Spoonie

Got the new book last night downloaded to my kindle. Have ready about 15/20% of it so far and it's shaping up well. I still find his writing less enjoyable when he's writing about American rather than Edinburgh, but Franco has arrived home so it's bound to get spicy now!

Last few weeks have slowed down for me too, with reading the hefty Collected Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 but I've sidelined that for Blood, Sweat and Chalk about the evolution of specific American Football formations and plays and it's excellent

I always wanted a Bass VI when I was playing! Where did you get it?

Someone has to expose a concealed handgun in the waistband of their trousers after gradual escalation of the issues. This is followed by the protagonist holding up his oversized t-shirt, exposing tattoo'd abs and the grip of a 9mm pistol whilst looking in the direction of the antagonist and flicking his head backwards, jutting out his chin, asking if the antagonist wants some of what the protagonist is offering. The antagonist should, reluctantly, with the advise of his colleagues, back off from the situation whilst making some vague statements that indicate that the protagonist will meet his demise as a result of his bravado. Shortly after this, the antagonist should regroup and seek revenge by emptying the clip of an AK47 or similar assault rifle out of the rear window of a slow-moving saloon car, driven by an associate up union street, while the protagonist flees across the cobbles of St Nicholas street, stumbling as the slugs enter his body and leave him deceased outside Marks and Spencer to the soundtrack of screeching tyres as the antagonist and his associated flee in the direction of King Street.

Aye, I was thinking he can't have much left in the tank

Crime was a good read, definitely better than Sex Lives, but not as good as the Edinburgh-based stuff. Now reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 and dipping into more non-fiction stuff along the way too

My bread is emo.

Is that still thingy Wood (Ian's son) and Nicola Jolly's company?

Free agency madness going on just now - Giants picking up a few dudes (including a DE from Miami at significant cost) so hopefully they pan out

Bit of a mix for the last few. 1: William McIlvanney - Docherty 2: William McIlvanney - The Kiln 3: Willy Russell - The Wrong Boy 4: Simon Sinek - Start With Why 5: Chris Fore - Building Championship Caliber Football Programmes 6: George Samuel Clason - The Richest Man in Babylon 7: William Golding - Lord of the Flies 8: James Vint - Installing Explosive RPO Concepts Into Any Offense 9: John B. Arden - Improving your memory for dummies 10: Ryan Holiday - The Obstacle is the Way

Didn't persist with Woolf but I will go back to it - instead I read The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday which was superb. Now on Crime by Irvine Welsh which was one I'd missed along the way. About 1/3 of the way through and it's pretty standard fare for Welsh but good with it.

I joined this forum thirteen and a half years ago and was a member of the old Bravenet boards for years before that. A lot of posts, not adding a lot of value to the world.

I really enjoyed A Decent Ride - Terry Lawson is a great character!

Student Loans company is a shambles. That whole thing of 'HRMC will take money every month from your wages and put it in a box and then at the end of the tax year they will give the box to us and then if the amount in the box is more than the amount that you owe us, we will give you some back' is so much shit. Why can't the amount be taken monthly by HMRC, then on the 31st of the month, all of that months takings are given to SLC and you can log on and see a real-time update of what you owe? then if, for example, the amount that you owe is less than the average of the last three months payments, a signal is sent to HMRC to say "just take £73 this month and that's the loan repaid"? Why does it just sit there all year, allowing someone else to earn interest on it/invest it, rather than reducing the capital of your loan? I didn't even get a letter sent out to say that I'd cleared the last of the loan! I'm fully expecting a huge bill when I'm in my 70s for the £1 or whatever I had left, compounded over time!

My avatar is a gif that I must have made 17 years ago! When rock was young.

Irvine Welsh is releasing a new book in April about Begbie, everyone's favourite stabby guy and he and Robert Carlyle, who of course payed Begbie in Trainspotting and is reprising the character for the follow up will be hosting a chat about the book and character at the usher Hall, Edinburgh on Sunday 10 April.Tickets are £12 and go on sale tomorrow: https://tickets.usherhall.co.uk/en-GB/shows/irvine%20welsh%20and%20robert%20carlyle/info

Well it's hardly in rude health, is it?

How has Deadpool become such a big deal? This was not a mainstream super hero as far as they go, so how has there been so much hype and anticipation?

I've downloaded a load of Jane Austen, Bronte sisters, etc too - it definitely takes a different approach to my usual 'get the gist of it and smash through the pages' approach to reading!

Yeah, a lovely venue physically - we played in there years ago in a battle of the bands type thing. I think Mercedes, or maybe they were Lady Mercedes won it, with a cover of a Stones song, despite the strict 'no covers' policy. So for that reason, I'm glad the place is struggling and I hop it burns to the ground.

Lord of the Flies was pretty good. things escalated pretty fast on that wee island! Decided to read my first Virginia Woolf next, and I opted for To The Lighthouse

Started this year on more of a fiction vein than usual 1: William McIlvanney - Docherty 2: William McIlvanney - The Kiln 3: Willy Russell - The Wrong Boy 4: Simon Sinek - Start With Why 5: Chris Fore - Building Championship Caliber Football Programmes 6: George Samuel Clason - The Richest Man in Babylon 7: William Golding - Lord of the Flies

Good on them! Hope he does well! There's a lot to be said for experience in managing different types of personalities and being able to juggle that in the changing room but I think someone young who can relate better to the players and bring some energy and enthusiasm is a great idea. Too many of the managerial moves, especially in England are just the same old faces shuffling about.

When he was at A&M he was absolutely awesome and I remember thinking I couldn't wait to see him in the NFL because he seemed blessed more than anything with a will and ability to find ways to win. Since being drafted (even after slipping down which is enough to humble a lot of people) he's stumbled from incident to incident and now he looks like someone who they will make a 30 for 30 about in a handful of years time, for throwing away chance after chance and wasting his potential. I think he will move to another team, last a couple of years with similar results to those we've had so far in terms of off-field stuff and then fade into the background and never be heard of again. And probably end up in an early grave.

Shelved the non-fiction in favour of something lighter so I have opted for Lord of the Flies by William Golding which I'd never read. The closest I'd got was the Simpsons episode...