Ninjas and New Avengers

I hate comic book ninjas. I'm pretty much burned out on ninjas altogether.

Suddenly, my affection for New Avengers is in jeopardy with this latest issue.

A ninja is supposed to be a bad-ass stealthy assasin, but Marvel uses them like agile shuriken wielding zombies. Where do these new ninjas come from? Wolverine himself must kill a dozen per week. Why do they attack in mass so often when they're supposed to be stealth based assasins?

Don't answer, I don't really care. The Ronin character is okay so far, but Hand ninjas make me weep with boredom. Now, if they swapped ninjas for robots or zombies, I'd think differently.

If they had a legion of more normal warrior guys, with a couple boss-type ninjas, I would like it better.

This is the same reason I was irritated with the beginning of Batman Begins. The ninja in comics idea is so very very played out, I can barely stand it.

I too am waiting for the team-action to get started. I'm really not looking forward to another arc of character introduction (especially a ninja based arc!).

Xbox 360

I'm very excited about the upcoming release of Xbox 360. November 22nd is the date!

Wire snaps, leaving 3,600 without power

That was me!

Lights went out around 9:15, and came back on in the middle of the night sometime. It was fun.

Zebras

Came across this at work today:

Zebra: The term "zebra" in medicine does not refer to the striped African animal but to an unlikely diagnostic possibility. It comes from an old saying in teaching medical students about how to think logically in regard to the differential diagnosis: "When you hear hoof beats, think of horses, not zebras."
For example, when someone develops a mild transient cough, tuberculosis is a "zebra." For another example, following the discovery of West Nile fever in New York City in September, 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors to expect more infectious disease "zebras" (diseases due to rare microbes).

Revolution

Intriguing.

I don't know that it's good to flail around and swing the controller like sword in a fighting game. That's how lamps get broken and eyes get poked out.

There's been a subtle minority of games moving this direction, beginning with light guns, continuing to sit down driving and flying games, then the combination of the two; now we have fishing games with flyreel like controllers, fighting games that mimic the player's motions, and dancing games that require actual dancing. The idea is that it's more immersive to combine body movements with gaming action.

Nintendo is really going after this trend. In spite of the added hazard of breaking things, they may be on to something. I can't think of a light gun game that would be better with a conventional joystick, or a wheel based driving game that I think should have used buttons instead of pedals. I can't see any significant flaws in the controller design, aside from the difficulty designers may have adapting cross platform games.

Mechassault on Xbox

I'm always late to discover cool games because I'm a cheapskate. There are very few games I'll pay $50 for. Halo 2, Madden 2006 and Doom III special edition are the only games I've paid that much for. The rest of the time I wait for the price drop or get them used. As the years go by it's easier and easier to find great Xbox games for cheap.

Most recently I picked up The Sims, Goblin Commander and Mechassault for $30.

I finished Mechassault yesterday, and I freely admit that it exceeded my expectations. My only previous experience with that universe was with the paper version of Battletech which has detailed and difficult rules. I've never been a war-gamer, so during my limited gaming periods, realism has never been my goal. I also had a hard assed game master who forgot that we were all there to have fun. I barely understood the game mechanics and never made the next step to developing basic tactics.

My next experience with the Mechassault world was with a PC version of a few years ago. I found the large lumbering robots and the PC interface frustrating, and didn't enjoy it enough to delve into the game beyond a mission or two.

All of these problems were solved with the Xbox version of 2002. Obviously, the game takes care of the mechanics, and even later in the game, your choice of mechs are limited. There's no real role-playing elements, so you don't have to learn all the possibilities of the mechassault world. Early in the game robot choices are nil, but gradually increase. The developers strike a careful balance by offering entertaining choices that are important for some of the missions, without burdening the player with too much choice. While I imagine an awesome game could be made by adding non-linear role-playing elements to the basic engine, this was not the game they developed, and that's okay.

Mechassault is not a game of finesse. Mechassault is a game of destruction, basic planning and fundamental tactics. It is set in a world composed of destructable elements unlike any I've seen in games developed before or since. The missions are challenging, some very much so, but usually the most difficult ones can be conquered with the right plan.

I've already looked into getting Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf.

Another healthcare reality

A recent study at my employer documented that non English speaking families have a much higher likelihood of suffering a medication error, incorrect diagnosis or other medical system related problem.

I had a hunch, but now there is proof.

I won't provide more details here, because I learned of this study on our internal website. I'm likely not supposed to distribute that externally. I don't believe there's anything sinister here; for the most part, we're very transparent about our improvement efforts, and this data isn't an actual secret. I'm just choosing caution.

Leadership

Borrowed from my recent post at YMB:

This is slightly off topic, but maybe I can pull it back:
Leadership in comic books is nothing like leadership in the real world. This really came into focus when I became the Condo President. Like Association members, most super team members aren't getting paid, don't necessarily have much in common with their fellow members, and aren't motivated to participate in the group.
Some books like JLA and Teen Titans get around this with their personnel choices. Professor X, is fairly realistic because he's a father figure who can manipulate the situation (with or without using his telepathy) and people for his agenda. But what about Cyclops? It is assumed that Cyclops is a 'born leader,' but what does that mean? Would his team mates really be motivated to fight for him? Maybe the original team would, but the others? He's really a boor with little charisma. Yes, I believe he has superior tactical abilities, but that's simply not enough.
It's similar with Captain America. Yes, it's been established that he does have great charisma and that people want to follow him, but I'm not sure if that's really been done authentically. In the real world, supervisors and association president's can't just bark orders and have it considered 'good leadership.' Good leadership takes practice, training and varies from group to group. For example, Superman can get his JLA friends to do things a lot easier than Cyclops could get Wolverine, Gambit and Colossus to do what he wants.
In the military, soldiers are known to fight much harder for leaders they care about. Yes, they'll obey orders either way, but they can be very passive aggressive with leadership they don't respect.
To pull this back on topic, I would make sure each team's dynamic really makes sense, and I'd like to see the dynamic handled more realistically. For example, how many times have you had a boss explain something to you, then you did it the way you understood, and turn out that your understanding was completely different from your boss's vision. It's pretty common in the real world, yet almost unheard of in comics.

NFL

Jared Lornezen made the team! He is not the 3rd QB for the New York Giants; Jesse Palmer, aka "The Bachelor" has been cut. Good for him!

He's listed at a lithe 275 on Yahoo Sports.

No one should be surprised about last night's New England / Oakland game. I had concerns about NE's defense, but they seem to have picked up where they left off last year. Tom Brady looked good, Corey Dillon was strong.

On the Oakland side of the ball, things looked okay as well. Randy Moss made some great plays, Kerry Collins still looks like Kerry Collins, which isn't all bad, and Lamont Jordan pulled his weight.

On my Fantasy team, I've benched Michael Vick and am starting Jake Plummer. This makes me nervous; Jake Plummer makes me nervous in general since Denver loves to run the ball. He frequently puts up amazing fantasy numbers, and Vick's Falcons are facing the Eagles, who have a dangerous and mighty defense.

Besides, if I win it will be with my Running Back corps: Priest Holmes, Brian Westbrook and Clinton Portis. This year I really favored guys with proven track records in the early rounds. I also picked up Ronnie Brown as a free agent, leaving me with too many RB's and too few WR's. This won't be a problem until bye week's start coming around.

Delays

There's a lot of somewhat intense stuff going on; nothing too terrible or dramatic for me personally, but most of my energy is directed toward these things. I don't use this space for 'dear diary' stuff, and I don't like to mention people specifically, so I've been writing less.

I'll try to remedy that soon.

Seahawks Set 53-Man Roster For 2005 Season

KIRKLAND - The Seattle Seahawks announced the release of 23 players Saturday afternoon to reach the NFL’s mandatory roster limit of 53. Seattle may sign a total of eight players to the club’s practice squad beginning Sunday.

The following players were waived: S Terreal Bierria RB Kerry Carter TE Brock Edwards DE Kevin Emanuel QB Gibran Hamdan CB Michael Harden C William Henry FB Tony Jackson G Andy King P Chris Kluwe S Omare Lowe DE Christian Mohr G Doug Nienhuis DT Cleveland Pinkney LB Terrence Robinson CB B.J. Tucker WR Taco Wallace RB Marquis Weeks LB Tracy White LB Cornelius Wortham The following veteran contracts were terminated: WR Jerome Pathon WR Bobby Shaw The following players were waived/injury: DT Rashad Moore (shoulder)

Sea Gals and other football talk.

Trina is my favorite Sea Gal. Shelly is my second favorite. Their hair has a lot to do with it. From the stands, especially on the 3rd deck where I sit, it's hard to tell the girls apart. Trina and Shelly have big hair which makes them easier to identify from far away. Plus they really are cute and good dancers.

I've noticed that the Sea Gals have four squads, and each starts in a different corner of the stadium. Every quarter, they rotate. This way, every group is in every corner for every game. I plan on finding a different favorite for each group.

This is just one advantage to being a season ticket holder. I have time to notice these things.

Of course, there's the usual stuff: I can finally figure out when the defense is in a nickle formation, I'm learning who is who, I can form actual opinions on calls from the officials. I'm really trying to be the ultimate football uber-geek. I'm not there yet, but I aspire...

I plan on getting a radio head set so I can listen to the play by play while watching the game. I already have binoculars and a program.

I was a little disappointed last night that Peter Warrick didn't get much playing time. We only saw him a few times on Special Teams, and not at all as an actual receiver. I suppose it takes more than two days to learn the play-book. It also makes sense that Holmgren would give the WR's on the bubble more playing time, to figure out who stays and who gets sent to the practice squad today.

I would be shocked if Jerheme Urban made the team. He had some good catches, but he also had baubles and some drops. I would have predicted Jerome Pathon to make the team, but he actually ducked under a pass at yesterday's game. He turned kind of late, and the ball was aimed at his head. It's a natural reaction, but really, WR's are supposed to catch those. Taco Wallace and D.J. Hackett are the others on the cusp, and none are really better than the others. Holmgren may as well pick the one with the best personality. I'm assuming that Joe Jerevicious will make the team. Of the non-locks, he has the best position based on experience and general skill and personality.