The Dutch House is narrated by Tom Hanks. It was very good. Obama’s autobiography is read by himself. I really enjoyed it. I’m a liberal democrat so ymmv.

My district is mandatory masks. The surrounding districts were optional. With omicron the surrounding districts that were optional all had to go remote due to staff shortages and then return in person with mandatory masks. That’s been about the only way districts switch back. Even with the closures you still have parents complaining about the mask mandates when students return.

I would lean towards the public school with a strong music program. My dd went to a very well regarded state university music program for undergrad. Admission was very competitive. The ps gave her ample opportunity to stretch musically- all state band, all state orchestra, encouragement to attend college honor band programs, Govenor school for music performance, and local youth orchestra etc. Her band teacher and her local private music teacher were tremendous mentors that really helped her grow and navigate the admissions process. College music programs can be very competitive. Also it was an area where dh and I knew nothing.

Also my dd university had vaccination clinics with J&J last spring. A lot of universities used J&J last spring since it was one shot and students could be fully vaccinated before they left campus. If a portion of the population was vaccinated with J&J last spring and didn’t get a booster late this fall (students have to weigh the booster side effects with timing of finals) they have no protection against omicron.

I have this headset https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hyperx-cloud-ii-pro-wired-gaming-headset-red/4505300.p?skuId=4505300 I like it a lot. I prefer wired headsets for sound quality and you don’t need to worry about charging. I have speakers for my pc as well. Nothing great just something I got at Best Buy. I only use my headset when gaming with others and chatting over discord. I use my speakers otherwise.

I would chalk it up to some people are like that. I also would talk to my kid about how making bad choices like skipping class can lead people to make the wrong assumptions about them and that is part of the consequences of their actions.

I completely understand what you’re saying. My children have all attended public high schools and bomb threats, threats of gun violence etc just come with the territory. But the reality is in the United States there are mass shootings at schools, colleges, workplaces, stores etc every year. There is nothing I can do to control that. As long as we are a country where guns are easily accessible and there is rampant mental illness there’s nothing I can do to control the risk. (This isn’t to argue about gun rights etc it’s just stating our reality.) I cannot completely protect my children from that reality.

Sanding with an orbital sander given all the other work that needs to be done is really not that big of a deal.

I washed, sanded, primed with an oil based primer and used an oil based paint for my kitchen cabinets and it’s stood up great for years. It’s really worth putting in all the effort not to have to redo it in a couple of years.

The defense can do that without the dog whistles. That is the only point people are making. Yes they deserve a vigorous defense, but the racist appeals are not required under that law. The lawyers were not better lawyers for going all in on racism if anything it backfired.

I would not drag out the racist tropes. That is immoral. If she can’t muster a defense without being immoral then she’s not a talented enough lawyer to be the defense attorney.

None of that excuses the racism. They are not good advocates. They tried to appeal to the base instincts of a nearly all white jury in Georgia and failed. The fact that it failed is something we can all take solace in.

If that’s what she wanted to imply then she would have mentioned the socks and left it at that not go on to mention the dirty long toe nails.

Plus the argument that he didn’t belong in that neighborhood. It was all of 1.8 miles from his home. I jog through neighborhoods other than my own all the time. I train with a running group twice a week. A couple of months back we were doing running drill around a track at 5:30 am and then for variation we we’re going to run through a well lit area of a neighborhood. There’s 1 African American in our group of about 35. He was the only one who did not feel safe running through the neighborhood and said so. It’s naive to think that he was unjustified.

There was so much race baiting on the part of the various defense attorneys it was shocking. Dirty long toe nails, trapped like a rat - a way to dehumanize him remind us he was a black man less than human. Too many black pastors in the court room to complaining about armed black men intimidating the jury by marching outside the building - remember black people are dangerous. All this said by defense attorneys not in the 1950’s but today 2021 America.

Now the feds need to investigate the police dept and local prosecutors as to why charges were not brought against the murders until 74 days after the murder. If the family did not hire a lawyer who was able to get a copy of the video of the murder to the press we would not be seeing justice today.

I’ve also heard from friends who are hcw it’s pay. Nurses are taking loads of abuse from the unvaccinated who end up hospitalized and travel nurse pay is really high. Might as well take a contact and get higher pay if you have the flexibility to be able to do so.

I always assume they are a threat. I didn’t even realize I lived in an open carry state until the pandemic and started seeing this guy open carrying at stores around my neighborhood. If I see him at the gas station etc open carrying I wait outside until he’s out. I just assume all people open carrying are unstable and a threat. Just my not so humble opinion.

I think I would try talking to the mom mom to mom and put the teacher hat aside. If the boy is 16 in 2 years he’s an adult and needs to get along in the adult world. What are their goals? What are they planning for him to do after he’s 18? Work? College? Either way he needs help to function as an adult in two years. If he’s the oldest in the family they may really be completely clueless as to how atypical he is. If that’s the case is there a way to show her his work compared to other students work in your class while keeping the identity of the other students private.

I agree with this. Regardless of whether or not he’s convicted (and I think he should be convicted of something perhaps the lesser charges) he’s killed 2 men. He has to live with the moral consequences of that the rest of his life. People dismiss that as nothing. I personally can’t imagine having that on my conscience. He’s no hero. He’s a 17yo who got in over his head, went someplace he had no business being, ran around with a gun and killed 2 people. He will wake up every day look in the mirror and see a man who has killed 2 people.

It varies by kid. We have dd27 dd25 dd23 dd20 ds16 and dd9. Dd20 is currently away at college. We have a family group chat that’s pretty active and we play a mmo weekly as a family while chatting on discord. My current college student participates in the mmo discord group pretty regularly. To be honest it why we picked that particular mmo to play. She FaceTimes with her youngest sister about once a week.

I live in a swing county in one of the few swing states in the nation. I volunteer with the DNC. The amount of money, volunteers from all over the country, and politician visits (and this applies to both sides) to my area is obscene considering the small number of Americans who live here. My parents live in a nonswing state have never seen a presidential candidate campaign in person in their entire lives. They live in a much more populated area but the reality is that their vote doesn’t matter. We don’t live in a democracy and never have. Also James Carville is part of the problem and why we are where we are.

We need to go to algorithmic computer drawn districts. Yes it could still be manipulated but it can’t be any worse.

This. If you don’t live in the USA you can’t appreciate the effects of gerrymandering on elections. I live in a state with a basic 50-50 split of Democrats and Republicans. However our Republican state house has redisticted our US House seats where 10 will be solidly Republican and 4 will be Democratic.

Which dress do you own? They look lovely. Are they heavy?