JoshVilla

Favourite games that came out in 2021: Metroid Dread Resident Evil Village Ghost of Tsushima Iki Island DLC Still have Deathloop to play and have also spent a bit of time on Back 4 Blood which has been fun so far. Favourites that didn't come out in 2021 but I played or finished this year: Demon's Souls Bloodborne Sekiro Yakuza 7 Nioh Remastered I still have plenty of games in the backlog that I want to get through (which is proving to be a much slower process since having our first kid in October!). Hoping to get through these since there's so many good games coming out next year: Deathloop, Nioh 2 Remastered, Yakuza Zero, Yakuza 6.

https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/spike-only-vaccine-a-colossal-blunder This makes for some quite interesting reading. Gives another spin on whether the vaccine rollouts are helping or harming in the big picture. As one poster alluded to a good few pages ago, I do agree that this pandemic should really encourage people to look after themselves and be as healthy as possible, as the best initial response to a virus (and plenty of other ailments) is a healthy body and healthy immune system. Problem is, in the real world it just isn't that easy. Unhealthy food is cheap. People are busy. Sometimes being unhealthy isn't always because someone chooses to be.

It's a real shame. He's fought grapplers before but he was so good at managing the distance and picking his strikes. It seems like he's more worried about being taken down than he is about doing his thing. In all honesty, the UFC needs to be a bit stricter on the scoring & refereeing of the ground game. Belal did try to chase the submission, but when Burns fought Wonderboy he pretty much sat on him for 3 rounds with no real intent.

Seeing Wonderboy get sat on for 3 rounds makes me sad

I agree on the Omricon stuff. RE: the cases though, we know full well that if there's a huge spike then we'll see lots of "it's all those unvaccinated pricks" posts all over social media, when I just can't see how that's the case when they're the only ones testing. I just don't agree how the blame is all being pinned on a single group. (Though the government would definitely prefer if we direct all our anger at the unvaccinated and say it's all their fault so that we don't hold them to account for their own failings)

Are the Covid passports in effect now? Interesting question though - if there is a big spike in cases linked to that game, who do we blame? The unvaccinated people who had to make sure they did a test and were negative? Or the vaccinated people who didn't have to do a test because as long as they're triple jabbed then that's enough? I guarantee it'll be the former. I'm not insinuating anything, it's just an interesting point IMO.

To play devil's advocate, the obvious answer is that people are concerned, rightly or wrongly, about the long term effects which, unfortunately, we will only know either way with the passage of time. That's literally the only way we will know (long term being 5/10 years plus)

Tbh if people just used their god damn heads then we wouldn't need to be having arguments about if they're vaxxed or not. Feeling a bit under the weather? Do a test. Visiting someone vulnerable? Do a test Going to a place with lots of people? Do a test This would have massively reduced the spread and hospitalisations. If the population continued to do this, regardless of vaccination status, we'd be in a much better position. Problem is, people just can't be arsed.

Exactly. Subjectively, it's my opinion that there's more brilliant music to discover nowadays. In terms of accessibility, I'm talking more about the fact that you would have shows like OGWT, Soul Train. We don't have that now. If you don't have an Internet connection (rare, granted, but some still don't), then you're pretty much stuck with the manufactured dross that's on the radio (though you do get some good stuff if you have DAB).

Tbh, I think part of the problem with the rise in cases has been people (incl the government) treating the vaccine as a sort of golden ticket to complete immunity. 2 points: Covid App: Person 1 (unvaccinated) - gets pinged on the app to say that they been in contact with someone positive. Has to isolate for 10 days and do a test every single day. 9 negative tests in a row? 99.9% sure that you're fine? Doesnt matter, you have to stay inside. Person 2 (vaccinated) - gets pinged on the app, has to do one test only on the day that they get pinged. If its negative, you go on your merry way. Never mind the fact that they could test positive for asymptomatic covid a few days later, the rules have allowed them to potentially go and spread it (yes, at few reduced rate, but they're still going to be able to spread it). Stadiums: To me, a negative test is a much better banker on reducing the spread. Triple jabbed? Fine, but you can still have it and spread it, and you don't need to do a test to get into a stadium. If unvaccinated people have done tests to get in, which are negative (yes, the accuracy is somewhat sketchy), then who do we blame if there's a steep rise in cases following sports events? It's an interesting point, I think. I just don't really know what the end game is. Like many have said, we can't just lock down forever. I just think it's interesting that many will automatically point the finger at the unvaccinated population as the problem, when in some cases the spread could potentially come more from vaccinated people that aren't testing and aren't taking proper care because the government has told us that taking the vaccine essentially means you can do what you want.

There's more "good music" around now than there was 40/50 years ago. It's just not as easy accessible now. You have to dig for it, which in some ways makes it much more satisfying when you unearth a gem. I cringe a little bit when I hear people saying "all modern music is shit", which most of the time tends to be an opinion that's born out of hearing what's in the charts (though yes, chart music back in the day was much better). There's a big difference between saying "I prefer the older stuff" to "all new stuff is shit". This, by the way, coming from someone who absolutely loves bands from the 70s and 80s too.

Yeah, Pitchfork are terrible. Never trusted them after they gave Tool's Lateralus a 1.9/10. They seem to be massively biased towards & against certain genres.

Being Norwich manager is going to be a thankless job for him this season. They just don't have the quality to stay up. Best case scenario for Smith would be to make them more competitive, grind out some decent results here and there to get everyone pulling in the same direction to build a base for promotion next season. The issue is, as it has been for a while at Norwich, they just don't have good enough financial backing to be sustainable in the Premier League, unless they recruit very smartly. The good thing for them is that Dean does have a good eye for talented young players (Konsa, Watkins).

Decided to make my missus play Demon's Souls. She's quite a casual gamer, and has never played a Souls game before. She's so far made it past the first Blue Eye Knight and unlocked the first shortcut without dying (except to the vanguard demon of course). I am impressed.

For anyone who hasn't listened already, Joe Rogan's episode with Dr Sanjay Gupta is a good listen.

In fairness, a negative test makes more sense to board a flight than vaccination. I'd rather sit next to someone who is not vaccinated, but has done a test and they don't have it, than someone who is vaccinated but could well have it (unless an airline asks for both, of course).

Yeah I agree. Nunes especially - it seemed like all composure went out of the window once she'd taken a couple of shots. Almost like she had gotten so used to not taking damage so she completely tensed up and panicked.

Gutted for Poirier, he was winning the stand up but Oliveira is just such a clever fighter. His grappling game is off the charts. Amazing that Pena came out with the win considering that Nunes was toying with her first round. If she'd have carried on attacking the lead leg it could have been a different fight.

Oh my days, Pena!

Why is Ramsey marking VVD?

I love Nakamba, he's been brilliant for us since Gerrard took over. However, I still panic when he receives the ball under pressure....

No competition

So much has already been said and there's not really much else to say, but just to get it off my chest... The thing that seems to wind people up the most is the fact that we had a project going on, and fans truly believed that everyone in the club bought into it. We had a Villa fan captain, Villa fan manager, we were trending upwards with our owners ready to invest and take us to the next level. When Jack said that he saw his future here and that he fully believed in the project, it just added to that warm fuzzy feeling about the club that had been missing for over a decade. When he left, it was another slap in the face, another reality check that the clubs outside of the greedy 6 will not realistically be able to compete. The subsequent news that came out about his request for the release clause, him pretty much having one foot out the door on 2 other occasions (with the club being stubborn enough to keep hold of him, rather than him choosing to stay out of loyalty), all this just adds up to an even bigger kick in the nuts. The fact that he chose to go to City just made it worse. A club that encompasses everything that is wrong about the modern game. A club that, not too long ago, was the target of fake outrage from the media about the ESL stuff, only to be fawned over again when they were spending £100m on a player that they didn't need. They would win trophies with or without Jack (though maybe not this season, lol). This is what these pundits don't get. People watch sports in general for the romanticism and belief that your team might truly achieve something. When potentially the most talented player that the club has ever produced gets plucked away by a disgusting cash cow club like City, not a year after said player declares that their future lies here, it's another nail in the coffin of true competitiveness, and the dream that we might finally reach the top table again. We might still get there, but it was yet another set back, and just makes you feel that the same thing will happen again if another one of our players shines and fires us into the top half. It's a never ending cycle that companies like Sky are all too happy to keep in motion. The boos probably weren't just for Jack alone. They come from a much deeper frustration. As much as the pundits can try to tell us how we should feel (which they did plenty of before the game), to say that "well you got 100m out of it so you should be happy" completely misses the point. £100m is no guarantee of success. Sometimes good players don't work out, sometimes the chemistry isn't right. We had a formula that was sending us in the right direction, and could have sent us further with a few smart additions. If they want us to know our place...well...we do know it. We're a proper football club, with a proper stadium, passionate fans and some ambition to get back to where we should be. We're not going to apologise for that.

Oh sorry mate, my bad, it read like it was targeted at me (the joys of text only I suppose!)