Daniel_Doyce

One of my favorite Conan segments ever is he and Tim Burton discussing Edward Penishands. It's on youtube.

I have VHS rips of Edward Penishands and its 1991 sequel, Edward Penishands 2 somewhere in my vast library of retro porn parodies.

Thank you. This is extremely useful information. Ignore the haters who say this is simply a large list of countries, some of which aren't actually countries, but rather territories or dependencies. I will devote significant time to studying your list.

Every douchey guy in college had this poster hanging on his wall

On 12/27/2022 at 8:42 AM, RH said:

Ah, very interesting.  My family had been watching through Little House on the Prairie for a while (though my kids called it quits after four seasons because something dire happens every. single. episode.) and one of the plots during the 3/4th season was that the kids were sent home from school and very shortly after a blizzard blew in and the town had to rally and find them all. 

Yes, people died.

That show rarely posts dates, but knowing the age of Laura Ingles Wilder, yes, that episode was set around that time.  I had no clue it was inspired by an actual event.  Thanks for posting that.  It provides a good bit of context.

I don't remember that episode specifically, but in the original books, she tells a very similar story that must have actually happened and formed the genesis for that episode. Some children went home from the schoolhouse as a blizzard was starting to worsen and just missed touching the edge of their house and then got lost in the snowbanks and froze to death.

Life on the frontier was hard and unforgiving.

Theodore Roosevelt documented much of this. He almost went bankrupt as a rancher due to the blizzard and took more than a decade to pay off his creditors. I've read Edmund Morris' biography, but don't have it handy at the moment, but I remember a passage from a boy who remembered the blizzard and the mass death of cattle and bison and the gruesome sight of a plethora of animal carcasses blocking the river when the thaw came.

 I dunno man, Gun Nac poops on the chest of Twin Cobra all day.

TGL is pretty sweet, but this is about the awesomeness of Gun Nac

53 minutes ago, MagusSmurf said:

It's pretty cool. Has some crazy stuff and the difficulty options allow it to get easy enough to have to something to offer to people not already inducted into the Shmup cult but then can also ramp up substantially. Seemed like a top 100 NES game.

Top 100? That's not saying much, even though there are 9 Koei games in the top 10... Right @Reed Rothchild?

It doesn't even seem possible to program on the NES. Gun Nac rocks ass.

I unironically love that song.

Christmas music is best enjoyed in short doses. That Paul McCartney song and Do They Know It's Christmas are the worst, though.

5 hours ago, Gloves said:

He was in Taiwan last I checked.

Damnit I knew that! Sorry for accidentally besmirching his good name with a suggested Canadian inhabitance!

Is Tupperware "boxes" a Canadian thing? I've always heard them called Tupperware containers or just Tupperware.

Today (Dec 10) is the 200th anniversary of Cesar Franck's birth. He was well-known during his career as one of the best organists alive, and was a highly regarded and influential teacher as the Paris Conservatoire from 1872 until his death.

His music wasn't well appreciated during his lifetime, but he's now recognized as one of the greatest 19th century composers.

Today I'll listen to his famous Violin Sonata, Symphonic Variations, and the Six Pièces pour Grand Orgue in commemoration of the mutton-chopped "Père Franck", as nicknamed by his beloved circle of students.

On 11/11/2022 at 10:19 AM, Aguy said:

Netflix release a new film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front that's worth a watch, especially on Armistice/Veterans day. They made some additions and subtractions that add to the viewing experience but I think take away some of the impact of it's message.

(aka the book was better)

Don't have Netflix, so I can't watch the new one, but the Richard Thomas / Ernest Borgnine version from 1979 is really good.

3 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

That is definitely true, but I feel like that's the exception rather than the rule...

I definitely have moved a lot, mostly due to expat positions for a couple years at a time with spans in the US between them, but lots of people relocate for jobs at least a few times in their lives. Owning a house until the mortgage is paid down in 30 years is more the exception than the rule nowadays, hence the ~8 year average ownership stat.

I did own a hours for 7 years at one point, and definitely appreciate the feeling of ownership, so I'll buy again when I retire in a few years and settle down in one place.

Yeah, your original post makes sense if everyone lives in the house they buy for 25-30 years until it's paid off. But that's not the norm at all. As I mentioned, in the US at least, average home ownership time is 5-8 years. So the friction costs of buying/selling/maintenance and paying mostly interest on the mortgage in early years makes it more of a tossup vs. renting.

This is also ignoring nightmare scenarios like 2007-2009 where lots of people made bad decisions and got themselves severely underwater on houses that had no business buying.

I've moved 7 times in the last 12 years. If I bought a house every time I moved, it would have been a nightmare. That's the "premium of mobility" I'm referring to that renting allows. But a lot of people don't want to have to deal with a landlord, so that's a point in favor of ownership for many.

Also, instead of having a tantrum about the mean rich people and evil banks, etc., buy some REIT stock or bank stock and become an investor too.

On 11/23/2022 at 11:19 AM, a3quit4s said:

@Trifecta - it’s also handy to remember you don’t necessarily have to get to the 20% down payment. Even if you have to pay PMI with your mortgage your still better off with that than throwing money at an apartment. 

Renting isn't throwing money away. It buys you the freedom to not have to deal with home maintenance and the premium of mobility if you want to relocate quickly compared to owning a house.

Most people drastically underestimate the friction costs of buying / selling / maintaining a property. The average time period of home ownership is 5-8 years, and 5 is about the breakeven point on the friction costs, assuming you sell your property for at least the price you paid for it, which is definitely not guaranteed.

The other benefits of home ownership vs. renting are harder to value monetarily. I may buy again once I retire in a couple of years and know I'm definitely going to stay in one place for 30-40 years until I croak, though.

9 hours ago, Murray said:

Happy Thanksgiving all!!

Those are some top notch greens and Brussels sprouts man.

9 hours ago, Lago said:

10% isn't enough.  You'll need to talk to the property management company to see what their fees are but it'll probably be something like this:

half of first month rent

$300 advertising fee

10% of every other month throughout the lease

10% of any late payment fees collected

1/4 1st month rent on lease renewal or repeat the above process.

repairs not included in the above.

Also, most counties have a homestead exemption on your property tax if it is your primary residence.  If it isn't your property taxes will probably double.

That goes back to my earlier point that if you're not seriously doing a realistic cash flow analysis before buying a rental property to see if the investment is sufficiently profitable or even profitable at all, then it's not going to end well.

8 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I want to see someone that's eaten one of these at Arby's and survived.

Man that looks awesome, but seems like a serious pain in the ass for whichever poor Arby's employee has to assemble all those parts for one stupid sandwich.

4 hours ago, Mario_Friend1982 said:

How well do you think The Super Mario Bros. Movie will fare at the box office?

What are your specific criteria for evaluating how well it will do?

16 hours ago, phart010 said:

Yea the Diet Coke somehow makes it all not so bad

If you're eating Arby's, then you've already given up. Besides, I find regular soda too sweet and I need a couple of gallons of DC to get through the day

if you're going to eat Arby's, the lamb gyro, 3-4 beef cheddars and a large curly fries and diet coke is the way to go. McRib can suck it

I finally closed a few big positions last week. I feel the housing market is turning so I got out of my mortgage insurance stock at a pretty big profit. Also finally dumped AIG. I'm going to keep it all in cash to make some hopefully strategic decisions when the recession finally comes.

I'm going down with the ship on GE. Down a solid 6 figure amount and hoping I can eventually break even if Culp's turnaround eventually bears fruit.

ROOT's slow demise is interesting to watch. LMND is doing the same, but more slowly. Despite all the handwaving and flashy apps, Insurtechs aren't immune from negative combined ratios, as the market seems to finally realize.

I don't think I've ever had a McRib. Maybe I should get one.

How sweet is the sauce?  I like BBQ sauce on the savory side, not like NC-style, which is atrocious, but also not very sugary or generally nasty like Cincinnati chili

derp dupe