Hurlshort

My daughter made pozole for my family, who were visiting from Georgia. She made it super hot, so we all sat around fanning ourselves. They all finished it though, so it was definitely a good burn. It was a green pozole with chicken.

I was vocally negative about it from episode 1. I actually got the whole family to watch it and was excited, as the books were a big part of my teenage years. They were all smart and wandered off after the first episode. I kept watching, mostly because I was re-reading the books and it was somewhat interesting to compare them. They basically gave it the CW treatment. But yeah, I'm usually not vocally negative about stuff because I rarely watch stuff I don't like long enough to bother speaking on it.

Reading Bob Odenkirk's book on making that movie was pretty hilarious. He's had a bizarre career.

Man, Dr. Q is a stud. He can knock people unconscious, pummel them to death, and then still run away with free moves. Plus he's a doctor.

I did the same thing. That northern mine looks isolated and tempting, but that is a deadly crew guarding it. I might try it now that I have better gear and some levels under my belt. Explosives experts are pretty dang important. There is a lot of stuff rigged to blow up on the maps, plus a few minefields. Red is solid for the price. I'm trying to be nice to a bunch of communists in the northern part of the map, since they are helping me fight the Legion, but they are a bit annoying. Kind of like our forum commies.

Bleh. Maybe I'll watch it. I finished the first season. I'm still pretty low on it though.

Boo. I just started my second squad and have them working in the south, while my main squad heads north. Quests are very well done so far and I'm enjoying a fair amount of the characters I meet. I had a brother ask me to save his sister, and when I found her, she had already stabbed one of her captors and was fighting back. I helped her finish them off. When I returned her to her brother, Nails commented that the sister has much bigger balls than him. As I said, the map is much more dynamic than JA2, so that's a pleasant surprise. My second squad is Omryn (don't recruit him!), a Ukrainian mechanic I can't remember, Dr. Q, and I sent Hitman with them to keep them somewhat safe. My main squad is pretty effective now. My custom Merc is the sniper, Red is on the machine gun, Thor is my medic and sneaky guy, Nails and Livewire round it our with decent rifles.

JA3 - Machine guns are crazy in this game. I mean, it has some limitations, but a properly placed MG is an absolute terror on the battlefield.

Yep. It's fantastic.

One thing JA3 does better than JA2 - The map is huge and complicated and feels like a real place. In both JA1 and JA2, you just kind of worked your way across the square map until you had it conquered. This map is a lot more dynamic. I just took over my 2nd mine and now I'm thinking about fielding a 2nd squad. Still broke though. Also Omryn is terrible and I think I'm letting him go at the end of his contract. I hired Nails because I needed a psycho for a quest, and he is a good back up bomb guy for Red.

I fought once without the machine gun and once without it. What a difference! I'm now trying to take over Fleatown. I'm also still always broke, Mercenary life is pricey!

Congrats. I assume you wrestle a crocodile at the ceremony.

Knock on wood, but this game has been surprisingly stable and bug-free so far. Quite a feat, given how buggy JA2 was.

New Xcom is definitely an entirely different type of game from old Xcom, so I get your worries, but JA3 is very close to the template that JA2 created. Get it. It's good.

I started a new game of Jagged Alliance 3. I was going broke in my previous playthrough, so I'm going to try to stick with one good squad until I get a couple diamond mines under my control. I also didn't do great job of making my own Merc, so this time I focused on wisdom and leadership, and dropped mechanical and explosives. My first character was too mediocre in everything. My new team is Hitman, Red, Livewire (she grew on me!), Thor, and a new guy, I think he's Mongolian. So far they seem pretty competent, but it also helps that I'm getting better at positioning and understanding how to flank. Also, be warned. I took a boat to a mine at the northwestern part of the map, and nearly got massacred! There are definitely harder regions out there. My team wasn't ready for that yet.

I just had my first real challenging fight in JA3. It was a defense mission, and at one point my rooftop sniper (Ice) fell through the ceiling after an explosion. To add insult to injury, our trained recruits then hit us with some friendly fire. Everyone survived, but it was touch and go. I'm very happy with the game so far. It nails the JA2 vibe and looks great. Livewire has also grown on me. There is a lot of merc chatter. This will be a very replayable game.

Ok, 2 hours in and I can give my early impressions on JA3. First off, they've captured the tone and feel of JA2. It's no surprise that Ian Currie is behind it, because it feels like Jagged Alliance. It starts out just like JA2. You create a character. You contract some mercs. You land in a hotspot. The AIM desktop is very well done. Moving around the map is pretty simple. I'm still working out the combat, but it looks like you are going to be able to set up some pretty good ambushes. It's weird not having percentages when you try to shoot someone. Right now Ice is basically my killer and then I have a bunch of specialists that are so-so. Barry and Red for bombs, Livewire for mechanicals, and MD for medical. Livewire is a bit annoying, but she will probably grow on me. Actually Ice's character is oddly off putting. Think C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man. Other than that, the Mercs all seem pretty similar to the previous games and the NPC's are decent. Anyways, I'm a couple areas in, so I'll post more as I get deeper later.

Jagged Alliance 3.

A week in San Diego with my wife on the government's dime? It sounded like a fun challenge. Most of my vacations revolve around exercise, so training with the Marines seemed up my alley. My wife is the one who got us on board. She teaches PE and interacts with her local recruiter regularly, so he set us up. Teachers don't get a lot of chances to get flown places and spoiled for a week, either.

Well he can't use it now. He'd be beholden to you for suggesting it.

I suppose we could have switched it form semi to full, but I think the range instructors were just trying to make sure we hit our targets. Military recruiting is a pretty massive machine. The days of the draft are long gone, so now they need to focus on the High Schools and Colleges and convince young men and women it is a good option. They also have a surprising amount of restrictions. For example, if you take Adderall, you are ineligible. Obviously there are a fair amount of Americans that can't meet the physical requirements as well. Really they seem to be targeting kids with potential that lack either purpose, discipline, or means. As an educator, it's usually pretty easy to tell who those kids are after a year or two in the classroom, so it makes sense that they want us to be on board. Am I now basically a Marine mouthpiece in the classroom? No. I'll be honest if I have a student interested in military service. They are going to spend 3 months breaking you down in order to make you a Marine. It isn't for everyone. It's also an infantry organization first and foremost. Other branches are probably safer. But we met with Marines at all levels and none of them sounded the least bit regretful. Was that just a clever show for us? On some levels, I'd say yes, but those Marines at the Warriors breakfast were pretty raw and honest.

My wife and I had an interesting week taking part in an Educators Workshop for the Marine Corp. They flew us down to San Diego for a week. On day 1, we stepped on the yellow footprints, got yelled at by a drill instructor, and then took part in a combat fitness test. We spent that day at the Marine Corp. Recruit Depot and got to observe a lot of training and speak to the Chief of Staff. On day 2 we went to Camp Pendleton and took part in Range training and a 12-stall obstacle course, which were basically team puzzles. You had to do things like evacuate a team member over terrain without touching the ground. It was like a souped up version of the floor is lava. My team did a lot of casualty laps, as we did not succeed. I was surprised they let us fire rifles. The recruits spend a week just learning how to hold the rifle. We got about 10 minutes of instruction and then we fired 10 rounds at 100 yard targets. I was pretty mediocre at it. My wife is a better shot. Day 2 also had us observe a group finishing the Crucible and receiving their Eagle, Globe and Anchor. They spend 58 hours out on the march and get pushed to their physical and mental limits on week 10 of boot camp, and this is the culmination of that. We got to eat with them afterwards at the Warriors breakfast and talk to the recruits. They were extremely wiped out, but everyone I talked to was proud of the accomplishment. That was a pretty powerful moment. Day 3 sent us to Miramar, where we got to see the Flight Line and talk to Marines on active duty. It was pretty crazy having the jets take off and land right next to us. My wife and I also had dinner with one of her former students at Stone Brewing in Liberty Station. The student is in the Navy and is stationed there, and it was great to catch up with her. She used to watch our little kids at sporting events in High School, and now she has her own son, so it was a very neat moment. On Day 4 we watched the Morning Colors and a graduation ceremony, and then flew home. It was a very unique experience and gave me a much better feel for the process of boot camp. There was a lot of emphasis placed on the educational opportunities available for Marines, and I was impressed by that. The leadership speakers like the Chief of Staff were very well spoken. They were all 30 years into the job and passionate. They were also surprisingly progressive in they way they answered our questions. There was an emphasis on the idea that the Marine Corp is not the same as it was 20 years ago. They focused on accountability a lot. A good example of this is when a teacher asked about transgender recruits. First, he said it isn't really an issue at the MCRD. It is an issue for old people, and the MCRD is filled with young people who are much more fluid in their thinking. They handle it simply. Your physical testing scores are based on biological sex, but you bunk with your identified gender. That was interesting to hear. We were surrounded by recruiters and a few drill instructors through the week and they were great. It was a very unique experience.

FF seems like they created the 'standard jrpg'. They certainly popularized it. FFIV was my favorite, I think. Which is the one where you take part in an opera?

I mentioned our Hollywood sign hike, but we also visited the new Mario World, went to the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, and went to a extremely good Crab house is Korea Town while we were in LA this last week. Here are some pics:

We are on vacation for the week in beautiful Burbank California. My daughter wanted to hike to the Hollywood sign. There is an easy trail that is a mostly paved road to get there, or there is a technical and strenuous ridgeline trail that makes you climb in certain spots and skirts the edge of a cliff. You can imagine which one I chose. We had a great time on our 5+ mile hike and everyone survived.