Month: December 2021

Scored my first Madden win vs. a User in a while. I gotta admit, it felt pretty good. I almost allowed a major comeback because I screwed around with backups a lot and threw picks I shouldn’t have. The key was an improved secondary loaded with Superstar abilities. Apparently that is the key in general to beating the deep ball. I still have no answer for crosses outside of being opposite the guy getting the cross, but I cannot be on both sides of the field, so I need to come up with something better–a pass rush, maybe? This is my team I’ve been building. In this 3rd year we finally won a user game (first in a long time) which allows us to believe in the future of the team in this league. Maybe we will get to the conference finals?

The team is built in two phases: I have the squad I use vs. Users and I have a deep deep bench of developmental stars I can roll out throughout the season to keep everyone fresh. The team is still entirely built around Derrick Henry, but I intend to draft a replacement this off-season and I’ve focused the entirety of my scouting resources towards that goal. Most of the backs should be at or near 100% scouted by season’s end, so I can get a guy and if he’s THE GUY, I can trade D. Henry.

Meanwhile I had to put a ton of talent on the practice squad after a ruinous draft but fruitful free agency period. Most of that talent is gone–picked up by CPUs. The crown Jewel was a 76 rated young CB. I just couldn’t keep him. There were 6 guys ahead of him and too much talent at other positions. Thus is the happy problem I have. Part of that problem is carrying 6 RBs and 8 Wrs. Like I said, I have depth. I’m looking for the replacement first in the guys I already have. If I can get them all major yardage, I can truly make a decision on who is gonna pop and play alongside next year’s rookie. Worst comes to worst, I keep Derrick another season.

Worst comes to worst, I get manhandled in the resigning period.

Let’s call this the Championship edition. I made it to the finals and the eldest kid is the challenger. I’m happy for him. All the other kids talked and talk constant trash about how bad he is and how he should always lose. Yet he’s always that guy quietly making it. He even calls himself Jay the Underdog–presumably after an anime guy? He’s an underdog for sure and I am sorta rooting for him to win. Except, I’m also an underdog, so I want this just as bad. We shall see…

Presently he has the numbers advantage. He’s cobbled together a team that has really been showing strong numbers in the late season. With a few weeks left most teams are still battling for position and thus will be playing their starters. I need that. I need to get my hands on some real dogs as well.

Some Thoughts:

1. Upgraded to the PS5 and Xbox Series S. No deep graphical difference, but load times are way faster. I feel like the games are coming. I’m waiting for Forza and it’s PS5 counterpart–whatever that is. Presently I am about to download Horizon 5, because the Forza 7 licenses expired and Xbox can no longer offer the game. It doesn’t appear to look as good as Forza 7, but I’ll take what I can get at this point.
2. Minecraft build is going especially well. I’m at the Castle stage still, but I’ve looked into the town build stuff, and I am presently thinking about pausing the build to ensure that my villagers don’t get killed. If I can put up the walls and light up the place, I can start getting Golems to help with the nightlife problem. Presently I have one Golem in the village and at least 3 villagers I’ve seen alive. I probably need to devote a little time to working on that today. Another option is building a rail system between the two towns to move residents. However, that is far more difficult and time consuming.
3. Been getting up earlier. It feels like I can’t or don’t want to stay in bed too long. I’m wanting to get out and get into stuff early–be it crafting or cleaning or something.

I’m at the point in Minecraft where I am happily constructing this castle we spoke of as well as a desert city around it. This is fun. I have ideas about putting some grand looking b uildings in the city walls and really making a nice go of the place. It will be a sort of staging ground. To what? That remains to be seen. I’m still on the hunt for netherite. I’m also still looking to assemble a sweet batcave-style lair in this world. Not a clue where all of this is going to take place. I do want to put it near the castle grounds and perhaps connected by some sort of quick tunnel and out deep below a mountain with a fast-water tunnel that jets me up to the top of that mountain in an instant so I can fly off. Like I said, big plans.

The Castle and it’s adjoining city are right next to another city I built–or was in the process of building. I expect I’ll get back to that one in time as well, but it has a different feel. This will have the look of a medieval town in the desert where the other one feels like a Minecraft grind city. Multiple cities we’ve made in this world already feel that way. The good part is that this is all with achievements enabled. So my Dark Tower world will forever be able to give achievements. We did it all the hard way… mostly.

In Madden news: Madden died. Sad. Odd though. Feels like one of those dark spirit moments. Haven’t heard crap from the guy in over a decade. Then we see one Madden Special and he’s dead the next day. Odd. Sad though.

In Madden game news We finished our (all in one division) league hereforeto be known as the World League (as all of us renamed our teams and moved to random spots. Only one team stayed in the USA). The Celtic Tigers won their second straight SB. Good for them. Still, I was building the old-fashioned way. All young players growing and becoming great. That being said, I lack the Superstar and Xfactor power these boys have gotten through trades, and I don’t much appreciate the cheat trades they work so hard to do to get high draft picks. I’m building it right but I am losing every season. Still, we missed the playoffs last year, we made it to round two this year. Next year should also show improvement. I’m excited to see what the draft brings.

No, this is not going to be a thing, but the alliteration worked, so… I want to talk about this film, Don’t Look Up. It carries a pretty obvious message presented through comparative characterizations. However, it doesn’t beat you as hard as the Matrix does. Maybe that is because it is funny and I actually cared about the characters throughout. So, yeah, that’s the thing. MAKE ME CARE. I tell my students that constantly and it holds up. If I care about the character, I’ll follow you through all your strife. I didn’t care about the characters in the Matrix. In truth, I hardly knew them. The characters in the matrix came off as sad reproductions of the original crew that rescued Neo and direction did a piss poor job of making them any more than that.

So, yeah. Don’t Look Up focuses on character and good acting to wrap the clearly stated message in. Matrix reminds you that, yes, this is a message and this action and color is all background–the paper the message is written on.

Some Thoughts:

1. YouTube is ruining my kids. While a few of them have a sense of value in shows it is almost entirely limited to a particular style or type of thing they like. They don’t give anything else a chance, but at the same time are entirely willing to spend hours watching nonsense on youtube and not judging that crap at all. How can you judge a movie as being not worth wasting 2 hours on and still spend 3 hrs watching a slew of videos you find at most meh? YouTube has a strange power over them.

1. One of the more (FAN)tastic moments in the latest Spiderman movie is the arrival of Matt Murdock as a lawyer. MCU has cast the same actor to play the character and as a result revived hope of a return to the Defenders! Hope was short lived. They are recasting Iron Fist (to an asian male) and Luke Cage (simply because they decided to recast Iron Fist and it would be weird apparently). Both will appear in Heroes for Hire. So ka.
2. Staying in the MCU, Captain Marvel 2 is now The Marvels (officially). It is no longer about her but about a larger world and identity. That works to an extent, but it makes things incredibly difficult for reintegrating Nick Fury who is off in space dealing with that pesky little mess of an intergalactic war we don’t intend to talk about… unless secret wars happens…
3. Football news: Might make it to the finals. Yup. 4-10 and hitting the wins…
4. Spider-man was really good. There is a wonderful chat near the end that is so chock full of easter eggs that I laughed and giggled like a dang child.
5. The Matrix Resurrection is a terrible movie. The promo for the upcoming video game is a master work in digital creation that looks as good as the movie. Writing is proving to be just as bad thus far.

So, my partner gives the greatest gifts. This one is a trip to Vegas to see the John Legend Residency. Nice. I’m happier every day that I chose this life. That is all. Except…

Some Thoughts:

1. Yeah, I’ve been up for twenty hours. So, I’m worked down to a thin nub of consciousness, in need of a shower, a good night’s sleep, and a ton of Minecraft time.
2. In terms of the ‘craft, I’m going back to the realms world with the plan to build a castle. I’ve been trying to build this dang medieval castle for years, and I’ve never finished one through multiple worlds. I am trying hard to make sure that this actually happens finally. I am going to look for a place to build it tomorrow and then get down to work on building that bad boy. Step one, of course, make sure I have the supplies. Second, make sure I am doing it near a space that has villagers so there is a chance to develop a solid town structure around this place. Perhaps even land it near a portal to the nether that has access to good materials?
3. Yeah, I am very clearly exhausted at this point and speaking in gibberish. That is the thing about making sure you blog every day–even Christmas-some of it is wack.
4. Still pushing out all of that bad is the way to get to the good, right? I often believe this, but I occasionally wonder if writing too much just means you are burned out all the time. I suspect the most prolific of writers would call me on that BS.
5. Speaking of writing, it is back to the novel soon… Both fantasy and sci-fi work. First I build the classes in order to enter the semester hot and ready. Next I set the schedule. Finally, I write.
6. Random: I need to build an XP generator in the ‘craft and I don’t know how.
7. I also need crazy large crops that I also do not have.
8. Okay. That’s ten.

Twas the Night Before Christmas
After Covid ravaged our lands
Twas a night we made merry
and made Christmas plans

We gathered at Grandma’s to give gifts and cheer
We left with full bellies and pajamas to wear

Twas a night we found happiness in one and all
When we looked forward to summer and remembered the fall.

Christmas is coming! Said no one in the place
Yet the sentiment hung off of everyone’s face.
This would be the first time we 8 would gather near
We’d not shared a Christmas morning in all of these years

As I write these lines the boys sit and they chatter
Moments like these is why holidays matter.
It is about love and family all around
About laughter about music about the house filled with sound

Yet I sit in the darkness listening to the clack of these keys
And still in this moment I find myself pleased.
I helped make this happen. I helped us become one.
I helped raised these 5 boys I’m proud to call sons.
I helped with a daughter, I helped her grow up
I helped my partner raise 18 young pups.

All of this I did because I found what matters most
In this special woman true love found its host.
In the end this is what brings me the most cheer
To say, Merry Christmas, and I love you, dear.

I originally planned to call this post Matrix INC, but that felt too on the nose. What follows is a ten-minute rant describing with some brief details where the Matrix movie went off the rails, why and how. So… SPOILER ALERT!

It sucked.

It had a few moments that were worth noting, but I can count those on one hand and they comprise, in total, thirty minutes of what felt like a 2.5 hr movie. It starts out as a very META nod to itself and ends like a heavy handed woke slap in the face. All in all, the film worked hard to employ and highlight marginalized individuals and their allies. In truth this quickly was seen as the focus of the film with the White Male identity shown very clearly as the ‘Bad Guy’

This shit was way woke, Y’all.

Too woke. By that I mean the Matrix is a film dedicated to presenting an idea without the effort of veiling the idea in an interesting and entertaining construct, but instead desconstructing that construct and asking the audience OUT LOUD why we need such constructs in order to be entertained. It was about the idea–no–the journey of the Directors own transformation and was her story of how she became empowered. Except she already did that. She also reminds us that she did that by peppering the cast with the people from the show in which the message was initially shared (Sense8).

It quite literally poked fun at the tried and true action sequences the franchise birthed and then expected us to enjoy rote versions of the same sequences interspersed between on screen trash talking of such things. Oh, and it crapped on the entire concept of Zion in order to push the concept of Io, which also falls under the “I’m going to hit you with my message until you idiots get it’ thrust of the film.

I did not like it. I love a film that allows me to lose myself and after to think about what it meant and how that meaning should impact me. This did none of that. All it had was unraveled meaning as though the green code were in fact the meaning running down the screen like vertical subtitles. It was a hard miss and I hope they don’t do more… Except, one of the characters literally announced he was off to make his own spinoff in the middle of a poorly timed and scripted fight sequence, so… there’s that.

Playoffs!

Here is the problem: The Tuesday games pushed back the waiver wire, which means I cannot get a sense of who I can get until tomorrow and I need people. I really need people. I lost a Starting WR and a Starting RB in the same Bucs game on the same Bucs team. Eggs… basket. On the bright side, the Covid-based decimation of the Chiefs suggests that I may get real production out of Edwards-Helaire. Beyond that I am really going to need to dumpster dive for untapped talent.

I did in fact win with that horrible record of mine. Both lower seeded teams advanced, and I was lucky enough to draw the straw that has me facing the kid who doesn’t score so much. He has this luck, you see. Whenever anyone plays him they cannot seem to muster up points. He doesn’t score much himself, leading to the issue at hand: Will I have enough talent to take him down?

Some Thoughts:

1. Still haven’t watched trading places… I hope it holds up, less I have to find another film to replace it on my hastily scribed list…
2. Going to watch the matrix tonight. Details to follow..

Having just finished watching The Family Stone I am left with a clear reminder of the idea of a Pleasant Fiction–the one where everything seems possible and works out, in some way, in the end. It is an enjoyable film as all of my Christmas selections are. I adore the players and the circumstance and… there is Clare Danes. This is a holiday tradition that goes along with a short list of films that must be properly consumed every xmas season. It is under these conditions that I present, for your consideration, the twelve films of Christmas.

12. Jingle All The Way. Though dated, the film presents a charm reminiscent of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles that reminds you of the absolutely crazy nature of getting that perfect xmas gift. As we all know, there will always be that seasonal sellout gift!

11. The Grinch. Jim Carey’s physical acting is a constant xmas treat

10. Die Hard. Happy trails, Hans. or should I quote, “Now I have a sub machine gun. Ho, Ho, Ho.”

9. The Best Man Holiday. This is what I imagined grown up christmas would look like. Didn’t quite work out like that.

8. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Chevy Chase carries.

7. ELF. There is nothing bad about this movie. I laugh out loud every single time and I love that I have the chance to see this film each year.

6. Miracle on 34th Street. Classic.

5. The Family Stone. Rachel McAdams reminds me of my stepdaughter. Nuff said.

4, 4 Christmases. The drama! The comedy! It just stands up well.

3. Last Christmas. My love for all things George Micheal not withstanding, this is a charmer for the ages and an instant classic. I’ve watched it multiple times since it came out.

2. Trading Places. Didn’t see that coming, did you?!

AND Finally: Love Actually. It brings me to tears every damn time and there is no way of getting around that. This is a fantastic Christmas fantasy that I would not go without.