Gromnir

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!

"You disagree that our foray into Mogadishu is not comparable to a 5-year-and-rising full-blown war and occupation? That surprises me." shouldn't surprise you as we already noted that the scope were different, but the mistakes and the resulting bloodshed were very much similar. and the term "phony" for the brit intel is maybe more than a little misleading. again, mistakes were made and proper follow up never took place, and certain aspects of certain reports were given undue prominence. "inadvertently misled" were the terminology we recall, and various folks were absolved of any intentional or malicious wrongdoing. and again, is pretty much a fact that higher ups close to saddam were seemingly fooled too. reducing blair's ouster to so-called phony evidence is a big oversimplification. let us not spin this too much, eh? the notion that bush were somehow able to overpower the intelligence and free will of many people in the brit and US govts respectively requires a kinda mental gymnastics that we simply ain't capable of doing. is nice and convenient to blame one man and come up with neat and tidy explanations, but rarely does things turn out so simple and straightforward. getting in weren't as simple as you suggest, and getting out won't be as simple as you want neither... whether it is republican or democrats at the helm. HA! Good Fun!

"Dumb stunt all the way around, with lousy intell and tragic results. But no way can those relatively short skirmishes compare with the two-front war we now are mired in because of the Iraq invasion." am gonna disagree there. sure, the scope is bigger with iraq, but same kinda bad intel and predictable results when fighting someplace where even the folks who you is s'posed trying to help don't want you 'round. clinton's little military blunders, including letting al qaeda become more than an easily erased nuisance in the first place, seems easily forgotten... and never seemed to get appropriate press. is easy to forget that the brits joined in on the invasion o' iraq. british intel is generally considered pretty good and is not quite so tech dependent as US intelligence. is not as if the US were asking the brits to come along to go see a movie on a saturday afternoon neither. you not think that the brits did some checking of their own before signing up with the invasion plan? and heck, forget the brits for a sec and consider for a moment all the US military folks and civilian politicians that were no doubt consulted pre-invasion. if you thinks bush ordered an attack o' iraq without consulting majority and minority leaders in Congress first, then you is nuttier than a squirell. the notion that bush did some kinda dr. mesmer routine on everybody seems like wishful thinking rather than a reasonable conclusion. obviously a great many people were mistaken 'bout the reality o' iraq pre-invasion... which is understandable 'cause it sounds like saddam's own people were lying to saddam 'bout various weapons programs and such, and of course saddam wouldn't let in inspectors to verify the truth or falseness of intel we did have. but let us assume for a sec that the original invasion were all just a terrible mistake perpetrated by bush to one-ups his dad... or somesuch similar explanation. now what? what is solution for getting out of iraq? simply pull out and let the natives fix the mess? is not near as simple as Di seems to wanna make it. would be nice if we could point to one guy, like bush, and say, "that clown is responsible for this whole mess." bush is a yutz. am not pro-bush by any stretch of the imagination. still amazes Gromnir that the democrats were so incompetent that they couldn't beat out bush's second term run at the Presidency. even so, given our system o' government, the President is never quite as responsible for foreign policy or domestic economic success and blunders as is typically believed... 'cept in Real war times. HA! Good Fun!

had a friend with the most unique hobbie. he goes to greatful dead concerts and pick fights with dead-heads. am assuming he gets some kinda cathartic release, but it always seemd a little to vulgar for Gromnir. now going to a bar where stock brokers hang out and picking fights... *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

puberty were over a long time ago. however, puberty's end is a biological milestone that, short o' some kinda strange disease or mutation, is inevitably reached if one simply lives long enough. maturity, on the other hand... "know thyself" ain't helped us much neither. am fully aware o' our willingness to surrender to id or to fight unwinable fights, but as we has never met a woman we dislike enough to marry, and we got no kids... example: a few years ago we were pretty much told to push for a settlement, but not by our client. nuts. if Gromnir had a family to support and a future to be concerned 'bout we mighta knuckled under and done the smart thing. nuts. sure, Gromnir coulda' handled better, but telling off a senior partner in front of client felt pretty darn good, and it pretty much guranteed that no more funny business would be going on with that client's case. sure, our employment at the firm in question were pretty much at an end, but we can still smile 'bout it. am perfectly content to keeps things the way they is. if nobody is getting hurt, and Gromnir is satisfied, then why change, eh? HA! Good Fun!

Gromnir went to berkeley. the notion of unbearable noise was purged from our being a long time ago. am suspecting that people who has been married a long time have a similar ability to simply tune out undesirable noise. HA! Good Fun!

see previous comments by Gromnir regarding the Justice selections... besides which, Gromnir is a follower of strict construction when it comes to Constitutional law. the tendency of recent republican Presidents to appoint strict construction Justices is a positive in our book, but regardless of philosophy, we is more concerned with competence. (after all, Brennan were appointed by Eisenhower for chrissakes,) hell, we still think that it is tragic that a judge as brilliant as Robert Bork were kept off of the Court 'cause of somewhat misguided political reasons. ability is no longer a primary concern. as for the war stuff, Gromnir has far too good a memory to forget all the foreign conflicts that were going on while the other clinton were in the oval office. am not sure why kosovo and mogadishu is so easy to forget. is not as if when the democrats were in office the US were uninvolved in bloody foreign wars. the US President has far less practical freedom when it comes to foreign affairs than most s'pose. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

moonshiner- uncle tupelo HA! Good Fun!

the notion of an honest politician may be oxymoronic, but Gromnir is naive enough to still consider trust a meaningful attribute. sadly, as much as Gromnir is intrigued by the notion o' a female president, we gots some serious trust issues with hillary. no biggie. as we has noted previously, Gromnir is far more concerned by local representatives and local politics than Presidential candidates. for the typical US citizen, the US President got far less impact on your daily life than you might expect. HA! Good Fun!

in spite of the fact that you folks were no help at all, Gromnir has managed to finalize our menu of punishments. xxxholic seasons 1 & 2 macross frontier amatasuki soul eater considered nabari no ou 'cause it is 'posed to be non-stop action and Gromnir could laregly ignore lack of meaningful story, but am not a fan of ninjas... and the notion o' metrosexual ninjas don't increase our interest whatsoever. tower of druaga were a possibility but amatasuki seems to fill the same kinda fantasy niche. allison & lillia, kure nai, and golgo 13 were the other three we considered, but golgo seemed like it were a bit over-the top with the sex and violence and the other two were... dunno, but is sometimes difficult to choose the leer of evils. anybody wants feedbacks on the above, let us know and we can post reviews. *shrug* btw, the ultra competitive lesbian lawyer to whom we lost the bet... she had to wear a dress to firm's christmas party as she lost our previous bet. personally, we thinks Gromnir is getting off easy. HA! Good Fun!

how old? old enough to know better, and young enough (immature?) to ignore such wisdom far too often. HA! Good Fun!

okie dokie. have not bothered to read the last 8 pages, so am just gonna respond to firstest posts. take out your handy compass and draw some 4 inch circles on a sheet of paper. let the circles overlap a bit, but lets your circles end up pretty much filling the entire page of ordinary notebook/binder paper. now makes 1 more circle... a circle that represents where you got the most overlap 'tween and twixt the circles on your piece o' paper. that final circle, the one that represents the greatest common area of overlap between all your circles, is kinda like the Average Gamer. your other circles represent the wants o' different groups o' crpg fans. bio doesn't make their games for any one fan or any one group o' fans, they is most concerned 'bout the Average Gamer. "For example, Baldur