Gustav

I knew how the top end would go ahead of time, so there's that...it did kind of suggest to me that a 2nd would be used on a forward for the sake of balance, so I guess I had some level of insight. As for the first three, yes. I like to think we'd like to have #18 back, but sometimes things just don't go the way we want. I think it's realistic that we'll end up competing, since we're in the NA conference. If we make a good buy or two, and our top earners keep top earning, I think 4th and at least winning the wildcard is very reachable. This is a very tough one because I'm into a lot of different styles and I don't like to compare one group to another across those. At different times in my life it's been Phish, The Grateful Dead, Return to Forever, Herbie Hancock, Pink Floyd, King Crimson...too many to choose and not at all comparable to each other. The last musician I got really into was Hiromi, a massively talented piano player from Japan, but I can't say I have a single favorite at the moment. ...honestly, it might be War Dogs. It's a basic Jonah Hill comedy, but I think I watched it at a time when that was exactly what I needed. It's probably not as good as I give it credit for, but that was the first one that came to mind when I tried to think of things I watched and actually enjoyed this year. I want to make the Hall of Fame! I have some thoughts related to playing up and starting off my career that I think I'll save for a .com, but Vandelay has the potential to be somewhat of a trailblazer and I'd love to see what I'm doing work out.

I'm in and can manage!

I'm a big fan of life updates, and I'm sure that many know that I've been guilty of using the forum to get my feelings out there before. If you ever need anything, feel free to hit me up. What's the best way to start working out consistently? I'm in the "have started but still very much a beginner" phase at the moment--I like what I've done so far but would love to be more informed about it.

And I have my new sig. Thanks a bunch!

The Wiki Game is exactly this. That page just tells me to download an app but it at least used to work as a browser game too. Also check out https://wikitrivia.tomjwatson.com

Hi! It's me! I'm bored! One thing I like to do when I'm bored is to look up a topic of interest on Wikipedia and see where the link-clicking gets me. I've come across a lot that I've found interesting, and I'd like to share some (I'm sure I'll be back with more that I think of if this thread gets some positive attention): It's a bit cheating to do this first bit, since they're collections rather than articles themselves, but here's a handful that I'll put in a separate category for that reason: List of unusual articles - I have spent DAYS on this one. List of unusual deaths List of hoaxes (general) List of hoaxes on Wikipedia 136 Creepy Wiki Articles Silly Things Some individual articles (with apologies for this being very geography-heavy): All-American Bowl Player of the Year Award - the high school equivalent of the Heisman for American football. I find the list of players who have received it super interesting, ranging from future Hall-of-Famers to marginally recognizable names to players who never made the NFL. As I just noticed, the winners from 2018 and 2019 were from the same school. Whittier, Alaska - a whole rabbit hole by itself. First, almost all people in the town live in one building. Second, it's the site of the longest tunnel in North America, at the end of the Portage Glacier Highway...on the other end of which is the ghost town of Portage, destroyed by an earthquake in 1964. Principality of Sealand - a decommissioned offshore platform that has been occupied and claimed as a sovereign state. Obviously unrecognized by anyone, but certainly interesting--and worth reading about. See also the list of micronations! Vermont Republic - in which Vermont attempted to be an independent country and ran itself for about 15 years after the American Revolution. Town Line, New York - while we're on the topic of geography, here's a bit of local history for me. A tiny part of the Buffalo area (less than 5 square miles) voted to secede from the Union during the American Civil War. As with most things like that (as you may be able to gather from the other articles here), it went unrecognized. Ismail al-Jazari - Mesopotamian inventor who created automatic devices and programmable machines...in the 12th century. With the technology and knowledge available, what he did is incredible...and I bet you've never heard of him. John von Neumann - incomprehensibly smart mathematician from the past century. I highly recommend trying to make sense of his life and the impact he was able to have, because I cannot. Kit Armstrong - I consider myself fairly good at both music and scientific stuff, but this guy is on another level for both. Druze - the Abrahamic religion you've probably never heard of. Some interesting characteristics--Jesus and Muhammad are both considered prophets, followers believe in reincarnation, and attending most organized activities relating to religious practice is seen as optional. Sark - an island in the English Channel which effectively practiced feudalism until 2009. Cars are banned and lifestyle remains fairly traditional. Tristan da Cunha - in a similar vein, another British territory. This time, it's the most remote inhabited island in the world. You're not allowed to move there and all land is collectively owned and farmed. History of Singapore - particularly following World War II. Japan loses the war and the territory after taking it from Britain, and it goes back to Britain and spends the next 10 or so years dealing with changes in its government and working toward independence (eventually granted in 1958). In 1963, present-day Malaysia forms as a merger between a handful of states (Singapore being one). Singapore is involved in a lot of racial and economic tension with the rest of Malaysia, and two years later Singapore is unanimously kicked out of Malaysia by the Parliament. SS United States - the largest ocean liner built entirely in the USA and the fastest ocean liner to ever cross the Atlantic. Decommissioned in 1969 and changing ownership many times since, it now sits empty in Philadelphia. ...well, it's getting late for me. I'd love to see what you've come across out there--let's learn some cool stuff together!

You did great in Miami as an AGM this season! If you ask me, don't sell yourself short--apply for those GM jobs. I think you're ready!

Oh, I'll still respond to everything--GMs will get largely the same info from me whether they send me something I think is relevant or not. I've just always thought of it as a bit weird when I get a message that would make me go way out of my way to give not much if responded to as intended.

Week 3!

I'll apply; always down for some good old nepotism.

Kranch may never be considered irrelevant

I'd like to take this opportunity to branch off of what @JCarson said earlier in this article, not exactly in the same way but from a different perspective. My perspective, of course, is that I'm an experienced member and a former GM who's gotten some amount of draft interviews, and as such, I've got something to say to the GMs out there: Before I go any further, I'm going to drop a disclaimer that I like to drop whenever I say something that could end up being taken the wrong way: I don't have anything against any of you, and I'm not looking for apologies. Please take this as constructive criticism rather than a shot at your GMing skills. Now that that's out of the way, I'll go ahead and say that I've found scouting this season, in general, in my own experience, to be subpar. I don't demand an interview from every team, I don't want to be treated like royalty, and I do get that every team has a long list of players to scout and not every player will get a message specifically tailored to them. That said, I'm going to drop a few do's and don'ts of scouting, because I've found a few things in my inbox, from more than one source, that I personally never would have sent as a GM and that would have been somewhat insulting were they sent only to scout me rather than a large pool of players. Please DO: Message me if you're thinking of drafting me! I want to hear from you and I want to hear that you're interested. I think everyone who would realistically be interested has reached out, so that's not a complaint. I just know that in the past, we've seen some teams blindside their draftees, even early ones, and it doesn't usually end well. If you aren't looking to draft me, I personally don't care whether or not you choose to message me, but if you do, I don't mind that either. Please do if you're interested, though! Understand that I have some level of experience. Too many teams have one copy-paste message and one only. I've been welcomed to the VHL, I've been given an introduction to who you are and which team you run, and I've been asked if I'm active on Discord (if you're asking me that, are you active on Discord?). That and more! If you have a copy-paste, perhaps make it more general--or even do what I did and have two copy-pastes, one for all the newbies and one for recreates that didn't read like a copy-paste nearly as much as it read as a "hi, what's up and do you want to play for me" message. This largely brings me to the next section, which is... Please DON'T: Send me a long list of questions. It's actually completely fine to send new members these lists, but I know what's important to know about a player and I'll tell you what's important to know about my player. If you sent me a question list this season, please notice that I basically told you everything you needed to know (and asked if there was anything else you wanted--which no one replied to!) without answering every question individually. Send me irrelevant questions. I don't like this for new players either, but it's even weirder in my case. Knowing what my favorite NHL team is does nothing for your scouting process. I'll say that VHL scouting is less egregious than other leagues I've been in in this regard (I specifically remember having to tell someone what my favorite color was in the middle of a multi-page Google form in PBE), but keep that in mind nonetheless. To add to that, try to keep things you should already know about experienced members (like the previously-mentioned "are you active on Discord?" or "do you expect your earn rate to go up?"--no? I don't?) out of the message. Ask me to commit to your team for the next 9 seasons. This is an unrealistic question to ask a recreate (and if the recreate wants to stay with you for an entire career, they'll tell you themselves), and it's downright unfair to first-gens. That's about all I have to say about that. And again, please DO take this the right way. GMing is tough work, and I appreciate that you're dedicated in doing it! My old draft interview copy-pastes, for the curious: For first-gens: For recreates:

Let's be real--the standard of living of humans, even those we think of as "poor" or those in developing countries, is generally far greater than most animals. I want to be a person again! In general, social stuff. I overthink basic interactions way too much, right down to "would it be weird if I texted this person I'm friends with this perfectly normal thing", and I think sometimes it limits the fun I let myself have. Uh...yeah, but I feel like that's a very open-ended question. Would I, for example, marry someone I hated for a million dollars? No, because I'd hate the rest of my life regardless of the money I had (and a million these days isn't even a ton of money, just enough to not have to worry about living a decent life. I'd still need a job and everything). I'd do a lot that wouldn't affect me permanently or long-term for a million dollars, but anything that would is likely off the table. Also, side note--you're the first person I've ever seen mention this show. I loved what got put on Netflix and I wish it still existed--liability standards these days probably prevent anything quite like it, but it was wild! "Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho gets stuck in my head every so often, and I'm glad you know why. 1. You're cursed to either smell bad or have bad hair for the rest of your life. Which do you choose and why? (No, you can't shave your head or cut your hair so short it can't go anywhere. That's the easy way out) 2. What are your expectations for your player this upcoming season? 3. What would you like to see happen to make VHL offseasons more interesting?

Very well said. Often, that isn’t the only reason why GMs would be hesitant—some players might strongly want to play for other teams (as opposed to hating one team, just having another in mind), and some others might have career paths in mind that suit them fine but might not be the best for the GM (for example, someone might want to bounce around in free agency to play for lots of different teams—a GM would be a lot less interested in this than they would be in a player who could stick with the team for a few seasons after their rookie contract). That said, there are very few situations I’ve seen where a player has refused to play somewhere they were drafted, and “will you play for me in the first place” is a bit of a stupid question. As a former GM, I found “what are your thoughts on playing for me” much more helpful in general.

Based on the name it was destined to happen at some point. It could shake things up in the draft too! Mock people are probably mad this went down.

Why does Team Asia get the North Korean flag lmao

Yes, because you don't need good information in order to present information. It would be hilarious if we got a few potentially accurate things mixed in with a giant pile of completely made-up.

It's interesting to think about burnout (put more specifically with the actual meaning of burnout, something you like doing becoming something you feel you're obligated to do over some period of time) as it applies to the league. Too many people feel that there's some level of shame in taking a week without maxing, when in reality really no one is going to care. I think a fair question for you is this--if you make yourself max out for the rest of your career, do you see yourself recreating after that point, or will you have no motivation left? How does that compare to taking a more relaxed approach and just taking some level of TPA reduction for what it is? You're the only one who can answer that. Regardless, I hope you stick around, and I hope you find what you're looking for to have more fun in this league! It's a cool place, and sometimes we just have to remember that we're here because we choose to be.

This offseason will see two teams changing GMs in London and Vancouver, the first time (I think) since I left Davos back in S81 after becoming the franchise's longest-tenured GM (though far from the most successful). I was going to write this article about how this was the first GM opening I thought about applying to since I quit, but seeing as (I think) it's the first GM opening at all, I'll alter that angle a bit. I think it's a good thing that I'm feeling a slight urge to get back in it. S82 was the first time since S65, my first-ever season in the league, that I wasn't GM of one team or another, and it was exactly what I needed since by that point I had lost a great deal of motivation and also wasn't going to have a great deal of time. I could recreate without thinking about where my player would fit into my team needs or whether I needed to go out of my way to pick myself, I didn't have the obligation to keep my own server active, and I didn't have to feel guilty if it wasn't--all things that helped VHL me get things in order and arguably helped real-life me out quite a bit as I could pour all the time I had into school. And I know there weren't any VHL openings to be had in that time, but other leagues had theirs that I could have applied to. The thought crossed my mind, and left it about 5 seconds later, that I could make a return to VHLM GMing at some point (I've said myself that I was a damn good VHLM GM, and if you know the extent to which I refuse to give myself credit for things like that, you would know I'm not kidding when I say I was a damn good VHLM GM). And though this thought hadn't crossed my mind until about 10 minutes ago, I am curious about VHLE GMing. Other than the fact that I'd have to live online again to be as active as I want to be as a VHLM GM, my reason for not being interested at the moment is that the guidelines that VHLM GMs have to follow are beneficial overall, but I would find them annoying to deal with as a former GM who generally acted in good faith when said guidelines didn't exist and teams could be operated with some level of freedom (Perhaps that's an essay for another time). Anyway (can you tell I'm writing this at 3:00 AM yet? I know this drags on and jumps from place to place at the same time somehow), VHLE GMing would be cool because those pressures don't exist as much and there's less pressure to build a team successfully than there is in the VHL. It might be the right balance of development and competition for me...and maybe we'll see what happens with those openings at some point. Can I honestly say that I want to GM again right now? Not really, but the answer isn't the hard no it was a season ago and that's progress. When I do decide to apply for an opening, any opening, I want to do it with full confidence that I want the job and think I'm capable of doing it well. I'm sure I'll spend some time getting passed up, too, because there are many good and qualified members who haven't had a chance yet. In the meantime, I enjoy the league as a player too, and I can't wait to see what's ahead!

Technically everyone is between 13 and 17; it just depends on the unit of time you use. (And even if it's years, typically the planet isn't specified, so you just have to find the right planet...and with an incomprehensible number of planets in existence, there are quite a few out there that will perfectly suit your bullshit!) Survey done

HELL YES WELCOME BACK TO ACTIVITY