Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 21674
Goal: 21800
Gamerscore Now: 21704

Achievements Unlocked

NCAA Football 11

Treasure Hunter 30G

Goal for Next Week: 21800
$ for HPA: 6.10(+4.80 this week)

Kinect(and the like)

Ok, so there is a new trend towards controllerless gaming. I'm definitely not going to be getting a Kinect for my XBox. It's not really for me. I don't play video games to move around. I wouldn't say I'm vehemently opposed to this new trend, but I'm kind of afraid that this may be the way the video game industry wants to head. By theory it does have broader appeal, but I think most gamers are not big fans of this.

One of the new games for the Kinect is one where you have a virtual pet. So, have this mythological creature as a pet and you pet it by moving your hand over air. Is that not really bloody dumb? And people bitch about regular video games making a person dumb. If I'm playing Call of Duty, I have to think about lots of things(strategy, spawns, douche bag toobers, etc), mast hand-eye coordination, and good twitch reflexes. If I'm playing a game where all I do is pet an imaginary unicorn, well I don't even see how that's fun and I'm definitely not thinking about anything.

If I'm ever at a friends house and the opportunity presents itself to play Kinect or the like, I'll play it can probably have a lot of fun. I just won't spend any of my money on this new trend.

Medal of Honor

There has been a bit of a ruckus of late over the multiplayer in the new Medal of Honor game. *disclaimer* I'm not going to buy this game and totally not because of any this stuff, but because it doesn't look that great to me and there are other games coming out this fall that my gaming budget should go to. So, the deal is that in multiplayer there are two sides and one of them in the Taliban. UK Defense Secretary Liam Brown has called for a retail ban on the game in his country.

So, there's this entire shit storm over this game. Here's the thing though. It's a first person shooter. You don't ever see your character. While you are actually playing you don't know what side your on. In reality, the only noticeable difference is the initial spawn point. Like, on MW2 you may prefer the Spetsnaz spawn on one map and the TF 141 spawn on another. Not to mention that in World at War multiplayer one could could be on the fucking Nazi side.

Point here is that in a FPS nobody really cares what side they are on.

No question this week.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

Browns' Monday- The Ghost of Brady Quinn Edition

Browns @ Lions

Cleveland 27
Detroit 35

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 35-yard Field Goal
Detroit TD: Matthew Stafford 7-yard Pass to Byrant Johnson
Cleveland TD: Eric Wright returned fumble 44 yards

2nd Quarter
Cleveland TD: Jake Delhomme 5-yard pass to Lawerence Vickers
Detroit TD: Chris Houston returned fumble 14 yards
Cleveland TD: 1-yard rush by Peyton Hillis

3rd Quarter
Detroit TD: 2-yard rush by Kevin Smith
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 45-yard Field Goal

4th Quarter
Detroit TD: 4-yard rush by Aaron Brown
Detroit TD: 2-yard rush by Aaron Brown

Significant Stats
Jake Delhomme: 20-25, 152 yards, 1 TD
Colt McCoy: 10-14, 76 yards

If ever you could extrapolate anything from any preseason game, it would the third preseason game for a team. It is given more significance than any other preseason game and usually the starters play the entire 1st half and at least 1 series in the second half. It is the NFL equivalent of a dress rehearsal. For the Browns this year, it looked good on the offensive side of the ball and very poor for the defense.

The 1st team offense looked pretty good. Given that they were playing the Lions; a defense that allowed the Browns to do this last year. I still don't get it though. Daboll somehow became less crappy over the offseason. The personnel on offense hasn't got tremendously better, but the play calling is so much better this year. Like a real NFL offense. It also really helps that Delhomme has avoided throwing the ball to the other team. He was really good at that the past few years. Josh Cribbs seems to have a made the transition to receiver pretty effectively this offseason. He had a pretty cool catch on the sideline on Saturday.

Introducing a new character: Janus, The sheep who enunciates.

The Browns Defense was Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

Thanks Janus.

It didn't matter if it was the starters, 2nd string, 3rd string, or some combo of the three. The defense was very bad against the Lions. Granted the Lions offense did this to the Browns defense last year. I really hope Shaun Rodgers will make a big difference when he returns to the front seven, because it was really bad*. The defense didn't really ever stop the Lions, but did manage to score a touchdown. So, good for them. Hopefully they won't allow their opponents to put up forty on them every Sunday.

Nick Sorenson

He was immobilized and carted off the field in first half. Fortunately, he has movement and the tests came back negative. The hit he took was a helmet to helmet sandwich. Basically, the Detroit wedge wedged right on his head and he went down straight away. He's been around for a while and has been a back-up safety and a great special teams player for the Browns. Hopefully he will be able to return to the team soon.

The Ghost of Brady Quinn

I'm going to make premature and over the top statement about Colt McCoy. He reminds me a lot of Brady Quinn. That's not good. Probably not fair after just three preseason games, but he did something to day that screamed of Quinn. He threw a fucking Hail Mary out of bounds. What the Hell? That's something Brady Quinn would do and actually did. Add to that, Colt McCoy always seems to throw it short and to check downs and rarely tries down field. That's Brady Quinn in a nutshell.

Also Peyton Hillis is proving to be a great addition to the team. He was acquired in the Brady Quinn trade.

It's weird to be reminded of Quinn though, because he was so awful. Colt McCoy may be reminding me of Quinn right now, but he has probably the most secure position on the team. He won't be cut no matter what. Even if some reason Mangini decided to keep Ratliff, Delhomme would probably be the one to get the axe. In this alternate reality there are unicorns who crap ice cream and double rainbows happen daily at 13 o'clock.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael?

*Really Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

Thanks again Janus

Buckeye Sunday- Marshall

Marshall University

Where: Huntington, West Virginia

Mascot: Thundering Herd

Enrollment: 10,000 approx.

Conference: Conference USA

Record Last Year: 7-6

Head Coach: Doc Holliday

That won't be done with every opponent, but I'll do it for the 3 lesser-known, small conference opponents this season.*

Ok, insider information. I went to a Marshall football game last year. In fact, I'm a bit of a fan of this team.

This season, Marshall has a new football coach, Doc Holliday. He's been an assistant to Urban Meyer at Florida and most recently an assistant at West Virginia. Last year Marshall was coached by a lost** Tressel disciple, Mark Snyder. So, Marshall will be making a offensive transition under Holliday to a spread look.

Marshall's starting quarterback will most likely be Brian Anderson. There is some competition, but it appears that he will at least be the starter at the beginning of the season. Anderson isn't a great quarterback and has major constituency issues. He is experienced though and will likely be improved from last season. Marshall has a young wide receiver group that could potentially be pretty good. If the questions about the the Buckeye secondary, especially at the safety position prove to be true, Marshall could potentially expose them.

In the rushing game, Marshall lost it's star from last season in Darius Marshall. He had rushed for over 1,100 yards and 11 Touchdowns and made an poor decision to go pro. He didn't get drafted. His likely replacement will be Martin Ward. He's a quick young player who has shown some promise. I witnessed last year him getting cock-blocked by an official getting in his way as he was breaking a run to the end zone.

Defensively, Marshall has major issues, particularly in the secondary. The secondary was pretty shaky last year for the Thundering Herd. Add to that, two important pieces of Marshall's secondary were dismissed from the team and it looks like Marshall may have some series issues in their back line. I think Marshall solution will need to be blitz, blitz, blitz and then blitz some more, because the secondary will need to be exposed as little as possible.

Ok, that's what I got on Marshall.

Prediction

Ohio State 45
Marshall 7

Yea, I don't see this one being close at all. Sorry, Patrick.

Thanks for reading and please comment. Maybe give me a guess as to what you think will happen.

-Michael

*If you want I'll do it for all the school. I just think it's unnecessary and patronizing with schools like Miami(FL) and Penn State.

**By lost, I mean really shitty coach.

Non-Post

The Browns game starts in less than an hour. I don't know what to think about it. Mangini played the last game like it was the third preseason game. So, I don't know what to expect. Will he play the 1st string into the 2nd half like he did last game? Or will it be more like a 1st preseason game where the starters only played a few series max? I don't know and that's not what I want to post about. In fact I'm having a hard time picking something to blog about today. I mean I have ideas, I just don't particularly write about them.

There's Glenn Beck going into a new dimension of insane. He's held a rally today on the national mall, which is alright. People are allowed to peacefully assemble even if they are proposing bat shit insane things. It's just that this is the anniversary of MLK's I Have a Dream Speech. It's just I try my best to ignore the tea-baggers.(hehe)

There's been that controversy over the Islamic community center being built in Manhattan. You know it's just a bunch of racist bullshit. It's The proud American tradition of fucking over the newest out group. Here's a question to ask any person who gives one of the many non bullshit reasons other than 'I don't like Muslims'

If the attacks were done by Catholic extremists, or better yet Southern Baptists, would you be afraid to build a church or christian center in NYC?

I was thinking about writing about a few video game topics. There's a new faux-controversy about the new Medal of Honor game. In multiplayer you may be on the 'Taliban' team. I decided to leave a bigger discussion about that for Tuesday. Along with that I wanted to talk about 'Kinect' and the new trend towards hands-free gaming. I'm passionately indifferent about this. More on that, Tuesday as well.

I've made a post of stuff I've decided not to blog about... Success

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

Not Hot. Pretty, but I Won't Say Either

Hello all. Get ready for a pretentious attack. The second part hopefully won't be so pretentious. This is also totally deep into the shallowness.

I try to never use the term 'hot' when I'm describing a girl. I try to stick with 'pretty'. All of theses words come with weird and difficult to describe baggage. I mean it seems that 'hot' and 'pretty' should mean the same thing and in reality I guess they kind of do. It's just they are totally different somehow. At least to me. I'll try to describe, but this may become convoluted and confusing.

'Hot' means a girl is really attractive, but also seems(at least to me) to convey that it's fake. Loads of make up and breast implants are 'hot'. Five inch high heels are 'hot'. 'Hot' implies artificial perfection. 'Hot' also creates a sense of the unobtainable. It's like that's her and I'm me and that's it. That's how it will always be.

Example: Porn Stars

'Pretty' means that the girl is attractive, but it's different than 'hot'. It's more real, whatever that means. It's not clothes, it's not make up. It just is. 'Pretty' doesn't necessarily mean obtainable, but it's just that a 'pretty' girl doesn't seem so different. While a 'hot' girl may seem almost like another species, a 'pretty' girl is another person.

Example: The girl you have a crush on

I hope some of that made sense. It's probably nonsense. Hair-splitting bullshit. I may be just loading words that don't need it.

Ok, on the topic of using labels to describe attractiveness.

I seriously have a major issue with telling a girl I think she's pretty or looks nice or whatever. Whether I actually believe it or not, it just always feels like it would be received as cheesy, pandering bullshit. I'm not talking about times when it's totally inappropriate. Douchebags will tell girls they're looking hot when it isn't called for. I'm talking about times when saying you look nice would be appropriate(i.e. a girl saying she looks bad when she really looks good.) I still won't say it.

It's probably mostly my shy/awkward nature. It's also my liberal guilt. I think it's kinda chauvinistic to tell a girl she's pretty.

Anyway a few drinks gets me over that.

I was thinking of doing pictures with this post, but decided it was shallow enough.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

One Week

One week until the college football starts and Ohio State plays Marshall in the opener. Pretty exciting. It will be nice to finally see some football that actually counts. It should be an absolute ass kicking, but still... FOOTBALL.

I'm really unabashed about how good I think this Ohio State team is. There is really only one team in the country who can rival the Buckeyes and that is Alabama. But lets say, Ohio State totally over looks Marshall and bad Terrelle Pryor shows up. It could end up like this:



Ok, that probably won't happen again. '04 was the worst Ohio State team in the past 10 years. Especially early in the year when There was the QB controversy. Justin Zwick and Troy Smith both kind of sucked it up early in 2004. Eventually Smith got the job entirely when Zwick got hurt in a game where Iowa absolutely wrecked Ohio State and by the end of the season showed great improvement. Of course Smith was got suspended for the Bowl game, but still he had won the job for 2005 and would end up winning the Heisman in 2006.

Completely side-tracked yet?

Buckeyes play in one week on Thursday Night for the first time. Anyone have any thoughts on playing a Thursday Night game at Ohio Stadium? Playing college football on almost every week night is the new trend and I don't think Ohio State is above it.

Stop talking now, Michael.

-Michael

Random Wednesday- Nonsensical Imaginary Spending

An alternative title for this post could be "super expensive stuff I want." So, if I had I had a finite infinity of money, this is a list of somethings I would buy. Materialistic bullshit commence.

Old Guitars- More specifically old electric guitars. Like a 50's Fender Stratocaster, an early 60's Les Paul, a mid 60's Epiphone. Oh, and a Gibson SG and I don't really care about the year. In reality, I actually prefer acoustic guitars, but I wouldn't necessarily want to add any Acoustics to my imaginary collection. Maybe a Gibson Dove or something like a Woodie Guthrie guitar or something of the like.

Gaming Consoles- I would buy a PS3 and Wii. Also I would update to one of the new 360 slims, just because the older versions of XBox 360s are so freakin loud.

Car(s)- An Audi R8 V10 would be the car I would want most. Maybe a '70 Corvette Stingray as well.

Trips- I would make a list of all the places and things I want to see, but it can be made simpler. I want to go everywhere and see everything.


I thought this list would be longer, but really that's all.

Thanks for reading and please comment

-Michael

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 21419
Goal: 21700
Gamerscore Now: 21674

Achievements Unlocked

NCAA Football 11

Formation Sub Success 5G
Air Raid 25G
Mix It Up 15G
Lock It Up 15G
Draw Me A Touchdown 5G
West Coast/Pro Style 25G
Hero 10G
Run and Shoot 25G
One Back 25G
Veteran 15G
Burn That Shirt 15G
Program Changer 25G

Madden NFL 11

Comeback Kids 40G
Thanks For Coming 10G

Goal for Next Week: 21800
$ for HPA: 1.30(+1.30 this week)

My Favorite Game Ever

I don't really have anything else to talk about this week. Treyarch is being tight-lipped about Black Ops multiplayer until Sept. 1, so new news from them a Gamescon. We're kind of in a lull right now before things really start to pick up this fall with Video Games. So, I'm going back in time a bit to write a little about my favorite game ever: Resident Evil 4.

RE4 was probably the turning point for me in terms of gaming. I had played video games prior to playing RE4, but this game turned me from "kid who likes to play video games sometimes" to "gamer kid." I played through RE4 a ridiculous amount of times. Like more than 10. Looking back I can't even be sure why, other than It was an awesome and fun game. There weren't achievements back then, so once I got the unlockables it was just about killing monsters.

It wasn't scary in the same way as the prior Resident Evils had been. That's not to say it wasn't scary at points. It just wasn't jump out of your seat scary like the prior REs were in certain parts. RE4 definitely had an awesome and creepy environment in it.

Sticking with RE4, this week's question:

More Overpowered: The Chicago Typewriter in RE4 or the Akimbo Model 1887s* in MW2?



Unlocked after beating the Separate Ways Mini-game**, the Chicago Typewriter is a .45 caliber, automatic weapon with unlimited ammo. It does cost 1,000,000 pesetas once it has been unlocked, but once you purchase it, the only other weapon you will need is the Sniper***. It is a monster-plowing gun and once you have it can make Las Plagas your bitch.

If you played Modern Warfare 2 prior to the patch for the ridiculous range on the Akimbo 1887s, you probably got shot in the face numerous times by this gun. Every lobby seemed to have assholes who would run around using nothing but the 1887s and it got really annoying really fast. Infinity Ward released a patch for them, but it failed because there was a way around it, which made it even more freaking annoying. Fortunately, they are now completely patched and nerfed to hell.

My Answer: I've got to go with the 1887s on this one. It wasn't quite as annoying as the OMA noob-tubing is now, but it was really annoying to get killed from a ridiculous distance by a shot gun in one shot. Plus, the Chicago Typewriter was a blast to play with and it wasn't multiplayer, so no real person was affected, just Spanish villagers with the Las Plagas Parasite.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*Prior to them finally being patched
**It wasn't really a mini-game, but more of a separate smaller game.
***There's a part where you must have a sniper to rescue Ashley.

Browns' Monday- The I didn't really watch much of the last preseeason game... so... um yeah... Edition

Ok, before I start my pseudo-breakdown of the game vs. St. Louis, I got a comment from someone who isn't my sister. So awesome. It seriously made me giddy with excitement. Many thanks to Jenna, You're awesome! Here's her blog: mean bean machine.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rams @ Browns- Preseason Game 2 Recap

Cleveland 17
St. Louis 19

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
St Louis TD: A.J. Feeley to pass to Daniel Fells for 9 yards
St. Louis FG: Josh Brown 32 yards
St. Louis FG: Josh Brown 39 yards

Second Quarter
Browns TD: Jake Delhomme 6 yard pass to Benjamin Watson
Browns FG: Phil Dawson 38 yards

Third Quarter
Cleveland TD: Seneca Wallace 15 yard pass to Josh Cribbs

Fourth Quarter
St Louis FG: Josh Brown 21 yards
St. Louis FG: Josh Brown 29 yards

I didn't see much of this game. I watched bits and pieces of it live and have caught a bit more on the replays on STO. Peyton Hillis looked good in the bits I saw. He seems like an excellent addition for someone who was a tack-on in the Brady Quinn trade. I won't really make anymore inferences than that for a few reason. First, I didn't see the entire game. Also, It was raining. Finally, the Rams suck. Oh, and it's preseason, so it doesn't really mean anything.

Here's and actual Recap

There is something I do want to bitch about though.

Why did Mangini leave the starters in so deep into this game? Conditions were terrible, which I would think you would want to keep your starters out of. No sense in getting any of the starters injured on a muddy field. It's not like it was the 3rd preseason game either. Save keeping the first string out into the 3rd quarter for the next game against the Lions.

That's all I got for this one.

Zastudil out for the Season

This is unfortunate. If the Browns are going to win at all this season, it will be likely with ball control and field position. Zastudil is an outstanding punter and his brilliant punting, in reality, won a game last year*. I hope he will avoid the staph infection that other Browns players have gotten following their knee surgeries.

Here's a question for you all. Which is correct. Is it 6-yard run or 6 yard run? Let me know in comments.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael.

*The game against Buffalo.

Buckeye Sunday- Spiking the Football

So, here's a question for you all. Am I the only one who thinks spiking the football late in a game or half is stupid? I mean a team still has to get lined up to spike the ball, so in reality a team isn't saving any time and is throwing away a down. One never can know how important that down could end up being.

I don't see why teams don't just run a pass play. An incomplete pass would accomplish the same goal as a spike and there is an opportunity for a successful pass play. Even if a play isn't called, running the same play again or having a go-to play would be better than the wasted down.

I can really only think of one scenario in which spiking the football seems like a good idea. That would be to stop the clock prior to an attempted field goal prior to the half or one to win or tie the game. Otherwise, throw the ball at a receiver and potentially make a big play rather than throw the ball at the ground.

Anyways, another short and rambling post today. What do you think? Am I missing something about this?

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

One more CoD: Black Ops Wish and random

I did a CoD: Black Ops wish list and totally missed putting something in that I thought was important, because I hadn't played any CoD games in a while. I've since started playing CoD 4 and remembered this. So consider this an amendment to that post.

More Playlists- I'd like to see more playlist options in Black Ops than in prior Call of Duty games. Adding some map or killstreak options on top of game type would make for a more enjoyable game. Not to terribly in depth, because too many playlist options would likely spread out the people playing multiplayer too much and make finding a game. Just some minor tweaks, so that one may be able to avoid something that is making the game difficult for him or her at the time.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been not feeling so hot for the past few days, so I've been lacking any real desire to do much blogging.

Here's something I've only actually told one person that I've been thinking about for a while now. I don't think I want to major in political science anymore. I think I want to major in something just as useless, History.

My mom has got some musical's soundtrack blasting. It's kind of totally annoying.

I almost got into a wreck with a cop today. It would've been the cop's fault.

People are really bad at 4-way stops.

-Michael

All Cleveland Browns' Offense(since return)

I don't really feel much like writing today especially about my own life. So here's a post that I never published(had it in drafts) from a now deleted sports blog I had. I came up with this more than a year ago and I only made one alteration. I also added some links to highlights. So, here you go the best the Browns' have had since their return to the NFL in 1999.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OB1- Tim Couch

The only QB to lead the Browns to the playoffs since their return, even though he finally got injured late in the season and wasn't able to lead the Browns in their game against the Steelers in the playoffs. And of course he completed a few Hail Marys to give the Browns victories.

QB2- Derek Anderson

Anderson is in this slot by default. One good season is a lot better than anyone one else. I mean it's either him or Spergon Wynn.

RB1- Jamal Lewis

Another one here by default. One good season is better than anyone else.

RB2- Reuben Droughns

Not Particularly good, but he did Rush for 1000 yards and I mean again who else could go here... Travis Prentince or William Green?

WR1- Braylon Edwards

He's the best stats WR since the team returned even considering the drops

WR2- Kevin Johnson

One of the best players during the Browns initial return and Tim Couch's favorite target.

TE- Kellen Winslow Jr.

The best offensive player the Browns have had since they returned.

LT- Joe Thomas

Three pro bowls and Three years pro.

LG- Eric Stienbach

Pro Bowler in 07 and one of the few Solid linemen the Browns have had sine their return.

C- Hank Fraley

He stepped into a dire need the Browns had prior to the 2006 season and played quite well. With a few more good seasons Alex Mack will take this spot.

RG- Ryan Tucker

I'm cheating here in that he didn't really play much at guard for the Browns, but really when you look at who has played Guard for the Browns since their return it's pretty pathetic.

RT- Kevin Shaffer

Once they figured out not to play him on the left side, he turned into a pretty solid lineman.

K- Phil Dawson

The only kicker we've had

Punt and Kick Returner- Joshua Cribbs

One of the best returners in the game ever. Dennis Northcutt gets honorable mention here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I might do a defensive one if anyone's interested, but that would be an even more depressing list.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

You're Asking for Directions Like Your Dick Isn't Out

Yesterday was generally a shitty day. I'm not going to get much into and this will be a short post.

Shit went down and I walked away and by walked away, I mean walked far away. I don't usually spend much time outside, but I walked for almost 3 hours. I would say at last five miles. I was pissed/glad*, talking to myself and not sure what to do. I think the company line will be said shit never happened and therefore will happen again**.

While I was walking yesterday down a road, this guy pulled up next to me in a black Mercedes. He asked me which way a certain street was and I told him and started walking again. He kept riding next to me and then asked which way another street was, I told him and kept walking. He kept riding next to me and then asked if I wanted to make a quick twenty. I guess I'm naive enough to not just start running and I said, "ok?" He pulled off to the side the road and I approached his window and saw that he had his dick out and was masturbating. I quickly walked away and he was like, "all you have to do is watch." "No," I said and just kept walking. He pulled away and drove past me.

Later on I was still walking, back in my own neighborhood and the guy in the black Mercedes pulled up next me. "I don't bite man," he said. I didn't stop and just kept walking saying, "I'm not interested," as forcibly as I could. He tried to say something else and I just repeated my line and kept walking. He floored it and ran a stop sign and he was gone. He drove past me three more times as I walked back home.

There's my story of my experience with a pervert.

Thanks for reading and maybe you can share your stories of any flashing/pervert stories in comments.

-Michael

*Sometimes finally having the fight is a nice relief.
**probably pretty damn soon.

Random Wednesday- 30-year old Michael

This wasn't exactly what I had planned on doing for Random Wednesday this week. I was going to do a 'what I want to do before I die post*'. I actually find that topic to be kinda morbid, but lacking other inspiration it was the plan. Then this popped up in my Sub box on Youtube. It's kinda a variant of what I had planned to do; only something I feel better about doing. So here you go a note to 30-year old Michael filled with verb tense and subject confusion.

*Inspired by 5AG's theme last week
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yo,

I'm going to start this off my making some predictions for the year 2019. I think this will make you feel better whether I'm/you're right or wrong. You can either be proud that you were a wise 21-year old or be glad that you're not such a fool anymore.

So here's a list of predictions:

-The economy will still be in the crapper
-A Democrat will be President. Obama will be booted in 2012** due to a crappy economy and the Republican** will be booted in 2016 for the crappy economy.
-The Browns will still not be very good
-Tressel will have moved to the role of Athletic Director and will have chosen his successor. I would venture a guess at who that successor will be, but I don't really have a clue. If I had to make a guess, I'll go with Chris Peterson
-Gaming will just be getting around to the next generation of consoles, because game developers fail to keep pace with advances in consoles.

Ok, that's enough. Feel better about yourself? I hope so.

There are something thats I will hope you have done by now.

I really want to go to the SxSW music festival at least once. I really liked going to Lolla a few years a go and would like to that again or try Bonaroo, but the music festival that I really hope we will have attended will be SxSW.

I hope you have taken a vacation by yourself. Not that I'm entirely anti-social, but taking a trip all by myself seems like a good idea. Not only will it be an opportunity to see someplace I've never seen, but an opportunity to fend for myself in an environment I don't know. I think that this is something that will make me a better, more well-rounded person. Plus at this point, I am incredibly poorly traveled and I would like to think that you will have seen some more of the world than I have.

I want to have had at least one long-term relationship. You'd have to tell me the story about it. As for marriage and kids, well, I'm not really to concerned about that as for those things to even be considered there needs to another half to the equation.

I want to have spent sometime doing something to that in just doing it makes me happy. It doesn't matter if you made much money as long as you've had the amazing experience. It could be a period where you're a touring musician, a published author, in the peace corps, or just something that's not traditional that will make us happy.

I hope you've gotten at least you're bachelor's degree by now.

You'd better not still live at home. .If you still do, well, maybe you should go jump off a bridge.

Sincerely You,

Michael J. Thomas

**voided by Palin becoming the Republican nominee in 2012

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 21104
Goal: 21400
Gamerscore Now: 21419

Achievements Unlocked

Madden NFL 11

Verizon Master Strategist 5G
Defensive Dominance 75G
Butterfingers 50G
Home Run 25G
Old Spice Swagger Pick 6 25G
YACtastic 35G

Geometry Wars Evolved^2

Unlocked All Modes 25G
Wax On 15G
Millionaire 15G
Slalom 15G
Magpie 15G
Phobia 15G

Goal for Next Week: 21700
$ for HPA: 0

Madden 11 Impressions

This years Madden takes another step forward in terms of gameplay, but still lacks the refinement that I've wished for. The new locomotion engine, like the one in NCAA Football 11, adds weight to the players and creates a new element of realism in the game. Unfortunately, there are still issues with the game. Ridiculous amounts of fumbles and drops make the game annoying to play quite often. The CPU is able to break nearly every tackle on higher difficulties and that gets really frustrating quickly.

The Franchise Mode has not been changed at all. That is just awful. Franchise Mode has been poor since the switch the Next Gen Consoles and it needed to be improved dramatically. I could stand the unrefined gameplay if the Franchise Mode would actually feel like more than just playing 16 games and the playoffs, because that's all Franchise Mode is and it needs to be so much more.

For the first time in a long time, NCAA Football is decisively a better game than Madden this year. Madden needs to stop doing complete revamps every year and work on tweaking the current model to make a better game.


No question this week. Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*test signature*
My Top Score Geometry Wars Pacifism: 39,576,750

Browns' Monday- The Phil Dawson is a Beast Edition

Browns @ Packers- Preseason Game 1 Recap

Cleveland 27
Green Bay 24

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
Browns TD: 4-yard Rush by Jerome Harrison
Browns TD: Seneca Wallace 13-yard pass to Brian Robiskie
Packers TD: Aaron Rodgers 25-yard pass to Greg Jennings

Second Quarter
Packers TD: 2-yard Rush by John Kuhn
Browns TD: Seneca Wallace 20-yard pass to Benjamin Watson

Third Quarter
Packers TD: 1-yard rush by Kregg Lumpkin

Fourth Quarter
Packers FG: Mason Crosby 33-yards
Browns FG: Phil Dawson 58-yards
Browns FG: Phil Dawson 46-yards

Significant Stats

Jake Delhomme 1 series, 6-7, 66 yards
Seneca Wallace 4-8, 72 yards, 2 TD
Colt McCoy 5-10, 25 yards, 2 INT, 25 rushing yards
Jerome Harrison 7 rushes, 25 yards
Phil Dawson 3-3 XP, 2-2 FG, 58 yard long

The first team offense looked pretty impressive in their one series as a unit. They almost looked like an actual NFL offense, which has been a rarity for the Browns' as of late. I'm pretty sure Holmgren has pretty much forced Daboll to switch the offense to something more like he'd run.

The first team defense didn't look very good. Frequent blitzes were picked up easily by the Packers and they were just picked apart by Aaron Rodgers. A bright spot for me was T.J. Ward, the rookie safety, who had eight tackles and seemed pretty solid in the defense. He may just be the best safety on the team, especially since Mike Adams has officially been moved to Cornerback.

I'm not going to make to much of what happened Saturday night. No one is going to expose there best offensive or defensive schemes in the preseason. So, the defensive performance wasn't with their best schemes and the offensive performance was against a weak GB scheme.

Phil Dawson is a beast

Dawson made a 58-yard field goal against Green Bay, which is just ridiculous/awesome. Phil Dawson is one of the best kickers in the game and would get credit for if the Browns didn't consistently suck so hard.

McCoy Injured

Colt McCoy injured his thumb when he hit his hand on a helmet on the follow-thru of an interception. The injury definitely isn't serious he should return to practice soon. As for his performance in the game; it was poor. 25 yards on 10 throws and two interceptions sound like Brady Quinn numbers. He did perform well on the ground, rushing for 25 yards.

Thanks for reading and please comment

-Michael.

Buckeye Sunday- A Plan for Big Ten Alignment

In 2011, the Big Ten will be adding Nebraska as a 12th team. This means the Big Ten will be allowed to have a conference championship game and the conference will be divided into divisions. It seemed like a simple thing. Just draw a line at the Indiana/Illinois border and be done with it. The problem with the simple geographic division is the major balance issues that immediately arise. The Eastern half would be loaded with Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan, which are not only elite Big Ten programs, but elite nationally.

Fortunately, The Big Ten isn't just looking at geography, but is also looking at data since the 1993 season(when Penn State joined the conference) to examine competitive balance for the new divisions. Here is that data:

Since 1993

Illinois, 75-121-1, 1 Big Ten Championship(2001)
Indiana 69-126
Iowa 119-86-1, 2 Big Ten Championships(2002, 2004)
Michigan 146-64, 5 Big Ten Championships(1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004,) 1 National Title (1997)
Michigan State 101-103-1
Minnesota 92-111
Northwestern 97-105-1, 3 Big Ten Championships(1995, 1996, 2000)
Ohio State 170-43-1, 9 Big Ten Championships(1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2005-2009,) 1 National Title(2002)
Penn State 147-62, 3 Big Ten Championships(1994, 2005, 2008)
Purdue 105-97-3, 1 Big Ten Championship(2000)
Wisconsin 145-65-4, 3 Big Ten Championships(1993, 1998, 1999)

Nebraska 165-52, 5 Conference Titles*(1993-1995, 1997, 1999,) 3 National Titles(1994, 1995, 1997)

*The Big 12 was the Big 8 prior to 1996.

With that Data, I believe there are 5 programs that can be considered top tier teams in the conference; Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin.

5 programs have been good/average during this time period; Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern and Purdue.

2 programs have been poor; Illinois and Indiana.

With this data in mind and some concern given to geography and rivalries here's my proposal for alignment. I'm calling the divisions the 1 division and the zero division.

The 1 Division

Ohio State
Michigan
Nebraska
Michigan State
Northwestern
Illinois

The Zero Division

Penn State
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
Purdue
Indiana

It is almost impossible to keep all rivalries within the same division, but considering that there will be at least 3* non-division games and a conference championship game a lot of rivalries will be strong across division lines.

There really isn't and ideal way to divide the conference, but this is the best I can come up with. There may still be a slight competitive inbalance, but I feel that these two divisions would be pretty competitive with each other. I hope the Big Ten avoids turning one of the divisions into what the Big 12 South became.

Well there you have it. What do you think?

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*The Big Ten will likely switch to a 9 game conference schedule in the next several years(2012 at the earliest.)

I'm a lame emo kid

That has been me today(ok I'm not playing fable, but Geometry Wars and NCAA 11,) and I finally shut the Xbox down to blog and I've got nothing. Like really, no inspiration at all. So here comes rambling and maybe something decent will come out.

I slept as later than I have in a long time today. I didn't stay up particularly late last night, but slept till nearly 11. I would say I feel asleep around 1:30, which isn't bad and I've been staying up that late quite often, it's just that I haven't been sleeping much past 9 as of late.

Apparently I suck at playing NCAA Football 11 now. I lost to the bloody computer in my Online Dynasty right after getting my ass kicked by Bo. I seriously cannot run offense effectively anymore in that game. I'm glad I have Geometry Wars now, because it's like 'Heroin Hero' to me and it gets me away from NCAA 11.

I've been inspired by some of the other BEDA posts this week. This post in particular made me wonder if I'm weird in how I feel about something. I wanted to post a comment of reassurance, but I didn't because I find reassurances patronizing. If something is going wrong or I think something might end up being bad, I don't really want to be told it'll be ok. I don't know why, but that just makes it worse.

Oh, Hey Kristina and owlssayhooot both had really cool posts yesterday* to which I posted comments that make me sound like an emo kid.

Ok, that's all I've got. I think I squeezed every last bit I could out of my mind. Hopefully this wasn't awful.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

*All their posts are cool.

Friday the Thirteenth

Hmm... I should really stop putting thirteen in the titles of my blog posts.

I'd like to say I'm not superstitious. I really would like to. I mean. I'm pretty rational, but still... I get nervous when Ohio State is on the cover of Sports Illustrated and fully don't expect Drew Brees to make it through the season. I can't think of any logical* reason for there being a cause and effect relationship between being on those covers and bad results on the field. Anytime that happens it must just be coincidence, but still...

I don't feel particular nervous today about my luck being terrible. I mean if I have my history right this a 'cursed' day because of a church-sponsored mass inquisition of Templar Knights in the Middle Ages. And it just happened to be a Friday and the 13th day of the month. I don't see any reason to be worried, but still...

There is one superstitions that I absolutely believe in. People go fucking crazy during a full moon. Again there is no logical reason, but still, in a purely anecdotal way, something happens during a full moon that I can't explain.

I have a tradition on Friday the thirteenth and that is I always make a mix CD. Here's the tracklist from the one I made today:

The Velocity of Saul at His Time of Conversion- Okkervil River
All I Wanted- Paramore
Westfall- Will Sheff**
Smoke and Mirrors- Lifehouse
Room 19- No Use For A Name
Pride- Manchester Orchestra
Attention- The Raconteurs
Ignorance- Paramore
Near Life Experience- Lifehouse
It's Nice to Know You Work Alone- Silversun Pickups
I'm Thinking- Autopilot Off
Staring at the Sun- U2
Best of Me(What's Left of Me)- Lifehouse
I Came Here to Say I'm Going Away- Okkervil River

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*If you're every scheduling classes for college and see a class on Logic and think, 'that could be interesting' or 'that will be easy,' do not under any circumstances take that class.

**Westfall is an Okkervil River song, but I'm using a solo performance by Okkervil River's lead Singer, Will Sheff.

Thirteen Days

A favorite movie of mine is "Thirteen Days." As a movie it really isn't a classic, but it really makes me think. A little background is in order here. This movie is set during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 in the Kennedy White House. It's one of those historic suspense movies, but everyone already knows what happens. The star is Kevin Costner*, who plays Kenneth O'Donnell, a chief adviser and good friend of the Kennedy brothers. I don't want this to be a review, so I'm stopping there. I want to write about the things that this movie makes me think about for hours.

I always wonder If I could have handled being in that situation. If I had been in Kennedy's shoes would I have handled it properly? The stresses portrayed are immense and I don't really know how anyone could actually handle it. I mean I am pretty doveish, but still with the military pressing for war, would I be able to keep telling them no even when war seems inevitable and if it's going to happen we'd better get the first strike. Plus, knowing that any wrong move could set off an unstoppable chain reaction that only stops with the end of the world, could I make any decisions at all? I'd like to think I would be able to handle a situation similar to the one in the movie, but I wonder.

Hooray for playing pretend President.

This movie also really makes me think about the implications of nuclear weapons. It is amazing to think that once a nuclear war starts there isn't really any stopping it other than blowing up the world. It must be an immense pressure on the President of the United States or the Prime Minister of Russia to know that if they let it go(by it I mean nuclear weapons) there is no bringing it back. Nuclear war between nuclear superpowers basically means the end of the world, which is mind-boggling.

It also makes me think about other things like the nuances of international diplomacy, but I'm not going to get into those.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

*I really wanted to find the clip of Chris Griffin asking, "How does Kevin Costner keep getting work?" but I couldn't, so here's this.


[to RFK] "You're a good man; your brother is a good man. I assure you there are other good men. Let us hope the will of good men is enough to counter the terrible strength of this thing that was put in motion."

Random Wednesday - Run on Sentences

I feel that I write a lot of run on sentences, which is never really my intention, but it's still a bad thing in truth, because run on sentences are confusing and long, but I always feel that I need to put all the information I can into one sentence, which I guess is noble, but in reality is probably just annoying, because who wants that much information with out a period to separate some of it since that much information in a muddled form is useless because it is difficult to pick out, which means maybe I should better use semi-colons as well, but even then it is still a run-on, but I don't think the way I write sentences now is grammatically incorrect, but rather confusing, which is your problem not mine, which is an arrogant thing to say; I shouldn't have said that, but still it's out there now, which means it cannot be taken back, but I do promise to try and limit my buts and whiches as much as I can, because I think it will make me a better writer, but but and which and are really useful words and so is and, and because, and so are commas, which are wonderful and hooray for punctuation, but I seem to be adverse to using periods, which probably makes you all and my professors annoyed and that's not good, so I will try to limit my run-ons from now on and start using periods more divide ideas into individual sentences rather than one super long one.

I hope your head didn't explode. I came up with this idea while taking a mid-term today and while writing my responses to the 5 essay questions I realized that nearly all my sentences were run-ons. I think that this is probably the worst thing about my writing and I really do try to limit the length of my sentences, but sometimes I just need to write a ridiculously long sentence. Perhaps it's the reason why so much of what I write on here is rambling nonsense :)

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 20949
Goal: 21100
Gamerscore Now: 211104

Achievements Unlocked

NCAA Football 11

Head and Shoulders Above 15G
Greatness 90G
Pistol 25 G
In Your Crosshairs 10G
Crash the Party 15G

Goal for Next Week: 21400
$ for HPA: 0

Call of Duty: Black Ops Multiplayer Trailer


I personally think it looks pretty good, but somethings worry me. It looks like a Call of Duty game, just with a new graphics engine. Here are some inferences I've made by watching this repeatedly:

-It looks like some sort of camera is going to be an option for one's equipment. Unless this is ridiculously balanced, I think this is a bad idea. Sounds like a camper's dream to me.

-Killstreaks are still customizable. A new 3 killstreak in what appears to be bomb carrying RC car(that might get annoying as hell fast.) The 4 killstreak care package also returns.

-Knives appear to now be a secondary weapon with some sort of projectile ability.

-There is a new in-game recording of clips.

Madden 11

Madden 11 is out today and I will be picking it up shortly. Expect my thoughts on the game next week(if not sooner.) I can say that I'm disappointed to hear that Franchise Mode hasn't really been improved. I really would like to see that be the primary area of focus for next year's game.

Prettier Game: Red Dead Redemption or Assassin's Creed 2



Red Dead Redemption, aside from being an awesome shoot 'em up game, is visually stunning. It is a beautiful game if you actually stop to look at the scenery that was put into the massive world of the game.

Assassin's Creed 2 is set in Renaissance Italy. The landmarks of the period and their details are done amazingly well and is quite a visually impressive game inside of the cities' walls.

I've got to go with Red Dead Redemption on this one. The wilderness in this game is gorgeous and must have taken ages to develop.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

Browns' Monday

Preseason football is generally one the most disappointing things for me and it gets me every year. I'm like "fuck yeah... football... oh wait." I'm always excited like that for the Hall of Fame game and it just kinda sucks. The first string never plays that much, so it's just a bunch of bench warmers, and practice squad guys in a horrible, rusty, penalty and turnover plagued game. Even when the starters are in, it's pretty clear that they don't really give a damn, and why should they?

I watched the first few series of the game last night, then just switched to something else. I would like to make some grand inference about what that game means for the regular season, but it doesn't mean anything.

The Browns open their preseason on Saturday at Green Bay. I know I just went on a rant about how annoying the preseason is, but I will watch this game in its entirety, because with the Browns I actually care who the 3rd string *insert position here* is going to be. I want to get my first impressions of the Browns' rookies. Of course, in preseason the result means nothing, so it's a weird way to watch a football game. It's always nice to see the Browns win, but it just doesn't really matter. I've seen the Browns go 3-1 in the preseason and do shitty in the regular season and I've seen them go 0-4 in the preseason and do shitty in the regular season.

So, I guess the Moral is that Browns are going to be shitty, but I still love 'em.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Micheal

Buckeye Sunday- College Football Predictions

Here are my predictions for the upcoming college football season.

BCS Conference Champions

ACC- Georgia Tech
Big East- West Virginia
Big Ten- Ohio State
Big 12- Texas
Pac 10- Oregon State
SEC- Alabama

BCS Title Game

Alabama vs. Ohio State

National Champion

Alabama

Heisman Trophy Winner

Mark Ingram, RB, Alabama

Special Comment- Call of Duty: Black Ops Wishlist

Single Player

Campaign- My primary concern is the length of the campaign. Modern Warfare 2 had an excellent campaign, but it was very short. It only took me about six hours of playing time to complete it the first time around. That was probably the most disappointing thing about MW2 for me. Treyarch made a good campaign in both length and quality with World at War, but it did lack the excitement of the Modern Warfares since the playable characters were just infantry men. This time the playable characters will be specialists, which will likely be a huge improvement for Treyarch.

Veteran Difficulty- Veteran difficulty was nearly impossible on World at War. It's not that I don't expect Veteran Difficulty to be really fucking hard, it's just that World at War was ridiculous even for the difficulty level. Perhaps the worst problem with the Veteran Difficulty in WaW was the grenades. It just seemed like as soon as you stopped moving to take cover there were three grenades at your feet. So, it would end up either get killed by a grenade or move and get shot and killed. Suffice to say, I have yet to beat the campaign in WaW on veteran difficulty level. Every once in a while, I put it back in and advance a few missions before I get frustrated and quit again. So, basically my wish here is to make Veteran Difficulty actually doable.

Side Games- Nazi Zombies in World at War was one of the most fun side games I've ever played. It was a blast and bringing it back as "Communist Zombies" would be my preference. I would also love to see more Spec Ops, but if it is one or the other than I would I have to go with Zombies. Spec Ops would be a nice addition especially since Modern Warfare 3 is in limbo and it provided quick, fun, and challenging missions as a side to the primary story. I guess I just want a side game that is fun and co-operative.

Multiplayer

Don't try to fix MW2- Just trying to fix all the problems that came along with MW2 isn't necessarily going to produce a good multiplayer game. Treyarch needs to focus on making a good online game while taking lessons from the issues of MW2 and WaW. Plain and simple, a shit game that isn't MW2 is still a shit game. Don't worry about fixing every little issue that there has been in MW2. Make a good and fun multiplayer game and worry about the people who use exploits later, because absolutely no matter what Treyarch does there will be people who will find and use glitches and exploits.

Perks- There are 3 perks that are must-go: Commando, Danger Close, and One Man Army. Commando and Danger Close are generally unbalanced and greatly exploited. One Man Army is a useless perk unless someone using an exploit with it. Otherwise be creative and try to avoid making anything unbalanced or easily exploited.

Killstreaks- I am actually a fan of customizable killstreaks. It adds a new element of strategy into multiplayer that adds to my enjoyment. Also being able to set low or high kill streaks allows one to adjust them to his or her game-play style and/or talent level. I don't feel the issue of camping for killstreaks is made worse by making the killstreaks customizable. When the killstreaks were fixed people still camped for their seven kill streak. I'm also not really a fan of the idea of adding cumulative killstreaks. My suggestion would be making playing the objective as rewarded as kills. I could be as simple as counting securing the objective to one's killstreak or making unique rewards for actually playing the objective.

In Modern Warfare 2, I felt the killstreaks themselves were quite good. Lots of people like to bitch about how unbalanced they are, but I strongly disagree with that. Most Air Support is pretty easy to take down. Also, the perk Cold Blooded entirely counter acts most air support. On top of that a player can just hide inside until the air support is gone if he or she is opposed to using the prior two options. So, I'd like to see Treyarch keep air support about the same as it has been in MW2. Just get rid of Nuke to get rid of the nuke boosters.

Weapons- All I really want to see with the weapons is balance. This is something Modern Warfare 2 did very well, but World at War absolutely failed at. Each gun should have its positive aspects as well as its drawbacks. One should not be at an advantage for using a particular gun. A player should be able to pick a weapon to suit his or her play style and not have to worry about the other players having a tremendous advantage because of their gun.

Rapid response and Community Involvement- Something that the developers of Modern Warfare 2 haven't been great at is patching major problems quickly. I understand that a patch should be tested and it should be made sure it doesn't cause worse problems than what it is fixing. It is just that it has taken months for major glitches and exploits to get fixed. At the moment One Man Army noob tubes are making MW2 nearly unplayable and Infinity Ward has promised a patch 'is in the pipeline' for months, but it still hasn't arrived. Treyarch should listen to community complaints and find quick solutions to major issues with their game. It is not possible to design a game that will be free of glitches and exploits, but it should be Treyarch's goal to fix those issues quickly as possible.

Camping- This is a difficult issue to really address without revamping the entire Call of Duty series. Camping is an issue in any first person shooter and seems to be a particular issue in Call of Duty. This is the primary issue for me in MW2 right now and the reason why I rarely play it anymore. Everytime I play now it seems the lobby is filled with campers and noobtubers and that gets really old fast. Before I get to into bashing MW2 on this issue, here are some of my suggestions for Black Ops to address the issue of camping:

No More claymores- Seriously, they are just annoying and provide to much incentive for a play to just hide behind them. At least make it so one player can only have one out at a time.

Value objectives- Make objectives count towards a player's killstreak or make the XP one gets for capturing an objective substantially greater than a kill.

XP based on Team success- Significantly nerf the XP a player receives if their team loses the game.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really spent a lot of time bashing Modern Warfare in this one, but really I don't think it's a bad game. I no longer enjoy playing it, but that is almost entirely due to the community playing the game, not the game itself.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

BEDA(and general state of blog ramblings)

It's BEDA(Blog Everyday in August) and I've been doing theme posts(and one about a pressing current event) since August 1st, so I have yet to acknowledge it. Of course, my stated goal is to post everyday anyway, but still it's a cool idea and I'm enjoying reading other people's posts. So, Hooray for BEDA and I hope it is going well for anyone else who is attempting it.

I am pondering whether or not to make the end of August the end of daily posts on this blog. I am enjoying the creative challenge that it presents, but it also lead to posts like this. I am leaning towards trying to stick with posting something everyday, but would like to reserve the right to change the certainty of 'everyday' to the ambiguity of 'frequently.' If you care let me know what you think in comments.

I am also wondering if this blog is too scatterbrained. I mean all the posts have the nonsensical rambling bit down, but from day to day the topics are quite divergent. I don't really want a blog that is entirely focused on anything, but maybe a little more focus could be a good thing.

I also would like to add some sort of counter or something of the sort at the end of my posts like The Hayleylujah Chorus or Mark "The Shark" Titus with his count of 'one-armed embraces' over at Club Trillion. I am having a hard time thinking of anything to use though. Well at least anything that isn't cynical or inappropriate. Suggestions in the comments please.

Thanks for Reading.

-Michael

Prop 8- What's next?

Yesterday, Proposition 8 was overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. While this isn't insignificant, it is certainly not going to be the final step in this process. It is the first ruling in what will likely be at least three decisions on this issue.

The decision will be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It is probably the most Liberal of the Circuit Courts and will likely agree with the ruling of the lower court. There is always the potential that the case could be sent back to the lower court if the Court of Appeals feels something is unclear or some other issue arises. It doesn't really matter what this court's decision is, because the next step will be an Appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

Under the assumption that Elena Kagan will turn out to be a liberal Justice, the Supreme Court will be a 5-4 decision on the issue. There are four Liberal Justices, Sotomayor, Breyer, Kagan, and Ginsberg, who will likely support the overturn of Prop 8 and have sympathetic view of an Equal Protection Case. There are four justices that are conservatives, Alito, Scalia, Roberts, and Thomas, who will likely support overturning the rulings of the lower courts.

The swing vote will be Justice Anthony Kennedy. He has shown some support of Homosexual rights in siding with the majority and writing the opinion in the case of Lawerence v. Texas, which ruled a sodomy ban unconstitutional, and sided with the Majority in Romer v. Evans, ruling that preventing discrimination claims by homosexuals in Colorado was unconstitutional. He's not entirely gay-friendly though as he has voted to uphold bans of homosexuals by private organization such as the Boy Scouts. It is generally hard for me to trust a Justice who was in the Majority of Bush v. Gore, but I think Kennedy would likely side with the Liberals to overturn Prop 8. That would set new precedent that would lead to all state bans on gay marriage being overturned.

Another important step would be the repeal of the Defensive of Marriage Act. This act is ridiculously unconstitutional. Basically this act makes it so states do not have to recognize the gay marriages performed in other states. So, a couple could get married in a state like Iowa, but as soon as they cross the state line they would no longer be legally married. This is an absolute violation of the Full Faith and Credit clause and the principles of federalism. I really don't understand how this law hasn't been overturned yet, but I know the people who passed it in 1996 knew it would overturned. I think it was just something that legislators at the time wanted to pass, so they could score political points by going back to their districts and braging about sticking it to the fagots and then bitch about the judges when it was over turned.

Back on the point. If the ban in California is overturned by the United State's Supreme Court, but DOMA still stands, it would create a country where each state had to allow gay marriage in their own states, but didn't have to recognize any gay marriages performed outside of their own state.

-Michael

Random Wednesday-- late 90's/early 2000's Music Videos

Way back, back to elementary school Michael. I used to watch TRL w/Carson Daily every day. It was the final days of the Music Video actually being on TV and I have a particularly fond feeling to a lot of songs from that period and their videos.













That's right, I busted out Nelly(ridiculously censored as it should be XD)

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 20659
Goal: 20775
Gamerscore Now: 20949

Achievements Unlocked(some diversity finally.)

NCAA Football 11

Strike the Pose 15G
Perfect From the Start 30G
Campus Legend 15G

Limbo

Urban Exploration 10G
Where Credit is due 100G
Wrong Way 5G

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Emerald Hill 5G
Casino 10G
Fast Emerald 15G
Chaos Emerald 10G
Fast Chemical 20G
Win 35G

Red Dead Redemption

Well Done 5G
Stake a Claim 5G
Bulletproof 5G
Friends indeed 5G

Goal for Next Week: 21100

$ for HPA: 0


Sonic on XBLA

No one sent me the memo, but the Sonic games from Sega Genesis are now available on Xbox Live Arcade. Since Sonic 2 is possibly the greatest game ever, this is really bloody awesome.

Better Sidekick

In the style of SportsNation's pop culture game I will start ending these posts with a question about two divergent things in gaming. For this week:

Better Sidekick : Tails or Sheva Alomar



Sheva partners up with follow member of the BSAA member, Chris Redfield, in Resident Evil 5 to handle a B.O.W. outbreak. Considering she is AI controlled, she is surprisingly competent. She can be annoying particularly on Professional difficulty, but if you figure out how to properly use her she can be a big help.

Miles "Tails" Prower sticks with Sonic through out their adventures in Sonic 2, which apparently is to fight a balding, red-head super villain who has trapped all the animals(?,) in levels such as Oil Ocean, so apparently he's an executive at BP. When "Tails" is your side kick he is immortal, which is a huge plus. This red fox with two tails also flew a plane with an open cockpit into outer-space to save Sonic after he had defeated the villain.

My choice: Tails, because I have an unreasonable dislike of Sheva since playing through RE5 on professional difficultly. She was insistent on using her pistol at inappropriate times and failed to revive me numerous times in the brief window professional difficulty allows. Plus Tails is just awesome by osmosis, because Sonic the Hedgehog is the most awesome creature ever.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments, Tails or Sheva?

-Michael

Browns' Monday

Preseason Prediction

This will be worthless by week 2, but here's what I think the results of this season's games will be for the Browns.

Week 1- @Tampa Bay W
Week 2- Kansas City W
Week 3- @Baltimore L
Week 4- Cincinnati L
Week 5- Atlanta L
Week 6- @Pittsburgh W*
Week 7- @New Orleans L
Week 8- Bye
Week 9- New England L
Week 10- NY Jets L
Week 11- @Jacksonville W
Week 12- Carolina W
Week 13- @Miami W
Week 14- @Buffalo W
Week 15- @Cincinnati L
Week 16- Baltimore L
Week 17- Pittsburgh L

Overall Record: 7-9*(1-5)*

*Under the assumption that Roethlisberger will actually have serve his entire suspension.

Haden Signs

The Browns signed Joe Haden to reported 5 year deal worth $50 million(26 million guaranteed*.) It's good to have him in camp and hopefully he will be a help with the cornerbacks, which is probably the deepest position on the team. T.J. Ward and Montario Hardesty have also been signed.

*Isn't it crazy that this guy getting such a huge deal when he hasn't done anything in league. The NFL needs a rookie wage scale bad.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

Buckeye Sunday- The Wide Receivers

Unproven

The wide receiver corps is very talented, but totally unproven. Posey, Thomas, and Sanzenbacher all return this season and were the top receivers last year. Those three haven't really been given an opportunity to prove themselves due to Pyror's poor performance early last season and then the shift to a strongly run-oriented offense in the later part of the season. I expect to see an increase this season in the utilization of the passing game and having wideouts who can cause concern for a defense would be a huge help.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael