Fantasy sports update:

Yahoo:


American Football: Weird season. After losing the first 5 in a row, I made a giant run, winning 6 in a row, which gave me chances of getting in the top bracket of the play-offs. Inexplicably I started losing again, 3 in a row. So I had a 14 game season, only 3 streaks. In the losers play-offs I managed to lose the 5th place play off because I fielded injured players, with my top performer on the bench. Oops. I still do not know any players but enjoy playing anyway.

Hockey: At least I know a few players. I have got one of them. I started leading the first week, fell big time after that though. Traded and waived, picked up in form players but still continued my free fall. I was 11th out of 12 at some point. At the moment I'm back at 8, though the gap to number 7 is huge. This will probably be my limit. Boring season therefore.

Premiership soccer: Good first two weeks, after that a friend of mine took over. I play in a league with friends only, after falling back to 3rd I am back in second now. The gap to 3 is small, to 1 big. I might have to be content with not winning it this year, even though I did last year.

NBA: My favorite fantasy game. As with Hockey after a good start I fell deep. The draft didn't work out well. As tenth in a draft, there is no real chance of picking up a great player anymore. I am still lucky with Kidd and Nowitzki, but the rest is
underachieving. I was tenth after a while, at the moment I am swapping places on 7th, 8th and 9th. Top half (6th) is still my aim. I have not given up hope.

Golf: Mediocre season. Not much interest.

Racing: God knows, I did play, but I don't know how.

College basketball: Pick a team that plays 2 or 3 games and the scores will come. Not much fun in that either.

World cup pick' em: Already started, even though the world cup is nearly half a year away.


Cyclosim:

World Championships: Disappointing. Had Freire, but so did plenty of others. Skipped Dekker and Hauptmann. Shouldn't have. Bugger.

World Cup: Still had hopes to reach the top ten there, I didn't. I didn't even get into the top 20, no ranking points for me.

Vuelta: Major disappointment. Had a crap team, my gambles never paid off. The ones I leftoff were great. I was lucky to avoid the bottom five.

Cyclocross: As last year this one is apparently the one I do well. Last year I finished 6th, with a win at the world championships. This time I am at 3rd, gaining points on the first two last weekend. But then again, this is the only game that doesn't get you ranking points. Bugger again.

Other games:

Euro Soccer league: Even though I haven't paid much attention to it, the autumn seemed good for me. I climbed big time and came within the top ten percent.

Voetbalmanager: As with the previous one, I'm not doing bad. Possibly an idea for the other games as well. Don't overmanage. I'm second in our private subleague, having led the first month.

Schaatstoernooien: Played that one for the first time last weekend. The European speedskating
championships seemed easy to predict. But not by me, given my 115th place, leaving only 37 in my trail.

Gouden 12: The one I organise myself using players from my own football club. 72 contestants, I was around 50th most of the time, have gained a bit of territory, I'm in the top half at the half time winter break. Not much perspective though.


I am looking forward to the Baseball season. New chances for me...

LiveJournal update:

I am not sure about the status of LJ in my life at the moment. With no more travel reports to file, less time for reading books, my entries have become a bit scarcer. It is a matter of interest as well. What do I want the world to know, what is my own. Should I use LJ as a test for my stories, before trying to get them published? Do I want everybody to know what is happening in my life? My entries about Gerda have, up until now, been friends-only. One of my friends wrote an interesting post about how people get to know each other through LJ, but do they really know each other. I still read my friends' page every day, I do not miss many posts. But I get annoyed with the 735 posts about what creature from which TV series they are, about which animal they claim to be, which member of their favourite band. I did one myself if I remember well and found myself an anthem, but it just takes up space. Plenty of long entries do not keep my attention beyond the first paragraph. In the past I have scratched people from my list from over posting, I read 50-70 posts every day at the moment. It is too much. People do not use communities for the right purpose. Write about yourself in your own LJ, in a community the subject is defined, write about it then. I'm afraid I have found myself in an LJ-vacuum. I know I won't leave here, not just like that, but I'm not nearly as addicted as I was a couple of months ago.

Philadelphia

Fell into the movie last night on television, just after the beginning, as Hanks was still looking for someone to represent him in the case he was trying to start against his former firm. Great movie, even if you see it for the second time. I can remember watching it with tears in my eyes the first time around, even know I was close to be that moved again. Somehow a victory of David against Goliath is always worth watching. In sports, a cup tie from a small team against a big money team, in politics, where some small groups have got more influence than other major parties, in business, if someone with a great idea beats a multinational.

All the praise Hanks got for his movie is well deserved. The details, the hours in make up, they make it scarily real. But the real achievement to me was Denzel Washington. Hanks overshadowed his role, but he plays a brilliant character here. From the homophobic scared lawyer in the beginning, to the great solicitor in court, asking key witnesses weird questions, involving politics in the trial, not losing the human aspect out of sight. He did it all brilliantly. If somehow you have managed to miss this movie, go and hire it.

The Truman show

And while I'm on film review anyway, this week I also watched the Truman show. I taped it during the Christmas break, watched a part of it every night before I went to bed. I enjoyed watching it. Despite my antipathy for Jim Carey, I still enjoyed this one as well. It is a good story, great idea; funny to see how it is all worked out. The end has been stolen though. I don't know if anyone has noticed it before me - I'd be amazed if nobody has to be honest - but if you have read "This Perfect day" by Ira Levin, the end cannot come as a surprise. It was funny to see him sailing to the edge of his world, but the door out into the main studio was too predictable. Not a classic movie, but still entertaining.