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

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

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