GAME05

Forgot there was even a game on. I hate Thursday football. And then when it's your team that plays you're actually expected to be productive come Sunday.

2nd Apron means Bucks can't add salary and can't do a 2-for-1 where they send two small salaries to get a larger one in return. Considering the direction the team is going, the 2nd apron shouldn't really be a hindrance on anything they'd want to do, or at least I assume they're not looking to do some big-splash upgrade. 1st apron also means you can't get more salary than you give.

Once you're logged into NFL+ you can automatically hide all the scores. But in order to log in, you have to pass through a few pages which prominently display the scores.

Really, probably not, no. That's a hefty paycheck to walk away from. Plus maybe he'll tell himself that NOW they'll start winning with Adams there. I recognize their offensive line isn't the best, but they've got great players all over the place and every team has flaws. It doesn't make sense they'd be so bad unless the coaching staff really is that terrible.

The Jets' remaining schedule isn't all too terribly difficult, though it also isn't "We're playing the Jets" easy, either. And New York isn't a good enough team to consistently beat the mediocre teams yet, At home against the Rams will be difficult and at Buffalo won't even be serious football. You'd figure they'll drop at least two against Arizona, Seattle and Tuax2. That's 7-10 before Rodgers retires and Adams fires his agent for all the bad advice.

It really seems like the curse of your star player being able to do everything. Instead of adding glue guys or clean-up guys or guys who add to what the star is missing, the Bucks instead went after the extras. Nobody plays team ball because we weren't built like a team. We're left with five guys on the court and each of them think that when they touch the ball, they're the ones who have to score. I've heard if you're above the second apron you can only trade a player for one equally paid player, so that certainly complicates an Giannis trade. Maybe you'd have to involve a third team. Others were saying Giannis would be worth the equivalent of 10 first-rounders.

Still trying to come up with an idea for a girl who is something like 7-9 years old. Too young for the teen-girl stuff but also doesn't want to be thought of as that little kid. The other two around the same age I think I'm going with a Lululemon backpack (for the ~11 year old one). I think girls really like that brand and maybe she's reached the point of being brand-conscious. The other one is getting a kids' metal detector. I'm leaning to the idea of one of those big bags of sand which have non-prescious but pretty minerals in them and telling her I took the bag from a gem-mining company and I don't know if there's anything in it or not. Nah, think I'm going with a bonsai tree and trimmers for the other one. Good chance of hating it but girls like plants.

I'll cheer for the Cowboys so long as Ferguson catches the pass. I've otherwise grown somewhat indifferent. It's hard to hate something you don't so much fear anymore. A co-worker is a Cowboys fan. He was done after the Packers game and has never really come back from that. He gave up on this season many weeks ago and has been all for hitting the complete reset button. I asked what he would do if he had the #4 pick in the draft and he'd take a RB, which I thought was ridiculous.

I mentioned this last year, but I bought a Crokinole board a couple years ago (Canadian carroms) and it was great. There's also the Unique Dice company for dice games like D&D. I know a few people who do "board game nights" with friends once a week. Really a great idea. Must be all the adults who played co-op video games as kids and want the same thing back but more social.

CenturyLink/Brightspeed won't service my house anymore. They're replacing all their copper line with fiber and they just don't want to or can't get to my house. All that I have available is Starlink, but I have enough tree cover that it's reallllly slow and somehow getting worse. Took about 30 seconds to open this page up. Trying to find an antenna installer to get it above the trees but nobody has picked up the phone, plus I worry we're talking about $10k and not more like $1000. Last hope now is we have a contractor at my work and maybe I can pay him to push the trees over or maybe he's already using a bucket truck that I can top the three big trees that are in the way. Contractors tend to have clever solutions to things so maybe he has some ideas.

I'll try this again on the chance people might appreciate it. I'm just thinking a thread to ask for gift suggestions or to throw out ideas or maybe what's gone over well for you in the past. The Brother is always a challenge. I'm known for the odd-but-good gift and I don't have much for ideas this year. Last year it was good boots and the year before was a Canadian board game. One year it was indian clubs which were great. Sister in law a Sassenhaus bread slicer, as she's into baking. It's in the "fancy but useless" range. Pre-teen girls I guess an air diffuser and a slam ball and a weighted blanket (both anxiety aides). Teen nephew a castable fish sonar. Sister a really nice pen or potentially a nice scarf. Tried the heated doormat last year, but the water just ran off it and froze immediately off the mat which kinda defeated the purpose.

I don't really see any scenario in which the Bucks are really any better than they are now. You could have done a youth movement and not re-sign Middleton and Lopez, but so close to a Championship the fans would have revolted, or a Giannis you were hoping to extend revolts that his friend was traded. You could keep Jrue and we'd have a great defensive team with a one-dimensional offense and Giannis breaking down from the workload. We needed a #1 scorer and who else are you choosing but Lillard? If Haliburton were available, he's a great player but who is he passing it to? Young, emerging scorers don't grow on trees and it tends to be their teams won't trade them for a lockdown defender who shoots 5-20 each night plus a bunch of late first rounders who are typically more like Beauchamp than the late rounders Toronto manages to find. It is what it is. In a year or two we'll probably get to see Giannis asking to leave and we can drool over what sort of return we can get for him.

I figure he just needed to talk out his firing and his career options with his good friend MlF, who just casually invited him to hang out at practice and that's all it ever was. Saleh notices some things and makes a few comments, because that's just instinctual for any NFL coach, and the media just takes it from there.

I get the idea of the Panthers playing Andy Dalton--it's a good way to evaluate Bryce Young to see how a different QB handles the same players. But hasn't the Andy Dalton Experience lasted a few weeks too long already? It's not like they're making the playoffs with Dalton, or have they so totally given up on Young already? And if they've given up on Young, do you change strategies and draft the rest of the team first like Chicago or try for a QB again? I'd guess with a weak QB draft class next year they draft a WR, instead. I also presume Atlanta will be shopping Cousins in the offseason.

I presume Hafley has always considered FS/Slot Corner fairly interchangeable considering they added so many safeties in the offseason while not addressing CB. It seemed pretty clear Bullard, in particular, was going to be spending solid time covering Slot.

Drake Maye looked decent. This could end up being the historically best QB class.

But if you ship him out now doesn't that send the message that if you complain just a little bit you'll get your way? Or this is all very normal for any player and Packers media just picked it up and ran with it?

It's gonna be a long Bucks season, isn't it? Older than dirt, nothing we can do about it, on our 17th HC in three seasons, and maybe we see the second round this time. Giannis, Dame and 'etc.' vs. the world. I'm expecting Middleton to be stiff and Lopez a downright liability for a lack of motion and Giannis to be completely overused. Giannis can't be both the 4/5 and the lead-dunker the whole way through because that's too much to ask any one person to do. We're gonna be desperate for a 5 come trade deadline. Hopes aren't high. Giannis will do what he does but it just doesn't work when he has to be the primary weapon. I expect Lillard to be over his personal issues, but two stars aren't really enough when the remainder aren't really capable of playing the roles they should play. Gary Trent is a fantastic pickup, but too much is going to be demanded of him since he's going to end up having to be the 3rd best offensive player. You can do it with two stars when the others perfectly fit their roles, but here it's more patchwork. I think we're really going to struggle to stop anyone defensively.

I respect that on a passing down there's two option routes and two decoy routes, and sure, maybe Doubs is the decoy more often than not. But it's not like teams have these superstar All-Pros who just aren't being used. If you aren't getting used that's on you. And 51 catches is nothing to scoff at. Maybe he'd get more targets on Carolina, but would you really want to go there? We'd all like to be President but darn if we can't get the votes. Suck it up for a couple more years and then you're a FA and can go wherever you want. To be a malcontent only hurts your future salary. I get that to be a professional athlete you need ludicrous-speed levels of confidence and cockiness, but reality is something different. Not everyone is Davante Adams. Others are just Romeo Doubs. A perfectly good WR, better than average even, but still Romeo Doubs. Four targets, three catches and there ya go.

I don't like a Lawrence trade because we really aren't in a position to need to fix our DL by adding good players so much as just needing the good players currently there to step up. Thus not a position group of need, as opposed to a group LB where McDuffie and #7 probably are playing to their standard and so there's a bigger need for more talent in the group. Plus a big trade now would likely sap our assets and hamstring us if a bigger need suddenly appeared like a key player getting injured.

This would be a good time to trade Wicks or Doubs to KC for Chenal +4th. Plus KC plays a 4-3 so Chenal would be able to adjust fast enough. I like that this thread is separated, too. The Packers thread is big enough to start branching out.

Jones and Jamaal Williams, too. And if we go far enough down the good dude RB tree, also Samkung Gado.

Well that was fun. Felt like the first rain after a long drought. Hopefully people were able to load up throughout September. Looks like BTC finally broke out of that lower-highs trend. Maybe also from folks getting in early due to everyone else excited about historical October. The six-month boredom seems like it allowed the historical cycle price action to catch up and we're set up for the typical run of a new high in 1Q/2Q, a 25-40% crash in summer and then one huge run in Q3 2025 before the bear market starts. Though still reasonable speculation now that 1Q/2Q 2025 may well be the cycle height and that we won't go as deep into 2025 as the standard cycle would dictate. Obviously I don't know but I'll be DCAing heavier and heavier as time passes. Actually getting out and not eating the bear market is what destroys most people. And options trading was just approved for BTC, which I think is really going to tamper its volatility going forward. Not sure if for this cycle but certainly for the next one. Some people happy about that but I don't see that as good at all. That could potentially make this the last big cycle we'll have since upward and downward pressures could well temper the madness going forward. Was up big with a 2x BTC ETF but the fees slowly destroyed me so I moved into a regular one. Nothing like buying BTC at 38k and selling at a 4% loss. Was lucky to catch the Karrat run and also lucky to have timed my sell at a good time. Will buy back in once it settles back down. Also looking forward to In The Game, the first crypto game to push for mainstream XBox/Playstation adoption. Pretty sure that was the studio which fired Dr. Disrespect live on air.

The Jets would only be slightly over the cap if they added Davante Adams today. Not sure where the Packers would be at, but I can't imagine Oakland is going to wait too long to begin the rebuild. I guess now everybody in Charlotte assumes Bryce Young was the problem all along and it wasn't just a bad team, though I'm sure the Panthers will be back to their losing ways soon. And there aren't any panthers in North Carolina, so why the name? The "Hellbenders" woulda been a way cooler name and they actually exist there (the biggest kind of salamander). Or even the Flying Squirrels. Maybe it's the WI bias, but if you want your team to represent your area, shouldn't the name follow suit and not just be some random thing? vikings and Packers are apt. The Chicago RoadWorkers? That'd be a good name. Detroit Engines?

Every now and again I run into youtube videos where they delete the backing music and play the standalone vocals. It's unbelievable how talented many of those singers were, particularly knowing it all was pre-auto-tune. Marvin Gaye was especially impressive.