OfficeMonkey

Yeah, but Zachary Levi has also gone outspoken anti-vax and conservative-to-the-point-of-crazy.

Which is sad, because I loved him as Chuck but apparently failing to break out after Shazam went to his head.

My spouse and I opted not to tell our kid last year, with me not wanting to be the one to spoil it and her wanting to keep the magic "just one more year."

This year was already too late. The kid got into an argument at school about whether or not Santa was real.

My spouse and I planned it all out, planned on going out to get a hot cocoa, etc., etc. Instead my kid sat ME down and said they wanted to ask me something. So I got stuck telling answering that Santa wasn't real, but spun it that it was about learning to give without getting, and ended up pulling out Death's SPEECH from Hogsfather about believing in big lies.

The kid mostly cared that they'd still get presents, so it was a bust.

I still think about the episode where John walked into his stock trader and randomly bought rights to some kind of seafood (shrimp, I think), explains why, then sells it -- at a huge profit. It was this little moment that explained why John could just "do stuff" and didn't need a job.

Also, it made my hate working forever, but I don't know enough to not have to. Yet.

... Bourbon??

My universe has just expanded.

I gave my at-the-time eight-year-old my older Ticwatch. They had no interest in the step tracking or even what time it was -- they used sleep tracking as an excuse to wear the watch to bed and play games on it.

If the Syncup has some sort of parental controls, or if your child has some sort of impulse control, you might not suffer the same fate. BUT the question I'd ask is why a watch, smart or otherwise. Will the kid actually set and listen to alarms, do you want to be able to send them messages, have they benefitted from knowing what time it is? (parenting hard, I am not a professional, do what works for you and yours)

Small correction, only discovered when I moved across the country: there are two factories producing Girl Scout Cookies -- and the recipes have overlap, but each production company has a few unique ones. So sometimes I have to order from my niece rather than my neighbor.

Some of them are the same everywhere, though.

Monster of the Week? Anything Powered by the Apocalypse is going to be much stronger in Game Master support and explanations than D&D. If you want something friendlier there are also games like Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast that has no focus on combat. Wanderhome, as well -- albeit that one isn't modern. You've got a lot of options, don't be fooled by Hasbro!

Hate the idea of the former in a private setting, would like in a business setting. Absolutely adore the idea of directions (drove a car with a "heads up" display but it only integrated with the dreadful in-car navigation system and yet it was still awesome)... But player stats dangling over people's heads? That maybe my kid without AR glasses wouldn't be able to see and I could be the cool parent again? Awesome.

Ed Shearing

Nepotism. There's some story I heard about how he coach surfed in California until he got a contract, and I figured he must have SOME talent, then found out he was staying on Jamie Foxx's couch, so clearly some he knew someone...

Except unfortunately my 30 second Wikipedia fact check shows he didn't. He met Foxx because he was invited to be a guess on Foxx's show and must have made a good impression. He did make seemingly the hardway; he started out as a working musician working with other musicians and worked his way up. Didn't hurt that he got a positive review from Elton John early on, but the guy apparently has something.

Damn. I thought I figured it out...

Many years ago, long before the advent of cellular phones or even really GPS units, when doing road trips in convoy, the local ritual was "Are we there yet?" "Twenty minutes."

Said question, over the course of a few years, migrated from "we're off the highway and approaching our final destination" to as we were departing... But everyone was in on the joke.

I don't think the people waiting another two weeks are in on the joke.

This is what I get for not defining my acronyms.

... What did I just read? Wow.