Random Ramblings: February 2026

Is it too much to ask for my kids to have a 5-day school week? Here's what their schedule has been over the last month plus:

January 19-23 - Off Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 26-30 - Snow days Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday. Would have been snow days on Thursday and Friday, but these were already staff development / teacher workdays.

February 2-6 - Snow day on Monday. 2-hour delays the rest of the week.

February 9-13 - An actual 5-day week. It's a miracle!

February 16-20 - Presidents' Day on Monday and teacher workday on Tuesday.

February 23-27 - Another snow day on Monday.

Hopefully March will be better!

* Watching the Olympics, I realize that I miss being part of a sports team. The last time I was on a team in an organized league was playing ultimate frisbee at least 15 years ago. I've been a coach for several of my kids' teams over the years, I play pickleball with friends (when it's warm!), and I'm part of the referee "team" working soccer games. I'm on trivia teams too. None of these really count though. At this point, I'm probably too old to play on a team in any league. I mean, there might be 50+ leagues out there somewhere, but I was never very good at basketball and I haven't actually played soccer since college intramurals. Think my days playing a team sport are over.

* The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates remain legendary 65 years after winning arguably the greatest World Series in baseball history. The airing of game 7 on MLB Network was truly an event. (Watching it on social media was so much fun too!) In just the last two weeks, two members of that team passed away. Elroy Face might be the best reliever in Pirates history. In 1959, Face went 19-1 without starting any games. He finished 7th in the MVP voting. In 1960, he finished 12th in the MVP voting after leading the national league in games and games finished. The 6-time All-Star (back when there were two All-Star games per year) died on February 12th just a week shy of his 98th birthday.

Bill Mazeroski is best known for hitting the series-winning, walk-off 9th inning home run to give the Pirates a 10-9 victory in game 7 of the 1960 World Series. While that hit probably helped him become a member of the baseball Hall of Fame, Mazeroski is one of if not the best defensive 2nd basemen in baseball history with 8 Gold Gloves. Mazeroski died on February 20th at 89. 

* Today is my parents' birthday. Yes, they shared the same anniversary too! My dad has been gone for almost six years now, and my mom passed away nearly two years ago. I think about them a lot, especially regarding my kids' activities and even little things like the weather.

Spelling Bee

A few weeks ago, Luigi (in 3rd grade) said that he wanted to compete in his elementary school’s spelling bee. His brothers never participated, so this was uncharted territory for our family. When I was in third grade, my teacher divided us into three teams for a spelling competition, but it definitely wasn't an official spelling bee. I remember spelling the word "usually" correctly. The only problem was that the word was usual, not usually, so I was eliminated. My team lost. That was the extent of our spelling bee experience except for watching Akeelah and the Bee (when Keke Palmer was a kid!) several years ago.

A few days before the bee, we realized that maybe we should ask Luigi some words for practice from the school spelling bee study list. Mixed results. Luigi also decided that he wanted to write his words out first which is definitely not permitted in the bee. The day before the event, I figured I should probably review the rules. They are super intense! I realized that the televised Scripps National Spelling Bee championship has specific procedures, but this is a junior bee for grades K-3! And yes, you cannot write words out first!

We arrived at his elementary school for registration, and then Luigi went into the cafeteria. Besides the contestants, the only adults permitted in the cafeteria were the judges and a few volunteers. Parents and other family members were banished to the library in a completely separate part of the school where we could watch the bee on a screen via Zoom. There is a separate bee for kids in 4th through 6th grades in a few weeks, and the winner of the junior bee gets an entry into the "senior" competition. 

Initially, it was a little awkward sitting with everyone waiting for the bee to begin. Our kids were competing against each other! Once the bee began, the room became more relaxed, particularly since kindergartners were the first kids to answer. We were supportive of the kids, but we also bonded on the spotty Zoom link. At one point, we thought the word was happy. When the announcer spelled the word T-A-F-F-Y, we all laughed and said taffy out loud like we were in the audience of Family Feud when they show the answers on the board. 

As for Luigi, his word was hoist. He spelled it h-u-i-s-t and was eliminated in the first round. I think he's going to remember the spelling of that word now! The words immediately before and after his were baffling and remind. He said that he knew both of those. 

Luigi wasn't at all discouraged by his early exit. About half of the 47 kids were eliminated in the first round, and we were able to watch the rest of the bee at home. He was happy that a friend won and said that he wants to try again next year. Sounds g-o-o-d to me!

Passing The Brimley Line

As of earlier this month, I officially passed the Brimley / Cocoon Line. For those of you not familiar with arguably the fourth most famous line after (In no particular order) the Mason Dixon Line, the 38th Parallel, and Whose Line Is It, Anyway?, actor Wilford Brimley was 18,530 days old (50 years, 9 months, and 6 days) when the movie Cocoon debuted in theaters on June 21, 1985. This is a picture of Brimley from Cocoon from the Brimley/Cocoon Line Calculator website.

The premise of Cocoon is that a group of seniors swim in a pool with alien cocoons and regain their vigor and energy from their younger days. In the film, a 50 year-old Brimley easily passed as a senior citizen and someone at least 20 years older than his actual age. While I remember enjoying the movie, I was a kid when I saw it. I don't know how it holds up today, but more importantly, I don't think I had a concept of what "normal" 50 year-olds looked like then. I mean, the film had Brimley portray an elderly grandfather, not someone who was 50. 

To me, this is what 50 looks like in 2026.

I don't know if I look like a regular 50 year-old or not. I mean, I don't have much hair, but I've been balding for years. A colleague recently shared that they thought I was 43 or 44, so I'll take that as a win. 

Well, for some reason I feel like I should have some oatmeal now!

I Got Media Credentials!

For many years, I have applied and been rejected for media credentials for the Oscars and Academy Awards. The Washington Nationals regularly ignore all of my requests too. My brother-in-law suggested that I go even bigger by applying for the Super Bowl, World Cup, and Olympics. My response was that maybe I should go local, so I submitted my application for a George Mason University men's basketball game. And I got approved!

On Wednesday evening, I drove to the George Mason University campus, parked in the special parking lot (away from the commoners in general parking), and entered the arena. Except that I went to the wrong door. I got stopped by security entering with my iPad, and when I said I was a media member, I was directed to another door with a clearly marked media member entrance sign. This time, I was all good and received my media badge. I was then directed to press row where I introduced myself to the Sports Information Director. He showed me my assigned seat which ended up being directly behind the Duquesne broadcasting team. There was good and bad to this. The positive was that the seat was amazing, and I could clearly hear the Duquesne coaches. I also got this inside look at a message that likely aired on the Duquesne broadcast. Happy Birthday Dan Unico!

The negative was that Duquesne head coach Dru Joyce III blocked my view throughout the game!

I was seated next to Jason, a communications major with a concentration in journalism who is graduating from George Mason this spring and writes for Mid-Major Basketball. Jason was incredibly helpful, and I enjoyed talking with him. I wish him lots of luck in the future and hope he makes it in sports journalism. I also introduced myself to the guy to the right of me at halftime since it was loud during commercial breaks. I said my name is Sean, and I shook his hand. He never told me his name (maybe he said hi?), and that was the extent of our conversation. 

There was a media room filled with water, soft drinks, and snacks. I got a bottle of water, a bag of Chex Mix (which will be part of Thursday's lunch) and a bag of Pirate's Booty. By the way, why is there only one Pirate's Booty? I guess he worked alone when he found the popcorn treasure. Seems more likely that the pirate was with others during the popcorn discovery, so it should be Pirates' Booty!

I guess I should probably share some thoughts about the game. George Mason was 20-2 entering Wednesday and were undefeated at home. With Duquesne winning 71-65, is it my fault that Mason's first home loss was the first time I had media credentials? I better not share this with Coach Tony Skinn or the SID!

Duquesne has a player named John Hugley IV who seemed really familiar (and really big in person). It's because he spent three years at Pitt. His first season was 2020-2021, so he is now in his sixth year of playing college basketball!

I really enjoyed getting the official basketball box score print-outs at halftime and after the game. In this case, the stats didn't lie. Duquesne made 16-21 free throws compared to 8-15 for George Mason. Duquesne had 9 turnovers compared to Mason's 17, which Duquesne turned into 25 points. That's the game. 

I attended the postgame press conference, and Coach Skinn was not happy with the team's turnovers and play to end the game. Mason was up 65-61with less than 2 minutes remaining, and Duquesne finished on a 10-0 run. Speaking of the press conference, I asked one question (at the 8:30 mark) about the status of Kory Mincy who left the game briefly due to an injured finger. I sounded really nervous since I was. 

Tony Skinn played on George Mason's Final Four team and is in his third season as the men's basketball coach. Being in the DC area for many years, I wanted to ask him about his thoughts about The Washington Post disbanding its sports coverage. The press conference ended immediately after he concluded answering the final question in the video, so I didn't have the opportunity.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. I don't think I embarrassed myself, and I was professional by making sure not to cheer and by introducing myself to "colleagues" and thanking the SID for the opportunity. While I would definitely do this again, I prefer attending Mason basketball games with my kids. Although our seats are significantly worse, it's a fun activity being able to see quality basketball close to home together as a family.  

I Wanna Be

Over the last week, much of the United States has truly experienced winter. Lots of snow and really low temperatures. In Northern Virginia, we received about 7-8 inches of snow last Sunday. While I shoveled initially in the morning, as the day continued, snow turned into freezing rain and ice. I spent parts of Monday and Tuesday clearing out my driveway and sidewalk and digging out my car from one of the parking spots. It was so much harder to shovel than regular snow. Trying to clear my steps was futile. So over the last week, we entered and exited our home by going through the garage.

Yesterday morning, The Moose woke me up saying that the internet was out and his alarm clock didn't work. We lost power. I can probably write a separate post about dumb questions my kids asked related to the power outage, but I'll try to spare them the embarrassment. Anyway, leaving through the garage was no longer an option. I talked with a neighbor a few days ago about borrowing some equipment to work on my stairs, but now, it had to be done. I went out my front door and literally slid down my stairs like a slide to then walk to my neighbor's house. I borrowed a sledgehammer and naturally had this song in my head the entire time.

I felt like the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers mascot.

After hours of work, we can now successfully go into and out of our house through the front door. And my back and arms are extremely sore!

2026 State of the Ramblings

So the Sean’s Ramblings blog turned 21. Yes, this blog can now legally drink! And like how many people at 21 have no idea what the focus of their life may be, I still don’t know the focus of this blog. I mean, I guess it’s the tagline: Thoughts and comments by a guy named Sean. And that works. In previous State of the Ramblings (States of the Ramblings?), I’ve noted that my lack of a dedicated topic has limited options and opportunities over the years. I’ve come to peace with this. Yes, I continue to apply for media credentials for the Oscars and Grammys and other events, and this is going to hit one day. In the meantime, I'll continue to write about what I want to write. Sort of. 

I tend to avoid politics and current events. Big news events tend to be replaced by other big news events within hours. For example, Congress passed a law in November ordering the justice department to release all Epstein files within 30 days. The House approved this 427-1. 427-1!!! The House doesn't agree on anything 427-1. Two months later, the justice department hasn't come close to releasing all of the files, yet there are no repercussions and seemingly no discussion about this. And we are/were close to abandoning our decades long NATO pact to invade Greenland? I think we can all agree that Nicolas Maduro is not a good guy, and him not being in power is positive for Venezuela. However, what's the next step there? Are we helping administer democratic elections? Seems like we're letting the current government govern (basically Maduro supporters) and trying to take all their oil. I'm not going to get started on ICE and immigration. It's also amazing that there were countless protests about Gaza, yet very few against the Iranian government after killing thousands of their own citizens. And you know what? Much of what I'm writing in this paragraph will be obsolete in a few weeks to be replaced by something else. I mean, Venezuela is already old news now. And even the news is the news. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is shutting down, and The Washington Post is a mess.

I'm way off topic. While I write “serious” posts occasionally, I try to keep things a little lighter. I would burn out quickly writing about everything in the previous paragraph. I'm already getting worked up and frustrated by what I wrote above, and I didn't even get close to digging into any of these topics.

Over the last four years, I've published a little more than one post per week. I'd like to think that most of these posts are like long-form articles. That there's something interesting or informative or funny in them. Something that you may not see or read elsewhere. I post plenty of quick thoughts on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, YouTube, and/or Twitter, so feel free to follow me there for those. But my more thought-out and collaborative posts are here.

So what’s next for Sean’s Ramblings? My 14 year old started a sports podcast, and I’ve joined him on a few episodes. Not sure if this is something that he/we will continue to do, but I enjoyed working with him. Maybe we’ll be like Tim and Jeff Kurkjian's Is This A Great Game, Or What? podcast except without the good stories, guests, and production values! I think I’m going to try to go out of my comfort zone this year. While I think it would be neat to attend the Bloggy Conference, traveling to Cedar Point at the start of the school year isn’t realistic for me. Maybe I’ll attend a DC Bloggers event this year. There’s also been talk of reviving the Pittsburgh Guest Bloggers Event. I think I can get my act together to make this a reality. 

Thanks to all of you for checking out the blog! I really appreciate you reading this post and any of the other 3,441 posts over the last 21 years!

Steelers Coaching Candidates

With Mike Tomlin resigning, the Steelers are looking for a new head coach for the first time since 2007. In case you're wondering, yes, I wrote about the Steelers hiring Mike Tomlin back then since this blog is old! There is a lot of speculation about potential candidates to be the fourth head coach of the Steelers since 1969. I'm here to add to that speculation! Some of these people listed below are legitimate candidates. Some are not. In any event, I hope that you enjoy this.

(The picture above is from a much younger Mike Tomlin when I compared his expression to a Game of Thrones character.)

Many people are clamoring for someone associated with the Indiana University football team to take over in Pittsburgh. While you probably believe that I'm writing about current IU coach Curt Cignetti, who turned arguably the worst major football program in college football history into a national championship contender and someone born in Pittsburgh, worked at Pitt, and got his first head coaching job at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), I'm looking at someone else. 

Antwaan Randle El 

Randle El is one of the best players in IU history, but he also played five seasons for the Steelers. More importantly, he served as an offensive assistant in Tampa for two years (and got a championship as a coach when the Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV), held the wide receiver coaching position with the Detroit Lions for 4 years, and is now the wide receivers / assistant head coach for the Chicago Bears. He's a winner and has had success in all of coaching stops. El Yeah!  Oh, he also did this.

Hines Ward

Currently, the Associate Head Coach and Wide Receivers Coach at Arizona State University. He previously worked for the Steelers, Jets, and at Florida Atlantic University. A 3-7 record as the head coach for the XFL's San Antonio Brahmas is a little concerning. Oh, he also did the thing in the video above.

Danny Smith

Big Gum has been patient, lurking in the background of the NFL. They have a stronghold in baseball, where major league dugouts universally have large containers of gum. Big Gum may feel that the time is right to make its mark in America's biggest sport. The poster person to represent Big Gum is clearly Danny Smith. He's also from Pittsburgh and graduated from Central Catholic High School.

Cam Heyward

The Steelers could make history by becoming the first team in the modern NFL to have its head coach also be an active player. And who better to do that than Cam Heyward. Seems highly regarded and well respected by his teammates. He's a leader. Curly Lambeau and George Halas were successful in both roles with the Packers and Bears respectfully in the 1920s. Let's try it again for the 2020s! (Tom Landry and Dan Reeves were both players / assistant coaches, and they both did pretty well too.)

Larry Foote

Current run game coordinator / outside linebacker coach for Tampa. Definitely seeing a trend of former Steelers who go to Tampa to coach. More importantly, I get to share this picture again!

Byron Leftwich

Former Steelers QB who won a Super Bowl as the offensive coordinator in Tampa (again!). He deserved to be a head coach then. It seems like he worked for Deion Sanders at the University of Colorado last season, but he’s not listed as part of the coaching staff on Colorado's website, and there were reports that he may have been a volunteer. For once, the internet is not really clear on if or when he was employed at Colorado.

Joey Porter, Sr.

Thanks to drawing a personal foul penalty on Adam "Pacman" Jones, he helped the Steelers win a playoff game against the Bengals. (Many people may remember the two personal foul penalties to essentially seal the game for the Steelers, but the entire last few minutes of this game were absolutely bonkers.) 

(Sorry - You have to watch the video of the end of the January 2016 Steelers-Bengals playoff game on YouTube. Won't let me embed it here.)

Cedrick Wilson

I have no idea what Wilson is up to, but I feel like he needs to be included here since he was also a wide receiver on the Super Bowl XL winning team with Ward and Randle El. Don't want him feeling left out.

Ryan Clark

He's good on TV. While that means absolutely nothing, he and Pittsburgh broadcasting legend Sally Wiggin seem to have mutual admiration for each other, so that counts for something.

Bill Cowher

Bring back the Hall of Fame coaching legend from retirement. Plus, if he wins a Super Bowl in the first few years, we can all say that he won with Tomlin's players!

Am I missing other legitimate candidates? Absolutely. Is it more fun to write a post about people with Pittsburgh ties? Also absolutely!  Here We Go!

2025 Pittsburgh Pirates Predictions Recap

We're about a week into 2026 and a few days after the thrilling Steelers-Ravens game, so now is the perfect time to, um, see how everyone did with their 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates predictions! Yes, the baseball season has been over for 2+ months and the Pirates season ended 3+ months ago, but one of the questions below centered around 2025 in its entirety, so that's why you're getting this now. While I'll give a summary of the questions and results, this is the season predictions post from last March.

1. What do you expect from Paul Skenes this season?

So Skenes is awesome. On the surface, Skenes' 10-10 record seems to show like he had an average year. In reality, Skenes was the best pitcher in the National League and won the Cy Young award thanks to an ERA of 1.97, a WHIP (walks and hits divided by innings pitched) of 0.95, and 216 strikeouts in 187.2 innings. That's the best ERA in baseball, best WHIP in the National League, and tied for second in the NL in strikeouts. Just dominant. 

Pretty much everyone thought he would be great though some believed he would be better than others. Nubyjas, Noah, and Andrew predicted he would be a Cy Young candidate, and James wrote that it would be disappointing if he didn't win the award. Jim R. predicted 2nd in the Cy Young voting and maybe he would have been if there was one Cy Young award for all of baseball, though my rant on this is best suited for another time.

2. Who will lead the Pirates in home runs?

The answer was Oneil Cruz with just 20. Ethan, Noah, Jim R., and 1992 were all correct though went higher on the overall number. Saxboy just wrote Oneil.

3. Will Derek Shelton get fired and when?

James predicted that Shelton would get let go in September, and Josh thought during the season. Jim R. simply wrote fired. Shelton actually got fired on May 8, 2025.

4. Will Paul Skenes and Livvy Dunne get engaged in 2025?

Yes, I waited to publish this post just to see if Skenes would propose to Dunne before midnight on December 31st. He did not. Instead, Skenes shaved his mustache! 

Ethan, Noah, and Jim R., and Saxboy all predicted no. 

5. Who is your surprise/breakout player for the Pirates this season?

The answer was probably Isaac Mattson. He was drafted out of Pitt in the 19th round of the 2017 draft by the Angels and reached the majors in 2021 pitching all of 4 games for the Orioles. Mattson then pitched in 3 games for the Pirates in 2024. So coming into 2025 with 9 & 2/3 major league innings pitched, there were no expectations for Mattson. He ended up solidifying the bullpen, particularly after David Bednar got traded, with a 2.45 ERA in 47.2 innings pitched. 

Other nominees: Dennis Santana (picked by Saxboy!) Jared Triolo (his September was amazing), and Braxton Ashcraft. Jim L. gets a partial credit for predicting Spencer Horowitz who had a solid season.

Ethan and 1992 both predicted someone from the bullpen, but picked Kyle Nicolas. who regressed some this year with a 4.74 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in 38 innings. (Noah picked Nicolas too.)

6. Will any of the Dodgers, Mets, or Braves not make the playoffs?

So the Mets and Braves failed to reach the postseason. The Dodgers won a thrilling World Series. 

Nubyjas thought a difficult NL East would be problematic for the Braves or Mets. James, Ethan, Jim L., and 1992 all thought the Mets would miss the postseason. Josh and Andrew predicted that the Braves would miss the playoffs. Only Jim R. and Saxboy were wrong in thinking that all three teams would reach the playoffs.

7. What's your overall prediction for the Pirates?

Well, the Pirates finished with a disappointing 71-91 record and last in the NL Central. No one thought they would be THIS bad. Josh was closest in predicting a 74-88 record.

So now we're not that far away from spring training. By acquiring Brandon Lowe and signing Ryan O'Hearn, there is some optimism heading into the season, but that's for a future post. The next prediction might be if I do one of these posts again for 2026!

Thanks to everyone for participating!

North Dakota and Southern Manitoba

I’m all about timely blog posts. That’s why I’m finally writing about my time in North Dakota and southern Manitoba as part of my annual-ish hockey road trip…which happened more than a year ago. Better late than never, right? I mean, I wrote about eating in Winnipeg and attending the Pittsburgh Penguins-Jets game last year, so that was somewhat timely!

Besides attending a hockey game in every NHL city, another life goal is to visit all 50 states. So as part of visiting Winnipeg to see a Jets hockey game, we decided that we had to find a reason to go to North Dakota, which is a short drive away. The initial idea of last year’s hockey trip was to attend a Winnipeg Jets game and a University of North Dakota hockey game. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work unless we made the trip in the middle of winter (which we didn't want to do). So instead, we attended a UND football game. I mean, of course you go to a college football game when you’re in North Dakota!

So let's start with the drive from Winnipeg to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Do you know what is between the Winnipeg suburbs and the Manitoba/North Dakota border? Not much though now that I’ve driven in Iceland, the area between Winnipeg and Grand Forks is a metropolis. So highlights of Southern Manitoba:

Hemp Oil Canada! After probably about 25 miles of driving through nothing after leaving the Winnipeg suburbs, we passed the Hemp Oil Canada factory. (Apparently, the company is now known as Fresh Hemp Foods.) There were (and I assume still are) also a series of homes across the highway from the factory. While I didn't think that there were still company towns, Ste. Agathe, Manitoba may just be one. According to WikiPedia, the population of Ste. Agathe in 2021 was 643. Feel like at least half of the population has some sort of affiliation with Hemp Oil Canada,

After another 20 minutes of nothing, we came across Morris, Manitoba (population approximately 2,000), home of the annual Manitoba Stampede which seems to take place in July of each year. Would I like to attend a rodeo in Manitoba someday? Yes. Will it ever happen? Extremely unlikely.

After another half hour of nothing, we reached the US border. When we entered the United States and returned to Canada later in the day, the border control seemed confused by our visit. Why were two guys from Virginia and another from New York crossing the border driving a vehicle with a Manitoba license plate? The concept of a rental car seemed to escape them. 

We finally arrived in Grand Forks, and after a stop at the UND bookstore to buy some souvenirs (meaning T-shirts for my kids), we made it to the Alerus Center for the football game between the University of North Dakota and University of Northern Iowa. It’s a somewhat odd arena/stadium. It’s more of a field house. There are stands on each side with no or limited seating in the end zones. I know you really don't care about a recap of a football game that took place over a year ago, but I have some pictures and videos to share. 

I liked how the teams shook hands before the game. Don’t remember ever seeing that before.

We went to a late lunch / early dinner at a place called Smiling Moose. It was fine. However, a few days after I returned home, I learned that there was a Ground Round only a few miles from the stadium. Ground Round was one of my favorite restaurants growing up in Pittsburgh, and there are only a few remaining. Not going to Ground Round was the only regret of the trip.

Around the corner from Smiling Moose is the Grand Forks curling club. The door was open, so we walked right in. There was one guy there setting up the place for the start of the curling season which was a few weeks away. He was super gracious in letting us walk around. 

On the drive back to the hotel, we stopped at the St. Vital Curling Club, founded in 1933. This Winnipeg curling club has members that won Olympic medals! I think we hoped that we would be able to try curling ourselves, but there were league competitions going on, so we just watched for a few minutes and left.

A few more pictures from Winnipeg. Did you know that Winnie the Bear, later Winnie the Pooh, is named for Winnipeg?

My Favorite Songs of 2025

Full disclosure. I'm not sure if I'm going to have a best and worst of the year post for 2025. I have a selection for both the best and worst song of the year, so I can share that the best is in the post. By the way, I highly recommend the posts by Josh on his favorites of the year (this is his favorite songs post).

Here are my 11 favorite songs of the year in no particular order.

Alex Warren - Ordinary

What a voice. And this song just explodes in the chorus. 

Taylor Swift - Fate of Ophelia

All she does is write hit song after hit song.

Role Model - Sally, When The Wine Runs Out

Will Role Model be a one-hit wonder? If he is, this is a really good hit. Enough that I wrote about him twice now this year.

Sydney Sprague - Flat Circle

I learn of most music these days from listening to the Hits1 station on SiriusXM. I learned of this song from The Tony Kornheiser Show podcast which regularly features music shared by listeners or their family/friends. This is one such song. I love the guitar riff.

Raye - Where Is My Husband

And this song is one that I love for the drums.

Ragga Holm - Liour Vel 

A song I heard several times on Icelandic radio. Still have no idea what it's about or any of the lyrics.

K-Pop Demon Hunters (Huntrix) - Golden

Only the biggest song in the world. We're all going up, up, up.

AJR - The Big Goodbye

I want to see AJR in concert with my kids. Think it would be a great show. And while this probably isn't even in my top 5 AJR songs, I just like it.

Tame Impala - Dracula

The video has a bad word in it so NSFW. I've seen or heard Tame Impala's name for several years but this seems to be the first song that's getting "pop" airplay. It's really good.

Ravyn Lenae - Love Me Not 

Another song that I just like.

5 Seconds of Summer - Not OK

Spoiler. This is my favorite song of the year. If I write a best of 2025 post, I'll explain more then.

2025 Hanukkah Videos

Happy Hanukkah everyone! It's that time of year when I share Hanukkah videos from around the world. With the tradition of pickles at Hanukkah growing each year (at least in my mind), I was curious to see if 2025 Hanukkah videos mentioned pickles or at least showed pickles in the background. Enter the dream collaboration of Monty Pickle and Kosha Dillz!

Monty Pickle has lots of wonderful Hanukkah content. Here's the dreidel song as an opera.

On to videos without talking/singing pickles. The rivalry between Six13 and Maccabeats might be at a level never seen before. They both have K-Pop Demon Hunters themed Hanukkah songs this year. 

Maccabeats include dancing pigs in their video but not a pickle?!? C'mon!

Y Studs enters the chat with a Jonas Brothers medley.

Huge credit to the Miami Boys Choir is keeping donuts on their desks without eating them.

So many a cappella groups! We need other songs and activities.

And for real little kids, there are some cartoons including one by Cocomelon.

Again, no pickles other than Monty Pickle. I challenge artists and educators to include pickles in their 2026 Hanukkah songs and videos.

Kevin Durant With Guys Shorter Than Him

PAWRA's BACK, ALRIGHT! If you don't remember what PAWRA is, and really why would you know this, PAWRA stands for Pittsburgh Athletes with World-Renowned Athletes. Previous posts include Kenny Pickett with Wayne Gretzky, DeAngelo Williams with Christian Pulisic, and Sidney Crosby with Maria Sharapova. Well, we got a good one today. Pictured below is Kevin Durant, currently a member of the Houston Rockets and likely one of the 20-best NBA players of all time with Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Boko Imama of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Rockets visited the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night, and with the Penguins playing the Stars the following evening, it appears that Malkin, Letang, and Imama enjoyed a night out. In case you're wondering, Boko is listed at 6'1", Geno at 6'5", and Kris at 6'0". They look like me if I was pictured with them! No word on if Durant had any idea who he took a picture with. And did the Pens players not want a picture with Anthony Davis or Cooper Flagg?

Photo from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

My Sports Betting Post

I've been thinking about writing some variation of this post for a very long time. It’s long. I’ll include some videos to provide a break.

If you watch or listen to sports on television, radio, online, or in person, you are inundated with advertisements for sports betting. All of the professional sports leagues and some (many?) individual sports teams have partnerships with various gambling companies such as FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM. Even if you are able to ignore the commercials, the announcers give live odds with graphics showing them. ESPN highlights scores and schedules via the scroll on the bottom of the screen but will also show game odds. It's impossible to avoid sports betting. More on this momentarily.

Virginia legalized sports betting in April 2020. Online sportsbooks started accepting wages in early 2021. I downloaded the BetRivers app several months after that. I got some type of sign-up bonus and deposited maybe $50 or $100 of my own. I was down to the last few dollars in my account for the 2022 NCAA men's basketball tournament championship between Kansas and North Carolina. I had some type of bonus bet where I picked Kansas to win the national title before the tournament began and would get a pretty good payout if the Jayhawks won. If I lost, I told myself that I wasn't going to make another deposit, and I would be done with sports betting. Kansas won, so I won.

First break!

I signed up for FanDuel in October 2022 and transitioned away from BetRivers. I started on DraftKings in February 2023, probably thanks to some type of Super Bowl promotion. I don't think that my initial deposit on either site was more than $10. While I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy, in my three years on FanDuel, I believe I have won about $150. I think I'm up around $500 on DraftKings. That sounds pretty good, and winning is definitely better than losing, but I'm starting to think I have a problem.

What concerns me most about the prevalence of sports betting is the impact on kids, primarily for those from the ages of about 12-25. (And yes, I know that people in their 20s aren't really kids.)  Actually, it's not the prevalence of sports betting; it's how easy it is to bet which is concerning. I knew a bookie when I was in college. I made one wager with him on the January 1996 Steelers-Cowboys Super Bowl and that was it. I've also made a few bets at sportsbooks when visiting Las Vegas over the years. In both those cases, you had to physically go somewhere to make a bet. Now, all you have to do is download an app and you can make bets on all kinds of things 24/7. Sure, wagers on football (NFL and college), baseball, and basketball are probably the most common in America, but you can wager on anything. Snooker, badminton, tennis matches in Argentina or Indonesia. Any soccer league in the world. There is always the opportunity to make a wager on a live sporting event. And yes, I'm guilty of doing this. 

Here's a video of me in Iceland going between the tectonic plates separating Europe and North America!

Lucy (my cat) often wakes me up around 5:00 AM. After I feed her, I regularly go on my phone to check email, see if anything big is happening in the world, and find out whether I won or lost bets from the previous night. I've also been known to make a wager on some live tennis or soccer matches without knowing anything about the players or teams. I should probably mention that I historically wager about $10-$15 a day. Nearly all of my wagers are $1. Sometimes, I go crazy and make a $2 bet on a game. Relatively low stakes, but I spend way more time on betting sites than I should. I also follow at least a dozen sports betting people on Twitter and check out a few different sports betting shows online. As I wrote above, I've had some success, and winning money is obviously better than losing. However, the issue isn't the money. It's the time. I don't think I want to know how much money I've made per hour spent on the betting sites or reading/following bettors. It must be insignificant. Actually, what’s even worse for me is the FanDuel Faceoff app. You play various cards or strategy games (such as Freecell solitaire and Boggle) against people for money. Even when you when, FanDuel wins. And when you lose, FanDuel wins more. By the way, I'm glad there wasn't a Minesweeper game like this when I was in college. I would still be in debt.

While I try to hide it from them, my kids have seen me on the sports betting apps. The Moose (14) seems to only care about sports. He loves ESPN. I'm pretty sure he's seen the Bad Beats segments they have on Sportscenter. Although I don't watch Pat McAfee, I know that he does, and there's probably some sort of gambling aspect on the show. (At a minimum, ESPN shows odds on the bottom scroll.) The Moose recently asked me how old you need to be to bet on sports. I was leaning towards stopping sports betting before he asked me this, but this sealed it. Do as I say, not as I do doesn't really work. It's time to delete the apps, but it's not that easy. And this is another way that the sports gambling sites get you. Courtesy of some boosts, I have several season-long wagers. I have $10 (to pay out $21.50) on the Steelers making the playoffs. $5 (to pay out $10.45) on Sidney Crosby having more regular season points than Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils. $10 (to pay out $27.40) on the Washington Wizards winning over 20.5 games. (As I'm typing this, the Wizards are 3-16. I thought they could win 25% of their games. Looks like I have chosen poorly.) 

With the cash out option gone, it seems like these apps will remain on my phone through the end of the NHL and NBA seasons until these bets are settled.*

The Moose is probably one of thousands if not millions of people asking the same questions. When can I start betting? How much money can I make? When The Moose asked me about sports betting, I tried to explain to him that the reason there are so many betting commercials is because the sports books are making millions of dollars. 

I don't think I shared this story before. I got my Masters degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs. For one of my classes, two of my classmates and I did a small research project on gambling among students at our school. I remember very little about this. I'm sure we had some theories or conclusions, but I don't recall what they were. However, at around the same time as we finished a paper, I attended a student affairs conference and went to a session about gambling among college students. The basics of the session was that there was a lot of programming and resources dedicated to combating binge drinking and alcohol abuse. There was nothing about gambling prevention/education and very little research into this. I really could have done a substantial paper/project about gambling among college students with one of my professors, but I was too lazy. I was already overwhelmed trying to balance school and work. I didn't have the time or energy to do a project in my "spare time." All of this is to write that I truly hope there's more research and activities about this now. I can't imagine how many college students are addicted to sports betting and how many are in debt. 

To start, I'm going to delete the FanDuel Faceoff app and unfollow some accounts on Twitter. Then, I need to lead by example and completely stop betting. 

* Though not the point of this post, I'm sure there's a way to delete the apps, download them again in April or May, and cash out, and then delete the apps again.

Gas Price Explanation

I’m not an economist, but I’m going to play one on the internet today. I mean, I have a minor in International Business, so that has to count for something. Basically, I learned that culture is important in business. And guns and butter are a thing. 

Which brings me to gas prices. They can differ significantly depending on location and time of year. There are taxes involved, which impacts the price, as well as supply and demand. For example, with millions of people traveling for Thanksgiving and more people needing gas, you can expect prices to increase. There's also microeconomics and macroeconomics. I'm just going to write economic terms!

All of this brings me to a gas station a few miles from my Northern Virginia home. Last week, I dropped off my two younger kids at school and got gas for the car. The price was $2.759 per gallon. Nearly 12 hours later, I returned to the same gas station and the price was $3.099 per gallon, an increase of 34 cents. Knowing that this would be pointless, I went inside the store to ask for an explanation. The guy simply said that they have no control over the pricing as this is done by corporate.

So my next step was contacting corporate. While I won't say the name of the gas company, the first three letters are the same as a star closer to Mercury and Venus than Earth. It's also very hot. Anyway, this company passed me on to their partner, who has free Slurpees on a specific day in July, since they own and operate this location. 

This is the message I received:

Thank you for contacting us with your question about the change in fuel price at our location in redacted.  Although I do not have the specific metrics as to why the price changed yesterday I do know that our Fuel department felt the need to change the price throughout all of Northern Virginia.  The prices may go up or down several times a weeks for any number of reasons.  I appreciate your interest in this matter and for being a loyal customer.  

Now my turn:

I appreciate your quick response. While I certainly understand that gas prices may fluctuate regularly, an increase of 34 cents per gallon on the same day seems extreme. I'm just trying to figure out an explanation of why there was such a significant increase in such a short amount of time. Are there any specific reasons?

Naturally, I haven't heard anything back from my email. There wasn't a natural disaster in Northern Virginia causing disruptions in getting gas to the station. Instead of speculating, let's play a game. Please leave your guess (real or silly) as to why gas prices at this particular station went up so much.