Month: July 2024

Overhearing someone talking negatively about you behind your back can be devastating, but hearing someone talk about you positively can be life-changing in the best way. Especially, perhaps, when that someone is your mother-in-law.

Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships are known for being a mixed bag, with some being notoriously filled with conflict and fault-finding. But one mother-in-law’s secret habit of letting her daughter-in-law eavesdrop on her when she thinks she accidently forgot to hang up the phone has people cheering her thoughtfulness.

In response to the question, “What secret are you currently hiding from someone that you’re willing to share on Reddit?” user Kindly-Article-9357 wrote:

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“I’ve started to on occasion ‘accidentally’ (but on purpose) not hang up my phone correctly when getting off a call with my daughter-in-law.

I then proceed to talk to my husband about how much I enjoy talking to her, how lovely I think she is, how glad I am that our son chose her, and whatever other boost I may think she needs.

She doesn’t have any family that uplifts her, just the kind that tears her down.”

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“I started doing this after my son told me about his wife coming to him in full-on snot tears, because I had once butt dialed her while talking to my husband about her. She stayed on the line to hear what I ‘really’ thought of her, expecting the worst because that’s been her experience of family.

Apparently, she was quite touched by the things I said, and my son told me it gave her a confidence boost that lasted weeks.

So I do it more often now. Neither of them have any idea I do it on purpose, though. They just think I’m getting old and worse at managing my tech.”

People loved how the woman went out of her way to not only let her daughter-in-law know she thinks she’s great but to do it in a way that might truly make her believe it. Having someone praise you to your face is great, but hearing it from someone who doesn’t know you’re listening just hits different.

“Years ago we called my parents to tell them we were expecting our 2nd child. My dad failed to hang up when the call ended and I heard him tell my mom how glad he was to get the news because we were such good parents. I have NEVER forgotten that sweet affirmation that wouldn’t have hit as true if he had said it TO me.”

“Similarly, I talk about my 7 year old to my friends and family and discuss how amazing he is. He can be all the way in his room but I know he’s listening (he’s nosey). I can tell it boosts his confidence. It’s one thing to tell someone directly, but it hits different when you’re ear hustling.”

“I once heard, ‘Kids think about themselves based on how we talk about them. What they hear is what they believe.’ I think each of us has an inner kid that feels the same, to some extent. And I’m sure her inner kid needed to hear those things.”

“My boyfriend did this accidentally one day at work…he and I both forgot to hang up and I heard him talking to his coworker, I was afraid I’d hear something I didn’t like not that he has ever spoken ill abt me to anyone I just have low self esteem..but he went on to tell his buddy how smart I am, how I just know all sorts of neat and interesting facts how I teach him something new everyday and I just melted I tried yelling into the phone to tell him I love him but obvs he couldn’t hear lol its the lil things in life that I cling to most.”

“I do this any time people leave a conversation. Just before they leave the room, I say to the rest of the group, ‘I love hanging out with XX’ or ‘XX is just so nice.’ Or when someone is leaving the car, you do it right before they close the door.”

It’s a good reminder to talk positively about people whether they’re around or not. Only good can come from lifting others up, especially when they weren’t even meant to hear it in the first place.

A viral TikTok video reveals the vast differences in how 2 generations of women view young girls being bullied and it shows how far our culture has come in just a few decades. The video was created by Jackie, a certified spiritual life coach and a narcissistic abuse survivor.

It all started when a young boy at art camp bullied her 8-year-old daughter.

“She shared with me that there’s been a boy at the camp that’s been bullying her all week. So, she said today that he was painting and he had hand paint all over his hands. When the teacher asked him to go to the bathroom to wash his hands, he walked up to my daughter and rubbed his hands all over her hair. He then gave her the loser sign and stuck his tongue out at her,” Jackie shared.

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The mom and daughter talked over the situation and everything seemed settled.

@jfabfindingauthenticity

Be careful about what nonsense youre conditining your children to accept #abuse #emtoionalabuse #parenting #bullying #generationaltrauma #socialconditioning #stop #patriarchy

Later that day, the daughter shared the incident with her grandmother. “So my mom says, ‘Do you know why he did that?’ And my daughter says, ‘Why?’ And my mom says with a big smile, ‘Because he likes you,” her response set off alarm bells in Jackie’s mind.

“I immediately cut her off. I said, ‘No! We are not teaching my eight-year-old daughter that when a boy treats you like sh*t, it means that he likes you.’ She is not learning that garbage,” Jackie recalled.

The grandmother’s response to the bullying seemed to echo the values of a bygone era when women weren’t encouraged to stand up to abusive men.

Jackie then explained to her daughter why she was the victim of bullying.

“He feels unseen at home in some capacity, and he’s internalized that. He doesn’t like himself very much. So he needs to make other people feel bad about themselves so he feels better,” she continued. “This is the same reason why grown-ups are abusive. They don’t like themselves, and they feel entitled to take it out on you. It’s not because they like you. In fact, it has nothing to do with you,” she concluded.

A young girl crying on the steps outside of school. via Zhivko Minkov/Unsplash

Ashley Patek, an occupational therapist and certified parenting coach, agrees with Jackie’s view, saying, “He just likes you,” sets a dangerous precedent.

“‘Maybe he just likes you’ are dangerous words that seem to condone bullying behavior under the guise of affection,” Patek writes in Generation Mindful. “But let’s be clear here: name-calling, unwanted attention and remarks, violence, harassment, and abuse are not acceptable. If anything it puts young children in a position to think that 1) it is okay to be treated that way or 2) that they deserve to be treated that way. Essentially, it programs them to accept abuse.”

Author and family life expert Lynne Griffin believes it’s important for young boys and girls to develop healthy friendships, which will greatly impact their adult lives. “Encouraging healthy boy/girl friendships is the best way you can teach your child about healthy adult relationships” — including friendships, romantic relationships, work relationships, and more,” she wrote in Psychology Today.

Jackie’s caption on the video was a wake-up call for parents to challenge old, dangerous parenting ideas that persist today. “Be careful about what nonsense you’re conditioning your children to accept,” she wrote in the video’s caption.

National treasure RuPaul is best known as the creator and host of “Drag Race,” a TV show that has nothing to do with automobiles. Although, the competition is as hot as a street race with drag queens fighting to see who has the fiercest fashion, persona and performance skills.

Recently, he shocked millions of people on TikTok with a video many saw was out of character for the “Supermodel” singer; he gave a lesson on how to parallel park your car. The video was a smash on the platform, receiving over 13 million views because it was fun and surprisingly informative.

“Unironically the most understandable parallel parking tutorial I’ve ever seen thanks mama ru,” one of the commenters on the video wrote.

The TikTok video works because RuPaul shares a simple way for people to align themselves with the space they want by paying attention to their passenger-side door, or PSD, as he calls it. “The secret to parallel parking is the passenger’s side door or PSD. Your PSD has a front seam and a back seam,” RuPaul shares in the video.

@rupaulofficial

Bumper? I hardly know her! Parallel parking made easy!

Here are some easy steps to parallel park like RuPaul.

1. Pull your car side by side the car in front of the open spot you would like to take

2. Give yourself about 12 inches of space between your side door and their driver’s side door

3. Put your car in reverse

4. Once the back seam of your PSD is aligned with the car in front, cut your wheel into the parking spot

5. Once the front seam of your PSD is aligned with the back bumper of the car in front, cut your wheel in the opposite direction

“Voila! Yay!,” RuPaul pronounces after successfully parking his convertible. “You have been promoted.”

Commenters were impressed with RuPaul’s simple technique. “RuPaul explained this better than my driving teacher,” one commenter wrote. “Unironically, the most understandable parallel parking tut I’ve ever seen, thanks, mama ru,” another added.

Some say that the reason RuPaul made the video was because of the unfounded stereotype that gay men are bad at driving.

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But it’s more likely RuPaul shared the tip because he started driving at a young age and one of his first jobs was as a driver. On a 2020 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” RuPaul admitted that he began driving at 11.

“I’m from San Diego. When I was 11, my father lived in Cerritos up here near Los Angeles and we would spend the summers with him. He would go to work. Eleven years old, I would steal the keys from his Toyota Corona,” RuPaul recalled. “I would drive around Cerritos in my father’s Toyota Corona, only making right turns because I was too afraid to make left turns. Only making right turns in the neighborhood.”

Then, as a teenager, RuPaul moved from San Diego, California, to Atlanta, Georgia, and took a job driving luxury cars from California to Atlanta and back for his brother-in-law, who would flip them for a profit. “Americans have always been frontiersmen, people who are open to a new adventure, and I felt this as I drove cars alone, back and forth, across the United States,” he wrote in his 2024 memoir, “The House of Hidden Meanings.”

By now the Haka is easily recognizable thanks to social media helping to spread Māori culture. The war dance that creates exaggerated animated faces out of the people participating is done for special occasions, funerals and yes, even rugby games. New Zealand’s ruby team the All Blacks do the Haka before their rugby matches on the field in front of their opponents.

Typically during the Haka the opponents watch respectfully before the whistle blows and the teams face off. But the All Blacks aren’t the only ones coming to the field with their traditional war dance. The All Blacks stood center field across Fiji’s national union rugby team, the Flying Fijians who greeted the New Zealanders with the Cibi.

The Cibi is the Fijian traditional war dance that has been performed at rugby games since 1939, with similar emotion and gestures of the Haka. Like the Haka, the Cibi is generally performed during celebrations though it started as a dance performed before or after war.

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The All Blacks recently shared a video of the two teams facing off before the rugby match, each doing their cultural dances. It was such a powerful exchange of culture and people couldn’t believe they had never seen or heard of the Fijian war dance.

“I’ve seen the haka many times. always gives me the chills. this is the first time I’ve ever seen the cibi. that was cool! thanks,” one person shares.

“Well now I am going to fall down a rabbit hole watching Cibi, just like I did the first time I saw a haka,” another writes.

” HAVE to stop when I see Haka! Thank you for introducing me to Cibi. These are beautiful expressions,” a commenter reveals.

“The pacific islands have so many beautiful cultures, it’s always fascinating to see how they share similar characteristics but are each so unique,” someone else says.

This isn’t the first time the All Blacks and Flying Fijians have exchanged war dances and it certainly won’t be the last but to watch both cultures express their traditional dance is something everyone can appreciate. The All Blacks and the Flying Fijians play against each other again July 19 in San Diego, find where to watch it here.

(Mega spoilers for The Boys will be found below.)

Are you still breathing after fourth season finale of The Boys? Everything has suddenly gone down hill for the vigilantes, and through no victory of his own, Homelander is now the de facto U.S. leader after the rapid presidential ascendance of the Speaker of the House, who pledged his allegiance to Homie of the Seven (thanks to Sister Sage). Homelander then declared martial law and deputized Supes to round up anybody who opposes them.

This, of course, is very bad for The Boys group, and in light of certain current events, Amazon/Sony Pictures TV issued a statement including, “The Boys is a fictitious series that was filmed in 2023, and any scene or plotline similarities to these real-world events are coincidental and unintentional. Amazon, Sony Pictures Television and the producers of The Boys reject, in the strongest terms, real-world violence of any kind.”

With that said, the episode was formerly titled “Assassination Run” but has since been changed to merely “Season 4 Finale.” Additionally, the Shifter’s assassination plot did get thwarted when Starlight escaped captivity. Butcher then showed up — Suped and tentacle’d to the gills — and ripped Victoria Neumann in half, followed by Sister Sage releasing a tape that took Robert Singer out of the White House. And so, Homelander is now in charge with most of the vigilantes taken into custody in the episode’s final moments. Now it’s time to rank where the characters ended up this season.

Unranked: Soldier Boy

Not much to work with here, but a credits scene set the stage for a Soldier Boy return. In response, Homelander appeared to grow emotional (oh boy), and also, there is the promise of seeing Jensen Ackles onscreen again.

18. Victoria Neumann

Cons: Began the season with Butcher sending her a disgusting “selfie.” Ended the season with Butcher tearing her in half after she was exposed to the world as a VP Supe. Not great. It’s officially over for her.

Pros: Presumably left a lasting legacy in her daughter, who might be back.

14-17. The Boys: MM, Frenchie, Kimiko & Hughie, At Least

Cons: Man, I hate rounding these characters up together because they deserve more (Butcher will come later), but their fate is a collective clusterf*ck, since they were rounded up and imprisoned. MM got a shoulder tap and a knockout from Love Sausage, Frenchie received a whisper from Cate, and Kimiko was strong-armed by Sam. Also, she overcame her trauma-induced muteness in the most heartbreaking way possible:

As for Hughie, god. The poor guy lost his father, was violated in Tek Knight’s lair, and was tricked into getting engaged to the Shifter disguised as Annie January. Prison might sound like a relief in comparison (for a few moments).

Pros: The group is screwed, but potential saviors exist out there.

13. Deep

Cons: Killed his new octopus girlfriend portrayed by Tilda F*cking Swinton before being rejected by Sage. Got kicked in the crotch (a long time coming) by Starlight and couldn’t successfully fight a woman.

Pros: Still alive because he knows how to bend the knee (literally).

12. Ashley

Cons: Mainlined Compound V, which did not go well, on a whim after being targeted for death by the remaining members of the Seven.

Pros: Perhaps she can Hulk Out while doing the dominatrix thing for a living? She’d surely enjoy that.

11. Starlight

Cons: Her boyfriend got engaged to a fake Annie January, and they slept together, well, under 20 times while the real Annie was imprisoned. She forgave said boyfriend, yet he’s now been rounded up for an internment camp.

Pros: Reactivated her powers in time to fly away when Cindy appeared out of nowhere to drop a boat on a highway. Now, it’s up to Annie to rescue The Boys, but she might find assistance from A-Train. Ashley, too? Maybe.

10. Black Noir 2.0

Cons: Killed the wrong Ashley after catching some serious air. Looks badass but isn’t nearly as interesting as a talking version of the character. Also, not too bright!

Pros: Actually managed to not be killed by Homelander this season.

9. Firecracker

Cons: Probably destroyed her long-term health by taking drugs to lactate for Homelander and still got ditched.

Pros: Acted as the forward-facing member of the Seven to celebrate Homelander’s victory. That’s probably all that she really wanted.

8. A-Train

Cons: Had an unlikely yet successful redemption arc. Must now hide forever. Yet he will probably get pulled back into the action to help rescue The Boys.

Pros: At least he got away alive and removed his tracker. Good for him.

5-7. Sam, Cate & Cindy

Pros: Got queued up for the next season of Gen V. Heck, maybe it’s time to send Cindy to college, too.

Cons: Not seeing any at the moment. These pro-Homelander Supes haven’t hit the skids with him (yet).

4. Ryan

Pros: At this point, Ryan might be the only option to kill Homelander. Although he went to the dark side in this season finale, it seems likely that he will switch sides again in the fifth season. Also, he is now (physically) free, although nobody could condone how he ended up that way.

Cons: Yup, he’s gonna have to kill his father.

3: Billy Butcher

Pros: Snagged the Supe virus, and he’s now in the wind, presumably aiming to commit Supe genocide and avenge Becca. (Leave A-Train out of this, man.) Even though these are “pros” for him, Butcher has now fully surrendered to the tentacled parasite inside of him and the devil on his shoulder. In other words, the Butcher vs. Homie fight now adds up to super villain against super villain.

Cons: That wicked brain tumor means that he’s still talking to Joe Kessler in this show’s take on Fight Club. That feels like the worst self-punishment, even if (physically speaking) Butcher surfaced with power.

2. Homelander

Pros: He’s apparently king of the free world now and still doing his best to fill that hole in his soul. That will never happen, but he did receive a few seconds of satisfaction by visiting his “home” lab and going on a murder spree.

Cons: This show cannot end without Homelander’s death.

1: Sister Sage

Cons: As prisoner of her own mind, she still can’t enjoy life without a lobotomy.

Pros: She’s on top of the world right now and might be the only living being with any strategic pull over Homelander. Hell, he owes her beyond any measure at this point because he would otherwise still be sobbing on the floor. Yes, she’s been doing massively evil deeds (for her own entertainment), but there’s always a chance that she could “Caesar” Homelander in the end.

‘The Boys’ fourth season can be streamed on Prime Video/Amazon.

Chappell Roan rolled through The Comment Section With Drew Afualo and opened up about the various ways her life is unrecognizable post-fame, especially recently after the release of “Good Luck, Babe!.”

She admitted she misses being able to do “drugs in public” and “making out with someone at the bar” without worrying about everyone watching her every move. Roan’s comments came across as lighthearted because her demeanor is so delightful, but her sentiment about the weight of fame got even heavier.

“People have started to be freaks,” Roan said, genuine disappointment palpable in her voice. “They follow me and know where my parents live and where my sister works — all this weird sh*t. I’m just like, this is the time when, a few years ago, that I said if [there were] stalker vibes or family was in danger is when I would quit. And we’re there. We’re there!”

The Missouri native continued, “I’m just kind of battle of — I’ve pumped the brakes on, honestly, anything to make me more known. It’s kind of a forest fire right now. I’m not trying to go do a bunch of sh*t.”

Listen to the full episode of The Comment Section With Drew Afualo here.

Today is, in a way, Donald Glover‘s last day as Childish Gambino. Bando Stone & The New World, which comes out on Friday, July 19, is being billed as Glover’s final album with the Wu-Tang Clan name generator-assisted moniker he’s had since the late 2000s. While appearing on Hot Ones, the Emmy-nominated Mr. And Mrs. Smith star discussed his decision to retire the name.

“I always knew like Childish Gambino was like a character, on some level I wanted it to end. I feel like the Childish Gambino character is almost like the boss from The Office,” he said, referring to Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell. “It’s like yeah, that worked 10 years ago. It’s like oh, it’s a little sad but it’s also like wow, the cycle kind of continues, which is great I think.”

It’s an understandable decision from Glover. Would you want to be associated with something you did in 2008? Probably not.

Later in the Hot Ones interview, Glover talked about the unlikely legacy of the lemon pepper wet wings on Atlanta. “When we did Atlanta and we had the joke about the lemon pepper wet… it was literally just like a silly joke,” he said. “I didn’t know culturally that it would take on that kind of life or that people even cared that much, but that was the whole Atlanta experience to be honest, like to make that. It was a really good lesson in not worrying about the destination and just enjoying the journey really.”

Bando Stone & The New World is out 7/19 via RCA Records. Find more information here.

The best thing I can say about Dynasty Mode in EA Sports College Football 25 doubles as the best thing that I can say about the game itself. Yes, it feels familiar. Yes, there are tons of ways that it feels like an extension of the EA Sports NCAA Football series that went away more than a decade ago. And yes, there are little things about this game mode that make it feel like you’re playing something new and fresh.

You ever go a long time without going to a restaurant, and in that time, they hire a new chef who prepares everything mostly the same? But you notice that things are just a little bit different, and for that reason, you feel like you’re getting a different (and better) experience from the one that you remember? That, essentially, is what Dynasty Mode in the newest college football release from EA Sports is like, and while it’s not perfect, you can’t help but love it if you are someone who has spent the last 11 years wondering when the heck you’re getting a new college football release.

Right after the game dropped, we published a few initial thoughts on Dynasty Mode, which is the backbone of the entire game. Today, we’re going to go in depth with the various elements that make up the mode, and identify what we like, dislike, and what we’d like changed and tweaked going forward.

1. The Archetypes

How do you want your coach to run his program? My favorite element of Dynasty Mode is how you can shape your coach by picking one of three archetypes. They are:

1. Tactician: “Puts players in position to succeed on gameday”
2. Recruiter: “Good at talent acquisition”
3. Motivator: “Culture setter who is strong in player development”

It’s like any other skill-based video game, where you get XP that leads to digital currency that lets you build out your coach’s abilities. Within each of those, you have the initial level and a secondary level that you unlock by building out your skill tree (spend 50 coins within each archetype) and by doing an archetype-specific challenge, whether that’s have a number of players drafted, win a number of top 25 games, or sigh top 5 recruiting classes. Those, respectively, are Scheme Guru, Elite Recruiter, and Master Motivator.

There are, additionally, three other archetypes you can make available for purchase:

1. Talent Developer, by having two players taken in the first round of the NFL Draft
2. Architect, by winning four rivalry games
3. Strategist, by winning four bowl games

If you do really well, you can get the opportunity to unlock the ability to get the Program Builder archetype by winning five Playoff games. And if you do so well that you win a pair of national titles, you can get the CEO archetype.

All of these are designed to give you a small but notable leg up. A Tactician, for example, can boost the skills for his players at each individual position, while a Recruiter can make it easier to scout and recruit each individual position, or a Motivator can do things like help players continue to stay hot through timeouts or get a boost in offseason training. It’s all up to you how you want to approach your coach’s archetype — do you want to kill it on the recruiting trail but not be as good in-game? Or do you want to have less influence over what happens on the recruiting trail because you want your current players to perform at the highest possible level?

I will say, I decided to go down the Tactician path, and recruiting can be brutal if you don’t have that extra support — your hours during the week are so limited, and being able to cut down on something like how long it takes to recruit a position is a big help. Having said that, once the games started, my players were basically performing at as high of a level as they could because I maxed out what I could. My approach was not the end all, be all approach, and as I run through Dynasty Mode again, I’ll 100 percent go down different avenues. And the fact that you can experience the mode in so many different ways is legitimately one of the coolest things about Dynasty this time around.

2. The Games

They’re pretty good! I won’t dive into gameplay, as you’ve probably already read gameplay reviews of CFB 25, but there are two things I’ll mention. Both came up in my early Dynasty Mode takeaways, and the first is a small critique: Even if you are a coordinator, you can control both sides of the ball. It’s up to you if you think that’s a good thing, but I think if you take an OC job, you should not be calling defensive plays, and if you take a DC job, you should not be calling offensive plays. Now, you can toggle this yourself before each game and play just offense or defense, but I don’t think it should even be an option — if for no other reason than to provide real differentiation between the jobs. This also applies to recruiting, which we’ll get to in a second.

The other is that EA Sports wanted to make your life hell if you start at a small school. This isn’t a bad thing in the slightest, I quite like that I had to get better at the game — at understanding how to throw and kick the ball, at seeing defenses, and knowing when to take risks and when to let loose — because I was using a smaller school going up against the big boys. If you take over a MAC school, you should go get your ass kicked if you play Ohio State in the Horseshoe, for example. Your audibles are wrong, your hot routes aren’t correct, you have coverage busts left and right. It’s reminiscent of, well, what happens when these teams play in real life, and I think it’s a nice touch. I hated every second of it, but I appreciated it.

3. Recruiting

I am a big fan of just how intense recruiting is in the game. It does feel just enough like recruiting in the NCAA series, where you have to scout the kid as part of your process of recruiting them. The general way it works: You have a certain number of hours in a week to divvy up among all of your recruiting responsibilities. After you extend a scholarship offer to a kid — which you can do before or after you scout them and determine just how good they are (recruits either get a green gem to indicate they’re better than their ranking, a red gem to indicate they are not, or nothing) — you are in control of how you want to approach their recruitment.

You can learn about them with one of four scouting methods: Search Social Media (5 hours a week), DM the Player (10 hours), Contact Friends and Family (25 hours), or Send the House (50 hours). This lets you know about their interest in 14 categories:

Academic Prestige
Athletic Facilities
Brand Exposure
Campus Lifestyle
Championship Contender
Coach Stability
Coach Prestige
Conference Prestige
Playing Time
Pro Potential
Playing Style
Proximity To Home
Program Tradition
Stadium Atmosphere

Recruits go from an open recruitment, to a Top 8, to a Top 5, to a Top 3. Once you get in the Top 5, you can bring them on a visit, where you choose which category you want to emphasize. And of course, you can try to Soft Sell (20 hours) or Hard Sell (40 hours) on pitches (which are set combinations of three categories), with the understanding that this could backfire. You can also try to Sway (30 hours) them on a category actually being more important than they previously thought to better align with your school’s strengths.

There have been people who mentioned that you can swoop in and get a 4 or 5-star kid at a lesser school if you wait long enough and give them a scholarship offer. In my experience, I did not get to do that — EA mentioned that might be fixed in its first patch after the game is released, so perhaps I just got unlucky. The much bigger problem, in my experience, was one of bugs in the game where I could not use recruiting hours on, say, trying to Soft Sell a recruit for no reason. Right before I typed this out, I tried to use 20 of my 95 hours this week to Soft Sell one kid on my board, but got told I don’t have enough hours for that. This was a major reason why I only had four kids signed at Early National Signing Day. More than anything, that was my big frustration with recruiting, and hopefully it gets patched soon, because it straight up keeps you from being able to sell recruits on your program.

Getting locked out on some recruits is also something you’ll have to get used to, and is something that might need some tweaking from EA. Basically, this manifests in two ways: The easy one is recruits make their Top Whatever and you’re not in it. The other: Some recruits decide what singular category is most important to them, and if you do not meet the bar, you’re locked out. That’s fine, but I would continue to be locked out on kids where I was their No. 1 school, and would remain so throughout the process, which feels strange — why are recruits even putting you that high on your list? Anyway, be warned of that.

My final recruiting critique: You are tasked with putting together an entire recruiting class. It’s a bit strange to be a coordinator and have to recruit on both sides of the ball, but there isn’t an alternative as opposed to the game control selection options.

4. Coach Carousel

It’s fun, and essentially what it sounds like. At the end of the season, jobs open up, and you have to go through whichever ones end up getting offered to you. For me, after one year as an alright offensive coordinator at Akron, I got an offer for a head coach job, turned it down, simulated a week, and got a head coach offer at Southern Mississippi, which I took.

From there, you build out a staff. If you’re a Tactician, do you want to lean even farther into that bit and have blind spots on your staff as Motivators and Recruiters? Or you want to try and compensate for the stuff you don’t do especially well? I went down the route of a Tactician head coach with a Master Motivator offensive coordinator (with less prestige, but some good recruiting chops) and a Motivator defensive coordinator (with more prestige and similar recruiting ability). You also adopt the team’s entire recruiting class and recruiting board, which you get the chance to tinker with a bit once it’s transfer portal time.

5. Transfer Portal and Encourage Transfers

As the season goes on, you get a sense for which kids will and will not enter the transfer portal at the end of the year. And once you get through the coaching carousel, you see which kids hop into the portal and why, citing things like Playing Time and Playing Style. As an added bonus, you are told how likely it is that you can persuade them to change their mind.

And then, it comes time to play the portal game. It’s the same thing that you do with recruiting, although in a fun twist, you get to go after both uncommitted kids and transfers as you try to build out your roster. It’s up to you to determine what you’re going to prioritize — do you want the immediate boost of more ready-made transfers, or do you want to continue to try and build up your program with high schoolers? There’s no right or wrong answer here, and it’s probably pretty closely tied to how badly you want to stay at your current job.

While it’s not a portal thing, you can, uh, let some kids know that their services are not needed before the season begins. I did not have to do that because my roster was not too big for the roster limit of 85 players, but if you decide you want to trim some fat — say, a junior fullback who is a 61 overall — you can nudge them in that direction.

6. Custom Conferences and Schedules

At the end of every year, you can tweak which team goes into which conference. This wasn’t a big priority of mine, so I didn’t fiddle around with it too much, but I was able to put Vanderbilt in the AAC, because why not? You can also trade schools between conferences, which is what happened when I then took Vanderbilt and put them back in the SEC, in exchange for Alabama going to the American. (I put Bama back, don’t worry.) Again, this wasn’t a huge priority of mine as I went through Dynasty Mode, but I’m sure if you wanna see what, say, Florida State and Clemson would look like in the SEC, you could do that very easily. You can also fiddle with the conference rules: Whether or not there are divisions (and, if you so choose, their names, so I immediately made the Big Ten the Leaders and Legends again), how many conference games there are, if there is a conference championship game, where it’s located, and what criteria is used to pick the CCG participants.

And of course, before the year ends, you get to build out your schedule — well, your non-conference schedule. It’s about as straightforward as anything, as you can pick between every FBS team (so long as they have an opening) or a collection of generic FCS teams.

7. Overall?

I love Dynasty Mode. In the previous version of this series, I probably sunk more time into that than I did anything else. That was not just the case for NCAA Football, as I spent more time with Dynasty Mode than I did any other game mode in any other video game.

I say all that to say: This is exactly what I wanted Dynasty Mode to be in the new college football video game. Like, to a tee. It scratches the itch that I haven’t been able to scratch in 11 years, all while feeling like a new and unique video game. It’s to the point that I haven’t even taken any other game mode for a spin, because I have been sinking all of my time into Dynasty Mode. If you’re on the fence about getting this game, Dynasty alone is going to make it worth the investment. Why are you still reading this? Go buy the game now and get started.

Tom Cruise has been desperately trying to get each and every person on the planet to a movie theater for years by jumping out of planes and doing way too much in the name of cinema. But it turns out that all theaters needed was a vessel for some overly priced popcorn. This could have saved Cruise a lot of time and energy.

The next popcorn bucket to hit the market will be a giant Xenomorph head to celebrate Alien: Romulus. The bucket will be available at certain Cinemark locations, though the price is TBD. Luckily, the bucket does not include those high-pitched screaming sound effects that signal when you are about to die.

It’s not really a bucket so much as a hollowed-out head which seems logistically challenging to eat effectively in a dark and crowded movie theater. Sure, they could have made it a Xenomorph egg, which would have been the optimal shape for a container, but that would be too convenient. You need to sit through the entire 120-minute movie trying to balance the bucket on your lap. Good luck.

This popcorn bucket trend seemingly began when with the infamous Dune popcorn bucket back in March. After going viral, it became apparent that every new movie needs a collectible popcorn bucket because who doesn’t want a decapitated Garfield head lying around their house?

Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16.

Post Malone picked up the blue Bud Light cowboy hat, one unseen fan’s token of appreciation chucked onto the stage. He coolly placed it on his head without skipping a beat while singing “I Had Some Help” — his and Morgan Wallen’s omnipresent Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper from Post’s forthcoming F-1 Trillion country album. Malone moved so seamlessly that it could have passed as rehearsed choreography. But nothing about Post Malone is calculated. That’s why 1,400 people flocked to his Bud Light-sponsored A Night In Nashville concert at Marathon Music Works in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday night, July 16.

Some slept overnight outside of the venue, some camped out in miniature pools, and some flew from Denmark. All of them sought proximity to Post Malone’s relentless authenticity.

Before the show, Lori Sutton unexpectedly met Malone backstage. Her husband, the Grammy-winning bluegrass/country acoustic guitarist and Nashville session musician Bryan Sutton, played on F-1 Trillion and strummed behind him at Marathon Music Works. Malone’s perpetual humility has impressed Lori. “I just told him, ‘You’re a joyful ray of sunshine,’” she said of their backstage interaction. “Because he is!”

One fan named Jordan recalled discovering Malone as Justin Bieber’s opening act on the 2016 Purpose World Tour — back when Malone’s disruptive Soundcloud rap/trap 2015 debut “White Iverson” was his only mainstream song. She and her friend, who had won tickets from Bud Light’s A Night In Nashville contest, cited Malone’s genuine demeanor as the crux of their longstanding fandom. His first country album release on August 16 will just be icing on the cake. “It’s the cool thing for artists to try to go country right now, but his album will be the one that sticks,” Jordan said.

“Posty!” chants broke out when the lights cut out, and the cheers amplified when Malone casually jaunted on stage, waved, and perched on his chair behind a cooler. The nine-time-diamond-certified star opened with a mesmerizing arrangement of the 21 Savage-assisted “Rockstar,” his first of six Hot 100 No. 1 hits. The rest of his set reasserted that no one so endearingly embodies star power quite like Post Malone, whether it be at the world’s largest festivals or in a setting as intimate as this. (It does not hurt that “ladies and gentlemen,” “yes, ma’am,” or “y’all” occupy a high percentage of his sentences.)

Malone donned a Chateau Marmont camouflage trucker hat, tucked-in Western shirt, carpenter jeans, and cowboy boots. He intermittently took drags from the cigarette affixed to his fingers and initiated a toast with his audience by raising his beer. Malone’s appeal has never been bound to genre, though everything he touches turns to pop — I can confirm that Gwen Stefani danced and fist-pumped to Malone and Blake Shelton’s country duet “Pour Me A Drink” with equal fervency as to Malone’s past crossover staples “Sunflower” and “Circles” — because his signature genre-blending has always resonated as a natural extension of his heart.

After Malone welcomed Blake Shelton to the stage, Shelton proclaimed, “It’s a Post Malone world we’re livin’ in!” before they launched into “Pour Me A Drink” and Shelton’s 2004 Billboard Hot Country Songs No. 1 “Some Beach.” Shelton posed an indisputable claim, but Malone still thoughtfully redirected admiration toward Shelton and his following guests.

Malone also welcomed Joe Nichols, Sierra Ferrell (“possibly the best singer I’ve ever heard in my entire f*cking life”), and HARDY (“one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever met”). He lauded Nichols for “one of the best-written songs” he’d ever heard and enjoyed the hell out of performing Nichols’ 2002 chart-topper “Brokenheartsville.” He played unreleased F-1 Trillion tracks “Never Love You Again” and “Would You Hide My Gun” with Ferrell and HARDY, respectively. He politely, almost sheepishly, asked whether they’d stick around to rip through covers of “Jackson” and “Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox (If I Die).”

To Lori Sutton’s point, Malone emanated joy throughout the night, even while debuting the sentimental ballad “Yours” dedicated to his two-year-old daughter and foreshadowing how he’ll feel on her wedding day. But singing those classic country covers left him beaming like he was Austin Post again.

Post spent the bulk of his adolescence in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas. His father, Richard Post, told CBS Texas that Post often played country covers at Napoli’s Italian Café in high school. The lore truly began when a baby-faced, tattoo-free Post wearing an American flag-print collared shirt covered “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and posted it to YouTube under Austin Richard in October 2013.

F-1 Trillion has been framed as Malone’s “pivot” or “transition” into country. That language feels much too abrupt. They say someone’s thirties return them to their formative passions with renewed perspective, and that seemed to play on his mind at Marathon Music Works.

“As of July 4, I’m 29 years old,” Malone told his crowd. “I’ve been doing this sh*t for just about ten years, and I’ll never forget [that] at the beginning, everyone had so much to say. Everyone called me a one-hit wonder — had nothin’ nice to say about me. I just wanted to say thank you to each and every single one of y’all tonight for coming out. Thank you for your love, and thank you for your support over all of these years, ladies and gentlemen.”

Malone paused, giving the impression that he really wanted to get this next part right. He took one last drag from his cigarette and stubbed it out.

“I know that there might be some people out there that might not feel as supported and as loved as you actually are,” he continued. “You are loved more than you f*ckin’ know, ladies and gentlemen. I know it gets f*ckin’ hard, and I know it gets f*ckin’ rough. I just wanted to say I love you so f*ckin’ much. If you ever see anyone that’s going through a hard time, never be scared to reach out and say, ‘Hey, man, I f*ckin’ love you’ and give ’em a big-ass hug. Do whatever the f*ck you want to do in this life and in this world. Express yourself and just be yourself because there’s no one on this planet that’s cooler than who the f*ck you are.”

Malone’s sentiment lingered as he segued into “Congratulations,” his earnestly self-aggrandizing Stoney anthem featuring Quavo. His words held weight because he spoke from experience. He knows the unique freedom found only internally — away from fleeting trend or external pressure. Post Malone trusts what he loves, from beer pong and Raising Cane’s to the Dallas Cowboys and perhaps every human being he encounters. Everybody, including my jealous Uber driver, adores Post Malone, so why wouldn’t they follow him into country? He was at home in Nashville, the heart of country music, because he’s at home within himself.

During Malone’s “I Had Some Help” grand finale, he hopped atop a stack of speakers, shimmied in uninhibited bliss, and waved at his fans in the front row. It was all he could do to wait until the song’s end to jump down to the floor and embrace them. Malone had technically fulfilled his obligation, but that’s not how he operates. He spent the next hour patiently walking down the entire front row to pose for photos, sign cowboy hats (and cowboy boots, bare skin, homemade posters), and passed on even more sincere encouragement. As such, he confirmed the up-close Post Malone they were meeting matched the Post Malone they’d believed they knew from afar.

One Marathon Music Works employee jokingly stated that Malone had a hard out and wondered how long it would be before she could go home. Usually, she said, artists rolling through the venue don’t spend this much time with fans afterward. “He’s just so nice,” she said. All available evidence from Marathon Music Works suggests that, if it were up to him, Post Malone would have cracked open his fifth Bud Light, lit another cigarette, and connected with each person into the early hours of the morning. Fortunately, they can always find him in the music.

Uproxx was hosted for this event by Bud Light. However, Bud Light did not review or approve this story. You can learn more about the Uproxx Press Trip policy here. Check out a exclusive images from the event below.