There are few things sweeter….

Then a big win in the regular season against a opponent that every one thinks your going to lose to.

It’s even sweeter when a bet made two months ago is paid in a voice mail, even though I was being way lippy during a pre-season game.

Matt, you are a good man which is why I have recorded the voice mail but I’m not posting it on the internet.
If however anyone would like to hear the voice mail…. well that can be arranged.

Shoes and bad weather….

You know this whole thing about being one of three people who believe in the Cardinals every year is, when they are on a roll people truly think they are on a roll.  And when they flop two things happen;

1. People go “Oh hey there are those lovable losers the Cardinals”!

2. People like me who talk shit about the opponent of the week end up receiving it twice as worse on Monday.

Yes it’s going to be a long Monday and if San Diego loses tomorrow night against the NY Bretts I’m really not going to be happy.  I mean it’s one thing for the Cardinals to be 0-3 to start the season it’s almost unthinkable for the Chargers to be 0-3.  Though after last years rough start they did make it to the AFC championship game where they lost to the Patriots who lost to the Dolphins this week who lost the Cardinals last week… So in some cosmic sense that probably means something but I’ve not had nearly enough beer tonight to even begin thinking about what that might be.

That is a question for minds greater then my own.

Now on to things that I might actually be able to do something about.

Last year I traded in my rather shitty Cisco / Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD Cable box for the sublime bliss that is a TiVo HD.   And through the power of the Internet and upgrades to the operating system the TiVo has been coming out with new features.  The latest of which is the ability to watch youtube videos on my 52 inch HD tv.  You know because youtube videos need to be watched in 52 inches of HD.  Another feature is the hook into the Amazon video no demand service for downloading pay content of TV shows and Movies as well as free Promo content (think pilots and season premieres) right off the top these are two things that I couldn’t do with my former cable box nor could I transfer shows to my desktop computer and then to another device to watch later.

So why am I writing about this? Well the question hit me recently downloading TV shows is pretty common now with iTunes and Amazon video on demand.  Which if I like the show I have no problem paying for a copy that I can keep and watch when I want to how I want to (though we aren’t quite to that point yet we are finally making progress).  Now what we need is a TiVo hook into Hulu.com which has tv shows for free for you to watch on the internet.  And these are shows that are meant to be watched in 52 inches of HD glory.  I will admit there are a couple of shows that I want to check out (Fringe, Doll House, Sanctuary) but I don’t want to record them on my TiVo since I feel that commits me on some level to watching them and I have enough crap being recorded on there and I’m pushing up against the space limits as it is in my TiVo Box.  So I guess my next great hope for TiVo is to figure out a way to get Streaming programs with their associated commercials (like 5 minutes per 43 minutes of program) to stream to my TiVo… I don’t want to buy them but I do want to watch them.

So now to circle this back around… NBC has their web strategy all wrong… at least for as far as I can tell.

First during the Olympics they made you download Microsoft Silverlight to watch the competition online.  Which great and all, but I don’t have that crap loaded on my either my PC or MAC and I just want to watch Michael Phelps and the Redeem Team kick some ass.

Second I was watching tonight’s Sunday Night NFL game between the Packers and Cowboys on TV and decided to check out the webcast of it.  It was alright the raw feeds from the other cameras on the field are a nice touch to bad you have to sit through a commercial to get to it, sit through the commercials during the main game broadcast and if you get to click happy on the extra cameras guess what else you get?  Yep another commercial.  So really my only incentive to watch the webcast is to make sure I see every commercial possible.

Finally, in NBC’s infinite wisdom it has taken product placement to a whole new level and for as far as I can tell the only reason any of this is going on is because NBC has no clue.  Some examples of this are Eureka on Sci-Fi (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of NBC-Universal) whose whole third season is being sponsored by Degree Deodorant (to the point that a “experimental new formula” was a key component in solving the problem of the week in one episode (my two suns).

And then there’s “Knight Rider” I expect a certain amount of cheese, but this is bordering on the absurd.  First there is the obligatory Ford product placement in the new KITT (the Mustang VS the Old Trans AM)… but wait there’s more KITT has a new mode it’s called F-150 mode!  So not only is NBC killing a tv show that I remember fondly as a child, but they are also turning the car into a transformer.  The only way it could have been better is if another one of the new modes was “Expedition Mode with environmentally friendly and carbon neutral diesel hybrid engine” oh wait I may have given away a key plot point to a future episode.

No wonder the writers striked if I had to deal with this crap I would want more money too.

Also you may have noticed that I’ve taken the approach of calling several things out by explicit name this evening… Well this is my attempt at a Google Bomb.  Maybe just maybe if I put enough pop culture geek references then maybe someone other then my 3 loyal readers will read this.  Or NBC-Universal is going to be making a call to their sister company GE Nuclear Weapons and Microwaves and “take care of the trouble maker in Phoenix”

Still Alive

Yes I’m Still Alive

That said… what the hell have I been doing?

Well the things that stand out in my mind are several marathon sessions of Rock Band in Colorado and even more marathon sessions of Grand Theft Auto in Arizona.

Speaking of Colorado I went to “Beer Mecca” aka “The Fat Tire Brewery” so there is that.

But yeah alot of Rock Band and Grand Theft Auto.

Rock Band has a strange effect on how I listen to music, no longer do I listen to a song I start to think about how the various pieces parts will interact in Rock Band… Like the drum opening to “Jambi” by TOOL… or the Guitar Solo’s in just about any Led Zepplin or Pink Floyd song. I have questions about Pearl Jam too specifcally “Lukin” At one point there was supposed to be the capablity to import your iTunes library into Rock Band and be able to play those songs. I’m sure that got nixed because some record label exec was mad that they weren’t making a sufficent amount of money from anything.

I do have say, any time I hear a Disturbed song on the radio I cringe when I think about the guitars/drums/vocals that would be required in Rock Band.

I believe in miracles….

I believe in Eli Manning and the New York Giants, they can and will beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

What gives me this confidence and insight?

I’m a Cardinals Fan! We had a not losing season this year therefor the NFC team in the Super Bowl must win when playing in a NFC teams home field! If nothing else I do feel that the Patriots should be taken down a rung or two on the old totem pole.

What more can you ask for?

A hail Mary or three and hope the either Tom Brady or Randy Moss trips over a Playmate at the Playboy party.

Many times I’ve wondered how much there is to know…

In France the “Full Time” work week is 32 hours…. that means that the average French man has a 3 day weekend every week.

When one is spolied like that I think they may lose sight of just how great a 3 day weekend truly is. I’m pretty sure that is why we Americans like to pick on the French so much. All I know is I get 3 guranteed 3 day weekends a year. I may take a day off on my birthday and other then that I’m not really one for taking much time off. So when I take a 3 day weekend for no reason other then I worked a Saturday and I’m taking the time that is due me from work it is a glorious weekend indeed.

This weekend has been made all the sweeter by the following items…

1. Super Mario Galaxy; when your old 8 bit friends come back afte a 10 year hiatus…. it’s been a good year for us old school Nintendo gamers; Link, Samus, and now Mario (strangely Luigi is hinted at but is not to be found as of yet)

2. What can only be desctibed as one of the best Saturday’s ever…. 5 gallons of beer in the fermenter, a exceptionally good time at Rula Bula, and perfect weather for both events.

3. The Cardinals hitting 5-5 on the season and the playoffs being more then just a distant dream (hell at this point a winning-ish or .500 season would be good).

Oh yeah a good Nascar race to end the season and Elk for dinner.

Yep our French breatheren may get a 3 day weekend most every weekend, but we americans truly appreciate it.

Blackhole sun, won’t you come?

Soundgarden was a great band, but you really have to wonder about what kinds of drugs they were on. You know between the lyrics and the Iron Butterfly esque guitar solos, I would be willing to bet it was a great live show.

As all of 3.2957838 (<– almost to 3.3 loyal readers!) know in addition to thinking that Soundgarden was the best band to come out of Seattle in the 90’s I’m a pretty big Pearl Jam fan. So when Eddie Vedder comes out with what is basically a solo album I take notice. The rub is the “solo album” is actually the soundtrack to the movie “Into the Wild”. OK Eddie did a movie soundtrack so I go and read about the movie. This guy gives up all of his worldly possessions for a life as free of trappings of modern life where he eventually ends up in the Alaska wilderness living off the land. Which appeals to me because I’ve always had this desire in the back of my mind to drop off of the grid totally and disappear. Problem is the only person who would notice would be Kristina since there would be leftovers and beer for Curtis all of a sudden.

And how did I know all of this about a movie that I hadn’t heard of up until two weeks ago? Why Cody of course! So Cody and I go see “Into the Wild” at what I call a “Art Theater” because it’s the first theater I’ve been to in Phoenix that has less then 20 screens (it only had four?!). Of course when you goto the movies they have the commercials before the movie now instead of just the trailers… don’t get me started on commercials before movies that is another rant in of itself. The last set of commercials are for Team Fortress 2!!! It’s a fucking brilliant commercial (click the link to see them all, the one that was in the theater was the “Meet the Heavy”) I thought it was a brilliant commercial.

So the movie finishes which was also excellent you need to go see it! And I’m looking at all of the people in the theater… Cody and I are the youngest ones in their. Wow they must have been really annoyed by the Team Fortress commercial. It’s a great commercial from a gamers perspective but if your not a gamer (Cody) then I can understand your annoyance.

So as a somewhat direct result of that commercial I purchased the Orange Box and have been playing Team Fortress 2 on and off all weekend. Holy cow that game is fun!!

So looking back at the title of the post it is rather true, because Team Fortress is a “Black Hole Sun”.

And oh yeah to top off a great weekend the Cardinals offed the Steelers!

Really?

You find the most interesting things on Wikipedia… I have to say that I am a bit surprised by this…
————————————–
The Packers’ fan base is famously dedicated: regardless of the team’s performance, every Packers game at Lambeau Field has been sold out since 1960.[citation needed] Despite the Packers having one of the smallest TV markets, the Packers have developed one of the largest fan bases in the NFL. Each year they consistently rank as one of the top teams in terms of popularity.[6] The Packers have one of the longest waiting lists for season tickets in professional sports with about 74,000 people as of May 3, 2007.[7] That is more names on the waiting list than there are seats at Lambeau Field. The current wait time for season tickets is approximately 35 years. For this reason, it is not unusual for fans to designate a recipient of their season tickets in their wills or place newborn infants on the waiting list after receiving birth certificates.[8]
——————————————————————————-

Linkage

And they gave no quarter…

A few observations from laying on my couch all weekend due some weird combination of what I think is a ear infection and a head cold… I think they are related but I’m not totally for sure, it would be a first for me if they were.

– Dennis Green has been cropped into those Coors Light commercials hawking 24 packs of Coors Light with tickets to the Super Bowl. I find this to be a unique choice to say the least on the part of the people from Coors.

– Remember when there really only two trucks and those “other” guys? No? Me neither… I’ve seen enough truck commercials this weekend to drive me up the wall. My favorite one? The Tacoma commercial. Why? Because I only saw it once! (And bull shit a F150 can stop a C-130)

– John Norris is still on MTV… again I was laid on my couch and surfing… I was bound to catch it sooner or later.

-Football, whoo hoo! Now it’s time for Tom’s totally meaningless picks 2007….

Team most likely to disappoint me for the 8th year in a row… Cardinals
Team I follow most likely to actually do something… Chargers
Team I follow mostly to piss off Clint…. Chargers / Broncos
Team that is going to win it all… Not the Cardinals, and not the Chiefs.

There you have it kids… musings of a sick man. But I did finally figure out John Madden’s purpose in the football universe it’s to explain things in such simple terms that even someone with the attention span of a nat (like me this weekend) can understand.