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capnamerca

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by capnamerca

  1. I'm curious if I'm the highest-ranked Foosball player on Surly. I'm a complete liability against a player of any real skill, but I do carry a national ranking and i'd never lose the table in a bar or gameroom.
  2. This was a thing we really noticed; the foot traffic didn't slow down AT ALL when it rained. Folks all seemed to own a good rainjacket and good duckboots or the like. So when the rain showed up, they just dressed appropriately and went about their day. It was awesome.
  3. We lived there for six weeks last year, just in a long-term AirBnB. Your read on it is pretty spot-on. It's not NEARLY as dreary as Seattle or Portland, although still definitely in the PacNW. It's also inland, actually in a bit of a valley, which moderates the weather quite a bit. Eugene pretty regularly gets up into the 90's in the summer, and even hit 100 fora couple of days we were there. Amazing vibe to the town, incredibly friendly, etc. I found the airport perfectly serviceable - effectively two flights a day on each of the 4 major airlines, to a hub. So Seattle (Alaska), SF / Denver (United), DFW (American), and SLC (Delta), plus some regional carrier stuff. Not super-connected, but not off the grid either. I'm looking at it as a retirement conversation, so where can we perhaps build our ideal house without needing to care about schools.
  4. Just found this thread. Wife and I have been ramping up the discussions about where we should move, given the dangerous slide of Texas politics away from women's health. My wife has a few health concerns, and we've got a 10 year old daughter, and I'm more and more concerned about their safety here. Denver/Csprings and Eugene are basically our short list. I hadn't really considered the idea of two condos instead of one house, and the wife likes the idea of Santa Fe / Scottsdale in the winters, so that's on the table too (home-base likely still either D/CS or Eugene). Following along for the continued conversation!
  5. Yeah. It's clearly a personality trait; we've got three years of sideline tape on him now. From my outside view, his teammates seem to really like him - folks celebrate together, warm-ups are lively, etc. So I'm hopeful that his stoic demeanor is a strength, that it serves to calm the crew. You don't have to be fiery and loud to lead, but you do have to lead. Again, I'm hopeful.
  6. a fair point here, appreciate the clarity. said with love, you're wrong about Street, tho :).
  7. He's on-record as being that guy these last two weeks, setting coverages and audibling into plays for scores. Maybe something is changing or starting to click?
  8. The title of the thread isn't "Best QB since 1998," though. The point is to discuss the best ALL-TIME QBs, which by definition needs to include Layne and Street. This is the right order. The next one down would be James Brown, and some combination of Applewhite, Simms and Ehlinger.
  9. Watching to that miced up video just makes me love this kid even more. Humble, selfless, quick to deflect glory, his teammates clearly love him. First on the field. Pass blocks like a champ. Also holy shit the way those hits sound.
  10. capnamerca

    2025 ACL

    This makes sense ... the pics from Roan last year made me queasy just looking at them.
  11. capnamerca

    2025 ACL

    Wasn't it a point of advertising in the early years that attendance was limited, to improve both safety and the viewing experience? The pics from the last few years prove that's gone out the window, if it ever was actually true.
  12. capnamerca

    Pearl Jam

    Daughter. Footsteps. Last Kiss. Given to Fly. Dude can absolutely sing.
  13. capnamerca

    Pearl Jam

    Favorite band ever. Buddy across the street had the Ten CD when it came out, and made me a copy onto cassette, which I then proceeded to play until it broke. For whatever reason, he didn't copy Release, so like ten years later I 'discovered' this brand new song at the end of my favorite album, and was dumbstruck lol. Bought every album religiously through Avocado, then sort of fell out of love with their experimentalism. Which I understand was a weird time to draw that line, since I was largely fine with Vitalogy and No Code lol. I've never seen them play live until my wife surprised me with ACL tickets in 2009. I need to go spend some time with Backspacer, Lightning Bolt, and Gigaton. Dark Matter is growing on me, but I'm not sure i'll ever lose the desire to hear both guitars wailing at once on some arena-grunge-rock tunes, like when I was 15. BTW, their best song is SOLAT. Specifically, the arrangement from Unplugged.
  14. capnamerca

    Pearl Jam

    Did I say that I need you? Did I say that I want you? Oh if I didn't, I'm a fool you see / No one knows this more than me ... as I come clean. That song is a gut punch, and one of my top-5 favorite songs ever. Tell the people you love that you love them. Every chance you get.
  15. Yes. And Duval. And Vijay. And several others. But Tiger just kept winning. And kept winning. And kept winning. Did the hype have an element of race? For the love of god, yes absolutely. Was his race perhaps even the DRIVING reason for the hype? Yes, but only because his talent was enough to justify him being in the spotlight. He was a prodigy, AND he was black, and those two things together were what made the hype machine go brrr. But then what did Tiger do? He went out and won his 5th start, then won again in his very next start. Let's face it; the Clark situation is exactly the same goddamned thing. The hype machine in college started because she was very, very good. Her teams won, she elevated historically-good teams into great teams. She WON. And because she was also white, her winning took on a different tone. Then she goes to the league and sets all kinds of records. And because she's white, the winning takes on a different tone. I'm not saying she's the next Tiger Woods. I'm saying that the hype has a massive racial component that one would be stupid to ignore, and that the parallels to Tiger's impact on the game are valid. More black people started watching golf not because golf suddenly got interesting, but because a black guy was winning golf tournaments. More white people are watching the WNBA not because the product has fundamentally changed in any way, but because there's a white woman excelling on the court. It doesn't make those viewers racist, but there is a racial component. The backlash from black players who are grumbling about "these fans are only watching because she's white" is entirely and utterly misplaced. Like, who gives a shit? They're WATCHING. And you're on TV now with a chance to speak directly to them, so take it! It also happened in pro golf, btw. But you know what Tiger did? He just kept winning. And those eyeballs just kept watching. And every professional golfer since has made an order of magnitude more money than they would have had Tiger not existed. I'm hopeful that the WNBA sees similar changes.
  16. Anyone have an injury update for our budding superstar?
  17. 3 (assuming 2 isn't a shithead), then 4 (assuming 5 isn't a shithead), then 8 (assuming 7 isn't a shithead).
  18. But but but "consumption taxes are fair!" This is the worst fucking timeline.
  19. It's been a pretty big selling point for the GOP, but it's because those entitlements go to corporations and donors, and not the American people. And if the mentality is repugnant to some, help us change the narrative by bringing back nuance and compromise.
  20. also, don't print any money to help with inflation, don't give anyone any tax breaks, and don't force companies to pay better wages.
  21. People are TRYING, man! Yes, people should make better decisions about what degrees they take. Let's emphasize the trades more in high school. Let's put some federal money towards educational programs, manned by the Department of Education. Yes, people should make better decisions about what loans they should take out. Let's ALSO hold Freddie and Fannie accountable for making some really terrible loans to people they're pretty sure would never be able to pay it back. Yes, you should pay back what you sign your name to. But bankruptcy exists because a long time ago, we founded this country on the ideals that all of us are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and one of the things we very specifically contemplated were "second chance" things, like bankruptcy. But student loans are exempt? Why? Even if we stopped the forgiveness programs right now, we're just dooming another generation of borrowers to the same fate if we don't DO something about it.
  22. There's a ton of great nuanced conversation we can have here. First off, no one got "free money," and the government didn't spend your tax dollars to write anyone a check. The vast majority of what was forgiven was future-money-owed, and in many of those cases, the boworrer had already repaid the original value of the loan. I acknowledge that I'm not bringing data to this statement, but these are the general themes of what the program was built on. I'd love to talk with you about WHY these loans got to a point where forgiveness was something to even be considered. Lending practices in higher education have horrendously misaligned incentives. The primary lender in these situations is the federal government - Fannie and Freddie. The money is made incredibly easy for 18, 19, 20 year olds to get. That easy money has led universities to actually REDUCE the amount of other types of incentives available to students, and it's enabled them to raise tuition without seeing a commensurate change in their enrollment. Additionally, because student loans aren't dischargeable by bankruptcy, Fannie and Freddie have very little incentive to decline borrowers, which feeds this "easy money" feedback loop on the supply side. This disconnection of the normal market-force check and balance has led to really bad outcomes for a lot of people. I FULLY agree that 'loan forgiveness' is a really blunt-force way to try and ease the pressure on these folks; I'm very much a "pay back what you sign your name to" guy in real life. But we gotta do SOMETHING, because people are suffering. Guess which party has no interest in a compromise and working across the aisle on these things? It's also worth pointing out what these folks do when their loans are forgiven. What's the outcome of that money? They spend it. It goes back into the economy, many times over. These are generally kids, trying to get ahead, get out of credit card debt, maybe buy a house or a car, plan a wedding. And it's money that already exists in the grand machine, and it doesn't have to be printed, so it's non-inflationary. That young person just got a raise, and no one had to increase wages, or approve a tax break, or fight to make consumables costs cheaper. All three of those are GOP stronghold positions, and things that GOP voters keep saying they care about. So it's difficult to have a conversation about "student loan forgiveness" because all the outcomes seem good for the GOP. It sure looks like GOP voters really just want people to suffer.
  23. oh, I know. I've known specifically in my own household since about 2012, when we heartbreakingly needed access to those types of services. Even then, the hoops we had to jump through clearly had nothing to do with the health and safety of my wife, or even her future ability to let us try again. And as if I needed reminding, I've watched like everyone else while the GOP systematically dismantled or refused to invest in anything even remotely related to education, womens health, or childcare programs, as if I needed any more proof.
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