Already starting to run a little dry on blog ideas, will brainstorm more creative ones for next time! This week: an all-over-the-place list of things I’ll briefly defend, from black coffee to Riverdale.
- My fantasy football team
I have to start with a disclaimer that I know next to nothing about football (I’m in a league with several friends who are also new to fantasy, and have been slowly figuring out how it works), so apologies for any glaring inaccuracies.
While the situation does look a little dire here, I really think Team Cuatro can bounce back for week 6. Yes, my flex, defense team, kicker, and one of my RBs together averaged -1.2 points, but this can be attributed largely to personal error: I thought Dalvin Cook was injured and brought Chase Edmonds up from my bench to replace him (I also thought Rashod Bateman was injured and replaced him with Dalton Schultz, who turned out to actually also be injured, hence the 0 points). Big mistake. Cook dropped 26.1 points and Edmonds scored 0.1. Don’t worry, several of my more football-savvy friends have already berated me.
After that embarrassing performance, I’m determined to make a comeback in week 6. I’ve brought Cook and Bateman back up and have picked up a couple of players from the waiver wire, including a defense team playing a weaker offense (at least according to the little ESPN blurb). Watch out, Team Carsello (jk, Grace, if you’re reading this, it would be an honor to lose to you).
Anyway, I’ve been enjoying my fantasy football-filled fall (2-3-0 right now). It’s been fun to try something completely new to me in a low-stakes, friendly environment, and I’ve had an especially good time watching my friends become increasingly invested in their teams.
2. Boy’s Life
Hot take, I know. Robert McCammon’s 1991 novel Boy’s Life is somewhat infamous at North — resenting it is almost a universal experience for freshmen in HE1. I remember going in to the lit center my freshman year, and having the senior editing my essay tell me that she hated the book. It’s an understandable opinion: my copy is 608 pages, a daunting undertaking for any 14-year-old, and you really feel how long it is while reading. I remember feverishly trying to finish the book a few days before school started; to be completely honest, I think that annotating this book put me off annotations forever.
However, looking back, I actually enjoyed the story. I’m a big fan of books that have a strong sense of setting, where the cultural or physical background feels almost like a character of its own and plays an important role in the story, so the small, Southern town of Zephyr was an intriguing world to explore, from its fear of the devil to the insularity of the families living within it. There’s so many elements at play, from the murder mystery to the more mundane coming-of-age storyline to the interjections of magical realism, creating an immersive reading experience. I remember one interesting chapter about some hallucination-esque midnight train ride Cory goes on where he travels into the city and sees some traumatizing scenes, which McCammon proceeds to never mention again. As a whole, far from my favorite book ever, but I think it gets too much hate.
3. Black Coffee
Recently, I’ve become a fan of black coffee. A couple of my friends have told me it tastes like dirt, which is fair, but I really think there’s something to be said for plain cold brew or iced coffee (I can’t drink it hot). I’ve sort of come to like bitter drinks; they feel more rewarding, more energizing, and I’m better able to appreciate the fruity or chocolate-y notes in the coffee. I also find it easier to finish black coffee; sweeter drinks sometimes leave me with a stomachache (small chance I’m lactose intolerant, 99% sure I’m not, though). My personal ranking of places nearby: Starbucks (solid), Dunkin (cheap), Peet’s (best place to study), Sparrow (tasted like tomato?).
4. Driven to…
Although initially horrified by the orange decals plastered over the school, I’ve found that the slogan has really grown on me. There’s something to be said for how versatile it is: you can attach it to any verb, though some sound better than others (driven to fish was a personal favorite last year). I’ve found it slipping into my own vernacular as well as my friends’ vocabularies. Maybe it’s senior year making me more sentimental, but my school spirit has increased exponentially.
5. My lack of a license
The flip side of #4: I might be driven, but I can’t drive. I really have no defense for this, I just felt like I had to acknowledge it. I promise I’ll work on it second semester. Hold me to it, guys.
6. Apple music
I’ll admit off the bat that Spotify reigns supreme in terms of recommendations and frankly a lot of other areas; I make most of my playlists and find new music on there. I largely use Apple Music for the sake of convenience, since we have a family plan. However, they do pay their artists more! It’s unfairly hated; the lyrics feature is really nice and more user-friendly, and the Dolby Atmos sound quality is fantastic. Have recently been listening to a lot of Frank Ocean, Jeff Buckley, Lana del Rey, Joji, and Bon Iver.
7. Riverdale (or at least the Twitter plot summary thread I read)
I think I’ve watched maybe five episodes total of Riverdale, but I recently stumbled upon a thread on Twitter summarizing all 116 episodes (linked here) that I’d highly recommend if you have ten minutes. For context, Riverdale started off as a sort of murder mystery with characters from the Archie comics navigating the trials and tribulations (epic highs and lows) of high school (football). Since then, the show has gone fairly off the rails: various musical episodes, ghosts appear, the characters gain supernatural powers, Archie goes to war (?), Cheryl leads a cult, an alternate universe called Rivervale is introduced.
It’s sort of a so-bad-it’s-good situation. I watched a couple of episodes a few weeks ago with friends, and was alternately horrified and confused watching Archie get ritualistically sacrificed at some sort of town festival. However, I was never for a moment bored. In short: far from a triumph of cinema, but extremely entertaining.
Then again, we did watch it immediately after Morbius, and anything would likely have been a welcome respite from the adventures of Dr. Michael, so take this with a grain of salt.
I like your premise of defending multiple things you feel strongly about in one post. First, it’s awesome that you’re trying something new with fantasy football. I know you’ve already made the necessary changes with your team, but as a general rule of thumb, never use a tight end in your flex spot. A wide receiver or running back is much more practical unless you have two star tight ends for some reason.
I agree with your take on Boy’s Life. The problem with Boy’s Life is simply that it was an assigned reading. Think about it this way: think of your favorite book. Then, pretend someone assigned you this book, and you had to annotate it. You’re going to like the book far less. Instead of reading it for enjoyment, your brain tricks you into disliking it because it’s an obligation. On top of that, the teacher drills the “coming of age” theme into your head so hard you get a headache.
I may have to try out black coffee. I don’t want a caffeine addiction or to build up a caffeine tolerance, but you make some good points, and black coffee is the healthiest coffee is going to get.
To quickly respond to #driven, apple music, and Riverdale: I never hated #driven but rather found it amusing. I agree Spotify is superior, but I didn’t know apple music pays their artists more, and I’ve never heard of Riverdale, and I’m amidst college apps, so I don’t want to get roped into watching any of that for the time being.
Oh, I almost forgot, yes, I’ll hold you to getting your license.
Hey Ivy, I really liked the format of this blog post and the sort of rapid-fire style. Your commentary on the things that you were defending was very entertaining. I am also currently in a fantasy football league with my friends and have become very invested in my team, probably a little more invested than I should be. I too have had some woes with my running backs putting up next to no points some weeks, but I’m still enjoying it nonetheless. Another thing I like to do is watch the games that my players are playing in, I think it makes fantasy football as a whole a lot more fun.
I’m going to abstain from sharing my opinion on Boy’s Life, but I do agree with your point about the town of Zephyr being an interesting setting to adventure into. I respect your defense of black coffee as well even though I am personally not a big fan of it.
And Apple Music! I too use it because of my family’s subscription plan, but I’ve been trying to tell people that it’s really not as bad as they think it is.
I’ve heard a lot about Riverdale and how wonky the plotline is, and I might have to check it out now based on your summary.
Ivy,
I too like my coffee cold–that’s about where the similarities end! I don’t like the taste of coffee and, for the most part, I don’t need any more caffeine! So I get an iced decafe with skim and Splenda with one pump of caramel. Yeah–sweetened brown water. My drink of choice would be a large Diet Coke from McDonalds ANY DAY over coffee!
P.S. Maybe check that injury list before Thursday!