Posts by casualskipper65

Anthony Wright30 said:I suspect more people in America were following the junior LP than were actually watching Eurovision, if I had to guess.

You're dead wrong. Honestly, Eurovision always pulls decent numbers, and this year was no exception.

Rachel Garcia9 said:From where I’m sitting, if we actually look at the US Soccer Federation's criteria for those "non-deciding" seats, Varaždin and Istra are basically dead last for fifth place.

There's always some arbitrary set of rules—for the spots that actually matter, like qualifying for the playoffs or avoiding relegation when points are tied, they look at head-to-head matchups first. But for everything else? It’s just different nonsense. They go straight to goal differential, and by that logic, a team like Atlanta United would be looking better than Portland, just like how a side like Austin FC would edge out someone like Colorado.

Mlinarev went ahead and handed out $45,000 apiece to both Istri and Lokomotiva, then turned around and gave Varaždin and Slaven the exact same treatment. Honestly, those first two teams could probably afford to toss some prize money their way too. ☕

Morgan Hill84 said:I’d love to see Orient back in the MLS first division for a local derby. The atmosphere would be electric, especially at a place like Rujevica or definitely over at Krimeja. But let’s be real—management doesn't have any actual ambition, plus the infrastructure is a mess. There’s just no room at Krimeja to modernize anything.

What use is ambition when you're broke? Seriously. Even the one club from this city currently in the top flight wouldn't even be playing at this level if some private investor hadn't swooped in to bail them out, yet here you guys are, Ethan Jones5, rambling about another team.

At the end of the day, Orijent being in the top tier is plenty for them—if not actually a bit much.

boldbadger1 said:The real spectacle has finally kicked off—the actual derby of the round—unlike that absolute snooze-fest we've got lined up for tomorrow...

It’s only a decent derby if they're setting off fireworks. ☕

George Diaz63 said:I was just wondering... is Rudeš actually going to play anytime soon? I can't make it to their home turf, and I can't catch them over at the stadium in North Jersey because Lokomotiv is playing there instead. Even heading out to Zaprešić isn't an option for me since that’s in a different state entirely.

Why couldn't both teams share the field in North Philly? It's not like they haven't both been in the big leagues at the same time and used the same stadium before...

The only real headache—for them, for Lokomotiva, or even for the guys in Blue Bison47—is if they actually go through with those rumors about building a brand new stadium right there on the old site...

Olivia Taylor2 said:The number of teams from the metro area could actually go up in the top tier, but looking at how things are shaking out, it might actually shrink in the second division. If Šibenik and Rudeš swap places, we lose one more club from the local circuit. As for the second tier, it’s pretty much a lock that Dragovoljac is going down. They could be replaced by a club from a tiny town of just 264 people—Zrinski Jurjevac.

With only four matches left, they and Sesvete are locked in a dead heat for promotion. Opatija, led by Tonči Kukoč Petrela (🤣), was in the mix too, but they've fallen behind. Zrinski currently sits one point ahead of Sesvete, and they face them on home turf in the final round. Their last meeting in Sesvete ended in a 0-0 draw.

If Zrinski manages to clinch their spot, they'll likely have to play their home games in Đakovo.

I honestly don't get how this Zrinski outfit even operates. How can they be sitting this high up when the rules say you need four youth categories, and in a village that size, there's probably enough kids for one team max? I have no clue where they're pulling players from. 🤷

Hell yeah, it's happening.

Is it just me, or is that average looking a little bit sketchy?

Edit: My bad, I misread the numbers. Realized the average is actually how many games it takes to draw a single penalty call.

Nicholas Phillips23 said:Just cartoons🤣

I was already starting to worry that nobody was actually going to ask. ☕

Give this one a shot

Carl Hernandez3 said:A huge number of Germans live in rentals—apartments or houses—their entire lives. Honestly, it’s all about workforce mobility—you don't really have that deep sentimental attachment when you aren't a local patriot.
If there's no work in Stuttgart, well, maybe there's something in Regensburg. You just hop over—it takes half a day—and pack up your whole life in a van to move to Regensburg.
I wonder how Scandinavians and those folks even further north handle things—do they actually buy real estate?
The German Philosophy is basically this: it's better to spend your money on travel and enjoy your freedom—rent an apartment, lease a car, and just live your life.

I'm with them. I wouldn't even think about buying a house or an apartment unless I had enough cash to pay for the whole thing upfront. No loans, no debt, none of that crap.

Jonathan Barnes5 said:What exactly makes everyone think Zoki is on coke? Has anyone actually been in the trenches with him?

I can't say I've shared that kind of experience with anyone, so I wouldn't know if he's ever tried it. And I highly doubt anyone is on a regular white powder habit.

The wildest part to me is hearing people claim, "Oh, it's common knowledge; you can tell just by how someone acts when they're on cocaine."

It’s the same nonsense people spout about gay men. I've heard some truly surreal stories floating around half of America, where people act as if they were personally victimized by certain individuals.

Dammit, if you can't mention a single country without some guy from an offside forum claiming he had a girlfriend—or at least slept with someone—from that exact country, then why is it weird that half this forum thinks they know how a coke addict behaves? ☕

steelharbor9 said:A huge bid-ask spread on FX usually means there's massive volatility happening or just a serious lack of liquidity in the market. I haven't really dug into the history of this specific situation, but those European banking and financial sanctions definitely had to have a major impact on liquidity. Whether that's the one and only reason for such an anomaly... I guess I don't know.

He beat me to it, 😬

edit: I think I used the word "huge" three times in my first post, kind of sounding like Petrak over at Podcast Incubator 🙏

You’re looking pretty suspicious whenever you start dropping all those Russianisms. ☕

Just so you get a real sense of how much of a nightmare it is to reach safety from Ukraine—this young Ukrainian guy, who lives with cerebral palsy, just made it to the Czech Republic with his mom and his dog. It took him a little over an hour to get settled once he crossed, but the whole operation lasted four days. From the moment they left Biti Cerkva (which is about a hundred miles south of Kyiv) until they hit Vsetín in the Czech Republic, they were on the move for 60 hours straight. If you know it’s usually a 7 or 8-hour drive from the border to Vsetín, you can do the math on the rest of that hellish journey.

The kid is actually a para-athlete representing Ukraine in boccia (that’s a sport for people with disabilities, though it’s slightly different from the game most Americans know, even if there are some similarities). This whole thing was kicked off by some folks in the Czech Republic; they reached out to all the boccia players in Ukraine, promising to handle transport and housing. They had help from buddies in Poland (who provided a medical van to ferry him through Ukraine because nothing else is safe right now) and Slovakia (who picked him up at the border and drove him into the Czech Republic). While everyone was scrambling to figure out how to get him out of Ukraine and to the border, there were at least 50 people worldwide working behind the scenes. Some guy from New Zealand was even hunting down contacts inside Ukraine through his friends.

At the same time, they’re working on pulling out another teammate of his. That guy is from Nikopol, so things are a bit more complicated there, but based on the latest word, it looks like they’ll pull it off successfully too.

Both of them were actually supposed to be in Chicago at the start of April for an official international tournament we're hosting (it counts toward the world rankings, you know). Whether they’ll actually have the heart to come, I guess we'll see, but they’ve been invited to attend on our dime, even if they just come as guests.

Speaking of para-sports, probably nobody is paying attention, but the Winter Paralympics kicked off today. After the first day, leading the medal count is Ukraine, sitting pretty with 3 gold, 3 silver, and one bronze.

Carl Hernandez3 said:In the breakaway region of Moldova—specifically looking at the tensions there—are there actually more ethnic Ukrainians or Russians living there?
Does anyone here really understand the situation on the ground, especially given that roughly 160,000 refugees have fled from Ukraine into Moldova?
I mean, I'm talking about the areas under government control versus those held by the rebel region.

It’s about fifty-fifty.

Yeah, they’re heading out through Transnistria. They can't just cut straight into the rest of Moldova, but honestly, hardly anyone sticks around there longer than they have to just to catch a ride toward Chisinau, if they aren't already trying to make it all the way to Romania. That spot in Transnistria—basically like the Palanca area—is nothing more than a transit camp.

Anthony Wright30 said:It seems the Mexicans have already buckled, even without a single shot being fired. My colleagues are reporting that fuel and basic necessities are already running dry. I suppose it’s possible this is all just more theater, leaving them once again acting as nothing more than puppets on a string. We shall see ☕

How can there be none? I heard the President telling everyone the other day that we're stocked up. Said we've got enough oil to keep things running for two months without buying a drop—hardly anyone else has reserves that solid. ☕

Anyway, anyone hitting the bakeries? Are they still making those Russian hats, or did they scrap them?

boldbadger1 said:Good grief, it just hit me—where on earth did Kamala Harris go?!

Probably in Beijing, obviously.

Bryan Adams6 said:Alekperova hit the nail on the head with those sanctions. Lukoil basically went public against the military fix, demanding they wrap this whole madness up through negotiations instead.

Ran into some news earlier about an oligarch offering a million bucks to whoever takes out Putin. Is that just some internet trolling or is it actually happening?

Not to the guy who kills him, but to the cop who makes the arrest.

wearytrucker22 said:Look, I follow whatever mandates the government puts out. Masks in stores? Fine, I'll wear one. If they say anyone with a fever has to get tested, then I'll either go get tested or just stop checking my temperature. Period. And as for the healthy people in America, they don't need to be within two feet of me. End of story.

If I were sitting there with a fever over 100.4 for several days, maybe modern medicine would be worth calling on. But right now, since I haven't taken any meds for this 100.4 spike, it just means my immune system is awake and doing its job. Given that I deal with chronic anemia because they had to surgically remove my pancreas due to cancer, staying home is a much lower risk for me than going to a hospital. I’ve been managing my own mineral levels for eight years now—B6, B12, Vitamin D, C, A, K, iron, fish oil, iodine, you name it. Going to a hospital, sitting in lines, being surrounded by a crowd where 50-60% of people are infected? That is simply not an option for me.

Nobody is lecturing you about not wanting to get tested, regardless of your reasons.

The issue is that you should realize how easy it is to be carrying this thing without knowing it, and someone in that position shouldn't be out in public putting everyone else at risk.

Masks and social distancing are just preventative measures. They help slow the spread, and we’d definitely have fewer cases if everyone actually followed the recommendations, wore their masks, and kept their distance. But let's be real: it's not total protection. These masks aren't airtight, and viruses don't just drop dead after traveling six feet. And we all know we’re nowhere near having everyone follow the rules properly, especially in grocery stores and on public transit.

Look, I’m one of those people who tried my best to follow the rules, and I still managed to catch it. Probably from someone like you, who thinks there's nothing wrong with an infected person walking into a bakery for some warm bread—only to catch it from someone just like them, despite my mask and my attempts to keep my distance.

Luckily, I live alone and haven't had to go into work lately, so hopefully, I haven't passed this on to anyone else. That's especially important since I work as a personal assistant to a disabled individual with spinal muscular atrophy, who is constantly in contact with other people facing similar diagnoses.

wearytrucker22 said:It’s not like I’m going to have fiber optic internet forever. In ten days, I’ll just pay for an IgG test myself so I actually know where I stand. Right now, I don't have COVID; I just have a fever. Since my temperature hasn't stayed above 100.4°F for long and I don't have swollen lymph nodes, I haven't picked up a bacterial infection. My health status is my business, not the government's. I'm heading out to grab some warm bread—mask on, staying totally legal, straight to the bakery.

See? This is why we’re the worst in Europe. Because apparently, your health is strictly your own problem and not a public one, so you just decide for yourself that it's "just a fever" and definitely not COVID.

What does it matter if it wasn't over 100.4°F for long? I never even hit that mark—mine sat between 98.8°F and 99.1°F for a day and a half on Wednesday and Thursday. I booked my test on Wednesday, got tested Saturday, and popped up positive. I didn't have any other symptoms besides that slight fever, and I still don't, but that doesn't change the facts. I can't remember the last time I had a fever at all, so that was an immediate red flag for me. I reacted right away. Even if having a fever isn't unusual for me, I’d react the exact same way because this isn't something to mess around with—not just for my own sake, but for everyone around me.

I don't know if you think running a fever for four days is normal, but I do know it's not exactly standard behavior to act like it’s nothing during a time like this.