Gromnir

your post made us reflect on what a good thing it is we ain't a parent. first solution which popped into our head: immediately recognized that as fun as it seems, keeping on a toddlers head would remain difficult and would be distracting to the other kids. were just a moment o' whimsy as posed to serious reflection. 'course we then considered a creative application o' duct tape would be effective in keeping a mask affixed to an unruly toddler's head. again, weren't serious and were only a passing moment, but it dawned on us that we should never be left alone with small children... again. HA! Good Fun!

wish we could say this is surprising. ok, the "nose job" crack were kinda amusing. HA! Good Fun!

the number is probable 616. that said, we personal woulda' gone with a play on delta blues 'course the best delta blues is actual chicago blues. regardless, am content to leave the naming nomenclature to whichever mod decides to make themselves a target for criticism by choosing anything other than numbers (roman or arabic) or the uninspired but inoffensive "(cont.)" HA! Good Fun!

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/08/16/amanpour-tugendhat-afghanistan.cnn HA! Good Fun!

hope am wrong, but am expecting the most shocking thing 'bout the taliban returning to power is how quick the "unthinkable" is gonna be normalized. HA! Good Fun!

as much as am disgusted by what is happening in afghanistan, and as much heat as biden is taking today, his decision were political correct. President Ford, when he pulled troops outta vietnam, had a terrible approval rating, but afterwards his approval rating actual ticked upwards. by the time ford left office, the withdrawal were one o' the few actions 'bout which he were consistent lauded. vietnam aint the same as afghanistan and am thinking is unfair to conflate, but if biden were looking for a worst case scenario as he reflected on an afghanistan withdrawal, President Ford's experience had to have come up in discussions. am hopeful am wrong, but am expecting a and this too shall pass reality is gonna settle in quicker than anybody wants to admit. yup, there will be horror stories daring reporters is gonna manage to capture and smuggle outta the new afghanistan, but is that new? for all the anger there were regarding the betrayal o' the kurds, how long did the anger last? for those persons on this board who so animated sympathize with the people in gaza, how many posts do we see each week reminding the rest o' us that the situation has not improved for the folks living in gaza? no matter what your position is on this, the anger is gonna dissipate faster than is warranted... with one exception: veterans. last reputable poll we saw suggested better than 90% o' veterans were supporting biden's withdrawal choice and the poll were recent, after the collapse were occurring in real time... though 'course gd is always a curious take. biden resisted the advice o' his generals and numerous foreign affairs experts on both sides o' the aisle when he announced the withdrawal, but somehow gd sees this as another example o' biden being "feckless?" is another inigo montoya moment for Gromnir. whatever. point is that veterans as a whole is not gonna hold the tragedies yet to come in afghanistan against the President, and by the midterms am expecting the only identifiable voting group who will have a strong enough opinion on the matter to sway their votes is gonna be those veterans. we see tragedy in what is happening in afghanistan, but am having a hard time ignoring the recognition the political fallout is gonna be meh. HA! Good Fun!

one reason (just one) why the trump administration efforts in negotiating with the taliban were flawed and self defeating is he didn't enlist international support. cutting the afghanistan government out of negotiations was unwise and arguable immoral, but international pressure were gonna need be put on pakistan for any peace with the taliban to have a chance o' success. international input and cooperation were kinda the obvious precursor to getting some kinda international agreement regarding pakistan. essential and obvious step ignored. HA! Good Fun!

this outcome was avoidable. as much as people complain 'bout the costs o' twenty years, what is happening now was indeed avoided for two decades and coulda' been avoided much longer with an extreme limited counter-insurgency presence. leave 'cause twenty year costs were too high is not reasonable anymore than is stay 'cause so much had been invested and lost in twenty years. lord knows Gromnir ain't suggesting the past twenty years were handled well. am not suggesting if choice had to be made again that invasion and occupation were warranted-- keep in mind we has repeated many times now how the initial costs o' invasion and nation building were criminal undersold to the american people. am also knowing is impossible for those who fought in afghanistan to ignore the past, but am thinking the situational calculus for a withdrawal necessarily required a more dispassionate appraisal: as of 2021, did the costs o' leaving outweigh the cost o' staying? at the time trump maneuvered to let mullah baradar outta prison and negotiated with the freaking taliban and when biden made his choice to withdraw complete while announcing an actual deadline for such withdrawal, status quo were believed to be sustainable with as few as 3000 total troops and it were believed, in large part 'cause o' years o' decreasing lethality faced by US troops in afghanistan, that combat losses would continue to be extreme limited. perhaps those america soldiers and marines who would indeed die thousands of miles from home were too great a cost to bear when measured against the current and future chaos in afghanistan, but particularly if you genuine believed This would be the outcome, such requires cold blooded indifference to the plight o' the afghanistan people am unable to muster. were admitted difficult, but the right choice were to ignore twenty years past. ignore the equal inappropriate twenty more years arguments. biden had to decide costs and benefits in 2021. perhaps you will continue to believe biden made the correct choice but just got the logistics o' withdrawal wrong, but regardless, this outcome were very much in doubt and coulda' been avoided. 'course maybe those people clinging desperate to planes didn't realize just how "decent" is the taliban when dealing with prisoners and any who had aided the americans these past twenty years. ... am also kinda annoyed every time we hear media refer to the dramatic increase in "forced marriages" already taking place. am gonna need assume gd is with us on this point 'cause if he thinks taxes is theft, then is no question he sees forced marriages as slavery, yes? call it what it is even if it makes it tougher to bear.

well, the picture is from the ohio statehouse. am not thinking anybody would look for brains in ohio. HA! Good Fun!

and as soon as you show we are anywhere close to the fight 'bout slavery and other issues dividing north and south antebellum, then am gonna admit you got a point. can't even get folks like gd, the hardcore 2nd amendment folks and so-called libertarians, to agree that throwing protesters in unmarked vans and whisking away in the dead o' night in portland was an offense worth fighting 'bout. heck, can't get enough people concerned 'bout january 6 to even have a real investigation. is indeed a group o' extreme angry americans who want to burn it all down, at least if they don't get their way. we do indeed have insurrectionists, as we did in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. you aren't gonna have a revolution unless you get enough americans to agree situation is bad enough to start another freaking civil war. apathy is our biggest problem and you see civil war as just 'round the corner. maybe you think the cold war only took place in the mid to late 80s? were a whole lotta post ww2 conflict o' ideology in the US. you didn't think those decades o' strife were meaningful, but now you see revolution? HA! so again, if the strategy is waiting for america to implode, then gonna once again observe how you are spouting the same bs as did the soviets post ww2 w/o any self awareness o' what you are doing. not only were their strategy proven to be an obvious fail, but where are they now? you are not learning from history. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* the whole unstoppable october revolution bs were predicated on just such a belief. regardless, you don't recognize you is just parroting the soviet propaganda o' the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. race riots, gas crisis, inflation, not to mention korea, vietnam and nicaragua. is always something. is the next crisis in the US will be the deciding blow. no widespread hunger in the us. poverty, while far too high, is hardly at civil war inducing levels. sure, americans appear more willing than ever to give up on the democratic experiment than at any time since the early 1900s, but if you think that is good news for the folks in pottsylvania, you ain't learned much from your clear limited reading o' history. HA! Good Fun!

one thing we find amusing 'bout the fears o' the zombifying vaccine which beyond all reason continue to spread is that a bit over a year ago we saw the zombified trump base attacking government buildings in places such as ohio and michigan, and that were more than eight months before the vaccine were available. “These People Aren’t Zombies. They’re People.” HA! Good Fun!

the strategy didn't work out so well for the soviets, eh? you gotta point the goof gas gun the other way, boris. HA! Good Fun!

try a traditional béchamel and then add variations will result in nice alternatives to cheese. we got a few acquaintances with cheese issues and our most common solution is we take our ordinary cheese recipes and replace with a soubise variant o' béchamel. you would be surprised how many times we does a béchamel and folks not experienced with cooking will ask what kinda cheese is in the sauce. quasi related, but some folks is shocked that bolognese is pretty much a milk, stock, wine and meat sauce, and traditional has little or no tomato. cheese such as parmesan may be added, but is not part o' the sauce. however, our personal preference skews towards finding a way to add more cheese as 'posed to removing. HA! Good Fun!

slight alteration. if this is a yearly thing, we would love to see doing smaller historical venues such as willimsport, pa, but am thinking there is likely fields in puerto rico and cuba which is well known to natives o' those places, and is important to many mlb players, but is unknown to all save the most hardcore fans in the US. might need be a three game series to legitimize the travel though and am not sure if any team is willing to give up multiple games worth o' ticket sales. japan. south korea and taiwan may be a bit o' a stretch for an in-season game, but is no doubt more than a few historical and smallish venues in the western hemisphere which could support a yearly kinda small venue celebration. not small, but hockey does their winter classic in different locales every year. smart. complete unrelated, we would love to see a yearly nba game at a venues such as rucker park. but for baseball, do yearly field o' dreams game would have, in our mind, returns quick diminishing. HA! Good Fun!

wotr dogs were mountable by medium characters in the previous build, and at least initial in the current build, but wolf is near as viable so if you don't want to be cheaty, then wolf gets you to functional the same place. urban hunter will provide you and your mount access to the advanced combat maneuver feats w/o needing to meet the prerequisites, and curiously, the rider of said mount is (was) current getting the benefit of the mount's cmd, or vice versa, whichever is greater. attack numbers for animal companions are busted and have been since the initial beta. do not choose smilodon or similar expecting more than 3 attacks even mid/late game with multiattack... which is also not working as it is s'posed to. limited wolf attack numbers is mitigated to a large degree by trip and combat reflexes. and yes, divine hunter is the alternative we had in mind. lann is a particular good choice for taking divine hunter, although iomade does not provide ideal domains. nevertheless, glory is a nice option particular if you develop lann as a snapshot zen archer/divine hunter. 'course such is obvious not the melee kinda thing you were contemplating. with a wisdom based caster, taking zen archer has natural synergy. divine hound sounds good for teamwork feats. we did a colluding scoundrel/ fey speaker azata who were extreme useful in the previous beta build. we wanted a charisma caster 'cause the azata spells, while frequent ignoring sr, still include save checks. we wanted decent dcs for a few o' the impressive azata offensive spells. a 3 level dip for a caster class is normally a bad idea, but our party had three animal companion characters, so teamwork feats were win. sadly aivu does not benefit from the colluding scoundrel teamwork feat feature, but the azata team work power works. player created oracles are busted in multiple ways and we kinda gave up on them. am not certain how badly they are current broken. initially it were near impossible to create an oracle with the new beta regardless o' mystery. at some point you could create an oracle, but only if you did not take oracle at level one and recognizing that nature is/was verboten and would lock up your leveling attempt. etc. if you scroll up (don't waste the effort) you will see multiple complaints from this poster regarding the oracle as implemented in the current beta. HA! Good Fun!

fyi, dogs become large and are arguably the best animal companion option in the game. urban hunter is a non-obvious choice, but the free captor feats are worth looking at because of just how powerful the trip abilities are in wotr. that said, divine hound is also very impressive as you are a spontaneous caster who has cleric domain spells added to your list. am thinking there is a whole lotta excellent animal companion options, but most o' our personal efforts (mounted or otherwise) involve finding a way to get a leopard (tanky) or dogs/wolves, 'cause trip is gold. HA! Good Fun!

animal companion choices made at level one survive unscathed even if your subsequent levels restrict the animal companion choice to a critter which would preclude your level one choice. example: chose leopard for your sacred hunstmaster's animal companion at level 1. at level 4 you switch to sohei and you will keep leveling your leopard as posed to either having your leopard sudden becoming a horse or you receiving a second animal companion which is an equine. level one choice holds. converse, and counter intuitive, choose a horse for your character as a level one cavalier and then switch to divine hound at level two will mean your divine hound animal companion is a horse. proviso: given how buggy this recent build has been, our experience with the recent build is limited. HA! Good Fun!

you were doing sith stuff yes? shoulda' expected the dark-side would exact some warping. HA! Good Fun!

am not sacramento. am dozens o' miles east o' sacramento in a small and gated community which has a number o' small lakes as well as a branch o' the american river running through the property. for many years the only "store" within a dozen miles were a single gas station. "it doesn't happen," is always the response right up until it does. one kid too young to know better. one adult too arrogant to consider the possibilities. only takes one. HA! Good Fun!

first baseball game we watched in decades. were worth it. amazing ninth inning. however, is gonna be tough to repeat and subsequent games is gonna be unfair measured 'gainst white sox and yankees contest. maybe once a decade as 'posed to once a year? once every five years? HA! Good Fun!

first, the title is misleading The parks department reportedly said that she "became confrontational and did not cooperate when asked for identification information" as the reason they handcuffed her. now admitted, am thinking arrest is too much, but options become limited when a jerk won't comply with those democratic passed laws gd hates so much. second, people like gd drive us nuts. we has taken in more than a few rescue dogs, and while they is reasonable well trained, they frequent have personality quirks. would never bite a person, but another strange dog running up to them is gonna cause a response. "don't worry, my dogs are friendly," is shouted by the nice young lady approaching us with her bounding canines as Gromnir grits his teeth and prepares for the worst. our shouted rejoinder, "my dogs aren't," is, as often as not, ignored. sure enough, the friendly dogs come running up to our dogs and then chaos ensues when one o' our leashed hounds gets all snarly and angry. is no problems if your dogs and our dogs is leashed. is only a problem 'cause o' the, "my dogs are calm and well trained," don't have their animals leashed around animal and human strangers. if am out in the sticks and there is no chance we will come across other folks, then sure, we would let our well-trained and friendly dogs roam free, but as soon as we see other people, we leash, 'cause am knowing some people are deathly afraid o' dogs, 'cause sh!te happens, and 'cause afterwards the guy whose dogs weren't leashed always says, "but my dogs are usually so well behaved." HA! Good Fun! ps am similar infuriated by the shocking number o' people who ask if it is ok to pet our dogs as they is already reaching out to pet our dogs. such folks deserve to get a few stitches, but would nevertheless be our dog facing, at a minimum, some kinda doggie quarantine and the possibility o' being euthanized.

but again, am suspecting the folks who were fact checking were not actual doing so on the basis o' semantics quibble. the typical meme would include a picture o' general washington along with the following verbiage: George Washington Used Vaccines to Help Win the Revolutionary War were variations, but such were the gist o' the memes. so if you are a fact checker who in all probability has no idea o' what is variolation and you see that vaccines were invented by jenner twenty years after the american revolution, the understandable conclusion is that the meme is inaccurate. it takes a level o' knowledge one cannot expect fact checkers to possess to proper identify a great deal o' what gets labeled as misinformation. HA! Good Fun!

am not a fan o' game romances, with the notable quasi-romance o' tno and ravel from ps:t. however, if you are choosing three female-specific romance options 'mongst the bg2 companions and mazzy fentan is not selected, am thinking you need reexamine priorities. in bioware's defense, mazzy is typical acquired a bit late compared to other companions. am recalling this were the expressed reason for excluding the halfling from the romancable options. HA! Good Fun!

"Today's the day Judah."--Messala "Yes. Today's the day."--Judah Ben-Hur according to the pillow guy, today, august 13, is the day trump were s'posed to be returned to office. 'course mike lindell weren't the only one embracing wacky. *cricket chirp* HA! Good Fun!