The Roundup

Nintendo mashups are cool.

The first look at Thor is, um, disconcertingly plastic. Maybe they plan to make it all shiny in post?

Letting a sick kid be a superhero for a day is heartwarming (and maybe, possibly, makes me a little bit misty-eyed).

My Life in Video Game Controllers

Cool Infographics had this little nugget of joy this morning. This is just begging to be made into a t-shirt.

Games People Play

Lego Star Wars: The Video Game. Two words: time suck. As ridiculous as the premise sounds (basically, you play through the storylines of the three prequels as Lego versions of the main characters), this game is equal parts action-packed, silly, and totally addictive, with enough puzzles and challenges throughout to keep kids (and kids-at-heart) amused for days on end. I recommend combining this game with Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy if you're looking for ways to kill a month or so of free time.

Free time

Beware the Ides of March, because it usually means there's a bunch of crap at the movie theaters. Since my schedule was pretty light this weekend, I hit the old Yahoo Movies listings to see what I could catch up on, and there wasn't a single thing that made me excited enough to want to leave my couch. The mainstream theaters are full of crap like The Shaggy Dog, Madea's Family Reunion and Failure to Launch, and even the new Landmark Theater has the same old stuff. If I didn't want to see Capote and Transamerica two months ago, I still don't want to see them now. The only thing that looked mildly interesting was The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, but mildly interesting is not enough to get me to drive 30 minutes and pay $8. Thankfully, the Sopranos starts tonight, so I can at least get an hour of decent entertaiment this weekend.

So instead of a movie, I decided to simulate the US's first round of World Cup games on FIFA 06 (yes, I was really bored, and yes, I am also a big nerd). Playing in order, I took on the Czech Republic, Italy, and Nigeria, who took the place of Ghana, who are not available on the game. And I have to say, if the actual World Cup turns out the way my games did, I'll not only be shocked, but ecstatic.

For my lineup, I set up the team in a 4-4-2 with a box midfield, since that seems the most likely formation given the way the US has played in the past. I assumed either John O'Brien or Claudio Reyna would be injured, so I left O'Brien off the squad in favor of Clint Dempsey. Also, I played Bobby Convey at left back, even though Eddie Lewis has been playing there a lot. But I prefer to have Convey on the field, and there wasn't a place for him in midfield. So my US squad that took the field against the Czechs like this:
Johnson McBride
Beasley Donovan
Mastroeni Reyna
Convey Bocanegra Onyewu Cherundolo
Keller
The US started well, but the Czechs took the lead against the run of play on a breakaway in the 13th minute. Soon after, Brian McBride was injured on a a nasty tackle from behind that only earned a yellow card for the Czech defender. McBride couldn't continue, so I had to sub him in the 21st minute for Taylor Twellman. After a back-and-forth game, the sub finally paid off as Twellman got on the end of a Beasley cross and headed home in the 80th minute. With a final of 1-1, the US earned a point in their first match.

Against Italy, I started with the same lineup. I assumed McBride had recovered, so he returned to the starting lineup, and made a major impact on the game. In the 4th minute, the US earned a corner. McBride headed Reyna's kick towards goal, and in the ensuing scramble, an Italian defender knocked it into his own net. 1-0 US. The US kept the pressure on throughout the first half, and at the stroke of halftime, Donovan crossed for McBride, who knocked it past the Italian keeper. 2-0. Apparently, the injury was completely gone, because in the 65th minute, McBride got on the end of another Reyna corner, and this time put away the cross himself. 3-0. In the 80th minute I subbed Dempsey for Reyna and Twellman for Johnson. Both players managed to hit the post in their 10 minutes, but the game ended 3-0.

So with 4 points in their first two matches and the weakest opponent coming last, I decided to rest a few players. For Nigeria/Ghana, the starters looked like this:
Johnson Twellman
Beasley Donovan
Mastroeni Reyna
Lewis Bocanegra Pope Cherundolo
Keller
Despite a few backups in the lineup, the US ran roughshod over the Africans. Mastroeni headed in a corner in the 30th. Beasley tucked past the keeper on a breakaway in the 41st. Johnson headed in a corner in the 45th. Beasley finished another breakaway in the 70th, and Twellman topped off the scoring with another breakaway in the 90th minute. Dempsey entered for Reyna and Cory Gibbs for Mastroeni in the 81st minute, and the game ended 5-0.

So with 7 points, I decided the US would advance to the next round where they would have to face mighty Brazil. I went back to the original starting lineup, and they did not begin well, allowing Ronaldinho to touch home a corner in only the 4th minute. The US recovered their composure and took the match to the Brazilians, paying off their hard work in the 20th minute when Landon Donovan knocked in a deflected corner kick. But just after halftime, Ronaldo showed some of his old form and left 3 US defenders in the dust to tuck home past Keller. Despite the introduction of Dempsey for Mastroeni in the 71st minute and a slew of chances for the offense, the US was never able to find another goal and were eliminated from my simulated World Cup.

Now, I very highly doubt the US will score 9 goals in their first round games, but a tie and 2 wins in the first round would have Nats fans going nuts come June. Hopefully, the outcome is somewhere close to this favorable.

Save some time for me

Busy, busy, busy. Between work, going to Chicago last weekend, and getting ready to host Thanksgiving, leisure time's been at a premium lately. I haven't even watched last night's extended Lost episode yet! However, I can't completely ignore pop culture. Here's what I've been occupied with lately:

Holiday movies. I feel like I've hardly seen any movies in the theater lately, mainly due to lack of interest in anything out there. I mean, I see more 50 Cent than I ever need to in the 20 minutes of MTV I watch each month. However, my moviegoing frequency is due for an upswing now that the holiday season has arrived. Harry Potter, Walk the Line, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang are just a few of the earliest group of movies on my list. Luckily, with 5 days of Thanksgiving vacation rapidly approaching, hopefully I'll get to catch a few of what seems to be a promising crop of holiday films. And with event pictures like King Kong and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe looming on the horizon, I have a feeling there will be plenty of reviews in my near future.

Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. OK, I admit it. I am way late to the party on this one. This is arguably the most influential comic of the last 25 years, andhere I am getting around to reading it 20 years after it was published. After hearing how great this book is for decades and reading Entertainment Weekly's recent article on the far-flung influence Watchmen has had on popular culture as a whole, I finally got around to checking the collected series out of the library. Well, I'm on board. Alan Moore is a god. It is worth every bit of hype it gets, and I haven't even finished it. Aside from setting the template for pretty much every superhero comic written since 1985, it's also a great story, and one of the first to really examine what drives a man or woman to put on a mask and risk having the crap kicked out of them every night. Much like Moore's equally excellent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, once I got around to reading Watchmen, I regretted having waited so long.

"Perfect Situation", Weezer. When I first picked up Weezer's latest, Make Believe, I was a little underwhelmed. It just seemed a little too bland and harmless. But lately, Weezer's made frequent appearances on my iPod, and it's led me to reconsider some of the hidden pleasures on the new disc. "Perfect Situation" happens to be one of them. There's something about this track that hits me the right way. And they made a great video featuring Elisha Cuthbert as the band's orginal lead singer. My only question is, what did No Doubt do to earn this not-so-subtle jab?

Star Wars Battlefront II for the XBox. And finally, the real reason my free time has been so scarce. This game managed to incorporate more strategy and depth while retaining all the "blast the stormtroopers, Ewoks, Jawas, and pretty much anything else that moves" of the original. Totally addictive.

Caaaable Guy!

It's amazing how much you can get done while waiting for the cable guy to arrive. Thanks to my DVR hard drive having an "unrecoverable write error", I've been sitting in my living room since 9:00 awaiting what will likely be a 5 minute visit. In that time, I've been able to pack for my weekend trip to Chicago, go through all my mail from the past week, pay my bills online, file a bunch of papers, clean my kitchen, carry on two email conversations, check in with work, and play a few rounds of Bionic Commando (one of the many games on the Capcom Classic Collection that I got for my birthday). Maybe I should be trapped in my apartment more often. Apparently, I'd get a lot more done.

Great. Well, at least I had a productive morning. The f@%#ing idiots at Bright House are telling me they can't get here because one street downtown is blocked off for the Veteran's Day parade. Glad I burned a vacation half-day for this. Morons.