Premier League Enters Pre-Season
The Premier League pre season is well under way, with friendly clashes between Man United and Liverpool and Arsenal and Everton already in the books. The Red Devils stomped Liverpool 4-0 and Arsenal did almost as much damage to Everton at 3-0
United have looked good in preseason, following up their Liverpool victory with a win over Crystal Palace which did have some shaky moments after rushing out to a 3-0 lead in the first half. Their big summer shakeup started with a new manager, Ten Hag from Ajax, who promptly gave Rangnick the boot after the latter's role had never really materialized in a clearly successful one. They've looked to make smart, efficient signings, as unfortunately they've been snubbed by a lot of the bigger name players as they've no Champion's League to offer. There's also plenty of drama surrounding star player Ronaldo possibly leaving, although it seems like he's getting snubbed by many other teams himself.
Manchester City have done well to bring in Haaland and he should terrorize PL defenses with quality service from City's wingers, but there are still questions as to whether they'll be getting Cucurella, Pau Torres, or Kalvin Philips to reinforce them further. Should be a similar team as last year's title-winning squad with a few key upgrades.
Chelsea looks to be in the midst of a big rebuild themselves, after having two key defenders leave in Rudiger and Christensen and early targets Raphinha and De Light getting snapped up by other teams was a setback, but they have already brought in Koulibaly and are closing in on Kounde as replacements. They've also brought in Sterling, and are rumored to be looking for more pieces, as a defensive mid, wing back, and either a striker or another winger are on the table. The only position they don't need to reinforce is attacking mid, with Mount and Gallagher likely locking that spot down for a while. Rumors also swirl around some of their youth prospects, notably Armando Broja and Levi Colwill, who could have a shot at breaking into the first team this year or be shipped out on loan or even permanently sold.
Liverpool have brought in a big money striker in Darwin, but have let star player Sadio Mane leave for Bayern. Besides a few prospect loans going out, they haven't done much, rumoured to prefer waiting for next year to purchase Jude Bellingham from Dortmund as the next big piece in their midfield, since the German club won't sell this summer after already letting Haaland go.
Tottenham have brought in Perisic and a number of other signings to please temperamental coach Antonio Conte, who did manage to squeeze them into the top 4 and thus the Champion's League for this Season.
Arsenal have brought in Gabriel Jesus to be their top striker as they look to move on Aubameyang who left in January, and are now pushing to sign Zinchenko as well from Man City, though the latter seems to be resisting a move for the moment.
Obviously Chelsea's going to win the quadruple this year, but who else do you think might stand a chance?
Chelsea Cruise Past Real Madrid Into the Champion's League Final
Chelsea put in a dominant performance over Real Madrid on Wednesday night in London, trouncing the European powerhouse 2-0, for a total aggregate score of 3-1 in Chelsea's favour.
The scoreline was exceptionally kind to Madrid, however, as Chelsea squandered at least half a dozen golden scoring opportunities, most coming in the second half as Madrid pushed forward as effectively as a wet noodle. Timo Werner thought he'd opened the scoring early on, but was miles offside on the play, though he'd take another chance given to him just a few minutes later when N'Golo Kante played Kai Havertz in, who struck the crossbar after chipping Madrid keeper Courtois, only for the ball to land softly on Werner's head a foot off the goal line. Chelsea's first goal changed little for them, as Madrid still needed to score one goal to give themselves a chance at progressing.
Only a few minutes into the second half, Havertz hit the bar with a header, then Mason Mount, Kante, and Havertz were each in turn played into 1v1 situations with the Madrid keeper, but none could find the finish until Christian Pulisic was substituted on. The American needed a few chances himself to find the final bit of quality, but finally did so n the 84th minute when he ran deep into the box then squared it for Mount to finish and send Chelsea to the final.
Madrid's only decent chances came in a short flurry in the middle of the first half, when a long shot from Benzema needed Mendy to push it outside the post, then Benzema broke free in the Chelsea box to receive a cross, but couldn't place the header past Mendy again. In the second half, Madrid barley mustered an attack, and were being constantly cut to shreds by Chelsea counter-attacks, with Courtois as the only Madrid player that did not dramatically disappoint.
Chelsea will play Manchester City in Istanbul for the Champion's League Final after their domestic rivals handily beat Paris SG yesterday with two goals by Riyad Mahrez. An early preview of the CL Final clash will be played in the Premier League this upcoming weekend, just a short time after Chelsea beat Man City 1-0 in the FA Cup Semi-Final.
Manchester City have already won the league, but face a serious challenge from Chelsea for the greatest prize in club football. Chelsea were underwhelming in the middle portion of the season after a hot start, deeming it necessary to fire their manager and former star player Frank Lampard in January, replacing him with Thomas Tuchel, who had only been relieved from his post at Paris SG a few weeks earlier. Tuchel's effect on the club has been immediate, turning a leaky defense into arguably the best backline in Europe by reverting to a 3-CB formation. This will be Chelsea's third time reaching the final of the new format of the Champion's League, previously losing in penalties to Manchester United in Moscow in 2008 and winning against Bayern Munich in the German team's home stadium in 2012.
Man City for their part have looked nearly-unbeatable since the holiday season, only failing to win a handful of times, including the FA Cup match against Chelsea. Manager Pep Guardiola, long revered as one of the best in the game but often vexed in high-stakes CL games, looks to finally have his team geared for a real push at the CL title. This will be Manchester City's first time reaching the Champion's League finals, a chance they will not take lightly.
The Champion's League Final is set for a fascinating matchup, only time will tell how history will be written in Istanbul.
20 Months in Asia: Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
One of my first real travel goals was to do some tropical island hopping, and from anywhere on on the west coast of Thailand you could find ferries to most islands in the Andaman Sea. Ko Phi Phi was probably the smallest while also the most popular of the main tourist islands, known for stunning scenery and wild beach parties. Phi Phi is also closest of the main tourist islands to both Phuket and Krabi, so was a good starting point for island hopping.
After a two hour ferry ride over open ocean from Phuket, you are suddenly greeted by mossy green cliffs shooting a hundred feet straight up. The ferry contours the cliffs, and a wide bay appears with hundreds of wooden fishing boats all hung with flags and banners and flowers of every colour. A few larger vessels are docked at the small pier, where the ferry lands.
The island is basically shaped like an hour glass, with impassable cliffs on the east bulbous end, and a manageable mountainside on the west end that has some amazing views of the rest of Phi Phi and the nearby islands. The two ends are connected by a narrow strip of ground barely a few meters about sea level, with beaches on both north and south sides, and a tightly-packed town. Most of the party hostels are on the north side beach and would compete with each other to have the loudest music, flashiest lights, usually starting their nights off with crowd-drawing events, such as fire-spinning shows and limbo games that offered free shots of weak fruity liquor. In the town center were a lot of restaurants and bars, some cheap and local others a wide range of everything from Italian, Indian, and Scandinavian restaurants to Irish pubs and a boxing ring that served drinks and pitted their patrons against one another. The boutique resorts are more on the southeast and east beaches. The low level of the town makes it vulnerable to the ocean, and it was practically obliterated in a tsunami ten years earlier.
The local inhabitants are a few hundred strong, and mostly devout Muslims, which clashes hard with the influx of slovenly tourists. Any local-run hostel will have posters hung strongly forbidding any displays of affection or consumption of alcohol on the premises. In one hostel I saw a young couple get into a fight with the local owner cause they wanted to watch a movie together but the owner said they couldn't sit next to each other on the bed. But try as they might, stopping the hedonist juggernaut that Phi Phi has become doesn't seem likely.
Phi Phi is probably also one of the most expensive places in Thailand, as everything has to be ferried in, the carted by hand and foot through the tiny town, as no motor vehicles are allowed on the island (they say that officially, but I definitely saw a pickup truck on the eastern hills). You can still find cheap alcohol from convenience stores and a few locals that set up little tables selling 'buckets', which is basically 4-8 times the size of a usual cocktail. There's the usual selection of Thai street food, skewers of meat, fried sea food, including whole fish, and pizza that wasn't half bad when drunk.
During the day, you can lounge on the beach, hike the viewpoint, or take snorkeling tours or diving tours of the area, which includes a number of national park islands, including Maya Bay, which was a famous scene of a DiCaprio movie called "The Beach" that I'd never heard of but apparently everybody else thinks is great. Our snorkeling tour was aboard a little wooden fishing boat that docked on the side of the island opposite Maya Bay, and we had to climb through a cave and hike a few hundreds meters of jungle to emerge on the beach. When we got back to the boat, some of the other folks on the tour were talking about a huge black snake they'd seen right next to the path, which I'd apparently been oblivious to.
I'm sad to say this was all in 2018, and by accounts much has changed. Maya Bay has since closed to the public in an effort to preserve her, though a tentative reopening is planned soon. Through late 2018 onward, Thai authorities were closing hostels and bars, arresting foreigners working illegally to support an infinite party lifestyle, and trying to clamp down on the trade of hard drugs, which were available on menus in some bars. Covid has no doubt had an effect, but I suspect as long as the speaker stacks and rave lights are still there, Phi Phi will probably be one the first places people flock back to when travel opens up again.
Champions League Roundup
Chelsea and Real Madrid drew 1-1 in Spain on Tuesday, and
Chelsea 1-1 Real Madrid
In a game marked by torrential downpours for most of the first half, Chelsea took the reins early, with forward Timo Werner missing an amazing opportunity before the ten minute mark, then only a few minutes later Christian Pulisic was played in, cleanly beating the offside trap. Initially Pulisic was pushed wide by Madrid keeper Thibault Courtois, but Pulisic cut back to the center of the box, leaving Courtois on the ground and blasted a shot from around the penalty spot that sailed between the two Madrid center backs that were standing on the line.
Chelsea seemed to be well in control of the early game, but were given a warning sign when Karim Benzema hit the outside of the post when he was given a bit of space to shoot from outside the box. Chelsea didn't heed the warning, as just a few minutes after that, a corner kick was played in that after a deflection reached Benzema's head. With a sublime bit of skill, Benzema cushioned the ball with his forehead and immediately swung his foot up and struck the ball past Edouard Mendy to level the game.
The rest of the game was a cagey affair, with Chelsea comfortable in non-threatening possession, but Real Madrid pushing on late, seeking to continue their habit of scoring crucial goals late in games that were otherwise underwhelming. Another corner was nearly deflected off Chelsea defender Ben Chillwell for an own goal, but that would be the last bit of drama as Chelsea take the away goal advantage back to London.
Paris SG - Man City
The first half of this juggernaut matchup was defined by a near-post header by Marquinhos off a corner kick. Even though there were no goals from open play, the first half was a high-tempo and back-and-forth affair. Big chances fell to Neymar and Phil Foden, but neither could find the quality needed to change the game. Highlighting the intensity of the matchup,
A complete reversal came in the second half, as a flurry of Man City chances saw them draw the game with a Kevin De Bruyne cross that missed everyone - including Paris keeper Keylor Navas and nestle in the far corner of the net. Paris spiralled further in a shot span of time, as Riyad Mahrez put a free-kick through the Paris wall to make the game 2-1 for City. Paris then began losing their cool lashing out, with Neymar receiving a yellow card for a blatant kick on Ruben Dias, and then Gana Gueye receiving a red card for a terrible sliding tackle.
The Love of My Life
George and Mary met on the first day of kindergarten. They did not really notice each other at first, and George spent his first few days in almost complete silence, hiding at the back of the classroom and giving the shortest possible answer when asked by the teacher. Mary integrated a bit quicker, forming a fierce pack of little girls that all wandered the playground together and one-by-one started wearing shoes with colourful lights that started flashing when they stepped against the ground. It took George several weeks to open up, but soon he had a few friends with whom he spent recesses chasing each other in circles, while Mary wandered the playground in her group, giggling and shrieking.
They in fact barely noticed one another until the third grade when they were assigned seats next to each other. Mary’s first thought was that George smelt funny and he picked his nose all the time, even though she was not entirely innocent of the latter herself. Those few months progressed slowly for the both of them, and everyday seemed to bring a new spat or tiff that would require the teacher’s mediation, but eventually they were moved away to the relief of all parties.
Over the next couple years of grade school they spiralled around one another as their groups of friends formed and melted away again. They would be at the same birthday parties, play at the same park and ride on the same bus, but would rarely interact directly. In the seventh grade, George and Mary played a game of dodgeball in which George socked Mary straight in the face, sending her running to the school nurse with a bloody nose and tears-filled eyes. From that moment until the end of middle school they shared an uneasy peace, well aware of the other’s existence but exchanging only quick awkward glances and saying nothing unless compelled by a teacher.
George grew more confident over the years and developed a knack for a few different sports. Mary developed a few hobbies, but most enjoyed her free time by chatting with her friends, either with a spiral-corded phone while rolling back and forth on her bed, or while walking the sidewalks of their suburban town.
They entered high school still somewhat at odds, but in second semester they were once again seated next to each other in history class. At first Mary found George’s clever little comments an obnoxious distraction and told herself she didn’t fancy the jock type, but she’d catch herself noticing George’s arms and jawline growing tone from his daily ball-playing. Soon after she found herself giggling, rolling her eyes, and joking back with George, much to their mutual amusement. They started walking together to their next classes and would try to find a seat next to each other at lunch, their friends all noticed them together, some teased while others offered encouragement and advice.
George asked Mary to the Valentine’s Day Dance, and smiled at each other as they swayed at arm’s length. The next day they told their friends that they were an official couple, and started spending any possible time together making out under the school’s stairwells and nearly every day after school and on weekends they’d cozy up on the couch in one of their parents’ basements. They went steady throughout high school, attending every dance and party together and taking each other’s virginities one summer afternoon between tenth and eleventh grade.
At the end of high school, they were voted ‘Best Couple’ in the yearbook, and while George had received a few sport scholarship offers from faraway universities, he knew the odds of going pro were slim at best, but his love for Mary was here and now, so he decided to attend a local school for finance as she took nursing program there.
Their four years in university together flew by in a flurry of study grinds and drunken revelries that neither would hesitate to describe as the best years of their lives. Mary then took a residency in a city a few hours away while George stayed in their hometown and got an internship at a bank’s downtown office building. For both of them it was the longest, loneliest few months of their lives, and as soon as Mary was able to move back to their hometown they rented an apartment together that was small and dingy but would feel warm and cozy when they’d just lay on the couch and watch tv together.
From that point on they never separated again. They continued working up their career ladders, and within a few years made a down payment on a house with four bedrooms and a yard. They got a dog, then had a son, and finally a daughter. Their children attended the same primary school George and Mary had, and they spent their evenings pushing strollers to the familiar parks and playgrounds that dotted their neighbourhood.
Their children grew up in another flurry of sleepovers and taxiing them to a variety of sports and activities. They graduated the same high school as their parents, but without any real attachments and both chose to attend distant schools, their son a welding trade school and their daughter a psychology major at university.
Their nest now empty, George and Mary had a short period of quiet solemnity but soon turned to their impending retirement. They planned travels, adventures, and a life renewed, but it was all cut short when, at age 56, George had a heart attack while climbing the stairs in his office building, and died before he reached the hospital.
To say Mary was heartbroken would be an understatement. Her entire life had just collapsed in a single moment. *What’s left for me now?* She would ask herself every night as she sat in the darkness of their old home, staring at pictures of her once-tight family, but now all gone from her life. Years passed with Mary still crippled by grief. Her career wound down as she neared retirement age, and then one day she had absolutely nothing to do with herself. Her children would visit occasionally to help her clean the place and buy groceries, but they would only stay a few hours and then she’d be back to empty grey days on end.
Mary could feel herself growing old, something she and George had promised to do together and laugh as their bodies fell apart, but now it was only her struggling with pains in every joint, weakening eyes and a slowing mind. Her skin had shriveled up and when she looked in the mirror, it would take a minute to recognize herself, then she’d sigh longing for the beauty she once took for granted. Her children had to drag to an ever-growing list of doctor appointments with a range of specialists, they prescribed this pill and that treatment, but they only made the smallest of improvements as Mary subsisted in her lonely life.
She celebrated her 90th birthday at a fancy restaurant with her two children and five grandkids, mostly listening quietly as they nattered on about their own lives and interests. At age 93 she fell on her kitchen floor and broke her hip, but they were able to replace her entire hip bone and with a newly-developed Genetic Regeneration Treatment she was up and walking again within a few months, and m, oving better than she had been in years. She felt so good in fact that shortly after she’d fully recovered she voluntarily replaced both her knees with the same procedure, then her ankles, wrists, and elbows. Her hands and back proved the most stubborn, as there was not yet any easy replacement surgery for these, so she continued her regeneration therapy and slowly but steadily new life was breathed into her body.
By age 100, she had joined a reading club, sailing club, and went for bicycle rides every day. She smiled to herself when home alone and began to wonder what wild and recently-unimaginable possibilities her life might yet hold. She threw herself her own birthday party at age 101, surrounded by her family as well as new friends that had all rediscovered their zest for life following their regeneration treatments. The doctor’s gave her regeneration treatments for her skin, which grew supple and tightened out her wrinkles, and she dared to call herself beautiful when looking in the mirror.
At age 106 she met Harry, a former police officer that had lost his wife two decades earlier. They would ride their bikes and sail together chatting about the lives they’d lived, then began travelling and taking the adventures she had planned all those years ago.
They stayed together for a dozen years, but Mary did not feel it was true love, rather it was some kind of youthful re-discovery of their former selves, and they reached a point where they both felt healthy, active, and young enough to wander back out into life on their own. They had talked about the ‘Last Generation to Die’, their spouses that were left behind as Mary and Harry were pushing onwards to immortality.
Mary could now feel the process beginning within her. Energized and young at heart, Mary sold her old house and got an apartment in a mega-complex on the outskirts of the city to live and started taking part-time nursing shifts to support her busy social life. She now had 17 grandkids that were getting close to reproducing another generation of her family, and while fertility regeneration treatments were available for herself, she opted to stay barren in favour of being able to dabble worry-free with all the new men she was meeting.
Ages 120 through 150 was another flurry of new people, things, and places, and soon she found herself spending more and more time with a handsome man named Tom. He was 62 years her younger but looking at them it was almost impossible to tell. Together they partied until late at night and woke up hungover the next morning, they danced and made love like she hadn’t experienced in over a hundred years.
She was with Tom for 34 years, but began to suspect infidelity and eventually her fears were confirmed. She was left heartbroken, but only mildly so, and she resolved to push on in life.
Over the next thousand years she met a seemingly endless line of young men, with notables being Robert, Matt, Eric, Dan, and Joseph among others, but none lasted with her longer than a century. She replaced more and more parts of herself with newer and more-lifelike devices, including her entire spinal cord and both hands.
At age 1394, she met Steven, with whom she actually did fall in love. He was only aged 527, but there was a certain gentleness to his spirit coupled with a calm eagerness to continue exploring life. They left planet Earth together for the new human colonies, and after 112 years together, they decided to each take fertility regeneration treatments, and over the next two thousand years together they had a total of 87 children, raising only one or two at a single time and then taking a few decades back for themselves before trying again.
Eventually, though, their love waned and sputtered and they realized that when they had told each they wanted to be together *forever* they hadn’t quite grasped the massive implication that word now presented. As they had stared into the abyss of eternal life together, their hands had unclasped. They separated but considered one another as family, and as their children reproduced Mary found herself the matriarch of a hundred-thousand strong family tree spread across dozens of planets, only a tiny fraction of which she could remember the names and faces of.
Another few thousand years passed and she had another few hundred children with David, Robert, and then Chris, but these marriages were relatively short-lived. Mary now had several million descendants alive across the universe, but like her age she barely cared to know, and she rarely ever met any of them beyond the first few generations. There was a weariness growing in her soul, and she once again found herself just sitting on her couch for days on end. She tried new things and met new people still, but it all now blurred into a grey stream of unrewarding interactions. She moved planets again and again, sometimes closer to her children and sometimes closer to fun and adventure, but nothing in life gripped her the way she wanted it to. Doctors offered her more treatments, mental regeneration and sentimental balancing, but she grew tired of these too.
*What’s left for me now?* Mary would ask herself. She had lived everything and met everyone, would life just keep going on and all these numbers keep growing and growing endlessly?
The worlds on which humans now lived, the cities they built, felt like nothing that was familiar to her. The music, the food, the humour, everything about humanity had changed, and Mary couldn’t help but feel alienated within her own existence.
Somewhere over eighteen thousand years old, Mary decided to stop taking any and all of her regeneration treatments. It took a few dozen years, but slowly and steadily she found her body and mind growing old again. Her skin wrinkled and joints ached in a way she found oddly familiar and comforting. Her thoughts clouded and her senses dulled, but in a way that she could accept as natural. Mary spent her last few days in a hospital bed as her two children and five grandkids held her hands and whispered things that she couldn’t understand. Her mind closed down and her heart fell still, opaque thought melted into whimsy. And in her very last moments a name came to the cusp of her lips. A name that had always been there in her mind, that had been pushed so deep and far away at times, but now brought a smile to her face like no other ordinary string of letters ever could.
*George*.
A Beginner's Intro to Crypto - Buying, Trading, Blogging, Saving & Farming
I started buying a bit of crypto in 2016, and then basically left it alone for the most part since then. I've checked back into the cryptosphere recently and discovered some interesting things, either recent developments or things I missed out on earlier, that I'd like go over. I'm not an expert but I've been trying some new things out the last few weeks and this is what seems to work out well enough. This is not financial advice, and there's risk involved in all investments. The links provided here are referrals if anyone wants to sign up, I'll get a little bonus when you use your account (no pressure). This post is meant as much for some family and friends of mine as the crypto blog reader.
What is Crypto?
Cryptocurrency is online money. You can buy it and trade it on exchanges like foreign currency. They are decentralized, in that no country or major established institution controls them. They are created by non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, teams of anonymous developers, or any other number of entities, and monetary policies are voted on by the community of coin holders. The big difference between cryptocurrency and other fiat currencies is, at least based on recent history, cryptocurrencies appreciate in value, while fiat currencies depreciate due to inflation.
Where can you buy crypto in Canada?
Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/join/hilts_vz
Bitbuy https://bitbuy.ca/en/sign-up/?c=LUC56QIUPR
Binance https://www.binance.com/en/register?ref=22900398
The first two are my recommendations for Canadians, as TD Bank refused to process any transaction with Binance, though Binance is useful as an exchange and a savings account, which we'll get to later. You can use credit, debit, or bank transfers to buy crypto and hold it on these sites. Coinbase and Bitbuy have a small selection of coins for you to buy, including most of the popular ones.
To diversify your trading portfolio you can use an exchange to trade coins back and forth. All coins use a symbol of a few capital letters to identify themselves. The big coin on on the block right now is BTC, or Bitcoin, with other popular ones including ETH Ethereum, NEO Neo, BCH Bitcoin Cash, and BNB, Binance Coin. ETH and BNB are interesting because they operated on new proprietary networks on which other coins can be built. BTC is the highest value coin on the market, and probably the safest investment, but it's technology is struggling to cope with the size of its network, resulting in transactions that are slow and costly in terms of transaction fees, operating costs, and carbon emissions.
I've been holding a bit of BTC, BCH, NEO, and ETH since 2016, and most of my upcoming investments will focus on BNB and coins on the Binance Smart Chain.
Binance is again another good option to trade cryptos, because you can easily transfer new coins into its savings account and earn interest. Bittrex and Bitfinex are other options to trade crypto on, but their savings options aren't as good as Binance. https://bittrex.com/Account/Register?referralCode=SX5-TKL-ZYE https://bitfinex.com/?refcode=OnflZ6ZB5
To move money from the site you bought crypto on to an exchange is simple, just find the 'withdraw' button on your wallet/holdings/portfolio screen, there should be an option to withdraw for each currency you hold. To complete your withdrawal, the site will ask you for a deposit address, which you can find on the site you're depositing into, usually by following a 'deposit' button there. The deposit site will give you a code for your personal wallet, and you need to copy it and then paste in into the withdrawal site. Once you have the right codes in place, confirm your transfer. Sometimes the withdrawal site will want to send you an email to confirm the transfer. Most cryptocurrency transfers take around 10-20 minutes to complete, but depending on the coin, it can be a few seconds or a few hours.
Once you've got your coins on an exchange, you can simply go to the trading menu and find the market you want to trade in. Enter how much you want to get or give, and confirm your trade. Most sites charge a small fee for each trade and withdrawal, so be make sure you're you want to make each move.
Now you're holding a bunch of different cryptos, great! Since you are holding a bunch of crypto, you can now use it to earn interest in different ways. Binance has a Flexible Savings Account that compounds every day, giving you a small amount of interest for any cryptos you hold in there, while offering no risk to your deposits and instant withdrawal anytime. In my opinion, this is a really good way to hold crypto, as your holdings will grow in size just by being there, without any work on your part, while they also hopefully continue to grow in value. Bitfinex has a similar program called Lending Pro, where you hold money in your Funding Account on the site, and their algorithm automatically arranges short-term loans for your crypto. This is not as effective as Binance's system, as on Bitfinex your crypto might not all be loaned out at once, and therefore not earning interest, and interest rates for some smaller coins are better on Binance (notably for me IOTA and BCH have large differences). Bittrex does not offer any savings options that I've found.
It's by virtue of Binance's savings account that I've moved most of my eligible holdings there recently. I've still got some BTC and ETH on Bitfinex, as that's where I had them before and those coins have similar interest rates and enough demand to be loaned out consistently. All I've got left on Bittrex are coins not popular enough to qualify for savings accounts.
Harvest.Finance
A more aggressive but riskier option for making your crypto for you is farming, or staking. This works by using a site like Harvest.Finance, in which you stake a certain amount of your coins, and the site uses a computer algorithm to 'farm' relevant markets, making many small favourable trades with your money, and investing it back to you. Your money is at risk here, as I understand it, but with the growth of Binance Smart Chain coming on strong, farming markets for those coins seems quite lucrative. Harvest.Finance only works with coins on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chains, not Bitcoin. I have not tried Harvest.Finance farming yet - I made my first withdrawal from Coinbase in 3 years to move some ETH to Binance to buy some BNB to start farming, but Coinbase has delayed the transfer for 72 hours as a matter of security. I'll probably post another update once I've got a little experience on Harvest.Finance, but it seems like an exciting option.
Coin markets seem to be dipping over the last few days after a massive run in the last few months against fiat currencies, so for the moment I'm not buying any crypto with my dollars, but I'm not sure what happen with coin-to-coin markets as I trade my ETH for BNB and start farming.
The last thing to mention is ways to actively and passively earn crypto. There are a number of apps and sites out there that function as normal programs or social media sites but pay you in small amounts of crypto currency for using them. Their philosophy is basically that everything posted on the internet by every user has some value, and shares that value with the creators. My username on all these sites is @johnvonbob for whoever wants to toss me a follow should they sign up or already be signed up.
Hive https://hiveonboard.com/?ref=johnvonbob
Hive is a social network that spans a bunch of different sites. Hive.blog is the main one, but there are others that include video-hosting sites similar to youtube like 3speak. Anything you post on one hive blog site is posted everywhere else, and you only have one account across all the sites. Posting on Hive pays you in Hive Dollars, which are exchangeable on Bittrex and Binance, and in Hive Power, which the site accords a USD value but I can't find it on the usual exchanges. Hive Power allows you to post more often though, and earnings are handed out once a week or so. At first, your Hive Power is limited so I've only been able to make one post, and it will like be over a week between that and my second post. However, my one post has earned me $23, half in Hive Dollars and half in Hive Power, and a lot of the posts seem to have $20 to $100+ in earnings per post. I haven't gotten any of my earnings off the site yet, but this may turn out to be the most profitable of the crypto blog sites if I'm able to post more than once a week and withdraw my earnings easily.
read.cash and noise.cash https://read.cash/r/JohnvonBob
Obviously the site we're on. read.cash is a blog site that pays out in BCH Bitcoin Cash in decent amounts. After a week of using the site I've made about $10 from it and moved the BCH to my other wallets, so it's legit. You can post about pretty much anything you want, it takes a few hours for posts to communities to be approved by their respective moderators but I haven't had any issues posting.
Publish0x https://www.publish0x.com/?a=4zbqYMoRbp
Posts are instant and you start out being able to make 2 per day. The earnings though are by far the smallest, and across three different currencies. iFarm and Ampleforth are on the popular exchanges and seem interesting, but are relatively new and not the easiest to around and trade, and it's unclear if they'll survive long-term. You do get a tiny bit of ETH from Publish0x, but I mean tiny, and the others aren't much better. After a week of use, I have $0.5 AMPL, $0.4 iFarm, and $0.08 ETH. Withdrawal limits are also set rather high, so it'll be a while before I see any earnings transferred to my wallet.
Brave
Brave is an internet browser similar to chrome that pays you in BAT coins for using it to browse as you regularly would. It also pools resources to internet creators on youtube and the like. BAT coins are tradeable on Binance and other exchanges.
Presearch
Presearch is a search engine that gives you PRE as you search. PRE does not appear on any of the big exchanges currently, and you require 1000 coins to withdraw, while I've earned 10 or so in a week of using it plus the 25 free coins I got for registering, so again it'll be a while before I see any value here.
Odysee https://odysee.com/$/invite/@AwesomeFood:d
Odysee is a video site like youtube that pays you in LBRY for watching and uploading videos. Odysee allows you to make multiple channels to post different videos easily.
Freebitco.in https://freebitco.in/?r=42050198
Freebitco.inliterally give you a tiny amount of bitcoin for free every hour for clicking two buttons, with a tiny chance of winning more. It will shamelessly try to get you to gamble your free bitcoin away, but you can just claim it and hold it until you meet the minimum to withdraw, which could be a while.
Rollercoin https://rollercoin.com/?r=knp0ukb7
Classic arcade games that give you a small amount of bitcoin over time. Not the greatest time investment to just play the games for coins, but if you open an account, it seems to just constantly give you a little bit of coin even when you're not playing, so it could add up after a while even if you barely play anything.
Trevor the Spy
Trevor the Spy: Is this guy that I have to kill a bad guy?
Spy Agency Director: Imagine Hitler plus Stalin
Trevor: Wow that's bad
Director: Well this guy is Hitler *times* Stalin
*Trevor's jaw drops*
*Awkward silence*
Director: You can close your mouth now
Trevor: (*groaning with mouth still open*) I can't I think I unhinged it
Director: Hmm yes it does seem a bit low
Weekend Preview - Premier League and League Cup Final
Arsenal and Everton have already played today, with a Bernd Leno mistake making the difference in a 1-0 Everton win. This leaves Everton in 8th place, 6 points ahead of Arsenal in in 9th, and only 3 points off the top 4.
That will change on Saturday as Chelsea and West Ham play each other in a direct battle for 4th place, the last Champions League spot in England. Both teams are tied on points, but Chelsea is ahead on goal difference, though the London club will want to put clear daylight between them and their pursuants. Chelsea's attack has looked since winter flat but in recent weeks they've been able to scrape goals out in the big games and have had a remarkable solid defense since new coach Thomas Tuchel arrived. West Ham is experiencing a gold rush of goals, with new loan signing Jesse Lingard leading the way, scoring at a nearly game-a-goal pace since arriving from Manchester United, where he had all but been forgotten.
The biggest match of the weekend will be Tottenham against Manchester City in a battle for the League Cup just a few days after Tottenham fired their coach Jose Mounrinho. Manchester City have practically run away with the PL title this year, but have shown a chink or two in their armour, losing this past weekend's match in the FA Cup to Chelsea. Tottenham has been in woeful form, sliding down the table from a momentary glimpse of first place earlier in the year. Harry Kane, Tottenham's key piece in attack, missed training today and is a doubt for the match, and have struggled without their center forward. City, on the other hand, have taken a pragmatic approach to their striker situation as Aguero and Jesus have been out for long periods of this season, playing a rotating cast of wingers and attacking midfielders in the center forward role to surprising success. Manchester City should come out firing, but it's unclear what Tottenham will be able to conjure against one of the best teams in the world right now.
A Liverpool side that has been brought to its knees in the over the last few months faces off against Newcastle, who despite playing rather uninspiring football have been able to snatch a result or two lately. Inconsistency has been the theme for both these teams lately, so who knows what to expect (probably not quality).
Man United face Leeds in and old-school grudge match. Leeds play high-tempo, pressing and attacking football, and will attempt to attack Man United on the ball. Man United will welcome this pressure and look to play around it, using midfielder Bruno Fernandes to send any of their speedy wingers in behind Leeds' defence. Should be an interesting game.
Third place Leicester seeks to consolidate their position in third place against mid-table Crystal Palace, with Leicester's perennial backup striker Kelechi Iheanacho suddenly taking center stage with a flurry of goals and an PL Player of the Month award.
Wolves take on Burnley with Burnley sitting on the relegation line, 6 points clear of Fulham, and Wolves all but clear of the drop. Aston Villa play West Brom with almost nothing on the line for either club, Villa comfy in mid-table and West Brom all but relegated, unless they win their next six games on the bounce. Bottom rank Sheffield plays Brighton, who could still be in danger despite a widely-acknowledged quality of play. Fulham and Southampton don't play this weekend.
And then in midweek the semi-finals of the Champion's League begins...
20 Months in Asia: Patong, Thailand
After two nights in Naiyang, it was time to move on. I took a bus from just outside my hotel down the peninsula and rode for an hour or two until it pulled up to my hostel in Patong.
Patong is a really tight-packed tourist town with a long beach and green hills that wrap all the way from end of the beach, behind the town, and then to the other end of the beach. There's a good amount of development. Large hotels and apartments 30+ stories tall are everywhere, there's a center that's dominated by party bars and then a lot of western-branded shops and massage parlors encircling that. In the outer ring of the town locals live in tiny apartments, or in little sheet-metal-hut villages that are walled off from view of the tourists.
If you were alone on the beach, you'd say it was a beautiful beach. Unfortunately the crowds of tourists are pretty thick, and there's dozens of locals badgering you to buy everything from jet ski rides to cocaine. The water is murky, and a few people I talked to expressed discomfort at the idea of going in.
The beating heart of the town is Bang La Road, at least as far as a tourist is concerned. Wide-open strewn with garbage and all kinds of mysterious dried splatters staining the asphalt, Bang La Road is home to a crazy amount of nightclubs and bars, some of which might seem familiar and even impressive to a westerner, fancy and expansive, while others seem more like a carnival beer tent, except that they rows and rows of bar counters with bikini-clad thai girls dancing every few feet along the countertop and just as many tvs playing sports, a lot of rugby and aussie rules.
Basically every night my hostel had an event to drag as many guests as they could out to Bang La, starting with some heavy drinking in hostel and ending up at any number of bars on the strip. At night the strip was wild to say the least. Guys would just be walking around with menu cards of all the drugs they sold. Beautiful thai women wearing high-end cocktail dresses and shimmering jewelry stood in small groups, eyeing the crowds of men with forced smiles and approaching any stray guy with a bubbly laugh and stroke on their arm.
During the day it was basically just eat and sit on the beach. There were some interesting places to eat, some modern/western type places and some local street food. For one lunch I got a few skewers of fake seafood from a cart, and the guy tossed in an bonus chicken foot covered in some orange hot sauce.
There wasn't a lot to do in Patong besides drink and party, but you could enjoy yourself if that was your thing. There were also a lot of guys trying to sell you cheap suits, girls in heavy making waving at you to get a massage, and plenty of shops with the usual tourist crap. Tours could be arranged all across the Peninsula, and travel to pretty much anywhere within Thailand from the hundreds of little tour booths that dotted the town. (Remember say No! to tiger, dolphin, and elephant attractions)
Patong worked for me cause I was just cutting loose a bit when I first arrived in Asia after years in a depressing office job, but it's not somewhere I'd want to stay long-term.
Dirk Gerson Sci-Fi Stuntman
The packed stadium crowd roared an unwavering and all-deafening roar while a drawling announcer's voice boomed over the loudspeakers in deep, barely-discernible pulses. Parents herded little tots into seats as they held hot dogs in one hand and wiped boogers with the other. Cries for cotton candy, popcorn, licorice, soda, and beer tried to rise over the general hum drum, but only the bellows of the most waddlesome vendors carried beyond a small radius.
In the center of it all, on a platform a hundred feet above, atop one of the most powerful jet-propulsion motorcycles ever built, sat Dirk Gerson, stuntman extraordinaire, about to perform the single most anticipated stunt in the entire history of human stuntmanship. Social media was all over it.
On another platform three hundred feet in front and sixty feet down from him was a portal, it’s center glowing bright green swirls sucking all nearby matter into a randomized wormhole that would carry them to any infinite number of other dimensions. And Dirk was about to make one hell of a jump straight into that big green beauty.
The announcer drawled on but Dirk revved his engine to let everyone know he was ready, and the crowd roared, drowning out the announcer and bringing a crack of a smile to Dirk’s hardened, chiseled jawline. Dirk waved back to the crowd, sucking up what last affection he might get for a while.
*The Final Countdown* blared across the stadium, with the crowd screaming along to the words. Behind Dirk, a screen the size of a not-so-small house showed the seconds remaining until he went over the edge.
*5, 4, 3, 2, 1…*
Then, without so much as a moment’s hesitation, Dirk slammed his bike into gear and with a wild rush of air pushing against him, he flew down the ramp to ground level, then back up towards the portal.
The crowd fell silent as he sped towards the end of the ramp. His wheels left, and he was sailing through the air, a big wall of green swirls rushing towards him. In the blink of an eye, Dirk Gerson disappeared into the portal, and the crowd held their breath in anticipation.
Dirk careened through the abyss of spacetime. A tunnel of light and gravity made into one brilliantly-woven tunnel to carry him across the void itself.
His heart, lungs, knuckles, toes and every other muscle in his body clenched against his bike for everything he was worth.
And then he took a breath. He looked up above. But just as his eyes focused in on what was before them, Dirk was spat out on hard, dusty ground.
The impact wasn’t gentle, but Dirk was still in one piece and nothing felt broken. He staggered to his feet, and looked around. He was in the center of a stadium, built from rough bricks, and with thousands of green blobbish creatures in the stands. They wailed an ungodly noise down at Dirk, and wiggled their giggly bodies.
Before Dirk could look closer at the creatures in the stands, something moved just next to him, and Dirk spun in place to face it.
It was a man, in a flashy jumpsuit just like Dirk was wearing. He had the same neatly-trimmed beard and his hair flowed maybe even a little more elegantly than Dirk’s. In his hands the man held a long, shiny blade.
The man swung the blade at Dirk and Dirk dodged backwards once, twice, thrice.
“Who are you?” cried Dirk. “What is going on?”
The man paused his attacks. “My name is Diesel McFeasible, I was captured by these… *things* nine hundred days ago, and fight every day for my freedom.”
Dirk’s breath caught in his chest.
“Diesel McFeasible, the stuntman? ” Dirk felt giddy as he spoke. Of course he knew Diesel McFeasible! Only from the poster he’d hung on his bedroom wall as a kid. Diesel was a legend, the very reason Dirk had become a stuntman in the first place.
It had been decades now since Diesel vanished in the nether on a horrible stunt accident, but Dirk remembered it like it was yesterday. The shock, the disbelief, the struggle to accept that he was gone. But now he was there, before Dirk.
Diesel shrugged and looked down. “I was a stuntman, the greatest sci-fi stuntman that ever lived. But now… well I don’t really know what I am anymore.” Diesel lowered his blade and looked at Dirk with tender eyes for a moment.
Then Diesel's stare hardened and he raised the blade again. “But I know what I have to do.”
Diesel swung.
“No, wait,” Dirk cried as he ducked backwards. “Diesel you don’t have to do this.”
Diesel swung again.
“Listen we can get out of this together, you and me. We’ll do it.”
“How?” Diesel growled as if he barely cared for an answer.
“I brought a ray blaster, we can use that, we can blast our way out. These *things* look pretty squishy, you know.” Dirk felt at his hip where his blaster should’ve been, but the holster was empty.
*Drat!* Dirk looked around, panic setting in. The ray blaster was on the ground, a few feet away, but on the other side of Diesel.
Diesel followed Dirk’s stare back, raising an eyebrow at the blaster lying in the sand.
Dirk held his hands up. “Easy now…”
Diesel wasn’t having any of it. He lunged for the blaster, reaching it in one leap and turning to aim. With one pull of the trigger, he blew Dirk Gerson into a thousand charred pieces.
The crowd roared, and Diesel tried to wave to them but had to cover his ears to save himself from the spine-wrenching sound. After a moment of vanity, Diesel turned and ran to the opening gate at the far end of the stadium.
The *things* were bringing out the next round of fighters, and chains for Diesel. But this blaster changed the situation somewhat, and the *things* didn’t seem to realize it just yet.
*Pew! Pew!* With two quick blasts Diesel blew the *things* at the gate to sizzling green bits. The *things* didn’t seem to blow into as many pieces as a human would, but enough nonetheless.
Diesel blasted his way through the bowels of the stadium, blowing every *thing* he met into pieces and finally escaping to the world outside the stadium.
And thus continued the adventures of the Diesel McFeasible, Trans-Dimensional Action Hero.
European Super League Crumbles
In one of the most dramatic days in the history of football governance, the European Super League, a proposed competition of 12 major football clubs from England (6), Spain (3), and Italy (3), that would have permanent places for those teams and would not subject them to relegation. Upon hearing of the proposed competition fans, pundits, and even players themselves spoke out loudly against the idea. A great deal of sentiment was expressed for merit-based European competition, with any club being able to climb the domestic table and win the Champion's League. Current Aston Villa manager Dean Smith pointed to his current club going from 3rd division the year he was born to European Champions when he was 11. Existing governing bodies including UEFA, FIFA, and all the top domestic leagues threatened banishment from all competitions - including the World Cup - for any involved players.
However late Monday rumors began circulating that two English clubs, Chelsea and Man City, were already regretting the move, and were starting to look for a way out.
On Tuesday, protests were held at stadiums around the world, including Fenway Park in Boston, whose owners, Fenway Sports Group, also own Liverpool and are said to be one of the driving forces behind the Super League, wanting to make it more like an American league where all teams are guaranteed spots and revenue. Other drivers of the Super League are thought to have been Stan Kroenke, an owner of several US sports franchises and Arsenal, The Glazers family, owners of Manchester United, Andrea Agnelli, President of Juventus, and Florentino Perez, President of Madrid, though it was unclear how any Spanish teams could've joined, as they are social associations, and require any decision to be approved by 50% +1 of stake holding fans, of which there are tens of thousands. The German teams like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund that might've been invited due to their stature declined in the first place citing similar fan-based executive power. PSG, the only French team likely considered, declined due to their Qatari owners having invested massive amounts of money in broadcast deals with the current UEFA Champions League through their network BEIN, which would have been decimated in value by the Super League, though they were rumored to be interested in joining should the Super League succeed and overtake the Champion's League.
Chelsea and Brighton were in fact due to play a game at 8:00pm local on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge in London, and large protests were held outside the stadium. All day long, rumors grew stronger that meetings between all Super League clubs were being held and furious panic, with some on the brink of backing out, bewildered by the reaction to the league. Shortly before kickoff, preliminary announcements were made from Chelsea and Manchester City that they were pulling out of the Super League, though it didn't help Chelsea's performance on the pitch in a stale 0-0.
At the time of writing, all English clubs, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona have announced their departure, and the league appears to no longer be an entity of concern. But this is far from the end of the ramifications. Already, Ed Woodward, Executive Vice-President of Man United has resigned his position, said to be effective in a few weeks at the end of the season, and Agnelli is said to have resigned his positions with the club as well as with the European Club Association, which represents 200+ member club from the top leagues of Europe. His family still owns a large portion of Juventus.
In England, there are calls for American ownership to be ejected. Man United, Arsenal, and Liverpool all have fans and large personalities outside the club calling for ownership change, citing a massive betrayal by the owners in attempting to reorganize the European game for their profit and the detriment of the game itself. Chelsea didn't escape it's fan's wrath despite being one of the first teams to back down, as its Supporters' Trust has called for a vote of no-confidence in the board.
There are further signals from Uefa and the leagues that the breakaway teams will be punished heavily for their involvement in the scheme, though it's not yet exactly clear how. Points deductions and bans from entire competitions have been issued before for what some might say are less egregious offenses.
The Super League has fallen, but we will be feeling the ripples of its crash for years to come.
Funf Reichsmark
I don't have all the details about this one, but the other guy's posts made me want to share this little guy that I've had in a little tin box for a while.
I found it at a sale barn in rural Ontario a few years ago, in a small corner with WW2 memorabilia, including knives, equipment, and even a small nazi flag, though the rest of the place was just old furniture, books, and hockey cards.
The back is kind of an interesting design. Don't worry that annoying sticker's just on the case.
The Reichsmark was introduced as Germany's currency in 1924 as a replacement for the Papiermark, though there was an interim Rentenmark, which was backed by a land-owning bank before the Reichsmark was adopted. The Papiermark had been suffering massive inflation in the wake of WW1, and was exchanged for the Reichsmark at a rate of 1 = 1,000,000,000,000. The Reichsmark was then used until 1948 when it was replaced by the Deutsche Mark and the East German Mark respectively.
European Super League
The football world has been rocked this weekend by the announcement of twelve teams breaking away from their domestic leagues to form a so-called 'Super League', in which the large majority of teams would be permanent members, facing no risk of relegation. Each team has been promised several hundred million dollars for joining the league, essentially making the league a cashcow with no competitive spirit.
In response, almost every governing body and fan association across European football has condemned the move as harshly as possible. Fifa and Uefa are threatening to ban players from other competitions should they play in the Super League. There are talks about ejecting the breakaway teams from their current competitions immediately, but this seems unlikely to happen.
If the creation of the Super League does go ahead, it would entail a complete reversal of the entire structure of European Football. Domestic leagues would lose their largest-drawing teams and would shed fans and tv revenue. The supposed highest echelon of world football will be a lackluster pageant for oligarchs and oil sheiks to parade their multi-million dollar human toys around.
Earlier today I sent the following email to the club I have supported since I began watching football til now, and I support any readers doing the same:
I'm a lifelong supporter of Chelsea FC in the Premier League and Champions League, and I am very disappointed to hear of recent news regarding Chelsea breaking away to join the Super League.
As an international fan, I am drawn to the Premier League and Champions League competitions above those in my own country because of their extremely competitive nature and the massive stakes for everyone involved. To be the best in England as well as Europe you have to earn it with every game, and I have witnessed Chelsea FC do this before, and I want to support them doing so in the future. The club has earned my admiration and loyalty as a supporter through years of arduously fighting to be the best against great odds and with everything at stake in these competitions. If the club were to break away from these competitions to form one based on greed and against the ideas of open competition with other clubs that have mismanaged themselves in recent years and do not now represent the very best of Europe, my feelings for the club will be irreparably harmed.
Before all else, I am a fan of the game, and I cannot support a club that harms the game in favour of money.
Thanks for reading.
20 Months in Asia: Naiyang, Thailand
I flew into Phuket International Airport from Toronto with a layover in Seoul in March 2018 to begin what would become a 20-month solo backpacking trip across Asia. I landed right around midnight, and having left in a snowstorm, I emerged to 30C and thickly humid air in the middle of night. I'd booked two nights at a hotel right next to the airport in the town of Naiyang, which was built on a short stretch of one-lane highway that ran from the airport down further south on Phuket peninsula. I was able to eat and get all my sim card/money exchange business dealt with the next morning just in the buildings around my hotel, which was right on the main highway but looked back on a field of tall grass and green palm trees. Overall the town of Naiyang was fairly small and unremarkable, but it suited me very well just to crash after a long flight ordeal (there was a computer issue at Pearson airport in Toronto and my flight was delayed by 3 hours - the exact amount of time I had for my layover in Seoul. I had to run through 3 terminals and 2 monorails to barely make it to the back of the boarding line.)
Naiyang also had a beach, called Naiyang Beach. It was pretty nice. It was long, with soft, light sand, fairly empty compared to some other Thai tourist beaches. One element that helped was it had a layer of dark green pine trees between the beach and the road just nearby that had all the restaurants, tourist shops, and massage huts, so you felt pretty isolated from civilization walking along the beach, even though there was plenty of development nearby.
At the very south end of Naiyang Beach is an abandoned mega resort, which was just left open and exposed for anyone to walk up and wander around. I suspect it was irreparably damaged in the tsunami of 2004, and has just been left there since. I walked around the pool deck and up to the first balcony level, and it seemed like you could go all the way to the top, but the sun was setting and I was tired, as it was a really long walk down the beach.
The massage huts along the beach didn't seem particularly seedy, and so I went for one. It was a Thai massage, which I found very rough, bordering on painful, and figured I'd try a different one next time. There were a few bars along the main road gathering a crowd, but I slept and woke very early for my first few days in Asia. It wasn't til I moved on to Patong that I dabbled in the nightlife scene. The next morning I got a bus into Patong from a station nice and close to my hotel, and there my trip really got underway.
Overall I'd say I got a bit more than I expected from Naiyang. It was just meant to be a stopover to get myself set for the long haul in Asia, and it was very convenient as such, but I very much enjoyed the beach and resort there.
Also on the back of a pickup truck in Naiyang, I saw a sticker that read 'Phuket Says No to Dolphin Shows', and I would like to iterate from the outset of this blog that there are a lot of animal-based attractions in Asia, and pretty much any dolphin show, tiger petting zoo, or elephant ride is seriously abusive to the animals and should not be supported. If you're on safari in a national park and looking at animals through binoculars, that's cool. But don't give your money to abusive and greedy businesses just to get a selfie next to/on top of a big animal, you look like a douche anyhow.
Garlic Pull-Apart Bread - Most Craziest Awesome Thing I Ever Did Make
Hey so I made some garlic bread, and it was more delicious than I ever dreamed it would be.
I used a basic yet delicious pizza dough recipe for the bread:
1 cup (250 ml) warm water
1 teaspoon (5 ml) instant yeast
1 teaspoon (5 ml) sugar
2 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
In a bowl, combine the water, yeast and sugar. Let stand until the mixture foams on top, about 5 minutes.
Use dough hook. Combine flour and salt. Increase the speed to medium and add the yeast mixture until a soft ball forms. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for a few minutes on a floured surface to prevent sticking. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean damp cloth. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes in a warm and draft-free area.
Then I mixed a lot of garlic, 1/2 cup softened butter, and a tbsp each of oregano and basil together. I broke the dough into 10 pieces, then applied the butter mix and some shredded cheese between each piece. I let it rise again for an hour, then baked at 400f for 30 mins.
I made some little videos of the process here here:
Pizza dough: https://youtu.be/jPbpaojn96A
Garlic application: https://youtu.be/cEIqYZ-zmRI
@JohnvonBob
