williamjm

10 hours ago, ljkeane said:

Shaping up to be a decent match between New Zealand and Australia. My main takeaway though is that Dharamshala is a very scenic cricket ground. Looks like a great place to watch some cricket.

It seems to have been a day for narrow defeats at World Cups for New Zealand, although I imagine the other one will hurt more.

47 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Why did Nemesis Games win an award this year if the show wrapped up a few years ago? *confused*

The awards are for the calendar year 2022 and the episode was first shown January 2022.

On 10/21/2023 at 10:00 PM, ljkeane said:

Bah, pretty good performance from England, they were largely the better side, but the scrum cost them in that second half. 

A bit strange to think that English rugby can’t produce props who can win a scrum when they need to. Having said that O’Keefe was always giving the Springboks the penalty on that last scrum, yes they have the better scrummaging pack but that’s a very marginal call to be essentially deciding a massive game on. Bah.

England did seem like the better side overall, but it's always risky trying to win games without scoring tries. It can work, but it does mean that any lead is likely to be precarious and vulnerable to a late comeback.

33 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

(OT question: Do the show titles look boldened to you? My laptop croaked and the old one I'm using right now doesn't show bold, including sth like unread topics. Weird.)

Yes, they are bold.

It is weird that England are now the only unbeaten team left in the tournament. Normally that might suggest they were the favourites, but it does say more about the draw than the quality of the team. Even mediocre England teams tend to be difficult to beat so one upset might not be impossible but I don't see two consecutive upsets happening.

38 minutes ago, Paxter said:

Yes, they are now ranked no higher than 7th or 8th across the three formats. 

Some of it is due to mean-reversion after the golden generation retired, but some of it is also due to mismanagement akin to what we have seen in the West Indies. 

They also had to come through the qualifying tournament because they hadn't been in the top 8. Go back 20 years and tell people that Sri Lanka and West Indies would be in a qualifying tournament for the world cup while Afghanistan and Bangladesh qualified automatically and they would have thought you were crazy.

In other news, cricket is apparently going to be in the 2028 Olympics. It feels a bit unnecessary for the men's game, I'm not sure the sport really needs another global tournament and I'm generally not keen on most of the big team sports being in the Olympics. I guess it might be more beneficial for the women's game?

16 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

I’m looking for my next grimdark fix, how’s Ember Blade by Chris Wooding ? Heard good things about it. Need to decide between that and the kithamar trilogy.

I wouldn't say Ember Blade is really 'grimdark'. At the time I think Wooding said that he wanted to write something more akin to the epic fantasies of the 80s and 90s than most modern series although I think the series does have more cynicism than a lot of those did. I did enjoy it, although I don't think it's Wooding's best work.

56 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Outstanding sprint race, probably the best they've ever had, and an outstanding result for Piastri, although it's going to be annoying having that * next to his one F1 victory until he wins a "proper" race. Also Norris must be screaming in frustration at how he can be so good but it's his team-mates picking up wins.

I did wonder when Verstappen got up to second if he would be able to hunt down Piastri but he didn't make much impression on him. It was a great victory for Piastri. I think it's fair to say that starting on the soft tyres was not a good decision for anyone who tried it.

I think Ireland have just reinforced their position as favourites with that comprehensive victory.

In the earlier game Samoa will probably feel they should have beaten England because they looked like the superior team for most of the game. I'm sure Fiji will have been taking notes.

Netherlands almost threatened to cause an upset against Pakistan with a good bowling performance but they needed more than a couple of their batsmen to contribute in the run chase.

4 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

I found book 3 much easier to follow than book 2. I'm still certain I missed all sorts of stuff but the too-palpable feelings of absolute confusion and consternation from book 2 were gone.

I think Nona is a lot easier to read than Harrow, although there's still plenty of weird inexplicable stuff going on. I did enjoy it more as well, although Harrow does have some great scenes in it (the dinner party is very memorable).

That was a very comprehensive victory for New Zealand and I'm sure they took particular satisfaction from it being England that were their opponents. It always looked likely to be an under-par total but Conway and Ravindra looked like they could have chased down a much larger one.

New Zealand always seem to be able to lift themselves when it comes to a tournament.

2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

I was going to start a new thread but England's performance somewhat drained my enthusiasm.

Just in general there seems to be a pretty low level of hype for this tournament. In England it feels bit anticlimactic coming only a couple of months after the end of the Ashes (with the intervening period filled with the Hundred which I actively avoid) but I don't get the impression that there's a lot of enthusiasm for it elsewhere either. I suppose that win might up the hype levels for fans in New Zealand who were probably a bit concerned it was a tournament too far for a number of their players coming in

I think it doesn't help that it's such a long tournament with an interminable group stage.

Clashing with the rugby world cup is also likely to distract some attention.

5 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Resurrecting...heh...this thread as I have finally begun a journey reading the second book...and it's kinda bonkers. Am I going to feel lost the entire time I'm reading...? 

For a large portion it is a very confusing book to read. I think it does start to make some sort of sense towards the final section (at least by the standards of the series).

We are now somehow 3/4 of the way through the year. I'm not sure how that happened.

I finished Ann Leckie's Translation State. It's loosely connected to her Ancillary trilogy but mostly focusing on new characters. In the previous trilogy the Translators, humans bred to be able to be intermediaries between the largely incomprehensible alien Presger and humanity (and other alien races), had played a significant role in some parts of the story but we did not learn much about them. The two main plot threads here both involve Translators, one focusing on a juvenile intimidated by the thought of following the path its elders have laid out for it and another focusing on a seemingly hopeless search to track down a Translator who went AWOL decades previously. The portrayal of how the Translators grow up is memorably unusual. This is a book in which there are potentially huge events happening in the background but most of the focus is on the characters and their efforts to try and live their lives they way they want (if they can figure out what it is they want). Overall, the plot is perhaps a bit less compelling than in Ancillary Justice and occasionally seems to rely on some pretty huge coincidences but the characters are engaging and it does come to a satisfying ending.

I have now started Neil Gaiman's Death : The High Cost of Living.

Scotland's big win over Tonga keeps alive their chances, but they are going to have play better if they want to upset Ireland in the final group match. There were still too many malfunctioning lineouts and while they did score 7 tries it felt like they missed a few more opportunities they should have taken.

I do feel a bit sorry for Tonga having been drawn in a group with the teams ranked 1, 2 and 5 in the world. They must be looking enviously at Fiji's draw.

It was a great victory for Wales. Out of the three big teams to change their coach in the year before the World Cup it seems to be working best for them, although given Gatland's long history with coaching Wales it was a fairly safe choice. Australia must be embarrassed by what happened.

The Stade de France definitely sounded like it was in Dublin.

27 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

The lack of a reliable goal kicker has really cost them though.

It's not going to matter for South Africa in most games but in tight matches like this it can be decisive.

5 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

I'm suggesting using the setting there and going the next step...Kay has jumped around timestamps before, but the setting of LLotS is ripe to take the next step...

Or maybe he could take inspiration from the Scandinavian part of LLotS and do his take on the Icelandic sagas. That might suit his recent fondness for doing lots of side stories.

Nature documentaries: David Attenborough.

I watched Equalizer 3. Compared to the second film I think this went back to a more natural plot for the franchise with McCall trying to help protect people from a criminal gang. I liked the Italian setting, even if it is determined to leave no cliche unused in its portrayal of the Camora villains. There's nothing particularly original here but it is well executed for the sort of film that it is and Denzel's performance lifts it above most similar films.

I also watched Black Adam, the trailers for it hadn't tempted me to watch it at the cinema when it was out last year but now I can watch it for free I gave it a try. It does at least have a coherent plot and the effects don't look terrible, which puts it above half of the other DC films, but I think it's hard to give it any more than faint praise. It does give a better reason for the (anti-)heroes to be fighting each other in it and does acknowledge that a bunch of Americans showing up in the Middle East declaring that they will restore peace and will fight anyone who gets in their way is problematic. However, the plot is lumbered with a lot of clunky exposition and the characterisation is shallow, particularly for the Justice Society. I think Pierce Brosnan is the highlight and he does at least seem to be enjoying himself.

7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I still don't understand a lot of the rules

I'm not sure anyone really does.

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I'm surprised the various Rugby leagues don't try harder to expand their fanbase here. They just need to market it as old school American football and unlike our game which lasts three hours with only ten or so minutes of game play, Rugby never stops.

The US failing to qualify for this year's tournament can't help, they usually at least manage to do that even if they don't win many matches when they get there.

Could we finally end up having a winner this year who isn't driving a Red Bull? Is that even allowed?

I think one of the more surprising things is having both Red Bulls out-qualified by an Alpha Tauri driven by someone in their third race. Liam Lawson must be making a good argument for a permanent race seat next year.

Houdini? How many other escape artists could we name almost 100 years after their death.

3 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Is it odd that people are only now realising Brand was an arsehole when he’s started spouting off constant conspiracy nonsense. I would have thought it was always obvious. 

I know some people who were big fans of his (presumably not any more), and I always found that a bit puzzling because there always seemed something very creepy about him.

7 minutes ago, HexMachina said:

Give us our cut or we'll reveal you're secretly a Starmer supporter

Are you suggesting that the unidentified sitting MP who is going to be at the meeting could be Starmer?

57 minutes ago, HexMachina said:

Thinking I will watch Wandavision (yep, I'm that far behind on Disney+ content). I'm not interested in jumping deep into the marvel stuff but I recall how well received it was and it sounds like my kind of show.

Also going to try OMITB which I know has received a lot of praise around the forum.

Which of the Star Wars shows, if any, would you all suggest? I'm aware that they've been a bit of a mixed bag.

Out of the Marvel shows I think Wandavision, Loki and Moon Knight were my favourites.

I really enjoy Only Murders in the Building as well.

Andor I think is the best thing Star Wars has done since probably Empire Strikes Back. The Mandalorian is good fun, although I think the first season is the best.