james choice

a really good film. i enjoyed it quite a bit. there are a few scenes that are genuinely unsettling, but they fit the story and never felt out of place.

i'm not sure if this was the filmmakers' intention, but it left me thinking about something i haven't really seen other people mention. it wasn't the romance, the obsession, or any of the obvious themes that stuck with me. instead, it sparked a completely different set of thoughts that lingered long after the credits rolled.

puzzles and sudoku. sudoku especially draws you in like crazy, from beginner all the way to expert level. once you learn the techniques, you feel even more enlightened.

there's a serious tonal difference between the first film in the series and the sequels that came after. the first film is almost a character study, while the sequels move forward in a much more spectacle-driven way.

but that innocence, that honesty at rocky's core never gets lost. in my opinion this consistency is exactly what's kept the series standing for so long. no matter how famous the character gets, at his core he stays the same neighborhood guy, and the audience feels that. so rocky is proof of what a well-written character is capable of.

good books don't give a person answers, they just clean the mirror a little more. this book is such a mirror that at first you see yourself all cool and impressive. as the pages go on, it unscrews the bolts of your ego and tosses them out one by one. then, in the mirror, you see that strange being standing behind you, the one that's made the decisions in your place your whole life, held all the strings, and played you like a puppet on its finger. amazon link

as those in the know know, pokemon is another game that came out of japan and ended up influencing the whole world. the mechanic at the heart of pokemon is actually the same as rock, paper, scissors.

rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper, and paper wraps rock. the beauty of the system is that no option is absolutely superior. pokemon took exactly this idea and spread it across dozens of types. fire burns grass, water puts out fire, electricity zaps water, and ground completely nullifies electricity. then, once types like ghost, dark, fairy, and dragon enter the mix, you end up with a balance system that takes years to memorize.

that's why pok3mon was never just a "let me grind the strongest pokemon" game. the right matchup is often more decisive than level or stats. anyone who saw for the first time that an electric attack has no effect on a ground-type pokemon learned it the hard way.

maybe this is one of the reasons the series has lasted so long. it doesn't keep making the player ask "which is the strongest?" instead, it gets them thinking "which is the right choice against the one in front of me?"

and when you take the balance that rock, paper, scissors builds with three options and adapt it to hundreds of pokemon and dozens of types, you end up with gameplay that stays fresh even after thirty years.

the meeting held in brussels in 1927, where the einstein-bohr debates also took place. it's one of the 10 place-time pairings i'd want to be present at in all of human history.

some of the attendees: albert einstein, max planck, niels bohr, werner heisenberg, hendrik lorentz, max born, paul dirac, arthur compton, louis de broglie, erwin schrodinger, ralph fowler, marie curie. image

anyone who says that either side is going to "walk right through" the other in this match clearly doesn't understand football. i've watched every single match since the start of the world cup, and in this one the two teams' strengths are pretty evenly matched. it's hard for one team to walk right through the other or anything like that.

a match with no favorite. france is a favorite only by a hair, and even that's because of the individual talent of players like dembele, mbappe, and olise. spain has conceded only 1 goal throughout the tournament. spain's biggest weapon is the very successful zonal defense they play.

by the way, spain won 3 of the last 4 matches and 4 of the last 6 matches played between the two teams. on top of that, in the last 10 matches between them, spain came away with 7 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses. spain is a team that matches up very badly for france.

s9e7 may look at first glance like it's tackling evolution, but it's actually a badass critique of god that takes evolution as its theme. rick's primary goal throughout the episode was simply to escape from this prison. that is, until he sees that even in morty's most innocent, most harmless form, the one who by his own will refuses to join the cycle of violence and chooses a different path for himself, only ever choosing to be of use to other living things, he still incurs the wrath of god. the moment he sees this, he changes his own cycle, shifting his goal from escaping to killing. and he pulls it off, too. in this episode rick actually killed god. as for no one in the prison being innocent, that's a critique aimed at human existence itself.

the leader i find most successful at calling a spade a spade. by telling donald trump, "me and italy will never beg, being your friend has absolutely done me no good." she gave a fantastic answer to the golden-boy bootlickers too. she also deliberately showed up late to the protocol and avoided shaking hands with erdoğan. a real queen.

lupita nyong'o, one of the actors in the film, is asked in an interview what she'd want to say to homer. and she says: i'd ask, homer, you gave women almost no place at all in your book, but look, now in this film a bunch of women have screen time, what do you think?

this one sentence drove the final nail into the film's coffin, so long and farewell. the woman is out here crying that "there aren't enough female characters heeere" about a book written 3000 years ago... is she an idiot or what.

an even bigger version of the disgrace we lived through when rachel zegler shoved the snow white she played up the dog's ass is on the way. come on, nolan, you weren't the guy to sink into these kinds of embarrassments, damn it.

i love messi and argentina in general for various reasons. but the sleaziness, dishonesty, and dirtiness that's in most south american teams is very much present in this argentina team too. constant complaining, physical play, malicious moves toward the opponent, tricks to fool the referee... basically every kind of dirty trick you can think of, they've got it. come on, at least don't play like this against a team weaker than you, you pricks. the penalty situation was won thanks to a total con job too, and thankfully it didn't result in a goal, which made me glad.

in all these years of world cup history, nothing as scandalous as the cancellation of balogun's red card through political channels has ever happened. belgium was very clearly robbed of what it deserved. belgium needs to win this match and teach politics a lesson.

donald trump said:

"i saw the play, and i'm a person that loves sports ... that wasn't a foul. that wasn't even an infraction ... this referee, who is a little bit suspect if you check his past. he made a call that nobody could believe ... he's our best player, or one of our best players. and he gave him a red card. i didn't know what that meant ... yes, i asked for a review by fifa."

infantino said:

"fifa's judicial bodies are independent. they operate autonomously, apply the fifa disciplinary code, and decide cases based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts before them. their independence is essential to the credibility and integrity of football, and this must always be respected. yes, i regularly discuss matters related to the fifa world cup with the president of the united states, and on this matter, i did receive a call from president donald trump, just as i receive calls from heads of state, government officials, football stakeholders and business executives from around the world on many different issues ... whether we personally like a decision or not is irrelevant. respect for independent institutions and the rule of law is what protects the integrity of our competitions and the credibility of fifa at all times."

i read both a few times and honestly you do not need me, put them side by side and they answer each other.

trump made the call, and look how he talks. short, open, no fear. "yes i asked for a review." "he is our best player." the man who did the thing just tells you. infantino is the one who got saved from the mess, and look at him. long words, "independent", "autonomy", "rule of law". the man who benefits hides behind a dictionary. old lesson. the strong one speaks simple because he fears nothing, the one who depends on him hides because he must. so here the one who talks less is hiding more.

game theory has one rule i love, do not listen to what people say, watch what they do. words are cheap. and the action here is loud. for sixty years this rule did not bend for anybody, then the strongest man on earth makes one phone call and it bends. that is the answer, not the press release.

the reason is not even hidden. "he is our best player." not that the card was wrong, just that the guy is valuable to us. justice wears a blindfold on purpose, so she cannot see who you are or which team. trump took the blindfold off on live tv. he even called the referee "suspect". first you dirty the judge, then you delete his call. this is not modern law, this is old tribe law, the big man looks and the rule moves.

and my favorite line, "i did not know what that meant." he did not even understand the rule he broke, and it did not stop him. power does not need to understand, it only needs to want. hobbes said it centuries ago, it is authority that makes the law, not truth.

then infantino uses the words "rule of law" to defend the most lawless thing this cup has seen in sixty years. he is wearing the clothes of the thing he broke. small tip, when you must announce your independence in a statement, it is already dead.

and nothing here is free. anthropology has a simple rule, every gift is a debt. a shiny "peace prize", a good seat at the final, then the phone rings, then the favor comes. this is not friendship, it is an invoice, and infantino is paying it in public.

so, balogun can play, fine. the only thing that cannot play anymore is the idea that this was ever a fair game.

buying a house in germany is pretty much impossible, either you take out a loan and pay it off until the day you go into the ground, or you pay rent until the end of your life. on the other hand, a considerable chunk of the homes in the country sit empty. the main reasons for this are the aging population, the growing wave of migration from the countryside to the big cities, and homeowners not wanting to rent their places out. since tenants are protected by strict laws, a tenant in a property that gains value just sitting there is basically no different from a bank lien. so while finding a home in the big cities gets harder, the rural areas are turning into ghost towns, and this keeps getting more pronounced by the day. especially in the evening hours, if you pass through a neighborhood far from the city center, the empty streets under the streetlights and the homes with their lights off can even be eerie; no sound, no strays, no cars.

from cape verde's standpoint, their world cup story is like a movie script. they are taking part in the world cup for the first time, they are scoring the first world cup goals in their history, they are advancing to the knockout round for the first time, and on this journey they are coming face to face with the reigning world champions. any way you look at it, just watching them at this level is a huge deal in itself. whether they win or lose, the fight they have put up and the story they have written deserve all kinds of praise. this right here, stories exactly like this, is what makes football so special.