BeardyHat's recent activity
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Comment on Whatever happened to _____? in ~talk
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Comment on Whatever happened to _____? in ~talk
BeardyHat Link ParentAnecdotally, I have two nephews, a niece and a family friend that all had to do this, roughly ages 7-10 at the time and they're all doing pretty well. They're all smart kids, involved in various...Anecdotally, I have two nephews, a niece and a family friend that all had to do this, roughly ages 7-10 at the time and they're all doing pretty well. They're all smart kids, involved in various clubs in school, well spoken and not particularly different than I remember during my time as a teenager 25+ years ago.
Online school looked absolutely miserable (one nephew and my sister in law lived with us at the time) and completely useless, but the kids I know seem to have come out pretty alright.
Actually, I also know some other family friends who were between 15-18 at the time and they also seem to be doing very well. One is an active duty military member and other has worked odd jobs (not unusual for someone their age) and is now working on starting their own hair stylist business.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
BeardyHat LinkI have been absolutely obsessed with Darkest Dungeon 2 for the past three weeks or so. I bought this game back in 2023, having played over 200-hours of the first game on my PS Vita a couple of...I have been absolutely obsessed with Darkest Dungeon 2 for the past three weeks or so.
I bought this game back in 2023, having played over 200-hours of the first game on my PS Vita a couple of years ago. It really didn't click then and ended-up leaving a bad taste in my mouth after about 12-hours. I never went back to it since then, but a few weeks ago, I started thinking about playing Darkest Dungeon on my Vita again, which got me thinking about the second game and how I should maybe give it another chance, reminding myself that the philosophy of the game is different.
The devs clearly set out not to just make Darkest Dungeon but better and more, but instead refine a lot of the mechanics and make something that felt a little different, especially given it's more of a Roguelite game. In the first game, you build teams of Heroes to explore various dungeons, bringing supplies enough to try and complete an entire run of the dungeon and balancing those with collecting as much loot as you can to bring back to your village to upgrade it. Your Heroes are a big part of that game, but they're really not important in it; early on in that, if you have Heroes who are low level, no skills and end-up very stressed out after a few runs, you simply kick them to the curb and hire someone new. It's too expensive to fix them and upgrading your village is far more important, because those are the upgrades you always have.
The game was criticized a lot for this, I think. It really gives you the impression that the Heroes are your most important resource and I've seen that complaint levied at it often. I think due to this, Red Hook decided to go in a different direction and actually really focus on the Heroes for the second game, as they do become the most important thing in the game. Through the course of a run, you're trying to maximize your Candles, a currency that's used at the beginning of every run to permanently upgrade your Heroes, Stagecoach (your conveyance through the runs) and unlock more items to use on your Heroes. You maximize those Candles by visiting marked locations on your map, completing Hero goals and bringing special items to the Inns at the end stages of each map. You'll get at least a few candles for every run, but it definitely feels like you need to have an understanding of the game to really make some progress upgrading stuff; I really felt like I hit a stride when I beat the first chapter for the first time and got something like 72 Candles, allowing me to unlock new Heroes and upgrade my existing ones to a point where they're significantly more powerful.
Anyway, that's the basic gist of the game, but one thing that really strikes me about it is that it's the most XCOM-like game I've played since XCOM and XCOM2. I feel like often in forums, Steam on gaming websites, games are described as "XCOM-Like" when they're nothing of the sort. Games are often described this way when the superficially resemble XCOM with tile-based, turn based combat and that's about it. What truly makes a XCOM, XCOM is what I like to call the genre of "Plate Spinning Games".
So what is a Plate Spinning Game?
It's a type of game where you're forced to balance a bunch of choices with each other and one choice in one area can often have negative effects in another. You have limited resources, so you really need to think about how you're going to balance that with the other choices you're going to need to make and how to mitigate the negative effects of those choices. Often, you might be forced to make a "Suboptimal" choice because it's expedient in the moment.
So how is Darkest Dungeon 2 a Plate Spinning Game?
There's just a lot to manage. When I begin a run, I'm sometimes sitting at the Party build screen for ten minutes, trying to pick which Heroes I want to take, how they mesh with each other and then ultimately what skills they ought to have. Position in the Party matters a great deal and you need to choose your skills based on that. You can have a Party build with excellent damage to the front row or two of the enemy, but if you can't address the back rows of the enemy, you'll ultimately be doomed.
But there's so much more. You need to manage your Stagecoach, which may take damage through a run. So you need note how much damage it can take in its areas and choose your route through the map based on that. If you take too much damage on it, you're going to be forced to spend resources to repair it and if it gets fully damaged during a run, you'll be forced to stop and repair it, which means a difficult fight.
You also need to manage the Flame on your Stagecoach. Choosing a route through the map will either diminish or reinforce your Flame and your Flame is important because it gives your Heroes a chance to form positive relationships which each other, which is extremely powerful. If you don't manage your Flame well enough, your Heroes will form negative relationships, which can potentially doom a run (though they can sometimes be mitigated with smart play), as well as making enemy encounters harder as you proceed through the map.
You're managing your Heroes health and Stress levels. The more stressed they get, the more likely they are to form negative relationships or have meltdowns during combat, which can turn an encounter in favor of the enemy. Managing Health and Stress requires managing that Flame and making good choices as you proceed to the map, which can help heal your Health or Stress.
You'll need to manage your Heroes skills as well. You might see that soon you'll encounter a boss and while you can make the choice whether to fight the boss or not, you need to ensure that your skills can take care of the Bosses quirks. So you can switch out your skills before an encounter to make sure you've got the right setup.
You'll also need to make sure you're managing your Heroes combat items and trinkets. Combat items can give you little minor boosts in combat, from reinforcing your flame, to mitigating negative tokens on your Heroes and/or providing healing to them. But combat items are limited and also cost resources (but can also be found) to buy more of. Trinkets reinforce a lot of your Heroes skills and resistances, but can also come with negative effects on lower level trinkets. You might be able to give your Grave Robber extra damage, but at the cost of Her speed, which may end-up either a wash or negatively effecting you if you can't kill and enemy before it harms a party member.
There's just all kinds of little, constant, interesting decisions to be made in the game and it all reminds me of playing XCOM2. in which your managing all the facets of your strategic layer, putting Engineers where they need to go, doing the right research, etc, etc, so that you can be better off during the actual battles. I feel like with Darkest Dungeon 2, Red Hook really took Sid Meier's adage of "A good game is a series of interesting decisions" to heart and made a game absolutely rife with them.
I just love it to pieces right now and I think it's supplanted Darkest Dungeon for me. Much as I love that game, my main complaint with it is that I constantly had to be looking things up and I'm not the only one, which I know for a fact. That game can be so obtuse and difficult to play for people with a Goldfish memory like myself that someone made an app for all the stuff that goes into a run in that game. Making sure you know what the right items to bring are, what items interact with what and so on. Darkest Dungeon 2 just gives you everything you need to know right from the jump; everything is explained in tooltips, icons are everywhere, you always know what's going on so you can make the best informed decision in any given moment.
That's all I have to say about that.
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Comment on RAM is so expensive, Samsung won’t even sell it to Samsung in ~tech
BeardyHat Link ParentI was running my air fryer the other day and tripped my breaker. Long story short, I went to shut down my PC and reset my UPS and while doing so, I heard a "poof-zap". Was a bit worried for a...I was running my air fryer the other day and tripped my breaker. Long story short, I went to shut down my PC and reset my UPS and while doing so, I heard a "poof-zap".
Was a bit worried for a minute, but turns out it was just the UPS that blew and not any of my components. Pretty thankful for that, but I'm still not going to plug my PC back in until I get another UPS, which isn't cheap either.
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Comment on Oxygen therapy chambers have led to horrific deaths. Why are influencers raving about them? in ~health
BeardyHat LinkWell thanks, I'm traumatized now. Had never heard of this before and I do not like the first few paragraphs.Well thanks, I'm traumatized now.
Had never heard of this before and I do not like the first few paragraphs.
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Comment on Do you feel like you’ve had many lives so far? Why, why not? Which? in ~life
BeardyHat LinkI don't think I feel like my life is any different, really. I mean, it is different and I'm different, but I don't feel fundamentally different from the little kid I used to be, the teenager I...I don't think I feel like my life is any different, really. I mean, it is different and I'm different, but I don't feel fundamentally different from the little kid I used to be, the teenager I was, the young adult and now the middle-aged man.
I still an pretty obsessed with video games and computers
still love cars
still love the same type of music
still live in the State I grew-up in, if 30-miles away from my original hometownI suppose I had eras, but they still seem like me. There was the era in early childhood/teen when I was a hypernerd; later in my teens when I was still nerdy, but got more comfortable with myself and became slightly cooler; my Metal tee-shirt years during college, living in the city years; But again, none of those feel terribly different.
I guess I just haven't had drastic changes in my life. I never moved far away, dated the same girl for 4-years before that break-up and then have been with my wife for going on 19-years now. We own a house, some cars, have a dog, cat, two kids, I still mostly have the same friends I've had since I was a kid/teen, with some new additions. But I never really imagined my life being any different.
Maybe I lack vision or ambition, but I kind of always just viewed myself living basically the same life my parents did. Never cared to make drastic changes and just wanted a simple domestic life.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Conclusion and Recap in ~games
BeardyHat LinkMode: Standard Bingo! Finished 3/25 Interactive fiction Comedy Military/realistic shooter FPS ✅ Darkest Dungeon 2 Cozy Third-person shooter ARPG Metroidvania/search action Base building Shop...Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 3/25 Interactive fiction Comedy Military/realistic shooter FPS Roguelike
✅ Darkest Dungeon 2Cozy Third-person shooter ARPG Metroidvania/search action Base building Shop keeper Horror ★ Wildcard Sim racing Survival horror Arena/boomer shooter
✅ CulticAction-adventure Management Walking simulator God game Driving/piloting
✅ Pacific DriveCity builder Exploration Real-time strategy/tactics
✅ Advance Wars: Days of RuinSoulslike Not much to update on my part since my last post in week 4, other than the fact that I am utterly, hopelessly in love with Darkest Dungeon 2.
When I first bought it and started it about two years ago now, I really didn't like it. I felt like it very much didn't live up to the original game and I just wasn't having fun in the slightest over the 12-hours I played it. And now? I'm so glad I restarted it. At this point I've put 30 more hours into it and I feel like I'm constantly discovering new things to tweak about my party builds and new ways to play the game more effectively. I just started a new run a day or two ago and I was feeling very unenthused with the party build I chose; it just didn't feel like it was going well at all and I was just sort of stumbling along.
So I decided to change up a few skills to address what I felt were some weak points in my Party and suddenly, we're just utterly kicking ass. It helps that my Heroes got a couple of positive relationship buffs, but I've also just figured out how to more effectively play them with the different skills I chose and again, they are just absolutely crushing it. I have somehow made it to the final region before the boss battle (in the second act) and I have also managed to do something apparently challenging in nearly completing the quest for the Crusader in a single run; I just need to make it to the Quest boss in the next region and I'll be golden. Only problem is, I'm notoriously bad at the bosses in this game and I've only ever won one boss battle in the many, many times I've tried.
At any rate, I've pretty much dropped everything else. I do finally want to go back to Cultic and see if I can make it past the part I got stopped-up at, but I think I'm otherwise done with Pacific Drive. As far as Advance Wars goes, that's one that I'll return to eventually, but I am feeling done with for right now. I didn't complete anything on my list nor get a bingo, but I'm happy with what I accomplished which is to find a game in my library that I'm content to stick with for awhile.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentJust wanted to come back and mention, I struggled to get the Ultimate Talky Edition patched on Linux. The patcher refused to find the appropriate file in my Steam folder, but in the process of...Just wanted to come back and mention, I struggled to get the Ultimate Talky Edition patched on Linux. The patcher refused to find the appropriate file in my Steam folder, but in the process of searching for a solution, I managed to turn up a prepatched version on Archive.org. I'm not going to link it here, but suffice to say, it made the process of getting the Talky Edition working on Linux a piece of cake.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentNOLF is one I've been meaning to play since I played the demo ages ago. I just haven't found the time and when I'm looking for an FPS, I just always forget it exists. Really gotta get on that.NOLF is one I've been meaning to play since I played the demo ages ago. I just haven't found the time and when I'm looking for an FPS, I just always forget it exists. Really gotta get on that.
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Comment on CGA-2025-12 🏴☠️🏝️🍌 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Secret of Monkey Island in ~games
BeardyHat LinkSo far, I'm 0 for 3 on the CGA, never finishing any of the games we've played, but I'm hoping this will be the one. I've never been huge on Adventure games, but I've always loved the idea of them;...So far, I'm 0 for 3 on the CGA, never finishing any of the games we've played, but I'm hoping this will be the one. I've never been huge on Adventure games, but I've always loved the idea of them; the idea that they hint at a much larger, more intricate world. I think I can count on one hand how many I've actually finished (which I think is 1).
Anyway, my first exposure to Monkey Island was on a PC Gamer demo disk with Curse of Monkey Island. I know it's a bit of step child in the series, but I was absolutely charmed by the art, animations and voice acting when I first tried it. I never did play that one either (though I own it on GoG), but I did buy Secret SE many many years ago when it first dropped on Steam and played a couple of hours of it before dropping it completely.
I'll probably end-up with the Talkie edition, as I find the art and style of the SE version absolutely atrocious. I have no particular affection for the original graphics per se, but the smoothed out, mobile game looking aesthetic of the update is just...hideous. That said, I do love pixel art and will always lean towards it in any given game, so that's a major factor in my choice as well.
As far as what I'll play it on, I'm going to try playing this on my newly purchased Surface Pro 7; I installed Fedora Linux on it just to get away from the Windows bloat on such an old machine with 8Gb of RAM and so far, it's going great and I'm looking forward to using the Surface a little bit more. I'll probably end-up switching to a different laptop or my Steam Deck, however. We'll see how it goes.
Funny aside, when I was first trying to choose how to play the game the other day, I Googled which graphical style people like better. I came across a post on Reddit declaring that they liked the SE style best because it's what they grew-up with. This threw me for a loop, thinking, "Grew up with? It's only a couple years old." and then I went and saw it was released in 2009. Absolutely mind blowing. How am I so old?
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Comment on Can you live a normal life in Cyberpunk 2077? in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentMy wife will even sit there and watch his videos with me. Normally if I put on anything gaming related, she's looking at her phone and checked out (I get it), but she'll actually sit and laugh,...My wife will even sit there and watch his videos with me. Normally if I put on anything gaming related, she's looking at her phone and checked out (I get it), but she'll actually sit and laugh, roll her eyes and actually watch Any Austin.
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Comment on US shoppers, drawn by steep discounts, power through Black Friday in ~finance
BeardyHat LinkI spent $160 on a gaming computer for my nephew. Of course, this was in a parking lot of a Target, arranged via Craigslist. Though actually I did get a few things off Amazon, including a new...I spent $160 on a gaming computer for my nephew. Of course, this was in a parking lot of a Target, arranged via Craigslist.
Though actually I did get a few things off Amazon, including a new modular PSU, 140mm fan and HDMI cable for my HTPC, as well as a head lamp for working on my cars and other utility. Think that was all about $150.
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Comment on Suggestions for uses of old computer hardware? in ~comp
BeardyHat LinkHere's what a variety of old machines are doing in my house: HTPC - This gets used every day. My wife and I watch TV on it and my kids play games. Gaming - An old gaming laptop setup next to the...Here's what a variety of old machines are doing in my house:
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HTPC - This gets used every day. My wife and I watch TV on it and my kids play games.
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Gaming - An old gaming laptop setup next to the HTPC so both kids can play Minecraft together or just whatever game they want at the same time.
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PiHole - Running alongside my network equipment for adblocking
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Arcade cabinet - I have a Cocktail Arcade. Admittedly, this one isn't in use yet because I need to disassemble the cab and take out the old hardware, which is currently in use. But the computer is all setup and ready to go in.
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Garage PC - For research and checking shop manuals while I work on my cars. Paired with a cheap thrift store monitor and keyboard that I don't care about getting greasy or nasty.
This isn't including my other regular PC's I use, such as my desktop which is my File Server/AI Server/Gaming machine and also my laptop and Surface Go. Plus I have two quite old machines, a laptop and a desktop that are currently sitting, which I haven't found a use for yet. A lot of this stuff has either just found its way to me or back to me after getting rid of it (giving it to family) many years ago, so I just try and find random uses for things.
I do highly recommend a PiHole. It takes some configuration, but it's 100% worth it.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentRoadwarden is one that's been on my wishlist for several years now and I keep looking at it everytime it's on sale, given it's usually only like $1.49 or whatever. I just haven't taken the jump...Roadwarden is one that's been on my wishlist for several years now and I keep looking at it everytime it's on sale, given it's usually only like $1.49 or whatever. I just haven't taken the jump yet.
Interesting to hear that it's got a little bit more to it than I expected, given you can choose classes and the like. Seems like it would be a comfy game to play on Steam Deck.
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The comedian dismantling the alpha-male persona
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Comment on CGA-2025-11 🔴🟡🔵🟢 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ PlayStation WHAT? in ~games
BeardyHat LinkAlright Teach, so... I didn't do the homework. I tried Parappa and I tried Vib Ribbon, but that was as far as I got. I really didn't like either of them and then just never bothered firing up the...Alright Teach, so... I didn't do the homework.
I tried Parappa and I tried Vib Ribbon, but that was as far as I got. I really didn't like either of them and then just never bothered firing up the ROMs for the other three games. It just...wasn't my style and with the Backlog Burner also this month, I just felt a lot more interested in playing other stuff that is more appealing to me. I'm not sure I should even really be making this post given I didn't do the homework, but I figured I'd at least add a little something rather than staying completely quiet.
I'll probably leave the ROMs on my various systems and maybe fire them up in the future, but I'm not sure that'll actually happen or not...
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
BeardyHat LinkMode: Standard Bingo! Finished 3/25 Interactive fiction Comedy Military/realistic shooter FPS ✅ Darkest Dungeon 2 Cozy Third-person shooter ARPG Metroidvania/search action Base building Shop...Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 3/25 Interactive fiction Comedy Military/realistic shooter FPS Roguelike
✅ Darkest Dungeon 2Cozy Third-person shooter ARPG Metroidvania/search action Base building Shop keeper Horror ★ Wildcard Sim racing Survival horror Arena/boomer shooter
✅ CulticAction-adventure Management Walking simulator God game Driving/piloting
✅ Pacific DriveCity builder Exploration Real-time strategy/tactics
✅ Advance Wars: Days of RuinSoulslike I wouldn't call this my "Burner" event, so much as just my play whatever the hell I feel like and invest lots of time into it...event.
I'm still at it with Darkest Dungeon 2, nothing really new to say other than I really like it now. I think the storytelling is pretty good and I appreciate that it's almost sort of comical? Like I just unlocked a little bit more of the Plague Doctor's story, which involves a standard "fight", except you're in class with a Professor and other students and if you use your ability to argue with the Professor, he shuts you down and you take stress damage. So you need to figure out when the optimal time to is to argue with the Professor to ultimately win the fight and progress the story; I'm not sure if you can fail these or not, but they're pretty easy.
I've managed to "beat" the game once so far, but given it's Roguelite structure, that's only the beginning. This unlocked the second chapter of the game, but I've only given it one try so far, as I feel like I should do the "easier" first chapter and continue to unlock abilities for my Heroes via the story, as well as more trinkets and just general understanding of the game. I've now played about 24-hours of the game and I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon.
I've also been playing a bit of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin on the side. Though this is something I've been playing off and on for months now and just recently started-up again, having done a mission or two, but now I'm sort of feeling a little burned out on it again having tried T29 a few times, which I'm finding a little frustrating. The mission isn't essential, it's just a fun side thing, so I could continue with the story rather than ram my head against the wall on this side mission, but I feel like I need to finish it.
But that said, I have limited time and I'm pretty enamored with Darkest Dungeon 2, so I'm just going to continue on with that.
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Comment on What are the simple things in your life that you are thankful for? in ~life
BeardyHat (edited )LinkI'm healthy, my wife is healthy, my kids are healthy, I still have a lot of friends (probably more than ever at this point in my life, which is weird) that I see frequently. I have a large...I'm healthy, my wife is healthy, my kids are healthy, I still have a lot of friends (probably more than ever at this point in my life, which is weird) that I see frequently.
I have a large extended family I like, who are also happy and healthy and I generally want for absolutely nothing. I've been able to be a stay at home parent for 7 or so years now, though I'm looking for work and we've still been able to pay all our bills.
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Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies
BeardyHat Link ParentI'm tempted to just give it to my brother in law who has a resin printer, though he tries to print functional parts with. After I got my new FDM, he's asked me to print a few things for him with...I'm tempted to just give it to my brother in law who has a resin printer, though he tries to print functional parts with. After I got my new FDM, he's asked me to print a few things for him with PETG, which is fine, but he could use the FDM.
I would just like to see if I could get even $100 for it, because I'm otherwise on a very limited income.
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Comment on Windows: Linux GPU gaming benchmarks on Bazzite in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentI should try Bazzite. I liked Mint well enough on my laptop, but had these little issues consistently and one which I felt was a major issue (fans not spinning up during one particular game) and...I should try Bazzite. I liked Mint well enough on my laptop, but had these little issues consistently and one which I felt was a major issue (fans not spinning up during one particular game) and so I eventually went back to Windows, since I was just constantly investigating and solving issues, rather than playing games.
This honestly could be other developmental stuff. My youngest son was born in April 2020 and he's doing great; ahead of his class as far as work goes, his Kindergarten teacher actually asked us if she could give him harder things to do, because he's often done with his work before she's done passing it out.
He's smart, funny, clever and a little emotionally volatile, but that's due to the genes between his Mom and I than anything to do with being a COVID baby. I also don't know a single kid who could read by 4, so you were definitely ahead of the curve there.