Telegraph Fantasy Football password and progress report

More action in the premiership transfer market, taking some of my team away (again). The Telegraph Fantasy Football password for Wednesday August 31st, for anyone who’s in the same need, is LUCKY.

My team has been doing pretty well over the past week and a half, largely due to me giving up on Wayne Bridge ever playing football again and buying Del Horno as my second Chelsea defender instead. As usual, Chelsea haven’t let in a goal and Del Horno has scored one and assisted one so has really raked in the points this week. Henry has scored quite a few points, as usual, and Lampard is knocking the goals in as ever.

This has dragged me up to 3rd in the fantasy super league, although the 1st place team leapt even further ahead this week leaving me to think this must be a team with both Henry and Rooney in (and damn the expense). Still, I’m fairly happy with the teams’s performance so far given that for a couple of matches I was down to 7 men with early injuries. When Llungberg and James Beattie make it back I expect to be grabbing points more consistently, and not relying so much on Chelsea and Thierry Henry to score all my points.

I can’t help thinking that Chelsea have somewhat taken the challenge out of fantasy football this year as it’s pretty much a given to put Cech in goal and grab as many defenders as you can afford (and think will play). On the other hand, the large squad means it’s easy to spend a lot of money on big name players who may only get to play half a match.

Hopefully someone will work out how to score goals against Chelsea and make the rest of the footballing year a bit more interesting.

Telegraph Fantasy Football

No goal-scoring ability: Leyton Orient 0-1 Shrewsbury

Leyton Orient vs Shrewsbury

It was a pretty poor performance with virtually nobody wanting to take a shot at goal from anywhere. Plenty of passing around midfield, and plenty of running around in circles, but the Shrewsbury keeper only had to make two saves despite numerous chances in and around the area.

The result is a little unfair as the penalty decision seemed somewhat harsh, and Shrewsbury actually looked worse than Orient. This makes it all the more disappointing, however, as not being able to get a goal against such a poor side is not a good sign for the rest of the season.

There were a few bright spots at least. Efe played with as much energy as ever and seemed to be the only one willing to have a go on goal. Tudor ran well but the final ball was usually lacking. Simpson seemed to play well enough, the first time I’ve really thought that this year, and Keith looked to be fitting into the side well. Steele was very solid holding the ball up but there weren’t any plays that came off. Miller probably had the best performance in defence.

They’ve got to do better than this to have any kind of a chance at promotion.

BBC SPORT | Football | League Two | Leyton Orient v Shrewsbury

Read Cobra’s full match report

Jol signs new contract with Spurs

The news that
Martin Jol has signed a three year extension to his Spurs contract is very good, I reckon. He seems well suited to the club and they’ve made a good start to the season. To be honest, there’s still not a great deal of hope for getting much of a result against Chelsea tomorrow but hopefully they can make a good show. Chelsea always beat Spurs at White Hart Lane, even when they’re not on form, so a draw would be an excellent result.

Jol signs new contract with Spurs

Preview of Tottenham v Chelsea, Saturday, 27 August 2005

Breatharianism

Someone sent me some information on Breatharianism. The philosophy is that if air was pure then we could live on it alone without having to eat or drink anything solid and that thousands of years ago this is exactly what we did. My first thought on looking at the picture on the homepage was ‘that guy needs a good meal inside him’.

What clinched it for me was this:

Science has proven that the average person can live 30 days or more on just air and water alone. But only a few minutes without air.

Brilliant.

I also like:

Electrons do not eat, atoms do not eat, molecules do not eat, cells do not eat, and the body is built of and sustained by the cells, and not by what man eats.

which seems to gloss over the fact that cells do indeed seem to eat, as is defined as one of the five characteristics of living things. Luckily there is some good advice to be found here:

At this time the Earth is not ready to support a permanent no eating life style. I believe Everyone should continue to eat until the proper time.

So that’s a relief. Lunch isn’t cancelled.

I know I shouldn’t laugh at other people’s beliefs, but I will anyway. If you take nothing else from Breatharianism, remember

The Human Body is simply a love machine.

James Brown couldn’t have put it better.

Read all about Breatharianism
Some articles on the dangers of Breatharianism

Fantasy football – two week update

After two weeks and only 2 matches (for most Premiership teams) I’m only in the middle of our super league with 70 points. This isn’t too bad as the first place only has 85 at the moment. So far I can’t believe how unlucky I’ve already been with injuries with Wayne Bridge, Freddie Ljungberg, James Beattie and Wayne Routledge all out, so I guess getting 70 points with only a 2/3 strength squad isn’t too bad.

I’ve made some transfers today ahead of this evenings premiership fixtures but I’ve stuck with Ljungberg and Beattie as there’s a chance both of them could be back for Saturday’s matches.

For anyone who can’t find it elsewhere, the Telegraph Fantasy Football password for this week (August 24th) is OPEN.

Telegraph Fantasy Football

It woz the referee wot won it: Leyton Orient 1-3 Luton

Leyton Orient vs Luton

Orient played particularly well for three quarters of the match last night but some seriously dodgy decisions knocked any real chance we had of even drawing against a side two leagues higher on the head. Luton missed a couple of chances early on, although not before Leyton had a goal disallowed for (I guess) offside, and despite the obvious pace of Luton on the break we were keeping good posession, passing the ball around well and more than holding our own. When the first two of their one-on-one chances went wide it was almost looking like we might be lucky, but all that changed when the first goal for Luton followed what looked to be an obvious handball. This was just inside injury time at the end of the first half and came from a free kick which was another dubious ruling.

The O’s kept their heads up and carried on playing a close passing game and although there weren’t many chances Efe had a serious run on goal stopped by an appalling refereeing decision. The officials were swallowing every line the Luton players fed them, and that continued for the rest of the match. The first nail in the coffin came from a bad goal kick which went straight to the big (and fast) Luton strikers, and the final nail was an own goal by Alexander (harshly, the striker’s first of the season). There was a consolation goal for Orient towards the end but once it went to 2-0 the heart had gone from the team and Luton grew in confidence and started to look like the side two divisions higher.

Orient didn’t really do enough to win the game, but they played well and certainly made it hard for Luton to get off the ground. The one-touch control of the Luton players, plus the pace and strength (especially versus the Leyton Midgets) just tipped the balance, but I think the O’s really did enough for a draw last night and, it may be a footballing cliche, but in the end ‘it woz the referee wot won it’.

BBC SPORT | Football | League Cup | Leyton Orient 1-3 Luton

Friends Of The Orient business networking club

I’ve just come back from the second Friends Of The Orient meeting. Friends of the Orient is set up to enable businesses connected with Leyton Orient Football Club to network, swap contacts and generate leads, and ultimately to drive revenue into the club through being associated with successful businesses.

The meeting consists of a breakfast approximately every two months which is sponsored by one of the member companies followed by a short presentation by that company. Membership is £300 a year to join, or for the first year is free to gallery members and club advertisers. The first two meetings have been quite successful and have generated some useful leads already. They’re held in the new West Stand at the Orient ground on Brisbane Road.

Members of the club are also listed in the Friends of the Orient directory.

The Friends Of The Orient site

Exponetic’s listing on the site

Create wallpaper on the K750i

It’s fairly easy to make your own wallpaper for the Sony Ericsson K750i:

  1. Find an image on your PC
  2. Resize it to 176 pixels wide by 220 pixels high
  3. Save it somewhere
  4. Copy it into the Phone Memory/Phone memory/Pictures folder on the phone
  5. On the phone itself, go into Menu -> Settings -> Display and select ‘Wallpaper’
  6. Select ‘Picture’
  7. Browse through the list of images to the one you’ve just copied over

You can also make the image 176 pixels by 176 pixels to just cover the centre of the screen.