I can’t help but to think “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson was an allegory to the asshole men who act nice in public but are absolute shit to women behind closed doors… 

As opposed to...?

I believe I saw an issue of "The Atlantic" with the cover story "Pay to Play", talking about the increasing costs of kids joining traveling teams for various sports.

I don't understand what the problem is here...

As best as I can remember, we (my family and I) had to pay for me to join sporting competitions...

Was that not the case for you?

Ever since I was five (5), it cost money to participate.  How else are the coaches supposed to get paid for their work?  $10 to play T-Ball in the hellhole I grew up in.  Also had to pay for school teams as well, not just those run by the town's parks department.

Same for school teams too.  Ten or twenty dollars for football or basketball.

Sure, once you were playing on the varsity squad, people had to pay to get INTO the games...

And granted, once I moved out to the Marshall Islands, I didn't have to worry about participation fees.  We usually bought new uniforms with our own money year to year, because the school didn't provide us with any (as we were the only school on base, and we'd occasionally play some of the schools with native Marshallese in the base's rec leagues, AGAINST ADULTS (who had to pay an entry fee).  If the school wasn't covering that, I bet we would have to pay like the grownups...

If I recall correctly, the story in "The Atlantic: was talking about the rising costs of kids being on travel teams.  That there was some kind of possibility that some kids would get priced out of being on the team.  But that wouldn't be the end of the line...  Right?  A kid can't afford to be on a travel team..  

OK, fine, they go play on the school's varsity team(s)...

Or is that not the case?  I don't have kids, so I wouldn't know what's going on first hand.  I don't have to help them go through the grind to tryout, buy gear to play, drive to games across the state (especially one as big as California)...

Does anyone have experience that they could shed some light for me?

To me, "Pay to Play" is how it's SUPPOSED to work.  Where and when has that ever been any different?

P.S. - If you can direct me to a digital link to read the article in "The Atlantic", I'd appreciate it.  Thank you...

No, don't get up, I'll get it...

 Growing up, my family was very sedentary...

I'm sure I did my part to burden my mom with tasks like laundry when I was a kid.

But no one else around the house was eager to help out when needed.

My dad, who I was thankful for his sacrifices growing up, could have done more to help.  He was of the type that had kids so they could do his bidding.  And it was never enough.  There were times where I'd be minding my business or maybe acting a little goofy in the living room, and he'd start yelling because I wasn't doing chores.  Asshole...

My sister?  Fat chance there.  She was (and probably still is) the kind of person who'd expect you to feed her grapes while she lounged on a chair.  There was one instance where she was looking in the fridge, and she got mad AT ME when I asked her to grab me a soda.  Then my dad would yell at me for not getting the soda myself.  He also yelled at me once that I wasn't get HER a soda.  WHILE SHE WAS SITTING CLOSER TO THE FRIDGE.

Needless to say, I'm quite resentful about the whole thing.  If it was up to me, I'd have nothing to do with any of them ever again...

Sadly, since they're still alive, I'm sure it'll all happen again.  Even though I live 1500 miles away...

I may have come up with my best idea ever...

 I made sure to make a note to myself to write this about LEGO minifigures.

Minifigures of the characters from the hit TV show "Ted Lasso".

They SHOULD include:

• Ted Lasso (played by Jason Sudeikis)
• AFC Richmond Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham)
• PR/Marketing guru Keeley Jones (Juno Temple)
• Men's Coach Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein)
• Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster)
• Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift)
• Trent Crimm (James Lance)
• Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh)
• Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernandez)
• Dr. Sharon M. Fieldstone (Sarah Niles)
• Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt)
• Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed)

Include some of the members of the AFC Richmond women's team, Ted's son Henry, his ex-wife Michelle, Roy's niece Phoebe, Mae Green (owner of the Crown and Anchor pub), Richmond die-hard fans Baz, Jeremy, and Paul, Beard's wife Jane Payne.

Seriously, convince me you wouldn’t want to buy them…

LEGO would make so much money, they could fill Nelson Road to the top with all of it…

I went on LEGO Ideas, where fans of those wonderful plastic bricks can submit ideas for sets.  AND NO ONE HAS DONE SO YET...

I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING AROUND HERE...

Write that down!!

 I work up early Sunday morning thinking about the passing of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, and felt the need to make a note of these three things:

1. I’m gonna need some stuff…

2. “What should we call this?”

3. A tribute to Taylor Hawkins…

I don’t remember much of the context of that line of thinking.  I think I was Dave Grohl in a dream or something.  I remember planning this on a warm sunny day at a beach.  That’s about it.

No idea where I was going with that.   And I’m OK with that.  No point of grasping at straws that wouldn’t get spun into gold…

WANTED: New owners

It's June in United States, which means it's time to fish or cut bait in Major League Baseball.  Unfortunately, the Minnesota Twins are going to cut bait.  AGAIN.

I've so fucking sick and tired of the Pohlad family running that team into the ground.  I refuse to watch any more games until they get new ownership, which will probably happen about a quarter to...  NEVER.

Here's my top ten for who'd make better owners than the descendants of Carl Pohlad, who made his fortune foreclosing farms in the North Star State during the Great Depression

10.    The dead corpse of Kirby Puckett.  Sure, he did some fucked up shit before he left the organization in 2002, but his bones or ashes or whatever became of his body has already done a better job of running the Twins than Carl, Jim, Tom, or even Eloise has ever or will ever done.

9.    Rachel Phelps.  The fictional owner of the Cleveland Indians in the "Major League" series of comedy films from the late '80s and early '90s who wanted to get the attendance of the team so low that it'd absolve the team of their contract with Cleveland Municipal Stadium and allow them to move to Miami.  She was a real piece of shit, but at least she inspired her team to win just to spite her.

Apparently, Calvin Griffin, former owner of the Twins before he sold them to Carl circa 1984, was the inspiration for first movie "Major League", as he had an escape clause after the Twins moved into the Metrodome where *HE* could move the team out of Minneapolis if *THEIR* attendance sufficiently dropped.

8.    Grand Nagus Rom.  You're going to notice a pattern here with most of the names on this list...

If you didn't follow Star Trek, he became the head of the ultracapitalist Ferengi society after Zek, the previous Grand Nagus retired to be with his (Rom's) mother.  Before Zek's retirement, his Ferengi brethren were some of the most sexist, chauvinistic, and greedy people in the Milky Way galaxy, but Rom, as their new leader of commerce was going to bring MASSIVE changes to their society, much to the chagrin of his old, stereotypical Ferengi brother Quark.

Being as atypical of his species as possible, he'd do a much better job of running the Twins than any Pohlad EVER.

7.    Buddy.  He's one of the two cats my wife Amy and I own.  He'd six years old, and a complete brain case.  We joke he only has a single brain cell, and that's being AWFULLY generous.  He gets scared of everything, including but not limited to, his own shadow, Daisy (the other cat we own), loud noises, the lightning storms in his head, his toys, his food, and himself.  Regardless, he couldn't do any WORSE than a Pohlad.

6.    Alex Rodriguez.

I hate the guy.  The steroids, playing for the Yankees...  I'm sure I have other reasons for hating him..

He co-owns the Minnesota Timberwolves, and they've been fairly good the last couple of years, so it's not like he's TOTALLY incompetent, and hopefully that's because he keeps his hands off.  Additionally, he's one of the few people on this earth is MORE hated than current Twins ownership.

5.    The Joker.  Yup, the Clown Prince of Crime from Gotham, whose primary role in the DC Universe is to cause havoc and destruction for Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and the rest of the DC universe have to combat on a regular basis.  Still, he also COULD NOT DO ANY WORSE than the Two Faced villains currently in charge.

4.    Luke Edwards.  The former child actor played Billy Heywood in "Little Big League", where he inherited ownership of the Twins after his grandfather, team owner Thomas Heywood (played by Jason Robards) passes away.  After becoming owner, he installed himself as team manager after firing Dennis Farina's character and lead them to a one game playoff against the Seattle Mariners for the American League Wild Card spot.  That's good enough in my book in terms of qualifications for ownership, especially compared to the little "men" currently in possession of the Twin Cities' MLB team.

He's also got the benefit of his mother being played by Ashley Crow, the ACTUAL mother of current Chicago Cub Peter Crow-Armstrong.

3.    A.J. Pierzynski.  Sure, he kinda became a villain in Minnesota after he became a Chicago White Sox, and especially after he got a World Series ring with them in 2005, after a local kid took his spot behind the plate (Joe Mauer).  But I'd still pick Anthony John Pierzynski over Carl and his ilk.

2.    Roger Dorn.  The last fictional character on our list, he ACTUALLY became owner of the Twins in the direct to video "Major League: Back to the Minors" release starring Scott Bakula.  He might have had a shortstop and a second baseman who hadn't turned a double play in nearly a month because one had a bigger shoe contract than the other, but Twins issues were peanuts compared to what is happening in the Minnesota front office and their balance sheets right now.

1.    ME!!   Seriously, I could do a much better job with a single nickel, which is way lessthan what the Twins are worth right now (and the hundreds of millions the Pohlads' want for their squad in the open market).  Five cents may be OVERPRICED, given how well the Twins have done since they set Target Field on fire nearly a year ago.  But I'm sure I could do more with that nickel than the Pohlad clan have ever done with their BILLIONS...

I lost a LEGO piece... MAYBE...

 I may have lost a LEGO piece, and it's fucking up my mind 6 ways to Sunday...

I've been working for a number of years to build a Pyramid Nightclub.  And I may have lost a 1x1x6 Column, Piece #43888, Bright Yellow that is a support piece for the roof to the entrance to the club.  It's somewhere in my house between the LEGO room (where I keep 95% of my collection) and the living room.  I know it's in the house, because that stuff never leaves my residence once it enters my plastic Thunderdome.  i probably have to tear apart both rooms to see where it is.

But that's not the worst of it.  The worst of it is that is my obsession with trying to figure out where it is.

LEGO doesn't currently have that part in that color in their online store.

The voice in my head doesn't want to let me rest until I find it.

The piece is cheap, only a few cents.  I can easily order a new one and get it in a handful of days.  But that's not the point.

I overthink everything.  I hate leaving things unfinished.  I spent nearly all of April trying to work to clean up my music collection.  I got it done, but it kept my mind awake trying to figure out how I can return to a state similar to how I had it in late May 2019 before moving to California.

Once I complete one major project, I feel the need to move onto the next one. It never ends.

I should seek professional help.  Maybe I will in a few days...

Until then, I will not rest...  Because I can't...

I put the OCD in CD…

Before I moved to California with my wife, I kept a meticulous SQL database of all my legally obtained music…

Before we got our house, I let it fall by the wayside because I didn't have the time or space to work with it…

Over the past several months, I've been picking it back up and returning order to that chaos.  I think I’ve identified everything, so I can load it back into my database.  There were about 7500 songs in it before I left Minnesota, and now I’m around 8650.

I know no one else cares about it, but it is important TO ME.  It's tough when my mind starts getting on my case about the mess that it is, but I think I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now.  I just need to remind myself to be kinder to me…

I also know self-diagnosing myself with OCD is not the same as medical professionals telling some person that they have *ACTUAL* obsessive compulsive disorder.  It's probably something I shouldn't be joking about.  I'm not on the same level as Michael J. Fox's character in the third season of "Scrubs".

Fortunately, I have today off of work, so I can spend my afternoon cleaning up my database of music.  Wish me luck...

Call your loved ones and tell them you love them, because the world is coming to an end…

AGAIN!!!

Moorhead High School in Minnesota REPEATS as state champions at the highest level (AA).

A 5-4 winner over Minnetonka IN DOUBLE OVERTIME.

They had lost in the champion game EIGHT TIMES since 1991, but to win TWO IN A ROW?!??

**WE.  ARE.  BONED.**

I expect the world to explode at any moment…

If Moorhead winning twice in a row isn’t unlocking the seventh seal to hell, I don’t know what is…

If you wanna check out the game-winning gold, here's the link: https://youtu.be/0X2-GukYFMI?si=SIH7DmZdECwE8eKS

Thanks, that was fun

WAS fun...

The 2026 Winter Olympics are over.  And it ended exceptionally well.  For the first time in my lifetime, the United States of America won gold, scoring the game winning goal in overtime over Canada.

It was a great thing to see.  Until some lifesize assholes decided to politicize it.

The head of the FBI, who had no BUSINESSS being there, crashes the celebration in the locker room and helps himself to a beer.

Then the president calls to congratulate the team.  and complains about the women's team, WHO ALSO WON GOLD IN OVERTIME, wanting equal time.  Or any time really...

Never at any point was it about the athletes' accomplishments.  It was about the powers that be, what THEY wanted, what THEY thought THEY deserved...

Worse, some of the men accepted the orange one's invitation to the White House on their way back to play in the NHL.  Some as early as TOMORROW...

The women did not accept their invite, but Flavor Flav has them covered.  He'll hold a celebration with them once their season is done in...  May? (I assume that's when the PWHL is done for the year).  Some of them have to go back to school, as they are still playing in the NCAA.  Their season will be done in a few weeks, but they'll still be working for degrees at their various universities, and (I assume) will not be done until May (as well).

It's no skin off my ass.  I don't watch the NHL.  Haven't since they cancelled the 2004-05 season.  They don't need my money either.

I'd love to be in Vegas when Flav honors the women's team this summer.  Considering how he's celebrated the accomplishments of others, I'd love to see it go down.

If I end up dead after this is published, I'm also posting it on Discord and Tumblr.  Good luck trying to remove it from there...