nobody wants to work anymore

That’s helpful and reassuring, and I appreciate you sharing it! I hope that it was helpful to you at that point in your life.

Just read back through this and realized I sound approximately 130 years old

Our ten-year-old is nervous about identifying as “therian” and “otherkin” (these are Dad-is-confused quotes, not scare quotes). She’s acting like a dragon, putting shiny things in a hoard, making a nest in her bed, occasionally growling instead of communicating actual important things. I’ve listened and been supportive (I hope), but I need to talk with her more about it at length once I do some research (which she has suggested).

She gets these concepts from Scratch (ostensibly a coding platform, actually a BBS for tweens) and her very online friends. I don’t yet know how to approach it in a supportive way, but mostly I’m just upset that what should be a time in a kid’s life where they’re following their own imaginations, interests, and emotions to wherever wild place they may lead has turned into a time where you feel like you have to shoehorn yourself into This Strictly Defined Identity right this instant or else you’re a person without a clique. And it’s not the old prep/nerd/jock/goth/etc dynamic, it’s gotta be something deep-seated that will feel like a betrayal if you ever give it up.

Like, the only thing she’s really told me about this is that “some people call themselves therians and say they choose to be therian, but those aren’t real therians”. Gah! I want her to just experience being and exploring for a while without labeling and gatekeeping.

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is fun and charming. You can link yourself to a wall-climbing spider and get basically anywhere on the map way too early! You can run around on the treetops! You can sic crows on your enemies to steal their rupees!

The environmental and dungeon puzzles are great for playing with family as everyone gets to suggest various combinations combination of tables/beds/boulders/trampolines/decorative shrubs to get you where you need to go.

I think that’s a solid plan as long as the copay is reasonable

Let your indictment be your excitement at the theme park of success

It’s gonna be “Edge” as people start to suffer cloud and subscription fatigue. When “services” revenue begins to flag, companies will try to get customers back on the hardware treadmill

(This is obviously just my wishful thinking)

You’re still gonna get Tutorialized™ every time there’s a new type of Pikmin or new mechanic, but eventually, it runs out of things to introduce. Everything after that is unfiltered good stuff. There are some tough challenges, but as always, the greatest challenge is the knowledge that you can probably just barely fit one more thing in today if you time everything juuuust right

I introduced the kids to Vampire Survivors which means I had to demonstrate Vampire Survivors so now I’m back to playing Vampire Survivors.

In turn, my daughter introduced me to Monster Train, which is just as good as everyone says and a great fit for tablet gameplay.

We try to get the kids’ friends from public school over every so often and let them play out in the yard. Our oldest daughter’s friends came over last week on Friday, and the rain forced everyone inside. I asked how their days at school went, and one of them said that she didn’t go to school because she felt sick that morning, but she’s just fine.

…

So my oldest daughter has COVID for the first time now, everyone is wearing masks around the house when we’re together, and I get to have a fun talk with her friend’s parents.

That sounds miserable. Good job dragging yourself to the clinic (twice!) to get some answers

Americans have over 100 words for slop

Meme, Gene, Scene

Are you looking to type notes, write notes, or both?

The 9th generation iPad (the last one with a home button) is $199 new right now, and the accessories for that model are both plentiful and being phased out, so those should be available for cheap.

Aaaaaaaakchually I think that’s a picture of the $599 “A01” 60GB model. It had WiFi and the chrome trim along the front. The $499 “B01” 20GB model was all black and looks slightly cooler imo

I cackled at the PS4 and PS5 disc rows

What is Simlish for “homina homina”

At least Demi Moore is still alive so we can get some more of these good memes

Because of a trade embargo, all we have on hand are seven shipping containers filled with Jeff Hardy Enigmatic Champion belts

Due to a legal settlement several years ago, Tyrus is required to award a title belt to anyone he encounters who is a better professional wrestler than him. He hands out over 800 belts per week