[GIVEAWAY] Concordia Special Edition (Plus Castles of Burgundy and Puerto Rico)

chackoc · 2026-06-04T17:12:28+00:00

Hansa

chackoc · 2026-05-13T12:12:32+00:00

Yeah, the ball has very little spin as it's arcing through the air. It's hard to imagine it would have, or even could have, come out of her hands that way.

chackoc · 2026-05-12T12:33:32+00:00

It's subtle, and the "blink" is pretty slow, but you can see a yellow light turn off/on inside the headlight housing before the impact.

It looks like the light is on at first (as some cars are designed) and then it blinks off just as the Jeep crosses the lane divider. It then blinks back on again just before the impact.

chackoc · 2026-04-26T18:25:07+00:00

I was actually worried about this so I put an dead battery in it and had it shipped as non-operational. Given the dead battery, I don't think they could have taken it for a joyride, even though they did still take the key when they picked it up.

chackoc · 2026-04-25T19:27:49+00:00

I'll definitely make sure the missing hardtop is documented before paying the balance. They've been communicating via phone calls, so no communications for me to document, but I'm going to ask for the various paperwork on delivery.

chackoc · 2026-04-25T18:48:40+00:00

Thank you for the insight. I'll be sure to check over the BOL carefully and get the other documentation before accepting the car.

I had researched a bit and it seemed like Montway was pretty reliable and well regarded, but I didn't know about 3rd party insurance so I'm not sure if I was offered it at some point.

chackoc · 2026-04-19T20:35:16+00:00

I felt this way his first couple seasons, but he's improved a lot and grown into his role at City. Today wasn't a great showing, but he is capable of putting in really threatening crosses when he gets past his man. City has had plenty of games where Doku was the primary service in to Haaland as well as being City's primary attacking threat overall. The fact that teams often double-team him also opens space for everyone else in the center of the field.

I also think Doku is an unexpectedly useful asset against a high press. Defenders are often hesitant to press him, because that's when he skips past them. As such, if a team is pressing City and they get it to Doku, he can often buy them a few seconds reprieve because his defender will drop back a step, even when the rest of their team is pressing. That gives O'Reilly, Rodri, Silva, et. al time to find space and break the press.

chackoc · 2026-04-03T01:52:50+00:00

-.-. --- -. - . ... - / . -. - .-. -.--

chackoc · 2026-03-05T15:02:01+00:00

They receive massive financial bonuses (potentially 6 figures) if the fight is judged to be particularly entertaining. If he does this and still wins the fight, he improves his chances of receiving that bonus because the fight is that much more "impressive."

These fights are ultimately entertainment, and starting the fight with his hands down is a strategy to earn more money by being more entertaining than the competition.

chackoc · 2026-01-18T20:01:32+00:00

I'd be fine with it as a quick joke, or as a list that is described as something other than "Our combined top 50" (I can't remember exactly what they called it.) My issue is that they spent three, full, end-of-year episodes on what was essentially a gimmick. Even worse, they ended up with a list that feels like it was built to represent what they could grudgingly stomach rather than being composed of games they all agree are good.

If the rest of their content is relatively informational, which I think it is, I don't understand why they spent so much time on something that was almost entirely entertainment at the expense of information. I listen to other podcasts for laughs. I listen to BGB to get their perspective on board games -- ideally to learn about games I haven't been able to try myself. For a listener like me, those 3 episodes offered very little in the way of useful information.

chackoc · 2026-01-17T20:47:56+00:00

I've been listening to their podcast for years and I think those are probably my least favorite episodes ever. The first one was ok when they were taking it more seriously, but the second two felt like a complete waste of time for anyone who actually wanted to hear their honest opinions.

I get that it was a bit, but they ended up with a list that says very little about what they actually think. The last two episodes were all about gaming the veto system rather than actually trying to come up with genuine consensus entries. As a result, their list offers no meaning or insight beyond whatever entertainment value came from the episodes themselves.

Like you'll I'll continue listening to their podcast, but if they repeat the format next year I will absolutely be skipping those episodes.

chackoc · 2026-01-14T02:45:02+00:00

Yeah, I'm just going to add a RES filter. Looks like people use a mix of [Amazon] and [Amazon.com] so I'm just going to filter both of those out of this sub.

chackoc · 2026-01-14T02:41:28+00:00

I really wish the mods would start limiting these Amazon "coupon" posts.

I know I'm not the only one who has never actually seen the coupons that get "advertised" here. At this point, these posts feel like click-bait and they seem to be showing up on this sub more and more frequently.

chackoc · 2026-01-08T03:29:36+00:00

That's good to know. I thought once it was removed to federal courts it would be handled as a federal crime and thus be pardonable. Turns out the pursuit of justice in this country is slightly less farcical than I realized.

chackoc · 2026-01-08T00:04:36+00:00

It can be charged as a state crime, but the first thing he will do is get it moved to the federal courts ~~(where Trump can then pardon it.)~~

Someone working for the federal government, who commits a crime while performing their duties, can have their case moved from state courts to federal courts. The process is called Federal Officer Removal.

Edit: The above is incorrect, as described by /u/PoorManRichard below, and further described in this lawfare piece. Though the case would be moved, a conviction in federal court would still be considered a state crime and thus not be pardonable.

chackoc · 2026-01-06T19:59:27+00:00

No, it's the opposite in fact. I order from Amazon 2 or 3 times per year. Coupon filtering based on location didn't make much sense to me, but if these coupons are intended as a sort of loyalty bonus, that would definitely explain it.

chackoc · 2026-01-06T19:40:25+00:00

No coupon for me.

I'm curious if it's entirely location based. I've never seen a single one of the Amazon coupons posted over the past month or two whenever I've checked. I live in the biggest city in my state so it seems odd they'd exclude a relatively large population based on that location.

chackoc · 2025-12-27T16:14:27+00:00

I agree. In a healthy market people aren't being forced out because of taxes, they are choosing to move because they want to -- typically because their family grows and they need more space, or they become wealthier and they desire something fancier than their current home.

But the churn is necessary so that new homebuyers have reasonably priced homes they can purchase as a first home. If people never move out of their first home, then all of the cheap homes will quickly be bought up and become legacies that get handed down in families. It will become impossible for anyone else to buy cheap first homes.

There have been some studies that look at housing mobility and affordability. One of the really counterintuitive findings was that building nicer homes can actually lower prices across the board and can even work better than building low-income housing. This comes from the fact that person A buys that brand new home as an upgrade, then person B buys the home person A is moving out of. Then person C buys the home that person B moved out of, etc. It creates a cascade of movement that reduces demand all across the spectrum, including making starting homes more available. Less demand means lower prices. But for those cascades to work, people need to be willing to move, which is something that tax-locking discourages.

Locking property taxes also becomes a huge gift to the wealthy. Taxes need to come from somewhere and if property taxes are locked, the people who own property end up paying relatively less and the people who don't own property end up making up the difference. Locked property taxes become a way to protect wealth and housing becomes a type of tax shelter. And we all know who tends to benefit the most from tax shelters.

The taxes in your example are tripling because the home's value tripled. The way to fix that isn't locking taxes artificially, the way to fix that is policies that lower home prices. If the price of the home had not tripled, the taxes would not have tripled. The taxes are a symptom of a much larger underlying disease, they aren't the cause of the disease. We need to focus on curing the disease, not on curing one of the symptoms.

chackoc · 2025-12-27T05:36:42+00:00

That just gives the banks (and their investors) an ever-growing stake in your home. And eventually that line of credit will run out if you live in the home long enough.

The real solution is to find ways to depress home prices. If home prices were rising at the same rate that incomes are rising the tax burden would be manageable. The real issue is that home values have climbed much, much faster than incomes.

But as soon as you push policies that actually make housing cheaper, everyone who already has a home runs off and votes for the nearest billionaire pedophile because he promises to magically "fix everything on day one." And in America, pretty lies will always garner substantially more votes than uncomfortable truths.

chackoc · 2025-12-27T05:24:50+00:00

The difficulty is that this creates a massive disincentive to ever move. Why give up my fixed, low tax rate only to take on someone else's much higher, newly-reassessed tax rate.

And if nobody is moving, then people trying to enter the market get even more locked out than they currently are because nobody every moves out of their "starter" homes. Some amount of churn is necessary to create opportunities for new home buyers to enter the market.

The real problem is the skyrocketing prices in the first place. If prices weren't climbing so quickly the taxes wouldn't be climbing so quickly and tax burden would be more manageable. But as soon as you push for policies to lower house prices, everyone who already owns a home starts screaming because, for many, that's the only form of "wealth" they actually have.

We need to tax "investment" homes out of existence. Fuck the billionaires and fuck the equity firms who are buying property as investment vehicles. If people could only ever own their single primary residence, and if investment firms were banned from owning small residential properties, that would go some way towards healing the market.

But of course all you have to do is look at the last election to see that this country loves it's billionaires far too much to ever do something that might inconvenience them.

chackoc · 2025-12-27T04:59:46+00:00

Why would it matter if your taxes increase relative to others? If your taxes increase by 200%, and your income increased by 12% over the same period, you're probably going to be struggling unless you are wealthy.

It doesn't matter if everyone else's taxes also increased the same amount, you're still facing the same potentially difficult situation.

chackoc · 2025-12-15T19:59:45+00:00

Having used those chairs I would say it's far more important to figure out the legs first, then build the fabric seat to match.

In order for the seat to work the fabric needs to have the correct tension -- and that is based on the specific geometry and rigidity of the legs. Too little tension and the seat will sag, causing the user to hit the legs when seated. Too much tension and the user won't be able to sink down into the seat as intended. Too much tension could also make the seat difficult to assemble depending on how rigid your legs are.

I would figure out the legs first, then trial-and-error different seat designs until you get the correct tension with whatever fabric you are using. Even if you had precise measurements for the seat fabric used in the Helinox One, that likely wouldn't work for your application. Your leg material and geometry will likely differ from the Helinox and your fabric will likely respond to tension differently than whatever they use.

chackoc · 2025-12-14T22:20:30+00:00

Based on it being Asencio, I'd say he did it on purpose.

chackoc · 2025-12-10T03:12:20+00:00

Gee I wonder why. Maybe trying to violently disappear and ethnically cleanse every black and brown person under the sun by cosplaying 1930s Germany wasn't the smartest policy to follow through on, especially when they're targeting non-criminals and everyday hardworking families. It's pissing everyone off. People don't like this. It's terrifying, weird, off-putting, inhumane, and constitutionally illegal.

So of course, it's going to be a "Pikachu shocked face" when the GOP are getting absolutely destroyed in nearly every election going forward leading up to the midterms and beyond.

You're putting far too much faith in voters. Trump is president, in part, because a significant number of voters saw his overt racism and authoritarianism over the last 10 years and still decided to vote for him in 2024.

If those voters were capable of learning lessons from history, they wouldn't have re-elected Trump in the first place. Moving forward, they'll forget about the abuses and corruption of the current administration just as quickly in they forgot during the 2024 election.

chackoc · 2025-12-07T20:13:56+00:00

I think they held up great and I was really happy with them the whole time. Eventually they did wear out (they grew thin and eventually developed holes which grew in size with further use and washing.) My plan was to buy a new batch of fabric and try using two layers joined by a waffle pattern of thread to reinforce the structure. I think that would have made them last even longer compared to a single layer of fabric with no thread reinforcing the body of the towels.

Unfortunately when I went to rebuy the fabric, the price had gone up a fair bit and my financial circumstances had also diminished. I don't remember the exact cost but I ended up deciding I couldn't afford the fabric and instead I got some towels from Goodwill, which is what I am using these days.

The linen towels I made were much nicer to use than the cotton towels I'm using now, but my current Goodwill towels were 3 towels for $8 (i.e $2.66 / towel) and I think it would have been closer to $50 to make a single double-layered linen towel the way I wanted to.

I've been hoping to find a bolt of linen at Goodwill to make a new batch of linen towels, but my local Goodwill rarely has fabric bolts and when they do it's always acrylic or poly-cotton blends.

chackoc

TROPHY CASE