TCU sells almost the entire stadium to themselves, reserving section 411-415, 214-216, and 226 for visitors. No tix available on TCU or Cal website yet, but season ticket holders have put a few of their tickets online for sale for... what appears to be above-face value prices. I sincerely doubt that tickets will be hard to find for this game. The East side can obviously be hotter than the West side. TCU does say that tickets are $45 for singles and $25 for groups over 20.
I bet we can get a block of 20. Break even is 11.1 tickets. I have left a voice mail at the Group ticket sales. I bet we can all sit together and have cheaper seats. I'll keep y'all abreast of what they say.
I have a Cal alum friend who lives in Dallas - he's not very online, but I'm trying to see if he's going to the game. last time I saw him in person was at the Armed Forces Bowl.
On AirBNB I found a small entire guest suite in the bluebonnet neighborhood. Or there are a bunch of small ones east of Berkeley Place. All reasonably priced. The one in bluebonnet is really small so I may go with the ones east of Berkeley Place.
Let me check out the bluebonnet one again since it's in the same neighborhood. It's a small guest suite that is attached to the main house that is also an air bnb. Would be crazy if it was the same address. The reason I went away from it was that it seemed to be really small and if I'm going to be there until Tues morning I didn't want something super cramped
I don't really have a group of friends. I have work peers who I call friends. We occasionally do away-from-work things maybe 4x/year. But, we don't confide in each other or just sit around the rec room and watch TV.
That said, I've kept in contact with my best friend from college. He was my best man at my wedding back in '94. We've facebooked over the years, but nothing deep. Now that I'm back in the Bay Area, we saw each other and talked in person for the first time in almost a decade. It was just a natural free-flowing conversation conversation, same rhythms and everything. We both remarked on how natural it felt, and how it felt good. I'm glad my best friend is back in my life.
i dont know if i have ever had one exclusive best friend, either long term or in the moment but there is a short list of "closest friends" over the years and in general i am touch with most of them.
HeyAlumniGo and I have been friends since 6th grade, then HS and going to Cal ...
one of my closest friends from grad school died. he was shot by his girlfriends ex-boyfriend on Valentine's day before we finished school. there was a restraining order for him not to come by ...
the only friends i have truly drifted away from are the neighborhood foursome of boys from 2nd-12th grades in Moraga. we used to play 2-on-2 basketball, football, baseball, UNO, Monopoly etc.
HSB is the one friend that text with the most, almost daily. I've got a good friend I've known since 2nd grade but we just grab dinner maybe every few months. I used to see his parents at the away games but they haven't been to the last few.
I don't communicate with my good friends from Louisville much anymore, mostly a few parents from No 3's travel team. One old coworker that I was good friends with, I was going to do some fun programming projects with but I've been pretty lazy about working on it so I think he's moved onto other projects. i really need to start back up on that.
How many people have you considered your best friend through your life?
Do you still maintain contact with the ones from when you were much younger - like elementary, junior high, high school or even university?
I haven't talked to my elementary school best friend since high school graduation - but I see my high school best friend every few years. He went to CC, and then eventually transferred to Cal - I last saw him in person a Cal game.
My college best friend I still keep in annual contact - usually each other's birthdays. I saw her last time I was home - she looked exhausted - she's now a single mom who is undergoing separation with her husband. If I was still in the Bay Area, I suspect I'd see her a lot more.
I'm not really still in touch with anyone from elementary school (other than Facebook follows).
High school friends I did still keep in regular touch with, up until about 5 years ago when folks started having kids, moving away, etc.
I have one college friend who lives nearby who I do see regularly (or did before COVID anyway). For my "best" college friend, it's occasional chats online.
My best friend when I was in 6th grade I lost touch of, but bumped into him at Cal as a freshman, the friendship didn't really pick up. I've kept in touch with a couple of folks from Clark Kerr who mostly work at various jobs in the finance world, but we're not particularly close for the most part.
Hmmmm.... I haven't thought much about this, but as an Air Force brat, I moved about quite a bit, and I have a different history than most of you.
Berkeley - last saw him a few decades ago, but my wife is friends with the woman who babysat me.
El Segundo - nothing that lasted.
England - Stayed with him a couple of weeks when he was near St. Louis, and I was in Kansas City, and then again, down the same street in NoVa. in 4 years - lost track.
Kansas City - no friends, period.
Alabama - didn't keep up after H.S.
Berkeley/Cal - Friend #1, lost to cocaine & a cougar (human type), Friend #2, fell away, but his gf is my wife's bestie, we've visited them in England and Italy. Friend #3 was friends until very recently, lost to Trump's policies, which makes me sad.
Me, too! I mean, my dad worked for DoD so we moved every year or two. I would say until like age 12 or 13 all your friends are friends of convenience.
But then things flip very drastically from there. There is an anthropologist named Victor Turner (and others, too) who basically say that shared experiences of transitional states create deep bonds between people. I have found that to be true in my own life. My best friends are still my buddies from high school, college, and law school, in descending order, even though they are basically all out of the Bay Area now.
I've lost touch with my best friend from elementary school. My best friend from middle school through college died a decade ago from a heart attack. My best friends were from my time in Singapore, but it's harder keeping up with people who have moved back home to a place that isn't near me. That being said, I do hang out with a bunch of guys that I went to high school at MLB spring training.
My best friend from elementary school and my best friend from high school are both dead. I am still close to my best friend from college, who lives in Santa Rosa, and I've had one grown up best friend since we were both 22.
I have a friend from pre formal education! We only chat occasionally, but we've known each from 4 . . .so that's 42 years. We met at piano lessons (she and her two sisters were usually after me)
How was Fast 9? I think it will be the first movie I'll watch in the theaters, though maybe I'll wait for it to stream. I'll definitely watch Top Gun in the theater.
No 1 and I were talking about how Sly looks and sounds dumb but is a bright guy. Wrote a screen play, etc. Then we mentioned that Dolph Lundgren has a PhD in engineering, although it looks like it was a masters in ChemE. We also mentioned Brian May.
Despite the dumb title I am getting a kick out of the podcast "60 Songs that Explain the 90's," particularly the associative, hilarious monologues which start each episode.
It's not out here in China yet because the 100th Anniversary of the CPC was just on July 1, and there's like 4 huge propaganda movies in the theaters right now (and Peter Rabbit 2) - so I suspect they won't let a huge american blockbuster come in a take all those ticket receipts just yet. I might just pay the $30 to Disney+ this weekend
99% of Chinese propaganda movies are turrible. (The 800 from two years ago was ok - but man there was so many mental gymnastics to avoid mentioning that the heroes of the movie were Nationalists - they holed up in a factory in Shanghai and held their own against an invading japanese force and sacrificed to give the rest of the Chinese nationalist military time to get away)
I love this dish. I find it works best with a shorter pasta that can grab the sauce, and I've always sliced rather than cubed the potatoes. For the best pesto, wash your basil in cold water and let it soak for 5 minutes a couple of times. It makes it substantially less bitter and sharp.
They've been doping FOREVER. My understanding of the European POV is, it's not the cheating that people care about. It's FIGHTING against accusations. No one really cares if you dope, everyone cares if you deny that you dope.
Nats-Padres was supposed to be a marquee game with Scherzer and Darvish pitching. Darvish gave up six in three innings and was out. Eventually Nats led 8-0. But in the bottom of the fourth Scherzer hit two and walked in a run, all with two strikes on the batter. Then with two outs he gave up a two strike slam to a reliever making his second career at bat. Pads scored seven in the inning and later walked it off 9-8. Not what was advertised.
Scherzer actually didn’t make a bad pitch to Camarena…low and in, it wasn’t even a strike but lefties love the low ball & he dropped the head of the bat on it & golfed it out like a 2-iron.
Yeah, in the post game interview he was less concerned about the slam than with not putting away guys earlier in the inning when he had two strikes on them.
Lately the Oakland A’s have been doing just enough to lose games. On Thursday they finally did just enough to win one.
The A’s scored two runs in the 1st inning and held onto that lead for the rest of the afternoon in a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. The win in the series finale avoids a sweep at the hands of the AL West division rivals.
Oakland’s offense struck right away in the opening frame, just as they had in the first two games of this series against the Astros. Elvis Andrus doubled, and Matt Olson followed with a shallow fly to no-man’s land in left field that barely landed fair for a lucky double and an RBI. Three batters in, they had their first run, and then Jed Lowrie singled to drive home Olson.
I don't remember if it was yesterday or a couple of days ago but there was an Asstrisks fan that threw a foam piece of cheese into the A's bullpen with writing about Fiers the rat. That's some bullshit right there.
After a taxing couple of days from the Dodgers bullpen, Julio Urias went seven innings in LA’s 6-1 victory over the Marlins. After losing three straight games in Miami, the Dodgers will have a happy flight back to Los Angeles after a 5-3 road trip.
With Friday being another bullpen game for the Dodgers, it was going to be crucial for him to try and eat as many innings as possible. Well, he did just that. For the fifth time this season, Urias went seven innings. His 101 pitches were a season-high, so he really gave LA everything he had.
For the game, Urias had nine strikeouts and was essentially in control all game. The lone run he allowed came in the first inning off a solo home run, but that was it. The only other time the Marlins had any kind of potential rally was in the sixth inning. They had two runners on with one out, but Urias escaped the inning without allowing a run.
ESPN's FPI has Cal at a dismal 74th nationally, ahead of only OSU and Arizona in the conference. I guess they forgot that we beat Oregon last year and were decimated by Covid absences... 🐻🐻🐻🐻
Yup...the national media is basing their projections way too much on the results of 2020...not saying the Bears are slated for Pasadena, but at something close to full strength, Cal is a very competitive squad, with depth and experience. With even basic competency of Musgrave's offense, Cal will be fringe top 25.
DFW TCU weekend schematics...
Our AirBnB is located near TCU campus in the Bluebonnet neighborhood of Ft Worth.
Game tickets are next on the list...StubHub the best lead?
Rangers ticket count
1 for me, 1 for HSB.
4, including Newellbany, and 2 friends, but let me get his thoughts....he has a specific plan of attack when visiting new ballparks...
TCU sells almost the entire stadium to themselves, reserving section 411-415, 214-216, and 226 for visitors. No tix available on TCU or Cal website yet, but season ticket holders have put a few of their tickets online for sale for... what appears to be above-face value prices. I sincerely doubt that tickets will be hard to find for this game. The East side can obviously be hotter than the West side. TCU does say that tickets are $45 for singles and $25 for groups over 20.
https://gofrogs.com/sports/2019/2/18/football-tickets.aspx#
I bet we can get a block of 20. Break even is 11.1 tickets. I have left a voice mail at the Group ticket sales. I bet we can all sit together and have cheaper seats. I'll keep y'all abreast of what they say.
I am happy to participate in the cost of a block ticket section.
I have a Cal alum friend who lives in Dallas - he's not very online, but I'm trying to see if he's going to the game. last time I saw him in person was at the Armed Forces Bowl.
2, me & my son.
let's do an informal count. 1 for me and 1 for HSB.
We are 3 or 4.
We're 8, including Newellbany and our crew from the Ole Miss trip.
Also, the top level seats are not bad seats because they tier the levels so the stadium goes up more than open bowl colosseums like Memorial.
the stadium is extremely intimate. We had seats behind the Cal bench and they were great
for the Air Force bowl game I should have added
I almost froze that game.
You're not the only one.
We had the club seats, which were higher, good views.
Sounds great. Thanks for the intel, SGB...
What about through Cal? I just checked seatgeek and the endzones are in the 50s. 2nd deck behind the visitors is 125-150
Also, I just checked Rangers tickets and 1st deck behind the 3rd base dugout are only $75.
On AirBNB I found a small entire guest suite in the bluebonnet neighborhood. Or there are a bunch of small ones east of Berkeley Place. All reasonably priced. The one in bluebonnet is really small so I may go with the ones east of Berkeley Place.
Cool. We have a pretty sweet backyard setup at the Airbnb & we’re gonna fire up the grill Sunday…apparently there’s a tv on the patio.
As for Cal tix, I figured getting seats w/ Cal crew would be great!
Let me check out the bluebonnet one again since it's in the same neighborhood. It's a small guest suite that is attached to the main house that is also an air bnb. Would be crazy if it was the same address. The reason I went away from it was that it seemed to be really small and if I'm going to be there until Tues morning I didn't want something super cramped
Ya, tho a smaller place should be easier to get the A/C cranking!!!!
yeah that's true. I guess I should confirm it has AC, though I'd be surprised if it doesn't.
Best Friends
I don't really have a group of friends. I have work peers who I call friends. We occasionally do away-from-work things maybe 4x/year. But, we don't confide in each other or just sit around the rec room and watch TV.
That said, I've kept in contact with my best friend from college. He was my best man at my wedding back in '94. We've facebooked over the years, but nothing deep. Now that I'm back in the Bay Area, we saw each other and talked in person for the first time in almost a decade. It was just a natural free-flowing conversation conversation, same rhythms and everything. We both remarked on how natural it felt, and how it felt good. I'm glad my best friend is back in my life.
i dont know if i have ever had one exclusive best friend, either long term or in the moment but there is a short list of "closest friends" over the years and in general i am touch with most of them.
HeyAlumniGo and I have been friends since 6th grade, then HS and going to Cal ...
one of my closest friends from grad school died. he was shot by his girlfriends ex-boyfriend on Valentine's day before we finished school. there was a restraining order for him not to come by ...
the only friends i have truly drifted away from are the neighborhood foursome of boys from 2nd-12th grades in Moraga. we used to play 2-on-2 basketball, football, baseball, UNO, Monopoly etc.
HSB is the one friend that text with the most, almost daily. I've got a good friend I've known since 2nd grade but we just grab dinner maybe every few months. I used to see his parents at the away games but they haven't been to the last few.
I don't communicate with my good friends from Louisville much anymore, mostly a few parents from No 3's travel team. One old coworker that I was good friends with, I was going to do some fun programming projects with but I've been pretty lazy about working on it so I think he's moved onto other projects. i really need to start back up on that.
Courtship of Eddie's Father theme song. I never watched the show, but my cousins were big fans.
How many people have you considered your best friend through your life?
Do you still maintain contact with the ones from when you were much younger - like elementary, junior high, high school or even university?
I haven't talked to my elementary school best friend since high school graduation - but I see my high school best friend every few years. He went to CC, and then eventually transferred to Cal - I last saw him in person a Cal game.
My college best friend I still keep in annual contact - usually each other's birthdays. I saw her last time I was home - she looked exhausted - she's now a single mom who is undergoing separation with her husband. If I was still in the Bay Area, I suspect I'd see her a lot more.
I'm not really still in touch with anyone from elementary school (other than Facebook follows).
High school friends I did still keep in regular touch with, up until about 5 years ago when folks started having kids, moving away, etc.
I have one college friend who lives nearby who I do see regularly (or did before COVID anyway). For my "best" college friend, it's occasional chats online.
My best friend when I was in 6th grade I lost touch of, but bumped into him at Cal as a freshman, the friendship didn't really pick up. I've kept in touch with a couple of folks from Clark Kerr who mostly work at various jobs in the finance world, but we're not particularly close for the most part.
Hmmmm.... I haven't thought much about this, but as an Air Force brat, I moved about quite a bit, and I have a different history than most of you.
Berkeley - last saw him a few decades ago, but my wife is friends with the woman who babysat me.
El Segundo - nothing that lasted.
England - Stayed with him a couple of weeks when he was near St. Louis, and I was in Kansas City, and then again, down the same street in NoVa. in 4 years - lost track.
Kansas City - no friends, period.
Alabama - didn't keep up after H.S.
Berkeley/Cal - Friend #1, lost to cocaine & a cougar (human type), Friend #2, fell away, but his gf is my wife's bestie, we've visited them in England and Italy. Friend #3 was friends until very recently, lost to Trump's policies, which makes me sad.
Me, too! I mean, my dad worked for DoD so we moved every year or two. I would say until like age 12 or 13 all your friends are friends of convenience.
But then things flip very drastically from there. There is an anthropologist named Victor Turner (and others, too) who basically say that shared experiences of transitional states create deep bonds between people. I have found that to be true in my own life. My best friends are still my buddies from high school, college, and law school, in descending order, even though they are basically all out of the Bay Area now.
I've lost touch with my best friend from elementary school. My best friend from middle school through college died a decade ago from a heart attack. My best friends were from my time in Singapore, but it's harder keeping up with people who have moved back home to a place that isn't near me. That being said, I do hang out with a bunch of guys that I went to high school at MLB spring training.
My best friend from elementary school and my best friend from high school are both dead. I am still close to my best friend from college, who lives in Santa Rosa, and I've had one grown up best friend since we were both 22.
Most of my closest homies are from High School....Newellbany and I have been best friends since 5th grade.
I have a friend from pre formal education! We only chat occasionally, but we've known each from 4 . . .so that's 42 years. We met at piano lessons (she and her two sisters were usually after me)
How was Fast 9? I think it will be the first movie I'll watch in the theaters, though maybe I'll wait for it to stream. I'll definitely watch Top Gun in the theater.
It was so dumb.
I just want to be entertained. if the movie isn't great but is entertaining I'll watch it. Hmm...explains some of the tv shows i watch.
Queen
Brian May has a PhD in astrophysics.
No 1 and I were talking about how Sly looks and sounds dumb but is a bright guy. Wrote a screen play, etc. Then we mentioned that Dolph Lundgren has a PhD in engineering, although it looks like it was a masters in ChemE. We also mentioned Brian May.
not just a Masters in ChemE, but it's from MIT
Elizabeth II
Don't Stop Me Now is my favorite Queen song.
Samesies, I blame Shaun of the Dead
Radio Ga Ga. I like the anthem feel of it.
same. Not a big Queen fan but it is Junior's favorite band
Fat Bottomed Girls would be mine
That song from Iron Eagle was pretty cool, too
I like the stuff from Highlander.
Is that what the kid played while he was flying? That movie was so bad it was good. I think I ended up watching all of them.
Under Pressure is my favorite. make me cry ... and not many things are in that category.
Still like Bohemian Rhapsody...
I do too, in fact I like quite a few Queen songs. I don't that I have a favorite, but I'm partial to Brighton Rock.
Our Crumbling Democracy
Should you get Paid to live in West Virginia's Trump Country?
https://www.politico.com/video/2021/07/09/paid-work-from-home-west-virginia-293408
Government interference! Sounds like socialism to me!
I'd pay $12k to not live in West Virginia.
DBD AV Club
Despite the dumb title I am getting a kick out of the podcast "60 Songs that Explain the 90's," particularly the associative, hilarious monologues which start each episode.
https://www.theringer.com/60-songs-that-explain-the-90s
Who saw Black Widow?
It's not out here in China yet because the 100th Anniversary of the CPC was just on July 1, and there's like 4 huge propaganda movies in the theaters right now (and Peter Rabbit 2) - so I suspect they won't let a huge american blockbuster come in a take all those ticket receipts just yet. I might just pay the $30 to Disney+ this weekend
99% of Chinese propaganda movies are turrible. (The 800 from two years ago was ok - but man there was so many mental gymnastics to avoid mentioning that the heroes of the movie were Nationalists - they holed up in a factory in Shanghai and held their own against an invading japanese force and sacrificed to give the rest of the Chinese nationalist military time to get away)
DBD Test Kitchen
Probably grilling some burgers this eve.
Going to make Trentte Ala Pesto from Luca this weekend
https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2021/06/28/recipe-how-to-make-trenette-al-pesto-from-pixars-luca/
I love this dish. I find it works best with a shorter pasta that can grab the sauce, and I've always sliced rather than cubed the potatoes. For the best pesto, wash your basil in cold water and let it soak for 5 minutes a couple of times. It makes it substantially less bitter and sharp.
I was told to let the potatoes and green beans boil longer than in the Pixar recipe.
Today in Covid 19
Pfizer requests approval for a third booster shot.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/pfizer-seeks-approval-for-a-third-covid-shot-in-august.html
Scheduled second vaccination
Nice. Which one?
Chinese
he's definitely getting 6G
Instead of Microsoft downloads, everything is TenCent.
(It's sinoVac- the other Chinese one is Sinopharm)
Pro
Mark Cavendish wins his fourth sprint of the Tour de France, equaling Eddy Merckx's all-time record for individual stage wins.
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/07/mark-cavendish-wins-34th-tour-de-france-stage-matching-eddy-merckx/
I used to like the Tour, but man, the doping stuff just ruined it for me
They've been doping FOREVER. My understanding of the European POV is, it's not the cheating that people care about. It's FIGHTING against accusations. No one really cares if you dope, everyone cares if you deny that you dope.
A pro cycling explainer by analogy
https://www.velonews.com/events/tour-de-france/how-to-discuss-the-tour-de-france-with-non-cycling-fans/
…but brady did win the super bowl with his new team
Nats-Padres was supposed to be a marquee game with Scherzer and Darvish pitching. Darvish gave up six in three innings and was out. Eventually Nats led 8-0. But in the bottom of the fourth Scherzer hit two and walked in a run, all with two strikes on the batter. Then with two outs he gave up a two strike slam to a reliever making his second career at bat. Pads scored seven in the inning and later walked it off 9-8. Not what was advertised.
Scherzer actually didn’t make a bad pitch to Camarena…low and in, it wasn’t even a strike but lefties love the low ball & he dropped the head of the bat on it & golfed it out like a 2-iron.
Yeah, in the post game interview he was less concerned about the slam than with not putting away guys earlier in the inning when he had two strikes on them.
Suns beat the Bucks 118-108.
I don't see any way the Bucks beat the Suns, especially with Giannis shooting 50%ish on FTs. They'll need Middleton to go off if they have a chance.
Game #89: A’s win! Against the Astros!
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/7/8/22569254/oakland-as-game-89-houston-astros-score-result
Lately the Oakland A’s have been doing just enough to lose games. On Thursday they finally did just enough to win one.
The A’s scored two runs in the 1st inning and held onto that lead for the rest of the afternoon in a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. The win in the series finale avoids a sweep at the hands of the AL West division rivals.
Oakland’s offense struck right away in the opening frame, just as they had in the first two games of this series against the Astros. Elvis Andrus doubled, and Matt Olson followed with a shallow fly to no-man’s land in left field that barely landed fair for a lucky double and an RBI. Three batters in, they had their first run, and then Jed Lowrie singled to drive home Olson.
Now onto Texas. Being 4.5 games back is a lot better than being 6.5 games back if the A's had lost.
I don't remember if it was yesterday or a couple of days ago but there was an Asstrisks fan that threw a foam piece of cheese into the A's bullpen with writing about Fiers the rat. That's some bullshit right there.
Or a copy of The Departed DVD
Giants are lazy and didn't play yesterday
Exposed their secret to not mis-managing an opportunity for a win; don't play.
Maybe Cal can use the same strategy schedule more Saturdays against BYE
Julio Urias gives Dodgers bullpen much needed day off in win
https://www.truebluela.com/2021/7/8/22568922/julio-urias-los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-news-miami-marlins-recap
After a taxing couple of days from the Dodgers bullpen, Julio Urias went seven innings in LA’s 6-1 victory over the Marlins. After losing three straight games in Miami, the Dodgers will have a happy flight back to Los Angeles after a 5-3 road trip.
With Friday being another bullpen game for the Dodgers, it was going to be crucial for him to try and eat as many innings as possible. Well, he did just that. For the fifth time this season, Urias went seven innings. His 101 pitches were a season-high, so he really gave LA everything he had.
For the game, Urias had nine strikeouts and was essentially in control all game. The lone run he allowed came in the first inning off a solo home run, but that was it. The only other time the Marlins had any kind of potential rally was in the sixth inning. They had two runners on with one out, but Urias escaped the inning without allowing a run.
Other College
Why College Football Playoff expansion is a complicated task with the potential for significant fallout
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/why-college-football-playoff-expansion-is-a-complicated-task-with-the-potential-for-significant-fallout/
Cal
ESPN's FPI has Cal at a dismal 74th nationally, ahead of only OSU and Arizona in the conference. I guess they forgot that we beat Oregon last year and were decimated by Covid absences... 🐻🐻🐻🐻
https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi
Yup...the national media is basing their projections way too much on the results of 2020...not saying the Bears are slated for Pasadena, but at something close to full strength, Cal is a very competitive squad, with depth and experience. With even basic competency of Musgrave's offense, Cal will be fringe top 25.
Go Bears!!