I don't know about you, But I'm feeling 22

Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the internet, 

It's been another birthday. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two. That's what I said when I lost in black jack. I'm actually about a decade older than that but isn't age really just spirit, daesein? Yes, I'm feeling another year older, and yes it's harder to wake up early in the morning, and yes it's more tiring being on my feet at work all day, and yes I've got lots of laundry to do, and yes all my relationships are like a chess game, etc. But in the end I still feel like a young grasshopper, a mere sapling awash in the pools of the universe, awaiting the wheel of fate. 

I spent my birthday weekend in Las Vegas with friends. The trip itself wasn't remarkable but I had a lot of fun playing black jack, baccarat, and roulette with friends, learning it on the fly, as well as some slots as the casino. My favorite meal was a Monte Cristo sandwich. The bread had the texture of fried chicken. I would take a bite and then drink some coffee to go with it. 

There were three metaphysical moments I experienced over that birthday weekend in Vegas. 

1) On the drive there, when we left California and entered into Nevada, there were these dust storms and doom-inspired mountains. A sign on the highway read Shoshone. When we passed that landscape and that sign, I had some kind of meta moment in time. Something about the land or something. 

2) On the drive back there was a car accident on the road leaving Nevada and going to California. This is probably a big drinking/smoking in the car road. Anyway, so this car gets into an accident and the car is completely totaled, especially the front end and the car seat was crumpled/crushed into itself, meaning this person was killed instantly on impact. It really is the city of sin, for I saw Death himself, staring back at me from the abyss. 

3) On the last day the guys wanted to go to a antique shop to look around. I stayed in the car with the window down and did a lot of reading and got some rest. I was in that state between wakefulness and intense sleep, meanwhile the weather outside was going from sort of hot to more mild coolness and breeze in the mid afternoon hours. It was the most relaxing part of the trip. 

As if that wasn't enough, as soon as I got back, on the next day's morning, I had an 830am-5pm shift, right back into the saddle again, ad infinitum. 

But you know, I'm feeling good. I said a prayer for the deceased in the car accident, did some meditating in the car, and turned on Handel's Water Music to vibe out to something flowery. And you know what? Life is good. I'm older but I still feel young. Covid is still raging but I'm healthy. My house is in order: I'm reading books, I'm playing guitar, I have a for work life and a for fun lifestyle that most people would be jealous to have or can't have because they're busy doing other things like trying to make ends meet. Most people are stuck in obligations at work or have kids, or both, and meanwhile, I'm out here trying to figure out how I'm going to get Korean spicy spare rib soup for dinner or how I'm going to manage to find time to finish the Ring Cycle. 

The world from say 2004-2021 went through a drastic cataclysmic change. I cannot see the world in the same way as it was say in 2004. Covid has created a new system in which we have to learn to find a new way to life. That's really all we can do. 

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two.

The Chairman's Method: Re-Education Through Labor

Hello, ladies and gentlemen of the internet. My grand extravaganza of a birthday weekend just passed. Here are a few thoughts on that said birthday, and what it feels like to be 31 in 2020. 

Life is moving pretty fast these days it seems. Yes, the pandemic has brought everything to the penultimate halt but people are still out here trying to make their dreams become reality. Today, my manager and co-worker sort of grilled me about how I need to get a real career going. I've been at the company for some seven years in retail there at the market. Things have gone okay but not great there. And now with the pandemic in full effect [and it will get much worse mind you], hours have been scarce, including for me. 

So they mentioned that I should go to trade school. And that a four year degree is worthless. Well, I agreed with that part at least about the four year degree. The way I see life and work is that I chose the road less traveled, the much harder road, the road where you'll feel your work through your blood, sweat, and tears, [like the rock band] more so than through your paycheck. 

What I mean is that I chose re-education through labor rather than the traditional college route. To be honest I have no regrets but eventually my body will feel it a lot more [this is why I must lose weight and become as healthy as possible because my 40s will be much harder] in the next decade. I've never been a follower, so consequently I've never had a leader, meaning that I've pretty much gone my own way my entire life. A real lone wolf in that sense. Scary and intense as fuck! Lol.   

Sure, I've had some guidance here and there but if I'm forced into something, that's usually a sure sign of it not working out. That's why I've gone the Chairman's Method, Re-Education Through Labor. 

Instead of going to college and getting a degree and spending a fortune to educate myself, I've instead chosen to work as much as I physically can, get as much money as I can, and spend all my time off work educating myself by reading the Western Canon, history, philosophy, [and science fiction]. I've created an online persona [this blog] where I can write about, well anything and everything I've read, learned, or experienced. Another big part of that re-education is all the music I play, primarily teaching myself how to play jazz guitar through live experience with a talented saxophonist. It ain't much but its honest work. 

I feel very good about what I've done so far and I'm very optimistic about the future. I think I'll eventually figure out a more profitable job or career, but even if I don't, I won't feel like a loser because I didn't become a master of the universe [Elon or Zuckerberg]. I won't become a bitter man because I didn't become rich. I won't look at people any less. I won't become more solitary and turn away from society like some depressed slightly older millennial who thinks they deserve much more than they have received without putting in the effort in order to achieve this godlike status. I know what all those people are like. They're miserable. But I'm not. I'm actually happy. 

The biggest lie in society is that you must have, have, have, in order to be happy. Yes, you would be happier if you kept having more and more and more but the more you become attached to these things, the less meaning they contain, and until you see that, you can only truly live in a material world, free from the spiritual self, which is where the real magic happens. Until you learn to live [and let die], you can never detach yourself from the material world. The material world tells me I need a degree, that I need a trade school, that I need to do this, need to do that. But my spirit tells me all I need to know. This is where the Chairman's Method has lead me so far. If you see me on the road, don't kill me. 

With Tales of Brave Ulysses, how his naked ears were tortured, by the Sirens sweetly singing.

Birthday Op-Ed

So my birthday is tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to enjoy the next three days off work, relaxing with family and friends. I wanted to jot down some thoughts about today, this year, this birthday, and what it means for me, and consequently for all.

Today a cop was ONLY charged for misfire shots, NOT for the death of Breonna Taylor. Although the family has been paid off some $12 million, the fact that the cop or cops in question weren't charged for manslaughter is an unforced error. Consequently, the streets of Kentucky are running hot, because as the hardcore BLM people say, "No Justice, No Peace." It's a dishonor to her memory. She was a front line health worker. The law in Kentucky has been written in a way that does not help black people, and it could be argued that it is written in a way to hurt them, as what happened in this situation. The disregard of black life animates much of life in America these days.

This goes into the question; what kind of country do we want to be? For the police and county and Kentucky not to have charged at least one cop for the death of Taylor is an unforced error. They couldn't at least have charged one cop for manslaughter? That's ridiculous. Instead they charged one cop for misfiring. That's just stupid. They might as well have not charged any cops with anything, that's what that charge was good for.

Now, I'm not a conspiratorial man. I leave that to the Socialist Leftists and the Far Right Trump Supporters. BUT...I also believe that this plays right into the hands of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Bare with me. Kentucky is Mitch's state and if protests break into violence and deaths then this is the perfect scenario for McConnell and Trump to say, "Look! All these blacks are acting out.  They're dangerous. They're going to come to your cities and burn everything to the ground. Keep Mitch in power, he will protect you in Kentucky. Keep me as President, I will quell the chaos." That's pretty much exactly how I see the scenario playing out. Consequently, Trump's numbers will go up and he could even be reelected.

Now we get to the crux of the matter, the Tolstoyian question; who are we? What kind of country have we become, and what kind of country will we choose to be? I believe this is the most important year in my life, given everything that's happened [dismantling of American democracy, COVID, stagnant wages, unemployment, 200,000 American deaths, and this is just the beginning], and with that being said, this is the most important election of my lifetime thus far, probably the most important election of this country [ever]. 

Because you see that whatever direction we go in this election year will determine the fate of America. If we choose Trump then we will have chosen evil. We will go down the continued path of dismantling American democracy and fanning the flames of racism, bigotry, and hatred for anybody who isn't white. If we choose Biden/Harris then we will have seen the ultimate errors of our ways and try to find a way to go back to the way things were before [which will take years because Trump has already done so much damage]; human decency and respect for your fellow man [and woman]. 

There's no easy way to say this but I'm afraid that America will choose the wrong path, the Trumpian way, and delve deep into a ever evolving fascist system. More Americans will die, probably much faster because Trump will continue to botch COVID if reelected. More black Americans will be shot by policemen, provoking the black community to protest [and maybe some will riot], enabling Trump to fan the flames of racism, and allow him to say, "I will keep your cities safe from them." Unemployment will continue to be at its high peaks and the only jobs available will be low end minimum wage. College degrees will hardly be worth the tuition because families will not only not be able to afford it but they won't want to send their kids to school during COVID. 

Imagine if I were 20 instead of 31. This all would not only be very overwhelming to me, it would penetrate the fiber of my being. However, because I'm already an adult, and have lived a fairly privileged life, I feel the weight of this moment more powerfully than ever. I know that nothing is more important than the history that is happening now. I quit playing video games and find the internet to be not very worthy of my time. I live my life to the fullest everyday and love all the people in my life. This younger generation is going to have a much harder time than I did. College won't save them from COVID and Donald Trump. Let's pray the voters make the right choice. 

Biden/Harris 2020 

September Feels

September is my favorite month. Why? A lot of people I know seem to have birthdays in September, including my father, myself, and many kids I went to school with. I also like October because its the following month after, and my birthday is five days right before. I also just love the season of Fall, when the leaves fall off the trees, burning a red and orange color. I want to take the time here to jot down some general thoughts during this time period. 

There's a lot going on right now. Today was rushashuna so it was a busy day at work [luckily I worked a short late shift]. There's something about the Jewish holidays, and this one in particular that I find to have significant importance, at least for myself. Perhaps because it's near my birthday, but for some reason I always know when rushashuna is happening and I even have memories of this particular day in September going back to high school and middle school. 

Perhaps because some of my teachers were Jewish and they went out of their way to explain to us students the significance of this holiday, and what it meant to them. I'm definitely not a religious person by any means but I think it's important, and interesting that I put a certain significance to this particular Jewish holiday. I was in a cooking class back in high school, perhaps junior year when I first learned about rushashuna. The teacher was a short woman, I can still remember her plump white hands as she would show us how to bake cookies. Of course, the holiday has a significance like no other in the Jewish calendar, as it represents God's creation of the world. 

On top of that today the Notorious RBG [Ruth Bader Ginsburg] died at the age of 87. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg was definitely going to pass away soon as 87 is very old age and she had gone through multiple cancers and somehow still survived and lived to do much more good work, after a lifetime of work dedicated to equality and justice in America. She's an American hero, a legend that will never be forgotten. 

The problem though is that we're 40-something days before an election and now because of her death, the Republicans [led by McConnell] will probably fill her Supreme Court seat with a conservative judge. Yeah, because that's exactly what America needs right now, another conservative Supreme Court pick chosen by Trump, after they already got their rapist Supreme Court pick with Kavanaugh. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth that they got him, now they'll get another conservative pick? The only thing left to do is to make sure you all go out and vote, and vote Democrat because as Hillary Clinton said, "these people only care about power, not about what's good for the country, or the future." Well said indeed. 

On top of that we're all also dealing with COVID-19 still. America still has the highest deaths and the most infections. At this rate we're going to go over 200,000 deaths very soon. That is very scary. Nearly 200,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 when there is no reason that should've happened. We didn't do the testing. We closed and opened up too fast and too soon.

People aren't heeding the warnings and are still gathering and partying even though the pandemic is still going strong. We think we've already gone through the first wave but the fact of the matter is that we're still in the first wave. I seriously blame Trump's bad leadership for some of the deaths but the reality is that COVID would've decimated us either way, however, I do believe that Trump could have handled it better. We are Americans and we can handle the truth; instead Trump downplayed the virus and made his supporters think we were safe when we're all in danger. And for that, he should never be forgiven, lose the election, and be sent to jail for crimes against the State, some of which was addressed in the Impeachment Inquiry and the Mueller Report. 

Even more we have the 2020 Election coming up. A lot of Democrats, moderate left-wingers, and plain regular folks have been uneasy about this election. They were expecting Hillary to win in 2016 [what a blow to feminism that was] and now they see that they don't have a perfect or ideal candidate [Biden] so they're a little uneasy. I'm a little shaky on this election. This is the most important election in my lifetime so far. Democrats can't afford to blow it. 

However, I also realize that important life changing events have happened that have pretty much guaranteed that Trump will lose. Of course I don't know if its a guarantee but I believe these events are so important that they will make an impact, hopefully forcing Trump out of office this election. The events are as follows: The murder of George Floyd caught on video, the outrage of police/citizens killing and using extreme force against black and brown people, the mass protests for said outrage [where whites and blacks took to the streets even though they could've caught COVID], COVID-19 itself and its mismanagement by the Trump administration, and the Trump administration's misuse, mismanagement, and disruption of American democracy. These things are life changing for every American and they are so bad, so utterly terrible that I believe Trump can never recover from it. Let's certainly hope so. 

Finally, I realize a lot of this is out of my control and must take care of myself. I spend most of my time reading. I read the news less these days but watch the news almost every day. I'm halfway through War and Peace by Tolstoy and am truly enjoying it. I find solace in the superb story telling of a great Russian writer such as Tolstoy. 

As each day goes by I realize that the material world is not for me; I spend less and less time on the computer and spend more time reading, writing, and playing the guitar. If I ever get anywhere in this world, it will be through those pursuits. Even if the world is burning outside, I know that inside myself, there is a spiritual place, a path resides therein, to make your way in the world, and out, where no evil can touch you.

An ode to my twenties

I just turned thirty years old on September 25, 2019. It's been a great life, full of peace, and love, and happiness, as Hendrix used to say. I feel like all the time spent in my twenties went to good use. I've really come into my own as a person, a man, a brother, a son, an employee, a friend. Thirty is the beginning of the next phase of life where I'll strive for success. And keep up the good stuff. However, I can't overlook the great soul searching that took thirty years. 

First of all, living in California under the tutelage of my stepfather has changed me a lot as a person. For the better. I started reading a lot of books and it turned out that I love reading. As a result of reading a lot, I've turned to writing a lot as well. As a matter of fact, I've been writing this blog for the last six years, how long I've been living out here in Cali. Not only did I take up the reading habit but I've also learned to look inwards towards myself, and become more soft-spoken, and develop an interior life away from my friends, work, and family, leading me to become more confident and more assertive.

My attitude about life has improved a lot. Work doesn't seem like a chore anymore. Rather, it is an interactive experience where I get to interact with the being, worldhood, of the world, something I picked up from Heidegger, from his philosophical opus, Being and Time. I've developed a zenlike attitude in most things. "There is neither praise nor blamed attached." 

Dad: This is all psychological but the older you get, the faster time goes. This goes without being said. It's a feeling, a dasein, if you will, [also from Heidegger, dasein, is related to "being there", "presence"] The feeling somehow kicked into overdrive over the last two days of being thirty. I've come to maturity. Not within the last two days. But over the last ten years. The sense of knowing that you don't have time to do everything you want to do in your day. Therefore, you eliminate all the unnecessary activities in your day, and you only do the things that really matter to you. For me, this would include guitar playing, keyboard playing, jamming with my saxophone playing friend, reading, writing, working, and the occasional hangout. I've figured out that I have no time for gaming really. It's just unrealistic to fit gaming into 24 hours when there are so many other more important, worthy pursuits, such as music, reading, and writing. 

My advice for youngsters: Find what you love and focus on that. Eliminate all frivolous activity. Chill with friends and make as many friends as possible. But in the end, you might find out that your friends need you more than you need them. Find solace in solitude and seek/contemplate/ruminate on silence and inner being. Read what interests you to get you into reading, then start reading everything you can: including the Western canon, philosophy, fiction, nonfiction, history, music, art, etc. Learn as much as you can. Be more patient than everyone you know. Make every interaction a good experience. On all of your bad days remember that there is still peace and love in the universe no matter how bad you have it.

An ode to my twenties. 

September Update

Hey so its been a while since I've posted and I figured I should do a September update. Everything has been going really well. I'm talking to more girls and I actually have a date next week. I'm feeling more confident, going to the open jam every week, jamming with more musicians, hanging out with friends, working, gaming, and just enjoying life. I think I've actually got a good drummer for a band right now. He has a guitarist that drives and I'm hopefully going to meet up with them at a small studio at some point soon. So many good things going on!

Work has kind of simmered down since the initial hardcore 40 hour weeks. This week and last week I only got 23 hours which is a good thing right now. It will give me more free time to relax, game, and most importantly practice guitar and music. I just ordered my 7-string Jackson guitar last week Thursday so it will be in time for my birthday on the 25th. I'm extremely excited for the 7-string! I'm already imagining different ways I'll play it from typical metal players. I want to learn jazz chord voicings using the extra string and stuff. It's gonna be neat. 

The jam at Peties has been going good. Last week there was hardly anyone in the audience but the actual guitar players that showed up were bloody amazing. This one guy did a great Jimi Hendrix Little Wing cover as well as Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). It was off the hook. I've never really seen a guitarist as good as that guy was ever there before. Also, I have more friends that are willing to meet me at the open jam now. This skater friend showed up and brought a friend and then also this drummer showed up. The drummers' name is Martin and we're hopefully going to be starting a band together. His bag is metal particularly death metal and black metal but I'm hoping he can expand his chops even more and get more technical than stereotypical death metal chugging.

So yeah everything's going great. My birthday is coming up so that's exciting. I plan on going out to eat with friends or family whoever is available first really. I've already got what I wanted which is the 7-string Jackson (seen in picture) so I'm not really expecting anything too wild from my friends, but maybe I'll get a cool band shirt or something. My dad was talking about maybe going out to Chicago for the last 5 days of October. That would be great because I can study music a bit with my dad's composer friend Frank. He's been teaching and talking to me a lot though email but if I was to actually hang out with him it would be a lot cooler. Hopefully that goes through and we end up going because I haven't been back in the Midwest since 2013. That's a long time to not see your mother and childhood friends.

That's a wrap for now, thanks for reading!

Ice Nine Kills Concert Plus Birthday

This weekend I celebrated my birthday. For two days straight. Saturday and Sunday. It was awesome! On Sunday, the actual day of my bday we went to Hurricane Harbor and went to a concert at the White Oak Music Hall right here in Encino. Here I'd like to discuss the concert.

The venue is pretty small and very loud. Not loud enough to pierce my ears so hard that they hurt for too long thankfully. But loud enough to sound deafening in that small venue. The first band that played had a lot of sound troubles. This became a trend as the night went on. They had some major feedback problems from one of the speakers and it cut into their vocals and stuff. It seemed cool that they had a hot girl singer doing clean vocals with a guy doing the screaming growly death metal stuff but the girl's cleans weren't very good. Out of tune mess. At least she was hot. XD

There was another band with a good growler but the clean vocals guy just had the most annoying nasally high pitched voice. If you have a high pitched voice you should stay focused on the melody and sing in tune. How people don't understand this is beyond me. Not the best singers that's for sure.

There were some people moshing in a small pit but it wasn't until later on that the pit got a little crazy. Remember, its a small place so you can't really mosh too hard without hurting someone. My friend got a little hurt by these two guys and his shoulder is a little fucked up still. Kinda funny but it must suck.

This was pretty weird but when the bands were done playing they played this post-bop jazz music pretty loudly. I thought it was strange that they playing jazz loudly to feverish metal fans during the setups. It would've been better if they played metal music, or just no music at all. However, I did enjoy it for a little while until I kept thinking that I was gonna arrive at the fourth floor. XD

The next important thing to take note on was this rap nu-metal band. They went pretty fucking hard. The rap with nu-metal thing has been done to death in the 90s so I wasn't impressed that they were playing a stale style of music. However, I was impressed with the singer. The rest of the band, not so much. The singer could do aggressive screaming and rap pretty well. However, with only a mediocre band and riffs he can only do so much.

None of the guitar players in any of these bands played guitar solos. Which begs the question, are they even good enough to play guitar solos? Or are guitar solos just not welcome in this style of metal? Has metal music taken a turn for the wimpy guitar worst, like the 90s alternate grunge era when it was frowned upon to be a long hair neoclassical guitar shredder? I feel like it has in some ways.

For example I think its great that some bands don't have solos. That's cool. But its always nice when a band has a guitarist who can deliver the goods in every form-and that has to include solos. I get it. Solo's aren't for everybody and not all fans like them. It's not commercial in today's musical market. But I still like them.

These kinds of bands that I saw all have a certain style that many other bands have. They play aggressive music but they all have clean vocals to go with the screaming. So its kinda emo but its also super heavy metal too. The music has a lot of breakdowns but nothing complicated to play, and nothing too memorable. It's not heavy on melody. It's a style of new metal-core I would say. The latest edition if you will. My friends dig these kinds of bands a lot. After seeing the best bands in this style at Warped Tour this summer I would say its pretty fun to see live. But I wouldn't really listen to it while relaxing at home. I have listened to some bands like Motionless in White and Sum 41 at home recently though.

There was also a lot of hot girls there. There was this short girl with black hair who was going fucking hard in the pit. She grabbed my friend's hand and threw him in the pit at one point. Pretty funny.

The headliner was Ice Nine Kills, this band we saw play back at the Warped Tour. They were the best band in terms of everything. The visual stage show, the sound (although they too had technical difficulties), and the music. Their breakdowns were super heavy and aggressive. They had a mascot there-someone wearing a Fox outfit carrying an axe (plastic axe). It was really funny because I was wearing my Starfox shirt my friend got me for my birthday and they were standing next to me looking at me. It looked like a girl's body in the Fox outfit but it could've been a guy just staring at me. Funny either way. 

Ice Nine slayed pretty hard. For a while here and there they made me feel like I was back at Warped Tour. It was a great feeling. Reliving my glory days of Warped Tour....The last song they played was a song I actually remembered from the Warped Tour. I headbanged pretty hard. It was awesome.

Although the other bands weren't that great I think Ice Nine Kills made up for that. They played a long set and were super professional. The White Oak venue is a pretty great place to see shows near my house and I'll most definitely go there again. Hope you all had a great weekend enjoying time with your family, friends, or co-workers. Take time throughout the week to listen to some great music, perhaps even see a show if you're free. Concerts are super fun!

Exceptional Birthday Weekend, Arcade, and Starcraft II.

     

     This has been a great weekend. I got the Wii U, Smash 4, and Mario Kart 8, and got to celebrate my birthday hanging out with my friends on Friday and Saturday. It was really fun. One of my friends got me a Zero Suit Samus controller for Smash, and another one got me $20 in Nintendo e-shop money cards. I'm deciding if I'm going to save it, use it to buy some old school Nintendo games on the e-shop or just use it to buy the Smash 4 dlc characters. I kind of don't want to rebuy the Smash dlc because I already bought it on my 3DS, it seems dumb to buy them again on the Wii U. Nintendo needs to sync the 3DS with the Wii U, that's really my only complaint about Nintendo's current gaming products. But on the other hand, I really like having my Smash roster with the all characters full. Anyways, on Friday my friends kicked it at my place to play Smash 4. It was a great experience playing with them on the Wii U for the first time. I gotta say that the Gamecube controller on the Wii U is much better to play with than the 3DS input buttons. One of my friends kept getting second place all the time and he was getting super salty (mad). We were all like,"We should sprinkle some salt on that wound". It was pretty funny.
      Saturday we went to a free arcade in Chatsworth. This place is the bomb! They have all these old school arcade games for free with no catch. The way this place stays open is that its only open on Saturdays from 11 am to 4 pm, and its a place where people buy arcades for cheap (like $600) and rent arcades. There was a lot of people there playing games and a friend of mine saw one of his old high school friends there and we ended up playing a lot of this game called X-Men vs Streetfighter, which is basically like Marvel vs Capcom. I was surprisingly pretty good at this game. Its one of those ultra fast combo fighting games where you kind of have to know what your doing in order to win. Learning how to do the ultimate moves and basic combos was pretty easy. I did pretty well using Chun-Li and Ryu. We kind of ended the time at the arcade by playing it vs each other one by one, it was super fun. Me and a friend also played Streetfighter II but I wasn't as good in that game. It seems old school Streetfighter is a little bit more difficult to play than the new ones, like Streetfighter IV Ultra that I have for the Xbox360. I tried playing a few other games but I'm terrible at those old school type shoot and move arcade games. There was so many games but it was in a small warehouse with no air conditioning, another reason why the place is free I guess. The most fun game there was definitely X-men vs Streetfighter.
     After that we went to my friends place and we ended up playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl 4 players in a free for all format. Somehow I ended up winning tons of games playing the character Snake, from the Metal Gear Solid series. He's so good in Brawl that I'm hoping that they put him in Smash 4 as dlc along with a great Metal Gear map, like the one from Brawl. Again, one of my friends kept getting 2nd place in all our games and boy was he salty! At one point he even threw his controller against the desk, haha. The thing is that he doesn't know Smash fundamentals at all but somehow he's good at free for all because he does the same basic cheap moves over and over again. It's actually really funny how cheap he is, especially with Dark Pit, who's really cheap in Brawl. It was interesting playing Brawl competitively instead of Smash 4. They are completely different games with different play styles but I kind of like Brawl more because it has Snake. I randomly picked Snake just to try him out and I guess I was just good with him right from the start. I especially like his punches, jabs, and air kicks he does while in the air. Nice moves! It was good 'ole clean fun.
     Later, when I got home, I played Heroes of the Storm for a bit, mostly messing around doing the quests for the gold. At some point I want to unlock some of the newer heroes that I've sort of missed because I thought they were sorta lame, but now that I've tried some of them I want to unlock them. After I played Heroes I started playing Starcraft II again for the first time in months. A while back I tried to play but I think because I was playing teams it sort of drew me away. Mostly because I hate teams and don't know how to play teams very well. All I really like in Starcraft II is 1v1 because of how challenging, engaging, and fun it is. You literally never know whats going to happen in any given game. I got promoted from bronze to silver in like one game, that was pretty cool. The guy that I beat in that game wanted to practice with me to get better and after a few games he was finally able to defeat me, using tons of colosi and stalkers, along with phenixes, a weird composition for a protoss army if you ask me. Basically I'm learning how to macro again, fast expand, and build an army composition. Most of the games in these low level leagues are pretty slow and you're just learning the game so nothing too crazy ever happens. I'm going to work at getting better at Starcraft to get ready for the next expansion, which is coming out in November. I have it on pre-order at gamestop. It's a super fun game and very relaxing after a long day like today. At the same time there's some pressure to try to win every game.
     Lastly, I've been playing the Wii U as well. When I got up I was playing Mario Kart 8 a lot, and I practiced Smash the night before using the Gamepad with modified controls. The Gamepad ain't bad to play on. As if all this wasn't great enough tomorrow in the afternoon the family and I are going to Dimsun (Chinese lunch) at our favorite Chinese Restaurant A&W's. I'm really looking forward to it. It was an amazing birthday and weekend. As Shulk says,"I'm really feeling it!"

Birthday and Wii U

     Today is my birthday. I am 26, I was born on September 25th 1989. I had a pretty good day today and am looking forward to my three day weekend.
     In addition, today I finally bought my Wii U. I was trying to buy one used at Gamestop and try to get a deal but the closest Gamestop we went to was shooting a commercial.....so they weren't open to the public. So my brother and I went to next closest Gamestop to us, which was this one at the Northridge mall. It was all good but they didn't have a used Wii U there or the used Wii U bundle that Gamestop is advertising online. It was annoying but I decided if I was going to get it today that I would have to cough up the extra, like 40 bucks to just get it brand new. So I ended up getting the brand new bundle. The guy behind the counter, a young Hispanic guy that seemed really effeminate, asked me if I wanted to get the Super Mario 3D Land bundle or the Mario Kart 8 bundle. I'm not much of a Mario player but I felt like Mario Kart 8 is probably the more fun game that I could enjoy more with my friends, so I ended up going with that one. It set me back quite a bit, it was about $330, pretty pricey but still cheaper than the Xbox1 and the PS4 bundles by almost a 100 bucks. I ended up not having enough cash to get Smash as well but my brother decided to just buy me Smash! He's the greatest older brother in the world, haha. He got it brand new unfortunately because they didn't have it used. I was super excited but the car ride home was a long one as I waited in anticipation for what lies before me.
     When we got home I opened everything up and we figured out what plugs into what within seconds and pretty soon we had the console turned on and configuring. This was the most annoying part, the nonstop updates for everything! They took about 2 to 3 hours, I kind of lost track of time because I took a nap while it was updating. At some point my brother woke me up to say that it was done. But then when I popped in Super Smash Brothers 4 it had to update again to play online. It was terrible! But once I got that out of the way I started playing and enjoying the console.
     Once I started playing Smash on my very own Wii U I realized that this is how I'm going to get better at the game, especially with my Smash Gamecube controller. Today I was played on the Wii U Gamepad but I think its rubbish, I only used it because my Gamecube Adapter for the Wii U didn't come through Amazon yet. I could've played on my 3DS, I'll probably try it out later today when I wake up. My friends are going to come over today and they're going to play using their 3DS's so they'll see what its like using a 3DS for Smash on the Wii U. I did it once for my first tournament and I wouldn't recommend it just because the 3DS directional movement sticks are kind of wonky. Anyways, Smash was amazing. I still have to unlock a ton of the characters and I'm missing key stages like Smashville. I played a bit of team battles and found it way too laggy to play at all. After that I tried 1v1 games and it seemed fine, although there was some slight lag, very slight. It's great to have Smash on a console with great graphics, I was all like,"Sick graphics bro!" when I saw what it looked like on our big TV.
     After that I took a break. Then I played Mario Kart 8. A super fun game, I would say its the most fun racing game I've ever played. I really don't like racing games because I'm terrible at turning at high speeds and breaking but this game is just a great racing game, way better than Gran Torismo or Forza. I can tell this game is going to be fun to play with my friends.
     Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase and I can see myself spending a lot of time playing Smash and Mario Kart. I won't stop working on my guitar playing though, and it will be hard organizing my time and devoting equal amounts of time to music and gaming. I would consider myself a console gamer now as well as a pc gamer. I do it all. Before, I really hardly ever played my Xbox360 or PS3, but I will definitely be playing this next-gen console. On top of all this my little brother sent me my copy of Super Smash Brothers Melee, something we can play on my friends' Gamecube. My birthday weekend will be fun playing games and guitar. Also, we'll probably have a family dinner at a fancy restaurant. I'm looking forward to all of that. After I play more and learn more about the Wii U, I'll probably do some kind of console review and game reviews. Have a good weekend. I know I will.