Malik
(4/2/12)
I've been bad about
posting and enjoying life recently due to a cold that has sapped all
of my strength. After finishing Mass Effect 3 (would have been cool
to beat it yesterday; I would have thought Bioware programmed an
April Fool's joke), I have wanted to play SSX (the new one...well,
also the old PS2 original). However, when you are sick and taking
plenty of medicine to keep yourself from total agony, trying to play
a fast game with a lot of twitch responses is nothing short of a sad
joke.
I am nearly feeling
better. I'll probably try to play some SSX tonight. I enjoyed the
twenty minutes I've played so far, except for the forced attempt to
make the game super extreme (is that "X-treme"?) through a narrative
and announcer that border on the absurd. I mean they border absurd,
but reside in the land of super absurd. Yes, this level of cheese is
usually not found outside of the dairy section of a grocery store or
outside of the 1990's.
Anyway, being sick has
made it easier to stomach sports. The M's started the MLB season
early, before going back to spring training (is that a hallucination
brought on by the sickness and meds?), by facing the A's in
"Oakland" in Tokyo. It's amazing to see each year how the Mariners
can look solid in spring training, but then once they leave Cactus
League, they become their usual sad selves. Between the lameness of
the A's, and the badness of the M's, this is not how you showcase
the start of MLB season, and it's definitely not something you
export to another country unless you want to face an "international
incident" of some sort. At least the M's show a few small signs of
life in Ichiro, Ackley, Smoalk, and of course King Felix. Still,
unless the rest of the team can show some life, especially in the DH
(Montero) and bullpen, then this will be another overly long season.
I also could avoid
feeling much, due to being sick, when the Sounders FC played this
weekend. I think the only thing that looked worse than the entire
team (except Gsperning, who was solid as keeper) was the
officiating. It's long been said by MLS fans that unless the
officiating gets some consistency and quality, then MLS will always
be the red headed stepchild of soccer around the world. I always
thought the worst officiating is something that comes just from a
ref who shows no level of consistency in his calls. I think I was
wrong. After Saturday, I can see that the worst officiating comes
from a ref who is inconsistent and tries to inject himself into the
game. If you cannot make a good call, then just don't make any call.
Instead, the ref on Saturday decided to make bad calls with numerous
dubious penalties awarded and cards flying. The only good part was
seeing the ref show off how bad he was by flashing a red
card...fumbling around...and then flashing the yellow he originally
intended to show.
At least Seattle sports
are far easier to take when drugged on Dayquil.
Malik |