Posts by hiddensailor14

Michelle Alvarez8 said:Believe it or not, this forum is basically one giant sandbox filled with cool toys—but also plenty of crap. Honestly, the worst thing you can do—worse than stepping in a pile of doo-doo—is actually taking any of this seriously. And that's exactly what happens when you give attention to people sending stuff like that.

That's just how I see things—just my two cents on how this whole forum works.

Since you asked, I’d say there are really only two ways to handle it. Option one:
a) delete the message;
b) hit them with the ignore button;
c) just forget about it.

Option two:
a) laugh it off;
b) troll the idiot whenever you're bored just to get an extra chuckle out of it.

That’s pretty much my playbook for hanging out here. Since I don't take this place seriously at all, the crowd that lives for "forum ego" has a massive problem with me. I've added a few of them to my ignore list—though, unfortunately, you can't ignore the moderators—but I still troll them just enough to pass the time and laugh at the ridiculous stuff they write to defend their precious online status.

It's a sandbox, I'm telling you.

👍
Not bad, though I’d honestly love to run into that fool in person just so I could politely ask him to repeat that insult one more time. Just to satisfy some primal urge, I guess...😁

Michelle Alvarez8 said:It’s simple, really—you can warn people without airing out private messages. A quick note like: "X keeps sending me messages where they y my family is plenty. That’s a totally understandable human reaction. But posting a private message? That’s never okay. Besides, if there's complaining to be done, it should go "up" the chain, not "down." So, Kiki—acting as a moderator—can just pass that private message along to the super-mods or the admins. There's absolutely no reason to post it where the whole forum can see it.

Harassment via private messages is such a messy area, too—not just because of what we saw here, but because it's so incredibly easy to fake or edit a message when you forward it. Maybe screenshots could solve that? It would just take some genuine effort and positive energy—mostly from the people in charge. Being a leader on paper is one thing, but actually leading is another story entirely.

* Maybe even skip the super-mods, since they're technically below moderators on the hierarchy. They're more like "sub-staff," right?
** Posting a private message like this is just incredibly rude and uncultured. An experienced, veteran moderator should definitely know better.

Hmm, let's get specific. A while back, I received a PM claiming my mother paid for my college tuition with money earned from... well, engaging in sexual acts with local American dogs, specifically Great Danes, and that she was some kind of star on various bestiality sites because of it. In the real world, someone like that would simply be crushed😠 So, how do you handle that kind of thing on a forum?

Kiki said:...You got a permanent ban on Photography, and honestly, you earned it...

🙂Megan White4 🤣
You’ve been hanging around here since 2003. Surely by now you’ve realized that nobody actually enjoys the whining? If Kiki decides you’re a problem for whatever reason—maybe it started because you were posting more photos than the subforum rules actually allow🤔—and the rest of the mods or admins aren't taking you seriously, just shrug it off. Drop an asshole emoji and move on with your life. Or, you know, just leave and tell this whole site to go jump in a lake.

Regarding leaking private messages: is there any actual reason why we shouldn't penalize people for doing it, assuming we even wanted to? For instance, when someone starts sharing incredibly nasty, vile insults sent via DM. Is there any way to sanction the user who posted the screenshot, rather than just the one who actually wrote the insults in the first place?

John Cook72 said:Dealing with those massive piles of duplicate files all sharing the same template name is actually pretty easy if you just use a command line interface; a quick little script can handle the whole processing job for you. I was wondering though, are you absolutely certain nothing went sideways within the archive itself? It’s possible some sort of .cmd, .bat, or .vbs extension triggered something that automatically merged everything back into the original structure...

Nothing to report.

Joseph Chavez7 said:🙄

Just use Google, really... just target the specific parent folder that contains all those subdirectories and their respective archives. If you type *.rar into the search bar, it'll pull up every single archive in one go. From there, you can just unpack them all directly into your destination folder... simple enough...

Thanks, that’s all I needed...🙂

Kyle Johnson2 said:Just open up WinZip, locate where those archives are sitting, select all the folders, and hit the extract button.
Since they have different names, WinZip will just dump everything into one main parent folder without any issues...
Best,

Here’s how the setup looks: let's say I've got Star Trek, four seasons with maybe twenty episodes each, and every single episode is split into 24 separate parts.


The problem is, I can't actually select the folders themselves. I'm looking at a list of links to the archives, which means I have to manually open every single folder. And if I try to drag an entire season folder into WinZip, it doesn't actually extract anything—it just tries to re-compress them into another zip file...🤷

I recently grabbed a few complete series, but the way they're organized is a bit of a headache. Every single episode is split up into about twenty different archives that all need to be extracted manually. On top of that, each episode lives in its own separate folder. Since these shows have over a hundred episodes each, spending hours extracting everything individually and then moving them into one central directory feels like a massive waste of time.
Is there any way to tell a program (like WinZip, or maybe something else) to just scan a specific folder and automatically pull every archive out of every subfolder and dump them into one single spot? The episode files follow a standard format like Serial Number.S01E01... so there shouldn't be any naming conflicts when I move them all into the same folder. Thanks.🙂

Noah Johnson63 said:Thanks for the deep dive. Honestly, I think I'll just stick with that one cheap fleece jogger for now—it's pretty worn out, so I probably won't even wear it, but we'll see.
That said, everyone seems to swear by polyester for working out since it handles sweat so much better.

Not 🙂

What if you picked up something a bit more high-end? I know they can be pricey, but they're worth the investment...😉
If you're near Zia, Nike usually has some good sales going on.

Louise Fletcher playing the sister to Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
She was just so repulsive that you almost wanted to reach through the screen and throttle her yourself...🙏🙏 🙏

William Diaz said:I don't get it. Why is the admin over at Alternative medicine still letting people talk about MMS? It seems to pop up in so many different threads...

Well, that's because the conversation isn't really about the original MMS anymore. Now everyone is obsessed with MMS 2, which they claim is supposedly superior to the first version.🤣

Alternative medicine. I mean, who wouldn't be interested in that kind of thing...😍

Megan White4 said:Thanks, really... Just an FYI, "amateur" actually means someone who does something for the love of it—a hobbyist. It doesn't mean they're bad at it. ☕

The word amateur definitely carries a bit of a sting sometimes, too😉 and honestly, you fit that description perfectly😛😳
Why is this thread even still open...
😕

Megan White4 said:... 🙂

Look, Megan White4, you basically asked for this when you kept calling the moderator an idiot. Multiple times, actually...😁
Just lay low for a few days and it'll blow over. Honestly, a little break from the forums might actually do you some good :P

Megan White4 said:It doesn't really matter now; I have no interest in arguing with fools. The smarter person usually just lets it go...

And yeah, you definitely earned that ban😁

mistyorca5 said:Here’s the situation...
I'm 22, a college student, and I spend way too much time sitting around, so I'm pretty inactive. I live over near the South Side, so I was wondering if there are any clubs, boxing gyms, or something similar in the vicinity? I'm a complete beginner, obviously, but I really want to get in shape, drop a few pounds, and build some muscle. =))

Check out www.subos.edu It’s affordable, and you actually get more options there. There's also the community gym right by the university campus...

BK Locomotive: 18 Crnatkova St (that dead-end street near the botanical gardens, running parallel to the tracks, just before you hit the rail crossing and the science center if you're heading south)
Ivan Sertić 555-0148

Taylor Howard36 said:Who do I need to talk to about getting a permanent ban?

🙄
What's all this about?😕

Honestly, just stop posting.

If you're really hell-bent on getting banned, pick some random thread and start hurling insults at the moderators or the admins...😁
A Permaban is practically guaranteed at that point.

I was thinking about that conversation from earlier today, and it’s funny how certain topics just seem to loop back around no matter how much you try to pivot... It feels like we’re all circling the same drain, just waiting for someone to notice the water is rising. I spent most of the afternoon staring at the skyline near downtown Chicago, wondering if anyone else feels that same sense of quiet displacement when the city finally settles down for the night. It’s a strange thing, isn't it? To be surrounded by millions of people and yet feel like you're operating on a completely different frequency than everyone else... maybe it's just me, though... kaže:
I'm looking around the Trešnjevka area—though I don't mind branching out a bit wider than that since I've got a car...
I’d honestly love it if there were more women showing up to these training sessions too... just so I wouldn't feel quite so out of place...

Three times a week would probably work for me, provided we’re talking evening hours... that's when I'm actually free...

I was up on the second floor for a bit of table tennis the other day when I happened to wander down to the ground floor at the Savi Mladost community center. It looked like they were running some judo sessions at the time, so I stuck around to watch for a moment. Honestly, it seemed pretty impressive... there were women training as well, and the instructor was top-notch. Really serious, organized, and professional... maybe something along those lines?

Similar to judo... I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole concept of "with kimonos"... It’s one of those things that sounds perfectly simple when you first hear it, but once you actually start looking into the nuances of how they’re worn or the specific styles involved, things get complicated fast. There’s an entire world of etiquette and tradition there that most people just gloss over... but I suppose that's where the real interest lies, isn't it? It really comes down to whether you’re looking at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or what most people call "traditional" Japanese Ju-Jitsu...
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu doesn't really deal with striking, and you don't see much throwing compared to what they do in Judo, but it definitely holds its own as one of those combat sports where the ground game is incredibly sophisticated...
It looks like you might have cut off there, or maybe you're just testing the waters... I wasn't quite sure what you were getting at with that fragment... Everything... It’s basically Judo, just with some added striking thrown in there. And I think some of those clubs even incorporate training with various cold weapons too—I completely forgot to mention that alongside the Ninjutsu bit in my previous post...
Something like that... Without the kimono... So, we’re talking about grappling versus that more modern style of ground fighting. There aren't any strikes involved here. If you're looking at MMA, though, that's a different beast entirely—you've got the grappling, the clinch work, the takedowns, and all the striking mixed in...

I was thinking about that conversation from earlier, and it really got me stuck on how much we tend to overcomplicate things when the answer is usually right in front of us. It’s funny, isn't it? We spend all this energy building these massive, complex mental frameworks, trying to account for every single variable, only to realize we missed the most obvious detail because we were too busy looking at the map instead of the road... kaže:
Sorry, I wasn't actually asking you anything... I was talking to hiddensailor14...

I don't need all the fluff or the endless back-and-forth chatter. I just want what I came for, and then I’ll get it done...

🤣
Are we being a little provocative? Maybe just a touch...
Hey, referee, just wanted to mention that you're basically one of the head coaches over at the local soccer club...😉
If you decide to go the grappling route, you’re making a solid choice. For all the specifics regarding wrestling, MMA, or grappling, you really can't beat the folks on this forum. Specifically, referee and Robin Palmer3 are probably your best bets for getting some first-hand info and expert insight...

What if you just took a week off to scout things out? You could drop by a different gym every single day for a week and really get a feel for the vibe. I don't mean just standing around in the lobby watching people sweat, either—actually get on the mats, work through a session, and see how their coaching style sits with you. Most places won't even charge you for a trial class... it might be worth the effort just to make an informed choice before you commit...😉

Hey there!
I wanted to pick your brain about where to find Tai Chi Chuan in the city—is there a specific website I should check out? Also, if you have any good reading material on the different styles, I’d love to dive into that just to get a better grasp of what we're talking about and how they actually differ. I'm genuinely curious. And regarding that Sapphire school, what kind of style do they teach, and are they actually considered one of the decent places around here?

Looking for some quick insights if anyone can help.🙂

To the person who originally asked this, you might want to scroll back through the last few pages of this thread; I'm pretty sure Tai Chi Chuan came up in the conversation before...
As for the Sapphire school, they tend to be quite secretive, and there isn't much public info out there. From what I've gathered, my impressions aren't exactly glowing, so I think I'll just hold my tongue on that one for now...😁

Brandon Price6 said:Metković is just a bit too much of a trek for me, so I was wondering if anyone could point me toward a solid club in the Chicago area? I'm looking for somewhere that runs quality training sessions and is actually welcoming and suitable for women, too...

Which part of the city are you in?
I don't think Escrima would be quite what you're after. It doesn't really tick all those boxes at once...

- There's Ninjutsu—footwork, ground fighting, weapons (knives, swords, various sticks, chain weapons...). The ground work is different, not your typical "wrestling." There aren't competitions, and it isn't treated as an "organized sport."
- Israeli military systems: Krav Maga and Dennis Survival Jiu-Jitsu (DSJJ). For "civilians," the focus is heavily on effective self-defense; they aim for realism, and the training is relatively demanding. The main interest is striking on foot, along with basic takedowns with or without weapons, though they cover other things too. DSJJ also has specific competitions that are very similar to ancient Pankration. These groups tend to fill up fast, so there's often no room left. There's a Krav Maga seminar coming up soon—check the bulletin board if you want to come take a look. I believe the topic is female self-defense. DSJJ is similar. Some clubs have full gyms attached, or they incorporate kettlebell work...
- MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). This provides an excellent foundation for fighting UNARMED, regardless of your position. They practice boxing, Muay Thai, kickboxing, wrestling, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu... It’s a legitimate sport. Very well organized. How intense it gets depends entirely on how much you put into it. There are competitions, and most clubs include gym facilities.
- Others (certain Kung Fu styles, Aikido, Shorinji Kempo...) I wouldn't really recommend them...

bluehawk36 said:Hey there. Looking for some Kung Fu spots in the US. Where’s the best school to train? Need info, links, whatever. Thanks.

"Kung Fu" doesn't actually mean anything specific☕ Under that label, we're talking about hundreds of different Chinese styles. In town, you've got Wing Chun, Tai Chi, Bagua(!?). There used to be a Kung Fu club run by the late Jovica Glogovac out in Karlovac, and then in the city, there's the Safira school. What specifically drew you to these styles? Or did you just watch a few Bruce Lee, Jet Li, or Chow Yun-fat movies and decide you wanted to be like them?...

Brandon Price6 said:Hey everyone,
I'm looking to get into some kind of martial art.
I’m not really interested in the typical "fitness" stuff—you know, things like aerobics or basic gym workouts. I need something with actual action, something with grit and a bit of an adrenaline rush.

The most important thing for me is that the discipline is well-organized, serious, and runs professionally.
I say that because I’ve been quite active in sports before, and in my experience, if there isn't a solid structure in place, the sport itself usually lacks substance.

Just to give you a little context, I'm 30 years old and living in a big city like Chicago. I'm also carrying about 65 pounds of extra weight right now—though, honestly, I don't look it.😁...so, ideally, I'm looking for programs that are welcoming to older women.

Also, if someone has already asked this exact question, please forgive me; I haven't had the chance to read through the entire thread yet.

What exactly are you looking for in a martial art or skill set?
Are we talking light recreation twice a week for an hour and a half, somewhere you can just sweat it out and blow off some steam? Are you interested in weapons training, or strictly empty-handed? Do you want grappling included in the sessions, or would you prefer to focus mostly on striking? Do you want to use hands, feet, or both? Or maybe you'd rather avoid the hitting altogether and focus on joint locks, throws, and chokes? And then there's the "spiritual" side—things like Yin and Yang, pacifism, or "spreading love." Would you want meditation involved?
Is the goal primarily self-defense? Or is it more about toning up and tightening things up physically? Something else entirely?

If you're looking for high-level competition, you might be a bit past that stage unless you look into veteran categories, though I'm guessing that's not your focus. As for age and weight... honestly, neither is an excuse nor a barrier to working out. Almost any club will take you in, provided they actually have the floor space. The first few weeks will definitely be a grind depending on your current conditioning, but once you find your rhythm, it gets much easier...

👍I admire the drive to start something active and 👍 the thought process behind choosing a specific discipline...

EDIT: Just noticed the part about older women...
LOL, what do you mean "older"? You're in your prime...👍

Well, looks like we have a new WBC heavyweight champion on our hands. Mike Tyson managed to show some actual life in that final round after eleven incredibly dull rounds, finally rattling Zabit Samedov enough to snag the decision from two of the judges. The scores were 112:112, 112:116, 112:116.

I feel like I’ve already spent way too much time talking about Samedov’s style, so I think I’ll skip over the "missing link" argument this time. I’ll just say that Tyson is a much better talker than he is a fighter. He’s got the mouth for it, if only his hands could sting like a bee.
God, is it really that hard to put together even one decent scoring combination per round?😕🤷

And then people act surprised when the UFC starts pulling all the viewers and the money away from them.🙄

Joseph Watson3 said:An Infraction is basically like a medal to you. You might as well print it out and pin it to your chest. I've already racked up 41 of them.

Good grief, Joseph Watson3, are you trying to set some kind of world record here?😳

Roger Gonzalez said:That’s exactly what I thought before I realized better.

Look, they aren't wrong, but that carpenter isn't exactly some legendary craftsman either. It’s not like he can't figure things out if you hand him a detailed blueprint. A buddy’s dad runs a machine shop over in the suburbs, and besides their standard parts, they do custom work all the time; you just show up with a drawing or explain exactly what you need, and they make it happen.👍

I know this advice might be redundant, but just watch out and make sure you don't end up with any knots or imperfections in the finish...😉