unclevlad

So if you want to watch Football For FUN!!  

Tonight's the Stagg Bowl, AKA the Div III championship.  NO athletic scholarships...altho there are workarounds.  But pro chances are vanishingly small.  Still a fun game to watch.

There's also a very uncivil border war in the FCS semis...South Dakota State vs. North Dakota State.  In Fargo...but fortunately indoors, given that we're talking Fargo, mid-December, at night.  And, well, if you want to risk permanent eye damage.......Maine's playing at Eastern Washington.  Yes...the evil, hideous, ugly red stuff.  That's tomorrow.  Fortunately the first of the bowl games also kick off tomorrow, with several of the....less than compelling games.  The New Mexico Bowl.  (It's up in the Albaturkey.  It must be dissed.)  New Orleans Bowl  Las Vegas Bowl.  Ohhh, ahh.  Things don't get crazy until after Christmas this year.

11 minutes ago, Pariah said:

Stephen King Has Explicit Suggestion For What Donald Trump Can Do With His Border Wall

 

(NSFW, clearly.)

What's more amusing is the reactions.

14 minutes ago, Badger said:

 

I feel defense wins championships is partly true.

 

As in you cant win if you cant score, but a good defense sure takes a lot of pressure off the offense.

Sure, but that's not what the aphorism says.  It goes much further.  It's saying you need an elite defense to win.  Hooey.  An elite defense and a poor offense can win, but IMO ONLY IF they create negative plays out the wazoo.  Turnovers will tend to come from that, enough to do what you want, but if you're constantly winning the field position battle by 5-10 yards on every change of possession, you'll get the points even without the TOs.  But it's not necessary.

The problem with KC and the Rams is, those defenses are VERY far from good.  Heck, the 2 point play that won the game...what happened?  A terrible defensive screw-up.  At this point in the season?  That says it can't be fixed, and mistakes lose more games than good plays win games.

BTW, I loved going for the win.  Not because it worked.  At the crux, you want your best against their worst...and the KC defense is for sure their weak side by a massive margin.  Some postgame comments were, well in that situation...late TD, 2 pointer to win the game over kicking for the tie...the success rate's bad, it's only 5 outta 17.  That's idionalysis.  If you're playing the Texans, you kick.  If you're playing the Rams or Chiefs, you go for 2.  It's a root flaw with decision-making based on aggregate stats, when those stats may not take the specific factors in play in the moment.

My, my.

"Defense wins championships" is BS.

However, a severely deficient defense does not win championships.  KC's secondary is abysmal, and...who knows.  It may cost them now, given that their offensive diversity is so reduced.  They're not scoring with quite the same efficiency as early in the year;  defenses finally rounding into shape is another factor there too.  That means the defense needs to be merely adequate.  Fine, they had sacks, they got pressures...but they caved repeatedly, and gave up 2 late TDs while showing not much resistance.

Chiefs have to go to Seattle, which is a tricky game to handicap.  Seattle plays the Niners, so they should win and move to 9-5.  That's enough to clich a tie for the 6 seed no matter what;  dunno where head to head tiebreaks are, but beating the Niners gives them the better conference record guaranteed.    In my book, it's a contender/pretender game...if the Chiefs are real SB contenders, they need to win a game like this.  If they lose.....they're in a world of hurt.  Chargers have to beat the Ravens...and then a rivalry game in Denver, but the Broncos may well be eliminated.

Amusing thought.  An all-LA SB is plausible.  Rather a long shot, but plausible.

Venom is out on disc.  "Just in time for the holidays!"  Uh huh...just what I want to watch at this time of year.  Well, I suppose dark and brooding fits winter anyway......

2 hours ago, death tribble said:

My name is Death Tribble, dictator and president for life of the NGD forum of the Hero Boards and loyal servant to the TRUE creator, Steve Long. Poster of a maligned challenge, instigator of a disputed frodown. And I will have my vengeance, in this life AND the next.

That's nice.

Don't forget to wash your hands before dinner, now.

Oh, and apropos book...

Marc Stiegler's The Brain Trust.  Now up to 3 novels, and one novella, IIRC.  He too equally bashes the left and the right.

Oh yeah.  The polarization is extreme.  I even question the loyalty to our side aspect, relative to the kneejerk rejection of the other side.  I think politics is driven by the negative...so what that Trump is a terrible choice, he's not Clinton!!!  And that strikes across the board.  Our guy might be a nightmare but as long as he'll vote Our Way, he's golden.  Oh, if he's white, and yes, male is *strongly* preferable.

1 hour ago, pinecone said:

My "solution" is to bring back the draft...for reps, and senators(?) Various parties win seats then random members , who are registered to that party are drafted.

Hey, many of them would be perfectly good draftees for John Scalzi.

And in a case of dog bites man....banana had the early lead but it has slipped behind!

The texture issues...the best flavor is from bananas with a good bit of brown, but that's where the texture goes really south.  Another argument for a nicely spiced banana bread!  No texture issues.  Do that with yer little sugar bombs!

11 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

So, maybe a 50/50 chance then. 

I don't think I'd give Trump a 50% chance;  I'd take the under.  That might be my hopes speaking but...we'll see.  The whole "I'll shut down the government.  I'll own that!" rant has to rattle the Republicans.  The various allocutions, all the things that are coming out, provide a foundation for an impeachment.  Statements like the shutdown provide the impetus to bail on the idiot before he draws the entire Party down with him.  It can't happen with what we have right now, not even come January, but the potential is definitely on the upswing.

On a different front:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/13/health/gun-deaths-highest-40-years-cdc/index.html

Yet we can barely manage a restriction on even such a fringe aspect of guns as bump stocks.

The other aspect of the Intelligencer article is, it's trivial for Trumpeteers to ignore.  Just another bash.  At least in public.  It would be interesting to hear their thoughts in private.  The RNC has to be terrified, because the midterm elections were a debacle.  If Trump is still President a year from today, then the Party will be completely swept out in 2020...White House, House, and Senate.  I'd also be worried that the backlash would damage the Party for a couple election cycles.  To be sure, some of this may depend on the Democrats finding a candidate with a clue.

The story on CNN suggests Pelosi and Schumer really didn't do anything.  Trump threw that tantrum on his own.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/11/media/time-person-of-the-year-2018/index.html

Bravo.

Yep.  The Brits shot themselves in the foot with an autocannon.  Hey, guess what, Brits...you've got no leverage here, beyond the fact that a decently clean separation is also in the interest of the EU.

Get used to it.  Populist SCREAMS will be the New Normal moving forward.  The major shifts that will be necessary in the face of climate change will ensure that.  Or, of course, they'll be in response to all the ongoing disasters that are triggered.

The detail's there but it still looks like mid-level video game quality.  Some of it might be poor POVs.

But yeah, the story's very dark in places, and how much pastoral, rabbits all hopping happily in the meadow, can we take?  Certainly, the dark tone is in the book.  Adams didn't push it that much, that I can recall.  Granted, it's been 30-40 years.  But that's the part that makes for the conflict to drive the story.

8 minutes ago, Cancer said:

Another week, another coordinator or coach fired after a loss to Seattle.  The Vikings just fired offensive coordinator John DeFilippo.

That's in lieu of firing Zimmer midseason.  

The Vikes are, IMO, backing the wrong horse...not that Zimmer or DeFilippo are geniuses, but Kirk Cousins simply has not shown he belongs in the kitchen.  He can't stand the heat.  The Vikes massively overpaid.  Plus, the offensive line is bad.  Don't care who the QB is, he's never going to be consistent with a bad line around him.  

I have Prime.  I stream a game every now and again when there's some other event I want on the TV screen instead.   Unfortunately, it's still Buck and Aikman, so no relief there.....

And it's still sloppy, ill-prepared TNF.  Leave that to meaningless games like the Battle of the Bird Cage...Cards/Falcons.

So, the notion is a healer with a nasty streak too...4d6 HKA, conceived as literally unweaving flesh.  The power to help is the power to harm.  Ergo, I decided...No STR Bonus seems to fit that.  OK, that's fine.

Now, the character also has some martial arts, mostly with a defensive focus, but with a couple strikes and a couple bonus DCs.

So...when using the HKA with a Defensive Strike, where I've got +4 DCs coming...do I get those, when I'm not using any STR?  Because it feels like, yeah, the OCV and DCV adjustments make perfect sense...but the extra DCs don't.

Is it any surprise that Jon Gruden fired Reggie McKenzie?

And why, why, WHY does one of the more important games of the year, have to be on freaking TNF....   UGH!!!

After that debacle...

Given that the Vikes can't afford to touch Kirk Cousins...not with what they pay him...Mike Zimmer has no chance of surviving the axe once their season's over, IMO.  The Vikes' offense was offensive, all right.

Don't have any at the moment;  I probably use books more than TV, too.

And there's something of a serendipity factor...you need the TV character concept and the campaign to dovetail.  Had one great situation like this...a Vampire game where coldly calculating and incredibly efficient made sense.  The character's style was based on Michael from La Femme Nikita...which also tells ya how long ago that was....:(

I've also taken inspiration from a song.  Vampire again.  The song:  Charlie Daniel's Still in Saigon.  Good song, good story.  PERFECT for a creepy Malkavian.

On 12/9/2018 at 1:28 PM, GM Joe said:

Playable realism comes naturally to GURPS. The further you get from that, the harder the system struggles.

 

Bingo.  That's our executive summary right there.

2 hours ago, L. Marcus said:

... And you are ... non-tiny?

Edelman's only lsted as 5'10, and 200, so he's 6-8 inches shorter and anything from 60 to 130 pounds lighter than tight ends, linemen, and linebackers.  And often 5 or more inches shorter than most other wideouts.

The imagery happens in the NBA too, from time to time.  Steph Curry looks like a midget compared to the rest of the Warriors lineup....but recognize he's 6'3".  

Starloard, I hope you have good liability insurance for all the retinal burn you caused with that pic......