Hurlshort

Hah, I apologize. Honestly I don't know why anyone expect me to remember anything anymore. I was more than willing to apologize to KP for thinking he didn't like It's Always Sunny too. My mind is going. Names are the worst, too.

Hah, thanks Barti, I feel very seen. We all definitely mellow with age. I still can't get into Curb Your Enthusiasm though. I have tried a few times. It just doesnt hook me.

Wait...you actually like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? I remember you specifically giving me crap about my love for It's Always Sunny years ago.

I have some thoughts on this. 1. The crisis will be mitigated by the retirement packages most teachers have to look forward to. It is easy to leave education in the first 5 years, but after that you are walking away from a fairly decent package, depending on the state. It will be important that districts continue to make that attractive. There have been 2 times in my 20 year career where I seriously thought about pivoting, and it was the long term picture that kept me going through the career itch. 2. The crisis is necessary. My salary schedule has barely changed in the last 10 years. I have moved up the ladder, but we are not even keeping up with COLA costs on a yearly basis. Some districts do better than others. But the reality is teachers need to make more money. It is the only surefire way to attract more people to the profession. It needs to be a decent living. My wife and I cannot afford houses on teacher's salaries, despite nearing the top of the salary schedule. When we started our career, it was possible. Teacher salaries were never fantastic to begin with, but they have stagnated while everything else has increased. I could easily go on about this. I also think we should go to a 4-day teaching schedule with the 5th day acting as a flex day. They want us having conferences, teaching social emotional content, and serving on committees, but then they also want us teaching all the educational standards to 180 students 5 days a week. It is exhausting. Every teacher I know enjoys being in the class with the students and teaching. It is the extra stuff that burns people out.

I don't get the John Brown/Harper's Ferry reference at all, GD. That was just 22 people. I guess it was more organized, but I can't see how it really compares. It went way worse for the insurrectionists, too.

Warnings were given. I am retiring to the desert. This is my first week back to serious training. I have 12 weeks until my half Ironman race, so time to get serious. So far I have swam twice, run twice, and got in a good climbing road bike ride. I just need anothe swim, bike, and run to finish the week out.

Biden is talking about the Capitol Riot and I have it on in the background. I'm not sure why anyone would watch this stuff closely, it seems like a snooze fest. Which is actually amazing, because in only a year we are back to pretty boring politics as usual instead of the frenetic stress fest that was the previous administration.

I watched Reno 911!: Hunt for QAnon. It was clearly what you end up with when you quarantine an improv group for a year. I doubt there was a script. Instead they just adlibbed around certain set pieces. But I enjoyed the heck out of it and it was fun to see the Reno 911! crew once again. It was much more like the show than the Miami movie. Take that for what you will.

The writing is usually the biggest complaint I see from people. It is a strange tone, for sure.

I had a crazy facebook friend connect Omikron: The Nomad Soul to the new strain of Covid. Apparently it is a conspiracy by Microsoft, and the game is a sign of that.

Wait, that actually is unheard of. How many vaccinated people are dying of covid?

I just reached the final chapter of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. I was looking for a decent JRPG and this did a good job of scratching that itch. There are like 14 games in the series, so I'm not sure if I will move onto the next one, but it is nice to know the option is there. I've also started back up with Lord of the Rings Online. My level 101 captain is making his way through Gondor and trying to figure out what all these skills do...again. 14 years of on and off again play hasn't made it any easier to figure out what all the buttons and items do.

Yeah, I didn't really take it very seriously as a martial arts display. It is a fun and fairly ridiculous scene about how hardcore the Aiel are. It isn't really worth deep diving into any of the fight scenes of the show. Don't look too closely at the trollocs.

I finished Wheel of Time Season 1. I was very down on it after the 1st episode, but then I thought it found a decent rhythm for a bit. The last couple episodes slowed down and had more meh than good for me, but I didn't hate the ending or anything. I mean, it set a stage for the next season. For me, the good parts were Rand's mom killing people while pregnant and a bit more screentime for Tam. I thought Lan and Nynaeve had a fairly mature romance thread that was better than the other awkward ones. I like the Dark One actor and Padan Fain. I think Rand is actually pretty well acted. The Seanchan looked neat in their 10 seconds of screentime. I'll keep watching. It isn't as bad as it was in episode 1. I hope it continues to improve.

Hah, I enjoyed Iron Sky but it was absurd enough to be a fun parody of the US. Much like idiocracy, there are some jokes that hit close to home, but they are still jokes. Don't Look Up lacks that absurd charm.

Don't Look Up was too cynical for my tastes. It had some good moments. The Elon Musk guy was hilarious. I get that people are comparing the pandemic response to what happens in the movie, but in reality we have responded amazingly well scientifically and medically to the global challenge. Sure, there are morons and politicians that play on those people, but we do tend to move in the right direction when needed. So the movie is silly but it has some fun zingers.

Has there ever been a less likeable MVP in sports? I mean, Tom Brady is pretty weird, but he isn't exactly a full time troll like Rodgers.

The only poster I have ever ignored was Volourn. But it was more because I had to be in a certain mood to really appreciate his posts. Eventually hitting the reveal button felt like opening a present. What did that krazy kid say now?

Sadly, people that are desperate for attention rarely notice the door has been shut on their face.

I'm pretty sure we are getting Xcom 3 next year. But failing that I'll play Xenonauts 2.

Fun facts about California and Hurlshot, we both support the 2nd amendment fully. I don't need guns myself because I can outrun bullets, but my wife used to skeet shoot competitively and I have a fair amount of friends who are hunters. What I would love to see if a change in gun culture in this country. It is ridiculous how we glamorize them. They are dangerous tools and should be treated as such. The NRA should be the first to reinforce that notion. Also, California is too expensive. Crowding varies widely depending on the area. But it is a beautiful state and I love it dearly. If it wasn't so expensive I would never leave. It is a political mixed bag like everywhere else. Speaking of politics, I was pulled over by a sheriff yesterday for slow rolling through a stop sign on my road bike. We were so close! https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB122 No ticket, just a warning. He also said I should not take up the whole lane going 5 miles an hour. First off, I was going 20, so thanks for the dig Officer. Secondly, I do have the right to the lane when there is no bike lane. We were coming up on a blind curve and it was unsafe for him to try and pass. But I didn't argue because it was clear he was not going to get out of his cruiser in the drizzling rain and write a ticket. This was also on a sparsely travelled backroad, so I'm guessing he was just bored.

Last night we got whooped in our playoff hockey game. It was 11 PM at night, and those games are only worth he loss of sleep when we win. The tough part was we had played the same team the previous week and lost a very close game 5-4. We were the 6th seed and they were the 3rd, but we figured we could make it competitive game. We showed up with pretty much the same roster, but they rolled out a short bench with only their good players. There is something called addition by subtraction in hockey. With only 5 guys out on the ice at a time, if they have 1 or 2 weak skaters, it gives us a little room to work with. If all 5 are fast college kids, it can make for a long night. I spent a lot of time skating very hard with little to show for it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59793726 Rest in peace, Desmond Tutu.

Went to bed at 10. Got up at midnight and put out Santa stuff. Kids woke us up at 2 AM. This is all my fault. I did the same thing to my parents as a kid.