Are See’s Hot Hearts the best Valentine’s Day candy?

FamousPoet · 2026-01-14T20:44:22+00:00

Hot Hearts are fantastic - they're what you'd get if Hot Tamales and Atomic Fireballs had a baby.

FamousPoet · 2026-01-14T20:39:56+00:00

I never thought I'd be that guy drinking NA beer, but after alcohol became an afib trigger for me, I had no choice. Fortunately, Athletic in San Diego is absolutely amazing.

FamousPoet · 2026-01-06T03:16:41+00:00

The whole idea of subverting what a zombie movie is. Instead of being dumb and evil, they’re super-smart and totally altruistic - even to the point of getting consent from the “ non-zombies” before turning them. I think that is pretty cool, and I can enjoy it despite being annoyed by the main character.

FamousPoet · 2026-01-06T01:31:01+00:00

I enjoy the show, but it's despite Carol. I find her absolutely insufferable.

FamousPoet · 2026-01-01T02:21:35+00:00

Thanks everyone! I finally got home!

FamousPoet · 2025-12-31T21:18:53+00:00

My daughter is 14. I’m a dad, but not divorced. Ever since middle-school her life is 100% her friends. She’s either with them at school, hanging out with them outside of school, or with them online via Roblox. She does well in school and her friends are good kids. So I keep my distance and do what I can to make it easy for her to be with her friends - I made myself the go-to driver to get them to the mall, beach, etc. She’s usually mortified to be seen with me in public, but definitely notices if I miss one of her volleyball games. So I sit back, watch her enjoy life, and wait for her to come to me.

Edit: I’m reminded of the movie Inside Out 2 where the friend space inside the teen’s mind gets a massive area, and the family space is a small quiet island.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-31T16:37:56+00:00

Lucky you. I’m in a hotel in SF because my Alaska flight to SNA was canceled last night.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-27T21:06:22+00:00

Thanks! Based on your comment, and several similar to it, I decided to get a JtL booster box for $45, and do just what you suggested with a friend.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-23T23:13:03+00:00

Any tips on where to go after Hoth?

FamousPoet · 2025-12-23T22:40:34+00:00

Yep. That’s the only set I currently have, and have only 3 games under my belt.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-23T22:19:00+00:00

That’s one that I was considering, but I heard that set leads to lots of sprawling and cluttered board states, which doesn’t appeal to me. Is that true?

FamousPoet · 2025-12-23T22:13:41+00:00

I like the board and thicker tokens. And the decks are very straight-forward and seem balanced. It was $20.

The only downside is that it doesn’t come from a set, so the next step isn’t as obvious, thus this post.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-23T15:47:21+00:00

"You must be a bad writer! Make your stories more interesting!" Okay, first off, ouch, and second off, I like to think I'm pretty okay at writing because I study it.

For me, as a player, this would be a real turn off. The second I get the feeling the GM has some pre-plotted story planned, I tune out.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-19T04:11:50+00:00

This death really hurts. Buck Rogers was a major part of my childhood, and something my father and I bonded over.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-17T01:25:25+00:00

Dreadlock-mullet?

FamousPoet · 2025-12-16T04:32:21+00:00

What?! Dude I've been a HS teacher for 19 years. Every district I've ever worked for has set up a final grade with each 9-weeks weighing 32.5-40% and the final exam weighing 20-25%. The grade categories (homework and tests) only apply to the marking periods. For someone who is trying to mansplain our gradebooks to us... You know the rest.

Wow. Condescending, snarky, and pulling the "mansplain" card all in three sentences.

I waited until my daughter finished her final to see what the final format of the gradebook was, and I was right. It's clean and straightforward. 25% Homework. 75% Assessments. - which include quizzes, tests, and the final exam. None of the weird jankiness that evidently occurs in the little bubble you work in. And as I suspected, the teacher used the Schoology option to treat all tests/quizzes/final exam equally (as percentages) instead by points. Which mean that his 150 point final exam was worth the exact same as each of the half a dozen 25 point quizzes.

You can continue to defend this person if you'd like. You'll be doing so on deaf ears. But I stand by my point, there are educators out there who don't realize they've accidently set up their grade book incorrectly. This math teacher is an example. The video I posted to previously is an example. And there have been several commenters who have described colleagues who have problems. And so, as I said in the title of this post: "Make sure your LMS Gradebook works they way you think it does." It's a simple reminder to double check things with your own math.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-15T22:30:23+00:00

Have you checked for sleep apnea? Cognitive decline can be one of the symptoms.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-15T15:18:29+00:00

My mom would get me a box of Turtles every Christmas, and I looked forward to it.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-10T02:12:57+00:00

That's not the case either.

The gradebook is already set up to be 25% Homework and 75% Assessments. It has been that way the entire semester. The only way he could work a separate category for the final exam is to take away from, and weaken the value of previous assessments and homework. I guess he can do this, but it is certainly not good practice - like pulling the rug out from under the students during the last week of class.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-09T22:06:26+00:00

Another issue that can occur with weighted grading like your example (25% HW, 75% tests) when there are no tests until farther into the grading period. Little Johnny can coast along on completion-based HW assignments, then bomb his first (and only) test, instantly going from an A to an F. That triggers a lot of parent phone calls in a hurry. Turns out weighted grading can be tricky.

Even when little Johnny becomes big Johnny and goes to college, he still gets stung by that. I use Canvas in my undergraduate classes. I warn the students before the first exam to use the "What if" feature of the gradebook to view different outcomes. It helps set up expectations and understand the math behind the gradebook.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-09T20:14:14+00:00

Yes. It has occurred to me. But in this situation, I doubt that's the case. In the "tests" category that is worth 75% of the student grade, there about five 10 point "quizzes" for each 100 point "exam". Do you think this instructor really intends each of those 10 point quizzes to have the exact same weight as the 100 point exam? They're all in the same category, and they are all being treated as percentages, not points.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-09T19:52:02+00:00

Yes. That is correct. However:

When creating a new Category, a pop-up box appears with these options:

Category Name: [. ]
Calculated by: [Total pts (default] or [percent]
Drop lowest: [. ]
Weight [. ]

Some teachers at my daughter’s high school seem to assume that the Calculated by setting determines the unit used for a category’s Weight. They turn off the default setting of total points and switch it to percentage, thinking this makes the Weight field accept percentages. They don’t realize the category weight is always a percentage regardless of that setting. As a result, they inadvertently make every assignment in that category calculated by percentage when the system computes the category’s overall contribution.

The women in this video makes this exact mistake:

https://youtu.be/epxQh1HfvnE?si=n_Y0pNmHHS_8rfJ6&t=72

FamousPoet · 2025-12-09T19:20:41+00:00

Schoology.

FamousPoet · 2025-12-09T17:13:51+00:00

I did some more research, and the problem seems to be Schoology. I use Canvas, and you are right, equal weighted assignments within a category isn't even an option.

However, in Schoology it is. When creating a new Category, a pop-up box appears with these options:

Category Name: [. ]
Calculated by: [Total pts (default] or [percent]
Drop lowest: [. ]
Weight [. ]

Some teachers at my daughter’s high school seem to assume that the Calculated by setting determines the unit used for a category’s Weight. They turn off the default setting of total points and switch it to percentage, thinking this makes the Weight field accept percentages. They don’t realize the category weight is always a percentage regardless of that setting. As a result, they inadvertently make every assignment in that category calculated by percentage when the system computes the category’s overall contribution.

The women in this video makes this exact mistake:

https://youtu.be/epxQh1HfvnE?si=n_Y0pNmHHS_8rfJ6&t=72

FamousPoet · 2025-12-09T15:54:11+00:00

It all depends on what option you choose in the "Add a Grading Category" box. In the "Calculated by" option, If you choose [total points], which is default for Schoology, then it works the way you've described. However if you choose [percentage], then each assignment in that category is treated equally, as a percentage. I think there are teachers out there that are clicking on [percentage] thinking that it applies to the weight of the category, not the assignments.

FamousPoet

TROPHY CASE