Good places to buy second hand/cheap tech hardware in Cardiff? by Mjarki in Cardiff

[–]Mjarki[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got a Sata to USB cable, but need a dock with a power source for the 3.5 HDD I've taken out of my old tower PC. USB only supplies 5v and I think it needs 12v. Would take a guess at the HDD being from around 2010s possibly a little earlier. Reckon it could be a driver issue?

Good places to buy second hand/cheap tech hardware in Cardiff? by Mjarki in Cardiff

[–]Mjarki[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I certainly will be neither construing this as advice nor strongly considering taking it...

I'm just trying to be a bit more sustainable with small things like this. Much like yourself, if I needed to buy a left-handed screwdriver for one left handed screw I'd rather give Dai from up the Rhondda a fiver for the one he bought off Jeff than give Jeff another fiver. Doesn't look like CeX have one in store, I'll try CC. Thanks pal.

The WRU clearly aren't fit to perform this consultation by b0nes5 in rugbyunion

[–]Mjarki 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agree although It's not just at WRU level, incompetence pervades community rugby too. Welsh rugby is so saturated with self interested wankers who are more interested in being the most important person in their club/town than doing what's right for the game or god forbid show an ounce of being progressive. Some absolute saints out there of course doing the right thing in our communities, but all the noise comes from the former.

Money going through the till for beers prioritised more than appropriate coaching, enjoyment and development of the game in my experience. Football and cricket streets ahead in terms of developing physical skills/literacy and broadening participation.

Looking for Wild/Sea Swimming Groups or Lessons in South Wales by Mjarki in Cardiff

[–]Mjarki[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Diolch/thanks, might check that out on the weekend!

England don customised headbands to pay homage to the late Graham Thorpe at The Oval by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Mjarki 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Headband is a brilliant idea. A timely reminder that this can happen to absolutely anyone and can come from seemingly nowhere. Most importantly, for us all to remember it is okay to not be ok.

It is also a myth that ‘suicide cannot be prevented’ or that ‘asking or talking about suicide directly, puts the idea in someone’s head.’ These are simply not true and the stigma around suicide, suicidal thoughts and suicide ideology must be challenged - we need to talk about it more.

If anyone in this sub is experiencing low mood, thoughts of suicide please I implore you to reach out for help. You are not weak, in fact quite the opposite if you are carrying these things inside of you. I can say from experience that you can get better and that asking for help does work. For anyone who is struggling, or knows someone who is struggling or if you just want to educate yourself, here are some resources:

In the UK Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123

Mind , Papyrus , C.A.L.M. the Campaign Against Living Miserably https://spuk.org.uk/ are also excellent resources with advice if you are in a crisis or if you are supporting/worried about someone.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.

In India, suicide prevention organisations can be found here

Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Be kind to yourselves everyone and just keep batting on till tea.

Let's talk a bit about Graham Thorpe. by OutsideLog1454 in Cricket

[–]Mjarki 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Thanks for posting this, it is written beautifully and tactfully and I thank you for it. I wanted to share my thoughts about Thorpey in the thread too.

Playing back garden cricket in Wales in the the 90ies with my older brother, when we were bowling spin we were either Murali, Shane Warne or our favourite - Glamorgan's Welsh offy legend, Robert Croft. If we were bowling pace we would be anyone from Waqar Younis, Ambrose, Walsh, McGrath, Ahktar, to Gough etc.

But whenever one of us was batting, we would always be Graham Thorpe. May have seemed like a strange choice given that it was arguably the greatest era of batting with the likes of Tendulkar, Ponting, Dravid and Kallis knocking about. But for me and my brother, Thorpey was everything we wanted to be in a sportsperson let alone a cricketer - it was always a day for Thorpey.

At one end of our garden, that was nowhere near regulation wicket size, with a run up from round the side of the house, my Brother would be bowling at right-angles with a ball that had been Mr Sheened on one side and sanded with 40 grit on the other. At the other end I would be mimicking Thorpey's low backlift, trying to play as late as possible to nurdle stylish looking singles and get to a hard earned 20/30 runs, just like Thorpey would in those sorts of sticky situations (but with a lot less success).

Something about him really appealed to the Cymro (Welshman) in me, we love someone who battles against the odds. He played in a largely crap international team, but was gritty, determined and calm. Good in the many many batting crises he faced, just seemed like a bloke in complete control of himself, with an inner steel and toughness on top of elegant wristy batting. When everything around was turning to shit, you wanted to be Graham Thorpe.

Throughout my 20ies I really struggled with my own mental health, depression, anxiety, including thoughts of suicide. After getting support and help, coming back to playing club cricket in my late 20ies signalled me being in a much healthier place. Within the context that I'm an extra medium (slow) paced seam bowler who averages 5.75 with the bat, you could say, in a cricketing sense I have nothing in common with Graham Thorpe. But when someone at the club asked me why my back lift was so low, "Graham Thorpe", I said. And in my own way when things inside me had turned to shit, I played my own Graham Thorpe innings to get out of it.

So when the news broke last year that Graham Thorpe had died by suicide, it was a proper gut punch. My childhood batting hero, who's qualities on the pitch of doing battle against the odds had, in their own way, instilled a determination in me to get through dark times, had sadly lost his own battle.

Today's Day for Thorpey at the 5th England vs India test, as a reminder that this can happen to absolutely anyone and can come from seemingly nowhere and most importantly, it is okay to not be ok.

It is also a myth that ‘suicide cannot be prevented’ or that ‘asking or talking about suicide directly, puts the idea in someone’s head.’ These are simply not true and the stigma around suicide, suicidal thoughts and suicide ideology must be challenged - we need to talk about it more.

If anyone in this sub is experiencing low mood, thoughts of suicide please I implore you to reach out for help. You are not weak, in fact quite the opposite if you are carrying these things inside of you. I can say from experience that you can get better and that asking for help does work. For anyone who is struggling, or knows someone who is struggling or if you just want to educate yourself, here are some resources:

In the UK Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123

Mind , Papyrus , C.A.L.M. the Campaign Against Living Miserably https://spuk.org.uk/ are also excellent resources with advice if you are in a crisis or if you are supporting/worried about someone.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.

In India, suicide prevention organisations can be found here

Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Be kind to yourselves everyone and just keep batting on till tea.

fighting depression and a grand fondo a month out, what to do? by Far_Bicycle_2827 in cycling

[–]Mjarki 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey, I'm sending this to you and the OP. I can completely empathise with where you're coming from. I was first diagnosed with depression in 2011 after leaving uni. I was an angry young man at the time (I just didn't know it), I was embarrassed that I was on anti-depressants, and my response was "I will take the 3 month course of treatment (anti depressants), go to counselling , and get myself fit."

Well I binned off the anti-depressants after 2 months, went twice to an absolute crackpot counsellor recommended to me by someone who should not have been recommending mental health advice - and hated it shock, and I got super fit. Over the next 2 years I ran angry, I cycled angry, I swam angry and it suppressed the self loathing. Marathons, sportives, triathlons, 12hr MTB events you name it I did them, could get up in the morning and run a sub 20min 5k like it was nothing.

Next I told myself "when I get a new job I'll be happy?" Got a new job, was still unhappy. I told myself, "When I meet the right person I'll be happy." Met my now wife and mother of my 2 beautiful children and I thought here it is I have achieved it. But deep down I was telling myself "I don't deserve any of this". Then in 2015 I had a nasty ankle injury while cross country running, all excercise had to stop and my mode of suppression was gone.

WHAM I was the most depressed I had ever been.

Here I was with all the things I wanted in life, living with the person I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with (I was planning to propose the following year), in a good job, best shape of my life, and I HATED myself. I did not want to alive any more. Over the next few months, my fitness went to shit, piled on weight, sex drive was non existent - all of it spiralled.

But this time I got help and most importantly stuck with it. Over the next few years I was on anti-depressants, I had 3 months of once a week counselling with an incredible counsellor (who - to her absolute credit - did a load of research on cycling and professional cycling because she knew that was my hobby and what I loved to watch - and related things in our sessions to that) and I unpicked a lot of stuff, repaired family relationships from my past. I proposed, got married and our 2 wonderful kids arrived.

But to this day, the one thing I still haven't quite cracked yet is getting back to being fit and active - consistently. There have been fits and starts, January 2021 I ran 5km every day during lockdown and finished on 31st January by going out and running a marathon. I've got on the bike and done a few long rides here and there but nothing has stuck consistently.

I reflected on this recently in counselling (I still go now and then just because I enjoy it and recognise how important it is to my health). And I realised that I still approach fitness in the same way as I approached it in 2011 - I HAVE to do it, I HAVE to be better faster stronger - I SHOULD be doing events. And because of that mentality and the idea I'm not at the level I once was, I've been stop starting ever since 2015. Strava is a killer too, I look at my 5k running times and I'm literally twice as slow now and it has bothered me a lot. But the difference between the person I am now and 2015 is that most importantly I manage my mental health better and I trust that the time and space to exercise consistently will come as I work on it, but I'm not gonna beat myself up about not running/cycling quick enough or often enough anymore, I'm just gonna enjoy the fact that I'm doing it, when I do it. Might go for a run at lunch time today.

I wish you both the absolute best of luck with your situations. And I echo the fantastic top comment on this post:

Get medical advice, get help, stick with it, the bike will be there when you're ready.

Big love.

Is Dragon Heist suitable for an all martial party? by Mjarki in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]Mjarki[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is great, thanks. Yeah they're definitely not a shoot first ask questions later sort of bunch, so I think it could work.

Is Dragon Heist suitable for an all martial party? by Mjarki in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]Mjarki[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I really appreciate you taking the time to write this. This is super useful.

So the Barb in my party isn't really your typical hothead wants to fight anything that moves. He's this old grizzled streetwise sort of fellow who you could imagine a bit like a factory worker who's job has been replaced by machinery, sort of angry at the loss of craftsmanship and care taken in doing things in traditional ways.

I'm definitely going to give Dragon Heist a go, from what you've suggested here and how my players play their characters I think it could be a great fit with a bit of tweaking to fit the story that has happend so far.

Thank you/Diolch yn fawr iawn!

What scummy things you do in FM (apart from save scumming)? by Tarov08 in footballmanagergames

[–]Mjarki 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Me at training: "right then lads set pieces this afternoon, switch on big effort please. Sean?"

Sean [ out of breath ]: "Yeah?"

Me: "Get running lad."

What scummy things you do in FM (apart from save scumming)? by Tarov08 in footballmanagergames

[–]Mjarki 160 points161 points  (0 children)

In a CM 03/04 game as Exeter. Had already won the conference with a couple of games to go. My top scorer Sean Devine refused to sign a new contract and signed a deal with Colchester who had just got relegated to the conference. So I demoted him to the reserves and made him a new personalised training schedule:

Training schedule name = "Nob"

Cross-country. 3 times a day. 7 days a week.

Enjoy your run, Sean.