Hey there,

I wanted to know which sets of passports grant together visa-free access to every country in the world, but I could not easily find that info online. So I figured that I could try to write a small program to determine these sets of passports myself, and then it occurred to me that it would probably be a fun programming challenge to organize, so here we go.

Here's the challenge.

1. Scrape the data you need for instance from The Henley Passport Index.
2. Design a clever algorithm to efficiently find out which are the smallest sets of passports that will grant you visa-free access to every country in the world.
3. Optional. Allow the user to specify which passports they already hold and find out which sets of passports would complement their passports well.
4. Optional. Rank the sets of passports by how easy it is to acquire citizenship in those countries.

The choice of the programming language is yours, bonus points if you write it in assembly 😂

Feel free to collaborate and share your solutions (the algorithms and the actual results) in the comments, and feel free to share your own twists to the challenge that could make it even more fun & interesting.

The person with the most clever, efficient and elegant algorithm wins!

Happy coding folks!

I just started watching Taskmaster after finding most TV right now pretty boring. I do like the silly challenges (and dry British humor in general lol). I never really watched game shows growing up, I'm aware of the bigger ones of course, (Jeopardy, Millionaire, etcetc.) but I wonder what I've missed in the meantime. I feel like sometimes game shows bleed into Reality shows a bit, which kinda turned me off from the genre until now. I do love trivia and seeing people solve problems in interesting ways though!

To throw in some of my favorites,
Game Changer on Dropout - My favorite at the moment, just because the cast is great and the tasks are great. Sam Reich is a great host too of course, and I just love the things they come up with.

The Mole on Netflix - Even though I don't loveeee reality shows for some reason this one got me. The players were super dumb but it was kinda interesting. I watched it a while ago though so my opinion might be different now.

Lateral (Podcast) - Tom Scott's trivia/gameshow podcast. It's really chill and I really enjoy the trivia I learn while walking my dog. The guests are (mostly) fun and interesting people too! The questions themselves are super "thinky" and playing along is fun.

I've recently found myself reaching for some of my favorite philosophy books as I enter another year of navigating a chaotic, painful world, and navigating my own depression and quest for meaning within it. Exploring philosophy really helps give me the language and mental framework to make sense and meaning out of an existence that often overwhelms me with fear and meaninglessness.

One big problem, though: a lot of philosophy books absolutely suck to read. They're overlong, impenetrably dense, and often awkwardly translated from another language.

TL;DR:
Can anyone recommend approachable, readable philosophy (or philosophy-adjacent) books that can help me navigate the world, find reasons to live, and develop a durable sense of meaning?

Some more background info: The philosophies that have resonated most with me over the years are the works of Camus, the broader world of existentialists and existentialist-adjacent philosophies, stoicism, and utilitarianism. While I recognize that things like logic, epistemology, and religion are important branches of philosophy I'm more interested in things that help me navigate the daily questions of existence such as meaning, suffering, purpose, and so on.

The most impactful philosophical ideas I've ever encountered are those of Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus' conception of the absurd and the challenges of navigating it resonated so deeply with me that it essentially kickstarted my entire interest in philsophy. Before that I had never done any philosophical reading that felt like it really applied to me. Suddenly it felt like Camus had taken what was in my brain and put it on the page. However, I still consider the Myth of Sisyphus not an approachable, readable philosophy book, and not really a good book at all. I found his philosophy impactful despite the fact that it's overly long, often boring, and weighed down by an English translation that may have been good in the 1950s but in the 21st century is extremely stilted and hard to read.

For that reason my favorite philosophy book is At The Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell. It's half biography of Sartre, Beauviour, and Heidigger, and half overview of the wide world of existentialist philosophies. It's an smooth, pleasant read written in plain English that both helped me understand more philosophical concepts than any other single book I've ever read and introduced me to tons of things I want to learn more about. I highly recommend it.

Some other books I've read:

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin is tremendous. I know this isn't technically philosophy, but it definitely feels philosophy adjacent to me since it fit the bill of "help me make sense of the world" and as a bonus is a very smooth read. I plan to re-read this soon.
• Man's Search of Meaning by Viktor Frankl was a solid 4/5 for me.
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is another philosophy-adjacent book that is a tremendous exploration of how we cope with death. It really impacted how I think about end-of-life issues.
• Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments is a collection of essays meant to make philsophy and ethics approachable for normal people - hence why I picked it up. I read most of it, but the essays were just too hit and miss so I ended up putting it down about 2/3rds of the way through.
• The Stranger by Camus. I did not necessarily enjoy this book (and I have no desire to re-read it) but I do appreciate it for being thought-provoking. Plus it was a way smoother read than The Myth of Sisyphus.

Some I'm considering reading:

• The Rebel by Camus. This is the other Camus text I'm considering picking up given that both his general philosophy and the subject matter here are of interest to me ... but the idea of actually having to sit down to read it is giving me pause, given what a slog The Myth of Sisyphus was.
• How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer by Sarah Bakewell is the second most well-received of her books. I don't know anything about Montaigne but obviously with a title like "How to Live" it's hitting upon exactly the sort of questions I'm asking...
• The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. We have a copy of this lying around and the passages I've read over the years have been both insightful and readable.

I deeply appreciate breadcrumbs anyone can provide as I try to learn how (and why) to keep living in this world and to develop a sense of meaning within it.

I'm looking for an article that was posted on Tildes in the last year I believe, on online communities and moderation.

I think it was a link to someones personal blog and the author was female. It talked about the challenges of moderating communities with free speech as a core value, because all it takes is a few bad actors pushing that to it's limits and it completely derails the community and puts too much strain on moderators.

The article itself was very good, but I also remember the discussion on tildes was a very good read as well. I have tried searching tildes, using google and chatGPT4 and while I can find a lot of good threads related to this topic, I can't seem to find this one with the article.

Does anyone remember this article/thread?

I realize it's maybe a long shot and it's just a vague memory, so I apologize if this is an annoying post, but it doesn't hurt to ask?

it's the end of 2023, and I figured it would be fun to put together a list of the games which made the best impressions on me throughout. Post yours! It's cool if it wasn't a game made in 2023; if you found it this year, that's good enough. It's your year, not this year lol.

I've written about most/all of these in longer form here on Tildes. I might end up repeating myself a bit, but if you want a more thorough description they'll be easy to find in my history. Goes without saying I'd recommend any of them. The order here doesn't mean anything.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon - this was my personal game of the year, and one I'll cherish long after. Armored Core has you building, customizing, and then piloting a mech. AC VI took ideas and mechanics from across its series, blended them together into a new framework, and the result is a fast, explosive experience. As it was in the past, the game takes you through first learning the ropes and exploring new parts, then pushes you to get as good as you can with whatever is fun to you. In the best way, it feels like a game from an earlier time in history - its straightforward mission structure makes for a game you can quickly jump into, make a lot of progress, and jump back out of without having to worry about missing much or forgetting what you were doing. Everything about it has been polished, honed to be about as nice as you could reasonably expect. It looks good, plays great, and tells a story that does with mecha what Fromsoft did with AC's mechanics - it's a little bit of everything, elegantly smashed together.

Exanima - This game is perhaps one of the most unique experiences I've yet to see, despite looking like a lot I have already seen. Exanima takes a very detailed, simulation kind of approach to the objective of dungeon crawling. What makes it unique is its physics system. Controlling a character is more like moving a marionette, where you tug the character along to build momentum and aim your swings. Weapons feel significantly different to each other, and heavy armor changes how well you can move. Once you get used to it, the result of working with this system is a dynamic, visceral kind of combat where you may feel confident, but never certain. An errant slash or clumsy step can mean taking a heavy blow, and recovery is not easy. When the game was younger, folks played and loved the combat so much that it inspired an arena mode. The arena is a separate, distinct mode in which you are tasked with building a roster of characters and participating in tournaments. It is a game unto itself. If you're a fan of games with a very high skill ceiling, Exanima is providing you a system that can go really, really far. The game is a project being worked on by a small group of people, already has a lot of content available, and seems poised to continue development practically forever. Don't let "Early Access" put you off, this one is in a state where it's just good to get more of it. What's there is more than worth its price.

Kenshi - I just got into this one and have been blown the hell away by how much there is to it. In Kenshi you take the role of a person dropped into an alien world, and are tasked simply with surviving. How you do that is up to you, and the world is built to notice and react. There is no story, no main quest or objective. Rather, you can learn more about the world by engaging with it, and determine your own goals within it. As you do things like visit new places, eliminate important people, build your own town, etc., the state of the world will change. This can go in many directions, and there are hours upon hours of videos out there of folks pulling off all sorts of wild shit. Truly, it's a game where your playthrough will become a story the further you go. Mechanically, it's like someone combined Morrowind, The Sims, and Neverwinter Nights, with a big coat of Mad Max paint all over it.

Cyberpunk 2077 - I had played this before, when it first released, and though I did like some of what it was trying to do, the gameplay was busted to the point I didn't care to come back. Now that it's had its expansion and a lot of bugfixing, this game stands pretty tall and I was really impressed with it this second time through. Definitely a case of "they fixed it"; they really, actually did. It's not a No Man's Sky-scale redemption arc but a redemption arc nonetheless, I guess. The big ball of stories and systems rolls along and you roll right up in it, with missions playing out similar to an episode of a higher end tv show. They weave and wrap up satisfyingly, and by the end I feel I had a pretty complete experience of having been a Night City mercenary.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn - Tactics Ogre was always one of my favorite tactics games and this remake both ups its presentation and provides a different kind of challenge. Specifically, it eliminates the ability to power-level anyone; your level is capped as you make your way through the story, forcing you to engage with the game's other systems in order to work out an advantage. The best way I can think to put it, is that it goes in a more Chess-like direction, where you need to be carefully considering how your individual pieces work and planning out a sound approach, because you can no longer action-rpg your way out of it by grinding. At least for me, it felt like a fresh take on something I've enjoyed for a long time, and so became the version I most enjoy playing. If you like Final Fantasy Tactics, TO is its precursor. Give it a go and see what you think - at least for me, it won.

Lunacid - Lunacid is a simplistic game that does what it does exceptionally well. Borrowing primarily from King's Field, it's a first person dungeon crawler in which you piece together the weird place you're in by finding stuff and opening up new paths. It's playing the King's Field influence pretty straight; it lives off being spooky and weird, and spruces up combat to suit a more modern sensibility. What impressed me was just how good of an iteration it is; King's Field is a tough series to get into these days and this game feels like a successful effort to bring it back.

Honorable Mention - Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries - this one gets an honorable mention because just to be frank, the base game is kinda mediocre. It's through mods that I had a fantastically good time with it. I was never into Battletech, but did play the old Mechwarrior games, and while I did miss some of the more simulation-ish aspects of the older games, MW5 + the mods I used gave me enough to do and experiment with that it just didn't matter in the end. In particular, Coyote's Mission Pack, vonBiomes, and Yet Another Mechlab added just a ton of stuff, and of course you can go much much further with it if you want. The base game is not bad on its own, it's just easy to see all it has to offer really quickly. The mods primarily add variety, to tasks and options, and it's in that swirl of ideas and systems where I found a lot of the fun I had.

Post your picks! Just about all of this is on sale right now, so hopefully too we'll all find some neat stuff to check out.

I've offered to cook Christmas Dinner for my husband's side of the family, but have one problem. While my husband and I aren't the biggest beef eaters nor big fans of steak, my in-laws are. I don't mind cooking for their requests and find it a fun challenge to cook a different type of meat, but here's the concern: due to not regularly cooking it, I'm not as well versed in the methods or approaches.

They would prefer either a prime rib roast or beef tenderloin; both cuts I have never worked with. While there are a number of recipes out there, I would like see if anyone on Tildes has a recommendation on how to cook either cut or another of similar quality. My mother-in-law does not like a lot of pink appearing in her steaks as well, so I'm having to consider how to handle that while also not over cooking the meat. I was already considering dry brining it overnight, but after that I'm unsure what direction i would go.

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated!

Becoming a father is a moment of great elation and stress, bringing challenges that are hard to anticipate. Given the different demands and circumstances that surround us, many of these challenges are not necessarily shared by our partners. At the very least, many challenges and fortuitous circumstances contain features that are more common for men. What was not like you expected (good or bad)? What did you find particularly surprising or revealing?

Hello!

For the past few years, I've been an avid reader of fantasy and fiction. I've explored numerous books and sagas within these genres, ranging from well-known titles to some relatively underground gems. However, I've encountered a recent issue with my reading habits.

Firstly, reading has always been my preferred and "healthier" form of entertainment from a productivity standpoint. Compared to games or TV/movies, it has been easier for me to set aside a book when it's time to focus on work or study. Lately, though, I've become deeply engrossed in series with multiple entries. When a book's plot captivates me, putting it down becomes a challenge. This was particularly true with the Expanse series; by the fourth book, I was completely immersed in the narrative and characters. Unfortunately, the series comprises nine books, leading me to avidly read subsequent books almost obsessively and, regrettably, procrastinate on important tasks.

Admittedly, this lack of discipline is my own fault. However, I believe that if I had access to interesting short stories, I could read them during breaks or brief moments of leisure, satisfying my entertainment needs without committing to a lengthy plot. Recently, I enjoyed "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, which exemplifies the kind of short story I'm seeking. Another example would be "The Jaunt" by Stephen King.

Unfortunately, I'm unfamiliar with how to access such stories. It seems that short stories are often published in niche magazines, a trend that appears to be more specific to the US culture. I primarily read on Kindle, so if you know of a way to download these types of stories in bulk in epub format or specific book compilations containing short stories, I would greatly appreciate your recommendations!

Hello tabletop community,

I am designing my first ever boss fight, meant to really challenge my players. I don't want to kill any of them off since we're all new and it feels weird to lose a character, but I also want it to feel threatening. I could use some advice about how to execute this situation:

Boss is a big mimic disguised as a blood fountain with 6 long tentacle arms, each of which will be it's own figure on the board that can be up to 3 tiles from the 3x3 mimic figure.

Four of the tentacles have weapons that can deal 2d6 damage and have 30hp AC11 (roughly making it in line with a Brown Bear for threat and HP). They can grapple (squeeze the target) instead for 1d8 damage per turn, escapable on DC13 strength.

Two of the tentacles have shield-like hard points that defend neighboring enemies by giving disadvantage on attack rolls against them. AC14 HP30. I couldn't find anything to base these on for an encounter designer app.

Main body has low movement (10ft), and has 200hp AC19, and loses 20hp per tentacle lost. It has a bite attack +6 to hit 2d8. It also floods blood through sections of the room, forcing player movement and dealing 2d8 poison damage. I based it on a Roper for difficulty and attacks.

I think this combination creature would provide a very interesting and movement focused fight, but I'm very new to DM'ing and I'm afraid of accidentally killing the players.

My questions are: (1) How do I avoid accidentally killing everyone? (2) Is this fight too hard for a newbie group of 5 new players? (3) Any other cool ideas I didn't think of?

Hello Tildes community,

I am soon going to DM my second ever mini-session for a small group of fairly new players. I'd like to send the group into a haunted tavern that has an unusually intelligent mimic in the basement that has been eating tourists that pass through, leaving behind undead creatures throughout the basement.

My primary goal with this is to help the players (most pretty new) understand how to conserve their magic instead of firing it all off in each battle, so I wanted to prevent them from long resting. I figure I could magically lock them inside when they arrive, and then let them learn that if they should rest, previously killed undead creatures (like Minotaur Skeleton or zombies) resurrect after about an hour.

I am looking for two pieces of advice. First, I'd like to know good creatures to put into the dungeon that would provide a challenge, but not be too devastating. I looked at Wraith, for example, but a Wraith could easily one-shot any of the casters in the group and instantly kill them, which isn't fun. What should I be using instead? Remember that each individual fight doesn't need to be too hard, I just want the group to start feeling the strain of resources getting exhausted.

Secondly, the primary DM (who I am running a single session for) has said I can level up the party to 6 during the dungeon. Does this essentially heal the whole party and refresh their spell slots, ala most RPG games? I'm a bit confused how this part would work, tbh.

Thanks for your help, and big thanks to everyone who answered my last question about a Kobold Brewery. It was a blast, and the party loved it, particularly some of the traps that y'all came up with. By the time the party escaped, the entire brewery was on fire, which was amazing.

Appreciate your help!

The release of the Meta Quest 3 seems to have been slowplayed but my take is that Zuckerberg is still going full force ahead with MR but doesn't want to have a fiasco like the last round of publicity about "the metaverse” when people were mentioning it in the same sentence as blockchains and NFTs.

I read a lot of very positive reviews about the hardware

https://www.theverge.com/23906313/meta-quest-3-review-vr-mixed-reality-headset

https://www.reddit.com/r/QuestPro/comments/17631ja/24_hours_in_my_quest_3_review/

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/meta-quest-3

so I got one and I am really impressed. It comes with a very convincing demo where cracks appear in the ceiling and walls of your room opening views onto another planet and then aliens come into your room that you have to shoot with the controllers to stuff them into a tube. I am showing this demo to people on the hopes I can sell some kind of MR exhibit to a local museum.

Karl Guttag could show that the MR quality is "awful" from an eye chart perspective but the motion-to-photon is really excellent, you can throw and catch a ball just fine wearing it, and it is totally practical to walk around the house, interact with people, read (large) text to copy, use a touchscreen, etc.

I get the feeling too that they are doing many of the right things to market it, for instance, it comes with a license for a major game that comes out in two months which will might give people who don't click with it right away a chance to re-engage. There is intensive notification based marketing with discounts and stuff which is totally textbook for a new app store and that I like at the moment but it is possible it just won't connect if the product isn't up to snuff.

I tried Horizon Worlds and ran into the problem of not being able to succeed at the fishing minigame (in real life I've only been able to catch sunfish and smelt, but you really can fill up your freezer with zero skill with the later) and also the way it is weirdly empty. I have some content that I think could be put in there which I think is often a good idea on a new platform that is heavily promoted (e.g. easy to get free publicity and other benefits from the platform) but that emptiness might mean they don't feel pressure to get content. VRChat was more fun but showed me the challenge of onboarding people to that sort of thing, I got into an entrance room where I met one person who was actually attentive and trying to communicate and I think a lot of kids who were "doing their own thing", I figured out some of how to interact in that space but the problem of "getting gud" while sharing the space with other people who might be annoyed seems tough.

My take is that the software is not up to the hardware right now but as a software developer I think that’s a great problem to have.

If you're excited about Apple Vision I think you should be excited by this. Any thoughts? Anyone tried the MQ3? Anyone developing content for it?

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share that Immersive Labs has rolled out their "Haunted Halloween" challenges for 2023. For those unfamiliar, Immersive Labs offers a platform for interactive, gamified learning in the realm of cybersecurity. They've been known to host challenges that test and enhance cyber skills.

You can sign up for free using code HAUNTEDHOLLOW to try it out hubs.ly/Q026LTZV0.

Now, I'm not posting this solely out of altruism. I could use some help on the 'Mirrored Mayhem' task.

Would appreciate any pointers or hints from anyone who's tackled this challenge. Thanks in advance!

Yo everyone, I'm fresh from the first good night's sleep I've gotten in awhile. I'm ecstatic to finally be finished (I took a longer road than most) and just felt like chatting with you fine folks.

Getting that dissertation done was a real challenge and while I'm happy I finished before George R. R. Martin finished the next ASOIAF book, I have a lot more sympathy now for him or anyone who has to write something lengthy.

Anyone else in a graduate program or recently finished? To those who have gone through the process, what'd you do immediately afterwards? I'm in the middle of a job interview process so I can't quite take a vacation, but I am planning to stick at least a full week somewhere where I travel and do nothing.

Tonight, I'm going to relax and watch The Magic Flute opera with friends which I've not done before.

I’m curious what your experience with taking pets like dogs on public transport is. Tildes has a diverse community from many different countries and I wonder how the process can differ!

I don’t own any pets right now, but I think that if I owned a dog my life would become a lot harder. I have no interest in owning a car at this point, but in my city and country, it would be hard or impossible to travel with my pet on public transit. The limit seems to be about 20 pounds for dogs on Amtrak—but I think small dogs are ridiculous creatures, so I’d already be blocked—and apparently no non-service animals on SEPTA.

Should we make public transit more accessible to animals? How do we do that? What are the challenges for transit agencies/other passengers and what are the benefits?

Texts, documents hint at convicted witness bail bond business owner Scott Hall's wide ties to Coffee County breach, Trump allies ahead of trial

Hall played a part in various post-election events, and he's taken a plea deal. He will testify in the Georgia 2020 election trials.

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/special-reports/ga-trump-investigation/scott-halls-witness-trump-case-georgia/85-ad5ca637-6272-448b-8f52-c0c8aba74ef0

Hall's alleged involvement following the 2020 election reaches beyond the small south Georgia county. This includes personal relationships with those close to the former president.

Several media outlets, including CNN, have reported that Hall is related to David Bossie, chairman of the conservative group Citizens United who briefly led the former president's post-election legal challenges. Bossie's name appears in the Fulton indictment.

In late November 2020, David Shafer introduced Hall to a group of individuals including Robert Sinners, a current spokesperson for the Georgia Secretary of State's office who then worked for Trump's campaign. In the email, Shafer said Hall was "looking into the election" on behalf of the former president at Bossie's request.

This is described in Act 4 in the indictment, though Sinners is referred to as "unindicted co-conspirator Individual 4" by Fulton prosecutors. Sinners has since disavowed the post-2020 election activities that took place in Georgia.

Hall may also know about the letter former Justice Department official Jeffery Clark wanted to send that alleged the agency "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia."

This was a challenge to summarise in a title, but what I am after is a discussion of songs or albums with sound detail and design with high complexity that is also enjoyable to listen to. Listening to songs that really push the speakers to their limit in terms of detail is a joy, one could argue that all music does this, but from my perspective some recordings really shine through when you listen to them with proper high-quality high fidelity speakers or headphones. Most classical music fall within this genres but there are plenty of other genres which are interesting.

Some examples:
CLARITY - Jacob Collier
Hand Covers Bruise - Trent Razor and Atticus Ross
Dream of Arrakis - Hans Zimmer
Eyjafjallajökull - Nordlight

I hope I managed to make myself understood, if not I will try again! Anyways, what are your favourite complex pieces of music?

Timasomo is "Tildes' Make Something Month": a creative community challenge that takes place in the month of October.

This is its FIFTH year (can you believe it?!).

If you would like to participate (or simply follow along), make sure you are subscribed to ~creative.timasomo.

The Roll Call thread will be posted there on October 1st. That is where people will formally commit to projects for Timasomo.

FAQs

This Thread: Planning!

Post your ideas.

Give feedback to others.

Set up collaborations.

Ask questions.

Everything in this thread is non-commital! Bounce around ideas and figure out what you'd like to do in our communal brainstorming session.

Also, please do NOT start work on your project yet! Stage setting, planning, and other preparations are allowed (e.g. getting supplies/materials, setting up workspaces, etc.), but save the creation initiation for the 1st.

Get excited for a FIFTH YEAR of awesome projects!

First of all, this is a lot about me and myself and I'm sorry it's a bit self-centered; it's been bouncing around my head and I want to get it out somewhere. Please let me know if this isn't appropriate here.

Secondly, teachers or those in training to become one: I want to hear your thoughts on this question.

Why am I becoming a teacher?

I've been finding that I'm asking this question of myself a lot lately. My goal is and always has been the same for years: I want to teach, I feel good teaching, I feel I have a purpose and that purpose has been what's driven me forward when I wanted to give up. Truly though - why do I want to be a teacher?

I could do the same style of work in other settings. I could become a tutor, self-employed or otherwise, and assist students in a specific capacity. I could be a YouTuber, creating video essays on self-researched subjects of passion. I could be a writer, bringing the same content through literature to a wholly different audience. In all of these, there is the potential to make more money, reach a wider audience, and leave a more indelible impact upon the world.

So, why am I becoming a teacher?

15 years ago, I dropped out of college, suffering depression. I wasn't the only one depressed; aside from the millions of others reeling from mental health issues, the economy was entering a recession in 2008. I was a NEET - jobless, out of school, and seemingly stuck. My family (read: my dad, stepmom, and sisters) had abandoned me - they had other matters to worry about than their wayward son - and I was fortunate my mother whom I'd dissociated from years before reached out to me. With her help, I got back on my feet, moved across the country, and began looking for work with slight hope. I volunteered one day to read at the school she worked at, and the teacher in the room went to the admins and demanded I be hired on the spot. I was.

Thus began a journey of discovery. I was good at something, and I felt good about doing it. I felt something to replace my depression and self doubt: worthiness.

Over the years, I honed my craft and continued sporadically attending school - when I could afford it - in order to become able to lead my own classroom in our private school/daycare. That was 7 years ago, and I've been teaching prek (4-5 year olds) since then. I'm able to teach reading, writing, mathematics, chess, life lessons, history, biology, astronomy, geology, entomology... the list goes on and on. I have a passion for learning, and for sharing that learning.

Is that why I am becoming a teacher?

The biggest obstacle to achieving my ultimate dream - teaching in public schools - was always the degree. I had dropped out of college twice - in 2008 and again in 2013 - before finally completing an Associates degree in 2016. I felt that, financially, getting my bachelor's would never happen. Massive student loan debt (private debt north of $30k) and low wages in childcare meant I wasn't getting anywhere. Life changes though, and the stars aligned - the private debt was written off, I got out of defaulting on my federal loans, and just in time to qualify for a state program to get me in school again and have a full ride scholarship. It was happening!

Now we live in a post-pandemic world... Do I still want to become a teacher?

At first, attitudes were siding with teachers. There was sympathy for their struggles and worries, the low pay and high barrier to entry. That quickly changed, as it did for medical workers and others in the pandemic world. Teachers struggle more now than they have before. Fewer resources, more troubled students that desperately need help, more resistance from parents and communities trying to prove that teachers and schools aren't necessary in the way they have been, and more burnout and shortages across the nation.

I see all this and yet I press on. Why?

The thing is, I'm not sure. My resolve is strong and I've been persistent and diligent in my schooling. I've worked too long and hard to give up this opportunity. Why do I still want to teach, though? Why not find an administrative job with potentially more pay and better work environment? Why not leave education altogether and use my skills elsewhere?

It comes back to what drove me forward in the first place: purpose. I feel in direct connection with the future by doing what I do. I feel like in some miniscule, imperceptible, but meaningful way, I can help create a better world tomorrow by doing what I do today. It gives my life meaning, and nobody and nothing can take that from me. I've changed hundreds, potentially thousands, of lives already. Students return years later to tell how much I meant to them - these are students I had known at ages 4 and 5 who still remember me a decade later!

So, why am I becoming a teacher?

Because someone has to do it, and that someone might as well be me. I enjoy my work, I enjoy the ups and downs, I enjoy the struggles and challenges and overcoming them, I enjoy making difficult topics understandable to young minds, I enjoy what I do even when I hate it. To me, that's love.

With good luck and a positive outlook, I'll be graduating with a degree in Early Childhood Education next September. It may not be prestigious, it may not make me a lot of money, but it will allow me to continue on the path I've set myself. Thanks for reading.

As an author who normally writes a lot of thrillers with dark subjects, I found at the outset of last year that I just couldn't add any more darkness to the world. Lisica is a story I've been incubating for over 20 years, about a fictional island 1600 km off the coast of Oregon in the middle of the Pacific. I've just finished the series and it needs a new set of eyes to take it to the next level.

It is pure escapism, a love story about eleven researchers who are sent to Lisica for eight weeks to categorize the island's life before a new global satellite agreement comes into force and the USAF has to reveal the island to the wider world. The novels are equal parts scientific discovery, (with special emphases on data science, field biology, geology, meteorology, marine science, archaeology, and linguistics) and equal parts torrid romance between all these beautiful people. In many ways it is a utopian story, about people in paradise doing valuable work who can also love without hurting others. There is no toxic masculinity or bullying on this island, no sophomoric communication problems, no jealousy nor regret. It is my belief that natural challenges such as storms and cliffs and the mystery of the unknown is enough. This isn't Lost. There is magical realism here but it is more realism than magic.

I'm hoping to find a few qualified beta readers who have a background in these sciences, to help me make sure I present them correctly. But it's a lot to ask, for sure. Each of the four volumes is 15 chapters of exactly 26 pages each. 1560 pages in all. 425,000 words. If anyone knows a retired biology teacher with plenty of time on their hands, that's basically who I need at this stage.

My next step is to turn each chapter into audio episodes. As well as an author, I'm an Audible narrator and professional character actor. It is why each chapter is exactly 26 pages long. They make for sixty 42 minute audio episodes. I will eventually release the series week by week for free on my literary podcast over the next year.

Hopefully, this scratches someone's itch. Thanks for reading!

My SO decided that she'd be a vegetarian after watching the most recent Avatar movie almost a year ago. I am the kind of person that will spend hours perfectly managing a charcoal smoker to make the perfect brisket and whose COVID hobby was making the perfect steak. I love chasing technique and incremental improvements. I hate instant pots and think making soups are boring- I want action and creativity rather than strictly following a recipe. I also enjoy cooking for others but cooking food I don't like to eat and don't like to make saps a lot of the joy out of it. This has been a challenging transition but I just wanted to share what's been working for me so people who are in a similar boat can survive, too, and hear what other people are doing to survive the transition as well.

1. Embrace the wok. Every meal from here on out can be a 1 pot mise-en-place made by action star. There is so much in making the perfect wok meal that it is crazy. Chinese cooking demystified is a great place to start, as is Kenji's book "The Wok." This single-handedly made me realize that I, too, could love cooking vegetarian.
2. To add meat flavor and texture into your meal without MSG, embrace the mushroom.
3. Wheat-started ferments are the next level down on the umami flavor chart without a lot of the vinegar of lacto-fermentation. Fermented soy beans are dope as are various fermented chile peppers (both korean and sichuan are delightful in different ways).
4. To add meat flavor into your meal without MSG, fermented everything is your friend. The Noma Guide to Fermentation is a great place to start and the pao cai pickle jar is the easiest way to have that on hand if you aren't eating pickles every day. Fuschia Dunlop goes into great detail on that in the Food of Sichuan.
5. "Alternative meats" never work if the meat is not the centerpiece of your meal. For example, impossible or beyond pork does not work ever in a pork fried rice because fake meats don't have the required fat content. Personally, I also really taste the pea protein flavor and have given up on them entirely. Use fresh mushrooms instead. Vegetarian mapo tofu isn't omitting the pork but rather adding wok-fried diced oyster/shitake/enoki/chanterelle mushrooms (removing some moisture is key- mushrooms have a lot of water in them) and increasing the amount of oil used since the mushrooms are so absorbent. Basically, impossible meat is impossibly bad- embrace vegetarian meals and their offer of totally unique flavors and textures.
6. A Nakiri or Usuba and a thousand little stackable steel mixing bowls makes the prep experience a lot better. Also, those bowls are like, $2-3/bowl at restaurant supply stores- don't buy them at amazon or walmart. Online restaurant supply stores offer similar prices+shipping.
7. When making dishes, particularly in a wok, your dish can still have fish sauce and other peoples' can have chinese light soy sauce or japanese soy sauce. BTW- another umami bomb- fermented sauces. Thai fish sauce or garum analogues are for you and soy sauce is for your vegetarian buddies.
8. There do exist good vegetarian broths that can mimic the flavor but not the gelatenous texture of a homemade chicken stock. AFAIK the only way to come close to that homemade broth mouthfeel is to thicken the soup in a finishing step with some type of flour (white wheat, teff, arrowroot, whatever you have on hand!). My greatest broth successes have involved a mirepoix, shitake mushrooms, piles of garlic, and tons and tons of nori, roasting or broiling it in an oven to add char, and then boiling it down with black peppercorns.
9. Your new burger recipe is Kenji's black bean burger. It's really good.
10. Most importantly, you can still cook for yourself sometimes. Just because other people don't eat meat doesn't mean you can't on occasion. You can still make The Dish even if you're the only one eating it. Accept that, when you move, you won't become friends with your butcher anymore and get weird cuts on the sly (h/t to Primal Supply of Philadelphia, the best butcher shop in the world).