D+C Visit (Day 2)

Much busier day (largely due to being a full day):

Day 2:

- quick Starbucks run
- hang out at Berkeley waiting for appliances to be fixed
- Carla's yarn place (she's into knitting)
- lunch at Fresh 2 Order deli
- Stone "Racist" Mountain (still fun though)
- walk through Phipps Plaza Mall (the one we can't afford)
- hang w/Evan briefly @ Berkeley
- Blockbuster/Publix then Guitar Hero Co-Op
- dinner at the Colonnade Restaurant (think "gay home cooking")
- drinks @ Brick Store Pub in Decatur
- cocktails @ the Sun Dial rotating restaurant atop the Westin Peachtree Plaza
- crash at Berkeley

Lots of fun stuff here. Easily the highlight for me was the oh-so-strange (but incredible) Colonnade dining experience. Stone Mountain and the Sun Dial are always nice too though. Good stuff.

D+C Visit (Day 1)

In the interest of time, I'm going to just list the things I've done with Dave + Carla over the past few days and will conclude the whole thing with a more thorough recap. So...

Day 1:

- they arrive at Berkeley Run, we chat
- dinner at Ru San's (sushi) in Buckhead
- drinks at Fadó Irish Pub
- Dave and I play Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
- Dave gives The Force Unleashed a test drive
- call it a night

So, Day One was pretty nice. Not too busy, lots of good catching up. Still got to see part of the town/nightlife without getting too crazy (especially considering they had just spent over eight hours driving).

Berkeley Maintenance

About two weeks ago, our dryer in our apartment stopped working. Not too long after that, our metal threshold guard fell off. Then our dishwasher stopped working, amassing a sizeable amount of standing water that wouldn't drain. The worst part about all of this is that our apartment complex's leasing office is REALLY bad at taking care of things. On numerous occasions in my only five months here they've taken our maintenance request, promised it would be done within the day or possibly the next few, and then proceeded to not even file the complaint, forcing me to remind them of my request at least two more times, often taking more than three weeks to complete.

Fortunately, after only a week of dilly-dallying, they finally got around to fixing all three of our problems yesterday. Sure, the dishwasher is still missing a front faceplate and the guy left some of the old parts from our other one here, but at least we have a working dishwasher.

I hate our leasing office's incompetence, enough so that I've considered not resigning another lease, but for the moment, I'm staying put. Hopefully they eventually get on the ball.

Dave and Carla in the ATL!!!

So, my closest friend (whom I met at grad school in Indiana) and his girlfriend are in town to visit for the FIRST TIME EVER (!), so although I'm really looking forward to having them here, blogging enough to catch up by the end of the month is going to be even harder. That said, I going to try, despite having a lot planned over the next few days so look for a bunch of short posts to round out the year.

Peavey Vypyr 75

Along with my new Ibanez guitar, a couple weeks ago I indulged my desire to replace my mostly-unappreciated Mesa Boogie Rect-O-Verb Combo Amp by purchasing a brand new Peavey Vypyr 75 (Watt) digital combo amp. Like Line 6's digital amps, the Peavey amp is a solid state (not tube) amp with a long list of emulations of other famous amps, including my own Mesa Boogie. Along with this extensive catalogue of classic amps, the Peavey features a number of effect pedal emulations, a built-in tuner, and 12 storage slots for different settings on the amp. You can also plug in an optional foot pedal controller to allow you to control most of the amp's parameters with either of two expression pedals and a number of on/off switches. I haven't bought the pedal yet, but now that I'm certain I like the amp, it's only a matter of time before I buy one online.

Sure, you can tell that this amp doesn't sound quite as warm as a tube amp (despite emulating one), but ultimately, its feature set and price point (costing roughly 25% of my Mesa) makes it worth the replacement. Now I just have to sell my other amp on eBay...supposedly Mesa resell values are pretty high, so hopefully I'll end up making some money overall, despite buying a new amp. Good deal if you ask me!

2nd Annual Walton HS Orchestra Holiday Party

Last night Evan and I hosted our (personally) highly anticipated high school orchestra holiday party, and let's just say I'm really glad it has come and gone. I'm not sure exactly what was different about it this year from last, or at least, which of the differences caused it to turn out so differently, but it turned out to be pretty awkward, so much so that I'm considering not having one next year. Sure, it was great to see the 15 or so people that ended up showing up, but something about having that exact group at my own boring apartment with a fairly sober "party" atmosphere lead to a more or less unexciting evening, especially when compared with the extremely fun and successful night out at the bar we had only a few days ago. In fact, I'm starting to think that from now on perhaps that's what we should do...just meet at the bar.

I'm glad we did it, but I think it was a lesson learned. We'll see what happens next year... Thanks to anyone reading that came out to either night!

The Dark Knight on DVD

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was The Dark Knight on DVD, and seeing as Evan still hadn't seen the film, we sat down to watch it today. Although the movie is long and the previous two times I had seen it (in the theatre) I could really sense the length wearing on me, this time I just sat back and let the whole thing sink in. This viewing allowed me to focus better on the very high level of acting offered by almost all involved in the film, especially by Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman, who previously went a little less appreciated than perhaps the show-stealing performance of Heath Ledger.

Also, some of the more-background elements (like the music and cinematography) really stuck out this time around, but ultimately the biggest thing I got out of this film is the affirmation of how incredible it is. This feeling is only augmented by the fact that I had never really expected a superhero film to be of such high quality (especially the acting, script, and heavy subject matter). All this said, The Dark Knight is definitely amidst my top films of the year and very likely to come out on top (more on my year-end Top 5's in a later post).

Geekologie Post of the Day: Something I Should Aspire To...

Pam's White Elephant Party 2008

Yet another party in a busy busy week was my high school friend Pam Caltabiano's annual White Elephant Party held at her parents' place. I've actually been to this party for three years now, so it's quickly becoming one of my rare annual traditions. Of the three years I've been, Candace has joined me for two, which has definitely proved to be a plus, as Pam has such a strange mix of unrelated people (socially, not genetically, of course) at these gatherings, where having someone I know well there really helps things feel a little less random. That said, this year's cast of characters was really interesting, of particular interest being this strange guy from upstate New York who talks as if he's from aristocratic society from the mid-1800's, but although it most certainly is put on, he's very serious about it.

Anyway, the evening was split into two portions: a general small-talk social portion with snacks followed by the titular white elephant gift-giving portion. This year I brought a collector's edition Star Trek PEZ set for $15 and ended up getting lucky by receiving a $15 iTunes gift certificate, which is as good as cash for me. Candace wasn't quite so lucky: she brought an electronic dartboard and ended up getting some cheap scent-thing (not sure how to describe it: it wasn't a candle or an incense set) which she wasn't happy with. Still, we had a good time, and in some way this year's party seemed to be the best of the three I've been to, even though the first was also really good.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening for me was meeting a Portuguese musician (yes, actually from Portugal, not Brazil) with whom I had an extended conversation about his adjustment to America coming from Europe (I know, sounds typical for me). Hopefully he and I will be able to get together at some point, maybe even to jam...

Anyway, great party. One of the highlights of the holidays for sure.

Bodies: The Exhibition

Today Jaclyn and Ryan (my sister and her husband) invited me to join them to see Bodies: The Exhibition which recently opened in Atlanta. Although the exhibit had been showing in Amsterdam when I was in the NL, I hadn't really been all that tempted to go, and honestly, had J+R not asked, I might not have ended up going here either, as it's kinda expensive and I didn't expect it to be the sort of thing I would like.

But, after an initial sort of light queasy shock period, I became acclimated to seeing cadavers and started really enjoying the educational value of all this. Although it's super-interesting, I'm not sure if my high school anatomy class made the experience more or less so...on one hand, having seen pictures and diagrams ad nauseum kinda desensitized me to the effect of seeing these things for the first time, but then again knowing the names and general functions of a lot of organs really helped augment my experience. There were a lot of things on exhibit there that were worth writing about...so many that I don't have the energy or time to go into even just the highlights.

Probably the most striking thing about the whole exhibit for me wasn't the exhibit itself but rather the type of conversation it helped initiate. On two separate occasions the subject of religion was brought up, undoubtedly because seeing (beautifully) cold-hard science in action forces people to question their beliefs (or at least become a little uncomfortable). The more interesting of the two short discussions was when an elderly black man (granted most-likely a bit senile) decided he needed to convince me that all that we saw was proof that god made us, not ourselves (what's more, I hadn't even been talking about anything to trigger this!). Although I knew what he meant, I tried to get him off my case by saying I most certainly agreed that man did not create man. Eventually his daughter had to come pull him away from me, as he was kinda harassing me, but the whole situation was an intriguing indicator of the power of science upon those that generally don't think critically. If nothing else, it's good to know that science is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing: elevating humanity through enquiry, reason, and self-evaluation.

Overall, a really great experience. Definitely recommended. Bring along a vocal religious friend if you wanna have a particularly interesting discussion... =)

Teaching Gifts 2008

Last year, I was a little caught off guard when some of my clients (of which at the time I only had a few) gave me a thoughtful Christmas gift or two, so this year I came prepared, pretty much having a gift ready for anyone I thought would likely be giving me something (in some cases when I wasn't sure, I corrected the mistake by giving them a gift, placing it in their mailbox). These gifts all took the form of either a CD, sheet music, instrument-related literature, or gift certificates to Best Buy, usually chosen to best fit the student's interests and needs.

The gifts I got this year varied pretty widely: I received a couple different kinds of candy and baked cookies, gift certificates to restaurants and clothing stores, and a coffee-table book covering the history of rock guitarists. My most unexpected gift however (from three or four of my clients) took the form of a sort of Christmas bonus in cash, and although this was the least "thoughtful", it was generally the most useful, as a number of my clients have had to drop lessons for at least a week during the holidays, as I've discussed at length before (therefore, the bonus actually ended up just balancing things out, which was nice).

Overall, my clients were all really kind to think of me for Christmas and to be so generous with their gifts. I now feel a little bad for all my complaining about the lack of work during the holidays, but keeping it real, even the bonuses don't completely make up for all that, despite the good intentions behind them. Still, it was certainly a very pleasantly surprising week to be working. Looking forward to next Christmas' bonuses already... =)

Jamming with Joel

My good friend Joel Davis is one of those people I always seem to end up blogging about shortly after hanging out together, largely due to the unfortunate mixture of how much we have in common with how rarely we're able to cross paths. This past Tuesday morning was no different, as we got together shortly after the previous night's Suburban Tap outing to catch up a bit over some dual guitar jamming.

I hadn't really jammed with anyone on guitar in a LONG time, so I was actually kinda disappointed with how foreign it was to me. That plus the fact that I've been asked to jam with a local band to see if I can replace their departing guitarist, and now I'm feeling a lot less confident about it all. Joel and I have followed so similar of paths over the years we've known one another, a fact that only makes my comparatively unadvanced guitar skills all the more painful for me to accept. That said, I think the experience has also given me some inspiration to start applying the pedagogical techniques I used to get where I am on piano to my personal guitar studies so that I might obtain a significantly higher level of improvisational competency sooner than later.

Despite all this, it was still really fun hanging out with Joel. I hope to be able to jam with him as often as we can manage when he's in town for future (albeit too infrequent) visits. Maybe we'll even get to do some creative work together in the not-so-distant future, something we've been talking about since high school but have never gotten around to making a reality.

Christmas Day Activities

Christmas Day this year was fairly standard with the largest exception being me starting my day at my apartment and having to drive over to my parents' place at 9:00 am. This required getting a bunch of stuff together so that I would have everything I needed until late-afternoon Friday (today) when I've finished teaching in the area.

Anyway, this year we did our massive amount of presents with Jaclyn AND her husband Ryan (in the past he's been with his family), which was a nice change. Then we relaxed for most of the day waiting to be called to go over to my aunt's place for our typical gathering with her family (which we do for all holidays). There, we had dinner (our third large meal in 24 hours) and did presents. This year however, to save money, we each drew a name and gave only that person a gift. Although it would seem that this would cut our present-opening time by a lot, we still figured out how to kill a lot of time needlessly, but at least the presents were all what we wanted... =)

So, a fairly standard Christmas with a few little tweaks. I'll cover presents (both given and received) in a later post. Below is my final "Christmas Song of the Day." I couldn't find YouTube clips of the other songs I really wanted to share, so this is it. Maybe I'll save them for next year?

Christmas Song of the Day: Stevie Wonder - Someday At Christmas

First Churchless Christmas Eve

To those readers who took an interest in my religious beliefs as they relate to my parents' traditional practices: I DID NOT end up going to church for Christmas Eve. But the surprising part is that neither did my family...

I was over at their house with my sister and her husband for dinner, and although they were planning on going (with or without me) to the 11:00 service at their church, a combination of separate factors ended up causing them to give up their plan. Everything from getting caught up in singing Christmas songs with me on piano (both those of the secular and religious variety, I might add) and being tired by the time the service rolled around, to a general feeling that perhaps the Christmas Eve service was going to be identical to those of the past (therefore offering nothing new) and a desire not to venture out in the heavy rain that had recently starting falling all ended up keeping everyone with me last night, much to my surprise.

Now, although I was assured I had nothing to do with their decision to abandon their yearly tradition, I still feel a little bad that it turned out this way, as I had no intention of changing their traditions, only mine (well, naturally changing mine alters theirs, but I never assumed it would have an effect like this, whether truly a valid cause of not).

So, there it is. Does it feel weird not to have gone to church on Christmas Eve for the first time in my life? Not really. It's actually a bit liberating. We ended up having a sort of mini church service ourselves in the sense that we pretty much hit all the songs they would have sung at the actual service anyway, so hopefully my family didn't feel like they missed too much in the end. And, contrary to one of my readers' concerns, I DID end up contributing to my parents' tradition in my own sort of way while still being true to myself...

Christmas Song of the Day: Wham! - Last Christmas

Suburban Tap Reunion

I've had a really busy couple of days, hence the lack of blogging. Hopefully I'll still be able to catch up by the end of December...

The first big thing that's happened this week was a sort of high school orchestra reunion that took place on Monday night at a local dive bar called Suburban Tap. See, Evan and I are hosting our second annual Walton Orchestra Alumni Holiday Party on Saturday, but since enough people said they wouldn't be able to come at that time, we decided to set up a bar night on the other side of Christmas to allow everyone to catch up with at least some of the group. As it turns out, the bar outing was quite successful, bringing in around fifteen of our classmates and friends. I stayed the entire time, from 9:00 pm to roughly 3:00 am when us few stragglers were kicked out. =)

Although I ended up regretting how much I had had to drink by the next morning, the night was easily one of my social highlights of 2008. There was a mix of people there, mostly orchestra kids, but also some friends of the group, and I even ended up making a couple new friends in the process (who also turned out to be the people I left the bar with). Turns out all three of them are ex-Jehovah's Witnesses who had all come to be really liberal free-thinker-types like me. The great thing about this was that although I do have friends who are open-minded like myself, very few of them ever really challenge me to probe deeper into my way of thinking, something that all three of them managed to do. Unfortunately, two of them (both brothers) live out of state and are just back for the holidays, so I probably won't be able to pick their brains that often, but still, it's really nice to know they're out there.

So, Suburban Tap was pretty awesome. Hopefully we'll get as many (or more) people out to the official party on Saturday, but even if not, I'll feel like all of this was a success, especially when you put the two together. Can't wait!

Christmas Song of the Day: U2 - It's Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

Mass Effect: Hardcore Difficulty (Renegade)

After taking some time off of Mass Effect a few weeks ago, I eventually got around to starting the whole thing up again by tackling it on a harder difficulty level with a different character class, different personality slant (that of the 'Renegade'), and with a customized character built to look as close to myself as I could manage (which isn't that close), and have just recently completed the game.

First off, upping the difficulty level definitely made things more challenging in the second quarter of the game, causing me to die and have to replay a number of mission segments over and over, but by the half-way point I had both leveled-up enough and developed enough of a sense for my new character class' fighting style that it was fairly manageable from that point on. Granted, the Hardcore difficulty isn't the hardest the game has to offer (that's the Insanity difficulty), but it was still much harder than any levels I had thus far attempted.

The biggest difference about the game this time was choosing to play as the 'bad cop' character instead of the 'good cop' which I played in all my previous games. This generally meant that when given a choice of good, bad, or neutral path to take, I always took the bad one. Although this often just added some humor to the game (as my guy was now a dick instead of a nice guy and therefore often said dickish things), it occasionally left me feeling a little guilty, particularly in the instances where my decisions meant innocent people died unnecessarily. Sure, it's just a game, but when you have spent over 150 hours (the estimated time I've played the game with all playthroughs combined) getting to know the characters, it's hard not to feel a little attached (again, like reading a book). As it turns out, the game itself turns out completely differently if you choose mostly 'Renegade' choices, leaving me wondering how this will affect the sequel coming out in a year or so (which looks at your save file from the first game and builds from there...).

Currently, I've unlocked most of the achievements in the game and will most certainly unlock the rest in my next playthrough (on the Insanity difficulty level), which I'll save for sometime in January or possibly even February, depending on how absorbed I get in whatever games I get for Christmas. And, despite all the hours I've put into this game, I'm still absolutely in love with it and am even kinda having Mass Effect withdrawal right now (I know, not a good sign...). Guess I'll just have to continue obsessing over my new guitar to get past it... =)

Wall-E

Wall-E came out in theatres this past Summer, but I never ended up seeing it because I couldn't find anyone to go with and I never got up the energy to go by myself. That said, I'm a big fan of what Pixar does and have seen pretty much all their films (with the exception of Toy Story 2, I believe), so it was only a matter of time until I saw Wall-E. Well, since I've been on a big space binge lately (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Dead Space, and Mass Effect) I figured I would just go ahead and buy Wall-E instead of renting it.

And boy am I glad I did! Candace and I watched it last night, and I have to say that, for me at least, Pixar has yet to make a better film than this. Wall-E himself was adorable (as well as EVE and pretty much all the other robots), the music was fantastic, the CGI looked so real I thought my normal TV screen was actually in HD, and the successful use of such a short script was refreshing.

More than anything though, I was really impressed with how environmentally and politically-charged this film was, certainly a (welcome) departure for Pixar. It doesn't take long for the film to get into heavy subject matter, and it just keeps laying it on...to the point that I'm almost certain the kids that this movie inevitably attracted probably missed the best part of the film: its message. Everything from the excesses of the Buy in Large Company and the 700+ year exodus from Earth to the pathetic state of humanity and how much more sentient robots seemed to be than the humans that they were there to serve them, this film just oozes with meaning. I love the line the captain delivers when talking to the passengers of the ship saying that their ancestors would be proud that 700 years later they're still doing the exact same thing...sounds like America right now (albeit a bit exaggerated).

Overall, I LOVED this movie...it's probably going into my Top 10 movies of all time list. Hell, I'm already wanting to watch it again and it hasn't even been a day since I watched it! On some level I'm almost glad I saw it after the long wait, as it might not have stood out as much watching it on one of my frequent trips to the cinema. Way to go Pixar!

Christmas Song of the Day: Linkin Park - My December

SantaLand Diaries

This past Wednesday, Candace and I went to see the stage adaptation of David Sedaris' SantaLand Diaries at the local Horizon Theatre. Other than knowing Dave is a big fan of Sedaris' work, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this play, but I'm really glad I went, as it was quite funny. The story is essentially a humorous retelling of Sedaris' real-life experience working as an elf at the New York Macy's' SantaLand, which he portrays as a seriously desperate (and somewhat pathetic) move in response to his then-overwhelming unemployment (of course he no longer has this problem). From what I understand, the play is often put on as an extended monologue, but this production involved two other cast members to help in showing the interactivity between Sedaris' character and those mall patrons/employees he comes in contact with.

The material was all updated a bit, throwing in plenty of pop culture references and modern slang (the original essay was written in 1992) including things like Guitar Hero, iPods, Hannah Montana, and the song "1, 2 Step" by Ciara and Missy Elliot. The main character (Sedaris himself) was portrayed here as extremely flamboyant throughout (especially in his interactions with one male audience member), but the other two cast members changed characters almost every time they came on stage, so as to portray the wide variety of patrons the actual SantaLand would have attracted. Although the show ends with a rather touching moment, most of it is very over-the-top, politically incorrect, and overtly sexual. At times I was afraid some of the older people in the audience might be insulted, but the crowd was generally REALLY into it (too much so?), so I'm guessing this probably wasn't a big issue.

So, although I didn't laugh really hard at all (save perhaps a scene where Sedaris wonders what SantaLand would be like were Santa actually to be code for "Satan"), the whole production was really clever, somewhat shocking, and always chuckle-worthy. I definitely recommend seeing it, as it was most certainly one of the best plays I've seen in a long time.

ETC Holiday Party

A week ago, Candace and I joined her dad and some of her other family members for her dad's company's annual Christmas party at a hotel just off the beltway here in town. Although I'm a little fuzzy on the details, Candace's dad essentially owns part of the Ellijay Telephone Company (ETC), the primary (if not only) telecom provider in their neck of the woods up in Ellijay, so we actually got to sit front and center at this event, which essentially functions as dinner plus an awards ceremony for employees with a number of years at the company. From what I understand, pretty much everyone from the company (including servicemen and such) was there, and thus it kinda felt like the country folks had come to the big city for a night out.

Dinner was your typical buffet fare, but no alcohol was served (we saved that for afterwards, when we went to the hotel bar with Candace's dad). Afterwards was the awards ceremony, which was then followed by a fairly lengthy gift grabbing portion where tables were randomly chosen to go pick a gift out a large selection scattered throughout the front of the room. Although I could have picked up items as varied and interesting as a circular saw, a set of board games, a hunting knife, an animal trapper, or a bee-bee gun, I ended up going with an apparently entry-level paintball gun, which although cool, I'm not sure I'll end up using.

Anyway, the night was fun (even if a little long), and hanging out with Candace's dad and the rest of the family is always a good time, even if it means having to put up with so many Squidbillies... =)

Christmas Song of the Day: Smashing Pumpkins - Christmastime

My New Ibanez STM1!

Note: I realize I am ridiculously behind on blogging. I guess I've had a lot of stuff other than blogging to keep me busy lately, and having the currently slightly overwhelming Christmas hustle and bustle isn't going to help. I'll do my best to try to stay on top of this, but I'm starting to fear I might not finish the month with my requisite 31 posts...

Anyway, my new guitar finally came! After waiting MUCH longer than the online store's website said it would take (they suggested only 2-3 days when it actually took more like 10), it finally arrived via UPS on Tuesday afternoon. Naturally, after that much buildup, coupled with the fact that I had ordered the guitar without seeing/playing it in person, I was a little worried I might not end up liking it. This said, there were a few disappointments initially that have started to wear off, most importantly some aesthetic issues that aren't quite as I had imagined from looking at the pictures beforehand. For example, I wanted an all black & white guitar, but the fretboard is a medium brown, throwing the look off for me a bit. And, although the black binding on the body looks nice, it's hard to see when looking at the guitar straight-on, leaving the guitar looking a bit more all-white than I had hoped.

These cosmetic issues are all ultimately insignificant when you take into account that this instrument somehow turned out to be the BEST GUITAR I'VE EVER PLAYED! I don't know how I got so lucky, but although I'm not usually a huge fan of the feel of most Ibanez necks, this one is superb! To be fair, I had tried out another Ibanez guitar with the same neck type prior to purchasing this one and was generally happy with it, but somehow this neck blows the other one away: it's just so smooth and responsive...it makes playing notes so easy that I almost have to change my playing style in order to not overdo it. Add to this the fact that the pickups on the guitar are of the highest quality I can recall ever playing (two Steve Vai Evolutions), and you've got a pretty happy customer. In fact, one of my biggest worries was that the lack of a tone knob on the instrument was going to leave me really limited with my sonic possibilities, but it's now obvious that Sam Totman's choice of these pickups was done with enough foresight to provide ample choices with the pickups just as they are in their three different configurations.

Sure, there are a few things to get used to, most notably the look, the feel of the neck, the sound of the pickups (which requires that I change the EQ settings on my amp from those used with my old guitar), the weight of the guitar (and the fact that it's neck-heavy), and the Floyd-Rose-style tremolo unit with locking nut (which makes tuning that much more tedious when compared with other possible bridges), but none of these things are deal-breakers. In fact, the ease of music-making on this instrument so exceeds any preconceived expectations I had for any potential guitar I might ever get that I'm ultimately just blown away by my find. Definitely worth the money (and the wait)! Now I've got to start making some music to show it off! =)

Christmas Song of the Day: Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You

Favorite Christmas Songs

Although I'm a bit down on religion at this point in my life, I still love Christmas music, especially some of the hidden (or perhaps somewhat well-known) gems of original Christmas songs I've found over the years. Although I do love some regular Christmas songs in-and-of-themselves, it takes a special "cover" (is that the right word when talking about songs in the public domain?) of one of these to make it onto my list with the generally-more-creative original songs. So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite Christmas songs (both original and not):

Relient K - I Celebrate The Day
Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Smashing Pumpkins - Christmastime
Linkin Park - My December
Jump Little Children - You're All I Want For Christmas
Seven Day Jesus - O Holy Night
U2 - Baby, Please Come Home
Stevie Wonder - Someday At Christmas
Wham! - Last Christmas

So, instead of doing a Geekologie Post of the Day for the next few posts, I'm going to do a Christmas Song of the Day post instead. Perhaps I'll even find a few more tracks to add to the list... Enjoy!

Christmas Song of the Day: Relient K - I Celebrate the Day

Superman Returns

As mentioned in my RoboCop post, another movie I got on DVD for a steal was Superman Returns (the most recent Superman film), which I hadn't seen since I saw it in the theatres roughly two years ago. At that time, I wasn't really all that convinced that the movie was anything special, and I held onto this assessment up through my purchase of the movie...I suppose I picked it up simply because I like superhero movies and wanted to give it another shot.

So, I watched it the other day and now can't believe I ever questioned this film's merits. This time around I laughed, I got excited, and I even got close to shedding a tear. I'm not sure what changed over these past two years to alter my perception of the movie so drastically, but I'm glad I did, because now this is one of my favorite superhero films (up there with The Dark Knight and X2). Sure, there's the questionable plot point centering around Superman's potential offspring, and I'm not sure the casting for Lois Lane was all that great, but Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor and Brandon Routh as Superman were fantastic choices, and the script and directing were top notch (is it a coincidence that two of my top three superhero films were directed by Bryan Singer?).

Overall, I'm very glad that I gave this movie a second chance...not sure I'm gonna rush out to buy the original films, but I doubt that's not much of a loss.

V-Cube 6

For Candace and my one-year anniversary, she got me a gift...not just any gift, but a custom-made 6x6x6 Rubik's Cube from Greece officially called the V-Cube 6. Despite being very daunting, I was able to solve the cube the night I got it, but I generally attribute this more to a little luck than some intense logic. See, although I can easily solve most of the cube using the algorithms I know from solving all of the smaller cubes, there's one part of the solution that's still giving me trouble: solving the last pair of centers. While I've solved the cubes many times by now and therefore always end up solving the hard part, it's not horribly fast yet (or even consistent).

But, the really interesting story about this cube is not how I solve it, but how I got to put it back together...

After solving it three times, I showed it to my then somewhat drunk roommate Evan, who then proceeded to pretend to hit the cube with a bat. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account that he would need to catch the cube...instead, it hit the floor and exploded into hundreds of pieces like a multi-colored frag grenade! As you can imagine, we were both in shock, especially considered how dramatic the whole explosion was, pieces flying everywhere. Naturally, when Evan found out where the cube came from and how much it cost, he was even more dismayed. Regardless, I was able to put it all back together over the course of an hour or so, and nothing was broken-broken. Actually, the whole experience proved to be quite intriguing, and I wasn't really all that upset anyway, so no big deal. =)

Although the cube's not perfect (it's pretty fragile and pieces will pop out intermittently if you're not super careful, a condition present even before Evan dropped the cube), it's still really fun to solve and has certainly replaced my 5x5x5 as my favorite cube. Now I just need to get the 7x7x7 (and perhaps the 11x11x11 when it comes out)!

Geekologie Post of the Day: Ridiculous Mash-Up

RoboCop

The other day, Candace and I were in Target, and I decided to look at their DVDs, as they tend to sell them for cheaper than almost anyone else. Sure enough, they had a lot of great deals: after eliminating a few other options, I decided to get the original RoboCop and new Superman movies, each for a little over $5 (which is roughly what I would have paid just to rent them!).

So, I watched RoboCop yesterday, and although it was one of my favorite action movies from my childhood, it still held up pretty well. Unbeknownst to me when I was in fourth grade, the movie is actually a satire of American excesses like commercialism, desensitization to violence, and even Reagan-Era economics, adding a certain layer of sophistication to the film. Sure, it's just an action movie and as such is nowhere near as good as Terminator 2, but it's WAY better than the average action flick, both in terms of its message and the actual action itself. Speaking of which, I had the choice of watching either the original release or the unrated director's cut (which presumably has more over-the-top violence than the ratings board allowed at the time), and obviously I went with the latter, as it better reflected director Paul Verhoeven's vision of America's cabaret-like insensitivity to violence.

Add to all this that the director is Dutch, and you've got a pretty pleasant stroll down memory lane for only $5. Way to go, Target!

Geekologie Post of the Day: Timberlake/Timbaland-esque Parody on SNL

Banking Fraud Courtesy Call

Yesterday, right before leaving for work, I received an automated call from Bank of America telling me they had noticed a lot of activity on my VISA card in a variety of places lately and were calling to confirm that it was in fact me that had made all of these purchases. Granted, I did just buy an $800 guitar from an online store located in Oregon, a custom watch from Japan, and some Christmas presents from all over Atlanta, but isn't this the time of year when most people will be making their biggest expenditures? I mean, is it THAT odd that I would want to order some stuff from all over the place? Maybe this is an indication that I need to be more frugal? Not sure. Regardless, the whole fraud protection call went smoothly enough, and it didn't make me too late for my lessons...

Kiki's Delivery Service

One of the DVDs I received for my birthday was yet another Hayao Miyazaki film, Kiki's Delivery Service. I had asked for this film because I'm trying to complete my collection of Miyazaki's films (there are eight...I currently have five), but I had put off actually watching it for two reasons: first, I've become extremely distracted by Xbox since then and chose to spend my time playing games instead of watching movies, and second, this movie looked about as uninteresting as a Miyazaki film could.

So, I finally got around to watching it yesterday, and although it had some charming elements (of particular interest the city where the story takes place and how cute some of the characters were), this was easily the worst Miyazaki film I've yet seen. The biggest gripe I have with it is that it ends VERY abruptly, so much so that it almost felt like a really long TV cartoon instead of a film. Although this would be understandable if this were one of his earliest films, this is actually his fourth, and his second, Castle in the Sky, which I've already seen, doesn't have this problem, so it leaves me wondering what they were thinking...did they just run out of time or ideas?

Also tied into the problem of an abrupt ending was the fact that there wasn't really much of a plot or any character development. There were plenty of opportunities for Kiki to grow (this being her year away from home to do so), but the movie skirts these potentialities and focuses on far inferior plot points. Also, the soundtrack for this film just wasn't up to par with the soundtracks of the other films, even though they were all done by the typically brilliant Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away's soundtrack is easily one of my favorites of all time).

Regardless, I'm glad I saw this movie and that it's in my collection, but let's just say I don't think I'll be showing it to anybody anytime soon...hell, I might not even watch it ever again myself!

Geekologie Post of the Day: Mario Kart-Themed Song

Geekologie Plus

There are three sites I regularly check for my random amusement, and they're all run by the same group of people. The site I stumbled upon first was a gossip site called The Superficial. Although gossip can be tedious, this site is generally funny because it's written by a somewhat chauvinistic straight dude (and therefore isn't horribly typical). The second site I found was via the first, but it's an upcoming movie gossip/rumor site, I Watch Stuff, therefore I actually pay more attention to it, being up my alley and all. This site is a lot more serious than the first and actually informs me of a number of interesting movie developments. In fact, it's pretty much the only way I'm even aware of which movies are in the theatre these days, as I don't watch much TV.

Finally, the third site is simultaneously my least favorite and the most interesting (how this works out for me I'm not sure). It's a technology site called Geekologie which generally focuses on nerdy tech stuff that people have spotted floating around the web. Although I don't check it nearly as much as the other two sites, whenever I do I generally find myself wanting to share something I saw with you guys.

So, now that I've gotten that explanation out of the way, from now on I'm going to try to post a "Geekologie Post of the Day" along with every regular blog post I write so that I can share some of the nerddom with you. This "Post of the Day" will usually just be a link to the site, as I'm aiming to have it take up as little space as possible.

Let's go ahead and get started then, shall we?:

Geekologie Post of the Day: Star Wars vs. Star Trek Mash-Up

Signature Guitars

I'm on an indulgent musical binge at the moment. The reasons for this are many (some better than others), but suffice it to say right now that the past two days have been spent looking for a new electric guitar in earnest, and tonight I ended up ordering a guitar online. What did I choose? The Sam Totman signature Ibanez Iceman in all its glory. Although Sam Totman is one of two guitarists in the now world-famous (due to Guitar Hero III) and over-the-top band Dragonforce, his guitar is one of the more subdued signature guitars I've ever seen. Usually, when a guitarist gets to help design their own guitar, they put a bunch of quasi-tacky stuff on the instrument that clearly shows it's theirs...here are some examples:

Mick Thompson (Seven) of Slipknot's Ibanez MTM1
Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold's Schecter Synyster Custom
Zakk Wylde of Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society's Gibson Bullseye Les Paul
Buddy Guy's Fender Standard Stratocaster

and the most ridiculous of all...

Max Cavalera of Soulfly/Sepultura's ESP Brasilian Green Viper

So, I should be getting my generally-normal-looking signature guitar via UPS or FedEx sometime this week. I'm really pumped, as I've always loved the look of the Iceman line of guitars and have always wanted a hotrod rockstar guitar (especially in all white w/black lining). I'll be sure to report on it when I've played it for a bit.

Weekly Parent/Son Dinners

Now that I don't live with my parents, I have to make an effort to see them if I want to keep them in my life. On some days, this isn't so hard, as most of my clients live in their part of town and I often treat their house as my hub of operations, dropping in for a few minutes on the two days I teach there. But often these little visits aren't anything close to quality time, so we all try to do dinner once a week together, often preferring to eat out, as that's generally better for everyone.

When we go out though, I think I often end up making my dad uncomfortable, as I have a tendency towards rather outspoken liberal conversation, even when surrounded by most-probably a majority of suburban conservatives (who love Jesus and tend to like to keep their minds in their insecure little boxes...just had to throw that one in!). Oftentimes my dad will actually ask me to change the subject, especially if the conversation is getting heated or uncomfortable for him.

See, I'm pretty much the only confrontational person in my nuclear family, but for me, my preference for "confrontation" is actually more of a preference for honest, straight-forward talking aimed at arriving at meaningful conclusions. I'm never simply trying to make things complicated or difficult for everyone...I just feel that this is how progress (both personal and cultural) is made: we have to talk about ideas if we're going to help progress the Zeitgeist.

Anyway, I almost always enjoy meeting up with my parents (apart from the occasional time when we get in big arguments), but as time goes on it becomes increasingly clear that our similarities are diminishing, and therefore our need for agreeing to disagree is rising sharply. Regardless, I love them and am grateful that we are afforded the opportunity to meet up so regularly...I just hope we always end up dealing with our differences in a constructive way.

My Future Xmases

This time last year, I had only considered myself an atheist for about two months thus far, and as such, by the time Christmas rolled around, not being religious was new enough to me that I ended up going to Christmas Eve service with my family, mostly out of tradition. Unfortunately, the whole experience was rather uncomfortable (especially the whole communion bit) and was therefore the kind of thing I decided I would like to avoid at all costs from then on.

So, this Christmas (Xmas, more appropriately), I will not be going to Christmas Eve service with my family, as much of a letdown as I know it will be for them (especially for my mom). I wish I didn't have to upset them like this, but it would be awfully hypocritical and generally inappropriate (not to mention personally unpleasant) of me to go to church on Christmas knowing full well I'm mature enough to be held accountable for my beliefs, religious or otherwise. This year will therefore mark the first time in my 27 years of life thus far that I have not gone to a Christmas Eve service.

In addition to these effects, my atheism is also making it harder for me to buy into the Christmas spirit, especially where religion comes into play. For example, I bought a big book of Christmas songs for piano the other day, but although I love Christmas music, I have a hard time playing the religious tunes (as opposed to the secular ones). This said, I suppose the whole getting-exciting-about-Christmas thing has been on a steady decline for me over the past ten years or so, so I guess my current state isn't too lamentable.

Taking all of this into consideration, I'm not really sure how I expect this Christmas to turn out. I kind of wish my family could all just give each other presents, come together for a nice meal, spend some quality time together, and call it a day. I hate that I'm losing working opportunities over a holiday I barely condone, I hate that I'm going to have to broach the subject of not going to church with my mom, I hate that we do the same thing every year with diminishing returns, and I hate that the year just can't be done until we've gone through this rather sad (but still quite ingrained in me) excessively materialistic death throe of Winter consumerism.

808s & Heartbreak

When surfing iTunes the other day for new releases, I came upon Kanye West's new album, 808s & Heartbreak, and took a minute to check it out. Although I generally had a lot of respect for Kanye's work up to that point, I had never been interested enough to actually pick up an album.

This album changed that.

Within minutes of checking out each of the songs, I was hooked and had to rush to buy the CD at Best Buy as soon as I could (on Black Friday, as all the stores were closed for Thanksgiving). Although it took a little getting used to, the album has quite easily become one of the best albums I've purchased in a long time.

This record is a sort of concept album, both thematically and musically:

Kanye had a rough year this past year, losing his mother to complications in her cosmetic surgery procedures, calling off his engagement, and trying to come to terms with his admittedly superficial life. This album is the product of all that soul-searching, and it shows - in the best way possible at that. The subject matter is mostly a form of sincere and often melancholy reflection on heavy topics such as loss, love, fame, and maturity. To further enrich things, Kanye restricted himself to only sung melodies (a big departure for him, as he's known as a rapper, first and foremost); simple, almost minimalist drum beats produced almost exclusively on a Roland TR-808 electronic drum machine; and a heavy reliance on an Auto-Tune vocal effect, which fortunately is not overused or handled in a gimmicky manner.

The result of all this (plus a moving album art design and presentation) is a complete package that leaves me respecting Kanye even more as an artist, and ten-fold as a human being (he has a reputation for being an arrogant prick, and this sort of tender hearted and self-critical musical essay is enough to start melting that impression). Overall, I can't recommend this album enough. I never thought I would be saying that about a Hip-Hop/R&B album, but I am.

Milk

Last night Candace and I saw a movie I had been very hyped about since first seeing trailers for it months ago, Gus van Sant's Milk. The movie is a biopic of Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn), America's first openly gay man elected to public office. Milk served as one of San Francisco's City Supervisor's during the tumultuous coming-of-age era for the gay movement in the city's Castro disctrict, and as such faced much opposition on his way to being elected. Not too long after being elected, Harvey Milk (along with mayor George Moscone) was shot and killed by another City Supervisor, Dan White, who obviously had some issues.

Anyway, the movie was your typical biopic in that it was generally long, dry, and down-to-earth, but it was easily one of the best biopics I've ever seen, and Penn's portrayal of Milk was astounding. It's amazing to think that only 35 years ago our country was rounding up gay men and taking them to jail simply for being gay. We've obviously come a long way since then, but then you're reminded of the recent Proposition 8 fiasco across our country and you see we haven't come as far as we would have hoped.

The worst thing about this movie is that it has come out on limited release, usually just in art houses, and therefore won't be able to help educate on a wider scale, which is a big shame, as this movie is really giving a voice to a whole community that until recently (especially before Brokeback Mountain, and even that can't hold a candle to Milk) had been nearly left out from mainstream media.

Go see this movie...it's great (even if all you think you'll get out of it is an incredible performance by Sean Penn).

Batman: The Animated Series: Season 3

For my birthday, Dave gave me a complete DVD set of Batman: The Animated Series, Season III, of which I have only today finished watching all 29 episodes. First off, let me say that I grew up loving this show (it really was one of the best cartoons of all time), and I had even had a resurgence of interest in it during my Bloomington years (from whence Dave knows me) when I purchased Season I on DVD. Unfortunately, I have lent out this set to one of my friends and wasn't able to get it back prior to watching Season III, nor did I feel like going to the store to buy Season II to prepare me for whatever plot points might lead up to Season III, but I don't think this really affected my viewing much at all.

Of the 29 episodes, I saw all sorts of villains from Batman's Rogues' Gallery: Rupert Thorne, Two-Face, The Penguin, Ra's Al Ghul, Maxie Zeus, The Ventriloquist (and Scarface), The Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, HARDAC, Poinson Ivy, The Terrible Trio, The Joker, Harley Quinn, Clock King, Catwoman, Bane, Baby-Doll, The Riddler, Red Claw, Scarecrow, Lock-Up, Mr. Freeze, and Roland Daggett. Although this seems like a pretty exhaustive list, somehow Clayface and Man-Bat managed not to be included, even though I know they were featured in other seasons of the show. In general, I find Robin's presence in the shows he's in to be quite annoying (although, not as bad as Batgirl), but Batman's great in this series, so no complaints there.

Some of the best episodes were those that featured Ra's Al Ghul (although they pronounce his name "Raysh" for some inexplicable reason), The Ventriloquist (whom I had never heard of before but eventually found really intriguing), Harley Quinn (isn't this series where she got her start?), Catwoman (so hot!), and Mr. Freeze. Easily the best episode was that which featured Lock-Up, an ex-chief of security for Arkham Asylum who insanely believes the flaws in the bureaucracy, media, police force, and psychologists of Arkham have led to Arkham being a "revolving door" for lunatics, therefore taking it upon himself to remedy the situation by locking up the leaders of these organizations without trial. This episode was easily the most thought-provoking of the lot, despite having an obscure villain I had never heard of before.

Overall, it was really fun watching this season, and it's only made me want to get my Season I DVDs back even more so I can watch them too. Thanks for the gift, Dave!

Roaches at Berkeley

Short post here (hopefully).

Although we don't have any spiders, moths, flies, or wasps here at my apartment, we do have roaches...seemingly a lot of them. Naturally, I didn't start seeing them en masse until it got a little colder outdoors, but they've been here all along...relatively big black ones. Fortunately, I don't have a problem killing roaches, but that doesn't make it any more fun. Mostly I find them just scurrying around our living area, but on occasion they've been in my toilet (why are they in there?), and once, one of them decided to drop down on top of me while I was playing video games, presumably after having surveyed the nearby graveyard of unpicked-up roaches I had created and then decided to attack me...

Anniversary @ The Masquerade

Last night Candace and I celebrated our one year anniversary (to the day) and therefore did a few slightly atypical things for entertainment. Due to the fact that I took pictures of the first thing we did and would rather save that post for later (when I've got the pics up on Facebook, which might be awhile, as I've got at least two other albums that have to go up first...), I'm going to talk about the latter half of the evening now.

After our first activity, we headed downtown to The Masquerade, a three-leveled venue that typically hosts bands, DJ's, and the occasional party, usually simultaneously, offering a wide variety of things to see on any given weekend night. Last night, we went specifically to see one of my high school friends, Philip Chedid, spin in the layer called Hell. Prior to this however, we checked out the Spark drag show in Purgatory (the top level is called Heaven and is where the bands play), which was easily the highlight of our time at The Masquerade for me. Let me tell you, most of those drag queens were so convincing that I kept debating their gender with Candace the whole night (even Candace thought the first girl to come out was actually a girl).

Anyway, we then headed over to Philip's hour-long set (from 12:00-1:00), and although the event wasn't that well-attended, it was really great getting to see what one of my friends is spinning (mostly a mix of progressive house/trance). Although his set wasn't straight up my alley, there were some solid tunes in there I really dug, and regardless, it was great to get out and support him.

So, the second half of our evening was really cool, and certainly memorable. I'll try to get to the first half when I can, but I wouldn't hold my breath...

Evan in Hawaii

For the past 10 days or so, my roommate Evan has been in Hawaii for an all-expenses-paid-for family reunion of sorts, and therefore I've had the place all to myself. Living alone like this is both a blessing and a curse for me:

When I'm just wanting to spend some me-time, I prefer to live alone and sometimes get frustrated having someone around with whom I have to share our living space. This tends to happen regardless of how much I like my roommate. Fortunately, Evan's one of the best roommates I've had, so this is minimized.

This said though, part of the reason I was so excited to move in with Evan was that I would always have a guy friend around. In my current social situation, having a friend around without having to make plans to see them really made a big difference in how socially active (and satisfied) I feel. It's still not enough to just have one roommate (who is a good friend) and a girlfriend, but it's an improvement for sure.

So, although I'm not exactly lonely right now with Evan gone, I'm sure I would become lonely sooner or later and would want him back. That said, my past 10 days have been great...doing whatever I want, relaxing, playing video games late at night without having headphones on, and playing guitar (and singing) without fear of disrupting someone. I sincerely hope Evan had a great trip though, and when he gets back tomorrow I'll be excited to hear how it went (although I'm sure he'll be totally wiped out...he's taking a very long red-eye flight home).

Guitar Hero III DLC

Not to hit you over the head with Guitar Hero stuff, but I'm behind on my blog for this month, and I'm running out of time to fix that, so here goes...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've recently purchased all of the available Guitar Hero III downloadable content tracks from the Xbox Live Marketplace, and having played all tracks on all difficulty levels, I now know them well enough to review them. The way it works is that playable tracks in packs of three that are all somehow tied together, either by record label, style, or artist, are released for about two bucks per track. With the equivalent of about 18 track packs or so (or 54 songs), I had my hands full trying to digest all of this new material. Some tracks were in styles I liked ahead of time, some weren't, but that didn't keep me from disliking some of the songs I already knew and falling in love with some that I didn't.

Here are some of my favorites:

- "Ernten Was Wir Säen" by Die Fantastischen Vier: Despite the fact that most of the foreign language songs are of dubious quality, this one is really awesome (and quite long and difficult on higher levels).

- "Pretty Handsome Awkward" by The Used: I had been on the fence about this group for years, but this song convinced me to look into their most recent album...and now it's on my Christmas list. Way to go Guitar Hero!

- "Any Way You Want It" by Journey: You're like, "What?!?" I know, I know. But this song is awesome, and the lead singer of Journey has an incredible voice. Don't hate.

- "Hole in the Earth" by the Deftones: I'm a long-time fan of the Deftones, but my interest in the band had started to waver with their most recent albums. This track however convinced me to give them a second shot...now this CD is also on my Christmas list.

- "Almost Easy" by Avenged Sevenfold: I've already blogged about these guys. Guitar Hero is what got me into them.

- "Stockholm Syndrome" by Muse: I'm not a huge fan of Muse's latest album (off of which the regular GHIII track "Knights of Cydonia" comes), but this track is from their previous (and far superior album) and as such is very fun to play (plus it's difficult and has tons of notes, allowing for some really high scores...).

- The Motörhead pack: I went into these songs thinking I would hate this band's material (my only prior acquaintance being Triple H's theme songs...), but all three of the songs in this pack are fun to play and pretty good musically, so I guess I was wrong.

- "Surfing with the Alien" by Joe Satriani: I always thought the guitar virtuoso crowd was an inflated group with even more inflated egos, but as it turns out, this song is super fun and musical. Maybe I'll have to check out some Satch sooner than later.

- The DragonForce pack: Yes, "Through the Fire and Flames" is both really hard and a really great song, and yes, the three songs in this pack all sound kind of like it, but they're a tad bit easier (I can beat them all on Hard and even gold-star them on Medium), and the band's sound in general is fun, so no real complaints here.

So, that's how the top DLC boils down. If you have a 360 or PS3 and are thinking about buying some of this stuff, I would stay away from the Coldplay, Companion, Dropkick Murphys, Def Leppard, and Isle of Wight Festival track packs, along with maintaining a lowered set of expectations for the free packs, as all of these are generally mediocre.

Guitar Hero III Review

Despite having the game since I initially got my Xbox 360, I haven't really done a formal review of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, largely due to the fact that the game doesn't have a typical narrative structure with a beginning and an end. It does have a career mode in all four of its difficulty settings, but the career mode in Expert is so hard that I might not ever be able to beat it. Currently, although I'm close to beating career mode on Hard, the last few songs (namely the Slayer and Metallica tracks), are keeping me from doing so. All this said though, I'm now as close to having played the entire game as I've ever been: I've beaten half of the career modes, I've unlocked everything but one or two characters from the store, I've played every song on every difficulty level (or at least attempted the difficult ones on Expert), and I've done the same with all of the available DLC (downloadable content) tracks, of which there are many.

Overall, the game is still really fun, although I've sort of hit a wall: I have gold-starred all songs on Easy, I've gold-starred most songs on Medium, I've five-starred most songs on Hard, and I've completed the majority of songs on Expert (with at least three stars), but beyond this it has been very hard to advance. Ultimately, there's a really steep difficulty curve in this game, and although the only thing that's holding me back right now are the solos (which I am getting better at), it's still enough to cripple my enjoyment of the game now that I've reached my current skill level. That said, I am planning on getting Guitar Hero: World Tour (hopefully for Christmas), and if nothing else, that'll just give me a bunch of new songs. I've heard the difficulty level on that game isn't quite as hard, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, as playing on Easy has gotten a little boring at this point.

Anyway, I still love Guitar Hero, but despite being a totally different sort of game from Mass Effect, BioShock, and Dead Space, it just can't compete with those titles as it lacks any kind of story to keep you interested and has also started to run out of gas at higher difficulty levels. Still, it's a really fun way to burn 30 minutes or so a day...

Gaming Websites

To keep up with all the news surrounding video game culture, I find myself checking up on five different gaming websites, usually on a daily basis (especially on weekdays, when they update regularly). The hub site where I begin everyday is GameRankings.com, a metaranking site compiling all of the professional reviews given to every game that comes out and producing an overall ranking (out of 100%) for each one, thereby allowing me to see how well-received a game really is. When it comes down to it, any typical review site could be either right on the money or a bit high or low, so relying on one review site alone might not be the best indicator of a game's quality.

Then there are four sites which keep me abreast of news, previews, and reviews: IGN.com, GameSpot.com, GameTrailers.com, and
1Up.com (which is my least favorite as it's the only site of the three that doesn't create video reviews of games). All of these sites are very similar, but between the four of them, it's pretty hard for me to miss anything. Usually, when a game comes out I like to look at the GameRankings.com metaranking along with the other four sites to see specific commentary on the pluses and minuses of each game, all of which help me decide if it's worth picking up someday.

Generally I would say the metaranking is a pretty accurate reading on a game's quality, and as I look back on the games I have thus far, my impressions of the games usually line up fairly well with the critical reviews. As I see it, the different quality brackets for games line up something like this:

≥ 90% = incredible...hard to dislike
80-90% = very solid...not perfect, but worth having
70-80% = only worth getting if you're really interested in it
≤ 70% = very risky...most likely utter crap

To give you an idea where my games stand, BioShock is my highest ranked game (95%), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is my loweest ranked game (74%), and Mass Effect (my favorite game) is close to BioShock but not quite there (91%). The average score of my eight hardcopy games (i.e. not XBLA) is 85%. In practice, it will be very hard for me to raise this number by much, as the number of games scoring averages significantly higher than this is small. As silly as it is though, I do take my average metaranking into account when buying a new game, always hoping to raise the number (or at least not lower it).

Thanksgiving 2008

Honestly, I don't really have much to report about this Thanksgiving, as it wasn't all that different from those I've had in the past. As I was sure to mention last year, the year before that I had spent my Thanksgiving in the Dutch city of Leiden, home to the pilgrims for 20 years or so. Well, apart from that year, this year is the only Thanksgiving I believe I've had where I wasn't living (even just for the break) at my parents' place. More strikingly (but less relevant) is the fact that this will also be true of this Christmas, with the exception that it will be the first time I'll have celebrated Christmas while not staying at my parents' place. I'm sure this will have a profound effect on me (especially not waking up that morning in my old bed), but I'll be sure to report my sentiments then.

Anyway, I digress.

This year we had my mom's side of the family over for dinner, as we always do. The main highlight here was easily my cousin Jeffrey and his wife Mary Stoney's three-week-old baby girl, Mary Lanigan, whom I got to see for the first time tonight. Although I'm not really that into babies, I couldn't help but be moved by the fact that part of my bloodline had procreated and therefore started fulfilling our most basic evolutionary instinct. I know this sounds awfully clinical, but the way I look at it, it's transcendently beautiful. I mean, this is "what we're here for", so to speak, and seeing a baby that, despite not quite looking a lot like her parents at the moment, has an undeniable air of being their offspring is a moving thing indeed.

So, I suppose if there was anything to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, I would have to say it would be this incredible example of the beauty of procreation, parenthood, and the evolutionary wonder that we all are.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mass Effect Review

Twelve days ago I wrote a post saying I had just finished Mass Effect and was very close to maxing out my character from my first playthrough...I guess I was wrong. It took me up until a few hours ago to finally achieve everything I could with one character, largely because of a few misunderstandings concerning how to unlock certain achievements in the game and because of a ridiculously steep curve for gaining experience points in your last ten levels. I almost played through the game three whole times to get everything in, and that's not to speak of the many, many hours I'll most likely be playing the game with at least two other characters. That said, I think I'm going to impose a ban on Mass Effect for the next few weeks so that I can get back to a more normal life and also to put some distance between the game and me for a bit.

So, onto the review... Despite seeing the same story play out three times already (I made the same dialogue choices on repeat playthroughs so as to make the future playthroughs more interesting), Mass Effect is still the best game I have ever played. Granted, not everyone loves action-RPGs or sci-fi stuff, but if you do, it's hard to imagine not loving this incredibly immersive gaming experience. In fact, I'm not really sure this game is as much a game as it is a choose-your-own-adventure book (so to speak)...I really felt like I was a part of the story and that the choices I was making had serious consequences. This enveloping gaming experience is what led me to post the game trailer above, as this is almost more like a movie or a book than a game.

I could talk forever about this game, but let's just suffice it to say that it's incredible and anything negative I could say about it is HIGHLY forgivable considering how great the story, voice acting, (inter)action, and sandbox experience is. I'm certain this game will be the sort that I'll be playing for a long time, especially after the sequel comes out in 2009. There are other games out for the 360 that are supposedly comparable to Mass Effect in terms of quality and gameplay (games like Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Fable II), but right now I'm having a hard time imagining myself falling in love with one of those games as whole-heartedly as Mass Effect. We'll see though...

Quantum of Solace

Saw the new James Bond, and let me just say that this is nowhere near as good as Casino Royale. The general feeling about that movie was that Daniel Craig was a fantastic Bond and the film itself was superior to any of the Pierce Brosnan films, if not some of the older movies. Although I tend to agree with this sentiment, Quantum of Solace really fell flat for me: the story was convoluted and at times hard to follow (in the bad sort of way), the action scenes were predictable and not horribly exciting, Bond's sexual side is highly minimized (as is his dialogue and presence), and none of the other actors (save maybe the bad guy) really filled in for Daniel Craig's (or possibly rather his script's) shortcomings.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a big Bond fan, nor am I all that into these spy-type action flicks, but I DID like Casino Royale and I didn't like this one, so that's got to be saying something, right?

My Students' Musical Instruments

One of the signs that really proves to me a client is taking their child's private lessons seriously comes when they decide to buy them a new instrument or equipment for their lessons (like a guitar amp, strings, or even a music stand). Naturally, due to the fact that I teach a variety of instruments/subjects, this can take a number of different forms. Obviously my guitar students need either both an electric guitar and an amp or just an acoustic guitar, and my piano students need at least a keyboard if not a piano, but even my theory and composition students tend to need supplies of some sort.

Usually this takes the form of some sort of textbook, but it can also extend to having notation software, a midi keyboard, and some sort of DAW (digital audio workstation) like Logic or ProTools. In fact, one of my composition students' family is so dedicated to their sons' pursuit to become a film composer that they bought him not one, but TWO new Macintosh computers (a laptop and a desktop) along with the full-fledged version of Logic and a number of sampling libraries! All of this in addition to lessons with me and a more experienced film scoring teacher!

I would say a little over half of my guitar students play on acoustics, and to my knowledge, none of them have bought their instrument after we started working together, but a few of my electric students have gone out and bought Epiphone Les Pauls and Line 6 amps, as per my recommendation. When this happens, it always gets me that much more excited about lessons, not only because their parents are taking lessons seriously enough to invest even more in them, but also because I know the students will be more inspired with new better-sounding/playing gear.

Finally, most of my piano students already have a piano at home, but even this sometimes requires tuning, which I help them set up with the guy who has been tuning my piano since I started playing many years ago. Some of my clients who are perhaps less certain that their child is going to want to keep playing piano opt to get them started on a typical built-in-speaker keyboard, but one of these clients recently made the plunge and bought an upright piano! This kind of thing is a big boost for my confidence as a teacher, as it shows that they have faith that I'm leading their child in the right direction, especially considering that in this case I'm the only teacher she has ever had.

Service Engine Light

Two days ago while driving to one of my lessons, I noticed that my "service engine" light had come on in my one-year old Toyota Matrix. Naturally, I figured this was probably some sort of computer error, but I was still worried enough to call my dad asking for advice and to then eventually take the car in to have it looked at. After waiting 45 minutes at the Toyota dealership, they informed me that the light came on simply because I hadn't screwed the gas cap on fully last time I filled up!

Now, prior to bringing my car in, I checked the manual, and it did mention this circumstance, so I tightened the gas cap, restarted the car, and assumed it wasn't the problem since the light didn't go out. As it turns out, Toyota made these cars so that once the service engine light has gone on, it can only be turned off at a certified service station! What a pain in the ass! Sure, it was my fault I didn't screw the cap on fully, but don't you think the light should go off once I remedy the problem? Imagine what kind of stress this could cause someone who didn't have the time or the money to take their car in! I mean, how difficult would it have been to include a two-way sensor on the gas cap instead of a one-way?

Ridiculous. Hopefully I've learned my lesson and will never accidentally screw the top on 99% of the way again...

Dr. Atomic @ the ASO

I'm doing so poorly with staying up on my blog as of late. I'm going to have to do at least two posts a day from now on in order to catch up by the time the month is out (one of my pet peeves, as you might recall).

Anyway, this past Friday, Candace and I went to see the Atlanta Symphony perform John Adams' (relatively) new opera, Dr. Atomic. This semi-staged production was a full-fledged opera in length (around three hours) but just lacked much costuming or sets/props. In addition to the symphony and the eight roles called for by the work, the ASO brought in the Atlanta Symphony Chorus (formerly directed by Robert Shaw). I had my hopes up for this piece, as it was my first time seeing a John Adams opera live and I generally liked his previous work in the genre.

Unfortunately, the piece sucked a big one, and I ended up cursing it on the way out, frustrated that I lost not only three hours of my time but also thirty dollars : just a week before I had the option of going to see famous French DJ David Guetta spin live and turned it down because I could only afford one thirty dollar form of musical entertainment during this month. The Adams sucked for a few reasons: the libretto made no sense (despite being about a fairly cool topic - the development of the atomic bomb), the acting was virtually nonexistent, the staging was horribly mediocre, and most importantly, the music was all the same, fairly atonal, and generally uninspiring and bland. Let me tell you, this is no Nixon in China! I understand that a quasi-minimalist like John Adams isn't going to stay minimalist forever, but when did this truth come to mean that he was going to have to start sounding like a mediocre student composer instead?

The only redeeming part of the evening was getting to sit in a pre-concert lecture/interview with him and the stage director, after which I got to stand in line to meet him, get an autograph, and tell him with whom and where I studied, which piqued his interest (he was rather nice). Too bad his piece sucked, but whatever...

Evelyn Glennie @ the ASO

Candace and I have been to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra twice in the past week due to both concerts having new pieces on them. The first concert we saw was more typical than the second (which I'll cover in my next post): the concert opened with Gershwin's Cuban Overture and ended with Dvorák's (no clue how to type the symbol above the 'r' in his name) New World Symphony, but in the middle the ASO performed John Corigliano's new percussion concerto Conjurer along with world-famous percussionist Evelyn Glennie.

Overall, the concert was one of the better shows I've seen the ASO do in a long time, as it featured a new work with a vibrant soloist along with two generally pleasant older pieces. The Gershwin wasn't performed all that tightly, but the Cuban feel to it was certainly refreshing for the symphony hall. This performance actually got me thinking that I might want to spend some time getting to know Gershwin's work, as it's probably better than my generally stuffy conservatory training would have let me to believe.

The Corigliano piece was a bit of a letdown, despite the presence that Evelyn Glennie brought to the performance. The three movements were split (fairly-typically) into the three families of percussion instruments (wood, metal, and skin), and apart from moments in the middle movement, nothing really moved me. Still, it was good to see Evelyn Glennie live, playing barefoot and all. Surprisingly, the program didn't mention her deafness...maybe she doesn't want everyone to automatically think she has overcome a huge obstacle whenever they see her play?

Finally, the Dvorák (despite me shit-talking it before it went on) was actually really nice. I hate to admit it, but although I certainly recognized themes in all the movements (with possible exception to the fourth), I don't think I've ever heard this piece in its entirety, making me even more hypocritical for speaking poorly of it. I mean, it's still not a piece I love, but when compared with how bored I am during most mainstream symphonies, this piece really is a winner in my books. And although the second movement's theme has grown to be a bit cheesy at this point, it's still a really nice moment when you first hear it within the context of the symphony. So, surprisingly, I would say the New World Symphony ended up being the best piece of the evening for me, even with a John Corigliano work involved (which I usually love).

Why I Hate the Holidays

To begin, let me clarify that I don't hate all holidays...only those that require me to lose money. No, I'm also not complaining about having to buy gifts for people for Christmas, Valentine's, or any other time of year: I actually enjoy doing this. What I'm upset about is that the holidays often cause my clients to take the week off. As you are aware, as a private music instructor I don't have a salary: my income is entirely based off of weekly private lessons, and as such, if half my clients decide to take a week or two off every time we have a big holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, occasionally some national holidays, and the Summer in general), I make half my income during that time period.

For example, at this point in my teaching schedule, I would typically make $716.50 a week with 13 teaching engagements. This coming week, however, I'll only be making $327.50: less than half of what I was expecting. Now, I do make calculations which help me better predict my clients' irregularities, and as such I was truly expecting to make about $620.50 this week, but that still means I'm only making 53% of my expected income. While Thanksgiving week is certainly one of the rougher weeks of the year, the whole month of December can be difficult, as people often need both Christmas off and in some cases also any weeks where school is out of session (most notably with my theory gig, my highest paying client).

Most jobs give you some sort of bonus for the holidays, but I end up taking a huge pay cut, so to speak. I understand that working only an average of 11 hours a week and being able to set my own schedule certainly is an added benefit with my line of work, but the inconsistent pay, lack of benefits, and high uncertainty with regards to my future employment seem to balance things out a bit. All this said, I generally do like the holidays, in and of themselves, just not that my clients decide they don't need to spend an hour during each of those weeks letting their kid(s) improve their musical skills. After all, it's not like what I'm having them do is arduous or unpleasant...in fact, most people probably see music lessons as an entertainment-related form of enrichment, not a chore, and as such I have a hard time seeing why they need the week off, short of being on vacation. Whatever...there's nothing I can do about it really.

Christmas WishList 2008

Every year, I put together an Amazon Christmas wishlist for my family (more specifically for my mom) so that she knows exactly what I would like (I'm not hard to shop for). For the majority of my Christmases from high school on, I tended to ask for one large music-oriented gift (such as turntables, a guitar amp, or software), but eventually Mom wanted to have a list of smaller stuff like CDs and DVDs I wanted so that I could have something more to open on Christmas (considerate of her, but also probably a little too spoiling, if I'm honest). Anyway, as it turns out, this Christmas (like my last birthday) will be my first in a LONG time where I didn't ask for music gear, and as such, my Amazon list actually functions as my entire Christmas list this time around (instead of as a supplement to it).

As you could expect, the list centers around a few Xbox 360 games, but also includes a number of DVDs, CDs, and books to round things out. Unlike my birthday, I've decided not to ask for a custom-made Rubik's Cube from Greece (either a 6x6x6 or a 7x7x7) as I don't think my mom wants to tackle having to pre-order something from a foreign country, dealing with Euros and all...

So, just incase you're interested in seeing what I want for Christmas this year, here's my list:

Christmas WishList 2008

Rock Piano w/the Farinas

As you can imagine, out of my numerous students I've had over the past year, the entire range of personal fulfillment that could come from teaching them is fairly well-represented, naturally with a tendency towards the mediocre. That said, I do have a few students who have become so rewarding to teach that it's starting to actually be fun for me too.

One particular client I would like to mention is the Farina family. Their three boys - Max, Harrison, and Bennett - became my students through an unforeseen and unintentional change of teacher preference after I had taught them for a friend for six weeks while he was away at a conducting festival. To my surprise, I was asked to be their new teacher, partially due to scheduling conflicts with my friend, and partially due to our totally different approaches: he's a traditional classical piano teacher, while I tend to focus more on popular music, theory, and ear training.

Since then, the Farina boys have REALLY developed their piano skills, most noticeably due to their increase in passion for the instrument due to finding music they connect with. Max, the eldest, has always been a good pianist, but he's becoming even more well-rounded now. Bennett, the youngest, is still getting his feet wet with the instrument, but I'm starting to see some real progress now that he and I have developed a method for his lessons that's pretty well suited to his needs. The most recently inspiring progress though has certainly been with Harrison, the middle son, who also takes guitar lessons which up until recently seemed to be the only lessons he took seriously. Now however, I feel like I've been able to impart enough of my appreciation for and skill with rock piano playing that he's really starting to get into the music we've been working on. They've all come a long way, but Harrison's growth is perhaps the most striking as he initially seemed the most opposed to the idea.

With all three (especially the older two), we spend a large percentage of our lessons having them play rock songs while I sing along, both to simulate the rock band experience and to get them more into the mood (as improvisation is largely dependent on this). We've covered all sorts of songs, including the following:

Basket Case & Longview - Green Day
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Hey Jude & Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
One - U2
Sweet Child o' Mine - Guns N' Roses
Imagine - John Lennon
Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Beat It - Michael Jackson
Oh, Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison
Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, & Bicycle Race - Queen
Your Song - Elton John
Jump - Van Halen
Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Just What I Needed - The Cars
Creep - Radiohead
Wonderwall - Oasis

There are probably a few more in there, but that's certainly no list to sneeze at either. Overall, I have a great time teaching these guys, and feel really grateful to Henry for letting me teach them in the first place and being cool with me taking over for him. If only all my students were this passionate about their lessons!

Return to the Mall

Yesterday played out about as well as a regular day can, even though my experience written down on paper might not seem like anything particularly special. The day was split into two distinct parts, but I'm only going to talk about the second, my trip to the mall, for the time being. Sure, it might not seem like going to the mall is all that special, but for some reason this was: the atmosphere in the mall was lively, people were generally all in a good mood, there were a lot of nice new Winter clothes in a lot of stores, and I had some nice encounters (and one incredible shopping acquisition).

All sorts of random stuff happened to me along the way. First off, some dude at one of those kiosks pulled me aside to use this special Dead Sea nail file/oil on my nails, and although it was kinda weird, the nail he buffed up for me is still looking really nice. Plus, he was from Israel, so it was hard for me not to warm up to him. My next big stop was at the newly-opened Zara store (one of only two in the Atlanta area). If you're not aware, Zara is one of the most popular and nicest (not prohibitively so though) stores in Europe, so having it in my city now is certainly a good thing. For some reason though, I had never realized they sold men's clothing, but I'm glad I figured this out, because they have some INCREDIBLE clothes. I got this jacket that I'm absolutely in love with. In fact, my evening slightly centered around my visit to Zara, as no fewer than three different people I bumped into in the mall saw my bag and felt the need to ask me about the store. One couple even got giddy once they realized the store had finally opened and ran off as soon as I told them it was in fact open.

Some less significant but still atypical encounters took place the rest of the evening...everything from a lengthy discussion about Mac stuff at the Mac store, asking questions about the Rosetta Stone language software at their kiosk, and talking to some other kiosk guy about his line of metro Obama shirts, all the way to being asked to bring in a DJ mix to DJ in this one store that has a DJ spinning all day on Saturdays. On top of all this, no fewer than three stores I visited were playing relatively obscure dance tracks that I myself love but figured would never hear in public (at least, not in the States). Everyone working at all the stores was really outgoing and friendly, and people throughout the mall were all generally dressed fairly well, something I've come not to expect from my fellow Americans.

Add to all this the fact that this was the first time I had really allowed myself to shop in a long time, something that really defined my sense of self and personal expression during my years in Bloomington, and you have a really great day. Again, it's hard to explain, but I was essentially on cloud nine the whole evening. Now the real question is whether a fantastic trip like this to the mall is just a nice experience or possibly a much more telling indication that my current life is so needing of some excitement that a trip to the mall could make my day... I'm hoping for the former, but whatever.