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June 30, 2009

Rochester Rhinos – Open Cup

by Anthony @ 11:53 pm. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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Rochester soccer.  It has a certain level of prestige to it.

Now I don’t know much about the Rochester Lancers because they were way before my time but even they had a couple of championships to call their own.

Move onto the Rochester Rhinos and they got off to a hot start giving any team they played a hard time, and it didn’t matter if they were playing a team in their own league, or a league higher.  The last few years have been lacking in the championship department, but they have always maintained their competitive edge.

Then you have the US Women’s team.  Remember Mia Hamm?  She scored her 100th goal in Rochester.  Then you have Abby Wambach.  She is a product of Rochester.  And you know what?  She could also end up scoring her 100th goal in Rochester.  In her hometown.

So why am I bringing this up?  Well lets recap.  In 1996 MLS teams started competing in the Open Cup.  In 1999 Rochester became the first and only team to win the Open Cup while having to deal with MLS clubs.

So Rochester has struggled in the early rounds of the Open Cup almost losing to the last place USL-2 club (lower division).  Then they almost lost to the last place USL-1 team (same division).  Apparently they didn’t remember that though.

When they faced the Columbus Crew on Tuesday they scored first.  The Crew were able to tie it up, but couldn’t end the game.  The game went into mandatory over time.  Well that didn’t solve the problem so they went into a second mandatory over time.  Well the Crew still wasn’t able to end the game, so the game went to penalty kicks.  Rochester was able to end the game with a penalty score of 5-3.

Now things (theoretically) become easier.  Why?  Because a USL-2 team defeated their MLS opponent and will now face Rochester.  In fact another MLS team was knocked out by a USL team.

Now Rochester will attempt to do something they did a decade earlier.  Win the Open Cup.

Soccer in Rochester in July and early September could be very interesting.  League play.  Open Cup play.  The US Women’s National team visits on the 20th.  Could be very interesting indeed.

Now if only the US Men’s National team would realize they should play exhibition games here.

Oh.  And Rochester has tried to move up to MLS before, but there is something about being the under dog.  Something about drawing a gold medal Olympic team to Rochester – And drawing the most fans despite being the smallest US city on their tours.

It’s fun.

June 16, 2009

Car Accident

by Anthony @ 9:17 pm. Tags: ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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So I got into a car accident.

How? Well.  I was preparing to make a turn.  The light had turned yellow, so I pulled under the light to wait for traffic to finish whatever it was doing.  This much is for certain – Although witnesses say the light was green on both sides…  I strongly disagree.  I’m positive it was yellow on both sides.

Now until now I have not been exactly sure what happened so there is several possibilities.

1. So I was in the middle (for certain).  I was waiting to see what traffic was going to do.  The car going the opposite direction stopped (at a red light).  At this point there was no reason the other car should have moved so I proceeded to complete my turn (as I was under the light…  Not behind it – Something I know is okay because I have done it in front of cops).  At this point the car started to move and we collided.

Other possibilities…

2. I was in the middle.  I waited to see what traffic was going to do, and angled slightly to make the turn (but in my lane).  At this point I was clipped by the other car.

The reason I think the above happened is because my right hand light is still intact, while the rest of the front end is either missing or crushed.  Also (from what I remember) the left hand side corner has the most damage.

Now if I had hit the car as the ticket suggests (”improper left turn on two-way rdwy”) wouldn’t I be straight on?

So I got the above ticket.  This is why I’m so adiment about it being a yellow light (In which case I believe the fault would be considered 50/50).

The car?

Well the front end was pushed in.  How much?  I’m not positive because I wasn’t paying that much attention.  The right front headlight is still fully intact.  The rest of the front end is gone.  The winshield wipers flew up.

The inside is fully intact with only the deployed air bags giving away the fact it was in a accident.

Is the car totaled?  I think so, but I know nothing about this type of thing.

Me?

Other then my left thumb hurting I’m fine (right now).  I must have hurt from holding the wheel when the air bag went off.

I easily got out of the car.  Well once I unlocked the car anyways.

May 13, 2009

NASA

by Anthony @ 12:40 am. Tags: , , , , , , ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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NASA and George W. Bush have decided that the space shuttle will be retired in 2010.  Another US shuttle won’t go online until 2014.

This I think is fundamentally bad, wrong, and just messed up.  We have been in the race, and the leader of that race from nearly the very beginning.  But now it has been decided that we won’t just slow down in that race, but flat out drop out.

Okay.  I realize this isn’t a race anymore, and hasn’t been for a very long time, but even when you don’t have to compete for respect you still need to be innovative.  Why?  Because that’s just the way it is.  Imagine if someone said “okay that’s enough.  We can stop trying to make computers better” – Or anything for that matter better.  That simply isn’t acceptable.

What’s worse is this race may actually be renewed with strong rumors that China would like to land on the moon.  Can you imagine if China lands on the moon before we do?  Yes.  We have already been there, but if they can get to the moon when we can’t…  That would just not be acceptable.  Not to our government.  Not to the media.  But most importantly not to US citizens.  And this wouldn’t be one of those things the media tells people how to feel about.  For what ever reason US citizens care about the space program on their own (thank goodness!).

Meanwhile…  Launchpad 39B is being prepared for the new space shuttle (Orion).  Except for it’s not…  Well I don’t know.  I don’t know what goes into that.  However I do know this.  A space shuttle launched into space from 39A to fix the Hubble.  Meanwhile a emergency shuttle sits on 39B.  So is 39B really being prepped for Orion?  I don’t know.  I would love to ask the top brass at NASA about this, but until I get a answer I find it very hard to believe 39B is being prepped for Orion.

Okay.  Can we get into space?  Of course.  Can we get to the ISS?  Of course.  Can we do it on our own?  No.  Can we get to the Hubble?  Very doubtful (Otherwise this mission to Hubble wouldn’t be such a big deal).

Now.  I’m very optimistic about the US government.  Among many other things…  I believe that the US can get into space in a emergency.  If the President says “We must get astronauts into space with our own shuttle” I’m sure it would happen.  However.  If this did happen?  You better bet WWIII has started (or something of the like).

And I won’t even get into how we could land people on the moon in the 1960s, but not today.  The mere thought makes me want to pull my hair out.

And now a call out to the President:

Mr President.  Please over rule the decision of our previous President and don’t allow the current space shuttle to be retired until Orion is ready to come on line.  Having no space shuttle opens up the potential for national security issues.  Sure I believe we have some backup plan to get into space with our own rockets in a emergency, but I also believe the US government has no desire for other countries to actually be shown those abilities.  The answer to the current space shuttle isn’t to give up.  The answer is to work more intently and make sure mistakes don’t happen.  From my understandings while these accidents were all in fact accidents they like all accidents were preventable.  There is very few places if any where it is acceptable to give up rather then create a solution.  The space shuttle program should not be the exception.

May 5, 2009

Time Warner (Road Runner) Issues

by Anthony @ 10:52 pm. Tags: , , , , , ,
Filed under Everything

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Road Runner is a interesting company. For the longest time I have always liked them. Rochester, New York happens to be a test bed for Time Warner and as such it has served me quite well. They come out with new things first in Rochester. The best examples being the “Start Over” cable service, and broadband speed increases.

Now like I said this has always served me well. That is until they announced that in a few months they would be testing out broadband caps in Rochester (and several other cities). Well despite what they did, or did not expect there was a lot of consumer backlash.

Road Runner after a short time took and step back and said they would not roll out the broadband caps. They said that they would need to “educate” customers about why this would be a good thing.

Customers rejoiced. I suspect so did big content providers like Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, and Microsoft.

However there has been some sketchy issues ever since. The biggest example coming only days after they announced they would not be doing the testing there was a nearly state wide outage. Time Warner blamed this on brownouts and lack of infrastructure. Issues that would supposedly be fixed with broadband caps. How convenient.

But beyond that there has been less public issues. Such as internet connection issues in the middle of the night. Now there is a awful lot of traffic in the middle of the night. Most of it I’m sure is sketchy at best, but there is traffic that is legit in the middle of the night.

So I go online (sometimes through my phone – sometimes I get lucky and get a “real” connection) and see their “moving nodes”. What? Okay. First of all I can believe this. I can believe their moving nodes. Once. Every couple months. But moving nodes every 2 weeks? What on earth?

And moving them where exactly? What are they doing? Adding infrastructure? I could believe that. Well except for the entire thing where they say they don’t have enough money for infrastructure. More so it doesn’t take weeks (at any reasonable pace for a tech company) to add infrastructure. Even days is pushing it.

Oh but wait. Here is the kicker. According to News.com (a piece of c|Net) Road Runner is not only making money. Their making large amounts of money. Despite this though their trying to put into people’s heads that they have no money for infrastructure.

So here is my question. What is going on? Are they trying to throttle users during a busy time of day when most people won’t notice? Do they have infrastructure issues? And if they do have infrastructure issues why are they not improving it with all that money their making? And if they are in fact improving infrastructure and the nodes are part of that then why is it taking so long?

Like I said. I have been a fan of Road Runner for a very long time, and had this broadband cap thing never came up I’m sure this node thing wouldn’t even show up on my radar so to speak. I mean sure I would be annoyed, but I would forget about it the next day.

Road Runner/Time Warner. You have created a PR nightmare, and I think your only making it worse every single week.

April 22, 2009

The O.C.

by Anthony @ 11:10 pm. Tags: ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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So I have recently been playing around a lot on Hulu.  I of course have known about it forever but never really played with it much.  Netflix and all…

But recently I have been using it a lot more, and when I got my laptop (with the HDMI output) coupled with my TV I have been using it a lot more.

But anyways.  I just discovered Hulu has old episodes of The O.C.

Now this used to be one of my favorite shows.  Mostly the first couple of years of so though.  I mean I’ll be honest.  I watched every single episode at least once, but only because I already had got myself into it.  It was painful watching the last couple seasons.

Anyways.  So I’m watching the first episode they have and I realized something.  Every single character I hated was in season 1.  And not just like the end of season 1, but at least by like the half way mark.  Okay that’s not quite true.  I hated Ryan’s ex girl friend, and that was much later.

But Anna…  Okay this is a exception.  I’m not sure how much I did or didn’t like her at this point (I didn’t watch the episode yet), but eventually I hated her.

Hailey…  She was meant to be hated…

Oliver?  Boy.  If you didn’t hate him you were not paying any attention.

And Luke – Although by the end of the first couple seasons he had become a good character.

April 12, 2009

Star Trek

by Anthony @ 11:32 pm. Tags:
Filed under Uncategorized

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So I finished watching Star Trek The Next Generation, and all of the movies from that time frame.

Actually I did this about a week ago, but I figured it worth pointing out.

Time for a new entry

by Anthony @ 11:25 pm. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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Time for a new entry.

First and foremost “Broadway” by the Goo Goo Dolls is a great song.  Second I heard a song on the radio, and memorized the lyrics so I could go and buy it later…  And then I forgot the darn lyrics.  All I can seem to remember is that “goodbye” was in it.  Something about goodbye being the start of something new.  If you have any idea what I’m talking about you would be my hero.  My hero for like 30 seconds I bet, but my hero none the less.

The Goo Goo Dolls are a awesome band.  I don’t currently have a favorite band, but if I did they would be in the running.

<—  Okay at this point I’m going to put in the “more tag” which I have not used in forever but this is a VERY long entry —>

Read the rest of this entry…

February 21, 2009

Blu-ray

by Anthony @ 12:19 am. Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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So with part of my tax return I bought a Blu-ray player.

The real problem is which one to buy.  I’ve been wanting to get one for about a year now (maybe a little bit less), but I never had the money, and on Black Friday I just couldn’t justify the cheap price of a…  Well cheap player…

To be honest I have not really looked deep into Blu-ray players at any point, but I suppose compared to others I know a fair amount about them.  But this more goes with wanting to know as much about current technology as opposed to wanting to know about Blu-ray.

One thing that has been very obvious is that Sony makes the very best Blu-ray players hands down.  And really this doesn’t come as any surprise.  After all they are a huge A/V company, and (among others) it is their format of choice from the very start.

Which brings me to one point I want to touch on.  I would have waited for Microsoft to release a Blu-ray player for their XBox360, but they have made it abundantly clear they have no intention, and perhaps even more important no desire to release one.

So something I have heard time after time is that the PlayStation 3 is the best Blu-ray player for the money.  This is something that has been true from the very start to this very day.  Now a lot of people would go “sure – it’s because its also a game system”, and while that does help the case of the PlayStation that’s not really what it comes down to.

Strip out the gaming component of the system, and you still have one of if not the very best Blu-ray players on the market.  It has the most current profile standard (2.0), and outputs crazy HD along with crazy audio.  It also loads up fast.  Well for a Blu-ray player anyways.  CNN said it is the fastest they tested.  In a world where Blu-ray players are measured by how slow they are instead of how fast (Blu-ray players are notorious for having slow load times) this is a huge advantage.

So I actually fought over this for a while.  Do I get a stand alone (Sony) player or a PS3?  Despite the fact I have told many people “If you buy a Blu-ray player and play games get the PS3 for a little bit more” I of course wasn’t taking my own advice – More because I wasn’t buying a Blu-ray player at all then anything.

So it was really ironic that it took me as long as it did to decide to get a PS3 (really the eleventh hour).  Then from there I had to decide if I wanted to get a used console or a brand new one.  For about $100 less it was a major decision, but I decided to go with the new one with my brother’s Target discount.  When your talking the price of a PS3 and the difference between used and new is about $80 it really is a no brainer.

So I got the PS3.  Now let me put this as plain and simple as possible.  I DID NOT BUY THE PS3 FOR GAMES.  I bought it for HD movies.  The games part was a huge factor in buying it, but games alone wouldn’t have sold me – Trust me…  It wouldn’t have.  As of yesterday there is not a single game you can only get on the PS3 that I wanted to play.  I do admit Little Big Planet spark my interest, but I would also have to admit I had no idea what the damn game was until I bought and played it.  Honestly I only bought it based on exceptional reviews and comments about it.  I don’t want to make this about games, but holy cow is that quite the game.  Even if your not otherwise into the genre.

Now for the complaint.  Ya I’ve head the system for less then a day and I have a complaint.  Actually it took about 2 minutes after opening the box for this complaint to arrive.

Some background.  This is a HD god.  Plain and simple.  It’s games are in HD and it plays the very best quality movies you can buy.  It has HD content you can download.  It’s a HD god.  One other thing.  HD gods don’t look good in standard definition.  Just like you can’t stretch a SD picture to HD and expect it to look good you can’t shrink a HD picture to SD and expect it to look good.

So I was shocked when the console only came with RCA cables, and no Component cables.  Now let me say something else.  While this ticked me off it has NOTHING to do with the cost of HD cables.  I expected it to come with component cables, but had every intention of buying a HDMI cable for it.  If only because I have no more component slots open.  But not being able to use my brand new console in HD for a few days?  That stinks.

A few days you say?  Ya.  For whatever reason you can’t get HDMI cables for a fair price from a local store.  The cheapest price is $12 at Wal-Mart.  The price easily can surpas $80 – And that my friends is what you call paying for a brand name.  Anyways.  I’m quite content paying $4 (that includes shipping) and waiting a week give or take.  Honestly I thought locally was more in the $30 range when I got the cheap ones, but at this point whatever.  So ya.  That annoyed me.

As far as movies go.  Well it doesn’t really matter until I get my HDMI cable since Sony jipped me on a component cable (which I guesstimate would have cost them all of $2……..Or less…..  per system.  Bake it into the price of the system for crying out loud if you must.  It is just pitiful.

But Blu-ray movies are expensive.  I keep getting told this when I have brought up the subject in the past to my family.  No.  Their not.  Their $1 more a month for as many as you can mail back and forth with Netflix.  Do they really think I’m going to buy Blu-ray disks when I have bought a whopping 2 DVDs – Both used…  In the last 4 years…?!?!?!?!

BTW for anyone that cares the two movies were Collateral and Catch Me If You Can.  Both good movies, but really just two movies I randomly ended up buying.

So I’ll make a entry when I get my HDMI cable, and movies from Netflix on the quality.  Maybe talk about Little Big Planet too since it does deserve some attention.

Although I would not wait around for that entry to show up.  You know how I can be about making blog entries.

And just for the record – Both my own record and everyone else……

It is “Blu-ray”.  Not “Blu-Ray”.  Or “Blue-ray” or “Blu ray”.  It is actually nice when I can remember the format of a name.  I’m still trying to figure out how to type “XBox 360″.  Clearly I don’t care as much about that one lol.

February 16, 2009

Birthday

by Anthony @ 11:46 pm. Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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Boy.  What a good day it was today.  No “Happy Birthday” wishes in person today, and good riddance.  I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t like that.  Maybe it is the direct attention being brought to me, or maybe it is the fact I don’t know how to respond.  “Gee thanks”.  I mean really.

I did get a bunch of texts and posts onto my Facebook, and frankly I appreciate those far more then the above.

The day was good like I said from the start.  My mom went over to a friend’s house to have lunch, but because of her broken leg she had me take her.  Let me put this plainly.  Her friend knows how to make a good lunch.  She had appetizers which were great, then she had home made pizza (like gourmet homemade), and then she had this absurd cake from Wegmans.  I don’t know what it was, but it was like a brownie, with frosting, and like a cookie bottom with a cookie on the side of each slice of cake.  The description I just gave doesn’t even begin to do it justice, so let me just say this.  It’s a Wegmans cake, and it’s the best Wegmans cake I have ever had.  Ya.  That’s does it justice.

Really…  Every piece of food she served was top notch.

Then I went home and watched some Star Trek:TNG.  Right now I’m on episode S06E08, which since my last post puts me at slightly more then 1 and a half episodes a day, which isn’t half as bad/many as I thought.  In fact I would go as far as to say that’s socially acceptable.  Although it may be socially unacceptable as far as a Trekkie is concerned.

Then I went to work, which was pretty much as good as it could have been for what it is.

Got home, and went to work on something that makes me a huge geek.  Fixing a Star Trek reference I have that got soaked and frozen.  I wouldn’t have really cared so much except…  I paid like $30 for the one I had (in sub par condition), and now the cheapest I can find it for (in sub par condition) is $50…  Ya…  Um…  I’m going to do my best to save that…

Then I watched some wrestling.  I have in recent *months* been very upset with the direction of my favorite wrestler – Shawn Michaels.  With his win on Sunday he goes from his very upset and beaten character to his extremely happy and go lucky character.

Really that in it’s self would have been great, but throw in the fact it is very likely that he will wrestle the Undertaker at WrestleMania in a attempt to end the Undertaker’s 16-0 record at WrestleMania, and it is that much better.

Now when it comes to the Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania I’m as big a fan of it as anyone.  But my favorite wrestler is going to be involved in the 17th match so who do I cheer for?

The Undertaker of course!  Honestly so long as the match ends with out any cheap win I don’t think I care who wins the match.  The Undertaker continues his streak?  Great.  Shawn ends the Undertaker’s streak?  Better Shawn then any other wrestler.

Oh.  And soon I’ll get my taxes back which will make me that much more happy.

December 30, 2008

Star Trek:TNG – 2×08

by Anthony @ 2:15 am. Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Filed under Uncategorized

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I have been watching Star Trek The Next Generation.  One of, if not the all time greatest show.

I have managed to get past the first season, which was a okay season, but doesn’t even begin to compare to the rest of the series, and now am in the second season.

I wanted to make entries about certain episodes, but none really seemed deserving up until now of being singled out.

Episode 8 “A Matter of Honor” from season 2 is the first one that deserves attention.  This episode deals directly with William Riker who happens to be my favorite character.  This episode highlights the reasons why I love his character so much.

In this episode Riker is involved in a officer exchange program with the Klingons.  He takes great pride in this role learning as much as he can before he is beamed over to the Klingon ship.

From the onset he has problems with his Klingon second officer questioning his authority.  He quickly deals with this issue though as he quickly throws his second officer into a panel – As protocol demands under the circumstances.  Not only does this display his ability to think quick on his feet, but his ability to defend himself even against tough opponents.

Later on Riker is able to impress the Klingons at dinner, but this isn’t to last long as the Klingons discover something eating away at this ship, and believe the Enterprise attacked them.  Riker isn’t able to convince them otherwise, and the Klingon ship prepares to go into battle with the Enterprise despite Riker’s protests.

Through quick thinking, and some indirect help from Worf, Riker is able to diffuse the situation, while keeping the respect of the Klingons.

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