#it's called team 0% and I've been watching it closely in the last week or so as it closes out

[dracolizardlars]

The poeticism of one of the final four remaining Mario Maker 1 levels that have not yet been completed by anyone except for their own maker being titled "The Last Dance".

[owtenen]

LIMITED LIFE EPISODE 1: The Basics

Where I put all the info we know about the mechanics, team-ups, base locations, etc into one location

(below cut is spoilers to LIMITED LIFE, which is series 4 of the life series. Pls don’t get mad if you read it and don’t want spoilers)

I. Participants

No ren :( I'm sad :(

Skizz is back :D

Nothing really big about this part, just that all of the soul pairs except Box Boys are here for potential refs and angst (there has already been a lot)

NOTE: I have only fully watched 6 out of the 14 possible POVs, so info regarding people I haven't watched might be limited to what the comments tell me when I make a mistake This info comes from watching these POVs and snippets of the other ones.

POVs I watched (in this order): Joel, Tango, Jimmy, Etho, Skizz, Cleo

POVs I skimmed (in this order): Martyn, Impulse, Scar

^ I will be consistently watching these POVs + Bdubs every week, however I'll probably watch others when I'm bored or if something big happens lol.

II. Teams/Alliances (from what I can gather from Episode 1)

EDIT: I originally said that Martyn and Scott were individual teams when that was wrong, it looks like they are teamed together and are called the Coral Kids. This change has been made below

Team T.I.E.S: Tango, Impulse, Etho, Skizz

Bad Boys: Grian, Jimmy, Joel

Coral Kids LBGSeas BadBouies : Martyn and Scott

Nosy Neighbors: Pearl and BigB ( + Froggy the Jellie cat)

Cwackers Cockers Clockers: Cleo, Scar, Bdubs

NOTE: Not all of these are NOW official names WAHOO

It seems like everyone is teaming with pretty much their usual crowd (ie, Jimmy/Joel/Grian , Cleo/Bdubs , Skizz/Imp/Tango/Etho) except for the notable exception of BigB and Pearl, which I don't think have teamed up together in a series before?

I could totally see Etho and Martyn teaming up after this episode, especially later in the season when TIES eventually break up.

III. Base Locations (based off of limited info from episode 1)

Team T.I.E.S seems to be basing on the edge of the main land mass underground. I can't tell if they have cows after Martyn's TNT but they have wheat and chickens, as well as sugarcane. NOTE: Etho seems to be basing close to but not WITH Tango, Impulse, and Skizz. Idk what this means but it's interesting to see what happens

Scott and Martyn are basing right next to TIES on a floating island in the ocean. I didn't watch their episodes but from Etho's it looks like they have both sugarcane and a zombie villager in a boat.

Bad Boys are basing .... *checks notes*.... on top of the woodland mansion .... made of wood .... wait? so Jimmy "our Ranch is burning down!" Solidarity and Joel "If the ship burns everything burns!" Smallishbeans are going to base on the top of the most flammable structure known to Minecraft? Okay cool.... this won't go horribly wro- oh and Cleo’s already burned the whole thing down great that lasted about 2 seconds

Cockers Clockers are based literally just at spawn. There entire thing is going to be building a stadium so they can laugh at people when they die.... I hate them (/lie)

Pearl and BigB are based between spawn and the woodland mansion on the edge of the stone cliff. I hope they slay and thrive there

IV. Mechanics

Okay so, there seems to be a lot more rules to this one than the other ones, so here's what I've gathered.

Everyone has a timer that counts down from 24 hours, this timer started when the series started

When the clock reaches 0 for the player, they are eliminated

There seems to be 2 ways to lose time: Being killed or dying. If you are killed by the boogeyman, it subtracts two hours from your time. If you are killed by natural gameplay (ie creeper, fall damage, etc.) you only lose 1 hour of time. (NOTE: it's not said how many hours are taken away if you're killed from non-boogeyman PVP, but I'm assuming it will still be 2 hours)

There is only 1 way to ADD time to your clock: kill players. When you are the boogeyman, you can kill whoever you want, and when you do you are given 30 minutes to your timer. EDIT: thanks to a comment I now have this info: If you are the boogeyman and you fail to kill a player within the 3 hours (that's how long they record for), you are dropped down to the next color life. For example, if you are a green name boogeyman and fail to kill, your time will go down to 16 hours and you will become yellow. This is the same for the yellow to red drop. (NOTE: Some ccs have said in their videos that it's + 1 hour, however Grian's intro says + 30 minutes which is what i'm going off of. Not sure if the + 30 minutes applies to non-boogeyman PVP kills, however I suspect it does)

Everyone starts as a green name, and the players turns yellow when they have less than 16 hours left on their timer. A player turns red when they have less than 8 hour on the clock

Most of the same rules apply to PVP as before: greens cannot kill anyone, yellow names can now kill green names even if they aren't provoked , and red names can kill everyone. Boogeyman kills can happen to anyone regardless of color. I suspect these rules will not be strictly followed like they have been for every season but yaknow we'll see.

V. Episode 1 Specifically

This series seems actually super cool! Here's some of the thoughts as a writer of traffic series fics and just a general enjoyer of episode 1. I like writing my opinions and these were written in real time while I was watching each POV.

🚧 NOTE: Some (like 4) of these points talk about shipping in fics.. I'll label the bullets with the caution tape emoji but I'd just recommend skipping this entire section if you get really pissed or triggered about it. Reminder that I do not ship real people, just the characters.

the Bad Boys are literally just that one (1) 100 hours hardcore episode.

Joel and Jimmy being idiots and dying is so funny, what a couple of idiots (I love them)

🚧 Boat Boys and Ranchers broke up to be with each others soulmates

it didn’t take even 20 minutes for Team Rancher and Boat Boys to break up. A real love loses moment.

I'm convinced Tango decides his friend groups based only on if there names make good acronyms. Like for sure he didn't invite Martyn to join TIES because it would have ruined the name.

Passive boogeyman Scott has left the chat. Man’s a beast.

^ Bdubs boogey first episode once again, this man can't escape the betrayer narrative

The mechanic has so much angst potential. I’m thinking a curse that slowly eats away at your body until you die. As the timer counts down, people will become more desperate to survive and that’s where alliances will fall. This season has probably the best potential for angst out of all of them, especially when people started running out of time.

just imagine with me: Tango and Etho are in a cave, Tango realizes he only has a minute left on his clock while Etho has maybe an hour and a half. Tango can't kill Etho cause it will just kill his friend immediately, so they both have to just... sit there while Tango's timer ticks by and he eventually gets eliminated by the mechanics of the game. HOW HORRIFYING IS THAT PEOPLE !!!!! I love it >:)

BEST? nah it’s team TIES now (rip Bdubs I guess)

Jimmy might escape the narrative just because of Skizz dying so much lol

I actually hate Grian for this. The fic that could be written about it is…. so much

okay but if Clockers dynamic this season is gonna be single mom with two annoying ass twins i’m all for it. I love them for this

🚧 ETHO TURNING DOWN THE ROLL OF DAD FOR BDUBS AND SCAR THANK GOD !!!! While I would love a Clethubs teamup, a nice straight happy family is not the way I wanted it to be done

Poor Skizz man. Dude was so excited to be back just to be killed twice by boogey and then die again by creeper death. Maybe HE can't escape the narrative

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of this series, and my opinion with probably change as more episodes come out, but I feel like it will be much easier to predict who will win this season than others because of the timer. like there is already a very strong likelihood that skizz will die first, just because if every kill only gives you 30 minutes, he would have to kill 10 people to even get back to normal, where as Bdubs and Scott have already killed 1 person and hasn’t died once, which means they are ahead. Basically, I think we’ll be able to see who will die first/not win very easily, which maybe will take away some of the suspense? I hope not, but that’s my thought rn.

🚧 we were SO CLOSE to a Martyn and Etho team up…. imagine the sus activity that could have happened here. I was so prepared to start writing Martho fics

SKIZZ'S COMPLIMENT TO ETHO WAS LITERALLY SO SWEET? Like it was 100% true and props to Etho for taking it like a champ. Etho really is the most likable guy in the Minecraft space, and he shines like a diamond in these kinds of thing with his friends. I'm glad Skizz took the time to recognize it and say it to his face. He deserves all the love.

🚧 if Bdubs is (maybe canonically) related to both his team members, there is little opportunities for sus mlm activity from him, and he will have to find bitches elsewhere, which might be difficult

TIES are four grown ass men and have three of the BEST redstoners minecraft has to offer and they still can't keep cows alive for more than like 5 minutes. What a bunch of losers

Okay now that I’m thinking about it, Etho might not be completely committed to TIES as it seems. I mean why would he make a base close BUT completely seperate from them? I sense some uh….. drama in the future mayhaps

I love Martyn's editing style it's great

VI. My Bingo Card (🚧)

Uh... so I did a bingo card before the series started and it's already got some good ticks off so here it is after episode 1

🚧 this bingo card contains some shipping/romance spaces, please plan your viewing accordingly

NOTE: I could have probably argued for a lot more of these, but it's no fun to check them all of in ep 1. Also, I didn't watch all the POVS (I think I watched 6/14) so there could have been some of these that happened in the other videos but I'm not watching all the POVS today so there's no point.

Wow sure glad I didn't put any Ren stuff in here (Fr I was originally gonna put a "Ren Win" space on here but thank god I didn't)

that skizz one better happen especially after today

play along if you wish! an unmarked one of these can be found if you stalk my Tumblr page far enough

VII. Conclusion

Um.... this was a really long post.... I'm sorry? I just wanted to make it because I had all this info in my head and it was spinning around in there and it needed to get it out. And maybe someone will find the first part useful! Who knows.

In real conclusion, Etho deserves the win. I don't care what you think should happen, this is what the universe wants. Yes, this is coming from an Ethogirl, and yes, I know I'm also the self proclaimed #1 smallishbeans enjoyer, but i just feel like Etho should be this seasons champ.

Even if I'm looking at it from a completely objective POV, Etho IS one of the top candidates for this specific mechanic/season. He barely dies in these games and he's generally good at boogeykills/PVP so I could see him losing very little time in terms of deaths but gaining a lot with kills. Also, no one really dares to kill him with the boogey (if we can take anything away from last life) so that too is a bonus.

[theuniversitychallengereview]

The Olympics of Quizzing

I don't know about you but I've watched a lot more kite-surfing and modern pentathlon in the past few weeks than I usually do.

I've watched less football, but I'm probably watching too much football normally if I'm being honest with you.

As The Olympics came to a close yesterday, to be replaced by another of life's sporting behemoths - University Challenge - it had me wondering what an Olympics of Quizzing would look like.

And I'm not talking about the World Quiz Championship, or whatever the highest level of normal quizzing is. I'm imagining an integrated quiz-sporting festival, which combines quizzing with all of the other regular sports.

Or a 10m platform diving competition where they ask you a question as you leap and you have to answer it as you come out of the water. Same with the vault in gymnastics.

Or a marathon with a question after every mile, sort of like that guy who drank 25 glasses of wine during the London race this year.

This would test the mind as well as the body, like chess boxing, but on a grander scale.

On second thoughts, maybe we should expand the scope and include things like chessboxing in this new festival of competition, because there are as many different ways of challenging the mind as there are of challenging the body.

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Mind-Body Dualism

The philosopher Rene Descartes is famous for his idea of mind-body-dualism, which states, from a summary on the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy:

"That the mind is indivisible because one cannot perceive one's mind as having any parts. On the other hand, the body is divisible because one cannot think of a body except as having parts. Hence, if mind and body had the same nature, it would be a nature both with and without parts. Yet such a thing is unintelligible: how could something both be separable into parts and yet not separable into parts? The answer is that it can’t, and so mind and body cannot be one and the same but two completely different natures.

This prompted a lot of scientific and religious discussion in the centuries which followed (and to throw my hat in the ring - just because one cannot conceive of the parts which make up a thing that surely does not prove that it does not have parts), and remains a question which interests modern philosophers.

So we have the Body-Olympics for things like running and shot put, and the Mind-Olympics for things like quizzing and scrabble.

Why not the Mind-Body Dualympics for things like Poker-Archery, Sudoku-Judo and the Cryptic-Crossword-Triple-Jump.

This is my official call out to the IOC - get on with it.

Queen's, Belfast vs Liverpool

But back to the matter at hand - the new series of University Challenge. Which could be combined with the Team Pursuit to make a new Dualympics event.

The first episode of this new series features Queen's, Belfast and Liverpool. Remarkably, Liverpool haven't been on since the 16/17 series, while Queen's University last appeared in 22/23.

Queen's won in 1981, but haven't made it past the quarter-finals in the BBC era, while Liverpool have made the semis on two occasions since 1995, losing to Trinity Hall, Cam in 2006 and St John's, Ox in 2016.

Here's your first starter for ten

Queen's get off to an incredible start, which I'll talk about before getting onto the troublesome subject of how to grammatically deal with the fact that their name has an apostrophe in it.

Thompson earns the honour of the first question with sample, and Queen's rattled off a perfect set of bonuses on musicians who were awarded posthumous Pulitzer prizes (for music, unsurprisingly) with Scott Joplin, Thelonious Monk and Aretha Franklin, who would have made quite the jazz trio.

Rankin takes the second starter with Cologne and another hat-trick followed. Carlisle made it three from three for Queen's, and they finally dropped a bonus, but lead by 70 points.

Onto more pressing matters.

How to use Queen's in a sentence?

The issue is that Queen's already has an apostrophe in it, so whenever I write Queen's like this I worry that people will read it as something belonging to a/the Queen. If this isn't an issue for you then you can skip onto the next section.

If it is an issue then you also have the option to skip ahead, but you'll miss out on some good rambling.

The easy (cowardly) solution would be to use their full name - Queen's University, Belfast - every time I mentioned them, to avoid confusion. But that is a long and unwieldy name, and despite the fact I've dedicated an entire section of this blog to a single apostrophe, I generally dislike the unwieldy.

And if I don't want to use the full name I have to use the shortened Queen's, but that then leaves me with a dangling possessive. A garden path possessive, I suppose, as it leads you to believe that there is a possessive where there is none.

But these are solutions which would work, even if they are a bit clunky.

The biggest problem arises when trying to denote that something actually does belong to Queen's. If, for example, I were to refer to the Queen's captain Rankin, or the Queen's mascot. Without further punctuation it would appear that I was talking about a captain or mascot belonging to the Queen.

And if I were to flip the apostrophe and say the Queens' captain, then I would be referring instead to a captain belonging to a group of Queens.

Leaving me no option but to always say the Queen's University captain, or the Queen's University mascot, which is mightily arduous. Though not, perhaps, as arduous as a 350 word section on the subject of a single apostrophe.

Any students of grammar please inform me of a more pleasing solution.

Liverpool fight back

Cartilage provides Liverpool, through Day, their first points of the evening. She is delighted and beams with a fist pump. Their resident chemist Sajit provides three correct answers on molecular structures, and Day is just as pleased by this as she was by her own starter.

But not for long

They returned to form with another hat-trick on the bonuses, before Liverpool captain Williams got his first starter with Dreamgirls, a film which would have surely proved too "low-brow" for a University Challenge question a few years ago.

Sajit takes the dubious honour of the series' first incorrect interruption, but Queen's can't pick up the points. McKillen then makes it a full house for the Northern Irish quartet with serotonin, earning them a bonus set on American sandwiches.

Rajan says that one of these sandwiches shares a name with a famous French novel, so they guess Les Miserable (it was Monte Cristo), which prompts great mirth from the audience. Seeing this, Rajan milks his own laughter a tad too long, giggling his way into the third bonus, which is on the Sloppy Joe.

Making up for her earlier mistake, Sajit gets Liverpool going again with Barcelona, and again Day cheers her teammate.

Would the Real Slim Shady please stand up?

Rankin takes the music starter within a few seconds, knowing not only that the song being played was Eminem's seminal masterpiece, but that it was released in the year 2000.

Rajan asks Rankin if he was born in 2000, which he wasn't. But that's hardly surprising, given that someone born in 2000 would now be 24! Or 23 at the time of filming. Some of this years contestants may have been born far later - perhaps even as late as 2005, which is quite disconcerting.

Boatswains

The subtitles on my rewatch alert me to both the fact that the word boatswain is pronounced bosun, and that the word bosun can be spelled boatswain. I might start referring to all of the UC contestants who aren't captains as boatswains from now on.

Consecutive starters from Liverpool skipper Williams and his boatswain Sajit keep them in it. Ashcroft tries to get in on the fun but his guess of bhaji is wrong and for the first time in the match Day looks like she's having a bad one.

Queen's boatswain Thompson picks up the pieces, and he also picks up the pieces from a Sajit error on the next starter too. The gap was back into the hundreds, and with only a few minutes left Liverpool were done for.

They made a late charge to try and bag a spot in the high-scoring loser play-offs, but their final score of 125 is not going to be enough. Queen's 240 - 125 Liverpool

A magnificent performance from Queen's, who sail into the second round. Liverpool will be kicking themselves for a few incorrect interruptions, which may have been what costs them a spot in the repechage.

After the gong, Rajan discusses Queen's mascot with them (Queen'ses mascot? Now you see the trouble I'm in. I could just say 'Queen's University's mascot, of course, but like I said earlier, that would be the cowards way out).

[di-diwata]

i have actually uploaded a few anonymous fics and you're right! somehow it's much more easy and freeing and you feel less nervous, even if just a little

i find it so funny that meep's your favorite minecraft pet because the blog i made for the outcasts smp content is called @meep-thesheep >:D

yeah i found out about the leaving thing from one of myles' videos on his second channel. he said something about season 2 being more focused around a close-knit group of friends rather than many people because it got overwhelming i think. so some members like razmoose and baconwaffles0 and (extremely unfortunately) astelina and tazoh aren't gonna be back :( there's a list on the official outcasts smp twitter account of the members who are staying if you want to know more

btw i checked astelina's community posts on her channel and she said she's now in a permanent smp so i'm excited to see how it goes :)

i've actually really been meaning to watch all of the echocraft videos! i've only really watched a handful. i'm currently watching lifesteal because i never finished it, but i'll definitely try binging echocraft next!! also i'm pretty sure the donkey one was echocraft! it was so fun and i loved detective myles

it's completely understandable that there's other stuff you're into at the moment, and you dont have to feel pressured to watch chief's outcasts videos. still, if you do get around to it i really hope you enjoy them!

HI! God, I'm so sorry about being late to respond to this message lol. I meant to respond to it as soon as you sent it, but then things happen, and now it's been about 2 weeks!

The anonymous feature on AO3 is a godsend. Your right about it helping with nerves, even if a little. I tend to upload fics i'm not the happiest with on anon and is great knowing that nobody can trace 'em back to me.

Meep! What a wonderful sheep.

Both Tazoh and Astelina D:? The world really must hate me lol. Jokes of course, I understand them wanting to make Outcasts more close-knit. Looking forward to seeing whatever happens in season 2, i'm sure it'll be just as great as the last. (I don't have the means of getting Twitter unfortunately, so i guess I'll just have to wait and see whose still playing)

I wonder what smp she's joining :0? either way, it's sure to be good. Looking forward to when she starts uploading.

Echocraft is awesome! If i'm being honest, I never totally watched it all the way through, mostly just clicked on whatever video popped up on my FYP. Detective Myles was such a funny bit.

Lifesteal! < I'm a big Lifesteal fan. Which season are you watching? I stopped watching sometime around season 4 but I do enjoy going back and rewatching season 2 + 3. What can I say? The Poggies and the MOB are some of my favourite teams, even if they come from season 2 lol!

Don't worry about, no pressure at all! I love Chief's content either way, so watching Outcasts from him will be a fun experience!

I've been meaning to write content for Oucasts for a while now, but ideas are lacking lol. At the moment I've just been brainstorming headcanons for the characters. Still, i've got the beginnings of a fic starting to form, so hopefully Outcasts should have one more fic by the end of the year :D (does Outcasts even have any fics? I can't remember if it does..)

You got any headcanons? No pressure to share if you do though, just interested in hearing what other people think :D

[teomuchtohandle]

Me, up at 5:30 AM instead of my usual 7:30 AM, eating half of pomegranate and waiting for my tea to cool down to an acceptable level of temperature: ~Self-Care~

Nah. I'm just having a Bad Time in general.

I've been off my anti-depressants for...I think two weeks? Time isn't real. Anyway, I felt really good off them originally. But now I'm learning to self-regulate my emotions again and that isn't fun.

And then there's the day I had yesterday.

"Oh no Drea! Tell us more!"

If you insist.

So it started with breakfast yesterday. Milk, Water, Sugar, Salt. Long ago the four elements lived in harmony- Anyway. They went into my pot on the stovetop for some Yummy Oatmeal, yeah? And then my brain just. Forgets it exists until I smell caramel.

My pot had overflowed and burned until it looked like A Literal Portal To Hell. So I cleaned that mess up. I had used the last of my milk to make it too, don't get more until my CSA box on Wednesday, so the oatmeal I made to replace it wasn't nearly as good.

So that was straw one. Next came my work. I'm mentoring a new person for the next two weeks. But!!! Someone messed up the schedules. My old schedule was 9:50 AM to 6:20 PM. I got switched to a supervisor schedule for October and November since I was helping that team, 8:30 AM to 5 PM. Guess which one they had on the mentoring sheet?

Yeah, that was partially on me. I should have double-checked it before The First Day. Anyway, I message people and let them know. They tell me they'll handle it. So I send a 3 paragraph long message to my mentee to let them know about the scheduling mistake and to let them know I'll keep them posted on what management wants us to do about it. I deal with customers all morning, not my favorite activity. 9:50 AM rolls around. It turns to 10. I never get a message back. I reach out to management again. Oh no! My mentee called in sick! I hope she's okay, I really do, but now I have to take calls all morning. I end up having 4 escalations (my grand total so far is 7). One was a man who was HEATED about me not being able to find his dishwasher. It wasn't even my company's dishwasher. It was a competitor. So that's fun.

So I get off work and decide to be a good bean and work on my school stuff. I was supposed to submit an essay on Sunday but, because we changed the times of the world (Daylight Savings ended or whatever), I ended up not doing the essay because I slept in and just wasn't having a good time.

I'm supposed to have 2 days after the due date, with -10 points being taken off every day I'm late. I accept that. I shouldn't get an A if it's late. Except for my professor, who I already didn't like, closed the essay portal at 10 AM and gave me a 0. ((I didn't like him because when I sent a 5 paragraph long email about my disability and how it would affect my school work he literally replied back with two sentences. Thanks for letting him know, and nice to meet me.))

So I now have a 25 in the class. A 5 week class, where getting even one 0 fucks you for the rest of the class.

I do my Wednesday homework and 2/3rds of my assigned reading. Note, while I can write okay, I'm Dyslexic As Shit when it comes to reading. I've got the zoom on 200% to try and read the text and, while that makes it easier, it does nothing for the words and letters using the paragraphs as their personal swimming pool. The point is, pretty sure I retained only 25% of what I was reading.

Now for the Fun Part. I have chocolate in my house for the first time in months. I Splurged and decided to get something nice. I've been mixing it with my oatmeal so that I reward myself for eating breakfast. It's for Breakfast Only, because I only have a little of it.

I decide, you know what? I've had a mad day. I deserve a treat. I'm going to make some chocolate and peanut butter oatmeal at 9:30 PM and stay up until 11 PM so I can watch a video on the Omegaverse Lawsuits. ((I loved learning about them, love the YouTuber, and had a good time. Warning if you're going to watch, there's a LOT of sexual stuff. Click on the link if you want to learn more.))

So, to recap before the ending, I burned the shit out of my breakfast, had to do what I hate the most about my job because my mentee didn't show, and Had A Problem with my professor.

Okay. So. I have two culinary degrees. I should be able to handle *oatmeal*. I get ready to make it. I turn my burner a little higher than normal so it'll cook faster.

And it catches fire.

Apparently, I did not clean off all of the caramel from yesterday morning's adventure and it caught fire. A little flame at first, so I try to blow it out like a Smart Woman, then it engulfed the whole burner and my eyebrows thank me for remembering to use salt to put out kitchen fires.

((Little things that didn't deserve their own paragraphs. My cats knocked down and snapped one of my favorite plants because they're monsters who steal as much joy as they give. I also didn't get to write for my NaNoWriMo prompts, take my walk, or do my workout because I chose to do my school work instead.)

So that was my day!

[mielikki-austin]

06252021

Who is ready for some football?  And by football I mean the sport I grew up calling soccer!  Well, Austin sure was.  Our inaugural home game was sold out, and I think the stadium was close to 100% capacity- not completely full, possibly because it was 95 degrees when the game started, but the stadium was build to be breezy and relatively cool. There was a lot of pomp and excitement, and the final score of 0-0 means, as has been pointed out, that Austin FC remains undefeated at home! 1.  Okay, this may not mean anything to you guys, but this was super cool... this guy in the middle is the weatherman for the NBC affiliate here in Austin.  He's been doing the weather here for thirty years, and I've been watching him on TV for pretty much the whole time.  So the NBC station had a tent along with a few other local businesses at the stadium entrance, and at long last, I got to meet the guy who I've technically spent more time with (at least virtually) than some of my friends.  He was nice!  On the other side is Joel, my Aggie companion with season tickets.

2.  So the game started with a lot of fuss, as previously stated, with local celebrities and fireworks and music.  Our team's colors are green and black and that was evident everywhere.  Players were introduced and I got a crash course into how soccer games go, which involves constantly running up and down this immense field.  These guys are quite athletic, because they don't stop the game for commercials or time-outs or injuries or anything, unless it's over 85 degrees (which is is in Austin pretty much from June through September except for maybe a couple of hours before sunrise) and then they get a *two minute* break in each 45 minute half to drink some water.  It's pretty impressive, actually.

3.  Here's the section we were in.  It was a standing section, though there were bars to lean on.  You can see some green smoke lingering, and green and black flags that they passed out and were constantly waved for the whole game.  There was a small band of mostly drummers who led the songs and chants- and song and chant sheets were made available to people who didn't know them.  There were like 15 or so of them!  Some were to the tunes of songs everyone knew, some were simple cheers, half were in Spanish, most mentioned Austin, or green and black, or the team cheer "Listos Verde" that I mentioned last week.  Folks were scattered through the crowd to lead the cheers and were coordinated in some way I could not determine- one of the ones near us was in a Mexican luchador mask and was VERY ENTHUSIASTIC for the whole game! Here's one of my favorite songs, sung to 'Yellow Submarine'.  It refers to the fact that the city council voted 7-4 to build the stadium: Seven-four, Seven-four It was the vote... That built our home. And now we live... Among the trees. Listo! Verde! Austin FC! Y’all means all for Austin here we go. Austin here we go, Austin here we go. (x2)

4.  The first tomato!!!!!!!   It's a roma tomato so it's not as spherical as some varieties, but this looks positively sexy.  We've only gotten two so far, and we ate them chopped up over ravioli in a sort of caprese sauce (tomato, mozzarella, basil, balsamic vinegar) and it was surprisingly sweet.  The plants are so big they're tipping over the cages, so we're going to shore them up and it looks like we might get as many as a half dozen more in the next few days.

5.  Crepe myrtle flowers - you may be aware that various people have given names to the different Full Moons throughout the year, like the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon and so on.  They are based on whatever is going on in nature or in the agricultural cycle, but often they're for areas that have very little similarities with Austin nature- so many years back I came up with names for Full Moons based on Austin nature. At this time of year, crepe myrtle trees are all blooming and in times of drought they might be the only flowers you see while everything else is crispy and brown, because they love the heat.  So the latest Full Moon that was this past Thursday is what I call the Crepe Myrtle Moon. This photo is of one of two white 20 foot tall crepe myrtles in front of our house, and it's dropping beautiful snowy petals all over our front yard. Until next week, then!

[torentialtribute]

PETER CROUCH: We are just footballers… not targets for abuse

Peter Crouch is a columnist for Sportsmail

The first time I truly appreciated that life as a professional footballer would be different came one night in a bar when I was playing for Portsmouth.

I was only 20 and was doing what all 20-year-olds like to do, having a few drinks and a good time.

I'll never forget this night, though, as someone came up behind me and punched me in the face. He ran after doing it and I never saw him again. I also never set foot in that particular bar again.

It was a painful lesson but I told the story of the Jordan Jordan incident experienced last Sunday.

I´m not here to condemn Jordan, a goalkeeper I greatly admire, as I know exactly how he would have felt after extreme provocation.

Jordan Pickford made headlines this week after getting involved in a pub brawl

When I played for Liverpool, Abbey and I booked a holiday to Ibiza at the end of one season and were going to take an EasyJet flight from Manchester. When we got to the gate, a few of our fellow passengers were already in the party mood and they started heckling me.

None of that bothered me – I'd heard everything they said a thousand times and more – but when the insults were aimed at Abbey, the situation changed. I knew if we had boarded that plane there would be problems so we made the decision to leave it. We flew from London the next day instead.

That's what I find so frustrating. Had I reacted in the way Jordan did, my name would have been in the media while those who had been antagonizing us would have got no mention. I understand why that is but how can it be right that those who cause the issues remain anonymous?

Critics have the idea that footballers do not want to mix with the public but, believe me, that isn't the case. We aren't different but the profile that comes with our professional means you're always going to be a target for someone, somewhere.

I remember during my time at Tottenham, I was at a bar in Surrey. I was walking to the toilets and I heard two lads, as clear as anything, say: "There’s Peter Crouch, let's go and have some trouble." I walked straight out the door and went home. I was speechless.

Pickford flew into a craze when his girlfriend and the mother of his child was insulted

Reading the above, you might think my life is difficult but, honestly, that's not the case. The good times far outweigh the bath and I am lucky that the majority of opposition fans tend to be good-natured when I meet them. I don't turn down photos or autographs and I'm never, ever rude.

There is this aspect, though, because we play football, some people believe they can treat us how they want or say what they want. They want us to be approachable but I've seen enough cases of the line being stepped about and what happened to Jordan was another example.

He knows, or course, that he made a mistake in reacting, even if it was only human nature. You have to learn – no matter how hard the situation – the best thing is to always walk away. But, as I said, there is something sad about it all.

Jordan Pickford only wanted to be in a place that he knew with his friends and family. It hasn't changed. His circumstances – effectively a job promotion with a move to Everton and becoming England's No 1 – have changed.

Why should he be a target?

Why should any footballer be a target?

It looks very much like we will have an English club in the Champions League final once again this season and I can't wait for this week's quarter-finals.

I've been invited to White Hart Lane to watch Tottenham's clash with Manchester City and that fixture always brings back special memories, given I score a goal against City in 2010 to put Spurs back in the Champions League

City are favorites, or course, but it would be unwise for them to underestimate Tottenham.

I've been invited to White Hart Lane to watch Tottenham's clash with Manchester City

I just feel the second leg being in Manchester will prove decisive and I'd expect them to be in the last four against Juventus, who should beat Ajax.

On the other side of the draw, I believe Barcelona will beat Manchester United and Liverpool will take care of Porto.

I think Liverpool are the most likely winners of the competition as Europe transforms that club. The affinity with this tournament just isn't there with Man City – I know, as my mum and half her family are City fans – but that's not the case with Liverpool.

They got close a year ago and I wouldn't be surprised if they go one step better now.

I have been won over by Watford's wow factor

The game I'm most fascinated by this weekend is the FA Cup semi-final between Watford and Wolves.

Regular readers will know how much I admire Nuno Espirito Santo's side and I knew after Stoke played them last July they would have had a good season.

I said as much in the predictions I made last summer but I couldn't gauge Watford.

They have been a hard club for people on the outside to have an affinity for, simply because of the high turnover of managers and players. They don't have household names and you don't see kids coming through.

But through this campaign, they've been superb and credit must be given where it is due. Javi Gracia has done a fantastic job and my mates who support Watford are pinching themselves at how things have gone. Nobody expected them to do so well.

For Watford to get to FA Cup final would be such a huge achievement but, equally, how good would it be for Wolves, in their first year back in the Premier League , to crown it with a trip to a Wembley final?

They were excellent once again when they beat Manchester United on Tuesday and have already won at Wembley this season.

It´s a difficult match to call but it will be a right contest as Wolves and Watford are the best teams outside the top six.

Watford have been superb this season and credit must be given where it is due

MY WEEK

WHO'S CAUGHT MY EYE: Virgil van Dijk

The way the hero Moussa Sissoko up and didn't let him pass to Heung-Min Son was a genuinely amazing piece of defense and the reason Liverpool were able to beat Tottenham last Sunday.

Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero have been outstanding but for me Van Dijk looks every inch the Player of the Year.

NEXT UP FOR ME …

The win we were talking about Wolves last week was massive and now we've got to make sure we maintain the momentum.

We go to Bournemouth on Saturday and while we respect them, we've got an opportunity in the next few weeks to get ourselves further away from trouble.

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO …

I've always been a big fan of Miles Kane (below) and I've had the Coup de Grace album on all week. It's been out since last summer but there are so many top tracks on there, such as Too Little Too Late. Love his stuff.

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO …

I had appendix surgery last week and that was the reason I was out of the squad for the win over Wolves.

I'm having rehab. The problem came as a surprise but the operation was a success and while any lay-out has its frustrations, I hope I can play again this season.

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