Nope, and based on this post, I plan not to, especially after my experience with Necco wafers. Those things are criminally awful. I got a pack of chocolate, and they were like epoxied sawdust flavored with the memories of chocolate long past.

These look just like Smarties, but all purple.

No hate for Smarties, though, but no love for them, either. They’re fine. Consistency of chalk, taste mostly like sugar. I didn’t hate getting them at Halloween.

Because centrism represents opposition to any upset to the status quo. Centrism is less about social or fiscal or foreign policy and more about whether the next administration represents a major shift away from policies traditionally implemented. I’d reckon Gilded Age centrists opposed the forty-hour workweek and workplace safety standards until those things became the norm. No research done. Just a hunch there.

Change represents instability, and instability represents a need to change one’s behaviors to succeed in the system in place. It’s not about right or wrong or left or right. It’s all about not changing the rules of the game. It’s laziness disguised either as an unwillingness/inability to choose a side OR “bOtH SiDeS!!!1!!1!1!”

A failure to choose is still a choice. One absolves himself of no responsibility by keeping in place the evils that make our society function in its current state knowing there is a way to run it without said evils. It’s a knowingness that the transition to better outcomes will be painful in the meantime, so to avoid ripping off the band aid, they bury their heads in the sand and pretend each side is just as bad as the other.

Same with Born in the USA. They hear the chorus and think it’s about how America rocks, but it’s really about how we traumatize our soldiers and leave our vets out to dry.

Universities have fight songs, colors, turf, hierarchical structures. They call their grunts students. They call the leader the president. The head honchos who report to the leader are the vice presidents and deans. Members can be in their own subsections they call Greek, and many of them have historically had initiation rituals.

In conclusion, universities are just state-sponsored, state-sanctioned gangs.

What’s your alma mater, cuh?

/s. Obviously.

I used to have Dawn of Souls long ago. I figured out early on that four unarmed monks was the way to go. If you need a little support, maybe a white mage. But for the most part, you’ll breeze through it just punching everything til it dies to death.

I did once. The quarter fell onto some solder points and short circuited a bunch of stuff. Fried the whole machine. This was back in the early 90s, of course, when a typical computer cost as much as a nice used car and maybe four people in the county had one, much less knew how to fix one. Some original joke about getting beaten with jumper cables. Sometimes the hard lessons are the ones that stick with you most because as I got older, I learned how to solder and perform board level repairs. It’s an insanely useful skill.

Oh, and don’t forget. It didn’t snow anywhere this year, and the coastal cities are beginning to flood. Not that it’s something you have to worry about since you live inland, but it would sure be nice if it wasn’t 127°F outside or if it’d just rain a little for the first time since maybe February.

Here’s my actual wallet.

I bought it for $25 in 2009 and have carried it every day since. The fabric in the cash pocket has separated from the leather and the plastic window for my photo ID is missing. My wife told me I should buy a new one since this one’s so worn. I said, “Why? It still works perfectly.” Not a knock against her. We just have different ideas about the meaning of durability.

Apologies, friend. It was all mint in good fun.

If you don’t like Debian, go fork yourself.