Steelers vs. Raiders

Remember how Lindsey bought Pens tickets for my birthday?  Well, her birthday was the 15th of November and to celebrate, I took her to the Steelers/Raiders game this weekend.  It was an awesome game, especially since the Steelers destroyed the Raiders 35-3.  If you want a nice little recap of the game, go to Sean's site.  Instead, I will give you a bit about the experience.

We left the apartment around 8:30 a.m. and made it to Pittsburgh in great time.  Unfortunately, I am an idiot and did not grab beer the night before.  I kept thinking that any of the bars on the way down would be open.  Apparently, only Champs in State College opens early on a Sunday.  Luckily, Lindsey had some beers.  Another thing I never think about when going to a sporting event is parking.  I assumed parking would be the same as a Pirate game, obviously I am retarded.  Remember, this was my first regular season Steelers game and the first time I ever drove down to a game.

I found a garage and the guy taking the money ($40!) asks what kind of car I have and then says "I got a great spot for you."  What the hell does that mean?  We drive by at least 15 empty spots and he guides me between two giant pillars and has me parallel park.  I guess he figured there would be a ton of cars clamoring for a garage up past PNC Park.

We meet up with Lindsey's sister (Kayla) and her boyfriend (Adam--an Oakland fan).  We drink a few beers and then head off to find our company's tailgate.  It took us forever to find the damn thing.  No one seemed to be able to give us any kind of directions.  I wish we would have found it earlier though, they had great food and plenty of free beer.

We head to the stadium and find out seats, which were pretty fantastic.  Did you know that Penguins players can get Steelers tickets for friends and family?  That is how we got the tickets and they were quite reasonably priced. 

The nice thing about watching the Raiders get crushed was that they had to punt many times.  Why would this matter?  Well, their long snapper is Jon Condo, who went to my high school and graduated a year after me.  Check this post out it you would like to see Jon.

In fact, since my phone is sooooo fantastic for taking pictures, I took one of Jon snapping the ball.  Hope you can see him, he is #59.  Seem him there?  Yeah, me neither.  Sorry.

After the game, we went to the car.  And as I expected, the garage was still pretty empty except for my car being wedged between two pillars.  Glad they saved those other spots for all the other large cars that might need them.

I also made the mistake of listening to Lindsey on the way home.  She said she wanted to stop at the Waterfront to see a friend.  I was going to just hop back on 279 and head north.  Either go up to 79 and take 80 across and maybe stop off at my mom's house. 

Traffic was ridiculous and we sat there for over an hour.  Then we decided to go another way:  28 North to Kittaning (or is it spelled Kittanning?  Too lazy to look it up), which then takes you to 422, which goes to Ebensburg.  In case you did not know this, Ebensburg is the nexus of all highways:  219, 22, 422, close to I-99...

We left the game at 4:55 and made it home at 8:58 (we stopped to eat for like twenty-five minutes).  Aside from the horrible traffic, the entire day was awesome and I cannot wait to go to another game.  I want to take her to a Penn State game next year.  Actually, it does not even matter if we go to a game, I want to take her tailgating. 

Minecraft

Minecraft. If you haven't heard of it yet, it's only the best computer game ever.

Minecraft is a first-person game where you build things from blocks. That's it. You mine blocks with the left mouse button, and place blocks you've mined with the right button. You can build just about anything. I've taken a fairly pedestrian approach, and am currently building a tower:

In retrospect, it was stupid of me not to take a "before" screenshot; that used to be a hill.

It's not just an endless game of Lego. At night, monsters spawn around you, so you have to build some kind of a shelter to not be eaten by the living dead or blown up by an exploding suicide cactus. To mine rock and other hard materials, you need tools, for which you need wood, both to make the tools and build a workbench to build the tools on. You can find ore, and smelt it into metals, but that requires a furnace. You get the picture. Here's a glimpse of the inside of my castle:

It's night, but no exploding suicide cactus of death can get at me in my tower. Fucking cacti. Here's another view of my tower, from the north.

As you can see from the mess around it, I'm still in the process of removing the remnants of the hill and landscaping the whole place so it looks neater. I just finished the walkway to the smaller tower yesterday. When I say yesterday, I mean last night. The only exit from my tower is down the walkway and through the smaller tower, to confound the exploding cacti. I'm happy to say it's working! Here's a view down onto the walkway from the main tower.

Words cannot adequately describe what a fantastic game this is. It's like playing with Legos when you were a kid, only so much better. Minecraft has already sold over 600,000 copies, and it costs a measly 10 euros; there's a version on the site you can try for free. The website is here; there's no documentation yet, but that's no problem at all, as there's an exhaustive wiki. There's an excellent tutorial that will get you started.

Believe me when I say that my tower is a ridiculous little hovel compared to the things some people have made. It's simply amazing what you can put together in the game. I was still quite proud of myself when I finished the first proper story of my tower! I'll finish off with a picture of the sun rising, as seen through my east-facing panoramic window.

So if anyone's wondering where I am or what I'm doing, this is the answer. Minecraft. I love it.

Exciting Next Three Days

The Verdict: 

GO SEE!

REVIEW:

The Next Three Days is one of the most electrifying drama/thrillers of 2010--- if you can make it through the slow-paced first hour that builds up for the hold-your breath second half. Russell Crowe is great to watch as a man that goes through every length possible to break his wife accused of murder, out of jail. Partly reminiscent of The Fugitive and Bonnie and Clyde, The Next Three Days delivers on the action and a solid plot with clever twists up to the end. The downside is Crowe carries the film (I didn't find the casting believable for most of the other characters) and the wonderful Liam Neeson's role is a blink and you miss him type one.

Fat Albert

Plenty of funny stuff from Carl this week.  I will be at the Steelers/Raiders game with Lindsey.  Hope everyone enjoys the game...

Crazy Chick

This week's GOTW is Jenny McCarthy.  Remember when she was really hot and just had stupid shows where she tried to push the boundaries of humor/sex symbols?  Now she is just a crazy lady spouting off about how vaccines cause autism.

I understand that she is upset that her kid has autism, but to go out of your way to cling to some outdated research, that has never been proven (and has mostly been proven false) is just pretty sad.  I mean, there are plenty of stupid people out there who will hear her saying these things and go "oh, I better not get my kid vaccinated" because a celebrity probably knows more than your doctor.

I also love listening to these commercials from famous athletes about the odds of them doing something in that sport, but then it ends with the odds of them having a kid with autism is 1:100.  Again, this is sad and I realize this, but screw you people.  If you want more research into autism that is fine, but Jenny needs to realize that while she is wasting scientists time and resources with this whole vaccine problem, scientists are not able to focus on the real problem:  Why are there more cases of autism? 

So Jenny, please keep your damn mouth shut and just take of your clothes.  That is what you are good at.

What's Playing? 11/19 Weekend

***

This weekend in theatres, is a good weekend--- for particularly Harry Potter fans. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last film (part 1 of 2) of the popular wizard film series opens.

For action junkies, The Next Three Days with Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson looks super exciting--- and is my top pick.

The remaining opening films: a based-on-true events about women workers in the 1960's striking, Made in Dagenham--- and the French, White Material about a white woman in Africa who stays behind in a war torn country to save her crops--- looks good but out of place compared with the previous mentioned guaranteed blockbusters.

Here are the movies opening in theatres starting Friday:

 The Next Three Days

 What's It About?

A man attempts to bust his wife, who is convicted of murder, from jail.

Why See It?

-For all that action the trailer shows.

-You're a Russell Crowe and/or Liam Neeson fan.

Why Skip It?

-Too much action?

 -You're not a Crowe fan.

Trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810117984/video

*

Harry Potter 

and the

Deathly Hallows: 

Part 1

 What's It About?

The first part of the beginning of the end for the Harry Potter series.

Why See It?

If you're a Harry Potter fan of course.

Why Skip It?

You're never seen any Harry Potter films. 

Trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810004780/video

*

Made in Dagenham

 What's It About?

The true story of women workers in the 1960's at Dagenham Ford car plant who strike demanding equal pay and protest against sexual discrimination.

Why See It?

 For the story.

Why Skip It?

 You prefer contemporary movies.

Trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810111391/video

*

White Material

 What's It About?

A white woman in Africa stays behind a war torn country to try to salvage her crops. 

Why See It?

 For the almost unbelievable plot.

Why Skip It?

You're not a foreign film fan.

Trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809981067/video

***

E N J O Y
*the*
M O V I E S

***

It's tough

* to win a hockey game when you don't get a single power play opportunity. The Rangers managed, just barely. On the other hand, you'd think that teams in the Atlantic division would be used to this stuff by now.

* to be Evgeni Malkin. You score a hat trick, but the game recap can be accurately summed up as "Fleury Fleury Fleury Crosby". Crosby even got a star in the previous game I mentioned. Maybe the local media was drunk, or watched a different game.

* to watch ESPN America. On Monday, they were supposed to show the Sens-Flyers game; instead we got the Pens-Rangers snooze. Yesterday, the program guide said Caps-Sabres, but we got the soporific Bruins-Rangers. ESPN America: what the fuck?

* to be productive. Seriously. It's a good thing that these days, all games are intense, cinematic experiences with a definite climax and end, and not some stupid bullshit where you can build anything out of Lego-like blocks in a sandbox world about eight times the size of the Earth. I mean, something like that would take up all our time.

Goddammit.