Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. Starting with my Birthday last Wednesday, the 26th, it was kind of a whirlwind. Started by meeting some friends out for our annual Night Before Thanksgiving. Came home and watched the 1st two episodes of Stranger Things 5 with my daughter (who was home for the holiday). The next day, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house (a small gathering of my wife’s side of the family). On Friday, relaxed a bit and ended up watching “Weapons,” which was interesting but different than what I expected. On Saturday, met a work friend for breakfast and got stuff done around the house. Went to breakfast with my daughter on Sunday morning, then met my wife at her work, before seeing my daughter off on the train. With no NY Football Giants game on Sunday (They played Monday Night and got embarrassed by the New England Patriots), I was able to relax before starting another week of job searching.

Stranger Things 5

After watching the 1st two episodes of Stranger Things 5 during Thanksgiving with my daughter, I then finished the remaining 2 episodes (of part 1) on Tuesday. As a fan of the show from the beginning, it was nice to reconnect with the characters after a long break. I like how Netflix has broken things up into 3 parts (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s). Usually, the entire season is released at once, and after watching it all, I almost feel let down that it’s over so fast. There is something about the old way of releasing episodes weekly (Which HBO and Apple TV still do) to build up momentum. I am glad that they at least broke it up a bit with the way they are releasing Stranger Things.

I really enjoyed the first 4 episodes, and thought they have done a great job of keeping the story moving forward, while not adding too much fluff and extra stuff just to fill the time. It did take me a bit to engage with the characters as they have aged faster in real life than on the show, so they looked a bit out of place, but the story and the action got me over that, and I am really looking forward to where things go.

Guns’ N Roses

Saw a post that Guns’ N Roses were releasing 2 new songs yesterday. I have been a fan of the band from the beginning, but I admit, it’s been a while since I really thought (or cared) about them releasing a new song. Something just felt different this time. So I checked the new songs out, and I’m really liking them. Both have a kind of retro feel, and helped me to realize how good the band was and is still is.

Here are videos of both songs. Remove any preconceived feeling, and give them a listen.

Survivor 49

Only 2 more episodes of Survivor 49, where they crown a winner, and then everybody (CBS, Past Players, Super Fans) all start the countdown to Survivor 50, which premieres in February 2026. It’s crazy how fast it seems to go from the final 6 to the end. It’s been an uneven season with highs and lows. I do agree with most of what I have seen and read, where all contestants seem to be super fans, and have analyzed the show and come up with what they feel is the best way to play. Seems similar to analytics in sports. Relying on past strategies and outcomes to determine what moves to make. While the way the game has changed over the years, and the producers have tried their hardest to try to stay out in front of things, the contestants are just “Too Good” at coming up with “so-called better” ways to play. Fans now build the challenges and puzzles at home, and rewatch old seasons to study how past winners played. This has made the game very predictable, which then comes across as structured and boring.

There are some very interesting people, but they seem trapped between playing a fun game and playing a boring structured game. And similar to analytics is sports, even with all the information out there, there is not much of a correlation to playing based on statistics and actually winning. Plenty of sports teams have made decisions to sign or cut players based on statistics, and not on how the players actually played/performed. Predicting that a player will hit more home runs because we will work with him to change his swing to an uppercut of 3% , is just wishful thinking. There are way more things at play

As for the remaining 6 players in Survivor 49, here are my feelings on each

Sophie – Feel she has played a great game, getting to the final 6 after starting out on an awful tribe
Rizzo – Like him and his spunk, but it might come back to hurt him in the end
Sage – Not sure if she is playing a good game or is just lucky
Kristina – Give her credit for giving it here all and being resourceful
Savanna – A little too high on herself, but very aware of the game
Stephen – Started slow, but is coming on strong. I like him more and more

It should be interesting to see how things play out. Sophie has her “Knowledge of Power” advantage. Wondering what will happen if she plays it on Stephen – He has to declare he is playing his “Block a Vote” before tribal council, so he would have nothing for her to steal. I would love here to play it on Rizzo and take his immunity idol to save herself and get to the final 4.

Lots more to write. about, but still struggling with writer’s block. Have some thoughts and ideas, and will try to put them in place starting next week

Finally, I am heading back to Goodman Stadium tomorrow for the Lehigh / Villanova Play-Off Game. Hopefully, the Engineers / Brown and White / Mountain Hawks can continue their undefeated season and move on to the next round. Lehigh has a really good team, and it should be a lot of fun

Average Andy

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