Rock Band

Found some excellent review of Rock Band and Guitar Hero by Derek Wilson.

From the review: "There are actually quite a few songs that, while I had heard them before, I gained a real appreciation for them after playing them on Rock Band 2. If the beat or the melody or bass line or whatever is interesting and fun to play, the songs actually gain another attribute to the listener that can be positive or negative. It's sort of surreal and meta, but the special sauce on the music game genre is the fact that the music impacts the likability of the game while the game can also affect the perception of the music, creating a sort of echo chamber where appreciation for music is able to expand. Additionally, because of the way our brains access memories by association, hearing a song that was fun to play on Rock Band 2, whether you knew the song before you heard it in the game, can subconsciously enhance your enjoyment of the song."

I totally agree. Then on page 10 he writes about the rock band 2 song difficulty ratings. He says that there is a difference between a zero and 5 red devils, but then means nothing when you compare a 1 to a 5. Now I definitely agree with the first statement. But I think I can feel an overall difference (across easy, medium, and hard difficulty levels) that 1's are most of the times easier than 3's and then 3's are overall easier than 5's. I have seen exceptions and I think there is plenty of room for improvement.

First of all, I would really like to know how they determined those ratings. Derek makes a good point that it would really help if they further broke it down by the difficulty level you are playing. So how did they come up with the ratings? What data did they collect? Is it an average of some test group? What test group?

I think they should be pulling the song results data from all the people logged into XBOX Live and playing the game. And in the least, using that data to determine better difficulty ratings. They could then provide an update to the ratings on some kind of reasonable schedule. They definitely don't need to be paying a test group.

Gramps and Offspring

The other night while rocking some Offspring on Rock Band, I remembered a strange occurrence with my grandfather involving Offspring.

I think it was Christmas of 1994. Gramps had given me my first ever CD player in the form of boom box. My sister followed this with giving me my first ever CD, Offspring's Smash album. Later that morning I went to the basement with the boombox and played the CD.

I think overall Smash is an innocent album. There is some cursing mixed in, but the words are typically difficult to understand unless you really pay attention. That is except for one small section of the song Bad Habit. Toward the end of the song, all of the instruments stop and it is just the singer's voice yelling "You stupid dumbshit goddam motherfucker."

Of course this part of the song came on right as Gramps walked into the room. We both kind of froze. Gramps has never scolded me and this was no exception. He just walked over and grabbed some trash to take out, basically ignoring what had happened. I also ignored it and that was the end of it.

I would probably not think too much of it, but I had very few experiences with Gramps that were just the two of us. This was probably one of about five. He died 5 years later. I regret that we didn't get to know each other better. And I regret that this was the only knowledge he ever had of my musical taste. Especially since he is a man who owned a radio station and loves music.

Gene and Bonnie

Gene and his wife Bonnie live across the street. They are renting a house pretty much identical to mine. They are a very friendly retired couple that really have nothing to do. So they are constantly doing work in their yard and on their house. Again, they are renting the house. They have the best looking front yard on the street complete with a fountain and small gold fish pond. I have also found out that Gene has built a deck in their backyard. This was all paid for by them, with the owner's approval of course. Pretty much the best possible tenants anyone could hope for.

Christina and I will be trying to sell the house this summer. There are currently about 100 houses or roughly 30% of the houses for sale in our neighborhood, and I'd say about 50 of those are also identical to my house. One of them on our street was put on the market a couple of weeks ago for 179. They are now down to 139. Basically, I expect a lot of difficulty selling our house in this market. Pretty sad since 2 years ago, I could of sold our house for 200. Such are the times we are living in.

So it is clear that the best possible situation would be for me to convince Gene and Bonnie to move in to our house and rent from me. I am a terrible salesman though. I'm not sure the best way to approach it, but I must begin laying some groundwork soon.

Hildi and Beagle Communication

Every now and then I open the window in the living room facing the front yard and road in front of the house. I don't like to do it often, because the dogs go nuts anytime a dog walks by, which occurs like 6 or 7 times a day.

Something else strange happens as well. Hildi will flat out attack the beagle with full hackles up, growling, and teeth to bare. I have also noticed this when walking the dogs and we come across another dog. Everything is fine with Hildi playing with the other dog, until the beagle starts barking. That sets Hildi off and she attacks the beagle. She has yet to draw blood, but she definitely pins the beagle down and many times punches her in the face. There are other times when the beagle barks, like at people or birds or at other unseen dogs barking from somewhere in the neighborhood. Hildi does not attack the beagle in these circumstances.

So I guess Hildi feels she needs to show other dogs her dominance over the beagle to other dogs. Either that or the beagle is trying to tell the other dogs to join her in a fight to bring down the Doberman once and for all.

I'm not sure of the reason, but it is really embarrassing when I meet people on the trail and my dogs inevitably starting fighting with each other pretty hardcore. I've also noticed that the other dogs look at them like they are insane as well.

To confuse things I attached a picture of Beagle attacking Hildi, and Hildi just jumping around and probably laughing it up.

Proud History of Wolfpack Football

I found a website that has every result of NC State football. In 1903, NC State beat the Deaf and Dumb Institute 33-0. I don't know why we took them off our schedule.

Link

Myuppus

On Sunday, Mom was finally forced to euthanize Kelsey. Kelsey had to live a tough life. We were best friends when I was in High School. I used to take her on jogs and then nap on the couch with her sleeping on my chest. Best of all, she was a frisbee dog. As the picture shows, she could really get up for a frisbee. I have tried to train my current dogs, but beagle looks at me like I'm crazy and Hildi just eats the frisbee.

We used to affectionately call her the myuppus. She lived her first years as the only dog in the family. Then I brought a beagle home from college and Kelsey quickly became a subordinate to a beagle pup that loved to bite her ears. Next, Kendall brought home an even more evil dog to terrorize her. It was a tough existence for a dog that so loved life.

She would always look at you with this inquisitive expression that to me just said, "what are we doing next?" And she would be up for anything.

Wolfpack Basketball Sadness

State has finished another forgettable year. I didn't have much hope for the team at the beginning of the year. We have the same group of guys that lost 8 in a row to end the 07-08 season and finish last in the ACC. Well we managed to move up to 10th and big 16-14 record.

It is hard to criticize too much because when you suck like State, you don't get to play on TV in Boise. So I only got to watch their opening ACC tourney game. From the articles I have read during the season, it appears we still have a point guard problem. In the game I watched, we started Julius Mays. Julius Mays had played 1 minute in the last 8 games. The regular starter, Javier Gonzalez, was healthy. Seemed like an odd choice.

State got out to a quick lead, but as soon as Maryland went into a zone, it was over. We have no ability to penetrate. It looked like every made basket was a fantastic shot or a long three. The defense appeared to lack effort at times. And sure enough we lost.

Now I can look to next year. We are getting a top 25 class led by forward and a shooting guard. Of course, everyone agrees we need a point guard. We are in the running for number 1 prospect John Wall, who goes to school in Raleigh. He has already stated that he plans to play for one year and then off to the NBA. It is State's and I think Sidney Lowe's last hope. Without him, I think we are looking at another losing season in the ACC, but possibly a NIT appearance. Uggghhh

Engineering Career

I started cleaning out a closet full of all my old college notebooks. I guess I thought there may come a day when I would need to reference back to them. Nope.

I went into Materials Science and Engineering thinking I would most likely change my major when something I was actually interested in came along. And if not, then an engineering degree can at least give me the middle class life I have been accustomed to. Well nothing sparked my interest for long enough for me to actually commit my life to. So I obtained my Matsci degree and landed a job as a real engineer.

Eight years later, I've quit my job and stand at a cross roads. Should I pursue engineering further? Well I am giving myself a month to figure it out.

Final Micron Email

My final email at Micron:

As you all know, Micron has failed to meet my demands of moving PCRAM R&D to within a 2.5 hour drive of Carter-Finley stadium. I guess I should have considered that could happen before I accepted the job 8 years ago.
I don't have a lot of work experience to compare this to, but working with yall was better than my days at Fuddruckers. And those were good times, so you should take that as a compliment.
In all honesty, I hope Micron turns things around and each of you get to leave this place on your own terms.
Hampton out!