Jessica Simpson Releases New Spring Clothes, Tiger Woods Masters Update & What Did PJ Fleck Do To His Face?
On father-daughter road trips around the west
Let's get the day rolling with an email from Steve E. in Gresham, OR who is six years into a father-daughter road trip series that I think will hit home for many Screencaps readers.
Steve writes:
As a regular reader of (and occasional contributor to) Screencaps, and after seeing all the other content about road trips and one of the Instgram posts from Utah from yesterday, I wanted to write and tell you about my daughter and I and our trips.
My daughter is now 22, and when she was 16, we started doing backpack trips where I would take her and a few of her friends into the Oregon mountains. We did the Mt Jefferson Wilderness and three different trips into the Wallowa Mountains in NE Oregon. a truly beautiful place.
I had been reading about the Alvord Desert in southern Oregon (next to the Steens Mountains) for years, so last year we took a long Memorial Day weekend and drove down there, camping and sleeping in my truck.
I had driven through Utah a few times traveling to and from college many years ago, but had never seen anything there, so last week, we road-tripped from NW Oregon down to Utah, and did a loop around the state, hitting almost all of the well known Utah natural landmarks. We started with Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park, went down to Monument Valley, down to Page, AZ on the edge of Lake Powell, then up to Bryce Canyon National Park, and finally home, 2,700 miles and six days later.
In the process, we knocked an item off my bucket list when we went through and stayed the night in Monument Valley. It’s one of those famous places that has been in countless movies over the years (John Ford is famous for using it in many westerns, and it was in a famous scene in Forest Gump) and TV shows (Airwolf, anyone?), and as someone who loves wide open spaces, I had to get there eventually.
Trips like these are an awesome way to get to know your kids and also get away from city life. We will have many memories and photos for the rest of our lives from these trips.
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Steve sent that email at the end of another long day of blogging and it was like a moment of zen. I opened the email, saw the photos at the bottom and my blood pressure instantly dropped. I'm not sure what it is about a mountain lake where I can see the bottom, but you guys are welcome to keep feeding me that genre of photos.
And kudos to Steve's daughter for being in for a trip with dad at an age where most of us were thinking about trips with anyone but our parents.
On my Screencaps organizational skills or lack thereof
• Jess in Alabama would like to have a word with me:
So the teacher in me has a suggestion for you- it would be awesome to organize all the content you have coming in. I notice people write in asking about stuff from months past, so you’re having to go back, sift through, add links to old SC posts. (Having taught lots of topics and needing to do similar digging & searching & pulling hair out when not finding, I found this helpful.) Maybe there is a way you (read: intern) could organize by topics: TNML, Mexico suggestions from Mike & Cindy, Gauntlet content, Don’t Blink, Reid’s pool dilemma (I would say this is a joke, but not really since so many people had thoughts!).
I’d do it myself if Clay sent me a check
Also, someone wrote in about Sears being the new Amazon. Made me think of the small town Lyman, SC. There’s a railroad that runs through there and a bunch of houses that were built around 100 years ago along it. People ordered their house (!!!) from Sears catalog, it came on the train, was dropped off on their lot, and everything was in the package to build. Look up Lawrence St on Zillow.
Thanks for everything as always!!
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Listen here, Jess!
Screencaps has the most amazing FREE blog customer service on the Internet. If you contact customer service (joekinsey@gmail.com), not only will you get help from someone in the United States, there's a very good chance you'll have an answer in less than 12 hours as I go through emails after my normal blogging shift.
Perhaps it's time for a newsletter to complement the daily posts. That would allow me to move around content for readers and recap the big topics of the week.
And Jess, are you up for a one-day guest Screencaps editorial assignment when I go golfing in June? Let's make that happen.
On 6/5 blackjack
• Wednesday, Sean C. in Granger, IN asked a question about finding yourself playing 6/5 blackjack and doubling down on your blackjack vs. a 4,5, or 6 due to the 6/5 payout.
Brian G. in Coral Springs, FL writes:
First, the 6:5 is a scourge. I used to go to Vegas 4-6 times a year in the early 2000s and play single and double deck on the strip counting cards. There were so many games available, but they did have good surveillance and information sharing and I outstayed my welcome.
To the question at hand. If you want to maximize your expected value. You have to take the win when you have it. A blackjack has +EV of 1.2 bet units. The EV of doubling versus a 4, 5, or 6 is (+0.57, +0.62, and +0.67 respectively). (Depending on the rest of the rules like dealer stands soft 17).
If counting, there are thresholds where you deviate from basic strategy based on the count (see the Illustrious 18 plays). The EV difference is so wide though between staying on blackjack and doubling that you would HAVE to know the next card or the dealer hole card (strategy for another day).
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Now, THIS is why people can't stop clicking on Screencaps. One minute you have Steve E. sharing his road trips, the next minute Brian G., is putting on a 6/5 blackjack odds clinic.
And see how things can be civil. Sean C. is a good guy who wasn't looking to start an online brawl. He was just curious about the mindset at a 6/5 table. Brian G. gets it, too.
Pass the word, folks. THIS is where your friends need to be on a daily basis. This is the real America.
Moving along...
On the OutKick user experience
• Russ H. in NOLA writes:
Love your articles. Read them daily on my iPad or iPhone. Problem is the video insert covers about the first three or four lines of text and I can’t read them. This happens on all articles, not just yours.
Do you have any pull to get this fixed?
As for long-distance traveling with three kids, my dad was a Marine stationed in Columbus, OH in the ’50s. He would load up me and my two sisters and drive to Waycross, GA to see grandma for Thanksgiving. Frequent stops at tourists spots did the trick.
We also drove at night. Still remember Lookout Mountain! Don’t remember too much strife, but the belt was threatened numerous times. And no electronics, just books and games.
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Thank you for the email, Russ.
This has been an OutKick issue for quite some time and while I'm not far enough up the chain of command, as I mentioned earlier in this post, there are OutKick corporate structure changes coming very, very soon and hopefully we can see the user experience improve to where the video layovers aren't causing problems.
On green grass, the crack of the bat and blue skies
• Beau in Toledo stopped at Fifth Third Field in...Toledo...where they tore out the turf during the offseason.
Here's Beau's turf update:
On replacing your mowing shoes
• Speaking of Beau, he's not letting a mowing shoes topic get past him. As always, OutKick copy editor Dr. Cortney is under orders never to touch a Beau email. These come in raw and they get published raw.
Beau writes:
When Should You replace #TNML shoes?
When Your New Balance 608's are no longer comfy enough to go all GODZIRRRAAA!!! on the 12 pack of DaddyPops You smashed while puttin' down stripes.
(These are 3 yrs old, btw… they lasted 2 yrs longer than the shoes made by slaves in china…. Hi #PhilKnight!)
Beau adds:
And yes, I know I won the award for Ugliest Kitchen Floor contest. 🤣
On what is Eric Church thinking?
• Jon S. has thoughts on Eric Church canceling a show to attend the Final Four:
Have been debating this with myself, and have decided that Eric Church is not Screencaps worthy. On the one hand, he's a big basketball fan who said, "You know what, I am going to see my team in the Final Four."
On the other hand, he said, "I don't care about a commitment I made, I don't care about my fans who spent their time and money planning a trip to San Antonio to see my concert, shelling out for airline tickets or hotels or whatever." On balance, I think a Screencaps guy keeps his word and fulfills his commitments. (Obv different if it was a medical issue or actual emergency.)
As for a theme song, I think Born to Be Wild describes Screencaps Nation!
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I'm with Jon on this one. Church made a contract with customers and a basketball game shouldn't be grounds to break that contract. A voice needing rest? OK. A game he could watch on TV seems like a rather lame excuse to call off this type of work.
On the power of Screencaps
• Craig V. is off on his big 12-hour road trip to Florida with his three kids and he'd just like to say thank you to all who offered suggestions on how to keep his kids from spending the trip with their faces in an iPad.
Craig writes:
Thanks so much for getting my message out there. I didn’t quite know what to expect but the community far exceeded what I imagined. We had definitely thought of a lot of stuff in there. I believe it was Peter who suggested the dollar store. We actually did that on Monday. But here’s the kicker—thanks to Brandon, everything was $1.25 and not just $1. Not some items, all of them. Certainly not gonna prevent us from paying the mortgage but a real reminder of where things are. Thanks again to you and the great folks across this great land for the suggestions.
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There you go. Safe travels to Craig and the family.
And with that, we've made it to the final day of March. One quarter is in the books! It's hard to believe everything that has happened in the first three months of 2022. Did my Bengals really make it to the Super Bowl? That still doesn't feel real.
Let's go out there today and finish off the quarter strong. Heads down at the job -- unless you're reading Screencaps for 15 minutes to raise the all-important 'time on site' metric for Google and advertisers! -- and we all power through into the most important next three months of the year.
Have a great day across this great country.
Take care.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com