#contrats

We love our STELLA🌟❤️

basicaly i tried a .. B&W work  :)

So the 11.6 mil a year is actually his Cap hit/AAV and is not what he makes per year. This is the money that the team is responsible for against their cap each season. A cap hit is going to be the average of every year spread out across the entirety of the contract. 

For instance in Auston’s first season on this contract, the 2019-20 season he will be making 15.2 million in signing bonuses and an extra 700k in Base Salary which comes out to 15.9 Mil in total salary for that year.  In his last season on this contract, the 2023-24 season, He will be making 7.2 million in signing bonuses and 750k in base salary which comes out to 7.95 in total salary for that season. And each season in between is a little bit different. 

The reason the cap hit is an average of these numbers is so you don’t have teams signing their best players to ridiculously front loaded deals. Back in 2012 (right before the lock out) Shea Weber signed a 14 year deal worth 110 Million dollars over the span of that time. In his first season on that deal he was going to make 13 million dollars in signing bonuses and 1 million in base pay. In 2016-17 that number dropped to 8 million in signing bonuses and 4 million in base salary for a total of 12 million dollars. This number drops AGAIN two years later to 0 dollars in signing bonuses and 6 million dollars in base salary. The way the NHL worked back when this contract was signed was that the caphit was what you paid that year and to the Nashville predators, having shea weber for 14 years and getting to pay him 6 million and below for 8 years of it was a steal. However then the 2013 lockout hit and contracts like these became completely illegal, and the NHL introduced the AAV (average annual value/salary) which became the new cap hit. So while Auston Matthews is going to pocket 15.9 mil in cash this year his cap hit is going to be 11.6 mil. 

Teams will also do this because they still make contracts easier to trade. Even though teams will have to take on the AAV regardless of where in the contract the player is, some teams do not have the actual money to pay them. So if Auston was to be traded to a team with less moeny than the leafs, which is most of them, the team would only need to pay him 7.95 mil in the later years of his contract instead of the 15.9mil even though they have to take the entirety of the 11.6 onto their cap. 

Glad I Didn’t ‘Miss Saigon’

So many people told me I had to go to Vietnam while I was traveling in Asia. But some told me I would prefer the north and probably shouldn’t bother with Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon in the south. It’s a good thing I don’t listen to other people! I loved Ho Chi Minh City!

Sure, it is a congested city. It is kind of scary to cross the street. There are a million scooters going in every direction and they do not exactly follow the stop lights. I could feel my life insurance premium increasing every time I attempted to cross. Yet, I still really enjoyed walking around town.

There are parks every few blocks. I was approached multiple times as I strolled around, but these encounters were different from the usual people who find me in parks, i/e: creepy men hitting on me, in general. This time it was always kind students asking me to help them practice English! Since I am so sick of the harassment I have received, I am caught off guard when I have a pleasant interaction in a park. But these moments were wonderful! One of the girls who talked to me in a park, found me at the right time. I was tired and unsure of where to walk next, and she gave me some great advice!

My main interest in Ho Chi Minh City was to learn about the “Vietnam War” or as it is referred to in Vietnam, the “War of American Aggression.” Mostly what I have known beforehand about this war is that it was pretty terrible and went on for a long time. It caused huge uproar because there was a draft. America lost. Overall, I knew that it was not a pleasant chapter in American History.

Now I was seeing it from the other perspective. I procrastinated on going to the War Remnants Museum because I am so tired of being upset by the history (and current events) of my country. I was told that Americans shouldn’t go there.

Well of course I had to go. If something is unpleasant, that makes it more important to me. I have to lean into the discomfort to understand the world a bit better.

Anyways, yes, it was pretty upsetting. The war was devastating. It is hard to figure out why America was there and why their actions were so brutal. The war was an anti-communism proxy war. I think America’s way of thinking was “if we stop communism here, we can stop communism everywhere.” But it dragged on for 11 years (at least America’s involvement). There were not only protests against the war in the United States, but all over the world in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.

The museum focuses a lot on the use of Agent Orange, or chemical warfare. The American statement for using Agent Orange was to destroy crops that the enemy forces were using to survive. American planes sprayed chemicals over forests and farms to starve out the other side. Unfortunately, these chemicals had HUGE consequences. They caused extreme devastation to civilians as well as all troops involved. There is a hall of photos highlighting people who suffered from injuries and sicknesses because of the chemicals. The photos are tragic and powerful. Generations later, people are still suffering from the effects of Agent Orange.

One day while in Ho Chi Minh City, I did a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels to see where the Viet Cong fighters strategically lived during the war. These were forces fighting for communism, supported by the North, China, and Russia. At this museum, there were examples of booby traps laid throughout the jungle. There were lots of spikes. Brutal.

We were able to go through the tunnels. They were expanded to fit tourists, but they were still incredibly small and claustrophobic. I was stuck behind a group of very slow people moving through and I had to focus extremely hard on not having a panic attack in the tiny space.

After the Cu Chi tunnels, I visited the Reunification Palace where the war ended. I was intrigued because the architecture is very “communist” according to Trip Advisor. I am not sure how to describe what that means, but I guess that entails a lot of blockiness and red. The building was quite blocky. There was also a lot of red carpeting.

There was a bunker underneath that just seemed creepy. There were maps all over the walls and many windowless rooms with old radios and computers for communicating during the war.

One of the interesting contrasts I found at all of these sites was that there were American Military Planes on display. I have to admit… I really like military planes. I do not know why, and it sometimes causes a huge inner conflict for me because I am a pacifist. But planes are such a beautiful mixture of science. I enjoyed scoping out these planes and seeing what was used during the ‘70s. The F-5 fighter was so much larger than I pictured a jet would be. Anyways, this made me feel kind of gross considering the history of the planes. Some updated versions are still used currently, like the Huey Helicopter. I guess just like history, people are complicated. Nothing is black and white.

Stepping back into the story of this war made me think about the effect the United States has had on the world. It has its hand in everything it seems. Just last week Donald Trump said they will be increasing troops in Afghanistan. We have been there for 16+ years. What are we even doing there? In 30 years there might be a museum in Kabul just like the War Remnants Museum about how America came in and destroyed everything.

It is important to understand history so we can prevent it from repeating, but the more I travel and the more I learn about the world, the more I see that humans keep making the same mistakes over and over.

We are basically repeating the Cold War right now with issues in North Korea and race riots in some American states…

As long as some men around the world believe that their race and their ideals are superior to others, there will always be war. Plus, war makes a lot of money for certain people. So, humanity can seem quite bleak at times...