Sunday, June 30, 2019

A Scorcher

What a scorcher it was yesterday.

Writes the guy who dislikes it when it's too hot.

And it was VERY hot yesterday. Apparently, it was one of the hottest days of June in over forty years.

It sure felt like it.

I don't want to come across as miserable, because I am sure more people than me are welcoming of this kind of weather, but I cannot wait until it cools down a bit!

Saturday, June 29, 2019

The Wright Man

I have just read - in today's news - that Ian Wright is in 'advanced talks' to be a contestant on this year's edition of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

If true, I like this news.

He's quite a character and I think he is perfect for the series. 

The only thing I don't think he'll be any good at is the trials. And I state that from the angle of what ITV would want. 

I could see him doing extremely well in the trials and that would be quite boring for those at home who want to see the celebs reacting badly to what is in front of them.

Still - if he's in it, he'd be my pick to win.

We're still months off. 

Friday, June 28, 2019

Super Mario Maker 2 Game And Goodies

My copy of Super Mario Maker 2 - for the Nintendo Switch - arrived this morning.

I have yet to play it, but thought I'd share a few images of what came with my preorder.

The first image is of the game itself. I decided to purchase the 'Limited Edition' version which comes with a 12 month membership pass to Switch Online.

Super Mario Maker 2

I am three or four months into my current twelve month pass, so will keep hold of the code until next year.

Now, onto the preorder goodies I had from Game.

The first thing I had was a steelbook. I haven't opened it, and doubt I will, but I surmise there's a little slot inside it to put the game cartridge.

Super Mario Maker 2 Steelbook

The steelbook might also have a compartment where I can put a Mario Maker 2 stylus that has also been gifted to me with the preorder.

Super Mario Maker 2 Pencil and Stylus

The stylus is on the right (and it's also upside down!). Next to it is a giant Mario Maker 2 pencil as well as a pencil sharpener.

They've given the pencil and sharpener away for players to design their Mario Bros. levels on paper before they put their ideas onto the screen. This leads me to the final surprise.

Super Mario Maker 2 Designers Pad

When the postman came this morning, he handed over a large parcel. I thought to myself 'isn't this a bit much for a Nintendo game?', but what made the package larger than I expected was a large Mario Maker 2 drawing pad filled with graph/design paper.

As I said, I highly doubt I'll use any of these things other than the game and the annual pass, but it was really cool to have them as a reward for preordering the game.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

On Its Way

I've just had an email to inform me that my copy of Super Mario Maker 2 - for the Nintendo Switch - has been posted.

It should arrive tomorrow, which is the official day of release.

The game allows players to create their own Super Mario Bros. levels.

Sounds like fun, if I say so myself.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Weird Email Encounter

A peculiar thing happened this morning.

I was sat at my computer and an email came to me from an online newsagent I regularly use to purchase imported American football yearbooks.

The email informed me that one of the mags I look out for each year will be in stock sometime in July.

I thought to myself 'fair enough' at first, but then I realised something.

I hadn't asked them this year.

I looked down at my original email and it was a question I had sent them two years ago. I specifically asked whether the 2017 issue would be in stock and pointed out their link to the 2016 edition just so they knew what I was on about. 

The weirdness didn't end there, though.

The time of my email stated it was sent last night. I wasn't even online when it was sent!

On the plus side, I don't have to email them to see if it's going to be in stock this year.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

10 Years Ago

I cannot believe how fast time is flying by.

It's ten years ago today since Michael Jackson died.

I remember first finding out about him having suffered a heart attack on the TMZ website. From there, I watched CNN live until it was official.

It was a surreal few days to be fair. I had a decorator here that week and I recall the radio station he had on playing Jackson music all day.

I also recall sitting outside in my garden and hearing cars passing by with his music playing.

Had never seen - or rather heard - anything like it before then.

Sure, we have had some major musicians pass away before, and even after, Jackson did. It's just that his death was the biggest from a musical and pop culture standpoint in my lifetime.

Monday, June 24, 2019

Rafa Going

The sports news of the past few hours has been all about Rafa Benitez, who will leave his role as manager of Newcastle United Football Club when his contract expires at the end of the month.

I used to be a supporter of Newcastle United, but this was a very long time ago now.  If I still was looking out for the club, I would be disappointed with what has gone on today.

Benitez's contract will seemingly not be renewed. It's a shame because he did well for that club. He got them to perform far beyond their performance level, if I say so myself.

The owner, Mike Ashley, is getting a lot of stick today.

And rightfully so.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Finished Looming Tower

In yesterday's post, I wrote about how much I was enjoying The Looming Tower - a mini series all about the lead in to the 9/11 terror attacks.

I mentioned having just watched the ninth episode and that I couldn't wait until BBC2 aired the tenth - and final - ep next week.

Well, I didn't have to wait.

After publishing the post, I noticed that Amazon Prime had the entire series available to watch for free.

I watched the final episode immediately.

As I said yesterday, it was a really interesting drama.

The Beeb has imported some great dramas from the US over the past few years. The OJ Simpson Trial and Gianni Versace Murder ones immediately spring to mind.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

The Looming Tower Is Very Good

One of the best television series' I am currently watching is The Looming Tower.

Its penultimate episode aired on BBC 2 last night and I've just finished it. I cannot wait until next week.

The series is all about the CIA and FBI's hunt for Osama Bin Laden before the 9/11 terror attacks and is based on a book of the same name by Lawrence Wright.

Jeff Daniels plays the part of John O'Neill who was the head of the FBI investigation during the time when Al-Queda was on the rise and attacking places like the US Embassy in Kenya and the USS Cole navy ship which was docked in Yemen's harbour.

The thing that is such a tragic irony about O'Neill is he had to leave his job at the FBI for certain reasons in 2001. After departing the job, he took on a job as head of security at the Twin Towers and started his job only weeks before the attacks on September 11th.

O'Neill was one of the many who perished on that day.

Friday, June 21, 2019

Another One Bites The Dust

I'm sure I've written this many times in the past, and I'm going to do so again today, but..

Digital media is not good.

Once again, I have encountered a digital service dying on me.

This time, it's Flixster. A place where many of my Ultraviolet movie titles have been stored for years.

Ultraviolet shut up shop earlier this year and now Flixster has emailed to inform me that it will cease by the end of the year.

I won't lose ALL of my titles as Flixster informed me in the email that they'll be moved across to a Google Play account.

The Google Play option is okay, I suppose. With Google being such a huge company, I feel my collection - or what will be migrated across - is sort of safe.

The bottom line - I think my concern about digital media is proving right. It's ALWAYS safe to have the physical copy of DVDS, CDs, Blu-Rays because things can go belly up at any moment.

Ask UV.

If you can find them.

If not, Ask Flixster.

While you can.

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Sala Arrest Made

There was another twist in the Emiliano Sala story yesterday when the news came out that a man had been arrested for manslaughter over the flight which killed the footballer.

The stories I've read noted that the arrested person was sixty-four years old. I did a couple of checks to see who it could be but the ages don't match to the couple of people I first suspected.

That's without naming names.

The body of the pilot, David Ibbotson, has still not been found. 

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Cottage Pie Story Of The Day

One news story caught my attention more than any other.

For the wrong reason.

The Sun had an article online about a lady who put her Sainsbury's cottage pie in the microwave. She was unhappy when the product came out burnt and shared her disgust online.

The problem? Well - she had read the instructions incorrectly. Instead of putting the meal in the microwave for a few minutes, she read the part which explained how to oven cook.

People took the mickey out of her for the mishap.

The thing that made me wonder is this...

Is it really news?

Seems like a waste of Internet ink if you ask me.

(Writes the person who has just spent today's post writing about it himself!)

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

More About Qatar In The News

I've just been reading about the investigation into FIFA and the 2022 World Cup again.

This stems from the reports that Michel Platini was apparently arrested once again in relation to Qatar's winning bid to host the tournament.

One article has listed five countries that could be in the running to replace Qatar, but I think it's all a waste of time at this point.

I have no faith that there will be punishment levied to the country for bribing the certain voters.

Even if I'm wrong, I still can't see Qatar NOT hosting the World Cup.

There will be little time for a new country to take up the role.

Monday, June 17, 2019

Netflix Marvel Marathon Update

I completed another lap in my Netflix Marvel Marathon yesterday.

Luke Cage season two is now scratched off my list.

As I am sure I must have wrote in the past, I found Luke Cage season one to be surprisingly decent. I had low hopes going in. I cannot say the same about Luke Cage. That's not a negative, though. I went in expecting to enjoy it and I did.

Next up is the second season of Iron Fist.

Oh, and by the way, the marathon had an extra lap added to it on Friday when Netflix put the third season of Jessica Jones up.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Back To The Baize

I played in my first online poker tournament in forever yesterday.

It had been ages since I last played in one and it came across because I had nothing to do last night and thought it would kill some time.

And kill some time it did.

It was one of those bounty tourneys in which you can get extra money on top of the prize amounts for finishing in the money.

I knocked one person out and almost won my buy-in just from that.

In the end, I played for almost three hours. Maybe two-and-a-half if I'm to be exact.

Finished in the money as well. I made £2.50 profit overall.

Not bad for someone who hasn't played for a while.

If I say so myself.

Even though I had a bit of fun, I reckon it'll be another while until I play again. The days of playing poker every day is far, far away in my past.

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Green Screen

I've just spent the last hour and a bit trying to find a fix for my desktop PC.

I was on it earlier today, but switched everything off as I went for lunch. After returning to the computer, I switched it back on only to find a green screen of death.

There have been many blue screens of death in my computing life, but never a green one!

I didn't know what was going on.

All I could guess is it was some sort of corruption from an update that I was asked to do when I did the shutdown earlier.

I think I've sorted it. Well, I hope I have...

Friday, June 14, 2019

Amazon Primed For December Football

I was keen to see the Premier League fixture list for the 2019/20 season when it was released yesterday.

The sole reason why - with Cardiff City not in the top flight this time - was to check out what games are scheduled for Boxing Day.

The reason? Well - for the first time ever, all of the Boxing Day games will be available to view on Amazon Prime.

Live!

The streaming platform not only has the rights for Boxing Day, and the day following. It also has the midweek fixtures that are set between December 3rd and 5th.

Take a look at what they have in the image below. There are some good ones on there like the Merseyside Derby in early December.

Of the Boxing Day (or December 27th) games, the ones that stand out - to me - are Manchester United .vs. Newcastle United and also the Leicester City .vs. Liverpool game only because it will see Brendan Rodgers manage a team against his previous Premier League employers.

Amazon Prime Football - Premier League 2019/20 Season

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Season Handicap Betting 2018/19 Results

I'm a bit late getting to it, but I spent yesterday finishing off the Season Handicap tables for 2018/19 and have begun to get everything set to go for the 2019/20 edition.

First, I have to tie up the loose ends from the 2018/19 and point out which teams won in their respective leagues. I'll start with League 2.

League 2
The winning team in the handicap table for League 2 was Forest Green. The team had a twenty-one point head start against the other teams in its division. In its real league, Forest Green came fifth with seventy-four points.

The actual League 2 winners - Lincoln City - had four points before the season, but finished off in fifth with 89 accumulative points. 

My system had the them to win the season handicap table with ninety-four.

League 2 Season Handicap Table 2018/19

League 1
Bradford topped my projections for League 1 with 111 points with ninety-points from the average position points and then the seventeen from the bookies. 

Disastrously, Bradford came twenty-third in the season handicap table. In reality, the team did one worse as it finished in the bottom of the division and will play next season in League 2.

Luton Town won both the League and season handicap tables. Its eleven point start added to the season haul of ninety-four means it had 105 when all was tallied up.

League 1 Season Handicap Table 2018/19

Championship
Norwich won both the Championship and the season handicap table. The team accrued ninety-four points during the season and - adding in the fourteen from the bookies before the campaign - they ended up with 108.

My system had West Brom to win the handicap table, but - as you can see - they came in seventh place when all was said and done.

Championship Season Handicap  Table 2018/19

Premier League
My method to pick the Premier League season handicap winner had Manchester City at the top. This was despite City getting a 0 before the first kick off of 2018/19.

Liverpool came close to winning the league with its 97 points to City's 98. However, in the season handicap table, the Reds' six-point head-start was enough to top the table with 103 points. This was five points more than City, who came in second.

Premier League Season Handicap Table 2018/19


I plan to return to this topic as we near the 2019/20. Hopefully, I'll do better than I did this year!

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Capcom's Home Arcade

I have seen something very interesting on the Game website this week.

The video game maker - Capcom - is releasing its own home arcade system with pre-installed games on it.

Capcom Home Arcade

There will be sixteen titles on this thing. They include Capcom's popular games like Ghouls 'n Ghosts, editions of Street Fighter II, Alien .vs. Predator and more.

At £199.99, it's not something I am keen to buy but it sure does look pretty cool.

Teenage me would have loved this thing even more back in the day!

It's scheduled to be released on October 25th.

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Mourinho News Stories

Yesterday's football news story that caught my attention was about Jose Mourinho being linked to Newcastle United.

'Ughh,' was my thought. Not because I don't think Mourinho would do a bad job with the Toon. It's just that I believe the talk of a takeover at Newcastle United could just be that. Talk. I'll believe the club has been sold from Mike Ashley the moment the club has been sold from Mike Ashley. Been there far too many times to believe anything to do with Newcastle changing owners until the ink has dried.

Now.. onto today's football news story.

Apparently, Mourinho isn't ruling out a third spell as Chelsea manager.

If the Newcastle stories made me go 'Ughh', this one made me go UGHHHHHHHHHH.

The latter part of his second stint did a lot of damage to his legacy at the club. A third might end up being too much.

Monday, June 10, 2019

Birthday Spoiler

Here's a story about me failing to avoid Gotham spoilers.

Episode five of the fifth season was on last night. As I recorded it, I decided to watch it this afternoon.

While watching the opening few scenes, I noticed the name of an actor that I hadn't seen before - Shane West.

I didn't think anything of it other than it was a name I hadn't been aware of before.

After watching the first forty minutes of the episode, I decided to turn it off to watch later on tonight and picked up the iPad to browse the Internet.

The iPad popped up its 'IMDB Born Today' and, funnily enough, it listed Shane West as having a birthday today.

I clicked on the picture to make sure it was him and then it told me he was indeed the actor from Gotham.

And it also told me the character he portrays ends up being Bane!

This might not be a spoiler for comic book hardcores, but it was for me.

Sunday, June 09, 2019

Belated Birthday Wishes

Yesterday was the thirty-fifth birthdays of both Ghostbusters and Gremlins as the films were released on June 8th 1984.

What an incredible duo of titles to share the same release date.

I loved... no, I still love these films even to this very day.

They certainly were a huge part of my childhood. Trust me, many friendships were made over the common appreciation of these movies.

I will say this, though...

Why the heck was Gremlins released in June? It's a bloody Christmas movie!!

Saturday, June 08, 2019

Women's World Cup

I read this alert on my iPad last night.

53 Years of Hurt News Alert

Look, for starters - I have no interest in the English national side. Not just the men, but also the women.

I'm Welsh.

Secondly, it's a pain in the rear to read the 'XX years of hurt' every time there's a competition going on.

Third - DO NOT tag the women into this 'world of hurt' nonsense.

Fourth - even if the English women's team wins the Women's World Cup, do you really think people are going to quit with the aforementioned 'world of hurt' nonsense.

Kick it out right now.

Especially on my iPad.

Friday, June 07, 2019

Time Is On My Side

It's the WWE Super ShowDown event from Saudi Arabia today.

Politics aside, I love it when WWE airs shows at times that are okay with my time zone.

The PPV starts at 7PM BST.

It's a heck of a lot better than 1AM!

Thursday, June 06, 2019

75 Years Since D-Day

Today is the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Normandy Landings during the Second World War.

There are obviously a lot of people talking about D-Day on the news and in the press today because of how significant the airborne invasion was to freeing France from Nazi control and paving the way to victory.

And so they should.

If it wasn't for the actions of those people, this world we live in would be a hell of a lot different to what we're used to.

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

Another BT Scam Call

I had yet another BT scam caller today.

This time, the person told me that engineers were working on my exchange and noticed there was an Internet issue.

I told her that they couldn't be working on it as I can see it from the window I was looking out of. She didn't know how to respond to that one. Then, I added, 'and that's the first thing. The second is I'm not even with BT!'

These calls are getting excessive, but at least they're giving me something to write about.

Tuesday, June 04, 2019

iTunes Dies

Apple has announced that iTunes is on its way out.

Instead, Apple customers can download three other apps for their needs - Music, Podcasts and TV.

As an owner of an iPod Classic, I am concerned.

I have invested a lot of time in cultivating my music collection onto iTunes in order to listen to my tunes on the iPod.

The only way it can sync is via iTunes, so it's concerning to me that the death of iTunes will mean that the iPod Classic - which was discontinued years ago - really has no chance of working the way I want it.

Yes, I still have an iPhone and iPad.. It's just that, sometimes it's nice just to use a player that works perfectly - and I've spent my money on!

These tech firms don't seem to think about the little guys, do they?

Monday, June 03, 2019

Upset

Yesterday morning's surprise was waking up to the news that Anthony Joshua had lost to a boxing underdog in Andy Ruiz.

As a result of his win, Ruiz is now the unified heavyweight champ of the world.

Many Twitter accounts are claiming the upset to be the biggest in the sport. To me, I'd still have to go with Mike Tyson .vs. James 'Buster' Douglas from 1990. This is mainly because of how Tyson was more of a household name back then.

This is not to take anything away from Anthony Joshua and certainly not from Ruiz.

It's definitely the second-best upset from where I sit.

It sure would be interesting if Ruiz manages to win the rematch that is currently being planned for the near future.

Sunday, June 02, 2019

GLOW Season 3 Premiere Date Announced

Netflix has revealed the premiere date for the third season of it's female wrestling comedy series, GLOW.

The new episodes will hit the streaming service on August 9th.

As I've written plenty of times on this blog ever since I first heard the series was in development, I was a fan of the 1980's wrestling league that inspired the show, so I instantly became a fan.

It's going to be a struggle to binge the third season when it lands, though.

That weekend will have not only NXT TakeOver and SummerSlam 2019, it'll also have the final three nights of New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax tournament.

The G1 final is on Monday this year, so I might not get to complete the binge until Monday night.

Or later!!

Saturday, June 01, 2019

Picking The Team I Would Like To Win Tonight's Champions League Final (2019)

It's the Champions League Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool tonight.

This is yet another game where I don't really know which team I would prefer to win.

So..

..as I sit here pondering who I would like to get the W, I think I'll do what I did with the recent FA Cup and go with the team that's chasing history.

Spurs haven't won a European trophy before. Well, I believe that to be the case, anyway.

Therefore...

..Spurs it is.

I just hope it's a good game now.