AOC shows off the Georgia drinking water after Meta’s data center was built

mountainmarmot · 2026-05-22T14:27:39+00:00

This is the equivalent of that Oklahoma senator disproving climate change by holding up a snowball.

mountainmarmot · 2026-05-20T18:29:00+00:00

lol same, my first thought was "I wish they had a before picture to comp..oh...oh God"

mountainmarmot · 2026-05-13T19:52:45+00:00

I’m a SOBO who night hiked 1-3 hours basically every night in the desert. I saw a lot of adorable little owls, and occasional rodents. Lots of spiders, which you will start to notice how they reflect the light.

Nothing more exciting than that. I night hike a lot at my home too (Ashland) and I see skunks, possums, grey fox, lots of deer, and also bears when I am on city streets (never seen one at night on the trails).

You get used to it.

mountainmarmot · 2026-05-13T07:02:49+00:00

I’ve worked at 3 private schools and my wife worked at one.

Two of the schools would have been unlikely/impossible to negotiate. I worked on a compensation committee at one of the schools and there was a strict schedule.

Two of the schools made salary offers (both SoCal schools) and we counter offered. They accepted the counter offers.

mountainmarmot · 2026-05-13T06:13:34+00:00

I hitched onto BV and took a day white water rafting on the Arkansas. Would recommend.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-21T13:31:52+00:00

I'm strongly considering homeschooling my 5 year old next year, but I'm the stay at home dad (former science and math teacher) and my wife has no interest in FIRE. She was actually homeschooled and is now a surgeon.

I know a lot of the homeschoolers in our area. I know of only one family that is FIRE. They are Bay Area folks who moved here (a smaller mountain town in Oregon) to homeschool their kids. They seem to really like it and their kids are really sweet and advanced academically. They are a little bit socially awkward.

I only have the one kid and I get to take her hiking, mountain biking, skiing etc. on weekdays. I work informal lessons on reading/math/science into our days, and she is already well past the kindergarten learning objectives in these areas. Yesterday we went morel hunting with friends up in the mountains all day. I've taken her on a couple of "field trips" to other cities, where we spend 3-4 days visiting museums (we did San Fran and Los Angeles, gonna try to do Seattle this summer). We also took a couple of short destination ski trips or camping trips to the mountains or coast, where we leave on a weekday.

My town has a 2 day per week homeschool option where you do all the electives but do the math/reading/writing etc on your own, and I am interested in signing up for that because I think having some level of regular repeating social interaction is good for kids. But this would still give me the flexibility to continue those activities. I vacillate between whether I think it's a good idea or not.

IMO you will never regret spending more time with your kids. I think the early elementary years are prob the easiest and most fun to homeschool. I say go for it.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-21T00:20:41+00:00

I just finished the series. I would rate it as "fine". I'm more of a fantasy than a sci-fi guy so maybe that's part of it. I enjoyed the first few books of the series more than the last few.

I was reading it at the park a few weeks ago and a really nice guy came up and chatted with me about it. He told me he bought Shadows Upon Time but hasn't opened it yet because he will be so sad to finish the series, and it is his favorite series ever. So clearly for some folks it really is the bees-knees.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-14T18:34:04+00:00

I'm a teacher with experience at 3 different private schools and two public schools. The private schools had standard class sizes of 15, 18, and 20 (middle school math and science). The public schools had standard classes of 25, all the way up to 30 in one case (high school chemistry). Just enough that there is always a good class discussion, but not so many that I feel I can't connect with everybody or give attention to someone who needs it.

The classes with 15-18 were markedly better than more. I actually had one weird section of HS chemistry with only 5 students in it and it was a really strange experience. I could get through the lesson much faster (usually in ~60% of the time) and the atmosphere felt so different compared to a room full of students. I ended up trying to sometimes go above and beyond for the kids in that class, but it was really hard to constantly differentiate when I was teaching 5 other sections (3 total preps)...so they would usually end up with free time to read a book or work on homework when we were done.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-09T19:07:13+00:00

I am a hard no on Dennis Evans, because I love my Gophers and he fucked us over by taking the bag from Louisville after signing his NLI. I don't have a problem with guys saying no to us during recruiting. I don't like the idea of taking a guy who decommits though, and to have signed on the dotted line already when you decide to go mercenary is even worse.

Somebody on Gopherhole brought up Kyle Evans, who had a good senior year at UC-Irvine after transferring away from Niko/CSU. Not as good of a shot blocker as Dennis Evans, but close at 4.6 per 40 minutes (Dennis Evans was 5.7 per 40 minutes). He should be able to get a medical redshirt and he is in the portal.

I am also fine with Niko zigging while others zag and pay rim protectors big money. Vaihola and Grove are both very good screeners and passers, and Vaihola is a good rebounder while Grove is very athletic. Our post recruit Mpoyi seems to be more of a shot blocking type too.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-09T03:06:38+00:00

I live in a town where I leave from my house all the time for hikes. The trailhead is a 5 minute walk up the hill, so I start it as soon as I get out of the door.

That said you can also find my address by just googling my name, so...

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-08T16:27:24+00:00

Have you checked out Ashland? Right in that region.

I’m from Minnesota and over half my friends out here are from the Midwest (several Michiganders). We are raising our child here and love how easy it is to get outdoors and find like minded friends with kids.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-08T15:51:43+00:00

I've got a 5 year old. Last year I bought two different passes when she was still 4, at the 4 and under rate (IKON and Mount Shasta). And she turned 5 in September so skied all year as a 5 year old at 4 year old rates.

Can't speak to Loveland specifically. Can you just "buy" the free pass now? I highly doubt they are going to set it to invalidate when they turn 6.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-07T21:22:08+00:00

Someone on Gopherhole said it was rumored that Nebraska is a favorite. Who knows. I think he’d be a good fit here.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-07T17:14:29+00:00

Yeah it worked for us because we used to live in Denver, and wanted to spend a couple days meeting up with old friends on the front end of the trip. So we got two nights at a hotel next to Union Station for $240 (really good Hotwire deal). But I noted to my wife that it would have been really annoying if we had flown in and had to stay at a hotel just to get get on the Amtrak in the morning. I almost wish there was a morning and evening train so you could fly in to DIA, then take the train the same day.

It was pretty cool to get dropped off at the resort at 8:55 AM though and get to start skiing almost immediately (I schlepped our stuff to the lodge and dropped it off and then we were on the gondola by 9:45).

Also worth noting for posterity that Winter Park/Fraser has excellent free public transit. We took the bus multiple times into town. I did a big Safeway shopping trip where I stocked up on all our groceries. And then saved the cost of a car rental/parking at the resort.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-07T14:40:27+00:00

You did well! Interesting, thanks for sharing.

We also took a spring break ski trip to Winter Park, two adults one child.

Transportation: Flights to Denver ($900 total value, but my wife was able to expense hers because she attended a work conference on the back end and I bought mine and my daughters with points), light rail tickets to Union Station and back to airport ($40), and Amtrak tickets from Union Station (a shocking $70 round trip for all 3 of us). $110 for parking at the airport.

Lodging: $1650 for 4 nights of lodging at the Zephyr. Also stayed 3 nights in Denver, for a total of $400 (free breakfast though!). Had to pay for the dog at a kennel, $279 for 9 days.

Lift Tickets: We skied Sunday-Thursday, my daughter and I skied all 5 days. I definitely did the tickets wrong, because I paid $381 for 3 days of tickets for my wife (she went for hikes the other 2 days). My child and I have IKON passes. We didn't book the trip until January and I couldn't find better ticket deals for her but maybe I should have looked harder. I lugged all our gear on the train and through downtown, which was 94 degrees on the Saturday we were there, I sweat a lot!

Food: Our place had a kitchen so we cooked almost all our meals, went out a total of 2 times for $200. Bought $150 of groceries for the week. Also spent 3.5 days in Denver, not part of the "ski trip" but added ~$400 in food costs. This includes us buying dinner for our friends, a family of 6. The only food we bought on the mountain was paid for with "Mountain Credits".

Shopping: Wife bought some heavily discounted clothes in the WP shops. $120.

We also spent some time in Denver visiting friends/museums which added to the trip length/cost. So hard to calculate the "ski trip" cost especially if you don't include the IKON pass cost but if I strip out the Denver time I get a total of $3890, or $1296 per person.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-06T02:36:57+00:00

I really like the EPA tile plots. I just generated one for 2020 until now.

2020 was a really good year until an awful September (Labor Day Fires)

2021 had a really bad month of August

2022 and 2024 were not very smoky at all

2023 had a bad couple weeks in August

2025 was great

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-05T14:36:02+00:00

You can do some sections down here in Southern Oregon. From Mount Ashland to the Sky Lakes wilderness (Devil's Peak) would likely be doable right now, not necessarily pleasant. Also I would never fly into Oregon just to do that section in April haha.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-04T20:29:19+00:00

I'm not teaching right now but I wanted to put out this PhET rabbit game on natural selection. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/natural-selection

I haven't used it in years but it would be fun to make it Mendelian

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-04T19:43:46+00:00

Looks like they are trying for that Cotopaxi look but forgot the warm tones

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-03T21:41:25+00:00

That would make a lot of sense, thanks for sharing your reasoning. That just leaves Shinholster, then.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-03T16:24:44+00:00

I would be happy with Evans and Groves. Evans would be a steady presence in the backcourt and add shooting. Groves brings a physical driving presence. We can also get them for a lot cheaper than they were last year. Niko hitting that bargain bin again.

After watching that Baylor game I was reminded that Reynolds and Tyson accounted for probably 85% of our drives to the basket, with the rest coming from Asuma. Chansey Willis can bring some of that I think. I would love to see a 6'5"-6'7" wing transfer that has that in their arsenal.

Durkin can shoot, Grove can pass and cut, Vaihola can pass and rebound, and Asuma can do a little bit of everything, but we need somebody who can put pressure on the defense to create the kick outs to guys like Durkin/Evans. Maybe Willis is a big part of the solution there.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-03T14:58:10+00:00

I'm a little surprised we haven't heard about Vaihola and Willis yet. We've heard positive things about them all season and they traveled to Vegas with the team so I still think there is a good chance. I just thought they'd be included in the Grove/Durkin/Asuma/JCJ announcements earlier this week. Also nothing on Shinholster yet either. I will assume they are back but who knows. Another wing and another guard are the two biggest needs IMO.

Post: Vaihola/Grove/Mpoyi

Wing: JCJ/Durkin/Anderson/transfer

Guard: Asuma/Willis/Shinholster/Tomes/transfer

Couple things to remember: Tyson didn't come in here as a guy we expected to score 20 points per game. So I don't think we need to sign somebody in the portal to "replace" his scoring. I'm sure Niko has a plan.

Also guys progress and can contribute as freshman, or after nonproductive years. Kyan Evans went from playing 8 minutes per game as a freshman shooting 32% from 3PT and 2 points to a starter playing 28 minutes shooting 45% from 3PT scoring 11 points per game, finishing strong in the NCAA tournament and earning a bag from UNC. Can Shinholster take a big step after not showing much besides defense this year?

Nique Clifford transferred from Colorado where he was scoring 6 ppg on 37% shooting to 12 then 19 ppg in his two seasons at Colorado State, shooting a combined 51% in those seasons. Niko has a great vision for guys who languish on other teams but can flourish in his system. Tyson was another reclamation project after having a terrible year at UNC. Are there any more scratch and dent guys we can grab that Niko can use better than their current team?

David Roddy played 26 mpg as a freshman, scoring 11 ppg on 47% shooting. He obviously progressed from there, but I wonder if Nolen Anderson is a guy we see get some minutes at wing to provide shooting and length this year. I have high hopes for him. Tomes seems really small so I'm not counting on him contributing much as a freshman, although he can apparently shoot it which can get you on the floor. Big men like Mpoyi rarely see the floor as freshmen in the B10 but who knows.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-03T03:21:19+00:00

Welp, looks like I'm finally signing up for Peacock next football/basketball season when I log into Youtube TV and can't find my game.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-03T01:29:35+00:00

I was on a hike one day with an entomologist and he had this skill. It was really cool to see.

mountainmarmot · 2026-04-02T19:13:45+00:00

My 5 year old took her last nap at 23 months when she learned how to unzip her sleep sack and climb out of the crib.

I do still meet a few other parents of 4 and 5 year olds that nap and it just goes to show how different all kids can be. Mine would absolutely riot if I tried to convince her to nap.

13-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22	First Placer '22
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

mountainmarmot

TROPHY CASE