Zell

£180 from Tesco thanks to my mum's staff discount.

This is a Job Win, so apologies if this post sounds a bit melodramatic. I got promoted today. I'm so elated right now. It's a huge weight off of my shoulders. I've been in my job two years now and it has not been an easy ride for me to say the least. Due to a whole myriad of different factors, my confidence in my work was gradually shot to pieces over my first year of work. It's been incredibly difficult for me at times. Much more difficult than I imagined. It got to a point a year ago where after one particularly bad experience I was seriously considering packing it all up. The only thing that kept me going was that regular pay cheque. I got very depressed about the whole thing and thought I made a huge mistake going for it in the first place. I never really confided with a lot of my non-work friends about it - everyone always thought how incredibly fortunate I was working for such a high-prestige company. My pride and ego would always make me too ashamed to admit that I was struggling. Then exactly a year ago, I began a new project working within the finance team. A very technical project that was perfectly suited to my skill set. After a year of drifting in the wilderness, I had finally found my calling so to speak. My confidence grew and all of a sudden I was loving my work again. I was never on any of my old projects for longer than 6 weeks. As of writing, I am still on said finance project and will be for another two months at the very least. Today I was told that I had passed assessment and was graduating out of the graduate scheme and officially joining finance area full-time. It was the perfect outcome and I could not be more happy. Lots of other people who also got promoted just see it as a natural progression in their careers, but this is a huge deal for me. I have celebrated by buying a Wii U and Mario Kart.

I used to shampoo my hair every day until relatively recently. I came to the realisation that this was counter-productive and was the cause of my hair being so frizzy. And because I was washing it so much, my glands would go into overdrive and produce so much oil. Whenever I go to a music festival, my hair will become insanely greasy after about 2 days. After about 3 days it looks wet. The irony was that I shampooing my hair so much to prevent it from going greasy.

HOLY SHIT!

My job is client facing so I have to shave to look presentable. Any beards pretty much have to be perfectly groomed/trimmed to be acceptable, otherwise it just comes across as you not bothering to care about your appearance. I personally shave every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Sometimes when I can't be arsed I'll skip Friday since Friday is usually pretty relaxed and casual anyway, but if there's an important meeting then I'll be sure to shave. Beards are perhaps a better "casual" look, but a clean wet shave plus a nice haircut and a well-fitted suit makes you look and feel stunning.

I'd keep the 19-6 if you can't get a good price for him. He'll be worth a hell of a lot more as a 20-7 or 21-8 if you're still intent on selling him by then. Anyone up for a match on Friday?

What can I say? This game is simply the gold standard for local multiplayer. I could go on all day extolling the virtues of this game. The Smash Bros games are among the greatest party games ever made. The core premise of the gameplay - knocking players off the stage - is such a clever and unique idea and it really puts the series in a genre of its own. The games are also packed to the rim with content. There so many game modes, so many characters, so many stages, so many items, so many different ways to customise the multiplay/er. The amount of unlockables in Melee in particular were unparalleled for the time. Add on cutting edge 60fps graphics and an extensive soundtrack and you've got the total package. Yet at the same time, by fluke or by design, SSBM is one of the best competitive fighting games ever made. It has an amazing amount of depth, if you're willing to find it. And it's because of this hidden depth that I kept playing this game for years and years after it's release. I do perhaps look upon Melee with rose-tinted glasses at times. The game was part of my childhood, as melodramatic as that sounds. It is one of my favourite games of all time and there is no other game I have sunk more hours into. Is it the best in the series? Without question. Is it the best multiplayer game of all time? Could well be. Those were the days. After beating you for the first time, I went round calling myself the best in the school. There was a point in time where me and you were pulling off some mental moves. I think if you go on Youtube there might still be some old videos of us playing Smash when we were 16. Man, after watching that Smash Direct, I have gotten super hyped up about the new Smash. I hope they sort the online out so I can start schooling people with my Pikachu just like old times!

What I would do is find 1 fun piece of fun trivia for each country and then ask the participants to name that country. Examples I found doing Google Searches: "This country has the highest density of roads and railway in the world." Answer: Belgium. "This country is home of the oldest named brand of wine still in production." Answer: Cyprus (Commandaria wine) Is this the kind of thing you're after? You've got 8 countries there, so you can do 8 questions. After marking and answers that should easily fill 10 minutes. And to be pedantic, England should be UK.

I have to admit that I am absolutely devastated to have lost the final. Beating Kippen, Silverdale and Eights only to fall at the last hurdle... it's hard to take. That might prove to be the best I chance I'll get at getting another title in the near future, what with so many strong teams emerging. Very well played Nikos, some great offensive tactics. Having only four defenders to chose from was a massive ball ache for me in choosing my tactics, in the end I went with the formation that allowed for my strongest possible line-up. Thought that if I could boss the midfield then my weakened defence would not matter as much. As it turned out, I got my tactics wrong and got exposed at the back. A smaller squad this season has been good for development but has hampered my performances at times. I was especially vulnerable when Delipiano was out for an extended period. I reckon will need to spend some big money in the transfer market to stay competitive. I've come second twice in a row now - now I know how Tales feels! Oh and lastly, a massive thanks needs to go out to @dan\-likes\-trees for writing awesome reports all season. You guys have really made this season special.

When I first started and was looking to sign good players on the cheap, I always noticed how Intelligent players didn't cost an awful lot more than 'vanilla' players. Try to buy players with Goal Instinct or Free Kick Specialist or any other positive outfield quality and the price of the player is inflated massively. I have no idea what the Intelligence Quality actually does but it seems to give players a smaller advantage over similar players of the same skill. Dan, you should compare my player ratings in the match against Eights with my players' actual skill levels. Five of my players were rated 5 skill bars above their actual skill. High teamwork values (every player on my team has "Excellent" compatibility), high form and win bonuses equate to overperforming players.

Awwww yeah! What a fantastic effort from the lads! The win bonus I used for this game might have had something to do with it!

Fantastic first episode. I've read the books so I know what's coming, but the show is still all the more awesome! My favourite line in the episode has to be:

My favourite GBA game! The Advance Wars games are so addictive, I spent hours and hours on these games as a kid. Revisited them all a couple of years ago and found them a lot easier, I was very proud of S ranking the final mission against Eagle in the first game. The music is always cracking: It's been 6 years since the last Advance Wars game. There needs to be one for 3DS. Make it happen Nintendo.

Is this how you pictured him perhaps? I'm glad that they got rid of the blue hair for the show. It would have been difficult to take him seriously.

Getting really pumped up for tomorrow's game! Yellow Sub and Silverdale have had some cracking matches in the past, this one is set to be a classic! Could go either way to be honest.

I can attempt to do something next week. I've been playing some good games recently that I wouldn't mind blabbering about.

I scooped up all the Star League prizes, I almost feel guilty about it. Kippen is going to be a tough match. I think Charlie's got a decent record against me so I need to be careful and not mess up my tactics. At this stage though, anyone can be anyone.

Is one of them The Fat Pug in Leamington? Been in it a few times, really nice pub. A few of my work mates did this around Christmas time, they all said it really fun. Potential activity for the N-E meet?

Anyone up for a friendly on Friday? @Dedede @DuD @Nikos9?

I've been working on a project at JLR for the last 10 months (started out in Gaydon and have now moved to Coventry). I get what you're saying - I work in a small project room with 5 other people and the atmosphere is great. Step outside into the main office space and everywhere is very quiet. I'd say that it's not necessarily atypical of a massive company to be like that, especially when they're thousands of office workers working on one site. Smaller offices generally have better atmospheres... if the people you're working with aren't horrible people. Having said that, JLR is a great company to work for. Lots of perks, very decent job security for the private sector, and the company are in a very strong position and growing each year. I wouldn't mind getting a job there so I can get a company Jag!

Late to the party, but I would be interested in partaking in the odd episode. I definitely wouldn't be able to commit every week, but I could fill in your fourth spot if I'm available.