Orange Vanilla Coca-Cola Tasting

Man.. I don't know if I'd like it.. BUT I WANT TO TRY IT!!!
-equinoxx.info, March 17 2019

The above quote was written at the close of a post published on March 17th of this year. In it, I wrote that I found out that Coca-Cola had released a new flavour cola drink over in the USA - Orange Vanilla.

I wrote about Vanilla Coke being one of my favourite versions of the drink and was keen to try the new flavour. However, I was unsure whether I would find a can - or bottle! - over here in the UK.

Well, I was able to get hold of a can. It cost me £2, though.

I am about to pop open the can now. I'll return in the next paragraph with my initial opinion. Before I do, I'd like to state that - when I first tried a Vanilla Coke back in 2003 - I was not keen at all. I have a feeling the same thing could happen here...

Hmmm...

Okay, so after finishing off the entire can, I have to stick with my initial opinion. It's a 'Hmm' as I don't really know what to make of it.

I don't feel like I've tasted any cola, orange or vanilla here. It's weird. Maybe the clash of flavours was too much.

At least I can now say I've finally tried it.

My Week 4 2019 NFL Fantasy Team

I've been playing a weekly fantasy football game every week since the start of this year's NFL season.

The results have been crap followed by more crap, but I've decided to take a new approach with this week's team using some approaches I do when I bet on the games.

Without telling you my tricks, I'll show you the players I've selected. We'll see how well they do.

No Blowout (I Hope)

I have college football on as I'm writing this evening's post.

The British version of ESPN is showing Northwestern versus Wisconsin.

As of right now, the game is in the first quarter and Wisconsin are up 7-0. Remember what I've written in the past about finding it hard to watch college games because I always find myself watching blowouts? Well - this one doesn't feel like it's going to be one of those games.

Hopefully, I didn't type too soon.

Another Lap Completed In A Netflix Marvel Marathon

The Netflix Marvel Series Marathon that I have been on for the past two plus years has had another lap ticked off.

I finished season two of The Punisher on Wednesday.

It was a lot better than the first season, if I say so myself. After all - The Punisher is one of my favourite Marvel characters.

I'm currently on the final lap - Jessica Jones season three.

Predicting The TNF Winner: Week 4 2019

Tonight's Thursday Night Football will see the Green Bay Packers welcome the Philadelphia Eagles to Lambeau Field.

I've done what I usually do on Thursdays before these games and put all the stats into my system to see what team and total points it recommends and it has given me a dodgy result.

First, it has the Packers to win by four points. The actual betting line has Green Bay as four-point favourites, so that's a no bet there.

As for the total - the spreadsheet has 47 and the bookie's line is 46.5.

Very close.

The official recommended play is:

Over 46.5

As per usual, I do not bet on the Thursday games. If I did, I'd pass on this one because of how close it is.

Best. Chase. Question. Ever

Here is probably the best question I have ever seen on The Chase.

As an Indianapolis Colts fan, I jumped up and was excited to see a question about my favourite team.

Unfortunately, the contestant didn't think the question was as good as I thought it was. 

She chose the Denver Broncos for her answer.

Happy Ads in Sad Times

I have been reading articles about the fall of Thomas Cook and - in all of the sad stories - there was one story that appears, on the surface, to be positive.

Apparently, other airlines have put up advertisements for jobs. In those adverts, the firms have said they're only looking for former members of Thomas Cook staff who have lose their jobs following the airline going under.

As I said, on the surface, this is a nice story. However, I would suspect there is a limit to the number of new staff those companies can bring in.
With that said, I am sure these airlines might have more business coming their way.

Fantasy Fluke Ball

When all is said and done for this week, my NFL fantasy football team could be 3-0 so far for the season.

I was fluky in this week's round. Very, very fluky.

Whilst browsing through my list of players during the middle of the early games, I noticed that my tight end - Cleveland's David Njoku - had been placed on injured reserve.

My other TE - Tyler Eifert - was already playing, so I couldn't move him into my team. Therefore, I dropped Njoku and added Seattle's Will Dissley to my team and, ultimately, the lineup.

The Seahawks played later that night. My new player scored a touchdown and received for sixty-two yards. This earned me 12.20 points.

Had I not realised that Njoku was on IR, I would have had zero points from the tight end position for this week.

And just to highlight how much of a fluke I was, take a look at how close I won against this week's opponent.

He had 108.04 while I had 109.34.

Fluky.

A 1-1 Stat

I'm currently watching the NFL Network and a stat has just flashed across the screen that has given me some hope for the Indianapolis Colts' season.

Apparently, the team has made it to the playoffs the previous ten times it has started off a season 1-1.

Add in the fact that all of their Super Bowl appearances have happened in years when the big game has been hosted in the Sunshine State and it looks promising, right?

I know...

No Bets (Yet?)

It's looking extremely likely that I won't have a bet on the NFL this weekend.

Nothing is standing out to me right now.

Well, there's ONE pointspread that is. I am not confident enough to bet on it, though.

The Baltimore Ravens are currently +5.5 underdogs to the Kansas City Chiefs and my spreadsheet is predicting the Ravens to not only cover, but to win outright.

I talked myself out of it because it is far too early in the season to be over-confident (or not!) on the system.

It's a game I'll be watching very closely tomorrow.

Good And Bad News Regarding Netflix's GLOW

I was glad when I began to read a tweet on my Twitter timeline which read that GLOW is getting renewed for a fourth season.

However, reading on, the sentence made it all bittersweet.

This is because Netflix has also announced that this will be the series' final season.

As I've written many times since the programme was first in production, I was a fan of GLOW - the wrestling company that the series is loosely based on so I was all-in with the Netflix drama/comedy from the off.

At least the series will have a proper send-off unlike other programmes that Netflix canned while preparations were being made for future seasons (like the Marvel shows for example!).

Predicting The TNF Winner: Week 3 2019

Tonight's NFL game will see the Tennessee Titans travel to Jacksonville to take on their AFC South rivals, the Jaguars.

I've placed all the stats into a spreadsheet to see what it has recommended to bet on.

It predicts a Titans win by ten and the total amount of points to be fifty-two. Therefore, the plays are:

Tennessee -2
Over 39

I know my system is 3-1 after two weeks, but I do not like the picks for tonight. I can see Tennesse winning, but do not like the 'Over'.

We'll see how it goes, I suppose...

Rambo Day

Today is Rambo Day.

I kid you not, Sylvester Stallone tweeted about it the other day and wanted people to use the hashtag #RamboDay to share their memories of the movie character.

Well - to be fair - I should also should point out that John Rambo was first and foremost a character from a novel.

First Blood was written by David Morrell ten years before Sylvester Stallone brought the first movie to the silver screen.

Just like with Rocky Balboa, John Rambo is one of a few movie characters I associate with my childhood.

First Blood came out when I was three years old. I cannot recall when I first watched it. However, I know for sure that my introduction to the series of movies was when Rambo: First Blood Part II was released in the mid 1980s.

My classmates loved the film. From there, I went back to watch the first movie and - if I'm to be honest - I didn't like it as much as the second. This thought has now changed as I have matured.

Somewhere along the way, a Rambo cartoon series came out over in the USA. I don't even know if it ever made its way to these shores, but what I do know is the toy line associated with the animated show did.

My mum bought me a Rambo figure while we were out shopping at a department store.

Another memory I have of my Rambo fandom is having the poster of Rambo III (I won't start a full rant about how the Rambo movie titles don't make sense... but, I still stand by opinion that it should have been called First Blood III!) on my bedroom door. It was given to me by a man who owned a video rental shop near me in the late 1980s. He would give me all his old posters once he had finished using them in the shop and the Rambo III one was my second favourite gift he gave me. The first being a cardboard stand thing for A Nightmare on Elm Street III.

I was a young man when the fourth movie - Rambo (I'm holding back on the title rant!) - was released in 2008. By then, I had grown out of Rambo, but was still very much a Rocky Balboa guy. Despite this, it was still cool to see the character back.

And it's cool once again to see Rambo return in Last Blood, which comes out later this week.

Ah, Last Blood - finally, we get a First Blood sequel that seems to have a correct title!

A Nice Surprise

I found a nice surprise when I was looking at the Amazon Prime Video app on my Apple TV earlier today.

All five seasons of 21 Jump Street are available to stream on it.

Yes, I own all of the box sets. I just thought that it is cool to be able to just fire up the app and watch an episode whenever I feel like it rather than having to mess around with the DVD player.

I've written about 21 Jump Street many, many times on here in the past. It was my favourite TV show when I was a child.

I might watch the entire series from the start...

Another Disaster

I had another disaster when it came to betting on the NFL yesterday.

It was another week when I went 0-3.

The teams I had were New Orleans +2.5 (they lost 9-27), Miami +18.5 (they lost 43-0) and Chicago -2.5 (they won by 2 points with a scoreline of 16-14).

This has been the worst start in betting on the NFL I've ever had.

Old Papers

I came across a website with local newspapers from the late 1800s on it earlier this week.

It resulted in me going down a rabbit hole.

For starters, I've been reading reports of wrestling matches from way back. I'm not even sure if I am reading reports of real wrestling matches or they were worked bouts. All I know is the writers - whoever they were - reported on the bouts as if it was a genuine sport.

One of the articles I came across was about George Hackenschmidt retiring.

Other things I looked out for were articles of people with my surname and wondered whether they were related to me in any way.

One bloke - in an article I read - was a right bastard. Made me hope he wasn't a relation!

So Far, So Good

It has been a good start in regards to my spreadsheet predicting the Thursday Night Football results.

After two weeks, it has gone 3-1 in guessing which team to take on the pointspread and whether to go over or under the total.

The wins have been on:

Green Bay +3
Tampa Bay +7
Under 49 points in Tampa Bay @ Carolina (score was 20-14 on Thursday night)

The losing play was from the first week when it suggested a bet on the Green Bay Packers versus Chicago Bears game going over the total of 46.5 The final score in that one was 10-3 to Green Bay.

My luck is bound to come to a screeching halt eventually...

National Lottery Advent Scratchcard 2019

Look what I bought yesterday.

Yep, it's the National Lottery advent scratchcard for this Christmas.

They were announced last week and I've been looking out for them ever since. Mine was bought from a Tesco, but I'm sure they'll start to pop up in smaller retailers eventually.

This is the earliest I've seen them in the shops. Last year's edition was purchased on September 22nd. I thought that was early, but 2019 beat it by ten days!

Predicting The TNF Winner: Week 2 2019

My spreadsheet went 1-1 in predicting the result of last week's season opener, so I'm back to see how it fares for tonight's game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers.

It has predicted the Panthers to win by four points and the total score to be forty-eight. Therefore, it's recommending the following plays:

Tampa Bay +7

Under 49 Points

As per usual - I will not bet on this result. All I am doing here is testing the results for fun.

Fireman Sam Is Trending..

Fireman Sam is trending on Twitter as I write today's post.

Why? I am sure you're wondering.

Lincoln Fire and Rescue has dropped Sam from promoting its service because, and I quote, the character 'does not reflect the inclusive nature of Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue'.

Apparently, there was a complaint made and the service reacted.

The world has gone mad.

Or rather Lincoln has.

Look - if someone feels this way about an animated TV series, they - in my opinion - are unlikely to have the right head for a job in the fire service.

Just saying.

Triumph To Tragedy

Even though I had a good start to the NFL season by picking the Green Bay Packers to beat the Chicago Bears on Thursday night, the end of the week turned into a disaster.

I lost every single bet I placed on Sunday's games.

I had Tampa Bay -1 to beat San Francisco. They lost 31-17.

Next up, I had the New York Giants as +7 dogs to Dallas. They didn't cover as they were obliterated 35-17.

The final team I had was Pittsburgh. They were +5.5 against the New England Patriots in the last game on Sunday night,

The score? 33-3 to the champs.

I told friends I liked the chance of the Oakland Raiders winning against Denver on Monday Night Football. They were +2.5 home underdogs, but I chose to cut my losses for the week and didn't bother to bet.

Oakland won 24-16.

Netflix Marvel Marathon Update For September 9th 2019

The Netflix Marvel Marathon I have been on for the past two years had another lap scratched off yesterday as I finished watching season three of Daredevil.

I loved it.

It was, without a doubt, the best season of any of the Marvel Netflix shows I've watched since I began watching them in 2017.

The final episode ended with a tease of a fourth season, but that isn't going to happen as the series was cancelled by the streaming giants. It's a shame really, because they did a magnificent job with the third season.

As far as the marathon goes - it looks like season two of The Punisher is next up. Then the final lap is  the third season of Jessica Jones.

Speedo Would Have Been 50 Today

I've just been on Twitter and saw that Gary Speed's name was trending, so I thought I'd have a look to see what was going on.

Today would have been his fiftieth birthday.

As a former Newcastle United fan, but still very much Welsh, I always enjoyed watching that guy play. I know I've written many, many posts about him following his passing almost eight years ago.

One thing I always think about is what could have been in regards to his job as Wales boss.

When Speed left, that team had a lot of promise. For the first time in quite a while, I felt something good about what was being built.

I feel bad even wondering because Chris Coleman came along, took on what Speed left, and did a magnificent job himself.

Specials

I've just had a pizza leaflet come through the letterbox at my home.

Fair enough, right?

Well - what if it's the beginning of autumn and you get this one:

I suppose I'm going to have to wait until March to see what the autumn specials are!

Pack Win Season Kick-Off

The NFL is back and I've had the first of what I hope to be many winning bets.

If you read yesterday's post, you would be aware that I felt the Green Bay Packers had a chance of beating the Chicago Bears.

The bookmakers had Green Bay as three-and-a-half point underdogs when the betting markets for week one were published weeks ago.

I bet on them there and then. For starters, I liked the half a point and felt that it would be down to +3 eventually.

My assumption was spot on. The Pack were +3 when I checked in a few weeks later. They were still at +3 when I looked yesterday.

Not that I needed the points when all was said and done. Green Bay won the game straight up with a score of 10-3.

Predicting The TNF Winner: Week 1 2019

For the past few years - and during the NFL seasons - I've published posts on Thursdays where I share my spreadsheet's pointspread and totals picks for Thursday Night Football.

I hardly ever place bets on these picks as I prefer to wait until Sundays to make wagers. However, I use the Thursday games just to see how effective (or not!) the approach is.

Tonight's opener will see the Chicago Bears host the Green Bay Packers. I've put all the stats into the spreadsheet.

The results were:
Chicago by 2
50 total points

Therefore, the system is recommending a play on:
Green Bay +3
Over 46.5

As I stated above - I hardly ever bet on the Thursday games. However, I backed Green Bay +3.5 a few weeks ago, so I am glad to see the spreadsheet has picked the Pack on the pointstread. I would have preferred it to have Green Bay straight up, but that's the way it goes.

Zeros To Heroes 2019

With the NFL season just around the corner, I thought I'd share a season bet that I've placed for fun.

My idea is to look at all the teams that finished last in their division in the 2018 season. Then, from all eight of those names, I pick out all the teams that hired new head coaches during the off-season and then bet on them to win the division.

There were four qualifying teams for this year. I've put them all in a Lucky 15.

The teams are:

Cincinnati to win the AFC North
NY Jets to win the AFC East
Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the NFC South
Arizona Cardinals to win the NFC West

As I stated at the start, this is just for fun more than anything else. I know all four of these teams have mountains to conquer this year and beyond.

I'll write about how these teams - and ultimately, the bet - fared once the season has concluded.

Another Fake Call x 4

You know I like to write - now and again - about getting cold calls from scammers? Well, I've had FOUR calls from the same place within the last hour.

It's an automated voice telling me that 'this call has been forwarded from British Telecom' and then proceeds to tell me my service is going to be terminated by the end of the day. I'm then instructed to press 1 to speak with someone about it.

I don't press one because I don't really want them to believe I fall for this kind of racket.

It's crazy that my number has been called four time today already. I wonder how many more calls I'll get by the end of the day!?

Fantasy Draft 2019

The NFL Fantasy football league that I'm in had its draft last night.

Here are the players I picked.

Quarterbacks

Drew Brees

Dak Prescott

Running Backs

David Johnson

Leonard Fournette

Marlon Mack

Tevin Coleman

Jaylen Samuels

Wide Receivers

Adam Thielen

TY Hilton

Corey Davis

Marquez Valdez-Scantling

Tight Ends

David Njoku

Tyler Eifert

Kicker 

Will Lutz

Defence

Jacksonville Jaguars

I went in having done no research this year. Did the same approach last year and ended up flopping so my expectations are low.

It's September Again

It's now time for a thing I do almost every year and write about how glad I am that September has arrived.

This is my favourite month of the year.

First - I like it because the American football season is just around the corner (well, college football has already started..).

Secondly, and this is probably the main reason because I've felt like this long before I went hardcore into American footy, and it's September is like a new chapter.

It dates back to starting school or returning from school holidays. Everything seems new.

September - to me - is the empty, fresh page in a pad.

It also brings with it my favourite season in Autumn. So, there's that.