the wrath of raf

Digital Buds and Rock Band

nobody@vox.com(raf) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:32:50 -0500

"Digital buds" is a term that I first heard from .tiff. What does it mean? To me it means friendships without an analog interface (typical programmer). I have a ton of digital buds on Vox and Warcrack. People that I may never meet in person in my lifetime, but will have experiences with them via digital interfaces. For my Warcrack peeps, this is usually just questing/raiding or doing a little PvP together, "all real time" and a full shared experience. For my Vox digibuds, it comes across in the sharing of experiences via posts or comments. Not real time but still there is some sort of bond formed. Now and then we enter the real of IM when we're are not all that busy at work ("Hey Steve, have you found this bug yet?"), really have to tell someone something ("OMG Steve, check out the setlist!!"), or when someone has to log onto their sister's computer and they pop up on Google Talk.

Last night, through Rock Band I was able to finally play with some of my digital buds. With much trial and error, .tiff and I were able to do some Quick Band play (with her sister hopping in for vocals). It was the first time we heard our voices (actually I had heard .tiff's voice from her other gigs in gaming journalism), so in reality this was the first time she heard my voice. And even though we have known each other for over a year, it's still a little nerve wrecking to speak to someone and not hide behind the text for once. Anyway we had a blast and I am certain that last night was the first of many nights in which we will meet under the guise of rockers.

After .tiff left, Steve came in for a bit of head to head guitar playing. While .tiff and I did the more co-operative path, Steve and I went the competitive path (sadly he didn't have his mic on). Steve and I have talked Guitar Hero for sometime usually just giving each other progress reports. "I just got past X on Expert" or "I just beat the game on Hard". Last night, we could actually see how well we played (of course this was extremely late at night for me during my 5th-6th hour of playing the game non-stop). I really wanted Steve to get his drum kit hooked up so we could suck .tiff in for some Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But with no voice communication and the lack of Steve's presence on an IM platform, it wasn't gonna happen last night.

I can not express how happy I am with Rock Band allowing me to play with two of my digital buds. It opens the avenues to play with other Heroes of the Plastic Guitar (or drums).

Damn, I can get this song out of my head!!! We need to play this...

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

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It's Finally Here

nobody@vox.com(raf) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:40:06 -0500

Steve, .tiff, who is our fourth?

Rock Band

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Guitar Hero 3 Made Me Buy A Music Video From iTMS

nobody@vox.com(raf) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:07:39 -0500

I have never purchased any videos from the iTunes Store. All the videos I currently have on my iPod are free offerings that they have offered. Wait, that's a lie...I did have to do catchup with Heroes Season 1 and picked up a couple of videos. However, the thought of purchasing a music video made me laugh. Never would I consider purchasing a music video for my iPod. Well, on Wednesday I finally did.

So I have spent some time with Guitar Hero 3 completing all the songs on the Hard difficulty and working on the Expert difficulty. One thing I love about the Guitar Hero series is that they always introduce me to some songs that have flown under the radar. Muse's Knights of Cydonia is one of those songs. First time I played it on Hard I laughed. I thought the song was silly. Then when I played it on Expert, I realized the fun of the song.

Guitar Hero 3 - Knights of Cydonia - Expert

After doing some research, I found the music video for the song and my jaw hit the floor. The song went from silly to epic. The video is one of the most amazing videos I have seen in a while. I loved it so much, I had to buy it and always have it with me on my iPod. Yeah, I could have done some dastardly downloading and encoded the video for the iPod, but I wanted a quality version of the video. Now, every time I play this song, I can not help but think of this video and wanting to perform at it's epic standards.

Knights of Cydonia

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My Babies == Red Sox World Series Wins

nobody@vox.com(raf) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:32:41 -0500

The wee one was born in 2004 during the ALCS against the Yankees. I still say she was the determining factor in coming back from the 3-0 game deficit against the Yankees.

The boy was born in 2007 before the playoff started. However, I still find the coincidence interesting. And yes I do still hate baseball (even though the recent World Series win just got me some free furniture).

the wee one and The 2004 Red Sox

the boy and The 2007 Red Sox

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