To combat Chinese gold farmers, Blizzard started selling gold in a bit of a roundabout way. For $20, you can buy a WoW token to sell on the auction house. This token can be purchased by a player and traded for 1 month of game time. Some players dont pay a dime to play - gold is not hard to acquire.

Eve Online has been doing that since 2008.

Good. Fuck Apple.

I am sick right now and can't be arsed to look up the study I saw, but I am pretty sure it was American trans people who transitioned who were tracked. From what I remember, like 5% detransitioned, but when they dug into their reasons, the vast majority of them did so for reasons other than regret at having done so. Their reasons were social, financial, etc. Only half a percent came back and said they weren't trans. One in 200.

In Oregon, Measure 117 on the ballot this year will institute RA ked choice voting statewide. Portland already has it for the 2024 municipal elections, and it'll go into effect countrywide for Multnomah County elections in 2026. Very exciting stuff!

I think that’s what the college kids were playing with when I was in high school.

Started college in 1995, and I indeed did have ICQ before too long. Still remember my number (6725571).

You probably had all three installed on your computer and probably all running at once.

I remember using a program called Trillian (which is still around!) in the late 90s/early 00s. It allowed you to connect multiple IM accounts in one app. It was sorta finicky, but it got the job done.

"Dr" Bubs is in Quadrant III. He's the most quackinest.

One...two princes kneel before you.

One has diamonds in his pockets and never lies. The other wants to buy you rockets and never tells the truth.

What is the one question you could ask of only one of the princes to learn what a prince and lover ought to be so that your father won't eat his hat and disown you?

Why you wanna starve Captain Blond Beard Mark Watney? Uncool.

I quit doing Christmas a dozen years ago, and I've never been happier. I'm an anti-capitalistic athiest...I don't give a Fuck One about keeping Jeebus in Crimmis, and I am just not real big on spending hundreds of dollars buying things for people that I think they might like (but probably won't) just because it happens to be the fourth week of December again. That shit's bonkers and is for the fucking birds.

Hell naw. You keep your $40 and buy yourself something you want or need, I'll do the same, and you and I will just moosh calendars and share time and a meal together without propping up capitalism.

I first dated online in 1999, and the first woman I dated I ended up marrying and having two kids with, though we divorced in 2017.

I still date online these days, and I prefer it. It allows me to know a little about a person before I waste any time chatting them up, and the things I need to know are things they generally put on their profile. Things like their sexuality (since I am non-binary), their political leaning (I'm socialist), their relationship orientation (I'm polyamorous), whether our values match...you know...important shit. And those early conversations before we ever meet in person are low-key enough that I feel more comfortable with them IRL, something that helps me as an autistic person.

Or...and hear me out...maybe instead we blast AI data centers with these Jewish space lasers I keep hearing about and leave the land to return to nature? Just spitballin'.

Nearly half price, which means I'm twice as likely to buy it now!

In other news, two times zero is zero.

...you know, adult education classes exist to teach you how to read. How the fuck is releasing crickets at an event for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people "straightphobia"?

First, you take a run at La Fours with a sock full of nickels. I'd do it, but I pulled my back out humping your mom last night, NOOGE.

Are these the kids got hit hardest by the pandemic lockdowns?

The prevalent theory among my colleagues is that it was something about the age these students were during virtual learning (ages 9-11) that may have been the deciding factor in why they are comparably so much worse behaved that any class of students before or after them, but I couldn't say.

I enjoy teaching, or at least, transferring knowledge and experience, I'll do it to pretty much anyone who sits still long enough,

Samesies. I love teaching, but sometimes I really dislike "being a teacher" because of the lack of support or any attempt at understanding what actually goes on inside the classroom day-to-day by admins, parents, or community members. I am good with mentoring a couple students each year and going them overcome their issues. But I don't have the capacity to do it for all 50+ kids who are making it impossible for the other 120 to learn.

Good luck, and I hope things get better for the kids and teachers everywhere.

Thanks, preesh.

[x] doubt

Sorry, where did you get your two education degrees from again, and how many years have you been teaching?

You mentioned class sizes of 30+ this year, were they that large in the past? That size class is way too large and lends itself to chaos as it is hard to keep them all engaged.

I am new to this school, but the teachers at the school who had 8th graders last year have confirmed their class sizes last year were the same, but the student's were not nearly as unruly. The 7th grade teachers who had my students last year have some classes in the 30s this year and last year, and they have confirmed that this group of 8th graders were also hell on wheels last year, but that their 7th graders this year are much more well-behaved.

Hate to break it to you, but this is my 6th year teaching 8th graders and my 18th overall, everything from elementary school through college, and I know more than you...namely, how these 8th graders this year are very, very different from any other group of students any of the 8th grade teachers this year have ever experienced.

I am autistic as well. I am not joking. More details.

I've been teaching for 18 years. Every year before this one, things have gone relatively well. They talk a little, I quiet them down, we have a lesson, time is embedded in it for group work, and I tell them I'd like 85% of their conversation to be about the assignment. Most kids are decent. A few are superb. Some do jack shit and I struggle all year to get them to do anything. And about 5% of the students cause problems and make it harder for their classmates to learn, but they get dealt with.

Not this year. Four classes of 30+, and in all six classes a full third of the 8th grade students can't see beyond two seconds from now. My shit is getting stolen, students leave their binder in their locker when they're supposed to bring it to every single class in the building, and their entire purpose in any given moment is to say/do/destroy whatever they can to create laughs/anger/shock in someone else, who could as easily be right in front of them as they could be on the opposite end of the room. A third. Of each class. And it is relentless. The teacher next door to me had her interactive TV display destroyed by a kid yesterday...the screen is completely shattered.

Every teacher that shares these kids is having the exact same issues across the board. So we are presenting a united front and shutting it the fuck down.