This narrative is the most annoying thing going in sports journalism right now.

I'm a lifelong New Englander and Patriots fan.

EVERY Patriots fan I know was rooting for Brady yesterday.

Did Chicago fans hate Jordan on the Wizards?

All time dumb take. All of the top-voted comments on The Athletic are saying the same thing.

New England still unabashedly loves Tom Brady and always will.

Yes. It sucks that he left. Very few blame him. And close to zero despise him for it. If anything, more backlash has come Bill's way.

Hardly a hot take, but Charles Oliveira's body work (particularly those pinpoint knees in the clinch,) was the key to his title defense last night. Rewatching the fight, Poirier inflicted more damage in R1, but at about the 1:20 mark, he's already starting to wilt under the body assault. He takes three long looks up at the clock directly following a knee to the solar plexus.

Today, two more casual/normie/non book readers told me they were entertained by Wheel of Time episode 1 but couldn't believe how "cheap" it looked considering what they'd heard in the lead-up to the series.

Production needs a LOT of work heading into Season 2. Perhaps more interesting, similar to me, neither could quite put their finger on what it was that bothered them about the visuals, but I suspect it has less to do with objectively poor effects work and more to do with very poor compositing and lighting work.

One of the things that has always made Jose Aldo lethal on the feet is his ability to keep opponents directly in front of him at all times. I used to refer to it as the “turret” stance. See his first fight with Frankie Edgar as an example. The only strikers who seem to give him trouble are those who are able to out poke him from range or just bulldoze through the turret. Even at his age and cage time, it’s a daunting task. You have no choice but to wade into the fire against Aldo.

I've been pretty critical of a series that I'm still giving a 7/10 through four episodes and I think @DanielBGreene's comment in this review about "daytime LARPing" drives home what's bothering me.

Objectively-speaking, I think the effects have been decent and the costuming great ... but everything looks artificial to me. The world and costumes do not look lived-in. That didn't look like a camp in Ep 4. It looked like a manicured renaissance fair.

WOT is the rare EF series I have not read, but I echo a lot of these sentiments.

1. Cast is quite good, with Mat and Lan my standouts.
2. Pacing is WAY too fast. Noticeable even for a casual.
3. Visuals are disappointing. The world feels shiny and manicured, like The Hobbit.

https://twitter.com/PetrikReads/status/1463202722686005250

Just as viewers can immediately tell the difference between a real human face and a CGI face (uncanny valley,) I also think set dressing and costuming needs to be more subtle.

In this, it seems like everything has been set up for a play, even if a very attractive play.

There's not a single thing I can point to with the Wheel of Time show so far to say, "that's bad," aside from the opening scene, which was atrocious.

It just feels rushed, and that's coming from a non book-reader. Would have liked to see things breathe more. I also push back against the, "they had to cut out all this stuff."

No. They chose to. Of course they can't fit everything in. But you're telling me they couldn't do 10-12 eps for S01, leaving us with 8? That's not streamlining. That's massacring the source material.

This is a great thread on Self Pub vs. Trad.

I'd agree that you shouldn't think of the creative argument alone. Rewire your brain from thinking, "I'm going to self pub this," to, "I'm going to start an independent self publishing company," and things may change for you.

https://twitter.com/EvanWinter/status/1458857322759999494

As someone who self published beginning in 2016, and has now sold an epic fantasy series, a Superhero LitRPG trilogy and a Cyberpunk martial arts trilogy to a small publisher, I would also add that every publishing house offers completely different advantages and disadvantages.

As a striking enthusiast, the most impressive thing about Yan to me is the way he uses kinetic linking to increase both the power and range of his next strike.

The cross here stung, but it was thrown with the intent of giving Yan momentum to throw the wheel kick.

https://twitter.com/TheArtOfWar6/status/1454776072604618754

Along with the infamous spinning backfist to hook combo he threw twice in this fight, the lead strike in the kinetic chain also serves to stun/open the defense of the opponent.

Yan's combo's increase in power as they progress, while his opponents' defenses are broken down.

I'm partial to Chael Sonnen's run.

Entering the Dan Miller fight, he was 23-10 as a pro coming off a dominant loss in his UFC debut. He rattled off wins in 5 of 6 over MW Contenders, including Bisping & scored multiple 10-8 rounds against a then-invincible Anderson Silva.

https://twitter.com/mma_kings/status/1453123845976637441

He then parlayed that one incredible run into multiple massive paydays, including the 2010 rematch with Silva (925k PPV buys,) and Jon Jones (530k PPV buys.)

Glover was always thought of as a blue chip prospect. Chael was the definition of a journeyman who turned it all around.

My immediate post-viewing reaction for DUNE was, faithful adaptation with standout moments that was really good, but didn't hit me like Fellowship of the Ring first did.

In the 12 hours since, I can't stop thinking about it, and like it more as each hour passes. I think this is a movie that some people just are not going to connect with, and that's totally fine. But there's a resonance to it that builds and builds if you let it.

There's a scope and ambition to it, as well as a subtlety that is missing from most modern filmmaking.

Paulo Costa's professional fighting career is in complete freefall.

Hasn't earned a win in 26 months. Lost badly to the Champ. Repeatedly butts heads with UFC Mgmt., resulting in fizzled contracts, and now he's nonchalantly talking about catchweights 3 days before his fight. I think the most troubling sign of all of this is the fact that Costa seems completely unphased and unbothered by any of it.

I genuinely think some of these dudes overvalue themselves as much as some think the UFC undervalues them. Costa has almost zero leverage.

Decided to try to come up with a simple metric to evaluate the competitive quality of a given card, on paper, after thinking Bellator 260 looked rather strong.

Came up with the simple "Match-Making Competitive Rating" or MMCR. Essentially, this value takes into account aggregate betting odds for favorites on a given card, takes an avg. value, inverts said value and then converts to a 10-point system.

Higher-scoring events are considered "stronger" events from a competitive standpoint.

Bravo @DanielBGreene.

A key for those who haven't personally been F'd by @goodreads to understand is that, whichever random user inputs book data FIRST is treated as the prime authority on said title. Even if they literally just ... make it all up.

Even if you DID take Goodreads advice and Email them directly, and even IF you then get a great, helpful Librarian, like, say, @PetrikReads to help you out, another Librarian can literally just undo that work and revert back to the incorrect information.

Piggybacking off of this video by @DanielBGreene, in my personal opinion, one of the most important lessons for authors AND reviewers to learn is how to parse intent in either direction.

As Greene points out, an author is in no position to tell a reader he/she is WRONG for not liking aspects of a book. Or hating the book altogether.

Similarly, readers are in no position to tell authors what was and was not intended in the creation of said book.

**Landkist Announcement!**

The Landkist Saga as we know it is officially going into hibernation for the winter.

(Short Thread) Writing, producing and promoting this series has been a rewarding, challenging and never boring experience over the last four years, but opportunity has knocked, and I look forward to seeing what this elemental epic can do on a bigger stage.

Tapology MMA Showcase (9/26 Edition)

Highlighting 14 high-level professional MMA shows from around the world, in order of occurrence.

tapology.com/fightcenter Event #1 = Brave CF 42 from Bahrain

tapology.com/fightcenter/ev…

UFC cancellation numbers since August 1:

According to @tapology records, 141 bouts were signed for cards that have been completed since August 1.

Over that span, the UFC has endured a 37% Cancellation Rate with 8.5% of Cancellations directly related to positive COVID-19 tests. Looking at Fight Island numbers for July, it paints an interesting (albeit small sample) comparison:

68 bouts were signed for Fight Island in July.

Over that span, the UFC endured a 25% Cancellation Rate with 8.8% of Cancellations directly related fo positive COVID-19 tests.

MMA fans chalk low percentage techniques up as flukes way too often compared to other sports fans.

Is a 99-yard Super Bowl TD pass common or high percentage? No. When it happens, is it considered a fluke? No.

Marlon Vera kicked O'Malley in the leg. The leg got injured. Fin. It's the same kind of dumb shit as, "If Jose Aldo didn't run full speed into a Conor McGregor counter cross, he might have eventually won a 25-minute war."

Okay. But ... he did leap head-first into the most lethal counter puncher in MMA. So ... that was extraordinarily dumb.

@DanielBGreene Another great video discussing YA Fantasy here, positives and negatives.

I think this could expand into a more general discussion on prose trends in fantasy and would love to see you tackle aspects of that discussion.

For example: I agree that modern epic/adult fantasy certainly has a much more diverse array of prose styles and experimentation, with some authors verging more toward classic lyricism (Rothfuss?) and some going for more modern/clipped, but no less brilliant metaphor (Abercrombie/Lawrence.)

Cormier and Bisping are great individually. They're a horrible team on the mic's. Occasional banter is fine. These two can't get out of each other's way. The frustration is palpable. But that's par for the course in terms of my opinion of Cormier on the mic with any other fighter.

He never cedes the mic. He's ALWAYS got something to say. Every single exchange. The fight never gets a chance to breathe.