The Fish

Sounds like Xia is turning on the team;

That goal gave me a big ol' lob on

What's their first team these days? Mannone XXXX - Djilobodi - Kone - van Aanholt Januzaj - Kirchoff - XXXX -Khazri Defoe - XXXX Uh oh spaghettioh

Pearson's apparently got them organised at the back, but they're struggling to find the net at the other end. Seems to be a few Derby fans unhappy with Nigel Pearson's football and not entirely enamoured with his character off the pitch as well. Looks like Hughes will miss the game thanks to getting a ball to the face earlier, whi8ch is fortunate for us because he's definitely a player who can control the play in this league. I was expecting a really tough game against one of this divisions top teams, but their nerves are giving me confidence. I'm not sure we'll score, but I'm now pretty confident that they won't. Be interesting to see who Rafa picks; does he go for consistency and stick with Dummett at Left Back? Or does he start the game with defensive debuts for Lazaar and Yedlin? Up front will he go for the man in form and stick with Gayle, or does he start with Mitrovic? 1-0 for Newcastle I reckon.

Typical bloke's comment

Just on a personal level, that was way too late for me. All through my schooling I had been capable enough to get good passing grades so the teachers ignored me. By the time I sat my GCSEs, (let alone my A-Levels) my work ethic was shot, I had cruised through my schooling and when actual graft became necessary I was completely unprepared. Had I gone to a Grammar school I don't think I would have been allowed to cruise, even if I had been getting the grades. I needed a huge wake-up call 2yrs after leaving high school to get me back on a track I should never have been off.

Isn't everything though? I don't think the absence of Grammar schools would have lead to national familial harmony?

I understand that previous iterations haven't benefited each student, but surely that doesn't mean that future versions are necessarily doomed to fail. I know I (and others like me) suffered because the teacher had so many kids with individual learning requirements that because I was passing I was largely ignored. I 100% would have benefited from being in a Grammar school where the class would have been made up of kids who were at a similar level at a similar age. Just like the class I was in at Seaton Sluice Middle School would have benefited by being made up of kids of a similar level at a similar age. Wouldn't an annual test mean that kids could migrate to Grammar schools if they... I'm struggling to find a term to describe slotting into that Grammar stream without it being insulting, condescending or flat out inaccurate so I apologise in advance. Also, that's true of the earlier version of Grammar schools, but it needn't be true in the future.

They may not have benefited, but would they have suffered? Doesn't sound like not getting into a Grammar school would have made a whole heap of difference to that part of their lives?

I don't understand why failing to get into Grammar schools because of your academic ability at that time stops you developing later and succeeding anyway, as both your examples suggest happened?

Getting in wasn't the problem for me, it was what happened once I got there that started all this trouble.

Higher education should be free for whomever is capable of getting in, but getting in should be much, much harder. Like you say, there are worthless degrees out there and families spending tens of thousands on helping their kids get them. There should be a difference between a degree from a redbrick University and whatever else is out there, and getting into University should be fucking difficult.

Went on a couple of their boards to see what they were expecting from the game, one was 10 pages of formations and the other seemed more like a general chat thread

That's the crux of it for me. I don't care that it's a poorly written female character, I care that it's a poorly written character. Sure, some of the points were a little heavy handed, but this is Hollywood; Aliens are always analogous of global warming, or whatever. But to be honest, I chuckled at the misplaced chivalry from Finn and Rey's response, and I didn't find it had rendered me dead from the waist down.

Can't it be both Scott, can't it be both?

Just watched this video Parky... you can't be serious with this shit? He whines that the girl is outrunning the men "because she's all powerful". Well, a couple of things, she's not outrunning the men and even if she were, that doesn't make her all powerful, just faster than some men. I'm guessing your wife would be faster than Forrest Whittaker. He also froths about some men being lead away in handcuffs "because no female pilots would ever be captured, would they?". Or it could be that the army they're fighting for is as misogynistic as this youtuber and can't allow many women behind the controls of anything as big and dirty as a spaceship. This kid is obviously baffled by women. He's probably enraged that strong female characters are now infiltrating the fantasy worlds where he could imagine having dominion over women. In the real world they bamboozle and scare him, in these fantasies they've been meek, biddable arm candy that his level 42 barbarian would toss over his shoulder as he's rescuing her from a dragon or whatever. This Jeff Albertson is beneath you Parkster.

Not how I read it. He was saying that the new film is going to be shit because of SJWs just like the last one was shit because of some agenda driving studios to overpower any female lead characters until they're flawless. Which is horseshit.

You'll have guessed but the top one isn't my photo

and there's plenty of Jedis who are meek as hell, bested by droids simply because they're not all that. You seem to be saying that there is no way Character A could beat Character B, because Character A is a girl. Rather than saying this is some shitty writing because Character A shouldn't be able to beat Character B because they've had no training (which is what Rayvin is saying). Gender has fuck all to do with it. This is a universe where a child who has never left his planet before this adventure can fly a starship into, and through his incredible actions, turn a massive battle. I don't remember you complaining about the overpowered Anakin. But then he is a boy...

Was at a wedding at the Lingholm Estate by Derwent Water this weekend just gone. Fuck me what a location Weather wasn't great on Saturday, but that didn't really matter too much as that was the actual wedding so we had to be indoors a fair bit anyway. The Sunday was beautiful sunshine and so a few of us took rowing boats or kayaks out on the lake for a bit and found out that the 1st hour is free so ended up not having to pay for it Already making plans to hire one of their cottages for a long weekend with a bunch of mates.

If the choice is between flights of fancy or stained glass windows and seagull murder, I know which sounds more appealling

Me too, which is why most of the DC stable leaves me cold and I prefer Marvel. Marvel also tend to have supremely powerful badguys and plucky goodguys prevailing over seemingly impossible odds. DC tends to be the other way around, I mean Superman's archenemy is a businessman. I agree that Disney will shy away from making the new movies really surprising or challening, they have to market it mainly at kids so you couldn't have a really interesting bleak arc. Ren can still be relevant, especially if he trades more of his humanity for the kind of power that will get him on a level playing field with Rey. As HF said, Rey is blatantly a hugely powerful Jedi in waiting, perhaps Ren just isn't all that powerful and the real threat comes from the Big Bad? Or perhaps he won't tap into greater power until he fully commits to one path or the other? Perhaps his place as the number 2 is threatened now and some new apprentice will rise? Maybe Ren is there to be rescued?

He should be, but the prequels turned one of the most iconic bad guys into a snivelling whining shit. They Twilight-ed Darth bloody Vader ffs.

I don't think it's a feminism thing, I just think it's a bad writing thing. I don't doubt there's pressure to redress the imbalance when it comes to the number of male protagonists in action/adventure stories, but her seeming supremely powerful isn't SJW feministas or whatever, it's just bad writing. The new prequel movie looks all right from the trailers (but then, so did Suicide Squad), and I couldn't give a toss that the lead is a girl. It certainly isn't suggesting she's an uber-Jedi in waiting, just a competent protagonist. Re: what to expect from the forthcoming sequels, I expect Ren will continue to struggle with his choices and the Big Bad will test Rei's resolve. I'd anticipate another couple of duels between these two, and that those duels will be a closer match. Perhaps Rei's arrogant? Perhaps Ren isn't distracted by the patricide he just committed? End of the day, isn't "bringing balance" what the whole Star Wars folklore is about?