GAME05

I hate that they took out the smoking lounges. Sure they were gross but after 10+ hours on a plane and going through it all it'd sure be nice to have a touch of stress relief.

Thank you, yes.

My folks got back yesterday from a Mediterranean cruise. I hope you have a good time! The wildly different culture and distance from home have me crossing out SE Asia, but the boss is considering a city in the Philippines. I guess it's a popular tourist spot because it's in the mountains and way cooler than the normal temperatures. If money isn't what I was hoping I'm likely looking at back to Wisconsin, like Mazo or Black Earth near Madison. Could potentially pick up some work if I needed a couple hundred bucks more per month. And the brother is there so maybe that balances out the long winters.

I guess once you get to Page 3 the threads get locked in order to get folks to create new threads. The brother and I are heading over to Gdansk, Poland and Vilnius, Lithuania in June. Should be fun. Was originally going to be an initial retirement-destination-exploration trip, and Poland has been a second-tier idea, but it's really more a vacation now unless crypto goes wild again. Weirdly the US is the most expensive, but the less money I have the more staying here makes sense. Lithuania not really on that list because it's pretty similar to Madison weather but without some of the extremes. Should be fun. We only picked Lithuania because we didn't want to use up so much time traveling any farther, and because Sean Connery's hometown in Crimson Tide was Vilnius and he made it sound so cool in the movie that I've always wanted to see it. Haven't seen the movie in forever, but that short little mention has always stuck to me. Sure it's the stupidest reason in the world to go anywhere, but so what?

Was on an Andrew Klavan book called Beauty and Truth about references to God in classical literature. But I listen to his podcast a bunch and his theology has gotten really bad to the point of it being non-Christian, and that's really thrown me off the book. Lee Strobel did something similar lately, though his books are great. Just picked up "Christian Self-Mastery" and "Celebration of Discipline" as it's an area of need for me. I'd been attracted to the Stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Senica and there's a ton of great stuff to it, but ultimately I really hesitate and somewhat-similar stuff which aims in a different direction.

They needed more offense and it was Jrue instead of Middleton because it's tough to trade Giannis' friend when you're in the middle of trying to sign him to an extension. After that it's just trading the long-term for the short-term and it just never worked out. Doesn't seem so different than what a lot of teams have done. Giannis has an interesting decision. Winning pretty well means going somewhere else, but retire with Milwaukee and he could well be regarded as the greatest franchise player (Kareem wasn't here all that long). Go to the Knicks and you're forgotten as soon as you retire, especially if you don't win a Ring.

There's really nothing the Bucks can do at this point beside let it roll and cross your fingers. With Middleton and Lopez gone I guess that'll free up enough cash for a new #3, but that's not enough to drastically change things. And paying a fourth coach isn't going to happen. I'm figuring the Lillard contract might come up before the Giannis one does, and at that point there's no choice but to trade the both of them because you've got seven years before tanking for picks becomes viable. Probably a lesson in not trading your picks and doing swaps so far out. But good news if they do hit the reset that Lillard and especially Giannis will fetch an absolute haul. OKC has probably taught the rest of the NBA that you can't just let your stars walk and you get nothing in return.

The ideal backup. Better to ask yourself "can he harness his huge potential" than "can he overcome his deficits". Worst case is you lose a 5th rounder which isn't a big deal. Most teams do the same with 2nd Round picks.

QB Joe Milton to the Cowboys for a 5th Round pick. Guess he had his choice of teams for that return and his mother grew up a Cowboys fan.

I'm more inclined to be contrary and guess that DE falls lower on Guten's priority list than we think. A NT to replace Clark next season or a CB or WR I think are higher targets and we don't see a DE until Round 4 unless there's a trade down for more picks. Steelers taking Sanders would make sense there and would also be hilarious. I wonder if Rodgers would retire if they do and not risk having too poor games mid-season and getting benched. Unless the Giants actually want him?

We definitely wouldn't have gotten Lillard but I think the 76ers had interest at that point, or maybe he just leaves for pennies and that $40M is just spent elsewhere. Granted, it probably would have been a swap for Ben Simmons.

Same here and I do. The key is to work the bottom rungs of a government job which is close to replacing you for a 16-year-old.

I got asked that question about five times a day.

Didn't we spend a full season saying that Myers wasn't that good? So now our offensive line is better and a year of learning from that 1st rounder makes it deeper, too. We've got big extensions coming up, so any cap money can go toward that or being active once we come up on Spring Training roster cuts. Right now we don't HAVE to cut Jaire, either. Tough to say we've gotten better, but not significantly worse, either. We were 11-6 last year, though, not exactly the dregs of the NFC.

Maybe more a rant than a question. I have to remember that I'm not some super-employee so therefore any criticism and ramped-up control of my work isn't necessarily undue. But that control is also ramping up bigly. I've been told by another this is all temporary nervousness because of an incoming new person (set a good impression and all that), but I'm doubtful of it being temporary. And I guess by the time the next openings are listed, I'll have had a chance to see how temporary these things are or not. The tradeoff has always kinda been that we're in the middle of nowhere and the social scene around us is really bad, and so the working life in this small place is more relaxed in return (not that we don't do anything), kinda the opposite of a busy place near a city. This shift has me thinking about transferring somewhere new. Or maybe I'm taking that wrong attitude of "As soon a minor challenge comes, leave." I don't entirely want to move (pain in the rear and not cheap) but I don't really like my church (which I drive 1.5 hours to), my internet speed (once the leaves come out even Youtube buffers but there's a tiny chance we'll get fiber toward the end of the year) and that everything else is also far away. One friend I golf with every three months (though that should increase soon) I'll miss, but that's it. A new place is probably a higher workload but better social/outdoor opportunities and a better connection to people via internet speed. Less law enforcement in that direction, which is an aspect of the job I don't totally love, anyway; would be more education which is exhausting for me (I put a lot of energy into it, plus leading a group of kids as an introvert is draining) but it's also a talent so I should be doing more of it, regardless. I've got 6-7 years left, so I've got one move in me remaining. I'm thinking closer to the coast, not that I grew up with any love for it in Wisconsin.

When I worked at WeedMan lawncare they did that to customers. Every single week they'd call to try and sell something extra to existing clients. I got so many complaints about it.

We're a few months out from having to refinance $10T worth of debt for the next 10 years. It wouldn't surprise me if Trump kinda elbowed the market down the hill a little more to get a more favorable rate and later propped it back up again through more favorable interest rates and the money printer.

It feels like one of those things where they don't really want to trade him, so they throw up a stupid asking price and oh well if nobody bites.

There's a company now advertising its AI customer support service. My first thought was how much worse scam calls are going to be if there's no Indian accent.

Bosa was just cut by the Chargers, too.

If two years of Davante can be had for a 2nd, I don't know why you'd pay 1st+player for one year of Metcalf. I'd rather just overpay for a guy like Godwin and keep the valuable draft pick. Little talk on Malik Willis. I keep thinking he'd be perfect for Cleveland. 1+4+Malik+LVN and we'll take Garrett.

Gene Hackman was 95. No cause released but people are suspecting carbon monoxide because his wife and his dog were found dead in the house, too. But what an amazing actor he was.

Why not Transition Tag him? Either they pay him less than market value for a year or they get a 2nd rounder out of him leaving. Win-win.

Good thing, Hawing. There's a $0.15 charge each day you were overdue.

Ah, I know what you're talking about. I sprout them at work. Very nutritious but they smell like death. I question the health of milk alternatives (though mung bean eggs sounds great), though obviously for intolerances it's awesome there has come to be so many good alternatives out there now. But my first thought is for all the easy foods you guys (or at least just this person) can't just grab and eat, I'd bet you have a super-good cook in the house.