L.A., Clubs, and Bouncers...

Ok, I'm back...after a hiatus of I don't even know how long. Doesn't matter though. All that matters is I'm here and I'm writing. Still alive and kicking.

Anyway, life is good. I'm just getting used to being out in the LA area. I moved out here in April and love it.

Anyway, there's not much to tell on that front, just a lot of personal drama and what not, but I ended up out here and its all good.

Ok, so last night we decided to go to a Club in LA. It's called DV8 and we have been there before, a few years ago actually. It's a pretty nice club and we liked our last visit. Kim managed to snag four free tickets to the club so we didn't have to pay the $20 cover charge (way too much), which was really nice.

When we got there, and got to the front of the line, the bouncer checked Kim's name and marked her hand and gave her a wristband. He did the same for me and then looked at Kim's sister and her husband and said, "Are you on the list?" They weren't and he said that only Kim and I could get in because we were on the list. Kim calmly explained that each person on the list could bring in one guest. The bouncer (who interestingly enough had a British accent) shook his head and said, "No." He showed her the list of the names and showed her that there was no "+1" next to our names. She peered over at the list, calmly pointed to the top of the list and read to the bouncer the line printed there that read: "All are plus one." He stared hard at the list and then at Kim and said, "Well, uhm, look at that. Ok, then." He proceeded to show the other bouncer what Kim had pointed out, they both laughed and then he gave Kim's sister and her husband wristbands and let us through.

I just had to document this story because it made me laugh really hard. I just thought it was the funniest thing that Kim had to show the bouncer how to read the guest list. Anyway, for his part the bouncer guy was really cool about it and not at all belligerent.

As for the Club, it turns out that the club is a shared space and on Friday nights it is "Club Level 3" and then on Saturday nights it is DV8. Didn't matter much to us, as the club looks the same and still plays great music on Friday. We danced and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Anyway, if you are in the area and love Rap/Hip Hop/Dance Music then check it out.

Well, thats it for this post.

Insomnia

It is currently 4:19 am EST March 11th, 2008...and I am awake. This would not be odd were it not for the fact that I went to bed AND FELL ASLEEP at 11:59 pm EST March 10th, 2008. At about 2:40 am EST I woke up from a pretty strange dream that went something like this:

I was a teenager again, living with my Grandparents. They were fighting, as they sometimes did, and I was in the living room trying to make myself scarce. Then after the fireworks were over I was on the phone with my girlfriend (my current one, not one from when I was a teenager...yeah I know, dreams don't make sense) and I got really thirsty while playing the Video Game Battlefield 2142 (Which wasnt released until a few years ago, again not during my teenage years). So I went to the kitchen where there was a pitcher of cold water in the fridge. I began drinking directly from the pitcher, just like I used to do when I was a kid and my girlfriend started giving me crap about it. Then at about the time I was taking my last gulp and telling my girl that drinking from the pitcher was the most direct and efficient way to get the water...I woke up THIRSTY!

So, at 2:40 am EST I got up, went downstairs and stole a bottle of water from my roomate, because I'm totally out of anything to drink right now. Then after drinking I came back upstairs and tried to get back to sleep, until I decided that sleep was not gonna come to me at all, so I might as well write in my blog.

Yeah, so this sux too, cause I have work tomorrow (I have to be up in about 3.5 hours). My mind won't shut down though, I keep thinking about stuff and usually that puts me to sleep. Not tonight though. Tonight, it has been keeping me awake.

Writing about all the things I've been thinking about won't help, so I won't bother with that. Instead, I'll just finish this short post now and surf the web for a while, hopefully all the inane nonsense to be found on the web will make my mind tired...goodnight.

Practice Makes Perfect...or Nub-sauce Unite!

[It's RANT time! Yay! Seriously though, I'm about to go off on some little thing that probably doesn't mean squat to anyone but me and a few other people out there...so feel free to skip this one.]

Ok, so the other day I was at home and I was bored so I thought I would hop on on PS3 and play some "Rock Band." Now, for those of you who don't know what this game is...well, get a clue.

It's much like Guitar Hero (and if you don't know what that is you better hit up this link, cause I ain't about to explain it) but you have 2 guitars, a microphone, and a drum set. It's a four player game where everyone gets to pretend to be a rock band and play together. Its pretty much the funnest (and possibly funniest) pretend thing since they invented arcade sim games.

Anyway, the creators of the game realized that you won't always have four people at your house for impromptu jam sessions. As such, they put in an online multiplayer feature. That way when I wanna play, but am all by my lonesome, I can hop online and find three other players to rock out with.

So I was doing this very thing the other day. I logged on and was playing the "Bass Guitar" part of the band. Now, when the band leader selects a song, everyone gets to select what difficulty they want to play the song on. The difficulty are as follows:

Easy - Any reasonably coordinated monkey could play this setting on any instrument.

Medium - Requires some concentration and a bit of coordination, on all instruments.

Hard - If you can't connect your brain to your legs and hands independantly dont even try drums, and if you can't "WTFPWN!" Medium on the guitar, dont even try. Also, if you are a "Shower Singer" only, then please don't try the Microphone on this setting either.

Expert - OMFG we're all gonna die! If you don't belong on MTV (or at least YouTube) with your skills then please, please, leave Expert alone.

Now, having explained that, the first group of Nubs that I hooked up with started out on Medium. They did alright, but nothing special. I was playing the Bass part on Hard because I can cut that just fine. At the end of three songs they both had completion rates in the low 90's and I was averaging 98% complete.

After that song, they both decided (one playing drums and the other playing Lead Guitar) that they would switch to Hard so they could keep up with me. Idiots. About 20% into the first song they both failed out like the College rejects they are. I was left playing by myself for about 15 seconds before the crowd boo'ed us offstage.

Now at this point my rage hadn't boiled over into "Wrath of God Destruction" yet, so I figured whatever they tried it and we will go back to what was working on the next song. The leader queues up the next song and...we all choose Hard.

At this point I just sat there blinking, thinking: "WTH? Did they just do what I think they did?" And, lo and behold, they failed out again and instead of cursing at my TV I just left the band and rejoined the "Find Players" queue.

I found a new band, and we all jumped in and chose Hard on the first song. My first thought was, "Sweet, some players who have Skillzz!" When they both failed out of the song about 30 seconds later and I was left holding the fort down (until the crowd boo'ed us offstage again), my rage moved back to "Curse at the TV" zone.

So, I left that band and rejoined the "Find Players" queue AGAIN! Third time's the charm right? Wrong. In this third set, the drummer was the one with delusions of grandeur. He kept dying and the rest of the band would eventually get boo'ed offstage (because your band cannot survive without all the players who joined at the beginning). Everyone HAS to make it to the end or we ALL have to start over.

After a few more songs the drummer got the point and chose a setting he could always succeed on, thank goodness. However, this problem shouldn't exist at all.

People...PEOPLE! Come on now, get a clue! The SINGLE-PLAYER mode is for PRACTICE! The online multiplayer is for FUN! Now, while it may be "fun" for you to choose a setting and then fail miserably at it while other poeple look on, that IS NOT fun for the rest of us. So please, when you go online to play "Rock Band" and you are about to choose a setting that is out of your skill range remember this: I'm from the "Smack-a-Hoe" tribe and I WILL smack you upside the head!

Ok, rant done...'nuff said.

New Blog...

Ok, so I have a new blog dedicated to my writing. I've started a new and exciting story just for this blog too. Go check it out, I promise to bring you story updates at least once a week.

Enjoy!

Silver Siade

Growing Pains

You ever get that feeling that life is crushing you under its iron heel? Yeah? Well don’t worry you aren’t the only one that has had that feeling on occasion. I only write this now because I’ve been feeling that way lately (mostly because of my job). It’s been putting a strain on every other part of my life (including my writing; which is why I haven’t updated in forever).

There really isn’t any “fool proof” way out from under this crushing feeling that life gives you sometimes. None that I know of at least. I woke up this morning and prayed really hard about what I should do about this feeling. I got my answer and even though from what I understood of that answer the relief from this crushing feeling won’t be immediate, it didn’t matter to me; I felt better almost immediately. The day went smoother, life didn’t seem so stressed, and I even had the energy to write. No it had nothing to do with the writers strike being over…funny coincidence that though.

About that though, the whole strike was about the writers wanting the right to get paid when people watch their shows online. I don’t really think there’s anything wrong with that either, I mean they should get paid for what they do, no matter where someone tunes in to see it. A funny thing happened while the writers were striking too: People started watching more online videos. So basically, the writers staged a strike to get paid for when people watch stuff online and the strike itself caused people to go watch stuff online because TV became boring (or rather more boring that it already is).

Now that’s what I call good strategy!

Video Game Difficulty: A Philosophical Debate

So I took a fun and informative test today, see my results below:

"You are a 59% Video Game Addict.Video games are a big portion of your life, maybe too big of a portion. They are not a means of social interaction, despite what you might think. Go outside."
Take theVideo Game Addict Test@ FualiDotCom

Yeah, I just had to post that fun little quiz. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the HTML version to work because Blogger secretly hates me (OK I lied, its no secret) but at least you get to read my results. The last sentence makes me laugh every time I read it!

So, today's discussion is on Video Game Difficulty. This is a matter that weighs heavily on everyone (world leaders included). Yes I know, its hard to believe, but to quote my favorite Radio Disc Jockey, "You best Beleee' dat!"

Anyway, there are two camps on this issue. Camp number one, we'll call them the "Noobs" (not to be confused with Boobs) think that video games should have something that video game designers invented almost 20 years ago: the ability to select the game difficulty. These people have also been known to cheat off the smart kid in high school.

Now, the second camp, we'll call them the "Haters" (not to be confused with Haxxors, although some of them might identify with that comment). They believe that games should all be played at whatever difficulty the game designers arbitrarily decide to set. These people are also known to bite themselves in random places to see how much pain they can take without screaming or crying (or both).

Ok, there may also be a third camp, we'll call them the "WTF!? Who cares?" camp, but we don't talk much to them (or about them really) because mostly they have no imaginations, watch professional wrestling, NASCAR, or spend all their free time watching professional sports (or all of the above). These people have also been found dead after jelly leaked out of their ears (this jelly was later found to be the melted unused residue of their brains).

Now, I fall in somewhere in the middle between the "Noobs" and the "Haters." I say this because there are some games where I would prefer there to be no setting, but other games where I want to have a difficulty setting. As for the tough games, well, anyone who has ever played a VERY challenging game and been tempted to join the FBI, go through weapons and secret agent training, sign on for undercover sniper ops, then get reassigned as an office counter-intelligence worker just so he could find the game designer who made the game and sneak up on them and kill them in their sleep without going to jail knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Not that I've ever considered such a thing...ever...really!

Most of the games that don't need difficulty settings are designed in such a way that the game either auto-adjusts the difficulty or is super easy. This second category of games is what makes the "Haters" become...well "Haters." They say that if a game is too easy it's not even worth playing. Whereas I say if a game is too hard WHY THE HELL would I want to play it? Life is already hard enough, I don't need some damn video game (a part of one of my favorite pastimes) to remind me. I play video games to NOT think about how hard life can be.

Anyway, chime in on the comments section and let me know what you think.