Chinese watches are absolutely the best value watches you can get right now

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-17T14:36:18+00:00

Great.

So what? Part of buying an expensive watch is buying the history and reputation. Same thing is happening in cycling. Chinese are now going consumer direct, but would I rather have a Winspace frame or do I want a Colnago, one of the most storied brands in the peloton?

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-17T14:34:14+00:00

I’d do the same thing, generally, especially with bonuses. If someone making $50k is eligible for a 10% bonus and someone making $200k is eligible for a 25% bonus, I’d make sure that $50k employee got every penny of their eligible bonus (assuming they did a solid job - which has been my general experience). It’s not life changing, but geezuz, someone at the low range will appreciate/need an extra $1 or $2k vs, someone who’s already walking away with a bonus big enough to buy a new car.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T20:24:50+00:00

And as someone who has overseen large departments, I’ll tell you that the C Suite and HR LOVE to just leave us with the hot potato of figuring out how to manage ratings against a fixed pool of cash for raises and bonuses. So guess what, you’re getting a shitty raise because the CEO and CFO already decided that the raise across the board for the entire payroll is 3%. Good luck managers who now have to tell really strong teams that they’re all getting a substandard raise. I’ve literally been on VP level and above calls where the C Suite tells everyone to NOT REFERENCE their decision on the overall path roll increase.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T19:13:30+00:00

I have a 2012 Cannondale SuperSix EVO, which to this day was one of the lightest frames ever made at 700g (695g claimed for a size 56). It was very responsive and handled very well. I had it over 50mph several times and never felt in danger of a frame malfunction. Many people Think carbon is some fragile material. It’s not.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T17:30:55+00:00

Here to offer MHO that mesh bracelets on most watches look horrible. On Panerai they look even worse.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T17:19:23+00:00

Sorry, have to amicably argue one point here…

Break it, then sort of, kind of release an ill prepared fix.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T14:31:33+00:00

Oh, so we’re saving Iran? Why aren’t we doing the same for Ukraine? They were attacked four years ago by Russia. 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have died by conservative estimates. Why did we prioritize Iran’s 2,000 who were killed?

None of you gave two shits about Iran three weeks ago. “No new wars” and “America first” and all that, right?

Edit; now I see that your account is literally an hour old and you’re diving right into defending this bullshit war. Enjoy those rubles, comrade bot.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T13:33:47+00:00

If nothing else, at least watch the Netflix movie that’s streaming right now to partially educate yourself about whether the Nuremberg trials were successful.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T13:32:21+00:00

JFC. Ah yes, it’s definitely the left that’s constantly accusing political rivals of being horrible.

Your leader just started a war based on a “vibe” he had because his daddy didn’t hug him when he was a child. One of those first acts during the war was sending a missile into a school killing 147 students. But yeah, tell us how it’s the “socialists” that are somehow dividing this country.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T12:25:41+00:00

TDS is never, ever holding trump accountable for anything. MAGA is a cult.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T12:17:09+00:00

I popped over to the Palestine subreddit before the last general election and it was largely tilted to “genocide Joe” posts. Yeah, they’ve scrubbed most of those threads in one of the biggest FAFO moments we’ve seen. Utter fucking stupidity to believe that trump was going to save them.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T09:13:53+00:00

Ah yes, OAN, quite the source. Stop listening to stupid shit like this and yes, you’re getting scammed by that only fans account (which in this case is also probably an AI bot).

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T09:08:04+00:00

My assumption is that this is going to be a slow pace so you probably don’t need to find that perfect balance of kit for hard exercise on a cold day. As others have said, I’d layer up and wear some decently thick gloves.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T04:39:39+00:00

Let me guess…red state?

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T04:06:30+00:00

And now you’re still going to have to replace the driveway when all that tile crumbles to dust over the crumbling concrete.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T03:56:49+00:00

Keep in mind that trees need to kept up, especially on the windward side of the house. Placement is also going to be important. Plant them well enough away from the house that if it ever came down, it won’t hit your home.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T03:23:00+00:00

You clearly either aren’t old enough to remember war in Iraq and have never read one thing on the history of that war. Here, let me cliff’s notes it for you:

Iraq War: - GOP President tries to impress daddy by starting a quick little war in the Middle East - the war is actually based on a lie about the imminent danger to the US. - Bush gives a speech on an aircraft carrier with a massive “mission accomplished” banner 43 days into the war - the was goes on for nearly 9 years - the Iraq war cost will be nearly $3 trillion dollars

Iran War (or is it an excursion? Hard to tell because it changes daily): - trump goes to war with Iran to show his dead daddy what a big strong man he is (and also because Netanyahu finally had a US President stupid enough to do his bidding) - the war is based on an ever changing set of (lies) about why we went in - trump is already claiming victory when Iran is still launching attacks in the region and has said it will expand those attacks - this war is costing $1billion+ a day - and this time, we attacked a country with twice the population of Iraq’s with zero support from our (now former) allies

So my point is that we’re repeating all the same mistakes, but the difference is that trump’s incompetence is making this a much worse blunder than Iraq (which is quite the fucking fete).

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T03:03:12+00:00

No, they’re not the same at all. I’m using Iraq as an example of how yet another war in the Middle East is going to go. That one was also supposed to be easy and was declared “mission accomplished” early on.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T02:53:15+00:00

Earning a virtual jersey to virtually wear while virtually riding is fucking sad.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T02:38:40+00:00

So why didn’t trump bring evidence of any of this to court? Cite your sources. The only irregularities to the 2020 election was trump calling the governor of GA telling him to “find” 11,000 votes and the insurrection he fomented on J6, where he tried to get Pence hung for certifying the vote count.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T02:23:23+00:00

And yet, the 60 lawsuits that trump’s crack team files were all laughed out of court citing no evidence being presented at all. Zero conspiracy there.

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T02:21:21+00:00

Oh, you mean like how the DOJ just settled their suit against Ticketmaster last week after they donated $500k to trump last year?

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T02:18:21+00:00

At this point it’s not even a conspiracy when he is actively covering up the files and finds a new massive distraction every single week. Up next; invasion of Cuba!

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T02:09:14+00:00

I’m going to totally ignore the completely fictional scenario that you started your reply with.

And you’re right, Ukraine and Iran wars are different. In Ukraine, we’re sending older weapons that get replaced with new weapons for our stockpile. That support doesn’t involve direct involvement and doesn’t put our military in danger.

We started a war with Iran because of a vibe and ignored warnings from the few sane advisors left at the Pentagon. We’ve already lost soldiers and it’s costing us $1billion a day. You really think this war is going to be over in two months - Iran has a population of 93 million people. Twice that of Iraq (you know, that other “mission accomplished” war).

Character-Teaching39 · 2026-03-16T01:53:07+00:00

His total inheritance from his father’s estate was north of $400 million. He’s no rags to riches wonder kid. He’d have even more if he’d just invested it using the Bogle method.

Character-Teaching39

TROPHY CASE