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Think of your favorite film director. What is their worst film?

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Alfred Hitchcock - Under Capricorn. That movie drags.

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The studio butchered it. Terrible film, though I would love to have seen Hitchcock's cut.

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Stanley Kubrick.

Barry Lyndon. I didn't get it.

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Or, as my mother put it, "Having a Ball with His Balls".

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??? Not sure what's to get. It's in my top 100, certainly one of the most gorgeous movies ever made. Agree with sycasey that Lolita is not Kubrick's best.

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I don't know, it's just that it wasn't the "typical" Kubrick movie to me. It threw me off.

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Is there a "typical" Kubrick movie? I mean, in terms of visual style yes but I don't think Barry Lyndon is far off in that department. He moved through different genres constantly.

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I guess it's Stanley Kubrick, though I haven't seen his very earliest stuff from before he became commercially successful (Killer's Kiss, Fear & Desire). Out of what I have seen, probably Lolita is the weakest (though still not a bad film).

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Ingmar Bergman. I wouldn't say it's his worst film but the one I like the least was Autumn Sonata. There is a cruelty in the character's interactions that doesn't feel real to me.

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Christopher Nolan.

I haven't seen all his films, but the ones that I've seen have all been solid to amazing. Even his worst ones are decent. I'd probably choose Tenet as his worst that I've seen, followed by Dunkirk.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0634240/?ref_=tt_ov_dr

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Tenet was a legit terrible movie. Amazing it was made him considering his other stuff is so well done!

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i tried watching Inception on the plane. fell asleep

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Dunkirk was phenomenal. It is interesting the reactions I see to that film. It encompasses every thing from "that was confusing but visually cool" to "jaw dropping." I am very much in the latter camp, utterly entranced by that film as was LMFS. Mrs FS was very much in the first camp as were a couple of friends.

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Yeah, I liked Dunkirk a lot. I'd put Insomnia or The Dark Knight Rises below that at least.

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Life beyond the DBD

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Remember a few months ago when we talked about estate planning? My wife got us to go to a lawyer to rewrite our will since our kid turned 18 and we did a thorough review to ensure all of our account beneficiaries were all correct. My wife is known as the responsible one, so this set off a wave of friends/family redoing their wills/beneficiaries. My SIL went to go check her in-law's parent's will/beneficiaries (nana/papa). Their will wasn't signed. They had no beneficiaries on their accounts. So my SIL drives three states away to help them shore up their accounts. They're nice people, but the type of people who were simple in their prime and age has made it so that they just can't keep up with life's complexities and challenges. They - both 80 - stayed home, did nothing, tried not to spend any more, and didn't exercise - but are the type to insist that nobody fusses over them, including rejecting having a help-button device. This contrasts with my 80 year old MIL (my wife's mother) who downhill skis ever day in winter, bikes more than five miles on other days, rock climbed last year. So my SIL finally finishes up their accounts three weeks ago. That week, the nana tries to take two plates rather than one at a time to the sink and can't manage because she's too weak. She falls and breaks her femur. She goes into temporary assisted living so that she can rehab.

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Three days ago, papa falls down and can't get up. And he stays on the floor for a whole day because he refused an emergency device and my SIL didn't find him until the next day, develops complications from being on the floor for so long, is hospitalized, and undergoes a surgery where he had a 50/50 chance of survival. BIL forced to make a medical call on a resuscitation order fewer than 21 days after having their will done.

Nana comes home with the whole family trying to help her. Family realizes that they're in over their head. This isn't "work from their house and be on call if she needs help"; this is full time care. They have less than five months of financial resources to afford a home nurse, so my SIL starts looking at affordable assisted living two days ago. So my wife flies up yesterday morning to help support my SIL/BIL family. A few hours later, nana died. My wife had to break the news to her BIL that his mother had died. They notified papa and he's so weak that he can't do anything. From being happy and healthy to being homeless, widowed, and helpless in three weeks. And while he'll lose his home in order to pay for the medical care, I suspect he doesn't have long to live.

This has been a terrible month so far, but the sole good thing is that the estate planning prevented this from being an even worse experience.

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So sorry for the family. My 80s dad had a big fall in the summer, and through a series of terrible decisions he made he went from being super active and in shape to needing care for 2 months. At one point I was wondering if he was in the elder spiral I'd heard about and had doubts he would ever be very mobile again. He snapped out of it and concentrated on regaining a lot but not all of his prior mobility. It is scary how fast the downhill can be. It is also scary how poor the judgement can get as the years get long.

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Sorry for your situation. Aging can be difficult, and may or may not beat the alternative. As an affluent country, we do a terrible job of managing those who actually really need serious help in so many ways, aging not the least of.

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So sorry for all that.

There is a good book about this kind of thing:

A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death

BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger.

I discovered it after I had already (like you) been through a lot of the problems. I do wish I'd known everything before.

There is a Cal connection, but I'm not sure if it's public knowledge.

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all very sobering.

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How many Canadian provinces did you get right?

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Named nine. Correctly placed four. Embarrassed that I forgot about Alberta

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I got TWO: BC and Alberta. Why aren't the NW Territories in the NW, I ask you?!?

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That was one I reversed.

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6. I flipped Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and screwed up three of the Maritimes. Didn't know Nunavut. I did get Newfoundland and Labrador, though!

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all of them

i have driven across large parts of Canada and think about backpacking and ski trips to remote wilderness areas a lot.

currently planning a ski trip to the Powder Highway, the area right at the BC/Alberta border known for LOTS OF POWDER. a few days in Fernie and then a couple other places ...

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I can name them all, but all the smaller ones furthest to the east I might get wrong on the map. Particularly New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; I'm not exactly sure where those are. So I'll say nine.

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Seven.

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I'm aware of it, but can never remember the name of the northern territory they carved out of the eastern side of the NW Territories without Googling it.

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Nunavut!

Though I did not count territories in this exercise, as we were only asked to name provinces.

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Surprised myself and got nine. Couldn’t remember NW Territories and got the small eastern ones wrong. I’ve been to seven of them so that helped.

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I got most of them. Watching curling tourneys while on my biz trips to Vancouver has finally paid off!

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Bruh. I only got two right. I knew the names of eight of them but misplaced six of them. I knew of the other three but couldn't recall them. I'm a little embarrassed.

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I got 2, the west and the 2 main east ones. I also swapped the two in the middle and the two in the upper left.

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DBD STREET JOURNAL

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Times are so tough that even AI-generated spokespersons are getting laid off. In other news, we are not yet through the uncanny valley.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a46353319/formula-e-team-fires-ai-generated-influencer/

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PRO

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Warriors lose to shorthanded Grizzlies 116-107 despite Draymond Green’s return

https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2024/1/15/24039605/steph-curry-draymond-green-andrew-wiggins-warriors-lose-shorthanded-grizzlies

The Golden State Warriors fell to 18-22 on the season after losing to the Memphis Grizzlies 116-107 on Monday night. The Grizzlies entered the day with the sixth-worst record in the NBA and were missing a laundry list of key players. Yet, even that floundering Memphis team dealing with injuries to Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart, Derrick Rose, Brandon Clarke, and Steven Adams was able to come out on top against the Dubs.

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My guess is they end up playing at Giants’ park, but yeah, fuck them completely

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That would be remarkable were it to happen. I honestly think the Giants tell the A's "No" if asked.

Too many other commitments for when the Giants are on the road. At least that was the reason cited last year when the same idea came up.

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Fuck the A's

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Pretty much as long as John Fisher owns them.

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[NHL] Fleury now second all time in goalie wins (552), surpassing Patrick Roy - but Brodeur's 691 tally seems unassailable

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39317539/marc-andre-fleury-solely-second-place-all-wins

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So... are we calling anything we don't like or is out of common courtesy as "woke"?

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/the-new-australian-open-rule-that-s-delighting-fans-but-dividing-players-20240115-p5ex8c.html

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I’m at the point that if someone calls something woke I dismiss them out of hand.

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Yeah, it's shorthand for "I'm ignorant and I don't care."

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Likewise.

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Bills hang on to defeat the Steelers 31-17 after building a 21-0 lead

https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap/_/gameId/401547751

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Josh Allen 52 yd TD run was fun to watch. he slowed down a bit to make it look like he was going to slide for the 1st down and then once everyone eased up a bit and he realized no one was coming to get him, he turned on the jets and ran thru the rest of the Steelers D

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Kind of a messed up play in that the defender has to play as if he is gonna take the slide or suffer a targeting or roughing penalty. The NFL needs to ban that play.

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the Steelers and Eagles both had shockingly bad tackling. people would catch the ball for 5-6 yds and then just keep running till they got to the end zone

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Troy Aikman's comment was "We've seen a lot of this this year." Welcome to what we have seen a lot for a number of years now in college football, and, in turn, even longer in HS. Whenever there is a problem at the lower levels, it bubbles up to the levels above, and terrible fundamentals in the secondary has become commonplace.

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Eagles crash and burn behind their terrible tackling by DBs, making Baker Mayfield look like a deity. Buccaneers win 32-9

https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401547754

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It's amazing how completely they've collapsed, after starting the season 10-1. Finished 1-6 and out in the first round.

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That game with the 49ers destroyed their mojo.

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It was all over when Big Dom got suspended.

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Sounds like 2007 Cal

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Yup, but they don't have a starting QB injury to blame for it.

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The utter deterioration of their secondary is both shocking and beautiful.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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A West Virginia lawmaker introduced a bill to classify trans people as "obscene", preventing them from going to public schools or going into public buildings.

https://newrepublic.com/post/178029/west-virginia-bill-ban-transgender-people-schools-obscene-matter

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Rep Jeff Jackson reports that Freedom Cock-Ass ambushed the Speaker in a procedural vote, signaling that they're ready to play hardball - that is, threaten the Speaker's tenure and push for a government shutdown

https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffjacksonnc/video/7324736356993879339

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Trump loses another lawyer. No reason given. I wonder if it was because a) lack of payment, b) a tactic to try to delay, c) realization that he'll get the blame after losing, d) realization that his client will never listen, e) risk of disbarment from constant requests to do unethical/illegal things, f) the smell(s), and/or g) TFG's personality

https://abcnews.go.com/US/attorney-joe-tacopina-withdraws-trumps-legal-team/story?id=106384143

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Yes

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Trump wins Iowa caucus by 30 points. Eh-heh-heh-heh-heh... I said caucus.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/15/iowa-caucus-live-updates-trump-looks-for-a-landslide.html

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Interesting poll: two-thirds of Iowa GOP voters think Biden's win was not legitimate and two thirds said that Trump would be fit to serve if convicted of conspiring to overturn the election

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/most-iowa-republican-caucus-goers-say-trump-fit-be-president-if-convicted-2024-01-16/

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Interesting fact: Trump won every county except one, where he lost by a single vote

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/elections/results/2024-01-15/primaries/republican/iowa

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For some reason, I thought he already had a while back.

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I guess he'll just have to go back to being a complete dick on his own time

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CAL

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I had a dream I was quarterbacking Cal in the Big Game. We were dominating and Marshawn had just carried to the one-inch line. I called time out to ask Wilcox for a lineman to block for me out of the backfield on a sneak. He gave me a big fullback instead. When I returned to the field the ref, who was a young woman not wearing a uniform, had assessed a five-yard penally against us. She said that she'd heard me the night before say we were going to kick Stanford's ass and that was what the penalty was for I exploded enraged that she'd give a penalty for something that happened the previous day. I told someone to get coach Wilcox. Meanwhile I yelled at her. Wilcox then entered the fray also enraged. Then I woke up.

Any interpretations?

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Pizza for late night snack?

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Tell us about your stresses (not really).

That is your brain trying to work things out and using dreams to test scenarios.

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It means: take care of your mentals

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'cause they need some help.

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Too much to drink before bedtime.

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Been off booze for decades. Maybe it was the ice cream I had.

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Had to be something like that. No reasonable explanation for any of that without something to alter (drastically) your perception of reality!

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Wilcox was just mad that she didn't let him call a Slant pattern pass instead of giving the ball to Beastmode?

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[FB] Cal Trio To Play In Divisional Round Of NFL Playoffs

https://calbears.com/news/2024/1/15/football-cal-trio-to-play-in-divisional-round-of-nfl-playoffs.aspx

Cal has three former players – Tyson Alaulu, Jared Goff and Patrick Mekari – on active rosters of NFL teams that will play in the NFL Playoffs Divisional Round this weekend.

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[MTEN] Cal Completes Play In Sherwood Collegiate Cup

https://calbears.com/news/2024/1/15/mens-tennis-cal-completes-play-in-sherwood-collegiate-cup.aspx

THOUSAND OAKS – The California men's tennis team ended the Sherwood Collegiate Cup on a good note, earning eight victories – including seven over UCLA –

on Monday at the Sherwood Country Club.

Cal senior Lucas Magnaudet defeated Texas A&M's Kenner Taylor in singles, 7-5, 6-7(4), 10-5, but every other Golden Bear win came at the Bruins' expense.

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[RUGBY] Cal Set For Midweek Clash At Santa Clara

https://calbears.com/news/2024/1/15/rugby-cal-set-for-midweek-clash-at-santa-clara.aspx

BERKELEY – California rugby is set to take on the Santa Clara Broncos in a midweek clash on Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. at Bellomy Field. The Golden Bears, who are fresh off a 3-0 performance at the Dennis Storer Classic in Los Angeles this past weekend, will make a quick turnaround for their fourth-straight road contest of the 2024 XVs season.

Cal got off to a strong start this past weekend, defeating UCLA (21-0), Cal Poly (33-7) and UC San Diego (94-0), to win the annual Storer Classic for the 18th consecutive tournament. The Bears scored 22 tries by 15 different players across their three matches and gave all 50 student-athletes in the travel party minutes on the pitch.

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[LAIR] A Legacy Of Giving Back

https://calbears.com/news/2024/1/15/baseball-a-legacy-of-giving-back.aspx

How Rodney Green Jr. got to Cal has already become the stuff of legends.

Associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Noah Jackson, a Cal alum and former player, was at DBoy's Barbershop in Richmond - where he and Green are both customers. The barber, Danny Smith, knew about Green since his days playing Little League.

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He says he wears number 24 because of Rickey Henderson and Griffey Jr. Makes me old since I would have thought Willie Mays.

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Go Bears!!!

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UCLA and Utah who? Cal Bears ranked #2 nationally and have the #1 ranked gymnast - junior Mya Lauzon

https://roadtonationals.com/results/standings/season/2024/2/0/5

https://roadtonationals.com/results/standings/season/2024/2/1/5

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WEATHER

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Transition day in the afternoon in NW Oregon. After having been in the teens and 20s since Saturday, and with a coverage of ice pellets (not snow), warmer air is starting to push in. Expected to see freezing rain this afternoon (so schools and universities are closed), but it is supposed to reach the freezing point by midnight, and keep going up, turning to rain (for days, welcome back deep mud everywhere) by various times in the early morning, depending on elevation, exposure, existing ice coverage, and aspect.

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SNOW DAY in NYC burbs .. only 1-2 inches of snow but they have to use up the 2-4 scheduled snow days somehow these days ...

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view from 37th floor above Central Park

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zoe8oD7fHLj3TcKi7

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For the first day in exactly two years we got more than an inch of snow. 3.5 inches at my condo. Kudos to Arlington County,National Park Service, and DC DOT who had the bike trails treated by this morning so able to do my run with little fuss. Forecast is for another inch possibly on Friday.

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DBD AV CLUB

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Enjoyed the first episode of the latest iteration of True Detective. Looks like its going to be a corker.

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Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

It's the female version of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". It's gonzo-style critique on beauty - written from the point of view of an unreliable narrator where everything starts off literally on fire and then things get more insane through batshit crazy twists and turns. It's classic Palahniuk - fucked up, crazy, and laugh-through-the-pain manic ride as you hang on through the story by your broken french-tip nails. Totally recommend.

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I’ve never read his stuff, but recently watched about half of this lengthy interview with him. https://youtu.be/czBL7JQl248?feature=shared Pretty fascinatingly. Has quite a dark family history. Need to finish the second half.

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ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

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Fisch is going to make not quite, but almost double of what DeBoer made at Washington

https://footballscoop.com/news/details-of-jedd-fischs-contract-at-washington

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I'm sorry, but that kind of jump in just two years show how insane college football coaches salaries are at the top end. Wilcox pulls down close to $5MM per annum and he's not even in the Top 25.

How is this even sustainable?

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[ESPN] Arizona close to landing Brent Brennan. As dominoes fall, they will clack around and potentially into Cal's coaching staff

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39318819/arizona-targeting-san-jose-state-brent-brennan-next-football-coach

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Someone will take the SJSU job, and there is also a lot of assistant coach movement still to come.

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he just accepted the job

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Now to push Wilcox to SJSU

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