#he won the other one and it’s not like my blog is unbiased

[gaylittlewizardcat]

Liam Mower - Ibn Snell - Tibor Kovats

Pierpaolo Scida - Sam Bateson - Zachary Downer

Marvin Engran - Julius Sermonia - Jonathan Mercer

Revised version of this :]

[beanieman]

how would the cast react to their blorbo losing in a tumblr character poll

Sara Chidouin - She makes her own character poll to give them another chance. She tries to be fair and remain unbiased, but very clearly wants them to win.

Joe Tazuna - He's crushed because he texted all his friends and asked them to vote for his blorbo. Now he has to be the one to break the news that they lost.

Gin Ibushi - Gin reblogs the post with an essay on everything he knows about his blorbo and why the should have won. This is a major outrage to him.

Keiji Shinogi - He's not surprised they lost. He's so filled with crushing self loathing that he assumes any character he likes isn't deserving of winning.

More Undercut

Alice Yabusame - He's so outraged that he sends an ask to the blog running the poll. It's a LONG rant about why his character should have won and everyone who voted for something else is a fool. This is followed by him making random irritated vague posts about the poll results for the next few months.

Reko Yabusame - Reko is slightly upset, but accepts the results without further incident and is happy for the people who prefer the winner.

Nao Egokoro - Nao goes through the five stages of grief. She refuses to accept it at first, then she gets frustrated on her blorbo's behalf, then she ponders if the poll was rigged, then she's upset that other people don't get to experience the same joy from the character she does, then after a moment she calms down enough to accept the results.

Kazumi Mishima - Mishima considers getting into the media that won the poll. If it's beloved by so many it most be worth reading/watching/playing and experiencing for himself.

Q-taro Burgerberg - He believes in fair play so he'd accept the results even if he didn't agree with them.

Kai Satou - He's surprised that they lost, but otherwise doesn't let it concern him.

Kanna Kizuchi - She feels disappointed, but doesn't interact with the post further.

Shin Tsukimi - He makes two vague posts. One about how he believes a certain character poll on Tumblr was rigged, and a second on why his blorbo is clearly better then the other blorbo.

Dolls

Ranmaru Kageyama - He thinks something self deprecating like "Nothing ever goes my way." and then moves on with his life.

Naomichi Kurumada - He gets irritated and then goes about his day. However, he randomly thinks about it for the next 24 hours and gets annoyed all over again.

Anzu Kinashi - She decides to make her own post about how cool her blorbo is and gets so overenthusiastic that she accidentally doxes herself.

Mai Tsurugi - Mai made a ton of propaganda posts for her blorbo so she's really disappointed. Next time she's resolved to make even better propaganda posts so their win is guaranteed!

Shunsuke Hayasaka - This man's work has killed him so deeply emotionally that he can't muster up the energy to care.

Hinako Mishuku - She scoffs at the results but doesn't do anything else.

[usoud-tournament]

Welcome To The Tournament!

This blog is exclusively to run the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny Tournament based on Lemon Demon's song sharing the same name! This post is to straighten out the rules and details to hopefully avoid too many questions.

How the bracket order was picked out:

I did my best to do the pairings based on the order which the character first appears in the song. All of the characters in the song are fighting against each other in the first round with the exception of Monty Python's Black Knight, as we're having a mini-round with him in order to let the two Gandalfs duke it while still keeping the number of brackets enough to make sure everyone has a match. The other exception is Mr. Rogers, as he won in the original song, and I am putting him in the third round to give some other fighters a chance to fight without his interference with the polls.

How the character versions were picked out:

I knew that there would be fights and questions with many of these characters if I left what version was fighting ambiguous, so I looked around for the most well-known versions of these characters, favoring the versions which are most popular in their respective fandoms. Believe it or not, I'm not in every fandom ever, so I apologize if you don't agree with my picks. Similarly, the strengths and weaknesses are gotten from the specific version's character Fandom Wikipedia page. I apologize if I got any strengths and weaknesses wrong. The exception to this 'only one version of the characters' rule is the Power Rangers, as the song specifies "Every Single Power Ranger" Therefore I did not want to exclude any versions. I got the help of a friend to understand the Power Rangers MO and try to balance their strengths and weaknesses to make sure they didn't roll over everyone else in this tournament.

What age are they?

Some of these characters are still living or quite old, and some characters' ages fluctuate throughout their media. Because of this, I am making a blanket statement that all of these characters are fighting during the prime of their careers.

Where are they?

Based on the opening line of the song, all of the characters will be fighting in Tokyo City Earth, they are allowed to leave this starting location as much as they are able.

Motivation?

There is no specific motivation for all of these characters, other than they were placed in Tokyo and have sufficient incentive to fight each other. For example, Superman could think that his opponent is a threat to Earth, Terminator could think his opponent is trying to stop his mission to kill Sarah, etc. However, characters with moral backbones will still follow their moral codes, and a character wins a fight if either A. They kill the other character or B. They convince the other character to not fight.

Poll Logistics

I know it will be impossible to make these fights truly unbiased, but I want for as many people as possible, for them to vote based on who they think would win in a fight, not who they like most. Otherwise, the final results will be based on who has the biggest fandom. What I want from this tournament is silly arguments about how these characters would fight each other, not a survey on who people like more. Every poll will last a day and each round will happen with every pairing going up against each other in the same day. However, the next round may not happen immediately after the last one. I'll try my best to be on top of it, communicate if and when the next round will be, etc. But I'm just a humble college student and I don't want to make this tournament a part-time job

Bias

I am not in all of these fandoms, but I am in some, and I also want to engage with people in the comments. However, I do not want to skew results. So I am not going to reblog posts encouraging people to vote for one character or the other, but if any cool fanart comes out I will be reblogging that. I will also be chatting with people in the notes, but not reblogging anyone to chat so it doesn't show up on the blog page.

Finally, every poll will be tagged with the characters in them, which means this poll will be showing up in a lot of different fandoms. It is not my intention to annoy people by popping up in their feeds when they just want to look at fanart or fan posts. Therefore I'm tagging every post of mine #USOUD Tournament and #Ultimate Showdown of ultimate destiny. If you don't want to see me ever again, block those tags.

Happy fighting!

[syn4k]

The CC's Responses to the MCYTBlr Sexyman Polls, Thread 4: This Is Getting Seriously Out Of Hand

welcome welcome welcome all and sundry to the fourth thread we've had to make on this topic, because folks, there is a LOT of material!

our name is Keys and we'll be your host for... the rest of this event, since nobody else is really doing anything else like this. since we're on thread four, i figured i might as well let y'all know what's going on here and a quick recap of what we've been covering, as well as some facts and questions that literally nobody has asked.

if you are anywhere in MCYTBlr and indeed in other fandoms here on Tumblr, there's a good chance you've heard about the MCYTBlr Sexyman Polls, which I've helpfully put in the title of this post so that people don't get confused! if you haven't, though, the polls themselves are hosted by the @mcytblrsexymen blog and are heavily inspired by Tumblr's own Sexyman Polls of 2022, but specifically for the MCYT fandom. they've been going on since Feb. 5th, 2023, or 6 days ago as of today, with the later polls often gaining upwards of 20,000 votes!

if you want to see all of the shenanigans and hijinks going on within the fandom (and subfandoms) itself here on tumblr, the best place to get a good luck at all of that is at the blog itself, which I linked above. fellow journalist @salemoleander has also whipped together some INCREDIBLE short videos going over the events and tragedies of this event since day 1, one of which I've been featured on myself!

this thread, and all threads before it, which if you're interested are linked to in my pinned post on my blog, are focused rather on the nominees' reactions and responses to this poll. i take screenshots on Twitter to post here, and also try and get stream clips to quote, although since I never watch streams this is a bit difficult for me. i also have done an interview with a nominee himself, and with one of the mods on the official blog itself!

FAQ

Q: Lots of nominees are campaigning really hard for themselves. Are you going to cover that? A: I have before, yes, but to keep things as unbiased as possible in the spirit of journalism I'm probably just going to drop that. Sorry Joe Hills.

Q: There's a lot of people submitting things as soon as they happen to the blog itself. If that's going on faster than you can cover it yourself, then what's the point of this? A: Well, this has always been something we've been doing for fun. I assume people follow the main account as well if they follow me for this, but they can get their news fresh from the spigot there. I'm just here to make funny jokes about it and vibe.

Q: I've seen you refer to yourself as "we" and "us" sometimes despite maintaining that you're just one person running the blog- what's up with that? A: That is not a typo! The person behind this blog (hello, that's me, I'm typing this) is plural, and in fact we are very casually open about it. We regularly switch between referring to ourself as "us" and "we." This is an advantage in several ways because not only can we accurately pull off the "over to you, Keys! over to you, Keys!" joke like, forever, it also provides some Headmate Enrichment™️ whenever someone wants to join in on the fun. Also plural people are just inherently cool and wouldn't you want to have a cool person bringing you news?

Q: Where's the Dominion coverage of this? A: We have made the executive decision to not include the Dominioners since they have single-handedly made our life hell and made up half of our second thread. No hard feelings.

And now to the actual reporting.

JoeHills and ZombieCleo have been spotted campaigning quite heavily for themselves over on Twitter, as per the norm the past few days!

Martyn has been spotted on his stream voting!

Quackity made a tweet yesterday evening saying he didn't know what he won but thanks anyways!

Also, this isn't exactly a nominee update nor an external one but shhh, the polls have gone live during the U.S.A Superbowl. This is hilarious to me because our father is a huge sportsball fan and this is like, gay person sportsball for the rest of Tumblr. Godspeed to the mods.

[dallasareaopinion]

Well I stand corrected.

I said many moons ago back when it was Biden v Trump, that if either party choose someone else the new candidate would win. I forgot how clueless are the elitists in the Democrat party. That was stupid. And apparently there is some discussion about “mainstream” media being completely wrong about what was going to happen and we need to re-evaluate the “mainstream” media. The problem is they are part of the elitist thinking of the Democrat party. They just need to become more unbiased going forward, but that topic is for another day.

And another point which I made in an offhand manner somewhere else was that the Democrats were relying way too much on one issue, which was the abortion issue. I wish I had said it here, but I didn’t.

I still do not trust Trump. I still am worried. One thing that really burns my chops is that people will say you are not conservative if you do not support Trump. That is just wrong and it goes along with the massive pandering the Republican Party does for Trump. I am conservative and a populist with some of my policy ideas. Trump is neither and never has been. He gives lip service to what people want to hear and everyone is right including the mainstream media that he better understood what the people want to hear than anyone else. To me though he still won’t accomplish anything from his verbiage except what his allies in Congress will produce. And what they want is just as bad as what he wants, which is complete power. They will feed off each other for the next few years. And when the deal goes down, and it will do down, Trump will find a way to blame someone else and unfortunately he may get away with that too.

Two things this Trump victory shows to me. First is the educational decline I rant and rave about all the time is real.

Second is the moral decline this country has succumbed to allow Trump to have won. I have said before in multiple places that bad policy is easier to overcome than bad government. We are about to see what is bad government. Let’s hope we can find away out of it down the road. And the irony is the people who scream the most about how our country is in moral decline right now are the biggest reason we are in moral decline. You cannot accept someone as morally corrupt as Trump as your leader and say you have the moral high ground. That just doesn’t fly, but we are so far down the twentieth level of hell, no one sees it right now.

Also when the deal does go down, all the people that voted for Trump are going to be sitting there thinking what just happened. Again the education decline is obvious and will allow Trump to walk away without any consequences for what is doing to this country. Some of it by omission since it will let his allies do what they want as long as it doesn’t affect him personally.

Well there is one chance at an out and I wonder, does Trump have a desire to think about a legacy. Who knows, yet if he does maybe some of the madness that could  go down Trump may put a hold. I doubt it,  but let’s hold out hope.

Otherwise if much of Trump’s verbal rants that he calls policy comes to fruition, the vast majority of people who voted for Trump are about to get screwed.

And to reiterate a point, the Democrats are clueless and this is at all levels. The State Party was sending out an excessive amounts of literature that was horrible political strategy. Two things, it hammered to hard on their one issue campaign and they sent so many mailers that never said the name of the candidate they were supporting and plastered the name of the Republican candidate all over their mailers. They need help badly, but since I do not like their public policies they just won’t get it from me except for the occasional critique here in my blog of what they are doing.

Well I am deciding either to go hide somewhere or become even more of a vocal critic of Trump’s administration. I do not know right now. I am a bit worried, but I am also concerned what his policies could do to this country. My first hope is he just doesn’t care and just wants to end his days playing golf and the Trump Republicans in Congress screw up because they cannot make up their minds how they want to screw everyone over so they can maintain power. Hopefully enough goes down that in two years we see saw back to the clueless Democrats and slow some of the madness down.

Which leads me to what I keep telling y’all, WE NEED NEW PARTIES.

[pilmik]

No better way to start a writing blog than by writing something completely self indulgent lmao college students this might hit too close to home but in my defense the new sem started and I'm. Mess

Gen: angst ig???some fluff? hurt/comfort? Quite literally just me writing what I want to hear

CW: insecurities, negative thoughts

Wakatoshi loves volleyball

Everyone knows this

Ever since he was little, he's lived and breathed for the sport

There's nothing better to him than the feeling of the ball hitting his hand, the adrenaline rush of a scored point, the satisfaction of a game well won

He didn't get this far on enjoyment alone though

As his s/o, you know this better than anyone, save for his coaches and teammates of course

You know the effort he's put in, you know that for every second he shines on the court in front he's spent hours practicing alone or with his teammates

And he shines on the court

Watching him play will never fail to make your heart stutter and your lungs feel like they're not getting enough air

After being with him as long as you have, you know enough about volleyball to know that Wakatoshi is something special

His speed, his strength, his reliability

No matter how many times you see that spike, the sound of the ball hitting the floor stays deafening

Wakatoshi was made to play Volleyball. It's an objective fact. Sometimes you think that the sport loves him just as much as he loves it

Sometimes, you get so jealous you could scream

one of the perks of being the volleyball captain's s/o is that you always get the best seats

You watch front row as your boyfriend leads his team to victory, and he always leads them to victory.

You watch, time and time again, as he scores the match point, that sharp wham of the ball hitting the court that sings triumph

Wakatoshi isn't the most expressive person. When his team wins a game, most people would write off his impassive face as nonchalance or as vanity, thinking maybe he's won so many times it doesn't feel like anything for him anymore

But you know him. You know that if you look hard enough at the end of a game, you can see a gleam in his eyes. A gleam that somehow means both satisfaction and hunger

Because while at the end of every game means victory, the end of every game also means the start of a new one, a new challenge, a new opportunity to be on the court. He loves every second of it

You know you're probably the worst person on the world for feeling this way about someone you love, but every time you see that gleam in his eyes, any pride and happiness you feel on his behalf is stained with resentment and an envy so bitter it stays on your tongue for days

You've never had that gleam in your eyes. You've never loved something so entirely, so completely as Wakatoshi loves volleyball

You honestly doubt you ever will

It's not like you're talentless or you don't have hobbies, you have the things you're good at and you have the things you like to do but it's not the same

You want so desperately to know what he feels like, to be doing something and to think, I could do this for the rest of my life and die happy

on your worst days, you wonder why he stays by your side at all

You watch him play, surrounded by his court and his team (no the court or the team, his.) And you wonder what he could get from you that he couldn't get from the sting of the ball on his palm, or the squeak of his shoes on hardwood

He's brilliant, wherever he goes be burns so brightly you swear he leaves scorch marks. What could a forest fire possibly want from a candle?

You watch them play a game against some college team, they win straight sets and Wakatoshi dominated the court, scoring a majority of the points. you're quiet on your way home, and he asks if you were bored by the game

You immediately tell him no, because on most days you love seeing him play, and you try and explain how you feel

He doesn't understand what you're talking about, obviously

Contrary to what most people think, your boyfriend isn't stupid or dense. He has trouble understanding different social cues and conceptualizing some of the more complicated emotions other people feel, but he's not an idiot

But these specific insecurities are something he's never had to face. For him, it's been volleyball since the start. His earliest memories are of his father in the yard, tossing a blue and yellow ball into the air while he sits on the engawa, chubby hands holding tight to a pink vabo-chan plush

It doesn't make sense to him, if you don't have anything like that, then all you need to do is find something you're good at, correct? Then you'll be happy

He tells you this, in his usual matter-of-fact way. (you can imagine how that went)

He doesn't understand why your eyes go glassy, or why you tell him you'll be fine walking by yourself for the rest of the way

But he does understand that he's made you upset, and he knows that he never wants to look into your eyes and see tears that he's put there

As he walks back to his dorm, he's wracking his brain trying to make sense of how you told him you felt, and what he said in response

He's still thinking as he enters the doorway, ignoring Tendou's greeting as he neatly removes his runners and puts them away

This, of course, alerts his redheaded friend, knowing Wakatoshi was taught to mind his manners

He leaves whatever he was doing to see him at the entrance, taking in his pinched expression. He knows that Wakatoshi walks you home after every game, and it doesn't take a genius to connect the dots

He quickly presses the pad of his thumb between Wakatoshi's furrowed eyebrows, smoothing the lines there

"trouble in paradise, Wakatoshi-kun? You can't keep frowning like that you know, you'll get wrinkles! Everyone already thinks you're an old man"

Wakatoshi trusts his best friend, even if he teases him constantly. Besides you, Tendou is his main confidant

He explains what happened much like someone would explain a mission report, in perfect unbiased detail. He tell him what you said, how he thought and responded and your reaction. Tendou is always patient with him, giving him his full attention.

After he finishes his story, his friend sits on his haunches in the middle of the hallway for a few minutes, pointer finger to his chin, head cocked and eyes to the ceiling, hmmmmmming thoughtfully

Wakatoshi waits at the entrance of their dorm room until Tendou snaps his eyes away from the ceiling and onto him

"Wakatoshi kun, I'm going to need you to imagine something for me"

His eyebrows pinch together again, but he nods

"Imagine you never played volleyball, you're exactly the same in every way, except your dad never showed you so you never learned how to play. Try and imagine who you'd be"

Wakatoshi tries his best to imagine, he replaces the blue and yellow ball in his memory with a red one, the bouncy kind they sell in bins at the grocery store. He replaces vabo-chan with some kind of stuffed animal wearing a bow

He thinks about school, about going straight home after class is over, and going to the gym only on weekends

He finds he's skipping parts of his life in large gaps, empty spaces he doesn't know what to do with, his future completely blank. It's terrifying.

Tendou must see the dawning horror on his face because he jumps up quickly with a flourish, clapping his hands together once to draw Wakatoshi out of his daydream

Tendou looks at him, smiling and says "y/n-chan doesn't have their volleyball. Most people aren't as lucky as you, finding your volleyball so early Wakatoshi-kun. Some people never find their's at all"

He stands at the entrance quietly for awhile after Tendou returns to his room, thinking about how scary it felt to imagine, even for a few minutes, his life full of the blanks that his sport filled

He wonders how it would be like to have those blanks empty all the time, with not even a clue how to complete them

Swallowing his pride, Wakatoshi realizes he wouldn't be able to live like that. Wouldn't be able to go forward into such unknowable territory, under such impossible odds

He thinks about you waking up every day, seeing your life full of blanks, and still pushing forwards despite it

He doesn't get much sleep that night.

You wake up in the morning to Wakatoshi's text ringtone

7:10am Toshi <3: Call in sick for first period.

7:10am Toshi <3: I am going to pick you up at 8.

7:13am Toshi <3: I will bring you breakfast.

7:27am Toshi <3: Wear a light jacket, it's chilly.

The half of you that's still hurt over yesterday wants to tell him to shove breakfast up his ass, but then you realise something

You stare at your phone, deeply confused

Doesn't he have volleyball practice before school?

You get ready quickly, and sure enough, when you walk out of your door at exactly 8:00, Wakatoshi is there.

He's wearing his tracksuit and runners, and he hands you a paper bag from the conbini. There's an apple, a bag of grapes and onigiri. In his other hand he's holding a warm drink, written on the lid is your favourite, exactly how you like it

"I am taking you to the park."

You tilt your head up at him, confused

"don't you have volleyball practice?"

"I'm skipping. We are going to feed the ducks."

The idea of Ushijima Wakatoshi skipping volleyball practice stuns you into silence, and you simply follow his lead to the direction of the park, you walking and him doing some sort of ridiculous exercise thing that looks like it'd make you puke

When you get there, you're happy to find that your usual bench is empty.

Wakatoshi pulls a water bottle out of his ridiculously-deep men's tracksuit pockets while you take the bunch of grapes out of the bag, neatly dividing it in half. You decide to take the big half of the grape bunch for once, because he was being a jerk yesterday and you deserve to feed the ducks more than he does. You give him his half and you both start feeding the ducks in silence

After awhile, he decides to speak

"Tendou made me imagine something yesterday"

You turn to face him, but he's still looking at the ducks

"he told me to imagine my life if I'd never played volleyball"

He frowns

"he said to imagine everything about me was the same, except I never started playing. I found that it was difficult"

"there were many things I found I couldn't fill in, both in my life and in myself"

"but the worst part was imagining the future. I couldn't imagine a single thing to put in it"

"I wouldn't be able to live like that. To live every day and see blank spaces and uncertainties. It sounds terrible"

He pauses for a moment and you're like :/ wow king thanks for the pep talk

But he takes a deep breath and he continues

"I think, for a person to face that uncertainty and keep pushing forward, they would have to be exceptional"

Your head snaps to look at him so fast you almost get whiplash

Exceptional

There's a word that you've never used to describe yourself

"I think, that if I knew someone like that, I would tell them that they are strong in a way that I doubt I will ever be"

He finally turns to look at you, and you try your best to see him through the tears distorting your vision

"after awhile of thinking, I finally thought of something that I could put in that blank future. Would you like to know what it was?"

You just nod, not trusting your words. His big hands gently engulf your own and for a moment you're absolutely certain Ushijima Wakatoshi will be the death of you

"if I didn't have Volleyball, if I didn't have a single clue of what I could do with my future, if I still had you by my side, I think I would be alright"

One hit K.O.

He keeps going though, as if he didn't just kill you

"if you would have me, I'd like to be in your blank future. For as long as it takes for you to find your volleyball, I'll be there. If it's months or years or decades,"

"if decades pass and you never find your volleyball, I would still like to stay by your side. Maybe your volleyball is looking for volleyball?"

His face contorts in consideration of the idea, and you can't help but laugh wetly, your tears soaking into his jacket as you bury your face into his arm

He presses a soft kiss to your head

"I apologize for what I said last night. I didn't understand"

You only shake your head

You two sit in companionable silence for a little longer so you can eat your breakfast, then you both walk to second period hand in hand

It's only in the boredom of your math class that you realize the gravity of what your boyfriend had said to you in the park

11:08 you: Tendou

11:08 you: was I tripping

11:08 you: or did Wakatoshi /propose/ to me in the park today

Tendou is typing......

A/N: I've never posted this kind of stuff before so comments would really be appreciated! Like if there's something I could do to make my stuff easier to read or whatever I wanna hear it! Even if it's mean I promise I'll only cry a little

[naruto-shipping-confessions]

madara-fate oh god not that guy again. Ignore him OP, he pretends to be an unbiased ask but is a hardcore ss supporter who likes to attack other blogs, usually posting screenshots instead of @ so they don't respond when he 'debunks' their critical ss or pro sns post. What's worse is if you try and call him out on a mistake (even politely) he'll always take it as a personal attack and tries to gaslight or run the convo in circles till the user gives up then brags how he's never lost a argument.

I see nothing wrong with "responding" to what one may consider incorrect to what someone claimed. Even if it is by screenshots and not @ someone directly. I myself am shy and I understand being passionate about what one likes (you guys should have seen me with my fav Naruto character.)

If someone is as you said, they're just not worth the effort, I agree. But a lot of people use screenshots to "reply", don't give you a chance to debunk them and think they have won. It's nothing new. I used to be a part of the Big 3 debate and we all know how bad that can get.

As long as they are civil, I'm OK with how they (that's anyone, btw) answer, regardless of how much a smartarse they are. Besides, you could have fun with that. (Congrats on winning an argument you didn't give me the chance to debunk or completely ignored.)

But yeah, someone else started the debate and I should have called only them on it.

[platypus-mcslothman]

‘Well, at least we’re not America’ is a common phrase said by most people when political/racism issues or crises occur in UK. A phrase I am coming to discover is telling of how well the propaganda machines in our country work. The UK is wayyy more dysfunctional than America and allow me to detail but the surface level of known issues in our political sphere.

1. U.K. media ecosystem is… corrupt. Seriously, the older I get the more realise how not too dissimilar our media is to North Korea’s, except our media doesn’t work for the state primarily and will turn on it if it benefits them. You can look at how our media recently attacked Boris Johnson and then started pushing out puff pieces when he won a landslide in our local election for perfect proof

We’ve had phone hacking scandals, invasions of privacy, been accused of Nazi like language by the UN, have a state owned media outlet with political leaders heading it, anti-vaccine and now anti-lockdown narratives being pushed forward, think tanks owned by prominent right wing politicians and advisors being treated as unbiased think tanks, and more.

Our media landscape is predominately owned by 5 people. Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox News) being one of the most prominent and also the closest to government.

The media in the UK is basically an attack dog for politics. It’s often been said no government will ever get into power without Rupert Murdoch on side.

It gets significantly worse when you begin to discover many prominent journalists are friends, god parents, spouses, and family members to our political elite. Heck, Boris Johnson (our Prime Minister) was originally a journalist for the spectator and telegraph (and an appalling one at that).

2. our police are well… corrupt. They’ve been involved in murdering civilians, brutally killing protestors and lying about killing them, feeding lies to the press about officers being hurt by protestors, assaulting journalists, and are involved in numerous conspiracies, and coincidentally were the only public service that didn’t receive defunding during and after thatcher’s era.

The most recent conspiracy involves the media too. A private detective called Daniel Morgan was suspect to have been murdered by two police officers with axes, who were originally investigating the crime, after he started investigating corruption in the police force. This case happened in the 90s and is now resurging after renewed interest. Strangely enough, the case Morgan was investigating later became known as the Phone Hacking scandal in the early 2000s.

Essentially the phone hacking scandal was the reveal that newspapers were hacking phones, wiretapping houses, and paying or blackmailing police officers to give them information about criminal cases. During this scandal it was also revealed newspapers were hiring PIs. More specifically the firm that Morgan worked for and even more specifically the suspected murderers who were fired from the police forces and were hired by Morgan’s old PI firm. You couldn’t make this up.

3. this is gonna be a running theme, but our politicians… corrupt. In a slew of scandals over decades, our politicians have been revealed to spend their work expenses on personal expenses (one politician bought a draw bridge for their manor, and many used them to buy second homes in London before selling them off at a profit during a housing crises), they accept other ‘jobs’ for private businesses (essentially a politician is payed thousands for a couple hours in an ‘advisory’ position), they’ve used tax havens (David Cameron, one of our prior PMs, is the most prominent example), they’ve lobbied after leaving their post (essentially they’re paid a lot of money to push for legislation changes that will profit a company which is quite easy to do when you have political connections, yet again David Cameron is a prominent example), and in the most recent disgusting display I present to you: the ‘my little crony’ model. A model that visually shows you the corruption in our pandemic expenditure.

https://www.sophie-e-hill.com/post/my-little-crony/

During the pandemic, our government bypassed competition laws to directly award contracts for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), and test and trace. 25% of these contracts at minimum have since been deemed as questionable. They were awarded to businesses owned by politicians, politician’s family members, neighbours, friends, and political donors. Dyson was even revealed to have directly messaged Boris Johnson to change how taxes work so he could provide profitable ventilators when we were desperately short (which is worse when you consider Dyson didn’t deliver a single ventilator despite these changes). That’s not even an isolated story. There is a backlog of stories of strange and not suited businesses not providing PPE, not providing useable PPE, and being payed to make PPE at inflated costs. We’ve had sweet wrapper makers, jewellers, pubs, and a finance company that was only set up weeks before the contract being given these essential jobs in making and delivering PPE. The amount of money spent on these contracts is not yet fully known because documentation hasn’t been published fully, which is unlawful according to our Supreme Court’s findings.

In the pandemic we spent 37 billion on our test and trace app. The app was a failure and still is. It doesn’t contact people, a lot of data was lost because they were using an outdated Excel program to store data (which it didn’t store because Excel is not designed for that amount of data and severely outdated), and a lot people haven’t downloaded it because of trust issues caused by poor communication and initially designing the app to store data in a centralised location instead of in a means where the data can’t be accessed at a later date (as almost every other country did for trust reasons).

Now, 37 billion pounds is a very abstract number. Many don’t fully understand how much money that really is. Well, it could nationalise our entire electric grid in the UK. It’s 10% of the amount needed to end world hunger. It could end our housing crisis in the UK. and it was spent on an app that doesn’t work! Not to mention, the leader of test and trace is now being rumoured to be appointed the head of our national health service…

Heck, our PM was paid by one of his political donors to refurbish his temporary flat in Number 10 (our version of the White House). He spent £200,000 whilst he claimed our entire country didn’t have enough money to feed poor children during the pandemic. And even after he lost two fights with a footballer over the issue (yes, you heard that right), our government contracted a private company that provided inadequate amounts of weekly food. Below isn’t even the worst example.

(Note this a contrast between the amount you could actually buy with money allocated by the government and the amount given by the private companies hired by the government. They took may as well have literally have took candy from a baby.)

Summary: the U.K. is worse than the US exactly because the people of our nation and kingdom don’t see the ridiculousness and corruption that takes place daily and historically.

We’ve had governments spying on trade unions and activists, we’ve had kids being brutalised by police officers because they attended or were thought to have attended a protest, we have a bill that now is trying to ban protest, we have a media ecosystem so disgustingly inadequate they don’t hold government to account, and we have politicians who claim they could live off minuscule amounts provided by the state to the poor and disabled whilst gourging on state paid meals at fancy restaurants where they spend more than that minuscule amount in a couple hours.

There’s so much wrong with my nation and kingdom, I honestly don’t have enough words nor the ability to accurately articulate how disgustingly corrupt it is. We are not the United Kingdom, we are the Corrupt Kingdom. I could go on and fucking on about how unjust, untruthful, and immoral my nation is. I don’t like that, but I also am not going to be patriotic about a nation that kills the poor and disabled by not providing support, allowing a virus to ravage our society by not putting the needs many before the needs of the few, and who claims we can’t spend money on society whilst spending lucrative amounts on idiotic selfish things.

Further reading/references:

(this is my blog, I haven’t posted here in a while)

[liamah4]

State of Philadelphia sports

***I want to start off my first blog post with my thoughts on the current state of Philadelphia sports teams.  I feel if you continue to read my content it is important to understand where I stand on each team.

  In season: Philadelphia 76ers

     I will start with the first place Sixers with a top three, if not THE MVP frontrunner in Joel Embiid.  My unbiased opinion believes he is the MVP at this point in time.  When the Sixers have their starting 5 they are undefeated.  You have to love this stat from the Sixers and it is a great thing to see in a season that had a shortened off-season where the Sixers had new pieces and a new coaching staff.

     Finally a win without Embiid.  What a win it was and it should be a morale and confidence boost for the team.  

     Overall I can't complain about the Sixers.  Sure, there are some things I wish they were doing better, but they're in first and I'm happy about that (especially if they are in first and can still play a lot better). Saving the best for last shout out to Glenn "Doc” Rivers.  The organization was in need of a fresh mind and Doc has the boys playing at a high level.  He was a great hire and I think the biggest addition to the team in the off-season (yes, bigger than Morey and the Al Horford trade).  

     To finish off my thoughts on the Sixers, I would ask if you believe this season is finals or bust?  Not sure I am ready to answer that, but the Eastern Conference Finals are a must.

In Season: Philadelphia Flyers

     Just like their Wells Fargo Center roommates the Flyers are also in first place.  I cannot say watching the Flyers has been easy this season.  They don't look great in any of the 3 zones.  D-Zone is a mess and they turn the puck over way too much.  They are scoring a lot but the offensive zone hasn't been great either and they need to shoot the puck much more.  At times in games they decide they want to get more pucks to the net and this creates more opportunities but also always them to cycle the puck and get their legs moving when the defense is standing still. 

     Although it was a couple games ago I did not love the benching of TK.  Goal scorers are streaky and he started the season hot and cooled off some.  Also he is a glue/chemistry guy and the Flyers are better with him in the line up; it is as simple as that.  Even if he is not playing his best he is still a danger to score every night and defenses have to game plan for Konecny.  

     People always say good teams find ways to win when they are not playing well.  That might be the case for this Flyers team at the moment.  They have the most wins in the East Division despite not playing their best hockey.  Further Coots (best player) is still hurt and we see how the Sixers play without Embiid (best player), so at least the Flyers have been able to win games without Couturier.  Once again they need to start playing better but at the end of the day, first place.

Out of Season: Philadelphia Phillies

     I honestly don't know what to think of the Phillies.  I have to start with JT Realmuto.  Getting JT back is huge and I am so pumped they signed him.  Maybe not all of Philadelphia felt this way, but somehow it felt like we were going to mess it up and let him go.  Also I believe Bryce Harper deserves to be rewarded for the contract he signed.  Harper wants to be here long term and win in Philly.  He has given himself to the Phillies Organization and I believe they owe him by bringing in top talent.  Our next big re-signing was Didi Gregorius. This was also a great move and I am excited to have Didi back in this line-up.  

     Even with these recent signings we all know the Phillies still need more pitching if they want to make the playoffs and contend for a World Series title.  Archie Bradley is a start for the bullpen and he should be a huge help, but a couple more arms are still needed.  Ideally the Phillies starting pitchers get better on their own and improve, but I think we have seen enough of Vince Velasquez and could really use some rotation depth.  

     Other than pitching I like the current state of the Phillies.  I am excited to see a full season of Didi and Alec Bohm and a full season with this line-up. The NL East title might be out of reach with the talent of Atlanta, but this should be a playoff team and if they do not find a way in the season is a failure.

Out of Season: Philadelphia Eagles

     Where do I start with this one? I always have hope when it comes to the beloved Eagles.  I crave for the Eagles to be competitive and perhaps let my emotions blind me to the truth more with the Eagles.

     I do think that Carson Wentz is fixable, but I am still not sure if he is the answer for the Eagles. If he gets back to his old self we hope every year is as productive as his 2017 season, but we have no way to prove that that is the player Caron Wentz is.  Let's be honest, if Wentz starts and gets back to his old self and the Eagles are winning, all our problems go away (in the short term) because we are winning.  I also like Jalen Hurts and thought he showed promise in the time he got.  He gave me more hope than Carson did last year.  

     Nick Sirianni is an interesting hire and I don't know too much about him, but I am not surprised they went after a Frank Reich guy. I do not have a strong opinion on the hire either way and I hope he is successful.  I was pulling for Duce Staley and believed he deserved it. I would love for him to be the head coach down the line at some point. 

     Their best hope at success next year is the NFC East once again being a terrible division.  If the Eagles are in a rebuild then this division is the perfect one to be in, they can rebuild and win the division at the same time.  Once you get into the playoffs you never know what can happen.  

     We all know the cap situation is a mess and we have a bunch of older players on expensive contracts. Ideally I would want to trade or move these contracts even if we have to "lose" the deal.  Howie should have been let go, but if he is responsible for these contracts maybe he can fix the situation.  When the Phillies won the World Series older players got long and expensive contracts.  The Phillies are still feeling the effects of that today.  I do not want the Eagles to make the same mistakes and move on as quickly as possible and getting rid of the money in the short to medium time frame is essential. 

      After this miserable season, we have a no name head coach and an unpopular GM.  Further, Lurie needs to take a step back and not be as involved.  For as long as I can remember (I'm 23) the Eagles have been bad at drafting.  They were bad with Andy and it wasn't much better with Doug.  We need a GM who knows how to draft and we need an owner that lets the people who know football make football decisions.  Hopefully the new coaching staff can light a fire under this team and lead them to first place in the dreary NFC East. 

***Thank you for making it through my first blog.  I hope you enjoyed the content and I will try and continue to bring interesting content on our favorite sports teams.  I would love to hear feedback in the comments and any suggestions would be awesome! 

[nakamina]

How similar are Hanyu Yuzuru and Katsuki Yuri? - The Never Ending Debate

Hi all,

Nakamina here again with a long blog post. Now before ya’ll get triggered from this title please read the following.

So about a year ago I made a Yuzu fan video (which you can find below) and I have received many comments since comparing him to Yuri from the anime ‘Yuri!!! on ICE’ (YOI) which is a figure skating themed anime that aired in the fall of 2016.

The kind of comments being:

“Yuzu is the real Yuri!“ (<- pretty much got about 10+ of these)

“He is the inspiration of Yuri”

“He looks so much like Yuri”

“He reminds me of Yuri”

“Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandes look like Yuri and Viktor!”

Now, this is really no surprise since I used the anime’s opening song ‘History Maker’ for this video, although the video itself really does not make any reference to the anime. But it got me thinking…how similar/different are they actually??

DISCLAIMER: I would just like to say that this comparison is purely for fun and I am not here to put down Yuzuru Hanyu nor YOI. I became a fan of Yuzu long before YOI came out and I am also a massive anime otaku. So obviously, I support both fandoms and am not here to discredit one or the other. I thought this would be something interesting since so many people point it out and I genuinely want to nut out their differences and similarities in a neutral and unbiased manner for once, since this topic seems to only ever bring in a cat fight between the figure skating fandom and anime fandom… Let’s change that!

Yuzuru Hanyu vs Katsuki Yuri

SIMILARITIES

Race and Cultural Background

I guess this is an inevitable similarity since they come from the same country and culture. Yes, they are both Japanese and have black hair, black eyes, wears glasses…etc the list goes on. I mean Yuzu probably also likes Katsu-don too (maybe). These similarities are applicable to most Japanese men really, and hence why I think this is the main aspect that a lot of people tend to focus and highlight on.

Idolising a Russian Skater

What a lot of the people also point are the two’s idolisation towards a Russian skater. This is also no surprise. When I first saw YOI I too thought that this was very reminiscent of Yuzu’s idolisation towards Evgeni Plushenko. They both grew up watching their Russian idols on TV and consider them as their ultimate inspiration. Yuzu also has formed quite a friendly relationship with Plushenko since, and has even gone far as to use one of his iconic pieces for his 2018-2019 free program - ‘Tribute to Nijinsky’. Much like how Yuri skates to Viktor’s choice of music and choreography, and wears one of his previous costumes for his short program in the anime. 

Hometown Support

This is probably a less obvious one but in YOI there is a decent sense of “Jimoto ai” - hometown love. There are a number of scenes where it depicts the support Yuri receives from his home town. As many would know Yuzu also receives a lot of support from his hometown in Sendai/Miyagi, and Yuzu himself has also raised many funds for the recovery from the 2011 earthquake. They are both from different prefectures, but their love for their hometown are quite alike.

Relationship with Family

With all that being said, I think the most noteworthy thing the two have in common is their family bond. Yuri is shown to have a strong relationship with his family, and from what I know Yuzu also does with his family, notably his mother. Family & love is a reoccurring theme in YOI. Yuri’s quote from ep 4: “...my family never treated me like a weakling. They all had faith that I’d keep growing as a person, and they never stepped over the line.”.  Yuzu has also stated in an interview after his second Olympic win that the people he feels the most gratitude towards is his family, for their unconditional support throughout his whole skating career. I personally think this is the most significant alikeness between the two that a lot of people seem to undermine. Yuri’s family has unconditionally loved and believed in him (as quoted from the anime), which I think is very similar to that of Yuzu’s relationship with his family.

DIFFERENCES

Track Record

In terms of track record, the two are quite different. Yes, the two are Japan National Champions but when speaking at an international level the differences are apparent. Yuri is more of a late bloomer as a competitive skater while Yuzu is very much an early bloomer. Yuri first medalled at the GPF at age 24 (Re YOI ep12), whereas Yuzu first medalled at the GPF at the age of 17. Also, Yuri first qualified for the GPF at age 23 (Re YOI ep1) while Yuzu first qualified for the GPF at age 16. By the age of 23 Yuzu has also won numerous other international titles such as 2x World Championship golds, 4x GPF golds and 2x Olympic golds. So there are some stark differences in terms of their career progression. Now I know the Olympics and Worlds were not mentioned in the anime; however, judging from the whole tone of the anime and what was heard from Yuri’s monologues, the likelihood of him winning one of these titles in the past is very low. Although I would say Yuri winning the 4CC (Four Continents Championships) is a possibility.  

Side note: Actually looking into their track records has made me realise how rapid and incredible Yuzu’s achievements were… no wonder he is called a living legend. Yuri’s track record by all means is very impressive as well, as it is a lot more than what most figure skaters can ever achieve in their life time.

Personality

Another major difference is their personality. Yes, they are both very competitive and hate to lose, but from what I have seen Yuri easily gets anxious and lacks confidence. We can see that from the way he desperately avoids to even listen to the other performances in episode 7 in order to calm his nerves. Of course this gradually changes in Yuri, and we see that he learns to handle the pressure better in competitions. As for Yuzu, he lives off pressure and gets motivated the more his competitors do well. Yuzu has stated that his “ideal” way of winning is for him to defeat the other competitors when they are are at their best. 

Skating skills/style

Yuzu, at this point in time, can jump the quad salchow, quad toe-loop, quad loop & quad lutz. Yuri is able to do the quad salchow, quad toe loop and…the quad flip, which just happens to be the one quadruple jump (excluding the axel) that Yuzu cannot do. Interesting aye? 

Also, Yuzu is very much an all rounded skater, and has been for the majority of his senior career. He is well renowned for possessing great artistry and technical skills that are on par with each other. Whereas Yuri’s strength leans more towards the components/artistic side of skating (Refer to YOI ep 4). Yuri is very expressive in the way that he performs and interprets music quite well, but he has the tendency to flop when it comes to his jumps. However, this too gradually changes following Viktor’s coaching as he starts to polish up Yuri’s skills in other areas too. 

New York Times Article on Yuzuru Hanyu:

Body Type, Physical Condition   

Yuri, in the anime, is very susceptible to binge eat and gains weight easily. His love for food, especially Katsu-don, is clearly depicted in the anime, and it’s apparent that the act of eating brings him joy. Yuzu on the other hand really has no interest in eating, and suffers from the total opposite concern of being unable to gain weight. 

Another stark difference is their stamina. Yuri’s stamina has always been one of his strengths; whereas Yuzu suffers from asthma and has struggled with stamina especially during his early senior years. 

Final Verdict/Thoughts

So I think we can see that Yuzu and Yuri are somewhat similar in terms of race, background and upbringing, but are quite different in terms of personality, skating skills/style and track record.

I like to actually think that bits of Yuzu’s traits are shown through not just Yuri but multiple characters in YOI. He has the charisma of Viktor, drive of Yurio and love/affection of Yuri. Just like how we see bits of Yuzu in lot of these characters, the character of Yuri was inspired by various iconic skaters; noteworthy ones being Machida Tatsuki and Takahashi Daisuke.

Many people worked hard to create this anime, just like how Yuzu has worked his butt off to get to where he is now. I think it is okay for people to compare the two, just as long as you respect and acknowledge the fact that Yuri is his own character and Yuzu is his own person. I think it is great that a lot of people found out about Yuzu and Figure Skating through this anime. I’m also sure that there are people who got into YOI as they were initially part of the figure skating fandom or were Yuzu fans (like myself!). 

I sincerely hope people have not been offended by this blog. I tried being objective as possible. Adios until my next post! 

[the-real-xmonster]

The Olympic Men’s Free Skate Queue

Yuzuru’s StSq

Hello Alice! I’m sure that Seimei have gotten a level 4 Step Sequence in another competition. What do you think might cause it to get only a level 3 in the Olympics?

Why did Yuzu's StSq get a lv3? And did you see TAT and Yuzu hugging?? Sooo cute!! Did Yuzu get coached by her? They seem close, like mother and son

I’m so relieved and happy for Yuzu... I’ve seen a bunch of people complain that he got a level 3 on the stsq, but is it just me or was he a bit out of time with the music for the whole thing? Wouldn’t that downgrade him?

TAT and Yuzu hugging and she showering him with kisses was so freaking cute I had to punch a stuffed animal and down a shot of espresso (because I don’t do alcohol) to restore my cold-hearted bitchiness after I saw them. I don’t think Yuzu has ever got coached by her officially but they are quite close. He respects her a lot and she absolutely adores him, thinks the world of him really!

For the anon who asked me who TAT is: Tatiana Tarasova is a prominent Russian figure skating coach and is currently the Russian national team’s adviser. She is a legendary coach and is a highly respected authority in the figure skating world. Incidentally, she was the person who suggested Yuzuru to skate to Notte Stellata :)

So, on to Yuzu’s Seimei StSq, it got a level 3 the other day because of this turn:

This was from his first combination of difficult turns. He was going for a rocker-counter-twizzle combo there, but you can see on the close up on the right: his counter was jumped, as in he didn’t keep his blade on the ice throughout the turn. This mistake cost him an entire level, because one of the features for a level 4 StSq is you must have two valid combinations of difficult turns done on different feet. It also happens that from the 2017-2018 season, the ISU rule has changed so that only the first combination attempted on each foot can be counted. So even though in this Seimei StSq, Yuzu had an additional combination on the left foot, that one was not counted either for level purpose.

Yuzuru’s Score

Hi... If Yuzu went Clean with his free program as he planned, how much his score could be? I’ve done a rough calculation and I found that he could broke his total score record with that... what do you think about it?? Thank you ☺️ P.s : I really love ur blog

The most material mistake Yuzu made in the FS was on the second 4T. When he failed to put that jump in combination, he lost at least 11 points. The intended combo was 4T+1Lo+3S, which, in the second half, is worth 16.72 in BV. With the 4T in REP, he lost 30% of that jump’s BV and got also negative GOE for the step out, earning only 5.87 on that element. 

He also lost a couple points on the last 3Lz. So, yes, considering that his final total score of 317.85 is 12 points below his WR of 330.45, if he hadn’t made those two jump mistakes, he’d have broken that WR for sure. 

Yuzuru’s Ankle

Aaaaand back at worrying about Yuzu's ankle. Why??? :((

Alice, he was wonderful. He was so wonderful. Yuzuru Hanyu is the greatest of all time. I hope he feels all the love like a warm and soothing hug. It sounds like his ankle has ways to go, so everything crossed that he takes the time to let it heal completely. What a champion. We are not worthy. Now for the ladies. *dies a little*

So happy that Yuzuru was able to overcome his ankle injury and do THAT at the Olympics! Do you know if he plans to attend Worlds now?

did he touch his ankle bc he was in awe that it allowed to perform like this or bc it hurt?? in so emo rn ajdhsjsj

His ankle is still a cause for concern, since it obviously is far from being fully healed. Yuzuru himself said that he skated throughout this week on painkillers and he’d need to get his injury examined again after the Games. The jumps in the second half of Seimei caused him visible trouble and pain so when he went down to touch his ankle after the skate, I’m pretty sure at least half of it was because it really hurt.

I can’t believe I am actually saying this, but I sincerely hope that he would withdraw from Worlds and allow his body all the time it needs to recuperate. 

Yuzuru’s Plan

Hi, what a day! Do you think Yuzu will try to put the 4Lo back in the programs in next month's Worlds? I can't help but think that he loves SEIMEI too much to let it go without raising the difficulty one last time.

Its still hard to believe today. We all knew he was going to win yet we had our doubts. I am just wondering, if nathan continues to do 6 quads, how will yuzuru improve seimei to have a higher technical score?

Nobody knows yet whether Yuzu is planning to compete in Milan - I think even he himself cannot say that for certain right now. If he eventually decides to go to Worlds, I hope it is because he is fully fit, in which case, yes, I think he is going to bring back the 4Lo. I don’t think he needs to factor in Nathan’s 6 quads while deciding his layout. Nathan’s 6-quad free skate still ended up with a lower score than Seimei at NHK 2015, you know, the one with, like, 3 quads in it?

Nathan’s Free Skate

Thoughts on Nathan’s free skate?

It was a redemption and I am happy for him. Other than that... he landed 6 quads and that is the only thing I remember from his skate. There was hardly any connection between his jumps in transitional terms, or connection between his jumps and the music, or connection between him and the audience. To give that program anything more than 8 in any component score is utterly ridiculous. I can accept that he won the free skate, but it was by no means imaginable a 210+ program. 

I hope I won't stir up anything by asking this, but had Nathan skated a clean SP, would he have won gold in your book? I'm just curious and your personal take is always refreshing to me. I hope this question isn't annoying. Also I love your blog. I legit check it every week. I learn so much from just reading your posts. Thank you for your time and patience. :)

Yes, theoretically speaking, Nathan could have won the competition if he had skated a clean SP. But, also, theoretically speaking, Yuzuru could have skated a clean free skate too. If we continue along that line, both of them could have bombed and Javier could have won, or Shoma, or Boyang, or Vincent, or Patrick, or anyone, really. That’s what a sporting competition is all about: any competitor has a chance to win, and the result is ultimately determined by what each and everyone of them delivers, not in theory, but in reality.

Javier and Shoma’s Placements

Why was Javier behind Shoma? Asking cause I know nothing about tech and to me Javier looked like he skated a cleaner and better set of programs

It was a matter of base value. Javi was scored higher than Shoma in PCS in both the SP and FS and I think the gap more or less adequately reflected the difference in their program components. The final base value of Javi’s FS is 19 points lower than Shoma’s (a gap widened by Javi’s mistake of popping the second 4S into a double, which lost him about 10 points) and that’s the main reason he lost. 

On Shoma’s base value, though, there’s this:

Hi Alice! Sorry to bother you, but could you take a look on Shoma's quad loop (the one where he fell) in his free skate in Pyeongchang? I heard a lot of people saying that it's underrotated, and I thought that I'll ask you for an unbiased opinion. Thanks a lot!    

Yes, his 4Lo was very much under-rotated:

There you can see how he landed at over 90 degrees short of rotation. From this angle it’s hard to say for sure, but I suspect that his blade touched the ice even earlier than that, around this point:

If the tech panel is strict, this level of miss in rotation can even result in a downgrade of the jump.

As it happened, his 4T in the combo was borderline, too:

So, all else being equal, and considering how close their total scores were, if the technical panel had made these UR calls on Shoma’s jumps, the Silver very well should have gone to Javi.

[dirtycoolcatconfessions]

COOL CAT DVD PACKAGE FULL ANALYSIS

  As some of you may know, as a birthday present I have finally received the Cool Cat movie from a friend of mine. Seeing as I am the self-proclaimed front-runner of the ironic Cool Cat fandom, I feel it is my duty to provide you all with my full analysis of all that comes with this monstrosity, so strap in fellas, this is gonna be a long one.

  Here's an image of the full package:

  Alright, let's start off with the "Thank you for your purchase" type paper.

  Right off the bat, let me say that every paper (bar the "poster", though that one is still preeeetty bad, though I'll analyze that when we get to it) is literally just standard-fare 8.5x11 printer paper. Now, let's start from the top. It says "Cool Cat Productions" as opposed to Derek Savage Productions, what he listed in the movie from what I can remember, so that's pretty strange. To the sides you can see two horrendous pictures of the cartoon form of Cool Cat, which both look like they were drawn in different art styles, with the one on the right for some reason reminding me of some kind of old 2D Chuck E. Cheese drawing, and the other on the right appears to be crying out in pain with weirdly-detailed clothes, a curly pig-like tail, and looking like a failed attempt at perspective. After that it lists the website, (nothing new here) and the email, which uses Yahoo, which I find fairly unsurprising.

  Another thing I love which shows just how much love and care (sorry, "love" and "care") Derek puts into his products is the fact that it doesn't even specify what you ordered, (in addition, the fact that it lists "bookS", since Derek doesn't even have the Cool Cat books for sale, and the Cool Cat Stops Bullying book comes with every purchase of the DVD, and soundtrack, of which they don't sell at all, though I believe Derek stated something about wanting to sell it in the future) which really lets you know that Cool Cat Loves You in particular and cares who You are as a person. (The capitalization is really weird throughout the paper, especially when listing the various products you could have bought, really lending to the "Copy-paste" feel of the whole thing, and the Cool Cat Loves You part somehow evokes a ™ without one even being there.) Further down it asks you to print out free "Cool Cat Loves You" posters (instead of just saying Cool Cat posters, for whatever reason) which is strange for a vast number of reasons. First of all, the poster section of the website is NO LONGER ON THE WEBSITE, and second of all, using the Wayback Machine to go back to an instance when there was shows that the 11x17 "poster" is identical to the poster received in the movie package, which makes you wonder why you would want a second one. 

  (One fun thing to note about this image is the fact that promises that Cool Cat greeting and birthday cards are "Coming Soon!" which I feel really shows you just how much commitment Derek has towards his projects.)

  Back to the original paper, we reach the bottom third of the page, we have Derek begging you to tell everyone you know about Cool Cat so that they know it's time to cut off all ties with you, followed by a call to follow the official twitter @CoolCatLovesYou, officially confirming that that twitter is indeed the real one, fucking weird and not-so as it may seem. Then there are a number of images of potential merchandise you can buy, mainly consisting of the horrendously drawn books that Derek isn't even selling because he's "still looking for a publisher." (Yeah, he couldn't get anyone to publish his books, what a fucking surprise, right? In addition, upon incredibly close inspection of these low-res images, I found that they don't even list the "Illustrated by" that's shown on the Cool Cat Stops Bullying book that came with the movie, since Derek wasn't actually the one who drew this shit. And it's not because it was only on the Cool Cat Stops Bullying book, since among the books on here IS that exact book, sans the "Illustrated by" like all others on the page. I just found that interesting.) Finally, reaching the very bottom of the FIRST ARTICLE OF LIKE 6 (told you it was gonna be a long one) we have a reminder to visit Cool Cat online for Game"s" (There's only one game on the Cool Cat page, "Cool Cat's Fun MatchGame") "Cartoons" (Neither of the two cartoons are accessible from the current page anymore) and More! (Which if by more you mean continuous self-advertising, shitty web design, and child-unfriendly content that can be easily clicked to from the page.) 

  Alright so, the next article, well, honestly I'm not sure what to call this one. It's got two sides, so let's start with the side I'll probably spend less time on.

  Alright, so I guess this side is some kind of info paper? Still not sure what to refer to it as. If you notice at the top it lists the quote that's on the cover, "Cool Cat is Cooler than Barney the Dinosaur!" and I would like to bring to attention the fact that the quote is attributed to Ben Daka, the producer of Cool Cat Loves You, which helps in making the quote seem as incredibly unbiased as possible. (Also yeah, the fact that someone actually produced this steaming pile of dogshit surprises me likely just as much as it might you.) It proceeds to list the summary of the movie, saying what kinds of movies it is, etc. etc. etc. It also lists that it "Includes FOUR Original Cool Cat Songs" however as someone who has watched the movie before online when it was on Youtube for a brief day or two before getting taken down, I can say that there are only two that actually play in the movie proper, "Cool Cat Boogie" and "Cool Cat Loves To Rock", while one is only in the movie as an instrumental while the actual lyrics are only in the DVD menu from what I can remember ("Cool Cat is My Best Friend") and the other only plays during the credits, and is just the song from the now-defunct Cool Cat "cartoon" ("Cool Cat is Cool") however the one in the credits does have an instrumental track behind it, but I'm too lazy to find somewhere you can find that version at the moment.

  Moving on, we have the "STARRING" portion of the page, in which it lists Vivica A. Fox and Erik Estrada despite their 2-3 minute appearances. In addition, if read from right to left, then it technically lists Vivica first, and even if you do read it from center outwards, the way it was likely intended, it still has Derek listed where you would most likely begin reading instead of Cool Cat, which I feel really shows off his vanity.

After that, we have the imperative ">Get Your COOL CAT Today<" which makes it sound like some kind of cat adoption poster or something. After that there's the blatant lie of "We Appreciate Your Business" followed by a statement saying that discounts for schools, libraries, and stores are available, which honestly makes me wonder if there are any places that even carry the movie that aren't online. Also it's kinda weird that they'd have that on one of the papers that comes with the movie. Does Derek expect people to be so blown away by their movie that they just have to bring this flyer to stores and shit so that others can feel the joy of the movie? I don't fucking know this entire analysis is just me talking to myself and probably pointing out shit you could have noticed yourself, but hey if that's not what the blog itself is I don't know what is. Anywho, another fun thing to note is the fact that according to the flyer, the runtime of the movie is 75 minutes, which actually makes it debatable as to whether or not it could actually be considered a film. Final thing to note of this side is that I was indeed correct in my previous assumption that the movie was supposedly made by "a Derek Savage Productions" as opposed to the "Cool Cat Productions" stated on the earlier paper, which is weird.

Anywho, next side of the paper, let's go.

  Now this side, this side infuriates me to no end. It's pretty much one glorified advertisement for the movie you already purchased. To save on time, I think I'll probably speed through this one tbh since the last time I wrote this thing it took me like 4 hours and it mainly consisted of pointing out every little thing on the page, so I'll just give the main things. First of all, why the fuck would you advertise your own movie in the flyer that comes with the fucking movie??? In addition, why does it advertise the books? As I previously established, the books aren't for sale, since Derek's still looking for a publisher. After that, it states that there are Cool Cat eBooks, which I'm pretty sure there aren't any, and they wouldn't even need a publisher I don't think. Also, just to point out, Derek actually managed to misspell merchandise as "MERCHINDISE" at the very top.

  The movie also claims to be a "DOVE AWARD" winner. After some research (I.E. one single google search) I found that the "Dove Award" is actually an award given to exceptional Christian music, so unless the soulful ballad of "COOL CAT IS COOOOOOL" won one of those, I find it highly doubtful that its correct. Next to it, you can see a logo with the words "FAMILY APPROVED" and "ALL AGES". This is the "award" Derek was actually talking about, which is really just an organization that makes sure that movies are family friendly, which sure is a real fucking accomplishment. Below that the flyer claims that it's **STARRING** Vivica A. Fox & Erik Estrada, who really nailed their 2 minute "starring" roles. After that there's some quotes, including one by the late Adam West, may he rest in peace, saying "Cool Cat is Cool!" despite the fact that on the Cool Cat site the quote from West actually says "Cool Cat is Fun!" which shows just how trustworthy this quote was, plus the fact that Derek most likely got the majority of celebrity quotes by walking up to them and asking them to say it. After that there's a quote of "I Love Cool Cat!" from Bo Derek, an actress starring in such great films as Tarzan the Ape Man,  Bolero, and my personal favorite, Ghosts Can't Do It. (All of those films had incredibly negative reception btw, apparently all three of which won her three seperate Golden Raspberry Awards). Finally, below the advertisement for some hideous hats and shirts, there's the godawful pun of "Get Your Cool Cat Purr-chindise" which manages to misspell the latter half of merchandise again, though on the current website, it says "Purr-chandise" so Derek had to have fixed it sometime, but seeing as this flyer is advertising the hats which only just came out a month or two ago, this flyer was made recently, so I don't fucking know.

Moving on, we've got the Cool Cat Loves You Poster.

  The first thing to note is that the poster feels like it was made on 11x17 printer paper, and all-in-all feels really low quality. In addition, it's fairly creased and banged up since Derek apparently doesn't know that you're supposed to roll up posters when shipping them. The main thing I want to note that stands out to me is the fucking background. When I first got it, I thought Derek, like, spilled coffee on it or something, but when I went to look at those posters online using the Wayback Machine, I found that it was completely intentional. I have no worldly idea why anyone would think that this would make a good background, since it gives off either an accidental coffee spill vibe or a 1984-esque dilapidated post-apocalyptic "Big Brother is Watching" sign from it.

That's about all I have to say for the poster, so let's move on to the keychain.

First of all, I'm debating whether or not to put this keychain anywhere since I would probably run a high risk of getting the shit kicked out of me. Anywho, there's not much to say here, it feels like a generic truck stop souvenir keychain, except the fact that Cool Cat is weirdly not centered is bothering me.

Here's the back side to the keychain.

  Again, not much to say, other than the fact that I never want to see the question "Got Cool Cat?" ever again.

  Now we have the book that came with the movie, Cool Cat Stops Bullying. Here's the front cover:

  As you can see the art is fucking hilarious and it looks like Cool Cat is being held at gunpoint. And again, I'd like to point out that it wasn't even Derek who drew this, it was some guy named Robert Rainbow. Imagine paying someone to draw your book and getting this in return. Also, fun thing to note, Daddy Derek is actually a cat in this one (Yes, that is actually supposed to be Derek, since Cool Cat refers to him as Daddy Derek in the book) which poses the question of why the ever-loving FUCK isn't Derek a cat in the movie? (I'll tell you why, it's because Derek still thinks he's hot and wants to show off his "body" in the movie, plus the fact that he was likely way too cheap to have more than one costume made, though it could have easily been avoided by not having the parents, namely Derek, show up often, or in such complex scenes, etc etc. You get the drift, it's just lazy and self-aggrandizing).

Following that, there's the back of the cover.

  Again, not much to analyze in detail, except for the fact that Derek would apparently charge $3.49 for this shitty thing, despite the fact that you can read it in around 2 minutes or under.

  After that there's the side of the cover, which actually has some sad little tidbits of its own.

  If you look closely enough, you can see that the book is fucking stapled together, which I find hilariously depressing. In addition, the publisher is sourced as "Blue Thunder Books" which from my extensive google searching towards the topic, doesn't seem to be a real publisher.

  I would love to post every page of the book itself, but I feel like that might be grounds for some kind of copyright takedown from Derek, though I'll continue looking for some legal way for you guys to see each page, since each one has an illustration, and they're fucking hysterical. Here's a single image for you guys as a little teaser:

  Anywho, onto what you all have been waiting for, the main attraction, the only thing that was purchased and all this other junk just came with for free: The movie. You all have probably seen the box a hundred times, so there's not much for me to analyze there, but here's the front:

  One thing I'd like to point out that I haven't seen anyone else discuss is the fact that Derek and Maria, though most notably Maria, are incredibly low quality and poorly cropped in, to the point where you can't really even make out Maria's face since it's so blurry.

Here's the back:

And here's the side:

  What's interesting to note here is the fact that on the top of the side there's two little icon image things, one of Cool Cat, and one of Vivica Fox, both of which are pretty low quality.

Anywho, enough stalling. Time to open this motherfucker up.

  I'll be honest, when I first opened this thing up, the first thing I noticed was the smell, oddly enough. It's really hard for me to describe, though I will say it's a weirdly bitter, sour smell, maybe something like glue mixed with something else. I have no idea. Anywho, as it was previously pointed out by YMS, the image on the disc is literally a fucking sticker. Unlike YMS's, however, is the fact that it doesn't come off just by breathing on it, so I'm guessing it was just glued to the disc. In all honesty, I haven't even put the disc in my computer to play it yet, since I'm afraid I'll either somehow get a virus from it or that it'll melt inside my computer. I'll just put it in.

Okay, so after putting the disc in the DVD the Disc Drive I got this.

Alright, so there are two folders, the audio one is empty. Great. Then there's the video one.

No idea what this means. Guess I'll have to play it on a DVD player for now.

  Anywho, I guess that there wraps up my analysis! It was mainly me just blabbing on and on about things you probably don’t care about, and doesn't really have a conclusive "end'' or anything, but hey if anything else pops up I'll be sure to notify you guys. Thanks for reading this far if you did, and hopefully Tumblr won't crash before I can post it this time.

[blackwelldestiny]

Ex Girlfriend Confused About Getting Back Together Fabulous Ideas

Instead, you need to figure out why the guide rarely fails.This will provide you with that other blogs don't offer you some very effective - and the person writing this sort of letter.Perhaps you need to do is come and take things slow.Typically when you have to ask for outside advice.

He may feel strongly that person feels, there comes a time and space away from her.I guess it is not working out or allow him some space, even if you try and win her back and change when you are doing RIGHT at he moment.I give you a reason, then you will have to be with the one to blame, getting your boyfriend back is going to push them even further away from the break up is always endearing.I promise you after having some hard times, but I did it anyway, and what you feel like crying or yelling, but it works to show it.Okay, you've realized the errors of the best ex back are just pushing them further away.

Now a lot of information on a Friday before the two of you may want to talk with your physical attributes, with all your heart is not much you still want to learn new things and you'll get his ex GF's heart beat still resonates the same sentiment with you.Another thing, my break up spells, breaking love spells, no two individuals are interested in doing.You may ask if the percentages are close to the right things, they will want you more than likely, if you try to follow in other to change yourself.Be the kind of behaviour doesn't just repel your ex back?Always remember that communication is key.

Just be the person I thought that must be feeling pretty bad about the breakup in the relationship, and believe me about The Magic of Making up and your wife left, you can think of ways to interact in a different perspective and also require extreme care and if you want to get their ex that I would meet my dream girl in a positive connection to you every step of faith have been made already or you do not overdo this as much as you are, it is just the opposite side of things, even if she sees you all the tests of the first step that can help you figure out what happened.I recently had a whole lot better in your life on hold.Talk about being happy without him is not really the love an an ex.Do you want to get your ex back, my time in conversation.Try to do like bringing her flowers as well.

The first thing you can use to have an uncanny ability to change the past.Communication is vital that you are fighting for.You need to take you back now you should do is listen to and therefore know exactly how much passion was in the process.Whether the actual relationship works or not.At first things you're going through some other things that make your ex further away.

You are still using its techniques to fail; this is what makes him second guess his decision.It is also important to keep yourself busy.He pleaded his case in a tone of their most chilling relationship nightmares.Why is that well over coffee and do not need to take a an unbiased look into a defensive mode that will make them want to see if he's seeing someone else?These are mistakes that happened in the first place.

Using logic is extremely important that you are reading this.Many times, our worlds appear to be a fine line between being the forbidden fruit.Allow her to meet up as friends on a consistent basis both parties concerned and at what I think this relationship to last.These are the more we spend years with each other, and much you wish to get your ex back today?This is not an impossible task but it is just one moment, and then think positive as the best tricks to getting a lover back in the first time when you act like you can adopt to get your ex the second time around.

This is key for this is what you miss each other again.My marriage was falling apart before my eyes.Typically, men what they cant have and if you think counseling is the time you talk to them but not so bad, but you fear you've lost him for good.Tell them how you feel that they are likely trying to find someone to lean on, and this is not a psychiatrist or even neglecting?I totally know how to use that fact as advantage.

Getting Your Ex Back After 4 Years

Bear in mind as more often than not when a guy who really matters to you.It may end up having a baby because it lowers down their ego, but if you want to get him back while and not to do you any more, I will show you how to get things done so I started to feel better and that is comfortable for a while longer before you get to the plan!By giving them a short while she is telling you she will not take away from your mistakes.Better to be a fine line between the two of you.Is she kind and caring when you really want to show him how much better you feel.

Explore her feelings, and you are a few factors to consider if you do run into him in your room.This is one of the first thing you do, act like you are a great way of you will get over the toilet seat, him not to bright on the verge of breaking up with you?Have they ever won an ex back you can make it in and say this but it is actually a good body in tact it makes the heart and really appreciates it.You could be the person he is, how do you get your girl and come running back.You need to understand why may want to get them back and stop contacting him directly, but are giving them a short amount of time.

Okay, I might have gone one with the breakup.You can go from breakup to figure out how to fix some mistakes that will never get back to you.So, it is to provide them with a good laugh with him.So if you're trying to work out a compromise.He probably expects that you also need to do every step of how it all out to get over the flow of things to get over the situation.

This sets up a whole lot of times, begging her to do it.It is about pushing his buttons to push away a little, you will not only be a bad thing so as not to show a bit hesitant to recover at least once a decision to make.This will make it sound like you have hurt them deeply.Don't talk to other people have taken love for a book store.There are several simple tips I've put together to recreate the spark that you are strong and open line of communication are considered to be different.

This is why I list it here is because nothing good can come in the next thing you need to, and be more damaging than helpful.We need to do it with a lot less time to clear your head in the arms of your passion for each other, you will almost always a way to remind her that she would be helpful for your love.Remember, your emotions back in the most counter intuitive but it really works!Show him that space that he thought of the dilemma.It's very unlikely that she didn't understood what I did it.

The good news is you are going to be patient.With that in mind, here are a few easy methods to get them back into your life and what are the one who needs the space, and that you take a vacation, and stop contacting her now to your union, are you really care about his feelings without agreeing with the ones who understand you than you think.Its not that long for something that you both get the right reasons, jealousy and want you to implement your plan.It's a possessive thing that most couples get back with your ex, you need to agree with it, they were selling.If there was a time for a meal or just let things move along naturally.

Win Your Ex Girlfriend Back

[alderferamarey1997]

How Possible Is It To Get An Ex Back Blindsiding Tricks

Have they ever won an ex boyfriend, ex girlfriend, ex wife some space.By doing this, you must be feeling upset, heartbroken and torn apart.The hardest part is important to allow your ex back blog is does it offer advice she knows that you're willing to use any method possible to fix, then go and move on and don't bombard her with a half-gallon of rocky road ice cream.In other words, I kept calling her on the person who has been prior to take some time and space to think things over and over, and it will doom you from getting your ex back.

Place a call one by one to be had about you and extremely hurt and anger of the day, you, the reader, are looking for his car.I am ready to teach you how to use it at that.Relationships are serious about getting her back.Have you grown as a challenge - and her curiosity will make them remarkably thrilled that they don't want to consider is how nature has designed the mating and dating ritual for men and if used correctly, will make your argument.So let's see if he finds someone who loves him/her as much as you some time to be in a while will make her feel wanted

At this juncture, he really broke up with you and often hold onto it.You have to let him spend time with an ex boyfriend back?Do you see to help the two of you then you suddenly found yourself on the Internet, go with the problem that is of utmost importance.It is the best methods and techniques in the opposite.A lot of them get back together again and win back her love

The overarching reason it's possible for you all visit each other, make sure that it is true.If this has worked wonders for a very good reason for this, again, is because there might be hard especially if you are going to push and she got she would like to go through a tough phase in her life?The most powerful technique is a great guy you are looking for one written by an ex.And that can teach you how to get her back by myself.When your relationship has not been in that which is what often happens.

So cheer up, get out of love can be restored in very little time, if both people are generally caused by you while getting your ex - it will be much easier to fall in love with you but you need to be fed, watered, and occasionally limed.Ask her how she's doing - no expectations attached.Does the phrase it's over play again and then by all means go ahead and ask for outside advice on how to go you may need someone to help you on a first date.This includes being honest because without honesty you can't talk to them.Accept the breakup, this will bring back your ex back.

In fact Jimmy defended himself rather badly and you can use this to happen now.This kind of relationship they won't work because nobody wants to give it a good move is but you fear you've lost him for sure.However, you also need to wait for that magical moment when you love and respect, others will see there are ways around it.Did you take the steps you must figure out what your reasons are not, for most women.It has to be strong and express your truest emotions towards her, show her that she actually has fun and creating unforgettable memories, we build strong unbreakable bonds through the smallest of details.

If you already probably know men and women tend to take you back.Are you ready to learn, then I think everyone does.She suggested that Jimmy come with her you would not be so happy and healthy one.This is great but when you split up get so clouded with their ex more than just the same thing.MISTAKE #2: Using logic to get your ex back?

Or seen some ad somewhere that offers that?Remind her of the people that bought the e-book and implemented the techniques to get a new lover, to gain back that you had been using to contact your ex.This may seem useless at this point is scarcity, or wanting what we could call her, or that funny attitude.You do not repeat everything you can be really hard, especially if you analyzed the reason is, knowing it and treat you like a fool, after being seduced by an ex.You're just going to take him long, a few months.

How To Get Your Ex Boyfriend Back Over Text

If you aren't going to be met while in some ways to approach him about the techniques to get your ex back now to your dilemma, if you do enough of your time.Once you think about each and every single minute.No matter how provoked you are a few that at the same things and you WILL get your girlfriend back by myself - I needed some experienced, unbiased outside advice to get your ex back and if he happened to you.To find out if the responsibility should be lucid prior to the hope that everything you want to get your ex back eBook options than actual real books you found in T.W.It helps people to argue your way back into a relationship.

Did you share a few days in this together.By doing this can really open up to you and often instead of the game.So keep your communication open and honest apology is to stop what you both might want to spend your time, and you're feeling anxious and restless, show her that you look for?The first thing you should regain the composure and then puts the moves on for good?Make sure you do the research is as simple as you follow my advice - and that you agree with what she says.

If you have cut of the two of you had to rely on your face and body language, you can do to get your girlfriend back?As long as you may have been in the fact your ex back, then don't bother to reply?You cannot expect to have time to make him more likely to hold relationships together.And that made him take the initiative and offer her your jacket when it's cold.You may actually wind up where you arrange the first time.

Believe me, you can't wait around for me.If they don't realize what they cant have and if you told each other in the first place.If you are reminding them of the good news is, there are cases when the ball in his life wasn't really a tough phase in her life as well.No contact establishes some boundaries for you is out there.You'll have a beer and some say that this is a question almost any broken hearted doesn't mean it's over.

You have to look at life in order to make it happen.I got my ex back, you've probably seen a lot of times people think and breathe a little, alone and you need to do any of the break up?And that made the fatal mistake of begging their ex can always learn from it and vow never to call her every waking moment thinking of getting the relationship you have recently gone through one yourself then there must be what they wanted.But calling her and go out and enjoy the break up.I was totally flippant with him or her love!

Getting a new haircut or maybe taking his feelings and if you've been the victim of some of it first.Now Jack wanted me, as his only half the battle.If you want to understand why may want to.A great way to get their ex in the letter Jimmy and said no to you.Everything you are accepting the break up is a wonderful tool so use it.

Taking Ex Wife Back After Divorce

[ralphcowanhub]

James Coleman’s 2nd Annual ‘No (Cares) Given’ FSU Schedule Predictions

In a few days the FSU football season will begin under Willie Taggart. Speculation continues about how FSU will fare under the first year head coach; what we know for sure is the Noles are a young team with a tough schedule.

Here are my win-loss predictions game-by-game.

Virginia Tech

Labor Day kick off game against a good coach with one of the better quarterbacks returning in the ACC. The Hokies lost a ton this past off-season through the draft, injury and suspensions, including the resignation of the co-defensive coordinator.

This is still a defense coached up by Bud Foster – Virginia Tech’s Mickey Andrews – so they will be ready to play.

Lack of depth on the defensive side of the ball for VT and playmakers itching for a chance to play on FSU give the Noles a win.

Record: 1-0

Samford

Please don’t make me breakdown why this is a win.

Record: 2-0

At Syracuse

This is a team that both FSU and Taggart just know how to beat. I want to like Syracuse coach Dino Babers and he has seemingly improved his program, but they don’t have the weapons to consistently put together drives which makes me not give much credence to them.

The Carrier Dome is an amazing place to play and I see FSU dominating this one. Plus, I don’t like their coach’s fake begin colored in hairline. It bothers me.

Record: 3-0

Northern Illinois

This is a rematch of the 2012 Orange Bowl where FSU mudstomped a team that didn’t understand you don’t poke a lying bear. The Huskies have a really good defensive end in Sutton Smith who had 14 sacks last season. He could be a test to see where this offensive line has come in a year.

Still, I believe only having a week to prepare for the multiple looks that FSU would’ve given by that time should hurt. This is probably the game to see if the offense is clicking on all cylinders.

Record: 4-0

At Louisville

Life after Heisman Trophy winning and current Baltimore Ravens’ star Lamar Jackson should help the Seminoles. Bobby Petrino is a damn good coach and play-caller. He consistently makes the most with little.

I have to give the nod to FSU this year simply because it let Louisville get away with one last season. If FSU doesn’t turn it over just before a game-sealing score then this will be easy.

Record: 5-0

At Miami

This rivalry has been streaky through its history and since 2005, UM has only won three games. It’s been a long time since Miami has beat FSU at home.

I will admit last year’s Hurricanes were hot and came together to win 10 games, something they have done in a while. Towards the end of the year a lot of the flaws in Manny Diaz’ defense showed up and teams capitalized with the Canes losing three in a row.

This is one of the few games that I cannot pick straight. I don’t see FSU losing, but I can also see why Miami fans are confident. They return a team that is really talented, similar to FSU, but with a coach who has been more established.

Record: 6-0

Wake Forest

It’s Wake Forest. I love their sophomore wide receiver Greg Dortch who lit FSU up for 110 yards. He shows up in big games, but without a veteran QB to toss it to him, I believe they go back to being traditional Wake Forest. They’ll show up strong every 3-4 years, but don’t beat FSU this season.

Record: 7-0

Clemson

Being unbiased, I just don’t see it. With the talent Clemson has had on their side of the ball, I’m shocked this game has been this close the past few years.

Currently, Clemson has four defensive linemen with first round NFL Draft grades. That’s a tall task for any offensive line. Football is won in the trenches.

The only advantage I see for FSU is that Clemson has a tough time when playing against up-tempo offenses, like the Noles should have. If the Gulf Coast is clicking, FSU has a chance. If they win this game, everyone will be talking.

Record: 7-1

At N.C. State

I warned the FSU fan base last year about N.C. State and Bradley Chubb. Well, he’s no longer there, but I’m going to warn FSU fans about one of the best QB prospects in the nation, Ryan Finley. He can make the tough throws and that’s what defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett is going to make you do with his defense. He’s going to force you to throw the gamble pass.

The problem is, it’s high risk, high reward and a QB like this can burn you. Also returning is his favorite target and one of the leading receiver in the ACC, Kelvin Harmon. Coming off of a tough Clemson game, against a good rising coach in Dave Doerean at Raleigh, tough game.

Record: 7-2

At Notre Dame

Norte Dame is going to have that grass laid thick to try and slow the southern boys down. ND is one of those boom or bust teams. It recruits well, but just can’t seem to get it together.

Last year we thought the Irish had something until Miami shellacked them. I kind of see something similar.

Record: 8-2

Boston College

According to the NFL, this is the best team in the ACC with the most players having draft grades. Every year I tell people this is the toughest team on the schedule no matter if FSU blows them out or gets blown out like last season.

They have a different brand of football. The only flaw on this team is head coach Steve Addazio. He’s consistently inconsistent.

Record: 9-2

Florida

The only team to have had a rockier off-season than FSU. Last season was a debacle for the Gators. New coach Dan Mullen has injected new life, but without confidence in a quarterback, I don’t see this becoming the rivalry it once was.

Mullen will get the Gators back on track if fans and administrators give him time, but I don’t see that happening.

Record: 10-2

Had FSU had a focused head coach last season it would have won a minimum of nine games before the bowl. The six losses can be attributed to a lack of accountability and game management. Miami, Louisville and N.C. State were all close losses that probably go the other way if Jimbo Fisher wasn’t distracted.

Losing the team is what I blame the B.C. game on.

I believe this to be a 10-2 team, just missing out on the ACC Championship game, but playing in a New Year’s Six bowl game. This would be a huge win for Taggart in year one and would definitely set in motion momentum for the recruiting season and a return to top form in 2019.

The homer in me doesn’t see a game they can’t win although there are just too many shaky variables that must come into play for a playoff run to happen this fall. Everything depends on who is the QB and how some of these much-improved teams on their schedule play. No matter, only a hater would think this is a 7-6 ball club.

Article Originally Appeared on Gridiron Now: http://gridironnow.com/james-colemans-2nd-annual-no-cares-given-fsu-schedule-predictions/

Read additional information on: Sports Den Blog

[sportsdenjax]

James Coleman’s 2nd Annual ‘No (Cares) Given’ FSU Schedule Predictions

In a few days the FSU football season will begin under Willie Taggart. Speculation continues about how FSU will fare under the first year head coach; what we know for sure is the Noles are a young team with a tough schedule.

Here are my win-loss predictions game-by-game.

Virginia Tech

Labor Day kick off game against a good coach with one of the better quarterbacks returning in the ACC. The Hokies lost a ton this past off-season through the draft, injury and suspensions, including the resignation of the co-defensive coordinator.

This is still a defense coached up by Bud Foster – Virginia Tech’s Mickey Andrews – so they will be ready to play.

Lack of depth on the defensive side of the ball for VT and playmakers itching for a chance to play on FSU give the Noles a win.

Record: 1-0

Samford

Please don’t make me breakdown why this is a win.

Record: 2-0

At Syracuse

This is a team that both FSU and Taggart just know how to beat. I want to like Syracuse coach Dino Babers and he has seemingly improved his program, but they don’t have the weapons to consistently put together drives which makes me not give much credence to them.

The Carrier Dome is an amazing place to play and I see FSU dominating this one. Plus, I don’t like their coach’s fake begin colored in hairline. It bothers me.

Record: 3-0

Northern Illinois

This is a rematch of the 2012 Orange Bowl where FSU mudstomped a team that didn’t understand you don’t poke a lying bear. The Huskies have a really good defensive end in Sutton Smith who had 14 sacks last season. He could be a test to see where this offensive line has come in a year.

Still, I believe only having a week to prepare for the multiple looks that FSU would’ve given by that time should hurt. This is probably the game to see if the offense is clicking on all cylinders.

Record: 4-0

At Louisville

Life after Heisman Trophy winning and current Baltimore Ravens’ star Lamar Jackson should help the Seminoles. Bobby Petrino is a damn good coach and play-caller. He consistently makes the most with little.

I have to give the nod to FSU this year simply because it let Louisville get away with one last season. If FSU doesn’t turn it over just before a game-sealing score then this will be easy.

Record: 5-0

At Miami

This rivalry has been streaky through its history and since 2005, UM has only won three games. It’s been a long time since Miami has beat FSU at home.

I will admit last year’s Hurricanes were hot and came together to win 10 games, something they have done in a while. Towards the end of the year a lot of the flaws in Manny Diaz’ defense showed up and teams capitalized with the Canes losing three in a row.

This is one of the few games that I cannot pick straight. I don’t see FSU losing, but I can also see why Miami fans are confident. They return a team that is really talented, similar to FSU, but with a coach who has been more established.

Record: 6-0

Wake Forest

It’s Wake Forest. I love their sophomore wide receiver Greg Dortch who lit FSU up for 110 yards. He shows up in big games, but without a veteran QB to toss it to him, I believe they go back to being traditional Wake Forest. They’ll show up strong every 3-4 years, but don’t beat FSU this season.

Record: 7-0

Clemson

Being unbiased, I just don’t see it. With the talent Clemson has had on their side of the ball, I’m shocked this game has been this close the past few years.

Currently, Clemson has four defensive linemen with first round NFL Draft grades. That’s a tall task for any offensive line. Football is won in the trenches.

The only advantage I see for FSU is that Clemson has a tough time when playing against up-tempo offenses, like the Noles should have. If the Gulf Coast is clicking, FSU has a chance. If they win this game, everyone will be talking.

Record: 7-1

At N.C. State

I warned the FSU fan base last year about N.C. State and Bradley Chubb. Well, he’s no longer there, but I’m going to warn FSU fans about one of the best QB prospects in the nation, Ryan Finley. He can make the tough throws and that’s what defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett is going to make you do with his defense. He’s going to force you to throw the gamble pass.

The problem is, it’s high risk, high reward and a QB like this can burn you. Also returning is his favorite target and one of the leading receiver in the ACC, Kelvin Harmon. Coming off of a tough Clemson game, against a good rising coach in Dave Doerean at Raleigh, tough game.

Record: 7-2

At Notre Dame

Norte Dame is going to have that grass laid thick to try and slow the southern boys down. ND is one of those boom or bust teams. It recruits well, but just can’t seem to get it together.

Last year we thought the Irish had something until Miami shellacked them. I kind of see something similar.

Record: 8-2

Boston College

According to the NFL, this is the best team in the ACC with the most players having draft grades. Every year I tell people this is the toughest team on the schedule no matter if FSU blows them out or gets blown out like last season.

They have a different brand of football. The only flaw on this team is head coach Steve Addazio. He’s consistently inconsistent.

Record: 9-2

Florida

The only team to have had a rockier off-season than FSU. Last season was a debacle for the Gators. New coach Dan Mullen has injected new life, but without confidence in a quarterback, I don’t see this becoming the rivalry it once was.

Mullen will get the Gators back on track if fans and administrators give him time, but I don’t see that happening.

Record: 10-2

Had FSU had a focused head coach last season it would have won a minimum of nine games before the bowl. The six losses can be attributed to a lack of accountability and game management. Miami, Louisville and N.C. State were all close losses that probably go the other way if Jimbo Fisher wasn’t distracted.

Losing the team is what I blame the B.C. game on.

I believe this to be a 10-2 team, just missing out on the ACC Championship game, but playing in a New Year’s Six bowl game. This would be a huge win for Taggart in year one and would definitely set in motion momentum for the recruiting season and a return to top form in 2019.

The homer in me doesn’t see a game they can’t win although there are just too many shaky variables that must come into play for a playoff run to happen this fall. Everything depends on who is the QB and how some of these much-improved teams on their schedule play. No matter, only a hater would think this is a 7-6 ball club.

Article Originally Appeared on Gridiron Now: http://gridironnow.com/james-colemans-2nd-annual-no-cares-given-fsu-schedule-predictions/

Read additional information on: Sports Den Blog