wild_turkey

I think their decision to take him in was at least partly driven by his football talent, which is a little scummy, at least from the standpoint of boosters going to great lengths to direct a high school player to their preferred school. I think that’s a fair criticism, although at least Oher got a home out of it, which is more than what many recruits get. I’m not sure I agree with characterizing them as attention whores who were shouting their good deeds. Michael Lewis chose to write their story, which is kind of what he does, plus he was a close friend. Hollywood then took notice, and hardly anyone in their position would decline a movie that was going to portray their family in a positive light.

The rain thread is kind of funny because it’s less grounded in reality than the UAP thread.

Why? Each was great in its own way.

Tend to agree. It doesn’t seem like they hid the conservatorship, and that it was more of a legal distinction, but they otherwise treated him like a full family member and adopted son. Furthermore, it seems Michael knew about it, at least by the time of his 2011 book, in which he says the conservatorship wasn’t important because they were family. If the distinction wasn’t important to him, isn’t that what really matters?

I don’t think I ever commented on this thread, but I watched both seasons about a month ago and loved it. Definitely in my top 3 shows for 2023. There are some parallels with Ted Lasso. A new guy with talent moves into a difficult situation, is initially an outsider, tries to transform a struggling enterprise against overwhelming odds, finds ways to build up those around him and draw out their strengths, while battling his own internal demons. Fishes was intense and I almost had to turn it off to finish later, but it was so good. Forks was amazing and the change from hating Richie to loving him was incredible character development.

I have an insurance policy with Allstate for auto, home, and personal umbrella. I recently got my annual renewal notice for the auto portion and it went up 45% compared to last year. We have the same 2 vehicles (Tesla Y and 4Runner) with no accidents or tickets. I realize insurance tends to go up, but a 45% jump in one year with no explanation of the increase is frustrating. I tried calling them but haven't been able to get through to my agent's office. Left a message but they haven't called back so far. In the meantime, I thought this would be a good reason to look around and see if it's time to switch. The internet is surprisingly unhelpful on this, at least from the limited attempts I've made. Been to a few different sites and none of them give a straightforward quote, although I'm sure I have inadvertently acquired new spam email and robocalls in the process. I know there are some insurance guys on here, if someone wants to point me in a specific direction or run some quotes for me. Thanks.

Like many others, my knee jerk reaction to this story was that the Tuohys probably screwed him over. That's the direction most of the headlines and articles were leaning, and I already had a vague impression that their original motives were to get a star football recruit to attend their alma mater, moreso than to genuinely help out a high school student with difficult life circumstances. So it was kinda easy not to like them, just from the general angle of rich Ole Miss boosters have shady dealings. The more I read about it though, I'm struggling to understand what the Tuohys specific transgression was, at least regarding these new allegations, both from Oher and the media. People seem up in arms about the conservatorship vs. adoption part. Why? Is this due to a perception that he didn't have financial independence or that they somehow exploited his finances? Is there any evidence of that? It seems Michael Oher has been aware of the conservatorship for a long time, so if it was problematic for him in any way, why didn't he dissolve it? Do people have an emotional preference for a legal adoption because it sounds like they truly welcomed him into their family? According to that quote from Michael, which was supposedly many years ago, he knew about the conservatorship all along and it didn't matter because they felt like family. Why would it suddenly be offensive many years later? Or is this all about him not receiving proceeds from The Blind Side? The counter from the Tuohys is claiming he did receive an equal cut, which should be a pretty easy thing to prove. Also, it seems we are talking about a grand total of less than $100k, which is peanuts compared to their fast food proceeds and his NFL earnings. If they didn't give him a cut, that's foolish for people in that financial situation. If they did give him an equal share, then what exactly is the problem? If this is all over <$100k, then both sides would be much better off squaring up privately. Someone is going to look pretty foolish when the dust settles.

TwiceHorn (or anyone else that knows), was the conservatorship structured in such a way that Oher had the legal ability to dissolve it on his own? Do we know if he ever made any attempt to do that?

Is this even true? If so, what is your source? I have done extensive contract work for 2 different Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities in Texas, and at no time did I encounter guards who I would think are non-U.S. citizens. On top of that, the security check to become a BOP employee (or contractor, in my case) is fairly rigorous.

Turns out a dog died. We originally thought all the dogs got out and ran away, but they found out this morning that one got stuck in the house. Sad stuff.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv2W9zYrKKw/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Crestwood

A few houses in our neighborhood caught fire last night. The fire started about 11:30 pm in a house that’s being built, just finished the framing. No electrical to the house yet and no one seemed to immediately know the cause, but of course the fire department will investigate. It spread to both neighboring houses. One got burned pretty bad, beyond livable at this point. The other neighbor got a wall and attic damage, smoke and water damage, and their truck caught fire. Thankfully, all people and pets were safe. Embers from the main fire landed down the street and started another spot fire. Appears to be minimal damage from that one.

The thing about Hijack is that it should’ve never had an A-list actor as a main character. I realize they got Idris Elba for the star power to attract viewers, but that then means they wrote the script around his character, and it shouldn’t be that type of script. Potentially, a hijacking story could be decent for 6-7 hours, but not when it has a single protagonist who is present in every scene. People who hijack planes don’t allow good guys to freely roam about the plane and insert themselves into every situation. If you want to write this story and make it somewhat decent, get a committee of B-listers to play various antagonists that each contribute a little bit in their own way.

This where I’m at. I love being outside and I love the idea of summer, but every summer here is fucking miserable and they seem to be getting worse. It’s depressing. My wife and I have both lived our entire lives in various parts of Texas, currently in DFW. Most of our family and friends are here, all within 2-4 hours driving distance. We have a young child and it would be nice for her to grow up near grandparents and cousins. Our parents will soon enter that age in life where health problems will be more of a concern and it would be nice to be near them when serious stuff inevitably occurs. It’s hard to walk away from all of that, not to mention building a new social network from scratch. But every summer I think “Am I really going to endure this shit for the rest of my life? Why subject myself to that level of misery?” I love the beach and I love the mountains. Texas has neither. All we have is an inferno every summer. It’s fantastic to spend all day inside for 2 months straight, hoping like hell the AC doesn’t give up. Colorado appeals to me because of the mountains, skiing, and hiking. I think I would quickly bitch about the long cold winters though. Southern California seems close to perfect, other than it’s crowded af and cost of living is crazy. Also kinda far from St. Barth and Europe, both of which I like to frequent. North Carolina seems nice. Don’t particularly care for the east coast but I think that’s more the wankers that live in New England. Maybe a place like Wilmington would be a happy medium. I feel stuck.

They have a pretty good lineup but they’ve also put out their share of duds - Invasion, Extrapolations, Surface, Hijack, Physical, The Mosquito Coast. Although with HBO struggling under their new ownership, I probably have more confidence in Apple to deliver a quality series than anyone else.

This is heartbreaking. We spent our honeymoon in Kaanapali and a good deal of time in Lahaina. I have fond memories of that area and the entire island of Maui. The loss of property was devastating but the loss of life is just horrific.

I like going to the movies, when there’s a good movie to see. I’ve seen Mission Impossible, Oppenheimer, and Barbie in the last month. Happy to have some good stuff to watch lately. Had a great experience each time. We don’t have Alamo where I live, but there is a pretty nice AMC that is clean, has comfortable reclining seats, and serves adult beverages. It’s on par or dare I say slightly nicer than the franchised Alamo location where I previously lived. Some of you need to get nicer theaters. Or maybe you’re in that phase of life where you prefer everything inside your home versus going out in public. Which is fine, I guess.

I've been to Cinque Terre twice, in June 2011 and July 2017, and really enjoyed it both times. It was peak summer on both occasions and there were definitely crowds during the day, but it was still nothing compared to crowds encountered in European cities. I can tolerate crowds much easier in a small coastal town when my day is spent on the beach or hiking. I also stayed multiple nights on both occasions, and found that the crowds thinned out significantly in the late afternoon when a lot of the day trippers returned to wherever they came from. If you only visit for a day, you're kind of depriving yourself of the better side of it.

Just saw it. Loved it. Lots of great moments, the social commentary was on point, and I got the feeling that Gosling’s entire career has been building to this role.

This is not new and pretty low down the list of things in life to be outraged about. When I was at UT about 18 years ago (fuck, I’m getting old), they charged an extra fee for paying tuition by credit card. It made sense. One of my insurance companies is that way currently. I can pay cash or card, but the fee for paying with a card outweighs the points benefit, so I pay cash. Certain businesses flat out reject Amex because of the high fees. Doesn’t Costco do this or did that change? Specs offers a cash or debit card discount, which is essentially a markup for people paying with a credit card. I use a credit card whenever I can for the benefits, but I have no problem with a place that incentivizes cash payments.

Just watched Hijack and it’s got to be the worst series I’ve watched in some time. The writing is awful. It’s a show full of stupid people doing stupid things and it’s insulting to the viewer’s intelligence. I’m pretty sure The Walking Dead season 37 had better writing. I’m mad at myself for watching it. I expected better from Stringer Bell and Apple+. If I was a nicer person, I would spoil it for the rest of you to remove any temptation you have to watch it. But I won’t, so you’ve been warned.

Saw it last night and thought it was great. Not perfect and probably not a top 3 Nolan movie for me, but it lived up to my expectations. I did not have a problem with the volume of the score or understanding the dialogue. I suppose I noticed the score being loud a few times, but not in the sense that it detracted from what was happening on screen.

Sure, but that assumes that: A) the aliens came from the next closest solar system B) they are traveling close to light speed We have no idea if either of those are true. It’s equally possible they come from farther away and travel slower, which could easily explain why their tech doesn’t update quickly to match our tech.

I lean in the direction that aliens have NOT visited earth, but if they had, I think a simple answer to your question is that interstellar travel takes a very long time. Suppose they originally sent visitors to scout Earth 100 years ago. Whatever tech they had in 1923 would have been easily able to evade our detection capabilities at that time. Our tech significantly improved over the past 100 years, and the aliens would not be able to instantly upgrade their hardware over a distance of light years to counter the advances we made. It could take them hundreds or thousands of years to send new shit here. Or maybe it’s not a priority for them at all because they’ve long since found more important stuff to focus on, and they’re fine leaving their old shit here to confuse us, because honestly, wtf are we gonna do? Go after them? But again, I’m in the camp that aliens exist somewhere in the universe but probably not anywhere near us.