While I’m excitedly awaiting tonight’s NASCAR race in Charlotte, the organization’s obvious Republican partisanship is beginning to turn me off. I just read that Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, is honorary race director for tonight’s race. If NASCAR is serious about expanding its fan base, then this kind of partisanship has got to stop. I don’t expect the drivers and teams to share all of my views any more than I would expect that of other fans. But for the parent organization to so obviously embrace the Republican party makes me wonder if they really want my demographic to feel at home in NASCAR at all. As it stands now, I may not be watching NASCAR come next season.
Category: Games and Sports
The long anticipated Spore has been recently released for the PC. I’ve been moving away from PC games to consoles for the last few years now, but there’d been so much hype around Spore that I had been tempted to buy a copy anyway. But now I hear that the DRM in Spore is so onerous that people are starting to pirate it en masse. Apparently, you can only install Spore 3 times on your PC for any reason. So if your machine is infested with spyware and you have to reinstall everything, you’re out of luck with Spore if you’ve already used up your 3 strikes. Having had to reinstall Windows on numerous occasions, I can see this as a likely scenario for many. So I’ll be taking a pass on Spore, unless it comes to Xbox 360.
It makes me wonder if the powers that be are intentionally trying to kill off PC gaming for good. Most pirates weren’t likely going to buy a legit copy of the game anyway, but onerous DRM can only scare off customers willing to pay cash money for it. This doesn’t sound like a very sustainable business model to me. It reminds me of my local CVS drugstore, which in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Chicago, has started locking up things like body washes. Rather than hire security to catch shoplifters, they instead treat all of their customers like criminals and in the process offend and thus lose paying customers like me!
I have no time for screwy DRM, but I don’t want to pirate Spore either, so I guess I won’t be playing it on the PC at all.T_T
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Brickyard 400 Craptacular Tires
I’m watching NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 today and I’m absolutely appalled at the tire situation. The tires that Goodyear provided for the race don’t seem to be lasting more than 10 to 20 laps, failing with deadly consequences. Matt Kenseth’s right rear tire just detonated taking out the whole window and quarter panel back there before sending him into a spin! In a 160 lap race, I don’t see how this can possibly work out. Makes one wonder if having one company make tires for everyone is such a good idea…
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Wish – from Shenmue Video Game
Shenmue is another one of those underappreciated video games that for various reasons did not do as well as hoped for in terms of market success. Nevertheless, I’m still a big fan of it, and after searching for a complete romaji lyrics set for Wish, the song during the motorcycle ride after Ryo rescues Nozomi, I finally got around to transliterating them myself. My Japanese skill is nil, but I post these here in the hope that they will be useful to others who love this song as I do.
Wish – from Shemue video game
Music: Hirota Yoshitaka
Vocal: Isayama Mio
transliterated by blueZhift
July 2008
Itsuka mieta yume no youni
Ho ho wo na re te to ri sukiru
Umiye tsunagaru ho to wo
Shia no ka ori hako bu yo
Itoshi saga
Yasashi uso
Tsukaseru maeru
Sabishi sao
Ima daite hoshi inoni
I wish you will always be here with me
Ikutsu no yoru ako ete mo
Komiageru setsuna saba yuku ate mo nai mamate
Don’t leave me alone
Till morning still we see
Kono mune wayu ete yuketo
Madaka eni dakunai oshi na kia mo made mou sukoshi
Meguru ki setsuno naka de na nasare sonina
Tato kino
Kitto kono kimochi dake
Ama ikaori no go suyo
Senanakara kita kotomo
Nakita kunaata
Inori ni mo mita omoi dakishimete
I wish you will always be by my side
Ikutsu no yoru ako ete mo
Nemuretsuni hitsuo dakake
Sabishi sa mote a masu dake
Don’t leave me alone
You’ll see my fearless side
Kawa anai tsuyoi hitomi
Demo modora naikoto wakaata ii dakara mou sukoshi
[instrumental w some vocalizations]
If you will always be by my side
There is no sorrows and tears in my eyes
Can’t live without you
Why do you have to decide
You won’t be a–ware of my pains and lies
Don’t leave me alone, stay with me—-
But I know you do not get back
I remember you forever
Yesterday I discovered that my oldest son was farther along the digital media curve than I thought. I was passing by him as he worked on the kids PC and caught a glimpse of what was clearly his art work on a YouTube channel, before he could cover it up! We’re pretty liberal around here, but I guess he wasn’t sure if I would approve. Once the cat was out of the bag and he could see that it was okay with me, he started to tell me about it. Even with limited tools, he’s made some pretty cool stuff. Much of using Windows Movie Maker, Hypercam, Audacity, and MS Paint! I’ve been in the process of upgrading his tools as I upgrade my own. I just installed Magix Movie Edit Pro 12 (I just got Sony Vegas) and he has Paint.net and GIMP already. Usually I pass down software I no longer use in order to keep costs down and to give the kids some experience in the kind of creative solutions you have to come up with when you can’t afford to go out and buy Adobe CS3 right away! LOL, but the way the kids are progressing I’m probably going to have to jump to industry standard tools faster than I had initially planned so they can take maximum advantage of the wealth of knowledge that already exists surrounding these tools, *cough*CS3*cough*cough*… Anyway, here’s something cool from sonic3895, my son, the games otaku and future graphics designer. Who needs a refrigerator for art when there’s YouTube?
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Sony Can’t Go Home Yet
Sony is delaying Home for Playstation 3 yet again. Eh, just as well, just means I won’t be buying a PS3 any time soon. While Home is not what one might think of as a killer app, especially with established virtual worlds like Second Life and There already available, it is a for me a sufficiently compelling reason to consider completing my set of current generation game consoles. I really want to see Sony succeed in creating a compelling and easy to use virtual world, something as immersive and engaging as The World of .hack fame. Second Life is inching closer, but having to run on the PC may ultimately be slowing down their progress as the client has to accomodate a wide variety of configurations. I can only hope that the Xbox 360 will eventually get in on some of this virtual world action.
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Chad Knaus Is Awesome!
While I haven’t become a Jimmy Johson fan after his stunning gas mileage win in yesterday’s Subway 500 at Phoenix, I am definitely a Chad Knaus fan! Jimmy is talented, but Chad and his crew are showing why they have back to back Cup championships and are a legitimate threat for a third one. They’re on their game and have shown that they can improve and come back time and time again. That 48 team seems to be a threat to win any time they’re on the track.
It was bound to happen, Kyle Busch just won the Sprint Cup race in Atlanta giving Toyota its first NASCAR Sprint Cup win. I suppose there’ll be some purists out there complaining about a foreign name plate winning (the first since 1954), but hey, that’s competition baby! On an unrelated note, Tony Stewart just badmouthed Goodyear saying they can’t make a tire worth crap. Hmmm, wonder if that’ll bring some fines…
On an even more unrelated note, it looks like Kasey Kahne, Budweiser, Allstate, and milfs do mix! When the Budweiser sponsorship went over to the number 9 after Dale Earnhardt Jr. went to Hendrick, I was wondering if a car could be sponsored by a beer company that wants you to drink more, and an insurance company that probably wants you to drink less. I guess the answer is yes. Right after Busch’s burnout, they ran an Allstate ad featuring Kahne in his Bud emblazoned fire suit, and, of course, the milf-like soccer moms. The Bud logo on the suit was covered up after 5 or seconds by the good driver rebate check they were promoting. I wonder what Mothers Against Drunk Driving would think about this interesting juxtaposition.
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Goodbye Gary
Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons passed away last week. I never played D&D as a kid, but I knew a lot of guys who did and I had more than one occasion to peruse the stacks of D&D books they never seemed to be without. I was fascinated by the color and detail of it all, and ultimately it was only the lack of time that kept me from getting in on the action. I was more of a Starfleet Battles man, and heavens knows how much time that game took per move!
Nevertheless, I owe a great debt to Gygax because the fantasy worlds I’ve come to inhabit later in life, such as Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft, are based on the role playing game paradigm that he helped create. And to a great extent videogames in general. So thanks Gary, and I think I’ll skip the obligatory saving throw joke! Here’s an xkcd tribute instead!
I’m sure it probably means nothing, but the juxtapositioning of a gamesindustry.biz article concerning the next Xbox Live and a now hiring ad for Second Life gave me pause for thought. As a fan of the concept of virtual worlds, such as Second Life, or the upcoming Home for Playstation 3, I’d really like it if the next Xbox Live incorportated some virtual world elements. There’s no reason to believe it can’t be done, though I think the larger 120GB Xbox 360 hard drive
But quite honestly, I think the best thing Microsoft could do to counter encroachment on Xbox Live by Home might be to secure World of Warcraft for Xbox 360. WoW is itself a well established virtual world that I’m sure would find a lot of takers if a console option became available. Second Life for Xbox 360 would be interesting too, but I think WoW would be a heck of a lot more fun!
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Rocket Man Wins Daytona 500
Ryan Newman just won the Daytona 500! It’s been a long time since the Rocket Man has seen victory lane, so it’s a sweet win I’m sure. More importantly, the new car worked great! The last lap wrecking of last year’s race was dramatic, but there was plenty of drama this year without all of the carnage. I’ve never seen a Daytona 500 where the cars were able to move around each other so much without wrecking. I saw wiggles that last year would have surely ignited “the big one”, but I guess those fins on the tail wing are helping them keep things straight. So I’m looking forward to some more interesting racing this season!
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Tony’s New Do: WTF?
I’ve been following NASCAR for the last 6 or 7 years now, but this is the first year that I actually had a chance to watch the Budweiser Shootout. It was okay and a nice way to ease into a new season of racing. I’m hoping that the new car will make the racing a lot more interesting by putting the driver back in control rather than the engineers. And I think I saw some of that last night in the bold moves and incredible saves I saw that probably wouldn’t have been possible in the old super aero sensitive cars.
Another thing I’m looking forward to is a much better showing by the Toyota teams. Tony Stewart’s second place finish bodes well for Toyota which may see its first Cup victory this year. Now wtf is up with Tony’s new hair?! It looks like he got a perm! WTF! For now I’m going to guess that it has something to do with some new sponsor, or maybe Old Spice is getting into hair care products. I like Tony for the most part, but this hair is going to take some getting used to.
Finally, I heard someone say on the broadcast, I think, that NASCAR was going to let the drivers be more themselves this year. I hope so, because all of the fines and tape delays for people saying things or expressing less than positive emotions were getting annoying. Passion is, and must be, a part of the sport. Indeed, there is no sport without passion. So bring it on!
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Crazy CTA
It looks like the funding crisis for the Chicago Transit Authority may be coming to an end, for now at least. But through it all, my oldest son, who uses the CTA to get to school, has remained a staunch, almost fanatic CTA enthusiast. It boggles the mind, but he has memorized the automated voice chatter which he can flawlessly imitate, made a CTA bus plushie, and even created a CTA computer game. The game, loosely modeled on Crazy Taxi, is a little rough in the graphics and design departments, but it’s just amazing what he’s done in a relatively small amount of time with limited resources. That’s my boy!^_^
Crazy CTA Game
(created with multimedia fusion 2 for windows)
In the wake of the Mitchell report on steroid use in Major League Baseball, which names a number of high profile players, one would think that there was a general outcry just watching the news reports. But is this really the case. The very probable use of performance enhancing drugs in American baseball has been virtually common knowledge for years. Nevertheless, people keep going to the ballpark and watching the games on TV. In fact, 2007 was a record year for revenue and attendance. That hardly sounds like shock and outrage which may best explain the glacial pace at which the league has dealt with the “problem”. I guess as long as butts go in the seats and the money rolls in, there is no problem.
So if people like drug powered baseball, then heck, why make all the fuss? Just give the people what they want and maybe we’ll see some of those baseballs put into orbit next year. Everyone loves the long ball!
Jimmie Johnson won today’s NASCAR race at Phoenix and with an 86 point lead and one race to go, is virtually a lock to repeat the Nextel Cup championship. I wasn’t watching, and I probably won’t be watching next week either… Jimmie Johnson is a great driver and has an awesome crew chief in Chad Knaus. But quite honestly, Johnson just leaves me cold. He’s just not interesting. Whenever he wins, I just turn off the TV before the winners circle interview. I don’t hate the guy, but he’s just not entertaining. I actually like Chad Knaus better. I’m sorry, but in a mechanized sport where the teams with the deepest pockets already have a huge advantage, it leaves only the drivers’ personalities to add spice to the mix. Ruthlessly efficient and mechanical drivers make me want to change the channel or catch up on my housework. I felt the same way the year that Matt Kenseth won.
Love him or hate him, at least Jeff Gordon is interesting. And while I’m hardly a Kurt Busch fan and wasn’t too happy the year he won the cup, at least he was interesting. If Jimmie Johnson is the future of NASCAR, then I’ll probably be looking for something else to enjoy on Sunday afternoons. I might even start watching NFL football again.