TODAY: Chikara live blog

Just a reminder that I’ll be live blogging results from the Chikara in Streamwood show here today. TXT posts will be showing up here and on twitter.com/thecubsfan – I think they’ll show up quicker on twitter, but I don’t know and am totally playing it by ear. I’m sure I’ll end up with like 16 short posts, and I’ll come back and clean it up later.

It’s very cute how I’m going to have to leave for this show just about the time the Cubs clinch (assuming they hold onto this game.) I’m rooting for a quick four innnings.

that blew

I spent the last 12 minutes of Burn Notice wondering if my TiVo had goofed, and was only grabbing the first hour of a two part final. There was surely not enough time resolve everything, which was right – instead of doing any of that, everything just went kaBOOM, just leaving enough time for “see you this winter, sucker”

When they’ve spent 3 months teasing the payoff to the main storyline, when the preview for this episode was “it’s all leading up to his moment!”, you’d to actually get the conclusion to the story. It’s till a good show, but they didn’t need to be so lame.

Seeing as Carla has killing off everyone else with the operation before the conclusion and pretty much knew Michael had an extra key card AND he’s super parnoid, he probably should’ve thought a little bit longer about booby traps. Seeing as I’ve watched television shows before, I probably should’ve been more parnoid when they noted there was a not-yet-seen person grouped with Carla’s other operatives; surely this operation had no chance of happening if there was a character not yet on screen.

what I learned this episode: as a spy, it helps to have many different poolside outfits

PS3 Releases: week of September 8, 2008

on the shelves

09/08: NHL 2K9 [metacritic]
09/09: NHL 09 [metacrtic]

Let’s make it easy – there’s not a review out there that puts 2K ahead of EA. EA gets copy like “the best hockey videogame ever produced.” (1UP) and “it’s one of the best sports games to be released in the last decade.” (IGN) 2K is slightly more arcade-y, but unless you’re anti-EA, NHL 09 is hockey game you want.

09/09: TNA iMPACT! [metacritic] Not good. It seems rental/”pick up and play”-proof, since you’ve got force your way thru enough of the single player story mode to get the guys you may want to play with in exhibition mode. That seems like a flip from most wrestler games, where the story mode is lesser priority. PS3 is said to be lesser than the 360.

in the store

Downloadable Games
Jeopardy! {$15} – photo realistic 3D set! Because the thing that held you back from buying this before was the backgrounds not looking accurate enough. 2,500 clues sounds like you’ll have enough to play for a couple weeks (expansion pack are promised for 2009) and online multiplayer including voice chat almost makes it worth it. The one catch I note is your responses are multiple choice – you’re not typing in the answers (err, questions).

PS1 Classics (4 weeks – oops)

Add On Content
– PAIN: a new environment (Amusement Park) with new modes for $6, and three new characters are $1 each.

– Rock Band
* “Two Weeks” – All That Remains {$1}
* “This Calling” – All That Remains {$1}
* “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)” – Stephen and the Colberts (free)

I clearly have not been watching enough Comedy Central lately.

Guitar Hero III: Metallica “Death Magnetic” album {$18}
* “That Was Just Your Life”
* “The End Of The Line”
* “Broken, Beat & Scarred”
* “The Day That Never Comes”
* “All Nightmare Long”
* “Cyanide”
* “The Unforgiven III”
* “The Judas Kiss”
* “Suicide & Redemption J.H.”
* “Suicide & Redemption K.H.” (different versions)
* “My Apocalypse”

Game Demos
– FIFA 09
– Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Game Videos
– Golden Axe: Best Rider (trailer)
– FIFA 09 (trailer)
– NHL 09 (trailer, 2)
– Blitz: the League II (trailer)
– Saints Row 2 (trailer 2)
– Need for Speed Undercover (trailer)
– Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (gameplay)
– Legendary (BTS, 2)

Movie/Blue-Ray Trailers

PS3 Wallpaper
– PAIN (3)

PS3 Theme
– Mirror’s Edge
– Need for Speed Undercover
– PAIN (4)

over the horizon (last updated 09/12)

09/16: Armed Core For Answer [metacritic]
09/16: Pure [metacrtiic]
09/16: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed [metacrtiic]
09/16: Madden ’09 En Espanol

09/22: BAJA: Edge of Control [metacritic]
09/23: Lego Batman [metacritic]
09/23: Cabel’s Dangerous Hunts ’09
09/23: Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway and limited edition [metacritic]
09/23: Buzz! Quiz TV Bundle [metacritic]

09/30: Silent Hill: Homecoming [metacritic]
09/30: Shellshock 2

10/07: Motorstorm: Pacific Rift [metacritic]
10/07: NBA Live 09 [metacritic]
10/07: NBA 2K9 [metacritic]
10/07: Fracture [metacritic]
10/07: NBA ’09 [metacritic]
10/06: Monopoly

10/14: FIFA Soccer 09
10/14: Rise of the Argonauts
10/14: Disney Sing It Bundle w/Microphone
10/14: Rock Revolution
10/14: Golden Axe: Beast Rider [metacritic]
10/14: SOCOM US Navy Seals: Confrontation Stand Alone and with headset [metacritic]
10/14: Saints Row 2 and Collector’s Edition [metacritic]
10/14: Dead Space
10/15: Naruto Ultimate Ninja : Storm

10/19: Rock Band 2, guitar and track pack
10/21: Midnight Club: Los Angeles
10/21: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
10/21: Bioshock
10/21: Legandary [metacritic]
10/21: Little Big Planet [metacritic]
10/21: Hei$t [metacritic]
10/21: Far Cry 2

10/27: Guitar Hero World Tour, with guitar and with full band kit
10/28: SingStar Vol. 2 and with microhpone
10/28: MotoGP 08
10/28: Highlander
10/28: PES 2009 Pro-Evolution Soccer
10/28: Fallout 3, Collectors Edition and Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition
10/28: Blitz: The League II [metacritic]

11/03: Tomb Raider Underworld
11/04: Tom Clancy’s EndWar and headset bundle [metacritic]
11/04: Lord of the Rings: Conquest
11/04: James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace and collector’s edition (oddly listed as coming out a week early)
11/04: Resistance 2 and collectors edition

11/09: WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 and collectors edition
11/11: Valkyria Chronicles
11/11: Mirror’s Edge
11/11: Call of Duty: World at War

11/14: Alone in the Dark [metacritic]
11/16: Shaun White Snowboarding
11/17: Need for Speed: Undercover
11/18: Sonic Unleashed
11/18: Karaoke Revolution: Presents American Idol Encore 2 w/Microphone
11/18: Prince of Persia

11/30: Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and collector’s edition

Off the schedule entirely:
Ghostbusters – listed as “June 30, 2009”
Just Cause 2 – listed as “March 31, 2009”

not too worried

It’s easier to say it after a win (and big exhale when Pie caught the last ball, far short of the wall than it looked off the bat) but I haven’t been too worried about the Cubs the last few games then iI was earlier in the bad streak.

– It wasn’t a good play by Cedeno on Sunday, but it was a tough bounce and Cedeno ws responsible for the lead being there anyway so it’s hard to fault him much
– Tuesday’s was bad luck; it wasn’t as though the Cardinals were really great and the Cubs were really bad, St. Louis was just a little better that game. It just sticks out more when it’s preceded by a lot of losses.

Marquis’ been pitching pretty good, Dempster’s been fine, Lilly piched great last night, and hopefully Harden and Z come back right where they left off. There’s a missing likn out in the bullpen, with Gaudin being out indefinitely and Jeff Samardzija has been figured out a bit by the hitters, and I’m not sure how they’ll fix that yet, but the hitting has been good enough that I figure it’ll come back around soon or later.

Most of all, it’s hard to get really concerned when everyone else seems to playing as badly. The Cubs probably could’ve clinched by next Tuesday if they had played decent, but they’re still well ahead in the only race that matters (getting any playoff birth, 8.5 GA) All they’re losing is a few extra games of irrelevance at the end of the season, not the end of the world. You don’t have to be hot going into the playoffs, you’ve just to get in.

Hopefully this hurricane doesn’t strain things, and the Cubs get a chance to lengthen that lead over the Astros.

* – everyone saying Houston’s made the right choices to go trade for a race after all are way too quick on the trigger. They’ve been as hot as possible to get this far, but they’re still five games out. If they win the wildcard, then they’ve done something worth congrulating. If they’ve don’t, they’ve made the cardinal mistake of paying high costs to finish out of the playoffs. Your franchise goal shouldn’t be “finishing a strong third”, because then you’re missing the point.

worst parts of getting a flat tire

– planning the morning around being early somewhere, actually ending up an hour late

– not being able to get the lugnuts to turn in fifteen minutes, and someone else getting it on the first try

– that also takes away the “at least I can change a tire myself!” silver lining

– borrowing someone else’s car to get around all day, and forgetting half the stuff you need in your car

– being so focused on not getting screwed at the tire dealer, you forget your cell at work (and don’t have a any other phone), making you effectively dead to the world for a day

– the tire dealer doing the “hey, weren’t you just in here and I told you need two new tires” bit

– the tire dealer doing the “the tire that’s flat? That wasn’t one of the two. So you really ought to get four” bit

– paying for all four, knowing you probably need them eventually but not at all wanting to pay for them and moderately sure you’re getting ripped off in some way (why did I pay for the alignment service? I’m smarter than that, usually)

On the upside, it busted no more than 100 yards from home, so as soon as I figured out what was going on, I turned around and parked it in my driveway well before it totally defelated. AND it was better it happened this week and not last, when I possibly would’ve been stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no cell reception. AND the tire dealer had the Magnificant Seven on their TV while I was waiting, which is way up there on good movies I need to see all of at one point.

Chiefs at Cougars, 09/01

This is the first day in ten I’ve felt non-exhausted and had any time to deal with it, so perhaps I could write some posts over here. Like, plural and not-PS3 involved and everything.

20080901aaa 059
(Ozzie Cougar, frustrated after yet another Ozzie Race loss.)

Over on Flickr, I posted a bunch of pictures I took at the last KC Cougar regular home game. They actually won in a huge blowout, but I’d seen enough losses (3-10 final record!) I wasn’t totally convinced thing were going to hold up until the game was over. Since it was the last game of the season, I took a bunch of pictures of the park and the shenanigans going on between each inning (“Fish or No Fish” only got better when everyone realized they were just using 3 of the same 9 questions for all 70+ games.)

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(FISH or NO FISH? The video board is not great, but not nearly as bad as it looks here.)

They’re supposed to add a deck for mostly skybox purposes this off season, and I wonder how it’ll change the feel of the place. I wondered this last season too and they didn’t get around to building anything at all for some reason, but since the new administrative building is well in progress next to the stadium, this is probably the year.

20080901aaa 082
(Leonardo Espinal, my favorite player in the second half of the season)

Why do you wear American Flag uniforms for Labor Day? (Because you have them!)

obFlickr: does anyone else use the desktop upload client? Why does it upload all the photos, and then freeze every time when it’s making the set? Maybe there’s a better version or something, but it’s annoying. Also annoying is the smallest size it’ll shrink my pictures to is like 800×600, which is still unnecessarily big and doesn’t leave me with much room. I don’t know if I’ll bring the camera to CHIKARA, but I don’t have much room to put them up there.

20080901aaa 067
All pictures of Joe Blanton are gigantic

Cougars did make the playoffs, but only for a nanosecond. I was not too surprised they got swept in a two game series, but disappointed I have no more minor league baseball to go to. I’ve got tickets for next Tuesday’s Cubs/Cards game and then I’m out. Now that I think about it, I need to post this and go sign up for the playoff lottery.

20080901aaa 083

PS3 Releases: week of September 1, 2008

on the shelves

08/31: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames [metacrtic] – the 40435th military-ish shooter released in the last three years on all systems. You can blow more stuff up in this one, that’s the difference.

09/03: NFL Head Coach ’09 [metacritic] – if you buy this game, it’s time to consider professional help. There’s a review that claims this is the closest football sim to Front Page Football, which I only like because unnecessary references to mid-90s Sierra games I spent enormous amounts of time on make these posts worthwhile. That game was fun. This game doesn’t sound as much. This post is so late, I can accurately make a “NFL Head Coach cover curse, ah ha ha ha ha ha” but that’s beneath me.

09/03: FaceBreaker [metacritic] – a button mashing game boxing game requiring no skill. The Kimbo Slice endorsement is even more perfect! Kinda old school – the latter CPU opponents don’t have a better strategy or ability, they’re just cheaper.

09/02: Rapala Fishing Frenzy [metacritic] – actually came out! probably shouldn’t have bothered! apparently horrendous

09/02: World in Conflict: Soviet Assault – pushed back to 02/03/2009 – what? Someone must’ve entered the date wrong, I guess.

in the store

Qore #4
– w/MotorStorm: Pacific Rift demo

Downloadable Games
NFL Head Coach ’09 {$50}

PS1 Classics (3 weeks – which means they’ll release one this upcoming week)

Add on Content

HAZE: Destruction Pack {$10} – 7 multiplayer maps, one new multiplayer mode

Rock Band
* “Skullcrusher Mountain” – Jonathan Coulton ($1)
* “Shhh….” – The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets ($1)
* “Livin’ at the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe” – MC Frontalot (1)
As usual, they’re offering a 3 pack for $3, but since that’s so silly I’m skipping it from now on.

Game Demos
– PURE

Game Videos
– Jeopardy
– Super Stardust HD (tips, 2)
– PAIN (Call Da Shot mode trailer)
– Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (making of)
– Legendary (BTS)
– Midnight Club: Los Angeles (2)
– Red Baron Arcade (trailer) – hey, speaking of Sierra games I spent enormous amounts of time on…
– Saints Row 2 (2)

Movie/Blue-Ray Trailers
– the Ultimates
– Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
– The Fall

PS3 Theme

PS3 Wallpaper
– the Last Guy (again?)

over the horizon (last updated 08/24)

09/08: NHL 2K9
09/09: NHL 09
09/09: TNA iMPACT!

09/15: BAJA: Edge of Control
09/16: Armed Core: For Answer
09/16: Pure
09/16: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed
09/16: Madden ’09 En Espanol
09/16: Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

09/23: Lego Batman
09/23: Cabel’s Dangerous Hunts ’09
09/23: Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway
09/23: Buzz! Quiz TV Bundle
09/23: Just Cause 2

09/30 (maybe): Hei$t (metacritic)
09/30: Shellshock 2
09/30: Silent Hill: Homecoming
09/30: Legandary
09/30: Rise of the Argonauts
10/01: Far Cry 2
10/01: MotoGP 08

10/06: Monopoly Here & Now Worldwide Edition
10/07: Fallout 3, Collectors Edition and Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition
10/07: Midnight Club: Los Angeles
10/07: Fracture

10/07: Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
10/07: NBA ’09
10/07: Disney Sing It Bundle w/Microphone
10/07: NBA 2K9

10/14: Saints Row 2 and Collector’s Edition
10/14: SOCOM US Navy Seals: Confrontation Stand Alone and with headset
10/14: Golden Axe: Beast Rider
10/15: Shaun White Snowboarding
10/15: Tom Clancy’s EndWar [metacritic]
10/15: Naruto Ultimate Ninja : Storm

10/20: Dead Space
10/21: Little Big Planet [metacritic]
10/21: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
10/21: Ghostbusters – perhaps

10/27: Guitar Hero World Tour