tracker7 | Entries tagged with football

Good night at the party. Good talks, jokes, stories and of course so much food.

I skipped out on going to the Great Train Show over the weekend. As much fun as the party was, it does take a lot of energy, and I just didn't feel like being around so many people.

It's been a decent week. I've managed some reading and even a little more writing than I've been averaging in the last few months. I want to keep that going.

I want a lot of things, though.

Debating going out for Armada tonight. Again - social energy. Tomorrow is UofL's bowl game (the Wasabi Fenway Bowl, wtaf) and I'm planning to go somewhere and watch it. Which will mean ... people.

Disney+ offered a month for $2, so, what the heck, I reupped for a couple of months. First thing I watched was Thor: Love & Thunder. My expectations were pretty low, and I really didn't enjoy it all that much. Tessa Thompson was great, and I liked Natalie Portman; the narration was unnecessary and distracting, just the director inserting further into the movie. Liked the soundtrack.

Now I'm watching Ms. Marvel. I only watched the first episode back in the early summer. Found it okay, but it didn't hook me enough to keep the subscription going. Second episode is much the same. It's good work, I mean; I guess superhero fatigue has hit.

Over on AppleTV+, I'm enjoying the heck out of For All Mankind and Tehran.

The front door lock stuck last night. Housemate spent several minutes standing out on the porch turning his key over and over again, expecting a different result somehow. I dove into locksmith YouTube this morning, found something relevant, and I think I managed to repair the lock! Let's see how things look in a couple of days.

The Dodgers are 95-43 this morning, comfortably leading the NL West. Best record in the Majors. Feels pretty good, with the acknowledgment that the postseason is very much its own thing. It would sure be good to see 'em win another World Series for Vin Scully.

NFL's regular season starts this afternoon. Still on the Ravens wagon, and I think I can catch part of their game before bedtime this afternoon. One more thing to dislike about the job - can't watch Sunday games. Or Thursday night games.

The Rams won the Super Bowl, 23-20. Cincy's offensive line was porous, allowing at least nine sacks. The Bengals had a good chance at a late-game score; the Rams broke up a pass and took possession to run out the clock.

Wasn't impressed with the halftime show. Lots of talent and a nice-looking stage, but it just didn't work for me.

I may have set a high bar for entertainment with my pre-game viewing. Wasn't expecting a Willem Defoe noir/proto-cyberpunk double feature, but Streets of Fire and To Live and Die in L.A. delivered.

There was an assassination attempt in Louisville today. Single shooter, walked into Greg Greenberg's office and started firing. One shot grazed Greenberg and the shooter was arrested outside the office. Plenty of rumors - shooter is an unmedicated schizophrenic; antisemitic violence; right-wing crazy. Whichever, it's a bad thing, and another point in favor of finding somewhere else to live.

Dad's maybe coming up tomorrow. I'm not planning to do anything to celebrate my birthday, but if my father wants to come see me and for us to spend some time together, I'm not telling him no. It looks like a nice day, weatherwise, so we can find something to get up to.

My time in Casey was good. Some good talks with Dad, playing with Kaiser, broke in the Savage 93. I'm just going to have to learn to work it from my right shoulder, since cycling the action from my left cuts up my hand. Anyway - drove down to Lake Cumberland for a few hours while I was there. Came back Thursday afternoon.

Binged the entirety of Prime's Reacher yesterday and today. I've read a few of the novels - not including the first one, the source for this season - and liked them well enough. The series was enjoyable, good performances and action. Bruce McGill is always good, and he made a good villain here. I'm dropping Prime in a few weeks, so I don't know when I'll see the planned second season.

I will go back to Prime at some point, though. They're partnering with Scott Free Productions on a live-action Blade Runner series, and that's just catnip for me. Admittedly, Black Lotus was a disappointment, so I'll have to manage my expectations.

The Book of Boba Fett limped to its season finale. A few good bits throughout the run, but it was overall a disappointment. Bryce Dallas Howard's episode(s) was/were really good. Obi-Wan releases on May 25 - Orthodox Star Wars Day - and I'm hopeful for that one.

The Super Bowl is tomorrow night! When last I checked, the Rams were four-point favorites and the Bengals were far-and-away the fan-favorites. I'm pulling for Cincy, without qualification.

It's been a week.

I bought a varmint rifle. A Savage 93 in .17HMR, nice little bolt-action gun. Factory-installed scope, really smooth action. I was looking forward to going down to Mom&Dad's and breaking it in, but ...

I started getting sick late Friday night. Woke up very weak Saturday morning, you-know-what symptoms. Stayed in bed as much as possible. Same thing Sunday, after sleeping for about 15 hours.

The Bengals beat KC and are going to the Super Bowl for the first time in forever, playing against the LA Rams, at the Rams' home field. This has been the best wildest craziest NFL playoff season I've ever seen.

Anyway, still sick Monday. Scheduled a test, positive result this morning. Whee.

This was one of the best weekends of NFL games I've ever seen. Favorites beaten at home by last-minute field goals in three of the games - Bengals over Titans, 49ers over Packers, and Rams over Buccaneers. The Chiefs won at home, sudden-death overtime against the Bills. Close games, great play on all sides. I'm having some trouble believing that the Bengals are going into the conference championship game this coming weekend.

Played in an Armada tournament for the first time in forever. Went 0-2, had a heck of a good afternoon with some friends. I'm going to play a lot more Armada when I quit X-Wing, I think. It's far more taxing, and a whole other kind of fun, and so far, I haven't seen any sign of AMG making the kinds of changes that are driving me away from the other game.

I'm making some small daily progress in writing. Hitting the 300 words/day mark more often than not. Goodman liked my genius loci pitch. Still doing more with game stuff than fiction, but right now, writing is writing.

I've landed an interview with my home county's health department. Academically, I'm way the hell overqualified for the job, and that may disqualify me. Don't care. It's worth sitting for the interview. If I get it, it's a forward step.

I don't like The Book of Boba Fett nearly as much as I did The Mandalorian. Ming-na Wen is great, and a few little bits have made me happy, but it's just not measuring up.

This post may well wind up a discussion on what I've watched since renewing my Disney+ subscription.

I liked Black Widow a lot. Good action, a passing of the BW mantle, the Red Guardian's knuckle tattoos read "KARL MARX." Don't regret not seeing it in theaters. It's not the Black Widow I would have made, of course.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was just not at all the movie I expected. It far exceeded my expectations, continuing the MCU pattern of making genre films that wear superhero costumes. Gorgeous wuxia; Tony Leung as The Mandarin; great casting and characters. And Ben Kingsley! Give me more of this.

Eternals. Whew. What I saw of it was pretty, but I went to sleep about an hour into it. I don't feel any particular need to give it a rewatch and see what I missed.

WandaVision is smart as anything, imaginative and clever and heartbreaking. Paul Bettany is a treasure, as is Elizabeth Olsen.

I'm an episode into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Captain America: TWS is my favorite MCU movie, and I love Anthony Mackie's Falcon, so I'm trying to keep my expectations under control. So far, so good, so let's see how this goes.

NFL playoffs started day before yesterday. The Bengals held off the Raiders and Buffalo wallopped New England. Tampa Bay beat Philadelphia and I am just done watching Tom Brady do his thing. The Cowboys blew their game against the 49ers. Best game was far and away the evening game. Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes ran all over the Steelers.

Christmas Day was really nice. Lots to eat, presents, football. Stayed up late reading, slept late-ish Sunday morning, went to the grocery while Dad was at church. Bought snacks for more football in the afternoon. Good games - Cincy beat the Ravens, Kansas City worked the Steelers over, and the Cowboys beat Washington like the proverbial rented mule. Buffalo beat New England, and any weekend that sees both the Patriots and Steelers lose is a good one.

Came back to Louisville this morning. I was ready to get home, but I did not want to make the drive, no matter which route I chose. Saw a couple of UP units at the Walnut Street overpass, but didn't get the pictures I wanted. Decided to route through Clermont instead of taking Bardstown Road into Louisville, then dove off of I-65 onto Eastern Parkway and went south on Bardstown to get home. And now I'm home, watching The Witcher, doing laundry.

Dad gave me a rifle, a very nice game rifle. Barely used. Maybe never fired. It's in a medium- to big-game caliber, and holy cow is the ammunition pricey. In the range of a buck-eighty a round. That is a steep price to pay to get proficient, and given my eye/hand coordination problems, I'm looking at buying a similar rifle in a much more affordable caliber for practice.

It's a Tuesday evening, and due to COVID protocols, there are two NFL games being played tonight. Washington's up on Philadelphia right now, and I'd much rather be watching Rams-Seahawks. This game probably has stronger playoff weight, but two 6-7 teams are not making for the most exciting football.

So far, there's been no blowback from the sale of the Logan County property. The two people I cared most about are happy with Dad's decision. The others, whatever.

We're coming up on far-and-away Mom's favorite holiday, and I've felt both her loss and presence in the last couple of days. I walked out to the Mariner this morning, and there were a half-dozen cardinals in the yard and the trees. The last two gifts I gave her had cardinal designs, and of course I'm a Louisville Cardinal. Friday and Saturday are going to be tough. I expect a lot of tears, and a lot of smiles and good memories, too.

Super Bowl 55 was a dud. KC's offensive line was porous, and Tom Fucking Brady is Tom Fucking Brady, no matter what uniform he's wearing. I started fading around the end of the second quarter, played Gran Turismo during halftime, and called it quits a few minutes into the fourth. I had planned on watching the premiere of the Equalizer reboot, but I couldn't stay awake.

Monday was the first session of our Deadlands game, and I had a good time and right now I could happily not be a GM again for about a year or so. I'm reading Coriolis in prep for a proposed game, and there have been a few PDF purchases here and there for reading and out of curiosity. I have a feeling though, that my fading interest in the hobby is a long-term thing.

Woke up to an impending winter storm yesterday morning. It started hitting about an hour before I headed home from work - the obligatory snow and sleet and freezing rain mix. Got home okay, taking it slow, and settled in. About 8:30, power went out on one side of the house. Went out to check the breaker box, and one was thrown and would not reset. 40 minutes later, the rest of the house went dark. The furnace had gotten things warm enough that I decided to just throw another blanket on the bed and sleep at home. Woke up, thanked whatever was listening that the water heater is a gas-burner and took a hot shower before going in early and napping on a very comfy couch before clocking in. LG&E got things back online this evening - one of the mess of branches I had put off trimming had gotten enough ice on it that it pulled a power line away from a connection. Got home tonight, and the living room lights shining through the front windows were as beautiful as any cathedral's stained-glass illumination. Plugged things back in, cranked up the furnace, and now I am finished writing this and it's just about time to get back under those blankets.

On the other hand, the Mariner's electrical gremlins are back, and I don't want to talk about those.

My players are still showing up and having a good time, so that's something. I'm enjoying the story unfolding, so there's that, too. I'm still ready for this to wrap up, though.

The Buccaneers beat the Packers and the Chiefs beat the Bills, so we've got the first Super Bowl where a team will be playing on its home field. I've got nothing against the Bucs, and they're a strong candidate for my NFC team of choice, but I'm an AFC guy and Andy Reid is a heck of a coach, so, yeah, go Chiefs!

Last weekend, I tried something new - cooking a whole damn turkey. I've roasted legs and wings and had a prepacked breast for my own little Thanksgiving dinner, but never a whole bird. Meijer had (and still does) leftover frozen store-brand turkeys for next to nothing, so I wouldn't be out any real money if things went wrong, and if they went right, well, money well-spent. It was money well-spent. But so much food. So very much. A couple days to thaw, a half-day of prep and roasting, and a week of sandwiches and soups and chili. It was darn near overkill, but I expect I'll do it again.

Got our first real snowfall last night. About two inches in my part of town, with a little bit of freezing rain on top. No problems with the morning commute, and a solid day of very pretty views.

More arrests, investigations, and fallout. A lot of the insurrectionists are looking at real charges and hopefully real consequences.

Good minis gaming Friday evening. Alan's M&M game wrapped up Saturday afternoon - fun, but anticlimactic. No Fading Suns tonight, and I'm finding it hard to care right now. My GM burnout is coming in faster cycles now, and I can see myself writing off the hobby for a while.

Lamar Jackson suffered a concussion during the game against Buffalo Saturday; Buffalo beat the Ravens. A Bills fan club has, as of about an hour ago, donated almost $300K to Jackson's charity of choice. I'm starting to think that I should see if there's room on that bandwagon.

Gods, I hope not. I lean more towards Brak's take.

It's been a good week. I've been in the best sustained mood in quite a while, just straight-up happy for a few days. I can't (and won't try to) put my fingers on anything in particular; I'm just going to enjoy things and ride them for as long as this lasts.

I mean, right now, I am just ... happy. There's a decent NFL game on, both teams are bad, but they're playing hard and it's entertaining. There was going to be an evening game, but COVID hit one of the teams hard, so instead NBC is broadcasting the National Dog Show and I am going to watch the hell out of that because dogs are just great. I have a boneless turkey breast in the oven, and will mash some potatoes and steam some peas in a bit. Right now, this is just a happy evening.

Cyberpunk Red hasn't made it to my FLGS of choice yet, so I'm going to pull it from the running for my next game. I'm a tiny bit frustrated with said FLGS over the ordering and prepayment process, but it's so minor and it's the firstest of First World problems. All will be well.

Sweet Christmas, I have no idea who performed the pre-recorded halftime show for this game, but man, they were just aggressively mediocre. [Edit: someone named Kane Brown. Gods, I hate bro-country.]

Tomorrow looks pretty good. I think there is some wargaming in the offing, and that would be a fine way to spend a few hours in the evening. If not, no big deal - I'll have the Mariner loaded up later tonight and I'll just launch for Liberty as soon as the workday's over. Already have the PS4 broken down and boxed for the trip, and I'll have my duffel and laptop bags packed in the morning.

I haven't looked at much of anything baseball-related in this abortion of a season. I'm on-board with one of the new rules - putting a runner on second in extra innings - and not so much with the designated hitter. But I just can't get excited for things this time around.

The NFL started its season tonight - limited attendance in the stadium, precautions for on-field personnel. My interest in football is waning, but I'm interested in how things shake out this year. I expect COVID outbreaks over the course of the season; the responses should prove interesting.

Kentucky's now seen its 1000th death due to COVID-19. It's getting worse. There's so much ignorance and selfishness, and it's costing lives and health.

Tumblr announced today that effective December 17, all adult/NSFW/porny content will be removed from the service, and you can start making your jokes here. I figure this will be the effective end of the platform, but I hope I'm wrong because there is some super adorable stuff on EverythingFox and don't you begin to judge me for my appreciation of them.

UofL looks to have hired its new football coach - Scott Satterfield, from Appalachian State. If true, I think it's a very good choice - under Satterfield, Appy's developed a real reputation as a giant-killer (they beat Michigan at Michigan a couple of seasons ago), and Satterfield loves high-scoring and fast-moving offenses. Official announcement comes tomorrow afternoon.

SpaceX launched 64 mini-satellites this afternoon. Third launch for the booster, and a perfect landing. Another launch tomorrow, this one an ISS resupply shot. Further from home, OSIRIS-Rex went into orbit around an asteroid; this is a planned sample-return mission.

Amazon Prime's coverage of Thursday night NFL games offers four audio tracks. There's Joe Buck and whoever has to put up with him, and two rather good women from ESPN, and Spanish-language coverage, and the UK English feed. The latter is a joy to listen to. They know the game, play off of each other well, and sound like they're having fun. Beats the hell out of hearing "with the hall of famer" every three minutes.

So, hey, we got some weather. Winter storm came in late last evening, ramping up after midnight. Ice and freezing rain. Limbs down in yards up and down my street, and a tree down on the street behind us. Power stayed on here, but outages were all over the city - 95-105K customers this morning. Snow started around 4PM.

UofL fired Petrino this afternoon. At first blush, I thought this was a bad idea, but it's the right choice, if expensive. The team's 2-8, no conference wins, and has given up over 50 points in five of the losses. Recruits were decommitting right and left, poor morale among existing players. So, they pulled the trigger. I figure Jeff Brohm will be offered the position.

So, two more games, and this mess of a season is over. Rebuilding, again.

If you have a couple million bucks sitting around doing nothing, you can bid on a whole college campus. St. Catharine shut down a couple of years ago after a drop in student enrollment led to big cuts in financial aid availability for the school. I drive past the campus on most trips to or from my parents' home.

A few months ago, there was a plan in place for purchase of the campus, but I guess that fell through. They potential purchaser was, I think a for-profit college, and they're under real scrutiny lately. I'd like to see the state's community and technical college system snap it up, or maybe a couple of the public universities pool resources. It's in a good location, and its classroom building is less than 15 years old. Good place for a nursing or allied health program to set up - the new classroom building was actually designed for it.

The next-to-last Thursday night X-Wing league session was tonight. I had a heck of a good showing in my first game and managed not to bring shame upon my ancestors in the second, and, hey, I won the night's raffle! Picked up a Fang Fighter for my small Scum & Villainy collection, further validating my decision to pick up a S&V conversion kit a few weeks ago. I've had a good time with this league, and haven't missed playing in the Friday night counterpart. I'm debating going to a tournament on Saturday; its format allows me to run my current pretty capable triple X-Wing squadron.

Came home from playing with little plastic spaceships and tuned in to some seriously terrible football. The 49ers tore the Raiders to ribbons, 34-3. Oakland looked utterly inept, their head coach and defensive coordinator had words right there on the sideline, and the 49ers just did as they pleased. The Raiders used to be my team - there are Los Angeles Raiders items in my possession even now - and I had hopes that with the death of Al Davis (no relation) and the rehiring of Jon Gruden as head coach that the team would get back to being watchable, but it looks like that is not going to happen. They're winning the race for April, I guess, but that's cold comfort.

Also playing really bad football, the UofL Cardinals. Rumblings of replacing the coach, of course. Probably (hopefully) won't happen.

The ice clogging the drain line let go on Wednesday, after I disassembled the pipes from the sink and left the lines exposed to less-cold air for a day. Put things back together, filled both basins with hot water, pulled the plugs, and waited. Drained completely after a few minutes. I tried - with some fear - the dishwasher, and it drained without any backup into the sink, so I'm calling this a win, a mess averted. Still cold, though.

Friday night, first games of the new X-Wing league season. I went 1-2, probably would have gone 2-1 had I not flown an undamaged E-Wing off the board midway through my last match. All in good fun, and I got to fly a couple of S&V lists and step outside my normal play boundaries. Still cold.

Saturday, Clayton was in town, so we got together and played Armada and otherwise goofed around in manly nerdy ways. Still cold.

Sunday, holy cow, we got above freeing for the first time since Christmas Day. Chilly, but not cold, and going outside without exposed skin immediately starting to hurt was quite nice. I took the cookie tin to a Coinstar kiosk and came back with enough folding money to acquire an elegant solution in search of a problem - a 42mm Series One Apple Watch. I'm a sucker for watches, and I think this thing is going to be fun.

SpaceX launched some very secretive government payload Sunday night. The first stage flyback was flawless, and while I know there is some serious engineering involved, but they are making this look routine. The next big step is a Falcon Heavy test before the end of the month, with the two Falcon 9 boosters flying back to KSC and the core first stage landing on one of the barges.

I guess I'm an Oakland Raiders fan again. They hired - well, rehired - Jon Gruden as head coach. The organization still has a raft of problems, but Gruden's a very good coach; he'll hire good assistants and related staff and hopefully be able to get better players than Del Rio was able to land. Still, somewhat conflicted about watching the NFL and big-time NCAA football, but for now, I'm not going to be too troubled.

Gran Turismo Sport is spectacular. Like its predecessors, it's challenging, sometimes unforgiving. Arcade mode is very good for practice runs, and provides its own rewards - credits, experience, and mileage towards the daily goal. Several new manufacturers, and the loss of a few. There are fewer models available for purchase, but this seems balanced out by the game's generosity with gift cars. Between my starter, the eight cars from the Limited Edition pack, and some prize cars, my garage is pretty well-stocked already.

I bought some train stuff with some of the unexpected Christmas cash, including a really sharp NS GP60. I may be turning into a bad model railroader - I took a look at the collection, and thought, well, I've got enough locomotives.

Got in an abbreviated Star Wars session Friday night. Looks like the PCs are on their way to Hutt Space to continue their investigation into the cloning operation. Our Wookiee surgeon is going to get some additional screen time, too.

Helped a buddy with some of his last moving-out yesterday morning, and, well, I didn't expect it to have been leg day. My calves are more than a little sore this morning. DV's on his way to Orlando this morning, and hopefully to better days.

The Niece and had plans for dinner last night, but had to cancel/reschedule. Medication is making her sick, and she didn't want to risk not being able to enjoy a visit to Impellizeri's.

Cardinal football lost against Mississippi State in the no-longer-the-Gator-it's-the-Taxslayer Bowl yesterday. Pretty close game. M-State has my lasting ire, thanks to their cowbells and that godawful racket. This was probably Lamar Jackson's final game in a Louisville uniform, and while I would love to have seen him go out with another bowl win, he's certainly got plenty to be proud of.

My indifference to New Year's Eve is holding together this time around. Plans for the evening involve the PS4 and not much else. Gonna drive some cars and kill some aliens, and maybe watch Strange Days.

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Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

The Tears of a Clown

Crushed

And For Where I Just Don't Know

Moonlight

Buckets of Baggage

One of These Mornings

New World Order

Bottled Appetites

Cool World

Lady Parts

Arise

People of Earth

Do You Wanna Touch Me

The One Thing

Driven to Tears

Lust for Life

Mad World

Cat People

House of the Rising Sun

Cool Breeze of Brighton

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