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 On 01/13/2017 at 12:49 PM by goaztecs See More From This User » |
Well good morning Pixlpeeps! As I type this what is normally sunny Southern California is gray, gloomy, and wet because we are having another storm roll through. Yesterday it was just gray and gloomy with sprinkles here and there, but now the water hitting everything is a symphony of different sounds and it is a perfect time to have some soup and maybe catch up on some reading...OR I can write about my experiences with you good people. Yeah I'll be back in a couple of hours.
I'm kidding, anyways let's get started with this edition of Quick Hits with Chris!
Chris' Opinions on the Chargers
Full disclosure I am not a San Diego Chargers fan. When I got to San Diego, I gravitated towards the San Diego Padres and not the Chargers. I was all in with the Dallas Cowboys, and I refused to root for another team, but baseball was different and I figured why not, games were cheap, the team is good, and its a short bus ride from SDSU to what was then Jack Murphy Stadium. The Chargers were different. I didn't care for them because only a couple of years earlier they were in the Super Bowl getting blown out, and the fans I met thought they were the best team in the NFL. I thought Junior Seau was overrated (that has since changed), and the rest of the city was hardcore Chargers bandwagon. What changed my view of Junior is during the winter time he has this program where he takes underprivileged kids to a store to buy clothing. One year it changed venues so the kids could buy clothes and toys. One story I heard was that one child wanted to use his giftcard to buy groceries for his family. Junior told the child not to worry and he'll buy the groceries and he did. That point on I became a Seau fan. Throughout the years the program has gotten bigger and it now involves pros and the college athletes walking around with the kids while they shop.
San Diego is not a big city compared to LA or San Francisco. It has a different vibe, everything is not as fast paced. The city is made up of a lot of transplants because of the military, weather, and schools. You can see a lot of team specific bars, but when the local teams are doing well people will show up. Despite all of this there was a lot of Chargers fandom in the city. It was their team. Charger gear was everywhere, hell I own some. The team had a loyal following, but ownership seemed to be indifferent to this.The Chargers have been asking for a new stadium for decades. As someone who didn't follow the team it seemed like ownership wouldn't kick in any cash to help build this stadium and instead wanted tax money and time after time it would get shot down by voters (like myself, I voted a couple of times against taxpayer dollars going towards the stadium). The city added on new seats to an aging facility like Qualcomm, the last of the multipurpose stadiums. The Padres were already moving to a baseball only venue downtown, and the Chargers wanted the same. Soon it became a battle between the fans, the city, and the team. Fans wouldn't show up to games so they were blacked out locally. The stadium is a mess, ownership has always wanted to move but put in a half-hearted effort to stay, and with all the threats to move finally everything became real yesterday
Who's at fault? Everybody. I feel the Spano's family didn't try hard enough to stay in San Diego. In fact it seems like they've wanted to leave for years. They should have done so years ago. Pay for the stadium you wanted out of your pocket instead of piggy backing on the Rams. The City is at fault for not doing something fifteen years ago and have steps in place to replace Qualcomm. Something should have been done right after the 98 Super Bowl to make sure San Diego stays in the Super Bowl rotation. The fans are partly to blame because they let it get to a point where opposing teams felt it was a home game for them at the stadium. I do feel for the fans. The loyal folks who watched their team leave, and the owner make the rounds around LA introducing a product that the city doesn't really want. Ask any LA fan and they would rather have the Rams and Raiders in Los Angeles than the Rams and Chargers. The Chargers are behind the Lakers, Dodgers, USC Football, Rams, UCLA Football, Clippers, Kings, and Galaxy. Maybe even further because Los Angeles is also home to quite a few transplants so their team takes precedence.
So what is next for San Diego? I'm hoping that the city turns the Mission Valley location over to the San Diego State for west expansion, and a smaller stadium for Aztec Football and a future MLS team. The location is perfect. It is between two major freeways, has a huge trolly stop, and is minutes from the main campus. I hope the city rallies around SDSU, the Padres, future MLS team, and the minor league San Diego Gulls, and hopefully someday the NFL returns to America's Finest City. Throughout the craziness of yesterday sports teams were having fun at the expense of the Chargers place holder logo
Chris Watches...
Rogue One
On Monday I decided to take a trip to the local swanky theater with the reserved leather reclining seats.
That's me!
So I went to the 12:50 showing, and popcorn is an appropriate lunch right? Here are my thoughts about the flick...black bars of course because there will be spoilers. Highlight if you want to read.
First reaction is where is the scrolling text, and why isn't John Williams doing the music? This movie is dark. It's nothing like the trilogy, and I told my friend this isn't a Star Wars movie. It's a war film with Star Wars sprinkled in. I loved all the little Easter eggs thrown in throughout the flick and I missed the ones involving Star Wars Rebels. The final battle is what got me, and where everything tied into the trilogy. It was heartbreaking on the beach because I thought they would get out of it, but just like my friend said, you know everybody dies because they're not mentioned in Episode IV. It got really heartbreaking when you saw CGI Princess Leia and but that ending was absolutely awesome. This is a great movie, and hopefully it sets the stage for more high quality one off flicks set within the Star Wars Universe.
For you folks who haven't seen it yet, GO SEE THIS MOVIE!
Nintendo Switch Presentation
In one sentence: Thanks Nintendo for making sure I stick with Sony and or Microsoft.
Chris Listens To...
I took a little break yesterday listening to San Diego Sports Radio. I also added a bunch of Jane Siberry albums that I had. A couple of years ago she was giving away her discography on her website so I downloaded them because I never heard of her but from a couple of song I sampled I thought it would be worth it to check out her music.
I will make up for Thursday's songs this weekend.
Pickups!
Games
The first game I picked up for 2017 is actually a season pass for a game I already own
The Lego Force Awakens Season Pass was $3 on Bundle Stars so I bought it. I tried one of the DLC levels, and I like it. Most of the Season Pass however is just character packs. Let's see if this along with watching Rogue One ignites my interest in earning a 100% in the game.
I got this as a birthday gift
Along with these vehicles
I ended up buying these figures for like $5
I watched a video about Super Chargers and it says it is a solid racing game, but the platforming is decent, and I really didn't need to buy a lot of figures to play the game. I believe the Starter Pack, and sealed vehicles came out to $10 each. I will install it in a bit because I finished Telltale Batman last night so this will be the next game I jump into.
Lego
Before I went to the theater I checked out the local Toys R Us to see if they had any new Lego and I spotted these polybags on a peg board
They were the giveaways when someone bought either $75 or $100 worth of Lego and it looked like not a lot of people did because the board was full of these polybags. I bought two of each so I could open one and keep the other sealed.
From earlier in the week
More Lego Batman Movie Blind Bags and Polybags. I'm really digging the fun Batman figures and the swimming pool Batman is hilarious.
Alright Pixlbit I have a game to install. Its still raining here in what is usually Sunny Southern California. Have a good weekend!
That's all for now, more later!
-Chris
This is easily my favorite song connected to a sports team. The beginning is the best! Have a good weekend!
ha ha, yes the Switch presentation was horrid. But the hardware and software looks fucking awesome.
I liked Rogue One a lot too.
It's too bad about the Chargers. I don't know about two teams in LA though. Maybe one of the could have gone to Las Vegas or something?
Nintendo did such a terrible job selling their console. I don't have high hopes for it especially after talking to some folks and seeing that the pre-orders are still available for it.
Rogue One was good, and I can't wait to see the next stand alone flick.
The Chargers moved because they were scared the Raiders were going to take that spot. The Raiders will end up going to Las Vegas, and the Chargers will be the team that nobody cares about. At least the Rams have a following in LA, the Chargers left their following in San Diego.
My phone won't let me highlight black bars. Darn!
I still haven't seen the Switch presentation.
The Dallas Stars turned the Cowboys logo green and asked if it was cool. I think that logo, but with yellow letters is the final?
Boo the phone! I basically wrote about a couple of things I didn't like and how everything tied into Episode IV, which I call Rogue One Part II just to annoy some Star Wars fan friends of mine.
Yeah I saw what the Stars did. There are some really funny ones and San Diego was quick to print out LAme shirts and signs.
I agree it was really more a WWII movie with a Star Wars skin.
I actually didn't think the ending was that heartbreaking, only because I expected it and didn't really get to know the characters. That final shot of the blast from the Death Star enveloping everything was great though.
I'm not enough of a SW fan to know, but I think there HAVE to be some discrepancies between Episode IV and Rogue One continuity-wise. Maybe not.
The presentation had no effect on me, the console looks fun for me and I know the one game Ill be playing for first few months it launches is Zelda. Im getting the Master Edition of it. Im just hoping they put some of the Wii Us library on the Switch since finding a Wii U is now rare.
Superchargers was the worst of the Skylanders sets. Hopefully you like it but for me, it was so bad I sold all my figures because I figured that was the end for it. However Imagintors has been really good so far. They made quite a comeback with that.
I'm glad you're still excited about the Switch. Did you see the Zelda branded items like the dock? I thought that was pretty cool.
You know Superchargers isn't a bad game, and it isn't a great game. It's kind of like Ratchet & Clank for me but not as entertaining. A lot of the levels are is basically the same, look for gold, fight bad guys, collect stars, and end the level with a funky boss battle. This is probably the only Skylanders game I will play because I'd rather put that money into Lego Dimensions.
I did, they look awesome!
I still have yet to play lego dimensions. I was gonna play it with an ex a long time ago but it never happened. One day i shall get it and play it!
Im a Packers fan and have been since the 1960s, however I've always like the Chargers because way back in the day they had a player named Lance Alworth who grew up from around here and was kind of a local hero. So the Packers were my NFL team and The Chargers were my AFL team. I hate that they're moving.
Oh yeah I know Lance, more because of NFL Films and when I was in San Diego whenever folks mention Charger greats he's always comes up.
Funny thing about the Chargers moving is that there was an article in the LA Times a couple of days before the move where the author basically said LA doesn't want the Chargers. This was made clear last weekend during a Clippers game when the Charger logo flashed on the video boards it was met with boos. Funny especially considering the Clippers once called San Diego home and their owner at the time did the same thing Dean Spanos is doing.
The Rogue One soundtrack sounded so much like Williams. I didn't realize it wasn't him until I watched the credits and saw Giacometi (some name like that).
Jet-Vac (the eagle-like Skylander) has become a running joke with Mark and I since seeing the TV show. In the show, he's frequently laying an egg when he gets nervous. It's funny and also strange since his voice is male and male birds don't lay eggs.
Yeah I thought it was odd to not include John Williams with this film. I don't know if I should get the soundtrack, heck I still haven't picked up Force Awakens Soundtrack.
That's funny about Jet-Vac. I haven't used any of the other figures yet, but at some point I should because I spent money on the dang things.
Williams is 84 now. Wow. Maybe he's taking it easy for once.
This guy shows a few, but there were many more in the TV series.
That video is freaking hilarious!
There'a a popping sound it makes. Mark just makes that sound now and I know exactly what he's referencing, Jet-Vac.
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