Soul of Wit

My employer has allowed me to work from home about half of the time in the past. I underwrite mortgage loans, so I'm the guy who says if you get the mortgage or not. The only change for me is that I currently work from home full time. We are absurdly busy in the mortgage business, due to never-ending low interest rates. I pretty much have to use paid time off to have any free time.

Stay healthy out there.

6 hours ago, Xander77 said:

... Also, how do I screencap the game on steam without the spell list popping up to block the screen?

There are many screen cap utilities available for Windows, some of them free. You can usually select your own key combo to trigger the capture. In Mac OS, the system-level screen cap options will work fine.

13 hours ago, Kelandon said:

That's not entirely accurate. Macs have had a functional right click for about two decades now. The default mouse has only one button, so you have to use a control-click to access it, but if you use a laptop or a third-party mouse, it's easily accessible.

Correction, Kelandon, Minion's statement is not in any way, shape or form accurate. I've been using Macs since the '80s and non-Apple input devices for just as long. Even I know that the default Apple mice of today allow for a right click on the right half of the single-button mouse. All Apple input devices allow for right clicks. I sometimes use a Mac laptop or Apple Magic Trackpad. I certainly right click on those. Apple's non-trackpad input devices are ridiculous, but there are other options. I have a 20-year-old Logitech Wheel Mouse that is still going strong, so additional cost is not a factor. A third-party mouse will work on a Mac without even making an adjustment to the OS settings.

The find command (command-F Mac & control-F Windows) in your browser is your friend. Just search for "dispel" and "move" in Randomizer's Massive List. Each barrier or rock pile is listed as level 1, 2 or 3.

I killed the empire troops at the checkpoint west of Lorelei. The next time I passed through, the script just said "Ok". Then the original complement of troops reappeared and attacked me. Is this intentional or a possible bug?

3 hours ago, BlackDragon said:

Ah, handy guide, thanks... still had some trouble finding the starting-hook for the Wand of Endless Magery I suppose, though. According to the guide, the information should come from a wizard who's either in one of the small rooms along the eastern walls of Kriszan, or in the Inn of Delan - but I searched in both places, and found nothing. Eventually, after spending some time running around on other errands, he DID appear in Kriszan - so I suspect he actually has a wider circuit than just those two cities. ...

The wizard travels between two locations. You happened to visit each when he was at the other one.

ultra blue4 is correct. It is Erika who gives you an amulet. The amulet is a special item. The Recall Crystal is a tangible item in your inventory.

It soon becomes convenient to both get to Levy and get back to each region of Valorim. I wouldn't stop mid-dungeon to run back for my per diem, but you often pass through Fort Emergence. Maybe to report to one of its inhabitants, or maybe as the fastest way to travel between regions.

Jeff will add it to his todo list. Send those typos to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com

10 hours ago, Dikiyoba said:

 

The problem with choosing the "neither" option when you are cis is that you provide inaccurate information about yourself and (far more importantly) overwhelm the accurate responses of an often ignored group with particular characteristics. Also, it's a little bit... weird. Like, Dikiyoba doesn't particularly identify with Dikiyoba's age (it's just a number), but Dikiyoba still fills out forms with Dikiyoba's actual age, instead of "opting out" by claiming to be 5 years old.

Weird, you say? I do identify myself as weird sometimes. I just don't identify as cis or trans, thus neither. I accurately answered as to how I self-identify. Answering 5 for age when one is an adult is being intentionally deceptive. Choosing not to give one's age is perfectly acceptable behavior (though a poll might make the answer required.) If you want to fault the poll for allowing an answer of neither then feel free. Personally, I think it provides useful information on how people self-identify.

On 7/27/2017 at 6:03 PM, googoogjoob said:

 

This is maybe unfair, but I gave the Avernum 2 remake a lower score partially because of how hydras were replaced by the dull, omnipresent hellhounds. Pray god the Avernum 3 remake doesn't replace the slimes with chitrachs, or the alien beasts with hellhounds.

No alien beasts; no peace.

On 7/25/2017 at 4:56 PM, Sudanna said:

 

FWIW, I was one of the responses that chose "I prefer neither", and its presence means a lot to me. Cis people not wanting a word for cis to exist is a thing, and surely the majority of those responses to the poll, but people that are clearly not cis and also clearly different from trans people are also a thing. Or maybe it's just me. Still though.

I'm perfectly fine with the word cisgender (and its shortened form) existing. I don't have a problem with someone identifying me as cis. I just don't call myself cis. I also don't commonly refer to myself in the third person. That would make a fine poll question, by the way. Self-reference seems to be far more common on these forums than outside the door where we leave our sanity.

Okay, I've fully digested this poll's choices. I have to continue to celebrate the American Bison-tennial.

Clearly, discouraging words are compliments. For example, you should never do an even-toed ungulate poll. Let me ruminate on this for awhile. Chews cud...

1 hour ago, Kelandon said:

...just quoting the First Amendment isn't quite enough to address this.

 Agreed. I am a zealous believer that the first amendment will win out against extremists from both ends of the political spectrum.

My thoughts on marriage:

The state has a vested interest in stable relationships between two people. This desired stability has both economic and social benefits. Whether or not marriage is the best way to create stable relationships is open to debate, but the desire to have stability is fairly universal outside of anarchist circles. Poly-marriage is inherently less stable as adding additional humans to almost anything is inherently less stable.

Separate but equal never is. The reason why we don't have marriage and civil union is because civil union would never be the equal of marriage. Personally, I see marriage as a civil contract, with any religious significance layered upon that. I see it that way because I do not live in a theocracy. Mind you, I was married in a Catholic church, and I fully understand that marriage is seen as a sacrament within that faith. My wife and I have a contract between us (and the state) that has important economic and social advantages. I see zero reason to deny those advantages to someone whose sexual preference varies from mine. The religious significance of my marriage is not affected in any way by anyone else's marriage. It certainly is not affected by a semantic argument over the meaning of the word marriage.

To argue that a religious institution (or its potential officiant) could be compelled to perform a marriage against its will seems a specious argument. I am not Catholic and my wife is. We were married in a Catholic church, but many Catholic churches would not have married us unless I converted. The idea that we could have sued to compel them to marry us is conceivable, but it would have been thrown out of court in a heartbeat. The simple reason (we live in the US) is the first amendment of the US constitution. It reads, in part, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." 

If you have a numeric keypad on your keyboard then moving with it is much simpler. Just think of 5 as the active character and the numbers around it represent the 8 possible directions to move

Some of the enemies are controllers (hold the Shift key to see the enemy names.) You need to kill them before you can make any headway with the rest.

Correction. You only need to kill one leader and make a pact with one leader. That meets the requirement to deal with 2 of the 3 factions. You can, of course, kill 2 (or even 3) leaders.

complain

In honor of The Beatles on streaming services, Happy Christmas to all. Those of you who like your Christmas message from the Queen (and would have said "honour'), or those who just enjoy Dickens, may also partake in this well wishing.

Pronouncing "kh":

More Slith stereotyping, I see. They're such terrible builders that, of course, they wouldn't have a hammer.

Well, that was an easy fix... I just went into the game's properties and disabled the Steam overlay.

I just bought a new 27" iMac, and A2:CS (from Steam) goes black as soon as the Steam "press shift-tab..." tip pops up. I can duplicate this with any resolution, windowed or not. The game is running. I can get it to go to the "load a save" screen and I see the grid lines against the black . If I select a save (and press enter) then I see a rectangle for the text box near the bottom of the game, and lines for the map in the upper-right. All else is black.

The game runs fine on smaller iMacs in the house. Other Steam games run fine on the new iMac. I've tried the usual delete and reinstall of the game, rebooting the Mac, etc.