Flip Ya For Real
Flip Ya For Real
The Cast
Date: 15 May 2020
FILLERBUSTER’S ELEVEN
BACKGROUND: This started as a long-winded numbered blog. It transformed into an organized long-winded category blog. Now, it is a quick-hitter to ease your pain. I lack time. So, the preparation of the blog actually made me procrastinate from writing the thing. Let’s see who makes the cut. Barely edited as usual unfortunately, so please excuse any mistakes during my stream of consciousness. I feel the need…the need for speed. Let’s turn and burn.
SETTING: This is mostly written while my wife was on a high school friends’ virtual happy hour on Friday. Tidied up and released on Saturday morning. Nope. Decided to release Friday night. Enjoy. Let’s move.
- EVERGREEN: As Billy Joel once said, you may be right, and I may be crazy…and let’s just say you might be the lunatic we are not looking for. Anyway, Rays pitcher Blake Snell proactively came out on social media and told the world that he will not play for half of his salary and the risk is not worth it to play any part of the season for that amount. His salary this year is $7 million. He broke down percentages of the season, taxes, and everything, and made it very clear that half (cue Eddie Murphy Raw) will not due. Listen, Blake. You live a whole different life than we all know. You are in the upper, upper class. It is different. We get it. And COVID is a terrible thing, and maybe that is your fear. But SAYING and VOICING these words totally dismisses everyone from the health care doctor to the UPS delivery woman to the grocery store worker handing out toilet paper right off the truck. Have your own opinions. Vote how you want to vote. Don’t want to play. Want to play. We don’t care. What we KNOW is that we don’t need to HEAR a rich athlete say those words in that way across a public stream. Come on, man. Say what is on your mind, but keep in mind there are people thinking about buying your jersey who are on the front line of this crisis, people who never thought they would lose their job who did, people who are furloughed, people with their own pay cuts, etc. And when Bryce Harper agrees with you, that probably is another sign you are in the selfish, pompous zone. One note of detail. When writing the above, and before researching his salary history on editing, I did not realize he only made a mil last year, but I stick with my argument regardless.
- EVERGREEN 2. COVID. Much shorter than my ramblings earlier in quarantine, it still exists. My notes from the last few days on our crisis. Iceland is “opening up” its borders to visitors and eliminating the lockdown. Guess what you have to do to travel there? You have to download the Iceland trace app for your phone, and can either choose a COVID test or isolate yourself for two weeks before enjoy your “festivities.” Man, travel will be weird moving forward. Dammit. Delivery companies, Amazon, beer, Zoom, and now…PAJAMAS. You were smart if you bought stock in them before this went down. Gamers have more time, and might have blown through their present video games. And skateboarders are bored too. Gamers soon can play his old school skateboard game. So, Dr. Fauci…yeah. I knew THAT was going down when Trump repetitively called him Tony during the news conferences. Wisconsin overturned the stay at home order from the government, and I just don’t get this. This is about health, not rights. Death shouldn’t win over money. I didn’t even think of this. This mask stuff must stink for people who are hard of hearing and rely on lip reading. Shame that life will be like this for a while. I am reading about grocery store prices going up and I don’t like it, supply and demand issue or not. Eggs can up in price. I always think they are magically underpriced since my day 1 in life anyway. As of late this past week, New York City had gone 58 days without ONE single pedestrian death. Of course, that uplifting fact is still underneath the news of them being the epicenter of COVID. There is a woman named Maria Branvas, who is believed to be the oldest person in Spain. She beat COVID. There is a surge in people wanting to buy or rent private islands. It is a very small group of people surging, but it is still…surging. Belize is where we want to end up, so maybe keep Gladden Island with some openings. Go to Virginia, folks. Well, I guess you really can’t. But, if you could, you could go to the Inn At Little Washington, where they are serving at 50% capacity. The other 50%? Mannequins. Yes. Mannequins, folks. Cue that 80’s movie now. You know how I love that animals are taking over previously inhabited streets and such. Georgia, yes Georgia, is having a big lizard problem presently. Finally, ending on a sports note. This COVID thing is stressing us all financially. We know that. But, know it is also stressing rich people, like NFL players. DeAndre Baker of the New York Giants and Quinton Dunbar of the Seattle Seahawks both committed…ARMED ROBBERY during the pandemic last week. I am sure if you did a collection or GoFundMe in an NFL locker room, you wouldn’t do too bad.
- NFL: James Harrison simply misses the spotlight and attention. He says Tomlin handed him an envelope in 2010 after a horrible hit on a Browns WR. He got fined $75k for that hit after the fact. Then, after coaches, owners, agents, and other players all denied this happened, he backtracked. He said no bounties existed. Don’t make up stuff, James. Not sure why the fallout with Tomlin happened like it did, but let the sleeping dog lie. You are still a Steelers legend with one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history from any year and any team. You can kill quarantine by curling your two Super Bowl trophies, but leave Tomlin alone. I love my coach. Ty Hilton has declared he wants to retire a Colt. You don’t hear this that often in this day and age. Instead of a player wanting to demand a trade because of his contract (or lack of), he is just saying “hey, I WANT to be here forever, so figure this out, ok?” Refreshing. Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripken like. It doesn’t hurt that the Colts probably will be good for about 11 or 12 wins this year. The Rams new stadium opening uniforms and my opinion on them? Well, let’s just say that I think the GM designed them. Basically, nothing about the uniforms OR their trades and roster moves makes ANY sense in the last year or two. They lost a tough Super Bowl to a dynasty team and QB, and had the roster and young coach to set them up for years, and now they are simply a train wreck. Not saying you should say it out loud, ED, but I support your opinion. The MOMENT Cam Newton got released, I said that I WANTED the Steelers to pick him up. Months ago. I confirm, and so do the talking heads. He would be a perfect backup to Ben. I have never been a big fan of his personality or swagger, but I will take a healthy, seasoned, athletic QB who fits the scheme any day of the week to back up our 38 year old statue. Mason had his FULL chance last year, and he failed. So did Duck, although a cool story. Joe Buck says that Fox will pump in crowd noise for games this year. That sounds like Fox, and I will be watching the silent games on the other channel. Ex-Dolphin RB Mark Walton had his battery charges dropped, meaning that although we respect the Dolphins for having a classy, respectful trigger finger, they might have been a little TOO quick. They are out an arrest-free RB that they might be able to use. Aaron Rodgers wasn’t “thrilled” to have Jordan Love drafted, especially with his team moving UP to grab him, but he sure doesn’t want to LOSE a whole year at this point either. The Packers have $385 million in reserve funds, so they can technically lose a year of income. Friday was Ray Lewis’s birthday, and he can walk around for eternity knowing he was possibly the best ever at his position. I would put Singletary, Lambert, and Butkus in the same sentence. I LOVE the Rooney Rule and I LOVE teams looking at minorities for their coaching and executive positions, but moving teams up in draft position for teams who hire them? No. I don’t agree. Push the envelope, but don’t change the draft rules because of movement. Enable the movement, but don’t change the freaking rules.
- COLLEGE FOOTBALL: The season will get a July decision apparently. That sounds like a long time, but it won’t be by the time when the calendar hits June. Urban Meyer’s kid will walk on as a WR for Cincy apparently. It will be something to watch, but word is that he is just going through the motions so he can follow in his dad’s footsteps and become a coach for life. Future genius. So, IF one of the transfer QB’s out there wants to continue the trend of transfers being in the Heisman conversation for Oklahoma, note this, folks. OU just landed the #1 receiver in the class, the #16 recruit overall in his class. But the transfer QB would have to stay until next year, as it is the 2021 class Williams heads up. But, not a bad deal. I am SO curious where JT Daniels lands. Such a fan of that kid. And, as I am writing this on Friday night, THIS just landed. Taulia, Tua’s brother, chose Maryland as his destination. He will have a clear path to a starter, he knows Locksley the head coach, and Maryland suddenly becomes a little more than just a “dangerous” team in the Big Ten.
- COLLEGE BASKETBALL: A third pre-college player is going the G-League route. Kai Sotto is a Filipino player who is ranked #62 in his class. He adds to the intrigue, although not leading the intrigue. He is 7’4” though, folks, so you WILL hear about him at some point, I promise. If you don’t know the name Mac McClung, I won’t penalize you. He averaged some good stats at G-Town this past year in hoops. He entered the NBA Draft, but then did two things this week. He retracted his name from the draft AND announced he will transfer. It could be a good week for Maryland. His landing spots are favored as Maryland and North Carolina. Because he is from Virginia, I will say that Tony will give him a call too. He will be a stud transfer gain for someone, and know his phone is ringing off the hook. Need a little more? Mac broke Iverson’s high school scoring record pre-Georgetown. That was probably not easy to pull off, folks.
- NBA: They are looking at options in how to return to play. Go, guys. Just start it with the playoffs as is. Again, I think I will bank on the Nets beating the Raptors in the first round if that happens (if Durant comes back). I will say that ESPN’s top 74 players ever put Zeke at #31, and that is sort of ridiculous. There are five positions in basketball. He is arguably the third best PG behind Magic (definitely will give that up) and…Cousy (willing to accept)? Stockton (no titles)? Oscar (I accept that one)? There were many players in the high teens and twenties who he should have outranked. He basically bridged the gap between Magic and Bird and MJ. The only team that can claim MORE of an interruption is the 1983 Sixers with my boys Dr. J and Andrew Toney. Cheeks. Jones. Malone. Etc. But I could talk about this subject for hours. Moving on. So, let’s talk The Last Dance, since I caught up this week AND released my blog BEFORE the next two episodes. My random notes. I remember when his father died, but they did a good job in retelling the story. It was all over the headlines and a big mystery. Glad to see the media guys in the documentary admit it was “not the media’s finest moment,” as they tried to pin MJ’s gambling on it. I forgot he quit in 1993 AT a baseball game. I forgot the conspiracy theory about Stern forcing him out. I did NOT know that Jerry (good Jerry) paid him his salary while he played baseball the first year since “he was already underpaid for the beginning of his career.” Wouldn’t have guessed that. I loved watching the baseball folks gain respect of his UNSTOPPABLE work ethic, and most admitting he would have made it if he kept playing. He hit .202, folks, and drove in like 50 runs that year. He LEARNED to hit the breaking ball with constant practice on the machine. MY theory? Baseball is WRONG for MJ because onl of this. Hitting .400 is magical. Hitting .200 is respectable. MJ doesn’t like sports where the remainder is greater than what he got. I forgot about the Cartwright speech after the Sitting Bull incident. Surprised that Pippen said he still would have made the same decision in his current interview. I TOTALLY forgot about the LaBradford Smith story about MJ scoring 36 in the first half because he was trying to match Smith’s 37 against him the night before. I also forgot Jordan made up the “nice game, Mike” thing that he said pissed him off. He FABRICATED the thing that pissed him off. THAT is scary AND awesome. He also decided that George Karl walking past him in a restaurant where they both were was a reason to destroy his team that series. Like he needed one. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO ANYTHING BUT BE POLITE TO MJ WHEN ABOUT TO PLAY HIM? ALL CAPS!!!!!! EXCLAMATION POINTS! I would carry around a red carpet on my back to not piss him off. MJ not pissed off scores 30. MJ pissed off in MSG scores 1000. I forgot the strike was actually the main reason MJ started the basketball comeback, but wouldn’t cross the scab line. I forgot about BJ Armstrong being the guy who invited him back to gym. I remembered the Scottie Air Jordan shoe media play, but it was funny to see it again in context. I did NOT know that Falk made 2-3 version of his announcement before MJ just wrote “I’m Back” In a fax. Watching the highlights, MAN, that Orlando team of the mid-90’s was LOADED. Scott, Anderson, Shaq, Horace, Penny, and…oh wait…the bench sucked. Now, I see. I sort of kind of forgot he came back for the ’95 playoffs, but mainly because I wanted to remember he performed perfection from ’91 on. I would have missed any trivia question about when he came back to hoops. Also, I remember a KILLER commercial for the Super Bowl during baseball about him playing pickup ball at various locations. I loved that commercial. If I ever forget WHICH Bulls team won 72 games, I will now remember that it was OF COURSE right after the 1995 Orlando loss. I DO remember that he had the Jordan Dome where all the badasses came over for the best pickup games ever, but totally forgot it was DURING the filming of Space Jam. When you film yours, LeBron, see if you can do that also. I think Hakeem should write a personal thank you about going to baseball, although I love his game. Once more, I needed reminding that he smoked cigars ALL THE TIME, and that he oddly laced his own shoes before each game. I knew Father’s Day of his comeback title was during Father’s Day, but spaced the winning GAME WAS Father’s Day. Finally, I again want every young player who thinks LeBron is the best to watch this, because it was moving to hear him almost cry when just talking about him not being a tyrant and just wanting every one of his teammates to be on the same page as him for dedicating himself to every practice and every play. Moving. He wanted to destroy everyone, every day, at everything. I also want to say that I want to call a lot of people Scott Burrell (full name) and see if they got the joke. Man, Scott was such a nice guy. LOVED the Kerr-fight story. He got into a fight with MJ, he hit many winning shots, and now he has titles as a coach. Not a bad resume.
- MLB: I like their plan. Keep brainstorming and let’s play ball. There will be a universal DH for the season, and these slight modifications make sense. I am more curious on the extra innings rule they land on. ELIMINATE the long games. Nothing past 12 innings. Bob Walton died at 74 years young. Aside from being the first black GM, which is awesome, he also oddly is the first player to ever hit for a cycle in both the AL and NL. Tell your friends. John Smoltz celebrated his birthday on the 15th. For you younger people, he was the “third” guy (Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz) in the rotation for the Braves who should have won about 5 titles, but he WAS the guy who OWNED the postseason. 15-4, 2.67 ERA, in 41 starts in the postseason. Amazing. MLB will do a remote draft on June 10th and 11th. Since we didn’t watch the actual one anyway, it will be a tree-forest-sound thing.
- MISCELLANEOUS: Teixeira beat Smith in a TKO, but I wasn’t ready for another UFC fight after Saturday, even though I am seeking out live sports. A little overload. It should be the same for NASCAR, as they have like a race every third day planned I think. College campuses are offering to host pro sporting events, but I don’t get this. If you can’t do it in an arena, why do it at a campus?
- THIS AND THAT: If you don’t watch Billions, then I am sorry for you. Amazing show. I said this on Tuesday when I blogged, but want to say it again because I have a sneaky idea for a blog theme to catch people’s attention since I am lacking a blog theme idea right now in speed writing this while my wife is on her happy hour. They successfully, in episode 2, included Cherry Pie, The Chris Rock Test, Dexter references (moving forward too), and a KILLER Usual Suspects quote. “I’ll flip you…flip ya for real.” So fast, expecting you to catch it. Hmmm. Flip ya for real and Chris Rock Test might be blog theme leaders at this point. Moving on. Guy Fieri and Bill Murray will have a nacho battle for charity, and that sounds fun. I kind of want to hear the REAL story about how that idea between those two guys formulated. Not what we will read. Seems kind of random. The White Pie “The Pack” deal was decent and looked good on paper, but I will say that it wasn’t as exciting as we thought it would be. Their lasagna is still the best lasagna outside of Rome in my opinion, but the meal was not all that and a bag of chips. A French serial killer expert has admitted to his entire career being a lie. Some people matched some dates and deaths from several books and interviews, and he was off. He came clean. Get this though. His entire lie? He wrote SEVENTY FIVE books on expert serial killer stuff. Wow. In case you don’t feel safe under Trump, at least feel safe with his control of dumb weapons. Of the $72 billion dollars spent on nuclear weapons annually, we spent half of it. $36 bil.
- THE FILLERBUSTER: My wife is catching up on Billions and I totally support this. But, it is MASSIVELY affecting my only goal during quarantine. Finishing The Wire. Only on season 2, as happy wife is a happy life, and she would destroy me if I watched it without her, but she seems to only want to pace about one episode every 4 days or so. Slow. I had goals of washboard stomach, fluent in Spanish, refined piano skills, new guitar skills, and finish The Wire. (Editors note: I had to leave the living room with the happy hour. The other girls started talking very hard core “girl” stuff, so I respected my wife’s privacy to enjoy the happy hour). I went in the bedroom and turned on the sound machine (the new one). I have thrown myself into guitar. Learning one simple chord progression every couple of days, and the second and third day I have to play it better and faster. I then advance to next progression. Picking it up lightning quick as I expected. I will say that I think, at this point, that it is easier to play good piano than good guitar at this point, but it might be harder to play immaculate piano than immaculate guitar later on, but we will see. On the piano note, I am going book by book through my library, making myself learn what I used to play easily. Last night, something weird happened. I started playing a Rachmaninoff Concerto. You know the one. The famous one. 17,000 flats, 14,000 octaves, and double sharps galore, and I said out loud to myself “did I used to be this good really?” I then tapped my heart, closed my eyes for a second, and asked the piano gods to just guide my trained fingers. I then destroyed the first couple of pages. I sat in the chair after, mulling over what had just happened. It was magical. It was ridiculous. I can’t wait to get back to that piece tonight. THANK you, MOM and Dad. You sent me to expensive schools and know that I still lose myself on the keys. And thanks to my wife for buying me what I needed for this love. A weight sensitive Roland, which is still the best present ever. I married the girl. Spanish. I am in no rush, and my wife makes fun of me because I won’t train in front of her (she makes fun of my white accent). I do 15 minutes a day, and am ready to test myself with my Spanish work buddy over the summer in live warfare. House projects. I love yardwork, but SIMPLE yardwork. I like mowing the lawn like Forrest Gump. I DON’T like picking up leaves. My wife likes gardening, but not landscaping the whole lawn. And she HATES leaves. Anyway, we have decided that it is worth supporting local businesses/being lazy and paying someone to do it for us. We all need to decide on the price of effort, love, and results. We don’t bond during yardwork. Our lawn will be immaculate, and I can focus on what I want to focus on. The garage. It looks like an organizing playground to me, and I look forward to it. Work. My work is still handling this thing as classy as can be. I am proud to work at Four Winds Interactive. We just had an 80’s/90’s town hall meeting that looked like professional TV people did it. It was off the hook amazing. I don’t ever have time to show all pics, but when our VP of Software is busting out Rick Astley’s vidoe perfectly, you know it is a work of art. Listen. About my work. I work for a genius, and have for 10 years. And although sometimes his thoughts are so genius they are all over the place and might drive us nuts in some ways, he is still a genius that I will follow into battle any day. And my immediate boss literally blazed the trail for success as a demon on the phone (JJ). We drive messaging to TV screens and devices. Think of a time in the world when we didn’t need it more. I sell a messaging device in a time where casinos need more messaging to new guests than ever. Perfect. I freaking love my job. The Workout. I am in a groove. I hate running, but I choose to run (Seinfeld opposite quote). Necessary evil. I am running further as long as I have the music, I am getting closer to my washboard (down to ten pounds above play weight), and I am in my front yard 5-6 days a week with a TRX wrapped around a tree. I will say this. No pandemic will occur again without me having a full gym at home. Hamilton has been postponed. So, I fight for tickets every day for months and don’t succeed, and my wife gets us tickets, and the thing is postponed? It is like the town of Telluride and the Shelby Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds. So close, yet so far away. That is a Hall & Oates song, by the way. Lots of jokes in there. We replaced our sound machine. Order when sleeping is restored. I can fall asleep in 5 minutes under any conditions, but I NEED white noise. I won’t hear a robber come into my house, but, I will be well rested when he pokes me. Although I have a man cave, I just found out I need to order shelves that match the room and house. Think this is ambiguous, but my wife rules and I will abide. So, put Masters flags and UVA title shit all over, but don’t put nails in wall or order stuff that doesn’t color coordinate. Nicolette Cusick, a friend of the wife, was on the news for her virtual escape room. Escape rooms have been the fad, but you should go to Nicolette’s. It is amazing the amount of work and imagination she puts into every single nook and cranny. Brilliant person and proud to be a friend. And, if you drink with her during normalcy pre-COVID, you oddly end up at El Chapultepec every single night. www.escaperoombreckenridge.com Today, we locked ourselves in a room, and a machine of 5 people came and cleaned our house for the third time. $100 plus tip. Ridiculous. Ask me for the person’s number. MACHINE. FOR CHEAP. Place is spotless, they bring in multiple people, and it is a crime. My wife just told me it is a good idea that we do our will tomorrow. Damn you pandemic and age. I don’t LIKE the idea of mapping out my post-death finances and belonging. But, my DJ buddy just did it, and he is ten years my younger, so I submit. Am I the only person in the world who is hooked on Google in everything, still owns an iPod Shuffle, and doesn’t have a Spotify account? Yup. Figured so. I was also the last person in the gym with that huge Walkman carrier hanging from his waist. I have to go. I have to check on my wife and see if happy hour is done, I have to order this Groupon deal of three cargo shorts for $34, and I have to put in a needed Amazon order of needed things, as I only can spend money on online ordering after a pop or two.
- TWEET OF THE WEEK
ALTERNATE CATEGORIES THAT DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT:
- THE BEST WORKOUT SONG EVER FOR THIS WEEK (because the best song this week IS the best song ever…for now):
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK
- LINKS TO SAVE YOU TIME IN LIFE
- TRAVEL
- THIS WEEK’S LIST
- MY NUMBERS
- GONE FISHING (the riddle for money):
- PICS BY MY PIXEL (pictures from my phone):
- LIFEGUARD ENTRY:
- NHL
The theme? Undetermined at initiation of writing, it ended up being Flip Ya For Real, a quote from the best movie ever, Usual Suspects. But, the connection tonight is that it was quoted brilliantly in Billions, the best show presently on TV. BARELY beats out The Chris Rock Test. Barely.
And our weekly reminder of the greatest sequel ever made coming out next summer… Top Gun 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8z1rqA8jRw
That’s it for today. Hope you enjoyed or are at least more informed. Remember two things. First, feed yourself, feed your family, but always, always remember to…feed the wolf. Second, if you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker. Will I blog again? That is a CLOWN question, bro. As one shepherd said to the other shepherd, let’s get the flock out of here.
| THROW IT BACK IN THE POND |
| smith teixeira ufc fight night |
| Maurice claret |
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| thaddeus moss wants to forge own identity |
| dele alli robbed at knifepoint |
| taco charlton says foot on gas for chiefs |
| von miller says covid was frightening |
| florida governor says they can find place for sports teams |
| arizona governor opens up state for sports |
| trump’s tax documents |
| new relief stimulus package covid |
| broadway theater shut down until sept 6 |
| NCAA extends deadline to pull out of NBA draft |
| Dwight Howard opens up kobe problems in 2012 |
| JT to headline new golf game |
| panthers owner optimistic about games with fans |
| some players will OWE in nba-curry, lebron, etc. |
| falcons OC says gurley durability might be issue |
| Dunbar Baker armed robbery |
| art howe mlb manager cv |
| 6.4 quake Nevada |
| China tension |
| senator burr |
| Howe in ICU |
| payton says nfl wasn’t ready for PI reviews |
| manfred-repeated testing key to reopening |
| gaethje says mcgregor losing clout among fighters |
| cp3 says players want to play bad |
| ncaa says campuses must support hosting college sporting events |
| rodgers admits he wasn’t thrilled about love pick |
| MJ’s daughter used google to find out why dad was famous |
| lin talks about kobe, bus being traded |
Bettman not thinking about cancelling season
| uva 20 20 Jackie rape-wife watching |