The Wii Lives!

Okay, so Worst Buy was supposed to be sending me a shipping label via email. I have yet to receive this, so I fully expect it to arrive in the mail in another week or so. I started thinking maybe I would open it up and take a look, but before I did that I plugged it back up and what do you know? The sucker's working again. Now, before you say I should have unplugged it and plugged it back in, I did that. The manual says to unplug for two minutes, then try again. I did that and took it one further by leaving it unplugged for 12 hours and still nothing on Monday. I guess maybe it just needed a few more days. I'm still worried that this is going to happen again, but for now I'm just happy I can get my Wii on again!

And while we're talking about Wii, here's a 9 year old that kills Through the Fire and Flames by DragonForce on Guitar Hero III. I can't even begin to keep up on easy and this kid makes it look easy on expert. Damn kids...


9 Year Old Beats Hardest Guitar Hero Level - Watch more free videos

Through the fire and Flames, 8-bit style!

If you're a geek like me, love metal, and love 80's video games, you're sure to like this. It's DragonForce in 8-bit. You can find all kinds of good 8-bit metal songs on You Tube if you want...

T-Shirt of the Day

Today's
T-shirt is from a local band. Not only do they rock, but they're good
friends as well. I hear they may have broken up, or at least taken a
break...whatever the case they're missed already. I'm sure all four
guys will show up in other bands soon (or will hopefully regroup). The
band is Space Age Polymers Company (orSAPCo ). I'm
including a video that I took of them on my camera a couple of years
ago at the World Famous Milestone for your
viewing/listening pleasure...



Gotta love the feedback!

Classic Rock Wednesdays?

You won't find any Eagles here, but I will start you off with the masterful Jeff Lynn and Electric Light Orchestra.

Turn To Stone



Mr. Blue Sky



On The Run

Big Dick's Used Condom Lot

Pencil Face

Urban Prankster

Urban Prankster covers pranks, hacks, participatory art, flash mobs, and other creative endeavors that take place in public places in cities across the world.

Danzig's Hips Don't Lie

T-Shirt of the Day

Today's selection is my buddy Gregg's fault. He emailed me the link to it, and knowing my weekness when it comes to both T-Shirts and Star Wars, I ended up buying it. Guitar Solo. You can get this booger at Busted Tees. Many other good shirts there as well, with new shirts and a "12 Shirts for $12 Each" sale every week.

You Tube

I post a lot of videos from You Tube, but there's plenty more good stuff out there. I actually have two You Tube profiles filled with favorites. I started the second because I had reached my limit of 500 favorites on the first. Apparently many of them have been deleted though and I now have more free space on the original (which I've been adding to again as well). Check them both out and you'll find plenty of randomness, oddities, music, and a lot of stuff you might remember from your childhood. Also be sure to check out some of my "subscriptions" for even more goodies...I especially recommend knobbynah, as his taste in the good , the bad and the ugly is very similar to mine (plus Isaac's a good friend I've never met).

Heavy Metal Tuesdays?

Since I posted DragonForce last Tuesday I thought maybe I could try to make a feature out of it. Maybe I should devote other days to other genres of music as well...hmmm...

Anyway, here's some Motorhead for your Tuesday!


Killed By Death



Iron Fist



R.A.M.O.N.E.S.

9 Telltale Signs You're Probably an Asshole

From theMishMash.com

The Shat wants to do whatever Common People do...

T-Shirt of the Day

Today's T-shirt actually came from Old Navy. I really don't like that place, but have found myself there from time to time. I'm always looking for a bargain on cool t-shirts, so I always check out their clearance racks when I do end up there. I think I paid $2.50 for this one maybe? It's an artists pallet with all sorts of art supplies arranged in "diagram" form. I like it, and it reflects my (somewhat) artist leanings. Still using "stock" photos (this one's from the Brewgrass festival in Asheville last September) but I'll have some good stuff coming up soon....

Wii update

So I box it up and head to the big box...it's not quite local, so the trip there and back is probably costing me $25 or more in my gas guzzler. I wouldn't have even bothered, but my brochure on the replacement plan says you can file a claim online, call a number or take it into the store. I opt for taking it myself because I want this resolved quickly. I get there, and of course stand in line for a while only to find out that I've got to call the number, get them to send me a label and then I have to send it off and wait for my "gift card". Great. Now I wasted half a day, a quarter of a tank of gas and now I'll probably have to wait another month before I can even get a new Wii. Thanks a lot Nintendo for building an obviously crappy system and to Worst Buy for just sucking in general.

The good thing is, the game that's stuck in the system is the one that came with it so I don't have to worry about trying to get back another $50 investment in a game. The bad thing is I've already downloaded crap for the virtual console and I'm probably SOL on that once it's all said and done. I think I will write a nasty letter to Nintendo and see if they won't send me a Wii points card so I can at least get back the stuff I already had. I'm not holding my breath though.

And to top it all off, it's probably just an internal fuse but opening the system would void any warranties I have. And even if it was a fuse it would probably be one that only Nintendo makes. Even though I'm down with technology, I freakin' hate it sometimes.

Minutemen - History Lesson Pt. II

Acoustic from the movie We Jam Econo. Highly recommended documentary of the greatest band ever. Ever.

The Death of a Wii

I am so totally pissed right now. I come back from the beach, pick my daughter up and after we eat she wants to play the Wii. I only bought it a month ago but it's been a constant source of fun for me and my girls (and parents and brothers). I go to turn the thing on and nothing. No lights, no nothing. I asked my dad if we had any power outages over the weekend and he did say that the power went out three times Saturday. I'm guessing it was a power surge that did it in.

Normally I don't buy the "extended warranties" they offer at places like the big box stores, but this time I did. Now granted Nintendo already offers a one year warranty, but I haven't checked to see what all it covers...I do know that the blue and yellow place does cover replacement on power surges. Good news. Bad news...now I have to box the thing back up, take it to the store, stand in line and then probably be told that it will be a few days before anything can be done. Better than sending it off to Nintendo? Yes, but still frustrating, especially since I bought it to help keep the kids entertained this summer when I have them (and this is the first week they're out of school). Then I have to wonder...even though I have an SD card in the Wii, I'm betting that most of the stuff I've created and downloaded is on the Wii's hard drive.

I can guarantee you one thing...next one I get will stay unplugged when not in use. This old house has a tendency to have power issues even on the calmest of days. I'm just really going to be pissed if I have to re-download the virtual console games and internet application...and pay for them again.

Vacation is over.

This past weekend I went to the North Myrtle Beach with my buddies Lee and Richard. A good time was had by all, even if the trip was too short. The good thing about where we live in NC is that we're only a few hours away from the beach, which makes a short weekend trip possible. The bad part of that is that short weekend trips just leave you ready to make a week of it. But still, it's nice to get out of town for a few days, drink and get sunburned with good friends and lots of laughs.

We arrived around 3 in the afternoon Friday and immediately set out to drinking. We had stopped at Southern Spirits on the way down and loaded up on plenty of good brews. Little did we know that what we bought that day would barely last us through the night. Our livers are still recovering. After a few beers and a dip in the pool, we took the golf cart out and got more beers, and food before setting out to the beach for a very drunken walk. Races occurred, a shoulder was injured...even though Lee hurt it trying to knock us over when we raced down the beach, Rich and I got to hear about it all weekend long.

I admit, I passed out around 9 Friday night about 20 minutes into Dazed and Confused. I was tired and drunk. I was also the one who got up at 3:30 am and stayed awake most of the rest of the next day (save for a "planned" two hour nap that turned into a four hour one). We spent lots of time on the beach Saturday morning, ate lunch then hit the pool for a while (all while enjoying fine beverages) before the naps occurred. After nappy time, we went out to eat but I guess we were all spent because we didn't hit up any bars afterwards. I did stay up until 2 in the morning drinking on the balcony and stealing internet from the hotel across the street.

There's really not much else to report. We didn't get into any trouble (though it was flirted with) and we didn't make too much noise or party too hard. Basically just a relaxing/drunken weekend of fun. I will leave you with a few random pictures...

I can't wait until the next time!

Briarman

This is my friend Roger, sort of playing a character. There's a lot of the real Roger mixed in with "Briarman" though...

Vacation

To my one reader out there (who already knows about my vacation), I won't be posting again until monday. Too much going on today and I leave for the beach tomorrow. New t-shirts and random crap on monday!