Transformers

This is not an editorial review.



The movie was entertaining with several hokey parts that could have been edited out. I liked Even Steven as the main character. It was youthful enough for me to identify with, yet actually performed well considering...



Here are the considerations:



Transformers can squash humans without even thinking about it. Other than certain types of weapons... what does a Transformer really need to fear??? I ask this since several times on film Transformers, even the almighty Optimus Prime, was viewed ducking machine gun fire. Machine gun fire, even a truck load of it, would do no damage to an Autobot. C'mon Michael Bay... at least talk to a few journey men that watched the cartoons growing up.



I give the movie a B-. I also liked the battle scenes Transformer vs Transformer. Those parts are really the best elements of the movie. Aside from the opening scene with a Decepticon, the human assaults were rather sad.



I do think Megatron was totally sold out. Megatron was almost as important as OP, but in this movie his focus was too much, his role was too small, and in the end his popularity was never showcased. Seriously, how could they have a Transformer movie and not have any emphasis on StarScream taking Megatron and shooting him as the ultimate weapon. Eventually, when Megatron is snuffed out... I know how could I blow the surprise... (its your fault for reading is blog) the manner in which he was is all that matters. Megatron, the mighty and evil ruler of the Decepticons was defeated by Even Steven. Talk about an ending that simply blows...



With all that said, my rating holds, which means the other parts were good enough to compensate the massive holes in the story line.



P.S. Megatron stands at what? 95-120 feet tall... he was killed by a 5 ft nothing human...? The item used to kill him was within inches of Megatron and he made no attempt to take it? The whole movie was about the Decepticons need for this item. Megatron could have picked up the item and flew away as a jet... OP was out of position... or all that was required was for Megatron was to place his foot on Even Steven and snuff out his insignificant life.... that is all - and he could not do that?



P.S.S. The scene with Bumble Bee strapped to the back of a Tracker Trailer Tow truck driven by little Miss criminal was just so absolutely cliche!

Down 9-13 and a magic 8 ball somewhere reveals...

"Outlook does not look good!"



If you recall from my earlier post, "3-0" I talked about my next three games are going to be rubber matches, where my season will be defined. Victor, Carlos, and Troy are the names of my opponents.



Yesterday, I was scheduled to play Victor. The first stop on this three game tour. Victor, before yesterday, had a record of 1-2. Not all that impressive, but I knew who Victor played and lost versus Carlos and Troy. Victor can play, but he is still shaking off rust from a few years of not playing.



Victor played Troy and lost 2 games to one. Victor could have beat Troy, but Troy eventually made adjustments and took him out. Victor lost in straight games to Carlos. By all accounts, Carlos is highly athletic and will track down shots most won't get to. I'll chat about Troy next week. My most important match for the season.



Back to Victor and an outlook that just was not promising. I was down all of game one. I never hit a shot I was truly impressed with. My serve was hit early and I went away from it. Victor had control and was closing out game one.



Down 9-13 and a magic 8 ball somewhere reveals 'outlook does not look good' for me. I call time out. A friend was there watching the game and pulls me aside. Rick asks me, "what the hell am I doing? You are not serving consistently and you are playing like shit. You can beat this guy."



Man I felt like I had a coach in that instant. Kinda like an insignificant wake up call, but he was so right. I break serve after the timeout. Victor hits my serve again gets a side out and quickly picks up match point on a service ace I should have hit. I call timeout again. Rick says nothing. He starts to walk away... about twenty feet away he mumbles, "go ahead and mail it in loser."



That was all I needed. Like a shot of adrenaline - I got back on the court facing match point and I just did my thing. It was a long rally, but I broke his serve. I got back in the box and the rest is history.



I served the ball extremely well. I did not change a thing. I lined up and just hit the ball. Victor only put a racket on three shots for the rest of game two and I ended those points after he returned those few shots. I went from down 9-14 to game one winner 15-14. I also officially broke my in ability to comeback from being down at least 5 points.



Victor was beside himself. Pacing, having a conversation with himself, seriously I was a little shocked with his reaction to the close of game one.



Game two starts exactly where I left off. I did not change a thing and really the game took as long as I would expect when I just serve after serve after serve. I closed the door on Victor with a 15-2 decisive victory. This game was all about the effectiveness of my serve and not getting cute trying to mix it up. I also found my stoke with a host of mid to long range kill shots that just did not present well in game one.



4-0 with two games to make up already.

I broke down... I am still a bit shocked...

After all this time gaming on xbox live, I finally broke down and purchased a video communicator. How could I avoid it when I essentially got it for free?

I have heard of people replacing their headphones a half dozen times and with each story I use to chuckle about how my original works just fine. Prior to my 360 headset, my original head set with the origianal xbox worked forever. Even on that console, I heard about heat sets getting busted. I thought it would never happen to me... well that was until MJ came to town.

My youngest is truly unique in almost every way from my other two children. She has an uncanny ability to react completely against logic and anticipated moves. There was this one time I came home from work and due to schedule and some plans I had not seen her in three days. (Settle down people... I saw her plenty but not while she was awake. Every night I spend times with my kids watching them sleep - sometimes a moment or just a few minutes, but I love to see them perfectly at peace sleeping. Call me crazy!) I hate doing this, of course, but sometimes it happens. Well, when I did eventually see her, MJ ran over with zeal screaming Daddy. I lovingly pick her up and gave her a big hug. In this instance, I remember specifically getting a hug in return. Microseconds after the hug, I pull back and prompt her for a kiss...

WHAM - WHAM - WHAM!! Yes, that would be me getting smacked across my face three times by a 1 year old with precision accuracy. Yes, she is a girl fellas. You would think it was programed into her DNA regarding technique and speed needed for the perfect most painful slap. Mind you she is one... well after being stunned from my apparent boxer in disguise, I held her suspended in mid air away from me... only for her to start crying. Wait a second, who just took three right hooks from Joe Lewis again???? ME - and she is crying. In my heart, those slaps were an expression of I miss you Daddy. How dare you leave me for three days for the birds without love or hug. Five seconds after the pelting, I was getting my usual hugs and kisses and she pretty much forgot all about it.

Friday night was that day and what drove me to my suspicious purchase.

There I was sitting in my office playing some good old Splinter Cell Double Agent. Like so many times before when I game prior to the house going to sleep, my kids would take turns coming in and out of the room. My two oldest clearly know that when Daddy is in the zone, please do not disturb. They can yell and scream, but they know not to address me or present a want or desire as I am not taking requests at these moments. Friday, MJ joined the circus that runs around the house and frequents my office on the route. She came in screaming Daddy and I immediately stop playing, picked her up, got my hug and kiss (minus the right hook) and promptly put her down and continued my game. Everything is fine! There were at least three rounds of this and finally I stopped picking her up. Dad needs to set the rules and boundaries, right? As I expected, she started crying as she viewed me talking into my headset and not paying attention to her. She switches tactics and starts holding her arms up for a hug while tears stream off her cheeks. I pick her up for the last time, I tell myself, and again with lighting speed she grabs the headset and literally yanks it off my head throwing it to the floor. I go to put her down and my other two kids ambush me and divert me from my immediate intention to recover my headset. Too late, MJ has it and she is running. Some how she gets half way across the house and I find her jumping up and down on my head set in the kitchen. This is how these things break. This is why mine never does. I am very protective of my gaming tools since I use them quite often. I get it back and stop playing, yes I got the hint, and attend to my little ones.

Later that night, my headset stops working. It kills the gaming night, at least socially, and I head off to bed.

The next day I go to best buy. I am seeking a head set. Nothing more.

I find the accessory aisle I need and locate the head set. Enter the BB salesman.

After brushing him off as no help needed, thanks he buts in and says the killer phrase. I can give you that head set for free if you wanted.

How can I resist that? Is he gonna steal it?

Brian told me about this package. I blew him off too, at least in my mind. I wanted the damn headset - nothing more.

Basically, there is a neat package where you can buy a head set; xbox live gold account for one year; video camera; two arcade games (Uno and Robotron); and 200 Microsoft points all for 77 bucks.

The head set was 25 bucks.

Uno and Robotron are 800 ms points each.

Xbox live gold account for one year is 65 bucks.

The video camera is positioned as free, but for my sales man it was 49 bucks.

To boot, I also get 200 Microsoft points which is like 10 dollars.

How could I say no? The head set is free and for this logic alone my purchase made sense. I will be buying a lifetime of xbox 360 live accounts. My next one is due in September. The one included does not expire until July of 2008. (What I did not know was: can I apply it to an existing account... this may present a small problem but with a happy ending if the worse case was to play out.) I already have Uno, but my brother does not and it is the perfect gift.. Muhahahaha!

Getting back to where I was originally headed with my post... I have made fun of so many people with the dopey xbox live video camera... and now I have one. What I did not know was my good friend has one so now our kids can chat live. Little B and my eldest should get a kick out of that.

3-0

I'm off to a good start, but I am not playing as well as my last season.



I consider myself to be in a solid position as I head into the toughest part of my schedule. Obviously, if I go undefeated over my next three games, then I will be in great shape to win the division and possibly go 11-0. However, I will be quite happy taking 2 of 3.



One opponent that is busting up the league and is 4-0 thus far. He is certainly placed wrong according to those that have played and lost to him. Let me explain what I mean in saying placed wrong. New players are tried out by various players during trials to determine thier skill level at the start of the season. Based on the account of those that played him so far, he is too good for purple. I think this is a blessing. I have asked if they think I could beat him and most have said, not sure but I would like to watch the game. He has a playing style like mine - powershots and good tactics. Even though I have played a level below my normal game intensity and all my matches lasted longer than they needed to, I am looking forward to the contest with Mr. 4-0 and in the next three weeks we will see where I stand versus him.



I played a lefty last night and it was very interesting. We had opposite strengths and weaknesses. His back hand was strong. I kept busting him to his forehand and saw no reason to stop. He busted my back hand I did a better job of compensating, but the big difference was the service line.



I had a total of 17 aces. That is just killer. I can't recall a game where that many of my points came off serve. With that said, it also should highlight just how poorly I was playing if the matches came out like this:

15-5

9-15

11-6

in my favor.



I hit this guy with 7 shots as he crowded the middle a great deal. By the looks of him, one would think he could crush the ball. Seriously, he had the biggest chest I have seen on a racquetball player - ever. He could probably bench press 400 pounds without sweating much. My sense is all that muscle gets in the way of his swing - just like female golfers and their obstacles to a perfect swing. Several times during the match we got awfully close, due to this lack of movement and my poor game play and he just moved me around the court. This is not easy to do, I must confess. I am not in athletic shape despite my active lifestyle. I am usually the one conducting how my opponent moves and to be more specific move around my court presence. I felt a bit uneasy most of the game as I was pushed around the court. I certainly did not want to hit this fellow once let alone seven times! I laughed out loud several times, as did the audience that happen to see me beam his most holy of areas twice with 35-37 foot shots off the back wall. After those very nice gifts, you would think one would make an adjustment... you think?



My opponent certainly made an adjustment... instead of moving and giving me the required straight shot and one of the corners, he simply put his hand behind him to block his most sacred of regions... I messed several shots up laughing out loud about those nifty moves. As I turned to the audience, I could see several people pointing and laughing... it was quite the comic show. Now when I say audience, I really mean other players passing by, waiting for a match, or people that just happen to be there whenever one looks outside the court. I doubt very much they were watching the match. My games are rarely that exciting. I watch several matches a week at the Gold level (5 above my current level) to pick up shots and tactics in a game.



One last note on the match from yesterday, for the fourth time in my recent racquetball revival I have failed to stop the hemraging and come back to take the game from a lesser opponent. Yesterday I fell down 8-0 in the second game. I successfully implemented my time out strategy and took two of my three TO's over the next couple of service breaks and stop his momentum. I climbed back in the game down 8-6, but could not sustain it. I eventually fell down 11-9, 12-9, several service exchanges (no aces - which would have been useful) and no points and lost 9-15. Even though I lost the game I figured out what I would do in the tie breaker... slam his forehand and make him beat me with quality shots. That task was not equaled by my opponent.

Purple

Yes, I have been moved up to the purple division. I am excited about this division, but I am eager to actually get started. We just completed week three, yes I know that was fast, but I will explain.

So many new players have joined the league, the directors did not want to turn anyone away. I like this since I prefer more players anyway. I do not like the gaps between season as it is, so a longer season is okay with me.

Week Zero was a flex week and my opponent was not available to play. That will be completed in the near future.
Week One was cancelled. My opponent contacted me to let me know he could not make it.
Week Two was cancelled. Again, my opponent was not able to play.
Week Three, Four, and Five I am playing people from my last division. Since there were so many new people more people with good records moved up. I went 3-0 vs these competitors for a combined score of 118-26, so I am not busting at the seems to play them, but I am going to be comfortable.

In addition, since I always look at the numbers, my week zero through two opponents are a combined 1-3... so again not to read too much into it... I may be off to a good start. The major assumption is that I start - soon!

To purple I also bring a new serve. It is not new to racquetball by any means, but it is new to my playing style. I have added a pretty effective lob serve to my array of shots to mix things up at the service line. As I have communicated in previous posts, my money maker is a low fast drive serve to their backhand. I make it more difficult by shifting over to the extreme left side of the court, but not too far to make it an illegal serve. This does many good things for my overall service effectiveness, but I benefit mostly from the weak return serve offered by opponents.

To review, I do not serve the ball to the other side of the court until I have them at the breaking point. Here is my outlook for this approach. If I am constantly busting you with drive serve after drive serve to your backhand, rarely if not ever giving you anything else to hit, then people end up cheating, which means they start to move over to cut that option off. Since I am so far over already, opponents really need to cheat to negate my aggressive stance. Once more, for most of the match even if they are blatantly moving over, I will maintain serve. Luckily for me, the shot is still pretty hard to hit or the return shot is so weak or calculated I end up getting more points. So, if I get and hold a lead pushing the score to specific break points, opponents will get very aggressive and basically move to cut the serve off altogether. That is when I simply switch sides with an obvious weaker serve, but they are so far out of position it does not really matter how hard I hit it... it will go without return. The best part is after getting burned on a weak shot I completely get them out of their cheat and then I go back to the grind all over again. In practice matches, as well as prior league play, it has worked almost like clock work. There are a few players that can return this shot very well, however, they do not have much of an angle to hit their shot. The return must be perfect, so I can live with that shot percentage!!

As I stated, for purple I have added the lob serve and this will have immediate impact. Number one and the most important, I do not have to exert as much energy in volley and volley of drive serves. It takes a good amount of energy to hit those drive serves and I am thankful we only play to 15 twice! Purple level players will undoubtedly push me to play harder and for longer periods of time, so energy conservation is not important. Another big benefit in store for me is the change in speed. After a few low hard shots, it does take an adjustment to be patient and wait for the lob shot to develop. It is a high arching shot that just barely misses the ceiling and hugs the wall without hitting it directly to the corner. The effective return shot is to wait for it to bounce off the back wall and take your best low shot possible. In the purple division, players just do not have this shot in their array at a high percentage. This includes me as well! The hardest serve for me is a high slow lob serve to my backhand. I put up a defensive shot every time, which is exactly what the opponent wants. The lob serve is also called the error maker. More self made errors come off trying to hit a great shot instead of a high percentage or defensive shot.

I can't wait to see how it plays out this season. I'll keep my 1 and a half loyal readers posted!! (P.S. My oldest child reads this, so her plus me is 1 and a half.)

Pictures

Here is a half ass attempt to catch up with all of you regarding my pictures. I have said to many of you... I will put them up. Well, I have finally done this.

You will see our little ones and some other stuff that will be removed and replaced with more of our little ones.

Pay attention to the house shots, especially the outside ones because the outside is finished and I will reveal that in a later edition of this cool picture display.

Thanks to Backwards Attraction for bringing this tool to my attention.

Backwards...

How do I get this darn flicker thing to display like on your site?