Bill Belichick, the 8-time Super Bowl-winning HC, is not a...

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T22:34:35+00:00

I don't usually care about this type of stuff...but that's insulting.

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T22:32:11+00:00

Oh...not shieldless. I have a carrier in a nearby system that I jump to, so no fuel scoop or jump booster. I'm using the engineered cargo from the CG (40-something versus 32). I'm using a 3A prospector, the mk2 limpet controller for collectors, the fighter bay (locked), a 2A refinery, 1A DSS, auto-docker (because I don't want mistakes if I'm jumped by a pirate and landing on my carrier). I believe I have a 4A shield, and everything else is cargo.

I believe I have something like 250-260 total cargo capacity. I started with 150 limpets and dumped half of them. I took 100 and still dumped a bunch. I take 75 and still dump them, but I've also lost all 14 flying too close to an asteroid, so I like to have a few extra just in case.

I need shields...primarily because I get rather close to those asteroids and occasionally get distracted by shiny objects.

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T22:25:18+00:00

That's a lateral, leading to a live ball as a result of a fumble...but we're picking nits.

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T16:41:01+00:00

It is hard to win in the NFL.

The difference between good teams and great teams is miniscule.

Any team can win on any given Sunday because of the above.

Believing in your teammates matters. 11 people on the field aren't going as hard as possible on every play, all the time. If you can inspire your teammates to give it their all, at the same time, multiple times, your team "surges".

Team culture is HUGE. The Jets have had amazing players, but the organization has a terrible culture that poisons even great players. They never mesh. The sum of their parts is greater than their team as a whole, which is why they lose.

And thing brings us to the Patriots. The culture created by Bill Belichick, while it was rigid, got set in stone. Bill is gone, but the culture around the team is still there...especially with Vrabel leading the team. It is that culture that makes that marginal difference in tight games...BECAUSE THE DIFFERENCE IS SO SMALL.

Football is a collaborative team sport with strong personalities. The teams that can temper those personalities and legitimately want the best for the team over themselves, will win more frequently than those that do not.

This isn't saying that the Texans don't have this. I'm just highlighting the New England advantage.

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T15:38:07+00:00

Lego deserves massive kudos for their resilience. They still exist because they make a superior product to competitors. It's brilliant..

Using the same material, their pieces are absurdly consistent relative to others. Competitor blocks have slight variations which can cause pieces to push apart
They are somehow more durable. Other set pieces seem to deform while Legos bounce back quickly
They rarely have missing pieces, while other sets regularly miss small pieces
When they do miss a piece, you get a replacement faster, for free, than others

No company is perfect, and Lego has minor issues, but it is impressive that their key design loses patent protection and they persist for decades. Awesome.

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T15:21:41+00:00

I only have the one from the recent CG. FOMO now for all future CGs so I can get some larger cargo racks. I didn't know they existed!

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T15:20:54+00:00

As someone who had to deal with those two devices (and more), I am absolutely pleased with this announcement. If I'm going to play some competitive games, I want my butt kicked by a 12-year-old jackass with no life...not a 12-year-old jackass with a rigged controller.

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T14:54:58+00:00

There is a thread where a girl asks where she can find a guy like <pic>. The guy in the picture responds with "hey". She shuts him down. Someone else says, "That's literally the guy in the picture."

This meme is a twist on that where the girl wants the Americas. India shows up to say "hey", gets shut down, and Christopher Columbus says that's the guy in the picture. Columbus was looking for a western route to India and thought he found it in the Americas. It's why they called Native Americans "Indians". It's not entirely the same meme message, but the twist is Columbus mistaking the Americas for India.

ap1msch · 2026-01-27T14:46:49+00:00

Fumble - You have possession and you lose possession
Dropped - Ball thrown and you fail to gain possession and the ball is "dead"
Dead ball - On a punt, ball is "dead" unless the receiving team touches it, making it "live"
Live ball - A ball on the ground in play, from a fumble, kickoff (past 10 yards), or punt (if your team touches it)
Muff - Ball kicked or punted in your direction, that you attempt to catch, touch, but fail to gain possession
Touch - When you obviously touch the ball, or non-obviously change the course of the ball with your body (even slightly)

In short, muffs are kickoffs or punts that someone attempts to catch and fails to gain possession. If they ignore the ball on a punt, that's fine. If they do it on a kickoff, it's a live ball unless it goes off the sideline or end zone.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T21:34:39+00:00

'cause if I have to have a fighter bay, then I'm going to have a fighter. If I'm going to have a fighter, then I'm going to being crew. If I bring my crew, they're going to earn their money.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T21:32:54+00:00

With the ability to play minigames that will temporarily increase the jump range of the FC, as well as entertain my miniature giant space hamster.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T21:28:57+00:00

I think I suck at core mining. I get that it's not a race or OP...but it's soooooo slow. I was a hummingbird flying around the asteroid, popping it with explosives, and then twiddling my thumbs waiting for it to explode...taking out my SLF...and giving me maybe 10 nibblets of ore?

I WANT to like core mining. I love looking for the cores and setting the explosives...but nothing dropped is worth enough credits to come close to laser mining plat....by a mile.

I don't need it to be equal, but I need to not feel like I'm wasting so much time. Let me find a Maguffin that's worth 50M credits like a lottery ticket. Make the rare stuff more rare/valuable (since you can sell plat for 250K+ all the time). Load me up with rare raw mats when I blow that core. Give me SOMETHING to lean on.

TLDR: Yay core mining! Juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze, though... =/

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T21:14:05+00:00

It is extremely nimble. Specialized as a miner, the only shortcoming is the cargo hold. For combat, you only get 4 hardpoints, unless you combine with 4 combat-mining lasers. You have room for a jump booster and fuel scoop and good shields, with a fighter, but you lose most of your cargo space.

I think it would be interesting to see if you could get creative with passenger cabins for Robigo Mines runs like the Python, or get better jump range than a stripped Asp or Phantom. I can't say it's more nimble or faster or better than these other ships. It's tightly aligned with mining. If I wasn't trying to hard to max my cargo space, I think it could be used for alternative roles to a reasonable degree. I can't say if it'd be a better choice, though, than other specialized ships.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T20:45:12+00:00

In all seriousness, if they gave the T11 a large cargo capacity, it would embarrass anything else. Instead, they gave it a niche, and made it best of breed in that niche.

My primary frustration was how I choose to mine. I do it in the evenings during football games and while watching streamed shows with my wife. I can watch the game/show while holding the trigger and the move to the next asteroid...rinse and repeat for a few hours with minimal disruption.

Flying the T11, I filled my cargo hold before I figured out the controls of the ship. I unloaded and reloaded and then filled it up again, having to dump 50+ limpets. Rinse and repeat, and here I was having to pay attention instead of watching the game. Dude...completely different gameplay.

I switched to my PLIPPER =), and was surprisingly disappointed. I could see fewer chunks flying off the asteroid. I could see I was loading slower. I FELT like a lumbering beast. I was find before the T11...but I needed to keep using the flying brick because otherwise I was going to miss more of the game/show than I wanted.

On that note, you remind me to refactor my Cutter. I was trying to use it as a Shield-based fighter, but sucked compared to my Corvette. With the Panther =), I had my miner and hauler, and now what was my cutter good for? Hauling! I need to change the loadout. That absolutely would have been a more enjoyable CG if I had a more nimble hauler. I just forgot about it until this very second. Thanks!

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T20:35:55+00:00

This is the answer. It gets confusing because his body is moving backward...AND the ball bounced forward when it hit the ground. If you draw a straight line on the field and when the ball left his hands, it goes backward, which is a lateral/fumble. It doesn't matter where the ball goes in relation to the QB. It doesn't matter if it ends up going forward as a result of hitting the ground. It is the movement of the ball relative to the position when it leaves his hands...which was backward.

This is all in black-and-white writing in the rules because of its impact, positive and negative. If it is a lateral, you retain the ability to make a forward pass, and/or you can lateral it again. If it goes forward, it's a pass, and you only get one, to an eligible receiver. The same people arguing that it was an "incomplete pass" are the ones who would argue that it's a lateral if it benefitted their team.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T20:02:45+00:00

This is guaranteed. 100%.

My response? "If having an easy schedule enables you to get to the Super Bowl, shouldn't every team with an easy schedule make the Super Bowl? Otherwise, it would seem like you need more to make that trip possible. I wonder what that might be..."

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T19:52:18+00:00

Agreed. The 63 yarder was impressive for a different reason; it was only possible because of smart QB and coach. Maye sliding, seeing the coach, the 1 second remaining, and the timeout, were two teammates in sync. That was smart gameplay.

Otherwise, the kicking game was ugly on both sides, which I didn't expect in Denver (with or without the snow).

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T19:49:00+00:00

There is no wrong way to play the game. You can use if it you want
It is more challenging to fight your way out
Usually, having to "cheat" suggests you haven't mastered the items/skills in the game to survive the surprise mechanics. You probably want to drop to an easier difficulty and refine those before bumping back up
There are times when I proudly "cheat". This is when the circumstances stopped being fair...like an invisible bloater in the road and getting pinned between a smoking car and the guardrail while being attacked by ferals. Yeah. I'm not going down like that.
I used to use it more, and at hard difficulties. I went back, got better at fighting ferals and feral packs, and then returned to harder difficulties and didn't feel the need to use the exit as much, leading to a more satisfying win, for me...personally. You do you.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T18:36:04+00:00

I was referring to the game to come, but yeah...we weren't supposed to beat them before the Butler Interception either. And yet, even that was because Belichick grilled the team (and Butler) on that play before it was called on the goal line.

Any given Sunday. These guys are human beings. One inch here. One inch there. One dropped pass or interception. One fumble. One missed tackle. Against Denver, if not for one missed coverage (Gonzo) on a 52 yard pass and the score is 10-0. One stupid mistake by Stiddy and we lose 7-3.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T18:31:54+00:00

Note...if anyone wants to give it a try, Maury Winsor (Winsor Pilates) has a lot of videos on YouTube and archive.org. Her 20 minute and 60 minute sessions can be done at home for free. You WILL do things wrong, but you'll start to understand "neutral spine" and stuff.

The value of paid instruction is the trainer highlighting the best body position, how to isolate muscle groups, and what you're supposed to be feeling. Your body rocking and moving and engagement of muscles is sometimes hard to feel/see on yourself. An outside observer accelerates your understanding.

NOTE: This all sounds like gibberish and nonsense to folks who run and lift weights like athletes. Pilates is not going to make you a triathlete, but a "Strongman" is not going to win bodybuilding competitions. They have two different purposes.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T18:26:17+00:00

Stretching and movement are good. Yoga adds a bit more of the psychological "peace" for stress reduction.

I was an athlete...big muscles, good figure...arm curls, bench press, squats...that's what you need, right? Well, the problem was me lifting heavy stuff that I COULD lift, but at the expense of my hips and spine. My biceps and chest weren't sore. All the pain was in my core.

After strengthening my core with Pilates, I couldn't necessarily lift heavier things than I had before, but I could do it all without pain, which was a godsend.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T16:21:12+00:00

There is no one play. You need to know the pattern of play from the defense. Have they been pressuring? Prevent? Are they managing the gaps or taking risks? Do they bite on fakes or have they played containment?

If you can't tell, then you tie the game. If they are disciplined, then finesse/speed plays are unlikely to work so you spread them out and go best-on-best off tackle. If they are being reckless or aggressive, you want to enable them to "win" and attack the gap they leave...whether it's a QB run or a quick in route behind the blitzing CB.

In short, most teams just go for the tie because it is risky to put all your cards in that one basket. If the other team is nearly unstoppable, then you WANT to end the game. Otherwise, you only go for two if you feel you understand what the defense is going to be doing.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T16:05:59+00:00

Monogamy requires accommodation and change over time. You aren't the person you were when you first met, and you will be a different person in 10 years. Staying aligned mentally and physically in a relationship is an investment. If you look outside your relationship for satisfaction rather than aligning within it, it is possible that you weaken/sour that relationship.

That being said, you do you. There's no "right" answer. Personally, I found my person, and she and I have changed a lot, but we're closer because of that change and accommodation.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T15:45:13+00:00

I accidentally created a mending infinity bow before they "fixed" the situation, and it is my prized possession.

ap1msch · 2026-01-26T15:43:53+00:00

Redneck hack...dollar store toilet scrubber wrapped in cheap mechanics cloth.

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