Hobsons Choice

Yes Ezri!

What does everyone think about the 'Official' Villa Podcast? Thought the first episode was decent. MacInally adds some gravitas. Onana seems super calm and confident. I'd love him as a team mate.

I guess the Konsa situation depends partly on the progress of Carlos. Otherwise we're probably looking at Bogarde at CB and Kosta at RB. That is a worry in this league, although I'm certain that both will make great strides over the course of this season. Mad to think that (excluding Hause who has not made a competitive appearance since Sept 2022) we have 5 registered centre backs at the club, 3 are injured, and our current number two has only played 68 minutes in the Premier League at right back.

3 games into the season. Yeesh.

Sorry to be all vague on you here, but my comment on the third kit can be boiled down to: 'I quite like it'. That said I bought the away last time (the patterned white looked classy imo), and I'd definitely go home this time.

I've been keeping an eye on the polls, and I don't think she should do that. Harris gets a bump every time she says something reasonable on TV. It reminds people of how much of a lunatic Trump is. Whenever there is radio silence Trump's numbers go up. People forget he's mental and project their own less batshit version of conservatism onto him.

Trump's ego is massive, all the Dems need to do is call him chicken in public a few times and he'll do another debate. He's cant resist. He's like Marty McFly. (Actually it pains me to compare Trump to Marty McFly, as I really like Marty McFly).

Looks like someone testing their printer. I think it actually damaged my computer screen by looking it up.

First goal is big in this one. If they get it, they will have their tails up and it could be a struggle. If we score first I think the crowd might turn and I think we'll win comfortably.

Jumping on the bandwagon a bit here after the fact, but how good is Kaos? I know the source material is good, but I love how they play with it. It starts off OK, and then each episode gets better.

Red Dwarf was my favourite growing up, and these days I tend to just pretend Series 6 was the final series. Similar with Futurama, the writing for the first 4 series is soooooo good. I kind of pretend everything afterward doesn't exist. I saw a recent episode recently with my son and it was rubbish.

It's fair to point out that Pierrepoint himself later became at the very least conflicted about the role of capital punishment, if not entirely against it. He is quoted as having said that he did not think that the death penalty is in any way a deterrent, and that all of his executions 'did not prevent a single murder'. I am personally extremely against the death penalty. If being civilised is measured by how we treat prisoners, as Dostoyevsky believed, then it is the opposite of civility. And on top of that, it does not f***ing work as a deterrent. A study undertaken in America in 2004 found that the average murder rate for states with capital punishment was 5.71 per 100,000 people. For states without, it was 4.02 per 100, 000. In Canada, a study in 2008 found that 27 years after the abolition of the death penalty, murder rates had fallen by 44%. The decline in murder rate started in 1977 (1 year after abolition), and has continued to fall year on year (with the exception of 1981 which saw a slight rise) since. You can't preach to citizens about the sanctity of life, and expect them to hold this as a concept, and then institutionally take lives. It's as simple as that for me. It brutalises society. Honestly I find officially organised executions horrifying. As much so as the crimes themselves.

Under the waves looks good. I'm a sucker for interactive story, like Everyone's Gone to the Rapture, Gone Home, and Deliver us the moon. If they are good. I kinda keep thinking about the Oxenfree games. Loved those.

I'm torn on this subject, because on the one hand, i'm VTID, 35 years a villa fan etc etc. Intellectually though, I'm not dumb enough to believe that the loyalty flows in both directions. Players and managers are professionals doing a job for a (very good) living. Owners are CEOs running a business. I know that my loyalty is being exploited for profit, and that does make me on another level quite resentful. That I know I am being exploited makes no difference to how loyal I feel, so yeah, double-chump. I reconcile this (after a fashion) by telling myself that; a) even if football is just a game, doesn't matter in the scheme of things, and players/owners don't care about me or mine, how it makes me feel, and the community that surrounds it (you good people) ARE real and tangible. The connections we make collectively can make all the difference to how we get through a difficult week; and b) maybe I like football BECAUSE it doesn't matter. Because it is disposable and has no influence on the real world. The world is turning to crap all around us, and football, this loyalty to a collective (if ultimately meaningless) cause, is a means of escape. So I guess the point is- loyalty is for chumps, and I have and continue to decide to be that chump. All hail the chumps!!

Oh God that was a dull half of football.

Over.

Free kick good position.

Finland earlier on had 10 outfielders in the box. Big lads. Dixon said that Gordon needed to go out wide as he'd been drifting inside. Yeah nice one keep crossing to 10 vikings.

Thought that we had some lovely patterns against Ireland in the first half too.

Man this is a boring game. I'm watching while on an exercise bike and my heart rate is still only 58.

Yeah he's been good tbh.

Good through ball there. Was that Angel? Missed who it was and the pundits daint say.

I know I'll get stick for this but I would love to see Gordan in a Villa shirt.

Exactly. Love watching England but I don't feel like there is any jeopardy here at all.

It's not been great by either side so far, but in fairness aside from Gordon and Grealish we look like we're playing at 1% capacity. Ooh nearly for Kane.