Hurlshort

That's the thing, Cyberpunk is way more interactive when it comes to conversations. The NPC's seem more diverse. You can wander around the stores and apartments and they are more detailed and fleshed out than in GTA. It's not a perfect game, but neither is GTA. They have very different focus points.

Heh, I think we talked about that one earlier. GTA V is excellent. It is amazing what Rockstar has done with these open world action games. The growth from GTA3 to 5 is also remarkable. But having great driving and physics is what defines the GTA series. That and the crime boss storyline. The two games don't really benefit from any type of comparison. Cyberpunk was designed with some similar goals, but it is still an RPG first. It is focused on character development and conversation trees. It does that really well. It also has some pretty amazing attention to detail when it comes to atmospheric storytelling. Those are the strengths of the developers, and the game plays to them. Just like Rockstar plays to their strengths in GTA. So yeah, I'm happy to live in a world where both of these types of games exist. Tearing one down for not being the other seems like a dumb idea if you like good games.

Such is the beauty and the tragedy of the school system. Every school site, district, county, and state has their own way of doing things. Standardization is impractical and unwieldy, and at the end of the day, you have to have a decent teacher to drive any of the content anyways. I taught The Giver and Animal Farm when I taught ELA. Those were my main novels. Honestly that was all I had time for, too, and it helped that I was able to tie both into my Social Science curriculum. It is probably good I only teach SS now.

They still make them memorize the times tables. I remember when my first kid was born, I had these grand ideals about teaching them all of the world religions and helping them becomes a spiritually flexible and transcendent individual. Needless to say, imparting my vast wisdom was easier said than done. Early on it's just about keeping the self destructive buggers alive, and now I'm just trying to keep my daughter from getting regretful tattoos behind my back.

That is a terrible idea. You want your child to be exposed to a wide range of ideas, but you want them to be completely sheltered? How does that work, exactly? I teach Machiavelli in depth in 7th grade. It is a part of the curriculum, and it plays well with the transition from feudal kingdoms to city-states in Italy during the Renaissance. When I discuss the concept of the end justifying the means, only about 5 percent of students really get it. I can talk until I am blue in the face about it, but it is a complex concept. Some aren't interested, but most just lack the context about how society works. Homeschooling your kid isn't going to help them develop that context. I have no idea where and why Orwell would be banned. I doubt it is in my school district, but it isn't tied closely to my curriculum. Machiavelli, Dante, Cervantes, and Chaucer are all part of my classroom library. Edit: Now that I think on it, I taught Animal Farm years ago when I still had ELA classes.

But I am allergic to peanuts!

It is laughable that you can only expose and examine inequity in a social science classroom. ELA teachers are pretty smart, too.

So we are getting our $600 I guess? Or we might get more? I don't know, this is a mess.

Never apologize to these censoring fascists! Banning stuff rarely has much to do with the content itself. Instead it is just a way of controlling people through their access to information. You know, instead of teaching them to think critically about what they are reading. It is the laziest form of manipulation, I guess. edit: Also, bit comical to hide an article on censorship behind a paywall. Certain articles should just be easy to read.

Signature verification is a tricky thing. I think my signature on the state registrar is from 20 years ago, so that would not be a great way to validate.

For me, I really need a time period with decent plumbing and toilet paper. Also, antibiotics are nice.

Theoretically I'd like to say it is your game, have fun with it any way you want. In practice I do tend to feel let down when I end up changing the difficulty of cheating. It can take away the sense of accomplishment or challenge and then I typically drop the game shortly after. It's a tough balance. Some games I know right away to play on easy to avoid frustration. For some reason, save scumming has always been ok with me. I can do that all day as long as I accomplish what I'm trying to do. But that tends to be a much better strategy in turn based games.

Oops, X4 is the one I played. I can't keep track of all these algebraic equations. I have no way to compare it to X2 or X3 unfortunately.

Midnight Sky played a little fast and loose with cold weather conditions in the arctic circle.

Pixar's newest movie Soul released on Disney+. It was good! Nowadays I judge movies based on how often I check the timer to see when it is going to wrap up. My attention span isn't what it used to be. But Soul flew by and was enjoyable.

This is the only twitch channel I would ever think about watching.

8-mile run this morning with a very small group. It's a shame, since out Christmas Eve run is usually a big event, but everyone is being cautious and we've broken into little pods.

You really good into science. I am sorry for doubting you.

Is the lesson here that definitions change as more evidence becomes available? OoooooOOOooooOOO smoking gun!

Chicken fryer and gaming console in one? Take my money!

As I said, Metacritic is flawed. In terms of user ratings, they are a mess. More popular, higher selling games, are typically going to have a bunch of garbage reviews because people are weird about hating stuff. PoE II just doesn't get that sort of attention, negative or positive. PoE II had 633 user ratings, Outer Worlds had 1,970. Steam actually has 7,117 reviews for Outer Worlds and it is listed as Very Positive. I consider that a better source, since it shows hours played. It still is going to be flawed. You will get the weirdos that put 1,000 hours in and then slam it. But Metacritic doesn't even really have a way to know if the person bought it. Considering it launched on Steam a year late, that also seems like a good sign. Pillars II is also Very Positive on Steam with 7,741 reviews. edit: Also a bit weird, PoE II had 71 critical reviews, while Outer Worlds had 30. What happened there?

A request has been made for a rack of ribs on Christmas Eve, so I will be figuring out how to pull that off. We will probably walk the neighborhood and look at the lights, and then watch Christmas movies. It is just our family. Christmas day I'll make pancakes, and then I think we are doing Enchiladas for dinner. We are also planning a socially distanced bike ride with some other family members during the day.

I hope Harebrained returns to Shadowrun soon. I could not get into their Battletech games, but I love Shadowrun sooooo much!

It has become more profitable as I have figure out the best way to do it. I had a batch at 6:30 AM this morning that paid $55 for about 90 minutes of work and maybe 10 miles of driving. That is pretty typical for the early jobs. I would say I am averaging $15-25 an hour. I do about 12-15 hours a week total.

Hmm, I finished Wasteland 3 as well and forgot it. I will blame the ending on that. It was decent though.