CPI Update

I've kind have gotten the filmmaking bug as of late -- especially since my last short film was such a hit.

I'm currently in a works of yet another short film, basing it upon The Farm: the place where at least 6 generations of my family have lived. Especially now that the season of Fall is upon us, it is actually quite beautiful.

I started some filming today. With an unprecedented move on my own part, I'm actually in front of the lens. Nothing special, no dialogue or anything: just visual.

It was a spur of the moment deal, so I only recorded about 20 minutes worth of video before the battery ran out. On such a beautiful day like it is today, I'm currently charging the battery with hopes that I can get out there again.

Once again, I'll probably post it on YouTube. Watch for it.

Fantasy Football Update -- Week 3

Well, it's early -- so I cannot complain too much. Again, it's a Tale of Two Leagues, which can mean a lot of conflict of interests.

So far, in the Minnesota league, I'm sitting at a healthy 2-1 record. I say "healthy" because I believe I had a pretty strong team this year. With some picks from the draft this year, I could say that I'm lucky so far. Some of those include Julius Jones, who's actually been stepping up big at the running back position for the Seattle Seahawks, while another pick (although not "huge") is Antonio Gonzales, a slot receiver for the Colts. When Peyton Manning finally overcomes his knee issues, I think he'll be the next Brandon Stokley (or even Wes Welker from last season).

In the South Dakota league, things aren't so well, as I'm currently sitting at a 1-2 record. Again, it's early and I shouldn't have nothing much to worry about. I drafted Tom Brady in the 1st Round, and sure enough -- he's out with a blown-out knee. I took a big hit with that loss, but I've got Phillip Rivers starting now and he looks good -- considering what I saw on Monday Night's game versus the Jets (out-dueling Favre).

On another note: how about Patriot fans when they were getting their asses kicked by the Dolphins last weekend? Half of the them were gone by the mid-4th Quarter, then they turned around on every sports radio show and bashed them. I'm just shaking my head.

CPI: A New Release

I released this new "short film" on September 16, 2008. I posted it on the same day on YouTube.

It's short, only a couple of minutes long, detailing the events at my house on August 19, 2008. In the video, a few of my former students (who had just graduated) stopped by for one last get-together before I had moved out. Anyway, Sam was literally talked into using his "hard head" to try to put a dent in my coffee table. It took some persuasion, but after he had agreed, I had to get my camera.

I've obviously dramatized and edited this "short film," even included Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana: O Fortuna." In other words: it's so stupid, it's funny.

I Forgive You

This past week, the sports-news services like ESPN has been telling the story of a referee, Ed Hochuli, on how he blew a fumble call during the last few remaining minutes of the Broncos-Chargers game in Week 2 (Hochuli ruled it an incomplete pass and the whistle blew -- replays overturned Hochuli's call and ruled it a fumble, but did not give San Diego possession because of the blown whistle. Denver kept the ball on the San Diego 10-yard line. The Broncos would later score and win the game on a 2-point conversion, 39-38).

Obviously, San Diego's head coach Norv Turner was livid. Immediately after the game, Hochuli approached Turner and admitted that he had blown the call. San Diego, and its fans, have been bitching since.

Now the NFL has stepped in and has announced that Hochuli will receive "lower grades" for his performance and could hurt his chances for referee-ing future playoff games. On top of all that, he's been receiving hate-mail (no words on death threats, yet) but he's shown the dignity to reply to it all.

I see many, many problems with this. But first, I've been there before. Although I never had the opportunity to ref football games, I've reffed basketball games -- middle school and 9th grade. I didn't want to, because why would I officiate basketball -- a sport that I never played in high school? I did it anyways; it was a paid position.

With my lack of knowledge, I took my share of shit. Some was worse than others, but when I had a coach in my face about a call, I had it. Then, you had the fans in the stands getting in on the action, I was ready just to walk off the court. I just had to ignore it. It was from that point on that I had found a respect for these officials, from the high school-level all the way up to the professional ranks.

It's easy for fans alike to criticize the calls of a referee. If a call is against your team, you're going to piss and moan about it. But we, as a society, has got to realize that referees are not robots, but are people like ourselves -- prone to make mistakes.

Now in Hochuli's case, he's been a referee in the NFL for over a decade. He's been well-trained and it considered to be one of the best. He should have known better, but again -- he's human. He makes one mistake (especially since the game was on the line) and he's going to hear about it. I can only thank God that this wasn't the Super Bowl -- Hochuli would've been run out of the country.

I admire Hochuli's attempts to "save-face:" admitting that he had made a mistake, apologizing to the Chargers' coaching staff and its players, the city of San Diego, and NFL fans alike.

Why don't like is the constant barrage of verbal abuse towards him and even the NFL's attempt to down-grade him. If they make him a back-line judge...

It's only Week 2, folks. And I'm a Vikings fan.

NCAA 09 vs. Madden 09

For the past couple of months, I have immersed myself into my PS3. Due to my unemployment, I really had nothing much else better to do (yes, I was also looking for a new job). With football season in full swing, my thoughts had turned to the new upcoming football games for the next-gen systems, mainly EA Sports' NCAA Football 09 and Madden 09.

First off, I'm a huge fan of the NCAA franchise. I think my first copy was NCAA Football 2000 for the old PSOne and have been sticking with it since. The Madden franchise has been more of a historical significance, taking over the reigns from the Tecmo Super Bowl series when I first purchased Madden 94 for the Super Nintendo. Purchasing Madden games has been on-and-off, only if there had been significant improvement to the gameplay. Overall, NCAA had more depth -- especially when it came down to recruiting high school players.

This year marked the first year in which I purchased both games in the same year (last time this happened was back in 2004). The NCAA game was a no-brainer, but everybody and their grandmothers were bragging up this year's version of Madden, so I'm taking a shot.

With NCAA 09, this version is probably the best I've played -- with only one hiccup: skip the Campus Legend mode. It's basically a waste of time, unless your "created player" is a quarterback or a running back. They had Campus Legend modes in the past and they were a lot better than this year's version. Go straight to the Dynasty mode.

I guess the real turn-on about the Dynasty mode is that it's not all about just playing the football game. Every week you've got to turn your attention to the recruitment of high school players. You can call them (you get 10 hours/week worth of "attention"), offer them scholarships (25/year), and set up campus visits. This is actually a lot of work, since you're already competing with blue-chip football programs across the country.

If you don't happen to sign your recruit, you can make promises to them during a 5-week period in the off-season. Some of these promises comprise of winning a conference title, getting national exposure, finishing the Top 10 in the polls, or even taking it to the ultimate promise of winning the national championship.

Something with the gameplay that I've noticed is that in some cases, it's extremely hard to win on the road. For the past few years, NCAA Football has listed the "Top 25 Places to Play" which ranks which home fields are the hardest to win in. If you know me, I always play with Michigan, so if I take trips to Notre Dame, Penn State, or Ohio State, games are going to be close.

Add all this to your old features, like travelling trophies, end of the year awards like the Heisman, the All-American lists, and just the great college atmosphere makes this game great.

As for Madden 09, there are some good things and some bad. The good include a huge graphical improvement to NCAA 09 -- the players are more detailed and the fields look a lot better. Another thing I like about Madden 09 is the new "Madden IQ" system. It takes a look your abilities in the run and pass offense, plus the run and pass defense and it basically gives you a grade. It will customize your skill level to make the game more challenging, instead of winning games 56-0 every week. I actually do see this feature carrying over to NCAA Football sometime in the future (my current "Madden IQ" level is 635, which ranks 3 out of my 4 catagories in the All-Madden level).

I'm "so-so" on one thing in Madden 09, which is the "Rewind" feature. If you mess up, like throw a pick or give up the long ball for a TD, you can use the "Rewind" to basically do over that play. Usually the game gives you 1 of these per game, but the number of the rewinds are customizable. I personally don't use them.

The bad: the commentary. This differs from the PS2 version, which Al Michaels and John Madden are featured on that version. Unfortunately for us PS3 owner, we're stuck with a bland Tom Hammond and the always-sucky Cris Collinsworth. The NCAA version features Brad Nessler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit -- which are very good in my book. I don't even get sick of Corso's comments.

With the Franchise mode in Madden 09, you have complete control of your team. This includes payroll (managing the salary cap), scouting college players for the draft, and dealing with injuries, free agency, trade deadlines, etc. It's all been there in the past, so it's nothing new.

Overall, the NCAA Football franchise has an obvious edge ... but I would like to say that you're missing out if you're not playing Madden 09. It's a tough call, but with this year's version, I probably won't buy Madden '10.

* * * *

To give you a little background, this is how I play the games:

• I let Lee Corso or John Madden pick the plays, offensively and defensively. I do this because I can get a full-range of the plays and can better learn offenses. Otherwise, I'm just sticking with "bread-n-butter" plays. Obviously I can veto their picks, but that is seldom. I usually do this on defense, since sometimes it seems I can play a team better in man-to-man, and another team on zone.
• Very rarely do I control my players. The only ones I control are the quarterback and the running back. If a receiver catches a ball, the CPU takes over. The defense and special teams play themselves. Otherwise, it just gets too easy.

So far with my Dynasty/Franchise:

• I'm in my sixth season with the University of Michigan. I've won the past two national championships and have lost a total of 4 games (2 against Penn State).
• I have an undefeated record against Michigan's rivals (Notre Dame, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Michigan State).
• I have not won the Heisman. I've had one finalist, but he finished 4th in the voting. But lately, my defensive backs are studs: winning the past 4 Thorpe Awards.
• I have had the top recruiting classes the past 3 seasons.
• Despite my contract with Michigan (which I'm currently in the last year of), I have been receiving offers from universities like Florida, Florida State, USC, and Ohio State. I've been eyeing the SEC as my next destination.
• Michigan Stadium is the 2nd toughest place for opposing teams to win a game in (behind Oklahoma).
• I've currently a 1-2 record with the Minnesota Vikings (first season). My offense is almost like the one you see on TV on Sunday afternoons.

A Settling Down of Things

After taking a nearly 4-month sabbatical from TonyTimes, I'm slowly building up the motivation to start things up once again.

As you may know, I departed from my teaching position of 3 years. It was a good ending to the profession, no hard feelings or anything of that nature, but was faced with an obstacle that I could not overcome to continue teaching in that district. Looking back now, I sure miss the teaching, but I don't miss the town itself.

3 months passed in P-Town, aggressively pursuing new lines of employment. I wanted to stay with the whole computers thing, but during this hard time of America's economy, things were tough. It seemed like I applied everywhere, but I just was not getting the bites for interviews. Finally, in late August as I was pulling out of P-Town, I got a bite: an insurance company that I was well-familiar with brought me in for not one interview, but two.

During the second interview, I asked a few questions regarding the position, but soon afterwards, they offered me the position. It only took a couple of days to think about it until I actually accepted the offer, then once I passed the background check, I'm good to go.

Unfortunately, I won't start work until the 29th. That could be a good thing, as I still will have a couple weeks off to do what-have-you.

For the time being, I'm still participating in fantasy football: in both "Minnesota" and "South Dakota" leagues. In the "South Dakota" league, I had drafted Tom Brady in Round 1 and sure enough, he blows his knee out in the 1st quarter -- out for the year. My "Minnesota" team looks good, already starting 1-0.

Hopefully my motiviation for TonyTimes will continue to grow as I find things here and there to write about.