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Gloom turning up at SJP tomorrow.

Me, 30 seconds after his appointment:

This. Dreamless sleep. If you've ever had a general anesthetic, they inject you with propofol or whatever, and get you to count backwards from 10. You get to 7, and you're out. You wake up somewhere else, in a recovery room. You have literally no concept of the time that has passed, a whole section of your life has been erased. To me it is obvious death is the same, only this time you don't wake up. You can bang on about pseudo-scientific bullshit like energies etc. if it makes you feel better. Doesn't change the reality the neurones in your brain have stopped firing impulses and your conciousness is no more. There is zero mechanism or evidence for the existrence of a soul that outlives death. Historically it's been used as a comfort blanket to take away from the real miseries of existence and then used as a tool by churches of all denominations to control us. They have no place in the 21st century. I don't get why people think there must be some greater meaning to life either. Why does there have to be? Life is amazing as it is, just enjoy it as much as you can with the confines of your own situation - physically, menatally, and financially. There are theories in cosmolgy about the existence of a multiverse where the conditions will be exactly the same for you to exist elsewhere. I have thought a lot about this in the past but still don't know what it means. Nothing probably, I don't need that comfort blanket now either though. Do I fear death? Yes, a bit, I think we all do. No more existence. Pretty massive. But then, without getting too deep in cosmology again, if spacetime is a continuum in the way we think it is, it's like asking if I fear the time before I was born. Of course, the difference is, I fear the opportunities lost, the cessation of my relationships with friends and family, and just being sentient. That makes me sad but I have to accept it. What I really, really fear, after witnessing the passing of my sister and father, is the dying process itself. I also fear castastrophic disability more than death. Funnily enough, the line from the Pogues "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" comes to mind. "Never knew there were worse things than dying". There are many, many things worse than dying. There. Renton's views on the cheery subject of death. Let us enjoy life and let death be as good as it can be. We all die. Death makes us equal. Being dead itself is nothing to fear.

Someone hasn't taken Jimmy Corkhill's death very well.

I knew I'd seen that shirt somewhere before. Derek Acorah!

I'm not sure what heaven is but hell is an eternity spent in a small room with Gemmill as he continuously tries and fails to get the hang of Smoke on the Water.

There's absolutely zip. It's like when you go under for an operation. Unless you go to hell, in which case it's a sammynb playlist on repeat for you.

I was haunted by Kathy Lloyd as a teenager, but it wasn't the hairs on the back of my neck that stood up.

Thought about this a lot in the last few years, both cancer diagnoses made me think I was a goner. And I sat with my dad while he took his last breath. Im generally comfortable with it being like a light switch turning off and that’s it. I don’t think people are generally afraid of being dead, they are afraid of how they will die. Will it hurt etc. and worry for the people they are going to leave behind, for the last week or so while he was campos mentis my dad tried spent his time telling me where his money was and how to access it, passwords for accounts etc. so I could sort it all for my mam. It’s a strange way to spend the last few days of your life but it give him some comfort I suppose

I agree that believing there's nothing afterwards makes it hard to avoid being a grim nihilist sometimes. I try and spin it into a more positive "none of this matters so why worry?" where I can, but that's easier said than done. More than what comes after it, I wish we as a society could engage more effectively with the end of life. My mother is currently slowly - too slowly - succumbing to the prize-winning combination of Parkinson's and dementia, and (in addition to sadness about what's happening in the here and now, obviously) it makes me worry about my own eventual decline, because I don't want to end up being a burden to anyone. I'd love to think that, by then, we'll have managed to come up with responsible and non-traumatic ways of deciding when to flip our own 'off' switch that don't have massive financial or legal implications, but it seems unlikely. The two things probably aren't unconnected, though - if there weren't as many people worried about doing the right thing to get the afterlife they imagine for themselves, we'd probably have a more grown-up relationship with death in the first place.

Hopefully Gloomy's train breaks down and CiaoMan is off, out on the piss, with workmates, so counts as only half an ❌ TBD's got this. Gemmill's already had his little online cry so that makes it a ✔️✔️

so we have: BD as threadstarter ✅ Gemmill not threadstarter ✅ Renton going ✅ Gloom going ❌❌ HMHM not at work ❌ The xD (expected doom) is higher than I would like, but we could be OK 👍

i just find it odd that he has pop robson as his avatar, i mean he undoubtedly had a good career at both sunderland and west ham but he spent 9 years at newcastle chalking up 206 appearances and 82 goals which should automatically qualify him as shite. not to mention that robson being a born and bred mackem and not someone born within vomiting distance of the black garter, yet still donned the black and white for almost a decade must comfortably make him the lowest form of life known to mankind.... a forerunner to the '92ers in fact.

That pegging mug is superb 🤣 There's a lad in the office (the dipper) who keeps telling us his bird wants to peg him. So we keep leaving clothes pegs on his keyboard and monitors etc and it's really pissing him off 🤣

They’re brilliant like, trying to make out that us drawing away to PSG is shite while they’re losing at home to Championship relegation battlers. What a bunch of deluded bastards. I assume the hype for their new age busby babes has died down a bit after they’ve watched a 17 year old Miley get plaudits from everyone and put in an assured performance in a CL away game? There’s levels to this game bitches, but they already know that seeing as they’re all so upset Keith Downie doesn’t bother tweeting about them. It’s fucking hilarious how much that Keith bloke hates Newcastle, then sits and watches our CL games . Sat there complaining about how Popes save against Mbappe wasn’t as good as the BBC say, then goes and posts some nonsense about how Sunderland are bigger than NUFC, righto lad off you pop to watch more Tony Mowbray managed footy. So he’s sat and watched the whole game, watched the coverage, read opinions about it, then went onto a Sunderland forum and posted loads about it, but still whinges about how we’re all completely obsessed with them I can’t even remember who the daft bastards lost to last night.

I had a mate who was a Man Utd fan, but I killed him after he sang the oh ah cantana song once to often.

I know he's Dutch but he needs to get off that stuff.

Whoever had a curry and fecked up the onboard toilet on the train to put the whole train and line out of action, we salute you!

Aye but they're Burnley, not the behemoth on the Wear. They stroll up and down leyague one and the Championship like titans who are just going through a mini break, in between Premier seasons and the normal stinking the PL out act will resume in the blink of an eye.* *Stevie Wonder's eye.

I think the only afterlife is the fungus / microbes / whatever that break you down if you’re buried. You’re physically transformed into something else but your life force or whatever you want to call it ends. I don’t know but that’s what I believe. Sometimes I’m at peace with it, sometimes it really upsets me when I think about it. I just found out an old friend has breast cancer. Prognosis is good but it’s less than a year after cancer took her mother. So I’m in the upset phase

"Ah say, ah say how's the fried chicken did ya say, ah say, ah say?"

To be fair, in one of the interviews I felt I did really well in I did an impression of my ex-German gaffer so maybe that didn't help? Also the lad was probably feeling like a gooseberry as his female colleague was flirting outrageously with me. When she asked what my greatest strength was I asked the lad to leave the room so I could show her. (Some of the above is true and some of us false).

Worst example was Harry at that fancy dress party.

Herculanean trolling.

Afterlife? nope. Just like there wasn't any beforelife. I understand and respect the balm that personal faith can provide, and I'm sure there is wisdom in those texts written over a thousand years ago, but if those ancient organised religions been started today, they'd be mocked as widely as Scientology is. My wife lost both her parents to cancer when she was young(er), and I have to tread very carefully when talking about the afterlife and mediums and all that. I get that, for her, the notion that their essence, their spirit, may still persist is a comfort. She even tells our lad that Granma and Grandpa are "in the clouds". Like Mufasa. No skin off my nose, but I'll soon want him to understand that this is it. One life. Live it well and live it full. Like MF. Otherwise you'll soon be 42 and find yourself dicking about on a messageboard instead of doing something worthwhile.

Fuck me, they've put a cap on the afterlife? Worse than fucking Braverman that lot.

The Jehovahs Witnesses believe/d that only 440,000, (or 44,000 ), souls could get in to Heaven. Once their membership passed that number, they sharp changed it.

Glad you explained that! @Meenzer sorry to read about your mum (hope there is some relief and respite for you and your family) but that’s kind of another reason why this subject has been taking up way too much of my thinking of late. I suspect my mother is unwell also, just little things and although I know she still holds some religion, I also know she has stockpiled enough oxy to kill a horse and she refuses to fade out. So where does that place her and her faith? Me too, my older brother passed when I was young, so it’s always been present growing up and then when you get to your teens grandparents start to pass. I had a good but very annoying mate who died in an accident when we were 13. His mum was very catholic and for years would burst into tears during mass and ask why god took her boy? Religion had no answer and certainly no comfort for her in the end. Sad story, my last words to him were to tell him to fuck off because he was being annoying, what do you do? My cunt of a father was a believer, didn’t give a flying fuck how many cardinal sins he committed but always said he believed just in case. How and why should that work? Do what’s right and honourable in this life and get some reward in the next one, I kind of get. But cheat, lie, fuck around and steal and all shall be forgiven, fuck off. He would have been praying in the end. I’m starting to think nihilism might be an answer.

Interesting thread @sammynb Ever since I was younger I have always been aware of death. My dads only sister passed when i was about 8. My dad being an old school paddy didn't ever speak about his feelings. But when she passed he sat and listened to Elton John Sacrifice over and over and it broke my heart. It was from then on I would have nightmares about passing. As everyone we have had loved ones pass. I just try and look at the good times and try and filter out the 'what if, when' and just concentrate on the now. During the first year of Covid I got a water infection and pissed blood. Until I could be seen by urology I was convinced I had cancer or what not. I was checking out my bollocks (which isn't bad) daily and the lot. I lost 5kg in weight in a month with stress. It was nothing but because its rare for blokes, especially my age to get water infections I was looking on the shit side. It's funny when people say the don't believe in god or the like. Yet at times of serious pain, they seem to pray. I was brought up a Catholic and do hold some belief still. I don't know what, but it keeps me going at certain times I suppose.

Let the ridicule begin... I do some TM, and in reading round the subject yer Buddhists believe on some level consciousness is all drawn from the same pool of energy, and they use the analogy that life force is like the ocean and an individual life is like a wave rolling in, then rolling back into the sea. I'm not in any way a believer in any god(s), but I quite like the simplicity of that thought

True hell

Well this is almost as successful as Scotty's singing into your phone game.

Mbappe's

'She's getting shagged off the black eyed peas, la.' Tough Guy Mick -Mersey Ferry Steward/Entertainer

Pop Robson is one of my earliest match day memories, scored direct from a free kick (top corner job) v Arsenal. Ref disallowed it, why? Because wall wasn't 10 yards, I remain incredulous to this day, retake obvs didn't result in anything, can't remember final score, draw I think 1970-ish

I suspect he still doesn’t feel right but none of the tests are coming back with any conclusive. its got the hallmarks of a breakdown 7 mins into his comeback written all over it.

Black hair with ridiculous ginger and grey thick beard? If the answer is aye, that was me.

5-0. Wilson double hat trick.

What it is is we're getting to the time period where the boomers are dying out. That's a large cohort but also coincides with the age of celebratory and mass media consumption. This thread is going to grow exponentially in coming years. Then it will just be you tubers and love island cunts dying and I won't care because I'll either not have a scooby who they are or more likely I'll be brown bread myself.

got a ticket. wouldn't like to even guess at the amount of refreshes but hey, god loves a trier!

I think it’s aimed at @Dr Gloom

Aye. Early days. Sometimes vacancies are advertised as external but they've already got someone in mind so it doesn't really matter how you've performed. Getting an interview is a good sign. Also it's really not a great time of year for this, things will probably pick up in the New year. Good luck and try not to let it get you down (easier said than done I know).

Keep at it mate- you’ll get there.

🙂

Pope was by miles the best player on the pitch. The amount of chances PSG created suggests our play in general wasn’t great, but that doesn’t take the state of squad into consideration. How did PSG dominate the second half? We couldn’t make any changes and defended deeper and deeper. That’s the context the stats don’t show. Stats are simultaneously great and shit

Happy birthday, CT. Can you do a Mug-Righter General mug for a certain Steven Marshall-Baines?