Jump to content

phdhorn

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    6434
  • Joined

Everything posted by phdhorn

  1. I swear, this guy (on the left) made me wanna cry. I felt like he was soo saad and well, he's tryyyying, but it's sooooo harrrd, I just wannna doo goood...
  2. The US used to suck at Winter Olympics simply because we just didn't have that many cold weather athletes or lifelong training. Then in the 90s and 00s we started winning tons of medals because we were cleaning up on all the then-new freestyle and X- games tyoe sports. But now the rest of the world has more than caught up to the Americans although they have the largest team there by far. We'll still probably finish somewhere in the top five but I would think Norway or Germany will get the most. Sweden's had a great start although I don't know how much longer they can keep up their pace.
  3. Yeah, apparently designed only to affect Americans. Those crafty Asian devils... The giant popping sound I just heard was NBC's coverage of the event going up in smoke. LOL they've already cut to the desk. Maybe they can show old Cheers reruns instead of the women's slalom.
  4. Maybe she knew she was gonna screw up and didn't want to reveal her identity. She's so good she could stillpull a medal or two out, but when you can't even ski 10 seconds of your favorite event, you have a long, long, long, road ahead of you. And from that 3 minutes sit, I would think that she has nothing left mentally. I used to race and I don't know how you can come back from something like that quickly. Best thing you can do is get the hell out of there and go to the next event on the world cup circuit.
  5. Oh well, maybe she can tour the nuclear plant tomorrow. She's definitely mentally gone.
  6. I was kind of thinking it was a combo Peter The Great Era seat/toilet, and he's going at it.
  7. I hear NATO is considering stationing 1,000 troops in the middle of the table.
  8. Six Russian battleships now in the Black Sea for "drills:" https://news.yahoo.com/russia-says-six-warships-heading-093509498.html
  9. <sigh> Well, the shark has been jumped. This thing has now been exposed for what it is - nothing more than a Michael Bay Pearl Harbor or a James Cameon Titanic - nothing but a third-rate soap opera backgrounded by some epic historical situation. It's been slowly sinking in the Panhandle quicksand for a few weeks now, and it's up to its neck. Although I'm expected to believe that Elsa's flirty, nightclub-tempered sexy tete-a-tete with goofy, shy Ennis was such a love story that she was suicidally devastated (looked more like an after-closing hookup at the old Tangerine's in the Renaissance Arboretum), after nothing but catty, smirky asides to each other (maybe they left out all the real love stuff), I went with it. Nothing like banging within earshot of mom and dad to seal true love. Okay, whatever. Then we get little things like the epic, impossible crossing of the Brazos a few weeks ago, equivalent apparently to a Blitzkrieg, with half the crew barely making it out. Okay, that was good, I can live with it. But three weeks later, when they cross the obviously deeper and more threatening Red River, it's glossed over to the next jump cut, where all cattle and wagons are happily persnickiting along, as if they just stepped over a water trail left by washing one's car. Guess they got uber good. It was hanging on for a few weeks, but last night it went down over its head, if not for good, for a spell. First we hire a cook - named Cookie? Oh jeez... Stereotype City. I know that cooks were sometimes called that, not a proper name, but a title, but I mean really, you have to use it without even saying the guy's real name, to let us know about that fact? Nope... Cookie is called Cookie. Ugh. Then Cookie goes into the "onery old cook" routine apparently obligatory in every Western movie or TV show ever made. Yawn. Drops a few F-Bombs and of course Faith Hill gets mad and whomps him. Then he sheepishly defers to her when almost anyone would have said, "screw this, I'ma back to Doan's, eat shit bitch." But okay, he's a paid man so he gets in line. But a few scenes later, Mama commandeers the horse and tells the new cowboy to "Get offa that Goddamned Horse" well within earshot of Little Johnny Boy. Guess the Mother of All Bad Words makes other sailors' talk permissible (sorry, this was a glaring inconsistency). Then you send Elsa out to fight the bad guys, but tell her not to fight... and 3 of them are hot on her trail shooting at her. But yeah, again, like every bad movie ever made, 12 villains are terrible shots (cue Dumb and Dumber), can't hit shit, while the 3-4 good guys wipe 'em out in no time. Then good ol' Sam comes to the rescue out of nowhere (well, okay) and hacks 3 of 'em to death... but why would he leave the tomahawk in the back of one of the dead guys? Dude, you spent time making those things (and apparently you had 3-4 handy on your horse, but whatever). That part was hard to take, but okay, nice scenery. But the shark was the tornado - or sharknado. Okay, granted this thing could be up to a mile wide at its worst, but all these seasoned 'prarie guys' can't look at one and decipher the general direction it's moving and hole up, or at least move at a right angle to it so it'll pass by? Naw, with an unlimited scope of view and absolutely all the freedom to move in any direction, they go right into it, and then "it chased them until it was on top of them." Man, I'm sorry but that's hard to take. Even if you accept the possibility that this tornado formed right near them and they didn't have a chance to escape, running ahead of it in its path was something no reasonable, seasoned Oregon Trail cowboy or captain would do. But okay, I'll let that slip. The worst part - by far - was our new little easy lay Elsa feeling the pangs of love again - during a tornado - and jumping under Sam to get to at least second base in a "Makin' Papoose" embrace - while the tornado was going over them - and coming out of it with a little smirk. Not to mention 5 year old John just had a twister run over his scalp, and he gets up, calm as a spring pool in the morning, and goes along. But the worst part - the worst - was suddenly, the next jump cut - the sky is absolutely clear as if it was a spring day in the Appalachians! Are you serious? Musta been one of those Oz tornadoes which materializes out of nowhere, aims right for a targeted group - and then just vanishes - along with all the clouds with it - and people just resume their lives as if someone cut a bad fart, but it's over. Geezus, I mean really. Now you can say all this is nitpicking shit and really doesn't detract from the "inner" story of the emotions and struggles of people and Elsa in general But since this series has tried to make at least some kind of big deal about "realism", it lapped Fonzie on water skis. It's now just a soap opera with nice cinematic cuts. But, sigh, I'll still watch, because screw it. I guess. Even the wife started tuning out on it after this latest episode. 2 final thoughts: 1) Elsa's little voiceover narrations started out being cute and added some flavor to this thing. But now they're often so indecipherable and self-conflicting that they've become more like Jack Handey gems. WTF are you pontificating about now? Yeah, you must be like 17 because it sounds like high school prose. 2) End on a good note - best moment from the newest episode, wife and I cracked up at the same time - the Captain bitching about how they should be a lot farther along and they were only in Texas or something like that. I said to wife, "well hell, at least the writers understand what people have been complaining about for weeks now. At least Sam Elliott knows it!" LOL.
  10. Here's Klammer's downhill run, called by Bob Beattie and Frank Gifford - the live Olympics call. My god this was the most exciting thing I ever saw. There were estimates of 100,000 Austrians on the slopes at Kitzbuhel and almost no athlete was under such enormous pressure. Switzerland's Bernard Russi laid down a tremendous run, I think he was first or near first, and the remaining 14 skiers of the "elite 15" (in downhill generally if you're not in this group, you won't win), couldn't top Russi - it was a great time. Klammer was the last to go, do or die. I mean, his entire run was so recklessly fast, and he was on the edge so much of crashing, it was incredible. He basically was on a bucking bronco for 2 minutes and almost fell - at least 4 times - he was going so fast. But he had to. And he was behind Russi the entire run - until the last few hundred yards. I remember watching this and thinking no way he's gonna win it - and when the clock stopped, there almost seemed like a pause - it seemed way too long - but nope! He did it! If you've never seen it, you might not get all that excited, but trust me, this was the most electrifying moment in Winter Olympics history. I don't think there's ever been anything like it. The second video is a years-after commentary on it, Klammer's remarks included. Interesting how he says he actually looked at the crowd about halfway down. Enjoy... this put the Winter Olympics on the map for good IMHO (USA hockey wasn't until 4 years later obviously).
  11. 3 other observations: 1) Love the winter olympics - I'm a lifelong skier and used to race. Less events and most of them watchable. 2) Americans are kind of f-ing up more than expected right now, but they have so many freakin' athletes here they'll start pulling medals. Remember Americans traditionally sucked at winter olympics up until maybe the 80's, and only gradually began to be competitive in medal totals (Germany and whatever name Russia has gone by usually dominate medals, along with Norway up there). 3) I can't stand figure skating either - turn it off, absolutely throw up at it - but apparently this Russian kid everyone's calling the best figure skater who's ever lived. At 15? Holy shit. So I watched her program yesterday - my god she's amazing... just built long and lithe and apparently does stuff that's upossible. Apparently biggest Olympic upset if she doesn't get gold. I could tell the difference in her and the others, and I hate figure skating.
  12. 3 best events today, in reverse order of best: 3) Women's moguls... Australian gal, the favorite, nailed her run right after the American was in the lead, got the gold. Epic, very epic difficult jumps. Lots of fun. 2) Men's Normal Hill Ski Jumping - current World Cup leader Kobyashi nailed two jumps (only one to nail both) to get his gold. But 2 favorite Norweigans were out with covid. Oh well, sucks. 1) Men's 5K speed skating - one of the most exciting events I've seen in years. Dutch guy, one of the favs, got OR time - just killed it. But this year's rage, a Swede, who was so-so 4-5 years ago as a teen, joined the Swedish Army for 2 years and dropped out, then left army and began to ultra run (75-100 m.), changed his training, and so far this year he's been completely killing, obliterating the competition. He was almost 1.3 seconds behind the time w/2 laps (out of 10) to go... almost impossible to make up. But his last lap was like superhero, and he got the gold. Very much reminded me of Klammer's legendary downhill to make up what seemed to be impossible time in '76, probably the greatest individual moment in WInter Olympic history.
  13. Yeah, buncha complain' weenies in this thread. Just rub some dirt in it, it'll be fine!
  14. I used that firm in a lawsuit once and they did great for me! But yeah, you're right - this is how lawyers are created.
  15. In before uproarious laughter and sneering disdain.
  16. Sorry about the incomplete post back there. Let's try this again, way too much analysis, but what the hell: Piqued (or peaked, or picked, or poked) by your post, I used the Ice Day to do a little investigating. I think I've got almost all of it (with one exception. I even have diagrams and everything! There are 2 basic chords he's using in the intro. The thing is, sometimes he sounds certain strings, and other times he mutes (dampens) them. First though, 2 prerequisites: 1. He almost certainly tuned his low E string up a whole step to F#/Gb). 2. Capo on first fret (obviously by now). So this intro has 2 basic chords, although they're not straighforward: 1) First chord - Bbm7 (more or less). 2) Second chord - Eb/Bb (that's Eb with a Bb bass, or "second inversion" as we theory nerds like to say). Now for each chord: 1) This one was sort of easy to get because his fingers are somewhat clear in the video - here he is playing the first chord (Bbm7): You can see here that he's clearly using his ring finger (4) to play the low E string on the 3rd fret (capo on first); and that his thumb is wrapped over the low E on the 2nd fret (he'll need that next). That note is sounding on the E string is a Bb. There is no way he can get that note unless he tunes his low E string up a whole step (to an open F#/Gb) and presses on the 3rd fret to sound the low Bb. The rest of the chord is essentially kind of a natural C chord hand position, only he uses his ring finger (4) also to block off (dampen) the A string while playing the low E string Bb, (they're the same pitch). Capo'd up 1 fret, this produces the Bbm7 chord. Diagram below has the other fingerings. 2) The second chord was a little tougher to get since nowhere in the video is it clear what his fingering is (too dark). But he clearly moves his entire hand up the neck, in this case essentially 2 frets or so. The sure part is that he slides his (2) and (3) fingers up 2 frets proportionately. As best as I can tell, he then has his thumb (1) mute the low E string, and simply plays the open A string, producing the same Bb bass note. He almost has to do it this way because if you see the video, his hand clearly moves up 2 fret positions, and there's no physical way he can play the low E string Bb anymore. So he has to mute it and use the open A. The other trick is he dampens the G string, either by using his (3) finger which is pressing the D string, or by taking his now free (4) finger over and dampening the G string. He seems to weave between sounding only the B and D strings alone, or the B and D along with the now-open A string (sometimes he adds this bass note, other times he leaves it out). I might have heard a chord or two where he actually lets the open G sound, but almost always not. I think he likes to play the Bbm7 low Bb on the E string with his (4) finger instead of muting that one and simply playing the open A string because he can control the muting and it gets that funky sound. He never strums the high E string, I don't think he uses a finger to dampen it, but I'm not sure (he could use the (5)), but I also see him pulling the 5 down on the A string, not sure if that's a pull off or just a reaction). This is probably way overanalyzing the case, but it's pretty cool. Hopefully the diagram makes it pretty simple(?). Now I think this is pretty close, but even if not exact, the sound is 99% what I hear on the intro in the video. Anyway, it's kind of a cool, funky sound. Lemme know how this works.
  17. The most important thing about this story is that a few years back, someone changed the name of one of the signs to "Buttlick Hollow". My son and I always cracked up on the way to baseball seeing it. Oh and I was out driving today with my '96 Demolition Derby Explorer special (300K on it, drives like a Bugatti)). Roads almost everywhere are dry ('cept bridges). Everyone get out now and go as fast and reckless as you can. It's okay.
  18. Thanks for the heads up. You're right - that's the last time I go shopping for food at HEB corporate offices in San Antonio! Now show me the tweet that shows where HEB management mandates that the employees know the name of the storm. My guess is not 2% of them do. Then show me the tweet where NWS mentions the storm name. Yeah, it's pretty universally understood that that was nothing but a hypodermatic ratings grab attempt by idiots at the weather channel.
  19. Had some backside spotting as well I guess.
  20. If anyone can tell me the "name" of this storm, I don't want to talk to them - ever.
×
×
  • Create New...