Claude_Verret

Today is my last day at the company I've been with for the last 14 years. It's bittersweet leaving the corporate behemoth world and the bit of security it has provided, to join a small company that has some boom or bust potential. They're bumping my pay 20% and are giving me options that could yield a nice nest egg should the company ultimately get bought, but there's also the risk everything could go to pot. Ultimately I decided that I was stagnating in my current role and it was time for some risk. I had my exit interview, and although I could have lambasted some people and practices, I decided to take the high road and not risk burning any bridges, but oh man was it ever tempting. About an hour to go and I'll be heading down the street to the pub with a few, now former, co-workers to enjoy some beers. F'N fantastic!

In that scenario where losing clearly is for the best going forward......I'm neutral. I'm just hoping that for one stinkin' time the hockey gods end up treating us right no matter where we finish.

I just went through a similar decision process weighing a long term (14 year) position vs. a new opportunity. I'll wait to share my news until the Friday thread opens, but I can tell you that I went with happiness/mental health as the main deciding factor.

I haven't forgot about you guys and starting that up, but can't promise westies. Was at Cantillion earlier today.

In Brussels. Westvleteren in hand. Awesome.

Fantastic.

McDavid and Ekblad. But you embark on a tank knowing what it is.....and it was a success, 2/3 top forwards in back to back drafts.

Not speaking for SDS, but I imagine he envisioned this as a place other than where one can haphazardly throw at a wall to see what sticks. Once in awhile? Perhaps. Where it becomes what you are all about? Not so much.

What gems has PA uncovered that turned out to have any basis in reality. Before you answer consider how many darts have been thrown.

You don't have a history of finding the eureka moment in the mundane. Others do.

IMO this was never about stifling or censorship, but rather the frequency of a largely tiresome crusade, and the subsequent bombs thrown to keep the fire stoked. To put it another way,IMO PA's ownership and front office watchdog persona is the "ying" to the poster who defends everything the team does no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary "yang". I don't think such a yang poster exists in our community, but if he did it would be equally as tiresome.

Yep, confirmation bias gone so awry that a "Pegula/sabres bad" nugget can be found in just about anything....like an innocuous travel puff piece for example.

Overblown? From PA? Nonsense!!

Temple Bar on Rue Princesse.

Finishing up day 2 in Paris sitting at an Irish pub around the corner from our hotel. Drinking Guinness and as it turns out it really is different here in Europe, it lacks that astringency you often find in the states. My wife is on her second pint and she won't touch it at home.

Wait PA started another thread making Mount Everest out of a micro mole hill? Shocked I am!

No bumping allowed without a complaint.

Well if the Sabres do end up like the Oilers, then sure if I had a time machine I'd wish that we had gone a different route, so perhaps regret isn't the best word. I suppose a better way to put it would be that I acknowledged the possibility that becoming another Oilers was a risk that came along with tanking in the first place, but it was risk I was willing to accept and then live with if it ended up becoming reality.

Here we go again...is 50 games way too early to tell whether we are going the way of the Oilers, Blackhawks or somewhere in between? Yes. If in three years it looks like we're entrenched in an Oilers like rut I'll still have zero regrets about tanking.

I met that Bill once when I guest brewed at FB. He had some homebrewed Scottish ale that was pretty hoppy...and thus not a real Scottish, but still as I like to say DGB (damn good beer).

The new CBC taprooom is nice, but rather small. Hopefully the weather is ok so you can use the patio if needed. If they still have it make sure to try some of the bourbon barrel aged stout. The Hop Roar west coast style IPA is a new offering that I enjoyed too.

Yes, and the ones we will be leaning on most heavily going forward (15,23,55) are the ones showing the most growth as this season has progressed. I'm not going to cry if they finish DFL again or if they make a miraculous run to lottery purgatory as long as we continue to see maturation from the kids who we need to lead down the road.

If I wasn't traveling I'd plan on crashing your brewery crawl. Check their web pages for any food trucks they will have that day. I'm pretty sure that I saw on my feed that the Maine Lobster food truck is at Draftline sometime this weekend. Awesome if you love lobster. I think it's Bombshell's 2nd anniversary bash on Saturday too. I'll be doing my own beer / brewery crawl in Belgium next week. I'm going to Disney World (of beer)!

Stone has been doing the Enjoy By series for some time and I assume it will continue. Often high abv beers that have that hot alcohol trait is a result of a poorly controlled fermentation and/or an under pitched wort that stresses the yeast. As a general rule you'll probably find the newer or smaller micros putting out beers like this, but the bigger more established players like Stone won't let a batch with a flaw like that out the door.

Yep, they need a study with age matched non athlete controls.