Beatles. Rock Band.

Of course it's coming out on a weekday.

And I have no extra vacation days to use.

oh well. I guess I'd have to find three other people with vacation days anyway.

Stuff, and stuff, and stuff

Random thoughts while I attempt to keep my homework at arm's length ...

-- My Xbox 360 streak is over 300 days. I've been holding off on trying the Endless Setlist on Hard/Hard until the streak ends so that I can leave the 360 on overnight if I need to take a break.

-- If you're still wondering why this house has hosted a number of naked women somewhere between 1/pi and -3, the preceding paragraph should have cleared that up for you.

-- The fact that I can spend 15 minutes discussing virtually any aspect of any sport with any audience, but struggle to explain why defect reduction improves the functionality of software, occasionally gives me pause for thought when considering my career choices. However, the road to bankruptcy is littered with the bones of those who wanted to be sportscasters, or something like that, and I've found my way far enough along that path, thank you very much. I like what I do and I like being paid.

-- If cats could type, would they create lolpeople?

-- Yes, I know, they would need to use pointing devices as well.

More thoughts to come. I have two questions to answer tonight.

10:58 PM: Well, I answered one of two, plus finished my charting from last week, so I'm mostly caught up. One more question tomorrow, charting Friday, and I'll be fine.

Who's next

Who Are You.
Summertime Blues.
My Generation.
Going Mobile.
Eminence Front.
Behind Blue Eyes.
Baba [redacted] O'Riley, one of the best songs ever written.

Guess I'll be playing some Rock Band tonight.

Nothing more needs to be said.

Well, one thing. Love my 6000-down DSL ...

Progress, er, sort of

So on Tuesday I practiced Run to the Hills on Hard, and it didn't go so well. I tried again today, speeding up the pace, and this is what I found:

76% for the first fast part at 70% of normal speed from before, but
72% over the whole song at full speed.

Now, keep in mind that it only tracks notes hit and not extra notes hit, but still ... one of the problems I seem to have is matching the on-screen rhythm with my thought of the rhythm. Apparently I was going too fast? Who can tell? (It's really, really hard to tell what you're doing wrong when you're playing a fast passage.) The 72% is even better because I got really tired the second half of the song, plus I lost my rhythm and couldn't bang out the l-r-l, r-l-yellow r part much. (And I would miss bass drum notes somehow.)

Someday I'll get through this one. Then it'll be Next to You. (crap) But not today, or this week, or maybe even this month ...

I am not a real drummer

Not at all. Slowed Run to the Hills down to 70% and I can still hit only 76% of the first fast part. I understand the rhythm now, but it's a lot to get through ... on the other hand, I can get the l-r-l-r l-r-l-r l-r-l-r l-r-l-r r-l-r-l-r part, mostly, but of course this is 70% again.

I don't think I will be able to get all the way through Expert drums before Rock Band 2 comes out. Or maybe ever. I would love to finish Expert guitar too, but I still can't get those stupid solos, even with the Strat. (I even failed a Boston song on Expert. boo.)

It may be break time anyway. Lego Indiana Jones is on its way, and I am working on Mario Kart Wii as well so that I don't suck so badly the next time I play.

Of course, I'm sure I'll be playing more this weekend. So by "break" I really mean "a day off from drumming because it kind of hurts my wrists to practice too much."

Heavy Hitter in reach

Finally got past Don't Fear the Reaper on Hard drums. Man. That one was difficult ... at the end, when it's blue blue/foot blue/foot red/green blue blue/foot blue/foot red/green for the first half, and then instead of normal blues, it becomes blue/red/blue with the feet at the same rhythm, I skipped those extra reds. Too hard. I nearly failed, but I didn't. ha ha.

Up next, at some point: Run to the Hills. I have to figure out how to do l/r/l, r/l/r over and over again, with the first five on red and the last one on yellow.

Two songs left: Run to the Hills, which I haven't tried solo, and the worst Police song I've ever heard. I don't get credit for any of the bass notes, so I guess I have to practice it.

STOP TELLING ME I'LL LOSE ALL PROGRESS IF I LEAVE. I DON'T HAVE ANY PROGRESS TO SAVE. REMEMBER, I JUST FAILED THE SONG. L2PROGRAM.

Updated Rock Band spreadsheet

Sorry folks, I've been delinquent. My Rock Band DLC spreadsheet should be updated through, I think, last week's content (prior to the no-longer-exclusive-to-Europe DLC).

I took out the formatting for master tracks vs. cover bands because it didn't seem to be working, and I added tracks that I don't personally own (now that I can get that info easily from the Rock Band Store).

Enjoy!

P.S. I added a link to it on the left, so that in a couple of months when this isn't on the front page, lol, you'll still find it easily.

Geekasaurus!

Four stars! Won't Get Fooled Again! Expert/Expert!

That's right, I did that. Over a million fans, too, because it was in Moscow. (No, I'm not doing the Endless Setlist on E/E. Probably not ever.)

You can kind of track the band's progress here. I say "kind of" because you can really only see our score and fans, and even then it may not mean a lot at first. Just know that you can't break 1 million unless everyone in your band is playing on Expert.

Also, I still can't get the Blink song to download properly. I blame that on EA.

sweet!

I finally got past Vasoline and Green Grass and High Tides on Hard drums. In the same night. (Practice, practice, practice.) Working on the seventh set now.

And on top of that, I was one of three winners in x360a's seventh-day contest, so I'm getting two free games, College Hoops 2K8 and Culdcept Saga.

And I get bagels tomorrow, imported from Ohio.

And I have a helpful cat assisting me with this post, or perhaps subtly reminding me that it is time for bed. (Okay, it's the latter.)

Sunday ftw!

Wheel: squeak

So, while some people were receiving something more than an apology for their broken Rock Band equipment, others were getting nothing. nothing at all.

Yep, nothing.

So I added a new issue and said Hey, where's my stuff?

nothing. nothing. nothing.

So yesterday, I updated that issue and said hello? I'm not happy.

Today, I got two messages: an apology (their system had a problem and didn't automatically send out my guitar) and a tracking number. Second-day air.

good. Of course, I don't get a game for it ...

Bam!

Green Grass and High Tides.

Lead guitar.

Five stars.

Hard.

Axe Assassin.

Happy New Year!

Yeah!

Dear final set on Expert,

Suck it!

Sincerely,
me

P.S. No, Mr. Bowie, it's a figure of speech. I'm not your type anyway. Go away. Shoo.

Reptilia was definitely the most difficult song for me. I did have an advantage in that I really like Rush and Boston, so I'd heard Tom Sawyer and Long Time thousands of times. Highway Star and Run to the Hills are both cool, but I hadn't heard them as much. Suffragette City was most difficult in that set because I'm not a big Bowie fan (and I'd rather sing Changes or Space Oddity anyway), so I wasn't really familiar with the pitch of the vocals, and I had trouble nailing the sustained notes. (zlionsfan tip #1: hold your notes. I know it says these are short notes, but trust me, if the game is out of sync just a little, you'll lose a lot of points if you're just missing those, and unless you really know the song, you'll need those to make it through.)

Sing, sing a song

I finally got past Reptilia. stupid song. I did much better singing in my natural octave; I'd been singing an octave lower and couldn't hit the lowest notes consistently.

I also posted a top-10 score on Brass In Pocket. I'd link but you can't get a link to a specific leaderboard, just to the whole thing. Anyway, because it's DLC and not in-game content, I'm sure I'll drop over time, it's just that people haven't bought it yet.

Three more sets and I can start helping people out with Riding on Coattails ... except ... except ... damn. You have to finish the Endless Setlist on Expert. crap.

never mind.