"You gotta be kidding me...!"

OK, so you may already know I'm a knucklehead Packer fan; something that makes my art friend sad for me, and makes my football friends worried for me. Nevertheless, Sunday night provided an incredible game between the Vikings and Packers (one the the Packers won, but that was just an extra benefit). I'm sure a bundle was made on the game, because it seems like everyone in the world watched it.

But Brad Childress, coach of the Vikings, is in the process of making an ass of himself. "The worst officiated game I've seen" indeed. As Kevin Seifert (of ESPN NFC North blog) says, this is a loser's complaint. Childress has continued his discussion, using Nixon-esque "expletive deleted"'s to get his point across, then following it up with a tattletale about the NFL chief of officials admitting to a blown call. I'm thinking that using a public podium to squawk about officials is probably setting yourself up for something untoward in the future (regarding bad calls).

But more than anything, what I'd love to see is a football ref get in front of a podium and say something like "That was the worst coached football game I've seen!". This would be appropriate, since one blown call could have easily been overturned if Childress could have found something useful in his pocket (like a red flag). Also, when Adrien Peterson is getting something like 20 yards per carry when he runs, letting Favre throw is pretty dumb.

Can't control Favre's choice of pass vs. run? Well, that's what the Big Hook is for. Or are you afraid that he might pout? Whatever...

I guess Childress is going to get a fine. Too bad it's just that. I'd love to see how a 15-year veteran referee would grade Childress' coaching technique (maybe as Phillips-like) as an alternative to a fine. Maybe that would help owners see exactly which rail to use to run ignorant coaches out of town.

[ddg]

Whazzup?

I know I haven't been posting much here - since the Spark Festival performance, I've been doing a lot of work for my classes, working *really* hard on some of our new ideas we came up with at a Cycling company meeting, and doing some prep work for this big multimedia show at the beginning of November. But I took out a little time for a guilty pleasure: installing Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro.

Guilty pleasure? Sure - because there are some things I want to do that are pretty Windows-focused. Examples: the expressPCB board layout software, Sony Acid and Sound Forge - and that super-sexy Mahjong game that they give away for free. This has led to me actually making some headway on the circuit board, doing some of the work for the Sound Production class I GTA and wasting a significant amount of time on casual game-play.

Things are coming to a head with a lot of projects, so I suspect that Windows is going to go unused for a while until I get my head above water, although I will need to do a little video production on that end of the field.

But Windows 7 is working pretty well - once I got the trackpad working that way I want it. Basically, it took jumping into the Bootcamp control panel and turning off almost all of the trackpad options, then going into the Windows mouse control panel and slowing down the mouse activity significantly. Now, the mouse works about the same on Windows as it does on the Mac (my initial reaction was that I was PISSED at how poorly it worked...), and it is effective enough to do all of my Windows work without having to always fire up the HP.

I'm probably going to be AWOL for a little while until I'm done with the big November 6th performance. I'll make sure to do a decent write-up about that. In the meantime, you can see my day-to-day activities at my artBlog and at my devBlog. This is where I spend less time thinking and just write about what I'm doing.

[ddg]

NFL.com, how I grumble at thee...

OK, so maybe I'm just cranky about the tremendous fail that is the Green Bay Packers. But this is week 5, and in all five weeks of the regular season (as well as all the weeks of the preseason) there have been technical problems with the AudioPass feed or the Game Center console. Both of these things are managed by small monkeys with extraordinarily large hands, and it is clear that these monkeys grew up in a Czech zoo with no understanding of the local (or any other) language and an Eastern European concept of American football.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate. A little. Still, I have problems with the audio feed every week (and I can hear the opponents radiocast without a problem, so I know it's not my gear or connection. I've stopped sending support requests because they now ignore 'em. I've spent a bunch of money on this feed, and I expect the vendor to, um, deliver.

Is it really that hard. Have a smart guy on the Game Center. Have a competent camera operator doing the analysis shoots. But try to figure out the audio feed before either the MacBook or dLink box go flying through the window.

Durnit.

Followup: Every week since this posting, the audio has been balled up coming back from commercials. This shows you exactly the amount of power I wield in the media world: NONE.

[ddg]

The Long Haul

Leaving this evening for the long haul to Minneapolis to play at the Spark Festival. I don't leave until after 6pm (due to classes and work), and I have to be there at 7:30pm for sound check. That means pretty much a straight shot - Google Maps tells me it is about a 14 hour drive, but that doesn't include zonking out at waysides and such. I'm actually a little nervous about this, but I'll burn it out. See you there?

Results of the gig will be posted on the ArtBlog.

[Note: I forgot to publish this before I left, so now you get this message along with an iPhone photo of the late-night dashboard...]
[ddg]