So here’s a few quick things.

Pac Man World 2

In a further effort to whittle down the list in my Video Game queue, I managed to finally beat Pac-Man World 2. The game itself was fairly fun, with a few levels being really good. Worth special mention: A level where you are running just in front of a giant avalanche, one where you are speed skating down a mountain, an underwater submarine level, and a fairly complicated maze. The games downfall: occasionally sloppy controls, inconstancy in the gameplay, and most annoying: camera problems at inopportune times.. Occasionally (and often when time is a factor) you’d be stuck facing a wall, or unable to see the ledge you are supposed to be jumping to. It was very annoying. So the game was fun, but not really worth playing again. Anyway, bow before my amazing video game prowess.

Moving

So…As you prolly already know, Adam is moving, Alan is moving, and Joel is moving [though not far]. Also, my friend Tim Vroom moved off to Ann Arbor. Tim and I would have lunch together on Tuesdays and regale each other with tales of our so called lives, so it sucks him not being around here anymore. And then Mandace is headed off to New York, and she’ll be gone for quite a while. So while I hope everyone enjoys life in their new surroundings, on a purely selfish note, the idea of not getting to see you all on a regular basis just makes me kinda sad.

Kathryn Elizabeth

Congratulations to Sven and Julie on the birth of their daughter, Kathryn Elizabeth. I’ve seen her. She looks like a baby. Apologies if I’ve already spelled her name wrong. Anyway, woo :) Congratulations Sven and Julie.

True Identity

I believe I’ve discovered the true identity of my turtle, Ned:

When I left on Friday night, there were still 6 little fish hanging out in my turtle tank. When I came back on Saturday afternoon, there was a small piece of one fish left. Now, I feed that guy plenty.. but he just goes to town on everything. I’m fairly certain when I get back from England he will have eaten Swac

For those of you dying to know, my turtle has been named: Ned. He was named after the infamous (Infamous –> More than famous) Ned Nederlander from Three Amigos. You may know him as “Little Neddy Knickers” from a long time ago.. Anyway, he’s Ned.

I mentioned a while back that I went and got MVP Baseball 2004 for the Gamecube. Well one of the things that kinda disappointed me about this game right when I got it was that there didn’t seem to be any season mode.. As in.. I couldn’t just up and start a season, and just play games against other teams, go to the playoffs, etc. It seemed like the only thing they had was the Dynasty mode, where you were in charge of both the Major League team, and the minor league teams for that organization.. You also had to take care of contracts, salary issues, Player’s happiness, Team chemistry, etc … Now, that’s all pretty kewl and all, but seriously.. if you’re planning on playing 162 games in the regular season (which I am, cause I’m a gamer), you probably don’t want to also play an additional game for the AAA team, and a AA game each time, along with making sure a bunch of fictitious millionaires are still having a good time, and playing nice with each other… More over… Dynasty mode seems to be more geared towards people who want to develop a team over a few years and create a lasting dynasty (an apt name, I guess)… So you can play up to 120 years with one dynasty organization. I gotta tell you, I’m not interested in playing for 120 years either… All that having been said, I started one up anyway, just to see what all was involved.. and was pleased to see that there are settings in the options for the game that let you turn a lot of that extra stuff off. Example: You can turn off “team chemistry” (I was right, Joel), and now the whole “This player isn’t happy with his contract, so he’ll play like shit the rest of the season” thing isn’t gonna happen. So the game won’t just up and let you sign all the best players to one team and then slaughter everyone, because of salary issues [Well, there are ways where you can, but I'm not gonna do it... there's also no #23: Ron Veenstra on my team with arms like tree trunks who swings a telephone pole for a bat and can cover the entire outfield by himself... No Fatty McFatasses in my league either.] Anyway, all of that to say I don’t have to worry about Player Happiness, Team Chemistry, or Salaries at all, and *Bam!* I’ve got my season mode. It’s got all the stuff I wanted :

1. Pitcher fatigue (I can’t start Wood and Prior back and forth all season.)
2. Injuries (I’ma be hella pissed if Sosa goes out for the season..)
3. Real Schedules (I’m trying to catch up to the actual season, so I can play along)
4. All-Star Games, Playoffs, and World Series (I’m very excited to see how the All-Star Ballot is picked… the game says that those details will be available when I get further into the season.
5. Stat Tracking (Everyone in the game starts out with a clean slate.. and thus far, the stats all seem fairly accurate. Most of my batting averages are around .200-.350, with Aramis Ramirez batting a sweet .398. Derrek Lee is in a bit of a slump, batting a sickly .173, with 3 homeruns. Sosa has 9 Homers, and leads the league in Homers and Total bases. Wood has two complete games, and is 2-0 after pitching 3 games.)

So yeah, obviously I’m playing as the Cubs… at this point I’m 11-0, though the games have been very close. There was one game that I chose not to count, as I was out of the room when the game wasn’t paused (I left it between innings, and the game resumed while I was gone) and it struck out two of my batters… I didn’t think it was fair to the players to leave that on their record. But a number of games have been very close.. Game 4 I was down 3-1 in the 8th when Ramirez cranked a 2 run homer, and Sosa came in in the 9th with a homer to end it. But the game that so far has taken the cake was Sunday. I was playing against the Braves, who have been pretty tough so far. Zambrano was pitching, and so far he’s been having a tough time as well, giving up a few home runs early on. Anyway, game is on, and Zambrano has a perfect game into the 4th, when he gave up a single. Top of the 6th he got into some trouble, and ended up giving up 4 runs, so we’re down 4-0. I just couldn’t hit a thing. Zambrano got pulled in the 7th for a pinch hitter, but still no runs. Finally it’s the bottom of the 9th, and I’m still down 4-0. Corey Patterson came through with a clutch 1 out single, and Todd Walker (he’s been switching in and out at 2nd for me.. ) came through with a single that put men at 1st and 2nd. Sosa came up and hit a hug e double that scored 2 [4-2]. Alou grounded out moving Sosa to 3rd, and Derrek Lee scored him on a single. With 2 outs, Ramirez hit a bloop single and Lee rounded the bases to just beat out a throw to the plate, tying it up at 4. A ground out ended the inning, and sent us to extra innings..

The 10th came and went… as did the 11th, and the 12th..

13..14..15..16..

Every pitch filled me with “the fear“… One hanging slider, and they’d be ahead… and with the way I was hitting, I’d surely lose. Twice Derrek Lee hit a double to start off an inning… both times I failed to score him… Honestly, all I needed was two long flyouts, and I would win.. and I couldn’t do it.

17..18..19..

They continued to burn through their pitchers, and by the 16th, they were on their last (including all of their starters… Sadly this was the end of the series, so I wouldn’t get the benefit of a tired starter the next day.) I, meanwhile, was trying to save my starters for their regular rotation… but by the 19th, my last reliever was nearing the end… so I warmed up Maddox, who wouldn’t be pitching for another 4 days…

20..21..22…

Bottom of the 22nd. Maddox has pitched 2 shutout innings. This game has gone on for over 2 hours. (an average game against the computer lasts around a half hour I’d say). Maddox is first up, and I’m long since out of pinch hitters, and there’s no way I’m taking him out anyway… so he grounds out to short. Corey Patterson then comes through with a nice double. Next Mark Grudzielanek comes through with a infield single that he just barely beats out. With Corey at 3rd and one out, things are looking good.. Sosa steps to the plate for his 10th at bat… After swinging through 2 high and out of the zone pitches, he gets served an off speed pitch low in the zone … and swung right through it for the K. I do believe I said some things than that, if I had any real power, would mean Sammy is headed for a endless stay in a place of fire and brimstone. With two down, and hopes fading, Alou steps up, and on the first pitch nails a single to left center, and the game is over.

Cubs win! Cubs win!

So my day sucked…

E3 was last week. For those of you that don’t know, E3 is the time when they show off all the new video games and hardware that they’re working on for the next year or 2 (or 3..). So, put simply, it’s a little drop of heaven. I was excited for this year’s E3 for a few reasons: They’d finally be showing off the Nintendo DS, and they’d be showing off videos/screenshots of games I’m very excited about: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Mario Tennis, Zelda: 4 Swords, the new Zelda for Gameboy Advance, and last, but not least, the sequel to Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Well, E3 week is over.. The DS proved to be pretty interesting, from all that I’ve seen and read.. and I’ll stand by my original statement: I’ll own one the instant they make a Zelda game for it. [I am Nintendo's bitch]. Metroid Prime 2:Echoes looks very, very good… and makes me excited to replay through the first one again… though there’s a long line of games I still need to get through. Mario Tennis was a home favorite for the N64, and this new game is shaping up to be quite good as well. It looks as though each player might have some sort of special ability.. which could be kewl (or horribly distracting.) We shall see. Zelda: 4 Swords comes out June 7… 4 Player Zelda on the Gamecube w/ Gameboy Advances… It’s a beautiful thing.. I am most excited. Then there’s the new zelda for Gameboy Advance, called “The Minish Cap”. Apparently Link can now shrink down to the size of insects with the use of a magic hat. Sounds interesting. I’ll have to wait until 2005 to get my hands on it though… Just as well, as I still have both Oracle games (Seasons and Ages) to play through.

That leaves us with the final game, which they were calling Wind Waker 2. Now, you all know I’m a huge Zelda fan.. And some of you may recall that when they showed off the Gamecube for the first time [Spaceworld 2000], they had a tech demo showing Link fighting Gannondorf… and it was so beautiful I fell to my knees and thanked God for allowing me to live in such a magnificent time:

It was beautiful… certainly leaps and bounds above the last game, Majora’s Mask, which looked pretty good for its time, I thought:

Well, the next year, they showed off the actual Zelda game in development, and it was.. well, different:

After seeing the screenshots, I was.. well.. pissed. First I thought it was a joke.. then after E3, I realized it was not… and it took quite some time for me to decide that it wasn’t “teh suck”. Watching videos of the game being played showed off just how well the cel-shading graphics style worked, particularly for a storyline involving a young kid. Anyway, the game came out, and I really liked it, yada yada yada… And then they announced a sequel, and I was very excited. They said it’d be in the same style as Wind Waker, and I thought that made sense. While Zelda 2 was quite a bit different than the First Zelda (and I still don’t much care for Zelda 2), Majora’s Mask used the same engine as Ocarina of Time, and both of those games ruled. So too with Oracle of Ages and Seasons, which came out at the same time for the same system, and looked very similar… Anyway.. E3 comes, and games are being shown off, la la la… Tuesday night, I’m at the Pickwick with Joel and Mark VA, watching the end of a Tigers game that went into the 15th, and I get a call from Tuuk, saying that when I’m done, I must check out something at his house [My car was at his place]. So we (Joel, Mark and I) head back, and were treated to this:

I spent quite a bit of the rest of that week staring longingly at the pictures and watching the video… This game is going to rule. Now I have to wait until 2005 to play it… They say Spring.. which would rule.. We shall see.

I got a turtle! But I haven’t got a name… and I need some help. I’ve received a number of suggestions… some good (“Ron Santo”) some not so good (Every variation of anything even remotely related to The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). So… any suggestions? Note that the following names are not appreciated: New York Yankees players, former girlfriends or roommates, names that I can not repeat to my grandmother, or names that call into question my sexual orientation. That is all. Also, my turtle rules.

Thursday was our second softball game of the year. Hopes were pretty high, as we’d played quite well last week. We were again playing visitor, so we batted first. I was leading off, and took 3 straight balls that weren’t even close, so I got the walk (you start with a 1-1 count, for those of you that were confused.) Jplant headed up next, and was also issued a free pass. So far so good. Jeff and I both ended up scoring, and we ended our half of the inning with a few runs. So far so good.

Bottom part of the inning: with one on, the batter smacks a tailing liner to the outfield. Jplant had a jump on it, and was running in to make the play. The ball hung a bit more than expected and caught his glove awkwardly, bouncing up and right into his face. There was a very sickening *smack/crack* sound, and he went down hard. Not sure what to do, I headed out, and got the cut off from Mark, and time was called, and we rushed out to find Jeff bleeding like a madman from his nose. We stood around for quite some time.. someone got some paper towels, and we eventually got an ice pack (that people seemed far too afraid to pop, so no one would break the chemical bag thinger to make it get all cold. Finally someone declared it was broken, and handed it to Melles, who had been asking for it since the thing arrived.. he grabbed it, squeezed it, and got it turning cold. Woo for Brian). So after some time, Jeff was well enough to at least stand, and the bleeding had slowed (and I had run out of phrases from MVP Baseball 2004 to say .. ["Shades of Willie Mays"])… So we walked him to the bench… He seemed okay.. mainly pissed that he wasn’t going to play the rest of the game. (Gamer –> The type of person who, after getting clocked in the face, with a possible broken nose, and in a decent amount of pain, is mainly pissed about not getting to bat again.)

We had 11 guys show up, so with Jplant out, we were using all our guys out in the field. We made the rule that no one else could get injured. We got out of the inning after giving up a few runs. I believe at that point we were tied. The next few innings continued much the same: we’d score a few, then they’d catch up, and perhaps pass us in the bottom part of the inning. A few of the highlights that stood out to me:

A “controversial” play [at least they bitched about it a fair bit]. 1 out, men at 2nd and third (might have been loaded, but I didn’t think so.), and they’re batting. The batter popped a long flyout to center. The guy at third tagged up and headed home. The guy at 2nd headed to third. We get the ball back in to the infield, and Melles tells us to go to second with it, so we do, and the runner is called out (turns out he didn’t tag up). Double play, and the run didn’t count. Well, that run not counting got a few people on their team all pissed off, and they seemed to bring it up every inning or so, having people look in the rule books, etc.. Whatever. It was a good play, and I was pleased.

I believe the bases were loaded [but it might have been just 1st and 3rd], and one out [They were batting]. Joel was manning 2nd and I had Shortstop for the game. The batter snapped a sharp grounder between first and second, which Joel headed over [moving towards first] to field. He got it, and rose facing first, and I yelled out “Joel”. He turns and fires a strike to second as I’m crossing the base, drag my foot across and whip it to first for the 4-6-3 double play, ending the inning and preventing the run from scoring. It was a real bang-bang-bang play that just seemed to flow seamlessly. Very, very nice.

I walked my first two at bats, and I wasn’t getting a single pitch to swing at… and if you’ve played slow pitch softball, you know that while a walk is helpful to the team, it’s really, really boring to just take walks all the time. Well, my third at bat, [and my second at bat for that matter] one of the fielders (I think it was short) was chanting to the effect of “this guy doesn’t swing the bat” and “what’s the point of coming if you’re not going to swing” [never mind the fact that the ball was either bouncing before it got to the plate, or was so far over my head that I'd have to jump to swing at it.] So anyway, third at bat I was getting crappy pitches again, but eventually just swung at one, and made it to first. My next at bat, the comments started up again, so I belted a liner to right, scoring two with a two-out triple. I later scored. That fielder gets the finger.

Somewhere near the 4th inning, we put Mark VA as rover, rather than a 4th outfielder, and from that point on they had no place to hit the ball. The majority of their shots went to center, and were easily caught. We, meanwhile, continued to bring in the runs each inning… and when all was said and done, it was game over:

13-6

Woot.

After the game, Joel, Mark VA, and I headed with Jplant to the Emergency Room to get his nose checked out. Mark and I joined Jplant as he got his preliminary check-up thinger with the nurse, and did our best to ridicule him while he answered the nurses questions. The nurse seemed pretty kewl, and added her fair share of witty remarks throughout the conversation. After that, we played the waiting game ["The waiting game sucks... let's play hungry hungry hippos!"] We tested our blood pressure a few zillion times… and continued to wait. I got Jeff with the “They just called your name, better go up there” thing, and I found it hilarious. After a very long time, [thankfully made less dull for me by a few dozen phone calls], Jeff’s name was called…. for him to go sit in another waiting room. He continued to wait there for another very long time. Not impressive. We kept ourselves occupied trying to figure out what the other people were coming in for. The poor dude in red that was walking really slow seemed to have the most interesting ailment.. albeit a bit disturbing. Melles eventually joined us, and in time Jeff got checked out. From what I understand/remember, his nose was indeed broken, but very slightly, and he should be just fine if he takes it easy for a few days. I’m still hoping for the raccoon face black and blue thing, though. All told we spent about 2 hours in the ER. Afterwords it was Fridays to celebrate the win, and Jeff not being dead.

So I got this comment from my cousin Julie:

julie(squirt) | Tuesday, May 11, 2004 | 11:42 AM

hey ron, did you see the cubs game on sunday i watched the last 4 innings of it, it was really exciting.

As fate would have it, I did watch/listen to the game, and I intended to write a little something on it. As my brain is currently fried from working on some particularly zany PHP stuff, I thought I’d take a quick break and tell you all about it.

Kristin and I headed out to Chicago on Sunday to see my Mom (and Dad, while we were at it) for Mother’s Day (because we’re good children, unlike some other people.) After a wonderful dinner, and some sitting around and talking, we headed in to the TV room to watch a little bit of the game. It started to rain pretty hard, and the Cubs were down 1 (3-2). They had past the 5th inning, so if the game got called, it’d be an official game, and an L for the Cubs. With two down, Tom Goodwin nailed a double, scoring Lee who had singled. Right after that, they called for the tarps.. it was raining too hard. Now if the game was called, it was a tie. That was better than a loss… Goodwin’s two-out double was what we like to call “clutch”.

The rain delayed the game about 15 minutes, then we were back playing, and a Patterson strike-out ended the threat. [Still tied at 3]. Kristin and I stayed til the end of the 7th, when we had to take off for home. Once in the car, I tuned to WGN to listen to Ron Santo and Pat Hughes call the game (They’re the WGN guys I get to listen to when I listen to the web-stream of games at work, and I really enjoy them.) The game continued to the 9th, and the rain continued to fall off and on. The game was delayed a second time, and when the 9th inning was over, we were still tied at 3.

For the start of the 10th inning, the Cubs put in their closer, Joe Borowski. His first pitch was belted out for a home run. The next batter smashed one that was inches from being gone as well. He settled for a double. The next guy smashed one to the warning track, advancing the runner to third. At this point, I was less than confident in Joe’s ability to get out of the inning without any more damage. The next batter hit a bouncer to third… Ramirez looked the runner back to third, then whipped it to first for the out… only the runner from third darted for home. Lee instantly tossed it home to nail him at the plate. The play almost gave Ron Santo a heart attack.

So we’re in the bottom of the 10th, with the heart of the order: Sammy Sosa,Moises Alou, and Aramis Ramirez due up… but we had to wait for another rain delay. Finally the game started up again, and Sammy was up.. we needed a run. Well, Sammy flew out in short order… and Alou followed that up with a ground-out to third. It was all up to Ramirez… and with two down Ramirez belted one to deep left field that didn’t stop until it had safely cleared the ivy… If the radio is any indication, Ron Santo’s body exploded in a fit of pure euphoria. As for me, with each pitch, the radio got turned up a little louder.. at this point, we’re around the 40 mark. (for those of you that have gotten into the car when I started it up, and have been blasted by the loud music that starts up.. at best that’s set to 35.. so you’ve got an idea now..).

The game continued along past the 10th, to the 11th.. to the 12th.. to the thirteenth. I’m living and dying with every pitch. Suddenly, in the bottom of the 13th, the Cubs started to put some things together. Derrek Lee started the inning out with a single, and got pushed to 2nd on a great sacrifice bunt by Berrett. With one down and a man at second, they pitch around Ramon Martinez, and finally just intentionally walk him, to put men at first and 2nd. Now the Cubs need to avoid the double play. Glendon Rusch, the pitcher, was up. There was much confusion as to why they didn’t pinch-hit for him. (I read later that Todd Hollandsworth was unavailable with a right wrist injury, so Rusch had to bat.) Rusch managed to lay down a sweet sacrifice bunt that moved Lee to third and Martinez to second. Two outs. They decided to intentionally walk Jackson to get to Cory Patterson, who had struck out three times in the last 4 at bats, and just was not looking good at all that day… On the first pitch, Cory slapped a single to center field, scoring Lee, and giving the Cubs the W. At this point, the radio is blasting mostly static, and I realized I was about 10 miles from my house. The game had lasted the entire trip, and I hadn’t even noticed. This is why I love baseball. Go Cubs!

Last Thursday was our first softball game of the year.. We’re talking the men’s Centerpointe team here, not my church in Zeeland’s men’s league, or the Zeeland Co-ed League, I’ve talked about all three leagues on here before. Anyway, Thursday was our first game, and it was a ton of fun. We faired far better than our first outing last year, though we did still end up with the “L”. I think the final was around 13-12 or so, but I may be off by one of two. The score jumped back and forth most innings, with us playing the visitor, and batting first, establishing a lead of one of two runs, only to fall behind by a couple in the bottom half of the inning. I spent much of my time playing third base, with a 2 inning stint at shortstop. There were quite a few shots to that region, which kept me pretty busy throughout the night, and well… I thought I did alright. The whole team played quite well.. I was quite pleased with our offensive output. A shout out times two toJplant for 1.) throwing a perfect strike from center to me at third to nail a guy trying to go from second to third [and consequently causing them to not risk sending runners from that point on, which was huge] and 2.) trucking around the bases from first on an extra base hit to score a very important run towards the end of the game. There was some serious effort being put forth that night, and quite frankly, that’s just fun to see. So this year ought to be good. I’m sure we’ll have our asses handed to us once or twice, but our team is a good team, and I think we’ll have our share of “W”‘s when all is said and done. Anyway, our games are Thursday nights, and you should come see us play. Ask me if you want time/location.

After the game a group of us headed out to Fridays for some food/drink, and our server was lovely.