Dr. Gonzo

I think you should still play the first one. It's one of the best games I've ever played, it's absolutely brilliant. It's not as massive as RDR2, but it's got a great story with several really really memorable missions. But like @Bluebird Hewittsaid - you don't really need to have played the first one, although they definitely make lots of nods to the first game and do a shitload of forshadowing John Marston's story in RDR1 (which I guess is to be expected because it's a prequel thats written way after the first one, which is a beloved game). They don't give Oscars to video games, but RDR1 should have been given Best Motion Picture the year it came out despite being a video game.

The amount of money they're asking for after spending almost $8 In more serious news, is this Ukraine-Russia stuff going to boil over in the way some headlines make it seem it's going to boil over?

I'll be happy when he's gone for sure, I will probably drink a few beers in celebration. But yeah you're right, I don't have much optimism about the political atmosphere in the UK (and honestly in most places around the world).

I think Boris is just a symptom of the disease of American style political rhetoric flowing into the UK. Now that we’ve had a PM like Johnson, the floodgates are opened and I think there’s no turning back. Like with the US and Trump’s political rise - the ultra-conservatives there (because I think most democrats are actually very conservative) have fully embraced Trumpism… I suspect Boris and Farage style politicians are here to stay with the Tories and we’ll probably see politicians like them for the rest of our lives. I think it’s a byproduct of the media treating partisan politics like it’s the same as supporting a football side. Tribalism and divisive politics makes them money and people like Boris tap into that.

Is LOST good? I’ve never seen it

Out of all the states in the US, Hawaii easily has the best flag too

Gotta say as a half-Persian, seeing 2 Iranian guys working to destroy Everton does warm my heart a little bit

It’ll just be a better dressed dickhead who knows how to comb his hair though. It’ll still be embarrassing that the UK’s run by the same party that’s run the country into the ground for a decade.

Flying back today - but I’ll this has probably been the best holiday I’ve ever been on. Maui is absolutely incredible. Here’s a pic of the sun rising above the clouds from the highest point on the island. And a cool shot from the coolest hike I went on the trip.

Shitloads of injuries

That’s just a teaser for the only fans

Just a week. Nothing really special planned. Gonna go to a traditional Luao (dunno if I’ve spelled that right) for our dinner plans tonight. Other than that no real firm plans other than driving the Road to Hana & going to the National Park here. Well other than I’ve got firm plans to spend time at the beach, by pools, and to do a lot of hiking. We might play golf if I can convince my wife, but I don’t think I’ll be able to… Oh and going to Mick Fleetwood’s restaurant because I’ve heard he’s there a lot so meeting a founding member of Fleetwood Mac is a possibility Cheers mate! Hope I’m assuming you’re back from your trips? Those pics looked great, hope it was as fun as the pictures made it look.

Yeah they would. Yeah that’s unfortunately very true and very common, pretty fucked up tbh. I dunno how some people can be so self-absorbed on holiday they can forget that the staff at their destination are humans too. I landed yesterday so far I’m having a good time in Maui though.

Lampard managing this totally shite squad sounds pretty entertaining tbh.

Don’t think it matters who the next manager is, at least just not yet. Dunno about that, Everton are about as abject as I remember them pre-Moyes. They’re just richer now. But Kenwright got one of the biggest clubs in the country content with losing its ambition almost entirely. I think that’s an impressively bad job.

Let’s be real: Everton’s fall from grace has fuck all to do with Leicester & happened well before Moshiri was ever involved in buying the club. Kenwright did a fantastic job lowering expectations and getting one of the big clubs in the country alright with falling behind. But Moshiri definitely has no clue what he’s doing. The decision to sack Brands now looks even more mental. They’ve spent money but they’ve obviously got no short term plan or long term plan. They’ve got a few decent players, but I think it’s a mess of a squad. I don’t think any manager clears up the mess in 4-5 months. They need a long term plan, which probably means hiring a DOF and actually listening to him.

It’s from the underpants gnome episode of South Park more than anything serious

Step 1: sell star LB Step 2: sack manager that made you sell star LB Step 3: ????? Step 4: profit Moshiri must be a Liverpool fan, because the way he’s running this club is hilarious

My only fear is that the short memories of the electorate mean it won't matter if it's harder for Tories to do a rebrand and claim they're not like the other silly cunts that have spent the last decade taking the country and running into the ground... and it'll still work and get them elected. All it takes is the media pulling another "Miliband eats sandwiches like a weirdo" or "Corbyn hates Jews" or some other bullshit and that'll dominate any future election and probably help Tories out a lot. I still don't understand how the Miliband eating like a weirdo was so effective, mind you.

By the same token this can piss off a lot of Iranians that aren't Persian, because technically if you're Iranian you're not necessarily Persian. There's Azeris, Arabs, Armenians, Balochis, Gilakis, Loris, Kurds, etc... - I think Persians make up about 60%-ish of the country. So some people don't really like it when they're called "Persian" if they're from Iran - because they view it as sort of ignoring their culture. The rise of Zoroastrianism is sort of a pushback of the Islamic Republic & their brand of nationalism as you say - because it's the "native" religion to Iran & the oldest monotheistic religion and some people view Islam as the "religion of the invaders" with the Arab conquests. I think it's more common for Persian Iranians to be into this revival of Zoroastrianism, but probably some of the other Iranic people in the country would fall into that - Azeris are Turkic people, so they came to the region after it was Islamic already and I don't think would have the same connection to Zoroastrianism - meanwhile the Arabs of Iran, similarly, would find their roots in the country most likely tied to the Arab conquest... so while they're very much Iranian... I wouldn't say they have any ties to Zorostrianism. For a lot of people, myself included, this sort of revival is more symbolic than being an actual believer of the religion. Iran's diaspora is increasingly atheist and there are more and more atheists in Iran (probably because of dissolution in living in a religious authoritarian regime and probably because religious conflict has led to a lot of bad shit happening in both Iran & the region generally). But it, and Christianity, are also some of the fastest growing religions in the country as well. But yeah, it's an absolute shame what happened to Iran.... although if the UK & US never removed their democracy in the 50s, and their puppet dictator was never ousted in 1979... I might not have ever been born. So from a selfish perspective, it's not so bad. But from a non-selfish perspective... me existing probably wasn't worth the suffering of 82m+ people

Hope you're feeling at least a bit better today @DeadLinesman - sounds like your go of having the disease is significantly more shit than mine. Hope you make a full recovery ASAP and you don't get fucked with the long covid

FSG need to pay Salah, the cheap cunts

Tbf to her, she's not someone who really believes in accountability of officials for getting caught breaking rules after the fact considering her past. So her doing this fits in with her standard of ethics. But really we should be demanding a much higher ethical standard from all of our elected officials.

No offense to Brentford, but I'd expect Spurs to be a much better side than them in any given match.

Wow, I actually can't believe there were no reported injuries. But the lads in the few rows looked in pretty good spirits after a few seconds of shock and looking like they weren't sure what the hell just had happened.