I was lucky enough to go to the Egypt-Belgium game in Seattle on Monday. There were of course all the standard hot dog carts outside the stadium. As I enjoyed a Seattle Dog (usually a Polish sausage with cream cheese and grilled onions) I heard a ton of Egyptian fans raving about how good the hot dogs were. Seems like the simple things that are part of our every day life are the things the foreign crowds are enjoying.

First off, yes, I am still alive. Don't know why but I haven't popped in here much lately. Will work on changing that.

My wife, 14 year old, and I have started powerlifting this past year. My wife will actually be competing in her first competition in February, has a coach, and all that. My son and I are just primarily training on the 3 powerlifting lifts (squat, bench, deadlift) and doing accessory lifts to compliment those.

I am shooting for a 1000 pound total by probably late summer. My total right now is 700 (245 squat, 175 bench, 280 deadlift). Another goal is to outlift my 14 year old as long as I can. Not sure how long I will be able to keep that up but I have to keep the kid in his place for now. 

So far I have been able to avoid any sort of injuries. I have bad ankles, mediocre knees, and a wrecked lower back but I have been focusing on good technique to avoid any major pain and it has worked so far.

That was the first DVD I got when I bought my first DVD player. I am pretty sure it was my first major online purchase. Was it 800.com? Some electronics store with a name like that. Loved that movie at the time and it could definitely be worth a re-watch.

>>It has been a long time since I've been able to leave work at work.

There are days I long for my job I had at UPS back in the mid-90s. Go to work at 10 PM, throw boxes around for 4 hours, and then come home. Paid decent, got some OT opportunities, got a nice workout every day, and the people I worked with were fun to be around. Even got to go on strike for a few weeks which was a different experience.

Something about that type of work is a great reset for the mind. Shows there is more to society than the negativity we see online all day every day.

>>1400 pounds of ribeyes

Sounds like a bunch of prime rib roasts. Those seem to be gaining in popularity for a nice Christmas meal. Personally I would rather have them cut into ribeyes than the whole roast. Never been a huge fan of prime rib. Not saying I wouldn't eat it or enjoy it, I just like a good steak vs. a roast.

I can generally cut up a chicken OK but have never tried deboning one like that. It would probably take a few dozen chickens of hacking to bits before anything like that would be even remotely possible. And even then I am sure I would miss a bone somewhere.

Also, generally when bones come out that cleanly for something like a chicken it means the meat is gonna be a bit over cooked. The connective tissue doesn't start really breaking down until it reaches about 160 and continues to break down until around 205 degrees. So to get those bones to slide out like that the chicken has been overcooked and the texture of the meat will suffer, especially the white meat.

>>collards

Every time I cook a big BBQ meal I always cook up some collards. Most people here are dumbfounded and are apprehensive to try them even though I reassure them they are delicious when cooked right. In a week or so I am doing a bbq/Christmas dinner for some friends and will definitely have collards on the table.

I was at a conference last week and one of the speakers was from an agency focused on marketing to Gen Z. He mentioned that Gen Z is starting to tire of the endless firehose of social media and is looking more and more to blogs, communities, and content platforms. Platforms like Tumblr are seeing a resurgence with younger users.

I could see platforms like Substack and Patreon growing over the next couple years as well. Since they are paid platforms they filter out a bunch of the junk and don't necessarily on traffic from Google or other search platforms.

>>For fast food, the kiosks are often easier and faster than a human

When I have the kids in tow and if I want to do any customizations to the order the kiosks are always easier and more accurate. Trying to order at the counter with 4 kids all shouting their order at the same time makes me want to rage quit and load the kids back in the car. Ordering on the app before I even get in the store is even better.

Earlier this year we pretty much laid off the entire SEO team here and replaced it with a couple guys who are more data/analytics guys and some AI/automation tools. The old team had been around for quite a while but they weren't exactly doing anything innovative or progressive. Most of what they did was rewrite product titles and do some internal linking which is the type of SEO stuff that can easily be automated.

Don't think we have seen any sort of negative repercussions on that yet. In some ways we are big enough and have the market cornered enough that there isn't a lot of competition and we get tons of press (and links) mostly naturally that we don't need to do a lot on that end. Definitely a different SEO landscape than it was even 3 or 4 years ago.

"Could you beat the last place athlete at some Olympic sport"

There was a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea a few years back that swam 100m in 1:52. He was horrible and had never seen an olympic sized pool before he got to the Olympics. I think I could beat him?

I got sucked in to watching the men's marathon and the announcers put it in a bit of perspective... Go to the gym, set the treadmill to 13 MPH and do that for 2 hours. I am definitely going to test that the next time I go to the gym and would be surprised if I can last 15 seconds at that speed.

>>single event coverage on Peacock

The replays not being searchable is a pain. If you look around you can find all the events as a replay but it can take some scrolling to find just what you want.

I am a fan of some of the stuff they have done on Peacock but there is definite room for improvement.

And that 1500 was an amazing race. It has probably been the most intriguing event I have watched so far this year.

>>baboons

A few years back when I was visiting Victoria Falls in Zambia and there is a trail through a jungle that takes you down to the bottom of the falls. All along the trail were a bunch of baboons. Some of the large males seemed to be about my size but of course they are a bit smaller than that. I know they are accustomed to humans but the look in there eyes was one of "I know I could mess you up but it just isn't worth it right now". Definitely had me nervous and looking over my shoulder. They could have for sure taken me in a fight.

>>painting is a skilled job

I have a friend who has a painting company and they do some amazing work. Definitely higher end stuff. He was a bit slow during a month last winter and offered to come give us a quote. For an entryway, hallway, living room, kitchen (including cabinets) and dining room he quoted $17K. And this was 2 years ago so I assume it would be more now. And I am sure there was a bit of a friendly discount.

We painted things ourselves instead. Tried to use the highest quality products we could get so we didn't just go with the cheapest Home Depot paint. There is a HUGE difference in what we did ourselves and what he could have done. The cabinets are already showing their age, the edges on the ceiling aren't the crispest, etc. We did a decent job I think but the level of a skilled painter is definitely noticeable. The $1000 cost to DIY vs. the $17K cost made it worth it for us to take accept our deficiencies though.