I worked a precinct that was right next to a huge nursing home. One guy who was 98, came in and after getting his ballot fell down and was unresponsive. Luckily the home had their own staff join the groups that came to vote and resuscitated him and he continued exactly where he left off at tortoise pace.

Also lots of people who were not registered or at the wrong polling place but insist on voting anyways despite me patiently explaining and showing them how to solve the issue. They demand to “vote” so they get a provisional ballot that we dutifully process which likely will be rejected. All of them are certain we are stealing their ballot, or trying to keep them from voting. I always say to them, “you seem like you are someone who knows a lot about the election process and has the time, we need people like you to volunteer” while offering them the volunteering paperwork. They leave pretty quickly after that.

Parenting (and childhood) is intense and unrelenting. You can’t expect parents to be on stage continuously and continue to be patient and kind. You also can’t expect a 7 year old to be happy listening to their parents talk about work for 45 minutes. Taking breaks or responsibly drinking a beer is perfectly fine and isn’t going to negatively impact the child any more than allowing them to watch some age appropriate media for the time before they eat.

Ultracrepidarian

An ultracrepidarian—from ultra- (“beyond”) and crepidarian (“things related to shoes”)—is a person considered to have ignored this advice and to be offering opinions they know nothing about.

The word is derived from a longer Latin phrase and refers to a story from Pliny the Elder

The phrase is recorded in Book 35 of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History as ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret[1] (“Let the cobbler not judge beyond the crepida”) and ascribed to the Greek painter Apelles of Kos. Supposedly, Apelles would put new paintings on public display and hide behind them to hear and act on their reception.[2] On one occasion, a shoemaker (Latin sutor) noted that one of the crepides[a] in a painting had the wrong number of straps and was so delighted when he found the error corrected the next day that he started in on criticizing the legs.[2] Indignant, Apelles came from his hiding place and admonished him to confine his opinions to the shoes.[2] Pliny then states that since that time it had become proverbial.[2]

If you’re down for a retro RPG via an emulator, Earthbound. The overarching story is about dealing with traumatic events as a child and coming of age while hitting the endearing but quirky note similar to games like Undertale that was a cult classic on the SNES. It came boxed with a full color, complete strategy guide made to look like a travel guide so it’s intended not to be too difficult and really experience the story.

I will second Nethack. The depth of that game for it’s size is astounding.

FFT is a game I have played through 3+ times with probably 1,000+ total playtime and I’ve played all the games you mention. I recommended FFT to a friend a few years ago and watched him play through the first couple missions and it’s easy to forget the difficulty curve of that game if you haven’t played an older style TRPG. A lot of the mechanics aren’t really explained well (stat growth for example), there’s permadeath, a few instances of possible softlocking, and a bunch of really obscure requirements to access some of the content and recruit some of the characters.

I think it suffers from sequel syndrome where the newer TRPGs have better quality of life aspects to them. That said there are rumors of a remake that maybe will address some of that.

I never tried that one but I did play the The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia and it was not bad. I swear I am not a typing game enthusiast but it is weird there are two zombie typing games.

I always wanted Mario Teaches Typing.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.

hear ye

I got access to a really nice VR system through work and binged through Half Life Alyx. I was in a room that was large enough to walk around in, but for larger moves you use the controller to teleport a short distance. Also you can gravity attract items within a few yards with your gloves.

After playing the first time I went to cook dinner and got embarrassingly frustrated when I tried to summon a spoon with a hand gesture.

I played Like a Dragon with no background and it was a great experience. Really wacky in a satisfying way. Only grievance is there is ~10 hours of cut scenes to beat the game.

As someone who has been in the 3d printing space for awhile, I am amazed at how cheap and featured the entry level printers are. For ~$150 you can get a printer with auto bed leveling and a magnetic bed. At $15/lb of filament, you only need a few projects to pay for itself.

For example, I printed the housing for a USB hub for a friend which is a clone for a ridiculously expensive one that fits Lovesac couches and he paid me $50. It cost ~$2 of filament and ended up printing a few more for others. That alone paid for the cost of the printer.

For anyone who is thinking about it, now is a great time to enter the hobby.

Nethack is like the Jumanji of games. You finish it by introducing someone else to it.