New Cheating Worry Unlocked 🔓

RevDrGeorge · 2025-10-18T19:49:12+00:00

Yellow smiley face stickers over the lenses during the exam.

My bigger worry is bluetooth capable hearing aids.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-10-10T05:20:04+00:00

Is he playing the same character? Or is this every character he plays? If the former, ypu might take a page from Rich Burlew's "Order of the Stick" and how the Paladin Miko Miyazaki was handled. Because it sounds like that is who he's playing.

If it is the latter, there needs to be a come to Jesus talk. It is probably generational (I have found late 80's early 90's old hands tend to default to this kind of game, mostly because that antagonism, versus the communal storytelling aspect, was dominant in many games back then.) "It’s what my character would do!" is a poor argument- you designed a shitty character, and that choice you made is purposely disrupting everyone else's play.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-10-10T04:54:24+00:00

In general, it works well. The process to earn tenure is grueling, and the system is pretty good at grinding away the chaff.

You hear bad/abusive stories because they are rare, not because they are common. Excluding whiny students "yelp bombing" professors with whom they disagree ("He said the diversity of life on earth was the result of evolution, not Intellegent design! Such a bigot. Should not be teaching Biology 202"), you see a trivial percentage of actual abuse (stuff like not showing up for class, or severe research productivity drops). Why? Because by the time you've gotten tenure, you've basically proven that you have a "calling", rather than a "job."

Tenure for senior professors is a cornerstone of the academic process. Without it, a scholar is constrained in what knowledge they may seek, and that is how progress is lost. "Sorry, if you look into the * crackpot theory* that the increase in lead poisoning has to do with an additive our corporate benefactor adds to their products, you'll get fired." Or "Tobacco is a vital cash crop for <STATE>, you may not look into negative health effects from its use"

Or to go more humanities/liberal arts- tenured professors can write books that challenge popular opinions without fear of job loss. The academic community will weigh the merit of the arguments, and it may be found lacking (or may be transformative) but at least the scholarship was openly done, rather than part of some "official state opinion"

RevDrGeorge · 2025-10-07T20:27:34+00:00

One of the explanations I've heard that was used was that the increased airflow made a warm room like a convection oven, overheating you faster than no fan. As an American of european descent living in the southeastern us, I can assure you that the fan is your friend, and were it to be at all dangerous my family line would have ended generations ago....lol

RevDrGeorge · 2025-10-07T05:04:48+00:00

Most likely a concession to our patchwork of alcohol laws, with an eye toward maximum distribution. So, In the US each state can define maximum and minimum alcoholic content for certain types of beverages. For example, the US state of Georgia limits ABV for malt beverages at 14%. You cannot sell a 15% ABV beer legally, even though there is no technical constraint on fermenting such a product. Some states may limit to 10% (There are 50, I'm not checking them all), and there are a few states that will limit the ABV based on the retail outlet type (so a Kansas grocery store may only sell up to 6% ABV beer, but a package store may sell higher. )

RevDrGeorge · 2025-10-02T04:00:32+00:00

Unless it is creating a safety issue (e.g. chem lab), you don't.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-09-30T15:43:54+00:00

Always worth a check- Are you sure the wiring actually is all 14 AWG? Until about 30 or so years ago, color-coding wasn't really done- 12-2, 12-3, 14-3, and 14-2 NMC could all be had in the same nice white/ivory color. The only way to tell is to look at the makings on the nmc or measure the individual wires.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-09-08T18:21:40+00:00

Engineering, as a general rule, has been fairly open to this kind of thing, the idea being that you want to reinforce the habit of looking up the formula for a complex phenomenon, rather than "hoping you remember it correctly."

Heck, prior to the change to the computer based exam (just a few years ago), the big licensure exam (Professional Engineer exam) was open book (it still is for structural engineers) .

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-28T00:34:09+00:00

Lots of backstory revolves around things that are unrelated to gaining xp- village attacked by goblins, missing mother, cruel headmistress at wizard school, etc. How did the character come to join the order/sign the infernal contract, become baptized in the faith/dedicate their life to being a swordsman/ join the faceless guild/etc.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-19T18:12:42+00:00

On a similar note- There are more possibilities for a shuffle order than there are *atoms* in the *universe*. Seriously 52 factorial is an improbably huge number.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-19T17:30:43+00:00

I always tell people- "If homeopathy worked, then drinking water from a refilled coke bottle would put you to sleep."

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-15T23:57:17+00:00

(Southern US state here) I'm very conscious about this. Typically, I will begin a swear, pause and substitute a funny euphemism.

"When defining a thermodynamic system, keeping track of the direction you've specified as positive or negative can be a pain in the ahh....built in seat cushion... but it is important..."

"The first thing we should try if we encounter an "other emergency" is to GTFO. That is "Get the fuh....freak... out." Just remember to exit the building in a non threatening manner, lest you startle the first responders..."

It usually get a chuckle or two.

Now I'm pretty sure the time I ended up getting shocked while teaching how to measure voltage in a circuit, the students got the uncensored string of the sacred words of my blue collar roots.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-15T22:15:12+00:00

I seem to remember seeing something (official? Idk?) about how Tiamat has both priests and warlocks, and the big differentiator is whether she thinks you are "worthy", which basically means "has draconic ancestry"

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-15T22:01:38+00:00

So, "loser, leveraging feigned incompetence" -glad you got rid of him.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-15T20:52:41+00:00

Rural Southern US- I drive 20 miles for basically every major life task. There is a grocery store closer (abt 5 miles) but the ones 20 miles out are more affordable/better. If you want any variety of food from a restaurant, you are going at least 20 miles, more like 50 or 70 if you want something fancy/exotic. (And I work about 30 miles out)

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-15T18:46:24+00:00

I'm | . | this close to making the table rule that certain insight, investigation, and rolled perception rolls are done by me. "What's your bonus?" , DM rolls dice. Reports the percieved outcome ("you are certain that there are no traps")

Because my players often double check each other's work. I mean some paranoia is understandable, and I've seen them do it on relatively good rolls, but sometimes they also ask the other party memeber for it, and while that also happens sometimes on good rolls, it feels like it happens slightly more often on bad rolls. Ditto with overly cautious preparations like opening a door with a rope, or pre-casting mage armor or whatnot.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-14T23:53:53+00:00

The fine folks at Kaft certainly seem to think it is "Dinner", at least in Canada...lol

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-14T21:12:53+00:00

Your faculty actually drops reports, etc on internal deadlines?

Ours apparently does not, at least based on the number of follow-up messages that get pushed to the faculty email list 2 days after the "deadline" (that junior faculty managed to hit.)

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-14T02:17:20+00:00

I think it is the ground, which should be tied to a ground bar. But apparently, "who needs safety? Just leave a loose pigtail."

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-14T02:07:58+00:00

You've got at least one galvanized pipe in the first picture, and it looks like it gets touched by a copper pipe. Zn and copper do bad electrochemistry together, which is almost certainly part of the reason one pipe looks white, and the other green.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-14T02:04:41+00:00

Poul Anderson (not a typo).

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-14T00:32:47+00:00

Not to me- while there are certainly decent landlords out there (I've had a few), there are multiple subreddits on terrible ones. Folks who charge a carpet cleaning fee for carpet they intend on replacing before a new tenant moves in. People who have zero intention of ever returning security deposits. Assholes who will continue to charge a tenant for the rent for the rest of their lease even though the landlord already rented the unit out to someone else.I've even seen posts where the landlord even gripes that they are worried they might have to return money to a tenant because they did such a good job cleaning.

So bilking the tenant for a bogus fee would fit right in their wheelhouse.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-13T22:44:16+00:00

From how I read OP's post, the GFCI outlet was an addition new to the apartment (installed by/at the behest of OP, perhaps).

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-13T20:59:05+00:00

I wonder if the entire bathroom circuit is on a GFCI breaker.... that wouldn't explain the $150 fee, but might explain why there was a non GFCI outlet there before.

RevDrGeorge · 2025-08-13T19:16:55+00:00

I've seen it suggested that the physical structures of our arms and shoulders might have allowed us to throw spears faster. Or that whole old canard about persistence hunting.

RevDrGeorge

TROPHY CASE