baxus

@polishgenius Playing "just fine" in that Barcelona team was not what he was brought on to do, was it? And if he had a conflict with the manager and with the star player (one of best players ever) and whined about having to adapt his game in order to win everything with that team, then I'd say it's a problem with him. Sure, we can say that Barca shouldn't have signed such a player and then force him to switch roles, but team should trump an individual every single time. We've seen what happened at United when they changed everything to fit Cristiano Ronaldo in.

And whose fault is that? Should a player adapt to one of the greatest teams in history or should the whole team adapt to one player?

You are aware that Zlatan was a CF at Juve, Inter, Milan AND Barca? And we're talking Juve, Inter and Milan back in the day when Serie A actually meant something (though it's obviously not the same Milan as Shevchenko's). Don't forget, Barca gave Eto'o+20M to Inter in exchange for Zlatan, and in the following season Inter won the CL, along the way knocking out Barca with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Zlatan etc. How much more of a European Powerhouse did he need?

I haven't read the article, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Albanians who were interviewed failed to mention all the crimes "their side" was responsible for? Or "their" gangs and drug runners etc.? It seems to be the MO in the Balkans - we all try to present ourselves as noble Elves surrounded by foul Orcs. That's a big reason why we are in the position we're in. When Serbian authorities process and punish Serbian criminals, Albanian authorities in Kosovo process Albanian criminals, Bosnian and Croatian authorities do the same with theirs, then we can move on. As it is, we have convicted war criminals closely linked to Serbian authorities, we have similar charges against Kosovo "politicians" dropped because "witnesses disappeared", Croatian generals get convicted for ethnic cleansing etc. for 20 years and then released on appeal, and let's not even get started on Bosnia... It's a weird region of the world, with too many people living in it not even understanding it's weird.

This is the first thing I thought when I saw Mourinho waiting for Taylor in the garage. He's going to say it's not his fault Taylor was harassed at the airport, and while I agree that football fans are not the most calm and reasonable lot, Mourinho's behaviour definitely encouraged this. Ban him from football in Europe in general, not just UEFA competitions. Teach everyone a lesson. That being said, there definitely needs to be a proper review of refereeing, and a way needs to be found for managers to have their say (politely, obviously) without risking bans and fines.

Or he can accept that his club is mid-table at best and start rebuilding it with a manager suited to the task?

That's why I didn't include them in my comment.

Wow, your talent for finding these diamonds in the rough is unmatched. Who would've thought to pick those underdogs?

Serbian people boycotted recent local elections in Kosovo and as a result Albanian parties won elections in northern parts of Kosovo, the only part left with significant Serbian population. Serbian people wouldn't allow those parties to take over, claiming that voter turnout was too low for those elections to be legitimate. In principle, they are right (turnout in those areas was < 5%) but, from what I understand, Kosovo laws don't recognise minimal voter turnout for elections to be valid. When Vucic organised a counter to people's protests, he dragged people from all over Serbia and Bosnia, as well as from northern part of Kosovo to Belgrade for that day. With a lot of people away, Kosovo authorities seized the opportunity to take over. Funny part is that Kosovo Prime Minister's brother owns a company that rented buses for people to go to Belgrade for that Vucic's gathering. Of course, Vucic did all the bullshit posturing, getting Serbian army in positions near Kosovo border only to have them return to barracks a couple of hours later. Unfortunately, a lot of people in Serbia are still buying that. But that number does seem to dwindle by the day, so that's something.

You may remember I said I'm getting a beginners D&D party together and I've finally found 4 players so we'll start in a week or two. I figured I would need a backup in the party when it comes to introducing new people to the game, so one of the players is one of my best friends that I've been playing with for 20 years (though he's been a DM more often than a player). Two of the other three have never played and the last one has played a couple of times 20 years ago so it's as if she's never played at all. At the moment, party consists of gnome druid, halfling rogue, a fighter (most likely elf) and one TBD, based on the questions the player asked it seems that wizard or sorcerer is the most likely. Can't wait to start.

They got what they deserved. With the squad at their disposal really needed to be mid-table, at the very worst. They imploded, and will now have their squad stripped, will need to rebuild and it remains to be seen when will we see them in Premier League again. That brings us to the question - who stays at Leicester after relegation? Newcastle are the obvious pick to come and grab what they can, and Liverpool have been linked to Tielemans for a couple of years now (I still don't understand why, though)... who else? And let's not forget Leeds and Southampton.

The club and the league should help him battle his addiction but let's not get carried away here. The league and the FA should definitely consider banning betting companies from sponsoring football clubs. Hell, they should've banned them before they even started doing it, but even if that happened, betting companies would still be in business. Taking them out would require legislation that is outside of football organisations' jurisdictions. Also, while I doubt that Toney is the only player betting on football I'd assume that the vast majority of players is not doing it, so it's not as if that image on the shirt is brainwashing them or anything like that.

Well, it's mainly his fault. Sure, those adverts don't help, but there are too many other players that don't have a gambling addiction to say those adverts are to blame.

Planning on returning to running on days when I'm not lifting weights. Nothing too much, I'll stick to 5k(ish) distances for a while, working up to around 40-45 minute runs. Who knows, maybe I will even get back into it and start with half-marathons again, but at the moment it doesn't seem likely.

I'm not familiar with this guy and his work and would appreciate some more info before making that call. Did he say similar things when some white players were given big contracts? Or is there something in Saka's track record to indicate that he might start acting this way? Is he going out, partying through the night* etc.? Also important, is this guy giving Grealish crap for doing that? And Grealish would also be as good an example as Sterling for a great player that could've been much better had he been "more professional", whatever that means. If he's consistent in his opinions, I'd have no problem with it regardless whether I agree with him or not. But if he's using different sets of "rules" for players of different ethnicities then it most definitely is straight racism. * To be clear, I don't think that would make someone a worse footballer, but most journalists and pundits would disagree with me. Btw, I've never heard Saka doing things like that, but I don't follow him closely either so I might've missed something.

Yeah, and one guy used his rocket launcher on an abandoned train station in Ruma, a small town near Belgrade. He was released from a psychiatric institution a day before, and his first thought was "hey, I know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna take that rocket launcher I have lying around and blow up that building I hate". Makes you think about more than our gun laws.

I'm a bit late with this update, but these school shootings have caused quite a reaction in Serbian public. For 3 weeks now, on Fridays at 6PM there's a protest against violence in our society in general. Here's an article from Reuters, if anyone is interested.

I'm not trying to run a worldwide boycott or anything. If anyone wants to buy his work or still listen to what he says, I won't call them names or anything like that. It's their time and their money, and how they choose to spend it is up to them. After all, it's not as if I don't spend mine in all kinds of ways. Is there anyone here who's never had their confidence in their own abilities shattered? Why do we keep treating this guy as a gentle snowflake? If he needs help to overcome his issues, he should get it, by all means. If he needed support from his fans, all he had to do is ask for it. Look at what Scott Lynch did. He came out, said "I'm having issues, I need to sort things out and I'll be away for that time" and everyone supported that. It's not as if fantasy authors' fandoms are bunch of whining entitled trolls. Once again, I don't plan on punishing Rothfuss or harming him in any way. My way of handling his behaviour is to ignore him (apart from sometimes posting in this thread, obviously) and not spend money on his products. It's what I'm doing, not as some matter of principle but because I want The Doors of Stone, not some sample chapters or novellas and I especially don't want to watch him play video games. The other stuff just doesn't interest me. Just like, for example, GRRM's takes on New York Jets don't interest me, but I'm not trying to say he doesn't have the right to have them. If Rothfuss needs me to help motivate him, he's in a lot of trouble and should probably get professional help to overcome that. In that case, he should just say that and focus on getting better, not streaming himself playing video games and accusing his fans of trolling when asking about Doors of Stone.

Yeah, we all want book 3, and he did make false representations and behaved like an asshole and all that. He doesn't owe anyone anything, but we don't owe him anything either. I mean, we want book 3? Let's not give money to him by buying his other work or donate for his projects or watch his streams or whatever he does until the book 3 is published. We should just ignore the asshole and cut our losses. Let him be forever remembered as a guy who promised a whole trilogy, released two books and was an asshole to his fans after that.

I'd like to hear what gives you the reason to believe that? He has taunted his fans ("I'm playing games instead of writing"), got pissed off whenever asked about book 3 and overall given an impression of an asshole, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on the last one. Maybe we should break the cycle by letting go, maybe he should break the cycle by writing the book he promised was finished over a decade ago, maybe cycle needs to be broken by something else entirely. Whatever it is, the guy needs to at least apologise for acting like an asshole if the relationship is to be properly mended. Having long ago lost hope that I'll ever see this trilogy completed, I haven't been following the news about him outside of this thread so I may have missed such an apology.

On a human level, he can do whatever he wants. He doesn't owe anyone anything and he's no one's bitch. That being said, he has falsely advertised his work. While we may accept the issues he may or may not be dealing with as a reason why he hasn't kept his promises, it remains a fact acted like a petulant child when asked about it. Scott Lynch handled the problems he's dealing with quite differently and I am yet to hear anyone being pissed at him.

How very snobbish of you.

Yeah, you could suggest that, but you'd be wrong. I have never underestimated any job. It's just that I don't think that "handling an office environment" is such a difficult task. At least it wasn't for me so far. Other than some company-specific stuff, it's basically requires a skill set one should grasp in early stages of elementary school - playing well with others, recognising and respecting hierarchy, doing your "homework", doing a team project etc. Btw, accounting on a basic level is a useful skill and will help you understand some things you otherwise wouldn't, but it will not land you a job. Well, it does, doesn't it? You do go to the university to learn new stuff, that's the whole point. I mean, once I graduated from university a lot of doors opened for me that wouldn't be open straight out of high school, or even after a couple of years of working experience straight after high school. Well, while there's definitely snobbery, it does depend on what position we're talking about here. How big this space of jobs that university graduates in philosophy and McDonald's workers apply for? The person with a media or philosophy degree applying for a starter job doing admin in an office has made some wrong turns along the way.

I'm not misunderstanding anything. Your logic is flawed. You are comparing people at 2 very different positions in their lives and expecting a relevant result. If pointing out flawed logic in a debate is snobbery, I guess I'm a snob then. And by the way, I think you are overestimating the complexity of behaving in a work environment and grasping expectations needed in a job, and by quite a margin. It basically comes down to "you do this this way and you do that that way, and here's the kitchen, and off you go", especially in jobs you described as menial.

I'm not alluding to anything. I'm stating outright that in my first job I've faced a whole new environment. And I'm not talking about office environment and all that, I'm talking about a tech stack entirely new to me. Something I've never used or seen before - from a completely unknown OS to software and tech concepts. Don't get me wrong, it's not as if I stepped out of university into some extremely high tech stuff that only a select few can grasp, but it was still an unknown. The stuff I learned in university made it possible for me to be a productive team member within a week or two. Had I not the experience gathered in university, it would be much more difficult for me to adapt. Not saying that university is the only place where you can learn what I learned there, especially nowadays when everything is pretty much available online. If you can learn all that on your own, more power to you. But you do need to learn it if you're planning on a career in that field. Saying that a difference would only be being 5 years older is a gross oversimplification. The question that you've posted is obviously flawed, and I think you are aware of that and that was the reason why you asked that one. Why would we compare someone with 5 years experience and someone with 0 years experience? We are talking about the point at which you join a company. The company doesn't care how old you are, they will need to train and onboard you anyway. They care whether you can do the job they need you to do or not. As DMC already stated, you are exaggerating how much grades have risen over time. Also, the only time when my GPA was a factor was when I was enrolling high school and university, for ranking purposes. And in both instances I also had to pass an entrance exam in order to be accepted.