I’ll do a lot, but I’ll often start with Wagon Wheel, because it gets people singing along, and once they’re singing, they’re signing up to sing.

Sometimes people need encouragement.

That sounds excellent… i might pitch that to my wife for next year.

I gotta say…

This was a triumph.

I think, and this may be a wild concept that bothers both sides of the discussion, that individual sports governing bodies (specific leagues, NCAA, etc) should be making the decisions and absolutely nobody in government should be involved.

People should be allowed to compete in sports, but it should be up to the individual sports governing body to decide how they slot people. And if there is an absolute ban in the league against use of hormones (aimed at preventing performance enhancing effects), then so be it. Those bans were in place prior to the trans people in sports discussion, I wouldn’t say they are inherently biased. Take up the language of the rule with your local league to allow for medically necessary hormones for specific issues (including gender dysmorphia), but it is ultimately their prerogative on rules for their league. A senator doesn’t need to weigh in.

But any poltician who so much as brings up trans people in sports should be immediately told to stay in their fucking lane.

I had someone straight-faced say that Jeff Bezos should be able to buy a nuke (you can imagine the trajectory of the conversation that led to this, it wasn’t a non-sequitor).

I thought she played Bella perfectly:

A blank canvas. Nothing wrong with portraying the character accurately. I mean, I’m not sure all the mouth-breathing was necessary. Literally the only thing I remember about her, character-wise.

Only if there are no Marine astronauts, otherwise they’ll assume it’s rations.

Linkin Park.

Look, I like them, so I’m not exactly knocking them, but a long time ago I was working an overnight inventory shift, and my manager at the time put on a Linkin Park album, and I predict how every song was going to go because they all seemed like the same song.

Boat.

Saving up for one now, but 20k should get me there.

Are we still talking about cars or back to bodies?

Like the mechanic handing you a $15 code reader and saying “just clear it whenever it pops up.”

I actually used this to explain a concern of mine to my wife. We had a Subaru Forester that had some minor but expensive issue that kept the check engine light on, so we ignored it. And because of that missed something else that made the engine 'splode (not literally, just turned the SUV to SCRAP). About 8 hours from our house and two hours from the nearest rental car agency (and no trains). With our daughter in the back and me needing to be at work the next morning.

Anyway, I was talking about how everything hurts a bit, and because of that my general pain tolerance is way higher to the point I don’t notice most of the time I’m hurt. Like the check engine light on the Subaru.

I imagine cancer is going to come along and when I find out at stage four, people will wonder how I possibly could have put up with it up to that point without going to the doctor. And I’ll say I didn’t even notice it.

My biggest gripe about it is that it should mean sacrificing a tenth (or a small portion) in order to preserve the whole.

So many words that mean completely destroy, and we have to make the one meaning specifically not that to also mean completely destroy. The language is weaker for it.

The wars in the Middle East are tricky, though, because to have a “victory” you would need a clear metric for it, a clear goal. It’s not like the US was looking to conquer and annex those countries

If the goal was to completely fuck up a country with little to no (physical, not financial) damage to our home country, mission accomplished, one helluva victory.

If the goal was to stop Terrorism… that’s like the War on Drugs, there’s no winning that.

If the goal was merely to occupy them in order to (temporarily) prevent them from being a staging ground and financial support for Terrorism… I guess that worked? For awhile?

Vietnam and Korea were about stopping Communists from taking over the country. Huge failure on Vietnam, and apparently a draw in Korea (considering the North/South divide). But it was a clear enough goal. The Middle East? Who knows what the specific goal was (other than trillions of dollars to the Military Industrial Complex).

Honest answer, as someone in the military:

A LOT of military people lament how “soft” the military has become, and someone coming down on beards, fat, etc, as well as being up front with what the military is for (e.g. Department of War), scratches a whiny itch they’ve always had. Because every old salty sailor and sandy equivalent feels like they came from the Old Guard.

I came from the Old Guard that my peers are nostalgic about. It was terrible and unnecessarily cruel. It was inefficient and left new people floundering instead of supported. The whole thing feels like a cycle of abuse.

But back to the point, they don’t care if he’s underqualified, makes bad and inexperienced military decisions, or has a host of DUIs (“who doesn’t?”). They only care that he’s calling generals fat to their faces and getting rid of beard ememptions.

I talked so much shit about Heath Ledger playing the Joker before that movie came out. The pretty boy from “10 Things I Hate About You?” Ridiculous. Just getting a big name, you know? And then he was beyond incredible, and a perfect example of what the Joker should be.

That made me hold my tongue when so many questionable choices for actors came out in the future, like both Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson for Batman.

Turns out Ledger was just an anomaly, though. So I’m still not going to be watching Tron: Ares.

“Good morning to you, Mrs. Riots.”

“Good morning to you as well, Mr. Riots. Did you sleep well?”

“Indeed, Mrs. Riots, I did. How did your evening fare?”

“Quite well, Mr. Riots. Quite well, thank you.”

Whether this was deliberate or not, it’s still pretty funny.

I take it back, if it wasn’t deliberate it would be especially funny.

They still play D&D and recommended being a DM to people that think they want kids. Apparently there is a fair bit of overlap in running a fun game, and a functional family.

I am a parent, and this tells me I lack the requisite energy and creativity to be a DM. I struggle enough as it is.

That’s true. It should really be referenced by the number before 10 (e.g. Base 9 for 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10).