Looks like MARTA is headed back to the dark ages

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

This is most definitely bad news for Atlanta: Keith Parker set to resign as CEO of MARTA, after five years of trying to improve the maligned transit authority

I know I’ve often been the first guy to offer un-constructive criticism or unnecessary sarcasm to just about everything Keith Parker has done, or just about anything pertaining to MARTA.  But the truth is, I really should have eaten a good measure of my words throughout the last five years, because in spite of the snark and wise cracks, Keith Parker accomplished more with MARTA than I ever would have anticipated.

It’s easy to be jaded about things related to infrastructure in Atlanta, because this is a major market in the United States, but often times feels like it’s operating like the Podunk town that those not from the south tend to associate to places located in the south.  The politicians in the city are flagrantly abusive in their privileges, yet nothing ever seems to change.  So something like MARTA, the near-pointless metro service in the city always exists as an easy target for criticism, and when Keith Parker came to town, it was always easy to assume another crooked stooge was taking a notable position to likely flounder, make promises that would go unfulfilled, pad his pockets, and then get the fuck out when things are at their worst (like the Beltline).

But over the last five years, Keith Parker has made some tangible improvements to MARTA, despite the fact that I would champion all the flops but none of the real successes.  Ridership did improve, although it got a massive assist when I-85 burned to the ground earlier in the year, and the general consensus of riders seems to show improvement, and not nearly as much shithead behavior on the trains, allegedly.

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I’m already sold on Bianca Belair

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

So I’m watching The Mae Young Classic on the WWE Network for $9.95 a month, and it’s pretty much everything I figured it would be; pretty obviously scripted, easily predictable in who’s going to win what matches, and although I haven’t caught up to the very most recent episode, it’s a pretty forgone conclusion to whom will probably be in the final four, as well as who’s probably going to win the whole shebang outright.

And although she was someone who lost in the second round of the tournament, I have to say that the biggest takeaway for me so far, has been Bianca Belair.  Watching the first round matches, it was painfully evident the people that were there for fodder, but it was also as apparent to quickly identify the women that actually had some talent.  Belair caught my immediately, mostly because she didn’t just have a six-pack, but more like a Pepsi Cube of chiseled abdominal muscles; whether she could wrestle or not was irrelevant, this girl was a physical specimen.

I’m far removed from wrestling fandom to know who a lot of these women are, and I can’t be one of the cool hip smarks who know what their names in a previous federation or country were, but I was pretty immediately impressed by Bianca Belair in her opening round victory, because sure she was a little green in wrestling talent, but the athleticism was off the chart, and she had a very natural ring presence when it came to acting to her persona.

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Photos: Dragon*Con 2017

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

[2020 note]: Among many of the things random visitors might be remotely interested in seeing, would be convention pictures from years past.  And of the several cons where I took my camera with me to take photos, Dragon*Con 2017 would be one of them.

I’ll be honest, this was a particularly trying D*C for me, and there was a lot going on in my personal life that was justifiably distracting me from having any semblance of genuine enjoyment during the weekend, and it was pretty evident as far as I was concerned.  But it wasn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the company of many friends that I did get to see.

However, the fact that there’s literally only a singular gallery from the convention itself should say enough about where my head really was, but there’s still some good stuff amongst the photo dump.

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kT LOLster

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This is not a rebroadcast from last year: Samsung Galaxy defeats kT Rolster, advances to Worlds

Honestly, despite knowing that this was always a possibility, I would have put my money on kT to win the regional qualifier, and make it to Worlds as the #3 seed for Korea.  I don’t think it’s at all that often that a team of talented players doesn’t figure out how to rectify their shortcomings and overcome obstacles in their path; however, on that same token, it’s never out of the realm of possibility that a competitive team also has their kryptonite, and that for whatever reasons, falls short to the exact same circumstances repeatedly.

Regardless, despite being the vaunted meticulously constructed super team, kT Rolster for the second year in a row, will not be going to the League of Legends World Championships, falling short at the hands of Samsung Galaxy, again.

If it sucked being kT Rolster because they couldn’t ever beat SK Telecom at all throughout the year, it really sucks to be kT Rolster when they didn’t just fall short of winning Worlds, but didn’t even make it into the tournament at all.  This would be like if the Miami Heat didn’t even make it into the NBA Playoffs in the years that they had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

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Rent-A-Fairweather

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I want to goof on this, but I also actually think it’s not a terrible idea: a company that will allow (pseudo-)sports fans to rent jerseys, instead of buying them.

The very first thing that comes to mind when I read about this is that it’s basically Rent-A-Swag from Parks & Rec, but for people who want to pretend like they’re in to sports.  But instead of Tom Haverford renting out his overly-metrosexual wardrobe to primarily teenaged boys, it’s a company that will rent sports jerseys to people to go to a game, or a sports party or event to be appropriately accessorized.

The Parks & Rec correlation is definitely laughable, but the logic behind the show’s store as well as this seemingly real jersey rental service is justifiably sound: sports apparel is always a risky investment, because players come and go at the drop of a hat these days, and it’s always entirely possible for fans to have sunk $40-100+ on player apparel only for it to be invalid and obsolete in a matter of time.  The Braves-Jason Heyward shirt in my closet most certainly agrees with that notion.

However, this is also an idea that holds a substantial sense of insufferable, because it’s a service that basically fishes out fake and/or fairweathered sports fans, because it’s directly catering to the flip-flopping nature of those types who want to support a player/team while they’re popular, but don’t want to commit to the fandom to actually buy something and support said player/team.  It’s almost too perfectly fitting that among their initial wave of available teams are the 49ers and the Seahawks, because their fanbases are amongst the most fairweathered and fickle; all aboard when they’re good, but nowhere to be seen when they’re not.

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Let’s talk about Game of Thrones

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

With season 7 now in the books, all Game of Thrones fans are astutely aware that we are down to one season left, and if all the claims are true, there will only be six episodes.  So there are going to be six episodes left to close out a whole butt-load of storylines.

I’ve enjoyed the show all the way to current in spite of what people on the internet have been saying about it, and the incessantly endless debates between book purists and show-exclusive fans.  It’s entertaining, I don’t put that much tremendous thought into the plot, and the show writers are good at drumming up tension and drama, artificial as it might seem to some, and it leads to watchable television.

But six episodes to cover the sheer volume of plots and resolutions, that’s a tremendous task to be asking for, so I can’t help but be skeptical at what the quality of the final season can possibly be.  Maybe if every episode is stretched beyond an hour, they could literally buy some more time to tell more story, but if we’re talking about five hour-long episodes and maybe an extended finale, I just feel like season 8 is going to be a ride faster and more furious* than the entire Fast & Furious franchise combined.

*Especially considering the fact that characters are traversing from one end of Westeros to the other and back on horse and buggy faster than Vin Diesel could ever do a quarter mile, but let’s not debate semantics

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You’re better than this, Adande

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I like J.A. Adande, as a sports journalist.  I remember him best as the straight man on Around the Horn, but in spite of his “role,” he was always a source of informative and insightful sports opinions, on the show and in the times that I’ve come across his writing on the internet throughout the years.

However, I don’t know it’s because it was for The Undefeated, an online rag that doesn’t hide its black bias, and he’s just trying to appeal to its target audience, or he’s deciding to waver from his modus operandi of logical and educated opinions; but his article about how “this isn’t the baseball he grew up watching because there aren’t enough black guys in it and the ones that are aren’t aren’t playing ‘black enough’ baseball” seems just so, so, so beneath a guy I’ve always held in regard for integrity and not needing to ever play the race card in order to look intelligent.

Basically, Adande says the Cincinnati Reds’ Billy Hamilton (a black player) runs down flyballs at the wall, is a fast runner and steals a lot of bases is playing “black baseball.”

By this logic, Mike Trout, Trea Turner and Kevin Pillar, are playing, black baseball.  These are also guys who are very good outfielders who are capable of making plays at the wall and occasionally robbing some home runs, and they are also very fast runners who steal lots of bases.  However, all three of them are white guys, thus negating Adande’s logic of what defines “black baseball,” and how absurd it is to associate such styles of play solely with the color of a player’s skin.

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