Maximus Decimus
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Posts posted by Maximus Decimus
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Ironically, I had a few last night to celebrate getting back under 13 stone and had a horrendous disrupted sleep for my only lie in of the next few weeks.
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1 hour ago, Pen-Y-Bont Crusader said:
Edinger is v good. Also the Bavaria 0% lager.
I can't say I agree, I've tried a fair few and not found one I'd describe as actually drinkable rather than being passable.
They all taste too much like wort from my old brewing days. If I'm not gonna have alcohol I'd rather have a shandy or a glass of coke.
One thing I honestly can't understand is non-alcoholic gin or other equivalent spirit. How you can justify paying that much for what is basically a fancy cordial I'll never know.
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14 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:
My oldest girls football team has had its fair share of dramas with parents complaining about time on pitch .....we are quite strict at sticking to things so have stuck to the same team despite lots of movements of other kids to and from other teams. Over 3 years he has taken my girl from being the worst on the team to being one of the best ....consistency key.
Some dads in particular have been embarrassing in their touchline antics etc and WhatsApp over serious concerns etc....it's U11 girls football for God's sake!
Our girl's netball teams are completely different....very inclusive and Netball England have very specific sheets that coaches have to use so each player gets rotated into different positions equally ...some truly awful goal shooters get the same time at shooting as the best ones!
It probably hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be parents wise but his team are the second team, formed after they got enough numbers to expand. Traditionally, they've lost a lot of matches and have only recently improved.
I can see it in the other team though who they train with.
I wonder whether other sports are more accommodating because of the struggle for numbers, whereas football never has to worry about that.
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16 hours ago, gingerjon said:
The only advice I would give is talk to other parents. Round here it is pretty well known which teams/clubs are serious about winning and so will do what you've described and which ones are more for a knockabout where everyone gets minutes and (there are a *lot* of football teams here) which ones are about skills etc etc. Kids move about a fair bit until they find the right club - or decide (in Tiny Ginger's case) that actually they prefer doing theatre club, which is a whole other kettle of fish.
Thanks. Funnily enough, despite being a sports mad kid I ended up spending my youth as a performer. It certainly isn't without it's pitfalls but at least it isn't as obviously competitive.
I suppose I'll just have to wait to see what the coach says when it comes up. It would be a shame because his team are generally the nicer ones, whereas the other team is much less pleasant.
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As I've started running again, I've taken in a couple of Parkruns.
I was surprised by the balance of runners, it felt like there were more serious runners than there used to be and fewer people doing it for a bit of fitness. If this is true and not just me misremembering, it would be a real shame I think because it could become off-putting for brand new runners. I took the missus for her first ever 5k there and she was a bit intimidated by it.
I've also been to a lot of junior parkruns recently, and the balance there is definitely skewed to kids that are better at running. I took my niece once, who is an amazing gymnast and does cheerleading etc but as it was her first time struggled and finished dead last. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't want to do it again. I wonder if the low numbers (10-20% of the adult one) has anything to do with that.
Is this anything other people have noticed or has it always been that way?
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Hi all,
Was wondering if anybody knows anything about junior football or even junior sport in general.
Basically, my lad starting playing football a couple of years ago because his mates all went the local football club. As he wasn't that into sport, he wasn't at the level of a lot of the other kids but he was enjoying going training etc.
He's got a lot better but he's still one of the lower-quality players. He's in a situation with his U9s team where he alternates with another boy for weekly matches. Someone involved in junior RL has told me in the past that this isn't really what they're supposed to do, but I didn't mind as they were the last two in and I get how developmentally my lad isn't at where some of the other lads are.
However, my lad is good friends with the coach's lad and he came home the other day saying he'd heard something unfair. The coach's son said that a new lad that had recently joined would be taking his place and that he and the other boy would be going back to only playing if somebody else couldn't make it. Whilst not a world-beater, the new lad is better than them both.
Obviously, I was annoyed by this even if isn't necessarily definitely true. I spoke with my lad, and said if it happened we would be better leaving than being treated like that. He goes training every week and has been doing parkrun and tennis in the off-season to try and boost his fitness. For someone new to come in and be given a place above him because he is better, doesn't seem to be in the spirit of junior sport IMO.
However, I was wondering if anybody knew whether this is just a bit shady or actually against any kind of FA code or something more general to do with junior sport. For instance, I know they never post results after the game, which I always took to be a gamewide policy to make it less about winning.
If and when the coach raises it, I'd like to be able to speak from a position of knowledge and even complain if there was an avenue for that.
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I've never been a big drinker and have never really drank during the week.
However, it has concerned me in the past how much I enjoy a drink and whether I might have some small issues with it. I was at the point where I felt like I needed a few beers on a Friday. Almost as if it was the only way I could properly relax and switch off after a hard week. Also, if there is drink in the house we can't keep it in, we'll just drink it. I'm still at the point where if I found out I could never drink again, I'd be proper gutted.
That said, I decided just before Xmas that I was going to get out of the habit. Not only was I historically the heaviest I'd been, but I'd noticed it affecting my sleep.
So you can imagine my mixed emotions when the missus got me a PerfectDraft Keg machine for Christmas! I've ended up trying to only use it at half-term and it has had the bonus of making normal cans/bottles taste like low-quality beer.
I've managed to kick the habit of drinking every weekend, but I've not kicked the enjoyment of beer. I just count down the weeks to my next keg.
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1 hour ago, John Drake said:
It’s become big news because lots of people are interested in the Titanic story, and anything connected with it, for good or ill.
People have opinions about it and want to express them, as you have done here. You could have ignored the thread, but you didn’t, just as news outlets could have ignored the story, but didn’t.
I think it’s almost incidental that the people on the sub were incredibly rich. It’s the Titanic aspect of the story that holds a grim fascination, sadly.
My guess is if they had been visiting any other wreck, we’d never have heard about it.
Exactly this.
We often hear the accusation that focus on a particular news story is evidence of prejudice because a different news story wasn't reported on nearly as much.
In my opinion, it's hard to predict what will get people's interest and attention but there is usually a nugget of something that makes it different, whether it be a salacious detail or be about somebody that people don't like.
Madeleine McCann was a good example of this. Why was there so much focus on a middle-class white girl when less privileged people go missing all the time? IMO, it was the manner of her disappearance and the fact that the parents left her while being 55 metres away that got the initial headlines.
In this instance, it's really pretty easy. There are lots of interesting things about it: billionaires, the Titanic, a shoddy boat, the prospect of an amazing rescue etc
Once people hear about a tragic story, they'll be generally sympathetic. It's not that they don't care about other stories, it's that there is only so many stories you can hear about.
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16 hours ago, Charlie RL said:
2:07 for the Ramathon half.
The online calculator predicted about that from my parkrun times.
My training of 5-15k runs wasn't sufficient. My legs were weak and I was slow after 15k.
That's handy to know. I had a half booked in when Covid struck and had done a 16k. I would've possibly tried to go on from there tbh.
Recently started again with a long view to getting to a half. This blimming heat sure isn't helping!
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Very quiet build up to the CL final. I know it's free on YouTube, but it feels wrong to be hidden away on BT Sport. Not sure why it isn't required to be on terrestrial TV.
I think there's something interesting about it being in the place with one of the biggest upsets ever. Nothing like history striking twice...
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7 hours ago, Tommygilf said:
Ever encroaching American cultural influence for you.
Trust me this is accelerating.
The YouTube generation are very Americanised. Trash is basically common usage, but you hear candy and others a lot.
I've even taught kids with vaguely Americanised accents.
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On 31/05/2023 at 08:48, tonyXIII said:
I'm quite relaxed about grammar when people are speaking because it is usually informal, which means things like, "Me and Tom used to go to Maine Road" are okay. Indeed, in an informal context, "Thomas and I used to go Maine Road" would seem wrong.
Where I draw a line is when people who make their living by writing, for example journalists, get the grammar wrong. There is no excuse for that. Imagine a car mechanic who didn't know how to use the tools of his trade. Unacceptable!
I read somewhere that the whole 'x and I' rule was basically made up by the people who wrote the first grammar books. They were obsessed with Latin and wanted English to follow Latin rules. That's why it doesn't feel natural, no one talks like that.
Language is constantly evolving and in many ways it is the written word that causes the problems as it creates this idea of a fixed language that doesn't exist.
One of my favourite examples of language evolving is how English has never sufficiently accounted for 'you' being used in the singular. Traditionally, thou was used for singular and you was plural but this changed over time and you became common as a singular term too. Many dialects have then needed to create something to fill the void caused by this. As a NW Englishman we use 'yous' but there is 'y'all' as another from the US, both of which would be frowned upon for being grammatically incorrect.
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1 hour ago, DavidM said:
I know we don’t get channel 9 coverage usually , but it was interesting that they had an advert come on actually during the game . Don’t know if that’s a usual thing , pretty bizarre
It was weird and I'm not sure they were ready for it. Why show adverts for Channel 9 programming?
One of the adverts used the word 'pr*ck' and sky hastily added an apology for inappropriate language.
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My first impression of origin.....
....Warnie looks like it's going to be absolutely rubbish.
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5 hours ago, DavidM said:
I was thinking yesterday that , amid the relief , actually watching them play just lays bare the reality of how utterly depressingly poor they are
I can't believe how we've basically got through a season without an attack.
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14 hours ago, Clinton Baptiste said:
Many years ago l met a poster called Dally M {an Australian} in the Caxton pub in Brisbane before a GB vOZ game.Does anybody remember him ? l believe he made a trip to the UK at one time.
I still have nightmares about him. I once greatly offended him by saying that the NRL in Australia was nowhere near as big as Premier League football is in the UK (when it used to be a common thing said about Aussie RL over here).
I have only knowingly met one person from here who isn't an already known Widnes fan, the great Jill Halfpenny Fan who gave me a couple of old Aussie RL jerseys many years ago. I wore one last Halloween when I went as a 1980s RL player mullet and all.
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3 hours ago, DavidM said:
I might have noticed , totally stress free . Did I go through the ringer , no siree…
I feel I can now say that it has to be one of the poorest Everton sides of my life. I've been convinced we were going down all year.
When all is said and done, I think it can't be underestimated how important that 5-1 win at Brighton was. Not only was it more than 1/7th of our total goal tally, it changed the whole narrative around who was likely to go down and piled the pressure on Leeds and Leicester.
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Anyone watch Succession? The finale was last night and I'm a little gutted it's over.
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Watched Okolie lose his belt to Billam-Smith last night, and boy what a frustrating fight. Okolie looked to be channeling his inner Henry Akinwande.
He got 2 points taken off for holding, and he suffered 3 knockdowns (of which only 1 was properly legit) yet somehow one referee had it 112-112!
Fair play to Okolie, he took it really well and wasn't bitter. I presumed he'd be fuming about the referee.
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On 22/05/2023 at 23:39, Padge said:
James Watt is often talked of as the inventor of the steam engine, he wasn't, he took Newcombe's engine and improved it with the addition of a condenser, he like musicians, took others ideas and refined them. His invention was a steam engine with a separate condenser. Much as the 12 bar blues has been used many times with refinements.
My big fear with cases like this is that the improvement in technology could end up significantly stifling creativity.
As I stated earlier, when you come up with a melody or a chord sequence, not only is it impossible to know if you've subconsciously heard it before, but you can't know if it's been done before.
How long before we have technology that can instantly tell you if that melody or sequence already exists, however obscure, and therefore nips it in the bud before it's even started?
Imagine Paul McCartney wakes up with a tune in his head, plays it for an AI machine that tells him it's the same as a melody that reached number 22 in Belgium in 1957. One of the most well-known (yet one of my least favourite) Beatles songs is simply not pursued for fear of being branded a copy.
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2 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:
The original USFL in the 1980’s did gain traction amongst American Football fans and I remember it well at the time.
It had some top players from the college football scene, interesting experimental rules (many later adopted by the NFL) and some of the franchises worked well.
Unfortunately for it Donald Trump who owned one of the franchises was keen to take the NFL to court and go head to head with the NFL which proved disastrous for the USFL in the end.
I seem to remember the judge awarded the USFL a single dollar in damages and the whole thing went bust although many of the top players and rule innovations found their way into the NFL.
I believe the main reason why springtime leagues are failing is the standard of play is just not high enough to convince fans to stick around for long enough. Also where to place the franchises is a big question.
Yeh I think the dream of a spring league is something that has just failed so often that it's hard to imagine it ever working.
I think culturally it just doesn't fit for a lot of Americans, they have a sporting calendar where different sports peak at different times. Football dominates autumn and winter.
The standard probably isn't bad and pretty much indistinguishable from NFL to the vast majority, but the knowledge that it is a B league will always affect perception.
IIRC the XFL was doing quite well before Covid struck. It was new so very tentative but I think they'd got some OK crowds. I don't think their return has been as successful.
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Another good fight last night. Haney vs Loma which Haney won with a unanimous decision.
It was the usual controversial boxing decision, but aside from the 116-112 both judges had it 115-113 which certainly wasn't ridiculous. It felt very close throughout the bulk of fight, but after the 11th, where Loma looked like he could take him out, it seemed like Loma would win. However, rather than building on it in the 12th he lost that round comfortably.
I personally felt like Loma won, but could understand how someone could get to a 114-114 or even 115-113. The fact that it was unanimous doesn't feel right IMO, I don't see three separate people all scoring it for Haney.
I do think that there are problems with scoring in boxing. Without actually scoring it, it felt like the best moments were all Loma and that this isn't accounted for enough.
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On 17/05/2023 at 00:50, bbfaz said:
If Sweden won, the Danish entry - which didn't make it to the final - should be a worldwide sensation.
It didn't sound great live, too much falsetto.
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On 12/03/2023 at 11:34, Maximus Decimus said:
I heard Loreen's new effort for Sweden and it sounds exactly like a Eurovision winning song.
Just putting this out there...
I'm also going to put it out there that my first reaction to the British one was 'what a load of s***e' it did grow on me somewhat but most people would have been voting having heard it just the once.
Giving up /reducing booze ....
in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Posted
My first taste of the guinness I thought was horrendous, but it did start to grow on me a tad.
Not enough to buy it again mind!