Football

The shiny app embedded below allows you to explore the number of packets you need to complete the Panini sticker album for this summer's Euro tournament. This builds on the results I presented in an earlier post and allows you to explore how many fewer packets you need to buy when you have more friends to swap with. You can also vary the number of runs performed because the model runs considerably slower with more swappers involved.

As a follow-up to my post about the Euro 2016 Panini Stickers, I've now completed the collection with the help of an online swapping site and by buying the last 39 stickers directly from Panini. I also managed to write a new simulator, this time with additional collectors involved.

Sound the conspicuous consumption klaxon! 📣 I know it's foolish but I decided to collect the Panini stickers for the Euro 2016 tournament this summer. I think it's a more edifying waste of money than a series of group game accumulators that don't come off. If this week's long read in The Guardian is anything to go by, we really shouldn't be giving any more of our money to betting companies. The album also looks better than any of the official books. Anyway, this post celebrates my inner collector/geek and the beauty of the shiny sticker!

Tonight, despite feeling a bit under the weather, I went to Stevenage to watch Portsmouth play a League One game at the Lamex Stadium. In addition, I met a “person off the internet” for the second time in a week – this time Tom, a friend of a friend from Facebook: our shared passions being Portsmouth FC and really cool music. We met at King’s Cross and caught a packed train to Stevenage, a non-descript dormitory town that was even more non-descript than I remember St Albans being. I’m glad I went, even though Pompey lost. It’s funny how sitting in a shed in the cold watching your team lose counts as entertainment!