Gromnir

"You're right; most new product purchasers will be unaffected. Thinking long-term, however, I suspect more than one in 10 million customers will encounter problems. Posters here have raised legitimate concerns about resales & replayability." so is not genuine concerns today, but is assumptions that there may be future problems in the far-flung future? by the time replay ability in distant future when hypothetical continued support no longer exists, there will, no doubt be some workaround or fix. you think bio or anybody else will care 'bout a securom workaround 3 years from now? the only purpose o' this kinda protection scheme is to dissuade the casual pirate. however, you is correct... maybe 1 in 5,000 (being cynical) will experience some easily fixable securom issue that they has to wait for a patch to correct... am not even gonna guess at a number of folks who simply won't be able to play 'cause o' this. more or less than any other anti-piracy scheme? it were just a short time ago on this board we saw developers post some pretty eye-opening numbers 'bout piracy. am sorry, but the hypothetical and often remote possible problems some hardcore fan might face is a pretty weak argument to use to forestall a developer or publisher from trying to protect themselves. HA! Good Fun!

is possible that vd actually has some useful insights. am always amazed when vis/sand comes up with some insightful observation we had not previously considered, and while such an occurrence is rare as snowfall in san francisco, it does happen and should not be completely dismissed from realms of possibility. regardless, it seems as if not a month goes by without some codexian posting a link to an interview with vd. suggestion: give it a rest. once vd gets some reputation as a game developer, Then spam these interviews around the internet. HA! Good Fun!

theory: there is a natural inclination to wanna win a game you play. checkers, basketball, chess, monopoly... whatever the game is, we typically tries to win, no? the thing is that pc and console games is designed to be beaten, and they is designed to be beaten by just 'bout anybody. makes your victory over the game feel hollow. so how can developers make so that Gromnir can laugh at those less proficient at Mass Effect than is himself? if everybody who plays wins, how can you compete... how can you win in such a way that makes you more accomplished than the your snot-nosed 8 year old neighbor... who probably beat game before you did? accomplishments is a way to keeps score with games that is designed so that everybody can beat... easily. not only did you beat game, but you got ALL the achievements? well shucks, you is 1337 now, baby. is a game, so you gotta be able to win, and there must be some way to keep score and track who is bestest. ... yeah, Gromnir am not genuine getting it anymore than does mesh, but we got a theory. is probably bunk, but coming up with theory seemed more entertaining than trying to collect achievements. HA! Good Fun!

never has Gromnir seen so many interviews given by a nobody developer who ain't done squat... yet. for chrissakes, its vd from the codex boards. anybody that spent any time on those boards pretty much knows exactly what vd's myopic views is on gaming... and why anybody else would care what his views is perplexes us considering his game development resume is 'bout as impressive as vol's or vis'. nevertheless, thanks for posting. will get to this right after we clean garage, and update our spice rack, and maybe after we de-thatch our lawn... HA! Good Fun!

from a practical standpoint, this seems like a non-issue for non-pirates. 5 day window makes highly unlikely that any legit users is gonna suffer genuine problems. is it rough that folks with no internet connection is screwed? am sure that the 8 people who does buy game but has no internet connection will be very pissed. btw Gromnir, unlike vol, is hardly a bioware apologist. heck, we is banned from their boards for having temerity to suggest that the dialogue wheel were no innovation. even so, given just how rampant piracy is, and recognizing that this ain't gonna genuine hurt 99.99999% of legit purchasers, we got no real issue. is probably a waste o' bio resources given just how easy it is for haX0rs to circumvent, but am s'posing that developers/publishers feels like they gotta do something. HA! Good Fun!

"I'm not really interested in fat burning." great, but you is kinda missing point. simple kinda conceptualization is that fat burns at higher temps than other kinds o' energy your body gots ... which is an oversimplification, but pretty accurate nonetheless. is at that point where fats burns (whether you is fat or not) that your body is sorta working optimum. you not care 'bout fat? great, but it ain't so much 'bout the fat as it is 'bout how your heart is working at point which you does burn fat. again, you can always counteract benefits of good cardio with diet. you not care 'bout fat, but still want healthy body? well, sadly for men, belly fat is inherently unhealthy, but beyond that you can still exercise to point which you is helping heart and respiratory and all kinds o' stuff... and then eat back the fat. regardless, if you wants genuine benefits it is sorta gonna be occurring at fat burning stages regardless. not care 'bout cardio neither? well then, that is okie dokie for wash too, 'cause it is your life. stretching gots all kinda benefits if he ain't really concerned 'bout cardio and fat burning. am not sure where krez gets number like 90 minutes. got nothing to do with some specific long time period as to why oxygen starvation is bad. 20 minutes o' oxygen starvation burns loads o' calories, and you will sweat like a dog for the duration, but that 20 minutes has very little to 0 cardio health benefit. may not be all that dangerous if you is careful, but benefits is negatory. but see, most people not exercise like that, do they? couple minutes o' warm up? well, that part is good for loosening up muscle, but it gots negligible cardio benefit. 30 minutes o' cardio in target range? is where real cardio benefits come... 'course a target range, while a scientific notion, is more art than science anyway. how many of us got access to the kinda equipment to let us know if we is genuine in target range? is not so simple as looking at some chart. as pointed out earlier, we is all different, and in point o' fact, you is probably different today than you was on monday. maybe you slept better last night than you did on sunday. maybe you is more stressed today. maybe that chili you ate last night seemingly hasn't settled. dunno, but there is literal thousands o' things that can probably impact what is your target range today. 20 minutes o' oxygen starved hi-stress cardio. feels good, but not so good for heart. will burn calories, but not fat. is not an efficient exercise activity, but is good for ego and sometimes it ain't 'bout efficiency, right? 10-5 minute cool down. some fraction o this portion we will glance past target cardio range, but is more 'bout avoiding injury than cardio benefits. so, of a typical approx. 1 hour workout, how much o' that time is spent doing useful heart-healthy exercise? *shrug* again, the above is common and is sorta a typical approach that many o' us were taught in ages past, and it really ain't efficient. that 20 minutes o' hi-stress, oxygen starved time is useful for preparing if you is competing in some kinda hi-stress activity that will leave you oxygen starved, but those 20 minutes is actually affording you very few cardio health benefits. now again, am talking cardio health benefits. muscle building is something different. you wanna build up muscle, then you gotta take a different approach. gotta tear muscle down to build muscle up... but for the average shnook who is more concerned 'bout long-term health benefits... HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* okie dokie. some of this should be obvious, but clearly isn't. work out real hard puts stress on heart and entire cardio/respiratory system... and most other systems as well. is not particularly healthy to get blood pressure up beyond certain thresholds. is just one reason why an inexplicably large number o' pro athletes seem to die at relative young ages. if you ain't in the target cardio range, then you simply ain't getting enough oxygen. sure, you may enjoy the "runner's high," but it ain't necessarily healthy to starve cells of oxygen. proper breathing in high stress exercises is essential, but you work out beyond cardio target range and you is voluntarily pushing self beyond the point where you can, by definition, breathe properly. go sniff glue if you wanna get same high. you is less likely to sprain something while sniffing glue... which brings us to point 2... also, the harder you work out, and the more fatigued you become, the more likely you is to injure self. this is a particular problem for runners, tennis players, and those involved in contact sports (given the incredible forces involved and the direct kinda impact on fragile joints that occurs,) as well as weight training. (side note: weight training is evil. if you don't do it, then don't do it. fully 80% of people we sees working out in gyms is doing stuff wrong. you may not realize that you is damaging yourself today, but your mistakes will bear evil fruits in the future.) correct form is important. most folks not have correct form, but typically forms become worse as you become fatigued. play rugby or football or tennis or run distance or whatever... chances are you get to an oxygen starvation point. well-trained athletes (healthier people) can function longer w/o actually reaching oxygen starvation, and they can function better while oxygen starved... but the actual times in which they is oxygen starved is NOT healthy. does all sorts of bad things to health. Am not seeing how this could be confusing. all the benefits from exercise occur Before you get to the oxygen starvation point or range. the further you get beyond (up or down) from cardio target range, the less good you is doing. sure, maybe it builds character to run til you puke, or maybe it toughens you up or some such, but is really not helping you from a health standpoint. heck, in the past couple decades insofar as olympic sports trainings is concerned, you has seen a complete shift away from old philosophy o' going til you drop... and then going just a bit further. is ultimately retarding. is necessary for pro athletes and even recreational athletes 'cause they gotta be able to function when oxygen starved, but it not mean that being oxygen starved is healthy. as soon as you get beyond target cardio range, you is becoming increasingly oxygen starved. HA! Good Fun!

then there is hope for me, a major fidgeter. my wife gets annoyed when i'm flicking my toes or bouncing my legs while sitting upright. i'll tell my doc gromnir recommended the fidget exercise plan (uh, joking, really)! taks is some mayo clinic study that suggests that fidgety people burns something likes 300 more calories daily than does more sedentary folks. go figure. in any event, the one constant regarding exercise is that everybody is different. sure, there is some general rules that is pretty useful, but we all knows the "guy who can eat as much as he wants to," and other such freaks. heck, for decades Gromnir were always asked what kinda "supplements" we were taking to get such massive arms. no matter how many times we informed folks that we weren't so stoopid as to use such stuff, people never believed us. conversely, Gromnir's legs never get thick, but legs is actually our strongest muscle group. am freaky broad shouldered, but our shoulders is relative weak, in spite o' extra effort we put into training shoulder groups. arms? we hardly does arms 'cause we figures they get enough work during our chest and shoulder days, nevertheless, we gots ridiculous size arms. typically, fat people has a harder time losing weight than skinny people. in fact, if you has Ever been fat, chances are you will always have difficulty losing weight. people who has been fat typically is more carb sensitive... but we can find exceptions to the rule. so much is gonna be different for each individual. regardless, we has been 'round too many folks who gets frustrated with exercise not to learn a few things. "Why am I not losing weight?" is terribly disheartening for these folks. 2 most common errors we seen: 1) bad diet 2) bad cardio exercise 2 hours daily not mean that you gets to eat whatever you wish. again, fat people and former fatty people is often so carb sensitive that they can simply look at a serving of white rice and they gains 5 pounds. not fair? maybe not, but that is just the way it is. have seen folks cut food intake down to 1800 calories a day while doing 1 hour cardio 6 times a week, and 1 hour weights 5 times a week, and they still not lose hardly any weight simply 'cause o' the kinda food they eat. these folks is starving themselves (literally) and they gets hardly any positive results. as for cardio... well, we already identified the common errors. workout too hard or not hard enough. the kinda optimum cardio target window for most people is actually relative small. heart rate too high and you is wasting energy and even countering some o' the benefits o' exercise. heart rate too low and you is doing little more benefit than the couch tatter who fidgets. it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the more you exercise and the harder you exercise, the more weight you will lose, and the better your conditioning will become... but that ain't the reality

"and the notion that the ONLY way to get fit is to blister yourself does more harm than good." please review thread. "most folks screw up cardio. they either is working too hard or not hard enough. heart rate too high and you is no longer burning fat. heart rate too low and you might as well sit on your arse and watch tv as your daily exercise for all the good you is doing." specific noted that working too hard is useless. you is wasting breath preaching to the choir. even so, your body likes fat. your body goes through much effort creating fat. given the opportunity to burn fat or something else, and your body is always gonna choose fat last. is one reason why 5 minutes o' activity is almost useless. is not 'bout blistering self... not at all. blister self is worse than doing nothing. can injure self in process. can make self so sore that further exercise is difficult or even impossible. and again, if heart rate is too high, then all you is doing is placing undue stress on heart w/o any fat burning taking place. even so, the person who does 4x5 minute cardio sessions a day is gonna be real disappointed by resulting cardio benefits... 'cause there is virtually none. maybe makes self feel better 'bout self (and that is indeed important,) and maybe it works like a gateway drug... but for exercise. but from a cardio standpoint? fidgeting while watching an hour-long tv is probably better for you. HA! Good Fun!

go to any gym where guys is doing serious weight training. you will see many fat guys who works out 5 times a week doing heavy weight exercise for 1-2 hours. those fat guys is probably burning more calories in their workouts than is the skinny little chicks on the stair climbers, and we guarantee that their heart rates is getting higher. doing bench press or squats gets heart rate up higher than virtual any cardio exercise... how can those guys be fat? string together all their 2 minute sets from an 1.5 hour workout and you get at least 20 minutes of cardio, right? so why they looks like big dough boys? well, diet is part of the problem. you can do cardio from now til doomsday and your diet can defeat your efforts, but the other problem is the kinda cardio you does. get into target heart rate range for some considerable 'mount o' time... otherwise you ain't doing much good. simple personal experience should prove this out to you if you has spent any time at all at a gym. sure, you can use net to find all kinds o' articles that reinforce the notion, but use your own powers o' observation will probably be more convincing. 5 minutes of cardio at non-target rate? is a waste. HA! Good Fun! ps always stretch AFTER prolonged exercise/workout. is far more important to stretch after than before. simply start off slow to warm up major muscle groups if you not wanna stretch first too. so from pragmatic pov... you does some warm up cardio for a few minutes, and then does stretching for 10 minutes after... then throw five minutes o' genuine target range cardio in-between? not only is useless, but is impractical too. regardless, if you takes anything useful from this thread it should be that stretching AFTER workout is major important. almost nobody does, but any reputable trainer or sports med dr. will tell you just how important post work-out stretching is.

honestly, am not sure how much aerobic benefit you could get from doing multiple sets o' push-ups, sit-ups, etc. anything less than 'bout 20 minutes to a half hour o' cardio is a waste. furthermore, if matthew is straining to squeeze out 50 push-ups, then there is little chance that he is actually gonna be in the kinda target range for cardio to be useful... if he is straining, then chances are he ain't gonna be doing cardio. general rule: if you cannot speak while doing an exercise 'cause of strain/lack o' breath, then you is no longer doing cardio. conversely, Gromnir can do sit-ups from now til armageddon, and we ain't never gonna get our heart rate up enough for aerobic. sure, at some point we is gonna feel as if our stomach is gonna implode, but actual aerobic? once you get heart rate up, then maybe doing the sit ups may be enough to keep up, but am still suspicious... may give it a try as an experiment, though we would have to seriously increase numbers to get any benefit. on a bad day Gromnir can do 85 push ups. good day we gets 100+. the thing is, our second set is gonna be in the 65 range, and third will be lucky if we hit 45. am just not seeing how we manages to get 'nuff minutes of cardio out of this to be useful. another option: any building with at least 4 or 5 floors is probably good 'nuff to get some cardio going without jogging. walk quickly up 4-5 flights, and then run down to bottom. is not jogging. is still a quasi-running thing. most folks screw up cardio. they either is working too hard or not hard enough. heart rate too high and you is no longer burning fat. heart rate too low and you might as well sit on your arse and watch tv as your daily exercise for all the good you is doing. HA! Good Fun!

for most people it ain't a problem. wear correct shoes, or learn to shorten stride... or lose weight. our track and football coaches came up with some pretty imaginative tortures to keeps us occupied while the rest o' the team were running distances. no biggie though, 'cause Gromnir ain't a fan o' distance anything. bike or swim distance always felt like slow death to us, so am not thinking that we woulda' enjoyed distance runs neither, even if we could do. sadly, cardio gets more important as we get older, so ride the bike it shall be. and yeah, recumbent is better for your back... but much like swimming, you actually has to work harder to get same pay-off. 'cause you is largely horizontal, your heart has to work less hard. don't know 'bout the tv thing... were pretty easy to watch tv with stair climber or up-right bike at gyms. HA! Good Fun! ps reading Gromnir can't read on other exercise equipment. on a stair climber we we is going up and down too much. on a bike we would need a splash guard for our book given how much we sweat. recumbent bike is better for back, and we can read... mostly work stuff.

Gromnir doesn't run. Gromnir cannot run. we got this weird shin splint issue... can run sprints all day long, but as soon as we get distances beyond an 880... ouchie. sure, we could run stadium stair sprints, but that is just nuts. typically we go to gym and ride the recumbent bikes for our cardio, but we also got a bike at home. now keeps in mind that Gromnir is inexplicably frugal 'bout some stuff. sure, we spends hundreds o' dollars on a video card or a new dutch oven, but when we were looking at a recumbent bike for home we were unwilling to spend more than $400. anyways, as hard as it is to believe, schwinn makes a cheapy recumbent bike that is excellent. probably use it 4 times a week (still occasionally do our cardio at the gym... but by time we is done with weights, we often not feel like doing an additional hour o' cardio) and has been doing so for past couple years. no problems and worry free. is heavy nuff that we not wanna move it much, but it gots some quasi wheels so in summer we move to garage, and winter we move to kitchen. 1 complaint: the electronic display is mostly plastic and is at a strange angle... unless you is 6'8" tall. feels tacked on and cheap, but it works just fine. is the schwinn 213 model we got. perhaps there is a newer/nicer model, but we likes what we got. am not sure what they go for now, but we spent $400 and got free shipping. given our schedule, and fact that we likes to do cardio early morning or late at night, an in-home bike makes much sense. just a thought. HA! Good Fun!

I think a submarine is more worrisome. Never go on a boat that sinks on purpose. an acquaintance o' ours, an ex-navy guy, brings his wife over to Gromnir's house for a barbecue. he spent some number o' years on boomers but we ain't talking 'bout navy stuff at all. instead we talks 'bout one of Gromnir's favorite subjects: food. so we is talking 'bout diverse stuff like which cuts o' meat benefit most from braising and what is best brine technique for chicken, when all o' a sudden this guy gets kinda quiet and reflective. blurts out that he never ate any better than when he were at sea. sadly, his wife were in ear shot... is our understanding that the USN takes pretty good care of the silent service guys. HA! Good Fun!

"Unless you spoke old english you would never know. Besides, the first edition of Beowulf was most likely told by word of mouth." yeah, and it were the monks who wrote it down, so that is the beowulf we know... and who knows how many revisions there has been since first time it got written? as for wiki being accurate on facts and dates... *shrug* is getting so that Gromnir not believe a damned thing we read on the internet. how you know that the dates and facts is correct unless you got firsthand knowledge? is very difficult to track down wiki source materials, and is not as if you can rely on integrity of publisher. perception is reality far too often... and it is getting easier and easier to alter perception by means of a few keystrokes. as for huck finn word count... honestly we don't know. there were an original manuscript that were discovered long after Twain's death (late 1980s?) that included substantially greater material... almost 2x as many pages as the released first edition from 1884. Gromnir has a copy o' the new edition based on the 'posed original manuscript, but we ain't never been able to do much research on whether or not it were the version Twain wanted published. doesn't sound like what you is talking 'bout. HA! Good Fun!

am perfectly aware of why the iranian religious fundamentalists is afeared. is the pointlessness o' the fear we find amusing. Japan and the US weren't able to have much luck with their different approaches to isolationism... and that were 100 years ago for the US and even longer for Japan. in this day and age, given the access to vast quantities o' information and entertainment with no delay and little cost, attempts to protect a culture from unwanted exterior influences is pretty much impossible. can educate/indoctrinate your populace to protect from unwanted ideas, but is impossible to truly insulate. foolishness. just as silly/sad is the notion that barbie is somehow synonymous with american culture. is a minimally offensive notion, made all the more irksome cause it is possibly truthful, at least from pov o' those not living in the US. btw, our new hobby has been collecting first editions o' classic books. ever wonder what beowulf were before the catholic monks got a hold of it and christianized it? nobody will ever know. pick up a copy o' Huckleberry Finn and tell us how you is certain that you is getting the original author's words. how many reprints is your copy? how easy is it to change and create information nowadays? pretty darn easy. heck, if you were so inclined, anybody here could quote/paste a news article from a reputable source and post it in a few hundred prominent places on web, and within days Gromnir is certain you would see other folks quoting the same article as if it were genuine... even if you simply made the whole thing up in your imagination. maybe links to a genuine looking website if you is so-inclined. anybody knows how wiki entries is created? how many peoples here use wiki from time to time? most? makes us sound a little paranoid, but Gromnir collects first editions... 'cause short of being able to speak with the dead, that is 'bout the only way we can be certain we is actually getting author's original words. is far too easy to change reality via the internet. HA! Good Fun!

ps linky recent article in the nyt describing some o' the backwards arsed thinking that occurs when the pentagon attempts to save money with clever tricks. am all in favor o' saving some dollars, but it always astounds us just how incompetent the US military is at keeping costs down on large contracts. some bloat is expected, but it seems like gimmicks meant to make cheaper always has a tendency to have opposite effect than intended. HA! Good Fun!

is not so much the machine gun that has the USN worried, but there are numerous weapons that a small speedboat can carry that does pose a threat.... and the big nightmare involves a small swarm o' such speedboats getting in amongst a carrier group. lessons learned from the Cole incident is what inspired the lcs projects. HA! Good Fun!

btw, the USN recently launched a new warship. link is small, fast, stealthy and modular/multi-purpose. is part of the new green-water fleet notion, as 'posed to traditional blue and brown water fleets... and is pretty much opposite o' everything that a battleship provides. but again, the US has a real problem with building cost effective warships. dozens o' littoral warships is envisioned and planned for, but up until a few weeks ago the USN had halted production on the lockheed and general dynamics designs 'cause cost reality weren't anywhere near cost projections. small, fast, stealthy, modular/multi-purpose AND cheap were goal. USN pretty much owns blue waters outright, but the closer they get to shore... HA! Good Fun!

"If you run with my notion..." did that. the problem is that even so you still not have a need/use for battle wagons no more. what is their purpose? shore bombardment? nope. ship to ship? eh? why? battleships is useful in destroying other capital ships... other battleships and aircraft carriers. air craft carriers fight battles further away than any gun could hope to hit (the iowa can shoot over the horizon and that still ain't near far enough to match range of planes or missiles) and if nobody else has battleships neither, then what is the point? is simply far too big and expensive... and as were seen in wwii, there ain't no armour that is thick enough or high enough in quality to makes functionally impervious. you gotta get close (relative real close) with your battleship to be useful, and by the time you get close enough to use guns, you is gonna have to fight your way through all those so-called dumb missiles, and not-so-dumb enemies aircraft. even dumb missiles is gonna hit if you fire enough. radar were relative new in wwii, but now we gots all kinds o' satellites in space and sosus/phase ii, so it is unlikely that any kinda surface fleet can move in the Atlantic or pacific w/o US knowledge far ahead o' time. so, until they comes up with a stealth battleship that can get in close enough to make use of guns, there simply ain't no point at the moment to have such a class o' ship. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna have to agree with guard dog on this. is pretty clear that with advent of naval aircraft, long range missiles, and the efficacy o' submarines, the days of surface ships fighting battles on the high seas with big guns seems remote. before the advent o' tomahawk cruise missiles and similar such weapons systems, the battleship were still useful for shore bombardment operations, but nowadays... the bismark's rudder were crippled by a torpedo dropped from an english plane. the yamato and musashi were killed by us carrier group aircraft. the raf crippled the tirpitz with bombs before he (germans refer to their ships as being male) ever made it out into the atlantic. one o' the main reasons th US kept battleships for so long were simply to force the soviet union to build super-expensive battleships, which the soviets couldn't afford to do. since wwii, shipbuilding is probable the one kinda weapon design in which you see the US having clear superiority in quality. build warships is so damned expensive that only the US could afford to do w/o any genuine concerns 'bout cost. simply were able to spend the soviets into capitulation. as an aside, US first genuine attempt to build a cheaper mousetrap, the virginia class attack subs, ended up being far more expensive than expected, pretty much invalidating their raison detre. end up with a boat more expensive than the seawolf, but less capable? tragic. HA! Good Fun!

"Hah, there is of course not a damn thing they can do about the dispersal of American cultural imperialism into every home with a satellite dish." little girls in tehran playing with barbie as bellwether o' inevitability o' American cultural imperialism? is just so many things wrong with that. but am honestly conflicted as to which we finds more ludicrous: barbie as an expression o' American culture or iranian religious fundamentalists getting themselves into a frothy lather 'cause o' barbie. *shrug* am not one of those folks that is driven to violence by barbie and the impossible standard it sets for young girls, but fact that it is arguable that barbie does indeed represent some kinda western idealized notion o' feminine beauty does makes us a tad bit queasy. 'course, a condoleezza rice or janet reno doll would be no less creepy than would barbie. HA! Good Fun!

well, aren't those cute. am recalling that there were a bit pf a stink 'bout how the designer of the new brit carrier were kinda gifted the contract, 'cause the competition were too... french? is disturbing how often politics is so important when it comes to awarding contracts for weapons. am s'posing you has seen the Gerald Ford class carrier? the thing is a an absolute beast. too much automation and hi-tech doo-dads for Gromnir, but a beast regardless. HA! Good Fun!

as Gromnir mentioned, his father were somebody noteworthy in the USN. he had very little good to say 'bout the brits, but he did note that they had a good sub school, and that brit sailors were probably as good (well-trained and disciplined,) if not better than the average US counterpart... is your commanders he seemed to be dismissive 'bout. 'course we ain't spoken with pops more than a half-dozen times in the last 20 years, so am not sure what his current feelings is. our comments is based on stuff said by the elder Gromnir during the mid 80s. probably ain't applicable no more. HA! Good Fun!

most of Gromnir's male relatives did the military thing, and father o' Gromnir were some big cheese in navy and actually taught at annapolis for a short time. lucky/unlucky for Gromnir, we gets shin splints... Epic shin splints. what makes it really strange is that likes most native americans, Gromnir runs on balls of feet rather than heels, which should make shin splints less likely. we played sports year round in high school, and pretty much all team sports (other than maybe swimming stuff) requires you to run. track, football, wrestling, whatever, they all does team runs at some point. puts a bit of a dent in esprit de corps when one guy not have to run with the team. Gromnir went to state in the 100 in track and yet he never once had to run more than an 880 in practice. coaches made an exception for Gromnir (though the stuff we typically had to do other than the distance runs were probably far worse anyways.) heck, after an injury the physical therapist had us run in a pool to reduce impact... and we still got shin splints if you can believe it. run any kinda prolonged distance and Gromnir will get shin splints... bad. short distances is good, but long... coaches made an excpetion for Gromnir 'cause they liked to win meets/games/matches. the militarty ain't quite so good 'bout making exceptions. HA! Good Fun!