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Tabe

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Posts posted by Tabe

  1. 23 hours ago, Tabe said:

    On Wednesday, I'm heading to Seattle for the 2025 Rubik's Cube World Championship.  At 2000 entrants, it's the largest competition ever.  They sold something like 4500 spectator tickets for it, too.  I'll be competing - poorly - and mostly staffing.  ESPN will be there for a segment for their "50 States in 50 Days" thing they're doing.  Kevin Negandhi will be there, presumably interviewing folks.  In round 1 of the main 3x3 event, I'll be in the catbird seat, judging the world record holders in the event with a decent chance of being up close for a world record.  To say I'm stoked about the whole thing would be a gigantic understatement.

    Annnnnnd they shuffled assignments and I'm no longer in that judging spot. I am a tad displeased. 

    • Sad 3
  2. On Wednesday, I'm heading to Seattle for the 2025 Rubik's Cube World Championship.  At 2000 entrants, it's the largest competition ever.  They sold something like 4500 spectator tickets for it, too.  I'll be competing - poorly - and mostly staffing.  ESPN will be there for a segment for their "50 States in 50 Days" thing they're doing.  Kevin Negandhi will be there, presumably interviewing folks.  In round 1 of the main 3x3 event, I'll be in the catbird seat, judging the world record holders in the event with a decent chance of being up close for a world record.  To say I'm stoked about the whole thing would be a gigantic understatement.

    • Like 8
  3. Mitch Marner to Vegas on a sign & trade deal.  8 years, $12m AAV on the new contract.  By signing first, he got an extra year on the contract.  Haven't yet heard what Toronto got in return but doubt it's much.

    Red Wings traded Vladimir Tarasenko to Minnesota for...a broken rubber band and 3 boxes of air AKA "future considerations".  Minnesota is taking the full contract for Tarasenko - $4.75m for one year - and Detroit is happy to be rid of him.  He was awful for Detroit this year and never found his groove.

  4. 40 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

     

    Literally no one since that day has given one iota of thought to who caught the throw, the tag, or anything else but, man, you'd think Gary Carter made the greatest play of all-time the way the announcers were talking. 

    And let's give full credit to Parker for his positioning. He was in a perfect spot to field and throw. 

    • Like 3
  5. The NHL hates having a consistent number of games in the schedule. 80, 82, 84, 78, 70, 48, 56... just in my lifetime. And, yeah, some of those were because of strikes and COVID but still. MLB has been 162 for over 60 years. 

    • Like 2
  6. 6 hours ago, twiztor said:

    i wondered what ever happened with him and that case. all of this situation is gross and wrong. 2 years suspended is not nearly enough. Didn't this happen last year? If he actually spent 2 years behind bars, she would still be under 18 when he got out!

    It definitely seems too light. Could he possibly have thought she was legal? 

  7. 7 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

    Lebron really laid shit out for him, didn't he.

    But how could he drop "significant" weight if he was already in great shape and carrying no spare weight? 

    • Haha 1
  8. 8 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

    All those pundits who doubted the severity of Haliburton's calf injury ought to take a long, hard look in the mirror. But probably won't. 

    Similar to KD a few years ago. 

  9. This was an exciting series and it's a shame we didn't get to see best-on-best for all of game 7.  Haliburton was cooking before he blew his tire.  

    Two takeaways for me:

    1) The officiating was pretty awful.  Ticky-tack stuff called in favor of Shai frequently, egregious stuff ignored for others.  The play at the end of the 1st half where McConnell had his lift wrist held - for multiple seconds - while dribbling as he looked at the ref 8 feet away to ask for a foul was just brutal.  And there was a lot of stuff like that throughout.  I won't say that the officiating was biased in one direction or another but there's definitely the perception outside of Oklahoma City among a lot of fans that it was.

    2) Holy cow, the broadcast team was horrendous.  I like Mike Breen - he's top of class and awesome in general.  For this series, though, he was attached to two boat anchors of the heaviest variety and they dragged him down into the muck.  I generally like Doris Burke but she clearly has lost any fastball she ever had and was awful throughout.  Richard Jefferson was equally bad.  Even worse, I got tired of the absolutely constant use of initials and nicknames.  Guys, it really is alright to say "Oklahoma City" even 5% of the time instead of constantly saying "OKC".  Or Shai instead of "SGA" constantly.  Or "JDub" or "Hali" and on and on and on.  I don't object to any of those things in general, they just shouldn't be the default and nearly exclusive.  It grated on my ears after awhile, especially when combined with the incompetent performances from "DB" and Jefferson.

    Having said all that, it was nice to have a series whose outcome guaranteed a Gonzaga Bulldog a ring 🙂

  10. 5 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

    Looked way too much like Tatum, Liliard, KD a few years back, etc. And looks like it is indeed a Achilles tear.

    When you can see the ripple at the back of the calf, it ain't good.  

  11. The Americans - I was immediately hooked on the premise of The Americans years ago when it first came out.  "Keri Russell is a Soviet spy pretending to be American who seduces and kills people??!?!  SIGN ME UP!"  I watched weekly the first couple seasons and then drifted away for reasons I couldn't quite identify at the time.  I decided to give it another chance recently and binged the entire series.  What follows is going to be a review that is far more critical than you would expect from something with the rating I give this show...

    Keri Russell is Elizabeth Jennings, married to Matthew Rhys (her real-life husband), Phillip Jennings.  Together they run a travel agency in Washington, D.C in the early '80s.  And, oh yeah, they are actually Soviet spies, born in Russia and trained to be "American".  We pick up their story roughly 15-20 years into it.  They live a comfortable suburban life and have two teenage children.  When the show starts, their lives become complicated when Stan Beeman and his family move in across the street.  Stan is an FBI agent in the Counterintelligence Division - a spy hunter.  Phillip and Stan become fast friends and we're off and running.  Elizabeth and Phillip are true believers and they well-trained, masters of disguise, and killers when necessary.  

    The first couple seasons are tight and well-done.  Fast-paced (more on this later) and interesting.  They are juggling their travel agency, and the various sources they're working.  Phillip, for example, has developed an intimate relationship with Martha, a secretary in Stan's department in the FBI.  Eventually, they also develop real feelings for each other and their fake marriage becomes a real one, lending additional depth and difficulty to the work they do.

    Storylines come and go across the six seasons, building to the inevitable conclusion when their secret is discovered by first their daughter, then Stan and the series reaches its climax.  

    So...the negativity?

    Well, first thing is that it's pretty gratuitous early on with sex and nudity.  You will never hear me complain about Keri Russell getting naked - far from it - but more than a few of the scenes feel ... tawdry and unnecessary.  For example, there's a scene where Paige, their 14/15-year old daughter, walks in on Elizabeth and Phillip, nude and in the middle of a 69.  Really?  That exact moment couldn't have been done ... somehow differently?  That stuff gets reduced in the later seasons, thankfully.

    Elizabeth and Phillip are also waaaaaaay too busy.  They are supposedly working full-time running a travel agency (and it IS a real agency) while actively performing spy duties.  A LOT.  They are seemingly never home yet they are parents.  They kill too many people.  And so on.  They are so busy that they literally turn it into a storyline halfway through the show as a way to return some normalcy to their lives.  It just strains belief that they were doing this stuff for 15+ years at the frequency they were doing it.

    Something else that bugged me throughout the show is that they just aren't that careful with their crimes.  Much like the similar, and also really good, Mr. In-Between (another show about somebody who leads a normal life as a parent while killing on the side), there is very little care taken when committing crimes to not leave evidence behind.  They are randomly careful but often not.  The FBI never gets their fingerprints and tracks them?  Yeaaaah.

    And there's a lot more stuff like that.  Having watched the entire series now, I can see why I trailed off before.  It's all just a little too..."much".  

    And yet, I like the show a good amount.  You still get Keri seducing and killing dudes, you still get the really intriguing premise, you still get a lot of excellent acting, and a neat take on the US/USSR relationship in the 1980s.  

    7/10.

    • Like 3
  12. How does one poach a non-employee? And how does one violate an NIL deal by changing teams since NIL deals supposedly can't require you to play for a specific team? 

  13. 23 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

    How is that only a $250 fine, pretty sure in VA you are getting slapped with a lot more then that as a punishment for going 40+ over.

    I had to look it up as I felt crazy, in Virginia "Reckless driving crosses the mark from traffic infractions to a criminal charge, so it is a Class One misdemeanor. Class One misdemeanors come with a maximum fine of $2,500 and the possibility of jail time for up to 12 months" and minimally they make you go to a court date over it.

    It was his second serious speeding violation in just a couple weeks - June 5, 91 in a 65.  He no-showed the court appearance for that one.  He should be in jail.

  14. 1 hour ago, Gonzo said:

    The rumored number for the Lakers looks to be about $10 billion.

    Forbes puts the Yankees at $8.2B. All in, with the stadium and so on, I gotta think they are legit at least $20B.

  15. 15 hours ago, Contentious C said:

    At this rate, you almost wonder if McDavid is going to hoist the Cup at all. I think he pretty easily takes the cake (among modern players, it's not like I saw Marcel Dionne play) as Best Player to Never Win the Cup if he retires without getting it. Although this series was not a good example of that. Hope he does, though (I haven't followed hockey finances in forever to know if teams get split up much).

    He's where Steve Yzerman was in 1996. Great player who elevates in the playoffs but whose team is soft as a pillow. Edmonton doesn't play defense worth a lick, their only gritty scorer is 500 years old, their goalie aren't good enough, and they are lost if they don't get power plays. 

    Worked out OK for Stevie Y. 

  16. 2 hours ago, supremebve said:

    I'm not excusing Devers' behavior, but I kind of understand why he was mad.  He's not a good third baseman, but he was absolutely the best player on the team.  They gave his position away to a one year rental in Bregman and made him the DH, which he wasn't happy with, but accepted.  Then they asked him to play 1st, a position he's never played, and he balked because they pretty much told him he's not a good enough defender to play in his actual position.  They were putting him in a position to fail, and then acting like he's the problem when he calls them out on it.  He didn't tell them he wasn't good enough to play defense, they told him he wasn't good enough to play defense.  So, why are they asking him to play defense?

    I get it. He signed a contract to play a specific position and then they tried to move him twice. Had he known that, maybe he signs that contract elsewhere. I think all of us would be upset with our employer - regardless of salary - if we took a job somewhere based on a promised position and then they tried to move us twice in a span of a few months. 

  17. 2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

    Take this for what it’s worth but the Rays might be about to be sold

     

    So the Yankees are worth $50B based on that valuation?

  18. On 6/16/2025 at 3:59 PM, Cobra Commander said:

    appears the Boston sports media is in a "stories we can now tell you" news cycle

    A break from the normal "trash the non-white player on his way out of town" we usually get from Boston. 

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  19. How to Train Your Dragon - it's been a long time since I've seen the animated original and I remembered very little of the story so it was like seeing a new movie. The story is still good, the score still incredible but the transition to "live action" causes the movie to lose just a little something. The visuals aren't quite as spectacular and the people don't look real enough to be real, at least not all the time. And, quite frankly, it's just a story and setting that works better as a traditional animated movie. Still, it's entertaining and my wife (who hadn't seen the original but wanted to see this one) loved it. 7/10. Original is a 9.

    • Like 1
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