Hurlshort

Today is my daughter's 13th birthday. We live next to a parking lot, and it has been completely empty during the pandemic, so I ordered a 120 inch fabric screen for about $30. Then I put a raised frame up on the back fence, and people drove up to watch a movie that we played with a projector and a speaker system. It turned out pretty well! Drive-In Movies are coming abck in style.

Finally got around to watching the final season of Game of Thrones. I'm not really the kind of person that lets a bad episode or ending ruin a stellar show. I will definitely say there was too much sentimentality in this last season. It was a big departure from previous seasons, and I found myself checking the time left regularly. But overall I was happy to get to the end of nearly two decades of storylines in Westeros. I started with the books, but now I don't really care if he finishes it or not. The pieces are in place and I'm happy to move on with my life.

There should be a Sectoid-Muton buddy cop movie.

They are basically dogs.

Yikes Calax. It's good of you to support her in this. I hope it works out for the best.

Normal. I'm no glutton for punishment.

After struggling to be any good at Elite: Dangerous, I decided to give No Mans Sky another try, and I've been enjoying it. I don't remember if it was this good when I first played it, or I was just in the right mood, but it is a nice exploration game.

When school was put on hold, I decided to start a little RPG Maker project to teach about the next unit. It of course ended up taking way more hours than I expected to put together, and my spring break last week was consumed by the project, but I managed to finish. It's a bit loose with the historical timeline, but it's meant to be a fun diversion about the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution. I hosted a browser version here: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/753261?updated=1587576382 Be nice, it's for the kids.

I wish they'd post more about the number of smokers who are heavily affected by the virus. They are quick to mention pre-existing health conditions, but it would be interesting to see what percentages of people that encountered serious problems were also vaping and smoking. I mean, lung health is a pretty big part of this whole thing. I hope those who do regularly breathe bad crap into their lungs are at least thinking twice about it now.

They treat their own with a bit more restraint. ba-dum *tsk*

Glass - Wow. I enjoyed Unbreakable when it came out 20 years ago, but I never expected it to turn into this. Split was also really good, but so very different. But the way he brought them together was just amazing. This is a seriously ambitious movie making long play. I teared up big time at the end.

This is clearly more of a fun vignette than a full campaign. Heck, it's only $10. I am sure Xcom 3 will let us get back to the soldier grindhouse that we are all used to.

Oh yeah, get your squeeze on with a viper and then lay some eggs.

It does look like the perfect VR game, given how well they've simulated being in the schlongpit.

Looks like a fun Xcom Police Squad game People are super weird.

As a state that is pretty much always blue, I typically don't worry too much about which way I vote for president. If my vote can help a 3rd party candidate that I think deserves recognition, then I will throw it their way. But Trump has been hard to watch for 4 years, and it has really been glaring during the pandemic. I don't know if Biden can win, and I'm not in love with him as a candidate, but I'd like to see him get a strong popular vote showing over the current dumpster fire administration we have in office. So yeah, one of the few years I know way in advance who I am voting for.

Do you get to walk around in X4? I thought I was going to be able to do that in Elite: Dangerous, but I'm trapped in my ship. If I land on a planet, I can use a rover, but at no point do I get to stretch my legs. Always seems to be a weird limitation. Of course, in No Man's Sky I can wander around, but I can't get into that setting at all.

Elite Dangerous has a solo mode, but you may still need to be online to play it. I think I'm in over my head and need a more arcadey game, but it does have some cool stuff going. You can actually land on planets and rover around. All I've done is run some courier missions at this point though, and I'm still trying to figure out how to fly efficiently. I spent 10 minutes trying to get to a planetary outpost last night because I entered orbit too soon. I have Everspace in my library. Maybe that is more my speed? I don't know, I was looking for something more chill too. I want to just trade in goods like an honest merchant!

I know you were being glib But really, I spend all year telling students to stop trying to memorize dates. They would all rather just rote memorize a bunch of dates and definitions than actually think critically about the events that have happened in the past. It's pretty hard to get 12-year olds to think about cause and effect and the ripples of actions centuries ago. Of course, now that they are living through a major historical event, it might be a bit easier to get them to engage.

I picked up Elite: Dangerous, and it turns out I am a lousy pilot.

I cover a lot of Viking history in the Dark Ages, but I only teach 7th grade and we have a limited window of time. I think I remember covering some Swedish rulers during AP Euro History in High School. This looks like the unit: https://www.tomrichey.net/blog/the-thirty-years-war-ap-euro-lecture-notes I mention the general area during tge Reformation as well, but the focus tends to be on Luther.

I think California has benefited from a terrible public transit system. Hard to spread the virus when we are all sitting in traffic a car's length apart.

I've always assume ktchong types this stuff up on an old Microsoft Word document and then blasts it across the internet as a service to mankind or something.

Today during my lunch break I rode up to the top of Mount Umunhum. The views were amazing, you could see all the way across the San Francisco Bay.