Hurlshort

That is a daily occurrence in 7th grade. What's a eunuch? What's circumcision?

I also just picked up this game on sale and plan on playing it over the break.

Tuna was ruined for me by some Portuguese fishermen neighbors. They would give us jars of tuna filets in olive oil. It was amazing, but now I can't touch the grocery canned stuff. We also moved and lost touch with the fishermen, so now my life is empty. We used to get fresh salmon that way too.

Man, 5 pounds of veal is like $100 today!

Santa is part of the Christmas spirit. My kids know at this point, but they enjoy the illusion as much as I do, so we keep it going. It probably helps that I never answer questions directly from my children. Every query is a chance to test their critical thinking skills.

This is usually when I introduce the concept of apocrypha storytelling in history to my classes. My favorite is the middle finger and English Longbowmen.

You don't need steriods to look like Cavill, particularly with nutrition and exercise.

Avatar - Titanic 2 My daughter was insistent that we see it opening weekend. I was pretty skeptical about the 3+ hour runtime, but I took the family out to a matinee. I wasn't sure where they were going to go with the story, (other than underwater), but I was pretty happy with it. If the first one was an attack on mining and deforestation, this was an attack on whaling. That being said, it was more about a small family trying to stay together and I thought that part was well done. It was also a visually stunning film. That is no surprise, but I did find myself grinning at the visuals a few times. I didn't really check my watch until about 2 hours in, so that was good. I wouldn't say it dragged on too much. I can also see how it is set up for the sequels now and I like the direction. But I enjoyed the first one, so if you didn't, then this will probably be torture for you. Which is a bummer because it is a beautiful film and seeing it in the theater was the right choice.

Finish? I thought the goal was just to build cool bases in the water and live your best life as an Underwater Ice Road Trucker.

Whelp, I finished my New Vegas run. I played through 2 of the DLC (Old World Blues, Dead Money) but when I went to play Honest Hearts, it started to crash frequently. I tried a few things that didn't work, so I decided to just skip the last 2 DLC and finish the game. I sided with the NCR this time (last time I went with Yes Man.) so it was nice to see that ending. I was actually hoping to finish more content, but the game was locking up too often. That being said, I still finished way more of the side quests than I did back when I originally played it. Now maybe I'll play Subnautica, since they just upgraded the habitat options and I can make my sprawling sea base better.

I'm not sure how you can have any expectations about the Barbie movie. I mean that in a good way. It seems to be fully embracing absurdity. Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie don't typically choose to do basic movies, so there had to have been something unique that convinced them to sign on for this. I think it is safe to say it won't be a kids movie. My daughter watched Barbie Island Princess on repeat for a couple years, so I'm not expecting that.

I'm not paying for her to go lick banana slugs in the Santa Cruz mountains. Actually I have no idea how I'm going to pay for any of this. But San Francisco State has the film production programs she wants, so I can figure that one out. Cal would require a decent Field Hockey scholarship, and she would best fit an engineering program there, given her construction aptitude. I do love the Cal campus though.

I went over my daughter's PSAT scores with her today. She has pretty serious dyslexia, and they didn't really do any accommodations for the PSAT, so she ended up with a 730 (out of 1600). It can be tough to be both supportive and honest in moments like that. She asked if that was a good score, and I said it is definitely a score. I told her she is probably going to need to get it up to 900 to get into San Francisco State. She asked what she needed to do if she wants to get into Berkeley. I told her she is going to need to sue someone. I couldn't help myself. Thankfully they actually dropped the SAT requirements for State Schools, so she doesn't really need to worry about it. She just needs to keep her GPA up and keep doing all of the extracurricular stuff she tends to thrive in.

That's what she said.

There is a great scene in the movie Timbuktu where they are arguing about French football and one guy claims they bought the World Cup from Brazil for a boatload of rice. I couldn't find it, but here is an excellent scene regardless. edit: We are watching this Friday in my classes.

I am much more worried about @Katphood and the protests in Iran.

Elf is probably tied with Die Hard for me.

Whelan's brother did point out the hypocrisy of Trump, which is nice to see. https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3769349-paul-whelans-brother-slams-trump-after-prisoner-swap-criticism/

My wife knows about you guys, but I don't need to worry about her browsing the forum. I bought a Zwift Hub Trainer, which is kind of a gift for both of us, but I have a feeling I will be using it most of the time. Still it's a pretty great price for a decent smart trainer. I almost bought a 2nd so we could ride side by side, but I figure I should see how well we do with one for now.

'Murica

I mean, I've always known that artificial crap is poison. I don't understand why the solution to too much sugar is to eat some chemicals created in a lab. Just give me the damn sugar.

It's fair to say it was dumb to bring weed with her to Russia, but it's a bit much to say she deserves 9 years in prison for it. The reasonable punishment is confiscation, deportation, and maybe a travel ban. There are a lot of people in the comments section of Fox News and Facebook that love to spout "She broke the law! Let her rot!"

It's hard to turn down that salary though. Rumors are she makes about a million in Russia compared to about $200k in the WNBA. It's also good for basketball to have athletes go abroad and grow the sport. I'd imagine this will basically kill women's basketball in Russia, at least from an international perspective. My wife took a dance contract abroad when she was younger. It was a big deal to have that opportunity. It was in Japan, so it wasn't a huge risk, but I can still see why people would take these contracts. A bunch of the other dancers were from Russia.

Her celebrity is what put her in Russia in the first place. The Fogel situation also sounds tragic. He also went there to work for the people of Russia and it is ridiculous that he is treated this way. It is 100% on Russia. This just seems like a very negative approach to good news. It is good that Brittney Griner has been released. That doesn't take away from the injustice that other people are facing around the world. Does the US need to continue to work for their benefit? Of course. But this is still a positive story.

Again, celebrity put her in the situation in the first place.