Month: December 2005

Our annual holiday stay in Washington state at my Brother-in-law’s was a bit shorter then usual due to a few less available vacation days. For that reason we didnt set up the 4-PC LAN and blast away at one another in Ghost Recon as we’ve done in years past. My nephews have a PS2 and a traditional XBox, however, so there was still some electronic sport to be had. My oldest nephew and I played “Knockout Kings 2002” until 1-2AM every night. (That game was a gift from Uncle Geoff, by the way, right out of the bargain bin. It makes me wonder why no arcade boxing game has been created, or at least ported over to the PC, frankly.) Good uncle/nephew bonding time, for sure. We had a couple of real wars.

My younger nephew recieved “Need For Speed: Most Wanted” for Xmas. As much as I hate driving a virtual car with a gamepad, I was very impressed with a number of things about this game. First, the car selection is more in-line with my real world tastes rather than the credit list from one of the “Fast and Furious” movies. I cite the Ford GT, Lotus Elise and Corvette C6, to name a few. Secondly, the virtual city of Rockport is just plain fun to navigate through, with tight city grids, perimeter superhighway sections, realistic overpasses and interchanges, plus backally shortcuts. Thirdly, the police pursuit element is a different twist on getting from point A to point B in the lowest elapsed time. Once the black-and-whites start to accumulate, it becomes a real challenge to lose them.

I enjoyed this game so much, I bought it for the PC. Getting on the interstate with a supercharged Mustang GT and hitting the nitrous button to speed the RPMs up and hasten the shift from 5th to 6th at 150mph, I can say, gives me genuine enjoyment every time. No, it’s not rFactor, and sometimes I wish there was a hardcore setting to make car damage a little more realistic, but its a challenge to play this game well.

Now that I got the pink slip to Jewel’s Mustang, I sold the Supra, which gives me two Mustangs, an Eclipse and a Porsche Caymen in the safe house, and I’m up to #8 on the Blacklist. My nephew would be proud of me.

Today is moving day, so a little levity is in order to keep me sane. Tonya gave me “Deep Thoughts” (as seen on Saturday Night Live) by Jack Handey, when I graduated from college. The book is subtitled, “Inspiration for the Uninspired.” I came across it early this morning as part of the never ending packing.

“If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is “God is crying.” And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is “Probably because of something you did.”

“We used to laugh at Grandpa when he’d head off to go fishing. But we wouldn’t be laughing that evening, when he’d come back with some whore he picked up in town.”

“It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.”

If you have to ask why I feel better, please stop visiting this site.

For the last several years I have attempted to see some of every college bowl game played, but each year I come up short. I profess to be a huge college football fan, so what gives?

We could start with the fact that there are just too damn many bowl games. This year there are an amazing 28 games! There is also this thing called “having a life,” but thankfully my wife understands (or puts up with) my passion for football.

My goal is simple � to watch a few minutes of every bowl game. I am not out to do the impossible; I am not trying to watch entire games. Instead I just attempt to watch at least 10 minutes of each game. This allows me the satisfaction of seeing a ton of college football, but also allows me to have a life at Christmas. Seriously, was anyone outside of Kansas and Houston looking forward to the Fort Worth Bowl?

This year I was on track for my perfect season, spending quality TV viewing time with the New Orleans Bowl, the GMAC Bowl, and the Las Vegas Bowl. Then my quest failed at the hands of the 10PM EST kickoff of the Poinsettia Bowl (say what?). Yes, the Poinsettia got the best of me; ruined my perfect season. It was just too late for me to watch after spending a week at Disney, and seven or so hours in the car.

My need for excellence keeps me motivated. Fort Worth Bowl, Hawaii Bowl, Motor City Bowl, Champs Sports, and Insight Bowl have earned me an 88% bowl viewing achievement record for the 2005 season. The next few days hold some serious obstacles � moving day is the 30th, and cable is going to be installed at the new house (sometime) on the 30th. It is going to be a hard road, but worth ever minute of my quest for (near) perfection.

The Florida portion of our vacation ends tomorrow when we start driving back to Texas. WIll be fun to get home. I love my family, but I can only stand them in small doses at a time. So every year we head off into the chaos that is Christmas and hope to emerge at the other end of our vacation intact and re-fueled for the new year.

I switched to the Dish Network and Verizon DSL right before I left for Florida. Since we will soon be paying that $24,000 a year I mentioned earlier for my daughter’s education, I wanted to downsize costs without sacrificing the quality of life we’ve come to know through Cox Cable. The Dish Network is cheaper if you get the highest channel package, plus they throw in four room DVR. That was the selling point for my wife, so now she can clog up her own DVR with those wonderful HGTV shows. Dish also gets the UPN so that I can finally watch the Chris Rock Show. Cox Cable and DirecTV don’t carry the UPN in my neck of the woods.

I’ll be sacrificing some download speed getting Verizon DSL, but the upload speed is actually faster through Verizon and that’s a selling point for an online league commissioner. Since Cox Cable costs almost twice as much as Verizon’s best package, I’ll sacrifice the download speed. I also purchased the wireless version of the modem. I could use my Linksys wireless router, but the last time I used Bell South DSL, configuring the router wasn’t a trivial process.

Some Christmas vacation technology fun! Speaking of technology fun, I finally saw enough HDTV to appreciate how good the picture and sound is compared to regular TV. My mother-in-law has a brand new 50 inch plasma TV, and we were watching the Colts/Seattle game on regular TV. I was looking through her Brighthouse channel guide and noticed the HD channels. So I switched to the CBS HD channel and was blown away. The picture is so clear that I am not sure that I really need season tickets to football games.

Now I just have to build up enough points with the wife for such a mega-purchase…

I was going to write about the Falcons yesterday (or earlier this morning), but being in the Christmas spirit I decided to give it a rest. I am not really in the mood to do this now, but it has to be said – the Falcons are a bitter disappointment this year.

It seems like ages ago when I wrote about the Falcons having a decent chance at the playoffs and back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in franchise history, but all that went down the tubes this week at the hands of the Bears and Bucs.

I really thought the Falcons had the game (against Tampa Bay) locked up, but once it went to overtime I knew our goose was cooked. I missed the overtime debacle, instead attending our church’s candlelight service. After church, listening to ESPN radio, I learned of the disappointment – Atlanta had been all but eliminated from the playoffs.

The Falcons can salvage some pride next week by beating the Panthers, but a victory will be fairly hollow. Yes, back-to-back winning seasons would be nice, but it should have come along with a trip to the playoffs.

Wait ’till next year (again)!

I wanted to take a couple of minutes to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Once upon a time, we were allowed to say “Merry Christmas” without having to worry about offending (or excluding) anyone, but now days we also have to say Happy Holidays, or have a great Hanukkah (is that even the right context?), or hope your Kwanzaa celebration is blessed. Oh for a simpler time.

I am a Christian, so I am going to keep it simple, and wish you and yours a Merry Christmas. With that said, this Season, whatever it is you happen to celebrate is a time for reflection. This is a time to be thankful for family, friends, and all our many blessings. Thanks to Geoff and Kevin for taking time to write for the site – your virtual friendship is much appreciated. A special thanks to Chris for keeping the lights on around here – it is always a blast to read your entertaining takes on sports, gaming, and life in general. Seriously, “Like football, marriage requires a balanced attack. And some shopping money.” is a wonderfully delicious quote, and a great observation on marriage.

Of course it goes without saying that I am thankful for you regular Recycle Bin readers. Insert joke – all two of you. For the last four years I have had a great time ranting, rambling, and writing about next to nothing. None of this would have been possible without a willing (even if somewhat reluctant) audience.

There is much more to be thankful for, but the day is young. Happy Christmas!

I hope everyone is getting into the holiday spirit, whatever your holiday of choice may be. I’ve shifted my base camp from the Tampa, Florida area to Tallahassee, Florida. My parents have a fancy wireless network setup. The problem is that (1) they haven’t updated the firmware for their router in two years and (2) they have the slowest DSL money can buy. No World of Warcraft for the next couple of days, but we head back to Tampa on Monday to the fast network at my mother-in-law’s house.

We visited Florida State University yesterday and I was not very impressed with their Visitor’s Center. We walked in on four college students huddled around the desk and I felt as if I was butting in on their conversation. One of the students quickly pointed out that they weren’t doing anymore tours that day, and then asked us if we had any questions about Florida State. Another student remembered that they had a DVD we could watch, so we did that and then took a driving tour of the campus.

I expect more salesmenship for $24,000 a year.

It’s looking like University of Georgia is the favorite at this point. We visit the University of Central Florida next week. But I’m hoping that our visit to Univeristy of Texas will win the day. I can’t have any dawgs in the family!

It seemed appropriate to announce my return from Disney. I will have to write more later, but for now …

Why does beer cost $7.50 a pint at Epcot? Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain made Nathan, my three-year old son “Want to go home.” – but he was a real trooper, got back on each one for another go or two. The Animal Kingdom is nothing, but an expensive zoo with a few rides. The lighting of the tree at Epcot is much better than the lighting of the tree at the Magic Kingdom. Why do so many people queue up for 40+ minutes for a three minute ride? Why does OJ cost more in Florida (at various Disney resorts) than in Georgia?

Anyway, good to be home again. Lots of stuffs to write about when I have more time. I am writing this from a new Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop, and my house is still not ready. Those should be pretty good for starters along with the usual Christmas fare. Speaking of which, I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Being a road warrior has been interesting this past week. I’ve been playing World of Warcraft and running my Out of the Park Baseball leagues courtesy of my Dell Latitude D810. I’m actually quite surprised that this is so easy to accomplish. I use a Logitech trackball mouse with my laptop. I find that I’m in spaces with my laptop that aren’t mouse friendly, and the trackball can do everything I need it to do and requires much less of a footprint to get it done.

My home computer has all of my Internet Explorer favorites, and my biggest headache this week was re-building some of those links on my laptop. I also forgot to bring the FTP password for one of the leagues I run, so my co-helper is going to run things while I’m away. Other than that, things are silky smooth using my wireless network connection.

World of Warcraft is quite playable at 1024 with medium graphics details. I tested the wireless connection to the WoW servers when I was at home, and both here in Florida and in Texas I could do everything on my laptop that I could on my main computer. Now, I am not going to give up my 20 inch Dell LCD and NVidia 6800 graphics when I get home, but the laptop is getting the job done.

It is nice to know that gaming life can exist on the road. I haven’t even found the time to check out some text games that I brought allong.

Many of you know that I am married, so the question that I’m sure that’s popping up is “How are you getting away with this on a family vacation?” Easy answer.

Shopping. And watching my youngest daughter.

My wife is, shall we say, eager to visit all of the wonderful Florida outlet centers and malls. I am not. Her mother is also eager. A match made in heaven. So I get up early, mess around with my leagues, and then (with a sigh for effect) I agree to take care of my daughter all day while she’s out shopping.

Then spend the evening doing family stuff. If the evening ends early, you’re back online and ready to go! Last night I went to see Harry Potter’s latest movie. My wife wanted to see it, so I went with her (again, points for me – seeing a movie I really could wait for the DVD).

Like football, marriage requires a balanced attack. And some shopping money.

I have to give Linksys kudos for their customer service. I arrived at my mother-in-law’s house to find that while she had a wireless router, she wanted me to set up the network. I followed the instructions, the internet connection kept failing through the router, so I called Linksys for help. Five minutes later (on a Sunday, by the way), they pointed me to a program I could download that would fix the problem. And if that didn’t work, I was given a priority phone number for follow-up if the program didn’t solve the problem.

I was, shall we say, very doubtful that a simple download would fix the connection problem, but I followed their instructions. Sure enough, I ran the program and let it run for about ten minutes. Low and behold, our wireless router was up and running.

Not often something computer related is so easy to fix.

I am going to be doing the Disney thing for the next few days. Hopefully when I get back we will be ready to move into my new house. Merry Christmas to all, and very safe travels (for those of you traveling).

I’ll be on vacation for two weeks, so my entries may be spotty. My oldest daughter is choosing a college over our break and we’ll be visiting every major university in Florida. We’re also going to Athens to visit the University of Georgia. As a former University of Florida employee, something about having a daughter as a bulldog just doesn’t seem right. But it’s her choice.

Diamond Mind Baseball is shipping its 2005 season disk and 2006 Bill James Handbook.

Grey Dog Software released version 1.02 of Bowl Bound College Football.

Jim Gindin lives! There is a sale going on for those that want to check out the aging Front Office Football 2004 and The College Years. There’s even a new entry on the Solecismic web site that claims, gasp, that a new sports product will be developed duirng 2006. Could be football, could be something else, but who knows?

There’s a new Football Manager 2006 article that discusses how to select your club.

Finally, .400 Software Studios is officially dead. Although most of them were re-born over at Grey Dog Software and they will offically pull the plug on January 1st, 2006.

Lots of text gaming activity today!

It may be hard to believe – actually it is rather shocking – but the Atlanta Falcons have never had back-to-back winning seasons. Rather sad and pathetic, but hopefully those days are coming to a close. Please God (I will not pray for my team if you do not pray for the Bears, Bucks, and Panthers).

If the Falcons can win one of the last three games then they will have back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in franchise history. That is not to say they are going to make the playoffs, but it would be nice to finally get this monkey off our backs. Making the playoffs would be prosperity at its finest, so I am sure I am asking way too much. Still, one can dream, and as long as one is dreaming, is it too much for one to ask for back-to-back winning seasons and a repeat trip to the playoffs?

If you were a fan before the arrival of Vick, then you must feel my pain. You will feel my pain. Suffering follows…

1971 (7-6-1), 1972 (7-7), and 1973 (9-5) were nice runs, but the .500 season in 1972 mess up their first realistic shot at back-to-back winning seasons. I was a baby back then so it is not as if I was around to earn the right to bitch and moan. Lucky for me I can bitch as much as I want on these humble pages.

1977 (7-7) and 1978 (9-7) were close to back-to-back winning seasons, but that .500 thing got in the way again. At was at this point that I have my first memories of being crushed. That lost to Dallas really sucked. The disappointing 1979 (6-10) season spelled the end for another chance at glory.

1980 (12-4) was another great year, but f’ing Dallas made me cry again. How great would it have been to have the Dawgs win the National Championship and the Falcons win the Super Bowl? [Sigh …]

Then the long dry spell started. Some bastard decided to fire Leeman Bennett after the 1982 (5-4) season. Scabs suck, but come on; sacking Bennett sent the Falcons into a nasty spiral of eight sucky seasons in a row; all under .500 and all equally dismal.

Along comes 1991 (10-6); we made it out of our nasty funk, but who is kidding who? The run-and-shoot was never going to take us to the promise land. Of course the Falcons followed up with yet another loosing season – 1992 (6-10). Prosperity? Nope, we can have none of that stuff.

1995 (9-7) was a decent year, but it was too much to ask the Falcons to build on a decent year; 1996 (3-13). Feeling my pain yet?

Some how, some way (thanks to Jam) the 1998 (14-2) Falcons made it to the Super Bowl, only to be trampled upon by Elway and company. My kingdom for a prostitute! Thanks a lot Eugene f’ing Robinson. Notice a trend? 1999 (5-11). Disappointment as usual.

2002 (9-6-1) saw the complete pimping of an exciting Vick, including a nice little win at Green Bay in the NFL Wildcard Game. Of course you know what happened next, right? We are talking about the Falcons doing everything they can do to avoid prosperity. You guessed it, 2003 (5-11) was a bitter disappointment and cost Dan Reeves his job as head coach.

2004 (11-5) was a very nice run under first year head coach Jim Mora, Jr. So here we are, once again facing prosperity square in the eye. Can the 2005 Falcons improve on their current 8-5 record to manage back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 39-year history? Will futility come to an end? Will the Falcons finally put to rest years and years of fan frustration? Probably too much to ask.

Sports Interactive and Markus Heinsohn are giving away Out of the Park Baseball 5 as a free download. The ratings system is different than OOTP 6.5, but it does give you a good idea about the OOTP world. If you haven’t checked out this game before, there’s no excuse not to download it now.

It looks like the 360 is off to a slow start. I wonder if this is due to Japanese gamers being completely entrenched with Sony (and Nintendo), or if Japanese gamers really just do not like the games that are available for the 360. Or maybe they really do want to wait for the jiggle goodness of DOA4.

Should be interesting to watch. [Source Xbox 360 Gets a Soft Start in Japan and Microsoft Xbox 360 Japan sales slow:study]