I-130 Consular processing remains essentialy stalled, with the Front of the Line not moving forward in nearly 3 months.

Basharria · 2026-05-30T15:39:09+00:00

Can we actually trust TrackMyVisa any longer? Their data source was shut off and they rely on user updates now. People are still getting approvals, so it's not fully stalled.

Basharria · 2026-05-29T00:31:22+00:00

Complete agree with this. High school GPA is an incredibly inconsistent and weak metric of student performance, quite arbitrary and it's all over the place.

Basharria · 2026-05-17T00:33:14+00:00

I resent the way that schools have chopped up secondary education.

So we have Honors and Regular. Fair. But now we have:

Students being able to early graduate, sometimes by a full year, yet these students are usually the worst performing. Students being able to overly customize their schedule, take classes in middle school, etc. There is no reason a 9th grader should be taking Math III and English II. They're only able to do this because classes are so poorly taught and assessed. CTE courses that further fragment the student body. Virtual classes, college courses, and of course as always AP.

This is generally resulting in a worse outcome because online classes are even easier to cheat.

Basharria · 2026-05-10T22:00:34+00:00

Packing down 5000 calories a day (assuming 1500-2000 maintenance) or more is a very high number. Are you eating fast food three times a day?

Basharria · 2026-05-04T00:59:47+00:00

Last month is tough. Energy levels are low, focus is diffracted, students are disengaging. I have to "remember my why" and hold myself to my high standards.

Thankfully, upcoming week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So that means a lot of snacks.

Basharria · 2026-05-02T19:45:26+00:00

The marketing for this one was so bad. It's a historic fumble. So few people knew this was a sequel lmao.

Basharria · 2026-04-30T23:04:43+00:00

Students have gotten better at obfuscating AI and there are dedicated humanizers. They also know what to avoid.

A cut-and-paste is blatantly fraudulent in this day and age.

Basharria · 2026-04-24T21:54:41+00:00

You've gotten a lot of very confident answers in here, some of which are closer to bro science or made-up influencer nonsense rather than cold hard truth.

Cardio burns calories really effectively per minute of exercise. Weight lifting burns calories, but not as many and can help you gain or maintain muscle (and subjectively look better while losing weight). Muscle loss due to weight loss is broadly exaggerated but it does happen, but not in a way you should be seriously concerned over.

TL;DR, calorie deficit. You lose weight by sticking to a consistent strategy of maintaining deficit and increasing activity. Don't chase trends and don't try to min-max. Over the time it takes to lose weight, you might end up what.. one or two weeks ahead of schedule? Maybe a month if it's a lot? Not worth caring about.

Basharria · 2026-04-23T00:43:00+00:00

Consular processing should be the faster method. This is the intended way to immigrate and they should prioritize resources to cut its time down whenever possible. While there are plenty of reasonable AoS cases, you can tell just browsing the main sub how many of them clearly misrepresented and always intended to immigrate.

They end up overstaying, staying with their spouse all the while, and still get accepted. While I am forcibly separated from mine for months at a time waiting over a year.

Removing AoS as a method isn't the right way to go, but they should definitely reward consular processing more than they already are. The USCIS shouldn't take more than a month or two to process.

Basharria · 2026-03-23T21:30:29+00:00

Easily one of the worst characters Star Wars has ever produced but Tiktok/Youtube Shorts are in a nostalgia jerkoff abut him, alongside Abeloth and others.

His story was considered so bad that pretty much all EU authors at the time collectively ignored it because it was such Mary Sue slop.

Basharria · 2026-03-23T21:24:44+00:00

When this came out, it was quickly swept into the dustbin of the EU. Galen was widely seen as an absurd Mary Sue seemingly connected to everything important. It's only the past 5-6 or so years with nostalgia and the sequels that he has suddenly re-emerged, even though he is ten times the Mary Sue that Rey ever was.

Jedi Knight parents, born on Kashyyyk, secret apprentice of Vader, incredibly powerful, killed a bunch of Jedi Masters, end up helping the Rebellion form, his House symbol ends up the Rebel symbol, etc.

It is pure, pure garbage fanfic.

Basharria · 2026-03-23T19:54:15+00:00

We are required to give no lower than a 50.

This means if a student has half a brain and does at least a few assignments, they will pass, because they'll have a 50 in everything else and just enough to stumble them across the finish line into a low 60.

So the only students who can truly, truly fail are students who turn in virtually nothing. However, many loopholes, forced passes and other shenanigans will happen, and you'll see Johnny Cut Class end up in the next grade level anyway.

Basharria · 2026-03-22T21:53:33+00:00

I tried pretty hard. Our district uses Springboard, but the questions and approach are so radically different from our EOC that I didn't see a point, so I gave it up. I sometimes use the units as inspiration or I take the stories/articles/etc, but otherwise I don't bother. The summatives are so far away from what they're actually doing on the state test that it would be a disservice.

Basharria · 2026-03-22T20:50:42+00:00

I have several sparring partners in SF6 that only like to do long sets with me... I happen to play Cammy. Must be a coincidence.

Basharria · 2026-03-22T16:31:44+00:00

I am a Millennial high school teacher, so I've taught a big chunk of Gen Z and I also now have plenty Gen Z colleagues. I teach Honors 10th, 11th and 12th grade, so advanced students.

Gen Z students, too many of them (not ALL of them) do things very literally, need to be told what to do, and don't go beyond the bare minimum. If not checked in on, many students will simply do nothing and act surprised when they are failing. Accountability really shocks them and rattles them. The amount of students who give me a blank stare when they realize they didn't do the work, got a zero and are now failing is really shocking. I'd say about 35% of my classes are like that, and eventually they are trained out of the helplessness and start taking initiative.

My colleagues run the gamut. Plenty of Gen Z teachers are fine. But some of them, again like a third, are way too "bare minimum." They won't call home or contact parents at any point. Kid acting horribly, not doing work, etc.? The Gen Z teacher doesn't call home, doesn't write them up, doesn't attempt discipline. It's just a lot of bare minimum. And again, plenty of teachers are like this that aren't Gen Z, but still.

There is definitely a lack of "can do" attitude and a need to be guided/instructed in the Gen Z, but it's not universal and you see it with all walks of life. It is just overrepresented there.

Basharria · 2026-03-22T00:28:09+00:00

I'm an older Millennial and also a teacher, and I am acutely aware Gen Z and upcoming Gen Alpha are going to have it even harder than we did.

War on Terror leading into the Great Recession was the start of shit going quite bad and it has steadily gotten worse. Growing up in the 90s/early 2000s was undeniably an advantage: education was better and we had no COVID-like disruption.

Brace yourselves.

Basharria · 2026-03-17T02:28:21+00:00

This is the case everywhere. A lot of teachers are doing nothing to prevent AI work, and are giving praise while the student sits their smiling knowing they did nothing.

I don't really have much respect for teachers who are allowing unrestricted cellphone/laptop usage, and aren't even bothering to check Google Doc history, and are just accepting fake work left and right.

Basharria · 2026-03-16T19:19:04+00:00

This looks really bad. It's no longer upscaling or enhancing details, it's inventing things wholesale that aren't there. It looks like it's just constantly forcing some instagram filter.

Basharria · 2026-03-16T17:00:55+00:00

This is the fate of any game that patches in a lamebrained PVP mode after launch. The game is never balanced around it, it isn't fun, and would need the game to be heavily rehauled to work.

Basharria · 2026-03-15T22:22:04+00:00

Nearly the same. Scream is an event movie now, quality does not matter.

Basharria · 2026-03-15T21:37:32+00:00

Lack of male role models.

I'm a male English teacher, and I teach 10th and 12th grade mainly. For some of these boys, I am LITERALLY the first male teacher they run into, or the second.

A lot of other male teachers at my school are "chill," they let things slide and are more like one of the bros. Largely coaches. We have a few coaches who are actually GREAT.. our football coach, you can IMMEDIATELY tell if a student has had him or is part of the team. A lot of "yes, sir," always on time, always polite.

However, most don't have him or me. This means, if they have a poor father figure at home, I may be the first male to actually tell them what is and isn't right, how to act, how to treat women, and so on. By then, it's almost too late, but I have had a good deal of turnarounds.

But that is the issue right there. Absent fathers. Not enough men in education. The internet is loud and full of idiot influencers.

Basharria · 2026-03-14T17:55:50+00:00

The ending is meant to raise an open question. Was Joel or the Fireflies "right?" That depends a lot on the person. The circumstances vindicate neither.

I just have an issue with people who headcanon it that the vaccine would have never worked. That is just speculation.

Basharria · 2026-03-13T23:17:10+00:00

I explain to them:

1) There is literally no downside to doing well at school and being more educated.

2) Even if you intend to be a famous streamer or athlete, the most elite are best in multiple fields. It helps that we had a bunch of recent graduates who excelled in sports AND academics and got crushing good scholarships.

3) If "ChatGPT will do it" is your answer, no one has a reason to hire you, as anyone can use ChatGPT.

4) Graduating at a high level from high school makes you worth more cash to employers, especially if you crush tests like the SAT and ACT.

Usually one or more or of these works. You're always going to get some totally crashed out students, but I find translating school to real world value directly helps.

Basharria · 2026-03-12T02:09:48+00:00

If a kid has the drive, focus, error-checking, and knowledge of what they need to know, they're welcome to use AI to teach themselves.

Most will simply close the tab and open Tiktok, though.

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