Oh So Close
I have no doubt that by now virtually everyone, football fan or not, has heard of the outcome of Super Bowl XLII and I will not rehash the details. It is, however, very disappointing to see the Patriots manage to get through the regular season and the playoffs with a small handful of scares and then be completely torn apart by the Giants.
The Giants defensive line and linebackers had the Pats O-line scratching their head from the beginning. What alarmed me was the fact that after the long (and boring, might I add) halftime break, Bill Belichick and the O-line could come up with nothing to stop or even slow down the pass rush that made the passing game entirely impotent. Read the rest of this entry »
The ‘07 Patriots: A Fans Perspective
I’ve been a fan of the Patriots for the decade-plus years that I’ve been enjoying the sport of football. I was a fan through the drought in the 90’s that saw the Pats eek out 2, 3, 4-wins a seasons and the bounty in the 2000’s that heralded not only 3 Super Bowl victories, but the moniker of being a dynasty team for this decade.
Through the droughts and bounties, however, the Patriots were always a bunch of no-name underdogs seemingly plucking victories out of thin air with sheer team spirit and drive. Even with victories in Super Bowl’s XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX to their name, the Patriots were never a “feared” team like the 90’s St. Louis Rams a.k.a “The Greatest Show on Turf” or the Indianapolis Colts.
iPhone Whiners Unite
Did you hear? The Apple iPhone went on this sale this past Friday, June 29th. All of the tech Blogs endlessly gave a minute-by-minute update on long lines formed by the early adopters across the US.
The weekend elapsed and now we have a plethora of those early adopters complaining about everything from the ring tones to the unsuccessful phone activation. I just find this sort of bouncing attitude very amusing. Before buying their beloved iPhones, these people were certain that Apple could do no wrong. Forget the fact that you’re being asked to pay $499 or $599 for the 4GB and 8GB variety of the iPhone AND a2-year contract with AT&T (the exclusive carrier) that you have to sign to even use this sucker.
There aren’t any numbers that I’ve seen tracking the number of people who bought the iPhone for their own use as opposed to trying to make a quick buck selling it to other fans who were not willing to sit in line for days. But, I can imagine that a large number of iPhones were sold and now imagine that many people all sitting at home on the weekend trying to activate their respective phones. Is it really that much of a surprise that the AT&T servers were overwhelmed? But I guess to some, it truly is surprising as they’re whining about not being able to use their shiny new iPhone.
As much as the features of the iPhone are intriguing, AT&T’s prior history of lackluster service and Cingular’s spotty network hasn’t convinced me to switch over from my very reliable Verizon service. I might someday consider the iPhone, when Verizon starts to offer it and the price as dropped to about $49.99 for the 8GB variety and I can get it as a free upgrade.
Early adopters be damned. You guys can figure out all the quirks and issues, I’ll wait for everything to be ironed out and the 2nd generation phones to hit the market before I even think about getting the iPhone.
Cheers
What’s Wrong With This?
So let me get this straight. Paris Hilton has gained fame and fans (really pathetic) by doing absolutely nothing but being born into the Hilton family.
She’s spending just over a month in jail for violating her probation for DUI and people can’t stop talking about how she is doing in there? Jeez, maybe the time in jail might actually be good for her and the rest of the world!
But what is absolutely confounding to me is that NBC is offering her $1 million USD for a post-jail interview. Yeah, like she really needs that $1 million and what kind of message is this sending to the public? Become famous, break the law, go to jail for it and become even richer when you get out?
Just pathetic!
Update: NBC Denies Rumor
Turns out that NBC is now denying the “rumor” of the $1 million for the Paris Hilton interview.
Now was this always a rumor or did some buffoon actually make the offer and now the network is rescinding the whole thing based on what people must be saying on the ‘Net??
Cheers
NBC Cancels Studio 60
For as long as I can remember I’ve never watched many NBC shows. I blossomed into a Friends viewer much after it was off the air. I grew tired of the glory seeking in ER after the departure of many of the original cast.
The only show I watched through to it’s eventual end was West Wing and I saw it move from it’s prominent Wednesday prime-time spot to the “sent-to-the-pasture” Sunday night spot. The show did lose some of it’s charm toward the end, but seven years is a good run for any show.
PC Gaming Dilemma
I got into PC gaming shortly after my introduction to computers in my early teens back in the early 90’s. During that time, MS-DOS was the OS of choice and all games required some level of tinkering before they would function. Anyone from that era should have fond memories of EMM386 and counter-parts used to get a game to run.
Through all that mess, I still actively bought, installed, tinkered and played many PC games. At the same time, in the console market, the Nintendo Entertainment System reigned supreme. My father did buy an NES console for my brother and me and we dutifully played through Super Mario Brothers and were amazed that 8-bit graphics.
The Polls on CNN
I frequent CNN.com (yeah, yeah) during the day to get a gist of the daily news and one of the things I’ve noticed is the little poll on the bottom of the page that is usually somehow related to the biggest story on the page.
Curiously, I’ve found that the possible answers either have you agreeing with or going against the gist of the story. I, always, seem to want a third option of “I really could care less” or similar. This was especially true during all the fuss over Anna Nicole Smith.
I would imagine that if you’re going to create a poll, you should also have an option to ridicule the poll itself.
Cheers
Car Idling Is Bad
The Canadian Office of Energy Efficiency has suggested that if you’re going to idle in your car for more than 10 seconds, you should turn your car off to save, not only gas, your money, but also the environment.
I was first exposed to this phenomenon while visiting India in 2000. Traffic lights there, like anywhere else, consume some 2+ minutes of your life and in response to the atrocious air quality in most cities, the local governments had instructed motorists to shut down their vehicles. Read the rest of this entry »
Those Darn Chords
It took the birth of my daughter to get a little introspective about my life and the accomplishments in them. I look at her, barely in her third week of life and imagine all that she will learn, accomplish and teach. I, then look at myself approaching 30 and reminisce about the things that I just didn’t get done.
Prime amongst a growing list of things that I haven’t and probably will never get done is being able to play the guitar. Music, in general, has always been a big part of my life. I enjoy listening to it. Singing, albeit badly sometimes, to it and generally being surrounded by it. What better way, I thought, for me to get more involved in music than to play an instrument myself.
Sirius and XM, together?
There are many news reports today indicating that Sirius and XM might be merging to form a single satellite radio company. In my previous car I had access to Sirius and in my new TL, I have access to XM so I’ve had a chance to listen to both of them.
In my opinion, the sound quality of Sirius was audibly superior to XM. The channel lineup and the music also was much better on Sirius. Additionally, being a football fan, I really enjoyed the exclusive access to NFL.
Now, with the possible merger, I could get access to the NFL again, and perhaps much better music. However, as my car only has the XM receiver, I think I would get the inferior sound quality unless Acura came up with some sort of a replacement to handle the better fidelity of Sirius.
Seeing as the merger hasn’t been official approved yet, I might just be getting way ahead of myself. But can’t blame me for imagining. 
Cheers
