Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
The Silent Game
Friday
May 18, 2007
I arrived home from work today to find one of my roommates, Dustin, playing some old school NBA Street, the original version for the PS2 (that I bought directly from EA in June 2001). Unfortunately for Dustin, my memory cards for the PS2 were under the house, and him not knowing where they were (combined with his phobia of spiders) prevented him from being able to play on my saved game. I went under the house and procured the memory cards, so at least he'll have them for later.
Naturally, seeing NBA Street in action motivated me to dust off my old created character (Predator) and have some fun playing it, blocky graphics and all. Those polygon-based games don't age well at all, not compared with the sprite-driven classics of the NES. But graphics aside, NBA Street has a great fun factor, which is key for me in enjoying any classic game.
One other hilarious sidebar is that the game features two large TURBO meters. In this dojo, the term "Turbo" is used in jokingly insulting fashion, so it was most appropriate that I walked in right as the announcer told Dustin not to use too much of his Turbo (or something to that effect.)
Unfortunately for me, Dustin apparently changed the audio settings on the TV, as when I tried to watch the Cavs/Nets game... there was no audio to be had coming from the speakers. My brother Matt's HDTV/surround sound multimedia setup is impressive, though even for a semi-technologically astute person like me it can be confusing at times. But I went through the various options for video input, and all I could get was the damn PS2 audio to come through.
I hit up Fuel Fitness during the second half of the Nets/Cavs game, and I watched most of the fourth quarter from the confines of the Precor machine that I always use at the gym. Damn, it feels good to be back in the groove on working out. And with the setup there, having NBA Basketball right there in a very strongly air conditioned environment... you won't hear any complaints from me on that situation.
From there it was on to Kroger; we were out of Spicy V8 (my latest addiction; Dustin and I run through the stuff like crazy, while Matt wants no part of it) and I wanted to stock up. The scene was chaotic and frantic, with way more people there than I expected on a Friday night. I'd hoped to sneak in, get a few items, and be out quickly. But feeling very hungry, on an adrenaline rush from my workout, and not in the mood for crowds, the cluster of people I ran into was not what I had in mind.
Once I finally found what I came for (plus Frosted Flakes on a two for $4 special -- that's some sweet action), I tried Kroger's self-checkout machine. What a nightmare that was. The scanners made Wal-Mart's self-checkout look like the model of efficiency by comparison. The machine alternated between bitching at me to put items in bags that were already bagged, not scanning in my items, and repeatedly locking up altogether, which each time required the poor woman working the customer service spot to unlock it for me. It wasn't just my station; all four machines were acting up.
It was so bad that the woman actually apologized to me for it. "They just put these machines in yesterday," she lamented, appearing to me as if she had taken the brunt of some angry customers during her work shift.
|  | Mike D'Antoni is a notorious whiner.
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But, finally, after a brisk day at work, 30 minutes on the Precor machine, and chaos at Kroger, I came back ready to watch Game Six of the Spurs/Suns series. Watching it was no problem, but hearing the audio? Think again, muchacho. No, it didn't magically fix itself while I was gone, and Matt ended up heading to west Nashville to help Uncle Tom install his e-mail program. So I watched that major game with the roaring sound... of silence.
On the upside, when you watch video without audio, you tend to be able to pick out more detail. It's easier to lip-read with no sound, which was especially fun while watching the histrionics of Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni, who (as Bill Simmons once put it) turns into Will Farrell's character from Anchorman, whining and pouting and complaining. I clearly saw D'Antoni say "Unbelievable, unbelievable!" to no one in particular after a non-controversial call.
The Spurs won, taking the series 4-2, and thus the Suns are done for this year. Dustin is livid about the matchup of the Spurs and Jazz in the Western Conference Finals; he threatened to not watch any of the series if those two teams ended up there. We'll see if he holds true to his word. I personally love it, as I'm a longtime Spurs fan, plus the dig at Dustin about it adds to the fun.
So, silent TV or not, it's been a decent enough Friday night. I wanted to rest, relax, just lay around and chill, and (less the workout) I've had the chance to do that. That will continue tomorrow, though my sister Mary Beth (who started working with Adenus for the summer this week) has her graduation party tomorrow afternoon/evening.
My tentative plan for next weekend is to drive up to Huntington to visit Velvet for the Memorial Day weekend. Though, with gas prices shooting up ridiculously high, I'm not looking forward to paying at the pump. There's been a 20 cent per gallon jump just here in the Middle Tennessee area in the past week alone. Ugh.
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