Hockey Goalie Mikayla Demaiter Provides Vitamin D, Meet Travel Baller Tytn Zayn & Ja'Marr's New Hair

Yes, there are some content management changes, glitches and updates to OutKick going on this week

I'm not going to address every concern that was emailed or DM'd on Wednesday. Trust me, there are multiple people at multiple levels working to make sure the new content management system works perfectly. Yes, there are developers working long hours to minimize the glitches. 

Yes, there might be an abundance of ads being triggered inside Screencaps. Yes, the formatting might not be what you're used to. We're going to play whack-a-mole on this stuff until OutKick is back to being a well-oiled machine. 

We're in survive and advance mode. It's like playing on Saturday or Sunday on opening weekend of March Madness, and you're a 3-seed up against some 11-seed that won in Dayton and then got hot against a 6-seed on Thursday. 

As the 3-seed, it's time to survive and advance against technology. Our guy Will and his team are facing surge after surge against the 11-seed. Will's team was down double-digits early, but now they're chipping away by running the offense and getting quality shots heading into the under-five timeout before halftime. 

It feels like halftime will be this weekend when they can regroup, work on some plays on the chalkboard and then come out next week and put away the 11-seed. 

If you see something concerning (yes, I know some of you are worried about the size of the feet you're seeing on clickbait links), say something, but remember, we're at the under-five TV timeout stage. 

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com 

• Shane in Minnesota wrote back after I assured him that the OutKick developers are in a battle against an 11-seed: 

The mere fact that you would read let alone reply to this email tells exactly why this column is so successful and has such a loyal following.

Kinsey: 

You're welcome, Shane. We're building this following one follower, one reply, one interaction at a time. Rinse, repeat, keep grinding. Eat or be eaten. Yes, this week is out of whack, but I'll take one week out of whack compared to the alternative. 

Speaking of the eat or be eaten mindset I've been writing about lately, I see another media company went out of business

The Messenger was a news outlet that somehow found $50 million to play with in 2023 and they burned through every last dollar and closed the company this week. There are reports the company had 300 employees including something like 175 writers. 

"According to a leaked balance sheet, the company spent millions of dollars on travel and entertainment last year alone," news outlet Semafor reported.  

I assume "entertainment" means booze, dinners, Ubers to dinner, hotel bar tabs, etc. 

Oh well, lesson learned, I guess. 

The Ts have a new view

Mike T. says this is in Malaga, Spain. Look at that cloud cover!

(via Mike T. and Cindy T.)

Kinsey: 

That looks like Port Clinton, Ohio in January, but today is February 1 and the sun IS OUT, SHINING and they're talking mid-50s here next week. 

Dads: Besides turning off lights, what else should be on this list?

I know! Charge the damn VR so I can get TWO solid hours of golf action in on a cold, dreary final day of January 2024. Last night, it actually happened. Screencaps Jr. came home from school and asked if he could fire up the VR for a session of Gorilla Tag or whatever he'd planned with his friends. 

I looked him in the eyes and said something like, "If that VR doesn't have full power tonight at 7 p.m. when I tee off…" 

And it was understood. He got me. I understood he wanted his VR fix, but he knew I don't ask to hit the links very often and I just wanted to bask in the Vitamin D of the VR after so many consecutive days of clouds here in NW Ohio. 

Dads: Fire away. 

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

I will sponsor this travel ball kid Tytn Zayn right now! 

Listen, I might despise everything about travel ball and the travel ball panhandlers, but I know a walking NIL billboard when I see one. Move your ass over Alyssa Milano, I'm in charge of fundraising for this kid. I will have Screencaps gear on him so fast, your Super Lib ass won't know what hit you, Milano. 

The Girl Scout cookie hustle and how it relates to the travel ball panhandlers

I was told by Wyn in Colorado that the secret Screencaps Discord channel just had a big discussion on Girl Scout cookie drama and I need to check it out. 

• Steve B. in Grand Junction, CO writes: 

My daughter (now 15), was a Girl Scout, and if memory serves, she was given 100 boxes to sell. 

Now unlike a co-worker, (who lazily put out a sign-up sheet for cookies in the employee break room for her daughter), I made my daughter come in and sell those Thin Mints face-to-face.

I know some people think this is a horrible idea, bugging co-workers while they're working, but I've bought plenty of cookies, candy bars, etc. from co-workers, so I figure it was their turn to pony up.

She and my wife also went door-to-door in the neighborhood. I knew she was going to get some rejection, but that's a good thing. Kids need to learn grit. 

My wife and I would always end up having to buy 20 boxes or so. I'd eat half of them, the other ten boxes we'd keep in the car, and have our daughter give to sheriff deputies or police officers we'd see around town.

• Homebrew Bill in Nebraska writes :

My daughter was in girl scouts for 3 years if I recall correctly. Her troop didn't go all out as far as goal setting, but for those years our living room and basement were a warehouse for her cookies for 6 weeks about this time. 

There were always supply issues in the chain higher up. My coworkers would usually start emailing me in early January with what they wanted. I was the supplier for UNL Food Science for a couple years. 

We ran out of plastic grocery bags a couple times. Our daughter had over 300 boxes the last two years with over half coming from my workplace. She did take a wagon around our neighborhood a couple times every year and sold door to door when we had inventory but for popular varieties as soon as we picked up our weekly supply they were sold. 

I was kind of glad when her troop leader moved to Florida and the troop dissolved. Keeping track of the money was a task in itself. It wasn't uncommon for me to have an envelope with $100 cash in it from when people would pay me. 

• Jim T. in Sandy Eggo (he always writes it that way) says: 

Two of my three daughters were in Girl Scouts; started 25 years ago with the oldest; the youngest, who is 15 now, lost interest two years ago.

The Girl Scouts itself sets no quotas for the girls to sell. Whether the parents running a troop set a quota is on them.

My only beef with the Girl Scouts – at least, the local Council here in Sandy Eggo – is that they do kind of pressure the adult leaders to order ambitiously, and whatever you order you have to pay for. There are no returns of unsold goods.

My wife was leader for our youngest daughter’s troop, and was always very cautious with our cookie campaigns because she’d heard the horror stories of other troops stuck with thousands of dollars of cookies THEY HAD TO PAY FOR.

Our girls sold enough to pay for their way to summer camp and other fun activities, but never so many that it got stressful. And our Troop had a policy of taking back cookies a family couldn’t sell, and then other families would help sell it off. A couple times our family ended up buying the last 10 or 12 boxes, but we have a chest freezer in the garage so it’s all good. (And finding a box of frozen Thin Mints mid-August, after you’d totally forgotten about them, is even better than found money in the dryer.) 

About four years ago, when our youngest was still in Scouts, I was at the local grocery store on a Sunday night – the last night they were allowed to sell their cookies at what they call "storefront sales." There was a teenage Girl Scout there with TONS of boxes, trying to sell them – and trying very hard not to cry. Her dad was off to the side yelling at someone over his phone about the cookies. There were dozens of unopened cases of cookies behind their table, hundreds of dollars worth, that the families in that troop were going to have to pay for. Or maybe that dad, and that’s why he was yelling on the phone. Even though we had plenty of cookies at home that we’d bought from our own Scout, I bought four more boxes. I get home, and my wife is "What the heck are you doing buying more cookies?" I told her the story – and she suddenly remembered she’d forgotten to have me pick up something at the store. So she gets in her car and runs over there, and buys like another six boxes - just so that girl would feel a little better. 

Fundraising should NEVER cause stress in a family. Ever.

Done properly, fundraising teaches the kids about the true cost of their activities, a little bit of sales skills, and the self-confidence to interact with strangers in a business environment – all good stuff.

But when the fundraising is causing grief between parents and kids?

• Michael J. in Chiraq writes :

First off...... how many boxes would you like?  My daughter has been selling them for about five years with no real issues.  They sell themselves, seriously.  She never really needs to ask people about it.  I hate fundraisers but I don't mind these as much.  I think it helps that her troop doesn't go crazy making them sell cookies. If I had to pick one fundraiser to support, this is it. 

I don't want to tread on Nightcaps Amber's territory here, but I have to address this

It feels like I need to do a food in the shower test just to get up to speed on this trend that Jessica Biel seems to have started. 

Are there any food in the shower experts out there? Which food items should I start with? I do drink tea. I might start there. 

That's it this morning. Remember while you're reading today, OutKick is the 3-seed facing the techology 11-seed. There are little things you are noticing that we will work on like not having a separator between the final section and my final thoughts. 

Fox News Corp. Will and his crew have their work cut out for them, but they will win this war. They will outlast the 11-seed. 

Now, let's hit ‘publish’ and see how this goes. 

Have an incredible day. 

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

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