Happy Tuesday folks, I hope the week is off to a great start. Welcome to my first installment of "10 Things That Turn My Cogs", a weekly look into 10 things that are on my mind this week.

1. Shota Imanaga pitches today. The guy has very quickly become one of my (if not the) favorite Cubs. In 39 career starts he's gone 20-5 with a 2.88 ERA, and a 5:1 K:BB ratio. Not only has he been an ace of the staff since day 1, the guy just has a cool, goofy confidence to him that is infectious.

2. Training Camp: We are now officially 11 days away from the start of Bears training camp with rookies reporting July 19th. I really wish I could be more local to Chicago to try and cover some of it. It would be so cool to provide you all some inside looks there. Maybe some day soon.

   1. I think a lot of you don't realize just how new I am to talking about sports in general on Twitter, despite being a life long fan. (just to give you and idea you won't find many tweets pre week 1 of the 2024 season) My Twitter used to just be a personal account where I would sometimes talk about livestreaming and the like.

   2. But I've fallen fully into the sports-sphere of the app and love it dearly. I literally cannot express how much joy I get from being able to talk sports with you all.

3. Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW) is coming to Dallas this weekend. I'm a big fan of pro wrestling and a big fan of Maki Itoh. Excited to both get to watch her live for the first time and meet her. Absolutely one of my favorite characters and stories. I mean, she is such a badass.

4. I've been having interesting thoughts about death lately, not the morbid curiosity or standard fear of death (though I will admit how I'm thinking about it freaks me out a little.) And I'm going to do my best to put this into words. But it's kind of weird to think about death now (as in now, as I'm alive) because once it happens, you won't be able to think about it anymore. You won't even know it happened. That consciousness within you will cease to exist and so will everything you knew with it. I guess it's some level of nihilism, nothing truly matters for the individual once the consciousness of the individual is gone.

5. On to a less serious note... Fast food has truly lost it's way. It used to be that the trade off for fast food was that for a cheaper price and convenience you were getting an inferior product (as far over taste and dining experience is concerned.) But that has completely been flipped on it's head with so many sit down restaurants trending towards offering affordable lunch and even dinner options. Just yesterday I went to Chili's for lunch and spent just over $17 for their version of a Quarter Pounder, fries, drink, and chips with salsa. The same meal at McDonalds costs me the same MINUS the chips and salsa, sports on the TV, and comfortable seating. Fast food really needs to take a step back and fix things, man.

6. I'm going to Pittsburgh in September. I've decided to be more active with bucket list things, and one of those things for many years has been to watch the Pirates and Cubs in Pittsburgh. I had planned to go with my father many times but kept pushing it back. Unfortunately now I've missed my window to go with him while he is still here. A friendly reminder to never do tomorrow what you can do today.

7. Jay Cutler, loved that guy. I spend time last night finishing up an article for WCG touching on what the trade to bring him to Chicago meant to me as a fan. One of the most polarizing sports figures in Chicago history, and my all-time favorite Bear.

8. Seiya Suzuki isn't an All-Star. 6th in homeruns (25), 1st in RBI's (77), both numbers are already career highs for him. 7th in SLG (.561) and 14th in OPS (.880) and he will be at home watching. Injustice.

   1. You know, thinking about it, I really should grab me a Shota and Seiya jersey, those Tokyo Series jerseys are pretty damn cool..

9. Early Access to CFB 26 went live yesterday, although I'm not partaking (mainly due to how busy I am, I KNOW I would not have had time to enjoy it) I'm very excited for the full launch on the 10th. Very exciting content being planned with that, you will all see soon!

10. Milwaukee Brewers need to start losing. Whatever devil magic they are using up there needs to be put to an end. Dismantling the best team in the NL last night, Andrew Vaughn hitting a 3 run bomb the day he's called up to replace Hoskins. This team's line up is made up of 90% of different sizes of Reed Johnson. And they are only 3.5 back!