Well it's been a long time since I've posted, maybe six weeks. Let's just do this.
1) First and foremost, fuck Facebook. I got a 30 day restriction for using the word "idiot" in a comment. There isn't the slightest doubt in my mind that Big Tech is out to oppress me and people like me. People with my political, religious, and social beliefs will be censored for things that aren't even related to those topics. Because a lot of vicious things have been said to me that I've reported, and nothing was done to them.
So as much as it sucks, I have to play by a different set of rules. So what will that look like? One of the first things I will need to do is start muting groups from my timeline. It isn't the people I know who are aggravating me, it's the random strangers who say stupid things. God has designed me in a very unique way, with a lot of strengths in a lot of shortcomings. One of those traits is I do not have a very strong ability to ignore people who say stupid things. I need to put some boundaries in place, because idiots are not worth losing my social media.
2) Almost time for June, probably the most celebrated month for sin on the calendar. The f@g flags are about to come out in full force. I remember when I was walking in downtown Chicago when I was working right next to the Merchandise Mart building and they would always have about 12 American flags waving high in the sky. But during June, they would replace those flags with the evil rainbow. And it's the only time they would do that except when one of their sports teams was in the playoffs and winning games. It is absolutely shameful that that's what America does now, we promote and accept destructive behavior that spits in the face of God and family values. I can't say this stuff on social media because there are a lot of weak people who can handle it if you have an opinion different than theirs. The difference is they're the ones who actually preach tolerance but they can't tolerate a different opinion than their own. If there are people that want to live that lifestyle, they're going to, but quit shoving it in our faces. I mean why are people of faith discouraged from ever talking about their faith but people can wave the sexuality flag around?
3) During the pandemic, I was starting to use colored pencils and learn how to draw. I was only following YouTube tutorials, which for me can only do so much. You can watch somebody draw and create these absolute masterpieces, but a teacher cannot teach feel to their student. I feel like I would need someone to actually show me what to do. And even though I have created some decent works, at least for a total novice like me, I feel as though I want to learn more if I'm going to keep doing it. I don't think I've picked up my pencils in about 6 months now. And while I'm on time out from Facebook, it seems this would be a good time to do it. Maybe I just need a reason or a little inspiration to get back into it again.
4) But one thing I've always felt comfortable doing was cooking. And I've been getting into some different recipes lately, I'm especially trying to focus on making some better side dishes. I prefer to try to make macaroni and cheese on the stove as opposed to baking a full sheet in the pan. There's only one of me and I can only handle so much mac! A few things I have learned, and one is that American cheese sucks with macaroni. Sure it melts well, but the flavor just overwhelms everything else. I even tried cream cheese, and I think it just took away from the actual cheesiness and made it creamier. But tonight I used sharp cheddar cheese and Colby-Jack along with evaporated milk, a lot of hot sauce, and toasted bread crumbs. The texture came out much better, it wasn't too liquidy. I want the macaroni to be covered but I don't want cheese going all over my plate when I eat it.
I have really failed on my last couple of attempts making mashed potatoes. They either came out too hard because the potatoes weren't cooked enough or too liquidy. In fact the last time I used an envelope from the store and it was just a liquid mess. Maybe I'll go back to smashed potatoes with herbs or warm weather potato salad.
5) On to sports and I guess I have to give the Knicks credit for finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference, something no one in their right mind thought was possible when this season began in November. At best, maybe we thought they could finish between 7 and 10 and make the play in tournament. But this first-round Series against Atlanta has just reminded us that they are simply not good enough to win a series, they need more talent, and they need to have a big offseason. And that means finding a way to get a superstar here within a year. They got embarrassed today in Atlanta in game 4, and going in it felt just like it did against Indiana in 2014 in game 4 of the second round. I was in town for that game and halfway through the first quarter I knew they were not matching up well in that they were probably going to get smoked. And that's exactly what happened, I was done by halftime. I stormed back to my hotel room at the Crowne Plaza and got wasted. If I had been in Atlanta today, the exact same thing would have happened. Even if the Knicks managed to win game 5 at Madison Square Garden, there is no way they can win three straight games against Atlanta. This season is going to be remembered as a great regular-season surprise but an incredibly disappointing playoffs.
6) As far as the Rangers go, I did not expect them to make the playoffs this season. They were playing in an absolutely loaded division and it was going to be challenging to get one of the top four spots. And thanks to certain circumstances, they fell a little bit short. But with so much young talent and a solid front office in place, it was easy to see they had a good foundation in place, but some grit and toughness were sorely needed. Well after Jim Dolan, with three games to go in the regular season, fired John Davidson and Jeff Gorton as team president and general manager respectably, I have no idea where this franchise is going and what direction they are headed. I do feel pretty good about them letting David Quinn go as head coach, I don't believe he was the man to get this team to being a legitimate contender for a Stanley Cup Championship. So with Chris Drury installed as the new general manager, he has an enormous task with getting this head coach hiring right. Gerard Gallant would be at the top of my list.
7) I have been a fan of the New York Mets for well over 30 years now. I have seen just about every level of success and failure that is to see, except for a world championship. But for playing one third of the season, I don't know if I've seen this level of high and low in one season. Somehow they went from the most underachieving team in the first month to the most overachieving seem in the second month, and that's after they put 16 players on the injured list. They have guys I have never heard of coming from nowhere and they're contributing. The bullpen has been fantastic. The starting pitching has been really really good as well. But they have the third worst batting average in the National League and they're near the bottom in home runs. And they've been playing mostly bad teams, so it's hard to imagine they're going to keep this going. But to have a first place spot in the standings is amazing, they may very well need that cushion against the division that has also underachieved up to this point. What they really need to get back are the outfielders: Nimmo, Pillar, Almora, and especially Conforto. I mean how much longer can we watch Cameron Maybin and Khalil Lee average one hit for every 25 at bats?
8) As for the Jets, well with the draft concluded, they're in their slow. Until training camp starts up in July. I will say I am very excited about the direction of where this franchise is heading. With Joe Douglas as general manager and Robert Saleh as head coach, I feel they have a front office and coaching staff that are in synchronicity and are working together to achieve the same goal and they have a like-minded approach on how to accomplish that task. Not only that but I feel excited about their draft, they are focusing on key positions of need such as offensive line and wide receiver. Considering the schedule and the level of talent I could see this team jumping from two wins to seven wins in their first season. Just the fact that Adam Gase is gone, that should be an increase of four wins right there. The only thing I don't really understand is why they have not addressed outside cornerback, in free agency or with a premium draft pick position. Sure they drafted a bunch of secondary players towards the latter rounds of the draft, but how many of those people can we expect to plug and play from the beginning? That's not what you expect to get in the fifth and sixth rounds of the NFL draft. To a lesser extent I still have questions about the backup quarterback and the kicker.
9) I am so resentful of AEW. They are where Ring of Honor should have been for the last 10 or 15 years. They used Ring of Honor, raided their talent, and now they are the johnny-come-lately of professional wrestling. And there are people in that business who I respect and I like, but I simply will not watch them again, because I refuse to ever watch AEW. It's gotten to the point that I will skip portions of wrestling podcasts that talk about that particular company; I would rather not know anything about them.
10) All right enough about that topic, let's get back to some more personal stuff. There are a lot of people around me facing health concerns. My good friend Staci has leukemia. My boss has kidney cancer, will have surgery in June and miss six weeks of work. My father has an issue with the retina in his eye and is dealing with blurry vision. All these situations have come up in the last 2 or 3 weeks. And that's not even counting a certain somebody in Arkansas who's been dealing with health issues since I've known her and those issues go back multiple years before we started communicating. I've been very fortunate to have been pretty healthy my whole life and I can't imagine people who have to deal with chronic illnesses, but I'm dealing with that more and more. And it's hard to know what to say except I support them and I will listen if they need it.
11) So Memorial Day is tomorrow. As somebody who works with veterans and active duty military extensively, I know I have a deeper appreciation for our country's military. And that's another reason why I support President Trump like I do, I will support any president who funds our military, because there isn't anything more important than keeping our nation safe and secure and free. Those aren't just token words, they are true words. So I'm going to take a getaway day up north into Shenandoah Park. My plan is to hike up to 3,500 ft on the Old Rag Trail. From what I've heard it could be a seven or eight hour hike, I can't remember the last time I spent that much time on a high, it's rare that I go past 3 or 4 hours. So this is going to be a new challenge for me, but I think this is the time for me to do it. I hope I'll be able to spend a little bit of time reflecting and meditating and come out of it a better person.
12) One of the best things about the pandemic ending is that I can start to plan trips again. And my biggest trip is scheduled for late July when I'm turning 40 years old. I have a cruise booked from Seattle Washington in to Alaska for a week. It was supposed to include a stop in Victoria British Columbia. I was going to set foot in Canada for the first time in my life right on my 40th birthday. But because both countries are run by incompetent fools and they can't get their crap together, the Canadian portion of the trip has since been canceled. But I will still enjoy it, I will get to go to a salmon bake, they will be canoeing and kayaking, I'll even get to go on a dog sled ride, I can only imagine what kind of the rush that's going to be. It may not be the Iditarod but that's pretty good still.
But to go on the cruise boat, a vaccination for covid is required. To be honest, I have no desire to get vaccinated. I have not been sick in any way for the last two years, so my thought is why mess with what's working for me? But I want to go on this trip. So a week ago on Monday, I had my first shot. Slowly, the numbness from the moderna needle set into my left arm. As Tuesday morning rolled around, I had very low energy for two days and it felt like the top of my left arm was twisted into knots. On Wednesday, when I was reaching my arm straight out to the left for the telephone, I never knew that could be such a painful experience. It probably took until Thursday morning for the discomfort to dissipate. And I still have another shot to take towards the end of June. I'm not going to get into whole debate about being vaccinated versus not being vaccinated. I have never felt I needed it, but if it will allow me to enjoy a somewhat of a normal life again, then that's the price I guess I can pay.
13) As far as other trips go, the week before the Seattle and Alaska trip, I've booked my ticket with the 7 Line Army for the Mets vs Pirates game at PNC Park. This is probably my favorite or second favorite ballpark in the country that I've been to, so I'm happy to get a chance to go back there. Chances are I will take a hotel room and stay overnight. One of the things about downtown Pittsburgh is a lot of their restaurants are not open for lunch, they open at 4 pm. So I'm going to have to plan my food pretty carefully. And the game starts at 7 on Saturday night and we are even running the bases on the field afterwards. So hopefully Bakersfield tacos or The Eagle Fried Chicken will stay open till midnight to accommodate my insatiable appetite for late night local grub. And it still makes no sense to me that they only have a bus service to go from the airport to downtown. They built the subway that has its northernmost stop just over the river where the stadiums are, but about 90% of the subway line is south of the city. How in the world they designed it that way, I could not tell you.
And I'm also very happy that the Virginia Jets Fans group will be taking a road trip to Charlotte in September for opening day when the Jets play the Panthers. It's going to be our new quarterback Zach Wilson against our most recent failed quarterback hope, Sam Darnold. It'll be Robert Saleh, the Jets new coaching hope, against Matt Rhule, the coach the Jets probably should have hired three years ago instead of Gase. I would not be surprised if that stadium was 30-35% Jets fans.
14) As happy as I was with the Cloud 2.0 shoes from On that I purchased in October 2019, I was that disappointed with their Cloudswift running shoes. I've had them now for about 9 months and the cushioning has just completely worn off. They're fine for walking and maybe standing around in but I have so little support on the balls of my feet when I run. And for shoes the cost about $130, I expect better than that.
