Fog Dude

All right, let's ask Dundee United fans if they're fine with being referred to as 'Dundee' shall we?

While we wonder why all those Manchester and Bristol supporters keep arguing among themselves... 

You talked about "the Oxford and Bradford fans" praising the way your lot have played in the first two matches. The teams you've played so far are Oxford United and Bradford City.

Don't get me wrong, I work with a Barnsley supporter and I don't begrudge you their good start, but that kind of thing does my head in. 

5 hours ago, Cod Eye said:

Can't believe how much of a feel good factor there is around Oakwell at the minute, it's amazing how a couple of dominant wins can change the atmosphere at a club. 

Another thing that is really surprising is how the opposition's fans are bigging us up. I always like to go on the opposition's forums before and after the game, just to see what the general conscious is about our team/performance. For the past few years in the Championship, it has been almost exclusively along the lines of "We should be hammering teams like Barnsley"(we even had a flag made up taking the piss out of the "teams like Barnsley" phrase, but this season the Oxford and Bradford fans have been full of praise for the team and it feels fantastic! 

Also worth noting, the last time Barnsley won their opening two matches was the '95/96 season, which was the year we won promotion to the Premier League for the first and only time! I remember being gobsmacked that the club would receive as much as £15m in TV money for the year. How times have changed, ey? What is it they get now? A minimum of £125m?

You're not in the same division as Oxford City or Bradford Park Avenue, and you went up to the Premier League in '96/97. 

6 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Notice Zenit got hammered in Minsk in the Europa League. What the he'll happened to them?

I think Feyenoord losing 4-0 in Slovakia sticks out even more as evidence of a famous club's swift decline. 

We've had 13 people send in D2D choices. Not heard from @The Maestro yet, but he'll be included in the first 4 weeks of calculations no matter what. I'm planning to make the draw for the group stage of the FPL Cup on the 3rd of September, so anyone who wants to continue needs to be fully signed up by then. Anyway, time for my own picks: 

Premier League

Arsenal 1-2 Manchester City 
Bournemouth 2-1 Cardiff City
Fulham 1-0 Crystal Palace
Huddersfield Town 1-3 Chelsea
Newcastle United 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur 
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Everton 

Scottish Premiership
Heart of Midlothian 1-1 Celtic 

Ligue Un
Girondins de Bordeaux 0-0 Strasbourg 
Nantes 2-2 Monaco 

Romanian Liga I
Concordia Chiajna 3-1 Hermannstadt w/RoryFice 

9 minutes ago, AdamTH17 said:

I'd be interested in signing up and playing along, would I just need to post my initial predictions to get the ball rolling?

Yeah, for the first 4 weeks you'll be included so long as you just make the predictions. If you haven't PMed me with 'Dare 2 Disagree' team choices by then you won't be able to carry on. You might want to refer to the sign-up thread for more details on that. If all that sounds uncool and unnecessarily complicated, blame @seph who came up with it ages ago before I took over. It's meant to make things more interesting by offering up frequent chances for bonus points.

You're considered to have dropped out if you miss 3 rounds in a row at any stage.

Another season of the FPL is now over! 

This post was updated throughout the season.

There's also a link to the last table update here.

Week 40 results
Premier League
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-4 Manchester City
Burnley 1-3 Arsenal
Leicester City 0-0 Chelsea
Liverpool 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Everton

Scottish Premiership

Rangers 2-0 Celtic 

Ligue Un

Lille 1-0 Girondins de Bordeaux 
Olympique de Marseille 0-3 Olympique Lyonnais 

German Bundesliga

Eintracht Frankfurt 0-2 Mainz 

La Liga

Real Sociedad 3-1 Real Madrid 

Serie A

Sampdoria 1-2 Empoli 
Roma 2-0 Juventus 

Austrian Bundesliga

Sturm Graz 1-3 Austria Vienna 

Belgian First Division A

Royal Antwerp 1-1 Anderlecht 

Eredivisie

AZ Alkmaar 1-0 PSV Eindhoven 

Russian Premier League
Zenit St Petersburg 3-1 CSKA Moscow 

Swiss Super League

Young Boys Bern 3-1 FC Basel 

Superliga
Midtjylland 4-0 Copenhagen 

Major League Soccer

Atlanta United 1-0 Orlando City 

Série A

Santos 3-0 Vasco da Gama 
 

FPL CUP FINAL REPLAY

Grecian 10-9 Briefcase

Chelsea's kids won 4-0 tonight at Swindon in the Checkatrade Trophy. They almost reached the final of the same competition last season – and that's without any of the youngsters that they loan out to the likes of Vitesse Arnhem. Either Leagues One and Two have had a massive dip in quality, or Chelsea are that last club that need to worry about strength in depth.

56 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Well fuck off out of a Mission: Impossible thread and go and post in something you are interested in then.

Fair point. I miss a lot of the film discussion because it's all in a megathread, so thanks for separating it out, but... why start with this particular franchise? I really don't see how you and Keith can turn your noses up at Marvel films but sing the praises of a mindless series of stunts just because the characters aren't from comic books. It's an inconsistent, selective kind of snobbery.

EDIT: Because I'm a pedant even against myself, I'm compelled to add that the above isn't technically true. But you get the idea.

The most iconic scene from the first film blatantly rips off The Wrong Trousers (which deservedly won more Oscars and was nominated for fewer Razzies).

Apart from that, the only thing I know about the series is that Simon Pegg has somehow got himself involved in the recent ones, because I've seen the trailers which give away all the least bad bits anyway.

Two friends of mine went to see the latest instalment today. You couldn't have paid me to join them.

35 minutes ago, JNLister said:

Oh, and it'll be 20 overs of five runs each rather than the original 15 normal overs and then a 10-ball over to finish. 

I think you mean five deliveries rather than runs. Either way, it's just not proper cricket. 

9 hours ago, Gus Mears said:

Alastair Campbell at Lupita by Embankment on Saturday after the pro-EU march. I had just finished eating copious amounts of quesadillas with the other half as Alastair walked in wearing a fetching pink shirt. Plainly thinking about overturning the referendum result and whether he wanted an avocado side salad or spicy rice. 

I saw him, Peter Lilley and Jonathan Dimbleby the previous evening at Highbridge Community Hall. 

Since that was for a live broadcast of Radio 4's Any Questions, I don't suppose it counts as an unexpected celebrity sighting, though.

You're welcome. I thought my reply was the sort of shit I should've spilled out here – or at least somewhere – at the time instead of internalising it all, so well done for speaking up, I suppose. I was worried that it came across as self-centred hijacking, but I can only really relate things to my own experience.

The only time I was taught by someone who'd been involved in broadcast journalism it was actually bloody brilliant, but he was from a different department as that clearly wasn't the focus of my course. Sorry to hear that people who fall into that category for you look like they'd rather not be there sometimes.

Ulf is probably right about not comparing yourself to anyone else in terms of mitigating circumstances, but in my case when you've got a friend whose Mum is dying it does feel like taking the piss to say you're suffering as much as they are. 

The one bit of encouragement I can give as that it sounds like the worst may be over in terms of marks. I'd also averaged at least a 2:1 the whole way through, but been primed for less impressive grades with quite a few essays and translations that landed in the low 60s in the last semester, all so that they could say the 58 I got in my final speaking exam – which was worth a massive proportion of my total mark – was 'not anomalous' when I found out about it alongside my overall grade 3 days later. Hopefully that means the 56 is as bad as it'll get for you and you've actually had time to react to it.

I took a year after graduating to find my Masters course, but I can understand how already having an offer for one would dampen your motivation even further. And yeah, once you realise it's all in your head that can lead to a downward spiral of beating yourself up about it from which there's no easy escape. Knowing that other people have been through the same kind of stuff might be better than agonising in silence, though.

Best of luck with making full use of that whiteboard anyway. Hang in there!

3 hours ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

I've fucked myself. I have well and truly fucked myself. I have a 2,000-word report to do by Friday which I haven't started yet. Usually not a problem - I've developed a terrible habit over my time in uni where I do my essays the day they're due or within a few days of the due date. Except I've just realised that, instead of my 3,000-word media law essay being due on April 22nd, it's actually due on April 2nd. OK. Not a problem. It'll be long, but I can do that. Except, like a prick, I've left even really *starting* my final year project (an entire website, including content like articles, images and video, aimed at 11-16-year-olds), which is due May 1st, until...well, right now. Oh, and that has to have a 4,000 critical practice essay accompanying it. I also have to work 2-3 days a week as a BDM.

I know that having let this all pile up is a byproduct - not exactly a symptom - of my depression and anxiety. But here we are, the end is right in front of me, and I could very easily have fucked myself down from a potential First to a 2:2 or worse by just not doing what I'm supposed to do.

I don't know what to do.

Well, I do. I should fucking start writing. Fuck. I just can't motivate myself. The fuck is wrong with me?

EDIT: Here, look. I made solid progress. I made a list. This is definitely not procrastination. 

This probably won't be much help if I say that it sounds a lot like where I was with my BA course 5 years ago, except I was fortunate enough not to have to take a job on the side (the mix of student grants/loans was a bit more generous back then, plus I'd started off with a one-off scholarship payment 4 years earlier as a financial cushion). There was a 4,000-word Spanish essay that I'd done a few hundred words for when the deadline passed and which I should've finished the summer before anyway. And I hadn't found the motivation to research it properly when I'd actually been out in Spain the previous year. I also missed one French presentation completely in the final semester and accepted a mark of zero for that. It's not fun trying to hide a breakdown from your classmates but I think they might've had an inkling something was wrong when I didn't turn up for that. Somehow they still late me escape with a 2:1 when I probably should've been made to repeat the year. 

I totally recognise all the same reasons too: planning and constantly rescheduling being far more attractive than actually getting on with assignments. Expending emotional energy on worrying about projects and avoiding until the point where you don't have any physical energy to tackle them. All classic signs of anxiety. And yet I don't look back and think I was doing the wrong course at the wrong uni at the wrong time. Even in ideal conditions, I still messed up as usual. Plus there's no happy ending as I'm not really moving forward with my life 5 years on either.

The elusive Ulf makes some good suggestions above, but in my case I found all those outlets to be quite useless. People I knew who were filling out special circumstances forms were suffering genuine bereavements (specifically, my best mate's mother had terminal cancer) and I thought it'd be a bit rich for me to put myself in the same category as them. Pastoral care from the lecturers was pretty shocking during this time too. The uni's own free counselling service would've been a waste of time since I'm not a danger to myself or others and therefore not a priority. Extra exam time once I got onto an MA did more harm than good because it meant being moved away from my friends into a room full of strangers. I hope your uni is more sympathetic anyway. Good on you for that 78% though!

It just goes to show that getting a diagnosis and being aware of any issues you have doesn't always change things and make life easier. No matter how much I'm aware of my condition, I'll never learn and I'll always react the same way to pressured and stressful situations and deadlines. And my Mum wonders why I'm not exactly keen on a second crack at postgraduate study... 

21 hours ago, PowerButchi said:

 

More in the international game for me as well is required. Fuck the BCCI.

In that sense, yeah, I agree the privileged money-grabbing position of India has to go. I just meant 'less tradition' in the sense that the ICC should be trying to expand the global game instead of restricting it to as few countries as possible. 

So we're agreed then. More tradition is needed in the domestic game, but much less of it is required in the international game. 

Pity the ECB and ICC aren't about to see things that way. 

7 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

They’ve goosed that feud already. Utterly goosed it. Why did you need to heat Brock back up by pointing out the inconsistencies in Romans argument? Or talking about his sacrifices? If the idea is to get Roman cheered (it won’t work) then surely have Brock live up to that. Don’t even have him show up on Raw. Have Heyman send a postcard and then leak pictures of the two of them sipping margheritas on a beach after a hard MMA training session.

I'm now getting this peculiar mental image of Lesnar and Heyman attempting to drink a pizza.

7 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Also, somebody verified for me that the Welsh word for microwave is indeed popty-ping.

As Butch says, you ought to know better than to trust whoever told you that when there are so many more reliable sources within easy reach these days. Fortunately by the time the sillier word had been popularised by that creepy guy on The Apprentice, I'd already long since learnt the proper term from watching Pam Fi Duw? growing up. That came in handy when I ended up studying in North West Wales. 

I'd add people who are content with – or even insist on – saying "pysgod wybli-wobli" instead of slefren fôr to the above rant as well.

11 hours ago, Gus Mears said:

Wish Root could have got through the day. Narrowly Australia's, especially if you look at what is to come batting wise (stating the obvious, but what a difference Stokes would make at this point). It's a weird, weird pitch that is not anything like what I would have expected at the GABBA and consequently, quite hard to say what a good score is. Generally, you'd think in Australia you need to be looking at 400+. but I am not so sure here if it keeps spinning/quickens up. 

Just a heads-up that the Gabba isn't an acronym like the WACA is, Gus. 

5 hours ago, Au said:

It was my mates 36th birthday over the weekend and we'd heard about a place called Timewarp Arcade in Bridgwater, not far from Weston Super Mare.

It's fairly hidden away and is basically just a large garage filled with arcade machines but it's only £6.50 to get in and everything's on free play.

We were there for four hours but it just flew by and I reckon I could have easily spent the whole day there.

 

I live between Bridgwater and Weston-super-Mare and have been to the Timewarp Arcade a few times, twice just after it opened and once more recently. Despite being right next to the bus station and near the river, it is somehow well hidden. In the early going they wondered if it would be viable but luckily they've managed to stay afloat.

On the last Wednesday of every month they hold a gaming and takeaway night which is great value. It's become so popular that they're thinking of making it a fortnightly event. It's worth visiting more than once because their machines go in and out of repairs, especially the more popular ones. They also have occasional StreetPass days with discounted entry.

All in all I can only echo Au's recommendation. Time really does go by so quickly there. I only wish I'd known about the Museum of Computing History when I was last in Cambridge too.

Yeah, to be fair he came out straight away and said that was unacceptable. We don't know whether someone asked him a question on that subject to get him to say something untoward (like with the prank on TMS a few weeks ago) and he just didn't mince as words as much off air, or if they were looking to have their own baseless prejudices confirmed and Boycott merely obliged. Neither motive is especially palatable, mind. 

ETA: Specifically and so it doesn't look like I'm defending him, it bothers me that the outrage about the blackface suggestion has obscured the issue by allowing the myth of disproportionately ennobled* Caribbean cricket players to go relatively unchallenged. The Minstrels – although horrendously insensitive – were actually a thing, whereas knighthoods being handed out to black cricketers like confetti were not... and I prefer it when public opprobrium is based on facts. 

*not a euphemism, BTW

Boycott was either feigning ignorance about the honours system to make a lame joke or being genuinely ignorant about it, but not in a malicious way. He made the comments at a Q&A so the person asking the question was probably under the false impression that Sobers, Richards, Ambrose etc. had all been given British knighthoods. The people piling on to take professional offence probably know even less about how gongs are awarded. He didn't exactly put it in a very sensitive way but we've come to expect that from him, haven't we? 

15 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

That was obviously fog dude.

 

It genuinely wasn't. Utterly baffled as the rest of you about that one.

5 minutes ago, MungoChutney said:

I had two women on my list, did anyone else have any? I bet I'm the only one with one of the males too. 

Mine ended up with a female majority. 

11 hours ago, JNLister said:

Anyone know why in the T20 group stage they only play 14 games (six opponents home and away, one only at home, one only away) rather than the seemingly more sensible "play everyone home and away"? Surely they could squeeze in two extra games, particularly given they are meant to be money-spinners.

No, but I do know that this is also the format for Division Two of the County Championship this season, which is even more scandalous (along with day-night matches and the forthcoming city-based competition).