Gromnir

one of my favorite side dishes is sauteed ****ake mushrooms and shallots in a cream sauce. IMO, portabella/o mushrooms aren't fancy, btw, they are simply large crimini mushrooms, but they taste pretty good in general. morels would be fancy. taks taks is correct that the portabello/a is simply a brown crimini that gets bigger... but the Name is fancy. cap or button not sound kewl at all. am not sure 'bout the name thing though. have seen it portabello and portabella, but wouldn't it have to be portobello? not that it matters. HA! Good Fun!

Lettuce? If I were going to impress a girl, I wouldn't buy lettuce. Butternut squash, avocados, English cucumbers, those bags of mini-oranges, grapes, and bottles of pineapple juice would all be more interesting than lettuce. am agreeing that lettuce is not the best veggie to impress women-- go with shallots or the fancy mushrooms (e.g. ****ake, portabello, etc.). most every woman knows what a shallot is, but we suspect that few has ever actually prepared a dish calling for shallots. personally, Gromnir ain't a mushroom fan, but some folks love fungi and stuff likes ****ake seems to grant instant legitimacy to a dish. is more obscure veggies out there, but am finding that shallots and mushrooms has more than adequate kewl value. if you must use lettuce, avoid iceberg. the oak leaf variety o' loose leaf is an ok choice... am rarely using romaine save for caesar salads. now, as for fruit... btw, a man with goodly cooking skills can be a handicap rather than a boon. most women is insecure, and if you cooks marked better than she does... HA! Good Fun!

*scratches noggin* where does you get the notion that we is worked up 'bout anything? ... and am still confused as to whether you is trying to be funny with the attempted irony. given your seeming paranoia in this thread and recognizing your typical anti-american vitriol... *shrug* you spouted bs that you can't back up with any kinda evidence. Gromnir ain't the one who called you on your fabrication, but we does enjoy watching you struggle... but mild amusement is 'bout as far as we go on this. HA! Good Fun!

Right, that's all going on the list. Pipes Stormtroopers Diamonds Crates Dogs Dinosaurs Can anyone suggest how to start the conversation, ideally using all these elements? in bar conversations, is not what you say, but how you say it. no doubt there is folks who met their future wife or husband at a bar, but Gromnir ain't personally met somebody with such a story. if you look the part, and sound confident, chances are it not matter what is elements o' the conversation. Gromnir's most recent successful pick-up line: "You are tall." ... brilliant, eh? Gromnir is in good physical shape, we got prominent law school class ring, and we dress well (when the situation demands). am not gonna even try to suggest that our brilliant conversational skills won the young lady over during an hour o' useless bar chit-chat. we look and act the part, and if the lady is likewise looking for companionship things turn out well with some frequency. actual elements o' conversation is hardly worth mentioning. keep in mind that some women in bars is not there to be won. some women genuine go to bars to socialize with friends, or 'cause they simply not wanna be alone on a Friday/Saturday night. Gromnir not waste efforts on such as the likelihood o' favorable resolution is remote. a bar is a terrible place to begin a relationship, so why try? if you ain't getting right signals after 10 minutes, move on to next option. cliff notes version... go to the bar with realistic expectations and straightforward goals. choose targets well, and be willing to move onto next option without remorse and with little hesitation. adopt semblance of confidence and success. be well-mannered and avoid nervous laughter... and some o' you needs to become more attractive. *shrug* is no tricks or perfect conversation... is all 'bout target selection and image. btw, Gromnir typically loathes the bar scene, but... HA! Good Fun!

if CDC or WHO had blamed US for lack o' diligence regarding swine flu it would not be some obscure footnote that were impossible to retrieve w/o considerable blood, sweat and tears. sometimes the last refuge o' the beaten is to avoid the topic and instead identify a perceived (real or imagined) shortcoming in the accuser. taking hard? not really... but Gromnir am alternatively honest enough AND petty enough to admit we enjoys watching you twist. btw, the smart play is simply to ignore. the more you reply, the less validity your argument 'bout effort seems to got. luckily Gromnir not post too often no more, so chances are your bs gets forgotten pretty darn fast if you simply hide in the cellar until storm passes. only bad part is that we will probably bring up 6 months or a year from now when next we see you spew some unsupportable crap. ah well, am gonna get back to work... needs to make a few adjustments to our living trust before it is too late. HA! Good Fun!

krez can dig up all kinds o' conflicting info, but he can't produce the CDC quote wherein they take responsibility for not acting fast enough? color us unconvinced... 'course, given enough time, somebody in cdc will eventually say something that sounds vaguely apologetic... so just keeps waiting/stalling and eventually you will gets vindicated, eh? WHO threw US under the bus, and US admits fault? fine., but we wanna see evidence... 'cause coming from krez, w/o no supporting cite, makes pretty tough to swallow. Gromnir is a big fan o' Didymus... got Carravaggio print on our wall. HA! Good Fun!

as vegetation were mentioned, am observing that doomsayers and purveyors o' fear sprout likes weeds whenever a crisis dujour emerges. is understandable if regrettable. however, is somewhat contemptible for the peddlers o' panic to use the swine flu to promote some alternative agenda... am not a particular devout Catholic, but Gromnir is a friend o' Fr. Liam, the pastor at St. Mel's church in Fair Oaks, CA... so we gets suckered into volunteering our time at the church and school. school is shut down 'cause o' the swine flu cases. got friends who teach at St. Mel's. is people we know who is being genuine affected by current flu concerns. *shrug* is cause for concern, but not alarm. HA! Good Fun!

The US has already admitted it acted too slowly to the outbreak, and the WHO has voiced similar concerns. Really? Do you have a link for that, please? don't need a link or proof. it is a Given that the vast majority o' the world's tragedies in the post WWII era is the result o' American incompetence or greed. some folks start with the assumption that the US flubbed the swine flu thing and then work backwards... look for proof after the fact. why you gotta rock the boat? Gromnir is old fashioned-- we blame the Pope for all the world's ills. not any more valid than American hate, but at least our stoopidity gots pedigree and tradition. n00bs. HA! Good Fun! Way to completely misinterpret my post and have a bit of a paranoid rant while you're at it. are you going for irony? HA! Good Fun!

The US has already admitted it acted too slowly to the outbreak, and the WHO has voiced similar concerns. Really? Do you have a link for that, please? don't need a link or proof. it is a Given that the vast majority o' the world's tragedies in the post WWII era is the result o' American incompetence or greed. some folks start with the assumption that the US flubbed the swine flu thing and then work backwards... look for proof after the fact. why you gotta rock the boat? Gromnir is old fashioned-- we blame the Pope for all the world's ills. not any more valid than American hate, but at least our stoopidity gots pedigree and tradition. n00bs. HA! Good Fun!

btw, the Brown piffle weren't for enoch as he no doubt already knows such stuff... HA! Good Fun!

the Iowa guys ain't stoopid. there has been a number o' appellate fed cts that has looked at Loving re: gay marriage. Loving were a race case ("invidious racial discriminations") AND the Ct. specific focused on marriage being fundamental precisely 'cause o' its relation to Procreation. is maybe an antiquated notion, but substantive due process is, from a Con Law pov, far less flexible than ep. Griswold penumbral kinda cases makes for great drama and is wonderful to discuss in class, but they is invariably contentious. with the current composition o' the Court, you gots a virtual 0 chance o' creating a new fundamental right that clearly is working against history and precedent. with current ep you not gotta ask what were the framer's notions regarding gays & gay marriage specific... is still a hurdle for sdp. in any event, it made more sense for Iowa Ct. to use a solely Iowan rationale. even so, Justices is people and the Law is a human creation. the most famous case in American jurisprudence is probable Brown v. Board, and at the time you had clear weight o' history (Congressional record shows that the notion o' 14th amendment being relevant to school desegregation were specific debated and rejected) and precedent (Plessy) in favor o' continued school segregation. was separate but equal a big-fat lie? sure it was, but it were pretty difficult for the Justices to find solid legal justification for striking down the abhorrent practice. J. Jackson pretty much had to get off his deathbed to be present when unanimous decision were handed down. get the right Justices on the bench and anything is possible. 'course, keep in mind that by the time o' Brown, something like 21 states had already desegregated on their own... and Massachusetts had desegregated way back in 1855 (maybe 1854), so if gays is waiting for similar kinda numbers for the Ct. to take action... too preachy? oh well. HA! Good Fun!

one thing that all the Larry Tribe wannabees seems to be ignoring is the fact that the Iowa Ct struck down the ban on gay marriages based 'pon the equal protection clause in the IOWA constitution. read the decision and you see that while very similar, Iowa's ep and 14th amendment ep ain't the same. you want heightened scrutiny with Fed? the four factors for US "new" ep classes history of discrimination political powerlessness immutability/no relation to ability to perform

is not necessarily true... but in this case it is sorta true. got banned 'cause chris priestly took over as head bioware board monkey. didn't want us talking 'bout dialogue wheel so he locked some threads wherein we criticized wheel and its characterization as innovative. priestly reason for locking threads: the POTENTIAL for spoilers. is not that people were spoiling mass effect in the threads, but the Potential o' Possible spoilers were enough to censor? what game feature can be discussed without a Potential for spoilers? ridiculous. *chuckle* somehow the dialogue wheel comes up as a topic on the DA board... a fan claims that dialogue wheel is super-groovy-kewl and wants it added to DA. thread goes on for a few pages without being locked so Gromnir joins in with some observations. hadn't posted for a while at the DA boards, so the locals were unfamiliar with us and they started getting all nasty 'cause we suggested that bio had pulled a serious con job on the gaming public. the natives rallied to the defense o' the biowarians. we did insult a few o' the arguments that were directed our way, but we didn't actually resort to personal insults, 'cause we knew priestly were looking for an excuse. didn't matter in the end as we got banned for some undisclosed reason... presumably for being too disruptive. 'course, the Truth o' the matter is that priestly not like our posting style... or maybe he not like us personal. dunno. in any case, board style and Gromnir himself not changed much since late 90s. no biggie. so yeah, in actuality is our posting style that got us banned. mods can, and probably should, delete our post, but as we has been asked a number o' times we figure might as well explain... simple solution for Gromnir is to never again mention our bio banning so that it not come up again... is only genuine tough to avoid mentioning when we gets labeled as a bio fanboi here or at the codex... the irony always makes us laugh. HA! Good Fun!

you know, there is a goodly number o' excellent educational institutions that not seem to have much o' a national reputation. the only drawback to attending such a school is that your initial job search post graduation will probably be limited to a relative small geographical area. east coast folks seems to be much more impressed with university lineage. is strange that we gets far more respect from folks back east for our Cal degrees than we does from the natives. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

I can only assume you were trying to say something but your mouth was clogged with undiscovered deposits of oil. maybe it is seal blubber 'stead o' oil. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1639801.stm oddly enough, it would seem that in 2004/2005 norway went ahead with their dubious plans, and now all o' you aspiring seal clubbers can goes to norway for holiday. huzzah! have always been fascinated by the generalizations 'bout America and Americans we sees bandied 'bout by european and asians. Americans is fat, lazy and stoopid... and America is some kinda evil world tyrant-wannabe out to protect its oil interests. such notions is very simple and convenient, and is resilient beyond all imagining. having spent time teaching and studying in europe, we were surprised to find that the euro college students we met weren't any smarter than their counterparts across the pond. what really amazed us were the fact that our euro students and colleagues, after some considerable time, were able to disabuse themselves of the notion that Gromnir were fat, lazy and stoopid, but they never seemed to be able to take next step and shake off the preconception that Americans in general was fat, lazy and stoopid. our existence somehow became for them the exception that proved the rule. for folks who not know and don't wish to learn, it is far more comfortable to embrace a simplistic pov. perhaps a cultural anthropologist could explain better-- some primitive blames floods and changes of seasons and plagues on God/Gods 'cause such an explanation is convenient and ultimately unassailable. 'course the modern primitive is too sophisticated to believe in God, so he instead blames evils on America and its lust for oil. will be amusing if junai gets offended by our hasty generalizations. HA! Good Fun!

"This could be a young adult novel. It's not sophisticated, but it's also not bloated like a great deal of fantasy." If that ain't a strong implication that young adult novels is unsophisticated... *shrug* but considering what you ain't appearing to say 'bout young adult fiction, the description becomes meaningless. ain't say is dark? ain't saying is unsophisticated? if not really saying anything, then why say anything? regardless, Gaider's book might be worth the read... but if we read, then we feels compelled to review. having already been banned from bioware, we may end up being banned from Kanada. HA! Good Fun!

I was planning on picking that up soon, is it any good? Yes, if you know what to expect. It doesn't have deep characters, a complex plot, rich wordcraft, or a vibrant setting. It

Good question. Do you start having armed military or police force on merchant ships? it would seem that the cheapest & most effective solution would be to hire crews comprised of naught but American sailors. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/08...cked/index.html apparently the American crew didn't get the memo: crews is 'posed to simply give up and wait to be ransomed. as hard as it is to believe, crew resistance in such situations is virtual unprecedented, and a successful modern re-taking of a merchant vessel IS unprecedented. now there is an American warship on the scene? damned Americans is always being different. HA! Good Fun!

vol's latin sucks... or his logic sucks. *shrug* am not sure how the internet screwed up the ad hominem logic fallacy for so many people. ad hominem, w/o the "argumentum" prefix, simply means "to the person/man". ad hominem does not = insult. an argumentum ad hominem Logic Fallacy ain't = insult neither. Gromnir can call vol a yutz and a schnook every day and twice on sunday and we ain't necessarily ever gonna be making an argumentum ad hominem logic fallacy. is only an argumentum ad hominem if you is claiming that an argument fails BECAUSE of some defect in the arguer. if Gromnir could track down the clown who pied-piper-of-Hamlin'd you peoples into following his infernal tune, we would beat him to death with our copy o' Der Wille zur Macht. (nietsche had a kinda genius for insulting his detractors w/o ever resorting to argumentum ad hominem... is kinda our role-model.) regardless, don't be using stuff if you not know what it is meaning. HA! Good Fun! btw, vol is the guy we is responding to, but is more a matter o' coincidence than anything else. am seeing "ad hominem" used wrong so ubiquitous that am guessing that more folks use wrong than does right.

""She's off her nut" certainly wasn't what they were going for." am not so sure about that. clearly the writers was going for shock value. shock value is necessarily extreme. reasonableness and plausibility and dramatic value were clear secondary to the "omg" or "wtf" value o' the scene. shocking behavior is much analogous to nutty behavior, no? do something crazy not make you crazy, but clearly Dee's suicide were out o' character with the Dee they had developed over the course o' multiple seasons. btw, Gromnir almost never reads actor/director/writer interviews. with few exceptions they is, at best, disappointing. at worst the "artist" manages to rob us o' what enjoyment we did find in their work. HA! Good Fun!

What makes you think that? She saw no hope for the future so she decided to end her life on a high. I thought they made that pretty obvious on the show. how does that contradict the "weak and/or off her nut" observation? seeing 0 hope in such a situation, given all the crap they had already been through, seems weak or nutty to Gromnir. were a damn terrible way to kill her regardless. HA! Good Fun!

You are one unhappy dude Gorgon! I can't remeber the last positive thing you posted about this show. I can't imagine there would have been any conclusion you would have been happy with. That said I do think it was an odd choice. However, as someone who has made a career out of engineering and optimizing technology I must admit the concept of leaving it all behind does appeal to me on several levels. am gonna admit that our enjoyment of the series waned a few seasons ago. "and they have a plan..." bs. am recalling times back when cylons were scary and mysterious. that ended some time ago. cylons not have some mysterious plan and they really ain't no different than people... which kinda makes 'em less intriguing. dunno. bsg embraced lots o' what we hate 'bout anime. lots o' babe-bots and existential angst. throw in some crappy amnesia explanation for the final 5. add a healthy dose o' deus ex machina. maybe has a character like baltar throw in an explanation or two that everybody instantly accepts for no obvious reason? sure sounds like anime conventions. you know, if starbuck had wielded a katana during the final confrontations/battles, we woulda' had complete anime stoopidity... dress her as a nun, wh0re or miko and we woulda' had perfect anime wackiness to finish off bsg. however, the end, right up to the end, were pretty okie dokie as far as such stuff goes. the big battle stuff looked nifty and we thinks they did an okie dokie job o' wrapping up loose ends without descending ito camp levels o' silliness typical o' sci-fi and fantasy. that being said, the abandon-evil-tech stuff were moronic. get +30,000 tech users to turn their backs on tech? rrriiiigggghhhttt. is easy 'nuff to spout such idealistic nonsense, but am wondering how tough it would be to stand firm when your child or wife or husband gets some easily treatable disease or a seemingly minor infection... tell child/wife/husband that their death is for the greater good. modern man has been 'round for between 140,000 to 170,000 years. for all but the last 100 years or so, women has been largely second-class citizens. sure, there is some cultural exceptions, but not many... and the reason is simple biology. in a culture without reliable birth control, what is you thinking is gonna become the typical role o' women? pre-agrarian and you is complete hopeless of breaking out of role as baby factories and child nurturers. not much of an improvement right up until industrial revolution. if you ever get a chance, takes a look at an old family bible from pre-industrial. children lost at birth and children dying before age o' 5 were common. people not live particularly long in pre-industrial... assume that women between age o' 16 and 36 is gonna spend half their time pregnant and you probable ain't too far off mark. if Gromnir were a female character in bsg, we woulda' put a bullet in apollo's brain for suggesting such a thing as abandoning tech. and btw, am guessing that the explanation o' Dee offing herself were simply that she were weak and /or off her nut. huh? not a bad end in spite o' our loathing o' the actual end o' the end. HA! Good Fun!

am kinda/sorta on same page as harlequin with this kinda stuff. is Gromnir's belief that Bangladesh has more massacres, tragedies and natural disasters per capita than any country in the world not currently involved in a war. seems like almost a sure bet that Gromnir will see at least one story per week from cnn or bbc that describes an industrial accident or flood or fire in Bangladesh that accounted for multiple deaths. am not sure why. am sure that is our imagination. regardless, when death toll in Bangladesh from tornadoes rises to 15,000 we feel... little. sure, objective-like we recognize the tragedy of 15,000 strangers dying seemingly meaningless deaths, but am not having no emotional connection to those folks so we ain't able to generate much genuine emotion on their behalf. so if Gromnir not able to eek out a tear for 15,000 dead, why on earth would we be moved by the passing of one dead actress? 'cause we seen her in a handful o' movies? ... Gromnir has sympathy for the dead actress' family... on an intellectual level. is no genuine emotion, and we not feel any particular guilt 'bout that. truth to tell, we would be worried if the plight o' all those folks in Bangladesh touched us less than the death o' a single actress. btw, am not criticizing folks for getting choked up 'bout the dead lady in question. if you feels genuine sorrow at the passing of ms. richardson, then Gromnir ain't gonna mock your grief... we simply cannot share your pain. heck, we get all misty-eyed every time we sees How Green Was My Valley, and is just fictional characters dying in that flick. HA! Good Fun!

am having played a few hours o' system shock 2, and the only frightening stuff we got were "Gotcha!" is particularly hard to maintain "dread, helplessness and dim hope" in a game environment, 'cause there were hardly much narrative and after a few hours o' "Gotcha!" it all kinda loses impact... 'least for Gromnir it did. spooky music and sound? yeah, that helps, but can only take so far. *shrug* system shock 2 tried to be scary, but all we genuine got were "Gotcha!" HA! Good Fun!