Posts by Scott Gonzalez9

Terry Howard7 said:Look, I get it—maybe Germans are more mobile and tend to rent more often because of job changes and all that—but this idea that people would rather rent indefinitely just to blow their extra cash on travel? I don't know, I guess there isn't much logic to that.

It makes sense if the math works out, and for them, it probably does. If rent here was like $1,000$500 and a mortgage payment was $3,500, then yeah, it’s a no-brainer. Some people will definitely take the rental route and dump the leftover cash into trips.

Around here, anything under $2,800 for a rental is basically a steal. You’re looking at at least $3,000 once you add utilities, while mortgage payments are already hitting that $3,500 mark. It’s not that Germans are geniuses and Americans are idiots—there just isn't a logical calculation behind it. It’s stupid to draw a line after 20 or 30 years and realize you have absolutely nothing to show for it because most of your value went straight into someone else's pocket via rent.

@Matthew Young35 😁🙏 You cracked me up, man. Reminded me of this one story. I’ve got this little house out in the sticks, and some friends from the city came over for a BBQ. One buddy of mine is obsessed with UFC and MMA, right? Well, suddenly this cow starts charging at him and he just loses his mind running for cover! 🤣

Terry Howard7 said:Oh, so rent and leasing are basically free, are they?

Look, here in the States, the difference between a monthly mortgage payment and rent is sometimes barely a hundred bucks. There’s really no point in just throwing cash away on rent long-term when you could be building equity.
It doesn't make sense to look at how people live abroad when the economic circumstances over there aren't even the same as ours.

Jonathan Barnes5 said:I’m pulling this from another thread because things tend to make a bit more sense over there once the emotions settle down.

I have to say, there is a fascinating paradox in how certain "historical facts" are selectively used—essentially twisting reality to fit a specific, delusional narrative. People from the South often fall into this trap, applying the same selective filters to recent history regarding officiating and sports organizations.

Specifically, they always trace the root of all corruption and nepotism back to the 90s and Tuđman, acting as if he personally dragged a whole group of people out of a parallel universe in the 90s and teleported them straight into the USA. It’s incredible how few people—and specifically those pushing this narrative—want to point out that back in 1945, Tuđman was watching the exact same looting and restructuring of society, where apartments, villas, summer homes, positions on boards, bonuses for foreign work, and business permits were being handed out left and right.

Even more striking is how they never mention the contrast between how Civic and Hajduk fared during that era. They never ask who the regime’s darling actually was, or why one team could secure better transfers than Dinamo. In the context of the big four, Dinamo has arguably the fewest titles and finishes in second place far too often, and their goal difference in derbies is telling.

So, when our friend from the South accuses Tuđman of favoring one club over another, I’m fairly certain he’s actually celebrating his own club's successes from the Yugoslavia era—successes driven by Hajduk administrations that operated with a logic identical to the USA in the 90s. But hey, they don't let that stop them.
They conveniently forget that the political elite at Dinamo were essentially just doing the heavy lifting, which was usually the job of mid-level bureaucrats, whereas at Hajduk, it was a deliberate strategy. Personally, I don't mind that they were successful, especially during the 70s, but we achieved our milestones despite the administration, while they achieved theirs because of it.

Building on those points, we eventually hit the 90s. Alongside the crooked first president of the country, a whole horde of old-guard party officials arrived, triggering a massive redistribution of wealth similar to what happened when the previous regime collapsed. It’s also quite telling to look at the role the second president played in that division; his involvement was far more direct than anything you could ever link back to Tuđman, though I suppose that doesn't matter much to our friends down in Miami.

Regarding this frantic era of people fleeing the country and the post-game violence... well, you all have a point. Back during the old unified era, nobody was migrating away from rural areas like this 🤣🤣. Instead of being honest about the reality—which is a continuous exodus from these regions dating back to the late 19th century—people try to pin the entire blame on Tuđman. Honestly, because of various shenanigans by holdovers from the old system, we never actually experienced a true transition to liberal capitalism, so many people simply went looking for luck in places where capitalism isn't viewed as an enemy.

And frankly, this overreach of calling Tuđman a dictator is peak left-wing rhetoric you'd see on a radical blog, but fine. I won't dwell on impressions, but it is interesting how we all swallowed the reports during the second president's term and accepted the new coalitions, all while "freedom of speech" was being preached 😁. Meanwhile, the primary opposition weekly newspapers ended up under government control with enough assets to establish their own private foundations.

To wrap things up, besides the vision he seemingly picked up from certain Hajduk supporters from the islands and local craftsmen, I’d point out that Franjo supposedly hated Hajduk more than anything. Actually, no—he hated the name Dinamo, and that's a nuance you can't quite grasp. Not to mention that
his main opposition consisted of the very people you'll be watching across the aisle this Saturday.

I understand it hurts when you're pushing a specific narrative, especially when the people you've cast as villains were actually a much bigger thorn in his side and faced ten times the repression compared to the characters you're trying to sell us on.

Well, that's what happens when you interpret things entirely at random.

Depending on whether you support Dinamo or Hajduk, your identity changes. 👍

We kind of missed this during the debate because everyone was focused on other stuff, but it’s honestly a disaster how people here think politics is responsible for everything, including every single sports result.
Just wipe away the Johnson era—what successes are we even talking about? In America, for example, people actually respect those eras. You have legends like Vince Lombardi or Bill Belichick whose names are baked into the culture of winning, and people actually study their methods and apply them everywhere because they truly understand how to win.

But here? It’s all just noise on the sidelines because it’s always about Sill, Kirigan, Tito, or the FBI... It's just awful.

As for centralization, it hasn't been much of an issue lately—hardly anyone mentions it anymore, at least down south where I am. Things were actually looking up until the whole rebranding thing got hit by a wave of colds, flu, and pneumonia, and now the Russians are gonna screw everything up completely.

mellowotter36 said:I was watching the news today and saw this one scene—just a soldier saying goodbye to his son... the little guy is crying, hitting his dad's helmet. I can't even remember the last time something hit me that hard. How can Putin sleep peacefully at night? I honestly don't know...

I mean, I doubt he's sleeping peacefully through all this mess... but that probably doesn't answer what you're actually asking. He’s likely just a total psychopath who's completely disconnected from any kind of empathy. People like that actually get a weird rush or a spark of emotion from seeing others suffer. So, while a normal person feels their heart sink, a psychopath might actually feel a little "boost" because it’s one of the few times they actually feel anything at all. It's a pretty basic breakdown of how a psychopath works, but it holds up.

The real kicker is that our whole species seems wired so that narcissists and psychopaths basically climb straight to the top of the food chain, and there's zero sign that's ever going to change. If you took ten different countries and put them on paper right now, you'd probably find that type of personality running 10 out of 10 of them. So really, why are we even surprised things are such a disaster? Honestly, it could be way worse...

placidmaker62 said:My impression is that he's drawn to cheap Russian gas, and he's using that to try and maintain some semblance of a relationship with Russia.

Besides the gas thing, maybe he just wants to keep things steady so he doesn't end up on the Russians' hit list as an enemy state. It's different from our folks over here who basically jump at every chance to announce they're shipping out weapons. 🤦There's a difference between standing your ground and just being plain stupid.

mellowotter36 said:Intelligence agencies really ought to be keeping a close eye on those who support Putin's regime. We aren't exactly far enough away from his sphere of influence—look at Mexico and Canada—to just sit back and ignore this. A few years ago, they even tried to pull something in Mexico. Get this: you can actually see rallies being held in Mexican cities showing support for the Russian people 🤦

I mean, they probably are being watched to some degree, but I'm totally against punishing them. Like that thing in the Czech Republic where they’re supposedly looking at three years in prison... for what, exactly? A lot of these people just love being contrarians, picking fights, or they're just miserable in the moment so they act like total jerks. If you actually pay attention, you'll notice most of them are just ugly dudes who haven't seen action in 5+ years.

Don't get me wrong, Putin is a moron, he's made some truly terrible moves. Just catastrophic. I don't see any good outcome unless his own people in Russia finally boot him out of power.
But we shouldn't be handing the government tools to easily punish people just for expressing an opinion, because that eventually turns into a situation where they can screw over anyone who doesn't buy into whatever their current narrative is. We saw this in Canada a little while ago before everything went off the rails because the Ukraine stuff took a backseat... the government pushed it so far they can practically freeze the assets of their political opponents. It's a disaster.

Basically, it's just stupid if a minister gets arrested for corruption and spends six months digging potatoes, while some geopolitical analyst sitting in a coffee shop saying the Russians are right gets stuck with three years in a cell? Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but these arrests and punishments over Facebook posts and stuff like that are just total bullshit.

Susan Martin4 said:Is it just me, or does a test group of maybe 2,000 kids between the ages of 5 and 12 feel way too small to draw any real conclusions from?

Yeah, honestly, both doctors and actual experts would say that's a pretty small sample size. Plus, yeah, there have been side effects reported at that number, mostly in boys.

Then you've got Danhauer, the "high school scientist" on the forum, claiming that's totally false. And hey, just trust the science, right? lol.

Hey there,
The title pretty much says it all. I'm dealing with this Lenovo laptop, specifically a ThinkPad T420—honestly a solid machine otherwise, but man, it’s obvious Lenovo has some serious issues with their wireless tech. I've had this thing for about six months now, and the connection issues have been constant. It just keeps dropping out on me... I've been scouring the web looking for fixes for similar Lenovo problems, but honestly? Most of what I find is half-baked advice that doesn't actually fix anything. I even tried messing around with the battery settings to make sure it wasn't aggressively saving power (since that can sometimes mess things up), but nope, still happening.

The real kicker is how it loses the connection. Like, if the weather gets wonky or the signal fluctuates even a little, the connection just snaps five times in two minutes. It's like the damn thing is constantly hunting for a better signal or a new connection and then just trips over itself and crashes... maybe it's just another one of those "another piece of shit that doesn't work" design choices from Lenovo. 🙂
It's somewhat tolerable for browsing, but if I wanted to jump into an online game or if I needed a steady connection for work, this would be a total disaster.

Anyone else dealt with this nightmare, and does anyone actually know how to fix it? 🙂 Maybe it's just some stupid setting I'm missing somewhere.

Seriously awesome and super fun, such a pleasant little surprise😁
Just a quick thought at the end... regarding how a story like this should wrap up? Personally, I think it ends on a high note... but hey, I'm not gonna spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it yet!😉
really great movie, just excellent😉🤣

People who flake out just drive me insane.
And don't even get me started on liars—but I mean the really, really stupid kind. Like, the ones that just can't be trusted.
The type that tries to spin some ridiculous web of excuses... man, it's exhausting.
Take this one friend of mine, right? We were supposed to jump into a business venture together. He was supposed to swing by and look at my laptop, but I spent three whole days blowing up his phone and he’s just totally MIA. And it's always the same old song... "Oh, I want to, I swear, but then this happens, then that happens..."
Then he doesn't show. Why? Because he "has to go to his family's farm" or he "needs to take care of this" or he "fell asleep."
It's such nonsense. Just say you can't make it and call it a day. Don't jerk me around.🙄

So, we were supposed to split the rent. I was stuck at home recovering from some dental surgery, and suddenly he says he can't cover his half. Same exact bullshit. He's telling me he can't leave the house, he's stuck here... his car won't start, the ATM is down...

Give me a break. I eventually just lost my mind. I felt so embarrassed that we were late on the rent, so I just grabbed the cash, paid it myself, and basically covered him for about a hundred bucks short of what he owed. After that, he vanished into thin air.

I just can't deal with it. Like, how does someone look you in the eye and say, "Hey, I'm on my way, see you in five minutes," and then they just never show because of some blah blah blah reason?
If it happened once or twice, fine, whatever...

But this? Man.

ooo oops😵

🙂
good luck with those little ones, everyone—keep it chill 😁
you guys should really swing by the thread about stuttering... seriously, just look at how much damage violence against kids can actually do. I'm not saying it's the direct cause every single time (it wasn't in my case), but man, it can definitely be a huge contributing factor

Man, I feel like I’ve heard this story a million times from my grandma, my uncle, all the old folks...
Whenever things don't go their way with kids these days, they immediately start yelling about how "discipline is heaven-sent" or whatever.😁

They kind of have a point, and they don't. Like, back in the day, a teacher at school actually had authority—some even carried a ruler! You knew there was peace in the classroom because people respected them. Nowadays? Every single muscle-bound kid is posting some video on Instagram showing how they absolutely laid into a teacher.
Or look at BBB when they travel to Europe for an away game and end up causing absolute chaos, like they do every other week.
In those cases, yeah, that kind of toughness feels like a godsend.

This PDF is such a slog to get through, honestly. Heavy topics, man. I'm really just here for the stuff about stuttering. This title caught my eye, but once I saw what it was actually about, I thought maybe we could dive deeper into this...

As for hitting kids in a family setting? Absolutely not! 👎
Even if a kid is being a total wild animal, it doesn't help. I have a cousin who is a complete menace, and the only thing that stops him is his dad stepping in. But at the end of the day, the kid is only behaving because he's terrified of his father's authority; otherwise, he's still just a loose cannon and a headache.
There is zero benefit to it...

A parent who hits their kid (look, a little swat on the butt is fine and sometimes necessary 🙂) is basically just solving their own immediate problem because they clearly don't know how to handle it any other way. They don't even stop to ask what kind of trauma that leaves on the child. And then what? Instead of growing up feeling secure, they lose that safety net and end up with traumas and complexes... which can lead to issues just like stuttering.
What "heaven"? In that case, that kind of violence is straight out of hell...

So, today marks day 10. Honestly, things seem to be easing up a bit, though maybe I’m just tripping and it’s all in my head. Anyway, look, the actual surgery? It's just one big wave of nerves and discomfort, but the pain itself isn't even the worst part. Seriously, you mostly just die of pure terror beforehand, and then—poof—it's over. But man, the sleep situation is a total mess. Like, yeah, the procedure isn't terrifying, but once you finally get back home and try to actually move or sit up for the first time... ugh, blah blah blah. No major issues so far... just praying these surgical staples don't start falling out on me.

Wait, so... nobody? Seriously? I’m actually super curious if anyone here is circumcised. Like, what’s the vibe now? Give me the real scoop, I wanna hear your thoughts!

Planning? What planning? It’s been seven days already! Seriously though, I’m just sitting here wondering how these teeth are even supposed to just... fall out on their own? Like, by magic? I gotta be honest, it totally creeps me out when a doctor gives you that "don't worry, it doesn't hurt" line. Usually, that's exactly when things go sideways and you're totally screwed.

So, I was just sitting here wondering about something. I know there have been a bunch of threads about this already, but they all seem to get locked up immediately, and I’ve still got this one nagging question. >I can see plenty of you guys on here who’ve already gone through the whole process, so I'm curious—how long does it actually take for the teeth to start falling out? And, like, how does that even happen naturally?