[Blog #265] --- Neutral --- [Monday] - Promising News For GH5

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Today is my daddy's birthday. I wrote him a card and bought him an indie-rock compilation CD. It has bands like: The Fratellis, Kaiser Chiefs and Klaxons - bands that I know he likes to listen to when he's driving.
 
I've gotten sick of getting to the bus stop stupidly early and having to stand about - so I've set my alarm for 15 minutes later. It only takes me 5-10 minutes to get ready, if that, because I usually have everything laid out ready for me needing it the next day. My plan has worked, and today I was only stood about waiting for 5 minutes or so. It gives me a margin so I'm not waiting forever, and I have a low risk of missing it entirely. Mmmmyes, I am a logical and resourceful downright genius. :P
 
Media Studies today was a "coursework research" lesson.
In effect, for the entire thing I was just mooching around on Wikipedia for inspiration. I know WHAT I'm going to do, I just need a band to do it about. An essay either about a music video and how the conventions are used, or a big analysis of their song lyrics. My production will be a music video, if I do it well enough. If I end up fucking it up, I have a print option as a back-up plan.
 
Only problem is finding a damned band.
I want it to be one I like - Rammstein, King Diamond, Metallica, Silverstein - I'm going down that route. I just need them to have released an album in the last 3-5 years (and Rammstein is just starting to push that with 2005's Rosenrot, if next year 2010 counts) - whereas the music video looks like it can be made to a song of any year, it just needs to be 5 minutes or less, it can't be over.
That rules out Precious Jerusalem. Not that I'd know what the hell to do for the video like. :)
 
Metallica's lyrics are a bit dark... Rammstein's are really complex or about really obscure subjects... Silverstein's are all emo and suicidal... King Diamond is just downright fucked up... This looks like it shall be rather difficult...
 
(I seem to be saying "downright" a downright lot in this blog. :P)
 
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English was reasonable. It opened oddly - Angela sort of suggested I sit with Jack, and he's a fucking arse - so I just shook my head and said NO. It caused a weird reaction. :)
As a starter piece, Angela had us drawing GINGERBREAD MEN HOLDING BALLOONS.
Then we proceeded to write key words IN the balloons. I felt sad so I made my gingerbread man sad too. I drew him an icing sad face with a tear on his cheek.
It was an okay lesson, it just made me sad because we were thinking back to our childhood, the games we played and such. 5-6 were sad years for me. 5-15 as a whole were pretty wank, to be honest.
 
I met up with Shelly during the lunch break and I ate a bag of Mexican chilli McCoys and a big Aero bar. I felt really shitty so I was sat at the table tearing the Aero wrapper into tiny pieces. The caretaker gave me a weird look, but I assured him I'd dispose of it when I was finished.
Shelly could see I was sad, so she tried to cuddle me, but it didn't make me feel much better. We were discussing people and events that depress me, so it was obvious she couldn't.
I was proper thirsty too, because I'd forgotten my bottle of water.
 
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Photography pissed me right off.
First off we had Shelly suddenly getting in a pissy mood herself - but this was likely due to Paul being a right arsehole. Michelle said he's looking for any excuse to kick Shelly off the course. He was a twat to her last year as well, but he's even worse now. Apparently she distracts me - no, if anything, I distract myself. And I distract her more than she distracts me.
 
The whole lesson was a "peer marking" session. Seriously fucking shit. We all had our icons work up on the walls (mine was on the whiteboard because I hadn't printed it) and we had to basically wander around the classroom with sheets of paper, writing comments, constructive criticism and giving them marks out of 10.
 
I was quite reserved when I marked Michelle's - because I quite like her. But I don't know the others in the group, and they're sort of twats to me. Oh, and they're strangers - I'm very rude to strangers I've noticed.
So my critique of theirs was a bit more harsh. Roxy's was okay, pretty close to Michelle's - but I was really harsh with Johnny's. He deserved it though, the prick. He gave me 4/10.
 
AT LEAST YOU COULD TELL WHAT MY FUCKING IMAGES WERE OF!
 
I MAY HAVE USED THE SAME OBJECT TWICE, BUT AT LEAST MY ARRANGEMENT WASN'T WANK! EVERYONE EVEN TOLD YOU IT WAS WANK.
 
AT LEAST I VARIED IN COLOUR! IT WASN'T ALL BLACK AND BROWN.
 
Capital letters rant over. :)
 
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When I got home, I played Guitar Hero: World Tour.
I was mainly getting scores for the new free DLC I'd never played. No wonder they give these songs away for free - they're ALL shit!
The only two decent free ones are Grave Of Opportunity and Electro Rock.
 
Then I attempted to give Guitar Hero 5 another try.
OH, THERE'S HOPE FOR IT NOW. :)
 
Yes, the career has merged so it's one for all of the instruments, instead of 4 separate ones... BUT.
There's a new feature - instrument challenges!
 
Each song has a different one, so one would be drums while another is bass, vocals, guitar or whole band.
They're things like 'hit 200 snare beats' for drums, 'whammy sustains for 1 minute' for guitar and the best one that I proper OWNED: 'hit 300 notes using only UP STRUMS' for bass.
I did it on Expert too. :P
 
I'm going through the career mainly on Expert bass, getting the scores, then switching to the other instruments for the challenges. There's even gigs where you can choose your own song - including DLC.
So I chose Jessie's Girl on Expert lead and scored 100%. I had to hit as many chords as I could, but there wasn't enough in the actual song to get the diamond rank. I'll have to try it again with something more complex.
 
I also like the fact that 100% FC gets you SIX STARS.
100%s are optional, but they earn you more stars and they're ever so sexy. You also can't tell what instrument and level you've done the song on - so you could have gone through the entire thing on Beginner and nobody would know.
But I'm making it fun for myself with Expert bass. It is really easy though, compared to Greatest Hits.  
 
Yes, the quickplay is a bit wank - it only shows one score instead of 5 for all the separate levels. The interface is still a bit shitty - and you can't give custom characters fucking beards!
I've been wondering for ages now why Ashley Darwin and Dudley Boone look so fucked - it's because they have BALD FACES.
I have my four custom characters set up as the band on-screen. They look so sexy together. I don't think I've ever seen it before. :)