Cantousent

Hey, Gfted, there are things called 'pill pockets.' I would try them. Trying to give pills to a cat is a real bitch, no pun intended. This works pretty well with some cats. Not all, I'm afraid. http://www.amazon.com/FELINE-GREENIES-PILL-POCKETS-Treats/dp/B000JOE224

My favorite Italian food was my dad's. My adoptive father was Italian, God rest his soul. He made the best damned food. Not just Italian, but his homemade pizza was my favorite. I try to make it, and it tastes by and large the same, but it just lacks that... something. Folks enjoy it, but it's a dim shade of dad's pizza. On the other hand, I experiment more than he did. I make Mexican pizza, bulgogi pizza, and Buffalo chicken pizza. Today the wife was sick, so I made chicken, potato, and broccoli soup for dinner. When I started eating better, she did too since I do all the cooking. heh She actually lost weight during the holidays. Now, she's been bit by the fitness bug and she's works out regularly too. It is, frankly, a battle. She likes the results. She wants my help. ...But she hates exercising and so she gripes the whole time. lol

I haven't done much with the beta for a while, so I'm sure things will change, but my party right now is built around role-playing. Main: Bathsheba (Wizard) Pale elf, female, Living Lands, Scientist Int/Might/Dex Tank: David (Paladin - Shieldbearer of St. Elcga) Savannah human, male, Ixamitl Plains, aristocrat more Per/Res less Might/Int Utility: Daniel (Priest of Eothas) Moon Godlike, male, Ixamitl Plains, scholar max Might, high Int, a bit o' Res Buffs: Solomon (Chanter) Death Godlike, male, Old Vailia, aristocrat Int then Con/Res Melee DPS: Job (Rogue) Hearth Orlan, male, The White that Wends, drifter even mix MIght/Dex/Per/Int Range DPS: Jemima (Hunter) Animal Companion (Lion - Ariel) Savannah human, female, The Living Lands, hunter Dex then Might/Per

I know this pic isn't as awesome as the others in the thread, but I think it's cool how I managed to get the bird in the right corner. This was on one of my hikes in Crafton Hills Trails. I'm using my phone and I hate to slow down long enough to frame a good photo, but I get lucky sometimes. EDIT: Oops, the photo was too big. I'll go take a look and try to fix it. EDIT2: Okay, I compressed it to fit under 1MB.

Trust me, I don't even like alignment as a mechanic, but Obsidz did it right with that one!

Did you go the good guy route or the bad guy? I thought the devs did a great job with the evil options. In some ways, it was actually better crafted than the good guy options, although that's hard to judge since they were all so good. I always play the good guy, of course, but the *truly* evil ending in particular was absolutely stunning and grim.

I suggest you think about the combat aspects of the game and try to figure out how to improve your tactics. I'm not being facetious or snotty, just saying that the combat aspects make for a big part of the game. Still play it on easy, of course, but don't fret over full party wipes. Keep your cool and think about what works best and what doesn't. Think about different abilities, items, and other party compositions. Enjoy them. The reason I say that is because I think combat can really punctuate the fun of exploration and lore. Of course, some people really don't like the combat. Every now and then when I've thought the story was good but the gameplay was tedious or boring, I've turned the difficulty down on even FPs to get through the combat faster and unfold more of the story. Like a lot of guys (and frankly, a lot of women I know) I get caught up in bragging rights every now and then crank up the difficulty and whatnot. That's not bad, just a different way to enjoy the game. Finally, while Sawyer will undoubtedly be the best source right now, after the game ships there will be a huge number of people trying to find out ways to improve tactics, exploit game mechanics, and otherwise stomp monsters. Come back here and ask questions. Seek help and people will oblige you.

On one hand, words have meaning from use, so anti-Semite has pretty much come to mean anti-Jewish, but every now and then you see the word used in the broader sense. Same with Latino. Hell, people use Romance almost exclusively to describe either relationships or stories about relationships. So, I don't mind words morphing into different meanings. However, I completely agree with you guys about the overuse of some terms to label people. I guess I was guilty of that also, because I don't think there's enough evidence to say that the people in question were 'anti-Semitic,' and if I couldn't point to a specific example, I shouldn't have used the word. I do tend to be extremely frustrated when words become so generalized that become virtually meaningless. If someone thinks women drivers aren't as good as men, he's a misogynist. If someone thinks that Africans are smarter than Asians, he's a racist. If someone questions the ability of a Jewish student, he's an anti-Semite. That's just not fair. I don't actually know whether the board members are anti-Semitic or not. I should, in that case, assume they are not until they show they are. However, I still think the line of questioning was politically motivated, which is altogether different.

Oh, I don't mind the flag thing. I mostly think that it's weird that they passed the resolution. For someone like me, the notion that free speech in and of itself could be considered hate speech is far worse. Hell, I don't even think the student board at UCLA should be prevented from asking a lot of politically pointed questions of the Jewish student, Ms. Beyda. I think they look dumb for doing it and I'm exercising my free speech by making fun of it, but I think they're entirely in their rights to do it.

I'll oblige you this once by saying that I thought it was fairly clear that using the Roman legions as the basis for the enemy in a post apocalyptic game struck me as an interesting twist on the genre. I get that you could now come up with many fine and outstanding reasons that's not a 'twist' and, if it is, a bad one. Fair enough. I entirely disagree with you about New Vegas, and in such manner that makes it clear it's probably pointless to spar with you over it. So, take the last word with my blessing. :Cant's tight smile icon:

Sorry, Grom, from Hurlie's article: "After citing freedom of speech as a 'valued right that ASUCI supports,' the resolution states that 'freedom of speech, in a space that aims to be as inclusive as possible can be interpreted as hate speech.'"

I've *been* to that library and quite enjoyed it, MrISO. I have a close younger friend who attends Bezerkly and apparently it's not nearly as left leaning as we folks in flyover country think.

Yeah, I remember you being part native American. I'm a quarter Mexican myself. <.< Anyhow, Today the wife and I walked to the grocery, me wearing my weight vest and she wearing my backpack. She's *hates* exercise, but she's a trooper so she hauled back quite a bit of groceries, including my beer and a bottle of vino for me to enjoy tonight. I've been simmering a small bit o' tri-tip for shredded beef burritos, Spanish rice, and refried black beans. I usually make my own refried beans fresh, but I've been a bit rundown since Thursday so it's canned tonight.

I thought you were a city mouse from the bay area, Grom. You tellin' me you're a country lad? Moved back to indigenous parts? ...And, the Great Wall, at very least, was to make it harder on the invaders making off with loot more than to completely keep them out.

Okay, guys, the best way to get a fence done is to contact the home owners association and tell them to fix the damned fence.

I never played Ultima Underworld, but I really loved the first 4 Ultima games. Four was itself quite impressive back in the day. I can get the series on GoG for $25, which includes Ultima 1-9, Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, World of Ultima, and Ultima Worlds of Adventure. Ultima Underworld looks kind of like Eye of the Beholder, which I really loved when it came out.

I've played all the fear titles more than once except for 3. I probably should try out some addons. though. Haven't done that with Fear yet.

I've seen other threads about the respawn issue. I always want enough to make the world feel vibrant and alive, but not so much you feel like you haven't impacted anything. If they just respawn the whole map all the time, that's just as offputting as clearing an area and never having anything there again. A few respawns and a few random and set encounters for travel.

Good points, Ros. The extrapolations aren't (and weren't) lost on me, but it still seems awfully small and petty for a board at UCLA. The example about Kerry is valid to set theoretical boundaries. Fair enough, but she ain't Kerry and the board isn't the United States Congress and the association isn't with Iran. There is generally, and should be, looser standards on someone on a student judicial board than someone defending our national interests.

I did see the video, Val. I still think the very question is loaded. If you substituted any number of other groups for Jewish, there would be a much larger outcry than now. I firmly believe that. Because being active in a religious or ethnic community should not in and of itself should not be the sole basis for denying the opportunity to serve on a board or council. ...And what issues are there that involve Judaism? A student judiciary board shouldn't really have a major concern about Judaism other than political movements of the day, and that makes the whole thing seem rather pointed to me. A gay student who is active in the LGBT community stands before the board and they not only question his abilities and motives due his activism, but also vote to blackball him. I think the outcry would be far worse. A Catholic student who is active in the pro-life movement? Probably wouldn't even have the opportunity to speak before being blackballed. No outcry. The fact that the decision was reversed and the students apologized vindicates my position. Either they felt they were wrong, in which case I'm vindicated. ...Or they felt they were right but buckled for political reasons, which means they're unworthy of their places on the board in the first place. You can be dismissive, and I'm okay with that, but I *did* see the video, bud. I just disagree with the ramifications. :Cant's smile and shrug icon:

I believe people have the right to burn the flag. They have that right because some people are willing to defend it. Wanting to burn the flag simply as a matter of protest merely makes you boorish and contemptible. What actually irks me more is people flying flags that are tattered, flying them in the rain and at night with no lighting, or letting them hit the ground irks me a lot more. I actually went into our local post office and had words (respectfully and without raising my voice of course) about the state of the tattered flag on the flag pole. The post office?! Anyhow, the manager was embarrassed, but since the VA is in town also, she was clearly used to getting grief over it and said that the new flag was ordered and on the way. I pointed out that having no flag on the pole was preferable to having what was there. Nice lady, though. ...And the flag was replaced the next time I drove by.

I comeback to check on the forums and I see my thread is 15+ pages, mainly discussion about romance lol. What have I started! You used the word "love" in the title. It's all your fault!!! Laughed out loud. I don't know why romance has become such a divisive subject. When I was here months ago, Kill XP was the big fight, but apparently that design decision has been cooked into the books. As for the review, there wasn't much there to discuss for people here who've been following things. It's good that PoE got a positive review somewhere though.

Well, for my part, I never said that the board was racist. I *do* believe that anti-Semitism is alive and well in the world and some people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, think of Jews as part of a distinct racial group. However, while I don't think it's racist personally, I do think that the motives of the board members who grilled the Jewish student were political in nature and not tied to her quality or fitness for service on the board. Apparently, the President of the board agreed at that time: "That’s when Avinoam Baral, president of the group, interrupted. 'The discussion was really discriminatory in nature. I had to step in and say my peace,' Baral told [the CBS LA intervewier]." As further evidence, the faculty advisor informed the students that the basis for the very question was inappropriate. The original vote was to blackball the Jewish student and a subsequent revote allowed her onto the board. Look, I thought this was mostly weird and just wrong on it's face. You can even now come up with some pretext to use this same line questioning to deny membership on boards or councils to virtually anybody who's part of a specific religious or racial group and has associations within that community. Christians, blacks, gays, Muslims just happened to be the examples above. I think that's wrong, but I wasn't really mad about it. I think it makes the people involved in the questioning look dumb, but I was mostly just posting it as some silly thing that went on in college today. As for the flag thing, the idea that free speech should in and of itself be construed as hate speech sounds pretty idiotic to me, and I would be quite unhappy that the pretext not to fly the flag was because of our colonial and imperialist past... so called. ...But I've never been much of a flag waver personally. I've been more of a vote in every election, serve on juries (once as a foreman ugh), pay my taxes, and volunteer and serve my country rather than wave a flag sort of patriot.

I only allow myself to drink two or three days a week, and tomorrow is my 'drinkin' day.' Since I'm one of those PoE folks, I can't afford the good stuff, so it'll probably be two big cans o' Fosters and one bottle of two buck chuck. More than I should, but a hell of a lot less than I was drinking a couple of years ago. I do enjoy a PoE man's scotch every now and then, and sometimes even the loftier stuff, but that's for rare occasions.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/02/23/ucla-students-jewish-background-questioned-during-vote-for-judicial-board/ Interesting local news for us Sunny SoCal folks. “Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community … given that recently … [inaudible] has been surrounding cases of conflict of interest, how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view … [inaudible]?” Wow, I wonder how they feel about Catholics, gays, blacks, Muslims, or other people who might be activists for their community. lol Nuts. "UCLA’s Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Janina Montero, released a statement, which read in part: 'I believe our community is more generous, thoughtful and inclusive than this particular incident would suggest.'” Well, the student in question was voted down, but the vote was rescinded and she's now on the board apparently. Weird stuff, man. EDIT: cleaned up second quote.