#i really dislike michigan government so far | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nvzblgrrl · 4 years

Text

On the subject of old fics 1

Allegedly, A Gentleman’s Tale (published 1-6-2012) was my first fanfic ever (again, allegedly - will explain after a bit). It only exists now as a private copy at least one person has saved and a capture on the WayBackMachine (which thankfully covered the whole ten chapters of it), because I have a habit of... deleting stories that embarrass me after the fact. It’s something I’m trying to break myself of, mostly because there are a number of people who do enjoy my work even if most of what I see in it are the flaws and I would feel bad about taking away something they enjoyed.

The ‘allegedly’ part comes in in that, based on my memories of my One Piece OCs and stories (along with more concrete evidence from my tumblr), I had a few OCs with snippets of story (with one who had at least a few chapters worth of story that I have memorized in broad strokes) attached that preceded that by at least one or two years, even though the description of ‘my first fic’ was in the synopsis of the fic as it was posted. Unfortunately, it’s hard to trace that information thanks to the ‘destroy all the evidence of me embarrassing myself’ habit (I completely deactivated my deviantart account on account of ‘cringe’, that’s how bad it got) and the passage of time making it unclear which mutuals might have been around at that time or if they even remember those things.

Now, I still have the computers that I typed up those stories on (they’re hanging out in my basement), but - they haven’t worked in quite a while. I’m not sure if they’re completely bricked or not, but I haven’t had anything to do with them for a while and I know that at least one of them was replaced because it refused to turn on anymore. Someday, I might get the chance to pull out their hard-drives and get a look at the data there, but that’s not a ‘now’ solution so...

Anyway - got a bit distracted there -, thanks to the power of the WayBackMachine, I was able to reread this specific fic in its entirety.

‘A Gentleman’s Tale’ was a little thing that was pretty much Brook backstory wrapped up in the framing device of Luffy wanting a story to help him get to sleep. I was 18, had maybe a year or two of creative writing experience/interest under my belt, and a whole lot of Soul King Stan energy to spend on my favorite character despite being at the tail end of my high school career.

Surprisingly, it was not entirely awful for an alleged ‘first attempt’. The formatting was a little eh, the pacing was borked, and a lot of characters were fairly flat (and a few leaned too hard on certain stereotypes while a lot had Western order names for some reason), but other than that, it was actually palatable. Ten chapters, about 8000 words, not a whole lot to write home about or find objectionable outside of the odd grammatical error and the fact that alcohol is mentioned in almost. every. single. chapter.

Seriously, I have no idea why that was a thing for me 2012-2013ish (it ended up in Witt and Witticism a little bit - more heavily on the rewrites that never took off back in the day but a little present in the original too). I was 18-19. I’d never had alcohol. I still haven’t had alcohol. I’d never really been around drinking at that age, socially or not, beyond like, enjoying brew fries and eating chicken tenders at a bar one time because my shit father wanted to have lunch there for some reason. I just guess that I woke up at the start of 2012 and thought Drink Mixing and Booze were interesting things.

The story wasn’t much to write home about, but the characters are the real area of interest here, so let’s cover them and a few of my plans for handling them in the rewrite.

Brook - Starts out his backstory being seasick, gets to have five decent minutes when he meets Yorki, and then is immediately shoved into the wall-to-wall shitshow that’s his life as the battle convoy captain and resident responsible adult, despite 70% of the convoy being at least ten to fifteen years older than him. Somehow that makes his interest in getting black out drunk almost every single night sound reasonable. Seriously, that’s what he was doing in that story, according to what happened almost every other chapter of the fic (because pacing is for writers on their third or fourth story). That’s one reason why the timeline is being stretched out in the rewrite plans - so we don’t kill the main character through alcohol poisoning (though with the kind of stress he was under in that original cut, I can’t blame him for trying - he got saddled with three weird + constantly fighting teenagers and a dying military organization, snubbed by the king, publicly embarrassed in front of 90% of the kingdom’s nobility, and so on in the course of two to three days max). Honestly, in retrospect, I’m not sure how well this plays with the framing device of Brook relating his backstory 62 years later, because he should have lost so many brain cells to this nonsense.

Yorki - Starts his introduction by saying ‘hey, my name’s Yorki, i’m close, bi, and willing to take you on a whirlwind adventure literally two seconds after meeting you’ which Brook immediately responds to as the best thing that’s happened to him in the last (and probably next) month. Probably the only person in Brook’s life as of the fic not stressing him out or enabling his self-destructive coping habits, though that doesn’t stop him from being one of the better things Brook woke up to after one of his blackout drinking nights. Also got an incredibly shitty nickname thanks to me not knowing how that sort of thing works from his mom. In the rewrite, he’s from Ohio (because I and my Middle-Ground lingering Self-Insert are from Michigan and the opportunity for a struggle between ‘hey we’ve both being isekai’d into this weird place and have similar backgrounds/music tastes so we’re going to hang together based on that’ and ‘200 year old inter-state hatred turned into over the top sports rivalry and disliking the other state on principle’ was too good to pass up).

Luchere Gregg (Gregg being her surname) - junior member of the battle convoy. Incredibly thorny and violent personality, with very little respect for authority (outside of her father, probably) and a generally superior attitude towards literally everyone except her father, especially when she perceived someone as being weak and ‘uppity’ at the same time - Maysure was the main target of this (as was intended at the time of the writing), but considering that Luchere was taking a similar tone with Brook (which was probably intended to be for different reasons, but honestly reads very similarly almost ten years on, given that Brook’s everything is very much not in line with her ideal anything) but not Hana (who was ‘weak’ but definitely not trying to mess with Luchere’s preferred social order), I think I can get more development out of her in that dimension. Her everything was probably was cool and badass back when I was 18, but now she just strikes me as petulant and unpleasant brat.

Minalee Hana - Generic smart guy of the junior team, complete with ‘shy’ personality and ‘harmless cute’ look... which, in retrospect, makes it really confusing why she’d join a military force in the first place and just raises suspicions on the fact that she did. Honestly she could be a Government plant and I wouldn’t be surprised. Another ‘problem’ with Hana is that she was based on someone I was friends with at the time I wrote the fic, which kinda ended up helping me dislike her a lot on more recent rereads, just because of the nature of that real world ‘friendship’ and the way it blew up in the end (with a whole lot of ugly reveals along the way that went back to pretty much when I first met that person).

Maysure Semenov Tara Su-all Evony Taebory Celeste - was originally a parody of the Mary Sue archetype, as you may have guessed from the name. Flashy, overeager, desperate for acknowledgement, and not quite managing to act in ways appropriate to her age (15, directly stated in text), either being too cutesy with her speech pattern and body language or dressing in ways that would be suited for a very different profession than soldier. I ended up liking her the most out of the junior trio out on my most recent rereads, just because she’s the only member of the group that’s actually making an effort at anything (well, beyond Luchere being hostile + trying to make Brook leave), doesn’t go out of her way to be hostile or destructive, and isn’t vaguely there in a way that makes me suspicious. Apparently was the only one of the junior trio ever stated to have weapons training (with Luchere being an unarmed fighter and Hana... just being there) and was apparently dedicated enough to it to have the schedule for the different training drills memorized.

Captain Gregg - the former captain of the battle convoy. He was never seen, only ever referenced in the fic. Based on the content, he was pretty much Luchere 1.0 - crass, unpleasant, violent, and without a lot of tolerance for those that couldn’t deal with or keep up with the unfortunate matter of his everything. The notes on rewrite so far have him becoming a lot more pleasant and lot less generally awful person, though still a bit of a roughneck and unpleasant to be around if you aren’t cut from the same cloth or a similar weave. Was not inspired by Captain Clegg until I started imbibing pop culture in preparation for the various parts of the project.

Jeevenine - quartermaster of the battle convoy, bartender, and carrier of heavy butler vibes, which feels like it might have been intentional. Said to be a master of ‘improvisation combat’ but honestly seems to be the person most likely to have taught Brook his style of fencing (based on his speed and precision being noted as something Brook had difficulty keeping up with in text) and his gentlemanly ways, considering every other character I wrote into the convoy is some flavor of hot mess and either a bruiser or a gunman. Still loses points for enabling Brook’s blackout drinking habits and being passive-aggressive instead of properly helpful.

Jack Rackum and John Delacroix - sniper-spotter pair, as indicated by their nicknames of ‘Windward’ and ‘Leeward’ respectively. Highly implied to be in a long-standing romantic relationship with each other or at least in a long-term holding pattern of pining. Delacroix’s tendency to sleep in the nude is used as half of a ‘my eyes’ joke that Brook is the victim of (the other half is Maysure’s chosen nightclothes being both stereotypical of a ‘Mary Sue’ and vastly age inappropriate, which is a running gag with her). Rackum gets the most description out of the set, with his brown leather hat and green-grey hair being mentioned, along with his taste for fruity cocktails (he might also be an alcoholic, which isn’t really all that remarkable in this fic).

Kurotora Ren - Big Guy McHugeBeef. Also the guy responsible for keeping the battle convoy awash in homebrew booze. Almost kills Brook by accident during his introduction by clapping him on the back at the exact wrong moment. Doesn’t have a lot more detail than that, mostly because he slides into the background after that brief focus moment, but I like him for being genuinely sorry about the near-death thing on top of being friendly for real and not being duplicitous about his wants + thoughts.

Zest - noble. Stupid. Probably the closest thing that Brook has to a friend in his actual age range at the start of the story, which is really fucking sad considering Zest’s everything and the fact that Brook doesn’t enjoy his company at all. Somehow when I was 18, the idea of a guy who spent most of his time in some state of wasted and trying to get his ‘friend’ (who doesn’t even like him that much but seems to tolerate him more than literally everyone else Zest ever interacted with who wasn’t being paid) into a similar condition because of unrequited love or something was tragi-cute-slash-funny instead of pathetic and faintly disturbing (though I guess I might end up writing him as tragic again anyway just because it probably takes Some Shit to make a person like that). Spent 90% of his screen time in the old story making Brook’s life inconvenient and the remaining 10% fully aware that his own life is going nowhere. His personality is oddly similar to Maysure’s, which is... interesting, implications-wise. Holy Shit, is this guy going to be a trip to work with as an adult.

#the big fat one piece fic project #talking about old fic #a gentleman's tale #my writing #if you have any questions about this or other fic i've done feel free to fire away

1 note · View note

thoughtfulpaperback · 5 years

Text

Spoilers !!!! Stayed up so I could watch Charmed 02x01!!!! Spoilers

Non spoilers stuff first.

My reaction to pretty much the whole episode

Y'all!!!!!! Both good and bad! I was just super excited and glad for it to be back. And so shaken by all the changes and the mysteries!So in general I would give this episode 8/10. Only because I save my 9 and 10. But back to my normal format of these things. I'll start with 3 things I liked and 3 that I didnt although, I'd say it is less dislike and more on the fence.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

1. Hacy moments

For real's though, Macy's internal Harry has my theorizing mind going off and I loved all the double meanings in thier interactions (macy and real harry too) I mean the" I am not leaving you" was nice, but Delirious-Macy-mind-Harry saying "i am different do you like it?" And Macy being all like "yes".

I mean okay various meanings here

1. Obviously it isn't really Harry so of course mind harry is different

2. Macy's perspection of Harry is changing (level of attraction to Harry is growing)

3.But --I am putting on my theorizing cap on--I feel like since the poison hit Macy but had her trying to go home then 1) mind Harry (maybe possibly evil twin Harry hmmm..) may be trying to seduce Macy to the dark side or to fully embrace her demon side since he keeps telling her to come home or 2) mind Harry is death since she was poisoned and her attempts at following the voice almost got her run over by a car. So coming home is like death saying come back since you were technically dead.

Maybe evil twin Harry, mind harry, or Death as Mind Harry has only taken Harry's form because it is the best way to get to Macy, meaning the internal attraction is already strong). So it is also an ominous "I am different" in that realm.

Who knows? I love the mystery though!

And of course while the poison siphoning scene and the "macy please" is going to drive all us Hacy fans crazy for a bit. My favorite bit of dialogue is actually the last bit before they enter the house. When Macy tells harry there is nothing here and Harry all sexy over the shoulder looks at her and says " are you sure?" . . .

DOUBLE MEANING!!!! At least I took it both as the house, but also at thier relationship. Anyways moving on.....

2. Mel! Mel is queen. I am just gonna say that one of the things I didn't appreciate about the OG was that all the ladies (including super witch Prue) complained about thier jobs and wanted to have some normalcy. And listen I sympathized when it came to thier romantic lives (although most of it was thier own faults), sometimes it was just like "you are literally saving peoples lives, I get needing some me time but can you not act so flippantly over literal life or death of another person". So I really appreciated that Mel was ready to step up and was already acting as a leader. I know people like to compare her to Prue and for sure she shares some qualities, but Mel really is her own creature and has more openly embraced witchcraft and not complained about it (so far) unlike all the OG ladies and her sisters.

3. No powers. Okay? One of the primary issues in season 1 was that the girls were kinda over powered. I felt it was mostly Macy, but arguably Mel and Maggie as well. So now as they have to work to get them back and possibly discover new types of magic or avenues for magic, I think there is room for growth and character development as well as world building that wasnt there before. At first I was like, oh heck no! And no fair Macy is the only one powered! and obviously with either her demon side and/or evil twin Harry trying to get at her (sisters as well) she is going to have another big storyline. I just hope (and I feel confident in hoping this time) that these storylines will connect meaningfully and not just last minute. It feels like they are on a new tract and I am digging it so far

Now on to my on the fence list . . .

1) Witchness Protection. I dont mind the premise actually and think it is really clever. I just dont know how I feel about leaving Hilltown. While Hilltown wasnt really developed much the university was nice and I am sad that Lucy wont be a part of the story anymore given that Maggie cant go back and they basically are super far from home if michigan was 5 hours away. At least they get to keep the house and I assume Harry gets to live there now, unless he move into the base.

2) the Seattle setting. I think that it very much harkens to OG (which was set in san. Fran.). So I was just on the fence on how it was obviously cutting more ties to the OG and yet incorporating others. I think the san fran setting worked because since it is a real place that most people can imagine without ever visiting you can have broad shots do relatively little work trying to establish the setting. Not that it is easy, but creating fictional towns requires more work to be good. You have to establish the towns character the residents and general layout or else it might as well be any town. So in some ways the seattle base and constant travel will be easier than developing a town which will leave some more time to character and lore building. I will probably end up liking it but just on the fence while watching.

3. Evil Assassin's orbing. So I dont know if anyone noticed but it seemed to be a combination of Harry's new orbing effect and the old Dark Lighters smokey effect (arguably parker's shadow demon effect) The center was the orangy (from my screen) orb effect that Harry had (I like it better than the swirling in and out of last season). So obviously leaves lots of questions, and I an looking forward to that, but on the fence because of . . . Reasons. I'll just tell you. While I like the new orb effect better than probably the OG and the first season of the reboot, changing the effects always kind of takes me a moment to get used to. And now that the evil assassin has it's own type of orbing it is just more orbing effects and my brain is gonna take a moment to catch up.

How did y'all feel about it though? My fellow Hacy fans did I miss something? Please let me know what yall took away from it!

New to my reviewish lists (appreciation bullets). Things that I appreciated even though they are either small or not elaborated fully.

Harry still likes a good party! Nice to see Harry while getting more serious slice of the pie than the first half of the season is still funny. And I liked that he liked parties

Demon/witch war. So I mean I listed all the wars a war was the most realistic and natural course in previous posts and I cant believe I missed the one they seem to be going with. Elders offered protection as a government with them gone and whitelighters gone (arguably the hands and feet of the elders) witches are vulnerable to attacks. I new they would be and that demons would attack as the government fell but I was mostly thinking organization wise. I didnt think about the obvious omg witches didnt just lose a governing body they lost the built in protection that body provided which again should have been a DUH! Thing to realize but I miss it.

So the start of a rivalmance between Maggie and Jordan....definitely different from Parker if that is the direction they are heading. I am a sucker for a rivalmance

Love Triangle between dark Harry, Macy, and Harry. . .I didnt know I needed it until now

Wizard of oz reference. Nuff said.

#hacy #charmed 2018 spoilers #cw charmed #charmed remake #charmed reboot #charmed cw #charmed 2018 #mel vera #maggie vera #macy x harry #harry x macy #macy vaughn #harry greenwood

8 notes · View notes

racingtoaredlight · 5 years

Text

The degenerate’s guide to college football TV watch ‘em ups, 2019 season, week 6

Not sure if anybody has reminded you lately but there is only one OCTOBER!!! And we’re in it. October is breast cancer awareness month and one of only four annual truck months. The first football weekend of October features three top 25 matchups, which isn’t terrible, but two of them are B1G conference games. And they each feature a team from the state of Michigan who probably won’t be in the top 25 come tomorrow.

So now that I have you all pumped up for it, let’s get to the games! As per usual, the schedule is copied and pasted from FBSchedules and gambling info, where it’s provided, is from Vegas Insider. NOW ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!????!???? IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER!!!!

Saturday, October 5

Matchup Time (ET) TV/Mobile

TCU at Iowa State 12:00pm ESPN2

TCU is tough to figure out. So is Iowa State for that matter. But I think Gary Patterson got back on track last week and the Cyclones -3.5 looks bad to me so... load up the Cyclones, I guess.

14 Iowa at 19 Michigan 12:00pm FOX

The line is moving towards Iowa but it’s still Michigan -4. I think the sharps are on Iowa here but I don’t trust it. This looks like a horrible game for purposes of watching.

Kent State at 8 Wisconsin 12:00pm ESPNU

Wisconsin’s defense might be great but the Badgers still kept it close against Northwestern last week. That’s a big red flag for me but not so big that I think Kent State +35 is smart money. I hope Chryst runs it up like crazy.

Maryland at Rutgers 12:00pm BTN

It’s been a long couple of weeks since Maryland’s offense looked good. But I bet Rutgers can get them back in the swing of things. Terps and the over.

6 Oklahoma at Kansas 12:00pm ABC

The line has moved towards Kansas and I’ve got nothing. I love Les Miles and those plucky Jayhawks but come the fuck on. Oklahoma’s gunning for 80. Also, I love KU football for all the failure so I’m in the bag for either 95-0 Oklahoma or KU pulling one of the more monumental regular season upsets in memory.

21 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech 12:00pm FS1

TIRED: Bet the over. WIRED: Chuba Hubbard hits the over by himself.

Purdue at 12 Penn State 12:00pm ESPN

Rondale Moore won’t play but he’s not out for the year. Supposedly. He should be, though, right? No reason to chance it with one of the best players in the country on a garbage program like Purdue. Penn State is favored by 28 and, as much as I hate to say this, they’re wildly undervalued even though that’s up 11.5 from where the line opened. This is going to be an all out splatterfest.

Tulane at Army 12:00pm CBSSN

This game is a metaphor. The environment vs. the troops. The environment is favored.

USF at UConn 12:00pm CBSSports.com

As godawful as USF has been this year they’re still favored by 11 on the road in a conference game. UConn should consider dropping football.

Utah State at 5 LSU 12:00pm SECN

Jordan Love goes to Death Valley to face a bunch of future first round picks in the LSU secondary. That’s fun for scouting but LSU should destroy USU.

Boston College at Louisville 12:30pm RSN

No idea what to say here.

Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan 3:00pm ESPN+

We’re about to run through a bunch of MAC games.

Virginia Tech at Miami (FL) 3:30pm ESPN

But before we get to all that MAC first we have to deal with this MAC-level disaster. Miami has pretty much sucked so far this year but maybe they fixed everything in the week off. More likely, Justin Fuente will get off the hotseat for a week after winning on the road against a Miami team dressed up as pumpkins.

Western Michigan at Toledo 3:30pm ESPN+

O/u 74, 1.5-point line. These teams are interchangeable. Not just Toledo and Western Michigan - the entire MAC is a jumble of teams that are exactly the same and Buffalo. Buffalo sucks way differently than the rest of the MAC.

Ohio at Buffalo 3:30pm ESPN+

Buffalo sucks differently than the rest of the MAC but they still suck.

Marshall at Middle Tennessee 3:30pm Facebook

I want to love this game but it looks fucking horrible.

Arkansas State at Georgia State 3:30pm ESPN+

ESPN+ is definitely a government conspiracy. Real deep state channels over here. The other Arkansas is favored on the road in a matchup of two middling offenses and two of the worst defenses in the country. I’m tempted to say hit that over of 69.5 with the Red Wolves winning. I don’t know about that line, though.

11 Texas at West Virginia 3:30pm ABC

I am not enjoying Heisman hype for Texas’ QB but I don’t think WFV is the team to bring him back down to earth.

Illinois at Minnesota 3:30pm BTN

Minnesota may be the worst 4-0 team in the country but if they are you can put money on them being the worst 5-0 team in the country, too. I think Tanner Morgan is pretty good as far as B1G passers go and the “worst...” unbeaten team thing could very easily extend to the worst 8-0 team in the country.

Bowling Green at 9 Notre Dame 3:30pm NBC

I very strongly disliked Notre Dame for a long time before they bought their coach’s way out of a murder trial but the line for this game is laugh out loud shit and I’m fully on board with it. Domers by 46 with an o/u of 63 is a thing of beauty even if it glorifies pure evil.

Baylor at Kansas State 3:30pm ESPN2

Kansas State’s mimicry of a good team might be breaking down after getting run over by Chuba Hubbard & Co. last week but a win by Baylor could get the Bears into the top 25. I need the ghost of Taco Bill (yes, I’m aware) to rouse the Wildcats for a stomping of Baylor.

Ball State at NIU 3:30pm ESPN3

Do whatever you want with this.

7 Auburn at 10 Florida 3:30pm CBS

Fantastic uniform matchup featuring some almost great Florida throwbacks to Steve Spurrier’s Heisman season. I wish the stripes on the shoulders went all the way around. Otherwise they’re perfect.

Air Force at Navy 3:30pm CBSSN

I haven’t gotten a handle on Air Force this year but this is not a good Navy team. Maybe the Paul Johnson offense has finally run its course in Annapolis? Usually you can count on a senior QB to make the option hum for the Middies but they aren’t looking like anything special through three games in 2019. Here’s hoping they can find their rhythm as home dogs.

Memphis at ULM 3:45pm ESPNU

Kenny Gainwell came very close to making the RTARLsman list this week but he needs some bigger highlights to get back on there. ULM running back Josh Johnson’s production has gotten worse every week this year. Memphis is a pretty big road favorite and they should be bowl eligible by the time they dip back into conference games.

Troy at Missouri 4:00pm SECN

Kelly Bryant has been OK so far as Missouri’s QB. Which is fine, that’s what Kelly Bryant is: an OK QB. But if he can get more confidence in Derek Dooley’s system he could get a real shot at an NFL roster next year. Games like this one are the best way to build confidence.

North Carolina at Georgia Tech 4:00pm ACCN

UNC has looked well-coached but talent-deficient so far this year while Georgia Tech has looked untalented and undisciplined. Here in the ACC that means this game is a tossup.

Northwestern at Nebraska 4:00pm FOX

I’d like to think Nebraska can never climb out of their 15 years-long rut but maybe Scott Frost is the real deal. If he is then this game should be a walkover for the Huskers. Look for a close game that hinges on some comically bad execution.

Arizona at Colorado 4:30pm Pac-12N

Khalil Tate and Laviska Shenault are still cool. That brings a tear to my eye.

WKU at Old Dominion 6:00pm ESPN+

This is the kind of football we live for in these posts. All gambling, no sentimentality, weird uniforms, and a matchup that would look great in the March Madness First Four. But it’s part of the Disney plot to overthrow Ukraine.

3 Georgia at Tennessee 7:00pm ESPN

By what right do I hate Tennessee? And yet, my desire to see them keep falling to deeper and deeper depths is boundless. I don’t particularly like Georgia but I want them to win by 60+. They can do it but are they cool enough to do it? I doubt it. Look at their coach’s haircut. He must use a woodchipper like a Flowbee to get that look. Maybe he found a barber in the countryside of 12th century France.

Rice at UAB 7:00pm ESPN+

UAB is dead to me. Favored by only 10 at home against Rice? That’s disgusting.

UMass at FIU 7:00pm ESPN3

Butch Davis is having quite the struggle trying to put FIU together as a program. Things are in a very bad place for FL Int’l (pronounced “Flinn-tull”) even though the school is in a very nice place.

25 Michigan State at 4 Ohio State 7:30pm ABC

I know Mark D’Antonio has gotten some crazy results in his time as Michigan State’s head coach but this looks bleak. Brian Lewerke truly sucks and Chase Young is getting Myles Garrett comparisons. 20-points is a huge number for a game like this but I’ll be pretty surprised if the Buckeyes of An Ohio State University don’t beat the spread.

Tulsa at 24 SMU 7:30pm ESPNU

SMU with that little number next to it is a sight to behold. So last week I guessed that it had been since 1986 that the Mustangs were ranked and that was correct. How smart I must be. I’m really curious how they deal with that success. It seems silly but that ranking is a really big deal for the Ponyfuckers. Here’s hoping they sprint right past 13-points and pull away from Tulsa for a decisive win.

Vanderbilt at Mississippi 7:30pm SECN

AJ Brown and DK Metcalf already look like stars in the NFL. Remember the offense they were in last year that struggled getting them the ball and had them run a combined four total routes? Haha. Fuck both of these teams, though. Nobody cares what happens here.

UTSA at UTEP 8:00pm ESPN+

El Paso versus San Antonio, aka “The Bigger Even Boringer El Paso.” Everything is bigger in Texas. Even Texas.

Liberty at New Mexico State 8:00pm FloSports

Put some prop money on Antonio Gandy-Golden and ignore everything else in this game. Maybe even ignore Gandy-Golden.

Pitt at Duke 8:00pm ACCN

Goddamn does this game suck. Go Panthers.

California at 13 Oregon 8:00pm FOX

The Berkeley Bears don’t have much of an offense but their defense is good enough to keep things within 20 here. I’d put money on Justin Herbert throwing his first pick of the year, Cal to cover, and Oregon to win.

Oregon State at UCLA 9:00pm Pac-12N

Chip Kelly’s revival as a football genius lasted exactly one half. Here the Bruins and Beavers matchup in the Rose Bowl to sully the reputation of that great stadium.

San Diego State at Colorado State 10:00pm ESPN2

MWC, baby! Fun stuff for me even if CSU is a trash heap. SDSU is no great shakes this year but at least the setting and the uniforms clash are cool.

16 Boise State at UNLV 10:30pm CBSSN

Boise by 100. Book it.

15 Washington at Stanford 10:30pm ESPN

Stanford was one of the biggest disappointments of the season’s first month. This is the perfect spot for David Shaw and his team of sleepmakers to bore Washington to death and, at least, keep it closer than 15.

#saturday post #football #college football #watch em ups #rtarl watches tv #degenerate football

0 notes

thisdaynews · 5 years

Text

Democrats Are Veering Left. It Might Just Work.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/democrats-are-veering-left-it-might-just-work/

Democrats Are Veering Left. It Might Just Work.

Put a bunch of Democrats on the stage and they can’t help but go off the rails: They compete with each other to win the favor of liberal activists, and saddle themselves with unrealistic positions that could leave a nominee vulnerable in the general election.

That was a prevailing Washington media and political class narrative after the first round of Democratic debates in Miami a month ago.

Story Continued Below

But as Democratic contenders gather on the stage again this week, a competing analysis is gaining power: Going a bit off the rails may be an entirely reasonable track to victory.

“Candidates who look like they are cautious, modulating, have their foot on the brake are missing the moment,” said veteran Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, who is coming out later this summer with a book on how both parties have been refashioned in the Trump era.

The moment, according to Greenberg’s polling and focus-group work, has left voters of all stripes clamoring for disruption. Cultural and ideological currents in society—more profound than any given day’s Trump uproars—are giving progressives a better opportunity than they have had in decades to play offense.

This interpretation is notable for the source. Greenberg first drew wide notice a generation ago, with landmark work about how Ronald Reagan captured many working-class Democrats who believed their party’s liberalism was out of step with their lives. He is a veteran of the 1992 “war room” of Bill Clinton—who won two elections precisely by practicing a brand of defensive politics that required regular reassurance to voters that his activism didn’t mean he liked big government, disliked free enterprise or was sympathetic to 1960s-style radicalism.

Notable also are Greenberg‘s friends who disagree with him. Perhaps no one has been more outspoken in warning that Democrats might be blowing their chance to beat President Donald Trump by swerving too gratuitously to the left than former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. In the latest of a series of commentaries and interviews, he complained in a Medium post that he was part of a group “shaking our heads” after the Miami debates as candidates “succumbed to chasing plaudits on Twitter” with strident positions on health care and immigration which risk offending “swing voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio.”

Emanuel, too, is a veteran of Clinton’s war room and White House, and won four House elections and two mayoral elections with his own version of centrism. When he was in Congress, he lived in a basement apartment of a Capitol Hill town house—owned by Greenberg and his spouse, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

“The country is so far away from where it was under Bill Clinton,” Greenberg said in an interview. “People are desperate for government to show it can do big things.”

Greenberg’s and Emanuel’s worldviews are more in tension than outright opposition. Both are alert to the danger that Democrats project that they are more interested in identity politics than representing a unified national interest. Even Emanuel, who draws scorn from the left, supports robust expansion of government’s role to improve health care and education.

Where they differ—in ways that echo with a broader intraparty debate Democrats are confronting—is on how they calibrate risks.

One thing that hasn’t changed from the Clinton years, Emanuel believes, is that Democrats must loudly make the case of who they are (pragmatists obsessed with concrete improvements in voters’ lives) and implicitly make the case who they arenot(smug and impractical ideologues who live in a leftist echo chamber). That’s why he cringed at seeing candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders call for the abolition of private health insurance, and even several avowed moderates call for decriminalizing illegal border crossings and providing health insurance for undocumented workers.

Greenberg, by contrast, believes that the urgency voters feel for shaking up the status quo means there’s less risk for candidates and the party in going too far than in not going far enough.

He believes the 2020 election will be decided by a couple big questions which favor Democrats: Do you support or oppose America’s accelerating change toward a more diverse and culturally tolerant society that gives more opportunities to historically excluded groups? Do you believe in the power of government to challenge entrenched financial power, and make average people better off?

His belief that Republicans are placing themselves on the electorally losing side of these questions is the foundation of a forthcoming book,R.I.P G.O.P.It is also why he is generally not joining the bed-wetting of many Democratic operatives over the rhetorical and substantive positioning of many Democrats trying to challenge former Vice President Joe Biden’s frontrunner status (Biden for the most part has avoided these extremes, offering himself as a seasoned incrementalist who can beat Trump).

For one thing, Greenberg said, voters properly see most of the Democratic positioning as about making broad statements of values and ideals—not millstone-around-the-neck commitments that eliminate their ability to maneuver as general election nominee or president.

What’s more, he said, recent focus groups conducted for the American Federation of Teachers by the Greenberg-linked Democracy Corps suggest that a historically damaging charge—that Democrats’ plans to expand government amount to “socialism”—is losing some of its potency.

The focus groups with white working class voters outside metropolitan areas in Maine, Nevada and Wisconsin show that Trump uses partisan insults so promiscuously that his rhetoric may be devalued—participants didn’t find the socialism allegation compelling.

To be sure, wearing a socialism label from Republicans is not an experiment that most Democrats are ready to run. But if the focus groups are correct it may reflect a broader truth about the cycles of American politics: When the ideological tides are moving in their favor, presidential candidates may not have to worry so much about their language, or pay an especially high cost for laying it on too thick.

The best illustration may come from an earlier swing of the cycle, when Ronald Reagan in 1980 dethroned a half-century of New Deal and Great Society dominance of American politics with a brand of free-market, pro-military conservatism that seemed radical at the time. Reagan, many analysts thought, would be doomed by such provocations as launching his general election campaign in Mississippi with favorable references to “states rights,” doubts about his commitment to Social Security, or disparaging environmental laws by saying trees and the Mt. Saint Helens volcano were causing more pollution than anything man-made. Instead, Reagan was seen as right on big questions about realigning the role of government and won 44 states against incumbent President Jimmy Carter.

Even a Democratic candidate this year who by temperament is among the least inclined to rhetorical bombast, South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, recently suggested there’s a lesson in this history—that successful candidates need to both listen to the electorate and push it beyond present boundaries.

In a recent interview with Democratic operative David Axelrod’s “Axe Files” podcast, Buttgieg said ideas about cutting tax rates and shrinking government in the 1970s were considered “preposterous” but conservatives were so successful in “tugging” the country toward them that by the 1990s that even many Democrats agreed. “It’s time for us to work a little harder to tug the country back.“

This year, he told Axelrod, Democrats can’t project that they are simply the party “promising a return to normal” before Trump when this version of normal “wasn’t working” for many voters.

Like Greenberg, Buttigieg said the risks of being a disrupter shouldn’t be exaggerated: “I do think it’s OK to get a little bit ahead of where the American people are on an issue if we really do believe it.”

#Foreign #Might #Politics #Veering

0 notes

flauntpage · 6 years

Text

Opinion: I Find it Hard to Root Against Villanova

I know what you’re thinking; this is a stunner.

It’s just stunning that Crossing Broad, a website started by a Villanova alumnus, would publish a pro-Villanova article.

But Kyle isn’t writing this story from an insider’s perspective. I’m writing it as an outsider whose team was booted from the NCAA Tournament by the Wildcats two weeks ago.

Common knowledge says I should be angry about that. Woe is me! I can’t cheer for Villanova since they dropped 13 three-pointers on us and finished the game on a 43-26 run. I have to hate the Wildcats, or whatever.

I don’t hate them, not one bit.

I like Nova. I was pulling for them to beat the brakes off of Texas Tech and Kansas, which they did. And I’ll be pulling for them against Michigan tonight, because there’s just nothing to dislike about Villanova. It’s a classy program run by a classy coach with a group of players that stay out of trouble and do things the right way.

The coach

When I worked at Eyewitness News, Selection Sunday was always a bear, just a tough day with a lot of work to do – a lot of highlights to edit, a lot of interviews to conduct, and a lot of graphics for the art department to build.

You’ve got coaches coming off of Saturday conference tournament games who sleep about four hours before joining their team on campus to watch the national broadcast and find out when and where they’re playing. Then, they do a BARRAGE of media with some folks on-site, and some folks off-site.

To that point, I can’t remember a time when Jay Wright ever said no to an interview. He would get back from the Big East tournament late on a Saturday night, do the selection thing with his team on Sunday, talk to reporters in person, then walk over to a separate room to do four separate interviews with Action News, NBC 10, FOX 29, and us. And it’s not like the television stations were major players in the sports market. We weren’t the Inquirer or Comcast SportsNet, and we didn’t cover Villanova the same way we covered the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers, but here’s Jay Wright, looking totally exhausted on more than one occasion, always willing to make time for Lesley Van Arsdall and our 11:35 p.m. sports special. It was never coach speak or cliches, either, he always acted like he gave a shit and took time to consider the questions we asked, questions he had probably answered 15 times already.

I can respect that, for sure. Here’s a guy who has always exuded class and been a fine ambassador for the region:

Much respect to @CoachBeardTTU and @TexasTechMBB – best defensive team we have played all year ! Congrats on a great season !

— Jay Wright (@VUCoachJWright) March 25, 2018

We are incredibly honored to have shared the court with that physically and mentally tough @WVUhoops team – Much respect to @CoachHuggs and the Mountaineers

— Jay Wright (@VUCoachJWright) March 24, 2018

When it comes to blemishes on Wright and his program, there’s pretty much nothing out there. There was a phone card “scandal” way back in 2003 where a bunch of guys made calls using someone else’s telephone access code.

Big deal!

Nova was mentioned briefly in the big NCAA report from a few months back, with three former players alleged to have received loan payments after they left the program. From what I understand, it’s another “nothing burger,” as that guy on CNN once said.

That’s about it. I can’t find anything else, nor do I remember anything else they’ve done wrong.

The players

Let’s take a look at recent rosters to see if we can find any Grayson Allen types:

Jalen Brunson – nah

Ryan Arcidiacono – nah

Kyle Lowry – nah

Randy Foye – nah

Scottie Reynolds – nah

I think back to the last 10 or 15 years of Big East basketball and a lot of villains come to mind – Carl Krauser, Eric Devendorf, Herb Pope – the list goes on and on.

But not once during that time period did I really dislike anyone from Nova. Allan Ray? Mike Nardi? Dante Cunningham? Darrun Hilliard? I didn’t hate any of those guys, not nearly as much as whoever Pitt or UConn or Georgetown was rolling out. Every time you saw Villanova on the schedule it was like, “ah, these guys are good, they’re a pain in the ass,” but playing the Wildcats never brought forth the abhorrence I felt when going up against Rick Pitino or Jim Calhoun or DeJuan Blair.

Some people wanna point to Nova as being a snooty Main Line school with entitled undergrads or something, but is it even really that bad? Yea, tuition is $52,000, but Penn ain’t much different. Yea, some Villanova types are rich, boat-shoe wearing Avalon vacationers, but so what? There are plenty of places to find elitists in this area. Take a drive over to Society Hill or Moorestown or Alapocas and it’s the same thing. I’ve lived long enough to know that douchebags come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and comments sections.

Now, some people like to go down the road of, “well, Villanova isn’t in Philadelphia, so it’s not a Philadelphia school!”

Right, so let’s do some geography.

Using City Hall as a central location, Nova’s campus is about 13 to 14 miles from center city if you’re taking a straight-ish shot down Lancaster Avenue:

Yea, it’s outside the city limits, but it’s really not that far. Saint Joe’s and La Salle are six miles from City Hall, so we’re really going to split hairs over a difference of eight whole miles?

Plus, when you go down the list of professional and college sports teams, you find all sorts of similar geographic snafus:

The New York Giants and New York Jets do not play in New York

The Buffalo Bills don’t play in Buffalo

The Washington Redskins don’t play in Washington

The Philadelphia Union don’t play in Philadelphia

The Dallas Cowboys don’t play in Dallas

The Detroit Pistons don’t play in Detroit

And the San Francisco 49ers sure as hell don’t play in San Francisco:

If you want to be more technical about it, the United States government’s Office of Management and Budget divides the country into 382 metropolitan statistical areas, defined by “one or more adjacent counties or county equivalents that have at least one urban core area of at least 50,000 population, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties.”

Philly-Camden-Wilmington is the 7th largest MSA in the United States and is known to us… uh… the Delaware Valley, a region extending from Elkton all the way up to the Trenton border. Villanova University, Talen Energy Stadium, the new Sixers Field House, and pretty much everything “Philly sports” related falls into that greater catchment area.

So, no, Villanova is not “in Philadelphia,” but there are plenty of Eagles fans from Norristown, Medford, and Hockessin. Are they not qualified to be Eagle fans? The whole thing is DUMB.

North Philly native Kyle Lowry agrees, and touches on the topic in a recent Players’ Tribune story:

“Loyalty is everything in Philadelphia. I’m always going to be proud to be a Philadelphia native. Fly Eagles Fly. Let’s go Phillies. Let’s go Flyers. The 76ers … I mean, I’m obviously not rooting for them. But the point still stands.

It’s a great feeling to be able to represent your college and your city in big games. It’s great to have been a part of a program that changed the culture of the entire university. We worked hard, and we earned our place among the NCAA’s elite a long time ago. We’re not letting go anytime soon.

Some people will just never accept it. Some people will keep telling you that even though the perception might have changed, the geography is always going to be the same.”

And even if you’re resigned to the idea that Nova is some elite Main Line school, look at the guys on their roster. You’ve got kids from Archbishop Wood, Salesianum, and Neumann-Goretti wearing the jersey. Mikal Bridges went to public school at Great Valley. The son of the 76ers President earned a roster spot as a walk-on. I can get behind that.

I would hope that other Philadelphia sports fans can cheer for those guys and those stories. And I’d hope that Villanova fans would reciprocate if the tables were turned. I’d hope Lamarr Kimble and Shizz Alston and Darnell Foreman would get some love from Wildcat nation if they were playing for a national title.

If you went to Temple or Saint Joe’s or whatever, I get it. I wouldn’t go gung-ho for the Marshall Thundering Herd in the Poulan Weedeater Bowl, but I’d like to see West Virginia native John Holliday win it. For the same reason, I wouldn’t mind seeing Lowry win a ring with the Raptors.

And I’d prefer to see Villanova win it all tonight, again. I don’t think it matters if you went to Nova or didn’t go to Nova, or whether or not the school is in Philly or outside of Philly. I see an elite program with a classy coach and classy players who do things the right way and play lights-out basketball.

I find it hard to root against that.

Opinion: I Find it Hard to Root Against Villanova published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

0 notes

choppedcollectionkittyfan-blog · 6 years

Text

Electric Automobile Provides Us A Peek From The Future.

By now you probably know the Galaxy Notice 7 is prohibited on all US trips, however, for those which still come to the airport terminal along with the fire-prone phone, Samsung has actually cooked up a service. Some wonderful quotes on traveling are actually to be actually discovered, best inspiration for the veteran traveller or ambitious trip article writer. I will obviously rather possess one thing along with leather considering that that are going to last a lot longer as well as probably be actually more pleasant (due to the fact that this would certainly perform a greater side automobile). And also bodily relationship must be constant because the VPN safety and security token must be actually sent almost frequently to Tesla's servers lest the auto shut out accessibility to its own features. If they were coming in coming from Hangouts or even Android Messages, now Allo consumers that utilize Android Auto in their cars and trucks are going to be capable to respond and also hear to Allo notifications simply as. All evaluations are actually on call in full online at - the UK's leading car-buying web site, supplying trusted testimonials as well as information on every brand new vehicle. I have actually yet to experience in-car voice recognition that can rival Siri or Google.com Right now, however the Tucson doesn't support Apple CarPlay or Android Vehicle as yet. While that's achievable to lug a slim notebook in the main area, this bag is actually a far better suitable for vacationers wanting to go light and protect their apple ipad. In a study of automobile crashes entailing self-driving cars from 2012 to 2015, posted in Oct due to the Educational institution of Michigan's Transit Investigation Institute, self-governing vehicles obtained a much higher crash cost every thousand kilometers took a trip compared to conventional cars and trucks - but robot cars and trucks were not at fault in any of the accidents. BMW might have beaten Nissan to the strike regarding statements are worried, however that doesn't suggest we know exactly when our experts can easily count on to observe Cortana components launched into its own automobiles. Hyundai additionally reserved using http://egeszseges-fogyas.info/fizzy-slim-vizsgalatok-kiserletek/ to some aspect of the grille and also door takes care of, which I cherish profoundly - I dislike chrome emphases on cars and trucks. I had an establishment of tours reserved, as well as the initial one was actually called off due to weather. Honda displayed a model of Android Car working on a capacitive touchscreen display screen inside a brand-new Civic. In the meantime, Mercedes has produced it clear that if a scenario comes up where a vehicle must select in between saving the lifestyles of its own residents or those of spectators, that is going to save the occupants. Lastly, a tip for parents traveling along with two little ones and one iPad: receive a headphone splitter and thank me eventually. Think of this: if an automobile could possibly drive itself, hrs from our opportunity daily would certainly be freed up for commuters all over. You may likewise ask that to inform you if the San Francisco Giants are succeeding while you are actually embeded traffic, but everything a lot more intricate than that as well as Android Automotive receives a little overwhelmed. There is actually also yet another XDA string where individuals have actually affixed lots of downloadable declare new vehicles as well as various other forms of neat stuff you can easily mod right into Grand Fraud Automobile 3. You can navigate via the web pages and also check out a few of the cars individuals have actually added. In the case of the Gangstar franchise, the resource material is precisely Grand Fraud Vehicle. Technical Editor Michael Austin gives a behind the acts explore just what goes into exactly how Cars and truck and also Chauffeur examinations cars and trucks for the journal and also internet site on the latest episode of Car and Vehicle driver: Tested. It truly makes me think really good to understand that Avis puts safety and security as a higher priority as well as is sure that the safety and security of my kids are right there in the first signup for a cars and truck rental. You may get rebates on random items like a cars and truck phone place or even an intelligent" light socket. Panasonic's ZS/ TZ collection from compacts has long controlled the compact traveling zoom market, and also is actually still the case with the ZS50 (known as the TZ70 outside the United States). Some superb tales - one could absolutely observe how these stories aided develop the groundwork for modern Opportunity Travel tales. Volvo has been haggling along with the UK vehicle insurance policy sector, as well as its research study arm Thatcham Study, to exercise that would be called to account in case of an accident when an automobile is in self-drive method. Google.com merely should convince all vehicle creators to manage their coveted center console and give up slowing out. We got the software set up in my coworker's fire red Mitsubishi Outlander via an aftermarket Trailblazer receiver: the AVIC-8100NEX The receiver on its own can a myriad of various other cool in-car features, however I've been primarily checking Android Auto to see what this resembles to utilize while out on the road. You then turn the Handpresso Vehicle E.S.E. On this is actually scalp, drive the liquid release button as well as pour your brew. That was true he could possibly certainly not precisely remember a delighted opportunity with his parents."( 5) This character is absolutely nothing, his parents do not like him or even don't also look after him, he does not have friends, there is actually no objective in his lifestyle, and when both from his moms and dads leave him he modifies his lifestyle and also finds out more than he could ever hope for. FM transmitters are reduced quality than a line-in or even aux connection, therefore merely select this possibility if the vehicle you steer possesses no other way to plug-in.

The improve provided small visual tweaks, brand-new motorist support modern technologies and also, very most essentially, VW's 2nd generation, modular infotainment system (MIB) that brings Apple CarPlay and Android Automotive in to the layer. I've constantly been a fan from receiving the trip insurance for circumstances like this but, fortunately, have certainly never needed to utilize this. I rejoice to recognize it in fact performs job. If you think you may lose the brand-new iPhone in a pond never ever to be viewed again, you need to absolutely consider the a lot more pricey iPhone 6 insurance coverage plannings. But coffee temp is actually a concern for the Handpresso Automotive E.S.E. That is actually a pity since the high quality from the coffee was good. Filling out the driver help functions is actually elusive guiding help, which aids you improve the auto after incredibly elusive maneuvers. That implies my family members can eat with my 15GB of information while taking a trip to Germany, Austria and also the Czech State, just like we were at home. Ewing also distinguished Google's require a constant feel and look among Android Auto applications to MirrorLink's attempts in order to help creators hew as closely as achievable to their phone application's layout-- while likewise readjusting for very little distraction. A boosting amount of vehicles provide ahead accident caution devices, identifying when an auto in front has hammered the brakes on, just before you've possessed a chance to observe it on your own. I consistently reputable Reddit more than the trip internet sites, so I was actually wondering if any of you have actually been to either hotels and resort or perhaps each islands thus about receive a non-biased (or very crucial as some could be on travel web sites) opinion.

0 notes