There’s a variant of the card game War called Spoils of War, or Sow, that adds some strategy:

There can be up to five cards max in a player’s reserves. These cards can be pulled out in any battle and added to the player’s fighting card. Opponants have to option to do the same, and the original player can respond. This continues until all players can’t or won’t add any more and the highest total wins.

Aces beat all face cards but lose to all number cards. In a reserve battle, aces count for eleven.

In any regular battle, any player can choose to sacrifice two facedown cards to place the fighting card into her reserves. The sacrificed cards go to the winner of that battle. If all players do this, the sacrificed cards are claimed by the winner of the next battle.

If the two highest fighting cards in are tied (a “war” in the original game), or there’s a three-way circle of Ace beats Face beats Number beats Ace, or the totals in a reserve battle are tied, those players must place five face-down cards for the winner of the next battle to claim. Only those involved in the stand-off play the next battle.

The winning player of each battle may place all cards taken in that battle at the bottom of her deck in whatever order she chooses.

Overall, it adds a bit of strategic depth while still keeping a small footprint in tablespace and setup time.

No, I’m talking about parents educating their children on academic topics outside of school hours. This is especially useful for very gifted children who may benefit from advanced martial; or for children with learning differences that may need additional instruction on topics other kids grasp intuitively; or for children with special interests that fall outside of what school has time to cover.

But it’s my firm belief that the more schools fall into the trap of “teaching to the test” the more important it is that parents take an active role in teaching history, civics, philosophy, art, and practical skills, all subjects that more and more schools are leaving behind.

It works best as an addition to, rather than replacement for, public schooling.

An asshole knows she’s behaving in an antisocial manner and takes joy in it.

A jackass just hasn’t thought her actions through; her harm stems from neglect rather than malice.

A dickhead is someone who obstructs or antagonizes others; her harm comes from creating barriers or obstacles or otherwise preventing good results for others.

gravy

I put it on last Christmas for my kids, not realizing the version I’d always seen on TV was heavily edited. Had to turn that off pretty fast.

It’s more like “mute” than block.

I’m American, we don’t have those anymore.

But formerly, people like John Kasich, Tom Daschle, John McCain

“You read too much”

I would stick with the Bible and read more about Buddhism.

Misread the byline as “Max Mounter” and thought that’s rather on the nose

I used to use github for my course materials, currucula, and syllabi when I was a teacher.

my personal email does not feature my name in any form

Nah, I sing my weird songs around everybody, no shame around anybody.

@Kolanaki@pawb.social

bad news, buddy…

Well it’s certainly lowered my grocery budget.

You can just say you don’t eat cilantro. You don’t have to lie about it being an allergy.

not “starting with” but it’s functionally a standalone and the most “fantastic” of her novels

It’s less about age and more about our ability to take care of our responsibilities. As children, we have few, and taking care of them takes little time and is easy. As we grow we get more and more, and if our abilities don’t grow in tandem we become stressed and unhappy. It’s easy to find yourself in a situation as a young adult where you have lots of responsibilities and not enough time, money, and training to discharge all of them. Similarly in middle age if you haven’t kept upskilling and you find yourself outclassed professionally by younger professionals.

Some ways to fight this are by keeping your lifestyle simple and inexpensive; by constantly seeking to improve; by being parsimonious with your social commitments; and by building a network of mutually supportive friends and colleagues who can help you during sudden spikes of need or sudden dropoffs in ability, such as unexpected illness.

I would not want to have to open the camera every time I got on the bus, for example.