The ScooterBlog

Yes, it’s true, the Reds don’t suck this year! It’s not that they have been utterly atrocious the past two years either, they just didn’t have the horses to play 162 games and be competitive throughout the entire campaign. Now with some new pitching in Ramon Ortiz and Eric Milton, there will at least be enough innings for the starters to be successful and not kill the bullpen.

And, there’s plenty of offense to go around. As long as Wily Mo has a good year, I’d be happy to see Griffey come back and have a 30 / 100 / .300 average season, the same for Kearns with his injury issues. If we get that out of both of them, the offense will be exemplary.

My initial hope? 85-87 wins. That would not be off the charts awesome but it would be in the direction they want to go. Then add another piece next year and maybe we’re looking at division champs.

That’s my thought. Should you care, what’s yours?

A quick bit of thanks to Megan McNames on her mention of our 8-Bit Triathlon this weekend in the University of Cincinnati News Record’s Weekend Out Section! We’ll forgive her ignorance to not knowing how cool Tecmo Bowl or R.C. Pro Am is, that’s her loss!

Anyways, are you planning to attend on Saturday? Feel free to leave me a comment here, or go to the page above, sign up for UC’s Record News, and let Megan know just how much of a happening event this will be this weekend!

The launch of the Playstation Portable, commonly known as the PSP, is now only a month away. The system will retail in the US for $249 and come with a basic carrying pouch, 32MB Memory Stick Duo, and UMD Movie Version of Spider-Man 2. Not a bad package for a system with almost as much punch as a Playstation 2!

There are two important details from a Game Junkie sense that are worth noting right now:

• As of right now, Game Junkie will not be taking pre-orders for the PSP systems due to uncertain quantities at launch. We would love to promise people that we will have enough PSP’s to meet the expected demand, but since we’re not sure right now, we don’t want to disappoint people. We will be taking pre-orders on all games and accessories, and plan to bring in more affordable Memory Stick DUO cards as well.

• We do, however, have something no other store in Cincinnati has … a PSP for you to try! We have an imported Japanese PSP unit complete with Ridge Racers for you to see the graphics and features, and we’ve even encoded some video onto the Memory Card to play with for your viewing pleasure, so we’ll be pros at helping you with any questions about the PSP you may have.

So as we gear up for the launch of an awful good looking handheld entertainment deck, Game Junkie will be there to help you with anything you want to know or ever thought you could do, so that you can get your gaming fix!

So here’s my stumbled upon site of the night, found through a friend’s site: Speed Demos Archive. The site literally has thousands of videos of speed demo runs from both PC and video games. The one I’m looking at right now is a 36 minute run of Legend Of Zelda from 6/20/04. It’s a 90 Meg DiVX download, and the guy even said he cauclated a minute and a half of mistakes and explained why he can get the run down to 33 minutes, and beat the record of 34.

34 minutes to beat Zelda?! I somehow think Miyamoto would both be happy and displeased at the same time. WOW!

So when I got my iBook back, I figured I could return to my normal level of blogging. Yeah, not so much! But here I am, putting a good entry together, so it’s all good.

Anyways, this is my thought for the day. I like Ohio and all, but I was driving with Danielle through my old stomping grounds in beautiful Fort Mitchell, and showed her where my old apartment was in Sherwood Knoll, and got to thinking … that I really like Northern Kentucky more then I do Cincinnati still. It’s a nicer area, more peaceful, and all in all I would have to drive a lot less. On average, I put about 3,000 miles in my car monthly, and while I plan to keep my car long enough to not have to worry about specifics in mileage, it would be nice to drive about 30% to 40% less every single month (and every store I’d need outside of a couple of computer stores is in Northern Kentucky anyways).

The roommate thing has not been as pleasant as it used to be, and having a girlfriend now, I can see a real need for more privacy and freedom, you know, the reasons you move out from your parents eventually! Having a little less space total space, and maybe some more space to call my own also sounds awful good right now.

The plan right now is June. If I could have everything ready to go by June life would just be awesome. I think it can happen, it’s just going to take a lot of savings, and a lot less disposable purchases, but that has been better the last month or so, hopefully I can continue along that path.

’tis all for now. Here comes the Commonwealth!

To everyone waiting in great anticipation for the release of Gran Turismo 4 at Game Junkie, we have good news and not too bad news:

THE NOT SO BAD NEWS: We anticipate having the game on Wednesday morning. As always, your patience is appreciated, and we promise you won’t have to wait any longer to play this eagerly anticipated game!

THE GOOD NEWS: If the wait is absolutely positively killing you, we invite you to just come on in and play Gren Turismo 3 like you never have before. We currently are using three of our game stations for a linked Gran Turismo 3 setup which allows you to play a single race on three screens simultaneously! Imagine having side mirrors to see what is happening around you, and there you go!

On top of that, the link setup also allows for multiplayer play of up to 6 players, so bring friends! We never mind groups, and you may find some other stuff that you will love.

So come in tonight, play some Gran Turismo 3, heck, bring in your memory card and show off your created monster before GT4 hits at Game Junkie tomorrow!

We invite you to come into Game Junkie and go “old school”, let us know how much you loved the 80’s, however you want to phrase it, we’re getting our retro on and we want you to be a part of it!

We’re having our “8-Bit Triathlon” this weekend starting at 11:30 AM. It will feature three great NES 8-bit classics for your competing pleasure!

• Tecmo Bowl - Still what some consider to be one of the most fun football games of all time, it’s a 7-on-7 classic that is still enjoyed by many many players.
• Dr. Mario - One of the best puzzle games that the system had to offer, players have to match up vitamin capsules of similar colors to knock out the viruses.
• RC Pro-Am - A radio control car racer complete with 4-player support, power-ups (and damage), and winding treacherous tracks which never give you a second to rest on your lead.

A $10 entry fee will get you into all three events and we’ll have great prizes for the winners. Each event will be a tournament onto itself, either single or double elimination time permitting, and each event will have a champion crowned.

This should be a lot of fun and a more relaxed tournament then some of our others, so if you want to check it out, or even if you think you just have “skills”, come and play!

You can e-mail me or comment here with any questions you may have.