Everything posted by capnamerca
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Poor Shaggy Investors Thread for the Surly
On the tiny house idea ... had some friends trying to make that work here just outside of Austin. The permitting is potentially a NIGHTMARE depending on local building regs. Austin has some stupid shit like minimum sizes for dwellings, and the floor is bigger than you think. Also, ADA compliance on a tiny house is very difficult, and Austin construction regs now REQUIRE things like sidewalks and ramps to front doors on new construction. Political opinions aside, it's really driving up the cost of construction, and since the unit cost of a tiny house is so much smaller, the impact is more obvious. Plus zoning laws for land usage, although I think they were looking closer to Bastrop so that wasnt as bad as it could have been.
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2018 Golf Thread of Dominance
Did you buy individual clubs from Ricky?
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2018 Golf Thread of Dominance
god those are so pretty... maybe I'll get 7-8-9 in those ...
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Best Concert You've Been To?
Add my voice to the U2 parade. I've never been a U2 fan, didn't really know much besides the hits. My aunt randomly asked if I wanted to go to their Houston show. I don't remember the tour - the one with the big fucking cocktail onion, maybe 1996? 97? And this show absolutely rocked my fucking face off. Production value. AV. Sound quality. I could understand the words during the songs, which NEVER happens at live shows, esp in stadiums. For the encore, the cocktail onion started to move, and ended up at the stage in the middle of the crowd, the guitar starts, and the onion OPENS and the band walks out to play. Crowd went nuts. I expected to enjoy some music, and I guess since the bar was set relatively low for my expectations, they were just demolished by the quality of the show. Nothing has come close since.
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Bourbon Trade/sale thread
Roger that. I don't have much to trade, TBH ... still building out the higher-end of my collection. But definitely interested, and even if a bottle doesn't end up with me, I"m interested in the story and what you end up trading for, too.
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Bourbon Trade/sale thread
The old fitz with the super-cool scalloped bottle? I'm a buyer, most likely - price?
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2018 Golf Thread of Dominance
I've been meaning to go out there for a long while now ... maybe this coming weekend I can sneak out.
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Best Round of Golf
Not sure how I've failed to chime in on this thread. Best round is the 70 (-2) I put up last August at Streamsong Red, to win my flight (1st flight but not the open flight, forget the name) at the two-day Streamsong. I hadn't done anything particularly well that week in practice rounds or the day before at Blue, but had at the same time managed to avoid all the big numbers as well. On the day in question, I birdied 3 and 7, made an all-world up and down par on 8, birdied 10, bogey'd 11, then parred in (making ~6' par putts on 17 and 18). Out of body experience, and without an doubt the best I've ever hit a golf ball. Most memorable round is a three-way tie. Both of my holes-in-one have come when playing with my dad - #13 at Avery, and #7 at Star Ranch. Then in a recent member-three-guest tournament with three gents on this thread, one of those gentlemen split the fairway with a long, soft draw. Just an excellent all around swing. And I put it 40 yards past him. The ball hadn't even apexed yet and I hear one of the other guys say, behind me ... "that was a dick move." Similar conversation always happens on the "best course you've ever played" topic. I've never been to Bandon Dunes, but have been fortunate enough to play some PGA tracks, even a few major-championship tracks. Only Olympic in SF has left me speechless. That's an incredible golf course.
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Bourbon
I can indeed confirm that the Belle Meade is some tasty brown water. Specs pretty regularly does a store pick single barrel that's in the $59 range - that's been a party favorite for people who like bourbon but don't know bourbon. The 11y bourbon is excellent, although more peaty that I'd expected. I've had several people ask if it was actually some sort of sweetened scotch, rather than bourbon. It's weird. I vastly preferred the 10y. Both are impossible to find, natch.
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2018 World Cup
FUCK. AUTOPLAY. Goddammit what a plague on the internet.
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Craps for beginners:
Christ I've just been getting KILLED at the tables. Last 5 or 6 trips to Vegas, several sessions each time, I don't think I've walked away from a table with more than I started more than twice. Always disciplined power press ("hg") method, very rarely on tilt, just a horrific run over 18 months. I might as well go play roulette.
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Avalanche of bad news - F cancer among it
I'll just chip in here and mention all the badass women that are Austin Firefighters, too. One of whom left my house to go visit him in the hospital, too - they were classmates in academy. Agree that recent news is promising. (that's not snarky although I know it can read that way ... I share your admiration for all of our fire brethren.)
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The stupidest worst selfish asshole things dumbasses do on the road
Fuck you for hating my proper following distance.
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2018 Golf Thread of Dominance
Goddamn I loved everything about Streamsong. HouTex's review is pretty spot on. The Black wasn't open when I played last August, so I can't comment there. I found the Blue to be hard, and somewhat goofy. Green set at weird angles, overly-sloped sections of greens for no good reason, strange visuals off of some teeboxes. That's not to say there aren't AMAZING holes out there - #3 sticks with me, as does the great par-3 over the water (signature hole). I found the Red to have the same links quirkiness as the Blue but played more fairly. Good shots were rewarded, bad shots were punished. Birdies were available, but not a given, even on the 5's. There's so much shot value out there it makes my head spin. Let's take 7, mid-length par5 back up the hill. Tee ball down the left shortens the hole considerably, but brings some bunkers and a long, dark, deep hazard (ie lake) into play. But it leaves you a straight away long iron into the green. Drive it out right a bit and you're still in the fairway, but playing over cross bunkers to get to the pin, and a back-left pin is completely hidden from you behind a big hill in the middle of the green. Lay up shots need to be precise due to that same hill (depending on hole location). Green is TINY, but lots and lots of flat putts mean you can make birdie with two (or three) good shots on the hole. Miss left, double Miss long, double. Miss short to a long pin, bogey. Just a fantastic fucking hole. They're all like that. Go play. Stay out there at least one night, preferably two. Play in the morning, go take a dip in the pool and shower, get a beer or two. Go out in the late afternoon and bang some balls (you'll probably be the only one on the range, but they'll keep it open for you), then hit chips and pitches on the short game area. Wrap up the night with a bourbon or five. Get up early and do it again. Heaven.
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Bourbon
Where did you find it?!?! I had some for the first time a few weeks ago in Vegas, and was blown away. It's now on my "buy if you ever see it" list ...
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2018 Golf Thread of Dominance
There's no accounting for taste, I guess. It's a damn fine track and they don't charge you an arm and a leg. Add in consistently good-to-great conditions and you've got a winner.
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Bourbon
This thread is way too low on the page. Headed to Vegas for our yearly customer conference. Hosted at the Aria which means I get to spend lots of time at the Sage Bar. Best bourbon location in Vegas.
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Best HS Player You Played Against?
You're just a few years younger than me if I remember right. I coached Jordan Danks after I graduated from college (just a tiny bit, he wouldn't remember), but that dude was unreal. I never had to hit off of John in high school, but there's a good reason he had a long MLB career. Kelly Johnson was a Freshman at Westwood the year after I graduated. He played varsity all four years (naturally), and I went back to watch them play several times. Kid was crazy good.
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Best HS Player You Played Against?
Baseball, not football. Played against Ryan Langerhans when he was at RRHS. Incredible player, as you would imagine. Ontiveros was on that team, too. I think the '97 and '98 RRHS senior classes sent 8-9 guys to D1 schools (something like that ... good lord they were good).
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2018 Poker run good or die
You use your tongue prettier than a $2 whore.
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Best restaurant in Austin...
SWAY would like a seat at this discussion table, please.
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Jared Goff: JUCO Transfer
MLB player rockets a ball off the middle of the L-screen and Maddux doesn't even blink, much less flinch. Hilarious.
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Chinese Manufacturing and Imitation
My experience is by no means unique, and I don't really have insight into retail markets or other market forces; it was, however, eye-opening. On a business-school trip to Hong Kong, we had the chance to visit the "fake markets." After that day, I'm now convinced that a material portion of the real product that ends up on shelves in the US and UK is fake, especially when you're buying from second-hand distributors (like, say, every seller on Amazon). The last straw for me was the Hermes tie I bought. I'm sure some sort of high-fashion expert could tell the difference, but I sure as shit couldn't. Here's the thing - Hermes doesn't manufacture in China. They don't source from China. They don't design in China. WTF?
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Black Mirror
I don't know about future seasons, but I really like this show. CAme to it late, so was able to binge S1-3. Working my way through 4 now. LOVED Hated in the Nation, USS Callister, San Junipero, Men Against Fire, White Christmas. Wasn't fond of Crocodile, Arkangel, or the pilot, but I'll take their hit rate for sure.
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Texas @ Oklahoma Series Thread
Baseball is interesting (and different from every other sport with 'lines', I'm pretty sure) in that the foul lines only explicitly determine whether a ball is fair or foul. They do NOT determine the path on which a runner must run, or serve as any sort of a boundary for a defensive player to engage with an offensive player or runner. I didn't look up the exact wording, but the 'baseline' a runner must follow is determined by where the runner is when he's engaged by the defense (ever seen a guy round 1st base and end up almost in right field before hitting second base?), and in some situations it's defined by intent, rather than position on the field. The latter is what you saw with Ellis. The "run past 1st base rule" says (paraphrasing) that if a runner is past 1st base, and makes an effort or signals intent to go to second base, then he's in play. His location on the field has zero bearing on that intent (i.e. the foul line is meaningless). The umpire ruled that Ellis had signaled his intent to go to second, and was then as such in play, and the tag out was valid. It's exactly equivalent to a runner tagging up on a long fly ball, deciding NOT to try and advance, and being tagged out trying to return to the original base. I think the umpire mis-judged Ellis' intent, but it was a close enough play that I wouldn't have gotten myself ejected while I argued it. Looked like Pierce had the same read.