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Absolute legend… damn

Word.

Exactly a year ago today I posted a big list of football games that you could watch for the opening weekend of the football season. You know, because I’m nice.

Well this year the season doesn’t start until next weekend… but seeing as there’s football leagues starting in the next few days (Charity Shield, Scottish League, French League, etc.) I thought I’d give you the tools to start a week early.

I wrote a guide here as to how you can watch matches live on the internet for FREE. No sky, no digital, no fees - no nothing. Just free football streamed across the internet.

So this weekend here are just a few choices for games (all times are GMT).

Saturday
12.30 - Falkirk v Rangers
12.45 - Birmingham City v Sheffield United
16.00 - AC Horsens v Brondby
17.15 - Everton v PSV (Friendly)
17.15 - Man City v AC Milan (Friendly)
18.00 - Arsenal v Sevilla (Friendly)
19.30 - Shamrock Rovers v Sunderland (Friendly)
20.15 - Ajax v Inter Milan (Friendly)
21.00 - Colorado Rapids v Toronto FC
21.30 - Sporting Lisbon v Sampdoria

Sunday
12.30 - Celtic v St Mirren
13.15 - Nottingham Forest v Reading
15.00 - Man Utd v Portsmouth
15.00 - Tottenham v Roma (Friendly)
16.30 - FC Kobenhavn v Aarhus
17.00 - AIK v Elfsborg
19.10 - NK Zagreb v Hdjuk Split
19.15 - Brno v Slovan Liberec
19.30 - FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt v Bayern Munich
20.00 - Lyon v Toulouse
20.00 - Boca Juniors v Gimnasia de Jujuy

Much better than Sky. Infact, most weekends there’ll be around 6 or 7 Premiership games on live (not to mention other leagues - Spain, Italy, France, all of South America, MLS, Germany, Holland, Australia, etc.)

If you want to watch any of the above games read my guide here and use www.myp2p.eu as your TV guide (so you know what channel to look for).

It’s good to have the football season back

p.s. I think this will also work for Olympic games too if anybody wants to watch that.

Ladbrokes doesn’t seem to be letting me on today, which means I have very little to do with my Friday afternoon. This is one of the major problems with working night times - most of your friends work during the day time so your time off is a very solitary experience. And I’m a bit sick of the gym at the moment, so it’s a lot of time spent at the laptop!

I’ve spent most of the time on my comp this summer reading up on the football, as I often do.

The season is almost here. The opening games are next weekend, which means that this weekend is the charity shield where my (and about 70 million others’) team Man Utd take on Portsmouth (who my dad supports). I’ve never been a big believer in the charity shield because it is ultimately a friendly, usually played between the two of the top four teams (United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea) but I will quietly enjoy this one as Portsmouth should be a refreshing change.

Looking towards the Premiership itself - not much has changed amongst the top four (unlike last pre-season). Manchester United haven’t brought anyone in. There is a clear gap in the strike force, which will horribly exposed with one or two injuries (Rooney/Ronaldo currently out in the short term) which means Frazier Campbell will probably see a lot of first team football this season, and so might players like Manucho and Daniel Welbeck if enforcements don’t come around soon. Berbatov seems like the one Fergie is chasing, but there is a clear problem with Tottenham’s valuation of the Bulgarian.

Liverpool seem to have done the most tinkering. Benitez has again looked to collect a few more wing backs, safe in the knowledge that he has yet to buy a single Premiership quality left/right back. The acquisition of Robbie Keane, whilst a costly one, could prove to make a massive difference in Liverpool’s quest to break the Man Utd/Chelsea title race. Personally, I think a lot of Keane’s quality stemmed from his striking relationship with Berbatov who tends to share and look for his strike partner a lot more than I expect Fernando Torres to. Regardless, Keane is a quality signing and will surely form a much better relationship than whatever Dirk Kuyt and Voronin could offer. Why they are still chasing Gareth Barry is beyond me (because Mascherano and Alonso are going nowhere)… it should be painstakingly obvious that a right, and possibly left, winger are needed to make this a world class team. And wingers like Quaresma and Mancini (who has now gone to Inter Milan) were readily available. But can you tell Benitez anything??

Chelsea haven’t done too much either. Bosingwa looks a good player, who will surely be better at right back than an out-of-position Essien or an inept Paulo Ferreira. Not sure why Scolari has signed Deco when they already have Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Mikel and others vying for the centre midfield spots… while there’s no considerable change in personnel, the change will surely be in Scolari’s style of football. I think Chelsea will go on to win games in an attractive manner, but likewise they could stumble in attempts to play Scolari’s ‘beautiful’ football. From what I saw of Scolari’s Portugal and Brazil sides - they weren’t always able to grind out results when they weren’t playing well, so it will be interesting to see how they tackle that at Chelsea.

Whilst many criticise Arsenal’s selling tactics, I think that the acquisition of Samir Nasri is an excellent one, and Wenger will be proved right yet again as one of Europe’s most promising young players replaces Alexander Hleb who I was never really a big fan of. Arsenal will have to play out of their skin though to keep themselves in the top four. I can’t see Emmanuel Adebayor having another goal-scoring spree like last season, nor do I see the new boys Nasri/Ramsey settling in straight away. Of the so called ‘top four’ I think Arsenal are the ones most in danger of slipping out… or atleast I hope so.

And right behind them will be Tottenham. Excellent acquisitions all over the place. Not sure about their strike force, which boasts only Berbs & Bent (with Berbatov possibly departing soon). Word on the street (yeah, word on the street) is that Villa could join soon, Arshavin too and Vedran Corluka. Hard to see where Arshavin fits into this picture after the acquisition of Luka Modric, but many feel it indicates a forthcoming 4-5-1 system which will rely heavily on Arshavin’s success. Personally, I think that the Russian is vastly overpriced and will come unstuck in a division that is much faster than he’s used to and against world class defences/holding midfielders (look how easily Marcos Senna and Xavi dealt with him in the Euro’s). However, it will surely be an improved side on last term and I think they’ve a real chance of breaking into the top four!

Elsewhere, Sunderland look really good and have absolutely transformed their midfield into top 10 standard. A couple more defenders and possibly a striker and they will be top 10 for sure, maybe even pushing for a late UEFA cup place.

Man City, Middlesborough, Newcastle and loads of others have looked to buy players with no real discernable experience or outstanding quality. If I were fans of those teams I’d be quite worried. While the teams around them strive to improve (Villa, Tottenham, etc.) these teams haven’t really ‘bolstered’, but rather chopped ‘n’ changed.

At the bottom, I honestly think that the ’sign-everyone-you-can!’ policy of Hull City might make them a safe bet to stay up. While teams like Derby County or West Brom of a few years ago believe that their Championship squads can cut the mustard and grind out results with ugly football, Hull have looked to improve in every single position (or atleast have as many options in every position as possible). Anthony Gardner is an excellent acquisition, and I’m sure the likes of Bernard Mendy and George Boateng will prove invaluable too. Stoke and West Brom both seem far too laid back in their transfer activities, which I’m sure will see them struggle from the off. Even if Hull do struggle straight away, I think they’ve got such a big squad now that eventually they will find an XI that will get them results. It certainly will be an interesting season for their fans, and I think of the three sides ‘destined’ for relegation the Humberside team are probably the best equipped to face the task ahead!

Not many massive changes on the European front. Barcelona have made a good move signing Daniel Alves… Ronaldinho is not a bad addition to any side, so AC Milan have done well there… Van der Vaart is just so good it hurts, and will fit in a treat at Real Madrid… lastly Inter Milan have finally realised they need wingers and the addition of Mancini (and possibly Quaresma too) will completely transform that side. Those are the teams (aside from AC who are in the UEFA cup) that I expect to challenge for the Champions League, but then again those are the teams that are always there anyway!

Not sure if there’s anything else that needs to be said.

I can see it being another Man Utd/Chelsea race, with Liverpool providing either an early or a late charge (as Arsenal did the year before). I say it every year, but I think Tottenham could well pip Arsenal to 4th place, and then after that you’re looking at the usual candidates of Everton and Aston Villa. West Ham, Newcastle, Man City and Blackburn will all float around mid table doing very little all season… and at the bottom I can’t look past Stoke and West Brom to go down. Hull might, but I think their squad looks capable of staying up, and thus I think Fulham or Middlesborough could be the other team unsuccessfully fighting to stay in the league.

And I can’t wait to watch it all unfold \o/

Sup.

I got a tonne of shit in my bookmarks that I want to share. So here goes.

The Journal of Cartoon Over-analyzations - a website dedicating to taking cartoons such as the smurfs WAY too seriously. You know when people tell you such a minute detail in a film is a comment on the war, or society, or 9/11, or whatever… well imagine that in cartoons. It’s funny to see the smurfs labelled communists, mind.

‘Don’t Stay a Virgin’ - some girl has decided she will sleep with virgins if they help her save the internet. Yep. Watching nerds desperately apply is rather entertaining.

25 Strange Collections on the Web - including things like belly button fluff and some guy who has over 700 posters of fish.

The Twenty Most Awesome Mothers on the Web

Bad Spock Drawings - errrr… this is one of the weirder ones… a website dedicated to drawings of spock from star wars. Yeah, that’s it.

200 Comics in Under 12 Hours. On the subject of comics - I don’t frequently fuck with online comics but some really good ones are ‘Overcompensating’, White Ninja Comics and my personal favourite The Adventures of Dr McNinja.

That’ll do for now. Back to boredom.

Enthralling…An ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity, this is seriously brainy pop entertainment that satisfies every expectation raised by its hit predecessor and then some.
Justin Chang, Variety

Bale again brilliantly personifies all the deep traumas and misgivings of Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne. A bit of Hamlet is in this Batman.
Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter

May be the most hopeless, despairing comic-book movie in memory. It creates a world where being a superhero is at best a double-edged sword and no triumph is likely to be anything but short-lived.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind.
Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Beyond dark. It’s as black — and teeming and toxic — as the mind of the Joker. “Batman Begins,” the 2005 film that launched Nolan’s series, was a mere five-finger exercise. This is the full symphony.
Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

Ledger’s performance is monumental, but The Dark Knight lives up to it. Nolan cements his position as Hollywood’s premier purveyor of blockbuster smarts – and the Batbike is kinda cool, too.
Mark Dinning, Empire Magazine

Nolan turns the Manichean morality of comic books–pure good vs. pure evil–into a bleak post-9/11 allegory about how terror (and, make no mistake, Heath Ledger’s Joker is a terrorist) breaks down those reassuring moral categories.
Dana Stevens, Slate

It has become almost impossible to find a bad review of the new Batman movie.

All I heard last weekend from friends was that this film would ‘blow my mind’ and rank comfortably alongside all-time favourites of mine such as The Godfather and Casino.

Excuse me for being a little disappointed after every single person ratified that statement above.

I’m not saying it’s a bad film, but descriptions of this film as a ‘cinematic masterpiece’ or ’shakespearean’ are a bit much. Christopher Nolan has clearly created an accomplished piece of work here, but it is Heath Ledger’s performance that is the real reason to watch this film.

At nearly three hours long this film seems to go on forever and then some. In those three hours the only thing in that film that was truly alive was Ledger’s performance as The Joker, and I still think there wasn’t enough Joker in it.

This film will be sure to sweep the academy awards when they roll around next, and I’m almost positive Ledger will get himself one for his performance (although good, I’m not sure its THAT good). I thought the action scenes were ok but nothing special, the storyline has been reviewed as ‘deep’ and ‘well crafted’ (it fucking should be at nearly 3 hours) and for all the talk of this film as ‘dark’, it could have been darker (Two Face should have shot that kid in the neck).

Call me cynical but there’s no glaring reason to watch this film again (maybe if it were a reel of clips of the Joker)…

Featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Pusha T outta The Clipse.

Also, Joe Budden - Who.

And the new TIP joint, T.I. - Whatever You Like (video’s on youtube).

The internet continues to be brilliant, as this new website will prove…

‘Man Babies’ is pretty simple. You take a photo of a man and child, and swap the heads round. Like so…

Weird, but hilarious.

www dot man babies dot com

I don’t know how you adults do it.

This 9 to 5 shit is boring.

I’ve been done with uni for a couple of months now and I’ve got progressively more bored.

Mark described it aptly by saying he feels like he’s “sitting around waiting to die”.

That’s pretty much it. Maybe it’s post-uni depression, or maybe it’s the fact that there’s sod all to look forward to now. I go on holiday in just over a week but still… I have to come back and do it all over again after that! … I’m not sure you should feel like this at 21?

I can’t think of anything more depressing than doing this for the next few decades of my life…

Currently looking into doing my personal bar license and some courses in cellar management, accountancy and whatnot so that I can move up in the world of bars, clubs and restaurants… earn a bit more dollar and then I can hopefully look into travelling like I’ve always wanted to… lets face it, every city in the world has a bar… I’ve got a better chance of sustaining work and travelling with some qualifications. That’s the only thing that’s stopped me from hanging myself to be honest ! ha

Right… I must be getting off… I’ve got to spend more time staring at the wall…………..

New video from one of the best bands in the world. Featuring one of the ugliest girls ever to play the lead in any music video ever. Score!

Me and my good friend Dan headed to Essex (Southend) last weekend for the homie Mark’s 21st birthday.

And it was well worth driving the length of the country for.

Too many stories and too little time. I watched a man (a real man it must be said) neck a bottle of vinegar (and promptly head straight to the toilet, and then home), I got free late night rides around a theme park, I whooped everyone up at pool & pro evo, I was forced to sleep on the floor of someone else’s hotel room while Dan got his end away in a room I’d paid for (what a mug I am) and I even managed to catch the sun a little bit.

A big thank you to all of Mark’s boys and girls for making me n Daniel feel at home.

Essex was great. I can’t wait to go back. <3

As for the ‘Essex girl’ reputation (which every lad has asked me about)… this northerner noticed that there are far more lasses than lads around those parts, and they’re all dead chatty rather than dead slutty. They don’t exactly sit around with their legs open, sorry to disappoint you fellas.