Maximus Decimus

I can remember the disappointment of '99. Of course I get back tomorrow so will miss the whole bloody thing.

18k usually, but 23k for this. Can be upgraded as and when needed.

Tbh when you first posted I figured it was going to be about the Instagram types. But your right, so many people are more interested in saying they've been somewhere than they are of the actual thing itself. Me and the missus were in Amsterdam not long ago, outside of the Reijksmuseum I think. There was a young girl with presumably her fella. She was trying to get the perfect shot, where she looked carefree etc. They were utterly miserable and were clearly arguing. The whole thing was insanely ridiculous IMO. Either enjoy being there or don't.

From an athletics POV of what I saw, Hunt did well to get gold, but to truly compete her start will have to improve massively. Every race I've seen she's in like 5th at the half way point.

Apparently they had a very well attended commonwealth games there a couple of years ago and thats rubbish! One huge disconnect was the fact that the BBC are dedicating two hours of primetime viewing on BBC1 as if it is a big event like the Worlds or Olympics. The level of empty seats makes this appear totally unjustifiable.

I'm currently in Turkey and have a degree in Ancient History; there is some of the best archaeology in the world here and I did visit over 20 years ago as part of a Uni tour. I can certainly understand the desire as a parent to try and enthuse your children especially in the modern world where children are far more likely to have zero interest in anything other than gaming/online. After a few days, I consciously made the decision not to go to an ancient site with them. I couldn't deal with the inevitable moaning etc especially about it being too hot. Tbh my experience as a parent has been one long attempt to get my children interested in things I like and largely failing.

Turned on the Euro Athletics in Birmingham last night and was shocked to see the attendance. Large swathes of the arena were empty. The UK is one of the best places in the world for attending 'events' so something didn't seem right. If you looked at the stands, the back 8 rows or so were pretty full with the next 10/12 rows being basically empty. I thought to myself I'd seen this before: at the last RLWC. Looked it up and not surprisingly ticket prices were high. Apparently, there were 13,000 there last night and 170,000 have been sold for the rest of the week with Thursday evening onwards being basically sold out. I suppose we'll see, didn't look remotely like 13,000 last night.

Quick question: do you think there is a single period in the 130 odd years of RL where the fans have gone 'you know what refereeing has been great and fair this year'.

I think this is the sort of thing that sounds great in principle, but would probably cause just as many problems. A bit like video referees really. When they were brought in in 1995 nobody could have imagined that there would be many issues with them. There'd be contentious decisions, the referees would stick to their interpretation, and everybody would cry stitch up.

Did you ever consider that your reflections might just be the same as many other fans who thought referees were against them? Without hard and unquestionable data, this is impossible to prove. The data sample is too small and nearly every fan feels his club is hard done by. Then there is the age old problem of self-selection bias once you think you've noticed a problem.

Under 12,000 at Titans vs Cowboys. I'm sure prior to the season, somebody was trying to convince me that they were now a success with average crowds of 20k. Any inkling I've seen this year has been the same: a pretty poor team playing in a largely deserted stadium.

Somebody hit the nail on the head when they said young people don't know the difference between wi-fi and the internet. When it wasn't wireless and you use a phone wire, understanding when you do and don't have internet isn't hard!

Analogue time is fast going the way of something like Roman Numerals. Because of fancy watches and large time-pieces like Big Ben (I know it's the name of the bell before anyone jumps in!) it won't go extinct. People like me who can read Roman Numerals without having to have a recap will be in the minority. Kids have a very good concept of time when they say it as it is written on a digital device. So it is eleven thirty-three as I write. Time outside of this gets harder to teach every year. By age 9, in most years not a single child will know analogue and traditional digital time fully. 2/3rds basically don't have a clue.

You know you're old when you actually know what the internet is. To the youth of today, the internet is like water to a fish, impossible to understand. Hence why they literally can't comprehend why the internet doesn't work on their phone when they land in a country outside of Europe.

So I went shopping today for holiday clothes and certainly felt old. Not necessarily because of the style but they've changed the fit of everything. I'd pick up a medium and they were all enormous. Trust me it's not down to secret weight loss. I'm guessing this is how people like it now?

You're doing well. My kids hate my type of music. They're still quite young but still. I like a lot of music from the 60s to now, but the highest concentration is definitely say 94-05. It's becoming increasingly clear that I'm like my parents when they listened to their music.

Tbh the best thing that being a singer and then a pop singer gave me was that I've been like this since my late teens; if I like something I do it and don't care what people think. To a lot of my peers, what I was doing was embarrassing but I enjoyed it. I then stopped caring if I thought for instance a Destiny's Child song was good or not. Ironically, at the time I had a real dislike for what I called indie heads for who music was all about credibility etc I'm not like this in all respects, I've always been very conservative about what clothes I wear and scared to try anything too out there. Which brings me back to the thread, I suspect I might be starting to appear old as well based on my unchanging style of clothes...

Yeh I'm not done an Alan Partridge and decided there was no good music made after 1988. If I like a song, I've never been snobby about where it comes from. I love Eurovision and was in a pop band until my early 20s. There are good songs out now. I like the stuff Sombr is putting out for instance. However, I very much have a default era which is mid 90s to probably mid 00s. Even my newer recommendations tend to be this style of music. One current band I like is the Lathums, and they are very much of this ilk. The odd time I listen to music on the radio, I do default to 90s stations now or Radio X. I wouldn't even bother trying with more up to date.

Another one is as old as time. You stop not only keeping up with what younger people are into, you completely stop caring. Before you know it somebody mentions something that everybody seemingly knows about but you've never even heard of it.

When you've got a musical era. You're driving along and put on Heart 90s, Absolute 90s or Radio X. The kids claim everything you listen to sounds the same.

Well I suppose for modern audiences they had to stop Odysseus from being the serial sh*gger that he was if he was to stay likeable. The scene where she turns them into pigs was definitely the standout one, although I really liked the terror of the Cyclops too. As for the gods, I certainly didn't want a giant Poseidon in the sky or anything. I just felt like they accepted the mythological creatures and underworld but left the gods up to the possibility of being a figment of the imagination. In the book, there is no question of his being cursed by Poseidon. The Cyclops scene was most impacted, in a 3 hour film I'm sure there was room for the dialogue between Odysseus and the Cyclops. Again, I suppose it doesn't suit the Odysseus they were trying to portray for him to be a braggard at the end.

Went and saw the Odyssey last night after seeing all the 5 star reviews. I enjoyed it, but as someone with a Classics degree was bound to have some holes to pick! First of all, the lack of absurd CGI was a great look. They showed a trailer for Spiderman which epitomised what I really hate. Insane angles and 1 in a trillion escapes etc I thought the acting was great too. The runtime was long especially if you are familiar with the source material. They could definitely have trimmed a half hour without losing anything. My biggest gripe/head scratch is that it felt like they couldn't quite decide if they wanted it to be more mythological or more historical. Similarly, about whether they were happy to accept it having ancient values or try to impart modern ones. For instance, the cyclops is there as are other mythical creatures, they go to Hades etc but then leave the Gods basically completely absent, showing Athena as a figment of Odysseus' PTSD. This just felt unnecessary and forced them to change some key aspects of the story like the cyclops scene for no real gain. Probably the biggest gripe among fellow classicists is the way Odysseus' character was changed. You have this legendary warrior who doesn't like warring etc. This is a fundamental charge from the braggard of the original, who was extremely proud of his clever tricks. As I said, small gripes but well worth a watch.

The curse is broken! Just be careful driving past any funerals this time lads....

Toulouse was probably affected by the weather tbh. The result would be less of an issue than the fact it finished at 10:15.

I suspect both will be far more motivated than for these tune up fights. Fury has always been a fighter who can get dragged down to another fighter's level and AJ maybe just expected to be able to ease into the fight. They'll no doubt be more switched on next time. Of the two, AJ's chin is probably going to be the bigger concern. Ain't no way Fury hasn't seen that and thought he can get an early knockout even if he has lost speed. Had this fight happened years ago he'd no doubt have aimed to box his head off, but I'm not sure now. That's where it might get entertaining. If Fury goes for it, AJ will swing.