Archive for September, 2008

Dumbest Move Ever

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

I got home a little bit early so that I could eat, stretch, and then get to my hockey game without rushing.  It’s the playoffs after all.  I got home maybe a little bit too early!  With some time to kill before dinner, I decided to play a few minutes of WiiFit which I had borrowed from Ben.  After a few minutes of same old exercises, I unlocked the Snowboard Slalom.  Cool!  First time through, I missed a bunch of the gates which resulted in time penalties.  Second time through, I got an even slower time than my first attempt.  I kept trying over and over again, but I wasn’t getting any better.  So after, I finished my last run, I hopped off the WiiFit board and kicked the sofa in frustration.  It wasn’t even a hard kick.  It’s just that I was expecting the sofa to be very soft, but found a spot that was very hard.  It felt like I had stubbed my toe.  But when the pain wouldn’t subside I knew it was much, much worse.  I guess I get to visit the doctor’s office tomorrow to figure out how badly I hurt my big toe on my left foot.  Oh boy, I can’t wait to tell my teammates why I missed our playoff game.

Spring/Summer 2008 Hockey Season

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

The playoffs start tomorrow.  We finished the regular season in 3rd place with a 15-9 record, trailing the first and second place teams by just one point in the standings.  It appears that our forfeit loss to the last place team three weeks ago has cost us a first place finish.  I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by that, since this entire season has already been totally weird for me.  I started the season with a 12-game goal-scoring drought even though I felt that my skating was improving.  I wasn’t too worried though, since I knew that all it would take was some lucky bounce, and I would turn things around.  Sure enough, once I got that first goal of the season, I began to resemble a hockey player once again.  I finished the season with 7 goals, where 5 of them came from my last three games played.  Hopefully, this hot streak will continue through the playoffs. 

Rock Band – My Latest Addiction

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Not since my days playing EverQuest (from 1999-2002), have I been this addicted to a video game.  I had heard of Guitar Hero and knew that it was very popular, but playing the guitar never really interested me.  But then along came Rock Band in November of 2007 offering gamers an opportunity to rock out to their favorite songs by either strumming a guitar, banging on a set of drums, or singing along.  I may not have been interested in playing the guitar, but I have always wanted to learn to play the drums.  Still though, I was hesitant about spending $150 on a video game.  It wasn’t until I got some hands-on experience at my cousins’ during a family Xmas party that it finally got me hooked. 

Still, $150 is nothing to sneeze at, and I spent the next two months convincing Alice and myself that it wouldn’t be gathering dust in the corner of the room after only a couple of weeks of playing time.  February comes along and my enthusiasm for the game doesn’t subside at all, so Alice decides to get me Rock Band as a Valentine’s Day gift. I don’t know if she regrets the purchase, but I am certainly loving it.  I have been playing it almost every single day since I got the game, and probably haven’t gone more than 3 consecutive days without playing it once.  Will I ever get tired of the game?  That’s a hard one to answer.  There’s just so much you can do in the game.  You can sing, play the drums, or play the guitar.  Or better yet, you could sing and play the guitar OR sing and play the drums at the same time.  If you get with bored with playing solo, you can play competitively or cooperatively with others in the same room or even online.  It makes a great party game!  And here’s one final piece that keeps you coming back for more.  Every week, Harmonix releases new songs for purchase; so the game never gets old.  I’ve been playing for 7 months and am still going strong.  And I am anxiously awaiting the release of Rock Band 2.