We came, we saw, we got belted off the court!

I can say with utter conviction that the NSW Swifts are taking their new found (semi) professional athlete status very seriously as they played as one very well drilled, extremely fit unit. Either that or most of us blokes were just so grossly unfit as a team that they seemed fitter than usual. I know in my case I was disgusted with my lack of fitness as I knew I wasn't as fit as I used to be, but this was ridiculous!! If I am to state that gamers aren't just people who sit in their dungeon like rooms ignoring the outside world and shying away from physical activity then I should actually practice what I preach. Instead of talking about hitting the Concept2 rower I actually need to do it, and do it now! I actually was embarrassed by my inability to keep up with the action like I once could, and I don't think there is a better motivator than personal embarrassment!

On a much more positive note, I am so glad to see netball finally come of age and become a professional sport. In my mind there aren't a group of athletes more deserving of it than the girls who spent years with full time jobs training as hard as any professional athlete with little to no reinbursement for their travel and sacrifice. I will be watching the ANZ Championship with keen interest on Fox Sports and hope to see the NSW Swifts take do very well.

While I was cleaning the tech cave I stumbled across the disks for possibly my favourite RTS of all time. No not Starcaft, Warcraft II or Command & Conquer but the 2003 Game of the Year, Rise of Nations. Even though this game is near and dear to me due to it being the first game I got to demonstrate the gmaeplay more than backs up my claim as being one of the very best RTS titles in history. It combined Civ like scientific and civic advances with excellent nation balnce with each nation being very unique in its bonuses and weaknesses. That and any game made by Brian Reynolds is usually a masterpiece (Catan and Civilization II being two clear ones). I've just finished re-installing it so I think my afternoon is now written off with a couple of games of RoN. If anyone out there who frequents my blog would like a game please let me know.

This week of course marked the end of one of the most remarkable careers in sports or entertainment as "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair had his last match a WrestleMania XXIV followed by his farewell address on RAW. WWE.com has the coverage of the farewell address which I challenge anyone to find as an emotional a sporting farewell as his, outside of Lou Gehrig's in 1939 (definitely worth the read).

As this is my blog I am going to post my own thoughts that are in my Top 10 section here as I could not sum up his career better than I already did, plus it contains my own brush with Ric which I still remember like it was yesterday.

Let's put it this way people. Ric Flair is now 59 and still wrestles with the best of them. Since most of the visitors to pidgeo.com are Aussie or Kiwi they'll get this.... Ric Flair's wrestling right now is like a batsman averaging 30 in Test Matches at almost 60 years of age!! That's right, it's unheard of in any sport for someone at 59 to still be at the elite level. Ric Flair however is still doing that. In his prime, his matches with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Ricky Morton, Magnum TA, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Sting and the '92 Royal Rumble are the wrestling equivalent of a 300 run innings... and he did it seven days a week for about 10 years. That's not hyperbole, that is fact. I have followed many sports in my 27 years of existance but after years of research, study and viewing, in my humble opinion Ric Flair is the greatest athlete in history. I know the mainstream will anoint people like Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis, Don Bradman, Tiger Woods, George Best, Pele, Joe Montana, Martina Navratilova, Margaret Court and the like as the best but to me, Ric Flair is still and always will be "the MAN"

In 2006 I went to the Sydney WWE tour event with my girlfriend at the time and her best friend. Thanks to THQ we had awesome seats and were only a handful of rows back from ringside. Now in a vastly male dominated event like wrestling I was certainly going to stand out in the crowd with these two beautiful ladies on each arm!!

(Katie my ex is on the left, fellow Winmalee High alum Jen is on the right)

It was awesome! The security guard even called me to ringside to ask what in the blue hell (thank you The Rock) was the story with the computer nerd with the two stunners on each arm! It got better though as any wrestling fan can tell you that Ric Flair is the ladies man from waaaaaaaaay back. He said it best in his autobiography.... "I had more fun than most people would in five lifetimes!!".

When Ric Flair came to the ring to partner Shawn Michaels as an honorary member of DX, he was strutting and WOOOO'ing his way down to the ring as only he can. Once he got to the ring he turned towards my section of seating so I got Katie and Jen to stand on the seats with me, pointed at each of them then revealed the Ric Flair shirt under the suit jacket and WOOOOOOOO'ed as loud as I could! He looked at both ladies with utter approval and pointed back..... "no, you're the man!" I WOOO'ed back saying "I'm living the Ric Flair life baby and you're still the man!!" Best. Moment. Ever.

Of course he'd never read my blog but I'll say it anyway - Thank you Ric for every match, moment and WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Rainbow Six has become synonymous with excellence in multiplayer mayhem and the latest instalment is no different. I got invited into a game out of the blue and managed to have the best statistics and capture the intelligence all in one go, so I’d like to announce my retirement from R6V2 as the greatest ever to play it.

In all seriousness I have enjoyed many aspects of R6V2 but the A.C.E.S system is my favourite addition as being rewarded for everything you do across ever single aspect of the game is a master stroke in my mind, especially due to my enjoyment of the offline modes. Many games reward your online dedication but R6V2 rewards you across the board so the A.C.E.S system gets the very first “Seven Thumbs Up” award from me.

Over the last few days however my gaming has taken an old school flavour as I spent some time cleaning up my hard drives. Imagine Homer with the suction-blower in the basement giving it a once over then dusting his hands in completion... that was the state of my hard drives. Two games that caught my eye for some quality time with “old friends”, were SimTower and The Dark Queen of Krynn.

DQOK was the final instalment of the Dragonlance trilogy from the “Gold Box” series of AD&D classics from the early 90’s. I believe it was the first VGA game of the series too, so players were treated with excellent visuals for their time in what use to be a fairly crude looking title. As the third in the series you began the game well into the AD&D levels system so the characters were mighty but of course this was offset with some evil enemies.... VERY evil enemies. To this day I have an unnatural hatred for Aurak Draconians!! I played through another quarter or so of the game which leaves me with about half of it to go so eventually I will battle the Queen of Darkness. I’m taking bets for 2014!!

SimTower was a game where you had to design and run a multi-purpose skyscraper, adding things like hotel rooms, condos and offices to generate income. An extremely important aspect of the game was the management of elevators as patrons who had to wait too long to get to their destination got extremely angry and never revisit your tower. As you tick off certain criteria your tower gains an addition star to its rating, unlocking more facilities but bringing with it more challenges such as fire and terrorist attacks. It is a game I still enjoy so I have played a little too much of it over the last few days but it’s always enjoyable to reminisce with the good ol’ games.

Speaking of reminiscing, I am playing not one but two games of netball this week. Last night I filled in at a mixed netball competition down at Willoughby that Stu’s sisters play in. Other than the brutal landing that asphalt gives it was a load of fun. It is always great to watch guys who have never played having a good laugh with their wives and girlfriends by attempting to play. It is all about the fun and so the umpiring it a little lax but who cares, it’s a social comp. 

My next game is anything but social. The remnants of the NSW men's side are playing the NSW Swifts in a training game tomorrow night before the start of the new ANZ Championship on the weekend. I am so glad to see the game beomce professional for the girls as it should have happened years ago. This game will be extremely fast and competitive and as we blokes are not up the the awesome fitness of the girls I think we might be in for a hiding. Still it should be great fun regardless of the score. GO SWIFTS in 08!!