Hurlshort

Played a bit of the fancy new Oblivion. I forgot how much I prefer the levelling and character system in this game compared to Skyrim. So far I'm having fun with it. I don't remember much of anything from playing it like 20 years ago, so it's fresh.

Huh. I know there is a whole Predator mythos built through the comics, but the movies have always kept it as more of a tease. Hopefully it doesn't ruin the magic of the Predator as a big baddie.

Does the remaster fix the funny leveling system where bandits are all walking around in in super expensive glass armor towards the later game?

I don't really remember Oblivion being all that exciting in terms of story and setting. Is that the one where I had to close a bunch of gates? Morrowind would be more interesting to me. Maybe that will be next.

My wife and I were on a bike ride and decided to swing into the store for a bag of potatoes. But then we noticed the hams were super cheap, so we got an 8-pound ham for about $5. It was good, but balancing the ham while cycling home was a bit tricky.

Solasta - I owned this on Steam and never got very far. I'd make a party, and then re-think my choices, and start again. I did this a half dozen times. So basically I had 20 hours of making characters. I decided to try again, but I wanted the DLC classes, so I bought the Lightbrimger Edition on GoG, as it was on sale for a good price. I managed to push past the first mission and now I'm starting to get into the rhythm. Hopefully it lasts. 😆

I'm a bit bummed it isn't more of a Bad Batch situation. The trailer was probably supposed to highlight how there are all these different types of characters in the squad, but it doesn't make a lot of sense in the setting to have a jedi, a mandalorian, a smuggler, and a trooper all jumping out of a ship together. Of course, space fantasy doesn't have to make sense if the gameplay is good.

Star Wars Xcom during the Clone Wars seems like a slam dunk for me. I love all of those things.

Yeah, I've been trying to explain to my students how important it is going to be to develop a voice as a writer. All of this AI generated stuff is going to mean it will actually be easier to stand out from the crowd if you avoid using it. Imagine how many AI generated essays schools are being forced to read through right now?

Dredge

G20 - Alternative history movie is Kamala Harris won the presidency. I kid! But Viola Davis was fantastic in a Die Hard scenario. It made me forget our current political mess for a bit and that was worth the time.

@ShadySands It sounds like it is time to enroll your kid in hockey. Miracle and Mystery, Alaska are both fairly family friendly. Goon and Slapshot, not so much, but they are hilarious.

I'm confused on that model. It has microtransactions, DLC and premium. Is premium representing the regular purchase of the game? Does that mean MTX more than doubles the revenue of game sales?

50 minutes for lunch!?! That's luxurious. I've had 30 minutes for lunch for my entire career.

You didn't have a brunch or recess growing up? It feels like the schedule has always been a couple early classes, break around 10, a couple more classes, lunch, a couple afternoon classes, end the day. Although I remember we used to serve breakfast. That has been replaced by brunch.

The autism epidemic is caused by actually testing for autism. It was 1 in 10,000 because we just didn't diagnose people. This is stupidity of the highest order. Have old people always been this stupid? What could be the cause of Boomer brainrot?

I love the books, and it seems like they nailed it on this one. Might need to finally subscribe to AppleTV for a month to binge it.

Foreign Language at the High School level in the US is a bit of a racket. You are required to take 2 years (3 to qualify for a lot of colleges.) The options are typically Spanish or French, and the teachers have to compete to try and get enough enrollment in their classes. The actual fluency rate of a student after a few years of these classes is abysmally low. I'm talking maybe 10% of students walk away from these programs with a decent understanding of a new language. It's just not really a good model. These are High School kids taking 6 other classes, extracurriculars, dealing with puberty and social issues. It's a terrible approach. Some schools offer immersion programs as early as Kindergarten. Those are way more successful. But the current High School model is not something I can really get behind. My kid is actually interested in languages, too. He uses Duolingo, he listens to Mexican folklorico music. But the class has really soured him on it all.

My son is struggling in beginner Spanish. I've been teaching for 20+ years, and I have a hard time understand what kind of madness this teacher has. This is a crazy thing to send out to parents.

Crazy. They are still a playoff team.

Whoa. Trent Reznor is bringing back NIN. That alone perks my interest.

I was going to say Wakanda would have double the tax.

Yeah, I played a bit of Indy on my PC and realized this will look a lot better on my TV. I'm excited for the PS release.