Just can't get enough, just can't get enough

This was supposed to be the spot that I was gonna post pix and such from one of the RockBand/chaos parties we've had recently. Too bad that isn't gonna happen anytime soon. In the mean time I'll just tell you what addicted means- addicted is when Alicia is jonesing to play a game. Period. Anything that can make Alicia turn on the Xbox is pretty addictive, plus on top of that she gets the mic and instruments out. I love my wife, I hope she doesn't think this is meant to tease her, I'm just observing how addictive RockBand is some days. Oh, and on a good note we have opened up all of the songs so that means I can get my "Learn to Fly," fix anytime I want. So on a different note, I should inform everyone that the car woes continue. Hopefully we'll get it all fixed sooner or later. Oh yeah, and I am trying to figure out how to balance life, because now that Alicia has been recalled into RS, and suddenly I am doing more bishopric stuff than ever, I think I'm gonna lose it- oh yeah and we're still training for the Ride the Rockies bike ride this summer. Anywho- later. Yeah and maybe I'll get some pictures up someday.

FFF and Rockband Saturday...

Whew! Can't get enough! There is nothing better than getting together, making fun of others, laughing at each others mistakes, and generally creating mayhem. This weekends havoc was brought to you in part by Alicia (she does all, what more can I say), XBL, Mountain Dew, and the letter Q. Why Q you ask? Cause you just can't QUIT!!!
Yeah it was a little crazy around our place this weekend- I convinced/suckered some friends into some late night CoD4, man that was great. Nothing better than mayhem on that little trailer depot. Then for even more entertainment we went to Blairapalooza- Brian and Erin (friends of ours) hosted a house party that included excessive amounts of RockBand and GH2/1.
So then we decided it's time to finally get that party we've been planning off the ground. So it happens THIS COMING SATURDAY- RockBand Saturday at the Larson's - now with a bit of SingStar to help warm up the vocals. This ought to be good.
Now for all of you who can't make it- know this- you're still invited and YES you can spend the night if you can make it down here.
Until then...
...on a steel horse I ride, and
I'm Wanted (wanted) Dead or Alive (dead or alive).

Chris

PS the hope is pix and/or vid so keep close cause you may just end up being A) Famous or B) Infamous- hey it's a good way for people to live vicariously

PPS It's gonna have to be a BYOD cause I am NOT providing enough for everyone.

New Car!?!?!?!

Yes...we got a new car. A brand new car. I'm not sure what to do with a brand new car. Why? Well, our Cavalier that we've been driving for the last three years had seen better days. Being hit 3 times in as many years is not usually good on cars, go figure. Anyway, we'd been having brake, body and wiring problems on it for some time. Which under ideal circumstances would be fine. Chris would be able to fix those seemingly minor problems. But since we don't live in ideal conditions (for that anyway...see Chris's Christmas in Paradise post for further details), it makes it both difficult and expensive. So we weighed our options. See what we could get as a trade in with the Cavalier. Buy a new car and sell the Cavalier. Try and work out a way to fix the Cavalier. So we went to the nearest Chevy dealer, just to see what they had. Here's what we found.

So its not what any of you ever expected us to buy. Yeah well, we never saw that either. But it's amazingly roomy. So roomy in fact that when Chris gets in he still has at 6" of headroom- yeah for him! And we both miss driving a stick shift. And it wasn't a whole lot of money, especially when the dealer offered us a killer trade in deal. Oh yeah, and its really fun to drive! So now we have a new car, what we do next will remain to be seen...

Win the War on Terrible

Terrible video games that is. Yup this is gonna be a postmortem thought on suckiness in video games, pop culture, and oh yeah how much I love Call of Duty 4. Why postmortem- well see besides being dead to the "hip" world, I am also finally done with my first play through of CoD4. So in the idea of after-the-fact reviews and thoughts I figured I'd offer advice to anyone with a gamer in their life (be it them or anyone they know, family or friend)- if they like any kind of action game that provides some brief moments of intensity, and has you actually feeling bad for the loss of life, lets you enjoy a diversity of types of game play (yeah I know it's FPS, but trust me there's more to it - AC-130's rock), and maybe wants to dip their toes in the ocean that is multiplayer gaming this is THE GAME to BUY! I loved it, yeah the single player campaign is ONLY 15 hours or so (if you like to play on the harder difficulties), and it is some of the best enjoyment I've had in a long time. Then there's the MP aspect, something I really like. Yeah I know it's not for everyone, but I like being able to get a friend or two together and go crash some other party, win or lose you'll still progress in the rankings. Then when you've played enough (about 4-5 hours or so total online) you'll have all sorts of crazy options opened up to you. You like customizing your guy? Yeah perks is where it's at: I love to run around with the bomb squad option, bullets that penetrate walls (yeah you can finally shoot through crates and sheetrock), and usually a nice steady aim. Others I know - ahem, Dave- like to do the whole "Last Stand;" you get shot, you're down, no big deal, you get one last clip with a pistol to make that dirtball pay for sneaking up on you. It's always funny to watch. What more can I say than I love the game- on a 1-10 scale we'll go 9.4- there's always room to improve- namely Co-op.
So now how bout that whole dead to pop culture: enough with celebrities AND enough with American Warble, I know you can't sing, I get it, you have no class, and no shame, yes I can see, great. Or maybe you're a washed up TV actor, yes you can't dance, I know, so please, please don't make me keep watching you struggle. I think I must be dead to the "hip" world. I hate hearing about stupid celebrities and their lives, they got lucky and can act for millions of dollars, so what why should I care? They lead awful lives, are bad influences to younger people, and have had more spouses and ill-gotten children than Sodom AND Gomorrah combined. So WHY, WHY, WHY should I spend time and money following the lives of these people? I just don't get it.
Last on the rant sheet: Suckiness in video games. Yup it exists big time- best example: CoD4- wait, what? you said you loved it?- yeah but they yanked the Co-op at the last minute, why? Another classic example the whole Rock Band-GH3 fiasco with PS systems- what? you want us to pay you to let the consumer use your controller? are you MAD? last but not least- bad games in general that cost a lot of money. Why isn't there a bottom standard to which all games have to meet- I'm not talking about liking a game or not I'm talking about playability- meaning is this glitch-free enough to finish? Ironically this ties in to a game I just finished playing- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Loved the idea of Sands of Time (Read more here) played through it in a week. Then the inevitable TRILOGY effect set in (see previous rants for more on how I feel about this). The second game sucked. It even had glitches where you had to start the whole game over (we're talking 15-20 hours into it). C'mon! Really? Oh yeah and the whole of the game was just bad- they decided to take the fun out of the original and inject combat and brutal challenge instead, oh yeah and a whole lot of skin- just what I didn't want. I would have been ok with the changes except they're broken- there are parts that literally don't' work and crash the system, or you run into imaginary walls that don't exist? What? Yeah suckiness in video games hurts us all. Fortunately, I didn't have to waste money to find these flaws a good friend of mine was nice enough to let me suffer through his copy. But it's crap like this that hold games down to the main crowds. Alicia would NEVER, EVER have kept going with the game like I did, and millions of others would/did quit, leaving mad parents and angry consumers. So am I special, well yeah, I kept going, but does that make me special? No. It just means I remember how brutal NES games were- saves? yeah right! Continues? no way! redo the whole thing again? Yup!
So yeah- so say no to celebs, trash in pop culture, and of course sucky video games.

Chris