Left my machine unlocked for 60 seconds while I stepped away and my daughter swooped in and left her usual calling card.
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Mike Lawton
@mlawton@mstdn.social
mastodon 4.7.2#dotnet & #powershell developer, runner, ex-pat Hoosier now living in the mountains of VA, supporter of #LFC ⚽️ #IUBB 🏀#USMNT ⚽️ #USWNT ⚽️
Hashtag disciplined: you should, but you don't have to like EVERYTHING I do, so go on ahead and mute a hashtag.
Searchable via Tootfinder https://www.tootfinder.ch/
414 Followers
363 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 04, 2022
Pronouns:
He/Him
Apparently it’s National Lighthouse Day, which we learned at the bottom of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. May serendipity always conceal our ignorance.
The lighthouse’s 1 million bricks are being repointed, but you could still climb the 220 steps of this 151 year old tower.
One last set of pics, this set for the #Mosstodon crowd…
Entertaining game. Morocco deserved to win, while the Dutch inexplicably drove with the parking brake on in extra time. While you can’t blame the manager for penalty kick misses, you can absolutely blame them for holding back a team that has more. The Dutch have so much talent, but Morocco played much more cohesively. If not for Verbruggen’s heroics, they lose in regulation.
#nedmar #worldcup #fedifc
Loooong bike ride, then dinner out with my wife at Evie’s Bakery. One of my favorite spots — that kind of funky, eclectic, indie restaurant you can always walk in and find a table.
Great food, but the desserts, and particularly the cakes (they don’t call it Evie’s Entrees… 😉) are fantastic. Been working our way through the different flavors over time.
Tonight, we split Boston Cream and Strawberry. Figured I’d better get some pics or @Lee6@mstdn.social would never forgive me. These are my halves. 🍰
Took the day off to head up to Natural Bridge State Park with my wife. Pictures don’t really do justice to how massive it is.
Then there are the Blue Ridge Mountains, always gorgeous. Will return to Skyline Trail later this summer, as it’s an official International Dark Sky viewing location. Perhaps in August for the Perseid meteor shower season.
And now we transition more. Of the major senior players, gone are Salah, Robbo.
Probably gone are Chiesa, Endo, and Gomez.
Maybe gone: Konate and possibly Jones? Mac Allister?
Upon consideration, I don’t know that this season represents the full transition. I think we’re still inside the chrysalis.
Finished reading “Platform Decay” by Martha Wells.
Murderbot and Three, a newly freed sec unit, run a rescue mission across a torus station orbiting a strip-mined planet.
Eight books in, Murderbot is still discovering itself. The emotion-check module forces an honesty it can’t hack around.
Corporate reach extending across systems, strip-mined planets, the grinding machinery of exploitation…not hard to extrapolate from our present universe.
5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240019874-platform-decay
Sad to hear we’ve lost one of the all-time greats. Truly, a legend. 🎷
“Sonny Rollins, Giant of the Jazz Saxophone, Is Dead at 95”
Finished reading "Seasons of Glass and Iron" by Amal El-Mohtar.
A short story collection — fairy tales, fantasy, and poems centering women's resilience and identity, gathered from years of El-Mohtar's commissioned work.
"John Hollowback and the Witch" is a delightful slow burn: a man guilty of wronging women, yet innocent in having no memory of it. "The Truth About Owls" handles displacement better than most novels.
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231127187-seasons-of-glass-and-iron
I would have kept Mo on until stoppage time. He was fairly effective today.
Frimpong, for me, just doesn’t have anything better to offer. I can see his promise, but he’s sloppy in the end & plays slower than he should. With his pace, he should be driving to the touch line every time, even if he stops and pulls out a back pass. Wear out that LB and force the bend in the shape of the back line. Rio does this well, commanding the double team plus the gravity of pulling the CB further out.
All the accuracy of imperial stormtroopers.
Finished reading "Tokyo These Days Vol. 3" by Taiyo Matsumoto.
This closes out the series with the editor's passion project finally coming together and finding real, if modest, commercial success.
More hopeful than the earlier volumes. Perseverance pays off instead of ending on quiet resignation. A win for art over profitability, even if a small one.
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207296983-tokyo-these-days-volume-3
Replying to
@obrien_kat@mastodon.world the red card, in my view, was holy unjustified. But so too is this reversal. Corruption abounds.
Replying to
@obrien_kat@mastodon.world Spain, for me, have gone from dark horse candidate to real contender. Still think France is the favorite, but I'd put Spain alongside Brazil and Argentina against the field.
I can understand not supporting old devices in perpetuity, but on top of having discontinued the ability to side-loading content via USB? Amazon's messaging is pretty clear, in a hostile capitalism kind of way.
https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/you-can-no-longer-buy-e-books-on-amazon-kindles-2012-and-earlier
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@duc@toot.community 😆 I would never slander you as such!
But I do recall all the pearl clutching over Southgate’s pragmatism. And didn’t it end on a penalty miss rather than some tactical misstep? (Not to say the criticism was wrong… I also thought he could have pushed for more)
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@mattmay@mstdn.social ugh, I had argued in the past they should have kept Kelleher and sold Alisson when his valuation was still sky high.
Now, having seen Marmadashvilli, I hope Alisson stays much, much longer! 😱
Darren England overlooks such a clear foul because Brentford have been lobbying him. Absolute rube.
Konate with the Joel Matip probing run forward, which makes me happy. Sadly, Ekitike cannot/does not do anything with it.
Replying to
@Zeezee@mastodon.nl @macoud12@vt.social Gakpo had, overall, an excellent tournament. Given what he’s going through? Gutted for him.
And I would agree that they were defensively fairly stout, although both the Van de Ven and Van Dijk tackles were recovering ones. High quality, but desperation for one, maybe both. Morocco had a varied attack and they mostly held up.
The players just weren’t in sync, a stark contrast to how comprehensively smooth Morocco played. And so passive in ET?!?
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@Zeezee@mastodon.nl agreed. They looked out often of sorts when trying to go forward. Not at all cohesive. Compared to how smoothly Morocco transitioned? 😬
Dunkin’ execs were sure it was an act of sabotage. They had been ever so close to cracking Krispy Kreme’s “hot & fresh” ™️ advantage.
Replying to
@LowlyAdjunct@mastodon.social I can see the argument for some people being more tepid about it. How much did this move the plot forward overall? Perhaps not massively, and it could just be setting the table for the next book.
But, for me, the struggle has to be drawn out, both internally and externally. This one did so and I'm not eager for it all to end. 😉
Replying to
@WTL@mastodon.social @MarvinFreeman@mastodon.online this is why this community is so great
Kelleher makes a great save. 😮💨
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@andreazio@mastodon.world I am so sad to learn of his passing. His resilience was such an inspiration.
I thought Kerkez played well, overall. Contrast today against the beginning of the season and appreciate how much he's improved.
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@peteyjlawson@mastodon.social maybe he's dialing it in, like an artillery squad. Just takes too long to get his azimuth right...
Wow. I'm shocked. I thought Konate did get ball, but after contact with the plant leg first caused Zaire-Emery to naturally fall. That decision would NEVER happen in the EPL.
Complaints about the uneven refereeing now withdrawn.
Ugh. Good individual effort, at least, and a very well weighted pass into the half space. Some pretty suspect defending, despite having 5 to cope.
Time for the wilting (or maybe that goal was the start of it)
There is really no argument here. It's a penalty. And, honestly, Konate has to try for something. At least Marmadashvilli has an honest chance at a save.
Egypt back to living out a dream game, now up 2-0, VAR be damned.
Argentina’s defending is really suspect. Pretty simple inside run on the counter catches Martinez napping.
Salah’s experience of knowing the hard counterattack is deadly after defending a set piece gets it all in motion.
#argegy #worldcup #fedifc
Replying to
@duc@toot.community they have depth galore, but don’t seem collectively as good as their individual talent, do they?
ZERO consistency in officiating.
Replying to
@randomized that downhill track looks delightful, but every step of the way down I'd be stressing about having to later regain that elevation! 😓
👏 🛥️
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@sharazluke@mastodon.world agreed. I knew they could score, but their defensive performance against Morocco convinced me of their completeness.