祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Not today Justin
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blake kathryn
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Xuebing Du
occasionally subtle
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trying on a metaphor
Cosimo Galluzzi
izzy's playlists!
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Sade Olutola
almost home
@theartofmadeline
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
h
Peter Solarz
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shark vs the universe
seen from T1
seen from T1
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from France
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Malaysia
seen from France
seen from T1
seen from Malaysia
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seen from United States
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@eightytwoand0incoming
Games 25, 26, and 27
So what have we learned?
What lesson can be taken away from such a small sample size? Is there one piece of information that can be extrapolated to make some bold prediction about the future?
Well, dear readers, try this one on for size: 114 points in three games. 23 made threes over the same span.
Damian Lillard is back.
Blazers potential record: 70-12
Games 22, 23, and 24
To everything, there is a season.
And dear readers, now that Damian Lillard has returned, the season has begun once again.
That, and a two-game winning streak, cancels out a two-game losing. It’s not possible to argue with math.
Blazers potential recored: 71-11
Game 21
Growth. It never ends.
You may be thinking to yourself, dear readers, that the time for growing and learning has passed and that now is the time for being full grown and well learned, but the truth is, you never stop growing.
So what do you call blowing a 20-point second half lead and a five-point lead in the fourth quarter with under five minutes to play and letting Norman FUCKING Powell hang twenty on the board to close the game?
You call that an opportunity for growth.
Blazers potential record: 72-10
Game 20
It’s ok to believe that things will get better.
But sometimes, thinking something will get better can be a distraction from the fact that what exists is also pretty good.
Not great, maybe, but still good enough to make you feel like better is only better by degrees.
Because lets be honest, dear readers, if somebody told you the Portland Trail Blazers would have 11 wins through 20 games, you’d take it.
Blazers potential record: 73-9
Games 17, 18, and 19
Sometimes it’s important to balance the scales.
Four losses doesn’t equal two wins, but sometimes one win, dear readers, is all you need to get back in the saddle.
Blazers potential record: 74-8
Game 16
Expectations can be a wild thing.
You can’t expect to always win, and you definitely can’t expect to win a game in which Damian Lillard misses 11 three-pointers.
But do not fear, dear readers, the expectations shouldn’t change.
The Portland Trail Blazers (losers of two in a row by a combined seven points) are still going to win the NBA Championship.
Blazers potential record: 76-6
Game 15
Sometimes it just happens like that.
Dear readers, the ball doesn’t always bounce your way.
Blazers potential record: 77-5
Game 14
Who’s to say what matters. Who makes the decision as to what counts?
You try hard to make everything perfect, and you find out a single imperfection renders the entire exercise futile. The pursuit of perfect will almost always end in failure because perfection, by its very nature, is unachievable.
True perfection is a myth.
True perfection is the enemy.
So what do you say, dear readers, to giving up 31 points to Jakob Poeltl, to needing just enough from everybody to have a chance against a team hoping to lose more games than they win.
You say: The Portland Trail Blazers are in sole possession of first place in the Western Conference.
Blazers potential record: 78-4
Game 13
Let’s go home.
There are times, dear readers, when that’s all there is to say.
Blazers potential record: 78-4
Game 12
What is it like to see the future?
It’s hard to say. We want to believe we can guess what might be coming for us. We hope that tomorrow will be better than today.
But what is it like when we can actually see the future?
Dear readers, it’s like looking down the bench and seeing Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic in street clothes and Gary Payton The Second yet to officially wear the Red and the Black and Shaedon Sharpe getting the night off because we don’t want to hurt CJ McCollum’s feelings too bad because deep down inside, despite the fact we all love him we know this Blazer team is better without him.
It’s like watching Jerami Grant go dribble, dribble, dribble, jab step and Zion Williams try to go left and right at the same time and then Jerami Grant go... you know the rest.
We’ve seen the future. It looks nice.
Blazers potential record: 79-3
Game 11
Sometimes it’s just that easy.
All it is, dear readers, is taking care of business.
Blazers potential record: 79-3
Game 10
The only constant is change, but sometimes that change is constant.
What does that mean, you ask? Well dear readers, it means this:
The Blazers have such a wide variety of weapons that when you think one of them is going to beat you (Jerami Grant) or old reliable is going to beat you (Damian Lillard) or possibly the next man up might beat you (Anfernee Simons), the reality is, there’s another guy who is also going to beat you. And maybe it’s because you were so busy trying to stop all those other guys.
Don’t sleep.
Josh Hart is here. And. He. Will. Beat. You.
Blazers potential record: 79-3
Game 9
It doesn’t matter.
Dear readers, unless they somehow manage to avoid a completely expected post-season meltdown, we won’t have to watch Chris Paul play the Blazers again until the Conference Finals.
And that’s a good thing.
Blazers potential record: 79-3
Game 8
Nothing happens by accident.
The world turns every day, and travels around the sun every year. Things happen over and over, and things happen seemingly at random.
These two things often appear at odds with each other, but it’s not true. What is true, dear readers, is that those things that appear random are in fact not that at all.
Every event that occurs is like the turning of the planet, fated to happen because it must happen. Because the path has been drawn.
A buzzer-beater by Jerami Grant to beat the Phoenix Suns and reclaim the number one spot in the Western Conference might seem random.
In fact, that game-winning play was set in motion on March 12th, 1994. The day Jerami Grant was born in the city of Portland, Oregon.
Some people are born legendary. It’s their fate.
Blazers potential record: 80-2
Game 7
Where’s the harm in optimism?
Maybe it’s that when we want to see sun when it’s raining we end up outside in a downpour soaking wet.
Certainly there’s no real harm in feeling a bit of rain on our collective faces, dear readers.
Certainly there’s nothing wrong with watching Keon Johnson hit clutch buckets or a Damian Lillard-less Blazers put an over-hyped Grizzlies squad on the ropes after they’d pompously assumed the game was academic.
Believe that there are better times ahead is always the right choice, if the other option is to dwell in sorry and defeat.
Besides, the Lakers have as many wins as the Blazers have losses.
Blazers potential record: 80-2
Game 6
There is beauty in repetition.
Like the tenth hour of a light but persistent rain storm.
The sound and fury may have passed, there’s nothing to be feared, and all that’s left is the somnolent and repetitive sound of rain hitting the roof top lulling us into a sense of serenity and calm.
Something like.
Nurk, dunk. Nurk, dunk. Nurk, dunk. Nurk, dunk. Nurk, dunk. Nurk, dunk.
Dear readers, when this rhythm is established, it feels like home.
We want to live in it forever, and let’s hope we do.
Blazers potential record: 81-1
Game 5
Bad things happen, it’s the nature of life.
There are two ways to turn when something bad happens. You can fold, believe that all that was once good is now the opposite, act as if the sun will never rise again.
Or, you can choose to push through. Recognize in times of the deepest darkness even the smallest amount of light shines bright.
Some may call this finding a silver lining.
Personally, dear readers, I think about it thus: The Lakers are still yet to win a game.
Blazers potential record: 81-1