"As exciting as it is to have created Write For California and foster its growth, we’ve also been growing apart. WFC’s trajectory is no longer aligned with my vision for the community and how the site should be run; my feedback and contributions aren’t really recognized back behind the curtain, which makes it tough to keep toiling away in the content mines."
It will be a big loss to both the Cal journalistic scene, and the conference overall. I wish him well, and can understand the challenges, but we will all be worse off without him.
A tell all book about how both CGB and WFC simply didn't meet even minimal standards of journalistic integrity...oh, and also, once WFC went to a subscription format, demands for a refund due to said lack of journalistic integrity actually had to be taken seriously.
City College League: Auburn, Memphis, Clemson, Miami, Louisville, Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, Syracuse. Could toss in Boston College, San Diego St., (UN)LV, San Jose St., Fresno St., Akron, Bowling Green, Toledo, another Miami, Kent St. Could be 2 divisions, and actually produce some pretty decent football games.
They have black uniforms (I'm not sure if it was a one-off thing or if they wear them more regularly), but blue uniforms are a part of their regular rotation.
The BBQ Division: Memphis, Northwestern, UNC, App State, Missouri, Texas, Auburn, South Carolina, Houston, Kentucky... and Cal (because I want to go to away games).
I'm looking at this as each of those schools are in specific areas known for certain styles of BBQ. That place on University was "Texas BBQ" through and through.
Put away on the 6th, except for the Christmas lights on the chevron brace, just unplug those. Tree got recycled yesterday. Funny thing about the tree, at first it smelled great, then it faded a bit, but after it was undecorated, and we stopped watering it, it became very fragrant.
Took down the indoor ones on January 2nd. It was too cold that weekend to take down the outdoor ones, so I waited a week until it was less unpleasant outside.
Took them down on new year’s. Actually was too lazy to even put up outside lights this year. I suppose it is a sign of our paganism, but my neighborhood decorates waaaayyy more for Halloween than Xmas
We usually get a tree if we're going to be home for Christmas, but this year we did not. I told my daughters that if they wanted one (since they usually decorate it), I'd get one, and they never asked. I suppose that's just another step in the "death of childhood" in this house.
Our trash service charges something absurd like $30 to haul away Christmas trees. Meanwhile, it takes 10 minutes and costs $0 to chop it into bits and scatter it in the woods next to my house.
San Diego (city and county) have drop off locations where they take them for free or you can take them to the landfill for free. They turn them into mulch. I decided to burn mine.
Just curious if the CEO of your trash service is someone named Tony. $30 bucks for a tree sounds like it should buy you the tree haul away as well as some form of "protection."
the Xmas tree was a mess especially we took off lights and ornaments. apparently this type of tree (not sure which) didnt really suck in much water and dried out a good deal more than average.
The indoor ones came down last weekend. The outdoor ones the weekend before (except a couple I took down on New Years' Day to beat an impending storm).
my wife and i were supposed to do an annual financial review and scenario analysis w/ our advisor. unfortunately because of some communication snafu (my fault probably) it didnt happen.
still, we spend 20-30. min going over the portfolio and some of the "why is it this way" type of questions which was very valuable.
my wife is the primary earner but is happy to have me take charge of the day-to-day wrangling of decisions and accounts.
The wife made white pizza, with roasted garlic & broccolini. Tasty, had it with a 2015 Brunello, the first 2015 Brunello I've had - it was amazing. The 2016's are supposed to be even better.
I'm going skiing with HSB and a MS/HS friend in Tahoe next week. Going to bring up the Ooni and try to make pizzas if I am able to clear up some space on their deck. Supposedly they had 3 feet of snow last time they were up there.
I just learned that Camp Chef makes a pizza oven attachment that will fit over our tailgate cookers. The lady friend and I will be purchasing and testing out the feasibility of doing pizza at tailgates.
I mentioned this last week, my friend and I will be doing an avalanche course that weekend, at Castle Peak I believe. Still trying to figure out if we are going to snow camp that Saturday or just drive up from Nevada City that Saturday, then again Sunday. I'm afraid the lack of snow since late December will make the course less educational...
I have. They have the most miles of terrain of the three X Country resorts (the other two are Tahoe-Donner and Auburn Ski Club). They also have the steepest terrain. Really, you can't go wrong with any of the three options. I took a skate ski lesson at ASC. It was a great lesson and if IIRC the lesson included gear and a pass for the entire day.
It looks like temps in the mid to high 40s but HSB is wondering how much of the snow turned to ice so it's still around. Their cabin is at Northstar I think.
I'm not so much worried about my ability to get down the mountain (more worried if it's icy) but more my legs. I have a feeling halfway down the first run my legs will turn into jelly.
I haven't done any lifting since HS, and even then it was limited. It's been mostly the bike at the gym since I've been having plantar fasicitis and can't really run. So I guess that'll have to do. No 1 does this one where he puts the bands between his knees and squats. Maybe I'll do that some the next couple of days.
I've switched to induction cooktop. There's a learning curve for sure. It goes from 1-10, but 1-6 is a gentle simmer. 7 seems to be sautee. 8 is very hot. 9 is burn things quickly. 10 boils a full pot of room temperature water in 60 seconds. It really lacks the touch of gas, but man, is it easy to clean. Also, our kid just inherited the nicest set of college cookware ever.
I have been thinking of making this switch as well. I’m fully on board but it is hard to get my wife to make the switch. Correct me if I’m wrong but one plus to an induction is you can’t accidentally burn yourself if the cooktop burners are on?
Wife and I just had a new gas stove installed, so for financial reasons it is probably going to be a while before we change again. Its a good thing our kitchen is very open-concepty (and we have an outdoor kitchen where I like to do a lot of cooking anyways).
That’s the main reason I want to get rid of it. I removed my old wall natural gas heaters, I plan on replacing my natural gas water heater next summer with a tankless electric water heater. The gas stove will be the last thing to go and then my house will be fully electric.
Our refrigerator delivery has been delayed, so we are getting by with a li'l college fridge - which is only big enough to hold bare essentials like cream for coffee. So we're eating out two out of 3 meals, which I'm growing tired of. The meals we are eating-in are made from foods that don't spoil quickly at room temperature. Basically anything at the grocery store that they keep out on unrefridgerated displays - potatoes, onions, tomatoes, avocados, chayote, garlic, tomatillos, tortillas. I've been having Mexican-style food.
Top Ramen. My brother in law swears the only way he and my sister in law survived school and early marriage was a copy of "1,001 Ways to Cook Top Ramen".
I've been watching "Gloria" on Netflix, a series made with Portuguese television station RTP, sort of a spy-whodunnit set at a Radio Free Europe broadcast facility in 1968 or thereabouts. It's pretty good, I thought, in terms of pacing and throw-away lines and such. One thing that came as a surprise was that I had learned a little bit about Portuguese politics in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a country seminar course about Angola when I was in college, and it 1) was still in the old noggin, and 2) helped make a little sense of the plotlines.
Ep4 was better than the terrible Ep3, but I still find it underwhelming on the whole. I don't see the point of the weird flashback structure they were using before; seems like the series could have basically just started here, or just have been told in linear fashion.
The flashbacks provide good context and in the past two episodes it is paralleling the Mandalorian ie taking place at the same time, same location (stormtroopers helmets on pikes, and Amy Sedaris's character and her robots in the background). Where I think I'm lost with yesterday's episode was the trip to the sarlacc to retrieve his armor... Didn't he escape the pit with the armor intact (use of the flamethrower) and was robbed by the jawas once he did? So why did he go back? Does he not remember escaping weith it or being robbed?
I think it is hard to say which is better at this point. The fist season of The Mandalorian was good but it didn’t hit its stride until the last few episodes of season 1.
Did you read the book? I’m excited to watch the series. From the few reviews of the show that I’ve read, it seems like the changes made to adapt the book to TV only made the the story better and might be one of those rare times where the TV adaptation is better than the book.
It's not just him. I've probably shared this before, but a coworker was talking about her son (she's white, and her husband is Indonesian of Chinese descent), and another coworker asked, "Does he look more Asian or more American?"
Biden said yesterday what many have speculated, that the $1.7 trillion BBB is dead but that some smaller form of BBB will be passed. Sounds like the only confirmed item that will be cut out is the expanded child tax credit.
Perhaps they can work with Romney to pass his expanded child tax credit plan.
I also believe something bipartisan will be passed to reform the electoral count act.
I also hope that the Dems and Biden work the GOP to pass a federal minimum wage increase to $12 an hour.
I think Biden and some "progressives" created unrealizable expectations without first making sure if they really had their ducks in order when they actually didn't. Whether that was a "mistake" or if it was all just a way to put sound bytes on file for future use is unclear to me.
I think you can make an argument that this approach was good for the progressives trying to further their long-term agenda (didn't get it passed this time, but it's in the conversation now) and bad for Biden and his approval ratings and short-term Democratic Party prospects. Though the latter were likely already going to be bad in the midterm anyway.
We're not talking about a parliament. The legislation doesn't conform specifically to what Biden wants, and it was moderate Democratic members of Congress who torpedoed BBB repeatedly. They're not obligated to vote for something that they think their constituents won't like, but unless the starting proposition is that progressive Reps shouldn't even propose something that the rest of the party won't like, and Pelosi & other leadership should cut off anything that won't be supported by moderates, then I don't see how this is specifically the fault of progressives.
my tangential rant is that this is why I shake my head a bit when people say we need 3 or more parties: we have them, they just agglomerate under "Republican" or "Democratic" because Duverger's Law remains undefeated.
I don’t think it is Biden or the progressives fault. I suppose you could make the case that progressives tried to include too much “progressive” stuff in the bill, which scared off Manchin and Sinema. However, I don’t find the expanded child tax credit too progressive.
I don't think the value of the expanded CTC was quite as controversial as the fact that you no longer need earned income to qualify for the expanded CTC. Right or wrong, this carries with it the perception that you are giving away even more money to welfare recipients.
I am not saying it is a bad thing for me, I am saying that it created issues for folks like Manchin. Also because the increased CTC and the expansion of the CTC to those with no earned income was initially part of COVID relief. I think these things created some major optics issues for Manchin's working class supporters who tend to complain the most about additional "free money" for welfare recipients.
If you ask me, a "family first" approach might include expanded CTC, but would start with universal childcare. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that this is not only good for children's social and emotional development, but also creates greater opportunities for working families to, you know, go work. It speaks volumes about this country's emotional maturity (or lack thereof) that this would be a controversial proposal.
I don’t think it should have an earned income component but it should have a maximum income component to phase out high income earners, which I believe the current one did.
The progressives should have held the line on voting for infrastructure only once they struck a deal on BBB. Once they gave that away, they lost all leverage over Manchin. At the same time, they also should have made greater concessions on the BBB. The progressives are miserably failing to understand that you should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Maybe, but once they gave way, they should voted on it quickly and trumpeted as a great win (which it was). Instead it got covered in inter-party fighting goo, which was the biggest case of political malpractice I can remember.
IMO his only "fault" is to have raised people's expectations that all of this could be done. This bill especially was always a reach with a 50/50 Senate.
SCOTUS decides not to hear bid for Trump to withhold his documents from 1/6 Commission. While it's all fluff until something actually happens, this is a giant step forward for Trump actually getting prosecuted.
Was supposed to hop on a plane tomorrow to go surprise my buddy in Austin on his 50th. Sent his wife and kids some spare Rona test kits just to be safe.
They came back positive. [Penny-whistle downslide].
I have a hearing today in superior court. The court website indicates remote is not an option. I called the clerk and she said it is remote only, no in person. We’ll see what happens!
Didn't know if it belongs here on in "Today in Omnicron", because I'm not sure if its Omnicron specifically. Today, WSU cancelled its 4th BB game this weekend against state of Oregon opponents. It took them all week, and 4 press releases (which did get them some headline and click play), but they have finally cancelled both WBB & MBB games for the next 4 days.
First it was the delta variant, and then omnicron, and now we have Coug Covid to worry about! Great.
A weekend in Pullman in late January with no basketball games on campus or within driving distance should pretty much empty out the beer supply (and why do I suspect another press release will be forthcoming when that ends so well?).
I'm cautiously optimistic about the transfers that Riley et al have been picking up. Might help change the shape of the "improvement curve" as it were.
Dunno, DCT, I think the schematic and culture shift alone that Riley brought with him would've been enough for the Trojans to contend in '22.
The fact that he immediately landed an elite WR transfer from Norman, lured 5* HS recruits, and then picked up arguably the best players on both offense and defense from a division rival should have the fanbase pumped!! With DTR's return and Dart's impending transfer to BYU/WVU/ or Ole Miss, it seems only a matter of time before Williams hops on board.
That was quick:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/business/airlines-outlook-5g-truce/index.html
Justin Wilcox signs extension thru 2021. https://twitter.com/CalAthletics/status/1484286858402041857/photo/1
Typo. 2021 should be 2027.
Leland leaves WFC https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/pac-12-power-rankings-football-goodbye
"As exciting as it is to have created Write For California and foster its growth, we’ve also been growing apart. WFC’s trajectory is no longer aligned with my vision for the community and how the site should be run; my feedback and contributions aren’t really recognized back behind the curtain, which makes it tough to keep toiling away in the content mines."
“For those reasons, I am entering the transfer portal and am looking forward to taking my talents to Addicted to Quack.”
I heard he was fired for stealing paper clips.
He left W4C but not without his stapler. You have to pry that from his cold, dead hands.
It was either that or he was going to burn down Twist's house.
I didn't read the analysis a huge amount but he plainly put a ton of work in over the years, sorry he felt it was time to go.
It will be a big loss to both the Cal journalistic scene, and the conference overall. I wish him well, and can understand the challenges, but we will all be worse off without him.
I didn't read it that much either, but it appeared to be close to peer-reviewed publication quality. Maybe he'll write a book someday.
He'll write a tell all book about the CGB/WFC transition.
A tell all book about how both CGB and WFC simply didn't meet even minimal standards of journalistic integrity...oh, and also, once WFC went to a subscription format, demands for a refund due to said lack of journalistic integrity actually had to be taken seriously.
Get a million dollar advance, write the book.
I can’t wait for his 30 for 30 to drop on ESPN 300 in 2028.
Hypothetical college football sub-division, using whatever theme you want.
City College League: Auburn, Memphis, Clemson, Miami, Louisville, Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, Syracuse. Could toss in Boston College, San Diego St., (UN)LV, San Jose St., Fresno St., Akron, Bowling Green, Toledo, another Miami, Kent St. Could be 2 divisions, and actually produce some pretty decent football games.
The frequent flyers miles division:
Hawaii
Washington
Miami
Boston College
Nebraska
San Diego State
add in Alaska, Guam, University of Tokyo
The Blue and Gold(ish) division FBS: Cal, West Virginia, Michigan, Navy, Notre Dame
There are quite a few FCS schools that could make a division.
+ Pitt and Georgia Tech (and UCLA, if we must...)
Isn't Georgia Tech black not blue? But yes I missed Pitt. I excluded UC Los Angeles because it's a baby blue.
They have black uniforms (I'm not sure if it was a one-off thing or if they wear them more regularly), but blue uniforms are a part of their regular rotation.
I guess when I watch them on TV they look more black than dark blue. I guess since they're the Yellow Jackets, I also assumed it was black and yellow.
Schools With Some Form of Bears as Mascot: Cal, Maine, Baylor, Montana, Missouri State, UC, Los Angeles, Central Arkansas, Brown, Northern Colorado.
Also Belmont.
Oh...football. never mind
The California Burrito Division:
Cal
Stanford
USC
Ucla
Fresno State
San Diego State
The division trophy would be a Taco Stand
Whither San Jose State?
We'd be at the bottom but boy the food at the away games would be incredible.
STAN-TACO-BELL-FURD IS AT THE BOTTOM, HAG
The BBQ Division: Memphis, Northwestern, UNC, App State, Missouri, Texas, Auburn, South Carolina, Houston, Kentucky... and Cal (because I want to go to away games).
ah yes, that famous Berkeley BBQ...
That BBQ place lasted a hot minute.
on University?
Yup, it was fairly good when it was on, good selection of beers too.
I'm looking at this as each of those schools are in specific areas known for certain styles of BBQ. That place on University was "Texas BBQ" through and through.
True
...Northwestern?
Christmas Declarrtions
Lights for the front porch came down on January 2.
Tree came down on New Year's Day. Cut up and recycled with the green can pick up the following Tuesday night (Wednesday pickup).
Berkeley no longer allows uncut trees put out at curbside. One of the stupider recent policies promulgated without explanation.
Put away on the 6th, except for the Christmas lights on the chevron brace, just unplug those. Tree got recycled yesterday. Funny thing about the tree, at first it smelled great, then it faded a bit, but after it was undecorated, and we stopped watering it, it became very fragrant.
Tree came down on January 7th, once the three wise men arrived. Table decor went away the weekend prior. Eucalyptus wreath is still up on the door.
Took down the indoor ones on January 2nd. It was too cold that weekend to take down the outdoor ones, so I waited a week until it was less unpleasant outside.
Took them down on new year’s. Actually was too lazy to even put up outside lights this year. I suppose it is a sign of our paganism, but my neighborhood decorates waaaayyy more for Halloween than Xmas
Our Declarrtions were down first week of Jan. We still have a wreath up on our door - kinda like a generic winter decoration.
we didn't put any up, so we didn't have any to take down.
That's the "Bah! Humbug!" spirit!
We usually get a tree if we're going to be home for Christmas, but this year we did not. I told my daughters that if they wanted one (since they usually decorate it), I'd get one, and they never asked. I suppose that's just another step in the "death of childhood" in this house.
All decorations were down by January 2nd. Cut my Christmas tree up on January 9th to burn it.
Our trash service charges something absurd like $30 to haul away Christmas trees. Meanwhile, it takes 10 minutes and costs $0 to chop it into bits and scatter it in the woods next to my house.
That's even worse than Berkeley's stupid policy.
San Diego (city and county) have drop off locations where they take them for free or you can take them to the landfill for free. They turn them into mulch. I decided to burn mine.
that's madness. ours goes either on the curb or in the greenwaste bin. Also, our landfill takes them for free until the end of Jan.
our bougie county takes them away and turns them into mulch for the parks
Ours turns it into mulch for the parks, or for your garden if you would like some.
Just curious if the CEO of your trash service is someone named Tony. $30 bucks for a tree sounds like it should buy you the tree haul away as well as some form of "protection."
Jan 2nd we removed the decorations and took down the tree.
As did we.
we just took them down this past weekend.
the Xmas tree was a mess especially we took off lights and ornaments. apparently this type of tree (not sure which) didnt really suck in much water and dried out a good deal more than average.
The indoor ones came down last weekend. The outdoor ones the weekend before (except a couple I took down on New Years' Day to beat an impending storm).
DBD Not Official Financial Advice
my wife and i were supposed to do an annual financial review and scenario analysis w/ our advisor. unfortunately because of some communication snafu (my fault probably) it didnt happen.
still, we spend 20-30. min going over the portfolio and some of the "why is it this way" type of questions which was very valuable.
my wife is the primary earner but is happy to have me take charge of the day-to-day wrangling of decisions and accounts.
DBD Test Kitchen
HAG offered to bring his Ooni to the Tahoe ski trip so i will get to taste his pizzas in real life
i see that i am late to the thread here .. since it was discussed already
The wife made white pizza, with roasted garlic & broccolini. Tasty, had it with a 2015 Brunello, the first 2015 Brunello I've had - it was amazing. The 2016's are supposed to be even better.
I'm going skiing with HSB and a MS/HS friend in Tahoe next week. Going to bring up the Ooni and try to make pizzas if I am able to clear up some space on their deck. Supposedly they had 3 feet of snow last time they were up there.
I just learned that Camp Chef makes a pizza oven attachment that will fit over our tailgate cookers. The lady friend and I will be purchasing and testing out the feasibility of doing pizza at tailgates.
I am ready to assist with prep next season.
well maybe it's time for me to crash a tailgate
oh nice. I love cooking with the Ooni. Hopefully the Camp Chef will work
here i go again
I mentioned this last week, my friend and I will be doing an avalanche course that weekend, at Castle Peak I believe. Still trying to figure out if we are going to snow camp that Saturday or just drive up from Nevada City that Saturday, then again Sunday. I'm afraid the lack of snow since late December will make the course less educational...
I have. They have the most miles of terrain of the three X Country resorts (the other two are Tahoe-Donner and Auburn Ski Club). They also have the steepest terrain. Really, you can't go wrong with any of the three options. I took a skate ski lesson at ASC. It was a great lesson and if IIRC the lesson included gear and a pass for the entire day.
It looks like temps in the mid to high 40s but HSB is wondering how much of the snow turned to ice so it's still around. Their cabin is at Northstar I think.
Yeah I Figured you meant the cabin. Our friend said they had 3 feet of fresh powder in the back yard last time they were there.
We'll see how my skiing goes. I haven't skied in 27 years, the year No 1 was born.
I skied for the first time a few years ago after a 20 year hiatus. Was surprised how quickly it came back, and I was never that great to begin with.
I'm not so much worried about my ability to get down the mountain (more worried if it's icy) but more my legs. I have a feeling halfway down the first run my legs will turn into jelly.
Do lots of squats this week. Also, go late morning to avoid ice.
I haven't done any lifting since HS, and even then it was limited. It's been mostly the bike at the gym since I've been having plantar fasicitis and can't really run. So I guess that'll have to do. No 1 does this one where he puts the bands between his knees and squats. Maybe I'll do that some the next couple of days.
I've switched to induction cooktop. There's a learning curve for sure. It goes from 1-10, but 1-6 is a gentle simmer. 7 seems to be sautee. 8 is very hot. 9 is burn things quickly. 10 boils a full pot of room temperature water in 60 seconds. It really lacks the touch of gas, but man, is it easy to clean. Also, our kid just inherited the nicest set of college cookware ever.
I have been thinking of making this switch as well. I’m fully on board but it is hard to get my wife to make the switch. Correct me if I’m wrong but one plus to an induction is you can’t accidentally burn yourself if the cooktop burners are on?
If it helps, I recently read this Twitter thread on gas stoves and indoor air quality that has me rethinking my love of gas stoves:
https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/1481746460378992641?s=20
I'm still never switching if I can avoid it. I love the sensitivity of cooking with gas.
Thanks for sharing. Interesting that a hood and ventilation would have no effect on NO2 released by a gas stove. That seems to defy logic.
It does defy logic.
We have had a gas stove with a Vent-A-Hood for 19 years and I know the air quality is better with the hood than without it.
We make sure to open the windows about 3" to allow fresh air to enter the kitchen and improve air flow in the range area.
Then again, a Vent-A-Hood pulls serious cfm unlike those Broan vents.
Wife and I just had a new gas stove installed, so for financial reasons it is probably going to be a while before we change again. Its a good thing our kitchen is very open-concepty (and we have an outdoor kitchen where I like to do a lot of cooking anyways).
UCLA tailgate at the Clapdocs!
That’s the main reason I want to get rid of it. I removed my old wall natural gas heaters, I plan on replacing my natural gas water heater next summer with a tankless electric water heater. The gas stove will be the last thing to go and then my house will be fully electric.
Welcome to the 1950's!
Our refrigerator delivery has been delayed, so we are getting by with a li'l college fridge - which is only big enough to hold bare essentials like cream for coffee. So we're eating out two out of 3 meals, which I'm growing tired of. The meals we are eating-in are made from foods that don't spoil quickly at room temperature. Basically anything at the grocery store that they keep out on unrefridgerated displays - potatoes, onions, tomatoes, avocados, chayote, garlic, tomatillos, tortillas. I've been having Mexican-style food.
You need some cup of noodles to go with that college fridge for the complete college experience.
Top Ramen. My brother in law swears the only way he and my sister in law survived school and early marriage was a copy of "1,001 Ways to Cook Top Ramen".
Costco has Shin Black ramen cups. Also their Tonkatsu Ramen bowls are excellent.
I will third those Tonkatsu Ramen bowls.
I second those ramen bowls. Those are delicious and make a great lunch in a pinch.
DBD AV Club
I've been watching "Gloria" on Netflix, a series made with Portuguese television station RTP, sort of a spy-whodunnit set at a Radio Free Europe broadcast facility in 1968 or thereabouts. It's pretty good, I thought, in terms of pacing and throw-away lines and such. One thing that came as a surprise was that I had learned a little bit about Portuguese politics in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a country seminar course about Angola when I was in college, and it 1) was still in the old noggin, and 2) helped make a little sense of the plotlines.
I guess I'm still enjoying Boba Fett, but I think Mandalorian was better.
Ep4 was better than the terrible Ep3, but I still find it underwhelming on the whole. I don't see the point of the weird flashback structure they were using before; seems like the series could have basically just started here, or just have been told in linear fashion.
The flashbacks provide good context and in the past two episodes it is paralleling the Mandalorian ie taking place at the same time, same location (stormtroopers helmets on pikes, and Amy Sedaris's character and her robots in the background). Where I think I'm lost with yesterday's episode was the trip to the sarlacc to retrieve his armor... Didn't he escape the pit with the armor intact (use of the flamethrower) and was robbed by the jawas once he did? So why did he go back? Does he not remember escaping weith it or being robbed?
i'm behind and just watched episode 2. I do like it but I think it's just different than The Mandalorian.
I think it is hard to say which is better at this point. The fist season of The Mandalorian was good but it didn’t hit its stride until the last few episodes of season 1.
The AV Club shutters as staff is unwilling to move to LA from Chicago (for the same salaries) so they, collectively, took the buy-out
Probably fair to say that the AV Club as we knew it is gone, though.
Did you read the book? I’m excited to watch the series. From the few reviews of the show that I’ve read, it seems like the changes made to adapt the book to TV only made the the story better and might be one of those rare times where the TV adaptation is better than the book.
Our Crumbling Democracy
Sure, it's a slip of the tongue, but is it really?
https://twitter.com/bse229/status/1484007688866566150
It's not just him. I've probably shared this before, but a coworker was talking about her son (she's white, and her husband is Indonesian of Chinese descent), and another coworker asked, "Does he look more Asian or more American?"
Here's something related:
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2022/01/03/st-louis-tv-anchor-reclaims-veryasian-in-viral-video
There was a nice followup on CBS morning today, but I haven't found it online yet. Apparently Ms. Li got an apology from the person in question.
wow
Senate bid to challenge the filibuster fails 52-48 as Sinema and Manchin side with GOP.
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1484005853451722753
Between this and the stalled social spending plan, it seems like Biden's legislative agenda is now dead
Biden said yesterday what many have speculated, that the $1.7 trillion BBB is dead but that some smaller form of BBB will be passed. Sounds like the only confirmed item that will be cut out is the expanded child tax credit.
Perhaps they can work with Romney to pass his expanded child tax credit plan.
I also believe something bipartisan will be passed to reform the electoral count act.
I also hope that the Dems and Biden work the GOP to pass a federal minimum wage increase to $12 an hour.
This really is his own fault, and the fault of the progressives who seem to forget that 50 votes are needed to pass anything.
I'm sorry, how is that progressives' fault? They've shown up when anything has come to vote in the House, as far as I can tell.
I think Biden and some "progressives" created unrealizable expectations without first making sure if they really had their ducks in order when they actually didn't. Whether that was a "mistake" or if it was all just a way to put sound bytes on file for future use is unclear to me.
I think you can make an argument that this approach was good for the progressives trying to further their long-term agenda (didn't get it passed this time, but it's in the conversation now) and bad for Biden and his approval ratings and short-term Democratic Party prospects. Though the latter were likely already going to be bad in the midterm anyway.
We're not talking about a parliament. The legislation doesn't conform specifically to what Biden wants, and it was moderate Democratic members of Congress who torpedoed BBB repeatedly. They're not obligated to vote for something that they think their constituents won't like, but unless the starting proposition is that progressive Reps shouldn't even propose something that the rest of the party won't like, and Pelosi & other leadership should cut off anything that won't be supported by moderates, then I don't see how this is specifically the fault of progressives.
my tangential rant is that this is why I shake my head a bit when people say we need 3 or more parties: we have them, they just agglomerate under "Republican" or "Democratic" because Duverger's Law remains undefeated.
Was it not the progressives that demanded certain agenda items be included in BBB or they'd withhold support?
I don’t think it is Biden or the progressives fault. I suppose you could make the case that progressives tried to include too much “progressive” stuff in the bill, which scared off Manchin and Sinema. However, I don’t find the expanded child tax credit too progressive.
I don't think the value of the expanded CTC was quite as controversial as the fact that you no longer need earned income to qualify for the expanded CTC. Right or wrong, this carries with it the perception that you are giving away even more money to welfare recipients.
Why is that a bad thing?
I am not saying it is a bad thing for me, I am saying that it created issues for folks like Manchin. Also because the increased CTC and the expansion of the CTC to those with no earned income was initially part of COVID relief. I think these things created some major optics issues for Manchin's working class supporters who tend to complain the most about additional "free money" for welfare recipients.
If you ask me, a "family first" approach might include expanded CTC, but would start with universal childcare. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that this is not only good for children's social and emotional development, but also creates greater opportunities for working families to, you know, go work. It speaks volumes about this country's emotional maturity (or lack thereof) that this would be a controversial proposal.
I don’t think it should have an earned income component but it should have a maximum income component to phase out high income earners, which I believe the current one did.
What could he have done? I ask in all honesty, have not followed all that closely
The progressives should have held the line on voting for infrastructure only once they struck a deal on BBB. Once they gave that away, they lost all leverage over Manchin. At the same time, they also should have made greater concessions on the BBB. The progressives are miserably failing to understand that you should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Maybe, but once they gave way, they should voted on it quickly and trumpeted as a great win (which it was). Instead it got covered in inter-party fighting goo, which was the biggest case of political malpractice I can remember.
Take the win!
Pointless infighting is what the American Left does best!
Very true, but it may come in second only to failing miserably at framing political arguments.
IMO his only "fault" is to have raised people's expectations that all of this could be done. This bill especially was always a reach with a 50/50 Senate.
SCOTUS decides not to hear bid for Trump to withhold his documents from 1/6 Commission. While it's all fluff until something actually happens, this is a giant step forward for Trump actually getting prosecuted.
https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-congress-donald-trump-30d5d01db49f0591d641d9e92d4092a8
Trump is not going to be prosecuted, full stop.
Not directly by the 1/6 Commission, anyways. The evidence uncovered might find its way into the New York case against the Foundation, but yea.
This could be a big development, or maybe not. Trump so far appears to be coated in teflon.
Today in Omicron
Was supposed to hop on a plane tomorrow to go surprise my buddy in Austin on his 50th. Sent his wife and kids some spare Rona test kits just to be safe.
They came back positive. [Penny-whistle downslide].
we could have met up. I'm heading to Austin tomorrow to visit some good friends.
I have a hearing today in superior court. The court website indicates remote is not an option. I called the clerk and she said it is remote only, no in person. We’ll see what happens!
Pro
Naomi Osaka nearly hits umpire with a hard return shot. It's a good thing she didn't otherwise the you might see the Umpire Strike Back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRznZt1R-EI&t=1s
Djokovic considering to sue Australian government for lost prize money that he should have won had he played.
https://nypost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/nypost.com/2022/01/19/novak-djokovic-considers-lawsuit-against-australia/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16427021153053&_ct=1642702166223&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2022%2F01%2F19%2Fnovak-djokovic-considers-lawsuit-against-australia%2F
He's also been banned for 3 years.
hahahahahahahahaha - good luck with that.
Denver traded a 12-year old to San Antonio
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1483663016524607492
Norton uninstalled
https://www.fieldgulls.com/2022/1/18/22890257/its-official-seattle-seahawks-fire-ken-norton-jr-defensive-coordinator-andre-curtis-passing-game
Triple flair
https://twitter.com/redbull/status/1483462002072768516
Woooooo!
The old box-and-two defense.
https://twitter.com/NBCSWizards/status/1483987790236954624
And based on the comments the official didn't call it.
Other College
Didn't know if it belongs here on in "Today in Omnicron", because I'm not sure if its Omnicron specifically. Today, WSU cancelled its 4th BB game this weekend against state of Oregon opponents. It took them all week, and 4 press releases (which did get them some headline and click play), but they have finally cancelled both WBB & MBB games for the next 4 days.
First it was the delta variant, and then omnicron, and now we have Coug Covid to worry about! Great.
A weekend in Pullman in late January with no basketball games on campus or within driving distance should pretty much empty out the beer supply (and why do I suspect another press release will be forthcoming when that ends so well?).
USC football: Colorado transfer WR Brenden Rice, Jerry Rice's son, commits to Trojans
https://247sports.com/Article/USC-football-Colorado-transfer-WR-Brenden-Rice-Jerry-Rices-son-commits-to-Trojans-180900263/
I'm cautiously optimistic about the transfers that Riley et al have been picking up. Might help change the shape of the "improvement curve" as it were.
Dunno, DCT, I think the schematic and culture shift alone that Riley brought with him would've been enough for the Trojans to contend in '22.
The fact that he immediately landed an elite WR transfer from Norman, lured 5* HS recruits, and then picked up arguably the best players on both offense and defense from a division rival should have the fanbase pumped!! With DTR's return and Dart's impending transfer to BYU/WVU/ or Ole Miss, it seems only a matter of time before Williams hops on board.
I've been reassured by the fact that he got a couple of experienced transfer linemen, because that has been a real point of weakness.
I really wish Dart would come to Cal. I know it won’t happen. Plummer just doesn’t get me even cautiously optimistic for our offense next season.
and what have you seen from Dart that makes you want him at Cal?
His ability to dominate the WSU defense that completely overwhelmed Chase and the Cal offense. His arm strength.
I’m not cautiously optimistic. I’m recklessly pessimistic about USC dominating the Pac 12 next season.
Especially if you get Caleb Williams.
as did the Colorado DB we thought was coming to Cal. We got Arik Armstead'd
Yeah, I guess we were counting our chickens before they hatched on that one.
Once I saw SC joined the fray, that looked like a no go...
We don't figure to win many recruiting battles v the University of Sichotic Cillers, at least for the foreseeable future...
Nope, especially with the big splash hire of Lincoln Riley.
Cal
Wilcox' extension announced, just heard.
5 years... my eyebrows are raised. One hopes the buyout is minimal cause if not, that is dumb as shit
Rose Bowl before I die. That's what my Dad said, but he died. Hopefully we'll be there before my demise in about 30 years.
Go Bears!!!