You want speed? You got it. You want heavy? It’s there. You want an instrumental? Yeah, there’s one of those too. You want a love song? Go elsewhere! Death Magnetic is not for the faint of heart.

James’ riffs beat you into submission, and his voice grabs you. Kirk exceeds his legendary status with mind-ripping solos. Lars’ skin-beating draws you into an angering frenzy. And Rob’s bass sinks you into the void with Cliff-like depth and strength.

Despite some of the criticisms, such as from The Boston Globe or The Chicago Tribune, my expectations are far exceeded by this awesome performance. I have a scary feeling that I’ll be listening to Death Magnetic for a long time. In fact, I just reached the end of the album, and I’m starting it again.

Folks, Metallica is finally reborn!!

I’ve always enjoyed watching the National Football League (NFL) on television. I really enjoy the spirit that you see in both the players and the fans. And over the years, the NFL has been gracious enough to allow viewers to watch many of these games on network television.

The NFL has shown games on the cable network ESPN on Thursday nights over the past few years. But starting with this season, the NFL decided to move its popular Monday Night Football on ESPN, a cable sports channel, from ABC, a national network channel. Simply put, only those with cable or satellite subscriptions can watch these games.

But the NFL isn’t stopping there. It is also taking another direction by airing certain games only on its NFL Network. NFL Network, a station that has been around for only a few years and doesn’t provide much information beyond statistics and game highlights. Now the NFL is expanding the channel to include live games.

So that isn’t so bad, until you read about why many cable companies refuse to carry it. NFL Network is asking for a hefty price from cable providers to carry it. The article reports that each subscriber would need to pay a 70-cent hike. It’s bad enough that NFL Sunday Ticket is already only available to DirecTV subscribers, and that NFL on Sirius is available only to Sirius satellite radio subscribers. But now it’s proposing to block out additional fans by making certain games available only on a channel that’s available in a limited number of markets.

I remember that when I first subscribed to digital cable three years ago, I had the NFL Network. But it only offered some stats and highlights from games that I already watched, so I never watched it. Then one day, I realized that the channel had completely disappeared. Now it is in negotiations with my cable provider, who will not acquiesce to subscribing to it at such a high cost. This simply would be too much for all subscribers, and the cost would be spread to all of the subscribers, including those that don’t watch football.

I think it’s unfair for the NFL to push its network on those of us that cannot afford it. It already has a strong licensing program that requires anything with either an NFL or an NFL team logo approval (including team license plates). It already airs games at odd hours of the week (Sunday, Monday, and Thursday nights). It has expanded the number of its teams over the past two decades, especially after absorbing the American Football League in 1970. Now it wants to dictate what cable services we need to purchase in order to watch the games.

I don’t think it is fair for non-sports fans to pay considerably more for their cable service, especially when they must now pay around 70-cents each for a station that they won’t watch. And it feels like the NFL is alienating us fans that either cannot afford to pay more for our cable service or cannot afford cable service to begin with. It’s already turning football into a game that caters to the wealthy, and it’s going to lose a number of its core fans if it continues on this trend. Also, this borders on the line of infringing the country’s antitrust laws.

And with a terrible record so far this season, I cannot understand how the Packers can justify telling its fans to push for their cable services to pick up the NFL Network. I will for once give the cable companies credit for listening to its subscribers on this one and not giving in to the pressures of the NFL. According to President Bob Harlan, he hasn’t heard what the fans think about this issue. I plan on writing to the Packers, though, and letting them know that I oppose being forced to buy into the NFL Network at such an unreasonable cost.

The Capital Times: Charter, NFL need late rally

MSNBC: NFL games on NFL Network get attention from Congress

G4TV Call for Help

CBS News Sunday Morning article: ‘War of the Worlds’ 2005

Official War of the Worlds movie web site

Retrospective War of the Worlds web site

Barnes and Noble Classics book: War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

To take the test yourself, click on the picture above.

Reuters: “Law and Order” star Jerry Orbach dies

Which brings me to the following link. Rumor has it that Ben Browder (John Crichton, Farscape) will have some role in Stargate SG-1′s ninth season. I enjoyed watching Browder play his character, and I’ve noticed some similarities between Crichton and O’Neill (although Crichton came off a little more aggressive). I don’t have a problem with him joining SG-1, and even welcome his contribution to the show. I just hope it doesn’t turn out like the X-Files, where you had new people come on, but fans didn’t react kindly (I personally thought it had a lot of potential and the acting was great).

But the other part of the story was bringing Anderson back, “in some capacity” to play O’Neill again. In my mind, O’Neill and Jackson (played by Michael Shanks) make the show worth watching. Furthermore, the interaction between all of the members of SG-1 has brought the series the success it has. It would be difficult to imagine a new SG-1 after watching it for so many years (well, after watching its so many seasons). I didn’t dislike Jonas Quinn as the replacement member during season six, so I’m sure I’ll continue to enjoy the stories. But I would like to see them keep O’Neil. To paraphrase the Asgard, “although my continued viewing of the show is not contingent upon General Jack O’Neil, it is preferred.”

Browder joins SG-1

Last Exile

My only complaint, though, is that I had to disconnect my DVD player. Since I already have the Xbox and a DVD player in my PC, I figured that I could make the sacrifice. Fortunately my television has three inputs, so I haven’t lost my VCR yet (old technology is tried and true). But I also lost the cable connection to my VCR (my decision). In fact, I’m keeping the VCR in case I decide to move forward with a video editing project. Also, I can no longer use my television’s picture-in-picture feature, unless I reconnect the antenna. Knowing me, though, I’ll probably get confused if I try that.

My cable installer was great as well. He gave me the option to install it using S-Video and ran through the entire set up for me. He also showed me all of the features. Amazingly, he was very patient with me and checked out my coaxial cable to make sure it would continue to work with the new device and my other cable devices.

Despite some minor disadvantages, the new DVR is still very cool and loaded with many more benefits. The quality of the picture is great, and the system is just very simple to use. And my cable company’s customer service is just fantastic, and always has been since I started subscribing to them (it’s Charter Communications, in case you’re wondering). I’m glad that I made the decision to subscribe to this service. I’m sure it will come in handy in the near future.

When The ScreenSavers lost Leo as a co-host, I was a little upset because he was instrumental in making the show a great success. When the studio moved and Patrick decided not to move with it, I was even more upset. I have nothing against Kevin because he’s brilliant and very good in front of the camera, but he still needs a little guidance (stop telling people to use Kazaa, dude, unless you’re asking for the feds to knock on your door). Back then, the show was geared more towards a wide range of technology and had a very responsible crew on it. Since G4 bought it out and revamped it in September, I’ve found other things to do with my time. Perhaps that’s a good thing. But when I do watch the show, it just isn’t as fun as it was over a year ago.

I’ve always admired the work that Leo and Patrick did with The ScreenSavers, and I’ve admired everyone on the show because they all contributed to a balanced and informative program (I still miss Megan and Morgan). But with yet another revamping, I may give it one more chance, but I’ll probably quit watching it (I’m already down to two days a week, half of the time I don’t really watch it). If the producers were smart, they’d try to get a more general audience and try to air it on a national network or in some form of syndication.

In the meantime, I’m going to throw my support to Leo and his work on Call For Help on G4-TechTV Canada.