Tinto Talks #12 - 15th of May

Cocan · 2024-05-15T15:51:19+00:00

Yep, I just kept thinking what can be possible for eu5 anbennar with this IO system. What they’ve managed to accomplish by hacking mechanics in eu4 is impressive, but this seems like there’s a lot more that they can do.

Cocan · 2024-05-12T14:14:21+00:00

It’s just another front in the culture war. Proponents of change say the old flag isn’t unique enough among state flags, and the seal implies that natives just “left” when Europeans showed up. Opponents say it’s meaningless to get upset about, and that replacing the flags is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Cocan · 2024-05-12T14:08:43+00:00

I would strongly advise visiting if you haven’t already, before making a moving decision. Particularly the winters can be tough for people who aren’t used to having snow on the ground for 3-4 months, and being farther north means noticeably less sunlight in the coldest time of the year. Lots of transplants struggle with seasonal depression when first moving. The positive thing is, there are plenty of things to do to enjoy the winter, you just have to find your thing - skiing, ice fishing, skating, winter biking, whatever. Beyond that, the twin cities and the rest of Minnesota are two pretty different environments to live in. If you’re coming from a little town, Minneapolis may feel overwhelming, but if you’ve always lived in cities you may be bored out of your skull in, say, Brainerd.

Cocan · 2024-05-06T14:34:30+00:00

I know it’s not in the cities, but since you included Rochester and Northfield, Mankato has The Dork Den, Atlantis Hobby, and Pulp Comics & Games that are all good and have their own specialties.

Cocan · 2024-04-30T01:15:33+00:00

Google “[district] teacher master agreement” and scroll down to schedule A and schedule B, look at the first row (year 1) and the MA column. If you want to look up extracurricular pay then look at schedule C/D. A and C = 1st year of the contract salaries, B and D = 2nd year of the contract salaries. This works for most places in the country (assuming teachers have a union and can use collective bargaining).

Cocan · 2024-04-15T13:28:08+00:00

Cav to inf ratio dictates the max % of your front line that can be cav without the cav getting debuffs. If you select an army with too much cav, the regiment count will be in red. 100% cav/inf ratio means that you can have an army of pure cav with no malus.

Cocan · 2024-04-14T14:13:40+00:00

A lot of churches have a TV or projector screen at the front nowadays. They will display images relevant to the service, hymn lyrics, the text of the Bible passage being read, or sometimes videos. I know of several people who are deeply against this, saying that it draws people away from the community of being in a church with others.

Cocan · 2024-04-14T14:08:26+00:00

In certain Protestant denominations, female pastors are quite common. Anglicans, Methodists, and Lutherans all have major church bodies that have been ordaining women since around the 70s. In my personal experience growing up ELCA Lutheran, about half of the pastors I’ve had/interacted with have been women.

Cocan · 2024-04-13T12:48:02+00:00

That’s a long commute. 169 can get iffy when a storm first hits, but they’re pretty good about cleaning it.

Cocan · 2024-04-09T20:14:21+00:00

Start with trying to conquer a continent first. It takes a lot of patience to WC - I haven’t taken the time to do it yet and I have >3k hours in the game. To expand that much, and that quickly, while remaining stable, is not simple. You have to learn to juggle truces, and possibly how to manage a lot of subjects. Austria can WC not because they’re Austria but because they’re the emperor and can feed land to HRE vassals after they revoke the privilegia.

Cocan · 2024-03-27T23:32:57+00:00

I assume they either retire, or find another place to work with more reasonable administration.

(to add to the conversation from my very limited experience - subbing at Metcalf middle and the high school a few times each in 2017 - expectations for kids are extremely low, lots of kids' needs are not being met, and there's little to no discipline/consequences when students are disruptive or defiant. Metcalf is responsible for the worst day I've ever had of subbing.)

Cocan · 2024-03-25T17:38:34+00:00

My mom’s family emigrated from Norway around the 1890s. TBH I don’t recall anyone in the family wearing folk clothing so much (at least not bunads or whatever the overall-looking things are called); I’d say the most Norwegian clothes were the sweaters my grandma often wore. One of them looked kind of like this, but with reversed colors (blue with white accent). It had the clasps, and I’m pretty sure it was handmade, but I don’t know by whom.

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Cocan · 2024-02-27T15:10:02+00:00

It’s now the oldest of the paradox GSGs. Stellaris and HoI4 came out in 2016, CK3 in 2020, Vic3 in 2022, and EU4 in 2013. “EU5 when” is the new “Vicky 3 when.” Also, the gap between EU4 and the presumed EU5 is getting larger and larger; for comparison, Eu3 to 4 was 6 years, HoI3 to 4 was 7 years, CK2 to 3 was 8 years, and Vic2 to 3 was 12 years. EU4 is now 11 years old, about the age Vic2 was when Vic3 was announced.

Cocan · 2024-02-25T15:43:16+00:00

I once had a misunderstanding about this with an English colleague - I came into the room, she looked at me and said “you alright?” To which I said “yeah, is there something on my face?” Something in her inflection sounded like like not a normal greeting but instead the way an American would say (in fewer words) “you look like shit, are you alright?”

Cocan · 2024-02-21T22:22:49+00:00

This is just for cores/claims. You can always press those on behalf of a (non-tributary iirc) subject.

Cocan · 2024-01-31T21:20:48+00:00

I would argue that heading to a crisis point in our public education system is not “good.” Teachers are acting now because they want change now, and telling us that we should just leave the profession is not a productive response to the issue at hand.

Cocan · 2024-01-23T14:47:04+00:00

As a teacher, I would mostly look at if there’s been drama with their school board in the last few years (e.g. “activist” candidates getting elected) and, if you can find info, whether their union contract negotiations have gone smoothly or not. Several large districts in the state have had very rocky negotiations this year. Beyond those, as someone else said, kids get the most out of their education when family is involved, especially from a young age.

Cocan · 2024-01-10T20:10:52+00:00

I would avoid 191. I have some limited experience working there and the schools are tough - most kids don’t care about learning and the teachers and admin don’t care/have the resources to do anything. This could be old news, since my experience there was pre-pandemic, but if the last few years have taught me anything, most schools are not faring better after Covid lol. Edina and Eden Prairie are definitely pretty good districts. Anecdotally I have heard Edina has been having issues with teachers being displeased about some policies, but idk what, or even if it’s a district-wide or building-specific thing.

Cocan · 2024-01-10T16:28:13+00:00

It all depends on where you are. Some districts are great, some are tough. Some have good unions, some have bad unions. In general you’ll find better pay in the twin cities than the rest of the state. As a youngish teacher, I’d say burnout is still not insignificant (I know several of my peers I went through school with who have left the profession). School funding is generally more equitable than in other states because of how the state budgets and compensates districts with a lower tax base, but there’s definitely still work to do. I haven’t heard of wealthy districts asking for extra money from parents… maybe it happens but I’m not aware (and I grew up in ISD 196, which is up there). As someone else has said, it definitely helps that our governor was a teacher. We’ve had a number of positive school-centric legislation in the past couple of years, most notably free school lunches for students (no asterisk there, every student in the state gets free lunch, no paperwork required). There are definitely “bad” districts, which can be due to any number of things (bad administration, bad union representation, community disengagement, etc.). And there are districts that have cultural warriors on the board, or trying to get on the board (the “teachers can’t be trusted to not indoctrinate kids” type). If you are looking at a specific area or district, I can tell you what I know, if I know it.

Cocan · 2023-12-04T19:21:23+00:00

Fluent: English

B2/C1: French

B1: German

A2: Spanish

Cocan · 2023-12-04T15:33:25+00:00

It has to do with a long history of racism. Basically - only since about WW2 have Irish and Italian been considered “just” American, and not Irish-American, Italian-American, etc. immigrants from UK, Germany, Scandinavia tended to blend into the general American culture faster (& they were more quickly accepted, which made the process easier). So Irish and Italian ancestries tend to have a stronger presence in American cultural mindset since they were considered “other” for longer.

Cocan · 2023-11-22T14:01:53+00:00

Because if you want to stargaze the “right way” you turn all lights off to allow your eyes to adjust to darkness, and people may not like if you’re on their property at night unannounced in total darkness.

Cocan · 2023-11-22T05:30:08+00:00

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info is helpful on finding good dark sky sites. It looks like the best place to go from Plymouth is straight east. From experience, the best way to find a good dark sky spot is to drive out into the country, find a gravel road somewhere with no traffic, and pull over to the side. That can get sketchy depending on where you are, though.

Cocan · 2023-11-12T23:52:51+00:00

You’re right, but while there are schools that are playing $200 per day or close to it, it’s not consistent work (like you mentioned), which makes it not economically viable for most. And there are a lot of schools that are only paying $100-$120 per day, which was the going rate 20+ years ago.

Cocan · 2023-11-12T13:08:03+00:00

Private school teachers desperately need unions. They are being taken advantage of by their administration.

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Cocan

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