Notes From The War Room

That's right, I said it.

Last August, in my 2024 Notes, I said this little girl would be special.

Mirra Andreeva (#12) just beat three Grand Slam winners, Rybakina (#7), Vondrousova, and five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek (#2) to get to the Dubai Final.  She defeated injured Tauson 7 - 6, 6 - 1 in the final.

At 17, she is the youngest to win the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and championship in a WTA 1000 event.  She'll probably be in the Top Ten next week.

I may have found my new player.

"Microsoft’s new “topological qubit” is not based on a solid, liquid, or gas. It is another phase of matter that many experts did not think was possible. "  ~ NYT Article, 19 February 2025

My son sent me this with an exploding head emoji.  "I'm Smart," I thought.  I read the article.

Huh?

I read a few articles.

Uh?

I sent back -"This is so beyond my ability to understand it's crazy.  I'm going to file it under Magic." 

I remain convinced that we humans are unfocused.  What if we took the same amount of time, effort, brain-power, and money spent on new and better cell phones, faster gaming computers, going to Mars, and killing each other, on more important shit like saving the only home we have? What if Microsoft streamlined its OS, dumped Edge, and stopped breaking File Explorer?

Huh?

Come on Neely!  What nonsense!

". . . no kindly thaw shall melt the snows of age." ~ Robert Burns, The Winter of Life 

It's snowing again today.  So far, it's not a lot and isn't sticking to the roads, but it's supposed to accumulate an inch an hour till the wee hours.  

I'm ready to get past this crap.

I'm ready for Spring.

Yawn.

It was over in the first half and all downhill after that.  This year's Super Bowl was anything but.  M'Homie couldn't get anything going until the second half.  By then, it was too late.  The problem was his protection; The Eagles Defense was all over his ass and The Chiefs didn't adjust.

Conversely, Jalen and Barkley were solid and the rest of their team wanted the Title and the Big Ring.  They smoked the Chiefs.

As bad as the Chiefs' performance was, the halftime show was worse.

A 1970s high school football player (I forget his name) marched around a stage, mumbling unintelligible words, amidst formations of people marching and bobbing their heads.  I was bored.  

This is How it's Done, you Wanker

Supposedly, a retired tennis player danced for a few seconds.  I missed that.  I couldn't care less.  Even the commercials were forgettable.

I must admit that the synchronization of the marching head bobbing was spot on.  I wish I had been able to get that kind of precision out of the Corps of Keydets.

In the Second Half, the Chiefs outscored the Eagles 22 - 16.  It didn't matter.

My Player, Simona Halep, retired from professional tennis yesterday.  I am not happy about it.

The way I see it, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) screwed her over, blowing a trace amount of a drug in her system way out of proportion, suspending her for four years.

About a year and a half later, the Court of Arbitration in Sports reduced Simona's suspension and fined the ITIA 20,000 Swuss Francs.  The suspension was wrong and everyone knows it.

She never recovered from the time away from competing.  She trained hard but no amount of practice could replace competition to keep up your game.

Simona retired from pto tennis after losing 6-1, 6-1 to Lucia Bronzetti in the Transylvania Open.

Though I am sure we'll see more of her, It's a sad day.

Late nights in Fayetteville/Fort Bragg, from 1978 until I left the army in early 1980, I listened to WQDR out of Raleigh.  WQDR was our preferred Rock radio station and one of the first Album stations in the nation.  My car radio was permanently set on 94.7 FM.

When I rejoined the Army in 1981, I went right back to WQDR.

The DJs for the station were super.  They introduced their listeners to the Real Rock Stars, refusing to play hard rock or heavy metal.  We never had to listen to the repetitious "Top 10 Hits" played on other stations.

The night DJ, Daniel Brunty, played great music introduced by his smooth-as-silk voice.  He turned WQDR's listeners on to Bruce Springsteen.  Daniel was a self-professed Springsteen Fanatic. Many nights he'd play nothing but The Boss.

I became a fan of Springsteen's old music listening to Daniel's show.  Some of those songs are still the base of my favorite tunes.

It all ended in September 1984 when WQDR went to a Country format.  I stopped listening to the radio when I returned from overseas in 1986.

I missed my calling!

I love listening to podcasts while walking.  Two of my favorites are Radiolab and Ologies.  I liked the old Radiolab episodes before they turned the show over to young people.  You once could listen to balanced science shows there.  Not so much anymore.  I see the problem as Lasiness.

Ologies is Alie Ward's show and I am all about some Alie Ward.  She is. by far, the best Scicom Host out there.

Looking back, Radiolab did an episode called The Argentine Invasion.  That episode was my first and what got me hooked on the old Radiolab.  It was about Argentine Ants taking over the world.

Alie re-released an old episode from 1 February 2022 called Myrmecology - The Study of Ants.  I listened to it yesterday on my walk.  It is a great episode and Aley is in true form, keeping it interesting with her quips, jokes, and the questions we all want to ask but dare not.

I highly recommend both, found wherever you listen to podcasts or below.

OK, Betty Gilpin!  I just finished American Primeval.  I loved it.  The actress lead looked familiar and, BOY!, was she good.  I Googled her.

Ah! Ha!  This is the lady who played in Mrs. Davis on Peacock.  It was a wacky show, but, as a Nun, Betty was Hot!

Let's watch more Betty.

I watched The Hunt on Prime.  That was fun.  Now I'm starting GLOW on Netflix.

Yowza.

I watched almost all of the Inauguration Events today and I'll have to say, The Donald earned my respect.  He didn't pull any punches with the Clinton-Obama-Biden-Harris Coterie.  He called them out on all their ridiculous policies and detrimental actions, and they had to sit there and take it.

He has plans for immigration, energy, the economy, military strength, the evils of DEI and CRT, and government corruption.

I hope he can take back our Canal and reinstate the American Canal Zone.   I hope he pardons the 6 January folks.  I hope he renames the Gulf and Mount McKinley.

I hope he can return this country to common sense thinking.  Tonight was a good start.

Since Simona's tennis career's sad and terrible destruction, I have been searching for another player to be My Player.

Emma Navarro seems a good choice.  She grew up in Charleston, played at University of Virginia, and became the NCAA Champ in 2021.  She's already ranked Number 8 in the World.

I like her no-nonsense style of play and mental toughness.

If she gets past Kasatkina tomorrow morning, I expect she'll have to play Iga in the Quarter Finals.  Whew!

I still hope Simona returns, but I don't think it will happen.

Update:  She beat Kasatkina in three but Iga smoked her 6-1/6-2 in the Quarters.  Maybe it would be easier to choose Iga or Aryna as My Player.  It would be easier to pick a winner but, then, I'm an Auburn Fan.  We don't do easy.

I do not like waiting.  I never have.  I like getting things done.  I'm aggressive about it.

Sitting around waiting on lab results is particularly painful.  I feel great but I know there's a good chance I'll be going back into surgery, meaning more recovery.

Whatever it is, I can handle it.  I will handle it.

Let's figure this shit out and get it done so I can live my life.

Notre Dame and Ohio State.  Now, there are two teams that I couldn't care less about.  Yawn.

I'm guessing that I'll go to bed at Halftime.

Way to go Texas and Georgia; you couldn't do it could you?  Says the Auburn Fan.

I dutifully began the first season of Dune Prophecy on the first day of release.  I watched the second episode the next Sunday, two days before surgery.  While in the ICU, which was a long and terrible week, I tried to watch the third episode.

I was not in the mood.

Through the pain, drugs, and extreme discomfort, I lost interest.  "This is not for me," I thought  I returned to it last week and love it.  I'm almost finished.

Highly Recommend.

The same thing happened between me and Silo.  I need to revisit.

Just when I had accepted that I hade to do another MRI, a Pulmonary Function Test, and a Thyroid Biopsy, Weather!  We're getting hit with a pretty significant snowstorm tonight and tomorrow and UVA began rescheduling my appointments.  Smart Business.  I'm certainly not going out in this shit.

I'm such a Poor Little Old Man these days.