UpperWestside

So thank you for all of the advice and information you provided. I can best explain the plan by saying that none of it has to do with finding an island paradise. That includes coming to Hawaii. Moving to Hawaii has more to do with having the ability to gain more historical knowledge that I want about the war as well as the people who lived in the countries we fought in as we moved through the Central Pacific. I have read four books by a travel writer that @InkaUtexasput me onto. J. Maarten Troost. His book from the late 90’s about living on Tarawa with his then girlfriend and now wife really helped push me in the direction I have gone. I hope that I can perhaps go down to DC to meet him before I leave to hear from him in person. I will gladly listen to anymore stories and advice you have to share as well. You can DM me and share contact info with me as I like to be as prepared as possible for what is coming. Yesterday when I was opening up a bank account here my banker asked me about my move and I mentioned wanting to live in The Solomons. To her it is a place to go for, in her words, the pristine beaches it is. For me the reality has nothing to do with that. Living there would be difficult and the geopolitical situation, along with competing factions wanting control of the area for their own selfish reasons makes it a fairly unstable place. Yet still I know that’s a place I will live. I could stay in Hawaii and live comfortably for the rest of my life, but that is not how I am wired I suppose. The desire to either help people live a better life and help to educate them is something that keeps pushing me forward each day. We as a country did not do right by the people of The Solomons, or really any of those island nations we moved through and they are still paying the price for that eight decades later. I have attempted to explain to friends and co-workers that while Hawaii may look like paradise to them if they visit it is just home to those who have to live and work there. Will I enjoy living on an island? Absolutely because it fits the lifestyle and personality I have, but coming here for me is part of a journey that will lead me into teaching. Whether that winds up being at a university level or below I do not know, but I am okay with whatever happens. That’s life in a nutshell for me I guess. You take the good and not so good and just keep going each day trying to do better for those you meet and come across each day.

There is a fairly good percentage voting for Harris that couldn’t tell you who Epstein is. We are not a country that is well educated on much of anything. We can tell you as a country who to watch for fantasy football. We can tell you what the big COLLEGE FOOTBAW matchups are, but the things that should have some relevance and importance to an average American are more unknown than known. We have almost completely lost our way.

That’d instantly make them an ex-good friend in my book. You want to support a garbage person that makes you one as well. We’re at that point where these people need to be excluded from civilized society permanently. They need to have issues gaining meaningful employment and should be stuck washing dishes for the rest of their lives.

Boy howdy you are really lucky to not see this circus sideshow on a daily basis. NYC has way too many of these people. It may be a Democratic stronghold, but the stain of Staten Island and Suffolk County is just embarrassing. I won’t return to the mainland once I leave. Once that plane leaves in January I will not set foot in the continental US for the rest of my life if I can help it. We have this very short time to live and enjoy our lives and even wasting a minute of it living with just hateful, bottom of the barrel people is just in no way worth it. My niece and nephew will know which South Pacific country I am living in and they can come visit me there when they are older and can travel. I hope to get my mom out to Honolulu for at least a month once I settle in as well.

Every single one of those white trash morons will dutifully go vote for their orange god king. Screw all of them. Just an absolute waste of humanity. We should not have to share a country with any of these people. Let them go live in Russia where the males in that photo would eventually be put into the meat grinder with Ukraine.

I voted for Harris, but I am hopefully exiting within two years no matter what happens. Doing the first leg of the journey through the Pacific by coming to Honolulu to search for a place for the next week. Should be fully moved here by the end of January. So incredibly tired of the hateful pricks we should’ve shot out of a cannon into an active volcano after 2020.

I went in to open a bank account today in Honolulu and my new banker is a big fan of Ohtani and Yamamoto. She’s originally from Fukuoka, but also grew up near Chiba so baseball is just something she enjoys. You could tell how happy she was for those two when she was talking about them. The Dodgers are a virtual monetary printing press with the amount of Japanese fans they add with both of those guys.

So this is going to be indirectly related to this thread, but it is courtesy of a conversation I was having with a couple from Brisbane a couple of days ago before I left to go on vacation. They know their Australian history, especially World War II and the pilgrimage many Aussies still make to do the Kokoda Track in New Guinea. They tell me they have a picture of something that would probably be of interest. Their house in Brisbane is near an area where no longer existing airstrips used by the USAAF during the war were located. They were digging in their backyard a few years back and they find this. They had tracked down the family that this dog tag belonged to, but were unable to get it to them because they did not hear back from them. They explained how their backyard had below ground shelters that US soldiers used during the war and this is why it was found when they were digging up their yard. They are still in possession of it, but would like to get it to family members of this soldier. I believe Alice West was his sister. This seems like something that people on Surly can randomly help happen. I am going to try and do my part and email my professors and see how the WWII Museum might be able to help as well.

Say hello to your 2024-2029 World Series Champions!

If you could just maybe not make Soto an offer he can’t refuse that’d be great. I’d like for the Yanks to be contenders for the next decade or so with him and not the tire fire they were in 2023.

Congratulations to our Dodger fans here. Pretty darn good to be y’all right now. You did this with your best player slumping and injured and yet you won the series convincingly. Enjoy the parade and if you go post some pictures! I can also only hope that the cadre of voices from last off-season that said the Dodgers overpaid for Ohtani because his WAR wasn’t worth 70 million will never, ever use that ridiculous argument again. It was comical at the time and even more so now. That guy is worth every single penny he was paid and then some. This team is about to go on a ridiculous run of titles with how good they are.

Can she hit a curve? If so let’s get her batting after Soto.

I can believe it. If you have ever sat out anywhere in the sections near right field that name has many others like it nearby. I used to sit in 203 regularly and the things I heard in that section were just incredible to hear people say about the guy in right field. The Jay Bruce 2017 game 4 against Cleveland game was, well, I have still never heard both adults and kids say and do the things they did that night. It was solely because he had been with the Mets before the trade deadline.

Voted on the first morning of early voting this past Saturday. It was, as it has been every single time, quick and easy. Having to fill in a paper ballot still seems a bit old-fashioned, but it’s cool. Harris is going to win and that orange grifter is going to get some time in a nice prison not long after that.

Look Aaron Judge came up in a big spot when his team really needed him. He was facing the best reliever named Honeywell in major league history and he came through with a thunderous RBI that made a 6 run lead into an insurmountable deficit. This is what Cashman had in mind when he gave him that big contract and he came through like aggy in all their big football games since 1939.

Went and cast my vote on the first day of early voting here because I am heading out to Hawaii for 10 days in the morning to find an apartment. Was quick and the folks there made it easy as always. I would not want to have to be a day of the election voter here or anywhere else. Those lines are going to be really long.

This is the part of this battle that gets me every time. The courage to get out there in an escort vessel and take on the best of what remained of the IJN leaves me without words to accurately describe their incredible actions that morning. I would like to believe I would have done my job had I been there facing the Center Force and not been pissing down my own leg, but I wasn’t and these men were. That ship joining the fray to help save their comrades is the bravest thing anyone did that morning, and maybe ever, in US Naval warfare. We have done such a poor job keeping the memory of what transpired there alive for younger generations to learn about. I was talking with a German the other day and he loves history so he is talking to me about helping his daughter out with a school project. Part of their required history lessons are learning about the intracacies of the Marshall Plan. He said he did not know the entire scope of it and how it was not just offered to the US zones after the war. German kids are learning more about important things from this war than our own kids are. When you forget your own history you lose part of who you are as a nation in my opinion.

I am going to email my professor because I want to get his brief thoughts on this battle. Dr. Citino has written 10 books about the German Army, but his father was a corpsman at Guadalcanal. The Tarawa exhibit at the National WWII Museum is the one that gets to him the most. Hopefully he has a little time to share some thoughts. If he does I will post them here. I know he was good friends with James Hornfischer so I am certain he will have thoughts on the book.

Judge has had a fantastic career to this point. He has had a couple of seasons where injuries were a concern, but he has gotten better as his career has progressed and he’s obviously the face of the organization. He has to win a title though because if I have learned nothing else about the fans here it is they are not real forgiving if you don’t deliver a title. Having to live up to the Jeter era is not fair, but it is what it is. He has to start performing in October. I hope he does because he’s a real good guy by all accounts and he represents the city and organization very well. I hope he has a bounce back game tonight because the fans out there will give him the business if he doesn’t start hitting real soon.

Money talks and if the price is right I am not certain he would say no. Hal is not like his old man. He cares more about the bottom line than winning. It’s his money so he can do as he pleases, but man if he gets outbid by LA for Soto, well, I would not want to be him having to deal with the fans here.

Lampasas, as expected before the season started, lost to Stephenville 42-31. These two teams are likely going to meet again in the regional finals. If Lampasas gets to this game they will win the rematch. The Jackets are a really good 4A team, blowout loss to a far more talented Ruston, LA team in non-district notwithstanding. They are the prohibited favorite in Region 1. I had Lampasas pegged as being 8-2 or 9-1 depending upon if they beat Wimberley. I did not count on the Reed Jerome injury that got them their first loss. If they can establish the ground game and keep the defense off the field as much as possible they’ve got four more wins in them. Big if on that though as that defense is prone to giving up yards in big chunks at times. Been a fun season watching them from a distance though. One of the best things to come out of Covid is that more high school games are broadcast.

No depth in the Yanks lineup, at all. Judge with his usual playoff no-show makes it real hard to win games. Soto and, I can’t believe I am saying this, Stanton will have to carry this team if they want to at least win a couple of games in this series. I expect Soto to show up in The Bronx because he just plays well the bigger the game is. That homer last night was basically giving the middle finger to the umpire for calling strikes that clearly were not. He sees the ball better than anyone not named Frank Thomas. He has that rare eyesight and ability to concentrate like The Big Hurt had. He was still chirping at the ump even after rounding the bases. The Dodgers lineup is just too much to deal with. Just a fun group to watch honestly. Well not so much fun for everyone here, but you know what I mean.

I am in favor of everyone that wants to hire hitmen to be sentenced to have to live on Snake Island. He’d be done in about 2 hours.

That seems to be more/less it for this series. Outside of Soto I think the rest of them just mailed it in after last night’s fireworks from Freeman. Not really saying anything new, but Soto has to be frustrated at how Judge just cannot perform in the biggest moments, at all. Great regular season guy that does not possess the clutch gene.