Twin Cities Minnesota

Law Firm Marketing

I'm currently working on The Legal Marketing Portal, a one-stop shop for the law firm marketing industry. At the end of the day, I intend to have numerous resources for law firm marketers, including advice and how-to articles.

I'm Moving To TwinCitiesMinnesotaBlog.com

I'm abandoning this Blogger.com blog, or, rather, I'm moving to a different location built on more flexible technology. From now on, I'll be posting at TwinCitiesMinnesotaBlog.com, which I've already configured and is currently up and running. I wanted more flexibility than Blogger could offer, so I moved to TypePad. I will eventually be importing all my archives from this blog into my new one but I will no longer be posting here. So update your bookmarks and RSS feeds and I'll be talking to you soon enough. Go Vikings!

How Does The NFL Supplemental Draft Work?

UPDATE: I've moved this blog. Visit the new Vikings section at my new TwinCitiesMinnesotaBlog.com. I keep reading stories about college player so-and-so entering the NFL supplemental draft but nothing about what the Supplemental Draft is nor how it works. The paucity of information about the NFL supplemental draft has driven me to provide it. When And Where Is The 2005 NFL Supplemental Draft? This year's supplemental draft takes place on July 14th and it is held in cyberspace, via email. It used to be held by conference call. Who Is Eligible For The NFL Supplemental Draft? College players that missed eligibility for the traditional April NFL draft but have decided to enter the NFL, usually because the cannot return to college for one reason or another (usually academic) or who have simply decided to enter the draft early. The NFL supplemental draft is held only if players declare for it; if no players decide to enter the supplemental draft, there is no draft. How Does The NFL Supplemental Draft Work? A that picks a player in the supplemental draft must forfeit a corresponding pick in the following year's regular draft. So, for example, if the Vikings take a player in the third round of the supplemental draft, they could not use their third round pick in the following year's April draft. Conversely, if the Vikings had traded away their 2006 third round pick, they could not pick in the third round of this year's supplemental draft. Obviously, teams will be reluctant to risk high-round picks on supplemental draft players. Due the nature of the supplemental draft, there are obviously not nearly as many players available as in the regular draft (this year there are only five). These two factors cause many teams to pass on the supplemental draft. Draft order is determined by a complicated semi-lottery system. If any of the players who entered the supplemental draft are not selected, they can become free agents and sign with any team.

Xbox Video Gaming Chair/Racing Wheel/Joystick

UPDATE: I've moved this blog. Visit the new Xbox Video Gaming Chair/Racing Wheel/Joystick page in my Video Games or Xbox sections at the new TwinCitiesMinnesotaBlog.com. What racing games need is a full-sized, ergonomic video gaming chair that requires no configuration with your favorite game. This is needed is because the video game racing wheels on the market don't quite cut it. I've tried both leading racing wheels and both are disappointing in a some significant way. I tried them on Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Need For Speed: Underground 2, and Burnout 3: Takedown. With the Logitech wheel, you are supposed to be able to use it on your lap, but there is nothing to keep it from sliding off your legs when taking a hard turn. Also, the Logitech video game racing wheel does not have a shift stick, which pretty much sucks if you like to drive manually. Comparitively, the Mad Catz video game racing wheel has a shift stick but for the life of me, I could not get it to properly down-shift with any of my games. The Mad Catz racing wheel does have little wings that you can pull out that fit around your thighs and keep the wheel from sliding off your lap during hard turns, which gives it an edge over Logitech. The Mad Catz foot pedals have a more realistic feel than Logitech's foot pedals. Both wheels have nothing to prevent their foot pedals from sliding when used on carpet, forcing the user to use some heavy object to keep them in place. Logitech has the only wheel that uses force feedback technology, but only on their PS2 version. Both Logitech's and Mad Catz's wheels require significant tinkering with both the wheel and your game's controller configuration in order to work optimally. Gamers need a realistic wheel for their racing games, so this is what I propose: Take an ordinary office chair and turn it into a racing wheel/gaming chair. It would have all the functions of an office chair--pneumatic lift to adjust to leg length, ability to lock/unlock the lean-back function, ability to swivel the chair, and arm rests that can be set in the up or down position. Take this chair and add an arm that could be lowered down in front of you--with a tilt function--that has a steering wheel attached to it and includes controller functions. On your right-side would an arm attached to the bottom of your seat with a stick shift that you could raise up or tuck out of the way if you wanted to drive with automatic transmission. Attached to the bottom base of the chair would be a platform upon which the pedals--gas, clutch, and break--would be attached. Obviously, the entire thing would have to be wireless in order to avoid annoying entanglements. Ideally, the thing would be plug and play with your favorite game, so you wouldn't have to waste time configuring your games. With current wheels priced in the $60-$150 range, I think you could go as high as $200-$250 for this gaming chair and they'd sell briskly. At the $250 range, you could offer a universal controller chair that had a normal controller for non-racing play and a joystick for flying games. The benefits such a universal video gaming chair/controller would offer are obvious when you consider how it would work for a game like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where you often go from on-foot gameplay, to driving a car or boat, to flying a plane or helicopter. As of now, you must use an ordinary controller for the game, and so you need to use only the tools that a standard controller offer you: buttons and triggers. But if you could use a universal video gaming chair/controller with the game, you could seamlessly use the control devise most appropriate for your current gameplay: If you're walking, you use the standard controller. If you're driving a car or boat, you use the steering wheel, shift, and pedals. If you're flying, you use joystick. Right now, the standard controller for video games is an awkward user input device that is entirely unrelated to how people perform their corresponding video game actions in the real world. The controller itself is a persistent reminder to the gamer of the artificiality of the video game world, thus obviously reducing the realism of the game itself. A universal video gaming chair/controller would be a step toward making the controller more natural and thus enhancing the realism of the gaming experience.

Vikings Developmental Camp Video

UPDATE: I've moved this blog. Visit the new Vikings section at my new TwinCitiesMinnesotaBlog.com. Kudos to KFAN for feeding hungry off-season Vikings fans. They've done a far better job than the mainstream media and even fan rags such as Viking Update by providing some raw video of this year's Vikings Developmental Camp. (You'll need MS Media Player to watch the video.) June 1 Vikings Developmental Camp Video

June 2 Vikings Developmental Camp Video

June 3 Vikings Developmental Camp Video

June 6 Vikings Developmental Camp Video

June 7 Vikings Developmental Camp Video

June 8 Vikings Developmental Camp Video

June 9 Vikings Developmental Camp Video

The Blotter

Sweet! All my hard work on my Madden Vikings Roster - 2005 Draft Picks has paid off by being listed as Minnesota Blog of the Day in The Blotter, the City Pages' daily compilation of blog posts. Short but sweet, they said:

If you can't wait for Madden 2006 to start kicking ass with the Vikings' new defense, David Erickson at Twin Cities Minnesota can assist.

Thanks, guys!

Madden Vikings Roster - 2005 Draft Picks

UPDATE: I've moved this blog. Visit the new Madden Vikings Roster - 2005 Draft Picks page in my Madden Video Game or Vikings or Video Games or Xbox sections at the new TwinCitiesMinnesotaBlog.com. Okay, I've finally gotten used to the idea of the Vikings without Randy Moss and I'm so excited about the team's renewed emphasis on defense and since I don't want to wait till August for Madden 2006 to be released, I created a new Madden Viking Roster that reflects their offseason signings. So, now I've got Smoot and Sharper and Cowart and Harris and Williams and Taylor and even Edinger but I don't yet have the draft picks. I tried importing the draft class from NCAA Football 2005 but, believe me, it's more trouble than it's worth. So if you want to update your roster with the Viking's 2005 draft picks, you're best bet is to use Madden's Create A Player function. I took the ratings from NCAA Football 2005 as a basis for building my Madden Vikings roster that included the team's 2005 draft picks. In the case of Erasmus James and Adrian Ward, however, NCAA did not have data, so I used each player's draft scouting reports to create their ratings. Here, then, are the fruits of my labor: Troy Williamson: WR, #19, 6'-1", 203 lbs. South Carolina. Hometown: Jackson, SC. Ratings: Overall: 92; Speed: 98; Strength: 56; Awareness: 88: Agility: 92; Acceleration: 98; Catching: 88; Carrying: 72; Jumping: 90; Break Tackle: 56; Tackle: 44; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 40; Run Blocking: 49; Kick Power: 40; Kick Accuracy: 40; Stamina: 92; Injury: 90. Erasmus James: DE, #99, 6'-4", 263 lbs. Wisconsin. Hometown: Pembroke Pines, FL. Ratings: Overall: 84; Speed: 76; Strength: 72; Awareness: 76: Agility: 68; Acceleration: 78; Catching: 52; Carrying: 40; Jumping: 72; Break Tackle: 40; Tackle: 80; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 40; Run Blocking: 40; Kick Power: 40; Kick Accuracy: 40; Stamina: 84; Injury: 86. Marcus Johnson: OG/OT, #72, 6'-6", 321 lbs. Mississippi. Hometown: Coffeeville, MS. Ratings: Overall: 89; Speed: 62; Strength: 92; Awareness: 88: Agility: 62; Acceleration: 59; Catching: 40; Carrying: 40; Jumping: 48; Break Tackle: 40; Tackle: 40; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 92; Run Blocking: 89; Kick Power: 40; Kick Accuracy: 40; Stamina: 85; Injury: 85. Dustin Fox: CB, #37, 5'-11", 190 lbs. Ohio State. Hometown: Canton, OH. Ratings: Overall: 93; Speed: 95; Strength: 59; Awareness: 85: Agility: 88; Acceleration: 94; Catching: 68; Carrying: 56; Jumping: 94; Break Tackle: 52; Tackle: 76; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 40; Run Blocking: 40; Kick Power: 40; Kick Accuracy: 40; Stamina: 90; Injury: 84. Ciatrick Fason: RB, #35, 6'-1", 207 lbs. Florida. Hometown: Jacksonville Beach, FL. Ratings: Overall: 89; Speed: 88; Strength: 74; Awareness: 76: Agility: 88; Acceleration: 94; Catching: 76; Carrying: 88; Jumping: 80; Break Tackle: 89; Tackle: 48; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 52; Run Blocking: 52; Kick Power: 40; Kick Accuracy: 40; Stamina: 88; Injury: 90. C.J. Mosley: DT, #96, 6'-3", 305 lbs. Missouri. Hometown: Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Ratings: Overall: 90; Speed: 65; Strength: 90; Awareness: 84: Agility: 68; Acceleration: 70; Catching: 40; Carrying: 40; Jumping: 68; Break Tackle: 40; Tackle: 86; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 40; Run Blocking: 40; Kick Power: 40; Kick Accuracy: 40; Stamina: 84; Injury: 90. Adrian Ward: CB, #47, 5'-10", 170 lbs. Texas-El Paso. Hometown: Oakland, CA. Ratings: Overall: 92; Speed: 65; Strength: 62; Awareness: 86: Agility: 93; Acceleration: 95; Catching: 65; Carrying: 44; Jumping: 94; Break Tackle: 56; Tackle: 68; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 40; Run Blocking: 40; Kick Power: 40; Kick Accuracy: 40; Stamina: 92; Injury: 92. Jonathan Nichols: PK, #3, 5'-10", 182 lbs. Mississippi. Hometown: Greenwood, MS. Ratings: Overall: 99; Speed: 44; Strength: 40; Awareness: 88: Agility: 44; Acceleration: 44; Catching: 40; Carrying: 40; Jumping: 40; Break Tackle: 40; Tackle: 40; Throw Power: 40; Throw Accuracy: 40; Pass Blocking: 40; Run Blocking: 40; Kick Power: 95; Kick Accuracy: 86; Stamina: 90; Injury: 88.