Notes
- Mihailo Petrović
- Kylan Boswell
- Andrej Stojaković
- Ben Humrichous
- Tomislav Ivišić
Starting Five
Illinois basketball is set to get started in less than a month. I’ve seen some practice footage and watched Coach Underwood in his media availability, but that’s about it. For fun, I thought I’d predict the starting lineup and then see how it looks for real when the team has its exhibition against Illinois State.
Here’s my guess 1-5:
Shutdown
The government shutdown because Republicans won’t negotiate with Democrats to keep it open. As Alex Shepherd in the New Republic points out:
The Democratic demands to keep the government open were straightforward and reasonable. They wanted to extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that will expire at the end of the year thanks to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would prevent health care costs from skyrocketing for millions; to claw back Medicare funding that was cut in the OBBBA; and binding assurances that money that has been appropriated by Congress will be spent by an executive branch that has (possibly illegally) refused to do so in many cases.
This would likely result in an exchange for an extension of the ACA subsidies. Of course, Trump is an idiot and could not negotiate out of a paper bag.
This shutdown is really the best play Democrats have against this corrupt administration. They’ve made this move to shine a light on how Trump is basically stealing from the poorest people, usually Red State idiots, to the richest.
If they can make the case to the American public, and it appears to be working, then the shutdown is likely to continue for quite a while.
On the flip side, for Trump and his cronies, they think the shutdown is really just an opportunity to gut the federal government. Of course, he’s been doing that already and failing pretty spectacularly, so it’s not much of a threat.
Complicated
John Mozeliak’s legacy is complicated, but it is a legacy nonetheless. Watching the Cardinals decline in recent seasons has made it easy for some fans—or even casual observers—to forget just how special the early years were.
That sustained success is the foundation of Mozeliak’s legacy, even if the end of his tenure has been less celebrated.
I’m glad he’s moving on. Curious to see where the Cardinals go this offseason.
Wonderful day.
Spent most of the day with Dad and had a great time. Everything was just about perfect. Had a pretty great breakfast at Stadium Club and then watched a great game with Illinois coming out victorious. When you fumble two times at the goal line, you usually don’t win.
Wonderful day.
First Line
If Rick Moranis' first line in Spaceballs 2 isn’t, “Somehow, I have returned,” I will feel cheated.
Kimmel
I stayed up too late to watch the first few minutes of the show.
I thought Kimmel hit it out of the park. The right tone, balance, and message. It was funny, but not earth-shattering, and that was pitch-perfect. Here’s the entire monologue.
Medical Advice
The medical advice you’ve been seeing has been brought to you by people you should never take medical advice from. It’s like asking your plumber to do heart surgery.
Or having a game show host be the President.
Ghost Car
Maria and Brynne experienced a truly weird occurrence today. They were out shopping, stopped at Panera to eat, and as they were leaving, a running car with no one behind the wheel rolled into them, causing a little damage.
They took pictures of the car and the license plate and then went inside to try and find the owner. It was difficult to explain this “ghost car” to the manager. A non-native person ran out, tried to get in the car, and drive away. Luckily, he was stopped. Maria tried to get insurance info, but he did not have any. She tried to get his name and number, but he did not want to give it because he was obviously in the States illegally.
She said he was obviously frightened. Ultimately, he touched her arm, said, “Why don’t we call it even,” got in the car, and drove away to a stunned Maria and Brynne. Maria felt like she was in a moral predicament because she wanted to be sympathetic to the guy. I said, if he had given her $100 and said let’s call it even and drove away I would have been good. She said that if he had just said sorry, it would have been enough.
As it stood, she had to call the police and file a report.
Gains
Maria commented on my arms and shoulders yesterday. I don’t think there’s much in the way of gains there, but she disagrees. I would like biceps and triceps that bulge out the arms of my t-shirts, but I’m probably not working hard enough to achieve that look.
Give A Little Bit
So this happened –
University of Illinois alumnus Larry Gies has made a $100 million gift to the Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA). The commitment is the largest gift in DIA history and represents one of the largest single gifts ever received by a college athletics program.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the big time. I believe this $100 million gift by Larry Gies is FIVE TIMES the previous highest ever single donation to Illinois Athletics.
Surfin’ Safari
I’m playing with Safari this morning. I have no idea why. It’s too slow. I don’t like how it manages tabs. Soooo, back to Chrome. Seriously… that lasted like an hour before I ran back to Chrome.
I wonder if there are tweaks or extensions I should be using to make Chrome a bit zippier?
Machines Will Never Learn To Make Mistakes Like Me
I recently discovered a new folk artist named Will Varley. I heard the track “Machines Will Never Learn To Make Mistakes Like Me,” and thought it was great. Listening to the whole album now.
What a strong and strange message.
I'm Sorry...This New Artist Completely Sucks
Rick Beato breaks down the music of Eli Mercer and explains why it lacks cultural and artistic value. The twist, of course, is that Eli Mercer is entirely an AI/LLM-manufactured artist that Rick has created.
Jack White – Archbishop Harold Holmes (Official Video)
The video for Jack White’s “Archbishop Harold Holmes” is literally crazy. Of course, getting John C Reilly is genius. When I heard the No Name album, this was my favorite track. The guitar tone just grabs you by the collar and shakes you into a frenzy.
Watching this video, I suddenly realized that Jack White’s exaggerated “s” sounds like a snake and is totally on purpose. Subtle.
All-Star Game
I watched the All-Star Game, and aside from a great catch early in the game and some of the players mic’d up, I found it somewhat dull. Initially, I was upset that there wasn’t any All-Star swag for the players. I am an advocate for players wearing their uniforms, but I wanted special caps. I didn’t think they were new, but a closer inspection revealed they were special for the game with different bills and stars.
I have never been really into the ASG, to be honest. At least since the American League started winning almost every year. Whenever that was, I tuned out of watching, and it was fine. I flipped it on last night and was entertained for a bit. Super happy for Brendon Donovan for getting a couple of base hits in the game.
They started the game with the Automated Ball-Strike system, which I had hoped would just be implemented for the entire game. Unfortunately, it was just there as a challenge tool, which is fucking stupid. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he plans to introduce a proposal for implementing ABS as early as next season, but I only agree if it actually calls balls and strikes and not as some challenge system. Just have it do its job. We’d have way less griping about calls from managers and home plate umps. It would also call a lot more strikes and speed up the game.
Understandably curious to see what the Cardinals do at the trade deadline.
Apparently, there was a swing-off at the end? I went to bed.
Foggy
It was incredibly foggy this morning. Mondays are also a bit foggy for me. I don’t always remember where I left off on Friday. I have a list and know my jobs and projects, but getting into work and figuring everything out at the start of the day takes some time.
And coffee. I can’t forget the coffee.
Brake Lights
This past weekend, Brynne put new brake light bulbs in my car. Over the last week or so, both bulbs had burnt out, and I just knew I was going to get pulled over. I’ve now changed the bulbs in my brake lights more times than I’ve owned cars.
Unfortunately, it is a difficult chore unless you have tiny hands. Brynne is able to swiftly get the bad bulbs out and replace them with the new ones. The hard part is getting the whole assembly back in. She actually climbed into the trunk to do it. There doesn’t seem to be an easier way. I thanked her a lot for doing the labor.
I purchased Long Life brake lightbulbs this time, so hopefully I won’t have to ask Brynne to do this again anytime soon.
Riding the Storm Out
There’s some weird shit on YouTube, and I’m here for it.
I’m obsessed with these three-hour storm videos on the Silent Field channel. I like how this is real, not produced in a studio. It makes all the difference, as I can almost always notice the loop. The six-hour one I started today is perfect.
Goodbye, Twitter
Elon Musk first bought the site in 2022. It’s now July 2025, and I just don’t know how else to ask this but: what will it take to get you off Twitter? Because the third thing I see, despite all the fascists and slopsters and antisemitic artificial intelligence, despite the cliff-like drop-off in engagement metrics, is people I know still going through the motions and using the site like it was 2017.
I refuse to believe there is anything you are getting there, whether it be social or professional, that is worth the constant exposure to and indirect support of an outwardly fascist social media platform. Like, read the paragraph above this one back to yourself, and tell me honestly if it’s worth all of that just so you can continue to try to post some anime memes or catch some sports highlights or talk to the other three people you’re still talking to who haven’t deleted their account or moved to Bluesky because “I’m just tired of making new social media accounts, man”.
He’s not wrong.
I haven’t posted in a couple of years now. I go there out of habit. I really, really shouldn’t.
I loved Tweetbot. It made the platform so much better. Post-Musk-Takeover, I’ve had to use the official Twitter account and I hate it. I hate it so much, I pretty much never use it. In the meantime, I’m over at Bluesky and waiting desperately for the upcoming Bluesky Client for iOS/iPadOS & Mac from the makers of Tweetbot called Phoenix.
Today, I spent more time than I should have trying to do some migrating to Bluesky. Most, but not all, of the accounts I followed on Twitter have migrated over. There’s never been a better time to simply delete Twitter from my phone, my computer, and my life.
So here I go. Buh bye Twitter.
That Kind of Writing
Jim Shooter is gone. Cancer.
He was the first writer I ever recognized by name. As a kid flipping through my Dad’s old Silver Age comics, it was his stories that stuck with me. Even then, something about his voice on the page just landed.
He was just 13 when he sent in stories for the Legion of Super-Heroes at DC Comics. At 14, he wrote the story in which Ferro Lad died – the first “real” death of a Legionnaire (although Lightning Lad had been believed dead for a while before) – and introduced the Fatal Five.
Looking back, I think reading his stories helped me understand the role of the writer. Comics are known predominantly as a medium for artists, but if the story is crap, it ultimately doesn’t really matter how good the art is. A writer has to collaborate with the penciller to make magic.
I always found that collaboration invigorating. When I was making Slip Kid, I loved the interaction I had with my penciller.
Maybe someday I can get back to that kind of writing. But first… I need a story to tell.