wild_turkey

Plot development?! You realize this is a true story about American bombers in the biggest war in history? What exactly are you looking for?

I like Hatsuyuki but I hope they would consider a new location. Going to the Crockett Row area is not great.

Headed back after a long weekend. Here’s my recap for anyone interested. It was just the wife and myself and we stayed at ME Cabo. The hotel is in a great location and the property is well cared for but not overly extravagant. The pool scene had a fun, upbeat vibe but not crazy, about like Encore Vegas. Lots of bachelorette and bachelor parties trying to outdo each other on champagne trains. Food at the hotel was much better than we expected. We got a beachfront room with a great view of the Land’s End rock formation. First day we took a little water taxi boat over to Lover’s Beach and Divorce Beach. It was $30 round trip and quick. Lover’s Beach is swimmable but small and crowded so we hung out on the Divorce Beach side. No swimming there but it was prettier, much less crowded, and we could see whales off the coast. Second day we hired a private boat through Cabo Boat Adventures which I can’t recommend enough. Our boat was a 32’ Sea Ray that could hold up to 8 people, but it was just the 2 of us plus the 2 crew. They also have a 38’ boat for bigger groups. They took us around El Arco, then got to watch whales up close, then anchored to swim and eat lunch. They provided ceviche, guacamole, fajitas, beer, margaritas, soft drinks, water. They had a paddle board, lily pad, and snorkel gear. I had originally asked about a sunset cruise, but we did mid-day instead so it would be warm enough to swim and I think that was a good call. First night dinner was at El Farallon at the Waldorf Astoria. The atmosphere was incredible overlooking the water but the food was mediocre for the price. Some old drunk guys kept yelling “Hook’em Horns” which is cool at DKR or the Cotton Bowl but extremely obnoxious in this case. Probably would not eat there again. Second night dinner was at Taboo at ME Cabo. It’s listed as a beach club so we were apprehensive about dinner quality but it was excellent. Food was much better than the more expensive El Farallon, and the vibe was fun. There was a saxophonist and a violinist, people occasionally dancing on tables, fireworks, etc. Would absolutely eat there again. Best to go between 9:00 pm to midnight. Third night dinner was at Nobu. The taxi ride was long which caught us off guard. Food was amazing, as expected. Would eat there again. Also had lunch at The Office because people told us it was can’t miss. Food was good. The environment was…interesting. Also had late night drinks at Bagatelle. First went to Bagatelle in St. Barth a decade ago and now we seem to always stubble into a Bagetelle wherever we go. It’s a scene and you either like it or you don’t. We like it for exactly one night. Overall, Cabo was a good place for us for a long weekend to escape the Texas winter (hah!). We got what we wanted and expected from it. I’m sure we’ll go back, but we probably prefer Tulum. It’s a little more of a chill vibe, smaller hotels, better beach (although there is the sargassum problem there), and feels less Americanized. But it’s nice to have a change of scenery and Cabo didn’t disappoint.

Except that stealing entertainment you enjoy is not a great way to encourage Hollywood to make more of that particular media. It’s also quite easy to pay $10/month for a service that consistently delivers good TV series. That’s less than one fast food lunch per month.

Saw it last night and didn’t really care for it. Perhaps my least favorite Michael Mann movie. In fairness, I didn’t know anything about the story and had no idea what the movie would cover, so maybe I was expecting a more complete biopic and it was really just a sliver from a tumultuous year in Enzo Ferrari’s life. The first half focused primarily on his marital drama, which I found frustrating and not entirely well written. The behaviors and conversations of the main characters seemed artificial and hollow, lacking the actual depth and human factor I would expect from real people in their situation. It’s as if Mann thought dim lighting and muted conversations would be sufficient to convey drama and passion, but something was severely lacking, like a restaurant with a swanky vibe but a bland menu. Not knowing the background, it made me start to despise Enzo Ferrari by the middle of the movie. Instead of depicting him as a brilliant Don Draper-esque antihero, they showed too little of his strengths and instead portrayed him as a shitty husband and a struggling businessman. Also, I don’t have anything against Shailene Woodley, but she was horribly miscast in this role. The second half of the movie was more enjoyable as it shifted the focus to the race and displayed the beautiful Italian countryside. One of the car crashes looked embarrassingly cartoonish, but otherwise I thought it was good. I wanted more of that, but it wasn’t enough to save the movie for me.

I’m sure those families and doctors are very trusting of their state to do the right thing moving forward.

If we just had more good embryos with guns, we could stop random people from wandering through IVF clinics and murdering unborn children.

We have one amazing child through IVF. We were late 30s when we started trying to become parents and had one natural pregnancy that resulted in miscarriage. After about a year of trying, we saw a fertility specialist who recommended skipping straight to IVF due to our age, and we got lucky on the first egg retrieval and implantation cycle and now have a happy and healthy one year old daughter. I know 4 other couples who are at various points in the infertility struggle, some of which are failing IVF, and I feel awful for them. We also have several embryos frozen that we are unlikely to use because the first childbirth and recovery was physically very difficult for my wife. We don’t have much of an ethical dilemma over that because we don’t consider frozen embryos to be people. I don’t understand why or how someone could define an embryo as a human being, and assuming most people who take that stance are doing so for religious reasons (radical Christianity), I’m genuinely curious where in the Bible this is even close to being defined? If not the Bible, then how do they arrive at these ideals? (I realize the definition of when life begins is pivotal to the abortion debate, which I admittedly have mostly ignored until recently, so probably this has been beat to death.) Also, it would be nearly impossible to argue against IVF without also opposing oral contraception and IUDs. Those methods allow fertilization to occur in vitro, but then prevent the fertilized egg from implanting into the endometrium. So I suppose everyone in Alabama is committing murder when they have sex while taking birth control? It will be interesting to see if this gets adopted in other states. I thought IVF would be untouchable due to the fact that most people on both sides of the political aisle probably have family or friends who have used IVF and witnessed firsthand the joy it brings to the world, but here we are. Everyone who was paranoid about gay marriage, trans rights, and oral contraception was absolutely right to be worried.

Enjoy that while it lasts.

Just make sure the Xbox controller has good batteries this time.

I’m loving this series so far. I was a little skeptical in episodes 1-2 that it would be too centered around Buck and Bucky, but that has not been case. Episode 5 was intense.

I didn't get any feedback and this thread doesn't seem to get a lot of traffic, but I went ahead and booked a private boat tour for the afternoon. I booked through Viator and it was $849 for a 3 hour tour, but then the confirmation email told me the name of the company is Cabo Boat Adventures, and I see I can book the same thing directly on their website for $599. So I can cancel the Viator res, but that seems like a good way to spend a late afternoon and see the arch around sunset. Will check out The Office one day for lunch. Anyone have any info on El Farallon or Nobu for dinners? Recs for nightlife spots? Someone mentioned All Ways for airport transfers. It looks like it's $180 round trip for a suburban. Seems a little high for a ~45 minute ride but whatever. Anyone have a better rec?

I considered the “50 looked like 80 today” angle, but there are quite a few actual pictures of Hale and he did not appear elderly. It‘s just a case of Scorsese wanting to give the part to his friend instead of opening up casting for a better fit.

I watched it last week and treated it like a miniseries, splitting it up across 3 nights. I read the book when it first came out so I kind of knew the story but I forgot some of the details. I liked it but didn't love it. I thought Lily Gladstone was excellent as Mollie Burkhart, and Leo was pretty good in his role, but Robert De Niro felt really out of place to me. I think De Niro acted the part well, but the entire time it felt like I was watching Robert De Niro basically play Robert De Niro. That seems to be a minority opinion because I see everyone else praising his performance, but I think I would've enjoyed the movie more if someone else had been cast as William Hale. Also, De Niro is 80 and I think William Hale would've been 45-50 range in most of this movie. That felt a little weird to me because I kept wondering how much money this old man could possibly need for the short rest of his life, but then the movie tells us he lived another ~35 years. It wasn't even close to matching up, and I know Scorsese and De Niro have a strong history together, but I think this casting decision took the movie down a notch for me. I also think, having read the book and knowing how the story would go, there was a little less shock in the development of the story, so David Grann beat Martin Scorsese to the punch. I suppose you can't blame Scorsese too much, except that I have a hard time calling it a masterpiece when he's telling a story that's already been told quite well.

Didn’t ROFLBOX steal another poster’s truck? Whatever happened with that situation?

I feel the opposite. Cane Rosso has good toppings but they undercook their crust. It’s too floppy and soggy. Olivella’s is great.

It amused me that 2 Teslas were parked in front of the mine office. That seems like a terrible car for that location. Battery life must be amazing when the high never gets above 0F. This show is a mess. I reluctantly started watching because I thought Jodie Foster wouldn’t pick a bad script, but that appears to be the wrong decision. I’m rarely entertained by horror movies and this has veered heavily in that direction.

Other than a small percentage of Boeing execs, who exactly is profiting here? Their stock is down so the shareholders are not doing well, and I would think the vast majority of Boeing employees are not seeing great raises or bonuses given the overall status of the company. There should be a housecleaning from the top down, and if future negligence creates more safety incidents, everyone in that chain of command should be held criminally liable.

It’s not Elon’s money either. It’s Tesla’s money, and if a person owns TSLA stock, they have skin in the game a might have a small problem with paying the CEO $55B, almost 10% of TSLA’s market cap.

Planning on going for 8-9 days in early June with the wife. Ibiza would probably be 3 nights. I think that’s enough time to see the island, do a day trip over to Formentera, and of course some late night partying and show Avicii (RIP) that I’m cool. Looking at staying on the south side near Ibiza town. Mallorca would then be 5-6 nights with the plan being to relax and check out good beaches. Hopefully rent a boat for a day, with or without a captain. The good beaches look scattered around and driving will take some time each day. Not sure if we should stay near Palma and just venture out each day, or split it up with 2 different locations. I generally don’t like moving hotels unless there’s a compelling reason. Anyone been to either? Any recs about where to stay, hotels or restaurants, activities?

That NPR link talks about the real estate crisis causing deflation in China and then needing to export some of that deflation, so then Chinese goods in the U.S. would become less expensive and that forces competitors to also lower their prices to remain competitive. That all makes sense but it’s also hard to imagine Chinese shit getting cheaper.

I’ll echo this. I have not been to Amalfi either but it’s on my list for my next mainland Italy trip. I caught a Sardinia bug so that may be a bit, but I’ll get there. I have been to Cinque Terre twice, both times in high season, and I really enjoyed it and would happily go again. It’s just a nice peaceful place to exist for a few days. It gets crowded in the day but the crowds don’t bother me in a place like that nearly as much as they do in a congested city. If you stay in Cinque Terre, the crowds die off significantly by evening and the evenings/nights are splendid. I know Biff recommended staying outside Cinque Terre, but IMO that would be a mistake because then you are only experiencing it as one of the many day trippers, and you miss perhaps the best times.

Wife and I are going for 3 nights at the end of February. Neither of us have ever been. We're staying at ME because we want a younger crowd and we don't want to be surrounded by families or bachelor party golf and fish bros. If that's a terrible idea, we can cancel and rebook elsewhere, but it seems to fit our interests. I'm curious about doing a private boat tour at some point, probably to go to see the Arch and cruise around the Pacific side or wherever the captain recommends. Looking at various online sites like Viator and Boatsetter, it appears we can book a ~3 hour cruise for around $700-900. Does this sound like a reasonable thing to do? Any specific recommendations for boat companies? Would it be better to go in the morning and try to see some whales or in the evening and catch sunset? I'm leaning towards the latter. Appreciate any recs. I also realize there's a public boat shuttle type service over to Lover's and Divorce beach. We'll probably check that out and don't need the private boat for that.

I’m by no means an expert, but these are the Paris things that come to mind for me: -Eiffel Tower, either go up in it or just hang out on the Champ de Mars reading a book and looking at it -Seine river boat cruise -Hang out on banks of Seine for an evening picnic and drink wine from the bottle -Louvre -Musee d’Orsay -Musee d’Orangerie -Tuileries Garden just bum around -Versailles and the garden (not my fav but ymmv) -Fat Tire bike tours are touristy but fun -Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées -Moulin Rouge or Crazy Horse Day trips could be Normandy, Champagne, or Loire. Eat good food and drink good wine. Whether you like haute cuisine and Michelin stars or just casual cafe fare, allow yourself to indulge in a bit of everything. Splurge on some meals you wouldn’t normally eat at home. If your lady is into shopping and the finer things, look out.

What didn’t happen?