October 5, 2019

  • Full swing football

    Oddly, Prime is saving my Thursday night NFL access. Currently, I am cut off from most of civilization as I only have access to Prime and basic cable. Luckily Fox Sports 1 is somehow part of basic cable. ESPN surely is not. I am almost ready to write off my college teams. I was ready to spite bet the money line against Michigan today. So far, they are managing Iowa (poorly). If Nebraska can't deal with Northwestern later today, they are off my watch list until bowl time.

    As a work-around to my limited channel selection, I generally have been catching my Saturday football at a friend's house. His setup was especially important for those BTN broadcast games. He is from the South, so his only priority is 'Bama. We go old school style and set up two TVs in the living room. I am concerned that his access to BTN and Fox just was killed. A copious number of TV commercials indicate satellite-fed consumers (like my friend) just lost those channels. I haven't been over there the last two weeks. He is out of town this week. Luckily, Michigan and Nebraska are both Fox games this week.

    Last week, I skipped afternoon football for a kayak down the Muskegon river near Baldwin. We put in at M37. The canoe company spotted our car at Gleason's landing. It was a great day for being on the river. The salmon were running. We easily passed a hundred fishermen (and women) on our float. I forgot how big those salmon can get. A petite blonde picked up her catch for the photo op as we were passing by. That fish was longer than her torso and almost as wide. Some of those fishermen know how to do it right. I saw some grills rigged on boats or set up on stands in the river. The kayak paddle is a two-handed tool, otherwise I would have taken advantage of the free hamburgers and beer offered on the way down river. Next time, I am on the river, I will will bring a cigar or two. It had never occurred to me before, but a couple of those anglers had some quality smoke.

    I can now say that there could actually be two people checking in on this renewed experiment. Unprompted, MH mentioned he had pulled up the site recently. You guys crack me up. There must have been one good post back in the day that has kept an ember burning. I guess I understand since Tony lived off the hope generated by one manifesto-style post for years. I am sure Cyrus still has that bookmarked/saved somewhere.

    A reminder to those who aren't, cover your camera lens. Setting aside that they are usually script-generated mass mailings, someone I know recently received a blackmail email claiming the sender had hacked and used the device camera to capture embarrassing footage. It was all likely bullshit this time, but there is no reason not to put a penny's worth of electrical tape over your camera. And for those of you using the Alexa pucks, you are all fucking idiots and deserve any fallout that results. I was struck by how insulated the blackmailer's life must be. He is so buried in his dark room of computers in Asia and his online life that he has no idea how the mass-blackmailed live. Nothing like scaring the technically non-savvy into paying your price, only to demand payment in an obscure cryptocurrency without providing any instruction for the average person to obtain that cryptocurrency. Well done, blackmailer idiot(s).

    Is it ridiculous for a county to charge its citizens $100 for the right to drop off recyclables as the county recycling center? Rhetorical question. Do you want that stuff in the county landfill? I drove to the county next door and dropped off my cardboard. That county has a set of huge dumpsters that anyone can self-serve 24-hours per day. That seems like the sensible approach.  If I was a kid who lived in the neighborhood next to the recycling plant, I would raid that cardboard bin for fort material on a regular basis.

    Anyone else noticing that pretense is falling away in our society? People are openly being assholes or crooks without attempting to cover for their actions or spin a defense. At least the President will tell a blatant lie to counter criticisms of his actions. But I feel like I keep running into people who just let their racism fly in casual conversation. Or the usual feeling-out statements are hardly-veiled prompts to illicit a racist response. And I am not only focusing on racism, but ugly human behavior generally. Bud Light is now running advertisements where the theme of the commercial is excluding a long-time friend from a party because instruction from the cool kid. Buick commercials paint their targeted customers as insufferable fools. You want to verbally command your car to start while you are still in your bathroom? Unless I see a foot of snow piled on that car, you are just a gas-burning asshole. You probably keep the faucet on while you put toothpaste on you brush, too. You want to bet that the guy taking you out to dinner can't parallel park? Fuck you, bitch. Oh, and you are going to take that harpy's bet and make the bet for sushi? Fuck you, you soi-boi tool. Then, to "win" your bet, you let the car do it for you (because the harpy was correct in guessing your "manliness" ended where the car gear is set to "R"). Oh, and if you are on a goddam airplane and you are just now remembering to lock the doors on your car, well then fuck you, you absent-minded fuck. When you get back, I hope your car is stripped and graffiti-covered with a homeless deuce in the rear compartment. Or I hope someone just smashes your window out and takes those left-in-car-during-vacation valuables you should have left at home.

    Michigan has no killer instinct. They suck. At least the defense tries. I hope the Michigan State defense does more than try tonight.

    I drink percolated, next-day-cold, black coffee by the liter-sized mug. I do not understand the draw of the classic Styrofoam cup of burning hot coffee. Especially during months or at places where there is no snow on the ground. Why do I need mouth burns for the first fifteen minutes of my coffee experience? Is it a historical lesson of deferred gratification? Also, while I like that Bailey's in my coffee, I still think you have to be an alcoholic to dump Irish whisky in there.

    I have this. I think I wrote about my struggle in deciding on whether I should pursue making or buying this. My initial hindrance to building/assembling was that I couldn't find a stand alone booster/Nielsen device for sale. That has changed. Do I know anyone with a CNC router?

    Sweet. I just saw a shot of the Michigan student section that included a Sikh sporting a gorgeous beard, aviator sunglasses, a yellow T, and a matching yellow Dastār. Rock on.

    Bad beat of the week for last Monday: I have A-2 in spades. Flop is A plus two spades. 4th is a pair to one of the spades (eights, I believe). 5th is the 6 of spades. Guess the hand to which my good top two pair turned top flush lost. Fucking pocket sixes, of course. River boat, indeed.

    Ad Astra was more philosophical than I had expected. Interesting take adding the religious undertones in places. Spoiler: Was his dad eating the help? Even with the kill-off of a big chunk of his crew early on, was he outlasting his supplies/stores? Is that part of the reason the loyal ones decided to go home?

    Pretzels: Salty, flavorless dust compressed into bark-like chunks and branch-like sticks. People who think "pretzel bun" is an upgrade must live a miserable existence.