by Matt | Apr 3, 2009 | Games, Work
So. We’ve made it to April. Spring is turning into summer and we haven’t seen a decent game release since Christmas. Now it’s conference and trade show season and all the big boys are announcing their game releases for the rest of the year. GDC has already happened and has already begun the year long tease that is the video game industry. E3 is up next and it’s supposed to be a big deal this year, back from the grave yard of canceled conferences. I know it’s early to be talking about the rest of the year, but I couldn’t wait. Allegedly we’ll get much firmer release dates, a lot more media and even a few new announcement by the time we get to E3, but here’s what I’ve got on my radar so far.
(more…)
by Matt | Apr 3, 2009 | Friends and Family, Games, Personal
Well, we had our fantasy baseball league’s draft last night. I got a number of the guys involved as well as my brother and my old man. We had a great draft and I think everyone ended up with some good players. The very first pick I made was for the entirety of the Boston Red Sox pitching staff. I have a pretty good feeling that this year they will be at least a very solid performer and at best pretty fucking fantastic. After that I was able to grab up Youk, Ortiz, and Hunter Pence, all guys I figure will have pretty big years. Not a bad lineup if I do say so myself. I’m a little weak at 3rd base and I don’t have a good backup catcher, but I think some trades could be made if needed to fill in the holes. I also picked up not only Jeter but Damon as well. I was planning on benching Damon, just on principle, but it looks like Ichiro will be on the DL for the first couple weeks, so he might get some play after all. Anyway, here’s the lineup.
by Matt | Apr 2, 2009 | Personal
As a rule, I don’t listen to the radio. Music radio, AM, FM, HD or XM. However, as a daily routine, I listen to the radio twice. Once, for a half-hour on my drive to work. I listen to Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio. It’s easily my favorite thing on the radio, regardless of time, station or genre. That’s a very short list by the way. On the way home, I usually listen to CDs or my MP3 player. Occasionally, just because I like to hear what the enemy is up to, I’ll listen to talk radio. Talk radio in Texas is only one thing: conservative. In order, the talk radio station plays Beck, Rush, Hannity, and a local guy, Micheal Berry. Berry isn’t so bad. He’s more of a rationalist that happens to be conservative rather than a conservative mouth piece.
The topic of conversation yesterday blew my mind. They were all talking about Harold Koh, former Dean of Yale Law and new Obama appointee. All the major conservative crazies and their associated networks were going out of their way to suggest that this guy Koh was 100% in favor of and planning the implementation of Sharia law in the US court system.
They made accusations that this guy has supported this for a long time, that he wanted to do it in our courts, that this was a huge problem, that the world was ending and that the sky was falling.
(more…)
by Matt | Mar 19, 2009 | Aggravation
In the spring my thoughts turn to one thing and that’s the start of the baseball season. The winter is over and I thankfully don’t have to put up with NFL schedules, NBA nonsense and the fucking over-hyped pain-in-the-ass NCAA tournament. No, I don’t have a bracket and no, I don’t want to see yours.
So, with longing and anticipation I look forward to the start of the baseball season. Unfortunately every year, with the start of the season, brings the realization that I can’t actually WATCH any of the games I want to. I live vicariously through text-messages to my cell phone with per-inning updates and then read the sports news sites early each morning or listen to Mike & Mike as they catch me up on what happened around the league.
You see, the problem is the MLB. More accurately, the MLB’s bullshit TV licensing program. The MLB and the teams negotiate with TV stations to air the games. The network the games are on are local to the area the teams are in. Those networks then contract together and offer things like the “MLB Season Ticket” or “MLB Extra Innings” to exclusive providers like Comcast. Comcast offers those packages to consumers for outrageous costs.
Even Dish Network, one of the original providers of entire out-of-market baseball season broadcasts, has announced that they were unable to reach a deal with the MLB because of the MLB’s demands, so this year even Dish customers are out of luck. FTA:
“DISH Network will not be carrying MLB Extra Innings, the out of market baseball package, and MLB Network this season. The demands made by MLB were not in the best interest of our customers.”
There is, currently, NO legal way to watch an out-of-market baseball game, other than paying $100 per season, directly to the MLB, to watch games on the MLB website.
There is a sports package offered from AT&T Uverse that includes all the major ESPN and Fox Sports Net stations, across all regions, but after talking with a representative on the phone, it turns out that any baseball game broadcast on those stations would be blacked out (except regular ESPN of course).
So, AT&T doesn’t have the games, the Satellite providers don’t have the games, and the Comcast package… it’s $169 AND it DOES NOT include NESN (the New England Sports Network) which 99.9% of all Red Sox games are on.
There is literally no way to watch baseball on my TV. None. I can technically watch the games streaming over the internet, on my laptop, but I have to pay $100 to do it. I can’t even put in to words how much that is complete and total bullshit.
Absolutely. Fucking. Wrong.
The MLB and their money-grubbing, ass-pirating executives should be ashamed of themselves. I should be able to watch any game, in any region, in any medium I wish. I shouldn’t be forced to pay $100 to watch it on my screen on my laptop, that’s horse shit. That’s not even TV. TV people! I can’t watch a baseball game on FUCKING TV. There is something so seriously wrong with this country and with this sport when after a long day at work I can’t come home, have a beer and watch a fucking Red Sox game.
And I’m lucky. I’m a fan of one of the two biggest teams in the country. So big that every time the Red Sox and the Yankees play they sell the special rights to the broadcast to someone like ESPN, which is awesome for me, I get to watch my team 3 maybe 4 times a season. If you’re a fan of a smaller market team, you will almost NEVER see you teams on regular cable or, heaven forbid, broadcast TV.
That’s pathetic. Truly fucking pathetic. And it gets me all worked up every time I think about it.
I am seriously, SERIOUSLY considering a SlingBox Solo. The only obvious downsides to that is that it’s $179, about the same price as Comcast’s package and that I’d again have to watch TV on my web browser. The upside is that I could mail it to my parents house, have them hook it up, tune it to NESN on a spare TV and just leave it. I would get everything on the network, including Bruins and Celtics games, and I could change it later, have them send it back to me, all sorts of stuff AND the money wouldn’t be going to the MLB.
I would really love to find some sort of work around for all this, but I don’t think it exists. And watching TV on my laptop IS better than nothing, but just barely. The alternative is finding some sort of baseball torrent, which means I’d have to wait until the game was over, encoded, uploaded and seeded before I could download it. That could take hours or more likely days.
Anyone have any other ideas how I can watch a Red Sox game this year? If you do I’ve love to hear them.
by Matt | Mar 17, 2009 | Movies, Reviews
My brother-in-law and I went to see the late showing of Watchmen Sunday night. Now, I should preface any review with the disclaimer that while I’m familiar with the comics, and have read the first few, I never finished the series. I don’t know what the ending was supposed to be, what they left out or what they changed. I’m familiar enough to know what it should have felt like, but not enough to make judgments on any story aspect outside of my “movie goer” opinion.
That said, while I don’t think there will be many, spoilers may exist in the post ahead. You have been warned.
(more…)
Recent Comments