LTS

So, if NY drops the mask mandate tomorrow it will be just in time for my fully vaccinated date of Thursday. That's very nice of the gov'na. I guess at my son's baseball game last night (varsity) very few people were wearing masks despite it being school grounds. Interesting because at the game last Friday most people were wearing a mask. One little hint about NY dropping the mask mandate and people just go right ahead and decide for themselves. I'll admit though, I look forward, quite a bit in fact, to not wearing a mask. Things are pretty stressful for me at work (just work insanity) and having a little return to normalcy would be appreciated.

We base what is possible in other potential civilizations by our own knowledge. Fundamentally that's just wrong. Imagine flying the most advanced aircraft the US has in its arsenal right now and flying it over Egypt during the time of the Pharaohs. These people built some amazing things, but I feel comfortable that their brightest wouldn't be able to comprehend what was happening. It's not impossible to imagine that there are things that exist that we, as a species, have not even been able to hypothesize about.

Interesting. Can't wait for the great NY debate to begin!

Following up on my CDC comments about them dropping the mask policy and its pressures.. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/05/17/target-mask-policy-retailers-not-requiring-masks-fully-vaccinated-cdc/5111030001/ Wal-mart started Target Starbucks Trader Joes And more... They will all still have to comply with local health guidelines, but the stores dropping the mandate will increase the pressure on officials. Just like the holdouts who waited to require masks felt pressure, so too will those who hold out on dropping it. I was also evaluating a trip to an out of state amusement park. They've dropped their mask policy for vaccinated customers. No proof is required, it's the honor system. Which, to me, says... only those people who want to wear a mask will wear one.

Drury and Adams spending prolonged time together... this is how crazy trade deals get worked out. I got a spoon, I'm gonna stir the pot.

Yes, I think most would ditch it. I am saying that the comments about "why do I still have to wear this thing" are becoming more common around me. I also acknowledge that it's likely different elsewhere, but in my circle, the angst over it is definitely growing. I've eaten in restaurants where I've seen mice crawling around the floor, in the US. I've eaten in other countries that do not have the same food safety laws, etc. Hell, in the US we allow additives in our food that are likely more dangerous than what is on your server's hands. For what it's worth, my first job was as a dishwasher and I was absolutely told to half-cycle the dishes and let them go back out being slightly unclean because the cooks would put food over those spots. 🙂 There's also been a massive increase in computer sales, networking equipment, and a lot of other items that all use chipsets. Semiconductor supply was impacted because plants were shutdown at the same time. This is what happened to steel, lumber, etc. The most common conversation in my job these days is around supply chain management of networking equipment. We're being pushed to innovate on our product to drive more sales but we honestly have no idea if we'll have equipment to sell. Our company is straight up buying (panic buying?) millions of dollars in equipment to ensure we can sell. Most estimations are that it will get much, much worse before it begins to get better. Indeed. We have equipment that comes from Taiwan. What used to be 6-8 week lead time is now 18-20 week and growing. We've begun investigating the air freight over ocean freight but damn is it expensive. That's only going to drive up our prices to customers or drive down our margins which means people in our company will not see increases any time soon or we need to let people go. It's all an amazing balancing act. The economy is so fragile.

You and I definitely are in very different circles then with regards to the mask situation. I would imagine that there will be a large population of the US that will continue to wear masks for the foreseeable future and beyond. A lot of the people I am around are far more, "I'm done with these masks" variety. Even a person I know that barely went outside until he was vaccinated told me the other day they just want the mask mandate gone. It really caught my attention because this is a person who really took isolation to the extreme. Sure he's an anecdotal reference, but the vast majority of people I am around would ditch the mask in a moment if not "regulated" to wear one. I know the CDC doesn't issue government mandates. A lot of people look at what the CDC recommends and run with it. The CDC saying this puts pressure on political leaders to adhere to medical guidance. Most of the signs I see say "In accordance with CDC recommendation and government regulations." It's not a nothing burger of a recommendation. They issued the recommendation for outdoors a few weeks back and already parents I am around at high school baseball are pushing school officials on the mask mandate (school grounds policy). If you think the country isn't at a high level of unrest we might read different news. Chip shortages, inflation, gas shortages, panic buying, an uptick in shootings, and more... all by products of the impacts of isolation and the policies put in place for COVID. I'm not arguing that the regulations should have never been put in place, but it's taking its toll (as expected) and its going to get worse before it gets better. I'd really hope it doesn't, but I'm not able to muster the confidence that it won't and I think things like the CDC recommendation will create further polarization potential.

I think his question, in general, has a purpose. However, not all ages can be vaccinated yet. I'm not worried about those who do not want to be, but those under age of 12 still cannot be, right? It's an interesting thought. However, before COVID there were people who I could have killed by coughing on them. I could have spread the flu to a person who was highly susceptible and they could have died. The transmission rate of COVID certainly heightens the risk, but even if we beat COVID there can be another virus that pops up. At some point, if you are arguing to the binary end of the spectrum, you end up advocating for complete isolation. It's unreasonable, but because so it also means that the answer lies somewhere in the infinite number of possibilities. As such, you will have differing opinions. Does anyone have a claim that says, your inability to fight a virus (even a potential unknown virus) is your problem and that I should not have to alter my lifestyle to accommodate you? Fundamentally both sides are arguing that the other should change their lifestyle to accommodate the other. Fundamentally, both are saying it's easier for the other to comply and it's no big deal. Fundamentally both are right, but refuse to accept it. The argument boils down to you believe one thing, and someone believes something else. Both use the same arguments and counter-points. There's already plenty of evidence linking depression and other mental health defects to the isolation and change. Are those more harmful? Perhaps in not in the short term, but in the long run? Clearly we don't know, but I think it's a reasonable thing to consider. Is that the real question here? Is there a counter that says, "Do I care about others more than myself?" Where's the balance? Given that each of us are wired differently it's very hard to apply any solid rule here. We've certainly all read stories of people who have gone to extremes to help others and put themselves at risk, damage their own health, etc. Call it the extreme of selflessness. We clearly also know the opposite stories. We all have some level of where we place ourselves relative to the needs of society. But the hard question is, are we justified in judging others for where they place themselves? How much of it do they have control over? Do I have control over how I see things or am I wired this way? Perhaps with a lot of mental work I could alter the way I am to accommodate the way someone else wants me to be? Perhaps the opposite is true. Overall we need to stop trying to mandate our expectations and our feelings on others as though everyone else is the same. We need to be willing to take the time and understand why someone thinks differently and sometimes that's not accomplished within two forum posts or a few tweets. ---------------------- Earlier the CDC opened the ultimate can of worms. It's been coming. No masks required indoors for fully vaccinated people. The immediate questions I have: Do you get proofed going into a building? Given the ease in creating a false vaccination record, does it even make sense to proof people? If you can't reliable determine who is or isn't vaccinated, then why issue this mandate? The answer I come up with is that somewhere people have read the temperature of society and they realize people are about to blow up. Those who have been vaccinated want to have some freedom from having done it and those who haven't never cared about masks in the first place. The inevitable was this situation. Just open it up and see what happens. Some businesses will continue to require masks and people will have to make conscious decisions on whether they want to comply or not. Businesses will have to hope that enough who want to comply will to keep them in business. Now a business that does not mandate a mask may still see people wear one inside because they'll have a right to do so. There will be some that would avoid that business because the do allow masks. Ultimately, I see even more unrest over the situation until we finally find a way to get over it. The problem I will continue to have is that we cannot vaccinate everyone yet. There will always be some who cannot get it for some reason, and that's truly unfortunate. However, until everyone who wants it can get it, we really need to have some level of caution.

That is awesome. I'm still dumbfounded that a player could break that record in today's game. It's really something to look at in awe and respect.

You want to blame others for CHOOSING to avoid this wreck?

I wouldn't spend a penny for or against the Pegulas. Demonstrating that you care enough to pay for this demonstrates that you still care enough to be a fan and that you will still tune in like the owners want you to. Making the team irrelevant is the best option. Egomaniacs want a platform... Clearly with the injury situations of this team there are some questions that need to be asked. At this point I don't see how I can put faith into this ownership team. I think there's more rotten than we know. We're hearing from the players today. We've speculated about RJ the past few days with some of his comments. Dunleavy appears to have left things open (even if he had before). Right now the only person we know who wanted to be here is Jason Karmanos. Also - anyone still hoping for Rutherford? Gallant? Boudreau? Even Tortorella wouldn't come here.

It's amazing people are getting on the players about any of this. It's become incredibly clear that the Pegula family has royally screwed up the Sabres. They've made mistake after mistake after mistake and then have the audacity to double down on those mistakes. If your top players are all saying they want the hell out, that's not a player issue, that's an ownership issue. The only thing that might save things now is for the Pegula family to sell the team or insert someone over Adams and publicly announce they are no longer inserting themselves into matters of hockey operations, etc.

Get used to it. Throw money at the problem, it solves everything. Our money is unlimited.. we can print all we want. BARF. The fact that there is a petition with over 2.5 million signatures supporting a $2k/month "stimulus" check makes me want to drop kick random people on the street. Honestly I don't think trains would be a bad thing. But now's not the time. Right now you can't afford to buy the steel required to build the infrastructure, the semiconductors required for the electronics to control it. That's the problem. I'd say save up, but honestly I'd rather say better to take your money and put it in something less volatile than the USD... because we're about 2 months from getting royally screwed.\ Also, this is not a Biden issue. Continued spending would be. It's not a Trump issue either. This is a COVID rearranged the economy issue and the world has not adapted yet issue.

I, too, understand why people don't want to get the vaccine. I also accept it. With regards to lifting restrictions the concerns I have at this point is that children 15 and under cannot yet get vaccinated. I'm on our local youth baseball board and it was for that reason alone I was the sole person standing up and saying "we should require masks, 100%". (Our rule is maintain distance and have a mask on you.) I hate masks, always have. If kids were able to be vaccinated today and there was no shortage of vaccine I would be 100% in favor of lifting all restrictions. I am beyond ready to revert to life as it was.

Taylor Hall wasn't going to get to Boston if he got himself injured in Buffalo. I really think it's that simple. Once this team was going nowhere and Eichel was out there was no reason on Earth that Hall needed to exert himself. He knew the Sabres would move him. He knew he'd only okay the Bruins as the location. He came into this season knowing the odds were good of this exact situation happening and he got $8M for it. I guess that's an indictment of the franchise to a certain degree. However, the fan base was rather happy when he signed here. The thought of Hall and Eichel made many people happy and positive on the team. So it might have been an $8M investment to appease the fans that horribly backfired when Eichel went out.

You are referring No Goal right? Oh.. right, there wasn't a Game 7 at that point to qualify as the "eve" of. 🙂

I'm not surprised by this. Companies have to manage risk. People don't want to hear about it but those are facts. imagine having to pay Jeff Skinner $9M while he's out with COVID because he wouldn't get vaccinated. Our company adopted a policy of paying field techs while they were out with COVID. It was a nice gesture given that they were our front line and still entering people's homes, etc. At this point they can all be vaccinated, so they are debating how long do they continue that policy. These techs aren't well paid athletes but we have our fair share who are anti-vaccine. Got my second shot this morning. Just waiting for any impacts now! They are closing down some of the URMC sites because no one is showing up so there's no point in staffing it any longer. Both times I went I just walked in, got my shot, observed for 15, walked out. Not once was there a line.

I think at this point the only thing we need to say is there is clearly a situation here that we all wish would stop coming up in the world. Take your choice: Athlete engages in sexual misconduct (or worse) False accusation of sexual misconduct (or worse) The Internet jumps to conclusions Internet attacks each other over any comment made regarding the subject Fully expecting to be the victim of the last choice.

Or the supplies they pay for out of their own pockets?

NFTs... wow. It's not equatable to any physical item as anything physical is inherently a unique item. Even if you print 1,000,000 hockey cards, each of those cards is different in some way and will continue to differ as they age. One of those cards might have a misprint, or age differently, or the paper suddenly deteriorates to put the face of Jesus over the player, etc. No matter what happens, that one card is unique. It may even be a smaller run of say 500 cards where the limited run of those cards drives its value. (assuming no one prints another 1,000,000 after selling the first 500). Digital versions however remain 100% the same. There is nothing unique about it and if you have the file then you have the ability to create as many copies of that as you would like. 100% the same, never changing, ever. Along comes the idea that someone will pay money to own the "original" of those digital bits. Those bits might represent a tweet, a photo, it doesn't matter. By purchasing the NFT you "own" it. Only you have no rights over it. It's like paying money to commission a piece of digital art and then telling the artist just post that anywhere you'd like and let anyone use it how they want. So basically people have an NFT, which us a 100% unique digital signature (for now) and they supposedly have value because they have that signature. But they don't actually OWN the digital piece of work that the NFT represents ownership of, they just own the unique NFT that represents ownership.

I don't doubt that Thompson's really stupid penalty against the Rangers is also playing into this. It was the catalyst to the collapse in that game. Poor play and taking a stupid penalty is not going to win you favors.

Indeed. Glad he was a Sabre. He made it possible for the team to be a contender and we should all be happy with that. Happy trails Ryan.

Well... this should be interesting. But right now the Sabres cannot solve the Bruins, so it doesn't matter.

Does that include the number of times Cozens would look at the ceiling or glide to the bench for a shift change? Asking for a friend.

No matter what happens I expect overreactions everywhere.