StrongStyle

I feel like ELO are a band that people think they like because they heard 'Mr. Blue Sky' in a film trailer once, but their music is generally torturous.

An under-rated gem of a goal at international level. Scott Brown's back heel here is pure filth and the finish is exquisite.

To be fair, Batigol should probably be a daily feature in this thread.

Simms looked like a decent player when he was at Hearts last season. It's mental seeing him playing Premier League games already though, he's clearly not at that level.

Someone really has to make a proper John Wick game (no, not Hex). Rocksteady: cometh the hour and all that.

Yesterday, I felt this really nostalgic pang of sadness that I tried to put my finger on for hours. I haven't experienced it for years if not decades. Obviously, by describing the nostalgia of it, there was a certain warmth associated with it as well - but an undeniable sadness crept over me.

I worked out that it was to do with the very early spring sunsets we've been having in Glasgow recently. Yesterday's was SO redolent of what I used to remember Sundays at my gran's being like. Like Frankie, I also love mine to bits. Dusky, spring sunsets on a Sunday afternoon with quiet streets and near silence just brought that feeling home to me. A A bath tonight, school in the morning and not seeing my gran (who I idolised) for another week.

For some reason, I always thought people died on a Sunday as a rule when I was a small kid too. That kind of poetic sadness on a Sunday reminds me of John Candy, Dermot Morgan and my other deceased (and also lovely) gran. Strange, eh?

I work in a school in one of the most affluent yet retrograde local authorities in Scotland. Areas of greater deprivation are far better resourced than us in terms of disability/equality/equity and I have long feared that we do not have sufficient grasp on the 'big' issues just now (for example: we conflate trauma informed practice with the ACEs model to the degree that none of the big wigs can tell the difference anymore).

In our authority, neurodiversity/autism are almost exclusively referred to as ASD. Purely for my own understanding: can any of you explain why ASD is an antiquated/inappropriate term? I'm asking with the best of intentions: is it a semantic reason or is there new research that debunks autism as being a 'disorder'?

Thanks.

Why does 'tap-in merchant' have a derogatory connotation, anyway? Only nonces think tap-ins aren't amazing. Next you'll be saying there's something wrong with cutbacks

On 1/18/2023 at 1:03 AM, deathrey said:

I'm a bit late with this one but I've been binge watching Ted Lasso the last couple of days whilst trapped under my napping 3 month old. I've really really enjoyed it, far more than I had expected to, I've only got a handful of episodes left in season 2 and will be sad to see it end. It's such easy viewing, the characters are compelling and it's made me laugh out loud quite a few times which is something I rarely do when watching tv shows.

Any one know when season 3 will be out?

I've sailed through it a bit faster than I expected and I'll have to find something else to watch now.

Ted Lasso caught me by complete surprise. I had avoided it for ages despite the universal acclaim because I thought the premise sounded naff. An American with no knowledge of football taking over a Premier League team? It sounded so 'wacky' and unappealing.

I then watched it on the recommendation of a good friend. After the initial scepticism wore off, I very quickly realised that nearly four hours had passed, I had laughed out loud, I had ugly-cried and I felt like the TV itself had given me a big, warm hug.

I thought it was a bizarre game. Both teams played quite poorly. especially Celtic in the second half, but they will both feel like it was a missed opportunity to win. I think Kyogo's goal effectively ends any talk of a title challenge anyway, so I imagine Celtic are happier with the point.

Cameron Carter-Vickers is an outstanding centre half. I also thought the new right back for Celtic looked pretty good. Juranovic looked like he was on drugs for the majority of his time on the park. On the Rangers side of it, I thought Sakala and Kamara played well. I think ultimately, Rangers were a bit too negative and were over-cautious when leading. They had opportunities to put it to bed and didn't really believe in themselves to do it. Their changes towards the end were baffling: I have never seen James Sands have a good game for them.

I don't know what VAR is doing in this country. Celtic were clearly denied a penalty for handball and it has taken them seven (!) minutes to give Hearts a penalty in the Edinburgh derby. It's a waste of time in its current guise.

I thought my biting critique of the people of Bearsden had generated some very bourgeois discussion!

What a crowd of boring bastards.

I watched My Old School on the iPlayer yesterday. It is the documentary detailing the story of "Brandon Lee", a 32 year old man who nefariously decided to go back to his old high school as a pupil to pursue a medical degree. The story is legend in Glasgow and it is one of those that everyone up here as a connection to: someone knew him; someone spoke to him; someone's cousin's girlfriend went out with him etc. What I wasn't aware of is how sinister and unsettling the story is as it is always cast as "WHAT ABOUT THAT CUNT THAT WENT BACK TAE SCHOOL EH?!" in comical tones. It's a very stylish and intriguing documentary and has provoked a bit of afterthought. Also - if anyone has ever been to Bearsden (the suburb of Glasgow where this happened), the talking heads in this documentary will make COMPLETE sense as soon as you watch it!

One thing that Scotland irrefutably does better than England is the sausage. I would never turn my nose up at a 'link' sausage, but square is best.

In terms of recently made festive content, the Ted Lasso Christmas special is actually really good. Sickly sweet and just the right level of cuddly feel-good stuff along with some quite sad moments.

51 minutes ago, RalphyV2 said:

Fluff from my hats sticking to my bald head once I take my hat off!

Absolutely. Also add in a new towel: a lovely sensation for the follicly-blessed, I'm sure, but a haven of fluff and debris on the scalp of the bald man.

23 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I've started playing Faith: The Unholy Trinity on Steam Deck, and it's one of the creepiest videogame experiences I've ever had. Generally horror games don't work for me, and I probably wouldn't have expected an 8-bit style survival horror to buck that trend, but it certainly has. It's genuinely disturbing, and very effective at what it sets out to do. Here's the trailer, to give you an idea: 

 

That looks wonderfully fucked up. Might give that a go.

I'm very sad that Aldi and Home Bargains have featured here. Honestly, if Aldi had a self-service checkout, I would never do food shopping anywhere else. I am a coffee snob with a wanky collection of far-flung fare, but their Colombian No.3 ground coffee is the best 'everyday' coffee on the market for my money. I think it's a brilliant place to get decent quality stuff for a reasonable price. Home Bargains is also a treasure trove of brilliance.

On 7/31/2022 at 11:15 AM, TildeGuy~! said:

It’s the first 46 episodes of Super(there’s 131 in total)

It really is a great series probably tops Z for me.

Shawn Michaels' month-long heel turn in the summer of 2005 surely ranks up there with the greatest character work we've seen for decades. I've long held the opinion that Michaels is the most natural heel that wrestling has ever produced: how can you top someone as unbearable, smarmy, repugnant yet insanely talented as him? We were all grateful to have him back in 2002 and it was an even bigger surprise when he seemed to find his best working boots despite all his injuries. However, it is disappointing that there is a serious disassociation from his earlier heel work (presumably at his own request as I imagine he is mightily embarrassed about being a pissed, pilled-up reprobate). All wrestling fans know that the 'born again' image that he tries to cultivate is fooling no one: Shawn Michaels is a cunt and it was wonderful to see him embracing that again, albeit for a short time.

The promo pictured above is a real 'lightning in a bottle' moment. A cynic might say that the other ingredients such as being in Montreal or using Bret's entrance music as a cheap heat magnet means he can't take all the credit, but HBK was absolutely phenomenal on this evening. He was carrying the burden of preserving a feud with a largely absent Hulk Hogan (the pre-tape he did mocking Hogan was also some great heel work and was on the nose on a number of occasions), but this was the peak of the run. You only had to take one look at his suit that night to know he was going to be a weapons-grade bellend and he did not disappoint. What we saw on this night was an intriguing snapshot of what he could have been as a top heel (if he hadn't been so conscious of his newfound beliefs). A maturation of his earlier character in some ways, but no less of an irredeemable helmet than he was in the mid-to-late 90s. I don't think it is coincidence that Shawn managed to switch it on so effectively and make such a short run so memorable: he's a heel, and that's it. In some ways it is maybe a good thing that it only lasted a short time, but for me, it was by far his most interesting period during his 2002-2010 run.

7 hours ago, Carbomb said:

What's Murrayfield like, BTW? I know it's primarily a rugby ground, but I was given to understand it's hosted quite a lot of football.

I'm not sure it has - I can only really think of when Celtic played some European games there while Celtic Park was recovering from being used for the Commonwealth Games.

Hampden is a veritable dump. I'm not sure supporters of the national team or any club side in Scotland would say they have any fondness for it. Despite being in Glasgow, it is a logistical pain in the arse to reach by public transport and God help you if you decide to drive there. 

We should definitely be following the model you see in quite a lot of European countries and have the national team 'tour' the country. Celtic Park and Ibrox both generate the best atmospheres in the UK (by a distance as well - nothing comes close to them, despite what any butthurt English say. Just ask the Europeans) and should be used for the big games. For smaller games, the likes of Tynecastle (another contender in the Best Atmosphere awards, actually), Easter Road, the new Pittodrie, Tannadice etc could be used. 

On 5/10/2022 at 1:48 PM, 69MeDon said:

I really love that account on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/user/BretHartBuriesThis/) as well as the account KevNashShootsOnThis (reddit.com/user/KevNashShootsOnThis/), who I assume is the same person. THere's also an Eric Bischoff one which I can't remember the name of right now.

I have had an absolutely dreadful day for personal reasons, but these Bret Hart parodies have really tickled me pink, which is sort of an old-school shooter's way of saying that the satire made me laugh and will stick long in the memory.

On 4/30/2022 at 9:05 PM, jazzygeofferz said:

My mate in Colombia wants to get some FIFA on when it arrives next month. I think he wants to see whether we can grab some Scottish 2nd division side and drag them to the European elites. He usually picks Cowdenbeath if they're available. 

Got a £15 Nintendo voucher yesterday. Had a little extra credit/coins already on so I picked up Bugsnax. It's a fascinating game. I played an hour or so because I was knackered, but it was interesting enough. Picked up some Shark World thing as well, but I was half asleep before I could properly have a look at that, so couldn't make any sense of it. 

I don't think Cowdenbeath have ever been in a FIFA game. The only Scottish lower league team that has been in a FIFA game were Rangers when they reformed from the bottom tier, and even then they weren't in it the year they spent in the old Third Division.

I am definitely in the market for something a bit more accessible at the moment. The two games I've played most in 2022 are Hades and Elden Ring. What a contrast: Hades has that pick-up-and-play effect that means you can spend half an hour on it and feel gratified. With Elden Ring, it's beginning to feel like a full-time job. Having COVID helped me to put 83 hours into it to date, but I am at the point where I feel like I'm hitting my head against the wall.

I'd certainly welcome any recommendations of games that you can play in short, quickfire bursts. All while I wait with my lad in hand for God of War: Ragnarok.

Ian Blackford's promo was superb. Lindsay Hoyle is a big, stuttering and inadequate gimp who couldn't hold a candle to Bercow in terms of presence, authority or gravitas.

Shang-Chi is excellent. I'm also gutted I didn't see it in the cinema. I actually enjoyed it so much that I might watch it again in the next few days, which I almost never do with films anymore.