People are going to underestimate and overestimate the impact of Brady for a very long time. They are going to talk about athleticism and how much of a warrior Mahomes was. They are going to sing his praises for throwing absolute DOTS in a loosing effort while Brady continued to miss receivers on the wya to a big win. In reality what they are talking about is a field general who knows how to run the team and get the most out of everyone and a superstar athlete who knows how to ball out. Mahomes is the show–that is not a question. Brady is the showrunner. You cannot stop the scheme he runs. The Chiefs could not do it. On the other hand, Mahomes could be stopped–mainly by taking away Tyreek and forcing Mahomes to use other WRs to extend the play. At that point the win was inevitable.
So, what now? I suspect these two teams will get back to the playoffs and possibly to the show–so long as Tampa can afford to keep all these pieces. If not, it is going to be Mahomes for the win.
I mean I really coached. I was the only coach out there on the field for offense and defense in a 7 v 7 high school tourney and man, I was having fun. This is no longer my life but for a moment it was fun to get back out there and feel that I had the ability to make a difference moreso than I felt all of last season. I was happy and drained and it felt like a proper goodbye. Like that moment I love so much in Love Actually, “Enough”
So I am ready to move on and be a fan to these kids proper like. I can look at what they are doing and say, cool. I can help them get better through an hour at the park here and there but that is not coaching. That is a dad out with his kids. I spent a ton of mental energy thinking about this kind of stuff for years and now I need to turn that energy towards the other more important stuff in my life.
Yep, that does include the writing.
Some Thoughts:
I miss the Casinos
I miss Peter King’s coffeenerdness. I need to do something to pay homage to that man’s swag again. I need to think about ways to make that Wednesday better for the blog. For the fans and for PK.
Speaking of writers named King, next Thursday Stephen King is set to debut a new part of the Stand–a Coda made for the show. I hope it is better than the ending we were stuck with on the show last week. It felt way too rushed to wrap things up properlike.
Been sleeping extremely poorly to the point where I messed up my neck again. Not great.
The word of the day is Absolve (to free from guilt or obligation)
Critical Distance
There is a point in the future where everything is okay. Perhaps not okay, but the feelings of it all have diminished to the point where the memories don’t feel like sunburns. There is a point where the good of it all peaks out from the rest and she can remember that loving him was a good thing; a good idea. It doesn’t feel that way now. In the storm that is reflected in everyday they have together it feels like there is no end, no possibilities for anything but this pain and she is flailing and she is failing and she doesn’t want to do this anymore. She wants to close her eyes and drift away. She wants to be done. She doesn’t want to forget, but she wants to stop creating new memories. She wants to stop destroying the old ones and turning everything into a mush of disappointment and confusion. She wants to believe things were once as she wanted to believe they could be.
Then he comes home. He is smiling. He sets down his briefcase and gathers her up into a hug and for that instant the universe is just the two of them. The universe is just the warmth of him, the crinkle of lines around his eyes, the strength of his grip as he gathers her to him. He whispers, “I love y0u so much.” And he does. That much is true and constant. That much lifts her spirits and, to her, feels like a door she can pass through and leave the world behind. She forgets in that moment that they are far less than perfect together. She forgets her sadness. She forgives his way of destroying her. Together they float on for a while.
I’m debating between riding the low and holding my 10 measly shares in AMC or selling at a profound loss in order to double down on some other action including Doge coin. I truly believe the market is about gambling and betting for or against peoples products, abilities, and even lives. This is a sad truth of the pyramid scheme that is the global financial market. Truth be told: I am on the bottom. Truth also be told, I am doing a lot of this stock stuff either as a fun experiment with the boys, research for writing, or just as a way to gamble away from the very very dangerous slot machines. So, It is not all that bad in the end.
The research matters. The research makes the narrative feel as real as the characters do, and you need both–especially when your hold on the real is so limited as it always feels to be in science fiction.
Some Thoughts:
I learned today that a 17 yr old kid I used to give rides home to just died. All I know about the situation is that his heart gave out. He is dead and I’m thinking about what a loss that must be for his family and about how I would feel to lose a boy or my partner or anyone significant in my life. I have a decent amount of past experience with loss but I’ve been lucky as of late. Still the mad march of time suggests it will not always be as such and one of these days the lost one will be me.
It is easy to get lost in all the Mahomes v. Brady stuff. The reality is each can lead their offense to a video game level of points. The real question is what are they facing on Defense? We know that they already played this season and the Chiefs won that game 27-24. However, Mahomes threw the ball 49 times, eschewing the run almost entirely for a passing game that worked to the tune of 462 yards. 16 rushing attempts from Rbs. That is less than the number of completions Mahomes made. Tyreek had 269 yards in an explosive day and the Bucs still have nobody to guard that man. Will he go off again? Well, that is the big question.
What about Brady? He threw 41 times. He threw 2 picks. His offense only ran the ball 11 times from the RB position. These were mirror offenses in that sense and I think that changes on Sunday. I believe the Bucs will win. I believe this because I do believe they have the talent to model what the Raiders did on defense and to force the Chiefs to have to use other weapons–namely the run game. Can they? Sure. But will they? Only twice this season was a RB over 100 yards. It was Edwards-Helaire. I don’t think that happens with this O-Line. As for the Bucs, Brady is gonna make smart plays. He is also going to throw a pic or two. I don’t think that will be enough to overcome the momentum and excitement this first home Super Bowl will bring.
Some Thoughts:
EA Sports announced they will be releasing a new NCAA football game based off the one in ’14, but evolved with 7 years of thinking and planning and development. I’m really really stoked!
It strikes me that I could have a very different life. I could have split off at a million different points in a million different paths and each of those lives would’ve been entirely different. These divergencies still exist and so often I feel like A toy ship swirling around a great drain where everything around me is being sucked into the void of nothingness and I am just watching it all go down.
Okay, so what is really going on is that I am struggling to get this new novel in shape. I am certain all of the above plays a role as I am certain that there is an interplay between how I feel emotionally and what I am able to put on paper (which for the last two days has been absolutely nothing). I don’t know what to do in order to jumpstart this engine and get it going again. I’m really in the struggle this week, which is why I am sharing.
Writers go through this. The good ones are able to break down that wall and put words back on paper and get going. Often the task is too big for the writer–even the ones we know so well. George RR Martin has been talking about this next GoT book for so long that the television series already ended the story he is writing and a spinoff is underway. I don’t intend to be him. I expect to write something of worth today. I just need to get out of my own way and get focused on the task at hand.
Last night I caught up on The Daily (Social Distancing) Show, taking in an episode where several African political scholars broke down what went wrong in the US and giggled about us thinking democracy was so easy. It hurt. A lot. Yet, it only hurt because they were right. We sit on this political, moral, and economic high horse loudly professing how much better we are than everyone else and yet we fall prey to the same nonsense that everyone else does. Worse: we never see it coming.
Back in 2015 The Daily Show ran a multi-week bit that compared Trump to a African Dictator. Here’s the bit if you haven’t seen it:
I laughed my butt off but I also saw the warning in what was being said. See, one thing a dictator also has is loyal and willing followers. We found out that Trump is in fact everything that bit suggested and the people ate it up. But why? And why is it so hard for people to recognize what he is and take a step back from devout support? I can offer an answer to that last part: Because they are being spun.
We rely on 5 key social institutions for our socialization: School/News, Church, Family, Friends, and Work. I believe you only need to control three in order to control individual thinking. So, if the Church is reframing everything he does as ‘of God’ and the News (which replaces school as your ‘education’ once you leave) is being filtered through Pro-Trump networks, all you need is one more. Now your job is professing how much money you’ll make because of Trump or your family is all Pro-Trump, or your friends are all experiencing the same filtering as you through school/media and Church so now you have 3 by default. Once you get to the point where it negatively impacts you to think Trump is bad, you’ve hit the point of indoctrination. Now you have to go the other way and be a soldier for Trump.
This is tough stuff to deal with. When we see it in other countries we say, no chance it happens here. When we see it in fiction we laugh it off. When it happens to us we pretend it isn’t happening as out country plummets through the floor. We screwed this up and over the next two years leading up to midterms it is only going to get worse. Strap in folks. This isn’t over. This is just the beginning of us coming to terms with how these battles are about to be fought.
Just woke from a rare late afternoon/early evening nap. This is the kind of thing my partner does all the time and she looks 20 years younger than me and is actually healthy. So, maybe she is on to something. I am on to something: A reset. A new way forward. A plan where I figure out how to be healthy and move more and do things that are going to make my life feel more full and energized than not. I’m going to get back to walking the dog. He’s rather mindless on the walk, so I will research ways to get his head right and get us both in a better mental and health state. One thing I will try is making him sit every time he pulls at the leash. These walks need to be relaxed. I need to be able to trust him and I cannot thus far.
Here is one thing I do know: I’ve been subpar on the health tip. I’ve been average on the dedication to writing. I have also been terribly distracted by leaving the coaching realm and looking to replace it with something new. That new ought to be my own health. The rest needs to be writing. The writing needs to be first and foremost.
Some Thoughts:
I used to play a lot of Minecraft while listening to audiobooks. I called the experience a minecraft meditation. It represented a way to disconnect from reality and just let myself be consumed by story and creation. A lot of good ideas occurred to me in this fashion. It is time I got back to it.
Used and sued are the same 4 letters.. Just stop putting U first.
Been using space heaters in the office. I wonder how that is going to impact the heating bill?