The Top Ten of 2020

2020. 

What else do you need to say? The most disruptive year of all of our lives. When life gives you a global pandemic, what else can you do but try to make the best of it? I certainly tried. 

Here's to a better year ahead for us all in 2021. But first, one last look back at 2020. 

Okay, so this was a strange year for blogging as well. Hoagie Central was really defined by two things: 1) my personal achievements/progress 2) the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. Didn't really blog about much else. 

Honorable Mentions

Video Game Console History

Video Game Trophy Hunting

Best Banner Ever

10. Road to Super Bowl LIV: One Game Away

The recap of the incredible playoff comeback over the Texans that ended with the Chiefs running out of fireworks.

9. Top Ten Passages in Choose Your Own Trump

This was the director's commentary for my most recent book. 

8. Going to Super Bowl LIV

Seeing the Chiefs make the Super Bowl was something I'd been waiting for my whole life. 

7. The Best Thing I've Ever Posted

At the time this felt like an accurate title, but it's #7 on this list. 

6. I Was There: Super Bowl Parade

I still have red and gold confetti in my wallet. 

5. 2020 Census

Every ten years, I do a complete time capsule. 

4. Becoming a Champion

I went player by player and wrote over 5000 words to say thank you for an incredible season. Some of my very best writing on the Chiefs.

3. Year of the Fym

A recap of everything I accomplished this year, in spite of the pandemic. 

2. My Medium Journey

I reached #1 on Medium. But the story of how it happened is just as good. 

and the best thing I wrote about the best thing that happened in 2020: Number One

14-1

The Chiefs have played 61 seasons. This is their best regular season. 

14-2 would be their best one. They still have one game to go. Although that one doesn't matter. 

To recap: 

2018: Pat Mahomes first year, 50 touchdowns, 5000 yards, 1st NFL MVP in Chiefs History

2019: Pat Mahomes second year, Super Bowl LIV winner

2020: Pat Mahomes third year, best season in franchise history

#1 seed in the AFC.

#1 team in the league.

Chiefs are 23-1 over their last 24. 

The Chiefs first playoff game will be in the divisional round against the worst remaining team. 

Get by them, and they will host the AFC Championship, likely against the winner of Bills/Steelers.

My Ancestry

I did 23 and Me two years ago but am just getting around to writing about it. First some broad strokes: my ancestry is 100% European. 

Let's dive in to the country-specific results. 

1. Germany (32.1%)

Although it buckets it as French & German, when you click on the result, it clarifies that I have German only, no French. 

2. Poland (17.3%)

This is currently the second biggest specific result, although there is 20% allotted to broadly northwestern European, so this is likely #3 on the list. It's possibly over time that 23 and Me updates and assigns that broad ancestry to other countries. 

3. Sweden/Denmark (15.6%)

This 15.6% is split between Sweden & Denmark, with Sweden getting the "highly likely" compared to Denmark's "likely match." My ancestry.com records show both Danish and Swedish results on the Fymbo side, with the name coming from Denmark. I've long identified with Denmark as I felt like the name origin carries a lot of weight. 

4. United Kingdom (11.2%)

The last major result is showing I have some ancestors from the London area. 

So there you have it, my ancestry comes primarily from these five countries. 

🇩🇪🇵🇱🇸🇪🇩🇰🇬🇧

In light of this, I will retroactively be claiming the Germany 2014 World Cup victory as one of my own. 

I will not be claiming any atrocities committed by any of these countries. 

NHL 94 Rewind Highlights

NHL 94 was the first Sega Genesis game I had and I played the crap out of it. 26 years later, here I am playing it again on a PS4.

 

The record for most wins by a Super Bowl winning team:

18-1 1984 49ers

18-1 1985 Bears

Another perfect football day

With three games to go, here's what the Chiefs have to do to clinch the #1 seed:

beat the Chargers at home

win one of Falcons at home or Saints on the road

That's all. So next week is just bonus. Take care of the two home games and you get to stay home the rest of the way until Super Bowl LV in Tampa. 

- - -

What feels like a lifetime ago but was earlier in 2020, I wrote this post after the Titans knocked the Tom Brady Patriots out of the playoffs. And that post holds up pretty well. Okay, really, really well. 

Today was another perfect football day. 

Mahomes had his first 3-interception game and the Chiefs still won, clinching the AFC West. One of the wildest stats I know is that I have lived in the AFC West winning city for the last 10 seasons and counting. 5 in a row in Denver, then I moved to KC where they've won 5 in a row. 

You're going to have occasional bad games. Those are important to learn from, go back to the tape and dissect coverages, fire everyone up again. When you can win those games anyways, that's icing on the cake. 

And then the Bills helped us out by knocking the Steelers out of the #1 spot. 

And my fantasy team is winning 127.5 - 68 with only a tight end left for my opponent.

KC Thunder

I don't really have a good reason for doing this. This is a follow-up to this post. 

Mainly I just wanted to see what it would look like. Partly just to see if I had the photoshop skills to do it. 

As I was doing this, I thought about something. So here are my favorite sports:

NFL

NHL

College Basketball

College Football

World Cup

I just don't like NBA or MLB that much to care about it. And as it turns out, I have a favorite team in all of those 5 sports. And I don't have a favorite team in NBA/MLB. 

So is it that I don't like the sports because I don't have a favorite team?

Or is it that I don't have a favorite team because I don't care about the sports enough?

Probably the second one. 

I mean the Thunder jersey in orange and blue...great color combo. And they have a ton of draft picks. But I'm not going to be tuning into watch the Thunder anytime soon.

And hey, in case anyone out there is looking for "Kansas City Thunder logo" or "Kansas City Thunder jersey", maybe I've saved them the trouble.

The Biggest Game for the Chiefs #1 Seed Hopes is...

Steelers at Bills in Week 14 on Sunday Night Football. 

If the Steelers beat the Bills they would own the tiebreaker over a Chiefs team with the same record unless: Steelers lose to Colts/Browns and Chiefs lose to Falcons. 

If the Steelers lose to the Bills, the Chiefs would own the tiebreaker over a Steelers team with the same record if the Chiefs lost to either the Saints or Falcons. As the Saints is the toughest team on the KC schedule, that's a big door to open. 

There's a lot to be determined, if both teams drop multiple games. There's a path for the Bills to get the top seed and drop KC to #3. There's also a path for the Bills to miss the playoffs. 

But the #1 seed has never been more valuable. Worth playing for.

Things for Mahomes/Chiefs to Achieve

I promise this is not sour grapes or arrogance. I always said I'd be happy with one title and I am. This is just things that would be neat to see. Some bucket list stuff for Mahomes and the Chiefs to aim high for. 

• Franchise Record for Wins in a Regular Season is currently 13
• Best Franchise Regular Season winning percentage is .846 (11-2-1)

    Going 14-2 in a 16 game schedule would secure both of those. The 2019 Chiefs actually broke the record for combined regular seasons + playoff wins. The previous record was 14 from winning Super Bowl IV, because all three times they went 13-3 since then, and this is true they lost their first playoff game. If they don't get to 14-2 this year, they would have to get to 15-2 in a 17 game schedule to surpass 11-2-1. 

Here are the AFC West Super Bowl Wins Standings:

Broncos & Raiders: 3

Chiefs: 2

Chargers: 0

So one more ring to tie the Broncos and Raiders. Two more to surpass them. 

Once you get past them, here are all the teams with 4 or more Super Bowl Wins:

Patriots & Steelers: 6

Cowboys & 49ers: 5

Packers & Giants: 4

That's the whole list. So win two more and you join the top 7 teams in the league. Win three more and you're in the top 5. Win four more and you're in the top tier. 

(What's wild is that for Mahomes to match Brady is actually further out of reach than taking Chiefs to match the Patriots/Steelers.)

In addition to rings, some people pay attention to NFL MVP awards. Here's the list of players to win that 3 or more times:

Jim Brown: 3

Johnny Unitas: 3

Brett Favre: 3

Peyton Manning: 5

Tom Brady: 3

At this point in the year, it's possible that Aaron Rodgers joins that list by winning his 3rd this year. Or Mahomes could win his 2nd, going 2 out of 3. 

I'm also excited to see Andy Reid reach the Mount Rushmore of wins, and climb to #2 in playoff wins. 

NFL Trivia

I was thinking about Moss and Fitzgerald and Megatron and realized they all had something in common. 

(Make your trivia guesses now before moving on if you want.)

So I decided to look into a little more. 

Of all the all-time receiving yard leaders, 4 have Super Bowl rings: Rice, Bruce, Harrison and Wayne. 

6 do not: Fitz, Owens, Moss, Gonzalez, Brown, Smith. 

So then I thought I'd look at rushing yard leaders. Same thing, 4 have rings: Smith, Payton, Bettis, and Dorsett. 

6 do not: Gore, Sanders, Peterson, Martin, Tomlinson, and Dickerson. 

What about passing yard leaders? 7 have rings: Brees, Brady, Manning, Favre, Big Ben, Manning, Elway. 

3 don't: Rivers, Marino, Ryan. 

Marino and Ryan at least played in a Super Bowl. 

Conclusions? Pretty much what we already knew. QB is the most important position. If you have your choice of an all-time great, you're gonna want them at QB. And yes the Lions are famous for having Sanders and Megatron retire still in their prime, but there's plenty of all-time greats at RB and WR who never won a championship.

Mahomes and Moments

What I'm going to say next is very obvious, but I think I can explain it in ways that are less than obvious. 

I'm very happy that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl LIV.

I woke up today thinking about Patrick Mahomes MVP season in progress. And how different things would be if the Chiefs had lost Super Bowl LIV. 

Everyone from announcers to internet commenters would be saying that Mahomes is great in the regular season but does he have what it takes to win a title? They use lines like "That doesn't work in January" or "Playoff teams have him figured out" "Now that they've got him on tape, good defenses know how to defend him." He'd be getting compared to Dan Marino and lots of legitimate questions about if he'll ever win. Until you win once, you get questions about if it will ever happen. It happened to LeBron and he's won four titles now. 

I would be right there with him, wondering if the Chiefs are cursed, or just built in a way that they don't have enough defensive talent, or maybe it's the coaches that are getting outsmarted...the point is you can start to spiral as a fan. 

But now? People are comparing Mahomes to Brady, already in the conversation for greatest QB of all time. His first year: MVP. Second year: SB MVP. Third year: looks like MVP and SB MVP is in play. 

Legacies that last multiple decades hinge on moments. If Mahomes doesn't convert 3rd and 15 in the Super Bowl, his story is completely different. 

It also changes everything for me as a fan. I'm enjoying this season, but very relaxed through it all. It's just fun. Let me show you what I mean. 

At this point in the season, the Chiefs have essentially clinched the division already. So here are their possible outcomes. 

Lose before the AFC Championship

Lose in the AFC Championship

Lose in the Super Bowl

Win the Super Bowl

Here are my super-ballpark estimations of how likely each event is to happen:

Lose before the AFC Championship - 10%

Lose in the AFC Championship - 30%

Lose in the Super Bowl - 30%

Win the Super Bowl - 30%

In short, a great chance to win the Super Bowl, more than any other team in my estimation, but still 70% chance that they don't. And that's okay. It would be cool if they get more titles this decade, but if they don't, I'm still satisfied. It's already a dream come true. 

In years past, before Mahomes, before they were a real contender, the Chiefs had a 2-3% chance to win a Super Bowl every year with Alex Smith and I got my hopes up because I wanted it so bad. One moment, one game, can really change everything.

Weight Loss by Month: November 2020

 August:       12 pounds

September:  7 pounds

October:       8 pounds

November:   3 pounds

30 down.

The frustrating thing was then even before my birthday or Thanksgiving, the progress was pretty slow. Even though I was doing the same thing, my lowest weight this month was 4 pounds down. But then I gained 3 pounds on Thanksgiving. Lost two of that so far. I really tried to make up for Halloween and Thanksgiving by being extra good the day after. 

Anyways, the good news I'm still losing, still making progress. I'm not in a rush to try to get to a certain weight by a certain point in 2021. In fact, since I ultimately need to eat like this forever, the longer that I'm focused on losing, as opposed to maintaining, might be better for me. More time for choices to become habits. I'm already kind of amazed at how four months in my eating habits have changed. Avoiding unhealthy foods used to be kind of a white knuckle willpower thing and now it's already like that doesn't sound that good to me. 

Though I have thought many times at the end of my day, how much easier this would be with an extra 200-300 calories to spend, as if I was in maintenance mode. That little extra cushion could be a small snack that helps with hunger between lunch and dinner for example. By gaining all this weight, I've dug a whole that it's not enough to eat healthy at maintenance right now--I have to go all the way past that point to a deficit to lose the weight. 

December will probably be more like November than the previous months, with Christmas. But that's okay.

Birthday Wishes Do Come True

 

The Chiefs never led in the first half. The didn't have the lead with the ball until the final kneel down. 

The whole game, I was like "some birthday game, this sucks." But by the end, it was clear this was the best Chiefs game on my birthday ever. 

- - -

ESPN's win probability calculate gave the Raiders a 73.7% chance to win before the Chiefs final drive. 

In this house, I was 80-90% sure Mahomes was going to go down the field and get a touchdown. And 20% worried he would score too quickly. 

Let's zoom in on that game-winning drive. Started at the KC 25 with 1:43 to go and 1 timeout. 

7 pass plays. Mahomes went 6/7. The only 3rd down they had was a 3rd and 1. Drove down the field and scored with 28 seconds left. Made it look easy. 

- - -

This game was marked by long, sustained drives that ate clock. 

In most games, both teams get around 10-11 possessions. Last night, when the Raiders started their last drive with 28 seconds left...that was their 8th possession of the night!

Results of the first seven Raider possessions: four touchdowns, one field goal, two punts. 

Results of the first seven Chief possessions: four touchdowns, one interception, two punts. 

Neither defense performed well. But look at that above again...how did the Chiefs win?

The Raiders 7th possession scored with 1:43 to go and left KC with a timeout. This is where time management matters. 

If you're the Raiders here, to win the game, you have to do two things. 

1) Score a touchdown

2) Leave the Chiefs with under 30 seconds and no timeouts. 

This is not an either or thing. You have to do both. 

The Raiders had 1st and 10 from the KC 23 with 2:24. They're down 4 and KC has 2 timeouts. 

At this point, you have to keep the clock running. Run, screen pass, whatever. 

Two incomplete passes. 

Bottom line, they had lots of chances to run the clock down, or at least make KC burn all their timeouts. They didn't and Mahomes burned them in the end. 

So now Chiefs are 1-0 in Las Vegas. 

- - -

Mahomes is 5-1 vs the Raiders. 

Andy Reid's Chiefs are 13-3 vs the Raiders. 

Let's do the rest of the division. 

Mahomes is 4-1 vs the Chargers. 

Andy Reid's Chiefs are 12-3 vs the Chargers.

Mahomes is 5-0 vs the Broncos. 

Andy Reid's Chiefs are 10-5 vs the Broncos.

So at this point, Mahomes is 14-2 in the AFC West. 

Since 2016, Chiefs are 25-3 in the division. That's insane. 

- - -

Chiefs are now 9-1. Last year, when they won the Super Bowl, they were 6-4 at this point. 

Steelers are 10-0. All we need is for the Ravens to beat the Steelers and then KC will be sitting in the #1 seed. Lots of good football coming up.

Sports Divisions by Recent Titles

I thought it would be fun to sort through all the major sports divisions by how recently any of those teams have won a title.

NFL AFC West	2020
NFL AFC East	2019
NFL NFC East	2018
NFL NFC West	2014
NFL AFC North	2013
NFL NFC North	2011
NFL NFC South	2010
NFL AFC South	2007

MLB NL West	2020
MLB NL East	2019
MLB AL East	2018
MLB AL West	2017
MLB NL Central	2016
MLB AL Central	2015

NBA Pacific	2020
NBA Atlantic	2019
NBA Central	2016
NBA Southwest	2014
NBA Southeast	2013
NBA Northwest	1979

NHL Atlantic	2020
NHL Central	2019
NHL Metro	2018
NHL Pacific	2014

Notes:

MLB is on an incredible run of parity, with the last six titles each won by a different division. 

NFL is about what you would expect. 

NHL is strange that they only have 4 divisions. 

And the NBA is very strange to have that outlier of the Northwest Division. 

Here's the list for all sports.

NBA Pacific	2020
NFL AFC West	2020
MLB NL West	2020
NHL Atlantic	2020
NBA Atlantic	2019
NFL AFC East	2019
MLB NL East	2019
NHL Central	2019
NFL NFC East	2018
MLB AL East	2018
NHL Metro	2018
MLB AL West	2017
NBA Central	2016
MLB NL Central	2016
MLB AL Central	2015
NBA Southwest	2014
NFL NFC West	2014
NHL Pacific	2014
NBA Southeast	2013
NFL AFC North	2013
NFL NFC North	2011
NFL NFC South	2010
NFL AFC South	2007
NBA Northwest	1979

My Teams on My Birthday

Back in college, it seemed like Illinois football always played Northwestern around my birthday (11/22) as the last game of the season. Illinois was pretty bad and not usually in bowl contention, but I at least thought beating Northwestern was attainable and a good way to end the season. And then this year, not only are the Chiefs playing on my birthday, but it's the Raiders (traditionally the most hated rival), it's a revenge game, and it's a national prime time game. 

Leading up to Sunday, I figured it would be fun to take a look back at the history of what's happened when my teams play on my birthday. 

I'll be counting Illinois and Chiefs since 2001, and Avalanche since 2011 when I moved to Colorado. 

First up, some notable games that were close, but not actually on my birthday. 

11/24/01 Illinois vs Northwestern - Illinois wins to secure a BCS berth in the Sugar Bowl

11/23/02 Illinois at Northwestern - Illinois wins to go 4-4 in the Big Ten

11/23/03 Chiefs vs Raiders - Chiefs win to improve to 10-1, giving me real hope that KC would go to the Super Bowl or at least win a playoff game

11/20/04 Illinois at Northwestern - Illinois loses the last football game for me as a student, going 1-7 in the Big Ten

11/20/10 Illinois vs #25 Northwestern in Chicago - Illinois ran all over a ranked Wildcats team in Wrigley Field, winning 48-27, and clinching a bowl game. LeShore set a school record with 330 rushing yards.

11/21/10 Chiefs vs Cardinals - Mrs. Hoagie Central and I attended this game in person, as part of a birthday weekend trip to Kansas City. Chiefs won big and I ate a ton of barbecue. Win-win.

11/27/16 Chiefs at Broncos - Yes, this was a full 5 days after. But it was one of the best Chiefs games I've ever seen. My last Chiefs-Broncos game as a Denver resident, the OT doink winner. Never forget. 

Birthday Games

11/22/03 Illinois vs Northwestern - loss

11/22/04 Chiefs vs Patriots - loss

11/22/08 Illinois at Northwestern - loss

11/22/09 Chiefs vs Steelers - The 2-7 Chiefs were hosting the 6-3 Steelers as a 9.5 home underdog. Won in overtime. Great game. 

11/22/14 Illinois vs Penn State - win, don't remember this at all

11/22/14 Avalanche vs Hurricanes - Mrs. Hoagie Central and I attended this game in person, the only Avs game that we went to together. And it was the first time since I became a fan that they came back from a late deficit and won in regulation. Awesome win. 

11/22/15 Chiefs at Chargers - This was the year the Chiefs started 1-5, but then rallied to 11-5 and give me the first Chiefs playoff win of my life. A blowout win on my birthday was great, and lead to something even better.

11/22/17 Avalanche vs Stars - win, don't remember this one

So there you go, I'm on a 5-game winning streak on my birthday. I haven't seen the Chiefs lose on my birthday since 2004. See you Sunday night. 

OKC / KC Thunder?

I just spent 20 minutes looking for a hoagie central post I was convinced I wrote and published but cannot find it. It would have had to be written since 2017 when I moved to KC. The gist was that some media outlet (I think it was Sports Illustrated) had a chart/ranking of sports cities and it counted the OKC Thunder as the NBA team in the KC market. 

I'm sure I had some opinions about it and then possibly came around to saying, maybe one day I'd consider being a Thunder fan...not sure, that's why I was trying to find it. Anyways, I wanted to see it because OKC Thunder now have 17 first round picks. 

Edit: As soon as I published, I found it in whatsapp...

That last comment should say I could take the boys.

I found the Ringer article it was referring to.

I guess no big conclusions, just the realization that of all the NBA teams that I could become a fan of, the choices are really Nuggets (where I used to live but never went to a game) or Thunder (closest to current home, KC/OKC connection). 

Though I don't really like the NBA that much and have been doing just fine not being a fan of a MLB/NBA team. 

I do think it's kind of fun that I've picked up a team(s) wherever I've lived. Grew up in KC, became a fan of the Chiefs. Moved to Illinois/went to U of I, became a fan of U of I football and basketball. Then moved to Colorado and became an Avalanche fan. Maybe Mrs. Hoagie Central will move us to the east or west coast one day and I'll adopt a baseball or basketball team one day.

i just had a really good lunch

2 Foster Farms buffalo chicken tenders + Bolthouse Farms blue cheese dressing 
bagged cabbage cole slaw mix + homemade low-cal southwest cole slaw dressing

Estimating 400 cals for chicken, 35 for blue cheese, 45 for cabbage, 70 for homemade dressing. Whole filling meal for 550-600 cals.

Super Bowl-winning Franchise QBs

Here is the complete list of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks since 2003, sorted by draft year.

P. Manning - 1998

Brady - 2000

Brees - 2001

Roethlisberger - 2004

E. Manning - 2004

Rodgers - 2005

Flacco - 2008

Wilson - 2012

Foles - 2012

Mahomes - 2017

So what's the point? Since Rodgers was drafted 15 years ago, there have only been 4 QBs to enter the league and win a Super Bowl. Flacco and Foles can both kinda be taken out of the equation as they were really guys that got hot for a playoff run, not true franchise QBs. 

So that leaves Wilson and Mahomes as the only Franchise QBs that have entered the league since 2005 and already won a Super Bowl. 

The opportunity to get a Super Bowl winning QB doesn't come along very often. 

Also it's really wild to think that in 2016 Mahomes throw for over 5,000 yards, 41 touchdowns, 10 interceptions at Texas Tech...and had a losing season at 5-7. 

Then he sat out 2017 on the bench behind Alex Smith. 

In his first season as a starter, he was NFL MVP in 2018, as only the second player ever to throw 50 touchdowns and 5,000 yards.

And in 2019 he became Super Bowl MVP. 

EDIT: One more thought I had. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl in the 2013 NFL Season, in Russell Wilson's 2nd season. Their success seemed to create a new blueprint for winning a title: spend your money on a great defense and then employ a serviceable QB on their rookie deal. It's that easy!

So far the only team to win a Super Bowl with a new QB...was the Chiefs. 

As it turns out, this whole modern idea of you don't need a great QB, just a QB on a rookie deal....looks like a joke. Wilson and Mahomes are MVP candidates every year now. Yes it helps that they were on a rookie deal, but this is not a replicable blueprint. Just ask the Bears or Texans who also drafted QBs in 2017. 

So the blueprint is actually what it's been for a while. Get a MVP QB and build around them the best you can. And even with Rodgers or Brees or Favre, you might only win one, but be happy you got that.

8-1

Chiefs get to the bye at 8-1 with conference wins over Ravens and Bills. KC doesn't play Titans or Steelers in the regular season.

The bye is at a great time as it should allow their OL to get healthy.

The next game is Sunday Night Football on my birthday, a chance to avenge their only loss to the Raiders. And it's after the bye, so Reid has an extra week to prepare while LV plays next week. 

The Steelers schedule is pretty soft so it seems likely the race for the #1 seed will come down to Chiefs and Steelers. Not sure who will own the tiebreaker if they have the same record yet. 

- - -

At any rate, the Run It Back campaign is right on track. Love to see that the Patriots are a non-factor. Ravens are still dangerous but so far seem to be taking a step back from last year. 

If it comes down to Steelers and Chiefs in the AFC Championship, I'll feel pretty good about Big Ben vs #MVPatrick.

Weight Loss by Month: October 2020

August:       12 pounds

September:  7 pounds

October:       8 pounds

So that's 27 in the last three months. I started 80 pounds above my goal weight which is crazy and awful to think about...but only 40 pounds above what I was in Colorado. By losing these 27, I've already gotten to the lowest weight that I've been at my current job, so that's something. 

And it's not like I have to get to my goal weight to see a difference. I'm already down a shirt size. It's a noticeable change. 

So for now, focused on two things: keeping the progress going through a season that includes my birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas and reaching that 40 pounds lost total, back to where I was when I left Colorado. 

- - -

Every month that I'm losing weight I'm gaining wisdom. A couple realizations about special occasions. 

1. The first is one that learned a long time ago. If you have a tendency to overeat and give yourself permission to do so on special occasions, you can find special occasions all the time. Just in October alone, I had an anniversary, good news from work, bad news about Rocky, Halloween, primetime Chiefs games and more. If you count Friday nights and meeting up with friends as reasons to treat yourself, well, you might have more special occasion days in a month than non-special occasions. 

2. On the other hand, when you do have a legit special occasion. Anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, it's not the one day or one meal that's going to throw you off. It's turning an anniversary into a weekend of eating or Thanksgiving into a week or Christmas into 2 weeks. I mean, I've had some good Christmas runs where I eat a ton of Hickory Farms meat cheese and crackers followed by slices of pie when I'm not even hungry all between meals. But that's where I get into trouble. In October, I was able to have a big anniversary dinner and get right back on track the next day. Gotta keep that same energy through the holidays. Easier said than done, of course. 

video game console timeline

 I did this for my cell phone history, figured I should keep track of my video game consoles too. 

NES

(released 1985)

circa 1988 - circa 1993

My first console. Started on Mario 1. Played lots of sports games like Tecmo Super Bowl, Tecmo Basketball, Nintendo World Cup, NES Play Action Football, Major League II, Blades of Steel. Mario 3 was awesome. Other notables: Tetris, Excitebike, Vegas Dream, Ducktales, Hoops, Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat. 

Sega Genesis

(released 1989)

circa 1993 - circa 1998

I remember wanting to play Mortal Kombat and my mom was not on board. We also discussed if we should buy our first computer. I remember convincing my parents that a Sega Genesis was much cheaper than a computer. The first game I got was NHL '94. An absolute classic. Bill Walsh College Football 95 was awesome. Then I got NHL '96 and it was even faster, better than the 94 version. I know I had a bunch of games, World Series Baseball (1994), NFL QB Club 96, FIFA 95. Basically I just liked sports games. 

Note: I pretty much missed out on everything from Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. Occasionally, I got to play Goldeneye at friend's house but was so inexperienced that I never really got to enjoy it. Same for Mario Kart. 

Sega Dreamcast

(released September 1999)

circa 2000 - circa 2005

My absolute favorite game from this system was Tony Hawk 2. Also played a ton of College Football 2k2. Some others I remember: Crazy Taxi, Spider-Man (2000), Sonic Adventure 2, Jet Grind Radio, NBA 2k1, Resident Evil series. 

Note: By high school I was able to visit friends and play a lot of PlayStation. In fact, because several friends had a PS1, I think that was a reason that I wanted the Dreamcast for variety. I fell in love with Metal Gear Solid, Tony Hawk 1, Driver, the Twisted Metal series, and Madden 2001 on the PS1. 

PS2

(released October 2000)

May 2005 - June 2008

So GTA3 came out in October 2001, a month after I started college. I did not have a PS2 but I wanted to play GTA3. So I did what anyone would do. Played the entirety of the game on Borello's PS2. I seriously logged 40+ sitting on his floor playing his game and system. NO REGRETS. I got through college on the Dreamcast, see above. But after I graduated, the Gamestop on campus was selling PS2 systems and games for very cheap. So I went ahead and picked one up at the end of its era. Good value. 

Got to play GTA Vice City and San Andreas, Metal Gear Solid 2, College Hoops 2k5 (including the Illinois Final Four team), NCAA 06, Burnout, Guitar Hero 3, Hitman Contracts/Blood Money and more. 

Just looked it up. I paid $16 for San Andreas in 2006. Got a bunch of great games at low prices, a few years after they came out. 

PS3

(released November 2006)

June 2008 - June 2015

I distinctly remember that I got the PS3 so I could play Grand Theft Auto IV. And it was awesome. 

I feel like the PS3 was a big step up from everything before this. This is the dividing line of modern gaming to me. PS3 is when I started playing online, there were trophies, you could even download games. 

On October 9, 2008, a little independent game called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars came out. It seemed cool so I paid for it, downloaded and was uploading highlight videos to youtube by October 13, 2008. 12 years later, Rocket League has over a million active players. But more on that later. 

The PS3 is where I got started on the Assassin's Creed series with the brilliant AC2. Likewise with Portal. 

Another reason I consider this the beginning of modern gaming? I literally have a record of all the games I've played. Anyone can scroll down and see all the games I've played right here. 

Loved Portal 2, The Saboteur, NHL 11, AC3, GTAV, Driver SF, Red Dead Redemption and plenty more. I distinctly remember logging 40+ hours in AC3 trying to complete everything before our second child was born and video games would go back on the shelf for a bit. 

Played that system a ton and after 7 years of constant use, it finally died. The first time a system ever stopped working before I moved on. 

PS4

(released November 2013)

August 2015 - Present

As it turned out, the PS3 dying in June 2015 wasn't the worst timing. Rocket League launched in July 2015 so I went ahead and got a PS4 in August 2015. Also got Madden 2015 and The Last of Us with the new system. 

The PS4 has been great to me. Love Hitman 1 + 2, Far Cry 4&5, Firewatch, Just Cause 3, Mafia 3, RDR 2, Spider-Man, and Tony Hawk remastered. 

Playstation has been good to me for the last 15 years and I'm sure I'll get a PS5 one day. I'm happy to wait a few years, so it can drop in price. I'm sure there will be a game that's only available on PS5 that will make me pull the trigger...or maybe the PS4 will die one day. 

(I also got a Nintendo Switch for the kids, and I play it occasionally with them, but don't consider that my console.)

Razor Thin Fantasy Football Margin

(warning: this post is not safe for mark) 

With 1:12 to go, the Falcons trailed the Lions by 2 points. Atlanta had the ball at the 10 yard line and Detroit was out of timeouts. Lots of ways for the Falcons to win this. Take two knees and kick a chip shot. Run for a few yards, take at least 35 seconds off the clock, run again—either score or kick a chip shot. 

Instead, Todd Gurley runs it up the middle and the Lions let them score. Gurly realizes a half-second too late and tries to stop but he can't. 

 

Of course, with over a minute left that gave the Lions enough time to come down and win, or enough time for the Falcons to choke another game away. 

Great news for Mark, right?

Well, as it happened, we both had a bunch of fantasy players going head to head in this game. I had Gurley, Golladay and Hockenson. He had Atlanta's kicker, Koo.

If Gurley stops at the 1 everything changes. Here's what happened in our fantasy game that really shouldn't have:

Gurley TD = 6 pts

Pass to Hockenson = 1.5 pts

Pass to Golladay = 3.5 pts

TD Pass to Hockenson = 7.5 pts

My players got 18.5 pts in the last minute of the Lions-Falcons game because Gurley scored. But also Mark's kicker would have been the one to score if Gurley had stopped.

No FG for Koo = -3 pts

That's a 21.5 point swing on this margin:

I ended up beating Mark this week by 7 points.

5-1

After Chiefs beat the Ravens and got to 3-0, I wrote that they had three tough games coming up but then three easy ones. That if they were 4-2 after six, I thought they would be 7-2 at the bye. 

They got to 5-1 despite a suspension and injuries in the secondary. And they're adding Leveon Bell so that CEH doesn't have to take 400 hits this year. 

I think they get to 8-1 and then beat the Raiders on my birthday. 

That's 9-1 plus wins over Denver and Atlanta in December. 

That leaves 4 games against Tampa, Miami, New Orleans and Chargers. Let's say 2-2 out of those 4. 

That's 13-3. With wins over Buffalo and Baltimore already, that #1 seed is looking very much in reach. 

- - -

It's kind of funny. Mahomes hasn't been his usual sensational self all year. Kinda bad last week, kinda not much passing yesterday. 

He's 4th in passer rating and 5th in adjusted yards per attempt. 5th in yards, 3rd in td passes. So that's what not his usual self looks like. Merely top five instead of #1.

Cool Thing I Just Noticed

This was the first Chiefs score in the playoffs. Damien Williams, going from left to right, holding the ball up in the left corner of the end zone.

This was the last Chiefs score in the playoffs, Damien Williams, going from left to right, holding the ball up in the left corner of the end zone.

 

HC Housekeeping 2020

The Hoagie Central 2020 Census is complete. 

I decided not to make any new world/society predictions as my 2010 predictions were for 50 years into the future and are still pending. 

So yeah, hope we're all still alive in 2030!

2020 Census: Projecting My Future

So no joke, I've thought about this post a ton over the last ten years. Not about projecting for 2030, but about seeing how close I came to achieving what I predicted back in 2010. 

From 2010: 

Where will I be in 10 years?

Well, let's recap where I'm at right now in 2010. I'm 26, a 5-year copywriter in Chicago. I'm married, no kids, and write in my free time but have nothing published.

In 2020, I predict I will be an ACD in Denver. I'll be married, have 2 kids, and I predict I'll have at least gotten one thing published.

ACD? I did become an Associate Creative Director in late 2016, but am currently a Senior Copywriter, one step below that. 

Denver? I lived in Denver for over five years but am currently in Kansas City. 

Married? I got divorced but then remarried the same woman.

2 kids? Yep. 

One thing published? I self-published 3 different books (which probably doesn't count) and then this year got articles published in other publications on Medium (which I think does count.)

- - -

In 2016, I had a choice to make: become an ACD in Kansas City or become an ACD in Denver. I chose Kansas City and that ultimately fell through. Final score on the prediction was 3 out of 5, although I did achieve the other two at some point in the last ten years. 

- - -

Okay, so let's recap where I am right now. 

I'm 36, a senior copywriter in Kansas City. I'm married, 2 kids and I make a lot of things in my free time. 

So where will I be in 10 years?

Dang. Who knows? I guess that's the point of this exercise. Okay, fine let's say Creative Director in Kansas City. I'll be married with 2 kids and my oldest starting college at NYU. I predict I'll continue to make things, including in some form or fashion that I haven't done yet. I'll go ahead and predict I'll be under 200 pounds too, something I'm not right now. 

Year of the Fym

Back in 2016, I consciously aspired to make my 33rd year the best year of my life. That turned out pretty well.

This year, I didn't set out to do the same, but a lot of things fell into place. Here's everything that's happened in just January and February: 

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl

I won a Gold Addy for the first time

Our whole family changed our eating habits and everyone lost a bunch of weight.

Just 47 days into the year, Mark had already crowned 2020: 

Perhaps that was a bit premature. 

Just a few weeks later, a global pandemic arrived in the United States. Many people lost their jobs. My industry was hit hard and salary affected. 

March Madness (including Illinois in the tournament) was cancelled. Our family vacations to San Diego and Peoria were cancelled. I gained back 21 of the 19 pounds I had lost. (Yep, at my highest weight during the pandemic I was two pounds heavier than when I started the year.)

It didn't seem safe to send the kids to school, so they started virtual school. Our dog is on his last legs. Working from home with all of the commotion going on is quite stressful. 

And all of that is with avoiding any personal connections to people getting sick or lives being upended in the California wildfires. 

- - -

For many people, I think it's safe to say 2020 has either been the most challenging or worst year of their lives. 

It's definitely not the celebratory year I was thinking it would be in February, having just gone to a Super Bowl parade. 

But... in the middle of such a terrible year, some other good things happened. I started writing on Medium, and even wrote a post that reached #1 on the site, far exceeding my expectations. 

I got my own basketball hoop in the backyard and play all the time. 

I've now officially lost the Corona 21 and am back at the weight I was when the pandemic started. 

And my job moved from Kansas City to Overland Park, cutting my commute time in half. It's a cool new office, so whenever I'm back in there full-time, it will be really nice. 

So is this the Year of the Fym?

Well, let's see what happens on November 3 first.

November 7 Edit: Okay, getting a normal president again is actually really incredible. 

So yeah, Year of the Fym. 

2020 Census: Favorite Movies

So I don't really rewatch a ton of movies. I feel like I used to do that more. Now there's so much content that I'm always ready to watch something new. Plus, a lot of my old favorite movies I've seen so much, that I'm not in the mood to watch them anymore, with a few exceptions. So how do I treat something that I have great fondness/nostalgia for, but that I haven't watched in 15 years? How do I compare that to a movie that I liked such as Ex Machina, but that I saw once a few years and barely remember?

Last year, I defined my wheelhouse AND made an ultimate movie calendar, so some of this work has already been done. 

Alright, I'm just going to start listing movies that I like and see where that gets me:

Groundhog Day

Edge of Tomorrow

Mission Impossible franchise

Shawshank Redemption

Inside Man

National Treasure franchise

Now You See Me franchise

Ocean's 11 franchise

John Wick franchise

Back to the Future franchise

The Game, Seven, Fight Club, Social Network, Panic Room, Gone Girl

Memento, Dark Knight, Prestige, Inception, Tenet

Inglorious Basterds

Good Will Hunting

The Martian, Arrival

Anchorman

The Big Sick

Lebowski

Anything with Hanks or Denzel and just about anything with Cruise

Okay, so that's a lot of movies. And I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch. 

I saw Pulp Fiction and Fargo a few years ago and they weren't as good as I had remembered. Maybe I had just seen them too much. 

I haven't seen Adaptation or Eternal Sunshine in forever, so I don't know how to rank them. 

And what do I do with all these franchises? It's hard to make a top 5 of favorite movies with so many franchises. 

Sorry, 2030 Dave. This list is the best I could do. 

2010 version

Rocket League Hoops Comeback

Here's a online game of hoops. I'm on top half, G is on bottom half. We were down 0-2 but came back for the win.

THPS

Here's a clip where I did all four of Tony Hawk's special tricks in one combo.

2020 Census: Favorite Video Games

 With most of the categories, it's interesting to see how things evolve over time. Do the same music, movies and books that I liked in 2010 still appeal to me in 2020, that kind of thing. But video games are different. 

My favorite video games from older systems aren't going to change.

At the moment, the only consoles I play are PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Aside from that, I'll play the occasional PC game, but that's <1% of my video game time. 

So my favorite games from NES all the way though PS3 aren't going to change. The only thing I can do is list my favorite games that I've played since 2010. 

Favorite Video Games this Decade

Hitman 1 + 2 (PS4)

Rocket League (PS4)

Far Cry 4 (PS4)

Just Cause 3 (PS4)

Firewatch (PS4)

Assassin's Creed III (PS3)

Grand Theft Auto V (PS3)

Red Dead Redemption (PS3)

Portal 2 (PS3)

Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)

2010 version

not photoshopped