Juan Manforce

One of my friends did a TEFL course and had work lined up in China. He flew from Glasgow to London, to Dubai, to Bangkok, and when he tried to get on the plane to China found out he only had a visa application, not an actual visa. Rather than stay in the British embassy for a few days while they got things sorted he came home and got his old job back.

It's not particularly relevant experience, but that's my experience with TEFL.

Tried to get back into the whole online dating thing again recently, reactivating POF, OK Cupid and (probably stupidly) Tinder. A few weeks in and I'm starting to get despondent again. One girl I've messaged has responded in all those weeks. Was having decent chat with her, added her on Facebook, and within 2 days of that her messages started slowing down then stopped. I could see the messages were read. Unfriended her, I don't need a headfuck like that in my life.

It's hard enough finding people with similar interests to me on 'normal' dating sites (where every other girl lists 'gym' or 'travel' as their main hobby), when I whittle it down to people I'm even remotely attracted to I end up with only a handful of options and never get any replies. I don't even know what I'm doing wrong anymore. Is it my profile, my chat, the fact that I'm not a 10, a combination of it all? Considering my already low self esteem is taking a pounding thanks to other areas of my life, I don't know how much longer I should keep this up. I'm clearly bad at dating - never had a relationship, owing to self esteem/anxiety issues, my image in the past didn't help but I've gone from weighing 26st to 13st in the past 6 years, I should be over that kind of shit - and have no idea how to get better at it without getting experience that at my age (28 next month) I should already have. It's a vicious cycle. I get down because I'm lonely, try to make an effort to change that, and just get even more down.

Was at my brother's wedding yesterday. This is probably the best I have ever looked, or will ever look.

Just went for a shite. When I stood up to flush I noticed a 2 inch wide spider floating in the water that wasn't there when I sat down. I'm sure I would've noticed if it had actually been up my cornhole, but still, that was interesting.

There's been a big spider in my living room for a month or so, he lives behind the mantlepiece. I wouldn't usually be OK with that but he keeps himself to himself and takes care of a lot of the flies and such that come in the windows.

It's fucking wasps that are my main problem right now. Four nights in a row last week I had to chase one out of my room before I went to bed. Nothing for a few days, I think the worst has passed. Got woken up at 5:30 this morning by a buzzing sound and saw 3 of the stripey fuckers hovering above me. Had to gas the cunts with Lynx Africa to slow them down enough to catch and chuck them. Couldn't get back to sleep for an hour after that. Fucking wasps.

I was at Celebration so I probably saw you at some point Monkee! Some of the costumes were incredible, yours included I have to say.

Having a bit of a head vs heart moment here. I've been offered some TV extra work but they want me to be clean shaven for it (why I'm not sure, I've done this exact role on the same show before and they encouraged me to keep my beard), so I turned it down. Partly because since I've had a beard (going on 12 years now) I've always said I would never go without one, partly because fuck the hassle, a whole number of small reasons really. I think about the money and how it'll grow back pretty quickly, but that makes me feel like I'd be selling out, and I don't want to change who I am for a job. I'm still thinking about calling them back and saying I've reconsidered, but I'm still on the fence. I'm kinda making a pros and cons list, money is the only pro I can think of as yet, and for as much as I'm thinking fuck being a sellout, it's still making it a hard call for me. I know I'm being an idiot here by saying no but when it would involve going against my principles, I still kinda feel like I'm in the right.

This is probably one of the deepest trains of thought anyone's ever had about whether or not to shave.

If they're bringing GMs back, they should have Chiefs of Staff too. Chief Morley for Smackdown and Chief Holly for RAW.

Tatanka, surely?

Just took over the closest gym to me, I fully expect to go back in a few hours and find my 727 Hypno has been dethroned.

I've been using this a lot and having a lot of fun with it. The server issues seem to be getting ironed out but I'm still having the odd issue when catching something or in a gym battle. 38 different species caught so far, I found a Jynx on the first day but the servers crashed and I lost it. I tend to go a lot of late night walks so it gives me something to do, hitting up Pokestops all over the south side of Glasgow. I used it in the city centre for the first time yesterday, an hour later I'd only moved a distance that would usually take 10 minutes to walk. It was just too dense.

Evolutions I've managed are Drowzee > Hypno, Rattata > Raticate, Caterpie > Metapod, Weedle > Kakuna, and Pidgey > Pidgeotto > Pidgeot. I've caught a few evolved ones too, namely a Golbat (I had tons of Zubats beforehand), and both Poliwhirl and Tentacruel without even seeing their prevolutions. I have a 669 Hypno and a 534 Golbat so I do pretty well in most battles. My highlight came last night around 1am, on the way to get fags from the 24 hour shop I stumbled across (and caught) this fella...

I don't care how lame it is to be excited about it, I caught a fucking dragon 2 minutes from my house.

I remember creating Brock Lesnar in Smackdown! 2 after reading JR hype him as a future star in an old WWF mag.

A new figure is on the market. And its going to shock the world ...

Here's the back of the box, which manages to make it even better.

Looks dull as fuck, a depressing place wherever it is. So it's probably Preston.

As a student I'm now in the fun position of seeking out part time work for the summer, I can't imagine there will be many (if any) desirable jobs going but that's par for the course in the real world, innit? I'm a film student so obviously getting some experience in that line of work would be ideal, not likely though. The matched betting is paying off in the short term at least.

I've done extra work for a couple of TV shows before and the agency I got those jobs through has put me forward for work on a film this month, with any luck I'll hear back about that soon. It's not glamorous work, for example a day on Outlander lasted 13 hours and I was on set for probably 1 of those, but at nearly £100 a day I wasn't complaining.

I started it this week after seeing it discussed in this thread, looking at close to £100 profit (that's after the £23 sign up fee too) in 6 days. Not too shabby considering it's not the best time of year for sports betting.

Surprised no-one's commented on X-Men: Apocalypse yet. It's fucking shite.

 

Some of the Punisher stuff was amazingly brutal and I could've done with seeing a bit more of it. Overall there were a couple of aspects of the Punisher character that didn't sit right with me, but more in concept than execution, Bernthal (as always) was great.

What in particular irked you about the portrayal of Frank? I definitely think that his stuff was the strongest part of the two main story arcs. Particularly the way Frank was more than happy to play possum draw ib his enemies.

 

Thinking about it more, I guess it was only really his arc while he was in hospital and court (episode 8 aside) that I didn't enjoy as much as the rest of his stuff. Obviously since it's set in a more grounded and realistic world than the comics you kind of have to, but the way they humanised him by having him show guilt, the way he only wanted to talk to Karen, it just felt a bit off, like he was too vulnerable for the Punisher. I wasn't a huge fan of the "Karen Page: Journalist" story so the way their stories intersected again in the back half of the season wasn't my favourite thing. You're right about him playing possum, that was good stuff. A lot of his stuff was great. It's hard for me to explain, I'm probably coming across more negative than I mean to about it. They're things I might not have an issue with on a rewatch, hell I didn't really have an issue as such with them at the time, I'm just that kind of pessimistic prick that can love 90% of something but focus on the 10% that was only OK and nitpick.

I had the day off last Friday and was able to binge Daredevil season 2. I thought it was great, but suffered from the same problem season 1 and Jessica Jones did in that 13 episodes felt like too much and the story started to really slow down and drag out a bit come the halfway point. Some of the Punisher stuff was amazingly brutal and I could've done with seeing a bit more of it. Overall there were a couple of aspects of the Punisher character that didn't sit right with me, but more in concept than execution, Bernthal (as always) was great. I seem to be in the vast minority that preferred season 1 though. Maybe I can put that down to my glee at seeing my favourite comic book character finally brought to life in a way that did him justice the first time around, or maybe there were too many ninjas in lieu of other action in the back half of the season, I dunno. Still loved it though. The costume in particular is a big step up from last year.

I saw Batman v Superman this afternoon...

Do you think they'll actually use Cannonball in a future film? They gave all his powers to Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Is the Rogue cut of Days of Future Past worth checking out? Noticed it on PSN the other day and was tempted.

It's alright but I prefer the theatrical cut, it has better pacing. There's the odd extra line or slightly extended scene that's cool, but overall it doesn't really add much, and that's coming from a Rogue fan.

Not officially confirmed until now, for as long as the story's been going about. Last I heard it was all but a done deal but you never know in Hollywood these days until it's official.

James Gunn has confirmed that Kurt Russell has joined the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. This makes me happy in so many ways.

 

We got the Ferris Buellers Day Off post credits scene where Deadpool comes out, bathrobe and all, and says something akin to “Were you expecting Nick Fury to show up”. Who played Cable? This is very interesting

 

Enjoyed Deadpool quite a bit. It was strange how small in scale it felt, but that's more a problem with superhero films in general these days all feeling like the world is at stake.

Zoolander 2 is one of the least necessary sequels I've ever seen. It's amazing that there were 4 credited writers and apparently none of them realised that a cameo =/= a joke. It had a few decent moments but I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm not usually one for selfies, but after getting a much needed haircut and shaving off the neckbeard I'd negligently cultivated I feel like I'm now somewhat presentable.