Madden: Week 2

Under pressure by a friend, I decided to drop the Bills and not pick up the Bengals, taking my teams down to 3.

So week 2 results:

Denver W @ Jacksonville (31-28): Plummer 20-38 228 YDS 2 TD
San Francisco W @ New Orleans (37-34): Barlow 23 att 165 YDS 1 TD, 2 rec 17 YDs 1 TD
Seattle @ W Tampa Bay (13-32): Johnson 24-35 271 YDS 2 TD

Lakers beat Wizards 97 - 87

The Lakers won again tonight in their final preseason game to improve their record to 6-2. I think this was a good example of what most games will probably look like for LA this season. Meaning that it will be a very competitive, close game throughout, and it's up to the Lakers to make defensive stops and runs at a certain period to lock down the victory. At times they looked great, building a 10 point lead around halftime, but they let the Wizards back in. Sure the Wizards are a very young,and athletic team but LA needs to do a better job of maintaining thier composure and the lead. Kobe had 19, and Lamar Odom had his best game of the preseason with 16 points. On to Tuesday and the start of the season at home against Denver. Should be a fun season, I hope.

Weekly Load

Stopped by Legacy today, as usual. Decided to start to tighten my comic buying belt, and didn't pick up Ultimate Elektra (won't miss it), Catwoman & Birds of Prey. I'm still conflicted on the last two, but I'm really trying to only get comics that have been a great read most of the time. I may end up picking up BOP again.. Just seeing if I want to or not. I'm also planning on deciding on my Superman and Spider-Man titles..

Anyway. I got this week:

Amazing Spider-Man #513
JLA #107
X-Men #163
Superman #210
Batman #633
Green Lantern: Rebirth #1
Fallen Angel #5

Madden Update

Well, I went down to all-pro, because I got very upset during a 60-10 loss that I ended up resetting, so it's just more realistic and more fun for me at the slightly less than max difficulty. 5 consecutive possesions resulted in freak turnovers that were just ridiculous. Also I've added the Bengals to the teams I'm playing.

Week 1 results:

Buffalo L vs. Jacksonville (35-50): Bledsoe 27-54 386 YDS 3 TD 5 INT
Tampa Bay W vs. Washington (19-0): Garner 25 att 75 YDS 1 TD, 5 rec 29 YDS
San Francisco W vs. Atlanta (27-13): Barlow 27 att 85 YDS 2 TD
Denver W vs Kansas City (27-7): Droughns 29 att 103 YDS 2 TD

Lakers beat Sonics 117 - 91

Tonight was the press's "highlight of the preseason", due to Ray Allen's idiotic comments on Kobe, that were unneeded and uncalled for. Anyway, the duel never happened, Allen sat out the game with a bad back (yeah right, chicken), and Kobe only played 9 minutes in the first quarter before staying on the bench the rest of the night. The Lakers meanwhile jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter, and never gave it back. The starters didn't even play in the second half, and Caron Butler scored 18 points in the first quarter, as the Lakers breezed to victory, and improved their record to 5-2.

Lakers beat Suns 111-103

Well the Lakers won again. Pretty easily against a good opponent in Phoenix. This was to be an early barometer of where the Lakers were and they passed with flying colors. Kobe only played the first and third, but the Lakers got a huge game from Brian Grant. 22 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes, and 17 points from Chris Mihm. The score got a little closer than it really was, but of course that was garbage time so what could you expect. I keep liking what I'm seeing from the Lakers. Walton played in this game, looked ok. Good to see him back on the court.

Hoping for Venture Bros Torrents

Well, I'm a big fan of the Venture Bros show, and hopefully there will be a second season, although stupid AS scheduling really hampered the show. They didn't think about sandwiching the show between the two ratings winners for that night, and once they made the change, it's almost too little too late. Hopefully they take a chance and get them to work on another season. This show is so much funnier than any show on ASC right now, and it would be a shame if AS lets another Home Movies die.

Anyway, I've been watching the episodes from torrents, so that I can see them more than once. Although I didn't get last weeks, since it seems the people distributing it are having trouble with their site, etc. Hopefully they get it fixed, because the last 2 (including tonights) was hilarious.

Lakers beat Clippers 113-102

Well the Lakers won again tonight. They lost last night to the Warriors in OT. They fell apart during the end of the 4th, and didn't help themselves in OT going 1-10. Still the Lakers at times looked good, just when they look bad, they look bad. Tonight they rebounded from the effort, and the reserves put in a solid effort. It'll be interesting to see who the Lakers end up cutting, since they'll have to get down to 15 soon, as the season starts November 3.

The Lakers are now 3-2. Odom still hasn't played his best ball, Divac hasn't touched the court yet, Grant has been getting limited minutes, and Walton, Rush, Medvedenko and George are all out with injuries, so the Lakers will improve as they get these guys back into the rotation. Hopefully sooner than later. Vlade said his back has improved greatly this week, so there's a chance he may be ready when the Season opens.

All-Madden 2005

Yea, I've restarted this game for the 3rd time. This will be my final go around with it, no changing. Since I have a hard time choosing 1 team, let alone 2. I've decided to go with 4 teams, 2 from each conference. Also I'll be playing franchise on All-Madden, it's best to get used to it now then never. The teams I chose were the:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
San Francisco 49ers
Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos

With these, I can rebuild the 49ers, and the Bucs, while I just tinker with the Bills and Broncos. This should be fun. I'll start doing more tomorrow and this weekend, I was just fixing the rosters today, probably do training camp tomorrow.

IC 5 finally released.

So I got that among others. Expensive week due to the TPB and the 2 issues I forgot to get last week. =[

Ultimate Nightmare #2,3
Identity Crisis #5
Ultimate Spider-Man #67
Batman: Gotham Knights #58
Robin #131
Teen Titans #17
Uncanny X-Men #451
New X-Men Academy X #6
Batman Hush Vol 2 TPB

Lakers continue win

Yeah, it's still the pre-season, but the Lakers continue to look good, and not as bad as many (biased) news comentators thought. They won tonight against the Kings, sure the Kings were tired, but it gave the Lakers another chance to move the ball and really work on their offense. And they did what you're supposed to do to a tired team, beat them handily. Kobe looked good being more of an energizer out there, Caron Butler looked great, and Chris Mihm put in 17 in another impressive performance. Cook continues to bring a degree of scrappiness reminscent of Lakers old (Fox, Fisher). 2-1 this postseason, and I really like the team.. PG may be the weak point, but Vujacic looks good, and hopefully Atkins comes around, but like the Dodgers trading away Kevin Brown for Jeff Weaver, just get rid of the Glove is addition by subtraction. Even if that SOB cost us Marcus Banks. >=[

Wet

Hard to believe, but it's been a pretty rainy weekend here. It's ironic because on Friday I watered the trees a little more than usual since they were starting to get a bit dry, and then starting Friday night it began to rain. It's been a wet weekend, and I didn't feel too well today so I stayed home from night class, I just didn't feel like traveling that far in this weather. Tomorrow I have a test so even though I may not feel well I'll have to go. It was refreshing to see the rain for once.

Returning

Slightly new design. A template from blogspot, I needed a change. New address, just time to really get comfortable. I am in the process of getting together my own site, but for the time being, I'm going to take full advantage of blogger, and blog to my hearts content here.

Free DVR

Well, looks like I might get a free DVR. A letter came from Dish Network, and from the way I read it, looks like for being a loyal subscriber we're getting it as a gift. We're gonna look into it, but if it's true, man, that would be awesome. Especially if I can do things to it, it would be a lot easier to catch some of the primetime shows I've missed.

COMIC$

Another week, another pile. I didn't see the Hush TPB, and I forgot to grab Ultimate Nightmare #2, since I didn't notice #3 (it wasn't there). =[

Ultimate X-men #52
Action Comics #820
Fallen Angel #16
Nightwing #98
Green Arrow #43
Fallen Angel #4

Weekly Stop 16

Very thick stack this week. Mostly new, only 1 back issue technically. 7 issues, 4 DC, 3 Marvel. I also bought a bag of old comics ( 4 for $1) just so that I could get US Agent #1, but now that I'm thinking about it, I bet I own it already. lol.

Captain America & The Falcon #8
Uncanny X-Men #450
Teen Titans Legion Special
Superman/Batman #12
Detective Comics #799
Ultimate Spider-Man #66
Fallen Angel #3

Oh yeah. Actually saw a girl in the shop for the first time. ohmy.gif And she actually looked cute. Makes me want to come early on new comic day from now on.

Lakers Camp Opens

Well today starts the new Laker Era. The Era led by Kobe Bryant, and I can't tell you how long I've waited for this time. I'm glad finally that that big piece of trouble Shaq is out of here, and that Kobe's legal troubles are behind him and we can concentrate on getting the Lakers back as champions. I must say Kobe looks damn imposing this year, he's 20 pounds heavier this year (back to the weight he was 2 years ago when he averaged 30,6,6) and looks fantastic. He's shown great leadership with the team, and they certainly look like a great bunch together. This should be a fun team to watch and hopefully a successful one.

Dodgers in the Playoffs!!!

Yay! Steve Finley just hit a grandslam off the Giants pitcher in the bottom of the 9th to win the game (7-3) and clinch the NL West Divison Crown for the Dodgers! They scored all their runs in the 9th in amazing comeback fasion like they've done all year. It was very intense watching them comeback, I'm glad to see my Dodgers back in the playoffs it's been way too long.

First NL West Title since 95. First playoffs since 96. Also the Angels clinched the AL West Title earlier today. It's their first Division title since the late 80's. And also it's the first time ever that both the Angels and Dodgers make the playoffs in the same year. Fun times indeed.

Comic Review: Ultimate Nightmare #1

(This is my first formal review. I posted it at AA-T, but I shall put it here as well for my own copy)

Gathered by mutant psychic Professor Charles Xavier, The X-Men are soldiers for his dream of coexistence between normal humans and mutants like them.

Formed by General Nick Fury and led by Captain America, the Ultimates are a small but lethal army created to protect humanity against the new rising threats to the world.



Stan Lee presents: Ultimate Nightmare #1

Writer: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Trevor Hairsine (cover)
Inks: Simon Coleby
Colors: Frank D'Armata
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Assistant Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley

Based on an idea by Joe Quesada

Synopsis: Writer Warren Ellis teams with hot newcomer Trevor Hairsine to tell a story of international intrigue that shakes every Ultimate book to its core! As world communications systems break down, the source of the anomaly is revealed as Tanguska, Russia. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. leads a force comprised of Captain America, Black Widow and Sam Wilson to investigate, while, simultaneously, Charles Xavier of the X-Men dispatches his own team consisting of Jean Grey, Wolverine & Colossus. And what they discover there — and what happens next — defies belief!

Review: The cover is good, it spotlights the key players presumably for this series. The issue starts off in 1904 where two men in the Tungus River Valley are witnesses to a meteor shower that leaves a huge crater. Time jumps ahead 23 years to 1927, where a few soldiers come upon the same site, the first outsiders to walk there since and discover something that isn't revealed. The setting changes to the current era where a girl is complaining to her mother about the cable box being on the fritz, when suddenly a feed comes in, but this feed shows an alien race getting annihilated. The high pitched screams of the species deafening, the feed is shown on all types of communication devices, showing the death, a voice warning "it comes and you are all dead. there is only death for you." causing many presumably weak minded and emotional people to decide to end their lives in various ways.

The scene shifts to The Xavier institute of Learning where Jean Grey is awakened by a dream caused from this event, after some discussion with Xavier, it's decided to send her, Logan and Peter on a rescue mission. However, they won't be alone, as at the same time, Colonel Nick Fury is passionate about putting an end to whoever is producing these signals, and after finding out it's coming from Russia has brought together Captain America and Black Widow as part of a small team to infiltrate the country. When asked where's the other member, Fury says the amazon, and we come to see a well built black man, Sam Wilson, who agrees to join the mission and he jumps off the cliff, because he is the Falcon. That is where the issue ends, but the story has just begun.

Ok, first off, I thought the art in this issue was done very well. This issue covered plenty of locations and events yet each one looked unique and nicely designed. The characters looked as good as ever and the shading during some of the explosions was nice to look at. On the issue itself, the one big problem I had with it was, nothing really happened. I understand that this is the first issue, so of course, back story is needed to set up and get this arc in motion, but still, the actions in present day wasn't that much in this issue. People saw the broadcast/vision, comitted suicide, the x-men got a group together, and Fury and the ultimates are doing the same. This issue just left me a bit empty, I think an issue such as this probably needed to be larger, that way the story can really get rolling. Hopefully this is addressed in the next issue, I shall have to see. Other than that, the issue was well done and this looks to be an interesting mini-series. B+.