Diatribe: I’m a crappy drummer and other Christmas revelations

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Two years ago I tried Steve’s Guitar Hero 1 on the PS2 and was hooked. Steve
was an actual pioneer with this game, having purchased in a full year (2005)
before it became any kind of a hit. He was ashamed to play the plastic guitar in
front of his wife and kids, but later would learn to embrace the game. Anyway, I
ran out and bought Guitar Hero 2 after trying his #1 for a few days (this was
2006) and then Jeanne bought me #1 for Christmas that same year. When I got 
a Wii, I bought #3, and the 80’s edition on the PS2, but never really was very
good at it. Of course I could kick some ass on Easy mode and was able to play
respectably at Medium, but at any higher difficulty I was a mess.

Me being a mess at medium on the plastic guitar is no shameful match for how
completely awful I am at drums in the new World tour version. I can yodel out
enough to at least pass in the singing mode, but when it comes to the expensive
midi drum kit included with the full World Tour set, I am lamer than lame. I
guess that must be because the drum action is a lot closer to the real thing,
while the guitar and possibly the vocals are easy to fake, even for a talentless
drooler like myself, but it takes some real talent to excel at time keeper/ ass
kicker on the drum kit.

I also made the moderate mistake of asking my wife for a lot of Wii games
when really I should have just put down XBOX 360 on my list. Little did I know
that she would splurge passed our set $$ limits and get me everything on my list
(including Boom Blox and the new Medal of Honor games for the Wii). Of course
the Wii is hooked up to the living room 42″ TV and so I never get to play any of
the games when I actually have time (11:00 PM – on). This because the sounds
(think cave man grunts and yells)  I make playing games and the volume I
like to play them at would wake up the house in no time.

The reason the 360 would have been better is the head set (which I hope would
allow me to turn the volume down on the TV and hear the games from the ear
phones). Plus, I found some cheap copies of the XBOX only Techno Classic Arcade
(Swimmer, Techmo Bowl) and bought one for Steve and one for me.

I did get a kick out of Medal Of Honor on the Wii because I own a Wii Blaster
and one of the new Nerf Wii guns. Both make playing 1st person shooters a joy.
The problem is that even with the blood turned off, the game is far too violent
for my young son to watch me play – hence the need for non-existent late night
gaming time and a muffler for my dirty clap trap and the TV speaker.  So,
even though I have a living room full of new games, I keep playing New Star
Soccer 4 because it rocks, but also because I can play it in my office and not
wake anyone up.

In that note, my Turquay United squad was promoted from League 2 to League 1
on the back of prolific scorer, 8bitjeff. He scored 48 goals in 46 matches,
which was top in the scorers table (by far, the next hit man  had 16), but
was only good enough for a 4th place finish in the league table. Turquay won the
playoffs in a final against the MK Duns.  8bitjeff was hoping his
performance would lead to some Championship or Premiership offers, but none
came. The promotion has proven costly because even though 8bitjeff has scored
regularly in his league starts (few and far between) during the new promoted
campaign, the manager suddenly has seen fit to put him on bench duty. So, from
averaging a goal + per game with play ratings of 9 and 10, he has dropped to 
5 to 10 minutes of bench duty and game play ratings of 4-5. He got pissed off,
asked for a transfer and hasn’t been included in the game day squad since. He
will have to wait until January to hopefully get a couple offers from League 1
squads (at least).

I was able to catch a couple real footie matches today. I watched Fulham draw
Chelsea 2-2 on two Clint Dempsey stunners. One was a chest trap to right foot
flick (with back to to goal) and the second was a 90th minute monster header
equalizer. I took in Blackburn (as I adopted them early in the season, even
though they now are on hard times) and watched them also draw 2-2 (with Man
City). Both were good matches, but Blackburn should have had the win on some
dodgy officiating.

Anyway, how was your Christmas?