Sunday Round-Up #15

A little late, but better late than never.

My abstract distraction this week is :

Online gambling. Seriously, I’ve become a degenerate gambler.

The other week I set up an account with Paddy Power to place a bet for my friend. Ah sure, I’ll have a punt myself. Why not?

I now find myself checking whatever matches are on, every day. Several times a day infact.

But I’m doing pretty well, being careful and calculating with my bets, not being too risky. Accumulators are the most fun. When you bet on the outcome of a few different matches and could win big money. Usually putting a euro or two on a decent accumulator could return €xxx.

Yesterday I had nine matches in my accumulator, six of which won, and the other three drew. I was three goals away from winning €90 off my €1 bet. This is why it’s so addictive. When you get so close to winning, you just HAVE to try again.

And again.

“Sure I’ll win the money back, not a bother.”

Overall though I’m in profit, and the largest single bet I’ve placed is at just ten euro, which is on Chelsea to win today, away at Blackburn. They won 5-0 last weekend, haven’t conceded a goal away from home since the first match of the season or something, and are playing the team with the worst defensive record in the league. I’ll get €15 back if they win. I was surprised at those odds actually, thought they’d be much shitter. I hope to fuck they don’t let me down now I’ve made this bet public.

Surprise bets are damn fun. Like yesterday I was browsing the live betting section, and saw Venus Williams was due to play a tennis match in a few minutes. One option is to bet on whether or not she’ll win her first service game. I’m no tennis expert, but I know those Williams sisters are pretty fucking muscular, thus their serve is strong. And nobody ever breaks serve in the opening game. So I stuck a few quid on and won.

So if anyone wants me to stick a few quid on something for them, give me a shout. I get a percentage of your winnings, obviously.

Something that made me laugh this week :

You all know Rick-Rolling? Tricking someone into clicking a link for this Rick Astley video. One of those internet phenomenons. It seems pretty stupid, but for some reason I find it hilarious when someone does a good Rick Roll’ing. The song is just so perfect for an internet meme. And the way he dances.

Anyway, this article gave me a good chuckle. Basically, MTV held a vote for “Best Act Ever” for their MTV Europe Music Awards. Now I’m going to quote the article for the rest of the story :

The music channel decided to invite nominations for the best-ever act in September, but did not suggest that Astley, 42, be included in the category. However, as soon as his fans realised that they could nominate the artist, they voted in droves, ensuring that he got on to the shortlist, alongside acts such as U2.

The awards, which feature ten categories voted for by viewers, garnered 79 million votes last year. This time Astley received more than 100 million, eclipsing the total votes received by every other winner combined.

“We’ve been well and truly Rickrolled,” said Richard Godfrey, a senior vice-president at MTV and executive producer of the awards. “We wanted to see who our audience would nominate and, given that we’re in Liverpool, we thought it would be someone like the Beatles. But before the nominations were even announced he shot into the lead.”

Initially worried by Astley’s inclusion, MTV set up a team to try to cut out block votes. It was to no avail.

A separate poll of MTV viewers on whether Astley’s nomination should stand also fell victim to Rickrolling, attracting 20 million votes - 99.98 per cent of which were in favour of the star’s presence. Mr Godfrey said: “People set up computer programs to bombard the website. They could be sitting in Croydon, but they made it look like they were voting from the Philippines. We put in all sorts of blocks because we wanted to be as fair as possible, but it made no difference.”

That’s 4chan for ya. Nice work lads. Rick Astley for president.

Curses on :

Today, for the first time in a good while, I feel hungover.

I didn’t even drink that much last night, but today I just can’t shrug the feeling of needing to puke. It’s truly awful. I can imagine me ruining the Sunday dinner by projectile vomiting all over the roast beef or something.

I’m pleased with :

My homeboy Barack Obama winning the election. Was there anyone in Europe that didn’t want Obama to win? My reason for liking him have nothing to do with politics though.

I mean seriously, how cool is this guy?

He’s young and charismatic, not to mention an absolute sexbomb.

Also, this guy can bust a move.

I’ve been known to start doing the Obama on nights out. It’s a real hit with the ladies you know.

A pointless anecdote from this week :

I was off all week. On Monday I was supposed to get my haircut and go dropping my CV into a few places.

I didn’t.

I was supposed to do my homework and do some reading for my course.

I didn’t.

I just got back from getting my haircut. The CVs can wait until next week, can’t they?

Great guy/gal of this week :

Matt Morgan. I’ve spoken about Russell Brand a lot on here, and neglected Matt, who is Russell’s co-writer for a lot of things, and co-host on Russell’s old radio show. The shows with Matt are far superior to the ones with a guest host or whatever. It’s my opinion too that the whole debacle with Andrew Sachs would never have happened if Matt was there (he was on holiday, hence why Jonathan Ross was co-hosting).

Lately I’ve been acquiring all the old podcasts of radio shows that I missed, and Matt is just brilliant. I recommend everyone to download this podcast just to hear Matt’s “Not too bad” story. It’s fairly early on in the show too so don’t worry about having to listen for an hour before hearing it. Makes me laugh every time.

Matt <3

Product/Service I like this week :

Internet Download Manager. A life-saver for any Rapidshare user.

A quote :

“ Where all think alive, no one thinks very much“

-Walter Lippman.

Good man Walter.

Favourite song this week :

You Fucking Love It - by Dirty Pretty Things

Had to pick a DPT song after seeing them live on Monday. This song is one of those songs I put on when getting ready to go out. I love when Carl comes in with the chorus :

Just put your money in
Bruised and battered shins
You fucking love it
You fucking love it
Back on your feet again
Out on the beat again,
You fucking love it
Yeah yeah yeah

Rock on Carlos.

Enjoy.

There’s a better version here though actually, but it wouldn’t let me embed it, check it out.

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