GoldenTongue

Everything Everywhere All At Once is simply sublime, and quite possibly the best experience I’ve had in a theater in years. The MCU has absolutely NOTHING on this movie when it comes to outrageous conceptualizations of character and world-building. Go see it. See it NOW.

Phenomenal series. I need to rewatch the end of S2 before we start watching S3.

Out of curiosity, did you binge the first season or watch it week by week? I have some similar feelings, although I believe I've enjoyed the second season more than you have.

Thanks all, for the kind words. Nice to see so many familiar faces still posting around here

Stop. You’re making me blush. 👀

Not entirely sure I follow. It’s been one show at a time, limited series runs, each with distinctly different tone and atmosphere. I won’t deny that every one has a very recognizable Marvel feel, but I’ve enjoyed what we’ve seen from the expansion into the D+ Arena.

I'm a bit skeptical of how easily Marvel will be able to continue in that vein, of having each movie (more or less) remain capable of standing on its own. It certainly feels as though the D+ shows are being leveraged to help set the stage for Phase 4 events and at some point, it's hard to imagine how the narrative sprawl will be able to be covered with minor expositional catch-ups.

That's bizarre. My neighbor 2 houses over has DirecTV, and I didn't have a problem ordering Sunday Ticket last year or this year.

? We have a subscription for the Sunday Ticket without a DTV subscription, and I know it's available in my area.

So, my wife and I were high-school sweethearts who reconnected via Facebook about three years ago. She was living in LA, and I was (and am) in NYC. Once we'd reconnected, we spent about nine months doing the long-distance thing, with one of us flying cross-country one weekend/month, before we made the decision that it made the most sense for her to move out here. It did make the most sense, and she's acclimated well to NYC, but I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't a part of me that feels as though I should have moved out there and just worked on re-building a network there. The traffic sucks (like NYC), but unlike NYC, the traffic doesn't seem to cultivate the worst in people's aggressive driving tendencies.

@TwinIon - My wife is into the third year of her lease of a 2017 Hybrid Niro. She's loved it so far, and we'll probably either get another Hybrid (if we lease) or an EV (if we buy). I'm not the biggest fan, but for what she's looking for (compact crossover that isn't too long), the Niro was the best value that we found after looking around. I'm starting to look around for a new car myself - new promotion at work that entitles me to an upgrade over what I have now ('18 Acura MDX Sport Hybrid): thinking along the lines of an X5, Q7, or XC90. Lots to love about all three, but I think I'm leaning toward the Q7 at the moment.

In that particular scenario, sounds like an easy decision. Congrats! Refinancing is one of those topics like 401k's (or any type of investing, really), where I get annoyed when I hear people in my office talking about what people should be doing: decisions like that are so subjective that it's foolish to try to project one's own unique analysis onto others' finances.

While I'd agree that too many people sometimes treat their primary residences as a speculative investment with unrealistic views of an ROI, I would also argue that for a sizeable majority, gaining equity has value that shouldn't be so readily discounted. Is it possible to perform better in the long-term by renting and investing the "savings" associated with ownership overhead? Potentially, but I don't believe most people are equipped to plan that way. It takes a lot of discipline (and liquidity) to be able to pull that $500-$1000/month (or more) aside after paying all the other bills and put it into a savings or brokerage account. On refinancing, I hope that I am never in a position where it becomes overly appealing or (worse) some type of necessity. I doubt I'd be able to refi while maintaining my 3.125% rate, and at this point, I'm debating how much additional principle I want to pay each month.

Apologies for the laziness, but is the incompetence in the drafting of the 8/28 Policy Alert, or in how the verbiage of the policy change (which might have significantly broader implications than originally intended)?

The investment portfolios of those two groups should not be in any way similar. If you’re living off of your 401k, it should not be (heavily) portioned to anything with as much volatility as the stock market.

I'm going to assume that you haven't seen it yet. I don't necessarily disagree with anyone you're saying (although I have not read the comics), but the first season was solid. Certainly not worth comparing to any higher-minded material, but it's free of pretension, somewhat self-aware in all the right ways, and is a downright blast at times. It looks like Urban is having a blast in leaning into Butcher's scenery-chewing bluster, and he's not alone - I'm not terribly familiar with most of the main characters, but they really nailed the casting from top to bottom. Glad to hear that the show was picked up for a second season; looking forward to seeing the direction the story takes based upon the first season ended. And yes, the episode descriptions in Amazon are amazing.

Always easier when painting with such a broad brush.

Forgot to mention one of my personal favorite moments - during the first credits scene, one of my projects can be seen pretty clearly in the background. The characters are at the corner of 33rd and 8th right by Madison Square Garden and Moynahan/Penn Station, and you can see my building (Brookfield Properties 1 Manhattan West) in the background. Definitely filmed sometime in the last 6-12 months judging by the sight of the cranes at Moynahan and 1MW. Thought it was pretty cool that they used live filmed footage of the area.

Same here. Much like ANT MAN and its sequel, I really enjoyed FAR FROM HOME, particularly as a lighter change of pace from the movie that it (and they) followed. We get to see through the movie(s) how the MCU is evolving (to an extent), but in something that doesn't feature world-ending/-changing stakes, or some type of aerial warfare montage as a climax, in a movie that puts more of a premium on relationships than building/preserving narrative momentum across the entire MCU-verse (although you coudl certainly argue that some major stakes were set with the credits scenes).

*remembers when $115M opening weekend set records* Christ, I’m getting old.

Am I the only one who felt like it was an uninspired class reunion sort of Deadwood episode, top-heavy with flashbacks (is there anyone watching who really needs that many reminders), and woefully short of the character depth and beautifully profane patois that made Deadwood what it was originally? The movie/event was about ten years too late; I wouldn't say it shouldn't have been made or anything, but (unlike the series) I doubt I'll ever feel an inclination to watch it again.

Eh, don't agree. Salt water pools can require chemical maintenance just like chlorine, particularly if the hardness levels get low which leads to a slimy feeling. There's nothing difficult about maintaining a chlorine pool: keep your chlorine around ~3ppm and alkalinity around ~150ppm (neither of which is difficult once you go through a little initial tinkering) and a majority of your problems are covered. Hardness is a concern if you have an inground pool, but otherwise, it should track to alkalinity. If you like to geek out over the chemistry, you can play around with or monitor pH (which shouldn't be an issue if alkalinity is kept stable), cyanuric acid levels, and anything else that common test kits monitor, but you really shouldn't have to worry about water cleanliness or clarity if your chlorine and alkalinity is under control. And while the idea of bathing in pools is nasty, anyone who has one and has had pool parties knows you make a point of adding some shock the night before, and after, since any surge in traffic is going to impact pool chemisty...which again is no big deal if you're paying attention.

Thought last night's episode was a technical marvel, in terms of the framing, cinematography, scoring, and editing. And glad to see that I wasn't the only one who appreciated the apparently explosively tactile force of the dragonfire...apparently Drogon's fire includes some globs of C4 or some such to cause such explosive reactions on contact. ;p In terms of narrative and character arc(s), I'm definitely a bit dissatisfied at how the constraints imposed by the limited number of episodes in the final season(s) have forced the writers' hands. I can understand how and why the stories of Jamie, Cersei, Dany, and others ended as they did, but it doesn't help the feelings of (figurative) whiplash at seeing multiple characters make an apparent complete about-face in terms of priorities and choices, from one (or two) episodes to the next. I can't really make a strong argument that my own feelings are supported by the show's evidence - I'd have to watch the series again, as too many memories are obscured by variances between the books and the show. So with that said, I do have the feeling that a number of turns we've seen over the last couple weeks have come across as extraordinarily contrived and ham-fisted, in service of wrapping up the stories before the finale, and that some of the arcs are less complex than simply muddled. And given that, it only throws some of the more "Hollywood-esque" type choices into sharper relief.

THE WIZARD OF OZ Technicolor was fucking awesome to the extreme.

Couldn’t match TFA second weekend total? Superhero fatigue confirmed.