JTMacc99

Understood. There is no God that can intervene. I said it a while back in here, and I haven't changed my tune. If I were in charge of a TV network and somebody came in the room and said "I think we shouldn't show so much of Taylor Swift when she's at the Chiefs game because some football fans don't care about this story" I would fire that person on the spot. The television broadcast is about making money, and there is no scenario where they make more money by NOT showing Taylor Swift. I guess my take is that I don't see any upside to letting it annoy me. It's like waking up and getting upset because the sky is blue again. It's going to be blue today, tomorrow, and every day until Swift dumps him.

Taylor Swift is not only worth a fortune to the TV networks in extra viewers, she is also apparently a key contributor to the Chiefs success. They're 4-0 with her in attendance, are scoring like a TD more per game, and Kelce himself does more than twice as well.

I didn't like the helmets. To me, the Colts helmet is one of those sports things that is perfect and should stay that way all the time. It's been the same thing since Johnny Unitas. In things that are not perfect news, the Giants are three point underdogs to the Jets this weekend. If I were a betting man, I'd take the Giants and the points, as the final score is likely to be 5-3, regardless of which team has the 5.

As we were standing around a bowl of salsa when I was in college, one of my friends said "Ah, the chip. It's sole purpose to serve as a vessel for delicious dips." Also, @Bastet I think you do a really good job of articulating the things you hate. I get where you're coming from with potatoes. Taste is subjective, and when somebody doesn't like something because of the taste, I get it. I like spicy food, but I don't like Habanero based foods. It's not because of the heat they bring; I don't like the way they taste/smell. It ruins food for me. I am also perfectly clear that if you were my guest, pumpkin and sweet potato pies with fresh brewed coffee is a poor choice for a dessert course.

A month from now I'm still holding out some optimism that the Giants will go from 4 backups and one guy out of position on the offensive line to at least three of the first stringers actually on the field and in the right spots by then. That should be good for at least a couple field goals. At least both teams defenses are looking somewhat respectable, so we have that going for us. And the rest of the country has the good fortune of that game being at 1:00 on a Sunday, so they won't have to be stuck watching it. Chris Berman used to call them that as ESPN was becoming a big thing. It was one of the many things that were part of his repertoire when he did the highlights. I feel like it was as much him who made it normal to say as anything.

With any luck, we'll get to see some cute dogs this week.

They still have to run the gauntlet that is the NFC East schedule this year. They have Miami, the Jets, Seattle (in Seattle), San Francisco, the Rams in LA, one more Philadelphia and both Dallas games to play. If they win two of those eight games, they're already at 9 losses. They'd have to not falter and sweep the Giants and Patriots games to get to 8 wins. It's a tall order, but you never know how the seasons will play out. On the one hand, this is a team that got its victories against Arizona, Denver, and Atlanta and lost convincingly to Buffalo and Chicago. On the other hand, they took the Eagles to overtime and really could have won that game.

Herbert looks the part of star QB, so in addition to the probably accurate assessment that nobody generally thinks the Chargers should be challenging the Chiefs despite having Herbert, the preferred guy to blame for the Chargers let downs is the head coach. Not that the Head Coach doesn't earn that criticism. But group think is pretty much Herbert Good, Staley Bad. Herbert also just got paid as a star QB, so expectations of him WILL be increasing if the Chargers continue to hang around .500 and lose excruciating games they could/should win. His contract is pretty interesting! $267M extension for 5 years, with $133.7 fully guaranteed at signing. But it's got a couple of cool things. First because he's still on his rookie deal, the cap hits from 2023-2026 are reasonable numbers of $8, $19, $37, and $46 million. Then it goes to $58, $71, and $59, but if he's still a guy they want to keep around, they can turn that $71 into bonus and extend him into the 2030's. Second, this deal has some of the Mahomes deal baked into it. While it's only $133.7M of the $267 fully guaranteed (more is guaranteed for injury at signing) there is a lot more guaranteed if he's not cut. Meaning that if he's still on the team a couple days after the 2025 and 2026 league years, he'll add $24M and $36M respectively to his fully guaranteed numbers. And it's REALLY ugly ($110M cap hit) if the Chargers were to release him before 2025, so that first $24M is virtually guaranteed at signing. Not quite as bad if they cut him before 2026, but that's pretty much guaranteed as well, so for all intents and purposes, he got $183.7M fully guaranteed at signing. Which makes him fully eligible to take any and all criticism that any media outlet wants to direct his way. That's the contract of a guy who is supposed to pull games out of the fire for his team on a regular basis.

I mean, there were definitely some real Chargers fans at the game, but it was making me annoyed when the crowd erupted every time the Cowboys made a play. Maybe if the Chargers were to go on a run where they're winning divisions, a Super Bowl or two, they could build up a fan base where they're filling that stadium with their own fans. But between the moving and the long history of being not great, they're not exactly packing in the fans. And even with a talented young QB, they're still a .500 team give or take. As a fan of the NFL in general, it's kind of depressing to see the few teams where they fail to have a fan base that fills up the stadium.

It's only two years of guaranteed money. $82 million in total. If they end up drafting like 5th or 6th, and they see a Justin Herbert or Josh Allen type prospect sitting there (which is around where they went in their drafts), there is absolutely nothing about the Jones contract that would prevent then from picking a QB. They can essentially move on from Jones in 2025 with a doable amount of dead money. This isn't like what the other QBs got this year. The Ravens are on the hook with Llamar Jackson through 2026-2027. For example, let's say that for some reason they felt that they need to do something else at QB in 2026. Maybe an injury problem, maybe he's just slowed down, or whatever. His cap hit for the Ravens is $74,650,000 in 2026. If they want to release him, they'll still carry $54,800,000 of dead money that year. If the Giants are done with Jones in 2025, they'll carry like $22M of cap hit. He can be shown the door with no pain. And Tyrod Taylor is the backup for a reason that has nothing to do with which Giants quarterback makes more money. The Atlantic summed up the way I feel about it a long time ago, and thank you internet for saving it for me. The line I go to, and did here today, is:

They scored 9 points, and Taylor was the one who changed the call to a run at the end of the first half to run out the clock. Taylor is a good veteran back up QB. but he's the backup for a reason. Sorry. I just have developed a a bit of a sore spot this season about the media trashing Jones for what has gone down with this team so far in 2023. Not all of them, but enough snide comments that it's bothering me. (I even heard somebody yesterday say that he things Daboll is the next Eric Mangini, one good year and that's it.) My thing is, I'm not okay with victim-blaming Jones for the Giants being on pace to break the all time single season sack record. One guy, an ex-QB, said last week that he watched one play where it was Jones 's fault for not making a hot read and getting sacked. Which fine, but the Giants were on pace to get sacked 104 times going into last night. Are we saying that Jones not making the hot read is going to be responsible for the 60 sacks over a reasonable amount? And if that's a problem with his game, why did it suddenly pop up in his 5th season? Sigh. At least last night the TV crew pointed out exactly how bad a situation the Giants OL has been. Interestingly enough, even though he was straight off the couch, Pugh helped them become a serviceable bunch in the second half last night. It seems like a veteran with some savvy was a much needed voice with all of the super inexperienced guys the Giants were trotting out as injury replacements.

Jets played without both starting CBs today. Makes this even more wild.

SNL did a pretty funny take on the NFL broadcasts’ focus on Swift and Kelce. The Europe game doesn’t have a lot of appeal to me today, so I doubt I’ll try to find it on the TV. It does make me remember one time a few years ago when the Ravens played in this game and I think they won like 48-3 or something like that. Hopefully the other team got to do some sightseeing to make the trip worthwhile.

I don't mind the personal bot thing. Back when I lived in a more densely populated area, it was disheartening to call into the public golf course line at exactly 7 PM on a night to make weekend tee times and end up with nothing. Especially when it seemed like the same guys always got the good times. I can see being willing to pay for something that gave me a better chance. The beef idea was never going to get an investor. They'd have to be showing up with big time sales to get anybody to want to get involved with a food service like that. (The food did look good, but all I could picture was Gordon Ramsay making a face about it...) The glove thing had nothing to do with the product. Shark Tank is a family show, and a few times a year they need to trot out some kids because it's good for the TV show. They need kid viewers or parents viewers to keep watching, and making viewers think they can get on the show with their crappy ideas is good for ratings. Plus they obviously saved this kid to be on the show with the guest investor who started down his path as a child. So whatever. The TV show has got to TV show sometimes. And dating lady. I'm pretty sure I've seen her in some sort of Instagram feed. I don't remember any offer for services, but people selling stuff on social media usually goes completely ignored by me to the point where it barely registers. If you're old enough, and spent enough time on dating apps, several things tend to happen to you. You become disillusioned, cynical, tired of trying, and you get to a point where you need to figure some stuff out. You can either delete all the apps and drop out of the game, going with "if I find somebody, I find somebody, but I'm done with this game." Or you can go with "Whatever it is I'm doing is NOT working, so I need to figure out what I should be doing." It depends on how badly you want to find a partner. You can do some internet searching for free advice, maybe listen to some podcasts. Or you can cough up some money and get personal help. And some people have a lot more money to cough up than others. I look at the casual games I play on my phone, and there are people who have clearly spent hundreds or thousands of dollars to be the top players. I'm not surprised at all that she's found a revenue stream from people who want to win the dating game.

It's that my definition of shyness materially differs from yours. Everybody can be shy sometimes. However a "shy person" is somebody who has a fear of interaction because they feel others may evaluate them negatively. Very much caring if witnesses see you sucking at something is exactly what defines a shy person. If a person went to a meeting of the Shy Club of America (if they held meetings, which they probably would not) and told them about fun bowling and roller blading dates, they would tell that person they're in the wrong place. I'm not saying a shy person couldn't work through their fear of looking awkward or making mistakes. To be fair, putting them in a situation where there is fun to be had is one of the best ways to help. I'm just saying that a first or second date is probably not the ideal time to work through those fears.

The Chiefs offense is just good enough to win so far this year, which is not normal for them since Mahomes took over, and probably even before that. They'll need to do something about the WR group next year, as they're a couple sandwiches short of picnic with what they're rolling with right now.

Just out of curiosity, would a sweet potato pie substituted in for the pumpkin make any difference to you or to your parents?

I’ll take a picture of mine before I dig in. Mine is actually prettier. I bought some light blue jars this summer, and it’s just a photo waiting to be taken.

I made the pickled beets and eggs last week. This weekend, I made the much less frequent version of plain-old pickled eggs. They're currently sitting in my fridge soaking up the vinegar. This isn't my jar, but it looks just like this: It's pretty much just eggs with a brine made from 3-1 ratio of white vinegar to water. It has a little salt, a little sugar, pickling spices, an onion sliced thin, a clove of smashed garlic on the bottom, and some dill. It's fun one, but definitely a strong vinegar taste.

I can see how not being attracted to any of the "dates" would take a LOT of the fun out of it. I guess I'm also speaking just for myself and my attitude about dating at the time. I would have thoroughly enjoyed the process, as it has a bit of a game to it. Like I'd have to figure out how to get a laugh or a spark or something in the time allotted. It's got a problem-solving feel to the concept. This could be (probably is) my male perspective shining through here. Also, ANY process set up where you could sort through a bunch of potential matches that didn't involve pictures on my phone and texting was extremely interesting to me. And my expectations would have been to only choose like 1 or 2, if that, matches. I am not a cast-a-wide-net guy. I got to a point where I was like "I'm not even going to bother unless I'm legitimately excited about a person." And then I would do the math and assume that the 1 or 2 I chose were unlikely to choose me back. But still worth the effort just in case.

That's great! I look forward to a recap of the experience here.

When I do personality tests, I lean introvert. There are things I feel very strongly about, such as I loathe forced mingling and there's only so much social time I can do before I want to leave and go sit on my couch with my dog, which cement me as an introvert. But I don't hate social activities, and if I need to go to a work conference, I'm perfectly content talking to strangers because we have the same work goal for being there. So back when I thought dating was a fun thing to do, I discovered that that introvert part of me needed early dates to be one on one, preferably sitting down face to face, where we were essentially in a bubble getting to know each other. Ask open ended questions, and follow up on anything that sounded like she had strong feelings about a topic. Give well though out and honest answers to questions asked of me. Even though I'm introverted and am not the one who typically ever has conversations with strangers at the supermarket, I can still actually hold a conversation with somebody I don't know that well. Plus, I can tell a good story, so that helps. Interestingly, the one thing I didn't get a chance to do (because I'm too far away from densely populated areas where people do this kind of thing) was a speed dating event. I thought that would be really fun. Put me in a room with a bunch of people and try to strike up conversations in the group? Blech. Put me in a room where every three minutes you're sitting across from a new person trying to see if you have any interest? That sounds entertaining. That introvert tendency to have an inner dialogue going 100 MPH would come in handy at a speed dating event. You've got a clock running! Heh. Better say what you're thinking. No time to waste! Worst/best thing that could happen is that you share what you're actually thinking without your normal filter. Person across the table will either be interested or not. But at least you put some of you out in the universe.

You weren't the only one telling Cosmo "No."