McCracken Goal

Above video has music by Badelt which, yes, is from Pirates of the Caribbean. Goes well with just about anything. As you'll see below. The video below is almost a daily morning devotional for me.

Name This Player

It's almost criminal how much fun I am having with FIFA 11. It's like the create a player thing was made for me. I'm playing a league setup with Helltown pitted against MLS teams. Stats are actually believable. I'm not running the table in every category. I'm around 5th place with Doran my leading scorer after 12 games the only one in the top 20.

The Team is Up and On

Better titled as: How I spent all day Sunday. FIFAs online "Creation Zone" is really good. It was easy to create players and a team then pull it on to my XBox. In fact anyone can pull down the Helltown Brewmasters United.

Here is a Smitty goal:

http://www.ea.com/uk/football/videos/ugc/39981180

Full team list is as follows. I can create up to 50 players... and I will.

Name and Position
Daniel Hunter Defender
Geoff Wood Defender
James L Johnson Defender
Jay Smith Defender
Larkin Tysor Defender
Larry Johnson Defender
Ole Moses Defender
Brett Stone Forward
Chris Doran Forward
El Vez Forward
Francis Huntington Forward
Jeff Smith Forward
Mark Ragase Forward
Matt Stevens Forward
Cory Smith GK
Scott Bullard GK
Billy Sasquatch Midfielder
Dustin Kidd Midfielder
Mark McCracken Midfielder
Matt Wood Midfielder
Russell Murphy Midfielder

Stoke City FIFA 11

Getting beat up a bit online but that doesn't mean I haven't had any great goals!

http://www.ea.com/uk/football/videos/ugc/39002209

FIFA 11 is here

And all the angels said! Amen!

So far the experience has been pretty good but let me get the bad out of my system.

I'm not a big fan of having to pay for features that should be out of the box. Live league play for single player is $10 bucks (800 MS pts). Not sure I like that. You have to have a code that comes on the manual to get online. I'm ok with that, I guess. Just another hoop to jump through though. I've tried to play 3 games online... two of which locked up. First day, I know. I just get skittish with Xbox Live. I don't play a bunch of games online but I have played enough to know that Live can get hijacked and broken. Ah, well. We'll see.

Now for the good.

Game play is more natural. I can't pass the ball around like a pinball machine anymore. While I liked that, 11 feels more natural and real. Tackles are better and more fouls for aggressive play. Shots are down... way down. Thumbs up for that. More play in the midfield like a real game and through passes forward are more difficult to preform. Overall, I guess what I am trying to say, it's slower. Which is great!

Much improved gameplay. Game on!

Northampton Town 2 Liverpool 2

The Cobblers pulled it off (last week) on penalties. What a win for them. Liverpool had mostly reserves playing in this Carling Cup match... still... I'm no expert, but i'm pretty sure this sort of thing shouldn't happen. Nice work Cobblers!

I read somewhere that this game ensures that Northampton will be turning a profit for the year now. Something about that I like because I know that more then a few Premier League teams are in financial trouble.

This will be a game long forgotten in the world of soccer, in fact it may already be. But for NHT it is a win for the ages.

Back from New England(?)

Had to take a trip to a place I never really expected to go. North Andover, Massachusetts. I didn't have much time to do much. A lot of work. I wasn't far from Boston, but it seems nothing is really that far from anything when you're in that area. Looking at the map I realize that I wasn't really far from Portland, Maine.

Flew in to Manchester, New Hampshire... which reminds me. FIFA 11 this week!

II. Only interesting to me

1. Tailgating at Buffalo Bills games.

A longtime Bills fan has been selling bowling ball shots (shot out of the finger hole) and grilling off the hood of his Pinto for near on two decades... until last week when an NFL suit told him "not any more". The NFL is trying to clean up the gameday experience, I get that. NFL games are rated R events on the field and around the stadium. But shutting out this guy in Buffalo isn't necessary. Yeah, yeah, the law and what not. Turns out they wanted to move him away from the stadium altogether but they settled on letting him stay where he was, just sans bowling ball. It's Buffalo man, he is a true fan of that team, leave him be.

Which leads me to...

2. Steelers fan dude.

Ohio gained about a billion Steeler fans a couple years ago when the won the Super Bowl. I don't mind someone jumping on a bandwagon but it is over the top here where I happen to live. I have a trifecta of bars around me so every Sunday in the Fall Mr. and Mrs. Fake Steelers fan pure out on the streets drunk and loud. It's always sort of bothered more then it should, this rooting for a team cause they are good. It is prevalent in all sports I reckon. It isn't the fan whose dad was a fan or someone who moved from PA. It's young Ohio dude who hasn't worked a day in their floppy handshake life. Oh well, it's hard to explain. I guess when you have a little prick you feel like you have to root for a winner? Get off my lawn you punk! You too - ikillyomomma screen name - who kept picking FC Barcelona when I was going with the Columbus Crew on FIFA 10!

3. Finished Red Dead Redemption

A couple weeks ago, but deserves mention. Those guys at San Diego Rockstar pulled off an excellent game.

4. Alcohol free lifestyle right now

Made a pact with someone. That's not a underhanded way to say "made a pact with myself" either. That said, it'll do me a lot of good as well. Save for the rude comments about nonsense like poor Steelers fan that come out from not sipping on a 12 year old single malt scotch (or Bulleit Bourbon) to calm the nerves. Jokes aside, it is something I'm taking seriously. Does the body good and makes grocery shopping more interesting. I have a host of new beverages in my fridge like San Pellegrino, Virgils Root Beer, Jones Soda (or Pop, which I've been off of for a couple years) and various forms of fruit juice, I'm sure alcohol will make it's way back (vino maybe), but for now it's off. It means a lot to me to be helping someone.

5. Shawcross is no longer my captain

Drogba has taken the arm band as I was called out (wisely) by the commish in my fantasy soccer league. Expect Drogba to go down with injury! In other fantasy news. The other football kind. I'm still playing with the "good guys" for the 4th year straight. Won me a championship a couple years ago. Almost dead last in the other years, but this year I'll be back on top!

6. Who is Dying Bravely? We Don't Back Down

The Shelby Sensation, the Reverse Apache Master

Picked up Eastbound and Down today. I've been wanting to watch it for sometime. Next season starts up on HBO here later this month. Lookout for it. David Gordon Green will be doing a handful of the episodes again this season while Jody Hill will handle most. The series is more Jody Hill Observe and Report then Green's Undertow or Snow Angels. Jody is from Concord, NC so I'll give him a pass on Observe and Report (it had it's moments, albeit, um... off beat?).

In Eastbound and Down they just sort of turn it loose. It extremely rude and profane but at the same time honest -- which is a tightrope. One that Apatow and Seth Rogen like to walk (save for Year One). Will Farrell seems to be linked somehow to rude/profane/honest comedies. Okay by me. Role Models was a funny as heck. Eastbound is no different, he is one of the producers.

McBride's Kenny Powers has become somewhat of a cult figure around baseball parts. After the first couple episodes it is hard to see, but the show (under Green's direction) hits his stride around the 3rd episode - just ends too quick, there is only six of them.

September 26th is the next episode. It's moved out of NC, but hoping the charm is still there.