The Hallucinating Goose

I've finished SAS Rogue Heroes. I enjoyed it and will definitely watch any future series. As I said earlier in the thread, I thought the first couple of episodes started off a bit slow and weren't particularly gripping but it certainly improves after that. One criticism I do have though is although the following 4 episodes have much more action and much more entertainment value I did find those episodes a bit too samey. They all essentially had the same storyline and by episode 5 I felt I'd already seen what I was watching a couple of times before. This is only a minor criticism however because, as I said, I did enjoy the series as a whole.

Not posted on here for a while but thought I would revive this because its a big day for us Napoleonic War buffs. On this day in 1804, Napoleon Bonapatre crowns himself Emperor of France at Notre Dame Cathedral. One year to the day later, 2 December 1805, Napoleon decisively defeats a combined Russo-Austrian army of the Third Coalition at the Battle of Austerlitz. This victory is the one Napoleon considered to be his greatest and essentially the one that opened all of Europe up for him to conquer. It also saw the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, an early federation of German states which would lay the groundwork for the creation of the first German stard itself. Arguably, most of European history to come can be traced back to the French victory at Austerlitz.

I must say I did find it a bit odd to turn on bbc news and have this as the top news in the world.

I didn't have a clue either and seen as history is my favourite subject i always like to learn something new. Main reason I decided to watch this in the first place.

Great, thanks for that! I'll get watching it after SAS Rogue Heroes! Ive watched the first two episodes of SAS Rogue Heroes. Must say it got off to a slow start and I wasn't particularly impressed or drawn in by the first episode but I decided to keep with it and was much more entertained by episode 2 and did quite like it. I am rationing myself to a couple of episodes every couple of days though so I don't binge it right through too quickly.

Chess is riveting.

More drug smuggling a bit closer to home this time. A huge amount but miniscule compared to the story I posted above this one. https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/monumental-cocaine-haul-uncovered-hull-7870972

So not much cocaine then?? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63781424

I didn't know about different keyboards until I started spending a lot of time in Germany. It took a long time to get used to a Qwertz keyboard as opposed to a Qwerty one. If I remember rightly the Z and Y swap was the only at least in terms of the letters but my God, it took some learning when you can touch type on a Qwerty keyboard.

Both games today have been good ones and I imagine we've got another couple of decent ones to come as well given who's playing.

A huge part of peoples' devotion to a sports team is wanting to feel a part of something. Humans are naturally social creatures and it gives people great comfort and joy to surround themselves with other joyous people who they can massively relate to. It's similar to how some people can just not hold a civilised debate with others; they have a viewpoint and it makes them happy when they find other people with the same viewpoint so they will only seek out information that supports that view and get very uncomfortable when someone tries to challenge it. Going back to the sport, the fact you know your team isn't going to win the league, or even the game you're attending, doesn't bother you because you are going for the whole fan experience and routine that you are so familiar with. It is doing something familiar and comfortable that's makes you happy, not the actual event (in this case a football match) itself necessarily.

Because there's other competitions to win which are not the league. In England a team can win up to 4 competitions (I'm not including the Community Shield). The league, a European championship (3 different ones) and two knockout cups. Smaller teams quite often win the cups or at least reach the final. A lot of teams go into a season not focussing on winning the league and focus instead on a cup competition.

To elaborate. Simplicity. It is a very easy game to understand compared to most other sports. As has been pointed out, there are maybe only 3-4 critical rules to the game functioning. Anyone can understand a game of football whereas a lot of people will be turned away from rugby due to the complexity of it. You can't just sit down having never watched a game of rugby and immediately know what's going on. To enjoy the game you don't need to follow the game to the letter of the law when playing either. You can take a small part of the game and just play that; stick your mate in goal and just take random shots at him. With RL, you could just kick goals over a post fair enough, but kicking the ball, going and retrieving it, kicking a goal etc etc would get very boring. You could run with the ball and see if you get past your mate in defence and score a try but it really seems that taking just a small part of RL and playing it feels like just doing a training drill over and over whereas taking shots at your mate and trying to score more and more elaborate goals and your mate trying to make extravagant saves would be a lot more fun. Accessibility. There are so many different ways to play the game. You can have any number of players to play a form of football including just playing on your own if you can't find anyone to play with. You don't need all the correct equipment to play the game. You don't need goalposts or a ball even, all you need is a couple of markers of some description, whether that be a couple of stones or a couple of twigs, or holes in the ground or even just kick the ball against a wall with a couple of chalked lines or even just find a couple of trees close together to kick through. I remember once seeing a show in Africa (I think it was) and kids were just playing with a blown up carrier bag as a ball but it worked for them. The amount of football teams also makes it a heck of a lot more accessible. I think I saw a stat recently that said in England (I think it was just England) there is over 700 football clubs and 1,000 teams. The local non-league team to me is just a walk away and costs just a few quid to get in. They are a 10th tier team and even at that level regularly get 300 people in attendance. There is a local amateur RL team close by as well but I do live in the heartland of course so a good lot of people in Britain will be nowhere near a rugby team. Just some of the reasons football is so popular.

I think England's chances in this world cup rely on Harry Kane being dropped myself.

Your point about non-league football is good. As some on here know I have been attending my local non-league team this year since they got admitted into the 10th tier and can now automatically work their way up through the divisions. We get about 250 spectators on average and you're literally a couple of metres from the action. Due to this I discovered one of the best things about non-league football; because you're so close to the game you can hear what the players are saying to each other and their communication with the referee and this really helps you to understand and appreciate some of the aspects of the game that are completely lost when watching on TV. Also being so close means you can hear and see better the impact in tackles which makes you realise that football is actually a bit more physical than again might be put across on the box-o-tronic.

Word for word what I came on here to say.

Certainly better nightlife in Pyongyang in imagine.

Just found myself singing "you're the one that I want" from Grease while at work. I can see why that film was set in California because it really doesn't have the same impact in a rather deep and boring East Riding accent.

Was thinking of giving this a go!

Why would I want to go someone pleasant and sunny when I could just go to North Korea? Much more appealing to me that.

Yes but I'm miserable all year so it's nothing different. Next question.

Augusto Pinochet?

Turns out I really do hate the Australians in any sport whatsoever. Watching their game now and have never felt so enthusiastic for the nation of Tunisia before!

It is for exactly this reason that I now go under an alias.

JohnM.