Archive for the ‘under the fedora’ Category

Five Sports Thoughts Under the Fedora The Five Minute Solution, Ime Who? As Expected in Foxborough, Winning in a Vacuum and the Price of Success

Posted: December 4, 2022 by datechguy in baseball, nba, nfl, nhl, Sports, under the fedora
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With apologies to John Cleese If you want to understand why Soccer/Football is a sport that Americans on the whole reject go to youtube and compare the highlights of the game for any NFL game vs the Highlights of any of these world cup matches.

You will not that it takes 10-12 minutes for them reviews of the 60 Minute NFL game but only about 6 minutes for a 90+ minute World Cup match.

For the other 80 minutes it’s the Simpsons

Was it just two months ago that Celtics fans were worried about how the injury to Robert Williams and the suspension of Ime Udoka would mean doom to a team that was just two wins away from a championship last year?

Joe Mazzulla has made them forget all about Udoka but his answer to the question if he met with “the Royal Family.” when the Prince and Princess of Wales means they won’t forget him

They’ll never forgive him for that

Patriots fans seem to have very short memories.

Just 14 weeks ago everyone was noting that while the Patriots have pretty much the same team that they had last year, that all of the teams in their division and many others in the in the conference had improved.

So is it so strange that they sit in last place in their division while still having a ..500 record when in the previous season they made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth?

20 years of Tom brady success really has spoiled the fan base here.

Speaking of success have you ever seen a team as successful as this year’s Boston Bruins that has gotten less attention from the media and the fan base of a city.

The Bruins have set a record for consecutive home wins, they have dominated their sport and they can’t buy any press. All people want to do is to talk about how bad the Patriots have been.

Again I blame Tom Brady. In the days before his time the Brins would be THE story in the city.

Finally the Red Sox seem poised to lose Xander Bogarts. He is the link to the David Ortiz days winning and the Mookie Bettis days of winning.

They will not get a player as good at him at short or second (they can always move Story to short which I suspect was the plan from the beginning) but this tells me they are going full rebuild mode.

If they figured on losing him I can’t see why they didn’t trade him while they could, Better to get something for him than nothing for him, particularly if the plan is to rebuild.

Again success makes it difficult. 20-25 years ago when winning was practically not in living memory they could have gotten away with it, but now with four titles in under 20 years the fan base may not be as patient as they once were.

Under the Fedora: Day One of Peak, Black Friday Online, An Amazing coincidence with consequences, Some “mis-gendering” is more equal than others and The Clock is Ticking

Posted: November 26, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, Uncomfortable Truths, under the fedora
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Yesterday was Black Friday and day one of our “peak” season at work and the beginning of eight straight days of work for me.

As you might guess we were pretty busy, but based on the numbers I’ve seen overall volume was a whole lot less than normal. That won’t affect today, tomorrow or even Monday but the real question for me is: “Will we be behind to the point where next Saturday is voluntary?” In a normal year that’s how it works and by the time you get to Christmas you have managers who have worked 25-30 straight days since “optional” isn’t “optional” for them and some employees averaging 15 hours of overtime a week.

My gut and the numbers tell me that won’t be the case. I suspect we will only have one optional Saturday, next Saturday but that the volume will be at a point where we aren’t days behind rushing to keep up. Part of that may be to good planning on our part but the best planning can’t overcome incredible volume and based on day one, we just don’t have that.

Speaking of Black Friday shopping, most of mine took place on Thanksgiving evening and yesterday morning before going into the breach. A look at Amazon convinces tell me that while there are more and more pages of black friday “deals” (822 to be exact) there are less and less things on them that I need.

I also notice there are a lot of brands of “tablets” and “robot vacuums” that I’ve never heard of before as if there is an attempt to dump a lo of cheap electronics this year.

Of course with that many pages you’re bound to find something useful that your spouse might like or need (I just spotted something on page 29 that I never thought of which might work for her in the garden, but it’s all a question of how much time you want to spend (Indicently the cyber monday deals look surprisingly like the black friday deals

Good Luck.

By an odd coincidence as Elon Musk as cracked down on child porn on twitter apparently a lot of Antifa accounts have ended up dead while doing so.

They have not taken this well and there have been attacks on Tesla dealerships in the Northwest.

This is rather foolish for three reasons

  1. These will simply lead to insurance claims which puts money in the pocket
  2. Musk being one of the richest men in the world is in a position to put the type of security in place that won’t be as accommodating to the leftist thugs that don’t come enmasse.
  3. Finally he has access to the type of lawyers in a position to crush these folks on a national and international level

But if they want to poke the bear be my guest.

The loss of a cherished narrative is a terrible thing and CNN is doing it’s best to reverse it, But the Irony overload here is incredible:

And just like that you can look at someone, say they’re a dude and not be considered a bigot for it, at least if it serves the narrative.

That society has given in to this collection of mentally ill idiots is not an indictment of them, it’s an indictment of us for being suckers.

Finally there was some shock over a Christian commentator noting that those who were killed in Colorado didn’t accept Christ that they were likely in hell.

We are called upon not to judge the state of any particular soul but this type of thing is Christianity 101 or at worst 104. St. Faustina in her diary notes that Christ extends a hand at the time of death even to the most obstinate of sinners it’s just a question of grasping it.

People forget that the Good News of the Gospel is that there is a way into heaven and eternal life and avoiding eternal death and sufferings. For some people this is a hard message to take because it involves acknowledging sin, for others it’s a hard message to deliver because they want to go along and get along.

Christ was not one afraid to rock the boat nor afraid to risk offending people even inside their own homes. How many times was he invited to dinner which a Pharisee and then criticize them while there.

There is an excellent clip from The Chosen from the final episode of season 2 where Matthew is critiquing the Sermon on the Mount that illustrates this

The key line from Jesus:

“Did you think I was going to come here and say: ‘hey everyone keep on doing what you’ve been doing for the last thousand years since it’s been going so great?'”

If you actually love your neighbor you will tell them a truth they don’t want to hear to save their lives rather than shut up.

The good news is that you have your whole life to figure this out and come to Christ, but not a moment more.

Under the Fedora The Fruits of Obama, Freeman and Angels, Biden now expendable, Nancy Pelosi as Ace Rothstein and awaiting the first $1000 Oil Bill

Posted: November 22, 2022 by datechguy in elections, media, politics, under the fedora
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One factor in the use of the government as a weapon against the Political foes of the left that isn’t discussed is that this is the fruit of the Obama years.

Obama was always a cheap Chicago pol and he used his high position to transform the federal government and the system into the Chicago way where government is used to enrich friends and punish enemies.

Till those Obama types are purged we’re not going to see things change.

In his famous appearance on Phil Donahue’s show Milton Freeman when questioned by Donahue on the excesses of capitalism replied: “just tell me where in the world you find these angels who are going to organize society for us?” This is a basic principle of life that people tend of act in their own self interest. And since most people aren’t angels particularly in government the best way to create ethical behavior is to make such behavior profitable.

That’s really the secret, if you make the rewards of honorable behavior strong enough then the risks of unethical behavior are not worthwhile.

CBS has suddenly decided that the Hunter Biden laptop stuff is real.

This in my opinion is a definite signal that they have decided than in a possible match with Trump in 2024 Joe Biden in expendable.

The real question is will Biden fight (Jill that is) I don’t think Joe has much fight in him, but he does know where the bodies are.

The moment I heard that Nancy Pelosi was dropping herself from the leadership but staying in congress all I could think of was the movie Casino with Hakeem Jeffries playing the role of Phillip Green. I suspect that the new leadership will not make any move that is not approved by Nancy as she, like Biden knows where the bodies are buried.

Personally I think the only reason for this is to remove Pelosi and a fundraising meme for the GOP.

Finally it’s starting to get cold and the heat has been on in the house. That means that the first oil delivery of the new Biden season is coming for me and a lot of other folks.

I get about 200 gallons per delivery which is going to likely run over $1000 as opposed to the $500-$600 that it would have in the Trump years.

If this doesn’t change the voting patterns of folks in New England nothing will.

Five Assorted Thoughts Under the Fedora: Russia Unmasked, A Tough Call for Ukraine, Woke Winners, The coming tech pivot, and My Paypal Plans

Posted: October 12, 2022 by datechguy in culture, DaTechGuy's Quick Thoughts, education, politics, tech, under the fedora, war
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One of the things that has really been revealed by the war in Ukraine is just how weak and unready the Russian Army is. Moreover a lot of Russians were in favor of the war in Ukraine when it looked like it would be a cakewalk to retake the territory that until the breakup of the Soviet Union was part of Russia proper since the days of Napoleon, but once it became clear that it would involve actually fighting, actual causalities and a mobilization the whole pride thing went out the window.

It’s amazing how much harder war is when people are willing to shoot back rather than roll over. I would not be surprised if this lesions the fear of China’s untested military as well.

It’s a tough call for Ukraine when it comes to how the war ends.

They have a good point that they don’t want to reward Russia with any gains but the longer the war goes on the more likely Putin decides to play the tactical nuke game. Ukraine can likely get the best deal it could get right now but in the words of Lincoln if they consider this war for a purpose they see no reason to end it before that purpose is achieved.

Since it’s their blood that being spilled it’s their call, as long as I don’t have to keep paying for it.

This story via Gateway Pundit made me smile:

I predict that in the woke sweepstakes Muslims trump gays, drag queens and transsexuals’ for two reasons:

  1. The Muslim population of the US continues to grow
  2. There have been unfortunate and unhealthy consequences for those who defy those communities

One of the reasons why Sicilian American’s like myself don’t mind people associating us with the mob is it make people less likely to try to mess with us (also we don’t give a damn what others think). With the reputation of Islam backed up by 30 years of shall we call them “incidents” I suspect school committees are going to think twice before they mess with them.

Sometime in the next month we are likely going to see a pivot in tech companies.

Once they decide they can not stop the GOP from winning the House and perhaps the Senate they are going to be a lot more hesitant to oppress members of the GOP when there is a prospect of lawmakers striking back.

Now of course as long as they control the White House and the Justice Department they have a modicum of protection and I’m sure they’ll go all in no matter who the GOP nominee is but most companies don’t want grief and don’t want scrutiny and when it becomes clear who is going to win I suspect these firms will decide to be on the winning side.

Finally a lot of people I know have dropped Paypal like a hot potato. Being a person who is a tad more deliberate I’ve decided to wait till after the first of the year.

This will give me time to decide what I’m replacing it with, to contact donors to see if they wish to switch to whatever service I go over to and to evaluate my opitions.

Also in terms of taxes and their preparation it will be easier to have the account active through at least January.

This does involve some risk but if I’m right about the tech pivot that should give me enough leeway to move deliberately without a lot of worry. If I’m wrong, then it’s on me.

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