Buster Olney has a column (subscription required) about the activity between Boston and Detroit this week, and sadly I don't mean the actual baseball that was played. I mean the stupid "you hit my guy, I hit yours" crap that has been "part of the game" for far too long.
Of course, MLB likes to crack down on this by suspending the offending pitchers, well, pretty much never, unless they're rookies. (Got another explanation for Porcello's suspension? Me neither.) So it keeps going, which isn't really a surprise, because somehow baseball has this stupid-ass policy that if you're suspended, you can appeal right away, and then not serve the suspension for weeks, until your team is in New York so your appeal can be heard. Unless you're playing Washington or Pittsburgh or someone, and then you can suddenly drop your appeal and start serving it. Of course, most appeals go through, and then a 7-game suspension becomes 3, or some crap like that.
Anyway, Olney's point is that Bob Watson, the head of MLB "discipline", should have a consistent set of rules to apply. That part he gets right. What he doesn't say is what really needs to happen.
First, you need to start enforcing the batter's box. (What?) Yes, the batter's box. You know, that chalk line that is painstakingly marked before every game and then immediately removed by the first batter on each side of the plate. (What a joke. Can you imagine this in any other sport? Besides NASCAR, that is.) Touch the line, you're out. (There are actually already rules on the books that cover most of this, and of course they are not enforced, because umpires don't do that. They make their own rules.)
So now hitters don't stand on the plate and glare menacingly at the mound, so there's no need to brush them off the plate. Now you can start penalizing pitchers for hitting batters. Something that takes into account a certain lack of control, but also the danger involved in hitting a guy. (Like the first one in a game is free, a second one gets you the day off, and then exceeding X in a season brings suspensions ... hitting someone in the head is an automatic 7 games ... that kind of thing.)
Now the good stuff. Charge the mound, you're out for 30 games. Do it again the same season, you're out for a year. Don't like being hit? Nobody does, that's why there are rules about it. But try to take things into your own hands and you're done.
Bench-clearing brawls? Be creative. Maybe fine each team 1% of its payroll, cumulative during the season (four brawls means you're paying 10% of your payroll).
It's stupid, it's not part of the game, and it needs to go. MLB is a joke for not protecting the players and not taking the crap out of the game, and the MLBPA is just as liable for doing whatever they can to prevent discipline. (Ever notice how players' associations don't represent everyone, only the superstars and the ones in trouble? Funny, I thought the victims were members too.)
A profile of zlionsfan
- zlionsfan
- Indiana, United States
- I like cats. I play a lot of games. Sometimes I develop web-based applications; this keeps my current employer from firing me too often. My favorite color is blue, or maybe green.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Wrigleyfest, day 1
8:00: Got up on time, left the hotel with plenty of time to spare. Completely missed the $1.50-per-day signs in the two good parking lots, saw only the "reserved parking" sign in the third, and ended up driving around for 20 minutes until I found parking outside the commuter zone (4-hour limit). No big deal, but I'll know for next week year. (The 4-hour limit is Monday through Friday.)
Got my ticket, hopped on Metra, read the first half of my book, reached Union Station. On to the street, east on Jackson, onto the Red Line and north.
11:00: Met the first person at Murphy's. (This trip is so different when you aren't drinking.) Next guy shows up, then the last two, and we go in. Mental note: put contraband in your pockets. If you have a bag, they don't bother with the rest of it. (I had my trusty Xbox 360 messenger bag, primarily for two things: sunscreen and aforementioned book. I'll get burned this weekend, but not without a fight.)
11:40: Seated in left field with plenty of time remaining in Pirates BP, and it was worth it. Several balls hit onto Waveland, a few in the bleachers in each section. None very close to us, which was good. On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of protection, the people in front of us were about a 2. (A 10 means there's a guy who used to play outfield, so he's catching line drives for you. A 1 means that you're actually better off with no one in front of you, because this person will either deflect the ball into your face or duck at the last minute. No possible chance of catching it.) I know enough not to catch line drives, but I don't want a fly bouncing off my head.
1:00: Paratroopers. One first, then six later. Very cool.
1:20: Flyovers. Many of them. Also very cool. I love it when the air show is in town.
Cubs put 4 up in the first, 7 more before an out is recorded in the second, 3 more after that. Yeah, 14-0 after two, I think it's in the bag. 17-2 was the final. There was really no suspense. The scenery was decent, and I shared a bit of conversation with a woman who sat down next to us in the third or fourth inning. (Probably about my age, definitely a fake fan: they stayed about three innings and moved on, either to find younger guys or to find the party they were heading to after the game.)
4:30: Back to the Red Line, which was very much not crowded, surprisingly so. One guy gets off early for his hotel, the other one stays on til Jackson with me, and we walk back to Union Station. I head for the Metra counter and he heads back to his hotel; we'll reconvene tomorrow.
4:55: I get my one-way ticket (sigh, weekend passes are good only Friday and Saturday) and make a crucial mistake. I do not check to see which trains stop in Itasca. Sadly, the one I catch does not. I find this out by listening to the list of stops. At this point, it's started to move, so I can't get off. I hit the Metra website and determine that it's about 2.7 miles from Roselle to Itasca. No biggie, I'll walk. Lesson for next time.
6:45: Back at the hotel room; of course no tickets on my car. Chicago and surrounding area is pretty good at telling you where you can't park. No signs usually means no problem. (I did have to instruct one driver on the meaning of a green arrow. Apparently he felt that because there were two lanes, he could turn right into his lane and I was to turn left into mine. I pointed out that I had a green arrow and therefore he could either stop or hit me. He chose to explain his point of view, complete with gestures ... but apparently his wife/girlfriend/better half/conscience pointed out the error of his ways rather quickly, because he slowed down immediately and stayed well back of me. Normally if they think it's your fault, they speed around you. Yeah, I had the arrow, so suck it. And yes, that's how I drive in Chicago. Who doesn't?) Time enough to get cleaned up, check Facebook (what, it's down? Oh, there it goes), change clothes (jeans and nicer tennis shoes – hey, the rest of the gang just got done golfing) and map out my route to Texas de Brazil.
8:00: Strangely, none of the golfers are here. I make a trip through the mirrored dining room (always a weird experience), confirm this, and wait in the lobby. One comes in and recognizes my shirt (a What-If Sports shirt; I'm no fool, they'll recognize me even if I don't recognize them). Then the rest of the party shows up, and Meatfest begins.
9:45: We win, as usual. After three or four good passes, the servers slow down, then eventually disappear. Just as well, I probably ate half as much as I did last year and don't feel bad at all. (I intended to eat less this year anyway.) Check is paid, we go our separate ways. Back to the hotel for a few more days of WSM, a few checks on Facebook, and rest for tomorrow. (9:00 at Murphy's? Try 10. All I need to do is be there early enough to help wait in line.)
Got my ticket, hopped on Metra, read the first half of my book, reached Union Station. On to the street, east on Jackson, onto the Red Line and north.
11:00: Met the first person at Murphy's. (This trip is so different when you aren't drinking.) Next guy shows up, then the last two, and we go in. Mental note: put contraband in your pockets. If you have a bag, they don't bother with the rest of it. (I had my trusty Xbox 360 messenger bag, primarily for two things: sunscreen and aforementioned book. I'll get burned this weekend, but not without a fight.)
11:40: Seated in left field with plenty of time remaining in Pirates BP, and it was worth it. Several balls hit onto Waveland, a few in the bleachers in each section. None very close to us, which was good. On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of protection, the people in front of us were about a 2. (A 10 means there's a guy who used to play outfield, so he's catching line drives for you. A 1 means that you're actually better off with no one in front of you, because this person will either deflect the ball into your face or duck at the last minute. No possible chance of catching it.) I know enough not to catch line drives, but I don't want a fly bouncing off my head.
1:00: Paratroopers. One first, then six later. Very cool.
1:20: Flyovers. Many of them. Also very cool. I love it when the air show is in town.
Cubs put 4 up in the first, 7 more before an out is recorded in the second, 3 more after that. Yeah, 14-0 after two, I think it's in the bag. 17-2 was the final. There was really no suspense. The scenery was decent, and I shared a bit of conversation with a woman who sat down next to us in the third or fourth inning. (Probably about my age, definitely a fake fan: they stayed about three innings and moved on, either to find younger guys or to find the party they were heading to after the game.)
4:30: Back to the Red Line, which was very much not crowded, surprisingly so. One guy gets off early for his hotel, the other one stays on til Jackson with me, and we walk back to Union Station. I head for the Metra counter and he heads back to his hotel; we'll reconvene tomorrow.
4:55: I get my one-way ticket (sigh, weekend passes are good only Friday and Saturday) and make a crucial mistake. I do not check to see which trains stop in Itasca. Sadly, the one I catch does not. I find this out by listening to the list of stops. At this point, it's started to move, so I can't get off. I hit the Metra website and determine that it's about 2.7 miles from Roselle to Itasca. No biggie, I'll walk. Lesson for next time.
6:45: Back at the hotel room; of course no tickets on my car. Chicago and surrounding area is pretty good at telling you where you can't park. No signs usually means no problem. (I did have to instruct one driver on the meaning of a green arrow. Apparently he felt that because there were two lanes, he could turn right into his lane and I was to turn left into mine. I pointed out that I had a green arrow and therefore he could either stop or hit me. He chose to explain his point of view, complete with gestures ... but apparently his wife/girlfriend/better half/conscience pointed out the error of his ways rather quickly, because he slowed down immediately and stayed well back of me. Normally if they think it's your fault, they speed around you. Yeah, I had the arrow, so suck it. And yes, that's how I drive in Chicago. Who doesn't?) Time enough to get cleaned up, check Facebook (what, it's down? Oh, there it goes), change clothes (jeans and nicer tennis shoes – hey, the rest of the gang just got done golfing) and map out my route to Texas de Brazil.
8:00: Strangely, none of the golfers are here. I make a trip through the mirrored dining room (always a weird experience), confirm this, and wait in the lobby. One comes in and recognizes my shirt (a What-If Sports shirt; I'm no fool, they'll recognize me even if I don't recognize them). Then the rest of the party shows up, and Meatfest begins.
9:45: We win, as usual. After three or four good passes, the servers slow down, then eventually disappear. Just as well, I probably ate half as much as I did last year and don't feel bad at all. (I intended to eat less this year anyway.) Check is paid, we go our separate ways. Back to the hotel for a few more days of WSM, a few checks on Facebook, and rest for tomorrow. (9:00 at Murphy's? Try 10. All I need to do is be there early enough to help wait in line.)
Redemption
So, I didn't try to go out on Thursday and play trivia ... by all accounts, most sites were up and running. (The fix involved pushing code out to all sites, so if your site was having connection problems, well ...)
Anyway, they sent out $10 gifts.com GCs to all qualifiers. I thought that was pretty cool. I'm not saying they didn't need to do something, but honestly few of us had a shot at winning anyway. The GCs might actually buy them some goodwill, though ...
Anyway, they sent out $10 gifts.com GCs to all qualifiers. I thought that was pretty cool. I'm not saying they didn't need to do something, but honestly few of us had a shot at winning anyway. The GCs might actually buy them some goodwill, though ...
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Weigh-in: Week 23, -2.0 pounds
So, another successful week. Yes, the first few days I had a cold or the flu or something, and I dropped weight right away, but then my appetite came back on Friday, and I fed it, and I did not regain the weight. (And we played volleyball for two hours on Sunday. That helped a lot. My monitor estimated 1800 calories burned.)
I think I misinterpreted something that ems mentioned this week ... anyway, she pointed out that being unemployed is actually a good thing when it comes to weight loss, and she's right. The biggest thing that changes is that you no longer have false cues for meals: it doesn't matter that it's 11:30, or noon, or whenever "lunch hour" is. You're hungry, you eat lunch.
Plus you don't have people always saying "let's go out and eat" (and to be honest, I am one of those, although at least now I eat more sensibly), so you can save some cash too.
My corporate membership at the Y is gone, which is just as well because it never really was something that worked well for me. As much as I like working out (sometimes), it just doesn't seem to integrate easily. I'll have to add some muscle, I think, so I'll have to clean up my weight room or do some smaller exercises in the living room. Maybe I need to revisit Wii Fit. (My "deadline" on it passed without me reaching my goal, but I am getting down toward that nice little 25 BMI.)
I may actually end up pretty close to 160 in a couple of weeks. Of course my target should be 154 (the "work weight" thing, you know), but I think it's just as reasonable to celebrate losing 32 pounds. I'll keep working at it until I reach a stable weight, so we'll see if that's something with a 5 or a 6. I haven't been this light in a long time, so I'm not sure exactly how much lower I can go.
I think I misinterpreted something that ems mentioned this week ... anyway, she pointed out that being unemployed is actually a good thing when it comes to weight loss, and she's right. The biggest thing that changes is that you no longer have false cues for meals: it doesn't matter that it's 11:30, or noon, or whenever "lunch hour" is. You're hungry, you eat lunch.
Plus you don't have people always saying "let's go out and eat" (and to be honest, I am one of those, although at least now I eat more sensibly), so you can save some cash too.
My corporate membership at the Y is gone, which is just as well because it never really was something that worked well for me. As much as I like working out (sometimes), it just doesn't seem to integrate easily. I'll have to add some muscle, I think, so I'll have to clean up my weight room or do some smaller exercises in the living room. Maybe I need to revisit Wii Fit. (My "deadline" on it passed without me reaching my goal, but I am getting down toward that nice little 25 BMI.)
I may actually end up pretty close to 160 in a couple of weeks. Of course my target should be 154 (the "work weight" thing, you know), but I think it's just as reasonable to celebrate losing 32 pounds. I'll keep working at it until I reach a stable weight, so we'll see if that's something with a 5 or a 6. I haven't been this light in a long time, so I'm not sure exactly how much lower I can go.
Wrigleyfest, day 0
4:30 or so: Arrived at the hotel. Got a room on the top floor, very cool (it's a Starwood Preferred Guest floor, don't you know). The exercise facility is on this floor, not that I will need it. I gots walking to do.
I looked for vending machines (none on this floor) and guests upon whom I could look down. None so far.
Spent about 45 minutes not planning my itinerary for tomorrow and Friday.
Google: Hey dude, you should totally do this: take Metra to here (but ask the conductor to let you off), then catch this bus, then that bus, and you're like there. But on the way back, take this other bus first, then this other bus, and then go back from this other station. Cool, k?
Me: How about I take the Metra to Union Station, walk a few blocks, and take the Red Line north?
Google: oh. right.
See, Metra is the key. Buses and trains come by often, but Metra only runs hourly during the times I'll be using it (unless I miss the 6:40 again and spend two hours in Union Station), so it doesn't really matter if I try to knock 15 minutes off my trip by taking buses. I'll arrive in plenty of time by taking the Red Line, so that's what I'm doing.
I might have to check out this new Chicago Card thing. My CTA card expires in December anyway ... have to remember that there is an agent on Friday at the Itasca station. (It's $2 more if you buy on the train when you could have bought from an agent. Last year, I didn't take the train on Friday.)
7:30: Headed out to grab a sandwich and stuff, back to the room, but up the stairs, oh yes. 22 flights. (12th floor, remember.) Short flights, but flights nonetheless. So that justifies my Spicy Italian rather than Oven Roasted Chicken Breast. (I did not get cookies, either. I did, however, pick up three of my protein bars for breakfast Friday through Sunday, and at only a slight markup from the prices at home.)
Two wedding receptions in the hotel this weekend. Interesting. Too bad I left my "perfect for attracting guests attending a wedding reception at a fancypants hotel" outfit at home. However, if they like baseball caps and shorts, I'm in.
8:05: Footlong sandwich gone. Guess I was hungry. (I hadn't eaten since lunch ... when away from home, I tend to ignore hunger unless it's convenient to eat. Saves money that way.) Now off to Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 to finish the current season. The ungrateful sods at Hyde fired me with less than a month to go because I couldn't assemble strikers out of soda cans and glue. My replacement has led them down one more spot in the table, including a loss to a rival whom we beat when I was in charge. Good luck, guys ...
I looked for vending machines (none on this floor) and guests upon whom I could look down. None so far.
Spent about 45 minutes not planning my itinerary for tomorrow and Friday.
Google: Hey dude, you should totally do this: take Metra to here (but ask the conductor to let you off), then catch this bus, then that bus, and you're like there. But on the way back, take this other bus first, then this other bus, and then go back from this other station. Cool, k?
Me: How about I take the Metra to Union Station, walk a few blocks, and take the Red Line north?
Google: oh. right.
See, Metra is the key. Buses and trains come by often, but Metra only runs hourly during the times I'll be using it (unless I miss the 6:40 again and spend two hours in Union Station), so it doesn't really matter if I try to knock 15 minutes off my trip by taking buses. I'll arrive in plenty of time by taking the Red Line, so that's what I'm doing.
I might have to check out this new Chicago Card thing. My CTA card expires in December anyway ... have to remember that there is an agent on Friday at the Itasca station. (It's $2 more if you buy on the train when you could have bought from an agent. Last year, I didn't take the train on Friday.)
7:30: Headed out to grab a sandwich and stuff, back to the room, but up the stairs, oh yes. 22 flights. (12th floor, remember.) Short flights, but flights nonetheless. So that justifies my Spicy Italian rather than Oven Roasted Chicken Breast. (I did not get cookies, either. I did, however, pick up three of my protein bars for breakfast Friday through Sunday, and at only a slight markup from the prices at home.)
Two wedding receptions in the hotel this weekend. Interesting. Too bad I left my "perfect for attracting guests attending a wedding reception at a fancypants hotel" outfit at home. However, if they like baseball caps and shorts, I'm in.
8:05: Footlong sandwich gone. Guess I was hungry. (I hadn't eaten since lunch ... when away from home, I tend to ignore hunger unless it's convenient to eat. Saves money that way.) Now off to Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 to finish the current season. The ungrateful sods at Hyde fired me with less than a month to go because I couldn't assemble strikers out of soda cans and glue. My replacement has led them down one more spot in the table, including a loss to a rival whom we beat when I was in charge. Good luck, guys ...
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Rejected
No, this is not about a failed attempt at dating. Really? You should know better. I don't post personal stuff on here because I'm not good at sharing, even with my internetfriends, not that any of you really are. I suspect I know all six of you in RL.
It's about a contest, to which I shall not link, and wasted time, and me being not happy, but in a very controlled fashion and not in a raging I-might-still-be-20-years-old fashion.
Today my schedule broke out in a fashion other than that which I'd planned, so instead of playing volleyball to my little heart's content tonight, I found myself pulling into the local BWW at 8:45 or so, just in time to grab a box and sign in for the 25 Years of Sports Trivia finals. (Long story short: play once, qualify for finals. Three nights, top scorer in each of four regions plus next two wild-cards win trips to Bermuda.) On top of that, the Millercoors girls were there doing a Madden 10 promo (yeah, the sexism in beer sales does bother me on some levels, but I can't say it bothers me to have attractive women asking me questions as part of their job), so I got a $5 coupon and free shipping for Madden 10. nice.
Anyway, 9:00 rolls around, the game goes up on the board, and my playmaker says
"Sorry. Buzztime sucks, so it locks you out. go home."
Actually, it said something about not being qualified for the finals, which was a flat-out lie, since a) I made damn sure I qualified and b) Buzztime even sent me an email saying so. I decided to play at BWW tonight in part because I didn't trust their new system to confirm my participation out of state. (You can now use your forum login and password to sign on at the bar, and it actually looks up your Players Plus info and connects you properly. Buzztime, meet the 21st century.) Instead, I got to go home right after dinner.
Because most of you probably don't know about them, I'll explain. Buzztime has a reputation among trivia players for three things: a low-quality network, poor equipment, and very poorly-run contests. Basically, they're not given nearly enough people and money to do their jobs well, and their business model is flawed anyway because their customers are the bars, not the players ... several good people I've "met" do the best they can, but it's not nearly enough.
So there were many predictions of doom and gloom on the boards in advance of this competition, particularly with respect to the idea that non-qualifiers would be locked out so that qualifiers could focus. (Not a bad idea: apparently the problem the playmakers have with freezing out answers has to do with someone logging in while you are trying to answer a question. Yes, one person logging in on one box can prevent any of the other boxes from responding for a few seconds, or so I hear. I believe it.) Some people believed that it wouldn't work properly. Guess they were right.
Well, it's not like I would have won ... I barely cracked the top 100 during qualifying games, and I'd have needed a top-5 finish to feel good about a shot at a prize. Plus there's something awkward about winning a trip for two when you aren't two. (Hi there ... want to go to Bermuda with me? It's another country and everything, you know. Hey, where are you going?) No worries about that now.
Ah well, time to pack. Wrigleyfest, here I come.
It's about a contest, to which I shall not link, and wasted time, and me being not happy, but in a very controlled fashion and not in a raging I-might-still-be-20-years-old fashion.
Today my schedule broke out in a fashion other than that which I'd planned, so instead of playing volleyball to my little heart's content tonight, I found myself pulling into the local BWW at 8:45 or so, just in time to grab a box and sign in for the 25 Years of Sports Trivia finals. (Long story short: play once, qualify for finals. Three nights, top scorer in each of four regions plus next two wild-cards win trips to Bermuda.) On top of that, the Millercoors girls were there doing a Madden 10 promo (yeah, the sexism in beer sales does bother me on some levels, but I can't say it bothers me to have attractive women asking me questions as part of their job), so I got a $5 coupon and free shipping for Madden 10. nice.
Anyway, 9:00 rolls around, the game goes up on the board, and my playmaker says
"Sorry. Buzztime sucks, so it locks you out. go home."
Actually, it said something about not being qualified for the finals, which was a flat-out lie, since a) I made damn sure I qualified and b) Buzztime even sent me an email saying so. I decided to play at BWW tonight in part because I didn't trust their new system to confirm my participation out of state. (You can now use your forum login and password to sign on at the bar, and it actually looks up your Players Plus info and connects you properly. Buzztime, meet the 21st century.) Instead, I got to go home right after dinner.
Because most of you probably don't know about them, I'll explain. Buzztime has a reputation among trivia players for three things: a low-quality network, poor equipment, and very poorly-run contests. Basically, they're not given nearly enough people and money to do their jobs well, and their business model is flawed anyway because their customers are the bars, not the players ... several good people I've "met" do the best they can, but it's not nearly enough.
So there were many predictions of doom and gloom on the boards in advance of this competition, particularly with respect to the idea that non-qualifiers would be locked out so that qualifiers could focus. (Not a bad idea: apparently the problem the playmakers have with freezing out answers has to do with someone logging in while you are trying to answer a question. Yes, one person logging in on one box can prevent any of the other boxes from responding for a few seconds, or so I hear. I believe it.) Some people believed that it wouldn't work properly. Guess they were right.
Well, it's not like I would have won ... I barely cracked the top 100 during qualifying games, and I'd have needed a top-5 finish to feel good about a shot at a prize. Plus there's something awkward about winning a trip for two when you aren't two. (Hi there ... want to go to Bermuda with me? It's another country and everything, you know. Hey, where are you going?) No worries about that now.
Ah well, time to pack. Wrigleyfest, here I come.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
PayPal sucks even more
It should be common knowledge that when eBay bought PayPal. it was like crossing the streams ... eBay was already changing for the worse and spreading their evil to PayPal ruined that service as well. (They're still tolerable as long as you only use a credit card, IMO ... at least that way you can simply initiate a chargeback when you get screwed.)
Well, they're at it again and again. Apparently they're not aware that this is kind of a bad time to be screwing users. (Or, more likely, they are aware and they don't care. After all, they're not a "bank", so they're really not regulated, which is obvious if you've ever had a dispute with them.)
Beware.
Well, they're at it again and again. Apparently they're not aware that this is kind of a bad time to be screwing users. (Or, more likely, they are aware and they don't care. After all, they're not a "bank", so they're really not regulated, which is obvious if you've ever had a dispute with them.)
Beware.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Weigh-in: Week 22, -1.2 pounds
A decent week, although I am wondering if perhaps some of this is coming from whatever I may be coming down with ... nonetheless, I'll take it. Weight under 170 for the first time in a long time. My waist is shrinking reasonably well, and my clothes are fitting better (well, some of them are going in the other direction and will be replaced by smaller clothes).
I'm really not doing much weight training, though, so I need to start on some of that. It'll be easier to maintain a lower weight if I can get my metabolism up in part by adding muscle. Not much, just a reasonable amount ... I don't care to look like a weightlifter, but I would like to have reasonable upper-body strength.
Weight training would slow the weight-loss process and perhaps raise the "floor" (the lowest reasonable weight I could maintain), but that's fine. 154 was a number I picked out of thin air. If I can maintain a healthy weight at 164, that's fine too.
I'm really not doing much weight training, though, so I need to start on some of that. It'll be easier to maintain a lower weight if I can get my metabolism up in part by adding muscle. Not much, just a reasonable amount ... I don't care to look like a weightlifter, but I would like to have reasonable upper-body strength.
Weight training would slow the weight-loss process and perhaps raise the "floor" (the lowest reasonable weight I could maintain), but that's fine. 154 was a number I picked out of thin air. If I can maintain a healthy weight at 164, that's fine too.
Weigh-in: Week 21, -0.6 pounds
As predicted (a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course), not quite on that pace to lose 10 pounds in a month. Still, 170.2 at the end of July is good - 21.8 pounds in total.
I should probably work on posting regularly, though. It makes it difficult to remember why I might be above or below average for a week.
I should probably work on posting regularly, though. It makes it difficult to remember why I might be above or below average for a week.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Linkasaurus
Pat Forde points out yet another massive flaw in the BCS, although he isn't as harsh about it as I would be: coaches don't even fill out their own ballots. Of course this shouldn't be a surprise, and really wouldn't matter anyway – coaches have no way of accurately estimating the change in relative strength of 20+ teams they couldn't watch on Saturday because they were, you know, coaching (remember you don't have all week to fill out your ballot) – but it's still an indication of how deluded BCS backers are. And remember that this is the part of the formula that gains more weight when the "title" game isn't fought down to the wire, because of course it's the computers that are wrong.
Jim Delany doesn't think the Big Ten has to worry about recent, um, lack of performance. In the original article on AnnArbor.com, Delany also points out (quite accurately) that many of these bowls are, for all practical purposes, road games for the Big Ten, and in that context, sure, struggling a little bit is to be expected. Then again, if this came from someone other than a man who may be singlehandedly preventing a I-A playoff system, you could put something more into it. After all, wouldn't it be easier for the Big Ten to regain national stature if Penn State beat, say, Alabama, Florida, and USC to win a real national title?
Way back when I had time on my hands (before the innernets), I wrote a little baseball sim for Full Impact, an old, old spreadsheet for the Mac. It generated line scores, estimating runs per inning, hits, and errors based on frequencies I gathered from a season's worth of box scores from the Sporting News. Years later, someone took the same concept and ran with it, creating an actual model to predict the chances of scoring X runs in an inning given Y runs scored per game. Very cool, and most likely you all have just fallen sound asleep.
Apparently owners are spending too much money on players. Not in baseball (this time), but rather in soccer. UEFA, Europe's governing body for soccer, is concerned that more teams will seek to emulate Manchester City and Real Madrid, spending as much as they can to sign as many top players as they think they can get without worrying about the future. I suppose their concerns are warranted: too much debt can force a club to list its valuable players to pay off the debt, and in some cases it can even cost the club points in the standings. See, for example, last year's League Two standings, where four clubs, including the two relegated clubs, were penalized for being in various stages of insolvency. (Consider that the club earning the stiffest penalty, Luton Town, played in the Championship in 05-06 and has since been relegated three times, now playing in Conference National.) So clubs are made to force consequences for terrible management, unlike here, where they simply go into bankruptcy or get pity money from the league or sometimes even give their players apologies instead of paychecks.
Jim Delany doesn't think the Big Ten has to worry about recent, um, lack of performance. In the original article on AnnArbor.com, Delany also points out (quite accurately) that many of these bowls are, for all practical purposes, road games for the Big Ten, and in that context, sure, struggling a little bit is to be expected. Then again, if this came from someone other than a man who may be singlehandedly preventing a I-A playoff system, you could put something more into it. After all, wouldn't it be easier for the Big Ten to regain national stature if Penn State beat, say, Alabama, Florida, and USC to win a real national title?
Way back when I had time on my hands (before the innernets), I wrote a little baseball sim for Full Impact, an old, old spreadsheet for the Mac. It generated line scores, estimating runs per inning, hits, and errors based on frequencies I gathered from a season's worth of box scores from the Sporting News. Years later, someone took the same concept and ran with it, creating an actual model to predict the chances of scoring X runs in an inning given Y runs scored per game. Very cool, and most likely you all have just fallen sound asleep.
Apparently owners are spending too much money on players. Not in baseball (this time), but rather in soccer. UEFA, Europe's governing body for soccer, is concerned that more teams will seek to emulate Manchester City and Real Madrid, spending as much as they can to sign as many top players as they think they can get without worrying about the future. I suppose their concerns are warranted: too much debt can force a club to list its valuable players to pay off the debt, and in some cases it can even cost the club points in the standings. See, for example, last year's League Two standings, where four clubs, including the two relegated clubs, were penalized for being in various stages of insolvency. (Consider that the club earning the stiffest penalty, Luton Town, played in the Championship in 05-06 and has since been relegated three times, now playing in Conference National.) So clubs are made to force consequences for terrible management, unlike here, where they simply go into bankruptcy or get pity money from the league or sometimes even give their players apologies instead of paychecks.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Lying for "profit"
Consumerist had a post today about parents who lie to get discounts for their kids.
Well, not exactly. They also teach their kids to lie to get the discounts (saying they're younger or older than their actual age).
I found this troubling in several ways, not the least of which being that from a purely practical standpoint, none of the examples mentioned was exactly the sort that would collapse your finances otherwise. The article made it sound more like a game: where can we and Junior "save" a buck today?
One of the first comments captured my feelings about the article pretty well: "Terrible parenting. She advocates lying and dodging responsibility. The few bucks saved now are meaningless when your child grows up with poor morals."
The rest of the comments break out fairly evenly into shock (what are you teaching your child?), approval (my parents used to blah blah blah), and apathy (who cares about anything). To be honest, I was surprised there were so many who disagreed with the practice. I figured more people on the innernets would be willing to trade honesty for a few bucks, like in the post they had a couple of days ago about how to use your student ID and save. Completely different, of course. (My Purdue ID looks nothing like me. at all. and is also clearly not modern. Plus my PSU ID doesn't have a picture on it because, you know, I haven't been to campus. Although that I should probably change at some point. It's always nice to have another picture ID if you need one.)
Don't teach your child to lie.
Well, not exactly. They also teach their kids to lie to get the discounts (saying they're younger or older than their actual age).
I found this troubling in several ways, not the least of which being that from a purely practical standpoint, none of the examples mentioned was exactly the sort that would collapse your finances otherwise. The article made it sound more like a game: where can we and Junior "save" a buck today?
One of the first comments captured my feelings about the article pretty well: "Terrible parenting. She advocates lying and dodging responsibility. The few bucks saved now are meaningless when your child grows up with poor morals."
The rest of the comments break out fairly evenly into shock (what are you teaching your child?), approval (my parents used to blah blah blah), and apathy (who cares about anything). To be honest, I was surprised there were so many who disagreed with the practice. I figured more people on the innernets would be willing to trade honesty for a few bucks, like in the post they had a couple of days ago about how to use your student ID and save. Completely different, of course. (My Purdue ID looks nothing like me. at all. and is also clearly not modern. Plus my PSU ID doesn't have a picture on it because, you know, I haven't been to campus. Although that I should probably change at some point. It's always nice to have another picture ID if you need one.)
Don't teach your child to lie.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Just wait, it'll come to me
So I haven't really been thinking about a different reward for reaching my goal ... and in the meantime, it's become clear that there is at least one type of e-book that is DRM-free for the Kindle family.
Public domain. Ah yes, those books more than 75 years old who've not had their copyright renewed. Places like literature.org and Project Gutenberg have collections of public-domain works in electronic format. Most of them can be ported easily to the Kindle or to other reasonable reading devices, and there are conversion programs for the rest.
Of course, if you thought the new Barnes & Noble e-reader was a good idea (we're a financially sound business with original ideas! no really!), think again. Yeah, for some reason, they figure they need to put DRM on the public-domain e-books for their reader. Maybe they were just afraid that Borders would go out of business before they would and they needed a gimmick to make up for lost time.
So when I hit that goal and get some version of a Kindle, I'll check out those sites, hit up Feedbooks, and get myself some stuff that I can read at my leisure.
The DRM thing, well ... even Apple learned its lesson eventually, I guess.
Public domain. Ah yes, those books more than 75 years old who've not had their copyright renewed. Places like literature.org and Project Gutenberg have collections of public-domain works in electronic format. Most of them can be ported easily to the Kindle or to other reasonable reading devices, and there are conversion programs for the rest.
Of course, if you thought the new Barnes & Noble e-reader was a good idea (we're a financially sound business with original ideas! no really!), think again. Yeah, for some reason, they figure they need to put DRM on the public-domain e-books for their reader. Maybe they were just afraid that Borders would go out of business before they would and they needed a gimmick to make up for lost time.
So when I hit that goal and get some version of a Kindle, I'll check out those sites, hit up Feedbooks, and get myself some stuff that I can read at my leisure.
The DRM thing, well ... even Apple learned its lesson eventually, I guess.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
360 review: Guitar Hero Double Feature, World Tour (5/10) vs. Smash Hits (8/10)
Right, so after I discovered Rock Band, apparently I no longer felt the need to post reviews of other games. (Admittedly, when I realized it would be an ongoing process, it began to wear on me. I'm not good at that kind of stuff. Well, except for the time that I spent 15 years working for one company, but even then, it was in at least 5 distinct positions.)
So it occurred to me as I was rocking out this weekend that perhaps I could use some of my copious free time to get back into this, and what better way to do it than to highlight Neversoft's two newest entries into the fake band genre, Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits.
When MTV hooked up with Harmonix to create Rock Band, quite possibly the greatest move in all of video game history (how's that for hyperbole?), Activision tabbed Neversoft to step in and replace Harmonix. Easy task, right? "Okay, here's the deal. We've got this great franchise, only the people who built it took off and are working on another project, so we need you to take this and make it cooler and better, except don't make it too much like what they did or they'll get mad and sue us."
So Neversoft did their best and predictably failed. Guitar Hero III was not a full-band game – in fact, it was still just a guitar game, seeing that you couldn't yet play a career on bass – and with the release and massive success of Rock Band, that was clearly what people wanted. (You may explain Guitar Hero: Fill-in-the-band however you like. I can't.) Neversoft did what they could to move the franchise in a different direction, but by forcing in stupid boss battles in a game that had always separated solo and versus play, and increasing the difficulty levels from "pretty darn hard" to "I don't believe that's physically possible," they shrunk the group of people willing to play the game to a reasonable percentage of completion down to about nothing. (Check out the achievements. This is about a 150-point game for good players.)
Apparently they realized this and knew they had to move to the same format. World Tour was their attempt to match Rock Band; Smash Hits built on the World Tour all-band format, but used songs from previous Guitar Hero games (including I and II, which is impressive considering that those were originally set up by Harmonix).
Both games use the Rock Band format: play solo as bass, guitar, vocals, or drums; play as any combination of 2 or more for a band. Solo and band mode are separate (unlike Rock Band 2).
In World Tour, everything is a set. Unlike its predecessors, you no longer get to choose the order in which you play the songs. Instead, you must play all songs in a set to proceed. (Fortunately, you can save your progress after every completed song. That's something not even Rock Band allows.) Complete a set and you unlock one or more other sets ... you don't necessarily have to play through all the sets to unlock the final one, which is good, because most of the sets have mediocre songs. Like GH III, GH:WT leans toward metal and (I guess) modern-ish rock, meaning "not a lot of songs people over 35 will recognize". When you get to the later sets and have to play through five or six of these songs ... no wonder real bands sometimes see touring as a grind.
Smash Hits combines the set theory (ha ha, math joke) from GH with the free play of Rock Band 2. Each locale has a certain number of songs available (including an encore song if you complete all songs there), but if you collect enough stars, you unlock the next locale whether or not you've completed the current one. Sure, there aren't any "make your own setlist" gigs, but it's a start. Add that to the fact that these songs come from the previous games, and you get gigs that are frequently worth playing. Major points for GH:SH.
The obnoxious, stupid, worthless "battles" from GH III that bled over into WT are thankfully gone from SH. (And to WT's credit, rather than pulling all that crap with "broken strings" and stuff, the battles simply consist of you trying to "outplay" the AI. Still sucks, just not as much.) That was a terrible idea that they should never have done in the first place, and kudos to Neversoft for removing it.
As Rock Band does, both games show a track for each instrument: vocals across the top, guitars on the side, drums in the middle. Unfortunately for drummers, if you have a World Tour-compatible set, your track looks a lot like the guitar tracks, which can cause problems if your drummer looks at the wrong one. (Yes, this happened to us once. I was not the drummer.)
Thankfully, they adopted the Rock Band convention that allows you to build Star Power even while you're using it. In band mode, each band member can use a certain amount of the band's total. I'm not quite sure how that part works yet. Guitarists still activate by tipping or pressing the appropriate button (the World Tour guitars have a long button that almost looks like part of the guitar; nice, but still hard to find). Drummers hit the yellow and blue pads at the same time – unconventional, and not really helpful. What ends up happening is that you get the occasional break in the rhythm that Rock Band adds, but instead of being able to play what you want without messing up, you either hit the correct pads or break your streak, and then either way you go immediately back into the rhythm. Vocalists just press the Y button on the controller. You're supposed to be able to clap near the mike to do it too, but that's not going to work if you're holding it.
WT introduced the tap bar, five flat "frets" on the guitar that work like the Rock Band solo buttons. Unfortunately, because they're flat, it's really hard to see where they are on the guitar and to determine which ones to hit. (Hey guys, these aren't real guitars. Stop trying to make them look so much like one and focus on how they work.) Fortunately, during a section where you're able to tap, you can tap on the regular buttons instead of the tap bar and still get the same points. (Harmonix, take note.) Of course, you can't use "tap wah", whatever the hell that is.
Vocalists and drummers also have "free play" sections ... but vocalists are scored by matching ... um ... kind of the rhythm and pitch of the song that you aren't singing. I can't really explain it because it doesn't really make any sense. Also, there are sections where if you make noise, the crowd will "respond", meaning that if you have a half-full bulb in your Star Power meter, it'll fill.
The overall difficulty of WT is comparable to GH III: hard guitar is very difficult, expert is nearly impossible. Expert bass can be done on most songs, but the speed metal songs are tricky. Surprisingly, vocals are much more difficult than in Rock Band: you're apparently supposed to have perfect pitch and maintain it throughout each note for 100%. Drums are somewhat difficult, especially when you get to expert and get the double-kick notes that go with the double kick pedal that you don't have.
In SH, however, the difficulty is much more reasonable. In fact, if you have the original GH games, you may run into problems the first time you play a song on the same difficulty level in SH ... you might find yourself trying to play notes that aren't there. There are certainly challenging songs in SH, but not to the point that you should be tearing your hair out.
Once again, Neversoft has innovated here, and in a couple of ways that are pretty cool. On the bass, you now have open notes, which appear like the kick pedal on drums (a solid line across your highway). Funny how all this time we've been playing guitars and up until now had never played an open note ... anyway, on vocals, instead of completing Star Power phrases, everything is a Star Power phrase. Knock one out and build your meter; hit enough and you can activate Star Power ... repeat until song ends. (Vocals are the exception to the continuous Star Power rule, which makes sense: a good vocalist could sing almost the entire song with Star Power running.)
At long last, GH:SH displays your star progress during the song. No more guessing if that was good enough for five stars: you see it right there, complete with a progress meter that shows you how close you are to the next star. Once again, points for SH.
Streaks are still calculated with chords counting the same as single notes. Dumb. Obviously chords are more complicated ... band streaks are also reduced to the lowest common denominator, so if the guitarist and drummer are playing 12 notes per measure, and the bassist is playing 2, you're going to add 2 notes per measure to your streak.
WT and SH have their own versions of Big Rock Endings. (Well, at least WT does. I haven't seen one in SH that I recall.) You know, freestyle sections at the end of songs where you build up killer points that you collect if you hit the last note or notes.
Well, not quite. In WT, they're actually real notes that count just like the other notes. Sounds like an '80s joke. (In Soviet Rock Band, Big Rock Ending plays you! Ha ha!) Yeah, not so cool.
Neversoft seems to have realized that clownish graphics and comic-book actions during songs really kill whatever immersion you were experiencing. In both WT and SH, band members look something like real people, and during the songs, it actually looks like they're playing the songs. Better yet, in SH, because each song is a separate set (and thus the "house band" is different each time), if no one is on vocals, then SH will use a vocalist that is the right sex for the song ... and in many cases is similar in appearance to what I know as the actual vocalist. I mean, if you're playing Message in a Bottle, Sting isn't actually out there, but the guy they use looks a little bit like him.
The crowd will sing along in SH if you do particularly well, although not as noticeably as in Rock Band, probably because there aren't as many songs where you really want to hear the crowd singing.
In a neat little twist, you can actually build your own guitars and drums using custom components, rather than being limited to standard (and whimsical) instruments. Of course, the vocalist is still trapped in a boring world ... both games also use a color wheel for items that can be colored, which is very helpful. It's much easier to see the different options here than in Rock Band's horizontally-scrolling list of colors.
World Tour is, hopefully, the last attempt by Neversoft to be noticeably different from Rock Band. The two franchises were able to reach an agreement about songs that enabled us to play the ones we like in both series. Perhaps Smash Hits may foretell an era where the franchises borrow the best from each other to make their own games better.
World Tour is possibly worth a rental, but you aren't missing much if you don't play it. It's better than GH III, but still tedious unless you really like speed metal or are in that top 1% of players who can actually play Through the Fire and Flames.
Smash Hits is definitely a return to quality for the series. While it doesn't offer near the DLC that Rock Band has, and you don't get the create-your-own and random setlists that incorporate DLC so well into Rock Band, it does stand on its own (ironically enough) as a strong competitor. If you have to buy one, buy this one.
So it occurred to me as I was rocking out this weekend that perhaps I could use some of my copious free time to get back into this, and what better way to do it than to highlight Neversoft's two newest entries into the fake band genre, Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits.
Background
When MTV hooked up with Harmonix to create Rock Band, quite possibly the greatest move in all of video game history (how's that for hyperbole?), Activision tabbed Neversoft to step in and replace Harmonix. Easy task, right? "Okay, here's the deal. We've got this great franchise, only the people who built it took off and are working on another project, so we need you to take this and make it cooler and better, except don't make it too much like what they did or they'll get mad and sue us."
So Neversoft did their best and predictably failed. Guitar Hero III was not a full-band game – in fact, it was still just a guitar game, seeing that you couldn't yet play a career on bass – and with the release and massive success of Rock Band, that was clearly what people wanted. (You may explain Guitar Hero: Fill-in-the-band however you like. I can't.) Neversoft did what they could to move the franchise in a different direction, but by forcing in stupid boss battles in a game that had always separated solo and versus play, and increasing the difficulty levels from "pretty darn hard" to "I don't believe that's physically possible," they shrunk the group of people willing to play the game to a reasonable percentage of completion down to about nothing. (Check out the achievements. This is about a 150-point game for good players.)
Apparently they realized this and knew they had to move to the same format. World Tour was their attempt to match Rock Band; Smash Hits built on the World Tour all-band format, but used songs from previous Guitar Hero games (including I and II, which is impressive considering that those were originally set up by Harmonix).
Structure
Both games use the Rock Band format: play solo as bass, guitar, vocals, or drums; play as any combination of 2 or more for a band. Solo and band mode are separate (unlike Rock Band 2).
In World Tour, everything is a set. Unlike its predecessors, you no longer get to choose the order in which you play the songs. Instead, you must play all songs in a set to proceed. (Fortunately, you can save your progress after every completed song. That's something not even Rock Band allows.) Complete a set and you unlock one or more other sets ... you don't necessarily have to play through all the sets to unlock the final one, which is good, because most of the sets have mediocre songs. Like GH III, GH:WT leans toward metal and (I guess) modern-ish rock, meaning "not a lot of songs people over 35 will recognize". When you get to the later sets and have to play through five or six of these songs ... no wonder real bands sometimes see touring as a grind.
Smash Hits combines the set theory (ha ha, math joke) from GH with the free play of Rock Band 2. Each locale has a certain number of songs available (including an encore song if you complete all songs there), but if you collect enough stars, you unlock the next locale whether or not you've completed the current one. Sure, there aren't any "make your own setlist" gigs, but it's a start. Add that to the fact that these songs come from the previous games, and you get gigs that are frequently worth playing. Major points for GH:SH.
The obnoxious, stupid, worthless "battles" from GH III that bled over into WT are thankfully gone from SH. (And to WT's credit, rather than pulling all that crap with "broken strings" and stuff, the battles simply consist of you trying to "outplay" the AI. Still sucks, just not as much.) That was a terrible idea that they should never have done in the first place, and kudos to Neversoft for removing it.
Song play
As Rock Band does, both games show a track for each instrument: vocals across the top, guitars on the side, drums in the middle. Unfortunately for drummers, if you have a World Tour-compatible set, your track looks a lot like the guitar tracks, which can cause problems if your drummer looks at the wrong one. (Yes, this happened to us once. I was not the drummer.)
Thankfully, they adopted the Rock Band convention that allows you to build Star Power even while you're using it. In band mode, each band member can use a certain amount of the band's total. I'm not quite sure how that part works yet. Guitarists still activate by tipping or pressing the appropriate button (the World Tour guitars have a long button that almost looks like part of the guitar; nice, but still hard to find). Drummers hit the yellow and blue pads at the same time – unconventional, and not really helpful. What ends up happening is that you get the occasional break in the rhythm that Rock Band adds, but instead of being able to play what you want without messing up, you either hit the correct pads or break your streak, and then either way you go immediately back into the rhythm. Vocalists just press the Y button on the controller. You're supposed to be able to clap near the mike to do it too, but that's not going to work if you're holding it.
WT introduced the tap bar, five flat "frets" on the guitar that work like the Rock Band solo buttons. Unfortunately, because they're flat, it's really hard to see where they are on the guitar and to determine which ones to hit. (Hey guys, these aren't real guitars. Stop trying to make them look so much like one and focus on how they work.) Fortunately, during a section where you're able to tap, you can tap on the regular buttons instead of the tap bar and still get the same points. (Harmonix, take note.) Of course, you can't use "tap wah", whatever the hell that is.
Vocalists and drummers also have "free play" sections ... but vocalists are scored by matching ... um ... kind of the rhythm and pitch of the song that you aren't singing. I can't really explain it because it doesn't really make any sense. Also, there are sections where if you make noise, the crowd will "respond", meaning that if you have a half-full bulb in your Star Power meter, it'll fill.
The overall difficulty of WT is comparable to GH III: hard guitar is very difficult, expert is nearly impossible. Expert bass can be done on most songs, but the speed metal songs are tricky. Surprisingly, vocals are much more difficult than in Rock Band: you're apparently supposed to have perfect pitch and maintain it throughout each note for 100%. Drums are somewhat difficult, especially when you get to expert and get the double-kick notes that go with the double kick pedal that you don't have.
In SH, however, the difficulty is much more reasonable. In fact, if you have the original GH games, you may run into problems the first time you play a song on the same difficulty level in SH ... you might find yourself trying to play notes that aren't there. There are certainly challenging songs in SH, but not to the point that you should be tearing your hair out.
Once again, Neversoft has innovated here, and in a couple of ways that are pretty cool. On the bass, you now have open notes, which appear like the kick pedal on drums (a solid line across your highway). Funny how all this time we've been playing guitars and up until now had never played an open note ... anyway, on vocals, instead of completing Star Power phrases, everything is a Star Power phrase. Knock one out and build your meter; hit enough and you can activate Star Power ... repeat until song ends. (Vocals are the exception to the continuous Star Power rule, which makes sense: a good vocalist could sing almost the entire song with Star Power running.)
At long last, GH:SH displays your star progress during the song. No more guessing if that was good enough for five stars: you see it right there, complete with a progress meter that shows you how close you are to the next star. Once again, points for SH.
Streaks are still calculated with chords counting the same as single notes. Dumb. Obviously chords are more complicated ... band streaks are also reduced to the lowest common denominator, so if the guitarist and drummer are playing 12 notes per measure, and the bassist is playing 2, you're going to add 2 notes per measure to your streak.
WT and SH have their own versions of Big Rock Endings. (Well, at least WT does. I haven't seen one in SH that I recall.) You know, freestyle sections at the end of songs where you build up killer points that you collect if you hit the last note or notes.
Well, not quite. In WT, they're actually real notes that count just like the other notes. Sounds like an '80s joke. (In Soviet Rock Band, Big Rock Ending plays you! Ha ha!) Yeah, not so cool.
Atmosphere
Neversoft seems to have realized that clownish graphics and comic-book actions during songs really kill whatever immersion you were experiencing. In both WT and SH, band members look something like real people, and during the songs, it actually looks like they're playing the songs. Better yet, in SH, because each song is a separate set (and thus the "house band" is different each time), if no one is on vocals, then SH will use a vocalist that is the right sex for the song ... and in many cases is similar in appearance to what I know as the actual vocalist. I mean, if you're playing Message in a Bottle, Sting isn't actually out there, but the guy they use looks a little bit like him.
The crowd will sing along in SH if you do particularly well, although not as noticeably as in Rock Band, probably because there aren't as many songs where you really want to hear the crowd singing.
In a neat little twist, you can actually build your own guitars and drums using custom components, rather than being limited to standard (and whimsical) instruments. Of course, the vocalist is still trapped in a boring world ... both games also use a color wheel for items that can be colored, which is very helpful. It's much easier to see the different options here than in Rock Band's horizontally-scrolling list of colors.
Summary
World Tour is, hopefully, the last attempt by Neversoft to be noticeably different from Rock Band. The two franchises were able to reach an agreement about songs that enabled us to play the ones we like in both series. Perhaps Smash Hits may foretell an era where the franchises borrow the best from each other to make their own games better.
World Tour is possibly worth a rental, but you aren't missing much if you don't play it. It's better than GH III, but still tedious unless you really like speed metal or are in that top 1% of players who can actually play Through the Fire and Flames.
Smash Hits is definitely a return to quality for the series. While it doesn't offer near the DLC that Rock Band has, and you don't get the create-your-own and random setlists that incorporate DLC so well into Rock Band, it does stand on its own (ironically enough) as a strong competitor. If you have to buy one, buy this one.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Weigh-in: Week 20, -2.2 pounds
Now last week, there was more progress. Down below 171 for the first time in a long time, which puts me over 20 pounds lost in total. Now, I may not reach my goal (I'd need to drop 10.8 pounds in five weeks, which is possible but not reasonable given my progress to this point), but I've definitely made a significant difference so far.
I ended up agreeing to play on a team of four for the second volleyball session, which means that I'll get a bit more exercise than I did the first session on a team of six ... that won't hurt, even though it's basically going to be one hour per week.
More progress to come, hopefully. Next week would be the end of the second month of weigh-ins, so I've got one month after that before the end of the main part of the contest. The second part is technically maintenance, although the prize at the end still goes to the greatest weight loss over the entire time. (I think a better prize would have been to lock in people's weights in the August weigh-in and make it truly about maintenance; they could then reward everyone who weighed no more than they did in August. Of course it doesn't matter now that I'm not eligible myself ...)
I ended up agreeing to play on a team of four for the second volleyball session, which means that I'll get a bit more exercise than I did the first session on a team of six ... that won't hurt, even though it's basically going to be one hour per week.
More progress to come, hopefully. Next week would be the end of the second month of weigh-ins, so I've got one month after that before the end of the main part of the contest. The second part is technically maintenance, although the prize at the end still goes to the greatest weight loss over the entire time. (I think a better prize would have been to lock in people's weights in the August weigh-in and make it truly about maintenance; they could then reward everyone who weighed no more than they did in August. Of course it doesn't matter now that I'm not eligible myself ...)
Weigh-in: Week 19, -0.6 pounds
Catching up ... there really hasn't been much to report recently, or maybe I've been distracted by the inability of people to decide they want me to do work for them.
Anyway, for Week 19, not much progress; still hadn't made up for the trip to Virginia. No big deal, though. I'm still eating right and exercising a decent amount. The weight will start to come off again when I do those things more regularly. (I suppose that could qualify as foreshadowing.)
Anyway, for Week 19, not much progress; still hadn't made up for the trip to Virginia. No big deal, though. I'm still eating right and exercising a decent amount. The weight will start to come off again when I do those things more regularly. (I suppose that could qualify as foreshadowing.)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
How Guitar Hero lost the war
So I'm testing out my new Guitar Hero controller (I gave in, I do have World Tour rented and own Smash Hits, so I wanted to try the slider), playing bass on expert, and I 100% a song ... and get nothing.
Well, that's not true. I got a $100 bonus for a perfect performance, but that's it. no achievement.
Of course, I'll get 10 gamerscore for playing as something that looks like a cartoonish Ted Nugent.
Yeah, those Neversoft guys, they've got it, all right
Well, that's not true. I got a $100 bonus for a perfect performance, but that's it. no achievement.
Of course, I'll get 10 gamerscore for playing as something that looks like a cartoonish Ted Nugent.
Yeah, those Neversoft guys, they've got it, all right
Friday, July 10, 2009
Excess in everything, moderation is for monks
That's what they call it, the semi-annual party that is currently held in Virginia. Friends I met in college (which means we've known each other 20 years or so – scary, isn't it?), friends they met in grad schools, and locals they met along the way ... as time goes on, there is less drinking by the regulars (which is a good thing, we were a pretty scary group back in the day) but usually enough done by the unsuspecting locals. And there are epic amounts of food. I'm surprised that their septic system survives. (One year they actually rented Port-o-Lets.)
The trip commences. Cloudy day, which is great for an early start, because it means glasses are OK for most of the trip. (I can switch between those and prescription sunglasses all right, but it's obviously not as easy as taking sunglasses on/off.) Off we go out I-70, which distresses the navigation system because she wants us to go a different way. (This is pretty much the story until we're on I-64. At that point, she realizes that because the hotel is on I-64, we're probably heading in the right direction.)
Not a bad drive, as drives go. A little slow, but we miss rush hour in whatever cities happen to lie between here and there. (Not many.) The hybrid doesn't like the mountains, so we lose a bit of time there. About 45 mpg on the trip, which is nice, even though every place east of Indy has cheaper gas than we do.
Somewhere along US-35, we see rest area cat. He's sitting outside the rest area, watching people going in, presumably to ensure they don't cause trouble. He has no time to be petted, but instead settles himself on his side where he can still watch the entrance. Nice work if you can get it.
We listen to baseball about half the trip. The Padres are nice enough to entice bees to delay their game so that it finishes after the 7:00 games start. Naturally, when we arrive and share the news, people have no idea what we're talking about. Apparently bee delays are not common.
Arrive at the hotel, I check in, we head out to the house, we eat some fried stuff and catch up with people. I head back to the hotel, log on, and sleep.
The last day for party prep. I'm back at the house around noon. The gravel arrives about 12:30. Our hosts have a gravel driveway that is such in name only at the base and head of the drive. The newly-arriving gravel is to be spread at each end.
The kind driver does what he can to distribute it somewhat reasonably at each end, although we end up with a nice pile at the base of the driveway. Rakes and shovels in hand, we begin.
It's clear after not much time that most of us are desk people, not outdoor people. The gravel weighs more and more as the task continues, although thankfully it did not rain. Apparently this makes things much worse. I'm the first to concede defeat, so I go inside and sit in front of the laptop, carefully managing my tycoon teams and mafia whilst the others foolishly pretend they're in the 20s.
Eventually it's all spread adequately, so food prep begins. Chopping, dicing, deboning ... there's usually enough food for three times the number of guests that show up, but it's all fun stuff to cook and to eat. (Also, most of us worked in the cafeteria at one of the dorms at Purdue, which is where we met, so we had institutional experience prior to having our own kitchens. Of course it doesn't help a ton, but at least we'd been exposed to a number of kinds of food and ways to cook it. I miss the convection ovens.)
Eating, talking, and sending off one of the families. Apparently they had a birthday party in Baltimore on Saturday. This is kind of like planning movie night during the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, but they're long-timers, so somewhat forgiven. (Plus they're coming back on Sunday.) Late night Friday means movie night, so this time it's Superbad. Surprisingly funny, but then again I think it's the atmosphere. Perhaps not so funny watching it myself.
Back to the hotel, two of us this time. We see a few deer on the road back to civilization; it's a state highway, so the speed limit is 55, but it's a winding two-lane road in the dark, so we don't go quite that speed once we've seen the deer. Most people use a little caution at night around there.
The other traveler checks himself in; he's trying to be more careful with money, so he's staying elsewhere Thursday and Sunday. Of course, he's delayed because the person at the front desk, well, isn't at the front desk when we arrive. Eventually he gets his room. (Separate rooms, of course. I prefer to sleep in my own room unless accompanied by a willing woman.)
Party day. We meet around 11 and head back to the house. Food is heating up and people are starting to show up. I stay outside for a bit and play bags ... we lose the first match, but our conquerors include the host, who has to attend to newly-arrived guests, so we stay and a new team takes their place. We run off four wins or so as I find a nice stroke (holding the bags vertically, a little backspin, aim right of the hole and watch them roll left and in), and then my teammate has to attend to ribs, so we step aside and I go back inside. Plus beer pong and such has started up, and I tend to stay away from those things, not being able to partake myself. (Having a non-drinker participate in a team drinking game can be a problem for his teammate. We did it once. I thought it was funny.)
The DSL is holding up nicely, so I go through a few weeks of OOTP and check my Facebook games. It's nice and cool inside, a pleasant change from the 90-degree heat ... but then again it's raining pretty much everywhere west of Virginia, so we're thankful.
Night comes, fireworks are launched, people drink more, and suddenly I have to build a fire. (Well, not entirely accurate. I have to light a fire. The fire was built yesterday. There are three or four resident pyros ... one is the host, and another is in Baltimore now, so that leaves me. I like fire.) The host lights it, I feed it, and the drunks sit near the fire for about 30 minutes or so until they realize they need to drink more. (I kind of built the fire hot. No one really sat near it.)
We burn some more wood (no weird things this time, like wood of questionable origin or strange chemicals that ought to burn well). The drunk people return, there are discussions about who ought and ought not to have been drinking where and when, most of them are sent inside to play more drinking games, and the rest of us hang out until 1. We leave the fire to burn itself out (it's designed for that), I get the very intoxicated traveling companion, and we return to the hotel. (The next day, he conceded he'd been rather drunk. He doesn't drink that much any more, but he certainly did on Saturday. We blame the mojitos.)
Post-party day 1. Locals are gone, people from Cincinnati have left, so there are three small groups here, and we're awaiting the return of the people who braved DC-area traffic on the 4th. Eating of random things, more Facebook, sports on TV. Another Grand Slam event, another Federer win ... we were somewhat limited in what we could watch because we swapped out their DVR for a better one, and of course that doesn't transfer the content. Oh well. Acrostic puzzle to finish, wrapping up things, goodbyes said, I head back to the hotel.
Time to head back. I swing into Richmond and pick up the traveler, and we head back to I-64 and west. Warmer weather this time, so the air is on and the mileage drops a touch.
Construction isn't bad, but an accident on the turnpike, I think, slows us down, costing us about an hour. Somewhere in the construction, though, we see a crew sanding down the surface of the road, or something ... except when we close on it, we see it's actually a car burning merrily on the side of the road. No obvious flames yet, but enough smoke to make driving hazardous. Everyone's slowed down in the single-lane traffic. Several cars have stopped to help, including a semi driver who looks like he's got an extinguisher, so we keep going.
US-35 is a nice four-lane divided highway in Ohio, but it's only two lanes for most of the West Virginia segment. Fortunately, they've upgraded part of it (the navigation system is horrified that we're driving through the grass and refuses to talk to us until we're back on the two-lane part) and are working on another part of it. Unfortunately, the middle section is unplanned and unscheduled. Tolls are going up to $2 on the turnpike in August. I'll be happy to double that if it means we get better roads soon.
Back home ... I drop off the traveler and arrive at last. The cats are a bit surprised to see me. Their usual cries of near starvation are useless now because of the care ems has taken; they were good to her and only left one small spot of cat puke that could easily have been created Monday. (A real hairball, too, and not the I'm-mad-at-you-here's-unchewed-food-to-clean-up kind.)
Unpack, clean up, and off to bed.
It was a lot of fun, but it's not something I'd care to do too often. Someday I might consider flying again, but only after the airport Gestapo have been removed and when US airlines remember that customer service is important.
Thursday
The trip commences. Cloudy day, which is great for an early start, because it means glasses are OK for most of the trip. (I can switch between those and prescription sunglasses all right, but it's obviously not as easy as taking sunglasses on/off.) Off we go out I-70, which distresses the navigation system because she wants us to go a different way. (This is pretty much the story until we're on I-64. At that point, she realizes that because the hotel is on I-64, we're probably heading in the right direction.)
Not a bad drive, as drives go. A little slow, but we miss rush hour in whatever cities happen to lie between here and there. (Not many.) The hybrid doesn't like the mountains, so we lose a bit of time there. About 45 mpg on the trip, which is nice, even though every place east of Indy has cheaper gas than we do.
Somewhere along US-35, we see rest area cat. He's sitting outside the rest area, watching people going in, presumably to ensure they don't cause trouble. He has no time to be petted, but instead settles himself on his side where he can still watch the entrance. Nice work if you can get it.
We listen to baseball about half the trip. The Padres are nice enough to entice bees to delay their game so that it finishes after the 7:00 games start. Naturally, when we arrive and share the news, people have no idea what we're talking about. Apparently bee delays are not common.
Arrive at the hotel, I check in, we head out to the house, we eat some fried stuff and catch up with people. I head back to the hotel, log on, and sleep.
Friday
The last day for party prep. I'm back at the house around noon. The gravel arrives about 12:30. Our hosts have a gravel driveway that is such in name only at the base and head of the drive. The newly-arriving gravel is to be spread at each end.
The kind driver does what he can to distribute it somewhat reasonably at each end, although we end up with a nice pile at the base of the driveway. Rakes and shovels in hand, we begin.
It's clear after not much time that most of us are desk people, not outdoor people. The gravel weighs more and more as the task continues, although thankfully it did not rain. Apparently this makes things much worse. I'm the first to concede defeat, so I go inside and sit in front of the laptop, carefully managing my tycoon teams and mafia whilst the others foolishly pretend they're in the 20s.
Eventually it's all spread adequately, so food prep begins. Chopping, dicing, deboning ... there's usually enough food for three times the number of guests that show up, but it's all fun stuff to cook and to eat. (Also, most of us worked in the cafeteria at one of the dorms at Purdue, which is where we met, so we had institutional experience prior to having our own kitchens. Of course it doesn't help a ton, but at least we'd been exposed to a number of kinds of food and ways to cook it. I miss the convection ovens.)
Eating, talking, and sending off one of the families. Apparently they had a birthday party in Baltimore on Saturday. This is kind of like planning movie night during the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, but they're long-timers, so somewhat forgiven. (Plus they're coming back on Sunday.) Late night Friday means movie night, so this time it's Superbad. Surprisingly funny, but then again I think it's the atmosphere. Perhaps not so funny watching it myself.
Back to the hotel, two of us this time. We see a few deer on the road back to civilization; it's a state highway, so the speed limit is 55, but it's a winding two-lane road in the dark, so we don't go quite that speed once we've seen the deer. Most people use a little caution at night around there.
The other traveler checks himself in; he's trying to be more careful with money, so he's staying elsewhere Thursday and Sunday. Of course, he's delayed because the person at the front desk, well, isn't at the front desk when we arrive. Eventually he gets his room. (Separate rooms, of course. I prefer to sleep in my own room unless accompanied by a willing woman.)
Saturday
Party day. We meet around 11 and head back to the house. Food is heating up and people are starting to show up. I stay outside for a bit and play bags ... we lose the first match, but our conquerors include the host, who has to attend to newly-arrived guests, so we stay and a new team takes their place. We run off four wins or so as I find a nice stroke (holding the bags vertically, a little backspin, aim right of the hole and watch them roll left and in), and then my teammate has to attend to ribs, so we step aside and I go back inside. Plus beer pong and such has started up, and I tend to stay away from those things, not being able to partake myself. (Having a non-drinker participate in a team drinking game can be a problem for his teammate. We did it once. I thought it was funny.)
The DSL is holding up nicely, so I go through a few weeks of OOTP and check my Facebook games. It's nice and cool inside, a pleasant change from the 90-degree heat ... but then again it's raining pretty much everywhere west of Virginia, so we're thankful.
Night comes, fireworks are launched, people drink more, and suddenly I have to build a fire. (Well, not entirely accurate. I have to light a fire. The fire was built yesterday. There are three or four resident pyros ... one is the host, and another is in Baltimore now, so that leaves me. I like fire.) The host lights it, I feed it, and the drunks sit near the fire for about 30 minutes or so until they realize they need to drink more. (I kind of built the fire hot. No one really sat near it.)
We burn some more wood (no weird things this time, like wood of questionable origin or strange chemicals that ought to burn well). The drunk people return, there are discussions about who ought and ought not to have been drinking where and when, most of them are sent inside to play more drinking games, and the rest of us hang out until 1. We leave the fire to burn itself out (it's designed for that), I get the very intoxicated traveling companion, and we return to the hotel. (The next day, he conceded he'd been rather drunk. He doesn't drink that much any more, but he certainly did on Saturday. We blame the mojitos.)
Sunday
Post-party day 1. Locals are gone, people from Cincinnati have left, so there are three small groups here, and we're awaiting the return of the people who braved DC-area traffic on the 4th. Eating of random things, more Facebook, sports on TV. Another Grand Slam event, another Federer win ... we were somewhat limited in what we could watch because we swapped out their DVR for a better one, and of course that doesn't transfer the content. Oh well. Acrostic puzzle to finish, wrapping up things, goodbyes said, I head back to the hotel.
Monday
Time to head back. I swing into Richmond and pick up the traveler, and we head back to I-64 and west. Warmer weather this time, so the air is on and the mileage drops a touch.
Construction isn't bad, but an accident on the turnpike, I think, slows us down, costing us about an hour. Somewhere in the construction, though, we see a crew sanding down the surface of the road, or something ... except when we close on it, we see it's actually a car burning merrily on the side of the road. No obvious flames yet, but enough smoke to make driving hazardous. Everyone's slowed down in the single-lane traffic. Several cars have stopped to help, including a semi driver who looks like he's got an extinguisher, so we keep going.
US-35 is a nice four-lane divided highway in Ohio, but it's only two lanes for most of the West Virginia segment. Fortunately, they've upgraded part of it (the navigation system is horrified that we're driving through the grass and refuses to talk to us until we're back on the two-lane part) and are working on another part of it. Unfortunately, the middle section is unplanned and unscheduled. Tolls are going up to $2 on the turnpike in August. I'll be happy to double that if it means we get better roads soon.
Back home ... I drop off the traveler and arrive at last. The cats are a bit surprised to see me. Their usual cries of near starvation are useless now because of the care ems has taken; they were good to her and only left one small spot of cat puke that could easily have been created Monday. (A real hairball, too, and not the I'm-mad-at-you-here's-unchewed-food-to-clean-up kind.)
Unpack, clean up, and off to bed.
It was a lot of fun, but it's not something I'd care to do too often. Someday I might consider flying again, but only after the airport Gestapo have been removed and when US airlines remember that customer service is important.
Weigh-in: Week 18, +1.8 pounds
No surprise here. This was the week of the party in Virginia, where there is more food than a normal person can possibly imagine. While I may get partial credit for not actually gorging myself, clearly I consumed a lot more calories that I burned. (Note: shoveling gravel does not equal burning massive amounts of calories, not when you only have the stamina and strength to do it for an hour or so.)
Let's see. I ate french fries, onion rings, popcorn chicken, Mongolian beef, Korean beef, salmon, sushi, pasta, brisket, ribs, peppered pork, fudge, Rice Krispies treats ... and I only tried about half of the food that was there. (I mean, really, is there room for all of it?) My friends are excellent cooks, and the ones that host the party grow their own herbs, peppers, and vegetables, at least some types of vegetables. (And by peppers I mean the kind that you have to pick wearing gloves. No, really. Also, detergent is good for removing the oil from your skin.)
And there were donuts on the way out. And McDonald's. And Wendy's. (Although I did bring protein bars with me.)
So it could have been a lot worse, or maybe I'm starting to figure out how to eat bad foods occasionally and not gain as much weight as I would in the past. (That's right. In the past, this would have been more like 3 or 4 pounds, except for the time that we all got food poisoning from something.)
So now it's off to exercise again. Volleyball is moving off the schedule, though. We just don't have enough people with enough free time to make it a regular thing, so I'll have to visit the Y more often. No, really.
Let's see. I ate french fries, onion rings, popcorn chicken, Mongolian beef, Korean beef, salmon, sushi, pasta, brisket, ribs, peppered pork, fudge, Rice Krispies treats ... and I only tried about half of the food that was there. (I mean, really, is there room for all of it?) My friends are excellent cooks, and the ones that host the party grow their own herbs, peppers, and vegetables, at least some types of vegetables. (And by peppers I mean the kind that you have to pick wearing gloves. No, really. Also, detergent is good for removing the oil from your skin.)
And there were donuts on the way out. And McDonald's. And Wendy's. (Although I did bring protein bars with me.)
So it could have been a lot worse, or maybe I'm starting to figure out how to eat bad foods occasionally and not gain as much weight as I would in the past. (That's right. In the past, this would have been more like 3 or 4 pounds, except for the time that we all got food poisoning from something.)
So now it's off to exercise again. Volleyball is moving off the schedule, though. We just don't have enough people with enough free time to make it a regular thing, so I'll have to visit the Y more often. No, really.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Another dumb marketing decision
this.
The "New Xbox Experience" is stupid enough as it is: it takes up way too much space, shows very little of value, and hides most things well away from where you'd actually look for them. Basically, it's like Office 2007. And what a coincidence!
So now they're going to put ads on it. Even for paying members. (Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if Office 2007 did the same thing eventually.)
The dumbest thing about it is that it's not like the 360 has a browser, so you certainly can't click through anything, and really, when was the last time you saw an in-game ad and thought neat, that's so cool, I need to go buy that stuff?
right.
So now Silverlight will be drawing more cycles on the 360 (which is so awesome because there's no risk of it overheating, none at all) just to serve us ads.
jerks. Microsoft, meet backlash
The "New Xbox Experience" is stupid enough as it is: it takes up way too much space, shows very little of value, and hides most things well away from where you'd actually look for them. Basically, it's like Office 2007. And what a coincidence!
So now they're going to put ads on it. Even for paying members. (Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if Office 2007 did the same thing eventually.)
The dumbest thing about it is that it's not like the 360 has a browser, so you certainly can't click through anything, and really, when was the last time you saw an in-game ad and thought neat, that's so cool, I need to go buy that stuff?
right.
So now Silverlight will be drawing more cycles on the 360 (which is so awesome because there's no risk of it overheating, none at all) just to serve us ads.
jerks. Microsoft, meet backlash
Weigh-in: Week 17, -1 pound
More good news: down a pound this week (18.1 overall) and half an inch on my waist (4 overall). I gave up on the thigh for now because a) there isn't a ton of fat there anyway and b) it's difficult to measure accurately. Besides, I have strong legs, so they're not going to shrink much even when my weight does come down.
So anyway, a good week, lots of volleyball and bicycling. This week, however, may be more of a challenge: four days out in Virginia with friends. In the past, I would probably have eaten 20 pounds of food or so in four days. This time, hopefully it will be much less. (I will confess to having donuts from Long's Bakery for breakfast. yum.)
I'm not tracking my calories – too many homemade meals to do accurately anyway – but I am trying to stay conscious of what I eat. The 8th will tell that story.
Either that or I'll be riding a century on the 7th. lol.
So anyway, a good week, lots of volleyball and bicycling. This week, however, may be more of a challenge: four days out in Virginia with friends. In the past, I would probably have eaten 20 pounds of food or so in four days. This time, hopefully it will be much less. (I will confess to having donuts from Long's Bakery for breakfast. yum.)
I'm not tracking my calories – too many homemade meals to do accurately anyway – but I am trying to stay conscious of what I eat. The 8th will tell that story.
Either that or I'll be riding a century on the 7th. lol.
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