Vacation Time Again...Various Crap On My Mind

I'm off for ten days. I still have one more week of vacation after this one that I'm taking the week before Christmas. I plan on doing the usual crap for the most part. I'm sure I'll make a trip to the movie theater at least once if not twice. Zombie land looks promising. I may even end up seeing Surrogates with Bruce Willis. Last week I went with the fam to see Pandorum. Didn't really like it. It was barely ok. Besides movies I also plan on finishing the Halo ODST campaign as well as playing a bunch of firefight with friends online. Speaking of video games I got a chance to play the Brutal legend demo. Loved it! It's a day one purchase. Can't wait to hear all of the podcasts I listen to talk about this game so I can roll my eyes when they start talking about metal in general. I always cringe when gaming podcasts start talking about music because they generally have no idea what they're talking about. Stick to talking about video games, PLEASE! Once the conversation goes to bands and songs from rock band or guitar hero it becomes clear how little most gamers know about music. I find myself correcting them out loud. Yes, I realize I sound like an ass saying that, but I know a shit ton about music in general. End of rant.

The NHL season starts tonight! The Dallas Stars play their first game tomorrow at home against Nashville. Can't wait!!! GO STARS!!!

Some games that I'm buying on day one.
=========================================
Uncharted 2 (PS3) Oct 13th
Brutal Legend (360) Oct 13th
Borderlands (360) Oct 20th
Forza 3 (360) Oct 27th
COD Modern Warfare 2 (360) Nov 10th
Assassins Creed 2 (360) Nov 17th
=========================================

The next Rock Band game really should be KISS Rock Band! I want it, and I can't imagine KISS not having their own music game at some point. Especially if Gene $immon$ has anything to do with it.

Halo 3: ODST

I haven't been excited about this game. For some reason I finally became a bit interested in it. The main reason is probably because all of the people on my friends list will be playing it. I know I'll feel like I'm missing out if I'm not playing it as well. Today I broke down and pre-ordered it from Best Buy. I'll be headed to Best Buy to stand in line in about 25 minutes. When I went earlier today around 7:30 there were already two chuckleheads waiting in line sitting in comfy lawn chairs. I asked them how long they thought the line would be. Their response was we don't know that's why we're in line right now. I expect the line across the street at Game Stop to be much longer. I say that because I remember the line at Game Stop the night Halo 3 was released. To say it was a long line would be an understatement.

Honestly I'm expecting a really good game. Thus far I've seen a ton of great reviews, so I basically have to buy it.

Californication Rocks!

No, I'm not talking about that terrible Red Hot Chili Peppers song. I'm talking about the incredibly awesome show on Showtime starring David Duchovny. Holy shit is this a great show. I'm just now discovering it thanks to Netflix instant streaming on my Xbox 360. I don't have any of the the premium movie channels on Directv because it's a waste of money for me. I'm only two episodes in, but if the first two shows are any indication of how good this show is then count me in as a fan. I found myself laughing out loud several times. I also enjoyed the eye candy. Quite a few super hot naked women in the episodes I watched. Wow! Definitely a show for men. The world need more shows like this one! If you have a penis you need to watch this show.

It's been awhile...

Man, it's September already? I haven't blogged since August. I'm neglecting my blog. I suck!

My latest addiction is Mafia Wars on Facebook. Never thought I'd get sucked into a game like this, but holy shit it's addictive as hell. A friend of mine requested that I start playing and be a part of his mafia, so I decided to give it a try. If anyone reading this besides Phil is playing let me know and send me a request to join your mafia.

I'm soooooo glad school has started again. My daughter just started high school, so she's out of my hair (does that work even though I'm bald?) and not driving me insane in the early hours of the morning.

I picked up The Beatles Rock Band. Great game IF you are a fan of the band, and I am. I was raised on their music from birth. My parents listened to The Beatles on 8 track and vinyl all of the time. It's part of my dna. I'm having fun singing all of the songs and watching the beautiful visuals. Definitely a 9/10.

I've been watching a couple of tv shows. Lately I'm addicted to Wife Swap for some reason. I love watching two totally opposite families have to deal with one another or at least a new mom. I've also been watching Hell's Kitchen. I've been watching this since season one though. This has been a really funny/good season though. Gordon Ramsey is the man. The guy cracks me up. Can't wait for the new season of House. It starts on the 21st...which id my birthday.

Speaking of my birthday...I'm having a cavity filled that day. Yippee!

Influential Albums

I know most people who are into music like I am (especially metalheads) have a number of albums that they would point to that shaped their listening habits today. My focus of this blog post is to recall the albums that got me into metal and it's sub genres.

KISS - Alive II (Back in 1980 my mom used to babysit some kids at our house. One day they brought this over on two cassettes and let me borrow it for a while. I remember not listening to the live portions. I was only interested in the studio tracks at the end. Those studio songs are still some of my favorite KISS songs to this day. This album was a small stepping stone for me. I wasn't quite ready for hard rock just yet. It took another three years for that to happen.)

Quiet Riot - Metal Health (This was THE album that got me into metal. In late 83 and 84 I would listen to this endlessly. I loved it and wanted more. I can still listen to Metal Health and get all nostalgic. Saw em live once. RIP Kevin Dubrow.)

Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil (My mom actually bought this for me on vinyl for Easter because I asked for it. Motley Crue quickly became my favorite band. I practically wore the grooves out on this album. Besides most of the Overkill albums there probably isn't an album I've listened to more than Shout At The Devil.)

Ratt - Out Of The Cellar (Yet another huge album from the early/mid 80's. This one got heavy rotation in my cassette deck in 1984. I've even seen Ratt live three times. Lack Of Communication is still one of my all time favorite songs. It rocks! RIP Robbin Crosby.)

Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry (I played the holy hell out of this cassette. During the summer of 1984 I probably watched the We're Not Gonna Take It video 500 times. It never got boring to me.)

Dokken - Tooth & Nail (This to me is a perfect hard rock/metal album. There isn't a weak song on this album imo. I still listen to this album, and all the albums I'm mentioning for that matter. Saw them live once.)

Def Leppard - Pyromania (There are so many great classics on Pyromania. Then of course things went to hell when they released Hysteria which to me is mostly terrible minus a couple of songs. Talk about watered down pop metal. Blah!!)

Tesla - Mechanical Resonance (This is another album that to me is flawless. It's just a great rockin' album full of good memorable songs. Saw them live once.)

Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance (Perfection. This is one of the greatest metal albums ever created and easily my favorite Priest album. Electric Eye is Metal personified. I've seen Priest live three times.)

Iron Maiden - Powerslave (I bought this on cassette in 1984 when I was 12 years old with birthday money. I couldn't get enough of 2 Minutes To Midnight. What a great song. What a great band. What a great album. Saw Maiden live once.)

W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P. (Great debut album that they never matched in my opinion. Talk about an album that appealed to angst filled teens and pre-teens.)

Grim Reaper - See You In Hell (I first saw the video for the title track on Mtv late at night and was blown away. Hey I was only 12 so give me a break. Great album though.)

Metallica - Master Of Puppets (I heard the title track on one of our local rock stations and went to the mall that day and bought this on cassette. From 1986 until 1988 Metallica was my favorite band. Then a mighty metal band changed all of that for me.)

OVERKILL - UNDER THE INFLUENCE (Thanks to an ex friend of mine I'm a huge Overkill fan. From the moment SHRED blared from the speakers I was in awe. I was fucking blown away. This album will always have a special play in my heart. It's THE album that made Overkill my favorite band. They still are obviously. I've seen Overkill 14 times live and have met and talked with the band several times and have various things autographed.)

OVERKILL - THE YEARS OF DECAY (This remains my favorite album of all time. This was also the album they were touring for when I first saw them live in December of 1989 with Wolfsbane and Dark Angel opening in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Exodus - Fabulous Disaster (I've seen people in metal circles rag on this one, but those people suck because this is a solid Bay Area Thrash album from start to finish.)

Sacred Reich - The American Way (It actually started with the Surf Nicaragua ep, but that's not a full album. I love the guitar solo on the title track. This is a fine album.)

Part two coming soon....

Games, District 9 & Total Randomness

Now that I'm not renting from Gamefly I'm renting games from Hollywood Video just down the road from where I live. At least this way I can go in and actually choose a game that I want that they have in stock instead of getting a crappy game down at the bottom of my list from Gamefly. Last week I ordered The Godfather 2 the video game on half.com for 22 bucks. I decided to buy it after renting it for five days. It's 40 bucks in stores right now, so half price was a good deal. In the meantime I needed a game that I could play and beat in a short amount of time. Wanted: Weapons Of Fate is definitely that game. It's not an incredible game or anything, but it's fun. It's just a mindless fps with stupid ai enemies. I've put in a couple hours a night for the past couple nights and I'm almost done with it already. I feel sorry for anyone who paid 60 bucks for this game. Definitely worth a rent though.

I'm taking my third week of vacation out of five next week, so I'll be gaming as much as possible during my vacation. I'm sure The Godfather 2 will arrive by then. At least it better!

If anyone reading this hasn't seen District 9 yet you really need to. It's the best sci-fi film I've seen in a very long time. Definitely a different spin on alien movies. I pretty much loved it. 9/10

As much as I think Sebastian Bach is a doucher his solo cd entitled "Angel Down" really rocks. Axl Rose even appears on some tunes with some vocals. Definitely a good old school mixed with modern sounding rock album.

I Guess Those Albums Aren't That Bad

Lately I've been really bored with listening to the same albums all of the time. I think we all have a bunch of stand by albums that we listen to. I decided it was time to go back to those albums that I've ragged on and give them another chance. I started with Nevermore's "Dreaming Neon Black" and "Dead Heart In A Dead World". I must say that I enjoyed "Dreaming Neon Black" quite a bit. It's not like I'm new to this album. I picked it up on cd when it was released. I remember thinking at the time that it was alright. It's been well documented by yours truly that I can't stand Warrell Dane's vocals. They are actually pretty good on DNB. I even hear a bit of his old school Sanctuary vocals at times. Not often enough though. "Dead Heart In A Dead World" is decent. I did get bored after about song 7. I must say that their cover of "The Sound Of Silence" is terrible. I don't mind when bands cover songs and make them their own, but man this is just bad. Eventually I'll listen to the rest of the Nevermore catalog. I'd also like to mention that I do enjoy Jeff Loomis's guitar playing.

As I type this I'm listening to Savatage's "Streets: A Rock opera". For years I've been saying that anything after "Hall Of The Mountain King" is weak. I still believe that after once again listening to "Gutter Ballet" and "Streets". It's not terrible. It's just not the Savatage that I want to listen to on a regular basis.

44 Of The 45 Songs Slated For The Beatles: Rock Band

Singles
=======
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Paperback Writer
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down

Please Please Me (1963)
=======================
I Saw Her Standing There
Boys
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Twist and Shout

With the Beatles (1963)
=======================
I Wanna Be Your Man

A Hard Day's Night (1964)
=========================
A Hard Day's Night
Can't Buy Me Love

Beatles For Sale (1964)
=======================
Eight Days a Week

Help! (1965)
============
Ticket To Ride

Rubber Soul (1965)
==================
Drive My Car
I'm Looking Through You
If I Needed Someone

Revolver (1966)
===============
Taxman
Yellow Submarine
And Your Bird Can Sing

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
============================================
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With a Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Good Morning Good Morning

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
===========================
I Am The Walrus
Hello Goodbye

The Beatles (White Album) (1968)
================================
Dear Prudence
Back In the U.S.S.R.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Helter Skelter

Yellow Submarine (1969)
=======================
Hey Bulldog

Abbey Road (1969)
=================
Come Together
Something
Octopus's Garden
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Here Comes the Sun

Let It Be (1970)
================
Dig a Pony
I Me Mine
I Got a Feeling
Get Back

Love (2006)
===========
Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows



For the most part I like this set list. Of course there are some I like more than others. There are also some I think are missing. I mean seriously...where the hell is "Hey Jude", "A Day In The Life", "Strawberry Fields Forever"...you see where I'm coming from? Actually I know where they WILL BE, dlc. I'll shell out the cash for these songs and others too.

All Things Rock Band

Not a lot going on in the video game world...well nothing that exciting to me anyway. I'll have more to talk about as soon as September hits. I'm so picking up Beatles Rock Band on day one. Yes, I've been sucked into Rock Band 2 lately. For a while I was playing drums, but now I've decided I'd rather sing. I can so nail "Don't Stop Believing: by Journey on expert on vocals as well as "Take It On The Run" by REO Speedwagon. I'm ranked 200 and something on one of those songs on the leader boards. I also purchased Screaming For Vengeance. It's fun screaming like Halford. I also purchased Cannibal Corpse's "Hammer Smashed Face". I figured that would be a bitch on vocals, but it's easy. Other than that I haven't been playing much. I've gone back to Left 4 Dead even though I said I never would. For some reason it drags me back. I'm also playing my second season in be a pro mode in NHL 09. Can't wait for new games to start hitting the shelves.

Playlist.com Owns Me, But Mothership Zeta Really Doesn't

This could actually be a first. My daughter got me hooked on a site. That site is playlist.com. It's probably a site most people know about already, but it's new to me. You search for songs you like and put them on a playlist where they are saved for you whenever you want to hear them. If you ask me this is the future of music. All the music you want online stored on another server that you don't own. I like this idea. I'm addicted to it actually. Check it out if you haven't already.

I've been playing the latest dlc for Fallout 3 entitled Mothership Zeta. I'm not all that impressed with it. It's not terrible or anything. It's just not wowing me. It's good. It's just not great. I enjoyed Point Lookout much more. BTW anyone looking for a cool FPS set in space with aliens should check out PREY. You can get that game for a song now.

Lately I've been watching seasons 5 and 6 of Penn & Teller's Bullshit. I've loved this show since day one. I don't get Showtime anymore, so I haven't seen them all. The episodes I have seen I downloaded online. Anyway, great show with lots of boobies!

It's official. I cancelled my GameFly account. I will now rent games down the street at Hollywood Video and buy games dirt cheap on half.com. Of course I'll also buy a few games at full price.

MMA At The Speedway & Bye Bye GameFly

As some of you know I enjoy watching my nephew race at the local hillbilly race track in Galesburg Michigan. There usually isn't a night where a fight doesn't happen in the pits there. Saturday night was no exception. Only this time I was sorta involved. Generally what happens is someone gets pissed off because they didn't win a race or got bumped by another car on the track or even get in an accident. Well my nephew was in the lead for quite a few laps after the lead car got black flagged for going under his time. Anyway my nephew was leading and this guy that we all thought was our friend was also racing and getting severely pissed off because my nephew was just a bit faster and not letting this guy get past him. At one point this guy actually hit my nephews car on purpose. After that this driver actually got hit pretty hard by another driver which really damaged his car. The race ends and my nephew takes third place. I then hurry back to the pits because I just had this feeling things would get out of control...

This pissed off driver who we know well and talk to every day gets out of his car and starts yelling at my 18 year old nephew. Mind you this guy is at least 50 and starting shit with a kid. I thought to open my mouth when he was going off, but just then my brother-in-law starts raising his voice a little telling the guy to chill out. Before you know it this guy is freaking out and grabs my brother-in-law by the throat and slams him on the hood of my nephews stock car. I'm trying to get to this guy to get him off of my brother-in-law, but the guy's friend who happens to be a big fat woman is inbetween me and him tell me to back off. I'm like I don't think so. When this is going on I see my nephew looking on the ground. (later he tells me he's looking for a rock)I then see him with his driver's helmet over his head looking pissed. He then slams the helmet down on the guy's head at least three times while the guy is choking his dad and punching at him. I finally get a hold of the guy's arm before he can punch at my brother-in-law again and yell his name really loud in his face and tell him to get the fuck off of him. He does. Why I have no idea, but he finally did.

Later on things got heated again and this time I was actually involved and so was my wife and my brother-in-law's wife. This time it was with a friend of the driver who hit my brother-in-law. Both my wife and his wife were going off because of what happened earlier. The friend said some shit to my wife that I didn't life so I told him "Don't talk to my wife like that you fucking asshole". (This guy is yet another guy we've all known for years. He's in his and has a couple heart attacks, but still thinks he's king shit)The guy then tells me he'll beat my fucking ass and then pulls off his flannel and starts to walk towards me. At this point I've had it and I'm ready to beat this guy's ass. My wife then jumps in front of me and tells me "Don't". Then about five security guards come and break it up before anything happens. Later I ask my wife why she said don't. She then tells me she said don't because she knew if he walked over I was going to punch him first, which I would have for sure because I was livid. I would have went to jail for sure if he had made it over to me. Believe me I was ready to hit that guy with everything I had. Next Saturday at the races should be interesting. LOL

With that out of the way I've decided to drop Gamefly. They suck hard lately. It's not worth it to me anymore. The last straw was having 30 games in my q and having them still not send me a game even after they received my last game three days ago. I've had it. I'm sending my final game back to them. When they receive it I'm cancelling my membership. I'll be buying games on half.com or renting down the street where I can get the games I want when I want them for basically the same price with no late fees.

Sick Of Being Overweight

I'm at the point in my life where I'm sick of being overweight. I'm not morbidly obese or anything, but I need to be 20 lbs lighter. Diets just don't work. Well, they do work, but not for very long. Atkin's works. It's just a very limited diet in terms of things you can eat. My body needs fiber. I don't get enough of that with the Atkin's diet.

America is overweight because of easy access to convenience foods and lack of exercise. The laziest people in the world are Americans. My problem is that even though I power walk at least five days a week for 40 minutes I stay at the same weight. My diet is to blame. I eat too many processed foods with empty carbs. I don't eat nearly as many as I used to, but I still eat too much of those junk foods. Of course I also never stop at one slice of pizza either. No, I have to eat an entire pizza. At this point I've changed my diet to more protein as well as fruits and vegtables. I'm also drinking tons of water. It's a no brainer that I'm feeling better and have more energy. This is the diet for life. I really need to stick with it. I don't like feeling lethargic and crappy. That's the way I felt when I was eating tons of processed foods.

Eating 5 or 6 small meals a day is also helping with cravings. I never really feel hungry. I think all of the water I'm drinking also helps. I've cut my calories down by about 500. I will slowly but surely lose weight. My goal is to be at 180 by the beginning of November. I weighed in at 195 when I started.

Don't get me wrong with this blog entry. I'm not preaching. I love high carb foods. I'm just sick of having an ugly gut, feeling lethargic, and I'd like to hit old age without having a million health problems.

What's On My Mind

I've been busy playing Infamous lately. Man, what a great game. If you only own an Xbox 360 or a Wii you're missing out big time! Game of the year so far for me. It's a blast, and my current gaming addiction.

I'm no longer blogging for ThisXboxLife. I've had some things going on lately. I'm better off blogging about a wide range of things here on my personal blog. Blogging about only Xbox related news felt limited. No hard feelings whatsoever to the crew at ThisXboxLife. You guys still rule.

It's time to start thinking about putting in pre-orders for games I definitely want to buy. Beatles Rockband and Modern Warfare 2 are two of those games I'm definitely buying. Amazon will be getting my cash for those.

Bought a new Laptop this past weekend. Windows Vista isn't that bad, but man is it a resource hog. I still prefer XP for sure.

I finally created a facebook account. I've been tired of Myspace for ages. Facebook basically feels like a Myspace for adults who can spell and don't act like a bunch of ghetto morons. Bye Bye Myspace.

I'm thinking about picking up a scanner so I can scan some old pics of me as well as my father. If anyone knows of a good scanner at a good price let me know.

Hockey season starts in a little over two months. Can't wait to see my Stars in action starting October 3!!! GO STARS!!!

Found a pretty cool site for streaming music last night called Slacker.com. Pretty decent selection of music.

Latest food addictions = Swiss Miss Fudge Bars, Fiber One Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Steamed Broccoli, and Fresh Pineapple.

If I was still the fast food junkie that I was years ago I probably would have eaten at the Sonic that arrived in town late last year. I still haven't eaten there yet. These days I eat at decent restaurants with real food. If I do eat fast food I always pick Qdoba or Culvers.

My Saturdays have been free lately due to a blown motor in my nephew's stock car. I always have stuff to do, but being at the races is fun.

I'm still enjoying my Mustang, but it's dirty at the moment. I can never wash the damn thing because it seems like rain is always in the forecast.

Too Many Game Sites, Reviewers, & Podcasts

Now that every Tom, Dick, and Harry thinks they are a "hardcore gamer" we have an oversaturation of websites and podcasts devoted to gaming. It really needs to stop. There are so many terrible websites and gaming podcasts out there now. It's gotten to the point where any idiot with a pc and an opinion can have his/her own site and podcast. Having an Xbox 360 and an opinion doesn't make you an authority on gaming. I'd also like to add video game reviews on youtube to this list. I don't know how many video reviews I've seen for games with total stumps doing the review. I mean shit at least learn how to form a complete sentence before you decide to do a video review for a game. People really need to stop embarrassing themselves.

I think the main problems I have with independent gaming sites are terrible spelling errors and a lot of copying and pasting of news stories that they found over at IGN or Kotaku. There is such a thing as spell check. USE IT! This is exactly why I will continue to ignore all the wannabe's and go to the bigger sites like IGN. They actually have site editors who get paid to make sure they don't look like a bunch of half-witted morons who can't spell. I realize that not all independent gaming sites are bad. Heck, there are some good ones out there. It's just that the bad ones far outweigh the good ones.

Another issue I have is all of the terribly boring game reviews out there now. I think I'd probably rather pull my fingernails out one by one with pliers than read another game review. If I want a game review now I'll either watch a video review on Gametrailers.com or IGN.com. If you only have a written review of a game chances are I won't be reading it. I just don't want to take the time to read a review that's going to bore the shit out of me.

I'm also listening to only a handful of gaming podcats now. There are just too many braindead morons creating podcasts.

I know I sound negative, but hey someone has to tell it like it is.

DEFINITELY A PEEVE!!!

I see random words misspelled all the time. I'm not saying I have perfect spelling or anything, but some words I see misspelled just irritate the shit out of me. Ready for the word that I see misspelled all the time that is my new peeve?

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y!!!! That's how it's spelled folks! I usually see it spelled "definately". THAT'S WRONG!!!!

Again, I'm not perfect. You would think people could spell DEFINITELY the right way though. Just sayin'!

Top 10 Most Famous Cars

Through the years we've seen tons of cool cars on television and movie screens. Some of them don't seem as cool now that I'm almost 37 years old, but the memories still remain from my childhood. I've always had a love affair with cars. I generally like a car that looks sexy and goes fast. It speaks volumes about the car I drive now. As usual this list isn't in any order. It's just a list of 10 of the most popular cars that I dig.

1) 1969 Dodge Charger aka "The General Lee" from The Dukes Of Hazzard. (Like a lot of kids I loved this car to death. I even have some pics from 4th grade posing in front of it at a car show.)

2) 1974 Ford Gran Torino aka the car From Starsky & Hutch. (I barely remember anything about this show because I was really young when this show was on. I do remember the car though.)

3) 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am aka the car that Burt Reynolds drove in "Smokey & The Bandit". (Once upon a time I owned a Firebird. Mine wasn't the cool 1977 Firebird though. Mine was like the one Michael Knight drove. The 1977 Firebird is/was badass!)

4) 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am aka the car in Knight Rider. (It doesn't do much for me now...probably because I drove one just like it for a few years. Same color too. Now my brother in-law's wife owns it. It's a rust bucket piece of junk now. It was decent when I drove it.)

5) 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe aka the car John Milner drove in American Graffiti. (Man I fell in love with this car and Milner's Deuce Coupe when I first saw American Graffiti back in 1982. Waht a sweet street rod.)

6) 1979 Ferrari 308 GTS aka the car from Magnum P.I. (Never cared for the tv show, but damn I wanted to drive that car.)

7) 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 fastback aka the car fron Gone In 60 Seconds (Man, I'd give my left and right nuts to own this car. Shit, i'd even give up sex for a year for this car.)

8) 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT aka the car from the movie Bullitt. ( I have yet to see this film, but it's qued up for instant streaming via Netflix on my Xbox 360. I hear the chase scene in this film is still the best ever.)

9) 1978 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 aka Forrest Whittaker's Camaro in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. ( This movie is full of great scenes. Two of those scenes involve this car. It's a riot when Mike Damone is told "DON'T FUCK WITH IT"! Of course there's also Jeff Spicoli declaring "I can fix it" after wrecking it.)

10) 1948 Ford Deluxe aka the car from Grease. (Very cool old school ride. I'm not big on convertables, but this one os sharp even with those crazy lightning bolts...afterall IT'S GREASED LIGHTNING!

Worst Band Ever

I'm not even joking with that blog title. I've heard some bad bands in my 36+ year existence, but the band COMPLETE easily wins worst band ever category. What's sad is they seem to take themselves seriously. I discovered this band a while back on a message board I used to post at. I was reminded of them again because someone posted a video for their song HOOGIE BOOGIE LAND. It's just bad. I mean it's terrible. If anyone has heard worse I'd love to hear that band.

This is really bad. You've been warned!

Early Game Of The Year & MST3K

If anyone finds it odd that I haven't been on Xbox Live in a couple of days now there is a damn good reason for it. That reason is Infamous on the PS3. It's been well documented on this blog that my PS3 is used for a blu-ray/dvd player. Sure I own a few games for the PS3, but they never get played because they just aren't all that great. I only buy exclusives on the PS3 because I play cross platform games on my Xbox 360.

I'm about 6 or 7 hours into Infamous now, and I'm having a blast playing it. I don't know what it is about third person action games, but I just love the hell out of them for some reason. For me Infamous is the best thing since Crackdown. I'm finding myself getting lost in the gameplay just having a ton of fun with it. I haven't had this much fun with a game on the PS3 since Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This game is so good that if I didn't already own a PS3 I would honestly go out and buy one just for this game. It's that good. I recommend anyone with a PS3 to at least rent Infamous. It's early and there are a lot of games that are coming out in the fall, but so far this is easily my game of the year.

While I'm not playing Infamous and other games I'll be watching Mystery Science Theatre 3000 dvd's from Netflix. I used to watch this on Comedy Central when it was on. I really had no idea just how many episodes there were untill I did some research online. I've got a lot of episodes to rent from Netflix. Too bad I can't instant stream them though.

MST3K SHORT

iPhone...Do I Really Want One?

Everyone in my family has the same cell phone. For about the first four months the phones worked great. Now they are basically junk. We text a lot. The keyboards on our phones work sometimes. My wife and daughter have replaced their phones a coup[le of times now. I still have mine. I've just been living with terrible stopping and slowing down while trying to text. I'm sick of it at this point, so I'm thinking about buying out of our contract with Alltel, and getting iPhones. My question is how much can I expect to pay? Right now we pay just under $200.00 per month for unlimited texting as well as a bunch of minutes that we don't need because we have "my circle" which allows you unlimited minutes to the people in "your circle". We also have unlimited internet access. If we can get a decent plan for about the same price per month then I'm all for getting iPhones. Obviously I'm going to have to do some research, but any input from people reading this blog would be appreciated.

inFAMOUS Impressions

I finally went out and bought inFAMOUS for the PS3. I simply couldn't wait for GameFly to send it to me. By the time they send me a copy all of my hair would be gray.

The opening intro to this game is one of the best I've seen. The graphics are really nice especially for an open world game in a city with a lot going on. Climbing buildings is easy and fun as well. So far I'm also digging the moral choices that you have to make which are either good or evil. I'm playing through on good first. Later I'll try and tackle evil. My only complaint with the game is that the "Reapers" on the rooftops are highly talented snipers who can easily put bullets in your body. I started playing on normal mode, but decided on the fly to play on the easy difficulty mode until I get the hang of it because the "Reapers" tear you up on the ground and in the air. So far I can see this as my go to game. I'm only an hour in, and I'm having a lot of fun with inFAMOUS. It looks like my PS3 is finally going to get some use other than being a dvd/blu-ray player.

Songs About America...Well Kinda

So I'm driving my American made Ford Mustang today thinking about songs that are about America or at least have America in the title. I came up with a few. Some are worthy. Some are not so worthy.

James Brown "Living In America" (Right away I'm reminded of Rocky 4 when I hear it. Apollo Creed looking cheezy in his top hat and tails all decked out with stars and bars. I can get down to this song though. It's good. I FEEL GOOD!)

Night Ranger "You Can Still Rock In America" (You definitely still can, but most new rock bands sure can't. Somne would argue that Night Ranger can't either. Whatever though because I like Night Ranger in all of their cheezy 80's glory. This is a good guitar rock tune.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers "American Girl" (I've been a fan of Petty for years. The guy can write a catchy song. I love catchy sing along songs. "American Girl" is no exception. It's a great song that was also part of the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack.

Neil Diamond "America" (I love this song! Yeah that's right I love it. I believe it was back in 1980 that this song was really popular and on the radio all the time. Neil has this reputation for being a dork or whatever...at least with my generation, but this guy was awesome. He's a great songwriter/performer. To me "America" is majestic and even epic.)

David Bowie "Young Americans" (I guess you could say this is Bowie's interpretation of young america back in the day? It's an ok song. I can take it or leave it.)

Kim Wilde "Kids In America" (I love this tune. It's one of those 80's tunes that stands out to me. Kim was hot back in the day too.)

David Bowie "I'm Afraid Of Americans" (Yet another Bowie song about Americans. I like this one enough that when it came out I downloaded it and burned it to a cd-r. Good stuff.)

Kid Rock "American Badass" (OK i'll admit this. I like this song. Years ago when it was released Mtv played the crap out of the video and for some reason I liked it. Maybe it was because he sampled "Sad But True" in the background? "Sad But True" is the only song on Metallica's "Black Album" that I like because it's the only heavy song on that album.)

Bruce Springsteen "Born In The U.S.A." (I own this on cd. My mom owned it on vinyl. Not really a big fan of the song. I do like how it doesn't shine the greatest light on America though. Too bad Reagan had no idea of that.)

Hulk Hogan & The Wrestling Boot Band "I Am A Real American" (How can you not get chills when you hear this song? Say your prayers & eat your vitamins, BROTHER!)

Don McClean "American Pie" (I hate this song with a passion! It's too long. It's too boring. It sucks!)

Grand Funk Railroad (We're An American Band" (God, I hate this one too. I mean holy shit how many times do they have to tell us in one song that they are an American band? OK, I get it already. You're an American band. Now shut up!)

The Guess Who "American Woman" (Great song. This one rocks. Lenny Kravitz's version does not!)

Styx - "Miss America" (Yep, this one rocks too. I like it. I don't love it, but it's good.)

M.O.D. "U.S.A. For M.O.D." (Tasteless and funny as hell. I like it!)

Anthrax "American Pompeii" ( It's Anthrax, so of course I like it! John Bush owns you, Sac!!!)

Def Leppard "Hello America" (It rocks! Back when Def Leppard ROCKED!)

Dio "Dying In America" (Blah, RJD was once the man, but not the album "Angry Machines".)

Gwar "America Must Be Destroyed" (For me GWAR is hot or miss, but mostly miss.)

Lawnmower Death "Kids In America" (I actually like this cover. Great band actually. If you have never heard "Satan's Trampoline" you need to!)

Motorhead "America" (It's Motorhead. You either like them, or you don't. This one is decent.)

Nuclear Assault "My America" (This is a band that I don't listen to nearly enough these days. Good song, and "Game Over" Rules!)

Pantera "The Underground In America" (This one is off of "The Great Southern Trendkill" which in my opinion is an incredible album and highly underrated.)

Pro-Pain "American Dreams" (One of my favorite bands, but not one of my favorite songs. It's ok.)

Sacred Reich "The American Way" (I love this song. I love this album. I love the guitar solo on this tune.)

WASP "Goodbye America" (WASP's best days are behind them. Once in a while they put out an album with a few good songs, but Blackie should really pack it in. This one is decent at best.)

Michael Jackson Dead At The Age Of 50

Back in 1983 I became a huge Michael Jackson fan. I would listen to "Thriller" pretty much ever day for months. I was only 10/11 at the time. I can remember my Grandpa and some other family members giving me grief over being an MJ fan. I won't even get into some of the racist crap I heard from them. There was just something about MJ that was magical to me. I guess I was just a young impressionable kid. Later in 1983 heavy metal music came into the picture and I pretty much forgot about Michael Jackson.

There's no denying that he was/is an icon. When Fred Astaire compliments your dance moves you're basically a stud. I still believe that there was no greater entertainer than Michael Jackson. I also believe that there never will be. He was larger than life. He was the Elvis of my generation. I have nothing bad to say about him even though thousands of people on message boards are already ripping on him with jokes that are in bad taste. Even in death he can't be left alone.

In the 80's nobody was a bigger star. Not even Madonna. He had talent. He had massive stage presence. He made girls scream, cry, and even pass out. I don't care what anyone says. In the 80's Michael Jackson was THE MAN.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

6 Bands That I Can't Stand

A few of these bands actually have ONE song that I enjoy with the rest of their output being a steaming pile of monkey shit.


1) U2 (The very first band that comes to mind! They may be the most overrated band ever! When I hear songs like "With Or Without You", and "Where The Streets Have No Name" I puke in my mouth a little. The weird thing about bands that I hate like U2 is that they do seem to manage to create one song that's actually worth a shit. That song is "New Years Day".)

2) Lynyrd Skynyrd (I never could stand this band or 99% of Southern Rock. It's just terrible. "Free Bird" makes me run to the radio to turn the station. It's just so boring to me. I've heard one song from this band that I do like. That song is "That Smell". Again, a band that I can't stand that has one good song.

3) Pearl Jam (I hate this band. I hate the "grunge" genre. I can't stand Eddie Vedder's voice. There has only been two songs where I like his vocals. I like the song "Not For You". His vocals still aren't great, but at least they are tolerable. The other song isn't even a Pearl Jam song. The song "Hunger Strike" by Temple Of The Dog is basically his only great moment.)

4) The Who (Yet another overrated band. It may actually be Roger Daltrey that ruins this band for me. Then again a lot of the music is just bland in my opinion. Again, the one and only song by The Who that I actually like a lot is "Eminence Front".

5) Voivod (If ever there was music that should be played as a form of torture it should be Voivod's music. They suck! As long as I live there will never ever be a song by this band that I enjoy. Come to think of it this band should be in the number 1 spot...not that these bands are in any real order.

6) Nevermore (Anyone who has ever seen me post on various Metal message boards in the past ten years knows that I cannot stand Warrell Danes's vocals with Nevermore. He just ruins the band for me. He has to have the most boring voice in metal. Skip sleeping pills when you can't sleep. Just listen to a Nevermore album. BTW the image above is the talentless idiot Warrell Dane. Note: He was once a good vocalist for the band Sanctuary. What the hell happened is anyone's guess. If this band had a different vocalist they would probably be a decent band.

Kids Drive Me Nuts!

Yep, it's Father's Days. I have a beautiful 14 year old daughter who along with her other dippy teenage friends drive me crazy. Nobody ever told me that when you have a kid you also adopt all of their friends who stay at your house every weekend. They are loud. They are obnoxious. They pretty much only care about their fun no matter how loud they are or who it annoys. Oh, and they eat you out of house and home. Bill Cosby was right when he said all children have brain damage. Things are only going to get worse now that it's summer. I was just sitting down in the basement at my PC getting ready to come up with something for this blog when I hear what sounds like furniture being moved as well as laps being ran. Mind you it's almost midnight and my wife is trying to sleep so she can get up and go to work tomorrow. I go up the stairs to ask my daughter and her friend what the hell they are doing. I tell them it sounds like they are running laps around the living room. They then demonstrate some goofy dance. I tell them we aren't running a dance club and to chill out. I wasn't too nice about it probably because before that my daughter comes to me and announces that she has friends stopping by to stay hi to them. I'm like bullshit it's almost midnight! I'm 36 years old and I don't even have friends stopping by that late.

Happy Father's Day to me and all of the other stressed out dads out there. Fatherhood...it is what it is. Next stop, the looney bin!

The Blog Post With No Special Title

It's time again for random thoughts by yours truly.

I've come to the conclusion that while I like video games that aren't triple a titles I really wish every game was a triple a title. You're probably saying well no shit Sherlock! I feel like some of the games I've been playing lately are just time wasters. While they are mildly entertaining they just leave me wanting more. You have no idea how bad I want fall to hurry up and get here!

Speaking of fall...I'm struggling with the idea of storing my Mustang for the winter and buying a beater to drive. Snow tires for the Stang would cost about $200 a piece. For a little more than that I could just go buy a decent enough car to get me through the winter. I haven't made up my mind just yet. If I do drive the Stang I'll be running it through the car wash weekly. I wouldn't even be driving it all that much to tell you the truth. As it is I only live a half mile from work and drive a few miles away to the bank every other week. In an average week I drive about 5-7 miles. I'd also have to pay to store the Stang as well or possibly my Uncle would let me park it in his garage. Eh, who knows?

Anyone remember the show The Greatest American Hero? Well, of course you do. Is it sad that I bought all three seasons on dvd a few years ago and only watched the pilot episode? I just listened to one of the latest podcast episodes of Stuck In The 80's with an interviw with William Katt. He seems like a really nice guy. I guess there is a Greatest American Hero movie in the works right now. Not a good idea if you ask me.

Lately I've been playing The Club. I like it for what it is. It's an arcadey shooter that's actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Definitely worth a rent in my opinion or even worth 10 or 15 bucks if you can find it that cheap.

I'm finding that I'm really digging the Mtv True Life reality shows lately. I just watched the episode where girls go on and on about how they hate their big breasts. One girl didn't really even have anything to bitch about. She had double D cups, but they weren't shit compared to the other two girls who had way bigger boobs. One girl had a size F!!! Of course the other two girls were overweight. Lose some weight = lose some breast size. It's not rocket science ladies! I also enjoyed the porn addiction episode. I feel their pain. One guy who was married had to get out of his house because his wife was so pissed off that he looked at porn. This woman was a bitch. If she was my wife I'd rather watch porn and spank the monkey than do her.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Is A Snoozefest

I generally enjoy open world "sandbox" games. RFG is that type of game, but man it's not doing anything for me. My major complaint is how dull the environment is. You play as a miner on Mars. Now think of just how boring the landscape on Mars is. They nailed it. There's nothing exciting to look at. It's boring. Another complaint I have is that the game feels very reptitive. I don't mind doing things over and over in a game if the things I'm doing are fun. I'm just not having any fun with the missions. Another problem I have is that your enemies are sharp shooting maniacs who are relentless and just keep coming no matter how many of them you kill. These guys could shoot a penny from 100 yards away. Basically you have to go to an area complete your objective and then get the hell out of there as fast as you can because if you stick around to fight them all you will die. Maybe I just suck at this game, but I found myself dying often. Needless to say this game is going back to Gamefly tomorrow.

I'm also playing Turok. I'm far from impressed. That may be going back soon as well. I'm at the point now where I'd rather use my Xbox 360 to stream Netflix movies than play games. I feel like I've played just about every good game there is to offer on the 360.

No Time For Games Only Time For Driving My New Mustang Really Fast!

So I finally did it. I found that Ford Mustang that gave sent chills up my spine. I knew this was the one. The pic above is my baby! It has everything I was looking for. Color black CHECK. Black leather interior CHECK. A V8 with 300HP CHECK. A rear spoiler CHECK. Power seats, locks, and windows CHECK. Low miles for a pre-owned car CHECK. This is not your grandma's car unless she's the little old lady from Pasadena.

After driving a crappy little Ford Ranger that putts along as well as a little Kia Rio that my wife drives I wasn't ready for the power of the 4.6 liter V8. I'm still getting used to barely touching the gas and having it take off. I'm speeding without even realizing it. I even feel out of place in this Mustang. I feel like this car should belong to someone else. Almost like I'm not worthy. Shit, maybe I'm not. Don't get me wrong. I love love love this car. It's just that I'm not used to driving something this nice. I've owned a lot of cars in the past 18 years. None have been this nice or fast. I once owned a 1984 Pontiac Firebird that was quick, but not this quick...not even close.

I'm also noticing that it's an attention getter. When I'm driving down the road and I stop at a red light people stare at it. Of course people also want to get beside me and try to get me to get on it. Yep, the short time I've had it it's already happened twice. I love driving fast, but I don't want the speeding tickets that go with it. I haven't had a speeding ticket in 11 years and I don't plan on getting one now.

I'm also wondering if I should drive it in the winter. I only live a half mile from work so it's not like I have to drive far. I also plan on washing it at least once a week. Of course I'll need snow tires all the way around as well. Michigan winters can be harsh.

I'm just glad I finally pulled the trigger and bought one. You only live once. I'm a firm believer in doing things that make you happy if you can manage it.

Killzone 2 Not All That & A Bag Of Chips

After spending a few hours with Killzone 2 I'm just not impressed. To tell you the truth I'm not even driven to play it anymore. I have a few problems with the game. First off I'm playing on the medium difficulty and it's barely a challenge. I'm actually finding that it's incredibly easy to not shoot enemies and just walk up and melee them in the face. It's also a bitch to aim with the reticle. I have the sensitivity way up in the options and it's still not helping. When you use the right analog stick to aim it kinda hesitates and pauses. This is annoying as hell. If the controls were better the game would probably be really fun. I'm not thrilled with the weapons either. I've ended up using the one shot rifle because the other guns have so much kickback when you shoot them that you end up shooting way above the head of your enemy. I have a feeling I'll be sending this back to GameFly either tomorrow or Monday. It's a mediocre shooter with some issues. When I play a FPS I want precision from my weapons. I don't want to have to fight with accuracy. I've played C grade shooters on the Xbox 360 that handle better than KZ2. What a shame. I thought I had finally found an exclusive game on the PS3 worth playing. I was wrong. I hope INFAMOUS ends up being that game...

Motrin...What A Joke

For the past two weeks I've been having some terrible headaches. Monday I had the worst headache of my life. I haven't really felt like doing much of anything and that includes playing video games or blogging. I've managed to play a few games when my head isn't pounding and my brain isn't trying to escape from my head...at least that what it feels like. I've been playing The Bourne Conspiracy on the 360 and Killzone 2 on the PS3. TBC has a ton of quick time events, but I'm finding that it doesn't bother me like I thought it would. So far it's a much better game that I expected. It's far from being perfect, but it doesn't suck either. Killzone 2 is better than average so far. I've played a lot of shooters. KZ2 isn't showing me anything I haven't already seen before. It's good. Too bad it's not great.

Karma must have really caught up with Earl this time. My Name Is Earl has been cancelled. It's one of the few scrpted sitcoms that I actually enjoy watching these days. I don't even watch it regliously or anything, but I watch the episodes that my wife dvr's. She'll be bummed that it got cancelled. I just like it because it makes fun of rednecks.

My Mustang search is still on. I have my eye on one that was just reduced by almost 1K. It's a 2005 with just under 24K miles. I'm not to thrilled with the color. It's sonic metallic blue with white racing stripes. I may go test drive it on Saturday if my head cooperates.

50 Cent, Matt Hazzard, Killzone 2, Infamous, & Ford Mustangs

50 Cent Blood On The Sand had been on my GameFly GameQ since it was released. Gamefly never shipped it to me, so I went to my local Hollywood Video and rented it. Sometimes I wonder why the hell I bother with Gamefly. I had heard nothing but good things about Blood On The Sand. Mostly I had heard and read that it was fun. Having fun is the reason to play games. Am I right? So far it's been a blast. It's a lot like Gears Of War, but better. Yeah, that's right. It's better.
Any game where you click on the left stick to swear err taunt your enemies is a good thing in my book. HaHa no not really. If I was 12 it would rule the world though. The dialogue in this game alone is enough to crack you up. The story is just bad, but that makes the game even more fun. All the cheezy dialogue and story aside this game is a really good shooter. I'm just glad I had the option of turning the background music off.

I also rented Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazzard. I purposely started playing this first because I figured it would be pretty bad. It is pretty bad, but something made me keep playing it. It was probably all of those achievement points that kept popping up. You know those achievement points that I said I didn't care about. This could have been a good game. Maybe if they had spent more time on some of the control issues like getting into cover it would have been a lot better. I stopped playing it after a while to play the 50 Cent game, and I'm glad I did. I may spend more time with this though...eventually.

It looks like my PS3 will actually get some use. I'm getting KILLZONE 2 from Gamefly and I may even go buy INFAMOUS. Man, that game just looks incredible. I watched Greg Miller's video review for INFAMOUS and not only does it look amazing, but it also looks like a hell of a lot of fun as well. Right now it's my MUST play game. It looks CrackDownish as well becuse you can climb a city of buildings. Right now the average score is a 9 on gamerankings.com

So far my search for a Ford Mustang is going slow. I'm not seeing that Mustang that is perfect for me. I'm scouring the pages of Autotrader.com. I'm seeing cars that are missing one or two options that I want that aren't there. For example I'll see a bad ass car then I'll see that the interior isn't leather. It will be cloth. I'm also finding a lot of Mustangs that are sweet, but have manual transmissions. I can drive a stick, but I don't want one here in suburbia. I need to see that Mustang that makes want to run out the door and go test drive it. I'll just keep looking at Mustangs online impatiently I guess.

VACATION TIME!!!

Well, I just started my first week of vacation! I get four more after this one plus I have some Fridays in July scheduled as well. My plans are to go pay off my car and truck loan and then go shopping for a slightly used Ford Mustang or MAYBE a new Mustang. It all depends on what I find and which one floats my boat. I'm not jumping on the first one I see though. It's gonna have to give me chills or I'm not buying it. Some may say I'm crazy to pay off both vechiles only to get another car loan, but you only live once and I want a Mustang so bad it hurts.

I've been playing a lot of FALLOUT 3 lately. I finished the main quest in BROKEN STEEL and now I'm blazing through THE PITT. BROKEN STEEL added about 17 hours of gameplay and I still have some other things I can do in that expansion. I could go on playing in this world for as long as Bethesda wants to release new expansions. I really hope they do!

I also finished QUANTUM OF SOLACE which was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Now I'm playing Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. Which isn't great, but it isn't terrible. I'm also gonna dive into 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand pretty soon. I'd talk about my irritation with GameFly, but I just don't feel like it.

Soft Drinks With Real Sugar!

Many of you probably already know that you can get a few soft drinks without corn syrup right now. Pepsi has released Mountain Dew Throwback as well as Pepsi Throwback. You can get both in plastic bottles or in cans. I've only seen them in plastic bottles so far, and have purchased both. Dr.Pepper has also released a few drinks with pure cane sugar and no corn syrup. The Dr.Pepper bottling company has totally done it right though. Their drinks come in 12oz glass bottles.

Being the nostalgic pop culture junkie that I am I just had to try these. Let me just tell you that soft drinks without corn syrup are incredibly delicious. Yes, you CAN taste the difference. Not since the early 80's has Mountain Dew tasted so damn good! I don't even drink many regular soft drinks these days. If I do I generally drink diet. Once in a while I'll drink a regular Coke. I gotta say though if Dr Pepper and Pepsi keep making drinks minus the corn syrup I'll be drinking more of it on a weekly basis. Cavities and a growing waistline be damned!

Out of the pure sugar drinks I've had regular Dr.Pepper, A&W Root Beer, and Mountain Dew. I have a couple bottles of Pepsi still in my fridge. The thing that I like about these old school soft drinks is that you aren't overwhelmed by sweetness. You actually notice the fizz more than anything because it seems like there's more fizz than in the corn syrup variety. It's just a much better taste as well. Drinking the Mountain Dew brought me back to when Mountain Dew tasted great. Once upon a time it was all I drank. It's too bad Pepsi didn't release it in glass bottles though. Either way I'm just glad soft drink companies are ditching corn syrup even if it for a short time. Hopefully enough people will buy these and corn syrup will be a thing of the past. I don't expect that to happen, but at the very least they could make both...oh and how long before Coke follows suit?

Broken Steel Is Broken

I get home tonight looking forward to downloading the new BROKEN STEEL DLC for FALLOUT 3. I decide to look around the net for impressions and possible reviews. After cehecking out a few game blogs and message boards all I see are news stories and complaints about broken DLC. Apparently achievements aren't unlocking for the Xbox 360 DLC and PC users get the following message when they install the DLC "Not a cryptographic message or the cryptographic message is not formatted correctly. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009200D)".

To say this news sucks is an understatement. FALLOUT 3 is my game of the year for 2008. I spent 106 hours playing it. For Christ's sake Betheseda get your goddamn act together. Bethesda had issues with DLC for The Pitt as well. Looks like I'll have to wait to play Broken Steel now, and I'm not happy about it!

Rock Band Not So Bad

OK, Rock Band is actually a fun game WHEN YOU PLAY WITH OTHER PEOPLE. Me and my daughter played Rock Band today for like five hours. I played bass. She played guitar. We kicked a bit of ass. I was struggling to come up with a band name so of course I picked parts of three death metal bands that I enjoy. Our band name is Napalm Angel Corpse, and we DESTROOOOOOY! I'm irritated that my band member's name can't be shown on Xbox Live though. What's wrong with Jack Azz? This is Rock Band for piss sake. Maybe I should have went with Corpse Fucker instead.

I also stopped by my local GameStop today to pick up a guitar. I couldn't believe how many used guitars they had there. I wasn't about to buy one though. Who knows how many little boogery fingers were on those guitars or how many hours they were used. I opted to go to Sam's Club and buy yet another copy of Guitar Hero 3 w/guitar. That means I have a new copy of GH3 that I'll need to get rid of. Sac, if you're reading this and you're interested in this game at all just let me know and it's yours for free.

Rock Band Impressions

I realize this game isn't new, but after playing Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on the PS2 when they were released I was beyond tired of music games. Rock band is definitely a better game than any of the Guitar Hero gamnes I've played, but the track list is just crap in my opinion. I know music is in the ear of the beholder, but man these songs just aren't fun to play. At least the modern songs aren't. I'm going through the solo career on vocals right now and I have to say that I'm really not having fun with most of these songs. It's no wonder there's a ton of DLC. There would have to be for anyone to wants to keep playing Rock Band. I'd have say that I don't care about 85% of the songs included on the disc. I'm guessing it would be more fun playing with other people even if you're playing a song that you don't like. For me to enjoy Rock Band I'm pretty sure I'd have to shell out a ton of cash for DLC. As tempting as buying Judas Priest's 'Screaming For Vengeance' is I can't bring myself to do it because I don't plan on buying Rock Band. At this point it's just a rental from GameFly. If I owned it I would definitely buy 'Screaming For Vengeance' complete because it's one of my favorite albums ever. I'd also pick up Megadeth's 'Peace Sells...But Who's Buying'. That's yet another one of my favorite albums.

The best thing about Rock Band vs Guitar Hero is that you don't fail out of a song when you're royally screwing the pooch. I definitely like that aspect of the game. On the flip side I'll take Guitar Hero for the songs. The GH games just seem to be more suited to my musical tastes. Which reminds me that I need to put Guitar Hero Aerosmith on my GameFly GameQ...

For me Rock Bands fails only because I don't like most of the songs on the disc. When Bon Jovi's 'Wanted Dead Or Alive' is a welcome song to sing vs most of the songs you know there's a problem.

My Mind Is A Total Blank...

...Nothing new really as far as my mind being a total blank. I've got nothing going on in my head for blog posts here or over at ThisXboxLife.com. I'm in a major rut. I think it has a lot to do with my crazy new sleep schedule. I'm up a few hours before I have to go to work. Then when I get home I'm up for a few hours. Then I'm off to bed. I've even contemplated quitting blogging altogether because I feel like I don't have much to say for whatever reason. I guess I'm just going through an uncreative stretch. I can talk about a couple of things though.

I've been watching a lot of South Park lately. I have the first six seasons on dvd as well as season eight. I just watched all of season seven on Netflix on my 360. I'm sorry, but this show is just genius. OK, maybe it isn't genius, but it sure does crack me up.

As far as games go I've been playing Fracture. I'm on the end boss right now, and he's really pissing me off. I will defeat him though. Look for a future review of Fracture on ThisXboxLife.com

As far as music goes I've been listening to 60's Garage Rock thanks to a thread on a message board that I no longer post at. I still lurk there though. I decided to download Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 box set. Lots of good stuff so far. I'm only on disc 1, but so far I'm really digging this stuff. 60's Garage Rock is supposedly responsible for the punk rock movement. I can buy that I guess.

Anyone else excited for the new FALLOUT 3 DLC on May 5th? I know I am! Should be fun.

Kiss Me Deadly?

Anyone who reads my blog knows I'm stuck in the 80's. You also know that I love my 80's music. Today at work was 80's On 8 XM Radio day which I live for. Anyway Lita's 'Kiss Me Deadly' was on and I was thinking just how tired I am of that song. I'll admit that when I was a teenager I liked the song. It hasn't aged well though. For that matter Lita really hasn't either just judging by how she looked when I saw That Metal Show on VH1 Classic. I'm sure I could sit here and come up with tons more 80's songs that haven't aged well and this just happens to be one of them. I do own the self titled Lita album that 'Kiss Me Deadly' appears on. I even listen to it probably twice a year or so. There are actually songs on that album that I still enjoy like 'Back To The Cave' which is much better than 'Kiss Me Deadly'.

The second part of my thought about this song is just what in the fuck does 'Kiss Me Deadly' even mean? How in the hell do you go about kissing someone deadly? Does that even make a lick of sense? I realize that songs don't have to make sense, but this song really takes the prize for not making sense. I'll take no part in being kissed deadly or kissing someone deadly...whatever the hell that means.

Entertainment Doldrums

I haven't been this bored with video games, movies, television, and music in a long time. I've actually been digging into the past for my entertainment needs. I've been watching old (but new to me) episodes of South Park on Netflix as well as older movies that I never got around to watching. The other day I watched Michael Keaton in 'Clean & Sober' which I thought was pretty good. I've also been renting games that I never got around to playing like Too Human which I finished and enjoyed. I started playing Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, but sent it back to GameFly after only playing it a few hours. I just didn't care for it. Now I'm playing 'Fracture' which is a good game. I'm finding that I really like third person action adventure games.

So basically I'm looking to the past for my entertainment needs. Other than that I don't know what to say besides BRING ON SOME AWESOME NEW GAMES, MOVIES & MUSIC!!! I'm getting bored...really bored.

I'm Eating My Words

At the beginning of the year I made a blog entry about how many games I was looking forward to and how this would be a good year for video games. My outlook has changed. There are really only a handful of games that I even care about now. Unless Microsoft and Sony make some huge announcements at E3 I think this year is actually going to be quite lame. Obviously I plan on playing a bunch of new releases, but it's not like I'll be dying to play most of them. There are still plenty of games I can go back to. There are even older games I still haven't played yet. Right now I only see one AAA title worth getting excited about and that's Modern Warfare 2. In case that title looks a bit strange it's because the Call Of Duty tag is being dropped. I also have high hopes for Brutal Legend mostly because it's a fantasy game based on Heavy Metal. Still no word on when that's being released though. I'm also looking forward to INFAMOUS and PROTOTYPE. I also think FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 3 could be promising as well. I'm just hoping that some announcements will be made for some other big games this year.

Round Two Of Torture

In my last blog entry I talked about how Grace Is Gone destroyed me emotionally. Well, if Grace Is Gone destroyed me I'd say the movie "My Life" starring Michael Keaton killed and buried me. If you must know I cried like a baby especially at the end of the movie. My sinuses are totally destroyed now. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment lately. My friend Repro/Phil had said that this movie was the saddest he had seen. It now ranks as the saddest I have seen as well. This movie really brought back some terribly sad memories for me. Life isn't fair and this movie shoves that right down your throat. I obviously didn't need "My Life" to tell me this, but it's good to be reminded just how precious life is. There are no guarantees here on earth. I learned that early on in life. Bad things happen to good people. It sucks, but that's life. After watching this movie I felt as if it was a bit theraputic. Sometimes you need to let it all out.

Definitely a great movie. Thanks for the recommendation, Phil. :)