I work the Vikings Game tomorrow.  It's a reasonable call time.  But I have to stay up because my alma mater plays tonight at 9:30.  I should be able to sleep long enough to function.  However, I am scared as hell that I will oversleep as I did, I think, six weeks ago, when I woke up 90 minutes after I should have started work.  (Have I already blog posted about this?)  I have worked sports broadcasts for upwards of two decades, and I have still never overslept for one of these gigs, thank God.  But for some reason, I am afraid that will happen tomorrow/Sunday morning.

I'm Getting Tired Of Fantasy Games

So several years ago, as I was conducting my alma mater's football Game-watching party, a person who starting coming to these events at the beginning of the season tipped me off to a fantasy football Game that his son and his friends started up.  He said it was so successful that it has become a full-time job to his son's friend.  As a courtesy but also as someone who has played fantasy football for decades now, I looked up this website, and frankly, it blew my mind.  It's chock full of, not fantasy football, but fantasy-related, gambling-adjacent games in which you pay money to win.  Think survivor pools, betting Against The Spread, etc.

It's gotten so big over the past few years that it quickly expanded to other sports, such as golf, basketball and soccer.  I in turn migrated to those offerings.  But of course it costs money to buy into these games.  And I have yet to win.  Probably not even close.  And that's because, with some regularity, I forget to play.

I stick mostly with survivor pools, where you have to pick one team each week of a league's season to win.  If you pick one that loses, you are out of the game.  Ingenious concept, and cutthroat too.  The problem is is that it's a season-long thing, and I am so busy that I have often forgotten to turn in my week's pick.  The deadline to pick a team, and rightly so, is just before the first Game of that weekend's worth of Games.  If you don't pick a team, you are automatically eliminated.

And that's what has happened to me more than once.  I don't know the exact number because I would hurl myself off a bridge if I figured it out.  But I kept absent-mindedly forgetting that I forgot inputting a team the previous season and threw my money (actually paid for my ante through PayPal) into that pool the next season, and it would be 50/50 if I would remember playing week by week.

I finally got tired of basically lighting my money on fire last week.  It was only the third Matchday of the English Premiere League, and I tossed in for the EPL survivor pool on this website.  I got busy thinking about my fantasy football drafts and auction and planning my way around the State Fair, and despite this website texting me reminders that I need to pick before I can't, it slipped my mind.  And once I realized that the first EPL Match of the weekend came and gone without me making a pick, I realized that I just threw away my money.  It's not much -- I want to say $10 -- but you could have a couple decent fast food meals with $10.  And combine that with all the other times I eliminated myself from pools simply because I forgot to make a pick before the deadline, and I mentally had it.  The past couple weeks was the start of college and pro football, and with it all these pools and pick 'em games that went along with it.  I would toss a few shekels in at least a couple of them, but not this time.  Nope -- I would just forget to play, and I would be wasting my hard-earned dollars again.

I'm just not good at remembering to come back to do these things on a regular basis, at least when it comes to quasi-gambling games online.  If there are competitions where you just make all the picks you have to make in one sitting, like the tournament for NCAA men's basketball or, just recently, the Knockout Round for the FIFA Women's World Cup, that's obviously perfectly fine.  But I get caught up with work and life and stuff, and it's not that important to me, especially when I have to tend to the fantasy football teams I've had for more than half my life.  I just wised up to the fact that I'm giving away money like this, and I feel better (at least for now) telling myself, "Enough!  What am I doing?"

I'm Right On Time This Week? Really?

Well, the unthinkable -- and according to my boss, the miraculous -- might be happening: With one day left in the shortened workweek, I have gotten out of work, in which I have been working in The Fourth Department, on time.  I mean I got in on time and left after exactly, exactly eight hours on the clock.  And to be honest, if I had my boss breathing down my neck about OT (he put in half a day on Tuesday before being off, but he comes back today/Friday), I could have left early all three days.

I don't think I'm "getting it."  Well, I've already "gotten it," and while I am somewhat amazed that a certain number of forms that would have made me stay late in the past is now a relatively easy task where I'm actually finishing up fairly quickly, I will still insist it's the meager workload that's allowing me to have a "normal" workweek.  I don't know what's going on in the lab, from which I receive my day's work, but I'm guessing that enough people are taking the week off that they're just not getting around to the work.  Or, maybe it's a chain-wide, nationwide slowdown in work.  What I think is happening (I wanted to check this before I left yesterday/Thursday, but heck, I would have had to stay late if I did) is that a crush of forms that I would normally receive in the middle of the afternoon simply hasn't come this week, or at least not to the extent where I would need to stay late.  I don't think that indicates mastery; it's more like mercy.

Let's see if this will happen today/Friday as well.  I think it will, but I'm afraid it won't, and I'll have to stay till 6:30 because I jinxed myself.

OMG, I'm so excited!  My Moroccan whore girlfriend is finally back!!!  I was hoping that the occasional text would keep up communication with her, and out of the blue last night she said she's finally home!!  Now I can get my dick sucked and get my fuck on!!!  Oh, happy day!!!!

Sorry, Too Much Food ... Can't Help Myself

Did not have to spend one minute extra at work.  Left after eight hours.  Surprised because I thought there would be a ton of stuff backed up from the weekend, but I got through it all.  This probably means the crush of work comes today/Wednesday.

No matter.  I was going home at a decent hour -- early enough where, possibly, I would be able to eat with my parents.  But that didn't happen.  My folks, both of whom are in their seventies, continue to eat dinner at around ... fuck if I know, but let's say 3 in the afternoon.  Because when I got home around 5:15, they did what they usually do when they eat first: They have a place setting of some food in dishes and have a plugged-in rice cooker with rice and some protein they cooked up (steak, pork, or chicken, like it was last night) in it.  That's totally great.  I don't want to take for granted that they have provided food for me all my life, and continue to do so to this day; I am never for want, plus it saves me money.

Unfortunately, I am permanently beholden to the idea that whatever they leave for me I have to eat.  All of it.  I can certainly blame them for that mindset; I was a difficult child when it came to eating because I was never hungry.  I was beaten down (always mentally, sometimes physically), and then I gave up and decided the best way to get their love and approval was to eat whatever they presented in front of me.  That mentality set in at some point when I was a kid, and it has never, ever let me go, even to this day.

That's why I was hoping, probably beyond hope, that they would wait for me.  When we eat together -- well, I like the fact that we eat together, don't get me wrong, but I also feel as though I get to dictate how much I eat.  Instead, when they leave food for me, I don't ever feel like I can just not eat what they left for me.  I eat it all.  And mostly it's a hell of a lot -- especially rice; most days when I eat on my own but especially last night, I wasn't hungry, and I probably ate way more than 2,000 of them.

The only upside I feel to eating by myself is not feeling pressured to finish.  If I have to eat it all and then do the dishes, I'll do that all on my time.  But either it was because I was hoping my parents would eat with me or because my stomach was full from everything I ate at the State Fair on Monday, I really, really was not looking forward to eating this all.  I wasn't that hungry.  But Christ, I ate it all anyway, because otherwise Mother will get mad at me, even if I know nowadays that she won't.  And I did eat it all.  Took me almost two hours, but I did!

In the middle of my consuming slog, Mother came up to me at the dining table.  She told me I didn't have to eat it all, and she said that if I told them around, oh, 3 o'clock that I would be coming home at 5, then they'd wait for me.  But I have been coming home late so often that they can't wait to eat, so they eat first and they guess what they will leave for me.  Usually it's more than I need.  I'm not mad, but ... it's too much.  It almost always is.

---

I have been feeling fat all night.  I have been fat -- shit, for a long, long time now.  I have averaged over 170 pounds the past few times I have been screened, and I know it's because of the combination of the food Father forces me to take to work with me and the food Mother leaves for me when I come home.  All those unnecessary calories add up to my distended belly.  And that's why (let me vent here) I'm glad they're leaving soon.  I love their food, I love that they make food for me, and it allows me to save money.  But I am feeling too damn bloated every single day and night, and it's finally gotten to be too much.  I probably will eat too much (and eat out too much) once they leave.  I know it.  But as I am feeling right now, I would prefer that.  Because this is too much.  Way too much.

Goodbye, Minnesota State Fair. Goodbye, Summer.

Went for the third and final time to the Fair last night/Labor Day.  For the second time I met a friend and her friends there.  Did a lot of walking, to the point where I was dog tired, maybe more so than Thursday.  Maybe that was because I was doing a lot of walking around with my friend, but I figure that even if I was alone, I'd be doing as much walking, if not more.  My feet would hurt, but it probably is a product of old age.

So I said goodbye to the State Fair by hanging by the benches for Soul Asylum's free show at the Leinie Lodge, then realizing that there were many seats available at the dedicated benches for the stage if I just walked around to them.  I stuck around for a few songs I didn't know -- I was walking to the Lodge as they were playing "Somebody To Shove," my favorite tune of theirs, but I recognized "Misery" -- but I decided to leave before they got to "Black Gold" or "Runaway Train."  Wanted to beat the rush of final fairgoers, plus the authorities are moving up the close of the Fair because there have been in the past fights and other disturbances.  Mostly, though, while I wanted to honor and commemorate the end of the State Fair and summer, I didn't want to stay till the very, very end, because that would have been too sad for me.

Have to say, though -- the female talent out in force ... goddamn, man.  Lots of babes showing their bellies all three times I was out there.  Especially for Labor Day, where I think we set a record high.  If I could remember one or two, I would stroke out to them.

One Last Visit To The Minnesota State Fair; Hope I'm Not Spending It Next To That Motherfucker

I planned on spending three days at the Minnesota State Fair because I bought three tickets.  Have one left, and today/Labor Day is the last day of the Fair so, of course.  It'll be hotter than fuck, so I hope I don't regret it, but there are a lot of foods I still want to try, and I want to say goodbye to Minnesota summer (even though it'll be just as hot tomorrow/Tuesday).

When I was hosting our alma mater's game-watching event, my friend from New York surprised me by dropping in.  She is in town helping her mother move.  Moreover, she is going to the Fair today too!  Again, I'm introverted as hell, but I am really looking forward to just walking and talking and eating with her ... and socializing for the second time at The Great Minnesota Get-Together!!!

But ... she said that she was going to hang out with her friend, starting in the morning.  I don't think I'm going to roll out until the afternoon, so I assume there will be some overlap.  Now, when I hung out my friend and her husband and friends, her friends were really cool.  This friend could be as well, and I am hoping this person is.  But I know of one of her friends whom she dragged to previous game-watching events years before, and this guy's a fucking weird dick.  All he said were these unprompted insults of our alma mater.  Couldn't carry a conversation about anything serious or deep, and I don't think he wanted to.  He's a Twitter troll (or an X troll; I see so many stories nowadays that say, "X, formerly known as Twitter"), and I do not look forward to standing next to that asshole for four or five hours taking his bullshit, especially if I'm enduring the blistering heat while I'm being subjected to him.

So, I hope the friend my friend is referring to isn't that prick.  Fingers crossed!

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Gopher football (NEW SEASON!).  I'm sure that the gridiron Gophers' 13-10 Win over Nebraska at Huntington Bank Stadium on Thursday was a close Game without being all that good -- I didn't watch a second of it live because I was at the Duran Duran concert at the Minnesota State Fair -- but when I was watching my alma mater's football Game last/Saturday night I chatted with a fellow alum who I met for the first time who was at the Game and she said it was the worst ever.  I don't know about that.  It may not be great, but it was decided on the last play of the Game.  How could it be that bad?

I remember the back-to-back castrations the Cornhuskers gave the Gophers in the early 80's, so I will never feel sorry for Nebraska when the U. beats them.  But this Win is more of a relief than a sign of good things to come.  The 'Huskers led at the beginning of the Fourth Quarter, 10-3, but that Quarter began with three Punts.  The Game got strange, and turned, in the final five Minutes.  Nebraska fumbled and the U. converted for their first Touchdown of the Game on a scintillating Daniel Jackson toe drag from 13 Yards out.  Nebraska Quarterback Jeff Sims threw an Interception (his third of the night) at Midfield in the ensuing drive, and the U. trundled 22 Yards so that Gopher Kicker Dragan Kesich can kick a Game-winning 47-Yard Field Goal at the gun.

They host Eastern Michigan Saturday night.  I understand the matchups are often dictated by TV, but wouldn't you want to ease into your season by playing the non-BcS squad first before playing a conference opponent?  These two Games should be flipped.  But, again, TV.

#-2: United FC (Last Week: -3).  To me, the team that should be on the top of the survey is clear, and the team that should be on the bottom of the survey is clear.  But the four local teams in the middle ... well, I'm not so sure I'll change my mind before I get done writing this.

In the end, I am following the same rubric that puts the Gopher football team on top and, uh, the team at the foot of the WMNSS: Record.  And while the two of the three pro squads I'm considering in this group of four could be lifted ahead of both U. clubs because their seasons are about to be extended for the postseason, they lost, and the two Twin Cities soccer sides did not.  And among the two, the Loons had the benefit (or "benefit") of playing three Matches and going undefeated in all of them.  Yeah, they tied Seattle 1-1 at Allianz to start the Week and tied the Earthquakes in San Jose to end it, but they're not Losses.  (Also, the Sounders have tormented the Loons ever since the latter entered top-flight, so getting a Point anywhere is something I'll take, especially since one player, Seattle's Yeimar Gomez Andrade, scored for MNUFC after scoring against MNUFC.)  They stuffed a 3-0 domination at home over Colorado, The Worst Team In Major League Soccer, on Wednesday to propel themselves into a playoff spot -- and technically seventh, above the Play-In Match (because of the Draw, San Jose technically is in tenth).

I'm not sure things are looking up, per se, although I like the fact that Teemu Pukki has scored in each of the last two Games.  Can they keep the relative good vibes going against the New England Revolution, a pretty good outfit this Year, at home Saturday?  (I won't be able to attend because of my alma mater's football Game.)

#-3: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -5).  In the club's second Match in Milwaukee, the Gophers defeated Marquette Sunday, 2-0.  They then flew down to Athens to play Georgia to a scoreless Draw Thursday.  And ... yeah, that's all I got.

Tonight/Sunday night they host St. Thomas in a Game delayed from the afternoon because of the heat.  Then on Friday they have a contest at Creighton.

#-4: Twins (Last Week: -2).  A 4-2 screening Week -- not bad.  They lost the series at home vs. Cleveland mid-Week, which isn't good, but on Sunday they won the rubber match of their series at home versus Texas to start the Week and have won the first two tilts of their three-Game series in Dallas to end it.  They have a five-Game lead over the Guardians, but this is Labor Weekend, and if you will remember, the Twins lead the American League Central at last Labor Weekend and absolutely collapsed over the final Month of the 2022 season.  Things look good, but nothing is guaranteed.

They finish with The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0, then begin a crucial three-Game set in Cleveland starting tomorrow/Monday.  They then come home to play the New York Mets for a trio beginning Friday.

#-5: Lynx (Last Week: -4).  Currently the Lynx are below .500 at 18-19.  But because this is a Year where there are two runaway fantastic teams (The Bastard Utah Starzzz/San Antonio Silver Stars and The New York Liberty), that record gets Minnesota into fifth place in the 12-team Women's National Basketball Association.  This despite losing at similarly-middling Washington by 11 on Tuesday.  Things weren't looking good in Friday's home date with Atlanta, either, but the Lynx rallied late to tie the Game at 74 at the end of regulation, then outscored The Dream 17-11 in Overtime for the Win.  Napheesa Collier hauled in 17 Rebounds, the most she's ever collected in her WNBA career.

With that victory, the Lynx are one Win (or one Los Angeles Loss) away from sewing up a playoff spot.  They probably will do that tonight/Sunday night, as they host already-eliminated Phoenix.  That's the squad's final regular-season Game of the Year.  They visit Chicago Friday.

#-6: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -1).  The idea that Golden Gopher volleyball is good but can never get over the hump was only reinforced Tuesday when defending champion and seventh-ranked Texas came into Maturi and beat the U. in four Sets.  The Longhorns started their season with an upset Loss at Long Beach St. so they were keyed up for their first big Match of the Year, but this was an opportunity to prove to College Volleyball Nation that they can be a contender, and after the defeat it looks like they have enough weaknesses to not be regarded that seriously, and that's a refrain I've noted from this program for decades now.

The Loss to Texas began a four-Game stretch where they play teams ranked in the Top 10, and the other three come this Week.  This/Sunday afternoon they are at eighth-ranked Florida.  The ballclub then travels to Palo Alto, Calif. this weekend for what certainly will be The Very Final Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge; the Gophs play sixth-ranked Oregon Friday and second-ranked Stanford Saturday.

If I Were The Man I Was 20 Years Ago, I Would've Stayed For The Encore

I actually hung out with people at the State Fair Thursday!  Yeah, it was weird socializing, especially since it was my friend whom I hadn't seen in years, her husband and their friends, but it was cool not being a lone wolf for once!

So we were all going to the Duran Duran concert at the Fair.  I knew my friend was going when she said she was on Facebook.  I was wavering because I thought there was still a chance I was working the Gopher football Game, but once I saw that she was going, I decided to splurge.  But obviously that meant that I was not going to sit with them.  In fact, they were down on the main level while I was up in the bleachers.

No matter.  Duran Duran was great, even though they stuck to the same setlist they've played throughout their tour like it was instructions on firing a nuclear weapon.  The on-stage patter might have been the same, too.  But Simon Le Bon's voice sounds just like it did when I heard him on the radio when I was kid back in the early 80's, and that matters a lot.  I shelled out $110 for the ticket, the most expensive ticket I have ever spent for a concert, and I am kicking myself that I probably could've saved myself at least some of the $13 in fees if I just went up to a box office when I was at the Fair on Sunday and bought it then ... but I still thought on Sunday there was an outside chance that I would be working the Gophers Game.  (Oh, aside: On Monday, the production for the Game e-mailed me and said there was a last-minute cancellation and can I work.  I think he e-mailed me Monday evening, when I got back from a near-debilitating day at work.  I replied about five hours later.  He e-mailed me back in the morning saying that someone had beaten me to the punch.  Oh well.)

Anyway, I saw on website Setlist.fm, where I discovered Duran Duran has a script and it's sticking to it, that it's a typical show.  There were two opening acts: The legendary Nile Rodgers & Chic and Bastille.  The show started at 7 (actually several minutes before 7; the only other act I've seen start before the announced start time was Bob Dylan when I saw him at the Xcel Energy Center).  I always thought there had to be an end time to Grandstand shows of 10:15 because that's when the fireworks always start.  I was wrong; one of the management workers there is a friend of my friend, and she hung out with us for a bit, and she said that the fireworks start only when the main act is done.  (Thought The Black Keys, the Grandstand act on the previous Thursday, played through the fireworks, which I think is a no-no.)  Furthermore, this management worker gave another one of the friends of my friend a photo of the runtimes for the show.  Duran Duran gets on at 9:10 and leaves at 10:55.

Gosh, that's a long time.  I was spooked by that because the driver on the bus that took us from the Park 'n' Ride to the Fair said the last bus leaves at 11:30.  Used to be midnight.  That doesn't give me much time from the end of the show to the spot where the return bus picks me up.  And moreover, there usually is a crush of people who run toward the buses as soon as the fireworks stop.

That's when my old age kicked in.  On Sunday I bolted for the exits; I saw the fireworks while I was in my car.  And the feeling that I escaped the thundering hordes of leaving fairgoers convinced my old butt that I was right in leaving while others were fireworks-gazing.  But on Thursday night that meant I needed to get out of the Grandstand early or I would get stuck in the middle of everyone heading out.

Consequently, I decided to leave before the encore.  Could I have stayed for the encore and then left as the fireworks started?  Yes, but I was afraid that I would have gotten a seat on the bus only for it to wait 20 minutes as people who did stay behind in the Grandstand to watch the fireworks also got on the bus because that bus was the last bus of the night.  So what would have been the use of bolting early?

Because of Setlist.fm I knew the two songs that Duran Duran were singing.  I saw Le Bon don a Duran Duran-themed hockey jersey as he made his way back out onto the stage for the encore and the singing of "Say A Prayer," and I decided to leave.  I think "Rio" is a great song, but I don't like it enough to stick around and see it.  I got on the bus, which thankfully had a lot of seats, and I waited about five or ten minutes before it set off.  The firework show started as we headed north on Snelling.

I did the right thing.  I am OK leaving a concert early for old fogey reasons.  The only reservation I have is the fact that I paid $110 for the ticket and I didn't stay for the whole thing.  That seems like a waste to me.  I think that reservation is the only umbrage-related principle I share with my 27-year-old self.  Twenty years ago, I would not have minded the crowd and the jostling and the potential to miss the last bus because I was young, man, and I get to see Duran Duran!  But now, eh, I'm OK.

The Research Experiment That Won't End

So as part of this experiment, which I thought I was done with yesterday/Thursday, I have to both track what I eat for 24 hours and wear this Fitbit thing which is not a Fitbit.  This was one of those things I kind of was told but didn't really "hear," you know?  I kind of knew about the food diary and the Fitbit thing when I read the experiment, but I needed to be told yesterday/Thursday that, in fact, the research study isn't over.

The food diary should be a normal day of eating.  That's difficult to do since I went to the State Fair yesterday after the research study and probably will again on Monday, and then I have to go online and write down everything as soon as the 24-hour period is over -- like, I have to do this immediately.  The first time I would have time to do that is next Thursday.

Moreover, this Fitbit thing, accompanied by a sleep diary I also have to fill out, is seven days.  I was strapped to this thing and basically told not to take it off till, well, next Thursday.  Moreover, I don't know if this darn thing is working.  It has no face, just a light sensor and a button that I am supposed to push when I go to sleep, when I wake up, and when I take it off for more than half an hour.  I kind of don't think this is working.  I don't see the light sensor on, and when I woke up in the morning, I thought I hit the button, but it's so recessed against the level of the watch that I don't know if I fully pressed it.  If I'm paranoid, I think this Fitbit thing doesn't work at all, and yet the research study is telling me it works and that I need to wear it, because they want to track my behavior through my sleep diary while thinking this thing works.  I'm thinking about how I could be wearing something that doesn't work for a whole week!

So this research study, which I initially thought lasted only two days, really is lasting ten.  I am getting a lot of money for it, but prorating it over ten days instead of two ... man, it would've been better for me to work the Gopher Game.