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wild_turkey

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Posts posted by wild_turkey

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.
  4. A patient of mine, roughly mid-70s gentleman, said he is going to France for D-Day to accompany a friend who is a WW2 vet. The friend is 103 years old and was there during D-Day, so they are going to tour and there are some memorials and such. He said there is a group of vets that gets to do this every year and their trip is sponsored and entirely paid for by American Airlines. Each vet gets to take one friend or family member to help them with travel needs. They have an entire flight from the U.S. to Paris dedicated to this group of guys, and they stay 9 days and have all transportation, hotels, meals, tours, etc. paid for by AA. I think that's pretty damn cool for everyone involved and kuddos to AA for doing it.

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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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.
  8. 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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  9. 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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  10. 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.

  11. 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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  12. 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.

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  13. 1 hour ago, idigTexas said:

    So Amber can't navigate, drive a stick, or do any challenge?  Vinny isn't exactly hiding his feelings about those things, but I'm sure I would have thrown her out of the car and driven to Tierra del Fuego by now.  How do you decide to go on The Amazing Race without doing anything to address your deficiencies in areas that you know are going to come into play?  And what possesses you to bring someone like that as your partner?  The fact that they are not only still in the race, but lurking near the top emphasizes how weak this cast is.  Amber is going to be completely dependent on you forever in every facet of life.  Run, Vinny.  Run!

    I see their relationship quite the opposite. Vinny is a condescending asshole who constantly puts her down. She definitely has her insecurities and weaknesses, but he preys on those and tears her apart, then offers some half-assed encouragement like "you can do it babe" when it's already too late. 

    She can't drive a stick, which I think is a fair criticism, but half the people in the history of TAR have lacked this skill. Her navigation skills seem adequate. There are definitely teams that are worse, and it doesn't seem like poor navigation has hurt Amber and Vinny at any point so far. Even other "good" teams have struggled with navigation, but they don't destroy each other over it.

    As far as completing challenges, Amber has mostly been fine and it's very difficult to do anything well when your partner is constantly telling you how stupid and shitty you are. Imagine spending a day with your spouse, having to assemble things, navigate a foreign city, perform music routines, and your wife spends the entire day calling you pathetic, slow, and stupid, all on television for the world to see. How can anyone be expected to do well in those circumstances? She should leave his ass.

    I don't even particularly like Amber, but I think Vinny is a narcissistic piece of shit. If they split up, I would fully expect him to find another insecure and emotionally vulnerable partner and treat her like shit.

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  14.  
    If you fly domestically with any frequency, even 3x-4x/yr, and would be interested in how to game AA's system domestically, holler and I would be happy to go through all of it again. It only works if you travel abroad annually though, as you need 4 flights (individual, so A->B with a layover is 2, so r/t w/ a layover each way makes 4) on either BA metal, or a codeshare, and BA can't sell domestic US tickets as a codeshare. But, the end game is free, full lounge access (yes, even Flagship Lounge, and even if only flying domestically) as well as some other stuff. But the above is the big thing. Why? Because when you get in a bind, the agents in the lounge are far better equipped to fix it, and fix it well. They have user permissions well above the agents available to the plebs. Plus, you know, self-pour at the Flagship Lounges kinda rocks.

    I would like to know this information. I fly primarily on AA 4-6x a year, some domestic, some Europe, some Caribbean, some Mexico. I would love Flagship Lounge access.

  15. In addition, Taiwan being the supplier of the most and best silicon, making them a priority for foreign protection…why would they give away some of that leverage?

    Well that part makes sense to me. Taiwan would develop a better partnership with the U.S. in hopes that we would provide military protection when the time comes. And the fact that we are a major purchaser of their chips, and the $6B incentive we offered.

    But why Arizona? Why build new fabs in the part of the country that is most starved for water?
  16. Possibly a stupid question, but I’m curious why TSMC would invest in fabs in Arizona, given that semiconductor fabs require lots of water? Are there not better geographic options?

  17. I didn’t know they did it for people 40+. Figured a lens replacement would be the better option. 

    You can do it for people 40+ as long as their expectations are reasonable.

    If you target distance vision for both eyes, there is a good chance they will need reading glasses by their mid-40s. LASIK doesn’t change that because it’s a problem with the lens inside the eye not focusing up close. That gets worse throughout your 40s and 50s, hence, reading glasses or bifocals.

    Or you can set the non-dominant eye a little bit nearsighted to delay the need for reading glasses. That’s monovision (one distance eye, one near eye), which is typically only a good thing to do if you have a successful trial period of monovision using a contact lens, prior to surgery.

    Once people get into their late 50s, it’s usually better to do lens replacement surgery, because they are getting into cataract territory. If someone gets LASIK at age 60 but needs cataract surgery 5 years later, they didn’t get much mileage out of LASIK.

    I’ve done LASIK on people in their 70s who had already had cataract surgery and weren’t happy with their refractive result afterwards. Cataract surgery was fine other than the person still needed prescription glasses due to astigmatism or whatever, and they didn’t want glasses. It’s not common but it happens occasionally, and there are rare situations when LASIK (or PRK) might be a good option for people in that age group. I actually had one guy in his mid-80s who turned out great.

    Which reminds me, as a medical student I rotated with a plastic surgeon for a bit. We had a 90 year old lady schedule a consult for a boob job because her husband had passed and she wanted to date again. The surgeon rightfully turned her down. I still get a little chuckle out of that one.
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