Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
High Drama
Friday
October 20, 2006
Before you start reading, know that I go all over the place on this one. Get comfortable.
Last night's Mets/Cardinals NLCS Game 7 was a real thriller. High drama, high stakes... and a great finish. Take that, Met fans. Detroit vs. St. Louis is a fun matchup, if for nothing else because of the rabid fan bases involved on both sides, not to mention the baseball tradition that exists between the two teams.
I'm almost positive that I heard that the fun new NBC game show 1 vs. 100 was going to air an hour earlier tonight (8 ET/7 CT), but it instead aired in the same timeslot as last week (9/8 Central)... with it to move *next week*. Confused? Me too. I did manage to catch the final 15 minutes of it, thanks to leaving Nashville and making it back home in a reasonable amount of time. As it is, my VCR didn't tape it like it was supposed to, so it actually didn't matter. Wow, I miss my DVR.
Want to drive a big Chevy Silverado pickup truck and have it feel like a compact car? Take it on a drive with a trailer behind it, then drive it later without the trailer attached. I had to drive up a trailer with it on Wednesday night, and boy did I not enjoy that. But once I drove into work on Thursday morning and had Nathan (aka Nayfo/Naphin) unhook the trailer, the Silverado didn't feel anywhere near as unwieldy to drive as it ever had before.
Stinky (as I call the truck) has a monster V-8 engine, which does make it fun out on the highway when it's time for a little bit of acceleration. The truck's back-end is long, but the front is really short, more so than my Accord (Lou Jr.), for example. It's an adjustment, but I'm starting to finally get into the whole enjoying driving a big pickup truck thing... even if it gets 8 miles per gallon (no, not really, but it feels that way at times.)
I really need to get a recording device of some sort to make comments that I can refer back to later when I'm writing these columns. During the drive back tonight, there were no less than six "that would be a great writing point" thoughts that hit my mind... and moved on. I'm like Leonard Shelby in Memento -- I need to write things down so I can remember. My brain just moves too fast without the apparently optional accessory of being able to remember things for later.
One thing I did notice that stuck with me was an idiot who was driving... who had BOTH hands apparently sending a text message on his cell phone. Who does he think he is,
Dustin in the middle of a game of NCAA Football 07? It's assholes like that who are getting cell phone use while driving banned. Naturally, I pulled in front of him and then hit the brakes to send him a message. No, I'm not kidding.
In another time in my life I might not have noticed the transgression, but I've enjoy looking into cars and seeing how many have Sirius (or XM) satellite radio. The non-factory installed versions usually have a bright screen that shows up quite brightly. One time I managed to piggyback off some guy who had Sirius; he listened to some Chris Rock comedy on Raw Dog, then Las Vegas traffic (this was near the Alabama/Tennessee state line, mind you, so go figure), and then some country music before I lost him.
I had to be within a car length to pick it up; somewhere
NAB President David Rehr is jacking off thinking about those low power transmissions and ways that he can mess with the satellite industry. You know, instead of trying to make terrestrial radio better.
But I've also had piggybackers (as I call them) who try to get some freebie listening off of me. The downside is the tailgating aspect of it, though it is fun to act like I'm in an action movie, speeding up and slowing down and knowing that I'm being followed. One time I had someone for a good half hour from outside Huntsville up until the Nashville 100kw stations came into range. Though if you've ever been in that radio void, you could understand why.
My point with all of this? Terrestrial radio, you have about 18 months to get your shit together before satellite radio hits the tipping point via word of mouth (not Word of Mouf.) When high end pre-owned cars with it pre-installed start hitting the market here in the next year or two, that cume and TSL that you guys use to make your money is going to dry up even more. You've been warned.
One interesting conversation about satellite radio I had today with Dustin (aka Dirt Dog, Dirt McGirt, Turboslut, Dirty, Troy Aikman's bitch, etc.) involved the music channels on XM. Dustin isn't much for talk radio; he complained in particular about show hosts laughing at their own jokes. I tried to explain about how not every show does that like Bob & Tom, but you know that adage about a man convinced against his will... One funny moment was when I asked if he liked Opie & Anthony and he said, "Who are they?" This is your subscriber base, XM. You could've had Howard Stern, or at least for sure Bubba The Love Sponge. In the words of Billy Madison, "You blew it!"
While he says that the Squizz hard rock channel is what keeps him there, I think Dirty actually kept XM because he's a closet Oprah Winfrey fan. But keep that on the down-low. I'd hate for that rumor to get out.
One more Dustin item: he and I played an absolute classic in NC-Dub last night on the XBox 360. He beat me with West Virginia over Georgia Tech 42-39 in Atlanta, but it was a tremendous game. I insisted on wearing white at home, as those gold jerseys can be tough to tell apart from the white-and-yellow of WVU's at a split-second glance. Either way, WVU still has that horrible font for their numbers that screams "NASA circa 1982" at me. Why can't the way jerseys looked in the late 80s/early 90s have stayed the same? This bothers me way more than it should.
As for the video game, the 360 version of NCAA '07 is amazing graphically, but inferior from a gameplay standpoint to the PS2 version in my opinion. Plus, it's quite confusing to go from one to the other, which is what I did. To be fair, I did get some practice in while he suffered through Business Law class at MTSU, but it isn't the easiest transition to make. The X button isn't even on the same place in a four-button layout between the two controllers. Not making excuses, just saying that Bill Simmons wasn't lying when he said making the PS2-to-360 leap isn't easy.
|  | WVU QB Pat White is a talented athlete.
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The WVU/Georgia Tech game was a thriller that went back and forth. Despite the fact that I had no business doing so, I was winning with less than a minute to go. It made me really, REALLY want to see a real-life WVU/Georgia Tech game with the two high-potency offenses involved. I'd have QB Contain on and do everything in my power to keep Pat White (WVU's quarterback) in check, but he was still running the option like a madman. Dustin scored on a late, frenzied drive, and I was unable to get into field goal range before time expired.
The sign of a great football game is when you can lose and still have enjoyed playing it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game (if not the intense competition more than anything else), so I suppose I have to put over the 360 version for that. But the PS2 version is better overall, I tell you. Plus, I know where the X button is on the PS2 controller.
This morning I went to McDonald's for breakfast. They were almost out of milk at Matt and Dustin's place, and I wasn't going to stiff Dustin on the last of the 1% milk, since I'd be unhappy about that were the roles reversed. So I grabbed a banana before I left, and I then decided to try a bacon, egg, and cheese McGriddle.
The results? Uhhh... not so good, Al. The McGriddle bread tastes like a thicker version of a pancake. I either needed to replace with something like, hmm, maybe bread, or a biscuit... or go all-in and douse it in sweet sweet maple syrup in full Homer Simpson form. But the combo tasted odd to me; next time it's back to the Egg McMuffin. What happened to those great bagel sandwiches they had circa 2002-2003? I tried a "Southern chicken" breakfast sandwich there a month ago and it tasted terrible. Then again, I should consider the source. But Chick-Fil-A has spoiled me to accepting any sort of sub-par chicken.
I will say this... it's nice to get a large coffee (even at McDonald's) and then load that bad boy up with Splenda. It's expensive to buy Splenda at the store, but they have it out in gen pop at McD's and Chick-Fil-A for you to take as you see fit. Usually people get 3 or 4 packets; I run through 12-14 of them. Hey, it's zero calories, and so I'll add to taste, thank you very much. Though, on the drive-thru, they're gonna hit you with the 3-4 instead of the double-digit amount, and even if you ask for more, good luck getting the proper amount for a large coffee. It becomes time vs. taste in that case.
Of course, I still openly disdain Chick-Fil-A for refusing to be open on Sundays. Who the hell are you,
H.G. Hill? Take a look at how things turned out for that business long-term. As much as I like their food, I would *never* open a Chick-Fil-A franchise, since only being open 6 of 7 days a week is bad business for a restaurant. Antiquated philosophy has no place trumping sound business sense.
There's so much more to say, but I know that this has already far surpassed the attention spans of many of you. So, as Eric the Midget would say... "Bye for now!"
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