Argh...High School!

High school is really different from public and middle schools! Today there were about 60 billion students in my high school, some of them looking like they should be in university and others like they should be in kindergarten. There were some foreign exchange students too- I managed to help one of them in gym class by translating the English my gym teacher was spewing fourth to Mandarin. And to cap it all off, the teachers are (somewhat ironically) the most immature I've ever met: one of them apparently is a Mafia Wars addict, but this is probably the funnest part of high school because they provide some hilarious moments.

Transfer Deadline Day Recap

Ah, transfer deadline day. The day when most clubs do their entire transferring, despite there being a whole summer to do it. This is just demonstrated by Arsenal, whose buying season was entirely limited to this day. Park Chu-Young from Monaco, Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen, Andre Santos from some Turkish club, Mikel Arteta from Everton and Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea all came in on deadline day, while they barely made any buys the other 3 months.

Game Review: 1602 A.D. (or Anno 1602)

I've owned this game called 1602 AD for a number of years now, and since I have nothing better to do I'll do a review about it.

Soccer Week Wrapup: August 28th, 2011

I'm a Man United fan at heart, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about the other EPL clubs or the European leagues or even leagues like MLS which are far from "top class". Although the Man United 8-2 Arsenal scoreline is probably the best of the bunch from the world of soccer this week, there were a few other shining tidbits that I'd like to mention.

Never Mind There ARE Troubles at Arsenal

So I stood up for Arsene Wenger last week in my article Are There Any Troubles at Arsenal? and now he just goes and make me look like an idiot with that SHOCKING performance. Now, I'm a Man United fan, but even I would never have thought that United would've scored eight goals! And some of them, to be fair, were pretty spectacular, especially the 2 Rooney free-kicks and the Ashley Young long shots-that one could be the Paul Scholes of the future!

Arcade...Again!

OK I messed up last time. Turns out if you bring the width down to 150, when you play the game some of the screen is cut off, making it impossible for you to press the "play" button. To fix this, I brought the arcade's width to 800. I advise that you move all of your gadgets from the right side to the left so the arcade won't mesh with the gadgets. If you find that you can't move them, just go to "Edit Template HTML" under the Design tab and scroll all the way down to find the gadgets. There you'll see that some gadgets have "false" next to them while others have "true". Just change all the "true" to "false" and you'll be able to move your gadgets.

Arcade

If you guys haven't noticed, I've made an arcade on my blog, featuring the most popular online flash games like Bloons Tower Defense, Doodle God, Thing Thing Arena, Portal 2 among others. Since I'm no techie, and since Matthew ditched this blog, I did a little bit of searching and found this widget at HeyZap.com. Just go there, register (it's free) and download the widget to add to your site/blog. Trust me it's a lot of fun. The only difficulty is that, since blog pages are really skinny and long, there might be some sizing issues if you download the full arcade widget. But whatever you do, DON'T download the blog games toolbar widget. It's just pure advertising crap with some messed up Rango game and some random social games like Caesary and Evony. Just download the full arcade widget and on "Edit HTML" bring the size down to 150 so it could fit on your blog page without some content getting cut (which happened if the site went down to 100) and voila, your viewers can play! You're welcome.

Skittles!

Skittles! I love them. They're my favorite candy, although I don't buy them that often because I get cavities if I do. Though I also love Maynards and Starburst candy too. Basically, I like any sour candy, which I suppose is better than the really sweet chocolate like Smarties for my teeth (...yeah, I have really crappy teeth). Though I really prefer not to eat those gummy worms and wine gums since they're so cheap I wonder if they put random chemicals into them like the Chinese put chemicals into babies' plastic toys which is an abominable practice (and this is coming from a Chinese guy too). Or, come to think of it, how KFC puts drugs into chickens to make them grow 5 legs/wings at a time. Yeah I know it might not be true, but hey, you never know the weird practices large multinational corporations will do to get the money out of our wallet. Come to think of it, all the food we eat might be full of drugs and other crap, so if all food is such, how can we avoid it?
Wow, this random train of thought I put into this post turned from me telling you guys about my candy preferences to mutated chickens.

Jack Layton's Death

I know this is long overdue but

Are There Any Troubles at Arsenal?

So you guys have all heard about Arsenal's recent woes at the transfer market and on the pitch, yes? Well, if you haven't, Arsenal have just sold arguably their best players in Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri to Barcelona and Man City respectively as well as Carlos Vela (to Real Sociedad) and Emmanuel Eboue (to Galataseray). Their replacements? Emmanuel Frimpong, Carl Jenkinson, Ignasi Miquel and Aaron Ramsay. Well, the headlines have been screaming for Wenger's head after these decisions, mainly because Wenger hasn't used the Fabregas/Nasri transfer fees to buy any world-class talent.

New Season of Soccer!

Ah, August. The peak of summer, the last month before you have to go back to the dreadfully boring sludge of school. And the start of the new European soccer season!
Well, a few things happened in the summer that I wasn't aware about. For one, Sergio "Kun" Aguero is now at the trillionaires under the name of Manchester City. I thought Aguero's transfer was just to make Tevez stop threatening to leave unless he gets a $10000000000/week salary or something...

Revival

Alright after a 5-month absence I'm gonna start this thing again!

Zapatera are Idiots: Survivor Episode 7: "It Don't Take a Smart One"

Ok why did Zapatera boot Sarita? She's much less likely to flip than David, and with the merge in the next episode, physical prowess is actually a downside since you could then go on an immunity rampage like Fabio last season or Brett in Samoa or JT in Tocantins, thus lowering the chances of you winning immunity and being safe. Sarita will almost certainly lose to Matt on Redemption Island, and Matt will rejoin the game,...

Blog Advice

Imma gonna make my blog posts shorter.

Arsenal are Nooby

Which is why they deserve a mention. A 0-0 draw against Blackburn? LOL. And Chelsea conceded a goal against Stoke (ROFL) and Liverpool only scored once against West Brom (LMFAO) which leaves Manchester United witha 4-2 win over West Ham. Sure, it wasn't easy (the Hammers were actually leading 2-0 at one point thanks to 2 rather soft penalties) but Rooney scored a hattrick and some other guy scored #4 for a 4-2 win. Basically, United have the title wrapped up since Arsenal are trailing them by 7 points while Chelsea are overtaken by Manchester City in 3rd and Liverpool are waaay down bottom. But who'll stay up? Avram Grant's done a great job with the Hammers considering the club's financial position but his side are still in the relegation scrapheap. Should make for an interesting season...

Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 6 "Red Headed Step Child" Review

Previously on Survivor, the Zapatera tribe tried to win and lost a challenge for the first time ever, but there was no drama this time as Krista and Stephanie basically were too lazy to stir things up, and the Zap 6 sent Krista to Redemption 6-2 where she will face Matt, who continued his little run after beating Kristina in the duel. On Ometepe, there was some tension between the Lazy Armpit Girls (aka Natalie and Ashley) and the hardworking yet unstable Phillip, and, judging by the preview for this episode, it was about to explode...

I LOVE WEST BROM (or Roy Hodgeson, at least)

Sorry if I haven't posted here for a while, but I was too busy being enthralled by how West Brom made Arsenal look like the fools they are at defending. As early as the 3rd minute they scored from an Olsson header who Arsenal so foolishly left unmarked (Almunia should've done better too, but that mistake is really just the tip of the dungheap) and West Brom lead Arsenal 1-0. Scott Carson, the real man, proved he at least earned the right to wear #1 after a fantastic save off a rebound shot from Aaron Ramsey after van Persie hit the bar with a header. Half time: Baggies 1, Gunners 0...

Survivor Redemption Island Episode 5: "We Hate Our Tribe" Review

Previously on Survivor, the evil noob Russell Hantz left the game for good but not before ratting out his entire tribe's mechanisms to Kristina, Phillip and Matt. Rob finally learns something new by finding the idol for the first time (and he's played 4 times, no wonder he never wins T_T) and when Ometepe loses the challenge again Rob's cronies vote out Kristina over Phillip 4-3...

New Man In Gap Highscore!!!

21 =P.

HOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

Well ManUtd have become well.......unpredictable.
After losing to Chelsea and Liverpool, both rather off-form and poor teams, they draw Arsenal in the league cup tie. Well, my first reaction is: Well, this is the beginning of the end. To be honest I was actually expecting some traumatic scoreline like Arsenal 4-1 Man Utd but then I see that Man U have fielded 7 defenders. o.o Now I'm thinking: Oh great Arsy are gonna win on penalties and United's Devils are gonna be even more tired for the league game. No way in hell are Man United gonna score.
They scored twice.
The da Silva brothers, Fabio and Rafael, were suddenly wingers while John O'Shea returned to his old position of defensive midfielder while Rooney retreated to midfield. It was more of a 4-5-1 formation than a 7-1-2 that it seemed to be. Still, 4-5-1 is not an offensive formation in the least, and United's defense has been rather shaky all season long. I thought they would attack, attack and attack, playing something like a 3-4-3 with Berbatov on and....yeah.
Anyways, the first goal came from a van der Sar throw, obviously. Fabio da Silva then set a move which ended in a Rooney cross for Hernandez, whose header was palmed away by Almunia. Fabio was on hand for the equalizer for 1-0 in the 28th minute.
Arsenal, who are now out of the Carling and European Cups after losses to Birmingham and Barcelona respectively, now seemed out of the FA Cup. And to think that 2 weeks ago they could've won a Quadruple. However, they came back in it, particularly van Persie who was sent off at the Camp Nou. He, Nasri and Koscielny all had shots that the Dutch giant Vandy Sar saved, in addition to a near-Wes Brown own goal that  the goalkeeper handily parried.
But then United got their second when Djorou's clearance went straight to Rooney's head, and needless to say, it was a goal. 2-0 in 50 minutes, while playing with 7 defenders. Not bad.
Obviously Arsenal basically reverted to a 2-5-3 after that. Everyone went forward but van der Sar was brilliant again in keeping a clean sheet. Why is he retiring again?
And then...
The End....
Manchester United 2-0 Arsenal.
BOO YAH!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and btw United are facing Bolton in the FA Cup final after the Trotters beat Birmingham 3-2 thanks to a 90th minute Lee Chung Yong strike.

Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 3 "Don't You Work For Me?" Review

Previously on Survivor, Zapatera throw the immunity/reward challenge and Russell is screwed, but his concubine Stephanie seemingly convinced Julie to flip and so Ralph is screwed. But Julie seems smarter than she looks and doesn't flip, and Russell is sent to Redemption 5-1-0 after a 3-3-3 tie. Meanwhile, the vintage Robfather finds the immunity idol clue from right under Phillip's ass but is unsuccessful in finding the actual idol itself.
With Russell gone, Ralph now seems to be the firm strategical player on Zapatera, but then he becomes a total idiot in showing his idol to the rest of the tribe, thereby receiving "Marty Syndrome" which gives him a huge target after Steph and Krista are gone. I thought Ralph was actually pretty smart before this, but his ego got to him even earlier than Russell's did on Samoa.
Then comes the DUEL between Matt and Russell. Ometepe send Kristina and Phillip, while Zapatera send Ralph and Sarita. It was a pretty close contest, but Elrod won for the 2nd time in a row and Russell began bawling like a baby. I loved Russell in Samoa and Heroes vs. Villains but became bored of him here, but I admit, he made up for it with his performance at Redemption. He really cares about the game, not just the fame/money that comes with it if you win. Ralph's stocks continued to crash as Russell successfully provoked him into showing his idol, and he also claimed that Steve, Mike and Sarita were actually in charge of Zapatera. As Russell is very observant, I believe him, so now Ralph is just relegated to Steve/Mike/Sarita's bodyguard who takes all of the bullets people throw at them. If Ralph isn't gone before the merge, he will certainly be the first post-merge boot if Rob's charm could convince some of the Zapateras to flip, especially David and Julie, the followers in the 6-way alliance. Well, Russell went out with a bang, and according to him, he ain't coming back.
Well, one superstar is down, but the other is still going strong. Rob has arguably the best position in the game as of now with his gang of fans and 3 secure boots (Kristina, Phillip and Andrea) before the merge. While Russell's protege at idol-finding, Kristina, is gone, Rob manages to distract his fellows with a beach party and then runs off due to "constipation" and finds the idol. Good for him. He could now most certainly blindside Ralph come post-merge with it, since I doubt Ralph has the humility to actually play his idol. When Phillip and Kristina return, Phillip tries to get all strategic and use the events at the duel as leverage with Rob (and Grant, but he's not the head honcho anyways), but he fails miserably (again) and Rob/Grant distrust him even more.
Challenge time! Last time I thought Zapatera would be cursed after throwing the previous challenge but apparently not. To be fair, it was totally rigged in favor of them. The challenge basically required good tool skills and brute strength, and Ralph had both of them. Although Ometepe gave the Zaps a run for their money, it was futile and Ometepe were required to vote another person out.
Now's time to play Anybody But Phillip And Kristina. Although Kristina is obviously the more threatening strategically and likely to flip at the merge, Phillip is annoying as hell even to viewers not to mention his own tribe mates and for once it seems that Rob isn't getting his way, especially Grant, who's supposed to vote for Kristina (Rob's alliance are doing the split-vote shit again) but is hating on Phillip instead. But this is all for naught, as at Tribal Council Phillip is obviously portrayed as more valuable to the tribe than Kristina, who's voted out 4-3.
Apparently next time there will finally be some drama within the Zap 6, hinting that they'll be sent. But Rob mentions that Phillip needs to stay, also hinting at tribal council. Hmm...maybe this is the double boot episode? Seems a bit early...Maybe one of them's just a red herring, but I would love for Zap to be sent, as Ometepe's tribal councils/votes have grown rather stale after Matt's boot. If Ometepe's sent, Phillip will be gone as, although Rob wants him around, the rest of the tribe hate him too much to bear with him for much longer. With the Zap 6, other than the obvious Stephanie/Krista choice, maybe Ralph? Perhaps some of the Zaps distrust him after he delayed showing them the idol. =/

Einstein's Lost Twin Brother Award goes to Rob. Woah 3rd time eh? Anyways, Rob did great in finding the idol and even convinced his alliance that Kristina has it. If he lasts late post-merge he'll win the fan favorite for sure!
Dumber'n A Bag of Hammers Award goes to Ralph. Yes I've stopped calling him Rooster 'cause I hate him now. He was stupid enough to show his idol to his tribe, like Marty in Nicaragua, and even the other tribe, like JT in Heroes vs. Villains. Both players didn't make it very far; Marty was fortunate enough to make the merge while JT was stupid enough not only to show his idol but to give it to.....Russell Hantz. T_T anyways, he seems like a dumber version of Rupert now.
Crazy Man Award goes to Phillip for obvious reasons.

I Like Cheese

There, I posted something. Happy, Matthew?

Evil Teachers

Omfg don't you hate it when teachers screw you up?

Like on Monday in gym class, we were playing bench ball (soccer with benches as nets. Sounds like fun eh? =P) and, once, in a solitary epic duel, I accidentally shoved her over on the ground. It actually wasn't that rough, but that person dived like an Italian and, after the game finished, the teacher heard me laughing about it. For one, I apologized. For two, it was almost purely an accident. But I got called over and was subjected to this uber-long lecture about "fair play", lying (o.o) and the teacher even criticized my tone of voice. Later when I got back, my friend Owen, who follows this blog, told me that that teacher told her entire class about me, saying I had "attitude problems" and all that crap.

>:(

By the way, this is my first post with 3 tags.

THE NEW NOOBY GAMES

So Matthew just decided to add some games to this blog!!! =D.

Man in Gap: if you don't know how to play this game you will probably die in it. It's fairly simple actually, just guide your figure into the safe gaps to avoid being smooshed by the walls. I'll admit it: I suck at that game. My highscore is only 19 ='(.

The other game: Continuity. I never played this game until around 2 minutes ago. Basically you guide your figure to collect keys and open red doors and move level screens around. Again, I am not very good at the game.

OMFG (again)

So 5 days after losing to Chelsea, ManUnited now lose to.....Liverpool.

O.O

Basically, Kuyt scored a hattrick, Maradona's follower Luiz Suarez was involved in all 3 goals, and  Hernandez did get a consolation for United, but they still lost. 3-1.  Sadly, this wasn't the whole story.  

Liverpool fullback Jaimie Carragher blatantly fouled and injured Nani. A free-for-all on the pitch ensued, and Nani even had the guts to show his injury to referee Phil Dowd, while Suarez was busy pulling Rafael's hair in the background.  Somehow, Dowd did not send anybody off, but gave yellows to Carragher, Skrtel, Rafael and van der Sar. Is it just me or are all Premier League referees blind?

Survivor Redemption Island Episode 3: "Keep Hope Alive" Review

So, previously on Survivor, Matt and Andrea become the latest Survivor showmance which threatens to unseat the great couples of Ethan/Jenna, Rich and Sue and the greatest Survivormance of all time: Rob and Amber.  Rob obviously gets jealous and, after Matt continued burying his own grave by shaking hands with Zapatera after losing a challenge, Rob has had enough and enlists Special Agent Phillip and his gang of Invisibles to blindside Matt, also getting a bonus as Kristina randomly plays her idol, sending Matt to Redemption 4-2-0.

Francesca is very surprised to see Matt at Redemption, but they hang out for a couple of days until (cue dramatic music) the DUEL.  The audience is David and Steve from Zapatera and Ashley and Andrea of Ometepe.  The challenge is pretty straightforward: the survivors have to grab keys using long sticks, open a few locks and go through the door.  Francesca takes a 2-0 lead on the key-grabbing contest, but her stick crucially breaks while grabbing #3 and Matt comes back to grab all 3 keys, unlock the door and win the challenge, sending Francesca home for good. Afterwards, Ashley and Andrea tell the truth to Ometepe but David and Steve lie to Russell and his concubines that Matt was actually sent home.

OMFG

So, a few weeks after United lose to Wolves, they lose AGAIN. To CHELSEA.

And this is right after a rather dismal tie with Olympique Marseille and a very fortunate Manchester derby, won by Rooney's magic. Sadly, this time United actually deserved to win the game. Luiz should have been sent off for his challenge on Hernandez and the penalty was....well.....very soft. The outstanding Chris Smalling clearly got the ball in the area and if the referee wasn't a complete idiot he would've said play on. Well at least Smalling didn't get sent off. Vidic will now miss the Liverpool fixture after a 90th-minute red card. And since Ferdinand is injured, Wes Brown will have to take his place.

Van der Sar was brilliant in this game. He saved a good shot from Malouda, another from Luiz, but his moment of fame was still to come. After only managing to parry Lampard's free kick straight to Ivanovic, van der Sar still somehow tipped the ball to Vidic who cleared. Vidic, despite his red card, was also rock solid and made several important clearances and blocked Zhirkov's shot which would've went in.

Rooney then scored a low 25-yarder. He seems to be regaining his form at the moment, which is good, because Manchester United need him to settle this crisis of losing 2 out of 3 games when they had previously gone the whole season unbeaten. But United's undoing was in the 2nd half.

They just sat back and defended instead of pushing and pressing Chelsea, who were now free to attack. It was rather debatable why. United had an obvious advantage up front with Hernandez, Rooney, Nani and Scholes all in the mix. At the back, however, they had Vidic, van der Sar, Smalling, Evra and O'Shea. Vidic and van der Sar are undoubtedly world-class, but Smalling lacks the experience for games like this. Evra is way too offensive, and O'Shea isn't very good at all. Maybe Fergie just had this random spazz =/.

Well, Essien swung a cross in and Luiz netted the equalizer. Then, after a random swing of chances, Lampard was basically gifted a penalty which he drove past van der Sar and into the goal, making Chelsea lead 2-1.

If Arsenal win against Tottenham, then they will be within 1 point of Manchester United, an easily catchable distance. Apparently, the center cannot hold.

Arsenal's Fruitless Hunt Continues....

What is it now? 6 years without a trophy?

Lmfao and the only remaining member of the famous 2003 "Invincibles" side is Gael Clichy who, along with fresh new blood Jack Wilshere, were Arsenal's best players. They were really lacking in invention after yet another injury to their inspirational captain Cesc Fabregas and were also undone by some rather senseless substitutions by Wenger, who brought van Persie off at 1-1 and brought on Bendtner, who isn't the best striker around. At least bring on Chamakh or something! Well Wenger listened but brought off Arshavin, another one of Arsenal's great players. =/ .__. .

But that didn't mean that Birmingham had to give around 150% to beat this Gooners team. They really should've had a penalty when Lee Bowyer rounded Gooners keeper Wojciech Szczeny and was pulled down, but somehow the assistant flagged for offside. If he didn't, the score would in all likelihood have been 1-0 to Birmingham and Szczeny would've been sent off, leaving Arsenal down a man. And this was in the opening 2 minutes.

Arsenal had a few shots in the early game, with both Arshavin and Nasri coming close. But Birmingham were lethal on the counterattack and won a corner, which Nikola Zigic (or the Serbian Peter Crouch) nodded home for 1-0. Arsenal were level 11 minutes later, after a Wilshere long shot crashed down off the crossbar and van Persie knocked home the rebound. However, Arsenal were really bad the first half and Birmingham should've had this game wrapped up.

They were a bit better in the second. Nasri again went close and Bendtner had his shot saved by Foster. Birmingham fought on and Fahey crashed a shot off the bar but there was no striker to bury the rebound.

But Arsenal only had themselves to blame for Birmingham's winner. Or, more precisely, their defense. The goalkeeper spot in Arsenal was precarious, with Manuel Almunia (a former Osasuna B team member), Lukasz Fabianski (who's Polish =p but seriously, he sucks) and Szczeny the contenders. Szczeny's weaknesses were already shown in the early stages, and now he dreadfully misinterpreted a Zigic cross after center back Koscielny (another weak spot) missed his cross. In a move like Petr Cech's against Turkey in Euro 2008, Szczeny spilled the ball and Obafemi Martins tapped home on an empty net.

Defense has proven to be the Gunners' Achilles Heel again. Ever since Jens Lehmann left in 2008, there has been no world-class goalkeeper in Arsenal's squad. And Arsenal's defenders aren't really that good either, as after Kolo Toure left for Man City, they only have Sebastien Squillaci and Clichy as reliable defensive players. Maybe they should get Puyol =P.

So the Arsenal Quintuple dream is truly finished. They lost the Carling Cup and United are reopening the gap in the Premier League. They could still win the FA Cup and the Champions League, but their recent shaky performances don't bode altogether well.

Survivor Redemption Island Episode 2 "You Own My Vote" Review

Yep I've added episode names =).

So, previously on Survivor, Phillip revealed himself to be a crazy spazz. Russhole made yet another "cute little girl" alliance with Stephanie and the Robfather made a great move in voting out the Fusah priest Francesca 4-3-2.

This time, Russhole added another girl, Krista Klumpp (a Natalie White 2.0 if ever there was one) into his alliance but Ralph "Rooster" Kaiser manages to grab everyone else and steal the hidden immunity idol from right under Russhole's nose. Rooster seemed unaffected by Russhole's intimidation tactics, and doing so earns him admiration from David and Da Soldier Mike, although they might just be envious of his body hair.

On Ometepe, Robfather is in complete control with an alliance of just about everyone except Kristina and Phillip. However, he notices Matt and Andrea getting close and is wary, since Amber and him were a dominant duo on Survivor All-Stars.

Now to Redemption Island! Francesca arrives and begins writing in her journal and.....that's it. Honestly, CBS should've portrayed Redemption Island more as Francesca's character could be developed so much more. >:(

So, to the immunity/reward challenge. Ometepe take an early lead after Sarita slows down Zapatera, but Zapatera comes back at the ball-throwing stage as Rooster hits 4 targets in a row while Phillip hits 1. Although Phillip has a late rush which ties the score at 4-4, Rooster does the trick by burying the final target, winning Zapatera immunity. Then, Matt just enlarged the target on his back by blithely shaking hands with the Zapateras, causing Robfather to hate on him even more. Matt's chances of elimination are rising into the early 90%s.

At Ometepe, Phillip makes a goodbye speech, convinced that he's going home next. But Robfather tells his alliance bar Matt and Andrea to blindside Matt due to his actions for Zapatera. With the whole alliance, he tells them to split the vote between Kristina and Phillip, causing one of them to go home depending on if Kristina plays her idol or not. Then, in a vintage Robfather move, Rob convinces Phillip that he's safe for the moment and tells him to vote according to his signal at tribal council

Tribal Council Time! Phillip goes on a much more balanced speech sounding like an epitaph, still convinced he's going home. Kristina wants to confirm this by playing her idol. Rob motions for Phillip to vote Kristina. And the votes are cast....

Phillip gets 2 votes. Kristina gets 2 votes, but both are negated. And Matt is in open shock as he gets 4 straight votes from his own alliance. Matt is voted off, 4-2-0!

Einstein's Lost Twin Brother Award goes to Rob/Rooster. Rob does great in recognizing the Matt/Andrea duo as a threat and garners Phillip on his side and causes Kristina to waste her idol. Rooster also gets his Zapatera alliance into a great position outnumbering Russell's alliance 6-3 with the hidden immunity idol in his hands too.

Dumber'n A Bag of Hammers Award goes to Kristina. Why the heck would you waste your idol like that???? Now you have no idol, no chance to blindside Rob and a huge target on your back. Best get ready for Redemption Island.

Crazy Man Award goes to Russell. He just randomly confronts Rooster about having the hidden immunity idol clue and goes all defensive instead of just admitting it. o.o not a great way to appease the majority alliance leader.

Next episode I predict that Zapatera will lose immunity, as Stephanie mentions a "blindside" in the trailer. However, Rooster has the idol, so either he makes a fake to fool Russell or Russell just steals his idol. On Ometepe, Andrea apparently goes all crazy in losing Matt, but I'm pretty sure that this is just a red herring. And on Redemption Island, I'm pretty sure Matt will beat Francesca as he is better physically and barely got a POV this season, while Francesca features pretty prominently in the 1st episode.

Stay tuned for our next episode.

What a Weird Week...

In the midweek Champions' League fixture Manchester United were rather poor in a drab 0-0 draw with the French team Olympique Marseille. Both teams mustered only 2 shots on target and only Darren Fletcher of United had a decent opportunity, his shot saved by OM goalkeeper Mandanda. Sure, Scholes changed the game in the final 18 minutes, giving United 2 chances, both wasted by Berbatov and Nani respectively and a golf ball was thrown in as United took a corner; the only talking point in a dreadfully boring contest.

The other midweek fixture between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan was much more interesting. Sure, it only ended 1-0 to Bayern, but both sides contributed to a great match which saw both teams miss chance after chance, and only Bayern's Mario Gomez tucked home a 90th-minute winner.

But in the league fixtures today, United scored 4 against Wigan. Despite the 4-0 scoreline, the Latics were much the better team throughout the first half and only a defensive collapse allowed United to score 3 goals in the last 15 minutes. Javier Hernandez scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season in this match, and gave the disappointing Berbatov a run for his money in the contest for the starting striker position. Rooney's recovery continued as he grabbed the assist for Hernandez's second goal and scored one himself, albeit a tap-in from Berbatov's cross.

This is the beginning of a tough week for United. They are away at both Chelsea and Liverpool this week. Sure, Chelsea need to recover from their FA Cup fiasco with Everton but Liverpool are fast on the road to recovery with the "Messiah" Kenny Dalglish playing a big role. This might be the week where United need to prove their title credentials i.e. their "match of the season".

Blackpool's slide continues as they stunningly lose 4-0 to Wolves, who now climb out of the relegation zone having a better goal difference than West Brom. Blackpool are now 14th and are only 4 points away from the relegation zone. And to think they were in the top 7 at the end of 2010. Villa's road to recovery continued as they easily dispose of Blackburn 4-1. Jermaine Beckford, who used to play with Leeds in League One, scored a brace in the 1st half for Everton to down Sunderland 2-0 and Newcastle hang on with 10 men to draw Bolton 1-1.

CHELSEA ARE OUT!!!

Alright so the FA Cup weekend has finished!

Chelsea, Crawley Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Fulham, Notts County and Brighton are out, while Leyton Orient and Arsenal still need a replay after a 1-1 draw. Manchester United, Birmingham, Bolton and Stoke are all in the quarter-finals while Everton face Man City in round 5.

So the best is first. Chelsea collapsed again at Everton, where they seemed to lack the drive to score goals. Lampard missed a hatful of chances, and Malouda spent 2 minutes just trying to get his wedding ring off his finger. In extra time, Lampard for once hit the target and Chelsea seemed destined to go through.

But Leighton Baines sent a 30-yard free kick into the top corner a minute from time and, guess what! Penalties are needed! Chelsea led 2-0 at one point when Lampard and Drogba scored while Baines missed for Everton. Jagielka kept Everton in it, and Anelka, so reliable in seasons past, bombed his penalty and Everton tied it up with Mikel Arteta's kick. Essien and Heitinga both buried their penalties, leaving the score 3-3. Then Heitinga's moment of infamy. While Ashley Cole was on his way for his penalty, Heitinga bumped him and Cole blazed the penalty over the bar. Phil Neville scored the final spot-kick and Everton won 4-3 on penalties.

So Chelsea showed again that they are an immensely overrated team. They simply have no stomach for pressure, just like AC Milan in their Tottenham game.

Manchester United just barely beat Conference side Crawley Town, who now have 5 games in hand and look certain to win the English Conference. Rooney, after his fabulous bicycle kick last week, looked ineffective and frustrated this one, while another United young boy Obertan was useless in attack. United had to thank Wes Brown, who scored a beautiful back-header and was rock solid in defense. But Crawley were surprisingly good for a Conference side, giving United no end in trouble. Ben Smith glanced a 30-yarder just wide, and Matt Tubbs tried a Rooney with an overhead kick of his own. Sadly, it went just over. Crawley's run was at an end.

Notts County, who were so good in the 2-2 draw with Man City, now lost 5-0 as the veteran Patrick Vieira scored twice while Dzeko, Tevez and Micah Richards also got on the scoresheet. Birmingham continued the Premier League clubs' rout by beating Championship side Sheffield Wednesday 3-0, while Bolton's Ivan Klasnic scored his 2nd goal in 4 days to down Fulham 1-0, and Stoke put Brighton away 3-0.

But the EPL clubs weren't all successful. Arsenal, who had been rocky recently, now drew at League One side Leyton Orient. Arsenal had just beaten Barcelona 2-1 in the midweek Champions' League fixture and looked to run away with it here, with 12 shots on target but somehow only managed a 53rd minute Thomas Rosicky goal. It wasn't enough as in the last minute Orient's Jonathan Tehoue broke through Gibbs and Miquel to score and ensure a replay for the Gooners.

So the quarter-finals of the FA Cup looks like this:

Stoke City vs. West Ham/Burnley

Man City/Aston Villa vs. Everton/Reading

Birmingham vs. Bolton

Man Utd vs. Arsenal/Leyton Orient

Survivor Redemption Island Episode 1: Review

Hooray the new Survivor season starts! =D

Sadly, Rob and Russell are in the show, and sadly both do not get voted out on thee 1st episode. But enough of that.

Every episode review I will say what I thought about the episode and give out awards for the dumbest, smartest and most interesting (ahem crazy) personalities.

Alright so the first episode starts off with the Nicaraguan military escorting the survivors back to Nicaragua, where last season was held. After a bit, Rob and Russell get a grandiose VIP entrance and Jeff Probst gives the amateurs a little history on their games. Then, Rob and Russell drew buffs to decide which tribe they're going to be on. Rob gets orange (Ometepe), while Russell gets purple (Zapatera). The Ometepes all welcome Rob like their king, except Francesca who correctly says she doesn't want to be with Rob, while the Zapateras give Russell a less-than-warm welcome. Jeff then introduces the Redemption Island concept to the players, and it's off to camp.

Ometepe gets the majority of the screen time, showing Rob being the good man he is and helping his tribe build shelters, as well as Phillip spazzing over everything. But already drama starts brewing as Kristina decides to pull a Russell and find a hidden immunity idol without a clue. Surprisingly, she does so, and I begin to think that Kristina is like the new Parvati or something until she decides to make an alliance with Francesca (fair enough) and Phillip (O.O). Why the heck would she do so? Phillip is crazy, and unpredictable too. If you do something to piss him off, he's gone. Also, Krista and the other women clearly heard Rob approaching Phillip in an earlier scene. Why align with him?

At Zapatera, nothing happens except Russell again using the "take a girl to the final" strategy by selecting Stephanie, but there's a catch. Russell and Stephanie will only work to the merge. For me that is absolute bull**** because whoever heard of a premerge alliance just randomly splitting up after the merge? Anyways, Mike and David of Zapatera decide that Stephanie is no longer reliable because of her association with Russell, and form a guy alliance.

First immunity! For some reason the show skipped the reward challenge this episode. Anyways, it's basically building steps to get to the next level, chopping rope to get to the next level and solving a puzzle. Easy peasy. Zapatera take an early lead and, despite Ometepe doing great at the puzzle, win immunity. After that, Russell gloats a bit to Rob, claiming his tribe is buff and all that.

Rob then goes with his gang and discuss the possibility of Kristina having an idol (which, obviously, she does). Rob then uses the tactic that he used in Heroes vs. Villains where his alliance split the votes between Kristina and Francesca. Luckily, this time there was no Tyson to mess things up and things seemingly are about to go to plan for Rob for once.

At tribal council, Phillip makes another random spazz and even goes against his allies Kristina and Francesca. He first tells everyone that Kristina and Francesca want Rob out, then even tells Rob that Kristina has an idol. Things quickly get out of hand and Rob basically demands Kristina's idol, but Kristina is a strong woman and denies him. After a word-fight between Francesca and Phillip, it's time to vote! Francesca has 4 votes from Rob's men and Phillip, Kristina has 3 votes from Rob's women and Phillip has 2 votes from Francesca and Kristina. Francesca goes to Redemption Island 4-3-2!

Einstein's Lost Twin Brother Award goes to....(drumroll) Rob! He organized his alliance well and ensured there was no mess-up like last time and got the job done, cutting Francesca off from Kristina for a while and ensuring his alliance in a dominant role in Ometepe. However, Mike and David on Zapatera get a mention too as they correctly identified Stephanie as no longer trustworthy.

Dumber'n a Bag of Hammers Award goes to....a tie between Francesca and Kristina! Kristina should not have made an alliance with Phillip in the first place and also should have hid her intentions for the idol from Rob too. But Francesca's duel with Phillip at tribal council ultimately forced her out of the game with Phillip casting the deciding vote. Francesca also could've voted for Kristina, resulting in a 4-4-1 tie vote and I am sure Rob would keep Francesca over Kristina.

Crazy Man Award goes to....Phillip! For obvious reasons.

Stay tuned for episode 2!

=D

=D =D =D Hooray I beat those damned Space Invaders 4-2. http://www93.hattrick.org/Club/Matches/Match.aspx?matchID=313436116&TeamId=1677466&BrowseIds=315867121,313436104,316151797,313436107,316263947,313436111,316486055,313436116,316701512,313436119,313436123,313436127&UpdateViewedReport=False

I'm "Rovers" by the way.

That means that.....I stay 3rd but Zeal go first after bashing bot team mongolians 10-0 and everything will go down to that Zeal-Invaders game on the 27th. However, my win means that if Zeal ties/beats Invaders, they will almost certainly promote. That's good for me, since I want them out of my league as fast as possible because their team rating is like 42 times better than mine, and Invaders are an easier opponent so I might actually promote next season! =D

MUBARAK GOES DOWN

Finally I have the time and desire to do this!

Yesterday (or the day before, I forgot =P), President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt finally resigned from his post. Unlike the Tunisian President Ben Ali, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, Mubarak decided to stay in Egypt and is probably relaxing at his million-dollar-mansion at Sharm-el-Sheikh by the Red Sea in the Sinai Peninsula, bordering Israel. Sadly, Egyptian democracy is still a long way away as Mubarak has left the High Council of Egyptian Armed Forces in charge. Basically, all of the military officials of the Mubarak government are still there, and only Mubarak (who I now regard as a puppet for the army), has left. Sure, the Council has dissolved the Egyptian Parliament, but it probably aims for appointing more of its own members in official positions. It shares a faint resemblance to Hitler's rise in power in 1930s Germany, with the dissolving of the German Reichstag numerous times just for more Nazis to get elected. Same in Tunisia, where there are still protests going on against the new Tunisian government, which, coincidentally, is also a military official. Maybe the Muslim Brotherhood is behind all of this after all!

I could go on for ages, but I've been on the computer for far too long and I need to rest my eyes. Bye!

Hattrick- Game 11

My Hattrick season has been "disastrous". The only team I've actually beaten are the computer-controlled bots, and I'm 3rd out of 3 human managers. To be fair, I'm a noob, and also both have much more talented players and more managerial skill and the scores aren't actually that bad. 0-2 against Space Invaders and 0-4 and 1-2 against Zeal FC. I'll be playing Space Invaders again in around 15 minutes, and since I'm feeling nice I'll actually try to win and do Zeal a favor because if I win, Zeal will be #1 by goal difference. Still, I might just fail miserably and everything will be on the Zeal-Invaders game on February 27th.

So for all fellow noobs, wish me luck!

Rooney Saves the Day

Alright I was wrong about Rooney.

His strike was AWESOME, and it saved United from almost certain defeat by City, who I reckon were the better side. Certainly the Goal of the Season, unless somebody else does something even more spectacular.

Apparently it was Rooney's best ever goal too, in a season where he had only scored 5 times. Although he did score 30-yard shots against Arsenal and Newcastle before, this was undoubtedly the best in a rather lackluster season for the striker, after 34 goals in 42 appearances last season. That old geezer Scholes did a pretty good pass to Nani, who delivered a rather poor cross which was fortunately deflected by Pablo Zabaleta (who had a disastrous appearance) and Rooney did his magic to send the ball into the top corner.

Chris Smalling, somebody I never even heard of, contained that traitor Tevez very well, so that he didn't even get a shot in, and City's only goal was a very fortunate deflection off David Silva. But United were no better and Nani's opener was due to a long blaster from Van Der Sar who unfortunately will retire at season's end. Nemanja Vidic was also epicly awesome to cover for John O'Shea, who I never really liked (he's Irish, after all. Just kidding.). But the midfielders, apart from Nani, were all rather poor, and Fergie should really have used the January transfer window to buy new playmakers to cover for Darren Fletcher, who rather lost his form these days, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, who are now too old, and Anderson, who is virtually non-existent.

In other news today, Arsenal bounced back from their 4-4 draw with Newcastle to beat Wolves 2-0 and gain some small revenge for Manchester United. Blackpool finally ended their 5-game losing streak to draw 1-1 at Aston Villa. West Ham came back from 0-3 down to West Brom to tie 3-3 and deny Baggies's new boss Roy Hodgeson an opening win. Birmingham's Nikola Zigic struck in the 91st minute for his team to beat Stoke 1-0. Blackburn and Newcastle had a goalless draw. Liverpool tied Wigan 1-1 and Tottenham just finished beating Sunderland 2-1.

OMFG

OMFG THEY'RE ACTUALLY DOING IT.

Rob and Russell are actually gonna be on Survivor 22! Apparently they will be the leaders of their respective tribes.

I'll see absolutely no way that both of them will make the merge, thus wasting 2 out of 18 Survivor spots. What makes me angry is that this rejects potentially interesting allstar-type players the chance to shine. And Rob will be playing for the 4th time!!!!!! >:( and Russhole the 3rd in 4 seasons >:O.

Hopefully they both get booted early so I won't get bored from all that crap.

Mousebreaker

Ever heard of it?

Mousebreaker produces great online soccer games, bettered by very few in the world. And they create it all through flash, and the games have tremendous depth-they're easy to play but hard to master.

Overall my favorite game on Mb is probably the "Jumpers for Goalposts" series, where you guide a striker from the rookie leagues to the World Cup final.. And my favorite Jumper for Goalpost is #2. #1 was really hard because nearly all of your goal chances were volleys, which I suck at. And the all-new Jumpers for Goalposts 3 takes too much to run and often slows down my computer, to the point where lag kicks in and it takes 5 seconds for my command to register, and by that time I would've missed the chance. Give me #2 any time: the controls are easy, there's virtually no lag to worry about (due to its simplistic graphics) and the gameplay is great!

Other than JfG, the Volley Challenges are rather fun too. You play a season as a team in the English league pyramid and try to become league champion through scoring points from volleys. Each match has a "draw" and "win" target, and when you run out of balls at the "draw" target you get a draw and so on. The zombie world cup game used to be really fun, but since I've beaten it its' grown really easy, and the manager games are very good, except 2010 where the action moved way too fast.

The Combo games are among the better games on Mb. You control your team's offensive prowess, creating opportunities by passing, crossing and shooting to victory. It would've been much better if we could control the defensive aspect of the game too, but sadly no game is perfect.

Goals Galore in the Premier League

Wow...what a day in the Premier League!

In soccer, 2-2 is already normally a contender for "match of the day". 3-2 might even win the competition. Today, both these scores featured, but neither came close.

There was a 5-3, a 4-4 and a 4-3. The league leaders Manchester United lost for the first time in 29 games to the bottom team Wolves, Newcastle came from 4-0 down even though they just sold their top forward Andy Carroll to Liverpool and Joey Barton scored 2 of their 4 goals, when only 2 years ago he was in jail. Tottenham Hotspur missed a penalty, got a goal ruled out for offside, and was denied another penalty and still won the game in almost the 93rd minute. Louis Saha, a name almost none of us have heard of, scored 4 goals for Everton against Blackpool but Everton still struggled to repel the Tangerines. Defender John Pantsil scored his second own goal this week in a Fulham shirt, but his team still drew Aston Villa, while another defender, Stoke City's Robert Huth, managed to score 2 goals in 1 half. And Manchester City's Carlos Tevez, who recently handed in a transfer request, scored a hattrick.

This was no ordinary Premier League day. Tottenham-Bolton, Stoke-Sunderland, Fulham-Villa and City-West Brom could've won the "match of the day" in previous weeks. But now they've been relegated to the back pages in favor of Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal, Wigan 4-3 Blackburn, Everton 5-3 Blackpool and Wolves 2-1 Manchester United. No ordinary game has a comeback from 4-0 down. No ordinary game had somebody scoring 4 goals. No ordinary game had two bottom-half teams score 7 goals between them. And CERTAINLY no ordinary game had 20th beat 1st.

Why oh why Manchester United? Why did your amazing unbeaten run have to end at WOLVES of all teams? No offense to them, but they aren't exactly the best team in the world. And that gingerhead Scholes attempted to throw the ball into the net! Not exactly the best way to score (and not get sent off, for that matter...). Even worse, Ferdinand is now out for 2 weeks, and while he was gone, United once conceded 2 goals in 3 minutes in a 3-3 draw with Everton. And Rooney, who was so good last week, failed to show up this time. Maybe last week's double was just a 1-hit-wonder in a miserable season for the guy. Still, you have to give credit to Wolves. They went 1-0 down after only 3 minutes and still managed to win and hold on to their lead in 5 minutes of injury time.

Survivor: Redemption Island-Rob vs. Russell?????!!!!

I've just heard a rumor on the internet that the 22nd season of Survivor will feature Boston Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz from seasons 8 and 19 respectively as players in its season!

Russell should most definitely NOT be in Survivor 22. Even though he should have won Samoa Hantz down (I'm so funny eh? =P) he should not appear for the 3rd time in 4 seasons. At least get Richard Hatch to replace him! The guy's one of the best players ever but hasn't appeared since ages ago! Although I'm not sure if he's out of jail or not...

Robby shouldn't be in it either. In my mind he is so overrated that he makes Natalie White from Samoa look like a deserving winner who didn't charm the jury with her dumb-girl act. Rob didn't even make the jury in season 4, admittedly did well in season 8 but was crap in season 20, where he didn't even make the merge. So, he only made it far in 1/3 seasons, while Russell made it to the final in 2/2 seasons. =/

Both Russell and Rob should NOT be in S22. I've personally had enough of Russell and Rob is just crap. Maybe Survivor should just not invite ANYONE from past seasons and instead invite interesting people who've never appeared on the show before.

Mubarak Still Alive...

Well Mubarak is stronger than I anticipated. He still hasn't resigned!

There's still a lot of protests. The Egyptian army has come into Cairo but has done nothing. But I have a sneaking suspicion that Mubarak is just waiting for more protestors to come and use the army to kill more of them.

The Arab World Crisis

Alright I think everyone has heard the news. You know, the crises in Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen and all the other Arab World countries. The Tunisian President Zine Bel Ali has already resigned and a new government has been formed. And in Egypt after only 5 days of protest President Mubarak has already appointed a new vice-president and prime minister.

I think that if President Mubarak resigns, instability will consume the Middle East. Egypt has been a moderating effect on other, less stable Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon and Iraq, and both the United States and the EU consider Egypt to be a vital ally. If Egypt tumbles, who knows? Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran could all be drawn into war. Israel is actually much like North Korea on the other side of Asia. If North Korea attacks its southern neighbor, most of Eastern Asia will be drawn into war. Just like Israel's conquests of Syria's Golan Heights and Egypt's Giza Strip.

The Arab World is in a transition period. In the Middle Ages they were the cutting-edge in medicine and science. But now we see terrorism, suicide bombers and war all associated with the Muslim religion. I highly doubt that Islamic culture is like this. I might be mistaken, but doesn't the Koran (the Muslim holy book, for those noobs that don't know) value peace over war? There is fear in their eyes. Fear of Western influences. Fear of the Jews in Israel. Fear that their way of life will be crushed.

Now that I mention it, the West. Egypt's crisis isn't very good for the West. What if Mubarak is overthrown, and some pro-terrorist Taliban takes his place? Egypt could become a second Iraq and Afghanistan. They do share some similarities: Iraq and Afghanistan were once stable, prosperous countries. But then the stern dictatorships of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban take over, and both countries have been plunged into chaos. Egypt could add oil to an already blazing Middle Eastern fire.

Injuries >=(

Alright I am pissed >=(.

I am right in a crunch match for my league in Hattrick this Saturday and now 3 of my BEST players are injured. 2 defenders and 1 forward. And that hurts since I have a profound lack of both.

Luckily, one defender, Garry Poitiers (rated Solid in Defending) recovered today. But the other two are still in the hospital. The other defender, Henrik Stenwald, is one of my best wingbacks (passable in both Defending and Winger) and the forward, Etienne Laviolette is a great multiskilled player (solid Playmaking and Set Pieces, passable Scoring, Defending and Passing) with a Technical specialty to boot.

So I am left with playing Kevin Meyers and Jonathan Coe (both rated inadequate in Defending; Coe has inadequate Winger and Meyers has passable). Yeah not the best defenders in the world. To cap it all off, my goalkeeper Andrea Giaccardi is in weak form and only has inadequate Keeping anyways.

In attack, I play Paul Moore, who also has passable Scoring but is desperately needed to boost my midfield rating. Levent Avunc, originally on the wing, is now suddenly an inner midfielder with inadequate stamina, so I have to sub him off after the second half. On the wing is Amichai Shinfeld, who up until last week was playing for my youth team and only has inadequate Winger.

So I have basically given up for this season. If I lose this game, both Zeal FC (the team I'm facing) will be 6 points above me and the leaders Space Invaders will be 9, unless in the unlikely event that he loses to The Connecticut Elephants whose manager has only joined in December. Even then, the next few games will be against bots and then I'll be facing Space Invaders, who I doubt I can beat.

BLACKPOOL

Hey fellow Premier League watchers! Heard the latest news?

I'm not writing about Darren Bent's 18 million euro transfer (he can go rot in a hole for all I care). I'm not writing about Liverpool's recent resurgence under Kenny Dalglish. I am talking about Blackpool

In this season Blackpool have been quite simply stunning. An opening 4-0 win over Wigan. A miraculous 2-1 win over Liverpool. 8th in the table. And to think they were in League One just a few years ago!

But now they've been fined.

In a 2-3 loss to Aston Villa early in the season, Blackpool manager Ian Holloway, who had led the Tangerines from their League One days, made 10 changes to a side that had tied 2-2 with Everton the previous week. Apparently this is a Premier League offense and Blackpool has been fined 25000 English pounds.

My first reaction was...What the ****?

Why the hell would radically changing a side be noteworthy of a fine?

Alright maybe Blackpool were bribed to lose the match, but they only lost 2-3 to a good side! Why would Aston Villa even waste money to bribe them in the first place?

To make matters even more stupidly ridiculous, Ian Holloway has stated he would quit if charges are fined against the team. Um...overreaction-much? Just because your team got fined 25 grand (which isn't really a big sum in a league where players' salaries average around fifty grand a week) doesn't mean that you should quit and waste all the effort you did over the past few years. It's just like Fergie spazzing at refs when they make a bad offside call or something (but Fergie spazzes are fun =P). Mr. Holloway should NOT let all the crap the FA throws at him get into his head. In fact, he should ignore it and focus more on why his team have now lost 3 games in a row after that marvelous win at Liverpool.

Basically, behind all that charisma, Ian Holloway is still a person and Blackpool are just still a team. =)

Chelsea's Unfortunate Revival

Oh noes! Chelsea just regained their form! =S

For those noobs who don't know, Chelsea FC is a soccer club in London, England and great rivals to my fave team Manchester United in the English Premier League. They had a great start to the 2010-11 season, winning 8 out of their first 10 games and scoring 25 out of a possible 30 points. Man Utd, meanwhile, had rather absymal performances like tying 2-2 with 16th place Fulham and a 3-3 tie with Everton, who were 15th at the time.

But suddenly Chelsea collapsed. Maybe it was a 0-2 loss at Liverpool that screwed them up, because after that the Blues only got 1 win in their next 7 matches. Man Utd, despite tying a lot more matches (around 8), crucially never lost and soon cemented their place at the top of the table.

Sadly, Chelsea seemed to have rebounded after a 7-0 demolition of Championship side Ipswich Town and now, after beating Bolton Wanderers 4-0, looked to have regained their form.

But Manchester United will beat them!

Do You Like Waffles? Or Muffins? Or Potatoes?

K I'm bored. =P

TV Shows and Why They're Failing

I just watched an Asian drama! =D.

It was actually a movie about that old Chinese story of the orphan of Zhao, when some evil insane guy kills all of the family of Zhao except one baby survives and that baby grows up and kills that evil guy. Typical good vs. evil story.

Except that the movie made it even simpler and unrealistic. Instead of the orphan hating the evil guy, he grows to view him as a father figure and still ends up killing him just to resolve the plot =/.

Don't you just hate it when a movie scraps a perfectly good story for some flashy special effects and a chance for celebs to show themselves? Well, if you don't, you should.

Like the Twilight Saga movies. I've personally never read the Twilight books, but I heard they were really good. Over the summer, I did watch Eclipse and it was the worst movie ever: the only good part was when Jacob says to Edward "I'm obviously hotter than you." which, I admit, cracked me up. But other than that it was a disastrous excuse of a movie.

Oh and what about The Golden Compass? It actually had something resembling a plot, but in the end the movie ends on a cliffhanger when Lyra mentions a "war" and then.....the credits roll.

-.- Yeah not the best ending you'll ever see.

Harry Potter was among the better books-turned-movies. The first, second and third ones were all very enjoyable, but in the fourth one (Goblet of Fire, for the noobs who don't know) Dobby the epic house-elf doesn't even get mentioned. He even gives Harry the Gillyweed for the Second Task! There were more inaccuracies, and from there, the franchise went on a nosedive that only revived itself in Deathly Hallows Part 1, and even then they add random crap that wasn't even in the book (like Harry and Hermione dancing, for example).

My opinion concerning books-turned-movies are: the more you stick to the plot, the better. But sadly the Hollywood guys don't agree and scrap excellent stories that are bound to captivate audiences into just a random husk of a plot plus some 54th-generation special effects.

The rot has even got into TV shows. Like, for instance, Global TV's Survivor. I started watching Survivor in season 19: Samoa, where Russell Hantz just bossed the entire game and should have won over that dumb blonde Natalie. I thought it was pretty good, but when I went on YouTube to watch some old season 4 episodes, I was shocked to see how more realistic they were. The old Survivor was about, well, survival plus some awesome strategy and blindsides. The modern Survivor is just about strategy and blindsides. Russell is just a prime example of this. You never see him chopping wood and providing for his tribe, but you always see him strategizing with everyone and trying to further his own game.

Don't get me wrong, TV's not entirely fake. There are just some fine specimens of shows out there. On Global TV there was this epicly amazing show called 24, with all the action happening in one day and even a clock to show the exact time. But 24 got cancelled after its 8th season, and I can't really think of a replacement for it.

So basically this is why TV is falling and the computer is rising. The TV shows are all just some flashy special effects and no storyline at all. They aren't real. Computers, meanwhile, allow you to create something real, so that's why they're on the rise. So soon all TV will be good for is watching the World Cup once every four years and some other sports games.

Or playing video games =D.

Don't You Hate It When...

1, You realize you forget your homework right when you get to school?

2. You get stuck with some stupid guy for a project and you end up doing 98% of the work?

3. The aforementioned stupid guy tells your teacher that HE did all the work and you end up getting a bad mark?

4. You finish typing a 10-page essay and then your computer crashes?

5. Somebody calls you a "geek" just because you know the 13th digit of pi? (it's 9, by the way)

6. People think...

6.1. Mac is better than Windows?

6.2. Xbox is better than PlayStation?

7. Somebody hates on you for no reason?

8. Fingernails screech against blackboards?

Yeah just a short incomplete list of my pet hates =)

MAINSTREAMAAAAS

If you don't know that I'm gifted right now then you are at the same intelligence level as an ant.

And the mainstreamers in our school are so weird!

For example, they don't know how to play pen-and-paper Battleship (they think they can split up the ship -,-#) and their teachers interact with them in a much more casual way than our teacher does with us -,-.

Like our teacher forbids us from calling those kids as "mainstreamers" but the mainstreamer teachers allow them to call us "gifted kids" and "smart people" and another dozen that I'm too lazy to name.

It is just really really really annoying that they can say "Going to do some math?" while we can't say "Shut up dumb****!".

>:|

Hattrick

Yay! The first post about my life =).

Hattrick is an online football (or soccer, for you North Americans) management game. Founded in 1997, it used to be the standard for most online football managements. At its peak in 2005, Hattrick had nearly 800 000 users and some GMs (Game Moderators) were so busy that it was almost a month before most users received their team. Since then, numbers have fallen, as recent rivals such as PowerChallenge's ManagerZone have become extremely popular and give Hattrick much competition. Hattrick now has around 750 000 users, and is in it's 43rd season.

I joined Hattrick in August 2010, midway through its 42nd season. As a beginner I found this game complicated and confusing, but help from the Hattrick Wiki and some experienced users helped my team avoid relegation (demotion to a lower league) and I came 3rd out of 8 teams.

From my perspective, Hattrick is a great game for patient people. For those people who want instant action or technical epicness, Hattrick is not the game for you. There is only one league match per week, on Sunday, and one cup/friendly game on Wednesday. The way Hattrick plays its games is by a system called HT-Live, which lets you follow your games minute-by-minute in text format. If you actually want to see your players kick the ball, I recommend the aforementioned ManagerZone, which lets you see your match in a 3d match engine. However, I had a bad feeling about games that PowerChallenge made, as I used to play a game, Power Soccer, by that company but that basically ended in frustration.

Hattrick is not a game for people looking for big exciting things. There is no booming crowd sounds when a goal is scored, no goal being scored and the ref calling offside. Hattrick is a game for people that give it a chance. I thought about quitting the first day I signed up, but I decided to actually wait a few days. The presentation is terrible, the forum looks like it was from the Stone Age, and overall the site basically begs for modernization.

However, Hattrick is an extremely fun game to play. It takes a lot of thinking putting your player in the perfect position and your team with the best tactic to counter your opponent's strengths and exploit his weaknesses. And it feels great when you see your tactics pay off and you get a win. It is always exciting when you enter a bidding war for a new world class goalie and feel as if you got the final bid until your bidding rival suddenly tops it. And it is tense when you and your opponent are tied late on for a crucial league match and satisfying to say the least when your star forward suddenly scores an 89th minute winner.

Hattrick is a great game. The site could use some modernization, the rules and laws of the game might give you headaches and sometimes the forum users are less-than-friendly but if you can handle all that, Hattrick is the game for you.

Here's the link: www.hattrick.org

Crisis!

Wow! Already there is a crisis going on in my blog! =O

My fellow admin Matthew, who has been responsible for all the great looks and makeovers in this blog, told me today that his grandma had an accident which landed her in hospital. Matthew and his family are probably going to see her in Hong Kong for a few weeks, and not expected to go on Blogger =(. That leaves me all alone ='(.

I want to wish Matthew's grandma luck in her upcoming ordeal!

Best Game Evaaar: Big Rigs Over the Road Racing

Well I was surfing the Internet and I decided to search the worst video games of all time. Most of them were apparently extremely poor, but one REALLY stood out: Big Rigs Over the Road Racing.

Big Rigs is a truck-racing game made in 2003. The options are really shallow: there are only 5 tracks (one of which will cause the game to crash), only 2 trucks can race at a time and there is no multiplayer. It just seemed one of those generic video games that you can get for $1.95, right?

Think again....

The main thing about Big Rigs is the gameplay. And the main thing about the gameplay is that there isn't any. The truck you race against won't even move, so you'll win basically every race. Although Stellar Stone, the company that released Big Rigs, soon released a patch that actually allows your opponent to move, he'll just stop right before the finish line, so you'll still win every race. Upon winning, you are presented with a 3-handled trophy with the lines "You're Winner!" as apparently Stellar Stone's programmers don't know good grammar. Even more stupidly, the game occasionally cannot distinguish whether you just passed the finish line or not, so sometimes you will be awarded the cup within seconds of starting a game.

Amazingly, the things don't stop there. Big Rigs defies all the laws of physics: your truck can go through houses and trees, fall underneath bridges and even be able to go up 90 degree slopes and off roads without any change in speed. There is absolutely no boundaries for your truck: it can go anywhere, even outside the map. If you do, you'll just simply find yourself floating in a grey/black void and your truck will just randomly jerk until you somehow get back into the map.

Well at least your truck is still realistic, right? Wrong. The backlights in Big Rigs' trucks actually aren't on the truck: they are floating behind it. If you make an abrupt turn, you'll see that the lights aren't connected. Another issue is that if your truck goes in reverse, it can accelerate almost indefinitely but will instantly go back to 0kmph when you release the key.

Obviously, the gaming websites were merciless. On average, the game received an average of 8% and some websites even revamped their whole system in order to give this game a 0/whatever. However, Big Rigs was still sold well, despite (or maybe because of) the glitches.

Don't believe me?

New Author

Now, introducing my slave faithful friend Matthew Poon! He will be an author and help me with all this fancy blog designing stuff: I'm a noob of the internet, after all =P!

Hello World!

Alright so this is my first time blogging =). Don't be too harsh on me and all that stuff.