The Recycle Bin

My wife (err, kids) gave me the two Pirates movies and the PlayStation 3 BD Remote for Father’s Day.  Amazon was running a special that gave $10 off the remote with the purchase of both Pirates movies.  Not a bad deal – $23.95/movie and $14.92 for the remote (even includes two AA batteries), and free second day shipping (we use the Prime service).

The remote is a Bluetooth device.  Setup was very simple; it took less than a minute to navigate to the Bluetooth device setup section and setup my remote, which was assigned as device 7.

From a functionality standpoint, the remote works great.  It has everything you would expect from a DVD player (and I guess a BD player).  Scan forward or reverse, go into slow play in forward or reverse, skip chapters in either direction.  The controller also duplicates the standard Sixaxis controller buttons, including the various L/R functions.  Call me ignorant, but I have no idea what the red, green, blue (looks lavender to me), and yellow buttons do (they are color coded, complete with labels for those that do not know their colors).

The remote even has a PS button so you can use it to turn off your PS3.  Great feature for a lazy person or just late night viewing from a comfortable spot in the living room.

Any gripes?  The buttons do not have any sort of glow in the dark, or backlight functions, so you have to memorize button placement to use the remote in a dark room.  While it is nice that pressing any button will turn on your PS3, it is also a pain.  Literally, pressing any button – even if your kids accidentally place something on top of the remote by accident – will turn on the PS3.  It would have been nice if only pressing the PS button for a few seconds turned on the PS3.

Is it worth the money?  I am kind of indifferent, but if you plan to use your PS3 watch some movies, then the Sony PlayStation 3 BD Remote works much better than a Sixaxis controller.  For me, the remote was a great purchase (well, present) at $14.92.

I think I have made it plenty clear that I no longer care for the NBA; it is just not compelling.  With that said, I was interested in this draft because Atlanta had a chance (“had” as in they no longer have because they just f’ed it up) to get better in a hurry.  Instead they drafted Al Horford (F, Florida) with their #3 pick, followed by Acie Law IV (G, Texas A&M) with their #11 pick.

Call me silly, but if Atlanta needed a point guard (and believe me, they did and still do), they should have taken Mike Conley, Jr. (G, Ohio St.) with the #3 pick.  WTF is wrong with the Hawks?  How many f’ing forwards are they going to draft?  This is the fourth or maybe fifth year in a row that they have gone with a forward with their first selection.  I really do not have any idea what the Atlanta brass is trying to do to build this team into a winner.

I was holding out hope that the rumors were wrong – Atlanta would not trade away their picks for a veteran to lead the young guys.  I wanted them to stay young, and add a guard (Conley) in the draft.  Atlanta did the right thing by holding on to the picks, but I cannot believe that they took another forward.  Un-‘f’ing-believable.

I am not knocking Horford or Law, but this just does not seem to be remotely helpful.  Hopefully I am very wrong.  I would actually like a reason to start watching the Hawks again, but not even HD broadcasts can save this sick puppy.

Oh yeah.  The commissioner says that the upcoming 2007-2008 season promises to be the best ever.  On what grounds?  The big market teams (NY, Philly, and LA) are still going to suck, James needs serious help in Cleveland, the East in general is pathetic, and Hawks just had a bloody terrible draft.

I cannot believe I am doing this, but I am going to watch part of the NBA draft.  I am actually kind of excited to see if the Atlanta Hawks can do anything decent with their 3rd and 11th picks.  Hope we do not screw this one up.  A point guard is a must, which means we will probably doing something completely different.

I need to purchase a new cellular phone that will work with Microsoft Exchange. The IT folks recommend the Samsung BlackJack for those of us that need a PDA and push email. The phone is pretty cheap through my carrier Cingular, ooops I meant AT&T, and I was all set to go get one next week.

But then my Dad called last night.

My parents are pretty much life-long Sprint users. And by life-long I mean as long as there have been cellular phones. They are also Mac clones. No they aren’t in publishing, but they are in the only other place where Macintosh’s flourish – higher education. Being scientists they don’t have to worry about preparing students for the real business world (as I do), so they use everything Apple-made and have as long as Apple has been around.

My Dad called and said, “We’re with AT&T now! We’re in the iPhone queue! Life is good!”

This became relevant because after looking at the BlackJack, I decided I wanted a more computer-like (as opposed to Blackberry) interface and was leaning toward AT&T’s 8525 PDA. There’s much less of a price difference between an iPhone and 8525 than an iPhone and a BlackJack.

Then I read the data plan pricing. For 20$ above my current plan’s price, I get unlimited data. Hmmmmmm.

At first I thought, seems like a nice phone but there’s no way they will include Microsoft Exchange compatibility. A quick google search proved that assumption wrong – Apple plans to include this with the phone.

I’ll wait and see how my parents like the phone and the reviews start rolling in, but I am leaning heavily toward picking one of these up in the near future. Hope they are more available then the Wii!

The Blu-ray.com site has a promotion that could be the final straw in the current HD format war. According to the announcement/promotion:

“If you purchase a Blu-ray player (including the PS3) between July 1st and September 30th, you will automatically qualify to receive 5 Blu-ray movies absolutely free. Combine this with existing offers (like the 5 free Blu-ray movies with purchase of a Panasonic DMP-BD10A), and you could receive up to 10 free Blu-ray movies with the purchase of a player.

But wait, there’s more! If you decide you would like to purchase a PS3, Sony is offering a special deal through their retail Sony Style stores. Purchase a PS3, two games, and an extra controller from now until July 8th, and you will receive a $50 gift card.”

I wonder what Sony is going to do to promote this offer? It is a great offer if you are in the market to get a PS3 or if you have been sitting on the fence with Blu-ray.

Not a lot of time to dive into full discussions about the topics in the title.  I would rather be gaming tonight instead of writing, so let’s dive in.

After seeing Chris’ post about getting to L70, I spent time with WoW last night, I had a 20 minute session this morning, a 25 minute session at lunch, and I just finished up a 45 minute session.  I am now about 20K from being a L38 mage.  You have to invest a heck of a lot of time to move forward, but moving forward is fun.  At this pace, I will not smell L70 anytime soon.

NASCAR reminded teams today that the sanctioning body owns the numbers, which are leased to the individual teams.  I am not sure if they are pitching a hissyfit because that is what NASCAR does best, or if they do not want the 8 car going with Junior (and thus to Hendrick’s garage).

NASCAR also punished Gordon and Johnson by docking them 100 points, and their crew chiefs were suspended for six races, which is a bigger impact than the points penalties.  My feeling, in this particular case, is that this is way too excessive.  They were already sent to the back for a road race, which was a big punishment.  I could see something this extensive for using an illegal part or substance, but for bending a fender?  I thought pushing the limits of the rules was one of the charms of the sport.  I guess those days are over.

I read Chipper Jones and John Smoltz made nice.  Apparently it was all a big misunderstanding and Chipper apologized for misinterpreting Smoltz’s comments.  Sure.  Sounds like they have that one all wrapped up.

The Braves finally won last night and are winning tonight.  Amazing what a couple of three-run homeruns will do for you.

My guild on Arathor is very small, but we are a pretty effective raiding team. There are only 28 characters in Shockforce and probably 20 human beings behind those toons. We split the guild into “raiders” and more “casual” gamers (they are all in Shadows of Shockforce). A requirement to move into Shockforce from SoS is that you have to finish the Karazhan key quest. Then you can enter Kara and enjoy the raiding fun!

I’ve seen a lot of guilds, talked to a lot of players, and I really like our small, close nit community. However, I thought it would be fun if I described in general terms the more annoying WoW gamers I’ve met along the way.

Mr. Please Help Me! – This is the person who joins a guild and expects everyone to drop everything and level his character. Since I didn’t have this luxury when I leveled my own toons, I have little patience for this type of person. Learn to play your class, and level on your own. It’s Ok to ask for help on some of the more difficult quests, but guilds aren’t power-leveling services.

Mr. Phat Loot! – This guy is playing WoW for one reason. He wants loot and doesn’t care anything about your guild. He’s the kind of person that will sell his grandmother for a ham sandwich. He’ll drop your guild as soon as a better opportunity comes along.

Mr. Drama Queen! – Everybody is picking on this player. Nobody likes him. Why didn’t he get picked for an instance run! Drama seems to follow this player wherever he goes.

Mr. I’m Too Leet! – A lot of Everquest refugees seem to fill out this profile. These players have seen it all, done it all, and don’t want to hear your noob suggestions. They are usually just marking time in your guild until they can get their application approved in a more “leet” guild.

Mr. Mo’ Money! – This player is constantly asking you for gold. Nevermind that you have to spend countless hours making your own cash, or so this kind of reasoning goes. He’ll spam guild chat asking for coins, and he’ll send you whispers begging for riches. And oh yea, he’ll pay you back! He swears!

Mr. I Can Swear Like A Sailor! – Want to read all of the known curse words in the English language? Enjoy seeing female body parts described in oh so sexy ways? This player aims to please. Usually between the ages of 12 and 15 (or at least acts that way) and probably never seen those aforementioned female body parts, the colorful language is quite entertaining. If you want to relive elementary school.

These are the major types of WoW-idiots one comes across every now and then. And they are annoying as hell some times. I particularly enjoy the kid who quit our guild SoS (where he constantly begged for money), joined a new guild, and continues to beg me for gold even though we’re not in the same guild.

He was the first member of my Arathor ignore list, hehe.

Let me be the first to let you in on something. If you’re not part of a raiding guild in World of Warcraft and actively raiding, then you really aren’t playing World of Warcraft. I’m not talking about joining an established raiding guild and just sitting back and reaping in the rewards of your better equipped guild mates. There is no better WoW-related gaming experience than beating your head against the wall and finally, FINALLY seeing a boss killed for the first time as a guild.

Shockforce (my guild on Arathor) downed Prince Malchezaar for the first time last night at 1:45 AM CST.

A simple sentence, yet it does not convey the pain, angst, and sense of accomplishment that only WoW-raiding can provide. We made 13 attempts this weekend. In two days I spent over 250 gold on potions, reagents, and oils and it will take me a week to make up that loss. We’d been trying for four and a half hours Sunday evening and I just told the raid group that “this attempt is my last folks.”

A guild member was listening to us through Team Speak with his headphones off. When we all saw the Prince go down, the shouts of jubilation caused this guilidie to jump out of his seat and put his headphones on to find out what all of the raucous was about.

I’ve been in other guilds and we’ve downed the Prince before, but this was the first time for Shockforce. People that play the game and are still leveling don’t really understand what WoW is all about. That’s why I always tell people to get to level 70 as quickly as possible because all of the stuff before 70 doesn’t matter in the big picture. It is preparing you to start your Karazhan raiding, which in turn prepares you for Gruul’s lair, etc.

Gaming just doesn’t get much better than this.

Funny how this works. I thought Montoya was balls out brilliant in CART, and I thought his 2000 Indy 500 win was remarkable. I did not care much for Montoya when he was in F1, but I have been pulling for him since he announced that he was going to run in NASCAR. Today Montoya picked up his first Nextel Cup victory at Sonoma. I wonder if NASCAR is going to be able to capitalize on JPM; should be a good marketing opportunity. Of course, listening to his interview in victory lane made me think that some NASCAR old timers are probably none too pleased. That makes his victory even sweeter.

Speaking of cheating, ESPN.com had an interesting article on how to stop cheating in NASCAR. The author thinks that the probable punishments for Gordon and Johnson are not enough of a deterrent to stop cheating once and for all. I have my own opinions on the subject of cheating in NASCAR, but it is bed time for me, so no commentary tonight.

2-1 over Mexico, in a come from behind win.  In the first half, the US had a couple of great chances, and while their defense played solid (at least well enough), they gave up a goal in the 44th minute.

The second half was a different story.  The US had several quality chances before Benny Feilhaber collected a lose ball on a Donovan corner to put the US up 2-1.  It could have been a lot worse since Beasley and Ching missed easy goals once the US was up 2-1.

I love nothing more than beating Mexico.  USA! USA! USA!

Just finished some Taco Bell and decided to channel surf while waiting for the IRL race at 1PM EST today.  Nothing caught my eye, so I figured I would use the cable box search function to see if by some chance the Gold Cup Final was going to be carried by someone (maybe one of the Spanish channels).

I saw FSC had Gold Cup listed at 12:30PM; alas, it is the Canada/USA replay.  After doing some more searching, to my surprise, I see the final between US and Mexico is going to be carried live at 3PM EST.  Happy days are here again!

Go USA!

Day seven on the bench; the good news is that I have been off the heavy pain pills since yesterday morning.  Keeping my fingers crossed that things continue to progress.

I fired up WoW for a few minutes last night.  I was not really in the mood, but I did have a couple of easy quests to knock out, so I got some easy experience and reputation before calling it a day.  I am back at the point where I do not feel like I am getting my money’s worth for the monthly subscription.  When I do play, I enjoy the game, but there are so many other distractions that it is hard to find time to play.  For those of you still on the WoW fence, the good news is that I am living proof that you can play infrequently, manage to level a bit (I think Faltutin, my gnome mage is L37), and not be hopelessly addicted to the game.  The addiction thing is a lot of hype for gamers that do not really live a balanced life.

This morning I had a brief moment of brilliance (I know, crazy talk).  The Braves should move Chipper to 1B, and put Escobar at 3B.  I think this would give them a little more offense, which is sorely needed at this point.  No telling if Andruw Jones is going to come around this season, so Cox really needs to start mixing it up to try to get something going.

While I was doing all the heavy thinking, I came up with another stunner.  Everything is too quiet on the Vick/dogfighting front.  I think this means that the Feds are not having much luck getting Vick directly connected to the dogfighting mess.  What should the Falcons do?  At some point, if anything else comes out that is damning towards Vick, the commissioner will have to take action and suspend Vick.  If the Falcons want to take a wait-and-see approach, they could just demote Vick to third-team QB, and just assume he is not going to be around at some point later this year.  If Vick comes out smelling clean, the front office can see if anyone is desperate for Vick’s considerable athletic talent; a trade for picks and salary cap relief is all we can hope for at this point.  If Vick is suspended (or worse), then the Falcons would have already started preparing for life without Vick.  Either way, it is time for the Falcons to move on and start rebuilding.

Today’s NASCAR race does not start until 5PM EST, which leaves the door open for IRL and CART races, both on at 1PM EST on ABC and CBS respectively.  I will watch whichever one is presented in HD, but I am not holding my breath that either will get the HD treatment.  I do not watch NASCAR races the way I watch a football game, but it makes a huge difference for me when the races on FOX or TNT are presented in HD.  The bottom line is that HD makes everything better.

I do not see the US/Mexico Gold Cup final listed, so I guess it is not getting play in the Southeast, which is a damn shame.  I cannot understand this, because if anything, I would think that Mexican-Americans would give the match a decent rating.  Soccer will never arrive in the US until we get coverage for all National Team games.  Hopefully we are not that far from this point, but based on not seeing any Gold Cup events, we still have a decent ways to go.

Tonya just took the kids out of the house for a couple of hours.  I should be resting, and to be honest I am – this post is coming to you live from the bench (err, the bedroom).  Still, a few minutes without the kids in the house is a few minutes that I can crank up Resistance.

Happy Sunday!

Well, after today’s 2-1 loss to Detroit, I read on ESPN.com that Chipper and Smoltz are going at it via the media:

When asked before the game if he is rushing his return, Jones said, “Probably. But I feel a little backed into a corner.”

Asked to elaborate, Jones indicated some doubted he was injured enough to miss games.

“Let’s just say there are people who don’t believe me,” Jones said. “Let’s just say that and leave it at that.”

After Friday night’s 5-0 loss to the Tigers, Smoltz said, “You can’t worry about who’s in the lineup and who isn’t. You can’t worry about that stuff anymore.”

Added Smoltz: “I certainly appreciate the effort of the guys who are on the field busting it.”

Smoltz didn’t identify Jones as a player not in the lineup, but Jones said after Saturday’s game that he got the message.

“I’d be stupid if I didn’t take it the same way,” Jones said, adding he planned to “play the rest of the games this year and do whatever I can. Somebody I know better not miss a start.”

Smoltz, asked Saturday if he was referring to Jones, said, “I have no comment. I’m not even going to address that.”

Good grief. This is not what I expect from the Braves, even when they fall on hard times. For what it is worth, Chipper’s homerun today accounted for all the Brave’s offense.

First, the June 18, 2007 Sports Illustrated ran a nice four page spread on Lewis Hamilton. I always welcome articles on F1 and Soccer, and of the big three sports magazines, ranked in order of my personal preference – Sporting News, SI, and ESPN The Magazine – SI does the best job of covering (non NASCAR) racing and soccer.

Second, Sony wins major kudos for offering a replacement disk program for their lackluster (according to the experts) Blu-ray Fifth Element release. According to High-Def Digest, Sony is offering to replace the original release with a newly remastered version of the movie:

“Following weeks of rumors, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has finally confirmed the planned release of a remastered version of’The Fifth Element’ for Blu-ray, as well as a “Replacement Exchange Program” for consumers unhappy with the original release.”

“Now, in an extremely rare move, Sony will not only be re-issuing ‘the Fifth Element’ on Blu-ray in a newly remastered version due in stores on July 17, but also offering a “Replacement Exchange Program” for owners of the original version who may be unhappy with their purchase.”

Very nice, and I would say this simple move should go a long way towards winning more Blu-ray support (and Sony goodwill).