Weekend Review: July 6th & 7th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Ginormous 4th of July long weekend wrap up incoming I've been heads down on work and home projects for two weeks now and dipped out on writing here as a result. So without further ado, the weekend review...and most of June too:

Games
Dead Ahead (iOS)
Another game I fell in love with in the endless runner genre. I get really wrapped up in the repetitive nature of "just one more run". Dead Ahead is a 2D side-scroller set in a zombie apocalypse. You play a protagonist on a dirt bike running from a zombie hoard. The only way to keep them back is to accelerate or shoot (risky) them (limited ammo). The obstacles ahead of you include more zombies (that will slow you down) and cars (that will end your run). The mechanics and controls are solid. The pixel art and animation has a chibi look and is quite pretty. All that and it is free. It is ad supported though, so I dropped the $0.99 required to remove them. Well worth the price.

Deep Dungeons of Doom (iOS)
Triple D looks a bit like the combat portion of a JRPG. You control a hero on the left side of the screen and the creatures you face appear opposite you. It is real time and all you can do is block and attack. That sounds basic and it is, but the beauty is in the timing. Creatures can block and attack as well and learning their tells is a big part of the game. That is made easier by the fantastic pixel art and animation (noticing a theme?). This is a another free one, but unlike Dead Ahead the model for profit is not based on ads. After 5-6 dungeons D3 presents a pay wall. Pay $1.99 for 6 additional dungeons in not one, but two instances. Each dungeon took me maybe 4-5 minutes to complete. At that rate, I was good with the hour I spent with the game, but did not continue.

Block, Block, Block (iOS)
Block x 3 is a simple and beautiful concept. It takes the match 3 puzzle genre and places a hard emphasis on the puzzle element. You presented with multiple squares in pastel tones and are asked to solve the puzzles by matching three. The challenge comes in when you are presented multiple colors and a limited set of moves to complete the puzzle. Crystal and I both spent multiple hours stumped on various puzzles over the weekend. Another free one by the way.

Don't Starve (PC)
Klei Entertainment, makers of Mark of the Ninja (ma jam!) made ma new jam too. Don't Starve is a 2D-ish (it's a 3D engine with 2D assets) open world game in the vein of Minecraft. That is to say it is a survival game where the environment you are in provides the materials you'll need to survive. What makes the game intriguing beyond being another open world survival game is the amount of trust placed in the player. The game opens with an unnamed man who instructs you to find food before night fall and poofs away. From that point on there are no instructions. The tool tips provided for left and right clicking different things in the world are all you have. What is good for you and what can kill is a trial by error process. The reward is mastering the consistent systems in the world, not starving and ultimately thriving. Bonus content: Great article and video about Klei

Card Hunter (PC)
I got into the beta of Card Hunter mid-last week and spent two plus hours with the tutorial and a handful of encounters. The game's concept is a novel one. RPG video games originated from the tabletop and quickly did away with any of the tangible elements related to it. Dice rolls where under the hood and the character sheets turned into UI elements. Card Hunter is a game that brings the tabletop back to the screen. Your powers are actual skeuomorphic cards and your party looks like character tokens stood up on a grided map. The narrator is a geeky DM who makes references to snacking while laying the story elements on really thick. It is great and the beta is free, after a short wait to get in of course. How long I play it will hinge on how much the multiplayer hooks me though. My kingdom for some co-op.

Music
Run the Jewels
Killer Mike and EL-P are two artist I can take in small doses most of the time. Too much and I go elsewhere with my musical taste. Combine the two though and you get a Reese's Cup of hip hop. Beats and raps from EL-P that are less experimental and a Killer Mike that is more consistent. I've listened to it on repeat for two weeks now and there is still a ton to love about nearly every part of this record.

Yeezus
My first listen to Kayne's much hyped and long anticipated new record was a good one. It was mostly listening to the beats and less so the lyrics. That is typical of how I usually consume music. I really liked what I heard at first. After three to four more plays though I started to focus in on the lyrics. What some might call controversial lyrics I found to be whiny. At this point he is a person of privilege. He certainly didn't start that way and he worked hard to make himself what he is now. There is a lot of complaining on this record for someone who has much more than probably 99% of those listening to it.

MMA
UFC 162 (Spoilers)
Anderson Silva finally got caught fucking around. He is an amazingly talented fighter. Arguably the GOAT in a very young sport, but he likes to openly mock his opponents. Most have no where near the talent as him, but instead of putting them away he sometimes extends rounds and whole fights just screwing around. It was disrespectful for sure, legitimately impressive and made for some awful main cards. Either age (he is  38), the level talent or luck caught up with him Saturday night. A moment after he pretended to be wobbled by a punch, he bobbed and weaved his way back into left hook from the young and talented Chris Weidman. The now former champ went limp to the mat, eyes rolled back in his head and saw an embarrassing end to his 10 fight title defense.

Weekend Review: Jan 26th & 27th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Pot Roast
Saturday was my second go round with the dutch oven I got for Christmas and my second on the recipe linked above. It was easy prep, 20 minutes at the most and then 4 hours of unattended cooking. Ding and you get beef that is falling apart delicious. Twice now I have made the mistake of dropping the carrots and onions in at the start of the cook time. What you get are over cooked carrots, an almost mashed potato consistency.  Dropping veggies in at the midway point is the answer.

UFC on Fox 6
The fights Saturday night were good for the most part. The main card lead up to the headliner was great. I still think flyweight fights are too quick and lack the power to be truly interesting. I'd love to see the stats, but it feels like the majority of them end in decision. Also, I know it is great that there are more and more free fights on every year. The Fox deal will mean 4 free events in the first quarter of this year alone. When those fights air on the big network though they take ages to get started. I counted 4 commercial breaks before the first fight kicked off. Nearly 30 minutes into the two hour broadcast.

Sledding
At 3 years old Kaden is right in the sweet spot to learn to and enjoy sledding. Friday my office closed early because of the precipitation and I got to come home to prime sledding hours. The neighbors next door are 7 and 8 year old girls who love to come over and see if Kaden can play. He joined them for an hour plus, walking up the hill and sliding back down again. He had a blast. Crystal went out Sunday and picked him up a sled of his own. We are waiting with crossed fingers and toes for the next Richmond style blizzard (read: 1-2 inches).

Weekend Review: Dec 15th & 16th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Batman: Detective Comics
New 52 kicked off last year and brought with it way too many books for me to read regularly and many more that were easy to ignore. Over the past year I have whittled my list of must read New 52s even further. I never even got started with Detective Comics, but when John Layman (Chew) took over on issue 13, I decided to give it a go. Not starting at 13 mind you, but picking up the back catalog from issue 1. It has been a mixed bag of good to great moments and hard eye rolling. Too many times where Batman is written like a self aware Batman meme. Spouting out one liners and punching bad dudes. "I am the night"! I heart some Batman though so I have glossed over those rough spots and mostly enjoyed issues 1-10 so far.

UFC on FX 6
Friday night the UFC was in Australia for the finales of the international Ultimate Fighter. A show, along with Brazil's own version, I wish was aired in the US. Seeing the finale was the next best thing though. Solid fights across the whole card. Stand outs being Robert Whittaker and Brad Scott in a knock-down, drag-out war that would have been a tough match to judge if Whittaker had not exploded in the third. The coaches, Pearson and Sotiropoulos, was more one sided, but also a get up off the couch kind of fight.

Verizon Fios
Comcast had been making it harder and harder for us to keep our bill at a manageable level for going on two years. Requiring that I wade into their pit of hell customer service system twice a year. On the last call they only gave me a "deal" that lasted only three months. Flash forward to us making the jump to Fios. Locking in at one price for two years, a $300 gift card and nearly as many channels as we had before. Sold! It comes with some sweet and sour though. The good is a cable/dvr box that feels refreshingly modern. Having only been on a Comcast box. I assumed all cable providers had an intern from 2002 design their UI. The bad is a modem/router combo that offers up WiFi that crawls compared to the third party network I had setup before. The solution should be easy, but I have yet to implement it. I have a wireless router sitting in my office just waiting to be hooked up.

Weekend Review: Nov 17th & 18th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

BLOPs 2
Call of Duty is Call of Duty. I started playing the first COD that wasn't even a COD back in 2002. Made by the group that would eventually leave and form Infinity Ward. It is ten years later, Infinity Ward has left, but people are still making COD games. Black Ops 2 released this week and I have already put heavy hours into the multiplayer. The level of customization continues to get better. The future tech (the game is set in 2025) is fun to play with (Dragonfire) and/or super effective (Guardian) and I love party systems over dedicated servers.

Brave
Now that Kaden has crossed the threshold of watching an entire movie film we are watching more of them. Funny how that works. One day he could not sit still and then another and he sits enraptured. This summer I was hoping Brave might be his first, but we were not there yet. So instead we watched it this weekend. He loved the three younger brothers and all of the bears. Scary ones and otherwise. I loved the CG, stunning set pieces and crazy hair tech. It was a fantastic story that never left him worrying too much about the characters, a reoccurring theme lately, see below.

UFC 154
It had been 18 months since George St.Pierre stepped into the octagon Saturday night. To face a fighter in Carlos Condit that I actually root for as well. Being a long time St. Pierre fan it was tough to parse who I would be pulling for when this fight actually started. I ended up cheering for skill and technique as both fighters put on a grappling and striking clinic. It was a fantastic show from bell to bell. Lots of bloody violence throughout the show and some big knockouts too. Top notch MMA.

Up
Mid-week Kaden threw down two stars (our discipline and reward system) to watch a movie. He picked Up, a movie we have owned for a while, but he never watched. Crystal was concerned that the beginning (super sad) would get him worked up. I assumed he would be fine. He did not seem to comprehend what was going on at first, but then I could see the gears turning in his head:

Him: What happened to that old lady?
Me: His wife? She passed away.
Him: Why?
Me: She got old.
Him: [confused look] Why?
Me: When people get old they eventually die.
Him: [confusion turning to fear/sadness] Does that mean I will grow old and die?
Me: [panicked] Uh, no, no not at all buddy, you will be just fine.

After my three year old faced down him own mortality, the rest of the movie was all talking dogs, funny birds and flying houses.

Weekend Review: Oct 13th & 14th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Picking
We went and picked pumpkins Sunday with one of Kaden's friends from school and his parents. We have gone to Chesterfield Berry Farm for the last three years, after my childhood spent at Ashland's corresponding farm for berries. The boys had a great time. There is a lot more to do there for kids. Farm animals, hay rides, corn cannons (yup those are a thing), haunted houses, cook your own hot dogs  moon bounces and on it goes. We were there from 10a to 2p and if it were up to the kids we would have stayed another hour or two.

Dishonored
Stealthy games are occasionally my jam. Since the late 90's I've been playing what feels every note worthy title in the genre. I mentioned Mark of the Ninja a few weeks ago and I'm here again to toot the horn of another great game. Dishonored is first person stealth. Something you can royally screw up if not done with care. The short hand for describing this game goes as follows. They have built a world as fully realized as BioShock's Rapture or HL2's City 17. It owes much to Thief and the mechanics it established. Deus Ex and Hitman would be apt comparisons for the number of approaches to complete missions, but that only scratches the surface. Their are lethal and non-lethal options and usually 5-6 paths to pick from to sneak into a location  Or you could just go full combat, because that is damn fun too.

UFC 153
Mixed feelings on this one. Parts of it were an exhibition match. Pairing Bonnar and Silva together was like watching a bull fighter break out the blades. Until middle school I thought bull fighting was all red capes and olés. When I went to Spain in 7th grade I watched a real fight and saw how gruesome it really was. Seeing Silva pick apart Bonnar was more spectacle than competition, dude is other worldly. Nog's fight felt like the last breathes of a great career. Or put more negatively, tossing him a bone in his native country. Thankfully Fitch and Erick Silva put on a real show. Young talent versus the grind. Oh and Demian Maia choked a dude till his nose poured blood. So that was cool.

Weekend Review: Sept 22nd & 23rd

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Apple Picking
For 4-5 years now we have been going up to Carter Mountain to haul down apples. The first time, pre-kids, it was a great mid-week date trip. Now it is a family tradition. After mountain biking all morning Sunday I got home and wanted a nap in the worst way. My pregnant wife and three year old son played their apple picking hand masterfully though. By noon we were on the road to Charlottesville. Every year it seems to get a little more crowded. We have not had a pickin' stick in 3 years, but there are always enough apples in tip toe range to fill your bags. Oh and apple doughnuts and cider are bomb. It's a good time, every time. Apple pies may be in next weeks review.

Borderlands 2
In 2009 I was pleasantly surprised by Borderlands the First. It was a game that at one point was marketed on it's trillion gun feature and that struggled to establish it's art direction. It turned out to be really good. One of the best coop games I ever played in fact. I bought it twice (PC and 360), I bought all the DLC and I played through it completely three times with three sets of friends. So buying Borderlands 2 was a given. Thankfully they recaptured most of the magic that got me the first time. The PC version got all the bells and whistles this time too. Tons of settings to tweak, menus that are not built for controllers (but work with them) and no port forwarding. It's great!

UFC 152
The main event was an incredible fight. Jones was the closest he has ever been to being finished, in the form of a first round arm bar attempt. I thought it was over. His arm popped, but did not break and he shook off Belfort. After that it was all Jones. In the stand up he had the reach and speed. When it went to the ground, Belfort started pulling guard oddly, he was defending the arm bar and beating up "The Phenom" in the process. The flyweight (125lbs) championship was not incredible. It pitted a heavy handed, but slower wrestler in Benavidez against an elusive, fast, volume puncher in Johnson. It was a formula made for a boring decision. If you gave them 5 more rounds you still wouldn't see the match up ended.

Satellite Dish
Apparently I have a creative man crush on Justin McElroy. From discovering his work at Joystiq, to following him to Polygon and everything in between. The Satellite Dish is a podcast about TV that he and his wife produce. Television usual falls to the very bottom rung of how I want to use my leisure time. A podcast about TV, that is funny leap frogs the leisure time competition though. Most of the shows they discuss hold little interest for me, but occasionally there is some overlap. Which makes those moments that much better. It is thanks to them that I forced my wife to watch an episode of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. A show she hated and that I delighted in watching her hate. So there is that. Thanks. I guess?

Weekend Review: Sept 15th & 16th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Faster Than Light 
I follow enough game news that I was already aware of FTL before this week. The post on penny arcade was all the push I needed to pick it up though. The pitch is simple. Your objective is to out run a rebel fleet, with valuable intel, across 8 sectors of space in a small ship that can be upgraded along the way. Much like Skyrim, the stories that that arise in FTL are ferried on the backs of the games mechanics. Each run across the galaxy bears it's on plot, it's own random encounters and deadly combat. The graphics do just enough to convey FTL's systems. I have enjoyed every minute of it so far, but I think if they ever get it on an iPad it could blow up (not that it couldn't on the PC).

The Ultimate Fighter 16
Friday night was the premiere of the 16th season of TUF. A show I have watched from the beginning and that keeps getting better. And not for it's 45 minutes an episode of mixed martial arts fighters peeing on each others beds. That stuff is the dregs of television. I watch it for the continued improvement in the fighters. As MMA grows, more and more fighters get into the sport at a younger age. Making each cast that much more talented. Want to avoid the "reality"? DVR and fast forward to just watch the fights. Top notch stuff.

Black Mesa
Video game mods usually don't tread into the waters of vaporware. They either get released or the team breaks up before any fruit is born. So when the often delayed, 8 years in development Black Mesa was  finally released on Friday I wanted to try it out, warts and all. A community made remake of the original Half Life that has had more hands in it's development pot than some retail releases. Surprise, surprise, it's good. It's really good! The graphics scratch at the greatness of Half Life 2, a game that's looks still stand up today. The level design is jaw dropping at times. It actually got me with a jump scare, a feat not achieved by a video game in years. It balances on a tight rope between nostalgia and modern. Evoking memories of the original, while not getting weighted down by design from 1998.

The Lookouts #1
Dipping my toe in the Penny Arcade behemoth twice this weekend. Once with the FTL recommendation and now with a comic from Cryptozoic based on a great PA side story. When boiled down, Looksouts is fantasy boy scouts. A concept so simple, but fun that one could imagine all sorts of tales to be spun. The paper comic holds up to it's web heritage. The writing reads like Holkins and the art has the feel of it's predecessor too. The colors have a cool textured look and I can't wait for the next one.

MMA Tournaments Work

They work in the sense that they get me excited for fights I'd usually just read about. Do I care that a former pride fighter I had never heard of (Kharitonov) was going to fight Andrei Arlovski? No, I could careless. The Pitbull and his glass chin are past their collective prime. He is no longer a draw. Throw both of their names in a tournament bracket though and I am engrossed.

Saturday kicked off Strikeforce's heavyweight (225 lbs. plus) grand-prix with a bang. A legend (Fedor) was toppled, not caught (Werdum), but toppled (Silva). The rest of the tournament is shaping up to be just as good. The sum of the parts is what makes it great though. Put those fighters in random cards and it falls apart. Structure them in a bracket and it is must see TV.

Which leads me to the point of all this. When is the UFC going to adopt the grand-prix? Strikeforce seems destine to play second fiddle with graying veterans, celebrity exhibitions and contract hold outs. I want to see the top tier go at it March madness style. There are enough weight classes now (7) that they could space them out enough to not make them meaningless. Two a year would be a big draw and the finalist could get a shot at the title.

One for the Other Hand

After weathering the toughest schedule of any team in the league this season the Steelers came out to do it one last time on Sunday. The emotional roller coaster that was Super Bowl XLIII saw the Steelers up 13 points at one time during the game. The Cardinals rallied though and with 2:37 left in the game they took a three point lead. Big Ben wins games though and did what he has done all season by putting together a last minute drive to win the biggest game for the black and gold.

Before the game on Sunday two MMA stars went toe to toe Saturday night in Vegas. B.J. Penn stepped up a weight class to 170 lbs to challenge George "Rush" St. Pierre for his welterweight belt. The first time the two clashed in 2006 it was a close split decision in GSP's favor. So the rematch to finally answer who was the better fighter was a long time coming. Well Saturday night St. Pierre put all the debate to rest with a steller four round dismantling of Penn. People said Penn would win in the stand up and George worked him over. People said Penn's guard was killer and Rush passed it at will. In the end Penn's corner threw in the towel before the fifth round even started in what I would say is an embarassing way to end a fight for someone who holds a belt already.

Site Watch
I know the post above probably paints me as a violent sport loving mans man, but I have a soft spot for contemporary architecture, furniture and design. I just so happen to have discovered the contemporist which focuses on all of those.

MMAmazing

Two big events went down this weekend that would get any MMA fans blood pumping. Saturday was Affliction's second event showcasing the MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko and Sunday brought WEC 38 and a return to form for Urijah Faber.

Emelianenko vs Arlovski
I have been riding the Fedor band wagon ever since I saw my first Pride event years ago. I was also a big fan of Andrei Arlovski post his first and only win over Tim "The Boring" Sylvia. So needless to say I was hyped up to see the two clash. In the end it turned out just as I expected, with Fedor one shotting the Pitbull. Up until his lights when out though Arlovski looked better than I have ever seen him. His boxing was clean and he was beating Fedor to the punch. The second he switched his game plan up though he was face down on the mat. If you make mistakes against one the greatest pound for pound fighters in the sport you will pay for it.

Faber vs Pulver
Their first fight went to the cards which did not suprise me in the least. Pulver seemed younger and ready to retake his crown at 145 lbs. Faber clearly won though, but not finshing his opponent seemed to be a chink in his armor. November came and Faber got rocked by Mike Brown to lose his belt. So the second meeting between the two this past weekend end up having different stakes for each fighter. Faber needed to win to put him on track to get his belt back and Pulver needed to win to prove he was still a relevant contender at age 34. The end result was a vicious left to the body from Faber that sent Pulver reeling back in pain. The jig was up and Faber pounced on the ageing fighter to finish him in the first round.

UFC 94
Penn vs St. Pierre is this coming weekend on the heels of UFC 93 which aired earlier this month. With such big names clashing in one month across the whole sport it is pretty easy to dub this month one of the best in MMA history. The fight this weekend is one I have been looking forward to for a very long time and while I like both fighters I will be pulling for St. Pierre to retain his belt and keep balance in the MMA landscape.

Ultimate Twilight Wars

Twilight
How I got roped into seeing this teen swooning trashy novel about vampires and high school I'll never know. Oh wait, I do know and her name is Crystal. No stranger to trashy romance novels already a friend at work recommended the first book to her and took off from there. She burned through the first three books at a rapid pace and when the film was announced, she announced to me that we would be going. To be honest I knew nothing about the film or the books apart from vampires and the obsession middle school aged girls showed for it. Well to cut to the chase the film was crap, I won't dignify it by drawing out the reasons why, but I will throw some saving grace Crystal's way and tell you she didn't like the movie either.

Word Wars
Professional Scrabble competition as the basis for a documentary didn't not sound like the wildly interesting topic that I'm sure you think it is. Much like the King of Kong though it was about the eccentric cast of characters in the film, not the game they play. Unlike Kong though, their is no good guy to pull for. Scrabble players seem willing to throw much of their lives away for an addiction to the word game. Betting their winnings on back room games, purchasing ladies of the night south of the border and obsessing over cabinets full of herbal brain enhancers. Degenerate people does not a bad film make though. It is a fascinating look into a world that others would go unseen by most. Worth a watch and much like going to Walmart or the state fair it will make you feel better about yourself in the end.

The Ultimate Fighter
If you follow the numbering since season 5, the season that just wrapped up was number eight (Nogueira vs. Mir). While an actual rivalry between the coaches was near nonexistent (it was no Hughes vs. Serra), the rest of the show carried itself. I like having two weight classes and there was plenty o' drama. Outside of bed pissing, food pissing and things even worse, one of the fighters managed to push the shows no fighting outside of the cage rule to it's limits. Drama aside there were many good fights leading up to the finale on Saturday. If you've been following along, Bader scored a huge TKO on the one dimensional Vinnie and Nover was upset by Escudero. The end.

"B" Grade MMA for the Masses

This topic was sparked by the live Elite XC event that went down on CBS two weekends ago featuring Kimblo Slice vs Seth Petruzelli. Oh yeah, that internet street fighting guy and who? Seth "Failed in the UFC and then took a year off from fighting" Petruzelli that's who. Slice was originally supposed to meet Ken "Why isn't he retired?" Shamrock in what would be his fourth professional MMA fight, but Shamrock played to rough in warm ups and was medically disqualified for the fight. So in the the last minute facing what would surely be an angry crowd, Elite's officials came to Petruzelli to fight their rookie MMA cash cow (Slice).

Slice, a heavy weight street fighter, has supposedly been turned legit MMA fighter over night under the tutelage of Bas Rutten. Prior to the Petruzelli fight he had only fought tomato cans and over the hill legends. Shamrock was supposed to be at least a minor test for him on the ground. What he got out of Petruzelli was a rude awakening. A young guy with some technical skill, power and an unjaded hunger fighters from the old folks home can't muster. He dropped Slice in 14 seconds post opening bell. It was embarrassing, by the time Slice came to he was trying to double leg the referee and Petruzelli was celebrating on the other side of the cage.

While it was nice to see Slice get a slice of reality (Oh man that was bad), it was scary to think about the virgin MMA viewer mistaking this as the premiere offering from the sport. The CBS contract Elite XC scored means all kinds of fresh eyes are watching MMA now. Are they being introduced to the right kind of MMA though? It is like giving someone who has never had a steak a plate full of fat and gristle. It is not just the main events that are minor league, Jake Shields won his fight with a telegraphed arm bar that took near 10 seconds of squating to set up. The show is far less technical and just plain sloppy to be honest.

At the end of the day the UFC, WEC and maybe Affliction seem to be the only legit games in town. If they plan to grow outside of their current markets, which they are doing slowly, they may need to land more high profile TV contracts. Sure the WEC has Versus and the UFC has Spike, but a network deal would mean a big boost in viewership. I'd like to ultimately see a sustained model that did not include any pay-per-view events. One because I hate paying for them and two because new fans won't know the difference otherwise. It is that or the unwashed masses can keep thinking Taco Bell is authentic Mexican food and I'll keep palming my face.

Mind Dump

Comic-Con and E3 just wrapped up out in California which means there has been a media blitzkrieg for the past two weeks that is just dieing down. Between the podcast, videocast, news sites and trailer sites my nerd shield has been inundated by a flood of the geeky media I love. It is filling like chocolate turkey at Thanksgiving, but at this point it's leaking out of my ear...

Castle Crashers in August
The screens and trailers for this game have been rattling around in my head for ages (two years). It is finally coming out August 27th and hopefully my RRoD machine will be fixed in time to play it. Think Streets of Rage with a better art direction and four player online co-op. If I have to get a second mortgage on the house and buy this game for all of my friends to play with then so be it.

Tron 2 in 2011
That's right it has been 26 years since the first film that I have never seen was released. Beyond a few light cycle flash games there is not a lot I can get excited about from this sequel, well until I saw the bootleg trailer.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009
I am tentative on this movie after the first three films were good, but not great. The trailer at Comic Con did a bit to change my mind, but I am still in a wait and see mode.

Red Sonja in 2010
The 1985 film was less than gosu, but anything that lives in the Conan lore gets me geeked none the less. So why should anyone else get excited about a remake of a bad eighties movie? Because Robert Rodriguez is producing it and the posters with Rose McGowan look bad ass. I hate getting psyched up for movies two years away, but I just can't help it with this one. Oh and this is yet another comic adaptation film coming in the near future, craziness!

Mirror's Edge Mini
Attendees at Comic Con this past weekend were treated to a Mirror's Edge mini comic that was exclusive to the show. Well guess what there is this thing called the internet and it makes things available for everyone. Mirror's Edge is an EA published parkour first person platformer by the way.

WEC This Weekend
This is not info coming out of either event held this month, but the WEC is exciting and on for free this weekend. Damacio Page from TAP Out's reality show is fighting in the undercard and Carlos Condit always puts on a good show.

Knight of the Arts

Dark Knight
The last comic movie of the summer is the best comic movie to date. It is rare that a sequel will eclipse its predecessor and even more rare in the genre of comic movies. Dark Knight is not the light hearted, drawing brought to life movie that Hellboy and Iron Man were. It is a gritty crime story that belongs in the same breath as great thrillers, not abominations like X-Men 3. It is truly a genre redefining film.

Heath Ledger should get an Oscar for his role as the Joker. It has a depth, creepiness and raw insanity that Jack Nicholson's Joker never approached. The scenes between Batman and the Joker are true to the comic in so much that they create an air of a rivialary that will gone on forever. I left the film with nothing in my mind that hung it up or should have been added. It is very near perfect.

Affliction: Banned
Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko is a monster in the MMA world. He was the undefeated heavy weight champ in Pride and the star of the highlight reel I send to everyone who starts running their mouth about Kimbo Slice. Saturday night was his first real test since 2006 and he crushed his competition. Tim Sylvia is no slouch, annoying yes, but he was the former UFC heavy weight champ. Fedor finished the fight in 36 seconds! Sylvia had 30 lbs and 8 inches on him and he finished him in 36 seconds. Monster I say!

UFC Fight Night
Not to be out done by the upstart Affliction's card, Dana White announced this Fight Night just one month ago. Surprising many with a weight class move for pound for pound best Anderson Silva. He was pitted against James Irvin who is 3-1 since coming into the UFC at 205lbs. Both fighters made weight and Silva made short work of Irvin with a knock in the 61st second in the first round.

More Comic Movies
Wired has an article up today about the comic movie coming down the pipe for the next three years. There a lot that I was already excited about and others that I had no clue were being made into movies.

Local MMA

One of my video game friends being a Richmond based MMA trainer is pretty rad (see Kevin's fight from February). Saturday I found out the most recent Ultimate Fighter winner went to my high school and graduated a grade ahead of me (even radder). I liked Amir Sadollah's personality and fighting style from the start of the show, but not until Crystal and I saw the finale and it was announced he was from Richmond did it click. Well for Crystal at least, she claimed she thought he looked familiar and I thought she was dilisional. A quick trip to his wiki page and we found out he was at the same high school as us for three years.

I was already rooting for Amir to crush C.B. Dolloway a second time because C.B. is a douche. His Richmond origin was just wood on the fire. Now we are both big fans, so hopefully he can handle the veteran fighters at 185. There is always the option to drop to 170 and become a big fighter at a lower weight. Only time will tell and when that time comes we will be watching.

Black Lagoon
It has been a really long time since I watched any anime, so when Black Lagoon arrived from the bowels of my Netflix queue I was excited. Well not excited to watch it right away, it sat for a week and a half collecting dust because I was otherwise occupied. When I did get around to watching it I enjoyed it though. I has big action, a weak story and lots of profanity, but is well drawn and animated too. Not a must watch, but a fun time none the less.

Camping
We had fun, more on this fun Wednesday...

MMA's Minor Leagues

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the premiere mixed martial arts organization in the world. It's presence has gone from pay-per-view only events to a mix of its reality show on Spike, the occasional free fight on the same cable network and primarily pay-per-view events. To deep pocketed MMA fans this formula may work just fine. Many are content to watch the fights after the actual event date on the internet though. I fall into both categories, I usually see every other fight or so on pay-per-view and I catch them the next day should I not feel like ponying up $60 a show.

Free fights on cable and prime time networks are becoming more and more prevalent. The class of fighters isn't always on par with the UFC, but a lot can be said for free bouts when gas is four dollars a gallon. Elite XC and WEC both had big fights over the weekend. Saturday night was Elite XC's event which was also the first show ever on network television. Kimbo Slice of YouTube street fight and pr0n body guard fame was the main attraction. Gina Carano of American Gladiator and non-butch/surprisingly hot female fighter fame was the primary under card. Slice's fight was a bit of a sloppy mess, when you combined his semi unorthodox striking and underdeveloped ground game with the tomato can he was fighting. Carano came in over weight, but put an absolute hurting on her opponent.

WEC is the real deal no gimmicky fighters or glass chinned opponents. After being picked up and legitimized by the UFC they have had some killer events that rival their parent companies. On Sunday the biggest WEC fight of the year aired free of charge and delivered. It featured two title bouts and defenses in the featherweight and bantamweight classes respectively. Urijah Faber squared off in a knock down, drag out brawl for the ages with former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver. The bantamweight title fight was between two fighters I have only read about previously. Miguel Torres and Masakatsu Ueda went three full rounds before Torres closed Ueda's left eye completely stopping the fight before a fourth round could begin. Both fights set up what should be amazing sequels assuming the contenders can make it through their return bouts.

One last note, Anderson Silva now sits a top UFC middle weight throne that can not be cracked. Sherdog's monthly ranking has Paulo Filho, the WEC's champ, ranked number two and Robbie Lawler, Elite XC's champ ranked number five. I wonder how many Silva vs Franklin 3's, 4's and 5's it will take before the UFC goes fishing in the minors for an actual challenger.

2008 On Two Wheels

Mid ride yesterday Grant wondered out loud if Spring had ever been this rainy. This question was posed after three of the last four rides were in the rain. I pondered the thought momentarily and responded that "we never really rode this much before". The real point being the consistency with which we have ridden since February 2nd.

Like clockwork weekend rides have been a matter of when not if for the past two months and change. We started on a whim at the beginning of February and had so much fun the first Saturday that we made it a bit of a tradition. We have started to extend our riverside loop and yesterday found a perfect loop from the Fan to Fort Harrison that will be added to our roster. A forum of sorts has been reestablished so we can plan rides without the encumbrance of lengthy email chains. Reddish Knob is on deck for this spring (or summer) and Williamsburg repeat is a guarantee for this summer as well.

Getting back in to cycling has been a breathe of fresh air. For the last two to three years I have admittedly ridden maybe once or twice a month in between annual big rides that I was not prepared for (Lake Anne, Williamsburg and Lake Chesdin). Being on the bike every weekend and making cycling a big part of my life again not only better prepares me for the big rides, but makes me ambitious. Russ is a 100-300k machine and invites us to join him on a regular basis. Sometime this year I will take him up on those offers.

Comics
I started reading Queen and Country this weekend and it did not disappoint. I made the mistake of picking up two volumes of the "Declassified" side story trades on my first trip to the local comic shop. I went back to my LCS and picked up vol. 1 of the regular story and now can't seem to find vol. 2. To Amazon I go!

MMA
Big fight over the weekend that I missed for dinner and a movie. St. Pierre avenged his previous loss to Matt Serra in a big way and came out the UFC welterweight champ. I admittedly like Serra, but a I have huge man crush on the Canadian champ.

Hockey is Still Here

Based on my sports watching habits since middle school you would think that the sport of hockey did not exist. My Canadian "video game" friends might stab me in the eye with a spoon full of maple syrup should they hear that. Maple optical assault or not, it is the truth. The last time I seriously paid attention to hockey was 1990 and 1991 when the Pittsburgh Penguins won back to back Stanley Cups.

My Dad was a member of a Richmond based Pittsburgh fan club when I was growing up. Mainly the Steelers and Penguins as the Pirates have been piss poor since the day I was born. We would go up to the local sports bar for games on big screens or go to peoples houses for every playoff game. In 1990 and 1991 I saw every single Penguins playoff game leading up to the championships and then hockey fell off the face of the earth for me. Well for me and what looks to be most of the American TV watching public based on hockey's slumping ratings.

Wednesday night this week I sat down to sort out my gear for this weekends camping and biking trip. While flipping through the channels I landed at Versus and the first game in the Pens playoff series against the Senators. I ended up watching the whole game and jumping out of my seat when the Penguins scored their third goal in the third period. The game finished at 4-0 for the Pens and I went looking at schedules for the next game to be televised. Pittsburgh won't be on TV again till the possible fifth game in the series on the 19th of this month.

I was so hyped about hockey that after I checked the up coming games I went back to the TV and watched the 2nd and 3rd periods of the Sharks and Flames game.

Site Watch
Besides hockey and the tour on Versus they show a lot of MMA. Specifically the WEC which is the rising star of the Zuffa who also run the UFC. WEC live matches are free though and usually don't disappoint. The Jens Pulver vs Urijah Faber fight on June 1st should be epic.