And.... WE'RE BACK!

 

My laptop suddenly died on me. Very suddenly - no warning signs of any distress in its operations: working just fine in the afternoon, then utterly unresponsive in the evening. 

The worst possible timing too! I'd just started a period of travelling in southern Lao: an area I'm not so familiar with, and where I'd be shifting locations frequently, with little opportunity to look around for possible assistance with computer ailments; small towns, with not much English spoken, and not much prospect of there being any decent computer shops anyway. The day before the catastrophe, I'd still been in the capital, Vientiane, which I know my way around very well, and where it should have been relatively straightforward to get a repair done - and/or buy a new laptop. (I almost invariably have a second as a back-up, but I'd just sold my older one, and hadn't yet had time to think about getting a replacement. It is particularly vexing that the defunct one is less than a year old, and has hardly been used. With careful management, I am usually able to squeeze at least 7 or 8 years of useful life out of these babies; I've never had one quit on me like this after such a short time.)

Hence, I have been cut off from my blog here for nearly three weeks. My weekly 'Zen' bons mots are mostly prepared some weeks or even months ahead, and a few other shorter posts are also sometimes 'pre-baked'', but most of my content here is written 'live', in the moment, day by day - and there's been none of that since mid-April. I've missed TWO whole Gameweeks! Sorry.

While losing touch with the title race at such a crucial juncture has been vexing (no TV available to me either in these parts; although I did rather fortuitously catch a full re-run of the epic Everton v City game when I arrived in Siem Reap the other day), the enforced digital detox has been rather refreshing.

Alas, this externally imposed virtue of Internet abstinence seems to have been compensated for by a notable lapse in virtue in other areas of my life. (I blame the weather too: the rains have been late to arrive this year, and the whole region has been sweltering under a 40+ Celsius heatwave for the past several weeks - that does rather militate against trying to do anything very active...)  I have spent a fortnight mostly just sat on terraces overlooking the Mekong, steadily slinging back cold beers and Long Island Iced Teas....

A terrace overlooking the Mekong

Putting my feet up

A prize for anyone who can identify my exact location in these snaps!

 

Now, that idyll of rustic simplicity - a blissful recreation of a pre-industrial, pre-Internet life - is over, and I must return to my habitual grind. I suppose I'll start enjoying it again before long. But at the moment, I am still missing having all day to read a book....

Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 34/35

???????

Well, darn it - I was without Internet access (dead laptop, and travelling in some out-of-the-way places where the connectivity might often have been very crappy anyway...) or TV for a couple of weeks or so, and struggled to catch up with the football action I'd missed (mostly brief highlights on Youtube only, rather than any full games or analysis shows) even when I was restored to the delights of 'civilization'.

So, alas, I have missed to cover the EPL eccentricities of Gameweeks 34 and 35 in this 'Luck-o-Meter' series. Galling it is - but these things happen.

Facebook - a further rant

 

A couple of months back, I griped about Facebook having randomly locked me out of my account around Christmas time - this time, seemingly permanently. I am still locked out, and now fear this latest 'interruption of service' is going to prove irreversible. 

Hance, this blog's companion Facebook page remains inactive - and, indeed, it is 'blocked' from view altogether (I have no idea why...).  I don't suppose anyone's going to miss it, but.... My apologies, anyway.

I still remember my last password; but it is only intermittently 'recognised' and accepted by the site. And whether I am able to log in with the password or not, I am always required to go through additional 'authentication' steps.

I am usually challenged to retrieve a verfication code from my linked email account. Fair enough. You'd think that would be sufficient to confirm my identity and restore access to the Facebook account. But NO: I've done this countless times now, but further steps are also demanded.

I'm usually asked to try logging in from another device. But when I tried that, they still weren't satisfied, and demanded again that I log in from another device,... and another.... and another. I suspect they in fact mean 'another device recognised as having been previously used to log in to this account' - but they don't say so. I've only ever used one other device - an old, now rarely used 'back-up' laptop - to access the account; but that didn't work. Then I wondered if perhaps they meant a mobile device (smartphone, tablet....?), since that's what most people use for accessing Facebook these days. But I tried borrowing a friend's phone to retreive the additional verification codes and that didn't work either.

Then they started telling me they would send a verification code to my Whatsapp number. Even though I don't have one!

Only after much floundering around through various obstructive screens in the log-in process did I finally manage to stumble upon an option to send an additional verification code to my phone by SMS. Unfortunately, the phone number I have linked to the account is an old Cambodian one, which I now rarely use, and which I only top up intermittently to avoid having the number deleted; it isn't actually 'active' most of the time. I topped it up again to reactivate it, but.... for some reason SMS often fails to work on SMART Cambodia's roaming service (this is why I've actually switched my contact phone number to my Lao one for my bank accounts in Cambodia and Vietnam). However, I did try this again recently, and this time was able to receive the SMS verification code. Facebook still wouldn't accept it, still wanted to insist on yet further verification steps - that were impossible. What is this INSANITY?!

So, to recap,... Facebook doesn't want to recognise my password; it won't recognise the only two devices I have ever used to log into my account; and it won't recognise verification codes sent to my linked email or my linked phone number. And there is no other recourse available, no means of contacting them to complain or appeal against the suspension of access.

Why does anyone bother with this awful, awful, stupid, obstructive, perverse, evil service???   I am really quite glad to be rid of it.

Facebook page (An Administrative Note)

When I launched this blog nearly 18 months ago, I set up a parallel Zen and the Art of FPL Facebook page.

If you've never visited it, you haven't really missed anything. I only used it as a platform to share links to posts here on the blog, and it didn't really include any 'original content' (except that in providing short introductory summaries to each linked post, I would occasionally frame its topic or purpose in a slightly different form of words than I had used in the original piece...). I was only using the Facebook page to try to gain a slightly wider exposure - to try to increase the blog's prominence in search-engine results, and perhaps to make it easier for folks to share any piece of mine that they happened to like.

I'd only just remembered to put a link to the Facebook page in the sidebar here a month or so ago....

And almost immediately I'd done that, I got shut out of my Facebook account... again.

Now, this has been happening more and more frequently over the last year. Indeed, just lately, I seem to have been getting 'locked out' once or twice a month! Most of these exclusions are rescinded within a day or two, sometimes after just a few hours; but more often I'm cut off for a full week; and, in the worst cases, once or twice for a month or so.

This latest interruption of service looks like being a particularly bad one - so, I've given up, for now, even trying to get back in; I'm expecting that I won't be able to regain access until at least the end of January.

Hence, there have been no posts on the Facebook page since just before Christmas. Indeed, at the moment, it doesn't appear to be visible any more - which may be an escalation over Zuck the Schmuck's previous persecutions of me.

Now, the loss of this rarely-visited-by-anyone page does not grieve me all that much. But I also maintained an FPL info page for my country of residence - which I saw as being a useful public service, and which put me in touch with a small community of fellow enthusiasts for the game. (That page still appears to be visible; but it's effectively now 'dead' since all posting rights seem to have been suspended.)  The loss of that second FB page galls me considerably.

The loss of access to every other Facebook page, however, and to my account details, my list of contacts, the messaging service - that is little short of a disaster.

In East Asia (and in many other parts of the 'developing world', I shouldn't wonder), Facebook is enormously popular. Most small businesses can't be bothered to set up and maintain their own website, so rely on a Facebook page instead; thus you can't readily keep abreast of openings and closings of local restaurants etc., special offers and promotions, special events like concerts and parties and such, without Facebook. The dratted site has also become the default option for setting up mutual support forums for various interest groups, especially among the expat community; so, you can't access 'buy & sell' groups, property rental listings, or general advice on how to deal with health issues, noisy neighbours, or whatever... without Facebook. And, worst of all for me, Facebook Messenger has become the preferred means of communication for just about everyone out here (I imagine there are alternative messaging services in the local languages of the region, but these perhaps don't support the use of English; so, anyone who wants to communicate with anyone else in English uses FB - not SMS, not even Whatsapp,.... Facebook!!); hence, when I'm shut out of my account, I can't contact my landlady or my visa agent or my doctor... or the handful of friends I have out here....  

Being cut off from all of that is not just an enormous hassle, it is potentially life-threatening. It is downright irresponsible of Facebook to shut people out of their accounts (without warning or explanation; and without providing any avenues for seeking redress!).

I hate you, Mark Zuckerberg, and all your incompetent minions! And most of all I hate your botlets of Artificial Stupidity which repeatedly judge me (oh, the irony!) to be potentially 'not a real person' - which is why I keep getting locked out.

Takin' it easy.....

These international breaks may seem irritating to some, interrupting what soon become cosy, familar routines in our FPL life. But we should rather be luxuriating in the rare joy of TIME OFF.

Here's one of my favourite-ever celebrations of goofing off, Louis Armstrong and Gary Crosby (a son of the great Bing, with a very similar vocal style) in a 1950s recording of the Johnny Mercer/Hoagy Carmichael song Lazy Bones.

Now we are ONE

 

Gosh, yes - it is ONE YEAR AGO TODAY since I started this blog!

I wasn't at all sure back then that I would persist with it this long. (And I don't know how much longer I'll continue with it. But at the moment, I'm still having fun with it. And I still don't have a proper job....)

It does seem I am starting to build something of a following. According to Google statistics, at least, most of my posts are racking up 10 or so 'unique page views' within a day or two (although I suspect a lot of this is just Web spider-bots rather than genuine traffic...), and overall I'm drawing in 400 or so visits per week (with a sharp rise during the recent Club World Cup).

I haven't yet identified any 'regular readers' - but it would seem likely that there are at least a few such out there now. My THANKS to you for your time. I hope I am - at least occasionally - making it worth your while to come here.

And I think I'll probably be soldiering on with this for at least one more year.....

Normal 'service' will be resumed.... LATER

I am of Irish heritage, and hence struggle to resist the temptation to a once-yearly indulgence on this day in what an old college friend of mine once termed 'the Celtic melancholy' - drinking too much, listening to emotional music, and getting all weepily maudlin and nostalgic... for hours on end. 

For several years in my youth, I was quite interested in horse-racing, and lived fairly near Cheltenham; so, that was sometimes a happy pretext for even further alcohol-related revelries. (The Cheltenham Festival, a four-day steeplechase and hurdles meeting in mid-March, more-or-less coincides with St Patrick's Day every year, and traditionally draws huge numbers of Irish racing fans to the small West Country town for the week. The event thus becomes as much about the peripheral craic to be enjoyed in the evenings as about the races in the afternoons...)

Also, my mum's birthday was the day following, so for much of my younger life I was dutifully travelling long distances by train or bus the next day to see her - generally looking very much as if I'd slept in my clothes, if at all, the night before. I believe she was duly impressed by this reliable display of filial devotion, even if she might also have fretted that I might be "going to the bad...."

All of which is simply to say.... that posting might be a bit light for the next day or two, while I indulge... and then (hopefully) recover.

Of course, the Australian-Scots folk singer Eric Bogle (a splendid chap, who I once had the great pleasure of meeting, and seeing perform - in an intimate setting in Toronto) said it best....

My policy for COMMENTS

I'm still a little unsure how to proceed on this, so I might well amend this later when I have a clearer idea if allowing commenting here might be productive for anyone. (All moot at the moment, since I have no readers yet anyway!)

However, I think I will allow comments only on selected posts - where a variety of opinions from other Fantasy Premier League enthusiasts might be illuminating.

And I will ask for, and strictly enforce, basic standards of coherence, relevance, and civility.

Unfortunately, the community of FPL managers does seem to attract an awful lot of dingbats, berserkers, and haters; and I don't want people like that running amok around here.

 And, alas, I fear the modern obsession with ultra-short-format social media exchanges is wrecking everyone's literacy levels and attention span!

Sorry, but I am only going to allow comments that have something useful and relevant to say, give clear reasons for their positions, and use reasonably full and correct sentence structure. Anything else will be deleted.

So, readers (if I ever get any) will be welcome to contribute from time to time in the 'Comments' (on certain posts, at least) - but please make the effort to write properly.

And any kind of abuse or disparagement - of me, or anyone else - is, of course, not going to be tolerated. 

You are all welcome to disagree with me. But please express your dissenting opinions politely, and give reasons.

That is all...

My aims for this blog

I really don't know if my musings here will attract much attention. And I don't care very much. 'Fame and glory' are not my things.

I decided to try writing some pieces here primarily because I like writing. And I also enjoy thinking about Fantasy Premier League. So, this blog provides an opportunity for reflection, a pretext for reviewing my own learnings from playing the game over the last several years, and perhaps an aid to getting my thoughts well in order and finding some new insights for the season ahead.

Over the past year-and-a-half or so, I have dipped in and out of a number of online FPL forums, mostly on Facebook; and I have found that quite diverting, and occasionally enlightening. During lulls of no work and drab weather (rather too frequent lately!), these online forays have threatened to become a bit of an addiction for me - and I try to impose lengthy spells of abstinence on myself so that I don't fall too deep into that mire.

But quite a few of the regular posters I've encountered on those pages - many of them still relatively inexperienced in the game; or, like me, struggling with being in a distant country without ready access to good football coverage and prompt team news updates - have been very appreciative of my comments. Some  have sought me out specifically for further advice; a few have even PM'ed me, begging me to become their FPL 'mentor' (sorry, never going to happen). And, you know.... it is kind of nice to feel wanted and appreciated like that, to start to believe again that you might actually be useful to someone, just once in a while..

So, although I won't be obsessively checking my traffic stats to track the size of my 'following' (I wouldn't be surprised if it remains forever limited to two or three old buddies in my mini-league....), and although I have no goals or expectations for building a large audience here... I do have the modest hope that gradually some handfuls of people may find their way here.... and find at least some of my pieces interesting and helpful.

Let us see. Fingers crossed!

I am preparing a long-ish post (it might have to be cut into two instalments!) on 'Choosing an initial squad'' - which I hope to be able to post in a day or two.  Keep an eye out for it!  

(And if you have somehow found your way here within days of this blog's launch - WELCOME!)