wild_turkey

Does anyone know if the U.S. is still requiring a 14 day quarantine for people returning from international travel? I remember that being discussed in early January but now I don’t see it anywhere. It seems like they dropped it and replaced it with the requirement to test prior to re-entry. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/after-travel-precautions.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/covid-19-information.html I’m considering a long weekend in Mexico (probably Tulum) next month. I’m fully vaccinated and I’m not worried about the testing part, but I don’t want to do it if I’m required to also quarantine upon return.

I signed up and joined the pool. Is there any reason not to allocate all of my tickets to the pool? Just hold a small percentage back to give myself a slim chance of winning a good prize solo?

I can't remember the last time I saw a rebel flag on a truck, maybe once every year or two? Yet here you are seeing multiple rebel flag stickers on trucks in parking lots of churches you don't even attend. Do you get bored on a Sunday morning and go out looking for something to be angry about? You're so full of shit and you know it. Just own it and bow out of the thread. I'm leaving as well because I have much better things to do than argue with you about whether or not your perceived enemies are actually justifiable enemies.

It appears that you have labeled a large group of people who you don’t actually know as being racist. I guess your basis for this claim is that they identify as cowboys, or country folk, or merely that they are different from you and therefore must be less woke and more evil. If you have some factual basis for your accusations then let’s hear it. Otherwise you are just making up stereotypes to help fill the world with fake enemies for yourself to look down upon. I have never been to a cowboy church, don’t drive a truck, don’t own a cowboy hat. I don’t care about them but it irks me to watch people fling shit at other people all the time with no remorse. How are we supposed to come together as a country when people think like this? Maybe try looking for the good in other people for once instead of assuming every group unlike yourself is inherently evil.

Here now. The snow is great. Had 6” fresh powder the first day and did some great hike-to runs in Black Iron Bowl. We’re doing après ski in our hot tub, which is amazing when the snow is falling on you. Had carry out Brown Dog and dine-in Floradora. Fully vaxxed. Snow is coming down - tomorrow will be fun.

When are you going?

Perhaps Leto wasn’t the killer, but he’s a textbook example of play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Maybe not a great idea to tell a cop you know where a missing girl can be found, then have that cop go out into the boonies with you in the middle of the night, then ask that cop to start digging holes while you taunt him about his children. All the while, impeding an investigation into actual murders and an actual missing girl. If there are people in real life that pull that shit, they deserve whatever comes their way. It’s basically suicide by cop. Everyone loses.

I liked Dunkirk. Not my favorite movie ever but it was far from dogshit. It got an 81% audience score on RT and an 8.3 user rating on Metacritic. It won 3 Oscars. It’s fine to not like it, but recognize that you have a minority opinion there, and not some universally accepted truth.

60 Minutes had a segment on this topic last night. The full piece is at this link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-home-genealogy-testing-risks-60-minutes-2021-01-31/ The 60 Minutes Overtime piece from Youtube is here: Edit to add - The same episode had quite a bit of discussion regarding Chinese collection of American DNA and mentioned that many of these American companies have Chinese investors. Pretty concerning where this is headed.

No Time to Die Dune Mission Impossible 7

Spoilers below...

Got my 2nd Moderna on Friday. I was expecting to feel somewhat sick over the weekend but the only thing I had was significant arm soreness (enough to wake me up from sleep the first night) and a mild rash on my torso. Definitely worth it though.

Thanks everyone for the feedback regarding potential Tesla purchase. I'm thinking it will be the Model Y long range, but probably a couple more months before pulling the trigger. On a separate note, is there a thread on this site for the general discussion of EVs vs. ICEs and the future of the auto industry? I'm interested in learning more about other car companies shifting to EVs (for instance, GM recently announced goal of 100% EVs by 2035 and that seems worthy of discussion), environmental impact of EV production including mining of battery components, recycling of batteries, end of life concerns, electricity production as charging demands increase, etc. I don't have a dog in the fight in the EV vs. ICE debate, but I would like to be better informed on the topic as a whole. Should that be a separate thread somewhere?

The Chase SWA card is currently offering 50,000 miles when you spend $2k in the first 3 months, then another 30,000 miles if you spend $10k in 9 months.

I had a 2001 with around 160k miles. It was in great condition and I never had a compelling reason to get rid of it other than it was 19 years old. I bought a 2020 SR5 model so nothing fancy, but it's been great so far. The TRD Pros look really nice.

Can you pause and make some popcorn or something? I’m about to start.

Can you pause and make some popcorn or something? I’m about to start.

You know you’re on surly when a TV show criticism is that the disabled actor playing a disabled character doesn’t look disabled enough.

Watched it this week. Can't say I loved it. It feels like they are trying to create a Mad Men for millennials, but Mad Men was a character driven show and Industry hasn't created that so far. [spoiler]Am I supposed to like Harper? The show has suggested that she's a badass, but we haven't really seen evidence of that other than Eric pumping her up for no apparent reason. We've seen Harper shoot herself in the foot several times, followed by her having emotional breakdowns and begging people for help out of desperation. She made a pass at Nicole out of desperation, then later tried to play the sexual assault card. We've seen her lie to cover her own ass several times. I'm not sure what her redeeming qualities are supposed to be. Eric comes across as very creepy. I got the vibe that he once used Daria in a similar way to his current relationship with Harper, which is why Daria resented him. The scene with Eric's wife was also very strange and made me wonder if they were the type of couple that would seduce a new young employee. Robert is somewhat likable but only because he's a carefree fuckup that somehow manages to skate through life. He doesn't appear to bring anything to the table in the workplace. Hard for me to understand why Yasmin was ever with Seb in the first place. I want to like Yasmin for reasons, but she's seems like she'd be a better fit as a nurse or a teacher. Maybe that's the point of her character. Maybe this is just what the banking industry is like and that's not a culture that suits me.[/spoiler]

What did you buy?

Wife is interested in a Tesla for her next vehicle. Probably looking to buy in the next 2-4 months and it would be either the Model 3 or the Model Y based mainly on cost. She has a 4Runner currently so it would be a big change for her, but I also have a new 4Runner that I'll keep for a while, so we still have the SUV when the situation calls for it. She drives mostly in town, under 30 miles a day. Might occasionally drive DFW-Austin or DFW-Houston, but for anything longer we would take my 4Runner. Model 3 new, AWD, long-range, white, 19" wheels, black interior = $48,490 before taxes Model Y new, AWD, long-range, white exterior, 20" wheels, black interior = $51,990 before taxes The cost difference is so small that I don't see a reason to get the Model 3 over the Model Y, but maybe I'm missing something? The Model 3 has a little bit longer range and probably better acceleration, anything else? My tentative plan is to buy the car with its default Autopilot and then likely add Full Self Driving later. Any reason that's a bad idea? I would also be buying the $500 wall connector and getting an electrician to do the home install. Are there other hidden costs? Thanks for educating me. Although I've loosely paid attention, this is all pretty new to me.

Saw this in theaters and kind of enjoyed it at the time, although I didn't understand it much. I enjoyed the action shots and the overall tone of the movie. Watched it again at home this past week and thought I might understand it more on second viewing. Even watched a youtube explanation video to prepare me. Still didn't follow everything and it seemed complicated just for the sake of being complicated. Realized I had no desire to further dissect the movie and that will probably be my last viewing. I'm a big fan of Christopher Nolan - Interstellar and Inception are both top 10 movies for me - but I think this was his least enjoyable movie for me. I look forward to John David Washington's career and expect him to make great movies over the next 10+ years.

The COVID test for re-entry isn't a big concern to me. The mandatory quarantine upon returning to the U.S. is a much bigger problem. Has there been any update on that part? I'm not planning to leave the country until a scheduled June trip to the Caribbean. A lot could change between now and then so I'm not going to stress over it, but this rule does deter me from any possibility of wanting to do a long weekend in Mexico this spring.

Private jet prices have been unreal this past year. I thought with the economic fallout there might be some deals out there, but you can’t even find a 10 year old G450 for under 15M right now. The only good news is that jet fuel prices are low, but probably not the best time to enter the PJ market unless you are really desperate.

My wife is an expensive après skier, so it’s actually much cheaper right now. 😀 But yes, I agree on the snow sucking in most places and that’s the true deal breaker at the moment.