SpiritOfTheForest

 This is cooler than it has any right to be. 

Watched as a lapsed fan who didn't have a scooby what was going on but absolutely loved the Wrestlemania theme song being that tune from the dancing mini game in GTA San Andreas. That brought all the nostalgia and so for me the show was a success. Hey, hey, hey. 

I'll stand by my contention that eggs are the most underrated component of a fry up. Fried, scrambled or even poached if you want to be posh, eggs are magnificent things. 

Can recommend Like A Dragon as it's the only one I've played and I really liked it. Just be wary though there are a LOT of cutscenes. Sometimes it felt like I was watching 15 minutes of cutscenes for 5 minutes of gameplay. Once you get the hang of it, it's a great game though. Business Management is much more fun that it has any right to be.

I've started Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and it's so stupidly big. I think I've clocked about 35 hours now and I've only done the first few areas. I have a terrible compulsion to track down all the little questions marks on the map. I love the landscapes, the Ancient Greek setting and the RPGs elements but it seems almost too big. The world, while beautiful when you stop charging around and have a closer look, seems quite lifeless and sterile too. Could well be playing this one for at least the next month. I am enjoying it overall but there are definitely some notable flaws. I've done Origins before and that seemed huge but I think Odyssey might be even bigger. And then there's Valhalla which I've heard is significantly bigger again! Must be so time consuming for completionists. 

No doubt they'll have Haaland back for then but after that performance we shouldn't fear anybody. The last couple of years we have improved tremendously compared to the last couple of decades but we hadn't really taken a big scalp. Now we have - rotated team or not, I'm going to get every single ounce from enjoyment of beating Spain that I can.  

For tonight, let's just enjoy this glorious image.

Well gentlemen, that was absolute magic. Are we....dare I say it...quite good now?

Looking ahead to the start of the Euro 2024 qualification campaign tomorrow, it's remarkable that all 3 of our goalkeepers don't have a single cap between them. That surely can't happen too often. 

24 minutes ago, Uncle Zeb said:

I was halfway through before I discovered there's a run button, as its effect is barely distinguishable at first till it builds up speed.

There is indeed but yeah it's only marginally quicker. To be fair, points for realism: as opposed to other games where your character sprints around effortlessly, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture is more similar to me when I go for a run, dragging my sorry corpse around at a speed of 1.5 miles an hour. 

10 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Bloody marvellous game. Shout out to the top shagger Alkibiades!

Looking forward to it as I love all things Greek mythology. I played Origins (my only ever AC game) but I'm one of those trophy hunting weirdos where I like to go for the Platinum and so Odyssey will take me ages. Should be a good time!

Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - what an absolutely beautiful experience that was. I couldn't stop taking screenshots. Not to everybody's tastes I'm sure due to its very slow walking pace but I really loved that game. 

Think it's time for a big game now so Assassin's Creed: Odyssey next. Should take a while...

The Banshees of Inisherin got done dirty. 

I always keep an eye on Indy Eleven's scores. An endearingly crap American name, I went to one of their games when I was visiting the US. The games at the time were played in the massive 70,000 seater Lucas Oil Stadium, also the home of NFL team the Indianapolis Colts. The most surreal game I've been to in my life, a couple of thousand of us in this colossal stadium watching some USL Championship action. It made watching Queen's Park at Hampden a few years back seem relatively normal. 

This season I've also been checking Atlanta United's results to see how Giakoumakis is getting on. That move still seems madness to me. 

3 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

Stick that between your front teeth Sakala 

Hatate could probably stick a pass through there. 

Delighted with the result, already dreading work tomorrow after the celebrations. I absolutely love this team. This incarnation is more exciting than the Rodgers version for me. 

I enjoyed this ludicrous stat from last night.

Forever being unable to find a working pen every single time you have to write something.

17 minutes ago, Fog Dude said:

Not sure if you mean Mérida there, or Murcia. 

 

Ha, I had exactly the same thought. I hope it's Mérida. Extremadura is a criminally under-appreciated region and Mérida is gorgeous. I used to live in Cáceres just up the road and it was such a lovely place. Excellent food too with all that Jamón Iberico. No shade on Murcia which I'm sure is lovely too but I've yet to visit that part of Spain, although I have seen their football team play San Fernando while I was visiting Cádiz like the football anorak I am. 

Yeah, I fear for Motherwell. Heard a stat yesterday that St Johnstone have won at Fir Park more times this season than Motherwell have and that says it all. They've never been out of the top flight in my lifetime. 

I reckon Ross County will stay up. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them, mainly because I think it's good for the league to have some geographical diversity. Simon Murray and Eamonn Brophy are great signings you'd have to think and I expect them to do what they did last year and have a much stronger second half of the season. In the Championship, I'd love Ayr or Queen's Park to come up, especially the former. Anyone but Dundee who are the most uninspiring yo yo club imaginable. 

Bensons For Beds (the bed shop)

I absolutely adore that era - King of the Deathmatches especially. Can't help with physical DVDs but in case you didn't know you can buy (at least all of the big) IWA MS shows from that time on https://smvod.com/ 

Luke Mitchell is innocent. 

I strongly believe that this is a case where the police pinned it on the easy target - the weird goth kid. Now, Luke Mitchell was convicted of a horrendously bloody murder. The pathologist who examined Jodi Jones' body said that the culprit would surely have a significant volume of blood on him, as well as injuries consistent with the victim fighting for her life (from the defensive injuries on Jones' body, she put up quite the fight). Mitchell was examined by a police surgeon when her body was found a few hours after her death and was found to have no blood on him nor any scratches or superficial wounds you'd expect a killer to have in that situation. Indeed of the search party of 4, Luke was the only member to be separated and examined. The others were not, indicating prejudice towards him from the onset of the investigation. There is the suggestion that her brother, Joseph Jones, who had been violent towards Jodi in the past and was the last reported person to see Jodi alive may have suspicion upon him. 

A big part of the prosecution's argument was that Luke Mitchell liked Marilyn Manson and had an obsession with the Black Dahlia. In actual fact, it was found Mitchell had bought Manson CDs after the murder had taken place and the pathologist contested that Jodi Jones' injuries had little resemblance to the Black Dahlia.

Luke Mitchell passed numerous lie detector tests while in prison about the subject. While not readily admissible as evidence, this certainly doesn't hurt his case.  

One of the prosecution's main arguments was that a man with a description similar to that of Luke Mitchell was reported to have been near the scene shortly before Jodi's murder. However there was no Identification Parade held and when the case came to court that same eyewitness failed to identify Luke Mitchell in the court room. 

Shortly before the murder, a drug addict by the name of Mark Kane was known to be in the local area attending a college. As part of his coursework he had handed in a graphically descriptive essay about murdering a girl in the woods which was troubling to his lecturers. A friend of Kane, Scott Forbes, recalls meeting with him just after the murder and noting he had deep scratches to his face which he could not give a clear and consistent reason for. Forbes contests to this day that Mark Kane is very likely to have killed Jodi Jones and not Luke Mitchell. But for whatever reasons, the police never followed it up. 

Luke Mitchell was found guilty of murder without a trace of forensic evidence against him. Instead he was found guilty of murder from purely circumstantial evidence and much of it is is tenuous. Furthermore, he would have been out of prison by now but he steadfastly maintains his innocence. Again, that leads me to believe the man is telling the truth.  This was 2003 where it was pretty easy to pin something horrendous on the weird goth kid who was interested in Satan and all that edgy stuff. There;s some good documentaries about it on Youtube if you're interested to find out more. Even if you are of the opinion he is guilty, I can't see how anyone can examine his case and decide there's even remotely enough evidence for a conviction.
 

The hand ball decision is baffling. 6 months ago I'd say it would be harsh to give that as a penalty but Celtic have had several similar hand balls given against them. I try my best not to get caught up in all the conspiracies surrounding Celtic and Rangers but with that one (and the Michael Smith one at Tynecastle a couple of months back) it's hard not to get suspicious. 

Performance overall was alright, I agree that Taylor going off seemed to change the balance for a fair bit. Juranovic, for all his World Cup heroics, was poor and seems his attention is focused elsewhere. I thought Mooy was fantastic again and I'd have started him over O'Reilly, who was poor for me. I don't rate him nearly as highly as most. Alastair Johnson was great, especially for a debut in that environment and I also enjoyed his post match interview on Celtic TV. Seems quite a character!

I'd have been happier with the win of course but 9 points ahead and even not at our best we take a point in what is on the face of it our hardest game of the season. So, I can live with that! 

Right at the end of last year but I've just found out that Simon Hanley's away. A La Liga TV commentator, as a big fan of Spanish football, his voice became a staple of my weekends over the last couple of years. He brought a great warmth and enthusiasm to the games he covered and I especially enjoyed it when he was paired with Graeme Hunter. I'm sad he's gone. RIP. 

That's a sin, his unabashed enthusiasm for everything made everything seem more fun when I watched TNA back in the day. Seemed a lovely guy. Oddly, I was actually watching a clip of him this morning from a match where he coined the name of AJ Style's move the Pele (which somehow until today it had never clicked with me that it wasn't called the "paylay"! I hadn't watched footage with Don West for years now on account of stopping watching wrestling then I see that clip and hours later read this. 

RIP Don, he will be fondly remembered by anyone who watched those early TNA days I'm sure. 

Ooooft just seen that there and indeed, horrendous. Hope he has the speediest of recoveries but with him being 40 next week it's sad to say that might be it for him. Outstanding goalkeeper and this would be a horrible way for him to go out. 

I traveled home for Christmas yesterday and the trip involved a 7 hour layover in Pisa. Normally layovers suck but Pisa airport is one of the few that is very close to the city centre - it's just a 25-30 minute walk! So I left my bag at airport storage and headed in to Pisa to explore and of course I had to do that typical tourist thing.  There are definitely worse places to have a layover! Pisa seems a lovely wee place, by the way. Italian cities never look their best in the December drizzle but I reckon in summer it's wonderful. No doubt overrun by tourists mind.

And completely unrelated but I'm only 32 and all of a sudden my beard has started turning white! Any of you gents experienced premature greying or know anything we can do about it as I'm not quite ready to look like an old man! (Sadly going full shaven is difficult as I suffer from a distinct lack of chin and a pure moon face - done well on the genetics lottery, me!)

I think Aberdeen might have just pulled off one of the biggest bottle jobs I've ever seen. 2-1 up and then conceding in the 94th and 97th minutes to lose 3-2. Rotten. Michael Beale didn't just get out of a hole there, he clambered out of the bottom of a well like that lassie from The Ring.