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wild_turkey

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Posts posted by wild_turkey

  1. 19 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

    Yeah. But it’s not a vacation home market, and Airbnb isn’t going to drive skewing numbers to 26%.

    Maybe not 26% in a place like Fort Worth, but I think it’s pretty well established that Airbnb drives up housing prices and makes entry into home ownership more expensive.

    I don’t have time to dig into it right now, but I seem to remember Hawaii having a major problem with this in the past few years to the point they were considering restricting Airbnb, VRBO, etc. Obviously the OP is about Fort Worth and not Hawaii, but I think there’s a reasonable discussion to be had about Airbnb and its contribution to the difficulty of home ownership in many areas.

  2. If you go to Maui, there's a Sheraton a few miles north of Lahaina (which is probably wrecked at this point) that is less costly than the surrounding hotels but also has the best beach.  That's all I got.

    Stayed there for our honeymoon 19 years ago. I remember liking it but I’m not keen on big resorts these days. Seems like it would still be a good option for someone looking for that.
  3. Pardon my ignorance here and for asking a question that’s been hotly debated nationwide, but can anyone explain why the U.S. is still actively supporting Israel in this war? I understood supporting them immediately after the Oct 7 attacks, but why are we still involved in any capacity other than humanitarian aid?

    Regardless of what events led up to this, it currently feels like we are assisting a genocide. The fact that we even have to discuss things like “is this a genocide?” makes me as an American want no active part in this, yet we continue supporting Israel.

    I understand that many conservatives and Republicans have taken Israel’s side, yet we also have a Democrat president who is fully on board. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

    • Hook 'Em 5
  4. Going with my wife in a few weeks and you’d expect pretty warm temps in June. Nope. High is expected to be 73 for the 4 days we are there.


    I’m sure you’ll be fine. We had a similar forecast in February and it ended up being perfect beach weather.
  5. This entire season was weird but I don’t ever remember the last 2 legs being combined into a 90 minute episode. Especially after having 90 minutes per leg all season long, to suddenly cut that time in half made both legs feel extremely short and rushed. It’s like TAR just wanted it to be over.

    Also weird to spend the entire race in Central and South America, then suddenly teleport everyone to cold ass Philly. They could’ve at least ended it on U.S. soil in either the USVI or Puerto Rico.

    The final leg challenges were pretty lame, and it was a rare instance where they didn’t have a memory challenge involving all of the previous legs.

  6. I don’t like Vinny and Amber so I’m a little biased, but that was a really odd proposal. Two people that don’t appear to like or respect each other, their interviews always seem to be them trying to convince themselves they are actually a good fit, and then bam, marriage proposal. I give it 3 years. And watching them fail at making cocktails, I would never let either one give me anesthesia.

  7. At 55 and the parent of one kid, what I didn’t realize earlier that I do now is that the more kids you have the better chance you have of one of them showing back up when it’s time to change your diaper.

    So there is that. But no one thinks about that at a younger age when you are worried about living your best life.

    I have one kid. With the money saved on raising a second or third kid, I can pay someone to wipe my old ass so my one kid doesn’t have to. She can just enjoy being my daughter as I wither away. Assuming I live that long. Otherwise her inheritance will be better.
  8. Not me, a friend. I don’t think he cares, just something non generic he doesn’t come across around Boston. 

    Bowie House has a solid bar with an upscale crowd and drink list. Thompson’s downtown for more of a cocktail bar, although I haven’t been since the remodel. Atlas over on South Main has kind of moody vibe and good drinks. If you want something more low key or a dive, there’s Ye Old Bull and Bush or Showdown.

    But for most types, my go-to would be the bar in the new Bowie House hotel.
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  9. Perhaps this has been discussed, but the internet in general is a much worse place to navigate. Almost every webpage now requires you to acknowledge cookies, but the popups are sometimes slow to load and it delays your ability to start using the site. I think as a global society we should all come to an understanding that cookies are implied by being on the internet. And then once you get beyond the cookies, almost any website that sells stuff will try to get you to sign up for their emails to save 10% or whatever, so that's another popup to click through before you can use the page, even if you are already an established customer on the email list. It's ridiculous.

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  10. The bolded part is exactly why people go to CR and love it, so I think you’ve already answered your own question.
    Obviously I love CR and Tulemar but there are a bunch of other options in the Manuel Antonio area for resorts. Most aren’t going to fit what it sounds like you are looking for though. Same really goes for Tamarindo. It sounds like if you want to stick with CR you’d be happier at one of the high end resorts north of there - the W, Westin, Four Seasons, etc.
     

    Thanks for the input. I guess I’m wondering if CR is still a worthwhile destination if we’re not going there for the sake of fishing, ziplining, or other adventure activities? Is is a good place to simply relax?

    I’m reluctant to stay at the properties you mentioned because we have an aversion to large resorts and an anaphylactic reaction to all-inclusive. We’d much prefer a smaller boutique hotel that has nice rooms and grounds, and it appears there are some of those in that area.
  11. Interstellar is my favorite movie and gets better with each viewing. We watched it again tonight, the first time since our daughter was born, and it hits quite a bit harder.

    I think the story and the themes of Interstellar elevate it above the other Nolan films. I personally love Inception as well as most of his other films, but Interstellar explores a decaying Earth due to humanity’s poor choices, the love of a parent for their children, the love of an adult for their partner, humanity’s will to survive, space and relativity, personal sacrifice for the common good, human selfishness, and loneliness. The amount of ideas that are packed into this movie, not to mention the physics, special effects, and score, make it near perfect for me.

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  12. I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not I like Danny and Angie, but the way they got eliminated leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth and reflects poorly on TAR production. I’ve been watching this show for about 20 years and can’t ever remember a team being penalized for a camera crew getting lost.

    Post-race interviews say they waited for 90 minutes and the crew never showed up so they were eventually assigned a new crew. That’s completely ridiculous. Even if we say that Angie committed a driving error, that should at most warrant a 15 minute penalty. The crew should know the location of the next detour and know to meet them there. Interviews also suggest that TAR production was meeting at the pit stop to figure out how to handle it, then decided to eliminate them. It’s like watching a football game end on a terrible call. Hopefully TAR makes changes so this is never again a factor.

    This was otherwise a fairly boring leg. Cleaning up sargassum seemed like the obvious choice in the detour but only the pilots chose that and it paid off big.

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  13. Wife and I are wanting to take our 18-month old somewhere in late July or late August and are considering CR. We've never been before. We already have adult luxury vacations to Ibiza/Mallorca and St. Barth this year, so this would hopefully just be an easy family getaway. We've also considered places like San Diego or Riviera Maya, but we thought CR might give us a chance to dip our toes into a new country for us.

    I realize lots of people go there to fish or do adventure excursions, but we aren't looking for that. We want a good hotel, preferrably with a good pool and close to a decent beach. That gives the kid some stuff to do and we can mostly relax. It seems somewhere near Tamarindo would fit the bill. Someone I follow on IG just did a similar trip to Cala Luna Hotel which looks nice.

    I've read the rave reviews about Tulemar on here but it's a longer drive and it looks a little bit dated or possibly timeshare-ish in the photos. Maybe the internet doesn't do it justice, but I think the 3 hour drive from SJO would not be ideal. At that distance, we would probably lean towards Nayara Springs, or just pick a different destination altogether.

    Any suggestions or reasons why this trip might be a bad idea for our situation? Is the rainy season going to be too much of a factor? Thanks.

  14. 25 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

    I was obviously too hard on Amber, and I agree that I did not put enough blame on what impact Vinny's abuse has on her, but damn it's frustrating when people go on the race unprepared.

    I definitely agree with the bolded part. I personally can't drive a stick, but if I applied for TAR, the first thing I would do is rent a stick shift and force myself to drive it for a month or longer. I also don't understand how some people can be so incredibly out of shape physically on this show.

    That said, there have been countless teams and contestants that struggle with the above, but very few reach the level of verbal abuse than Vinny inflicts on Amber. She says this is a test run for marriage. I think it's pretty obvious how that marriage would go. Any time Vinny perceives that Amber as done something less than perfect for the sake of their family, he would tear her apart.

    I'm willing to excuse a lot of her shortcomings at this point. Your brain can't function well when your partner is in your head, constantly criticizing you. You spend more time thinking about their criticism and replaying those failures or discussions in your mind, and it's hard to do simple things like remember where you parked a car. She wasn't strong to begin with, but he's fucked her up.

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  15. 1 minute ago, UTPhil2006 said:

    Someone above looked it up and said they’re still together 

    I had looked it up. I usually like to know more about the cast members so I found this site that gives a pretty good breakdown, including IG info for everyone:

    https://thedirect.com/article/the-amazing-race-2024-cast-contestants-season-36-photos

    On their IG pages, they both appeared to be aspiring influencers, Vinny moreso than Amber. He had posts and videos about getting out of student loan debt, becoming an entrepreneur, flexing his arms in scrubs in ridiculous poses, and generally looking like a narcissistic asshat. Their accounts both still featured each other, and called themselves The Dream Team, so I interpreted that as them being together.

    When I was watching this episode last night, I looked at their IG again mid-episode and saw lots of fresh comments from TAR fans, telling Amber to leave his ass. People basically started comment bombing all of their old posts on both accounts, saying what an asshole Vinny is.

    I just looked again and both accounts are now private, which is...quite funny. Aspiring influencers now have private accounts. Probably in damage control mode, or perhaps the breakup is happening as we speak.

    • Haha 1
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