pp2's Blog - 2old2play

Yay! (or: Yay!)

So tonight I laid out the song I wrote for the rest of the guys in the band. I was a bit nervous about it. So after we warmed up they wanted to hear it, so I explained what I kind of had in mind for the guitar parts and the setup of it then played it. They actually dug it quite a bit. I worked with the guitarist first, taught him the riffs and then let him start working on what to put over it. Then the drummer and I played so he could do his thing. Once he had his part down we recorded me playing just the bassline, then just the bass and a rough beat with the drums.

What was really cool is the comment was made that it was pretty clear Steve Harris was an influence for me because it had a Maiden feel to it. Well, to me thats a big compliment anyway. So all the parts of the song so far remained intact, they liked the whole thing. The only thing we need is an intro for it and we kicked around some ideas, including a few I had. We should have something by next time we get together I'm sure. We spent a good couple hours on that song, then we went ahead and played through the songs we had down so far, then they taught me another of theirs. So I have that to work on this week, that should be fun. I have the notes down for the most part and the beat, I just need to come up with something suitable for a bassline overall.

My Netflix addiction continues. We've been watching the first 3 seasons of The Office all weekend. Well, I started last week and my son and I started watching this weekend around the end of season 2. Now we're a little more than halfway through season 3 and getting some good laughs out of it. I also queued up about 15 more items, so I have like 110 things in my queue now. Easily the best $9/month I've spent in some time, and I'm still on my free trial.

Some grocery shopping tomorrow, maybe a little housework just to tidy up after the holiday, then maybe we'll dig out the Christmas tree. 'Tis the season, right?

[2 Comments]

When things don't go as planned (Or :Just another day for me)

So we went out this morning to Meijer and picked up our "pre-cooked" holiday meal. I've never gone this route before, and I don't believe I ever will again.

To begin with, or as a refresher to those of you who already know this, the meal consisted of a pre-cooked 10-12lb bird, 4lbs of mashed potatoes, 2lbs of stuffing, gravy, cranberry salad, and a dozen rolls. Actually not bad for $30. What they tell you at the store is that you will need to put the bird in the oven for about an hour or so to reheat it. Ok, fair enough. What they didn't tell me was that the mashed potatoes were in packages and in need of a large microwavable bowl, which I do not own. I discovered this after I got home of course, but managed to use smaller bowls to get by.

Another problem was that the turkey was partially frozen. Yes, it was pre-cooked. But since it was partially frozen, that means reheating it evenly is impossible. It was too big for the microwave and I wasn't going to let it soak in water for several hours. So I put it in the oven for just under 90 minutes, and fortunately I didn't dry out the non-frozen parts but there were still some parts of the bird that were cool. So those had to be nuked before eating. It was a bit of a hassle with some unexpected moments, but in the end we had a good meal and a good time stuffing ourselves while watching Netflix.

Next time though? Restaurant.

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Confessions of a Netflix Junkie (or: It plays games, too?)

For years now I've resisted the temptation to subscribe to mail-order rental services, be they movie or games, because I didn't think it was worth the potential trouble. I really don't even rent dvds. I have a source for some movies (YARRR!) and the rest I just buy outright on dvd. With games I have the Blockbuster gamepass or again, I just buy outright.

But then this dashboard update went live, and suddenly I find myself addicted to Netflix. I know its not the mail-order service, but I find myself browsing titles daily and dumping all kinds of oddball crap into my queue for streaming at my convenience. I guess I could physically order the dvds to rent, but I still think it could be problematic so I won't. But man, I barely use my 360 for gaming anymore.

Granted they don't let you stream a lot of newer movies, but by digging through the available selections I have found a veritable treasure trove of (mostly) older tv shows. How about all the episodes of Kolchak: The Night Stalker? Yes please! The first 4 seasons of The Office? The complete collections of Quincy, Emergency, Adam-12, Dragnet, The Incredible Hulk, and Kojak? Columbo, The Rockford Files...even The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mystery series. This is the goods.

I got the 1 out at a time package that runs $9/month, and I couldn't be happier. I can even watch this stuff on my computer when my son is playing on the 360. I come home from work now, and once I get a few odds and ends out of the way I find myself turning on the 360 so I can watch more Netflix. Its amazing what a simple convenience like this can do to an addictive personality.

Anyway, hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving. We'll be headed up to Meijer in the morning to get our pre-cooked dinner, which is sort of a misnomer because I'll still have to reheat the bird for about an hour they say. So its not a complete no-fuss affair, but it should be good nonetheless.

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The Eagle Has Landed (or: Your Goose Is Cooked)

Just got back from patrolling some of the nearby grocery stores for pre-cooked Thanksgiving dinner deals. The winner: Meijer.

For $30 I get a 12lb turkey, 4lbs of mashed potatoes, 2lbs of gravy, 1lb of cranberry salad and a dozen rolls. I think there's some stuffing in there too, I forget but I guess I better look into that. Anyway, that works for me. By the time I got done buying roasting pans and everything else I would have needed I would have far exceeded the $30, so as long as its cooked well and tasty its all good. I'll probably pick up a few other odds and ends, depending on what the kid wants,

I also extended an invite to Ed, our guitarist. I was talking to Brian and I guess Ed doesn't have plans for Thanksgiving so I left him a message inviting him over for the day. Its just me and the little guy, so its not like he'd be imposing. Plus thats an awful lot of food I just ordered there, so someone has to help us eat it.

Brian gave me a call at work yesterday. He had told us last time we got together that he found some places with open mic nights in our area, and I guess he went and checked the one place out last weekend and it was decent. Its not far from me, maybe 25 minutes, and I think its Sunday nights. He said it was pretty low-key, not many musicians (at least when he was there) and everyone else in the bar just doing their own thing. He said it seemed pretty non-hostile, every song got a polite round of applause and there was no jeering. So I'm going to call this place in a bit and find out what time it starts and head up there tomorrow night. It will be my first time ever playing in front of people if I wind up going.

Bri also said that if I did decide to go to let him know and he might try to get ahold of Ed and head up there and join me. It would be like us playing out, in a sense. I think these guys are trying hard to break me in, at least thats what it seems like, so I'm willing to give it a shot. Well, most likely after downing a few shots.

So we'll see how that goes. If these guys meet me up there we can play through our songs just for kicks, and if I go it alone I can try to get in on some songs, hopefully they will play stuff I know. If not, as long as they tell me the chords I can try to fake it. I guess there was a lack of bass players there last time too. I don't know if thats the norm or if it was just that night, but if things go well I might get some decent time in. If I wind up going I'll blog how it went.

[2 Comments]

Bas Bleu is really a woman! (and other spoilers)

The title of this blog is dedicated to everyone who's gender cover has been blown by the new avatar setup on XBox Live.

Almost Friday. Yay! Busy week at work, with the end of year coming up and us making the mad dash to meet the projections for 2008. Makes for a lively day at least, and they tend to go by fast so thats good.

I don't have the boy this weekend, but I do have him for Thanksgiving so I'm looking forward to that. I am going to take a shortcut with my cooking the dinner, opting instead to scout around the local markets and find places selling pre-cooked (or even smoked) birds to save myself the trouble. Ah, the chicanery. Who knows where this will end...I may even buy the whole dinner pre-cooked! Muahahahahaha.

The riff I came up with that the other guys in the band helped rework has now become a full-fledged song. I have a little tweaking to do, and its all subject to change once Ed and Brian get involved of course, but I have at least the whole thing structured. Possibly the only thing I may still tweak is the chord progression under the solo, but we'll see. Who knows, I may even try to write some lyrics for it too. I used to be good at that, way back when. I may give it a shot, we'll see. I had a really nice compliment paid to me by Brian earlier in the week. He told me its hard to believe I've only gotten back to playing less than a year ago (its actually been just over 9 months). Considering what an outstanding musician he is, that means a lot coming from him. But whats really helped me is playing with guys the caliber of Brian and Ed. Both these guys have been playing forever and they really are great, great musicians, so it forces me to raise my game. Plus I learn a lot from both of them when we play together, so its been a great experience so far. On top of everything there's a good chemistry between us all so that makes a difference too. I seemed to fit in with them right away, and it helped me get comfortable with them that much sooner.

Ok, gonna cruise Netflix and maybe watch an episode of The Munsters before bed. Ta.

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Another bright spot from last night I forgot to mention earlier...

A few weeks ago I came up with a neat little riff while working on a bass line for one of our songs. I played it for our drummer last time and he really liked it, and he put a really nice beat down to go with it. Only thing was, while it sounded good it was more of a funk/blues type of thing rather than rock/metal. I didn't know if it was usable in its current form, but we figured we'd see what the guitarist thought.

Btw, our drummer is Brian and our guitarist is Ed. It feels awkward typing out what they play instead of names, so now that you've all been introduced, on with the story...

So last night I play the riff for Ed with Brian on the drums. I show him how to play it and he starts working it out. Eventually we all hammered it into a more metal sounding riff, and then we all started throwing around ideas for guitar parts over it til we got something we liked. I'm sure it will undergo more changes, but point is we were able to use something I came up with for a song. So that was cool.

In other news, I have my son for Thanksgiving this year. I have no family (disowned them several years ago) besides my son, so our holidays are usually lower keyed affairs, though very enjoyable and relaxing. So I gave my son a choice: we could go out for dinner, or I could attempt to cook a turkey.

I've never cooked a turkey before. I actually am a good cook, I just don't cook since its just me 95% of the time. My son knows I can cook since I have cooked for him when he's up here, so he opted to go with me cooking a turkey. So I've been googling tips and instructions all day, trying to make sure I pull this off without making us sick.

Should be interesting, if nothing else. I'll make sure I post how it went.

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Back in the saddle

So our band finally got together in full force for the first time in like 5 weeks. I'd gotten together with the drummer since then, but either the guitarist couldn't make it or it was on a day I had to drive downstate to pick up my son. But finally all 3 of us got together in one place, and it was a blast.

I'm still learning their songs, so normally we'll play the 3 I know and then work on new stuff or just free jam for a bit. Since we hadn't gotten together for a bit I offered that maybe we should just keep up with what we knew and go from there. I had also asked the drummer (who hosts) if we could record a bit, since the versions of these songs I have don't have me playing bass on them. So he had the setup ready to roll, and after we had a good mix for everyones sound we went ahead and jammed away.

It was probably the best we've played all 3 of those songs, ever. We're more comfortable with each other now so I think that helps. As I mentioned I had recordings of these songs I'd been playing along to, and the problem I'd run into when we got together is that the tempo and arrangement had been changed on them since they were recorded. So of course I'm playing what I'd been listening to while the guitarist would start into something else lol. But we'd keep going til the song was over then discuss what happened and decide on the arrangment. The funny part was on the one song where the recording is a fast tempo, the guitarist wants to slow it down. Not just a little, but quite a bit. I think slowing it about half speedis a good idea, but not quite as slow as he wanted. So we would start off at the tempo he wanted and me and the drummer would kick it up to where we liked it by the end of the first verse. Couldn't be helped, and the rhythm section always wins.

I think the plan is to get some more originals down and then some covers, and then actually do some proper recording. I mentioned in my last blog about the Maiden song I thought we could pull off as a 3 piece, and the drummer and I played it for the guitarist last night, then we found the youtube video and played the actual song for the guitarist, and he's totally onboard. So there's another cover, which I think is 3 and about as far as we want to go with covers in our set.

Anyway, once we get some tracks "officially" recorded I believe we're going to do a myspace page for our band. Once that happens I'll link it so you guys can check out our tunes. Whats cool is that all of us 100% believe in our original stuff, that its good and has an audience. Not that we're going to get any kind of deal or anything, but we enjoy what we play and are looking forward to getting feedback from people in general.

So overall a good night last night. Its amazing how good you can feel after something like this. Work can completely suck and you can be literally dragging your ass out the door when you leave, but by the time you strap on your instrument and get finished jamming, everything is rosy again.

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2 weeks too late, I know...

I meant to post a "scary" Halloween music video and kept forgetting, so here it is:

Embedded YouTube Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKKWJmfBeAY

Iron Maiden of course, back from 92.

The reason I got around to posting it now is because we're sorting it out in our band, or at least hoping to. I am pretty sure we can pull this off with one guitar, the drummer thinks so too. We haven't talked to the guitarist about it (he's a Maiden fan though so no worries) but I can't see him having a problem getting both solos down. It will require me doing some extra work (chords and whatnot) to make up for losing a guitar, but thats how I play this song anyway so no worries.

Btw, don't read too much into the chorus of this song...its one of the songs in the "Charlotte the Harlot" saga, and the theme of the song is based on that on not on any kind of beliefs the group may have. In other words, they're not satanists.

So as I was saying...I always found this song interesting on the bass because I think there are multiple basslines recorded for it, overdubs if you will. Watch Steve Harris throughout, and he is playing the song correctly (not just miming). However...he is playing it 2 ways that I can see. He's playing both chords/octaves and single notes. Its kind of cool to watch (for me anyway) because if you look at how this song is tabbed on most sites, its tabbed playing the intro and the bridge just on the G. If you listen closely, you will hear that along with Janick playing octaves on the guitar, so is Steve on the bass. So thats the way I learned the song 15 years ago and thats how I still play it. Honestly, you could play that through the verses too, and I actually may try that out to see how it plays with 1 guitar.

Anyway, no clue if any of that makes sense or not. Half-asleep, getting ready for work, and its Friday. Yay.

[1 Comments]

New TV

Well I finally did it. I broke down and spent just about every last penny I had (fiscal irresponsibility FTW) and bought the best HD set I could afford...which isn't saying much heh.

Its an off-brand, 32", and so far so good. Last time I had a high-def set I was living in an area that sold you digital cable but delivered analog, so I couldn't really see anything in the broadcast tv. I know I need the setup with cables and all, but I am still getting great HD picture from cable. There seem to be a lot of auxillary stations, like when you go to channel 5 for example its 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3. The ".0" is like a regular broadcast signal, but the ".1": is HD and its really badass.

So anyway, maybe now I can actually read the text in these damn games for a change. Who knows, I may even go back and try Dead Rising again since I might be able to read what Otis is telling me!

[8 Comments]

Why some people should never own cats

Or have kids either, I would think:

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Gears 2

I'm sure this is the only blog about this game, so that makes reading it even more important!! (haha, yeah)

I was off yesterday (thats a blog unto itself as to why) and hit up Gamestop right at 10am to pick up the 2 copies of GoW2 I had pre-paid. I had considered the midnight launch but they weren't handing out numbers for place in line til 10pm for some reason, and I just wasn't up for the insanity. So 1 copy for me, 1 for my son. To my shock and awe they actually had the pre-order codes for the Gears theme and the gold Locust gun (forget what its called) so I got 2 sets of both of those.

Came home and fired up the online tutorial mode. I made a post about this on the Gears board but I want to repeat how much I appreciate this mode. I have not been online (or even played) Gears since New Years Day of 07. Yes, almost 2 years. And yes, I need to finish the first one. But my online knowledge of this game has come from watching my son play and not from really playing much myself. So to have a mode where a noob like me can go in and learn the objectives and get a feel for the control without getting yelled at by one or more douchebags is wonderful. Not that it made me any better, but at least I knew what I was supposed to be doing.

Eventually I fired up the solo campaign mode, and all I can say is wow. Thats some high quality shit there, Maynard. I also like the fact that this time, all the achievements are obtainable for me. I am the type of person who almost immediately upon firing up a game for the first time will go to the dashboard and look up the achievements. I bet a lot of you guys do the same thing. So I was quite happy to see that all 1000 points are obtainable, which means I may put more time into this than I thought at first.

So back to the game...I got into the second act, I think I'm almost to the end. At the risk of spoiling stuff, lets just say I'm at the part where they realize how cities are being sunk. At that point it was time to go pick up the boy at a new halfway point his mom and I are trying out. So I pick him up, we get home, take care of a few things around the apartment, and then he fires up the game himself.

He's a big Gears fan. I think like most boys his age he enjoys most online shooters. So he went right to multiplayer and hooked up with a group of his friends from school and they went on to tackle Horde mode. The results were comical (for me anyway heh) because they were all learning the maps and getting their asses handed to them pretty regularly. The important part was that my kid was having a good laugh and I could hear the laughter coming out of the headset too, so a good time was being had by all regardless of the results.

Anyway, I might actually be up for some Gears co-op come Sunday night. If Buzz can control his man-love for me I might be looking to finish up Saints Row 2 as well. But I digress....it looks like Gears 2 can cater to its hardcore following, but also draw in some noobs like myself with solid, accessible gameplay modes.

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Insert witty title here

So it looks like things are back on with my little Nikita. After a week of nothing suddenly the emails and pictures started up again. On the plus side, I finally got the punchline. One day she emailed me that she would let me know when she could catch a plane out here, when it would arrive etc. Right.

So the next day I get an email from her, all distraught, telling me that it was more expensive than she realized. She told me about how she cried and cried when she realized this. Awwww. So I told her no worries...it would just give us more time to get to know each other while she saved up for the ticket! The next day I got an email asking if there was anything I could do to help with the cost. Nope, sorry...sure can't.

On top of all this now she goes on about how much she loves me, etc. Sigh. Ok, so I responded that she needs to take a step back and calm down. I pointed out that while she may be in love with the idea of coming here and living out some fantasy she has imagined, she doesn't know me anywhere well enough to be in love with me. I also mentioned that while the mentions of frequent sex were nice, if I put any effort into it I could get that here without having to import someone from the other side of the world. So I asked her to tone those bits down and lets focus on the business at hand.

I still have no idea what to do with this. I could just stop writing her altogether I suppose and see if she just goes away.

On the other hand, maybe there's something to all this. I quit playing Dark Age of Camelot back in September. Not because I was bored with the game, but because of another similar situation. I am a chatty person in these games. I tend to be a friendly sort and offer help when I'm in a position to. I mean its a game, right? We're supposed to be having fun. So this guild I'm in, the guy who runs it is an American living in Hong Kong. His wife is Chinese. I got along great with both of them, as well as most of the guild in general. The wife was always really friendly to me, but she was a friendly helpful person anyway so I thought nothing of it. Until..,

One day I'm crafting and she logs in /anon and ask me to get into vent. So I do, and she proceeds to tell me how her and her husband have all these problems, their marriage is a sham, etc. She then proceeds to tell me she's in love with me. Uh...what? So long story short, the next couple weeks were pretty uncomfortable as I was running around killing mids with the husband while getting all these private messages from his wife. Not good. So I just quit the game, I couldn't take it anymore.

So there's a dilemma for you. I am lovable from afar, but notsomuch with the up close and personal. Go figure.

I have other fun stories too, but I'll save them for later.

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Giving in to the hype

Well, I suppose I'm going to break down and buy myself a copy of Gears of War 2. Don't get me wrong, I thought the first one was excellent. Only problem is its in my pile of unfinished games, not having been touched by me for nearly 2 years. Sad, I know.

My son's birthday is coming up next month and I know he was both trying to save up money to afford this one in time and find a ride out to Gamestop to reserve a copy. Since he gave such a good accounting of himself by balancing football with schoolwork (all As and Bs), I figured I'd get him an early birthday present so I pre-paid a copy for him and will give it to him tomorrow when I pick him up.

But now since I've been watching the videos and have caught the fever, the hype has gotten to me. It looks like I'll be taking a drive to Gamestop in a few to pre-order a second copy of the game (you're welcome, Cliffy) for myself. Sigh.

I wouldn't look for me online in this one, though I may be coerced into some co-op.

[3 Comments]

Thursday cooldown

Work is still busy. Tomorrow is supposedly the day I (along with some others) was going to be officially promoted, but...drum roll...looks like thats not going to happen. Of course I've been "unofficially" doing the job and all the work for over a month now, why be in a hurry to pay me for it?

My little Nikita has fallen off the map. Last I heard from her she was going on (I think...pretty broken english) about her love for me and yada yada yada. So I responded that yeah, thats great...meantime please check the last couple emails I sent you and try to answer some of the questions I asked? And...that was it. Ah well. Didn't even get any nekked pics.

Got some new strings for the bass. Man did that make a difference, the old ones were so dead. Got band practice tomorrow, looking forward to that. Meantime my one drummer buddy is gearing up for a 2-man jam with me on the 1st. We haven't played together since March so I'm really looking forward to this. He was busy for awhile then sort of lost his love to play and more or less "retired", but he's been coaxed into putting the band back together for one more show. We have no idea what we're going to play yet, my guess is there will be a lot of improv and a few beers downed.

I've been playing the crap out of Saints Row 2. You may have gathered from my posts on the board that I like this game. You'd be right. Easily the best game I've played in some time, and certainly far better than that over-hyped, pompous trype called GTA4. The online co-op is insane. There is never a shortage of things to do, so I don't see this one getting old any time soon.

Thats about it I guess. Kinda slow right now.

[3 Comments]

Quote of the day

"Having sex with a pregnant woman is like putting gas in a car you've already wrecked."

(not saying I subscribe to that theory, but that line kills me)

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pp2's Blog - 2old2play

Yay! (or: Yay!)

When things don't go as planned (Or :Just another day for me)

Confessions of a Netflix Junkie (or: It plays games, too?)

The Eagle Has Landed (or: Your Goose Is Cooked)

Bas Bleu is really a woman! (and other spoilers)

More

Back in the saddle

2 weeks too late, I know...

New TV

Why some people should never own cats

Gears 2

Insert witty title here

Giving in to the hype

Thursday cooldown

Quote of the day