Vilandil Tasardur

I guess the real question is, do the Warrior's stars start hitting. On the one hand, they should be deeply concerned that Curry and Thompson have been so ineffective. On the other hand, these guys can't miss forever, and they're up 9 without them.

Thanks for the feedback guys; this is great. It seems to me that, because of the ability to pound a guy until he's out, it's much less about being able to take a hit and much more about being able to minimize how many you take. In boxing, you know you're going to get hit a lot (unless you Mayweather), and you try to be tough enough to take more than the other guy. In the cages though, taking even a single hit can stun you long enough to take 5 more, and going down doesn't buy you ten seconds to recover. Seems to me like, if you're not going to knock the guy out, you better close the distance and make sure you can tuck your head somewhere safe while you work them down. I can see why wrestlers would dominate. They have the physique to take a shot or two on the way in if they need to, they can get you to the ground, and they can pound you once you're down there. And they can likely defend well enough to avoid being submitted. Very cool!

That about makes sense. Karate fighters can be incredibly immobile. I find myself always battling with my students not to fight like they're in mortal kombat, to use all three dimensions. We drill it a lot, but it's a losing battle unless you start incorporating more kick boxing style stances. The sideways, hip out karate stance doesn't lend itself to lateral movement. Of course, I always have the problem that every year fewer and fewer kids no what the hell mortal kombat is...

You're definitely right about that, that one's definitely my bad. It's kind of an interesting example of what I was talking about. Whenever people asked me what style I practiced, unless they knew a little about martial arts, I would just say it "is a mixed martial art", because in my eyes, it is. It's a blended mix of a bunch of "stuff". I didn't realize MMA didn't have the belt rankings in the same fashion. I didn't really realize that what I was saying makes no sense. It's ben a treat to start learning more about the sport; actually, more about all of the arts in general. I started practicing Shorin-Ryu several months ago, and have really been amazing at how different some things can be but how consistent the fundamentals are. Question for you MMA experts: I know that historically it was dominated by the Gracies and, as you mention, it largely a boxing, kickboxing, and jiu-jitsu art. Is there a reason karate isn't big in MMA? Did people try and get their ass kicked? Or is it just not really an interest for most practitioners?

Yeah, sorry. I'm used to telling people it's MMA, but it isn't. It's a mix, or a hybrid style, founded by some dude in the service who sampled a bunch of different styles while stationed in Vietnam. He called it Tai Chuan Do, which is a pretty terrible name since it's a Chinese name despite a much heavier Japanese and Okinawan influence. At any rate, you guys are rate. Not really MMA. It's more akin to Shotakan with some Korean (Tang Su Do) style flavoring.

I can appreciate that. I'm an unusual "new" fan. I'm a 3rd degree MMA blackbelt, who just never followed the fight scene before Ronda. I don't know who the hell anyone is or if they are any good, but I know a ton about what I'm seeing when I watch. I'm really happy that Ronda and Connor have finally brought me into a sport that I have practiced my whole life but never bothered to follow professionally.

Just as I'm throwing my hands up at Curry for taking a ridiculous shot, it sinks in. Jesse...

Jeeze, that was tough to watch...

The officiating in this quarter has been absolutely horrendous. What a terrible 60 seconds for us...

Thanks much

Just curious, why a rotary hammer? I see that they also rent a floor stripper. Is that not what I would want? Is the floor stripper more for getting the existing floor up, rather than they glue itself? http://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/hammer-drills/1-18-in-10-amp-heavy-duty-sds-variable-speed-rotary-hammer-69274.html Is this the sort of thing you're suggesting? That seems like a tad over kill, no? Won't that bust up my concrete?

Alright guys, I'm calling in reinforcements. My wife and I are having new Linoleum floor put in on the first floor (entrance hall, living room, and dining room). The current floor was partial carpet and partial laminate already (just hideous). It is all installed over concrete, not wood. Home Depot is doing the install. However, we were able to cut the price in half by doing the removal and disposal ourselves. We knew it would be a decent amount of elbow grease, but we're young (or she is!) and not afraid to put in our weekend. Home Depot assured us that, because it was a laminate floor put on concrete, it would be as simple as popping the floor planks off. Well, welcome to home ownership. Nothing is as easy as it ought to be. The previous owner did the floor himself, and he glued the laminate straight to the concrete. Home depot insists they have no idea why anyone would do that, but that's neither here nor there. I need to get this floor up this weekend and need ideas on the best way to go about it. For the most part, it comes up in decent enough chunks with a crow bar, a floor scraper, and a handful of the right tools. But there are definitely some substantial areas where the glue is hella fused to the concrete. Those planks refuse to come off and instead do nothing but splinter. It's impossible to get underneath them and if you do, you just end up ripping a small chunk off instead of sliding under the entire area. Any ideas on how to get underneath this adhesive?

First of all, your Patio is beautiful. Excellent job, and excellent taste. We're going far simpler. We have a tiny little yard (the entire fenced yard to our townhouse/condo is maybe 13/14. We pretty much want to cover the entire thing in pavers. Preferably 16x16, but 12x12 would be okay too. Nothing circular and no pretty shapes or anything. This isn't out "forever home", we just want a nice space to enjoy and possibly up the value. My idea was to build a flower bed (something well within my capability) that would sit in a corner and be built to the exact dimensions of the yard that would allow me to not have to cut any stones. It would be the width of the excess plus one paver, or something like that, I have a basic understanding of how to do it conceptually. I've already dug out all of the existing pavers. They were put in right, and there's not much but sand underneath. I plan to dig down maybe 4 inches below the level where I want the new patio to sit. Fill in with 2-3 inches of sand or gravel depending on the price, and then rake them nice and flat. After that, I planned to put the new pavers in and fill any gaps with more sand or gravel. The flower bed I've done before and know I can knock that out in an hour or two. Conceptually speaking, am I missing something? Is there something else I need to do for this to work? Also, while I was digging out the old pavers, I found a pipe. It's a metal pipe that goes straight into the yard (its in the middle of the yard) and has a cap on it that is labeled water. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be an old drain, or what. I live in a townhouse association, so I highly doubt it's an old well or anything. Any ideas what it may be? It WAS covered over by sand and then the old pavers were placed on the sand over top of it. So it was essentially buried below the old sand and pavers. Is that bad? Should I not do that? Do I need to build my new patio around it?

I'll post details tomorrow, but I'm going to be redoing a patio style walkway for my father, and completely redoing an entire patio for myself in the coming weekends. I have a strong general idea of how to do it conceptually, but thought I'd ask for specific advice since some on here mentioned they've done it recently.

I think you're right about the bad connection. I get in there this morning and just jiggled the wires and made sure everything was plugged in all the way and now it runs perfect. My check engine light is still on but the problem has completely gone away. I'll get it into the dealer first thing in the morning to make sure I didn't just get super lucky (sounds like I did, haha) and to try to prevent it from happening again. But it sure seems like it was some sort of a bad connection rather than the actual transmission (knock on wood). Thanks for the help twa.

Thanks a ton. You think that'll be a pricey repair job?

I'm hoping someone can help me out with my current car; a 2005 Altima. I drove it into Pittsburgh today (about an hour ride) and home and had no problems with it whatsoever. Then I let the fiancee take it to school for a meeting (7 minutes there and 7 minutes back). She said everything was perfectly fine and "normal" while she was driving it. Five minutes after she got back we got in with some friends and tried to go somewhere. The engine is making a whining noise as well as something that I can only describe as being akin to the blades on a helicopter. The car wouldn't get over 25 mph whatsoever, but the RPMs weren't shooting up. It wasn't that the car was struggling to go fast (as if the gear didn't change) rather, the car simply wouldn't go fast. I was flooring the pedal and it simply wouldn't accelerate. I immediately pulled over and turned it off. When I turned it back on, everything was perfectly fine and normal. It ran just fine, until I got to the first stop sign. At the first stop sign, I came to a complete stop, and it was back to the original problem. The car operates under this condition for about two minutes, and then functions perfectly fine as if nothing is wrong (quite suddenly); until I brake to zero. The moment I come to a complete stop the whole thing goes kaput again. Weirder still, because I suspected transmission, when I switch from "drive" to "sport mode" (that weird thing where it lets you "shift" even though there isn't actually a clutch) the dash reads that it is in 5th gear. The car refuses to let me shift up or down out of 5th, it is permanently stuck in 5th. It sounds bizarre because, if I'm doing less than 20 mph, why on earth would it even get out of 1st, maybe 2nd? I'm truly baffled by it. Of course, I can't take it to the dealer until Monday and I was hoping someone could help me at least guess what the work is going to hit me. Can anybody help?

As much as enjoyed them, those chick pictures gotta come down. There's definitely some Arreola showing in the one.

I sure doubt the picnic table said no, don't you?