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JAN

10

2009

"traffic," dan said as he arrived half an hour late to come pick me up for a day of rock banding at his place. he'd already picked up elias earlier. i noticed the new gps attached to the windshield, giving us directions back to malden. we stopped off at a wendy's to pick up some lunch. i of course ordered the large number 6 spicy chicken sandwich combo which came with a bucket of soda. despite the late arrival, we were still the first people to show up.

i've played guitar hero (GH) at dan's a few times before, but rock band (RB) was something new. more specifically, rock band 2, which just recently came out for the nintendo wii. the good thing is all the GH instruments - guitars, drums, microphone - are compatible with RB. after playing the two different versions, i prefer RB more. i like the fact that you can totally customize your character (purchasing new clothes and accessories with money made from performing gigs) - something dan said can be done in GH as well but it doesn't seem as easily. i made a muscular palestinian rocker called GA2A with a white afro and moustache who has a bunch of tattoos and wears nothing except a pair of pale wrestling pants. RB also seems to be more forgiving with the game play, less penalty for mistakes (in GH the game immediately ends when one member fails to score enoughs points). RB also has more informative stats at the end of each performance (accuracy, awards). as for the songs, they seem to be about the same too me, and by that i mean i don't recognize 80% of them. the music i listen to don't feature a lot of guitars. i wouldn't be able to name one good guitar song. a lot of the tunes were heavy metal or other similarly noisy affairs that i normally try to avoid. i actually prefer the drums over the guitars, only because i enjoy hitting things. drums also offer a better workout, and my hand can't quite cover the 5 color button range on the faux guitar neck. i don't mind the singing but there's a difference between liking a song and being able to sing it.

the two mikes showed up, with one of the mikes bring his girlfriend and daughter as well. frank - whom i met at mike kelly's summer party - came too. most of the adults were too engrossed with rocking out while the two little girls danced around the house trying to get attention from their daddies or whoever would give them the time. when it got late enough dan treated us to some pizza. people started leaving soon afterwards due to the fact that a snowstorm was heading our way. by the time dan drove elias and me back home, it was starting to snow.

after i took a shower i went across the street to buy some clementines from star market. i noticed the sichuan place was dark inside and saw a handwritten sign on the window saying a new pho restaurant was coming soon. oh no, did zoe's go out of business? at the supermarket i waited in line with a couple of road crew guys buying their snacks and drinks for a long night of snow shoveling. when i came back with my box of tiny oranges, i saw that the empty restaurant space across the street was now occupied. i looked through the window and up at the sign: zoe's! apparently they just moved to a bigger space. everything is right with the world again. and maybe a new delicious vietnamese restaurant will join the neighborhood.

my hair was frozen when i got home because i left the house with wet hair. my roommate wasn't at home, i'm assuming doing some overtime work at the office. i myself did a bit of coding as well, but i'm still going to have a lot of work tomorrow. earlier during the day i noticed my upstairs neighbor bought a new car, a shiny subaru station wagon to replace his old subaru station wagon. later in the evening, i tapped into this wellspring of online music, downloading several dozen tracks from lost 80's performers, including the mannequin soundtrack.