Hurlshort

Water is poison. Drink life.

Soda is poison. You are better off with a stiff drink.

I got a fun little fighter in X4 and rescued some scientist, but I think I'm going to set the game aside for a bit. I would like to go back to it later, but I was getting burnt out. Now I've finally embarked on a playthrough of Xcom: Chimera Squad. I don't know why I held off so long, I bought it back in April. Probably because I knew it would consume me completely and wanted to wait for the right time. It's great so far.

I do my exercising as early as possible at this point. Saturday I also finished with the swim portion, so that was nice. I whine during the winter a lot, so I try not to let the heat stop me.

Sure. Of course, these protests are all happening because a bunch of minorities were given death sentences for very little cause, while this kid can stroll into said protests with a big gun.

Yesterday I was out on a ride, and at the start of my big descent of the day, a wasp hit my ring finger. It just hung on, stinger deeply lodged into the skin. I was descending, so I kept trying to shake it loose but I couldn't risk taking my hands off the bar for long. Finally after a couple attempts, I shook him loose, but the stinger, his lower body, and a bit of guts were left behind. It was burning something fierce, but knew it was safest to just finish the descent and then clean it off. I get to the bottom and carefully remove the stinger, and start the 15 mile ride home. When I got in, I showed my wife. It had started to swell, so she told me to get the ring off fast. I used some petroleum jelly to get that done. Now my whole hand is a bit itchy and swollen up. So add that to my tally of exercise session gone wrong.

I am really pretty lost in X4. Like, I can go repair satellites and catch some low level criminals, but a tiny cog in a big machime in this game.

My kids can pick him out in any role, but that just might be because I raised them on Army of Darkness. Bruce Campbell is just a very memorable guy. I also have his autobiography, If Chins Could Kill, sitting in a place of prominence on our main bookshelf.

I asked for the address, claiming I get lost easily. It was my dentist! The pic was his wife with a different hair color. He has 2 numbers apparently, because I already had him in my phone. Weird. Probably a bit anticlimactic, sorry.

So a month ago I got a text asking how my wife and I were doing and if we were ready for the school year. I didn't recognize the number, so I just kind of ignored it. Then yesterday I got a picture from that number of a bike and a woman ready to ride the bike. I don't recognize the person. I'm totally at a loss, but I must know them, since they knew my profession, they knew my wife's name, and clearly I have some cycling connection with them. So I decide to play it safe and text "The bike looks great, I will send the pic to *my wife*" Then today I got a text saying we should come over and ride this weekend. We know where they live... I don't even know who the person is! But I'm in too deep at this point, so I can't just text "Who are you?" If I've learned anything from sitcoms, it is when you are in a bad spot, you should just keep digging. Maybe I'll just suggest we meet at a neutral site and see who shows up.

We aren't in Iraq anymore? That's news to me. Killing that Iranian general didn't exactly seem like a peace in the middle east strategy. I'd say these wars are naturally petering out in a excruciatingly slow manner, and I'm not sure any President deserves credit for that. He certainly isn't cutting military spending either, quite the opposite.

Contract employees are guaranteed the contract outside of the sports world. As long as they are upholding the terms of the contract, an employer cannot break it easily. So...what are you talking about?

That's why he won.

You can also pretty much create a new account easy as pie.

The baker sells cakes. He can't pick and choose who he sells cakes to because of race or religion. He can say "I don't bake chocolate cakes." If someone comes into his shop and starts screaming obscenities, he can refuse to do business with them. If Facebook starts banning people based on race or religion, or even political party, then there is a lawsuit potential. But that isn't what is happening.

Entertainment is a double edged sword. You get the exposure to reach the masses, but you are also exposed to the masses. Personally I'm not all that invested in what actors are doing. I tend to wrote the lot of them off as narcissistic. Of course, there will be exceptions to that rule. Brandon Lee is an interesting character. I'd say it is pretty clear his father's early death adds to the dramatic factor. It all played out on a very public stage. It played out like a tragedy. Athletes and musicians do something very difficult on the biggest stages. Some of them even sacrifice their health to do so. It inspires, but I also wouldn't want to change places with most of these people.

When a young artist passes away, it is always going to be a bit of a emotional blow to those who enjoyed that artist. One, it is a very visual reminder of our own mortality, and two, there is a sense that we've all missed out on their greatest work. I'm not sure why anyone feels the need to belittle that. It often becomes a sense of inspiration. They are frozen in time as well.

X4 - I managed to build a dock on my base, which was a bit of a process. The game has me looking up stuff online, but there does seems to be a lot of interesting options. I'm super cash poor and haven't had much luck making money. So far I just wander around fixing satellites and finding lost luggage. Still, my base looks neat now, and I like that you can land on anything. I just need to buckle down and invest in a better ship.

Yeah, not going to miss standardized tests one bit. We need to re-think how we assess learning in the modern world. It's way too easy to regurgitate information nowadays. In the past you had to hit the card catalogue, do some in depth reading, and really dig. Now we have easy access to all the information. I'm way more concerned with how a student processes that information than how much of it they've memorized. So yeah, we need modern assessments that value processing and critical thought over access to information and test taking skills.

Hmm, I don't remember you using the fancy fiance title before. Congrats on your engagement!

It seems like it would be healthier to just hope that things get better soon in both the US and Belarus, instead of trying to turn it into a competition.

The major difference I saw there is the riot police didn't spray tear gas everywhere and they didn't hit anyone, and then they seemed to retreat when things escalated. So maybe stop excusing the riot police in the US.

I managed to fix my X4 startup issue by downloading some sketchy beta drivers for my onboard GPU. Let's hope that doesn't come back to haunt me. I started the Young Gun scenario, so I'm a British chap in the seat of a ship that is basically a big engine in the back, a big gun in the front, and me squished in the middle. Currently running through more of the help tutorials because there is a lot to learn. But so far it is easier to navigate than Elite Dangerous and has more personality and life than No Man's Sky.

Yeah, it amazes me how many married couples I know who spend little time with one another. A lot of them get lost in the kids once they are born and forget to keep the marriage as a priority. This whole situation magnifies everything.