Masi Oka and more!

I know that isn't Masi Oka but I can't figure out how to get pictures from my phone to my computer at this late hour. I have plenty of other pictures to upload but I am exhausted and ready to crash.

I will tell the Masi Oka story later. Unlike Jessica Alba I actually got to talk to Masi, well for about 5 seconds.

Jessica Alba

Our booth at San Diego Comic-Con is apparently near the celebrity entrance to the floor. Most celebrities do not even attempt to visit the show floor. However Jessica Alba does. There was a huge crowd of security and people when she came out onto the floor and most people didn't know who she was, because she is only like 5 foot flat and you couldn't see her.

On the way back however, you definitely could tell it was her. Man is she attractive. Of course I was in the middle of a demo to Dr. Heimlich with my camera in my bag, no picture for me. However I was able to find this nice piece of eye candy on the internet, enjoy!

Thursday San Diego Comic-Con Update

Some more pictures from Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con. I didn't get to see stuff as much today as I could on other days, stupid work getting in the way. The one Batman was huge and the Dark Knight Batman is almost a must own. I know the Little One and Pretty Bird will like the Emily the Strange picture.

More San Diego Comic-Con

Here is just a few pictures. I've got more on my 24 TCG blog, they mostly have to do with 24 TCG though.

Some Disney stuff for The Little One and Pretty Bird.













Some Heroes stuff for everyone else. Actual props, so sool. HRG's actual HRGs! They also had the Tim Sale paintings at the booth, I love Comic-Con.

Live from San Diego!

Man I love this show, what an over-the-top experience. In addition the best geek show in the world we have great weather, incredible seafood, real Mexican food (featuring my favorite, corn tortillas), and some pretty good eye candy. I will post some pictures here and on my 24 TCG blog.

This is for Pretty Bird. It is about a 1/3 or 1/4 scale Black Pearl. Pretty cool.












This one is The Little One. She really loved the talking polar bear in the Golden Compass preview and this one is life size. Well if there were talking polar bears the wore armor.










This one is for me. Indiana Jones and The OMG Trevor Can't Wait To See It.

Who's Now

I have no idea, I know "Who's Now" means change the channel on ESPN. I also know that "Now" I'm getting ready for San Diego Comic-Con. I should update some, I might not. If you're going stop by the booth and demo 24 TCG. If you're not going, well then why the hell not, it is San Diego Comic-Con!

Barry Bonds can suck it

I don't care about the steroids/HGH issue, I think it sucks ass but I also think a ton of players did it as well. I just don't like Barry Bonds, he is an ass, I don't like players who act like a dick. The Braves had to deal with Barry in 91 and 92 with Pittsburgh and then in 93 with the Giants. They did had to deal with the fucker a few years later when the Giants got good again. Sure I wasn't going to bitch about the steroids/HGH thing and I won't. The think that bothers me the most about Barry, how the hell is he allowed to wear that armor? It allows him to stand on the plate with no fear of getting hit, it shouldn't be allowed. Anyway, enough bitching about Barry Bonds, what an ass.

To quote a song from the now defunct 96Rock in Atlanta during the great summer of 1993

"...strike out Barry Bonds..."

Polamalu Facts

Two thirds of the earth is covered by water, the rest is covered by Troy Polamalu.

Some days has good news, other days have great news. Emily's favorite Steeler, real close to mine, and probably their best player for another five years. Not bad, not bad at all.

San Diego Comic-Con

Yes, I'm going to San Diego Comic-Con. We have a very small booth and we're doing demos for 24 TCG all week. I've had about 15 questions if I was going and I wanted to make sure everyone knew. If you need that exclusive Transformer or The Dude just let me know.

Reading Material

Some book came out today, I heard some people might want to buy it. Pretty Bird got it of course, I will read it when I return from San Diego Comic-Con. I'm sure there will be some people there, at least a dozen or so total, that have read the book. Hopefully it won't get spoiled.

Freddy Krueger

We have a new kitten and should have named her Freddy Krueger. She both is psychotic and has a fetish towards clawing up people. If she ever gets over either of those things I think she might be cute, well for a cat.

Weekend

Man I need a weekend. What a long week at work. At least I get 2.5 day weekends still, good times. Plus next week is only one day in the office so the turmoil that is causing extra stress won't apply to me as much. Something to look forward to I guess.

WTF!?!?!

Being swept by the Reds, wtf is up with that.

Some days

Some days are just better than others, today was not one of those days. Long day at work, some family stuff, and I miss the Little One. That is the nice thing about days though, there is always another one tomorrow.

Chinese Food

Pretty Bird and I got back late-ish from ATL yesterday and didn't want to cook dinner. What is a couple minus child to do but order Chinese food. The food was good but the best part was the copy on the chop sticks.

Welcome to Chinese Restaurant. Please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks the traditional and typical of Chinese glonous history and cultual.

Tuk under tnurnb and hold firmly

Add second chcostick hold it as you hold a pencil

Hold tirst chopstick in original position move the second one up and down Now you can pick up anything:

Good reading.

Baseball is Back

Time for the second half, hopefully the Mets can keep floundering and the Braves can win a few games at home. I'm on my way down to ATL this weekend, maybe we'll check out a game.

Sneakers

Pretty Bird and I wanted to watch a movie and since we own over 200 of them we figured we could find something to watch out of our collection. Sneakers is a movie I love but Pretty Bird had never seen it. If you haven't seen it, it is a great heist film with an incredible cast, I highly recommend you check it out.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

To say I'm a huge Harry Potter fan would be wrong. I enjoy the books and the movies are pretty good. I liked this one a good bit. The pacing was off and montage scenes were boring and way overdone. Still the movie was pretty good and had everything I was looking for. It sure is fun to watch these kids grow up on screen and the adult cast is wonderful. Good times.

Origins Awards

The Origins Awards used to mean a lot in the hobby gaming industry. Hell it used to be THE award you could. I've worked on some Origins Award winning games designed by some Origins Award winning game designers. I've worked with some other game designers that were great as well but that isn't my rant.

My rant is that the Origins Award, along with the Origins Game Fair, has had a huge fall from grace. Some would argue that it was never that graceful but I liked Origins and I was proud of the awards our games won. Now, who cares.

As you can see here the winner for the best TCG in 2006 was a Pirates expansion by WizKids. Now I like the Pirates game and I like the people I know at WizKids. Pirates however is NOT a TCG. This is only the most recent example of how the award has got to the shitter in the past few years.

Issues

If you want to talk about issues then maybe we can actually talk about the issues. Using some made up crap and useless propaganda only preaches to the converted and will do nothing to convince the opposition. There is an episode in the West Wing when Josh is trying to get polling data on specific districts about gun control, if the data comes back good then they can push their agenda, if not gun nuts win! Joey Lucas tells him that is a load of BS, if the data is bad then that means you haven't convinced them yet. I want leaders to lead, there are things I believe strongly about same as most people. However a lot of people with most issues would be willing to change their opinion based on someone actually leading and convincing them otherwise. It would really help if you didn't cloud your statement with crap though.

Pollution. If you have a problem with pollution then let's talk about it. If you want to disguise that with global warming fear tactics, I'm going to tune you out. I've seen polluted rivers and streams, I've been to Los Angeles, I've seen thousands of pictures of too much waste. That is enough for me, I'll help you clean up. I know others feel the same way. However when you waste your time talking about man-made global warming I'm just going to have to ignore you.

For every study some institute that says global warming is man made there is another study by an equally accredited group writing a report saying it isn't or that we just don't know. The globe is getting warmer, you can't argue that. But it has been getting warmer since the 1600 or 1700s. Those aren't exactly man induced reasons there if it has been doing it well before there were billions of people and their oil burning machines.

You want to convince us poor hating, xenophobic, gun-loving rednecks that we should treat the environment better? Then spend your time talking about how awful pollution by itself is, which is pretty awful. Talk about how there is only a finite amount of resources, which is true and somewhat problematic.

I would be good to me if you didn't spend time shoving hybrids and millionaires with $3000+ a month power bills down my throat doing it. Hybrids are the biggest crock of shit, they don't help the environment and most of them don't save you any money. Go look up the pollution output for plants that make the batteries in those things, holy cow. Sure you might help on the local level with pollution because you're using less gas but on the global scale you're probably creating more pollution, batteries are incredibly nasty to make. Hybrids outside of an actual hybrid like the Prius don't save you any money.

Let's do a little math. Regular Honda Accord, 30 mpg for $25,000 and the Hybrid Honda Accord is 36 mpg for $32,000. A 28% price increase for only a 17% increase in fuel economy. That is a If I drive 15,000 a year, the new national average, then I save about about 84 gallons of gas with the hybrid. At $4.00 a gallon, which were not at yet but will before a new car loan would wear off, I save myself $336 a year in gas with the hybrid. In about 21 years I will make up the difference in the different sticker prices. Good luck driving a hybrid for 21 years, talk about cars that need a lot of work, which would cost you even more money. What a good deal, man I need to line up and get a no power, lot of work car that in 21 years I can start saving money using.

Next I'll ramble about health care :)

Transformers

Man was this movie cool and a helluva good time. The theater was packed (the only way to see a huge popcorn movie, in a packed theater), everyone was enjoying the movie, it looked and sounded great. I didn't mind the changes, I mean they were changed from a 1980's cartoon, or the product placement. The Michael Bay-ness did take over the movie from time to time, man is that guy a hack. Even despite that the movie was well worth my $6.00. Indiana Jones Jr. was good, Megan Fox was pretty hot and the Transformers looked incredible on the screen. It was the perfect popcorn movie and right up there with 300 as my favorite movie in 2007. Hopefully the sequel will have Soundwave but I wonder if Grimlock, my favorite as a kid, will show up? Doubtful, a giant robot dinosaur probably won't work.

This now gives Hugo Weaving the trifecta in dork movie trilogies, you know Megatron will be back and you know there will be at least a third one.

Knocked Up

Pretty Bird and I have heard multiple good things about this movie but we were reluctant to see it. Neither of us are a fan of the current 'in' comedy, the uncomfortable physical pain comedy that usually stars Ben Stiller. Obviously this doesn't have Ben Stiller so that was a plus. However the whole new 'frat pack' all have the same style of comedy and this one has Paul Rudd and was made by the people who made 40 Year Old Virgin, definitely a frat pack movie. Sure there are some good movies in this style but most of them are just crap.

Knocked Up sure is that style comedy but it was pretty good. Seth Rogan was good, Katherine Heigl was hot as usual. We both enjoyed the movie and laughed a lot. There was some of the gross out or overly physically painful things but not too much. We sure weren't expecting to see any crowning, not sure how I feel about that. Either way it was good, not a bad waste of money.

Good, Bad, Ugly

Good - Braves Game on TV vs. Greg Maddux

Bad - Joe Morgan calling the game.

Ugly - Jon Miller and Joe Morgan in HD.

Oceans 13

I'm not sure if this movie was bad or if I was expecting it to be much better. I really disliked Oceans 13 a lot, more than when I first saw Oceans 12. Now the second time I saw Oceans 12 I hated it so I know it wasn't very good. But with Oceans 13 it was just shit the first time. I'm upset I spent money to see it, just crap. The acting was obviously good but the movie was just junk. I guess the gimmick doesn't work the third time at all, even if it was in Vegas.

One cool thing if it was done on purpose is the location of the casino, it changes every time you see it. I'm not sure why you would do that but if it was on purpose then I think it was cool, if not then that is just sloppy.

Return of the Little One

I just got back from picking up the Little One. She was visiting Grammy for the last two weeks. I like that she enjoys spending time with my mom but two weeks seems way too long.

Reno 911!: Miami

When Pretty Bird and I were in NYC one night we had to stay in to watch the two little ones. We decided to watch a movie and Reno 911! Miami was the choice. Pretty Bird watches the show a lot, I watch it from time to time when it is on, the show is hilarious. The movie was also quite hilarious if just more of the show without the censorship that comes with being on TV. I don't think we'll own it and I'm glad we didn't pay to see it. It was funny though and a nice waste of 90 minutes.

Live Free or Die Hard

The original Die Hard is one of my all-time favorite action movies, maybe even my favorite. I loved when I was younger and first saw it, later when my college buddies and I watched, and now with Pretty Bird and I liking it as one of our two Christmas movies. The second Die Hard is enjoyable if not trying too hard to be more over the top than the first one. The third Die Hard is just awful and that is painful for me to say, it had a great cast. Sam Jackson and Jeremy Irons along with John McClane can't help it be good, oh well.

The fourth installment didn't bring back my favorite element, him being trapped somewhere, of the original one. It didn't however bring back all of the 80's action movie craziness, you know the Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, craziness. The movie is about as believable as Star Trek but it is fun to watch. I really like Timothy Olyphant and he was pretty good in this movie. John McClane gets to drag a Mac around, who uses a PC, shows how versatile Macs are. Kevin Smith is good, the action is lots of fun, and of course good one liners. Good times.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Pretty Bird and I went to see it before I went away last week. Neither of us were a fan of the first one although we do like the FF comic books. We do like the cast, she likes Sir Lancelot, everyone likes Michael Chiklis, and obviously I like Jessica Alba. So both of us went into this one with very low expectations. And with low expectations comes a good experience. We enjoyed the movie, it was a good bit of fun, which when the Fantastic Four comic is on it is a lot of fun as well. The everyday stuff involving their lives is good stuff, the Johnny vs. Ben stuff is great, another nekkid (almost) Jessica Alba is always good. I was really impressed with how good the Surfer was, he easily could have looked like shit but he looked pretty good. In short, we liked it, it was a decent comic movie and a good way to waste two hours.

American Made Baby

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I guess I couldn't ask for a better sports car, one of my favorites :)

Happy Fourth Of July

I'll pre-date this post for the 4th of July. I actually didn't turn on the computer once yesterday so i wasn't able to wish everyone a good 4th. I hope everybody was able to grill up some good food, lay back and enjoy the country's birthday.

Transform and roll out!

Oh yeah, I know it is going to be an awful movie but it should be a blast to watch. Tonight is Transformers on a digital screen, good times will be had by all.

West Coast Trip

I really dislike when the Braves are on the west coast, stupid late start times.

Back to the Office

I've spent so little time in the office the past two weeks I'm not sure if I'm ready to spend four days there this week. Well we have a lot of deadlines so I'm sure it will go pretty quick.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

I realized I haven't really written about the movies I've seen in the past month or so. Being married to Pretty Bird obviously meant we were going to see Pirates when it was released. I really don't remember much about the movie, at least to separate it from the second Pirate movie. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed both movies I just think neither one of them are even close to the first Pirate movie. We'll own it and I'm sure I'll see it again, maybe it be more memorable the second time.

Home!

From last Friday until last night I've been from NY to NC to IL to WI to IL to MI to IN to MI to IN to KY to NC, needless to say I'm a little tired of traveling. Last night was only the third night I've spent in my own bed, I'm so happy to be back. The work trip while being exhausting was incredibly productive. The personal trip while again being exhausting was incredible. Now that I'm back for a few weeks I should be able to fill all the fun details I haven't written about in the past few weeks.

A win!

It seems the Braves do remember how to score runs and get a win. We'll see if they can win two in a row now.

Back from NYC

After a long travel day we're back in Charlotte after a few days in the Big Apple. We had a great time and I will post more about it later.

Beauty and the Beast

Tonight, while we're in NYC, we're going to see our first broadway show. With Pretty Bird and The Little One's love of Disney of course it was going to be a Disney show. Pretty Bird has heard incredible things about Beauty and the Beast and it is both of their favorite Disney cartoons so it should be a great time. See you on Monday.

Too much airtime

From last Thursday to next Friday I will have been on 12 different airplanes. I like to travel and I enjoy flying but this might be too much for me in two weeks.

Tomorrow we're off to NYC for a nice family trip though. My mom is actually able to join us so we're incredibly excited.

Over Yet?

Is interleague play over yet. Man the Braves interleague schedule this year has been brutal.

No Day Games

Crash says that Congress should outlaw the DH and astroturf, I don't like either of those things but eh. I do think there should be a law requiring at least one day game every weekday. How am I supposed to waste time at work with no baseball game. Bastards.

Faster than the truth

I've long had a belief that once Fox started showing baseball games they also started jacking up the pitch speeds. Faster pitch speeds apparently makes for better ratings. I also believe that a few years after that ESPN followed suit and starting jacking up their pitch speeds. Being a Braves fan I am fortunate enough to watch a bunch of games on TBS, Turner South, Sports South, and various other local-ish channels. None of those pump up the radar guns like Fox or ESPN, Smoltz would pitch on TBS and clock in around 93 or 94 mph, on Fox or ESPN he'd be 97 mph. They were different games and I never had the truth.

Today I checked out the difference though. The Braves/Red Sox game is on ESPN and I had the MLB.com feed. Tyler Yates was pitching and ESPN had his speed at 97mph on every fastball, then I looked up the MLB.com feed, 93 and 94mph. Hmm, I wonder which one was correct.

My job is great sometimes

Good times.

[Edit, I made this post in the future so Beal wouldn't complain too much. I'll probably change that in a few days though. This is my ranting, not your underage fantasies, yes I'm talking to you. So read down if you want to see my latest ramblings.]

[Edit again. I changed the date back, sorry Beal]

Metrodome

If we don't go back to the Metrodome for another 16 years it will be too soon. At least the Twins are one of the AL teams I root for, only two every three decades do I have to worry about playing against them.

Mmm...cheesesteaks

Off to Philadelphia and Wizard World Philadelphia. I might have time to blog about it, I might not. If I don't I'll see you on Monday.

Kansas City, MO

"Press Pass, this is Trevor, thanks for holding."
"Yes this is Michael from UPS."
"What can I help you with?"
"Yes I have your big black case with display wall in it."
"Huh, that should have been delivered on Thursday."
"Yeah it here at our distribution center in Kansas City, Missouri."
First off, why the hell is Kansas City not in Kansas, that is for another time.
"I'm assuming you mean actual Missouri and not the name of a building next the Philadelphia Convention Center."
"Yes sir, we're in Kansas City."
"Well, um, that booth needs to be in Philadelphia for a convention, well now."

Then we spent time with them getting information to my trade show display from KC to Philadelphia by tomorrow. How it got in Kansas City, who knows.

Events occur in real time

One thing is for sure, events occur much quicker than I would like, at least it seems that way. Anyway the official 24 TCG website is up. Take some time and go look. There isn't much content right now but that is coming soon. As soon as we have an approved picture I will make sure to post it here.

Family Endings

Tonight is the ending to the Sopranos, which I'm sure every media outlet in the world has told you. I have really loved the show over its 8+ year run. I expect Tony to live tonight but more than that I expect there to be no real resolution. David Chase is big on leaving things dangling. We'll see in a few hours.

About this time last year

Is about the time when the wheels fell off the wagon for the Braves. It seems they are doing that again this year. Hopefully they can right the ship but with the inconsistent play and injuries it might be a long few weeks. I guess it was a fun first few months.

Two and Half Day Weekend

Hit me sometimes on Monday through Thursday and I probably don't like our summer hours. The convention schedule also messes up my enjoyment. But man days like today I love leaving work at 11:30, good times.

No sympathy

I have a lot of sympathy for balancing work and a family. I have it for firemen, policemen, nurses, any other emergency worker, etc. who works all hours. I have sympathy for people who can't make ends meet quite yet and have to work extra hours/jobs to do so. I have it for the small business owner who puts in 90 hours a week because he can't afford to pay someone else. I really have it for the servicemen who are deployed for months or years at a time.

I do not have any sympathy for a professional coach (or even athlete for that matter) who can't make time for his family. None of the people listed above have anymore time then a coach does. The difference is the coach is incredibly well compensated and in many circles incredibly famous. A serviceman who spend 15 years in the Army isn't going to be able to take a few years off for quality family time, he didn't make a few million a year. To be an NFL coach seems to require some 60+ hours a week, 50 or so weeks a year. At an average salary of $2,000,000 a year that ends up being about $640 an hour, not a bad hourly wage if you can find it. Stop whining and go do something else if you want a family life.

June 6, 1944

Thousands upon thousands of people lost their lives liberating mainland Europe. It isn't a day to celebrate, war sucks ass, but it is a day to remember. They say World War 2 was the last good war and I counter with there hasn't been a single good war. There have been many wars that are necessary, World War 2 being one of them, but none of them have been good. What an absolute waste of lives they all are, just absurd. That being said I would still like to remember the ultimate sacrifice thousands gave so that many others could be free from tyranny.

Stupid Marlins

Man I hate the Marlins. How do they play the Braves so well every single year. They turn over their roster every year, I guess they just teach them in the minors to beat the team in Atlanta. Stupid Marlins.

Race in Sports

What a shocker, someone wants to talk about race in American sports. I would actually be shocked when someone doesn't want to talk about race in American sports. I'm not some naive white guy who wants to sit at home on Sunday and dismiss any minority when they want to talk about racism in sports. Well I'm probably naive but not about this, well maybe but not that much. In American sports the majority, that is white men, control most of the money, make most the decisions, and hold almost all of the management jobs. Yet the talent, the people actually playing the games are minorities, either black, latinos, asian, whatever. Anything hierarchy with that dynamic is going to cause racism and probably a lot more than average American sports fan will ever begin to understand. That being said, there is real racism, real problems to fix, and then the useless, sugarcoated stuff.

The current topic with baseball and it has been all year is black players or rather the lack of black players. This is the made up stuff, the useless topics that shouldn't get any bandwidth. Let's spend time talking about the lack of minority GMs, managers, scouts, coaches in baseball or the lack of minority coaches in college football. Spend time fixing those problems. This is just a made up problem. Outside of being openly gay (which is a completely different topic) I have no doubt that professional sports teams look for talent far and above everything else. It isn't about white or black or yellow or purple. If you can throw a ball 95 mph or hit a 12 to 6 curveball, you can get a job in the MLB if you're bright pink.

The lack of black players and the rise of latino players is due to two things in my opinion. Of course these two things are exactly what Ozzie Gullien said in response to Gary Sheffield's latest foot in mouth comments. I told my comments to JDub today at lunch, I will summarize my version.

One is popularity. Hold baseball tryouts in a large US population center for blacks the same time as basketball tryouts, I'd be surprised if you got enough baseball players to field one team. Do the same in white community against football or soccer, again you're lucky to get enough players. Even things like golf and NASCAR take potential players away from baseball. In addition baseball is a very expensive sport on parents, much more expensive than some of the other choices. So the children who'd make good baseball players are just playing other sports.

The other one is the draft set up. Countries outside of US and Canada are not subject to the MLB draft, if I find a player he is mine. I spend a bunch of money scouting JD Drew it doesn't matter, he goes to the draft. I spend a bunch of money scouting Andruw Jones and he is mine, no draft. In addition to 'finders keepers' the draft is subject to tremendous contracts. Many teams do not draft a player because they are afraid they wouldn't be able to sign him, that doesn't apply in countries outside the US and Canada (and now Japan and Cuba). Albert Pujols is one of the best players in baseball, probably top 2 or 3, and the Cardinals signed him for not a lot of money. Johan Santana is easily the best pitcher in baseball and the Twins signed him without a huge signing bonus. Players like Jason Varitek, Travis Lee, and JD Drew were passed over by teams because of the 8 figure plus signing bonuses they would require. Todd Van Poppel in almost any other draft would be picked first but he wanted a huge signing bonus and Ted Turner wouldn't pay it (of course that did work out well for the Braves).

It isn't always about race, sometimes it is but not always. The silly crap just turns the American public off and makes them ignore you when it actually is about race.

Congratulations Michael and Emily

I've (finally) returned from our trip to Atlanta for my youngest brother's wedding. It was a LONG Thursday and Friday since some of the help for the wedding fell through so it was up to others of us to step up. The ceremony was great, the party was even better and the bride and groom are in on some island somewhere so all is well. Now I'm back to the grind, good times.

Bring on the winning teams

The Braves are 14-8 vs. teams with a winning record, the only series they lost was to the Red Sox. That is 6-3 vs. the Mets, 2-1 vs. the Dodgers and Brewers, 3-1 vs. the Padres, and 1-2 vs. Boston. They are 16-15 vs. teams with a losing record. What the hell is up with that. That is just crazy.

No Star Wars

Well the Little One was away and Pretty Bird was off work Friday. There just wasn't time to watch Star Wars. George Lucas would understand, hell if he got busy more maybe the prequels wouldn't be as underwhelming as they were.

Vote Early, Vote Often

The MLB All-Star game is basically a joke but I'm not here to rip it. I actually do enjoy watching it every year and I really enjoy voting. I mix my vote between favorites and players that are having the best year. If I vote for one of my favorite players then I make sure he is at least close to the guy having the best year. Of course none of it really matters, household names, players from popularity/population centers NY and Boston, notorious ballot stuffers Philly and St. Louis, and anyone from Japan (online voting means a whole, high population country votes for you) are usually the ones near the top of the vote. Voting also takes place too early and you get 25 votes per person. So go to mlb.com and vote, maybe even 25 times.

Here is my ballot
American League
1B Justin Morneau, Minnesota (David Ortiz will win. Either deserves it)
2B BJ Upton, Tampa Bay (Robinson Cano will win, Upton or Bip Roberts deserve it)
SS Derek Jeter, New York (Jeter will win, easily. Jeter probably deserves it)
3B Alex Rodriguez, New York (ARod will win, easily. He also easily deserves it)
C Victor Martinez, Cleveland (Jorge Posada will win. Jorge also deserves to make it but I can't vote for three Yankees)
It is really dumb you vote for OF but you do
OF Vladimir Guerrero, Los Angeles (Will win, deserves to win. Great player)
OF Torii Hunter, Minnesota (Ichiro will win, Torii deserves to win)
OF Magglio Ordonez, Detroit (Manny Ramirez will win, Magglio deserves to win)

National League
1B Prince Fielder, Milwaukee (Carlos Delgado or Albert Pujols will win, Prince deserves to win)
2B Kelly Johnson, Atlanta (Chase Utley will win and deserves to win)
SS Edgar Renteria, Atlanta (Jose Reyes will win, JJ Hardy deserves to win)
3B Chipper Jones, Atlanta (David Wright will win, Chipper or Miguel Cabrera should win)
C Russell Martin, Los Angeles (I wanted to vote for McCann but couldn't. Paul LoDuca will win, Martin easily deserves to win)
OF Jeff Francouer, Atlanta (Carlos Beltran will win and deserves to as well)
OF Matt Holiday, Colorado (Barry Bonds will win but I haven't voted for Bonds, ever. I used to only vote for players I liked and Bonds played for the Pirates and Giants vs. the Braves, not good. Holliday deserves to win)
OF Ken Griffey, Jr., Cincinnati (Alfonso Soriano will win, Adam Dunn or Griffey deserve to win but I like Griffey)

So go vote early and remember to vote often.

X-Men

Pretty Bird and I have been playing a lot of Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the 360, it is a really good game. In fact I think it is better than both of the previous games. It really made both of us want to watch a movie based on comics and for some reason we picked X-Men. I think X2 is much better than X-Men but I haven't seen the original in quite some time. After watching it again I still think X2 is much better, probably even more so. The acting is good, the story is pretty good, it just doesn't have much action, it is kinda boring.

Maybe there are Baseball Gods

I was thinking about blogging in a negative fashion about the Brewers, a team I actually like, I didn't obviously but I was thinking about it. The Baseball Gods have repaid by making Smoltz leave with a shoulder injury, which frankly is balls. Oh Baseball Gods, I beg for Your mercy, please allow John to only have a minor injury.

Bad baseball weekend

The holiday weekend wasn't very nice to the Braves or my fantasy team. Being swept by the Phillies, ick. I dropped out of first in my league for the time in four weeks. Oh well, that is the nice thing about baseball there is another game very quickly, like today!

Argh!

Lose the first two against the Phillies and then now we get Cole Hamels, wtf. These last two weeks they just haven't been very good, maybe they'll save a little face and win today, I doubt it though. That would leave the Phillies only 2 games behind the Braves, blech.

Is is so weird

The Little One is visiting her grandparents for the week, Pretty Bird has to work all weekend, and I'm off for three days. I guess it is going to be a boring weekend. There isn't even a movie I want to go see since I've seen the two out that look good.

Happy Star Wars Day!

For those that live in a cave, today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars. I've written a number of times about how much I like Star Wars and I'm going to keep writing things like that. I really do like Star Wars, I've had so much fun enjoying the movies, the video games, the RPGs, the toys, the CCG, the minis, shit I could go on for hours, they do merchandise the hell out of Star Wars. Sure it is over the top and sure some of it is crap but man a lot of it is great as well.

Today we're going to see Pirates (which like every other blockbuster movie wouldn't be what it is without Star Wars) but tonight we're going to watch Star Wars. Hell I might even bust out some SWCCG (doubtful) or KOTOR (probable). I'll probably write more about Star Wars later.

200, How sweet it is

Congratulations John Smoltz on your 200th win, against Tom Glavine and the Mets. Right now the Braves are 6-3 against the Mets. The best (or worst) part of that stat is that they are 0-3 vs. Oliver Perez and 6-0 against everyone else. It has been a great year so far in terms of watching games.

Smoltz vs. Glavine 3 - The Revenge

Man I hate Oliver Perez, he is fricking Bob Gibson versus the Braves. Tonight however is good times, Smotlz vs. Glavine. Of the big three Glavine was always my least favorite, probably because he got shelled a few times early in the playoffs and he was the union rep for the Braves during the strike. I do like him fine, wish he would have finished his career as a Brave, and think he is a first ballot Hall of Famer, I just liked Smoltz and Maddux more.

Smoltz is 2-0 vs. Glavine this year so that is good. The bad of course is the Mets actually are a better team than the Braves and Glavine is due. We'll see tonight.

A really funny letter

I have a picture of a really funny letter we got at our PO Box yesterday, OMG was it funny. The letter wasn't directed towards us, we received it in error. It was a letter requesting some sort of a meeting with an African American guy who lives in Charlotte. I'm going to wait to post the letter until after my lovely picture of The Little One scrolls away. I can't see having a letter with words that rhyme with rock, rick, paved, slow, hallow, and a word used to describe a house cat and my daughter up at the same time. That being said, it is a hilarious letter.

Last Day in Uniform

Today was The Little One's last day in a uniform. Friday is her last day of school this year and next year she is going to a different school and it will actually be a public school. There a a number of reasons why with the biggest one being it is almost an hour each way from the new place to her school. That is a good bit to drive twice a day. We've loved the school, it has been absolutely incredible for her and for us. Hopefully Friday won't be too traumatic on her (or Pretty Bird).

5 Wins, 2 Losses

To catch the Mets we need a Mets loss and a Braves win. Good thing the Braves were playing the Mets and they destroyed the Mets tonight. Tomorrow should be a sure win for the Mets, stupid Oliver Perez. Even if the Mets pull out the next two wins this series that leaves the Braves at 5-4 vs. the Mets, not bad since they don't play again until August or September. We do need to get another win this series though since the Mets destroy everyone else in the league.

Fantasy Baseball

Today begins the third week in a row that I've been ranked first in both of my fantasy leagues. I'm sure this will not keep up for the entire season, it isn't possible. It is really cool though. Actually the eight team league I've been in first place every day of the season except for one, which is really cool.

Letdown

I will fill it in more later on but right now both of the finales were somewhat of a letdown. Actually I really enjoyed Heroes and think it was really good but it was very predictable. Jack and his clan in 24 however, that wasn't very good, at all.

Jack is Lethal

I wrote a few months ago about my top five TCG cards and I left one of them blank. I’m not quite filling in the section now because the cards aren’t approved, nor in fact are they completely done. Either way the card is Jack Bauer, well not a specific Jack Bauer but a gameplay mechanic that was started with the Jack series of cards.

I will get into how 24 TCG plays at a later time. Obviously we aren’t reinventing the wheel so if you’ve played other TCGs then you can play 24 TCG with little effort. To set up what I really love about Jack then I do have to explain a little bit. The basic premise of the game is that you play your characters (CTU or Insurgents) and they have an overall mission to score 24 (obviously) points. A character may attempt a mission and then your opponent may have one of their characters try and stop that character. That is how battling happens. The characters each have a skill rating and a health rating. When a character losses a battle they are wounded, when they get wounds equal to their health rating then they die.

Our game also has keywords, loaded (a gameplay macro) and unloaded (just to hang stuff off) but we call them traits (loaded) and keywords (unloaded). There were a lot of initial discussions about Jack and how we can give him some impact to the game, something that fits the IP but also is appealing the TCG. One day the conversation went a lot like this, I think this is pretty close to how it went.

“So what do we do about Jack?”

“Well one thing about Jack, anyone who walks into a room with Jack Bauer comes out wounded.”

And that was that, it just clicked with everyone. The trait Lethal was born. The name could change but we really hope not. Lethal works pretty simple, you deal an extra wound. When in a mission attempt with someone with the Lethal trait you receive a wound; win, lose, or draw.

In a game where most characters have one or two health the Lethal trait is incredibly powerful and has required a good bit of testing. When Jack (or anyone with Lethal) is one the table you must be very careful. It makes for some fun, fast paced games, which is obviously the goal.

Hopefully I’ll be able to post a card before too long. We have a few work in progress images up coming in Scrye and InQuest, I’ll post links once they are out.

Back from the ATL

It was a real short trip but a needed one. Now we are back (only to go down again in two weeks) and it should be a weird week. This is the first week of summer hours so I get four 9 hour days and then one half day on Friday. I'm not a huge fan of these hours but some people in the office love them.

Rain Out

I guess a rain out is better than the sure loss the Braves would have received at the hands of the Red Sox. The AL is just better than the NL and the Red Sox are the best team in baseball. Tomorrow is great though, according to Ernie Banks "Let's play two!"

Down to ATL

Minus the Mustang. Pretty Bird needs to get around some separate from what I have to do and she can't drive the Mustang. I make my fourth (or fifth) trip to ATL since I purchased the Mustang and it is the first without it. It is going to be tough going from 210hp to 122hp in four hour trip. Oh well, it will just mean Monday is that much more fun to drive to work.

Are you kidding me?

Losing three out of four to the Nationals. What the fuck is that crap. I guess that shows like I've been worried that maybe the Braves aren't that good. Still losing to the Nationals just sucks.

Trevor on the DL

Like everyone in the world I was listed as day to day yesterday. A few of my many symptoms that bother me in completely random intervals decided yesterday was a good day to mess with me. That just caused me to basically do nothing all day except sleep, I felt like a complete loafer. Anyways I'm back at work today trying to figure out which cards should go with Jack Bauer in the Jack Bauer deck. Good times.

Happy Birthday John Smotlz

There are two things in my life that makes me feel old. The first one is my daughter, to have a 7 year old means I need to be at least a certain age. The other thing is the age of baseball players. Most of the players I've been a fan of have always been older than I am but when they hit milestone ages it really shows how long you've been watching them as well. I guess watching a group of people play ball 80 to 100 times a year, every year, means you identify on some level with them, as pathetic as that sounds. Anyway happy 40th John Smoltz.

Good Pig

He raised a talking pig, got killed by Russell Crowe, invented warp drive, and is Gwen Stacey's dad, oh yeah he is Jack's dad and a fucking terrorist. James Cromwell is all of those things he however is not easy to get images of, fun times.

The Matrix

Both the Kill Bills (which oddly enough we don't own, weird) were on TV over the weekend. We caught some parts, mainly the Crazy 88 showdown. The crazy on-screen kung-fu madness made me really want to see some more high flying martial arts. We own a few but I decided on The Matrix, #4 on my list. Yes it was still great, yes Keanu still says "Whoa" like an idiot, what a nice way to waste a few hours.

Fantasy Golf

Isn't fantasy golf really decided with who gets the first pick. If you get the second (or later) pick don't you just decide not to play that year. Of course you could get an owner that decides to pull a Houston Texans and take the 5th or 6th best player on the board instead of the #1.

That fricking sucks

We almost get no hit, lose Smoltz for who knows how long (probably at least two starts), and then the Mets win and take away first place. What a shitty night in baseball. At least Heroes was really good.

Happy Mother's Day

We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for our mothers. Me, of course I'm a bad son and forgot to mail my mom her card and gift so it would be there in time for today. I'm a bad son and she is a great mom and very forgiving, I think she'll like the gift.

The other mother in my life, The Little One's mom, actually has to work today. The Little One and I picked her out a nice gift though and are making her a really nice dinner. I think she'll at least end the day on a good note.

The Fifth Element

A movie that just gets better with time. Every single time I watch it I enjoy it more. It was on earlier this week on HD which means I had to watch it. Man did it look great, good times.

Brewer Magic

Come on Tom, whatever magic you guys can come up with would be helpful.

The Break Up

Taking advantage of our last few weeks with HBO we decided to TiVo The Break Up. I'm a pretty big Jennifer Aniston fan or at least I was at one point. Both Pretty Bird and I enjoy Vince Vaughn when he is on and for the most part in this movie he was. I didn't see this movie when it was released despite the chance of seeing Jennifer's ass, well it was a nice ass two years later. The movie was pretty funny and we both enjoyed it. It wasn't great and I'm glad I didn't spend any extra money to see it but it was worth two hours of my time.

Sleep

I'm so excited I get to sleep in a little tomorrow. I haven't had a weekend in almost a month when I was able to get a little extra sleep. A combination of travel, work, and some around the house stuff has just made things hectic. I really just want to sleep in tomorrow but I'm sure I will be up early enough with the family running around. It is nice to at least hope for though.

Home Run

So that is what a home run looks like. With the Braves going eight games without a home run I was begging to wonder. I still can't complain since they have now won four games in a row and seven of the last ten. The ass end of the rotation is not looking so ass end and the bullpen has been incredible. When the offense is back on track they might actually be a decent team.

Jason said it right

It is always a good day when you get two checks. Today is payday and we both got our Vegas expense check. Sure the expense check is just money they gave us back but it is still nice to get two checks. Good times.

Smoltz > Maddux

Well Maddux was pretty damn good, hell so was Smoltz. Smoltz only gave up 2 solo HR and the bullpen is who gave up the game for Maddux. It was a fun game and great to watch. Vintage Maddux with him cussing every single mistake he makes. There is no better family entertainment than watching a 40 year old man say 'fuck' a few times on TV.

The Braves bats have really fallen asleep the last 7 or 8 games but they are still 6-4 in their last 10 games, not bad. This is in addition to the closer being on the DL, the 3B and catcher playing hurt, starting a rookie pitcher, and Chuck James sucking up the joint. If you can win with all of that going on then you might actually be a good team. It is still only May, we'll see how it all ends up.

The Rock

Today I was trying not to fall asleep. I'm still beat from the weekend and really just dragging. It was a lot easier with The Rock on HBO. I just love this movie, easily one of my favorite action movies of all time. Like I've written before just look at it as "What if James Bond was caught". It is also pre-drugged out Nick Cage, well at least before he took that much coke. Good times.

Lerew > Redman

I've been saying any random starter from AAA would be better than Mark Redman, it turns out for at least one start I was right. Yes, Girard it was still smoke and mirrors. I do love me some comeback wins though. Tomorrow is Maddux vs. Smoltz, what good times.

Just Plain Weird

Tonight's 24 was much more enjoyable than Heroes. Obviously Heroes was setting up the final two episodes and a nice transition from last week's Days of Future Present episode. For 24 it was its usual absurd, over the top show that just rehashes the same plot over and over again. I still really enjoy the hell out of it and season 5 was incredible. Season 6 hasn't been very good however, it is probably their worst offering so far. There have been a few great episodes with a bunch of junk. Tonights was very enjoyable however, it had lots of things I love to watch out of Jack and 24. Heroes was good just a little slow paced for this late in the season. The sucky part of course is only two weeks left for each one, that just sucks ass.

Working on the weekend can be tough

The worst part is missing the Braves games, it is tough knowing I could be watching Smoltz and Hudson pitch. Now I'm going to get to watch some games during the week and get the ass end of the rotation, the junky pitchers. Oh well. At least they aren't just going win/loss, win/loss, for 10 to 12 days in a row. They still aren't winning four or five in a row but they are winning 2 out of 3.

Long Day

What a long day. I haven't a playtest weekend in quite a few years. I think they are a great tool on a limited(ish) budget to get a bunch of playtesting done. Not everyone can be one of the two big boys and the rest of us must test however we can. This is a great way and this weekend has been great so far, so much work is done. It is kicking the hell out of me though, I'm so beat.

Spider-Man 3

Well it was opening night, where else did you think I was going to be but watching Spider-Man 3. I loved it, absolutely loved it. The Stan Lee and Bruce Campbell cameos were incredible. Sam Raimi really turned up the camp in this one compared to the other two, to the point that I'm sure most critics and comic fans will absolutely pan it. The Spider-Man fan in me enjoys the first two more but the movie goer in me probably enjoyed this one more than the other two. It was just so enjoyable. I highly recommend it, in fact why are you reading this when you should be watching it.

To the DL with you!

It seems Mark Redman has a made up injury. Well I'm sure it isn't a made up injury but he is also a professional athlete, with a 10.60 ERA I'm really stretching that term. As a professional athlete he is expected to play through some of the aches, pains, and injuries that normal people wouldn't to suffer through and still play. So while I don't want anyone to suffer pain I am glad I have at least 15 days without this Kansas City reject giving up 5 runs in two innings.

Good win vs. the Phillies. Once James gave up the blast to Ryan Howard I figured the Phillies would go on to win the game. But Bullpen version 07 is actually pretty damn good. If starting rotation version 07 could keep up past Smoltz and Hudson life would actually be pretty good. Still can't complain too much since they are in first place.

Hot Fuzz

The Little One had a camping trip with the Girl Scouts over the weekend so we decided to take a trip to see Hot Fuzz. I'm not a huge fan of Canadian/British humor, I typically like my comedy to be funny, but Pretty Bird really wanted to see it. I enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, or at least the 75% I've seen. Hot Fuzz was actually pretty funny. It was the type of parody I enjoy, over the top just enough but not too much. Now I will have to try and watch Shaun of the Dead the whole way through.

The future sucks

At least in Heroes it sucks. Man what a great episode of Heroes. I didn't even see the Nathan reveal coming, it was awesome. I thought future Hiro was great but future Peter is even better, he does look different with the scar. I think it is a lot better that you don't see the Peter/Sylar fight. Man I haven't geeked about a show this much probably since 24 first started.

Sucks!

Mark Redman fricking sucks. Someone at AAA has got to be better than this guy. A 10.50 ERA, wtf.