Spaceman Spiff

That's funny, that's what the Scientology recruiter told me once when I was walking to the metro on the way home from high school. At least @Dan T. wants to let me in on the secret handshake, Hersh. Don't be so selfish.

I think they have, too. Also turning into a cult, the people obsessed with hating him.

I do the same with buffalo sauce and mustard at the store. "****, do I have any more wing sauce? Not sure. Might as well get some." And before you know it, 6 bottles of wing sauce.

Writing a story about Mantle being an alcoholic baseball God would be the story that everyone would want to hear. He will treat you to that sometimes, read the Rickey Henderson one. But he doesn't always write the obvious and he does it effortlessly...which is what makes him great. May or may not have busted out some of these dance moves around the house today: NSFW, language. And if you haven't watched Eastbound and Down, go watch.

**** Jared Polis, too.

@PleaseBlitz Joe Posnanski is the author, he's amazing and he's the only reason I subscribed to The Athletic. He was doing this rundown on his Patreon site when he started writing for The Athletic and his Patreon subscribers got their first year of The Athletic for free. He's actually the only worthwhile writer on there, to me. There are some other ones but the Baseball 100 is truly special. The Mickey Mantle one is fantastic, so is the one about Josh Gibson and Mike Schmidt.

Bezos has the bald head for it, too.

These people need to go get ****ed in the neck. Christianity, one of things they love to preach is to love thy neighbor. Well, loving thy neighbor isn't doing this. Loving thy neighbor is staying the **** home and not spreading a virus around. I believe Christianity teaches some good things, but let's be real here, this is a money grab. I'm sure the plate was passed around and these idiots put anywhere in from 5-25 bucks, maybe even more. On the low end, say everyone there put in 5 bucks, that's 9, 125 dollars in an hour or two, putting their parishioners health and safety at risk and everyone else they come into contact with at risk, too. Nice.

You know ****s bad when you actually want to go to the Stadium because there's more positive things to talk about. Kyle Allen, woop woop.

Not sure what happened to that 9/11 vs coronavirus thread that was posted a week or so ago, but after some rumination, it's this, for me. Hands down. Although 9/11 happened almost 20 years ago (yikes) it's kinda hard to go back to what the thoughts and feelings were at that time. More shocking? 9/11, for sure. Didn't know what was going to happen next, didn't know if there'd be more terrorist acts or not. But with super-heightened national security on watch, there felt like there was some semblance of protection. Dubya's approval rating, IIRC, went through the roof, I think he responded to it well. Rudy Giuliani (shut up, I know it's hard to think of him as anything else right now other than Trump's lapdog) showed leadership. 9/11, if you didn't have any friends or family in the towers, or at the Pentagon or on the flights...affected everyone emotionally, at least. This is going to affect everyone from an emotional standpoint, financial standpoint, and, of course, a lot of people from a health perspective, too. That, and we've got a complete doofus leading us right now. At least with Dubya, at that point in his presidency, he came across as a capable leader during a national tragedy. Trump is not that guy as we've seen time and time again.

Not sure what happened to El Zoony, but he's been gone for a long time. I think TK and Jumbo got all mafia like and did away with him, like he sleeps with the fishes. Cement shoes or something. Vanished without a trace. No one's heard from him since. Basically Zoony would get in your face (as much as you can get in someone's face on a message board) and accuse people of being snowflakes, etc. He was like a bully with a mod title and would throw his power around like a drunken elephant would swing his trunk. And like that, he's gone. Underground, no one's seen him since. He becomes a myth. A spook story that ES Tailgate old timers tell their kids at night.

I've seen this before. Watching it again now. Certainly wasn't around in these days but I don't believe it happened. There's no artifacts to suggest that it did happen. Even if Zeppelin was touring as "The New Yardbirds" that would have been enough to put on a poster. Led Zeppelin was an unknown but Jimmy Page wasn't unknown, there would have been news that he was coming through with his new group. This guy has The Who and Led Zeppelin from Merriweather and another one from Baltimore Civic Center and other stuff. They were at least able to track down photos from the first Led Zeppelin show in Denver opening up for Vanilla Fudge. No photos exist from them playing at Wheaton Youth Center. Not even a single, crappy out of focus photo. No posters. Just some memories of people who swear that they were there. IIRC, even the biggest Led Zeppelin fans out there can't confirm that it happened. Don't get me wrong, it'd be awesome if it were true.

In his own mind.

Coffy. Pam Grier. 70's blaxploitation flick. Amazing. So bad, it's great. A.

Yeah. I'm sure if the guy that sold me the camera said that Nikon menus were easier, I'd have trusted him. I really didn't know what to get back then, I just wanted someone's opinion, it happened to be his.

I agree with @TheGreatBuzz, take some time to really see if this is something you want to get into. Hack around with your current camera first to see if you like the process. It can get to be a very expensive hobby. From your current setup, it sounds like you've got enough to get by. 10.2 should be ok and the basic electronics are good, too. It all depends on what you're looking to take photos of. That 10.2 won't be good if you're trying to take a photo and crop in on a certain section later on. It should be good enough for daylight conditions, it won't be good in low light. People get really excited for megapixels, IMO, it's kind of like horsepower in a car. You don't always need it, but it's nice when it's there. A lot of this always comes back to what you're going to be taking photos of and the conditions you think you'll find yourself in. IMO, one criteria for a better body is something that I think a lot of people overlook is how it feels in your hand. Weight, etc. If you are going to take it on a hike for most of the day, are you going to have that thing around your neck? Is it too bulky? How's it feel in your hand? I've shot all day concert festivals before and had hand cramps at the end of the event from gripping it all day. If you're taking it on vacation, is it something that's going to be a pain in the ass to haul around? If you're thinking that you're going to spend a lot of time with your gear, it has to be something you actually enjoy using. Taking photos is something that everyone enjoys but you also have to pick up your gear and know that you enjoy using it, too. Also, another important criteria, the is the menus, ease of use, etc. The first camera I purchased was a Canon EOS Rebel. I had done my homework online trying to figure out the differences between Canon and Nikon and had utterly confused myself. So I went into a camera store (Ace Photo in Ashburn if you are local) and said to the guy "Here's my budget and this is what I want to shoot," and he gave me an EOS Rebel with a big ass 3rd party lens. I asked him why he liked Canon over Nikon and he said for a beginner, the menus are easier to navigate, it's just easier to pick up and use. The picture quality, he said, would be indistinguishable between the two brands. I found that to be true. A couple years later I tried taking photos with a Nikon, it was like looking at the controls of a spaceship. I didn't understand any of it. I couldn't figure out the most basic functions. I use Sony now. It's a joy to work with, everything makes sense from a usability perspective, it feels good in my hand and I can take it out all day. Their battery life sucks but you can always get more batteries. Oh, and megapixels, too.

The Tiger King on Netflix. Holy ****. It's a real life Kenny Powers. It's unbelievable.

Yeah, I haven't even bothered to see what's in theatres lately. Was more keeping an eye towards late spring and summer releases.

@PleaseBlitz down for Tribal Wars. It's been a long time. I might check that out. 20 is pricey but that's still less than the price of two tickets and if you get a bottle of water, soda, popcorn, etc.

I wonder what Hollywood is going to do. I'm assuming at some point (hoping) that they release movies to iTunes or something instead of theatre releases so you can rent them.

I wonder how many times Fauci has had to bite his tongue and restrain himself in dealing with Trump in these past few weeks.

Count me out on the outrage. I get why people are outraged but as I said in the other thread...it's been awhile since our public officials have served us. It's been the other way for awhile. Quite frankly, I'd be surprised if this DIDN'T happen in some way. I firmly believe that a lot of politicians start with the best intentions but ultimately end up doing shady **** to stay in office and advance their careers. I would be curious to see what information was disclosed in that meeting on January 24th but I'm assuming we'll never know. That said, anyone could have dumped their stocks a month or so ago. A lot of people are busy slamming Donald Trump for his comment that this "snuck up on us," because...no it didn't. It had been widespread in Asia and Europe before this, it was just a matter of time before it came here. Plenty of people had the opportunity to look ahead and sell some stocks if they wanted to gamble on it, plenty probably chose not to. This is not a group of senators getting together with a Wall Street investor and getting deep inside information on a company that's about to go belly up that no one else knows about. As much as I roll my eyes at fat cats doing what fat cats will continue to do and get away with, the part that bugs me is that they dumped their stocks and then made statements that things were still all good. You can't go to prison for that, at least I don't think. But how these people sleep at night? Probably very comfortably because they're narcissists and therefore don't know what they're doing. I hope Burr and Loeffler get hit by a truck.

Wait until a Jenner or a Kardashian gets it and dies from it, that'll be the wakeup call. Not hoping for that, btw, but the amount of dumb kids out there who were still partying on spring break was alarming.

Lol anyone thinking that our elected officials are serving us. It's the other way around. Has been for quite some time now.