Several months ago, I somehow got really into reading and watching documentaries on art restorations. It's a curious thing, particularly for paintings where even some of the classics have had a ton of overpainting by past "restorers". The most expensive painting in the world right now, Salvador Mundi with controversial attribution to Leonardo da Vinci, may also be more painted by the restorer than Leonardo originally.
But the problems in Spain are apparently that any random person can be hired to do these works with very little proof of skills. It's like the plot of that Mr. Bean movie, over and over and over again.
Johnny Adams, RB 2018 Commit. Mr. Football in Indianapolis, but appeared to have gotten homesick for his highschool girlfriend. He tried to get a spot in Indiana - even as a walk-on - and failed. He now just seems to be just kickin' it in Indianapolis.
UNLV has been the receiving grounds for many Cal transfers recently.
Max Gilliam is the current starting QB, who is putting up Ross Bowers like numbers (sub-60% completion, getting sacked at a historically fast pace, better short passer, and will occasionally rip off a highlight reel athletic feat. Backing him up is Justin Rodgers, the QB that Cal couldn't sack despite having no feeling in one foot in the Cheez-Its Bowl. Rodgers completed 2 passes for negative 1 yard this year, which now means his career passing is 3 of 5 for zero yards. Gilliam takes over from a previous Cal decommit, Armani Rogers, who was not very good, struggling to complete half of his passes.
Vic Viramontes, a former QB, is now the starting MLB for the Rebels. He is tied for third on the team in tackles.
Biaggio Ali Walsh transferred, had 1 special team tackle in 2019, and is no longer on the team. He seemed more interested in being famous than playing ball/academics.
Kaleo Ballungay had his offer rescinded after DJ Rogers committed (sad penny whistle). He is a freshman TE and is not on the 2 deep depth charts.
Ross Bowers grad transfer after finishing his undergrad degree early in 2017 with two years of eligibility left.
He goes to NIU, where he continues on pace with what he did in 2017 - average accuracy, below average pocket-awareness that leads to sacks, inopportune INTs, and losing most conference games despite the scores being competitive. Not all of it is Ross' fault. Ross is also going to be a daddy.
Melquise Stovall. Decent freshman year at Cal. Got hurt early in his sophomore year, got suspended at Cal then transferred to a JC. Then transferred to Hawaii, then played only a bit before getting kicked off the team. Allowed to return this year. 2nd string. Has 6 catches through 3 games.
Oregon State has a pretty full receiver room, and several of them are pretty good. He isn't the only one who didn't find the top of the depth chart, and that wasn't his expectation at time of transfer.
Demetrius Robertson transferred to Georgia due to homesickness and desire to closer to his family. He was granted transfer and was exempted from sitting the next year, but was played for only 4 game to preserve his redshirt. He caught zero balls that year. He is now a redshirt senior and is has caught fewer passes and gained about half as many yards as his freshman year at Cal. He was slated as a rotational slot receiver but has since been demoted to second string.
Yeah, it's kind of sad what has happened to him football-wise. The style that Georgia play is just not a good fit for him. You also got to wonder how much of the family hardship/responsibility that brought him back to Georgia is also weighing him down.
I was watching the game last weekend, I think, and heard his name and had forgotten he went there. Sounds like it ended up being a bad decision, football-wise.
A bit bummed that you are limiting this to current college players, because for some reason this comment made me think of Nate Longshore or Joe Ayoob, one of whom is working as a private jet salesman.
A quick perusal of his ESPN profile shows Charlie Moore sat for 2017–18, contributed little for Kansas in 2018–19, but started 32 games for DePaul in 2019–20.
I never went to any basketball games as a student, so my first Cal MBB game featured Charlie Moore and I went with a bunch of CGB/WFC people.
Charlie is an interesting & frustrating story....he originally committed to Memphis, meaning he's given his heart to 4 different institutes of higher learning...not sure he's got a 5th in him, but you never know. Maybe Loyola-Chicago or Northwestern are even closer to his family in Chicago, as he played that family-hardship card TWICE...(first to Kansas, then to DePaul). Like Jemarl Baker at UK, skill-wise he's more suited to the 2nd-five, at least when the roster is full of 5-star guards...
Full disclosure, as you can prob tell: I was pretty ticked when Charlie Moore bailed...he had a real good thing started at Cal, and was looking at a 4-years of starting at point...
Jemarl Baker de-committed from Cal and signed with Kentucky. He had to sit his 1st year with a knee (I believe), then played 2nd-team/garbage minutes in Lexington as a RS-FR before transferring to Tucson, where he played role-player minutes for U of A as a SO. He will be a JR this year, and while I'd like to say the grass ain't always greener, he DID avoid the program-altering, Wyking Jones shitshow, so there's that...
I'm looking forward to a non-family Thanksgiving (just my wife, myself, and possibly my brother). I still have trauma from the Thanksgiving that I cooked a full course meal myself all day only for my mom to show up at 10 pm after a dinner at her then-boyfriend's family's place.
i am going to have to revisit this in a week or so when i try to decide how to cook the turkey/chicken. it appears that at the rate coronavirus is spreading we may not even get together w/ one other family (my wife's sister and kids from Philly)
I brined a turkey for a couple of years for Thanksgiving about 15 years ago, the first time when the in-laws visited us for the first time in Ky. Was pretty good but after a couple of years we decided we didn't eat enough turkey to be worth it. Just ended up doing other stuff for Thanksgiving.
I do have some sort of cousin (dad's older brother's grandson) that brines a couple each year and deep frys them. I was there one year and his turkeys are really good. I think I would do the deep fry method if we had turkey again.
Starship Troopers 2. Watched it with the movie's lead because Mrs SGB went to high school with her older sister. Her acting was horrific. Tried and failed to look her in the eyes afterward.
I saw The Last Airbender (2010) in the theater, and didn't walk out either out of laziness or morbid curiosity. I went in with really high expectations, which made it all the more shocking.
Battlefield Earth...I actually spent money and saw this in the theater back in high school (although we went to the movies so frequently back then). Fun random fact, at the theater (the single screen Fox Theater in Westwood), my friends and I actually saw Ice Cube at the concession line.
As for the movie, I got nauseous from the angled shots, John Travolta was way over the top, and this film turned out to be only part 1 of the story (with part 2 never made).
in HS, @heyalumnigo and another friend and i tried to rent Steve Martin in A Man w/ Two Brains. but the VHS tapes got mixed up and when we got home it was not the movie we wanted, but Max Dugan Returns.
now that i think of it, it was sort of like Weekend at Bernie's which i thought was inane and terrible, too.
I listen to the comedy podcast "How Did This Get Made" in which they make fun of bad movies, so I've watched a lot of bad ones as I follow the episodes.
Maybe the most unpleasant one I saw was the Garbage Pail Kids Movie.
Slightly off topic but I've started to rewatch a lot of movies from the 80s and 90s. St Elmo's Fire is most dumpster fire of the bunch I've watched. Every single character in that movie is highly unlikeable. Just a bunch of assholes.
Never seen that one, watched Ferris Buller for the first time this year, I thought it was a lot of fun, but why oh why did they have to destroy that beautiful car?!?!?
Just to be sure, we are talking about the film with Jodie Foster, right? I hated that it started with childish superstition and didn't get any better from there. I can't give you a detailed review because I saw it in 1997 but I cannot honestly think of a film I hated more while watching it. I can think of films that were vastly worse in terms of having no moral or ethical center - Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer and Salo for instance - but in terms of straight affective response, that's probably it.
Perhaps if I watched more films I'd have a different answer
I liked Contact too, but not as much as some of the other people I know within science. I have also met the real-life woman (a Cal grad) whose SETI work inspired the Jodie Foster character (but more the original book version) and has also visited the Very Large Array in New Mexico where they filmed a large portion of the movie.
I also liked this movie, but this is not the first time I've run across someone who hated it. I think it sits in this strange in-between zone where it's almost a hard sci-fi movie and also partly a sentimental drama, and I think it messed with some folks' expectations.
GOOD CHOICE. I turned it off. I had a brief period of living near a video rental place that had a ton of choices for "serious" movie fans and discovered that some people confuse "depraved trash" for "serious commentary on man's inhumanity to man."
Also, speaking of walking out of a movie, years ago (obviously) we went to see Alien with my former BF & his wife, and both wives walked out of the movie when the alien made his appearance - which was too bad, because it's really a quite well done movie. Me and my friend stayed through the end, however.
I watched Aliens first on opening night. Had never even heard of Alien. My friends and I rented Alien the next night and watched it. I still like Aliens better, maybe because I saw it before Alien.
I'm a few episodes into Queen's Gambit (Netflix). Yet another topic that I had no interest in, but yet somehow got sucked into it. So far, it's really good.
i wouldnt say i am any good, but i have played a lot over the years, mostly in HS and college.
there is an elegance to the game in the sense that there is no trickery. you can see exactly what the other person is up to and you may still be powerless to stop it.
i have tried teaching both my girls. they know the rules and the moves but never really took to it. hopefully something will inspire them to do so some day and at least they will know the basics and hopefully not feel intimidated.
i was going to only talk about Go if someone else brought it up first.
i like Go a lot. i know the basics but would like to get better. any tips aside from just having someone else to play with who is better and willing to be patient and teach you?
You can try reading the Hikaru no go manga. That’s how my son and his friends got started. As middle schoolers they played in online tournaments against high schoolers.
That article was a load of crap. It was lipstick on a pig. It doesn't surprise me one little bit that the U$C crap band has those kinds of problems...it all has to do with their [bleep] director and the a-hole culture he instills in them. It's also funny that when describing the director (whose name shall not be mentioned), the article neglects to mention that the director has a habit of disrespecting other schools by playing at inappropriate times (such as last year at Cal when he directed his band to play during the moment of silence for Bryce Turner, who died in January of 2019). This behavior apparently goes back to at least the '70s to the game where Joe Roth's jersey was retired at Cal. This article has some background:
(Sorry if this doesn't paste as a link...I'm an idiot about these things)
It's all about leadership. The Cal Band has been on a first-name-basis with its directors since Bob Briggs in the '70s, and the level of respect between teacher and student makes the students want to be better in all ways. Sure, the Cal Band has had its share of problems like any other band, but the students, who run the band, work WITH the director and the university to make it better. Seems like the students at U$C are actually afraid to voice their concerns to their director, and that's sad.
The other sad thing is that the tenor of the Daily Trojan article gives me the impression that the university is not going to do anything about it. It wouldn't surprise me to see the university take the position that the director is retiring soon anyway, so the change in leadership will cure the problems. Sorry, you can't cure 50 years of bad attitude that way.
it's mildly amusing - to me, anyway - that this relatively mild article will probably draw yet more outrage from older alumni who already loath the current administration. But then, pretty much anything does that.
The postal worker who claimed he was directed to backdate ballots, then recanted, then recanted his recantation. Well, he just re-re-recanted and pointed the finger at a right-wing operation.
Scotland just qualified for their first international tournament since the '98 World Cup. I'm already dreading the range of ways they will find to crash out disastrously.
Wikipedia: Witch Window
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_window
2007 VW Rabbit for sale in SF. Has some after-market add-ons.
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/d/san-francisco-2007-vw-rabbit/7228887078.html
I thought those were only available in the special edition Mein Kampfervan.
Looks like one of those posts someone does to prank someone. Use their phone number or email.
Oh man...
Spain has another art restoration debacle
https://twitter.com/artnet/status/1326561333878337536
Several months ago, I somehow got really into reading and watching documentaries on art restorations. It's a curious thing, particularly for paintings where even some of the classics have had a ton of overpainting by past "restorers". The most expensive painting in the world right now, Salvador Mundi with controversial attribution to Leonardo da Vinci, may also be more painted by the restorer than Leonardo originally.
But the problems in Spain are apparently that any random person can be hired to do these works with very little proof of skills. It's like the plot of that Mr. Bean movie, over and over and over again.
12
Give an update on a current college player who left Cal or decommitted.
Johnny Adams, RB 2018 Commit. Mr. Football in Indianapolis, but appeared to have gotten homesick for his highschool girlfriend. He tried to get a spot in Indiana - even as a walk-on - and failed. He now just seems to be just kickin' it in Indianapolis.
UNLV has been the receiving grounds for many Cal transfers recently.
Max Gilliam is the current starting QB, who is putting up Ross Bowers like numbers (sub-60% completion, getting sacked at a historically fast pace, better short passer, and will occasionally rip off a highlight reel athletic feat. Backing him up is Justin Rodgers, the QB that Cal couldn't sack despite having no feeling in one foot in the Cheez-Its Bowl. Rodgers completed 2 passes for negative 1 yard this year, which now means his career passing is 3 of 5 for zero yards. Gilliam takes over from a previous Cal decommit, Armani Rogers, who was not very good, struggling to complete half of his passes.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4035856/max-gilliam
Vic Viramontes, a former QB, is now the starting MLB for the Rebels. He is tied for third on the team in tackles.
Biaggio Ali Walsh transferred, had 1 special team tackle in 2019, and is no longer on the team. He seemed more interested in being famous than playing ball/academics.
Kaleo Ballungay had his offer rescinded after DJ Rogers committed (sad penny whistle). He is a freshman TE and is not on the 2 deep depth charts.
Ross Bowers grad transfer after finishing his undergrad degree early in 2017 with two years of eligibility left.
He goes to NIU, where he continues on pace with what he did in 2017 - average accuracy, below average pocket-awareness that leads to sacks, inopportune INTs, and losing most conference games despite the scores being competitive. Not all of it is Ross' fault. Ross is also going to be a daddy.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/stats/_/id/3858269/ross-bowers
Melquise Stovall. Decent freshman year at Cal. Got hurt early in his sophomore year, got suspended at Cal then transferred to a JC. Then transferred to Hawaii, then played only a bit before getting kicked off the team. Allowed to return this year. 2nd string. Has 6 catches through 3 games.
Saw then play Wyoming, and he was on the field as a kick returner.
Ricky Walker III. Grad transfer to Oregon State. Left the program last week.
https://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/2020/11/grad-transfer-receiver-ricky-walker-iii-leaves-oregon-state-football-program.html
Oregon State has a pretty full receiver room, and several of them are pretty good. He isn't the only one who didn't find the top of the depth chart, and that wasn't his expectation at time of transfer.
Demetrius Robertson transferred to Georgia due to homesickness and desire to closer to his family. He was granted transfer and was exempted from sitting the next year, but was played for only 4 game to preserve his redshirt. He caught zero balls that year. He is now a redshirt senior and is has caught fewer passes and gained about half as many yards as his freshman year at Cal. He was slated as a rotational slot receiver but has since been demoted to second string.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4035851/demetris-robertson
Yeah, it's kind of sad what has happened to him football-wise. The style that Georgia play is just not a good fit for him. You also got to wonder how much of the family hardship/responsibility that brought him back to Georgia is also weighing him down.
the grass is rarely greener on the other side
I was watching the game last weekend, I think, and heard his name and had forgotten he went there. Sounds like it ended up being a bad decision, football-wise.
A bit bummed that you are limiting this to current college players, because for some reason this comment made me think of Nate Longshore or Joe Ayoob, one of whom is working as a private jet salesman.
A quick perusal of his ESPN profile shows Charlie Moore sat for 2017–18, contributed little for Kansas in 2018–19, but started 32 games for DePaul in 2019–20.
I never went to any basketball games as a student, so my first Cal MBB game featured Charlie Moore and I went with a bunch of CGB/WFC people.
Charlie is an interesting & frustrating story....he originally committed to Memphis, meaning he's given his heart to 4 different institutes of higher learning...not sure he's got a 5th in him, but you never know. Maybe Loyola-Chicago or Northwestern are even closer to his family in Chicago, as he played that family-hardship card TWICE...(first to Kansas, then to DePaul). Like Jemarl Baker at UK, skill-wise he's more suited to the 2nd-five, at least when the roster is full of 5-star guards...
Full disclosure, as you can prob tell: I was pretty ticked when Charlie Moore bailed...he had a real good thing started at Cal, and was looking at a 4-years of starting at point...
Jemarl Baker de-committed from Cal and signed with Kentucky. He had to sit his 1st year with a knee (I believe), then played 2nd-team/garbage minutes in Lexington as a RS-FR before transferring to Tucson, where he played role-player minutes for U of A as a SO. He will be a JR this year, and while I'd like to say the grass ain't always greener, he DID avoid the program-altering, Wyking Jones shitshow, so there's that...
But will he get caught up in the Sean Miller saga?
Hopefully...
Brine
I have taken to brining my chicken in salted buttermilk. It makes for the juiciest chicken ever.
That's what the fried chicken recipe I use uses.
...will not save your turkey as turkey is a trash meat and should be thrown off the dinner table on thanksgiving.
More for me, but I admittedly don't have as refined of a palette as you do.
I find ground turkey to be an adequate replacement for ground beef if you just need something that's not tofu.
so dry though.
yeah works better in a sauce - bearing in mind I'm not talking about "fine" or "authentic" dining.
whenever the lady friend offers to make something with ground turkey, i always ask what else she has in the fridge.
I'm looking forward to a non-family Thanksgiving (just my wife, myself, and possibly my brother). I still have trauma from the Thanksgiving that I cooked a full course meal myself all day only for my mom to show up at 10 pm after a dinner at her then-boyfriend's family's place.
i am going to have to revisit this in a week or so when i try to decide how to cook the turkey/chicken. it appears that at the rate coronavirus is spreading we may not even get together w/ one other family (my wife's sister and kids from Philly)
then we may downsize the turkey to a chicken.
Just go to Chinatown and get a Duck. Yum.
I brined a turkey for a couple of years for Thanksgiving about 15 years ago, the first time when the in-laws visited us for the first time in Ky. Was pretty good but after a couple of years we decided we didn't eat enough turkey to be worth it. Just ended up doing other stuff for Thanksgiving.
I do have some sort of cousin (dad's older brother's grandson) that brines a couple each year and deep frys them. I was there one year and his turkeys are really good. I think I would do the deep fry method if we had turkey again.
We deep fry a brined turkey every year. It's still turkey, so it still sucks.
It sucks in a duck and a chicken. Or so I have heard.
Somewhere, a North Face vest just faded and pilled.
I think you're only supposed to brine it for a few days, not a couple of years? ;-)
that's what I did wrong...
Deep fried turkey is easily the best preparation of that meat that I've ever tasted
The worst movie you ever have seen from start to finish
Starship Troopers 2. Watched it with the movie's lead because Mrs SGB went to high school with her older sister. Her acting was horrific. Tried and failed to look her in the eyes afterward.
I saw The Last Airbender (2010) in the theater, and didn't walk out either out of laziness or morbid curiosity. I went in with really high expectations, which made it all the more shocking.
I'm not sure if it's the worst movie I've seen, but it's definitely the most lifeless. It was just dead on the screen.
Battlefield Earth...I actually spent money and saw this in the theater back in high school (although we went to the movies so frequently back then). Fun random fact, at the theater (the single screen Fox Theater in Westwood), my friends and I actually saw Ice Cube at the concession line.
As for the movie, I got nauseous from the angled shots, John Travolta was way over the top, and this film turned out to be only part 1 of the story (with part 2 never made).
Terrible movie.
Netflix's I Want To End Things.
Max Dugan Returns
in HS, @heyalumnigo and another friend and i tried to rent Steve Martin in A Man w/ Two Brains. but the VHS tapes got mixed up and when we got home it was not the movie we wanted, but Max Dugan Returns.
now that i think of it, it was sort of like Weekend at Bernie's which i thought was inane and terrible, too.
I forgot about getting Max Dugan Returns. Don't even recall watching it. Man with Two Brains on the other hand was great.
A Man with Two Brains, on the other hand, is HILARIOUS
Hmmmm.... I've never seen that, but I did like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.
That was also a good movie.
I listen to the comedy podcast "How Did This Get Made" in which they make fun of bad movies, so I've watched a lot of bad ones as I follow the episodes.
Maybe the most unpleasant one I saw was the Garbage Pail Kids Movie.
Talladega Nights, just a terrible movie all around.
Slightly off topic but I've started to rewatch a lot of movies from the 80s and 90s. St Elmo's Fire is most dumpster fire of the bunch I've watched. Every single character in that movie is highly unlikeable. Just a bunch of assholes.
Never seen that one, watched Ferris Buller for the first time this year, I thought it was a lot of fun, but why oh why did they have to destroy that beautiful car?!?!?
Yeah, St. Elmo's Fire feels like it was written by aliens trying to approximate human behavior. It's insane.
Plan 9 from Space - but I knew it was gonna be bad, so instead something like Crash should go here.
Crash was a terrible movie
Off topic, but last night I had a gratin with thinly sliced mushrooms that kinda tasted like truffles - any idea what they were?
porcini?
Maybe? Menu doesn't say, just "mushrooms" - which when you think about it is kinda a funny word.
That’s the most truffle like mushroom. Where was this from?
indeed, although almost funny at times.
Sherlock Gnomes. Blame the kid.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
Contact is right up there.
What?! Contact is a great movie, what is your issue with it?
I don't hate it but it can get rather preachy.
Just to be sure, we are talking about the film with Jodie Foster, right? I hated that it started with childish superstition and didn't get any better from there. I can't give you a detailed review because I saw it in 1997 but I cannot honestly think of a film I hated more while watching it. I can think of films that were vastly worse in terms of having no moral or ethical center - Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer and Salo for instance - but in terms of straight affective response, that's probably it.
Perhaps if I watched more films I'd have a different answer
Yep, we are talking about the same movie. Contact with Jodie Foster is a very good sci fi movie.
I liked Contact too, but not as much as some of the other people I know within science. I have also met the real-life woman (a Cal grad) whose SETI work inspired the Jodie Foster character (but more the original book version) and has also visited the Very Large Array in New Mexico where they filmed a large portion of the movie.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I also liked this movie, but this is not the first time I've run across someone who hated it. I think it sits in this strange in-between zone where it's almost a hard sci-fi movie and also partly a sentimental drama, and I think it messed with some folks' expectations.
Yup, good description.
I will never watch Salo.
Finally watched it on HBO and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was actually better than Star Trek Episodes 8 and 9.
No force or Jedi, just a fun space heist and the ending is great with the Maul reveal.
hahahahahhahahahaha
GOOD CHOICE. I turned it off. I had a brief period of living near a video rental place that had a ton of choices for "serious" movie fans and discovered that some people confuse "depraved trash" for "serious commentary on man's inhumanity to man."
Holmes & Watson and I dont think its close. I've never walked out of a movie but I should have here. So monumentally bad.
Also, speaking of walking out of a movie, years ago (obviously) we went to see Alien with my former BF & his wife, and both wives walked out of the movie when the alien made his appearance - which was too bad, because it's really a quite well done movie. Me and my friend stayed through the end, however.
You've talked about having an adventurous past, but you haven't talked about a BF before!
hehe. I bet Cugel also uses LOL for Lots of Love...
best friend, and hell maybe he wishes...
I walked out of my own house when that happened!
I watched Aliens first on opening night. Had never even heard of Alien. My friends and I rented Alien the next night and watched it. I still like Aliens better, maybe because I saw it before Alien.
Yes, terrible
The PAC 12 walks into a bar. Bartender asks what everyone is drinking...
ASU [holding up eight fingers to the DJ]: "12 sambucas, please"
Anti-viral medication.
Mostly microbrews for the majority of Pac 12 schools.
Heh, true, we are beer snobs
I mean beer all round, with the possible exception of Washington State chugging the Fireball
More been is consumed in Pullman than water. Which is impressive, given there is a lot of water in beer.
Koolaid was probably a pretty common response.
Chess
I'm a few episodes into Queen's Gambit (Netflix). Yet another topic that I had no interest in, but yet somehow got sucked into it. So far, it's really good.
yes, the Missus and I binged that in 3 nights. Is good show
Every time I see Queen's Gambit I think of the Queen's boat in Arrow.
*the Queens' boat
... Pie
This is now my favorite pie. It's essentially a baked custard pie.
https://www.thekitchn.com/chess-pie-263096
chess is hard, fun, takes forever to get good at.
i wouldnt say i am any good, but i have played a lot over the years, mostly in HS and college.
there is an elegance to the game in the sense that there is no trickery. you can see exactly what the other person is up to and you may still be powerless to stop it.
i have tried teaching both my girls. they know the rules and the moves but never really took to it. hopefully something will inspire them to do so some day and at least they will know the basics and hopefully not feel intimidated.
I'm good at chess, but much better at Go.
I'm terrible at both.
i am guessing you have seen the AlphaGo movie?
i love the fact that AlphaGoZero which is the next gen AlphaGo beat it 100-0.
i was going to only talk about Go if someone else brought it up first.
i like Go a lot. i know the basics but would like to get better. any tips aside from just having someone else to play with who is better and willing to be patient and teach you?
You can try reading the Hikaru no go manga. That’s how my son and his friends got started. As middle schoolers they played in online tournaments against high schoolers.
Somebody loaned me a book on Go strategies - but I never read it. Just learned (mainly) by playing.
Today in Covid
we're gonna rock down to... https://twitter.com/thehouseofpod/status/1326900725725736960?s=20
Corey Lewandowski has the 'rona and is blaming the good people of Philadelphia and not the White House virus party he attended.
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1326951659008876547?s=20
Moron
Elsewhere in college
ICYMI: Penn State's Rasheed Walker with perhaps the most disrespectful pancake block ever
https://twitter.com/RealQuintonMayo/status/1325900294576873472
You hate to see it. USC Marching band under investigation
https://dailytrojan.com/2020/11/11/marching-in-a-maligned-culture/
That article was a load of crap. It was lipstick on a pig. It doesn't surprise me one little bit that the U$C crap band has those kinds of problems...it all has to do with their [bleep] director and the a-hole culture he instills in them. It's also funny that when describing the director (whose name shall not be mentioned), the article neglects to mention that the director has a habit of disrespecting other schools by playing at inappropriate times (such as last year at Cal when he directed his band to play during the moment of silence for Bryce Turner, who died in January of 2019). This behavior apparently goes back to at least the '70s to the game where Joe Roth's jersey was retired at Cal. This article has some background:
https://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2019/11/17/20968895/california-golden-bears-usc-trojans-garbers-rector-tattersall-brown-jr-falaniko-bryce-turner-band
(Sorry if this doesn't paste as a link...I'm an idiot about these things)
It's all about leadership. The Cal Band has been on a first-name-basis with its directors since Bob Briggs in the '70s, and the level of respect between teacher and student makes the students want to be better in all ways. Sure, the Cal Band has had its share of problems like any other band, but the students, who run the band, work WITH the director and the university to make it better. Seems like the students at U$C are actually afraid to voice their concerns to their director, and that's sad.
The other sad thing is that the tenor of the Daily Trojan article gives me the impression that the university is not going to do anything about it. It wouldn't surprise me to see the university take the position that the director is retiring soon anyway, so the change in leadership will cure the problems. Sorry, you can't cure 50 years of bad attitude that way.
*Stepping down from my soap box*
it's mildly amusing - to me, anyway - that this relatively mild article will probably draw yet more outrage from older alumni who already loath the current administration. But then, pretty much anything does that.
Fine with me. No harm in cleaning up whatever crap Bartner is leaving behind.
Western Michigan's wild game vs. Toledo ends in a crazy way
https://twitter.com/ActionNetworkHQ/status/1326752756435091456?s=20
Very entertaining game!
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
The postal worker who claimed he was directed to backdate ballots, then recanted, then recanted his recantation. Well, he just re-re-recanted and pointed the finger at a right-wing operation.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/usps-staffer-richard-hopkins-told-agents-project-veritas-penned-his-ballot-tampering-claim?ref=home
I'm almost disappointed that it's not my neighbor Jack Burkman behind it. Sounds like his style.
I think it was too much effort for Burkmand and Wohl to set up.
Shooting a black EMT asleep in her own bed may be the second-worst thing L'ville PD did this year.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2020/11/11/lmpd-explorer-scandal-lawyers-say-police-lied-conceal-records/6224382002/
https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/1326702123862601729?s=20
PRO
Bieber & Bauer win Cy Young
Bieber was the no doubter. I was a little surprised Bauer won by as large a margin as he did.
CAL
Eh... now ASU is getting Cal'd. The Football God is angry.
https://twitter.com/ESPNRittenberg/status/1327007483253157888
We don't have an elsewhere in college topic today, but the postponed & cancelled list continues to grow.
Pitt at Ga Tech ppd, and the list of games for this weekend that are off has grown to 10. Double digits 2 weeks in a row.
Albatross closing
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Albatross-Pub-Berkeley-San-Pablo-closing-COVID-15719543.php
that was one of my favorite bars in Berkeley. perhaps a popular opinion
It was a chill joint.
Progression
Well, I'm getting older.
Ah, take my love, take it down
Oh, climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide will bring it down
Fleetwood Mac?
Google thinks it's from a song by the Dixie Chicks and Sheryl Crow.
The Dixie Chicks cover of Landslide is A+.
Fleetwood Mac was the first and I knew it was covered by Smashing Pumpkins. Didn't know they also had a cover.
I took Google's word for it. Obviously a mistake!
Scotland just qualified for their first international tournament since the '98 World Cup. I'm already dreading the range of ways they will find to crash out disastrously.
Their first international tournament for soccer, or first international tournament in any sport?
is there another sport? I kid I kid, this is for soccer.
I figured unicorn polo would be pretty popular in your motherland
Competitive haggis eating.
http://www.scottishfestivalchicago.org/haggis-eating-contest
Interesting article - if you're into this sort of thing - about an open-source Android version that doesn't involve Google and can be obtained on Fairtrade phones: https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/12/android_without_google_e_smartphone/
Interesting. Android without all the Google Services. I could see some people using this but not the majority.
I think it's the very definition of "niche."