Snake Diggity

I predict turnout will be lower on both sides. Trump will receive less than 72M votes this November. Biden will receive less than 80M.

I’ve seen rumors of losing addl guys at OL, DL, and LB. And there are rumors that Mitchell and Barron could return.

Current expected 2024 vs 2023 Out/In Tally: QB (-1): Out: Murphy, Wright; In: Owens RB (0): Out: Robinson, Brooks; In: Gibson, Clark WR (0): Out: Worthy, Mitchell*, Whittington, Cain, Neyor; In: Golden, Wingo, Butler, Livingstone, Dubose TE (0): Out: Sanders; In: Washington OL (+1): Out: Jones, Gorman-Welch; In: Cruz, Kibble, Baker DL (+1): Out: Sweat, Murphy, Carter, Ross; In: Moore, Umeozulu, January, Hills, Robinson LB (0): Out: Ford, Bush; In: Simmons, Smith DB (-3): Out: catalon, Watts, Thompson, Allen, Crawford, Brice, Turner-Gooden, Barron*; In: Mukuba, Filsaime, Black, JJR, Mack, Wilson ST (0): Out: Sanborn; In: Kern

Kiyosaki seems like a piece of shit, but I still think Rich Dad Poor Dad is good reading for young people who don’t understand wealth building. It certainly changed the way I thought about money when I read it in when I was 20. Ramsey is also very flawed, but again I think what he says is good for poor or lower middle class people struggling with debt. I stopped reading him awhile back when I got off twitter, but Morgan Housel had some good insights and posted interesting reads about finance/money. His book “The Psychology of Money” is pretty good. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a “financial guru”.

I have failed to mention the primary reason I use a management company: I simply do not have the heart to directly throw somebody out in the street. A few times over the years I have asked my property managers to cut a tenant a break after learning of hard times and it has blown up in my face every single time. One tenant had paid on time for years and had actually never missed rent ever, but I found out she’d run into some hardship, so I proactively gave her a month’s free rent as an act of kindness. She never paid me another dime from that moment on, and I had plenty of proof that she had the money. It was heartbreaking. Using property managers removes me from those situations and keeps me ignorant of any suffering my investment might be causing. Similar to how I can own Lockheed Martin stock and not really feel a huge amount of guilt about innocent children getting bombed around the world vs how I’d feel if I worked actually assembling the bombs.

I’ve had way more good tenants than bad. Several stayed for multiple years, always paid on time, and didn’t destroy my house. I’ve only had 2 really bad ones. The first was just a guy who didn’t pay and wouldn’t leave; he eventually left before LEO got involved and by that point I was happy to write off the thousands of dollars in back rent. I was just glad he didn’t destroy the place on his way out. The 2nd bad renter was a lady who signed all the papers then let some bums (I think they were like her nephews or family friends or some shit) move in. They had cats without litter boxes and had a fridge full of food that they didn’t empty when their power got shut off. Pretty sure drugs were involved. For some reason they ripped all the cabinets off the walls in the kitchen before the finally left. So thousands in back rent gone, thousands more in repairs. Cool. Tiers of renters: Great: pays in advance, stays for years, is proactive about reporting maintenance issues, but doesn’t demand anything and is super patient with contractors/management. Good: pays on time, stays thru their lease, does not ignore maintenance issues, does not pester landlord/management with complaints. Average: mostly pays on time, usually stays thru their lease, ignores some maintenance issues, kind of bitch about complaining. Bad: usually pays late, probably ends up breaking their lease, ignores maintenance issues, always complaining Horrible: doesn’t pay, breaks their lease, actively destroys your shit. My rentals in my “good” locations (North and South Austin) get almost entirely good renters with an occasional great or average. A property I had in a bad part of a smaller town got almost entirely bad or horrible renters.

I think the Chinese, Turks, and Indians would determine how long any worldwide war would last if this conflict spreads. All 3 have no love for Russia/Iran, but they would all be tempted to foster/extend any conflict to further their own agendas. But I really don’t think any of them are stupid enough to take it far enough to ever have their militaries directly engaged against the West. It sure feels like there’s no way out for Putin/Russia. Thats the scary part. The ultimate outcome of this doesn’t really seem in question to me, but how long it takes to get there and how much damage is done along the way is what remains to be seen.

The Rays adding Caballero from Seattle probably takes away the possibility of the Pena-for-Arozarena rumor that was posted here a few weeks ago.

It kind of sounds like he did listen to y’all.

I can promise you my wife will never make the “mistake” of accidentally saving $35,000. Yep, rage. Wife wants to be the boss but not pay any of the cost.

It will be, at best, far less popular than it is now. At worst, it won’t exist. Theres a lot of unsustainable trends: NIL costs skyrocketing Injury fears skyrocketing Aging fanbase Transfer portal mercenaries Attendance costs skyrocketing (stadium construction/maintenance, concession staffing, etc. all passed on to fans) TV revenue declining If it does survive, there will only be between 20 and 65 teams actually competing, likely all in the SEC and B1G. Young people do not give a fuck about sports the way previous generations have.

I talk to my boss once a week for about 20 minutes. It’s perfect.

Rent houses can be an excellent way to generate wealth. If you’re flush with cash, under 50, and can buy in a market where the rent will cover the note (increasingly difficult), they’re amazing supplements to standard 401k and cash savings. But if you don’t have cash to cover renter turnover, repairs, etc., or if you’re close to retirement age, or if you are in a market where rents are lower relative to mortgages, they’re a terrible idea. But for me, someone who bought 4 homes in good markets when I was between the age of 27 and 33 and when rates were near zero, they have been the best investments I’ve made, even if they come with an occasional headache that stocks or other investments dont have. To the OP’s question, I much prefer to use a management company than manage myself. Not only do they reduce the headache of finding and dealing with renters, they also have a long list of contractors they already deal with. Paying for expertise is worth it. They also put another layer between the owner and the renter which can be very valuable. The key is finding a management company who will keep your place rented with renters who pay their rent and don’t destroy your property. Renter turnover will kill your cash flow. So will renters who don’t pay.

My 5 and 8 year old still believed this year. It will not surprise me at all if this was the last year for the older one. My goal was to make it to 8, so I’m satisfied if this is the last year both believe. 8 gives them 5 good years (starting at age 4) where they’re old enough to know what’s going on and remember later in life but young enough not to get made fun of at school. Once my youngest turns 10 we will talk openly about Santa not being real and have a heart to heart to make sure they understand why we “tricked” them. We don’t really build up Santa that much because of all the implications of inequality and religion, but we’ve done enough to give them the Christmas magic. I’m really gonna miss it.

Find someone to create a weekly <2 min video collating the best of surly content for that week, get it on Tik Tok insta Twitter and YouTube. Content generation may be down but there’s enough to make a great weekly video that algorithms would filter to the young demo and get more of them to engage.

There’s no way Abreu would be offered a $40M/2yr contract if he were a free agent. His contract is at least $10M underwater. He might be a good hitter in 2024-2025, but he is unlikely to be worth his contract. I don’t think he was hurt at the beginning of last season, I think he just sucked. But if he’s healthy he might be very good which would be a boon for Houston given the sunk cost.

Houston has a mature roster with 7 guys making >$15M in 2024 and another 3 making $10-15M. Crane hasn’t been cheap and they currently have the 6th highest projected 2024 payroll in the league. Unfortunately the last 4 seasons has decimated the farm system such that they also can’t make big trades (without getting extremely creative/risky). They were “aggressive” last year and made 3 bad deals, 2 of which (Abreu and Montero) are still on their books and preventing them from making additional moves that require adding 2nd or 3rd tier contracts. We should be happy Crane and Bagwell aren’t rushing out to give Josh Hader $100M+ or some stupid shit like that. I believe Dana Brown will make at least 1 significant move before opening day. But even if he doesn’t, Caratini will be one of the best backup C in the league and Houston’s roster is on par with any team in the AL; they’re the current odds favorite to win the pennant and go back to the World Series.

My kids are close to getting old enough to start traveling. We are committed to Disney World in 2024 but I think starting in 2025 we will be able to do one trip abroad each year, and I have Europe at the top of my list. I have traveled quite a bit, but it was mostly solo and 15+ years ago. I have a long standing fantasy to visit the places shown in the last 2 episodes of Band of Brothers, which is Bavaria and Austria. I have never been there but my hope is that the natural beauty will be enough to entertain me, the wife, and 2 girls between 10 and 15. Would love any pointers.

My girls are still elementary aged but goddam I’m dreading their teenage years. Legitimately worried we might not all make it thru unscathed. Sanity and reason doesn’t seem to prevail at all during those times and love doesn’t seem to be enough. And I’ve already failed enough as a parent that they’ll have plenty of reasons to hate me by that point (and plenty of reasons for me to blame myself for any negative outcomes they experience). I’m their hero and confidant and generally their favorite person right now and the thought of the other shoe dropping is terrifying.

So a roster close to this: 2B Altuve 3B Bregman DH Alvarez LF Arozarena RF Tucker 1B Abreu C Diaz CF McCormick SS Dubon Bench: Kessinger, Caratini, Singleton, Meyers SP: Verlander, Brown, Javier, Yariel Rodriguez, Urquidy, France RP: Pressly, Abreu, Shawn Armstrong, Montero, Coleman/Garcia, Whitley/McCullers With Cowser, Baumler, and Povich added to the farm. Rotation is suspect. Bullpen is high ceiling but high risk. Lineup is one of the best and deepest in MLB history. Farm would move from well below average to slightly below average.

Ha. Yeah I guess whenever somebody constantly acts like a condescending dickhead I assume they are taking things pretty seriously. But thanks for clarifying that you’re a condescending dickhead to people because that’s just how you entertain yourself. Cool.

If all the shit you said is true, then he’s not badass. Simple as that. Btw you take yourself way too seriously.

If Evan Stewart is badass and we can afford him, go get him if he wants to be here. Let Ewers and/or Manning and Cook speak up if they think Stewart will fuck shit up. Is he a worse influence than Ramonce Taylor?

Dang some of yall had it rough, tip of the cap for coming up out. I grew up middle middle class but often felt deprived because most of the kids I went to school with were wealthier than us (or at least appeared that way); my mom grew up lower lower middle class and my dad grew up upper upper middle class. I am currently upper middle class. Anyway, I hang my childhood hardship hat on 2 things: we didn’t have air conditioning in our home until I was 10 years old, and we only had 1 TV channel (2-3 when the weather was extremely good) until around the same time. We also had a party line telephone, so sometimes I would be talking to a girl and the neighbor several miles down the road would pick up and tell me she needed to use the phone.

Assuming Sark had his ideal roster mix this season, this is what 2024 currently projects to vs 2023: QB: Out: Murphy; In: Owens RB: Out: Brooks, Robinson; In: Gibson, Clark WR: Out: Worthy, Mitchell, Whittington, Cain, Neyor; In: Golden, TBD, Wingo, Livingstone, Dubose TE: Out: Sanders; In: Washington OL: Out: Jones, TBD, Goram-Welch; In: Baker, Cruz, Kibble DL: Out: Sweat, Murphy, Collins, TBD; In: Umeozulu, January, Hills, Robinson LB: Out: Ford, Bush; In: Simmons, Smith DB: Out: Barron, Thompson, Catalon, Allen, LTG, Brice; In: Black, Filsaime, Mack, Hampton, JJR, Wilson ST: Out: Sanborn; In: Kern That would have Trill Carter, David Gbenda, Ryan Watts, and Kitan Crawford all returning as guys who walked on Sr day.