#but i hope i have sufficiently filled your October calendars to make up for it!

[goodomenscalendar]

What is this? | Submit your own event or tag us! | Be sure to click through to the original post for the latest updates! Last edited: October 12th.

Ending Events

Good Omens Holiday Exchange | Prompt Claims close Oct 4th

The Good Omens Holiday Exchange has operated every holiday season since 2005, so by now it's something we consider a fandom institution-- and you could be a part of it this year! Sign-ups are closed, but you can still claim a prompt to fill for someone else! - @goexchange-mods - Claims List -

GOAD Fall Ball Kink Thrall | 18+ | Sign-ups close Oct 31st

Autumnal kink roulette split into two sections. One 'edge' event taking place over a month of writing or drawing. One 'heat' sprint style event weekly on the sub (over the posting period). Prompts sent out November 1st! - @goodomensafterdark - Reddit -

Good Omens Fairy Tale Bang | Posting continues!

This is a Good Omens Mini Bang themed entirely around Fairy Tales! Writing your own or adapting a favorite! All versions of all Fairy Tales and Mythology are welcome! Featuring both SFW and NSFW content. - @fairytalegobang - AO3 Collection -

DIWS: Silver Screen Bang | Posting continues!

The Good Omens Silver Screen Bang brings writers and artists together to retell a movie through a Good Omens lens! AUs and fusions welcome! Featuring both SFW and NSFW content. - @do-it-with-style-events - Twitter - AO3 Collection -

Good Omens Theater Bang | Posting continues!

A Good Omens bang dedicated to theatrical plays and musicals! Featuring both SFW and NSFW content. - @gomens-theatre-bang - AO3 Collection -

Ongoing Events

Chill Omenstober | Runs all month!

A chill list of Good Omens themed October prompts filled with lots of break days. Feel free to use with any form of art! Good luck and have fun! - Prompt List -

Ineffable Kinktober | Runs all month!

A month-long prompt list full of truly Ineffable kinks! This isn't a challenge, do as many or as few as you are inspired to! - Prompt List - Twitter - AO3 Collection -

Inktober | Runs all month!

Classic Inktober: make a drawing in ink, and post it! Inktober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better. - Prompt List - Twitter - Reddit -

Whumptober | Runs all month!

Whumptober is a month-long, prompt-based creation challenge (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are 31 official themes this year - one for each day of the month - which can be used, skipped, or combined in any way you’d like! - @whumptober - AO3 Collection -

Upcoming Events

Thwarting Wiles Zine: Vol 2 | 18+ | Applications open Oct 5th

A bottom!Crowley Good Omens zine. This is an 18+ zine, so no minors will be accepted. - @thwartingwileszine - Twitter -

Ineffably Grey Zine | Pre-orders open Oct 18th

From the Grand Opening in 1898 to modern times, follow this Demon and his Angel on their adventures, and the routines that surely follow at a table for two for An Evening At the Ritz! All proceeds donated to The National Center for Transgender Equality. - @ineffablygrey - Twitter - Instagram - BigCartel -

The Ineffable Society: Langhorne, PA Meetup | October 19th

A free-to-attend Good Omens fandom meetup in the States. Just outside Philadelphia, PA. All ages welcome; under 18 must attend with guardian. Masks required in our Event spaces—help keep your fellow fans safe! - @theineffablesociety - Twitter -

Good Omens Spooky Bang | Posting begins Oct 28th

A spooky Good Omens bang to kick off the autumn season! Whether it's Aziraphale pumpkin-picking, a pumpkin spice latte coffee shop AU, or Hell hosting a Halloween bash, you're invited to the Spooky Bang! Featuring both SFW and NSFW content. - @spooky-bang-good-omens -

Ineffable Secret Angel Event | Sign-ups TBD

When you register for the event, you will be randomly assigned to another participant, who will not know they have been assigned to you. You will then create fanart or write a fanfiction for this person, which you will present to them as a winter gift! Join the Good Omens Reference Library Server to participate! - Info Post - Discord Server -

On The Horizon

Keep an eye out for these works-in-progress in the coming months!

Good Omens Frames | @gomensframes Good Omens Monster Bangers Bang | @gomonsterbangersbang

[artificialqueens]

Landslide (Jan/Rock) - Aries

a/n - written for winter as part of our gc’s gift exchange! thanks as always to alex for beta-ing, and to stephanie’s child for providing a gorgeous cover of the titular song that i listened to for four hours straight while i wrote. also on ao3 here! <3

summary - jan moves across the country, and it isn’t as easy to adjust as she’d hoped. (a songfic based on landslide by fleetwood mac)

I took my love, I took it down / I climbed a mountain and I turned around / And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills / ‘Till the landslide brought me down

Jan decides to move out the summer after she turns eighteen, fresh out of high school and desperate for something, anything, better than the life she’s grown up to know. She pulls out a map of the states and a dartboard, closes her eyes and spins around a few times like a kid at a birthday party, and almost laughs herself sick when she sees fate has driven her to the opposite coast. She finds an apartment and spends a week or two sinking in the San Francisco life like the most cliche of tourists - tries all the instagram-worthy desserts, takes photos on every beach she can find, goes on sunrise hikes to the Golden Gate Bridge, and relishes in how different it is to home.

She meets Jaida one night at some club about half a mile from her apartment when it’s late and she’s too drunk to remember her name, and drags her home with her through giggles and clouds of smoke. She doesn’t think much of it when she’s gone the next morning, or when she just so happens to go to the same bar the next evening and just so happens to see Jaida waiting in the corner, drink in hand, dark eyes inviting and terrifying and beautiful and everything she needs. She doesn’t allow herself to think anything at all of it when it keeps happening; kisses are shared far more frequently than words, and she’s read enough trashy romance novels to know things like this come and go too quickly to warrant anything too domestic or comfortable. 

Despite this, she tries. She tries to make conversation through messed up white linen sheets and she tries not to be upset at the short answers she gets, if she gets them at all. She tries, above all else, to keep her head above water, because she’s learned fast that life here gets lonely, and an hour or two of feeling like she’s floating doesn’t neutralise the hurt in her stomach the morning after that weighs her down like rocks in her pockets. 

‘Don’t you want to stay?’ She asks Jaida one morning as she’s slipping on her shoes, ready to leave again. She looks back at Jan, visibly confused.

‘Jan,’ she sighs, standing up and twisting the doorknob, ‘you know that isn’t going to happen.’

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? / Can the child within my heart rise above? / Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? / Can I handle the seasons of my life?

She learns, faster than anything else, that the key to surviving when you’ve dropped yourself somewhere brand new is to pick one of two options and stick with it: you can either establish yourself as someone that sticks out of the norms, someone that grabs attention, or you can try your best to blend in and adapt, and act as if you’ve been there the whole time. She’s always been good at living life in shades of grey, fading into the background when she wants to, and she decides that now, she wants to, so she does. She gets a job working at the reception desk of an office building just far enough from her apartment for her to be able to class the walk there and back as sufficient exercise and gains friends that she has over sometimes, but not too often, and never for too long. 

She doesn’t frequent bars anymore - a girl her age moves in across the hall from her, and she doesn’t want to be the asshole that wanders in at two in the morning and wakes up her neighbours. They bump into each other in the halls, sometimes, and exchange a few words. One time, the girl - Jackie, apparently - invites her out for coffee, and she accepts. This isn’t blending in, insists the voice at the back of her head, but she’d look rude if she said no, so she allows herself this. Jackie’s from Iran, Jan learns, and she’s lived in California for the past year but only in San Francisco for a month, give or take. She works at a music store not too far from where they live, but can’t play any instruments (‘I just asked for the job, and they must have felt sorry for me!’), and her girlfriend is from Illinois but lives in LA, which is closer than they were originally but not close enough, and she’s a big fan of old TV dramas, and she talks a lot. It’s nice, Jan decides, to have to listen to a voice that isn’t her own. She thinks they’d be good friends, maybe, if they spoke more.

She falls into a routine more quickly than she’d like to admit. She wakes up at 7-ish, rolls reluctantly out of bed, fills her stomach with caffeine, and strides on into the office to greet one of the guys that works at the desk across her. He’s chipper as always, beaming through paperwork, somehow. He asks if Jan’s doing alright, she looks a bit pale, and Jan reflects his billion-dollar smile right back in his face and lies through gritted teeth. He doesn’t seem convinced, but doesn’t push. Jan clocks out that evening and walks home, averts her eyes when she passes the shitty bar she knows too well. She walks past Jackie in the hallway and smiles half-heartedly but doesn’t stop to talk, and she hates the way Jackie glances at her, eyes are full of pity as she watches her walk into her apartment.

Well, I’ve been afraid of changing / ‘Cause I’ve built my life around you / But time makes you bolder / Even children get older / And I’m getting older too

Jan’s phone rings at half past six in the morning every morning for a good week before she admits defeat and picks it up. The voice on the other end is too perky, too loud, to be heard that early, but it’s as comforting as it’s been her whole life, and she’s so glad to hear it she almost bursts into tears.

‘Jaaaaaan,’ Lagoona greets her, and Jan can hear the smile in her voice, ‘where the fuck have you been? I haven’t spoken to you in weeks!’

‘Busy,’ Jan replies, tries to make herself sound as convincingly happy as she can manage. ‘I’ve had a lot to do out here.’

‘Well, clear your calendar,’ comes the reply, and Jan has to stop herself from laughing - as if she’s seen anyone, or left the house for more than an hour at a time, for the past month. ‘We’re coming to see you.’

‘ We? ’ Jan questions. ‘As in, you and-’

‘Your whole family,’ Lagoona quips, ‘and your cat. No, duh, me and Rosé.’

Their flight lands at 10:40 on Friday night, and Jan runs herself ragged trying to make herself and her apartment presentable enough for them to take her seriously. When she leaves to catch an Uber to the airport, Jackie’s walking up the stairs.

‘Hey, you,’ she smiles, waving with one arm. ‘Nice to see you.’ The ‘going out for once’ is unspoken but obviously implied, but Jan doesn’t have the energy to get offended. She smiles, waves back, shoots back a ‘You, too,’ and runs down the stairs so she doesn’t miss the car. She greets Lagoona and Rosé at their gate with a bag of donuts and laughs at their excitement, accepts their running hugs with open arms. It’s 1am by the time they’re settled into Jan’s apartment and she’s thrown together a makeshift bed on the floor out of blankets and pillows she has lying around. It feels like a sixth-grade sleepover and it’s refreshing and comforting in a way nothing has been for months. 

Their three-day stay passes faster than any of them would like, and they’re lying in the dark on their final night talking absentmindedly about everything and nothing when Rosé sighs loudly and flicks on a lamp, sitting up and turning to Jan’s bed.

‘Jan, baby, we’re really worried about you,’ she sighs, genuine concern in her eyes. ‘I know you say you have it all together here, but you don’t seem happy.’

‘Of course I’m happy,’ Jan replies, smiling. ‘You guys are here. I’m having a great time.’

‘You know what I mean.’ Rosé looks at her, and she knows there’s no point lying. ‘I know you wanted a new start and I won’t push it, but if you’re not doing well, come home. We miss you.’

They spend the Uber drive to the airport talking about things Jan can do to make the most of west coast life, and Lagoona pulls a notepad and pen out of her purse, scribbling something down when she thinks Jan’s not looking. She hands it to her before she heads through security with Rosé, squeezing Jan’s hands and pulling her in for another hug. ‘If you don’t get all of this shit done in the next month, I’m flying you back to New York myself,’ she laughs. ‘Consider it a to-do list.’ Jan watches them walk off, waves at them through tears, and pulls the piece of notebook paper out of her pocket, unfolding it. Make a damn friend!!! is the first point. She laughs to herself, shoves the list back into her coat, and makes a beeline for the Starbucks in the arrivals lounge when someone bumps into her and knocks her phone out of her hand, sending it skidding to the floor.

‘Oh, fuck, I’m really sorry,’ says the person, bending down to grab her phone. Jan looks at her and smiles, shaking her head.

‘It’s no problem, don’t worry about it,’ she replies. The stranger holds out a hand for her to shake, and she obliges, despite how foreign it feels. 

‘I’m Roxanne,’ the girl smiles, and then her face scrunches up. ‘But nobody calls me that, ever, so I don’t know why I introduced myself that way at all. Rock. I’m Rock. And you?’

‘Jan,’ she says, slightly taken aback. She shoves her hand back into her pocket, and it closes around Lagoona’s list. ‘Hey, would you wanna go get some coffee, maybe?’

Oh, take my love, take it down / Oh, climb a mountain and turn around / And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills / Well, the landslide will bring it down

Come October, Jan’s decided to scrap the routine, but there are bits she likes to keep. She calls Lagoona and Rosé every Friday night at seven, for one, and they update each other on how their weeks went. She sees Jackie every day, obviously; now they’re working at the same store, they commute together and talk a lot more. Jackie’s girlfriend’s coming to stay for a week soon, she tells Jan when they’re walking home one evening, and she thinks it’d be a good idea if they all went out to get drinks or something - or coffee, she suggests, if that’s easier. 

‘It depends when,’ Jan smiles, but nods. ‘I’d love to, but you won’t be able to get me out of the house on Friday nights.’

Rock knocks on her apartment door later that night, a bag of Chinese takeout in one hand and a Legally Blonde DVD in the other.

‘You said you didn’t know what we could do,’ she grins, ‘so I thought this was pretty reliable.’ She strides inside, throwing the food onto the kitchen counter and pulling Jan into a hug. ‘I’m proud of you, you know.’

Jan laughs, hugs her back, pushes the door closed behind her with her foot. ‘For what?’

‘Just in general,’ Rock replies. ‘I think it’s nice to hear that sometimes. You wanna watch Reese Witherspoon go to law school while we eat, or after?’

Jan smiles a lot more now. Rock says it’s one of her favourite things about her, but Jan’s convinced she’d say that about anything, providing it’d make her blush. It makes a change, though she’s not sure it’s a bad one - she’s still not wholly used to seeing herself in brighter clothes and happier expressions in mirrors, but she’ll do what she can to stand out.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #445

Top Ten Films to See in Cinemas 2020

The cinemas are open! Hurray!

We remain in the grip of a deadly global pandemic and infection counts are rising! Boo!

I love going to the pictures. It’s one of the few things I genuinely want to leave the house for. I’m not sure why; there’s something magical about the whole experience. Traveling to a different building, purchasing tickets, seeing the adverts up in the foyer, walking down snaking corridors, the darkness, the spots of light, the flicker of the projector, the size of the screen, the feel of the sound as it reverberates around the auditorium, the sense of all of time and space slowing down to this one point, this singularity, as you are consumed in the film before you, the only thing you can see and hear, this one enormous moving image before your eyes. Every once in a while even a committed isolationist misanthrope such as myself can also be swept away by the sense of community, of shared experience. Like when the t-rex roared, when the White House was destroyed, when the Death Star exploded, when Cap lifted Mjolnir.

When Cap lifted Mjolnir.

Anyway, I’ve not been able to go to the cinema for months, obviously. And even when they did start opening I felt it was probably too early. But as time has gone on, I’m starting to hope it can be done safely: masks on, socially distanced auditorium, cashless purchasing… is it a daft risk to see a film when there are loads on Netflix? I don’t know. Part of me thinks so, but part of me thinks as long as cautions are maintained then it would be fine… and I definitely don’t want cinemas to go under; I want to try to support the industry and the people who work there.

And I just wanna see some films.

So I was hoping that by now I’d actually have gone to see Tenet. That’s the biggie, obviously; the first really huge film to hit the cinema since lockdown. Others have scarpered, whether to “premium VOD” (Trolls World Tour), straight to streaming (The Lovebirds), or some bastardised combination of the two (Mulan). And then there’s the ones who’ve shuffled down the calendar, from Spring to Summer to Autumn to Winter, attempting to outrun the virus like it’s the fire spewing through the tunnel in Independence Day. In fact, as I’m writing, it’s just been announced that Wonder Woman 1984 has had its date pushed back even further, to Christmas, which may end up having a knock-on effect of delaying Dune till 2021.

Anyway, I’m going to pretend to be optimistic now, even in the face of what appears to be a long-predicted resurgence of the virus. Let’s say it is, more or less, safe to go back to the cinema. Despite the emptying release schedule, there are still quite a few films going theatrical. And so – in approximate release order – here are the Top Ten Films that I hope I might actually be able to get to see inside a multiplex this two thousand and twenty. Full disclosure: I genuinely don’t think I’ll see ten films before the end of the year. Things being what they usually are, I doubt I’d have managed to see ten films anyway unfortunately, as I don’t manage to go even once a fortnight nowadays (“nowadays” being relative obviously). But here you go; best case scenario.

Well, “best case” under current circumstances, natch.

Tenet (out now!): I’ll almost certainly be seeing this one at least; Nolan makes films that are designed for the big screen, and with its twisty plot and timey-wimey subject matter, I want to see it before it’s spoiled by the internet.

Bill and Ted Face the Music (16th September): I adored the Bill and Ted films when I was a kid, and everybody loves Keanu (although my favourite was always Bill!). I really want to see their triumphant return, which I’m sure will be a feel-good joy-fest.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2nd October): I’m sticking with its old date for now as I’m not certain it’s moved in the UK, but regardless, I hope I can see this. Although I wasn’t wowed by the trailers, the first film was incredible, and I have faith this will be just as great.

Candyman (16th October): the original Candyman was amazing, a truly terrifying horror icon as well as a dark fable about prejudice. With Jordan Peele producing (and rising star Nia DaCosta directing) it has a great pedigree. I don’t get to see many horror films nowadays but I’m looking forward to this.

Black Widow (6th November): I don’t think I’ve missed a single Marvel movie at the cinema, so there’s no way I’m missing this: finally a solo outing for Avengers stalwart Natasha. Will it answer the question of who lives to be Black Widow going forward?

No Time to Die (12th November): I’m not the world’s biggest Bond fan but I do want to see how Daniel Craig ends his tenure. Plus the trailers have been fantastic, especially the sheer badassery of Lashana Lynch and the cocktail dress kung fu of Ana de Armas.

Soul (20th November): I’ve been very reluctant to take my kids back to the cinema, but hope-against-hopefully by November we might all feel sufficiently confident to see the new Pixar, especially as it’s a suitably trippy premise from legendary director Pete Docter.

Dune (18th December): Villeneuve is a true visionary director, an emerging all-time great, so I’m always excited for his next film; he fills vistas with dark cinematic imagery. The recent trailer knocked it out of the park and I cannot wait to see his take on the classic novel.

Coming 2 America (18th December): maybe this is the least-likely to be seen, but as a big Eddie Murphy fan, and a huge fan of the original from way back when, I’m intensely curious as to what this will be like. I just hope it’s funny.

West Side Story (18th December): there’s no way I won’t go see this (he says, there’ll probably be an asteroid strike or something). I’ve not missed a Spielberg since Saving Private Ryan (and apart from Amistad, can go back as far Hook). He’s my favourite director. Plus I like musicals and I really want to see what he does with this.

So there we go: films to see at the flicks. I hope I see a couple of these, I really do. And then not catch COVID! That’d be nice.

[ecoorganic]

Michele Roberts Opens Up About the NBA Bubble and What's Next

The NBA bubble is holding and NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts is already hard at work preparing for next season. She opened up to Sports Illustrated about the restart and what we can expect in the future.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Inside the Grand Floridian hotel, out of the soupy Florida heat, a wave of relief washed over Michele Roberts. For months, Roberts, the Executive Director of the NBA’s players association, worked tirelessly with league officials to piece together its return. Medical protocols needed to be worked out. Then, the financials. Yet even when an agreement had been hammered out, Roberts worried: How would players respond to months of isolation?

Not bad, it turns out. “In some ways I didn't think it would be as forgiving as it has been,” Roberts told SI in an extended interview. There were the expected complaints. Players didn’t enjoy the 48-hour hard quarantine they received upon arrival. “I think had it been longer than that,” Roberts said, “then it may have been more problematic.” Those buzzing Roberts tell her how much they miss friends, family. “The good news is that's pretty much 99% of what I hear in terms of complaints,” Roberts said. “And at the end of the day, the guys have said, ‘I got to go to work. I'm at work, I'm doing my job.’”

Roberts will admit: There were days she didn’t think the NBA would get here. On March 11, as the coronavirus pandemic raged across Europe and cases in the U.S. began to grow, Roberts met with Adam Silver. Roberts had watched the virus spread overseas. “Milan is one of my favorite cities,” Roberts said. “It was virtually shut down the first week in March. When Roberts met with Silver, the discussion was not if players would start testing positive, but how to respond when they do.

The months that followed were a roller coaster. Roberts watched the U.S. grind to a halt. She struggled to find hope in how a contact sport could be played while a highly contagious disease swept through the nation. After a few weeks, Roberts says, “I started preparing players for the season to be called.”

Said Roberts, “I thought the season was over.”

Hope came incrementally. Joe Rogowski, the NBPA’s Chief Medical Officer, began working closely with epidemiologists. The idea of a bubble surfaced. “I had very quickly grown to understand the importance of isolation, quarantine when you're suspected of, or in fact have had the virus and social distancing and using masks,” Roberts said. It sounded so simple and it was working in other environments.”

“The concept of the bubble worked because you can do all those things. If you stay home and stay away from people that have had the virus, you won't get it. That was easy enough. The question was how do we take that quarantine and be able to do it in a group context.”

For weeks, months, union and league officials traded ideas. Player safety came first, and the union rank-and-file grappled with the idea of powering through a virus with unknown long term consequences.

“There was a lot of concern,” Jaylen Brown, a union vice president, told SI. “There was a lack of information at one point. There's still some questions with COVID. We still don't know what the long-term effects are. Your hair could fall off in five years. We have no idea. It's just a new virus. So those were some of the questions. And information was being filled in, but it was not being filled in at the pace that a lot of players felt comfortable with.”

Rogowski gave Roberts and her staff a coronavirus “tutorial” once a week. “The experts really did sort of walk us through this and hold our hands and help us figure out what was possible,” Roberts said. “But for them, I would have recommended that we simply just take our losses and go home and be happy with our lives.” A breakthrough came when the NBA settled on Disney, a league partner. It had sufficient hotel space, and the NBA’s relationship with Robert Iger, Disney’s Executive Chairman, was comforting.

“It was then I thought, ‘This can work,’” Roberts said. “Because we can actually cordon off the world, or cordon ourselves off from the world. My biggest concern was that we were going to end up having to be at a place where the so-called bubble was just going to be so penetrable that we couldn't keep the virus out. And so location made a huge difference to me, and once the Disney option became available, I became a believer.”

When George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May, some questioned whether the NBA would move forward. Roberts, though, wasn’t one of them.

“But neither was I surprised that there was a conversation about not playing,” Roberts said. “I'm so much older than the players that I sometimes have to remind myself that there's a reason for the outrage and disbelief that this could still be happening. I was around when Rodney King was beaten and those police officers were acquitted. There's a certain numbness that I'm embarrassed to admit I have when it comes to these issues, because it's just seems overwhelming and happens over and over again.”

“The abnormal becomes normal. And so our players, like the rest of the community, so many especially young members of our community, were at the point of saying enough, and knowing our guys, there was going to be some shouting. And what are we going to do? We've got to do something. We can't just go back and play basketball. So I wasn't at all surprised at the conversation. I thought it was healthy. If it hadn't happened I think on some levels, I might've been disappointed, because I do view our guys as very, very progressive and very tuned in to their communities. And so not only was I not surprised at the conversation, I was proud of it. Do I think that those players that talked about us not playing were sincere? Absolutely. I absolutely that they believed it at the time they said it that that was the appropriate course of action.”

“I also believe that those players that said, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Let's take advantage of this platform.’ I believe that as well. I don't think anybody was driven by the economic reality. I think our players' passion is also informed by knowing what they do matters because people are watching it. I think those that said, we can use our platform to keep this conversation going were right, because that's exactly what they've done.”

Roberts is pleased by how players have adapted to the unique surroundings. There’s fishing and golf, while gaming is certainly popular. But walking through the campus, Roberts has noted many players outdoors, reading. She talked to one who, she says, “is a phenomenal dart thrower.” She’s enjoyed seeing the camaraderie among teammates. “I’m sure some teams have internal issues,” says Roberts. “But the guys I’ve seen genuinely seem to like each other.”

The NBA bubble is holding, with the league’s weekly announcements of zero positive tests become less anticipated than expected. But as the league attempts to complete this season, NBA officials are hard at work preparing for next season. The league would like to return on December 1, to build an 82-game season that ends in late June. The NBA wants to get back to its traditional calendar next year, and has no interest in competing with the Olympics, currently scheduled to begin in late July.

On the scheduling, Roberts has issues. The NBA Finals could stretch as long as mid-October, affording at least two teams little time to recover. ���My guess is we'll probably not start until early 2021,” Roberts said. But months of work on this bubble has convinced Roberts that as long as COVID-19 is still spreading, a bubble is the only way to play.

“Right now I don't see how sports can be played outside of a bubble concept,” Roberts said. “I don't see that, given the state of where we are. Given the absence of a vaccine. Because as long as this thing spreads the way it spreads, the only way you can stop the spread from impacting their ability to perform, and this is at any job, is to isolate. Keep people separated and maintain as much distance as possible.”

“Now, having said that, do I think our guys are going to be in a bubble for six or seven months? Hell no. It's not going to happen. I think what we're going to have to do is figure out creatively how we can have bubble-like the environments that allow us to play the number of games that we believe we need to play in order to complete the season and crown a champion. If nothing else, we've learned that we have to be creative and we have been creative, and that's why we're doing what we're doing right now. It's something that no one would have thought about or had to think about five months ago.”

Indeed. Roberts says she has had “healthy conversations” with players about next season, but for many the focus remains on this one. The play-in game has added a layer of excitement and most of the top teams have emerged from the seeding games healthy. The arenas, Roberts says, “look fantastic.” Like many, Roberts was skeptical about the virtual fans (“I thought it was going to be the stupidest thing in the world.”) but, like many, has come around on them. “It’s got a real feel of an arena-filled game,” Roberts said.

There’s work to be done before next season. But Roberts is happy with what the league has put together for this one.

“Not only has this matched the expectations of what I thought might be the best we could do, it's exceeded them,” Roberts said. “And it’s because this is the formula. And I'm only hoping that we can keep this damn virus from making us all regret it.”

from Blogger https://ift.tt/31GQ6JF

[tpanan]

My Saturday Daily Blessings

October 21, 2017

Be still quiet your heart and mind, the LORD is here, loving you talking to you...........

Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Roman Rite Calendar)

Lectionary 472

First Reading: Romans 4:13, 16-18

Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.

For this reason, it depends on faith,  so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us, as it is written, I have made you father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist.

He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was said, Thus shall your descendants be.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 105:6-7, 8-9, 42-43

"The LORD remembers His covenant forever."

Verse before the Gospel: John 15:26b, 27a

Alelluia, Alelluia

"The Spirit of truth will testify to me, says the Lord, and you also will testify."

Alelluia, Alelluia

Gospel Reading: Luke 12:8-12

Jesus said to his disciples:   "I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. "Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say."

**Meditation:

What is the unforgivable sin which Jesus warns us to avoid? Jesus knows that his disciples will be tested and he assures them that the Holy Spirit will give them what they need in their time of adversity and temptation. He warns them, however, that it's possible to reject the grace of God - his favor, blessing, and help - and to fall into apostasy - giving up our faith and loyalty to Jesus Christ out of fear (being a coward), pride, or disbelief (refusing to believe and trust in the Lord Jesus). The scriptural expression to deny someone means to disown them - to have nothing to do with them anymore.

Do not reject the gift and help of the Holy Spirit Jesus also speaks against blaspheming the Holy Spirit. What is blasphemy and why is it reprehensible (extremely bad and deserving severe rebuke)? Blasphemy consists in uttering against God, inwardly or outwardly, words of hatred, reproach, or defiance. It's contrary to the honor and respect we owe to God (who is our Father, Creator, and Savior) and to his holy name. Jesus speaks of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit as the unforgivable sin. Jesus spoke about this sin immediately after the scribes and Pharisees had attributed his miracles to the work of the devil instead of to God.

Do you trust in God's help and deliverance? A sin can only be unforgivable if repentance (admitting wrongdoing and asking forgiveness) is impossible. If someone repeatedly closes his or her heart to God and shuts their ear to his voice, they come to a point where they can no longer recognize God even when God makes his word and presence known to them. Such a person ends up perceiving evil as good and good as evil (Isaiah 5:20). To fear such a sin, however, signals that one is not dead to God and is conscious of the need for God's merciful help and strength.

There are no limits to the mercy of God, but we can reject his mercy by refusing to ask God's pardon for our wrongdoing and by refusing to accept the help he gives us to turn away from sin and from whatever would keep us from doing his will. God gives sufficient grace (his favor and mercy towards us) and he gives sufficient help (his wisdom and strength) to all who humbly call upon him. Giving up on God and refusing to turn away from sin and disbelief results from our own sinful pride, stubborn will, and the loss of hope in God's promises.God never turns a deaf ear to those who seek his help and listen to his voice - his word of hope, pardon, and freedom from sin and oppression.

Our hope and confidence come from God What is the basis of our hope and confidence in God? It is the free gift of his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his life for our sake and who now intercedes for us at the right hand of the throne of God's mercy (Hebrews 4:14-15). John the Evangelist tells us that "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Jesus' death on the cross won for us new life and freedom to live as men and women of faith, hope, and love. That is why Jesus offers us the gift and power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13) who enables us to live each day as God's beloved children - his sons and daughters. The love and mercy of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit are freely given to all who acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Is your hope securely placed in the Lord Jesus and his victory on the cross?

**Prayer

"Lord Jesus, you are my hope and my salvation. May I never waver in my hope and trust in your merciful help and strength. Let the fire of your Holy Spirit burn in my heart and fill me with a consuming love for you."

Sources:

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

**Meditations may be freely reprinted for non-commercial use. Cite copyright & source: www.dailyscripture.net author Don Schwager© 2015 Servants of the Word

[ecoorganic]

Michele Roberts Opens Up About the NBA Bubble and What's Next

The NBA bubble is holding and NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts is already hard at work preparing for next season. She opened up to Sports Illustrated about the restart and what we can expect in the future.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Inside the Grand Floridian hotel, out of the soupy Florida heat, a wave of relief washed over Michele Roberts. For months, Roberts, the Executive Director of the NBA’s players association, worked tirelessly with league officials to piece together its return. Medical protocols needed to be worked out. Then, the financials. Yet even when an agreement had been hammered out, Roberts worried: How would players respond to months of isolation?

Not bad, it turns out. “In some ways I didn't think it would be as forgiving as it has been,” Roberts told SI in an extended interview. There were the expected complaints. Players didn’t enjoy the 48-hour hard quarantine they received upon arrival. “I think had it been longer than that,” Roberts said, “then it may have been more problematic.” Those buzzing Roberts tell her how much they miss friends, family. “The good news is that's pretty much 99% of what I hear in terms of complaints,” Roberts said. “And at the end of the day, the guys have said, ‘I got to go to work. I'm at work, I'm doing my job.’”

Roberts will admit: There were days she didn’t think the NBA would get here. On March 11, as the coronavirus pandemic raged across Europe and cases in the U.S. began to grow, Roberts met with Adam Silver. Roberts had watched the virus spread overseas. “Milan is one of my favorite cities,” Roberts said. “It was virtually shut down the first week in March. When Roberts met with Silver, the discussion was not if players would start testing positive, but how to respond when they do.

The months that followed were a roller coaster. Roberts watched the U.S. grind to a halt. She struggled to find hope in how a contact sport could be played while a highly contagious disease swept through the nation. After a few weeks, Roberts says, “I started preparing players for the season to be called.”

Said Roberts, “I thought the season was over.”

Hope came incrementally. Joe Rogowski, the NBPA’s Chief Medical Officer, began working closely with epidemiologists. The idea of a bubble surfaced. “I had very quickly grown to understand the importance of isolation, quarantine when you're suspected of, or in fact have had the virus and social distancing and using masks,” Roberts said. It sounded so simple and it was working in other environments.”

“The concept of the bubble worked because you can do all those things. If you stay home and stay away from people that have had the virus, you won't get it. That was easy enough. The question was how do we take that quarantine and be able to do it in a group context.”

For weeks, months, union and league officials traded ideas. Player safety came first, and the union rank-and-file grappled with the idea of powering through a virus with unknown long term consequences.

“There was a lot of concern,” Jaylen Brown, a union vice president, told SI. “There was a lack of information at one point. There's still some questions with COVID. We still don't know what the long-term effects are. Your hair could fall off in five years. We have no idea. It's just a new virus. So those were some of the questions. And information was being filled in, but it was not being filled in at the pace that a lot of players felt comfortable with.”

Rogowski gave Roberts and her staff a coronavirus “tutorial” once a week. “The experts really did sort of walk us through this and hold our hands and help us figure out what was possible,” Roberts said. “But for them, I would have recommended that we simply just take our losses and go home and be happy with our lives.” A breakthrough came when the NBA settled on Disney, a league partner. It had sufficient hotel space, and the NBA’s relationship with Robert Iger, Disney’s Executive Chairman, was comforting.

“It was then I thought, ‘This can work,’” Roberts said. “Because we can actually cordon off the world, or cordon ourselves off from the world. My biggest concern was that we were going to end up having to be at a place where the so-called bubble was just going to be so penetrable that we couldn't keep the virus out. And so location made a huge difference to me, and once the Disney option became available, I became a believer.”

When George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May, some questioned whether the NBA would move forward. Roberts, though, wasn’t one of them.

“But neither was I surprised that there was a conversation about not playing,” Roberts said. “I'm so much older than the players that I sometimes have to remind myself that there's a reason for the outrage and disbelief that this could still be happening. I was around when Rodney King was beaten and those police officers were acquitted. There's a certain numbness that I'm embarrassed to admit I have when it comes to these issues, because it's just seems overwhelming and happens over and over again.”

“The abnormal becomes normal. And so our players, like the rest of the community, so many especially young members of our community, were at the point of saying enough, and knowing our guys, there was going to be some shouting. And what are we going to do? We've got to do something. We can't just go back and play basketball. So I wasn't at all surprised at the conversation. I thought it was healthy. If it hadn't happened I think on some levels, I might've been disappointed, because I do view our guys as very, very progressive and very tuned in to their communities. And so not only was I not surprised at the conversation, I was proud of it. Do I think that those players that talked about us not playing were sincere? Absolutely. I absolutely that they believed it at the time they said it that that was the appropriate course of action.”

“I also believe that those players that said, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Let's take advantage of this platform.’ I believe that as well. I don't think anybody was driven by the economic reality. I think our players' passion is also informed by knowing what they do matters because people are watching it. I think those that said, we can use our platform to keep this conversation going were right, because that's exactly what they've done.”

Roberts is pleased by how players have adapted to the unique surroundings. There’s fishing and golf, while gaming is certainly popular. But walking through the campus, Roberts has noted many players outdoors, reading. She talked to one who, she says, “is a phenomenal dart thrower.” She’s enjoyed seeing the camaraderie among teammates. “I’m sure some teams have internal issues,” says Roberts. “But the guys I’ve seen genuinely seem to like each other.”

The NBA bubble is holding, with the league’s weekly announcements of zero positive tests become less anticipated than expected. But as the league attempts to complete this season, NBA officials are hard at work preparing for next season. The league would like to return on December 1, to build an 82-game season that ends in late June. The NBA wants to get back to its traditional calendar next year, and has no interest in competing with the Olympics, currently scheduled to begin in late July.

On the scheduling, Roberts has issues. The NBA Finals could stretch as long as mid-October, affording at least two teams little time to recover. “My guess is we'll probably not start until early 2021,” Roberts said. But months of work on this bubble has convinced Roberts that as long as COVID-19 is still spreading, a bubble is the only way to play.

“Right now I don't see how sports can be played outside of a bubble concept,” Roberts said. “I don't see that, given the state of where we are. Given the absence of a vaccine. Because as long as this thing spreads the way it spreads, the only way you can stop the spread from impacting their ability to perform, and this is at any job, is to isolate. Keep people separated and maintain as much distance as possible.”

“Now, having said that, do I think our guys are going to be in a bubble for six or seven months? Hell no. It's not going to happen. I think what we're going to have to do is figure out creatively how we can have bubble-like the environments that allow us to play the number of games that we believe we need to play in order to complete the season and crown a champion. If nothing else, we've learned that we have to be creative and we have been creative, and that's why we're doing what we're doing right now. It's something that no one would have thought about or had to think about five months ago.”

Indeed. Roberts says she has had “healthy conversations” with players about next season, but for many the focus remains on this one. The play-in game has added a layer of excitement and most of the top teams have emerged from the seeding games healthy. The arenas, Roberts says, “look fantastic.” Like many, Roberts was skeptical about the virtual fans (“I thought it was going to be the stupidest thing in the world.”) but, like many, has come around on them. “It’s got a real feel of an arena-filled game,” Roberts said.

There’s work to be done before next season. But Roberts is happy with what the league has put together for this one.

“Not only has this matched the expectations of what I thought might be the best we could do, it's exceeded them,” Roberts said. “And it’s because this is the formula. And I'm only hoping that we can keep this damn virus from making us all regret it.”

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