#this is getting posted later but as of now I have like. 170 wins

[seltzher-bottel]

Cosmo Kuiper My Beloved

[azrakaban]

A Little Longer - Mattheo Riddle X GN!Reader

A/N: OH MY GOODNESS ME. Sorry I've taken such a long break from writing, if I told you all the things that have happened in the past two months you honestly wouldn't believe me LMAO

Warnings: cursing, yelling, soft Mattheo I think? lmk if i missed anything xxx 

Note! I tried to make this as gender neutral as possible, if I've messed up anywhere, please feel free to correct me! But please do it nicely guys <3

The wind nipped at your face, chilly and biting as you wrapped your scarf tighter around your face. You forced your eyes to look into the swirling sky, where your poor boyfriend, Mattheo, sat frozen to his broom. 

Watching house Quidditch games was the highlight of every month for Hogwarts, but it made it supremely less enjoyable when the weather was unpleasant. And, as a particularly dark cloud decided to let fall a rainstorm, it became decidedly worse.

You craned your neck back to watch him above you, barely hearing whispers of what he was saying as he yelled instructions to his team members. 

Mattheo had been pushing the team hard all season - it being his first year as captain, he did not want to disappoint. You rememered the long suffering look Enzo gave you in the common room when Mattheo was dragging your friends out to train at 7am. 

As you watched, Astoria flew over your head, flanked by two Gryffindor chasers, who managed to throw her off, causing her to drop the Quaffle. She swore, sighing as they sped up towards the Slytherin goalpost before giving chase, but not quick enough to reclaim the Quaffle before another goal was put through the post, making the score 20 - 230 

You noticed Mattheo's expression darken further, and sighed. He would likely be in a bad mood later. 

Your eye was then caught by a sudden burst of movement on the other side of the pitch, where Potter and Draco were neck and neck in a dive for the Snitch. 

Draco raised his hand, victorious with the snitch clutched in his hand, yet the Gryffindor end exploded in cheers. With the score now at 170 - 230, Gryffindor had still won by a large margin. 

The Slytherins around you were all sighing and shaking their heads as they all made their  way out of the stadium. You had agreed to meet Mattheo at the Slytherin locker room, so you made your way there.

 As you approached the door though, you heard yelling. Pushing it slightly ajar, Blaise caught your eye and mimed cutting his head off quickly, clealy telling you to leave. You nodded, leaving swiftly and heading back to your empty dorm. 

About 45 minutes later, Mattheo turned up in your dorm, hair slightly damp from the shower, and, spotting you, promptly came over and lay his head in your lap. 

"Heya bubs." You smiled slightly, looking down at him. "Hey." He mumbled dejectedly.

"We lost." He groaned, messing up his curls. You lifted a hand and started gently playing with them. "Yeah, this time. But there are still going to be other games, you don't lose everything from this game, okay?" You replied soothingly. 

"But it was our first game, my first game as captain, and I blew it. I pushed them too hard, and I blew it." He sighed. "I wanted to win this for them, to prove that I could do this, be responsible, make it work. And it just..." He lifted a hand and let it drop onto your sheets. "I failed them, and it's not even their fault. I yelled at Draco for catching the snitch, even though that was the best thing to do..." 

"You didn't fail your team." You interrupted him. "Sure, you lost a game, Mattheo, but all captains lose games! It's part of playing, you make mistakes, and you learn from them. PLus, you guys were playing into the wind, the Gryffindors had the weather behind them. Now, if you wanna say that the weather is your fault, you're gonna start sounding a little self centered..." You giggled slightly, and an amused huff escaped Mattheo. 

"Yeah yeah, okay, I get it." The pressure lifted off your thighs as Mattheo moved to sit back against your pillows, opening his arms for you. "C'mere sweetheart, wanna hold you, please." He asked, giving you puppy eyes. 

You immediately caved and moved forward towards him, letting him cuddle you like a teddy bear. 

"Thank you."  He sighed after a few moments of holding you, drawing patterns on your back with a fingertip. "What for, silly?" You looked at him, confused. He chuckled slightly. 

"Grounding me, not thinking I'm a dick, just being an all round awesome person to date?" He shrugged. "For letting me rant about this shit." He squeezed you slightly. 

"No worries, idiot." You smiled, kissing his cheek. He gasped in mock horror. 

"Idiot? That's what you call your suffering boyfriend? WOW, okay, WOW, I see how it is." Mattheo mock glared at you, gently shoving you away. 

"Aw come on, don't be like that." You laughed slightly as he pulled you back into his arms. 

"I should go apologise for being a Class A dick to the team shouldn't I?" He sighed, looking at you. 

"Yeah, probably." You nodded, squeezing his hand. Hd pulled you a little closer. 

"Not yet though. Wanna keep holding you just a little longer..." He muttered, pulling you back into the nest of pillows with him.

A/N: Writing was shit, may delete later <3 Sorry for this miserable attempt at feeding u hungry people, love you all!

[theanticool]

Lately ive been seeing multiple top ten lists that squeeze in kamaru usman at number 9 or 10. Do you think this is a fair assessment or recency bias? I feel like having 2 of his title defenses against bum ass Masvidal kinda works against his legacy. Obviously usman is a much more complete well rounded fighter than izzy hut i think theres an argument to be made Izzy had a better level of competition. I wonder if one of Usmans victims (strickland) becoming mw champ is whats propelling him to top ten status since what seemed like a random win at the time is now aging extremely well

Yeah, sadly half of Usman’s titles wins (Colby 2, Masvidal 2, and Woodley) aged really poorly. TBF the Masvidal and Colby rematches were crap from the jump. Woodley went on to lose every round of MMA he fought after Usman and threw like 10 punches combined. I do think the first Masvidal and Colby wins (+Burns) are worth a lot but if we’re holding those up as Usman’s big career wins? How do they match up against the best wins of Fedor, Silva, GSP, Aldo, Holloway, Volk, DJ, Jones, DC, Lawler, Khabib, Alvarez, Poirier, TJ, Cruz, McGregor, Islam, Do Bronx, BJ, Edgar, Stipe, Whittaker, or Izzy (I’m leaving a lot of names out). I just don’t think the wins are there to be honest. I also don’t give Usman too much credit for his win over Strickland because this is the same guy who was losing to Zaleski dos Santos and Ponz at 170lbs. Good fighters but not on anyone’s top 30 greatest fighters in WW history. Sean’s best win at 170 is arguably Nordine Taleb.

The story of Usman’s title reign was one of rebirth and gridlock at welterweight imo. Lawler, Woodley, Condit, and Wonderboy were aging out. Hendricks ate his way out 170. Then you had guys like Usman and Colby coming up on the old guard (Maia, Woodley, RDA) while Masvidal just so happened to get hot at the right moment off beating a guy who had heat but wasn’t as good as we thought (Till) and a loudmouth meme generator with a nonfunctional hip (Askren).

But guys like Leon, Belal, and - to a lesser extent - Rakhmonov, Chimaev, etc were kind of left on the outside looking in. Once Colby and Masvidal established themselves as contenders and stars(?), they did not interact with anyone else again. For as good as they had been on the rise, I’d argue neither Colby or Masvidal ever solidified themselves in real Max Holloway/Robert Whittaker “I’m going to be at worst the #3 fighter in this division for a long time” way. And it’s still a thing we are dealing with years later. It took Leon and Belal like 10 fights with no losses to get a title fight. And Belal only just got his this year! That’s insane. He came up at the same time as Colby and Usman! With no immediate stars at 170, we’re probably back to guys getting to mix it up across the rankings so I’m happy the division is finally out of gridlock. The logjam seems to have passed.

Another knock against Usman is he hasn’t really had anything to show in his post-prime. When Aldo, Holloway, and Whittaker, for example, lost their titles? They proceeded to come back and just start picking off contenders. Taking big fight after big fight. To his credit, I thought Usman looked good in his fight with Chimaev for the circumstances he found himself in. I think he might still have some gas in the tank. A couple big name wins would really boost his resume.

But ultimately? ATG list are subjective. I don’t think the welterweight division has gotten significantly better since the days of GSP like some of these other divisions have, but that’s my opinion. I do think you’re correct about recency bias though. A lot of modern MMA fans don’t actually know anything about the sport pre-2019 though

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 50 Grand Final - Warwick vs Magdalene, Cam

In the world of sports a Grand Final is defined as ‘a game that decides a sport’s league’s premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series’. It is most commonly used in Australian sports and is synonymous with the championship game in North American Sports - e.g. the NBA Finals or the Superbowl. British rugby league adopted the term for its season ending affair in 1998.

The commonality between all of these examples is that the Grand Final comes at the end of a league tournament, after which some number of the highest ranking teams take part in a knockout tournament to determine the season champion. Even with its complicated quarter-final format, University Challenge is a knockout tournament from the start, with no semblance of a league at any point. There does exist the possibility that the finalists could have played each other prior to meeting in the final, as has happened this year with Warwick beating Magdalene 200-160 in the quarters, but that hasn’t always been the case. 

All of this is just to say that in the case of University Challenge, the use of ‘grand’ seems to be purely adjectival rather than providing supplemental information regarding the competition format as it does in these other cases. Not that I’m going to quibble with it, tonight’s final is undoubtedly going to be Grand.

For the second year in a row, after six consecutive appearances by various colleges, we have no Oxford team in the final. The two finalists certainly had something to say in that matter, with Warwick dispatching two Oxonian quartets - Wolfson and Merton - and Magdalene three - University, Corpus Christi and Balliol. Warwick won the whole thing in 2007, beating the reigning champions from Manchester, while Magdalene’s sole apperance in the Grand Final was a loss to Sidney Sussex back in 1978.

Warwick arrive in the Grand Final as slight favourites, courtesy of the unbeaten run that took them there, including their aforementioned defeat of tonight’s Cantabrigian opponents. Their average score of 201 is actually slightly lower than Magdalene’s 202, but they hadn’t looked troubled until their semi-final against Imperial. 

Magdalene have produced two of the most impressive performances of the series, beating Birkbeck 240-140 in the quarters and annihilating Balliol 270-50 in the semis, and (stats taken from @StatsUC on Twitter) rank first of all teams in bonus question percentage, correctly answering 128, or 71%, of the 170, they have faced thus far. Warwick have an inferior percentage of 59%, but rank higher on the starter question league table (Magdalene have averaged more of those too, though with a lower percentage, suggesting that Warwick have been involved in slower matches).

Another interesting statistic is that Magdalene Captain Lawson, with six, has twice as many incorrect interruptions as the entire Warwick team so far. He is Magdalene’s best buzzer, and will likely have to take some risks to overcome Warwick’s superiority in that respect. If these risks pay off, and he is able to steal a few starter questions early on, I think Magdalene will have a far bigger chance of taking home the trophy. The first set of questions pre-first picture round will be pivotal.

Whoever wins, or rather, has won, by the time you’re reading this, its been another terrific series of The Challenge. The fact that they weren’t able to get the filming done at the usual time because of Covid, and then had to come back in later to record most of the episodes with plastic screen dividers makes me even more grateful to have been able to watch the show this year. We all needed that slice of normality on a Monday night, and what could me more normal than watching a bunch of nerds answering questions about complex organic molecules or Byzantine emperors?

Anyway, that’s enough sappiness, here’s your first starter for ten...

Warwick’s Burrell is the only one who has put any effort into their Grand Final attire, and is rocking an awesome floral shirt. Lawson comes in early with love, but he is wrong, and my flowery boy Burrell scoops up the points with hell. Only one bonus follows, but they are twenty points clear courtesy of Lawson’s neg. 

Braid takes the second starter, and Rout remembers Burrell’s surname (which he had failed to do in the closing moments of their semi-final) to nominate him on two of the bonuses, of which they take three. The funky shirt must be providing Mr Burrell with some extra knowledge on top of the chilled out vibes, because he takes his second of the night. 

Magdalene manage to get off the mark with the first picture starter, and a full set on grid references takes them up to twenty points. No one gets a starter on cavitation, before Burrell grabs his third starter! He’d averaged 1.4 in their previous five games! 

There’s a second starter for Braid, before Rout wonders aloud whether ‘this is another example of us not knowing the popular culture’, in relation to a bonus set on vampire films. They miss Only Lovers Left Alive and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, but get Let The Right One In, so they’re not entirely ignorant. 

Davies snaffles some more points for Magdalene, and then both sides miss the music starter, before Davies takes another to win the music bonuses for Cambridge. They are only forty points behind now. Davies completes a hat-trick of consecutive starters with Fox and Hedgehog, based on a clue about Jemima Puddleduck. We’re down to twenty points...

Braid gets his third starter, before an excellent bit of flagwork from Byrne allows Magdalene to close to within ten points. A neg halts their momentum and Rout swoops in to drag Warwick forty clear again. Magdalene can’t afford any more slip ups, but Lawson isn’t able to identify a Titian painting on the second picture starter, allowing Braid in to steal. A couple of bonuses put Warwick sixty ahead, and one feels as though Magdalene may have missed their opportunity. 

In what could possibly be the most unfortunate incorrect interruption of all time, given the state of play in the match in which it occurred, Davies buzzes in with Bannerman Campbell rather than Campbell Bannerman, losing five points instead of gaining ten, and surely confirming Warwick as champions. It seems harsh, but in the end he was wrong, and he looks devastated.

Lawson buzzes frantically on the last starter of the year, and gets it right with a defiant shout of glucagon, but the gong sounds immediately afterwards, and Warwick have won.

Final Score: Warwick 195 - 140 Magdalene, Cam

Another fantastic match to end the series! Congratulations to Warwick on a flawless campaign, and commiserations to Magdalene, who were brilliant throughout as well. Like I said before, this has been another excellent series of UC, and has helped to keep me sane throughout the year. Roll on the next series...

The gap between the sides was 55 points, but this can be almost entirely attributed to the Campbell Bannerman Bannerman Campbell mixup. Warwick gained 20 points and Mags lost five. Had Davies got the names the right way round, and then the same two bonuses as Warwick the points swing would have been forty five. Not quite enough to turn the tide, but it would have been mighty close.

Thanks for reading this blog over the whole series. It means a lot that people continue to consume and engage with the silly ramblings I post, and I look forward to coming back for the new series, whenever that happens. 

In the meantime, if you enjoy what you read here and want to support the blog, or more importantly can’t wait a few months for some more UC content, I have a Patreon where I’ve been reviewing the 2015/16 series. You can sign up here, for as little as £1/month. 

[snkpolls]

SnK Episode 71 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 176 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

--

RATE THE EPISODE 172 responses

This week’s episode keeps up the high mark of the previous episodes, with 98.8% of respondents giving the episode a score of 3 or higher (overwhelmingly 4s and 5s). Nice!

It was aight. 

It's cool

8.5/10 

great!

Very rocky imo in terms of animation, as the cracks are beginning to show but overall look like the backgrounds and music choices were top tier.

Really good episode, I was disappointed in the jacket scene but it’s not the end of the world

loved it

It was overall a great episode I loved it. 

🔥🔥🔥

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 174 responses

46.6% of respondents overall were most excited to see Eren meeting up with Floch and the others, with 23.6% of those respondents favoring the scene of Eren putting on his jacket specifically. 12.1% most enjoyed seeing the angry citizens shouting out the Survey Corps motto. 9.8% were thrilled to see Zackley’s death animated. 8% were psyched to see Pieck in disguise at the end, and 6.9% most enjoyed the moment where Hitch caught Armin red-handed trying to touch Annie’s crystal.

YOUR REACTION TO EREN PUTTING ON HIS JACKET? 171 responses

Eren putting on his jacket was a scene many obsessed over when it first appeared on page and many looked forward to seeing it animated. Most of the response choices were focused on various forms of swooning over Eren and his abs. Some (13.5%) stated that they didn’t really understand the dramatism and some others (another 13.5%) simply stated that they did not see much in Eren outright. We’ve gotten a lot of write-ins about comparisons to the pre-animated trailer shot of said scene. More on that in a later question. 

i mean i understand the thirst, but eh

Prefer manga :/

The trailer did it better 

Meh. Better in the trailer and the manga.

TF was that? Well it's still good in its own way. 

YES! YES! YES! YES! Y E S! 

both "HOOOOOLYYYYYY 😳" and "so dramatic and for what?"

Trailer/Manga shot was way better

Manga shot/trailer version are way better. Dissapointed

Trailer looked better :(

Mappa only made Reiner thicc, why Eren is so frain he has 1,85! He is so strong in the manga

I don't care

Manbun.........👀

He can have my babies anytime 😌💅🏻

Not as sexy as advertised; that’s okay, though.

That scene looked weird af ngl. It looked better in the trailer 😔

Me after THAT eren scene: 🤰🏻🤰🏻🤰🏻

Eren makes my dick rise

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW HAPPY ARE YOU NOW THAT WE APPEAR TO BE GOING BACK TO LEVI AND ZEKE’S PERSPECTIVE NEXT WEEK FOR A BIT? 171 responses

Levi and Zeke’s chemistry has been the subject of praise for many, so it’s no wonder that 87.1% of respondents are rather excited to get back to seeing Levi and Zeke again. Wow!

ARE ARMIN’S FEELINGS FOR ANNIE GENUINELY HIS OWN? 173 responses

Armin’s feelings for Annie have been looked at under a microscope for a variety of reasons, which is why we’re asking if you believe that his feelings for her are genuine. A plurality, 49.1% think that they’re a mixture of his feelings for her, as well Bertolt’s. Slightly less (30.6%) believe that Armin’s feelings for her existed since before any of the recent developments. Only a select few believe that he either became interested in her post-timeskip or that his feelings are solely influenced by Bertolt. One person doesn’t think Armin has any feelings for Annie at all. And a few others just don’t care.

Bertmin simping for Annie and that apparently being enough for her to start considering him as boyfriend material is the fucking worst. I hate this shit. It's made me like both characters considerably less.

Uhh Armin where ya reaching?! 

He was interested with her even before it was revealed she was the Female Titan and now that he has Bertholdt's memories, he sympathizes with her too and wants to understand her more so maybe Bert's memories intensified his feelings

His feelings for Annie are mostly his own. Bert's feelings might be in there a little, but the feelings are still Armin's.

CONTINUITY ALERT! EREN HAS HIS HAIR UP IN A BUN IN YELENA’S FLASHBACK. THOUGHTS? 173 responses

Uh-oh, Eren’s hairstyle moment. It would appear that there might be a continuity error with Yelena’s flashback and whatever that means for the timeline. A slight plurality (37%) didn’t seem to care about this, actually. But 33.5% appeared to believe that it was a mistake on MAPPA’s part that might get fixed in the BluRay version of the episode. 16.8% also believe that it was a mistake, but don’t believe it’ll get fixed. 9.8% think that it’s actually a retcon and that Eren’ll have the man bun when Chapter 123 gets adapted in Final Season Part 2.  

I hope it gets fixed because it's bugging me.

I really wish it was like how it was in the manga. Eren looks good with his hair down in his 16-17-year-old phase. Despite the error, it wasn't a deal breaker for the episode.

He looks totally gorgeous with his hair up in a bun, please let this mistake be

Honestly I don’t mind it. It looks great either way.

Eren in a manbun is a total win for me!

WHICH PIECES OF INFORMATION MISSING FROM YELENA’S ADMISSION IN THE MANGA DO YOU WISH WOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE ADAPTATION? 163 responses

As with almost all dialogue-heavy chapters in this series, there are cuts. In this episode, these cuts mostly affected the conversation between Yelena and Pixis. The most yearned for cut material was Yelena never telling Eren to go along with the plan and Yelena saying that she used Floch as a “go-between” between her and Eren. Others also noted missing lines about Yelena wanting Eren to stand up for himself, Yelena stating that Zeke gave the volunteers a hopeful future and the idea that her and Eren came to quick agreement. The plurality (31.9%) however, didn’t seem to mind any cuts. 

WHAT ARE YOU OVERALL FEELINGS ABOUT SOME OR ALL OF THE AFOREMENTIONED DETAILS BEING CUT? 161 responses

There is often a sort of expectation to have everything (or almost every) line from the manga adapted in the anime, so it’s interesting to see how people react to that sort of stuff. An almost 50% of respondents stated that they didn’t really care about the cuts, whereas smaller handfuls of respondents stated that the cuts either took away from the characterization of the conversation, or from the context and timeline-building purposes. 

I'm not thrilled about the cuts, but I understand MAPPA can only fit so much in on each episode, so I'm okay with it

the yelena/volunteers plot has always been wonky and hard to follow

I don’t think it’s a problem, they need to cut certain things. 

i literally never notice but i agree that it makes it harder to piece things together 

Meh

It might seem for anime watchers that Yelena didnt do much, and Floch and Zeke that did the most part, in their own plans. Floch to betray and Zeke in predicting Eren wouldnt be on his side in some way. Yelena helped Zeke a lot to where he arrived in the rumbling 

All of the above

ZACKLEY WALKS OVER TO HIS TORTURE MACHINE IN THE ANIME BEFORE MIKASA ASKS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO EREN, RATHER THAN GLANCE OVER AT IT AFTER HER QUESTION. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CHANGE? 170 responses

There was a partially comedic insinuation in the manga that Zackley thought about strapping Eren to his “art piece”. The insinuation is possibly still there in the anime, but in a different form. So we asked how you felt about it. Slightly below a half (48.8%) stated that they thought the subtlety was still there. 18.8% thought the subtlety was lost with the small change and 8.8% believed the change made Zackley seem less unhinged. 21.8% really didn’t care at all. 

Why is this a question?

The glance was funny as fuck in the manga, but might have been awkward to pull of in the animation

They're blown up tho, does it even matter?

DID EREN KNOW ABOUT THE BOMB? 170 responses

Whether Eren truly knew about the bomb is a bit unclear to this day and with how it endangered Armin and Mikasa. A plurality (40%) believe he knew about the bomb, but did not know about his childhood friends meeting Zackley. Slightly less (30.6%) think that Eren did not know about either the bomb or AM meeting the Artist. A minority (7.1%) does believe that Eren knew about both the bomb and meeting and 21.8% simply aren’t sure!

Even if he didn’t know, he obviously doesn’t care either way.

THERE IS SOME DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER EREN’S JACKET SCENE WAS BETTER ANIMATED IN THE PROMOTIONAL VIDEO OR IN THE EPISODE ITSELF. WHICH DO YOU CHOOSE? 170 responses

Here we go… The elephant in the room… Which Eren abs scene did you prefer? The Promotional video or the actual episode? A somewhat slight majority (57.1%) seemed to like the version seen in the promotional video more than the episode itself versus the ones who preferred the episode’s style (42.9%).

THE EPISODE MARKS THE BEGINNING OF FLOCH’S ACTIONS AS THE VOICE OF THE YEAGERISTS. HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT IT? 170 responses

Floch has always been a controversial character and the developments seen post-time skip have not been any less debatable. You may floching love him or floching hate, but he’s here and he’s staying for a while. A plurality (48.8%) notes that although they may not personally be a fan of the character, they truly do appreciate the nuance his appearance gives to the story. Just over a quarter (25.3%) stated that as big fans of the character, they’re looking forward to all the screentime the Flochster will receive. In contrast, 20.6% despise the man and his questionable haircut and are also dreading the showcase he’ll soon receive.  

I hate Floch and will cheer again when he dies, but I enjoy his character.

I detest Floch but I'm not dreading all the screen time he'll take up.

Since he died in the manga, my hatred for him has cooled down somewhat now that I'm watching the anime.

I am once again asking for you to shut the fuck up, Floch.

WE KNOW NOW THAT EREN DID CONSPIRE WITH FLOCH TO BETRAY ZEKE TO ENACT THE RUMBLING. STILL, DO YOU BELIEVE HE DID IT BECAUSE HE HAS THE SAME BELIEFS AS FLOCH, OR WAS HE JUST USING FLOCH AND THE YEAGERISTS AS A MEANS TO AN END? 161 responses

An overwhelming amount of respondents (87.6%) stated that they believe Eren never truly saw eye to eye with Floch and his ideology and that Eren was simply using Floch as a means to an end. In contrast, 9.3% truly do think that Eren was ideologically similar to Floch and the “New Eldian Empire”. A select few thought you couldn’t just say one way or another. 

They both wanted to protect Paradis

DO YOU THINK IF THE YEAGERISTS, BESIDES FLOCH, KNEW ABOUT THE FULL SCALE RUMBLING BEFOREHAND THAT THEY WOULD WILLINGLY FOLLOW EREN? 167 responses

The majority (53.3%) feel that the Yeagerists would see a divide if they knew beforehand that Eren wanted to initiate the rumbling, with some sticking around for the cause and others possibly leaving because it’s too extreme. 25.1% believe that they all would have fully supported the rumbling in the name of their own survival. 15% believe that every Yeagerist already knew about the plan to commence the rumbling, and only 6% feel that they would most certainly have betrayed the Yeager brothers (and Floch) if they had known. 

I don’t know, this is a loaded question and I’m tired.

DO YOU THINK THAT, IF THE STORY ENDS PEACEFULLY, MIKASA WILL HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN HIZURU? 170 responses

While this plotline may not be going anywhere in the manga (or so it seems), the reminder of its existence is brought to light again as we revisit these older moments from the manga. 32.4% feel that Mikasa wouldn’t leave Paradis behind to start a life on Hizuru. 23.5% think that she wouldn’t leave Paradis behind, necessarily, but will still have a role to play in Hizuru. 21.2% think it doesn’t matter because Isayama has completely discarded (or forgotten) about this plotline. 12.4% don’t know what to predict (if anything) and only 8.2% believe that her future lies in Hizuru beyond the main storyline.

The last two options plus me not caring. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

hizuru is already rumbled, gone, but she will continue the azumabito clan in paradis

Is no one else gonna question Kiyomi's hair being sucked into her skull??? HELLO MA'AM???

Hizuru is likely flattened

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 171 responses

Episode 72 has already broadcasted as of the completion of this poll. For scenes that were most anticipated, 35.7% were most looking forward to seeing Levi and Zeke’s interaction in the forest. 33.3% most looked forward to Niccolo leaning straight from Gabi’s mouth that she is Sasha’s killer. 18.7% highly anticipated the Blouses learning about Gabi killing Sasha, and 9.4% were looking forward to Gabi/Falco and the Blouses gathering at Niccolo’s restaurant. Only a small amount were looking forward to Niccolo protecting Jean and Connie from drinking the wine.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

Man the animation was gonky 

no levi </3

So many faces of Niles are weirds !

Let hange aloneeeeeeee and happy, please

I have no word for this, but I feeling good

Shit is getting really real now! 

Everyone talking about Eren’s abs and I just wanna say the music in that scene was amazing!

I loved how it was all neatly put together and fast moving

Armin looked so good. Homie walked from point A to B and i SCREAMED. Thank you. 

i wish they included eren's warhammer escape from the prison, besides that solid episode all around, the people chanting 'dedicate your hearts' gave me chills 

I can't stand Hitch at all but MAPPA made her really pretty. Re: The jacket scene The trailer version was pretty much identical to the manga panel. But I liked the version that made it into the final episode too. People have been so ridiculous about MAPPA ""ruining everything"" this season, they should stop watching if that's how they feel. I thought Eren looked great and found the sun shining on his abs funny. The scenery was better in the episode, imo. I hope they don't cut Jean's line about booze not caring about what race you are. Lmao

Meh. It's not bad of course, I just find the rythm weird and I don't really feel many emotions watching the episodes. And I was so thirsty for the jacket scene, and it turned out weird too.

Mappa pls stop drawing eren like shit he is gorgeous in the manga

MMGH SOON!! LET'S GOOOOOOO

You friccin moron, you just got zooked!

i miss eremin </3

Wish they had shown how eren used his titan powers to escape.

I'm so not looking forward to the controversy that's gonna be reignited during the EMA talk scene. I'm actually dreading it, but we'll finally get the Levi vs Beast Titan scene so I'll be fine

112 will destroy ships 

I felt the animation was flawless as usual but the script was kinda boring, I expected more of these aspects: -Yelena, it was bland with the cuts -Hange, they cut something I cant figure what in this Yeagerists coup act that turned her scenes a little bit lacking? Idk something -Again the soundtrack in the episodes is so silent. The only episode so far I liked the ost beyond the Opening and Closing themes is Reiner episode. I miss the melodrama of Witstudio osts

Eren putting his jacket on in slow-speed whilst talking at regular speed is fucking trippy

Just happy to see Hitch!

It was slow and mainly plot driven. I enjoyed it despite the changes.

goddamn is that a hella well-animated explosion

more abs please

Great episode. Really ridiculous how many people overreacted about the jacket scene. It's ok to perfer the way the trailer did it but to those who say Mappa is ruining the adaptation because of minor things like this, calm down. 

I wish the jacket scene was better But over all the ep is pretty good

Boring, but then again so was this phase in the manga.

I really like the VA they chose for Onyankopon! His voice is very warm and genuine, which suits his character well

The sunset was so aesthetically pleasing 

yoooo just read ch. 138 and im crying in da club :(

These MAPPA episodes have been a low point for me. I’m trying to enjoy them because I love this story but it feels like a chore.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 161 responses

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

[garageprojectmotorcycles]

Royal Enfield Continental GT650 review / ride report.

When was the last time you read a bad bike review in a magazine or online? Was it the debacle that was the Bimota V Due? Even Braap’s are given a positive spin by reviewers even though they had 5 product recalls in less than a year. So many motorcycle reviews these day are either a reworded press release or a well written advertisement. Now I reckon there are two reasons for that; the sceptic in me says if the magazines don’t write a positive review, then the advertising dollars stop flowing. There are plenty of examples of that car companies having a dummy spit when they don’t win car of the year so it no doubt happens in the motorcycle world too. The other reason is that it’s 2019, motorcycles have been manufactured for a long time, manufacturers have got the basics down pat. This is were Royal Enfield excels, the basics.

I wasn’t planning on writing a review but my bike was getting serviced and it wasn’t going to be ready in time for the Perth Café Racer Run to the Hills ride, so I needed a suitable replacement. As my review of the Benelli Leoncino got an amazing 36 likes (amazing because that’s 34 more than I thought it would get once Ric and I liked it) and a couple of sales, I thought Ric might be open to the idea of handing me the keys to something else. Scanning the showroom floor at MotoMax, a Ducati Sport Classic, Triumph Thruxton, Rickman Honda and a cluster of classics caught my eye. Ric handed me the keys to a mildly customised Continental GT650. Ah well, beggars can’t be choosers.

We both had conditions, Ric’s was simple “Bring it back with a full tank you tight arse bastard and if you drop it, you bu….”. I’m not sure what he said as Peter was saying “look, look” while pointing at a lady across the road who was jogging past. It was far more interesting watching the world go up and down. My condition was the same as always, I wasn’t going to write a positive review just because I got a bike for the weekend. If the bike is shit, then I’ll say so but you don’t have to post the review.  So here it is….hang on…before we get to the review, lets get some background.  

Royal Enfield sold 32,000 motorcycles in 2017 and not many of those were sold outside of India. They now sometimes sell double that in one month with their top selling model the Classic 350 outselling all their other models combined. It sometimes cracks the monthly top 10 list of number of bikes sold in India. Royal Enfield sells more Classic 350’s in one month than all the road bikes sold in Australia from all brands in one year. Unfathomable figures when you consider the company was at the brink of bankruptcy in 1991.

When Sid Lal’s dad bought the company, nothing really changed until 2010 when the Indian Tech economy boomed and hipsters finally had some disposable cash. Sales picked up and then skyrocketed the company to the fastest growing motorcycle manufacturer in the world. The success of the brand in recent times is partly because they upgraded (think EFI, ABS etc) their Bullet/Classic line to make it relevant while keeping the looks of the old motorcycle. Boomers started realising their bucket lists were getting longer and they were running out of time to cross stuff off. Learners around the world are often restricted to motorcycles that take more time to get to 100km/h than it does for a politician to answer question in parliament and Royal Enfields are perfect for that market.

The increase in sales meant Sid (the CEO at the time) had cash burning a hole in his pocket so off he went to the UK and bought Harris Performance which I remember reading about in the UK magazines for making custom frames for GP bikes. They’ve developed the chassis for all the new models including the Continental GT Café Racer, the Himalayan adventure bike and the recent 650 twins. The Café Racer handled as good as it looked but it didn’t get many hearts racing and only sold in low numbers, hence it was discontinued after a couple of years. The Himalayan has been known to get a few hearts racing which has more to do with them being ridden where they are named after. A devoted fan base will see the Himalayan continue to be developed for many years. The real game changer for Royal Enfield though, are the two 650 twins, the Interceptor and the Continental GT 650. Royal Enfield are exporting more than they are selling domestically and dealers in Oz are selling far more twins than they are of the 350cc and 500cc singles.

I’m not a brand snob so will any bike I can get the keys to. My list of motorcycle brands I’d like to put my bum on is topped, like most peoples, by the Italian exotics such as Bimota, MV Agusta etc. For me, Royal Enfield sits a long way down that list; I’m no fan boy who gets excited when a manufacturer changes the colour and releases it as a 2020 model. I lived in the world of sportsbikes and track days so Royal Enfields never registered on my radar; I always felt they were a little weird looking. Sort of like a girlfriend I had  in the 90’s that looked like a cockeyed Nicole Kidman without the Botox. Like my girlfriend, if you ride a Royal Enfield a few times you start appreciate the attraction and you end up falling in love. Since my first Himalayan motorcycle adventure in 2013, I have ridden all of the Royal Enfield models in Australia and in the harshest of conditions that the Himalayas can throw at you and while I still wouldn’t consider myself a fan boy, I would say I was an advocaat. Damn, it’s 11pm and I’m out of beer and wishing I had a liqueur cabinet. Is there an Uber drinks?   

The Conti I got had a few subtle changes made to it. The tank hand been replaced with the rounder tank from an interceptor, bar end mirrors had been fitted and the bike had been encouraged to find its voice with some aftermarket reverse cones mufflers fitted. The bar end mirrors worked perfectly, completely vibration free all through the rev range however the bike was a little quiet for my liking. You could certainly hear it under throttle and it let out pleasing pops and crackles on a decline but I’d like a deeper, louder sound. More Tom Jones than George Michael. If you’ve got standard pipes on your bike and you’re bored with it and possibly considering a change of bike, put an aftermarket set of pipes on and you’ll fall in love again. The Interceptor tank looked great on the Conti and helped take my eyes off what I consider to be the ugliest seat in the market. For some reason, Royal Enfield in Australia decided that the dual seat would be standard and the solo seat with a cowling that is used for the promo pics, and is standard in most of the 50 other countries that it is sold in would be option for Australia. I know looks are subjective but the transformation that the single seat makes on this bike is amazing and I wonder why more people aren’t swapping them over when it is such a cheap option. Maybe it’s just me. 

I am trying to squeeze myself into my daughters Katy Perry T-Shirt when Andy arrives early on his Ducati Sport Classic. With no time for Small Talk, it was time to Roar into Leederville to meet the others. We took the back roads before getting onto the freeway and this is the Conti’s playground. With narrow 100/18’s on the front and 130/18’s on the back, the bike flicks left and right really quickly. On familiar roads, I found myself turning in too quickly and having to readjust my line which the bike did without drama. Later on in the day when the speeds picked up a little and the mercury wanted to blow its load, the front end felt squirmish when going over the bitumen that is poured into the cracks of the road. No one else felt it so again, maybe it was just me.

Our group heading to the start point of the ride consisted of a Sport Classic with Zard pipes, a Thruxton with Staintunes, a V7 Guzzi with Lanfranconis, a Honda CB1100 with an aftermarket 4 into 1 and a W650 with open pipes. It was amazing listening to all the different sounds as we lined up at the Christmas trees, sometimes known as traffic lights by boring people. The Sport Classic consistently got the jump on the rest of at the lights but the rest of us all had a turn at coming second without any clear next fastest. The Conti is styled as a Café Racer of old but it is no race bike with ligths like they were in the old days. Sid Lal himself says “…we (Royal Enfield motorcycles) aren’t going much faster than 100 miles an hour. If someone wants a quicker motorbike, go elsewhere.” During the week, the media reported that a car was hooning through the tunnel at the outrageous speed of 140km/h. The bar had been set low so there was simply no need to crack the ton in the tunnel. Absolutely no need. By my calcs, I reckon 170+ is possible but as I never break the speed limits I’ll never find out.

Riding along the Tonkin, I rolled the throttle on and off, looking for flat spots but couldn’t find any, it just smoothly accelerates all the way to the redline in a very linear fashion. The 5 speed box has perfectly spaced gear ratios and I rarely looked for a 6th like I constantly do on my W650. We joined the rest of the riders and took off along the escarpment as the pace crept up through the hills. The bike was in its element, enjoying being thrown around and asking for more. I worked my way to the front of the pack and when there was a break in the traffic I gave it what it wanted and took off. On these sort of roads, I neither needed or wanted anymore power, I just enjoyed rolling the throttle on and rolling it off coming into a corner, letting the engine compression slow me down with only a slight dab on the rear brake when needed. The Pirelli Phantoms had more than enough grip and never troubled the ABS system. I considered putting the Phantoms on my bike but baulked at the price so Royal Enfield aren’t skimping on quality to ensure they stay at the $9990 price point.

After a cool down and a group photo, we headed to lunch at Parkerville and to pay our respects to Kevin the kookaburra who had his head ripped off recently by a complete and utter wanker. As we hit the road again, I found my right hand feeling a bit tingly which is a little unusual. My bike has thicker grips so maybe the thinner grips on the Conti passed on the vibes or maybe I’m just old and the years of abuse I’ve given my right hand is coming back to bite me. The suspension soaked up the bumpy roads but my bum was starting to feel a bit numb. The seat looks flat but is actually slightly rounded which was giving me numb bum…which would have come in handy when it also got years of abuse in a previous life. These are the only two faults with the Conti GT that I could find, both of which wouldn’t stop me buying one as I’d change the hideous seat and put thicker grips on anyway. Everything else was perfect; the horn is louder than my cars, the clocks are easy to read, clutch and brake lever action is effortless, the gearbox is ridiculously smooth, riding position is spot on.

At under 10k, the only bike that is comparable to the Conti is its stablemate the Interceptor. The visually challenged Harley 750 is being run out a similar price, Suzuki threw a bikini fairing on its SV650 and called it café racer and is watching them gather dust on the showroom. The Benelli Leoncino and the oddly styled Husqvarna Svartpilen are similar prices but I doubt the circles in the Venn diagram of people interested in these three bikes would overlap.

For $13,000, the W800 from Kawasaki is another option but I’d rather have the Conti and spend the difference on customising it. The only other option is to buy a Triumph Street Twin at $16,000 and then throw some money at it to make it a café racer. Buying a bike that 100’s of other people have got and keeping it standard, doesn’t make any sense to me. If I had Triumph money to spend and the option was to have stock a Street Twin or a one of a kind Continental GT with a big bore kit, killer paint job, custom seat and a custom exhaust then it’s a no brainer. I’m in the minority though as most riders are happy with buying a good looking bike and leaving it alone. The Continental GT can be enjoyed as is but also makes a very smart choice as base for a custom motorcycle.

[freifraufischer]

Something else we can learn from Captain Marvel's anticipated huge global debut this weekend (a domestic debut presumably flirting with $120m-$140m and a global launch between $300m and $350m) is that we can finally and safely ignore the online trolls that have hijacked the conversation for the last few years.

We saw this in 2015 when a handful of grouchy dudes complained about Mad Max: Fury Road being dominated by Charlize Theron's Furiosa, but the film still opened with $46 million and legged it to $153m domestic. We saw this later that year when a handful of trolls tricked the entire Internet into writing about an alleged campaign to boycott The Force Awakens over the presence of Daisy Ridley and John Boyega in lead roles. The film opened with $248m, legged it to $937m domestic (the biggest unadjusted grosser ever in North America) and grossed $2 billion worldwide. Yet, that campaign, where a few folks wrote some mean tweets and the entire media covered it as well as the "clap backs" that followed, taught the press a horrible lesson.

Namely, that we could take a handful of mean tweets from anonymous people and frame it into a trend story, either about the initial offense or about how celebrities or fans were responding or fighting back. Such was the case when the Alamo Drafthouse announced their intent to hold women-only screenings of Wonder Woman which naturally caused a negative online response from the sort of folks who were naturally opposed to a Wonder Woman movie in the first place. But rather than ignore them, we turned this into a national conversation, with folks actually debating the morality of what should have been a giant "Oh, neat, that sounds like fun" issue of a theater holding women-only screenings for a female-led superhero movie. Oh, and Wonder Woman then opened with $103 million and legged it to $412.5m domestic and $821m worldwide.

Okay, but what about Ghostbusters? Well, the two years between the announcement of Paul Feig's female-led Ghostbusters reboot (starring Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon) became a canary in the coal mine for Gamergate politics playing a role in more mainstream discourse, one which had adult men losing their minds online over the notion of a Ghostbusters movie featuring ladies. And the end result was that the merely okay comedy (the extended cut is ironically a lot better) earned a just okay $126 million domestic. It cost way too much ($144m), didn't play in China due to their prohibition of supernatural content and was mostly ignored overseas for a mere $229m worldwide cume. But, warts and all, Ghostbusters was still the biggest-grossing straight-up comedy of the year give-or-take Deadpool.

Okay, fine, but Star Wars: The Last Jedi took a hit due to viewer dissatisfaction right? Well, to the extent that post-debut online complaints about the movie (specifically the online criticisms related to the gender and race of its heroic cast) represented the general public (with a possible push from Russian troll bots), The Last Jedi still earned $620 million in North America and $1.335 billion worldwide. Yes, that was 1/3 less than The Force Awakens, which is about the same decrease as The Empire Strikes Back from Star Wars and Attack of the Clones from The Phantom Menace, along with (random examples) The Lost World, Batman Returns and (domestically) Fate of the Furious and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. That loathed super-flop The Last Jedi made about as much in North America as Aquaman ($333m), Mary Poppins Returns ($171m) and Bumblebee ($125m) combined.

Now we have Captain Marvel, which has been greeted with the usual wave of online hysteria both over the notion of a female-led superhero movie and the idea that Brie Larson's request that the junkets be slightly less 'a bunch of white dudes' was tantamount to white male genocide. Rotten Tomatoes had to revamp their system to prevent trolls from pushing the film's pre-release score to record lows before a single consumer (or critic) had seen the film. They tried that with Black Panther as well, to great ($700 million domestic) and unmitigated ($1.346 billion) success. I'm sure it'll get review-bombed this weekend by the same folks who pushed The Last Jedi's Rotten Tomatoes user score down to 51%.

But history shows that the online troll brigade and their YouTube videos arguing that the Oscar-winning star of Room and Short Term 12 is going to singlehandedly destroy the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to be about as effective as they usually are. Yes, A Wrinkle in Time bombed, but not because of the trolls. Solo: A Star Wars Story bombed, but not because of the trolls. Both films, incidentally, did okay in North America ($103 million and $213m respectively) but were utterly ignored overseas. Oh, and the newest game is attempting to pit Alita: Battle Angel (allegedly a female-led action movie that isn't plotting the destruction of the male species) against Captain Marvel. Nevermind that both films are or will soon be under the Disney umbrella. You know what? I absolutely endorse the #AlitaChallenge.

I'm serious, folks. I encourage you to flood the theaters this weekend and buy tickets for Alita: Battle Angel. You clearly didn't do so in the during the $170 million-budgeted film's first month in theaters, as it has earned just $74m domestic and an okay but not big enough $360m worldwide, so you're missing out on a damn good action fantasy. I loved Alita, and my daughter really wants a sequel. So if you want to boost Alita: Battle Angel's fortunes this weekend right as Captain Marvel opens with its expected $100m-plus debut weekend and thus give a boost to a big-budget action fantasy starring a Hispanic actress and directed by a Hispanic director, I'd count that as a win/win. Or hell, you can absolutely boycott Captain Marvel this weekend and instead buy a ticket to Greta, Happy Death Day 2U, Miss Bala, What Women Want, Isn't It Romantic, or The Prodigy. Vote with your wallet and show Disney what's what!

The likely (relative) success of Captain Marvel in theaters this weekend won't stop the online troll brigade or the flurry of online abuse that is still going to be directed and women on the Internet for the crime of being a woman on the Internet. Yes, it's worse if you're a woman of color on the Internet, but I digress. But we have a chance to look at the relative success of Captain Marvel and realize that the trolls, be they actual racist and sexist schmucks, bots or just people who just enjoy spreading chaos, don't represent the general pop culture populace. We don't have to treat them as news and we sure as hell don't have to give them a seat at the debate table.

They didn't make Ghostbusters a flop and they certainly didn't stop The Force Awakens, Ocean's 8, The Last Jedi, Black Panther and Wonder Woman from being a hit any more than (all due respect) #WokeTwitter prevented Bohemian Rhapsody from topping $850 million worldwide and Green Book from winning Best Picture. None of these people will be the deciding factor as to whether Captain Marvel, which is earning mostly three-star reviews, grosses closer to Ant-Man money, Doctor Strange money or Thor: Rangorak money (or behind). After this weekend, it's time we stopped treating them as anything resembling influencers of anyone beyond themselves or those already converted to their toxic point-of-view. They will never stay silent, but we have a choice as to whether to give them a bullhorn.

[antiquesounds]

A440. Not A435. Why?

I had a wonderful time looking through the original armistice and supporting document that showed that in 1919, the post-war European community and North America committed to 435 Hz for the standard Diapason Normal. 

However, anyone who follows Western music knows that the current standard is 440 Hz.  The next phase of this quest begins with the looking at some political impact of the Treaty of Versailles.  Not only is what I am going to write, “arm-chair” history, it is also based a lot on my limited grade school training (may I say, ca 1970′s-biased) and based upon very small selected reading about the era of mid-late 19th and early 20th century geopolitics. And, as an amature affectionatto of comic art, a lot of what I see about U.S. posturing and waffelling during the early 20th century is based upon the wonderful political comics from the era. As my parents used to ask me when I was young, “How’d you know that?” And I’d point to the political cartoon from the paper that day. 

Source Ohio State University - https://hti.osu.edu/opper/lesson-plans/wilsons-14-points/images/barring-his-way

Coincidentally, I heard a wonderful interview with an author that has just released a book on this subject in general.   How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwar is on my to-read list. The book has more to do with territorial United States. But the general imperialist drive was as strong as ever post-war. Like a nasty big brother trying to take most of the cake after the fight was over, the political posturing inside and outside the U.S. was mostly to take and make itself more globally important and culturally powerful.

In the 1930′s (pre WWII), there is little argument that the United States delivered a global political posture of Imperialism - if not outright colonialism that had extended from the Spanish-American war through the Roosevelt era. A lot has been written about Wilsonian policies. You wouldn’t think this would have anything to do with concert performance standards in Europe post-war, but in fact, one of the most amazing things I learned while perusing the Treaty of Versaille is this entire section 2. Section 2-  Article 282, has all of the kitchen sink items that the countries deemed necessary to settle once and for all. I liken this to being the part where the negotiators say to the parties, “And sirs, is there anything else you guys want to settle here once and for all?”  Like a kid saying, “Yeah, and I wanted that candy, too!”  So a whole bunch of interesting stuff came out of that list. I will share some of that later. 

Deeper reading into the history of diapason normal debates going back to the 1855 treaty mentioned in the prior post taught me that this battle over both the creation of the “normal” and the value of the normal (435 versus 440, versus other frequencies) went way back prior to the 19th century especially in Europe (North America still being a western world social pariah in the 18th century.) So I can easily accept that this would be on the list of “wish we coulds” for the armistice of 1917. Now that I saw the context of the list of things included in that section, it became more obvious that it actually makes sense to have this in the treaty. I am a converted man on this subject now. I am not longer scratching my head about it being referenced here. “No more fighting, boys. We addressed all of your issues. Okay?”  If you want to be shocked at how extreme this is, check out the actual list (see page 170)! Here it is:

So far, pretty mundane.  Mostly agreed upon tolls and tariffs and an interesting standardization of railroads #4 (tracks and such if you look into it). I will note some things that put this into context and save the details for my next post on this subject.  But #2 is REALLY cool. I will share more on this that later. Any reference to “motor-cars” piques my interest. Also note #1 which makes sense post-war. And we go on... 

 With 12-14 back to tolls and tariffs. Then come the SOCIAL ones. This is what is so interesting. Again, take this in context. The winning powers (big brothers) after the fight are now going to pick the things they get to enforce on the world (or at least for Europe for now). The war to end wars is supposed to stop the bickering and delivery all the rules on how to behave. This includes a new set of social norms. I keep saying this, and I will say it again. I will get back to a few of these specific items on why they seem so silly here, but were of huge geopolitical social importance in 1919.  Amazingly, look at #15, 17-18, and 26 as progressive and at the same time regressive social rules. And then look at #16 (what is that about? Matches???) and 25, bird? and our favorite “Concert pitch”. It is like a kitchen sink of items. I assure you that when you look at these in detail, they each represent a longer term social issue that was unresolved. And, often, the issue was quite significant to the overall worldwide population.

But I digress. The diapason normal was 335 Hz in 1919. After this, there was a push to make a formal standard committee embrace this diapason normal under a different set of standards - literally.   I found evidence that going into this battle in Europe, in the United States, there was a belief that “science” showed little difference between 435, 438 (the compromise proposed) and 440 (the German standard). Even in the United States, there is documentation that describes how some scientists wanted to leave well enough alone and leave it at 435. 

However, between the wars, it seems that the United States and German did not participate in the 435 standard. The Acoustical Society of America decided that the standard should be 440. Why? I do not know. But by 1936, the Americans sided with the 440 and placed it into their standard. This does not make it diapason normal, though. So for what seems to be the time between 1936 (WWII) and 1955, the United States joined with Germany in continuing to use 440 as the tuning standard, while the treaty said it should be 435! I was surprised by this. Several documents point to this, but do not explain why The U.S. was so bull headed about this. If the research (and I dare say, common assumptions) would tell you that once established, nobody can tell the difference, then why did the U.S by themselves put it into their standards in 1936 (less than 20 years after Europe resolved the issue). I have no answer on this. I have a post facto answer/excuse that arrives after the next stage, but nothing as to why this was such a big deal to the U.S  in 1936. There are conspiracy theories about this because of the German connection but those seem like they are contrived. 

After WWII, the same push that drove the standardization post WWI happened again after WWII but as far as I can tell, there was no post-WWII declaration of standard pitch. However, there was a push again for the scientific community to come together on international standards. In 1947, the International Standards Organization was formed (ISO). Many people are familiar with ISO. It establishes, documents, and helps evolve standards for just about everything. I have had personal experiences with ISO over the years with data communication and quality standards. One example that everyone experiences daily is the ISO 9000 standard suite for quality.   

The ISO came out of a drive in the post-war era to deliver a more generic solution to that problem described in the post WWI days. In other words, for those things that require universal standardization (like concert pitch?), we need an international organization to address this need. For example, if we want to standardize on household electrical power norms -- even if we cannot change our world-wide deployment (110 volts versus 220 volts for example), at least we need to document and define these differing standards so that the worldwide community can interoperate. I consider this to be more of a meta-level approach to solving the same issue that the Treaty of Versaille Section II, Article 282 tried to address. This is a guiding principle of the organization, and remains a lofty goal.  In 1955 the 440 Hz standard was officially entered as ISO 16.  I did not pull it because it costs money to see it but it is here: https://www.iso.org/standard/3601.html. 

This still bugged me though, because why would they have taken the U.S. request for 440 over older established 435? And, does this mean that diapason normal is not the same as ISO 16? Well, frankly, I am not completely sure on the last point. I see no formal migration to the ISO standard although I do see a relinquishing of stature in some supporting texts from the era. It is fair to say that the world has conceded, but I still do not see where it did so with a revised diapason normal declaration. Here is a funny clip from The Acoustical Society of America as late as 1971 was lamenting that Europe still had not come around on this.

 [Note that ISO reformalized ISO 16 as A440 Hz in 1977. A coincidence?]

So here is where I found the most useful reasoning behind the continuing push by the U.S. to make everything based upon 440 Hz.  It is because of warfare and communications. This is the punchline to the whole thing. 

I found out that starting way back around 1949 the U.S. government was looking at which frequencies were best for different broadcasting needs. Assuredly, these all had to do with military and espionage usage There is evidence that they believed 440 and 600 to be the best for delivery of communication tones (audible). It is not a huge leap to assume that this belief also drove a campaign to enforce the standard on the world. The organization to look at is NOT ISO but rather, NIST (U.S. National Institute of Standards.) And, in hindsight, this makes complete sense to me. NIST would drive all U.S. standards especially as pertains to radio broadcast and military.  

Here is an example of such a document. I misplaced the one that originally capped my discovery. But this is a representative similar document. And this one, too. 

In fact, to this day, there is a growing stack of documents that describe how and why 440 Hz is used as the standard for synchronization tones. It’s the tone that is used when we listen to NIST WWV timeclock at the top of the hour.  The reason is that this tone is apparently what was believed to be the best (least-lossy) audible tone frequency.

So possibly, the push to deliver a hard 440 Hz standard had something to do with 1949 -1960 thoughts on best possible audible tone over radio. It sure seems that way. And it is definitely the common NIST mantra since 1960. See the end of this doc for oodles of examples: 

https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/1969.pdf

One parting thought on the A440. While researching this I found a whole bunch of crackpot theories about A432 being some sort of universal vibration. A432 is just another of the possible frequencies one could choose as a standard. And, indeed it was in the mix of options over the centuries this has been fraught. If you wanted to tune to any frequency that you want, you could. Who gives a darn? And just because 432 was used by someone for some reasons long ago doesn’t necessarily mean that it is “better”. It is a fixed tone used to derive other relative tones in music. So it really doesn’t matter until or unless you get all freaky-deaky about the differences in relative microtones for western scales. And if you care that much, 432 doesn’t solve all of those issues anyway.

 All I can say is that it made me feel a bit better about myself seeing that others are more nonsensical about their 432 Hz desires than I was about my historic research. I thought I was wasting MY time doing all of this research. But think of all the wasted energy surrounding this sort of notion and the other various conspiracy theories about various pitches being part of betterment of life. 

Next post will be about those other amazing discoveries associated with The Treaty of Versailles. cars, birds, and sulphur matches up next.   Those side discoveries were the best part of it all. 

[duggardata]

Could Josie + Kelton Beat Carlin + Evan To The Altar?

(ICYMI—I’ve written on this topic before, notably in this Post.  That Post was all about guessing wedding dates, based on Josie and Carlin’s courtship and pre–courtship dates.  This Post plays around with courtship length a lot more, and I hazard guesses on the probability of Josie marrying first!)

Jelton vs. CarlVan...  It’s a tense, exciting race.  Could Josie—the mature, well–dressed younger sister—really tie the knot before attention–loving Carlin?  If it’s possible, how exactly would it happen?  Let’s find out!

After the jump...

Recap—Carlin, Josie, and The Boyfriends

Alright, guys...  Here are the facts.  Carlin Brianne Bates was born to Gil + Kelly Jo Bates on April 11, 1998.  As of today, May 29, 2018, she is 20.13 Years old—i.e., 480 Days (1.31 Years) older than her next–youngest sibling.  Of course, that sibling is none other than Josie Kellyn* Bates, born August 4, 1999.

* Note—Am I the only one who just realized this was her middle name?  It’s so similar to ‘Kelton’!  That is great.  It’s kind of freaky...  Similar names and similar birthdays (August 4 and July 4).  Maybe they’re meant to be?

Currently, Josie is 18.81 Years old.  Interestingly, Josie’s boyfriend is older than Carlin’s:  Born July 4 (Independence Day), 1995, Kelton Balka is 51 Days Older than Carlin’s beau, Evan Stewart (b. 8–24–1995).

Carlin + Evan   (“CarlVan”)

Carlin met Evan on September 17, 2016, and the two immediately began pre–courting.  After 322 Days, Evan finally courtposed to Carlin on August 5, 2017, and she accepted.  (See BUB, “The 4 Cs...”)  As of May 29, 2018, they’ve been courting for 297 Days, but we’ve  only known about it for 145 Days.  They kept quiet for ~5 Months, finally announcing via UP TV on January 7, 2018.  Season 7 of Bringing Up Bates (BUB) premiered the same day, and Episode 1 featured Evan’s courtposal.

Josie + Kelton  (“KelSie” ?... “Jelton” ?)

Apparently, Josie + Kelton met when Josie was just 15(!) Years old.  According to BUB (“Fixin’ For New Beginnings”), they started out as friends—but, before long, developed feelings for one another.  Gil thought Josie was too young, so he asked her to wait, and she did.  However, by Thanksgiving 2016, their pre–courtship was back on.  (Personally, I think they reunited in late October 2016, during the Bateses’ Fall Break trip to Florida—where Bobby Smith and Kelton were attending college.  See BUB, “I Donut Know What I’d Do Without You.”)

On January 24, 2018, Josie + Kelton announced their courtship—but didn’t say when, exactly, it began.  Early January 2018 seems quite likely, though.  In BUB (“Fixin’ For New Beginnings”), Kelton told Gil + Kelly that he and Josie hoped to begin courting shortly after New Year 2018.  Then, on January 7, 2018, Kelton’s sister (Ariana Balka) posted on Instagram several photos of Josie Bates wearing the red dress and black coat seen in her courtposal photos.  (Sadly, Ariana’s IG went private just days later.)  Based on that, my spreadsheets all use January 7, 2018 for the start of Josie’s courtship.  If I’m right about the day, Josie + Kelton have been courting for 142 Days, as of May 29, 2018.

Bates Family Baselines

Currently, a Typical Bates Courtship lasts 236 Days (7.9 Months), but it varies by a standard deviation (S.D.) of 170 Days.  As such, there’s a 95% Probability that a Bates courtship will last ≤576 Days (Mean + 2 SDs), and 68% Odds that it’ll last 66–406 Days (Mean ± 1 SD).

Of course, not all Bateses are typical.  As of May 2018, the record for Shortest Courtship is held by Alyssa + John Webster, at 71 Days, and that for Longest Courtship record is held by Michaela + Brandon Keilen, at 469 Days.  

A Typical Bates Engagement lasts for 105 Days (3.5 Months).  Since the Anon specifically said:  “Let’s assume Carlin and Evan’s courtship will be long ... and Josie and Kelton’s will be short,” we’ll assume both couples have an average–length (105–Day) engagement.

Now...  Who will marry first, Carlin + Evan or Josie + Kelton, if...

If Carlin Has A Long Courtship ...

As stated above, Carlin + Evan have been courting for 297 Days, as of May 29, 2018.  Already, that’s 61 Days (+ Counting!) longer than the Bates–typical, 236–Day courtship.  While CarlVan aren’t yet outside the 68% (or 95%) Range, their current, non–engaged status suggests they’re headed for a lengthier courtship.  How long, exactly?  Well, it’s hard to say, but here’s what we know...

Based on Bates data, there’s a 95% Chance that Evan will propose within 576 Days of asking Carlin to court.  So...  There’s a really, really, really solid chance that they’ll be engaged on or before March 4, 2019 (C.S. Date + 576 Days).

Most data points fall closer to the mean, though.  So... There is actually a 68% Chance that Evan will propose a bit sooner—specifically, on or by September 15, 2018 (C.S. Date + 406 Days).

Finally, let’s say Carlin + Evan beat the Keilens’ Longest C.S. record.  To do so, Evan must propose after >469 Days—or, on or after November 18, 2018.

Remember... We’re assuming both couples will have a typical, 105–Day (or the closest Saturday) engagement.  So, we have three scenarios for Carlin + Evan, based on the dates above...

Scenario 1—Carlin: Just Within 68% Range  (406–Day C.S.)

Proposal   September 15, 2018

Wedding   December 29, 2018  (+105 Days)

Under this Scenario, Josie beats Carlin if she marries on or before the Saturday prior, December 22, 2018.  Assuming a typical, 105–Day engagement, Kelton’ll have to propose by September 8—and ultimately, they’d court for 244 Days (or less).  Doing the math...  If Carlin + Evan marry on December 29, there’s a 23% Chance (as of May 29, 2018) that Josie + Kelton will beat them to the altar.

Fun!  Let’s do the next two Scenarios...

Scenario 2—Carlin: Longest Courtship Yet  (470 Days)

Proposal   November 18, 2018

Wedding   March 2, 2019  (+104 Days)

Let’s skip the chart this time, and I’ll just tell you:  If Carlin marries on March 2, 2019, there’s a 37% Chance she’ll ‘lose’ to Josie.  Josie + Kelton can have an above–average, 307–Day C.S. (until November 10, 2018), and still marry first.

Scenario 3—Carlin: Just Within 95% Range  (576–Day C.S.)

Proposal   March 4, 2019

Wedding   June 15, 2019  (+103 Days)

Wow, that’s a long courtship!  If Carlin + Evan prolong things this much, there’s a 58% Chance that Josie + Kelton will get married first.  All Kelton needs to do is propose by February 23, 2019, after a Maximum 412–Day C.S.  Doable!

Okay, now let’s see what’s up with Josie + Kelton... 

... and Josie Has A Short (or Typical) Courtship

Unlike CarlVan, Josie + Kelton are potentially on–track to have a 100%, Bates–typical (236–Day) courtship.  As of May 29, 2018, they’ve been courting for 142 Days.  If they’re totally average, here’s what’ll happen—

Scenario 4—Josie: Bates–Average Courtship  (236 Days)

Proposal   August 31, 2018

Wedding   December 15, 2018  (+106 Days)

Notice that all of Carlin + Evan’s scenarios, above, put their wedding after 12–15–18.  If Josie’s C.S. is typical, there’s a ~83% Chance she will beat Carlin to the altar (as of May 29, 2018).  Carlin will ‘win’ only if Evan proposes by August 25, 2018.  While that would give Carlin + Evan a fairly lengthy, 383 Day C.S., he only have 88 Days left to propose!

Now, what is Josie’s C.S. ends up being short, rather than typical?  Technically, she’s already past the major baselines:  The Shortest Bates Courtship, to date, was 71 Days, and Josie has been courting twice that long, already.  Also, she’s past the low–end of the 68% Range for C.S. Length (66 Days).  So...  Let’s use the Mean C.S. Length – 0.5 SDs, instead—

Scenario 5—Josie: Average – 0.5 SD Courtship  (151 Days)

Proposal   June 7, 2018

Wedding   September 22, 2018  (+107 Days)

Yeah...  If Kelton proposes to Josie on June 7, 2018, they’ll marry before Carlin + Evan, unless Evan proposes first, on June 2, 2018.  There’s so few days from now until then, that the odds of him doing so are only ~1%.

What?  I’m Lost.

Here’s the take–away:  Unless Carlin + Evan get engaged soon, Josie + Kelton have a good chance of marrying first.  Ready...  Set...  Go!

[cruger2984]

I posted 19,035 times in 2021

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#spider-man: across the spider-verse (part one) (2022)

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Good to know...

Cells at Work might be great for biology class, Code BLACK would be perfectly great for PhE (health and safety) class.

21 notes • Posted 2021-01-23 16:00:31 GMT

#4

Arashi: Thought I was meowing at the cat for the past hour.

Arashi: Turns out it was just Mika-chan and I meowing at each other from different rooms in the house.

23 notes • Posted 2021-04-20 17:46:36 GMT

#3

Rei: What are you talking about? You love it here.

Shu: I'm not sure I do. I think I just developed Stockholm Syndrome.

Wataru: Catch yourself on, you've never even been to Switzerland.

23 notes • Posted 2021-03-03 07:34:07 GMT

#2

Adonis: I know you can climb faster than me.

Koga: So what if I can?

Adonis: Why do you always let me win?

Koga: You like winning.

Adonis: So what do you get out of it?

Koga: I get to see your wonderful smile after letting you win.

[A few moments later...]

Adonis: He is staring at my ass.

Kaoru: He is staring at your ass, indeed.

24 notes • Posted 2021-03-03 07:21:44 GMT

#1

Hetavision ‘21 - Battle Royale Grand Final Results!

The dust is receded and one emerged victorious in Rotterdam! The Vargas (Feliciano and Lovino) Brothers are now ruled ESC 2021 with a rock-themed song, and now they add the newly polished glass mic trophy into their shared trophy case! Here are the top ten finishers that is based on the combined both the jury and the public votes.

1. Italy: Måneskin - Zitti e buoni (Shut Up and Behave) [524 Points]

2. France: Barbara Pravi - Voilà  [499 Points]

3. Switzerland: Gjon’s Tears - Tout l'Univers [432 Points]

4. Iceland: Daði og Gagnamagnið - 10 Years [378 Points]

5. Ukraine: Go_A - Shum (Шум) [364 Points]

6. Finland: Blind Channel - Dark Side [301 Points]

7. Malta: Destiny - Je me casse [255 Points]

8. Lithuania: The Roop - Discoteque [220 Points]

9. Russia: Manizha - Russian Woman [204 Points]

10. Greece: Stefania - Last Dance [170 Points]*

* - tied with Bulgaria!

After 31 years of beating the crap by their enemies, they finally rule Europe once and for all as they rule the battle royale and the bloodbath in Ned's backyard.

SEE YOU NEXT HETAVISION!! And here’s some notes!

Feliciano: Romano, we've been waited 31 years for this, right? We got 318 points from the public! Good thing grandpa’s watching us at the sidelines. Romano: That's right, you bastard! It's all thanks to these skimpy outfits that our boss force us to wear it!!

- Both Big Bro France and Swiss are into the corner of defeat, but good thing Swiss has coped by Liechtenstein, telling him that he fought a good fight with that entry. After this, France, then accepts defeat and gives Swiss a much deserved respect, despite Swiss won the jury vote. - Iggy, Germany, Boss Spain and Neddy have become shocked as they received zero notes from the public. SHAME!! - Su-san has to go back home, as he congratulates Finland for making it to the top ten finish. He then decides to treat him a romantic dinner at the rooftop. - Liet cowered in fear after he landed 8th, while Russia has to prep his iron pipe after he landed 9th. - Iceland is so relieved after he managed to landed into the top five during quarantine, thus he is congratulated by what else, but Mr. Puffin, recently come back from migration. - Ukraine's spring ritual paid off thanks to some efforts and help from Belarus.

37 notes • Posted 2021-05-22 23:32:11 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[gokul2181]

KXIP vs SRH Live Score: Sunrisers Hyderabad opt to bowl against Kings XI Punjab | Cricket News

New Post has been published on https://jordarnews.in/kxip-vs-srh-live-score-sunrisers-hyderabad-opt-to-bowl-against-kings-xi-punjab-cricket-news/

KXIP vs SRH Live Score: Sunrisers Hyderabad opt to bowl against Kings XI Punjab | Cricket News

KXIP vs SRH: Live Blog | Live Scorecard Playing XIs: Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (w/c), Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Mandeep Singh, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Chris Jordan, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (w), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan TOSS | Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner wins toss, opts to bowl against Kings XI Punjab in Dubai Captains at the toss: KL Rahul:“I would’ve liked to bowl as well. We’ve batted second in the last few games which we’ve won. The wicket shouldn’t change much, it looks good. Winning obviously gives the group a lot of confidence especially when it comes against the top three teams. Different people have put their hands up in all three games which was pleasing. We had to win each game in the second half and we’re taking it one game at a time. Chris has been a big matchwinner, he has come good and brings calm and a winning spirit into the dressing room. He keeps the mood of the dressing room very light and the boys love playing with him. There have been different people in different games, the bowling has come good as well. Maxwell coming good in the last game gives confidence to the group. Hopefully we can play aggressive cricket. Two changes – Mayank Agarwal and Jimmy Neesham miss out and Mandeep Singh and Chris Jordan come in.“ David Warner:“We’re going to have a bowl first. I think the last game proved that a little bit of dew came towards the end. Towards the back end there was a bit of pace on the wicket. Each game presents a new challenge, these guys are on a roll and it was nice for us as well to win the last game and get some momentum. We have spoken a lot about our middle order and it was nice to see the guys play without risk in the last game. Khaleel Ahmed comes in for Nadeem.“ Pitch Report: “What we’re seeing at the back-end of this tournament is a little bit of grass being left on the surface. The grass gives a little bit of pace and bounce. So what we’re seeing is a different tactic, where captains want to bat second. These slightly cooler nights mean dew and the ball skidding on later in the evening. 165-170 looks par.” – Simon Doull KXIP’s Glenn Maxwell:“Going well, to take down the top three teams in the last week has been really rewarding. Things have started to go our way, things can be fickle in T20s. To get little parts of the game to fall our way feels nice. It has been a tough few games at the start of the tournament, to not have wins in such tight games was hard on the boys. But we now have a chance to make it to the top four. Pretty chilled out change room, we haven’t gone very high or low. Credit to the backroom staff, there are so many highs and lows in T20 cricket. I might not be getting the runs, but I was training really well. I only had three or four balls to face at the back end of the innings in a lot of games, but I was hitting the ball well. I wasn’t losing focus, not getting too hard on myself. Last match was nice to spend some more time in the middle and help out the side to get to a win. Hopefully it is a stepping stone for the team.” Hello and welcome to the live coverage of Match 43 of the Indian Premier League 2020 between Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai. STATS THAT MATTER * SRH have an 11-4 head-to-head advantage over KXIP * Warner, with his tally of 871, is the leading run-getter against KXIP in IPL * KXIP’s death-bowling economy rate has dropped to 10.36 in the last five games, as compared to 14.81 in the first five

Meanwhile, how excited are you about this fixture?#Dream11IPL https://t.co/UdxhLedUiM

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) 1603543178000

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[auburnfamilynews]

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Ok, this is time for a little bit of a bounceback, but it has to come against one of the best offensive minds in the land.

We can play the silly game of pretending that last week didn’t happen, and talk about “Oh, it’ll be great to see Auburn play after a week off”, but we have to be real. What happened in Columbia was at first quite pleasing, but it quickly devolved into what we may see a good bit of this season.

We didn’t really count on what would happen if we lost some of our star linebackers, and we can now reveal that only two guys playing every snap tend to get a little tired. All of a sudden, Bo Nix and Seth Williams are arguing on the sideline — this was supposed to be our special connection!

HOWEVER. After just a few games, Auburn is, by many accounts, one of the most successful rushing teams in the conference. Tank Bigsby is one of the tougher and slipperier backs in the league. He can catch the ball out of the backfield, and he’s not going down on the first hit. Ever. And even the offensive line seems to be figuring things out in the rushing game!

We have a bit of an identity problem, though. Bo Nix has thrown the ball a lot. We’ve definitely got the kind of receivers that can make those plays, but somehow Bo and his crew aren’t on the same page. The offensive line doesn’t know how to pass protect yet. I keep getting flashbacks of free rushers every time I close my eyes.

And now we’re going to be taking on a team that could be that rattlesnake in the grass, ready to bit at any time. Ole Miss hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, but they’ve had a couple of really impressive performances. First they posted more than 600 yards apiece in losses to Florida and Alabama, and diced through those defenses like nothing else. Unfortunately, they allowed about 700 yards on average to the opposing offenses. Currently the Rebels give up 265 yards per game on the ground at a 6.2 yards per pop rate. This is an opportunity.

In case you weren’t aware, Auburn has a rich history of rushers taking advantage against Ole Miss.

2000 - Rudi Johnson - 29 carries, 165 yards, 2 TDs

2002 - Ronnie Brown - 33 carries, 224 yards, 3 TDs

2004 - Ronnie Brown/Cadillac Williams - 32 carries, 196 yards, 2 TDs

2009 - Ben Tate - 25 carries, 144 yards, 1 TD

2010 - Michael Dyer - 21 carries, 180 yards, 1 TD

2011 - Michael Dyer - 27 carries, 177 yards, 1 TD

2013 - Nick Marshall - 14 carries, 140 yards, 2 TDs

2014 - Cameron Artis-Payne - 27 carries, 138 yards, 1 TD

2016 - Kam Pettway - 30 carries, 236 yards, 1 TD

2017 - Kerryon Johnson - 28 carries, 204 yards, 3 TDs

2018 - Boobee Whitlow - 19 carries, 170 yards

That’s just this millennium! You can see some of Auburn’s best all-time individual performances on that list. It’s going to lead into what we’ll see later today with Tank Bigsby. Today has to be an opportunity for the Auburn offense. Get back to what Gus Malzahn knows how to do, since apparently they’re not bad at it. We need to make this a quick game and we gotta get home for lunch.

SERIES HISTORY: 33-11 in favor of Auburn. The Tigers have won four straight and six out of the last seven.

LAST MEETING: Whew, this was a much closer than necessary 20-14 win for Auburn in 2019. Bo Nix had a great night with 340 yards passing, but the offense couldn’t punch anything in once they hit the red zone Anders Carlson went just 2-5 on field goals, and the Tigers had to rebuff a late Rebel drive late to preserve the win.

Oh, and Derrick Brown killed a guy.

Derrick Brown ran off to the sidelines… then ran back on the field to blow up the play. pic.twitter.com/Aus8zPAknB

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) November 2, 2019

WHAT WAS DERRICK BROWN DOING OUT THERE. HOLY HELL HAHAHA.

— gotchya and grabass purveyors (@CollegeAndMag) November 2, 2019

LAST WEEK: Well, for Auburn...

And for Ole Miss, they weren’t great either. Matt Corral threw six interceptions in a loss to Arkansas. Wait, how many interceptions?

So yeah, this is a game for Gus to not get fired and for Lane Kiffin to have fun because that’s certainly what they hired him to do in Oxford.

KEYS FOR AUBURN:

We touched on it above, but BY GOD RUN THE BALL 60 TIMES. Ole Miss is horrible — ATROCIOUS — at stopping the run. They literally only stopped Najee Harris by buttering the ball near the goal line, and they’re dead last — DEAD LAST — in the nation in scoring defense. Yes, last! They allow 265 rushing yards per game. Auburn must run the ball every time. 30 carries for Tank, another 15 for D.J. Williams, and 10 for Shaun Shivers in his first action back with a few sprinkled in for Anthony Schwartz or Eli Stove. If Bo Nix throws more than 15 times, the Gus Bus loses a few more passengers.

Running the ball speeds the game up, and that means our defense will be a little less tired with fewer opportunities for the Ole Miss offense, but there’s still an area where Auburn has to do better, and that’s getting off of the field on third downs. Ole Miss can absolutely roll up yards and points, and maybe our defense won’t actually be tired because the Rebels score quickly, but we need to see improvement in forcing punts. Maybe Matt Corral’s six-pick day will swing around and bit him again as well.

As much as it pains me to say this, Gus and Chad Morris have to limit Bo Nix’s involvement in the offense. Just try it for today. Let him be a game manager. He doesn’t need to be the gunslinger, and after last week, he needs to take a breather to just run the offense and not try to force everything. Sometimes watching him play quarterback is the perfect square peg/round hole analogy, but he’s the wrong type of fiery at the moment. The sideline interaction and attitude last week shows that much. Another outing like that and you’re going to have more than a few Auburn fans calling for Caylin Newton to get in the game and run his older brother’s zone read offense.

Remember who you are. When you’re the head coach at Auburn (and Gus has done fantastic at this), you need to beat certain teams at a pretty solid clip. Like an 80% clip. Gus has done that against Ole Miss, with just one loss to the Rebels (in his worst year). After other disappointing defeats during his career, he’s been hit or miss, sometimes rebounding hard and other times stringing together a pair of losses. It’s no coincidence that those were some of the instances when the Auburn faithful questioned the job status of their head man.

STRESS-O-METER:

Just run the ball, guys. War Damn Eagle.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/10/24/21531381/game-preview-and-open-thread-auburn-ole-miss

[allenmendezsr]

Improve Bowling

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/improve-bowling/

Improve Bowling

 Buy Now

      There are some secrets pro bowlers like to keep to themselves – now I’ll share them with you!

Finally, here’s everything you need to bowl like an expert – exclusively revealed in a simple, step-by-step guide!

 From: John Callen ImproveBowling.com

Are your bowling nights one of the things you look forward to most?

Have you ever wanted to improve your bowling performance?

Does your pulse race every time you score a strike or spare? Would you like to enjoy that thrill more often?

If you answered “Yes to any of these questions then this message might just make your day.

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Now you can take advantage of a proven system that will have you bowling like an expert – and it works for everyone; whether you’re a beginner, an intermediate bowler or near-pro standard!

Testimonial

“I have not bowled for quite some time and have just started back. This guide not only helped me understand the fundamentals of bowling I had forgotten, but also covered a lot of useful techniques and fixed some of my bad habits.

My bowling average has improved greatly than before. Thank again John!”

Steven Collins

What makes this system stand out? It’s simple.

There are a few basic principles behind good bowling, and every expert relies on them. I’ll teach you to use them, too.

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That’s what most people don’t realize – improving your bowling game, and bringing down your handicap, aren’t hard to do.

I know that. How?

Because I’ve been a bowling fanatic for nearly fifteen years!

In that time I’ve developed a system that’s perfect for anyone who wants to improve their scores. It’s simple, it’s foolproof and you can use it to perfect your game.

It’s all based on techniques that pro bowlers use; now you can use them too.

Yes, I’ve decided to share my system with the world. I’ve laid out all my experience and knowledge and compiled it into a handy, downloadable guide – “Improve Bowling”

I guarantee that this guide will teach you everything you need to know about proper bowling techniques. Yes, I realize that’s a bold claim.

You might even think it’s too good to be true. Well, it is true, and I can back up what I say!

Here’s Why You Can Believe Me When I Say That You Too Can Be An Expert Bowler! 

I’m confident enough to lay it on the line: My system WILL work for you, 100% guaranteed. It’s already worked for hundreds of others, after all.

If you’re curious about bowling and want to know how to get off to a good start – this is for you.

If you’ve recently started playing and want to step up a level – this is for you.

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Whatever level you’re bowling at now my system will help you boost your scores.

It’s a tried and tested method that I’ve perfected over years and refined into a simple, step by step process that will let you improve your game quickly and easily.

Of course I don’t just teach you what to do right – I also show you the things that bowlers often get wrong, and tell you how to get rid of bad habits.

My system is right up to date, too – I’m always searching for new tips from the pro bowling scene, and I constantly tweak my methods to include the latest and best techniques. That’s one reason why my system is so popular. There’s another…

It Works Like You Wouldn’t Believe

Let me tell you something else about my method – it’s unique. There’s nothing else like it out there. You won’t find anything to compare in book stores, on Amazon or anywhere else online.

That’s because most people don’t realize that bowling like a pro really is simple. The secret is just knowing what to do and how to do it – and that’s what I teach you.

Even if you’ve never bowled before you can be knocking them down like a pro in one day.

Improve Bowling isn’t like any other bowling guide. In it I explain how to focus on what makes for great bowling and why you need to focus on three key things:

I’ll tell you how to get all of these right – and a lot more. Here are a few more of the secrets you’ll learn:

You’ll learn all that, and MUCH more, with my system. I’ve brought together everything you need to know to improve your bowling game.

Now for the best news of all:

You Can Be Starting Down The Road To Bowling Success In Less Than A Minute!

That’s right; you don’t even need to wait for all this amazing information.

I’ve taken my system and turned it into a downloadable eBook, and you can order it right now.

Within a minute you can have it open on your eBook reader, tablet or computer and start learning how the pros do it.

In a matter of seconds you can have a world of bowling knowledge at your fingertips.

Improve your scores, impress your friends, even join that league you always wanted to qualify for – I’ll tell you how to do it.

Easy, Safe and Secure Ordering

As mentioned, you can place your order right now and start benefiting from this entire system about one minute later.

How��it works is simple and fast.

Just click one of the blue links or the “GET INSTANT ACCESS” button below and you’ll be taken to my 100% secure order page.

As soon as your order is processed (takes about 50 seconds), you’ll be taken to the “Download Page” where you can instantly download the entire manual.

This downloadable guide will give you the secrets that pro bowlers don’t talk about – the secrets that let them beat out the competition. Now I’m making them available to you.

Click here now to order the guide, and get ready to enjoy the best bowling of your life. I guarantee you’ll be amazed how quick and easy it is to improve your game – you just need to know how. 

Testimonial

“Hi Johh, I’m very pleased with the Improve Bowling guide. It is easy to understand and apply. I used to average in the 170s back then. I was able to pick up a few tips that have enabled me to bowl over 200 quite consistently!“

Karen Jackson

I’ve made this sensational resource “Improve Bowling” which contains my entire pro bowling instruction system, available to you as a downloadable ebook directly accessible from the Internet.

This way I have no inventory and no fulfillment costs. I don’t need to pay anyone to take the orders over the phone. This way I can pass along my cost savings to you.

So you win and I win. But don’t worry, downloading the information in “Improve Bowling” is a real snap. I’m no “techno whiz” and I had no problem (it works perfectly with both MAC or PC computers.)

Also, I’m offering it at this low price because this entire “internet sale” is part of a marketing test I’m trying out. Frankly, I plan to raise the price by an extra $10 (at least) in the very near future.

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[freyayuki]

DFFOO: Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 2 Team

Here’s yet another old draft that should have been posted ages ago. Well, better late than never, right? Anyway, let’s get started.

I managed to get the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia mobile game’s Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 2 quest perfected using the following team:

Serah 

Sherlotta

Rem

Serah Farron from Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 

I have Serah purpled and fully MLB, equipped with the following artifacts:

All Debuff Attack Boost★★ with Charged Moonlight Boost★★        

All Debuff Attack Boost★★ with Charged Moonlight Boost★★

All Debuff Attack Boost★★ with Charged Moonlight Boost★★

Her other 2 artifacts are:

attack 108 with All Debuff Attack Boost★★

attack 108 with Charged Moonlight Boost★★

Yeah, I spent forever (still totally an understatement, by the way) trying to get Serah’s perfect cursed artifacts across several events. 

One of the major reasons why I purpled her was precisely because I took so much time farming for her arts. I thought to myself, after going through all that trouble, I had better be using her as much as possible.

Serah with perfect cursed arts is really good though. Her poison and other debuffs as well as her batteries contributed a lot to this Entropy fight.

Sherlotta from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time

I have Sherlotta fully MLB with the following artifacts:

attack 108 with max brave 330

attack 108 with max brave 330

attack 108 with max brave 330

attack 108 with Living Out Eternity Boost★★

attack 108 with Living Out Eternity Boost★★

For this fight, I equipped her with the first 3 arts listed above.

Sherlotta was very useful in this fight even if she doesn’t have her Ex+ yet. She can heal, inflict a debuff, and increase the party’s damage with her skills.

Rem Tokimiya from Final Fantasy Type-0

I have her fully MLB and at Ex+ 0/3 with the following artifacts:

attack 108 with initial brave 100

attack 108 with max brave 110

attack 108 with Bravery Swap Turns★★

initial brave 170 with max brave 330

max brave 330 with 1020 HP

For this fight, I had her equipped with the first 3 arts. Even at Ex+ 0/3, she worked well enough in this fight. Her healing, alongside Sherlotta’s healing, was put to good use since the enemies here liked to HP attack. 

Her turn manipulation was also helpful. I’m glad that I was able to use Rem and lock her on to an Entropy quest, especially since I had to pity her Ex. 

Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 6

This happened way later on, but, I looked up videos of the upcoming Dimensions’ End Entropy tier 6. I wanted to see how those who’d played the Japanese version of DFFOO (since it was months ahead of the global version) did the fight. 

To be more precise, I wanted to see if it was possible to do the stage without having debuff immunity from the likes of Lenna, Ignis, and Aphmau, or Esuna via Yuna. I saw a vid that had a purple Emperor and Y’shtola and a non-purpled Rosa (it was in Japanese, so I don’t know if Rosa was at Ex+ 0/3 or if she had 1 or 2 ingots).

That team did get hit with some debuffs, but they were able to get past them and win, so I was glad to see that the fight was doable without Yuna or Lenna. Because I don’t have Yuna’s Ex, and I don’t want to get it from the Dimensions’ End Order Ex token shop or farm her cursed artifacts. 

And my Lenna is currently locked on to Entropy tier 4, and I don’t really want to unlock her from there. I could wait for Ignis, but since I don’t plan to use gems to get him, I can’t be sure if my tickets will give me his Ex. So I had to look for other options. 

Update: Oh, goddess. The irony of those words. I wrote all this down, and I made all these plans. But, well, so much for these plans. What’s this about only using tickets on Ignis’ banner? What’s that about not using my gems for Ignis? LOL. 

I’ll talk more about this in another post, but, for now, let’s just say that those so-called plans all fell apart seemingly in the blink of an eye. Because, yeah, I ended up using gems trying to get Ignis’ Ex. I very nearly had to pity it. As it was, I used way too many gems that I was supposed to be saving. Sigh.  

Anyway, after watching that video, I remembered that my Y’shtola was currently locked on to Entropy tier 3 with Ultimecia and Vanille. I was reluctant to redo the stage, but I thought I might as well, especially since my Vanille was now purple. 

Back when I first did that stage, I only had Vanille at Ex+ 0/3. I figured that with a purple Vanille and purple Ultimecia alongside a different third member, this tier should be doable enough.

I was wondering who the third member should be (it had to be a healer since neither Vanille nor Ultimecia could heal) when I remembered that I actually had 2 healers locked on to Entropy tier 2. 

Well, I always wanted to redo that stage since it wasn’t a good idea at all to have 2 healers locked on to a single tier. More tiers are coming soon, and I’d need at least one healer for each of those fights.

Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 2 Take 2

So I decided to redo Entropy tier 2. I tried with an Ex+ 0/3 Ace, a purple Serah, and an Ex+ 0/3 Rem. It went well enough, but when I got to the turn count limit, the fight was still far from being over, so I just quit since there was no way to get the perfect clear.

Ugh. Ace at Ex+ 0/3 was really underwhelming. It wasn’t working out very well with Rem either, but that was likely because of Ace.

Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 2 Take 3

Next, I tried with a purple Serah, Ex+ 0/3 Ace, and Sherlotta. Sherlotta is really super special awesome even without an Ex+. Her skills were really useful and helpful. The only issue was that her healing wasn’t much at all.

I was able to finish the fight with this team, but I wasn’t able to get the score requirement. Argh! This really pissed me off, so much so that I even considered purpling someone like maybe Ace or even Setzer.

I was considering Setzer when I realized that he had ranged (and magic) skills. This was a deal breaker, at least for this fight, because this stage heavily resists both melee and ranged. I needed a pure magical DPS.

So I went back to considering purpling Ace again. Thankfully, I managed to stop myself. I told myself that resources were limited enough as it was, so it was better to just wait, especially since the Emperor was coming soon, and he’d be much better than Ace.

Besides, I was able to do this fight with an Ex+ 0/3 Ace, so I just needed to try again and do better.

Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 2 Perfect Team Clear

Which was exactly what I did. I tried this tier again with the same team. I brought Leviathan as my summon. I tried to be conservative with the skills of my characters while also trying to be aggressive. I made sure to use skills when the buff from Sherlotta’s Ex was up to maximize my damage.

Actually managed to win. Got the score too. Yahoo! Super pleased about this, especially because I was able to lock an Ex+ 0/3 Ace on to an Entropy tier. Now, I really have no more reason to purple him. He’ll be staying in this tier for the foreseeable future. Right now, I have no plans of repeating this stage again.

Now, if only I could lock an Ex+ 0/3 Tidus on to an Entropy tier as well. It feels like he’s even worse than Ace. And, unlike Ace, I’m not the least bit tempted to purple him. 

Update: no, I did not purple Tidus. Still not tempted to purple him. However, I was finally, finally able to lock him on to an Entropy tier at Ex+ 0/3. Yahoo! But let’s talk about that in another post. 

The screenshot below shows my most recent Entropy Tier 2 team. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a screenshot of my previous clear before redoing the stage.

Note:

pics are from Amazon.com; links shown above

last pic is a screenshot from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[aspiestvmusings]

TMS S3: GROUP B

THE MASKED SINGER SEASON 3 

GROUP B/ GROUP 2: (contestants 7 - 12)

EP 3x04: CLUES & MORE: RECAP for remaining 5:

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

FROG

CLUES:

Location: Hollywood (CBS?) Lot: 1920s street/building 

VISUAL CLUES:

His clues video is done in black & white (like a 1920s silent film) 

B&W image: MIB sitting on a bench, on a street, as newpapers are being thrown at them (by a paperboy)

Newspaper: The Daily Ribbit (price: 5 cents) 

Newspaper headline: Frogs are jumping! Frogs are jumping!

Newspaper headline: Tadpole plucked from large creek!

Newspaper article subtitle: Toad’s crazy ride begins! 

Newspaper photo credit: Frog joins The Masked Singer 

Newspaper article [this is a nod to the detectives among us, viewers]: TEXT HERE LATER “So there was this tadpole just swimming along, doing its tadpole thing, thinking “Hey, life is pretty good!” Who needs legs anyway?” Then one day it was swimming near a horseshoe and mustve felt lucky. It waived it’s little fishy tail and swam faster than ever and the metamorphosis began in the blink of a frog’s eye. Good bye tail, hello legs! “What arethese weird spongy things in my body? Oh, lungs! Cool!”  The tadpole became a frog, but seriously are you actually  reading all this? Did you pause on me? Are you hoping for more clues? Or should I say hopping for more clues? Well here’s a frog joke: Why are frogs so happy? Because they eat whatever bugs them! Hahaha. Sorry, that wasnt a clue, but hopefully there’s a kid in the roomto enjoy it. I’m impressed you’re still reading this small print. Back to the frog: it really did have a wild, wild ride. Though it did have some interesting eating habits and I'm not just talking about dining on flies. By the way, have you seen slo-mo videos of frogs using their tongues? Pretty fascinating. Okay, you’ve made it this far. I’ll just tell you the tadpole who became a frog is the celebrity we all know and love who goes by the name” [ARTICLE ENDS HERE] 

Sign on the wall of the building “arrow pointing to the left” 

Papar bags on the ground next to the bench with “Leftovers” written on it & “leftovers” from one nag have fallen out...to the ground. 

The frog’s shadow behind the window/glass is seen using his tongue to catch/eat a fly on the glass

Poster on the (office) floor: 1996 Games: 1000-Meter Leap Frog

The frog & MIB doing dance moves on the street (as he comes out of the building) 

Old school michrophone with the “LIKE” sign on it. 

Dollar bills on the “counter”: 100 dollar bill +  5 dollar bill + 1 dollar bill (100 + 5 + 1 = 106 dollars) 

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

“News Flash: My metamorphosis has been anything but typical.”

“I leapt to stardom as fast as the lightning bolt.” 

 “Never had a chance to evolve my image, and do things my way.” 

“I was slitherin with the big frogs from Jump-Jump. Just had to fit in and survive.” 

“But now I can write my own masterpiece” 

“Showing this new side (of me) gives me butterflies in my stomach.”  

“But I'm ready to drop the hammer, and sing my face off.” 

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer 

Look/Costume: Frog is wearing a purple suit & a yellow/purple checkered tie. He has a matching hat with a feather (1920s “gangster” style) & “Gatsby” style shoes. 

Stage: Moves around & dances a lot, while rapping. Very energetic. Touches the brim of the hat during “questining”

Height: Short. Seems around 170 -173cm = 5 feet 6 inches 

Build: He’s small, but athletic. 

Mic hand: Right. 

Talking: “I feel free, baby! I came here to win it all, baby, that’s what I came to do - win it all!”  (when answering "How does it feel to dress up as The Frog?”)

GUESSES:

Shad Moss aka (Lil) Bow Wow (rapper/singer/musician) - for me the dance moves confirmed it’s him, cause I am not super familair with his voice alone. But last  year when many suggested he could be "The Rottweiler”, I looked him  up, and the dance routines he and his kid do in several of his posts leave me with no doubt that it’s him. I would not have gotten this one from the voice alone. 99% chance 

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

TBA LATER [SEE: LISTED CLUES & YOU’LL KNOW ANYWAY] 

Paper bag “Leftovers” = Doggy Bag -- his artist nme was/is Bow Wow + it’s the title of one of his albums (Doggy bag)

Mic + Like sign = Like Mike 

106 dollars = he hosted the”106 & Park” music vid show

KITTY

CLUES:

Location: many clips used from Georges Méliès silent film(s) - “Astronomers Dream” watch on YT 

Silent film era style clips from a (movie) theatre

VISUAL CLUES:

Most of her clue package is in black & white, in “silent cinema” style. Lot of footage from the time films were first made & lots of references to the film of that time. 

(Stage) Curtains opening

B&W: People watching the performance though binoculars. 

B&W: Audience clapping (during the performance) 

Kitty Mask appearing on each lens of the binoculars. 

B&W image: a group of men coming to the stage, in one line...as we see it from the audiences POV. And Kitty Mask appearing in front on them...as the only in COLOUR image that has been added to it. 

B&W: (Astronomical) Observatory with a telescope pointed at the Moon. There is a globe in the room. A stand with drawings and shapes (geometry) on one side & a blackboard with AB + CD = [more math...which I can’t type in here...for reasons] An old man/astronomer in a wizard hat is sitting on a chair, reading a book. Then gets up to write something on the blacboard. There is a coat of arms on the back of the chair. - a clip from Georges Méliès "The Astronomer's Dream" (old film from 1898)

In colour:  Kitty walking to center stage - alone on the stage, in an ampty theatre 

B&W: The Moon with a face being blown up - a clip from Georges Méliès "The Astronomer's Dream" (old film from 1898) 

Blinking dressing room lights (a wall full of them) in the background of Kitty Mask 

A glass jar/bottle of milk  + a glass of milk...with Kitty mask sitting on top of he glass...as milk is poured into it.

B&W: Pirates sword-fighting on an old ship deck. 

Kitty doing the CATwalk... with greenish-blueish lights in the background...

A (big) glass rose shattering to pieces as it falls to the ground... with rose petals fling everywhere... 

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

“In all my wildest dreams I’d never imagined I’d be here where I feel at home among the weird and the wonderful.”

“It’s almost like this show was made for me. -- A little bit of heaven where I can wipe the slate clean as the purest snow.” 

“Sometimes it feels lonely, because people don’t think of me as the person I’ve become, but the person I once was.”

“But now under these light - among the cream of the crop - I get to start from scratch.”

“And just like a Kitty will always find a way to nuzzle into your heart, Tonight, for my big debut, I'm going for high drama...as I show you why I'm the pick of the litter”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Dangerous Woman” by Ariana Grande 

Look/Costume: Burlesque/(Vegas) showgirl costume - sparkly dress with straps, and feathery skirt + feathers on top of the head (inside a small crown”, and added to that are sparly silver boots. Wearing a leotard under the dress (it seems to be a  Red Silver Tabby cat). Kitty mask with different-coloured eyes (heterochromia) - one blue & one brown. The costume has a kind of Satine from “Moulin Rouge” feel/look to it. 

Stage presence: Dancing sensual “Cabaret” chair dance while singing. Her backup dancers are dressed as “Chesire cats” 

Height: Short, looks around 155-163cm =  5 feet 1 to 5 feet 4

Build: Petite. Very small & slender. 

Mic hand: Alternates between left & right 

Talking: “I am being somebody that noboby has ever seen before, and its always been inside of me, so... it’s great!”  (when answering “Whats it like being The Kitty?”) 

GUESSES:

Sarah Hyland (actress) -- the voice & the stage presence remind me of her...the most, though alost none of the clues fit her (rose for BF & drama for being on a popular mock series with lots of “drama”...are the main ones fitting her) 50% chance 

Emma Watson (actress) - several clues fit her, but I am uncertain about the voice being a good match

Chloë Grace Moretz (actress) ...so many clues seem to reference to the movie “Hugo” she was in...that was a “tribute” to Georges Méliès...

Kate Bosworth (actress/model) - she has heterochromia + several clues fit 

Mila Kunis (actress) - she has heterochromia 

Lily Rose Depp - I am not that familiar with her voice to make a definite yes/no decision, but several clues match - pirates connection through her dad & French connection though her mom. She starred in a film titled “Planetarium”... and in the Vanity Fair’s “Secret Showcase/Talent” she did has a very similar oldie feel to it...like the clue package has 

some/any “former” Disney actress, who is now in their late teens to late 20s

With this Mask I am more confused than I have ever been with any other mask...any season. Some fit the voice, some the stage prsence, some the clues. But none seem to fit (to me/to my knowledge) them all. And I still cannot decide on the voice..even after re-listening/watching. I really need that 2nd & 3rd song to make up my mind. 

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

TBA LATER [SEE: LISTED CLUES & YOU’LL KNOW ANYWAY]

TACO 

CLUES

Location: (Restaurant) Kitchen 

Location: Hollywood (CBS) Lot: streets/parking lot 

VISUAL CLUES:

MIB dressed as chefs (in buffed up/sumo suits) preparing food - tacos

The taco lying on the plate as MIB chef adds some seasoning to it 

VHS tapes...on the counter 

Anchor (nautical.. ships anchor) on a plate 

A (solved) Rubik’s Cube on top of a bowl filled with lemons/limes. 

Fresh food in the fridge as the door is opened (salad, peppers) - a red trolley (tramcar/streetcar) is on top of the food 

The MIC chefs adding more seasonings, and then ketchup to the taco. Writing TACO as a decoration on the plate, next to the taco, with ketchup. 

The taco jumps off the plate, and onto the kitchen floor, adn starts running away..as the MIB chefs run after him (with ladles in hands)...He runs out of therestaurant...and onto the street

The MIB looking out between large TMS door and waving for Taco to come their way...and the Taco running into the studio...as the doors close just in front of the chasers

Sign next to the TMS mask logo doors: Studios 36 & 46 Main Entrance [arrow pointing to the left]

Sign on the wall inside the TMS studio doors: Stage 46 [arrow to the right] 

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

“Like the comfort food I am, I’ve been a confirting part of your lives for decades” 

“I’ve got plenty of seasoning & I'm in a good place, but my routine can get a bit mild, so I'm here to bust out of the buffet...and spice things up.” 

“To enchiladas and beyond!“ 

“Here I go...as fast as I can.” 

“I want to be the last mask standing.” 

“I just hope I don’t fall apart out there.” 

“Time for Taco Wednesday.”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra 

Look/Costume: Dark green suit under a taco suit/costume. Cherry tomato for a head. Ketchup bottle for a mic. suits in the background. 

Stage presence: Moon & stars theme: Big Band with starry suits. Swing music style..very 1960s Sinatra vibes. 

Height: He’s around 170cm = 6 feet (about the same height as the host, Nick)

Build: Tall-ish & lean-ish. 

Mic hand: Right 

Talking:  "This is how  dress normally! No(w), the weirdest thing about this experience is being ignored by everyone, cause they don’t know who I am. For the first time (in my life) I feel invisible!” (when answering “How is his normal life different from being on TMS?”) 

GUESSES

Tom Bergeron (TV show host & comedian) 99% chance 

Tim Allen (actor/comedian) 0.5% chance 

Tom Hanks (actor) 0,5% chance 

Though the voice at times makes it seem as this could be the actor (and comedian, and writer, and artist) John Lithgow and/or the clues at times make it seem as this could be the actor Ted Danson...it cannot be either of them. They’re just too tall to be the person in that costume. 

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES

TBA LATER [SEE: LISTED CLUES & YOU’LL KNOW ANYWAY]

VHS tapes =  America’s Funniest (Home) Video’s - he hosted the show..for years

The trolley = the exact trolley/model like in “Mr. Roger’s Neighbourhood” +the 2019 film about him - hesang a song on the 2019 films “soundtrack”

“...as fast as I can” = the title of his (autobiographical) book is “I'm hosting as dast as I can” 

MOUSE 

CLUES:

Location: Football field 

VISUAL CLUES:

The Mouse holding a megaphone & gicing orders through it to others (shes the boss of them all)

MIB dressed in dark slacks & yellow jerseys + wearing helmets...ready to play some “american football”

One MIB is dressed as a cheerleader - with pink tutu skirt & golden pom-poms...cheering them on...

There is a dark football helmet with the US flag on the bench next to the Mouse Mask

The Mouse standing on top of a car/trcuk tire...that’s on the foorball field 

Whiteboard with game strategy on it. Title: Bang Bang Formation. Football field drawin under it...with each players moves indicated. 

The four cardinal directions: N for north, S for souts, W for West & E for east (in a different colour!) on each side of the table. 

The MIB athletes doing push-ups..with The MOuse standing on top of one of their helmets

The MIB yellow jerseys say “Wariors” & their numbers are “19″ & “79" 

The MIB athletes tackle the trainign equpment the mouse is standing on, making her fly, and (crach) land of the grass

AUDIO CLUES/VOICEOVER:

“Just like a mouse I’m small and cute. But don’t let my size fool you, because my presence is larger than life. ” 

“I’ve always been a leader in my field, really.” 

“I wrote the Playbook.” 

“But as much as I love calling the shots, and showing everyone who’s the boss, I also love having a walk-on role to play.” 

“They say: “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”  But now that I'm putting myself in, you should. Because I never accept anything less than gold.” 

“So, to all my copetitors, you “cheddar” watch out” 

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Get here” by Oleta Adams 

Look/Costume: Pink-ish mouse costume, wearing a long fairy skirt/dress (with flowers in front) & fairy wings on the back. 

Stage presence: Static. Sitting during both the performance/singing AND the “panel guessing” part [indicating she’s older and/or has a health issue and/or it’s done just to fool the viewers about her height...and hence the line “don’t let my size fool you” in the clue package] 

Height: Shorter than the host, Nick. Seems about 170- 175 cm = 5 feet 5 iches to 5 feet 7 inches  tall. 

Build: “Normal” ...to smallish

Mic hand: Right 

Talking:  “Not being able to talk. Yeah, you know, I’m a chatterbox. And I love talking and they always tell me...that I can’t say anything to anybody.” 

(when answering the question “what makes this experience different from her day-to-day life?” 

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES:

TBA LATER [SEE: LISTED CLUES & YOU’LL KNOW ANYWAY]

Warriors 19 & 79 = 1979 [the year, the number] = This is  the year, when her album “Dionne” was released.

Gold (pom-pons) in her clue package = many of her (her bands) albums/songs have gone Gold. 

GUESSES:

Dionne Warwick (singer) 90% chance 

I dont really have other guesses. I was conflicted for a bit during the original airing, cause it looked like she was wayshorter than the host, but thats cause I did not pay attention to the fact that she was sitting the whole time. So my confusion “that’s D.W.s voice, but the height excludes her... cause she is a bit taller than that” was over as soon as someone pointed it out to me, and I was able to re-watch & see that she sat not only during the Q&A, but also her performance. 

BANANA

CLUES:

Location: Football field 

Location: Party/Tour bus 

VISUAL CLUES:

Four small fruit-shaped “hobbit houses” - one pear, one stwarberry & 2 watermelons...behind a white picket fence + theres a bicycle nxt to the fence 

Banana sleeping & “yawning”  outside, on a grass (football field)... on a blanket

A cowboy hat next to the sleeping banana 

A tomato & a blowfish next to the sleeping banana 

MIB texting “Banana! Where R U?” to him..on an orange-coloured phone 

All kinds of veggies and salads + a banana peel..on the grass. The MIB “walking and texting”, and hence not seeing the banana peel & slipping on it & falling down next to the blanket 

The Banana sleeping under the blanket...with two dressed in green “cowgirls” sleeping on either side of him. The Bananas clothes/costume is on the floor/grass next to them...so he’s “naked” under the blanket 

All kinds of veggies lying around the blanket, on the grass õA

A blue (dog) collar on the grass next to the blanket

Banana partying on a tour bus with the two green creatures

Banana dancing on the table...

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

[Banana sleeping on a football field & getting a text “Where R U” from MIB] “What? Where am I? Oh, no, I’m late for the stage! Aaahh” 

[12 hrs earlier] “Ugh, I cant believe I overdid it last night. You’d think this was my first rodeo.”

“I’m the banana because I'm tough on the outside, but a total smoothie on the inside. And a hoot to have at parties. Am I right, ladies?”

[getting up from under the blanket] “Help me get dressed, dadgumit.” 

"I cant wait to peel back my layers, and show I can use my voice in any environment.” 

"I just wanna see you smile.” 

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “A Little Less Conversation” by Elvis Presley 

Look/Costume: Yellow costume suit & a banana head with banana peel for a collar

Stage presence: Very energetic, moving around & dancing a lot. Ends the song with an “Iron Man landing pose”

Height: He’s around 180cm = 6 fee (around the same height as the host, Nick) 

Build: He’s tall & lean

Mic hand: Right 

Talking: “[chuckles] Technically... No. My kid. -- I’m getting ready to work out -- she hands me a banana, and it’s a sign. So here I am - The Banana. And I’m peeling it. I’m peeling the music.” (when aswering the question “Did you always want to be the Banana?” 

GUESSES:

Bret Michaels of “Poison” (singer/musician) - those denace moves! and stage presence just give him away. 

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

TBA LATER [SEE: LISTED CLUES & YOU’LL KNOW ANYWAY]

Cowbvoy hat = he wars one quite often (its kind of one of his trademarks) 

Blowfish = they are poisonous & “POison” is the name of his band 

The MIB slipping on a banana peel & falling = Bret famously fell once during Tony Awards in 2009

Blue Collar = he has a pet clothing line + his daughetrs name is Bleu 

ELEPHANT

First mask to be voted out in ep 4! 

I am sad, cause I really liked his performance. But I get it...they’re all really equal, so it just depends which voie/mask has most “fans” in the audience that day/moment. 

The clue package video hinted at a sportsman (athlete: skateboard, acrobatics, parkour, snowboarding...or similar..based on the MIB choreography). An individual sport, not team sport. The blue birds hinted at his company name + kinda his last name, too. 

What people shoul’dve picked up, too were: his “limping” as he entered the stage. His “sliding to his knees” on stage (a move in his sports...to protect from falls). And... even though it was most likely just about “he's moving to the beat of his own drum” with the drums/drumming, but Id like to think that is was a nod to his role in that “Guitar Hero” add, where he & 3 other famous athletes played band members...and he was the drummer.

<<<<< THIS IS WHAT GOES ON IN MY HEAD AFTER EVERY TMS SHOW/EPISODE. THIS IS HOW I CATEGORIZE THE INFO I HAVE INTO FOLDERS IN MY MIND. THIS IS HOW SPECIFIC I AM, AND HOW INTO DETAILS I GO. THIS IS HOW MUCH I PAY ATTENTION (while, most likely, missing a ton of more hints that I’ll only notice during re-watch) I JUST DECIDED TO WRITE IT DOWN…FOR ONCE.

As promised, I’ll be doing this for the first episode of each group (3x01 for group A, 3x04 for group B, and in a few weeks 3x07 for group C). But that’s all I’ll be doing. Those three. Cause I have no time or energy to write it all down each week. 

[thepoolscene]

The Pool Scene - Alex Lely - Mosconi Cup

New Post on https://thepoolscene.com/?p=55546

LELY TO CAPTAIN TEAM EUROPE

Alex Lely has been appointed as the new captain of Team Europe at the partypoker Mosconi Cup, with Karl Boyes as his vice-captain. Europe will be looking to regain the Cup at Alexandra Palace, London this December 1st-4th after suffering back-to-back defeats against USA.

Dutchman Lely returns to the helm having been European captain in 2008 and 2009. In his first Cup as captain he led Europe to an 11-5 victory in Malta before losing 11-7 to USA the following year.

“It is very exciting,” said Lely of his appointment. “It has been ten years since I was last the captain and that is a long time in the context of the Mosconi Cup. It has grown to be so big in that time and it is getting better every year. With USA winning it the last two years, the Mosconi Cup has sparks once again.

“We have a big pool of talent in Europe. We have two wildcards so together with Karl Boyes we will need to make the right choices to compliment the three players who qualify through the rankings. There will be a list of usual suspects and new contenders we have to consider. One new contender to consider would have to be Fedor Gorst, who came really close to making the team last year and is now World Champion.

“We need to get our act together. It is not just about making the balls, it is about acting as a team and it will be very important for the team to gel. Communication will be very important between the coaches and the players, and amongst players themselves. Playing at home, we want to bring it home.

“The past ten years, I have been coaching a lot, working with top players, and commentating a lot. So I have been very close to the Mosconi Cup and elite pool and I have learned a lot. I think ten years ago I was pretty green, a bit of a rookie. I wasn’t as experienced as a coach as I am now.

“Karl and I can complement each other very well. Boyes is boy-ish and can bring something to the team that I probably couldn’t. But he is very insightful; it isn’t just banter. He is very experienced in the Mosconi Cup and I am very happy to have him in my corner.”

Boyes is a four-time partypoker Mosconi Cup winner with Europe and since putting down his cue has become one of pool’s leading pundits.

“The campaign paid off,” said Boyes, who had been using social media to gather support for his bid for a role in the European setup. “It will be great to work alongside Alex, who has experience of the captaincy role and is a top coach and commentator. Alex is a very knowledgeable guy and I think we will gel very well together.

“The last couple of years I’ve seen a few things which we can improve on. I think the doubles needs to be worked on more where certain points have been lost because maybe the pairings haven’t been quite right. Certainly, last year Johan worked the schedule well and Shane van Boening and Skyler Woodward played more times than say, Joshua Filler and Jayson Shaw.”

Lely takes the reigns as European captain from Marcus Chamat, who led the team from 2015 until 2019, lifting the cup three times. Matchroom Pool would like to thank Marcus for his hard work during his time as European captain.

Photos courtesy of JP Parmentier/Matchroom Multi Sport

A full list of the 2020 Team Europe qualifying events will be published later this month.

Tickets for the 2020 partypoker Mosconi Cup are on sale now at www.mosconicup.com. Tickets are priced at £25, £40 and £60 per day with Platinum VIP packages from £170 per day. Season tickets for all four days start at £90 with the Platinum VIP season ticket priced £600. Platinum VIP includes seating in the front three rows, a two-course buffet dinner, mid-session hot-food bowl, unlimited beer, wine and soft drinks from 6:30pm-10:30pm and much more.

The 2020 partypoker Mosconi Cup is partnered by Rasson Billiards who supplies the Official Table; the cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and Saluc is the Official Ball Provider. Predator is the Official Cue of the event, Kamui the Official Chalk and Tip and Ultimate Team Gear provide all partypoker Mosconi Cup apparel.

Follow the partypoker Mosconi Cup on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. For all the latest event news please visit www.mosconicup.com.