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wild_turkey

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Everything posted by wild_turkey

  1. IMO they rushed the journey to Mars and now they’ve run out of reasonable plot conflicts so they’re making up lousy plots. They could’ve done another season focused on Jamestown and the Moon and the conflict there as each country prepared for their Mars missions. Make the launch to Mars around episode 6-7, spend the last few episodes on the journey, then have the finale be the touchdown on Mars.
  2. I have 3 patio French style doors that need to be replaced. They are wood and they have rotted at the bottom due to being in an area that's exposed to rain. See pic below. I got a quote from Andersen that was $31,000 total to replace all 3 with similar French style doors. That seems significantly more expensive than I was expecting. They then offered sliding doors instead of French style doors, which they could get for around $24,000 total. That doesn't include staining or painting. So less desirable doors, pretty expensive, and the lead time is 6 months. I also scheduled a consult with Pella but I expect them to be in the same ballpark. I'm in Fort Worth and I expect to keep this house about 1-3 more years, so I'm not necessarily concerned about getting the best possible doors with a 20 year warranty. I just want something that looks fairly similar to what I have and will last at least 3 years without significant wear. Any advice?
  3. What in the hell has happened to this show? The first 2 seasons it was one of my favorite shows on TV and I was really looking forward to season 3. Now it’s not enjoyable to watch. Bad writing and feels like a soap opera. Danny’s plot is absurd and should’ve never become a part of this season. And now Ed realizes he’s doped up on painkillers, but makes no effort to restrict access to the pills or to relieve Danny of any important duties. Aside from a public reprimand and standoff, Ed allows him continue his downward spiral to the detriment of the mission and crew. Walking Dead level stupid. Jimmy’s plot is just as bad. He just walks around NASA and steals badges so his MAGA buddies can perpetrate pointless crimes? Why? Do the writers think that’s remotely believable and/or entertaining? It’s neither. The Russians screw up their own spaceship and need rescuing by NASA, now living in the NASA ship on Mars and using NASA resources, but they refuse to share information or collaborate on projects? And NASA lets that fly? As the Russians were emergently evacuating their ship, in a situation that killed multiple people, they took time to collect their vodka? The gay rights subjects of the last 2 episodes feel heavily forced and entirely out of place, yet they’ve occupied half of the screen time. What happened to this being a sci-fi show about space exploration? And why can’t Molly be a part of it instead of the worthless characters of Danny, Jimmy, Karen, and Dev?
  4. Obviously Twitter’s board needs to fight for the sale to be completed, or fight for the largest possible settlement if Musk gets to walk away. However, given the current market and the status of other big tech stock prices, wouldn’t it still be a win for Twitter to get a modest settlement (say ~$5B)? TWTR is currently a little above where it was trading 6 months ago, but down roughly 23% compared to the spike it had in April. Compare that to AMZN which is down 25% since April, META down 27%, and GOOG down 22%. None of those companies have the Elon fiasco and none of them have a potential sale or settlement coming up. So although it would be really nice for TWTR to pull off the sale at the inflated $54/share price, if the alternative is keeping their company and getting a ~$5B settlement, isn’t that also a pretty big win for them? Wouldn’t that leave them better off than if Elon had never entered the picture?
  5. l'île de beauté. What an amazing place. It’s been on our short list for several years, finally made it happen, been here for a week and we love it. Great people, mostly French but they have a strong sense of Corsican heritage, with a fair amount of Italian mixed in, especially in their language. The scenery is fantastic, almost 200 beaches with a lot of variety, many with fine white sand. Some have a parking lot and beach bars, some have a hike and serenity. We prefer the latter. The interior of the island has mountains up to 8,800’ in elevation. Very diverse geography. The food is French Mediterranean, which is to say, perfect. And the wine is mostly produced here, they don’t import or export much, and it’s very tasty and surprisingly inexpensive. It does help to speak some French because there will be places where no English is spoken. We rarely hear English being spoken at other tables at restaurants, nor have we met any Americans in our week here. I’m surprised by that but it’s quite nice. Our favorite place has always been St. Barth, which unfortunately has been overrun with Americans post-pandemic. You could spend a month here and not run out of things to see or do. We spent time in Isle Rousse, Calvi, Piana, Corte, and Bonifacio. Along the way we’ve discovered tons of stuff that we didn’t have time for, or rather, we’re trying to relax as much as possible (madame-wt is 17 weeks pregnant), so we will absolutely be returning to enjoy more of what Corsica has to offer.
  6. Significantly lower range compared to almost all Tesla models. It’s listed at 252 miles which in the real world is probably closer to 200 miles. That may not matter for some people, but it would be a deal breaker for me.
  7. Why do you (and a handful of other posters) keep saying this? Honest question. I completely understand thinking TSLA is overvalued or thinking Elon is a jackass, but I don’t understand why some people keep saying Tesla vehicles are shit. My wife has a Model Y and it’s my favorite car we’ve ever owned. We looked at multiple other EVs before buying this one and it seemed the best option at the time. It has great range, pretty good charging options, comfortable, spacious, easy and fun to drive, and we’ve had no quality problems. What, specifically, am I overlooking here?
  8. double post
  9. Can anyone clarify the vaccine requirements for entering France? This is from the France Ministry of the Interior page: https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/covid-19-international-travel The vaccination schedule is considered complete 28 days after receiving one dose of Janssen vaccine, seven days after a second dose of other vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (namely Pfizer/Comirnaty, Moderna, AstraZeneca/Vaxzevria/Covishield) and, for persons who have received all the required doses of a WHO-licensed vaccine not approved by the European Medicines Agency, seven days after receiving an additional dose of a duly approved mRNA vaccine. Since 1 February 2022, in order for their vaccination schedule to continue to be recognised as complete, persons aged 18 years or older wishing to enter French territory must have received a booster dose of messenger RNA vaccine no later than nine months after receiving the last mandatory dose. Wife and I both received both dose of the Moderna vaccine very early - 1st dose in Dec 2020, 2nd dose in Jan 2021. I got my "booster" on 8/18/21 which was within 9 months of the 2nd dose. She did not get her booster until 12/20/21 which was over 9 months after her 2nd dose. We are both considered fully vaccinated in the U.S. and there is no reason or method to modify the timing of our first 3 doses. I'm concerned that the French entry requirements won't recognize my wife as being fully vaccinated since more than 9 months passed before her booster?
  10. Then you are just trolling with bullshit incorrect posts about a subject that is irrelevant to you and which you know very little about. Which seems perfectly in character for you.
  11. Meow.
  12. Just saw this thread had progressed significantly since Burt’s skin cancer. Sbb, really sorry to hear about your situation but hoping you kick its ass. You’re the most consistent Dodgers fan here and I need someone to give internet high fives to when we win it again. And as someone would like a sailboat and often ponders relocating to Cali, you’re living a good life in my book. Beat this thing and keep on livin. RD, thanks for sharing your story and you tell it so well. Inspiring stuff. Keep up the good fight.
  13. In addition to being a gigantic cunt with a strong resemblance to Rocko, you also have a habit of posting shit that is flat out incorrect. I think discussion of any of these services as being a matter of poors vs. non-poors is absurd, but your post about GE being for the poors when you favor MP is especially absurd given that GE costs $100 and MP is free. If anything is "for the poors", it would be the free service (MP). Telling people to get out of the country is also laughable considering the only reason to ever use GE would be if you have been out of the country. It's not intended for people who purely fly domestic. WTF are you even suggesting here? What does any of this have to do with Cabo or anyone's specific preference of travel destination? It's just another case of you stereotyping literally every other person that you believe is unlike you, less well-traveled, and all around inferior. Rocko would at least post his pay stub to convince us of that. Global Entry is a very simple way to get through customs at basically any U.S. airport when returning from any international destination. That would apply to any of your preferred destinations as well as people who visit Cabo. (I've never been to Cabo, but it seems like a good party destination and I get why other people like it). Global Entry has helped me multiple times to catch a connecting flight on my way back into the country. Even when I don't have a flight to catch, having a shorter time in U.S. customs is the ultimate goal and it's hard to believe anything is consistently faster than GE. I'm not sure I've ever waited longer than 10 minutes, and I would guess <2 minutes is the norm from my experience. Mobile Passport is only accepted at certain airports and that number is apparently getting smaller. Why would I want to rely on a program that isn't available everywhere? What happens when you arrive back in the U.S. at an airport that doesn't have it? Wait in the regular customs line with everyone else? Finally, Global Entry also includes PreCheck. Mobile Passport does not. There's a very obvious winner here and it's not MP. The only 2 drawbacks to GE are the cost (reimbursable by every decent credit card) and the interview (which I've done once to cover 10 years of membership). Or I suppose if you have a sketchy background and can't pass the interview, then you can't get GE.
  14. On our recent trip home from Montreal, they were offering to let people out of the main security line if you had GE and your card. We didn’t have our cards so we had to wait. Then we got through security and there was a very long line for U.S. customs. No one was monitoring that line and we saw the GE kiosks at the far end so we skipped over to those and got right through without our cards. Agree with your point though, anyone traveling to Canada should take your GE card with you.
  15. GE is anything but a scam. It has saved my ass multiple times.
  16. The AC president sent me an email a few days before our flight that was filled with similar excuses. It felt like an omen, then our flight got canceled. One of my friends was also flying AC from DFW-YUL on a later flight and his also got canceled. We ultimately made it, but a 4 hour direct flight turned into a 16 hour travel time, arriving at 3 am, a full 15 hours later than our original arrival. Hopefully you have better luck than we did.
  17. We made it. Arrived in Montreal at 3:00 am. During the DEN layover we took the train to Union Station and had food/drinks at Wynkoop and some other outdoor cafe. Flight situation sucked but Denver was good to us.
  18. Thanks for the neg. College football was already something fans followed and were involved with. We didn’t need any of these changes to enable us to become fans of college sports. I don’t disagree that NIL should be a thing (which was only one of my initial points), but it’s a symptom of the bigger problem which is that massive amounts of money will continue to degrade the quality of college sports. College football has always been far better than NFL for reasons, and the more it changes to become similar to the NFL, the less enjoyable it becomes. It would be very difficult to argue otherwise unless you prefer pro sports to begin with, in which case I don’t know what to tell you.
  19. This is bad for college sports, just like Nebraska/Colorado/A&M/Missouri leaving the Big 12 was bad, and Texas/OU leaving the Big 12 is also bad, and NIL and the transfer portal are bad. We are going to end up with NFL-light and other semi-pro leagues across the major sports, where history and tradition and any pretense of actually caring about the associated universities or rivalries is completely gone. Oh well, 2005 was a fun year. And as I get older I realize that spending a lot of time and emotional energy on sports is kind of a ridiculous waste of my limited time on Earth. I suspect in 20 years Texas and OU will play in the State Farm Red River Hangout and I’ll be blissfully unaware on a beach in Tahiti.
  20. Well the flight out of DEN already got delayed 3 hours (I fully expect it to eventually get canceled). So now I arrive in DEN at 12:44 and leave at 8:20. Arrive in Montreal at 2:03 am. I could spend ~8 hours in the DEN airport or I could catch an Uber into town and hit a brewery or get a good bite to eat somewhere. Suggestions?
  21. This thread was the first I heard about Air Canada’s problems. Then I got to thinking about our Montreal trip this weekend. Flight there is AC, flight home is UAL. Supposed to fly DFW-YUL tomorrow at 7:00 am. Got a text from AC at 9:00 pm tonight (10 hours before departure) that the flight was canceled. No offer to rebook or anything, just canceled. Got an email a few minutes after that with a “What are my options?” link that ended up being a customer service number to request a refund. They aren’t even trying to be helpful, just throwing their hands up in defeat. We are headed to Montreal for a wedding so we really want to go. Naturally all remaining available flights are worse times and significantly more $$$. I booked through Chase and they were able to get me on a different AC flight tomorrow that leaves later, connects in DEN, and gets me to YUL super late. I half expect it to get canceled or make it to DEN and then get stuck there.
  22. Thanks and Dec 29. My guess is that we will mostly do our usual 1-2 St. Barth trips each year without the kid for a while, then eventually let her tag along for the occasional trip. It's kind of our personal space and I want to protect that time.
  23. One last post from me with a overview and some pics from our recent trip. It will be a little long but hopefully helpful to anyone new like I was. Kauai has long been a bucket list destination for me because I’ve always wanted to see the Napali Coast in person. It’s just always been on the back burner until some friends asked us to go this year and we couldn’t turn it down. I expected to like it, but I had tempered expectations due to not knowing a whole lot about Kauai, and it far surpassed those expectations. Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Lots of things to do for people who like activities on vacation. Wife and I stayed the first 2 nights at the Grand Hyatt in the Poipu area. We both wish we had picked somewhere different for those nights. It’s a nice resort, but it’s massive and basically has a water park for a pool and caters heavily towards families with kids, which we were not. I think we booked it out of laziness in researching and it was only 2 nights. Oh well, no big deal because we got out and did fun stuff those days. We then met up with our friends and spent the next 4 nights at a house in Princeville. Agree with many that the north side of the island is far more enjoyable. Better beaches, hikes, and a more relaxed vibe. Fewer crowds and didn’t have that overly generic resort feel. We then went back to Poipu area to stay 3 more nights at Ko’a Kea Resort. This hotel was much more to our liking. Felt like more of a boutique hotel with a quiet relaxing pool, spa, good restaurant. Great for couples. Would for sure stay there again. For activities, we did the following: Hiked to Hanakapiai Beach and Falls (see post directly above for info) - highly recommended Helicopter tour with Jack Harter - about 45 minutes, cost was $750 for the 2 of us. Rented a private boat for a full day from Napali Experience. We had a boat captain who took us all up and down the west side of the island. They normally only do half day tours so we booked both the morning and afternoon slots and our captain was pretty excited to have the time to just chill. Spent time swimming, snorkeling, eating lunch right off the Napali Coast. Queens Bath - cool spot, water was fine for cliff jumping and swimming. Snorkeled with a bunch of sea turtles. Unfortunately my GoPro didn’t have its memory card! Hiked to Hoopii Falls - nice easy hike, took about 2 hours Hiked Maha’ulepu trail on the south side and went to the beach there Went to Wailua Falls (commonly known as Fantasy Island falls) and hiked down - this is officially forbidden but there were 50-100 people doing it so I don’t think anyone actually cares. I recommend going down because you can swim there and you can walk behind the falls. Wear good shoes. Went to Haena Beach, Papa’a Beach, Aliomanu Beach, and Poipu Beach. Ate meals up north at Hideaway Pizza, Kalypso, Postcards Cafe, Hanalei Bread Company, and Jimmy’s Grill. Ate meals down south at Red Salt, Tidepools, La Spezzia, The Tasting Room, and Kenji Burger. I would like to go back at some point, mainly because I now have an even stronger desire to do the full Kalalau Trail hike and stay on the beach. I would also like to visit Polehale Beach and try a couple of different hikes on the southwest side. Here are some of my favorite pics:
  24. I try to stay out of CR but this thread topic is of interest to me. I've lived in Texas my entire life, but I've considered leaving for a long time, mostly due to being tired of the heat and wanting to live somewhere with prettier geography (nice beaches or possibly mountains). I'm not a lake person and I think the Texas coast is ugly. Politics haven't historically been a big motivator for me, but that's starting to wear pretty heavily on me too. Our state leadership seems incompetent most of the time (winter storm 2021) and increasingly determined to use religious beliefs to oppress large percentages of our population. SB8 had me pretty pissed off, not to mention countless school shootings with no willingness to change gun control, and now the post-Roe abortion stuff. I would not at all be surprised to see same sex marriage on the chopping block and I don't want to live in a place where our government dictates those things. An 18 year old can buy an AR-15 here but women don't have control over what takes place in their own bodies. The problems for me are the classic issues of job and family. I'm a physician with an established practice. My family and my wife's entire family all live in Texas, most within 2 hours of us. That includes 3 sets of parents, 5 siblings, nieces and nephews. We're fairly close to everyone and want to keep it that way as best as possible. Not to mention, we have a lifetime of friends within driving distance of us. Added to all of this, we have a baby on the way. Very difficult to intentionally leave a great support network and a great income and start from scratch somewhere new. So if we were to do anything, we would probably wait 4-5 years, but by that point we may have aging parents and that's a new set of concerns. If we did move, our criteria for a new place would be better weather, prettier geography, and hopefully more moderate politics. For the first 2 criteria, I think California, Hawaii, and North Carolina fit the bill. We absolutely love visiting Colorado but I think the long winters would be more brutal for me than the Texas summers. For the politics part, I'm not sure anywhere in the U.S. is really safe. Maybe I'll just focus on getting a forever home in Texas where I can have a pool and a backyard oasis to retreat to in the heat. And maybe the politics will eventually change if someone like McConaughey gets in office. Doubtful. Maybe I'll figure out a way to retire early to Tuscany or New Zealand or St. Barth. None of those solve all of my concerns. It's a flawed world for sure.
  25. Would you be interested in mountains (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana..) or are you looking specifically for a cool city to visit?
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