Random Sports Thoughts

Well I haven't blogged in a while so I figured I should babble on about something.

Tiger Strikes Early

Tiger Woods played his first tournament of the season, after a long layoff from golf, and won in playoff fashion. Many doubted that Tiger would have an effect on the leaderboard since he was away from the game for so long but come on, this is Tiger we are talking about! That's like anyone saying that Michael Jordan wouldn't be a factor after his fathers death and stint at playing baseball. Three more NBA Championships later............

Timberwolves/Celtics Deal

When the big deal that dealt Wally World and Kandi man to the Celtics for Ricky Davis and Mark Blount (among others) took place last week, I was furious. But, after watching these guys come in and revitalize the Wolves with a new found energy, I'm starting to change my mind. Ironically the Wolves drilled the Celtics tonight 110-85 at the Target Center with Wally leading the Celtics (22 points). The only thing that I feel will hurt the Wolves in this deal now is the loss of another 1st round draft pick. Only time will tell, I just hope there isn't another deal in the works that moves KG out of here as it's rumored everywhere you read.

Superbowl XL

Still not ready to make a pick for this game. This is one heck of a matchup and it might take me till Saturday to finally decide. I will say that I'm ready for this game to kick off (even though I have to work during it!!!). All the hoopla leading up to game is getting on my nerves and annoying Steeler fans think this one is wrapped up already. Even the media seems to be spending more time talking about the Steelers than they do the Seahawks.

That's it for now, not much but it's something. Maybe I'll work on a Vikings update for tomorrow, maybe.

World of Warcraft Wednesday

Not an eventful week at all for me in World of Warcraft. As a matter of fact, I'm still just a lowly level 28 Mage, but should ding 29 tonight.

I just get flustered with all the quests I always seem to have and most of them chain together with others. I did a series of quests in the Darkshire area and then all of a sudden had to start going back and forth between Stormwind and Darkshire to finish that chain. It's rather annoying I tell you!

I've played 98% of my time solo and am in dire need of groups for many Dungeon runs I need to complete. I'm part of a Guild but I don't know anyone and hate to ask them so I just throw out a LFG (looking for group) and the Quest title. Don't always get the replies I hope for. Anyone have any suggestions?

Congrats to Server Medivh for being the first ones to open The Gates of Ahn' Qirai. The server I'm on (Kargath) is sitting in 58th place and only has 58% of the resources needed.

If you haven't seen it yet, Penny Arcade has a new comic featuring World of Warcraft which can be viewed here.

I know I said I would finish with a screenshot from my play time during the week, but my Photoshop needs to be re-installed and I've been too lazy to do it this past week. So here is another user submitted screenshot from the official site to tide you over. I promise to rectify the Photoshop issue this week.

NFL Championship Sunday Thoughts

I sure got this one wrong, and thankfully so for all my Steeler friends at SportsRumorMill.

I was completely shocked at how well the Steelers offense operated, and conversely, how poor Denver's defense played. It takes a special team to become the first in NFL history to make it to the Super Bowl going into the playoffs as the 6th seed. Three road wins against the number one, two, and three teams in the Conference - incredible!

Big Ben has grown alot in just one year, proving that he can be a leader at a very young age and not crumble under pressure like he did last year.

Jake Plummer on the other hand - well let's just say that the Jake we all expected to see all season long, picked the wrong day to rear his ugly head (and it truly is ugly, the guy needs a serious haircut and shave).

Congrats Pittsburgh Steelers!


Not to be out done by the AFC Championship game, the NFC Championship ended as another big surprise - but I at least got the pick right on this game!

I was expecting a close game here with Carolina's stifling defense. But instead, we saw that Seattle meant business and that they were not the highest scoring team in the league for nothing.

Mr. MVP Shaun Alexander finally had the type of postseason success fans and teammates have been clamoring for the past few years. Along with the sometimes over-looked Hasslebeck, the Seahawks put the hammer down and have everyone in a tizzy when it comes to picking a Superbowl winner.

What really shocked me though was the way in which the Seattle defense played. They took Steve Smith out of his game and constantly had Delhomme on the run.

Congrats Seattle Seahawks!


So it's set, Pittsburgh vs. Seattle in Superbowl XL. Never would of thought I saw the day when Seattle was in the big game and never thought I would see another Cower lead Steeler team go. So now we have both and I'm left to pick a winner. Well, I'm not ready to do that just yet. I think we've got one heck of a matchup here and it's too close to call at this point.

Don't worry though, I'll pick my winner sooner or later. Of course I know my Steeler friends all want me to pick the Seahawks simply because ever since the Steelers at Vikings game, I've picked against them and they've won every game.

New Member of the Family!

Alright, I'm not one to get personal on my little Blog here, but today was a special day so I'm going to post this anyway (don't worry fellow geeks and sports rubes, I'll still be ranting on with the usual after this).

Early this morning, my little sister had her baby little girl - Gracey. Since I know my father and grandparents are down South and didn't have the opportunity to be there today, I thought I would post the pictures we took. So here they are Dad, Randi, Todd, Tracy, Grams and Gramps, enjoy and talk to you all soon! (click the pictures for the full thing)

Congratulations Rick and Jenny!
You did well, I think this one's a keeper!

Electronic Arts Slashing Current-Gen Game Prices

GamesIndustry.biz reported last night that Electronic Arts is slashing the prices of all their current-gen titles in North America. Madden NFL 06, which along with fellow EA Sports titles FIFA 06, NASCAR 06 and NBA Live 06, and movie tie-in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is dropping from $39.99 to $29.99.

That's just a few to mention, when all is said and done, EA will have slashed the price on 48 of their current-gen titles.

That's some good news for all of us that have not had the chance to play some of their great games. But how about some better news? Look for other game companies to piggy-back what EA is doing and slash the prices on all the current-gen games. That's right, this is a clear indication that the Next-Gen (Xbox 360, PS3, Revolution) is starting to hit full swing for all the gaming developers out there.

So get out there and pick up some cheap gems while you wait for all the Next-Gen titles to hit store shelves.

World of Warcraft Weekly

For those that know me, it's no secret that I like to get my geek on with a little World or Warcraft from time to time. Since it's such a wonderful online game that takes up hours and days of one's life, I thought I would share a thought and screenshot once a week of my trails in Azeroth. I know today is Thursday, but I figured I would run this bit on Wednesday from now on. That way it can be World of Warcraft Wednesday - why not, I did come up with Purple Pride Ponderings after all.

Since this is the introductory week, I guess I should explain my WoW status and prove that I really don't have any WoW cred (kind of like how Carmello Anthony really doesn't have any street cred). I've been playing the game off and on for a while now, but only have a level 28 Mage, and a few other alts that really aren't worth mentioning at this point.

I just finally realized the importance of specing your character the other day and will be spending a few gold to do so. I'm sure I'll have more success once that is done, it just took me a while to decide which way I want to go and I think I finally made up my mind. I mainly play solo so that helped in my decision.

So yeah, even though I've been playing a while, I'm an ultra-noob. Having a wife, kids, job, and writing hobby makes it hard for me to dedicate long streams of time into the game. I have some friends that spend all their free time playing and do nothing else. As much as I'd like for that to be the case for myself, it's just not possible, and I'd rather not get a divorce from my wonderful wife.

My future installments will include some rants, questions, stories, and progress reports from my WoW play throughout the week. I'll end with a screenshot of the week that will come from my very own character and gameplay. But, for this week, I leave you with a screenshot of the day directly from Blizzard's own official World of Warcraft website: (click the pic for full size)


If there are any WoW players out there that would like to help me out with what I'm doing or post a story of your own, please feel free to leave a comment and look me up every Wednesday from now on.

Childress: Not a Culpepper Guy?

For the past week, there's been tons of speculation on the accord that Childress wants to get rid of Culpepper because he doesn't think he can run the West Coast offense.

Now I like Childress, but I wish he would take the West Coast offense and shove it where the sun don't shine.

Culpepper is supposed to be the quarterback that leads the Vikings into the next decade. He's got raw talent that you just don't find in an everyday quarterback. Sure he's suffered a nasty knee injury, but McGahee has shown that you can bounce back and still perform with the same type of injury.

I think it would be a mistake for the Vikings to trade Daunte and not get much in return (the injury would be a huge leverage tool for teams to rob the Vikings). According to the lastest doctor notes I heard about on Daunte, he will be mobile enough to partake in some light workouts during mini-camp. That's significant considering most thought he wouldn't be walking at that time let alone taking some snaps.

Since we have a coach that is sold on the WC offense, it will take time for a player like Daunte to learn it. But, he will not be playing the first week of the season and Brad Johnson should have no problem in the offense with his style of play. Just let Daunte heal and learn the offense from the sidelines and ease him in when the time comes. If the Vikings keep Koren Robinson, who wouldn't want to watch Daunte and him connecting deep?

All I'm saying is, we should not give up on Daunte. He's a gamebreaker that is ready to prove that he can come back from this injury and perform. Is it worth trading him for bit players and a low draft pick only to see him become the league MVP (or worse yet, win a Super Bowl) someday? I don't think so, give him time to heal and role with Johnson till he's ready.

NFL Divisional Playoffs Thoughts

Wow, were there a few upsets this weekend or what? Starting with yesterday's game, the big surprise (well not to the Steeler faithful) was the Steelers knocking off the Colts. Several weeks ago the Lombardi Trophy alread had the Colts etched in it to most of the country. But, a coaches son's death and meaningless regular season games later, the Colts now find themselves wondering what happened, and what could have been. There were some bad calls in the game, one in particular that had to of pissed off every Steeler fan in the country. I'm sure those same Steeler fans had a heart attack during the Bettis fumble, only to be saved by Big Ben's tackle. Glad to see that another solid kicker can miss an all important field goal in a playoff game (us Vikings fans will never forgive Gary Anderson).

As for the Bears/Panthers game, that one was a case of "I told you so". I've thought the Bears' defense was overrated and boy did they prove that, and at home! Steve Smith single handedly tore that unit up. Note to Bears.....you still need a real quarterback.

The Seahawks won despite losing MVP Alexander early on. Not much to say about that game, it went as expected to me.

Now the Pats and Broncos on the other hand....wow, I really expected the Patriots to make that Super Bowl push again. I have not been giving the Broncos the credit they deserve all year, so now I will. Like Plummer said, you don't go 13-3 without being a damn good team.

So my Super Bowl prediction of the Pats and Bears went up in flames. As a matter of fact, I thought the AFC Championship game would be the Pats and Colts. Good thing I don't gamble, it would have been a horrible weekend for me.

So this is who I like in the Championship games:

I like the Broncos to win a close defensive battle at home, and the Seahawks to finally make it to the big game while defeating a very good Carolina team. I just don't see the Steelers and Panthers winning a third playoff game in a row on the road.

So there you have it, the Super Bowl I am predicting:

VS

Take it for what it's worth, I only picked one game right last week!

Allele - Point of Origin Review

My review of Point of Origin by Allele is now up at JustPressPlay. I must say I was very impressed with this debut album. Before getting this I never even heard of the band but did recognize their hit single Closer to Habit.

Guess I should start listening to 93x a bit more here in the Twin Cities. In the mornings I always get my sports fix on KFAN and while at work, I'm listening to The Dark Tower audio books (I'm almost done with Wizard and Glass).

So for all you rockers out there, give this one a try.

More PS3 Price Speculation

Gamespot is reporting that an informal CNN/Money poll is finding that many Analysts and Developers believe that Sony's Next-Gen Console will be of the pricey ilk.

It's nothing new to me really, I've been saying all along that it has to be more expensive than the Xbox 360 due to the fact that the 360 uses a regular DVD drive whereas the PS3 is to have a Blue-Ray drive. The article does point that out, and it also points out that during the CES show, the first stand-alone Blue-Ray disc player was unveild - with a $1,800 price tag!

It's not looking good for the average consumer when it comes to wanting a PS3. Between all this price speculation and the fact that I think it won't be released till this fall, more and more 360's will be flying off the shelves now that the inventory is starting to rise.

You can read Gamespot's full story on this here.

Dark Tower Flash Game

Being a big fan of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and having some free time at work, I started googling for some Dark Tower wallpapers to put on my work machine.

As I'm sifting through all the images that google puked out, I come across the image in this post. Recognizing it as a game I loved to play as a kid, I clicked on the link and came to find their is a flash version of Dark Tower, an electronic Milton Bradley game created in 1981.

I was so thrilled to see this as I was looking for this game in a retro game store a while back. I did find one that day, but they wanted $500 for it. No way am I gonna pay that kind of money for a 20+ year old electronic game, for nostalgia's sake or not.

For those not familiar with this great game, give the links above a click and check it out. For those that are familiar with Dark Tower, well, you may not have made it past the links.

PS3 To Release this Fall, Maybe (Warning, Speculation)

That's right, you heard it here, and hopefully first.

Sony's PS3 was a big fat no-show during this year's big CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas that took place this past week. With that being the case, there is no way the PS3 will release in March as some have speculated.

Why you say? It's simple. To build the buyer hype, it's best to showcase the system at a big event. Yeah we saw a "prototype" at E3 last year, but things have changed since then.

Remember that horrible boomerang controller? Well rumor has it that Sony is totally changing the controller. With that little blurb out on the internet coupled with the no-show at CES - one + one = two, if you know what I mean.

So that brings us to showing off the system in its full working glory during E3 2006, which takes place in May. If Sony does indeed show it off and allow us play test it, you can bank on it not being released till late fall - at the earliest.

Why that long after E3 you say? Well developers will need to work with the new dev kits that tie in with the new controller. That puts any type of game production back several months when it comes to putting out a finished product.

It’s starting to look like the PS3 in 2007 speculation wasn't that far off. We'll be lucky to see this thing come out before Christmas if you ask me.

Maybe this was Sony's evil little plan from the beginning. A way to force the Xbox 360 into the Dreamcast effect by making it look like it came out too early. Now they have time to see what makes the 360 tick, and make their new Next Gen console that much better. That seems to be the case; why else would they completely change something as vital as the controller?

Hammer and Sickle Review

Things are slow on the review front for me over at Just Press Play, but my review of Hammer and Sickle is now up and you can read it by clicking here.

I was rather disappointed with the game overall as you will see. The production value was something one would have expected years ago, not in today's gaming world. Oh well, here's hoping I get a better game to review next time.

Next up on my slate for Just Press Play is a CD review from a Hard Rock band called Allele. The Album is titled Points of Origin and I should be listening to it this weekend and will have the review done early next week. I'll post the link here when it's up so look for that if you like Rock music.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

A new year means more broken resolutions. But not me, not this year. I plan on making 2006 the year I become a published (paid) writer of some sort. I don't care if it's for sports writing, gaming journalism, short stories, or my first novel - one way or another, I will do it. So wish me luck, I start back on the novel that I managed to only finish one chapter last year.