End Of Year Post 2016

2016 was not the worst year, but maybe the most tiring year I've had so far.

I'm at home now lying on the couch, and I feel completely tired, even though I have to pack some stuff for a trip.

I'm emotionally and mentally drained. I don't feel "christmassy" at all, not only because a stupid muslim terrorist killed people at a christmas market the other day.

I actually don't look forward to the next few trips. I'm wondering why I agreed to travel. It felt like a good idea, but now the last thing I just googled was about being married and having a solo trip, just wondering if that's a thing people do sometimes.

2016 was very exhausting because we moved from one city to another. It should not have been a big deal, but it turned out to be one.

Not only did moving remove me from the environment I was used to, which is okay, it also killed my passion for blogging. It doesn't feel like I have enough space, enough room, even though I have a room of my own now that I haven't used a single time so far!

I don't have the energy to finish setting up the new place. I'd rather just lie down. I'm very, very tired.

There are ideas in my head of things I could do if I had more energy. But I don't have that energy. What's even worse is that I have negative expectations. I expect to be scolded for "only" lying around and not doing housework. I don't expect understanding for why I feel so drained.

The weird thing is that I barely have any memories of the year 2016. I remember that I was in Singapore, although it feels like it could have been 2015 (which it was, as I was there last year too). Then I remember I was also in a couple of other cities, and my memories of these places are mixed. There were conflicts. Not everything was great.
But for the most part, a large chunk of 2016 was just bitten off my memory, and that's the time somewhere between May and November, when all these crazy things occurred that had to do with us moving from one place to the other. Because we had a water leak and the whole new apartment was flooded, it ruined the whole year. Not only did it cause a lot of work and stress, the stress led to bad feelings, anger and hurt.

So, 2016 was a year that only really had about 5 real months in it, the rest was only hard work and lots of energy drainage.

I'm very unhappy about life right now. And I can't get back on my feet. This is how 2016 ends for me.

Ultra Private Blogging

After years of blogging on this platform in a half-private, yet heavily censored way, I've come to the conclusion the I desperately need an ultra private blog.

There is no online aspect needed, but still it's a simple way and easier than the old-fashioned diary. I once got a diary as a gift when I was a boy, with a lock and all, but I just never started writing down thoughts, and I've often regretted that.

I'm this guy who needs to look back a lot and analyze what kind of thoughts were going through my head years ago. Not just to help my own memory, but also because scientists confirmed that memories are heavily distorted over time.

I'm also not happy about Going Home as a blog. I see it as a blog that's there for entertainment purposes. Some deep thoughts are in there somewhere, but I mostly look at the blog to laugh my ass off over funny things I wrote. But there were times when I was angry I couldn't just write down all the thoughts I had. Somehow, there has been self-censorship going on, mainly because there are people out there who might read this blog and I don't want them to, even though I'm keeping this platform open. There are especially critical thoughts on religion, for example, that I had to hold back. If certain people knew about these things, I might get a modern day version of being crucified.

As you can imagine, there are some much more personal thoughts than only religion. And when it comes to those, I don't just write them all down for everyone to read either. But I need a place where I can, because without such a place, it's all stored in the subconscious mind like a garage full of crap. And then, half a year after having a certain thought, experience or idea, I don't even remember if that happened, how it happened or if I'm just making things up.

Right now, my frustration level is very high. The only comforting thing is knowing that it's actually pretty normal for a guy in my situation to feel this way. The set of circumstances could be better, but the way things are now, my reaction is normal.

When I start private blogging, I'm going to set the blog to total privacy. On top of that, I'm going to register the blog somewhere totally different and not use any previously used email or anything like that. I can't let any paranoia get in the way now. I need to write down every detail of how I feel and what's on my mind. Even the stuff that "shouldn't" be there and that's disappointing for me to accept.

It's no different from having a real book as a diary, but typing is easier than writing and I also don't want these things to be restricted to a specific computer that might break down and lose all data. So why not a blog?

I might still dump a few crappy and useless thoughts on this unread blog here, too. But I won't bother putting content here that is cut in half due to concerns over who is reading this, or writing down things I have to modify to be not too revealing.

So... yeah. I guess I'll end this blog post with the most useful word in the english language: Whatever.

"Without further ado" IS further ado!

Do you notice when people, especially on Youtube, say "so without further ado, let's head right in..."?

They use that expression after a long introduction into their topic, as if to say that they are going to start talking about the REAL stuff finally.

Well, guess what? When you say "without further ado", that's already a filler I don't need! Instead, shut up and begin your topic already!

It's as if I gave you a long speech about what I'm going to discuss next, and then I say:

"...So without further ado, without torturing your nerves any more, without challenging your patience any longer, without driving you totally nuts about me prolonging this wonderful topic any longer, let me now, at this very, very wondrous moment, in which so many beautiful and exciting other things might occur, slowly, but very very surely, with total determination and extreme prejudice, move, walk, almost run towards this issue, this very issue I have been introducing you to, this issue that I want to now talk to you about, let it be here, let it be now, let it be this very time and place... here we go...yes... really" and then you start fucking talking.

Underworld Football Manager: Don't Be A Bidding Idiot

My guide for Underworld Football Manager has been a huge success. Today, I want to talk about the Talent Agency, especially why you should not be a "bidding idiot". I'll explain that in a moment. First, let's get some basics out of the way.

What is the Talent Agency good for?

The Talent Agency in Underworld Football Manager is a place where you can literally buy players. There are two things you need to be successful:

• You need enough money to buy a player
• You need enough bidding tokens to be the last bidder in the auction

There is no way of knowing how much money and how many tokens will be needed, as this is purely determined by how much a player is wanted by the people playing the game. If you're lucky (like I was once), you can get a nice silver player with one bidding if everyone else is asleep. But most of the time, you will be in a bidding war. During an auction, every token you use is gone, so be aware of that!

Should I use Talent Agency or Community Pitch?

This question depends on your preferences, but one thing can be clearly said: At some point in the game, you will have collected so many bidding tokens that it would simply be thrown away currency not to use them. Let's say you have never bidded before, and now you have 150 to 300 tokens, it's about time to use them! At the same time, if you also have 2 million dollars or more in your bank account, there is a decent chance you can get the player you want.

As for the Community Pitch: The good thing about it is that you don't have to fear competition. The players there will be only for you to sign. However, there are some things to consider:

• You will get random players for random positions
• You will have "misses" (agencies used with no player you want to sign at all)
• You will need the best and most expensive agencies if you want to be successful in the long run
• You have to keep using these agencies day in and day out and be willing to spend millions along the way

I think that the community pitch (especially with the final agency there) is a great tool. It's a bag of surprises, but once in a while you even get a gold player! You should use the Community Pitch when you want to sign good players in general, and not just one specific player for one specific position.

Now, let's focus on the Talent Agency, because at some point, you need a specific player!

Which player should I bid for?

One thing you should remember is that you can choose the exact player type and position that you want. Any position you want is okay. I personally like to buy players that are used for a large variety of formations, such as Central Forwards, Central Midfielders and Central Defenders.

I don't like buying Wing Strikers, as they only work for some formations, but that's my personal choice. You can stick to your 3-4-3 system if you like.

Here are some other factors to keep in mind:

• Talent: This value determines how quickly your player reaches a level up. If you combine this with a nicely developed Sports Lab, your player will boost through the levels like crazy as long as you have the money and budget points needed
• Loyalty: Especially when you approach Leagues D to A, you need loyalty. You can still develop that value over time, but if it's very low, you will not get it into the needed range (80 and beyond) to be safe from bribes
• Age: Don't underestimate the age of a player. A player at the age of 25 doesn't have a lot of time to level up. At age 30, he will become weak again already. Try to go as low as possible. I usually don't bid for players that are older than 20 years old. 19 is good, 18 is great, and 17 is just perfect!
• Starting level: You might think that a high level is good. But it depends. A high starting level is great if the stats are all nice, but it's also possible to get a high-talent, super young level 10 player. If he is silver, he still gets +2 stats for loyalty and other special values for each level up, so you can shape him any way you like and he will grow fast. Also, low level players sell at cheaper prices
• Gold or Silver: You have to choose whether you want to bid for ultra rare gold players or less rare but still special silver players. If you bid for gold players, the demand will be high and a gold player will cost millions of dollars. You must be sure that you actually CAN get the player, and many strong managers will bid against you! Silver players can still turn into gold players later in their career, so keep that in mind.

Now that we know these things, let's talk about the basic bidding process...

How does bidding work?

I roughly distinguish between three phases of bidding:

1. Orientation phase

In this phase, you bid for the player to "mark" it, so that you will see this player coloured in red or green whenever you enter the Talent Agency. You will be able to look at the player and see who else is interested. This phase is useful to get some information on the other people who want that player. Which level are they? Do they look rich? Which facilities do they have, especially Tournament Arena and Finance HQ, as they are a good sign of wealth. Use this phase to get an idea whether you even have a chance to win!

2. The "serious business" phase

This is the phase of bidding after the timer has initially run out. It is the time when everyone who has not bidded in the final minute or so is eliminated and only the final bidders are left. They can be three bidders, 5 bidders, maybe even 10 bidders or more.

This phase is extremely crucial. Up to this point, you should have spent only about 2 tokens, which is okay. Now, you can see who is serious about buying the player. Keep in mind: If there is a manager with a much higher level (20+ above yours), just give up! He is probably much richer and has more tokens!
If you are determined to stay in the bidding process, bid once per round so that you are qualified to the next round. Don't bid too often as you would waste tokens. If you are qualified, that's all you need to do. No need to be constantly in first position! Keep this up until there is only one opponent left.

3. The final phase

This is the phase when it's only you and one other person. There is one thing that's very important here, and I really wish more people would consider this: For some reason, all people I play against in this phase keep waiting until the end of each bidding round and only bid once per round. To me, that's bullshit! If it's only you and another player, you are not wasting any tokens if you just keep bidding against each other.

My advice here: Keep bidding against each other! It's already clear that both of you want the player, so just keep bidding back and forth between you two, that way it will be clear who is out of money / tokens after only some minutes. If you do this so slowly, it will take 45 minutes or more until one of you runs out! Ignore the rounds, just bid if you're not the highest bidder.

Don't be an idiot!

If you keep anything from this article in mind at all, please let it be this! I beg you!

1. Don't bid against someone who is at a much higher level! I have had bidding wars for hours against people half my level! This is so unnecessary because it is totally clear that I have much more money and tokens. Please have the courtesy, respect and dignity to give up, because it only costs you the initial few tokens (up to the "serious business" phase) and not 100 tokens or more. Don't keep bidding if you have a clue that the opponent has more money (for example, he has a well-developed Tournament Arena and a big Finance HQ).

2. Don't be a slow-ass bidder. If it's only you against one other person, be so nice and just bid the hell out of each other. Why would you wait until the end of the round to bid again? Just bid whenever the other one has bidded, as this is only between you and him / her. Let this be over quickly! Whoever runs out of money or tokens, loses. No need to drag it on.

3. Be determined: If you know that you have a respectable manager level, enough money and tokens, you should pull through. Never go into the final bidding phase if you are not sure about the player you want and the money and tokens you have. If you bid, and the competition can be beaten, then you must be willing to use every last token and every last dollar. This is how it's done!

If you need more advice on the game, return to my tutorial / guide / walkthrough on Underworld Football Manager!

The Bus Driver Is Not Your Information Desk

Nowadays, all you have to do in order to find your way to a desired place is to take your mobile phone, literally ask it where to get somewhere, and it will give you the result. Going somewhere has never been so easy. No maps made of paper needed.

But still, we live in a time when people love to rely on other people. I have been noticing this a lot lately. When I'm on the bus, it often happens that people enter and immediately ask the bus driver for directions. Don't get me wrong:

1. They are not asking for directions and leaving. They are asking for directions with the desire of taking that bus.
2. They are not asking for GENERAL directions or checking for specific bus stops. They already have their final destinations in mind and expect the bus driver to know every store and every company.

So, what happens is that someone enters, asks the bus driver a very specific question, and the bus driver is supposed to figure out the following things:

1. Which street does the desired building / company / sight belong to?
2. Which part of the city is that place?
3. Which bus stop is that nearest to?
4. Which bus is the right one to get there?

I find this almost offensive, for two reasons. Reason number one, that's not the bus driver's job. I'm often not so easy on bus drivers and many of my posts reflect that. But I think you gotta let it go here. Bus drivers should only be asked for bus stops... if they know the area, that's an extra bonus, not something you should expect.
Reason number two is: You are actually taking time away from the people on the bus. You as the person asking for directions may not be in a hurry, but I for instance need to transfer to another bus every day of my work week. So I need the bus to be on time. But the people who are asking take their time, even when they eventually leave the bus! They just slowly wander off like little ballarinas. Fuck them.

So that's my piece of advice: Get informed beforehand. Don't just walk around and expect the bus driver to solve the problem for you. It's okay to ask someone if you already have a very good idea of where you want to go, but with all the technology available today, don't be such an idiot please.

German Service Culture: "I'm getting my paycheck anyway"

When you look at German businesses, whether they are private, public or somewhere in between, you notice a disconnection between the staff and the company.

In other countries, I suppose, there is a sense of identification. You know that you're part of the company, that you represent the company, that you ARE the company. In Germany... not so much.

The most common, yet unspoken truth is: "I'm getting my money anyway".

This applies to all workers who simply "do their job" and get paid. The problem is that their work is almost in no way related to the success or failure of the company.

• The shelves in the grocery are half empty and important items are missing? Not my problem!
• A bus driver got sick and nobody informed the passengers waiting at the bus stops? Not my problem!
• Customers are leaving your shop and checking out the competition because they feel treated badly? Not my problem!

The relationship between people and their work is kind of weird. With all the labour laws in favour of employees, it's like you're married to your job, but you're not loving it. At the same time, the employer can't divorce you unless you steal silverware or something. Basically, you're doing what is necessary to stay in the job, to not get fired. Not more.

It's mostly different if the person who is serving you is also the person owning the business. He is the one who has to take responsibility for his actions. He can make tons of money or lose his home. HE CARES. Most of the time... sometimes. But simple employees? They will get their paycheck anyway. They work per hour, not per happy customer, per sold item, per success.

As long as this attitude doesn't change, the german service culture will still be labelled a "service desert".

Muslims And Gays: A False Alliance

It's a bad idea to demonstrate for something that's out to kill you.

At least that's what comes to mind when deluded people protest against islamophobia and homophobia at the same time.

In the wake of the recent attacks on a gay club in the USA (ignore all the France attacks for a second), many gay people held marches against all kinds of discrimination. By doing so, they achieved two jaw-dropping things at the same time: They turned Islam, one main cause of the disaster, into a victim of the crime, and showcased their desire to protect muslims from "Islamophobia" in favour of a colourful, diverse society - a kind of service that would not be mutual in most muslim-dominated countries!

Here is my problem. On the one hand, you have this:

source

On the other hand, you have this:

Source

Let's avoid the obvious objection: Yes, I know that most muslims won't kill a gay person, and not all islamic countries kill gay people, but the list is long and you can definitely say that gays don't have a great reputation among muslims. If you're a muslim, ask yourself how your family and friends would react if you told them you were gay. Would you still feel safe? Would you still feel free?

The western world always gets things wrong about Islam. They think that muslims are a surpressed minority that just wants to live in peace, and that all acts of terrorism are just a big, nasty misunderstanding.

The truth is that Islam has a very, very dark side that most people ignore or aren't even informed about. And that's very easy to accomplish because when looking at all the terrorist attacks in the name of Islam, it's easy to just focus on them and ignore underlying problems.

The basic formula is:

• Terrorism is the only problem of Islam
• Most muslims don't commit terrorist acts
• Therefore, islamic terrorism is not truely islamic
• Therefore: Islam is a religion of peace

Case closed.

But here are some MORE problems and I won't get tired of mentioning them:

• Islam has a big problem with gay people (death penalty, prison sentences, illegal status of being gay etc.)
• Islam does not allow apostacy (leaving Islam)
• Islam does not allow a marriage between a non-muslim male and a muslim (born) woman (imagine what kind of danger for social peace this holds in a Christian society)
• Islam has a big problem with Israel and the Jews
• Islam does not allow reformations, reinterpretations and the like
• Women are still being held back (they should not travel alone, should always obey the husband, become a birth-giving machine etc.)
• Islamic countries don't get SHIT done. They blame other countries for exploiting them, but they don't develop unless financed by oil that happens to be underground. Muslims account for an extremely small number of nobel prize winners!

Where I live, nobody talks about these problems much. All the attention goes into the old mantra of "it has nothing to do with Islam"... speaking about terrorism.

I learned a long time ago that, if there is a god, it's not the God of the bible, the quran or any other book we know today. Because such a God would have to be perfect. But this God isn't. There are not only extreme scientific inaccuracies, God is also very angry, thirsty for revenge and doesn't even get ONE clear message across that is free from "misunderstandings".

You can't have it both ways. Either Islam is a perfect message from a perfect being that can't be misunderstood, or it IS being misunderstood by some muslims and therefore God fucked up / doesn't exist.

Another thing that brings my piss to a boil is the fact that many muslims don't acknowledge the reality of islamic terrorism. They will either say that the offender is not a true muslim, because "muslims don't kill" (yeah right), or that it's some Jewish Illuminati USA Nazi conspiracy, where the terrorist is actually a mossad agent who tries to give Islam a bad name. Right.

You know, the thing is, maybe it would be easier to overcome these problems if muslims actually dared to question their religion, not necessarily to the point of giving it up, but just by throwing some thoughts around, getting into discussions, talking among OTHER muslims what is actually wrong here. Because at the end of the day, you guys don't want us white people to tell you what's right and wrong, right? You don't want us to set you right about your mistakes as if we were better than you.

So deal with it and sort your problems out. I don't even need to hear about it. I've seen and felt enough Islam and I'm actually a little tired and want to move on with my life now. I don't need to hear any more "Allahu Akbar" from you. Not when someone blows themselves up and not when someone sneezes. How would you feel when a Christian / Agnostic / Atheist sneezed and uttered the same words as a guy who just blew up a mosque? Would you tolerate it because that's what your multicultural worldview is?

Underworld Football Manager Guide / Walkthrough

Underworld Football Manager is a nice game you can play on your phone or tablet. Although it has quite some depth and complexity, I have not seen any guide or walkthrough about the game yet. So I decided to go ahead and give you my tips and tricks on how to do well in the game.

List of contents:

• What is the game about?
• How does the game work?
• Currencies used in Underworld Football Manager
• List of buildings and how important they are
• List of skills and how useful they are
• Different strategies you can use
• My top tips and tricks for you

What is the Game about?

Underworld Football Manager

Underworld Football Manager is a strategy game much like other manager simulations, with one key difference. While you only control the team, transfers and training in most other games, here you can also bribe opponents, injure players or shut down enemy buildings. This adds a whole new level to simulation and tycoon games.

How does the game work?

You start off with a very weak team full of "level one" players. All your buildings are also very small and undeveloped. You then try to earn a lot of experience, money and other currencies so that you can hire better players, train your existing players, expand your facilities and learn new skills.

When it comes to the game of football itself you can:

• Play friendly matches (exhibition matches)
• Play in cups (tournaments)
• Play in leagues

The more developed your facilities are and the better you perform, the better the prize money, experience points and so on.

On top of that, several in-game characters will ask you to complete quests. These elements of the game are voluntary but very crucial. Completing quests will get you very far in the game! Quests pop up very couple of minutes or hours and may include "injure player X", "beat team Y" or "level up 6 players".

When you play matches, you will either face an A.I. player (the ones with the blank face for a profile picture) or real human players (shadowy picture or facebook account picture). The matches don't have any gameplay footage, just live text on what's going on.

In order to make it far in the game, you will have to get used to the different currencies in the game. Every currency is good for something, so it's best to understand what they are for.

Currencies used in Underworld Football Manager

Here are all the currencies used in Underworld Football Manager. Before I start: You can decide how often you want to upgrade a facility. When I say that building is not that much worth for leveling up, I mean it's not good to level it up very often or very intensively. That does not mean that you should keep these buildings at level one. Just be aware that it may be good to bring some facilities to level 9 quickly, while others can wait and maybe stay at level 3 for a while. But ultimately, it's up to you. You can even decide to level up all buildings one at a time and keep them all on the same level, although I believe that's not very useful.

Experience Points / XP

You gain experience points for almost every action you perform in the game, from bribing or injuring a player, playing a match, most of all from completing a quest, achievement or from finishing a tournament or league.

Experience points are basically your ticket for gaining a level as a manager. When you gain a level as a manager, you are rewarded very handsomely with money, budget points, gifts and, most importantly, skill points.

Experience points are only a small part of what matters in Underground Football Manager, but you'll be very happy to gain levels quickly, as you will soon find out.

Money

It should be very obvious that money matters very much in every game that deals with economic aspects. This game is no exception.

Money lets you do the following things: Buy items, upgrade buildings, buy talented players in bidding wars, ask an agency to look for talents in the community pitch, and bring players to new levels with training.

If you run out of money, it's very difficult to keep moving. So it's wise to have a constant flow of money. There are several different sources of income, the most known is a building called "Finance HQ". This building literally makes money by the minute. How much money it makes depends on the level of the building. So if you want more money, upgrade the Finance HQ.

Another way to earn money is to score good positions in tournaments or in the league. Completing quests also helps. Exhibition matches also produce income, although not enough to survive.

Gold

Gold is the rarest and most precious currency in Underworld Football Manager. You can either buy it with real money through a transaction, or you earn it very slowly. You can get it as a reward sometimes or by pure luck with the wheel of fortune. Do not spend gold lightly as it is so rare.

Gold basically speeds up a lot of processes. Here are some examples:

• Immediately finish the injury time of a player
• Fill up the available exhibition matches immediately
• Finish the upgrading process of a building
• Finish leveling up a player

Gold can sometimes be traded in for other currencies. Gold is your shortcut in many situations that would otherwise require you to play the game longer. If you are in a hurry, you can use this currency, but like I said, be very careful with it. If you haven't played the game so much yet, better save the gold and use it only when you have fully understood which situations require gold to be spent.

Budget Points / "Green Cheese"

It is not enough to have a lot of money. Even if you have all the money in the world, you can't upgrade your buildings, hire players or level up players, unless you have budget points.

Budget points are a way of the game to make sure you don't just buy your way up in the game. You need to prove that you have been successful enough to improve your team or your facilities.

You earn budget points, sometimes called "Green Cheese", by completing quests, leveling up yourself as a manager through XP, Competing in tournaments and the league, and by accomplishing achievements such as "win X games" or "buy Y items". We will come to that later.

Many people struggle with Green Cheese. If you are in the early stages of the game, you will often come accross this problem. One tip I can give you is: Hire a bunch of low level players (level 1 to 3), then focus on improving your really good players, and fire every player that you think is worthless. You will get a refund on all player you fire, not only the budget points the initially cost you, but also the budget points gained through a level up. So don't be afraid to fire a player, you will get all the budget points back.

Manager Skill Points

You can only view your manager skill points when you visit the "University" in the game. Skill points are what you get for leveling up as a manager through XP. It is also possible to get skill points by completing certain achievements, but that's a rather uncommon situation.

When you gain skill points, you can use them to improve yourself as manager in various ways. You can increase the number of exhibition matches you can play, increase your ability to injure other players, improve the performance of your training and so on. This is one of the most valuable tools in the game. Always strive to become a better manager and use the skill points to gain an advantage! I will talk about this a little more later.

Exhibition Tokens

When you play exhibition matches, or friendly matches as they are called in real life, you need tokens. It's not very complicated. You get a token every about 20 to 30 minutes, and once your token bar in the "Exhibition Grounds" is full, you no longer get them unless you play matches. This is just to limit the number of matches you can play. Nothing special and nothing to worry about too much. It's just the way it is.

Talent Agency Tokens

Later on in the game, it is possible to get highly talented players in some kind of auction house, the "Talent Agency". To get really good players, you will need lots of cash. But money alone won't help. The number of times you can place a bid is limited by tokens. You get these tokens from the fortune wheel, as daily rewards or by buying them with gold. My advice is: Don't engage in bidding wars too often, better focus on players you really, really want, and be prepared to spend hundres of thousand of dollars for a good player. If you lose a bidding war, it's a waste of tokens. Only bid if you are totally determined to pull through.

Read more about the Talent Agency and bidding in my article Don't Be A Bidding Idiot.

List of buildings and how important they are

Buildings, or facilities, are used as a base for your team. There is no building that is totally useless, so don't think that you should neglect any of them completely. However, there are some buildings that might be more useful to you than others.

Also, there is no such thing as "the number one most important building". It depends totally on your style of playing. If you are more the kind of guy who wants a high level manager, the university may be more important. If money matters for you and your goals, then the Finance HQ ist of relevance. If you just want to level up players as quickly as possible, it's the Sports Lab. Here are all the facilities in Underworld Football Manager and how important they are.

Finance HQ

Effect: Produces Income (Money)

Sooner or later, you will want to level this thing up as it is your #1 source of income (until your tournaments produce even more money). The more you upgrade it, the higher the amount of money per minute is. The downside of this is that you may have to spend a lot of time on your phone or tablet, because there is a maximum amount of money that the Finance HQ can save. You constantly have to withdraw that money. To avoid this problem, use manager skill points to increase the maximum amount of money that the Finance HQ can hold.

University

Effect: Increases the amount of Experience Points gained (XP)

This was the facility I personally focussed on when I started the game. I realised that I wanted to get a lot of experience points, because experience equals level ups, and level ups equal skill points that can be used in the University.
The downside of having a quick level up as a manager is that "teams of your level" will soon be teams that are actually stronger than you. The reason for this is that while you level up quickly as a manager, your players may not be able to catch up with that. Other human players may spend more time on one manager level and improve their team first. But that's okay, because in the long run, you will be better off with all your skill points.
Whenever you feel that you are running out of budget points, check for your University because an upgrade can get you out of trouble.

Sports Lab

Effect: Makes players gain experience faster

The Sports Lab is the place where you put your players to improve. When a player has played a number of games and is ready to level up (his background is totally blue and he has an arrow next to him), you can go here and get him to the next level. This may take some minutes or hours based on the level.
People who invest in a much-improved Sports Lab have the advantage that their players will get stronger and stronger very quickly. You may have level 20 players when other people still have level 15 players.

The downside of this strategy may be that you are only leveling up bad players without real talent. On the other hand, this is one of the safest, easiest and most rewarding strategies, so don't feel discouraged if this is your idea of playing the game.
Also, if you spend lots of budget points upgrading this thing, but you don't have enough budget points later to upgrade your players, then the speed of upgrading your players doesn't help you much, so keep a balance.

Training Grounds

Effect: Improves the stats of your team by a certain percentage

You can think of your Training Grounds as some sort of boost or buff that will make your team stronger. Let's say your team has an overall shooting ability of 20000 points. Your Training Grounds may double that amount if they are well developed!

Training Grounds are great if you want to crush your oponents with pure team strength. The stats of the whole team are multiplied with the training ability of your Traning Grounds and the Training Talents aquired in University. A deadly combination.

The downside of this strategy might be that it's a little shortsighted if this is your only approach. You should try to also focus on actually making your players better (Sports Lab) and finding young talents that deserve to play matches (Community Pitch). In my opinion, the Training Grounds are great for later in the game when you have build some of the most important buildings listed above.

Tournament Arena

Effect: Unlocks new tournaments


You can enter a new tournament every day, as it consists only of 7 matches, with a match played every 2 hours. The better the tournaments are, the better the rewards are. The first tournaments only yield a crappy 10000 bucks or so, but later you can earn ten times more and it doesn't stop there.

What I also noticed is that higher level tournaments may not even have that many human players involved. If you are really lucky like me, you get to play only against NPCs. These computer teams will not be able to stop you and you can easily get a hundred thousand dollars or more!

In my opinion, improving the Tournament Arena is very useful every once in a while. The way I did it is this: Whenever I won a tournament, I improved the facility, then waited to win the next tournament, and so on. That way, you don't have to upgrade the facility all the time, and your trophies will look nice next to each other. A great income source by the way!

Having played this game for a while now, I believe the tournament arena is one of the most important places! Try to get really high, at least level 10-14, this will get you lots of rewards and you have a higher chance of encountering only NPCs than at the lower levels.

Pawn Shop

Effect: Unlocks new an better items

The Pawn Shop is a facility in Underground Football Manager that is most useful when you have a lot of money, so I advise you to only upgrade it very much when you think that you are swimming in money. It can be very useful if you want to manipulate matches. Vandalizing enemy buildings, bribing players, injuring players or giving improvement items to your own players is a lot of fun.

Just imagine that you can give an enemy player a car so he will score an own goal in the match against you! Wow!

Here is the downside though: The Pawn Shop will eat away a lot of your money, and all the effects are only temporary. Every bribe, every injury, even improvement items will wear off. You are basically spending money on things that will not have a long term effect. Therefore, it is wise to also invest in buildings that bring long term effects, like Sports Lab, Finance HQ and the like.

But if you are close to being promoted in the league, or you need to beat your next opponent to win the cup, then a quick bribe or a mass killing (just kidding) of enemy players will give you the best results you can hope for.

Villa

Effect: Reduces time needed to improve facilities

The villa is one of the most simplistic but also most overlooked buildings in the game. It allows you to improve buildings more quickly. When you progress in the game, you will soon find that some buildings need several real time days (!) to be built. So you might decide on a friday that you want to improve your Sports Lab, but it will take until Sunday afternoon until your building is finished and you can go on with the next building (only one building at a time is allowed).

The villa is a very prudent investment for people who know the like Underworld Football Manager and want to keep playing it for a while. If you don't know what to build next, build your villa! Then every building after that will be built faster!

The best buildings to combine this with is Finance HQ and University. You will need a lot of money (Finance HQ) and Budget Points (from leveling up) to build lots of facilities when the time in between is shorter.

Stadium

Effect: Increases player loyalty

This building only becomes important at later stages, when bribery is at its highest. At the same time, it's up to you whether you use a lot of money to improve this building or simply improve your player's loyalty when leveling up. A stadium at around level 10 should be enough for most people.

Talent Agency

Effect: Produces bidding tokens

The Talent Agency is that "auction house" kind of place where you can get highly developed players for money. It is very useful if you need a really good player without having to bring someone all the way up from, let's say, level 5 up to level 25. Also, all the players in the Talent Agency are in one way or another above average. All of them are either silver or gold players, which means they are much better than other players at that level.

The Talent Agency was changed in a recent patch and now produces bidding tokens instead of opportunities to see hidden talents. It's still a building I don't like because auctions are hard to win.

Read more: Don't Be A Bidding Idiot.

League Facility

Effect: Gives you a stronger home advantage in the league

The league facility is the place where all your league games take place. If it is really big, your stats will be stronger when you are playing at home. This gives you a bigger chance to be promoted to the next league, because your team will even be able to beat otherwise stronger teams.

I find this update quite useful as it is not as expensive as one might think, and it also don't take so much time. At the same time, it's still not the most important thing, but try to level it up once in a while, at least in order to stay in the same league.

Community Pitch

Effect: Lets you find new players at higher levels

Think of the Community Pitch as a small suburban pitch where young kids are playing. You get to scout these new players and pick the ones you think are really talented and fitting for your team.

I have to admit that I underestimated this facility in Underground Football Manager. So as a part of my guide / walkthrough, I have to correct that mistake.

At first, I thought that it would be best to get players at really low levels and then level them up myself (I would get a bonus for leveling them up). However, when you get higher level players in the Community Pitch, it is easier to distinguish bad players from super talented ones. And if your Community Pitch matches the level of your team players, you can pick up a player and directly use him in your next match!

Also, but this may just be a theory, when you find players from level 1 to 20, there is probably more of a chance to get a silver or gold player than when you just look for players ranged level 1 to 10. What do you think?

Hospital

Effect: Reduces injury time

I haven't upgraded my hospital much because I just accepted that injuries are a part of the sport. Players get injured, so live with it, move on and use some other players in your team.

However, when you have very special players in your team, winning or losing may depend on whether they can play or not. So perhaps it is good to keep the hospital in good shape. I personally think that you don't need to level up the hospital so much in the beginning, but if you notice that you lose games constantly because your best guys are out of action from injury, then this is the place to go.

Exhibition Grounds

Effect: Let's you earn more money through friendly matches

It's nice to earn a thousand bucks for a single match that only takes some seconds. The Exhibition Grounds are a source of income, although not a very big one. I can imagine that you can earn a lot more if you level this place up.

However, the main source of income should already be your Finance HQ. This place lets you earn 300, 400, 500 dollars, depending on how much you level it up. Why would you instead level up the Exhibition Grounds, which only gives you money when you play matches? I think this is one of the least useful places, leave it behind and only level it up if you want the achievement for leveling up all facilities.

Prison

Effect: Reduces prison time

You will end up in prison a lot when you play this game! Whenever you do something illegal, there is a chance you will get caught and grounded in prison. Therefore, it may be useful to improve that prison. For some weird logic, this will reduce your prison sentence. Just go with it.

Although it may make sense to reduce prison time at a later stage, your prison doesn't need your imidiate attention at the beginning of the game. Besides, if you have friends in the game, you will often be released from prison very quickly.

Police Station

Effect: Protects buildings from vandalism

Another facility that can be useful, but it doesn't need to be on a high level. Policemen help you protect your buildings from attacks by other players. I have 12 police officers at the moment, and I think that's more or less enough.

There are some reasons why you should hire enough police:

• Your Training Ground affects your stats very much, so players in tournaments or the league will try to pull it down
• Your League Facility may be brought down to minimize your home advantage in the league
• You may get a quest that says one of your facilities will be attacked and you should protect it

So I suggest you get at least 12 policemen or a little more. But you don't need much more until later in the game when you have enough time and money.

Museum

Effect: None (just for viewing)

The only building in Underworld Football Manager that you can't upgrade. But at the same time, it is also one of the most overlooked places. Here is why:

The Museum lays out all of the achievements you can unlock and have unlocked. It also shows how many more things you need to do to unlock the next level. Let's say you have won 50 matches. Next up, you have to win 100 matches, and so on.

Every time you unlock an achievement, you get money, green cheese, sometimes even manager experience points. Some of the achievements are very easy, but most people never look into the museum and therefore fail to realize that they can get something for free very quickly!

For example, there are high level players out there who have never in their life injured their own players, or locked down (quarantined) a city. However, you should try to not only achieve every achievement, but achieve it multiple times! That's how you get very far in the game and have resources left!

I will give you a few tips on some of the achievements later on. Keep reading.

B-Team

Effect: Allows for a second set of players to get experience

This facility in Underworld Football Manager has recently been introduced. Here, you can let young players grow up as well as old players get experience to catch up with the best players. This is very useful to keep all players at a high level in case someone gets injured or too old.

It is very useful because of the common dilemma that a young, talented player at a lower level doesn't become strong so quickly while an old player may be very strong but loses his abilities when growing older and older.

Make use of the B-Team, but if you only have a handful of young, talented players, fill the empty slots with Level 1 players. That's a good option for you.

List of skills and how useful they are

In this guide / walkthrough, I am dedicating a whole chapter to the manager skill points in the University. You should be wise and make good use of them. Just as with the facilities, some skills may be more useful to you than others, it all depends on how you play the game.

Manager - Number of exhibition tokens

Let's say you wake up in the morning and want to play a couple of exhibition matches, either to bring your players closer to a level up, or to complete a quest, or just to have fun. You will have a number of exhibition tokens that you can use, and once they are used up, it can take hours before all of them are recovered.

If you level up the "Manager" skill, you will get more exhibition tokens. More matches means a little more flexibility to the above mentioned possibilities. My advice is: Use some, but don't overdo it. I'm currently at 9 tokens at the start of the day, and that's enough.

Tycoon - Maximum amount of money in Finance HQ

This one is very useful, especially if you have to work and can only look at your tablet or phone during lunch break.

If you earn a lot of money after improving the Finance HQ, or if you want to pick up a lot of money after a long night's sleep, then the "Tycoon" skill is for you. Instead of just 3000 dollars, how about you pick up 5000 or 10000 dollars at a time? It's much better than having to pick up 3000 dollars and then resetting the cycle.

I am currently at 10000 dollars maximum, and I will keep improving this in the near future.

Coach - Bonus for each traning block

If you are the kind of player who like to focus on stat improvements at the Traning Facility, then the "Coach" skill is really important for you.

For every training block there is (maybe 7, maybe 10, maybe more), you get a higher percentage of how much your team stats are boosted. It's really all about the combination of the level of the Training Grounds, your team levels (Sports Lab) and this Coach skill. It's a triangle of success for people who like to focus on sports and less on the dirty side of Underworld Football Manager.

Medic - Reduce injury chance

It's a great thing that the hospital can reduce the time a player is injured. The "Medic" skill can reduce the chance of getting injured in the first place. And we're talking about regular injuries in matches here, not attacks.

This skill is useful and, in its initial stages, cheap to get. When you have a few spare skill points, using them here won't be wrong.

Scholar - Increase skill points per level

This skill goes very well with the overall strategy of wanting to improve the manager level. When you invest a lot of money in the University, also use some skill points for "Scholar", as it will give you more skill points later on. In the long run, you will be more competitive, get more skills than other players quicker, and beat them that way.

Hitman - Attack success chance

Many quests require you to attack an opponent. And this skill helps you succeed. You should invest some points here regularly, especially if you love the pawn shop and the idea of being a bad guy!

Guardian - Protect players and facilities from harm

If you are often under attack (players and buildings), use "Guardian" to reduce the chance of being successfully attacked. Bribes are not included here, though!

Although this skill is useful, I personally like to invest points in other things, but for the first few levels, if you have spare points, you can also use them here.

Merchant - Make items cheaper

Items are very expensive, especially the ones for bribery or long term injury. Some quests require bribery in Underworld Football Manager, injury is also often mentioned. It is clever to reduce the price of items in the Pawn Shop.

If you are a very frequent user of the shop, use this skill!

Tactician - Enable more styles

Maybe you are playing against a team that's hard to beat and you want to go full defense. Maybe you have a lot of strong midfielders and not many strikers. Maybe you want to injure enemy players during a match because you have already weakened the team with items before the match.

Tactician can be useful because it gives you more options in the game. My advice is: Go to the Stadium and check out the yet to unlock styles. Do you find them useful? If so, see when you want to unlock them. If you feel they don't help you at all, don't bother. It's not a must have.

Headhunter - Unlock agencies in the community pitch

If you are willing to find your own young players and turn them into stars, and if you have a lot of money, but you don't like bidding, then go to the community pitch. If you also like to hire players from there on a regular basis, it's good to use a "Headhunter" skill. More agencies means better agencies, some will even drop silver or gold players.

To unleash the full effect of this skill, I suggest you have a strong Finance HQ that you often withdraw money from, have a well developed Community Pitch and you have the skill "Scout" as well for better attributes of these players.

Scout - Better attributes in the Community Pitch

At the beginning of the game, the Community Pitch is just a mud pit for young boys to play. But later on, some really fine players can be found there. They will often surpass your original players if you just train them hard enough to reach the same level as your older guys.

In order to add on to that effect, get the "Scout" skill. Players in the Community Pitch will now be even stronger than before, and, when they are at the level of your best players, will be better compared to them.

Personal Trainer - Bonus when leveling up a player

If you are like me and you don't mind getting cheap low level players and spending a lot of time getting them in shape, this skill is for you. The skill is also for you if you are a big fan of the Sports Lab.

In other words, if you are a fan of the pure and honest sport, then use this skill. Whenever you level up a player, the stats improvement will be significantly higher than before.

Agent - Better chance to scout a star player

This skill increases the probability of getting bronze, silver and gold players in the community pitch agencies. For example, if your chance of gettinge a bronze player is "B", it will be "B+" after leveling up this skill several times. However, you have to invest a lot of points to see the effect. This skill is for you if community pitches are your preferred way of getting new players.

Different strategies you can use

Next up I want to talk about different approaches to the game in this walkthrough of Underworld Football Manager.

As you may have seen in this very long and complex article, there are many things you can do, so some people will ask me in this guide: How do I even start? What should I do first?

There is not one universal answer, but depending on what kind of person you are, here are some different paths you may want to take. The titles are made up and have no meaning in the game.

Quick learner

Your idea: Leveling up as a manager, earning lots of manager skill points, then pulling the other facilities after you.

Your main goal here is to level up your manager, yourself in other words. You do this by improving your University first. Bring it all the way up to, let's say, level 8, as quickly as possible. You will need a good Finance HQ too, because all of this will cost money.

You also have to complete many quests, because quests give the most XP. Also check your Museum for easy to reach achievements, as they may also get you further in the game. Soon, you will realise that your manager level is very high while your players are still very bad. Now is the right time to bring the rest of the buildings up. Go for the Sports Lab and the other buildings, but first: Improve your Villa! You have enough green cheese and money to reduce the improvement time to a minimum, and let your friends help you with the upgrading to reduce even more time!

Team builder

Your idea: You are a true sports fan, football means everything to you. You don't care about money or politics, you just want to boost your team and get the best results!

This approach lets you focus mainly on two things: Sports Lab and Training Ground. The Sports Lab gives you an advantage in leveling up the players with high speed, while the Training Ground maximizes your stats even further!

With this strategy, you will win matches very early, even tournaments, and exhibition matches will be easy as pie for you, even against teams of higher level players. In the long run, you will even win the league.

Just be sure you also invest in techniques that get you better players, like the Community Pitch or the Talent Agency. You need good people because your original players won't be as talented as you hope.

Capitalist

Your idea: You know that money rules the world. Money alone won't make you happy, but it can buy you things that other people can only dream of. You have access to lots of things once money comes pouring in.

As a capitalist, you focus on your Finance HQ as well as your "Tycoon" skill. You collect money like crazy and improve buildings whenever you can. The success of your team is of secondary concern, because first it's about the money. Later on in the game, you can buy your way out of the misery and get extremely good players both from the Community Pitch and the Talent Agency, because nobody can bid as high as you!

These are just some examples. My advice to you is: Always check what currency you are lacking. If you are out of budget, get your University up. If you are out of money, get your Finance HQ up. If your team sucks, use Training Ground or Sports Lab. Always see what's most urgent to improve.

My top tips and tricks for you

Here are some of the most important tips and tricks I can give you. If you follow them, you will be very successful in Underworld Football Manager.

Talent is the most important player stat

It does not matter how loyal a player is, how much leadership he has or how intelligent he is, if he isn't talented. The most important player value is talent. Talent is an unchangeable value, which means that it never changes. If your player has a low talent, then even the Sports Lab won't help much because he won't develop quickly. But if he has a high talent, he will level up very quickly. Talent determines the speed of how quickly a player earns experience.

Here is what I consider bad and good talent:

• 0-20: Total crap: Get rid of this player and use someone else in his position
• 30-40: Average. Try to find a great talent here and only fire this player once a more talented player has reached his level.
• 50-60: Good. You can rely on this player. He will give you good results on a long term basis.
• 70+: Super talented. These guys are jewels for your team. Let them play as many matches as possible, always level them up whenever you can, always push them further. They will overtake all the other players will lesser talent and soon be several levels above normal players.

Players can improve over time

If you treat your players well, they may end up as silver or gold players one day. From what I understand about Underworld Football Manager, a bronze, silver or gold player is simply a player that is "above average" compared to other players. Maybe your player is not above average at level 5, but maybe, using the "Personal Trainer" skill, he will be a silver player one day. Give your players time to develop and take a close look on how quickly they level up compared to other players.

The talent value will be hidden for a long time, but at some point you will be able to see it. Until then, be very aware of your player improvement and make quick judgements based on how quickly these players reach new levels.

Never forget your Museum

I always cringe when I see that someone has never bribed a player, or never injured 10 of his own players, to get some of the easiest achievements in the game.

Always ask yourself: What is the easiest to reach achievement today? Where is the green bar furthest to the right?

I always try to reach achievements over and over. This is how I got thousands of budget points. Leveling up, doing quests and reaching achievements. Many players don't care about the museum and leave out a lot of rewards.

How to lock down cities easily for the achievement "lock down x cities"

Note: The term "lock down" has been replaced by "quarantine" in game. Locking down a city is when you injure so many players that the team has less than 8 healthy players. Injured players include every injury, even the ones from bananas. Many people find it hard to lock any city down, because it's hard to find the right victim, someone who has few players and is an easy target, and can even be found once you leave his city.

There is one very easy way to lock down cities quickly. At the beginning of the game, you have someone in your friend list who is not really a player but an A.I. player, a computer. His name is Chris, and he is level 3. He is the only computer you can have as a friend and the only computer whose team you can visit.

Go to his place, then attack his players one by one. Start off by using items that keep players injured long, let's say 1-3 hours. Attack only as many players as you can attack without going to prison. Then let your heat (the amount of red stars, police awareness) go down. Go back and attack his players again. At some point, use items that have short recovery time, like the banana. Once you have attacked many players, the city will be in lock down and you get the message that you can't attack any more players.

Now wait and watch his Hospital. Wait for any player to recover, then go to the Stadium and attack him again. Every time you do this, the city will be in lockdown again, over and over. You can quickly get numerous lockdowns that way and reach the achievement "lock down 1 city, 3 cities etc." several times.

I have almost locked down 100 cities that way and I've soon going to stop... 100 is enough.

Watch the age of your players

This won't be a problem for you if you are a beginner, but at some point, players will get weaker when they approach the age of 30 and beyond. Therefore, it is useful to look for especially young players below 20 years. That way, you get the maximum development out of your players before they get old.

Of course, stats and talent still come first.

Stay flexible and think ahead of time

Don't complain if you have too little green cheese (budget points). Whenever you lack a currency in the game, it means that you are doing something wrong. Always check which facility or action will help you get more money, budget, skill points etc.

Then, do the necessary steps to ensure that you will get more of that currency in the future.

Also, don't focus too much on short term success. It's better to invest in buildings that will improve your team tomorrow than to buy expensive items or agency players that soon lose their effect.

Have reliable friends and share gifts

You can have up to 30 friends, after that all your friend requests will remain unanswered. Try to invite people as friends who play the game a lot, and send them gifts every day!

When you send a gift, it doesn't cost you anything, but you will often get something back from the other person. Do this every day, and if another player doesn't pick up his gift for 3 days, get him off your friends list!

The best gift to give in my opinion is XP. You can't buy XY, so give it and show the other people that this is what you want. You will often get the same gift back.

Change stupid quests

Quests are automatically given by the computer. Some of them are very unrealistic, like trying to bribe a player that you clearly can't bribe, or injuring a player that is impossible to injure due to items.

Instead of doing the impossible, change the quest. This can be done one hour after accepting the quest. Don't be afraid to change a quest you hate or that would cost too much money to complete. You must have the courage to change a quest or else you will feel annoyed a lot.

Completing quests is important, but a part of that process includes knowing when to say no.

Always be in a tournament

It's easy to forget that tournaments need registration every time one has ended. Make it a habit to register for a new tournament every time you get the information which position you scored in the last one. Always register, and always go for good tournaments that give high rewards.

Use players in positions they can play in, but don't be too strict

A player who is a left midfielder should play in exactly that position, but don't be afraid to use him in the central midfield. From what I understand, intelligence is a value that determines how well he plays in other positions. Better use a level 15 left midfielder in the central midfield than a level 7 central midfielder.

Become bribery-resistant

At the later stages of the game, it becomes vital to be immune to bribes. A single league game that's lost can make the difference between winning or losing the whole league. What's the point of having a strong team if they don't follow your commands?

Always complete quests and get daily rewards

You may not realize this in the beginning, but budget points will be a huge issue at some point. Even if you have millions of dollars, budget points will be rare, and the higher a player level goes, the more "green cheese" it costs. For example, getting a player from level 36 to 37 has cost me 1000 budget points or more. So: Do your quests as often as possible, even if it's just for 6 to 30 budget points per quest. The numbers will add up and you will be happy later when you reach manager level 100 and beyond.

Recently, daily rewards have been added to Underworld Football Manager - so use these special quests to get even more rewards, including budget points and the also rare manager skill points. We didn't have these special quests until the August of 2016!

More ideas?

I hope you liked this walkthrough and found it helpful. This guide was created to give you and idea how to play Underworld Football manager and become better at it. Remember that it's supposed to be fun.

If you have any hidden tricks or tips that have not been mentioned here, feel free to post a comment.

Terrorist Attack Checklist

I still remember being a child and not waking up every day hearing about terrorist attacks. Yes, there were such times... but not any more. Anway, here is a checklist for things that must be said in the media in order to successfully calm down everybody and go back to normal as quickly as possible:

• "This has nothing to do with Islam"
• "This attack must not divide our nation"
• "Fight against racism, nazis etc. more than ever"
• "Muslims are the true victims"
• "This event should not be used to generalise..."
• "The religion has been abused"
• "Islam is a religion of peace"
• Politician X has condemned the attack
• Politician X was said to be deeply shocked and concerned about the events
• "Our thoughts and prayers are with X"
• "We are going to give an answer to this attack"
• It was an attack of previously unforeseen extent that had never been expected...
• "It's the fault of the Western world for the exploitation of countries such as X"

And some very interesting questions that are successfully supressed:

• Why is it always that same religion that's "abused" for such acts?
• How can a religion be "abused" when a perfect being created it and supposedly dictated the rules in a crystal-clear manner? Would any all-knowing god with the slightest bit of pride allow such a thing?
• Why does a god who is most powerful and immune to insults need earthly beings to take revenge in his name?
• Why does it always take people OUTSIDE the religion to point out something is wrong and needs to be adressed INSIDE the religion?
• Why are we growing so used to these attacks and not doing anything against them?

I'm sure there is more. But whichever points I forgot, the most important thing is: If there is one thing in the whole wide world that can't be blamed, it surely is Islam. Right?

By the way: There hasn't been a successful terrorist attack in Germany yet, but if I had to bet money on any attack here, I'd say it would happen on a Christmas market. Just pointing this out now so maybe I'll be right when it happens... and the sad thing is, sooner or later it has to happen, considering all the idiots following their heart and blowing themselves up.

Politically Correct Bullshit

Sometimes it's okay to be politically correct. For instance, nobody would say that "women shouldn't become bus drivers" is a fair thing to say. But sometimes, especially in Germany, political correctness is almost like a mental disease.

A while back, a politician came up with the idea that refugees should be invited to take part in a voluntary intelligence test in order to "discover hidden talent".

There was suddenly an outcry from other politicians who claimed this idea would enforce racial stereotypes. What the hell? Why?

If anyone gave the general public an invitation for a voluntary intelligence test, nobody would be offended. But because it's foreigners, a specific group (like women, disabled people etc.), we HAVE TO be offended.

It's better NOT to discover hidden talent that we could give our full support. Instead, let's just cover all minorities with a blanket of political correctness and treat everybody the same. The hidden genius that has the potential to become a new Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, and all the other normal people or maybe even totally stupid people. Let's not take ANY chances whatsoever. It's just too risky. We might upset people.

Just stick to what's known... never venture outside of your box.

Angela Merkel: The Queen Of Turnarounds

If there is one person who's especially good at changing their mind and turning around 180 degrees, it's our "Angie". Angela Merkel.

picture courtesy of Armin Linnartz / wikipedia

The special tactic that has kept her in office as German chancellor for 10 years is her ability to change her opinion in a very subtle way. Actually, she does not change her mind, it's just her reajusting her policies in the direction the wind is blowing.

Her party, the CDU, always was the one that was holding back green energy (solar and wind power for example) and insisting that nuclear power contracts had to be extended. Until Fukushima. Suddenly, not the green party, not the social democrats, no... Angie and her conservatives were the ones who suddenly brought nuclear power to the grave.

It seemed as if it had always been their plan. And yeah... "now, after Fukushima" nothing can be the same, they said.

A political party that had always been seen as preventing electrical cars and solar energy to win over Germany was suddenly the one being celebrated for bringing us green power... finally.

Since then, Angela Merkel has changed her policies on various subjects several times. The most recent change is taking place right now. It's the migrant movement.

Only half a year ago, Angie was the one saying that we can't just leave refugees all alone when they reach such terrible and war-mongering (sarcasm) places such as Greece and Italy, although they are already in the European Union! No. They have to come to Germany, and how should we even stop them? It's not like we can build a wall / fence or perform border checks like other countries. It's not like we had a law that says "a refugee can only claim refuge in the EU country he has first set foot in"...yeah... well, we DO have that law you know.

Now, the situation has again changed, and again in a very subtle manner. Merkel does not want to admit that she HAD TO change her policies, because that would make it obvious that she is only listening to the trends. But if she doesn't change, she will lose power. Since the infamous rape, sexual assault and theft events in Germany at the beginning of the year, Germans have become more critical of foreigners. It's not that they have generally become more hostile, it's just that this idea of letting EVERYBODY in is weakening. Germans prefer a more disciplined approach. With real background checkups, finding out who are the real refugees and who just wants to live in a rich country without effort.

One of the strongest pieces of evidence that Angie is changing her opinion is this: "Refugees don't have a say in where in the EU they are allowed to stay when seeking refuge" and "Greece offers food and shelter that refugees should make use of". Yes! That is exactly what the law has always been saying, even when the German government deliberately ignored that law.

So suddenly, when refugees are "stranded" in poor old Greece, that's okay. Because Greece can offer accomodation and food, and let's not forget: If people are fleeing from war, they shouldn't be picky where to stay.

So yeah... I was wondering what would happen first: Angie giving in to a new policy or a different party taking power. We can slowly see that her famous turnarounds are the choice she has made. And Germans will be too dumb to notice.

By the way: I don't mind politicians always doing what the public asks for. But next time, change your opinion right from the start and not 1-2 million immigrants later, okay?

No longer interested in Michael Schumacher

It's been yet another 9 months since my last post about Michael Schumacher (full retard or chilling on couch?), and by now, nobody even cares about him any more.

The media hype is over by all means. But there are still fans out there who would at least like a decent confirmation about what everyone is basically thinking: That Schumacher is lying in bed all day, needs help breathing, doesn't talk or show any signs of being self-aware, and so on. Whichever is the case.

One of Schumacher's former bosses said that his condition is "not good". But we hardly hear any details. I think the need for privacy is completely neurotic in the case of Schumacher's family.

All it would ever take was one statement. One official statement. To let all fans know what his health condition was like. It would take one 30 minute press conference for all the facts. Then, even the last fan could move on.

But as long as this doesn't happen, tabloids will keep writing about a supposed death and other weird shit.

On the other hand: Who actually still cares? I guess we've gotten used to not hearing anything new. And we're tired of it. "Keep fighting Michael"? Well, no more, obviously.

Everything Is A Hoax?!

I'm really getting confused. I don't know what to believe any more.

First, everyone talks about global warming. Then, it's a hoax. Then, when you dig deeper, the hoax is supposedly a hoax made by "scientists" who receive pay checks from the oil industry. I think it's already too difficult to really find the truth. And to be honest, I don't care if it's about a topic I won't live long enough to see happen.

And then there is "Peak Oil". More or less the idea that we've already seen the highest point in oil production on this planet and that our oil resources are now drying out year by year.

Well, if you ask me, that's total bullshit. Why? Have you seen the oil prices lately?

When I went to business school in 2007, we learned about stocks, bonds, options and all that stuff. Back then I thought to myself: If I ever get into that kind of business, I'll buy oil options, because hey, the prices MUST go up because it's a scarce resource, right?

Well, fuck that. Luckily I never bought anything oil-related, otherwise I'd be piss poor by now. We obviously can't have oil shortages anytime soon because the price of oil is going lower and lower. I remember how I watched one peak oil documentary years ago and one guy working at a platform said "I think it's going to end in 2025". Well, that's 9 years from now and oil prices are dropping. So who do you think is talking bullshit here?

Global Warming Is Bullshit!

I've never really read up on global warming and climate change until now, so I have never really made up my mind apart from the obvious stuff you hear on the media ("all scientists agree global warming is man-made").

What has been perplexing me in recent years is how there are always news articles saying "now scientists are sure it really is man-made". As if there is a desperate need to emphasize how sure everyone is. I even wrote about it years ago.

I've had this hunch that maybe global warming could be a hoax, and after watching some youtube videos that are critical of global warming, I'm indeed leaning towards the hoaxy direction.

One of the videos is an elaborate British tv documentary that presents a lot of convincing evidence you should check out. The other is lots of that in a nutshell, powerfully composed into one convincing video.

Some of the key points of both videos combined are:

• Supposedly "most scientists agreeing" that global warming exists (95-99 per cent of "all scientists") is a very flawed and terribly conducted study that's a borderline lie
• There are heavy temperature shifts in recent centuries and millenia that are all natural
• The sun plays a big part in the weather and the ongoing and ever-ongoing climate change
• The correlation between economic development (and therefore CO2 increase) and temperature changes in the second half of the 20th century doesn't add up
• Only about 0.05 per cent of the atmosphere is even C02, and only a part of that is man-made
• Polar bears and arctic ice have increased massively despite fears and warnings
• There is no increase in the average overall temperature in the past 17 years

Here are the two videos:

Also worth noting is my personal view that hasn't changed much anyways:

We have bigger problems than a possible climate change. Why do we care how the world looks in 100 years?

This may sound egoistic, but that's because it is.I don't give a flying fuck about what my non-existing grandchildren will go through. Let them keep some problems to solve on their own and stop trying to save the world all the time.

To be honest, I don't care if the world is 7 degrees celcius warmer when I'm 80 years old...but with all the computer models having failed to show the results of the past 17 years correctly, it would be a surprise if the temperature in the year 2100 (!) was even 2 degrees above today's values... and that's basically nothing we're talking about here.

Plus, if you watch the documentary, you will see that a decent increase in temperature will even be helpful for almost ALL involved (including animals).

I think (and I'm not even kidding) it's more likely that Germany will become an islamic country than that climate change will negatively impact humanity on a great scale. And with that said, let's return to our actual problems... terror threats and terrorist attacks. Wanna bet that we're in for some more surprises this year?