It's spring which means that we're in our peak TV watching season and this year has been pretty good.
24 has been as awesome as ever. I love that they don't ever do reruns during the season, but at the same time, it's a long time to wait from the end of May to the beginning of January for the new season to start, but man is the wait ever worth it. This year has been a sequel to last year in a lot of ways. They carried over a lot of the previous season's plot lines that we left unresolved. If you've never watched this show, go rent either season 1 or season 5. All of them are great, but if you don't want to start at the beginning with season 1, 5 is a good place to jump on.
Lost started the year being awful but has improved the past 3 or 4 weeks. After the first couple of episodes this year, we almost quit watching it. But we stuck with it and hopefully the rest of the season will be worth it. Last week's episode was probably the best since season 2. We're in a stretch now where they've taken a cue from 24 and not showing any reruns till the season is over. It's nice having shows that you watch every week and know they're not going to be reruns.
We've watched a little bit of American Idol. We just haven't seen anyone that we really like this season so it's hard to commit to watching it. We couldn't even remember it was on last week.
Finally there's Heroes. This show is has reached a point where it's right up there with 24 on my list of favorites. DeAnne has even gotten really into it and she's usually not a fan of things that have to do with super powers and comic books. It's on hiatus till April right now, but once it comes back, it'll go all the way to the end of the season on new shows. They've taken a different approach with this show in that they'll show 6 or so new episodes and then take a few weeks off and then come back and show another block of new episodes. It's worked really well in that the breaks have made me miss the show and have built my anticipation up for the new ones when they start. I can't say enough good things about this show. It moves the way that Lost should move. There's rarely a week that goes by that the viewers don't get a vast amount of new information about some aspect of the story, it has great characters and it's like watching a comic book on TV. How awesome is that?
So that's where we stand on TV. DeAnne still watches Grey's Anatomy every week but I'm hit or miss with it. Other than that, that's really all we have time to watch but I feel like we're watching some of the better shows on TV. I just wish they'd move Friday Night Lights back to a time when we're not at church.
--Paul
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Music Man
So after finishing up the new Zelda game I was looking around for something new to play and I had a few ideas, but didn't know for sure what I wanted to get. I had been looking at a game called Guitar Hero (PS2) for a while, but was put off by the price. Not only do you have to get the game, but you have to buy a controller that's shaped like a guitar. Let me explain.
Guitar Hero is a guitar simulator game. You have a guitar controller that is just like a mini guitar. It has 5 buttons on the neck that act as notes and a bar in the center that you press to strum. You start the game, create a band, give them a name and then start playing shows. While playing the songs, the notes come scrolling down the screen towards you. When they get to the bottom of the screen, you press the appropriate button and hit the strum bar to play the note. As long as you're hitting the majority of the notes, you'll be "Rockin'", miss enough of them and the crowd will boo you off stage.
As you can imagine, this game appeals to me for obvious reasons. The cheapest I've ever found it though was $80 for a combo game+guitar pack. That's where work comes in. My company is very focused on maintaing a good safety record. As such, we get a small safety award each year. After getting this years safety check, I knew what I wanted. I found a place online that was running a 10% off sale on it and ordered it. Needless to say, the game is awsome. It has four difficulty levels ranging from easy to expert. Once you get to the third level, the game gets really hard. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to play it on expert, but it doesn't matter, it's great just playing it on medium. I should probably note that all the songs are actual songs that have been covered. They're very true to the original song, but it's someone else playing it. Songs include everything from old 70's rock like the Allman Brother's "Jessica" to Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine" on up to a recent song by metal band Avenged Sevenfold.
This is actually the second game in the series. As soon as I can, I fully intend on getting the first one. I've checked out the track listing on the internet and it seems like it has a better song list than the new one. I can hardly contain myself.
--Paul
Guitar Hero is a guitar simulator game. You have a guitar controller that is just like a mini guitar. It has 5 buttons on the neck that act as notes and a bar in the center that you press to strum. You start the game, create a band, give them a name and then start playing shows. While playing the songs, the notes come scrolling down the screen towards you. When they get to the bottom of the screen, you press the appropriate button and hit the strum bar to play the note. As long as you're hitting the majority of the notes, you'll be "Rockin'", miss enough of them and the crowd will boo you off stage.
As you can imagine, this game appeals to me for obvious reasons. The cheapest I've ever found it though was $80 for a combo game+guitar pack. That's where work comes in. My company is very focused on maintaing a good safety record. As such, we get a small safety award each year. After getting this years safety check, I knew what I wanted. I found a place online that was running a 10% off sale on it and ordered it. Needless to say, the game is awsome. It has four difficulty levels ranging from easy to expert. Once you get to the third level, the game gets really hard. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to play it on expert, but it doesn't matter, it's great just playing it on medium. I should probably note that all the songs are actual songs that have been covered. They're very true to the original song, but it's someone else playing it. Songs include everything from old 70's rock like the Allman Brother's "Jessica" to Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine" on up to a recent song by metal band Avenged Sevenfold.
This is actually the second game in the series. As soon as I can, I fully intend on getting the first one. I've checked out the track listing on the internet and it seems like it has a better song list than the new one. I can hardly contain myself.
--Paul
Wisdom
Let's start with health. Things are fine with the ol' ticker. I'm STILL getting my blood checked every two weeks, but it's been more stable the last 6 weeks or so, so I'm hoping and praying that we'll soon be able to go to once a month. Also, it's now been about a year since we found out that I was going to have to have surgery. Time flys when you're having fun, huh?
DeAnne's back seems to be getting better also. She's not been going to the chiropractor as often and she's not been talking about it as much as she was a month or two ago. I know we're both relieved that it's getting better. I think it's taking a little longer to heal than she hoped for, but I think that her work is part of the reason for that. I feel like once school gets out and she has some time to rest and she's not on her feet 8 hours a day 5 days a week, she'll really have a chance to get back to 100%.
Finally, I had a wisdom tooth pulled about a week ago. It had broken through so I didn't have to have any cutting done. It was pretty amazing actually. He numbed me up and after he got started it probably on took him 2 minutes. I didn't think he had actually done anything yet when he got up and said he was done. So that was pretty awsome. Most of you know I loath going to the dentist just for a cleaning, so I'm sure you can imagine how anxious I was about having a wisdom tooth pulled. The bleeding wasn't bad either. It took a little while to stop, but it was a lot better than I expected it to be. Answered prayers all around on this one.
--Paul
DeAnne's back seems to be getting better also. She's not been going to the chiropractor as often and she's not been talking about it as much as she was a month or two ago. I know we're both relieved that it's getting better. I think it's taking a little longer to heal than she hoped for, but I think that her work is part of the reason for that. I feel like once school gets out and she has some time to rest and she's not on her feet 8 hours a day 5 days a week, she'll really have a chance to get back to 100%.
Finally, I had a wisdom tooth pulled about a week ago. It had broken through so I didn't have to have any cutting done. It was pretty amazing actually. He numbed me up and after he got started it probably on took him 2 minutes. I didn't think he had actually done anything yet when he got up and said he was done. So that was pretty awsome. Most of you know I loath going to the dentist just for a cleaning, so I'm sure you can imagine how anxious I was about having a wisdom tooth pulled. The bleeding wasn't bad either. It took a little while to stop, but it was a lot better than I expected it to be. Answered prayers all around on this one.
--Paul
Long Time Comin'
I know, I know. It's been a while since I've posted. I've neglected you. I'm sorry. I've got a few different things I want to talk about so I think I'm just going to split them into different posts for ease of reading (and to help keep me on topic). So here goes...
--Paul
--Paul
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Doc
This past Tuesday the world lost a man that was of great importance and made a great impact on a great many lives including mine, DeAnne's, and a good many of my friends. Dr. Daniel was the kind of teacher that, from the moment you met him, you knew he was genuinely concerned about you and your success as a student, not only in his class but in both college and in life after college. He was a great asset to LBW and to the surrounding communities. I would say more, but that's the core of it. Doc was an educator. One of those rare people who live for making an impact on other people's lives. I can't imagine the full extent of the impact he had on me and not only me but all the others he taught over the years. We'll miss you Doc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)