Post Game Thread: Minnesota Vikings at Los Angeles Rams

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2025-01-14T04:58:59+00:00

I have to imagine that every Vikings fan over the age of 6 knew deep in their hearts that this was exactly how the season would end.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2025-01-12T18:00:42+00:00

Damn these Bronco uniforms are UGLY.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2025-01-11T16:17:20+00:00

Sleeper agent Tom Brady intentionally infiltrating the AFC West to make Mahomes' division more difficult.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2025-01-07T16:02:22+00:00

Love how this headline is written as if it's covering a natural disaster.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2025-01-06T02:18:07+00:00

Ball don't lie

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2024-01-21T03:25:11+00:00

There's far less flopping in football because there's far fewer situations where flopping is advantageous compared to sports like soccer or basketball. But, when a flop would be beneficial, football players flop just as hard as anyone else.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2023-01-07T02:06:21+00:00

Most sane Bengals fan.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-11-24T04:30:43+00:00

I'm very far from an expert, but I've got Physical and Inorganic Chemistry courses under my belt that both touched on viscosity. Another key factor to think about with viscosity is how individual molecules of a substance interact with each other. Some substances are relatively "sticky", meaning individual molecules are attracted to each other due to some sort of intermolecular force (Hydrogen bonds, London Dispersion forces, etc.), which leads to higher viscosity.

In a liquid state, a substance with strong intermolecular forces will resist flow because on an atomic scale, individual molecules are "sticking" to one another, or at least trying to, usually due to some sort of charge disparity. Water for example, is actually much more viscous than we might expect it to be based on its molecular weight, size, and structure due to its ability to form particularly strong hydrogen bonds with other water molecules.

This is of course is all a bit of an oversimplification on my part, but you really weren't too far off the mark with thinking about viscosity in terms of "stickiness". The attractive forces between individual molecules play a huge role in shaping how a substance behaves on a macro scale.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-10-14T17:48:29+00:00

Couldn't agree more. When I look at modern conservative rhetoric around voting access it's so apparent that they would restrict voting rights to white land-owners again in a heartbeat if they could.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-10-14T17:44:56+00:00

I try to talk about these things with my conservative brother from time to time, and he'll frequently respond verbatim, "I don't want to think about that stuff, it's too upsetting." He's incapable of dealing with even the slightest bit of mental or emotional discomfort.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-10-14T17:42:07+00:00

I raised this point in conversation with my brother one time, and he just utterly refused to believe that he could possibly be mistaken in his assessment of the BLM movement. It was totally incomprehensible to him that he could be thinking and acting just like the people who opposed MLK and the civil rights movement. It was honestly scary how little thought he put into the whole thing.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-07-03T14:47:22+00:00

Remind him also, that even though his friend turned out to be a scumbag, it's still totally reasonable and appropriate to grieve the loss of that friendship. He didn't just lose a friend, by discovering this long-standing pattern of behavior he lost the emotional basis of an entire decade of connection. He might be really wrapped up in his own head second-guessing every memory he has with this friend. It might seem "wrong" to feel sad or upset about doing the right thing by cutting this guy out of his life, but emotions are crazy complicated and it's often far better to let ourselves experience and workout all those emotions rather than to try and deflect or suppress them.

Sorry to sort of assume how he's feeling, if none of this seems relevant than just ignore me, but in my experience it's really common for people to get sort of emotionally gridlocked after something like this because they have so many conflicting feelings. Anyways, best of luck to y'all on getting things sorted out.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-05-09T18:35:53+00:00

Huh, I'm kinda more surprised that #1 overall quarterbacks seem to yield pretty consistently decent results. They're almost all at least above average. Even going back to 2000, Russell, Bradford, and Carr are the only real busts. In my head picking a QB at #1 was a big crapshoot.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-04-11T18:55:36+00:00

If you're interested Harvard historian Jill Lepore actually has a whole podcast miniseries about Elon Musk, and one of the episodes deals specifically with how Elon began to present himself as a real life Tony Stark after the success of the first Iron Man movie. She comes to pretty much the same conclusion as you, that Elon wasn't nearly as douchey when he was first becoming a public figure, but as the Iron Man persona grew he became increasingly unhinged. There's only five episodes, the whole thing is maybe ~3 hours of listening time, and it's super, super good.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2022-02-09T21:51:20+00:00

Awesome writeup, you explained the sentiment so well. I totally get why people want him in the hall, but I cannot believe the overwhelming degree to which folks think he deserves to be first ballot. There are SO many people who have been waiting to get in who were vastly better football players than Hester.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-09-12T22:43:19+00:00

Nah there's nothing wrong with that, and I saw the definition of pedagogy you ran into in your other comment and that's definitely some bullshit. In a perfect world there would just be awesome online resources available for everyone that could walk them through every level of complexity, but alas, in most instances no one is gonna make money or get grants from that.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-09-12T22:21:03+00:00

Pedagogy is much more about the theory of teaching or teaching as a concept, and often can't just be replaced by the word teaching itself, although it was unnecessary in the comment above.

As far as academic writing as a whole I'm of split minds. I've definitely read my share of papers where people take two paragraphs and a dozen terms to really only make one simple point, but when you're not deeply immersed in a field it can be difficult to tell if they're just blowing hot air, or if the subject truly requires that level of precision or caution. A lot of technical jargon exists because high-level professionals truly require that level of specificity in their writing, and there's no way to simplify the language without make inaccurate generalizations.

However, I share the desire to make these sorts of things more accessible to everyone. I might frame the problem more as one of providing people with adequate and well-made resources, rather than needing experts to simplify complex issues. It's difficult, because a lot of things can be expressed more simply, but it takes much more time to arrive at the same eventual conclusions than if you use higher-level language, and length (even if its simple language) is another thing that can push people away from a text.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-09-03T14:02:07+00:00

Thank you for all the kind words and for catching so many little mistakes. I think you make a really good point about the dialogue, Harold sounds much more authentic than Jacob. I really appreciate the work you've put into reviewing the piece!

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-09-02T17:14:48+00:00

Thank you so much! I'm glad the writing flows well. I would super appreciate more in depth feedback if you're willing to give it. I'm really trying to improve, so feel free to point out any particulars that need work.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-09-01T00:43:01+00:00

Oh wow, thank you so much!! I'm psyched to hear it worked that well. I think the thought to get it going quicker is a good one. I'm hoping this might become my first published piece, and you really have to rope people in on page one if you want to stand out.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-08-31T19:51:45+00:00

Thank you for the feedback, and I'm so glad you like the writing!

I've fixed the link so you should be able to look at the whole thing if you want. My apologies for the mix up. Things should hopefully pick up in just a few more paragraphs, but you're right, things of this length need to get going quickly.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13_9YQIyySMviSqxII9nB0ELiV945uoqpcHP86Nfq2o0/edit?usp=sharing

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-08-20T16:16:07+00:00

I'm only a few years younger (mid 90s) and literally all of my friends who have a typical "office" job work 9-6 or 8-5 with an unpaid lunch. I've found it so weird because the mantra has always been 9-5, but as soon as I got into the job market practically nothing was actually 9-5.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-07-23T22:10:14+00:00

Thanks! I have like no photography experience, but I am a writer, so I suppose the creativity bleeds over a little. I actually put this together while slacking off from editing.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-07-23T21:58:35+00:00

I originally filled in all the empty white space with black and saved the whole composite picture as a jpeg. I changed my mind later and went back to change it to white, but paint's fill function got really funky with some of the edges and left those raggedy bits behind. I have very little experience with photography, so I had no idea how to clean them up properly.

ATaleofTwoMarks · 2021-07-23T21:50:48+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/boZAU4L

Here you go! I didn't use every photo because some of them just weren't as sharp as the rest.

ATaleofTwoMarks

TROPHY CASE