hostilities break out in the middle east.

indians: yeah, let's bet on ice cream!

i’ve fallen in love with lichess’ “newsprint” chess board and pieces style. i can’t see myself using anything else ever!

this week, in "jokes only indian learners of french can understand":

q. what did the patriotic indian tell the frenchman to convey that he possesses a long-handled tool to cut weeds?

a. J'ai Ho!

there is only one statement to which i opine that absolutes (adverbs such as ALWAYS and FOREVER and NEVER) can be applied and that's this:

absolutes should NEVER be applied to ANY statement.

i’ve always pronounced the first two syllables of the word, “parabola”, in the same way that one would for parachute, paradox, and paragraph.

now i see that it is not only pronounced differently, but predates all those other words.

ergo we should start saying perrachute, perradox, and perragraph.

“property now becomes the most easily recognisable evidence of (…) success as distinguished from heroic or signal achievement”

thorstein veblen, “the theory of the leisure class”, 1899.

how have i never heard of this man before?!

the fpl app doesn’t show own goals now?

i've been playing FPL since 2012 and 160k is the best GWR i have ever achieved (even with the vastly reduced playing population in those times)!

i consciously decided to stick with Igor Thiago, Rice, and Van de Ven. Ekitike not playing so bringing Bruno G off the bench was a nice bonus!

declan rice’s knee was injured so he must have thought that the best thing would gave been to get a brace.

#BOUARS #afc

wow! west ham were woeful, while wolves won!

#WHUWOL

overall: one would love to see a fresh gyokeres as an impact sub after the opponent’s CBs are tired.

and there is a case for a 4-4-1-1 formation with gyokeres, havertz leading odegaard and zubinendi.

… villa’s goal, trusting VG to jostle for the ball.

2. VG impact: his harrying emi martinez allowed a lot of turnovers from villa’s goal kicks.

3. madueke is not someone you want on the pitch when you want to control the game. he’s someone who can bring chaos, not calmness.

(👇)

i just managed to catch up with the full replay of the arsenal v aston villa match (thanks, hotstar, for carrying that!) and some things really leapt off the screen at me.

1. gyokeres impact: a lot of arsenal players were willing to hook the ball over their shoulders with their backs to… (👇)

free hit activated.

aside: the good folks over at FPL should consider a one-time chip-mashing chip for the future.

imagine a scenario where one could play FH, TC, BB all together in one GW. now THAT would truly set the cat amongst the ranking pigeons!

#fpl #MUNWOL #SUNMCI #BURNEW #CHEBOU #LIVLEE

“If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending.”

Narrator, “The Handmaid’s Tale”

wow. the entire country of india is blocked by this website!

i didn't know installing pvc strip curtains was a matter of such grave international security!

with this season's FPL double-sets of chips and five free AFCON transfers, one could ostensibly engineer a situation where one could use EIGHTY different players in their squad between GW15 and GW21 without incurring any transfer penalties.

see table for details.

i was unaware that this gw's fpl transfer and pick-team window closed early, so i didn't get to tinker.

but, so far, i'd say i lucked out with Lammens (9) and Dalot (12) held over from last week! 21 points from two players isn't too shabby, eh?

😅

YouTube Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

just went down nostalgia lane in watching 1980’s Hum Paanch: a movie about atrocities in rural india.

youtu.be/nN1Xd6wehzg

what’s really frightening, though, is how *all* the unspeakably horrendous inciting events of the film still happen today, 45 years later, in india on a daily basis!

it’s been a bit of a trudge, but 1000 fpl points are finally here!

somebody needs to take donald trump aside and explain to him that the mercator projection distorts the size of greenland and that it's not really as big as all of africa.

yep. see the older post that’s linked above. of course, it’s no major soothsaying feat!

one feels bad for isak and liverpool and all, but it’s hardly surprising what happened, is it?

i called it three months ago! ☝️

see, firefox, people who want ai in their browsing experience have already moved on to edge or chrome or perpleshitty.

those that dont want ai have stayed with firefox. by shoehorning ai where it’s not wanted, you lose them and dont gain any new users from the other browsers.

no ai, please.

if chelsea played less WWE and more football, the rest of the premier league will be in real trouble!

they’ve collected more cards than a blackjack shoe by now.

#cfc

the chinese government has decided to impose a 13% tax on contraceptives.

yes, that's what a cash-strapped population with slim pickings in employment needs: an incentive to embirth more mouths to feed.

heck, 13% more for contraceptives may actually still be the economical choice!

i’m just now realising that the five free afcon #fpl transfers are not only to cover players leaving for the afcon, but also to allow reintegrating those players back in your squad without transfer penalties once they return.

i have been somewhat profligate in using three of them already 😐.

folks in kolkata wanted to conduct a messi tour but ended up instead executing perhaps the messiest of messy tours.

they need to be more careful with autocorrect, eh?

this one stony crossword clue made me chuckle today:

A German repeatedly imprisoning a good person, a brainbox! (8)

my framework for playing the "assistant manager" chip from last season's #fpl may have no utility any more, but at least i can say with confidence that--were the chip playable--i would have chosen amorim in gw19 ( #MUNWOL, #LEEMUN, #BURMUN ).