I saw the movie on Sunday. It was a real treat to see. The short version, 10/10 Go see it.
Seeing the movie brought to mind the following:
Some of the background was a great touch. Yep, they had Janice Joplin and Timothy Leary at a beach concert and a host of period music in the soundtrack, some of which you will recognize.
The movie was grounded and a blast from the past. Just a few short years after this movie was set was when many people on my mom’s side of the family gave their lives the Christ (1974-1975). I think religious faith was portrayed as a struggle and not an end.
I knew of Chuck Smith and the many music groups that began at his church, but the origin of his youth-oriented church was fun to watch. Talk about the ungrateful death (his congregation) being given life… From what I recall of the 60’s, the counter-culture movement was a bunch of rebels without a clue. After many years of trying stupid stuff (drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll), many finally found what they were looking for, a lively faith to fill the God-shaped vacuum in their soul.
Not everything coming out of the Jesus Revolution was orthodox but some great theologians did come to prominence during this time period. If you can dig up some sermons by David Chilton, on a few recordings, he discusses some of the abuses on the fringes of this movement.
One result of this period is what I call the franchise church: Calvary Chapel, Vineyard, LifePoint, Hillsong, etc.
Another and different version of Christianity coming out of this movement was Jesus People USA. They are still around today. They are a cooperative community—think baptized commune—that specializes in ministering to the poor in urban communities. I don’t know how many locations they are in, but Chicago and Milwaukee were ones that I remember.
Kelsey Grammar was really good as Chuck Smith and Jonathan Roumie did a great job as Lonnie Frisbee. I guess Jonathan plays Jesus in The Chosen; sorry, I’ve never seen the show. There is a line in the movie about him trying really hard to look like Jesus, guess that has more than one meaning.
Final thought, I’d see it again and plan to buy DVD once it goes on sale.
I know that I haven’t written in a while and this brief blog is proof that I do feel some guilt about that.
My wife and I are getting the house ready to move and also overseeing the building of the new place. Our new house is nearing the completion of sheetrocking and will soon be ready for painting. Hopefully the tile guy will be ready to go soon so we can finally bathe in our place instead of trekking to the local church a few times a week for a real shower.
As one would expect, our utilities at the new place are a fraction of the rates in California. Our heater has been on nonstop since October. It was set to about 60 degrees up until January, when we upped it to 70. Even when the temperature outside was negative, the house stayed really warm—insulation is such a blessing. Anyway, it costs us about $65 for natural gas there while in warmer California, our bills from PG&E are running almost $300 per month—they gotta pay for those fires somehow.
During our visits to the new house, we were living off of one electrical outlet but this last trip saw us get five more outlets. What a blessing not to have extension cords running all over the place and having to unplug everything when using the circular saw. Also, I was able the get the Nest thermostat running along with a Nest “drone unit” in the crawl space. The crawl space (more like a basement) is now somewhat insulated and considered part of the inside envelope of the house. I wanted to see how that area is doing. It’s been a steady 58 degrees for most of the winter.
The upstairs is mostly painted and ready for other work but the downstairs will need a coat of sealer and a finish coat of paint. Then we plan to tackle the ceiling which is slated for tongue and groove pine. If I plan the work then this ought to go well in much of the house—the known tricky spots are upstairs.
The wife and I are selling things we once considered treasures on eBay and will soon have the mother of all garage sales. Anything not sold will probably go to a charity not named Goodwill.
Parting with large pieces of furniture is also on the list of things to do. Not having control of when friends and relations will actually take custody of stuff is somewhat frustrating.
I have much that I wish I would blog about but will get to it as time permits and the Spirit moves me.
A portion of our blog staff will remain in Elk Grove, and I can begin covering North Idaho once we get settled. The contrast will be fun to compare.
Avoid. That’s the one and only word. Your humble correspondent has not and will not visit after hearing and seeing several trusted sources review our new shiny casino.
Sky River is a brand-new casino that opened in the same town as this blog’s world headquarters. We have always been skeptical as this is a small town, and do we really need another casino here? In a short driving distance, we have, Jackson Rancheria, Cache Creek, Thunder Valley, Red Hawk and a couple of card rooms downtown. All of them are far more exciting than our new casino. Sky River Casino is very small, and no frills at all. For now, it’s just a gambling floor and food. I guess long term they have plans for a hotel, we shall see.
As for the casino part, I have had 4 customers/friends attend the casino multiple times since it opened, of course they aren’t degenerate gamblers, they just like to play a bit. None enjoyed it at all. Some even won money and still would not go back. They said it was smoky as heck, so bad they had to go outside to get fresh air multiple times over the course of 30 minutes. This is a bad look for a casino who said they have state of the art filtering systems in place.
Photo from Yelp
The slot and table play got decent marks, but it was very crowded, this is a good thing for the casino. But again, the smoke…. yikes.
The food was a major let down. Full disclosure they do have a standalone steak house coming soon, which would be a good addition to this town in my opinion, but the food otherwise consists of just a food court. Pretty lame. You order from your phone and sit and the workers bring it out to you. Prices were just ok. Food was high school cafeteria quality. Avoid.
In summary, this place is average, but it fits this town perfectly. If you think about it, we have lots of chain restaurants here, nothing special. Our casino fits that. We have people who are always hunting for a deal, this place fits that. We are a no-frills town… this place fits that.
Yelp Review Summary of Sky River Casino
Recently, I went out to eat and happened to be seated near an elected official from this area. I overheard her telling a colleague we have a Walmart quality casino, for our Walmart quality town. (We have 4 Wally Worlds in and around Elk Grove.) If you are looking to blow some cash, this place will allow you to do that, but bear in mind, it has no sports book, no quality food options, and no hotel. Also, no golf course or amphitheater. Suit yourself, but I am not going to partake. Like usual, this town would rather be adequate or average than have anything nice.
Johnnie Does
Editor’s Note: I checked Yelp just to see if Johnnie was being too hard on the place. Here’s what I found.
After trying to go here and eat more than Ice Cream, it was disappointing. Most of the Marketplace Food Court is surpassed by your local Shopping Mall Food Court in Selection, Quality and Service.
Yelp Reviewer Wanugee N. 09/17/22
Beautiful inside except the cleanliness. A casino of this size should have at least 5 people on the floor all the time just picking up and cleaning everything. It’s dirty.
Yelp Reviewer Marianna B. 08/21/22
There was no non-smoking area. I brought a mask but it didn’t help. There were also no hand sanitizer stations around. There are germs on every machine!
There was a long line to get into the food court area. It took awhile to get in and once I saw the prices I immediately went out… Too bad there is no buffet, whenever I go to a casino I expect a buffet.
Main question, did I have fun? My answer is not really. I did get some exercise though from getting lost in this casino and then getting lost again in the parking lot. I guess I at least got to experience this but I don’t think I’ll come back.
Yep, today I have decided to clean off all the unposted things that I’ve been saving to write about but never got there. I hope you find a few funny and others interesting.
The following was posted on social media a few months ago. It is a news account of a Russian general being killed in the Ukraine war.
In the opinion of some, there was a shadow over this report. Some said the news was tainted. I sought the original post on the Ukraine news site but was unable to find it.
Sadly, it is indeed a forgery. The photo is actually from the Command and Conquer computer games series by Electronic Arts. Specifically in Red Alert 3, actor Tim Curry played Premier Anatoly Cherdenko. Other names you might recognize in the cinematic cut screens include Gina Carano, Jonathan Pryce, J.K. Simmons, George Takei, David Hasselhoff, Jenny McCarthy, and Kelly Hu.
Next is a meme that I found on the website Gab.
Microsoft has now confirmed signing a malicious driver being distributed within gaming environments.
This driver, called “Netfilter,” is in fact a rootkit that was observed communicating with Chinese command-and-control (C2) IPs.
The driver in question was seen communicating with China-based C&C IPs providing no legitimate functionality and as such raised suspicions.
This quote is the gold standard of the Covid lies.
“I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection and I think we overplayed the vaccines,” Birx told the Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto.
Another Covid atrocity is this photo which I found many months ago. I call it “Really Wrong”.
I found this gem on my Microsoft account. Don’t know how they found me here.
Could this be the proof that I’m more Indian than Elizabeth Warren.
Here’s two stories from a different perspective that talk about Russia versus the West.
Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Chechen forces fighting for Russia, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “holy war” against the “Satanic” values of Europe and the United States as well as the LGBTQ community.
Alaudinov made the remarks during a recent segment of Russia’s state-run Russia-1 television channel. A clip of his remarks were shared to Twitter on Sunday by Julia Davis, a columnist for The Daily Beast and creator of the Russian Media Monitor. Chechnya, where Alaudinov hails from, is a Republic of Russia under the jurisdiction of Moscow.
In his comments, the Chechen commander praised Putin for standing up against the West and NATO, describing them as evil. He praised the Russian president for preventing LGBTQ rights from advancing in their country, contending that the fight in Ukraine was a war against the marginalized community.
Alaudinov noted that he is “grateful” that Putin is following the values of “the Most High,” referring to God. “We are not under the flags of the LGBT and as long as he’s alive, we won’t be under those flags.”
To my knowledge, I am the only culture war analyst in the world who contends that the current Russia/Ukraine war started not with President Putin’s Feb. 24, 2022. “Empire of Lies” speech, nor with the Obama/Soros-orchestrated Maidan coup on Feb. 22, 2014, to replace pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych with their own stooge, but with Vladimir Putin’s signature on June 30, 2013, making the LGBT propaganda ban the law of the land.
More than any other factor in the vast constellation of geopolitical rivalries and concerns, that single act declared the Russian Federation an enemy of globalism, and more importantly in the realpolitik sense, an enemy of the megalomaniac “closeted” homosexual Barack Obama who, even then, had done more to advance the global LGBT agenda than any other living man.
In other news, the “Velvet Sweatshop” a.k.a. Microsoft has digitized most of the world and made the data available for free. Sorry, I didn’t check for the accuracy of Area 51, but you’re welcome to look. However, I’m sure North Korea can now accurately target your house using these same geolocation tools.
Did you know that the first fatal nuclear reactor deaths were in the United States in 1961?
Yep, Jane Fonda was still in braces when this happened. This article is a good read. I think the Sith Lord would find it interesting. Also, any of you Navy Nukes that did prototype training in Idaho will find this of interest.
ATOMIC CITY, Idaho — People in this remote, high-desert town still talk about the alleged mysterious love triangle that, 60 years ago, triggered a murder-suicide — and resulted in the world’s first fatal nuclear explosion.
The accident never got the same attention as Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986) or Fukushima (2011). But the sensational story behind it lives in infamy, even though some experts believe it may have been made up by government officials.
This single sentence is true: Army Specialists Jack Byrnes, 22, and Richard McKinley, 26, and Navy Seabee Richard Legg, 26, died violent, gruesome deaths on Jan. 3, 1961, at the US Army’s pioneering SL-1 reactor in Idaho.
More proof that the ancient world was not what they taught you in school. The gizmo in this article is super cool.
Great mysteries are meant to be penetrated and one of the most fascinating is the 2,000-year-old computing machine known as the ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism.
This intricate, bronze clockwork device was first discovered by Greek sponge divers inspecting a Roman-era shipwreck back in 1900 near the island of Antikythera in the Mediterranean Sea. Since then, scholars and historians have speculated as to the exact nature of its precision Steampunk-like workings.
Now a team of scientists and researchers at University College London (UCL) has uncovered a significant piece of the puzzle that comprises this fascinating astronomical calculator, which is thought to be a hand-cranked mechanical contraption used to predict astronomical events and heavenly logistics.
The Antikythera Mechanism is considered to be the world’s first analog computer and perhaps the finest feat of engineering ever to emerge from that era of antiquity. No equivalent machine was created until at least a thousand years later when craftsmen built medieval cathedral clocks.
This 2,000-year-old device was fabricated using a complex intermeshing of 30 surviving gears and was harnessed to not only predict the positions of the Sun, Moon and the planets, lunar and solar eclipses, and astronomical phenomena, but also dates for the ancient Olympics.
If you aspire playing 4K Blu-ray disks on your computer, here’s some news you need to know.
There is no greater acknowledgement that we have moved on from physical media than Intel dropping support for them from their latest processors.
The first laptops without DVD drives were being released around 10 years ago, but until the 12th generation of Intel’s processors, the company still included support for the SGX (software guard extension) DRM technology needed to decrypt the discs.
This is no longer the case, as Intel confirmed in the spec sheet for the 12th Generation processor.
Last but not least are two stories on the financial failure that is the State of California. Yep, sorry Gavin lovers—not that I know of any—but all this talk of budget surplus is BS for gullible voters and the children running Silicone Valley.
Oh, the following is from a year and a half ago and its only gotten worse.
So we sued the State of California to get the records that are legally required to be made available to anyone who requests them.
Our initial request on Aug. 23, 2019 was ignored, and follow-up letters in October and November were finally acknowledged – 11 weeks after the first request, a violation of state open records law.
Our request was later denied, with Yee saying that they were “unable to locate” the evidence of payments that her office made and that it did not track payments that went through other state offices.
In 2018, Yee’s office paid 49 million bills totaling $320 billion in payments. While she made the payments, she claims she cannot track the payments.
The State Controller’s Office is the worst agency in the State of California. Trust me because I’ve seen this in the private sector. If you only count your revenue and don’t include all your expenses, you think you have a huge profit (revenue surplus). It sometimes takes an outside set of eyes to set the record straight. When government denies such oversight then it has something to hide.
In 2018, California resident Steven Childs wanted to know how much the state paid to a single vendor over a five-year period. Instead of the data, California Controller Betty Yee sent him an invoice for $1,250. Childs asked more questions and the Controller’s chief counsel, Rick Chivaro, admitted the state held electronic records and “warrant records” akin to “maintaining a checking account online.”
Today, in a Sacramento superior court, the controller denies having a checkbook and claims the warrant register doesn’t contain vendor information. The Golden State is the only state in the nation not to produce state spending under open records laws.
Our organization at OpenTheBooks.com is battling the controller in this case over our freedom of information request for the entire line-by-line state vendor checkbook. When the controller rejected our request, we sued.
Yee is claiming her office “couldn’t locate” a single payment. No, that’s not fake news, or a comedy punch line. California’s top financial officer actually argued this in court recently, despite admitting she paid 50 million individual bills last year.
Furthermore, the controller now claims that transparency itself is an “undue burden.” She swears it’s necessary to take 72,000 work hours to go through each of the 50 million payments by hand.
Here are some of the arguments Yee is making to stonewall our request:
“In order to produce checkbook level data as requested … staff would need to manually review the estimated 50 million transactions …” (Emphasis added.)
“The public interest served by not disclosing the requested records and data clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure. As such, the [State Controller’s Office] is relieved of any obligation to produce the requested records.” (Emphasis added.)
Do we have a representative republic if the representatives get to hide all transactions from the people—and claim that it’s for their own good?
Controller Yee acts like she has something to hide. Here are just a couple items we learned during discovery about how taxpayer dollars are spent by the controller:
1. Using paper and string. An estimated 200,000 bills — submitted only on paper — were paid during the fiscal year. Incredibly, the justification for each payment contains even more paper — between 15-20 pages and is bound and physically tied together with string. It takes 7-10 minutes to deconstruct, copy, and reconstruct each file.
2. State agencies submit employee reimbursements and supplemental payments to the controller without payee information. The controller provides the money with no accountability and no auditing.
The controller makes state payments, is compelled by the state constitution to audit them, and therefore must be able to track those payments. Any responsible entity that makes a payment can track the payment. It is the minimum standard in any basic accounting system.
In California, the controller has frequently blamed their outdated systems that store records on paper, microfiche, and electronic tape. Yee even admitted that couriers with manila folders run demands for payments from state agencies. Is this ancient Rome?
Oh, by the way, I have been in the room where the paper and string claim schedules are processed. This is 100 percent true and as a State employee, I’ve made and submitted many of these during my time working for the state. Oh, the string must be on the correct side of the Claim Schedule packet, or it will be returned to you rejected and unprocessed. Also, the knot on the packet is a bow just like when mama taught you to tie your shoes. If the knot is wrong, it will be returned to you—again rejected.
This is how government in the heart of the alleged technology capital of the world is really run. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I was minding my own business today when I saw this story. Personally, I think it’s funny, but the feigned outrage is priceless. How dare anybody challenge the orthodoxy of Liberalism, especially here in California.
Here’s the story:
MODESTO (CBS13) — A Stanislaus County resident is demanding answers after she and hundreds of others received an official tax letter in the mail stamped with “Lets Go Brandon.”
“This is taxpayer’s money, and they’re using this derogatory stamp to show what somebody thinks about it, and we’re paying for it. It’s just not right,” Boese continued.
County officials say the slogan ended up on roughly 544 pieces of mail. But how does a political slogan end up on official county business envelopes?
He says ABS Direct, a contractor, printed the envelopes in error and has since apologized. Gaekle says the county not only doesn’t condone such messages, but he says they don’t belong on official government business.
“How could this be a printing error? It’s stamped on every envelope on the back,” said Boese. “Somebody needs to realize this was illegal, and it’s just not good.”
Even the Modesto—formerly McClatchy—Bee has chimed in:
It’s hard to believe this statement needs saying. But the recent, incredibly embarrassing “Lets Go Brandon” gaffe — stamped in red ink on official correspondence from the Stanislaus County Assessor and Treasurer-Tax Collector’s offices to more than 500 residents — suggests otherwise.
“Let’s go Brandon” is a euphemism for the most vulgar put-down you might imagine aimed at President Joe Biden. The accidental slogan was quickly adopted by his critics on the right smirking at what they deem to be a clever insult lacking profanity while evoking it. The left is understandably appalled.
How the slogan ended up on the backs of tax-related envelopes from our own county offices is almost beside the point. It’s enough to say it was a carelessly egregious mistake, one made by a firm contracting to send mail on the county’s behalf.
So, if one part of government attacks another, even by accident or via a rogue contractor, we get outrage but if government wants to attack the most innocent and vulnerable in our society, or refuse to punish criminals and protect citizens, or solicit money to fix water storage and spends the money instead on bike paths and carpool lanes then we get crickets?
Folks, what’s the lesson here?
I get that even if I agree with “Lets Go Brandon” which I do, I have even worn a shirt with the statement to church on a few occasions, it probably doesn’t belong on official correspondence. What is surprising to me is how widely this story is circulating (it is theoretically a national story now since it’s carried on MSN.) Again, the outrage is greatly disproportionate to the offense of having it stamped on 544 pieces of mail.
By the way, what kind of county tax mailing goes to only that amount of people?
Are they deadbeats that didn’t pay taxes?
I can see this going two ways; first, the Lets Go Brandon controversy might bring more attention to the tax letter causing more people to pay and thus increasing county revenue or perhaps, since this is California, a taxpayer goes to court and gets the warning letter tossed as unofficial government correspondence due to this unauthorized message on the letter and thus they are given a pass on having to pay any tax associated with the letter.
Why not, Gavin gave free water, sewer, electricity, and rent to renters in California for 18 months with no compensation to utilities or property owners just because he said so. This is an offense that no media company has taken up or made any serious complaint about.
BTW Gavin still has all emergency powers given to him at the beginning of Covid and can shut everything down again on a whim anytime he pleases. Thus, he is essential, all the rest of us are not. Oh, sorry, no media outrage over this abuse of power either.
This latest iteration of Lets Go Brandon is yet another illustration of the brokenness of our people and institutions in the dystopia of California.
If you are wondering yes, it is. However due to the complete inaction of the democrat majority on…well basically anything, there is nothing to write about. Think about it, ever since President Dementia took office what exactly has, he done?
Well, he undid Trump with the stroke of a pen. (This means executive orders).
They bickered among themselves about a Build Back Better bill…. it’s basically dead.
Botched the Afghanistan pull out.
Passed a watered-down infrastructure bill (with the GOP pushing it across like they always do.)
He sent some troops to Eastern Europe but said they won’t be involved in Ukraine.
Spent a year investigating the January 6th insurrection.
He stopped the Keystone pipeline…. we are all paying for that.
They still haven’t tried to undo the SALT tax cap. (State and Local Tax max you can write off on your taxes. We here are predicting this will be the equivalent of the GOP repealing Obamacare.)
That’s about it. If you can think of more leave, it in the comments.
That’s a great first year in office, he said he would stop Trump and they did. Folks it’s sad, he got elected president, and he had all these idea’s…. not! Actually I think his whole presidency is similar to when Trump got elected…. his own party was in shock!
So yes, we are still a political blog but there is not much to write about.
I got quite a few texts from relatives of mine and friends regarding my blog lighting my sister on fire. Most were folks asking why I don’t try to help her or be a true brother.
Here are the reasons why…
First, she has lied to me so much I never know what the truth is. She borrowed $5k from me once and claimed she needed it to pay rent and buy groceries. Of course, she never paid me back, silly me, she told my parents it was a gift. She claimed to have sold several houses, so I enlisted her to help me buy mine…. another major fail, I got the house but remember bumping into my vendor (it was his parent’s house) and the realtor and talking shop off the record after my offer was accepted. My loan guy also said she was nearly impossible to reach prior to the hour of 1pm.
She was convicted of drug trafficking a felony, and while on probation convicted of DUI causing an accident while driving to the San Diego airport to catch a flight. Yes, read the last part again, she was going to be boarding an airplane. In both cases she had to be placed in a restraint, likely signaling she was on more than just booze. She never did any jail time, and her fines were waived…. she got a free second and third chance. The bloggers on this site never could have gotten the DUI as we would be partially through our jail time. Yet time and time again she never realizes her luck.
She is the most entitled human I know. She owns a bulldog mix type dog, yet claims it’s a service dog. Yeah, she is one of those. Sign says no dogs? Well, she will just eat at your patio. The dog has never been trained, but who would expect a child to teach a dog any type of trick? The best is when she flies home, check this out. She will leave my folks house 30 minutes prior to departure and call southwest airlines and tell them hold the plane she is stuck in traffic! Guess what? They do!
At every family event she attends she is a tertiary character, offering little during set-up, prep, cook, or clean up but is always the first to start drinking and the last to finish. Ditto for any extended family type events, she can always be found in the photos red faced and full glass in hand. She makes fun of other people, but that’s ok, because hey she drinks so she is one of us! My parents shrug it off because, well, drinking to excess at 34 is cool! Check out the last 3 weddings celebrated in the extended family, the photos are cringeworthy, literally in all of them she is drinking/drunk. It is well known throughout the family of her arrests, yet no one cares she is drinking to excess? Even worse they ply her with more drinks? At the most recent wedding she was back on her BS, rather than RSVP’ing on time, she waited until 3 days before, and wanted to bring a plus one. Thankfully for her she gets her way all the time, so request granted. Hopefully they had enough wine for 5 extra people.
Worse yet is her vice problems. A few years ago, an aunt of ours was in town with my grandmother. One night my sister and her stayed up until 3am and polished off 5 bottles of the sacrament. Leading to a rough hungover lasting until early evening. For my sister this is a slow day of drinking, for my aunt, it was so much she got violently ill. Keep in mind at the time my sister was 32, my aunt calls it 60. This behavior is unacceptable for people of those ages, but no one cares.
The absolute worst is these folks will make every excuse in the book for her, the coddling is off the charts. They even feel bad that she is a felon and cannot find work. The truth is she refuses to work. I have it bad just like all of you because our tax dollars prop up people like this who refuse to contribute to society. It is horrific to watch.
The behavior continues to this day, she is unrepentant and is typical of those who live in California. They make excuses for everything. Never have they been wrong in their lives, it’s sad to watch, but worse yet are the folks who coddle and cover for.
These are the reasons I do not defend her. She will mess up again, and next time I fear no amount of money will clean the mess up.
Hopefully your Turkey Day weekend was better than mine, actually it wouldn’t be hard beat it. First of all, my felon, DUI sister is in town and as usual she acts the opposite of a 34-year-old adult. It started with Turkey Day dinner; she was supposed to drive over from Napa (visiting a friend) at 1:00 to assist with the meal. She rolled in at 4:00 leaving my folks needing to call me over to work my magic to save it. We pulled it off, but the felon had her whole bevy of tried-and-true excuses ready; my favorite was her alarm didn’t go off. Yep, so I guess she slept until 1? Napa is about 1.5 hours away, but let’s just call it 2, that is working on the assumption she left at 2, likely waking up at 1. She does not work, and her friend works at a winery, again my working assumption is she had a late-night partying, and well, turned in about 3:00 am. Again, this is a 34-year-old. She showed up, made a beeline for the wine, poured a large glass, and disappeared. She was literally given one job, as it was crunch time in the kitchen, watch the potatoes boiling on the stove, naturally she couldn’t even do that right as the fire alarm was activated by the water evaporating, I saved the potatoes the best I could.
The meal was commenced, and the neighbors liked what was served, if they only knew. However, the resident alcoholic threw down 2 bottles of wine over the course of the meal, yes, as in 7 glasses. No one else besides my mother drank. Again, this is a convicted felon, with a DUI on her record, and no one seemed to care.
The following day was when my folks get their tree, we always cut our own in Apple Hill. We were given orders to be ready at 8am being as I have a truck, I’m kind of mission critical so I got there at 7:30. My folks were stirring, but there were no signs of life coming from the other sibling of mine, I was not shocked. She finally rustled awake at 9:30, and we were on the road at 10:30. Of course she complained the whole way of being on an empty stomach; of course, this would have been remedied easily by waking up but that’s a tall order for her. Also, I found out the puppy of hers, some type of bulldog mix, needed to make the trip as well. The dog clawed my center console, climbed on me while driving, and barked and howled the entire time. I found out the dog hadn’t been fed and/or been allowed to relive itself. Obviously her caretaker fails at life and at having a pet. But thank god she felt she needed one. Predictably both members of the heavy drinker caucus had no interest in being on a tree lot for more than about 5 minutes. So, my father and I had to visit the lot we stopped at, as well as the one across the street to make a selection. No help was given as far as putting it in the truck, but the entirety of the trip back home was spent asking when we could stop for food. So, Bert’s Diner it was.
Bert’s has a sign saying no dogs on premises, and for all people “who have” that’s good enough, but if you are a “have not” you go inside anyway and argue with the frontline employee with no decision-making power at all. My sister literally told her you have an outdoor covered patio; we will just sit out there. Mind you we hadn’t ordered yet, and these very folks would be crafting our dishes. Upon taking over the patio area, she went inside and asked for a bowl of water…. yeah, you cannot make this up. In case you’re wondering, I am not related to Nancy Pelosi or any descendent of Gavin Newsom. Of course, she ordered 2 glasses of wine…because well why not. This basically sums up California Irony at its finest, the one with nothing made all the rules and wasn’t taking no for an answer. Upon conclusion, we made the short drive home. As we pulled into the garage, my mother declared she had to use the restroom thus meaning she wasn’t assisting with the tree, and my sister declared her shoulder hurt. Just in the issue of fairness she found a bottle of wine during her egress into the house and had a fresh glass poured as my father and I walked in after unloading the tree.
After this episode I went home, as I figured I too would be driven to drink, and I gave that stuff up. I took Saturday off too, I guess in California we would call this a mental health break? LOL
Sunday my phone rang right as my Sunday service let out, I had to come over and make my seafood pasta tonight, my sister requested it. I figured ok, since I didn’t spend Saturday there, and I know my dad needs help decorating the outside and the tree. I went over early, and we put up the outside lights, and got the tree into the stand, I needed a break again, and went back home. At 3:00 my phone began “blowing up” as the kids say these days, literally I heard it ring 5 times while I showered, I figured someone died, my sister was in need of bail again, or Trump got reinstated as President.
Wrong on all counts, mom needed me to relay to her the ingredients for my seafood pasta. I did, and literally 5 minutes later she called back asking the same question. I told her I would get the shrimp, and she had the other ingredients. I came over at 4, and quickly noticed my mother and sister were 9:00 drunk before 5pm, this was going to be wild. After handing my mother the shrimp, literally 5 minutes later I was asked where the shrimp was and why I didn’t bring it over. Yes, I had to walk a 68-year-old woman over the fridge and point to the bag of said shrimp, only to be told I didn’t buy enough. Yep, that kinda night. She told me help dad put the ornaments on the tree, and subsequently told us which ones to put where.
Making matters worse, my sister decided she was going to do invoicing for her “job;” kind of odd at 5pm on a Sunday, and with wine out. But such is life in this family, the black sheep can tell any tale and the gullible believe it. After about an hour of this I figured dinner prep needed to start, of course my mother decided to start the pot of boiling water, long before needed (we make fresh pasta) and I needed to shell the shrimp and cut the sausage. But when you’re hammered, all you care about is a minor contribution. I offered my dad the role of Sous Chef because I could tell he needed to get the hell out of there, as being the lone sober one is never fun. He joined me and we “processed” the shrimp and sausage, I had the pasta maker going, and all could be salvaged. My mom ventured in wondering where she left her wine glass, as is typical for her. Fortunately, they have a house stocked with them, and it’s never hard to find a bottle of wine. With the pasta extruding my dad said we should put another cup of water into the tree, so my mother walks over, grabs the bottle of water I have and puts it in the tree, yeah you read that right. No way she had a few too many.
I walk back into the kitchen and witness my mom popping half cooked chicken sausage into her mouth as if it was popcorn at the movie theatre. I ushered her out, and we got the meal in the pan. She wants to cook the pasta, so about every 5 minutes she called out the pasta goes into the boiling pot of water. She is now on wine glass numero 3 since the other 2 walked off on her (no comment on the actual amount of wine consumed). When it came time to add the pasta, she declared we didn’t have enough water, so she grabbed my now cup of water, and tossed that into the pot. Yep, I guess we are in a sharing household even as far as germs are concerned. When it came time to deglaze the pan of seafood and veggies, she insisted on dumping in the remaining half bottle of white wine…. I can envision Gordon Ramsey’s head literally exploding, but this is what a drunk does. Prior to putting the pasta into a bowl, my mother decided it needed more herbs, so she dumped in an entire bottle of McCormick perfect pinch Basil, and another of Italian Seasoning.
After saying grace, she and the felon needed to “re-top” their wine glasses, and the meal commenced. My sister decided it wasn’t flavorful enough, so she added red pepper flakes to the bowl, and hot sauce. This is perfectly rational behavior, right? During the meal my mother picked at her dish asking repeatedly where the shrimp were, and whispered to my sister “where is the dog?” The felon kept adding hot sauce to her meal and needed my help locating the bottle of wine on the table…literally directly in front of her. What an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend I had.
The following day I called both out for their behavior, and my mother claimed not to have a drinking problem, and my sister pulled her usual BS and started crying, saying her ex-bf hit her, and has threatened her recently. Not trying to be a jerk, but I don’t buy it.
I’ll end with this, these are classic behaviors out of both my felon sister and my mom. Neither ever take the blame or responsibility, because it cannot be their fault. This is classic behavior of addicts, with my mother, it’s too late, this is who she has become in the last 10 years. She has zero patience when drinking, and literally, like her mother, thinks I am dumb. I have always been asked numerous times “if I understand” or “did you remember?” They will never understand but that cuts pretty deep. I always find while cooking over there the burners get turned to “hi” when I’m not looking simply because one of the two addicts is hungry. Not being able to locate your wine glass is textbook you’ve had too much, but nope, just grab another and let someone else figure it out later. As for my sister, she has always displayed entitled behavior and never been told “no” before in her life, so she never takes it as a final answer, always looking to go over someone’s head. She never learned from her felony drug arrest, or DUI causing an accident arrest, so she will never learn. The fact she still acts the same way is disturbing…. almost as disturbing as my parents turning their heads the other way. The excessive drinking and staying up until the wee hours of the morning tell me she’s up to even worse after the adults go to bed. Not getting up until 10am backs up my hypothesis. She cares about no one but herself, as far as the ex-bf goes, I think she is either a) a liar, or b) they both engaged in excessive partying, and it always got out of hand. Heads or tails, it’s not a good look. Frankly her refusal to consider a restraining order tells me all I need to know.
First time, long time folks, but I had to get off Hope Hicks for a moment….so here we go.
Former NFL Running back Zac Stacey charged with domestic violence after being caught at airport: Word to the wise, going to an airport to try to evade capture isn’t too bright; literally it’s the one place you must show ID. I would have hid at a polling place, never need to show ID there. Also just want to point out, the part of his head where the brain goes is also the smallest part of his head…. coincidence? We caught up with his mother and asked her to comment on the arrest: “Muh Baybay din du nuffin.” Obviously Stacy’s mom doesn’t exactly have it goin on, as that song states. Well that settles it, I would have gone with the defense of: CTE, or he grew up in an abusive environment so he thought it was ok, or she called him the “n” word. Stacey played a violent sport called the NFL; however, he will soon find out that fails to compare to the violence he will encounter in the general population at State Penn. Stacy threw his girlfriend and a television among other things.
We reached out to a friend of the blog who works as a defense attorney at the prestigious Law Firm: Lowe, Ballem, and Lynch. She offered this defense for Mr. Stacy: If the TV ain’t 4K, you can’t put him away! Way to channel your inner Johnnie Cochran sweetie. Lastly we reached out to MSNBC for comment and they stated “she flashed a gun at him and tried to hit him with a skateboard.” Ok so there is that. Then we reached out to ESPN and the only thing they wondered was if Stacy was vaccinated. What a world.
Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges: Hat tip to the Blog Father on this one, as Kyle Rittenhouse was able to grab his AR-15 and two more full magazines upon leaving the courthouse. Declaring loudly, the judge asked me to defend the courthouse tonight from all the rioting. Rittenhouse also exclaimed he was going to visit the Whitehouse since he felt as though he had won a championship! We reached out to Target Corporation for comment and they stated “Black Friday is coming early this year.” Another corporation commented that the “semi-annual everything is free sale” will go on as planned this evening in your local inner city! I guess this is like reparations. We tried to reach out to any Republican but we found out they all actually have lives and jobs so no one was available for comment. We reached out to the Democrat National Party Chair Tom Perez who was shocked at the outcome, claiming they sent over 85,000 ballots marked guilty to that courtroom, loudly proclaiming they wanted a recount! However he was happy to learn the now deceased Joseph Rosenbaum, and Anthony Huber had their voting rights restored and will vote in every election going forward, as many times as it takes. “It’s the small victories” remarked Perez. Perez did express remorse that Gaige Grosskreutz was only injured, saying “we really need every vote these days, and look forward to the day we can count him multiple times to vote where needed.”
Colin Kaepernick says Rittennhouse verdict validates the need to abolish our justice system: Yo Jackwagon, who has taken a knee more in their lives, you or the Vice President? I’ll take my answer off the air.
Joe Biden says he is angry and concerned about Rittenhouse verdict: On second look, he was angry it wasn’t chocolate ice cream day, and concerned his diaper was filling up. Nothing to see here.
Lauren Boebert stuns in red dress: Whoa, momma mia! That’s a movement I could get behind…. Hope Hicks may be jealous.
KCRA 3 Reports: Truck spills bags of money in Southern California. Fake news, in CA we only give bags of money to illegals and those who do not work.
Troll
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Troll asked that these photos of Hope Hicks be added to his post because he thought it was important that you know what he wants most for Christmas.
People get fooled by con artists all the time. It must work or why would so many people be trying to hustle us? Some of the best know Internet cons include: the Nigerian Prince promising you millions after you send 4 installments of several thousand, or your friend that has been robbed in some other country and turns to you to wire them money, or the person threatening to send your internet search history to your wife. The cons exist everywhere and prey on those unsuspecting. Corporations sometime get fooled as well; it happens, although no one gets fooled like ESPN did a week ago.
Check this story out.
ESPN a Disney subsidiary has been televising high school football games on Friday/Saturday and Sundays for several years now. These games highlight matchups of high school powerhouses traveling across state lines to play one another. In addition, they showcase junior and senior athletes that are some of the most sought after prospects by colleges across the country. These games are very popular as college recruiting has taken off in the last seven years. These games attract quite a few eye balls, and the matchups are intriguing. Also there isn’t much else to watch during this period on ESPN so it fills a time slot.
Now the con job comes into play.
One of the matchups featured Florida powerhouse IMG Academy vs Bishop Sycamore a school out of Ohio. The game was played and IMG won 58-0. IMG Academy is a school boasting between 15-20 players who will play high level Division 1 football upon graduating, including 7 in the top 100 of ESPN’s own ranking database as seniors. Bishop Sycamore claimed to have several Division 1 caliber athletes….emphasis on claimed. In the 3rd quarter with the game out of hand, the commentators wondered aloud why this game was being played and at one point even called into question player safety. Yes the game was that lopsided. Here is a quote from ESPN about this… Paragon who is referenced apparently is a broker in finding these matchups to be aired.
“We regret that this happened and have discussed it with Paragon, which secured the matchup and handles the majority of our high school event scheduling. They have ensured us that they will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward.”
So what happened exactly here? These same 2 squads matched up a year ago. Another quote regarding the “so called top players on Bishop Sycamore”
“Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster, and to be frank, a lot of that, we could not verify,” ESPN’s announcers said during the game “They did not show up in our database, they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services. … From what we’ve seen so far, this is not a fair fight.”
Well it isn’t hard to discover Bishop Sycamore is a fake school. First off, the term “Bishop” usually has an association with the catholic church/diocese in the area. The Columbus area diocese has no record or affiliation with this school. Ditto for the governing body of high school sports in all of Ohio. Bishop Sycamore claims they are a charter school but can’t claim a sponsoring entity. Maybe the following is why.
Chief says this is an actual bishop sycamore or a tree in close proximity to a Catholic Church
Bishop Sycamore is a scam, they are run by 2 men, Roy Johnson who has warrants out for his arrest for passing bad checks, among other things, and Andre Patterson a former Ohio State football player. Patterson is listed as director, and assistant football coach. (Update: Johnson was fired, now Patterson is in charge.) Patterson for his part continued the con job by saying the following about the talent on his “team”
“I try to defend when people who say, ‘Oh well, yeah, you lied about kids having Division I offers?’” Peterson said. “Well, I guess the best way for me to fight against that is having you sit down with us on signing day.”
Signing day is the day high school seniors make their decision of where to play in college. Mr. Patterson is either delusional or has lied to himself so much he actually believes his schtick. Bishop Sycamore had the wind taken out of its sails by a couple former “players” who said the class room consisted of just a building where we were told we could do classes, emphasis on could. The classes were allegedly put on by a prep school online. There was no practice schedule or field. They played in abandoned parking lots (yep) or fields at a local park. When I tell you “tuition” (I use that term loosely) was $2,000 a year, it may start to come into focus. This wasn’t a school; it was a glorified travel ball team. When they traveled to the host team’s site, they would stay in a hotel, several to a room, with fraudulent check writing Roy Johnson “fitting the bill.” One parent even said he wound up paying for the whole team once, as when he went to check-out, the front desk lady said no one had paid, and the credit card on file was rejected. My favorite was the team was evicted from its own “team lodging apartment complex.” The school has no address. It uses a PO Box and the website is too damn funny, it was taken down prior to publishing of this blog. My favorite part was under each school centric tab, the drop down menu would say coming soon. Here is the check writing shenanigans…
Canton Police Lt. Dennis Garren confirmed Wednesday that hotel management reported the team stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Canton South, 4025 Greentree Ave. SW, on Friday and Saturday, renting 25 rooms.
According to police reports, the hotel reported two invalid checks totaling $3,596. Garren said they were written on an account listed to Education Resources Group of New York, New York.
To further the con, the members of this team were a who’s-who of undesirable folks, and by saying that I mean no racial bias. Some of the players were 19 or 20 year olds making this squad a danger to those it played against. Additionally some had criminal records and would have been found ineligible just like the other “young adults.” These players were from all over the country and would have been impossible to track on a database.
Bad News Bears coaching staff
Just check out what Coach Tayven Jackson has to say about the school his team “plays for”
Jackson spoke with NBC4 in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend and answered questions about Bishop Sycamore, providing a fairly blunt assessment that actually seems to line up with what most people assumed in the first place.
“We do not offer curriculum,” Jackson told NBC4. “We are not a school. That’s not what Bishop Sycamore is, and I think that’s what the biggest misconception about us was, and that was our fault. Because that was a mistake on paperwork.”
Jackson later refers to Bishop Sycamore as a “post-grad football academy.”
NBC4 notes that when they pressed him on what that mistake was or entailed, Jackson didn’t provide any further information and said he didn’t know much about the paperwork, which was submitted to the Ohio Department of Education before he was hired.
They also pressed him on the fact that the “school” had reported a bell schedule for the prior year, beginning at 7:10 a.m. and going until 3:05 p.m. As for why a school that is not a school would have a bell schedule, Jackson had no answers. Bishop Sycamore head coach: ‘We are not a school’ but a ‘post-grad football academy’
Stunning. These schools pop up all over the country, some like IMG and others are legit, and can make your son/daughter into a much better athlete and earn that scholarship. Others like this Bishop Sycamore are also common, and they are a scam. This school didn’t even have an away uniform, so when they played IMG both schools were wearing black uniforms. They even started a gofundme.com page to raise money for their uniforms. Roy Johnson, Tayven Jackson and others all talk a good game, but it’s a load of crap. Check out this comment by a former player “lunch and dinner? Whatever we could steam from Walmart or a convenience store, they didn’t provide us with anything. What a fecal blizzard this whole thing is. ESPN is exclusively at fault here, they could have done some due diligence, even a little and it would have turned up this whole thing didn’t pass the smell test. By the way Sycamore played a game the Friday night prior to the Sunday game against IMG, this is dangerous on a whole nother level. These folks have zero regard for player safety. Folks football is glorified gladiator, I played it in High School, there is a reason the games are held once a week, it does a toll on your body. More crap from this scandal:
Bad News Bears got nothin on these guys
It was revealed that Johnson recruited the students with the prospect of “practicing at Ohio State‘s facilities.” In reality, they held practice outside of an apartment complex that housed students at Ohio State. The team also did not have athletic trainers, which resulted in the athletes playing injured. The apartments housing the students frequently evicted them after Johnson failed to pay rent. Many players already graduated from high school and there “were four or five kids that were 20, 21, [and] had children of their own.” A number of players had legal issues; at one point so many players had active arrest warrants that the team couldn’t fly to away games. One player actually joined the team immediately after being released from jail. The team also struggled with camaraderie; a former player claimed there were at least five fights at every practice. Heads should be rolling at ESPN but I mean does anyone even have cable anymore? I found out this story on the website awfulannouncing.com I visit every so often. I used to think the cable companies were a con job, turns out it’s the cable companies getting conned by a school, who in turn cons you the payor. Ouch. Glad ESPN could not be bothered to check the top high school player rankings they literally have on their website…ouch. Or maybe a Google search to see this school used to be called Christians of Faith Academy, which folded under the same scenario. Or their story about being affiliated with the third district of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, another lie as the church claimed to have zero affiliation with this group. An investigation showed money did exchange hands between the two…no shock most churches would take money from Satan himself today. Roy Johnson also used the church’s name and the school’s name when he was selling life insurance in another scam…. FACEPALM. there is a lot more out there folks. But man is this fun to write about. The worldwide leader in sports scammed by a group of guys who toss a pigskin round on a green belt. Only thing this story is missing is uncle Jimbo who could thro ball over them thar mountains, or stories about multiple DUI’s.
Folks if it sounds too good to be true it likely is.
Chief
PS: The name Bishop Sycamore Centurions I will say is a pretty scary sounding team to play against so I will give them some credit here. I however do not remember a bishop named after a tree in the Bible but oh well.
