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UpperWestside

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by UpperWestside

  1. Desantis is more thin-skinned than Dotard, Junior, Michael Jordan and Aaron Rodgers put together.
  2. This post is not getting enough love.
  3. I went to a basketball camp when I was 8 or so and learned proper form and whatnot. I was fascinated with being able to shoot a three-pointer. I remember hitting my first two attempts in the 5th grade in a game because we were losing and no one else was hitting anything so I figure why not? I used to sit in the gym for hours in my 20’s and very early 30’s just shooting because I enjoyed it. I could have done it then, but it would have taken awhile to pull off. I remember one time as a teenager lining it up from one of the volleyball lines and hitting 12 in a row. I had someone passing the ball back to me though so I wasn’t wasting time chasing the ball and losing rhythm. Now after years of not playing I’d be lucky to hit the broadside of a barn. Too much muscle mass lost and it’s just not easy to pull off unless you want to tactics for hours upon hours week after week.
  4. I completely understand this. I think that what was once done in the dark is now done in broad daylight and put right in the storefront window in too many “Houses of God.” If a church is espousing things that run contrary to what the New Testament actually says, it’s a good bet you should stay far away from that place. Seeing what “Christians” will do in God’s name to inflict emotional or physical pain on those they deem to be lesser-thans is an absolute horror show. We get one life and people choose to waste it inflicting pain on others to make themselves feel better. I also think the most well-adjusted and happy person I have ever crossed paths with was a man I worked with pre-Covid named Mohammed. He was an African man of the Islamic faith from Gambia if memory serves correct. He was in his late 50’s and was a cook and I asked him how he was always so happy and he said to me “What do I have to be unhappy about? God is good to me.” That moment has stuck with me for the simplicity and poignancy of how he said it. More of us need to be like that man whether we are religious or not.
  5. I have a friend here that is a really nice guy. I remember him mentioning he likes listening to Osteen. I kinda smiled and said “Well I suppose he is a good motivational speaker.” The Osteens of the world were here before him and they’ll be here after he is done using Jesus to grift his way to millions more. I have met one mega church pastor in Stephen Furtick. I have said here that I thought he came across as a normal guy and we had a pleasant conversation for about 15 minutes. He may one day turn out to be a horror show of a human being, but that’s up to him. All the wars fought in the last two millennia that were done in the name of Jesus were exactly as you describe them. People are prideful and greedy and enough is never good enough. I have said this to many people over the years, but if Jesus came back tomorrow and attempted to enter a Christian church they’d likely turn him away because of how he looked, smelled or was dressed. The mission of Christianity has been lost on a lot of folks. Not all, but when the number is in the millions you have an issue that is not going away in any of our lifetimes.
  6. Probably will never retire honestly, but that doesn’t upset me. I have a plan for what I hope to accomplish though, but I gotta take care of myself mentally to do any of it.
  7. There are places I want to visit in Montana, but when I read about what they are doing to the trans representative and not even allowing her to speak, well, I will just not go there. My God what a bunch of backwards ghouls picking on a small group of people just to score some political points. A lot of our fellow citizens really do not deserve to breathe the same air as the rest of us. Montana is what religious fundamentalists look like. These are mentally broken, deranged and unwell people.
  8. If you do not have any particular faith in God or any higher power that’s cool by me. I do find that fundamentalists in religion are absolutely a threat to those who believe differently than they do. If you want to believe in a magic chicken or the venerable Flying Spaghetti Monster feel free. If you are an atheist that’s also cool because being a good human being to others does not require you to believe in anything. I look at this country as a whole and I see good people from every kind of background imaginable that are able to live together. I also see these fundamentalist nuts trying to hi-jack our country and government. I am no fan of them. They preach hate and intolerance and for my own faith that goes directly against anything Jesus ever said or taught. These people are dangerous because they will not stop until they get curb-stomped back under the rock they crawled out from under. I am very big on a separation of faith from our government. We cannot function in any positive manner with the continued insertion of religion into our local, state and national governing bodies. It’s a non-starter for me because invariably it leads to one group trying to subjugate those who are less powerful. That is absolutely something that’s a no-go for me personally.
  9. I have never felt subjugated in being a Christian, but I agree with the tenet of what happens when religion is weaponized. That can be Christianity, Islam or any other religious belief system. If I ever felt I was in a Christian church that was preaching hate, intolerance or anything else not in line with anything Christ actually said I’d be out the door like that. I have been blessed to be around so many different belief systems here in New York. I find that being around so much diversity in higher power beliefs is a good thing. That stuff in Texas is just dangerous because it demonizes non-Christians and we all know kids will start singling out ones who don’t believe like they do.
  10. I see this stuff and it disgusts me. Organized religion has been and will always get hi-jacked by people or groups of people who want to use it to either control the masses, make money, or as is most often the case, both. I am a Christian, but I tend to keep my distance from any church that preaches money, money, money or intolerance. I feel that I am no better a person than anyone else, but seeing people use Christ’s name to shame and subjugate others is embarrassing and ridiculous. I count among my friends people that are believers in Christ, those who are Muslim, Buddhist and those who believe in none of it. The thing they all have in common is not being an extremist and they all look at their fellow human beings as their equal no matter their beliefs. The Christian zealots and blasphemers that are cited in this thread should be shot straight into the sun for what they are doing. Passing that bill in Texas is peak absurdity.
  11. 26%. Some of the questions were, to be kind, a real word salad and came across as being jumbled up.
  12. Decided yesterday that I wanted to switch jobs. I made exceptionally good money, but the mental strain there was too much. I will gladly take far less money and a much longer commute because it gives me peace of mind. There is no price you can put on that.
  13. I think either team would give up the farm for him. I would think the Dodgers would be more liable to get him, but man if he were available there is only a handful of guys who are off-limits in the entire league. Anyone not named Judge or Cole could be had to bring him to The Bronx.
  14. Went to see the Yanks-Angels game last night. Gotta see Ohtani and Trout when they come through. Just two ridiculously talented guys that are hard to root against. Rendon on the other hand can kick rocks. First time seeing Volpe in person. That guy is extremely high energy in the field and on the base paths. Once he gets straightened out at the plate and adjusts to major league pitching he’s going to be hard to deal with. The Yanks have needed a guy like this for a LONG time. Hope he grows into his role and progresses well.
  15. He has anger and hubris. Smart player who will do some comically dumb things at the most inopportune moment. He is who he is. I am sure Dubs fans are okay with it for the most part and the NBA should be as well as it creates a villian for opposing fans to dislike.
  16. So today I went to work at 6am and got off around 7:30. My last table had a musician from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and they are playing a 25th Anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall. I said to myself that I should go to this concert. It is an interesting and completely unfamiliar style of music to me, but I like it. After a long day it’s nice to end the night just listening to musicians excel at what they do. https://www.bmop.org That website might explain their style far better than I can.. I like hearing new things and some of y’all might as well.
  17. So a closer examination, looking back at Ball and RJ Hampton, the NBL has a separate program where the league pays the contract. This contract appears to be the same value that Ball and Hampton received. He has to do certain things to earn the contract since it is not the team footing the bill. The NBL uses the players as a way to grow the popularity domestically and looking at how the salaries have risen it seems to be working. The NBL should probably be in on more of these one and done guys going forward if they have the finances to pull it off.
  18. I assume it is only for a season. It’s a stop-over in a more competitive environment where he can develop against pros for a year, which could be fairly beneficial.
  19. The dollar figures cited are in Aussie dollars. If the 1 year deal is for 750k that would be a little over 500k USD. I mean of course the last place team in the league wants to bring in more talent, but there is significant salary structure in the NBL. They do not have the money to throw around like you see the Saudis doing with Ronaldo and that golf league as well. There has been significant wage increases, especially for the players near the bottom of the salary chart. I do not think that the person reporting what he got was talking about it in regards to the currency exchange. There are also contract perks that are added in that the players receive. This seems like it could be a case of some not real good reporting by people who do not follow the NBL.
  20. I am interested to see this contract he got with the Hawks. I wound up following the NBL because while I was on vacation in January the nearest ESPN affiliated website was the Aussie version. I kept that version and it’s a better read than the US one. If he is getting 750k there are going to be a lot of not real happy players in that league because the cap for each team is under 3 million. The Hawks spent about 2.3 million on their entire roster last year and won three games. They were right below the league average on players expenditures.
  21. I know almost nil about Henderson, but the name alone does not have the sound of a guy who is going to lead a team to a title. I hear Scoot and think of an undersized guard coming off the bench. He may be 6’7” for all I know.
  22. I also want to say it is so silly that Popovich cannot directly answer with “Why yes I want Wembanyama if we get the first pick.” Some real archaic rules there on what they can say.
  23. There’s this player from Alabama you can draft. He’s a real gunslinger.
  24. This is kind of the essence of stuff like this. The hateful aspect to it sets it apart. Life will go on whether these folks want it to or not. I haven’t been to Llano since I played a junior high football game there in 7th grade. I’m okay never going back.
  25. I’m okay with a full ban. If you’re not okay with that please let us all know so we know who values a gun over your fellow citizens. This issue, among several others, is why I am getting out of Dodge as soon as possible and headed for a place as far removed from the mainland as possible.
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