Big Blue Huddle

My first Tomahawk Ribeye. Too big to sous vide so doing it the old way, reverse sear (275 deg in oven until internal reaches 125-130, then sear in cast iron for a minute on each side)

Bruce Willis used to be one of my favorite tough guy actors. The last few films he has done he looks as if he's just mailing it in for the money and the only reason he is cast is because of the draw of his name.

Well - now we know. He has been diagnosed with a disease known as "aphasia". I looked it up and the definition is: "loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage"

In his last couple of films he was unable to remember his lines. Apparently, everyone in Hollywood was aware of this, hence minor roles where actual acting is not required.

Because of this, Willis has stepped down and will no longer take on any roles and will retire surrounded by his loving family 

After running a typical "upgrade" on my browser, I lost tons of information. I had to redo many dozens of passwords and rebuild my main board favorites. Took me most of the day and I wasn't a happy camper.

Anyway, I just noticed that I can finally "like" other people's comments. I would have clicked "like" a thousand times in the last couple of years but couldn't. I tried everything to fix it and nothing worked. So anyway, there are so, so many comments that I wanted to "like", but couldn't. Hopefully, I don't lose that feature again.

To get a perspective on the size of Earth compared to our neighbors, this picture shows planets as fruit



Jupiter is so large that it's gravitational pull effects Earth's orbit around the sun. Unlike Earth that takes one year to orbit the Sun, Jupiter takes 12 years. Earth is not always directly between the Sun and Jupiter



But on August 20 of this year, it will be...for the first time in hundreds of years



Compared to planet Earth, the Sun is enormous. In fact, we could put 1.3 million Earths inside of the Sun. We could put 1,300 Earths inside of Jupiter.





The Sun is an amazing star, but it's "moody" like my ex. The mood can change from day to day...from moment to moment for that case 



While trying to get a grip on just our solar system and Sun, keep in mind that everything in the Universe is moving and we are adrift caused by forces for which we have no control



Just as we kind of get a grip on the sheer size of our Sun, keep in mind that it is not even close to being "large" in astronomical terms. A sister star called Antares (also known as Alpha Scorpii) in our Milky Way can be seen in the constellation "Scorpion"



Putting things in perspective:



In its journey around the galaxy, our Sun moves toward the star Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp. It will eventually crash into Vega...but not to worry, we won't be around



The point toward which we move is called the

He is dancing like a young man and can even do the hip swivel. Dang, he must have done something right to be in that kind of shape at 96. Haven't heard a thing about him in ages. I didn't know he was still alive. He's always been funny, but his brother Jerry used to keep me stitches. Jerry was hillarious! 

https://nypost.com/2022/02/17/dick-van-dyke-96-dances-in-video-with-much-younger-wife/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3NhX6-5mO0

Been waiting a long time for this and it's finally here. Season 4 (the final season) of Ozark debuts tonight on Netflix. I haven't (and won't) read the spoilers, but the headlines say a lot of people die...which is about par for the course in Ozark. I would expect nothing less...lol

Best show in a long while. Anyone who hasn't watched it is missing one of the greatest series of all time on Netflix. If you are just getting started, I suggest starting with season 1 and working your way through. Very intense - dark - brutal at times - even humorous sometimes - incredible story with incredible actors/actresses.

Just wondering if any of you guys play this game. It's very addicting and a lot of fun and makes you have to think hard for a few seconds

Every morning I play a variety of games to exercise my brain. I play a lot of Sudoku and play against a timer. I can tell if my brain is functioning well when I am in the top 100 of the thousands of people who play the daily game on the same site. I also play games of chess, checkers, hearts, and spider and in the evening do the crossword and crypt-o-quote. I feel it is necessary to regularly exercise my brain and keep dementia from creeping in as I am no spring chicken anymore

With all that said, there is a new mental exercise that is very addicting and I've jumped into playing it regularly and some are calling it the "Game Fad of 2022" and has taken the world by storm. It's called "Wordle"

The problem with it, is that you are only allowed to play one game a day and it only takes a few minutes to solve (assuming you can solve it) then you have to wait until the next day for the next puzzle. However, I have found a site that allows you to play it as often as you like and I'll share that link.

Here's how to play:

You start with any 5 letter word. I usually pick a word with "s" 't" "r" and a couple vowels, but any word works like "horse", "giant", etc.

If you get any letters right, the blocks will turn yellow or green. Wrong letters turn gray. Yellow means the letter is in the word to be solved but in the wrong order. Green means the letter is part of the solution and also in the correct spot of the mystery word. You have an onscreen keyboard to pick your letters and it must be a real word. You get six tries.

Here's a tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnWPXZ6vQB8

Here's Jimmy Fallon who really, really sucks at it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcZWd75Ph4Q

Here's a link to the daily puzzle: https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

Here's a link if you want to play it more than once a day: http://hellowordl.net/

I hate TV commercials. But I always love to watch Allstate's ads with Dean Winters. They quit making mayhem commercials a couple of years ago, but I've noticed over the weekend that they are back. Always good for some laughs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vzNgEzrH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLYY7GEdgPE

Oldies but Goodies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCgCLa5j6wk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR9M0eOcZhw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtP-S9OS0o0&list=PLCdsPe_JoPq7ywuOAmvFJWd_4oQfwASU4

Omicron - love the name - sounds like a warrior group out of Star Wars or a secret energy source the galaxies are fighting over.

Some people have huddled down in fear, while others go about business as usual. Me...it's business as usual. I got my J&J booster shot last week and haven't even had a cold in a few years now (knock on wood). The biggest problem I have with it is that it caused my portfolio to crash 4.9% last Friday as the market is made up of an awful lot of skittish folks - any negative news and BAM...sell, sell, sell. 

Luckily, today's market has recovered most of my losses from Friday's selloff so I think the scare is over

Anyone worried about this latest COVID variation/mutation? 

This could go down as one of the top 10 list of the yearly "Darwin Awards", but doesn't qualify because no one died or whose last words were, "watch this". There should be a secondary award to stupid people when they don't die...like the guy who used a .22 bullet in lieu of a fuse in his pickup and ended up shot in the leg as he drove away or the guy in a lawn chair and dozens of of helium balloons and a BB gun to shoot them one at a time to come back to earth, but was jettisoned so quickly when the tether was cut that it made him drop his BB gun.

Anyway, any of you who have (or have had) a handgun with laser sights know that to activate the laser, you press the back of the grip with the palm of your hand. You never have your finger on the trigger (obviously) because you are squeezing your hand that is holding the gun and the squeezing motion will inadvertently cause you to also put pressure on the trigger.

The story: A guy left his loaded handgun at his apartment. While away, his girlfriend who had stopped by, picked it up and realized it had a laser site when the handgun grip was squeezed. So she decided to use the laser to play with the cat and get it to chase the uncatchable red dot - something we've all done with a 5 dollar laser pen - not a thousand dollar handgun. Her boyfriend came home and stepped into the room and apparently, she decided it would be funny (if not hilarious) to make the cat chase the red dot onto his crotch. You guessed...she had her hand on the trigger while squeezing the grip and shot the sorry dude in the groin. He lived. They are no longer together.

Storal of the morey: lock up your handguns and don't let your girlfriend get her hands on it unless you are at a gun range teaching her the proper way to handle and shoot a handgun! Even better advice: never let anyone touch your handgun period!

There is a scam going on right now that is nerve wracking. You get an email and it looks like this:



If you're like me, you go "whaaaatt??? I didn't order that".

So if you call the number to say you didn't want that so why am I getting it, you are told, "no problem, here's what you do to cancel"

You are told (in barely audible English) "Hold the windows key (bottom left hand corner) and the "R" key at the same time". A pop up comes on screen and the guy tells you to type a line of code. This is where you tell him to do whatever you want to himself. Regardless, DON'T follow his instructions and hang up.

I responded with "this is a scam buddy and I have a record of this going straight to the FBI" and hung up.

I called my bank and they said they have gotten a lot of calls about people saying they were charged for Norton 360...and it is a straight up scam. As long as you don't follow their instructions or give any information, then they can't get into your bank account.

Years ago my company rewarded me for coming up with a seemingly impossible solution to a process they had struggled with for years before they hired me. I was rewarded with a dinner for two at any restaurant I could find and told "find the finest restaurant you can find and cost is no issue".

I always wanted to try a 5-star restaurant and the only one within a half hour of where I lived was in Ithaca, NY called L'Auberge Du Cochon Rouge (no longer in business).

As I pondered over the menu with my wife, I noticed a couple next to me who had ordered Escargot. The presentation was beautiful as it was served in bright red, yellow, and white ornamental sea shells. So I thought to myself, "hey, the company is picking up the tab and they told me to go all out so why not experiment?"

So I ordered them and lo and behold it tasted exactly like eating slugs from the back yard cooked with butter and spices. It was horrendous - nearly made me want to puke. Never again.

Eating that crap put a pause in my enthusiasm to trying "everything once". I have a niece who tells me that sea urchin is delicious and I must try it. I told her, "Liatt, I will NEVER EVER try it and you can't trick me into trying it".  Anyway...

Anyone here ever try Escargot and like it?

Anyone here ever eat something they wish they hadn't?

I don't pretend to actually understand the entire ins and outs of crypto and do not have a crypto wallet, but I like to follow what's going on. I refuse to invest in stock in crypto-mining (MARA) or blockchain (RIOT) companies until I see where things are headed with regulations.

The question I have (for any of the cryptocurrency gurus) is:

Last month sophisticated hackers (presumably from Russia) executed a ransomware attack on a major fuel pipeline (Colonial Pipe Line) that negatively effected millions of people in the southeast. Eventually, the company paid the ransom in cryptocurrency to get it up and operating again. I know, old news. However, the part that I struggle with is that the U.S. was able to recover (in unbelievably record time) the ransom which is supposed to be impossible - that is, unless they know far more than they claim. So here's the dilemma: Crypto is popular because there is "no way to trace crypto exchanges or know the individual who owns crypto" thanks to blockchain algorithms that are for all purposes, impossible to break.

The question to any experts on here: "How on earth was the U.S. government able to track the crypto to the hackers to recover the losses if it is impossible to do?" Secondly, the reason Congress and the executive branch is so anxious to regulate cryptocurrency is because they say it's impossible to track and therefore, impossible to tax those who hide their wealth in crypto...but it appears they can track it. So why the need to regulate?

Last, but not least. I understand that it takes banks of mainframe computers to mine crypto, but why does it require more electrical energy to operate than a small city?

The polarization in this country seems to get worse and worse by the day. So much hostility and hatred towards those who don't share their rigid and demanding opinions. Overly sensitive people who fail to grasp a bigger picture are so wrapped up in their points of view that they've shut down open thought and constructive debate. It's worrisome. I listened to a pundit the other day who made a lot of sense. Basically she said there is an intrinsic need for religion in people's lives (even if they don't know it), but because traditional religion has been deteriorating at such a rapid pace, a hole is left in people. Churches are shutting down or attendance so low that chapels are mostly empty on Sunday mornings, etc. Partly to blame because of scandals galore, but also because of a level of comfort to people in this day of technology and easy living. But because there is an innate need in people to have religion, the "hole in their soul" gets filled with a new type of religion to a very large audience: "politics". Those who have shunned traditional religion in favor of the "new" (yet ancient) religion of separating people into groups similar to caste systems of old, have the same fervor as the most religious zealot. Hatred abounds between castes for whatever reason (mostly low IQ IMO, but I digress). Regardless, it seems this once great country is becoming polarized to the point that people utterly despise and hate others simply because they don't share the beliefs of their political group of choice. Political pundits have become "evangelists" and "fire and brimstone preachers". Colleges and Universities have become the new churches of choice and are filled with religious zealots ready to spread the good word and will go to any length to convert "non-believers" including rioting, shaming, and open humiliation. The embers of hatred have been spread across the land and fanned into deadly flames. Welcome to our new America.

Read a great article from a woman (Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a research fellow at Stanford University

I'm a movie buff and watch Netflix, Prime, and Hulu more than traditional television. I usually watch a movie each night, but since a movie tends to generate a certain intensity, I like to watch a half hour sitcom afterwards to laugh a bit and then call it a night. In the past, there were very few sitcoms that I really looked forward to...Seinfeld, Three and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc. I still watch the occasional Three and Half Men reruns. I felt bad when I read the news that Conchata Ferrell (Berta) died last year from Covid (may she rest in peace). Show was hilarious and still is...even if Charlie Sheen is a personal mess. Some of the best lines I've ever heard came from that show.

Regardless, there's a few rather obscure sitcoms I've found on Hulu that have really gotten my attention and figured I'd share. The one I'm watching right now is called, "The Guest Book". It has absolutely put me in stitches. Great cast, great writing, and just plain funny. Written by Greg Garcia who wrote "Raising Hope", "My Name is Earl", etc.

Another sitcom that is pretty funny is "Community" which I've watched in its entirety and got hooked (about a top notch lawyer in a firm that discovers he doesn't have a degree and is forced to go to community college). Worth checking out if you're bored. I liked it, my girlfriend did not. We have different senses of humor, LOL

Yet another sitcom that made me laugh a lot is "Quick Draw", a satirical western them where a Harvard educated man moves to the old west to take over a hostile town as Sheriff.

Anyway, just a few ideas if any of you are looking for something to watch and need a laugh. The Guest Book is really funny.

Okay, I'm a big reader and love certain genres like action/thrillers, mysteries, legal thrillers, and certain times of my life, history (middle ages, Egyptian, ancient Chinese, European, Early American, etc.) Since settling in with a girlfriend for the past 3 years or so and my getting into the stock market, I've not had the time or inclination to read a book a week like I did for many years. I'd like to get back to that but it doesn't fit in well with keeping my girlfriend happy and adequately playing the market.

My favorite authors are: David Baldacci, Vince Flynn (may he rest in peace), Daniel Silva, Robert Crais, Lee Child, Preston and Child (not Lee, but Lincoln Child younger brother of Lee Child), Michael Connelly, Clive Cussler (may he rest in peace), Michael Chrichton (may he rest in peace), John Grisham, John Lescroart, etc.

Anyway, to get to the point of this thread, whoever on here suggested I give Carl Hiaasen a try, I want to thank him. I picked up "Bad Monkey" and "Razor Girl" a few months ago but just finally got around to reading one of the books...i.e., "Razor Girl". I haven't had a book captivate me like this since I read Chrichton's "Jurassic Park" in 1990 when I pick up the book at an airport and read it on my way to San Francisco for a business trip (probably the best book I ever read and the worst movie about a book ever made - turned a great story into multiple chase scenes...for visual effect and excitement I suspect).

I like thrillers that take place in various parts of the world because it's like taking a free trip. I like novels about Florida (as I've lived there in the past) and have read many of Randy Wayne White's novels, but by far, Hiaasen really paints a picture with words, develops a keen interest while injecting just the right amount of humor to keep me both deeply interested in the story while finding myself chuckling along the way. I think the term, "couldn't put it down" is a grossly overused term in book reviews - IMO, but it actually applies to "Razor Girl" (for me anyway).

Regardless, I want to thank the guy on here again for suggesting giving Hiaasen a try. Great author!

I've always had my foot in the market, but only through mutual funds in the last few years. However, I pulled my money out of the fund and started playing the market regularly in November last year. I've gone from having 20 stocks on my watch list to having closer to 200. I'm not legally a "day trader", but I buy and sell several times a day - I just can't buy and sell a stock the same day...well, I can but I get warned and if I do so three times in 5 days my account gets suspended (on TD-Ameritrade anyway). So anyway, I'm up 50% in 10 weeks and having a lot of fun studying, researching, buying and selling. Mostly small and mid-caps. Just wondering if there is anyone else on here that does the same thing. I've spent so much time playing with stocks in the last few weeks that I've not had much to say on here about the Giants or other subjects. That will change as we get closer to draft day.

I am shocked to find out that shock jock radio host Howard Stern is a superb painter. Check out some of his works.

This is a water color painting by Howard Stern that graced the cover of Dan's Papers of a beach in the Hamptons



And apparently, he likes to paint flowers and cats.

Just finished up HBO's "Undoing" series which is a legal thriller complete with some very sexy moments thrown in. I won't give away much because I don't want to spoil it. I liked it as much as the "Perry Mason" series earlier this year...which surprised me because it's nothing like the original Perry Mason and was extremely interesting. HBO is putting out some good stuff now and then.

The stars of the show are Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, and Donald Sutherland. But it's hard not to fall in love with 25 yr old Italian actress, Matilda De Angelis who does full frontal and full backside nudes and has a body worth pausing the TV for a closer look...although I didn't because I watch TV with my girlfriend, but if I was alone, I probably would have backed it up a few times.

Anyway, it's a 6 episode miniseries which kind of drags in the middle then has an explosive ending. I'd love to banter with someone who has a legal mind to see if they figured out what I figured out. After the show ended, I failed to see what really happened (other than the real killer exposed). So as I was in bed falling asleep it suddenly hit me how everything was turned around, who was responsible, and how the trial trick was pulled off. So I sat up in bed and bounced my theories off my girlfriend and we put it together. Took awhile to see what really happened and when I figured it out, it was sheer genius.

Introducing Miss De Angelis:



An article in today's paper where she discusses kissing Nicole Kidman and going around naked.
https://nypost.com/2020/12/03/undoing-star-matilda-de-angelis-on-kissing-nicole-kidman-i-loved-it/

Just a heads up. Fargo 4 has started on Hulu. I loved the Fargo series so far, but haven't delved into 4 yet because there's only a couple of episodes and you have to wait a week between each new one so I'm waiting until the series is over so I can binge it. I hate waiting a week for the next episode. Getting spoiled from all the options available - watch a whole season without commercials, etc.

Anyway, just wanted Fargo fans to know no. 4 has started.