John Matrix

I probably should have seen it coming, but the ending is wonderful

1 hour ago, johnnyboy said:

A&E staff (should!) have proper PPE.  Teachers in the main haven't been supplied any PPE.  You can't put stitches in on a Zoom call.  You can teach phonics on a Zoom call.  There's also not the same assumed risk with being a teacher as there is working in somewhere that could become a major incident centre at any time.

The challenge of zoom learning bit has already been addressed far better than I could, and whilst I can’t dispute anything you’ve said, does issuing schools with PPE not seem like the simplest and most common sense fix that government could surely make happen overnight - assuming they wanted to - you could probably have dealt with that by spending what they did subsidising cod and chips at Whetherspoons during the first 24 hours of their ingenius dine out scheme.

12 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Right, I understand that, and that it is an emotional time, and I'm not accusing you of being all "Send the kids to school", but as it stands it is unsafe for children and teachers at school. That's all I was saying.

I got about half way through writing a response, but you know what, I think Kieran sums it up quite nicely here..

8 minutes ago, kieranjennings said:

It's not safe to make 4 trips a week to the Supermarket.

I totally agree there is risk attached.  As there is for such banal activities such as getting a pint of milk and a loaf or indeed, serving people who have, taking me back to my original point that whilst i'm not for a second suggesting teachers 'suck it up and get on with it', I do think there are some comparisons to be drawn in terms of the way we view our health services, in that no one for a second is suggesting that A & E staff stay at home to keep themselves risk free - I think teaching, and children's education is of somewhere close to equal importance - and yes, I confess that's an incredibly biased view after seeing the impact of our paltry attempts to balance work with home schooling, and the subsequent impact that had on our children's mental health.

2 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

With respect, this sums up the whole shitshow. You don’t enforce guidance, you enforce rules. Guidance can’t be broken and that’s Johnson’s get out clause. 

4 minutes ago, Chris B said:

While I agree with pretty much everything you're saying, the point here about healthcare services can't be compromised - they shouldn't be, but they are. Massively. Royal London Hospital emailed their staff to say "We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the fact we are now in disaster medicine mode. We are no longer providing high standard critical care, because we cannot."

Part of the reason I think schools should be closed is to make sure they can continue to do this service well in the long-run.

As always mate, a very good point well made - I guess what I meant was, and you're right, healthcare services are being compromised, but correct me if i'm wrong, thats as a result of becoming overwhelmed and ill resourced, the effects of underfunding and poor planning, not because people are insisting that, or that medical staff are choosing to stay at home for their own safety (whilst i'm sure there are some, i'm not aware of this happening en-masse?) 

Which was kind of my point -  yes, children's education will be disrupted and compromised in similar ways because of lack of access to their regular teacher, classroom bubbles, and a million other more pertinent factors, but in an ideal world, i'd still want them getting that level of day to day education, versus being stuck at home with me and thrust in front of their tablet for seven hours a day so I can get my boss that report she's asked for written.

As per my previous post, this all of course hinges on people following the fucking rules.  That keeps EVERYONE safe, not just teachers.

Just now, SuperBacon said:

That's the point though isn't it? It's not safe at all, for them or the teachers.

No one wants to be keeping their children out of school if it's safe to do so.

But it should be if people stuck to the fucking rules!

Or in the highly unlikely scenario that twats continually fail to do so, enforce them properly.  I'm telling you now, if I have to let Bill Gates slip a microchip up my japs-eye, while a sniper sit atop of next doors roof ready to pick me off if I so much as take the bins out, then i'd fucking trump for that option right now.  Anyone who isn't prepared to trade in their civil liberties for a couple of weeks in exchange for a return to business as usual needs a fucking good hiding, but for as long as it's all if buts and maybe's it's a moot point.

I genuinely believe, and I always welcome evidence to the contrary, that id we'd have gone HARD, early, this'd be ancient history by now - instead we had three months of 'please don't' during which time, funnily enough, the shit ran rife because it turns out people don't tend to follow unenforceable guidance.  

2 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Apologies for trivialising your post, but I can’t think of anything else but in Regals book when some wrestlers ended up in a gay bar and he exclaimed “They’re all bloody dinner mashers!”

In an unusually heavyweight and somewhat off-brand post, I figured i'd try and lighten the mood somewhat.

I absolutely understand the concerns of people in the teaching profession re the level of risk they are being exposed to and I sympathise entirely

But having seen first hand what 14 weeks out of school did to my 4 and 5 year olds at the time during the last and first 'proper' lockdown - during which we, their parents, took every step possible to minimise their risk only to eventually concede and return them to school and childcare placements when it became clear that the toll it was taking on their mental health was every bit as significant as the physical risks we'd been trying to protect them from - if there is any safe way for them to be at school, then I would champion that cause to the hilt.

They didn't suddenly turn in to dinner mashers, or start defecating on the rug, but their mood became very erratic, they were highly sensitive and unpredictable, leading to lots of outburst and conflict which their daily 30 minute walk around the block failed to alleviate.  As parents, trying to juggle home working with home learning, they inevitably suffered from a lack of one to one time, and increased screen use either to give us some respite, or to carry out otherwise paper based or physical assignments from home.

The less they had to do, or perceived they could do, the less they wanted to, to the point where my son, who's a bit of a hair twiddler when he's tired/bored, gave himself a fucking bald patch such was the amount of time he spent lethargically sprawled out on the sofa sans motivation.

I'm not at all comfortable with this new narrative that we need schools to be providing 'childcare' - the nature of what we expect of our child's school provision hasn't changed one bit - but neither has our dependence on children attending so that we can work to earn and provide a home, heat, food and clothing - we simply cannot do the latter, without the former which is why any sort of lockdown, other than the 'whole world on pause' type, freezing bills, rent, mortgages (which should then rightly be extended to business owners), will continue to expose people to risk for absolutely fuck all long term gain.

As it stands, at 4:30 today, my wife (who works in a school office) has just been informed that her school will only be opening to key worker children this week - imagine how many families/parents are expecting to return to work tomorrow and will now need to make alternative arrangements, meanwhile our childrens school is ploughing ahead and re-opening tomorrow, but has written to us just now to hedge its bets ahead of the PM's announcement this evening, all because the poor sods haven't got a fucking clue, nor mandate, to take any concrete action.

Whichever way you slice it, there is a group of people who will have to suffer as a result of this incompetence and i'm not suggesting for a second that Teachers should in any way, suck it up - but I think there is an argument to be made that they provide a service every bit as important as our healthcare professionals, that similarly, cannot just be turned off or comprimised - still, it's all absolute fucking madness when you consider the bat farmers of Wuhan are up and about living life to the fullest eh?

Just a heads up to anyone trying to go in blind, I believe there was a review embargo that expired at midnight Central time, meaning YouTube and social media are likely to be flooded with spoilers imminently for those of you trying to go in blind - which if this tweet by Jon Hurwitz is anything to go by, is highly recommended...

39 minutes ago, DEF said:

Don't think so. Was it posted on here? If anyone can capture the essence of CK I'd bet on Matrix.

Every piece I made so far is here

instagram.com/letsbewater

Thanks for the shoutout @Chest Rockwell

59 minutes ago, neil said:

I haven't watched much of Cobra Kai, I saw the first couple of episodes on youtube and thought it was awful and pandering to people who like "school discos" as adults so gave up. Maybe I'll have to try it again given the posts about it 

Definitely give it a watch mate, there is the inevitability of the ‘next gen’ like when a film franchise introduces a smart talking child sidekick to try and bring in a new audience, but even though they have their own storylines those are still a vehicle to move forward the story of Daniel and Johnny - and even then, the story of Eli’s transformation and Miguel’s ongoing conflict between him being a lovely guy, and the teachings of Cobra Kai are still very well done.

43 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

It definitely started that way. I gave the rest of the series a chance when it was moved to Netflix even if it was just a dose of nostalgia, which the first two episodes were. But it definitely grows into its own. Cracking series.

I also much preferred Karate Kid 3 to 2 at the time, especially with the bad guy taking Daniel under his wing and telling him to ditch 'that shitty crane kick'. I haven't watched it since I was a kid though. 

I too kinda tolerated KK2 at the time, and was all about KK3 and I still enjoy it much more, it has a tournament aspect to it for a start! But watching back recently as an adult, KK2 is very much Miyagi’s story, not Daniels and I think that’s probably why there’s a slight disconnect.  When I heard about the returning characters in S3, I checked it out again recently and it’s a lot more enjoyable than I’d remembered, just not as ‘fun’.

5 minutes ago, Astro Hollywood said:

Fucking love Dutch. I used to do that little headroll warmup thing he did when we played football at lunchtime in school, like a prick. If he wasn't up for it before, then moving to Netflix and everything blowing up so big at least increases the chances of any of the actors wanting to come back. And him being in jail in storyline offers up plenty of possibilities if he does change his mind. Sleeping on Kreese's couch because he's just got out and got nowhere to stay, being offered a job in the Dojo to keep his probation officer off his back etc.

Although they could've just done what they did when he wasn't available for the Karate Kid II opening, and had someone in a baseball cap stand with their back to the camera, even though his best mate was getting beaten up.

Haha very often, if I’m alone in the kitchen I’ll pace back and forth with a grin on my face staring a hole through an imaginary Daniel LaRusso.  It’s not easy to come off as such a convincing prick with that amount of screen time, and he did it effortlessly.

As for the rest of your post...given us well bad nob-ache that has, of the sexy kind!  If only S3 wasn’t already in the can, I hadn’t considered world events opening up previously closed doors and those are both very plausible scenarios!

The only thing I’m really against, and I don’t think the writers would resort to this, is any past characters being connected to any of the new ones! Bring them in by all means, but I don’t want Terry being Miguel’s Estranged dad or Ali being Tory’s mum or any of that shite.

I wasn’t aware the third film drew such negativity until Cobra Kai when I started revisiting it all in detail, I still really enjoy it although how much of that is down to Griffiths powerhouse performance I don’t know. 
 

I know Macchio and the director don’t generally like it, I’d love to know if there’s some original screenplay or cut or something that got lost in the ether somewhere along the way.

The only person I’d be as excited to see back would be Dutch, but as they wrote around him in S2, I’m guessing he’s not board - there’s some behind the scenes footage here and an amazing clip at 2:33 that sums up why I love Dutch so much, just pure lunacy, shame it never made the final cut.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=325472725565683&id=106030530843238

So this looks like it’ll be fucking amazing.  I don’t know Josh Gad but from what I can gather this series, in which he’s also covered Back to the Future, started as a bit of a “keep busy during the first proper lockdown” has been really well received and well, who hasn’t he got on board for this...

There was a screengrab leaked last week which revealed a ton of other people, including this wonderful Santa Claus looking bastard!!

Quicksilver indeed!!

7 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Nice. Will check that out later. Have purposely avoided season 3 trailer; very much looking forward to the show.

In hindsight, I wish i'd had the discipline to, but I knew i'd be all in the second it released!  There are some reveals in the trailer, but the creators are very much labouring the point that no one should jump to conclusions so I think there's a lot of misdirection in there too.  

I haven't felt this way about a show since Quantum Leap, and whilst it's not been running anywhere near as long, it may as well have been - the authenticity of having the original cast back feels as though i've been right there with them the past 30 years you know?  I'm not pretending it's a piece of art, with world class acting or anything like that, but its absolutely the blue print for how you revisit a classic franchise, and comes from effectively 'fans' developing and pitching the idea, rather than a studio going "shit, we're gonna lose the rights to that, quick...write me a spin off!".

I hadn't seen this before, but being shared a lot today on social media as it's the 36th anniversary of the All Valley Tournament featured in the first Karate Kid film.

Funny and well worth a watch, and i'll segway this into the previously suggested Cobra Kai discussion thread ahead of Season 3 if anyone wants to chip in? Please tread on the side of caution where season three spoilers are concerned - all speculation welcome.

4 hours ago, BigJag said:

Just on Ralph Macchio. Has he had some health issues since the original KK films? He looks to have balance and coordination issues in Cobra Kai. There's something about the way he stands and moves that, to me, looks awkward and laboured. There's a frailty to him. I'm not sure if that is part of Daniels' character or if the actor has an ailment. 

I don’t know that he’s been ill as such, but he definitely has a distinctive physiology - his back and shoulders in particular - one thing I’ve been particularly impressed with in Cobra Kai has been the fight choreography and editing, they really let the action flow and have done a great job, I think, getting great performances out of predominantly non martial artists - for the reason above though, it really does amplify when Ralph is doubled, but honestly, I’m in love with this fucking show, I really am, and the approach the writers have taken, the place they are coming from, I have complete and utter faith that the next season will be another home run.

On 12/13/2020 at 7:56 AM, Mr Lawrence said:

Great to see the return of the villain from KK2. Iv’e read online that another blast from the past may return. Not Elisabeth Shue but someone else.

With this post, you’ve just confirmed what I long suspected about your username!

Excellent work sir.  There is an AWFUL lot of cockteasing about the potential return of cinemas greatest villain, Terry Silver! But if that happens, my money is on right at the end of the season as a cliff hanger for the fourth season.

You missed out lads, today's was my favourite yet..

Fuck knows what else you could stick in here, but after weeks of disgustingly long hours, no sleep and far too much shit on my plate, thank you to this legend for putting a legitimate smile on my face for the first time in a while.

Hey gang, I’ve still got every intention of logging on for a chinwag at 12:30 today.  Anyone who wants to hop on the zoom call, just drop me a DM and if not, I’ve got a lovely 40 minute window to cram in some much needed procrastination.

All gone quiet on the western front, so I’ve set up another zoom meeting for tomorrow (Friday) at 12:30 for anyone who wants to join.

Please DM me for the link if you’d like to take part.  

I mean...

My concern re a vaccine is just how quickly they’ve come up with it and what if any, the long term effects may be?  
 

I’m showing my ignorance here and would love nothing more than to have it refuted, buT aren’t vaccines, like the ones our kids have for example, tested over extensive periods of time?  And isn’t that in part to understand the longer term implications?  Is there a risk of another thalidomide scenario?

Reading that back, I’m coming off awfully anti-vaxxer, tin foil hat prick, which couldn’t be further from the case - but that’s because I know the jabs my kids are getting today are practically bulletproof and were tested rigorously over time.  
 

One they’ve come up with in less than 8 months?  Someone please tell me how that will be fine?

6 minutes ago, Chris B said:

I've never been described as having a thick Irish accent before. Christ knows how you'll handle Malbranque.

I made no secret of it, and mean this in the most complimentary of ways you can imagine, but I’m gutted we missed the Branque!  I’m fascinated to witness him ‘in the wild’ as it were.

Just now, Ralphy said:

Thanks peeps I enjoyed that. I figured I best give it a go as having never used it before I wanted to familiarize myself with it for future job interviews purposes 

It was good to see you my man, well done for overcoming your anxieties and joining us, that’s not easy to do, and glad you got something out of it.