HopsGuy

Figured I should pop in here. I was rolling around on a pile of profits from trading dot-com stocks. I was at the game Sunday in a friend’s luxury box. We were there afterwards for the Dalton-Boyd TD. Some old friends from HS vacationing on Miami Beach Uber’d to the tailgate. Couldn’t do that in 2000 Nashville.

I go away for a while and everyone has lost their friggin' minds. For me it's coconut but if you put it on shrimp & toast it, I'm there (while violating several Bible admonitions). Everything else is awesome. Go Bills. See you in the chat room.

When I was really struggling with my short game, I reached out to a friend that was a former teaching pro. He gave me a couple of drills that really helped. The thing he told me that really made an impact: "I hate to practice, hate it. But I hate more to play poorly. So I practice. And I practice chipping & putting 80% of the time. That way, even if I'm hitting it like dogsh*t, I know I can still make par." He got me on PGA National 20 years ago. Good guy.

I had the same experience but even more dramatic. I had 15 year-old Titleist DCI golds. My 5 iron snapped at the hosel, so my next round the pro at the club where I worked (as a bartender) let me borrow a demo Nike Covert. I didn't need to use it until the 18th. I smoked it 35 yards over the green. He sold me the set at cost. He ended up hiring me in the pro shop until the course was sold. Took a while but I'm a 15 now. I've been as low as a 12. As far as Tiger goes, I don't know. Those chipping yips are awful. I had a deceleration problem for a long time until someone gave me an impromptu lesson & said the magic words, "Hit it like you're striking a match." Best golf advice I've ever got. Eldridge may never be the same. I went to 2 rounds of the ladies in Ocala this week. They play a completely different game. Great tempo swings & very deliberate approaches - I thought they played very slow. Michelle Wei is really tall... saw her get a quick lesson from David Ledbetter. Cheyenne Woods can BOMB it. Lydia Ko marches the course like a little kid (she's my new favorite). I'm going to watch more womens' golf. Also, I have to get myself on this course. They have a few replica holes like 12 & 13 at Augusta & 17 at St. Andrew's.

That was cool but I then spent the next 20 watching Emily Kinney sing wistfully about young love. We'll miss you, Beth.

My favorite episode is the one at the CDC, "TS-19". I'm sure it will be another American region just for the target audience. As far as a spinoff, here's my idea: Take an existing cast of a cancelled show & go from there. I'd love to see the characters from "The Newsroom", "Terriers" (yeah, I know), "Prison Kings", "Lights Out", or even "Gravity" face the zombie apocalypse. How would Ron Swanson do?

Wait, "The Force" takes naps? Who's in charge over there?

I love this show. But, I really would like more flash-backs like the one we had with Michone. "The Walking Dead" refers to the living characters & I'd like to know more about them. Dale said to Andrea, "You & Amy are the only people I've ever cared about." Why is that? Andrea was a civil-rights attorney. What made her like that? How about a scene with Herchel being hammered? I want to know more about these people.

Jeffrey Gundlach, manager of Doubleline Capital grew up in Buffalo. He lives in LA now, so that might not be so good.

I know we're talking about subjectivity but "The Suitcase" from the 4th Season of "Mad Men" might be as close to perfect television as I've ever seen. Having said that (Curb reference), I can understand if you don't like the show.

When D'Angelo Barksdale reached for the booze, did anyone else think "It's Raining (Dead) Men!"? Umm, me neither. #WheresWallace

One major plot point that was never answered: What happened at Gretchen's parents' house when they were grad students that made him leave abruptly? He and Gretchen were together and the three of them stated Gray Matter. That was the falling out that caused Walt to accept the buyout of $5k. Much like cancer can be caused by something external (smoking, etc), this disjoint was the dormant cancer in Walt that was then set off by his real lung cancer. Just a theory. I like Norm MacDonald's idea but the daydream that Jesse had if being a master woodworker doesn't quite fit. Gilligan would make sure we knew that Walt knew that story about Jesse for it to work. Jesse told that story at the rehab group session. Great show. I put it right behind "The Wire" and just ahead of "The Sopranos".

Dexter is Pinocchio. He was always trying to become human but when he finally started to feel like a real person, he hated it. Did you notice that there was almost no inner monologue last night? No ghost Harry, either. This was to show that Dexter had transformed. I didn't feel wholly satisfied with the ended but I rarely do. "The Office" ended this year and that one was fine. Breaking Bad is ending next week and I'm hopeful. I liked that Dexter blew up last year with Deb finding out. But where it went from there was probably a difficult story to construct. I'm glad that they showed Dexter in the great north woods rather than simply showing the wreck of "Slice of Life". That would have been awful. PS Wasn't Astor supposed to get the minivan?

Somewhere in Mexico there this a video tape showing Jesse making 96.2% pure crystal blue persuasion. Prediction: In the end, everyone Walt loves or had loved is dead. And he has to live with that. For a little while, anyway.

Something, something, metric system.

I worked at a brokerage in a previous life. Biotech firms had higher intraday/overnight margin requirements than other stocks (as high as 75% on some issues). These companies' entire businesses are bases on FDA approvals & rampant insider trading is present. You can see it in the changes in option open interest and implied volatility. If you do not understand everything in the last paragraph, do not trade biotechs.

It's mostly good. Maron was pretty much a very mean guy when he was a young comic. He's a 12-stepper, so he been trying to apologize for being like that for years. The show is a lot of comics and it's usually pretty good. The best ones that come to mind are Russell, Steven Wright & Aubrey Plaza (she tells about having a stroke when she in college). I like "Making It with Riki Lindhome" on the Nerdist network but I'm biased because she's from Portville.

I was on Carolla from the beginning. I had been listening to his LA radio show on the net and when that was cancelled, he immediately started the podcast. With Alison Rosen taking over for Theresa Strasser, it's really like the old radio show. Bald Bryan's sound drops are money. He can get repetitive but his points are often valid. He needs to remember to let the guest talk. Other comedy podcasts I like are Jay Mohr, Marc Maron & Greg Fitzsimmons.

That was a great season. Rare for a show to still be great in season 4 (Dexter pulled it off). Those last 3 episodes have to be the apex of the show. If it gets any better, well... I just don't know. BTW, I'd like to mention that this era of the anti-hero (Tony Soprano, Don Draper, Walter White, Raylan Givens, etc), Jerry (Gary) Gergich of "Parks & Recreation" is the exact opposite. He's a mess at work but appears to have his home-life completely squared away - Christie Brinkley is his wife, his daughters are beautiful, smart women who adore their dad and his neighbors love him. That's so cool.

Mine were already taken: (1) Singles (2) Almost Famous (3) Fast Times at Ridgemont High Wait, I sense a trend.

The the span of the last 2 episodes of season 2 and all of season 3 we've lost some major characters: Dale, Shane, T-Dog, Lori, Merle & Andrea. Those folks, with the exception of T-Dog, had a bit of depth. Michonne pretty much scowled her way through the season so we'll need some more background to flesh her out (so to speak). I'd really like to know more about the Governor. He's got a bit of a "Cult of Personality" going on there. Some flashbacks to before the breakout would be great, IMHO. Also, we'd get to bring back some actors for those. All in all, it was a good season. I look forward to where they go with Tyrese and the new people from Woodbury at the prison. Maybe Glen and Maggie will elope, y'know, to save money. BTW, baller move Glen. He didn't go to Jared; just pulled out some pliers.

This is such a great show but I think it needs 15-17 episodes/season. There are so many great characters that need just a little depth. Ron Eldard & Jacob Pitts were great together. It was sort of a triple-A Raylan-Boyd all season. Colt was chasing Ellen May for so long and finally finds her and that guy shows up. Mike O'Malley has been quite solid as a Tonin guy. It's amazing what happens when you give good words to read (see also: "The West Wing"). RIP Skank, you were fun to watch.

The Walking Dead is Toy Story

Without a doubt, Tim Raines should be a HOFer. That guy was a player. He did everything, for a long time. Very fun to watch. Dale Murphy? No. Dale Murphy was a fine player for 3-4 years but his career WAR was nothing to get excited about. His defense was abysmal (Gold Glove voting is head-scratching). His greatest feat was winning 2 MVPs or actually keeping Mike Schmidt from winning 2 more by hitting a few more homers at the "Launching Pad". Nice guy, but not worthy of Cooperstown. Stats

Congrats! I'm Pat. I also answer to Patrick. (To be honest, no one has called me 'Hops' in years). I loved that skit. Julia Sweeney had a great turn in "Pulp Fiction" and her one-woman show "God Said Ha!" was fantastic. You can find her interesting piece on atheism, "Letting Go of God" on YouTube (don't yell at me!). Anyway: Patrick. I've had quite a few drinks bought for me in March. 2 last Sunday.