Chindie

Xmen 1 famously has some absolute clunkers of dialogue. The worst is probably the line from Storm when Toad is electrocuted. Absolutely awful. 2 is regarded pretty well though and thought of as one of the best comic book films. 3 is hopelessly bad, Origins is legitimately one of the worst films ever made, First Class is half a good movie, the Wolverine is alright, DOFP is good but lacks a great villain. The Xmen films are a bit all over the shop really, even as a comic geek. They also increasingly suffer from a reliance on Wolverine. He's one of the best Xmen characters and enduringly popular, and Jackman does well in the role, but the Xmen are about team work and his character dominates all of the movies bar First Class to the detriment of everyone else.

He won't win barring a complete miracle on his part. He has very poor cross demographic support. He only gets support in core Republican demographics. Outside of that the numbers suggest not only does he not have much support outside of the usual groups, he's actually actively disliked, which suggests he's not terribly likely to draw many swing votes or many undecideds, because chances are most think he's a clearing in the woods. It should be a win for Hillary. The Republicans are going to tear themselves apart and look absolutely farcical, and Sanders won't get the nomination, despite doing surprisingly well so far. Hillary winning isn't a good thing either in fairness. This is a bizarre election, even most of the nominees are shit.

Might be first true Xmen movie that isn't just Wolverine and chums. Shame that Apocalypse is a daft villain that they've somehow made look even worse than normal.

Hmm, I can't think of anything else in a similar setting... I would have suggested Narcos but that's very different in setting. Great show though.

What do you like about those shows?

They took advantage of the situation that developed with the World Wars and managed to build on that for the entire century. While it's unlikely to have happened (certainly to such an extent) without both World Wars, I'd contend that the US doesn't end up in the position it finds itself in now without some efforts to secure that position, especially as the 20th century developed.

Same fitness coach, as well.

In other news an IT consultant loses in a boxing match against Sergey Kovalev. This chap probably would beat McGregor in a true Muay Thai fight. Assuming they're similar weights. He gets schooled in an MMA bout. Different disciplines, different sports.

Obviously theres complexity to boxing that an enthusiast can appreciate, that they will gain more from than a casual observer. MMA, whilst you do get fights where guys stand and trade, more often than not their is a grappling side of things that just isn't as immediately engaging as boxing is. Even a bad bout. Basically I'm trying to say boxing is an easier sport to enjoy as a spectator.

At both my mom and dad's funerals we had a couple of family friends speak. None of us were in any state to do it. We together came up with a short paragraph for dad, which was included in the order of service handout, and that was hard enough to just compose and write, and to this day I'm not happy with it... But I couldn't have got up there and spoke. My dad's friend who spoke struggled to get through it, but I'm glad he did.

It has accessibility over the UFC/MMA generally. Boxing is a pretty simple sport - you don't need to be an expert to watch a fight and understand who's doing better, there aren't many rules and even when a match becomes more tactical you don't need to think much to understand the way the fight is going. The UFC on the other hand has quite a few rules that are less immediately obvious, and a lot of fights that become more tactical are less immediately engaging to a casual viewer. A lot of fights go to ground and become position battles which, even for a fan, can be incredibly dull and the nitty gritty of the fight becomes more important. Someone who's watched a lot of fights might see that a guy is trying to improve his position to go for a triangle, or numerous other holds and chokes, while a casual observer will just see a guy shifting his weight on another bloke and not a lot of note happening. Judging is more nebulous as well, you do have matches where it's not completely clear how it was judged one way or another, even if you know the rules and how the judges look at things. It takes some commitment from the audience to enjoy, whereas any idiot can go to the pub and watch the latest headline bout in the boxing and understand it.

That's the thing. I wouldn't say I was struggling at all. I wasn't smashing through it like an old hand but I wasn't fighting the game either. I got to Blight Town with what I'd guess was no more than average trouble with it. I wasn't massively enjoying it but I was happy to keep plugging through it and I enjoyed the style of it all. Then I hit Blight Town and the awful performance completely undermined everything and absolutely sapped my desire to go further. I've never been able to muster any interest in going further through it since. That area of the game just turned everything to shit, it made me stop wanting to enjoy the game and made the irritating elements of it starkly clear.

He won't get sacked. He'll stay till the end of the season unless he chooses to go beforehand having realised this car crash is not going to improve.

Thoughts with you Stevo, and AlwaysAVFC.

I wouldn't take too much from Diaz not seeming hurt by McGregor's shots - both the Diaz brothers have been blessed by being exceptionally hard bastards who just take hits, hence why both have faces absolutely riddled with scar tissue. Nate Diaz has been stopped once by strikes and that was a ref stoppage iirc. McGregor is known for being quite heavy handed, particularly his left. He is a big featherweight, who cuts ridiculous amounts, at welterweight he's at a disadvantage all over in stature terms. He may do better at lightweight. A big problem is he's immediately in trouble on the ground, his style heavily favours staying on his feet and he never looks comfortable on the ground to me. He's a BJJ brown belt but you can see he goes to ground as a last resort, whereas really it needs to be another weapon in his armoury, even if he doesn't favour it. Mendes caused him problems last year, and he survived to win on his feet, but a bigger man who can wrestle and he's in trouble IMO.

Having also backed Diaz I'm pleasantly surprised this morning. I think McGregor needed something to ground him, and Diaz has done exactly that.

Hollis didn't join till mid January and we were due to bring players in right to the death, so out doesn't look like he 'clamped down on spending' at all.

Made them the most powerful nation on earth by a country mile, and the only truly global superpower to have ever existed.

Never played 2. I've nearly bought it a dozen times and then just don't, due to the same issues I mentioned. I know I'll do alright, and then reach a point that I can no longer overcome the frustration of playing and bin it off. For some reason I have less of that feeling with what I've seen of 3 - it seems to have made a more immediately offensive, faster style of play more viable early on, hence the Bloodborne comparisons, and that combined to hopefully less horrendous performance appeals. Absolutely not a day one purchase though. I'll let the community be a guinea pig.

Watched a few vids myself. I have this odd relationship with Dark Souls. I adore the world and the look and the ideas and the atmosphere. I've never managed to enjoy playing one. I've played the first 4 or 5 times, bought it nearly as many, and whilst i wouldn't say I'm good at it I've done alright. And then I get to Blight Town and I can't play it anymore. The annoyance and frustration factor in combination with the terrible technical performance at the moment makes me walk away, every time. So I looked at the videos that came out from the event they hosted the other day and again I'm sat there thinking I really really want to play that but I know within a few hours I'll hate it and never touch it again. Saying that, this one does apparently pick up a few elements of Bloodborne so it plays more like a bastard child of both series, which might help me enjoy it more. It looks a lot like Bloodborne as well, some of the environments and particularly enemies they've almost copy pasted into this by the looks of things. And technically it's a pretty game by the looks of things. A lot of the reaction to it so far has seemed oddly muted, that I've seen, though, for some reason.

She's keeping form... Watched 3 episodes back to back and it's stormed back to previous standards. Great series so far.

Hence my saying he'd join a rarefied group who had successes after leaving.

Arguably also a reason not to support it if it doesn't change anything

I don't at all. He'll still have a very good reputation in France, which will have some draw for him across the continent. I wouldn't rule out a job in the Prem either. Not one of the top jobs, but a midtable side I could see taking him on. I think the narrative (correctly in my view) of Villa being such a mess will take away from his actual results, as will his conduct. He'll do alright, provided we've not burnt him so much he jacks it in entirely.

Incidentally, if when he goes we are stupid enough to hire Pearson, we could at least have a weekly game of 'which person is he going to throttle this week?'. Probably be more entertaining than the football itself. Or embarrassing.