unclevlad

Oh my. My, oh my, oh my. Tulane-USC. Kind of as expected; USC might as well be a Big 12 school from a half dozen years ago...100% offense, 0% defense. Plays out that way, with both teams going wild. Tulane scores to make it 45-37 with about 4 minutes left. They kick off deep. It's a slicing kick. The USC returner calls for a fair catch down around the 2 yard line, as the ball approaches the sideline. He tries to catch it and MUFFS IT...it takes 1 hop and goes out of bounds. USC gets the ball at the 1. 2 plays later...yes indeed. BOOM!!!!!! Tulane pass rush gets through for the safety! With 3 minutes left. Tulane gets the ball back, USC's defense is the sieve it was *all year long*, desperation plays keep the drive going. TERRIBLE, IMO, non-call on targeting down near the goal line. (They have to reconsider it. It was helmet to helmet, just, according to the refs, not crown of the helmet. But BOTH players were down for a couple minutes.) 2 plays later, tho, a short, low pass, grabbed while going down...called incomplete, but on review? TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!! With 9 seconds left, Tulane kicks the XP to win the game. HORRIBLE!!! decision by the returner...the one you see SOOO BLOODY OFTEN, where they simply have no situational awareness. But the USC defense gave up 540 yards on 52 plays...500+ yards, and Tulane only had 16 first towns. GOUGE CITY.

Huh? How does it violate the concept? There IS an attack roll. There IS a combat value. There IS a target...the hex.

Why Ask Why?

If you could get those odds, I might say OK...but I doubt it. I'm seeing 125-1 up to 300-1; you just won't get much more than that preseason. The best odds you can get on the Rockets right now, to win the NBA title, is 2000-1...they're 10-26, so almost halfway through the season. So if someone's really offering odds like that, I'd question whether they're legit.

I don't see a conflict between this, and what LL said...

Teams may want the #1 and bye, but I'm not sure any of em *deserve* it. Vikes have to be the least convincing 12-4 team ever. Never thought the Raiders would stretch the Niners to OT. Makes one think the situation between McDaniels and Carr is as bad, or worse, than Hackett-Wilson.

The way Wilson played today really suggests that Hackett tried to cram him into a system where he never fit. HOO BOY. STUPID GB defensive back, he's got total control of the Vikes' receiver, literally picks him up and body slams him. Instant, automatic call; I'd personally support making this like targeting...first time in a game is a warning. It was bad. Then again, the Vikes throw a pick on the next play. They're looking like the Bears.

Michigan is 3-13 in bowls since 2005. Harbaugh is 1-6, and lost the last 6, yes. The heat was actually growing...until he beat OSU last year. I've disliked the Big 10 for years because they've been incredibly arrogant...without the track record to back it up. Not like they're unique there, of course.

Giants, Lions, and Jags take care of business, winning the way a potential playoff team should win against an also-ran. OTOH, Washington chokes, and Rivera's going to be massively second-guessed for using Wentz. 16-28 for only 140 and 3 picks, in a game at home that they basically HAD TO win. In fact: if Green Bay wins, they and Detroit would be 8-8...and play each other. So barring a tie...one of em goes to 9-8 and Washington can't get in. Philly...if you're a fan of theirs, I'd be worried, because the offense under Hurts wasn't doing great in the second half of the season. Minshew might not be the biggest problem; ToP was 37+ to 22+ for the Saints, who ran clock nicely. And too many penalties for the Eagles. And the horrible disappointments...Bucs and Pats both win. Carolina is out for sure; the Saints may have some slim hopes. Pats...well, with Tua out, the Fins were in deep trouble. Ugh. I really don't want to see the Bucs or Pats in the playoffs but............ And the Pats aren't a lock yet. They've got the Bills to finish out the season, and will need the win if the Jets win today. (Same situation...the Jets and Dolphins would both go to 8-8 and play each other. Pats lose to the Bills, they're 8-9 and out no matter what.)

Actually, the Broncos aren't dysfunctional. Their front office has been incompetent for some time. Not quite the same.

Yeah, the Chiefs are looking particularly sloppy.

"REALLY? You're disturbing my nap for THIS? Dead mouse under your pillow....just you wait..."

Mmm...reminds me. Julia Child's potato-leek soup. The classic...I found numerous "modern taste" versions that, for example, substitute chicken stock...and thereby wreck the core notion of the soup, which is to celebrate the flavor of the leek. 1 lb potatoes 1 lb leeks, whites and tender parts of the green 2 quarts water salt Dice the potatoes; wash (THOROUGHLY, leeks are notorious for trapping sand in the green) and chop the leeks. Add to the salted, hot water, simmer until tender. Optional: puree, using a blender or stick blender. To reduce to chunky, or all the way to smooth, as desired. I puree to pretty smooth. Option 2: add 2-3 ounces of half and half, light cream, or even butter, to make it more smooth and a bit richer. Julia preferred NOT to do this...there was a classic episode when she was on Emeril Live, and said this. This is really a wonderful summer soup. Very light, VERY easy, the prep time is short. Wants a bit of cook time to soften everything but you don't need to pay much attention to it.

Read the rules on teleport. 6E1 300:

Oh, lots of people had half of it.

And for those who don't remember it, here's a quote that offers a hint of why certain factions would be...less than fans. From Wikipedia: The first objective of the censors is to block anything and everything that might be construed as a red pill...and Mad, in its heyday, definitely counted. BTW, it was rebooted, but it doesn't have the reach it had from the 50s through probably the 70s.

CBS pregame. The Derek Carr situation came up, starting with Cowher calling what the Raiders did, disrespectful. Ending with Boomer: "Dysfunctional franchises do dysfunctional things." Ouch. Truth can be painful.

You have realized that Silly Season isn't over yet, right? (Yeah, I kinda had...after 5 games on Friday, including a New Year's 6, and 4 more yesterday.) Reliaquest (used to be Outback), Cotton, Citrus, and Rose Bowls are tomorrow. Rose Bowl is the only semi-late start...and even at that, ESPN's gotten the Bills-Bengals, a HUGE matchup, slid back 15 minutes. That game's also starting on ABC, because as we saw...bowl games run LONG. Even if the Rose Bowl kicks off at the top of the hour, it'll likely run well past the 8:30 Eastern kickoff for MNF.

OH my lord, I'm 2 for 2. The kick was literally 15 seconds after midnight...blame the time out. I should retire now... STOP SMIRKING THERE MR. P!!!! Not surprising but this is the highest-scoring semifinal round for the CFP by a MASSIVE margin...over 30 points. A team has scored 40+ 7 times in the prior 16...2 of those in a double OT game. All 4 teams over 40 today.

But that begs the question, where was the team that beat OSU, today? I think the most surprising takeaway from the early game was how thoroughly TCU shut down the Michigan running game. All right, conspiracy theory time. This game will never go to OT. Why not? Because it's been planned throughout that the final gun happen at the stroke of midnight local time...the sound ringing a Happy New Year for the winner....

No, you have to have targeting for the teleport. You must detect the location with a targeting sense, or you suffer the blind teleporting rule, and the range mod. Also, by that "safe landing"...I'm aiming for a safe spot on the Kansas prairie, where everything within 15 miles is farms. 99.99% of the ground is farmland that would be a safe landing spot. What about this Detect narrows that down to a 5-10 meter radius? Clairvoyance lets you place the perception point, sure, but when you're using MegaScale, what's your positional error radius? Kilometers, sensibly...and you don't know the orientation of your actual perception point relative to where you wanted it to be. If you're not familiar with where you're trying to put that perception point, then asserting "oh I know I made the roll so I know it's where I wanted it to be" is metagaming. (There might be context clues that let you figure that out, but that's not guaranteed.) You're basically looking at a random spot in a circle of radius Quite Large. The Clairsentience rules are very vague; they only say "make an attack roll at DCV 3 (or higher, depending on the difficulty)"...but to be consistent, that difficulty is based on the range mod. And the same radius of error argument applies. I posted the Clairsentience. It's 55 points....but it's also legal in an MP, which your Detect won't be. The structure with either allowing teleport fixed locations to be pre-selected perception points, or using PSLs and CSLs, allows the teleport and clairsentience to be in the same MP; they don't need to be used together. I'm not asking for cheap. As I said: 8x 2 floating fixed locations...25 points. 16x 5 fixed locations...25 points. That's 50 points...and can't be in an MP either. It's plausible, I suppose, to put a Concentration or perhaps Extra Time limitation on them...but it doesn't much help because that *doesn't* reduce the cost of the quantity multiplier. HD says 8x 2 floating fixed locations, with Full Phase...is still 22. (The quantity multiplier is MASSIVELY cheaper. 16 floating fixed locs would be 80 without it.)

Mmmm....Detect what? If it's related to detect remote position, I'm hearing Unusual Sense Group, so I need Ranged, and definitely Targeting...and a TON!!!! of Telescopic. I'll grant that the Telescopic is cheap here, but you need a lot. No range mod to 1 km is +14; to 1000 km is +34. (You need x1000, which is 10 distance doublings, and thus -20 more.) You're also tying things to a PER roll, so odds are that'll need to be bought up somewhat. Not sure it'll work out materially cheaper than the skill levels approach. If you're thinking megascale on a detect...it's possible, sure, but the base cost for a Detect is 3...plus 5 for Ranged, plus 10 for Targeting for 18. NOW you have at least +1 for MegaScale. And this will affect your PER bonus too.

Hope y'all don't read lips. "After further review there is no foul for targeting..." while the camera is on a Michigan fan, who's very clearly saying "what the <bleep>" I would've hated calling that targeting, seeing some of the other calls the last few days that were worse, and NOT called. The kid made a big mistake by leaving it up to the refs, but Michigan didn't deserve a second chance on a relatively meaningless, very borderline call after their big mistake. TCU 51, Michigan 45. YEEHAW!!!! One down, one to go. And yes, it helped kill much of the pregame for the next one. Lovely!!! EDIT: Starlord, I've seen worse cases where targeting wasn't called...as recently as yesterday. That's the #1 issue with the rule; the adjudication is WILDLY!!!!!!!!! inconsistent.

This, pure and simple, unquestionably, is THE WILDEST!!! and CRAZIEST!!! and SWINGIEST!!! game I have ever seen. About that, yeah. 2 minutes into the 4th quarter and the teams have combined for 59 points. IN THE SECOND HALF. EDIT: OSU/Georgia slot isn't until the top of the hour, but this game has run SO long that hey, this one might well not be over.

But didn't take long for Michigan to score. This one's far from over. Michigan's biggest issue has been shooting itself in the lower leg, with a 12 gauge. That last pick-6 looked like the QB just totally missing the defender who made the pick. If you want to throw it on a hard, flat line, you have to check the intermediate spot, not just the mesh point. But TCU's also had its share. OH MY!!!!! And TCU just comes back within 2 plays to rip off a 70 yard run...down at the 1. And Duggan scores, so it's back to a 3 score game in MUCH less than a minute. The TCU line is making enough of a hole, and Michigan's pushing up to stop the run so TCU's getting *gashing* runs. Halfway to Heaven. I'm fine if TCU redeems the Big 12 to a degree, and I'd LOVE to see both Ohio State and Michigan crash and burn.