#because in my 17 year career of being a basketball fan & my 24 year career of being german the possibility of this never even occured to me

[samanthamulder]

this time tomorrow germany could be the world champion in men's basketball. let that sink in.....

[female-buckets]

No. 5 seed Oregon (20-12) suffered its earliest NCAA tournament exit under Kelly Graves at the hands of No. 12 seed Belmont (23-7), 73-70 on Saturday in double overtime in Knoxville, Tenn.

After the game, Graves took responsibility for the team failing to put everything together and for not pulling "the right triggers." But as Oregon still searches for an identity in the post-Sabrina Ionescu era, he also said he feels there's something missing among his players.

"I think at times our players have acted and performed entitled," Graves said. "I mean, we have had a nice run. We made it at least to the Sweet 16 every year since 2017. First first-round exit in a long time. This group hasn't won anything. We haven't won a Pac-12 championship. We haven't won in the NCAA tournament, with great depth."

Oregon trailed by six midway through the fourth and managed to fight back and force overtime thanks to a Paopao 3. But once the Ducks ran ahead by six early in the first overtime and by four early in the second extra frame, they couldn't maintain a late lead. Oregon went scoreless in the final two minutes of the game, which were capped with a Prince desperation 3-point attempt at the final buzzer that did not fall.

"I think we've got to come back and work harder and be tougher," Graves said. "I think at times we're not tough. I think there were times tonight -- at some point you just say, 'Hey, toughen up, let's go. I know you're banged up. Doesn't matter. We need you.' I just think that happens, and I think it's a mindset. I think we've got to come back and hungrier because we're no longer the hunted. We're hunting like everybody else."

Nyara did her part Saturday with a career-high 31 points (12-for-24 shooting), 12 rebounds and 7 blocks, while sophomore Te-Hina Paopao added 18, but no other Oregon player had more than 9. Oregon made just four 3s compared with Belmont's 12, and committed 17 turnovers compared with Belmont's dozen.

"We're missing that alpha, and oftentimes if it comes from the coach, that leadership, then we're in trouble," Graves said. "We have leadership capability and leadership shows up from time to time, but it's the consistency.

"If I had to kind of boil the whole season down into one word, it's 'inconsistencies.' Daily effort, game production, leadership, coaching. I didn't do a great job. I was inconsistent, as well. Same with my staff."

For Oregon to turn things around and have a deeper tournament run next season, it won't need to start from scratch. While Nyara is eligible for the WNBA draft, the rest of its starters can return, including Prince, who has said she'll be back in Eugene.

Graves has ESPN's second-ranked recruiting class incoming too.

"We've just got to somehow either nurture that, recruit that, empower that," Graves said. "We've just got to do a better job."

This dude sounds a little wack. But also, the Oregon school culture is weird.

Oregon's a bit of a party school. And we know party schools can be great basketball schools. UConn has more than proven that lol.

But Oregon is a sports school where a large section of the student body couldn't care less about sports. Most Duck fans are locals, not students. There's some critical attitudes about the athletic department getting prioritized over other departments. So the Oregon social scene doesn't give student-athletes that much status just for being athletes.

At most top basketball schools, the entire social culture revolves around student-athletes. I just don't think Oregon has that same level of hype. They have a section of the student body who can produce a medium level of hype. And they have a section of the student body who are annoyed and critical of sports. So trying to navigate that as a student-athlete is probably pretty weird. I can see how it might be hard to stay motivated.

[tabloidtoc]

Star, October 26

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Reba McEntire dating CSI: Miami star Rex Linn and finding love again at 65 

Page 1: Duchess Kate Middleton stopped by England’s University of Derby to discuss students’ mental health and how the pandemic has affected their education but during her visit those watching couldn’t help but notice Kate looked more youthful than ever because of a new shorter highlighted hairstyle 

Page 2: Contents -- Demi Lovato and pal Matthew Scott Montgomery were ready to be spooked at Nights of the Jack 

Page 3: Vanessa Paradis and her daughter Lily-Rose Depp at the Chanel show during Paris Fashion Week, Tom Cruise looked a little leery filming a difficult scene on the set of Mission: Impossible 7 in Rome, Cara Santana repped boyfriend Shannon Leto’s band 30 Seconds to Mars in a sweatshirt from the group’s apparel line 

Page 5: Chrissy Metz is so smitten with her new boyfriend Bradley Collins that she’s already talking marriage and babies with her Nashville-based beau and that has alarms ringing for some of her friends about why they kept their romance totally hidden until now and since Chrissy is all-or-nothing this is way too intense for some, fans of Law & Order: SVU rejoiced when it was announced that a spinoff was in the works that would star Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler and the new series called Organized Crime would feature Stabler leading a task force fighting NYC’s crime syndicates but the show has been rocked by behind-the-scenes drama as first showrunner Craig Gore was axed in June and now his replacement Matt Olmstead is also out leaving the future of the show in jeopardy, after a contentious season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Denise Richards and Teddi Mellencamp are out and mainstays Lisa Rinna and Kyle Richards have proven they’re the alphas of the long-running Bravo show and now as producers are scrambling to fill out the cast one obvious contender is out of the running as Kathy Hilton has respectfully declined because her daughters Nicky Hilton Rothschild and Paris Hilton didn’t want her to do it because they felt it was a bad look for them and the family 

Page 6: Sofia Richie and Scott Disick have split but she seems to still be taking her beauty cues from her time with the Kardashian-adjacent dad of three because she has noticeably fuller lips where she had lip injections to both lips, Mariah Carey had nothing but nice things to say about Derek Jeter in her new memoir calling their relationship sensual and credits him with helping her see the value of her biracial background but Derek isn’t happy about it and he’s fed up and feels Mariah is taking advantage of him to publicize her book and it doesn’t help that Derek’s friends have been teasing him about the sexy details because he hates being made fun of; his ego can’t handle his friends ribbing him, Star Spots the Stars -- Christina Aguilera, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Travis Scott, Teddi Mellencamp, Rev Run and his wife Justine Simmons, Lindsay Arnold 

Page 8: Star Shots -- Anne Heche headed for rehearsal on Dancing with the Stars, Christina Milian and her daughter Violet, Gavin Rossdale at the beach in Malibu with his dog and a mystery woman 

Page 9: Liev Schreiber plays basketball with his son Sasha in NYC 

Page 10: Bachelor alum Catherine Lowe and her son Samuel, Reese Witherspoon jumping rope, Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles’ Tracy Tutor playing Monopoly at home 

Page 12: Johnny Weir leaving Dancing with the Stars rehearsals, Brie Larson and boyfriend Elijah Allan-Blitz on a grocery run, Alessandra Ambrosio on her way to dinner in West Hollywood 

Page 13: Selena Gomez shows her kidney transplant scar, Julia Garner filming scenes for Inventing Anna in New York City 

Page 14: Chrishell Stause heading into rehearsals for Dancing with the Stars, Johnny Depp waved to fans outside the ZFF Masters during the 16th Zurich Film Festival where he promoted Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGown, Patrick Schwarzenegger stepped out with a script in West Hollywood 

Page 15: Silver fox Jon Bon Jovi struck a pose while promoting his new album 2020 in NYC, Shia LaBeouf went for a jog in Pasadena on the same day he was charged with misdemeanor battery and petty theft following an incident that happened in June, Maisie Williams at the Chloe fashion show in Paris 

Page 16: Gwen Stefani stepped out of the studio in Woodland Hills, Chiwetel Ejiofor referred to his phone while reciting poetry on the set of the upcoming pandemic-themed dramedy Lockdown in London, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler celebrated his 69th birthday at a meal with friends in Rome 

Page 17: Sofia Vergara out in L.A., Denise Richards and husband Aaron Phypers looked carefree leaving a restaurant in L.A., Danny Trejo hung out with an adorable pooch during an appearance on Home & Family 

Page 18: Normal or Not? Machine Gun Kelly shared a glimpse of his beauty routine en route to his new cafe in Cleveland -- not normal, Eva Longoria wore a Vote t-shirt and a Biden mask during a political rally in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood -- normal

Page 19: Snoop Dogg inhaled and exhaled during his DJ Snoopadelic set at the Concerts in Your Car event at the Ventura County Fairgrounds -- normal, while grabbing a meal in Los Angeles with a bevy of beauties Billie Dee Williams enjoyed a quick grooming session too -- not normal

Page 20: Fashion -- stars get glitzy in gold -- Olivia Wilde, Leona Lewis 

Page 21: Karen Gillan, Kate Beckinsale 

Page 24: Emilio Vitolo Jr. appears to be every inch the doting boyfriend to Katie Holmes but he’s playing the field behind her back -- Emilio’s a ladies’ guy and he’s been texting a bunch of girls saying things between him and Katie aren’t nearly as serious as they seem while Katie thinks she’s in love and it’s no exaggeration to say she’s obsessed with this guy and she’s adamant they’ll elope and in her mind they’re two kindred souls destined to be together 

Page 25: Beyonce and Jay-Z are hoping to add on to their already impressive real estate portfolio as they are quietly checking out homes in Montecito in California for their family of five -- although they already own a $26 million home in New York’s tony Hamptons as well as an $88 million Bel-Air mansion the couple are hoping to put down roots in the American Riviera so their children can attend the area’s prestigious schools and Beyonce especially likes that it’s not far from L.A. and it’s clean and super private, after two years of dating Jake Gyllenhaal and Jeanne Cadieu are at odds about their future and Jake’s frustrated because the relationship is going nowhere and he’s eager to start a family but the 24-year-old model isn’t ready to put her career on hold and take that next step leaving Jake in limbo -- his most successful relationships were with women his own age with the same maturity and ambition like Reese Witherspoon and Kirsten Dunst -- while Jake remains conflicted about whether to stick it out with Jeanne or start over with someone new his friends say it’s time to move on and find someone who’s baby mama material, Jon Hamm has been considering settling down since he began dating Anna Osceolo because something about Anna is making him rethink everything from the guy who never pictured himself walking down the aisle or having children but now he and Anna are talking about marriage and a family 

Page 26: Cover Story -- Reba McEntire finding love at last -- after a string of broken hearts the country superstar has finally snagged Mr. Right actor Rex Linn  

Page 30: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s courtroom showdown -- four years after their split Brad and Angie are still duking it out over custody and now they’re prepared to bring star power to the battle -- Brad will be using every scrap of ammunition he can to fight for his kids including testimony from fellow stars and Angelina is prepared to do the same 

Page 32: Five-time rehab vet Scott Disick is caught partying in front of his kids 

Page 34: Stars’ Cheating Confessions -- sometimes all you can do is beg for forgiveness; these celebs have all had to plead their case -- Jude Law and Sienna Miller, Kevin Hart and Eniko Parrish 

Page 35: Donny and Debbie Osmond, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, David Letterman and Regina Lasko, Dean McDermott and Tori Spelling 

Page 38: Beauty -- add a sophisticated scent blend to your fragrance wardrobe for fall -- Kim Kardashian 

Page 40: Entertainment 

Page 48: Parting Shot -- Chris Hemsworth and wife Elsa Pataky partnered with the Global Wildlife Conservation and Wild Ark to boost the ecosystem of their beloved Australia -- the pair helped Aussie Ark release 11 Tasmanian devils into a wildlife sanctuary at Barrington Tops National Park -- the hush-hush event marked the first time the endangered marsupials whose presence can help repel pests and bush fired were returned to the mainland in 3000 years

[fortysevenswrites]

Tag Game

Tagged by the glorious @bottled-bliss, and I’m doing this, rather than finishing the work I have to do tonight, or the interview I have to finish transcribing. It is what it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

1. Do you ever make your bed?

N-e-v-e-r

2. What’s your favourite number?

It should go without saying that it’s 47 (see both my username AND my business brand.

3. What’s your job?

I am a consistent content strategist for online business owners. Basically, I teach online business owners how to show up consistently in their businesses and implement simple systems that allow their businesses to grow then they are or are not working (especially NOT working), and how to leverage those systems to generate passive income.

4. If you could go back to school, would you?

I got my BA in poetry and minored in Japanese culture because those subjects got me to go to class while I was growing my college sports PR career. I didn’t walk at graduation because my collegiate accomplishments weren’t in the classroom. So…hard pass.

5. Can you parallel park?

Apparently I managed to do it once so I could successfully get my license (at 19—I had VERY bad driver’s test anxiety. It was not a fun time). I cannot do it now. I WILL forgo the most epic of parking spaces if I have to try to parallel park into it. Not worth the risk.

6. A job you had that would surprise people

I am the official statistician for a number of Division I sports at Arizona State University. Basically, you know when you’re watching a basketball game, and the commentator say something like, “So-and-so is having a tough time from the line tonight, he’s only 1-for-10. Not going to get it done.” I’m one of the people who generates that information so they can talk about it. You can find me on the sidelines of many games making weird faces on regional-national television.

7. Do you believe aliens are real?

Absolutely. I also believe in the multi-verse theory, which you can ALL thank His Dark Materials for.

8. Can you drive a manual car?

Hahahahahahahahahahahah

9. What’s your guilty pleasure?

I don’t find guilt in anything that I enjoy. When I was younger, I used to be VERY reluctant to talk about A, writing fanfiction, B, still being obsessed with Power Rangers, and C, being a Sailor Moon fan. Then, two days before I turned 24, I decided to no longer give any fucks about anything. No guilt here.

10. Tattoos?

I have an arrow on my left wrist. I want like…ALL the tattoos, but until I can settle on the specific design that I want, I’m just sticking with the one for now. My dream is to get a freehand floral tattoo by this tattoo artist Hannah Pixie Snowdon. Her line-work is like none other I have ever seen.

11. Favourite colour?

Black is my signature color. Dark purple is a close second.

12. Things that people do that piss you off?

You do not want to get me started. Right now, people who waste my time.

13. Any phobias?

Does my anxiety count? Also, clowns.

14. Favourite childhood sport?

Lol, I played two years of basketball in middle school and made one basket. I’m a statistician for a reason.

15. Do you ever talk to yourself?

I live with a cat and work from home, of course I do.

16. What movie do you adore?

So many, but Blazing Saddles is high on my all-time favorite lists.

17. Do you like doing puzzles?

I used to be a big puzzle person when I was a kid. I’ve had a 3000 piece Power Rangers puzzle for years that I one day want to tackle, and then frame.

18. What’s your favourite kind of music?

I’m a pretty basic bitch, but I also have a wide range of tastes, from rock to rap to pop-country.

19. Tea or coffee?

I haven’t had coffee since August of 2018 when I had to go cold turkey because of acid reflux. That’s when I realized caffeine amplifies my anxiety to like a 20. So, tea, I guess.

20. First thing you remember wanting to be when you grow up?

I remember wanting to be a teacher back when I was in the fifth grade, but then my asshole classmates teased me for being a brown-noser. Ironically enough, my job as a content strategist and business coach IS to teach. Go figure.

I also wanted to be a vet once, but my family told me that becoming a vet was very hard, rather than supporting me, so…that didn’t happen…..

Tagging @heidiamalia, @ninzied, @thevampirecat, @the-restless-brook, @ck90, and anyone else who wants to partake.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 70 - PIT - Better Days

We’re racing to the bottom at this point, right? There was a moment during this game when everyone live tweeting kinda realized: shit, they could be in 26th place by the end of the night! We already know this collapse has been historic but what if we became the first team to occupy first place and last place in the same season? Ottawa has to go on a run! You got to laugh, or you’ll cry, right? Six straight losses dealt just absolutely mercilessly to the heart of Sabres fans… or at least the ones who are still watching. The wheels coming off in February was one thing but this… this is some divine retribution. Is Mike Harrington actually God and he’s endlessly punishing the Sabres for the tank? Buffalo hasn’t scored a goal in three games! Sure, they’ve come close to a goal here and there but holy shit! You would think one would accidentally go in through nine periods of hockey but here we are! Can all the Jack Eichel haters climb back into their Chevy Suburbans and fuck off now? These two games have been Exhibit A in why Jack Eichel is crucially important to this team. Never mind his scoring touch, this team felt rudderless these last two games. They looked out of it from the moment Phil Kessel scored. JP Dumont and Danny Briere made a luxury box appearance at this game. Who didn’t get emotional at that camera shot? If not for nostalgia than the sudden fear of Jeff Skinner walking to Free Agency. That last Briere Sabres was the last one that won a playoff series. Mind you, the Sabres won the division three years after Briere-Drury but that last playoff win was almost twelve years ago. As the throngs of Penguins jerseys flooded into the Key Bank Center for this game John Vogl pointed out you would have to be no younger than 17 right now to remember the Sabres last playoff win. I don’t want to restate again and again how disappointing it is these guys didn’t coast into the playoffs this season but gee, I’m 24, I scarcely remember 2007. I was in Middle School calling sexual reproduction gross and certainly not paying attention to hockey! I don’t really even have a sense of what a good Sabres team is either! Now I don’t know if I’ll see it. I don’t know if they’ll score again, does anyone? This game was just a drag dragging a drag of a drag hockey team! Yuck.

The first period actually wasn’t a total nightmare. No goals were scored by either team but the Sabres looked like they were knocking. Moreover, one of the prime knockers was Alex Nylander! There is an alternate reality where that line of Casey Mittelstadt centering a line of Tage Thompson and Nylander is the break out rookie dynamo line backing up the Eichel line to the playoffs. I don’t mind that line starting right out of camp next season assuming they’re all still Sabres. Perhaps that’s your third line assuming new guys come in, but we’ll see. With that little dose of optimism has to come the heaping shit sandwich of some Phil Housley inspired insanity: the defensive scheme in this game was awful from start to finish. Look at any opportunity the Penguins set up and you’ll see what a basketball fan may call zone defense. I don’t know what the fuck to call it except terrible. That’s not how you beat this Pittsburgh team. We could’ve swept these fuckers in the season series for the first time in recorded history had we won, right? The last two games against these guys were defensive battles. We have a coach who is supposedly one of the greatest NHL defensemen ever and this is how he coaches the blue line? There was a decent powerplay for Buffalo late in the first but nonetheless Carter Hutton was just barraged with high-danger shots. I feel so bad for him and Ullmark; any blame they take for this is trivial at best. Sure, they haven’t but up November numbers lately but its clear they’re not the reason the Sabres are losing at this clip.

Shit started rolling down hill in the second period. Conor Sheary continued to play well against his former team as he was involved in probably ever other Sabres shot but none of his would go through this game. It was Phil Kessel who benefited from one of those back-and-forth split-the-defense plays to tap it in on the powerplay. I could’ve done without the hordes of Pens fans in attendance cheering after that goal. If Pens games are going to feel like away games now too than that’s one of our bigger problems as fans in the immediate future. Yikes. Rasmus Dahlin got a nifty little breakaway shot before the Penguins next goal but everything is sad right now for Sabres fans so that made me worry he’s frustrated in this situation too. Brian Dumoulin scored a goal that looked accidental. It was just an aerial puck on net, and it went in. That was just weird, unlucky shit. Then Patric Hornqvist’s goal a couple minutes later was preceded immediately on the Sabres broadcast by RJ and Rob Ray discussing how Hornqvist has made his career being a net-front guy. It was like a bad omen. It was spoken into existence. I didn’t bother with the third period; I knew they weren’t coming back from that and I’m a loyal fan, I sincerely am but this shit was so fucking played out. It felt like we were all in on the same joke only its one of those self-deprecating jokes you tell to appear likeable. Garbage. This game was garbage. Nick Bjugstad is a Penguin now and he scored a goal straight off the bench like he knows what fun hockey looks like. Eight minutes later at 18:02 into the third period Jake Guentzel cashed in on a deflection and the final score of this garbage dump game was 5-0 for the visitors. It’s official now: this is the second time in Sabres history the team has gone three games without a goal. The first time that happened was… pause for dramatic irony… last season. Poor funnel guy was so sober watching this game. The poor guy took a shot from the funnel at the end just for the hell of it, but you can tell he was fully cognizant of each and every shitty Sabres moment in this game.

I don’t know how to approach this team anymore. I suppose Eichel coming back next game and the raw desire to hold up Carolina on Saturday in anyway possible drives me but what are we really doing? 11 games left and no chance of a playoff berth: what are we doing? I for one have more or less moved onto the soccer season which, thank God, starts in March in America. I am more excited for Congressional committee hearings at this point than the next Sabres game. The Bachelor is over now too. Hmm… yeah, I suppose there is just another coming of that awful helpless feeling we’ve experienced too much the last few years. The Coach is bad, he doesn’t think there is a pride issue in the locker room but holy shit, just watch the games. The GM has signaled very subtly that change is coming but what that is and how effective it will be after we already had a wicked off-season last year is just a big ugly wildcard. Elliotte Friedman did a radio hit in Toronto this morning and confirmed what should be obvious at this point: Jason Botterill is not afraid to be aggressive and move some parts out come June and July. There are a bunch of wildcards with the big club and unless you’re getting real engaged in Amerks hockey like me right now, your hockey life might be quite shit right now as a Sabres fan. Hey, the Draft Lottery will happen on April 9th this year! That’s super early. I hoped the draft lottery wouldn’t be the most exciting part of Sabres life in April this season but here we are! Let’s hope Danny Briere came to this game to cast a spell to reverse the fortunes of the franchise again and ensure Jeff Skinner doesn’t walk in free agency.

I apologize to those of you who follow me for hockey takes and see me tweeting soccer now. I really appreciate your follow, sincerely I do, but that is for my mental health, fam. All kidding aside, it is humbling to realize the New Look Sabres blog has something of a following now. You brave few are a fun bunch and I appreciate you. Like, share and comment to get the word out on this weird little thing. I can’t help but imagine if you hopped on the Sabres wagon in September with me and rode through this first season according to my takes. For one, wow that’s a cool choice you made. For two, this season kind of feels like a microcosm of what this whole decade has been like as a Sabres fan: heartbreak around every turn but some fun times mixed in there that just gives you that little flash of better days that must be ahead. Ops, I said better days! The folks who remember the last decade of the Sabres just started balling their eyes out. This is probably a better time that not to wrap it up! Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I want to apologize to Ben Mathewson: the Bruce Boudreau idea is a fun one. I did in fact get him confused with Randy Carlyle because of their similar faces.

[richard-the-boy-wonder-blog]

I was tagged by: @rebel-eds , thanks for giving me something to do B 💓

1. last drink?: Shitty imitation coffee. 

2: last phone call?: my mommy.

3. last text message?: "okay mommy" you can only guess who i sent it to.

4. last song you listened to?: Best Friends by Grandson. (Its a banger beatbi suggest everyone give it a listen)

5. last time you cried?: Thusday night last week.

6. dated someone twice?:  Yes, and i was mistaken both times.

7. kissed someone and regretted it: I kissed a guy who only kissed me to date my mom.

8. been cheated on?: Yeah actually, and the kicker was that it was an irl relationship between me and this person and they cheated on me with someone from across the country... So.

9. lost someone special?: Not really?

10. been depressed?: Oooooh boy.

11. gotten drunk and thrown up?:  Story time! Ive been black out drunk, once. I invited my current bf over for some video games (we had been dating for like a month maybe) and i thought "boy imma get stupid and put the moved on him" drank 2 things of box wine to myself (1 box is equal to 4 glasses of wine lol) ended up getting sick really fast and left my bf to watch my younger 2 siblings while i threw up. Thats all i remember. (I think i also tried to shave my legs?)

Fave colors

12. Green (every single shade)

13. Black, like oil black so its not as dark.

14. Like a dusty brown yellow color.

in the last year have you…

15. made new friends?:  I think so? I hope so cause theres alot of people on here i just recently met that im already considering my friends.

16. fallen out of love?: Yes... Honestly its the saddest feeling in the world.

17. laughed until you cried?: I did that last night over the fact i said i wanted to become a professional hotdog juicer.

18. found out someone was talking about you?: Yeah, im a snoopy bitch.

19. met someone who changed you?: Oh yes, some of them were for the better, but this one person im thinking in particular... I wish he would stop.

20. found out who your friends are?: Yeah actually, i moved and alot of the people i considered "friends" started talking crap, and alot of the people i just considered stuck up for me.

21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list?: Does my mom count?

general:

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl?: Like a solid 80% of them, others are people i briefly met at cons or whatever.

23. do you have any pets?: I have 2 kitties! My sisters fat cat Juno and my demon Leia.

24. do you want to change your name?: Not really, i feel like ive got a pretty cool name.

25. what did you do for your last birthday?: I cried and threw up on myself lol.

26. what time did you wake up today?: 8:46 am i remember because i wooe up amd the first thought i had was: "if i dont get up the carrots will attack."

27. what were you doing at midnight last night?: Editing my fic and watching School of Rock.

28. what is something that you can’t wait for?: I have a sad life thats going nowhere so i have nothing to look forward to.

30. what are you listening to right now?: California Dreamin' by The Mamas and Papas.

31. have you ever talked to a person named tom?: I worked for a guy named Tom. Tom was an asshat.

32. something getting on your nerves?: The fact that im not aloud to sing or dance around the hoyse anymore.

33. most visited website?: Tumblr lol.

34. hair color?: I had purple hair before i dyed it brown, so its kinda like orangy brown with a tint of pink.

35. long or short hair: This is a hard question because my hair is a mega floof. So it looks short but when i flat iron it its fairly long.

36. do you have a crush on someone?: Honestly.... I think so.

37. what do you like about yourself?:  Im not a huge fan of my outsides (my appearance) but i love my insides. I think im hella funny, and goofy but i know im not very pleasant to look at. But thats okay ☺

38. want any piercings: I already have my snake bites and 2 holes in each ear, but im dying to have my bellybutton, eyebrow, and either my nipples or tongue done. (Maybe a double helix UGH i dont know)

39. blood type: i think im AB positive?

40. nicknames: Jae, JJ, Jada, Scoob, scooberndude, bug, beb, moose, little angry one, you.  

41. relationship status: Taken.

42. zodiac: imma Capricorn.

43. pronouns: I mostly go by They/them, but im okay with her/she too.

44. fave tv show: Ive re-discovered 'Dan vs. Everything' and im in love.

45. tattoos: ive got 4, 1 on my left arm, 2 of my right. And one on the back of my neck (i should just face reveal and show them honestly i get asked about them so much)

46. right or left handed: left handed (imma diamond in the rouge)

47. ever had surgery: GOD NO.

48 . piercings: Yep like i said before. Ove got 6, my snake bites and 2 in each ear.

49. sport: I USE to play baseball amd hockey. (I was also on a roller derby team if that counts)

50. vacation: I haven't been on vacation since i was 8.

51. trainers: No.

more general

52. eating: I was told that you should drink water 20 minutes before eating, because dehydration can feel like hunger. I started doing that like a week ago and ive eaten maybe 4 times since 😂

53. drinking: Water 😎 (hydration is sexy, yall should go get some)

54. im about to watch: myself post this amd regret it.

55. waiting for: my mom to get home so i can come put of my room.

56. want: More records.

57. get married? After some consideration, probably not ever gonna happen.

58. career: i dunno yet, i just know i wanna go to film/art school!

59. hugs or kisses: keeses 😙

60. lips or eyes: The eyes.

61. shorter or taller: i dont really mind either, evidentally though its always tall because im short as fuck.

62. older or younger: Still doesnt really matter to me, as long as they aint a pedo.

63. nice arms or stomach: Arms, because i love being held.

64.  hookup or relationship: a relationship where you pretend not to know each other and "hook up"

65. troublemaker or hesitant: im not really either? Like im not very shy, but im not so far out there that i get in trouble.

66. kissed a stranger: Thats how you get hepatitis.

67. drank hard liquor: Yes, i still would but i get hella nervous about it (im a stoner not a drinker eeeeh)

68. lost glasses: yep! Thats why i dont have them now.

69. turned someone down: Not really. No one has ever asked me out before :/

70. sex on the first date: im a hoe and proud, but this is a major no no.

71. broken someones heart: i think so... But they broke all of me first.

72. had your heart broken: Ive had alot more than just my heart broken.

73. been arrested: Yes i was arrested when i was 9.

74. cried when someone died: Ive been crying over David Bowie for 2 years now, yes.

75. fallen for a friend: This is the only way i can get into a relationship

do you believe in…

76. yourself: Yes! I can do the thing!

77. miracles: Sadly no, ive never had one happen for me.

78. love at first sight: Kinda? Like it starts out as "i wanna punch your face in" at first site, and THEN i fall in love.

79. santa clause: yes because my papa is santa.... I seen it.

80. kiss on a first date: i always barf if someone tries to kiss me on the first date. (Not because it grosses me out but because i got bad anxiety lol)

81. angels: Absolutly because all my friends are angels 💓

82. best friend’s name: I... I dont have one? (Does my twin count? Her name is Dawn)

83. eye color: Green!

84. fave movie: Probably Pretty in Pink.

85. fave actor: Lesie motherfucking Jones! This girl is amazing, she went to an art school in Colorado for a basketball scholarship and ended up in theater and on SNL instead. I aspire to be cool enough to earn my way onto SNL.

I should tag some peepes: @trashmouthmissy @spaghetti-head-eds , @thegreatwhiteferret , @beepbeepbongoboyy , and anyone else who wants to do this can and tag me saying i tagged you 😎

[phgq]

PJ Simon retires from basketball

#PHnews: PJ Simon retires from basketball

MANILA – Magnolia guard PJ Simon announced his retirement from basketball in a lengthy social media post on Wednesday.

"This is PJ Simon, The SuperSub, Your Scoring Apostle, signing out," the 40-year-old star said.

On why he is calling it a career after 19 years that go all the way back to the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), Simon said, "It’s time to focus on my family. My wife is pregnant and gusto ko magkasama kami (I want us to be together) as we start a family."

He added that his situation in Davao amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic factored in making the decision.

"Kinailangan kong umuwi ng Davao nung nagkasakit at namatay ang father ko at nahirapan na rin akong makabalik dahil sa pandemya. Sign na rin siguro yun na ito na yung tamang time para magretiro (I had to fly back to Davao when my father got sick and eventually died, and I had a difficult time returning due to the pandemic. It may be a sign that it is the right time to retire)," Simon said.

From 'overlooked' to legend

He said he was surprised by what his career has gone through all these years.

"Hindi ko inakala na pagkatapos hindi mapansin nung 2001 PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) Rookie Draft na posible pa pala mag-iwan ng sarili kong marka sa liga (I never thought that after I was overlooked in the 2001 PBA Rookie Draft, it would still be possible for me to leave a mark in the league)," Simon said.

He was selected in the fifth round of the 2001 Draft but Sta. Lucia, the team that selected him, did not sign him to a contract, leaving him as a free agent.

Simon eventually found himself joining the Davao Eagles in the 2001 MBA season, where he became their focal point of offense.

His stint with Davao ended right when the MBA met its demise in 2002 but Hapee, then a powerhouse team in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL), recruited him afterward.

Simon instantly became a key player in Hapee's offense and he developed an individual mini-rivalry with Welcoat's star, James Yap.

However, in 2004, Magnolia acquired both Simon and Yap through free agency and the draft, respectively, and they became the team's 1-2 punch in the offense.

Behind Simon, Yap, and defensive ace Marc Pingris, the Purefoods franchise won seven championships from 2006 to 2014, capped by a grand slam.

Even after Yap was essentially shipped back to the Welcoat franchise, now known in the PBA as Rain Or Shine in a trade for Paul Lee, Simon would still win a title for Magnolia, ruling the 2018 Governors' Cup.

"Binigay ko yung 17 years ng buhay ko sa PBA, sa Magnolia Hotshots, at sa lahat ng fans (I gave 17 years of my life to the PBA, the Magnolia Hotshots, and all the fans)," added Simon, who played with the Purefoods franchise throughout his illustrious career that is also highlighted by eight All-Star Game appearances, the 2008 All-Star Game Most Valuable Player award, and being a member of the 2014 Mythical Second Team.

He thanked San Miguel big boss, Ramon S. Ang, for giving him the opportunity in sports and business, and his coaches, teammates, and fans in the 17 years he played basketball.

Jersey retirement up

Before the start of the season, the Hotshots' management said Simon's number eight jersey would be retired, becoming the fourth Purefoods player to have his jersey lifted to the rafters.

Reacting to the jersey retirement plan, Simon, in an interview on March 8 following the franchise's season opener against sister team San Miguel, said, "Sobrang honored ako na yun yung gagawin sa akin ng Purefoods (I am so honored that Purefoods would do that for me)."

With his jersey set to be retired, he will join an elite list that includes Alvin Patrimonio, who is currently the club's team manager, Jerry Codiñera, and Rey Evangelista.

They were key players in the Hotshots' dominance during the ‘90s.

Except for Codiñera, who still got to play for the TNT franchise, then known as Mobiline, and FedEx later on, Patrimonio and Evangelista, like Simon, played their entire careers with the Purefoods franchise.

"Nakakatuwa kasi isang team lang kami (I was very happy because we only played with one team)," Simon said about joining Patrimonio and Evangelista in the retired jerseys list.

Simon still got to play in the season opener, making four points in 11-and-a-half minutes off the bench but the Hotshots fell to the Beermen, 78-94.

The Magnolia management initially set Simon's jersey retirement on May 10, when the team was to take on Ginebra in the latest chapter of the "Manila Clasico", but the pandemic forced the postponement of the season and, in effect, the retirement ceremony. (PNA)

  ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "PJ Simon retires from basketball." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1116434 (accessed September 24, 2020 at 04:01PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "PJ Simon retires from basketball." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1116434 (archived).

[bobbystompy]

64 Quotes I Enjoyed From 2017

Below are my favorite quotes from 2017. Though most occurred throughout the year, some took place before but were encountered during.

(Allison Greene)

The irony and thematic implication of this first quote -- transcribed in January -- is not lost on me.

1) “I wish you all a Happy New Year. Meaning that I wish for your New Years Eve to be happy. It’s hard to wish hundreds of thousands of people to have an entire happy year. That’s a lot. That feels greedy and hopeless and also some of you might not deserve a happy year. Everyone deserves a happy moment or day now and again but a whole happy year I would wish on maybe eight people and four of them are terminally ill children.

Also please remember that the turning over of one year to another is a mental construct that bears no more weight than the things that keep us apart and in competitive categories as human beings. Time is not moving. You’re not losing or gaining ground. You’re not separate from ‘them’ anymore than you’re separate from your own umbrella. It’s now, we’re us and this is here. If you’re in pain, this too shall pass. If you’re in luxury, this too shall pass. Ask an old lady how she’s doing. The internet is not real. Draw a picture on a napkin.” - Louis C.K.

2) “Flowers cost money you could spend on alcohol.” - Tracy Cunningham

3) "Never make fun of people for mispronouncing a word. It means they learned it by reading."

[that one felt profound when I first read it, but there are probably holes you can poke]

4) “Middle America does not have a monopoly on tough times.” - Drew Magary

5) “The whole point of going to a wedding is to complain about it.” - Drew Magary

6) “The world is too noisy and distracted to probably ultimately survive. Everyone needs to shut the fuck up. The answers are in the silence. Monks set themselves on fire to protest and make this point.

Just consider it.” - Garry Shandling

7) “The fact that Chargers fans get to live in San Diego isn’t as much of a solace as you think, either. When you’re unhappy, Southern California can be the loneliest fucking place in the world. Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by people whose lives are seemingly more perfect than your own. And the fantastic weather acts a kind of lingering nag... an irritating reminder that you SHOULD be happy even if you’re not. When you live somewhere miserable, at least you have an excuse for it. People leave you alone, or they help you drink the pain away indoors. You’re not surrounded by a bunch of fucking Jack LaLannes and Navy steakheads making it worse.

[...]

This is how the San Diego Chargers ended, and their fans deserved better. There won’t even be rain to help water the team’s grave.” - Drew Magary

8) There is no meeting without a Gentry story. He tells the story of Doug Collins’s college coach at Illinois State, Will Robinson, putting Collins in front of a mirror and saying, “Now, that’s an ugly motherfucker.” Then Robinson gets a basketball, hands it to Collins, and says, “Now you’re a handsome motherfucker.”

-- “Seven Seconds or Less” by Jack McCallum

9) "This is gonna be bad. So be good." - Patton Oswalt, on the next four years

10) REPORTER: You always hear about guys in the zone. What’s it like to be in that zone and have that moment two games in a row?

DION WAITERS: Oh man, I love that moment. I mean, you can never shy away from that. I just feel—one of my favorite quotes is, uh ... I forgot it already. One of my favorite quotes. But yeah, can’t be afraid of taking them shots.

11) "No person can be explained in one trait." - Jason Benetti

12) That Federer could dig so deep without losing the spirit of grace and generosity he has carried for much of his career--amazingly, it didn't sound insincere when he told the crowd in Melbourne that he would've been happy if Nadal had won--was enough to make Agassi introspective. He fired off a text to a friend, fellow American ex-pro James Blake. Watching Federer, Agassi wrote, "makes me feel like I was much more of a broken person than I even realized."

-- the 2017 Australian Open

13) “Do you, because everyone else is taken.” - Uber driver

14) Federer's physical skills have tended to obscure just how he resilient he has been throughout his career--a point not lost on him. "My mental toughness has always been overshadowed by my virtuosity, my shotmaking, my technique, my grace," says Federer. "That's why when I lose, it seems like, 'Oh, he didn't play so well.' And when I win, it looks so easy." He says it has been that way since he was young. "Just because I don't sweat like crazy and I don't grunt, I don't have this face on when I hit the shot like I'm in pain, doesn't mean I'm not trying hard," he says. "It's just how I play. Sorry."

15) "I’ve always said the only way to change anyone’s opinion is to make him laugh first. It still is." - John Waters

16) “Women like babies. Men like their sons and daughters.” - Kevin Haack

17) “At once, Federer would triumph over his two greatest rivals: Nadal and Hawk-Eye.” - Chris Almeida, on Roger Federer’s 2017 Aussie Open win

18) “Brady did everything in Super Bowl 51 short of fertilizing crops with his own feces to feed his teammates.” - Bill Simmons

19) “It's still hard to believe the Falcons actually lost this game. They're the first team in Super Bowl history to lose with a pick-six in its pocket, one that felt like an unlikely gift given that it came from Brady. Some will throw around the "choker" label, which is inelegant at best and condescendingly incurious at worst. If choking means running after a quarterback on 68 dropbacks until there's hardly any air left in your lungs, the Falcons choked.” - Bill Barnwell

20) “Keep in mind: Plenty of people already think Chance The Rapper is corny. Plenty of people have been thinking it for years. Plenty of people who now love Chance The Rapper had to get over the corniness threshold, to train themselves to love the yawpy ad-libs an the voice-cracks and the general hyperactive teenage energy. When Chance won Best New Artist and howled the word 'God' in his acceptance speech about 32 times, I saw plenty of grumbling — We get it, dude, you believe in God — in my Twitter timeline. Someone even said that the music industry had figured out how to manufacture a marketable version of Christian-rap figurehead Lecrae. And that gets at another common complaint about Chance: that he’s an 'industry plant,' a creature created by the music business, one who uses 'independent' as a buzzword rather than as any kind of unifying philosophy. Those of us who love Chance, that line of thinking goes, have been somehow hoodwinked or manipulated into it. And there have been plenty of other perceived sins over the years: the overalls, the KitKat commercial, the constant references to Nickelodeon cartoons, the persistent smiling. Whether or not you love Chance, there is a strong possibility that he’s annoyed you once or twice.” - Tom Breihan

21) “Traveling is the antidote to ignorance.” - Trevor Noah

22) "But mostly, it's in how Celebration Rock treats every day like the last day of school, raising a glass to the past, living in the moment and going into the future feeling fucking invincible." - Ian Cohen

23) “In fact, it turned out that there was nothing ‘dangerous’ at all in picking on women and refugees. People will pay you good money for that. The dangerous ideas are the ones they don’t pay you for, the ones that don’t get you on HBO. You’re actually dangerous when you do what Yiannopoulos did in the ‘pedophile’ tapes: defend society’s most hated outcasts, and tell the truth about the complexities of gay men’s sexuality. You’re dangerous when you stick up for those on the fringes rather than kicking them. There’s nothing courageous or edgy in bullying the despised and excluded. But it might be dangerous if you dared to empathize with them.” - Nathan J. Robinson

24) [Taj] Gibson was asked if his dunk over Dwyane Wade was his favorite moment as a Bull. "It really wasn't. That was just a dunk. It really wasn't one of my favorite moments of my career, to be honest with you. I had a lot of shining moments in my career. Just being around Thibs, he taught me that people don't look at, some of the games, most of the games, they look at the bright spots. I have a lot of different bright spots in my career. The biggest one in my career would have to be just being on the team when guys were down and having a coach look at me and know that he can count on me. No matter what position, no matter what time in the game. And he would trust some of the most important plays for me to do. Those were the most important moments of my life, just having a guy between Fred and coach Thibs, knowing guys that are ahead of me, making twice as much money as me, and he's still calling my name through crunch time. Those were the best moments of my life."

[have some, Carlos Boozer]

25) “You can't let politics dictate what you read or who you fuck.” - Chuck, “Girls”

26) “Watching Kawhi Leonard play basketball is like when you get the email you’ve been waiting for and it says all of the things you were hoping it was going to say.” - Shea Serrano

27) “This isn't a choice, like my diet. This is a necessity, like my drinking.” - Ben, “Veep”

28) “It's like how love songs never go out of style because no one's ever written one that's closed the book on the subject.” - Brian King, Japandroids

29) Pitchfork: A lot of the lyrics on the album take advantage of this universal, mythic rock'n'roll language, like on "Fire's Highway": "Hearts from hell collide/ On fire's highway tonight/ We dreamed it, now we know."

Brian King (Japandroids): Personally, I really like the concepts of good and evil, heaven and hell-- the extreme boundaries of how people can feel and how fast things can change. I like that that language. I'm not talking about just some night you felt a certain way, I'm talking about the night you felt that way-- that one time. People have always alluded to those extremes as a way of characterizing the most intense feelings since blues and the early days of rock. A blues singer won't be like, "We broke up." He'll say, "Satan stole my baby from me." You just pick it up.

30) “Friends of mine, hitting partners, are Federer fans for real. They own his racket, his sneakers, the hat with his RF logo. When he loses, they're wrecked; when he wins, it's only slightly less painful, because it's one fewer win they get to witness.” - Rosecrans Baldwin

31) “Bad ideas rarely spread when the population is educated about better alternatives.” - Greg Graffin

32) This entire story (9:47 to 10:15)

RIP, Don Rickles (1926-2017)

33) “Being pregnant is cool and weird: Your bones ache, your gums bleed, your ligaments basically just start giving up. (A hormone called ‘relaxin’ is involved.) You plan decades ahead, then worry you’re jinxing it all. You’ve got a decreasingly nebulous imaginary friend there to listen to your hopes and fears at all hours and you occasionally get the hiccups. But the strangest thing about being with child is the way your body becomes not yours, and not even the baby’s, but the world’s. Complete strangers reach out and touch. Internet commenters opine. Photos of yourself splayed postpartum on a gurney, hair matted to the side of your face, one boob swung free, are triumphantly text-messaged to fathers-in-law without your express written consent.

It’s not fair, it’s never fair, but it’s nevertheless the shared experience of so many women during a powerful, vulnerable time.” - Katie Baker

34) "I just watched Deadheads spin around for three hours looking for miracles." - Brad Back

35) “Comparison is the thief of joy.” - Theodore Roosevelt

36) "The Spurs’ run of NBA success is now old enough to vote, and in a couple of years it will be legally old enough to share finely aged red wines with Popovich, although I suspect he’s been slipping it glasses at home for a few years now. One of the cornerstones of that success has been an ability to find talent where nobody else looked." - Rodger Sherman

37) "Cutting at the right time is more important than being fast." - Bill Belichick

38) “You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.” - “Justified”

39) “An asshole is not a brilliant visionary just because a toilet has a bottomless appetite for what comes out of it.” - Albert Burneko, on the passing of Roger Ailes

40) "He would’ve been a rock star no matter where he’d been born, or when." - Rob Harvilla on Chris Cornell

41) "Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house." - Rod Stewart

42) “I have never regretted taking a walk. Every time you walk, a bunch of cool shit happens. You burn calories, for one thing. You think of cool ideas. You also get an immediate sense of the layout and vibe of wherever you happen to be. It’s a cheap shortcut to feeling like a local. I walked around downtown Atlanta for two hours once, which was long enough for me to realize, ‘Oh hey, this is the part of town that sucks!’ Then I went and walked around a cooler part.

Also, walking forces me to pocket my phone and actually look around for a bit (in theory…sometimes I check the phone while walking, which is galactically fucking stupid and could get you killed). I can actually feel GOOD about the world when I walk around, because I’m seeing it as it stands now, instead through the horrifying prism of online news and discourse. The sun still shines out there. People are smiling. It’s not bad. You wouldn’t even know we’re all gonna die soon. Not everything has rotted away just yet. You can leave the shifting sand dunes of the day far behind, to borrow a phrase from Professor Fartsniffer up there.

Also, you don’t have to look for a parking spot.

I walked today. I walked past a school and saw a bunch of kids playing touch football and they accidentally launched the ball over the fence and into the road, where they couldn’t get it. So they asked me to grab it for them. I hucked it back over and one kid shouted ‘YOU DA REAL MVP!’ And you know what? For that one little moment, I was, indeed, da real MVP. Step aside, Kevin Durant’s mom. I saved touch football. What did you ever do?

That kind of experience isn’t really possible when you’re sitting in a car. When you drive, you’re basically in a kind of self-imposed purgatory. The goal is to get wherever you’re headed so that you can resume your life again. I have tried to slow down and savor my surroundings while driving but it rarely works out because A) It’s not safe and B) I want to make good time. I have my eyes on the road and my ears on my SWEET TUNEZ, and I’m only slowing down to gawk at an overturned milk truck. ‘Wow, that looks BAD.’

The most important moments in life usually happen when you’re walking. Ever ask someone you’re dying to go out with if they wanna go for a walk, and they say yes? It feels fucking GREAT. That’s gonna be a good walk. Then maybe you two walk down the aisle after you get married, and then walk through the hospital to see your new baby in the nursery, and then walk with that child as takes its first steps. And then maybe someone close to you dies, and you have to walk with their casket to their gravesite. I’ve made some of these walks. I haven’t forgotten any of them.” - Drew Magary

43) "‘A great nation does not hide its history, it faces its flaws and corrects them.’ - George W. Bush

Let us again state clearly for all to hear. The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is a history we should never forget and one that we should never ever again put on a pedestal to be revered." - Mitch Landrieu

44) "Just found out Joyce Manor is playing in Bristol on 7/13. When god closes a door, he opens a moshpit." - Chris Trott, after missing the Captain, We're Sinking Show in Chicago on 7/12 due his England trip

45) “The most prestigious honor in music isn't a Grammy. It's ‘I like this band enough to see them at 10:30 p.m. on a Wednesday.’” - Steven Hyden

46) “I think of you every time I speed up my podcasts.” - Christine Jastrow’s 31st birthday tribute to yours truly

47) "A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." - James Joyce

48) “Personally speaking, a millennial is anyone younger than me who gets on my fucking nerves. I don’t think of like, Dak Prescott as a millennial, because he seems cool. But Chris Brown? Fuck him sideways.” - Drew Magary

49) "It's a scientific fact that a beer tastes better when it travels more than 5 feet in the air" - @PFTCommenter

50) Dustin Brown perfectly summed up what it's like to play on Centre Court. "It would be nice if we're playing every match out there. It's very comfortable. Even when things aren't going your way, it relaxed me a bit to say 'this is where you always wanted to be,'" he said after his Wimbledon second round loss to defending champ Andy Murray.

51) "One thing I’ve always found fascinating about Federer (or, rather, the way we talk about Federer) is that there’s never been any backlash. Normally, when an athlete has been around as long as Federer has, and has been as great as Federer has, and is on the receiving end of so much adulation, some sort of noticeable backlash occurs. Never with Fed.

Relatedly, people root for Federer unabashedly, and did so even during that stretch in the 00's when he was as dominant a force as any sport has seen. Casual fans tend to root for the underdog, but Federer was so sublime that he made people root for Goliath." - Andrew, Deadspin reader

52) “‘Federer manages to scamper across himself’ is one of the more Federer tennis calls I've ever heard.” - Brian Phillips

53) “Everything before the word ‘but’ is horseshit.” - Jon Snow

54) “Be present.” - Megan Filip

55) "The successful person is one who finds an opportunity in every problem. Unsuccessful people find a problem in every opportunity." - Lou Holtz

56) “It ain’t a hit till Nate Dogg spit.” - Mack 10

57) "Nobody goes to work tomorrow. General strike, fuck this country." - some of Blake Schwarzenbach first words at the Jawbreaker reunion

58) “It’s hard getting good news -- you don’t know what to do with it.” - Blake Schwarzenbach, at the first Jawbreaker show in forever

59) “When I was a child, I spoke like a child.” - Davis,“Treme”

60) “In one sense, the story of human history is just people inventing progressively more advanced ways in which to be awful idiots, in groups.” - David Roth

61) "Reality gives nothing back and nor should you." - Kobe Bryant

62) “Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

63) "Brevity is the soul of wit" - William Shakespeare

64) "If I shoot an airball, call the foul." - Dirk Nowitzki

[emblem-333]

Naughty or Nice: NBA Edition

The greatest day in the Christian religion is almost upon us, ladies and germs! Ah. Christmas. Gathering around an icy cold, barley used fire place, while your dad plays “The Dark Knight Rises” for whatever reason as you and your siblings gather to open up gifts around an artificial tree. I reach down into my stocking and bring out a lump of black, bumpy coal, It’s ash staining my palm. Last Christmas I was on the “Naughty List” of dear ole Saint Nick. Something about not helping the needy. This year I expect to so up on the infamous list once again… but I don’t want to be alone. So let’s rattle off fellow impure -and some pure teams in the NBA that’ll round out Santa Claus’s records.

Naughty: Oklahoma City

Didn’t see this coming back in September. Sam Presti was on my shortlist to win General Manager of the Year, trading for Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, without giving up much, and signing Russell Westbrook to an extension that saved basketball in the state of Oklahoma. Unfortunately the team’s fallen on hard times since. Westbrook is useless when off-ball and isn’t engaged. Carmelo is old, slow and looks rhythmless. Paul George, the second-best small forward in the East just a season ago, can’t seem to carve out a role and the coaching of Billy Donavan apparently is wasting his talents in such an unimaginative system.

The Thunders woes exclusively are on the offensive side of the court; defensively they’ve played at a nearly elite level: 100.2 Opp/PTS allowed (3rd); 103.7 Def Rtg (2nd), which is shocking when considering the personal change over the course of the summer. Carmelo Anthony in year fifteen is not an ideal option to guard your opponents second best wing player. Anthony’s DRtg sits prettily at 105, the best since 2011-12 with the Knicks.

One of the reasons for the surprising poor start is Donovan’s inability to work his three stars into the offense. Making one of the strengths of Paul George last season, running far less Pick and Roll as the Ball Handler, percentage of time he ran this playtype last season was 17.5%, upped to 23% this season; though his points per possession, 1.01 down to 0.76, and percentile rank, 92nd last season to 39th. What’s more staggering is his decline in the most basic of metrics. On an Indiana team, playing alongside miss-match pieces George’s averages were 46.1 fg%, 39.6 3P%, 23.7 PPG - 6.6 RPG - 3.3 APG - 2 Stocks and his Clutch statistics have fallen substantially, given he wasn’t too good to begin with, last season: 47.6 fg%, 33.3 3P%, 4 PPG - 0.7 RPG - 0.2 APG.

This season: 40.4 fg%, 33.9 3P%, 19.9 PPG - 5.7 RPG - 3.1 APG - 3.1 Stocks; Clutch: 37 fg%, 28.6 3P%, 2.4 PPG - 0.8 RPG - 0.1 APG. George’s never been clutch. Surprise, surprise. But the fall in efficiency is enough to have me shaking in my boots. The way Westbrook’s handled this season has also disappointed me. He’s woeful when off-ball, often indifferent, walking aimlessly around the court after getting rid of the ball.

Like George, Westbrook’s strengths also mysteriously disappeared. For Russ it’s his ability to come up big in the clutch that won him the MVP, 44.6 fg%, 1.9 fta, 85.3 ft%, 6.2 PPG - 1.3 APG - 0.7 RPG - 0.5 TPG ; this season: 33.8 fg%, 0.9 fta, 52.9 ft%, 3.6 PPG - 1.5 RPG - 0.7 APG - 0.4 TPG.

Carmelo’s knees betrayed him some time ago. He isn’t able to get the amount of lift necessary to justify his isolation-heavy style of play, predicated on making long-two point attempts. Witnessing the stagnation of the offense whenever Carmelo just touches the ball, teammates resign to the fact he’s just going to shoot it brings back painful memories of Westbrook’s ball-domination sapping the potential of Victor Oladipo. Currently 15-15, there isn’t a lot to pin your hopes on for anybody who came into the season high on the Thunder. Westbrook’s victorious 2016-17 MVP campaign brought about speculation by many whether he was indeed the right choice, some of the shine is starting to come off the magnificent statistical season this year.

Nice: Victor Oladipo

Anybody who tries to tell you they liked the Paul George return prior to Thanksgiving are liars. Do not believe them. Kevin Pritchard had zero support once the deal became official. Domantas Sabonis, miscast by Donovan in OKC as a stretch big-forward, Nate McMillan deserves props for recasting the Gonzaga product as a pure center, shooting 54.4% from the field, averaging 12.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2 assists per game. Sabonis is the best backup center in the East; a sneaky choice for Sixth Man of the Year.

Shooting guard Victor Oladipo wasn’t respected by those who considered him Smush Parker to Westbrook’s Kobe last season. Despite then career-highs in field goal and three-point. His massive $84 million contract given to him by Presti raised the eyebrow of many. Drafted second overall in a weak draft, from Indiana University, Oladipo entered Indianapolis amidst fanfare. Pritchard loved Oladipo before he even suited up for the Pacers in a game, mostly due to his Indiana roots. This came across to me more as a low profile clown show. When the spotlight was shined on to Indiana, and when we all stopped laughing at them, they weren’t expected to do more than to be in the middle-to-later parts of the lottery. Fast forward to Christmas time, the Pacers are on pace for 42 wins (I think they’ll win 45), despite a piss-poor bench outside of Sabonis. High profile wins over the then-streaking Cleveland Cavaliers, Vic went for 33 points off of 11 of 24 Shooting (Indiana also beat Cleveland on Nov 1), San Antonio, and sneaky good Toronto.

Oladipo in the clutch will save the Pacers from the ashes they’d otherwise be reduced to, 43.1 fg%, 41.2 3P%, 3.2 PPG - 0.8 RPG - 0.4 APG. Against Boston on Monday, Vic was held in check in the first half before exploding for thirty-points in a contest the Pacers absolutely should’ve won if it wasn’t for late-game bungling courtesy of Bojan Bogdanovic. Vic scored 14 points in the final quarter, Boston had no answer for him. Make no mistake Victor Oladipo is the best shooting guard in the East. Better than Bradley Beal. Better than DeMar DeRozan.

He can score in more ways than DeRozan, who’s amazingly been productive despite an utter lack of a jump shot, and isn’t a liability on defense like he and Beal are. For Pritchard to obtain third best shooting guard in a time where the league is seemingly stacked at that position is reason enough for him to be involved in GM of the Year talks. Boy, do I have egg on my face.

Naughty: Washington Wizards

Awful lot of talking the fellas in the D.C area have done since being ousted in the second round by a clumsy Canadian and a five-foot, nine inch point guard suffering immense pain because his hip bone was puncturing his skin. Still, the previous season reignited the John Wall-era, his knees were stable once again, played the best ball of his career. Hopes were high entering the 2017-18 campaign, nice, but the utterly inconsequential trade for backup point guard Tim Frazier and signing of shooting guard Jodie Meeks was welcomed by critics of the Wizards front office, such as myself. The summer prior when the money pit was all too deep not to jump in head first line Scrooge McDuck. Ian Mahimi, Jason Smith and Andrew Nicholson, none worked out. While Smith is serviceable, Mahimi hasn’t produced, and Nicholson was traded by February.

Tim Frazier isn’t a backup point guard on a perennial East-Finalist. Jodie Meeks hasn’t played a quality season since... a long time.

Wall’s knees are made of cotton candy, missed seven-games this season due to discomfort and inflammation in the knee. Given PRP (platelet-rich plasma). I don’t know what that is, but it can’t be good.

Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat enjoyed the best season of their respective careers. Morris’ points per game is down; rebounds are down; assists are down, as is his field goal percentage. Gortat is thirty-three, will turn thirty-four in February, his field goal percentage fell from 57.9% to 53.5%. The Wizards sit in a tight scramble for the bottom of the playoff picture at 16-14. For all the talk of their belief that the Cavaliers “were ducking” them, I don’t even think the Wizards can beat the Nets two out of three times this season.

The dream fans cling to is a DeMarcus Cousins 0.25 cents on the dollar transaction, one which doesn’t involve Star two-guard Bradley Beal. Despite the 15-16 record causing the murmurs of a potential trading of Superstar Anthony Davis, given the delicate situation of the Pelicans franchise, they’re currently in the eighth seed. Only three-games behind Minnesota for the fourth-seed, the final spot for home-court advantage. Shooter Otto Porter alone provides necessary salary flotsam to obtain Cousins; though his contract provides a 15% trade kicker. And while Porter is a better option to play either forward position than Solomon Hill, if New Orleans stays the course and if by February 8th the are out of the playoff picture and it’s clear their core around A.D & Boogie isn’t good enough then MAYBE the Wizards have a chance. But who’s to say by then the Wizards and Pelicans won’t have the same record by then?

Nice: Toronto Raptors

Entering the summer of 2017 after being swept by LeBron without breaking a sweat, a tremendous sea change was about to be expected. GM Masai Ujiri decided to run back the previous season’s team, despite the skinny wallet. Choosing to re-sign Serge Ibaka over P.J Tucker. Sign-and-trade Cory Joseph for C.J Miles. Trading DeMarre Carroll, a first round pick and a 2018 second draft pick to Brooklyn for Justin Hamilton - a deal not looking so good now, given Carroll’s resurgence. So far the Raptors are on a wins pace of fifty-seven, good for second best in ESPN’s BPI Playoff Odds. Despite Lowry’s sluggish start to the season of transition, averaging 17.9 points, 7.5 assists, 6.9 rebounds, 45.1 fg% and 41.4% from three-point; help the Raptors offensive rating of 113.4 (4th). Lowry is on a team-friendly three-year, $100 million contract that assures the Raptors aren’t paying an arm and a leg for old and decrepit Lowry.

Second-year center Jakob Poeltl was unglued from the bench and showed some promise, making 89 of his 130 field goal attempts; 74% on attempts taken zero-to-three feet. The production of Poeltl is similar to albatross Jonas Valanciunas, on the second-year of a four-year, $64 million contract; a player-option for 2019, one Jonas will surely pick up given the NBA isn’t clambering for a slow-footed, old school center and certainly don’t want to pay one $17 million.

The Raps are seventh in defensive rating. DeRozan has the highest DRtg of all the team with 107. Rank fifth in eFG%; forces the seventh most turnovers (14.5). On offense the Raptors are fifth in field goal percentage and third in two-point attempts.

An intriguing roster of seasoned veterans on sort-of-nice contracts and prospects. They’re weak in the backup guard and wing positions, if the Raptors still have assets from last season’s gamble they can chase marksman Buddy Hield, bench scorer Tyreke Evans, and even take a big whiff at Marc Gasol and Paul George. The Raptors should be linked to Gasol especially. The Grizzlies have fallen to the bottom of the lottery, if the season were to end today.

Ujiri is an underrated candidate for Executive of the Year. He’s navigated through dangerous waters and came out still on track to win a playoff series and sneak into the East-Finals. The Cavaliers aren’t afraid of Toronto, but maybe it won’t be them they’ll have to face. You never know.

[stdankus]

10/07

whoa, I was tagged by @studywithbread at the perfect moment as I seriously need some break from angsty fanfiction (thank you my savior) get some tea if you’re going to read this all, because man, it will take some time

rules: answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people

LAST: 1. drink: water 2. phone call: my dad 3. text message: last one I sent was a screenshot that I was tagged in this (lol) and last one I received said: I can’t see it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4. song you listened to: I’m pretty sure it was accidentally in love from shrek soundtrack (it IS a very good song) 5. time you cried: well, as I said - angsty fanfiction

HAVE YOU: 6. dated someone twice: lol, I’ve never dated anybody 7. kissed someone and regretted it: what is kissing 8. been cheated on: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 9. lost someone special: unfortunately, yep 10. been depressed: I’m pretty sure I have seasonal depression? every year during autumn/winter I’m basically a wreck™ 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: drunk - yes, thrown up - no

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS: 12-14. blue, red and lately yellow

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU: 15. made new friends: yES! and I seriously would be dead without them (it was last year, right? or year before? whatever) 16. fallen out of love: does crush count? 17. laughed until you cried: why wouldn’t I do it this year? I do it all the time lol 18. found out someone was talking about you: bruh, I’m so amazing people talk about me all the time 19. met someone who changed you: bet I did 20. found out who your friends are: yup 21. kissed someone on your facebook list: what did I say about kissing

GENERAL: 22. how many of your facebook friends do you know: all of them, I guess? 23. do you have any pets: I have a cat and a dog (I used to have also a hamster but my cat decided to eat it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) 24. do you want to change your name: I already answered that question - not really 25. what did you do for your last birthday: I invited my closest friends for a little sleepover 26. what time did you wake up: today, surprisingly around 9 am, but don’t be fooled, I sleep crazy hours 27. what were you doing at midnight last night: reading fanfiction, duh 28. name something you can’t wait for: drabbles from @shookspears, going to cinema with friends, 5th season of sherlock (HAHAHAHAHHA) 29. when was the last time you saw your mom: a second ago, she told me that i should see a doctor. sorry mom this fanfiction is jUST 30. what is one thing you wish you could change in your life: in the past - nothing really - everything that happened made me a person that I am today, and I like that chick. in the present - well, I should get a job probably 31. what are you listening to right now: my jeanmarco playlist I’m sorry 32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: I know and talk to two toms actually 33. something that is getting on your nerves: poorly written smutty fanfiction (I can only get through it when it’s well written and has, well, some plot), people telling me that I should care what other people think, being told that I should do something differently by a person who has no idea what I’m doing, raisins in pierogis (who puts that shit in them) 34. most visited websites: ao3, tumblr, youtube

LOST QUESTIONS: 35. mole/s: I have two on my face 36. mark/s: I used to have something shaped like diamond on the small of my back 37. childhood dream: I wanted to be a fashion designer, that’s all I think 38. hair color: chestnut brown, but I used to have red-ish something on my head and subtle ombre (not at the same time) 39. long or short hair: short 40. do you have a crush on someone: uh, martin freeman, benedict cumberbatch, levi ackerman, kageyama tobio? irl I stopped really caring 41. what do you like about yourself: my butt, being able to lose my weight without problems, my strong legs, brows, big lips, being able to change my handwriting as I wish, being good at math, not caring much what people think about me 42. piercings: I don’t have any 43. blood type: I’m pretty sure it’s B 44. nickname: when I was in primary school older guys used to call me “chocolate” because of my slightly darker skintone and being cute (thisissoadorableksks) 45. relationship status: single, and I don’t really want to change it 46. zodiac: sagittarius 47. pronouns: she/her 48. favorite tv show: SHERLOCK, duh, sense8 49. tattoos: I don’t have any but my friend is getting one done soon and shE WON’T TELL ME WHEN 50. right or left hand: right 51. surgery: nope 52. hair dyed in different color: as I said, it was red-ish burgundy something 53. sport: I wish I was good in any, but I like rollerblading, skating and when I’m in the mood - basketball 54. where’s 54 55. vacation: almost every year I’m going with my family see some polish lakes, but I was once in london (blessing) and in milan 56. pair of trainers: I don’t really understand the question but converse and nike roshe??

MORE GENERAL: 57. eating: biscuits called ‘maltanki’ (good shit) 58. drinking: my cat stole my water 59. I’m about to: continue reading fanfiction 60. stop skipping numbers, dear author, it’s cheating 61. waiting for: cinema and gabi to show me her tattoo 62. want: uhm, money? more washi tapes, more mac lipsticks, money, better grades (tho it’s summer, I’m relaxing), to sing well, watermelon 63. get married: don’t think so, I’m pretty sure I’m asexual (maybe demi?) so it should be a similar person so that it could work somehow 64. career: I’m considering few options - graphic designer, something connected to advertising, or criminologist

WHICH IS BETTER: 65. hugs or kisses: I don’t kiss, and I’m not a fan of hugging (only with v close friends/my mom) 66. lips or eyes: my lips, someone’s eyes 67. shorter or taller: honestly it’s hard to find someone shorter than me 68. older or younger: oLDER, like benedict cumberbatch older (jk)(or do I) 69. COME ON IT REALLY IS CHEATING. at this moment is what, 89 questions to answer you lying duck 70. nice arms or nice stomach: nice back 71. sensitive or loud: depends, sensitive I guess 72. hook up or relationship: relationship 73. troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker

HAVE YOU EVER: 74. kissed a stranger: what did I say about kissing 75. drank hard liquor: well, my friends broke me (I’m looking at you) 76. lost glasses/contact lenses: I don’t wear them 77. turned someone down: a lot (sorry guys) 78. sex in the first date: what is sex 79. broken someone’s heart: yuuuuup 80. had your heart broken: I don’t have a heart 81. been arrested: nope 82. cried when someone died: a lot 83. fallen for a friend: duh

DO YOU BELIEVE IN: 84. yourself: as much as I like myself, I don’t always believe in myself 85. miracles: if I pass my oral polish matura it will definitely be a miracle 86. love at first sight: I think so 87. santa claus: hoW CAN YOU NOT BELIEVE IN IT 88. kiss on the first date: not really 89. *coughs* 88 questions

OTHER: 90. current best friend name: patryk, gabi, magda, love you guys 91. eye color: grey-ish 92. favorite movie: kingsman: the secret service

now, tag 20 people (well, I tag as many as I can think about right now, but if you see this post consider yourself tagged) @teddvlcpin @madstudies @sleepisnotmydivision @rawbug @designstudy @successaesthetics @officiallystudying @heyheyheyitsolehickoryhammike (man, someday I’m gonna break my fingers writing your username) @026ml-studies

[reading-through-the-night]

Tag!

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people.

Thank you: @a-song-of-stars-and-dreams

LAST:

1. Drink: Water

2. Phone call: Momma!

3. Text message: Ben

4. Song you listen to: Brand New by Ben Rector

5. Time you cried: Reading Outlander

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: Nope

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Yup

8. Been cheated on: Nope

9. Lost someone special: Thankfully, no

10. Been depressed: I don’t think so, not diagnosed anyways.

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Oh god yes. Let’s not talk about my poor choices.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12. Warm, sunshine yellow

13. Lilac purple

14. Cerulean blue, specifically the Crayola crayon

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: Yes! :)

16. Fallen out of love: Not really

17. Laughed until you cried: So many times.

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Yea, but honestly it’s human nature, I’m too boring to have really good gossip for anyone to talk about.

20. Found out who your friends are: At this point I feel like my friends have grown past the point of being ‘friends’.     

21.  Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Nope

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Umm, I think all of them? At least 99% of them.

23. Do you have any pets: Golden Retriever! Sandy!

24. Do you want to change your name: Nope, nothing else would fit me.

25. What did you do for your last Birthday: Literally nothing, it was 2 days before exams.

26. What time do you wake up: Depends on the day, usually 7am

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Sleeping yo! Grannas gotta catch her z’s!

28. Name something you can’t wait for: Finding my Rhysand.

29. When was the last time you saw your mom?: 3 days ago.

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: I wish I had more self control.

31. What are you listening to right now: My fan and the street noises.

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: I mean, I have spoken to a person named Tom.

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: People who take advantage of the system.

34. Most visited website: Tumblr, AO3, Google Docs

35. Mole/s: None

36. Mark/s: I have red hair, so I have 10 zillion freckles.

37. Childhood dream: President.

38. Hair color: Red

39. Long or short hair: Longish

40. Do you have a crush on someone: Not really.

41. What do you like about yourself: My intelligence and what I have accomplished so far.

42. Piercings: Just ears

43. Blood type: AB+

44. Nicknames? Sis

45. Relationship status: single

46. Zodiac: Aires

47. Pronouns: Her

48. Favorite TV Show: Friends, Outlander

50. Right or left hand: Right

51. Surgery: Never

52. Hair dyed in different color: Never

53. Sport: Swam in high school, used to play basketball, volleyball.

55. Vacation: cabin with the family!

56. Pair of trainers: in my state we call the tennis shoes, and mine are blue with pink lines!

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: cooking is hard and messy

58. Drinking: wine is da bestttt

59. I’m about to: listen to an audiobook and clean my apartment

62. Want: someone to cook dinner for me

63. Get married: would love to skip the awkward dating part and just have a loving husband.

64. Career: health care consultant, loving it.

65. Hugs or kisses: both

66. Lips or eyes: eyes,

67. Shorter or taller: Taller

68. Older or younger: older

70. Nice arms or nice stomach: arms

71. Sensitive or loud: I’m so loud

72. Hook up or relationship: relationship

73. Troublemaker or hesitant: I’m not really either, I boldy follow the rules?

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: Yes

75. Drank hard liquor: YUP

76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: both

77. Turned someone down: Very lightly

78. Sex on the first date: Nope

79. Broken someone’s heart: I don’t think so

80. Had your heart broken: Yea

81. Been arrested: Nope

82. Cried when someone died: Yes

83. Fallen for a friend: Yessss

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84: Yourself: Honestly, yes, so much.

85. Miracles: Yes?

86. Love at first sight: My inner romantic is screaming yes, but no.

87. Santa Claus: Somewhere he is real.

88. Kiss on the first date: If it’s there, it’s there.

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: Why do you only get one best friend? I don’t like ranking my inner circle.

91. Eye color: Blue some days, green others.

92. Favorite movie: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, always and forever. Or White Chicks.

YOU HAVE BEEN SUMMONED: I’m tagging anyone that read Rhapsodic, because I feel like we had an explosive book club going for a second. 

[scribblygirl]

92 Truths

the rules: once you have been tagged you are supposed to write 92 truths about yourself. at the end, choose 25 people to tag! (except that i don’t have that many pals so…tag whoever you want(? )

Thank you for tagging me @trashofdoom!! These are always so nice to read and fill out, and btw love your new profile picture!!

LAST…
[1] drink: greent tea [2] phone call: some random number?? they keep calling me and I keep meaning to block them. 
[3] text message: bae 
[4] song you listened to: World Zoomed Out - Diveo 
[5] time you cried: it’s been a while, can’t recall

HAVE YOU EVER…
[6] dated someone twice: ??? I mean I went on several dates with the same person before we got together officially? 
[7] been cheated on: no 
[8] kissed someone and regretted it: nope! 
[9] lost someone special: yes
 [10] been depressed: fortunately I have only had very few times when I felt depressed 
[11] gotten drunk and thrown up: nop

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS:
[12] yellow (esp. mustard) 
[13] turquoise/light teal [14] purple

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU…
[15] made new friends: yes 
[16] fallen out of love: no 
[17] laughed until you cried: definitely cried from watching car boys / touch the skyrim / peacecraft / monster factory [18] found out someone was talking about you: i don’t think so [19] met someone who changed you: no 
[20] found out who your true friends are: heh, i already knew because I only have a few [21] kissed someone on your facebook list: bae?? yeah, bae

GENERAL…

[22] how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: all of them, perhaps minus one or two people i might have picked up along the way 
[23] do you have any pets: a doggie named Miko (bichon / shitzu) who I love dearly but I WANT A BIRD

[24] do you want to change your name: nope

[25] what did you do for your last birthday: Just a simple dinner with bae. Unfortunately my birthday kind of got swallowed up in the chaos of a friend’s wedding, heh

[26] what time did you wake up: 7:50am 
[27] what were you doing at midnight last night: not sleeping because i’m a fool 
[28] name something you cannot wait for: seeing bae again, watching the polygon vids, getting a better job 
[29] when was the last time you saw your mother: just a few minutes ago 
[30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: my career path (er, I’d get rid of my indecisiveness because it’s killer) also not being so far away from bae 
[31] what are you listening to right now: the fan on my laptop kicking on from just typing this [32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: yeah my coworker :D 
[33] something that is getting on your nerves: my other coworker’s insensitivity and bad attitude  
[34] most visited website: YouTube or Tumblr [35] elementary: Faith Community, which no longer exists (: 
[36] high school: Serra High School 
[37] college: UCSD 
[38] hair color: dark brown
 [39] long or short hair: short! 
[40] do you have a crush on someone: no? 
[41] what do you like about yourself? my hair, my eyes, my quirkiness, my memery, my sock collection, my attempts to pacify bad situations, my kindness and gentleness 
[42] piercings: just single ear piercings 
[43]blood type: b-?? maybe?? 
[44] nickname: chole, cleo, clovis, clover, and the newly-acquired CLO-DAWG 
[45] relationship status: engaged c: [46] zodiac sign: capricorn  
[47] pronouns: she
/her [48] fav tv show: currently seven deadly sins, but I just finished it :( of all time, probably includes over the garden wall, we bare bears, saiki...honestly there’s too many 
[49] tattoos: none currently, but I’m thinking of maybe getting one? [50] right or left handed: right handed 
[51] surgery: cyst removal @ age 12 
[52] piercing: ears? 
[53] best friend: bae (i’m sorry i’m mentioning him a lot here lol, but it’s true) 
[54] sport: to participate, I like long-distance running and volleyball . I like watching volleyball and basketball but i’m not much of a sports person 
[55] vacation: ideally somewhere tropical or off the beaten path 
[56] pair of trainers: heh, too many. current favorites are my doc boots and loafers and these little brown leather shoes I have

RIGHT NOW…
[57] eating: nada 
[58] drinking: tea 
[59] i’m about to: sleep 
[60] listening to: that dumb fan still running [61] waiting for: the weekend to sleep more lol 
[62] want: to be with bae and have a job that fulfills my creative drive [63] get married: probably some time next year actually! 64] career: please something art-related or creative!

WHICH IS BETTER…

[65] hugs or kisses: hugs~ 
[66] lips or eyes: eyes 
[67] shorter or taller: taller I guess? I feel like it’s inconvenient though haha 
[68] older or younger: I tend to prefer older, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be wiser 
[69] romantic or spontaneous: both??? these aren’t mutually exclusive [70] nice arms or nice stomach: nice BUTT 
[71] sensitive or loud: sensitive? this one is weird too but I’m not much for loud noises so yeah 
[72] hook up or relationship: relationship omg i couldn’t do a hook up, i’m too serious 
[73] troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker

HAVE YOU EVER…
[74] kissed a stranger? nooo [75] drank hard liquor? not unless I couldn’t taste it, heh 
[76] lost glasses/contact lenses? only for a little while, they turn up sooner or later 
[77] turned someone down: yeah :( 
[78] sex on first date? nooo 79] broken someone’s heart? maybe? I hope not 
[81] been arrested? no [82] cried when someone died? yes [83] fallen for a friend: yes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN…
[84] yourself? i...I gotta believe! um sometimes heh 
[85] miracles? yes

[86] love at first sight? mmm not really, but I believe you can feel a connection very quickly

[87] santa claus? no sorry [88] kiss on the first date? sure [89] angels? si

OTHER…
[90] current best friend’s name: David 
[91] eye colour: brown 
[92] favourite movie: maybe Howl’s Moving Castle?

@shigeyyo @dandiran @cabbagecourt @astraldreaming @sleepanarchy @naka-mushoku @cotton-butt @adorablefeline @topaz-rabbit @gantai @leagueofemumu and anyone else who wants to do it :)

[junker-town]

25 college basketball players who will define Championship Week, ranked

Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

These are the college basketball players you need to know as Championship Week grabs the spotlight.

For complete coverage of Championship Week from Mike Rutherford, follow this StoryStream.

25. Lamine Diane (Cal State Northridge/Big West)

After being ruled academically ineligible to compete during the first semester of the 2019-20 season, Diane has been back to putting up his ridiculous stat lines over the last two months. As a freshman last season, the native of Senegal was the only player in the country to average above 24 points (24.8), 10 rebounds (11.2) and two blocks (2.2) per game. Diane is averaging more points (25.5 ppg) this season, has upped his steal (1.8 spg) and assist (2.9 apg) averages, and is only slightly behind last year’s pace when it comes to rebounds (10.1 rpg) and blocked shots (1.8 bpg). His Matadors squad currently sits in a three-way tie for second place in the Big West standings.

24. Jibri Blount (North Carolina Central/MEAC)

Blount does a little bit of everything for North Carolina Central, which is currently tied for first in the MEAC standings and looking to claim the league’s auto-bid to the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight season. If that happens, it’s almost a certainty that Blount will have had a significant amount to do with it. The 6’7 junior is averaging 19.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.

23. Sayeed Pridgett (Montana/Big Sky)

Pridgett has quietly been having one of the best seasons of any non-power conference player in America. The 6’5 senior from Oakland leads Montana in scoring (19.3 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg), assists (3.8 apg), and steals (1.6 spg). With two games to play in the regular season, Pridgett and the Grizzlies currently sit tied atop the Big Sky standings with Eastern Washington at 14-4.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" Sayeed Pridgett goes coast-to-coast for a massive dunk! #GoGriz #GrizHoops pic.twitter.com/PVT2pkk8S1

— Montana Griz BB (@MontanaGrizBB) January 22, 2017

22. Isaiah Blackmon (Saint Francis Pa./Northeast)

A year ago, Saint Francis’ Keith Braxton took home Northeast Conference Player of the Year honors. Twelve months later, that same honor seems destined to go to Braxton’s teammate, Isaiah Blackmon. The 6’1 guard has been a revelation for the Red Flash in his senior season, and will enter the NEC tournament averaging career-bests in points (19.2 ppg), rebounds (5.4 rpg), assists (1.6 apg), and free-throw percentage (83.3 percent).

21. Paul Atkinson (Yale/Ivy League)

Yale has been the best team in the Ivy League so far this season thanks in no small part to Atkinson’s 17.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. The play of the 6’10 junior will make the Bulldogs a trendy NCAA tournament upset pick ... if they can get there. In order to make that happen they will likely have to knock off their biggest threat, Harvard, on the Crimson’s home floor.

20 Tevin Brown (Murray State/Ohio Valley)

Ja Morant’s right hand man a year ago, Brown has stepped into the Racers’ starring role as a sophomore. One of the best two-way players in America at any level, Brown is a lockdown defender who shoots 41.5 percent from three and leads the Racers in scoring at 17.7 points per game.

19. Jalen Pickett (Siena/Metro Atlantic Athletic)

A year ago, Pickett set Siena freshmen records for both scoring (521) and steals (66), while also achieving the fourth-highest single-season assist total overall (221) in school history. He’s been even better as a sophomore, and has the Saints alone atop the MAAC standings heading into the final week of the regular season.

18. Jordan Ford (Saint Mary’s/West Coast)

It’s a only a mild overstatement to say that as Jordan Ford goes, so goes Saint Mary’s. Heading into his final collegiate postseason, the lightning quick guard is averaging 21.2 points per game and shooting 48.9 percent from the field despite almost never leaving the floor for the Gaels. He’s been on the court for an average of 37.7 minutes per game this season, the ninth-highest rate in the country.

17. Osasumwen Osaghae (Florida International/Conference USA)

One of the most improved players in the country, Osaghae averages 12.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. The senior forward makes his biggest impact on the defensive end where he leads the nation in blocks by averaging just a hair under 4.0 swats per game. No one else in Division-I averages better than 3.5. Osaghae and the Panthers are currently tied for fourth in the C-USA standings with two regular season games still to play.

16. Caleb Homesley (Liberty/Atlantic Sun)

The likely A-Sun Player of the Year, Homesley has saved the best basketball of his college career for the end. The 6’6 senior guard averaged 22.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while shooting 50.9 percent from the field and 46.5 percent from three over the final seven games of the regular season.

15. Trevelin Queen (New Mexico State/WAC)

Queen was the Aggies’ leading scorer before having to miss five games after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on Jan. 22 to fix a lateral meniscus tear. Though the initial prognosis was that Queen would be out 4-6 weeks, he returned to the court just 22 days after the surgery. The super athletic senior has looked more like his old self in recent games. If he can get back to near 100 percent, NMSU could once again be a dangerous first round opponent for some top five seed.

14. Jordan Lyons (Furman/Southern)

The winningest player in the history of the program, Lyons will also leave Furman as the school’s all-time leader in three-pointers made, and in the top 15 on the career scoring list. The only major thing Lyons has failed to do in his college career — which has included Furman being ranked for the first time in 107-year history of the program — is take the Paladins to the NCAA tournament. Lyons and company will be the 2 seed in the SoCon tournament. If they win it, Furman will make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1980.

13. Grant Riller (Charleston/Colonial Athletic Association)

There’s a reason why Riller has started to pop up as a late first round pick on a number of recent NBA mock drafts. He’s got tremendous handles, a reliable outside shot, and (currently) 2,448 career points, the second most in Charleston history and the third most in Colonial Athletic Association history. Riller will look to add to that total at the CAA tournament, where his Cougars will be the No. 4 seed.

12. Carlik Jones (Radford/Big South)

The Big South’s Player of the Year, Jones has scored 20 or more points 16 times this season. Despite only being a junior, Jones ranks eighth on Radford’s all-time scoring list with 1,498 career points. He and the Highlanders will be the No. 1 seed at the Big South tournament.

11. Terry Taylor (Austin Peay/Ohio Valley)

One of the most electric players at the mid/low major level of Division-I, Taylor leads Austin Peay in scoring (21.4 ppg), rebounding (10.8 rpg), steals (1.3 spg), and blocks (1.4 bpg). The likely OVC Player of the Year, Taylor has 16 double-doubles so far in his junior season, a feat he accomplished in seven of Austin Peay’s final eight regular season games. Taylor and the Governors will be a dangerous 3 seed in the OVC tournament.

10. AJ Green (Northern Iowa/Missouri Valley)

A year after being the Missouri Valley’s top scoring freshman, Green has emerged as the best player on the league’s best team. The 6’4 sophomore from Cedar Falls is averaging 19.7 points per game and shooting 91.7 percent from the free-throw line, the fourth-best mark in the country. Regardless of how UNI performs at Arch Madness, it’s a safe bet that the basketball world will see Green do his thing in the Big Dance.

9. Jermaine Marrow (Hampton/Big South)

The nation’s fourth-leading scorer at 24.3 points per game, Marrow makes Hampton a real threat as the 5 seed in the Big South tournament. The Pirates won one game in the Big South tournament last season, their first in the conference after making the jump over from the MEAC. With Marrow, who became the school’s all-time leading scorer last month, graduating after this year’s run, the pressure is on to do even more.

8. Justin Turner (Bowling Green/Mid-American)

Currently averaging 18.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, Turner is the primary reason Bowling Green is in prime position to make it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1968. The Falcons have been a force in the MAC with Turner at full-strength, but were remarkably average in December when the 6’4 junior was sidelined with a hamstring injury he suffered during the team’s overtime upset of Cincinnati.

7. Jhivvan Jackson (UTSA/Conference USA)

UTSA’s season hasn’t gone as well as Roadrunner fans were hoping it would four months ago, but that isn’t the fault of Jackson. The nation’s second-leading scorer is averaging 27.3 points per game and has scored 20 or more points in every game but three this season. Even though they’re currently below .500 with a 7-9 league mark, Jackson should make UTSA a live longshot at next week’s C-USA tournament.

6. Yoeli Childs (BYU/West Coast)

Suspended for the first nine games of this season because he filed his NBA Draft eligibility paperwork in the wrong order (swear to God that’s a real story, look it up), Childs has been an absolute monster for the Cougars since returning. BYU is riding a nine-game winning streak that includes a double-digit victory over Gonzaga, and Childs is the biggest reason why. The senior forward heads into the postseason averaging 22.2 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

5. Nathan Knight (William & Mary/Colonial Athletic Association)

The Tribe’s leader in both scoring (20.6 ppg) and rebounding (10.5 rpg), Knight is about to wrap up arguably the best career in the history of William & Mary basketball. What makes the season even more special is that he could have easily transferred to a high major program for his final college season, especially after head coach Tony Shaver was given a surprising axe last spring. Instead, Knight stuck around to make sure the Dane Fischer era got off to the best start possible. The only thing left for him to accomplish now is taking the Tribe to the NCAA tournament for the first time in the 83-year history of the program.

.@wmtribembb senior center Nathan Knight has been named Men's #CAAHoops Player of the Week, while @Elonmbasketball guard Hunter McIntosh earned CAA Rookie of the Week accolades pic.twitter.com/8X1Ra2vVM0

— CAA Basketball (@CAABasketball) February 17, 2020

4. Loudon Love (Wright State/Horizon League)

The play of Love is the biggest reason Wright State heads into the postseason with a 25-6 overall record and won the conference’s regular season title by a full two games over Northern Kentucky. The 6’9 Love was named Horizon League Player of the Year after averaging 16.3 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.

3. Sa’eed Nelson (American/Patriot League)

American’s all-time leading scorer, Nelson is the only active Division-1 player with 2,000 career points, 500 assists, 500 rebounds and 250 steals. Earlier this week he became the third American player to be named Patriot League Player of the Year, joining Patrick Docter (2002) and Derrick Mercer (2009). Nelson’s Eagles will be the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League tournament.

2. Filip Petrusev (Gonzaga/West Coast)

One of the least-heralded Gonzaga stars in recent years, Petrusev’s meteoric rise in his sophomore season is the main reason the Zags are right back in the mix as a top tier national title contender. The 6’11 native of Serbia enters the postseason averaging 17.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

1. Anthony Lamb (Vermont/America East)

His numbers are down a bit from last season, but Lamb still seems like a virtual lock to win his second straight America East Player of the Year award. Lamb now also has the opportunity to become just the second player in the history of the America East to be named the Most Valuable Player of the league’s tournament three times. The only time in his college career that Lamb didn’t earn the honor was two years ago when the Catamounts were upset in the championship game by UMBC.

Absolutely nothing noteworthy happened after that.

[billcoberly]

The Silliest Take of the Week: 1/29/17

Three weeks going! I’m already beating the odds I gave myself in my description of this project. 

Let’s get right to it! We’ve got some nice, spicy takes here this week.

Silliest Twitter Meltdown, Unless It’s Ironic Performance Art, In Which Case: Best Twitter Ironic Performance Art

Tim Marchman, A Short Series of Tweets, Twitter, 1/24/2017

This probably isn’t technically a Silly Take, but given that it exists at the intersection of Silly Internet Things; Political Nonsense; and Internet Tough Guy Posturing, I think it’s well within the #STOW ambit.

Apparently Senator Ted Cruz has organized a weekly-ish basketball game with some other Senators. Ex-Gawker sportsblog Deadspin thought this was funny, and asked for photographic proof of Ted Cruz playing basketball, which is a very Deadspin thing to do. Ted Cruz (or a social media manager working for Ted Cruz, but who cares) responded to a tweet about this with a picture of Duke University basketball player Grayson Allen, who looks sort of like Cruz. Deadspin’s social media person responded in typical Deadspin style:

Ted Cruz in turn responded with an Anchorman gif (”Boy, that escalated quickly!”) and that should probably have been it. 

But for Deadspin editor Tim Marchman, this was Too Much, Too Far, and Not Acceptable. (Please note that Marchman is not the one who drafted the initial call for pictures of Senator Cruz playing basketball). Instead, Tim Marchman gave us a series of nine tweets, the most important of which are below:

Now, a part of me hopes that this is Mr. Marchman being deliberately ridiculous in order to take the heat off of a woman (Ms. Feinberg, who drafted the original call for pictures) who was undoubtedly getting a disproportionate and awful amount of hate from Dudes on the Internet, who are, let there be no mistake, The Worst. If that’s the case, then good work, Mr. Marchman, and I apologize.

But I just want to revel for a moment in the gloriousness of “Unsurprising that not one Ted Cruz-supporting cuck/Twitter user is willing to face me in the UFC octagon.” I don’t know if I could find a better way to distill the silliness that is Internet Tough Guy Posturing into <140 characters. If Marchman is being ironic, then I admire his precision. My guess is that he’s not being ironic, given that 100% of the 11 tweets on his twitter feed consist of him whining about this dustup and two contextless RTs of weird things Curt Schilling once said.

Also, as always happens with Internet Tough Guy Posturing, and as several right-wing websites were happy to point out, some people who are apparently Actual Soldiers And/Or UFC Fighters and who like Ted Cruz have offered to take Marchman up on his challenge.

Don’t engage in Internet Tough Guy Posturing, folks. You look silly, and there’s always somebody out there who is bigger than you are and willing to call your bluff.

Most Predictably Tiresome Response to Angry Protests

David French, “This Is What Post-Christian Dissent Looks Like,” National Review, 1/27/2017.

People on the Left are very mad about Donald Trump. Previously, people on the Left were comically excited about Barack Obama. This, according to David French, has something to do with the fact that we’re not very Christian any more:

“This is post-Christian politics to its core. This is the politics one gets when this world is our only home, and no one is in charge but us. There is no sense of proportion.”

Finally:

“Eight years ago, all too many on the left thought that light had come into the darkness. Now they believe the darkness has overcome the light. In reality, the false dawn preceded the false dusk. Our Republic is still built to last, and the hysterical reaction threatens to be worse than the man who triggered it.”

I’ve tried to reread this a few times to figure out the connections French wants to make between protests and whatever the hell “post-Christian dissent” is, but all I can get out of this piece is a long, wet raspberry noise. So, in conclusion: shut up, David.

See also George Will, “Trump and academia actually have a lot in common,” The Washington Post, 1/27/2017.

Most Cringe-Inducing Set of Editorial Retractions

Moira Wegel, “How Ultrasound Became Political,” The Atlantic, 1/24/2017

I’m not willing to suggest that this whole article is really a Silly Take -- its thesis is that the development of ultrasound technology was a useful tool for pro-life advocates and lawmakers, particularly in the context of those condescending laws that require doctors to show women ultrasounds of their fetuses before they have an abortion. There may well be some value in this train of thought, and I certainly learned some things reading this article. 

That is, I thought I learned some things, until I saw the amazing and ever-growing list of corrections that had to be made to this article after it was published. Now I’m not sure I learned anything from this article, because I’m not sure the author of this article can be trusted to be sure what color the sky is:

“*This article originally stated that there is "no heart to speak of" in a 6-week-old fetus. In fact, the heart has already begun to form by that point in a pregnancy. The article also originally stated that an expectant mother participating in a study decided to carry her pregnancy to term even after learning that the fetus was suffering from a genetic disorder, when in fact the fetus was only at high risk for a genetic disorder. The article originally stated, as well, that Bernard Nathanson headed the National Right-to-Life Committee and became a born-again Christian. Nathanson was active in, but did not head the committee, and was never a born-again Christian, but rather a Roman Catholic. The article originally stated that many doctors in 1985 claimed fetuses had no reflexive responses to medical instruments at 12 weeks. Finally, the article originally stated that John Kasich vetoed a bill from Indiana's legislature, instead of Ohio's legislature, after which the article was incorrectly amended to state that Mike Pence had vetoed the bill. We regret the errors.“

It’s not every day that an article for The Atlantic manages to mix up “born-again” Christians with Roman Catholics, misstate facts about fetal development, and get royally confused about who the governor of Ohio is. A little bit of fact-checking goes a long way, folks.

Biggest Grudge Against an Anodyne Celebrity

Amy Zimmerman, “Taylor Swift’s Spineless Feminism,” The Daily Beast, 1/23/2017

Taylor Swift mostly doesn’t have public political opinions, and Amy Zimmerman has gotten weirdly mad about this before for The Daily Beast. I think about Taylor Swift about as often as I think about throw pillows -- they seem nice enough, and some people seem to have surprisingly strong opinions about them, but I can’t see a lot of need for them in my life. But for Amy Zimmerman, the fact that Taylor Swift hasn’t taken a public position on Donald Trump is a Big Problem that must be Written About At Length.

Look, I have read some legit critiques about Swift’s brand of feminism before, and I’m not really looking to come out swinging for T-Swift. But it’s weird to get this worked up about a pop star’s apparent lack of opinions:

“Courtesy of the Instagram, we learned that Swift endorses democracy and cold-shoulder blouses. But in terms of candidates, it was impossible to deduce if she’d voted for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, or Jill freaking Stein.” 

who cares who taylor swift voted for, amy

After citing the fact that T-Swift has a small group of neo-Nazi fans who like her because she looks like their ideal woman, Zimmerman says:

“If you’re not overtly on board with the resistance, then you’re tacitly chill with being proclaimed an Aryan goddess.” 

Other good moments are when she gets confused about Swift ex-boyfriend Tom Hiddleston’s acting career:

“Tom Hiddleston has played many roles, from Thor to Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.”

And look, this doesn’t matter, but Tom Hiddleston didn’t play Thor. Snark about anodyne celebrities looks even more petty if you can’t be bothered to get basic facts right.

Finally:

“In hindsight, [Hiddleston’s speech] proves that HiddleSwift may have been more compatible than we ever thought. Can’t you just picture the face of watered-down feminism and 2017’s proudest white savior, taking a break from swapping spit to congratulate one another on staying so woke?” 

Blech.

The Silliest Take of the Week: 1/29/2017

Filip Bondy, “How Vital Are Women? This Town Found Out as They Left to March,” The New York Times, 1/22/2017.

Here’s the pitch: Filip Bondy wants to show that women are important. This is a good thing: women are important. 

Here’s the problem: Filip Bondy wants to show that women are important by highlighting the plights of their poor, abandoned husbands who had to take care of the kids by themselves for --

listen, if you need to take a moment to collect yourself, that’s fine, this is pretty shocking --

these husbands had to take care of their kids for twelve full hours while the women went away to march for some weird chick thing. Can you imagine? Really goes to show how important women are.

Do you think I’m overstating things? Here is the thesis paragraph:

“In their wake, they left behind a progressive bedroom community with suddenly skewed demographics. Routines were radically altered, and many fathers tried to meet weekend demands alone for a change. By participating in the marches and highlighting the importance of women’s rights, the women also demonstrated, in towns like Montclair, their importance just by their absence.”

those poor bastards, having to meet weekend demands alone

“Usually, these chores and deliveries were shared by both parents, in a thoroughly modern way. On this day, many dads were left to juggle schedules on their own.”

the humanity

“Steve Politi, a sports columnist for The Star-Ledger of Newark, missed the Rutgers men’s basketball game on Saturday to stay home with his two children. He did the soccer-game thing, set up play dates (arguably, cheating a bit) and warmed up some leftover pizza for lunch. He also cleaned the refrigerator.”

the refrigerator, Linda, the refrigerator -- I cleaned the goddamn refrigerator while you were marching for uteruses or whatever, I deserve more respect around here

“After his dutiful Saturday, Mr. Coyle went off to play tennis on Sunday morning. It was part of the deal he had struck with his wife.”

a fair and equitable bargain. Mr. Coyle is truly a just sovereign over his household.

“The buses returned late Saturday night from Washington to a quiet, heartfelt welcome. By Sunday morning, most of the women were back to their routines in Montclair. The JaiPure Yoga Studio reported full attendance, and many fathers exhaled in relief.”

“and in that instant, all returned to normal. the seas ceased to boil, the locusts retreated over the horizon, and the wailing of children could no longer be heard. the villagers mourned their dead, but exulted in the knowledge that the women were home, and finally, all would be well again.”

Maybe, just maybe, if you’re trying to write an article about how women are cool and neat and important and Trump is bad, don’t manage to make it sound like men having to stay with their kids for a Saturday is some kind of Great, Heroic Sacrifice.

--

Thanks for reading! And thanks to Braden, Amanda, Tim, and Joel for submitting Silly Takes. As always, don’t forget to send your favorite ridiculous takes to sillytakes@gmail.com, and have a great week!

[bountyofbeads]

Luke Kuechly is a CLASS ACT with a heart of gold, a leader among men. He has given his heart and soul to the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte as well as surrounding area. I pray he stays in Charlotte and possibly hired as a coach. If not I know Riverboat Ron would love to have him on his team. Football is a violent sport and brutal on the body. You can only do so much to protect yourself. Until we demand that the game be made safer, you will see more players retire after 10-12 years in the game and more parents steering their children away from the game to a safer sport like baseball ⚾ soccer ⚽ and

basketball🏀. THANK YOU LUKE FOR GIVING YOUR ALL. Sending you healing, happy thoughts. Go Panthers!!

💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙

Luke Kuechly, Panthers’ 28-year-old linebacker, announces he’s retiring from the NFL (VIDEOS)

BY ALAINA GETZENBERG | Published

January 14, 2020 08:48 PM | Charlotte Observer | Posted January 15, 2020 |

One of the best players in Panthers history has played his last game.

Linebacker Luke Kuechly announced Tuesday night that he is retiring from the NFL.

He shared the news in a video posted to the Panthers’ Twitter feed. Kuechly did not state a specific reason for his retirement, but said that he isn’t able to play the game to the level he wanted to

“For me, now is the right opportunity to move in a different direction,” Kuechly said. “There’s only one way to play this game since I was a little kid — to play fast, to play physical and to play strong, and at this point, I don’t know if I’m able to do that anymore and that’s the part that is the most difficult.”

Kuechly is 28 years old and has played in the NFL for eight seasons, all with the Panthers after they selected him ninth overall in the 2012 draft out of Boston College. He was given a five-year contract extension in 2015 that went through the 2021 season and is walking away from over $21 million over the next two years.

He is a seven-time Pro Bowler, a franchise-record, ending his career having been given the honor in seven consecutive seasons, and was named First-Team All-Pro five times. He totaled more than 100 tackles every year that he played.

This year, he became just the fifth player in NFL history to record 100-plus tackles in eight straight seasons. Kuechly had 1,092 tackles in his career, the most by any player since he entered the NFL and a franchise-record. He also had 18 interceptions and 66 passes defenses in his career, the most by any linebacker since 2012 as well.

His 75 tackles for loss are also tied for the most in franchise history with Charles Johnson, who played for three more seasons.

Known for his extensive film study and ability to recognize to opponents’ plays on the field, Kuechly was named the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012 and the Defensive Player of the Year in 2013.

But he will be remembered for much more than his on-the-field performance. He was one of the best and most highly regarded players away from the field as well.

Kuechly filmed his goodbye video in the Panthers’ linebacker room where he spent so many hours of his career. He was visibly emotional and had to take multiple pauses before continuing to reflect on his career and what had made the decision difficult for him.

“It’s a tough decision, I’ve thought about it a lot. I think now is the right chance for me to move on,” Kuechly said. “It makes me sad, because I love playing this game. I’ve played it since I was a little kid, it’s my favorite thing in the world to do. The memories that I have from this place and this organization, playing on the field with these guys will never go away.

“... I still want to play, but I don’t think it’s the right decision, so I’ve thought about it for a long time and I think now is an opportunity for me to step away.”

A HISTORY OF CONCUSSIONS

In his career, Kuechly has missed just 10 games, and none since the 2017 season. The linebacker has a history of concussions, with at least three reported cases from 2015-17. He became the face behind concussion protocol when he was carted off the field sobbing in 2016.

His most time missed in a single season came in 2016 when he cleared concussion protocol after three games, but with just three games remaining in the schedule and Carolina out of playoff contention, the Panthers elected to keep him off the field, a decision he did not agree with at the time.

Players retiring in their prime has become more of a common theme in the NFL as of late. Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is the most recent example as he made the decision to retire at age 29, just prior to the 2019 season, after dealing with several injuries over his career.

Other NFL stars that have left the game earlier than many expected include Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who retired in 2016 at 30 years old. Patriots tight Rob Gronkowski and Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin left the game after the 2018 season at 29 and 30 years old, respectively.

San Francisco 49ers linebackers Patrick Willis, 30 years old, and Chris Borland, 24 years old, also retired after the 2014 season. Willis, similar to Kuechly, put together eight impressive NFL seasons before retiring.

OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT

In the video, Kuechly took time to mention that his decision had nothing to do with the Panthers’ new coaching staff under Matt Rhule, but instead focused on what is best for him.

Kuechly’s decision prompted responses from teammates, fellow NFL players, coaches and others with many focusing on the person he is off the field.

“Words can’t describe who Luke Kuechly is as a person, friend, and teammate,” tight end Greg Olsen, who played with Kuechly his entire career, tweeted. “We have shared countless memories together both on the field and away from it. I feel honored to be his friend and I’ll always appreciate the impact he has had on my life. Love you buddy.”

Former Panthers head coach Ron Rivera reiterated a sentiment that he shared at his final press conference in Charlotte, calling Kuechly a future Hall of Famer, consistent with the likes of Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher. Longtime teammate, safety Tre Boston, tweeted that he “always told people I’d teach my son to be like you.”

Kuechly shared in the video that he “hopes to still be involved in some way,” meaning his career in football is likely not over for good. He also thanked his family and everyone in the Panthers organization, in addition to the fans.

“People love the team and people love the players,” Kuechly said of the fans. “And that goes a long way, because when you love the players for who they are, I think it transcends the game and that’s what’s important.”

Kuechly was consistently regarded as one of the best linebackers in the NFL, known for his study of the game, and is almost certainly a future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

*********

Greg Olsen has spoken exclusively to @theobserver about his close friend and longtime Panthers teammate Luke Kuechly.

Olsen talked about why he knows No. 59 is "very at peace" with this retirement decision, which also wasn't as sudden as it seemed: (VIDEO)

Why Greg Olsen says Panthers’ Luke Kuechly is ‘very at peace’ with his retirement

BY SCOTT Fowler | Published January 15, 2020 05:03 PM ET | The Charlotte Observer | Posted January 15, 2020 |

Panthers tight end Greg Olsen said Wednesday that his close friend Luke Kuechly was “very at peace” with his decision to retire from football at age 28.

“Luke and I have seen each other many times since the season ended,” Olsen said in a phone interview with The Observer. “And I think it’s nice to see him feel so strongly about this. That doesn’t mean it was easy. It was hard. But he seems very at peace.”

Olsen also said that Kuechly arrived at this decision after weeks of contemplating what to do. “You know that if Luke is going to make a decision like that, he’s put a ton of thought into it,” Olsen said. “It’s maybe not what he wanted to do, necessarily, but it’s what is the right thing for him.”

Kuechly, a star linebacker and hall of fame candidate who made the Pro Bowl seven straight times for Carolina, revealed Tuesday night he was retiring. Olsen said he understood the fact that there was some sadness surrounding Kuechly’s announcement among Carolina fans.

“Listen, I’m sad, too,” Olsen said. “I think everyone who knows him is a little bit sad. But I’m also really happy for Luke — to go out on his own terms. To control his ending. That’s very fitting.”

At age 34, Olsen is the Panthers’ oldest player and is mulling his own career options. But he said he only wanted to talk about Kuechly on Wednesday.

“Luke deserves this day,” he said.

As for the outpouring of support  Kuechly has received from teammates, fans and foes since the surprise announcement Tuesday night, Olsen said that’s the way it should be.

“As his friends and his teammates,” Olsen said, “we obviously support him one thousand percent. Luke doesn’t owe anybody anything.”

Why exactly did Kuechly retire? In his retirement announcement, made via a 215-second video posted on the Panthers’ website, Kuechly referenced not being able to play as well as he once did.

“There’s only one way to play this game since I was a little kid,” Kuechly said in the video. “To play fast, to play physical and to play strong. And at this point, I don’t know if I’m able to do that anymore, and that’s the part that is the most difficult.”

Kuechly has a well-known concussion history, sustaining one diagnosed concussion every year from 2015-17. But he started all 32 games for the Panthers across 2018 and 2019. When asked how much those concussions had to do with this retirement, Olsen demurred.

“I’m just going to let Luke speak for himself as far as that goes,” Olsen said. “Whatever he wants to divulge about health — when or if he wants to — he can divulge.”

Olsen was more interested in speaking about Kuechly as a person and player.

“I can go on and on about how much I enjoyed being his friend and teammate,” Olsen said. “We’ve spent a lot of time together. We’ve been watching playoff games with some of the guys recently. He’s been amazing with my kids. He’s amazing with everyone’s kids. He’s special. He’s really about everything you could ever dream up as a person in terms of his qualities.”

As for Kuechly leaving the NFL after eight seasons, Olsen said he was “confident” that Kuechly was making the right decision given his personal circumstances and noted that other star NFL players (Andrew Luck, Rob Gronkowski, Patrick Willis) have taken a similar path the past few years.

“Believe me, Luke thought through all the angles,” Olsen said. “This wasn’t done all of a sudden. He’s a thoughtful guy. And this is a game a lot of people struggle to detach from. Luke has the confidence and stability, in his career and his life, that he’s not just a football player and there’s more to do going forward.”

And what would that be?

“Luke can obviously do anything he wants to,” Olsen said. “For now, I think he’ll enjoy some downtime — spend some time with the guys. Go hunting. Go fishing. And then, who knows? Luke will have the world at his fingertips going forward.”

*********

Luke Kuechly Joins N.F.L.’s Under-30 Retirees Club

The Carolina Panthers star linebacker joins a wave of stars — including Gronk, Luck and Megatron — who chose their health over football’s warrior culture.

By Ben Shpigel | Published Jan. 15, 2020, 4:56 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 15, 2020 |

In the video announcing his retirement on Tuesday, Luke Kuechly thanked his Carolina Panthers teammates and coaches, his parents and his two brothers, his girlfriend and all the fans who supported him as he became the best middle linebacker in the N.F.L. Left out of his speech were two men who almost certainly influenced his decision.

By retiring at 28, at the apex of a career defined by consistent excellence as much as repeated concussions, Kuechly joined the former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck and the former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski as under-30 stars who in the last 10 months chose long-term health over short-term success.

Before those announcements, players retiring in what seemed to be their athletic primes were regarded with singular shock. Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions, whose nickname is Megatron, retired in 2016 at the age of 30 and forced to repay the team $1 million of his signing bonus. The San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis, a five-time, first-team All-Pro, was the same age when he retired in early 2015.

These most recent retirements, taken together, represent a landmark shift in players’ priorities. Ever so slowly, the league’s warrior culture is eroding, dismantled by scientific research, individual financial security and an increasing awareness among players that continuing in the game they love may very well damage their quality of life.

Kuechly declared his intentions during the middle of a postseason teeming with upsets, tense games and memorable plays. But the most poignant moment of these playoffs might have come in an interview room, where, after losing at Green Bay on Sunday, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch launched into an unprompted soliloquy advising teammates to take care of their bodies, minds and finances.

The Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller runs the Retired Players Association, which tries to prepare players for life after the N.F.L. He said the current generation has learned from older players who have been vocal about their health problems.

“Players are definitely getting smarter,” Eller said on Tuesday. “They are gathering information to make some tough decisions. I don’t think we had some of that information.”

“For myself, it was all fuzzy ahead of me,” Eller added. “It was one step at a time. It was all hearsay. You were going blind into the dark. But today, there’s a lot more light at the end of the tunnel.”

Unlike Luck, who when he retired in late August acknowledged how wary he was of enduring more pain and rehabilitation, Kuechly did not mention any specific injuries, or the multiple concussions he sustained over his eight-year N.F.L. career. But he has spoken about struggling to recognize the difference between what he can tolerate and what he should.

The N.F.L. glorifies playing through pain, a doctrine propagated by fans, the news media, coaches and, especially, the players themselves, who have been incentivized by the zero-sum culture.

Players never feel as fresh as they do as when training camp begins, and then they spend the next five months — if they even last that long — pummeling their bodies. Those who play through a torn knee ligament (Philip Rivers) or a broken fibula (Jack Youngblood), or elect to have part of a broken finger amputated to avoid an extended post-surgery recovery (Ronnie Lott), are applauded for sacrificing, and ignoring, their well-being for the good of the team.

Just two weekends ago, Eagles quarterback Josh McCown played the second half of a loss to Seattle after tearing his hamstring off the bone. But McCown was playing only because the starter, Carson Wentz, removed himself from the game after absorbing a helmet-to-helmet hit, a real-time decision between his health and calcified notions about postseason glory.

Kuechly, who also had shoulder problems, missed seven games because of concussions between 2015 and 2017. In one frightening episode, during a game against New Orleans in November 2016, he was carted off the field, crying, his bewildered face a portrait of anguish.

Alex Boone, a former N.F.L. offensive lineman, thought about that scene after learning of Kuechly’s retirement on Tuesday night. Boone endured a dreadful concussion of his own in 2016, and likened the sensation to “hitting the reset button on your brain.” He cried, he said, for two days straight.

Crying excessively, as well as headaches, dizziness and vomiting, are some of the symptoms of a concussion.

“If you actually had to be like, ‘I can’t take this anymore,’ I can’t imagine how much worse they get,” Boone said. “This stupid game isn’t worth your kids watching you drool over yourself.”

Boone played for San Francisco in 2015, when two linebackers at opposite stages of their career — Patrick Willis and Chris Borland, a promising 24-year-old rookie — retired within a week of each other because of concerns about their safety. The news jolted the team, but Boone said teammates accepted it.

“It’s hard to get out of the league, because it’s addicting at times,” Boone said. “But if you knew your body couldn’t handle it, after working your whole life to get here, it’s admirable.”

An exquisite tackler, Kuechly approached the position of Ray Lewis and Dick Butkus with a modern sensibility, as stout against the pass as he was against the run. He was one of only four defensive players in the 2010s to make the All-Pro first team at least five times.

“There’s only one way to play this game, since I was a little kid, is to play fast and play physical and play strong,” Kuechly said in his video, which lasted more than three minutes. “And at this point, I don’t know if I’m able to do that anymore. And that’s the part that is most difficult. I still want to play, but I don’t think it’s the right decision.”

Chris Nowinski, the co-founder and chief executive of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, interpreted Kuechly’s comments to mean that he was thinking about his brain. He added later, in an email, that he thought concerns about C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head hits, played a role in some of the players’ decisions to retire at a relatively early age.

C.T.E. was diagnosed in 110 of the 111 brains examined by a neuropathologist, according to a study released in 2017. Researchers at Boston University  announced in a 2019 study that tackle football players doubled their risk of developing the worst forms of C.T.E. for each 5.3 years they played.

“With his history of concussions, one concern would be developing permanent symptoms,” Nowinski said of Kuechly on Tuesday. “If he’s feeling healthy, with the career he’s had, he probably feels comfortable walking away and avoiding the chance that he stays too long.”

As a player, Kuechly demoralized opponents with his anticipation skills. He could decipher plays at the line of scrimmage and then call them out to his teammates, as if he knew every possible outcome. And as he announced his retirement at age 28, it was as if Kuechly were smart enough to understand that if he continued playing, he would not like what the larger outcome would be.

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Ken Belson and Bill Pennington contributed reporting.

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[tomcruisefans]

The Shady Truth About Cris Carter

The Shady Truth About Cris Carter

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The Shady Truth About Cris Carter, Hollywood Celebrity Club.

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A Wrinkle In Time Latest Story Song Best Celebrity Gossip 2017 and Walt Hollywood Studios is an American film studio, one of the four major businesses of The Walt Hollywood Company and the main component of its Studio Entertainment segment.

Where is Walt Hollywood buried frozen?

On December 15, 1966, animation legend Walt Hollywood died from complications of lung cancer, for which he had undergone surgery just over a month earlier. A private funeral was held the next day, and on December 17, his body was cremated and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

How old was Walt Hollywood when he started Hollywood?

Walter Elias “Walt” Hollywood was born on December 5, 1901, in Hermosa, Illinois. He and his brother Roy co-founded Walt Hollywood Productions, which became one of the best-known motion-picture production companies in the world.

How did Walt Hollywood begin?

The Walt Hollywood Company started in 1923 in the rear of a small office occupied by Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles. It was there that Walt Hollywood, and his brother Roy, produced a series of short live-action/animated films collectively called the ALICE COMEDIES. The rent was a mere $10 a month.

NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter almost blew his career on a number of occasions. The gifted wide receiver made some pretty poor decisions during his early days in the game, and his sketchy behavior seems to have culminated in his being let go from Fox Sports. So what happened?

Chris Carter very nearly followed in his older brother’s footsteps and played basketball as a young man. Ultimately, however, he chose football and attended Ohio State where he made a big impact on the field during his first season in a Buckeyes jersey. His potential didn’t go unnoticed by sketchy agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom, who signed Carter to a contract before his senior season, breaking NCAA rules. Carter was ruled ineligible after news of secret payments from Walters and his associates came to light, and the Buckeyes suffered as a result.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, this was the beginning of the end for coach Earle Bruce. With his star player out of the picture, Bruce couldn’t deliver the results, and the respected coach was let go. Carter must have felt at least partially responsible, because he later apologized for what happened during his Hall of Fame enshrinement speech.

“Ohio State, first of all, to all the Buckeyes fans, from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely apologize for me signing with a sports agent and losing my eligibility my senior year. That is the only regret I have in my athletic career, is that I couldn’t play for the Buckeyes as a senior. Buckeyes fans, Cris Carter says ‘I’m sorry.'”

Watch the video for more about the shady side of Cris Carter!

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Sacking a coach | 0:17 Lying to a grand jury | 1:28 Addiction | 2:07 Rookie advice | 3:19 Dumping the Vikings | 4:24 Fired from Fox Sports | 5:04

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The Walt Hollywood Company’s resorts and diversified related holdings include Walt Hollywood Parks and Resorts, Hollywoodland Resort, Walt Hollywood World Resort, Tokyo Hollywood Resort, Hollywoodland Paris, Euro Hollywood S.C.A., Hong Kong Hollywoodland Resort, Shanghai Hollywood Resort, Hollywood Vacation Club, and Hollywood Cruise Line. Hollywood Celebrities Official Latest Story, The Shady Truth About Cris Carter.

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