Gavin

This caught my attention, so I did some digging: https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgm3wp/astronomers-identify-mysterious-flying-whirlpool-in-the-sky

My wife and I are heading over there in the fall for our honeymoon. Can you DM me the info for that family owned private beach, please?

Yikes! You're an Avs fan? Well, at least you can relate with them considering I'm sure you deal with snow all of the time. On a serious note, they are one of my favorite teams to watch. I love me some Makar!

Are you still in the Middle East? If so, is it difficult to consume hockey content there (e.g. watch games live)?

I apologize for the novel. I'm a bit of a hockey nerd, so this hit me right in the sweet spot. This is only partially true. American prospects have a few options following their draft year: 1) college 2) OHL (Europe is obviously another option, but that hasn't been a popular choice for most outside of Matthews). Many of the best American born players chose option 1, played one year, and then went pro; players like Eichel, Gaudreau, Makar (he played at UMass for 2 years), etc. fall into this category. I'd say the primary driver to choose the NCAA route for most players who were drafted/NHL prospects is a lack of overall size and/or strength. Their schedule is far less taxing/time consuming. Games are usually played back to back over on the weekends, and the regular season consists of anywhere from 35-40 games. This gives the player more time to get bigger, stronger, etc. The CHL is the prevalent league(s), consisting of the OHL, WHL, and QJMHL, for prospects in Canada. The demos of this league skew heavy Canadian, but players more and more players from Europe have been coming over in recent years. The CHL has by far the most drafted players out of any North American league in part because they simply have a much larger talent pool (for both players and coaching). These leagues have a more arduous schedule where teams play 68 regular season games with additional playoff series for teams that qualify. Obviously, a longer season with more traveling would make it more difficult for players to train in season. A couple important things to note for prospects that play in the CHL: 1) if you play in the CHL, then you will be ineligible to play in the NCAA and 2) the CHL and NHL have an agreement that if you played in the CHL for your draft year, then you are prohibited from playing in the AHL until your age 20 season. The NCAA and professional European leagues do not have that same stipulation. The Europe route is far less common mainly because most draft eligible prospects just aren't physically developed enough to play over there. The KHL, SHL, and even the National League (Switzerlands pro league where McTavish played last year) all employ men, some of whom formerly played in the NHL. While the players drafted in the first round may have more skill than most of those professional players, that skill doesn't outweigh the sheer size and speed difference that the professional players have. Basically it comes down to a two, main different factors. Nationality: Are you American? If so, you'll most likely be going down the USNDT > USHL > NCAA route. If you're Canadian, then you're looking at one of the CHL leagues. Maturity (in terms of body development and overall skill): the bigger and better you are, the more likely that you would choose the OHL or, in rare instances, a professional European league.

Do you invest in currencies at all? I've never really looked into investing in them, but I'm sure there are some ETFs that are currency based.

Never really struggled with tests. That said, the GMAT was probably the most difficult test I've taken. Mainly because it is computer adaptive (questions get harder as you answer consecutive questions correctly and vice versa), and I'd sometimes mindfuck myself if I got multiple questions in a row that were easy. I guess some of my economic theory exams during my undergrad were pretty tough as well.

I've skipped some time/events in between (including getting my MBA), which have helped with my career progression. Obviously I was more emotional, and a bit more naive, but there are still massive issues with the job market.

Yes. Worked as a banker out of school. Now a work as an account executive at a tech start up in the Bay Area.

I blame this thread on the Boomers, and @Lou. He's always up to some kind of bull shit.

I’m late to the game, but I’m curious to know what Tad (Thad? Jesus it’s been a while) thinks about this.

Just found out that my mom is friend's with his mom. Don't worry guys, I got this.

Really enjoyed this article but one thing seemed peculiar to me. The author mentions that the catch he made on June 3rd was the only five star catch. Why/how would the catch he made against Baltimore a few years back not be considered as a five star catch? Is range/distance run weighted more than other factors?

"One year younger than Trout and two years older (21) than Trout when he played in his first partial big-league season, Betts as of this morning has played in 522 games, more than half by not much of Trout’s 941 games." What did I just read? I don't know if my eyes or brain hurt more after reading that line.

Well good news is my parents house is that my parents house is probably safe. Bad news is that my aunt and uncle’s house is gone. They are safe, which is most important obviously, said it was one the scariest things to drive out of the firestorm.

My parents in North Tustin are under a mandatory evacuation, while my aunt and uncle are probably going to lose their house in Santa Rosa. Crazy day in the family.

I have a friend that's there. Luckily she's ok, but it doesn't look good.

Cops shouldn't be racist/misogynistic/etc. They should be unbiased who only care about enforcing the law; seeing videos (as annoying as some of the douches who try to catch cops being assholes are) where cops don't know the law that they are trying to actually enforce is ridiculous and frankly scary. Then we arm some of these asshats? Yikes! There should be tests/filters that weed these people out of the running to become cops in the first place. And please don't tell me that the current training is satisfactory. There are too many stories in this thread alone that show the true incompetence of some of these idiots.

Montour actually is a PP QB; he and Theo were on the PP together with the Gulls. Further, Montour has a better shot than Theo. I think we'll see it more this year as he gains confidence.

I don't agree with you on much when it comes to the Ducks, but I agree with you on that. There is absolutely no reason for the Ducks to trade an expansion draft exempt defenseman. I still think Vatanen is the one to go. Personally, I can't wait for this expansion draft shit to be over with.

While I agree that Manson made some pretty bad plays in the playoffs, the stats (even in the playoffs) show that Manson was clearly the better defender. http://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/ANA/2017.html#stats_adv_rs::7 Theo definitely has age on his side, but he's never been regarded as even decent in his own end. In fact, he fell to the bottom half of the 1st round to the Ducks because he was considered a liability in his own zone. The Ducks need defensemen who are defense first defensemen to play with their plethora of offensive defensemen. Let's take a look at the Predators for example: Josi, Ellis, and Subban may be getting a ton of the "credit"/love, but the defenseman who was probably they key to beating the Ducks is Subban's D-pairing partner, Ekholm. He allows Subban to roam and be more aggressive on the rush. Mason, who has only been in the league for two seasons, can effectively develop into a player like Ekholm. P.S. Manson is nowhere near as bad as Bieksa. Look at the link I referenced above; you'll see how much worse Bieksa was compared to Manson. Not a fan of advanced stats? Think about how much better Fowler was this year compared to last year when he was paired with Bieksa. The dude is too slow and old to be an effective defenseman.

So let me ask you and @nate this: do you think Manson was worse than Theo defensively? While I'm not a huge proponent of advanced stats in hockey, Manson has consistently improved his partner's corsi numbers (whether that be Lindholm or Fowler). Also, physical defensemen who can skate are still very important in the NHL. You mentioned Edmonton, they have big, skilled guys (Draisatl for one) who can knock off smaller defensemen like Vats, Theo, and Montour.

Your Manson prediction will be like your Lindholm prediction from a while back.

This is so wrong on so many levels. The Ducks have no one who could replace what Manson brings (big, physical dman who can skate). He's the perfect complement to either Lindholm and Fowler. Plus he may have had a few bad moments in the playoffs, but he was by no means "garbage".

One thing is for sure, the Ducks PP would be much better. With that said, I wouldn't touch that deal. Ovi seems to be slowing down similar to how Perry is. Plus the Ducks need to keep their exempt defensemen. Their defensive depth is what saved them this playoffs.