Hurlshort

Apparently Kamala Harris has a very divisive way of going down the stairs.

I finished Xcom: Chimera Squad. It was an excellent game. I feel like Firaxis has been slowly getting closer to the formula that made Jagged Alliance 2 my favorite game ever. Growing up, the top two games in terms of gameplay for me were Xcom UFO Defense and JA2. I had plenty of other favorites, but it tended to be because of story much more than gameplay. Firaxis really nailed the Xcom formula for me with their first game. But with Enemy Within and Xcom 2, they started to allow more depth of personality in the soldiers. The colorful cast of mercs has always been one of the main things missing from games not titled Jagged Alliance, but I could tell Firaxis was getting closer. So now we get a little side quest Xcom with a colorful cast of characters trying to clean up their city. First off, the gameplay was great, but that was no surprise as Firaxis has shown they know how to keep the gameplay fresh. Each soldier felt very different from a gameplay perspective. But I also enjoyed their banter and the backstories. It wasn't super deep, and I think the 25 hours was probably about right, because a longer campaign may have started to feel grindy, but it was a fun and fast adventure with an interesting roster. Godmother, Axiom, and Blue Blood were absolutely deadly by the end of my game, and Terminal was huge in support. I also had Verge, Shelter, and Patchwork stepping in nicely. Cherub was a bit boring, but he did have one really good mission where he stood in the middle of a room with his shields up and drew all of the attention while his heavily injured teammates slowly whittled down the overwhelming odds.

This just in: Not getting shot is safer than wearing a bulletproof vest.

The DLC is definitely cosmetic, but given that the best part of the game is building awesome fortresses, those cosmetics are pretty nice. But don't rush into buying anything, if you are just starting you have plenty to explore. They've been releasing content updates for free since launch though. The newest DLC is really the first content you have to purchase to get access to more than cosmetics. But it is a brand new map and starting point, so that makes sense.

I know I'm obnoxious about this, but you could take that 90 minutes and mix it up. Like, do some exercise. I find it only takes me 30 minutes of dread to get out of bed for a 30-minute workout. That workout can be whatever, jog, swim, DDPYoga. Then you have 30 minutes to recover and log in to work late. Plus now you have a few positive endorphins to help you deal with the mouthbreather.

Sure. So if the answer is 'nobody really knows', we might as well be the good guys and give immigrants the chance to be successful. You know, instead of kids in cages, hysterectomies, and other clearly terrible ways of treating human beings.

As someone who has no choice but to pay a good chunk of my salary into a state pension fund every month, it is troubling, to say the least. That being said, both of these cities are rather small fries in the grand scheme of California and their pension programs. If it blows up in their faces, it shouldn't take down the whole pension fund...hopefully. *fingers crossed* Honestly that is basically the biggest thing I am banking on as an educator. My wife and I should be able to retire at a reasonable age with a reasonable pension and we should be able to take that anywhere in the country, where the cost of living is more reasonable. Again, *fingers crossed*

This has very little to do with immigration and everything to do with wealth inequality. A bunch of immigrant kids are not pricing me out of a single family home in my town. You could probably argue that overseas cash buyers are a problem, but our immigration policies make it pretty easy for those folks to come in. I am living my best life according to Skarpie, so that's good.

Immigration is a net positive on the economy. Children of immigrants show tremendous upward mobility. Your entire premise is flawed. https://www.nap.edu/read/23550/chapter/13#424 Sure, it is the morally right thing to do to take care of these children. It is also the economically smart choice. You are buying into a politically driven narrative here. What exactly are our limited resources? They won't assimilate! They will become criminals! These are stupid conservative talking points that mean nothing. Also, automation? We can't take in these kids because robots are taking their potential jobs? What kind of logic is that? Why don't we just offer them decent educational opportunities? Here's the thing, that isn't a new idea. We've done it before and it has been successful, but for some reason we have to keep arguing it because politicians need their conservative talking points. So yeah, immigration is good. I already spend my life in education trying to help people reach a better future. I'd gladly take on a couple immigrant children if I thought it would solve the problem, but that would just be a drop in the bucket. We need systematic changes and policies that treat immigration as the economic boon that it really is.

Yeet this virus.

All of them?

Man, she's your childhood friend. Bunch of sociopaths here.

To add more fuel to the US Government fire: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/8800-migrant-children-have-been-expelled-under-pandemic-border-policy-per-court-documents/ We are definitely the bad guys here. They are children. It shouldn't matter where they come from, who the parents were, what their citizenship status is, etc. We should be taking care of them to the best of our ability.

He seems to love Dwarf Fortress. The thing is there are a ton of games being made in that mold, they just aren't necessarily RPGs and they tend to be indie studios.

Story and dialogue ruin RPGs.

A bunch of my running group were supposed to run a marathon this week in place of the Boston Marathon, but the air quality has been terrible. I was planning on pacing for about half of it, and now I'm all antsy at home. Still, I feel bad for them, since this race was supposed to take place in April, then it was delayed until September, then it was cancelled. Their training has been a nightmare. Oh, I was supposed to do a Half Ironman race today with my wife as well, but that got cancelled a couple months ago.

Family stuff is rough, sorry to hear you are dealing with it.

This is very well said. Earnest enthusiasm seems to be the key to living your best life. Just be careful not to get wrapped up in a roman numeral sex cult.

Took down the Sacred Foil cult in Chimera Squad. It was a bit tricky, but I found that my robotics lady was pretty invaluable throughout. Godmother is an absolute murderer at this point in my game. I sat my psych guys for most of this run, but I imagine they will be valuable for the last push against the psionics.

I've played in a couple multiplayer servers, but at the end of the day I enjoy the single player version more. The pacing is a bit slower, but I do like the feeling of progression. Whenever I tweak stuff it feels like it gets too easy and I end up starting over.

So far, I can say I like this character better than ComradeMaster and SonicMage. But I also liked Minsc.

There is a lot more to this than just the deficit that is alarming: https://www.usdebtclock.org/