Dr. Gonzo

vaguest and most non-committal statement he could make without keeping totally quiet about it

Should it? A lot of smaller nations have relied on having more experienced foreign coaches come in to help shape things so that future generations led by a domestic manager have a better framework. Obviously a foreign coach will never understand what representing a different country means for the people who are actually that nationality... but I think foreign managers for a lot of countries have panned out pretty well for a lot of smaller nations tbh.

It’s like bizarro Marty McFly and Doc what’s-his-face from back to the future going on ridiculous sci-fi adventures with (imo) good jokes

I’m glad it’s popular - it deserves success. It takes a lot of what the recent Doom reboots did really well, adds it’s own interesting game mechanics that make it very fun, has a unique art style, and is pretty funny. Ticks a lot of boxes for a fun single player shooter.

If you (or anyone else) likes Rick & Morty… you’ll probably like this game. It’s basically Rick & Morty meets Doom (at least so far).

I'm going to start playing High on Life tonight

Just for the record, they never won anything with England either.

hope we fucking smash City though. That open letter from both clubs to both fans sort of pissed me off and managed to make me hate City more

I'd rather have Mourinho than Tuchel. And I hate Mourinho.

Best Italian food I’ve had outside of Italy… and I’ve made it myself!

I wish he was as good as some Iran fans seem to think he is

I finally found a place around me that sells guanciale. Gonna try making amatriciana tonight

Yes, sadly

I wonder how his supporters will spin this latest (and possibly saddest) grift.

Anyone who likes freezing cold weather is an absolute weirdo. When I went to Harbin and it was -10 through -20... I absolutely fucking hated it. It would make the oils in my beard fucking freeze over anytime I was outside, absolutely bloody miserable.

It's pretty nice here today.

For me, I think 5 cities is too much. You've got to think about the logistics of going place to place, checking in/out of hotels & you don't want to feel rushed while you're at the places you've planned to go to because you've planned to do too much. I think I agree with @nudge, I like to travel at a pretty slow pace and try to enjoy as much of every second in each new place I go to. Biggest issue with the recent trip I did in Italy is my wife wanted to do so much around the country, because she'd never been, but also a big chunk of that trip was sort of logistically out of our hands and when we went to Bari/Fasano it was way out of the way. And imo we spent too much time getting around Italy compared to just actually enjoying ourselves. It was still a great trip, don't get me wrong. I had a great time. But I would have had a better time if I didn't have to deal with the logistics of going to 4 different places in 10 days. The time in Naples and Florence felt pretty rushed tbh. And Naples is an absolute dump so that wasn't so bad - but Florence is brilliant so that was a bit shit although I think a lot of the hassle could have been easily avoided if we didn't have to deal with Tren Italia. Having said that... Italy's a lot smaller to drive around than Germany, so you'd need to consider the routes you'd be taking, the average driving time, etc... because imo, you don't want to eat up too much of your time just going place to place and you want to have more time to enjoy these cool new places you'll get to see, soak in the different culture, eat spatzl, drink tasty beers, etc. I know the "home base" idea doesn't really work out logistically for your planned trip. So I'd recommend trying to limit it to 3 big stops (you can always stop off at little towns and shit like that as you go between those big stops), if it were me. Especially if it's your first time in a country - I don't think you want to be constantly dealing with going from place to place.

I'll do it on a nicer day. Today's been pretty shit. I can't see the ocean though - I can just see in the direction of it. I definitely overestimated how good my vision is

I'd heard it was splashing down fairly close to me. And my flat faces the ocean so I thought maybe I'd be able to see it as it comes down to earth. So I stayed up pretty late to see if I could see it. Waited for hours and hours until the thing was actually in the water (also was watching it on TV). Couldn't see a fucking thing - basically didn't sleep for no good reason.

@Cicero when you had a Teso quote as your signature... do you know if he got a notification every time you posted?

I'd probably only drive between big cities and leave the car parked at the hotel (or Air BnB... but fuck Air BnBs tbh, the hidden fees + having to clean up someone's house when you're done) - you won't really need it much beyond getting from A to B and from B to C imo. Europe's not really like the US where not having a car can be a handicap in many places. Smaller towns I imagine parking wouldn't be so difficult. With that many cities (and smaller towns too)... I definitely see the convenience being a big factor in renting a car. And like you say, you'd be on your own schedule not the train schedule. Having said that, I'm sure you'd be just fine relying on trains too.

I would go with option one but I've not spent a lot of time in Germany so I dunno. I'd probably rent a car to go from city to city as driving is more fun than sitting on a train... although my friend moved to Munich for work temporarily 6 months ago and he's not driven a single time since he's moved there I think & seems quite content with that. But tbh I also tend not to rent cars when I go on trips unless it's absolutely necessary because the public transport options aren't great - with Germany, I don't think that's the case so in all honestly... But the only thing that'd make me say you might want to rent a car is seeing that many cities in just 14 days can mean dealing with shit that's not the most relaxing for your trip... and it could be worth it to rent a car to not have to deal with going to train stations and waiting around if there's late trains/strikes/shit like that.

I like how he says "Sam Bankman-Fried" needs to be investigated. He is being investigated I assume he's saying it because the guy was a big Biden donor. And that's true - he was a big Biden donor. But the part conservatives don't like to talk to was... he was also making fairly large campaign contributions to republican politicians as well. So like many other corrupt billionaires in America... he's funding both sides because that's literally how corruption works and they've got legalised corruption in the form of campaign contributions. It's a big deal... but it's not actually illegal. And the guy did actual illegal things that are probably a bigger issue. Because I doubt he cares all that much that the guy was committing fraud - which is obviously wrong... and what he's getting investigated for. And until they close the loopholes that allow for bribing politicians legally in the US, that's really all he can be investigated for (and even if they did close those loopholes, I think he'd get away with it because he'd done it before those loopholes were closed). But at the end of the day... I don't think the investigation into the FTX improperly handling money of "investors" (which let's be honest... they're not investors, if you're into crypto you're a speculator because everything about cryptos is speculative... even their ultimate usefulness) is a pressing issue for the United States at this moment. One... it's literally already happening... so that makes it a bit of a non-issue as to whether his crimes are being investigated. They are. And imo it's not even the biggest fraud issue in the US. The PPP (paycheck protection program) loans that were issued post-COVID have been a source of serious fraud using taxpayer money. This remains uninvestigated and unpunished. I think theft of taxpayer money is probably more of a pressing matter to most people... Twitter's not a big issue either. First off, the idea of "free speech" under American law has fuck all to do with private companies. And guess what... Twitter is a private company. And they're not even a journalistic or news media company, nor do they claim to be. That they "hid" certain stories is no more egregious than Facebook promoting certain right-wing bullshit. It's not ethical, but it's not illegal. And they're social media companies... so being surprised by the lack of ethics is a bit weird - they're not ethical at their core. That Elon Musk is trying to make it a massive issue in support of one political party isn't a surprise either - he's found something that the selective outrage crowd that makes up the US right-wing will be furious about, thrown the words "free speech" around to work them up, and is trying to rally his supporters into backing politicians that will... keep his taxes low and are unlikely to impose any sort of regulations on his businesses. To me, the only issue with Twitter is Twitter's now been ruined by a rich idiot that wanted it as his plaything... on the grand scale of political issues it's about as unimportant as things get tbh. All social media being used for political messaging is problematic - same with all regular news media, tbh. Yes, they should be regulated more by governments (all around the world tbh)... ... but is that as pressing as the mounting economic issues the west faces? Fuck no it's not - and there's so many issues there that need to be addressed? Is it as important as the increase in one political party having a split between those that hold western democratic values & the anti-democratic members of the party pushing extremism and authoritarian views into the mainstream? Absolutely not. Is it as important as the work these extremists have put in to roll back and continuously attack other Americans human rights? No, of course it's not. Overwhelmingly polls (and recent US elections) show that most voters view the biggest issues in America as economic issues. That shouldn't surprise anybody - the economy affects everybody.

I think he watched the last superbowl with that bag on his head On a completely unrelated note… I think my stance on Americans owning guns may have flipped entirely… due to what’s happening in Iran. There’s a fairly significant number of Americans in the religious right wing that are becoming increasingly vocally anti-democratic. In Iran there were people with guns pre-revolution and as rights were rolled back the citizens were disarmed… and I think they’d have an easier time getting their human rights back in 2022, and the ones many people actually wanted in 1979, if they weren’t the only ones with guns. I guess the counterpoint is most gun owners in the US are nut jobs with anti democratic tendencies.

Alex Jones trying to help him out and use the time for him to say “I’m not a Nazi and I don’t stand by Nazis” for him to then go ahead and say “I like Hitler” & claim he invented microphones (he didn’t, in case anyone was wondering) was actually bizarre. You could see a guy who defamed a ton of murdered young children and their parents be visibly uncomfortable to be giving a platform to a Nazi. Just absolutely bizarre.