The Recycle Bin

Every now and then I make a huge error when it comes to game purchases. This usually happens when I have zero time for additional gaming and I decide to “just take a look” at some new release. Yesterday I made this classic mistake when I headed off to Best Buy to purchase the Lord of the Rings Online. My logic (or lack thereof) was that I could play the game during Blizzard’s Tuesday maintenance to pass the time.

Fool.

I’ll post more about LoTR when I’ve played a bit more, but let’s just say I’m having fun playing with my dwarf minstrel (healer). I won’t give up World of Warcraft. However, I am squeezing in even more gaming time these days. Oh yea, the BM 2008 analysis is officially on hold this month…

I’ve pretty much lumped people in two categories when it comes to playing computer games. There are those that write about them and there are those that play them. Sorry for my lack of posts, but I’ve been too busy playing games. I’ll stop by the Out of the Park Baseball forums every now and then, might visit the Front Office Football Central Forum to get a good laugh at whatever minutia those basement dwellers are arguing about, but otherwise it’s all about World of Warcraft and online OOTPB for me. I’m either doing raids with my new end game guild or I’m doing stuff with other online baseball fans.

Life is good!

I’ll finally purchase Baseball Mogul this week. I took the demo for a spin to get a feel for the game and now I want to see more. I kid the FOFC commandos, but I wonder why they haven’t taken a knife to BM 2008 the way they have OOTPB 2007? Surely it is worth the same detailed “it’s not modeling how Cy Young scratched his left testicle” examination that OOTPB 2007 is getting. Or maybe I missed that thread?

Back to playing games!

The Falcons 2007 (day 1) draft was very much like the girl next door.  While ATL did not pick anyone that was drop dead sexy, they did go for need.  In other words they played it safe.  The girl next door is always hot in her own special sort of way.  You know what I am talking about.

Jamaal Anderson (DE – Arkansas) was taken with the 8th overall pick.  I think this guy has some potential and should be able to help step in and fill the void left by Patrick Kerney.  I have read that Anderson will take a couple of years to develop, but I have a feeling that he is going to contribute from day one (and only get better over time).

Justin Blalock (OG – Texas) was taken 39th overall (7th pick of the 2nd round).  This guy is what we need on o-line; big meat that can move the pile.  At Texas Blalock played guard and tackle, but the Falcons should be targeting him to start right away at left guard.  SI had Blalock rated as 1st round potential (in their mock draft) and had him as the number one guard in a weak draft at the guard position.

Chris Houston (CB – Arkansas) was taken 41st overall (9th pick of the 2nd round).  This guys is going to be a burner; maybe not a shutdown corner back, but he will be able to hold his own at the beginning of the season, which will allow Jimmy Williams to move to safety.  Houston was probably another guy that could have been a 1st round pick (SI had him going in the 1st round in their mock draft); great value pickup.

I do not know anything about Laurent Robinson (WR – Illinois State) who was taken 75th (11th pick of the 4th round).  I saw one report that said he is a tall guy that can run crisp routes, but he tends to drop the ball some.  Ouch.  That is just what we need; another guy that drops the ball.

All in all, a pretty decent day one.  Nothing special, but several needs were filled with the top three guys potentially considered 1st round material by some pendants.  Maybe not sexy, but certainly worthy of the girl next door status.

Just to piss him off a little bit, and hopefully get a reaction to get a post or comment or two, how about this one from ESPN

“The Reggie Bush aftermath: It will be fascinating watching what the Houston Texans do. A year ago, they made a last-minute decision not to take the best player in the draft — Bush. Instead, they took defensive end Mario Williams No. 1. Without a healthy running back, QB David Carr and the offense failed last season. Under coach Gary Kubiak, Houston has replaced the quarterback, halfback and fullback all for significantly more money than the starters who were under contract. Bush helped the Saints become a playoff team. The talk in Houston is that the Texans hope defensive end Gaines Adams will fall down to them at No. 10. That’s right, Gaines, like Williams, is a pass-rusher. The Texans want more sacks, but they can’t trade up for Adams. Imagine if they give up a good portion of this year’s and next year’s draft to move up to take another defensive end? They also aren’t going to get halfback Adrian Peterson, who will go third or fifth. At 10, the Texans might trade back if the right player isn’t there.”

It is always fun to bring this up just to piss Chris off … at least a little bit.

No updates this week … should be something (hopefully interesting) this NFL draft weekend.

A few random ramblings for your reading pleasure …

The kid is not so young any more.
Jeff Gordon collected win number 76 last night at the Phoenix race, which tied him with Dale Earnhardt on NASCAR’s all time win list. The race was very entertaining, especially the closing lap duel between Gordon and Tony Stewart. It was also nice to see the Gordon pay tribute to Earnhardt by circling the track with a black, red, and white number three Earnhardt flag. Good stuff. Gordon has been on fire this season with 7 top 10 finishes in 8 races, including 6 top 5 finishes, last night’s win, and 4 poles. Still early days, but if Gordon can keep this going, he is going to be tough to beat.

Bonds off to fast start.
Did anyone think that Bonds would get off to such a strong start? .349 AVG, 11 RBI, 5 HR, even a SB. I for one thought that Bonds was going to be a broken down man, limping towards a last gasp assault on Aaron’s homerun record. Instead, at 42, we get a rejuvenated man. Something in the water?

No longer a goat in NY?
Speaking of great starts, Alex Rodriguez is on fire, posting Herculean numbers – .379 AVG, 31 RBI, 12 HR. It seems that everyone loves a winner, including Yankees’ fans. A couple of walk-off HRs will do that to a guy. Go figure.

What were they thinking?
The Atlanta Braves have a serious mess on their hands at LF and 1B. Ryan Langerhans (OF) is having a terrible April (2-31; .065 AVG, 0 RBI, 0 HR), and Matt Diaz (OF) is only a marginal upgrade offensively (.270 AVG, 2 RBI, 1 HR). Craig Wilson (1B) and Scott Thorman (1B) have combined for 11 hits in 62 at-bats, 6 RBI, 2 HR). Chipper Jones (3B) and the pitching staff is holding the team together right now, but the Braves are going to have to address LF and/or 1B if they are going to contend deep into August.

Spider-Man 3.
The new Spider-Man 3 trailer looks awesome. I have not watched the entire first movie (only parts here and there), none of the second, but I am going to have to catch up quickly, become the Venom deal looks like some good clean fun. Todd McFarlane’s Amazing Spider-Man 298, 299, and 300 are some of the last remaining comic books that I still own. I had not thought about cashing in until seeing the trailer last night; may have to do some eBay searches this weekend.

PSP at a shockingly low price.
Sony finally decided to lower the price of the PSP to $169.99, which will probably not be enough to over come the dominance of Nintendo’s DS. The PSP has some nice games, but I doubt that a $30 price difference is going to make anyone run out and pick up a PSP. My issues with the PSP are pretty straight forward – it is not worth the money. The analog nub is not precise enough for most games, the battery-life is far too short for a portable system, and while the sports games look pretty, there is not a single killer app that makes me want to play my PSP with any sort of regularity.

Happy Sunday.

The NFL is just plain wrong on its decision not to allow San Francisco 49ers’ coach Mike Nolan to walk the sidelines in a suit. Instead the NFL wants its coaches to wear Reebok brand crap. Why? The Reebok contract = big $money$. The NFL plans to be generous enough to once again allow Nolan to wear a suit two games during the 2007 season, but not for the entire season. Nolan said

“If the league wants to promote class and display proper standards, as it does and as it should, then it seems to me letting your coaches dress like this only enhances your image.” [Sporting News Apr. 9 2007]

I think it is great that the league and the players association are trying to improve the NFL’s image (before it gets out of control) with a player conduct policy, but the NFL should ask a simple question. Would it rather have Nolan in a suit or would it rather promote players like Jones and Henry? The NFL cannot have it both ways.

While watching the Braves, holding Joseph, I decided to throw together a quick simulation of the 2007 using MLB 07. Kind of hard to play while holding a baby, so it seemed like a good idea to see how the Braves would finish out the 2007 season.  I started a new season, used the most current rosters available for download (I think they are dated Feb 27, 2007), and used all the default options.

There is probably not a whole lot of value here other than showing how this wonderful little portable baseball game can do a decent simulation (and a crazy CY Young award). I took control of the Braves; not that I planned to do anything, just wanted control of the team to watch injuries, view trade offers (I declined all offers), etc. Some interesting items of note follow… Continue reading MLB 07 The Show (PSP) Season Simulation

Great post by Bill Harris about poor PS3 sales figures for a five week period in March. It seems that while the Wii continues to post solid numbers, the 360 is not doing very hot, while the PS3 is totally tanking.

I have been bouncing around the idea of picking up an up-converting DVD player because I have not settled on HD-DVD or Blu-ray as the future format of choice. I guess this is the billion dollar question – which format will win? If I decided to go Blu-ray, it may make some sense to go with a PS3, but to be honest I do not know if the unit included in the PS3 is top of the line, middle of the road, or a poor performer (kind of like the DVD units shipped with the early PS2 systems).

With the NFL draft approaching in a couple of weekends, I was actually looking forward to the NBA draft. Why? The Atlanta Hawks posted one of the worst records in the league, with a final tally of 30 wins to 52 in the wrong column; only three teams finished the 2007 season with a lower win total (Memphis, Boston, Milwaukee).

Let’s face it – the Hawks suck. I know they are young and had a lot of injuries this year, but they have not been halfway decent in forever. Why would I want to watch? There is nothing compelling going on with the Hawks, at least not from the standpoint of someone who has given up on the NBA. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Atlanta Hawks may land Ohio State’s Greg Oden or better yet, Texas’ Kevin Durant on June 28.

Obviously I could care less about today’s NBA, but landing a talent like Durant may be a difference maker for me.

Then reality hit. More than likely Atlanta is not going to get Oden or Durant, in which case the Hawks will probably continue to suck. The Suns own the Hawks’ first round pick unless the Hawks land one of the top three spots. One would think the front office brass could improve the team if they could add a Top 10 pick, but unless the balls bounce right, it sounds like they are not going to get a chance to find out.

Admittedly I am not a hockey fan and only follow the sport from a distance.  With that said, I am not sure what the hell happened to Atlanta.  How did they go from two close games at home (4-3, 2-1) to a total blowout in New York (7-0), followed by last night’s third period collapse ending in a 4-2 loss?  I guess the last one is not fair because they did not collapse, but when you are fighting against elimination, it is hard to overcome going down early in the third period (at least that is what I assume).

If I did follow hockey maybe I would understand happened to the Thrashers.  As it stands the only thing I can figure out is that the Rangers had a power play % of 20.8 compared to 5.9 for the Thrashers.  Maybe that is enough to turn this one into a sweep?  Or maybe it was a complete lack of playoff experience by the Thrashers who were making their first ever playoff appearance.

Or another way to say that I have managed some World of Warcraft three nights in a row. That has to be incredibly impressive considering the sparse amount of time I have spent with the game since January 22 (when Joseph was born). Even if I am only averaging about 45/mins per night in these limited play sessions, at least I am starting to cut into the $14.99 monthly fee.

I am not sure why, but I have spent all me (limited) time playing with Tuldar, my dwarf hunter. At some point I will get back to blasting ice and other cold stuff, but for now, hunting is hitting the mark.

Blame this one on me, not on Chris. Wikipedia describes selling out as “compromising of one’s integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, success or other personal gain” – notice the Google Adsense “Selling Out” slot on the right side of the page.

First, I am naturally curious; I doubt that this is going to produce any money, but if it does, then I suppose I am selling out but not to the damn “spank the monkey” sites. Second, I do not find the ads intrusive; interesting, but not yet intrusive, so they should not negatively impact end user enjoyment of the Recycle Bin. Third, long term, the ads may go away, they may change positions, or they may evolve into something else entirely different. The honest answer is that today I am just experimenting.

I never thought I would put ads on the site; I need to find the original site mission/vision statement just for giggles. That would put the monkey quote in context. No, I am not lacking for money (of course there is never enough), and I have not had too much cheap beer to drink (unfortunately). The Recycle Bin is something I do for fun; to relieve stress, to become a better writer (go figure), and to give something back to other old fart gamers (back at you Chris). It is really not about the money; I am more interested in what will be displayed based on content.

I am rambling, almost as if I am justifying putting the ads on the site. This is something I have been kicking around since I put Google Analytics on the site several months ago. Must be time for some cheap beer.

I’m starting to put together my detailed analysis of Baseball Mogul 2008 vs. Out of the Park Baseball 2007. I was reading through the forum and found this gem of a thread. Around page 4 things get a bit ugly as Marc, Clay, and even Shaun Sullivan start swinging at each other. I’ve always thought Baseball Mogul’s advertising was a bit misleading regarding what it can do when compared to competing products. Yes, Lahman’s databse is built into BM, but it can be imported into OOTPB and PureSim. This statement is laugh out loud misleading and posted on BM’s web site:

“Baseball Mogul 2008 is the only game that lets you play in any season from 1901 to 2007, complete with hand-edited rosters and ratings for thousands of major and minor league players.”

I guess the hundreds, maybe even thousands of historical simmers that play OOTPB 2007 are probably scratching their heads at the above quote. But I am sure there is some technical reason why Clay Dreslough feels he can advertise BM this way. It’s just sad to see BM, once the market leader in game play, grow stale on the vine and try these tactics since the 2008 version actually looks pretty good.

I put in some WoW time tonight; about 30 minutes, which was enough to take Tuldar (dwarf hunter) from L13 to L14.  Have to love that rest state.  This is only the second time I have put in a few minutes since Joseph was born.  Hopefully the time will increase because the game is still fun, even at low levels.  Of course it sucks that I am no longer in a guild (too much time away from the game get you automatically removed from the guild), I do not remember some of the basics of the game, and I have no idea where I left off with some quests.  Small downside to a wonderful game.  It was also nice to see some players in Loch Modan, which was seriously empty before Joseph arrived.

In tribute to seeing Chris online (WoW of course), I decide to go for a little Knob Creek.  No cheap stuff for me tonight.  Well, there may have been some before I ran into Chris, but no one is keeping score.

Game of Shadows.  I should have more to say on this in a week or so, after I finish the book (assuming I can finish in a few days).  I picked up the book when it was released last year, but did not really have time to give it a proper read.  I picked it up a few days ago; what a fascinating read.  If only a small part of it is true, Bonds is really messed up, and I am not just talking about drugs.