Bets On, Feet Up

Current FTL leader Forza Fizzer (Tony liked the proposed name, and the FTL Management Committee approved it at their weekly meeting) has two more selections this week, and here they are along with his reasoning. 

Staying in the Scottish Prem this week with two selections:-

Away wins for Aberdeen and Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

OK , Inverness first.

I might be falling into the keep picking them trap, but I picked out Inverness pre-season as the most underrated team in the SPL and took the Evens on them finishing top 6 and had a small flutter on Billy McKay to be top scorer.

Great start and the last fixture Celtic would want this weekend after the tiring and demoralising Euro trip this week, and the need to be fit and ready for what is now a vital 2nd leg fixture for them next Wednesday.

Inverness won one of their two league visits to Parkhead last season (at odds of 13.0) and go in on a high - odds of 8.0 on Betfair look too big to ignore.

Aberdeen have shown their ambition in pre-season, building their squad, and they also have a proven forward in Niall McGinn. Before last weeks loss they had a strong away win at Motherwell.

Hearts have done well so far given they have to go with their youth, but they haven't played a team of Aberdeen's level. 2.28 with Betfair.

Celtic v Inverness - a match that always reminds me of that classic 2000 headline. The only other currently profitable entries are both subscription services (Football Elite and Skeeve) so those will remain confidential until after the weekend's action is complete.

On a different note,  Steve R commented on my Work post with this:

After all, the first question after meeting someone for the first time is often "So what do you do?", and instant impressions are formed depending on the answer.

Re the above, so this means that basically we are all defined by what work we do, rather than who we are? This to me, based on life experience, is plainly wrong. I am not concerned with what somebody does for a living, compared to how they are as a friend or fellow human being. This may sound "wishy washy" but when you experience happiness or tragedy with family or friends, you do realise that financial success is truly unimportant. It is the misconception that possessions, materialism and great wealth equates to happiness. You can certainly have happiness without it and conversely you can have great wealth and still be miserable. There are other things that induce happiness, life does not have to revolve around work.

Your blog was an interesting read on a Monday morning though! Have a good week and best wishes to you.

What a polite young man. This is certainly taking the idea and running with it, because our work alone does not, or at least should not, define us. My comment was meant to illustrate the important role that our work plays in how others see us, certainly initially, and the ‘meeting someone at a party’ example does illustrate this. It’s usually one of the first questions asked when you meet someone new, be it in the pub, seated next to you on a flight, or indeed at a party, and the answer, like that all-important first impression, makes a difference to your perception of that person. That initial impression may well be modified later as you get to know them better, but we all make instant judgments based on the answer. The nature of someone’s work is often a guide to their intelligence, education, background, interests and personality.

A reply of “barrister” will ensure that your perception of that person is quite different to a reply of “stand-up comedian”. (I have heard both incidentally, with the latter [Bill Engvall for those interested] owing – in my opinion – much of his later success to recycling some of the excellent jokes I told him at that party. I am still awaiting my share of his estimated $40 million net worth by the way, but he was a nice guy - just not quite as funny as me, although I was in particularly sparkling form that night).

You can also have fun with your answer. As most of you know, I work in IT, and my career has seen me work in a lot of industries. One was pharmaceuticals, and depending on my audience, at that time I would sometimes answer the “what do you do question” with “I sell drugs”. In some shadier settings, that reply would trigger some interesting responses, the best was probably “you and I need to exchange phone numbers”. His perception of me was certainly different from what it would have been had I answered “I’m in IT".

But back to the original comment – no, work doesn’t totally define us, nor should it, but it’s often a useful opening bucket to assign someone to, and my comment on 'rich' was intentionally limited to the financial definition. I agree totally with Steve that financial success, however you define it, is really unimportant in the whole scheme of things. Few would argue that working your socks off for thirty years and dying of a stress-induced heart attack is something to strive for, so keep the work-life balance in perspective.

Speaking of which, I shall be off in the next few minutes for a well-deserved weekend getaway myself with no laptop. Enjoy the games, and good luck this weekend.