General stuff about everything…  

Gaming 

Halo 3 is overrated as was Halo 2.  “Woo, look at me, I am a first person shooter!”  It is a good shooter, but the only truly redeeming quality is the matchmaking system for multiplayer (which needs to be incorporated into every shooter forever, okay?).   Everything else is pretty “above-average”.  I do give Bungie props for their easter eggs, though.  They make them a lot of fun to find AND interact with.  I give it 8.2/10.  

skate. was a very surprising game.  A lot more fun than Tony Hawk for sure.   Best skateboarding game since THPS2 and even has some incredible online modes (including freeskate, where you can take videos of you AND buddies at the same time doing whatever you want).   I give it 9.2/10.

For the record, this is all me.  It isn’t just some button press while holding in a direction.  The game requires you to time everything perfectly and actually manipulate the board and your body in conjunction.  It is awesome! Examples of me doing crazy shit in skate.:

http://skate.share.ea.com/profiles/20475/posts/264837.aspx

http://skate.share.ea.com/profiles/20475/posts/264836.aspx

Rock Band was incredible.  If the tour bus comes to your area, check it out.  Seriously the most fun I’ve had in gaming since being introduced to the Guitar Hero series by BAX.  Also the date/price were finally announced: $169.99 for PS3/Xbox 360 on Nov 23rd and $159.99 on PS2 on Dec 10th.  Now that is a great value, if you ask me.  To get GH3 with 2 guitars will cost $169.99, and you only get guitar/bass.  In Rock Band, you get Guitar/Drums/Vox/Bass (but only comes with 1 guitar). 

Also have videos of me playing Rock Band:

http://video.rockband.com/events/mtv_rockband/highlights/viewvid.asp?v=1065810

Our band ended up with the highest score so far in the tour on Black Hole Sun.  It helps when you have 3 upper-tier (one top-tier) Guitar Hero players on the same team who actually know each other.  

Surprisingly enough, I’m still really excited for Guitar Hero 3.  Even with the hokey Boss Battles.  Less than 4 weeks now… and I’ve decided I’m getting the bundle with the wireless Les Paul!  I hope it works in Rock Band, so I don’t have to buy a 2nd Strat.

Movies/TV Shows

Movies I’ve seen lately: The Number 23 (decent) and Black Snake Moan (decent).  It sucks, I don’t watch movies nearly like I used to.  It is so expensive to go to the theater that I’ve just been renting things using Xbox Live Marketplace.  Pretty cheap and I can get HD.

 The 2nd season of Heroes is on.  It’s kind of dragging so far, but I know some shit is about to happen that will make everyone go “WTF!”  The end of the 2nd episode was really disgusting, but pretty cool. 

The new season of The Office is also on now… The first episode was quite brilliant.  I really figured the show would go downhill after being on for longer than the BBC original (of which I am a huge fan and box set owner), but they’ve even stepped it up a notch.

I saw the pilot for that new show The Big Bang Theory and thought it was fucking terrible.  Jesus, how can you make every single character in a TV show (including the “hot” girl) unlikeable and expect good ratings?  No second season for you!  I usually like the quippy characters like Dr. Cox in Scrubs, but this is just horrid.

Why can’t we get Arrested Development back?

Music

Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows on 10/10/07.  It should be great from the live songs I’ve heard so far.  Probably up there with Ok Computer.

After reading FRX’s review of the new Foo Fighters album, I’m definitely looking forward to that…

Lately I’ve been listening to the soundtracks from Rock Band/GH3 a lot.  It’s great music mostly, plus it gets me prepared for the games!  I’ve also been listening to a lot of The Apples in Stereo, The Long Blondes and Buckethead lately.

Life

I’m still looking for a new job, but I’ve slowed my search.  Monster and CareerBuilder have turned up very little.  I’m getting ready to get a haircut/suit and go on foot/car with a stack of resumes all the way through Dublin/Hilliard/Powell/Westerville/Columbus/Upper Arlington/wherever trying to find whatever it is I’m looking for.  To be honest, I’m not really sure what I see for a future in employment.  I really want to be my own boss, so that seems the most likely path for me: business owner.

I’ve gained about 10 pounds in the past month or so… probably from eating Burger King every day during lunch and stress.  *sigh*  Now I need to start working out again for two reasons: burn calories and relieve stress.  I’m just not willing to pay for a pass to the Y, when I know I’ll use it for 2 weeks and never go back and end up paying for it for another full year like I did last time I had a membership.