Comic for Monday, October 23rd, 2006

Posted: 7:41 am, Monday, October 23rd

Dammit, Irish, you almost killed me on Saturday. I was working the gamewatch at McFadden's, solo, and wound up latching on to the group following this guy Jim that I kind of watched the Penn State game with. I have never hugged as many relative strangers as when Brady found Samardzija in the closing seconds, there. Hot damn, that was something else! (Which I wish was not necessary, as I would've rather seen a thirty-point blowout.) Because it's my site, I'm putting up the highlight clip, which includes all three of the plays from the winning drive, but also the single worst call I've ever seen the Robot Genius make, the Quinn sneak on fourth and one that gave UCLA the ball back in the first place. Pitch it right there, no one was guarding the outside. (Easy for me to say, I know.)

So I'm digging Bully a whole lot. I don't know if I like it more or less than San Andreas right now, since it's a totally different sort of game, but it's crazy enjoyable. I really like the class sequences, although shop is harder than I remember it to be. (Actually, this is a lie. I was unsurprisingly terrible at shop class. My woodworking project was a box to hold 5 1/4 inch floppy disks, and the disk-holding area came out to be 5 1/8 inch. The staining work was delightful, though.)

I'm getting jazzed up for Saturday - I'm finally going to see the Irish play. We're taking on the University of Navy down in Baltimore, and a good chunk of the ol' collitch gang will be there. We'll be able to grill in the parking lot this weekend, unlike back in May when every parking lot security guard put the kibosh on our grillin' before an Orioles game. It's been too long since I've had grilled sausage product in a parking lot. Given, a day without grilled sausage product in a parking lot it too long, but it has been *far* too long for me.

Weekend ad roundup: Man, honestly, I don't think it's OK for Katrina and 9/11 to be used in a Chevy ad. Also, the Coors Light ads where they splice a coach's press conference with those doofuses drinking their Coors Light? What the hell is that? How is that considered clever? I should be in charge of everything. Also: I kind of like Jay-Z, but the song in the Bud Select ad is terrible. And what are those cars, does anyone know? They look like they're going to transform and start fighting Soundwave.

The only thing more shocking than learning that Pedro's midget actually lived to 38 is that he had a nine-year old son. Rest in peace, Nelson.

I don't think I'd ever actually seen a picture of the Panama Canal before.

OK, that's all I've got.

bullfrog

Very nice touch having Jen sprinkle the wax pixie dust in frame 4. Awesome. That's the type of quality we've come to expect here in FiveBucks land, though.

Slate did a piece on the Chevy ads: http://www.slate.com/id/2151143

Yes, I plug my own workplace.

The real question about Bully is, is it better than "The Warriors"? I think it's also interesting how Rockstar became the premier game developer. Konami in 1988 is to Rockstar in 2006.

Ah, comment validation! Good one.

Obama 2008? Could be interesting... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/us/politics/23obama.html

Doesn't Brady look like his touch is off this year? He can't seem to make the throws in the flat or the good deep ball. Gun it to the deep out, fit it in the seam to Carlson, no problem.

Weird times. Hopefully the malaise ends. UCLA put up a good fight. I'm sure they will proceed to get clobbered by the condomns.

Still doesn't justify dropping in the BCS and AP.

I'm from the Chicago Suburbs, Obama talk has been wall to wall. I'm a conservative, but can't say I wouldn't entertain the thought of him in the White House.

I didn't play the Warriors, so I can't really say. Bully's missions are pretty easy - I think I've only had to retry maybe three or four of them and the little progress meter says I'm about 36% through the game. (2.0 was dress shopping yesterday and NYC was treated to some really crappy NFL games - Denver-Cleveland? WTF?! - so I didn't do much else.) But they're diverse and a lot of fun. You can get a camera and take pictures of the students for the yearbook, which, for some reason, I'm really enjoying. I don't know if it's for everyone, but I do think it's definitely worth forty bucks.

I think Brady's deep ball ability is being screwed over by Rhema's relative ineffectiveness. Samardzija's been bracketed and cut off on every deep route he's tried - honestly, I can only remember one or maybe two times Brady's tried winging it 40 yards or more in the air to Sammy. I think Mo Sto was way better on deep balls than Rhema - either he or Sammy would've had that one very early on that was about three inches out of Rhema's graps (and, really, Rhema should've had that - he wasn't going full steam for the last ten yards, which made the difference). I think if our O-line was playing at even a mediocre level, Brady's completion percentage would be up another 5-10%. He's getting the happy feet of Ron Powlus (the QB, not the comic character) back there, except it's out of nerves and not general craptitude.

Me likey Barack.

Also, as bad-ass as Konami was, I think I preferred Capcom in 1988. I was a big Mega Man fan, though, and an only child in the sticks, so I never really got to utilize the multiplayer aspects of Komani's shooters, which likely would've swayed me. (Also, I despised Simon's Quest, so big negative points for Konami on that one. Honestly, how am I supposed to know to kneel while holding a red crystal to summon a fucking whirlwind? How does that make sense?)

Wow, I can't believe I was not aware of this. The dude that usually does the weekends on Deadspin evidently does a liveblog called the Smorgasboard, where he just mocks the NFL. I'm really enjoying it so far.

http://www.themightymjd.com/smorgasbord/

I hope to see Obama on Saturday morning at the Texas Book Festival. I'll let you know the vibe. Though a Democrat speaking in Austin is bound to get the crowd out. Interesting to note is the big speaker last year was Bill Clinton--now the Fest' is following with Obama.

And, even with the Stones' concert taking most of the front page of the paper this morning, the story of Obama's possible run managed to make it to the bottom right corner of the Statesman (registration req'd): http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/10/23/23obama.html

I have to think that Kenny Rogers should've been booted. This from a Michigan native and Tigers fan...

Missed the early innings, only heard about this last night. I can't believe La Russa didn't go nuts arguing this. I agree he should've been booted, but the fact that he then went an additional seven scoreless does seem to bear out that it wasn't giving him an advantage. But, yeah, he should've been booted.

On the other hand, La Russa managed Canseco and McGwire - maybe he didn't know you could cheat other than using steroids.

The BCS is just drunk on computers that one has to question most of their methodology. (It isn't about the programs, it's the assumptions made in making the programs that counts.)

The way I heard it, La Russa was being a gentlemen out of respect to Leyland. Besides, he got one out of two, and I figure he was thinking, eh, we'll just sweep them at home and win the damn thing. Someone please upsmack him, please.

I don't know anyone who plays that bar shuffleboard thingy Jen and Pete are playing. No one. The one bar I've seen it in, it just sits there, gathering dust.

What bar patrons tend to play are either erotic pic mix from a touch-tap computer screen (find the difference between two similarly naked girls; women will play this choosing the naked women option...are naked men just not as appealing versus men wearing just their boxers, briefs or thongs?), darts or Golden Tee Live where they routinely wear out the rollerball. Incredible Technologies (the current makers of the Golden Tee series; Peter Jacobsen wasn't even that good of a golfer in his prime!) must be keeping rollerball makers alive on their orders alone. They also make a version of computerized bowling and hunting, which is as pathetic as it sounds.

The best bars are the piano bars or the pool bars. Preferably with sports playing on their televisions.

Miyaa - I don't think we've met. Take it from a friend of a friend: TRY THE SHUFFLEBOARD. (Please forgive the caps.) It's a notch above darts, and 37 notches beyond Golden Tee.

And Nudie Touch Screen doesn't deserve mention in the same paragraph.

I only know of one table shuffleboard venue. It's in Grand Rapids, MI. "Our Tavern" off of Leonard St. In addition to TWO shuffleboard tables, the furniture looks like it came straight out of Grandma's basement, and that it originally made it to Grandma's basement by being taking home from Grandpa's factory.

Ah, "The GR." I actually prefer darts (although I'm riding a five-game losing streak to my buddy Chef because I can't close out the bulls recently - God, it's maddening), but I'll play shuffleboard if I can because it's much rarer.

The place the gang is hanging out right now, I've actually written about in this spot before. It's called Fat Cat and it's down on Christopher Street. It's like the awesomest basement ever - it's got about a dozen pool tables, five or six ping-pong tables, and two or three shuffleboard tables. Free chess and Scrabble, too, and live jazz from time to time. All it's missing is fooseball.

The QB challenge on that touch screen game? I friggin' rule at that.

Oh the nostalgia... http://grandrapids.citysearch.com/review/5447327 That's right, 3 user reviews since 2002.

OK, I'm gonna let it go now.

MJL, was that the winner of the 'thon that took that spill yesterday? Only half-saw the clip this morning.

Yep. 1st guy over the line. Not pretty at all, but they say he's gonna be alright.

http://cbs2chicago.com/chicagomarathon

Still, better than my stagger-over-the-finish, turn-green routine in finishing 25,000th or whatever from last year.

My old lady ran chicago this weekend. Apparently she was almost overwhelmed by the smell of pizza when she was running by one of the shops on the side of the road. Marathon running confuses me, as does any sport that causes winners to deficate on themselves. Regardless she told me that she ran the race in 3:22 and I told her I enjoyed some delicious buffalo wings and pizza during that time period while watching the Michael Vick show destroy Pittsburg. She hasnt called back since.

3:22! Damn, Wood, your lady is fast.

I can honestly say I've never excreted any bodily fluid on myself while marathoning outside of sweat, but, then again, I've never won one, either.