Hell Week Begins & A Renaming

 

I celebrate Hell Week the same way y'all celebrate Halloween or Christmas. Starting this morning, I get to play my role as the days lead up to Sunday's season opener between the Los Angeles (AirBnB) Chargers and my Las Vegas Raiders. I fly my Raiders flags with pride, especially this extra special one.

Have you heard the phrase, "Talk shit, get hit"? It's often uttered in contact sports like football and hockey, and that flag on my front porch is the equivalent of that. It marks the three times the Raiders hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl Champions, and every time a Bolts fan tells me my team sucks I get to point to that flag and ask them, "Where's yours?"

Why am I a Raider fan living in the Bolts's former home? To be a Raider fan is to join forces with other misfits, eccentrics, and even a few bad apples for a common cause. In every day life, many of us are outcasts. We're brown or Black. We march to a different drummer. We may have a different sexual orientation. Hell, we can be God fearing Christians yet enjoy putting the fear of God into others!

But we have a few things in common that bond us. We carry ourselves with Pride, no matter who we are or how we identify. We have the Poise to stand up to the slings and arrows hurled at us from people who think they're part of the "in" crowd. We strive for Excellence at whatever we do, because the late Al Davis would never settle for less. With fans like Tiger Woods, James Garner, Magic Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Natalie Coughlin and even Margot Robbie, we have standards to uphold.

In summary, we're very comfortable with -- and even relish -- the idea that we're the outsiders of society and we just don't give a fuck what others think. 

As for myself, despite having a moral compass I LOVE playing the dashing villain in this NFL drama.

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On a side note, I've decided to rename the MINI Countryman. She will now be known as Artoria, after Artoria Pendragon (Saber) from the Fate series. That's why I put her avatar over her license plate in the picture above. 

Every time I look at that image of Artoria sitting on her Yamaha bike while wielding Excalibur I can't help but be reminded of those blue and black colors. The fact she was King Arthur in her former life and the MINI has Union Jack taillights and mirror caps is very fitting.

A new acrylic keychain similar to Miku's, and by the same artist, is on the way from Etsy. I hope to share that with y'all in about a week.