another brain dump

 Scraps of paper pile up and I need a place to hide my stuff away, so here are some other things.

1. An idea for betting -- when you sign up for one of those online betting platforms, you declare a "home team". That's YOUR team, the one you root for. If, during the course of the season, you bet on the result of a game in which your team is playing, and you bet AGAINST your team and win, you get a payout with an extra 5% premium for your guts.

2. Watched more football and heard the following comments:

      a. of a place kicker, "he is among the top 5% in the league in successful kicks and that field goal shows you why." No, it doesn't show WHY -- it shows how he qualified for that statistic.

      b. The decision to challenge a call, to throw in that red flag and contest the on-the-field call voice of the expert. This is, you understand, not just a game -- this is the referee's workplace. You are watching him or her at work so now imagine if all those people watched, replayed and dissected everything you say and do and then you get challenged, in public. You just want to whisper "pssst, hey, coach, stop undermining my authority and making me look like an officious douche, you jerk."

      c. I just saw a receiver, in between plays, chatting with a defender. There is a challenge about whether the reception was a completed catch and I swear I just saw the defender say "it don't matter to me either way."

      d. Heard this comment about a player's improved play -- "He's dusting off the cobwebs of his old self." I have no idea what that means.

3. I think playing slot machines is sort of like sitting in front of a guy who keeps yelling "I'm thinking of a number! GUESS IT!" and no matter what you guess the guy yells "WRONG!" and slaps you in the face and then you both keep repeating this.

4. I did learn that Atlantic City has no supermarkets and has to have food bussed in in to be sold. That's insane.

5. Leo Sayer's "When I need love" is a really nice song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obC0MFHWJ0A

6. I watched the movie "No Body" again. I really, really like this movie. There is something so EARNEST about each of the characters/actors. The camera angle choices, the composition, it is all so balanced and intentional. It is understated and sincere but never taking itself too seriously. It just unfolds. There is an emotional depth and the movie unapologetic. Fantastic.

7. The music of my youth and adolescence is that elusive warm blanket for all me-kind; a patchwork of squares of sound, ragged edges and all, all holding me together in memories I should be able to access.

8. God doesn't let us understand the true nature of death because God doesn't want us to get too comfortable in this life or too certain about the next. We should never feel rewarded and clear on what's going on.

9. Sure, they say we have satellites in orbit that have cameras that can soo down to earth and read the license plate off of a moving car, and can look into the expanse of space and peer into the dawn of time, and yet, here in my world, I can't get a simple pair of binoculars that incorporate multi-spectrum sensitivities and magnification equivalent to an electron microscope with offensive weapons capability, and still be scratch resistant. Sheesh.