Saturday, January 27, 2007

Two Things

And they're both media reviews. What else would they be? I'm a media whore.

First, I rented Elite Beat Agents for the DS because people on the intarweb were raving about it, and I figured I liked Guitar Hero so much, I might like another rhythm game. Wrong. The covers aren't bad (although they could be better), but the story sequences suck ass (not sure why they even felt it necessary to have a story, but whatever), and even worse, the gameplay is fucking terrible. Yeah, let's tap the screen in time to a beat that doesn't follow the song very well while annoying firecracker noises go off, and follow beach balls as they slide across the screen at varying speeds. And then, just for the hell of it, we'll spin the stylus around in a circle as fast as we can for bonus points. You think I'm joking? I wish I was. Dear god, I wish I was. Stay away from Elite Beat Agents. Stay far, far away.

Second, I just finished the first season, or Day 1, of 24. Hot damn, that's an awesome show. I can't believe I didn't get into it earlier. I already watched the first hour of Day 2, too. I'm hoping to get caught up so I can start watching new episodes on TV this season. Only 4 more seasons to go. I think I can do it.

Monday, January 22, 2007

I Don't Get It

I just don't. I don't understand all the vitriol and hatred towards the Colts, and Peyton Manning in particular. What have they, and he, ever done to deserve getting bashed? No, seriously, what have they done? This is their first time going to the Super Bowl since they were the Baltimore Colts and Johnny Unitas was handling QB duties. Peyton Manning's future Hall of Fame status, and really, his entire career is in question because he's never won the big game (despite Dan Marino being in the Hall of Fame and never having won the big one, either). And yet it seems like folks are lining up to bash Manning and the rest of the Colts.

This question may seem odd, since I have a lot of animosity towards Brady and the Patriots, as well as other teams like the 49ers, and the Cowboys, to name a few. But I have a good reason: they've all won the big game. Multiple times. They get slurped by the national media constantly, and years after the fact, even if their current status is sitting at home (which they all are right now). It's only natural to dislike the big winners. The ones that are always in the spotlight, the ones that always get all the attention and accolades.

But where are the Colts? They haven't been in the spotlight, they haven't gotten the accolades. They don't get any fucking respect. Sure, Manning's been the NFL MVP twice, and holds numerous passing records (including shattering the aforementioned Marino's TD passing record), and is the highest rated active QB, and second all-time only to Steve Young. Sure, the Colts have had 5 consecutive seasons with at least 10 victories, and won 9 games in a row to start the last two seasons. But they've never won the big game. If they get any attention at all, it's because the media is casting doubt on their defense, or highlighting Peyton's mistakes, or talking about their postseason failures, or wondering about their seeming roadblock when it comes to the Patriots (which is no more, haha!).

So why all the anger? Is it just Patriot fans being sore losers? Is it just that they can't handle the fact that they got beat by the better team? They can't come up with enough excuses to justify their favorite team's poor performance (like that they had the flu, or the refs made some bad calls, or that their players were hurt or got hurt during the game, or Tom Brady made a bad throw because he was too busy getting his cock sucked by the sportscasters), so they have to bash the other team? Well, you know what I say to all that.

Fuck you, Patriot fans. Fuck you all in your stupid asses. Enjoy watching the Super Bowl in two weeks, because Peyton Manning and the rest of the Colts are finally going to justify your anger. Enjoy all of it, and make sure you take notes. Because the Patriots and your beloved Brady are never going to get another shot at that ring. Not as long as Peyton Manning is taking snaps in Indianapolis. Suck on that, bitches.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

And the AFC Champions are...

The Indianapolis Colts! I don't even know what to say. I've spit a lot of vitriol towards the Patriots in the past, but I just don't feel like it right now. I'm so fucking happy, I don't care about those assholes. The mother fucking Colts are going to the mother fucking Super Bowl! Woohoo!

I bet you could already guess, but here's my prediction for Super Bowl XLI: Colts over Bears. Bring it on!

And the NFC Champions are...

The Chicago Bears. Congratulations, Rex Grossman, you're in the Super Bowl. Too bad you're not the reason the Bears are there. I am a bit surprised at how ineffectual the Saints offense was, though. I don't know if it was the loose footing on the field, the cold and snow, or just a bad day, but they didn't put a complete game together today.

So now I wait for the AFC Championship to start, with my predictions for this weekend sitting at 0 for 1. Needless to say, I'm really pulling for the Colts to win. On the freak chance that they don't, I'm just not going to watch the Super Bowl this year. There wouldn't be a point.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Joy!

It seems that the anonymous surfing sites don't always work, and trying to set up a proxy, while not difficult, leads to slow as molasses downloads from RapidSuck. The easier way is to just renew your ip address, and then RapidSuck thinks you're someone completely different. It's still kind of a pain in the ass, though.

So I was looking for something better, and stumbled on this website. Holy shit, I just hit the jackpot. I don't know how it works, or why they're still online, but I don't care. Alls I know is, I never have to wait to watch a show I want to watch anymore. Joy!

Monday, January 15, 2007

RapidShare Sucks

Yes, RapidShare sucks fat cock. Let me back up a bit, so I can tell you how I reached this conclusion.

I've been meaning to get into 24 for some time now. You know, the TV show with Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer? So I added the first season to my Netflix queue last week. Of course, since the 6th season started yesterday, it seems everyone else decided to get into the show too, and the discs went to "short wait" status. I wanted to watch some 24 tonight, though, so I did what anyone else would do: I looked for a torrent, or some other free way to watch the first season on my computer.

After some quick Google-fu, I ran across a blog called "RapidShare Links Blog." They've got all kinds of shit over there. Including all 5 seasons (and the first 4 eps of the 6th) of 24. I hit the link and away we go. Episode 1 is broken into 4 pieces, but no matter. I get the first piece just fine, go for the second, and hit a brick wall.

"You have reached the download-limit for free-users. Want to download more?
Get your own Premium-account now! Instant download-access! (Or wait 59 minutes)"

What the fuck? I have to wait a whole hour before I can download the second quarter of a 44 minute show? Fuck that. I'll just whip up some more Google-fu and kick RapidShare square in its bulbous nutsack.

An hour later and I'm ready to smash something. There's a million and one "tricks" or "hacks" or "sploits" to get around RapidShare's dumb-ass time limit on downloads, but there's just one problem: none of them fucking work. That is, until I stumble upon a solution that should have been obvious, even though I clearly didn't think of it earlier. There are also a million and one sites that let you surf the web anonymously, meaning cookie checkers, and javascript, and all the other bullshit that RapidShare uses to make you pay for its service don't fucking work. Whoops, I just kicked you in the fucking nuts, RapidShare! Or should I say RapidSuck?

So if you feel like getting shit from RapidSuck without paying their ridiculous prices for a service that should be free anyway, just surf anonymously. It's win-win, except it's lose for them.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Football picks

I can't believe I completely forgot about doing football playoff picks this season, until there's only 3 games left. Shit. Oh well, better late than never, I suppose.

If you had asked me to pick the Divisional games, I would have said Colts over Ravens, Patriots over Chargers, Bears over Seahawks, and Saints over Eagles. Yes, I know that's exactly how it turned out, but it doesn't change the fact those were my picks. I can't prove it, though, so we'll just have to go forward to next week's Conference Championship games.

First up, the New Orleans Saints at the Chicago Bears. You can't get much better than the 2 seed at the 1 seed, even if it is the NFC. The key matchup in this game is the Saints offense versus the Bears defense. The Saints have been the sentimental favorite this entire season, if only because of the destruction of their home city a year and a half ago. The Bears have been dogged by questions about their starting QB, who can look great one game and fall apart the next. Ultimately, I think Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Marques Colston, and the rest of the Saints will be too much for Brian Urlacher and the Bears to handle. Saints win handily.

The second game of the day is the New England Patriots at the Indianapolis Colts. Who says the AFC isn't the better conference? When you have the 3 and 4 seeds knock off the 2 and 1 seeds, respectively, I'd say it's a conference where any of the top teams have a legitimate shot at winning any game on any given Sunday. Not only that, but this game pits 3-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady and his Patriots against 2-time NFL MVP Peyton Manning and his Colts. They've met in the playoffs many times before, with the Patriots always coming out on top. However, they've never played a postseason game against each other in Indianapolis, and the Colts now have clutch-kicker Adam Vinatieri (formerly of the Patriots) on their roster. Colts win a barn-burner.

I'll wait until after the games next week to make my Super Bowl pick, but assuming both of my picks go on to win, wouldn't Colts-Saints be a hell of a Super Bowl?

Premonition

I jacked this off Nikoda's MySpace blog. Not all the answers made sense, and the ones that do aren't necessarily right, but it's interesting.

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question

What does this year have in store for you?
P.O.D. - The Messenjah

What does your love life look like?
Bob Seger - New Coat of Paint

What do you say when life gets hard?
Stevie Wonder - I Wish

What do you think of when you get up in the morning?
Blue Oyster Cult - In Thee

What song will you dance to at your wedding?
Alice In Chains - Dam That River

What do you want as a career?
Aerosmith - Road Runner

Your favorite saying?
Rod Stewart - I've Been Drinking

What do you think of your parents?
Foo Fighters - Friend of a Friend

Where would you go on a first date?
Huey Lewis and the News - The Power of Love

Drug of choice?
Tenacious D - Jesus Ranch

Describe yourself.
Don Henley - Not Enough Love in the World

What is the thing you like doing most?
The Tokens - The Lion Sleeps Tonight

The song that best describes the president?
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I Need to Know

What is your state of mind like at the moment?
Metallica - Enter Sandman

The song that will be played at your funeral?
The Who - Long Live Rock

The song you'll post as a subject?
John Fogerty - Premonition

Sunday, January 07, 2007

New Year Blowout

The title of this post does not refer to a New Year's party, but rather a blowout of content, shit I've had stewing around since my last post. So let's get to it.

I sincerely hope the 3 people who read this blog had a great holiday season, filled with Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/Saturnalia goodness and presents and fun. I also hope you had an enjoyable New Year's Eve that was both entertaining and safe. It seemed that the Annual Highway Death Bowl wasn't a barn-burner this year, so that's good.

A full month has passed since I started my new job, and I've gotta say, it's great getting paid a shit-load of money to talk on the phone all day to people who aren't (for the most part) idiots and assholes.

Here's a home entertainment tip for you: if you see Click on the shelf at your local video store and say to yourself, "Hmm, that Adam Sandler is a funny fellow, I should check out his latest motion picture," slap yourself in the face as hard as you can. With that, you'll have experienced the same thing if you watched the movie, and you'll have saved 4 bucks and two hours of your time.

I don't know if I just haven't realized it before, or if the holiday break has just gotten longer, or what, but I'm getting extremely impatient about having my television shows back. Veronica Mars doesn't come back for two more weeks. Fuck.

The football season ended, and the post season has begun. Once again, not only did the Raiders not make the playoffs, but they own the worst record in the league. Of course, that entitles them to the #1 pick in the Draft. They've got two choices, as far as I'm concerned. Brady Quinn from Notre Dame or JaMarcus Russell from LSU. Russell is one big, powerful son of a bitch who can throw the ball 60 yards down the field accurately, and is a dangerous run threat. He also bested Quinn in the Sugar Bowl. However, Quinn already runs a pro-style offense at Notre Dame, and his head coach (who coached in the NFL) predicts he'll be the third best QB in the NFL in a few years, behind Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Either one would be a better choice than Brooks, Walter, or Tuiasosopo.

The Raiders also need to get rid of Jerry Porter and Randy Moss. Yeah, I know they're the star receivers, but they also contributed absolutely nothing to the team this season because they're star receivers. So fuck em, the Raiders have Alvis Whitted, Ronald Curry, Doug Gabriel, and Johnnie Morant, who are all more than capable, not to mention a promising rookie in Will Buchanon. By getting rid of Porter and Moss, not only can the Raiders free lots of cap room, but they might be able to get an offensive line out of the deal.

With the Raiders out of the running for the Super Bowl this year, that means I've hitched my wagon to the Colts. They put the smackdown on the Chiefs yesterday, with a spectacular defensive showing. I've got my fingers crossed for a Colts-Patriots AFC Championship showdown, because this time around, it'll be in Indy.

Finally, I've started jonesing for a Wii, but they're still out of stock everywhere. If I can hold out for about 4 more months, I'll probably be able to get one then, since that's when I was able to get my hands on a 360. Just 4 more months.