Capitalism.

Also, if I work hard I will be rewarded.

I have an unhealthy relationship with food. Oddly, the thing that really finally made it click was playing the Sims, and I noticed my Sim would get up & grab a snack from the fridge every single time they were bored.

We never really back up and say ‘did you REALLY get that part, because you’re going to NEED it for the next 14 years?’. I can remember I was sick for multiple weeks when we were learning division. I came back, and we were already onto the next topic, and it was just assumed I knew it. Now, I was super-lucky, in that I understood multiplication well enough to puzzle it out. Not every student cares, especially when they are like 8 years old. Just want to learn it enough to pass and be done with Math. ‘What do you mean I have more Math next year too???’

As soon as you miss a single step in the mathematics education train, well, you’re going to be hating math for the rest of your schooling. It’s a series of incremental building blocks, but we never double check that each student really has each piece.

Perma-banned, and the worst part is I’m not even sure why. I logged in while away on vacation, got hit with the ‘you’re logging in from an usual location, please confirm with an e-mail code’, and when I did that, boom, locked with no option to appeal.

I find some humor in that a robot decided I was a robot. Perhaps that will save me when the great robot uprising occurs?

A replacement PCV valve for my car.

Car was around 100,000 miles, figured it was a good time to do a big refresh & replace a bunch of stuff. Spark plugs, belts & hoses, fuel & air filters, fluids, etc etc… While I was at the parts store, guy suggested I also replace the PCV valve. But, it turned out the only one he had in stock was the store brand. $4, sure whatever. Got it home, took the factory one off the car, and sure enough it was gummed up kinda bad. But went to put the new one on, and it just about collapsed in my hands. It was so flimsy, kinda like a drinking straw. Ended up cleaning the factory one & putting it back on, threw the new one away.

“The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.”

I attribute the quote wrong all the time, but today the internet says it’s from Julius Nyerere, who was a prime minister in Africa back in the 1960s.

(America). As a die-hard lover of manual transmissions, I can say that unless you specifically want a manual, the odds of you ever needing to drive one are near zero. Oddly, the big exception would be if your partner drives a manual transmission car, which is true here. Will there ever be a time when your car is in the shop and you need to borrow his car?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CyVi4UzKxE&list=LL&index=8

I realize this link doesn’t directly answer your question, but it was the right technical level for me to better understand what’s the big deal about the bird flu. And it has some comments about the state of healthcare here in the US & what we’re doing (not doing) to prevent another pandemic. I liked it enough that I watched all 40 minutes, so I guess that’s something? lol.