Now the average American is typically not held in such high esteem, and people often wonder why. Here's a story about David Beckham and the LA Galaxy, that doesn't do anything to improve this reputation....
Beckham went online to AC Milan, one of the biggest clubs in world football, along with Manchester United and Real Madrid, for 3 months during the "off-season" in the MLS. He was asked to stay on for an extra 2 months until the end of the Italian season which, of course, he wanted to, because Serie A is one of the strongest leagues in the world, and the MLS is probably the equivalent of the Championship or League one (second and third tier of English football).
When he returned, he was given a pretty poor reception in his first home game, ironically a friendly against AC Milan, the very Italian side he was on loan at. The Galaxy fans had banners with weird messages such as: "23: repent" and my personal favourite, "Is evil something you do or something you are?".
Why is a footballer "evil" for wanting to play in a top club who play in a top league, instead of playing for team who struggle in a low standard league?
One of his own team mates, Landon Donovan, actually questioned Beckham's professionalism. If I was Beckham, I would have laid out my 6 Premiership medals, 2 FA Cup medals, 1 Champions League medal, 1 La Liga medal and say, "Unprofessional? So Landon, what have you won of any note? What teams have you played for, Manchester United? Real Madrid? AC Milan?" but unfortunately, that wouldn't be his style.
You don't impress Sir Alex Ferguson, win over Fabio Capello (twice) and Carlo Ancelotti if you are unprofessional.
These people should be delighted that Beckham joined their team to help raise the profile of football (yes, its called football, not like your American "foot"ball, which you predominantly play with your hands!)in America.
Beckham even tried to shake a fans hand who was giving him abuse (which, surprise, surprise, just provoked more abuse and swearing). He is really too good for the MLS, too good for the LA Galaxy and has too much class to have a bunch of abusive handicaps for "fans".
Monday, July 20, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
UFC Undisputed 2009 Demo
So about a month ago, I got to play the UFC demo. It was released earlier to America, than to Europe, but by following the instructions on the UFC Undisputed forum, I got to burn it to a disc and play it at the same time the rest of America did.
The demo is very, very good. It really feels like the UFC. You only have two playable characters (Chuck Liddell and Shogun Rua), but both have their own styles as in real life. Liddell being a kickboxer, and Shogun using the muay thai style. So, naturally enough, Chuck is great when he's standing up, but Shogun has the advantage when the fight is taken to the floor. You won't see Chuck doing a rubber guard!
There are a lot of controls, and the tutorial will probably take more than one run through to take it all in, but it is broken down into small enough 2-5 min chunks. knockouts can happen at any single moment just like the real life. Although, when you are hammering your opponent, and he KO's you in one kick, this has the potential to get very annoying (especially for online play).
The ground transitions are done very well, the standing combat has all the standard kicks you'd expect to see normally and the graphics are unbelievable good.
There are so many moves you can pull off in so many different situations that if you just go in and bash buttons, you'll be knocked out easily by someone who knows what they are doing. That can only be a good thing. I'd rather have the ability to do lots of moves with lots of controls than to have a small amount of controls and a small move-set.
Its released on 22nd of May, going to buy it then. No doubt!
The demo is very, very good. It really feels like the UFC. You only have two playable characters (Chuck Liddell and Shogun Rua), but both have their own styles as in real life. Liddell being a kickboxer, and Shogun using the muay thai style. So, naturally enough, Chuck is great when he's standing up, but Shogun has the advantage when the fight is taken to the floor. You won't see Chuck doing a rubber guard!
There are a lot of controls, and the tutorial will probably take more than one run through to take it all in, but it is broken down into small enough 2-5 min chunks. knockouts can happen at any single moment just like the real life. Although, when you are hammering your opponent, and he KO's you in one kick, this has the potential to get very annoying (especially for online play).
The ground transitions are done very well, the standing combat has all the standard kicks you'd expect to see normally and the graphics are unbelievable good.
There are so many moves you can pull off in so many different situations that if you just go in and bash buttons, you'll be knocked out easily by someone who knows what they are doing. That can only be a good thing. I'd rather have the ability to do lots of moves with lots of controls than to have a small amount of controls and a small move-set.
Its released on 22nd of May, going to buy it then. No doubt!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Emmanuel Adebayor - Funny
Emmanuel Adebayor recently drew a fairly unusual comparison between AC Milan and Beyonce. I don't think his English is great, but I think I get his point.
"I am happy playing for this club and to be honest I am happy AC Milan, one of the legendary clubs in the world, were looking at me," he told ESPN.
"For me that must be something special. It is like a boy being told Beyonce is looking for them." Not exactly a textbook comparison, eh.
Another of his quotes that I remember really well, is the following: "Milan are interested in me, in myself, in Adebayor". I think he likes to emphasize his point.
"I am happy playing for this club and to be honest I am happy AC Milan, one of the legendary clubs in the world, were looking at me," he told ESPN.
"For me that must be something special. It is like a boy being told Beyonce is looking for them." Not exactly a textbook comparison, eh.
Another of his quotes that I remember really well, is the following: "Milan are interested in me, in myself, in Adebayor". I think he likes to emphasize his point.
Perl
I have just been on a two day training course which introduces the basics of Perl. I've heard good things about it before, and I get paid for doing it, so I said why not. Turns out, its actually incredibly useful. They have tried to make it as OS independent as possible (eg: chomp() strips off the appropriate end line characters whether you are on Windows or Linux, etc).
Also, the regular expressions engine make it very nice to parse text. I also discovered a regular expression checker tool, which has a nice GUI that can help you come up with regular expressions by showing what they match. You can provide a regex, and a input string. The variables in the lower pane actually show you what your regex matches. Very handy, and very useful.
I was surprised how quickly I could do some useful things, and in only two or three lines. I'm not the best programmer in the world, and it takes a notoriously long time for me to pick up on certain constructs, but I found the basics were very easy to pick up. Perl likes to pack a lot of functionality into a couple of short lines of code. It can look cryptic, but once you understand it, it's not so bad.
Having said that, it seems like if you don't use it regularly, you'll quickly forget certain elements. Some of the ideas/syntax for such things as hash tables, sort functions, $_, file I/O, can easily be forgotten if you don't use them regularly I'd say.
Also, the regular expressions engine make it very nice to parse text. I also discovered a regular expression checker tool, which has a nice GUI that can help you come up with regular expressions by showing what they match. You can provide a regex, and a input string. The variables in the lower pane actually show you what your regex matches. Very handy, and very useful.
I was surprised how quickly I could do some useful things, and in only two or three lines. I'm not the best programmer in the world, and it takes a notoriously long time for me to pick up on certain constructs, but I found the basics were very easy to pick up. Perl likes to pack a lot of functionality into a couple of short lines of code. It can look cryptic, but once you understand it, it's not so bad.
Having said that, it seems like if you don't use it regularly, you'll quickly forget certain elements. Some of the ideas/syntax for such things as hash tables, sort functions, $_, file I/O, can easily be forgotten if you don't use them regularly I'd say.
Dublin Bus - Can they go one week without a strike?
Dublin Bus drivers are planning another strike tomorrow. It seems like every time I watch the news in the past 2-3 months, either the taxi drivers are on whining, complaining, protesting or striking, or the Dublin bus drivers are doing the same.
Whoever refuses to work tomorrow and go on strike, simple, sack them. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people looking for a job at the moment, people who are struggling to get by, pay the mortgage, pay the bills (etc), and here are these idiots refusing to do the job they are paid for.
Whoever refuses to work tomorrow and go on strike, simple, sack them. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people looking for a job at the moment, people who are struggling to get by, pay the mortgage, pay the bills (etc), and here are these idiots refusing to do the job they are paid for.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Rafa Benitez - Excuses, Excuses, Excuses.
So, as we all know, Rafael Benitez - Liverpool manager is completely full of crap, often to the point where, what he says lacks any logical proof whatsoever, and leaves himself open to so much criticism, I almost feel sorry for him.... almost.
His latest attempt at conning Liverpool fans comes after they lost 2-0 to Middlesborough, giving Manchester United a 7 point lead with a game in hand. He has made the excuse that if it wasn't for injuries to Fernando Torres, Liverpool would be much closer to United in the title race.
Do the facts support his claim? As usual, the answer is: no. Liverpool have gained 31 points from 15 games with Torres. This is an average of 2 points per game. Liverpool have gained 24 points from 12 games without Torres. This is an average of 2 points per game. Same form with him, same form without him.
Perhaps he is forgetting that Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo missed the first two months of the season? But of course, he didn't happen to mention that. It's amazing that Liverpool fans don't see through wave after wave of excuses. Again, poor old Rafa talking through his rectal cavity like the con-man he is, and that's a fact.
His latest attempt at conning Liverpool fans comes after they lost 2-0 to Middlesborough, giving Manchester United a 7 point lead with a game in hand. He has made the excuse that if it wasn't for injuries to Fernando Torres, Liverpool would be much closer to United in the title race.
Do the facts support his claim? As usual, the answer is: no. Liverpool have gained 31 points from 15 games with Torres. This is an average of 2 points per game. Liverpool have gained 24 points from 12 games without Torres. This is an average of 2 points per game. Same form with him, same form without him.
Perhaps he is forgetting that Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo missed the first two months of the season? But of course, he didn't happen to mention that. It's amazing that Liverpool fans don't see through wave after wave of excuses. Again, poor old Rafa talking through his rectal cavity like the con-man he is, and that's a fact.
Smackdown vs Raw 2009 Review
I ended up shelling out €47.99 for Smackdown vs Raw 2009 which is the cheapest I've seen it, any where except Manchester where it was being sold for a ridiculous £20. Anyways, I have to say it was €47.99 well spent.
I think its a vastly improved game from last years. The Road to Wrestlemania mode is absolutely brilliant. It places you as Jericho, Triple H, Cena, CM Punk, Undertaker, Batista/Rey (co-op). This basically means that you have Jericho acting as Jericho, Triple H acting as Triple H, instead of the generic feel which previous story modes had in the series.
Without giving too much away, Jericho has to find out who the masked man behind a serious of "codes" are, and is determined to interrogate everyone he meets. Triple H has to choose between two well known "paths", which every even remote wrestling fan will love.
Create a finisher mode is also new, and works very well. You have a serious of up to 10 actions you can combine to put your finisher together. You can have taunts, kicks, salutes, punches, lifts and anything you wish before you actually execute the move. Depending on what actions you pick, your options for the next stage will be narrowed down. (i.e: if you position someone for a Tombstone, there are only so many moves you can do from there). You can also select a pre-set name which the commentators will use when you perform that move which is a nice touch.
Some minor annoyances are apparent, but these can be easily rectified. For example, Jericho doesn't have his correct music, no problem, you can just burn his proper music onto a cd, rip the track from your cd to your xbox, and then go to the create an entrance mode, and change Jericho's entrance to the track thats sitting nicely on your xbox.
Another problem I found was the difficultly. Normal is ridiculously easy, where hardly any moves are reversed. Hard is "tough-ish", but the cpu will reverse 9/10 of any grapple moves you try (if you are against any kind of decent opponent). Seeing as grapple moves make up a vast part of your armory, you would imagine this would be a massive problem? Wrong. The game provides sliders for almost everything. You can tone the frequency which the cpu will attempt to reverse grapple moves, and bring it in line to a more realistic value.
All-in-all, its a very good game, much better than 2008, and much better than what I was expecting.
I think its a vastly improved game from last years. The Road to Wrestlemania mode is absolutely brilliant. It places you as Jericho, Triple H, Cena, CM Punk, Undertaker, Batista/Rey (co-op). This basically means that you have Jericho acting as Jericho, Triple H acting as Triple H, instead of the generic feel which previous story modes had in the series.
Without giving too much away, Jericho has to find out who the masked man behind a serious of "codes" are, and is determined to interrogate everyone he meets. Triple H has to choose between two well known "paths", which every even remote wrestling fan will love.
Create a finisher mode is also new, and works very well. You have a serious of up to 10 actions you can combine to put your finisher together. You can have taunts, kicks, salutes, punches, lifts and anything you wish before you actually execute the move. Depending on what actions you pick, your options for the next stage will be narrowed down. (i.e: if you position someone for a Tombstone, there are only so many moves you can do from there). You can also select a pre-set name which the commentators will use when you perform that move which is a nice touch.
Some minor annoyances are apparent, but these can be easily rectified. For example, Jericho doesn't have his correct music, no problem, you can just burn his proper music onto a cd, rip the track from your cd to your xbox, and then go to the create an entrance mode, and change Jericho's entrance to the track thats sitting nicely on your xbox.
Another problem I found was the difficultly. Normal is ridiculously easy, where hardly any moves are reversed. Hard is "tough-ish", but the cpu will reverse 9/10 of any grapple moves you try (if you are against any kind of decent opponent). Seeing as grapple moves make up a vast part of your armory, you would imagine this would be a massive problem? Wrong. The game provides sliders for almost everything. You can tone the frequency which the cpu will attempt to reverse grapple moves, and bring it in line to a more realistic value.
All-in-all, its a very good game, much better than 2008, and much better than what I was expecting.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
IGN - Inaccurate
I was looking forward to playing UFC Undisputed 2009 for the Xbox360. I looked up IGN's release dates for the UK (No IGN, the Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK, it should really be UK/Irish release dates - but anyways), it said that UFC Undisputed was out on 27th of Feb. I generally trusted IGN up until now, but it turns out that the real release date for UFC's debut on the 360, is (as of writing this), 2th of June. So instead of getting the game tomorrow, I now have to wait another 3 months. Great.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Idiots Using Custom Teams On Xbox Live - FIFA'09
FIFA'09 is fast becoming an absolute joke online. There is a massive bug which more and more people are taking advantage of, which gives you the ability to make up your own custom 11 and then play online...so that basically means everyone has Cristiano Ronaldo, everyone has Fernando Torres, everyone has Lionel Messi... so the game becomes completely pointless.
If you can't beat someone with a normal side, then you shouldn't play the game. Whats worse, is that then when you are beating someone with a custom side, they quit. Total, total idiots.
I came across one lad, who kept hammering "Ready" when i was setting up my team. He had a custom side and so consequently, he didn't have to do any team setup, and wouldn't even give me a chance to set up my own side.
I was only Schalke... its not like I was United. So he basically has the best 11 in the game, playing a poor German side, and wouldn't even wait while I set up my own team. How much more of an advantage do you want?
Anybody I come across with a custom side is instantly getting reported for tampering -> cheating. It's a bug that people shouldn't be taking advantage of. Only retards who have absolutely no skill, use a custom side.
If you can't beat someone with a normal side, then you shouldn't play the game. Whats worse, is that then when you are beating someone with a custom side, they quit. Total, total idiots.
I came across one lad, who kept hammering "Ready" when i was setting up my team. He had a custom side and so consequently, he didn't have to do any team setup, and wouldn't even give me a chance to set up my own side.
I was only Schalke... its not like I was United. So he basically has the best 11 in the game, playing a poor German side, and wouldn't even wait while I set up my own team. How much more of an advantage do you want?
Anybody I come across with a custom side is instantly getting reported for tampering -> cheating. It's a bug that people shouldn't be taking advantage of. Only retards who have absolutely no skill, use a custom side.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Unhelpful Posts On Forums
If there is one thing that annoy me, its unhelpful forum posts. Any time you google some technical problem, you find a guy who has posted your exact problem, but then you find 10 replies that say "Wrong forum", "I dont know", "Throw it out the window", "Post in some other thread", "This has already been asked" (and then not provide any link - people do not have the time to search every forum - maybe the idiot replying does - but normal people dont)
If you search for the question on the forum which someone has said that it has already been asked on, invariable you can not find it. If you don't have something constructive to say, then shut the fuck up.
If you search for the question on the forum which someone has said that it has already been asked on, invariable you can not find it. If you don't have something constructive to say, then shut the fuck up.
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