Ah, it's almost Monday. The weekend is over and another week of work is about to begin. I really like Monday's now (can you believe I just wrote that?) I suspect this has a lot to do with really liking my job. This week I'm on the 09.30 to 18.00 shift - not the greatest shift in world, but at least I'll miss most of the traffic!
What a bad, bad week for the Pirates. It all started last Saturday night with a 7-1 thumping by Providence. That was followed by a 5-0 loss to Lowell, a 9-3 thumping by Worcester and a 6-0 loss Manchester! Thankfully, they stopped the rot by beating Norfolk (who they play again tonight) 2-1 in a shootout last night.
Oh, how I laughed when I read that Valve had shut down the online accounts of 20,000 people illegally playing Half-Life 2. I really can't understand why anyone would want to pirate a copy of it. Valve are more than deserving of my money for making such an awesome game - I can't stop playing it at the moment!
Blueyonder are totally awesome. Not content with increasing the speed of my broadband connection by 50% to 750Kbps in April for free, they're now increasing the speed of my connection again by 33% from 750Kbps to 1Mbps - also for free - by January 2005! I highly recommend Blueyonder for all your web-surfing needs!
I finally got to play Half-Life 2 yesterday. And I finally stopped playing it around 2am this morning when I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. What an amazing game. The original was good, this is even better - way, way better. I'd say it's probably the best game I've ever played. It's breathtaking stuff from Valve.
Have I told you how brilliant Just One Look by Harlan Coben is yet? No? Well, in my opinion it's his best work to date. An absolute page turner. It keeps you guessing all the way. Even towards the end I still couldn't quite make sense of it - but it came together nicely like all Harlan's novels do. Recommended.
Despite being 2-0 up with one period to go, the Pirates lost 3-2 to the Albany River Rats in a shootout last Saturday night. They've got to get out of this habit of throwing away leads! Still, at least they bounced back with a good 3-2 overtime victory last night against Hartford. The Pirates play Providence later tonight.
Half-Life 2 has been released at last. However, I haven't been able to play it yet because I haven't been able log in to Steam all day. With such a high demand I guess this was to be expected. I'd of thought Valve would've made some extra resources available to cope with the initial surge though. I am not impressed, guys.
Wow! What a great weekend for my teams! First of all, Villa beat Bolton 2-1 away from home (with a cracking goal in the last minute) to climb to 5th in the Premiership, and then yesterday afternoon, D.C. United beat the Kansas City Wizards 3-2 to win the MLS Cup! I'm absolutely thrilled for both my teams. Woohoo!
Amazon are currently selling X-Files DVD box sets for a really ridiculous price. One box set normally costs around £79. However, at they moment they're selling them for under £30 each. I considered this far too good to miss, and decided to complete my collection by ordering seasons 7, 8 and 9 for a little over £80!
The Pirates lost 3-1 at home to Bridgeport on Monday night, and lost 3-2 away to Lowell in a shootout on Thursday night, before avenging that defeat by beating Lowell 4-2 at home last night. I wish they'd get a little consistency going! 7-4-1-1 isn't too bad though. The Albany River Rats are the Pirates visitors tonight.
It's the MLS Cup Final tomorrow afternoon, and my favourite MLS team, D.C. United, will be making an MLS-record fifth Cup appearance! Kick-off is 15:30, the location is the Home Depot Center in Carson, California and the opponents are the Kansas City Wizards. It'll be a great game - may the best team win!
Mozilla Firefox v1.0 was officially released today. It's miles better than Internet Explorer, and I highly recommend using it for all your web-browsing. I started using Firefox months ago, and I've had no problems with it whatsoever. Mozilla's excellent mail and news client, Thunderbird, is well worth checking out as well.
Football Manager 2005 finally arrived in the post this morning, so if you're finding it difficult to get hold of me for the next couple of months, you know why! A new Michael Connelly novel, Void Moon, also arrived in the post this morning. But that will have to wait until I've finished reading Just One Look by Harlan Coben.
Woohoo! My favourite MLS team, D.C. United, won the Eastern Conference Final last night, beating the New England Revolution 4-3 on penalty kicks after the game (and what a superb game it was, too) ended 3-3 in extra-time. D.C. United now face the Kansas City Wizards in the MLS Cup Final next Sunday. Go D.C.!
Meanwhile, the Caps' AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates, lost 3-0 at home to Manchester last Sunday. They then threw away a 5-1 lead and lost 6-5 in overtime against Springfield on Friday night, before bouncing back to beat Worcester 4-3 in overtime last night! They play the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at home tonight...
Back over this side of the pond, Villa thumped Portsmouth 3-0 at Villa Park to move up to 6th in the Premiership. All three goals came in the first half of the game, and to be honest, Villa could of scored a lot more if they hadn't of eased off in the second half (I hate it when they do that). Villa play Bolton away next Saturday.