confidentialmisanthropy

I can only imagine what this must feel like.

1918
Reverse the Curse
Cowboy Up

I'm happy for the Red Sox and their fans ('cept you Affleck) but I've still got the matter of the billy goat haunting my team. At any rate, I got all winter to let that simmer.

Right now Wrigleyville is going through some heavy-duty personnel changes, on and off the field. Sammy might be a Met next year. I'd like to say I'd hate to see Sammy go, but this is not the same Sammy everyone fell in love with in the Summer of '98. And I don't mean athletically. If he does in fact leave town, it improves our chances in the Beltran Sweepstakes. Nomar, Alou and Grudz probably won't be back either.

Interestingly enough, the biggest hit for me so far is Stoney. I grew up watching him call games with Harry Caray for years... Him leaving, as much a staple to the franchise as he is, is a testament to the state of the Cubs organization right now; Dire.

I came to Chicago on the high road with my credibility and integrity. Thirty years later, I choose to leave the same way.

The phrase I used that angered certain people was “I regret nothing.” Well folks, I was wrong about that and want to set the record straight. I regret I won’t be calling another Cubs game on WGN-TV for the greatest fans in baseball…the fans of the Chicago Cubs.

So yeah. I'm especially happy for Mark Bellhorn and Bill Mueller. And all you long-suffering Sox fans so you can lay to rest all those stupid mantras. Unfortunately though, ours can't be retired just yet.



Maybe next year.

Why don't I have this game yet? I mean other than the fact I haven't been in Japan since it was released... Anyways, the game has a position sensor on the cartridge and the mini-games require physically turning and tilting the GBA itself. Probably the most redeeming quality about it though is it's a GBA game that's not a friggin' remake. And it takes full advantage of the medium. Mawaru GET!

I'm a little late on this one but it shocked me so much I figured it was worth posting anyways. Like a phoenix rising out of a pile of shit, Acclaim CEO Rod Cousens is planning to launch a new studio called “Exclaim”.

Dear God man.

Jeremy Parish wrote up something about Acclaim years ago that still cracks me up to this day:

To use the term "embarrassing" next to Acclaim's name is to overstate the reach of the word. There are far more powerful words which can be attributed to what is surely the single least dignified publisher in the history of gaming. Ignominious. Disgraceful. Shameless. Opportunistic. Utterly lacking in class. I'm sure with a thesaurus I could find a dozen more phrases to use. And I probably should, because every last one is deperately needed when dealing with this world-spanning behemoth of suck; all of them dumped together in a traffic-stopping lexical pile-up is still barely adequate to the task of describing how truly execrable Acclaim is.

The fact that Acclaim will somehow live on through this new studio is laughable. It oughta please ol' Gibby considering how much he loved Turok: Evolution. The only two respectable franchises they had left were All Star Baseball and Extreme G. As far as their properties go those'd be the only two I'd still be interested in. I thought they were actually making a bit of a comeback on the N64 but that's one hell of a platform to mount off of.



This just in; Nobuo's back. And he's doing another Black Mages album. No track listing yet but The Man with the Machine Gun from FINAL FANTASY VIII's in so I'm filing it under "automatic purchase". It drops Dec. 22. Fear it.

It always is.

I had duty the second of four days which afforded me one night away from the gallows. I stayed here. It was infinitely theraputic. I'd reserved a standard room with a king-size bed but upon checking in they informed me I'd been upgraded to a junior suite on the eighth floor, without upgrading my bill, which rocked.

I made no less than three trips to Sim Lim and spent far too much money in the process. I went out with this quadra-lingual OS named Lee. He came in real handy 'cause he knows so many languages and the Asian melting-pot that is Singapore gave him an excuse to show off. He talked down the vendors on prices and he pretty much kept things honest.

I picked up some ear-buds I've had my eye on for a while, a modded PSOne with an LCD Screen ('cause it's so damn rack friendly), some CDRWs and a couple of Memory Sticks. Looking around though, it really is a small wonder the Xbox isn't faring so good over here, 'cause I saw some really good stuff just ripe for the picking. I'll definitely be getting a Japanese one before the year is out.

I got to eat at my new favorite fast food joint (just barely edgeing White Castle) and catch the rest of the ALCS so I'm all recharged and shit. Don't quote me on that when I start bitching later.

It's my blog and I can /cry if I want to.

The more time I spend on the Gary, the more I miss the Vinson.

To all the Vinson alumni who skim this blog, allow me to clarify before you disown me.

Please?

We pulled into Singapore last weekend; the same pier at Changi that the Vinson always pulls into. The significance of this, however, is that there's also a US Navy detachment in Singapore named Sembawang that's closer to town and fitted with necessities like a Navy Exchange and a laundromat. The Vinson is a bird-farm, so it's too big for Sembawang to accomodate it. The Gary's a frigate though, and Sembawang is an ideal, almost automatic berth for it.

Almost.

Whenever the Vinson pulls in somewhere it means serious dough for the local economy... even for developed ports like Singapore. Whenever she pulls into Changi there's always a fleet of buses to take the crew to back and forth between the MRT station and the pier she's at. I mean, transportation is merely an afterthought. Not to mention the currency exchangers and the laundry guys.

The Gary, apparently, isn't that big of a deal. We were more or less left to our own devices. I mean, we always felt abused on the Vinson, but I can see at least I took some things for granted.

I feel like I'm playing for a fucking CBA team.

I'm learning Sea-duty state-side and being forward-deployed are two totally different animals.





I know.

"Duh!", right?

Seriously.



Pardon me. I have to go check for my pulse.

I'm still playing FF I+II, partly 'cause I have nothing else but old GBA stuff and partly 'cause I'm psuedo addicted to it. What's funny is I thought it'd help me learn Japanese but I've found myself just identifying spells and equipment by certain characters like me and the crew used to to last year with Crystal Chronicles. I know:

ケアル = Cure
ゴブリン = Goblin
エーテル = Ether

...and so on. But I can't pronounce any of it honestly. Then it dawned on me after I beat カオス(Chaos) that I'd went through the entire game without even knowing my party members' names.

The first time through FF I went with the typical lineup:

Warrior > Knight
Thief > Ninja
White Mage > White Wizard
Black Mage > Black Wizard

I'm playing through the "Soul of Chaos" dungeons now, which if you don't know have bosses from FF III-VI. I went in looking for Gilgamesh initially, 'cause I wanted a challenge... but I guess when you're level 60+ by the time you reach 'im he doesn't have much of a chance. I did, however, find the Four Fiends from FFIV to be pretty damn formidable. 'Specially Valvalis. She really wanted my Ninja dead, which is odd, 'cause chicks usually dig the masamune.

I'm going through the 40-floor dungeon right now... It's a marathon of pain. Seriously. What's the point of throwing goblins at me every three steps at this point? I mean other than to annoy me?

Second go 'round I'm subbing out the Thief and Black Mage with a Red Mage and Monk. I also fired up II with much apprehension, 'cause the battle system more or less gives you just enough rope to hang yourself... and I don't need that kind of motivation.

As promised:

Christopher Reeve, 52, died of heart failure on Sunday. But he will continue to soar in the minds of movie-goers everywhere as one of the world's most enduring superheroes

BEDFORD, New York - Christopher Reeve, the star of the Superman movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died of heart failure, his publicist said. He was 52.

He fell into a coma last Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home and died at 5.30pm on Sunday, his publicist told The Associated Press.

Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital at Mount Kisco, New York, for a pressure wound that he developed, a common complication for people living with paralysis.

In the past week, the wound had become severely infected, resulting in a serious systemic infection.

He was admitted to the hospital on Saturday evening and never regained consciousness. His family was at his side at the time of death.

'On behalf of my entire family, I want to thank Northern Westchester Hospital for the excellent care they provided to my husband,' said his wife, Dana, in a statement.

'I also want to thank his personal staff of nurses and aides, as well as the millions of fans from around the world who have supported and loved my husband over the years.'

Reeve became famous for his Superman role in the 1978 movie, Superman, and three sequels that followed. He was paralysed in May 1995 after he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia.

A few months after the accident, he protested against tabloid reports which said he had been pleading to die.

'I have not given up. I will never give up,' he said.

Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and longer periods without a respirator, he began to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against life-changing injuries.

He quickly became a powerful advocate for pushing the boundaries of modern medicine, frequently saying he believed that one day he would walk again.

His New Jersey-based Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation emerged under his star power and relentless fund-raising as a leading source for research money, giving out more than US$42.5 million (S$72.3 million) to neuroscientists.

Source: Superman forever: Straits Times

I was a big comic book fan growing up. Still am. I think a bit of the surrealness of those characters used to leak into reality a bit in my younger days, especially in sports. In retrospect, I was really spoiled. Growing up in Chicagoland, there was no shortage of larger than life superhero sports figures to look up to. They list like a pantheon of athletic immortality.


Ditka.
Payton.
Singletary.
Dawson.
Sandberg.

Perhaps that's why my standards are so high. In the '90s Chicago sports universe though, no one soared higher than Jordan, Pippen and the Bulls. Sometimes they were nigh invincible. Like every super-team, they had their own Legion of Doom to take care of. And that they did, damn near annually. But it wasn't 'til Supes had The Dark Knight to back him up.

Watching them play was surreal. They had such a swagger about themselves that teams were scared to come to Chicago and flinched when they stampeded through their own courts. Pro-sports as a whole might've seen the last true dynasty in the Bulls of the '90s.

Well Batman is apparently hanging up the cape and cowl for good.

I read an article at ESPN that slapped a 'sidekick' reference on Pippen in the first sentence.

Scottie was no sidekick.

Pippen was the most important cog in the Triangle offense machine. It was #33 that shutdown Magic in the '91 Finals. And for the record, he took the Bulls further without Mike than Mike ever did without him. There's a more accurate column at ESPN:

"Scottie Pippen enabled Michael Jordan to be a champion."

"When the Bulls won their first championship in 1991, it was Pippen guarding Magic Johnson and creating so much havoc for the Lakers. It was Pippen who directed the triangle offense, enabling Jordan to get in position on the wing to attack the defense. It was Pippen who was the good teammate. Steve Kerr used to say how Pippen not only would get you the good shot, Pippen knew when you were slumping or hadn't had a shot in a while and he'd work the offense to get you a good shot to get going. It was Pippen who was the more favored teammate."

"There aren't supposed to be superstar role players, but Pippen was one. One definition of greatness is making other players better, and Pippen did that."

I'm not even entertaining the notion that Pippen is a better basketball player than Jordan. Michael's the greatest of all time. Period. But basketball is a team sport. And Scottie is the best teammate of all time. So while Superman's statue stands outside the Hall of Justice, I know it wasn't his strength alone that put 6 banners in the rafters.

Thanks for the memories Pip'.

I got my NAM the other day... I guess in some way I should have felt somewhat vindicated, 'cause I was admittedly bitter about it leaving the Vinson. But in reality, I work nights... and the awards ceremony was on the flight deck... at high noon on the Indian Ocean. There were at least 30 other awardees, getting EOTs or LOAs for this that and the other and I was really annoyed. Standing at attention for a 1/2 hour in 90 °F + weather (and raining no less) is not how I like to spend my sleep time. I guess in a way it was the final kick in the nuts from the Vinson but this kick came with award points for my next rating exam... so I guess I should be thankful.

Anyhow, we're out here for some excersise with the Indian Navy which involved a little crew swap. A few guys went over to thier ships and came back with a few tales that I wager were a bit exaggerated but I guess since I was lucky enough to have stayed on board I can't really say either way. I got volunteered to tour a few of the guys that came to our ship, thier communicators. I'm not sure I was the right guy for the job considering I'm still new to the ship and I'm not much of a "comms" guy as much as I'm a "network" guy but that fact seemed to go right over their heads, which is understandable. The gear they were using is Smithsonian caliber shit... I'm talkin' teletype.

We pulled in
We tied up near
We anchored out near Goa / Panaji for a couple days. I slept in the first day. We didn't actually anchor out 'til about 1800 local time. You do the math. Wait 30 min for liberty call, ride the liberty boat for an hour in the rain. Wait for the bus for another 30 min to an hour. And be back to the landing in time for the last boat at 2300. Thanks for the offer but I'll have to pass.



I went out the second day with one of the guys from Radio named Kettles. He's TAD to the messdecks right now, and sadly will likely be there again after his first 90 day tour there 'cause he's the only seaman in a division of nine. I guess I can relate to him somewhat in that respect but he deals with it admirably, much better than I ever did. When I was giving the Indian guys a tour of the ship, we passed by the messdecks when I suddenly had the urge to play Symphony of the Night, which kinda struck me as odd.

Then Kettles pops up behind me and says "Recognize this music?"

Then an exclamation point popped over my head like in Metal Gear and it dawned on me that he was playing the SoTN OST on the mess decks. I must've been slow that day because I had the 'cause and effect a little backwards and it kinda freaked me out like he was in my head, Psycho Mantis style...

Anyway, that name's taken so he's Magma Echidna henceforth.

When I got back to the ship one of the Indian Comm guys asked me how I liked Goa... I'm all about foriegn relations so I told him simply "It was OK".

He assured me it's alot better when it's not raining 'cause the areas beaches are pretty popular but I'm not a beach person. I'm not a Goa person either. Magma and I caught a lib' boat (really thought I was done with those) to shore and got there sometime around 1400 I'd say. The Cowpens, a ship I'm beginning to loathe, was sitting there tied up snugly pier-side.

Fuckers.

We caught a cab from there to Panaji, which the cabbie assured us was "beautiful". I took a few pics there. But I wouldn't call the place picturesque or "beautiful". I'll upload 'em when I get some time and you can see for yourself.

Magma's priority was to do his laundry. We asked the cabbie if he new a place to wash clothes and he said nowhere near there, but he'd do the laundry. He then asked when he needed it back, to which Magma replied "tonight". That's when the cabbie said that wasn't possible 'cause he wouldn't be using a "machine".

And that right there is pretty much indicitive of the state of Goa.

This is very hard to watch. I use the term "watch" loosely, if you call staring a web-page with a boxscore that refreshes every so often watching...

The Wild Card really was the Cubs' to lose going into this week. And they may have done just that. September isn't about working miracles. It's about beating who you're supposed to beat. The Cubs are supposed to beat the sub-.500 Reds. They're supposed to beat the under-achieving Mets. Instead, they lose two super critical series while the Astros sweep the Cardinals.

Steve Stone said on WGN Radio:

"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth." "Let me tell you something, guys, the truth of this situation is [this is] an extremely talented bunch of guys who want to look at all directions except where they should really look, and kind of make excuses for what happened.
"At the end of the day, boys, you don't tell me how rough the water is, you bring in the ship. The best eight [teams] go on, the other teams go home," Stone said. "This
team should have won the Wild Card [playoff berth] by six, seven games. No doubt
about it. They have the talent to do that. They're life-and-death right now."

Don't misunderstand. I love the Cubs, but it's really hard to stomach a meltdown like this... when Prior comes out of hibernation and fans 16. You just can't lose those types of games in this type of situation and expect everyone to be cavalier about it.