Sports Lately

This one is going to need a hell of a lot of work on it. I was expecting to write a "sports lately" while watching the Diamond League athletics over the last...few months. It seemed fairly easy at one point, but I just finished watching the World Athletics championships (or is it the Athletics World Championships? I'm too overwhelmed to remember) and...yeah, wow. I really need to go back and make a lot of notes. A LOT of notes. Dang it.

So yeah, for anyone who ever reads this (if anyone ever does), this will be updated, and completed, probably after another blog entry or seven. So "sport lately" (which will mainly concern athletics), will be "sports over a very long period of time". Dammit, I should've just kept writing entries as it went along.

TV Lately update

Very simple: I've just given up on Arrow because...urgh. I'll try to watch a few, but can't really. Daredevil is amazing. Absolutely amazing. I almost wish I hadn't found out which major Marvel characters are going to be introduced in the second season, simply so my jaw could hit the flaw when he (or is it she??) does appear. Oh, and haven't watched True Detective season 2 yet. Need to get onto that

So, short story shorter: Gave up on Arrow, Daredevil kicks ass. Need to watch True Detective

TV lately

I should first point out that I don't actually watch TV per se - just watch catch-up on my laptop (thank you, Couchtuner, Hulu etc!). And this considers mostly American shows (not other shows I'll watch up on catch-up like on BBC iPlayer)

Was disappointed with Season 5 of Game of Thrones. Not in the "oh-my-god-they-killed-my-favourite-character-again! type of dissapointed, either (well, that didn't entirely escape my notice: it still managed to keep up getting my hopes up that some characters would survive and then BAM! they're dead). Just disappointed. It felt a little flat. Unlike previous seasons, where the tension was realy ramping up the entire time til the epic end-of-season cliffhanger, The end of the season here was kind of flat, though it definitely didn't help with my mother naively giving away the ending in a 'subtle' (i;e: not so subtle) manner. I binge-watched seasons 4 and 5 in quick succession, so I might mixup a few details, but I liked the firt few episodes: they really ramped up the tension for the first few episodes of Season 5, but after that, every "shocking" ending felt like "meh". I can't really explain it. The war with the Wildlings was amazing - when they marched on the wall 100,000 strong, with their torches out, while Jon Snow and the rest of the Night Watch looked out on them gave me a similar feeling to when I saw the Orc army stood outside the walls of Castle...something in The Two Towers. I was expecting an amazing, epic showdown. But not really. The giants are incredible, but it was a bit..I dunno, empty. Every episode in seasons past built and built to an amazing climax, and regardless of whether or not the ending had been given away for me, the conclusion to this one was just ";;;oh." Several characters STILL didn't get their comeuppance, of course. Stannis let that goddam Fire Witch off!! After she convinced him to BURN HIS DAUGHTER AT THE STAKE!! Are you fucking kidding me??! The writer of GoT must have some kind of sick fetish for cruel and unsual women, because he LOVES letting the vilest women off the hook. Now the Fire Witch is looking all forlorn and sad that her visions didn't come true? Well, if she fully believed in it then WHY THE FUCK DID SHE RUN FROM STANNIS??! Because she meant to cost him his only daughter!! Anyway where was i? I got distracted. Oh, well yeah, the ending of this season felt. Shame.

Another show I got into was Arrow. Arrow has basically launched the DC TV connected universe, which surprises me because Green Arrow is not a big star in comics. Never has been. Howeever, the show has been a hit. When I started watching, I didn't realise I had so much to catch up on. Damn three seasons of 23 episodes each? Christ. So I grabbed a steaming cup of coffee and settled in, and I quickly came to the realisation: they're very hard to watch. I don't know what it is about it, but Arrow is quite hard to watch. I thought "ah, it's only 40 minutes each episode? Easy". Yet for most of it, I was expecting "ok, so this is the conclusion?" Nope. "Oh, this must be the end." No. "Is this?" Christ,let me check the time...I'VE GOT 20 MINUTES LEFT??!" etc. Still, the show itself isn't bad. It's just not great. The actor who plays Arrow, I've tried to give him loads of leeway, but he just seems wooden. I thought he was playing him stoic, but I'm not sure... Still,like I said, the show is pretty good - and I'm determined to stick it out and catch up, because I want to see the DC Universe unfold, and I've heard there'd a looad of characters/elements/tropes/whatever from the wider DC Universe that are featured in it (I've yet to see Ray Palmer, but I want to get a glimpse). I just hope this show doesn't go the way of Smallville , which from all I've heard, became absolutely fucking ridiculous by the end (I've only seen stills of the Hawkman from that show, but oh my god...). I've seen little glimpses of Atom's upcoming design (I think) and it doesn't look great, but still, DC are trying to catch up to Marvel, who have a very VERY well established (and worked-out) interconnected universe - and as a sort-of related note with Ray Palmer: Ant-Man (Marvel's "version" of Atom), looks VERY good. Of course Ant-Man won't be a massive world-beater. In fact, I have a feeling it'll be one of the lowest-grossing of the MCU films, but I've always kinda dug Ant-Man, just as I've always loved the visuals/potential of Atom, even though neither of those guys are the biggest stars in their respective universes, no pun intended (well, slight intended pun). Still, back to Arrow: It's good, don't get me wrong, but there's something kinda lame about a man with a bow and arrow threatening gangsters to "DEPOSIT $40MILLION INTO THIS ACCOUNT!" and they do it, out of fear for a man with a bow & arrow. Hmm.. I think the reason I haven't liked it as much as I would have, is because I inadvertently compared it to...

Daredevil!! I watched the first episode of Daredevil before trying to catch up on the way-more-episodes of Arrow, and I was truly spoiled. The first episode of Daredevil is EX. CELLENT. Utterly brilliant in every way. Like Arrow, Daredevil has never been the main star in his respective Universe, but, like Arrow, he seems to be the focal point of launching their TV show universe (well, online TV, but TV nonetheless- actually, is there a word for shows like this? There must be...). So, unfortunately for Arrow, it had a LOT to live up to, and if I'd watched them in reverse, Arrow might have had a chance at impressing me. But it can't really compare, so I've decided to switch back to Daredevil. I'll complete that, and switch back to Arrow, but I have a feeling Arrow is going to be left in the dust, and I'll only watch one or two episodes a week maybe, to catch up (which will mean wa? Over a year''s worth of watching/ Wow. Anyway, what can I say about Daredevil? One episode (which I think would've been the pilot) and I was hooked, and it's not got any flatter. I think I'm 8 deep so far, and I'm loving LOVING everyone in it. Foggy is played well. Karen is played well, Matt/Daredevil is played BRILLIANTLY (and let's give a hand to ANOTHER British actor who has blew everyone away playing an American superhero! Seems to be the thing to do these days), but of all of the characters, I was most looking forward to seeing Wilson Fisk. I know they haven't given him the name yet, but godDAYM if he isn't the Kingpin in the flesh. That scene where he pulls the Russian out of the limo just looked so authnetic - his furious face looked like it was straight out of the comics. Admittedly, he's not as large as the comic-book kingpin, but who would be (apart from the late rapper Big Pun? RIP Pun!) Oh...and that leads me onto the tantalising possibility of another character who, as far as I've seen hasn't been introduced/even referred to yet, but is rumoured to be in the second series. Because Big Pun took his name from his favourite comics character (and it's actually an abbreviation of) Punisher!!! I'm salivating at the idea of them building up to him. Don't spoil it for me, please, as I build up to the final few episodes of this series and see if Punisher will be alluded to/introduced, but MAN, Daredevil is something every single tv lover needs to get on. And, if this show is any indication, then the Marvel TV universe will set new standards for how TV shows are supposed to be. In fact, after watching the first epsiode, I was straight away thinking "holy shit, THIS is a comic book tv show?" (we all know how they've done in the past - only two have been moderately successful/quality without taking the piss out of the source material: Agents of SHIELD and Arrow itself. I'm looking forward to seeing where this one, and the others, will take us!

Onto Uni I March

Once again, I'm behind on my blogging, and because of that this won't be very detailed, but...I've passed college! I've graduated! I've got my diploma (so to speak). It's all here on the print-out. Not exactly amazing marks, but considering I dropped one class, and discarded two others at the very last minute, and the fact that everyone thought I'd fail last year, it's fairly amazing that I got there. So I'm on my way to uni! What d'ya think about that??? Only 10 years behind everyone else - so I'm coming in a "close" second, you could say!

All Work And No Play Make Ryan a Good Boy!

I've got til the 18th to do an entire portfolio. Two entire portfolios in fact. And I reckon I've finished one of them already. All I needed to do was apply myself, and bingo! It was done. Amazing what can happen when I actually do the fuckin work!

I'm not surprised I've got work to do. My college officially finishes this week, at 12pm on Friday (the 18th), when I finish my English exam. But that won't actually be the end of me in college just yet. I'll have to go in the following Monday to complete my IT work. And then the next few days to do my maths work (and possibly even the week after that). And then, for some reason, even though I'll have already done my critical thinking exam by then, we have to hand in our Critical Thinking essay by the 28th of June! Crazy, stupid timing (an essay would've helped us understand our exam, but instead we're doing our exam first...weird!!).

Of course, I'm not out of the woods yet. I've got to finish these two portfolios by Friday for CERTAIN, and then hand in my English essay (which should've been handed in two weeks ago), and then finish my placement portfolio. Amazing. I've had all this work all this time and I've only just started it! But, that's my fault and my fault alone. I'm gonna be the one to solve my problems. And I've got two days to do it! As well as two exams....oh dear!

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

Fighting

I've recently seen a slew of great fights, however disappointing the results actually turned out to be. In fact, I reckon the string of fights I've seen are among the best I've EVER seen. Here's the rundown (ps: bare in mind some of them aren't brand-new...just new for the purposes of this blog).

Jose Aldo vs Urijah Faber

I honestly thought Urijah would take this one. He's the most dominant Featherweight champ in history, and he was hungry to get his belt back. Sure, he lost twice to the former champ Mike Thomas Brown (who's no slouch himself, clearly), but those were set-backs. This Aldo kid, however much hype he had, just wouldn't be able to fend off Faber, who I expected to be relentless in his takedown attempts. Faber strikes me as a kind of mini GSP - someone equally good standing up as wrestling others to the floor and just dominating them with their overall skill. Plus, he has heart for days - even if he got hit solid, he'd fight on. I knew Aldo had all this hype at being a mini Anderson Silva, with his ridiculously good striking, and being the rangey bad-ass of his weight-class, but I just couldn't see it happening here. I did see Aldo's surprising demolition of Mike Brown, but I just put that down to Brown not being as good as his two victories over Faber might suggest. I was wrong. Even though Aldo didnt knock Faber out at all, he fuckin demolished him with precise leg-kicks, and showed some scary power in his ground'n'pound. Honestly. I've seen bigger power (Brock Lesnar), but there was something incredibly vicious about the way he was hitting Faber. I can't even describe it. VICIOUS isn't the word. How Faber survived when Aldo had him in the crucifix is a mystery - just goes to show how hard Faber is - and he couldnt even walk back to his corner after the fourth round - he had to be carried back, his leg was so beat up. The fact he remained trying til the final bell says something about him.
Still, now Aldo truly does look invincible in his weight-class. Judged on this performance, I reckon he could take on (and beat) BJ Penn, who is a weight-class above him, but I may be wrong - maybe he's just too small for that, even though he doesnt look it. My bet is: he'll do an Anderson Silva (dominate the weight class so much many people begin to say its getting boring and he has no challengers). Still, I said that about someone else, who I'll talk about later...

Floyd Mayweather vs Shane Mosely

I know pre-fight hype is supposed to convince us that both men have a chance at winning, even if one invariably has a better chance at it than the other, but this one actually had me going. I know all about Mayweather. Everyone knows he's a league above most of his competition, but this one was different. They were saying his opponent had just the same speed as Mayweather, and was stronger too, with an iron jaw. I bought into it.

You'll never understand my excitement when I saw Mosely rock Mayweather in the 2nd round. It wasn't just a hit that caught him - it DEFINETLY shook him. Mayweather clung on like the champ he is, and tried to fight on, but then Mosely caught him AGAIN!! I jumped out of my seat and screamed the fucking house down. He'd wobbled Mayweather somethin fierce. This was it!! Mayweather was going down!!
But somehow he hung in there, and gutted out the rest of the round. In fact, in the last 30 seconds or so of the round, it looked like he'd took over from Mosely. Mosely suddenly looked a bit confused. And exhausted.
And yeah...the Mosely who rocked the up-til-then undefeated Mayweather Jr pretty much left the fight after that. Somehow, this guy who was meant to have cardio for weeks, was knackered by the exchange. And Mayweather was fine. Mayweather had made the mistake of opening up, and not being so "defensive" and "boring" (I used to think he was...now not so sure), and had paid for it by being put in the most danger of his entire career. So he started boxing more defensively. And picked Shane apart. He even became the aggressor - something that he's been criticised for most of his career. I still hate the prick, but I watched him dismantle the dude who had all the same attributes as he did, but was meant to be stronger. Nah...Mayweather was bullying him, but still couldnt get the knockout, even though he was uncharacteristically going for it most of the fight.
I hate the man, but I now will admit - Mayweather can fuckin BOX!
But, may I suggest a theory? Of course I can...this is my blog: the fact that Mayweather was caught...TWICE...when he opened up and fought more aggressively than usual...this bodes very well for his fight with Pacquiao. Though I'm not convinced Mayweather would still win that fight, the fact that Mosely had the reactions to catch him (however lucky it may have been), Pacquiao is just a step above everyone else in that way. His reaction time, hand-speed, and power are second to none. If he clipped Mayweather (who I'm gonna assume would be fighting VERY defensively), he'd be knocked down, if not out - Pacquaio wouldn't miss the opportunity to knock the stumbling Mayweather over

Lyoto Machida vs Shogun Rua II
The first one was a great fight. But because Machida was, and still is, my favourite fighter today, their first fight was a bit uncomfortable for me to watch. I knew that out of everyone, Shogun was one of the worst people Machida could've fought in his first defence of the title. I was proved right. He became the first person to ever win a round against Machida, and in many people's eyes (including my own), he won. I was happy that the judges had given it to Machida, but I knew deep down Shogun had won it. I also knew it would open the floodgates and give a reason for the haters to say he got exposed, and give a reason for all the band-wagoneers (those who booed him only a few fights before, then cheered him wildly after he won the championship) to jump ship immediately and join the haters. I knew Shogun wasnt going to go into the rematch weak. I also knew that if Machida lost, it'd mean, essentially, that he was finished. His career had been built, through no fault of his own, on his mystique, on his sheer inability to be hit. Well, the first fight with Shogun eroded that. The second one destroyed it - he knocked Machida the fuck out!! Right out. With some of the heaviest hands I've ever seen. It wasn't just a knock-out. It looked seriously damaging to his health. He didn't jump up immediately afterwards after they're "knocked out" - he was down there for a while. And his face was caved in. Poor Machida. All the haters came out the woodwork immediately, declaring him a has-been. It certainly did make it far harder to see how he'd be able to fight some others in the weight division now; once a mystique is damaged, it becomes incredibly hard to see it again. And even though I rate Machida above every other fighter in MMA (with the possibly exception of GSP), I'd say he's lost his mystique for good.

GSP vs Dan Hardy
This one isnt on here because it's one of the better fights - I just have to mention it because its GSP - one of the best fighters in history, against the first-ever Brit to get a shot at a UFC title. History. However...as good as GSP is, I'm beginning to agree with some of the nitpickers - he's a bit of a "safe" fighter these days. He takes them down because he knows he can take them down. He doesn't stand and fight. If he is against someone with a reputation of being a striker, he'll just take them down - barely even try to fight hand-to-hand. Hardy had a rep for being brilliant with the hands, so GSP used his incredible wrestling skills to just take him down time after time, round after round. Sure he tried to force submissions here and there, and it showed that Hardy is one tough mo-fo, but it didn't seem...genuine, I think the word is. It just seemed like GSP was doing it because it looked liek he was just lying on top of his opponent, and thought rather than get shit from everyone for lay-n-praying, he'd try a submission. GSP isn't quite the fighter who battered Matt Hughes anymore (and remember - Matt Hughes was near-invincible for the longest time). I don't mind GSP fighting smartly (because he nearly killed BJ Penn!! haw haw) but because he used to be so great, he seems to have lost something. Maybe I'm being too nitpicky here - he's not like Josh Koshcheck in the Paul Daley fight (I wont mention that one).

and finally...

Leonard Garcia vs Chang Sung Jung
This is on because I just watched it tonight. Its from the same show as Aldo vs Faber, and I actually missed the hype about it. I stumbled across it tonight, and thought Jung's nickname was too cool to not investigate. How could you not love someone nicknamed the "Korean Zombie"??? Also, unlike the last two big Asian sensations to try it in the US (pound-for-pound all-time greats Takanori Gomi and Shinya Aoki), he seemed to come in with far less hype, and yet blew everyone away and lived up to the hype and more. He's nicknamed the Korean Zombie because he can keep going after taking some huge hits, like a zombie can. That could've been exaggerated, But no - Garcia was swinging some heavy, heavy hands, and was connecting with most of it. Jung looked rocked by a few of them, but yes...like a zombie, he kept on coming. And coming. And coming. And throwing bombs of his own. The hype for this fight seemed to have slipped under my radar, but it was one of the best, most entertaining fights I've ever seen. I usually prefer skill to slugfest, but goddamn...
Also, I'm not so sure Jung DID win the fight, despite it being almost universally agreed he was robbed. He sure argued his case well, but I think Garcia's smart striking in the first half of the last round won it for him - Jung didn't come into it til just after the half-way mark. I reckon it was a draw - definetly not a washout by either man. Still, the Korean Zombie has gained a fan in me! I just hope they give him entertaining fights in the future, and don't put him against someone who erases his mystique. His mystique is that he can take big shots and keep coming. Putting him against Aldo, Faber, or Brown (who are in the same weight-class as he) could ruin his mystique. OR...he could prove to be a real monster and eat them alive with his relentlessness. Lets find out...