Ok this has been going around Facebook among all my old high school friends (Yep we are Sachem Alumns!). I am guessing there was some contest on the local radio station to compete between Suffolk Co. and Nassau Co. I haven’t seen the Nassau one but this one hits home quite a bit b/c everything they listed in this video we did ALL the time in high school. Just about every one of the places on the list we either hung out at or I love to go to when I am home in one way or another.

It won’t make a whole lot of sense to the non LIers out there but it’s still good even if it’s kinda rap-ish. Look for them on Facebook too. 

Great job by these guys hope you win this contest.

A big fat thanks to the Seattle Seahawks for single handedly deciding the fate of the AFC. On Sat they decided that their team youth movement is in full effect and that they don’t care how bad they will be (and if even one of these young WR falls flat, which is likely, they will be BAD) and paid TJ Houshmandzdeh in the avenue of 7 mil to cut him. It’s amazing how little sports teams, especially NFL teams, care about MILLIONS. So by doing so this means that TJ has his money for this year and basically won’t care about what he makes at all. So after reportedly being recruited by Ray Lewis, TJ landed in Baltimore. This makes Balt an early favorite to win the AFC even with some of the other good teams out there. Balt already has one of the top 3 Defenses in the AFC, and now they have a STACKED offense. Flacco now has plenty of weapons at his disposal as a QB (And thus raising his Fantasy value by 10X right now). He has, Ray Rice (RB), A. Boldin (WR), TJ Housh (WR), Derek Mason (WR), Todd Heap (TE) and W. McGahee (RB) all ready to put up some huge yards and score just enough to win 21-10 every week. Thanks Seahawks for letting TJ go you have damned the AFC to deal with him.

Also this weekend in NFL, the Greediest asshole of the week, Darrelel Revis finally signed his 4 year deal (reportedly for 46 mil) to stay as a NY JET.Two things that happened to make it so were; 1. Reavis wanted to be the highest paid player at his position (He must have been hanging out with Kovalchuk) and 2. Rex Ryan took a trip to see Revis personally to get the job done.  Now, I am happy big Rex did this to get the job done b/c it shows he wants to win and win badly. But if that’s all it took was a trip to see him personally, well shit why didn’t Rex just invite Darrelle to a 4th of July party and ink him right on the spot?  Just more piss poor contract stuff that has to be a distraction in some way with more players wanting to line their pockets with more cash, and management more then happy to do so. I have no problem with a FA doing so, but I have big problems with guys UNDER CONTRACT being spoiled brats and not doing their job and holding out. I am damn good at what I do for a living, but if I told management I wasn’t reporting for work w/o a raise I would be replaced by the end of the week!  I would rather have seen Revis come to camp put on a good smile and tell Rex he wanted a new deal by X day or else then he would not play. Even that is a bit much but at least he tells the man, I want to play , I want to be prepared to play in games, but I want the deal done. Instead, he now is behind on workouts and the season starts Sunday against the afore-mentioned stacked Ravens team. I expect to see him beat on a few occasions by Boldin or they just don’t throw his way b/c of reputation.

In other cut moves, the Cardinals cut ties with Matt Leinart this weekend as well. I don’t have as much of a problem with this b/c it just seems it was time to part ways. Leinart just wasn’t panning out in Arizona and they just grew tired of waiting. He never really took off like they wanted to and possibly the pressure for him to perform could have just been a bit too much at this stage of his career. Now, he can go to Houston and be a backup and relax a bit and see what happens. If Schaub goes down he could see some time, or possibly see some garbage time in big wins, or losses, but I would think this is more just biding time till the next off season. I would think he will possibly get a multi year deal next year (prob 2 year) from someone to be a backup, and the only way this story has a happy ending is if somehow the starter gets hurt and all of a sudden a mature Leinart emerges and does some things nicely and wins some games. Think a lesser version of the heart warming Kurt Warner story.

Next up, is the fight that happened in the stands at the US OPEN on Friday. During the Novak Djokovic-Philipp Petzschner match a heated argument between a probably hammered young guy and a too big for her britches woman, boiled over so much that it kinda came to some blows and delayed the match a bit. I have a few varying opinions on the altercation. First, as usual it gives a wonderful black eye to the reputation of us NY area fans, that even tho I have lived in NC for years, I still consider myself a NYer. Secondly, I still cannot figure out whom I think is more at fault here. Every time I tell the story of the altercation it seems the idiot kid is still more in the right here. See, first he didn’t throw any 1st punches. He gets hit by the woman and just holds himself back from hitting her (which even I wanted him to do after watching her in his face), and then he gets hit again by the old (idiot) guy, and ony then as he defended himself did the old guy fall over the seats. Was the kid a moron who wouldn’t shut the hell up? Sure. It’s common tennis etiquette to shut the hell up during the match, no matter how much money you claim to have on the match. BUT, and a big BUT here, the HUGE lesson is, if a fan ANYWHERE at ANY event is being an Ass-Hat, keep your mout shut and get security. They will handle it. NOT YOU. The kid wasn’t in anyone’s face before the woman, he wasn’t physical to anyone in the area, so no threat is imminent, so go get someone in charge. It would have saved everyone a lot of hastle. Don’t be a hero. Also I want to say HEY US OPEN what the hell took so long to get there. People on the other side of the stadium saw this shit happening and it took you 10 mins to get there? Shame on you! I won’t post any video on this b/c I don’t want to give any of these 3 morons (all who have been barred from the OPEN for an indefinite period of time) any more press then they already got.

And from the world of the NHL…. It seems the remaining free agents (and there are some to be had) are starting to take whatever is being offered to them. Mike Comrie this weekend took a league minimum 500K to play for the Penguins. Is it b/c he wants to play with Sid the Kid, and will do so at any price? Or does he just need a job and they were the only ones calling. Either way it’s a good signing for them and no matter what he puts up it will be worth the money. Also signing a small contract was vet Freddy Modinwith the Atlanta Thrashers. Modin (35) hasn’t been too productive in the recent years only netting 11 points in 44 games last year for the Blue Jackets and Kings. Official numbers on the deal are not yet out but rumors flying around have it in the 1.1 mil range but the official word should be out this week. This isn’t a great deal by any means, but Atlanta has done this same thing most every year  (see Kozlov in the past) and it usually works out well for them. They tend to get good production out of old guys, while using them to help the youth in the locker room.

In Baseball news, and honestly at this point of the year with football starting most of us just don’t care, some of the races are all but sewn up and maybeone other will come down to the wire. The only real race right now is the NL east, where the Phillies trail the Braves by a game and a half and the loser will more then likely beat out the Giants for the Wild Card. The AL wild card is pretty much in the bag for the Rays, who have a 6 game lead on both the Sox’s and barring a collapse should be able to hold onto that lead with only 25 games left in the season. Which all this, well no one cares. B/c once again I will say baseball is getting to be a joke with the salaries and the have’s being able to get anyone they want. People are going to start tuning out till the MLB gets their ass in gear. Bring on football!!!!

Oh and lastly…The god-damn Mets still suck.

Well I jumped into Mass Effect last night for the first time. Other then the decryption mini-game which has been driving me insane it’s awesome as I knew it would be. The damn mini-game seems like it should be simple. The key lights up for you to press in sequence, I press the damn thing real quick and BAM I fail every time before I can even do anything. Do I hold it? Am I still too slow? WTF. And I thought the Bioshock mini-game got repetitive. At least that one was doable!

Then today I have to wait on UPS to bring some rails for my daughters bed, so I got 2 games to mess with from Block buster. I got Modern Warfare 2 and Transformers: War for Cybertron. MW2 isn’t working, I will be taking that back today (Maybe the selection is decent when I do so) and after about 2 hours into the Transformers game, it’s pretty good. It’s fun actiony game that is decent but nota ” WOW this is great” type of game. The annoying part is you have to go thru the Decepticon campaign before you can go into the Autobots. So I will see if this week I can beat this whole game before it has to go back.

All accounts are in that the NHL has approved the latest Devils offer of 17 year $102 million deal with Ilya Kovalchuck. The initial report a few days ago still had the deal with some big years and some small years but it was nothing near the idiotic deal that was initially rejected last month. This one made some more sense and was huge but acceptable. I cannot find right now what it is on paper but all reports just say “a cap hit of 6.66 Mil per year. (If I get the entire breakdown inthe next few days I will update this with what it looks like.

   So right now this puts the Devils at 3.5 or so million OVER the salary cap and 21 players. You must have 24 players on the roster legally as a minimum. So if you factor this in you are looking at roughly 6 million (at most) the Devils will have to clear before opening day to get under the cap. Who benefits? The Devils? Well you Can make this argument since they got one of the best snipers (on paper) in the league, even if he is one of the biggest whiners and 150%  non-team guy. In the GeekJock’s opinion there will be 3 other teams who will really be the benefactors here. These will be the  teams who get the Devils scraps for next to nothing. You see, the Devils are in a huge pickle. They have to shed cash and have to do it when everyone in the whole league knows they have to. So don’t expect any huge offers for these players they get rid of. Also they won’t be able to get this done in one deal either. All the players who make substantial money have some sort of no movement clauses in their deals or they are just unmovable b/c no one would (or should ) want them. This basically eliminates Elias (6mil), Rolston 5.06 mil) , Langenbruner (2.8 mil), C. While (3 mil) and Arnott (4.5 mil). Obviously this doesn’t completely eliminate these guys but it makes them a bit more unlikely.

   So who’s left? Zubris (3.4 mil)  , Clarkson (2.67 mil ), or Zajac (3.887 mil )  have immediate value and even with the Devils in the corner one of these guys might actually fetch a decent offer. Hard to deal away any one of these guys but stranger things HAVE happened.  On Defense Volchenkov’s contract (4.25 mil) is just unmovable to any team with a common sense, Bryce Salvador (2.9 mil) is most likely to go from the blue line, and it’s possible Tallinder (3.375 mil) is a bit too much to move as well.

  An out of left field idea is to move Hedberg and his 1.5 mil contract, to a team and go with a entry level minors guy as the backup for Brodeur. Hey the guy is going to play close to 70 games anyway so why not let a kid or a 500K do it. 1 mil difference might not seem like much but when you need to get under cap every penny counts.

I can’t wait to see who ends up taking one of these guys. It could be one of the really big cap shy teams that is offered one of these players + a pick or just gives them away for a 4th round pick. There are about 10 teams who have 10+ million in cap space (including both the Canes and the Isles) so there at least are some teams who have the room.

Stay tuned to see what deals come of this…

GJ out

Well another week of work has gone by. This week was real busy but I still managed to have some down time here and there and since I beat every deck challenge with all the available decks in MTG: Duals of the planeswalker last week I was kinda without much to play and I really wasn’t really wanting to play much Torchlight this week. So I was looking for something to mess with and I settled upon Puzzle Quest 2.

   For anyone who is not familiar with the Puzzle Quest series, it’s basically BeJeweled with a quest/RPH element to it. You have a class and you “battle” creatures in the world by playing the typical match 3 mini-games. You do damage to your opponent this way and have some powerups or skills you can use as well. The game is probably 10x as addicting as regular bejewled is and if you like those games you will LOVE this game as well. The 2nd one right now is 20$ on steam and the 1st one I think is 10$ or 5$ so if you want to try the 1st one instead go ahead I am pretty sure that one is good too without some of the new bells and whistles of the 2nd.

Here is a screeny of the game.

Yesterday WOTC released the 2nd expansion for MTG: Duals of the Planeswalker, but instead of trying to get into that and taking a week off from playing it I think I will just get it next week when I come back to work and mess around with it then.

I have some company in town for some of this week and a nice Fantasy FB draft tonight but I still might end up with some time to do some gaming this weekend. I am still trying to figure out what I will get into this week. I think I might go rent  acouple of X-box games this week to play sat night b/c I am in this rut with WoW and just don’t think I am going to be in much of a mood to grind out a few levels or try and get some more badges. As I have repeatedly said it’s getting to that time with WoW, they need to get their ass moving on getting the expansion out b/c they are starting to really get on the nerves of their real fans. I am a huge fan of the game but Civ V , DCUO, and who knows what else might get my attention a bit in the next few months and I might just unsubscribe till I really feel like coming back, which would prolly be right as the expansion comes out. You might say who cares to them, but it’s still money out of their pockets and I am fairly certain others won’t be as forgiving and quick to come back as me.

Anyway back to the Xbox games for this weekend. I have Mass Effect (1) at home, unplayed, but the problem is my kids have hid the box somewhere and I just cannot find it. So I think I will check out the new releases tomorrow at Blockbuster and grab 2 (I should have plenty of coke rewards points and Ill use the usual rent 2 for 1 coupon). I still haven’t tried Red Dead Redemption, the new Transformers game, Borderlands, Fable 2, as usual the list goes on and on so I am sure I can find a couple of good ones.

I also started playing Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms. It’s one of these free to play kingdom builder games. Kinda like Heroes of Gaia, or Lords of Ultima. These games are generally all the same. You have a small kingdom or city, you then you have to expand your city and issue orders to your Heroes and all of these things take time. So you issue an order or two and then come back in hours. Kinda like a fantasy Farmville but a bit slower and a little more confusing. The confusing part is kinda find b.c typically the kind of people who want to play this game like confusing, if it’s too easy then they will bitch about it being too easy and not worth their time. So far it’s ok. Just ok. Early game they claim it’s slower then the end game. So it started off real fun, I had a bunch of little quests to do and got some tutorial rewards and won some battles clearing land around my 1st city. Right now is that slow stage. Gotta build up an army to get some more land cleared and upgrade mines and my city. So everything takes time. 20 or so hours to upgrade the city and waiting for more troops to spawn at my town. So I guess it’s a decent thing that I am off so I won’t have the cpu open right here like at work.

So Right now it’s about time to head home and get some rest and let the madness/fun of a week of begin!! The countdown is still in full effect…. little less then 3 weeks till Civ V and man I still cannot wait. Time suckage and just…one.. more.. turn ….

GJ out

Well I have been a slight bit behind on posting the links to the last couple of episodes of the greatest web show The Guild. So since they put out a new episode yesterday here is the last 2 episodes.

Thanks as always to Felicia Day and the cast and crew for making this killer show.

City Island (2009—104 mins) Andy Garcia, J. Margulies

   Every weekend that I work and pick out the selections of movies from the Red Box I like to always get at least one Indy type movie. A lot of times it works out good b/c since I am there on a Sat and Sunday morning there tends to be slim pickins so I have to get one. And typically these Indy’s are movies I have never heard of before (see After.Life, Peacock, Don McKay). City Island is one such movie and it’s one of the better ones we have seen. Sure most of them are actually pretty good and are often non mainstream in subject nature as well, but that is usually why they are good.

   City Island is about a family in a small NY Town near the Bronx who all have one thing in common. They are all hiding secrets from each other. These are not world shattering secrets generally but ones that they could avoid the trouble of arguing over things if they would share some of it with each other. See, at the bottom of the family is a lack of communication. They have their dinner every night and go thru their routines every week and just don’t discuss much of anything. For instance Vince (Garcia) keeps telling his wife that he is going to a poker game so that he can attend acting lessons without her knowing. This naturally eventually leads her to think he is cheating on her…. You can kinda see where this is going. Sure as a comedy all of these things point to a modern day version of a Three’s Company episode but it really works out well as a movie. We get invested in the whole family even if most of them are kinda idiots or ridiculous. I do like some of the little nods and metaphors thrown in here. The whole family as a metaphor for the bigger secrets are ALL hiding they fact that they all smoke from each other. It’s a good nod to overall secrets and makes for a good chuckle in the overall movie as well. There are other story archs that are in there as a big secret but I don’t really want to spoil it for you.

   MArgulies is good as Vince’s wife even if her accent is a real odd mish-mash of Jersey/NY/Boston all kinda thrown into one so it doesn’t sound good or bad but it also doesn’t distract as much as it could.

Verdict—> I liked this movie a lot. Good pacing, good story and wraps itself up into a nice big box. I would say if you see it go ahead and grab it. It’s not necessarily a Rom-Com, more of a Dram-Com but it is def. an enjoyable watch. Not much of a kids movie at PG-13. Remember it’s not a mainstream movie but I think most people will enjoy it as a good story driven movie.

Repo Men (2010— 111Mins) Jude Law, Forrest Whitaker, L. Schreiber

   Repo Men is set in the far future of the world, where organ transplants have become so commonplace that the organs have now become artificial , financed and implanted by big business. When these organ loans are defaulted upon, the organs are repossessed by these “Repo Men” in the as-is condition. That means, they basically come in and cut them out of you leaving a dead body in the wake. It’s both an interesting sci-fi premise, and a political message wrapped up in a big package. Jude Law and Whittaker are a team of Repo Men who are very good at what they do. Since it’s a gruesome and not entirely happy business, this causes some strife at Law’s home and his wife doesn’t entirely approve. An unfortunate accident leaves Law in need of a heart transplant, and in big business that’s not a cheap ordeal. When his bills pile up and he is late on his payments he finds himself on the wrong end of the repo line and must flee the likes of his co-workers.

   It’s an interesting adventure thrill ride, with him fleeing and doing what he can to stay alive. He also has had a bit of a change of heart seeing how, what he has been doing is really just plain wrong. I thought it was a good movie and a decent watch. A bit gruesome at times, and for those of faint of heart and weak stomach, they might not like this too much. However, all others I think its a good watch. The end takes the usual twist so if you chop off about 5 mins of the movie it ends the right way. It’s still a good working ending for the premise, but hey I like things a certain way, but either way is fine. I cannot say like I do with other movies, that the movie sucks b/c of the ending tho.

   The underlying political or world message buried in the movie is that big business is taking over the world. That things such as, even transplants are being sold for anyone who can afford it, and the “company” has the final say. I don’t generally like when movies try and throw too much of a message out there, so that kind of annoyed me a bit.  Yet, the movie throws so much crap at you, that you can kinda put that behind and enjoy it anyway.  You also have to use the suspension of dis-belief that just about every person in the world has some sort of transplant in them. Is it b/c everyone is so unhealthy or they are readily available, or just b/c it’s a device to move the movie forward. Eh who knows just roll with it I guess.

Verdict—> An ok movie. Not a top tier rental but also (as usual) not a bad one at that. Again, if you have a queasy stomach or don’t like to see a ton of blood, steer away, but for others you might like the action in it as well. Gets a little lengthy toward the end so might need a shorter comedy for a good double feature.

The Losers (2010 97 mins) Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana , Chris Evans, Jason Patric

   The Losers centers around a team of CIA black operatives who do deadly jobs. However, someone tries to execute the team themselves but they manage to survive. They then need to find out who wants them dead and take them out themselves. It’s a typical A-Team type group with everyone having their “role” on the team and everyone is funny and quippy. I abosltely loved this movie. I tend to enjoy the team type movies with this premise. Sure it’s not entirely new (I am starting to think all the ideas of the world have been done a ton of times and all we get now is variations on the same 20 or so stories) but these guys are all likable and it makes the movie work. Jason Patric plays the maniac behind the attempted assassination and the movie’s villain. He plays it with such humor and aloofness that it almost comes off ridiculous, but it’s a perfect psycho intelligent villain. We want to both see him die and see him kill someone every time he is on screen.

   The Losers is based on a comic by DC. I am kinda surprised it didn’t do well at the movies b/c it’s such a fun escapist movie. I have one problem with the plot, but it’s a minor one and a spoiler so I will save it for after the verdict so that I don’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it and wants to. I am really hoping they make more of these b/c I really would like to see these guys working together in another movie. It kind of reminds me of the Ocean’s movies and the dynamic they all have together. However, unless the DVD and overseas sales turn out to be great I doubt it will happen but we can all hold out hope.

Verdict—> Get this movie if you see it. I put this in the top tier of Red Box rentals. Fun script with good actors and a lot of action make this a great movie. Get it witch Clash of the Titans for a good one two punch of action goodness!

Ok now the Spoiler/Rant ALERT!!!

One thing I absolutely hate, that action movies like to do, is the turncoat/traitor/sellout angle. Sometimes you can see it coming with the whole “new guy” on the team. But often it’s just a random thing the writer/directer uses for just throwing in the twist. Here, I absolutely hated it. There is no reason for it in this movie, other then to move the story along. It just doesn’t work as a plot twist. It’s simply not believable in the story. If these guys were supposed to be team members in the military/CIA for YEARS. You do not become, and stay, one of these members without full trust and love for the fellow team member. There is NO WAY one of these guys would turn in a member for greed, I just don’t buy it. Think of it this way, do you think BA Baracus would turn on one of the A-Team? No way no how. So stop using it Hollywood.

Clash of the Titans (2010— 106 mins) Sam Worthington, L. Neeson, R. Fiennes

    The remake of the classic 1981 cheese fest has gotten a ton of press this year. Mostly bad press. I won’t say anything about the whole 3D conversion money grab that went on at the box office b/c frankly I don’t care at all. All I really care is if it’s a good/entertaining  movie or not.

   The story is basically the same as the original , as well as the same as many Greek mythology based stories. Perseus is the son of zeus and he has to find a way to kill the Kraken.  Naturally this involves going and killing Medusa to do so. Sorry if that is considered a spoiler to some but come on now who the hell doesn’t know the story. Anyway, let’s get into the movie. It looks real good. The special effects are just fine to me. I didn’t think them cheesy at all and I was just fine with them. The story the same. Other then being the same old same old story it’s just fine really. I enjoyed the action and I enjoyed the movie.

  But there is the usual gripe or two. You didn’t think I was going to review this without SOME sort of gripe did you? Well my main gripe is the whole movie just seems rushed. It’s hard to even believe it’s as long as it is b/c it feels like it’s barely 90 mins. Who knows maybe that’s a good thing with regard to movies. If you feel like it went too quick then the movie is good enough to fool you into losing time. It just seems like Perseus is found bam, we have a quest bam, go talk to witches bam, go to medusa bam, go kill Kraken bam, movie over. It’s amazing you blink and the movie is over. The other crappy thing is some of the makeup work. Liam Neeson often has a ton of makeup on and just looks ridiculous. Sure he’s Zeus but would he really go around the world with a ton of eye shadow on?  If there is anything I would like to see different in the movie is some more story or possibly some more substance to the movie. Other then that this is a good watch. They are in the process of  per-production for a second one so I think it has some real possibilities.

Verdict—> It’s a good movie and a top level of watches to me. A good action flick with great special effects and a few laughs along the way. Obviously people who don’t like fantasy adventures just wont like it anyway so they shouldn’t rent it anyway. But everyone else who enjoys a good adventure go ahead and see it.