Random Thoughts That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread Go Here

[bob]

Ok, think its been corrected now.

[NobodyHere]

huzzah for bob!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The final from the Benz, ELCA 41-3 over Athens Academy.

We got outgained 420-22, we did not manage a first down the entire game
(they started throwing the ball in the closing minutes up 41-0, we got an INT to set up our only score).

And you know what, I couldn't be any prouder of our guys.

Played as hard at the end as they did at the start. This was simply a physical mismatch of pretty epic proportions. Post-game comment from our junior QB were about "knowing how far we have to go to compete against those guys" and "starting to work now to get back here next year". That's a 17 year old who gets it, and there are never too many of those around.

Doesn't feel worthy of a thread of its own at this point but about 10 months after this, where are we today?

Athens Academy sits unbeaten and is actually ranked (Maxwell Ratings, a fairly long running computer modeling system) ever so slightly ahead of Eagle's Landing. (First team to knock ELCA off that perch in longer than Loren Maxwell could recall, several years at least)

From there, I'll just share something I posted on FB earlier ...

To date, Athens Academy -- rated #1 in A-Private -- has played (and beaten) the current #3, #4, and #5 teams in their classification. Both Prince Avenue & George Walton are members of Region 8-A, while Savannah Christian was the non-region season opener.

The non-region schedule also included what is now the #24 team in Class AAAA , Stephens County, who is ranked almost identically to ... George Walton & Savannah Christian (ratings have them as #139, #140, and #141 in the state overall, literally back to back to back)

After what should be a lightly contested game this week, the schedule has the current #11 team in the classification in week 9 ... and a game against the #3 team in A-Public almost certainly awaiting them in the regular season finale.

You might think "well, after that sort of schedule, things might actually get easier in the playoffs" ... err, not exactly :/

The current projected bracket has the most likely opponents for Acad being: #7 Mt Paran in R2, a rematch against #3 Prince Ave in the quarterfinals, a rematch against #5 Sav Christian in the semifinals, and a date with #2 ELCA in the finals.

I'm sorry but that's just ... nasty.

[Coffee Warlord]

Somehow, I still remember my ICQ #. I have no idea how this is possible.

[Ksyrup]

Accidentally posted this in the Trump thread, reposting here:

My MIL mentioned a name in a conversation about where my wife and I may have been registered for our wedding that I don't think I've heard in about 15 years - Service Merchandise. I mean, you're old when you can say you were registered at SM!

I looked it up, and they went under around the turn of the century (2000, not 1900), although apparently the son of the founding family brought the name back for an online-only presence. I had no clue that website existed until today.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Somehow, I still remember my ICQ #. I have no idea how this is possible.

Heh. 4823808. Me too.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Accidentally posted this in the Trump thread, reposting here:

My MIL mentioned a name in a conversation about where my wife and I may have been registered for our wedding that I don't think I've heard in about 15 years - Service Merchandise. I mean, you're old when you can say you were registered at SM!

I looked it up, and they went under around the turn of the century (2000, not 1900), although apparently the son of the founding family brought the name back for an online-only presence. I had no clue that website existed until today.

My memories are fuzzy. I feel like SM had waaaaaaayyyyyyy too much silver in the store.

[rjolley]

I remember Service Merchandise as a store and a catalog. Used to go to one that was in the same shopping center as another long gone chain, Venture.

[Ksyrup]

My memory of the in-store experience is that you'd order something using like an ancient version of what was essentially a tablet/iPad, supplemented by catalogs placed throughout the store, and you'd take the tablet with your order to a clerk, who would ring it up. Then you'd wait with your receipt for your purchase to come out on a conveyor belt.

All of the convenience of the opposite of self-service, combined with the experience of waiting for luggage at an airport.

[NobodyHere]

So people complain that Facebook has too much of our personnel data and knows everything about us.

It makes the plot of Batman Forever seem strangely prophetic. Replace that weird TV thing with Facebook and that is today's world, including Jim Carrey being batshit insane.

Is Mark Zuckerberg secretly The Riddler?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

So people complain that Facebook has too much of our personnel data and knows everything about us.

Which is one of the funniest paranoias EVER.

I've turned how shitty their ad targeting is into recurring feature in my FB status.

"Knows everything about us" does not fit with me getting ads for a run of the mill burger joint 400 miles away in a place I haven't been near 25+ years. Nor for fitness equipment ads. Or car dealer ads. Or .. well, you get the idea.

Much of what FB "thinks" it knows seems to be based on the company you keep. I see ads -- utterly irrelevant to me -- based on interests of my FB friends exponentially more than I see anything to do with my own interests.

[Ksyrup]

How about the FB ads trying to sell you t-shirts and other items from your favorite college team's biggest rival? I get more UF ads than FSU. It's bizarre.

[Breeze]

Though I've known this was coming for years, Sears, the 132 year old retail giant has filed for bankruptcy. I find it odd, that a company that made its name in mail order catalogs was undone because they didn't realize the impact the Internet was going to have on their marketplace.

[CU Tiger]

When they divested Craftsman you just knew it wouldnt be long...

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Breeze

Though I've known this was coming for years, Sears, the 132 year old retail giant has filed for bankruptcy. I find it odd, that a company that made its name in mail order catalogs was undone because they didn't realize the impact the Internet was going to have on their marketplace.

I don't think it was the impact of the internet, they've been in decline since the early 2000's if not earlier.

I remember walking to a Sears store and looked at their sports dept back then. All the stuff was covered by a layer of dust and I remember thinking to myself "the employees don't care".

[JPhillips]

Sears' Ayn Rand loving CEO hastened their demise.

http://prospect.org/article/how-sear...ed-its-own-ceo

[stevew]

When I worked at Sears we didn't really sell products, just insurance policies on them

[stevew]

And if the stuff had dust all over it it's because it's stuff that Sears would buy that nobody wanted. I mean the company by the time I work there was basically just a shell game

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by stevew

When I worked at Sears we didn't really sell products, just insurance policies on them

Same thing happened with Circuit City. I work in the extended warranty/insurance business. Most retail companies make their biggest margins off of those products. For some, it makes up most, if not all, of their profits.

[PilotMan]

At one point, no kidding, Sears was my favorite store to shop in. I could find good things, whatever I needed. Car repairs I could trust, appliances, service, clothes, shoes. I think I bought a mattress from there once. Clearance shelf shopping always yielded a nice find.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by stevew

And if the stuff had dust all over it it's because it's stuff that Sears would buy that nobody wanted. I mean the company by the time I work there was basically just a shell game

I get no one wanted to buy them but shouldn't the employees' have made an effort to dust stuff off?

[Ksyrup]

I wonder what the odds are of winning both lotteries this week? Probably a number so big it wouldn't fit in Cowboys Stadium.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I wonder what the odds are of winning both lotteries this week? Probably a number so big it wouldn't fit in Cowboys Stadium.

Last week, before Friday's drawing it was 1 in 44 quadrillion. I imagine it'll be quite a bit higher than that for the next ones.

[Kodos]

So you're saying there is a chance!

[Ksyrup]

Random thought I had over the weekend... In the future, people are going to look back on us and wonder how the hell we put up with anything other than non-stick aluminum foil. That stuff is a game-changer. Reheating pizza or cooking anything in the toaster oven - it just slides off!

Other than maybe wrapping corn for the grill where the non-stick part doesn't really help, I will never use the old stuff again. I mean seriously, we should start referring to non-stick as just aluminum foil, and the old stuff as "the aluminum crap people buy to save a few bucks."

[PilotMan]

Never heard of it, never used it. Hmmm....

[claphamsa]

why would you foil wrap corn?

[Ksyrup]

I like to grill corn with butter and other seasonings. I usually do that in foil when I'm cooking them on the grill. One, it prevents charring (my wife/kids don't like too much blackened anything) and two, it does a nice job with half-steaming, half-grilling the corn.

[AENeuman]

Speaking of Sears and Kmart...think how awesome the Halloween stores are going to be next year, they are going to be huge!

[Ksyrup]

All of our Sears and KMarts have been gone for awhile. The Lexington KMart is now a huge indoor game/putt-putt/go-cart/play area activity center that moved into that space and doubled its size. The Sears at the mall was sold 3 or 4 years ago and an entire middle section of the mall with brand new shops that I will never visit opened up. It's been great.

The KMart in the small town I live in finally closed last January and I can't say I miss it. Except that U-haul apparently bought it. Supposedly that's part of U-haul's strategy - buying up these old strip centers and turning them into storage facilities and parking lots for rentals.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

why would you foil wrap corn?

I put a bunch of seasoning and butter in the foil and wrap it in foil and put it on the grill. Its fantastic.

A lot of people love mayo on their corn. I'm not into that, but the Elote man os pretty popular with Hispanics and other people who do like it

[ISiddiqui]

Elote is the shit. Didn't realize it was mayo

[albionmoonlight]

This made me like Sears eleventy-billion times more:

In my history of consumption class, I teach about #Sears, but what most people don't know is just how radical the catalogue was in the era of #Jim Crow. #twitterstorians

— Louis Hyman (@louishyman) October 15, 2018

[Edward64]

Why in the world hasn't MS created an easy shortcut to allow inserting a "bullet" for text into a cell?

[Lathum]

Going to pick up my new car today. I loathe walking in to a car dealer. The guy I am working with has been great, I just hate the environment.

That being said excited to get my new ride.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Going to pick up my new car today. I loathe walking in to a car dealer. The guy I am working with has been great, I just hate the environment.

That being said excited to get my new ride.

I've had pretty good experience with car dealerships, from Honda, Toyota, one used car place and Acura. In the early 90's it was pretty bad "how much do you want your monthly payments to be".

I do bring my trusty HP12C (from Service Merchandise discussion in another thread) and printouts from various car-price-breakdown places and make sure they are plainly visible though.

What's the ride?

[Lathum]

2019 BMW X3. Really like it. Roomy enough for two kids but not a monstrous gas guzzler. About to finish the financing. Really hope they don’t try and sell me anything else. The experience here has been really low pressure, you just are always waiting for the right hook to have to dodge.

[PilotMan]

One day, I'm going to own a car from the same decade that I'm living in. One day. Or not. I don't know. As long as it runs, is reliable and doesn't look or act like a pile of shit it's probably ok. Especially if it's paid for. Having said that, car shopping is a giant pain in the ass. I love looking, but everything after that just sucks.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Lathum

2019 BMW X3. Really like it. Roomy enough for two kids but not a monstrous gas guzzler. About to finish the financing. Really hope they don’t try and sell me anything else. The experience here has been really low pressure, you just are always waiting for the right hook to have to dodge.

Nice, congrats.

I think BMW and other premium car dealers get it.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

One day, I'm going to own a car from the same decade that I'm living in. One day. Or not. I don't know. As long as it runs, is reliable and doesn't look or act like a pile of shit it's probably ok. Especially if it's paid for. Having said that, car shopping is a giant pain in the ass. I love looking, but everything after that just sucks.

We've always bought new but we keep them a long time (5+ and 10+ years, and the one before we traded in was 13 years old) and only have one car payment at any time.

I've never been comfortable with used cars but after going through the process of buying my son a used car a couple years ago (he didn't want a hand-me-down) and seeing minimal issues, I am rethinking it.

[Ksyrup]

I just spent about 36 hours in Vegas for work (got home a few hours ago on a redeye), and I don't want to sound all old man-y, but I wanted to sprint down the strip slapping phones out of people's hands. I've never been a camera/picture fan to begin with, but society is out of control with the number of self-absorbed people. And they don't care who they inconvenience - they just stop in the middle of a walkway to pose for themselves. It's insane.

[miami_fan]

Pics or the Vegas trip didn't happen Grandpa!

[NobodyHere]

Will somebody tell the stock market to back up again?

[NobodyHere]

Looks likes the Simpsons is dropping Apu. That's one national crisis solved I guess.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Will somebody tell the stock market to back up again?

I'm pretty comfortable with my portfolio for the long term but just before the crash I bought some Amazon and that really hurts.

[Lathum]

There are fewer things more mortifying than getting to the pharmacy to refill your ED meds and realizing not only do you not have the empty bottle but you left it on the kitchen counter at your in laws.

[miami_fan]

With no judgement as to whether it is wise or not, Rick Pitino hiring Drew Rosehaus as his agent as he tries to rehabilitate his image is hilarious to me.

[PilotMan]

Well, if not for a scheduling conflict for one of the candidates I was nearly the sole moderator for a Mayoral debate in our city (~28,000). That would have been very, very interesting.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

With no judgement as to whether it is wise or not, Rick Pitino hiring Drew Rosehaus as his agent as he tries to rehabilitate his image is hilarious to me.

Pitino turning back to the pros is hilarious. But I bet there's someone out there dumb enough to hire him as more than just a bench coach, talent evaluator or some front office position, so I guess he'll probably have the last laugh.

[cartman]

Mr. Pitino, the Cavs are on Line 2.