Guitar Hero @ MindSay 
16-year-old drops out of school to play Guitar Hero
Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:29PM EDT
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/101746
Regular readers know that I love video games as much as the next guy. In fact, my right ankle is still sore from drumming my way through a marathon Rock Band session last night (who knew calibrating the TV would make such a difference!?), and I'm always looking for the latest titles to pop into my Xbox.
But how much gaming is too much? For North Carolina native Blake Peebles, there's no such thing. Guitar Hero is his title of choice. "I usually play till I can't anymore," he says, in this profile from the News & Observer.
In fact, young Mr. Peebles is dropping out of high school... in order to focus on Guitar Hero full time. Peebles hopes to join the small but growing crew of players looking to make gaming a job. Citing his victories in Guitar Hero tournaments, which include "gift certificates, gaming equipment, and chicken sandwiches," Peebles thinks he has the chops to play competitively and earn actual money in the process. As the story notes, top gamers on the competitive circuit can earn up to $80,000 a year (though $25,000 is more common). Peebles, of course, can count his 52 Chick-fil-A combo meals toward that total.
I was at first inclined to disparage the decision by his parents to let Peebles drop out of school, but it seems a little less ridiculous when you delve into the facts. Peebles hahdn't been doing well in school and wasn't liked, and even now he isn't gaming full time. He has a tutor that provides a private education, and his parents say he's doing well with the more focused instruction and that their son now even does his homework without complaint. (Presumably he can hit the axe sooner after he's finished his studies.)
However, I worry that Peebles, who's just 16, may have a tough road ahead trying to break into competitive gaming. The costs of traveling to tournaments alone can totally outstrip earnings, and the amount of training can be grueling. Sponsorships are often a pipe dream. And then there's the issue of games going out of date and being replaced by something new. Traditional athletes never have to worry about, say, distance running being upgraded with a new version, but many games can go out of style, fast. In the end, there's just not much cash there: One gamer, quoted at the end of the linked article, says that in eight years his total earnings are about $25,000 total, and that's including a national championship in Halo 2.
And the "Do we even need to ask?" poll question of the day?
What do you think, parents? Did Peebles' folks do the right thing in letting their son drop out of school?
Now, I'm sure people will say 'Jimi Hendrix was shit. He was high all the time. He was a nigger, etc.' but most of those people either...
A.) Don't know real music or
B.) Aren't old enough to have even seen Hendrix play live
This just pisses me off so much! I hated Guitar Hero before this, but this event really takes the fucking cake! I mean, Guitar Hero... it's fucking stupid. It's really fucking stupid. But to "desecrate" a statue of a REAL guitar hero is just fucking wrong.
Dixie currently feels:
Alone
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Currently playing:
- Guitar Hero III
- Wario Ware Inc.: Mega Microgames
Currently listening to:
- Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura... - Maximum The Hormone
- Follow The Wolves - Demon Hunter
- Throw It All Away - Jun Senoue
Currently reading:
- Whispers In The Dark
- Paper Everybody & The Thousand Everything Door!
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GH3 songs played today:
Alone:
Bulls On Parade (Ex), Suck My Kiss (Ex), Closer (Ex), Generation Rock (Ex), Hier Kommt Alex (Ex), Radio Song (Ex), Rock & Roll All Nite (Ex), Barracuda (Ex), Welcome To The Jungle (Ex), 3's & 7's (M), The Metal (M), Pride And Joy (M)
Wi-Fi:
When You Were Young (ExPFO), Closer (ExPFO) (x2), Talk Dirty To Me (ExPFO), Raining Blood (ExPFO), Cities On Flame With Rock & Roll (ExPFO) (x2), Before I Forget (MPFO) (x2), Hier Kommt Alex (MPFO)
(All of the above, I won. I haven't lost a single match today. Raining Blood, I even managed to get a 245 note streak, and I've never even played the song on Expert before. :D)
Number of wi-fi quitters: Three
- Groupies: 6157! -
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Times cried: None
Wounds inflicted: None
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Today's song lyrics:
Butterfly - Smile DK
I've been searching in the woods,
And high upon the hills,
Just to find, to find my samurai!
Someone who won't regret,
To keep me in his net,
Yes I need, I need my samurai!
Ay, ay, ay!
I'm your little butterfly!
Green, black and blue,
Make the colours in the sky!
Ay, ay, ay, I'm your little butterfly!
Green, black and blue,
Make the colours in the sky...
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I stayed awake late again lat night, talking on my forums.
They're all trying to offer me advice and support in regards to my huge writing slump.
I appriciate it, but nobody really seems to be helping me.
Thus, it's rather depressing.
I woke up at about half 11 this morning, and I sorted out my Sonic Adventure soundtrack folder - now it's all neat and organised with all the right dates and the sexy album art. :)
I ate a calzone with some crinkle cut chips for my lunch.
The calzone was ham and motzarella cheese, but it was nowhere near as nice as I expected it to be.
Damn false advertising, taking super-arousing photographs of food for the boxes. Grrgh.
From half four till about half six, I played Guitar Hero III.
I managed to improve a lot of my scores - as well as totally destroying people over wi-fi.
Three people quit on me, because I was hitting 100% and they weren't.
I asked Adam for a quick round, but he didn't stay on long. I didn't mind though, I still got one game out of him, and that was alright.
I've noticed a really big improvement in my Expert skillz. Tee hee.
I've been going from 4 stars to 5 stars, and from 3 stars to 4 stars - as well as getting wicked high combos on most songs that I'd never managed before.
A lot of my scores are now reaching the 250,000-300,000 points mark too.
That makes me happy, I suppose.
For the last hour and a half, I've ate two bowls of maple and pecan crunch cereal (with some maple syrup sloshed in as well), and watching some episodes of You Can't Do That On Television.
I don't find it drop-dead hilarious, but some parts make me smile, some make me giggle a little.
I find it hugely entertaining, though.
My PC's being strange though - it's making some of the episodes show up in a really small screen resolution. Annoying.
Anyway, today's been totally uneventful and boring - just like most days during the holidays.
Whit week is great, but it does get boring after a few hours when you have nothing to do.
Either way, I'm going to scour through my downloads folder, see if last night's downloading fit salvaged anything decent. :)
Dixie currently feels:
Depressed
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Currently playing:
- Guitar Hero III
- Sonic Adventure DX
Currently listening to:
- Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura... - Maximum The Hormone
- Morgenstern - Rammstein
- Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya - Dropkick Murphys
Currently reading:
- Whispers In The Dark
- The Yellow Block
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GH3 songs played today:
Holiday In Cambodia (Ex), Slow Ride (Ex), Story Of My Life (Ex), Talk Dirty To Me (Ex), Avalancha (Ex), Closer (Ex)(x2), Knights Of Cydonia (Ex), Hier Kommt Alex (Ex), Reptilla (Ex), Sabotage (Ex), My Name Is Jonas (Ex), Miss Murder (Ex), Rock You Like A Hurricane (Ex), Welcome To The Jungle (H), Closer (H), Radio Song (H), Hier Kommt Alex (H)
- Groupies: 6079! -
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Times cried: Twice
Wounds inflicted: None
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Today's song lyrics:
Story Of My Life - Social Distortion
Good times come and good times go...
I only wish the good times would last a little longer....
I think about the good times we had, and why they had to end...
So I sit at the edge of my bed...
I strum my guitar, and I sing an outlaw love song...
Wonderin' bout what you're doin' now, and when you're comin' back...
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I just flicked through the pages of my blog.
I like the way all the colours and pictures and smileys look together.
Although some say I'm black and emo, I like colours.
So I use varying colours in my blog sometimes.
I don't have any pictures to put on here today, so I've just used a lot of smileys.
I've become a forum whore.
I'm addicted to my own forum now.
All yesterday, and all this morning, whenever someone posted, I responded straightaway.
There were about four of us on there last night for about five hours.
I stayed awake until 6am talking to them all.
I've been out for about an hour, and I've come home to 76 thread alerts.
I have plenty to say then. :)
I only learnt this morning that my forum is the most popular in the entire Pokémon genre on FFN - with now 26,000 posts.
I'm happy about that.
- But depressed about everything else.
Last night, I was laid on my bed crying.
Daddy was sat on the PC - he didn't say a word to me.
He left without speaking to me.
He knew I was crying - I was making a lot of snuffling sounds, it wasn't difficult to tell.
...Sigh, I want to be a baby again.
I've just been at my aunty's.
My cousin has two children, one who is two, and one who's about a month old.
...Just seeing daddy holding Millie made me so sad inside.
...Daddy never hugs me anymore.
...I'm too big for him to hold me...
...I'm not Daddy's little girl anymore.
...Just thinking about it is making my eyes leak.
I cried in the car on the way home, my head pressed to the back of mam's seat.
...She's being horrible to me and all. ...Saying if I don't do stuff aorund the house I'm gonna get hurt or kicked out or something...
...Sigh, and now I don't have anybody left.
I'm leaving school in three weeks.
I won't have Parry anymore.
I don't have Emily anymore.
Reiss is ignoring me.
Rathe's disappeared off the face of the Earth...
...Yeah, now I feel like hurting again.
...Meh, I'll go on my forums, see if I can take my mind off things...
.............Sigh.
Dixie currently feels:
Depressed
(Well what else is new...?)
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Yesterday was a bank holiday Monday, so I spent the day at Adam's house.
We played a few songs on Guitar Hero III co-op, and got him a couple of groupie points.
Then he burnt me Parappa The Rapper, and I tried it out, did the first few levels, and got the "U Rappin' Cool!" rank on level 1.
When I got home though, I kept failing level 1.
Which was annoying...
Almost as annoying as the fact that memory card slot 1 is broken on my chipped Playstation, so I'll never be able to save PTR, because it will only save to slot 1.
Anyway though.
We sat around drinking Cherry Coke, eating Oreos and sweets - milk bottles and cherry cola bottles - then crisps and salted peanuts.
Adam then suggested he get out the old PS1 and we play Resident Evil 3.
Of course, he played it, I watched and offered my hints. :)
It was great fun actually.
The weird thing was though, every time I seemed to speak - something would happen.
And this happened like five times - every time I started talking, either zombies would jump out of cars, dogs would jump out of windows, or Nemesis would burst out of a door.
Today's been shit though.
It's weird though - I don't think I've done ANY schoolwork today.
- OMFG THERE'S A SPIDER ON THE WALL BEHIND MY MONITOR...
...But yes.
Umm...
Lesson 1 - IT, exam prep, I'm not doing the exam again, I had nothing to do, I went on FPC.com.
Lesson 2 - English, revision, I didn't do a lot, just listened and read.
Lesson 3 - Science, Cowley just talked us through our coursework.
Lesson 4 - Maths, Wilson wasn't even there, we were down in humanities 2, and Miraan, Amanda and I just played hangman for like the whole hour.
Lesson 5 - Media studies, down the CLC, Sam and I just sat there playing hangman on the PC, because we can't really do an awful lot on our project.
Though, I felt depressed all day.
Just listening to a certain set of people who used to be friends with me until they met each other - talking and laughing down the aisle next to me.
So I cut myself a little bit.
At dinnertime, I did my left, and I did my right after school.
Which was a bad time to do it, because as Mrs Mac was talking to me, she took me by the right wrist - as she often does when she talks to people - but she pressed her fingers right into the fresh cuts, and it KANED.
So I just stood there wincing, trying to keep silence, despite how much it hurt.
Tomorrow I have to go and see those people, and I'm not looking forward.
At least mother isn't coming.
Sigh...
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