Leaving Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and Starting Shotokan Karate

When I was about 5 years old, I told my mom I wanted to start exercising. I don't remember for what purpose, but it was probably because I wanted to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I had just seen in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. My mother didn't quite know what to do to satisfy my desire, so I assume she asked around and found out how a 5 year old child could get exercise outside of the weekly P.E. class.


A lot more after the break.

Why I'm Watching the NBA All-Star Game Instead of the Oscars

The Academy Awards. Yet another awards show in Hollywood, but it is considered the biggest honor in the film industry to win an Oscar, similar to winning an Emmy for television work, a Tony for stage work, and a blue ribbon for an 8th grade science project. Hardly anyone ever remembers for what movie an actor won their award for, just that they won, especially if they win more than once. The Oscars are not a measure of talent, they're a political process used to perpetuate a star's career, or identify hot newcomers. More often than not, Oscars are undeserved in the 6 major categories, Film, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress. Other categories like film editing and screenplay writing are generally well-deserved but are unfortunately hardly recognized. Besides all that, why would I want to watch an awards show that voted to give itself 10 options for Best Picture, but only nominated 9? I know the Academy is essentially saying 2011 was a really shitty year for movies, but there wasn't another movie that was better than fucking War Horse?

The NBA All-Star Game. Once a year, the NBA masturbates to itself by showcasing its superstars and rising talent to a more casual audience in hopes to bring in more fans, while making sports writers and diehard fans groan. The Rising Stars challenge was an interesting twist on the Rookies vs Sophomores Game, but the game itself was uninteresting, other than watching Ricky Rubio passing alley oops to Blake Griffin and seeing Charles Barkley gloat all over Shaq.

All-Star Saturday was incredibly flat, where the most compelling event was the 3-point shootout, surprisingly won by Kevin Love. The Shooting Stars contest was awful as usual, and the Skill Challenge involved Tony Parker of all people being better than Deron Williams and Russell Westbrook. The Slam Dunk Contest was about as godawful as you could imagine it. Rather than taking known stars, the NBA instead decided to showcase young guys who hardly anyone has ever heard of. In an effort to return to basics and stepping away from theatrics, the slam dunk contest was horribly boring, save for Jeremy Evans' dunk over Gordon Hayward while also dunking 2 balls off alley oops. The general public felt the same way, voting for Evans to be the champion in a contest that wasn't even close because of the lack of originality and skill. Yeah, it was cute to see Chase Budinger prove white men can jump to Sean Combs (I will never refer to him by his roulette wheel nicknames), but he didn't do much else.

What do I expect from the All-Star Game then? I expect to see Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, and Andrew Bynum play on the same team at the exact same time. Oh, and Kevin Durant as well, I guess. The Western Conference All-Star starters are a clear cut example that the capital of basketball is Los Angeles, not New York, and that the East Coast Bias will not stop talking about Jeremy Lin, but won't mention the Clippers' meteoric rise (albeit thanks to BASKETBALL REASONS). The TNT analysts have already mentioned their displeasure in the All-Star reserves, saying that while they hate that fans choose the starters, it's obvious the fans know more than the coaches, who make terrible reserve selections every year.

I expect to be entertained at one event and bored with disgust at the other. After all, I can just check to see who won the awards on my phone during the game.

Mass Effect 3 Demo Finally Arrives!

The new default face for Female Commander Shepard.

The demo for Mass Effect 3 has finally arrived and it includes the opening mission where the Reapers begin their attack on Earth and contains a later mission where Shepard, with squad mates Garrus Vakarian and Liara T'Soni rescue a female Krogan with the help of Urdnot Wrex and Mordin Solus. The characters appear here regardless of what background you decide to give Shepard, a new feature for first-time players that will determine which squad members are alive, choosing whether to kill Ashley Williams, Kaidan Alenko, or the majority of the ME2 squad members. As far as who lives by default is a good question, but at least 1 of them must survive in order for Shepard to survive the ending of ME2.


General changes  since Mass Effect 2 after the break.

Five Reasons Why Jeremy Lin is Not the Next Kurt Warner

Jeremy Lin is the big news in the NBA this week, seemingly coming out of nowhere becoming the best scorer in his 1st 4 games as a starter since the NBA/ABA merger. However, Jeremy Lin did not come out of nowhere and he isn't as good as he appears to be. Here are 5 reasons why Jeremy Lin is not the next Kurt Warner:

1. He's been sent to the D-League twice, in each of his 2 seasons.
2. He only averaged 2.6 points per game off .389 FG% in Golden State, playing in 29 games.
3. He didn't get a D-1 scholarship because of racial profiling and was not drafted because of his alma mater, not his playing skill being deficient.
4. Average players look fantastic on very bad teams.
5. D'Antoni is such an awful coach that he put the aging Mike Bibby ahead of Lin on the depth chart until Lin proved he's at least a decent player.

Deeper analysis after the break.

Shaq's #34 Jersey to be Retired by the Lakers During the 2012-13 Season

Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Earvin
"Magic" Johnson, James Worthy, Gail Goodrich, Chick Hearn..., and now
Shaquille O'Neal.

At some point next season, Shaquille O'Neal is set to become forever enshrined as a Lakers legend. The Lakers will retire Shaq's #34 jersey, joining the ranks of Jerry, Wilt, Elgin, Kareem, Magic, Worthy, Goodrich, and the legendary voice of Chick. While retiring numbers is nothing new in sports, the Lakers quite simply do not fuck around when it comes to retired numbers. Some teams retire #6 for the "Sixth Man" the fans. Some teams retire numbers of players who spent less than 5 years with the team. Some teams retire numbers of players who are only vaguely remembered even by their own fans.

The Lakers have a very simple policy to retiring numbers: Champion Hall of Famers ONLY. Ordinarily, the Lakers wait for people to enter the Hall of Fame before the retire their number, but they're going to make an exception for Shaq, presumably so they can claim they retired Shaq's number first before the Miami Heat or Orlando Magic can. It's a very Jerry Buss-like move and one that is simply classic Lakers. Since retiring, Shaq has also gotten along much better with Kareem, the two coming to an understanding that Kareem did not wish to interfere with Shaq's style, although Shaq would have loved to hear input from the legend. Shaq's number retiring will also result in the first time 3 consecutive numbers will be retired by the Lakers: 32, 33, and 34.

DC Comics Announces Smallville Season 11?

Smallville Season 11 #1

Smallville ended last year didn't it? I was pretty sure it ended the moment we saw Clark Kent finally put on the Superman costume and fly in outer space. Didn't we flash forward to the future where Chloe is married to Oliver Queen and has a son with him?


Well apparently, DC isn't ready to let Smallville die and is going to have Season 11 "broadcast" in comic book format, written by lead series writer Bryan Q. Miller, also known for his work on the Stephanie Brown volume of Batgirl (which is absurdly awesome). No surprise, Pere Perez (Batgirl) is doing the interior art, reuniting the tandem after the events of The New 52.


Why is Smallville!Clark Kent wearing a modification of the current Superman outfit and not the version seen in Superman Returns? Ahh who knows... I probably won't be picking this one up just because I can't imagine how much larger Lois' boobs will balloon to in comic book form.

Elite Manning? Yes, but the Patriots had no Business Being in the Super Bowl

In a game that began with a safety against the Patriots, the only way a Patriots Super Bowl could end was in a close game. Tom Brady went 10/10 on a go-ahead touchdown drive before halftime to take the Patriots to a 10-9 lead, but the 2nd half was all Eli Manning and the Giants' defense led by Jason Pierre-Paul as they secured a 21-17 victory, preventing a Hail Mary pass from Tom Brady to Aaron Hernandez. In the game-winning touchdown, the Patriots defense foolishly allowed Ahmad Bradshaw to get a 6 yard rushing touchdown, even allowing Bradshaw enough time to potentially kneel at the 1 foot line to run out the clock.


Although neither team had the best defense this year, the Patriots defense absolutely gave this game away with their piddly 31st rank in yards allowed and average 15th rank in points allowed. Vegas also got the game dead wrong, putting the Patriots as 2.5 favorites and setting an over/under of total points scored at 55. To me, it was clear that had the San Francisco 49ers won against the Giants in the NFC Championship Game, they would also have won against the incredibly weak Patriots defense and the 49ers defense would have easily stopped Tom Brady.


Once again, the NFC Championship Game was more exciting than the Super Bowl, continuing a trend of Super Bowls containing the winner of an NFC Championship Game that involved the 49ers. Yes, it was a close game throughout, but the Patriots were just too thin a team to realistically win the Super Bowl this year, being carried by Tom Brady's legendary arm... although the legend of Brady is slightly diminished due to his total inability to beat Eli Manning and the New York Giants in 2 separate Super Bowls and frequently during the regular season. On the other team, Eli Manning now has more Super Bowls than his brother, and is a definite lock for the Hall of Fame alongside head coach Tom Coughlin.


Wes Welker is now a free agent and may choose not to return to the Patriots if he is going to be their 2nd ranked WR behind Deion Branch as he was today.

Harrison Ford in Talks to Appear in Blade Runner 2

The more time passes, the more it looks like Blade Runner 2 is going to be a lot more than a pipe dream. First, Ridley Scott confirmed that he would be directing the movie, second, that it was confirmed to be a sequel and not a prequel, and now there are talks to bring Harrison Ford back in the role of Deckard, the Blade Runner.


This would be gigantic for the film's legitimacy since Harrison Ford has been very vocal over the years of his disapproval of how Blade Runner was marketed and edited, as well as his very contentious relationship with Ridley Scott.


Blade Runner 2 is set to begin filming sometime in 2013. It is unknown if it will follow the plot of one of the official sequel novels.


Update: Disregard Harrison Ford news, the producers say those rumors are false!

Goodell Changes Stance on the NFL's Return to Los Angeles

A few days ago, Roger Goodell was granted an extension as NFL commissioner through 2018. Today, Goodell has taken his newfound job security to announce that if Los Angeles does receive a new NFL team, it will not be a previously existing team, preferring expansion to a 34-team league. This directly contradicts what Goodell has said in the past, saying the league had no plans to expand beyond 32 teams and that the NFL was encouraging teams with expiring stadium deals and poor attendance to move to Los Angeles.


Because of Goodell's previous statements, it was rumored that the Minnesota VIkings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders, or San Francisco 49ers could make the move to Los Angeles. Before Goodell's most recent statement, the Jaguars, Bills, Chargers, and 49ers fell out of the conversation as they secured new owners or new stadium deals, leaving the Vikings, Rams, and Raiders still in the equation.


I don't understand why Goodell wants to expand the NFL even more. 32 teams divided into 2 conferences of 4 divisions each is perfect; having 34 teams means each conference has an odd number of teams, unless they do a deal like MLB and have uneven conferences. And even if they do expand so that Los Angeles can get its own team again without moving any teams, where is the 34th NFL team going to go? San Antonio is a rumored destination, being the 7th largest city in the country, but the media market is not that large compared to other potential NFL cities, like Portland and even Salt Lake City.


Just move the Rams back. St. Louis doesn't want them anymore and that bitch Georgia is dead.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

It's hard to believe, but it's been almost 2 whole years since the release of Final Fantasy XIII. Although the game had a very definite ending without many loose ends, the game's database contained several levels of backstory about the fal'Cie, the War of Transgression, and hints about the gods who created the fal'Cie, enough that a sequel was a possibility. Square Enix publicly said that if FF13 sold enough copies, they would green light a sequel. 2 years later, the sequel has arrived, fixing many of the issues fans had with the original, but willfully ignoring old problems.


Full review after the break.