burning down the highway skyline

Let's face it, when it comes to music these days, I live up to my reputation as a bitter old man. I don't know what the big thing is about this "emo" the kids are all into these days. I'm not even a big fan of retro-rock like The Strokes or The White Stripes. So it was pretty unusual for me to get into a new-wave revival band like The Killers. I thought their debut Hot Fuss was a great retro-80s pop album, with synthesizers and poppy hooks galore.

The band's sophomore album Sam's Town sees them trading in their metrosexual, Duran Duran 80's retro-pop for Bruce Springsteen and U2 80's retro-rock/pop. Gone are the dress shirts, black eyeliner, and faux-British singing. In their place we have blue jeans, mustaches, and arena rock anthems. The Las Vegas natives aim for a much more American feel on the new album. Hot Fuss conjured up images of night clubs and busy streets; Sam's Town feels like the boys left the Vegas strip and are now cruising down the dusty highways of the surrounding desert.


The opening title track sets the tone for the album as a powerful, Americana-themed rock song that manages to stay true to the new-wave stylings of Hot Fuss at the same time. The remaining songs are bookended by "Enterlude" and "Exitlude" which really don't add or detract anything from the album other than that they're basically filler. The first radio single, "When You Were Young", is a clear homage to Springsteen. It's the type of song that seems most at home blaring out the speakers of a convertible soaring down the highway.

Despite it's absurd name, "Bling (Confessions of a King)" finds The Killers channeling U2. The song feels ripped from the same vein as Joshua Tree with vocals you can almost picture Bono doing himself and a riff that clearly was inspired by Edge. The fusion of arena rock and synth-pop continues on the energetic "For Reasons Unknown". "Read My Mind" is a strong, hook-laden pop song that just screams "future single". That shouldn't be seen as a slight, because with these hooks it's not the kind of song you mind popping into your head at random moments. "Uncle Johnny", a song about said uncle's cocaine habit, is one of the hardest rockers of the bunch. The guitar riff is excellent, which is good because it helps you ignore the mostly nonsensical lyrics.

Unfortunately Sam's Town starts to fall flat after the first half of the album. The love song "Bones" entertains by featuring brass instruments in the background, but once again the lyrics border on comically senseless (Don't you wanna come with me/Don't you wanna feel my bones on your bones?). Take a lot of time coming up with that one, Mr. Flowers? Still, the music is enough to keep the song entertaining. "My List" is a slow-burning anthem that has you picturing the singers rocking back and forth with their arms around each other's shoulders by the end of the song. The rough outdoor imagery appears again on "This River Is Wild", which is simply another poppy rock ballad. "Why Do I Keep Counting" rounds out the album before the "Exitlude", and really has nothing fresh to add to the album.

One tends to get the feeling that The Killers may be a gimmick band; it'll be interesting to see if the band makes a third transformation for their next album. But the group stays true enough to their original sound that most fans of Hot Fuss should embrace this offering. The first two-thirds of Sam's Town are strong enough that the album is a very successful pop album. That's exactly what one has to remember when listening to this album; it's okay if most of the lyrics are gibberish. The songs are fun enough and filled with such good hooks that it should entertain for awhile.

waiting like a stalking butler

I'm announcing the official launch of The Asylum blog, where Rob, Austin, Doug, and I (and Craig if he signs up) can post whatever crap we want. I guess it really has no point and will probably flounder and die within a month. It's also such a blatant rip-off of Justin Hall and Co.'s Wack MC's that they could probably sue us if they wanted.

convinced himself right in his brain

CBS Sportsline columnist Gregg Doyle wrote an article about how the Bengals' loss to the Patriots yesterday was "karma" and "justice" for all of our offseason problems. I sent the following response to Mr. Doyle. Yes, I realize the sad little man is just trying to get attention, probably because Mommy and Daddy didn't hug little Greggy enough as a child. But I just had to respond back:

Wow, your article about the Bengals "deserving" to lose to the Patriots because of their off-field problems is ridiculous. You were probably one of those moronic talking heads that said Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from God. You’re certainly following the same train of thought as those idiots.

You seem to think the Bengals aren't doing anything to punish these offenders. Well genius, that's because until the NFL punishes the players, the club can't. Otherwise they run the risk of double jeopardy - punishing the player twice for one offense. Henry was benched, what else can the Bengals do? Marvin Lewis had Odell Thurman's locker cleaned out and given to someone else. Since Thurman was suspended by the NFL, Lewis punished him the only way he could, and also sent the signal that these actions will not be tolerated.

"Bengals fans, who have largely turned the other cheek..." Have you actual been in Cincinnati or paid attention to fan reaction? Fans have constantly said they are sick and tired or these actions. People were calling for Chris Henry to be cut from the team months ago (something the club cannot do, as they would likely face and lose a grievance from the Players Association on Henry's behalf). People are glad to hear that Thurman is suspended for the year, and likely done as a Bengal. We don't want him here. A lot of fans did not think Nicholson or Rucker should make the team. So before you start making up your own conclusions on how the fans have reacted, maybe you should actually pay attention to how the fans have reacted.

You act as if Henry and Thurman are the only player makers the Bengals are missing. David Pollack is out for the year, starters Dexter Jackson and Rich Braham are out with injuries, special teams star Tab Perry is out again, and Chris Perry is out for the first six weeks. T.J Houshmanzadeh missed the first two games. Wide receiver Antonio Chatman missed three. All of these losses hurt the team; Henry and Thurman aren't the only factors.

As you pointed out, T.O. can act like a diva with his overdose, Ricky Manning Jr. assaults someone, but we’re the ones who deserve to lose? Or you've got teams like the Ravens with convicted cocaine dealers on their roster (did they ever so much as bench Jamal Lewis, or Ray Lewis when he was charged with murder?), but we're the bad guys.

Let's face it; the Bengals' loss had nothing to do with your warped sense of "justice" or "karma". It's just the way the game played out. Quit writing ignorant and offensive articles just to garner attention to yourself. I guess that makes you as good as T.O. No such thing as bad publicity, right?

let your mind do the walking

We are now three weeks into the 2006 NFL season, so I thought I'd share my thoughts about how this season is going. I'll start by looking at the AFC, and if I feel like anyone actual cares, I'll take a look at the NFC next.

AFC North:
Cincinnati Bengals (3-0): With such a tough schedule, I couldn't ask for a better start (duh, how do you get a better start than winning all your games?). Sure, they haven't all been pretty wins, but that's what good teams do; they don't choke when things get ugly, they just find a way to win. We've had some bad injuries, but so far we've proven that we have a deep roster with great play from guys like Kevin Kaesviharn and Rashad Jeanty. Going 4-0 before the bye week would be a great start to a tough schedule. If we can keep this up, we stand a good chance of not only winning the division but getting a first-week bye in the playoffs.

Baltimore Ravens (3-0): I knew the Ravens would be better this year, but I didn't think they'd be doing this well. The defense looks scary, and should stay that way if they can remain healthy. Steve McNair's quarterback numbers haven't been off the charts, but he's doing what the Ravens need him to do: not screw up at crucial times. If they can keep it up, I see them as one of the AFC wild-card teams.

Pittsburgh Steelers (1-2): I really am surprised that they're off to such a bad start. Roethlisberger has looked terrible. With the way the Bengals , Ravens, and Jaguars are playing, I have a hard time seeing them climbing out of this hole and making the playoffs.

Cleveland Browns (0-3): I didn't think the Browns would be a good team this year, but I didn't think they would look this bad. I thought we'd be seeing an improved team, but there is no sign of it so far. The running game has been horrendous and Charlie Frye is no gem either.


AFC East:
New England Patriots (2-1): All their personnel losses are finally coming around to haunt them. Not resigning kicker Adam Vinatieri and keeping former Super Bowl MVP Deion Branch are obviously hurting the team.

New York Jets (2-1): Wow, this team is one of the big surprises of the year so far. I didn't think they would be any good at all this season, but so far they are very impressive. Chad Pennington has made a good comeback. They were almost 3-0; the sole loss was a closely-fought loss to New England which in itself was an impressive showing.

Buffalo Bills: (1-2): Despite their losing record, the Bills have also been better than I thought they would be. They've performed well even in their losses, almost beating New England and the Jets in close games.

Miami Dolphins (1-2): One of my preseason AFC wild-card picks, the Dolphins have been extremely disappointing. I thought Daunte Culpepper's terrible season last year was a fluke, but he doesn't look any better this year. With weapons like Chris Chambers, McMichael and Ronnie Brown at his disposal, there's not much excuse for his poor playing. The team had a good chance of upsetting Pittsburgh till Culpepper literally threw the game away.


AFC South:
Indianapolis Colts (3-0): Despite losing star running back Edgerrin James, the Colts have still been impressive. Still, their lack of a rushing attack and inability to stop it on defense are going to hurt them this season.

Jacksonvillle Jaguars (2-1): I didn't give this team much credit going into this year, and they've rubbed it in my face. They shut out the defending Super Bowl champs and almost hung with the Colts in Indy. If they keep this up, they're a lock for one of the wild card spots.

Tennesee Titans (0-3): They can call this season a rebuilding year if they want, I just call is a disaster. We'll see Vince Young take over at QB in the next few weeks but that won't save this season. At this rate, they might even finish behind the Texans.

Houston Texans (0-3): Yeah, they probably should have taken Reggie Bush in the draft. David Carr is doing better this year, but the rest of the team still stinks.


AFC West:
San Diego Chargers (2-0): Looking better than I thought they might. Philip Rivers hasn't made any big mistakes so far. If they can keep that up and LaDainian Tomlinson can keep running wild, they could take the division.

Denver Broncos (2-1): They were my preseason AFC pick for the Super Bowl, but after losing to St. Louis and barely beating Kansas City 9-6 I think I've lost faith. Sure, they beat New England in Foxboro, but I just don't have faith in Jake Plummer to stay consistent. But with the AFC West weaker this year, they still have a shot at winning the division or at least a wild-card spot.

Kansas City Chiefs (0-2): Yes, Larry Johnson is a great running back but this offensive line is awful without Willie Roaf. With Trent Green out, there's no reason for team's to do anything but put eight or nine players in the box to stuff the run.

Oakland Raiders (0-2): This team is just awful. Really, they're probably the worst team in the NFL.

The Playoffs: Indianapolis, Cincinnati, New England, San Diego; Wild Card: Jacksonville & Baltimore (or Denver)

Sure, I'll make a Super Bowl pick. Everyone seems to pick Indianapolis which seems strange since they have a worse running game. But they do have Adam Vinatieri, who would have made that clutch kick against the Steelers last year. Since the AFC is weaker this year, I'll still go with the Colts (I feel biased if I pick the Bengals). But I think the Bengals have as good of a shot, providing we don't choke.

feel the little pieces bleeding through

According to a new teaser trailer on the Nine Inch Nails website, Trent will be releasing a new live dvd in early 2007, Beside You In Time. Two shows from the 2006 spring tour (Oklahoma City and El Paso) were filmed in their entirety for the dvd release. The new live footage will be released as Halo 22. I thought the visuals for the show in Cincinnati were great, so I can't wait to see this. In my mind, it would have been great if NIN released a two-disc live dvd, where one disc was the winter '05/spring '06 tour and the second disc was the 2006 summer tour, but sadly it doesn't look like we'll see the summer tour on dvd.

tell them their pillar of faith has ascended

After a hectic weekend, I've finally gotten around to posting about the Tool show Jon and I went to see in Columbus. It was at the Nationwide Arena, which is a very nice venue. The facilities are all in great shape; I'd say it's much, much nicer than U.S. Bank Arena. The opening band, Isis, took the stage at 8 PM. I was actually surprised that they really weren't half bad. I'd say their style was fairly similar to Tool's except that they were mostly instrumental. They played long, jam-filled songs. When the vocalist did sing you couldn't really understand what he was saying, and half the time he decided to do death-metal screaming instead of actual singing, and that was just awful. But overall I thought Isis was actually pretty decent.

Tool came on around 9:10 to a solid white stage that was mostly barren except for the drum set, a couple amps and the lone microphone stand. Behind the white stage there were white projection screens about six or seven feet high, and above that was a plain black backdrop. Throughout the concert, the band would project visuals onto the white projections screens, the white stage itself, and the big square scoreboard in the center of the arena ceiling (the kind of scoreboards you see in basketball and hockey arenas). The visuals were mostly computer-generated images and designs, and I thought they really added a lot to the show.

"Stinkfist" was the opening song, which was a fine choice in my opinion. I like the song a lot and really got the crowd into it. Both it and "The Pot" both had little extended "jams" by the band which were great. The band played some brief little guitar and keyboard intro before "Forty-Six and Two", which is another favorite of mine. After a good version of "Jambi" the band launched into "Schism", which naturally got a big reaction from the crowd. The visuals for this was just the same music video, but considering that it's one of the strangest videos out there I had no complaints. "Schism" isn't my favorite Tool song due to the radio always over-playing it, but it was fantastic live. The band sped the middle of the song up to double-time, which was a refreshing change to the song. The instrumental "Lost Keys" led right into an extremely intense "Rosetta Stoned". The rapid-fire vocals at the beginning of the song didn't transfer as well to a live performance, but the rest of the song was fantastic. Very powerful.

Next the band played "Wings for Marie" and "10,000 Days" as one very long song, and in my mind it was the highlight of the show. The laser effects made their debut during "Wings", and I definitely thought it was a good choice to save them for this part of the show. These songs were written about singer Maynard James Keenan's recently deceased mother, and in my mind they represented a musical and emotional high water mark for the night. The show was both musically and visually at it's best during "10,000 Days". The combination of the screen projections with the new laser effects was amazing, and the song just blew the crowd away.

Tool's take on an encore was refreshing. Instead of ended the regular set with the lights going out and walking off the stage for five minutes while everyone cheers before returning, the band simply finished the last song of the regular set, grabbed some bottles of water, and sat in the middle of the stage. They'd talk to each other or to various roadies, all the while bathed in blue light while all the fans cheered and applauded. At one point one of the band members held up a lighter, and everyone in the crowd with one followed suit, which looked pretty cool. Then after a few minutes the guys simply got up and went back to their instruments.

"Lateralus" was the first song of the encore, and showcased new lighting effects from the previously bare black backdrop. Then they band played a long, ambient instrumental intro before launching into a blasting rendition of "Vicarious", the first single from 10,000 Days. Then they closed with "Ænema" (my favorite Tool song) which probably got the most reaction of any song the whole night from the crowd. It was awesome to see the entire arena so into it. I could have sworn that Maynard swapped two of the lines in the song around, but that's just nit-picking.

By the end Tool played for at least an hour and forty-five minutes, probably closer to two hours. The set list could have been a little longer, but the length of the concert is evidence of how long each of the songs is. I thought it was a fantastic show; I would definitely want to see them again. No real complaints about the set list either. I would have liked to hear "Sober" (we actually heard nothing off Undertow, but that's not a crime like not hearing anything from The Fragile at a NIN concert is) or some of the less well known songs off Ænima and Lateralus. "Right in Two" is the only other real song from 10,000 Days that we didn't hear, which was a shame because it's a fantastic song. But still, every song Tool played was fantastic, so I cannot complain. One of the best concert's I've been to, that's for certain.

Set List:
Stinkfist
The Pot
(short intro)
Forty-Six & Two
Jambi
Schism
Lost Keys
Rosetta Stoned
Wings For Marie
10,000 Days

Encore:
Lateralus
(ambient guitar-keyboard-drum intro)
Vicarious
Ænema

big black hole gonna eat me up someday

After the number of injuries the Bengals sustained against the Browns, its difficult to not be pessimistic about this Sunday's showdown in Pittsburgh. David Pollack is lost for the season and Rich Braham, Dexter Jackson, and Tab Perry have all been ruled out for this week. I think we've been jinxed after bragging about having the deepest wide receiver group in the NFL, as Chad Johnson, Kelley Washington, and the newly signed off the practice squad Reggie McNeal are our only uninjured receivers. Chris Henry is listed as probable on the injury report and should play, T.J. is questionable and I have a bad feeling he won't play, Antonio Chatman is doubtful, and Perry is out. So we may have only four active receivers Sunday.

Pittsburgh's offense played horrible on Monday night, but that doesn't make me feel much better for this week. In fact, I'm not sure I want to play them after an embarrassing loss like that. I have no doubt that we can beat them, but it won't be easy; the offensive line will have to protect Carson and open holes for Rudi, and the defense will have to not give up big plays to Willie Parker, Hines Ward, and Heath Miller.

Going up to Columbus tonight to see Tool. Apparently they canceled their show on Tuesday due to an illness in the band, but no such news so far for tonight...

the machine takes pictures of us

A bunch of us went to Springdale last night to see a sneak preview of Flyboys that Jen won tickets too. The story follows the exploits of the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of Americans who volunteered to fly for the French army prior to the United States' entrance into World War I. It was fairly entertaining, but I really can't recommend that you go see it. First of all, like so many movies these days, it was entirely way too long. Remember, that's coming from someone who happily sat through all three Lord of the Rings movies back to back to back (and the first two were the extended editions). It seems that after the success of Lord of the Rings every editor in Hollywood was fired and directors were told to run wild and be as self-indulgent as possible. Peter Jackson himself made that mistake with King Kong, it's the reason I wouldn't even see Pirates of the Caribbean II, and we see it once again in Flyboys.
The movie was over two hours long, and certainly could have been trimmed down. There were too many unnecessary additions to the plot (most of the obligatory romance story, the one guy being accused as a spy, etc.) that didn't much of anything to flesh out the side characters or advance the story. Naturally, no Hollywood movie would be complete without a romance being forcefully jammed into the story, although the love story in Flyboys is less painful than many of its counterparts (Pearl Harbor, for example). At least they didn't turn it into the usual love-triangle.

Obviously the main draw of the film is the action sequences in the air, and the dog fights are mostly successful in entertaining. The main problem with them is that they get fairly predictable and a little absurd at times. To be honest, much of the film's entertainment value was in laughing at whatever ridiculous scene was unfolding on the screen. Something tells me that landing your plane just behind the front line trenches to rescue a downed comrade stranded in no-man's-land isn't very accurate. I don't want to spoil much of the movie, but I'll just say that most of the movie was so laughably idiotic that late in the film, we were actually able to predict that one character would pull out a pistol and shoot another pilot right in the face with it. As they were flying in the air. That guy must have been the greatest shot of all time to hit the tiny target of a person's head in one moving plane from another. Snakes on a Plane could learn a lesson in comedic lunacy from Flyboys; the latter was for more fun and entertaining.

The characters were mostly straight from your typical Hollywood cookie-cutter. James Franco plays the rugged, handsome, cocky main character that is cast first on looks, second on acting ability (apparently no one realized that there probably were not many World War I pilots with blond highlights in their hair). He wasn't horrible, but it was obvious he was cast on looks. Then there's the stereotypical grizzled veteran who doesn't care about anyone else because everyone he cared about has been killed, the African-American who must overcome the prejudice of other pilots (at least that part is probably accurate), the son of a wealthy businessman who is a disappointment to his father because he'd rather become an artist, and so on. The actors themselves really weren't bad, but their characters could have used more fleshing out and more originality.
So if you just want to be entertained, then by all means, go see Flyboys over the aforementioned Snakes. But if you really want to see a good movie this weekend, go see Jet Li's Fearless. Li's final martial arts flick is a great story. The plot is very good, Li's character is well-developed, and above all, the action scenes are very well done. It doesn't have the visual style of Hero, but it's an excellent martial arts epic about a Chinese legend and a fitting end to Li's career.

do you like the way the water tastes

Rob, Doug, Jon and I went to the Family Values Tour last Tuesday at Riverbend, where we met up with Christy, Alex, Alex's sister, and their friends (actually Christy rode with us but let's not get picky). The gates officially opened at 2:00 but seeing as we didn't care about seeing anyone until the Deftones (the only band I cared about) we didn't get there until 6:30. That still ended up being too early and we were stuck listening to most of Stone Sour's awful set. Obviously it had been raining all day so the lawn was very, very muddy. Thankfully it barely rained the whole time we were there, and we managed to mostly keep out of the mud.

The Deftones took the stage right around 8. They opened with a good version of "Feiticeira" followed by the popular "My Own Summer." After that came "Beware the Water", which I believe is a new song from their upcoming album. Next came "Passenger" which was the song I'd hoped to hear the most. The White Pony version is my favorite Deftones song, and while the live version doesn't have the guest vocals by Tool's Maynard James Keenan, it was still the highlight of the show for me. "Change" was another highlight and probably got the most reaction from the crowd. They threw in some good tracks from Adrenaline like "Nosebleed" and "Root" and "When Girls Telephone Boys" from their self-titled album. We got another new song with "Hole in the Earth" before they closed with "Headup" and "7 Words". I thought it was a good set and the band sounded really good live. The shortness of the set was disappointing (11 songs in about 45 minutes) but since the Deftones were not the final act it wasn't too surprising. Jon and Rob wanted to stay for Korn so we did. I'm sure it was a good show if you're a Korn fan. As far as their music goes they actually weren't bad, but I'm just not a fan. They played for too long, and then we went home. Riverbend was really, really muddy (and half the people there were intentionally covered in it) but at least it barely rained while we were there. Even though the Deftones set was short, it was well worth the $10 lawn tickets to see them live. Their new album comes out October 31st; their previous effort wasn't their strongest but after hearing two of the songs, I'm pretty excited about Saturday Night Wrist.

since i'm so broken down, why don't you fix me?

Audioslave's third studio release, Revelations, comes just a year after their sophomore album. Out of Exile was a mediocre effort; it had some strong tracks on it but for every good song there were two that were bland and unoriginal. Revelations starts off fairly strong with the opening title-track and "One and the Same" which both feature some good rock-funk riffs from Tom Morello. The first mediocre song arrives by the third track, "Sound of a Gun". Then comes "Until We Fall", one of the mandatory acoustic tracks Audioslave seems to need on each album. It's also a run-of-the-mill song; not bad, but nothing special. "Original Fire", the first single from the album, is one of the better songs from the album. Then the low point of the album with uninspired garbage like "Broken City", "Somedays", and "Jewel of the Summertime". There are a couple other average songs before the album closes with a couple other fairly strong tracks like "Wide Awake" and "Moth". Morello once again displays why he's probably the best guitarist in the last twenty years, fusing his funk and Led Zeppelin-rock inspirations into some great riffs. Chris Cornell's lyrics are above average in some places and downright awful in others. I'd say that Revelations is a half step above Out of Exile, but it's still disappointing that the band seems stuck in a vein of mediocrity and unable to replicate the quality of Audioslave.

finger deep within the borderline

I think we are finally settled in here at the new house. We still need to get our own wireless network set up so we can stop using the same one as the girls. Hopefully then the internet will run much faster.

It wasn't the prettiest performance by the Bengals yesterday, but you can't complain about opening the season with a win on the road, especially at one of the toughest home stadiums in the NFL. The defense had some good pressure going on the quarterback and they held Larry Johnson to 68 yards rushing. That scoring drive by the Chiefs in the 4th quarter was somewhat disconcerting, but overall I was fairly impressed with the defense's performance. I thought Rudi showed some great moves too. He was finding a lot of holes and breaking many tackles. Poor Trent Green, I hope he recovers fast. That was a monstrous hit by Robert Geathers. Of course Herm Edwards and the Chiefs players displayed their thinly veiled anger over the hit after the game, but A.) Geathers was already airborne when Green started to slide, B.) the Chief's Eddie Kennison ended up pushing Geathers towards Green when he tried to block him, and C.) it never looked like a helmet-to-helmet hit to me, which is what all the Chiefs seem to claim it was. Every time I saw the replay, it looked like Geathers's shoulder hit Green's helmet. But the Bengals started their very tough 2006 schedule off with an important win, and we open at home with the Browns next week. I would chalk it up as an easy win, but you never can when we play Cleveland.

now i'm bored and old

I have a lot to catch up on. Wisdom teeth taken out. Moved into new house. We made the mistake of trying to share the wireless with the girls upstairs. The problem is that they have the router, the router is currently not working, half of the girls are out of town and the other two are no where to be found. Very frustrated with that situation. We're about to just get our own Roadrunner. More to come whenever we get the internet up and running again.

this is what it feels like

Every Bengals fan has to feel great after that game last night. Palmer looked fantastic. He took hits and got right back up, his passing was right where it was last year, he scrambled for yards. It was really nice to see how great the Palmer to T.J. connection will be when teams put lots of coverage on Chad. It was also nice to hear the ESPN announcers recognize how deep we are at wide receiver. The defense was also impressive, although I'd like to see them a little more dominant in denying the big play. Brett Favre must really hate playing in Cincinnati, and I almost feel bad for him, but I have to admit it's pretty funny to watch the futility as their offense is abused by our defense. Teams did it to us for fifteen years, so it's only fair.

Don't believe the hype for Snakes on a Plane. Here is a movie that I really wanted to like. I went in with a very positive attitude. I knew it would be bad, but it was not hilariously bad like everyone made it out to be. It had a fair amount of laughable parts, but there was an equal number of times when it was just contemptibly bad. It tried too hard to be so bad that it would make us laugh along with the filmmakers, instead at laughed mockingly at their failed attempt at a hilarious campy film. Sam Jackson did turn in a great performance and had some ridiculous funny lines, but the rest of it was pretty forgettable.

UFC 62 was better than the last couple pay-per-views by a long shot. Most of the fights were very entertaining, including the rematch of Bonner vs. Griffin. I was hesitant to get excited about the fight because I knew there was no way it could live up to their first fight, and while that was still true, it turned out to be what was probably the most entertaining match of the night. Those two never fail to put on a good fight, and Forrest Griffin is hilarious. Bonner was robbed of a round by the judges, and I feel bad for him that he lost, but hopefully he'll rebound with a good win his next fight. Rich Franklin comes back for UFC 64 in October against a very tough opponent. Can't wait for that, and for UFC 63 in September.

I'm working on packing up the apartment. The wisdom teeth come out tomorrow and we move out either Thursday or Friday.

transmissions from a lonely room

I sent Pfc. Jason Burkee an email a few days ago, and I got a response from him today that I thought I'd share:

Hey Dave,


Nothing to exciting going on here.  I am in the
Ramadi area.  Living the Dream...?  Not really, I
would say the best way to describe my situation would
be frequent bordem, highlighted with quick stints of
violence.

The truck in front of me was hit with an IED a
couple weeks ago.  I lost my squad leader.  That was
pretty tough.  The other day a car bomb went off at
the Iraqi Police station.  We have been in one or two
actual fire fights.  We are not in the city though we
are outside the city.

On a happier note, school is done this year?  thats
cool.  How did it go.  Did you have any more liberal
slanted classes were you had to regulate? :)  Is the
apartment you are moving into in the same area?
Better?  That will be cool.  One of the guys bought an
x-box 360 have you tried it yet?  Thoughts on it?
It's not bad, can't wait for Halo 3.  The Playstation
3 who wants to pay that much for a system?

Where are you thinking of working next?  Maybe
another place with nagging callers. :)  Well I got to
go.  I will talk to you later.  I miss you guys.


Your Friend

Jason

workin' up under my patience like a little tick

Haha, it's been an interesting day so far, and it's only half over.

Being the unemployed individual that I am, I couldn't help but notice the roughly 8 billion yellow flyers I saw posted all over campus declaring "Work For Students". I pulled off one of the little tabs and decided to check out the website when I got home. The site was extremely vague about what kind of work was involved, other than saying that it was for a company called Vector Marketing. I assumed this meant it was some telemarketing company, and considering how much I hated being called by crazy disgruntled people, I had even less interest in calling them in their own homes. But I figured there wouldn't be any harm in filling out their online application, although I became more skeptical when I saw how simple the application was (not even asking about prior job experiences or references) I became even more skeptical. Then within half an hour, someone calls me back about setting up an interview (which is 6pm tomorrow). As soon as I was off the phone, I decided it was time to check up on Vector.

It seems Vector Marketing has a long, controvertial history of ripping off students. They send students out as independent contractors to sell Cutco knives. This is after your unpaid training and the deposit and have to put down to work there. Doug told me Jon used to work for them, and he ended up losing money. There's even a group formed by former student employees called Students Against Vector Exploitation. Since they didn't give me any way to recontact them, I guess I'll be skipping that interview tomorrow.

And the job search rolls on.

the die is cast

In other terrible news, Georges St. Pierre has been forced to pull out of his September 23rd Title Fight rematch with Matt Hughes due to a groin injury. UFC has set up another rematch to replace it, with BJ "I whined like a little girl when I lost to St. Pierre" Penn will go for a second win against Hughes. Obviously, I hope Matt beats the snot out of him.

big bang baby

A group of rogue astronomers have viciously stripped Pluto of it's status as a planet today. The extremist organization, known as the International Astronomical Union, launched it's assault on the distant satellite from Prague. The IAU cited Pluto's oblong orbit that overlaps with Neptune's and the presence of Plutonian soldiers in the Czech holy city of Ústí nad Labemfont as the reasons for the attack. In addition to the downgrade of Pluto from a traditional planet to a "dwarf planet", the IAU demanded the release of twelve political prisoners including František Ladislav Čelakovský, who have been held since 1996 for attempting to blow up the several prominent buildings in downtown Pluto City. Pluto has yet to issue a formal statement responding to these attacks, other than commenting that it prefers the term "vertically-challenged planet".

it's the most wonderful time of the year

Football season is upon us and on top of all the wonderful games available for your viewing pleasure on television, I have a virtual cornucopia of fantasy games for you to enjoy. Below are the group IDs and passwords along with links to each game. Join up today! Feel free to tell your friends too.

Yahoo Fantasy Football Games:

• Pro Football Pick'em - League ID: 25299 Password: cincinnati
• Survival Football - League ID: 2217 Password: cincinnati
• Salary Cap Football - League ID: 535 Password: cincinnati
  
• Austin's Pro Football Pick'em Group (with confidence points) - League ID: 360 Password: cincinnati
• College Football Pick'em - League ID: 11813 Password: cincinnati
  

feed your head

Wow. Justin, did you manage to get AiC tickets? I got up last Wednesday at 9am for the presale and today at 10 for the regular sale, and both were sold out in the first six minutes. It kept telling me no tickets were available this morning, and I finally found one ticket after constantly retrying, but I couldn't find more so I didn't get it.

you better find somebody to love

I've started getting serious about buying a new cell phone and service plan. I was looking at a plan from Verizon where I get a free phone and free calls to and from other people with Verizon (Austin, Rob, Daniel, Jon). But the monthly price seems kinda expensive, although not really any more than it looked like it would be from Sprint or Cingular. Austin didn't have great things to say about Verizon or the PN-215 phone.

Anyone have any opinions on the subject? Who's a good provider? Got a good deal on a plan?

no more beating my brains

I think I've finally recovered from the exhaustion of the eleven hour drive back from New Jersey. Thanks again to Tim and Elly for housing, feeding, and entertaining us. I think it's safe to say that we all had a really good time. We got there Friday after a twelve hour trip. Saturday they took us out to the beach at Belmar where we swam. I'm normally not a beach or swimming person, but we had a lot of fun. After that we went to this place that sells Italian ice, which was fantastic. You can get up to four flavors combined, which allows you to make some good mixtures. Sunday we went to New York City, which I hadn't been there since the summer of 2001. We walked all over the place and saw a lot of the sites, including Central Park, Ground Zero, and St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Jess and I went to mass. Monday we were all so tired from all the walking that we just hung out. We swam at the pool at Tim and Elly's apartment and played poker and Apples to Apples that night. Tuesday night we went back into NYC to see Monty Python's Spamalot. If you ever have to go see a musical, see this show. It's a stage adaption of Holy Grail written by Eric Idle, and it was absolutely hilarious. Definitely my favorite show that I've seen. Then Wednesday was the long return trip home.

---

Justin got my hopes up last week with the announcement that Alice in Chains is going on tour again and playing in Cleveland Novemeber 9th. If anyone has even the slightest interest in going, please let me know. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning. I'd be happy to drive.

Edit: Sweet, Dougie's going to be my concert buddy again and go with me. We're probably going to copy off Justin and see the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame while we're up there to. And now Joe's going too.

all the children are insane

Today is my last day of work. I can say that I'm glad it is over with only a few reservations. I'll definitely miss the pay and I'll miss the handful of people I've made friends with over the past 14 months. But it will be great to be done with all the stress.

Jess, Christy, Alex, and I leave tomorrow for New Jersey. We'll be staying with Tim and Elly until next Wednesday, so don't expect any updates until then. It should be a lot of fun, as long as the drive out there goes okay. But at least we won't be flying out there.

see you down in arizona bay

Global warming is something I've tried to keep a more open mind about lately. In the past I blew it off as something that wasn't too big of a deal. As someone once pointed out, what scientist dedicated to monitoring changes in the environment is going to say that there isn't a problem? After all, if there isn't a problem then there's no need to fund that research, and then Mr. Scientist is out of a job. That being said, I've been much more accepting recently of the negative impact global warming is having on our environment.

I am anything but an Al Gore fan, but I've had a reserved interest in seeing his film on global warming since I first heard about it. Watching the film, there's no doubting his sincerity. After losing the 2000 election, Gore has poured himself into traveling around the globe, lecturing audiences about the dangers of climate change. I'm normally not a fan of biased documentaries, but An Inconvenient Truth shouldn't be compared with the propaganda Michael Moore puts out, which somehow gets classified as a "documentary" instead of "fiction" or "complete bs".

Basically the whole movie is clips from him giving lectures about the problem of global warming. He gives good evidence to back up his claims, and from what I've heard and read, the argument isn't that what he says isn't happening, but that it won't be quite as severe as Gore makes it out to be. I'm not sure quite what that means; that sea levels will only raise by ten feet worldwide instead of twenty? For some reason that doesn't make me feel any better. There's a couple spots in the movie where he can't help but take a couple shots at Bush. I'm sure that goes over well with a lot of the demographic in the audience, but it just makes Gore come out looking bitter and petty. There's one section where Gore talks about how mistakes were made in the past and you get the impression that he's talking about mistakes being made in regards to the environment. But immediately after that, for no apparent reason, the film cuts to a montage of the 2000 election recount in Florida and that whole controversy. Hey Al, I've got an Alice in Chains song you might like. It's called "A Little Bitter". I also wish he would have spent a little more detail on the solutions, but mainly the message seemed to be "here is what's going to happen, now the politicians need to start doing something big to prevent it." And I think he's probably right.

I know what some of you may be thinking now: that I've been sucked in by this propaganda and now it has me all terrified of what could happen. Well first of all, I've been growing more concerned about this for awhile now, which is one reason I kind of wanted to see this movie in the first place. Secondly, why is everyone willing to take such a chance with this? I don't really understand it. It sounds cliche to say this is the only planet that we have, but it's true. We certainly aren't doing a great job taking care of it, so why would we want it to get worse?

The other things that disappoints me about this is the complete and utter silence from the "Christian" community. We're supposed to be good stewards of what God has given us, something you hear all the time when it's an issue such as tithing. What about this planet we've been given? The Christian community if full of all kinds of moral outrage over gay marriage and abortion and Harry freakin' Potter. Where's the outrage over the irreparable damage we're doing to this home he's given us? So much time, effort, and money is spent protesting things like gay marriage. Why aren't Christians out in force writing to their Congressmen that they want to see more measures passed to prevent further environmental harm? I know there probably are lots of Christians out there working for things like the environment, and I'm not sure why I'm expecting the heads of the "Christian community" to care when they often do a terrible job representing Christ, but I think the lack of care in this area is fairly disappointing.

I realize I'm sounding pretty extreme right now, but don't worry, I haven't turned into a big treehugger overnight. Part of it is me just letting off steam from a variety of things. But I think this is an issue that more people need to pay attention to, and care about.

same old trip it was back then

Jess and I drove down to Georgetown with Rob and Jen on Saturday to watch the first day of Bengals training camp. I'd never been to training camp before, and it was a good time. We had fun watching the practice. I was most interested in seeing the condition of Palmer's knee, and I have to say that the reports of his progress are not exaggerated. He wears a big brace on the knee but he was moving all over the place in the drills, taking drops and rolling out to throw on the run. I think the biggest test is going to be how it holds up when he starts to take hits. Even though he'll take hits in camp, it probably won't be till the preseason that we'll really see how well it holds up. I have a hard time thinking that the guys in practice aren't going to be hesitant to hit him as hard as they can, but another team will give it the true test. I took some pictures with the camera Jen brought, but apparently the camera doesn't like zooming in that far because they turned out kind of blurry for a digital camera. I guess I'm just a bad photographer.

some say the end is near

Tool is coming to Columbus on September 21st. Tickets are already on sale. Who wants to come with me?

in euphoria i'm bruised

I saw today that the outside of our apartment building and the building next door were all vandalized with spray paint last night. I also haven't seen Austin all day, as he was gone when I woke up. I think we may have a fugitive on our hands here.

forty-six and two

Like everyone else, I'm getting a little tired of the weekly episodes of a Bengals player having a run-in with the law. Sometimes I wonder what goes through the minds of these people. Odell Thurman's 4-game suspension is the worst problem they've had so far, in my opinion. Sure, Chris Henry is a valuable offensive weapon, but I think we can fill a void at third receiver much more easily than we can at middle linebacker.

The good news is that Mathias Askew probably wasn't going to make the team anyway, and after this I'm all but certain he'll be cut. I'd like to see them put provisions in the contracts of "troubled" players like Frostee Rucker and A. J. Nicholson where if they get in some kind of trouble, then they forfeit parts of their salary. Similar to the clauses some teams have about players engaging in dangerous activities. I think there's a possibility we may even see Henry get cut from the team if Antonio Chatman and Tab Perry perform well in training camp, but I'm not holding my breath.


I made a big change to my class schedule yesterday that should allow me to graduate on time. I was going to be one quarter behind on Spanish, as I put off taking it till this summer. I'm halfway through the first class right now, but forgot to sign up for the next one after this in the last third of summer quarter. Since we're going to New Jersey for a week anyway, I figured I might as well just take it in the fall and just be a quarter behind. Well when I was talking to my mom about my classes, I realized that I'd only be missing four days of class while in New Jersey. Sure, four days is a lot for a three and a half week class, but if it's a matter of choosing between four days and another whole quarter, I'll gamble on missing four classes. I'm going to talk to the prof and see if we can work something out, but either way I'm taking it because it had open spots. I managed to get into the next Spanish class in the fall just fine, I didn't even have to shuffle my current schedule around. I was looking forward to not having any more classes after next week, but this will be worth it in the long run.

sitting spare like a book on a shelf

Valve held a press conference for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 earlier in the week, and made two very surprising announcements. The first was the announcement of a new single-player game to be bundled with Episode 2, Portal. There wasn't a whole lot of explanation as to what the game was, but the basic idea is that you have a portal gun that you use to create and entrance to the portal in one location, and an exit to the portal in another. So, if you find yourself staring at a big canyon that you cannot cross, simply create an entrance on your side of the ravine, and create and exit on the other. The video they showed looked pretty amazing. Valve showed all kinds of different scenarios to demonstrate different ways to use the portal gun. Have a sentry gun blocking your way? Fire a portal under a heavy box, put the exit over the gun, and watch the box fall through the portal and knock it over. The video didn't really explain what you do in the game, but judging from what I saw, it looks like the game is a big obstacle course full of puzzles and challenges that require you to think up creative uses for the portal gun to get past and survive. It didn't reveal whether Portal has any connection to Half-Life 2 other than being set in the same universe (same artwork, style, etc.). It didn't show any type of living enemy, and I don't think the game will be used to tie in the story line, at least not right now. I hope they expand the idea even further than just a single-player puzzle game, because it looks like you could have some really exciting multiplayer action with the game. Valve continues to show their ability and desire in be innovative and inventive when it comes to creating games.

The other big announcement was the most surprising: Team Fortress 2 is in fact very much alive, and will also be bundled with Episode 2. This is a game that has been in limbo almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever. The biggest change is the artwork for the game; the characters look like something out of a Pixar movie. Their figures are cartoonish and exaggerated. Personally, I think it's a great look. Team Fortress isn't about realism, it's about fun. The video didn't show any gameplay, just the character models, so it isn't really known whether Valve is planning on it being the revolutionary multiplayer game they said it would be seven years ago. I'm guessing after all this time, and after games like the Battlefield series that have already done with Valve planned to do with TF2, that the game will be more like a port to the Source engine. But if they're including it free with Episode 2, that's okay by me.

M. Knight Shyamalan's Lady in the Water comes out this weekend. I was planning on seeing it, but it's not getting the best reviews, and after the mediocre Village, I'm a little hesitant now. There really haven't been many movies I've been looking forward to this year. I'm tired of superhero movies, and I was bored with Pirates of the Caribbean before it even came out because I knew it would be more of the same (they made it LONGER than the first?! Doesn't anyone hire an editor anymore?). One of the few I am definitely excited about is Miami Vice. Michael Mann has put out some great movies (HEAT, Collateral) and this looks like it will be more of the same. Jamie Foxx is a good actor, and while Colin Farrell isn't my favorite, he's usually pretty good in these action roles.

And then there's Snakes on a Plane which sounds so terrible that it almost makes me want to see it.

the ashes in my eyes

I thought I'd throw up a few pictures from the NIN concert. Bear in mind that none of these pictures were taken by me, I just found them online and borrowed them. I threw all the pictures I found on the flickr page I set up, so if you want to see more you can go there.
I edited this picture to give you a general idea of where Doug and I were for most of the concert. We might actually be in this picture but the people are too small to tell, and most likely we're a little more to the left, just outside the frame.

where the gun is cocked

Obviously people are going to compare Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser to his work with Radiohead, but they really are not very similar. The closest comparison you can make to it would be Kid A, but his solo album is an even greater exploration into electronica. It's filled with more drum machines and synthesizers, and much less guitar, than most of Radiohead's music. I look at The Eraser the same way I saw Billy Corgan's TheFutureEmbrace: it's a pretty good album, but not as good as the stuff he has done with his band. There are a lot of fun, entertaining songs like "And It Rained All Night" (which feels very similar to something off of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief) and "Black Swan", but none of the songs are anything mind blowing. The album is also a little on the thin side, weighing in with just nine tracks.


American V: A Hundred Highways is the first non-compilation album by Johnny Cash to be released posthumously by Rick Rubin's American Records. Overall it's a very solid album. I like the folk-vibe most of the songs have. Few of the songs have the country flavor to them that some of the American IV tracks had. But this new album also lacks some of the instant classics Cash's last album had, like "Hurt" or "Personal Jesus". This is the first album in his American Recordings series where he doesn't have any popular covers of bands like U2, Soundgarden, or Tom Petty. The only song that is familiar to me at all is "God is Gonna Cut You Down", and that's only because it was sampled in Moby's song "Run On". However, the lack of familiar tunes is not something I would criticize this album for. It's loaded with great songs, whether they're brimming with spirituality like "Help Me" or just fun tunes like "On the 309". Even after his death, it seems Johnny Cash can continue to bless us with meaningful music.

southern change gonna come at last

Everyone is probably aware by now that Italy won the World Cup on Sunday, defeating France 5-3 in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw. I thought it was a good game. France looked strong at the beginning, and they scored first off the Zidane penalty shot. I didn't think the foul in the box was a good call. It looked to me like the French player (not Zidane, but I don't recall who) took a dive. Then Italy responded in the 19th minute with a great header. Italy scored again but was called offside. Zidane almost gave France the lead in overtime with a headball, but Buffon made a fantastic one-handed save. You could tell Zidane thought it was going in, and maybe that helps explain what happened next.



Unless you haven't been paying any attention to sports the past few days, you've probably seen Zidane headbutting Materazzi. I think it's a huge shame that someone like Zidane would end his career in this fashion. Imagine if someone like Peyton Manning was in the playoffs, and had announced that he would retire when it was over. They make it to the Super Bowl, and while his team is deadlocked in a close game, Peyton walk over and ends his career by kicking someone on the opposing team in the groin. That's about the equivalent of what Zidane did. If FIFA had a Hall of Fame for players, Zidane would be going in it. That's how good of a player he has been, and that's why what he did was so stupid. He had a great legacy, but this is what people are going to remember.

Anyway, Italia won, which was fine with me because I was rooting for them.

shine on you crazy diamond

Syd Barrett, legendary musician and one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, has died.

light a roman candle and hold it in your hand

I'm still not completely over whatever cold or virus I came down with this week. Started off as a bad headache and a sore throat, and the past few days it's been a bad cough and lots of congestion in my head and chest. I still have a sore throat too, although I think it's mostly because my nose is too congested when I sleep, so I breathe through my mouth all night.

UFC 61 was actually pretty disappointing last night. The first fight was rediculous, only because Yves Edwards got a huge gash on the top of his head, which proceeded to gush everywhere. It was easily the bloodiest fight I've ever seen. Amazingly they waited until the end of the round to stop the fight. The Ortiz - Shamrock fight started out very fast, and looked to be an entertaining bout, but it just ended too fast. The Sylvia - Arlovski rematch was probably the most boring title fight I've ever seen. It went all five rounds without a lot of action, and Arlovski didn't even get the Heavyweight belt back. He just looked too cautious the whole fight.

try so hard to make the pieces all fit

Dougie and I went to the Nine Inch Nails show in Indianapolis last night. It was fantastic. Even better than the U.S. Bank show earlier this year.

The less said about the first opening act, Peaches, the better. At least Bauhaus was entertaining. Doug and I both agreed that they're better than Peaches or Moving Units from the February show. Peter Murphy was funny to watch.

NIN took the stage around 9:15. For this outdoor leg of the tour they ditched the whole cloth screen for this big metal grate that descends from the ceiling (think of those metal grates they pull down over store doors and you'll get the idea). The grate has lights in it that they can turn on and off and use to make different designs and animations. They had some screens at the back of the stage again with different light patterns to. Unlike the other show, there was no intro music like Pnion to tip you off. The band just crept onto stage right as the roadies were leaving, with Trent picking up the mic and starting into Somewhat Damaged, which made for a fantastic opener.

From there the grate went up and they followed with a flurry of fast songs like You Know What You Are?, Terrible Lie, and March of the Pigs. After that we got a much-needed breather with Something I Can Never Have, and then the expected Closer. For that song they had just the center portion of the screen come down with red lights, and Trent standing in front and behind it. It was great to see some instrumentals in the show with Help Me I Am In Hell and a shortened version of La Mer. That led right into fantastic Into the Void, which was followed by an ever better The Big Come Down. They played the full-band version of Non-Entity which is a non-album song Trent wrote on piano for a Katrina benefit last year. They pulled out Down In It near the end, which was fantastic. Suck has been a staple of their live shows in the past, show it was good to finally hear it. Then Peter Murphy of Bauhaus came out to sing with Trent on a song called Final Solution, a cover of Pere Ubu (who?). Then they finished with the usual closing songs.

I was really kicking myself for not bringing a camera. We were in the pit again, and when the show started we were in the back of the front third of the pit (if that makes sense) in between Trent and guitarist Aaron North. Then during March of the Pigs when everyone started pushing and moshing like crazy, I saw an opening and made my way further up front until I was about five or six (very squished) people back from the rail. I was about three feet away from Aaron when he dove into the crowd during that song. Had he dove straight out from where he was on stage, and not towards the middle of the pit, he probably would have been on top of me. Anyways, when I pushed up I left Doug behind in the process, so he was in our old spot about five people behind me. I kept trying to get his attention to tell him to come up with me, and he finally had a chance when the pit got real crazy again on Gave Up. The pit was insane the whole time, and we were really tired by the end of the night from all the jumping and trying not to get knocked over. Some guy next to me got hit in the face during March so I gave him my handkerchief for his bloody nose. Thank goodness the weather wasn't really hot, because it was hot enough in the pit. By the end we were literally soaked in sweat.

Trent commented several times about how great and energetic the crowd was. He said that they are almost done touring and that they're going to take a few months off the finish the new album he's been working on, and they'll be back early next year. With his track record, you can't help but be skeptical about a new album being released in under two years, but we can hope.

The venue was really nice. Doug and I walked around up by the lawn in between sets, and the view from there puts Riverbend to shame. After the show I was dying of thirst, so I made my way over to a food booth that was still open. I guess they were supposed to close at 11, because the people in front of me got their drinks, and I stepped up to ask for water. Before I could say anything, the attendants looked me straight in the eyes, and the proceeded to pull the wooden door down right in my face. But kudos to the people who were standing outside giving away free cans of Full Throttle energy drinks. Then the venue set off a bunch of big fireworks as we were waiting to get out of the lot.

The full set:
Somewhat Damaged
You Know What You Are?
Terrible Lie
March Of The Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
Closer
Burn
Gave Up
Help Me I Am In Hell
Non-Entity
Only
Wish
La Mer
Into The Void
The Big Come Down
Suck
Down In It
Hurt
Final Solution (w/ Peter Murphy)
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

sunday morning coming down

I've been procrastinating lately when it's come to updating. No real reason, other than that I'm lazy. Last Sunday we went to Riverbend and saw Lynyrd Skynyrd for Dougie's birthday. Actually, it was 3 Doors Down and Skynyrd, but no one cares about them. We had fun mocking 3 Doors Down and Skynyrd was great. They played most of the songs I'd want to hear, like "That Smell", "Simple Man", "Gimme Back My Bullets", "Three Steps", and of course "Freebird". It was a fun show, even if I couldn't really see anything.

Tim and Elly are back in town for the week. We got to hang out with them some last night, and we're having Tim's birthday party today.

I'm still sad about Brazil losing to France. They just did not play well. France, on the other hand, was on fire. After not doing well in the Group stage, they are peaking at just the right time. It kind of reminds me of Pittsburgh's run to the Super Bowl, except that France didn't have to take a cheap shot on anyone to win. And I'd take the French over the Steelers any day.

Speaking of the World Cup, when Austin and I were walking over to UC to watch the Germany - Argentina game, we walked around the corner from our apartment and almost tripped over a guy passed out sleeping (or dead?) on the sidewalk at 11 am in the morning. Only in Corryville. That was a great game though, and it went all the way to penalty kicks. And how about that Portuguese keeper in Penalty Kicks yesterday against England? Four shots, and he guessed the right way to dive every time. He made three saves, and the one that went in he still got a hand on, but it was hit so hard it went in anyway. So now we have Germany - Italy and Portugal - France in the semifinals. With Brazil getting upset, I'm pulling for Germany all the way. Not sure who I want to win the other game. I like Portugal's Ronaldo, but it's hard not to pull for France with as good as they are playing now (Zidane is so fun to watch).

Superman Returns came out this past weekend. The previews looked pretty good, but I'm just so tired of superhero movies. There have been some great ones, but they all have such similar themes (great responsibility, feelings of isolation, etc.) that I am bored with them. Same reason why I didn't see X-Men 3.

Is it September yet? I can't wait to get into our new house. Our apartment is nice, except it's way too hot in here. I have a window air conditioner but A.) It doesn't work well and B.) When it runs it randomly makes noises that sound like gravel getting thrown into metal. I think something is getting kicked around inside of it. So the debate is whether I want to not sleep well because my room is too hot or because my air conditioner is making crazy noises. But the main reason I can't wait to get out of here is Corryville. This place sucks. It's too noisy, too dirty, too unsafe, too noisy, and not quiet. It is amazing how much less noise there is over at our new place.

Nine Inch Nails in Indianapolis tomorrow with Dougie. It's going to be amazing...

down in a hole

The game finished eleven hours ago, and I'm still mad about it. At least with the Bengals, or the Bearcats you can say to yourself "there's always next year." With this, what do you say? There's always... 2010? That's not good enough. Four years of buildup, of anticipation, for this? A tournament filled with poor performances from stars and terrible calls that determine the outcome of games. I think this may even top last year's Super Bowl for officiating blunders. What a horrible call to give Ghana a penalty shot. It happened right before half time, three minutes after the U.S. tied the score on a great play. The momentum they should have had going into the second half swung 180 degrees after that terrible call by the official gift-wrapped a goal for Ghana.

And Ghana, talk about a team I was disappointed by. Everyone wants to see an underdog make a good run in the tournament, and I loved their upset over the Czech Republic. But I don't think I've ever seen a team take more dives and feign more injuries to waste time than I did today. Calling their style cheap doesn't do it justice.

I take a small amount of comfort in Ronaldo getting back into form with a two-goal performance against Japan today. I look forward to watching Brazil destroy Ghana in the next round.

Oh well, here's to 2010. South Africa here we come. Hopefully...

a little bit of resolve

Before the soccer game on Saturday, Jess and I went down to Paul Brown Stadium for the Bengals' open mini-camp practice. We had a good time. It was fun to see the players out practicing and to get a look at new members of the team like Chatman and McNeal. Tab Perry looked impressive and I think he'll be making a much bigger impact out there this year. It was also nice to see Rudi looking good after his injuries last year. Chad had pulled his groin the day before, but he looked just fine. He made some very nice catches and naturally was standing out by wearing a pair of bright orange shorts in contrast to the black worn by literally everyone else. Kelly Washington did the squirrel after catching a pass in the endzone. Palmer was a no-show, but after the way he practiced during the week, I don't think anyone will complain about him taking a day to rest. We got to watch Anthony Wright, Doug Johnson, and Dave Ragone takes turns at quarterback, but there's no way to really determine how they'll measure up for a real game. Jess got some nice pictures, which I might post if she ever puts them online.


We found out that Chad Johnson has a book coming out: Chad: I Can't Be Stopped. It's written by Paul Daugherty of the Enquirer. I think it's hilarious. You can check out a sample chapter on the site.

something got to turn out right

What a game. Exciting and disappointing at the same time. I can't believe the US managed to pull off the 1-1 draw against Italy after three ejections put the US down to nine men against ten Italians. After getting destroyed by the Czech Republic, the US played today like a completely different team and held on the whole time to force the draw. Keller did a fantastic job in goal, making some spectacular saves near the end to preserve the tie.

Had it not been for the two ridiculous cards, there is no doubt in my mind that we would have won. Italy's player got ejected first for throwing an elbow in Brian McBride's face. Yeah, that's what they make red cards for. But Mastroeni's foul should have only been a yellow card. Sure, he only tackled the player, but it was only from the side not behind and he was going for the ball when he did it. You don't just pull out a red card for that. There's also no way Pope should have been given his second yellow card. He made contact with the ball, then tackled the player. It shouldn't have even been a foul. We played so well the whole game, even after the terrible calls and playing almost the entire second half with only nine men. We even scored a goal to go ahead in the second half, but it was called off for offsides. Considering the referees have already been criticized for the number of cards given out in games, I hope this official has done his last game in the Cup.

So we take one point from the draw. That's not the three points for a win we really hoped for (or should have had), but after Ghana's stunning upset over the Czechs, we still have a chance to advance with a victory of Ghana and an Italian win over the Czech Republic on Thursday (or a number of scenarios with a Czech - Italy draw).

there is a game i play

The US team already has their backs up against the wall after an utterly pathetic 0-3 loss to the Czech Republic on Monday. Now every match is a must-win if they want to have a chance of advancing to the second round. Hopefully they'll go into the game Saturday against Italy playing like it's the do-or-die situation that it is. Brazil looked a little less than impressive in their 1-0 victory, but I think they'll pick up the pace. Ronaldinho and Kaka played well, but Ronaldo has been heavily criticized for his slow performance. I'm hoping I get to see them play on Sunday. I'll be following the England vs. Trinidad & Tobago game at work today (ESPN has a good online live matchcast that I've been using at work), and after Trinidad's great play against Sweden for the draw, I have to root for them to upset the Brits. Germany continues to dominate, and I'm probably not the only one who found the Germany beating Poland match ironic/amusing (insert history reference here).

Work is slow. We're going to get supervisor calls from the Convergys employees that took our jobs. I haven't taken any yet, but I know others have. Other than that, we just take random calls, mostly in Baby Care or Beauty Care (the two areas I know least about). I'm meeting with someone on June 29 to get the actual details on my severance package, so it will be good to find that out so I can decide what I want to do for later in the summer.

Spring quarter was one of my busiest between my job and heavy work load from one or two classes. I ended up doing a lot better than I expected, with a 3.8 GPA for the quarter. That's probably my highest yet.

Since we aren't planning on getting a land line for our new house in September, I'm in the market for a new cell phone and plan. My old phone has served me well (it's lasted over 3 1/2 years) but I should have retired the prepaid service long ago. With no land line, I'll want a cell phone with a good plan, voicemail, and good service. The problem is I don't really know what phone or service to go with. If anyone has any good phone, plan, or service provider recommendations, let me know.

fall in love with the sound

FIFA's World Cup kicks off this weekend, and I'm one of the minority of Americans who actually cares. I'm pretty excited that the U.S. is entering with what is probably their best team ever, which says a lot considering the dark-horse run of the 2002 team to the quarterfinals. However, the U.S. is also in one of the two toughest groups this year, with Italy, the Czech Republic, and Ghana. Taking one of the top two spots from the Italians and Czechs will not be easy. We didn't get a lucky draw for the groups like the cake-walks awaiting England, Germany, and France. Plus, even if we get second in our group to advance to the next round, we'd most likely face Brazil. So winning our group is super-important, and will be extremely difficult. I'm also disappointed that I'll only get to see one of the U.S.'s first-round games, since the other two games are on cable, and are being played while I'm at work. But at least the games aren't on at six or eight in the morning like they were when the 2002 World Cup was in Korea & Japan.

i saw the ocean meet the man

I finished Half-Life 2: Episode 1 over the weekend and, to no one's surprise, I thought it was great. I really can't get over how brilliant the idea of episodic content is for gaming, at least when it comes to single player first-person shooters. The game lasted for about five hours, where your normal full length single player game generally lasts six to eight hours. Certainly no more than ten. So you have at least half the length of a normal fps game for only $20 (or $18 if you pre-order it via Steam like I did) instead of a whopping $50 for a few hours more. Granted many full games also come with multiplayer, but Valve has that covered as well, because Episode 1 comes with both Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and the Source-engine version of the original Half-Life Deathmatch. Plus has several other great multiplayer games available on Steam like Counter-Strike: Source and my favorite, Day of Defeat: Source.

Of course all this is only leading me into a discussion of how brilliant an idea Steam is. Never have a seen as much support by a developer for their games than I have seen by Valve over Steam. Constant updates and new features. Plus they sponsor the release of great third-party games over Steam like Darwinia and the SiN Episodes. These are games that are too small to garner the attention of a big publisher, but over Steam these games get the attention of millions of gamers.

But back to the actual game Episode 1. Yes, here are some spoilers, but it doesn't matter because most of those reading this have not, and probably will not, play the game. It doesn't answer of ton of questions from Half-Life 2 other than how you and Alyx Vance escape from the big explosion at the end of the game. The rest of the game follows the two of you trying to escape City 17 before the Citadel core explodes. Alyx is with you for the entire game, and she's probably the best Non-Player (Playable?) Character ever put in a game. Once again Valve pursues an actual emotional investment between the player and the characters in the game, and they succeed here more than ever before.

The game requires a great amount of team work to get through; for example, there are pitch-black areas where Alyx needs you to light the way with your flashlight, which includes illuminating any zombies or headcrabs so that she can take them out. The game also features a good mixture of puzzles and action, and once again makes great use of the physics engine with the greatest weapon ever created, the gravity gun (and yes, the super-powered version of the gravity gun does make an appearance again). The game ends with you and Alyx finally getting out of City 17 and also with another enormous explosion in which your survival is questionable (but obviously you do survive).

There's a preview trailer for Episode 2 at the end, which will have some nice new environments now that City 17 is no more, including what looks like some very open areas in a wilderness. There's also been at least one new Combine enemy hinted at in Episode 1. There's also some added replayability in the game because of the option to turn on the developer's commentary. This feature first made an appearance in the Half-Life 2: Lost Coast episode that was basically just a tech-demo for Valve's new high-definition lighting. The commentary is dispersed throughout the levels, and features all kinds of insights into level design, story and character development, and how the developers try to keep the gameplay different. I think it's a great feature. Here's looking forward to Episode 2 in six months.

leavin' on a southern train

This weekend was a lot of fun. Jess and I went out Saturday for our four year anniversary. First we went to dinner at Prima Vista. I got spaghetti and meatballs (not what it was called, but that's what it was) and she got the salmon. The spaghetti was good, but there was too much of it, and that's all there was. Jess' was the better choice because the salmon was excellent, and it came with green beans and a pasta. Before that we had a really good appetizer of muscles in some find of tomato-oil sauce. Then we had tiramisu for dessert, which was delicious. The view of the city from the restaurant was really nice too, especially since we got to see the sun go down and the city light up. It was a really nice place, but definitely on the expensive side.

After dinner we went to Shadowbox Cabaret. We had planned on going to Go Bananas comedy club, but had to change our plans when we realized the show was 21+ only. I'd never been to Shadowbox before, but it was pretty good. The comedy sketches weren't bad. Jess had been there before, and she said the comedy was better than it had been in the past. As I'd been told ahead of time, the music was really good. I wasn't impressed by their opening theme song, but they played a lot of good covers throughout the night. Some great renditions of "No Excuses", "Tom Sawyer", and "Baba O'Riley" were among the highlights (the girl that sang "Tom Sawyer" sounded so much like Geddy Lee is was hilarious. Overall I thought it was a fun place. I wouldn't go there all the time, but not bad for a change.

you probably think this song is about you

i finished my last long paper for my big history class and took an exam in another class yesterday, so i can finally exhale and relax. i only have two exams left next week, neither of which will be too difficult.

half-life 2: episode 1 comes out today, which means that once i get home i'll be shutting myself up in my room. i'll have to find some way to drag myself out again for class tonight. i also need to install my new 250gb hard drive. it will be so nice not having to worry about disc space or having to uninstall a game in order to install and play another one.

i'm really excited about our new house for next year. i really don't feel like spending three more months in our apartment. it's a nice place, but our house is better. and i hate the area. getting out of corryville is something i'm looking forward to the most. plus our apartment is just way too hot.

well i'm home from work now, and episode 1 is almost finished unlocking all the files...