NERDS ROUND TOWN
Avengers Endgame, Game of Thrones, Esports and coral reefs
Apr 15, 2019, 7:31 am
NERDS ROUND TOWN
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
Hey Nerds!
Alright, ignore the hangovers and shake off the miss the weekend blues, it's the most important day of the week, MONDAY!
This week we're going to focus on helping some people right in the circle of nerds, at the Spring Charity Drag Show. It's a themed drag show within Houston's nerd community and will feature pop culture, gaming and nerd icons as well as prominent drag queens in the "Gaymer" community. The proceeds go towards this group which all year long put on events for their community and give those people a place to go and be accepted.
The Hosuton Outlaws played their first game of Stage Two and started off with another loss. They were playing the talented Vancouver Titans who won the Stage One playoffs, but they posted a lowly 1-3 match score and honestly they didn't impress in the outing. Other than Stage 1 of the first season, The Outlaws have struggled to find consistent rhythm and sound strategy and honestly, they've been losers and this initial loss in Stage Two now drops them back to 12th place in the standings and doesn't present a lot of of hope for this season either. Hopefully there's a change in team coordination or maybe it's a chemistry change that has to be made and a trade is necessary but either way, as it's presently composed, The Houston Outlaws aren't much of a threat in the Overwatch League.
For those who sometimes feel like one man (or woman) can't make a difference, this little tidbit should give you hope. Single time plastic usage has dropped over 50% in just one year, and in the UK they're calling it the "Attenborough effect". Essentially the concept is that data taken in the UK has broken down that while women and the newer generation are most swayed by the messaging in things, even Men at a strong rate have been moved to take an interest in the amount of plastics being used and where they go afterwards. Named after the guy who has put two different docu-series about nature on Netflix (Blue Planet II and Our Planet), David Attenborough. It's very cool to know that people are actively getting involved, they're seeing the effect we're having on this world and realizing we aren't being very good guests and trying to do better. So what difference can one man make, a lot if he tries. So are we all trying enough?
Now I'm not a marine biologist and I don't pretend to even understand the importance of coral reefs. I've been told they are massively important to the ocean's ecosystems but I couldn't give you a lot of reasons why. I know they're dying due to the rise in seawater temperatures oceans wide and that without them overall the ecosystems of the oceans are in danger and that between 25 and 40% of them have now died off in these current conditions. Recent breakthroughs though may have finally given conservationists a short cut to helping these reefs grow back and going back to the previous articles question of "can one man change the world?" we have one man to thank for it. David Vaughan basically discovered by accident that you can sort of replant the reef over and over and it's base system can break off, stay behind and continue to grow helping speed up the process of regrowing large coral reefs in a much shorter amount of time. So that's pretty cool, Apocalypse delayed.
So tickets are available in pre-sale for Avenger's Endgame which still doesn't come out until NEXT weekend, but the sales have soared to record breaking levels. It's is incredible to see and think, but Avengers Endgame has now sold more pre-sale tickets than Aquaman, Avengers Infinity War, Star Wars The Last Jedi and Captain Marvel combined! Those were the top four movies in pre sales before Avengers came through, meaning this thing is rolling through all the records. This is a essentially a 20 plus movie pay off and there's no telling where the numbers on this thing could go with some estimates have an opening weekend at a mind crushing $800 million. The story of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor may be seemingly coming to an end but the world and Disney will always have Avengers, so it'll be interesting to see what comes next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Game of Thrones debuted last night and don't worry there will be no spoilers here, but for people who have watched from the beginning, how exciting is it now that all the heroes of this story are in one place now? They're all together and they're all preparing to fight against the army of the dead. It's a fascinating story and I'm very intrigued by the finale of this show but honestly if they end this show with some weak, punk ending I'm going to be very unhappy. And if they end this show like the Sopranos with questions unanswered, I'm going to be even more angry. The bar is high but so far they're well over it.
I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Monday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Tuesday and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House, or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where every shirt is now under $20 or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
Adding a player of Kevin Durant’s caliber was too valuable an opportunity for the Houston Rockets to pass up, even though it meant moving on from Jalen Green just four seasons after they drafted him second overall.
Durant was officially acquired from Phoenix on Sunday in a complicated seven-team transaction that sent Green and Dillon Brooks to the Suns and brought Clint Capela back to Houston from the Hawks.
General manager Rafael Stone is thrilled to add the future Hall of Famer, who will turn 37 in September, to a team which made a huge leap last season to earn the second seed in the Western Conference.
Asked Monday why he wanted to add Durant to the team, Stone smiled broadly before answering.
“He’s Kevin Durant,” Stone said. “He’s just — he’s really good. He’s super-efficient. He had a great year last year. He’s obviously not 30 anymore, but he hasn’t really fallen off and we just think he has a chance to really be impactful for us.”
But trading Green to get him was not an easy decision for Stone, Houston’s general manager since 2020.
“Jalen’s awesome, he did everything we asked,” Stone said. “He’s a wonderful combination of talent and work ethic along with being just a great human being. And any time that you have the privilege to work with someone who is talented and works really hard and is really nice, you should value it. And organizationally we’ve valued him tremendously, so yeah very hard.”
Green was criticized for his up-and-down play during the postseason when the Rockets were eliminated by the Warriors in seven games in the first round. But Green had improved in each of his four seasons in Houston, leading the team in scoring last season and playing all 82 games in both of the past two seasons.
Pressed for details about why Green's time was up in Houston, Stone wouldn't get into specifics.
“It’s the NBA and you can only do trades if a certain amount of money goes out and a certain amount comes in and there’s some positional overlap or at least overlap in terms of on ball presence,” he said. “And so that’s what the deal required.”
In Durant, the Rockets get a veteran of almost two decades who averaged 26.6 points and six rebounds a game last season and has a career average of 27.2 points and seven rebounds.
Houston loves the veteran experience and presence that Durant brings. Stone noted that the team had arranged for some of its players to work out with him in each of the past two offseasons.
“His work ethic is just awesome,” Stone said. “The speed at which he goes, not in a game … but the speed at which he practices and the intensity at which he practices is something that has made him great over the years and it started when he was very young. So of all the things that I hope rubs off, that’s the main one I think is that practice makes perfect. And I think one of the reasons he’s had such an excellent career is because of the intensity with which he works day in day out.”
Durant is a 15-time All-Star and four-time scoring champion, who was the Finals MVP twice. The former Texas Longhorn is one of eight players in NBA history to score at least 30,000 points and he won NBA titles in 2017 and 2018 with the Warriors.
Now he’ll join a team chasing its first NBA title since winning back-to-back championships in 1994-95.
“Everything has to play out, but we do — we like the fit,” Stone said. “We think it works well. We think he will add to us and we think we will help him.”