Any excuse to be on the couch...

i've written some lately about my back problems, and as part of that i have to make an active attempt to avoid uselessly (meaning not being paid for it) sitting at the computer. whether it's gaming, tv, whatever, as long as i can relax a bit more on the couch it should be beneficial for me.

since the new NHL season started up last week, i've been quickly reminded how much i love my direcTV Center Ice package, which gets me all the league games. it's great when there's like 8 games on in a night and you can just pick and choose which ones to switch between based on rivalries, scores, etc. it kinda sucks that more teams are in the northeast and insist on starting at 7pm local (so 6pm for me) so those games are done by 8:30. because of that, i end up unconsciously following the more western teams since more of their games start at 8 and 9 o'clock.

i've been impressed that we've had some decent HD hockey coverage lately. between thursday and saturday night games on HDnet, monday or tuesday HD games on versus and direcTV showing one regional coverage game in HD most nights with the CI package i can get a decent amount of high-def eye candy.

between paying roughly $130 a season for the satellite package and several hundred for our 10-game stars season tickets, i think we're pretty firmly cementing that we're hockey fans over other sports. since i started dating alayna i became a lot more of an NBA fan, so i'm definitely a big fan of basketball in the last few years (obviously fixed finals series NOT included, of course). i've always been a football fan, but for some reason lately i've soured on it a bit. i still sloth it up most sunday afternoons on the couch flipping between several HD games, but i'm so often annoyed by the circus element that the NFL carries these days. the NHL might be reduced to the 5th favorite sport in this country at this point, but i don't really care. it sure doesn't carry the same bullshit theatrics that the NFL does.

it is baseball playoff season though, and i haven't forgotten about that. the games have looked good on fox, and they seem to have toned down some of the godawful graphics and sounds they used in the past. and as i said before, any year in which the yankees won't be winning it all can't be THAT bad.

--j