ROCK BAND 3 KEYS

The new Rock Band introduces us to a keyboard controller. It’s a two-octave jobby and it’s pretty decent for $80. There protrudes a handle off its left side, and it comes with a strap so the transition to key_tar_ is easy and pleasing. That being said, I pretty much suck at using it.

The guitar, which I’d say I’m probably the most proficient at in the world of musical instruments, somehow comes natural, despite requiring the synchronicity of both hands. One forms abstracts shapes whilst the other brushes its extremities up and down rhythmically. Gripping the fretboard feels safe and comfortable; pressing my fingers down onto keys leaves them unstable. I’m thinking the playing field will be more level once I get a hold of a Pro Guitar, what with its potential buttons five-fold higher than the Pro Keys. Regardless, my background with the guitar will still probably give me an edge.

The satisfaction of impressing people by playing on Expert Guitar for years now crumbles quite easily once you give even Pro Keys Easy on a simple song a spin. Twenty-something potential spots to trigger on an instrument you’re less familiar with confounds me. The same song on Expert Keys (non-pro) is easily conquered, however. There are only five keys to contend with there, one for each finger. Thus, it must be the physical act of having to move your hand and there not always being that Red wall to control the boundaries. Songs start all over the keyboard, and doing a chord using both non-accidental and accidental notes often trips me up, solely due to the physicality of each kind of key being different.

I’ll keep at it, of course, because rhythm games are fun, the music is great, and I want to become more comfortable with the keyboard in general. However, once I get a Pro Guitar, that statement will most likely be modified a bit.

ELECTION 2010

Yo voté ayer. It was thrilling! OK, not really.

Voting is cool because it gives us the option of speaking our mind about things that matter and having that become law. Sure, there’s the obvious argument that voting is worthless because with so many other voters you are a tiny voice in a vast ocean of opinion. If everyone thought that way, no one would vote and democracy would be for naught, so I vote. What I don’t do is efficiently change my address with the DMV after moving so that I don’t have to vote provisionally. D’oh.

California had a proposition on the ballot this year to legalize marijuana (to a certain small degree). While I have partaken in the past, I don’t partake now, and yet I still think it’s a good idea to move toward removing mary jane from the Class 1 drug list. It’s possible that more people will smoke it, leading to impaired judgment, snack food shortages, and overly analytical philosophic posts to Reddit, but I think the money that the state I live in could stand to make and the pointlessness of locking up certain people over having/selling weed justifies it. No stance on this comes without baggage or weaknesses, but that’s where I am on the issue.

The best part of voting, however, is going to a nearby elementary school to vote. One of the volunteers excused an elderly man looking up my wife’s name in the official voter list for needing to see her driver’s license because he’s “visual”.

…

Good thing he wasn’t “tastual”.