Infopost | 2022.10.17

Kerch bridge burning Crimea Ukraine Russia

A few of the world/economic news storylines that I've been following seem to have intertwined. Or at least the twines are quite close to each other.

LystAP
/u/LystAP
The bridge got hit as a cargo of fuel was crossing over it. Said fuel is now burning and spilling onto the bridge. A masterwork of intelligence if it was a intentional strike.
HotpieTargaryen
/u/HotpieTargaryen
Ukraine does have like at least four or five really decent intelligence agencies feeding them all sorts of info. This is a big move and suggests that no one believes Putin is going to find a way to end this.
mountainsunsnow
/u/mountainsunsnow
"Really decent" lol.
UsernameisTaken80
/u/UsernameisTaken80
They could hack into Jesus' nudes if they tried.
NSA_Chatbot
/u/NSA_Chatbot
dude's hung

I'm not sure the analysis is correct, I'm just here for the crude humor.
Elon & Russia & Twitter

Wallstreetbets WSB Elon Musk Russia meme

Space Daddy/Thought Leader Elon Musk decided to weigh in on the Ukraine conflict with a tweet:

Elon Musk Ukraine-Russia Peace:

- Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.
- Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev's mistake).
- Water supply to Crimea assured.
- Ukraine remains neutral.

This was his peace plan. It wasn't one of those long-form multitweets with a bunch of details. It didn't have a link to a fleshed-out proposal. Simply, "stop shooting, do non-sham elections". So we can laugh this off, Meme Lorde was microdosing and thought he'd shitpost about world peace.

Elon Musk Starlink tweet

But he didn't drop the idea. And he took himself seriously enough to threaten to withdraw Starlink after the twitterverse let him know that Ukraine's citizens and borders weren't up for negotation.

At a high level, the Musk Peace Plan[TM] generally matched Putin's initial invasion goals: secure Crimea, annex Donbas, and scare Ukraine out of NATO. Peeling back just one layer, Elon's peace plan doesn't address some glaring issues:
Undeterred, Elon stuck to his guns and rephrased his peace plan as a less concise poll:

Elon Musk Twitter Crimea Russia Ukraine vote

Perhaps this was Elon's Gavin Belson moment. His earlier vision for humanity has already been fulfilled: we'll have a Mars Colony by 2030 and robotaxis by 2020. He is now metamorphosing from tech icon to global leader, one who can rescue Europe from war like he rescued those kids trapped in a cave.

In other words: it's pretty funny that he seems to take himself seriously.

Distraction

VacationLover1 VacationLover1 Enron Musk Tweets about Tesla semi trucks going into production the day the judge grants his stay and giving him to 10/28 to close the deal on Twitter.. someone is trying to increase the share price to come up with the extra money

After an initial giggle, Elon seeing himself as Earth's messiah is painfully dull. As WSB power user VacationLover1 indicates, Elon's antics are more often a simple ruse (see Elongate and all of his SEC troubles). So maybe concurrent headlines will shed some light on his Ukraineposting:
  1. Days before Musk's tweet, Russia announced involuntary mobilization of its reserves. Because they're struggling to even secure a stalemate against the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
  2. On October 4, Musk announced his intention to proceed with the stalled (pending litigation) Twitter acquisition.

1. Muskow

Sven Henrich Elon Musk tweet Putin

The accusations that Musk was doing PR for Putin were sufficiently loud and plausible to earn a direct response from Elon himself: he categorically denied coordination with the Kremlin. Well, not really. He denied speaking to Putin himself about anything since 2021.

Elon Musk OJ simpson tweet media
Source. To his credit, at least Musk does self-deprecating well.

Considering Elon's apparent hatred for lies of omission and half-truths, I'm going to assume him naming Putin was simply an expeditious way to say he hadn't spoken to anyone advancing Kremlin war interests.

But there's nothing substantive here, just a couple of tweets and a tantrum that they weren't well-received. Even with Putin's immeasurable resources and power, it's hard to imagine that he has much to offer the world's richest man.

2. Elon "Cathie Wood" Musk

ARKK Ark investments performance 1 year

The other big piece of concurrent Elon news was that he announced his intention to proceed with the Twitter acquisition.

CNN Business Elon Musk appears to be closer to completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter than at any point since he first said the deal was "on hold" nearly five months ago. But it's not a done deal yet.

Musk earlier this week sent a letter to Twitter (TWTR) proposing to move forward with the acquisition at the original price of $54.20 per share and suggesting the litigation over his initial effort to exit the deal be dropped. Twitter (TWTR) replied saying it had received the letter and plans to close the deal on the originally agreed upon terms.

In ordinary times, Musk would be rightly motivated to source Twitter financing from absolutely anywhere else. Funding the acquisition with his own cash means incurring the tax burden of liquidating Tesla shares - I think, perhaps some creative bookkeeping can mitigate this. Selling off his Tesla holdings also brings him closer to losing controlling interest of the company that he "founded".

But things aren't as ordinary now as they were in April. First, having backed out of his agreement to buy out Twitter shareholders, Elon is looking at a billion-dollar civil suit. Second, the recent market downturn may have adversely impacted his financing options:

The Guardian Is Musk's financing an issue?

The letter from the Tesla CEO's lawyers to Twitter offers to close the deal subject to the trial being adjourned and "pending receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing". Morgan Stanley is leading a consortium of banks that have pledged $13bn to help fund the deal and the market for buyout loans does not look good in an environment where global interest rates are rising.

Last month, banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs were reportedly hit by a loss of about $600m ? they had to sell on the debt at a discount ? on the sale of about $8.6bn in debt backing the private equity buyout of software company Citrix Systems.

I'm not familiar with the agreements required to secure billions in financing, but I expect the terms on a $13 billion loan pre-approval have an expiration date. That is, some of Elon's financiers may be looking for new terms or a more reliable investment.

And there's more. Elon's investors aren't just big US-based banks.

Business Insider Musk's plans to purchase Twitter for $44 billion with the help of foreign investors, including Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, and Binance Holdings ? which was founded by a Chinese businessman ? have concerned Biden administration officials, the people told Bloomberg.

Once again, a Putin connection doesn't make much sense. With all those financing options it seems unlikely that Elon would resort to doing PR for a Bond villain.

I want to believe

Business Insider Officials are considering which tools they could use to review Musk's ventures, including action by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which reviews foreign takeovers of American businesses, per Bloomberg.

A CFIUS review makes sense with that lineup of foreign investors. But let's entertain a conspiracy theory for a moment.

Suppose Elon didn't want to massively overpay for Twitter but he also didn't want to pay the billion dollar penalty for renegging. What if:
  1. Elon delays the Twitter trial by announcing his intention to proceed with the acquisition. Nothing outlandish here, this was specifically called out by the Twitter attorneys.
  2. Musk tweets a believable but incendiary poll about Ukraine. Yep, did that.
  3. The backlash is swift and Elon uses it to threaten to withdraw Starlink and significantly inhibit western/Ukrainian warfighting capabilities.
  4. The US government asks Elon to keep the satellites in place in exchange for a CFIUS rejection of the acquisition.
Would CFIUS vacate Elon's legal liabilities? I am not a lawyer, but it would seem unjust to assign liability to someone for damages beyond their control. An unrelated, recent application of CFIUS with which I am vaguely familiar seemed like it could be summarized as follows: "everything is voided for both parties because the exective branch says so, have a good day".

No carrot, only stick

There are more than a few other good explanations for Elon's reversal on the Starlink thing, including that he doesn't seem to put much thought into some of his comments.

VirtualSwordfish356 VirtualSwordfish356 Uh oh. [Elon tweeting that he would keep Starlink in place] sounds like exactly the kind of thing someone would say if the USG just informed him what would happen if he continues to disrupt Starlink.

Want to be treated like other USG contractors? Fucking act like it then.

He likes to poke at other defense contractors, but how come nobody knows Raytheon's political stance? Why hasn't Boeing come out and made a case for China to annex Taiwan? Is it possible that other defense contractors understand the obligations they have to the USG?

If Musk wants to be treated like other defense contractors, he can stop doing his cute little Oleg Deripaska impression and get in line behind the U.S. and NATO.

Musk fucked himself so hard. How many counterintelligence investigations do you think are currently ongoing into Musk's contacts inside of Russia?

I don't know about you folks, but I didn't vote for Musk to be the de-facto head of the U.S. space program. I certainly never voted for him to conduct U.S. foreign policy.

Back to Putin

I mean, he's taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I'd say that's pretty smart. He's taking over a country ? literally a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in.

Earlier I said the Elon/Putin connection isn't especially likely due to the lack of mutual benefit. But Putin may have an existential need to obtain a proxy stake in Twitter. That is, if resilient Ukrainians armed with NATO intelligence and anti-aircraft/anti-tank hardware can keep the stalemate going, Putin may soon find himself falling out of an eighth story window. His life may depend on his ability to install another Russia-friendly administration in Washington, one that will withdraw arms support and sanctions.


Putin has reason to be hopeful; Facebook and Cambridge Analytica turned the tides in 2016. If Twitter can be turned into the disinformation hellhole that Facebook was(/is), Putin might just convince his allies to endure two years of economic hardship. A 2024 reprise of Project Lakhta might leave Ukraine staring at a fate resembling the Kurds in 2019.

This still requires a complicit (or ignorant) Elon Musk. How badly he needs the financing is tough to know, but Elon has almost as much interest in steering political changes as anyone. He could be further enticed by access to Russian markets for his social media platform, his semi-self-driving cars, and his space company. Or something else, I don't know his business.

This situation certainly warrants a CFIUS review.

X, the everything app

Silicon Valley Hooli Portfolio powerpoint

The most likely story (imho) is that Elon simply wanted to buy his favorite media platform and he couldn't wait for the market downturn that absolutely everyone saw. He then completed his Gavin Belson LARP by suggesting he'd RIF 75% of Twitter's employees and stating his ambitious and uninventive vision for the platform:

CNBC On Tuesday, Musk tweeted that buying Twitter is an "accelerant to creating X, the everything app." He did not provide further details.

Musk may be hinting toward so-called "super apps" which are popular in China and other parts of Asia and pioneered by the likes of Chinese technology giant Tencent

Super apps is a term to describe an app that often acts as a one-stop shop for all your mobile needs. For example, you might order a taxi or food via the app and at the same time do payments and messaging. This eliminates the need to have multiple apps for different functions.

Update with another angle

jerm-warfare jerm-warfare He didn't mean to buy Twitter but secretly bought enough stock to get himself on the board. The secret part made it illegal and he was about to go under SEC investigation here's an article from the time.

He then avoided the SEC by committing to buy all of Twitter. As a consequence he got stuck with a price set by the market which he personally inflated with his initial stock purchases. Then he tried to back out with a bunch of bluffs and bullshit only to finally give in because even he knew he didn't have a leg to stand on and he couldn't afford to lose in an actual court.

Now he's successfully destroyed any value Twitter had, gutted it's ad revenue and is scrambling to make Twitter 2.0 in the hope he can salvage something from is $44 billion dollar mistake.

It's amazing to me that fan boys either already forgot the basics or they're trying to retcon the whole thing. He stumbled into this because he thought he was too clever and then he found out.

Autotune Elon, Bed Bath and BElond

Zac
Zac
Amazing: Kanye West to buy free speech platform Parler
The question is how nuts will he go? Sants
Sants
I like how every eccentric nut job can just have their own version of Twitter. Including Twitter itself
I can't wait for MyPillowTalk
Midterms and oil

Clutch3131 Clutch3131 Energy independence used to be cool...

Moving over to stonks, energy has been a pretty good place to put money. The rest of the market has swung wildly - like gas prices - since March. Since we're nearing midterms, even anti-political WSB catches (and rebuffs) the occasional propaganda post (such as the one above, posted with a pretty low-effort meme). Mods quickly tagged the post: "Exports > imports. It's very simple buddy." and this response was informative:

usernamesareclass usernamesareclass How short do my legs need to be to drag my knuckles this badly?

No POTUS has the kind of energy market manipulation input you perceive, no president changes the course of energy independence exponentially. US Oil extraction has only increased under Biden, it is literally a Republican talking point to obfuscate reality.

U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil (Thousand Barrels per Day)

- June 2019 (Trump) - 10,897 (Pre Covid)
- June 2022 (Biden) - 11,800 (Post Covid)

The same Republicans who are now receiving funding in Midterms from the Saudi investment fund. You almost couldn't make it up - but they have and fooled millions of people who know jackshit about energy.

As usual, the real DD is in the comments.
Inflation, interest rates, and qt

Federal reserve rate cut pivot Tweet FXHedge

Don't fight the fed, as they say. A dude on the investments mailing list at work was absolutely convinced that recession would spur the fed to resume QE. But it seems like inflation is their top priority. So we're in for a long-overdue market correction.

The most convincing indicator of a 2023 recession, for me, has been the commentary from tech CEOs. Tech CEOs are optimistic to a fault; every rosy picture they paint drives shareholder value, serves as marketing, and helps retain employee talent. So when I see droves of them go against their own script and warn of a 2023 recession, I'm inclined to listen.
Law & Order: Palm Beach

Serious Trouble (episodes) Sep 22 | 11th Circuit Smackdown
Key elements of Judge Aileen Cannon's orders are stayed on appeal; Special Master Raymond Dearie says Trump can't have his cake and eat it; Alex Jones is still a handful in court.

Sep 19 | 'Sir, this is a Hardee's, and you are served.'
Trump lawyer Chris Kise collects a $3 million fee deposit; Trump's associates keep getting served, in one case at a drive-thru; Judge Aileen Cannon continues to frustrate the DOJ.

Sep 6 | Judge Aileen Cannon's Shot Across the Bow
She will appoint a special master, and has enjoined the government from using the seized documents during the review. How will this affect the case?

I don't listen to podcasts mostly, but Serious Trouble is interesting. Thanks, Mark.
It may have been ahead of its time

Killed by Google flu vaccine finder



Review | 2022.10.12

Montage Elden Ring Across the Obelisk Gunfire Reborn Griftlands Shadowverse

Just vibeo ganes in this post.
Across the Obelisk tactics

Across the Obelisk Henrik dual rogue build

The lolbaters crew has gotten a few madness runs in. Dual rogue is fun and we like Nezglekt's madness healing passive.

Across the Obelisk rare items Kingmaker Fervent Ring The One

I mentioned previously that rare items can really make or break a build. The gold-rarity ones are no exception.

Across the Obelisk Sharpy updated patched Wind Blessing dispel
The patched verison of Sharpy/Wind Blessing that replaces evade with dispel.

Relatedly, I've found that Sharpy is a must-have pet for the every-turn dispel. To unlock:

The Gamer In Velkarath, head to the Harpy Nest "The Harpy Matriarch" Map Node. In this event, choose the [Combat] option and defeat the Harpy Matriarch, with the Harpy Egg being added to the party's inventory once she's defeated.

Then, in Aquarfall Marsh, get a boat using either the 800 Gold or the Crocomen method and go to the Altar "Altar of Songs" Map Node.

Here, choose [Continue] to put the egg near the altar, where it hatches, and Sharpy will join your team.

Heiner smash

Across the Obelisk offensive tank build shield slam Heiner
Yes, that will do.

Heiner on the front line is kind of boring. Shield, take hits to the face, repeat. And he gets wrecked when Archon Nihr converts player shields to unblocked damage. The thing is, that attack only affects the front line. So second row Heiner can load up on shield-all seriously help team defense without being an endgame liability. Having him in second row (rather than first) means two things:
  1. Heiner stacks up shield because he's not taking a lot of hits. (Good?)
  2. Your squad is missing damage in the usual rogue slot. (Bad)
Shield smashes to the rescue. These come in weaker flavors that don't burn your shield and they come in stronger flavors that do. I managed a 2300-ish stack against Nihr on Madness 3. On the down side, a lot of bosses are strong to blunt damage (this can be fixed with a damage type conversion item, but often at the cost of shield stack bonuses).

And for co-op, allies love the shield-alls. It also means the font line tank can work on thorns or bleed.
Recommendations

TheMastersSkywalker TheMastersSkywalker So I've played Across the Obelisk, Slay the spire, and Void Tyrants and enjoy them all. But I'd like something not roguelike where where I get to keep cards and mod my deck instead of starting over each time and relying on getting lucky each run.

I was looking for another travel-friendly Switch game and happened upon a site (gamerant or something) that listed all the top responses from a Reddit post (this is not uncommon). Magic Arena and Hearthstone were popular answers (iirc) but the top Switch response was Shadowverse: Champions Battle. More on that after a brief aside on /r/gamingsuggestions.

A brief aside on /r/gamingsuggestions

I'd stumbled across this sub before and have a sinking suspicion this is where J gets all his gaming intel. It's a pretty good community, here's another post:

Kakabundala Kakabundala Let's also do this one more time since the last one was so fun! Name Two of your Favourite Games in the comments and get the Third one Recommended.

Here are some responses (hey, I told you reposting top Reddit comments is not uncommon):
Shadowverse: Champion's Battle

Shadowverse Champions Battle showdown
"Shadowverse showdown!" It's what you shout before playing the game.

So yeah, a random Redditor and a bunch of upvoters informed me that I might like Shadowverse: Champion's Battle as a deckbuilding alternative to the roguelike fare I've recently enjoyed. The screenshots made it looks like Magic with some anime art style.

Shadowverse Champions Battle annoying eula switch
It started off with an annoying forced-scroll EULA and privacy policy.

Shadowverse Champions Battle texting club

I was somewhat surprised to find that there is a semi-substantive frame story that has all the sophistication of a Yu-gi-oh commerical stretched out over ?? hours. Then again, it vaguely reminds me of Magic in middle school, except that in this game everyone plays it rather than just the nerds.

While I'm glad that something stitches the Shadowverse Showdown!s together, that something is walking, clicking, and scrolling through vapid dialogue. The simplicity of the metagame coupled with the age of the protagonist made me worried that the actual card game would be painfully simple.

Shadowverse Champions Battle card vending machine Hiro

Frighteningly, Tensei Academy has a bunch of Shadowverse vending machines sprinkled about the campus. I'll go on record as saying that I strongly disapprove of marketing being embedded in an educational environment. Affiliate linking masquerading as a blog? Sure. Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

But having a school full of kids talking about Shadowverse while there are on-site Shadowverse vendors feels wrong, even if it's purely for the sake of gameplay facility.

On the other hand, maybe these kids are getting a sponsored education? If ShadowCorp pays all the student tuition, who am I to criticize a vending machine or two? It's at least as good as that Kanye West school.

Subtle indicators of a dystopia aside, the nostalgic part of me wishes the Shadowvendors were replaced with "fast travel to the comic book store".

Shadowverse Champions Battle card pack opening

On the subject of nostalgia, how great was it to open that sweet, sweet MTG booster pack? This game tries to replicate the feeling with shiny card reveals and indicators of what cards aren't in your collection. It's nothing like the real thing and that's why NFTs will never work. On the other hand, none of these card packs cost real money.

Shadowverse Champions Battle card packs
You can also (virtually) rip multiple packs open at once and dump them (virtually) onto the (virtual) table.

Did you actually play the game or just wander around and open cards?

In fact I played it. In short, complexity level feels like c.1992 Magic the Gathering.

Shadowverse Champions Battle moon al mir aj card

Usual stuff: cards have a casting cost, summons have attack and defense. Defense is more like hp, because summons don't heal (on their own). Anything above a cheap grunt has keyword abilities, e.g. storm overcomes summoning sickness, ward draws aggro. Cards can have both keyword abilities and long-form text for bespoke effects. This is great, it gives the game variety and complexity with a relatively small set of global rules.

The card above has a 'Havencraft' designation. Shadowverse has a handful of deck type analogues to Magic colors - a deck can be built with members of a single set and with neutrals (that tend to have less synergy). Each deck type has a focus and set of common mechanics.

Shadowverse Champions Battle Dragon Warrior evolve

A core mechanic of Shadowverse is 'evolve'. Magic has a few flip cards and I think the flip mechanic is common to other CCGs. Starting on turn 4/5, you can expend one of your 2-3 evolves to flip a deployed unit to its more powerful form and often trigger an evolve ability (e.g. destroy an enemy unit, create more allied units).

Shadowverse Champions Battle cards board

The board is pretty straightforward. In this case I have the Havencraft mechanic; cards that count down some number of turns before deploying a powerful unit. Since each battle starts kind of slow, I've found this to work pretty well.

Some other comparisons to Magic and deckbuilders:

Final thoughts

I'm enjoying the card portion of the game and suffering through the frame story. I think minor complexity tweaks could go a long way but I'm happy that the game is neither simple nor collapsing under its own weight. The cards/deck flavors are well-designed so it's a shame that (as far as I've seen) there aren't additional formats, e.g.
Overall I am liking Shadowverse and can't wait to show that stuck up class president that disbanding the Shadowverse Club was the wrong move. I will inevitably find out that there's some legitimate reason she's such a jerk and also that she is/was a big Shadowverse enthusiast.
Gunfire Reborn

Gunfire Reborn Lu Wu scope

With limited non-handheld single player game time, I've only gotten though the first Gunfire Reborn boss. I'm liking the Borderlandsy feel and need to get some co-op in.

Gunfire Reborn Crown Prince inn Gunfire Reborn hero skills acidic explosion Gunfire Reborn horsehead shackles Gunfire Reborn loot items
Elden Ring

Elden Ring astel boss

I thiiink we did Elden Ring out of order, doing Starscourge Radahn after the lava castle and capital. I love a good lake of rot though.

thumbnail Elden Ring stars thumbnail Elden Ring star crater hole thumbnail Elden Ring underground waterfall thumbnail Elden Ring sea of rot thumbnail Elden Ring fashionring pose bloodhound claws
thumbnail Elden Ring underground aqueduct thumbnail Elden Ring sea of rot waterfall thumbnail Elden Ring astel battle arena stars
Etc.

Griftlands boss battle Rook Grout Monster
I gave Griftlands another Rook run. It was fun and nice to be familiar with Rook's play mechanics, but it wasn't as compelling as the first time.

Gloomhaven Shadows Within
Gloomhaven: raiding crypts, throwing rocks, bezerking.
Chievos

Achievement unlocked nitrogen narcosis xbox

From the 'cool story, bro' department, the past month has seen a couple of wacky unofficial achievements. They're, well, "you had to be there" situations, I am writing this for my own benefit and maybe that of my compatriots.

Gloomhaven Oozing Grove ooze split rngesus

Gloomhaven Oozing Grove: kill three trees that collectively produce an elite ooze every round. We got some harsh rng early and were playing out the scenario. Ted exhausted before Jon killed the last tree, I was hobbling back, invisible but surrounded by oozes (the Nightshroud is not good against hordes). We maxed out oozes as Jon exhausted, so there wasn't a glimmer of hope. Rather than farm gold/xp, I played it out, trying not to think about how many self-damage/split cards the oozes would have to draw in order to Jooneztown themselves. They proceeded to draw something like 5 or 6 split cards in a row, killing off the low health ones and creating new almost-dead oozes. I still had to kill two, but it was a hilariously unlikely set of card draws.

Across the Obelisk Sylvie 1hp win

The AtO green zone was not kind to my AtO squad (Derrick and Jon not Jon). The tank, healer, and other lizardrogue died off, leaving me with four half-dead enemies. Through a combination of invisibility, evade, and luck, Sylvie took down the lot of them with a single hp remaining.



Storypost | 2022.10.11

Beagle stuffy at Charles Schulz airport Snoopy
Events

Rancho Guejito Vineyard lawn castle bounce

The Tonks set up a trip to the kid-friendly Rancho Guejito Vineyard. The castle bounce and live music were a big hit, the heat and flies were not.

Rancho Guejito Vineyard lawn dog driving car

Oktoberfest

Brian hosted his annual Oktoberfest celebration.

Petco Park left field landing hot dog pregame

We did a teambuilder at Petco for the Giants-Padres regular season finale. Derrick bought a $130 hoodie.
NorCal

Dog stuffy with vomit on it on Broadway Street San Francisco

We did a weekender up to the Bay to see family and celebrate Kevin's 4-0. Unfortunately the drive was not without incident. Danielle hung in there and had a great time with the grandparents and an okay time seeing doggies at Chrissy Field.

Bottled water drinking airport San Francisco Broderick Street hill San Francisco Broderick Street hill San Francisco Chrissy Field bridge
Food

Toddler meal plating sausage soup rice balls
Sausage and soup with rice balls drizzled in cherry sauce.

Marys Pizza Shack new small terrible breadsticks
RIP Mary's Pizza Shack breadsticks, 198?-2022. These microbreadsticks are gross.
Fantasy

Yahoo Fantasy Football Arbys celebration raining logos
A Yahoo fantasy win with the subtle advertising.

The season started out rough but I swear that's not why it's my first FF post of the season.

I wasn't able to get stats harvested for my WAR strat this year, but notionally kept the objective of getting good TEs.

Pos d'san andreas d'bears (4-1) The Omega Men (2-3)
QB Josh Allen Joe Burrow
RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire Dalvin Cook
RB Josh Jacobs Josh Jacobs
WR CeeDee Lamb Gabe Davis
WR Amari Cooper Rashod Bateman
TE Travis Kelce Mark Andrews
Flex Rhamondre Stevenson Ezekiel Elliot
D/ST New Orleans Saints Los Angeles Rams
K Graham Gano Graham Gano
Bench Alexander Mattison Alexander Mattison
Bench JuJu Smith-Schuster Hunter Renfrow
Bench Tyler Conklin Chris Olave
Bench Eno Benjamin Kirk Cousins
Bench N/A Taysom Hill
Bench N/A Mark Ingram

RIP
Danielle likes to put her stuffies down for naps. She pats them on the back and it's really adorable. Sometimes the arrangement looks more like they should be offered a cigarette and a blindfold.