I came late, to an early game

[warning. Contains sport]

Sitting, watching England B blast long balls in the direction of Jame Vardy. Depressing and dull.

The performance in this game means little, in that England aren't going to pick anything close to this XI in the next game (neither are Blegium, for that matter). What's depressing is the gap in skill levels between the England second-choice and their Blegian peers. The Lowerlanders look far more comfortable on the ball, and able to get forward far more quickly. Except for Michy Batshuayi, who just punted the ball into his own face.

Does little to dispel the notion that English football is about 2 decades behind the best.

I'm unconvinced that England proper are going to win this, or that their convincing 6-1 victory over a hapless Panama means any more than the unconvincing scramble against Tunisia a few days previously. Still the draw, if we lose this game, is kind. If England reach the semis, anything can happen. Particularly in the absence of Germany and the likely imminent demise of Argentina.

Russia won their first 2 games easily, scoring 8 in the process. England are better. I'm not sure they are much better.

The beautiful clarity of raw text

It's a nostalgia festival here. Not only do I have Elastica's debut, eponymous album (I'll buy a doughnut for anyone who can name their second, and final, album without resorting to a web-search) playing - I bought it yesterday - but also, thanks to the hard work of wadh0196 and others, sable is back.

Now you won't find me kicking against the technology that allows us to generate web content with graphics, and frames. Generating a blogpost that juxtaposed Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane over caption "Angry men" is one of my proudest (web) moments. It's useful to be able to see a picture of the USB adapter you plan to buy before purchase, given the ridiculous proliferation of interfaces new computers simply refuse to recognize. And ASCII porn is limited in range.

But, let's face it, the modern WWW is a cesspool, and form (in the form of pop up adds for holiday's I've already booked, and less useful information) has triumphed over content. For me, the primary purpose of the web was to communicate with friends, and connect with new people. Perhaps I've lost track of that. Perhaps reverting to text will help rediscover that. I dunno We shall see.