Archive for the ‘Distractions’ Category

Last month, Leeds United announced a partnership with the San Francisco 49ers. It was a strategic alliance to discuss plans across the operations of both clubs including marketing, technology, merchandise, and more.

The 49ers will bring their experience as a market leader in the NFL. Meanwhile Leeds will bring all the things they are good at. Not sure what that is exactly. Perhaps given the rising tension between the 49ers and the Seahawks, San Fran want to know how to do football hooliganism properly.

Luckily, I’m already ahead of the game…

The NFL playoffs are finally set! So now it’s time to take a look at each team’s chances to win the Super Bowl based on who they’ll have to play, and where the oddsmakers have them slated. At Betfair online, betting odds are already posted for each team’s likelihood to win the Super Bowl, which gives us a good gauge to use in predicting outcomes. So without further ado, here’s how the match-ups break down, and how each team projects to do.

AFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

(5) Kansas City Chiefs @ (4) Indianapolis Colts
These teams have almost even odds to win the Super Bowl, with the Colts at 33/1 and the Chiefs at 37/1. Given how the Chiefs fell off late in the season, as well as how easily the Colts handled them in Kansas City just a few weeks ago, Indy is the favorite.

(6) San Diego Chargers @ (3) Cincinnati Bengals
At 17/1, the Bengals now have the 6th best overall odds to win the Super Bowl following a 5-1 finish to the season. They have to be considered a strong favorite to knock out San Diego.

TBA @ (1) Denver Broncos
If the preceding match-ups play out as predicted, this match would see the Colts facing a Broncos team with 3/1 odds to win it all. Indy may be one of the only teams to have beaten the Broncos, but in Denver, with Peyton Manning’s offense as hot as it is, the Broncos are heavy favorites.

TBA @ (2) New England Patriots
That would leave the Bengals facing off with the Pats (9/1 odds) in what would be an interesting game. Tom Brady is always a good bet in the playoffs, and with Julian Edelman looking more and more like Wes Welker, the Pats’ offense may be at its best. However, if you’re picking an upset anywhere, the Bengals may be an interesting team to take here.

NFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

(5) San Francisco 49ers @ (4) Green Bay Packers
San Francisco has 10/1 odds to win it all, next to Green Bay’s 22/1 long shot, but due to the strangeness of playoff seeding this game will be in Green Bay. That’s always dangerous, but the 49ers have been strong on the road all season, losing only to Seattle and New Orleans – arguably the two strongest home teams.

(6) New Orleans Saints @ (3) Philadelphia Eagles
Road games are trouble for the Saints, and with the teams at just about even odds – 26/1 for the Saints, and 24/1 for the Eagles – this one should be close. In Philly, that gives the Eagles a slight edge.

TBA @ (1) Seattle Seahawks
If games play out as discussed above, the 49ers would be traveling to Seattle, where they simply haven’t played well in the past couple of seasons. This is budding into a strong rivalry, but we’d give Seattle (with the best odds to win the Super Bowl at 14/5) the nod.

TBA @ (2) Carolina Panthers
Eagles @ Panthers would be an enjoyable game, but the Panthers, with 9/1 Super Bowl odds, ought to have the defense to stop the Eagles, or for that matter anyone else that might get through.

Of course, anything could happen in the end. But the way things are slated, the teams with first round byes look well poised to advance to the semi-finals, with New England perhaps being the most vulnerable should they face Cincinnati. Whatever the case, we’re in for some great football!

Last Wednesday, Sherlock returned to our screens after two years.

It was an okay return. But I was less of a fan than most. Firstly there was the endless comic relief. I do not remember any from the first two series. It was a series detective show. Now you have Anderson is the crazy comic relief character. Not to mention everyone spent a great deal of time laughing at John’s mustache. Because anyone with a mustache must be an object of ridicule.

Secondly, the sweeping cinematographic changes made it feel like not-Sherlock to me. The first two series had a very distinctive style that stamped their brand on the episodes. This one departed from that significantly.

Thirdly, the mystery was not very good. It was almost an afterthought that they plugged into the story half way through. It was mostly about Sherlock turning up and all the personal drama surrounding that. You can say “that is fine, lots of shows do that”, but most shows produce more than three episodes per series. To waste one everyone hugging and making up, with a small mystery thrown in on the sidelines resulted in an episodes that felt crowded but unsatisfying to me.

That is not to say I did not enjoy it. It was very funny. But it did not possess the enthralling Sherlock qualities that I fell in love with.

Eminem has courted no lack of controversy over the years. A lot of his songs are about murdering women and doing drugs, two topics which young people seem to identity with to a worrying large extent.

The problem is, it is hard to deny Eminem produces really great music though. He has received almost universal praise from critics and the public alike. He has remained consistently at the top of the charts for the past fifteen years and was the biggest selling artist of last decade. Even The Guardian likes his music.

I haven’t listened to him much since he released The Marshall Mathers LP, but with the release of The Marshall Mathers LP 2 I decided to give it a listen. It’s good. Really good. Enough to overcome the fact that I am not really a fan of hip hop music and make me listen to it.

His lyrics have matured, no surprise given he will turn 42 this year. The subjects haven’t changed too much, and the style remains the same. The lyrics still come thick and fast and delivered with perfection. But the album feels far more reflective than his earlier albums.

This could well be a lot less funny to people who haven’t worked in a design agency. But I nearly fell of my chair laughing at the Santa brand book.

Last month I went to see Nickelback in Leeds. It was the first time I had been to the Leeds Arena. It was pretty good. Nothing amazing, but it is quite a nice layout.

Nickelback were entertaining live. They weren’t a band where you come away from the show thinking “that was absolutely amazing”, but they were a lot of fun on stage and far less serious than I imagined them to be.

I didn’t get any good photos.

I did finally get a chance to use my massive goth boots to see over everyone’s heads though. Well worth the investment!

Leeds based club night The Wendy House basically never change their playlist. It’s comforting. As Hugh points out, you don’t need a watch because you can tell what time it is by which rendition of Sweet Dreams they are currently playing.

The advantage of this is that I’ve been able to make a note of all the songs they played (although we didn’t arrive until 12:30) and published them on a Spotify playlist. It’s shared, you can find it here. Drop me a message with any songs I’ve missed and I’ll add them.

I don’t watch much TV. Who has the time? Then people talk about box sets as if it is still 2007 and we all have DVD players. But Game of Thrones is proving to be one of the rare exceptions.

I’ve now watched the first two series and it quickly turned into a love hate relationship. My favourite characters keep dying. It’s very annoying. You get attached to someone and then his head comes off.

But as the same time, a medieval drama with dragons and snow zombies – what isn’t awesome about that?

What a climatic ending we got for the final game of the season. The Rams needed to win to make the play-offs but all was looking pretty grim at half time when they found themselves 22-0 down.

However, a spectacular reversal in the second half brought them back to 22-20, with only a few minutes left and the ball on the half way line when they were given a 15 yard penalty against the defence. It was like a replay of Super Bowl XLVII from earlier this year.

Sadly, just like the Super Bowl, the defence held, though due more to a valiant effort of the Predators than the clear pass interference of the Baltimore Ravens.