Monday Morning Quarterbacking, and other stuff

[yendi]

The game itself was fun to watch. The better team clearly won, but I'm glad they did so against an Eagles team with TO having an effective game. Made it more of a real victory. Of course, given the comparative quality of the two leagues right now, I still think the championship game was really played last week.

Commercials, for the most part, were uninspired. Although I did laugh at the FedEx commercial with Burt Reynolds, and the various Cedric the Entertainer ones. The Marvel/Visa one was cute, and hey, a Batman Begins trailer was a nice bonus.

What really sucked, however, was Fox's übercraptastic announcing team and production studio. From the Four Morons of the Apocalypse on the pre-game show, to the announcing team that simply fails to notice things right in front of them (remember the Patriot going at the ref and being restrained by his teammates? Wouldn't you like to know what happened?), to the experimental camera angles, this game proved that not only is the AFC the better league, but they have the better network. Please, NFL, don't let Fox renew their contract unless they promise better announcers.

Simpsons was pretty mediocre, which is too bad, given all they could have done with that material. American Dad was fun, and has potential (bias alert: one of the creators is a family friend).

After the game, shadesong came back from Javamonkey and mentioned that she smelled gas outside. Turns out there's something up with the gasline in our (new) furnace. One call to Atlanta Gas and Light led to the gas being turned off, which meant we were cold, but safe, and our heating company is coming out today to repair the damage they did (or failed to notice, not sure which). But yeah, last night was a little bit colder than I'd like.

Elsewhere:

We went to Maggiano's on Friday night for a date night, and shadesong actually tried and liked my tilapia (with a fennel crust and lentils)! I'll make her a seafood convert yet!

Afterwards, we went to Border's and I got Michael Shermer's latest book, Science Friction. As some of you know, Shermer is one of my heroes, and this book, a collection of essays, is a blast so far (the first chapter recounts how he, at Bill Nye's request, used standard cold-reading techniques to emulate what "psychics" do, with Crossing Over-level results). There's a chapter on Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek late in the book that I'm looking forward to (since I know that City on the Edge of Forever is Shermer's favorite episode). The intro tells the story of Emily Rosa, who, at the age of 10, devised a cheap experiment to debunk the ludicrous "Therapeutic Touch" theory that bullshat its way through nursing circles in the '80s and '90s. Quite a nifty little girl.

At Borders as well, 'song got a new Robert Rankin (The Witches of Chiswick) and something else I can't recall.

And when UPS shows up at our doorstep today, it'll be with Wonderfalls! Yes, we will finally own it!

Obligatory Kingdom of Loathing update: Getting frustrated trying to find the Hey Deze Map. I've used literally over 200 adventures in the (unnamed area where it's located). It's been nice for leveling up, but I want my goddamn Pagoda! Otherwise, game's going well. I'm well on my way to level 10. Oh, and I now have Evil Golden Arches at my campsite. :-)

Yes, someone has installed a MacMini inside a Chevy Nova. The site will be updated once they finish with the rest of the car. And they're also working on a MacJeep!
(ETA: Their site seems to have gone down since early this morning. Hoping the link comes back up soon, so I'm leaving it up here.)

Finally, I still like Planetary, a lot. But this parody of the latest issue (not worksafe, 'cuz of language and gore) still nearly made me spew my coffee.

Comments

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Sean McMullen, Souls in the Great Machine, and close your parenthesis. :)

[yendi]

Feh. Stupid parenthesis. They should invent one that can close itself.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

They really ought to!

[heathrow.livejournal.com]

Boo! The link for the MacMini in the Chevy Nova isn't working for me.

[yendi]

Their site went down about a minute after I posted! Most of the Mac sites have been mentioning this, so I think they got slashdotted.

[heathrow.livejournal.com]

Dang the power of the Internet....


KHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

You're friends with Seth McFarlane?

[yendi]

Nope (although I met him at a wedding). But there were three creators on this and Family Guy. :-)

KoL

[storme]

I think I have a spare hey deze map, if you want it...

Re: KoL

[yendi]

Rock! thanks (just logged in and saw that you already sent it)! I don't like buying/taking quest items, since the point of the game is the complete the quests, but when it really seems that their randomizer is just plain busted, that just sucks some of the fun out of it (and there's not much experience-wise or item-wise to make me want to continue adventuring there, anyway).

Thanks again!

Re: KoL

[storme]

Mmhmm. Later on in the game, there's one item you can get in there that you may find yourself adventuring for a few times, but it's not a quest item.

And believe me, I've been there with the randomiser. The length of time it takes me to get worthless trinkets *still* makes me cry.

Re: KoL

[yendi]

It's the Imp Ale, isn't it? ;-) (I'm up to 48 of them, thanks to my adventures there). I did score enough Hellion Cubes to almost pay off my investment in starting up a store, which was nice.

I've had decent luck getting 10-leaf clovers, so I've been okay with Worthless Trinkets so far, at least (will I need more of them, post dingy?).

Re: KoL

[storme]

10-leaf-clovers are one of the most useful items in the game, since they have multiple very-cool-effects and now can be used in a recipe. Depending on how much you get into the farming-items-to-sell/exploding-your-chefs-and-bartenders/trophy-gathering/etc side of the game, you'll end up wanting more clovers than you can get from shore trips and so exchanging fistfuls of trinkets for them.

There's a couple of other items the hermit has which you may end up using, but they're not really worth it unless you do PvP or want a full campground.

...why yes, KoL really has eaten my life. Gah.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_cinnamongirl_/]

the Marvel commercial made me sad. spidey hawking visa. :-(

am v. excited re: batman begins. looks suitably dark and un-cheesy.

[yendi]

Un-cheesy, but with enough of a sense of humor ("Does it come in black?") to still nicely catch me off-guard. Definitely excited.

[jmfunnyface.livejournal.com]

The announcers last night sucked, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so. They had their noses so far up Brady's butt it got annoying real quick. And then they called an Eagles player by the wrong name. It was good seeing T.O. play even though McNabb was pretty terrible.

[force-of-will.livejournal.com]

"Made it more of a real victory. Of course, given the comparative quality of the two leagues right now, I still think the championship game was really played last week."

I think the game itself was close enough, especially in comparison with the other games in this run, to put your statement in doubt. The AFC has a list of very good teams below the Pats, but the Eagles are of that calibre I believe. The NFC's problem is the drop off after that.

Roethlisberger against Bill's Pat D? It is the Pats great strength that they can flummox even the best quarterbacks and pressure them into mistakes. And Brady figured out that the best thing he could ever do was to just stay within himself, not screw up, and they'd win...and I'd think he was advised on that.

Bill has done what any good coach would strive to do, create an extension of philosophy through unity. In that he has probably done more with less than any coach in the history of the league.

Will

[ocean-song.livejournal.com]

Have WonderFalls and have been eating it like crack movie candy!!! Wheeee! I can't BELIEVE that show got cacelled! And that I finally got a movie *before* you. *grins*

[silme.livejournal.com]

I want to hear about Witches of Chiswick. I've picked it up at book stores and have put it back down again. I'm tempted by it.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

The Planetary parody rawks.

Glad I already finished my coffee.

[lovingboth]

Hmm, I'd say - especially if I were a member of the Eagles defence - that the Pats didn't win the game: the Eagles offence lost it, especially in the first quarter with all those turnovers. What made it a game was their defence saving them from being disasters.

But yes, a rare Superbowl watchable all the way through (even if I did think the Eagles were doomed when they went two scores behind).

[phantom_wolfboy]

"Hack. You fucking hack."

"It beats writing."

As the man said, Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!