Oh I am so getting Madden for the Wii (and hence a Wii)

Jeromey Balderrama

Through Digg, I just watched the coolest video previewing the new Madden 2007 for the Nintendo Wii. After watching this video I am now drooling over my laptop wishing that I could push time forward like that Japanese guy in Heroes.  Simply put: that game looks amazing!

I’ve been a big Madden guy since Madden 2000, and for the last six years I’ve been buying both the console and the PC versions of the game – up until this year.  When Madden 2007 came out in August, I was already stressed out by a busy schedule and strapped for cash from the Broncos tickets and starting the news business.  I did the unthinkable and held off buying Madden.  Two months later, I haven’t gotten around to buying the PS2 version.  Part of my reluctance is also due to my feelings that PS2 is now obsolete, and I am wondering if I should move to the next generation of consoles.  The XBox 360 is expensive, but the quality is definitely there.  The PS3 has been  tarnished in bad press – from constant delays to shortages to the shockingly expensive price – and quite frankly I’m not really interested in giving Sony any money. 

When originally launched, I thought the Wii wasn’t going to be able to compete with X360 of Ps3 at any level.  However, watching the news about the console develop it sounds like Nintendo is doing everything right.  The new controller looks like an awesome concept, the graphics look like they can be competitive, they have a healthy schedule and production line (supposedly they’re going to produce 4 million consoles at launch), and best of all – the price is right ($250) and won’t break my Christmas budget.

After watching this Madden video, I’m sold – November 19th can’t come soon enough.

Office Frustrations (not MS office – the real office)

Jeromey Balderrama

At work I was previously working from home the majority of the time, and in the recent months there’s been an initiative to bring people back into the office.  Right now my office-to-home ratio is about 60/40, and for the most part I’ve been challenged by being in the office.  While I admit that working at the office increases my technical productivity (less distractions with the temperamental home computer) – my overall productivity has decreased with the amount of distractions.  With many recent job cuts my work area has been reduced to essentially a ghost-town.  Once upon a time my aisle had 14 offices, but over the years that has been reduced to four people, three of which spend most of their time from home.  Sometimes things are lonely, but I have grown to appreciate the quiet atmosphere.

All that changed today.

Right now we’re doing a bunch of building-moving, and with it there is an attempt to consolidate the current occupants on my floor and move us either upstairs or downstairs.  As they are in the process of moving everyone, they’ve arranged our area as a temporary work area, where people will work for 2 months before they permanently move.  Today they began converting all of the work areas around me to have the new equipment and furniture, so I’ve been working in a construction zone throughout the day.  I’ve been listening to a lot of music and podcasts to help reduce the distractions, but this is a polar opposite from the quiet area I’ve enjoyed.  Now I have a slew of new neighbors, none of which I regularly with with.  I find myself looking forward to moving myself just to be able to connect with people in my organization.

To make matters worse I went to go buy a pop this afternoon, only to find that they’ve raised the prices again.  It’s now $1.25 for a 20-oz bottle!  How outrageous!  After a 25% increase from the original $1 price I’ve thought about setting up my own back-alley pop business just to bring some competition to the thugs running our vending machines.  This is nuts!

Meltdown of the Year – Denny Green

Jeromey Balderrama

We’re only at six weeks into the NFL season, but I think we already have our winner for "Meltdown of the Year": Arizona Cardinals coach Denny Green.  Green, whom I call "The Nutty Professor" went off at his press conference after his team choked away their 20 point lead in front of the whole country on Monday Night Football.  While we were waiting to get on stage for our gig we were watching the game in disbelief, wondering whether the Bears were that good, or if the Cardinals were that bad.

Then after the game came the most classic melt-down ever, check it out (Note: there is some profanity, as any classic tirade should include):

I caught the melt-down on the NFL Network, when they were seemingly watching it live.  Watching the reaction of the NFL Network hosts clearly illustrated my perception that the network is essentially the State Television of the NFL:  While the 24-hour coverage of football greatly appeals to me, I struggle with the commentators on the Network because they won’t ever criticize a sport or a team.  I don’t think that commentators need to be negative to be credible, but I do think they need to be honest.  Watching the Network commentators back-pedal their way out of Denny Green’s meltdown with excuses validated my beliefs. 

If you turn the channel over to ESPN the commentators weren’t afraid to pull their punches on Green and what they thought of the Cardinals.  I was watching Rome is Burning the next day and they were joking about how Green was like the Cardinals and didn’t see his tirade through to the end – he should have thrown the podium instead of just banging it.  The NFL Network is good if you want to see recaps and coverage of every NFL team, but if you want honesty you’re going to have to change your channel.

Watching Green last night was pretty, but does it top Jim Mora’s classic meltdown?  You decide.

4-2 Ravens fired Offensive Coordinator Jim Fassel, Billick to call plays

Jeromey Balderrama

Brian Billick has fired offensive coordinator Jim Fassel and will take over the play-calling for the Ravens offense. Strange mid-season development for a 4-2 team, even if the offense didn’t look great.  The Ravens never had a great offense, and while Fassel may not have helped the Ravens as much as they’d like, they were winning games.  I can’t stand Brian Billick’s arrogance for thinking that if he calls the plays and runs the offense somehow the Ravens will begin putting a lot of points on the board.  We’ll see how this pans out.

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