Malik
(3/22/10)
At least I'm not feeling alone in my thought I posted on Friday. The
Seahawks, in their offseason moves, are being looked at by many
people as
some sort of bad joke. It goes without saying that the opinions
in the link seem about spot on. Wallace was traded when his value
was it's lowest, Tapp was one of the best defensive players for the
Seahawks last year, and nothing makes a damned bit of sense about
Whitehurst.
While it's a "rebuilding" year, I think the key part of that is the
whole building thing. When you ditch one of the top defensive
players, remove a moderate quality wildcat QB, and add in someone
who has no reputation as the "QB of the future", you seem to move
away from building. Even if, for example, Whitehurst is a good
acquisition, you still have problems with his contract. Hasselbeck
is the QB for this season, and probably for the next season as well.
This means a two year contract will either give no return or it will
build up a player who then will be free to find a new team that will
either offer him more money or a better opportunity to see the
post-season. Two years is the time you need to groom a new QB, not
the time you need to groom and try out in a real life situation.
At least not all sports are screwed for Seattle right now. I mean
MLB starts in about two weeks, with the Mariners pulling in one of
their most promising rosters since the 1990's. Between a solid top
part of the rotation with Hernandez and Lee, a solid defense with
players like Figgins and Kotchman joining the team, and some
interesting prospects at bat, it could be a quality season. When you
add in how much Wakamatsu did last year with so much less, it looks
like it may be the start of Seattle returning to contention. Will
they be able to make the World Series? I doubt it. Will they be able
to see the post-season? I think, as long as injuries remain at bay,
it can very well happen this year.
On top of that, MLS is starting this week with the Sounders FC
kicking off the first MLS game of the season. Since the contract
disputes are gone, at least for the next half decade, Seattle can
resume being a force to be reckoned with in one league.
Best of all, UW has returned to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.
UW started the season, like the rest of the PAC-10, as a joke.
However, after pulling out one hell of a winning streak, UW is
looking good and proving they were a good fit for the tournament.
After destroying New Mexico by about 20 points, it's looking like UW
just has to keep doing what they've been doing and riding the
momentum all the way home through the tournament.
Thankfully, the games of winter and spring are looking damned good
for Seattle. It's just too bad that autumn will return soon enough,
and then Seattle can once again prove to be a joke in sports when
the Seahawks come out to play with a lineup that will, no doubt, be
little better than a joke.
Malik |
Malik
(3/23/10)
Not again. The last time Nintendo tried "3D" and "portable", the
results were anything but. The Virtual Boy was in a way 3D...as much
as a wireframe display could be interpreted as 3D. As for
portable...the Virtual Boy was definitely not.
To hear that
Nintendo is going to make a Nintendo 3DS makes me sad. On one hand,
it would be the...carry the one...wait...bad at math...ummm...fifth
DS. There's been the DS, DS Lite, DSi, and the DSi XL is coming out
this week in the US (already in Japan). Now there would be the fifth
DS based portable. I mean the lifespan of a DS system is now
averaging about a year before it's outdated with new technology.
It's worse than the PS3 in how many changes, usually minor and
trivial, can come along in a tiny time frame.
More than anything
else, I have to say enough is enough with 3D. It's amazing how fads
are so cyclical. In the 1970's and 80's 3D was huge. Movies were
trying to force it down our throats with those annoying red and blue
plastic/cardboard glasses. Now we have a new type of technology that
uses less insane of glasses (less is not the same as being absent in
silliness) that's being added to every damned movie that comes
along. Up, Avatar, Coraline, Alice in Wonderland...all of the big
movies are getting 3D treatments. TVs are going 3D with required
glasses. The only good part of the Nintendo 3DS is that is
supposedly will not require glasses for 3D.
While I am curious
about how Nintendo will achieve 3D without glasses involved, it's
not enough to get me wanting to buy another new DS. I still have
only the original DS (in fact, mine is a launch DS) and have not
been given a single good reason to spend nearly $200 is play all of
the same games I currently play. Adding another changed feature is
not what Nintendo needs right now. What Nintendo needs is to win
back some third party support. While the DS does pretty well (it's
the only portable game in town...and I know the PSP is not
considered dead...just on life support), Nintendo needs to focus on
winning consumers back to the Wii. That means third party, less
shovelware, less forced emphasis on motion, and...if anything needs
a hardware update, the Wii should be updated to HD with a larger
internal flash memory unit to get on the same page as the 360 and
PS3 for looking like current technology.
Anyway, like I
said, I paid $200 for a DS once. If the games are not changing, and
the core technology is unchanged, I am not aiming to pay another
$200 to not alter what I currently play. The DS is old technology,
and it's just not worth paying more to keep up with the Joneses.
Malik |
Malik
(3/26/10)
Not counting Fire on
Lego Rock Band, Jimi Hendrix has been to absent from Rock Band.
Well,
that changes next week. The entire Axis album from The Jimi
Hendrix Experience is coming next week. All I can say is that it's
about time.
I can also say
that it's good to see that Fire was not a fluke. With how much
Hendrix seemed to be controlled, in game format, by Guitar Hero,
it's nice to see that artist limitations and exclusive deals are not
always as permanent or real as they seem.
Anyway, I'm left
with far too little to say right now. It's been a week that's been
filled with more emotion and words. Mainly, if a word can be used,
it would be "disappointed". Then again, that's what I get for being
too attached to the (UW) Huskies being in the Sweet 16 (and being
shut down by West Virginia).
It's also what I
get when I start to read the news some and realize this country is
f$#@ed. Ok...the country isn't so bad off, at least compared to what
it could be, but the tone of the media ranges from insanely left to
insanely right with no middle ground and no solid perspective on
reality. News has gone from being a thing that supplied information
on current and important events into being a form of entertainment
that ranks up there with reality TV for being a waste of time and
space (be it bandwidth on the internet or cable, or airwaves on TV).
I guess my one
question is simple; when did "news" become synonymous with
"entertainment"? Also, when did the public in general (not saying
everyone is like this...I know some sanity remains in the US) start
to follow this stuff as fact rather than some sort of entertainment
based spin on reality? Actually, I know the answer; it happened
between September 11th 2001 and March 2003. It's just always amazing
(in a sad way) to me that as technology increases and the potential
for information sharing grows, the actual information available
becomes much more biased and twisted.
Sorry...I'm just
reaching the breaking point. We're constantly told that our society
is reaching "information overload" but I can't find any real
information. Between the "news" being opinioned (as opposed to
"reported") about health reform and the fact that I can only find
biased or human interest fluff pieces in the news, it makes me feel
like I'm living in some twisted sci-fi movie (like a cross between
Blade Runner and The Running Man, with an occasional dose of Logan's
Run, Demolition Man, and Judge Dread). Hell I watched some crazy
police helicopter based search of some woods near Seatac Airport for
at least an hour on Wednesday night. It also involved at least 6-8
police cars that were flying up and down the old Pacific Highway
(Highway or SR 99). Something major must have been going on, and
it's near both a major international airport, a major interstate
(I-5), and some heavily populated residential areas, but there was
nothing in the news about the police beyond the retirement of a bomb
sniffing dog (human interest).
At least the funk
I'm feeling is partially lifting. MLB starts up in just under a
dozen days. Better yet, the MLS season was started yesterday with
Seattle shutting out Philly 2-0. Best of all, it was a great game to
watch, so I'm getting some real entertainment again that is not
Dragon Quest IV or FFIX. Don't misunderstand me; I like DQIV and
FFIX, but sometimes too much turn based RPG can call for a change of
pace.
Malik |
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