Shades of Deivi Cruz

We dropped our oldest off at college for freshman year a couple of weeks ago. A stressful and emotional moment for sure. You just want them to be happy, and for them to develop a good social circle in a new environment. Well, he's doing great! He called his sister the other day and even she said afterwards "he sounds so happy!". We are so glad that he's plugged in well to campus and with his roommates/others. We still miss him like crazy, but it has helped tremendously to know that he is having a good experience. (And yes he's going to class too. He's a pretty conscientious student.)

I'm still getting caught up on The Bear, but I just watching the family Christmas dinner episode. The show is always a bit of a stressful watch, but they cranked that up to 11 in that episode. Oh my! And all the guest stars were simply fantastic.

I can usually get 7-8 of them, and have gotten 9 a few times. Usually even if a grid has a lot of possible answers, I make at least one dumb guess. It doesn't help that I try to not use obvious answers, so I end up choosing wrong simply because I thought Mo Vaughn played for the Rangers and Red Sox (he didn't, it was the Mets after Anaheim and Boston) instead of just picking Eovaldi.

21 minutes ago, casimir said:

Yes.  @Shades of Deivi Cruz got me hooked.  I take some measure of pride in jogging my memory for the team & team combos.  But there was a question about Marlins & Cy Young winner that made me realize I am losing touch with MLB as a whole and maybe becoming too focused on the Tigers.  I couldn’t correctly guess Sandy Alcantara from way back in 2022.

My grid was so ugly today... In general though I can really only get it if former Tigers meet the criteria. I got two of them worked in to the five I got on today's grid. LOL!

On 6/22/2023 at 10:25 AM, oblong said:

Chas's post in the advice thread made me think of something.

We ran into a very old friend of mine over the weekend at a grad party, mutual friend's kid graduated.  She was one of my best friends growing up and into our 30s, then life gets in the way and you no longer stay in touch, just running into each other at Target or whatever.  I got her number and put it in my phone.  

Later that evening we text just to establish the connection.  My friend has a unique first name but I always put someone's first and last name in my contacts. When she texted me back my wife saw it and started to make fun of me.   I told her "So where do you draw the line?  Who is granted status of being just "first name only in contact" vs first and last name?  What happens if you try to voice text and you have "Jane", "Jane Edmonds" and "Jane Kirkpatrick" and you don't remember who has the status?

What do y'all do? 

The only one in my contact list without a last name is my wife, it's her nickname.  

 

 

I have everyone in my phone with their full names, even my children. If I did nicknames, everyone would be Mr/Mrs Captain Dip****, which seems like it would be confusing.

I plowed through Jury Duty on Prime over the course of a couple of days. It was a fun show, but I wonder how that guy was selected to be the "hero" in the first place. They didn't address that in the wrap up at the end of the show.

23 hours ago, romad1 said:

My local gunshop (since closed due to insurance issues...they refused to lock up their guns at night and they had several break-ins)...

Not to venture off topic, but this seems like good news.

16 minutes ago, romad1 said:

The stuff they did as Mister Bungle is where this level of edginess gets to a much less accessible place.  I still liked Mr Bungle but man it was nothing like "Epic"

I decided to listen to it this morning. Forgot how great RV is. "I think it's time I had a talk with my kids. I'll just tell 'em what my daddy told me. You ain't never gonna amount to nothin'."

On 6/9/2023 at 10:04 AM, romad1 said:

This album is an acquired taste.  Its not the bubblegummy hippity hop of their other stuff.  These guys were artists with a real vision. 

If I'm low or annoyed this is one of those anthemic pieces for my jangled GenX spirit. 

I love this album. Midlife Crisis, Easy, Land of Sunshine,  and Be Aggressive are great tracks.

We have lived in this house for about ten years, and the same people have lived next door the entire time. We have never met them. 🤣 

54 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

A standard road bike jersey has 3 pockets in the back but they're pretty useless for anything heavier than some portable calories as if you put anything in them as heavy as a phone, the jersey then binds at your neck while you ride, which doesn't do. Ergo, the waist pack - which when on the bike is worn directly over the back, so 'lap' is hardly apropos. Just because lazy walkers wear them in front, I refuse to be bound by their semantics.

🚲

So like a tube top then. That's seems better! Duel purpose!

Snow blowers are a real pet peeve of mine (I know, different thread). A decent two-stage that doesn't clog is damn expensive, and you have no idea how often you will need it. I think I fired mine up twice this year (and since I'm a cheapskate, it's not a two-stage and clogs like crazy).

On 5/6/2023 at 4:53 PM, Crazy Cat Gentleman said:

I used to really like "If It Feels Good Do It" but never really got into anything else of theirs.

I think it must have been on a Canadian TV series I watched ~20 years ago.

 

Sloan has a lot of great songs. Most of my favorites are on Navy Blues. She Says What She Means, Iggy & Angus, Money City Maniacs, Chester The Molester. On other albums: The Good In Everyone, Underwhelmed, Coax Me, Snowsuit Sound. Underwhelmed is probably my overall favorite track of theirs.

11 hours ago, Shades of Deivi Cruz said:

I'm pretty certain the issue is the phone app, because when I open it on my phone I have to reauthenticate to get to the streams. I don't even have to retype anything. It's just an annoying "use MLB logon" popup that I have to click through.

EVERY DAMN TIME!

8 minutes ago, oblong said:

Interesting.... I wonder if that's something Carplay has to handle or the MLB app?

The reason I ask is sometimes the interface is different between the app on my phone and what's on the screen.

 

I'm pretty certain the issue is the phone app, because when I open it on my phone I have to reauthenticate to get to the streams. I don't even have to retype anything. It's just an annoying "use MLB logon" popup that I have to click through.

The MLB app annoys me. I have Apple Carplay in my car, and I like to use it to stream games since I'm in a weird spot for traditional radio reception. Almost every time I first open it in Carplay it says "MLB subscription required" and no games are listed. I then have to open the app on my phone, click on audio and re-login. Then the games all show up on my Carplay screen. Needless to say, that is not a very safe way to utilize the the service...

Also, it would be fantastic if on the Carplay screen with the games, it also showed the scores. When the Tigers aren't on, I'd likely check out another game if it looked like a good game. I can understand not wanting to put all the game info on the screen to keep people from always looking at the screen, but just the scores seems like it would be fine.

Looks like all previous Amazing Race seasons will now only be on Paramount+. That stinks for us because we don't currently have that, and have been watching past seasons on Hulu as a family for a long time. We are just finishing up season 24 (All Star season with Cowboys and Globetrotters), so we still have a ways to go. We already have Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, HBO and Disney. I'm not sure I can justify adding yet another one.

Unrelated, but I'm also going to have to make a decision on DirecTV. I've kept it for NFL Ticket and Bally Sports. With Ticket moving to Youtube, not much reason to keep it. Been a subscriber almost 25 years though!

On 4/19/2023 at 7:21 AM, TigersForever1256 said:

Guess you done okay, yay?

Indeed! It wasn't as cold as I expected to be, plus winning always adds a few degrees. If you watched the games, you would have seen Kerry Carpenter's walk off homer sail right through my son's hands and ending up bouncing right to the guys sitting in front of us (with me watching it all and doing nothing).

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

 

I will be in attendance. They better win, for me to sit through that (twice). Unfortunately my track record (and the Tigers') does not bode well...

That remake of Gone in Sixty Seconds sucks.

6 minutes ago, Stanley70 said:

So I guess the Seahawks won't be drafting a QB. 

On 3/4/2023 at 7:57 PM, Motor City Sonics said:

I am quite shocked that we still play Santeria by Sublime with it's violent lyrics (I'd pop a cap in sancho and I'd slap her down).  

But it's so damn catchy!

On 2/8/2023 at 10:08 AM, ewsieg said:

Finally started watching The Wire.  Never watched it originally and eventually just assumed it was too old.  I recently saw another top 20 TV show list and it claimed it held up.  I'm into season 2 now.  Very well done and holds up nicely.  Currently wouldn't put it at #1 like that list that led me here claimed, but very solid after all of these years.  

I believe it was season three that was my favorite.

Woohoo!

Does one of those fingers fold down if needed?