Fierce_LiNk

Say goodbye to your money.

The waiting around is boring as fuck. There's no better feeling when it finally goes through and you know it's yours. Although, saying that, @Eenuh and I were both massively underwhelmed when we had to wait around for hours on the day to get our keys off the silly previous owners. When we eventually got into the house, the whole place smelled of old dog. The carpets were crap and there was just a bad odour all over the place. Have to admit, we did feel a tinge of regret for those first few moments. It won't feel like it's your place until you start gutting it. When we got rid of the shitty carpets, sorted out some electrical problems and started papering/painting the walls, that's when it started to feel like home. Be prepared.

Looking forward to the England/Netherlands game tonight. It's going to be close. Tempted to say a 1-1 draw before extra-time.

I understand what you're saying and agree with a lot of your points. I imagine that a lot of people would have been offended when homosexuality was decriminalised, or when women obtained the vote because it challenged the social norms of those times. There are still people actively against homosexuality now (think there was a BBC report the other day about a violent attack on two homosexuals? might be wrong) and we've become a (supposedly) more tolerant society since then. The advent of social media means people are just more able to view their thoughts and feelings whenever they want and however they want. That goes for all sides, including those who are "offended" and those who are actively "doing the offending". I don't necessarily think having a stiff upper lip and showing no emotion is the right answer either. The cop-out answer is that you need something in the middle. So, challenging injustices when they appear, yet also finding the right way to engage in discussions appropriately and respectfully. I definitely think that it can be achieved and we can learn to discuss our differences, yet respect them and move on from that. Maybe it's that human nature element of not letting arguments go or knowing when it's time to move on? With regards to YouTube, I saw this years ago and it's still as relevant as ever: I still feel that we're not quite there yet with solving that issues. It's interesting because I'm part of the generation that grew up with forums, MSN, and so on and am seeing how Facebook and Twitter are now engrained into our lives. On the whole, I'd say that the standard of intellectual conversation has improved, but it's still not quite there. Think we both agree there.

Just throwing this out there...if there is a perceived injustice, why shouldn't people be challenging it? There is no "false dignity" in just gritting your teeth and ignoring things because then nothing really changes. Surely that's where improvements have come from in terms of better rights for homosexuals, better workplace rights for women and more opportunities to succeed regardless of your background? I don't necessarily know whether people are generally just more impolite or if we're being exposed to these things more due to social media. I don't know where we'd begin to quantify that.

I don't even think that's possible. The whole purpose of PSNow was because it was too much hassle for Sony to rework the older games to be compatible with the PS4 hardware, hence why there have been older PS2 and PS3 games released as download titles in drips and drabs. PSNow eliminates that as you're just streaming the game for elsewhere, so it doesn't necessarily matter about the hardware that you're using.

Oh, I completely agree that racism, sexism, bullying or anything that discriminates against a person for a reason that isn't under their control is wrong and should be challenged. I'm not against that at all. It should be seen as appalling behaviour. Yeah, again, I agree with that and understand what you're saying. On the subject of 'free speech': where do we draw the line between 'free speech' and 'hate speech'? Again, I feel that some people are able to hide in plain sight by blurring this line.

You'd then have to look at buyout clauses and the "fairness" of them. Barcelona put a £200million buyout clause in his contract. Surely that's anti-football to raise a clause so high, yet complain when there's a team there willing to pay it? Of course there are going to be insane figures going around for players if the prices are so high in the first place.

I know that PSG are no better, but it's actually nice for Barcelona to be on the receiving end of a high transfer deal for a change. I just love how they're throwing hissy fits about PSG not complying with FFP when they've been doing shady and expensive dealings for years. Not so nice now, is it? Having a huge calibre figure like Neymar in Ligue 1 might see the quality of that league increase, if the other teams start attracting more talented players. Out of the other big European leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A), the French league is the weakest by far.

They could justify the increase by doing what they did with Rocket League, which was to release it on PS+ for free on release. That was an awesome deal for us and the game turned out to be a hit. I got dozens of hours out of that game, if not hundreds. So, releasing the higher quality indie games on there at release. Increasing the quality of the PS4 releases would help. We've just got Until Dawn and we will be having Just Cause 3, so that's both a step in the right direction. Personally, I'd be in favour of integrating PSNow with PS+ and would count that as a huge bonus for me. I know I'm one of the lucky ones where there are tons of games that I haven't played on Now and my connection is good enough to do so.

Neymar set to leave in £198m deal. Brace yourselves, everyone. This will change things.

All Cows Eat Grass Good Boys Do Fine Always I'll reply to this properly later on @drahkon, as this is something I want to do better at, too.

N64 games were mostly bought for birthdays or second hand, without a box. I remember buying WWF No Mercy second hand for about £30+ quite a while after release. We've got it much better now in that department. Still, I can see why people are aggrieved by it. It is more money when it comes down to it. Obviously, not as much as the British Gas hike announced today, but it's still money. I hope that the money does get used wisely or we get better games for PS+, etc.

I thought it was just me getting pissed off with all of these Bastion players. @Eenuh would be proud of that, Shorty. She's a huge fan of D.va.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Again, it's about context. There's definitely a limit with people that you're never explicitly taught (unless it goes wrong and they correct you) and there are certain things that go beyond that limit. E.g. would you tell a dead baby joke to someone who has just had a miscarriage, for example? Again, that's the context there and that's where it can cause offence. Some people are just outright horrible and will use veiled jokes or sarcasm to hurt people, but it's fine because it's "just a joke" or "banter".

Not tempted to go garage gym, or is that not possible?

We've just started season 3.

I can see both sides of this. Do I get offended? Well, yes, and I have been in the past. But, the word "offended" has lost a lot of its meaning and power and is now thrown about far too often and lightly. It's almost the same with the term "bully". That's a horrible word and it's meant to have a very bad and negative meaning. But, by using it often and incorrectly, it loses its meaning. I have a big problem with people who get offended "for you". As in, if someone was to come up to my face and call me a "stupid paki bastard" (which I have been called in the past), that's directed at me and I should feel bad. When someone else gets more upset than you do about it, it's as if you can't even "own" the emotion. They're getting angry or upset for you. Over the years, I've found that I've known more white people to get offended over racist or xenophobic behaviour and such than I've known actual people of different backgrounds to get offended. Part of that is that you learn to develop thicker skin, I suppose. But, the other side of it is odd to me. I can't quite explain it. At the same time, the term "offended" has almost given people more of a licence to be more offensive or horrible to each other. It's like a safety blanket to hide behind when a person makes or are about to make a comment that they know is horrible, the get-out clause is something akin to "I don't care who it offends", or "she's always offended" or "it's PC gone mad!" But, this is all context based and it should always be given a context. Calling "black coffee" exactly that is fine. But, by taking offense with it, we're actually minimising the impact from some of the more serious cases. Also, nothing makes me laugh more than when people are afraid to use the word "black" or something to that effect. I fucking laugh every time I meet a new person and they try to guess where I'm from and how they tremble at using words like "Asian" or "Pakistani" or even "Welsh" occasionally! The ones who are so scared to say anything for fear of offense. Fuuuuck saaaake. I also find that strange and it makes me feel awkward immediately. Just use your brain. Think before you speak.

Just another great episode, I felt. Glued to the screen the entire time and one hour every Monday (or however long it is) really isn't enough for me.

I've watched a few games here and there and have quite enjoyed it. The pace in the games has been excellent and near enough every game has been end to end. It's quite refreshing to watch a tournament and know that neither team are just going to sit back and defend for over three quarters of the game. The Germany/Denmark game was excellent.

Great games yesterday, @Eenuh, @Sheikah, @gmac, @Emma and @Dan_Dare! I feel pretty silly for not even seeing the rail, let alone jumping over it.

My arms (especially the forearms) feel like they're about to fall off or are made of mashed potato. Weight trained today and then did some gardening using the long-handled secateurs to get rid of some of the shitty look plant-tree stuff that we have growing here, pulling up roots and all sorts.

I'm interested to see how Cities: Skylines is going to play on the PS4. It runs on @Eenuh's MacBook, but it reaaaaaaally works it hard. I want to play more of it, but she obviously needs the MacBook for work and I doubt it'll run on my laptop. There's a ton of expansion packs that got released for it that I want to play, too.

If Klopp sells him early, then there is money there for transfers. The worst case scenario would be for Klopp to sell him with a few days to go before the window closes. Personally, I'd keep him. Is there anyone else on Liverpool's radar at the moment? Salah aside, I've not seen them linked to anyone, really. They've definitely been a lot quieter than a lot of their rivals. Everton have had a busier summer. (good signings, too)

Something as simple as a character change could help with that. I tried Genji and got absolutely nowhere with him. But, now I've found my "group" of characters that I rotate between. I jump between Zenyatta (amazing character), Zarya, Soldier 76, Mercy, Orisa and then sometimes Tracer. In that order usually. If you get the chance, give it a go again. I really rate it.