Dusty

A baby bunny fell into the window well of the basement (again?). After I checked him for Trix and NesQuik, I trapped him into a shoebox and returned him to the wild. Be free and multiply!

Now that I have braces, I wonder why Wolverine didn't get adamantium in his teeth. He would never have to worry about cavities again.

Anyway, braces for the next 18 months. Like wisdom tooth extraction, it's something I should have done a long time ago. I'm already counting the days until they come off. Counting months might offer more hope.

At least I don't have to wear giant headgear or the like. Actually, they are only partly metal so they don't stand out as much.

Still uncomfortable and I can't chew hard foods. I had to use a fork and knife to eat a cheese stick. That sensitivity should reside in the coming week.

Bought a foot bath to try and repair my injured big toe nail. Actually they were both damaged last year but one finally healed. Do not want to get the other one yanked. I have enough pain to look forward to.

PS. The foot bath has bubbles and is LOUD.

Summer concert season is underway and I've seen 2 shows so far. No Doubt and The Offspring.

All three acts at the No Doubt show +(Paramore and The Sounds) were great and feature a female lead singer. At least 75% of the audience were girls. It was a great show to be a guy at. I traded my two cheap tickets to a scalper for a really great one up front.

Punk Rocks 2009 acts: The Vandals are perfectly punk. Alkaline Trio are not. The Offspring are right in the middle. Seeing live music inspired me to keep practicing the bass.

After back to back concerts, I did back to back karaoke. It had been over a year since I last did karaoke. Sang Elvis one night and The Offspring the next. Ever since our Rock Band lead guitarist doubt72 moved to Japan, our Rock Band Heroine Addict just hasn't been performing much.

My sister and nephews are visiting this week. A life of video game experience makes me popular with my nephew. Seems I'm the only one that can offer up any challenge or tips. I tried to discuss E3 news but my Pokemon knowledge (or lack thereof) was often called upon.

We all went to the circus. I had low expectations but I was surprised to see that Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey have really upped their show since the last time I was at the circus. Though that was nearly 20 years ago so my memory isn't the most solid on this. It's like a concert with animals now. If they could just train the animals to sing, they could cut half their performers.

Weeks of searching ended after I found my bike lights. Now I'm cycling to work again. It's only 5 miles each way but the first night turned out to be more difficult that I figured. The 2nd night I did better. Upgraded my equipment too.

Finally, I'm enjoying all varieties of hard and chewy foods this week. Come Thursday, 1.5 years of braces will limit my consumption of these.

I've come to terms that my career is due to a combination of being good with computers and staying up all night. In my younger days I was daring and ambitious to install new software, alter settings, and upgrade hardware. Now I just want a machine that's stable. Still, I heard enough positive remarks about Windows 7 RC to try it out. I made several attempts but the installation failed at the same place repeatedly. It seems there's still some major work yet to be done. Fortunately I can give up now and stick with XP. I'm not that determined.

Wisdom teeth are extracted. Pain tolerable but still having trouble eating much. Can't complain much though. doubt72 had it worse and my dad even worse than that.  Back to bed.

Video Games Live, the symphonic game music concert that does shows, finally came to Colorado. I saw the same show 2 years ago in Phoenix and enjoyed it so much that I went again.

At one point of the show, Tommy explained that they have about 80 different segments but only have time to do 20 per performance. Some key differences from the Colorado show:

Good: They added Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross music. Tommy and Jack jammed out on guitars together for this. Very cool.

Bad: My favorite part from the Phoenix show, Baba Yetu from Civilization 4, was not good. The lead singer couldn't hit the high notes so he just omitted them.

Good: Local Denver guitarist/artist/geek Chris Kline performed great electric guitar songs from Contra and ended the show jamming with Tommy in a Castlevania melody. Konami finally represented. ROCK!

Bad: Martin Leung, the Video Game Pianist was absent. Another pianist did the same performance but not quite as proficiently.

Good: Old fan favorites like Mario, Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy were all represented. Smart. The show is starting to show it's age though. Twilight Princess and Halo 3 are hardly new any more.

Bad: Still no Capcom music. Legal reasons? Orchestral Phoenix Wright please!

Note: I suspect that Square Enix's blessing went to the other game music concert show "Play". Whenever they performed music from Square Enix games at Video Games Live, they came up with a clever way to hide the fact that they can't show any actual game footage from them.

I'm glad that the show is still going strong. I wish the other game music show, Play, could be the same. Play's tour lineup is so sparse I don't know that I'll ever get to see that show.

Outside of troubleshooting email issues, my brain is not getting enough exercise. I do the minimum to keep my Japanese up which is a losing battle. Perhaps something else would keep my interest and my brain from going to mush.

I need a plan before I'm too foolish to even manage that. So here's where I'm at; learning a musical instrument. Playing music is not my strong point which is a good reason to try it. Looking on my musical experiences (Rock Band), I'm pretty good at the drums and the guitar. I'm aware those don't relate to actual skills but I'm just looking for something I might be interested in first.

Drums or guitar... well how about splitting the difference with the bass? My musically inclined friend told me that the bass is kinda the bridge between the drums and the guitar. Like part rhythm and part melody. Makes sense to me even if it's not true. One eBay auction, one craigslist ad, and one amazon order and I'm equipped to at least get started.

This could all end up in flames of course. Lots of people think they might like playing an instrument and then give up. I'm not even 100% dedicated but I'm giving it a shot. After all, it's just a hobby not a profession. Wish me luck!

Squeezed a lot of hours out of this weekend. Started off by joining some friends in Cripple Creek for some gambling in the old mining town. The last time I went gambling was something like 5 years ago. You don't need experience though. Just luck. For me, the technology used in the gaming machine is of high interest. They get more and more fancy with lots of sounds and graphics. The Star Trek machine is especially fun for a game where you don't actually have to do anything beside press a button every few seconds. I left with $40 extra and a full stomach so that works.

Later that night, I got home and put a lot of hours into Persona 4. I think I made significant progress. I'm liking it much more than the previous game. My real friends have commented that I spend more time developing my social links in that game than I do with them. They might have a point.

It was sunny all weekend which I would generally hide away from but being the first warm weather of the season, I decided to not waste it. Cycled the bike trail nearby and explored the area. Did so again today by biking over to the best buy since they had Wrath of the Lich King on sale. I've only quit WoW 2 weeks ago and I'm itching to return. Must finish some of the other games in my queue first or else I'll never get to them.

Now listening to the semi-final game between USA and Japan in the World Baseball Classic. It's an exciting game so far!

Watched "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" last night (perhaps more known for the Simpsons spoof). The movie has a huge cast of comedians from the era. The list is just too long to even start here. It made me realize that there aren't any epic comedy movies like that of late. We get the solo comic or a buddy movie at best. Someone soon is going to get a huge A-list of comics together and make a ker-azy movie. It worked for Ocean's 11.