RonVitale.com

Writing and the Olympics Closing Ceremony

I’m tired.  Today my brother and I worked on buying 7 bookshelves at Ikea, loading up the 13 boxes into his SUV and then unloading them into our living room.  I put together two of the bookshelves together for my son and my wife and I put all his toys and books back onto the shelves.  At the moment, I’m watching the closing ceremony, seeing a man floating in the air by a giant fan.  It’s the closing Olympic ceremony in Torino, Italy.  I feel a bit sad at the closing of these games. In the world in which we live in, I so enjoyed watching the games.  I liked to think that for two weeks, the world had come together in peace in celebration of friendly competition.  How amazing it is to see people from so many nationalities come together to enjoy and compete in the games.  (The men who are floating on the TV screen in Torino are being forced up into the air by a fan that is shooting up 125/mph wind at them.  It’s beautiful looking.) 

When I come back to reality, away from the games, I see the war in Iraq, the violence occurring over in that country, the disagreement over the selling of 6 American ports to UAE, and the countless other problems in the war (Iran striving for nuclear power, Israel and its fight with Palestine), and countless atrocities happening in Africa.  I’d like to think that our world is growing and maturing, becoming a better place for all of us to live in, but it’s not true in some portions of the world.  If I had an answer, I would share it with everyone.  Maybe it’s something as easy as: Love one another.  Or: “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”  I suspect it is that easy.  It’s a start.

I’m about to head off and go relax for the night, watching some TV.  Earlier today I did a good amount of research on where to submit some stories of mine.  I finally took some time to go through my records and figure out where I wanted to send my stories to.  I dislike having stories in the can and didn’t have a chance to get them back out into the hands of editors at various magazines.  Tomorrow I’ll send two magazines into the mail and this evening I submitted two stories via e-mail to two web only magazines. 

I look at it this way: I received an acceptance for my “how to” writing story, a tentative acceptance for my Magic: The Gathering article (just waiting for the contract in the mail), and am waiting for news on a story of mine.  Now I have two other pieces out in the mail, will be sending two more out tomorrow, and have a fifth story on a literary forum that is being considered for a magazine.  It’s not much, but at least it’s something. 

Now if I could only make some time to do some more writing.  It’s great that I made some time to get these pieces out in the mail and e-mail, but I need to get back into writing.  The problem though: Making time.  There’s a lot of work that has yet to be done in our house.  And, to be honest, I haven’t been inspired to write anything.  I’m not forcing myself though.  I’m stretched apart as it is: Doing a video podcast, writing in my blog, getting articles out in the mail, working, and the rest of my full life.  Let’s just say that I don’t have much free time.  It’s been difficult.

And with that said: I’m off.

Goodbye Torino! Thank you for the fond memories.  NBC: Your Olympics coverage was extremely poor.  But the games themselves, in my heart I’m happy that the Olympic spirit is still alive and well.  I can’t wait for China in 2008!  Peace and good night.

Episode 8: Ravnica/Guildpact/Ninth Edition Deck Challenge

Download the video blog in 640x480 divX 5.1.1 format (50.1 MB)
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Show Notes:

--Introduction to episode 8: The Ravinca/Guildpact/Ninth edition deck challenge. Rules to the deck challenge:

Can use up to 2 of the same card from only Ravnica, Guildpact, or Ninth edition sets.
Only commons can be used.
60 card deck with a 15 card sideboard.
Any number of basic land can be used.
Post deck listing in MTGSalvation forums for others to see.

--To help you build the deck, visit: http://gatherer.wizards.com/ or http://www.magiccards.info/

--Discussion of the red/white deck I built and a gold fish run through. Review of the sideboard.

Red/White Deck

Creatures

2 Aven Flock
2 Boros Recruit
2 Conclave Equenaut
2 Foot Soldiers
2 Hill Giant
2 Master Decoy
2 Nightguard Patrol
2 Pegasus Charger
2 Screeching Griffin
2 Skyknight Legionnaire
2 Thundersong Trumpeter
2 Veteran Armorer

Spells

2 Boros Signet
2 Faith's Fetters
2 Pacifism
2 Rally the Righteous
2 Shock
2 Volcanic Hammer

Lands

13 Mountain
11 Plains

Sideboard

2 Aven Cloudchaser
2 Demystify
2 Goblin Spelunkers
2 Holy Day
1 Leave No Trace
2 Pyromatics
2 Rain of Embers
2 Withstand

Total running time: 12 minutes and 14 seconds.

Creative Commons License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Editor's Note: Quicktime will allow you to play the 320 x 240 .m4v file. If you see no video when you trying to play the DivX file or if the video does not play at all, we suggest you download the VLC media player (nearly every OS) or the DivX codec.

Subscribe using iTunes: To subscribe to The Magic Sock using iTunes, simply click here. (You'll need to have iTunes installed on your computer.)

For more information on how to subscribe to a podcast (video or audio), be sure to check out episode 5 of The Magic Sock: "How to Subscribe to a Podcast."

Closing:

Magic: The Gathering is trademarked and owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. The Magic Sock is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro in any way. To send feedback, send an e-mail to themagicsock@gmail.com. Audio feedback is welcome but please keep the mp3 file to under 45 seconds and be sure to mention your name and city/state/country.

Frustrated

At around 6pm on Feb. 21st, I learned who won the ladies figure skating short program at the Torino Olympic games.  Sasha Cohen had won by a mere .03 of a point.  Impressive!  My wife and I had wanted to watch the figure skating program and I made sure not to tell her any of the results.  She had wanted to remain surprised.  So my wife put our son to bed and I worked on painting the baseboards in our front room (that is to become the library—though right now it looks like a room that has a bunch of mismatch furniture crammed in the center with plastic sheets covering everything). 

We were bad last night and ordered pizza and hoagies so at 8:30 pm we were settled for the night, eating dinner in front of TV, thinking that we’d watch figure skating.  NBC showed a few of the girls skate and then they switched to their bobsled coverage.  And then they switched to their speed skating coverage.  And then back to a human interest story on one of the female bobsled riders.  At this point it was after 10pm, and I had had enough.  I’ve been recovering from being sick and haven’t been feeling well so I went to bed.  I read in bed for a bit and then passed out.  But before going to bed, I taped the remaining hour and a half of figure skating.  The next morning I woke up, turned on my DVR, and then jumped to the points of the broadcast that I wanted to see.  Why?  Because I’m sick and tired of NBC’s coverage of the Olympics.  There’s no recap of any of the hockey matches at night.  Either I need to tape them and watch them at night or I’m screwed.  Sure, you can find the scores online, but there’s no audio or video Webcast of these events.  If you miss them, then that’s that.  You’re done.  Instead, I have to sit through a bunch of commentary crap on NBC and tons of commercials. 

NBC’s coverage of the Olympics has been horrible, to put it bluntly.  I’m tired of their human interest stories, their crappy sports coverage, the sub par high definition feed, and their plain disregard for content that viewers want.  I don’t want to spending 3 and a half hours sitting in front of the TV watching all those commercials and coverage of events that I don’t want to see.  What’s most frustrating is that there is no forward thinking model of watching content: You can’t purchase highlights of the events on iTunes, you can’t use Comcast’s On Demand feature to pull up games you missed during the day, and there’s no Webcasts to watch of the events.  Heck, you can’t even listen to the events live as they’re happening.  Instead, a big event like figure skating, it chopped up and you’re given what NBC wants you to see.  I believe there were 29 women who skated last night.  We’re lucky if we saw half of that.  I understand that there are challenges in putting together a show that cannot fully embrace the magnitude of the events as they’re occurring overseas in Torino.  I’m not sure if the lack of technological advances being used in the Olympic broadcast is caused by the IOC or NBC, but it is frustrating and annoying.  With my Comcast cable bill being so expensive, I expect to have great content and excellent quality.  Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.  But I have no options.  Either I watch NBC’s coverage or I miss out.  There’s no other option.  If highlights of the major college footballs games (Rose Bowl, etc.) were available for sale on iTunes after the games, why isn’t there a similar deal with Olympic coverage?  Or, better yet, why isn’t NBC offering On Demand coverage to Comcast subscribers? 

Let’s face it: With Netflix, other major networks, podcasts, video podcasts, games, and books, there are about at least five other activities I could be doing instead of watching the Olympics.  Our time is precious.  I’m not going to waste it watching a zillion commercials and in not seeing what I want to see.  In a world in which time shifting is part of my everyday routine, I’m downloading video podcasts, podcasts, and taping TV shows to watch later, there’s no reason for me to sit through the advertising.  Of course, advertising pays for the shows.  I do understand that, but there’s better ways of advertising.  There are commercials that I will watch: If they’re funny or educational. 

In the year 2006, you would think that the media could come up with better ways to show Olympic content.  If NBC doesn’t find a more effective way of showing the games, the audience is going to continue to drop (I believe I mentioned that viewer ship for these games are very low—lowest since the 1988 games).  When people can download TV shows via BitTorrent to watch whatever they want, why wouldn’t I just try to get content from BitTorrent for the 2008 games?  Heck, with China being 12 or so hours ahead, if there’s no Webcasting, we’ll have to wait more than half a day to see the events.  It just doesn’t add up.

The problem is: Too many people don’t care any more and they’ve moved on.  With a remote control on your hand or a laptop by you, there are too many other choices to make.  If the show you’re watching doesn’t grab you, then you’ll stop watching it.  To make a comparison, in podcasting, commercial experiments are taking place: Earthlink is allowing listeners of podcasts to make their own commercials for Earthlink.  I’ll listen to those commercials because it’s funny to hear what normal people can come up with.  But on TV, there needs to be a new way of providing better commercials and programming.

I understand that NBC wants to make money, but their coverage didn’t work for the last games and it’s surely not working for these.  I only hope they wise up and learn how to come up with more innovative ways of showing the Olympics on TV.  Maybe they’ll take some of my advice and think of adding content to iTunes or On Demand cable services.  Both options would be a step in the right direction!

Olympics and The Constant Gardener

The 2006 Turin Olympic games are moving along nicely, but I almost feel as though Americans are missing out on the fun. Coverage by NBC has been spotty at best with the sub par HDTV feed and downright corny commentary. NBC has been broadcasting the Olympic games in high definition, but the signal is being compressed and fast moving scenes look blocky. Bill Hunt of www.thedigitalbits.com www.thedigitalbits.com explains: “I must say, however, that what NBC calls high-def leaves something to be desired. It's 1080i, sure. But talk about digital compression! If you want to know what extreme examples of compression artifacting look like, watch NBC's Winter Olympics coverage. You'll see it just about any time something large moves too fast, or when you get a ton of little somethings moving all at once. When everything's still, the image looks great. But when it gets busy... it's a blocky, UG-LY mess. NBC take note. Broadcasters are just WAY over-compressing their HD signals these days, and it's a real shame.”

When I was watching the Opening Ceremonies last week, I thought there was something wrong with our TV. Yeah, it looked that bad. When Americans are more interested in watching American Idol (three new shows are on this week to compete with Olympic coverage), you have to stop and take notice that the games just aren’t as popular this year as they’ve been in the past. I read last week that viewer ship in the USA is at an all-time low with the 1988 winter games.

I had high expectations in watching these games, but when all the events I want to see are over by the time I get home from work, there’s no real suspense. Sure, I can stop looking up results on the Web, but then I have to sit through 3 and a half hours of coverage at night with tons of commercials. Sometimes I just can’t do that, deciding to look up who won instead of staying up until 11:30 pm. It’s not worth it. I’ve loved watching the Olympics since I was a young teenager. I’ve always thought that the unifying of different people and cultures in one sporting event is wonderful for peace and understanding. However, these winter games appear to be more about the “haves” rather than the “have nots.” Big sponsorship is playing its role—every athlete is hawking some corporate logo. And if I have to see another Bode commercial, I think I might scream. He’s not won a medal and is a bit pompous. Honestly, I don’t care.

But I am enjoying the games, I’m just not so tied into the American athletes this time around. I’m looking forward to watching more hockey and the ladies’ figure skating. It’s just that the coverage in general is a disappointment. Between the poor quality of the HD feed, the horrible commentary, the tons of commercials, and the lack of coverage (there’s no recap that I’ve been able to see on any of the hockey matches during the normal 3 ½ hours of coverage each night), I’m disappointed with NBC’s handling of the games on TV. Maybe the Summer games in China will be better. Though with the time difference being so great, it’ll be another difficult event to watch.

Onto other topics: My wife and I saw The Constant Gardener this past weekend. Rachel Weisz is nominated for the best supporting actress Oscar and I can see why. A powerful movie. I would agree with reviewers who have stated that the best part of the movie is the first part. Once the “thriller” aspect took over, I lost some interest in the film. And I must admit that the ending disturbed me. I woke up wondering why the main character did what he did (I don’t want to spoil anything here for those of you who might want to see the film). After some thinking, I realized why, it is pretty common sense, but I was touched by the loneliness of Fiennes’ character. Granted, the film has a strong message, but it presents no answers and real life is never so black and white. I wouldn’t say that it was the best film of the year. Would I recommend it? Yes, I would suggest taking the time to see the film. It’s a powerful film with strong performances. Definitely, worth your time.

Episode 7: "Has Magic Jumped the Shark?" (Part 2)

Download the video blog in 640x480 divX 5.1.1 format (86.8 MB)
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Show Notes

--Introduction: Episode 7 of "The Magic Sock" video blog.
--Recap of episode 1 in which the question was asked: Has Magic jumped the shark?
(Have we seen the best Magic cards that will ever be released?)
--Discussion of mechanics and cards from Weatherlight on up to Guildpact.
--Breakdown of power blocks versus subpar sets.
--Review and answering of the question: Has Magic jumped the shark?
--Open call for feedback on whether other players agree or disagree with whether Magic has seen its best days.

Total running time: 21 minutes and 15 seconds.

Creative Commons License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Editor's Note: Quicktime will allow you to play the 320 x 240 .m4v file. If you see no video when you trying to play the DivX file or if the video does not play at all, we suggest you download the VLC media player (nearly every OS) or the DivX codec.

Subscribe using iTunes: To subscribe to the show using iTunes, simply click here. (You'll need to have iTunes installed on your computer.)

For more information on how to subscribe to a podcast (video or audio), be sure to check out episode 5 of The Magic Sock: "How to Subscribe to a Podcast."

Closing:

Magic: The Gathering is trademarked and owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. The Magic Sock is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro in any way. To send feedback, send an e-mail to themagicsock@gmail.com. Audio feedback is welcome but please keep the mp3 file to under 45 seconds and be sure to mention your name and city/state/country.