Congrats and respect to your daughter. A black belt takes years of dedication to attain and she should be proud. Osu!

I have been kick boxing for 3 years and I’m about to grade for my blue belt, I’m going to pick up some muay Thai as well soon which is very similar but adding in elbows and more clinching. I also did 3 years of karate reaching second green belt around 10 or so years ago. I stopped karate because I went travelling so couldn’t regularly visit the same gym to train.

I do it for a combination of reasons. It helps keep me fit although I do a lot of other sports / weight training that all play a role in overall cross training. It keeps me flexible which is more and more important as you get older and I like to fight. Coming into training and letting out some aggression on some pads whilst working up a good sweat is a great cathartic release from the stresses of day to day life. I also enjoy the sparring a lot, it helps hone your reflexes and I don’t mind at all getting hit to condition yourself for that possibility. I’ll hopefully be competing in some inter club / amateur fights soon which I can’t wait for. You do also have some peace of mins that should you need to defend yourself in day to day life you are able to do that.

Karate was a lot more ‘Zen’ in that the school I trained with didn’t do much sparring and was more concentrated on your technique and working through your katas. It builds up your body and technique as well as building up respect for your sensei and the other students you train with. It was a lot of fun and has given me a great basis with technique for moving onto kick boxing but I prefer kick boxing because it is a lot more aggressive. The training sessions are more intense physically and I want to spar and get hit etc, which isn’t for everyone.

Every school will be different, even if they are teaching the same style of martial art, in the way they approach things. The way they teach and way they go about things but you will always find a good supportive group of people who aren’t out to hurt you intentionally and are invested in you training well and hard and supporting you.

I wouldnt worry too much about your hearing, most things will be shouted at you and you can follow people around you if you get lost but I would recommend you give it a try if it is something you are interested in. If you go to a place where people aren’t respecting each other, their respective levels and their well being then leave and find yourself a better gym because I know they are out there. If you find a good one you can be part of a great community whilst pursuing fitness as well as a great skill.

In terms of what you should do, that is down to personal choice. Maybe try a few different ones. Obviously some concentrate on one thing or another like judo is a lot of throwing, muay Thai a lot of striking etc, so try and figure out what you want from it and maybe try some classes to see if you like it! :)

Sonic 1 on the megadrive on Christmas morning when I was 5 years old.

It took me weeks of trying over and over again to get last the first ladybird badnik

Music I DJ with I mostly play the same genre of music so I have a few playlists for stuff that is outside of my normal genre.

Then within the stuff I usually play I’ll have smart playlists for each key (using the Camelot system so 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B etc)

I have a playlist for each month that has everything I have imported for that month of the year.

Some smart playlists to filter out a specific BPM or BPM range.

Playlists containing all the releases I have from specific labels in case I want to do a label only mix.

A playlist containing all the acapellas I have (I don’t use a massive amount) so they are all in the same place to throw over the top of some other stuff if the feeling takes me.

Then I also have some playlists that I will create off the cuff throwing in selected artists that I might want to play at a particular time to capture a certain feel or vibe, then usually they stick around and I come back to them occasionally.

A preparation playlist which is a temp playlist where I’ll throw random stuff I want to play that day maybe. Like for example I might have like this months additions and marchs additions to my library so I’ll just throw both those playlists in the one preparation playlist to play from so they are all in one list.

My music is organised in alphabetical folders within each folder I have a folder for each artist where all their releases go. If I start getting a lot of stuff from one label or end up buying a label discography I’ll make a folder for that label and remove any releases that might be in the individual artists folder and place it in the label one instead.

Then I have one random folder that has a few genre specific folders inside where I collect music from artists that I might just have one or two tracks from so they don’t deserve their own artists folder.

When I actually listen to music on Spotify I don’t use playlists. I want to listen to albums in the way they were intended, front to back usually, so I’ll usually just pick what ever album I want at the time. Occasionally if I want to delve into an unknown to me genre I might search out a playlist made by someone else to explore artists I don’t know to give me an idea of what I might want to then pursue listening to further.

I love takedown, it is definitely up there with one of my favourite games of all time, paradise however was a struggle to get the motivation to finish.

I just don’t like open world games and the races all felt the same on paradise, all the takedowns felt like it was a repetition of the last and I just wasn’t enjoying it by the end.

Also crash mode… Takedown wins hands down for me.

Yeah, as I said, I use an Xbox one controller with a USB C cable. My PC has a USB C port so I just use C to C. I just wish there was a permanently wired official version of the controller that did away with the huge battery compartment on the back :)

I don’t care about colours or AA batteries, I’d rather have a cable personally, I do agree on the choice though.

Anything from the 360 onwards are my preferred controllers. A permanently wired 360 controller that does away with the massive battery compartment it my favourite but these days I use an “Xbox one” version with the USB C cable.

I’ve owned 5’s and 6’s and used 8’s and 10’s, as you say there are probably objectively “better” monitors but for some powered speakers that are of a high quality both sound and build wise I have no qualms recommending them.

I don’t know if I would consider myself an “audiophile” but I do DJ for myself and like to have a decent set of speakers.

I have owned a few pairs of KRK Rokit speakers and currently have a set of Rokit 6’s. I like them for their overall pretty neutral sound, ideally I would have a sub along with it but space is an issue for me right now so I can make do. They have a sufficient amount of bass for my small flat by themselves to be honest.

I run them through my DJ controller (Traktor S4 mk3 if you care) and have run past pairs I’ve owned through other DJ controllers and basic focusrite USB audio interfaces.

I wouldn’t say these are super high end but I find they offer a very good listening experience for not a great deal of money (I always buy second hand where I can), this set set me back around £160 if I remember correctly.

“The way the trees look dead, reminds me that there’s more to life than living”

Bayside - A Synonym of Acquiesce

Nah not shavings, it was a chocolate sponge cake with a chocolate sauce over the top

Not “fast food” but a junk food, cadburys used to do a chocolate sponge cake in a tin that was the best. Im not even a massive fan of chocolate but these things were great!

Ours are getting so out of hand that they are starting to encroach on the TV but I’m not even mad. TV looks better when viewed through a jungle anyway xD

Our outdoor plant game is much weaker though, I feed all the neighbourhood birds and the pigeons love to get into the outside plant pots and wreck out shit!

I haven’t played 1 or 2 personally but would echo what is being said here for the rest.

I played p4g first and fell in love with it. P3P is pretty similar really but with slightly less QoL things going on but I don’t find it too much of a downgrade to be honest.

Either way each one has its own story then with similarities like in spell names and the like, similar to how final fantasy is.

I enjoyed Metal Gear Ac!d games which were a sort of card game / turn based spin off in the metal gear world.

I’m currently playing Persona 3 Portable so if you are into those kind of games it is pretty great.

I think someone else mentioned it but Valkyria Chronicles is worth checking out, another turn based delight.

I do, also funny how conservative government affiliates and past if not present family members own the largest cannabis farms within the UK. It is almost as if they have other motives too…

I was reading your response knowing I definitely remember the whole “Talk to frank” campaign but couldn’t recall any of the adverts. That one I definitely remember as soon as it started though!

I think the SNAP one I mentioned was a precursor to the frank campaign and was a lot more negative leaning than this. At least this acknowledges that it isn’t all negative, still fucking pathetic that this country still won’t legally let me go and buy my fucking weed though.

I don’t know if it will help with your search but the UK equivalent (at least where I grew up) was not DARE but SNAP, which stood for Say No And Phone. It was your usual anti drugs propaganda encouraging people to snitch on others when offered drugs as well.

It wasn’t pushed super hard as I only remember a couple of intentionally disingenuous talks full of lies and scare tactics and a few “discos” that pushed the same bs. I don’t ever remember anything about it on TV and I get the impression our anti drug propaganda was a lot more half hearted than the US equivalent DARE.

This was in the late 90s and early 00s.

What do you mean by “I’m not sure about the inclusive words for French due to my convictions as a Christian”?

They currently have 75% off if that makes a difference to you but I don’t pay for it and have been having a fine time with it just watching a short advert every now and then.