I enjoyed the coverage of the Olympics last night. Watching the USA women dominate gymnastics displays a team that is head and shoulders above the rest of the world. Basketball, swimming, and gymnastics are the United States bread and butter. Without further ado, this was the best move of the Olympics.

Pictures taken at the wrong time can make you look full tard (Beyonce) so this is not a jab at our nominees. Watching Hilary though is the fakest a human can look. What is she looking at? Balloons above her head? For some reason I feel that if Trump was slowed down it wouldn’t look that bad but if Hilary was it’d look just as weird.

No other species has to worry about dolla dolla bills y’all like human beings. Money is integral to our survival and well being. If you don’t have enough, you end up with a cardboard sign on Delaware Avenue begging motorists to bail you out for your bad decisions. Today is your lucky day. I’m going to give you 3 ways you can make bad decisions by listening to me. I also would like to point out that I’m allowed to make these bad decisions because I’m single and fiscally sound with no dependents.

3000 M Steeplechase

At 9:25am on August 15th, round 1 of the 3000m Steeplechase will take place. There are 3 heats and the top x runners will make the finals which takes place 2 days later at around 10am on August 17th. I will not be sharing this exact pick as it was given to me by Sam and it is still 12 days away. By releasing it on rnningfool.com, the odds could move in such a dramatic fashion that it won’t be worth betting. However, after Sam told me to “bet the farm”, I researched the competitor and agreed that Sam knew what he was talking about. I made a wager in excess of 250 dollars but less than 500. I promise that this will highlight the blog when the race goes off. If 5 people comment on this post that they are interested to know who it is, I’ll share it.

Novavax, Inc.

Click to see 2 year info.

Evan has been touting Novavax for what seems like a decade now to give you an idea of how long it’s been on my radar. NVAX, the ticker symbol, is a biotech firm that is attempting to create a vaccine to combat RSV (a contagious virus that infects the respiratory tract). It is looking to get approval from the FDA to distribute the vaccine which will heavily boost sales. The company currently is losing money but earnings are scheduled for August 9th which could have breakthrough news. Aside from getting approval to distribute the vaccine, Novavax is a takeover target for bigger players like GlaxoSmithKline. This stock is currently trading at $7.61 and has hit as high as $14.00 within the past year. Expectations would hopefully push the stock well past $10 and into the $15-20 range. I saw one message board moron predict $55. I would recommend buying 100 shares if you have some spare money around just to take part of the action. I own more than that and currently have an option play where I purchased 6 contracts of the October $9 calls at $1.20 ($720 investment) that are currently valued at $1.40. That’s a 16% gain in 1 week. I’ll try to sell it off (hoping to god the stock goes up after the 9th) and make another play to extend the time frame.

Traveler’s PGA Championship

Brooks Koepka is my predicted winner @ 16-1

Lacking the big names this week like Spieth, Day, DJ, and Rory but it’s still a decent field. If you read my previous post, you’ll know I had a little run in the PGA last week so I’m in good form (as golfer’s like to say). More importantly, you have to realize how hard it is to pass 6 guys in these events, let alone pick who is going to win. I try to pick players who are playing well and have potential to win. These are the $33 dollar tournaments so it’s not a huge investment and worse case scenario is I try again next week.

Disclaimer: Don’t get mad at me if you lose your own money. Since I’ve been making money, I’ve been losing money. These selections are made with the understanding that it’s hard to make easy money. I’ve had so much experience with losing money that I’d like to think I’m getting better limiting my risks and trying to hit as much upside as possible. No whining.

I’ll give you a very small tip.

I have a fine understanding of tipping at restaurants. The wait staff puts up with a lot of shit from asshole customers so I’m happy to give 20+% in most circumstances. As long as they are nice and do a fine job, I like to throw a few extra dollars their way. Now I get a bit more confused for delivery drivers.

If I get a $20 dollar meal delivered, am I supposed to tip 20%? Seems reasonable. What if it ‘s a $40 dollar meal? 8 bucks to drive down the road, I don’t think so. Is delivery a fixed fee for most people? 5 bucks on all deliveries? It seems ridiculous that if you order a different portion of food, and the driver will go through the same exact sequence (aside from carrying a few extra portions), that they deserve extra tip? What do you do?

[poll id=”156″]

The SnapChat Delay – I can’t tell if it’s only my phone but when you hold record on SnapChat, there is about a 1.5 second delay and it pretty much ruins any chance you have of catching live action spontaneously. Once the, “shit, I missed that, do it again” starts, the footage sucks. It almost makes me not want to use SnapChat it’s that annoying. Multiple times we’ve been bowling and I’m like, this is a key shot, let me Snap it. The roller is getting ready, I open the app, timing is perfect as I’m waiting with my camera pointed and the guy starts the motion and I’m sitting there holding my dick waiting for the red circle to start.

Bilary Clinton

Hilary Clinton – Am I the only one who think that Hilary is Bill? Bill Clinton served as our President for 8 years and is most remembered for getting a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky. Realize that he’s going to be The First Man. The First Man is a pretty powerful position. Here are Michelle’s initiatives as the First Lady- become a role model for women and an advocate for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls education. Good luck maintaining those duties, Bill. I have no problem with Hilary being a woman but a bigger problem with her being a Clinton. At this point, I am hoping Trump trumps her. Bring on anarchy and chaos. People are killing other people on the reg as it is so I can’t imagine it gets much worse (I hope I don’t have to retract that comment).

Ticket / Event Processing Fees – Where do these companies like Ticketmaster and Ticketfly get off charging insane amounts for processing fees? A computer is doing the processing and the cost is probably 2 cents. Where does this cost come from other than a way to bend over the customer. I recently bought 2 tickets to a Phillies BBQ this Saturday and they cost $50 each and the processing fees were 24% of the cost of the tickets?!?! Absurdity.

Sweat Sleep – Now that the Summer heat is in full swing, temperatures are in the 90’s and 100’s. I keep my AC at 70 during these days and it does a good job for my house, however, my room is on the top floor and it is probably a few degrees hotter than the lower levels. I don’t sleep with any covers (do people still call them this?) and even when I’m laying on the comforter, I’m still hot. If it’s really hot I can start sweating and then not only can I not sleep but I start thinking how gross it is that my sweat is on the bed. I’ve been washing my sheets about every 2-3 weeks which would be a bit sooner than regular.

Starting last Thursday and ending on early Sunday morning, I drank heavily. Do I know the exact number of drinks I consumed? No. Only nerds care about the sort of thing but it’s in the vicinity of 50. You sort of lose track when you combine beers and shots and how to accurately count them. Either way, I was paying the price on Sunday.

I write this post, like I have before, to give an idea of what to expect with 3 hard days of drinking. Stupidly, on Sunday, I had signed up for a bowling tournament at 6pm. When I got back to my house at around 12pm, I knew I was in big trouble for the bowling tournament. When I arrived at the alley I had to sign a card with my name on it and my hand was completely shaking. My hand writing looked like one of an 85 year old. Note to anyone out there, you don’t want to have shaky hands in a sport that commands precision. I combated the shakes by drinking a few more beers which is best way to rid yourself of them but you will still pay the price further down the line. I bowled adequate but nothing like I can.

I got some Popeye’s chicken on the way home for my 1st meal of the day which is what happens when you drink too much. I went to sleep at around 10pm and sweated through the night in various hour long sleeps. I woke up extremely tired even though I had slept for over 8 hours. I could barely eat breakfast and knew I was in trouble for the day as I’ll write in detail later.

I started chugging as much water as possible but your body only takes so much before each water bottle you drink comes out in clear pee 10 minutes after finishing it. I tried chugging 2 coco-waters and 3 pills of these Vitamin B supplements which sort of worked. I then went for a run to try to sweat out some toxins. All of this helped but I certainly wasn’t fully recovered. We bowled in our league last night and lost 0-4 and even though I didn’t bowl horribly, it’s the same idea that I wasn’t as good as I could have been.

How every decision feels.

I slept for almost 10 more hours last night and finally feel like a human being again. The best way to describe this process of alcohol withdrawal is ineffective. Your brain is slow. You look for the right words to speak and your brain flips through about 3 incorrect words before you sound like an idiot out loud. Your decision making is slow as can be and even operating a car is difficult. You’ll see a biker come out of nowhere and start to wonder where did it come from or if it was even there at all. The only cure to the withdrawal is time and boy it takes a while.

I write this post because there are probably millions of people just like me who go through this process one weekend after another. You can try drinking yourself back to health but this is obviously not a good idea. The best method is to know that it’s going to be tough and do your best to get past it. This isn’t a cry for help either. It’s how you know you had a good weekend.

Evan asked me if I was introducing the “hot take” (this is what I used for my Pop Up Beer Gardens Suck) as my new segment and I won’t because it’s too overused. Everyone has a hot take and I’d say my takes are more lukewarm which doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.

Hate this screen.

Today’s post is on why I don’t listen to Podcasts. I equate putting on a podcast to playing a DVD to watch a movie. It’s too much trouble. This may come of as maniacal and ridiculous but those 10 seconds of action deter me greatly. For instance, I don’t mind going to MyDVR but hate going to On Demand. MyDVR pops up instantly and OnDemand loads for about 3 seconds.

Soon sports will be played by robots but that’s a different post.

Of course this isn’t the only reason I dislike Podcasts or you could considering putting me in an asylum. My main problem is that it isn’t LIVE. I’d rather watch a baseball game live (a sport I minimally like) vs a replay of the PGA ( a sport I have much interest because of Draftkings). In a live setting ANYTHING can happen (it could even be a boat). A replay is censored. Podcasts are thought out. Live radio is spontaneously. Last night I was listening to sports radio where Jon Johnson was rattling off his top 5 action movie stars. I asked myself wouldn’t I rather be listening to a thought provoking podcast? No I wouldn’t.

If you don’t know the movie, you can’t argue with the list.

In case you were wondering his list was 5. Steven Segal 4. Bruce Willis 3. Tom Cruise 2. Sylvester Stallone 1. Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don’t believe Segal should be on the list and Harrison Ford should be 5. I’d even bop Tom Cruise with Mel Gibson.

I’ve only ever listened to one Podcast in my life and that was Serial which I somewhat enjoyed but finished with an underwhelming feeling. I’d must prefer Making a Murderer to a podcast which is another reason why I don’t like podcasts. Video trumps audio. Soon Virtual Reality with trump video. I also don’t like to feel like I’m wasting time so the idea that anyone and everyone can make a podcast is a turnoff to me. At least with TV you know someone is spending at least thousands to share their idea. I also find them to be too long. People talking for an hour is not entertaining to me. I can’t feel restricted when I spend my time on entertainment.

So there you go. Podcasts suck and you’ll probably disagree and point out 25 podcasts that are awesome and I won’t listen to any of them. Just kidding but you’d have to really twist my arm and then better be right about it being good.