As For Football’s Guide to Sports Gambling (Beta Test)

I'm gonna republish this since we're heading back into college football season. I never figured out how to make this work for the larger AFF audience, but I still think the original piece has something to say to the new, younger generation that's just discovering sports gambling.

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Sports gambling enthusiasts will argue that betting on sports makes the games themselves more exciting, especially games in which the viewer has little to no rooting interest. This may be true. However, gambling can also be addictive, and as a matter of reality, it’s next to impossible to win often enough on an ongoing-basis to make money gambling. 

Yes, pro-bettors exist. However, the good ones, like Steve Fezzik, often have advanced degrees in a field like Statistics and often also have experience as bond traders in the financial markets, especially via international finance and currency trading. I’m talking about trading real currencies here, not Bitcoin. These guys are used to doing the grinding work of evaluating international corporate spreadsheets and macro-economic currency trends to find opportunities in international debt markets. There’s nothing sexy about any of this unless you happen to truly enjoy statistics and probability.

If you’re wondering, I myself have an MBA in International Finance from Fordham University plus a very long history playing the most statistics-driven game of all time, tabletop Dungeons and Dragons. Unsurprisingly, Statistics became my favorite course at Business School, and here we are.

Ross Tucker's "Even Money" podcast, starring Steve Fezzik, is my favorite betting podcast

Final Thoughts: Swim Across the Sound 2025

We did the Swim Across the Sound this past Saturday, and it went really well.

We had kind of a different event this year. After years with the original Team RBG, none of my habitual teammates could make this one. I initially reached out to Race Director Liz Fry to just fold me into someone else’s team, but Liz didn’t want that. She wanted to keep Team RBG a going concern.

Team RBG before the Swim

Update: Team RBG & the Swim Across the Sound

Friends, 

I’d like to start off by saying, “Thank you!” to everyone who has donated to me and to Team RBG for this year’s Swim Across the Sound. Cancer sucks, and it affects a Hell of a lot of people, and in many cases, those folks’ lives get destroyed even if they somehow manage to survive the disease itself. The good news is that we as a society can help. However, this does not change the fact that huge amounts of people will have to fight cancer at some point over the course of their lives.

Team RBG in 2024

Everyone will be affected by cancer, either directly or through the experience of a loved one. I therefore thank you all for taking up arms in this literal battle for survival.

Donate to the Swim Across the Sound

Styx Setlist

Sally and I are heading out to see Styx with Eagles' guitarist Don Felder and REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin early next month. 

You'll find the full set list below.

Styx performing in 2017 (via Wikipedia).

#AsForDynamite: Would-Be AEW Podcast Plan

Friends, I’ve accepted that I am never going to have time to do #AsForDynamite, my would-be AEW podcast built on the As For Football model. I spent some time pondering the idea on the train the other day, and I think I -- finally -- know how to actually do the show and make it work. Absent the time and effort to full-on create this thing, let’s at least talk about how it might work.

Update to Yesterday’s Swimming Update

I’m just gonna complain for a minute, so if you’re not into that, cool, but you might want to pass on this post.

Swim Training Update

My Swim Across the Sound team fell apart a few weeks ago. It happens. Folks have lives and real-world concerns, and for better or worse, not everyone can make themselves available on the first Saturday in August every single year. After all the years I’ve been able to rely on this same small group of people, it’s somebody else’s turn to do their part now. I reached out to the race director for help fielding a team last week, but before I did that, I considered just swimming the damn thing solo. Not because I wanted to but to smooth out the logistics.

In the water for the Swim Across the Sound, 2022.

Swim Across the Sound Update: Swimmer(s) Needed!

Hi everyone.

I don't know if anyone lives at all close to Coastal Connecticut, but I am in dire need of an open water swimmer or two.

I've run a Swim Across the Sound team for the last few years, raising money for St. Vincent's Hospital's Cancer Center. This year, unfortunately, most of my team can't make it. I reached out to the charity a couple of weeks ago, and I *think* that they can give me at least two for the team. However, I still need at least one more, and here we are.

Team RBG at last year's Swim.

If you are at all interested, you can find more information via this link right here. I'm not much on social media these days, but I'm happy to answer questions as best I can.

Thanks in advance.

#GoArmy #BEATcancer

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Greetings from Northern Vermont

 In case you're wondering how things are going up in Vermont this week...

We're living in the winter of perfect conditions here in the Northeast. It's been snowing virtually every day. If you don't mind dressing warmly, life has been pretty good. Conditions then warmed up yesterday, and now, I think maybe we're into spring skiing for the rest of the season.

Which is fine, if I'm being honest.

Stowe Mountain as seen from a chairlift

Tales from the Tipsy Mermaid

It occured to me Thursday as I was working on the newly updated D&D archives for this very blog that I've got more than enough material here to create an entire Wanderhaven sourcebook. I think I might actually do that, using the pay-what-you-want model on DriveThruRPG and also maybe drop the damned thing as a free download on Amazon. I'll then add a link in the Foreword where folks can support my other projects, and with luck, that will actually help sell a few copies of other stuff I've written.

I'll have to use AI for all the art, unfortunately, which is a very large part of why I do not want to charge for this "new" project. I realize full well that modern AI creates via statistically driven machine-plagiarism, and that charging for other people's work is a sin. 

Nevertheless, I feel like I should still do *something* with all this stuff.

Anyway. Behold this cover for the would-be Wanderhaven sourcebook, TALES FROM THE TIPSY MERMAID. 

What do you think, friends?

D&D Adventure Archives

Friends, I get requests almost every day for the PDF version of "The Mystery of Malvern Manor". 

I expanded "Malvern Manor" into "Mordecai's Monster"
a few years ago for EN Publishing.

Swim Across the Sound 2025

Friends,

As many of you know, I will be competing in the Swim Across the Sound to support St. Vincent's Hospital's Cancer Center again this year. 2025 marks a decade with the Swim for me. I first competed as part of "Team Y-Me?" way back in 2015. We've learned a lot and raised a lot of money in that time. This year can and should be our best year ever!

Action shot of me from the Swim in 2017.