I know it doesn't make any sense and I know it's all just inanimate marbles "racing" each other but damned if I don't find myself rooting for one team more than the others and also rooting against one team more than the others.
Anyone else have a marble team they actively root against?
Took this photo as I was exiting Indiana Jones during a recent trip. The sunlight coming through the jungle, the lushness of the jungle - it looks amazing! This was taken with my Samsung phone and I didn't use any filters nor did I edit it in any way.
The year was 2004
The San Diego Chargers had Drew Brees at QB, LaDainian Tomlinson at RB, Antonio Gates at TE and Lorenzo Neal at FB.
They also had the 1st overall pick and could have taken Larry Fitzgerald rather than Eli Manning. If they had, Brees and Fitzgerald would have been teammates with two other Hall of Famers on offense plus Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison on defense.
What could have been...
After a recent trip to Disneyland where I rode the Haunted Mansion I decided to try watching the film based on the ride.
The special effects were well done, the Easter Eggs from the ride were excellent and Eddie Murphy does what he can. But the kids plot was terrible, the wife and the kids acting was terrible and the actual plot was too silly and comedic to ever be scary or spooky. Hell, the kid that was terrified of a spider at home is, 20 minutes later, nonplussed by talking to a floating head in a crystal ball or a ride in a ghost carriage.
The directing relied on too many tight shots of single people or pairs of people rather than showing us the incredible set deign, props and sets that were built for this
A complete missed opportunity, in my opinion. There's potential for a great movie here but this ain't it.
If you signed up for California's DROP Program to force data brokers to stop selling your data and to delete your information from their systems then good news, the enforcement of that program finally has begun.
Today is the first day the requests are available to every registered data broker and they have 45 days to take those requests. Once they have them they have 45 days to apply them and delete the information they have and cease selling the information to others. If they don't do those two things it'll be a $200 per request, per day fine.
It won't be immediate nor all-encompassing but the program includes over 600 data brokers so it's a good start and the results for those of us that signed up should be noticeable by mid-November.
We'll be at Disneyland when the park opens on Saturday and will not have Lightning Lane. Is this list of rides, in this order, realistic? If so, what time do you guesstimate we'd be done assuming we don't run and take time to eat at quick service places along the way?
Listening to Coach Canales' press conference today after camp it was pointed out that today was Jonathan Brooks' first ever day of training camp! He's a third year player!
I still believe in his talent and think he'll be a solid player this season with the potential to have a breakout year. It would be awesome to see him be healthy for a full season and show what he's capable of.
I was looking through the Premiere Edition of Superman: The Movie that I bought a couple of years ago and realized there are no fewer than six different ways to watch the 1978 Superman movie.
One of these days I'll have to sit down and watch all six versions within a few weeks to really enjoy and compare the differences and the commentary. The only ones I know I haven't seen yet are the Extended TV Version and the John Williams score iso version.
TL; DR - The Ducks are screwed by Carlsson's greed for this season and probably for the 2027-28 season as well. But in 2028-29 they're in a good place to have a solid roster with options to add veterans to the core you see above to upgrade and improve.
We all know what the roster for this year looks like and we know we are waiting two years for Vatrano, Killorn, Granlund, Jensen and Kreider to clear our books. So let's look ahead at the 2028-29 roster and see what we have, what we need and how much we'll have to spend:
Italics = Player is not under contract for that season but will be a RFA between now and then
FORWARDS
DEFENSE
GOALIE
HEALTHY SCRATCHES
12 of those 23 players are already under contract. The other 10 will be RFAs between now and the start of that season. One player, Nikita Klepov, will be on an ELC that season and can make a maximum of $1.775 million per season so I've set that as his price for the sake of argument.
Salary cap: $123m
Cost of players already signed: $63.34m
Cash for remaining 10 players: $59.65m
Even if we assume both Sennecke and Gauthier make $16m each, which I think is higher than what their average will be, that would still leave the Ducks with $27.65m to spend on the remaining 8 players which includes two healthy scratches, two third pairing defenseman, a backup goalie and a 4th line forward - all of which are RFAs. That's six of the eight players right there with only Wahlberg and Luneau left to sign.
The point is this - yes, the Ducks are screwed by Carlsson's greed for this season and probably for the 2027-28 season as well. But in 2028-29 they're in a good place to have a solid roster with options to add veterans to the core you see above to upgrade and improve.
Don't take the names above as bible for where they are slotted. It was more a listing of the 23 players that could be a part of that roster than a prediction of where each player would play. Let me know if I forgot/omitted anyone.
Which actor, or actress, has the five best films?
Any five movies from their career regardless of how big, or small, their role was as long as they are a credited cast member.
Please post both your answer and the five films in your comment. There are a LOT of great options so this should prove interesting.
Found this on the Princess website - a brand new Standby Program for Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Port Canaveral and Seattle. How new is it? When I called the number they provided on their own website I talked to three different employees who had never even heard of it, didn't know how it worked and couldn't give me any further details.
But, if you live near those four ports and are able to do last-minute trips the deals seems pretty outstanding!
Link to page on Princess website: https://www.princess.com/cruise-deals-promotions/standby-program
Nobody in the entire NHL scored more goals in that area of the ice last season than Cutter Gauthier. Looks like he has an Office to go to work in 84 times a season. Let's see if he can best 11 goals from that region in 2026-27.
If the Atlanta Thrashers franchise itself has been completely forgotten then God knows the NHL Guardian Project version of The Thrasher has been forgotten for years by now.
The Guardian Project was a joint venture between the NHL and Stan Lee. Yes, that Stan Lee. All 30 NHL teams got a character created for them with different powers and collectively they were called the Guardians. A short comic book for each character was created to introduce them and their powers.
They all debuted in the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina where the villain, Devin Dark, captured them all (except The Hurricane who escaped at the last second) and the NHL has not acknowledged this project since.
According to multiple reports and people the prices for hundreds of food items at Disneyland now cost up to 14% more than they did just last week.
I can confirm that on Saturday, July 11th I got two 16oz coffees from Ronto's Roasters and they were $4.79 each. According to reports those same two cups of coffee are now $5.49 which is an increase if 14.59%! (Photo of old price in comments)
Reminder that the option to bring your own food and beverages into Disneyland exists. Store them in lockers (which will cost between $7 and $15/day to rent) and enjoy your own meals, snacks and drinks all day without spending any extra money.
I'm watching this tonight as the unofficial prequel to The Odyssey, which I will see this weekend. This one is based on The Iliad which preceded The Odyssey. Many of the characters and events will be seen or referenced in The Odyssey so I should understand it a bit more having scene this and gotten some of the history/backstory.
Having never read any of Homer's works I'm looking forward to both films and am going in fairly blind.
Sure, it's only the day rookies report for one team (the Seahawks) but still - NFL training camps begin on July 17th so we're only a week away from actual training camp news.
Cardinals and Panthers are the first teams to fully report and they'll begin camp on the 22nd, just 12 days away!
Now that we know Carlsson is signed and will be the Ducks top center this season we can take a more detailed look at what the 23-man roster might look like barring any further trades/signings.
Why a 23-man roster? That's what teams break camp with. 12 forwards + 6 defensemen + 2 goalies = 20 man roster to play each game with + 3 healthy scratches
Don't get too tied into the placement of each guy. It's more the 23 names than the actual usage/line combinations.
FORWARDS:
DEFENSE:
GOALIES:
HEALTHY SCRATCH:
That roster combines to cost $87.654m leaving the Ducks $16.354m to spend. $7 million of that goes to Terry once he's healthy, of course, so it's just $9.354m left for Gauthier.
BUT...
- If the Ducks go with Brossoit instead of Husso as the backup that gives them an extra $1.1m to spend so the money for Gauthier goes up to $10.454m.
- If the Ducks were able to move Vatrano and replace him with Gaucher that would give them an extra $3.68m to spend so that would give them $14.13m to spend on Gauthier (combining with Brossiot over Husso) or $13.03m (with Husso over Brossoit).
- If the Ducks were able to move Kreider and replace him with Gaucher that would give them an extra $5.61m to spend so they'd then have either $16.06m (Brossoit) or $14.96m (Husso) to spend on Gauthier.
The pressure comes in late November/December when Terry is healthy. Until then the Ducks can put him on LTIR and use his $7m to exceed the salary cap temporarily. But when he's healthy either Vatrano, Kreider or Killorn will need to have been removed from the roster in order to make this work, IMO.
GM Pat Verbeek mentioned Sam Colangelo as an option to replace Troy Terry's minutes on the wing until Terry returns from injury. That's surprising and was not a guy I had considered.
Colangelo is 24, he's big (6'2" and 213 pounds) but he's only played 44 games in his NHL career. Most importantly, perhaps, is he only costs $850,000 on the salary cap this season.
Sounds like the Ducks are going to give a lot of guys who have been in the AHL in recent years, or in-between the NHL and AHL, a chance to make this team in camp. Some of that is due to merit and some due to necessity, financially, but should be interesting to see which guys get NHL minutes in October.
Everytime I visit the Black Spire Outpost I bring these with me. They help ground me in the world before I even get there and, once there, they help me immerse myself in the world.
One of the first things I do upon entering is convert currency to Spira credits and I really love paying with it. Taking out a hunk of metal to pay for meals or merchandise feels like something you'd do on another planet.
The three medallions - I usually put them in my bag and then pick one at random to keep in my pocket. I then have that weight in my pocket as a reminder to be in universe. To be present. To have fun. I've also used them for coin flips when talking with characters and they give me two options for what to do next. "Let's let this coin I found off planet decide!"
The Identification Card is my second favorite behind the Spira credits. I've given that to cast members and characters so many times to introduce myself and ask them if they know where I might find some work in town and it's always led to a fun exchange. That puts them in character, me in character and makes the world come to life and I enjoy the varying answers I get from them.
What do you carry with you or wear to get you immersed in Batuu when you visit?
We all know the situation we're in but I've spent the last couple of days looking at the options and now that we know exactly what Mintyukov will cost we know what we can pay Cutter even if we retain Leo, which we absolutely should do. Here's how I see it:
The following lineup costs $90.18 million:
Kreider / Carlsson / Gauthier
Killorn / Granlund / Sennecke
Wahlberg / Poehling / Vatrano
Greer / Washe / Colangelo
LaCombe / Luneau
Mintyukov / Jensen
Moore / Helleson
Dostal / Brossoit
Scratch: Malott / Nesterenko / Hinds
I've put Gauthier and Hinds in bold and italics because they both need to be re-signed. The cap is $104 million so that leaves just under $14 million to play with. If the Ducks signed Cutter to a two-year, $24 million deal and Hinds to a three year, $3.5 million deal that would bring the salary to $103.34m. Under the cap.
The problem would be kicked down the road a bit but eventually Terry would return from IR meaning the Ducks would need to clear $7 million in space to activate him. That could mean trading Kreider, assuming the entire roster is healthy and other players aren't on LTIR by then.
If you add $7 million (Terry) to that salary but subtract $6.5 million (Kreider) then you're still under the cap at $103.84 million. It's doable.
Now, why sign Cutter to a two year deal? Because a year from now you can sign him to a seven year extension at BIG money. Kreider, Killorn, Vatrano, Granlund and Jensen would all be off the books before that extension kicked in during the 2028-29 season and by then the cap is expected to be $123 million per team. Plus, guys like McQueen, Klepov, Solberg and others should be ready for NHL minutes by then to help save money on depth positions.