Contentious C

I'm not exactly a Bulls fan or anything, or for that matter a fan of his family, but damn were they not a different team for a while there with him on the floor. It really sucks that things are turning out this way for him.

Hey now, losing a leg in a freak accident doesn't count as weight loss!

I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, the actual moment to moment, nuts-and-bolts part of what was there was...well, decent. Not really better or worse than what they've done lately; on par with the Black Panther or Dr. Strange sequels if anything. But they still haven't done a genuinely better-than-good movie since 2018. I think for bigger-picture stuff, though, I'm not sure how they could have done this any better than they did. The set-up and forward-looking stuff is excellent. Jonathan Majors is going to be better than Josh Brolin was, I think. And a lot of the ethical and social subtext in the film is really good, maybe the single most compelling Marvel movie in that sense besides Black Panther. It's got a lot to say about capitalism and imperialism and longtermism and doesn't pull its punches. Of course, it's still The Fucking Mouse that released this - a vastly wealthy company that makes absolutely, positively *nothing* that anyone, anywhere needs - and they're very much on the "Kang" side of those issues, so...grain of salt, I suppose.

I suppose this is as good at time as any to head back to a theater and get a gauge on whether or not I'm actually feeling better, so I just picked up a ticket for Monday; if I can make it through a 2-hour movie without any awfulness, I'm probably on the way to recovery. Last few days and weeks have been substantially improved.

That's kinda funny, but, uh, you were still using that to ask for *Scott Keith books*.

For me lately, the get-good has been pizza. Another YouTuber I can highly recommend - especially if you like videos that are straight to the point, accessible regardless of your cooking level, and full of red meat recipes (which I can't eat anymore, but alas) - is Brian Lagerstrom. He also has a good-sized pile of pizza videos, and I made my own dough for a Super Bowl pizza and I'm doing it again tomorrow (the dough is in the fridge fermenting right now!). The first dough was super bready but it crisped up really well and was quite Pizza Hut in nature, which of course was 100% the intent of making a pan pizza with my cast-iron skillet. I bought a Trader Joe's dough ball to make one on Wednesday as well, and while it turned out pretty well, I realized their dough needs a LONG time to proof before it's really usable - like 90 minutes or so in the pan to get it back to room temperature and let it rise, otherwise it doesn't actually fit a 12" pan like the packaging claims.

Raquel Welch. Ooof. The world just got a lot less sexy.

The insults started by being interviewed on TV by Terry Bradshaw, if we're being completely honest.

Well, at least we won't see anything to end this that's as stupid as that Dallas play. Has a losing-team player won SB MVP before? Because Hurts might be as close as it gets.

Man, this would be a dull game if it weren't for Philly unforced errors.

I think that Farmer's Dog commercial that just played might be my leader although it's straight-up emotional blackmail.

Whooo, what a catch. Possibly. Ice, ice cold take.

And then that happens.

I'm just surprised Michelob or whoever owns them went to the trouble of spending SB money on a commercial that's been out for weeks.

That's The Joke

Well I don't know how you get better than the last one, "The Last Crusade" is just a perfect title.

And speaking of commercials about circulation, these LegXercise commercials are fucking killing me. "Have you had pain? Swelling? Stiffness? Trouble bending? Numbness? Chills? Have you had legs at any point in your life at all as we describe everything that could possibly afflict you?? Try this!" Aghghghadfevemvoenfgeihf

It turns out load screens are a major barrier to fun. Since installing my M.2 drive and moving all my Steam games onto it, I hadn't messed around with it much until deciding to fire up Skyrim again (because I am basic AF). I'm only level 8 but well into my typical meta-game strategy: Skip Helgen with a save file because it's boring - CHECK! Skip Bleak Falls Barrow altogether because frankly the game is nicer and more leisurely without dragons and the Main Quest - CHECK! Carriage ride around to Riften & Winterhold for future reference and join the College for cheap spells - CHECK! Venture north of Riften along the road to Windhelm to gather Creep Cluster, Jazbay & the occasional Scaly Pholiota - CHECK! Carriage ride to Markarth to save Margret from Weylin's assassination and also saunter out to the Lover Stone (aka the only Sign worth taking) - CHECK! Cozy up to that a-hole Siddgeir and get Falkreath favors going - CHECK! Buy Lakeview Manor and spend myself into a hole so I can plant 13 Mora Tapinella, 8 Creeps & 8 Scaly for the absurd potions they make - CHECK! From here it's: Exploit Alchemy & Speech for a while (combat is for suckers) Hunt for a Banish-enchanted weapon to disenchant and level my own Enchant skill Hunt dwarven metal for bows & easy Smithing Eventually sneak into Fort Amol for the very early copy of Bound Bow Eventually eventually set up 100% free magic with the Fortify Restoration glitch Eventually eventually eventually get very bored with being able to crush everyone and everything But hopefully that boredom step comes a good bit later since my load screens are either non-existent or about 3 seconds.

Yeah, I've thought about that, but the plugs are actually pretty easy to get to on my TV, and I have enough dumb bullshit plugged in over there that I don't want to add more. It's not really any harder for me to be the very analog style HDMI Switcher. Or, I could just continue not using my Switch!

My issue now is I'm almost - almost! - tempted to start using my Switch as a handheld because I only have 3 HDMI ports on my TV, and those seem like they'll be permanently tied up with PS5/PC/XBone. The latter is the only one likely to get bumped, since technically I can stream movies off my PC, even if I don't like the interface for Prime or Netflix (or really anything else through a browser). But, rather than try the Joy Cons and discover if I can tolerate the handheld Switch, I just...don't play it at all. Doesn't help either that I sold off all my non-Zelda games (because I hated Metroid Dread and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 was a pile of shit).

After about the same amount of time, I've never undocked mine except to show someone that you can undock it.

I just watched Ben Simmons attack the basket and try to score on two consecutive possessions. I think I just had a stroke. Also, Andre Drummond really needs to push himself away from the deep-dish pizzas and Italian beefs. Yeeeeeesh.

There have been a few guys who've come on the last year or so who were 2nd-rounders, too: Nick Claxton, Bol Bol, Terance Mann, and then Jalen Brunson has probably been the best of them. Brogdon was a 2nd-round guy and won ROY. You may not get the unicorns, but you can sure as Hell land key role players, and depth is usually the difference between the star-studded team that wins and the team that doesn't. An interesting way to look at it is to go to basketball-reference, pull up a given draft, and then sort by Win Shares. You get some crazy stuff like Dwight Powell being the 4th-best pick from the same draft as Jokic (but Jokic has more than 2x the WS).

Well, and these things are weird and stochastic and the gap between "best" and "next" is so small. People forget the Nets were a toe away from having a good shot at making the Finals, or at least keeping the Bucks from doing it. People also forget that, if 5 or 6 plays go differently across Games 4 & 5 of the 2021 Finals, we're talking about Devin Booker as a Finals MVP with 2 40-point closeout performances to ice the Bucks, and maybe their drive to get Title # 2 doesn't lead them to these lengths. Or maybe that toe is behind the 3-point line, the Nets make it to that Finals against the Suns, and this trade doesn't happen because Phoenix refuses to trade for the guy who beat them in the 2021 Finals! It's all madness!

If you have overly playful/annoying cats, hanging it under is actually correct, since it's WAAAAAAAY easier to roll back up that way. Or Hell, if you have wet hands for one reason or another. Actually, what the fuck am I defending this for? I hang it under. It works. Fuck all the way off.