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wild_turkey

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Posts posted by wild_turkey

  1. 1 hour ago, Buzzrock said:

    I don’t love the gimmick of leaving half the cast out each episode to save money. 

    Agreed. Last week no MIB. This week no Dolores, Maeve, Hector, Teddy, Charlotte.

  2. 3 hours ago, Scholz said:

    Q: Do you want to get rid of Scott Fisher, the weather guy?

    A: No, no. I was using that as an example. What I’m trying to get out is at in a game, we have so many stops. Every first-down is sponsored. We have so many things going on. Can we just get back to the band, the music, the game, and not necessarily so many things that detract? If there’s a great hit, or a great interception, we go right to a halftime presentation, or quarter-break presentation. You draw attention from momentum. The idea is to shrink the amount of calls you have during a game to a one-sheet script. That’s kind of the thought.

    Please let this happen.

    • Like 1
  3. 19 hours ago, Gardner Barnes said:

    This show is what Lost should have been.

    Lost was great after 13 episodes. Let's see what happens with Westworld over the next few seasons. It's hard to sustain a plot of this nature.

  4. You will have mimosas with breakfast and you will have drinks at lunch but you will want a car. There are possibly taxis, never really paid attention, but the lack of a car would severely limit your ability to explore the island. 

  5. 31 minutes ago, Landomatic said:

    Is there a main area to stay near for the most shopping, dining and night life?  Gustavia?  Like the St Barth’s equivalent to staying on the strip in Vegas or on South Beach in Miami?  Or am I not looking at the trip right?

    And speaking of night life...how’s that?

    Also, I know it’s French but do most places speak English?

    And how well versed do I need to be with Euro Dollar exchange rate?

    The 2 main areas are St. Jean and Gustavia. St. Jean has the airport, some hotels and shopping, and perhaps the most popular beach. Gustavia is the capital and largest town, has the big marina where your yacht will be moored, and has some shopping and restaurants. That being said, you can get anywhere on the island in 10 minutes or so. It's tiny. Stay wherever you find a hotel that you like and that fits your budget. It's hard to go wrong on accommodations.

    Night life kinda depends. We tend to stay out and occasionally find a DJ or other interesting spots with music and late night drinks. It isn't Barcelona, but there's stuff to do if you look for it.

    Most places speak enough English for you to get by.

    The exchange rate is easy. Withdraw a bunch of Euros from the ATM once you arrive. Pay for most meals or other big expenses with your normal credit card. There isn't much to it.

    Also, you will want to rent a car. My suggestion would be a Jeep or a Mini Cooper with a soft top. The roads are narrow and winding, so keep that in mind.

  6. Depends on what you are looking for. We went for our tenth anniversary and now we are hooked. We like the French culture, French cuisine, low crowds, nice beaches, friendly people, and the relative remoteness and exclusivity of the island. It's not the easiest place to get to and there are no cruise ships or mega resorts. We love that about St. Barth.

    I'm going the first week of June. I think Johnny Sack was there around Thanksgiving.

    We stayed at Hotel Christopher last time and loved it. Great location with gorgeous views. We booked again for this trip but their restaurant (Taino) caught fire as they were finishing their post-Irma renovations. Terrible for the hotel and they had to postpone their re-opening for later this fall. The hotel itself was not damaged, just the stand alone restaurant. As a result, we cancelled that reservation but we still intend to visit the hotel for their spa (which will remain open) during our stay. 

    We are now staying at Tom Beach Hotel (which may have just renamed to Pearl Beach?), located in St. Jean near the airport. It has overall good reviews and it's right on the beach, whereas a lot of other hotels are not directly on the beach. I can give a trip report in roughly a month. 

    IMO, having your hotel located on a particular beach isn't a huge deal. There are beaches all around the island and we like to spend time at several of them. A few of the beaches have hotels or restaurants with provisions. Many of the beaches are isolated, so there will be relatively few people, topless sunbathing, no restaurants or development. We pack some beer, rosé, cheese, bread, towels and and umbrella, and that's our afternoon. You can rent a catamaran if you want. Not a lot of diving or other activities so prepare to be lazy.

    Restaurants, for the most part, are business as usual. There are a few that remain closed because they are part of a hotel that hasn't yet reopened. Eden on the Rocks comes to mind. Most of the independent restaurants are open. For this particular trip, we will be looking at Bonito (perhaps my favorite restaurant anywhere), L'Isola, L'Isoletta, La Plage, Le Ti, and Nikki Beach. The food on St. Barth is amazing so even with a couple places closed, we will have no trouble filling a week with excellent dining.

    • Like 1
  7. If we're to the point that we're comparing Cancun to South Chicago, then I think the point has already been made. I don't see a thread on Surly asking for South Chicago tourism advice. People don't voluntarily vacation there.

    I'm not saying no one should ever go to Mexico again, but it's obviously riskier than other beach destinations. If you're fine with that risk because the things you like about Mexico outweigh the safety concerns, then go for it. It's just crazy talk to pretend the risk doesn't exist, or that somehow a week in Mexico is safer than a week in Austin.

  8. One of the really interesting aspects of this show is that they've made certain hosts sympathetic characters, whereas most of the humans are fairly unlikable. In every other man vs. machine movie or TV show, we automatically root for the humans. In this case, I'm conflicted as a viewer, but I'm currently pulling like hell for Dolores and Maeve.

  9. On 4/23/2018 at 8:47 AM, TwiceHorn said:

    But, even with westerners teaching them quality control and quality manufacturing techniques (or rejecting products by the metric shit ton), a lot of products made in China without western supervision remained junk.  Until fairly recently.  Finally, it seems that Chinese manufacturers are turning out pretty pretty good stuff on their own and not necessarily intended for western markets.  Whatever your field or interest (knives, guns, bicycles, computers, etc.), I think you can come up with a few examples of high-quality, low-cost Chinese products that are making inroads (this post was provoked by a $15 pocketknife that rivals US-branded and made knives that sell for north of $100).

    So good for China I guess. 

    Interesting thread and a lot of insightful responses. Just chiming in because I respectfully disagree with the part above.

    I buy a lot of stuff online and I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with the prevalence of low quality shit that’s flooded the market. If I buy from certain stores, like clothing stores or directly from reputable brands, then I trust their quality or whatever country they decide to manufacture products in. The problem is when I get on Amazon or Google and look for random one-off products and the top results are obscure brands. For instance, I look for bed sheets and the top results have 10,000 positive reviews (are those even real?) and there’s 10 very similar products with eerily similar reviews. I needed a new faucet for a sink and same deal. I can’t trust the major online markets and I turn to traditional retailers instead. My wife has bought clothes and stuff from websites that look decent, only to have products arrive that were obviously low quality, likely a result of drop-shippers marketing absolute shit products through an online storefront.

    So yes, there can be good products from China, like the pocketknife example. However, I think these good products get lost amidst a sea of terrible stuff, and that makes me leery of buying from a lot of online sources due to the possibility of getting a Chinese product of low quality.

  10. 13 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

    So that girl with the nice booty from last episode was an ex of Elon Musk

    Talulah Riley has played several roles in the show. In season 1, she was the girl dressed in white who was helping young William in the dressing room. She was later seen as one of the hosts in the park, interacting with the Man in Black and Lawrence, then later with Maeve during the uprising. She was then used as the girl in black who was assigned to entice Logan and encourage his investment. It sounds like it was either going to be her or Dolores, but Arnold didn't think Dolores was ready for the part.

  11. On 4/1/2018 at 1:23 PM, Grade of D as in David said:

    Any recommendations for eye drops?

    Ophthalmologist weighing in here. There are lots of different treatment options for eye allergies (allergic conjunctivitis). Starting with things that don’t require a prescription:

    1. Cold compresses - let a cold wash cloth or a cold back rest over your eyes. Can help with itching but the drawback is inconvenience.

    2. OTC antihistamine drops - my favorite is Zaditor (generic = ketotifen). Another option is Alaway. They can be used twice daily. Costs $10-15 for a bottle at most pharmacies.

    3. Artificial tears - these can help with dry eyes and allergies. Good brands would be Systane, Refresh, Theratears, Blink, Genteal. They lubricate the eyes and can dilute histamine on the ocular surface, but don’t otherwise have any medication effects.

     

    Moving onto eye drops that do require a prescription:

    4. Prescription antihistamine eye drops - Pazeo, Bepreve, Pataday. These are excellent drops that work better than Zaditor or other OTC drops. They are an antihistamine but they also stabilize mast cells (which produce histamine), so they are both therapeutic and preventative. Their biggest drawback is cost. Cash price is ballpark $200 for a bottle. Insurance coverage is hit or miss and copays obviously vary a lot. For people with bad allergic conjunctivitis, if their finances allow it, they are the best option.

    5. Steroid eye drops - Lotemax, Pred forte (generic = prednisolone). They will help significantly in the short term but benefit has to be weighed against side effect risk, so definitely reserved for the worst cases.

     

    Finally, a couple other treatments you may wonder about:

    OTC redness reliever eye drops - I do NOT recommend these. Examples would be Visine-A, Naphcon-A, and Clear Eyes. In general, I don’t like most of the Visine or Clear Eyes products. Most drops with a redness reliever have a decongestant as an active ingredient. This constricts blood vessels on the ocular surface to relieve redness, which works temporarily but your eyes will quickly develop dependence and tolerance and you will get rebound redness and irritation. It’s the eye equivalent of Afrin. Avoid these things entirely. If you are already hooked on Visine, then try throwing it away and switch yourself to something else listed above. You will feel worse for a while but you will eventually get past it.

    Oral antihistamines - Benadryl, Zyrtec, etc. These are obviously very helpful for treating systemic allergies but surprisingly don’t do a lot for many people with allergic conjunctivitis. Also, they will dry you out, which means any underlying dry eye can get worse. Not the end of the world in many cases, but just be cognizant that if your eyes are already having dryness, your Zyrtec is increasing that and you will have to be more aggressive with dry eye treatment.

    • Like 2
  12. 1 hour ago, Quagmire said:

    If I went to west world I wouldn’t care about any of the story lines , I would just bang the robot chicks the entire time. Which makes me wonder, is that considered cheating if they aren’t real?

    In season 1, Logan said something like “I didn’t pay $40k per day to jerk off alone”. Makes sense, but then when you think about it, $40k per day is a ton of money if your only goal is to get laid. I’d save that for the real world.

  13. 8 minutes ago, BluTechsan said:

    Yeah, I get that but why show us Bernard "leaking" if loss of fluids isn't an issue

    When Bernard shot himself, the bullet grazed his cortex and created a leak in the host spinal fluid. I’m assuming headshots in the park are a fairly regular occurrence and it would typically require a significant repair process or reprinting the host entirely from scratch. In Bernard’s case, it’s unlikely that either of these were possible due to time and discretion, so he got a quick fix from Felix that didn’t entirely solve his problem.

    On the subject of reprinting hosts, I’m kinda surprised they didn’t have backups of each host ready to plug in. Hosts like Teddy, Maeve, and Dolores are icons for the park. If Maeve gets killed, seems like they would want to have a backup Maeve 2 immediately fill the void while Maeve 1 is getting repairs.

  14. 9 minutes ago, BluTechsan said:

    something I'm curious about is how they are "resurrecting" the wounded hosts with a few simple swipes of the tablet. why are they not having to rebuild any of them?

    My interpretation is the hosts are fatally wounded according to traditional Westworld park rules and their software code, but from a hardware standpoint they are still functional. Repairs would mainly be cosmetic, which Dolores doesn’t care about for the sake of her army.

  15. 3 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

    I think the only person who knows he was whacked in the park was Robert. They were still in the testing phase if I remember correctly. And Robert said he scrubbed all the data of the incident. So no one knows he was whacked in the park. 

    As much as I love this show, it's one of the things that always bothered me a little bit. They did say that in season 1, but it's hard to believe that absolutely no one other than Ford himself knew who the original co-creator of the park was. Given the magnitude of what they were doing, there would've been a lot of public interest in it. Also, Arnold had a wife who would've presumably triggered a missing person report or murder investigation upon his disappearance.

    When Ford later created Bernard, he could've given him all of Arnold's mental attributes without giving him an identical physical appearance, so as to avoid any chance of someone making the connection. That was done purely for storytelling purposes to trick the viewers for 6-7 episodes and then have an Aha moment when the Arnold/Bernard reveal occurred.

    Not a huge deal for me, but it never made a lot of sense.

  16. I've spent a lot of time in the various coffee shops around town. I personally think Avoca's coffee tastes odd, kinda sour or tangy, not quite sure how to describe it. Buon Giorno roasts their beans at their Grapevine location, but I've enjoyed every coffee roast I've had from their FW location. I haven't heard of Rodak's so I'm curious what you find there.

    For making coffee at home, I've always bought beans from Central Market. They have a wide selection but I usually end up with one of their house blends or something from Katz.

  17. I'm gonna move over to this thread. Thanks for those of you who gave guidance in my bike purchasing endeavors on the other subforum.

    For casual daily riding, what's the advantage of a cycling jersey compared to a Nike/UA/Lulu shirt? I'm 6'2" and fairly trim. I bought a Castelli jersey size XL and it feels tiny on me and will probably show my midriff because it's shorter in front. I tried on a few other brands with similar results. Other than the cycling jersey having pockets, what other reason should I have for using that on a regular basis? I have a ton of workout shirts that seem like they would be just fine.

  18. 5 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

    I like St. Barth the best of all the places I have been in the Caribbean.  Rent a villa with a good view and pool.  Hit up beaches.  Fantastic food.  Almost no casino/cruise/Sandals all inclusive type trashy people.

    By staying in a villa and eating out mainly for lunches and only a couple dinners, I don't spend any more money there than I do on any other vacation.

    Exactly. Small island, French culture (amazing food, beautiful people, topless beaches), no cruise ship port or cruise ship crowds, no mega resorts or mega resort crowds. It's harder to get to and that's probably a great thing. Arriving by plane is a trip. The only difference from what you described is we do hotels and we eat out nightly. The nighttime dining might be the highlight of the trip. 

    My first trip to St. Barth ruined the rest of the Caribbean for me. I doubt I could ever be convinced to go anywhere else down there. Maybe I'll visit Tahiti or the Maldives one day, but that's a different discussion.

    • Like 1
  19. Agreed on human Ford being dead now that we’ve seen his decomposing body. I suppose he could’ve created a host version of himself to live on after his death, but that would be somewhat problematic because a lot of people either saw him killed or saw his body 2 weeks later. It would be hard to fool anyone at this point.

  20. Finally got all our stuff - helmets, gloves, shorts, flat fix kits (in small saddle bags), water bottles and holders, and a pump. We will go back in a few weeks to talk about pedals and shoes.

    We were able to do 16 miles yesterday without breaking too much of a sweat. It's kinda fun and exciting having a new form of exercise and not knowing what our physical limits are yet. I know exactly how far I can run. I have no idea how far I can bike but I'm eager to test it out.

    I got a phone app to track rides. I was thinking about getting a phone mount for the handle bars to make it easier to access the info and map. Is that kosher or are there cycling rules that frown on that type of thing?

  21. 50 minutes ago, llanoflash said:

    how in the fuck did the hemsworth dude just show back up? did i miss something there?

    Great question. Last time we saw him in season 1, he was being attacked by hosts out in the park. Now he's safely back with the recovery team.

    • Like 1
  22. Report said he retired from live shows in 2016 due to health issues?   Throw in pancreatitis?  HEP?  Liver cancer?  Throw a few drugs and booze on that and its the pretty much a death sentence? 


    When he retired, he said he enjoyed the music but not the music scene. Sounded like the partying was weighing him down and the two went hand in hand. He made great music but obviously has some powerful demons he was fighting. RIP.
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