Well the GeekJock has returned from the beach and the sun. It was a good week off with some great fun with the family and friends. The week started a bit cooler but that wasn’t anywhere near enough to get the family down. A great beach house and not having to work or go to school had the entire family happy as hell the whole week.

The good thing about the vacation is I pretty much tried to stay away from the computer and just focus on hanging out with everyone. So naturally, I missed some of the happenings in the sports and gaming world.

First and foremost on my sports list is the firing of Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel. As a die-hard and struggling Mets fan this is a good thing to me. Omar started off as a decent enough GM then the true colors emerged quite quickly a few years ago and we realized he is just as full of shit and an awful GM as any of the worst in baseball. The usual ability of the Mets front off ice to avoid admitting mistakes and not taking care of them (Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo to name 2) has tried my patience over the last few years so hopefully the new regime, whomever it becomes, will start some house cleaning and bring in some winning players without breaking the bank. We all love some decent spending but it should be SMART decent spending.

The next big thing this week was the start of the NHL season. Fortunately I didn’t miss this at all. I watched most of the first two games the Canes played from Finland and somehow they managed to pull out 2 victories. The only real time I thought they played poorly was the beginning of the first game when they seemed to come out a bit flat. But they rebounded nicely and found their groove and were able to power thru it and win the game. Brandon Sutter looked awesome and will be a force again this year in a new leadership role for the youngster as he got awarded with the “A” this season as one of the alternate captains on the squad. The second game was something which we might see a lot this year. A game where Cam Ward has to stand on his head for the Canes to have a shot. They couldn’t muster up much offense and he kept them in the game long enough to get it to a shoot out. However, opposite to how the vast majority of the last few seasons have been, the Canes picked up the Shoot out win 1-0 on a REAL nice goal by rookie Jeff Skinner and the shutout in the shoot out by Cam as well.  With any luck this could be a good thing for the team going forward. Obviously the 2-0 start is good but if they can use this road trip off the continent to get some camaraderie and team building, then it could translate into a great bond and lead to a hard fighting team night in and night out and bring them to the playoffs. At the very least I am hoping this will continue the next few weeks as they are on the usual early season marathon road trip. Every year they start on a big roadie b/c the North Carolina State Fair is in Raleigh, and the fair grounds are right next to the RBC center and NC state’s football stadium. So they ship the Canes out of town for those couple of weeks b/c frankly having a game during this time is a parking/traffic NIGHTMARE. They found this out a few years ago when they had an NC State football game, the fair, and a Canes game all in the same weekend and it was a complete disaster. However usually they have one or two home games before the fair but this year the Finland trip happened so the 1st home game of the season (at the RBC center) won’t be until Oct 27th. That weekend will be a tough one too with Wash and Pitt coming to town. Nothing like a little test early on. My hopes? I am hoping they get thru this little roadie at least .500 and then use that momentum, and a hugely home heavy rest of the year, to get some much needed points and attendance.

Ok onto gaming.

I have been scouring the MMO news and for what I look for only a few big headlines have stuck out.

Wow:Cataclysm confirmed to be released Dec. 7th. So the 2nd of the rumors eventually became reality. The 1st date in Nov was rumored to be pushed back to Dec which now is known to be reality. So that’s all fine with me. I want it now (as we all do) but eh, the next few months are generally full with in game Holiday events (Halloween and thanksgiving in game events) so that should give us something to do. Also, we cannot forget that now that we know it’s coming I am fairly sure that there will be the occasional release world pre-events in game. We will undoubtedly see the skill trees released a week or so before and I am sure we will see the rumblings of the ground and such and some cataclysmic in game event leading up to that faithful day…. Now to see where I can make sure I can get the collector’s edition… hmmm…

Also announced this week is that WoW’s subscriber base has officially topped 12 million! This mainly had to do with the big rollout of Lich King in China. With all the trouble they had to get it rolled out there for the last 2 years I am guessing they are kinda happy now that it is out, so they can reap those benefits of their subscriptions and then also delay Cataclysm a bit there and have that extra boost later as well. Either way good job boys keep the money flowing in, the stockholder in me is happy

AND FINALLY….

In not so surprising news DC Universe Online has pushed their release back from early Nov to “early in 2011”. Not really a surprise to me b/c there was no real open beta phase which is integral to any launch, even if some only use this as stress test. They then also announced that anyone who has pre-ordered and sends them a snapshot of your receipt (from a link on their official site DCUO ) you will get to be in the open beta by the end of Nov. You have to do this by Nov 15th to be able to be included in this. ME? I won’t be doing it. Two reasons for this. #1 the end of Nov and on from there will be full of Cataclysm prep and play. Sorry SOE you will have to prove it to me in the form of reviews out on the web for me to decide to play. If you had released in NOV with a full and ready version I prob would have played for at least a month to check it out. Now? Now I will be waiting till I get tired of Cat and listen to some reviews before I leap. Oh and # 2 a photo and sending it to their site is too much of a pain in the ass. Why not do what other games have done? Get the pre-order boxes out there with a code that gets you into open beta. Maybe they did this on purpose maybe not, either way both of these will keep me out of that beta and that game for that matter for a little while.

Ahh it’s good to be back at home with some more time off from work to get my rest from my vacation bwahahaha.

GJ out…

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