The Perfect Trip

In this week's P.O. Box:

This newsletter is a day later than I wanted. I feel like I’ve been scrambling all week since the flight back from San Diego.

The combination of a week on West Coast time and the daylight saving switch on Sunday has destroyed my sleep schedule and energy levels.

It doesn’t seem to matter how early I go to bed, I wake up every morning feeling like I got hit by a dump truck.

I suppose that’s another sad reality of getting old—any alteration to your normal schedule results in outsized repercussions.

Still, I’m not complaining. The week in San Diego was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

A few trip highlights:

• Taking April to the San Diego Zoo. I think she had more fun running around than actually watching animals, but she loved it.

• Returning to my college campus for the first time since I graduated in 2009. Lots of nostalgia walking around my old dorm (and tilt seeing a pickleball net).

• Eating an ungodly amount of Cali burritos. My buddy Cam set the line at 6.5 and I think my final number was 7. Light work.

• The Underdog festivities. I got to finally bring Lauren to the events after always doing these type of trips solo, which was awesome. It was also a blast talking with the Gil’s Arena crew. I explained Underdog badges to Nick Young, got the lowdown on load management from Gil, and heard stories from Brandon Jennings about playing at altitude as a rookie. Also got to meet a ton of qualifiers from the Deposit Kingdom Discord, including the champ (lolzhotdogs).

I posted a bunch of pictures on my Instagram if you’re interested to see more.

Now back to sleep…

🤓 FANTASY LIFE: Best Ball ADP Risers. 5 players to target ASAP before their price rises.

☕️ BEST BALL BREAKFAST: Big ADP Risers & Fallers In High Stakes Drafts. Plus, I finally get a good draft grade from Steph.

💪 THE SWOLECAST: Neil Orfield joins. No Kitchen, so we had to bring in a proper old guy to replace him.

🤫 ICYMI: I can’t stop thinking about Travis Hunter. Thoughts in the Fantasy Life newsletter and my new video on the Deposit Kingdom channel.

☣️ LOLZ: Should we regulate shopping like sports betting?! Jeff Edelstein joins us to discuss the double standards in vilifying sports betting.

🚢 SHIP CHASING: The Most Impactful Free Agency Moves For Fantasy. Pat had a pick that made me want to vomit.

⏰ OFF & ON THE CLOCK: Dawg Bowl Recap & NFL Free Agency Moves. Went through a bunch of photos from San Diego.

DFS After Dark returns tonight with “TheWood” aka ScottW, a DFS crusher and data whiz who qualified for the Dawg Bowl.

🥃 DFS After Dark w/ TheWood (Sat 8pm ET)

🚂 Book #2 for March (FINISHED): Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.

I ended up ripping through most of this book last week. I suppose we did get some comeuppance for the Sackler family, but not nearly enough.

Reading the final breakdown on the settlement was especially maddening as you realize that they were always going to win in monetary terms.

That said, watching them lose their legacy—the very thing they chased with their faux-philanthropy—was very satisfying.

I’ll have another book picked out by next week.

🚂 Book #1 for February (FINISHED): The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

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