no more bedhead

Gameweek 8 is about to begin in the English Premier League.  Hopefully I will do better this week than last.  I got creamed in Gameweek 7.  The average score was 52 and I scored 30.  I'm a little Chelsea heavy, and not only did they lose, but Petr Cech (GK) got red carded.  That hurt.  When your Goalkeeper has a -1 point total for the week, you know it's going to be a bad week.  The other players didn't have a spectacular week either.  Drogba was my best scoring player with 6 points.  My current rank is 1,934,446 out of 2,052,351.  (My disclaimer/rationalization is that I didn't start until GW5 so I'm already behind.  But still...)  I also dropped to 11th (out of 20) in my league.  I had been at 5 after GW6 (which is when the league formed).

So I made one transfer for the week.  I transferred out Upson, and replaced him with Dunne.  I also sat Cech, since he is suspended, bringing in Foster (ManUtd) off the bench. We'll see what happens. Here's my lineup for the weekend:



My team in the ESPN Premier League didn't do well either, but it was my first Gameweek for the ESPN league, so we'll see what happens.

However.....
The Champions League and the Europa League both competed this week.

In the Champions League, I rocked.  The average score was 51, and I scored 73.  That shot me up to 37,587 out of 273,855. And I jumped up to 4 in my league (Galaxy Two), out of 21 teams.  Having Christiano Ronaldo scoring 14 points and being my captain (doubling his points to 28) certainly helped!

My favorite stat is that for Matchweek 1 my rank was 152,678.  For Matchweek 2 my rank was 11,231. I improved 141,447 places.

In the Europa League (where I have absolutely no idea who any of these players are), I scored 53 points, with 42 being the average.  I rank 966/29,741.  In my league I am #1 out of 7.  But I'm only up by 13 points over #2.

All of this will probably change, so I am hoping for the best on the EPL front today and gloating over UCL/Europa for the next couple of weeks.

AAAAAAAAAAAAL-batross!

Pulled the plug on Shorey.  Added Abdoulaye Faye from Stoke City.

AAAAAAAAL-batross!!

Not to be outdone, UEFA Champions League also has a fantasy game.  I had to sign up for that too, of course.

Here's my lineup:

Goalkeeper: Cech (Chelsea)
Defender: O'Shea (Manchester United), Rolando (Porto), Gallas (Arsenal), Diakhate (Dynamo Kyiv)
Midfielder: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Fernando (Porto), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Song (Arsenal)
Forward: Messi (Barcelona), Lisandro (Lyon)

Subs:
Goalkeeper: Rensing (Bayern)
Defender: Evra (Manchester United)
Midfielder: Ghioane (Dynamo Kyiv)
Forward: Bojan Krkic (Barcelona)

This time I got in in time for Matchday 1, which starts tomorrow.  I logged in today and I get a notification that Bojan Krkic is injured.  Try as I might, I cannot determine if he will be out for the game on Wednesday.  I know that he is out of the Spain Under-20 squad, but can't find any more information.  Unfortunately anyone I want to transfer for him is significantly lower in the standings, so I don't want to make a move if he's going to be okay for this game.  He's in my sub list, so I could leave him there as long as Messi and Lisandro play.  I just may take the chance.

Nevermind, while I was sitting here I pulled the plug on Krkic, and replaced him with Niang (Marseille).

Again, my club name: Blue Albatross FC.

AAAAAAAAAAL-batross!!

And by football, I mean real football.

The English Premiere League has a fantasy league, and I decided to join this year.  A little late.  In Matchweek 5, but hey, better late than never.  So, this is my lineup going into my first matchweek:

Goalkeeper: Cech (Chelsea)
Defender: Johnson (Liverpool), Upson (West Ham), Shorey (Aston Villa), Shawcross (Stoke City)
Midfielder: Lampard (Chelsea), Cattermole (Sunderland), Diaby (Arsenal), Bowyer (Birmingham)
Forward: Rooney (Manchester United), Drogba (Chelsea)

Subs:
Goalkeeper: Foster (Manchester United)
Defender: Bikey (Burnley)
Midfielder: Hunt (Hull City)
Forward: Keogh (Wolverhampton)

I hoped that this lineup was okay, except I noticed that Diaby scored an own goal in Matchweek 4.  Still, I stuck with this lineup through the week.  I didn't do too bad for not knowing who most of these players are.  I scored 49 points this week.  That has me at 11,864 out of 69,077 who signed up this week, and 1,907,607 overall out of 1,979,085.

My only concern this week is that Shorey didn't play this week, and looks like he has been relegated to the substitutes for Aston Villa.  So I may transfer him before Matchweek 6.  Looking at Ab Faye (Stoke City) to take his place.  I think it would be a good trade, and actually save me some payroll to boot.

My club name?  Blue Albatross FC.  I even get to design my own kit.  I chose solid blue shirt, with white sleeves, white shorts, and black socks.  I'll have to do up a graphic to add here.

So let's have a cheer, shall we?  AAAAAAAAAAL-batross!

Why, when I am trying to edit audio, do the kids feel the need to break out the maracas?

This is one very cool video.  It was posted on Facebook by a friend of mine, I reposted it for my other friends, and now two of them have passed it along as well.  The story goes that this woman won "Ukraine's Got Talent" with her Sand Animation.  In this video, she is telling the story of when the Germans invaded the Ukraine in World War II.  It's something you have to see.




This reminds me of something I saw at General Convention.  The Diocese of Los Angeles event was an "emergent church" service, which I really wanted to like.  Not so much.  But, one of the very cool parts was a guy who was on stage painting as the different Bible verses were being read and the "sermon" was being delivered.  The special thing about this was that he was painting with tempera paint on glass that was lit from behind.  It glowed.  When he would finish a painting, he would take a picture of it, then dip a squeegee in water and wipe the glass clean (or at least move the paint around on it to give himself a new canvas).  It was very cool.

This is an amazing video. Wanted to pass it along.

I am trying to catch up on some posts that I should have published while on the road. I am 'back-dating' them, so that they show up in the right order, so if you've been following along you might not see them. I'll list them here as they are posted, so you can find them, then a few days after the last one is live, I'll delete this post. Just so's you know.

End of Convention - Vacation Begins!
Main Street, USA
Tomorrowland
Fantasyland
Mickey's Toontown
New Orleans Square
Critter Country
Frontierland
Adventureland

Great video that encapsulates in 6 minutes what happened in almost 2 weeks.