario. HA! Good Fun! ps biggest question we have is why the feds ain't investigating the tax fraud. the weisselberg plea is an obvious admission o' wrongdoing insofar as fed taxes as well as state, so where is the feds?

am moderate curious. burton + elfman always gets a looksee from Gromnir. some persons were bothered by gwendoline christie playing lucifer in sandman 'cause she is a woman or too old or whatever, but we simple didn't see her as hitting the mark. maybe she redeems herself with wednesday? gomez (or nameless adams patriarch in the new yorker) has typical been the star o' the adams family regardless o' the media, but such won't be the case for wednesday and that is okie dokie. tim burton's lydia deitz/kim boggs/ursula van helsing/victoria everglot/katrina van tassel are the ordinary burton waifs o' the past and this iteration o' wednesday is more inspired by alice kingsleig or even one o' his eva green or helena bonham carter characters. am hoping this tim burton vehicle is offering more than a christina ricci wednesday with a bit more mayhem. is tough for a caricature to grow in a tv show or film and wednesday could extreme ez become caricature, which is no surprise give her origins and previous appearances. am expecting wednesday to look and sound great, but that don't mean it will be worth watching. will watch at least a few episodes regardless. HA! Good Fun!

the counter-arguments inevitably includes the costs the state must now absorb. again, as have stated a few times, this is not a win position for republicans, and like it or not overturn o' abortion protections is the result o' the earnest held religious beliefs o' evangelicals (primarily catholic women during the early years) who has been advocating in an organized manner for a repeal of roe since 1973. the one possible monetary benefit for states is with roe overturned, they ain't needing pay the legal fees for planned parenthood and other organizations when their just-for-show lawsuits inevitably failed. texas were averaging something near $2 million a year in legal fees for the other guys (planned parenthood and individual doctors) 'cause state and local politicians would challenge abortion constitutionality and inevitably fail. there has been a skeevy politician monetary argument which has been linked to abortion rights for decades, though is opposite o' what lexx imagines. has been suggested the reason why neither democrats or republicans genuine wanted overturn o' roe in spite o' all the soap box speechifying is 'cause both parties were doing lucrative fund raising 'cause o' pro-life and pro-choice. roe, a wonky plurality, were on life support since 1973 but there has never been Congressional legislation to address, and one cynical explanation for torpid response from Congress is that doing so would be killing a golden goose. HA! Good Fun!

we did sunny side up eggs (wife demurred but the husband and daughter partook) and even found fresh sage in the local market, so we added fried sage leaves. the eggs, while served in a manner not common to most japanese kitchens, weren't deemed particular exotic so we didn't mention. am highly recommending fried sage leaves for this meal btw. is a minor thing, but is one o' those additions which not only is adding welcome color, thus enhancing presentation, but is surprising tasty... perhaps even unexpected. didn't come up with the sage idea on our own btw; is how a michelin breakfast place we visit often does it, so we stole the idea and make no apologies. @majestic biscuits and gravy does indeed appear unappealing, particular if you have never seen similar. is a whole lotta not-americans who would never choose to eat biscuits and gravy based on a picture o' the meal. am gonna note the family's daughter enjoyed her meal with visible and uncharacteristic gusto. she is probable graduating from college 'bout now and makes us wonder if she makes biscuits and gravy based on the recipe we left behind or if she perhaps used a search engine to replicate. while improbable, we like to imagine the oddball japanese girl grossing out her friends with the infrequent plate o' biscuits and gravy. HA! Good Fun!

is always good to keep in mind "exotic" is relative. in the past we visited japan every year or so. had an acquaintance and to pay 'em back for repeated hospitality, and per their request, we cooked his family a quintessential american meal they were unlikely to see on the menu at denny's or similar "western" family restaurants. we made 'em biscuits and gravy. make breakfast sausage with ingredients available in japanese stores weren't too difficult. "biscuits" cause consternation 'cause what american calls biscuits is an outlier, but make homemade biscuits is easy and quick and the dairy we use for the biscuits am also using for the gravy... which is perhaps the real mind blower for japanese and most other asians. dairy-based gravy? ... their eleven-year-old daughter loved the meal, but... biscuits and gravy were perhaps too exotic for the ordinary japanese palate. HA! Good Fun!

is what happens when you got earnest people who want justice for wrongs and they is so angry they don't care 'bout due process. speaking o' nogoodniks and due process... Lindsey Graham must testify in Atlanta 2020 election probe, judge rules baby steps update: Stephen Vladeck on the FBI's Search of Trump's Home is an excellent layman-friendly rundown o' the relevant issues and if you avoid the phone call answers, won't require much o' your time to indulge a listen. ten minutes. HA! Good Fun!

initially we used our grandparents record player for the couple albums we were gifted, but then in 1980 we got an early 60s 8-track player and THREE tapes, one o' which were a k-tel release: the rock album. as for oingo boingo, they were frequent visitors o' santa barbara during the 80s and 90s. caught a few o' their county bowl shows. possible our favorite outdoor venue. danny elfman is now recognized as a film score composer linked frequent with tim burton, but is ez to forget what incredible vocal range and control he had as the front man for oingo boingo... f1-c6. not complete unfair to mention him along with freddie mercury. an "older" (edit: not that it matters, but "older" is the wrong word, or at least misleading. were one o' the last songs elfman wrote before oingo boingo were final disbanding and is more like their 1978 stuff than most o' their later releases) oingo boingo tune channeling early performance art influences. by this point elfman no longer had the range he did when a bit younger, but still impressive. HA! Good Fun!

we find alligator meat palatable and even delicious when prepared by somebody who knows what they is doing (not Gromnir,) though am thinking there is an over reliance on serving gator deep fried here in the US. as such the tin o' crocodile pâté don't particular scare us. alligator liver were a unique culinary experience for us, one which we never wish to repeat... evar. HA! Good Fun!

if it makes you feel better (unlikely) is a poor kept secret o' the defense bar that a significant % o' those anonymous tips which lead to capture o' criminals is calls from attorneys and they is either giving up their own client or using info from their client to point the cops in the direction o' some other bad guy o' whom the police were unaware. we personal couldn't do family law; was where we drew the line. could not bring our self to be part of a legal action which would intentional/accidental burn down a family. had done criminal brief and then we moved on to con law where our typical client were religious "extremists," followed close by white supremacists and gangs. perhaps curious, the only identifiable group o' clients we ever regretted representing were strip club owners, 'cause is one o' those unfortunate facts that a majority o' strippers were victims o' abuse as children and once they become strippers they is seeing abnormal levels o' domestic violence, drug use, mental illness, etc. point is, we had loathsome clients, and is not as if we could complete compartmentalize which is why we wouldn't do family... and why admitted after the fact we suffered some significant remorse 'bout representing strip club owners and strippers. never had to defend a rapist, but am suspecting that woulda' been difficult for us. am not unsympathetic to a point o' too much to bear. 'course we got the loons who somehow see all politicians as inherent broken and or want 'em all locked up yesterday, regardless o' due process or proof. you are willing to question your beliefs, which puts you significant ahead o' the curve. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!