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@UTPhil2006 What are you seeing right now in terms of prime interest rates? Think near 800 credit, large down payment, conventional loan.

This is a mess of a story and hard to relay. In short, saw a house on a Friday and made an offer Saturday morning. Offers were due Saturday night. Later in the morning found out we knew two others who also made an offer on the house. In the afternoon, we began receiving calls from our respective Buyer's brokers pushing us to increase our offers. The Seller's agent was sharing other offer details and then falsifying other offers to get everyone to increase their respective offers. We all spoke in the afternoon and agreed to disclose each other's offers to each other but also agreed we weren't going to undercut each other. Found out we were second, but were not too far off. So all three declined to play the game and we just sat at our offers. Pissed the Seller's agent off and they voiced significant displeasure. Somehow even though we were the highest bids, another offer won. Buyers' agents could not explain what happened. Pretty sure Seller's agent had grown accustomed to squeezing out Buyers and was upset it didn't occur, so miss represented offers. It is all sort of a mess and Seller's agent already has a local reputation for doing similar things, so while I was frustrated and disappointed, am not surprised. Pretty sure there's some code of ethics violations on all fronts, but good luck trying to prove it or bother wasting your time on this. You just move on.

After dealing with scheming realtors the last few weeks, how has technology not made this "job" obsolete? What value do they bring to the table that substantiates their compensation?

Home prices up another 18.4% in October. Lovely.

I can't tell if this movie was so intentionally bad, that it was actually good or if it was simply bad. The set-up was a massive middle finger to Warner Brothers. I would love to read the contracts involved on both sides that ended up in the abomination of a movie. I'm almost not even sure where to begin as far as the bad and the ugly for the movie. What in the hell happened to Agent Smith? Why did Trinity end up as a Mary Lou at the end? Neo can't fly but can now do shockwaves? The dialogue was laughably bad at moments. However, there were still some good, thought provoking moments I enjoyed. Count me in the minority, but I appreciated how they replaced Morpheus. This is likely how we will develop AI in the future, by placing programs in an open world environment in a looping scenario, until they become self aware. Also, The Analyst is a great replacement for The Architect. A malevolent blend between The Oracle and The Architect that provides accurate commentary on the polarization of humans due to emotions. The movie had some really interesting elements in it that I enjoyed, but overall the story was so bad I can't ignore it. Would have rather none of the cast returned and we could have written this off from the get go.

Say what you want about overall inflation. Labor inflation is real. It's been most noticeable and advertised in low- to moderate-income positions and the narrative has been this is a long overdue re-pricing exercise between capital and labor. However, I am no long convinced this is the case as we are increasingly beginning to see it creep into our professional fees. For example, discovered the big four accounting firms are materially (30% - 50%) increasing salaries to keep talent. We're being massaged by our other third party consultants (engineers, attorneys, etc.) to expect the same in 2022. I don't see how you roll any of these changes backwards. So even if you believe (I do) that price increases are being driven by short term disruptions (supply chain or otherwise), I'm not as confident these will roll back as labor will simply be making more money on a nominal basis. Granted, this will all take time to play out. Just my two cents from a boots on the ground perspective.

Couldn't have said it better. Love the foot on the gas pedal mentality.

Poorly worded. Meant, it isn't a Tex-Mex restaurant, like many would expect.

Source? Was just here a few weeks ago. It's an established restaurant that has outgrown its location. Wouldn't mind a new, larger location with better access. It was as busy as ever and a mess to get in and out of. Food is solid, as always. Not the Tex-Mex most expect.

Not sure where this belongs, but thought I would share it here. We got estimates from our fencing contractors in March for a residential job. We're getting bids this week and pricing is coming back +40%. They're referencing increases in commodity prices and availability of materials for the increases. Commodity prices have been coming down, so that is a head scratcher. I believe the lack of material availability, but presumably that would reflect in commodity prices, ignoring lag on timing. Perhaps bigger issue is everyone is busy and so they're baking in more margin to make it feasible and worth their time to take on additional work.

So… I have not been keeping up with COVID since we got vaccinated in April. I just heard today that Houston is shutting down elective surgeries to make additional hospital capacity. How does one get caught up with what’s going on in detail over the last several months? Any reliable news sources worth reading? Seems like a lot of conflicting information. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That is awesome. Both of those guys are absolutely freak physical specimens - Viking blood. And a Longhorn too.

What are you blabbering about? No, I don't want to see - as you put it - "the best in the world regardless of how they get there." I want to see the best each country has to offer compete under their own flag against other countries. I would guess that overwhelming majority fall in line with that thought process. If everyone really wanted to see the best in the world, they'd watch the WCA - and who in the hell watches that? People watch the Olympics because it is an international event where countries are represented, not because we go to bed at night wondering who can run the 200M hurdle the fastest.

She withdrew from a number of events. I think people are giving her too hard of a time. She basically had a mix of vertigo and the yips. Seems perfectly reasonable to withdraw from events where you're running at high speeds, launching yourself into the air, and twisting and turning based hoping to land based on instinct. Whereas the balance beam is less of that. Separately, what's up with all of these Americans competing under other flags? As others have pointed out, Camacho-Quinn who was born and raised in the United States competed under the Puerto Rico flag. There have also been two others who's names escape me - one competed for Israel and the other for Jamaica. May be an unpopular opinion, but that's kind of bush league.

What in the world did I just watch. Visually stunning. Story telling is confusing and underwhelming on first watch as all get out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I fucking hate this interview. Team USA DW on the 4 x 400 because of a mistake on the baton handoff. I feel bad for them because they’ve been dominating the competition and this is just a mental mistake. Rules are rules, I get it. But sick to see this journalist try to get a “gotcha” moment from the athlete and put her on blast. Fuck him. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Saw this as well. I don’t know the first thing about foil (how does this differ from fencing?), but the last match was great and as you said, the reaction of her and her coach was a great moment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Called it in the Olympics thread.

Have been watching FRA v USA. This is going to be close. What I've realized from watching a few Olympic basketball games now is the NBA is soft as hell. The driving, flopping, foul seeking and so forth behavior is clearly not rewarded in international play. Hopefully USA learns fast and plays accordingly, else that bronze medal may be in our future.

Agreed, art. Also, took me a second to understand what "surrender cobra" was until I watched the video, hilarious. Giannis is going to be a mega-star if he can pull this off. He's already a two time league MVP. He will be Finals MVP. He already has two (the block in G4, the dunk in G5) iconic, memorable moments so far. And he's a young super star that has accomplished all of this while staying loyal to his team. Giannis' one ring will be worth more than any number of rings Durant may win because of how he did it. Truly amazing.

Oh wow, I didn't even notice this live. That should be reviewed. That is dirty as hell.

Crazy that the game can swing this much this fast. PHX super sloppy with the ball.

100%. I can't stand these guys. Not only do they add nothing, they take away from the game watching experience. Especially Gundy. Kills me.

Whether you intended to or not, you ironically just highlighted everyone's chief complaint here. And "more serious," for the record.

This is down right embarrassing.