Everything posted by LCHorn
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Marvel Cinematic Universe the Endless Phase: Tripping Balls (Spoilers)
I do, too--in a different universe (errrr...multiverse), Marvel Studios does a 6 ep miniseries introducing the team* and I think everything works better. *I'm okay skipping the origin story on this, too--it's more that film relies HEAVILY on the charisma of the cast to make you care about the characters and I don't think it works unless you're already a comics fan. You can do nebbish Reed because you've more firmly established arrogant Reed leads to Ben's disfigurement. You can make Johnny and Ben more central to the story by having their own adventures separately. Probably the best version of Johnny Storm I've seen is as a guest in Ultimate Spiderman (yes, I'm coming totally out of the closet nerd on this) where he's kind of a sheltered rock star on the outside but also very sweet and sincere. Roberto Aguirre Sacasa did a F4 run that had Sue demonstrate a degree of power that the film cribbed, but the way it left the team a little in awe was a missed note.
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Sub-Educated Cretins: The SEC screenshot mega-thread
Let's be fair, Saban isn't in Saban's league under the new paradigm. The only coach I'm reasonably confident about at the moment is Lane Kiffin and that's because he's not trying to play GM.
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Marvel Cinematic Universe the Endless Phase: Tripping Balls (Spoilers)
It's funny, just did a re-watch of Fantastic Four and he was among the things that didn't work for me. I like him more in that 5 seconds with Shuri and M'Baku than anything in the film. The biggest miss, in my opinion, is Pascal playing Richards as a superhero Woody Allen. I don't know why you cast the Red Viper and not let him cook.
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What's happening in Iran?
Counterpoint--I don't know that there's a lot of common thread tying revolutionaries together, but one is they generally don't have the elites that fled the country returning to lead the revolution. Usually, it's someone that was adjacent (maybe exposed to is better) foreign ideas, or was a regime official, but built up support inside the country under the restrictions of the current regime. I'm not aware of any of those inside in Iran, but the support for someone is there. Iran needs it's own Vaclav Havel.
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
You may well be right, but I think he closed that narrative loop. I think he wants to continue Kiri’s story, maybe as a much older character (and Weaver won’t have to have her voice adjusted to sound younger).
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
I expect a response like this is getting posted about pretty much every freshman portal entrant from peer programs. I don’t have anything new to add besides I hope he’s back. He was THE recruit last year for Flood and Georgia and playing him over guys like Neto and Kibble likely hastened their departure.
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
I have only been paying very peripheral attention to the James Cameron press tour, but I think he mentioned that Fire and Ash is the end of that story and any sequels would be set on Pandora but picking up with (mostly) new characters. She a fucking trooper, but I have to imagine actors like Zoe Saldana would prefer to be working in LA near her family more often and not in a wet suit covered with CGI dots for a year at a time.
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Shit I've Cooked Lately
If you're an English muffin fan then I highly recommend the version from Boulanc in Oaxaca City. Muffin + fried egg+ Mennonite cheese + thick slab of tomato + salsa macha.
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Alamo Drafthouse Committing Suicide
I'm actually a little surprised that a streamer like Apple or Netflix that isn't tied down to existing theatrical relationships didn't purchase the Alamo Drafthouse, release films there (with exclusivity advantages) with free or nominal value tickets with the idea that food/bev covers the cost. Netflix, in particularly, seems to have realized they've reached a subscription limit for their model, at least domestically, and adding more content isn't necessarily adding subscribers. You've got films like Frankenstein that have big viewership numbers but almost no penetration into a larger cultural conversation. Hell, Heated Rivalry has inspired more word of mouth and that's a super niche program.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
Just my two cents, but a lot of that is done, imo. I think it's more for playing time or fit. Given who Texas is chasing at the overhang positions, for example, it looks like there's going to be less playing time to be distributed for that big end that Kwiatkowski liked (which points to Vasek, Zina, and Jackson, and we know they love Jackson).
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Alamo Drafthouse Committing Suicide
FWIW, the exhibitors are all doing that. Experimenting with older films, concerts, showing Broadway productions, big TV finales. I think there's a real reluctance to play with ticket pricing more than they do, but I'd be trying to experiment there, too. Buy one, get one free for Back to the Future night so you can bring your kid, for example (one of the exhibitor challenges they don't talk about is that ticket prices are so large that a night out at the movies has become a luxury item). Something else I'd do is approach Netflix and ask to license their older catalogue. Anyway, I'm sure Sony has played around with all sorts of concepts conceptually because a) no one likes losing money b) Alamo has a clientele with previous exposure to this and c) there's a relatively small number of Alamo theaters so the risk is low. Main thing I'd be focusing on is butts in seats by any means necessary. There's an entire generation that isn't getting habituated to theatrical and that's a bleak future for theaters.
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2025 - 2026 Astros Offseason Thread
Fangraphs Astros Projections They expect Yordan to rake, everyone else to be kinda middling (I’ll take the over on Correa with the team strength as across the board competence. Projecting for 90 wins, fyi.
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All Encompassing Mortgage and Real Estate Thread
That’s “we’ll take Greenland” clown car shit. I’m going to presume your question was tongue in cheek.
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Alamo Drafthouse Committing Suicide
I think you guys are realizing that the exhibitors are all really hurting for money. I bet the amount Sony paid for the Alamo matches up pretty well with the value of the real estate and it’s still not cash-flowing after the COVID decline in attendance. I think they all need to pivot (I.e, quit chasing the same theater goer that sees tent pole films but nothing else), but some of that is on the studios to be able to make a $15m film that appeals to kids, or old people, or minority groups (black cinema, LGBT cinema). The only remaining studios willing to risk their money on that are the faith based ones.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
I didn't really tune in until the fourth quarter and after I saw @HenryJames's comment on James Brockermeyer missing two blocks in the first drive or so (and the subsequent "fuck the Brocks!" pile on), but the center/guards were beating the crap out of the front and second level of the Ole Miss D. Worth nothing is that each of them is in their 4th or 5th year in college. They even had mongoloid flamingo boy Carson Beck (average career run of 1.6 y/p/c) running for an 11 year gain, prompting Herbstreit and Fowler to praise his athleticism(!). Agree with this, too. He's just not a good evaluator past the obvious "can't miss" guys and possibly uses size as a crutch, but he's not Warehime bad. I also think he/his position group has the most to gain with the increased number of scholarship, a position that oftentimes rewards and experience over talent, and the inherent advantage of a UT to pull in the Rice level offensive line prospect that's a candidate to play here in year 3 or 4 in a best case, stash them for later scenario.
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What's happening in Iran?
I've got to run to an appointment and you've covered 90% of my thoughts on possible military options, but I'll briefly add that I don't think we should be directing our energy at "cutting off the head", I think we should be trying to dismember it's limbs. I'd only be supportive of hitting targets via missile in Iran is against clear IRGC commanders, away from civilian zones (i.e., stay out of Tehran) with a clear goal of preventing retaliatory action as a result of our more "soft power" or covert activities. Yeah, this is the "big daddy" of foreign policy opportunities if the timing is right.
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What's happening in Iran?
I would have truckloads of cheap, satellite capable cell phone at least available across the border with Iraq. The next part is trickier because the mullah's suck at making friends abroad, but maybe there's a way to have the Azerbaijanis approach them diplomatically with a promise of safe harbor for anyone senior in the Islamic Republic that wants to leave, an apartment for their family. The top level has so much money they are mostly immune to this (they all have apartments in London/Paris/Moscow to escape to as needed), but we want to hollow out the level below, the bureaucracy, moreover let's move them where we can monitor them easily and bring them back to help restore basic governance functions under new management. Something else we could be doing is to have back channel communications with the Artesh that we'll support them (moreover, that they'll have jobs and money IMMEDIATELY) if they with withhold support for the Islamist revolutionary forces/government. Finally, I'd ask the Israelis if it's possible (if we don't possess the know-how) to disrupt the Islamic Republic's own communication infrastructure (you'll note that communication is a huge part of this). I'm picking on @Macklemore a little bit here, but a lot of American-Persians seem to overlook the fact that 40% of the country isn't Persian, isn't looking at the Shah's return as a return to greatness, lives fairly remotely and doesn't have a high level of education. As the Persians have soured on the regime over the last 20 years, these have sort of become the backbone of the Islamist support and contribute a lot of the recruits (note these people might self-identify as Persian, but truly that's probably third of fourth down the list of their identity characteristics, with tribe #1 or #2). These are the true believers, not necessarily in the religious message of the revolution, but certainly in the evolving shadow state elements that the IRGC has taken on with their commercial activities. In other words, they've made a lot of money in the last 20 years, are utterly beholden to the status quo for that continuing, aren't as cheap to buy off as the military (too big, too dispersed, and our intelligence on specific elements is shitty*), and it's in the US interest in making sure they can't talk to each other easily. *fwiw, I listened to the "FDD's Foreign Policy" podcast yesterday while on the hunt for any useful commentary on what's going on over there, and the guest was former CIA deputy director for Iran Norman Roule, It was an hour with some small, somewhat useful insights on the overall state (recorded in December and clearly didn't predict the current protests), and it might have been that Roule was reluctant to be overly detailed out of habit, but my main takeaway is that our intel in Iran is pretty crappy. This dude, by resume, should be one of the foremost US subject matter experts on Iran and he didn't appear to have any deeper knowledge than a 10,000 foot view of the world.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
I had the same thought, but when I played it out I think it's more of a "road not taken" that isn't available any longer due to a number of factors (logistics, lack of regulations, competing entities, etc.). If you want to see that you have to be able to restrict labor movement and the only restrictions on the table are those that require the players to be students and conform to the school calendar.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
The problem with this is there's no practice squad, no list of free agents who attended one of your spring camps to grab guys off of when there's injuries. You've got the December signing period/portal and that has to last you until next December.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
I know Anwar’s reputation is that he’s a useful idiot (not in dispute here), but I do think the staff’s reluctance to part with Wingo is one part belief in his potential, and one part out of respect for his work ethic, leadership, team fit, i.e. a lot of those soft skills the market is probably unlikely to reward but players notice.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
I wanted echo this, but looking at the carries available during the Sark tenure, they just aren’t there (if everyone has more or less the same talent/performance as in 2025). Brown and Smothers are going to split 300-325, Cooper and Simon will get the leftovers with Arch probably getting 90 again. I have to imagine Sarkisian made a choice on that one (Smothers over Clark).
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What's happening in Iran?
Yeah, well I remember celebrating the end of the Rick Perry governorship. “Thank God we’re rid of that Aggie and his cronyism and attacks on The University. Finally a by God Longhorn and a return to normalcy.” Regardless, thanks for the updates @Macklemore. I’m certainly supportive of anything that gives moves us closer to a normal relationship so my kids can see the home of their grandparents.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - I'm With Stupid
I think you can throw pretty much any portal rankings out the window. They appear to be weighted heavily towards high school rating with small adjustments made towards players at name schools (hence why someone like Stroh is over-ranked). To the extent that a layman can evaluate quality, I think you have to look at what teams are competing over a player. That said, going in blind I’d prefer a third year lineman coming from LSU that’s had three years of at least semi-competent position coaching, very high level strength and conditioning and has repeated exposure to high pressure tests in big stadiums. There’s a floor there that I’d like Texas to meet while it tries to harvest some possibly higher potential diamonds in the rough from small schools, ACC, the snake bitten by injuries, etc.
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2025 - 2026 Astros Offseason Thread
I'm expecting some type of buy-out settlement to avoid the DFA coming out of spring training, or he ends up on the 60 day and retires quietly after the season.
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Pastries / Bakery
When I picked up my Buche de Noel (thanks for the rec @HenryJames ) they had buy one get one free croissants and so I sampled a chocolate and the almond. The latter is really good but I still think Heaven's Bistro is better (less frangipane and more cripsy crust). I also didn't realize this until Henry James starting pimping them, but I set a reminder last year for this month to make sure and order a Galette De Rois from them before the month is out. The version with chocolate frangipane and pear looks sublime.