Hurlshort

I am terrible at making a decent fruit smoothie. It always comes out as too bitter, or too seedy. I have managed to master the protein shake. 1 1/2 cups of oat milk, 2 scoops or organic powder, and 1 frozen banana. That's a pretty decent start to my day. The oat milk is probably too much sugar, but whatever. I gave up my orange juice habit at least.

Wells Fargo had to cut me a decent check after it was shown they gave worse rates to minorities during the last housing boom. Shocking that such an upstanding institution would do such a thing.

At least when I sub french, I can just speak in an outrageous accent. In music I just walk around hitting cymbals.

Was it though? I've subbed for band a few times. I am self-aware enough to know that I am not actually teaching those kids anything about music. I'm just filling in until the real teacher can return.

In Oklahoma, 10k is probably half thier salary for the year. Such a strange strategy in the middle of a massive national teacher shortage.

We teach metric and imperial, but since everything in the US still uses imperial, that's what tends to stick for people. Personally I measure my fuel in kilograms, so I've gone metric. Hydrogen is the future!

I'm back at Conan Exiles. I decided to strip out all my mods and start a new game fresh. Funcom has done a good job of implementing a lot of quality of life stuff since I last played it plain. Just having fun in single player mode and starting my new empire from the ground up. I have more hours in this game than anything else I have ever played.

Started my taxes. 😑

It does seem to introduce a new Mad Max style faction, so that's something. Not that the game lacks factions, mind you, but I guess this could replace the rather lackluster raiders that you encounter in a few places. But honestly I'd rather them give some depth to the Pandorans. At this point you will spend more time dealing with human factions than combatting the global threat.

Phoenix Point is good, and some of the DLC has really improved the game experience. I'm not a fan of vehicles, so this one doesn't strike my fancy. But the game is definitely worth a spin, particularly if you like the Xcom style of games. It has more of a slow strategy game approach than the fast progression of the newer Xcom games, but I'd say try it out if you own it.

Paramount+ is 99 cents through Amazon Prime. Not to tempt you, but I did just finish up the Real World Season 1 reunion on the service. I cut the cable cord years ago though, so I have a decent budget for streaming services.

This is always a matter of historical khan-text. I'll show myself out.

I have students debating whether the Mongols were civilized or barbaric in class, and they are using posters to illustrate their arguments. My favorite so far starts with "The Mongols: It's All About the Khan-text".

I'm not entirely sure if it is a lack of quality content. I'd actually say that, as we age, it gets harder to find exciting content that fits our preference because WE have changed as we have gotten older. I've already seen a lot, so it gets harder and harder to find something new and exciting. I mean, there certainly is a lot more content out than there was when I was growing up. Granted quantity doesn't equal quality, but pretty much every genre of game is getting solid releases every year, even if some rely on smaller indie studios. Anyways, nothing wrong with becoming more discerning and cautious of your time as you age, but I hesitate to blame the industries completely. They brought back the Dark Crystal, for heaven's sake. Sure, Netflix cancelled it after a season, but there is clearly a lot of work out there to try and tap into new niches.

This is true commitment to the bit:

Has this been addressed yet? I remember with Outer Worlds it was a smaller project and they just didn't have the resources to invest in 3rd person, but I'd imagine they could give an answer about whether it will be included in Avowed.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/vaccine-scientists-discredited-claims-bolstered-022010483.html This stuff kills me. I mean, it's like that whole '9 our of 10 doctors recommend' advertising campaign that used to be popular back in the day. It amazes me that there is an entire population that is like, "yeah, but that 1 out of 10 is the one I want to hear more about!"

Sometimes I get into cycles of "search stores for games on sale that look engaging, buy game, play for a bit, then go back to searching." Usually this is just because it hasn't captured my imagination. Alternatively, I love when I can really get into the lore of a game. But lately I've been trying to get better at looking over my own vast library and loading up games I already have. Of course, that results in me playing games I know I will enjoy. Right now I'm hooked again on Xcom. The tough part is there just aren't that many games released any more that I know will be a home run for me. The next Xcom or Avowed are probably the closest. I also find that, more and more, I need to capture a certain mood to really enjoy games. Sometimes that means getting up early and playing before the rest of the house wakes up, sometimes that means pouring a beer and playing Disco Elysian when the sun goes down. It's weird how fickle I can be about my gaming time.

My wife tested negative yesterday and is back in action, so no more couch for me. My son will test later today. Both were just congested and had headaches off and on. I still feel great and tested negative, knock on wood. Back is a little stiff from my couch. I wonder how important exercise is for recovery? My wife went and ran a 5k on Sunday by herself, just to get out of the house and move a bit after a week of quarantine. It seemed to help her quite a bit. We still have a race on Saturday, so hopefully everything continues well. There is also quite a bit of stigma surrounding this thing, so it is interesting navigating the social aspects of it.

I'm not really a fan, but most of my buddies are, and they have major issues with him. They go apoplectic at least a couple times a game. I enjoy it because it is fun to troll them. But he does seem to find ways to win when it matters, so I'm not sure why they can't get behind the guy. They also didn't like Alex Smith, which I never understood. Personally I just root for guys that went to San Jose State...which is a super short list right now. I think I'll get a couple guys going to the draft this year.

Just to explain the timeline, by March of 2020 most schools went virtual at the start of the pandemic. Then when the 2020/2021 school year started anew around August/September, many states stayed virtual. This required an entire re-imagining of the educational experience. Schools had to re-work schedules, material distribution, attendance, etc. Teachers had to figure out how to deliver a full year of instruction digitally to students they had never really met in person. Many schools were hoping to return to in-person halfway through the year. This require a lot of planning as well. A school year is like a transcontinental train, and making major course changes during the year is difficult. But we also had a big covid surge in December that stopped a number of the January plans to return. Some states went back anyways, some never even went virtual to begin with, and many ended up with a hybrid model around March of the 2021 year. With vaccines being widely available, it was looking good that the 2021/2022 school year would be back in person. So everyone had the summer to prep for that, and that is what the vast majority of schools across the country are doing right now, even with the omicron surge. Thank goodness, because I don't know a single educator who enjoyed the virtual experience. But tons of parents don't really get any of this, because they see schools as a baby sitting service for their kids. So they vote for the politician that promises they will get day care for their kids without having to worry about masks and critical thinking skills.

Public schools are open in Virginia, just like in California.

Heh, I was pondering DP's fascination with Zerohedge and came across this gem of an article: https://money.cnn.com/2014/09/25/investing/zero-hedge-wall-street-blog-finance/index.html Not much has changed in 8 years.

Heck yeah. It's the Xcom/buddy cop movie crossover we've always needed.