Jump to content

SL Xpress

Full Members
  • Posts

    4250
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. A mnemonic trick I've used to help remember people's names when first being introduced to them is asking them to spell it. Especially if it's a name that has multiple common spellings. Bob is a tough one, for example. But Shawn/Sean, Kathy/Cathy, etc. are good ones. It's amazing how important the spelling of one's name can be to people, especially when it has multiple spellings. The bad side of it is if you have some kind of extended conversation about the spelling of their name, and then 10 minutes later you still can't remember it. I also will often have extended conversations about people's names. Not always, but asking about their name's origins, if they know of any. Also, if they have a name with multiple common spellings, after they tell me which way their name is spelled, I regularly respond with, "the way it's supposed to be spelled."
  2. I wrote out a long reply, but it all segues away from the original post in ways I'm not comfortable with. I'll just say I probably don't think there have been as many political misadventures as you do. The problem is we're an isolationist country at heart who found itself the most powerful nation on earth, run by elites who saw US intervention as important and necessary with a general population that doesn't really care about what happens in Canada and Mexico, much less anything farther away. The general voters didn't even really want to get directly involved in World War II until after Pearl Harbor. There are also a lot of fair criticisms of this country, just like there is with any organization that's extremely powerful. Being powerful means making mistakes, because there are things you can do that others can't, and there are things you choose not to do that you could have. That's not the issue with the powerless. But if a society lacks conviction, it becomes hard to do difficult things, regardless of whether it should or shouldn't be done. Part of what creates that conviction is a pride of identity. Currently it's challenging to teach about having a pride of identity, because there's an important focus on what we should not be proud of. It can be difficult for people to hold both concepts simultaneously. In any case, I love the original post. It's an important battle to talk about. Richard Pryor had a segment in his standup routine in the 70s (I tried to find it on youtube but couldn't) where he talked about the reason why Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor is they were only acquainted with laid back west coast Californian Americans. They didn't know about the Deep South Americans. He didn't mean it as a completely serious comment, and I'm not quoting it as one. I did think it was funny, even when as often was the case with Pryor there were multiple meanings behind it.
  3. At some point it became culturally important to be seen as critical of America's past. I do believe if we whitewash and glorify everything, we can learn the wrong lessons. But when the heroism and bravery of those who came before us is allowed to be diminished and unacknowledged, we lose a sense of pride of who we are and where we came from. There's a healthy spectrum there somewhere. In my opinion as a society we've leaned way too far to the critical side of things. At least from my perspective.
  4. I'm just not sure what the point of the democracy is if it ceases to exist. On some level it feels like actual survival should be an important metric. But maybe that's just me? I think the opposite argument can be made, too, btw. What's the point of surviving if it's some kind of dystopian serfdom. Maybe there's some kind of spectrum a society could exist on? Don't know where on the spectrum would be ideal, though. BTW, we all have inner primordial brain feedback mechanisms. I hesitate to call them ape brain because we didn't actually evolve from apes, but we all have a common ancestor.
  5. You say that like it's a bad thing. I've seen us win plenty of games over the years we didn't deserve to win. I'm perfectly fine with every single one of them. It didn't happen here, but I would have been perfectly fine with it if it did.
  6. You're right. I have missed your point. It would require some level of explanation from you to understand it. I'd be glad to read and respond if you care to make the effort to further explain yourself.
  7. I feel like there's a natural conflict of being a completely open society and our national security. I'm not quite sure how we actually exist as a country over a long enough period of time without some kind of emphasis on our national security. I'm also not sure how we exist as a completely open society while also creating organizations dedicated to our national security. The two seem incongruent. Since I think humans at our core are genocidal maniacs, and whatever freedoms we experience as a collective society aren't worth much if we're wiped from the planet, I probably lean on the national security side a little more than someone with a different mindset. I also find the concept that every taxpayer/law abiding citizen has a right to all the knowledge available to the people responsible for our core elements of national security extremely naive. But I do acknowledge there's a natural tension. If someone is all in that we should be a completely open society, then it makes sense they'd have a problem with any secrets being kept. I don't agree with it, but it has a certain internal logic.
  8. Texas has to win out and hope other teams lose some they shouldn't. The Big 12 might be a better conference in the top half than the SEC this year. Not a lot of tests in the rest of the schedule. Kentucky and Florida are both a little down. I like the potential of this conference long term. Last year it was really good, but there was a lot of drop off. I'm trying to compare how I feel about this team versus last year's squad at this time. I guess I'm just going to have to hope for the best and they turn on the jets in the post season after the sweet 16. The personnel is there. Backcourt passing and defense is a little suspect compared to the last year. Barnes really helped solidify things in the latter half of the season after she got her sea legs as a DS as opposed to the career libero she was coming in. My expectations for Skinner and Rutherford were too high entering the season. But Skinner in particular can turn it on at any point. I love Kahahawai's emergence. Singletary looks like another plug and play spectacular middle for MBU. The serving overall looks really good. l don't know. Lots of good teams out there. Texas just doesn't seem to be playing as well as some of the top teams, but again, I feel like I would have said that last year, and those last 3 postseason matches ended up being dominant victories.
  9. I like being on this side of a late run. Much better. From 20-18 Georgia to a 25-20 set win. I'll take it.
  10. I hope his wife doesn't divorce him over this.
  11. That was exactly the feeling I had during the game.
  12. I feel like the solution is to play Carlson all the way around and use Kahahawai over Rutherford. But I have an inordinate affection towards Swindle after last year. I don't want that to be the solution. And I've watched Rutherford her whole career. I feel like we've marginalized her somehow. But right now I just want to beat Georgia. And I certainly don't want to lose another commanding lead. Good. Second set goes to the good guys. I really hate the 6-2 in general, as an aside. I understand why we're using it, but I'm just not a fan in general.
  13. I feel safe with this lead. I really really do.
  14. Kahahawai's serves feed me. I know she fires a lot of service aces, but she has the most intimidating serve on the roster.
  15. Well, in fairness I thought Georgia would be pretty good at the beginning of the season. They've had a load of injuries. And they've had a slew of 5 set matches. I think Georgia has more talent than Arkansas, for example. Nonetheless, losing a 20-10 lead just doesn't happen that much in volleyball, much less to us, much less at home. There's no way to spin this as being acceptable.
  16. Also, I wish David Salzman, the play by play guy, would acknowledge Muoneke's Dad played for Texas.
  17. I am in no way shape or form mentally ready to lose to Georgia in Austin in both football and volleyball this weekend. Going from 19-9/20-10 to losing the first set 25-23 is not okay.
  18. At the time it was Hornfans. Mack Brown/Greg Davis were lining up Vince Young under center and trying to make him into a traditional dropback quarterback. They were also trying to "correct" his mechanics. They almost succeeded in fucking him up, to be honest. My bigger point is you keep using Vince Young as the standard. IMO you shouldn't do that. It's not as good a fit as you seem to think it is.
  19. Do you?
  20. Thinking Vince Young was just a dude that could run fast. I'm excited about Arch Manning becoming the starter whenever it happens. I'm not advocating for him replacing Ewers, but I'm excited about what I've seen out of him. But we're going to be complaining about Arch Manning at some point, too. Heck, maybe you weren't around, but prior to 2004 plenty of fans were talking about moving Vince to wide receiver. I shit you not. I wish the Ewers that shows a mastery of the offense, shows confidence, has a feel for the pocket, showed up in every game. But he does not. It is not fun when Bad Ewers shows up. The loss to Georgia was not all on him, but that was Bad Ewers to a T. If I have to wait until next year for Manning to get his shot, that's fine. But I don't think it would bother me if he became the full time starter some time this season.
  21. Same shit different day. Same thing happened with Ukraine. And that's not even including the big leaks we hear about. I don't blame other countries for forgiveness over permission approaches. The US is not a secure ally.
  22. What is winning? What is the alternative? There is a zero sum game going on. Either the Israelis achieve dominance in the area to the point the Palestinians no longer exist as a cultural identity, or the Palestinians/Arabs achieve dominance in the area to the point where Jewish cultural identity is somewhere other than the Levant, like it was for 1900 years. For the Palestinians to give up fighting, means being 2nd class citizens and being powerless minorities in what they consider their own land. If you're Palestinian, what has peace looked like? Having political parties in Israel with no real voice in the government. Going through check points and being constantly dehumanized in Gaza and the West Bank. Watching settlers incrementally take over land, with policies deliberately designed to encourage you to move somewhere else. Anywhere else. I don't condone Hamas, but I'm not sure why anyone expects a different behavior, in the past or the future. For all of the destruction Israel has wrecked on their enemies - and it's been impressive - Israel is more isolated than ever. World opinion is at its lowest ebb towards Jews and Israel specifically. There's more of a movement against the US/Israel alliance from both the left and the right than there ever has been. I'm unconvinced it's going to lead anywhere. Jews have always been targets of people who see their culture with fear and suspicion, and use it for a path to power. But sometimes it does lead somewhere, as we all know. There's practically a celebration in Jewish-centric outlets that I simply don't share. To me this all feels like short term victories. Important short term victories, but short term nonetheless. But allowing an organization willing to perpetrate October 7 to exist in a state where it was able to execute that day's events was impossible. Allowing Hezbollah to rain down rockets indiscriminately day after day was a no go. People decry the civilian deaths, but to me a completely ruthless response was the only response that was going to achieve this level of success. And it's not over. But there are consequences to all of this. I don't see any of the activity around Gaza and Lebanon as leading to long term peace. I believe it will harden attitudes and give rise to a new generation with a similar kind of resolve to strike back at the Zionists. I firmly believe October 7 will be celebrated among the Palestinian rank and file as a great victory. Sinwar and his cohorts, and all the Palestinian lives lost in the subsequent operation will be seen as necessary martyrs against evil. Future generations are going to willingly jump into the breach in hopes they can fulfill a similar purpose. I'm not sure why people see it differently than that.
  23. It wasn't just you. There were several people railing about the outcome of the Washington result, and I basically made a long post about how things are way better now than they have been through long periods of time in this program over the past 40 years. Which I stand by. I have issues with Ewers, but when he's on he shows a mastery of the concepts Sarkisian is trying to utilize to be effective. Tonight was definitely not one of those times. But I've always had issues with his ability to blow the top off the defense. I think all of us have issues with it. Which isn't what you're talking about, but it does reflect I'm not exactly a Ewers cheerleader. We'll see what happens.
  24. He drops the ball all the time. He dropped the ball late in the 4th on a pass that would have been close to a first down if he caught it cleanly. Went right through his hands. I like Blue better. I think he's at least incrementally a better back. But he's fumbled and he drops passes. I wish he didn't. I don't know why we don't see Gibson any more. I thought it was an injury issue, but he's never listed. It might be a pass pro problem. Dunno.
  25. I don't think it was Vince Young getting pissed that won a title. He was pretty talented, too. This idea we're supposed to use Vince Young as a realistic bench mark for any quarterback is silliness. It's almost certain we'll never see his like again. Teams win national championships without having Vince Young on their team every year. What I know is that people are constantly questioned if they can win a championship until they actually win one. I can't say I've ever been a huge Quinn Ewers fan, but when he's on, I like the mastery he shows of the offense. When he's off, he looks like a liability. But it's not like Carson Beck looked amazing tonight. Some people kept saying the key of the game was who played the best between Beck and Ewers. They both looked like ass to me at times. The Georgia defense looked like the Georgia defense I watched for several years. Not the shadow of themselves I've watched most of this year. That to me was the difference in the game.
×
×
  • Create New...