Steroids as "Cheating" is the WRONG focus

While I understand and support the need to get steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that were illegally obtained out of baseball, and I am glad they are now against the rules, I have a quibble, and it's a big one. 


How do you consider it cheating when there were no rules in place at the time? If Ken Caminiti, Jose Canseco, et. al., were using steroids in the late-90s, and setting aside the fact they were illegal, how is it CHEATING when it's not against the RULES??? Everyone who discusses this issue comes off all sanctimonious and judgmental about the "cheaters" who used 'roids, but they all seem to forget that there was not a single rule in place that prohibited steroid use in the Major Leagues until 2004-ish. NONE. If you want to get all haughty-taughty about the bad men who used steroids, for crying out loud talk about the REAL laws they broke, not the bull-snaps about wrecking the "Spirit of the Game" or the "Sanctity of Baseball." Hell, if you sports writers had reached down and grabbed yours then wrote about the problem BACK THEN, it could have been cleared from our plates almost twenty years ago.

The bottom line for me is this: They were illegal. That should be the focus, as well as the potential long-term harm that can result from use. Stop acting like it was an inherent harm to the game and making that the more important issue. It isn't, and it never was.

How does a gamer value time?

On 23 March of this year, I returned to my home from picking up my 3 1/2-year-old, Halo-playing son to discover my back door had been forced open.  The worthless sacks of genetic garbage who saw fit to force their way into my home, my sanctuary, took nearly all of my wife's jewelry including family heirlooms that were worth more than the collection of their brain cells, my Halo Reach Xbox 360, and most (but not ALL) of my games.  I recovered seven of my games that same night when the oldest member of this group of reproductive errors traded the games at Gamestop.  Oops, didn't know I used to work there and was friends with ALL of the staff, did you?  He was caught, and within two weeks the remaining offenders, or most of them, were also caught.  Our stuff, on the other hand, is GONE.  For reasons unbeknownst to me, my wife's jewelry and my gaming paraphernalia were unrecoverable.  Thank goodness for insurance, because now I have the sweet Star Wars Xbox 360. 
The sad part for me, aside from my wife's heartbreak at having her jewelry stolen, is the fact all the time and effort I had put into my games is now GONE.  Let me break it down for you.  Now understand, these are estimated times, but still, here we go:

Dragon Age: Origins - about 40 hours of gameplay, plus I lost all the DLC since it was on the Ultimate Edition disc, and that was stolen!

Dragon Age II - another 30-35 hours lost.

Halo CE: Anniversary - 15 hours or so because I played on Heroic and I suck, so I die a lot, but I was on my way to the third generator, so I was almost DONE!

Halo: Reach - Finished campaign on Heroic, but that was 20 hours of hard work.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - 15 hours there, and I had something like nine quest lines open at the time.  I can't re-create that!

Gears of War 1-3 - Combined, it's over 40 hours of gameplay!

So, altogether it comes to over 160 hours of gameplay, and this doesn't even count Rock Band Beatles or any of the other games I played just for the heck of it. 
Here's why I bring this up:  How do we as gamers place a value on our time playing?  How can we?  For me, those games represented an investment and a level of satisfaction to which I no longer have access.  My experience on many of them will be exactly the same because the storylines don't branch.  The RPGs will be different, but the problem there is I LIKED how my characters were fleshing out, and now I have to hope I can get back to where I was.  Plus, I thought I was about done with the $#(&$ giant spiders.  All told, this DOES have a value to me, but how can that be expressed in dollars?  Should it?  What do you think?

I will try to make this as comprehensible as possible given my still-bubbling excitement, but here is an instant-impression review for Marvel’s The Avengers:

IT WAS MIND-BLOWINGLY PERFECT!

All right, so a little more is probably necessary.  Let’s just say if I was susceptible to a monstrous man-crush, Nathan Fillion was just replaced by his friend/writer/director/foil, Joss Whedon.  I will break things down just a bit to make this review easier to digest.  I will try to AVOID spoilers, but this is a movie review, so in the interest of not getting anyone cheesed at me:

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!!!   READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!!!

Writing:  Joss Whedon is a genius without equal when it comes to script writing.  His familiarity with his characters and his work writing for Marvel in the past shines through in each character’s lines.  He is able to capture the tension of the arguments as well as the sometimes gut-busting humor of their banter perfectly.  NONE of the characters in this movie deliver a line that makes you think “Gee, that doesn’t really sound like Captain America,” or Iron Man, or Nick Fury.  The timing and delivery of every character’s lines is just dead perfect.  It’s so good, in fact, you don’t even notice the movie is almost two-and-a-half hours long.  It paces itself perfectly.

Cinematography:  It was as expected.  Very clean, with a few odd camera angles at times just to change one’s screen focus.  Nothing exceedingly wonky like Hunger Games (which was good, just too much jitter at times).  The CG was extremely clean and well-placed, every bit as good or better than what we saw from Transformers.  The sets and green-screen scenes were also very believable.  The fight between Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America in the woods is a perfect example of set-work seamlessly blended into a green-screen environment.

Costuming:  OK, I will say this:  I’m not sure how I feel about the change back to the round chest-piece on the Mark VII suit, but I’m not going to have a hissy about it.  There have been so many variants in that armor I’ve lost track anyway.  Overall, though, every costume looked absolutely fantastic, even Cap’s screen-printed wings on his mask/headcover.  I’m glad they kept away from Hawkeye’s purple-and-blue combo with the weird mask, and Thor’s Asgardian garb was just perfect.  And, well…we just won’t get into what I think about Black Widow’s costume…this needs to remain PG or better.  ;)

Characters:  Everyone in this movie was familiar with his or her character, and it shows.  Each character was not just almost comic-book perfect (at least in the standard/Ultimates hybrid they’ve built here) but they were also inherently believable.  Stark and Cap can’t really get along to start with because Cap think’s Tony is too undisciplined and unwilling to sacrifice, while Tony is suspicious of SHIELD and thinks Cap is way too huah soldier-y and unwilling to question.  In fact, ALL of the characters who have done this before are exactly what you’d hope they would be, so let’s not spend time on them.  It’s Mark Ruffalo I want to spend some time on, because he had some work to do.  As the third actor to play the embattled Bruce Banner (and fourth to play a Banner, if you count Bill Bixby), it was his task to bring Banner  to the table, not necessarily the Hulk.  He did so well I almost wish he’d had more opportunity to play Bruce.  He was the most human, most vulnerable, and most self-assured Banner of them all, and it really seemed as if it was as effortless for him to step into those shoes as it was for the rest of the cast.  How was he vulnerable and self-assured at the same time?  Well, he knew he could involuntarily snap and change at any moment, but he also knew he could control when he changed, and Ruffalo carries that knowledge brilliantly.  Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention how incredibly fabulous Tom Hiddleston is as Loki.  That hurt, crazed, and driven evil he exudes is just amazing.

Wrap-up:  I would give you some review of the story, but really the story is just the backdrop for the characters and the humanity Whedon puts on the screen.  These people are more than larger-than-life heroes, they are genuine people with vulnerabilities and weaknesses to overcome.  In true Whedon-esque fashion, he uses a tragic event to illustrate all of these aspects.  Nope, no spoilers here, but if you know how Whedon works, you know what I’m talking about.  In any case, it all comes together here.  Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Incredible Hulk (sorta) were all able to occupy the same space on the screen without one character vastly overshadowing the others.  And let’s not forget Nick Fury’s screen-stealing moments that transition just as easily into the larger group.  This movie was meant to be L-A-R-G-E, and it delivers like no superhero movie before it.  Like Albert Pujols before he went to LA-LA land, Whedon , Downey, Johanssen, Evans, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Renner, and Hiddleston hit it out of the stadium.  I haven’t laughed, teared up, clapped, and cheered any movie like I did watching The Avengers.  For the first time in quite a while, I finally feel as if I got my money’s worth from a movie.  Yeah, it’s the first time since The Empire Strikes Back.  The Avengers really is THAT good.

5 of 5 stars, 10 out of 10, 100% fresh…however you want to put it. 

PS:  Watch ALL of the credits!  Post to this blog if you get the joke!

A few random thoughts on Current Events

A few random thoughts I want to share:

I was saddened by the news of Junior Seau's suicide. I remember him being one of the premier linebackers in the NFL; he essentially filled the void left by Lawrence Taylor's retirement and Brian Bosworth's ineffectiveness as the Next Big Thing. I remember the criticism of Seau's "freelancing" or "peeking in the backfield" and how they said it put him out of position so much he had to make the athletic pursuit. Well, if the ability to recover from a bad read and still make the play isn't an indicator of greatness I don't know what IS. The way his teammates and those he helped in the community described his personality just underscores how much of a shame it was he couldn't reach out and get the help he clearly needed.

The Mariano Rivera injury is jaw-dropping simply because it was such an innocuous way to be hurt so badly. He has shagged fly balls for most of his career, so to see him injured doing just that is just a shame. While I'm from the Eckersly/Gossage closer mentality where the closer should get more than three outs, I can't remember a time when I wasn't amazed by Mo's longevity and almost absurd ability. I doubt seriously he will be back to play again, which means in three days two legendary players from my sports-watching era are gone.

The Kansas Senate passed a piece of legislation designed for KPERS (Kansas Public Employee's Retirement System) reform because the system is currently underfunded to the tune of $8.3 BILLION. It will be bankrupt by 2033 if nothing changes. What will happen is new employees will pay an increased rate into the program and will not be guaranteed a benefit of any kind for when they retire. Additionally, the pay-ins will be invested, and the employees will get a guaranteed percentage return. Anything above that goes into the general fund to pay down the underfunded benefit. If the rate of return is below the percentage, well, you lose out. So, you get no benefit if you exceed your contributed percentage, but you lose if the return is deficient. At the same time, our prestigious state senators saw fit to change their benefit calculation that shortened their service year, which allows them to claim an INCREASED benefit! Here, ladies and gentlemen, is where the corruption of the system is clearly illustrated for all to see.

I agree with Kurt Warner's concerns about letting his sons play football in the NFL, and I don't care that he is a paid NFL analyst. He wasn't speaking as one, he was speaking as a father and by rights SHOULD be concerned. See the Seau story above for why. The fact is we do not know the what long-term effects are from the constant, repeated head trauma. Please don't kid yourselves, EVERY player receives head trauma in every game, not to mention the other trauma (broken fingers, dislocations, sprains, etc. that contribute to arthritis and constant pain) that hampers them for the rest of their lives. I suffer from arthritis and back pain, my brother-in-law Russ suffers from severe back pain also, and I know we both have days where we would do almost ANYTHING to make it go away for just a little while. I can't imagine what these former players go through on a daily basis. I know this: I don't want my son to go through that if it can be helped.