The Road Not Taken (...and where my road has led)

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

Where I've been spending quite a bit of time since June. Photo by Doug Bonham

Life throws a lot of curveballs. If I've learned anything in the last year, it's a confirmation that sometimes things don't go to plan, but still work out in the end.

The last post on this site is from April, right after I moved home from an attempt to start something in Boulder, Colorado. In the time since then, I've weighed graduate school options, been accepted into a program to try a whole different direction, made some wonderful friends, re-connected with friends and family in Portland, and generally lived the life.

Since the summer, I've been working on starting up as a member of the new cohort for Portland State's Masters of International Management program. It's a graduate business program, like an MBA, but also focused on Pacific Rim economies — China, Japan, South Korea. It's also a program with a lot of international students; along with a lot of students from the United States, there are Chinese, Taiwanese, and Thai students.

Working first through pre-requisite classes, and since September the first term proper, has been an interesting, eye-opening experience. I never thought I would take to business as easily; I never thought aspects of things like accounting would prove as interesting.

As well, since the spring I've been working along with friends from the University of Oregon journalism school on a video game-themed web site. Myself, Nick Cummings, Aaron Thayer, Tyler Martin and others have joined to work on SiliconSasquatch.com. We've been writing, recording podcasts, and trying to create good, relevant content on a regular basis. Since finding a career in journalism is hard enough work right now, we've decided to strike out on our own and, hey, even if it doesn't lead anywhere, at least we're having fun.

That is really what life has been about these last few months. Studying, learning, making new connections, strengthening older ones, and taking the road less traveled by.

The Return

Colorado






Utah








Idaho











...Oregon

The warm hug of nostalgia

Hanging out with a friend (or group of friends), gathered on couches around the TV, playing video games. I'm sure I'm not the only kid in my generation for whom this is a classic scenario. It still happens from time to time in my life, too - I got to sit down and play Street Fighter IV with my man Nick last time I was in Portland.


What you see when playing Retro Game Challenge: Not just the game, but the two kids playing the game...(okay back in 1980s Japan, but still). Image from gamersinfo.net

I just picked up and have spent a little bit of time with Retro Game Challenge for the DS, which has a convoluted history and in-game story, but plays on the imagery of sitting around and playing games with your friend. I caught the buzz for the game after hearing about it on every single gaming podcast I listen to, and that word of mouth convinced me to track the game down.

The game is actually based off a Japanese TV show, Game Center CX, in which the host is challenged to complete a variety of classic video games. Retro Game Challenge is a game based off that - you still have to face challenges put down by Game Master Arino, but the translation is done so that it's a way for you to escape imprisonment in 1980s Japan.

Okay. So you play lovingly crafted games based off 8-bit video game tropes (space shooter, 2D racer, ninja platformer, basic RPG). Big deal? Well, as the screenshot above shows, the game goes on on the top screen; on the bottom, it's you and your friend (apparently Arino c. the time period) and get to hang out as kids playing games. Arino chips in - "AWESOME!", "INCOMING!" - and when you even select to go play a game, it shows your character scooting on the floor over to the bookshelf.

Sure, you're lounging on tatami mats in a very Japanese apartment playing a Japanese Famicom lookalike...but man, the sentiment is there. The Internet is great and all, but sometimes you miss -itting down with a friend and playing pass-the-controller to play a single player game. Sometimes it's the childhood nostalgia that gets you the most.

Who watches "Watchmen"? I just did

Yes, it's accurate; but is it good?

Just returned home after seeing Watchmen on the big screen - didn't make a midnight showing Thursday night because of going to the Nuggets-Blazers basketball game, and didn't go last night because I would have slept through it! But I made the trip tonight and have some thoughts.

Primarily I'm just really, really glad that Zack Snyder made the Watchmen movie that he did because, in his own words, if he didn't somebody else would have - and if somebody else would have, it most likely would have been changed (more) from the original source and sucked.

This movie categorically does not suck. It is as good a transition to film as there will ever be - I don't even mind the alterations to the ending (deciding to cut out a side story entirely necessitated the movie to end the way it did). Costumes, setting, tone, everything was truly faithful to the book. I love the beginning montage during the credits as an introduction, even if they did take a couple liberties with things insinuated in the book.

And while I swore up and down I wasn't going to be influenced by the voices and writers who said "it's *too* faithful and a touch limited as a movie," I am forced to agree - simply because this isn't the right medium for it.

With a regular novel - like, say, The Lord of the Rings - before the movies, the books did not live as a visual medium. Like all novels, it was up to interpretation and your mind's eye to paint between the lines that (in that case) Tolkein set out for characters, settings, everything. We know Frodo is a hobbit and that he most likely has certain traits, but the way he looks and talks is up to the reader's interpretation.

Same with how scenes are acted out. While there might be occasional blocking in a novel, it's not as specific - or, indeed, graphic - as within a comic book or graphic novel. While Snyder may have had a handy, dandy storyboard in the form of the original Watchmen, that in my mind is a bit of a set of golden handcuffs - you have to get it absolutely right. Any deviation and the fans go wild.

The other major gripe I have is going to sound banal and snobbish, but so be it. Watchmen the book works absolutely perfectly and is a masterpiece of late-20th century literature in part because it uses its medium so well in telling the story. While the movie is still good, some scenes drag on film where they'd make much, much more sense on paper in ink. Flashbacks - especially for characterization of both Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan - worked much, much better in the graphic novel than they did in the movie, and that's more down to the medium actively helping the storytelling more than anything else.

One minor gripe with the movie (besides the necessary evil of cutting out "The Black Freighter" sections, which led to altering the ending) is that it paints some details in much bolder strokes than in the book. Without giving away too much, background details related to The Comedian and (in the book) old-time heroine Silhouette - which are done very subtlety in the graphic novel - are given much broader strokes in the movie, which is as much a function of the movie format as anything else.

While Watchmen the movie is indeed rather awesome - I think those who haven't read the books will enjoy it, even if it does drag a bit in the middle - for no fault of its own, it falls short of living up to the source. In most book-to-novel cases this has to do with cutting content, but for these, it's more because it's not set on the right stage. And that is through no fault of the movie.

Heart vs. Head

Welcome back to Seattle, Junior.

One of the underlying storylines in sports in recent years has been the building movement of statistical analysis. Ever since Moneyball was released in 2003, the argument has come to the forefront and divided some lines - especially in baseball, where traditional thinkers like to judge with their eyes only. It's been gaining steam in basketball, too, in recent years, but the stronghold of "sabrmatricians" (the term for such stat-heads) is on the diamond.

Statistics say that Ken Griffey, Jr. is going to be a very, very average player for the Mariners this year, and that he should avoid seeing the field as much as possible. If you were being even more cynical, you'd say he should only ever face right-handed pitchers, too. That's what parsing through the numbers and statistics available to fans and analysts say, at least.

The romantic, the fan, the one seeking out a story, that person thinks Junior returning - quite possibly for his final season - is going to be awesome, regardless how he does this year. "He's coming home!" It's like being transported back to 1998 again, to see Griffey in teal and blue smashing home runs out of shiny, new Safeco Field and patrolling center field, pulling a Spiderman impression and leaping up against the wall to steal a home run.



That bat twitch. The effortless swing. The casual trot out of the batter's box as another home run is crushed. Sure, the memories are just that - memories, sugar-coated, and so very sweet - but if we don't have those sweet dreams as fans of sports, all we have are box scores.

I fully admit to wanting Griffey to come home to Seattle for purely selfish reasons. It's like wanting to go back and re-live the best childhood memories. I want that Ken Griffey, Jr. who was on the poster in my bedroom to walk back out on to the field when Opening Day comes, but that's a fantasy. You can't go back home in the same way again, but the nostalgia trip will be great for all involved.

Sure, statistical analysis is great - incredibly useful. But without nostalgia - great play-by-play calls, amazing images, wonderful memories - sports are almost meaningless. There's room for romanticism alongside the science.

The power of stupid memories and cheesy jingles

I hope to god this embeds properly, because it's been making the rounds of sports sites and is awesome.

There's a music store across the street from my office that says, "Without music, life would be a mistake." Even though I would sound like a strumming monkey were I to pick up a real guitar, or act like a three-year-old given a couple of wooden spoons and pots and pans if I sat behind a real drum kit, I love music. Love it, love it, love it. Specifically listening to it (playing Rock Band gives me the ersatz creation feelings I crave, in lieu of above-mentioned lack of real talent).

And while it's said that scent often triggers the strongest emotional connections, music has those, too. What's funnier is how songs like the above-embedded YouTube clip - of John Tesh's "Roundball Rock," much better known as the iconic NBA on NBC theme song - work into a sports fan's heart and well up memories on its own.

It's silly, it's stupid, and performed live or found on MP3, it's a long-ass jingle. But just that spark of "Roundball Rock" brings up so many images of the NBA because the period that song was used to introduce NBC's coverage was a watershed for the sport: Jordan. The tail end of Bird and Magic. Hakeem and my Blazers. By the end of NBC's coverage, Shaq and Kobe were forming a terrifying combination as the Forum was about to come to a close for hoops in Los Angeles.

Quite possibly the greatest era in one of my favorite spectator sports is encapsulated in that wonderfully early-90s-tastic song.

I know I'm not the only one who feels this way about "Roundball Rock," and I know the NBA isn't the only sport to have a signature tune. Across the pond, Formula 1 coverage on the BBC in the United Kingdom had one opening song for an entire generation - the ending bass-riff from Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain." From the late '70s through to 1996, the visuals might have changed, but the rising shriek of guitars accompanied the intro. So when the BBC won back Formula 1 broadcast rights starting this upcoming season, there was little doubt there'd be speculation about The Chain returning:



Sure, that's fan-made, but lovingly so and if the real thing is close then I wouldn't be surprised. Having seen older intros as well on YouTube, I get it.

Just like how - as cheesy as it is - the ever-altered Monday Night Football theme still ties in emotions. Or how Canadian fans consider the Hockey Night in Canada theme to be as part and parcel to the coverage as legendary commentator Don Cherry's flagrant suits.

I would say it's as important as hearing other theme songs for popular TV shows or movie series, but though I may be biased as a sports fan, the connection with the intro theme song is greater - for the same reason why sports make for some of the best human drama. Nothing is planned or staged out ahead of time, and it all unfolds, real-time, right in front of your eyes. The connection with sports teams runs deep, and, just like how a college fight song can be universal to school alumni, the theme song for certain sports stand out.

It doesn't always work - most of the ones in major American sports right now are forgettable at best, though Baseball Tonight's jingle is pretty good - but the transcendent ones stick with you. Which is why I'm going to try to make "Roundball Rock" into a ringtone-sized MP3 file, again, and set that on my phone, just to see if I run into another sports geek who wells up with stupid emotion at the sound of John Tesh's master work as much as I do.

Is print dying?

Why yes, I'm a big enough journalism nerd that I took a photo of the building occupied by both the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News while wandering around downtown in November.

"____ is Dead." Whether that's rock and roll, or CDs, or the American auto industry, or anything else...there's a lot of proclamations of death out there.

That print media - from newspapers to magazines, back again - is included on this hypothetical Grim Reaper's list is, frankly, saddening to me. Of course this is because I'm the type of person who does pick up magazines, enjoys the feel of glossy paper, loves flipping through a big Sunday newspaper, and has studied both newspaper and magazine design. So, yes, I have a vested interest.

And, scarier still, the death knell has been ringing out in the newspaper business. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer could close down very soon (in fact, one of the ways it might stay open is by becoming online-only), and the downtown Denver-based Rocky Mountain News is for sale, just short of the paper's 150th anniversary. Newspapers in California and Detroit are also not quite doing so well. It's very likely a major metropolitan area newspaper could close this year, and if debtors come calling on the ownership group of the Denver Post, then a major city could be without newspapers.

Why? Well, it boils down to simply, why buy something that's free? In an effort to diversify online and meet the demands of 21st century media consumers, newspapers and journalists are often putting more on their sites than in the paper. Print advertising is shrinking; therefore, smaller papers, lower circulations, etc. in a downward-circling spiral. Online is the new way to go.

But this doesn't mean the printed word will die out. Arguably man's greatest invention (the printing press) will still be required. Why not? Well, look at the coexistence of radio, television, movies, the Internet, and all other forms of multimedia. When television broke big in the 1950s, it was supposed to herald the end of radio; sure, it's not as popular as before, but the radio business hasn't died. Same with television and the Internet - just because the latter exists (and can, ahem, become the other one some places online).


The future is now - digitally-delivered newspapers and magazines, like Sporting News Today, are the evolution of journalism

As well, a likely next step will be magazines and newspapers delivered digitally to your inbox. It makes sense - most newspapers and magazines use publishing software that can publish a .pdf file simply and easily, and in that case, why not deliver the same goods without the hassle of printing up a few thousand issues? I receive a sports newspaper in my inbox each morning, Sporting News' "Today" (pictured above) which weighs in at 30-plus broadsheet pages an issue. You follow the link and go through their reader, which allows you to click and zoom in on articles.

GP Week, a weekly magazine launched last year that follows Formula 1, World Rally and MotoGP racing, works the same way. So does Winding Road, and I'm sure many others. Other sites - like gaming site The Escapist and 1up.com's "Cover Stories" - also act more like print pieces, but without being .pdf files or using online readers.

But that's significant - all of those pieces of media are nodding back to the tenets of print layout and design.

Things look grim - but, this is also why I say that print will never die. At least, not fully. Just as parents live on in their children and individuals and events live on in recorded history, the lineage and heritage of print media will live on - whether or not it uses ink and paper.

What I'm Playing - 1-26-09 edition

I want to get some regular sort of things going here. This seems as good as any. In the tradition of many, many gaming podcasts, including especially 1up Yours, it's "What'cha Been Playing?" - Quick thoughts on what's been in the system(s) the last week...

This is a good week to start this because I've actually played quite a few different games. Here's just a few...

-NCAA Football 09 - playing in now three different Online Dynasties has ensured that this is always near my 360, and is sometimes all I play. I've done okay the last week or so, beating up on the computer a couple times but losing to my man Fletcher in the Big 12 league we're in tonight. Everything surrounding playing the games in the league is fascinating - how people are "game-ing" the game, pulling recruits, everything. Seems like EA Sports got that right, even, too.

-Rock Band 2 - I've been drumming a lot on the game recently, both online and off. Trying to get my groove back and get up to drumming on expert again...the increased difficulty of RB2 songs isn't helping much of anything right now.

-Diablo II - Trying to get into the swing of playing this somewhat regularly with Dan, Nick, etc. It's amazing how something as simple as pointing and clicking can be so damned addictive, though. And it runs brilliantly on my MacBook, too!

-Gears of War 2 - Played through all of Horde mode with Nick, Tyler, and couple others in support. Level 50 can be an absolute monster, too. Super, super, super fun way to play the game, though.

-FIFA 09 - And specifically "Be a Pro" mode. I'm hooked; absolutely addicted. There's no feeling like the rush you get when the camera tucks up behind you and you're one-on-one; it's agonizing to take a shot and have it hit the post, it's brilliant when you get one past the keeper. The curve on this mode is perfect for me right now, too.

-Fable II - Ah, yes. I took my leisurely stroll through this to its end last night, and was affected by and slightly disappointed with the ending in equal measure. I am going to do more of a write-up on my thoughts on this soon, but even though I'm a little frustrated by it...I still fired up a brand-new character and played two and a half more hours after I finished the game with my first dude.

From the "Fastball in the wheelhouse" department...

Somehow I can't see it marching down the red carpet. Photo from flickr.

So apparently there's a new documentary about the 24 Hours of Le Mans that is set to debut the weekend of Sebring.

That's not the exciting part. I'd be happy to see something like that regardless. But - BUT - it's called "Truth in 24," it's made by NFL Films (!) and is narrated by Jason Statham, aka my friend's official mancrush.

I don't quite remember asking for something so awesome (NFL Films has amazing cinematography and is a superb company, it focuses on Audi's march of dominance, pretty sure it's shot in HD, etc.) but I'll take it. Oh, and it's debuting on ESPN.

That's my jaw dropping to the floor, and me wondering if I can save enough to buy an HDTV by then. Should be absolutely awesome to see in full glory.

Because there hasn't been a photo post in a while

Might as well throw some photos from November up...just because. All photos from my flickr account, and ©2008.

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A statue in front of the Colorado state Capitol Building in downtown Denver.



A view of the mountains that sit just outside of Boulder - I get to look up and see these most days.



Part of the Museum of Art in downtown Denver - the rest of it looks just as wild.



Downtown Denver has areas with a unique mix of very old and new architecture, including some spots where modern glass high-rises nestle up against churches.

I need an excuse to go wander around and take more photos. Might have to make some time this weekend to go explore with my camera, including maybe downtown Boulder.