SpiritOfTheForest

I'd like to take a moment to express how delighted I am with how the season went, the outcome of that match just finished there and, especially, the fact that it was Aaron Ramsey - the big glamour signing- who missed the penalty. They paid £300,000 a week or something daft to a man perennially injured who barely played. And he just cost them the Europa League. Absolutely glorious. Is there a German word for "enjoying the misfortune of others"? I'm feeling that a lot right now...

Rangers losing a European cup on PENALTIES, Aaron Ramsey being the one to miss the decisive penalty, Ange Postecoglou creating a revolution and against all odds winning the title after last season's shambles.....all so, so, so, satisfying. 

Now, we need them to lose against Hearts on Saturday. Imagine it.....after all their crowing, they win nothing. I'm over the moon this evening!

23 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

 

 

4 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Imagine if they meet Rangers in the Europa League Final.

 

Thoughts and prayers with the good people of Sevilla if this happens.

I firmly stand by that square sausage is far superior to its linked equivalent. I visited home last Christmas for the first time in 2 years because of Covid and my first morning my Dad made roll and sausage. I can't put into words how good it was, especially having craved it for so long. Tattie scones are also glorious although I prefer them on the side to eat separately rather than on a roll. 

What's the view on eggs? They're perhaps my favourite part of the fry up, something that people have always found a bit strange. Scrambled is acceptable but has to be a fried egg for that proper fry up experience (preferably more than one!)

While it's hardly pleasant, you have to remember that Ukrainians are the ones with their homeland being invaded and civilians butchered. Can hardly blame them for fighting back in every way they possibly can even if that's with grim psychological warfare. As a great man once said, war is never a picnic. Although soldiers do end up eating outdoors rather a lot. 

Victoria was the Ho who was put through a table on Raw by the the Goodfather once. That's probably where the wires get crossed with Victoria being the one who won the Hardcore title.

Well, I did it! This one goes out to all the brothers at Firelink Shrine. Praise the Sun! Platinum #50 gets the milestone title it deserves with my very first Dark Souls experience. What a game. Proud of this one!

My go to over here is the Sarda, the local pizza - spicy sausage, olives and cheese. Unsurprising really but there's a pizzeria in the town that does the best pizza I've ever had. I've no idea what wizardry is behind it but the way they do the cheese is beyond sublime. I'm also occasionally partial to a Romana which is pizza topped with anchovies and capers but I also do a bonus topping of tuna. Although, while fish on a pizza is still seen as a bit weird here, it's more of a peculiar individual quirk than the blasphemous war crimes against Italian cuisine like how pineapple toppings are viewed. Aubergines are very popular here and my girlfriend usually has pizza with that on it, much to my dismay.

I've only had the big chains at home - Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's very occasionally as my town never had any of those. Honestly though, you can't beat a cheap,greasy pizza from the chippy on a Saturday night. Supermarket pizza-wise, I'd always go for the stuffed crust pepperoni from the Co-Op. Something so delightfully indulgent about a pizza stuffed with yet more cheese. 

1 hour ago, Duke said:

Having now patched the hole I made in my wall from the aforementioned switch throw (not a joke), I decided to cheese that black knight. I then killed the one at the tower entrance to the parish by luring him into fire. He killed me but couldn't withstand the flames and gave up the ghost before my death animation finished. From that point I was in the zone for a bit, other than fleeing the black knight in the church itself by escaping down a lift (and then back up again to lamp him one before fleeing back down my lift like a perverse twist on whack a mole). I managed to get up to roof, one shot the gargoyles (thanks to help from a summon, wasn't 100% what that did when I did it, but it helped) and accidentallyed my way into the tail axe while I was doing so. Feeling pretty proud of myself, I went down to lower undead burg where I was promptly mugged by some gutter children. Feel like I'm getting somewhere though! 

Bizarrely we seem to be doing the same things at the same time. I also recently started Dark Souls a few days ago as a total first timer to the series and we seem to have had remarkably similar experiences - down to cheesing the Gargoyles by summoning Solaire. I'm slightly further ahead in The Depths and have just got past the butcher enemies. Overall, I'm enjoying the game so far - the atmosphere above all else - but I find the combat frustrating a lot of the time with its clunkiness and haphazard camera that's screwed me good few times. Definitely was a good feeling to get back to the Undead Burgh after picking up the Drake Sword and schooling the minions, as opposed to a couple of days ago where I was painstakingly creeping through.

Nobody seems to remember to lock their car door in films. That's the one I always notice. 

I love this Solstafir video. Spectacular scenery with beautiful music and some very cool imagery. Fjara has a great one too but Lagnaetti just edges it for me. 

Reported this and I don't think you're allowed into Italy now.

Drew Carey in 2001, first trying to shake Kane's hand, then giving him money and finally eliminating himself. 21 years later I still have no idea who Drew Carey is outside of this Royal Rumble appearance but it's one that always stuck with me. 

If you happen to use Facebook, you can upload and send an image to yourself on Messenger. From there you simply copy the image URL and post it from there.  It's what I do anyway (didn't realise the Paid member perks until now!)

I've been playing a Wordsearch game on Playstation. I like to do a few puzzles before or after work as a way to relax. Lovely. 

Going back to the Assassins Creed conversation from a couple of days ago, would Odyssey be an okay place to start for somebody completely new to the series? I've never played one and I really should change that. As a lover of ancient history, an ancient Greek setting would definitely appeal to me. 

I've been playing Kingdoms of Amalur the last couple of weeks and after almost 100 hours, the end is just about in sight! Great game which naturally feels a little dated now but is stupidly huge. I'll try pop up some fuller thoughts when I get the Plat. I would post little reviews and screenshots for games everytime I managed to get a Platinum trophy but I'm a little hesitant to keep doing that it in case it comes across as too self-indulgent. Kingdoms of Amalur is mammoth enough to warrant sharing that achievement though!

As strange a criticism it may sound, I think Kingdoms of Amalur might be the first game I've played that's TOO big. It's free on PS Plus this month and I had always fancied it so I'm giving it a go. I really like the old-school RPG aesthetics and, of course, it deserves some leeway with its mechanics given that it's a decade old game but it's so vast that it ends up being overwhelming. There's such bombardment of quests and things to do that it's hard to know what I should be going and where I should be in terms of levelling up and what quests I should be doing. I am enjoying it but everytime I load it up it almost feels more daunting than it does exciting. 

Going to be interesting because he's not going to have any money to spend come January you would imagine, given the absolute state of Rangers' accounts. Meanwhile, we're beginning to come into our own and, with the exception of the 0-0 against Livingston, we've pushed on full steam ahead on all fronts in recent weeks. Van Bronkhorst did well at Feyenoord but not so well in China, finishing 11th with Guangzhou, so it remains to be seen how he'll get on. I'm not too worried - I've been loving Ange Postecoglou's football and I think we are only going to push on and gather more momentum, with the potential of new recruits from the J League being added in January. They're badly needed too as if a couple of players pick up injuries we are badly left short, as was already seen with Kyogo (God, how I love that wee man). 

50 minutes ago, David said:

COP26 has done nothing but annoy the fuck out me to be honest, especially when I saw this kind of shit going on in the city.

Yeah it's disgusting how the local people have had their lives completely disrupted by this. The one that really, really pissed me off was seeing how climate activists sailed a boat up the Clyde, despite not getting the police permission. As a result, the Erskine Bridge was suddenly closed without warning in the middle of the afternoon. As somebody from a town on the other side of the bridge, that really turned me against them. If someone from that side of the river was undergoing a medical emergency and needing an ambulance, that closure of the bridge could very realistically be a death sentence. 

Buzzing for that. PS Plus had been crap for months until PGA 2K21 this month, which I adored despite being a man who knows nothing about golf. Before that, the only game I bothered getting was the very good Stranded Deep. Kingdoms of Amalur is one I've had my eye on for years but never ended up getting it. Perfect opportunity now. 

Forgive me for posting a couple of photos here but last month I undertook a pretty big change! Before then, I had very long hair for the past 15 years and indeed the last time I was in a barber's shop, I was only 15 years old! It started after I discovered heavy metal and I quickly fell in love and immersed myself in that subculture, ultimately ending up a "metal guy" in my appearance. Over the years, I stopped being as passionate about discovering new music but by this point, long hair was pretty central to my image and I couldn't imagine myself without it. However, over the past couple of years it was clear a problem was developing. My hair was fine face on but on top I was beginning to thin quite badly and, such is the style of long hair, a fair bit of scalp was starting to show through. I put it off for as long as I could bear but eventually I had to concede that if I didn't want to end up looking like Gollum or Devin Townsend it was better to act sooner rather than later. So I went along to the barbers with absolutely no idea what to ask for and told him to sort out something that suited me or to shave the whole thing off. I know how daft it sounds, given that it's only hair, but I was somewhat nervous and hesitant to get in the chair!

I went from this:

To this 

And now that it's done, I honestly feel a lot better about my appearance! I don't need to worry so much about looking bald (for now!) and I now have the ability to have a shower in 5 minutes. I also look more respectable to the hyper fashion-conscious Italians! I loved my time with long hair but it was definitely time for a change. I dreaded that day for years but it really wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. 

(Apologies for lengthy post and multiple pictures but for me this was a pretty significant change)

Pizza Monday and Beer Friday sounds like the kind of "organised fun" that I dread. Where everybody has to pretend they're having such a great time that it all feels so forced and hollow. If I wanted to have pizza and beers with my workmates, I'd ask them to go to the pub after work. 

The adverts/chat shows too.