OT: General OT Thread [NO POLITICS, RACE OR RELIGION]

[MickeyDavis]

Between gambling (and it's going to get worse) and unlimited transfers college sports is losing my interest.

[stellation]

Starting a new job tomorrow for the first time in a decade. Really weird feeling to be walking into something totally new and not be the well-engrained expert, and one of the longer-tenured employees. Super excited, just weird.

1. Congrats!
2. How did it go?

[ReasonablySober]

Read on Twitter

State of Iowa is having a day.

[MikeIsGood]

Starting a new job tomorrow for the first time in a decade. Really weird feeling to be walking into something totally new and not be the well-engrained expert, and one of the longer-tenured employees. Super excited, just weird.

1. Congrats!
2. How did it go?

Thanks guys! Really appreciate it.

First day was a mix of admin-stuff, of course, and also trying to get a lay of the land and what I can jump into right away. Still excited about the opportunities, so real good first day all things considered.

[MikeIsGood]

Between gambling (and it's going to get worse) and unlimited transfers college sports is losing my interest.

It's honestly getting really hard to care. I actually find it hard to put into words very well, but it's all of these little things that take away what used to feel special about cheering for your University or otherwise chosen team(s). As many point out, it was never not a money game, but something about having all of these things front-and-center now just compound and make it feel worse.

I don't want to say they shouldn't exist, though, because athletics for college students are and can be so important. I have family who are or have been athletes; I know they couldn't imagine not playing. The problem's been ignored or worked around for too long, though. NCAA needs to be forced to figure this **** out.

[emunney]

I got a sandwich for lunch at a boutique cheese and deli shop that has a variety of condiments and pickled goods and jarred mixes. While I was waiting I saw a jar of powdered bloody mary mix. A couple tablespoons of the stuff, add water and vodka, you have a bloody. Never heard of a powdered mix so I picked up a 6 ounce jar. Get up to check out and the damn thing cost $23! I should have put it back.

Anyway, I looked at the ingredient list:

Tomato powder
Worcestershire powder
Celery salt
Crystalized lemon
Cayenne pepper

Literally all there is. The only one I don't have is tomato powder, and I'm fixing that today. I can't believe I spent $23 on about $1.50 worth of ingredients.

No tomatoed powder in the pantry? Huh. Thought home cooking was your thing.

When you're a rube who doesn't powder your own tomatoes

[buckboy]

We had friends with a kid over for like 2 hours, and I just don't know how you guys do it 24/7/365/18+. He's such a good kid, too; I can't even imagine if he was a hellion. But I'm exhausted and feel like every surface in the house needs to be cleaned.

My parents had 6 kids under the age of 8 at one point. My dad was 25 and my mom was 26 and they were dirt poor and had no family within 200 miles.

Seems relevant to your post.

[buckboy]

Track record has stood for 50 years

Read on Twitter

1. With all the money that goes into breeding and training, how the hell are there not faster horses?
2. Race was actually pretty damn close and you can't tell which one was Secretariat until the final stretch.

You're right, Secretariat was a freak of nature, who ate other horses up over the last quarter of a mile.

Watch on YouTube

It was absolutely the Belmont that cemented Secretariat as the GOAT.

Watch on YouTube

Yep.

"SECRETARIAT IS WIDENING NOW! HE IS MOVING LIKE A TREMENDOUS MACHINE!"

Chick Anderson with one of the greatest sports calls of all-time.

[MikeIsGood]

We had friends with a kid over for like 2 hours, and I just don't know how you guys do it 24/7/365/18+. He's such a good kid, too; I can't even imagine if he was a hellion. But I'm exhausted and feel like every surface in the house needs to be cleaned.

My parents had 6 kids under the age of 8 at one point. My dad was 25 and my mom was 26 and they were dirt poor and had no family within 200 miles.

Seems relevant to your post.

Good god. I am way too Jennifer Barkley for that. PONCHO.

Watch on YouTube

[WeekapaugGroove]

Between gambling (and it's going to get worse) and unlimited transfers college sports is losing my interest.

It's honestly getting really hard to care. I actually find it hard to put into words very well, but it's all of these little things that take away what used to feel special about cheering for your University or otherwise chosen team(s). As many point out, it was never not a money game, but something about having all of these things front-and-center now just compound and make it feel worse.

I don't want to say they shouldn't exist, though, because athletics for college students are and can be so important. I have family who are or have been athletes; I know they couldn't imagine not playing. The problem's been ignored or worked around for too long, though. NCAA needs to be forced to figure this **** out.

I was never a big college sports guy, went to a D3 school so I don't have that personal tie to a big program so feel like an impartial observer. From what I see on the internet I don't think you're alone in your feelings about the changes in college sports. It got me thinking, was the NCAA actually right in for the past 30 years of basically knowing that programs/boosters were paying players and that gambling was fueling interest but just ignoring it and sweeping it under the table? Even the transfer thing, everyone knows it's fair for the athlete but its not great for the programs. The old ignorance is bliss model around all this might have been the right play all along for the NCAA.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[buckboy]

We had friends with a kid over for like 2 hours, and I just don't know how you guys do it 24/7/365/18+. He's such a good kid, too; I can't even imagine if he was a hellion. But I'm exhausted and feel like every surface in the house needs to be cleaned.

My parents had 6 kids under the age of 8 at one point. My dad was 25 and my mom was 26 and they were dirt poor and had no family within 200 miles.

Seems relevant to your post.

Good god. I am way too Jennifer Barkley for that. PONCHO.

Watch on YouTube

And then I went and had 5. All 3 years apart though, so it wasn't nearly what they were dealing with. All girls though. I figured it out at one point. My first daughter was born in October of 2000. My youngest was born in August of 2013.

Which means I will have had at least one teenage daughter from October 2013 through August of 2033. Assuming I live that long.

[Iheartfootball]

My parents had 6 kids under the age of 8 at one point. My dad was 25 and my mom was 26 and they were dirt poor and had no family within 200 miles.

Seems relevant to your post.

Good god. I am way too Jennifer Barkley for that. PONCHO.

Watch on YouTube

And then I went and had 5. All 3 years apart though, so it wasn't nearly what they were dealing with. All girls though. I figured it out at one point. My first daughter was born in October of 2000. My youngest was born in August of 2013.

Which means I will have had at least one teenage daughter from October 2013 through August of 2033. Assuming I live that long.

Omg. Thoughts and prayers. I have 2 daughters (15 & 13) and it's, um, an adventure? I can't imagine 5.

How do you maintain sanity or find time for yourself?

[buckboy]

Good god. I am way too Jennifer Barkley for that. PONCHO.

Watch on YouTube

And then I went and had 5. All 3 years apart though, so it wasn't nearly what they were dealing with. All girls though. I figured it out at one point. My first daughter was born in October of 2000. My youngest was born in August of 2013.

Which means I will have had at least one teenage daughter from October 2013 through August of 2033. Assuming I live that long.

Omg. Thoughts and prayers. I have 2 daughters (15 & 13) and it's, um, an adventure? I can't imagine 5.

How do you maintain sanity or find time for yourself?

There really is no time for myself. Which I'm totally fine with. I've been in a golf league for 30 years. That's the 4 hours a week (half the year) that I get to myself.


I've always tried to find out what they're into as early as possible and really try to enjoy it with them (I know more about figure skating and skateboarding than any 50 year old dude should). Mine go: tomboy, tomboy, girly, girly, tomboy, so there's been some variety.

Also, since they turned about 7, I would take them out on "dates" every 6-8 weeks or so, meaning, here's 3 hours with your dad, let's do whatever you want. That was an incredible idea that we came up with that has made my relationships with my daughters rock-solid. In that 13-15 age bracket, that 3 hours was mostly listening to complaining about just about everything, but that was important to them.

I like to piss and moan to people about 5 daughters, but holy hell I wouldn't trade one second of it for anything.

[Kerb Hohl]

And then I went and had 5. All 3 years apart though, so it wasn't nearly what they were dealing with. All girls though. I figured it out at one point. My first daughter was born in October of 2000. My youngest was born in August of 2013.

Which means I will have had at least one teenage daughter from October 2013 through August of 2033. Assuming I live that long.

Omg. Thoughts and prayers. I have 2 daughters (15 & 13) and it's, um, an adventure? I can't imagine 5.

How do you maintain sanity or find time for yourself?

There really is no time for myself. Which I'm totally fine with. I've been in a golf league for 30 years. That's the 4 hours a week (half the year) that I get to myself.


I've always tried to find out what they're into as early as possible and really try to enjoy it with them (I know more about figure skating and skateboarding than any 50 year old dude should). Mine go: tomboy, tomboy, girly, girly, tomboy, so there's been some variety.

Also, since they turned about 7, I would take them out on "dates" every 6-8 weeks or so, meaning, here's 3 hours with your dad, let's do whatever you want. That was an incredible idea that we came up with that has made my relationships with my daughters rock-solid. In that 13-15 age bracket, that 3 hours was mostly listening to complaining about just about everything, but that was important to them.

I like to piss and moan to people about 5 daughters, but holy hell I wouldn't trade one second of it for anything.

We have 3 little ones, we are 99.9% sure we're done (thought 2 would be the number), I can't imagine 4 or 5 or more (although some being older can make things easy), but I can't even explain the whirlwind of life at this point.

You feel happy and that what you are doing is worth it and you love every moment with the kids but you also catch yourself wishing time away, "I can't wait until I can have my own time again."

Then you get time for yourself and you miss your kids or don't know what to do with yourself.

Being around some family is a godsend unless you want to spend your life's savings on babysitters. On the other side of things, it is frustrating to no end when you have some little task like scheduling some service on the house or picking up a part to fix something and it just gets washed away and takes you 3 weeks to get around to.

I wish I had kept golf up - I kinda stopped playing after high school. I am in the position of needing a hobby to kind of have my own time but any time I look at the possibility of a hobby (like golf), I just laugh at that idea because when the hell am I going to have the time to practice/learn a new hobby when I'm coaching sports or just needing to be around the little ones basically every night. "Hey, maybe I'll get back into a basketball league or softball." Then I look at the schedule and I'm coaching baseball and flag football 5 days/week and the rest of the time is spent walking them back and forth to the park.

That's one thing I have resolved to do but probably won't for a decade - do something for myself again. Oh well.

[chonestown]

I've always tried to find out what they're into as early as possible and really try to enjoy it with them (I know more about figure skating and skateboarding than any 50 year old dude should).

If you can be there for figure skating, they should be there for posting. Life's a game of give and take.imo

[jschligs]

We always talked about 3 or 4. After our first decided that 2 would be the absolute max. We got lucky too, girl and now boy. My sister has 3 with a 4th on the way and she looks like she's always under water and I can see why.

[Kerb Hohl]

We always talked about 3 or 4. After our first decided that 2 would be the absolute max. We got lucky too, girl and now boy. My sister has 3 with a 4th on the way and she looks like she's always under water and I can see why.

3 has definitely presents a challenge but I found that the jump from 1 to 2 was the biggest change.

Having to take both kids if you wanted to give your wife a break, etc. was an awakening.

[buckboy]

I've always tried to find out what they're into as early as possible and really try to enjoy it with them (I know more about figure skating and skateboarding than any 50 year old dude should).

If you can be there for figure skating, they should be there for posting. Life's a game of give and take.imo

My eldest daughter has posted here.

[buckboy]

We always talked about 3 or 4. After our first decided that 2 would be the absolute max. We got lucky too, girl and now boy. My sister has 3 with a 4th on the way and she looks like she's always under water and I can see why.

3 has definitely presents a challenge but I found that the jump from 1 to 2 was the biggest change.

Having to take both kids if you wanted to give your wife a break, etc. was an awakening.

Yep. 1 to 2 is by far the hardest. After that it's a free-for-all.

Related: My niece is pregnant with her 2nd. And 3rd.

Holy balls are they ****.

[chonestown]

I've always tried to find out what they're into as early as possible and really try to enjoy it with them (I know more about figure skating and skateboarding than any 50 year old dude should).

If you can be there for figure skating, they should be there for posting. Life's a game of give and take.imo

My eldest daughter has posted here.

Father of the year.imo