GAME05

Funches' catch rate goes way up when he's on traditional slot routes instead of being asked to line up out wide. And he didn't drop a single pass last year when he was starting from the Slot, compared to a good number of them when he's lined up wide. Indianapolis figured that out with him but then he got hurt. Really it looks more like he should be an awesome slot receiver, but that he's simply never going to be that Davante Adams #1 receiver teams wanted him to be after he was drafted.

Funches' catch rate goes way up when he's on traditional slot routes instead of being asked to line up out wide. And he didn't drop a single pass last year when he was starting from the Slot, compared to a good number of them when he's lined up wide. Indianapolis figured that out with him but then he got hurt. Really it looks more like he should be an awesome slot receiver, but that he's simply never going to be that Davante Adams #1 receiver teams wanted him to be after he was drafted.

It stuck me yesterday that now that I've moved to 3Mb speed internet, that's likely too slow to stream sports. And I don't have that much data on my phone to be broadcasting to it and connecting it to a television. I think I'm bound to add CenturyLink television service so I can watch stuff. edit: oops, CenturyLink doesn't offer television.

It stuck me yesterday that now that I've moved to 3Mb speed internet, that's likely too slow to stream sports. And I don't have that much data on my phone to be broadcasting to it and connecting it to a television. I think I'm bound to add CenturyLink television service so I can watch stuff. edit: oops, CenturyLink doesn't offer television.

I've always had trouble sleeping. Been taking ZQuill nightly for probably 2+ years now. Ran out of it yesterday and didn't fall asleep until 5:30. Previous times if I forget to take it I also won't sleep. I do recognize that I must be physically addicted to it at this point. But going without it means going back to the normal state of taking 2+ hours to get to sleep every night. All OTC sleep aides use the same active ingredient, so switching brands wouldn't do anything. Melatonin doesn't do much for me.

Park visitation, at least in my state, has about tripled. Nobody has anything else to do with everything shut down. Yesterday we closed bathrooms state-wide and we had already closed campgrounds. Rumor is that the governor already has it planned to shut down parks entirely. I'd only guess that there's some tipping point of infected people where it would rapidly spread publicly, and he's just waiting to see if we hit that number. But I presume even to the public that I've been talking to at work that we're likely headed for a full shut-down. I had to sign an "essential employee" letter the other day. As I said to my boss, I think it's just to remind all of us that we're essential and that we may be deployed or at least told to work if things got worse and wouldn't really be able to refuse.

I just read the description of the Smokefire and if you mean "true grill" as in it'll get to 600 degrees, basically every pellet grills/smokers will do that.

A political show I was listening to yesterday said there's been a lot of positive news about the medicine normally used to treat malaria and it's effects on Covid. So far it's worked well to both treat it and prevent it, and apparently it's safe enough for pregnant and nursing mothers. If that turns out to be true, an already-FDA-approved medicine could be dumped onto the market and given out pretty quickly. edit: Not FDA approved for this particular virus. But old enough that it's already available as a generic. Bayer has donated three million doses to the US for testing.

A co-worker keeps talking about Carnival. Usually hovers around $50 and has gotten as low as $7. Been bouncing around +/- $4 the past week or so, so I'd guess a lot of folks are using it as a quick buy/sell stock. He's also looking into the company's suppliers, which almost certainly would have Carnival as their biggest client.

All campgrounds closed yesterday for me. Hiking and bathrooms still open. Lots of snowbirds having a hard time heading back north, plus Florida parks were completely shut down, so it's a mass exodus so bad that the interstates here are terrible. I'm speculating that we'll completely shut down if the number of cases in the state grows, but we'll see. Was at training with someone who got sick, but they got better quickly so I think it was just a regular flu. Regardless, I'm now in a working quarantine, where I still have to come to work but can't go in the buildings or be around people.

Tom Brady has announced he won't be back with the Patriots. He didn't mention singing with another team, so I read it more as negotiations with New England just went south and he's done with them. If I'm the Bears that's the guy for me. Brady gets you two years of decent QB play and you get a couple years to develop a draft pick like Eaton or Fromm.

What confuses me is the Texans clearly would have been calling other teams, yet an expensive RB is the best offer they could get? Plus the guy is 28 already. And they'd have had no problem getting one of the top RBs in the second round.

So Laurie Metcalf played Sheldon's mother in the Big Bang show. I hadn't realized before, but the woman who plays the mother in Young Sheldon is Laurie Metcalf's real-life daughter. Clever little bit of casting.

I switched to a pellet grill from a charcoal smoker last year. In all fairness nothing beats the taste of charcoal, but I got tired of babysitting the thing so often, especially on long cooks. The pellet grill is just plain simple and I use it all the time. I have the Rec-Tec 340, which is their smallest model at a 15"x20" grate size. Good for two people but I would definitely get a bigger one with family. It's one of the higher-end brands and has a lot of stainless steel in it so it *should* last a long time. I've never seen the temperature be off by more than three degrees, but you will get 20+ degree swings with cheaper models. But the Pit Boss seems to get good reviews as a cheaper model. Weber just started making a pellet grill if you're big on that brand, but I haven't heard reviews on it yet. Traeger used to be the top brand but now they're made in China. Yoder is the Cadillac brand with super-thick metal and a price tag that more than matches its reputation. Like everything, "get what you pay for" tends to apply. Temperature swings of 30 degrees that last upward of 30 minutes seems to be a thing with cheaper models, as well as things breaking more often (typically not terribly difficult to fix yourself) and thinner metal which not only doesn't last as long but makes it harder to hold in heat. Assuming you're in Wisconsin, lots of folks get themselves a heat-resistant blanket to put over the grill, and you'd have no real problems using it in the winter. Many come with wi-fi now, though I already have a wi-fi thermometer and that's enough. All I'm losing out on is the ability to change temperature and turn the thing off and on remotely. My Rec-Tec gets to about 650 degrees, so I do everything from pizza to pork shoulder on it. I only recently discovered that frozen pizza on a pellet grill is awesome. Attempts at baking with it have been mixed. Smoke quantity is another thing that tends to improve with the price of the thing. I know a lot of folks who use a pellet tube in addition to their grill. But without it, mine still gets the smoke ring and smoke flavor and all that. Overall the pellets aren't any more expensive than charcoal. And if you do mostly low-temp cooks, probably just slightly cheaper than charcoal. Overall I love it and it's super easy. Now and again I'll even run the thing when I'm at work.

My immediate boss gave me a good review when I transferred to a new job (same employer). It made my boss' boss really angry that he didn't include a bunch of negative things about me from the past. So my boss' boss has now been busy talking to my current boss to make sure all those negative things have been relayed.

I went into a McDonalds and their tv-type menu included an ad where for 10 seconds you could no longer see the menu. Super annoying.

Had training this week and we practiced handcuffing foam batons because we weren't supposed to touch each other. It was recognized by all that if we're going to be passing the foam batons between each other, we may as well just go hands-on because there's no difference. I joked to the boss' boss' boss that we'll have to shut down all festivals in State Parks, who responded "We're looking into that and it'll probably happen."

Cats are currently locked in an empty room with food and water and a toilet. They HATE their cage and it requires leather gloves and long sleeves to get them in there with a lot of fighting. When people come they hide and even I can't find them. Hence the empty room.

Movers come tomorrow. It seems like once you start pulling everything out of the cabinets, that's when the mice and roaches start coming out. Stupid cats just stared at the mouse. Still a lot of loose junk, but I'll have to come back and clean, anyway, and I can grab it with my 5' truck. Got a surprise new boss, but I hear she'll be good. Also retires in about a year.

Smokey Mountains National Park actually does hire guys to go out and shoot pigs at night. I met one once and he said that the black bears and sometimes other animals liked to walk right behind him. The bears, especially, were smart enough to learn just what he was doing, and they'd run right past him once he shot one.

Oh sure, two+ years and absolutely no other single person shows up to my small church. But once I accept a new job three hours away and will be moving in a week or two, *that's* when a pretty single person moves here and starts attending. I wish I could just not pick up. I have a landline dedicated to dispatch and co-workers calling me in for an emergency (cell service is nonexistent here), so when scammers and charities call I always end up rushing to the phone.

I used to live 45 minutes north of Corpus Christi. Wild hogs are absolutely everywhere and they will tear up huge patches of ground in no time at all--you probably couldn't mow your yard faster than a group of them could rip it up. There is no hunting season for hogs--it's year-round and there is no bag limit. A big reason for that is they breed the same as mice do--three litters per year up to 9 per litter. So just like mice, you can kill every single one that you see but you'll never be rid of them. So yeah, if you just want to shoot some and let them there to rot (assuming it's your land), you can go right ahead. The meat is somewhat gamey, so not everyone likes it, but I sure did. No huge amount of trouble to butcher, either. The population in that area must be something pretty horrible if they're going to the trouble of shooting them out of helicopters. But overall they're an absolute plague to the land. No it's not particularly sporting to just shoot them, but sport isn't the point of it in the first place. Same thing is being done to nutria in Louisiana and same is sometimes done with coyotes. They're pest animals.

I see no reason the Bucks would have to do anything drastic if they don't win the Finals this year. This isn't like an OKC team from last offseason that could reasonably say they won't make the Finals with the players they have. Instead it's a team that barely lost to Toronto and would have beat the Warriors if they had. Sometimes you just lose and that's the breaks. If lesser teams never won there'd be no point of having a playoffs in the first place. A tiny change from Budenholzer, or a made bucket or two instead of a missed one would have changed everything last year. Neither are a reason to turn everything over. And really, teams change a lot from year to year even if you try to keep everything the same. No doubt Horst has already made a decision on this, but if Giannis decides not to sign an extension this offseason, the Bucks will have to decide whether or not to trade him. Maybe they won't want to end up like OKC in losing a lot of huge players for nothing in return.

I tend to not think the Bucks will hit 70 wins, more for how Budenholzer likes to rest guys when they're leading. If they end up with 1st Seed locked up there's no huge reason to be playing Giannis and the other starters more than maybe 15 minutes per game just so they might be rested for the playoffs. Not that the Bucks seemed tired, but Leonard definitely was ready to go in the playoffs after his 23 games of rest last year. Sure there's still an issue with securing home-field for the Finals, but for the most part I'm not sure that matter a whole lot when it comes to otherwise giving guys a rest. Was listening to a few radio interviews about Budenholzer's coaching style, and it seemed to be a conclusion even from former players that Bud never makes adjustments. He's certain that his way is the winning way and there's just no real changes to the plan regardless of how things are going in a half or in a series. That does give me pause for concern at least as far as the playoffs are concerned. But ultimately, this year even more than last we are definitely the #1 team in the East, and it would be a wild disappointment if we didn't make the Finals. I feel like the 76ers are the strongest competition and match up the best against the Bucks, but even then it doesn't feel like they could hang with us in a 7-game series. And then in the Finals it only feels like maybe the Clippers could win a series against the Bucks, but if it's the Lakers or Jazz or Nuggets, it just doesn't feel like they could come even that close to besting Giannis. I keep thinking of the Giannis Wall and how that's about the only way to beat the Bucks, but that only someone with the skills of Kawai Leonard actually have the ability to actually manage that successfully. That and if Bledsoe stinks again, DiVincenso and Hill and Matthews are in a much better position to take those minutes and be terrific substitutes.

There's no good transition from that, nor should there be, though there's another thread for that so I'll try to ignore it even though it's impossible. No matter who it is you really feel horrible for anyone that young, particularly the young girls. Reminds me of a former co-worker whose college daughter died in a plane crash last year. Really crushes you just to consider how it's hitting Vanessa Bryant and the other daughters, as well as the other families involved.