UpperWestside

I find that singing church songs for me is kind of a form of prayer. I decide to do that today at home instead of going to the park and I am glad I did. I have definitely taken a very circuitous route to be where I am at with God and prayer. I feel most comfortable in church when the congregation is lacking in white people. My college experiences (Went to a small Christian university because I wanted to bash my head in again and play football) with white people like me left that impression on me. I have sang in two choirs at black churches, one in South Dallas and another in The Bronx. It was a blessing and honor to do it both times. I go to a service on Sunday evenings in Queens where the entire congregation is Brazilian and the service is in Portuguese. I speak slightly more Portuguese than a newborn, but I told them to stop giving me a translator and I’ll listen so I can learn the language. The road less traveled has been a constant companion throughout my life and I embrace that. I feel like I have had a fascinating journey in life even when I didn’t realize it or have the pieces all in place to get an understanding of why life always felt so different for me from others I knew. Plenty of heartbreak, things not going as planned and doubts about the future, but I have found that in looking back all of that prepared me for where I am and where I will hopefully go in life. To me prayer is an important part, but again I pray for the things I said before, one of which is not money. If you choose to also pray, cool. If need to pray five times a day that’s cool. If you don’t pray at all that’s just fine in my book. If you believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, great. Many of you who have posted are not religious and that’s also cool. I am not going to bash you for your choice or demean you. Just so long as you are not hurting other people I’m good with you.

Well yeah it’s all of them. Descended from the same people arguing over land that ceased to be beautiful forest land centuries upon centuries ago. The European continent owns the record for most bloodshed in recorded history with war after pointless war, but these folks own the record for longest held grudges that lead to wars and battles that never will have an end point. No one wants to be the bigger person and talk peace. The human ego is one heckuva drug.

And today the Suns will be Durant and some guys. Beal is nowhere close to playing (I know SHOCKING) and noted guy that said he wants no part of being a team leader in Devin Booker has a new injury to sit out with. What a time to be alive for Suns fans. Having Durant shoulder the load while one guy cashes checks to again do nothing and another that will never be a first or second option on a title team.

That’s kinda their MO. One of these guys will become an established star and either be traded or will walk. This is like the A’s of 20 years ago with more talent, but the same general setup. Get good, claim poverty (In this case punitive taxes), trade guys and start anew with high picks. For Presti it means job security. When you can offer people hope continually that can be enough to retain your position of cashing a seven figure check each year. Not too bad of a job if you can get it and hold onto it for a couple of decades or three.

I believe people are well meaning who want this war to end because almost no one wants to watch what is happening. The thing about this is that they will never stop fighting. We will be long gone and returned to the dirt while other generations fight this several millennia old battle for control of these barren strips of earth. It’s 2023 and we are still attempting to settle things through war and violence like it’s 3000 BC. All the protests in the world are not going to stop warmongers in the Israeli government from doing their thing there.

The AI is getting smarter!

I will never forget that because it got me to board an Amtrak and go protest for the first time in my life for a week in DC. Spent the rest of the summer and early fall protesting back here and in DC thanks to that ridiculous photo op.

Full House backfield or get really crazy and run that Tony Valastro Triple I.

10-7! Has an offense ever performed at a lower level of success and been 7-2?

Oh my gosh I think this game is headed to OT! Someone is going to have to break double digits to win it!

The Wildcats almost evened it up, but failed from the 1. This is going to end 7-0…lol.

0-0 at the half with Northwestern. 110 yards between the two teams. 81 yards for Iowa in 19 minutes of possession. Simply incredible.

I did not really follow his career other than watching him on Friends and a few movies, but what I have gathered is that he never got past his addictions. Life can be really messed up. I am still glad that he did try to help others out in similar circumstances even if he could not help himself.

I was just talking with a friend back in Texas about this and I think that the payout should be far higher and that the guys on the lower end of the salary scale should receive a higher check. I would start them out at 2 million for the lowest paid guy and work it up to 750k for the guy making the most. I would also tie their winnings to whether they actually played or not. The NBA is going through a period of unprecedented worldwide growth and this is something they can afford to do.

Davenport, Burnet and Lampasas all finished in a tie for the district title thanks to Burnet’s upset win on the road against Davenport last week. I am guessing it means they all can claim a share of the district title, but for seeding purposes Davenport goes in as the 1 seed. Lampasas gets the 2 seed and Burnet gets the 3 seed. Taylor finishes in 4th and gets Boerne. I believe the win margin gave it to Davenport as each game gets a maximum of 17 points. 1st round games Davenport-Fredericksburg Lampasas-Uvalde Burnet-Somerset (Should be the best bi-district matchup) Boerne- @Armybrat

I half expect the court to have motion sensitive light underneath it for the basketball when it gets dribbled. You might as well go all the way of you are going to have a court like that.

Oh the plot for sure was pretty thin, but those camera shots of ghost kid robots on the security cam was funny. Sometimes good movies are simple and just make you feel nice when it is over.

So first one was against Manute Bol (RIP) and the Sixers. The second came against the 3-32 Mavs led by Derek Harper and the immortal Sean Rooks (RIP). The 46 came against Detroit and Dumars had 39 in the game. Isiah Thomas does not get a RIP yet as he is still around plying his roster destroying ways in Phoenix at the moment with his new best friend owner.

The thing I hope for him, as well as Holmgren and other guys of that height, is that modern medicine finds a way to keep them on the court. I don’t believe the human body at that size is meant to be stressed as hard physically as it is, but science and medicine hopefully keep these guys fully healthy because they can revolutionize how basketball is played. Maybe in my much younger days I’d not care, but the NBA is a good form of entertainment and you want to see the best players in the world on the court and not in a training room or in street clothes regularly.

Harden is so incredibly and utterly delusional. Everything he says puts the blame on someone else for the failures of past teams. I thought that Embiid took the high road in his comments about Harden. It’s not a matter of if the JV team in LA falls short, it’s a matter of how it happens and what embarrassing thing or things they do to help their season end in as painful a way as possible. I feel like Harden will have a leading role in making it happen and he’ll then proceed to throw everyone else under the bus while demanding 45 million plus per season for his unique “System”.

I think that he was just wired like this most of the time. Charles Pierce wrote an article on Defector detailing an interview he attempted to conduct with him years ago. It was strange to say the least how Knight treated him. I liked another coach who had quite a temper in John Chaney. The difference between them is Chaney pushed his players hard, but seemed to genuinely care for each of them. Knight is someone I never got that impression of. He was a massive bully and it carried over into how he acted away from the court.

Aliyanah has been nice enough to share one of her pillows with Heiani. These two are pretty awesome together.

This is what I envision the next career for Aaron Rodgers to be.

This was something I contemplated seeing this evening, but I knew I would not have time to see it due to when it started here. I am going to watch it though.