Steelers 28, Dolphins 17

Well, it being the day after a tough Dolphins loss I am in my predictable sour mood today. I hate these losses more than blowouts, because when you have the lead with 6 minutes left to go you really start to think the game is in the bag. Or at least that your chances are pretty good.

Talk about a total breakdown late in the game.

Up 17-14 with 6 minutes left in the 4th against the Super Bowl champs, on their turf, in front of a national audience. Man, that was a good feeling. Less than one minute later, I felt like someone slugged me in the gut. I was looking like poor Booker did walking to the sideline after his injury. Dazed and confused.

I wasn't going into this game totally convinced we would emerge victorious. Sure, the news that Roethlisberger was out added a little fuel to the fire, but the Steelers' defense is no joke, so I knew it was not going to be a walk in the park. Both teams looked pretty mediocre early on. Our running game was non-existent. Hell, aside from Wes Welker, our entire offense was non-existent. Give Wes a damn game ball, because he was always the spark when the Dolphins needed one. Whether on special teams or making a big catch, Wes was the man early on.

The turning point in the game obviously was the 87 yard TD by Pittsburgh's TE. I don't even know the guy's name. Maybe I should learn it since he just had the longest touchdown reception by a tight end in three freakin' decades. Is it just me, or do all these crazy records seem to be set against the Dolphins? But everyone knows that wasn't a TD pass. He stepped out at the one yardline, and the play would have been overturned, except that Nick Saban's throwing arm makes Chad Pennington's look like a cannon. I mean, really coach, you might want to throw the flag like you mean it next time, ok? Especially late in the 4th when the play in question gives the other team the lead!

And why is it that every time a back-up, rookie, or 3rd string QB starts against the Dolphins, he looks like Marino in his heyday? I mean, is that just me too?! Charlie Batch with 3 tds and no interceptions? Of course, he's playing the Dolphins, I should have expected it.

Culpepper had his highs and lows. He had some terrible off-target passes, but then he had some true gems like that beautiful 31 yard floater he threw to Welker. His two late interceptions were the nails in the coffin though.

I'll tell you one player that really impressed me. Willie Parker. Man, this kid is going to have a huge year. He was ellusive, fast, and never gave up on a play. If it was a one-on-one tackle situation, he was going to get away. Too bad he plays for the Steelers.

Overall, I shouldn't be too hard on the Dolphins. They were 6 minutes away from beating the World Champions on their turf. I didn't really expected them to win, I just hoped they would, and they almost made it happen. It is only the first game of the season. We will get better. There are some positives to take from this game.

But man . . . it still hurts.

Miscellaneous ramblings

- I remembered and picked up the extended 2 year warranty for the 360 last week. My original warranty was renewed when I sent my 360 in for repair in May and I made a mental note to extend that to two years before it expired. I've heard too many horror stories (and been through one myself) to let it slip. Besides, $60 for two years buys more than just coverage for my 360, it buys piece of mind that every time I put a new game into it I don't have to worry that it is the last time I will see it working (been hearing crazy tales of Dead Rising messing up people's units).

- I was messing around with my 360's settings the other day and I began to wonder just how many people buy all these Themes and Picture packs that are out there. I've bought one theme (Halo 3) and haven't even considered buying a picture pack. I tend to alternate my theme from Halo 3 to the Glass theme, as those are the only two I have liked so far. I just don't see myself spending points on pictures or themes. Maybe I would if you get to preview them before you buy it. I hate the fact that you can only see a tiny picture of what the theme/picture pack looks like before you make a purchase. There should be a "Preview" option that lets you actually apply it and see what it looks like for about 30 seconds or something. If you had that option, I might consider making more purchases.

- Another thing that I have zero interest in are different face plates. They don't attract me at all. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but spending $20 for a different "look" to the front of my system is a waste of money. But if you enjoy that sort of thing, that's cool. It is great that you at least have the option I guess.

- I'm getting antsy for some reason to raise my gamerscore over 5000. I'm not a gamerscore "whore" or anything, and usually don't pay it no mind, but it has been in the 4000's for so long now, I just want to see the damn "5" on there. Maybe I'll try to rent King Kong and get a really easy 1000 points. :p

- Games I'm playing now are obviously Madden, and I still try to sneak in some Texas Hold'em. I'm really enjoying it and hope to get the courage to try it on Live soon. I wonder if you can play an arranged match with just a few friends and have the rest be controlled by the cpu? I doubt it, but it would be great to set up a match with Powerpuff just for fun and play a little poker.

- I fired up Wik last night and played it for about 10 minutes. Fun game overall. I hope to beat it sometime in the next five years, since I seem to only be able to take it in in 10 minute intervals.

- I will achieve 1,000,000 points in Geometry Wars one day. One day. Really.

- While writing that last sentence I almost wrote Colony Wars instead of Geometry Wars. Man, I wish they would release a new Colony Wars game for the 360. The original PSOne games were fan-fucking-tastic!!! And the creme-of-the-crop as far as console space-combat games go.

Who needs HDMI anyway right?

I think Sony is quickly running out of feet to shoot themselves in.

According to reports, the ultra pricey $600 version of the PS3 (the only one with HDMI support) will be shipping . . . without the actual HDMI cable.

So lets see. Sony's big hook is that the PS3 is the first "true" HD gaming system, it supports 1080p resolution, blah-blah-blah. So what do they do? First, they only include HDMI support in the more expensive version of their console (required for 1080p) and they don't even include the HDMI cable with that system in the first place.

Nice!

Dragonlance

Yesterday I was surfing through Wikipedia, just thinking up random topics and looking them up. Man, I love this site. Somehow I decided to look up "Dragonlance" (surfing this site is like surfing through IMDB, one thing leads to another, next thing you know you've spent 20 minutes on there)

Now, for those of you not familiar with Dragonlance, it is a series of fantasty novels that are part of the TSR/ (now Wizards of the Coast) Dungeons and Dragons series of RPGs. There are novels, D&D campaign sets, comic books, even videogames (although very crappy ones at that) based on the Dragonlance series. Pretty popular among us fantasty fans, but at the same time obscure to those not in our "club".

I am a HUGE Dragonlance fan. My user name of "Tanis" is taken right out of the novels. I have read over 20 books based on this world. I've played the AD&D campaign in high school with friends (yes, I was a D&D geek, and proud of it). I read my first DL novel at the age of 13 and have been hooked ever since. The first book in the series, "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" is the first full legnth novel I remember reading and to this day is my favorite book of all time. I have read it five times.

During all this time, my ultimate dream has been to see a full-length Dragonlance movie on the screen. Many movie rumors have come and gone, all just being a big tease. I've directed this movie in my head many times. I've contemplated writing the sript (just for shits and giggles). In the perfect scenario, I would be given 300 million dollars by some crazy movie studio and told to go ahead and create this Draginlance movie. Yep, a whopping 300 million is what it would have taken for this movie to be made the way I want it, because in order for it to be done right, no expense could be spared. I want top of the line effects, prostetics, sets, I want to film as much as I can on location, and it was going to be a 3 hour epic. Ah yes, it would have been great, but I knew it was never going to get done.

But then I got the Lord of the Rings trilogy and my appetite for a polished, high-quality fantasty epic was quenched. Or was it? Actually, seeing Peter Jackson's masterpiece on the big screen only made my longing for a Dragonlance movie worse. Dragonlance shares many similarities to LotRs, and like all fantasty works, owes its very creation to J.R.R. Tolkien's opus. Without The Hobbit, there would be no Dungeons and Dragons. Being the rabid DL fan that I am, I would have gladly traded Frodo and his adventures to see Tanis and his companions up on that screen instead, and their quest to stop the Dark Queen from taking over Krynn.

But I digress. So, I come upon Wikipedia's entry on Dragonlance . . . and what do I see? Not only are there plans to make a Dragonlance movie, but it has already been cast, has a director, and is in pre-production!

Holy hell how did I miss that?!

After my initial jubilation, I take a step back and looked at the situation. The film is not my 300 million dollar blockbuster, it is an animated film based on the first novel. Now, this is actually not a bad thing. I always said if the film could not have a huge budget, I would much rather have it be animated. I definitely would not want something like the Dungeons and Dragons movie as a result of trying too much with limited resources.

So, animated is good . . . but what kind of animation? From what I read it will use a mix of 2D and 3D effects. That sounds great . . . but how big is the budget? Keifer Sutherland has been cast as the voice of Raistlin . . . that could work. Is it going to look like a quality production, or some cheap straight to video cartoon? What's the rating? It has to be PG-13 right? It is not going to be 70 minutes long is it? That is not enough time to cover the plot!

See? That's my problem. I love Dragonlance too much to see it get massacred on the big screen. I'm dying for this movie to be made, yet dreading it at the same time. I have a clear vision in my head of what these characters and world looks like, how will I react when the director's vision doesn't match my own? Is any Dragonlance movie better than none at all?

Too early to tell at this point, but I have my eye on this. It could be one of the best movie going experiences of my life (remember, huge fan here) or the worse. I'm hoping for the former.

Steve Irwin

This weekend we drove up to St. Augustine to spend the long weekend. Nice place. A bit touristy though, taking away from its history, but that is to be expected.

Anyway, Monday morning we stop at a McDonald's for some breakfast before driving back and I heard on the news that Steve Irwin had died, from a freakish sting ray attack.

Wow.

I was shocked. I was a huge Steve Irwin fan many years back. Me and my buddy would love watching this guy's show. He was funny, entertaining, and above all very passionate about what he was doing. He really did love his profession and the animals he spent his entire life studying and protecting.

I stopped watching Steve when he became so popular that everybody was talking about him. I tend to do that. I was a huge Emeril fan before he blew up and started doing his live tv show. I used to like him when he had his solo show, The Essence of Emeril, with no studio audience and was not showboating as much. Whenever an obscure band I like begins to get played on every radio station, I tend to loose interest. So, when Steve Irwin starred in his own movie, I decided to move on.

Being a diver, the news that he was killed by a sting ray was hard to understand. I've been around many sting rays and never felt in any sort of danger. But really, you shouldn't, because they are not dangerous creatures. Steve's situation was a horrible, horrible accident. A one in a million situation.

At least he went doing what he loved. In all honesty, I always figured it would have been a crocodile or a poisonous snake that would have done Steve in (not that I really gave the subject much thought mind you).

I am sure Steve inspired a whole generation of future nature conservationists and brought greater awareness to that which he dedicated his entire life to.

Steve, you will be missed.