Tuesday, October 24, 2006

More About Football/Selamat Hari Raya!

I'm very engrossed by FM 2007 right now. Hence the "disappearance".

*football starts here

Talking about FM 2007, the Football Manager franchise gets better and better with every installment. This one is the best one yet. This one is also the most challenging one to date. Yet somehow, not as frustrating as some previous versions of the game.

Most likely this is due to the extra speed boost courtesy of the optimized coding. I really appreciate this. Previously, Football Manager games were notorious for being very slow and unwieldy.

I've started a few FM games. I learnt the ropes by managing Brighton and Hove Albion. Later I started a French League game, managing Toulouse FC. I also started a Serie A game, managing AC Milan just for the heck of it. I usually stay away from the big clubs. I like to play down in the lower leagues which is usually quite challenging.

That doesn't mean the managing a club like Milan any less of a challenge however. The challenge is different.

Anyway, the experience of playing Milan is quite exciting. I have a squad of stars, millions in the bank and skyhigh expectations from the board of directors (Silvio Berlusconi!) and the fans.

I don't play this AC Milan career often. It's there for pure fun factor. Managing a world superpower football team is fun!

Yesterday, I started my "proper" campaign. I created an English/Irish manager and started the game with no job. Later, I was offered the vacant AFC Bournemouth job. I took it.

What a far cry from Milan! They may both wear the same colours (black and red stripes) but they are from different worlds. Bournemouth are a small, mediocre team with little cash, a little stadium and little hope of ever leaving League 2.

Yes, I'm finding it harder than usual. Goals are hard to come by, so winning is rare and precious (unlike Milan). Defence is pretty good but I'm finding it hard to kill off opponents and win games. I draw a lot of games (0-0 and 1-1). Especially at home.

I cannot strenghen the squad much because I have no money to sign people and I can't get anyone on free transfer because I can't pay their wages.

I'm loving it though.

FM may not have the glitzy graphics some games have, but when it comes to management simulation all the others don't even come even remotely near in terms of realism and depth. I urge all football fans to try it.

*end of football talk

In other news, today is Hari Raya Aidilfitri. I have many friends who celebrate it and I wish them all a blessed and joyous holiday.

This also means that there's no one in the office right now. Today should be a quiet-ish day.

Last week I said I wanted to do something about lists. Here is mine:-

Things I need to do this week.

1. Get my replacement door. It will cost RM226/-. Not including spray, which will cost RM180/-

2. Get the guy who hit me to cough up at least 50% of the total cost at the end of the month. I'll worry about the other 50% later.

3. Look through all the CDs in my car. I have stuff in those CDs that I don't have in my PC.
3a. Buy a CD marker.

4. Back up ALL my music. I have 40Gbs of it. It will take 12 DVDs.

5. Play guitar. I haven't played in a good long while and I really should because we have 3 really good guitars in the house. The callouses on my fingers are gone so I'm going to have to build them up again.

5. While I fix my door I might as well fix that ugly dent in the bonnet of the car, which was my own fault (parking mishap).

6. Close unnecesary bank accounts. I have 2 accounts that are dormant. There is money in them.

If I do half these things by this time next week, I'll be quite happy.

That is all for today and Selamat Hari Raya again to all those who are celebrating.

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