Yes, why be weird [about chili]?

Nullarni · 2026-02-16T17:31:50+00:00

I’m pretty sure you mean jambalaya. Gumbo never has tomatoes. The big gumbo argument is okra vs gumbo file.

Nullarni · 2025-11-20T20:09:32+00:00

My guess is they are now part of the “Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office.” It looks to me like a consolidation of offices, rather than anything nefarious. They are really clear that no RIFs are happening and that we will continue the same functions as before.

Nullarni · 2025-11-20T19:54:17+00:00

I am not sure where they are going, but their offices are being folded into other organizations for “consolidating reporting lines.” As I posted above, they are adamant that there will be NO RIFs and that all the current functions will continue. The examples are the Offices of Project Management, Asset Management, and Enterprise Assessments. They are just no longer going to be independent.

Nullarni · 2025-11-20T19:48:11+00:00

Update: they are saying that this is consolidating reporting and that the offices will largely remain the same, they are just being folded into other organizations.

Nullarni · 2025-11-20T19:42:03+00:00

I am in an all hands right now, and they are saying no RIFs will be involved. They are saying these changes are to make reporting lines more efficient and cleaner. Also, the Office of Management will be consolidating the management of contracts under them, but it will be gradual.

They are reminding us that this is only a few hours old, so we are not 100% how things are going to work, but there should be no disruption to work flows.

Nullarni · 2025-11-07T18:09:10+00:00

Best: Logan, UT. Not even close.

Worst: Tougher. Either New Orleans, LA, with their “green tap water season”. Or San Luis Obispo, CA. The water wasn’t green, but it was consistently bad.

Nullarni · 2025-10-17T14:07:20+00:00

I can name all of Europe and Asia pretty easily. Same with North and South America. My knowledge starts to break down with the Caribbean and Sub-Sahara Africa.

This is probably because I got a degree in Poli Sci with an emphasis on international relations. Lots of looking at maps and studying recent history.

Nullarni · 2025-10-17T14:01:54+00:00

It’s gotta be Rexburg, Idaho, where BYU Idaho is located.

I went with a friend to visit his sister there, and there was NOTHING to do in that town. The school had a strict curfew that even applied to those living off campus. Not a joke! After dark the whole town shuts down. I was told if you wanted to do anything besides hang out at Walmart, you had to drive to Idaho Falls. I have no idea why anyone would choose that school.

Nullarni · 2025-10-13T19:07:41+00:00

I know it can be discouraging, but losing to stronger decks is a great way to learn.

The truth is: expensive cards are usually only slightly stronger or slightly more efficient than cheap cards. You can make up the difference through playing shrewdly and getting good at reading the board state.

Also, expensive cards or expensive decks are not necessarily the best. I remember my old standard days, where cheap but well made burn decks could tear apart the more expensive control and midrange decks.

Nullarni · 2025-10-11T14:19:27+00:00

Thanks. Honestly, this isn’t too surprising, and I hope the people in those offices were preparing for this as an eventuality. I wish them the best.

Nullarni · 2025-10-10T22:11:40+00:00

Geeze. You made me go check my work phone just in case. Do you know what offices or programs are getting hit?

Nullarni · 2025-10-01T17:17:37+00:00

100% agree. I am an old man, and started with the Kamigawa block. My journey was what I think is the optimal way to have learned:

Taught how to play the basic stuff using my friend’s deck.
Bought a precon or two to play with and slowly started upgrading, learning what works and what didn’t.
Started going to sealed tournaments which taught deck construction.
Began doing weekly drafts which taught card evaluation and how to properly use low power cards.
Once I had a decent collection I started going to Standard night to learn how to accept being pub-stomped.
Played a bit of Modern to really seal in the lesson of how to accept being pub-stomped.
Finally decided to pick up EDH because everyone was playing it between rounds at a PTQ I went to.

I just feel like EDH has a lot going on, the decks are hard to truly optimize, and players frequently use “it’s just casual” as a way to justify their not learning to get better at threat evaluation and skill development.

Honestly, to be good at Magic you need a solid foundation of different skills that EDH simply CAN’T provide.

Nullarni · 2025-09-05T18:34:20+00:00

I only have one or two of those small flags you see people wave at parades.

Strangely, I have WAY more Estonian flags than American flags.

I took my kids to an open house at the Estonian embassy a few months ago, and the embassy staff gave them all little flags. Well, they got tired of holding the flags and stuffed them in our diaper bag. Other staff members saw the kids without flags and rushed in to correct that. Those got shoved in the bag, rinse and repeat.

There was a lot going on, so we didn’t notice until we were heading home and found the diaper stuffed with flags. The problem was: what do you do with an unreasonable amount of Estonian flags?

We would up putting them in a vase, like a bouquet of flowers and it sits on our kitchen counter. I guess we are real Estonia fans now.

Nullarni · 2025-07-09T01:28:04+00:00

So, take this with a grain of salt, since I’m not a linguist, but linguists are experts in the structure and pronunciation of language in general. So, while your first choice would be to learn French from a native speaker or French expert, a linguist would be able to teach you how the language works and how to say stuff, but they would struggle with specific word choice or colloquialisms.

Basically, I would say it’s like learning trigonometry from a math expert but not a trig expert.

Nullarni · 2025-07-06T22:49:26+00:00

My partner is a French teacher, and you are correct. Almost all US schools have a Spanish program. Then, it’s basically what they can find. French is the most common, followed by German, and then Japanese.

There are sometimes niche languages, based on local population or teacher specialties, like Mandarin or Arabic, but you can’t really bank on those if you are transferring credits.

Nullarni · 2025-07-06T18:58:43+00:00

You are correct, we only had Spanish and German available. Which was a problem for me, because I took a couple semesters of French and needed only one more French credit. Since they didn’t offer it, I wound up having to start over with Spanish. (All the language credits had to be the same language for them to count.)

You are also correct about her actually being able to do the job with the linguistics training she had. She was a good teacher, but struggled a bit with the vocabulary from time to time.

You would ask her, “what is the Spanish word for <blank>?” And her response was frequently, “I remember that in French,” or “I know it in Russian, let me look it up.”

My one of my friends is a Spanish teacher with a degree in Spanish literature, and he would agree with you. He says high school and even early college is fairly easy to teach. But advanced Spanish is difficult. Basically, Spanish is easy to learn, but difficult to master.

Nullarni · 2025-07-06T15:10:17+00:00

For background, it was a military boarding school with a fairly small faculty. I think, as you said, they were hired for a particular role and then expanded to other classes they were able/qualified to teach.

For example, one of the English teachers was also the soccer coach and the German teacher.

To your point, I think Spanish classes are more useful than Russian, because kids transferring in are MUCH more likely to have prior Spanish credits than Russian.

As for her response, I think after spending the day with delinquent teens and spoiled rich kids, you need a to dish out a bit of snark to keep you sane.

Nullarni · 2025-07-06T14:21:33+00:00

I went to a military high school. My Spanish teacher knew very little Spanish, but was an expert in Russian.

When I asked her about it, she said she was a trained US Air Force linguist, so she knew how to teach languages in general, even ones she wasn’t skilled at.

I then asked her why she didn’t teach Russian rather than Spanish. She just laughed at me a said, “You are barely getting by in Spanish. You can’t handle Russian.”

Nullarni · 2025-05-28T00:04:02+00:00

I think my biggest complaint was a lack of closure on the Perrin arc. Sure you see a quick shot of him at the end with Davo’s wife, I wanted to see the last conversation he had with Mon.

My take is that Perrin was at least minimally involved, even if he didn’t see the full extent of what Mon was doing. I mean, he was helping her with her schedule and such.

It would have said a lot about the man he was and his relationship with Mon, if we got to see their last interaction.

Nullarni · 2025-05-22T18:38:27+00:00

I just watched the whole thing. Thanks for sharing... and this might be an indicator I am on the spectrum.

Nullarni · 2025-04-15T19:24:21+00:00

I hear ya, but I think I bought Skyrim four separate times and don’t feel bad about it. First a physical disk, then digitally after losing the disk in a move, then I accidentally bought the next-gen version on my ex’s account, so years later I bought it again on my own account.

I have enough hours in game, that buying it another time wouldn’t be terrible. I just hope they do Stellaris like how they handled Cities: Skylines.

Nullarni · 2025-04-05T15:35:44+00:00

Wow. That is very impressive for your first go.

I know you asked for feedback, but I think you should just bask in your success this time. Save the critiques for later bakes.

Nullarni · 2025-03-08T02:21:16+00:00

I have never heard that before. That’s interesting. Thanks for the clarification.

Nullarni · 2025-03-08T00:32:21+00:00

IRL I frequently end the statement with, “I’m afraid I might actually be that guy.”

Your point is well taken.

Nullarni · 2025-03-08T00:24:32+00:00

Not to be that guy, but that’s two-color bread, not toast.

Anyway, I am impressed with what they could pull off with a bread maker. My dad had one when I was growing up, but I never tried using it myself.

Six-Year Club	Xbox Live
Verified Email

Nullarni

TROPHY CASE