The Recycle Bin

My namesake turned five yesterday, and we survived another family birthday party. It is always an adventure when we get my family and Tonya’s family together. Lots of fun. I am always left with the need for a stiff drink, but I digress. It is hard to believe that I have been blessed with three wonderful boys – Joshua (8), Nathan (5) and Joseph (5 months).

I am now on day six, post-op. The good news is that I think things are finally improving; I am dwindling down the number of pain pills I pop on a daily basis and I am starting to just feel sore instead of hurt. So that is something positive. The bad news is that I do not feel normal yet. I had to go into the office for an hour yesterday, which did not help my situation, and we had to entertain last night (for Nathan’s birthday party), which also did not do me any favors. All in all, I think I am on the mend. I know one thing; it has been a heck of a long week.

The Braves did not score again last night. I am not sure how many innings that makes, but Atlanta has been shutout three games in a row (4-0 Boston, 11-0 Boston, and 5-0 Detroit). Ouch. Chipper, where are you my friend? As I wrote yesterday, if Chipper cannot stay in the lineup and if Andruw does not break out of his season long slump, it is going to be one long miserable summer in A-Town.

Last week I wrote about Manhunt 2 and gaming violence; I just thought the flying testicles was a little too over the top. Apparently Bill Harris and I were on the same page, because he also wrote about the same thing with a slightly different spin. Bill’s assertion was that the developers were going after a AO rating to whip up some publicity and to help generate enough interest to get sales up. Apparently he was right; re: his follow-up from a couple of days ago:

“There you go. Don’t tell me Take-Two didn’t know you couldn’t release “AO” content on the Wii. They knew, and they also knew what “pliers ripping testicles” action would get rated.”

Good stuff. This one was just a little too over the top; I cannot believe that Take-Two actually submitted the game, but I guess any publicity is good publicity. If this makes the mainstream news, I am sure the tactics will be considered mission accomplished.

I spent a little time with Resistance yesterday, and I continue to be impressed with the game. Too bad I suck at it, but I do, even on easy mode. I cannot get past the fact that this one cost me $60 (plus tax); I just do not think I will get my money’s worth from this one. If I paid $19.99, I would not keep mentioning the price of the game.

Things I like about the game – graphics, story, environment (attention to detail and weapons as machine guns and tanks), enemy AI, and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness (probably because I suck).

If Resistance had some sort of auto-lock or auto-aim feature, it would be a lot easier for me. It would also help if you could pick up some health capsules (forget what they are called) and store them for later use. I am sure the developers made this game for FPS experts; not for newbie FPS gamers such as myself. I keep thinking I will sell this one on eBay, but there is a certain satisfaction in trying to advance the story. Maybe I will try it online this weekend, even getting slaughtered could be fun.

All for now. On deck – more F1CE updates (evolution and career mode comments), and Official PlayStation 3 Blue Tooth remote. Maybe even a rare weekend appearance by Chris? All this and more could be yours – come back soon, you will be glad you did.

I could not find this on TV yesterday, but Team USA beat Canada 2-1, to reach the Gold Cup finals for a second straight time.  The US faces Mexico this Sunday in the finals; not sure if that one will be televised.

I have not seen any of this year’s Gold Cup games, but from reading various recaps, it sounds like the US has been playing average – not really poor, but not that great, just well enough to win.  I will take winning any day of the week, and hopefully we will take it to Mexico; nothing more satisfying than beating Mexico.

Go USA!

The good news is that the Atlanta Braves did not take another on the chin last night.  Of course they did not play, but not getting another in the loss column is helpful.

If I counted correctly, the Braves are a pitiful 4-8 in interleague play, with Detroit coming to town this weekend.  My guess is that they take 1 of 3 from Detroit, but that assume they finally remember how to score some runs.

I am not sure what the overall record is this year, but the NL is stinking up the joint.  The AL went 264-181 over the last two years, and this year has been more of the same.  I do not think this can be contributed to the DL, which is something that I detest, but honestly, the NL just plain sucks.

Back to the Braves.  To date, the Braves are a pitiful 8-12 this June, which is reminiscent of last year when the Braves stunk up the joint with a 6-21 record for the month of June.  The big difference this year is that the Mets are only 4-14 in June, which means the Braves are actually gaining ground on the Mets; good for 1.5 GB out of first place in the NL East.  Now that is hard to swallow.

As bad as things seem, it really is not a disaster.  The Braves are within striking distance of the Mets, and they are only 4-5 out of the Wild Card (if it comes to that).  If A. Jones would ever come out of his slump, if C. Jones can stay healthy, if Saltalamacchia can contribute at 1B (please don’t trade him), and if Chuck James or Kyle Davies (or anyone else for that matter) can solidify the 3rd and 4th spots in the rotation, the Braves actually stand a chance.  I know; a whole lot of if-ing.

Gamers with Jobs has an interesting article about gender portrayals in games (specifically, those wonderful assets shown off on most female gaming characters). You can read the opening paragraph to see where this is going:

“Good old Lara Croft and her faithful sidekicks are back again. And by sidekicks, I mean her chest, her short-shorts, and the perennial argument about the portrayal of women in video games.”

The article is on the longish side, but is worth a read if these sort of things interest you.

Day 4 has arrived, and things are pretty much the same – I still feel like crap and I am still popping pain pills.  I called the doctor’s office this morning to ask if my symptoms were normal; to be honest, I really do not know what to expect with this type of surgery.  The nurse laughed when I told her that I wanted to go into the office today.  She said that is not going to happen for several more days; not sure how to break that news to my boss.  Oh well, moving on to some points to ponder.

Non UGA fans will not understand the enormity of the situation with Larry Munson, but apparently his health is so bad that he is considering not announcing Dawgs games this fall.  At the very least, he may only announce for home games.  That would be a travesty.  The man has called Georgia games for longer than I have been alive, but I guess all good things must eventually end.  Of course, I wish Mr. Munson nothing but the best!

I ranted a little about EA Sports’ NASCAR 08 yesterday, and I am about to go off on their Madden and NCAA Football games.  I do not have a TV in the bedroom, which is where I have been camped out this week.  This means that I do not have a whole lot else to do besides read, play the occasional PSP game, listen to ESPN radio, and sleep.  In other words I have plenty of time to snoop on the upcoming NCAA Football and Madden releases.  From what I can tell, Madden is not going to have major improvements over last year’s PS3/360 versions, and NCAA Football looks to be nothing more than a graphics upgrade over the previous PS2 release.

I know these yearly releases are too much of a cash cow for EA to not offer a new version each year.  At some point I assume gamers stop buying Madden each year; I know I did three or four years ago.  The problem I have is that EA could take the proper effort to get a new (and vastly improved) game out every other year, and charge gamers a small fee for roster upgrades, new schedules, etc.  I guess the pain pills are working against me because this is a crazy idea, and I am sure I will end up getting Madden and NCAA Football just to see what they have to offer on the PS3.  I am such sell out, and a whore to boot.

More rants later.  Maybe.  Not sure if that is a threat or a promise.

I have been reading some info on NASCAR 08, and it looks like I am going to have to show some restraint and not pick this one up before a test drive or some solid word of mouth. It sounds like the game is going to show off some great graphics, and a lot of arcade tendencies. I have already seen solid lighting effects in F1CE, and the same game has a great visual implementation of rain on your visor, which brings a whole new appreciation to racing under wet conditions.

Back to NASCAR 08. I suppose this is going to be EA’s attempt to emasculate the 360 and PS3, making them both equal, instead of showing off their individual strengths. I think it is great that the systems are going to have the same features, but is anyone really going to complain if the 360 has better online support? Along the same lines, will anyone care if the PS3 sports better graphics? Why did the developers have to pull back to 12 players online instead of 16? Is that because one system could not handle 4 extra cars? All of this would be fodder for system wars and the like, but in the end, gamers want the best possible games for their systems.

I have not played an EA NASCAR title in a long time, so I am not going to miss much in the transition from the PS2 to the PS3, but I have to ask why certain standard features are not being ported to the PS3 (and 360). Is this because EA needs something to release in NASCAR 08, or is it a matter of just not having enough time? In either case, I doubt we will see it happen anytime soon, but would it be such a bad idea to not release a NASCAR game next year? I would rather see EA offer some sort of $9.99 downloaded update next year (bonus tracks, cars, driver updates, Chase updates), and offer some new features in NASCAR 2010. I know it is not going to happen; material for another post.

The last few days have been the opposite of fun. I am an intensely private person, so I seldom go into details of my personal life, except with close friends and family. I have intentionally not gone into a lot of details on my surgery earlier this week, other than it went well, and recovery has been painful. I may discuss in more detail later, because certain men’s health topics should probably be more open, to help with awareness. Enough about that; let me move along.

You may think that taking three days off of work would provide for some great gaming time, but not so much. Day 1 was surgery day; afterwards was the effects of anesthesia, so no gaming at all. Day 2 was a little better, but the pain medicine (think good narcotics) kept me off my feet for the most part. I did play Pinball Hall of Fame (PSP) some. I am still trying to “complete the race” in Victory to open up the next machine. I am finding that to be a total bitch; near impossible. Talking about frustrating.

Day 3 (today) has not been much fun. I thought I was doing better, but the reality is that I feel like crap (and I hurt). I guess it is only 48 hours since the surgery; hopefully tomorrow will be better. The PSP is great for gaming from bed. I spend some more time with Pinball Hall of Fame, but finally gave up on Victory and moved on to Lumines, and then a few matches with Pro Evolution Soccer 2007. I started to play some Untold Legends, but it has been so long since I last played that I forgot the control scheme (I need to read up on that one before I play again). I would have played some MLB 07 The Show, but it takes too long to complete a game. Maybe later today or tomorrow.

One thing I am able to do is catch up on a huge backlog of reading material. Here is a funny bit from the June 18, 2007 ESPN the Magazine on several college mascots:

Lisa Wathne (PETA): “No matter what the living conditions are, animals are subjected to stress when they appear at these events. It’s inappropriate and not in the animal’s best interest.”

Mark Reed (Sedwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas): “He’s a domesticated animal. His other option is to be made into hamburger. This is a pretty good alternative.”

Bevo XIV lives on a 250-acre ranch, but PETA would rather him live in someone’s stomach. Classic.

Now that Tonya’s laptop is up and running again, I can actually play WoW from bed, but to be honest, I have not felt like that today. It is kind of cool surfing (and blogging) from bed, but I am sure that is something my wife does not want me to get used to doing on a regular basis.

Speaking of Tonya and her laptop, while it was busted, I showed her how we could use the PS3 to surf the internet. Pages look great on the 40″ Sony BRAVIA. She was not keen on using the Bluetooth remote controller or a Sixaxis to navigate, so I told her we could get a wireless keyboard. Talking about a (sneaky), err, easy sale.

Until the next post, remember that Bevo is happy not being in your Big Mac.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer picked up an AP story this morning titled “Nike has no plans to drop Vick.” The Humane Society wants Nike to drop Vick has a sponsor. Nike has responded to with the following statement:

“There is no change in the status of the agreement between Nike and football player Michael Vick. He is rightfully presumed innocent and afforded the same due process as any citizen, rather than be tried in the court of public opinion. Nike will continue to monitor the situation, but has nothing further to say at this time.” [Dean Stoyer, Nike spokesperson]

In other words, Vick is still making Nike a pretty penny. Once the court of public opinion turns very negative and sales decline, I bet we will hear Nike change their tune.

The Humane Society responded as follows:

“We recognize that Mr. Vick has not been charged with a crime, but we know that Nike has high standards for its spokespersons.” [President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States]

The Humane Society pointed out that AirTran Airways ended its relationship with Vick in May, but that may be a little disingenuous. Not to defend Vick, but his contract had already expired, so that is not the same thing as cutting bait, which is how they want Nike to respond to the Vick situation. I think the final straw for AirTran was Vick blaming a missed flight to a Congressional hearing on AirTran. Not really very spokesperson like of Vick.

I think we are all waiting for the smoking gun against Vick. At this point the evidence (that we know of) may be circumstantial, but the other shoe should drop soon enough. Stay tuned.

The Dell support person showed up at the house a couple of hours ago, replaced the power supply on Tonya’s Inspiron 6000, and all is well.  Thanks to Brad (Dell Online Community Outreach Liaison) – he helped arrange this support call.

I have a couple of thoughts.  First, if I did not have Brad’s contact info, I would no longer have this laptop, and I would be a very bitter towards Dell.  Thankfully, Brad found my first post about my recent mishaps with Dell, and he helped right the ship.  Second, the next time I order a laptop, I will pay for an extended support warranty, which is something I never do for electronic equipment.  In the case of this laptop, it has been well worth the money.

All this begs the question, should a computer that is less than three years old have screen and power supply issues (and a used up battery) in the first place?

I just read on the ajc.com site that Vick canceled his youth football camp:

“Embattled Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has canceled his youth football camp in Virginia because of ‘scheduling issues.'”

Scheduling issues cause Vick to miss his own youth football camp? If Vick is not guilty in the dogfighting deal, he certainly is portraying a man with something to hide.

I do not intend to go on a motorcycle rant, but after Ben Roethlisberer’s mishap, you would think most athletes would get a clue and wise up. Apparently not, as ESPN.com reports on LaVar Arrington’s recent motorcycle crash:

“Former Redskins and Giants linebacker LaVar Arrington was hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening injuries after his motorcycle crashed on a highway ramp Monday, police said.”

Someone will probably post some statistics that show more people die in automobile crashes compared to motorcycle crashes, but that is beside the point. I would assume there are more cars on the road by a large margin. I would also assume that you are more likely to survive an accident if you are in an automobile; air bags, four sides of a car surrounding you, etc.

The article pointed out the Arrington was wearing a helmet (I guess that is worth something) and alcohol was not involved, which is another plus. Hopefully Arrington will be OK, will have a speedy recovery, and land a job with a team this summer.

A recent Blu-ray/HD DVD post at The Blog for Sports Gamer reminded me that I had something waiting to be posted along the same lines. I ran out of time Sunday (and yesterday I was more or less out of it), but since I am at home, and not really in a position to do much besides lounge around, I decided to get this puppy posted.

TVPerdictions.com had an interesting story on the same topic, where the author contends that a stalemate is looming, and can only be prevented by a massive PS3 push (and associated price drop):

“I do not believe that any of the planned efforts by the Blu-ray or HD DVD camps will bring about the increase in adoption required to settle the format war. A massive reduction in the price of the PS3 is probably the best opportunity for a resolution, but this is a guess.”

I do not see a massive reduction for the PS3. I also remember that a lot of pundits thought that iTunes would never have mass market acceptance. It took me a while to jump on the electronic media bandwagon because there was just something tangible about holding a CD. From a movie standpoint, I do not see how electronic media will be popular until there are huge storage devices (a 60GB PS3 HDD will not store my current DVD library).

I am not sure where this leaves us, but if Blu-ray is currently winning the format war, it is only winning a minor skirmish. From what I have read, Blu-ray and HD DVD movie sales are an extremely small percentage of overall DVD sales. If the recent price drops (sub $200) of HD DVD players do not increase HD DVD adoption, then you have to consider HD DVD a failed format. Same goes for Blu-ray. If the PS3 does not pick up a lot of steam, and push Blu-ray in the same way the PS2 pushed DVD, then Blu-ray will suffer the same fate of other failed media formats.

Today was surgery day.  The whole anesthesia thing bothers me.  One minute you are starting to feel very light headed and the next thing you know you are waking up in a recovery room.  Not that I would have wanted to be awake for the procedure, but still, that is a small part of my life that is simply gone.

The good news is that my surgeon told Tonya that things went better than expected, and nothing cancerous was found.  I still have to wait for the biopsy results, but it looks like I have the all clear.

I still feeling groggy and a little goofy (thanks to the wonderful narcotics to help kill the pain), but decided to take a couple of minutes to post.  Taking one for the team.

Baseball on HD (ESPN HD tonight) is glorious, but not so much for the Braves; they have now lost 10-15 and are trailing Boston 1-0 in the second.  I am not sure what the Mets record is over the same stretch, but they seem to be doing just as bad.

I got the PSP all charged up and ready to go, but I only played Pinball Hall of Fame for about 30 minutes before giving up on gaming today.  Tomorrow is a new day.

I doubt it will be so wonderful. Tomorrow is surgery day; yuck! Hope to be back at blogging shortly.

Before I take off for the next little while, Discovery HD is running a highly entertaining (and dare I say educational) two part show called “Gamer Generation.” I never knew South Korea was so into gaming. The South Koreans watch live gaming tournaments in much the same way we go to sporting events.

The Muslim segment on gaming from a militant perspective (Under Siege) was also frightening. I guess there are two perspectives to every story/conflict, I just happen to feel more comfortable with my point of view.

Happy trails.

As I indicated in my previous post, I did not get to watch enough Le Mans to really get into the action.  It is always fun to watch this type of racing, where we see a ton of cars, and lots of different types on the track at the same time.  I guess the rain made things interesting, but all in all I was just a casual observer.  Would have been nice if the Corvette could have chased down the Aston Martin, but the final Safety Car ended all hopes for the US.

The FOX US Grand Prix broadcast was very nice.  I read earlier today that it was not going to be in HD, but it was showing up as 1080i on my TV, and looked great.  Maybe not as clear as the TNT NASCAR race at Michigan, but still very nice.  It was interesting to see that the pseudo HD broadcast was about 1.5 seconds behind the SD broadcast.  Don’t ask why I noticed.  OK, I confess.  I will flit between SD and HD to show my wife just how awesome our TV is when looking at HD broadcasts.  I know; I am strange.

I am not sure who was responsible for the FOX broadcast, but what was up with not showing Hamilton and Alonso in the closing laps?  I love Ferrari as much as the next guy (that loves Ferrari), but how do you not show the race leader for a good seven laps?  Alonso looked utterly crushed.  Lewis Hamilton is pretty damn fun to watch.

I did not watch much of the Michigan race; it just did not capture my attention.  As I am watching the closing laps, it looks like my prediction of a non Hendrick team winning today was spot on, even if the pick was off.  A Carl Edwards win, and poor finishes by most of the Top 10 except for Tony Stewart (finished 3rd), coupled with another Top 10 finish by Jeff Gordon (finished 9th), means that Gordon should increase his points led.  How about Junior?  He managed a 5th place finish, which should go a long way towards helping his Chase cause.