Need Some Help Here, Godzilla.

The Cast

Date: 02 June 2020

FILLERBUSTER’S ELEVEN

BACKGROUND:  This started as a long-winded numbered blog.  It transformed into an organized long-winded category blog.  Now, it is a quick-hitter to ease your pain.  I lack time.  So, the preparation of the blog actually made me procrastinate from writing the thing.  Let’s see who makes the cut.  Barely edited as usual unfortunately, so please excuse any mistakes during my stream of consciousness.  I feel the need…the need for speed.  Let’s turn and burn.

SETTING: This is written on Monday night while the wife watches her shows (Dateline, 20/20, Dead To Me, etc.).  Edited and released on Tuesday morning before work time.

1. EVERGREEN 1: SPACEX.  As we suddenly pause on talking about social distancing and COVID, and watch each of our cities protest the death of George Floyd, I felt that we received a 30 minute breath of fresh air on Saturday afternoon.  SpaceX was launched in what would be the first rocket launched by NASA in ten years.  I won’t pretend to understand why we stopped sending people up or why we suddenly did a 180, but it was enjoyable to watch something constructive, positive, American, and game changing.  Turning on the news these days can be a pretty negative experience, so therefore we need something a little different here and there.  We hope to see peaceful protests soon, moving forward, but that will not occur for all cities.  So, we can sit around and know that Kaepernick DID have a better plan and better vision.  We can hope that these protests don’t spark up the other global story of COVID.  But, in the meantime, I will say that watching a countdown like we did at school when I was a kid, listening to NASA jargon, relearning about first and second stages again, watching the fiery inferno help jumpstart the shuttle to 17,000 miles per hour, and holding our breath hoping all went well was a welcomed GOOD story to help achieve some sort of balance in our lives.  Thank you, NASA.
2. EVERGREEN: COVID.  We are at a very important turning point for COVID, as we all know.  George Floyd protests might negate all of the progress we have made with shutting everything down and distancing from our friends.  Latin America is the new hot spot, and the rest of the world hopes this won’t start a new spike.  Bars and restaurants have opened back up with new rules, The Strip is operational again with rules galore, companies are having people come back to work, and people are venturing out to some degree.  The U.S. is now beyond 100,000 deaths, not cases.  I thought this business article was pretty interesting about our change in buying habits.  https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/business/consumer-trends-coronavirus/index.html  Pro sports are trying to figure out their plan.  Baseball is like the USA fighting COVID in the way that the owner-player fight has become the bigger story.  The Boston Marathon was canceled for the first time ever.  Japanese theme parks are open, but have asked their patrons to not scream or yell.  Again, not scream or yell on scary rides.  And CNN posted the exact whereabouts of one party goer over the big Ozark party weekend during Memorial Day, in case you were around him and need to get tested.  DeSean Jackson is offering ideas about football being played with no fans and players wearing microphones.  My friends just cancelled their August wedding because there won’t be any dancing, and social distancing regulations limit all activities.  Folks, these are just a few of the stories.  THIS is the world we now live in.
3. NFL: They seem very hesitant about voting on this 4^th and 15 replacing an onside kick.  I personally am fine with just keeping the onside kick.  It is traditional, historic, and the other idea is not mind blowing.  Baker Mayfield says that this year will be about action and not words, but of course he had to SAY his new philosophy on social media, so I find that kind of ironic.  Aaron Jones says he would like to be a lifelong Packer and he would like a long-term contract, and even if running backs have a short shelf life overall, it is still nice hearing about someone who wants to STAY as opposed to demanding a trade to LEAVE.  Joe Thomas was a Pro Bowl offensive lineman, but he did something this week that again proves that those slow, large offensive lineman are still elite athletes.  He destroyed The Rock’s obstacle course on the TV show.  It reminds me of watching one of our All-American Virginia offensive linemen in college draining three’s at the gym before dunking the ball, all 300 plus pounds of him.  Melvin Gordon said he is prepared already to play in front of no fans since he played for the Chargers, and although that might be true and kind of funny, I see no reason to throw your previous organization under the bus.  Just nothing there to gain.  Colin Kaepernick offered to pay for all arrested protestors, and he continues to be the correct one in all of this and the one ahead of his time.  Greg Kittle says that he wants Greg Kittle money and not tight end money, and that won’t end well for team and player.  Actually, no conversation where the player is speaking of himself using his own name will end well.
4. COLLEGE FOOTBALL:  JT Daniels has to have an end game of being the NFL.  He came out of high school on that path, and still is, with three years eligibility left where he transfers to.  But, his decision intrigues me.  He leaves USC and goes to powerhouse Georgia, who literally JUST picked up Wake Forest transfer and NFL pro prospect Jamie Newman.  Not saying he should run from a competitive situation, but I would think you might want to land in a more clear situation than the one you were in.  Those two will duke it out and the loser might end up being an afterthought or an odd trivia question.  Shame for the sport that the George Floyd protests had the College Football Hall of Fame located in Atlanta as a damage victim.  Pat Dye died this week, and a great football coach and human being was lost.  Four SEC championships in the 80’s is not an easy task, and Pat accomplished that.  I know Clemson recruiting has five-star recruits right and left, but losing WR Justyn Ross for the entire season is a relatively big hit on their end game, which is always a national title at that school these days.
5. COLLEGE BASKETBALL:  Moussa Cisse will reclassify to the 2020 class.  That will be a big pickup and landscape changer for whoever he decides on.  Texas Tech plugged a big hole this week, and other schools are jealous.  Mac McClung chose Texas Tech over his other six finalists, and they lose Ramsey to the draft this year, so this is perfect timing.  What do you need to know about Mac?  Only this.  He broke Allen Iverson’s high school scoring record in the state of Virginia.  Texas Tech and Virginia were both in the national championship game last time a season went on.  They had a rebuild year that was never finished.  Now, both will be back in full force and teams didn’t even have any fun beating up on them for a full season.
6. NBA:  Tom Thibodeau is a winning coach and the Knicks are right to have him on their list, but I am not buying that he can change his methods at age 62.  That age of coach suddenly doesn’t just become progressive.  This is a solid article on Nikola Jokic that I stumbled on during these non-sports times.  https://www.si.com/nba/2020/05/28/nikola-jokic-nuggets-the-serbian-way  We obviously save most talk on the NBA season’s return keeping in mind who will WIN, but we aren’t talking enough about the non-playoff teams.  Whether they have teams play into the playoffs, keep their current record, or make them all play it out, the difference between draft spot #1 and #10 is pretty drastic.  We might just be opening up our economy and adjusting to a different style of life, but I am glad that JR Smith still hasn’t forgotten how to be in the news for odd, off the court issues. Someone apparently messed with his ride during a Floyd protest.  Sometimes I get a little sad that JR can always say he has a title.
7. MLB:  MLB players and owners are being too detailed oriented and selfish.  They look a little silly.  Every other sport just wants to find the most fair way to come back, and I am reading way too many stories about each side in MLB watching out for only their interests.  I am not in the room admittedly, and won’t know every conversation that occurs, but I will say this.  Whatever solution that comes out of the room is NOT going to be completely fair for either side.  But, figure in the public at some point.  You have to compromise, and understand that the country NEEDS sports back.  Find a way.  After 9/11, baseball was one of the first big “back to normalcy” events.  Try and make that happen again and be the one blazing the path, and not the group blocking it.  I didn’t know that David Price was that nice of guy, and the gesture of giving all LAD minor league players $1k was a good one.
8. MISCELLANEOUS:  I feel like the NHL will end up having the most detailed and thought out playoff plan coming out of the COVID shutdown.  The Basketball Tournament seems to be doing its homework on the creation of THEIR bubble.  I love that tournament, and hope they can be a trail blazer in getting some hoops back into our lives.  Bob Baffert is juicing his horses?  He should be glad that COVID was in full gear when that story broke, because I think it got buried a little.  People are already brainstorming The Match as an annual event in golf.  I like it and would watch it after the big improvement from the first to the second one.  I like the idea of them teaming up to play the young guns.  Mike Tyson is everywhere suddenly, as he appeared on an AEW wrestling event with an entourage.  Premier League is back on June 17^th, La Liga is doing June 11^th, Kesolowski just won the NASCAR race in Bristol, UFC had another event where Gilbert Burns would have been the second straight value bet in a row, and Bundesliga keeps on trucking.  Slowly getting back to whatever normalcy is.  Does anyone even KNOW anyone watching the Lance Armstrong special?  Useless if you ask me.  Madden Football extended their contract through 2026, in case some of your gamer friends were worried about it.  Forbes just released its top earning athletes for the last year.  I was really happy to see a tennis player beating out those soccer guys at #1.  Roger Federer topped the rankings through his winning and his various endorsements, and the big three in soccer were 2,3, and 4.  If we think we see him a lot on the TV already, I bet you that in Europe it is nonstop.  Very nice gesture by Floyd Mayweather to pay for George Floyd’s funeral. 
9. THIS AND THAT: What is up with these moths?  I don’t remember it being bad five years ago, but apparently that was the closest to what we have going right now.  We had one in the FRIDGE at some point this weekend.  I have accepted them as a part of my life.  Our empty AirBNB in the basement needs regular pickups.  The front porch and chairs group is a swarm.  Do they eventually phase out or is this something that is all summer? Our cedar arrives on Wednesday from Amazon, as apparently they don’t like that stuff.  Not sure if Godzilla can treat them like Mothra and take care of all of them, or whether I need a bunch of tiny Godzillas, but I am workshopping it.  Mothra appeared second most in the Godzilla movies, for those who didn’t know. I am not even going to try and touch the George Floyd incident, as plenty of paid writers have already covered the horrible event as well as one can.  Let’s move on to other topics.  I don’t eat a lot of KFC, but didn’t realize they didn’t have a dog in the race for chicken sandwiches.  Apparently, that was just rectified.  I had to kill some time the other day in Lakewood, and had the Wendy’s Breakfast Baconator.  I support it.  Good stuff.  Jonathan Steingard is a Christian rocker in the band Nelson who apparently just came out and admitted that he no longer believes in God.  THAT seems like the biggest 180.  Have you seen the Eargo commercial about the kids trying to whisper about a condom in front of a set of parents?  I had never heard about Eargo, but that was really, really funny.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDgpF4nvCfM  I am caught up on Billions, and they deliver another great episode this past week.  They only were able to film half the season, so unfortunately the party is ending in another couple of weeks.  A wolverine was spotted in the state of Washington, and that is pretty rare.  So, now Washington people have seen a Murder Hornet and now a Wolverine in the past few weeks.  And some jokester is putting up Murder Hornet signs in parks too, and that isn’t really funny.  We got Uchi takeout on Thursday night, and that still is one of the best meals you can get out of the restaurant…and I am not even a sushi guy.  Highly recommend.  Jimmy Buffet just came out with a new album, and I thought he was old when we were big fans of him back in college.  And that was a while ago.  The oldest man in the world, from the UK, died sadly this week.  You would be proud to have that title, but it would be the definition of having a target on your back I suppose also.  Need a cheese plate that is off the hook?  So Damn Gouda is are go-to.  We got it Friday night and the pairings are on point and delicious.  Fire On The Mountain was another delivery we did this week, and again, their salads are surprisingly on par with the wings.  Still miss going into the place to hear some Grateful Dead.  The concert on Saturday with Jack Johnson, DMB, and others was well worth watching.  An artist played in front of empty Red Rocks, an artist played in empty Mile High, and others played from their homes.  I like that Nike released an ad with “Don’t Do It” for non-peaceful protestors.  I would like to comment that Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Anderson (two UVA hoopsters) joined forces with Jaylen Brown to have a peaceful protest in Atlanta.  Ordering the meal for 4 from Maggiano’s when there is only two of you is a perfect way to have some great leftovers in your fridge for the coming days.  Impractical Jokers is the perfect show to watch when you don’t need a plot and are just hanging out.  Elon Musk is already pretty rich, but apparently made $770 million more on Saturday because of the SpaceX launch.  Gordon Ramsey will be on National Geographic traveling the world searching for adventure and good tasting food, and that sounds like a clever way to simply take a break/vacation.
10. THE FILLERBUSTER: Remember when this section was filled with 2 trips a week and nonstop excitement?  Man, I miss that.  Farthest place Linds and I have on the calendar is Aspen in…December.  As I mentioned earlier, our Pittsburgh wedding is now cancelled.  Let’s get to the boring stuff.  If I lived where I lived a couple of years ago, I am pretty sure I would have had some tear gas in my condo.  Still in season 2 of The Wire, near the end of it.  No Treadstone or Curb progress yet.  I was bad on my guitar learning this week, but that will change.  I am keeping a regular cadence for Spanish still and we are a couple blogs away from me possibly writing a paragraph or two in the language.  Workout is still pushups, planks, running, and the TRX.  The egg machine my wife got me that cooks my hard-boiled eggs has to be one of my favorite contraptions in years.  I have an appointment today again, and it will be a while before I head back to the grocery store and shop myself.  Not worth it, and used to the convenience now to me with this COVID crap.  If animals are so smart, how come, after a week, my one cat STILL doesn’t recognize the other cat who got a lion’s cut?  How is that possible?  I am starting to pack my Go Pack, or Pandemic Pack, or Purge Pack, or whatever this quarantine would call my backpack and bunker I will be prepping for the next odd incident like this.  We had another social distancing Yardy with some grilling and that was fun.  A whole five of us.  I put the everything seasoning on one of my sandwiches the other day to spice it up.  That is some good stuff.  I would have won my third every Scrabble game against my wife if a phone call didn’t come in on Friday.  Virtual karaoke is more fun than I thought it would be, and even grabbed some props from around house for Sweet Child O’ Mine.  Our AC is about to crap out and that is perfect timing for this week’s heat wave.  Great.  Lots more porch time over the weekend, and sooner or later I will clean my garage.  And the Widespread Panic show on Sunday was one of my favorite sets I have seen in a long time, and I would have gone nuts if I was in Alabama in 2000 for that show.  Ranking Widespread songs is kind of like me ranking Seinfeld shows…there is no end in sight.
11. TWEET OF THE WEEK

ALTERNATE CATEGORIES THAT DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT:

1. THE BEST WORKOUT SONG EVER FOR THIS WEEK (because the best song this week IS the best song ever…for now):
2. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
3. LINKS TO SAVE YOU TIME IN LIFE
4. TRAVEL
5. THIS WEEK’S LIST
6. MY NUMBERS
7. GONE FISHING (the riddle for money):
8. PICS BY MY PIXEL (pictures from my phone):
9. LIFEGUARD ENTRY:
10. NHL

The theme?  It was either SpaceX or moths/Godzilla.  Godzilla will usually win when that is the case.  LOVED Godzilla as a kid.  Hate moths.  And Mothra.

And our weekly reminder of the greatest sequel ever made coming out this winter… Top Gun 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epgkqPJ_bc0

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed or are at least more informed.  Remember two things.  First, feed yourself, feed your family, but always, always remember to…feed the wolf.  Second,  if you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.  Will I blog again?  That is a CLOWN question, bro.  As one shepherd said to the other shepherd, let’s get the flock out of here.

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Innocence files