Everything posted by tokamak
-
How do I prepare my kids to live in (or leave) a nation in decline?
I definitely could've gone with a less clickbait-y thread title. That's on me. I have an engineer's mindset and I like to be as prepared as possible for externalities. I don't know that anything in the thread's first paragraph is even debatable at this point, although I'd love to be convinced otherwise. Extrapolation is always very tricky, especially when we're talking about human events, but it's all we can do. On current trends, the world my kids will inherit won't be as welcoming and dynamic as the one that I inherited. How best to pave the way for them? That's all.
-
How do I prepare my kids to live in (or leave) a nation in decline?
Apologies if this is well-trodden ground in the CR. Delete thread, ban user, etc. I mainly just want to explore strategies to set my kids up with attainable options. Particularly interested in hearing the perspective of Surlyites with older kids, like high school and college-aged. @956 Worldwide makes good points about choosing a career field that offers good mobility, but my kids are young enough that it's hard to even predict the trajectory of the American university system between now and then.
-
How do I prepare my kids to live in (or leave) a nation in decline?
The end goal of Trumpism is Putin’s Russia. Insular, inward-looking, and apart from the global community. Economy in the hands of a small political in-crowd. Intellectuals, dissenters, and the press harassed or worse. A population that’s homogeneous, aging, angry, and paranoid. Even if courts or future elections overturn specific policies, the perception that America is unwelcoming and unfriendly will last for a generation or more. I’m probably 10 to 15 years from retirement. I can ride it out and then check out. But we have elementary school-aged kids. A life in Putin’s Russia is not what I want for them and we’re now facing the same tough decision that a lot of Asians, Latin Americans, and Africans did in the 20th century: would my kids have a better life outside of the place that I call home? We also, fortunately, have some means to do something about it (not Surly 1%). Would like to hear serious thoughts on how best to prepare them. Foreign language lessons? Somehow start building a case for residency/citizenship elsewhere now? I think a few of you have sent kids overseas for college - is the idea/possibility that they will stay? I’m honestly not trying to be alarmist, just proactive. If my take on the world turns out to be dead wrong, then great. But I’m also not the kind of person that wants to leave any stone unturned.
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
Just checked in. We’re getting 1-hit by their bullpen game?
-
Apple TV+
I loved The Office when it was on but I’m super over Jim Halpert. Why do they keep trying to make him a movie star? He sucks.
-
Your Friends and Neighbors - Jon Hamm is popping up everywhere and i'm here for it!
Just saw an ad for this and it looked intriguing. I like Hamm. Worth adding to the list?
-
Texas Offseason 2025 - Archmania Is Upon Us
If anyone is able to get to the bottom of all this, it'll be africa.espn.com
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
I guess The Athletic is pretty bored these days because they're doing a ton of "the best ____ of the 21st century so far" type articles across all sports. Anyway, they did the Rangers team-of-the-2000s so far. Full 26 man roster. Only counting stats from 2000 onward. C - Pudge 1B - Teixeira 2B - Kinsler SS - A-Rod 3B - Beltre RF - Nellie CF - Josh LF - David Murphy DH - MY Bench - Heim, Andrus, Seager, Adolis SP - Yu, Eovaldi, Hamels, Colbyashi, Kenny Rogers RP - Coco Cordero, Feliz, Frankie Francisco, Leclerc, Joe Nathan, Sborz, CJW, Alex Claudio Manager: Boch That lineup is absurd, although Nellie didn't really kick it into high gear until he left the Rangers. Starters look decent but I bet most other teams have better lists. Bullpen is whatever. I have no recollection whatsoever of Alex Claudio. Full article spoilered below:
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
Here's FanGraphs today going in depth on the Rangers' rotation, for your reading pleasure. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-rangers-rotation-has-been-great-but-things-are-gettin-weird/
-
Straight nasty, dirty, filthy pitches
@Derka check out this 90 mph change from Skubal. I like how the batter immediately whips his head around like "dafuq??" Here's a fun article on his arsenal. The TL;DR is that he can touch 100 with two different fastballs, his change is possibly the best secondary pitch in the game, and his slider is a plus as well. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-multifaceted-tarik-skubal/
-
Texas BBQ
First off, it's greenspoint. That's just kind of his thing. What's really interesting is that Snow's itself played a big part in kicking off the Texas BBQ revolution. They went from virtually unknown to straight to #1 on the 2008 TM list. It was a big fucking deal at the time. I think that was one of the first things that opened peoples' eyes to the possibility that someone could go above and beyond what the traditional Lockhart, Luling, etc places had always done. This 70+ year old woman in Lexington could be the best in the state just because she was willing to outwork everyone else. A bunch of people interested in food took notice of that and off we went.
-
Texas BBQ
I’m no MBA, but I reckon the best place to open a restaurant is near where people live.
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
As of today, the Rangers are dead last in the league in BABIP at .261. League average is .290. Aside from the 60 game COVID year, that would be the lowest full season mark for any team going back to at least 2000. I stopped looking before that.
-
What impact will Trump have on the 2026 World Cup?
A month-long victory lap for a small cabal of truly awful people. Enjoy!
-
USMNT 2025 - Easy English, hard ones Spanish
You may very well be right. Like a lot of other people I had big reservations about holding the tournament in Qatar, and I still ended up watching damn near every minute. The tournament itself is far too compelling not to. I won't keep belaboring the point, but right now there is pretty much no aspect of this that is trending positively for my interest level. A year is a long time though, so we'll see.
-
USMNT 2025 - Easy English, hard ones Spanish
I hope this doesn’t qualify as a hawt take, but tbh my interest in this World Cup cycle is waning pretty badly right now. This version of the USMNT isn’t extremely likeable and chronically underachieves, Poch doesn’t seem to give a fuck, ticket prices will be astronomical, and it’s going to be one giant corporate fuck fest. FIFA is a giant corrupt piece of shit, Infantino is a disgusting human being, and there’s the kind of cloak room aspect that I won’t get into because this isn’t the right place. There was a time when I was really looking forward to this and would have told you I’m ready to pay whatever price to go to a game. But at this point, I can’t predict the future, but I think it’s equally likely that I barely even pay attention next year.
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
Jesus are we about to get swept by the White Sox?
-
Texas Softball 2025 - Second to no one.
I know I’m late to the party, but any streams for this?
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
I've kinda been wondering if Bochy's seat could start heating up. Personally I wouldn't want to see that, but this team is shit after majorly underperforming last year, and there's really not much else they can do at this point.
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
-
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
This dude's highlights are pretty fun. In the very first play I thought he was definitely about to get tackled 4 different times...nope. Third play is a kick return and he jukes the kicker without breaking stride or slowing down by even 1%. We really have a thing this year for dudes whose position could be listed as "Yes". edit: adding link to the hudl: https://www.hudl.com/video/3/18310068/66f312aa0f15104394993bac
-
All things Apple, the tech not the fruit
I think Apple has lost the plot. Their big selling point used to be that their shit just works. My wife just got a new phone and it's been nothing but a headache. Transferring from the old phone, re-setting up our kid's watch, and re-connecting it to our HomePods were all giant fucking hassles requiring hours of her time. We ended up giving up and connecting the watch to my phone, and hard resetting our HomePods to start from scratch. I also just took my phone in to get the battery replaced and the Apple Store experience is such a fucking beating. Make an appointment and you still sit around waiting. Then the girl put a hard sell on me to buy iCloud to backup because "replacing the battery might erase all the data". Fucking how is that possible? Just put in the goddamn battery, stop trying to sell me shit I don't want or need. We bought my mom a watch and you have to wait around for 20 minutes for the privilege of someone acknowledging you and taking your money. That said, Google and Microsoft are privacy dumpster fires, and Windows 11 is a disaster, so it's not like we have anywhere to go.
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
Sure the White Sox aren’t good, but they do have actual human adult males that can throw pitches in the vicinity of home plate. That kind of advantage makes it almost impossible for the Rangers to score on them. Just a bad matchup for us, really.
-
Trump’s America
Absolutely disgusting. What kind exactly?
-
Texas Rangers 2025: Pitching has been fire. Bats not so much.
we've wasted sooooooooooooo many good starts