Published 2025-08-07
tag(s): #fútbol #failures
This week the fam traveled to meet up friends. I had some ideas of how to spend my time alone, until I realized I am working the whole week. AND they took the car. So I tempered my expectations. :)
There were some positives, like for example I went shopping by bike, and it was great. I even
did a short leisure ride yesterday, early morning.
I got caught up with two dear friends, which was really nice.
I read a tiny bit.
But, something happened that dragged me (or, I let it drag me) over the dark side of
The Socials, and I wasted so much of my "me time" there...and even some time during the day.
It was reported that Toronto FC is buying Djordje Mihailovic from the Colorado Rapids for $8
million. We are paying him ~$1.25 million now.
He's been with us for only a year and a half. The trade happening mid season, as we are trying
to make a playoffs push, is really bad. He asked to be transferred, which makes it sting
more.
He made a big impact in the club since we brought him over from Europe in 2024, and he was
supposed to be a long term investment. We were supposed to build the squad around him.
I could explain more about why this sucks, but I guess not many in my readership
care.[1]
If the assumption is wrong, maybe I get an email asking for details, and will happily
type a lot about it in another post. 🤓
The MLS subreddit saw some movement over this, but the Rapids one exploded. Relative to our
regular volume of posting, at least.
There were lengthy threads complaining about the club's front office, the scouting, lack of
investment from ownership, how we are stuck being a mid team that just exists, etc etc etc.
And...I couldn't stop scrolling. A couple times I stopped myself from replying, unlike during our horrible 2023 season where I replied to every single message that was spelling gloom and doom, trying to make more measured takes. Still, I couldn't help myself reply here and there to "set the record straight", which is stupid.
But then as my phone usage shot up, I also started wasting more and more time in other apps and sites :(
The only reason I kept reddit around was to stay on top of MLS and Rapids news. But then I
found myself using the site more and more, until I went back to "normal" usage.
And you know what? It isn't worth it.
The truth is, I have too little self control. I have found a website
for Rapids news. They reported the Mihailovic transfer
about 2 hours after it showed up in r/MLS, and that is fine.
Reading about it "as it happened" only got me to constantly check reddit for wildly emotional
takes, going as far as saying we started 2025 strong until the club's management blew it (we
didn't, that's why we are 9 in the standings...) and excusing the player for wanting out
because the club sucks.
I mean, yes, Colorado Rapids isn't the most ambitious club in MLS. But even I knew that coming into the stadium when we attended our very first game. Mihailovic could (should?) have known that before joining the team as the centerpiece.[2].
I also follow the Emacs subreddit, but lately I don't have any interest in trying out new packages. One in a while I peruse other people's configs, but within a minute I give up. I already know what I want in my editor, and if I need to change something I can find it in the manual. I get better value from Sacha Chua's weekly news round up and being subscribed to the Emacs devel mailing list.
I don't think I will delete my reddit account (yet?). But will remove the login from my phone
and maybe my laptop, just to stop myself from using it.
Over at Koldfront, Adam posted about
deleting his LinkedIn account. I am so tempted to do that, except that when I was out of a
job, guess what kickstarted the process of getting the one I have now...? Yep, a former
colleague noticing I was in the market via LinkedIn. And unlike the others, this isn't an
account I really use much. Deleting would be more about rebelling against The Man than about
making a more conscious use of my time.
The one that can't seem let go of is Instagram. I almost stopped posting, and I don't interact
with posts anymore. But one of the friends I caught up with, it was via Instagram chat. My
wife and I send each other jokes and news and places to visit. I have a couple other friends
with whom I interact mostly via sharing posts and chatting there.
So the strategy might be to set a time limit, so I get use out of it but don't give in to
doomscrolling.
And anyway, that's also why I didn't spend any of my solo time writing on this site[3], despite having quite a few ideas and thoughts in the queue. Because I was stupidly scrolling on post after post about how bad the Colorado Rapids are, and then instead of putting the phone away, heading over to other apps and doom scrolling more and more, and then getting back to r/Rapids.
I hate that I have so little self control, and I hate that my first post back is about this
instead of the other things I feel like saying.
But I also needed this out my system...so here we are.