33 thoughts on “5/27/25: Never Odd Or Even”

  1. well, this season was fun while it lasted (well, the Lakers and Warriors series, anyway). I think I'm done with the NBA altogether, they can have fun with their Most Valuable Flopper.

    1. So this is only my second season of watching the NBA since, I don't know, since KG left for Boston I guess, and the game has definitely changed. But I can't walk away from it again while we have Ant unless the new owners screw things up beyond all recognition.

      1. Part of what's going through my head is the disgust of the ongoing melding of professional sports and gambling, I'm starting to feel more and more distance from pro sports, generally. As far as I'm concerned, NBA has never de-controversied from Tim Donaghy (Scott Foster is my evidence), meanwhile there was that Liam Hendricks article that came not long after Pete Rose's HoF eligibility was re-instated and there's constant gambling ads everywhere. Like everything else, its all becoming anti-fan(customer). Plus, the prevalent foul-baiting is so hard to watch that it kills any caring I might feel about the league.

        3. I’m routinely conflicted about encouraging my kid’s interest in baseball because of the myriad toxicities of gambling. But MLB doesn’t care about lifelong fans who are teetering on the edge of forsaking the game for well-grounded ethical reasons as long as there’s another sportsbook to service.

    1. I don’t watch basketball, but borrowing an idea (declining the penalty) from football seems silly when the power play/shorthanded play of hockey & handball are right there.

      Define a “enhanced penalty” window within the fourth quarter. Player committing the foul goes to the bench for a period mandated by the type of foul, the fouled player gets three free throws if outside the 3-point line, and then the play resumes with the offending team shorthanded. When the offending team comes back up to full strength, the player entering the game cannot touch the ball until it crosses mid-court in possession of another player on their team.

  4. Parenting is hard.

    I'm meeting with the district tomorrow to discuss bullying of my daughter (going into 8th grade). The problem in our case is that we're in a small enough school, with a small enough student population, that each grade often establishes their own culture. Her own grade has established a very strong culture of bullying, wherein probably 75% of the student population is actively, frequently mean to each other. Unfortunately, she and one of her friends have been singled out even within their class, to the point where, literally, every time she speaks - even when a teacher calls on her or makes her speak - other students insult her, shout her down, make negative comments, etc. She's a perfectly lovely student, excellent grades, involved in extra curriculars (though not the popular sports), etc. But for some reason, she's been identified as the acceptable victim. It absolutely kills me.

    I genuinely don't know if there's a solution - they can't kick out all the other students. She can't be in her own class with just a small handful of kids, right?

    Anyone have experience with this stuff?

      1. Thanks. It is really sucky. I spent some time putting together a letter today in preparation, and was leaning pretty hard on the district's bullying policy when doing so - this seems to check the vast majority of the boxes for things that deserve district action. We'll see how the meeting goes.

        I probably need to edit the letter in advance of the meeting... it may have been a bit emotional at places.

    2. Ugh, that really sucks. I don't have direct experience with this precise situation, but it seems like there needs to be a major role for the teachers in not allowing other students to shout her (or anyone) down when called on.

      I will say that there's a good Ask Lisa podcast episode about bullying here and she talks specifically about how to approach interactions with the school.

    2. I had good success with airalo in Iceland and Italy. Ideally we like to have one family member with an actual in-country phone number, but the rest will use airalo. (Though in Japan we used a different service.) The person designated to have the in-country number will get an eSIM after we arrive.

      1. It looks like you can't (or can't easily) phone/text when using an eSIM. Also, I'm looking at a regional option; we're traveling all around the Baltic, so a local number isn't a reasonable/convenient option over the full trip.

        What we've done in the past is for my phone to take the daily International Plan hit, and to hotspot for Mrs Runner's airplane mode phone. It works, but it's not cost effective.

        1. eSIM does not mean you can’t phone. I have an eSIM for my regular US phone plan. It’s just that most online eSIM purchases are data-only. We bought an Iceland eSIM with a phone number in airport. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is an in-country eSIM that offers a phone number that works through the Euro zone. I’m not sure, though.

          International plan is a good, but expensive option. If you’re phone can handle two sims, you might be able to have phone and text on your international plan while your data is just on the cheap airalo eSIM. Not sure if that’s possible.

          If you can swing it, texting with something like WhatsApp works much better overseas IMO. I can “blue text” other Apple folks on a data-only plan, but it doesn’t work consistently. I can’t text anyone on android. WhatsApp is always solid, though.

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