Rock Band... What's Next?

So the other day I was sitting in a restaurant, enjoying some "Chinese" food when my friend started talking about his Rock Band band, and how great they are doing and how "famous" they are now.
Well, to be honest, I have never really seen the game in action. Based on my experience with Guitar Hero and DDR, and what I had seen on random websites and in random promos, I had a basic idea of how it works.
However, another one of our friends was not really familiar with it or Guitar Hero, but was aware of DDR. He questioned if it was like DDR with musical instruments.
My mind immediately started wandering and wondering. What was said between the two of them for the next few moments did not register in my mind at all.

So what was I thinking about. Well, I will spare you some of the details of the inner workings of my mind, but I shall simply summarize it by stating that I was bouncing through a chain of thoughts of how one might combine DDR and Rock Band. Just the thought of DDR seemed pointless, but there still had to be a way to integrate them...
and that is when I thought about it....

Fly Girls!

Call them whatever you want. Fly girls. Dancing girls. Backup dancers. Background choreographed dance. Whatever it may be..it could be.
Granted, you couldn't really measure all of their body movements. The technology exists, but that would be completely impractical for a console video game until the technology improves and becomes much cheaper.

However, you could still try to measure hand and foot movements using the same technology used for DDR. Lots of little spots to press around you at perfectly choreographed moments. Or perhaps random, but using an algorithm to determine whether it seems to be an acceptable dance move.

I don't know exactly how it would all work, but it just seems like it could be a nice addition.

Or... You could simply just add friggen KEYBOARDS.
You add Keyboards to the game, I'll consider buying it.
No, I don't mean QUERTY or DEVORAK.
Musical synthesizers.
They are still a major part of bands today, and they should be added.
You hear that Harmonix?
Make it happen.

My Celtic Saturday Evening

Upon the ending of the American Cancer Society's 19th Annual Chili Cook-Off, the next item on my agenda toward which I was looking was a concert for Celtic Woman in Pensacola. Due to some delays that are not really worth describing in detail, we managed to get to the concert just in time. We arrived at the main entrance to the Pensacola Civic Center at about 7:55pm. The concert was due to begin at 8.

We were then directed to another entrance based on where we were going to be sitting. With this knowledge, we hightailed it to the next entrance and made a quick pit-stop before finally making it into the arena. We were told if we had been a few seconds later, we would not have been let in for another 12 minutes, as they did not want anyone moving around while the group was singing.

We found our seats, and we settled in to await the beginning of the concert. It was not long before the lights all dimmed completely, save the aisle lights. Actually, they got dimmed too, but came back on shortly after. Well, there were still the entrance lights and the exit signs, but I am not counting those.

Shortly after the arena became dark, it was filled with a fantasmic ambient sound.
The stage then lit up brilliantly as the fiddle player made her appearance. After a mesmerizing solo, the rest of the group walked out, and a constant stream of amazing music and fantastic lighting effects began.

After an hour, there was a temporary delay as they gave everyone a 20-minute break, otherwise known as an intermission.

After the end of the intermission, another hour-plus of pure visual and aural amazement began. After the "end" of the concert, there was a standing ovation, followed by several encores...each of which was followed by a standing ovation.

After the concert it was our plan to go to McGuire's Irish Pub. This was set in stone when, during the intermission, we managed to cross paths with some other friends that were also planning to go to McGuire's.

So... it was off to McGuire's Irish Pub. During our short trek, I realized that it is absolutely pointless to have a navigation system if you don't pay attention to it. Luckily, though, it was an extremely short trip.

McGuire's has to be the largest restaurant in which I have ever been. It was great, though. Festive and fun. We got a table right next to a small stage where a fellow began singing songs shortly after we arrived. He sang some traditional songs, while also playing some more modern songs with a bit of an Irish sound to them. Not really what I would consider family friendly, which is what made it more entertaining. Looking weird, or otherwise drawing too much of the singer's attention resulted in a "penalty". Most of the time, people had to "Kiss the Moose", while at least one guy had to "Kiss the Ass"... for which he was vastly made fun of since he was from Texas and clearly didn't know what the ass was. One fellow was also asked to "Kiss the Leprechaun's Crotch". Everyone was having fun.

At one point, everyone in our little room was "ordered" to stand up immediately. This is when he began playing "The Hokey Pokey", with some additional lyrics I had not previously heard. ... So we all did the Hokey Pokey. It was fun.

Not long after that, our food arrived. It was absolutely delicious. It was a wonderful evening. And yes, I did wind up briefly staring into the eyes of a girl in the middle of the women's restroom... but that is a completely different story I probably shouldn't share.

I was actually sad to begin the drive home. Though, it was entertaining in itself. Miranda used her iPhone to track down videos of Celtic Woman online in order to find the name of a song she really liked. The name appeared hard to pronounce, but was actually quite simple once I looked it up later. "At the Céili"
Also, there was a maniac on the road that kept making cameo appearances. He would speed by at insane speeds and disappear into the night, then slow down so I would pass... then would speed by again. Until eventually, we did not see the car again. I sincerely hope they did not get into a horrible accident... but at the same time, there were times when they had to be going well past 100-110mph. Just keeping an eye out for this car kept me alert for the entire trip.

Alas, I did eventually make it home. I immediately checked dates to see if CW was coming back anywhere near here anytime soon, and that answer was a sad "No". I shall have to continually check and see.

That about covers my Saturday evening. Now I am looking forward to more great ones.

Honda's are Great?

Number of weeks of ownership: three
Number of times in the shop: three plus

Granted, it is a minor problem.
But I am still quite disappointed.
With the reputation of quality Honda has, I would not expect any problems in a brand new vehicle. Hopefully, once they receive the part they ordered, they can finally get it all fixed and everything will be well.
Let's hope for the best.

Lucky Situation

OK, so I was trying to think of a scenario that, if you were to find yourself in it, one would think that there is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, of anything bad happening.

This is what I have so far:

Ride a unicorn that sweats blue diamonds while it is wearing lucky horseshoes through a field of four-leaf clovers to the end of a rainbow where you find a drunken leprechaun holding a red balloon and dancing on top of his pot of gold under the light of the stars on a night of a blue moon at the moment when the planets align.

I guess if you happened to be wearing a crucifix-studded rabbit's foot around your neck, it could add a bit of luck too.

Welcome to my mind.