Fierce_LiNk

I thought it would make sense this time around to un-date this thread, so that we could just have a continuation year-on-year. I'm quite conscious that I didn't get as much exercise done last year as I had hoped, usually due to work. I'm trying to make a deal this time around to leave work sooner so that I can come home and get my exercise done and out of the way. I'm also looking to re-join a squash club, partly for the cardio, but also because it was quite fun and I miss playing it. Already got my third workout in of the new year, but my legs took a hammering the day before yesterday and are still quite sore now. I don't think I worked out legs for about 3 weeks, so I was anticipating this. It's a nice feeling to get back into it!

I thought it would be quite cool to check out each other's music gear and also maybe talk about ways to improve, our musical history and that sort of stuff! I've been interested in playing music for a very long time, since I was around 5 or so. My mum bought be a cheap acoustic guitar that I took to pre-school and entertained the other kids there. I didn't know how to play at that time, so I think I must have just strummed the shit out of it and wailed like a banshee. When all of my mates were starting to pick up their guitars and stuff, I suddenly thought that maybe it would be interesting to do something different. I was a huuuuuge Oasis fan growing up and seeing the "Don't Look Back In Anger" video with Alan White playing his white Pearl set on a platform in the outdoor swimming pool, it just looked like the coolest thing in the world. I was convinced that I needed to get a drum kit, so I bought one from the local music shop for about £200. Can't remember how old I was exactly at this time, maybe 14? It was their own brand, really bottom of the line and was a basic 5 piece set that didn't even come with a crash, so I had to buy that separately. I've still got the kit, back in Wales. I taught myself how to play after downloading lots of videos featuring Dave Weckl and Jeff Porcaro (Toto). Both are still two of my favourite drummers to this day. Dave Weckl blew my mind and I still consider him one of the top all time drummers in the world, his co-ordination and use of rolls is great. I took my kit with me to Brighton for my second year, but it moved back to Wales once that year was over. I've been kit-less since then...until a few months ago. As we live in a fairly residential area, I thought that an electronic drumset would be my best bet. I scoured the net for hours and hours trying to find the perfect one for me. I watched tons of YouTube reviews and came across a set that I absolutely loved. The Roland TD-30KV. Unfortunately, I got there too late as it was a discontinued line! But, they did have the next model up, the Roland TD-50K. So, I bought it and now I have a drum kit again after about...10 years plus of not having one. It's amazing how natural it feels to get back into it. I absolutely love this kit and it's pretty much one of the best kits on the planet. Love the hell out of it. The kit currently lives in my garage, with all of the home gym stuff. We originally had it upstairs, but the problem was that the sound of the pedal hitting the bass drum made too much noise due to the vibrations going through the floorboards. So, by moving it downstairs, it's made things a lot easier. The only downside is that it gets very warm in there! After I picked up my first drum kit (the one currently in Wales), I saw a free-ad in a newspaper about a cheap bass guitar. I figured "none of my friends can play bass, so I want to learn!" and bought it. It was being sold in Cwmbran, which is the next town over from Newport. Only cost £40. It's pretty bottom of the line, too. The brand is "Marlin" which is as much as the owner knew about it. He even chucked in a cheap bass amp to go with it for free. About a year ago, the guitar jack came loose and retreated into the bass guitar itself. So, I've done some "surgery" to retreat it to get it working. I've kept the actual cable in the jack since and leave it hung up that way, so that I haven't got to open that area up again to reclaim the jack. I find it really fun to play, but I think the time is coming quite soon where I may need to replace it for something a bit newer as my go-to Bass! Next to it, I've got an acoustic guitar that actually belonged to someone else. They knew that I wanted to learn so they gifted me the guitar and I've had it ever since! I've taken that guitar with me everywhere. It came from Newport, then went with me to Brighton, then back to Newport and now in Bournemouth. Same with the Bass! About three or so years ago, I decided that I wanted to learn electric guitar and just woke up one Saturday and scoured the web for one that took my eye. I knew that I couldn't spend tooooo much money on it otherwise @Eenuh wouldn't be pleased. In the end, I settled on an Epiphone Les Paul, which only cost around £300 or something. It's a lovely guitar to play for the price range that it's in. I thought that it would give me a bit more range to play rather than just acoustic stuff all the time, plus I wanted to get into the habit of messing around with distortion pedals and all that, so I figured it would be worth it. All three guitars have been wall mounted to save space: They all live in the second bedroom that we have dubbed "the music room". It's about 50% music and 50% belonging to the cats, who come in here to sleep either on the sofa or on their cat bed. Originally, the drum kit was in this room, but the sound caused an issue due to the vibrations going through the floorboards. So, as a result, it had to go in the gym. It's opened the room out though and has made it feel a bit less "full" in there. That kit takes up a fair bit of space. The sofa bed came from Ikea and cost just under £200 IIRC. Really comfy and one of our cats (Aya) loves to sleep on it during the night (or the day time...laaaaaaazy). Ico (other cat) loves to sleep on that biiiig white pillow on the floor. All the other stuff in the photograph are two automatic cat feeders and a water tray (on the left) and some cat toys in the middle of the picture. At my place of work, a friend was decluttering her place and decided that she no longer needed a keyboard. She asked me if I wanted it for free, to which I just said, "...uh, sure." I had no real desire to learn that instrument since it never appeared to me. But, it's there now, so I'm going to learn! It's a bottom of the line Yamaha PSR-73.I started learning how to play in our old flat and quite enjoyed it. But, it wasn't really comfortable due to having to play it on the dining room table and without a proper seat. So, I bought a proper stand and seat for it and that seems to be working out better. At some point, I'll get serious about it and will put the hours in, but it's just finding the time really. I've also got some effects pedals for the guitars: The big one at the bottom is a Boss ME-50B bass effects pedal. Has synth, tone, delay functions and I really enjoy it. I use the delay functions a fair bit. The second biggest one is a Morley Wah Pedal. Orange one is a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal. Red is a Boss Loop Station. The ME-50B and the Morley were bought off one of my friend's ex-boyfriends, just before they broke up. He no longer needed it, so I bought it off him. I really like the ME, although I haven't used the Morley as much yet. The DS-1 is great. Not sure Ine is a particularly big fan of it, though. Think she prefers cleaner sounds. The Loop Station is really fun but getting the timings 100% right takes a fair bit of practice. With work, it can be hard to find the time to just chill out and play. I'm hoping that this year I'll be able to do more of that. I guess it's all about managing your time to fit it all in!

Hello and welcome to all! New season starts tonight and the transfer window remains open...which United bluddy need to invest in! I've also recreated The Great N-Europe Fantasy Football League for you to join. My team is ready, which I have dubbed "The Slabhead Express". https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/29p58w Merry Footballmas.

Bit of an awkward one this year with it being held in Qatar and...quite a few reasons for maybe why it shouldn't be there. Anyone watching this? Probably the biggest shock of all time today with Saudi Arabia beating Argentina. Mouth nearly hit the floor when I checked the score in work. Can't remember a score line like that. It's utterly insane.

Gutted, Wales. England scored more goals than I think Wales made passes in that one. Get in there, Rashford! Glad to see him at his best.

I'm doing my school reports, it's been that shit.

This England/Wales match has been shit.

I can't tell if the score is slightly harsh or not. Croatia totally deserved that win and really turned it on after the poor start. Canada was more than a little naive defensively...but they were against a quality team today who were up for it. Great for Canada to get the goal and there were many positive moments for them in that match. That third goal really did it for them, it was pretty much over at that point.

Both games today have had more interesting scorelines than performances. The Japan/Costa Rica game was pretty dire, to be honest.

Morocco fully deserve this. Great all-round performance. Worked very hard for that.

Belgium are utter morons for sticking with Martinez for so long. 8 years! They've wasted such a great generation of players on a crap manager and have nothing to show for it. Needs to be ditched after this tournament, 100%.

It does feel a bit too familiar, for all the wrong reasons. Wouldn't be surprised if the USA nick this late on.

Had a pretty shit day at work and the Wales score directly in the middle of it didn't help. This England game is pretty bleh, too.

I quite enjoy Twitter, tbh. If you follow a range of accounts, you get a huge variety of stuff and I quite like dipping in and out. I don't live my life on there and see it as more of a casual browsing thing, but it's pretty good at being able to obtain information that you wouldn't always be able to find, or certain issues get highlighted there that are quite an interesting read. It's not a bad thing every now and again to see what exactly is going on in the world, and there are a lot of things that often go unreported or don't get the media attention they deserve. At the same time, Musk really, really fucks me off, and I hope he crashes and burns with this. He's a tyrant.

Love a late winner! We were shite for most of that, but...'JANDROOOOOO! What a player. Our most exciting forward, to be honest.

That's really sad to hear, and I'm sorry for that. It's a shame that this is actually a lot more common than we think amongst people of that age bracket. Their bodies have broken down, their memory isn't what it used to be, and they've been through heartache with losing their loved ones. My mum has got a form of Parkinson's and we lost our dad 8 years ago. She's deteriorated so much in the last 5 years or so and is just feeling miserable. Old age seems very cruel at times.

It'll be interesting to see just how long they're willing to give Potter in that job. Chelsea are notorious for moving on managers when things don't go well, but Potter will need quite a lot of time before his ideas can begin to turn into results. He's a manager who has got clear ideas of how he wants his team to play football, so naturally you'd assume that Chelsea would want to give him that time that is needed. I can't help but think though that it's a match that doesn't work for either party. He was on to a really, really good thing with Brighton and I feel that a club such as Spurs or Arsenal would've been more suited to him and what he wants to do. At the same time, he's not going to bring the instant results Chelsea want either, so it doesn't really work for them, too.

Well deserved and well played. We were shite. Must have been hitting up the clubs late last night.

We're getting twatted by Villa after 10 minutes. Eeesh.

I'm watching the titans of Leicester City play against the Crystal 'The Crushers' Palace right now. Mainly because...it's on. There's men kicking a ball somewhere, and I have access to it, so I'm watching it. It's like somebody took out all of the joy out of football and televised it. Can't remember a single interesting thing happening all game. When it's a neutral game involving two teams that nobody cares about, the least they could do is make some goals! Boring bastards.

Be positive, Bawwwwb! There's a good chang that this will be great.

Arsenal starting very well against Liverpool. This is another one of those fixtures that always seems to deliver.

Sooner or later Liverpool will step it up a gear and it'll all click. I think. Maybe. I do wonder if that players are thinking the same. We're going through something similar. Some days, I wish we could just turn up and have the 3 points, a 3-course-meal, and an Amazon gift-card. All these bluddy teams expecting us to play football. Bastards!

I'm looking forward to this. I'm ready. It all hinges on the writing and performances of the two leading actors. It's also a little difficult when you've already got god-tier source material, and I'd hate for this to be constantly compared to the that. It should be its own thing.