Looking Forward to Rock Band II

I read in the GameInformer magazine recently that Rock Band II is already deep in development and slated for release this September. I can’t wait for all of the new features, especially the Solo Bass Tour (Finally)!!! You’ll be able to play any songs on your hard drive from the first Rock Band, as well as grab tons of new DLC that will be available on launch day. Rock Band II will also create challenges based on the different songs on its hard drive. For instance, you may face a challenge consisting of songs from a certain artist, or a specific genre or difficulty. Characters can switch between instruments, and solo-mode works just like the multi-player World Tour from the first Rock Band. They’ve also made the guitar buttons less noisy, and the strum bar won’t be so ’squishy.’ The bass-kick for the drums will be much more sturdy, and the pads will be quieter, as well as more sensitive to the force you hit them with, allowing for more dynamic drum fills. There will be solo-lines for every instrument this time around, not just the guitar. Oh, I almost forgot: PS3 users, wait your turn, the X-Box 360 gets it first!

ADD: My Anti-School

My Junior year has proven thus far to be the hardest of any in my school career. Every day, I wind up with homework assignments from at least three of my six classes. We do about three chapters a week in my Advanced Placement American History class, and land around ten assignments. In English, we don’t have quite so many assignments, but when we do, they’re big ones. In order to do well on such assignments, students must devote all their free time that particular night to be sure they get everything just right. Otherwise, something is bound to go wrong before they can turn it in. With me, juggling school, work, and me-time is hard, and since the ‘me-time’ weighs the heaviest in my book, I spend more time there than anywhere else. Sometimes, I honestly try to focus on school. Unfortunately (Or fortunately, whichever way you choose to look at it), I cannot pay attention to schoolwork for long before my games call to me, and then I get lost in Guitar Hero or MapleStory. And when I finally do concentrate on school, my brother has to pop in and play World of Warcraft, so I don’t get to use the computer for that internet research I needed to do, or that FLVS course I needed to work on. In short, I have ADD not by defect or whatever, but by choice. I just don’t want to do school! (I like to call it Junioritis)

The Little Things

Mankind is in a constant rush. People are always in a hurry, always worried about being on time. They attempt to do everything as fast as possible to create more time to do more things. Verry seldom do they ever stop and take a moment to look at the little things, to notice all those tiny little details that make life so much more interesting. For instance, whilst the other students in my class are busy chatting about this night’s game, or about that guy or this girl, I observe a tiny spider, the size of the nail on my pinky, crawling accross the wall. I’m not worried about it because I know that it isn’t going to hurt me. It probably can’t even notice me, though I am only three feet away. I watch it as it plods slowly accross the wall in a horizontal direction. Every so often it will stop and turn in place, as if observing the world around it. Even this little spider seems to notice the importance of the little things, a gift that few people these days can or will take advantage of. It is the little things that hold the world together. The little daisy that provides the world with fresh oxygen, the little hummingbird that fertilizes the daisy. The little rabbit whose droppings nurture the daisy. The little things. So next time you find yourself overwhelmed by the rush of life, take a moment to stop and look at the world around you. Take a moment to look at the little things.