Saturday night notes
A few thoughts while I watch the Wisconsin football game tonight against Fresno State....
- I'm upset with Major League Baseball tonight for putting the Cubs/Astros series in Miller Park. You took a home series for the Astros and put it in a stadium that will essentially make it a home game for the 'visiting' team. That stinks. I'm not happy with how the Brewers are playing, but if they were to lose the Wild Card to anyone, I would prefer that it would be the Astros... due to Cecil Cooper being their manager. This just sucks for them. They were asking for Atlanta as the site for the games... and they should have gotten that.
- I don't know how many NHL fans we have here on the blog, but I read this article on CNNSI about the fact that the NHL is still not reducing the size of goalie equipment and it really annoyed me.
One of the bigger problems that the NHL faces right now is that the game could be more fan friendly. One of the first things that they could do to resolve this is to increase the scoring in the games. Goalies are WAY too over protected in the game. It's not at the level it was when Patrick Roy covered 2/3rds of the net, but it's still way too much.
Look, I play goalie at an entirely recreational level... and I feel like I need every bit of that just because I put myself in bad positions where I need the larger pads to protect me. These guys are pros... they don't need the massive armor that they have to be safe.
Keeping the goalies safe has to be a priority, but they also have to look at the good of the game as well. I love the NHL and just think that they need to make some changes to make the game a bit more interesting for the casual fan.
- Wow... did OSU get CRUSHED by USC tonight. Wisconsin really needs this win tonight to give the Big Ten just a bit of love today.
- On the eve of Rock Band 2's release... I find it funny that I just really got the hang of hammer-ons and pull-offs... by playing the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith demo. For whatever reason, it never really clicked before... and when I played that demo... it finally felt right. Go figure.
- I finally got around to watching 'There Will Be Blood' last night. I'm absolutely amazed that I had never heard the jokes about "I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!" before today... but somehow I avoided it. I did a search on it and there is a terrific SNL sketch about it though. It's funny to hear the crowd during the sketch though, as you can tell that most of them have no idea what they're talking about.
- Glad that the press is finally starting to call out the lies in the presidential campaign. The ad that McCain is running about Obama wanting to teach sex education to children in Kindergarten is one of the most disgusting ads that I've ever seen in my lifetime. The press is supposed to fact check this kind of crap and call them out for it... I'm glad to see that they might actually be starting to do their job. It's just funny to see that the hardest questions that McCain has had to answer in the last few days have come from the cast of the View.
Back to sports gaming
- I tried out the demo for Pure last night. Wow, was that fun. The trick system was very intuitive and the course didn't seem like the game was trying to cheat you out of finding a way to win a race. This game is in my rental queue right now... and I'm pretty sure I'll be picking it up if the rental goes as well as my demo experience did.
- I spent an hour or two with NHL2K9 today for the 360 and I'm still very high on the game. In my first game with the Islanders, I went against Martin Brodeur and the Devils. I was shut out 2-0, but hit at least 3 or 4 pipes. In my next game, I went against the Blues and managed to put up 7 goals... at which point they pulled the goalie. It was nice to see that the in game AI decided that their goalie was struggling and needed to get out of there.
Now to my annoyances that I've found thus far. In the franchise mode, there is a waiver wire where you can try and claim players. I have yet to see anyone on it, but when I look at other teams... they have claimed players. Unless I'm looking at the waiver system all wrong, the Islanders are 4th on the list and should have had a chance at some of the players. I'll keep an eye on it.
I also, can't figure out how to trade for minor league prospects... they don't appear as an option in the trade system. You can trade for draft picks and players in the NHL, but not in the minors. (I found this out as I was trying to trade for a former Badger goaltender in Ottawa, Brian Elliott.) That really hurts the franchise mode if you can't trade for prospects to rebuild your team.
- It's surprising to me... but the NBA Live 09 demo wasn't all that bad. After watching the DNA video.. I'm intrigued by it, but it doesn't really seem like a useful system for a person like me. They're talking about updating their rosters every single day, and while that sounds great... how many people really want to play one game a day when they're playing a game like this.
Maybe those people are out there, and in that case... this looks like it's a game for them. They also have a feature where they let you replay the last game that happened in real life, using the exact rosters that were used that night. Again... interesting, but I'm not sure how practical it is.
- Whew... I did have a lot to talk about today....
Contact Us
Riding the Pines Podcast
Search Amazon.com
What We’re Playing
Dan:
September 14th, 2008 - 05:16
The Astros actually benefit in some ways. One, they’ll be playing the Cubs after the Cubs have wrapped up their division and are lining up their pitchers for the playoffs. Next, the Astros team doesn’t have a deep bench, rotation, or bullpen, so a double-header at home would probably be worse for them than filling in off-days.
About the McCain ad – it didn’t seem that bad to me. It just left out “age and developmentally appropriate”, which is a pretty vague term anyway. The bill never says what “age and developmentally appropriate” means, either. It does specify:
“Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.”
So it’s not just “appropriate touching” and “inappropriate touching” as most of the articles/blogs written on the subject (and the Obama campaign, same difference) would have you believe. Unless of course “inappropriate touching” means “genital-to-genital contact with HIV-positive people”.
Of course, the ad does misstate something else: the fact that Obama wasn’t the bill’s author or sponsor, and the law never passed. So it could hardly be a “legislative accomplishment.”
In short, the ad leaves out some information but is in the general ballpark, enough so that it shouldn’t qualify for “most disgusting…that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”
It’s the same deal with the McCain = computer illiterate ad. Yeah, it turned out to be a goof because he’s injured and can’t type, but it’s basically correct that he’s behind the times when it comes to computers.
September 14th, 2008 - 07:03
The benefit to the Brewers is that in past years the series would have been postponed to the end of the season and only played if necessary. This would mean that:
(a) the Cubs might have clinched already, and therefore tanked the games
(b) the Brewers now get all the concession money instead of the Astros
Guess having the Commissioner owning your team does have some advantages.
September 14th, 2008 - 07:27
… also, as Neil said the McCain ad was really not that misleading. It was sex education for K-12; of course, it was supposed to be age appropriate, but I think many parents would consider that there is no such material that would ever be appropriate for a 5-year old.
Given that Obama did support the bill, it’s fair game. He has made a reasonable defense of what he might have considered appropriate as a parent, but still he took a position that’s not likely to be in-line with the majority of parents. What’s really notable is that 4 years ago when running for the senate he was willing to explain his thinking, but now his handlers would rather just brand the opposition as liars and avoid the subject.