Random thoughts

• The NFL realizes that maybe people can't exactly afford tickets in the middle of a recession. Well, okay, not really. They're actually going to let you watch a game online when it doesn't sell out, but not until after midnight the day of the game, only for 72 hours after the game, and not during Monday Night Football. Welcome to the 1970s, Commissioner Goodell. Just a couple more courageous jumps forward and you'll be caught up with the rest of us. (Not like the other sports are any smarter with respect to blackout rules.) What's better than spending three figures to watch your team get beat? Waiting 24 hours to watch online after you already know the score.


• Completely non-shocking news: Brett Favre was injured late last season and a Belichick disciple lied on the injury report. Of course blah blah blah and whatever. Anyway, Favre wouldn't do the same thing this season, and he'll be certain to play all 16 games, because he wouldn't have come back if he couldn't, except he might not play all 16 games. I hope the Vikings get exactly what everyone else thinks they're getting, and I expect McDaniels will turn out to be the same kind of coach that Weis and Mangini have already proven to be. (To quote Bill Simmons – ironically – we'll call them "Bassbowls.")


• Paul Krugman has a great article in the New York Times magazine about how very few economists actually believed the bubble would burst. If you read it closely, you'll find that there are professionals who refuse to take into account the possibility that people do not make financial decisions wisely. Keep this in mind the next time you hear someone explain how of course health care doesn't need reform because the insurance companies will sort it out themselves.


• Beatles: Rock Band is out and is cool. I haven't played with other singers, so I don't know how the harmonies are going to work, but they should be interesting. Some of the songs are definitely challenging on one instrument or another, but it's the good kind (involving actual music) rather than the Guitar Hero kind (speed metal).

Close call

Amazon sent me a message this morning.

"Hey, um, we were going to send you Beatles: Rock Band, but ... um ... yeah, we kind of need you to pay for it."

See, I pre-ordered it basically as soon as I saw they were accepting pre-orders, especially now that they ship to arrive on launch day, rather than shipping on launch day. (Tangent: this is possible because the publishers ship the product in advance of launch day, usually well in advance. This means that little delays generally are worked out prior to launch day, so you still get your copy on time. It also means that with time and effort, you can occasionally get a game prior to launch. After all, when they're shipped to stores, the cases are generally marked "Do not open/sell/whatever until Month Day." It's kind of like the old days when we used to hit grocery stores late at night or on Sunday to see if the cashier knew they weren't supposed to sell beer.)

Anyway, since then, there was a security breach at a payment processor that may or may not have worked with a place where I used my card, so my bank canceled that card and sent me a new one. (Very nice of them, proactive and all that. USAA +1.) It took me about a month to go through and update places where I use it occasionally or regularly, and it looked like I got all of them.

Except one.

So I hopped into my account on Amazon, changed the credit card to use, and now the order is processing and will hopefully arrive tomorrow. (There are going to be a lot of busy delivery drivers Wednesday.) I also removed it from my account, just in case I try this again ... anyway, the moral of the story is to pay attention to where I use my credit cards, just in case. (Of course, if I were better at that in the first place ...)

Beatles. Rock Band.

Of course it's coming out on a weekday.

And I have no extra vacation days to use.

oh well. I guess I'd have to find three other people with vacation days anyway.