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Malik (10/6/08)

I will watch a Seahawk game, no matter what. If I'm away from a TV, for whatever unexpected reason, I will then have the radio on to the game and try to be at a computer to see a little extra information. This didn't hold up yesterday.

About 10 minutes into the second quarter, I flipped channels and watched some anime with Velveta. When that one show was done, I flipped back. Afterall, the second half would be when the Seahawks would find their momentum. It may be a loss of a game, but it would become interesting after the second half started...at least that's the theory.

A few minutes into the second half, I had to call it quits. I just up and left my house and did some errands that needed to be ran. Afterall, I couldn't stand to watch what would quickly become one of the most lopsided defeats in Seattle history. The team that was now whole after it's bye week saw the return of Engram, Branch, Seneca Wallace, Koren Robinson (in theory...which didn't pan out), and a true sense of team cohesion...at least that was the idea. 44-6 says otherwise.

On the bright side, the Pats beat the 49ers, which kept them only half a game ahead of the Seahawks. However, with Arizona blowing out the Bills (who made the Seahawks look like chumps in the first week of the season), first place is now 1.5 games away from Seattle. It also will not look much better next week when Seattle hosts the Packers (possibly without Branch...due to another injury in this glass receiver). The season may not be over yet, but I think it's safe to say that Holmgren's legacy would have looked better if he just called it quits one year earlier.

Malik

Malik (10/8/08)

Despite some drama existing on the new DLC (being the whole mess on how the Offspring Pack didn't appear due to a Microsoft error), it all came along in the end. So, for once, I actually dived in yesterday without delay. Well, without anymore delay than wanting to watch some of the debate last night before rocking.

I went ahead and downloaded all the songs available from yesterday, with the sole exception being Push It from Static-X. That song just sounds too much like crap (or maybe it's about sitting on the toilet needing to take a crap..."PUSH IT!"). The rest of the songs are all somewhat fun on expert guitar. None of them standout for their fun factor, but none of them stand out as being absolutely no fun to play.

The big theme in the DLC from yesterday is the theme of moving chords. Harvey Danger saw some fast shifting of three note chords, Bad to the Bone is a festival of changing chords (especially in it's primary blues riff), and most of the Offspring songs saw quick chord changes. The sole exception for the Offspring songs was Gone Away (which feels slightly over charted to this amateur real guitar player...in the same way Blitzkrieg Bop is over charted with a false quick triplet in the chorus).

The main theme from the news songs, however, seems to be that these are all group songs. Which is to say that they are probably at their best being played as a whole band. There are fun songs with primarily simplistic parts across the board that come out strong when joined together.

Actually, one song stands out on guitar. The Screaming Trees song is incredibly different than I expected. It's not hard to pass the song, but it feels quite challenging to keep any real combo going. With so many rapid chord changes in the verses, it is a bit of a workout for your coordination.

Anyway, I feel good knowing that it was another week of a lot of new tracks, and even better with most of the tracks being geared towards a wide variety of musical genres. Everything from classic rock (Free; Alright Now) to punk (Offspring and Against Me), to alternative/grunge (Screaming Trees), to blues rock (Bad to the Bone). It's a good week no matter where your musical loyalties lie.

Malik

Malik (10/9/08)

Not much to post today since I'm feeling a bit crappy (too much fake frozen Mexican food last night...uhhhhh) and haven't been doing much worthy of discussion. Add in feeling hung over from inappropriate chemical use at my day job (which is quite dangerous...a sarcastic "thank you" to the idiot who doesn't feel proper safety or consideration towards others is needed in a chemical rich environment like a biological research lab), and I'm flat-out wiped.

My only real game or geek time lately has been grinding for the final boss in Tales of Vesperia. I still do need to end this game so I can be ready for Fable 2. Anyway, I am grinding for the final boss since I have it set to be a three boss fight (with the third one being legendary for cheapness on ToV message boards). However, I can feel better about my dreaded RPG convention of grinding. I may be grinding levels, but I'm also trying to max out cooking abilities on Estelle to beat the cooking side quest. This lets me feel less like I'm grinding any more like I'm just gaining levels while working towards a better non-grind goal.

Once I'm done with the cooking side quest, I feel I'll be ready to face the final boss. So, it should be all good in the end. I just now have to do the tedious thing in fighting a bunch of enemies in the final dungeon, cook after each fight, and run back to a fully stocked town after a few dozen fights to purchase more ingredients for cooking.

Also, on a different note, tomorrow is when we should hear, at least according to the PR people for Motley Crue, that Dr. Feelgood (the album) is coming out on Tuesday for Rock Band. Considering who said this and what various bands and band PR/management folks have said in the past about future DLC, I do not believe it. In fact, I think we would have heard something about this since Harmonix has been good on announcing whole albums in a very timely manner long before they are released as DLC.

My prediction for tomorrow's DLC announcement? Not Motley Crue. I would not be surprised to see a whole album, but it would be Texas Flood, Colour and the Shape, the pseudo-No Doubt album, or the Jane's Addiction album. Motley Crue? Not happening this next week. I'm as certain of it as I am certain of the outcome of Sunday's Seahawk game (loss).

Malik

Malik (10/10/08)

My long standing feud continues. I've had a love-hate relationship with Comcast since they first entered my life (after AT&T Broadband was taken into the Comcast family in the Pacific Northwest). They do supply me with TV and internet, so that's a "love" thing. However, their prices keep going upwards each year far quicker than inflation would believe us to think is logical (they are trying to out price their best customers). Worst of all, their quality of both service and customer relations keeps going lower each year.

They have changed their cable box UI on several occasions. Each time has left me wanting more of the old and less of the new. I have had one service rep, on the phone, tell me I "can quit using our service at any time", and not as a reminder that they have no contracts...if you catch my meaning.

Another round of this battle of good (well, I'm somewhat "good") and evil (yes, I feel Comcast is evil-castic in their buzz pseudo-word) was waged this week. I am signed up to change some of my service like quicker internet (supposedly...their speeds never match the posted speed of the service), a couple more cable boxes (supposedly without a change in my cost), and a phone line I'll never use (don't even ask). Overall, it's a change for the worse, since I'll have more things to trust Comcast to f$#@ up, but it's also a change I, for some reason, want.

Yesterday, to the annoyance of my boss, I left work about 35 minutes early to be home for the cable guy. I sat around waiting. I remained waiting. Eventually, near the end of my appointment window, the door bell rings. The Comcast field tech who shows up looks astonished that I'm home. Apparently, one of their techs came over earlier and decided that my house must be from the 19th century. In other words, despite having two door bells that alert me to a visitor no matter where I am in my house (add in a dog that gets excited from door bells and it's an even better notice), the first tech must have only knocked on my door. That alerts me to a visitor, if I'm right next to the front door (which is not my usual hang out spot in my home).

Shortly after this "second" field tech shows up, he asks me about a security alarm on my house. Apparently, it was not on my service order, and he's not allowed to work on a house with an alarm. In many houses, an alarm is hooked up to a land phone line in the house. I don't have a phone service in the house (it's a cell friendly world afterall), and my alarm service is not in any way related to any Comcast service nor is it related to any of the proposed to be installed services (my alarm is tied to my cell). This logic doesn't work in Comcast world, so after leaving work early (and being chewed out about it by my boss), sitting around for about 2 hours with nothing to do (I really wanted to play with my dog...outside...away from hearing my door bell), and dealing with a frustrated dog (who wanted to get outside and have fun), my appointment had to be rescheduled. Not only is this annoying and a waste of my time, I learn the soonest an alarm-friendly tech can get out to my home will be a week from yesterday.

Now that was Crap-Castic! If it was not for having contracts involved, I would jump to the satellite world in a heart beat. I have hated Comcast for too many years (about 5 years) and their service is comparable to the satellite service. In fact, my dream is for Verizon to buy out Qwest (local phone provider; for the knowledge of those outside of this region of the US) and install FiOS. High speed internet, quality TV services, and all that fun jazz, but over a more reliable company and service format. However, as of right now, only a small area about 40 minutes from my home has FiOS right now and there appears to be no plans for expansion. Sigh...

Anyway, enough of my lifelong hatred of a company that has done no net good in my life. The Rock Band DLC for this week is a surprise to me. For once, a band was telling the truth on a release date for their own material. More than that, an album has come without being previously announced by Harmonix.

Yes, for $2 per song, or $16 for the album ($4 savings or two free songs if you go the whole album route), it's Dr. Feelgood. I admit it, I was wrong. Speaking of which, couldn't some Social D come to DLC about now? Especially with just an album and no side/extra loose tracks. Hell, couldn't we just have some extra loose tracks from any artist to go with this album? I mean Doolittle saw Weezer with it.

Anyway, I am white trash (born and raised...but not proudly admitting the fact), and I grew up on some of this stuff. Despite my tastes changing with time, I may have to at least get Kickstart My Heart and Dr. Feelgood, assuming the charts are solid, just for shits and giggles. I mean you can take this geek out of the white trash, but...you know the rest.

Hopefully we see some more variety in the future, like we did this week. Afterall, this week really showed what Harmonix can do with variety on tracks.

Malik

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