StrongStyle

3 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

In a sort of limbo at work at the minute.

I'm covering as a manager until May in a new job after Mike Ashley fucked us all over in my last job. It's 39 hours a week and while the job itself is pretty relaxed, I'm in charge of the one stressful part of it that due to the outside company that deals with it messing up constantly is currently a nightmare to constantly be running and fixing. 
Also my last job was 20-30 hours a week which gave me a brilliant work/life balance as when we had the staff I was working 4 days a week and had some early finishes (3pm) in there.  Here I'm 39 hours a week, 9-6, 5 times a week but due to getting the bus it's essentially 8am-6.30pm.

The job is as good as guaranteed to keep me on in May as we're understaffed and I'm doing well there but I'm just not sure what to do. I don't know whether to stay and then renegotiate my contract in May to go down to part time to get that balance back, or whether to apply elsewhere and find something else. I know negotiating is possible because one of our salesmen is contracted never to work past 4pm or weekends.

I found a work from home  inbound phone job that has negotiable hours and no weekends though, so where I'm not a fan of call center work, the idea of doing it from home on my own agreed time is one I see a lot of upside to in terms of work/life, travel and spending, and being in a comfortable and stress-free surrounding that retail isn't currently offering me.
That's not to say it's one or the other, I am looking at all options. I'm just not sure the job I'm in now is giving me what I want from life.

39 hours a week - how did you manage to find that gig? Sounds like a skive.

Is everyone still going to be as excited to see him when he turns up looking like an ancient, scrawny bellend?

What a confused young man. This was a particular highlight of the night, along with all the rest of it.

4 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

When a big decision has a bearing on the result of a game, the rest of it becomes micro-analysed and every decision is poured over in long-winded detail.  Indeed, in a tournament setting, previous games are then brought up in an attempt to show that 'these things do even themselves out'. For me, the one consistent theme of this England team is that there is an in-built cynicism to their play that comes straight from the captain. Joking aside about Italian cheating, it's hilarious that the poster boy for England 2021 has a complete aversion to staying on his feet (albeit intentional) after stereotypes about Mediterranean and South American teams have permeated the coverage of every international tournament since the dawn of time.

To be fair, it is hardly news that Kane and Sterling are cheating divers. Sterling was screaming in 'agony' as Kjaer bundled the ball over the line for the own goal and made a miraculous recovery to wheel away. Fascinating how they lambasted Immobile for the same thing against Belgium the other day and spent nearly all of half time talking about it. I suppose the distraction of a game spared us from more puff pieces about Luke Shaw's slippers.

The Italians laughed in the face of a penalty shoot-out. Literally. Take a moment to think about how they're feeling about Sunday's final.

Mancini, Chiellini, Bonucci: over to you, lads...let's show that Tory wank Kane and Sterling how to cheat with style, panache and class.

Italy will breeze it.

That Italian team is special. They've got the best manager at the tournament and the squad is almost perfectly balanced. Mancini clearly understands the pool of players he has to choose from very well and he's created one of the most entertaining teams for years. Barella is immense: he is going to be the next top class midfielder.

The togetherness they've got is insane as well. I'll eat my hat if they don't win the whole thing.

7 hours ago, PowerButchi said:

Congratulations on your point from 2 games. Celebrating a draw is poor though. Its meant to be the finest teams in Europe. Especially when you've drawn against though fucking English bastards. 

 

While you're looking at permutations if you salvage a draw from Croatia (unlikely), I can watch the Italy game happy in the knowledge that we're essentially through and a loss gives us a better route. 

 

With the population you have, the TV money for your professional league which filters into the international set up you should be getting results like this all the while. 

 

Fuck Joe Jordan and Big Jock Knew. Its probably what killed him. 

"Hello...touched a nerve? Something's afoot. Let's see if I can winkle it out with my winkle-pickers."

The state of you. What a joyless post.

On 6/14/2021 at 10:35 PM, PowerButchi said:

Nice to see the Porridge contingent being kept in their lane.

22 hours ago, David said:

I know this may (will) come back to bite me on the arse, but Scotland are looking pretty decent in the build up to this tournament. Can we make it through the group stage, Garth? I believe we can, Ken.

Yeah, I think we could do OK. I have predicted our group to be WLD (win vs Czechs, loss vs England and draw with Croatia) which would probably be enough to see us through. It never works out like that though, and who knows - perhaps we could spring the bloodiest nose of all! As parochial as it may seem, I would sacrifice the other two games to beat England. Yes - we're still like that.

Clarke seems to have a plan and we're never going to win awards for attractive football, but I think this Scotland team could cause problems for anyone on their day. The more I think about it, I think we have to play with Dykes up front. I have never been a great fan of him, but what he adds to the set up is undeniable and he seems to be one of those players who does his best work at international level. Our midfield is good but the defence still worries me. If I was picking the team, I would go:

Marshall; O'Donnell, McTominay, Tierney, Robertson; McGinn, McGregor, Armstrong; Forrest, Dykes, Adams

I would probably be alright with trusting Declan Gallagher to play at centre half after his heroics in Belgrade, but for me, McTominay would give us real stability there. It may be the case that he is the ideal third man in midfield with McGinn and McGregor, though. I would actually be inclined to play Turnbull instead of Armstrong, but I think Armstrong's energy, goal threat and experience would cause me to bottle it. Christie is also an option but for all his workrate, I think there are better players.

I know the whole "I'VE JUST SPAT MY TEA OUT" trope is tired, but I genuinely laughed out loud to myself on about three or four different occasions in work today when I remembered "THEY BOTH TWAT HIM WITH ASSORTED TOILET BOWLS AND REQUISITES".

Imagine the absolute nerve of Tottenham 'allowing' you to play in their league as a Founding Member because of your domestic accomplishments.

How do you check your global ranking? I've won eleven Division 1 title in Seasons, so I am surely up there!

'The Gratitude Era' is an expression I didn't fully understand until I watched this show. I'm getting really sick of everyone and their granny coming across as a mark. Rhea Ripley was the poster girl for it all weekend: that shot of her being tearful during the opening on Night 1 was understandable and relatable given the context and the idea that finally, the world might be returning to some sort of normality. But when the time came for her match, this geeky posturing just completely took over: we're supposed to buy her as a monster and yet, her whole demeanour just screamed 'MARK'. You could practically see the cogs working in her head at every milestone ("I'M MAKING MY ENTRANCE AT WRESTLEMANIA"/"I'M BEING TOLD BY FANS THAT I DESERVE TO BE HERE"/"I AM BEING BOOKED AS A BIG DEAL AT WRESTLEMANIA")

It's becoming really disingenuous. By all means, organic reactions can sometimes be great (Rhea: look at Bianca's reaction) but this forced 'epicness' and standing about with tears in your eyes is very tiring. It is the product of working in front of wanky crowds in the indepedents, so it is indelible and the idea of being grateful/having an interminably long match like Adam Cole to force an 'epic'/any indie trope you care to mention definitely diminishes the spectacle.

Cesaro just about got away with it, but that's because after the career he has had so far, he probably just about earned a 'YOU DESERVE IT' chant. The guy is incredible and everyone was happy that he got the chance to put on an absolute banger at WrestleMania. For the rest, it is hackneyed and surely the fact that it even happened without the influence of Europeans or fans from across the States shows how ingrained it is by this point.

I thought the show was the perfect antidote to lockdown-era WWE. The virtual crowds etc were the best they could do under the circumstances but for me, this is the first time that wrestling felt like it mattered for ages. I even said to one of my friends "here - this actually feels like WrestleMania". Fans cheering, a rubbish singer I've never heard of singing 'America the Beautiful' and the nonsense fighter jet flyover. I actually felt quite emotional when the roster were out on the stage to open the show as it felt a bit like 'life being back', until the visuals of the anti-maskers and under-the-nose idiots put the fear of God into me. No doubt this will be a super spreader event.

The delay will surely go down in history. You could really feel the panic in the air and I thought the wrestlers coped well with it in the main: it was so mad cap and frantic. It was like a penalty shoot-out at the World Cup or the Euros as you definitely got the sense they were scrambling about going "WHO CAN CUT A PROMO?!" As other people have noted, they really need to learn from this and let them demonstrate more of their own personalities. Now is the perfect time - if their TV deal is as iron-clad as reported and they're not desperate for the next John Cena or Steve Austin, then it is time to let this lot take over and try to make themselves stars. Nights like this show that they can be and the blend of enhanced media coverage coupled with fan recognition turn them (briefly) into mega stars.

Some other thoughts:

- Surprised that Drew lost but there is plenty of time for him. They need to ride on the crest of this Lashley wave while they can: a match with Brock is surely in the works?

- The women's tag match almost killed the whole show. I know that nearly everything that could go wrong went wrong, but it isn't aided by not pulling the trigger on a really popular act like the Riott Squad who people are clearly interested in. When have Natalya or Tamina ever been relevant? It is laughable that they are treated like legends and insist it's off their own back when they are the worst kind of tribute acts to their relatives.

- Surely it is time to do something meaningful with Cesaro? I was amazed to hear that he's been there for 10 years now. That match lets them hit the reset button on any of it because he looked like a star and seems to be one of the most universally 'appreciated' guys in wrestling. They also finally seem to have understood what Seth Rollins is after years of trying him as a badass/unstoppable face/next anointed one. I think the guy is a total dick but this is his milieu and easily the most watchable I've ever found him to be.

- One of the highlights of the night was Shane's GOB Bluth "I've made a huge mistake" face as he lay on the mat after getting thrown off the cage. What he does every year for his psychotic father's love is admirable and always memorable, but that's plenty this time, Shane. My heart was in my fucking mouth the whole time, but that might just be my age!

- Bad Bunny. I doubt there is anything I can add that you probably haven't read already, but he surely ranks as one of the best celebrities they've ever had? His entrance even got me hyped and I didn't know who he was until a few weeks ago. By all accounts he is massive and is being credited with bringing new fans to WWE, so this whole match must have given them a hard-on. Top marks to everyone in this match. The Canadian Destroyer was a bit much for me but if it short-circuited Jim Cornette, then it is absolutely fine by me.

- That women's main event was incredible. I loved it from start to finish.

To go back to top players plying their trade in Scotland, Lubomir Moravcik is one of the most underrated players to ever play the game. I hate the phrase 'world class', but Moravcik was a wizard. He could use either foot and was a simply mesmerising player. In this case, some of the quotes out there from top players about him tell their own story. It's a shame that his best exposure was in his mid-to-late 30s at Celtic and we didn't get to see more of him in these isles, but what a player.

Thanks for all the advice, lads. This is helpful. I think you've just about managed to sell me on getting a Switch as I want to get BotW/Super Mario Odyssey/Mario Kart/Pokemon Sword or Shield, although I'm now a lot more cognisant of the potential limitations or flaws of the console!

Some great gaming minds here!

Hoping for some Nintendo advice from you guys...

I've been trying for weeks to get a PS5 without any luck. The long story short: I've been a PlayStation guy almost exclusively since the PS2 but I adored the SNES/N64 etc growing up. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on YouTube with regards to Nintendo games and it occurred to me that now that I'm a fully functioning adult with income, I can actually afford to have more than one console.

I'm looking for Nintendo recommendations: what console/games should I get? Is the Switch worth it? I'm not that interested in going ages back in time to the DS/Gamecube or anything, so current gen would be preferable. I liked Mario/Zelda/Mario Kart games: are there essential releases that I should get? Any other AAA titles to speak of?

Apologies for the learned helplessness here, but curious to seek your views! Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

The amount of Rangers fans coming out of the woodwork is hilarious. People I haven't heard talking about football for a decade all of a sudden willing to risk COVID to have firework displays in the middle of the street (in broad daylight, no less).

Congratulations to the team: they have been immense and deserve to wrap up this title in such swift fashion. But their fans continue to be a laughing stock and are typically gracious in their first trophy: ten years of utter piss-ripping from all and sundry gives them the platform, I suppose. The crowning achievement of that fallow decade is still surely when the mighty Hibees leathered them in the 2016 Scottish Cup final

Georgi Kinkladze.

Ed de Goey.

Mixu Paatelainen.