#and I raised up my first iPhone and recorded like 30 seconds of this song

[crmsndragonwngss]

Won't you get on your knees

Believe have faith in this lie with us all

Leave you in the dark

Now my body's on the floor and I am calling

Well I'm calling out to you

Can you hear me now?

[shuttaapp]

Skate to create: Neal Boyd

Neal Boyd, a.k.a Grimcity, has spent more than 30 years surfing on the concrete. Although he does it mainly for fun, he has accidentally compiled an enormous experience in this field.

In this interview, we talk with Neal Boyd about skateboarding, how we got his start, his Youtube channel, the pro skaters who influenced him most, and his thoughts about the skateboarding scene.

1. Where are you originally from?

I was born in Jackson, Mississippi, raised in Jackson, Louisiana, and have lived in Hamond, Louisiana since 1995. I claim Hammond as my home. We're between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, so it's a perfect spot to be in.

2. What's your favorite quality in a person?

Honesty, ethics, and a really good sense of humor.

3. How and when did you discover skateboarding?

When I was 10 years old, I lived in a really small, rural neighborhood. One of my my neighbors had bought a skateboard for his kid, but it never got used. We lived on top of a hill, and as I played with it I eventually was given permission to use it whenever I wanted to. It was basically given to me. The year was 1985.

4. Where does your online name “grimcity” come from?

When I was in college, I self-published a comic book for a little over a year… It was violent, but also very, very comedic. The name of the city where all the action took place in was “Grim City.” I'd also created a comic strip character that I'd used for comic strips (and the comic book) named “Grim,” so in the relatively early days of the internet I just used “grimcity” as my online persona.

Some of my friends call me Grim in real life, though I'm completely the opposite of a grim person… I'm actually very geeky and goofy and I have a lot of love for everything. My nature is very positive, so the nickname “Grim” and “grimcity” is kind've a joke in and of itself.

5. What was your first board and your first memory of skateboarding?

The first board I can claim was the one my neighbor (Mr. Tom) basically gave to me… It was a Variflex he'd bought for his own kid, but he let me ride it as much as I wanted to. I feel in love with it more than his little one did, so I really owe him a lot... He literally exposed me to skateboarding.

After that I had a Nash from a a department store (due to not having any money), but my first pro board was a Jeff Grosso from Santa Cruz. He's a living legend, and I've been fortunate enough to hang out with him. Really love that guy.

My first memory of skating was really just being a little 10 year old kid going really fast down the hills surrounding where I lived. We were a small town, and this was pre-internet, so I didn't even know how big skating was back then.

6. You created a Youtube channel which already has more than 4.000 subscribers and a 100 videos. Tell us a little bit about it. What is the main purpose of the channel?

The channel has actually been around for a while now… A little over 10 years I think? When I first started it it was simply to store videos because my hard drives were running out of space. After that, I got into doing really in-depth skate product reviews, and though I've slacked on that a bit, my focus lately has been making self-filmed skate videos with a focus on composition, color, and framing. If you look at my later videos with the eyes of a photographer, rather than a videographer or even a skateboarder for that matter, it makes more sense.

7. Who has been your biggest influence on your skateboarding?

When I was a kid, everyone was an influence… I wanted to ollie as high as Natas Kaupas, become an all terrain guy like The Gonz, skate fast like Tommy Guerro, float in the air like Hosoi, be as funny as Grosso, and skate as raw as all of the Sick Boys, who were a group of guys from San Francisco (some already mentioned) that included Jim Thiebaud, Julien Stranger, Ron Allen, Mickey Reyes, Archimedes, and a huge list of other people.

These days I'm a lot older, but I'm still influenced by a lot of people. Jim Thiebaud and I wound up becoming really good friends several years back, as well as my man Mickey Reyes. They run my favorite skateboard company (Deluxe) and even if I'd never met them, I'd be riding everything they make, including Real Skateboards, Thunder trucks, and Spitfire wheels. They have a huge influence on me because the company uses skateboarding to help people in need, from helping hurricane victims to providing money to facilities that help kids beat cancer.

I'm also heavily influence by the younger skaters that I roll with here in my city. I've seen them develop from wobbly-legged beginners to absolute skate machines over the years. I thrive on that. Many of these kids have tricks that I will never, ever be able to land, but that's part of passing the torch. I love my Hammond locals, and they push me as hard as I push them to progress in our own respective ways.

8. What's your favorite trick and who do you think does a perfect version of that trick?

I have two: the first one is the Ollie Impossible, and the perfect ones were done by Dylan Rieder who sadly passed away in 2016. Secondly, I love doing simple little kickflips, and to see them done perfectly, I stare in awe whenever Dennis Busenitz does them (or any variation of them).

9. Are Pro skaters role models?

Pro skaters are just like everybody else. If they are role models, I don't think they mean to be. Having said, they're definitely influential. I think kids try to emulate the tricks and styles they see from pros, but as with everyone, we have our good and bad sides. If I were to direct a kid towards someone who might be a role model both in the act of skateboarding as well as just being a good person, I'd list them as follows:

1. Daewon Song: He's the embodiment of progression, and he's a genuinely good person. He's about as old as I am, and like me, he's still a kid at heart that just wants to skate.

2. John Cardiel: His energy, positivity, and drive are the embodiment of what skateboarding is. He's a legend, and if you were to ask most pro skaters who their favorite pro was, they'd say Cardiel. He suffered a catastrophic injury which was supposed to make him unable to walk again, but he defeated it. When you watch any of his old footage, it compels you to get up, grab your board, and go for it.

3. Rodney Mullen: He invented most of the street tricks we do today, but more importantly to me, he's always continuing his education in other areas, including higher maths and architecture. It's one thing to simply become a better skateboarder, but it's also important to expand your knowledge base with other subjects, from the arts to astrophysics. Knowledge is easy to access today, and if you're not skating, I recommend reading a good non-fiction book or at least listening to an academic lecture on any given topic on You Tube. Lots of universities post lectures online, so there's no reason not to get a better understanding of the world. I watch or listen to at least one lecture a day, and on weekends I try to get at least two.

10. What's your go-to spot?

I live right around the corner from the concrete park I shoot video at in my YouTube and Instagram videos, but one of my favorite places (which I've documented a lot online, including Shutta) is a yellow parking curb next to a fountain. It's simply a curb in a secluded location where I can go and clear my head.

11. Who do you usually skate with?

Our local park is a family… The Dreamland squad. We have a couple of crews inside that family, namely the Therapy crew and the False Teeth crew. I also skate with a ton of friends from New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette.

12. Have you ever joined a competition?

I have, but I'm not really a competitive skater. Most of the contests I've entered have been here in Louisiana, so for us it's not so much about winning as it is an opportunity to see everyone you know and have a really good time. Our contests are more like family reunions.

13. As one of the best skaters in the app and winner of one #ShuttaMission, explain to us how has your experience been when taking photos with Shutta.

I'd hate being known as one of the best skaters using the app! I prefer thinking I'm the best at having fun at skating, which is hopefully a sentiment shared by every skater!

I sincerely love the app, and am working on a video about it to get some more skaters involved with it. I started using Shutta before the user interface was redesigned, and still use it when I'm out recording. It's better at getting precise screen captures from videos than taking stills directly from the iPhone, the wheel tool that allows you to scrub through the timeline is brilliant. A lot of skateboard tricks are less than a second long (like jumping over something), and the “peak” part of that trick is probably down into the milliseconds… So being able to easily get to the exact moment you want to capture is just the best. I also like that I get an image saved to my camera's library, and simultaneously get to share it with an international community of people that get hyped when they see something new.

I'm also very appreciative that Shutta picked me as a winner for the “Freeze” contest. I'm a geek by nature, and the Tomtom Bandit camera is really well made. I've been using it a ton! I still can't believe I believe I won something like this by just going out in my town and skating like I always do. There are aspects of it that I prefer over my GoPro and my iPhone, so it's with me everywhere I go, even if I'm not skateboarding.

14. Any views on the skateboarding scene?

On a local level, I'm extremely happy that skaters today have it easier than my generation did. Skateboarding in the states wasn't looked at positively by a large swath of society for a long time, it was all underground, and growing up, I got into a ton of fights with people who would literally walk up to aggressively and instigate violence. We were punk rock/hip hop street kids that skated and ate concrete for fun, so we always had to handle confrontations as best we could. These days, there's been a mainstreaming of skateboarding that has allowed it to progress in ways I never thought it would, but I'm a bit conflicted, if not hypocritical of it. On one hand, I love that there are skateparks popping up everywhere, but on the other I hate seeing the media portray skateboarding as a sport, and I don't like the idea of it being in the Olympics. I'm glad that there's a boost of revenue for the pro skaters and skate companies that benefit from all of this exposure, but the old sentimental side of me still kind've misses the anti-establishment nature that skating had when I got into it.

15. What do you have planned for the near future?

My plans today are the same as they always have been… I want to push myself in whatever direction skateboarding takes me, and I want to do what I can at being a better person in general. I just want to be a good global neighbor, be the best at what I do professionally (computer geekery), and hopefully help the up and coming skaters in my area know more about the roots of skateboarding. The main goal is to ensure that the kids I skate with now become really old skaters like me.

Go follow Neal Boyd on Shutta and subscribe to his Youtube channel to see more!

All pics by Neal Boyd.

[fiction-queen-blog]

Zoo Keeper #Chapter 1

Admin: Yeah so I have been playing around with the idea of Veterinary Sasuke and I while I was brainstorming this came alive. Also with the inspiration of the following video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f8Hpid8YWA&t=40s

“The Lions” 

“Hello everyone! Welcome to Konoha’s Zoo. My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I am the primary keeper here. So, what I am going to do is feeding the lions. I have here in my bucket red meat, they love that, and some chicken necks. See the bones in the chicken neck won’t splinter and the extra calcium is good for them”

Naruto looked at the crowed of children that apparently came from a school trip. They were wearing a cap with their school logo on it. They were cheering loudly. Naruto laughed, holding the bucket with one arm.

“I love to inform you about these majestic creatures, but keep your questions after I am done feeding them. They get very affectionate and they hate it if they don’t get their attention, dattebayo!”

“Sir, are you gonna go in the lion cage!” One kid shouted.

“Sanji, he just said he will answer questions afterwards. Listen to the zoo keeper” The teacher said.

“It is alright” Naruto put the heavy bucket down,  “Sanji, have you ever been to a zoo before?”

“Yeah! They fed the lions from behind the cage, boring!” the kid folded his arms and pouted.

“Well, my lions and I have very good bond. I have known them since they were cubs” Naruto said, “that is why I am,  in their eyes, the dominant figure but don’t forget..They are still dangerous cats” The blond winked as he opened the door of the enclosure and walked in. It seemed the lions could smell the meat from meters away. They ran towards him.

“Stop, Kiara!” Naruto stuck his hand out and had a strict voice, causing the lioness to sit. “Yes kids, when food comes around we have a little bit of a different cat. “ Naruto said, grabbing the chicken necks and feeding the female lions before the other two came.

“This is Kiara, the male is Simba, and the last one is Nala…” Naruto frowned looking as he looked at the last female lion, Sarabi. She didn’t seem to be willing to eat.  Naruto woke up from his thoughts, feeling Kiara walk passed him, her body purposely pressing against Naruto’s leg, causing him to almost  take a step to the right.They  were heavier than they looked.

“Eh girl, aren’t you a tsundere” Naruto patted her back, throwing a big lump of red meat in front of her. “See Kiara, I do love you” his hand patted her head, as he threw another two another chicken neck. “Yes kids, being the dominant figure is important, but so is mutual respect. That is how you form a strong team”  he gave the lioness a kiss on the head.

“Why isn’t that other lion eating?!” Sanji shouted from the crowd of kids, this times the teacher grabbed him by the arm and gave him a strict look.

“I honestly don’t know…”  Naruto muttered to himself. He threw the last lumps of flesh to the lions before walking out of the enclosure.

“Mrs.Akari, can we ask questions now?” Another kid asked.

“ Mr Uzumaki will say so himself” the teacher answered. Naruto’s eyes were glued on Sarabi. She has been like that for a couple of days now. He thought it would pass, but it seemed it hasn’t.

“Uhm..Questions... yes..” Naruto looked at the kids, “Oh wow not everyone at once” he scratched the back of his head seeing 30 hand stuck high in the air.

“Adorable kids…”  Naruto said, feeling a sweat drop appear on his forehead.

Oxoxoxo

“Sarabi, what’s up chicka?” Naruto put his hand on the fence, observing the female lion. She hasn’t moved from her spot in the shades.

“Oi, what ya doing?” Naruto didn’t respond to Shikamaru.  “Hey, you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah… I am worried about-”

“Your babies?” Shikamaru filled in the gap.

“She isn’t eating, she isn’t playing or running. She just sits there” Naruto said.

“Better than having them throw feces at you” Shikamaru said, “I am glad I take care of sloths… Not monkeys.”

“I take care of lions, and they are pretty valuable to this zoo”

“Actually the pandas are the most valuable to the zoo”

“What? I get crowds constantly-Aaah nevermind- I am worried about Sarabi” The blond sighed.

“Get the vet”

“Didn’t she quit two weeks ago?” Naruto asked.

“Last week a new one started. Haven’t you met him yet? His name is Dr.Uchiha”

“I should probably meet him then. Bet ya five bucks he will be impressed about my bond with these lions”  Naruto said as he  walked away. He had to go all the way to the back of the zoo to get to the small white building. He waked up to the door, trying to peek through the small window. The last veterinarian was quite the nag. He remember her complaining how the lions are wild animals and he shouldn’t treat them like kittens.The amount of times he rolled his eyes at the old nag was more than the blond could count.

He opened the door and peeked inside. He could see a raven, not much older than he was. He was wearing a lab coat and light blue latex gloves. But what caught the blond’s attention was his hand down  an unconscious  crocodile throat. He seemed to be looking at a screen. He slowly pulled his hand back, holding a apple Iphone in the hand.

“Called it. Android phones are bigger” He said, putting the phone away.

“I guess you were right, Sasuke” Sakura said.  

Naruto knew Sakura since forever. She had worked here just as long as Naruto had.

“Hey, Sasuke” Naruto said,closing the door behind him. The Uchiha didn’t look up as he took off the gloves.

“I prefer people knocking instead of walking in uninvited while I am busy” he said,washing his hands.

“....Okkkaaaaayyyy~” Naruto shared a look with Sakura.  “I am sorry….Didn’t mean to...Disrespect you or anything,Sasuke”

“It is dr Uchiha and you already have in..” He looked at the clock, “less than 10 seconds. Word record”

“...But Sakura just called you Sasuke. I just assumed you-”

“Your assumption is wrong, Mr.Uzumaki”

“Oh you know me. I see..Sakura has said some great stuff about me” he pointed a finger gun at her and she immediately shook her head.  “Owh...I’m disappointing…Dattebayo”

“Before you waste more of my time. How about you tell me why you are here?” Sasuke asked, finally turning around. It was then that Naruto got a good look at him from top to bottom. He was quite good looking. He was obviously not from around here. His eyes looked exotic just likes Naruto’s lions are.

“Mr. Uzumaki, if you are going to daydream do that somewhere else” Sasuke commented, causing Naruto to wake up.

“Uhm one of my lioness. Sarabi, she has been behaving strangely-”

“Animals, just like humans, sometimes show un-natural behaviour” Sasuke was quick to respond.

“No, she doesn’t eat, she doesn’t play with the others. She is 17 months. She doesn’t run around. All she does is sit in the same spot in the shadow with that moping expression on her face, dattebayo”

“Moping expression?” Sasuke asked, he shared a look with Sakura.

“Yes, I know. I have them since they were-”

“Cubs...I am well aware of the history of the animals in this zoo” Sasuke said. Packing some things in a shoulder bag.

“So you are gonna take a look at her? She is very nice, I promise you don’t need to-”

“I am going to come by later today. First have to go to exam some pandas” Sasuke said, walking off with his shoulder bag..

“Damn these pandas…” Naruto muttered.

Oxoxox

The day ended and it was time to put the lions back in their big cage so they wouldn’t stay outside in the storm that the weatherman warned everyone about. He was whistling a song as he patted Kiara who once again walked against his leg. She stood still, and showed her teeth.

“Hey girl, you don’t give me that look alright” Naruto warned. “Yes my attention has been around Sarabi, but you see she is not well. You are 17 months, behave like it”  Naruto squatted down. “Now lets  make up..Gimme paw” Naruto said putting his hand, feeling the big cat paw on his before lowering it back on the ground. “Good girl. I love you, you know that” He  kissed her head. He could hear somebody clearing his throat and he immediately turned his head, seeing Sasuke stand behind the bars.

“Aren’t you supposed to be guiding the lions from behind these safe bars to their cage?”  The vet asked, raising an eyebrow. “Or do you have to give your babies their goodnight kiss before they go to bed?”

“Ooh they are my baby girls afterall”

“That one is male”  Sasuke said,pointing at Simba.

“He is still my baby girl,aren’t you Simba?”  The lion didn’t respond, all he did was yawn. “He is lazy”  Naruto said, closing the cage  before opening the procation door, so Sasuke could come in. The Uchiha walked towards the cage of the lions and looked through the bars.

“I don’t see much wrong with any of these lions” he said. “At first sight”

“Sarabi is the female in the corner. She hasn’t eaten all day, she hasn’t for the past days-”

“Yes you explained to me before”  Sasuke interrupted him. “I will have to examine her from closeby. Tomorrow I will have-”

“No,no you don’t need to sedate. My lions are getting very..Uhm...Well scared when they see one of their own unconscious and dragged away. It makes them think they are in danger, dattebayo”

“Mr Uzumaki, I am not just going to walk in a cage filled with lions to examine an conscious one-”

“They won’t harm anyone. As long as I am with you.You know I have had them since they were cubs” Naruto said.

“Yes, I am aware of your reputation as ‘lion whisperer’. But even if I wanted I am not allowed to. I am forbidden from-”

“Yeah whatever...You are just like that old vet. Do you even care about these animals?! Because all what I hear is that you know something is up with her and you don’t give a fuck what happens  to her-”

“Okay firstly,” Sasuke put his hand up, indicating the blond  to shut  up, “I can tell she isn’t dying. I can easy wait till tomorrow to see what is wrong with her.I know,I am a vet, I studied six years, so let me do the diagnosis or go get your own diploma!”

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but Sasuke shut him up again.

“Secondly, don’t you tell me I don’t give a fuck about animals. I have dedicated a great part of my life protect them, saving them and helping them. So before you go running to conclusions why don’t you do your research first,dumbass!”

“Sa-”

“I am not done yet! If you question my professional-”  A loud groan was heard,followed by a claw coming from between the bars. Sasuke yelped. Naruto pulled  him away from the bars, but the Uchiha could still feel the large claw cut through his lab coat.

“Kiara! Bad girl! Bad girl!” Naruto said,seeing the lioness still show aggressive behaviour. “I’m not tolerating such behaviour, young lady” The lion backed off, lying down and looking away. “Tsundere…” he muttered before looking at Sasuke. The blond had a hand wrapped around his waist, while Sasuke’s  hand was on Naruto’s chest.

“She is usually not like that at all;.She must have thought you were a threat to me when you raised your voice like that,dattebayo. She is just very protective.”

Sasuke looked up at the blond, before pushing himself away from him.

“This is exactly why in my contract is stated I have to be very cautious when working dangerous animals because my death is not insured” The raven said, “bring her in tomorrow first thing in the morning. Un-con-tious.” Sasuke hissed the last part.

Naruto sighed, turning his gaze from the Uchiha walking away to the Kiara.

“You just proofed him right, Kiara bad girl!” Naruto said, but the big  tsundere cat didn’t seem to mind.

Read chapter 2

[gyrlversion]

He looked f***ed. Clubber tells how UFC star Conor McGregor

Mugshot: MMA fighter Conor McGregor after his arrest on criminal mischief and strongarm robbery charges after taking Ahmed Abdirzak’s phone and smashing it

The shaken clubber whose phone was smashed and taken by Conor McGregor has branded the UFC superstar a ‘dangerous thug’ – telling DailyMail.com: ‘I was scared for my life.’ 

Ahmed Abdirzak, 22, was trying to video McGregor outside a Miami Beach nightspot when the snarling MMA legend flew into a rage and ‘punched’ his iPhone 8 out of his hand. 

Restaurant manager Ahmed then looked on in disbelief as McGregor, 30, picked up the handset and hurled it to the floor before stamping on it repeatedly. 

The Irishman then picked up the smashed phone and slipped it into his pocked before casually strolling back to SUV – laughing and adopting the signature McGregor swagger. The phone contained footage of the incident.

‘He walked away with that trademark McGregor strut that you see him enter the ring with in UFC,’ Ahmed told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

‘I’m not going to lie, I was scared for my life – the guy is a lethal weapon.’ 

McGregor was arrested Monday evening and released hours later on $12,500 bond.

He faces charges of criminal mischief and strong-armed robbery. It is unclear if police have the phone and the footage it contains.

Crime scene: Ahmed Abdirzak tells DailyMail.com he was scared his life was at risk when Conor McGregor stormed up to him, grabbed him and seized his phone – at this spot here while he and his friend waited for their car. ‘I looked into his face and his eyes were bulging. He was so angry. I don’t know whether he was drunk or on drugs, but he looked f***ked.

Outcome: Conor McGregor, one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, is facing charges of misdemeanor criminal mischief and strong-armed robbery. He is seen leaving jail Monday night after being bonded out

Party venue: The Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach is home to LIV where Conor McGregor was partying

Here to party: Conor McGregor was the least famous celebrity spotted by Ahmed Adbirzak and his friends in the LIV nightclub. The biggest name was rapper Blueface

Videos posted on Instagram show the MMA superstar partying with a number of people, including this woman in a captain’s hat

Inside the club: On one clip, Conor McGregor appeared to be arguing with another party-goer, with his arm raised. Hours later he was involved in the skirmish on the car park

Brit Ahmed, from Slough, Berkshire, and a group of friends flew into the U.S. last Friday for a Spring Break vacation in Miami Beach.

Top of their list of nightspots to visit was super club LIV in the swank Fontainebleau Hotel. 

‘Everyone told me that LIV is the place to be. The place is really high-end, the music was insane,’ he went on.

‘We saw loads of celebrities. The big US rapper Blueface was performing live. We had a fantastic evening. There was no trouble inside.

‘There was a lot of A-list celebrities there. Conor was probably the lowest there, nobody was showing him any love.

‘The only reason I was looking at him was because I was from the United kingdom and he’s big there.’ 

Other footage from inside LIV showed McGregor appearing to argue with a clubber as he partied with a number of women.

In a clip posted on Instagram, the Irish MMA star appeared to be shouting at a bearded man. McGregor edges closer to him, before the camera pans away. 

The alleged skirmish outside the club happened at 5am when Ahmed and his friends, including best friend Fuad Nur, 23, ran into the star in the hotel valet area as they waited for their rental car. 

‘My friend spotted him on the way out and shouted to him ‘McGregor, McGregor, we’ve come all the way from London’,’ he went on.

‘He turned to him and gave him a salute. I said ‘Man dem McGregor’ [a London street expression of friendship and appreciation] and he repeated it word for word, mocking me.

‘It seemed good-natured at that point though, he seemed friendly. I wasn’t insulting him or antagonizing him at all.

‘I don’t drink, I’ve never touched alcohol in my life. I’ve never done drugs. I was completely sober.’ 

Ahmed said McGregor began shouting lyrics from the hit rap song Thotiana which Blueface had performed inside the club. 

He insists he was about 15ft away when he took out his phone to record the spectacle – and that McGregor saw it and advanced towards him.

Defiance; Conor McGregor shared a picture of him in the back of a Miami Beach Police cruiser taken after his arrest – and showing him grinning

Message: The MMA fighter, 30, posted a picture of himself on social media with this caption

Home: McGregor keeps a house in Miami Beach and returned there after being bonded out

‘He reached out his left hand to greet me, to shake my hand. But then he held my arm so I couldn’t get away,’ said Ahmed. 

‘His grip was insane. I could tell he was a professional athlete. I thought he’s going to hit me. I was shocked.

‘I looked into his face and his eyes were bulging. He was so angry. I don’t know whether he was drunk or on drugs, but he looked f***ked. 

‘I just remained passive, I didn’t want to fight. Then with his right hand he punched the phone. It was so hard I felt the impact through my entire body.’ 

Ahmed said he watched the phone screen shatter. He tried to pick it up but says McGregor picked it up and threw it on the floor. 

‘He stamped on it four times. He then picked it up and put it in his jeans,’ Ahmed added. ‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. 

‘He did his swagger dance and headed to his black SUV with his entourage surrounding him.

‘I was asking them, “Can I get my phone back?” 

‘I tried to run after him and asked for it back but he just laughed.’ 

Amazingly, Ahmed, a dad-of-one who runs his family’s restaurant, Golis, Southall, west London, said the globetrotting sports star is yet to return the smashed iPhone.

‘He robbed me. It was daylight robbery. It wasn’t just a broken phone,’ he told DailyMail.com.

‘Nobody has taken the phone away from him and given it back to me. 

‘As far as I know he’s still got it. It’s got all my personal pictures of my mother and son that I will never be able to get back now. 

‘I’ve got friends in the UK who have done really minor crimes and they aren’t even allowed to come to America. They can’t get visas. 

‘How is it that this man, a guy with history of arrests and violence can just come in and out whenever he likes – all because he’s a big name celebrity. 

‘He’s a dangerous thug, very dangerous. He lives up to his name – notorious. He thinks the normal rules don’t apply to him.

‘I wouldn’t wish jail on anyone, but they should make an example out of him. His fans are already posting threats and jokes about me online.’  

Victim: Ahmed Abdirzak tells DailyMail.com: ‘He’s a dangerous thug, very dangerous. He lives up to his name – notorious. He thinks the normal rules don’t apply to him.’

Witness: Ahmed Abdirzak was with best friend Fuad Nur, 23, when the confrontation with McGregor happened

Arrest report: How police dealt with Conor McGregor

Abdirzak said he should at least have his ability to come and go freely from the U.S. withdrawn.  

‘I wouldn’t want to see anyone jailed or deported but I believe in justice,’ he added.

‘Coming to the US is a privilege. And if you do bad things you should lose that privilege

‘I don’t see why they should let him in again. He’s had enough chances to behave himself already.’

Monday’s incident came just three days after McGregor completed his probation for a violent altercation last April in Brooklyn when he attacked a bus carrying several UFC fighters by throwing a dolly through a window. 

McGregor turned himself in to police the day after the melee and was charged with assault and criminal mischief. 

He pleaded guilty in July to a single disorderly conduct charge in a Brooklyn courthouse in order to avoid prison time. 

On Friday it was announced that he’d completed five days of community service at churches in Brooklyn and had taken an anger management class. 

Had he violated probation, McGregor likely would have been faced jail time along with possible deportation to Ireland. 

The MMA fighter, 30, posted a picture of himself on social media Tuesday with the caption: ‘Patience in this world is a virtue I continue to work on. I love my friends dearly. Thank you all’. 

The rise of Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor makes his entrance before his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in August 2017

Conor McGregor is known for his controversial, bragging persona in and out of the ring, which draws record numbers of viewers to his fights.

The 29-year-old Ultimate Fighting Champion was born in Dublin, Ireland, and began his mixed martial arts career at age 18 in an amateur match for the Irish Ring of Truth in his hometown.

He soon went professional and debuted in the MMA in 2009, collecting wins  both as a lightweight and a featherweight.

McGregor is the first European MMA fighter to hold titles from two divisions – featherweight and lightweigh – simultaneously.

In 2013, after being swarmed by requests to sign McGregor to the UFC during a trip to Ireland, the organization’s president Dana White complied and the fighter became the second-ever Irishman to compete for the organization.

McGregor has said that he collected a $200 check from Ireland’s welfare state just one week before his UFC debut, when he was working as a plumber.

He drew the biggest pay-per-view audience for an MMA fight ever when he fought Nate Diaz at UFC 202 in 2016 and defeated him. For that fight he earned $1million, becoming the first UFC fighter to get a seven-figure pay day.

That year he became the first MMA fighter ever to be included on Forbes’ list of highest-paid athletes.

McGregor has been in a relationship with Dee Devlin since 2008 and they share a child, Conor McGregor Jr who was born in May of 2017. 

In 2017 he announced he would go on hiatus from the UFC after winning the lightweight championship.

McGregor went on hiatus while undefeated as the lightweight champion but had already lost his featherweight championship. 

In August of 2017, McGregor he was paid a reported $30million to fight undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a much-anticipated, yet ultimately uncompetitive match that he lost on the 10th round. 

McGregor’s relationship with the UFC hit the rocks in April 2018 when White ruled that he would be stripped of his Lightweight Championship belt because he hadn’t participated in a UFC event since 2016. 

The Irishman responded with a profane tweet that said: ‘You’ll strip me of nothing c***s.’    

Then two days before the UFC 223 event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, McGregor arrived with an entourage at the end of a media event and triggered a melee in which he threw a dolly at a bus carrying other fighters. 

Several fighters were injured by broken glass and two had to miss upcoming fights.  

White called the incident the ‘most despicable thing in UFC history’.

McGregor turned himself in to police and was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief.

He pleaded guilty in July to a single disorderly conduct charge in a Brooklyn courthouse in order to avoid prison time.

McGregor returned to the Octagon in August 2018 to challenge Khabib Nurmagomedov for the Lightweight Championship but was defeated in the fourth round in Las Vegas.    

He found himself in trouble with the law again in March 2019 after an altercation with a fan outside a nightclub in Miami Beach. 

McGregor was arrested and charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief and strong-armed robbery after he allegedly smashed a fan’s phone on March 11.

The post He looked f***ed. Clubber tells how UFC star Conor McGregor appeared first on Gyrlversion.

from WordPress https://www.gyrlversion.net/he-looked-fed-clubber-tells-how-ufc-star-conor-mcgregor/

[game-refraction]

Game Review: NieR - Automata (PS4)

I played very little of the original NieR back on the Xbox 360 some 7 years ago. The main protagonist just wasn’t that interesting and the world and gameplay were just nothing really to write home about. When it was announced that Platinum Games would take on the development chores for its long-awaited sequel, I was met with slight skepticism since Platinum Games track record has been less than stellar recently. NieR: Automata at first wasn’t the game I had hoped it to be, but after a solid 20-30 hours with the game, it started to get its hooks into me and frankly, I was glad to be along for the ride.

NieR: Automata tells a few stories from various points of view, swapping control to several characters during the 40+ hours I spent with the title. It’s also a game that is meant to be completed several times over, a concept I’ll touch upon shortly. The game attempts to fuse several different playstyles together to offer not just variety, but ways in which to keep you on your toes, and more or less this fusion of various bits of gameplay works well and gives NieR: Automata a unique voice among its genre.

There are 5 core endings that tell the entirety of the story in Automata, each being unlocked after completing the game over and over. Your first two playthroughs will be very similar to one another, with maybe an hour or two of different moments. The 3rd playthrough; however, was my favorite of the bunch and felt like an instant sequel to the game I had just finished twice over. There are 21 additional endings that are mostly jokes or abrupt endings that relate in some ways to moral issues or character motivations.

There are several characters in NieR: Automata, but only 3 of them that you’ll play a substantial amount of the game as; 2B, 9S, and A2. Yes, those are the names of each of the protagonists and not models of the latest iPhone. You play as a collective of androids, a group called YoRHa. These androids were created by humans to battle a group of invading machines that forced humanity to flee to the moon. YoRHa takes the fight back to earth to reclaim it from this alien machine threat.

You start the game as 2B, partnered up with 9S. 2B is calm, composed, and she is unwilling to let emotion get in the way of the mission. 9S is a scouting class of android, not designated for combat, but glad to have a partner as he usually is solo on his assignments. The two form a strong bond and together must defeat countless machines, both small and colossal in size. Once you complete 2B’s campaign, you’ll swap to the viewpoint of 9S, as this will allow you to see his side of the story during moments where 2B isn’t present. During this playthrough, you’ll see about a few hours or so of new content as well as the ability to wrap up any side quests you didn’t complete or missions that you did not discover. 9S also has a hacking mechanic that can lead to some interesting confrontations and gameplay moments.

Sometime into your initial playthrough, you’ll encounter A2 and it won’t be until much later that you discover who the character is and what they mean to your journey. A2 is also the star of the third playthrough and easily my favorite character in the game. While 2B has some good moments and character work present throughout the many completions of this game, she just wasn’t as interesting as A2. While there are moments where 9S was an engaging character, that second playthrough just hurt the character overall for me, as the repeated 10 hours of gameplay with very little to change it up, just didn’t do it for me. Hearing the same lines of dialogue, the same jokes and the fact that the amazing boss battles are pretty much skipped during his campaign, just made his chapter, and him, my least favorite thing about the game.

The supporting cast doesn’t favor much better, as there are only a small handful of characters who you will even remember their names. Pascal, the robot in the forest is about the only character that even came close to making me care about them. There are some story-focused characters in the main village, a few merchants, and some various toss away characters that peddle their wares near the desert, all of which are easily forgettable. You’ll visit dozens and dozens of NPC’s for various side quests but they all tend to offer variations on fetch quests and rarely anything substantial. Two characters that I really wanted to like were the twins, a pair of girls who you’ll encounter in the main base camp. While most of your interactions are with them in this camp, the moments in the late game where you’ll encounter them outside the camp just didn’t have the impact I wanted and the visual novel that follows that moment really slowed down the game when it really should have been ramping up to the finale.

Platinum Games is known for exciting and fast paced combat and NieR: Automata doesn’t disappoint. Battles are intense affairs that will have you learning enemy patterns to find an opening and knowing when to dodge and retreat to avoid taking heavy damage. Combat is downright brutal on hard and a bit more tolerable on normal. You’ll find katana’s, broadswords, spears, basic swords and a few more variations on weapons that can all be upgraded and set to easily swappable weapon sets to switch on the fly during battle.

Each character is outfitted with a robot companion called a Pod. These robotic helpers can be equipped with skills like lasers, hammers, gravity bombs, spears and more. Upon finding a second pod, I found a nice balance in the game having one set for lasers as the rapid shooting and charged shots to be really effective and during its cool down I would then swap to the second pod and attack with its spear as it handled crowd control rather well. Pods can be upgraded to boost their damage and trust me, it can be crucial to do so.

Swinging swords and dodging attacks are only part of the combat in NieR: Automata as you’ll often take to the skies in a transforming flying mech. These encounters often result in bullet-hell type encounters that will have you dodging energy blasts and small circles of death that will fill the screen constantly. These encounters happen in a variety of different playstyles and often will switch back and forth to keep you alert and entertained. These types of bullet-hell mechanics are not entirely exclusive to the mech portions of the game as many bosses and enemy types will attack you in this way while on foot, it just happens far more often during these flying missions.

2B, 9S, and A2 all share the same upgrades and items that you’ll encounter on your journey, and considering this game is meant to be completed over and over again, the systems of progression feel worth it and it can feel rewarding to put so much time and effort into unlocking new weapons and discovering new skills to see them show up again upon starting a continued new playthrough for each character.

Skills are used through a system called Chips. These Chips have a numeric amount of what can be equipped. If your Chip has a storage value of 40, then all skills must add up to 40. I upgraded my Chip to 120 and was able to kit out my characters with enough skills and passive abilities to my liking. These skills can range from earning more experience during battle, boosting defense or weapon damage, to allowing items to be auto-picked up instead of having to press X on each item drop I would encounter. There is a wealth of skills to learn and should you fuse skills together to make their effects more potent, then those skills will raise in their numeric value and take up more real estate in your Chip. You can setup and customize different Chips should you feel that certain encounters can benefit from a different Chip setup and therefore it can be a deep and rewarding system should you want to put the time into it.

Nearly all the forces against you are composed of various types of robots, some tiny and mostly cute looking, to large and colossal in nature. Most of the typical foes can be taken down pretty easily and without much effort, but larger and more complicated enemies will require some fast dodging and clever tactics. The game also features some incredible boss battles that are a real highlight of the game. My favorite, mostly due to the theatrics of its design is in the amusement park encounter as not only is the boss wonderfully designed, but the whole battle itself is just exciting. There is also a battle near the finale of the game that has you swapping back and forth to different characters battling two separate bosses that are pretty much identical to each other, yet the fights themselves are entirely different and boy is it fun.

While NieR: Automata isn’t a flat out gorgeous title, it still is a very good looking game. There are some sections of green here and there but the game does suffer from a very bland brown color scheme for much of its length. The main cast of characters have some pretty decent looking models but the NPC’s that fill up the game are just painful to look at, especially in a game of this console generation.

If I had to list my favorite element to NieR: Automata it would be its music. Composer Keiichi Okabe, who has worked alongside game director Yoko Taro for quite some time now, has delivered one of the best soundtracks ever created. There are so many songs here that I constantly hum when not playing the game or look forward to when I would jump back in for another playthrough. What I found refreshing about the soundtrack as well was the fact that the songs don’t loop as multiple tracks were created to transition from song to song and given the nature of battle or a change in environment, the song choices would change as well. The vocals of a few of the tracks are also stunning and feature some of the best singing I’ve heard in an original song created for a video game.

When not decimating tiny robot after tiny robot, I’d come across a few parts and mechanics to the game that I found lacking. I found the map system to be poorly designed as it can be hard to read and often I would be set on a path only for it to be a dead end or I would end up going in the wrong direction as there is no compass marker on the mini-map. Because of this, I would constantly have to check my map to make sure I was heading in the right direction and having to do this had become quite the chore. There is also no way to set an objective marker to be seen in the game world as it can only be seen via the mini-map. I also found the menu to be pretty bland and while it can be fairly easy to navigate, it felt almost like a placeholder for a menu system that they didn’t get around to making.

My last complaint comes due to the open-world nature of the game. I found that after the intense and exciting first hour or so of the game that the sudden drop into the open-world made the game’s pacing screech to a halt. I also found most areas in the game to be reused far too often, as several areas lose their charm after you’ve revisited them a dozen or so times. I found myself far more engaged in what was going on when it was focused on a pivotal part of the plot or during a boss encounter. I feel that if the game had been less open-world and more compact that I would have enjoyed myself far more as the large open-world is far too barren for its own good.

NieR: Automata is a game that needs to be beaten more than once and while that sounds like a huge effort of seeing the same content again and again, it more or less isn’t. Each playthrough will almost always leave you with more questions than answers even if you think you know what is going on. The open-world elements can drag the game’s pacing down a bit and the side quests themselves can feel like your typical open-world filler, but the main story beats and the engaging characters, especially A2 and her Pod, can give this game a new and refreshing feel, even after 20 or so hours in.

NieR: Automata was played on a PS4 Pro console with a retail copy and all screen shots were taken via the screen capture software built into the console via its twitter share system.

Game Review: NieR – Automata (PS4) was originally published on Game-Refraction