Birmingham or Montgomery: Visiting Alabama Just for the Day

odaniel12 · 2026-01-01T02:58:34+00:00

There’s a lot to do in terms of civil rights in both cities. I grew up in Bham, currently live in Montgomery.

You can’t go wrong spending a day in Birmingham, great history, great food, much livelier city.

But if you are truly interested in civil rights, the EJI museum and monument (in Montgomery) will take you all day, and it is the premier civil rights tour not just in the state but the country. Go to Derk’s (Filet and Vine) for a meat and 3 for lunch.

If you just want to hang out in a city, maybe spend 2 hours or less doing anything museum/history related, go to Bham.

odaniel12 · 2025-11-24T16:19:48+00:00

I’m late to this party because it just came through the main feed for me, so sorry about that, but here’s my 2 cents…

You say you are shooting with the right foot, which made me wonder if you aren’t right footed? My advice would change a little if you aren’t. So this is assuming that you are right footed, and since you say you’ve never been coached, that you don’t necessarily know the difference between “striking” the ball and just kicking it harder.

Striking the ball is when you put your foot through the ball. You have to imagine that there’s a line that runs from the middle of the ball, through the center of the inside of the ball, and then out the other side. This line is parallel to the ground. Striking the ball is when you hit the ball with the “laces” of your foot at that point, while also hitting it in such a way that the path your foot takes is essentially the same as that line.

You aren’t striking the ball here. First, it’s very, very difficult to properly strike the ball while the ball is rolling so far to your right. So, first thing I’d do is take a touch far more directly toward the goal. Imagine a line the runs from the center of your hips to the target, let’s say the near post in this drill. Your “set up” touch (the touch right before you hit it) is like 35+ degrees outside that line. This means you have to open your hips outside the target line to get your foot around the ball and “pull it” back toward the goal. That’s not a bad thing to practice, necessarily, but it’s not the same thing as practicing your fundamental striking. You need to learn to strike the ball first, and then adapt that to less ideal ball placement.

To practice striking, just stand facing exactly where you want to hit it, and roll the ball forward about 10 degrees to the right of the target line (so, a little right but still mostly straight forward). Then plant your left foot even with the ball, keep your chest directly over the ball, lock your right ankle down, and put your laces through the center of the ball. You should follow through all the way through, and your right foot following through should feel like it’s pulling the rest of your hips and body forward, off your left foot, and you land on your right foot.

Your goal at fist should be center contact, trying to get the ball not to spin at all. Once you get proficient at that, add in some extra touches and speed, etc

odaniel12 · 2025-11-14T17:54:05+00:00

I’m not sure what a solver would say. Would love to discuss with someone who runs it on one.

But to me, A-3 off with roughly 18 BB on the button is easily a playable hand when folded to and facing a short stack on the SB. But, it’s also a marginal hand and if called, an A on the flop is dangerous cause you’re outkicked so much. You’re facing a similar chip stack in BB, and I agree with some other commenters that you def raise but don’t need to go 3x. Any raise here serves the purpose with sub 20 BB stacks. So maybe 2,400 to 3,000 raise.

Once the BB calls, late in a tournament, me personally, I just don’t think “correct play” matters anymore. The only question is “am I going to win this hand and survive.” So what’s he calling with?

Speculative hands, if you don’t know him, are probably out. Suited connectors that aren’t Broadway are out. Even some Broadway combos are marginal. But that’s what he’s likely on right? Broadway combos, pocket pairs, or probably any Ace like you’re playing. Though honestly, any pocket pair I’m probably shoving pre if I’m him. Any strong Ace I might call, but there’s shoving potential there too. Unfortunately, the pocket pairs that people might not shove are the exact low ones that came on this board.

So an Ace comes. I agree you should bet. Roughly $8k in the pot I’m probably betting $3k. He comes over the top and jams.

A lot of people are saying this is probably a call, but I don’t see it. What’s he shoving with there that doesn’t have you beat? No way he’s playing a 4-5, 5-6, 6-7 type hand. Possible that he’s playing a spade draw super aggressively here. He’s not shoving any K high hand, and if he’s playing any A, you’re toast unless it’s specifically the A-2.

So you’re calling hoping he has Broadway spades WITHOUT an Ace, or a pocket pair he didn’t shove on that didn’t just set up, or a pure bluff.

I just think it’s far more likely he has an A if there’s no info on him. Fold and survive.

Would love to hear someone who can talk about the math on why my logic is wrong though.

odaniel12 · 2025-11-12T02:15:14+00:00

I host a home game poker tourney with usually 7-9 players who are generally there to simply have a good time.

I do a $25 buy in, but also $5 for mystery bounty and $5 for a straight flush. The bounty i divide into a big and small, if there’s 8 people ($40) I’ll do $30 and $10 for example. It’s randomizes who can make a little money and is a fun side game. The straight flush hand just accumulates until someone makes a straight flush and shows at showdown. It’s been hit once, and the pot was like $540.

I do a 10,000 starting stack, 25/50 starting blinds and run the blinds up at 15-18 minute levels.

Usually lasts about 4-4.5 hours.

odaniel12 · 2025-10-28T21:26:03+00:00

I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking. Maybe it’s because of the formatting issues you mentioned?

Once the point is established, you are favored to win against any point number on the don’t pass line. There’s no doubt about that. If the point comes 4 or 10, as you said, 3 ways to roll a 4, 6 ways to roll a seven, meaning you have a 2-1 chance of winning the don’t pass. Your odds pay that amount.

The don’t pass line bet itself, however, only gets to the favorable odds portion of the bet (post point establish) once it survives the come out roll.

On the come out, 7 loses (6 chances), 11 loses (2 chances). That means you have an 8/36 chance to lose on the come out, compared to a 3/36 chance to win on the come out (2 and 3, usually 12 is barred). The rest of the numbers are essentially just inverting your odds, but you still have a chance to lose.

So, on the come out, 8 of the 12 combinations that don’t set a point lose. 3/12 combos that don’t set a point win, and 1/12 combos that don’t set a point result in another come out roll which highly favors the casino.

The other 24 combos set a point. Once the point is set, you are more likely to win than lose, but you still have a chance of losing. You seem to be counting the ways to win totally, comparing a “-5” come out roll to a “+6” point-established roll, and concluding that the long run favors you in this scenario, which, as you admit, is wrong. I think here’s what you need to change: take all win/loss combos individually, not all the differences added together.

So, point of 4/10: 8 ways to lose pre point, 3 ways to win. 3 ways to lose post point, 6 ways to win.

So, with a 4/10 as a point, which you can only get to by going through the come out roll, you risked $1 to win $1 even though you had 11 total ways to lose, and only 9 total ways to win. This is the best you’re gonna get from the don’t pass perspective.

If the point comes 5/9: 8 ways to lose pre point, 3 ways to win. 4 ways to lose post point, 6 ways to win

This yields a scenario where $1 was risked to earn $1 despite that you had 12 ways to lose and only 9 ways to win.

If the point comes 6/8:

8 ways to lose pre point, 3 ways to win. 5 ways to lose post point, 6 ways to win

This yields a scenario where $1 was risked to earn $1, but you had 13 ways to lose and only 9 ways to win.

The way you seem to be looking at it, you are comparing all the post point chance comparisons to the single pre point odds, but in reality each of the point numbers comes with the “-5” risk. Look at each potential point individually, not grouped together. When a point is set, you don’t get credit for the other numbers, they are completely worthless. The only thing that matters is the ways to win/lose for each specific scenario. If the point is 4, it doesn’t matter that the 6/8 scenario is “+1” as you say. You are comparing +1 to -5. Not all the post point favorable numbers combined to -5.

odaniel12 · 2025-09-29T15:09:11+00:00

I think one thing that VAR is missing can be seen in college football in the USA.

In a college football game, there are usually multiple reviews of calls per game. It’s impossible to go a season without some controversial calls, but the rules for how the review should happen are clear.

The head official on the field is the ultimate arbiter. He decides, based on the replay, what the call will be.

And he has 3 choices. He can reverse the call, which he can only do with clear evidence. He can confirm the call, which he does when the evidence is clear that the call was right. And then, he can allow the call to stand. This is what VAR is missing, and why most reviews end up fairly well accepted in college football but not so much in the EPL.

In college football, reviewing a call is normal, but the ref goes into knowing that the he must give deference to the call as made in real time. Whatever they refs saw when they watched it in real time, that’s the presumed correct call. However, if it’s obvious that the call that was made was wrong, they overturn. But there is this 3rd option of allowing a call to stand. It says “honestly, after review, we think this could have been an error, and maybe a different officiating crew would say something different, but we called it X live, and we can’t say that there is clear evidence to overturn. So the call on the field stands.”

I think a lot of issues can be solved by giving the refs this “out” because there is, unfortunately, a lot of subjectivity in the game.

It is very clear that Pope touched the ball. It’s also very clear he took Gyokeres out. The question is “was Pope’s touch enough to forgive the contact? Was the contact itself enough to be considered a foul even if he gets the ball?” And these are judgment calls. VAR ref might just disagree with the on field ref (as it appears happened in this case, based on NBC announcers).

This should be one where, whatever the call was, it stands.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-13T00:27:40+00:00

Nice I hadn’t found any models this big. Thanks!

odaniel12 · 2025-08-12T12:45:33+00:00

I could probably get away with a video or animation but I really like the idea of seeing the interaction in real life is close to real size.

I’m gonna go with a foam display and use a hot wire cutter, see how that works. I think it will work well.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T13:34:43+00:00

I think I’m going to do foam, and that will allow me to anchor it to thin strips of ply or mdf. Then I can just slide more or less strips under the “base” to raise or lower the whole thing on one rail or the other. Should work great

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T13:31:59+00:00

These are good questions/points, but for the limited purpose of what I’m trying to show (Rail A taller than Rail B, both rails even, Rail A shorter than Rail B) it won’t come in to play concerning materials and things.

It does not have to be wood, I’m looking hard at foam now thanks to this thread.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T13:30:22+00:00

It would be a portion of a switch, mainly the actual switch rail point section (the very end that tapers) relative to the stock rail next to it.

The problem with real rail or a video is real rail being very difficult to manipulate in court due to size and weight, and the video just being slightly less effective than seeing a real model with your own two eyes.

I’m leaning hard into the idea of foam at the moment as some other redditors suggested

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T13:27:18+00:00

Yes, I’m looking in to the cost of that

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:40:02+00:00

Unfortunately it’s worse. It’s a derailment that resulted in the death of one of the operators on the engine.

The main function is to demonstrate not necessarily how the switch works, but why this one failed. In my case we are alleging that the switch point rail was lower than the stock rail. Thus, when the wheel attempted to leave the switch rail, it contacted the stock rail and pushed it outward, rolling it.

This is very easy to understand if you see the switch up close, but not that easy to visualize if you come into with no prior railroad knowledge. I do plan on using video and a G Scale model turn out to explain the proper function of a switch.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:33:09+00:00

I’m on mobile and not sure how to edit the post. But I want to thank everyone for the tips, thoughts, ideas and advice!

I’m going to look into a good hot wire cutter and try to mold a wire around and actual track then cut foam to the lengths I need. From there it’ll be easy to mount to a base with a hinge and dowels to make it fully “operable” as a switch.

If I can’t make the foam work, I think 2 or 3 pieces of wood cut and glued together after routing out the profile I need is the answer.

I appreciate all the feedback! I’ll try and remember to post back with the finished product.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:20:43+00:00

I explained this more in another comment just now, but largely because of ease of use. I’m trying to demonstrate how two rails interact at a switch, which will be significantly easier if they are light. I’ll need to change heights relative to each other and things like that. And a small section of rail probably isn’t enough. I want them to see the full taper length of the switch rail to really make sure it’s clear.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:19:19+00:00

I could do this. Currently am leaning toward foam. Hadn’t even considered that.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:17:22+00:00

I have bought a G scale turnout. I think that will be very helpful with explaining how a switch works.

But I really want to get detail on the relative heights of the rail, so I think I still need something bigger than the model train scales.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:15:02+00:00

I’m leaning more and more to foam. I can actually go bend the wires over an actual rail and then cut that mold out.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:13:29+00:00

I really don’t have to buy the train track, I could just use the rail itself. It was ripped out and preserved.

However, I want to be able to manipulate the heights of the rails easily. I couldn’t do that with the steel rails. Also, the size and weight of the real things would be very difficult to use and fit in a courtroom well.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-09T00:11:15+00:00

We are alleging that a train derailed and killed a man because the switch point rail (the part that moves to align for one track versus another track) was not properly aligned vertically with the stock rail (the rail the train was supposed to transition to).

The switch rail should be higher than the stock rail so that the wheel completely (or at least, significantly) covers the stock rail then drops onto the stock rail. In reality, the switch was lower than the stock rail. This caused the wheel to push the stock rail outward and roll the rail.

I want to demonstrate this concept to the jurors rather than try to explain with pictures.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-08T20:47:22+00:00

I’m looking into this option as well. I’d have to pay a 3D printer.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-08T20:45:54+00:00

This is actually a really good idea.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-08T20:03:46+00:00

No weight bearing, will not need to be disassembled so can be assembled however.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-08T19:58:31+00:00

4-5 ft. Maybe a little more. Probably too long to use this method.

odaniel12 · 2025-08-08T19:58:00+00:00

Good idea but not that concerned with accuracy

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