Update 1.06

     Thought I'd do another one of these kind irl (in real life) updates on what's up and what's been going on for me lately. First of all, I started guitar lessons on Saturday from a jazz guitarist. He gave me some really good tips for my guitar playing but also life and job advice for my future-really good advice that I'm going to consider looking into. He thought that I'm a good player and everything but that I should consider going to school for something else, perhaps taking music courses but also studying something that I could make money in as well. He mentioned taking a CAT class, something I don't know much about but involves computer assisted technology (that's what I think it means), engineering courses, and stuff involving the sciences. When I mentioned to him that I've been interested in computer science for a while he said "that's good, learn that". He also said it will much easier being a musician when I'm making $70-$80,000 a year, which would definitely be true. Another great tip he gave me was that I shouldn't just want to play jazz guitar, but also be willing to play/learn other styles like rock, pop, and blues. Great advice. I'm thinking about enrolling in some courses at some places in the area-places like Pierce Community College and West Valley Occupational Center, places a lot of the people at my work go to. Perhaps I could learn something involving computers and technology. I'm really excited about learning more about jazz guitar. And perhaps learning something that I could get a real career with as well. So there's that.
     In addition, I'm interested in improving my writing and the blog, and trying to find an entry level position in the gaming industry. Everyone and their grandmother wants a job in the gaming industry, am i right mates? I had a talk with my brother tonight over dinner about it and he thinks I should try to figure out what I want to specialize in because there are so many jobs in the gaming industry. The first thing I mentioned was that I'm interested in writing in games (gaming journalism), PR, marketing, and the social media side of gaming. But I also told my bro that I would also be willing to learn computer coding in order to do the programming side of things for gaming. I even said I'd be willing to quit playing games to work on this stuff. I might end up not playing games as much to learn. It would take a lot of hours of learning on my own to learn this stuff, even if I went back to college and had good teachers. One of the things I'm interested in that I can do right now is try to find ways for me to write for small sort of indie gaming websites (something like Kotaku) or blogs, maybe not even get paid, but just do it for the experience. That way I can say that I've had experience writing in a somewhat professional environment. So I'm going to start looking at websites and blogs that I can write for and maybe start to get noticed for my writing and maybe even for my own blog. I've never really marketed my blog (other than my Twitter and Facebook) or networked with other bloggers online (other than Ryfigueroa.blogspot). I'm sure if I did I would get much more attention and be noticed more in the gaming, music, and pop culture community. I know a lot of people write blogs and stuff but I feel that I've learned how to write pretty well in this blogging format. Maybe other people will recognize that as well.
     Lastly, other changes I want to make are with myself. For one thing, I want to start waking up earlier in the day and getting more done, like working on the guitar, learning more about jobs, and starting school. Right now I would say that I live a very privileged life that is outside the norms of society. Part of it isn't my own fault. For one thing, I work until 1 in the morning everyday that I work. Because of that I usually stay up late into the early mornings, sometimes not going to sleep until 4 or 5 am. I'm usually just messing around playing 3DS, watching YouTube, and watching Twitch streams. It's gotten to the point now that I usually wake up super late, and I even sometimes miss things I want to go to because I've overslept (I've missed two Super Smash Brothers 4 tournaments recently because of this). :'(  It ain't all that bad though, it's not like super important events happen here in the Valley anyways. But where I live everything is done during the day and there isn't anything open and anything to do past 10 pm. I wish I lived in a more lively environment, something to look into in the future. I should look on the bright side though. At my work, all the hard work and heavy lifting happens during the day. And I only work at night. Nice man!
     In addition, I've been trying to eat healthier and I've stopped drinking soda, preferring to drink water, tea, and juice lately. Got to lose weight so I can look good for the ladies! I even got a haircut recently but I have to say that I hate having short hair and I'm not going to go this short ever. Something about having short hair just puts me off. It feels like part of me is missing.
     Another thing I want to do is start going out to more events and make new friends. Like going to more concerts to meet other music fans and musicians, and also going to local Smash Bros tournaments. I've met a handful of people since I've lived out here but I would say that my circle of friends is very limited and for the most part we don't have a lot in common. It would be cool to meet more people: girls, musicians that I can form a band with, and other gamers that like the same games I play. I've met a lot of people at my work that work in the gaming industry and some of them have given me some good advice. One guy said I should look into becoming a tester. He also mentioned that if I could create a mod for a game, that's one way to get a company to look at you. He even said he's working on a game right now, and that when it's ready he'll give me a beta key to test it out. Not only that but the guitar teacher who's teaching me is someone I've met at work too. So work has a place in my destiny, not too shabby. Although the daily grind of working in a grocery store can get you down, I've learned that you should do the work with good grace. That way, people will give you credit and praise you for doing the grunt work. That's it for now, Figueroa out. 

My Top Guitar Players

     This has been a long time coming but I knew I would do this for the blog at some point. I have an older guitar player friend of mine and we always chat about who's the best guitarist, its always great fun but there is a big difference between the likes of musicians now and musicians from the 60's, that's for sure. We both like blues and classic rock but he's not in the jazz and metal stuff that I'm into, stuff that I consider to be essential listening if you are a guitar player. Anyways, its going to be super difficult to keep this to a short list so I'll try to only write ten for now, and then write more if I feel more needs to be added and said.
     First, Jimi Hendrix. Jimi is just the guitar god that everyone loves. He's the greatest guitar player of all time, a black guy from the South, and made his fame in England in the swinging sixties. I think the things to be liked about Hendrix is that he's a black guy that made it in the white world, he plays a Fender Stratocaster reverse headstock upside down, writes great rock songs, and plays the greatest guitar solos known to man. Nobody Black in rock got much of the hippies' affection, that level of fame, and was the greatest guitar player in the world. I would say that Hendrix invented the idea of the modern guitar solos. Before the solos on say the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were just short little melodic ideas, and often ended quickly and weren't flashy. There are only a few other guitarists that I can think up that can even come close to the level of musicality and emotion that Hendrix brought to the table. My favorite Hendrix tunes are In From The Storm, Machine Gun, Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), Red House, and Spanish Castle Magic. 
     Second, Jeff Beck. I would say Jeff Beck is the greatest guitarist alive. He's one of those guys who is super famous among guitarists but if you ask any non-musicians, he might be unknown to them. He's kind of like the guitarists' guitarist. Meaning every guitar player on the planet thinks Jeff is amazing. When Hendrix was playing in England, Pete Townsend (The Who, Guitar Player) told Jeff Beck that he saw a black guy who was copying everything he was doing. I can say first of all that Hendrix might have learned a thing or two from Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, but Hendrix did it better. Beck started off as blues-rocker but he evolved his music and his guitar playing, going into the far reaches of jazz-rock fusion with albums like Blow by Blow and Wired. Fast forward to day and he's still innovating with his guitar technique and solos, and plenty of compositions. Check out Live At Ronnie Scott's on YouTube. 
       Third, Jimmy Page. I would say Page isn't the most technical or best guitarist but he wrote some of the best guitar riffs, recorded studio solos, and songs in all of rock music. The thing I always liked about Jimmy is that all his playing is based on the blues, but he's tampered with it so much and fucked it up, that he made it his own. At Page's best he could like Hendrix even, especially on those live Led Zeppelin dvds that everyone has. Plus Led Zeppelin is like the musicians' band. Every musician that is a bass player, guitar player, drummer, and singer all love the mighty Zeppelin, and they're hailed as one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
     Fouth, Eric Clapton. I used to think very highly of Clapton because of his work with Cream. I thought Cream was the best rock band of all time when I was in high school. I even liked Cream over Hendrix sometimes because I loved Jack Bruce's vocals, Clapton's blues-rock solos, and Ginger Bakers jazz influenced drumming. The thing about Cream was that Ginger and Bruce were jazz guys and Clapton just played great blues solos while they comped (accompanied) under him. Clapton was so great in his Cream days that people use to write Clapton is God over street signs and walls in England. I would say Cream was the first rock supergroup. My favorites from Cream are White Room, Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, and Steppin' Out, a great blues number.
     Now here is where me and my old guitar friend geaser start to disagree. Number 5, Marty Friedman. I really love shred and metal guitarists, while its hard not to call Marty a product of those styles, he also has a great unique voice on the instrument that differs from all other shredders. For one thing, he's super melodic, uses Asian scales, and writes great instrumental metal, jpop, and rock n roll. If you are a young guitarist and you like metal, you definitely know and love Marty Friedman. I've been inspired by him and learned to use some Japanese scales. The lead guitar work on Megadeth's Rust in Peace is just amazing, Marty should get some kind of metal award for the guitar solos on that one, they are just super epic, melodic, fast, and flashy. Everything you'd want in a metal band's lead guitar player. His band Cacophony is the greatest shred metal band of all time. It was amazing hearing him play with Jason Becker. Jason and Marty ARE shred guitar, they're the best, way better than Vai and Satriani. That's Marty in the picture, look at the curly locks and the sick red guitar. Check out Marty's stuff with Megadeth like Rust In Peace, and also his latest solo record Inferno. One word: Dragon's Kiss. Look it up.
     Number 6, Steve Vai. While I think Steve is a little too New Agey bullshit sometimes, he's had a big influence on my guitar playing, especially about three years ago, when I was practicing all the time and working big time on technique. I really love how he got his fame playing lead guitar with Frank Zappa, and transcribed a lot of crazy stuff for Zappa. In addition, some of his solo work is pretty good, although I would say that he doesn't improvise like the way Marty can. I would say Vai can't really improvise all that well, he would never be able to play jazz. Marty being another kind of shred guitarist like Vai though, could definitely fake his way through some jazz changes(chord changes).
     Number 7, Paul Gilbert. PG is another one of those guys who, when I first heard him I freaked out, and started practicing a lot more just to perhaps one day get to that level of speed and technicality. What was so great about him is that he had perhaps the second greatest speed metal band of all time with Racer X. Check out the song Scarified, and any of Paul's solo albums, and you will hear how fast, precise, and melodic he can be with his string skipping arpeggios. Not only was PG a great lead guitarist for speed metal and neoclassical metal, but he was also in a great rock band in the 90's that had a lot of catchy songs. The band was Mr. Big, which brought him a lot of fame. At first, you could tell that Paul was influenced a lot by Yngwie Malmsteen, but as the years went on, he developed his own style, to the point where its hard to just call him a metal guitarist. I think he's evolved into a much more musical guitarist that plays blues and even going into the jazz realm sometimes. He's changed and progressed so much over his Malmsteen copy days as a teenager. Speaking of Malmsteen.....
     Number 8, Yngwie Malmsteen. Swedish guitarist Malmsteen gets a lot of shit for 'lacking soul' and just being a neoclassical wanker but I think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. The only album I like or recommend by Malmsteen is his first album, Rising Force. I feel like everything he's done since then was already done on that first album, and perhaps he petered out of style, songwriter, and originality maybe a few years after making Rising Force and making a big name for himself in America. What I like about Malmsteen is that all his licks are original in the rock music world, but he straight up jacked everything he plays from the Baroque classical era, stuff like Bach and Paganini. Some of his songs are just rearrangements of classical pieces just put to a rock beat and bass line. He's probably the most influential shred metal guitarist of all time since Eddie Van Halen. Speaking of Eddie.........
     Number 9, Eddie Van Halen. You can tell I like those metal guitarists with the long hair and the pointy pink guitars from the 80's right? Well, Eddie was the king before all those guys took over the 80s, before people like George Lynch and all those hair metal guitarists that were great players. Eddie is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and I would say that maybe at his peak he might've been near Hendrix's level. But he got caught up in stuff like alcohol and sickness so he went away for a long time and didn't reappear in the musical world until recently. His work with Van Halen with David Lee Roth was just amazing to me. I used to listen to Van Halen a lot when I was in high school. Eruption made me change the way I thought about electric guitar. Before I thought guitar solos were always suppose to be blues based and have certain kinds of tones and styles, like Hendrix, Beck, and Clapton type sounds. Eddie showed me the way to rock guitar god mode before I heard Marty, Paul Gilbert, and Malmsteen. To me he's like the original OG shred metal guitarist. He wasn't quite at the level of technicality that people like Jason Becker and Marty Friedman would get to, but he had the spirit and emotion of a truly great musician. Eddie is one of the guys that my old geezer guitar friend likes as well. A link between the metal guitarists and the blues guitarists maybe? We can only hope.
     Number 10, this is a hard choice because its potentially the last guitarist that I think should be on my top ten list, at least I want to keep it to 10 for a little while until I think more clearly about my idea of who's the greatest guitarists. I'm going to go ahead and say a jazz/fusion guitarist named John Mclaughlin. Mclaughlin made his fame playing with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew and then forming his own jazz fusion band called Mahavishnu Orchestra, one of the finest fusion groups of the 70's. Not only that, but he continued pushing the boundaries of jazz and guitar playing, playing Indian music with his band Shakti, and forming numerous other jazz bands. It's hard to say Mclaughlin had an influence on me because I could never play anything like the way he plays because he's just so fast, technical, and influenced by other cultures of music. I would say I'm still limited to Western sounds like rock and jazz, although some jazz has a lot of European harmonies in it. Nowadays, Mclaughlin has a band called the Fourth Dimension that is just amazing. He's doing a kind of midi sounding guitar thing with a lot of bebop influence. It's great stuff. Anyways, this will end the list for now. I might add more people down the road. Who are your favorite guitarists? Feel free to open up in the comments.

Dream Jobs, a Job Tier List

     Again, this is kind of random but today at dinner me and the family were talking about jobs and stuff and I thought I'd make a list of my dream jobs, or a job tier list if you will. Most of these are unattainable at the moment but you never know, I can always make things happen, get a degree, and get a great job. Let's do this.
     First and foremost, my dream is to become a musician. At first I wanted to play rock music and metal but I've kind of grown up into wanting to be a jazz musician. Being a musician is probably one of the hardest careers to be successful at, especially because everybody in California wants to be a musician or actor of some sort. First off, I'm in the wrong town for jazz music. LA isn't a jazz town at all. New York and Chicago are far better for jazz these days. In addition, playing jazz would be a much more viable option if I were in say Europe, Canada, or Japan. They really respect jazz and musicians there, way more than in the States. So a big part of my dream is to move away from LA, and move somewhere else, possibly to another country. I would say out of all these places I'd like to move to Japan most of all. I already know a bit about the culture, and I'm sure learning the language wouldn't be impossible(impossibru!). I think it would be great to have a career playing gigs in small clubs in other countries. I know people with far less talent than myself who do it so I know its attainable. On a smaller scale, I could always go check out what its like in Chicago. My mother lives right near by there in Wisconsin so its not too far away from family. Part of me learning jazz and music in general has been sort of been stunted because I'm not in college and haven't been for the last 3 years. I thought I could teach myself how to improvise and play jazz but it's proven to be much more difficult than I thought. Soon, I will be taking lessons from a jazz guitarist and hopefully that will get me on the right track. I'm a good musician and guitarist but I haven't quite put everything together. I have to work harder, practice more, and learn these jazz standards. Anyways, this is my dream job, playing music. Always has been since high school. I always figured I'd be playing the guitar for money.
     Next up, being a pro gamer. This is very unlikely and almost impossible (impossibru!). I've always enjoyed gaming but moving to California I took up gaming to a whole notha level, playing many hours a day, and neglecting my guitar playing and music. I would say that gaming has sort of taken over my life at the moment and that it's possibly my favorite thing even over music. Not quite sure how this happened but it all started when I got Starcraft II and Starwars Knights of the Old Republic. Every since then I've been hooked to PC gaming. PC master race, right guys? The game I would be playing professionally would definitely be Starcraft II. It would be awesome playing professional Starcraft in Korea, learning the language, the culture, and playing the game at the highest level possible. I also wouldn't mind being a pro at Super Smash Brothers 4. I know the life of a pro gamer isn't all glory and fun, and that it takes hard work, and over 12 hours a day of consistent practice. Not only that, but sometimes they make chump change. I literally make more money working at my current job (grocery store) than ZeRo (pro Sm4sh player) makes winning tournaments. Not only that but after a certain age you're hand muscles and hand eye coordination start to go. I'm getting old now so this option is hardly viable because of that. Also, there aren't many pro gamers in their 30's. It's a short lifespan to be a pro gamer. After your twenties you're kind of done and have to move on with another career plan in life. But it would be an amazing life traveling the world playing your favorite game for money. It would be great.
     Next, writer, magazine writer, blogger(if only I was a paid blogger), music reviewer, or journalist. This is a job that I think I wold be very good at. I already practice writing on a consistent basis with the blog and as you can tell I'm a good writer. It would be great to be a able to write for money like for say a music publication or website. That would be the best thing for me in terms of writing. If you've seen any of my past posts about jazz albums you'll be able to tell that I can write about music. If I were in college and I had to choose a major right then and there it would probably be journalism because I'm good at writing, and being paid to write sounds amazing. You can go far with writing in the working world, from journalism, magazines, blogging, and even writing books. It's a great field to go into. For this kind of work a degree would be required definitely. Something to think about if I go back to college.
    Being a general store manager at my current job, at a grocery store. While this doesn't sound as glamorous as the stuff above, it is doable if I stay long enough and earn the right kudos with the managers that are in place now. I'm not sure if I have the 'stuff' it takes to be a manager in a retail environment but from what I've seen and experienced it isn't rocket-science and sometimes these managers don't have college degrees. At the very least I could get promoted to being a full-time cashier.
     Computer programmer. I don't think I could ever be a computer coder because I'm terrible at math, but there is an affinity between music and math that I haven't discovered yet. Part of why working with computers would be the bees-knees is that with a computer science degree I could earn a lot of money. Not only that, but I could end up working for gaming companies like Blizzard, my favorite gaming company. I've seen how hard computer science can be first hand though. Most kids think they can major in computer science at college just because they like computer gaming, or because they're good at math, or they just want to make loads of money. It takes certain kinds of people to be able to do it I would say. Honestly I don't think I could do it but it would be a great paying job.
       Other things I would be interested in would be working in other retail environments like Gamestop and gaming stores in general, like a hobbies shop, maybe I could even open up my own small shop where there would be gaming tournaments like Super Smash and Magic the Gathering, Warhammer 40k, that kind of stuff. Also, I would be interested in working in the eSports field, like say casting Starcraft II matches, being a gaming journalist, social media specialist, stuff like that. Most of this stuff requires a Bachelor's degree, something easily attainable, but I'd have to throw down a lot of cash in order to get it. Anyways, that's the job tier list. What is your dream job? What is your current job? Let me know in the comments section.

Why Playing the Guitar is Awesome

     This is kind of a random post but I have an older friend that I talk about guitar players with and music in general, and I thought I'd write a post about why the guitar is amazing. It kind of speaks for itself but here is why the guitar is awesome. I've played the trumpet, bass, piano, flute, and the drums before but none of them can compare to the sound of an electric guitar(electric is my favorite, but acoustic is also cool).
     First of all, the guitar is an extremely versatile instrument able to play any style of music. Do you want to play acoustic blues? Covered. Do you want to play death metal? Covered. Do you want to play jazz? Covered. Want to play classical? Covered. Country twang? Got it. You're literally covered on any style of music. Most people start playing guitar because they want to be able to play their favorite songs, and most of the times their favorite songs are based around a particular genre(s), and they'll have to get the right guitar and equipment to fit the music.
     Second, guitars are just cool. Go to Guitar Center(my favorite store). Take a look around the walls and you'll just be amazed. Guitars come in all shapes and sizes, from acoustic to electric, and have all kinds of great paint jobs, whammy bars, interesting tuners, and pick-guards. Even if you don't know anything about guitars, as soon as you see one you will know if you like that guitar just based on how it looks, but also because of how it sounds(you learn that later). Most of the time people buy guitars because they look cool and they think they might want to play. Well, they're right for doing that. My first good guitar was a white Mexican Fender Stratocaster. I got it because it looked super cool, and Hendrix played strats(I love Hendrix). It was probably my best guitar I've ever had but sadly I sold it for my Jackson Dinky. I love the Jackson as well, but I'll always miss that stratocaster. The first really good guitar you get is like your first baby, you'll love it till you die. Anyways, guitars just look cool and are cool. People look super cool playing them in bands, especially rock, metal, and jazz bands. They're cool in jazz bands because guitar isn't necessarily a jazz instrument. Jazz guitarists are beasts. They play like a million chords for like ten people in the audience. Rock guitarists play 10 chords for like a million people in the audience(old guitar joke).
     Third, playing the guitar, and music in general is a great way to express yourself. Music in general is a form of art and a great way to express yourself. When I sit down to play the guitar, I feel like that's my way of talking or singing. It's the feels man. Music and the guitar is such a big part of my life that I feel sad and get depressed when I don't play, and when I don't listen to music.
     Fourth, guitar isn't rocket-science, and it doesn't take too much practice or skill to learn your favorite songs, unless your favorite songs are technical masterpieces, like say classical pieces by Bach or something like that. But let's face it, the average guitar player just wants to be able to jam on their favorite songs, not to be a guitar god like Hendrix or Jeff Beck. I've seen guitar players with less skills than myself play live in bands and make a living out of playing the guitar and music. It really doesn't take much skill for people to notice you and respect you for your skills. All you need is a little bit of technique and be able to play songs. That's the reason why anybody ever wants to be able to play the guitar anyways, just to be able to play their favorite songs. Over time as guitar players, we learn that we have to learn scales, chords, and arpeggios but in reality all that stuff is second to just playing songs. And you don't have to be a genius to learn a few simple songs. I started out playing Black Sabbath and the Ramones songs. Now I'm playing jazz standards and learning how to improvise over the changes. It's not as hard as it looks, but it isn't easy to be a guitar god either. People have put in their 10,000 hours to get to where they're at. People like Marty Friedman, Tosin Abasi, Steve Vai, and Hendrix all put in a lot of time and effort to become as good as they are. You do too!
      Number 5, girls dig the guitar and guitar players in general. This one has kind of been a joke for a while now and I'm not really sure if its true. It might be because of the whole hand and fingers thing(haha). Kind of like the joke about the guitar who fingered A minor(chord) and the G-string.
     Number 6, guitar players are all cool people with unique personalities and unique sounds. No guitar player sounds alike. Even if you take two terrible guitarists and tell them to do the same thing, they won't play it the same way. Hendrix sounded different from all other guitarists in the 60's. Nobody has ever sounded like him since although people have tried. But nobody gives the same amount of emotion and tenacity to the instrument. It's awesome. Part of playing the guitar and an instrument in general is finding your own voice and I would say that every experienced guitar player who has played for a while eventually finds their voice. It's extremely difficult but that's the goal. In the beginning it might've been the goal to say sound like Hendrix or Jeff Beck, but at some point you realize that you have to sound and be yourself, which is the hardest thing any musician can do in my opinion.
     Number 7, once you learn a little bit of technique and how to play a few songs you can play in a band. Being in a band is the best thing about playing the guitar. Once you're in a band you can start playing gigs with other people and make an attempt to earn some money and make a name for yourself in the real world aside from just practicing by yourself. I've been in one really great band that gigged a lot, it was kind of a nu-metal/grunge kind of band. My first band was a blues-rock band that I played in when I was in high school, we played Hendrix, Cream, Led Zeppelin, that kind of stuff. I have great memorable moments from both of those bands playing gigs. It was the best time of my life. I've even had great memorable moments playing in school jazz big bands. I had to learn a lot of jazz chords for that! It was awesome, both in high school and the little bit of time that I spent in college.
      Number 8, once you start playing the guitar you're officially an artist, like a painter, sculptor, or someone who designs buildings. It's a craft and a group that most people aren't apart of. Musicians in general are sort of like artists, they can be moody and self deprecating, like myself. I always tell people that I'm not that good when I know that I'm a great guitarist. I just don't 'feel' like I'm that great, and I feel like I have a lot to learn, especially about jazz. In terms of pure technical aspects, I've surpassed most people that play the guitar, but that doesn't mean too much to me because music isn't a technical competition. .But at the same time I can't see why people would hate on someone like Malmsteen just because he's super fast and technical. Saying he has no soul is just wrong to me because the guy plays his heart out on just about every lick.
     Number 9, once you start learning, you never stop. Music is something that you can't master. Guthrie Govan is a great guitarist that is very modest and always in a state of learning despite being a great teacher. People like him remind me that you have to always be open to learning more about music as you keep playing and get older. Sometimes people get to a certain point and they stay that way because they don't know what to learn next, or where to go from there.
     Number 10, even if you never play it you can always say you tried once, haha. There's nothing wrong with sucking at the guitar. You can only get better. With all the magazines, websites, and guitar teachers out there you can definitely hit them up to get better and learn how get great sounds out of the ole' six-string twanger(my favorite way of describing guitar).  My personal favorite guitar magazines are Guitar Player and Guitar World, and my favorite site for tabs is UltimateGuitar.com. Some guitarists that you should definitely check out are Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, BB King, Pat Martino, and Charlie Christain, just a few of my favorites. By the way, that's a picture of Jeff Beck playing a Gibson Les Paul, my favorite guitar.

My Favorite Characters in Smash 4

     This is a list of my favorite characters in Smash 4. It's kind of a tier list too because the people who I like are top tiers and pretty much the best characters in the game. Let's start this thing off.
      1) Fox. I've been a Fox main since I was a grade school kid playing Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. Ah, the good old days. Not only that but I also was a Fox main when I got older in high school and was playing Melee, arguably one of the greatest Smash games of all time. I think Smash 4 is better than Melee but only because I like the online capability and the new characters. In terms of technicality and actual skill I think Melee can't be beat by either Smash 4 or Brawl. Anyways, Fox is just the greatest character in the world to me. I love how fast he is and how he is able to get in super fast combos on characters. I love how he has a blaster that can really rake up damage too. The only weakness to Fox is that he's a light character and is very easy to combo. In addition, when he uses his up-B to come back to the stage it is very easy to spike him. To be honest I feel like he has more cons than pros but I choose to main him because I feel like he's the best and I believe in him. Me and Fox are one! Haha, but seriously he's been my main in Smash since I was a kid. He's still my favorite. How can a Fox not be cool?
     2) Zero Suit Samus, I sometimes play Zero Suit because I'm a huge Samus and Super Metroid(currently playing my first play-through of it) fan, but also because she has some good utility tools. First of all, I think Zero Suit Samus is the waifu. A waifu is like a video game character that you think is really cute. I really like her orange outfit with the tank top and shorts skin, that one is my favorite. Not only does she look good but she has a stun gun that is really effective, and an electrical whip that can be used as a long range attack. Also, her grab can be used to grapple onto the stage, just like regular Samus does. Her grab combos are insane, as well as her air combos. You don't ever want to get caught in the air by Zero Suit, she will annihilate you with these up air kicks. She's definitely top tier. I rank her like maybe 2nd best character in the game. She's really hard to deal with against people that are super good with her online on For Glory matches.
     3) Sheik, this is another one of those characters that are super top tier. I think Sheik may in fact be the greatest character in the game because of her combos, utility, and recovery. She has these needles that can used as damage and to knock people back from coming back to the stage. Also, she has this super good kick that can be used over and over again on peeps to rake up damage. In addition, she has some kind of weird grenade thing that's pretty cool but I haven't seen too many people use it effectively. ZeRo(pro Sm4sh player that won Evo this year) has really made good use of Sheik's ability and won with her in a lot of tournaments so she is definitely top tier. I also love how she's from Zelda but is a way better character than Link is. I consider Link low tier. Young Link on the underhand is beast if used correctly.
     4) Diddy Kong, I know Diddy got nerfed in the last patch but I don't care, Diddy is still one of the best characters in the game even though he got nerfed. What can I say about this cute little monkey? He has all kinds of back air attacks that will rake up damage whenever you're in the skies or recovering back to the stage. In addition, he has a bandanna peel that he can throw and that you can slip on. I really like his forward smash attack, the one-two double punch, its awesome. I've seen so many crazy Diddy players online on Twitch.tv but I think ZeRo has really mastered Diddy at tournaments. I love this attack where he jumps on the enemy players' face and slaps them while he's on top of them. He's not considered top tier anymore but he used to be. I still think he's somewhat top tier though.
     5) Yoshi, this cute little dinosaur from Super Mario World is a fan favorite. He does crazy things in the air with his tail. Not only that but he has a great spike attack where he slams his big head down against enemy players, making them fall straight to their death when trying to make it back to the stage. I don't play him but I've seen a lot of great Yoshi players online and he's super sick. My friend is a great Yoshi player.
     6) Rosalina and Luma, I can't say too much about Rosalina but I do know for sure that she's top tier. I've always liked her because of how she can attack with both her own regular attacks and Luma, the little star that she uses. I don't even know what game she's from but I've always liked her for some reason because of the double attacking, it seems cheap, but if mastered, she can be a deadly force.
     7) Luigi, this guy has always been the loser to Mario in my opinion but because of Smash he's become a fan favorite and an even better and more popular character than Mario. The only Luigi game I've ever played is Luigi's Mansion, and boy, that game was great! I really like Luigi's green fireballs, his green outfit in general, and how he's just like Mario except leaner and taller. His attacks are way different too but I can't say too much about them except that he's a boss. I love his up-B that can sometimes kill instantly. This guy is a straight-up killer in Smash.
     8) Pikachu, this little guy is one deadly electric rat. He's a fan favorite and he's so cute. I like how people spam his electric jolt ability. He has a cool kind of double teleport as his recovery and a thunderbolt attack as his down-B. He's been in Smash since the very beginning and he's only gotten better since Melee and Brawl. He's definitely top tier.
     9) Shulk, when I first got Smash 4 on the 3ds Shulk was my main character. What's not to like? He has a troll swim suit skin and a big ass sword that has like 5 unique abilities-jump, speed, shield, increased damage, and one more thing I forget about. He even has a super strong counter, his counter is stronger than Marth, Lucina, Ike, and possibly even Roy's. I would say he has a lot of untapped potential but there really aren't any pro Shulk players in the game as far as I know. Pro Smash player ZeRo think's Shulk is possibly one of the greatest characters in the game.
      This concludes the list. For now.

My Top Ten Metal Bands list

     I've been doing these kind or random posts lately because I feel like writing for the blog has really given me a voice on the internet and its a great release after working late hours in the middle of the night. Anyways, here's my list for top ten best metal bands. I'm considering this for all forms of metal. Share, like, comment if you agree or disagree!
      1) Death, this is the quintessential death metal band that made death metal famous. Sure, they didn't officially start death metal, but their music speaks for itself. It is hardcore or extreme metal that deserves the name Death, which is a really brutal name for a metal band. Although I don't like their early stuff, I have to say their later stuff (like 1998) is really amazing. I know that by then Chuck's vocals were a lot higher pitched than your usual guttural death metal style vocals from the late 80's, but I prefer it over their first couple records. In addition, I think the music got better as they progressed as a band and had several line-up changes. Their guitar playing is phenomenal and learning how to play it wouldn't be easy and would require down tuning. Songs like Crystal Mountain, Suicide Machine, The Philosopher, Flesh and The Power It Holds, and Spirit Crusher are standards that every death metal fan must know. This is a must listen to band if you like death metal, maybe even just metal in general. They are definitely one of the best metal bands of all time.
     2) Megadeth, this is just one of my favorite bands of all time. The music never gets old to me. The reason why I love this band so much is that I've always liked Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman working together. Marty is my guitar sempai, I love everything he plays, and every things he's ever played on. He's probably my favorite guitarist of all time, maybe even above Hendrix and Jeff Beck! I would say Megadeth is the greatest thrash metal band of all time, above Metallica, even Slayer, and definitely above Anthrax. I've seen Slayer and Anthrax so I can attest to know that Megadeth is better than them live at least. Songs like Hangar 18, Holy Wars, Peace Sells, and Mechanix are all standard thrash metal songs that every thrash metal fan would know, and again maybe every metal fan in general would know these songs as well. They are one of the best and they haven't changed at all since the 90's, they've kept the same gun metal gray aggressive player but only had changes in lead guitars and drums, the two Daves staying together until the very end it seems. Check out Rust in Peace and Peace Sells, those are their best recordings. That's a picture of Megadeth up top.
     3) Black Sabbath, one of the most influential metal bands of all time. Although I don't think they were considered metal at that time in 1969 when their first album came out. The first album was a sort of blues rock thing with a lot of power chords, but they really developed into a super heavy band after that first bluesy rockish sort of album. Toni Iommi is one of the greatest guitar players in metal history, and guitar history too! He created the idea that all you need is pummeling riffs over and over again to make a great song. He got rid of the idea that you had to be a Jimi Hendrix or a Jeff Beck. Although he was no slouch when it came to lead guitar either! This band had so much influence on me and my guitar playing. When I first started all I would play is the Ramones and Sabbath, that's how I learned guitar basically. All of their songs are metal anthems, even the Dio period was great in my opinion. Ozzy doesn't have the best voice, he has 'thee' voice, a great voice for what Sabbath does, which is pummel you with great riffs over and over again. If I had to rate this band I would give them a 10/10. They are probably the best metal band of all time.
     4) Deep Purple,  while some peeps might not consider Purp metal I do, mainly because of the influence they had on metal musicians and rock music in general. They're like Zeppelin (who will be on this list too), they didn't necessarily play metal but they inspired it to the point that they might as well be metal. What's great about Purp is the great songs like Smoke on the Water, Burn, Space Truckin', and Child in Time. Not only did they have great vocals and songs but they had a great lead guitarist with Richie Blackmore, who is so skilled that I would say he might have been near Hendrix's level at his peak. He inspired Ywngie Malmsteen, one of the greatest shred guitarists from the 80's. Blackmore often incorporated classical style runs into his solos as well as bluesy rock licks. He's one of the best in the business. Also, Purp stood out from the other heavy bands at the time because they had Jon Lord on organ. Cool stuff.
     5) Led Zeppelin, again its hard to argue that Zep is metal but I would say that because of the influence they had on metal music and rock in general, I deserve the right to call them heavy metal. Their music is rooted in blues rock and black blues especially but Jimmy Page just took the blues and made it his own thing. He's one of the greatest songwriters and guitar producers of all time. He isn't a Hendrix or a Jeff Beck but he wrote some of the greatest riffs and solos in recorded history. His live guitar work is a little bit sloppy but his recordings are amazing. Also, this band is the musicians band. Every musician loves Zeppelin, drummers, bassists, guitarists, and singers. How can you not like John Bonham (drums), John Paul Jones (bass), Page, and Robert Plant (vocals). They really did it all. There seemed to be a trend with heavy rock music coming from England in the late 60's, early 70's.
     6) Back to the real metal, fuckin' Slayer! Slayer is just one of those metal bands that every single metal fan loves. I've never met anyone who said Slayer sucks or anything like that. It's one of those standard bands that everyone knows. Like Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax (the big four), they all started back in the 80's and made a big name for themselves from there, resulting in probably millions of fans all over the globe. Their songs are all standards but I really like God Hates Us All and Reign in Blood. What I think makes them so good is that they play such super fast riffs all together and never mess up haha. They play really simple stuff but they do it so effectively over Tom Araya's bass and vocals. Kerry King has become a legend on the guitar too. He's gotten better at guitar since their early recordings, but he's no guitar god. I really like the albums Reign in Blood and South of Heaven, from the early part of their career.
     7) Metallica, to be honest I never really liked Metallica but I have to give them credit where credit is due. They are one of the biggest metal bands of all time and they've written some great songs and records in their career. The main reason I don't like Metallica is because they aren't consistent with great songwriting or staying with a particular style. They like to experiment a lot in their music. They're kind of like the pop metal fan's dream band because they change their style to what is popular and they play that because they know it will sell. In some ways I think Metallica has sold out but that doesn't change the fact that they've written and recorded some great shit. I think Kurt Hammett's guitar playing is garbage, especially when he overuses the wah pedal, his favorite pedal.
     8) Van Halen, this is another band I picked because they had a huge influence on me, especially when I was in high school and the very short time I spent in college. Eddie's guitar playing just blew me away. Not only did they have great guitar playing and technique, but the songs were super catchy and memorable. The first time I heard Eruption was when I was in high school. It changed my life because it changed the way I viewed guitar. Before that I thought guitar was all blues licks, Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. Eddie showed me the way to 80's guitar god mode. He's still great but he went through a great ordeal in his life. At his peak he was probably the greatest guitarist since Hendrix.
     9) Kiss, while I think Kiss's music sucks and they don't play very good music at all, I do like how catchy their songs are, the costumes and facepaint, and Ace Frehley's guitar playing. Ace showed me that you don't have to be Hendrix or Jeff Beck to be a guitar god. All you need to do is master the pentatonic scale and master a few good licks and make them your own. Anyone who can do that can play in a band really. I loved how Ace always stole the show in Kiss videos. He's one of my favorite guitarists mainly for the way he looked, and how he played his shit with emotion and bravado. Not a great technician but someone who makes due with what skills he has.
     10) Well, the last band has to be a great band that everyone knows about right? I'm going to have to go with a newer band and say Steel Panther. They rock! Satchel (lead guitar) is one of the best guitarists in the business. His playing rivals Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and Eddie Van Halen at their peaks, it's really amazing. Not only that but Steel Panther are a funny parody band of an 80's metal band. I really like their song Asian Hooker. This band doesn't take itself seriously. Sometimes you don't need all the Satanism of Black Metal in your metal, although I do like some black metal bands, like this one called Ghost. Anyways, that concludes the list. Comment and tell me what metal bands you love.

So you want to be a Pro Gamer?

     Every kid that has a console or PC wants to be go become a pro gamer. The fact of the matter is that most people just don't have the time to go pro at gaming because of work and school, and just because of life in general. Here are the games I wish I could be a pro at in order of my favorites.
     1) Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm, this is easily one of the greatest games ever made, and clearly one of the greatest E-sports as well. What makes this game so great? It has a great single player campaign for casual gaming, as well as an amazing multiplayer experience for people who are competitive gamers. The joke is that the only good Starcraft players are Korean pro gamers, but there are many great American and European players as well. I used to follow all the pros. My favorites include MarineKingPrime(Terran), Scarlett(Zerg), Rain(Protoss), Jaedong(Zerg), Innovation(Terran), Maru(Terran), Flash(Terran), and Forgg(Terran). That's MarineKing in the picture, my favorite pro gamer. I used to play competitively but I ended up losing heart and giving up for about almost a year, which is where I'm at now. The highest I ever got in the online ranking system is top 8 Gold League. The rankings are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamon, Masters, Grandmasters. I don't think it takes much to progress but it does take a lot of skill to be in Masters and Grandmasters league, in my humble opinion. The cool thing about Starcraft is that there's humans (Terrans) and two alien races(Zerg and Protoss), and they all play very differently. All my current California friends said that "its not my type of game", but we all know that they just say that because they know they won't be great at it. Anyways, this would be my number one game I wish I could be a pro at. Could you imagine a pro Black American player going up against Koreans in Korea? It would be amazing and life changing in the E-sports community, like when Scarlett(a transgender girl) was going up against Koreans in the pro tourneys. I watch a lot of pro starcraft Korean tournament streams-like almost every night. My dream in life is to be a musician but sometimes it feels like my dream is to be starcraft II bonjwa(a player that dominates an era, winning a number of titles).
     2) Super Smash Brothers 4 for Wii U and 3ds, I chose Sm4sh over Melee because I haven't played Melee since I was in high-school. Let's face it;Sm4sh is just the better game. I feel like there are too many Melee fanboys who just haven't realized that its a dead game. I still love the game but I think Sm4sh has it all: more and better characters, better stage recovery, less edge guarding, better graphics and music, and dlc that patches the game as well as adds new content. Its the perfect Smash game at the moment. I'm a super competitive player and I main Fox, Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, Shulk, and Diddy Kong. I'm reaching that point where I'm getting better than my friends because I play it more than they do, even when we're not hanging out. I'm even going to be starting to go to weekly tournaments to test my skills. My win rate ain't amazing but its sitting at a cool 50% right now, which my friends say is good, but I've seen people online with like 67% winrate, which still isn't amazing but I think that's really good for just playing online in the ranking system called For Glory. My friends are still a good challenge for me at the moment but the more I play without them, the better I will get, and eventually I'll surpass them. Maybe I can even start placing at tournaments. I would say for me that right now, Sm4sh is my favorite game. It's only been out for a little while and I feel like the pros haven't figured out everything in it, so its a game that I have a chance at being great at. I have a bunch of favorite pros like ZeRo and M2K. This is my favorite game out right now.
     3) Heroes of the Storm, this is Blizzard's newest game, and arguably one of their best games ever made. I love how competitive it is, and how it lacks items, because that's mainly how it differs from other MoBa's like League of Legends and Dota 2. Another thing that makes it different is that experience is shared rather than just your experience that you get from killing minions and players. It's pretty nifty. You'd think these ideas would make for a rather casual experience but once you get to level 40 you can unlock ranked matches, which is super competitive. I would say winning in this game is an art and takes a lot of teamwork to make things happen. You can't really solo anything in this game. It's not like in League where you can solo lane stuff for ten minutes. The main thing I love about this game is the characters that come from World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and the Starcraft universe. It's awesome seeing characters like Nova, Thrall, Raynor, Kerrigan, and Illidan all fighting in the same game-almost like a Super Smash Brothers mash up, they probably got the idea from Smash. Blizzard has done it again! They've made another great game. Did I mention this game is free to play?
     4) Marvel Vs Capcom 3, this game is just one of those all time classic fighting games. It improves upon Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (which I have for Playstation!, its a collectors item),  because of enhanced graphics, and different/more characters. Also, the specials are a lot easier to perform in the third game, especially on Xbox360(which is what I have it for). I bought this game maybe a year ago and first I did was try to play it online. I got schooled. Once I realized I would have to work at it to get good I kind of put it down, only playing it with friends. One of my good friends is really good at it and wrecks me and my other friends mercilessly. When it comes to fighting games I know that once you know combos with one character you kind of learn how to do them with other characters very easily, but I still haven't gotten over that first learning curve. I really like this game because of the triple fighter teams. I usually go Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma, because I'm a big Street Fighter fan. Speaking of Street fighter.....
     5) Street Fighter IV Ultra, this is a game I bought on a whim because I was in Gamestop and my friend recommended that I get it over the regular Street Fighter IV game, because it comes with like 44 characters as opposed to like less than half than that. What can I say about this game? It's not like MvC3 at all because you only play as one character and when you die, you lose the fight. Specials are more complicated too. In fact, I have some trouble doing the specials in this game. I usually end up playing Ryu most of the time, but I also like Chun-Li and Ken. Again, I've only really played this game with my friends and we've had a blast playing it. I know its a super competitive game at tournaments and stuff. The graphics in this game are super up to date with current last gen consoles like ps3 and xbox360. I'm really bad at this game but I still find it amazing. I think eventually I will start playing it more, and as I get better I'll play it vs people online.
     6) Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, Black Ops III (coming out in November), and Ghosts, CoD is just one of those games where its do or die. You kind of either have it or you don't in shooting games in my opinion. But I do think that even if you are terrible at first, you can practice and become great at it, but you'll have to work at it everyday. In Advanced Warfare, I got to a point where I was doing extremely good, like getting first and second place in online ranked matches.The thing that's cool about CoD is that you can do all kinds of trickshots, quickscopes, hardscopes, and go ham with just about any kinds of guns that you want. Plus, the game is so unrealistic that it's just plain easy to shoot the guns, because basically they have no recoil, unlike other fps games where it feels like you're shooting something more a kin to a real gun. This is probably my favorite fps game franchise and I will definitely be getting Black Ops III this November. Right around that good ole time for turkey dinner!
     7) Counter-Strike Global Offensive, this game is also one of the biggest fps games, and one of the biggest E-sports. As it should be. Cs has been on the scene in pc gaming like since I was in highschool, so this goes back to 2004, maybe even before that with the original Counter Strike Source I believe. This game plays much faster CoD, has no aiming down the sights or scopes(except when using a sniper rifle), and maps created by the players. Another thing I like about this game is that the characters run around faster than in Call of Duty, there's no sprinting at all and it has a faster flow to it. There's a lot of big money in this game as an E-sport too, same with CoD. The most fun I've ever had playing this game is setting and disarming the bomb game mode. It's pretty neat.
     8) Speed running games, there isn't really any E-sports potential for speed running games but there is a lot of skill and people will watch your stream if you are a great speed runner. Games that I think that would be cool to speed run are the usual suspects: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Final Fantasy VII, Megaman series, Sonic the Hedgehog series, Earthbound, Final Fantasy I,II,II,IV,V,VI Chrono Trigger, Xenoblade, Xenogears, Xenosaga series, Tales of Fantasia, Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Super Mario RPG, Mass Effect series, Halo series, and Zelda A Link To The Past. I have a lot of mainly Super Nintendo(quite possibly my favorite system even though I never owned it) stuff I want to play.
     Lastly, that concludes all the games that I wish I was pro at. There's a lot of them. Technically speaking, if I wanted to be a master at any said one of them I would have to focus on one, two, maybe three of them at the most. Any more than that and I would be going straight into filthy casual territory, if you catch my drift. I don't think Starcraft pros play League of Legends(a game that didn't make the cut for this list) and shit like that. I think they focus on Starcraft for the most part to keep up their skills. It's like doing anything really, you do it a lot and often enough, and you become very good at it. Right now I would say I'm focusing on Super Smash Brothers 4, but I'm also playing a lot of Heroes of the Storm. Some people I know have said that they don't think competitive gaming could ever be considered a sport. To them I say they're wrong. E-sports has already proven itself to network companies, the internet, and in some aspects the world (because of the internet:Twitch, YouTube, HitBox, etc). Plus, there is big money to make in gaming because of E-sports. Without pro gaming we wouldn't have people who have quit their 9-5's just to dedicate all their time to streaming video games. And without the great fans of E-sports there would be no money for all of this. This has become one of the biggest subcultures, this being gamers. Being a gamer today isn't considered as nerdy as it used to be say in the 1980's. I think the influence of video games on movies, mass media culture, and the internet is very obvious. If only I could find work in the gaming industry doing something regarding E-sports, being a pro gamer, or working with pro gamers, that would be where it's at. Hell, I would even settle for working at a company like Blizzard. Here's a funny little video for ya-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH4w7UZV3NA.