Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fall 2022

NY Rangers, Uncategorized

I swear fall weather is never late. It takes well into May to get consistently warm (with nights that are still cool) but come mid-September, it’s like a switch is flipped and it’s in the 60s during the day and high 40s at night.

Fall does bring hockey back though! The pre-season just started and the Rangers beat the Islanders 4-1 and are currently beating Boston 2-1. Great start even if it doesn’t mean much. These exhibitions are more about shaking the dust off and figuring out where the rookies’ skills are at to figure out the best lines to start the season (Oct 11). There are a ton of rookies out there, a bunch of them I don’t remember even seeing their names before. But everyone is looking really good. Jimmy Vesey (a former Ranger who I liked) and Vitali Kravtsov are making their presence known as both of their NHL careers are at a crossroads. It feels like they’re both going to make opening night, which is against Tampa Bay. For Vitali, Coach Gallant clearly thinks highly of him as he’s been practicing on the second line with Panarin and our newest major pick-up, Vincent Trocheck. That’s a big deal.

Still a ways to go until the season starts but I think we Rangers fans have a lot to look forward to very soon.

As we’re barreling towards October, it’s time to turn to horror movies! I’m going to start with Antlers and the new Hellraiser movie, so keep an eye out for those reviews first. Not sure what else I’ll be checking out, I’ll have to see what promising titles are out there.

That’s not how you end a hockey season.

Uncategorized, Weird Stuff

I thought the Rangers would get the series to Game 6 and ultimately lose. The Penguins were coming into the playoffs with the momentum and focus that I didn’t think the Rangers would overcome in the end (there was also no chance that NY would be able to beat the Capitals if they did manage to make it to Round 2). I was right in the end, but I didn’t think it would end in a collapse.

It’s not too shocking considering this season has been a rollercoaster ride of peaks and valleys for the Rangers. It was often hard to watch. These long stretches where the team just forgot how to play hockey and the special teams never improved. They ended their season with the wheels falling off, I can’t even look at the scores for this series. This is the fastest out the Rangers have had in a few years. I hope they fix things in the offseason (a lot of changes need to be made, but I want them to lock down JT Miller, he’s going to be a monster) and come back strong and healthy for 2016-2017.

I expect the Capitals to win the Cup. They’re overdue to win after getting cut short in the last 2 seasons. Flyers are putting up a fight right now but I don’t think they’ll overcome and the Penguin v Cap series should be fantastic. These are some intense playoffs league wide. Chicago might not punch back the Blues hard enough. Eastern conference, I’m leaning toward Caps v NYI right now. Looking at the West, I’m not too sure. San Jose is my current pick, but I can’t see a clear opponent for them to battle it out to make it the Cup Finals. The Ducks and the Stars are monsters in their own right and the Blues are doing everything they can to drop last years champion. There’s still like a month to go, so we’ll see.

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 prelude

Games, Uncategorized

E3 is next week and nothing positive has changed on Microsoft’s Xbox One. It’s kinda gross to be honest. 24 hour online “check in”, weird used games policy…it’s a mess. They might have some good ideas somewhere in there, but the message is pretty lost and being overlooked by everyone. It’s a terrible place to be in for MS, it’s a really shocking image of a man in a suit with his black loafers jammed into his mouth. So this E3 is super important for everyone. Here’s my take a few says ahead of E3.

Nintendo
With hardware that many consider an overpriced joke with an anemic software line up, things have looked dicey for good old Nintendo. In recent weeks, Microsoft has pretty much been selling how honest and simple the Wii U is to people. It plays games, it can do a few other side things but it’s really straight forward now. No weird rules, no one watching you, it’s just a game system. Now they just need to release games for it. That is of course coming. The Nintendo stable is being worked now, Mario is in the works, Mario Kart, probably a Smash Bros. game, Animal Crossing. Nintendo is doing direct videos to it’s fan this year and all they need to do is give dates for the games that their fans are waiting for. It’s been a rough 8 starting months, but I think Nintendo is going to right the ship. A nice little price drop wouldn’t hurt either.

Sony
Smart move letting MS take egg on the face. Let their biggest thorn in their side twist in the wind while you get your ducks a row for the show. Now I think Sony is going to have some online DRM too, but it’s hard to really know how much. There’s been no real word on what Sony is up to, it’s all been doom and gloom rumors about Xbox One. Now, if they tell people they aren’t going to be strangling games like Microsoft, they will have a leg up. Sony has some serious talent in it’s software studios, they got the best console indie support so Sony is really in a place to pounce. Show games we haven’t seen, show the hardware, give a date and price (I’m thinking $400 is the likely sweet spot). The PS4 is poised to be the good guy of the Next Gen.

Microsoft
They have to climb out of the hole they dug and I don’t this company is capable of doing it. Their PR has been a complete disaster. It’s these new policies that have gotten them there and I don’t really see them changing them much. Sony must have had these same conversations with publishers and developers so that makes me wonder what Sony’s stance on online DRM is going to be. Now, if Microsoft adopts the way Steam prices and puts stuff on sale, it’ll win a lot of people back. They’ve announced that all games will be able to download or buy in stores at retail on the same day. Now if they keep ridiculous pricing for downloading games over time, it’ll be a dead service. Steam does 2 or 3 big sales a year with a lot of great titles for insanely low prices. Group buys, bonus material out the wazoo. Plus all the sales sprinkled about over the year. People love Steam for the value and convenience. The XBOne [i[could[i/] be the Steambox of the living room before Valve can get their Steambox out. A lot of the XBOne new policies are similar to how Steam currently works, but the value looks completely in MS’s favor. That’s mostly conjecture at this point, but MS has not been one one value these days. MS has to make the right moves and this is one of them. So that leaves us with this: They have to show a ton of games. Exclusives will be pretty important. You gotta give reasons for gamers to want to go anywhere near this hardware, because right now it looks like they are losing a large portion of good will and fandom that they’ve been striving for these passed 13 years.

It’s an uphill climb. They have to show new games to get attention and pricing that makes sense software and hardware wise (it cannot be sold for a penny more than the PS4 does. It’ll be killed if that happens). It’s a hard sell.

Good luck next week fellas.

Paul the Review

Movies, Uncategorized

From the creators of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz comes Paul! A fun story of 2 best mates from England on holiday to nerd it out at the San Diego Comic Con and road trip across the mid-west to visit more nerdy places. After leaving Comic Con, the guys meet Paul, an space alien on the run. Joining his cause, Graeme and Clive work to get Paul back home with the feds hot on their trail.

I heard a lot of mixed things on this one, mostly negative because most thought it didn’t live up to the standards of SotD and Hot Fuzz. While not as funny, I still enjoyed the ride. A great cast (there’s a lot of star power in here) with really fantastic CG work (Paul looks real, the composting of CG into live action is some of the best around) pull this movie along nicely. Sure there are some lazy and predictable jokes with some more than necessary cursing, but I think these are minor quibbles. Straight forward story telling with a nice little tweak at the end to keep things interesting. I’d recommended it as a solid rental. Is it me or is Bill Hader in every movie these days?

Summer is here!

Life, Uncategorized

Sure it’s really Spring still, but the fantastic weather has finally showed up. It rained for almost 2 weeks straight so 73-80 with just a few clouds hanging out with a sweet breeze is like being reborn. I feel so much happier it’s stupid. I really want to move to the West coast, I hate winter with a passion now.

Old Korn Videos

Uncategorized

This is just the start of the flood of old school Korn videos that have been showing up on YouTube in the past 2 weeks. The homemade movies that were made in 1996 around the time Life Is Peachy was made have been falling into the hands of some very generous fans. A lot of the stuff can be seen in the Who Then Now? DVD. The band was well on it’s way to super stardom and they were all about 25 years old here. You can see the passion and energy that made them one of the biggest metal bands in the world.

You can see quite a few videos from Kornmemorablia’s YT channel and the site is worth visiting too, Roger has an amazing collection.

Fun week!

Life, Uncategorized

Worked 2 days this week, Christmas was pretty quite for us this year, just a family dinner on Xmas day. Got Forza 3 (great), a year of xbox live, 20 bucks worth of MS points, a pen/LED flashlight/laser pointer, a sweater that is too big, and about $300.

Last night was the RHS Class of 1999 Reunion and it was a ton of fun. It was at the Brick House in town, first time I’ve been there even though the place is like 50 years old. Looks great, food was good to. Saw so many old friends I haven’t seen in 10 years it was a lot of fun to catch up and have a good time. I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone I wanted to, but I got some new contact info from a few so that’s awesome. Can’t believe it’s been 10 years since high school, just about everyone looks the same still. Nice to know we aren’t that old. I talked about and remembered some far out stories from my childhood, that was something else to share. I actually miss a few people after having so much fun. Come to think of it, Facebook pretty much made it happen with a few go-getters who started the ball rolling. There were 32 people confirmed to come but I think there was close to 100 who showed up! Quite a few boyfriends/girlfriends/spouses to round it up, but it was a serious turn out for something that was put together about a month and a half ago.

Makes me miss HS for the first time.

Tis the Season!

Life, Uncategorized

The year is almost over and it went really fast. Too fast? I dunno, I had an average year at best. 2010 could be the year of change.

Beau got a sweet bed for his birthday. Hitting 2 years old graduated him to move out of his cage into the luxiourous lap of an Orvis fleece covered doughnut bed. It’s a little too small to hang out in, but to sleep in he’s in heaven. He curls up into it, uses the bolster around the bed as a pillow and he’s down for the night. It’s so comfortable he just hops in and plops right down. No circling or scratching at it to get it the way he wants like he does with rugs. It’s really inviting looking to be honest.

Been playing more games than movies lately. Into Left 4 Dead 2 a lot, just got Beatles Rock Band for awhile (the presentation is of the highest quality, a lot of love was put into it) and Forza 3 is tomorrow. Gonna hit up midnight mass tonight for the first time instead of going Christmas morning. Going to be a quite night thise Eve, tomorrow we hit up the relatives for dinner.

Heat Wave

Uncategorized

I’m looking for it. It’s been trying to get out of the 40’s for a few days, been rainy or just cloudy for days now. Tomorrow should be close to 60 and it looks like it’s going to be over 50 for the rest of the week. Not wearing a coat is the greatest.