Have you ever returned an item to a store for a refund after having used it?
Returning things is something I don't do. Not sure why. I think a big part of it is simply that I find it to be a bother. I can make more money, and I can become smarter at buying things, but I can't make more time. And when I HAVE to return a defective product (like Guitar Hero: World Tour cause of POS instruments) I get sooo annoyed.
What's your favorite thing about fall?
Hockey!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you sing?
3
What is the best purchase you've ever made?
Probably my Xbox 360 lol.
What household chore do you hate the most? What's your favorite?
I so don't have a favourite (they are called chores, afterall), but for some reason I really dislike washing cups & mugs. Dunno why. They always pile up until I have to do them. And cleaning the bathtub is a super chore. Awkward positioning for the loss.
I had Friday off because I worked Labour Day Monday... actually, I may as well start with Wednesday since that seems to be when my birthday celebrations started.
Beatles: RB came out Wednesday, and Kathie had the entire week off for vacation (she booked it off a long time ago figuring we'd both have the week off, but A] I ran out of vacation time and B] I couldn't get it off anyway cause a coworker already booked that week off) so she said she'd pick it up.
So Kathie arrives at my place and brings in the big box and I ask how much it came to, and she hands me a birthday card which basically says her, Wayne & Steven chipped in to get me the set for my birthday.
I was like, "it's too much money!"
Kathie goes, "it was only $160" which I knew was way cheaper than it should have been, it's supposed to be $250
and I look again at the box and I'm like, "... you got the wrong one"
!!
There's 2 box sets for Beatles: RB... the Special Value Edition and the Limited Edition. "Special Value" is really not a deal - it's drums, guitar and mic, yes, but they're all Rock Band 1 instruments - wired guitar, wired drums, the ones I already had. Basically they're trying to get rid of RB1 instruments because they're never going to sell on their own. And they try to hide that fact because nowhere on the box does it show what instruments or say what instruments:
Special Value Edition box art
Whereas the Limited Edition has the Beatles instruments - basically RB2 (wireless) drums but with a slight decorative change, a Beatles (wireless) bass guitar, and a mic.
Limited Edition
So here it is, 5pm on day of release, were we going to find the Limited Edition set anywhere? I called Futureshop and only 2 stores in the lower mainland had any copies left. So we put one on hold at Scott Rd in Surrey and Kathie and Wayne went to pick it up.
They get back, we put the instruments together and start rocking out. It's just the 3 of us and none of us are singers so it's me on drums, Kathie & Wayne on guitar & bass. We already have a Beatles: RB day arranged for Friday, so this is just to play it on day of release.
As we all know and agree on, The Beatles are awesome. Rock Band is awesome. Put the 2 together and you got double awesomeness.
I think there's only 2 real changes between Beatles and regular Rock Band - for the drums, activating star power is much more ... in line with the game play, it's just an extra green note instead of an entirely separate drum fill section. The other change is that you can have up to 3 singers, and they incorporated harmonies, so you can get "double fabs" and "triple fabs" if, when harmonies are available, all vocal parts hit 100% for that section. As I said though, we didn't do any singing on Wednesday.
But we did do a lot of playing, finished the game. There's 45 songs I think in the game, so we finished in about 4 hrs, but we did take a break for food and to show each other a few other arcade games.
Kathie & Wayne left around 11pm.
Sam & Nikki knew I was getting Beatles the day of release but they opted to wait to play on Thursday instead of us all juggling instruments and singing on Wednesday because really only Nikki is willing to sing. Think we started playing around 8pm.
We had probably played 1/3rd of the game before I decided I wanted to try and sing backup. I discovered it was quite fun and cool, so kept singing backup on songs I knew, since I was still drumming and couldn't watch the lyrics.
Of course we had to beat the full game that night as well, for Sam's achievements (there's an achievement for beating the game within a 24 hour period).
Sam & Nikki left around 1am I think.
Friday I had off and we planned to get the Beatles: RB going around 1:30pm. I invited Kathie, Wayne, Kevin and Blair. Blair's a singer, so we knew we had a main singer.
Blair ended up having to work that day, so he didn't show up till around 7pm, and he also brought his girlfriend Adriana. So we then had 6 people, which meant we could fulfill every possible position - drums, guitar, bass, lead singer and 2 ppl for the harmonies. Pretty damn cool.
Kevin had to leave and so did Adriana, so around 9pm we were down to 4 ppl again.
Since of course Blair needed the full game achievements, and we took breaks for food and showing off other games, it was quite late when we finished the game for Blair. But we were all willing to play more (Wayne had discovered a love for singing Beatles), so we were working on getting more achievements. We played until like 3am, it was crazy.
This one achievement we were SO CLOSE to getting... 1,000,000 points on one song. It took us a good while just to find a song that it was feasible to get such a score - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Our first attempt we got 957,000 points - so freakin close! Our 2nd attempt we got around 890,000 - worse! So we tried upping the difficulty on a couple positions, and scored horribly. So we switched around instruments. Then we switched around singers. Then more switching. Then more trying different difficulties... finally we decided what our best shot was, and again we got to 957,000 points..! We must've played that song like 8 or 9 times (in a row) and we never got more than on our first attempt! And I totally blame myself cause I pretty much never improved... I was always getting 97% and always messing up in the exact same spots, it was so frustrating. I was the one that called it quits because I was so annoyed with myself.
We figure fatigue had something to do with it as well, so. Hopefully another day.
Kathie slept over as we were going to spend Saturday together anyway. Saturday I got a haircut (probably 2 weeks overdue!), we had breakfast, then picked up Steven in Surrey, Mark (Kathie's new boyfriend) in Langley, then headed to Castle Fun Park in Abbotsford for some mini golf. It wasn't until we got there that Kathie and I realized we had been there before, lol. Musta been 2 or 3 years ago with Trevor and Erin. Pretty funny.
We did the outdoor mini golf course - there were spiders in their webs everywhere, it was disgusting. One time my ball went off course and I was helping Steven retrieve it and I almost freaked out cause of all the spiders so close to me. But we did see a bunny rabbit twice and a beaver in the little creek. Unfortunately it was getting dark and the beaver was pretty far away and basically not moving, so neither the pictures nor video turned out of the beaver. =P But I did get a pic of the bunny.
So that game, Kathie & I tied for first. I got a hole in one and Mark got a hole in one on separate holes. Mark also hit Kathie with his ball once, that was pretty funny. He whacked it, it bounced off a wall and hit her in the leg.
There were also flying bugs everywhere =P it was nice to get inside. We checked out the arcade section (it's basically the equivalent of Scandia in Kelowna), played a couple games, and wanted to try their mini two lane 5-pin bowling, but it wasn't working =P We tried our hands at pool though... of which we all suck, but Mark was best. It was Mark & Kathie vs Steven and I. Mark & Kathie won.
We then played a 2nd game of mini golf, cept an indoor course this time. I got a hole in one and I swear to god got ripped off on 2 or 3 more hole-in-ones. Mark got a hole in one as well... he might even have gotten 2. In the end, Mark won over me by 1 stroke. Doh!
From there we went to Denny's in Langley so I could get my free birthday meal. Denny's is the best choice for a free birthday meal since they don't do the lame Happy Birthday singing to you. We all found it weird though that they don't do caesar salad. What restaurant can't make caesar salad?? But they're also the only restaurant I know with refillable hot chocolate, so that's bonus points.
Then we dropped Steven off in Surrey, parted ways with Mark, and I slept over at Kathie's cause we had plans for Sunday.
Sunday Kathie had a work event - a picnic barbecue thing. It started at 11, but of course we didn't show up till almost noon. Mark was with us as well. So there's all these people I obviously don't know, and Kathie barely knows anyone herself because like no one from her branch (she works at a bank) were there. There were supposed to be games, but nothing was happening yet, not even food. There was a clown for the kids, he was making balloon animals. We went and walked along the river for a bit and when we got back food was ready, so we made our burgers and found some shade to eat in. The clown was now doing tricks for the kids. Basically most everyone was crowded around the clown... and thank goodness, cause I really don't know what else people would have done, seems no one knew anyone, there was barely any interaction at all. They were probably all like us - just there for the free food, lol. So we left at 1:30pm cause they still hadn't started any games, and the clown was wrapping up his act and I really didn't want to use an outhouse.
From there we went to the movie theatre and saw 9 which is a new animated movie that I hadn't even heard about. But it was the only movie playing at 2pm that we were willing to see and Kathie was interested in it. It had good animation and good voice acting... but IMO the story was weak and full of holes and wasn't very compelling. I don't know why it's rated so high and I will probably never watch it again. In other words, only rent it if you must.
We parted ways with Mark after the movie... he's a nice guy and all, and I'm happy my sister's happy with him, but I wasn't sad to see him go because I didn't plan on spending 2 days with my sister's boyfriend if you know what I mean. That's the stupid thing about new relationships - the couple's always joined at the hip.
Then it was some much needed grocery shopping, some True Blood and Canada's Next Top Model, then Kathie left around 10pm.
I can't believe Linsay didn't win Canada's Next Top Model. They picked the damn typical blonde model that no one's going to notice or be able to pick out in a crowd. Lame.
And True Blood is f'in whack man. Like totally whack. They better get some normalcy in Season 3.
So that was my super busy 3 day weekend. Super busy. Basically any computer time was spent on Farmville. And I didn't bring my charger to Kathie's, so my phone was dead all of Sunday.
Oh and my parents forgot my birthday, so that was awesome. I got a regular text on my birthday, no mention of my birthday at all. Then Sunday I got another text apologizing for forgetting my birthday, and Mom left me a voicemail (since my phone was dead).
But it's all good. I don't like to advertise my birthday cause I'm getting toooooooo damn old now. Although I'll probably still get carded 99% of the time, just because they don't know how old I am doesn't mean I don't know how old I am. =P Cept for those times I forget and have to think for a few seconds. haha
Bottom line, Beatles: RB is the shiznit. Probably my best birthday present evar. Now I have to preorder Halo 3: ODST because that's what I thought I was getting for my birthday!
What's your favorite Beatles song? Bonus points if you share it with us.
I Am The Walrus
super super crappy.... but it turned around and ended well. played a bunch of Puzzle Quest with Kelly, who I don't get to play with much, so that was fun. good & addictive game.
can only have positive thoughts about tomorrow - Beatles!!
How are you spending this Labor Day? Bonus points if you show us pictures.
I had to work but I'm okay with the tradeoff of getting this Friday off instead - Beatles Rock Band baby!
What's your favorite memory from the summer of '09?
Canada Day celebration in Surrey was pretty cool. Bif Naked & 54-40 performed. Sam, Nikki, Kevin and Kathie were there.
Celebration of Lights finale was cool. Swam in the ocean for the first time I don't know how many years. Kevin, Kathie and Steven were there.
