some (more general) NFL thoughts

Anyway, about the whole "controversy" in the NFL this weekend, if I ruled the world, that wouldn't even be a "controversy", especially with China/Iran/North Korea/Russia/Venezuela/etc. all threatening the stability of either their own countries (Venezuelan hyperinflation), or others around them (Iran/North Korea constantly threatening to attack places like Israel/Japan/South Korea), or the world as a whole (China/Russia), and the continued destruction faced by citizens/residents down on the islands of the Caribbean, with some of them basically seemingly put back decades, just within the span of a few hours, across multiple "major" storms, and, meanwhile, the top story this past weekend was the most pathetic "controversy" ever in this country/media's history, if you ask me, personally, which is even more shameful when you consider some of the games that took place this past weekend, including another over in London (where, honestly, the NFL should remember its own history over there back in the 1990s/2000s, with the World League/NFL Europe, and just quit trying to expand there, and so, too, should the NHL over in China, since the KHL rules that part of the hockey landscape...) which, honestly, even with some rather loud idiots on social media claiming to "boycott" the NFL, on top of the million other things people have threatened to "boycott" just this year, and buried even below that whole "controversy" was the (L.A.) Chargers having yet another "home" game taken over by visiting fans, which, if you ask me, is entirely the team's fault, there, for moving into a soccer stadium temporarily...

As you very well know by now, the San Diego Chargers moved (back) to Los Angeles at the conclusion of last season (2016), after not having played there at all since 1960 ('61?)... Now, you could probably make the case the entire situation over there would've been different, if only the (former) St. Louis Rams hadn't moved back there first, after not having been there since (technically) 1995, and the Oakland Raiders hadn't "entertained the idea" themselves, before deciding to instead move to Las Vegas in a few years' time! That said, none of that came to pass, so, with the Rams having taken the L.A. Memorial Coliseum instead of the Rose Bowl stadium in (relatively) nearby Pasadena, CA, the Chargers made the, in my opinion, brutal mistake of moving into the "soccer-specific" StubHub Center, in Carson, CA (capacity: 27,000), instead of, as I believe I mentioned a few weeks ago, sharing the Coliseum for these next few years, since, after all, the Giants and Jets, at one point or another, shared: (late) Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens (1973-75, along with both of the local MLB clubs in '75); (late) Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ (1983-2009), and, currently, MetLife Stadium, where both teams have a (reported) 100-year lease on the property, and (presumably) any events within, and there actually seems to be a precedent to that just within the history of the Coliseum itself, albeit at the college level, with UCLA and USC football having been there together for years...

Anyway, my overall thoughts on the situation are that the Chargers could've easily stayed down in San Diego, possibly even in a brand new stadium, to replace the one that only opened a few short years after the team's founding back in the 1960s, as part of the old AFL, but, instead, the club let the Spanos family (more like a "dynasty", if you ask me) jerk its fans and players, alike, around while putting forth these "empty promises" about "new stadium plans" (although the fans seem to be "self-defeating" at times, also, rejecting anything put forth by ownership, simply because of "grudges", or what have you...)... 

Putting the team in a soccer stadium, though, would basically be, to make an analogy to this part of the country, putting the Jets (the "younger" of the pair of teams here, with the Giants basically having been founded "alongside" the NFL way back when) in Red Bull Arena over in Harrison, NJ, or putting the Eagles/Temple football in Franklin Field just west of Center City Philly (although that wouldn't be entirely unprecedented...), if the NFL, with all its other difficulties in recent years, wouldn't face lawsuits, in the most extreme circumstances, obviously, as a result of such moves taking place, regardless of whether they were out of "necessity" or not (although, seeing this ongoing debacle now, I'm actually a bit disappointed, deep down, that neither of the "N.Y." teams will visit either the Chargers or Rams before they open their new "joint" stadium by the end of this decade, only to see just how many Giant/Jet fans would show up to either of those stadiums over there...)! Now, though, the Chargers will be stuck in front of crowds perilously close to becoming almost "visiting" crowds for them these next few years, at least through 2020 (in fact, just these past few weeks, we've already witnessed some very "even" crowds inside that stadium), while the Rams will have chances at playing in front of 70/80,000+ crowds, similar to USC, and the Raiders will have at least 35,000 in UNLV's stadium in Las Vegas, provided the Raiders either leave Oakland a bit earlier than expected (around 2020), or don't get the team's new stadium completely built in time for the move over to Vegas from Oakland, and, all the while, a college team will be drawing more fans than the Chargers (San Diego State U., which, coincidentally, plays in the Chargers' old home stadium, and recently upset Stanford in said stadium just about a pair of weekends back, very late night, and after a 20 minute or so power outage delay, which, having been in Philly just the previous night, I sort of half-joked about that the moment it happened, but, honestly, what's worse to you: playing in an outdated 70,000 seat stadium, or playing in a new/renovated stadium, yet one that only fits not even 30,000?)!

http://thebiglead.com/2017/09/24/los-angeles-chargers-welcomed-another-embarrassing-crowd-in-week-3/amp/

...speaking of the Chargers, I found something just like this in an East Village (N.Y.C.) thrift store this past weekend (size "L", $8, alongside a few other NFL unis for the same price, which I didn't go for):

​

...I'll be honest with you, though, and admit that I just always liked the "powder" blue that those unis happened to be, instead of the "navy" blue (almost black) of their primary tops, which we could honestly only use more of across the sports landscape, or, barring that, more "color v. color" matchups each season, provided teams' colors don't "clash", so, having found one of those for less than the price of a few subway trips around here ($2.75 each right now on the MTA, or $2/$2.50 on SEPTA, depending on tokens/all other fare types/"Key" cards), I immediately pounced, knowing, by now, the rather "shifty" nature of such places!

...also, while I'm at this, I might as well tell you that I've changed my mind about the middle of next month (October):

​(Western Ontario U. (London, Ont.) @ Princeton; Sat. night, 10/14, shortly after 7 P.M.)

...especially since, at this point, it looks like the entire Caribbean will effectively be "shuttered" for the entire rest of this year, putting plans like ours on hold for a while, so, albeit an "exhibition", having free entry to a top-level college hockey game, which almost never happens, short of rescheduling, would be much better than any other type of game in that "circuit"!

(also, an excerpt on the actual reasons for the NFL's ratings declines in recent seasons)

"There are reasons that the NFL’s ratings are down, and they don’t have anything to do with a few players refusing to stand for the National Anthem.

First of all, look at the ridiculous celebration penalties. Who really cares if a player dunks a football through the goalposts after scoring a touchdown or does an elaborate celebration dance with his teammates? Even if it is taunting the other team, is it really that big of a deal? This is football, for crying out loud.

Then we have the issue of domestic violence and criminal activity. Ray Rice knocked his wife out in an elevator and the NFL only suspended him after the surveillance footage came to light. He still got a shorter initial suspension than members of the New Orleans Saints team who were alleged to have targeted opposing players on the field.

We also have the issue of drug use. Players are turning to various drugs to treat their injuries, but smoking some weed is enough to get them multiple game suspensions. Concussions and brain damage are far worse than someone standing up for social issues like police brutality and racial profiling.

I still watch a few NFL games here and there, but the fun has been taken out of the game. Let the players express themselves and have a good time – or use it for a platform for the things they believe in. It’s the National Football League, not the No Fun League."

UMass Amherst @ Temple recap

Last night, you could make the claim that I finally "returned the favor" for Temple accepting me for a summer over in Tokyo, by catching its football team in action against UMass-Amherst down in Philadelphia! Unfortunately for Temple football, its campus is too small/urban to hold much more than a few academic buildings, and facilities for its other sports teams, forcing football into the Philadelphia Eagles' home stadium, Lincoln Financial Field... What is lost in the expanse of "the Linc", though, is more than made up for by the crowd, which scoots down as close as possible to the field, in ways which I'm certain are impossible during Eagles home games (given the price differences between college and pro sports), and, as is expected with college football, there were even a few UMass fans who made the trip down to Philly, although not as many as there were Villanova fans just last weekend, in checking highlights of that game (which is honestly shameful, at least to me, considering Villanova is basically on the same level as Fordham, which, as you know from a couple of weeks back, just got run off the field by Army)... The pre-game itself was interesting, with the Temple band marching from outside the stadium to its section, later emerging from the same tunnel from which the team itself would later emerge for the start of the game, which is probably only possible because of the venue!

On the topic of "obligations", yes, I felt, on top of visiting the Temple campus, which I did once last summer (2016), that I had to catch Temple football in action at some point, which isn't the most difficult thing, given that Temple travels to places like Cincinnati, Navy, and UConn every so often, that if I didn't catch them in Philly, that I would have been able to catch them in either Annapolis, Cincinnati, or Hartford, or vice versa (having said teams visit Philly), depending on (conference) scheduling each regular season!

As for the game itself, it only took Temple about the opening two minutes or so to open the scoring this time, with a 60+ yard run play leading, ironically, to a stop within field goal range, which, again, gave Temple the early lead, but, after that, both offenses just kept stalling after just a few plays, and, even, in some cases, going backwards, leading to punt after punt, not exactly helped by the UMass kicker having an incredibly rough start to the game... The second quarter only seemed like an extension of the first initially, as UMass did to Temple what Army kept doing to Fordham, swatting away a rather long field goal attempt, and that later served as the bit of "momentum" that UMass eventually turned into the first of what would end up quite a few touchdowns on the night, as the UMass offense mostly used rather short passing plays to either side of the QB (mostly "screen" passes, with the backs/receivers/tight end(s) basically all helping to "clear the way" for the running back or whoever happens to be the recipient of some little "dump-off") to keep the Temple defenders scrambling every which way, eventually leading to UMass taking a 7-3 lead, although that wouldn't last very long, as Temple decided to do the opposite, and just launch a few passes, most of which actually ended up connecting, at least when the QBs weren't under-throwing their intended receivers, which happened a few times then, giving Temple a 16-7 halftime lead!

After a "summer in review" halftime performance by the Temple band (which exposed some of the limitations of the team playing in an NFL stadium, as the band was "wired for sound", yet seemingly all of it was only to one sideline, like some (malfunctioning) old stereo receiver or something), the offense added another field goal to extend the lead to 19-7, although just as Temple let Villanova hang around last weekend, it did the same with UMass, as the lead ended up getting cut to 19-14, extended once again to 22-14, and 29-14, once again with a bunch of "deep ball" passes, and cut yet again near the end to the final score!

Temple recap:

http://www.owlsports.com/news/2017/9/15/football-sacks-umass-29-21.aspx

UMass recap:

http://www.umassathletics.com/news/2017/9/15/football-massachusetts-drops-29-21-decision-at-temple.aspx

AAC YouTube channel highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOtciLHqFYY

...speaking of the American Athletic Conference, it's apparently issued "orders" to its member teams to make the case for the conference, instead of the actual conference itself making the case to the NCAA, to get more influence on the weekly rankings/bowl game placements, as, when the Temple players made their "run" pre-game, they did so with the American flag, a team flag, the conference's flag, and a "P6" flag, as the conference has been completely left off New Year's Day thus far, which is arguably the biggest day of "bowl season"...

Also, being a night game, Temple wore special all-black uniforms, instead of the usual "cherry" red the team wears during afternoon home games, arguably helping the contrast with UMass' maroon-trimmed uniforms!

On top of the band's "wiring" being somewhat off (unfortunately, the same could not be said about the PA announcer, who sounded more like a spokesman for Temple football, at one point even proclaiming "a whole host of Temple tacklers" on a defensive stop, instead of a (somewhat) impartial observer, along the lines of the Giants' or Yankees' PA announcers historically - that is to say, the late, great Bob Sheppard and replacements, among others who refuse to "emphasize" their in-arena/stadium announcements), the video boards were practically the only things used for live stats/etc., as the "ribbon" boards along each side only ever displayed historical achievements by Temple football, or a few graphics pertaining to the live action - honestly, I feel that's something that doing something similar to what Navy does, giving its stadium over to the NCAA's bowl committee for the Military Bowl every December, and welcoming a pair of non-Temple teams (since Navy got a "home" game in the 2015 Military Bowl against Pittsburgh) to Philadelphia every December, much as Yankee Stadium currently hosts the Pinstripe Bowl around that time of the year, would fix, since the stadium and team alike would basically be forced, then, to tailor the equipment there, such as the video board graphics, in favor of the participating teams!

Unlike West Point, however, Temple borrows from the Eagles' "secret stash" of fireworks (as in, literally at the top of the stadium) for its scoring plays, along with just about halfway through the national anthem, along with a few surprise blasts between the third and fourth quarters, during a different band show, so, thankfully, Philly "lowers the 'boom'" to a much more reasonable level than Army, which kept firing all of its cannons on campus basically "willy-nilly" as its football team proceeded to rout Fordham a couple of weeks back!

Some more thoughts on the game itself - there were tons of injury timeouts during the second and third quarters, which seemed to "blunt" both teams' momentum, as it seemed that said timeouts always followed longer plays, rather than little "dump offs", although it seems as if every venue treats such situations similarly, as the boards simply showed the Temple "T" logo, and nothing more, during those timeouts...

Also, one of the music courses on my campus (which I'm not taking, personally, since there's another that's all about jazz) is basically all about "rap and rock", and it seemed as if that was all that was on the stadium's playlist throughout the entire game, although the producers made sure not to play anything over top of the band, unlike some other venues I've been to recently!

Now, if I may give my thoughts about a different (set of) game(s) a few days ago, I'd like to comment on what MLB did recently, sending the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays over to Queens, while keeping Tampa as the "home" team during that trio of games - as you might recall, the Yankees got forced over to (then) Shea Stadium against the Anaheim Angels (which, "fun fact", everybody seems to know that Disney owned the Ducks up through the 2004-05 NHL season, which ended up getting canceled because nobody in that league could seemingly get along back then, but they also owned the Angels up until then, when I guess the company figured it might as well sell both teams, instead of sticking with just one of them...), and the management over in Queens gave everybody who showed up "comparable" seating to what they might have had over in the Bronx - while I understand why the Rays were made the "home" team, it would've made more sense literally anywhere but Citi Field, like (these were just some of the places I saw mentioned in the lead-up to a few days ago, during that series) Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, or Philadelphia here, or even Montreal, which, while the Olympic Stadium there is basically falling apart more and more each day now, at least there aren't any current (full-time) tenants there, instead of subjecting the Yankees to some potential "gamesmanship" on the part of the Mets organization (although I'll give that the Yanks have at least become accustomed to being the "road" team over in Queens, between Shea Stadium previously, and Citi Field currently)!

Now that I've basically "paid dues" to Temple now, by it having accepted me over in Japan, and me now attending this football game, I'll just be looking ahead to the ice now, quite honestly, especially, as I've been mentioning for months now, in Connecticut (Bridgeport/Hamden/Hartford/New Haven), and, come a bit later on in the winter, as we start looking ahead to spring:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/theater/review-a-darker-frozen-with-glints-of-ice-and-murk.html?smid=fb-share

...apparently, a Denver theater production company slipped a stage adaptation of Disney's (very late) 2013 smash hit (as in $1.3 billion) Frozen right past the company's sights, before its scheduled Broadway debut (late) next February, since there was, according to ^that^ N.Y. Times article above, quite a bit that got left out of the original movie that ended up in that live stage show, along with taking the whole thing in a bit of a "darker" direction, with less dialogue about "true love" and more about "struggle", which was apparently the direction in which Disney itself was apparently headed with that for years leading up to 2013, which was when we all ended up finding out that the finished product was more "kiddy" than "epic"!

recapping the blowout of *epic* proportions that was Fordham @ Army

Last night, as promised a few days/weeks ago, I attended a season-opening college football game, specifically Fordham v. Army in historic West Point, NY, and, honestly, the game was over before it even started, as it only took Army about a minute and a half into the game to open the scoring, and from there, Army's defense + run game just completely overwhelmed Fordham (which, before I forget to mention it, is only about an hour from West Point, in the Rose Hill section of the Bronx, and is actually located slightly above Yankee Stadium) - at one point during the opening quarter, Fordham's offense fumbled away a potential 4th-and-1 yard conversion attempt, by which point Army was already up 14-0, soon to make it 21-0 after the opening quarter...

After that, Army took a short break from scoring, only to return an absolutely swatted Fordham field goal attempt for a 75-yard touchdown return, and that seemed to be the true "turning point" of the night, despite the score already being lopsided in favor of Army by then, although Fordham, to its credit, soon led a very deliberate drive after that whole debacle to get a TD of its own, although it was truly all Army after that, from the extra point attempt after that TD being knocked away, to Army running the ball down the Fordham defense's guts the rest of the way, scoring another 30 points during the second half to put the tiny bit of hope Fordham had during the second quarter to rest, although, honestly, the stats attained by each team likely would've looked different during any other game, with Fordham putting up decent passing #'s, and Army not being able to "ground and pound" the way it did last night and expecting to win a game!

Army highlights/recap

Fordham highlights (not many of them, to be honest...)/recap

CBS box score/stats

ESPN box score/team stats

The craziest stat of the night: Army had no passing yards whatsoever, racking up all of its 513 yards in a total of 47 runs; Army faced no 4th downs the entire game (having one of its five 3rd downs throughout the night turned into a 1st down on a Fordham penalty); speaking of penalties, there were only 5 pen's/55 pen. yards between the teams, and Fordham actually had offensive possession longer than Army (34:30 for Fordham - 25:30 for Army), although that came as a result of Army scoring almost immediately every time it gained possession!

The campus itself is actually up a bit of a hill located near a few NY state highways (9, 202, 218; etc., along with a few Metro-North stations), and the stadium is just about at the top, past various national border-type security checkpoints, lending itself to a fair bit of travel for people on the opposite side of the Hudson River (Cold Spring/Garrison/Peekskill/Poughkeepsie, NY)...

The fans, however, whether the Army fans, or the Fordham fans who basically completely gave up at halftime, although they came from all throughout the tri-state area, weren't nearly as loud as all the cannons (which you'll hear in the highlights) that sounded whenever Army scored (along with a few other instances), mostly this cannon in one of the corners of the stadium:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Yz0KmHwTY
​

^That^ cannon, again, is in one of the corners of the stadium, and sounds (by itself, thankfully) on kickoffs, as well as, as I just mentioned, after all Army scores during games, although a bunch more cannons join on the (pun totally intended) booming fun after scoring plays, although the other cannons are located elsewhere on campus, as "signals", of sorts, to people elsewhere on campus that Army has, indeed, scored more points, and, also: immediately after every quarter; during the Army band's halftime performance (immediately before and after); even after the game, once again, as a "signal" of an Army victory, and there's also a bit of smoking/sparking that can be seen whenever the cannon plopped down in its little corner sounds...

Honestly, between all the cannon blasts, the somewhat deceptive location of the campus, and the blowout nature of the actual game, I'm honestly glad to get just this visit in, given the historic location involved, and move on, since there are other places to visit, just within this area (Rutgers, Syracuse, and UConn above all others, although there are, also, a few D1 FCS/D2/D3 programs locally (Albany; Columbia, in upper Manhattan; Marist, located in Poughkeepsie; Stony Brook, out on Long Island; Wagner, on Staten Island, along with Central Connecticut and Sacred Heart, in Fairfield, CT,  along with a few here in Jersey), along with Maryland and Navy down in MD, along with the whole "bowl season" in December, although, in fairness to those schools, those aren't the best programs in college football, while, in college hockey, teams such as Quinnipiac have reached a few of the most recent national championship games, and Union and Yale have won said games, so there's much more "prestige" within just a few hours of here in college hockey instead of college football! (on that note, along with the other games (mostly October/November) I mentioned a few days ago, I'd like to add Bemidji State (MN) @ Princeton as another possible game for me this college hockey season, since that's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (11/22), so I'd be able to get down there and back without interfering with any other commitments!)

Lastly, I made a bit of a "swap" on Tuesdays, from starting @ 1, to ending @ 10:45-11, since, after all, I scheduled myself to have nothing on Wednesdays this semester, allowing me to get back home during the 11 PM hour those nights and just be able to "crash" almost immediately those nights throughout this upcoming semester! With all of that out of the way now, though, I'll just make like an old radio/television station and "sign off" for what is most likely the last time this summer break!

unpopular eclipse-related opinion, and an early September update

In my opinion, the "great American solar eclipse" earlier today was much better seen online, or on TV, for those of us not in the so-called "path of totality", where people would be able to see 98/99/100% of the event, so I, personally, didn't even bother stepping outside at all during those few minutes, although, honestly, had I/we traveled to anywhere within that whole zone, you bet I/we would've been all over the event, waiting for the sky to darken for a few minutes, and watching that alongside dozens/hundreds/thousands of other "eclipse chasers", but, alas, we couldn't clear our calendars at all for this particular weekend, so we'll just have to make do with a partial eclipse around here, I guess, for a few more years...

Back on the sports front, though, apparently, the L.A. Chargers were immediately "eclipsed" by various other teams, in their first time back there since 1960, and that seems to already have the Oakland Raiders' front office, in particular, declaring victory:

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/19/fight-for-l-a-mark-davis-thinks-raiders-already-won/

...meanwhile, down in Carson, CA, attendance woes continue:

http://thebiglead.com/2017/08/20/the-chargers-had-pathetic-attendance-again-at-stubhub-center/

(I mean, have you seen the prices for their game this past weekend?)

​

...honestly, if it were up to me, the Chargers and Rams would already be sharing the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, in preparation for them sharing the L.A. Stadium @ Hollywood Park come 2020, which itself has been delayed a bit now from its originally planned 2019 opening!

Also, a few days ago, I told you about the opening weekend of the college football season, and, in case you need a bit of a reminder about the games I expressed interest in attending, here it is:

Holy Cross (FCS) @ UConn (Hartford, CT; Th. 8/31, 7:30 P.M.)

Fordham (FCS) @ Army (West Point, N.Y.; F. 9/1, 6 P.M.)

(#8) Washington @ Rutgers (Piscataway, N.J.; F. 9/1, 8 P.M.)

Morgan State (FCS) @ Towson (FCS) (Towson, MD; Sa. 9/2, 6 P.M.)

CCSU (FCS) @ Syracuse (Syracuse, N.Y.; Sa. 9/2, 7 P.M.)

"reach" games: Akron @ Penn State (State College/University Park, PA; Sa. 9/2, noon), Youngstown State (FCS) @ Pitt (Heinz Field, Pittsburgh; Sa. 9/2, 1 P.M.), North Carolina State v. South Carolina (Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC; Sa. 9/2, 3 P.M.), Louisville v. Purdue (Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN; Sa. 9/2, originally scheduled for 3 P.M., but changed to 7:30), BYU v. LSU (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX; Sa. 9/2, 8 P.M.), or Virginia Tech v. West Virginia (Fedex Field, Landover, MD; Su. 9/3, 7:30 P.M.)

...and, honestly, at this point, out of interest in not seeing Rutgers get smashed by a top 10 opponent (Washington), and most likely seeing a 3/4-empty stadium by the end of the game, I've put that game down at the bottom of the list, out of all those aforementioned games for that weekend, despite that game being the closest to my place (by just about 10 minutes or so, in fact, compared to West Point), and, I mean, call me "jaded" if you'd like, but after seeing BYU v. West Virginia at Fedex Field late last September, I wouldn't mind doing a bit more traveling, considering the timing of things, over Labor Day weekend, to check out another pro venue, and leave the collegiate ones for later on in the season!

...not football, but I can tell you a game I'll definitely be attending over Thanksgiving weekend:

​

Well, perhaps I'll update you again sometime within these next few days about which game I end up attending the opening weekend of the season, but, if not, then I'll definitely show/tell you about which game I do end up attending that weekend after the fact!

recapping Las Vegas, as well as the NFL (pre)season opener (PIT @ NYG); etc.

As of the moment I'll have made this post, I'll have been quite a few days removed from being over in the desert, but not without having enjoyed this past week that was over in Las Vegas! Compared to last time (slightly over a decade ago), the city has grown tons, but, obviously, still revolves mostly around the "hospitality" industry, specifically casinos/hotels/resorts...

Contrary to last time I was in Vegas, though, when we stayed at the Golden Nugget, we stayed at the Mandalay Bay casino/hotel/resort, and, honestly, having now experienced both, I'd take having to ride around everywhere to avoid the noise along Fremont Street! That being said, there was a ton of traveling required to get from the Bay to just about everywhere, and not like Orlando, either, when we could just catch a shuttle bus every day and night, and make it from/to the parks - thankfully, there were pedestrian overpasses all along the strip, allowing people to walk above the traffic to get around... There were also the exact same trams as Orlando (as in, made by the same manufacturer; looking the same inside; etc.); the main difference there being the air-conditioned/covered tram platforms...

The reason I mentioned the air conditioning to begin with was 'cause it was absolutely necessary to stay near a source of air conditioning at almost all times, given the 100+ degree temperatures outside, with barely any winds outside, or insulation inside to keep the heat out of various "nooks and crannies"... For the most part, though, once one got away from the entrance to whichever building, that usually meant relief from the heat!

Initially, we simply visited a few casinos along the Strip, while waiting for night to fall, along with (naturally, for my sports-loving self) getting a look at the T-Mobile Arena, and also made sure to become familiar with the ground level of the Bay, including this mini-aquarium (closer in size to the aquarium in Point Pleasant, N.J., along the boardwalk, I'd say), before taking in the view from the "revolving" restaurant atop the Stratosphere tower, and the observatories (indoor right below an Empire State Building-esque outdoor observatory) right above said restaurant!

While doing that, we made sure to prepare for the Cirque du Soleil show we had already pre-ordered (tickets, that is), and, indeed, the following day, after visiting the Stratosphere, we visited "The Armory", the official in-arena store of the (Las) Vegas Golden Knights and the team's soon-to-be home, the aforementioned T-Mobile Arena, where, after getting chased from the main entrance of what was to be a trade show that evening, I got a woolen cap with one of the team's secondary logos, a "clashing swords" logo similar to what you might remember the Buffalo Sabres wearing when they re-introduced their blue-and-gold color scheme about a decade ago; after that, there was a buffet inside the Treasure Island casino right before the Cirque du Soleil show, and, honestly, with all the acrobatic acts and flashing lights everywhere, my thoughts almost immediately returned to Disney, and the company's touring ice shows (Disney on Ice), with the occasional figure skating tricks thrown into those performers' routines, along with the numerous live shows inside the parks themselves, regardless of whether they involved people, or simply things, such as the buildings and whatnot, and the theater itself reminded me, personally, of the Theater at Madison Square Garden, with its round shape stopping abruptly right in front of the stage, an enclosed mini-concourse, and a similar seating capacity, also (about 1,500 at TI, compared to about 2,000 minimum at the T@MSG), and has light/sound systems just about everywhere one looks, which, when compared to outdoor setups, such as PNC in Holmdel (right off the GSP), or, since I already mentioned it, Disney, which has anything from "standing room only" setups (in front of the Magic Kingdom Castle), to open-air seating areas (EPCOT's nightly fireworks show; Hollywood Studios' water show), which, unfortunately, unlike the rest of those locations, are left completely open to the elements, forcing people to "take cover" in the event of rain... Now that I mentioned that, I wonder which design is more common at the company's Paris location?

The following day, after taking in that marvelous (yet also something I admittedly would never want to actually take part in) show, there was this mini chocolate factory located over in Henderson, about 15-20 minutes away from the Bay, that occupied our morning, along with this Harley Davidson store that serves as the unexpected location of the "Las Vegas sign" (which is located right out in front of the store, before waiting for night to fall to (re)visit Fremont Street, across town from the Bay, and, honestly (advance apologies for mentioning Disney yet again), I went from merely thinking I needed hearing protection after Disney, to almost actually following through on getting some after stepping foot (back) under the "dome" stretching along Fremont Street, which had no fewer than about a half-dozen different live performances that night, from country, to disco, hip-hop, jazz, rap, and just about every style of music getting just blasted in a radius of about a few dozen feet each, along with various neon lighting displays, almost like 20th century-era Times Square, all buzzing away along either side of the street, leading to massive amounts of "sensory overload" for even, surely, the most "normal" people there!

Overall, the thing that stood out above all others was the cost of just about everything there, from simple things as convenience/drugstore items, to restaurants, where I honestly thought, before the week, that places like L.A., N.Y.C., and Tokyo, in particular, would be the most expensive, but Vegas somehow manages to blow even the most expensive places in those other cities "out of the water" with how expensive it is, from 2-liter bottles of juice/soda/water/etc. arguably being cheaper, ironically, than other smaller items, and places like Starbucks, which are already expensive just about everywhere, being taken to even higher price points - you could almost say that prices there were "through the stratosphere" expensive! Between that night and the return flight back over here, though, the last afternoon was spent at the Bellagio, specifically just walking through the building, getting a sense of its massive size, and also checking out a few of the places along the Strip before making sure to be out in front of the hotel to head back to the airport a few minutes away from there, where, despite some finger swabbing (presumably anti-radioactivity tests, which might come much more in handy in the foreseeable future, God forbid), we experienced about the easiest/fastest check-in process to date, and prices returned to more "reasonable" levels, instead of "downtown Vegas" levels!

That about does it for this summer, though, barring some sort of "long weekend" somewhere rather close by (which we have done in some past years, anywhere from Cape May/Wildwood in this state, to as far away as Bar Harbor, ME, and Montreal, QC, at least specifically within the month of August, from what I remember), although I'd gladly forgo anything of that sort this month to instead conserve resources for this fall/winter, and next summer!

You might have thought I would be holding off on attending any more sporting events between returning from Vegas and the end of this month, but, instead, I was at the Giants' preseason opener last weekend, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and, honestly, despite the "exhibition" nature of the game, not every player out there during the preseason will simply become a "benchwarmer", needing to hope, in some twisted sense, that their team implodes enough that they basically get forced into regular-season action; certainly, some of those players will become starters some day, so those games might be "time-wasters" for us fans, as well as the (regular season) starters, but definitely not for the coaches, or the players seeing the field by then!

The offensive side of the ball definitely seems more "unfinished" than the defense, at least for the Giants, particularly the offensive line, at least within the starting/backup units, but, even so, the defense definitely still has some things to figure out, particularly in the corners, where they might have to count on rookies to complete the defensive secondary this season, but, overall, right now, the team seems poised for a similar season to last season, again, as always, barring injuries, since that seemed to be when the game "opened up", albeit against the 3rd/4th-string defense, which wasn't exactly helped by all QBs not related (descendant/family tree-wise) to a 70s-era NFL QB/certain recently-retired future H.O.F. starting QB getting stopped short of the end zone every time they crossed midfield, although, in fairness, basically all of the offensive starters rested the entire game, while some of the defensive ones played a few 1st quarter series before sitting and watching the 2nd through 4th strings try their luck, but, again, just as long as the regular season doesn't reach all the way down there, there should be similar things to last season, this season!

I'd say the same things about the Jets, also, in their preseason opener the following night against the Tennessee Titans (at least in the 50 minutes or so of that game that weren't interrupted by CBS 2's (within the N.Y.C.-area, or perhaps via satellite) PGA Tour golf coverage), except all levels on both sides of that team need re-working in time for the regular season, if they even hope to be on the "outside looking in" of the playoffs, instead of looking at another top-5 pick in next spring's draft!

Attendance-wise, obviously, being in the preseason, there wouldn't be sellouts anywhere, I don't think, but there were way too many PIT fans at the Meadowlands Friday night (out of a crowd of, in my estimation, between 30 and 40,000 early on, which dwindled as the game moved along, which you might be able to tell in my images there), although the rather dull-sounding P.A. announcer sure didn't help matters - thankfully, he wasn't like the guy who seemingly kept stumbling over everything at the FDNY-NYPD game @ Barclays last March, but at least this announcer should've gotten fans making noise in situations other than third downs...

...meanwhile, there were way too few fans of anybody/anything Saturday night, including some controversy over whether the team was "fudging" its attendance figures for the game, which, frankly, shouldn't even come close to mattering this time of year...

Giants highlights/recap

Jets highlights/pair of Jets recaps

As for the collegiate level, that starts back up at the end of this month, and, honestly, so as to have something between now and the beginning of the college hockey season, I'm looking at the following games that weekend:

Holy Cross (FCS) @ UConn (Hartford, CT; Th. 8/31, 7:30 P.M.)

Fordham (FCS) @ Army (West Point, N.Y.; F. 9/1, 6 P.M.)

(#10) Washington @ Rutgers (Piscataway, N.J.; F. 9/1, 8 P.M.)

Morgan State (FCS) @ Towson (FCS) (Towson, MD; Sa. 9/2, 6 P.M.)

CCSU (FCS) @ Syracuse (Syracuse, N.Y.; Sa. 9/2, 7 P.M.)

"reach" games: Akron @ Penn State (State College/University Park, PA; Sa. 9/2, noon), Youngstown State (FCS) @ Pitt (Heinz Field, Pittsburgh; Sa. 9/2, 1 P.M.), North Carolina State v. South Carolina (Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC; Sa. 9/2, 3 P.M.), Louisville v. Purdue (Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN; Sa. 9/2, originally scheduled for 3 P.M., but changed to 7:30), BYU v. LSU (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX; Sa. 9/2, 8 P.M.), or Virginia Tech v. West Virginia (Fedex Field, Landover, MD; Su. 9/3, 7:30 P.M.)

(unfortunately, as that season winds down, we won't be getting winter weather anywhere close to this that winter, I'm afraid, nor will we see places looking very "festive" after the month of December...)

...in other college hockey news, seats like these are apparently available for Union @ BU (Sat., 9/30):

(although tix haven't officially been released yet, for that or any games that weekend, so IDK about whether to jump already, and risk possibly getting scammed, or wait, and have that game be close to sold out, being that it is the scheduled opening weekend up there and all that...)

...finally, a very "spiritual" article:

http://upliftconnect.com/lao-tzus-four-rules-living/