Olympics

Equestrian

July 12, 2024July 12, 2024 Tommy A. PhillipsLeave a comment

The last one! I have absolutely no idea how to judge dressage or count the number of faults for a jumping contest. I do know that watching the horses jump over all those obstacles is a lot of fun. Dressage? That’s an acquired taste. But I’m really taking a shot in the dark with these picks, because I just frankly don’t know much at all about the sport. Hopefully I’m able to come somewhat close to getting a couple right.

Projections:

Medal	Individual dressage	Country
Gold	Jessica von Bredow-Werndl	Germany
Silver	Charlotte Dujardin	Great Britain
Bronze	Nanna Skodborg Merrald	Denmark
Medal	Team dressage	Country
Gold	Germany	Germany
Silver	Great Britain	Great Britain
Bronze	Denmark	Denmark
Medal	Individual jumping	Country
Gold	Henrik von Eckermann	Sweden
Silver	Maikel van der Vleuten	Netherlands
Bronze	Jerome Guery	Belgium
Medal	Team jumping	Country
Gold	Sweden	Sweden
Silver	Great Britain	Great Britain
Bronze	Netherlands	Netherlands
Medal	Individual eventing	Country
Gold	Lambert Leclezio	France
Silver	Manon Moutinho	France
Bronze	Jannik Heiland	Germany
Medal	Team eventing	Country
Gold	France	France
Silver	Germany	Germany
Bronze	Switzerland	Switzerland

Projected medal count:

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Germany	2	1	1	4
France	2	1	0	3
Sweden	2	0	0	2
Great Britain	0	3	0	3
Netherlands	0	1	1	2
Denmark	0	0	2	2
Belgium	0	0	1	1
Switzerland	0	0	1	1

anime

Konosuba S3 Ep 10: Shatter the Darkness

July 11, 2024July 11, 2024 Tommy A. PhillipsLeave a comment

Konosuba season 3 episode 10 review

So, Darkness is getting married! But that’s a bad thing, because it breaks up the Big Four. In order to stop this, Megumin is pulling out all the stops. And this is where that great spinoff featuring Megumin helps so much. By fleshing out her character, which had previously been just “EXPLOSION!”, we’re able to see that Megumin actually has feelings and cares for her friends. Man, Megumin is starting to charm me.

Aqua, Kazuma, and Megumin crash Darkness’s wedding, which is always fun. Every show needs to have a wedding-crashing episode at least once. Garfield and Friends had a particularly good one when Garfield overheard Marion John saying (what he thought he heard as) “I’ll be finally marryin’ Jon.”

A much better episode this week than last week. In fact, one of the better episodes this season. And to think they did it with Darkness serving as damsel-in-distress? (Although I’m pretty sure she’d like that.)

Best girl of the episode: Yes, it’s Megumin.

Episode rating: 8/10

Olympics

Cycling

July 11, 2024July 12, 2024 Tommy A. PhillipsLeave a comment

I’ll admit it, I’m completely befuddled on making my projections for cycling. It’s hard to find much info on this (and equestrian) as to who’s qualified or not. So, this will likely be one of my least accurate projections; I’m really taking a shot in the dark here. But the goal is to get a general idea of who’s gonna win medals, more than getting them right slot by slot. Note: this list is in a different form than the other ones, as men’s and women’s events alternate in this one.

Projections:

Medal	Men’s road race	Country
Gold	Tadej Pogacar	Slovenia
Silver	Mathieu Van Der Poel	Netherlands
Bronze	Jasper Philipsen	Belgium
Medal	Women’s road race	Country
Gold	Demi Vollering	Netherlands
Silver	Lotte Kopecky	Belgium
Bronze	Elisa Longo Borghini	Italy
Medal	Men’s time trial	Country
Gold	Filippo Ganna	Italy
Silver	Remco Evenepoel	Belgium
Bronze	Tadej Pogacar	Slovenia
Medal	Women’s time trial	Country
Gold	Grace Brown	Australia
Silver	Anna Henderson	Great Britain
Bronze	Brodie Chapman	Australia
Medal	Men’s team sprint	Country
Gold	Australia	Australia
Silver	Netherlands	Netherlands
Bronze	Great Britain	Great Britain
Medal	Women’s team sprint	Country
Gold	China	China
Silver	Great Britain	Great Britain
Bronze	Germany	Germany
Medal	Men’s individual sprint	Country
Gold	Harrie Lavreysen	Netherlands
Silver	Matthew Glaetzer	Australia
Bronze	James Hedgcock	Canada
Medal	Women’s individual sprint	Country
Gold	Ellesse Andrews	New Zealand
Silver	Steffie van der Peet	Netherlands
Bronze	Kelsey Mitchell	Canada
Medal	Men’s keirin	Country
Gold	Harrie Lavreysen	Netherlands
Silver	Jeffrey Hoogland	Netherlands
Bronze	Kevin Quintero	Colombia
Medal	Women’s keirin	Country
Gold	Steffie van der Peet	Netherlands
Silver	Martha Bayonne	Colombia
Bronze	Hetty van de Wouw	Netherlands
Medal	Men’s team pursuit	Country
Gold	Denmark	Denmark
Silver	New Zealand	New Zealand
Bronze	Australia	Australia
Medal	Women’s team pursuit	Country
Gold	New Zealand	New Zealand
Silver	Great Britain	Great Britain
Bronze	Italy	Italy
Medal	Men’s Madison	Country
Gold	Denmark	Denmark
Silver	Australia	Australia
Bronze	New Zealand	New Zealand
Medal	Women’s Madison	Country
Gold	New Zealand	New Zealand
Silver	Australia	Australia
Bronze	Great Britain	Great Britain
Medal	Men’s omnium	Country
Gold	Jan Willem van Schip	Netherlands
Silver	Grant Koontz	United States
Bronze	Aaron Gate	New Zealand
Medal	Women’s omnium	Country
Gold	Maike van der Duin	Netherlands
Silver	Bryony Batha	New Zealand
Bronze	Jen Valente	United States
Medal	Men’s mountain bike	Country
Gold	Victor Koretzky	France
Silver	Matthias Flukinger	Switzerland
Bronze	Tom Pidcock	Great Britain
Medal	Women’s mountain bike	Country
Gold	Alessandra Keller	Switzerland
Silver	Pauline Ferrand-Prevot	France
Bronze	Haley Batten	United States
Medal	Men’s BMX freestyle	Country
Gold	Anthony Jeanjean	France
Silver	Kieran Reilly	Great Britain
Bronze	Justin Dowell	United States
Medal	Women’s BMX freestyle	Country
Gold	Hannah Roberts	United States
Silver	Sun Jiaqi	China
Bronze	Nikita Ducarroz	Switzerland
Medal	Men’s BMX race	Country
Gold	Joris Daudet	France
Silver	Andre Sylvain	France
Bronze	Niek Kimmann	Netherlands
Medal	Women’s BMX race	Country
Gold	Zoe Classens	Switzerland
Silver	Alise Willoughby	United States
Bronze	Laura Smulders	Netherlands

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Netherlands	6	4	3	13
New Zealand	3	2	2	7
France	3	2	0	5
Australia	2	3	2	7
Switzerland	2	1	1	4
Denmark	2	0	0	2
United States	1	2	3	6
China	1	1	0	2
Italy	1	0	2	3
Slovenia	1	0	1	2
Great Britain	0	4	3	7
Belgium	0	2	1	3
Colombia	0	1	1	2
Canada	0	0	2	2
Germany	0	0	1	1

anime

S&W 3: Silver medalist

July 10, 2024 Tommy A. PhillipsLeave a comment

Spice & Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf episode 3 review

So, it’s Economics 101 today on Spice & Wolf! I would have flunked the class. All I know about economics is how to lowball someone on eBay to get something for a ridiculously cheaper price that I should have. But this seems to be heavier economic talk than that. While I knew this series was a lot about economics, I was hoping it could make them fun.

And it kind of does, to an extent. I love Lawrence and Holo’s little negotiations. The two of them make a great pair. However, I can’t really get interested in a show if it’s simply trying to teach me the difference between different types of silver. That’s just not for me.

So, a pretty good episode this week, but not as good as the last two.

Best girl of the episode: Will it ever be anyone but Holo?

Episode rating: 7/10