Video Games!

A friend from work got Guitar Hero: World Tour yesterday, so I went over to try it out. My impressions of the game follow:

I have only played the original Guitar Hero, so I'm not overly familiar with the series. The opening was weird, I'm not sure if I like the whole cell animation thing for a rock game, but that's just a personal preference. It was a little confusing to navigate the menus initially, though once we got past that things were cool. I don't like the way the menus are setup in that the screen is always too busy. To be lame and put it into imaging science terminology the signal-to-clutter ratio was poor on most menu screens. They compressed the menus down to a thin column in the center while there was tons of shit going on around the margins. Not a fan, honestly.

Career Mode:
There is a career mode for single player and one for a band with the capability to create a band online. The setup for career mode is that you are presented with a wall of fliers that have setlists posted for the various gigs you currently have unlocked to play. The setlists range from 2-5 songs as far as I can tell. When you beat a gig, you get money and new gigs are added to the wall. I can't tell if there is any theme to the venues like in Rock Band, but we were only playing for a few hours and I was focused on getting used to the drum set. So far the career mode is interesting, but I'm not in the position to compare it with that of Rock Band yet.

Leveling Up:
Something that I haven't had a chance to read about yet is that there seems to be some sort of experience or skill level number to the left of players' names. This shows up after a song has ended and you see how everyone in the band did. I'm not sure what number means, but when it went up we assumed it meant we were fucking awesome. Yeah.

Setlist:
For all the talk of the glaring omissions from the Rock Band 2 setlist that are filled in the GH:WT list, I only found two songs that I really want to see on Rock Band 2: Hotel California and Band On The Run. Honestly, I really have no interest in playing The Joker. That one is my biggest conflict with most people, as so many people say they want it, but I don't understand why anyone thinks it's a good song. Just personal taste, I guess. Anyway, Beat It was kinda fun to play, too.

Instruments:
The guitar was pretty much the same as all the Guitar Hero guitars I've seen. The one difference, I think, is that there is a bar-shaped button perpendicular to the strum bar down past where your wrist sits while playing. This is to make initiating star power easier if you don't want to tilt the guitar and use its accelerometers. I thought it was a nice touch considering I'm that guy who always misses the first note after tilting the guitar for star power. That's why I always hit the 'select' button on the Rock Band controller, though I sometimes hit the 'start' button, pause the game, and piss everyone off. Sigh.
The drum set is where this game is significantly different from Rock Band, at least until I actually buy the new Rock Band 2 set. The drum set is setup with three for the toms (red, blue and green pads), while it has two elevated sensors for the hi-hat and cymbals (yellow and orange, respectively). The foot pedal shows up on the note sequence on screen as a purple horizontal bar. That's right, there are now FIVE colors to hit with the drum sticks plus the foot pedal. It was very interesting to get used to, especially when I would hit the red instead of yellow because I'm used to moving one pad over for yellow, not moving up. My issue with the way they made the cymbals. Instead of having two disks to hit, they're quarter disks. Imagine taking one of those metal disks used for cymbals, cutting a slice out of it that's one-quarter of the circle, then only hitting that. It's odd to say the least. I'm going to buy the new Rock Band 2 drum set and the cymbal expansions one of these days soon and do a comparison.

Now, still on the topic of drums but needing its own paragraph, I will discuss my major issue with the GH:WT drum set. We went through and did a thorough calibration for Angela's TV to get it right. Even after that I was having some serious problems with the drum set. It seemed like it was missing three of every four notes I was hitting on the red pad, but registering most of them on the yellow cymbal. I know the set is supposed to be velocity sensitive, but I wonder exactly how they implemented that in the game. I found that there was in fact a slight timing issue on my part, but even after correcting that I had to really slam the main drum pads to get anything to register on most songs. It looks like the velocity sensitivity is used to to provide a threshold to the registration of the notes in the game so you have to hit at their desired velocity. What the fuck? And there's really no indication of how hard you have to hit until you start missing notes and say "oh, fuck, I guess it's time to smack the shit out of this bitch". I understand the desire to make it more realistic, but this is absurd. I was spending so much of my concentration trying make sure I remembered to hit the pads hard enough I wasn't able to keep up with note changes. 75% on medium?!? Come on, now, that shit's weak. By the end of the evening I was able to hit the pads hard enough to register about 85% of my notes, but it still took a serious bit of fun out of it. If I was looking for the most realistic drumming experience I would buy a fucking drum set and learn to play! Sigh, I'll get off my soap box now.

All in all, I'd say they did a pretty good job for a first run of this Guitar Hero version of the full band video game, but I think they need to improve some things. The current run of this game is definitely not up to my tastes enough to justify spending $200 on another music game, but I don't think I would do that even if the game was spooge-inducingly amazing.

Halloween costumes

I have two Halloween parties to attend this weekend, one on Friday and the other on Saturday. I'm trying to get costume ideas, and I think I've got it! The only problem with it is that it could offend a lot of people. Would that be wrong, or should I continue my mantra of "if you're offended it's your fault for being so easily offended"?
Idea:
The Nocturnal Abortion

Background:
It's a combination of a supervillain from a webcomic a few years back and an idea someone had at the party this past weekend in Waltham. His idea was to take his pregnant wife with him and dress himself as a doctor with a coat hangar around his neck (with a fake fetus on the end, of course).

So, yeah, my idea is sort of a variant on all of it. It involves a bloody hook for the left hand, a surgeon's robe painted black with a red cape, a dust mask with some blood on it, and fake blood all over the hook and left forearm. There would also, most likely, be a fake fetus on the end of the hook.

Question: Too much?

Weekends and gaming

First, yes I know it's not kosher to blog at work, but I just moved a blackbody all over the damn building, so I'm tired.

This past weekend I hopped in the car and headed to Waltham, an area a bit West of Boston, for a party. Matt, one of my friends from the undergrad days when he lived with me and Curly in Colvin 55, was having his annual Rock Band party. That involved a lot of driving in the rain on Saturday, but it was worth it in the end. I found out that I'm better on guitar than I give myself credit for, and that Visions really is a stupid song. My costume for the party involved shaving part of the goatee, which was unfortunate. The worst part was that it didn't look good for normal life, so I had to shave the whole thing off before coming into work yesterday. So now I'm slowly growing it all back in. I already have a solid outline of the goatee, so it shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 days to have back to a respectable length.

Also, a pair of jackasses here at work finally got me to break down and buy Halo 3. Wow, you have to love spending $50 on a used game (sigh). It's been a looooong time since I've done the first person shooter thing, so this is really taking a lot to get used to. Especially using the right analog stick for aiming. I'm through the first mission in the campaign and think I'm starting to get the hang of things, though I really need to learn the weapons. I played a couple games online last night with people from work and got my ass raped! I held my own at times, so things look good as long as I get enough practice.

On laundromats

Why the hell would you close your fucking laundromat?!? Fuck. They better be open tonight or I have a lot of scouring of the local area to do.

This probably has something to do with the fact that half of the machines are busted, but still!

The dollar's troubled past

Just to illustrate what the existence of the Federal Reserve and our system of fractional banking, let me do some math for you.

In 1913 the Federal Reserve Act was signed, and our money became bound to the will of the bankers. A single dollar in 1913 is the equivalent of $21.54 based on the national average inflation since then. That's a 95.4% reduction in purchasing power. To put that in perspective: my annual salary would have been $3115.31 before the government went on its money printing binge. I would be paying $27.86 in 1913 for my apartment. I don't think I really need to continue. This is just sad to watch. Rome collapsed because of their system of artificially expanding the money supply, as did numerous American colonies before they shifted back to gold (little known fact: the colonies experimented with fiat money numerous times, always to find that it ruined their economies and they promptly switched back to gold).

Scary times, indeed.

Straight into the shitter

Surprise! Americans know their country is falling straight down to hell. When the President has an approval rating lower than 30%, the number of people feeling good about the country's direction is 25%, and two-thirds of people say they're actually scared about our direction, there's a serious problem. Unfortunately, the government doesn't care, and they won't care until people start speaking up. We live in a sad state right now, and it's not going to get better for a long time.

On weather

I see that we have our first instance of the word 'snow' in Rochester now. My ForecastFox weather forecast toolbar shows that the weather in Rochester for Tuesday night is listed as "Showers of rain and snow".

I don't think anyone understands just how happy I am to hear that word this early in the Autumn season.

Money and debt

I hate being in debt. I just thought I'd throw that out there to begin. After my latest round of payments goes through I should be down to around $36K of debt. Ugh. That's a pretty daunting number, if you ask me, but it's manageable. And the first person to complain about their mortgage to me can blow me where the pampers is.

Anyway...

Given the continual downward trend of the stock markets, and the looming hyper-inflation once the $600B in loans from the Fed,$700B bailout from the government, and $250B in bank stock purchases by the government go through, I have decided to not bother putting anything over the minimum into my 401(k) for the time being. Chances are the dollar will completely tank over coming 6-8 months, in which case I will have much bigger things to worry about. Might as well pay off some debt and pour some money into hard assets while I can. If I live by the budget I have setup for myself, I can put about $1800-$2000 into my debt per month. Add in the couple grand I will get back from taxes and some money I have put away already and I should be able to get debt free in less than 18 months from now. Having done some calculations based on my spending habits, I only need ~$18K per year to spend on survival (ignoring loan payments). If I become debt free, my freedom jumps up dramatically, so that's what I'm to focus on from now on. Plan: become debt free, quite ITT, find a brewery with an opening, enjoy my life.


Oh, on the topic of moneys, if anyone has Boardwalk in the McDonald's Monopoly game, let me know: I have Park Place. We could split whatever's left of a cool million after taxes.

The path to total collapse of the dollar

Interesting

Some articles on how the IPCC report on global warming (the one Gore won his Nobel Prize for) significantly exaggerated the effects of human-produced greenhouse gases, and how Alaskan glaciers are rebounding for the first time since they began retreating.

Honestly, the more I read about global warming from real scientists, not the sensationalists and the scaremongering of Al Gore, the more I begin to believe it's all horseshit. Earth has been warming for over 200 years. Anybody remember learning about the Little Ice Age back before America was a full independent country? Of course not, cause then you'd have acknowledge that we've seen a warming trend over a much longer period of time than humans have been pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Also, CO2 is not the most significant greenhouse gas. Take it from someone who had to get infrared astronomy data from a satellite instead of ground-based telescopes because H2O absorbs infrared radiation. Yeah, water is a major greenhouse gas. Keep in mind also that water in its liquid and solid forms has a negative warming effect:

-Most of the sun's energy is in the visible part of the spectrum (very little IR)
-Earth absorbs some of this radiation and re-emits it in the IR
-The greenhouse gases absorb this re-emitted radiation and re-emit it at longer IR wavelengths
-Ice and water reflect the sun's radiation, keeping it from being absorbed and re-emitted as IR radiation
-This radiation is allowed to pass through the atmosphere undisturbed and does not heat our planet
-Any positive growth in glaciers we see will begin to put downward pressure on global temperatures

Anyway, that was a long enough brain dump for now.

Filthy disgustingness

So the corner of my basement has a pool of gray, musty smelling water sitting in it, and the smell is now seeping up into my apartment. Fuck. Need to have a talk with the landlord about that one.

There's always something....

More reasons why socialized health care is a bad idea

In Britain

A list of stories from people in the UK, Canada and Australia showcasing the ills of their systems. When health care is already paid for, there's no incentive for them to give you good treatment.

Economic collapse has its perks....

I filled up my gas tank yesterday for $39.36, at $3.37/gallon. Sweet. That's an extra $10-15 I can put into my debt. Every little bit helps.

Our system was fucked the moment it was created

A great article about the collapse of our banking system.

Video game goodness

Blood Sugar Sex Magik is now out for Rock Band! Just thought I'd throw that out there. Fantastic album.

I've been making slow progress on Rock Band 2 because I keep getting sidetracked by other things and by playing Burnout Paradise (currently 70% through Burnout). I think I'll try to spend some time this weekend plowing through a bunch more of the Rock Band 2 challenges and tour mode stuff. The challenges are very interesting. I have no idea how they expect someone to go through one of the infinite challenges that has upwards of 40 songs. Wow, that would be quite the day of gaming.

It was also great to finally play Chop Suey. I love that song.

Hilary Clinton lost the last bit of respect I had for her

In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Hilary Clinton has decided to follow her husband's ill-conceived rhetoric of 'everyone deserves a house' whether they can afford one or not.

"I've proposed a new Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), to launch a national effort to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. The original HOLC, launched in 1933, bought mortgages from failed banks and modified the terms so families could make affordable payments while keeping their homes. The original HOLC returned a profit to the Treasury and saved one million homes. We can save roughly three times that many today. We should also put in place a temporary moratorium on foreclosures and freeze rate hikes in adjustable-rate mortgages. We've got to stem the tide of failing mortgages and give the markets time to recover."

First off, the government's purchase of the bad mortgages in 1933 helped to continue the artificially high prices in the real estate market, thus delaying the inevitable recovery of the market and lengthening the Great Depression. Prior to the depression we had the same immense credit expansion in the 'roaring 20s' that we saw in the late 90s before the tech collapse, and again in the early 2000s leading up to our current debacle. Apparently no one pays attention to history.

So Hilary wants to make sure that no one that lied about their income to get a mortgage will get kicked out of their homes, like they deserve. Instead, those people that know their limits and either didn't buy houses or bought homes they could afford must subsidize these morons. Basically we get to expand the disgusting entitlement welfare state we have. Thanks, Hilary.

Politicians in the '30s were in love with the idea that there should be a 'home on every lot' because they reaped the benefits of those policies when voters went to the polls. Of course, the average voter was too uninformed to realize that the increased demand for housing was causing home prices to rise, thus reducing the value of the subsidies that the Federal Housing Authority was handing out. So this was the same thing Bill Clinton did during his tenure.

The markets need to be allowed to recover on their own, but "free market" and "capitalism" have become dirty words in this country, so big government is supposed to come in a keep these big bad capitalists from ruining our country. Answer me this: since when did the government gain the credibility to protect our interests? Do people honestly believe that government regulation will make things better? When has the government ever regulated something for the interests of the people instead of their own?

Also remember, the Federal Reserve prints our money and is not part of any government institution, but the Constitution states that only Congress shall have the ability to coin money. Instead our money is printed by a banking cartel. But that's all a topic for another time....

God that was violent. I blame... the sea.

Such a nice boy....

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."

- David Rockefeller, June 1991 - Baden, Germany

Have we been violating the constitution?

Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States of America states:

"No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility."

No state shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts....