We all know the big-name ones: Dune, 1984, The Martian Chronicles, etc.

What are some sci-fi books that you loved that you never hear about or that won't be making those top-of-all-time lists?

Why do they stand out to you?
What do they do well?
Why do you think they didn't get wider appreciation?

I've been playing Aniimo for a bit. The gameplay is fun, but some of the artwork looks blatantly AI generated to me. I've seen images with double headed animals and wheat that seems to disappear. Maybe those are placeholders, but the dialogue, some creature and NPC designs, and even the voiceacting set off my spidey sense too.

The developers claim they don't use generative AI for creating the characters, world and story, but haven't been clear about where they do and don't use it specifically as far as I know. Is it as obvious to anyone else as it is to me? Has anyone found clearer evidence either way?

I may keep playing because it's fun, but I won't spend a single bit of my money on it. The fact that it feels like a Genshin rip-off makes the whole thing kind of funny, too.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

I have not been a serious runner in years and never a good one. I picked up running again, having wanted to for a while. My friend randomly wanted to start a running music playlist together and the fun of choosing hyped-up songs led me to run 10-15-20-32k in the span of just a few months. I do not think I have ever run more than 7mi in my life. Now I look around at the sprawling city around me, satisfied that I can pick any point I see and run there.

If anyone else is into this would enjoy reading your stories or thoughts. I am especially interested in tips for greatly increasing distance without hurting myself. I had to simmer down a lot after doing 32k...

The US Nintendo eShop currently has sales for Pikmin 1, Pikmin 2, Pikmin 1 + 2 bundle, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, and Pikmin 4.

I've never played a Pikmin game before. Which would y'all recommend if I were to only buy one of these options?

Probably a common feeling that many eventually "grow out of". So I guess the follow-up question is if that happened to you, what made you change? And if that didn't, how did you manage to hold on to the belief?

I was wondering if anyone else has considered using a PKM like Obsidian (markdown editor with linking) for the unit and lesson planning.

Specifically, I am intrigued by the ability to link curriculum documents, resources I have collected, within my lessons. And being able to see a graph view of how everything links together really tickles my brain, while still maintaining my structured folder hierarchy (a nice mix of classical file management, non-linear organization through tagging, and chronological view based on creation date or modification date). I also enjoy the TaskNotes plugin Kanban view, and it's one file per task approach (letting me put a lot of detail into the task, or linking the task to another file). Obsidian also offers an education discount for publish / sync, but I think I am going to stick with my DAV sync to my homelab/media-centre, and maybe publish some lesson plans on a free site host using a generator like quartz.

Here is two published examples, one being more so lesson plans meant for teachers while the other is a component shared for students within a class. Both of these examples are American, so not 100% applicable to what I would do, but still really interesting to peak at.
English - Curriculum & planning approach - Obsidian Publish
Linear Algerbra - Course companion approach - Quartz

I was just wondering what other educators have tried (even if it is something completely different!), what has worked for you in terms of understanding, as well as what works for you sharing stuff with colleagues or student teachers (university candidates partaking in their practicum).

Addendum: I also have a paperless-ngx document server hosted, but this personally is more so for storing personal documents related to my banking, health, instructional manuals etc. All of the paperwork that is just so easy to lose, and is also part of my physical archival setup with ASN (archival serial number) QR stickers that I put on physical documents - I suck at physical organization so just numbering them and using tags and search on paperless just works for me.

I also have zotero for research still, which integrates nicely with obsidian (I used to use logseq but when they shifted to a database format they removed the in-build integration.

lastly, I do keep a physical planner, physical writing can help me with my day-to-day life; but for longer form stuff I do really need it digitally. I guess it is perhaps a little disjointed to be using a kanban board in my obsidian vault as well as a physical planner, but there is a certain work and personal separation that it allows for. Similar to my journaling in a physical notebook, there is an ephemeral nature to it that actually works very well for me vs something like my lesson planning which is recurring.

Sorry, if this isn't the right group for this, I took a best guess.

I have one pair of gloves left that I absolutely love: https://www.raceface.com/products/stage-glove?variant=32022768091218

problem is my current pair is starting to break down and I am finding it shockingly difficult to find a replacement pair online that is also covers the full hand and has whole on the back of the hand to improve breath-ability.

I unfortunately can't buy from race-face cause I have size medium hands and I don't really know if I am missing something obvious in my searches on both google and amazon that result in me not finding any gloves that cover the whole hand and have holes on them

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

It can be something personal to your life, or something public/newsworthy.

Your change on it can be anything -- from negative to positive or vice versa, or simply a different perspective or understanding.

Tell us what it was, what changed, and, if possible, why you think that change came about.

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

Rules:

• No grey market sales
• No affiliate links

If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.

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