wild_turkey

The end of the women’s road cycling race was nuts. Incredible to watch Kristen Faulkner make her move and very quickly leave the other 3 cyclists far behind her with no hope of closing the gap. Performances like that make the Olympics great.

That was insane.

One is in a honeymoon. The other is entering hospice. Just different phases of life.

Cosigned. I could probably be convinced to sell some O&G stock or crypto and donate considerably more. I really don’t want him to win.

My wife has a Tesla model Y. It was the best car for our needs at the time we bought it in 2021 and it’s been a good car. When it’s time to buy again, I’ll be glad there are good Tesla alternatives. Musk is such a wanker.

So it’s okay for him to post a deep fake video of Kamala Harris appearing to say things she never actually said, but when users call each other “weird”, that’s crossing a line? Why has the world not turned X into a scar porn site already? Make it unusable.

I feel like this should have its own thread. https://thedailytexan.com/2024/07/26/longhorn-olympians-30-texas-athletes-7-coaches-will-compete-in-2024-paris-olympics/

That opening ceremony was spectacular in so many ways. France knows how to celebrate.

I was raised in a household that cared more about sports than politics. That said, it was small town Texas and everyone was Republican by default. I voted Bush in 2000 and probably 2004, can’t remember. I never considered myself a Republican per se, but it just seemed like the good Texan thing to do at the time. I didn’t vote in 2008, 20012, or 2016 because I was apathetic to politics. I also hate the 2 party system and the electoral college we are stuck with, and I didn’t think my vote actually mattered. I voted for Jo Jorgensen in 2020, not because I liked anything about her or her political views, but simply as a protest vote. I wanted Biden to win (because F trump) but I didn’t think my vote was important to that goal. My worldview has grown significantly more liberal as I’ve grown older. Maybe I consider myself a moderate in some ways, but definitely left of center. I care about the climate, renewable energy, world political stability, healthcare, LGBTQ rights, the reproductive rights of women, gun control, but I also would like to see an improvement in inflation, immigration, and lower government spending. Oh, and I am sick and tired of the right increasingly forcing a narrow set of religious beliefs on the entire country. Believe what you want to believe, but you don’t need to pass legislation that requires everyone else to adopt it. I think the Bible claims God wanted man to have free will, hence the apple and the tree of knowledge or whatever, so I don’t understand why some people are so hellbent on stripping that free will away. Jesus didn’t oppress those who were different from him. I don’t consider myself a Democrat because I still think it’s weird to label oneself as D or R, much like pledging loyalty to an athletics conference. However, I do find myself much more aligned with the Democratic Party and repulsed by the Republican Party on most of the issues that are important to me, and I will be voting 100% Democrat this cycle, including Kamala Harris. There is no room for protests votes at this point. All of that said, my single biggest issue this year is Donald Trump and keeping him out of the White House. He’s been convicted of sexually assaulting 1 woman and publicly accused of raping at least 20 others. He’s been convicted of 34 felonies. He started an insurrection to attempt to overthrow a presidential election that he lost, jeopardizing our democracy. I don’t even need to go into things like Project 2025 because the known facts are so vile that nothing else matters. The thought of having a convicted rapist in the White House, as the face of our country, makes my stomach churn and would make me question what it means to be an American. Even if you can get past the rape (or you are MAGA brainwashed into thinking it didn’t happen), he tried to destroy our democracy and will try to do so again if given the opportunity. The politics beyond that are almost inconsequential and I would vote for Bob Stoops over Donald Trump. So yeah, I’m happy to vote for Kamala Harris and I hope she kicks his ass.

This show is like watching paint dry so admittedly my attention drifts and I probably miss or forget details, but why is the idea that a half-Targ can ride a dragon suddenly a thing? Rhaenyra’s own 2 sons are only half-Targ and they ride dragons, so surely she would’ve known this a long time ago. What am I missing? Daemon’s story is awful. Let’s spend an entire season roaming around Harrenhal, having nightmares about your family, doing nothing productive, feeling sorry for yourself while your sister struggles to fight a war without you, and then I’m sure they will expect viewers to still think he is a badass who is of critical importance to winning. I’m tired of watching hour long episodes of talking about the same things. I think ChatGPT could easily churn out this repetitive script.

Being DFW based and flying AA more than anything else, I’ve been pretty pleased with their customer service the last few years.

As a Fort Worth resident, it’s hard to picture which restaurants could get an actual star. Perhaps Grace or Ellerbe? I would put them in the Michelin rated category, or perhaps a green star for Ellerbe, but they don’t seem on quite the level of any Michelin 1 stars I’ve had. I’ve been wanting to try Lucia in Dallas for some time now. I should probably try harder before it becomes impossible.

Thread is relevant to my interests. Wife and I have lived in Texas our entire lives. Most of our family and friends are here. My career (physician) is here and that’s not an easy one to start over. We have made a comfortable life for ourselves and our kid, but we’re growing increasingly frustrated and concerned by the heat and the politics of this state and our country. Also, Texas is ugly. I like scenic coastlines and/or mountains, of which our state has neither. We talk extensively about the possibility of moving and have broken it down into 3 main options: 1. Stay where we are in Texas, at least until our daughter is off to college. Build a backyard oasis with a pool to mitigate the summers. Hopefully, in ~5 years, reach a point financially and professionally where we can take a month off each summer to escape the heat and rent a place in Europe, Colorado, Hawaii, etc. Once the kid moves on (17+ years from now), the world will be much different and we can figure out where to go or just follow her around. This option doesn’t solve our political frustrations with Texas, so we just have to hope that decent humans will somehow prevail and we won’t become victims of a mass shooting in the meantime. 2. Move within the U.S., primarily to escape the Texas heat, politics, and geography. Our leading choices would be Denver, California, or North Carolina. -Denver - we love Colorado for skiing and hiking but we hate the cold more than the heat. My wife looks good in sundresses. I like swimming and my favorite footwear are Havaianas. We both get seasonal affective disorder. I know that Denver is somewhat milder in the winter, but it still gets cold at night for at least half the year. I don’t like sweating at dinner in Texas but I also don’t want to wear a fleece jacket to dinner in June. -California has perfect weather and great geography, but it’s far from Europe and St. Barth, both of which we love to visit. It’s also terribly expensive but maybe we learn to be satisfied with less possessions in an otherwise great place. We’re going to San Diego next month to scope that area out. -North Carolina is possibly a middle ground. We visited Wilmington last year for a recon trip, and we liked it but possibly too far from a major airport. Asheville also interests us but a similar problem regarding the airport. 3. Move outside the U.S. This is a last resort if things in this country get too intense, which unfortunately doesn’t seem that far fetched lately. We have spent more time in St. Barth than anywhere else but probably wouldn’t move there due to cost of living, lack of job opportunities, island fever, hurricanes, etc. Some places are great to visit but not ideal to live in permanently. With very limited knowledge of these things, our leading options are probably New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, or Spain. They all sound crazy. I need a place I can work and English speaking is helpful. I know some French and could maybe study enough to pass the French language exams, but I’m not sure we’d be any better off in France because they have their own shit brewing. I received a job posting to locums in New Zealand for 6+ months in 2025, which sounds cool except that we’ve never even been to New Zealand and we would throw away everything we’ve built here. It was hard not to respond though. Maybe on Nov 6 my answer will change. Also, our parents are aging with health ailments, so it’s hard to move halfway around the world and be unavailable to them. So, option 1 remains the default option, but we’re working through the alternatives just to have some kind of a plan if we need it.

This country and the world at large are a tinderbox. I’m not looking forward to the next 4-6 months.

Suppose parts 3 and 4 never get released and or made. Would part 1 still be worth watching?

Wife and I went to see A Quiet Place: Day One on Friday on a whim. We hadn't seen any of them, somehow just never popped up on our radar until now. Day One stood pretty well on its own with no knowledge of the first two movies, and we both enjoyed it way more than we expected, considering we aren't big on horror or most monster flicks. We then watched the first 2 movies the last couple of nights and also found them very well done. Krasinski did good work and I would watch Emily Blunt in just about anything. Cillian Murphy was also very good and the deaf daughter was a badass in both movies. Just from a survival standpoint, it does seem like there are some obvious solutions or protections that could be done. Build a shelter near a natural source of white noise like a waterfall. Build a shelter directly on the water with a boat or raft that could push off when an incoming attack is happening. Create an underground bunker that is lined with sound barriers like you would find in a recording studio. The family should have random loudspeakers or noise generators in the woods all around their house that could blare noise so that when an attack is incoming, fire those speakers up to lure the creatures away from the house and at least buy them time in a crisis. Even in scenes when a character was in a standoff with a creature, at least pick up an object and throw it across the room to draw them away. Seems pretty obvious there will be at least one more. They've told the middle of the story, and then the beginning, but they could easily write an ending where humans eventually triumph.

The dragon fight was fun to watch but it was entirely predictable that Aemond and Vhagar would be waiting for Rhaenys and Meleys, and I think that’s a little bit problematic from a storytelling standpoint. At some point, the power of Vhagar needs to be ineffective or vulnerable to attack, otherwise that gets monotonous as a viewer. I was pretty sure Rhaenys would die from the moment she volunteered to go, which sucks because we just lost one of the few likable characters. The show doesn’t have much depth in that department.

Yeah, the weather apps are wrong. It’s sprinkling and the breeze is cool. Amazing start to the weekend.

It’s 75F on my way home from work in Fort Worth. I’ll take it for however long we get it.

My wife got pretty concerned about PFAS last year so we did some internet research and decided to install Hydroviv water filters in our house. We got the package for the kitchen sink and showerheads. We also looked at Aquasana but their system requires you to install a separate faucet on the counter. Here’s some info Hydroviv publishes about PFAS on their site: https://www.hydroviv.com/blogs/water-smarts/duke-nc-state-pfas-water-filter-study If anyone wants a referral code, PM me and I think we both save $35.

Put me in the camp that’s enjoying it but wishing it had better characters. If this is what the source material provided, then I hope they deviate from that or else the series will have limited potential. Also, lol @ Ser Criston getting a haircut between the 10 minute mark and 25 minute mark. “I have this super important mission but I need to visit the barber first.”

Your opinion is at best case an unpopular one and worst case flat out wrong. I can’t even remember the last time I ordered cheese enchiladas but they are certainly good and very popular, not just with 5 year olds and grandmas. There is a thread a few posts down dedicated to cheese enchiladas with 1,379 posts and it’s been the subject of intense debate on these boards for 20+ years. If you don’t like them, fine, but it’s laughable to start throwing shade at someone for ordering something that is a staple in Tex-Mex restaurants, while you’re ordering a chili rellenos or whatever and thinking that makes you a sophisticated foodie. It’s Tex-Mex.