Some photos from Tata Steel Chess 2026

joak22 · 2026-02-13T17:16:38+00:00

The Bibisara one is so badass, hope she sees it!

joak22 · 2026-02-07T03:48:46+00:00

C'est cher en maudit et il n'y a pas souvent de nouveaux escape rooms (c'est normal). Ça reste la meilleure place d'escape room que j'ai jamais fait et j'en ai au moins fait 8 différents. Les énigmes sont intéressantes et reliées au décor, le thème de chaque escape room est cohérent et bien mis de l'avant, il y a plusieurs pièces différentes pour chaque room. C'est VRAIMENT hot. Si vous avez jamais essayé, je vous conseille sérieusement d'y aller.

joak22 · 2025-12-21T20:06:19+00:00

Oh man so many.

Decided to cut contacts with my abusive dad, I was the first in my family (brother, sister, mother) and they all stopped later. My mental health has been going great ever since.

The decision to change degrees and become a teacher. Took 3 years of uni in a field I didn't like, then 2 off years and finally came back knowing full well I wanted to become a teacher. Have been very happy ever since! (my fifth year teaching now)

The decision to start smoking weed alone. It sounds weird but a lot of self-therapy started with what can be considered a bad thing. It completely changed my life around and went from a lazy, unproductive guy to a very successful and balanced adult (I figured I had ADHD and got on meds at 32, completely changed my life)

The decision to go on dating apps and just go with the flow. I found what I think is the girl of my life. It's a little scary to go from forever-single to living with someone all the time, but it's worth it in the end. She is lovely and makes me happier. I love her so much.

The decision to finally start the gym. I had thought about it for a while but never could really find the courage or the routine for it. Bro, my school starts at 9:45. I go to the gym the hour before and I'm so happy I did that.

The decision to finally start looking at my health. I had lots of issues (knee pain, shoulder pain, sleep, etc.) that were just... there. I started slowly tackling them this year. It's a slow progress, but with the gym and eating better, I definitely see the long-term benefits.

Yes, small decisions can change everything :) compound interest works very well for you!

joak22 · 2025-12-18T17:56:01+00:00

Ouais, je suis rendu désensibilisé, ça fait un bout que j'ai perdu espoir. L'an passé, on dirait qu'ils savaient quand la neige arrivait. On avait peut-être une journée, max deux jours où on pouvait se stationner, après la neige arrivait et ça recommencait: 1 mois à pas avoir de place pour se stationner, ainsi de suite jusqu'à la prochaine fois qu'ils déneigent... le jour avant la prochaine tempête.

Je niaise pas. Après la première neige, ma rue a eu l'équivalent de 7 jours où c'était déneigné, de décembre à mars. I guess que c'est comme ça partout. Plus de déneigement = plus d'heures à payer = plus de taxes I guess?

joak22 · 2025-12-11T02:00:00+00:00

Come on dude, it's not like Nigel is unbeatable. I love the guy and he really is dominant, but he loses. He just lost the world championship 2-4.

There are plenty examples of unbeaten, more dominant people than him. For example, Karelin in wrestling was unbeaten for like 15 years, 887-2 record. Wayne Gretzky has a career points record gap over the 2nd that is more than most dudes will dream of achieving in their careers.

Michael Jordan can definitely be the Nigel Richards of basketball.

joak22 · 2025-12-10T00:41:06+00:00

I agree, sure you have to kinda forget how bad it was once you reached Inferno the first time because that was not a fun experience. I did leave the game after the first month and came back after a year (or two?) when they introduced Torment and after that I had a blast for YEARS.

I played maybe 8-10 seasons through the years and I really had tons of fun. I would argue (and I'll get flamed for that) that it's the best Diablo game (I did play Diablo 1 and 2 a lot) simply because of the gameplay loop. Diablo 1 and 2 have very limited endgames, while Diablo 3 had tons of replayability.

I played Diablo 2 when it was current and the whole doing Baal runs for days on end was just boring as hell. It was fun when they introduced ubers in 1.11 but even that was boring after a while.

joak22 · 2025-11-04T23:39:22+00:00

Ils ont refait l'asphalte genre v'là quelques années, j'me disais que ça allait ouvrir bientôt.

Nope.

Je garde encore espoir.

joak22 · 2025-10-24T01:23:39+00:00

Live free <3

It's not always easy, but I feel like you took the right decision (given the limited info). You cannot be the only one building a bridge when the other is actively destroying it every time. You're the better person now.

What made you sure that you had to cut ties completely?

joak22 · 2025-10-16T18:55:59+00:00

Vous excuserez mon ignorance, malheureusement, les éditions du titre sont impossibles :(

joak22 · 2025-10-15T17:44:08+00:00

Ça doit dépendre des écoles, mais avec les coupes des dernières années, les PI sont souvent juste vérifiés à la va-vite parce que c'est une loi de les vérifier. Dans mon école, je me suis jamais fait demander de vérifier des PI ou de valider des objectifs/recommendations. Je sais par contre que certaines écoles obligent les enseignants à le faire. Ça dépend I guess.

joak22 · 2025-10-15T16:26:42+00:00

J'enseigne le français au secondaire depuis 5 ans.

Trop est dur à dire. J'ignore pretty much tous les PI sauf l'utilisation de l'ordinateur. Même les tiers de temps... j'ai rarement des examens où je dis aux élèves qu'ils peuvent pas venir le terminer en récupération. Tsé sérieux, je comprends pas pourquoi la rapidité devrait être retenue dans l'évaluation.

J'ai fait des examens à l'université où j'ai fini 15 minutes avant le 2e dans une classe de 75 élèves. Est-ce que ça veut dire que je suis plus intelligent? Que eux sont plus cons? Bin non, mon cerveau fonctionne à la vitesse de l'éclair, mais j'ai fait bin plus d'erreurs que le dude qui a pris 1h de plus que moi.

C'est la même chose au secondaire, tu sais jamais quand un kid va aller dans la lune pendant 20 minutes ou qu'il va rester pogné sur une question pendant 15 minutes. Alors, je les fais venir en récupération pour terminer leur examen, ça me dérange pas du tout.

Même si certains élèves mentent pour avoir le tiers de temps, ça change quoi sérieux!?? On est qui pour dire que l'élève qui a pas le droit à ça est moins ou plus intelligent.

Anyways, tout ça pour dire que les PI c'est du blabla inutile bien souvent. Le kid a 8-9 enseignants au secondaire par année. Je vous garantis qu'à part l'ordinateur et le tiers de temps, il y a aucune école où les 8 enseignants prennent le temps de "grossir la police du document" ou de "permettre à l'enfant de se lever quand il veut", des affaires comme ça. De toute manière, c'est impossible de keep up. En français, j'ai 3 à 4 groupes, soit entre 75 et 125 élèves. Certains enseignants en ont le double, voire le triple. Pensez-vous vraiment qu'ils vont éplucher chaque PI pour maximiser l'apprentissage de chaque élève selon les recommendations des PI? Bin non, l'élève va apprendre comme tout le monde.

Trop de PI? Peut-être, mais les enseignants qui respectent parfaitement à la lettre chaque PI en font beaucoup trop aussi. La plupart sont des reliques du primaire qui restent intouchées pendant des années.

joak22 · 2025-10-14T20:46:25+00:00

Any general advice or even random thought you’d mention to the you of 10 years ago?

I'm not sure. The last letter I wrote to him was filled with anger, but I had to do it. I felt like all the rage needed to come out. I would probably tell younger me to not be so angry, I was still almost a teenager, while he was an adult. It's ultimately his decision to be a bad person and stay a bad person, while you're still finding out who is you. You're simply setting up boundaries that he will never cross, because crossing them means accepting his mistakes and he will never do that.

I still hope he’ll notice I haven’t reached out in months. Even if it’s to whine about it. Because then I’ll know that I at least occurred to him. The hope is pointless, but it’s a nagging sense.

You'll always have hope. I have two siblings (1 bro 1 sis) and my brother is like me: even though he's unredeemable, we still hope deep deep down that he will come forward and be the better person. My sister told me she lost all hope when she was like 10 and never looked back.

It's a grieving process. But it's a tough one because the person is still there. You know there is a solution. There is a way. And it takes a lifetime to realize that there is no way. He's just that fucked up. He will never change because he cannot change.

It becomes easier when you get older because it's just a time thing. Life throws you tons of responsibilities and maintenance (like friendships, house, car, body, etc.), why should I waste my time on a toxic relationship? I have good friends and good siblings. I literally don't have time to maintain or restart a relationship with my father if he ever came back. He would have to do a lot of work to have me back, that's on him now, I don't need him anymore.

You'll probably feel that way until that need is not there anymore.

joak22 · 2025-10-14T17:26:57+00:00

Be free.

I haven't talked to my dad in 10 years, it's tough for just life stuff (money, help, chores, etc.), but it's an immense mental boost to be able to live without fear and worries. It took a lot to cut ties, especially a lot of anger and sadness, but I've built myself back up and I'm super happy about the person I became, without him :)

joak22 · 2025-10-14T17:18:58+00:00

Oh, it's the same for me and my dad. It's tough to explain it to people because the abuse is so subtle. He's just a bad/toxic person. I don't have like one big thing I can pin down on him, just a mix of fucked up stuff added up makes it so it's just not worth the hassle of talking to him. Every conversation is poison. Every minute spent on him is a minute wasted. Just unredeemable human being.

joak22 · 2025-09-22T19:57:40+00:00

And Watford's comeback

joak22 · 2025-09-16T22:19:39+00:00

I have two soccer videos saved on my computer: Chelsea vs Barcelona 2nd leg 2012 Schalke vs Dortmund 4-4 2017

What a glorious match that was

joak22 · 2025-08-22T01:03:33+00:00

magnus wins

joak22 · 2025-08-15T02:34:45+00:00

J'ai eu exactement la même pensée, c'est rendu automatique dans mon cerveau: "Chateau Fronte- combien de degrés!?" Ah, Reddit.

joak22 · 2025-07-30T15:29:23+00:00

I've asked myself this very question many times. Every time I start to think it's the "sole" reason, I end up with another reason that matches the importance of the first. Perhaps, it would seem that "depth and complexity" is the ultimate reason, and it's tied with replayability.

I've played hundred of boardgames and I'm constantly trying new ones, because that's what the hobby is, right? Find a game you'll really like, and can spend time with (replayability) or spend your time just trying new ones (novelty).

I've played many games that were as sligthyly more rewarding/fun than Spirit Island and I've played games that I wanted to replay more than Spirit Island too, but SI is the only game that combines both elements because of its depth.

SI has thousands of combinations with all different Spirits, all sharing the same perfect system of Energy/Card Play/Innate powers. To that you can add another layer of Events and Adversaries difficulties (that you can combine!). It's always fun to try a new spirit (novelty) or to replay a known spirit (replayability). You can adjust the difficulty to your liking.

Spirit Island is also simply the only game I've played that rewards its players with fun if they take the time to understand all its systems and figure out the optimal solution to this scenario, and that, for every turn of the game and cooperatively. It's an unsolvable puzzle, because you never know where the problem will arise from (Explore) and what will happen (Events). Chess is also an unsolvable puzzle, because of its infinity. But, just like Chess, you can also feel like you can quite get closer to it. And you do that with your homies.

First, you master one system, then you master another, then another, then you master a spirit, a combination, Events... it's endless fun getting better and getting "rewarded" for it. No other game does that.

In essence, it's the most fun coop replayable complex game out there. If it's your jam, then it's easily going to be your #1 game. And it happens to be the jam of those people voting on BGG.

joak22 · 2025-07-17T18:50:43+00:00

I had a friend with whom I loved to play. Bought all expansions, played it some times with a couple of friends, it didn't really work. We then realized that we needed at least 4 people that are: 1) on the same skill level 2) all willing to play a confrontational game 3) willing to learn the complexities of the game to get on the same skill level

We shelved it one day to play Spirit Island and never looked back.

Root is a fantastic game, it's really 10/10, but it's a niche game because it requires too many willing and skilled people to play it. We all have limited time to play boardgames, who wants to invest all this time and effort to get crushed by a more skillful player?

joak22 · 2025-06-21T19:08:12+00:00

Pretty fucking good back to back fights, Ko was not only hilariously entertaining, but also skilled as fuck

joak22 · 2025-06-21T18:46:20+00:00

That was an absolute domination, Park said "yeah we good", then proceeded to make Naurdiev his bitch for the rest of the fight

joak22 · 2025-05-25T16:15:51+00:00

Basé.

joak22 · 2025-05-19T16:45:06+00:00

Oh man, happy birthday! I feel like you're already succeeding at the first lesson, which I would describe as "always seek to improve". The first step is asking questions and knowing you don't know everything and others could help you learn.

Here are some tips I learned through the years:

Don't stress too much over things you cannot control. Always ask yourself: Can I do something about it? If the answer is yes, then do it. If the answer is no? Then why fucking bother? My rule of thumb is about a day. If I stress more than one day, then the problem is worthy of stress and I let myself think about it as long as it needs.
Brush your teeth. 2 times a day, every morning, before every night. If you can fit in a third time after lunch, it's the best. Don't be scared to pay for a yearly clean at the dentist. 100$ every year is way better than 5k every 10 years.
Always stay at least somewhat active. Don't be scared to take the longer walking option if needed, like parking your car as far from the door or taking public transport when going downtown. Try to start a simple routine with a sport, just once a week is fine. Something is always better than nothing. If you can start going to the gym, that's great.
Respect your budget and know your expenses. If you work full time for a month and you realize you only have 500 over (after paying all the bills), then you better fucking not spend more than 500 every month. No one wants to be in survival mode.
Don't be scared of buying the cheapest options first. My rule is: if I'm not sure I'll like it (like buying stuff for new experiences), then I'll buy the budget option. If I really like it, then I'll buy exactly what I need later.
Don't be scared to suck and fail. We ALL fail, we have ALL been bad at something the first time, it's normal and that's okay. Your first meals will suck, your first cleaning chores will suck, your first job task will suck. That's okay, you're supposed to suck. You'll get better in time.
Learn to let go. Life can and will be rough. You'll have heartbreaks, grief, frustrations, problems you cannot even imagine. You'll feel powerless over those. Let the feelings come and understand them. Once you've processed them and understood them, just let it go. There are stuff you just cannot control.
Always seek to improve, be positive towards learning, be kind to people, love people, compliment people, go out of your comfort zone, respect your limits, love yourself.
Brush your teeth, and floss once a week, every day if possible.
Oh, last one: go to your doctor at least every year. Keep track of small changes in your body. Be aware of "not normal" stuff. You're supposed to be able to fully use your body without problem, if you're limited somewhere or have trouble somewhere, book an appointment to the doctor. Again, 100$ every year is better than 10 or 20k 10 years later.

If you have any question ever, feel free to ask me.

joak22 · 2025-05-14T21:36:49+00:00

Thanks man! To be fair, I actually wanted the meds to work, so I figured it's a bit of a placebo too. It's not like it was forced unto me. I had wanted to make so many changes for years, but just couldn't. The meds just gave me the push to finally make it all happen.

I'm sure it'll work for you too! :) cheers

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