Finally made it to the top!

A couple of weeks ago myself and two friends took to the mountain and hiked half dome in Yosemite. It's something I've wanted to do for a little while, but had heard from several people that it's a tough trip and was a little worried about being able to make it. So to prepare, I skipped dinner the night before and got a full 3 hours of sleep (insert sarcastic tone here). People weren't lying, it is quite a hike 18 miles round trip, 4000 foot vertical, and the infamous cables up the side of the dome at the end. Once at the top, the amazing view of Yosemite Valley was all at once trumped by the realization we had to go back down the cables and hike another four hours in the hundred degree heat. The whole way we were huffing, puffing, and grumbling; but in the end (and after a full days rest) we looked back and really felt like we accomplished something (although we all pretty much agreed never to do it again).

Bonus: This is what I saw when I took my shoes off after the hike, LOL.

Winning Wednesday: Rock Band 2

My birthday is coming up, but we'll be out of town on a camping trip when the day arrives. Because of this, our friends gave me my birthday present when they came over for dinner on Monday night. Nestled under a bag of brownie mix (I think wrapping paper is for suckas!), was Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360!

Now the game itself is not that differant from the first Rock Band, but there are a few adjustments that were welcome. First, they have added the ability to play the World Tour as a solo act. A big chunk of the achievements in the first game were aquired in World Tour, but you had to have more than one person playing. This posed a problem since, when we had people over and played, we wanted to just play for the sake of having fun (i.e., pick the songs we were going to play), therefore, I barely have any points from that game.

Next, the ability to have one character play any instruments. If you have ever played the first one, you know that creating a character to represent you is a lot of fun. It just gets annoying when you have to create a new character when you want to go from guitar to drums.

Finally, the track list. WOW! The developers were thoughtful enough to take the time to create the ability to import the on-disc tracks from Rock Band 1 into Rock Band 2. Couple that with the fact that all downloaded songs from the first game also work in the second and the 84 track on-disc track list (<--yes... that is Alanis Morissette) of the second game and you are talking about something for everyone!