Blog

Updated as often as I can manage

Tuesday, July 20, 2004
You know, I really should be talking more about my sweet, sweet G5. I should post the "class photo" pics I took of all the new computers we got. But one thing has just been bugging me for the last few days, and I need to rant about it. Because THE LAKERS TRADED SHAQ!

This has been said again and again, but it's worth saying again: YOU DON'T TRADE SHAQ. And you certainly don't trade Shaq for peanuts. Look, I know Lamar Odom was an All-Star last year and Caron Butler could be one, but this is the Lakers we're talking about. Guys like those should be filling out the starting lineup behind Shaq and Kobe, not replacing them. Some have mooted that in a Western Conference that continues to get stronger, the "new-look" Lakers will be a lottery team. I don't think we'll fall that far that fast, but... we certainly won't be a contender anymore. From dynasty to "marginal playoff team" in one fell swoop. Nice one, Kobe.

And this is really all about Kobe. Kobe made a power play, and between Kobe and Shaq, they chose Kobe. In a sense, you can see where they're coming from, because Kobe is much younger... but you know, there's only one Shaq. As good as Kobe is, as good as he will be... he's replaceable. Slot Tracy McGrady in there and it's fine. Yeah, McGrady isn't quite as clutch or as good on the defensive end as Kobe, but he'll put up comparable (if SLIGHTLY lower) numbers. Take out Shaq and replace him with... who, exactly? You can't replace him. All you can really hope for is to build a team strong enough to cope without him, and I'm sorry but Kobe, GP, Divac, Odom and Butler just doesn't cut it, especially in the West.

It really bugs me because in general, Kobe's just not a nice player. Never mind the rape allegations, let's talk Kobe on the court. HE NEVER SHARES THE BASKETBALL. He doesn't just hog it, but the more coverage on him the more he feels he has some divine right to take them all on. You can't do that Kobe. You just... can't. Don't even try. Pass it. He might have had an excuse the season before last, since his passing options were either the similarly double-teamed Shaq or a bunch of role players incapable of making open shots in the regular season, but this last season he's had two other Hall of Famers join him. Share the damn ball! And when things aren't working for Kobe, when his jumper isn't right, he STILL doesn't try something different and pass it. He keeps shooting more jumpers. Kobe... you can't. Everyone made a big deal about how Shaq's scoring was at a career-low last season... well, that's what happens when your shots go down because you're sharing. Not enough people have made a point out of THAT: Shaq was perfectly willing to share the spotlight with Malone and GP to win a ring. Kobe couldn't even share the floor with Shaq.

All this has made me really mad... but one good thing came of it. I finally bought a Shaq (Lakers) jersey. Now, you're probably wondering why I bought a Lakers jersey when Shaq's moving to Miami. I think of it this way: I can either buy the jersey now for $45 or I can buy it in ten years for $300 as a Mitchell & Ness "throwback" jersey. I figure I'd rather get it now.

Posted at 5:47 AM

Friday, July 16, 2004
A bit quiet... but I had to write today because my brand-spanking new computer arrived! I got a Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz (with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB HD) and my mom, dad and sister each got iBooks (14" for my parents and 12" for my sister). It's awesome. I'll have pics and stuff up later, but... wow. Tons of cool things here... the coolest of which was right at the beginning: System Transfer. When your new Mac boots up, it asks if you have an old Mac running at least Mac OS X 10.1 with a FireWire port. If so, you have the option of transferring all your old data to your new computer. Just hook up the FireWire cable between the two, start up the old one while holding down "T" on the keyboard, and it'll transfer across everything and anything you want. And it doesn't just transfer files... it transfers applications and settings. So basically, when it was done (and though it's supposed to be fairly quick, when you have 65GB to transfer like I did it can take an hour or so...) my computer looked EXACTLY like the old one. Safari is right there on top of my Dock which is on the left side at the exact position and size I like. All my bookmarks, iTunes, buddies in Fire, mail in Entourage... perfect.

There are a few minor niggles right now though. Firstly, though it and my monitor both support DVI, I don't have any DVI cables anywhere so I had to use the included VGA -> DVI cable. Which is fine. The other thing is more annoying... well, annoying and nice at the same time. See, the old Power Mac G4 (and the current iMac) both use a special minijack for speakers that is basically tailored towards Apple's own Pro Speakers, which in turn work on those machines only. Now, I thought the G5 would be the same. But I was wrong -- the G5 includes regular speaker jacks AND an optical jack! This is great, except... I don't have any regular speakers. I just have my old Power Mac G4 minijack speakers. And now they're a bit useless. In fairness, there is an adapter available from peerless peripheral maker Griffin, but since the adapter ties up a FireWire port and COSTS MONEY it's probably best if I just buy better speakers or something.

Still, I'm not too fussed just now. I'm loving this! Can't wait to do some video editing on this rig...

Posted at 5:43 AM

Thursday, July 01, 2004
You know, even though I love my GBA, I rarely find myself engrossed in a game on it anymore (since Wario Ware, really). I bought Mario & Luigi but never really got into it, and I haven't even OPENED Mario & Donkey Kong, but when Mario Golf Advance came out I had to play it right away. The GBC version was very addictive because aside from having an awesome golf engine (look, it's fun even if you don't like golf, seriously) it's also got a cool RPG mode. You start off as kids training to be golf pros, and as you complete challenges and minigames you get experience points to upgrade your skills in. It's really well balanced -- the "side games" double up as training and ease you into the various shots and strategies, and when you choose what part of your game you want to upgrade it might come at the expense of something else. Making your drives longer may also make them less accurate; improving the accuracy might increase its height; and so on.

The actual RPG-ish bit though is starting to get a bit annoying. It looks nice, mind you (Camelot re-used the Golden Sun engine, so the lush art can look a bit out of place at times), and it is well fleshed-out, but what's really annoying is in the middle of conversation characters will often respond with various emoticons (you know, :-) :-( etc). It's totally unnecessary and REALLY ANNOYING, especially when they seem to conjure up the wrong emoticon for the time.

The other thing that bothers me is that the game is stupidly easy. One thing I've noticed about Mario Golf on the GBC and N64 is that in tournaments the CPU seems to start with all guns blazing and hit eagles and birdies on the front nine, before averaging a bogey a hole on the back nine. This time they don't even go that far in front before collapsing. Opponents in matchplay average a par or worse per hole (I have NEVER seen them hit a birdie), while I have yet to see an opponent in a tournament shoot an under-par round -- while I've posted winning scores of -8, -8 and -6 in my first three tries at the first three tournaments, the nearest opponent is only on +1, +1 and +3. And it's not because I'm especially good or at a high level either, since I was told I would "have trouble placing at the Dunes" -- before blitzing the field to win by nine strokes.

I guess I'm so annoyed because there's so much to get through in this game, since each club offers a tournament and matchplay in both singles AND doubles, and it doesn't feel particularly fulfilling when it's so damned easy. It's a pity though because the game itself is tons of fun, and the golfing engine reminds me a lot of the superlative Mario Golf 64. And there are a lot of modes where I can compete with myself to post high scores, like Speed Golf or Nearest to the Pin, but again... it'd be really nice if the CPU offered a challenge. What I'd give to be worse at this game...

Posted at 3:50 AM