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Iron Maiden in Rock Band!
Oooh, I randomly came across a page telling me that there will be some Iron Maiden MASTER tracks in Rock Band pretty soon! That's awesome, I'll have to hook up my 360 to my router just to download those :) (I haven't had it online since building my newest computer, I ran out of ports on my router). From [ironmaiden.com](http://www.ironmaiden.c * Aces High (live) - Flight 666 (2009) * 2 Minutes to Midnight - Powerslave (1984) * The Trooper - Piece of Mind (1983) * Wasted Years - Somewhere in Time (1986) * The Number of the Beast - The Number of the Beast (1982) * Run to the Hills - The Number of the Beast (1982) * Can I Play With Madness - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) * The Clairvoyant - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) * Powerslave - Powerslave (1984) * Fear of the Dark (live) - Flight 666 (2009) * Hallowed Be Thy Name (live) - Flight 666 (2009) * Iron Maiden (live) - Flight 666 (2009) Will be available Tuesday, June 9th.
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EQ2 again... eventually
For some reason this morning I decided to renew my EverQuest II account and check out how things have changed. I've done that a few times since I quit playing it a few years ago, but never stayed past that one month at a time. I did play the game for the first 9 months or so, starting on release day. I levelled a Wizard up to 45 (Provisioner level 50 - max level was 50 at the time), and switched to World of Warcraft mostly because of video card issues at the time, and my backup card just couldn't handle EQ2. I was hoping to log in after downloading/patching the game this afternoon, but for some reason the download just stopped part way through just after I went to bed. Oh well, maybe it'll be done by the time I get home from work in the morning. The game does seem to be much more solo-friendly than it was at release - that's partly why I stopped playing. I wasn't much into grouping back then, so it was hard to actually level after a certain point. Apparently it's much easier now. And this feature from the newest expansion is sure to help future alts: "All of your characters will now receive a 10% experience bonus for each character at the maximum level. (Up to 50% max)". WoW should have that... well, at least if it wasn't so boring, I'd care.
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Last upgrades to get
My new computer had almost all of the new parts it needed to be complete, and I did have some spare parts around to make it usable for now. But here's what I'll probably be getting at some point soon to make this a really nice gaming system. - [Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME GTX 280][accelero] video card cooling - [G.Skill TITAN 128GB SSD][gskill] - I was considering a Velociraptor, but if I'm already spending that much, why not go SSD and get even faster times and much less noise (well, NO noise)? - [Logitech G19][g19] keyboard (or a new G15, though I don't like the amber backlighting) - [Logitech G7][g7] laser cordless mouse (maybe... I really want to test out some mice in my hand before deciding) - Probably a Blu-Ray drive of some sort. Might as well, since my monitor can do proper 1080p and my TV doesn't. Right now, I can barely hear my computer at all. Except when playing a game, the video card fans are noticable. But that might be partly because everything else is so quiet. At the moment my digital cable PVR is the loudest thing here, being louder than both of my computers combined. Of course, I'm not counting my Xbox 360 here - that thing is fucking loud. [accelero]: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/p [gskill]: http://newgskill.web-bi.net/bbs/view.ph [g19]: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keybo [g7]: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_
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Whee, new parts ordered!
So, my profit sharing cheque was in my bank account for maybe 15 minutes before I ordered these parts for my new computer: * Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard * Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHZ Yorkfield 1333FSB 12MB * EVGA E-GEFORCE GTX 260 Core 216 SC 55NM * G.SKILL F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK PC2-8500 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1066 * Scythe Orochi 10 Heatpipe CPU Heatsink (this thing weighs 3 pounds!) * Antec NSK 4480B II Mini Tower Case I'm missing a new hard drive, DVD-R, keyboard and mouse - but I'll use some spare stuff I have around until I get new ones. Should be nice for just gaming :)
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Shiny!
I just ordered myself a [Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP][2408] 24" widescreen monitor. Mmm, shiny. [2408]: http://accessories.dell.com/sna/product
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Future upgrades?
Thinking about building a new system for gaming other than a monitor/keyboard/mouse, am I missing anything important? (will update later with actual parts I am considering) * Motherboard * Hard drive * CPU * Video card * Memory * Case * CPU HSF Seems like there is something Im missing, but Im not sure. Just thought of a couple more things: * Keyboard * DVD drive (or probably a Blu-Ray drive for one of my systems)
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Mostly gaming randomness
Ah, [WoWInsider](http://www.wowinsider.com/ [Dardelyn]: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee [Dardzuul]: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee I recently bought an EDGE card for my Nintendo DS and a 2 GB microSD card, that thing is awesome. I can have a bunch of games on there, plus homebrew apps/games, and it works great. Already my sister has found it useful - there was a game she was considering buying, but after checking it out she definitely doesn't want to get it. Saved some cash right there. I'll probably check out some more games I've been interested in once I finally finish playing through Final Fantasy IV. I pretty much only play it during lunch (sometimes, not always) at work so it's slow going. I don't want to start playing it on my EDGE card, since I'm about six hours into the game already. Definitely don't want to start over at that point. Not much else new on the gaming front... I picked up Guitar Hero: World Tour. Some things I like, some things I don't. Too much duplication of songs with Rock Band, though. Some play quite differently in each game, too. It's interesting. It's a pretty good month for television, too. 24 Finally started up again, Battlestar Galactica is back, Lost is starting this week, and Hell's Kitchen starts a new season as well I think. There's some interesting looking new show too, Lie To Me I think it's called? I'll check it out. I'm thinking about ordering a new hard drive for my laptop this week, too. Right now I have whatever stock 120gb drive that Dell offered when I got it (just over a year ago), but I want to get a fast 320gb drive for it :) And I'll probably devote most/all of the drive to Ubuntu again. I miss it. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get Quicken working properly there, but I can still use that on my desktop at least. Maybe I'll stick that 120gb drive in my Playstation 3 then - not that I really need the space tehre. I don't use it for much other than a Blu-Ray player. My Xbox 360 and computer are for gaming ;) I also added a Flickr plugin to my Wordpress installation, but it needs tweaking for my template. I decided to look for something like that after my old Gallery installation had massive amounts of spam being posted as comments - Captcha wasn't working, and I couldn't even find a way to disable comments completely. Oh well, I never liked that software that much anyway. Flickr is nice though, and doesn't cost very much a year for a Pro account. Once I get that working better I should start taking and uploading more pictures again.
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Futureshop is living in the past
Yesterday morning I placed an order on Futureshop.ca, for a Christmas gift for my sister and an iPod for myself. For some reason before work I just checked on the status of the order to see if it had happened to ship already, but it wasn't even processed! As part of their "extended" customer service they phone the number you give them for the credit card holder, and they need to talk to that person about something or other. Screw that, I don't answer the phone if it's a number I don't recognize, and I order things online to minimize the hassle of dealing with people. I'll just have to get that stuff from somewhere else, I canceled that order.
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From out of nowhere...
So, I'm still alive. I've just been spending less time on LJ and IRC - focusing on WoW and chatting with my guild/friends in the game. And having fun with it in general, of course! I updated my Wordpress install on my own server today, along with installing the Live+Press plugin, so I can crosspost things to LJ. It's not like I post to either site very often these days, so I might as well do both at once :) Starting my Christmas work rush now, too. I didn't take my days off last week, and I aim to not take any days off until Christmas. That's only a month more, nothing serious. The last few months have actually been pretty good at work, having a different job code and things to do now. I think the actual job name is Instock Associate, 3rd Shift. Or something like that. Essentially, I work out back in the warehouse doing different things and that's pretty much it. Much much better than stocking shelves. Mostly, I decide what I do in the run of a night, unless there are specific things to be done. I've been having a lot of fun with the recent WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Slowly questing my way to level 80 on my priest (almost level 74 right now), enjoying the scenery and lore along the way. My other chars coming up behind will likely use some addons to help speed the process, once I see it for the first time. And after playing the new class (Death Knight) a little bit - I'm having a lot of fun. My end goal is to have it be my tanking character, but it's just a blast to have so much dps and survivability. I think this is going to be my second level 80 (currently 61) instead of my hunter (currently 71). No promises on future updates, but I'll try to post a little more often.
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From the makers of Bacon Salt: Baconnaise!!! I need to order some of this. |
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It was a pretty good WoW night for my guild last night... went into Hyjal, one-shotted Rage Winterchill. Since most of the raid just doesn't have the stamina for the second boss, we wandered over to TK and one-shotted Void Reaver. That boss was pretty easy before, but it's just so simple now. And then we went on to one-shot Al'ar, for a guild first kill. I think it was probably only our second attempt ever - the first one being pre-3.0.2 patch. Then we went on to kill High Astromancer Solarian. First time for most of us there, took a few tries, but we downed her. Another guild first. The last few weeks we finally were able to do some 25-man raids in-guild without having to recruit PUG members or friends. Even if some in the raid were mostly useless (like 70+ year old seniors with no clue how to play), it's a nice feeling to have a full guild run. Oh, and I got an upgrade from Al'ar! http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29923. Some of were bored after all of that and decided to zerg Kara. I was the second healer, though I wasn't exactly healing. 65% of my overall healing came from Holy Nova :) Even on boss fights I was mostly DPSing. Ended up with something like 450dps overall. And beating out the elemental shaman and prot warrior in total damage. Finally, my goal of beating the tank in damage (as a "healer") is done! If http://wowwebstats.com/lwu2ztmxzp3y |
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I really haven't been keeping up with Rock Band news at all lately... seven Nirvana tracks being released tomorrow, woot! Breed, Lounge Act, On a Plain, Polly, Something in the Way, Stay Away, Territorial Pissings. Fun fun. And I stumbled across Dropbox this morning, that seems like a cool service. And so far, the sync client appears to work nicely. |
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I was nudged recently, but yes I'm still alive and reading :) Just not posting much of anything. So, I'll just list some personal goals I'd like to achieve in the near future... - Save $2500 for an emergency fund by the end of 2009 - Find an apartment around this area of town in the next six months, that's within walking distance of work, reasonably priced and not a dump - Pay off my credit card in the next six months. It's not maxed and I make regular payments well above any minimums, but I just need to spend less - Actually get around to cutting my hair again before Christmas - Continue adding money to my RSP and mutual fund accounts - having it done automatically by my banks and also in Quicken makes this so much easier, I don't even think about it anymore That's it for now! Maybe I'll post again in the next couple of months ;) |
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Doug, you'd probably enjoy this... Now if only that Rush - Moving Pictures album would actually get released for Rock Band... was supposed to have been this week but they are having some sort of technical difficulty. I was really looking forward to playing YYZ on drums :( (and guitar/bass too, of course) |
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Hiking
Well, I finally got around to returning to the hiking trail I saw the beginning of last fall... uploaded some pictures to my Flickr account.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgushu |
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Yeah, so I don't post much these days, but I still read things. Keeping busy with WoW and Rock Band mostly, plus work. Been looking at the confirmed track list for Rock Band 2, some of those songs look awesome (and scary at the same time). Metallica - Battery, Megadeth - Peace Sells, Foo Fighters - Everlong, Dream Theater, and lots of other cool and fun songs to play. I've been playing mostly the drums on it lately, and getting better at the Expert difficulty. Some things just kick my ass, though. Some songs still kick my ass on Hard (damn you, Run to the Hills, and Hammerhead (Offspring)). But I'm happy about being able to do well on all of the Rush songs, half of the Metallica songs, and I'm working on the recently release The Who songs. Fun stuff. Holidays starting the 31st! And after 5 nights of work, I'm planning on working at least my days off this week, and probably next week as well. Then I'm off for 16 days... yay! |
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Happy Birthday, Jaime! |
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My priest is at 2051 bonus healing, 194 mp5 while casting (420 otherwise), 6461 health, and 9030 mana unbuffed. This makes me happy :) I'm sure not anywhere near as geared as some of the WoW priests on my friends list, but I'm quite happy! |
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Wow, I haven't updated here in a while. Have been reading most days, at least! I finally got around to reinstalling Windows XP today. Vista was starting to annoy me more and more, especially with the random little problems I was having. Videos not playing smoothly, things freezing up for a second or two randomly, iTunes being completely broken somehow... things are working fine again now though. Renovations on our store started a couple of weeks ago, crazy stuff. And they haven't even started on the big parts yet. I do like the wider aisles, you don't feel so closed in at times. And I'm actually starting to get to do the job I'm supposed to be doing more often, working out back in the warehouse. I like that more. Except nights like last night, when I had to help move almost 60 bbqs from skids into an empty trailer. And none of them were small, most were like 150-170 pounds. My legs and arms are sore now, that wasn't a great start to my work week. I picked up GTA IV the day it came out, but haven't played it a lot yet. Been playing a lot of WoW this week, and not even as much Rock Band as I usually tend to play (I have all of the DLC for that now, some great songs to play on there). Off to configure/install more stuff in Windows... |
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As promised... ( Read more... ) Besides the gear, which can be fixed if they have the motivation to do so, some people in the guild just don't have the skills for higher end runs. As a priest in Kara, you have to worry about shackling as well as healing. Some just can't deal with having to watch both things at the same time, letting either the shackle target run free, or people die. It's tough, but I managed to do it quite well. They don't worry when I'm one of the shackling priests, unlike some others. Then there are the tanks that never seem to be able to keep aggro, etc. As a casual guild, that's fine. It's just that the more dedicated players would prefer to progress and not wipe four times on Attumen, and then seven times on Moroes without even taking him down (basically what the other group had to deal with last week). But anyway, we're basically starting fresh with most of the old guild members without the old GM. Most of the drama was going on inside of his head, whatever he was actually thinking I have no idea. 2008-03-26: Via WoW Insider Guildwatch... Ancient Lords on Terenas-A is no more. Our tipster says the former guild leader lost his mind and kicked all the active members. From the ashes arose The Ancient Lords (it's different, see, because of the "The") who, we're told, will be bigger and better than the old guild was. |
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Had some WoW guild drama this past week, even more than I expected when I logged in this morning. I had planned to make a post about the first part of it, but I'll wait now until later after I get some sleep. Not that most of you care, but I'll put it under a cut anyway ;) |
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I'm considering getting a new custom set of poker chips later this year... and I haven't even played much poker lately! I'd have to come up with a new inlay though, and don't have any ideas yet. |
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I bought Rock Band this week. It's insanely fun, especially with other people. The drums are hard, but I've gotten better at them. Still on Medium there. I don't know if I'll ever attempt the vocals, though. |
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Mostly for my own purposes, but it could be of use to somebody - a list of most of the software that I use on a regular basis: http://gushue.net/software/ (Wordpress makes it so easy to add/edit web pages on my site) |
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I think 2008 is going to be a good year. |
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It was nice outside yesterday, so I went out to take a few pictures not long before the sun went down. http://gallery.gushue.net/v/outside/c And for a couple of panoramic thumbnails...  
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After all of the spending I've done in the last couple of months... I think I should stick to my budget starting next month. This month goes out the window, being Christmas and all. |
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New laptop
I ordered a new laptop yesterday, a Dell XPS M1330. Nice and light, somewhere around 4 pounds (as low as 3.93 lbs according to dell.ca, depending on configuration). That's one thing I never liked about my other laptop, the weight. So, some specs so I can find it easily: Dell XPS M1330 Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800MHz FSB, 4MB cache) Windows Vista Home Premium 13.3" widescreen display 2GB DDR2 SDRAM (667MHz) 120GB SATA hard drive (5400RPM) 128MB Nvidia Geforce Go 8400M GS 8X CD/DVD+/-RW burner Dell 1505 Wireless-N mini-card Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR) 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell) Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD software edition Logitech VX Revolution cordless laser notebook mouse Whee! |
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I've been a little bored with WoW lately, pretty much like I was around this time last year. I haven't played a lot in the last couple of months. I tried out Tabula Rasa - it seems pretty neat, but I don't think it's something I want to play much. EVE Online I gave thought to playing again - space games are fun, and it looks/sounds good. But there's just too much time to invest in that one. I load up Guild Wars every now and then, since it's free to play, but it's not quite my thing either. Oh, there are just too many games to play :) I decided to renew my EverQuest II subscription for a month, to see how that game has come along in the last 2+ years since I played last. My system is a lot better now, so that will help. And there was a new expansion (with new race/class/starting area apparently) this month. Plus I discovered that I love healing in this sort of game, so I'll be trying that out. Most of the year I played EQ2 I just had a Wizard, which was fun but it'll be good to try something new. Not that any of that matters to anyone ;) Starting tonight, I'll be starting work an hour earlier, but still finish around the same time in the morning. It'll give me more time to get things done each night, plus an extra hour. I haven't worked any extra shifts in a few weeks, I might take some extra ones in the next month, though. Not sure on that yet, depends on what I end up doing during my nights off. |
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I just finished up Call of Duty 4, after drinking some beer and installing Vista on my main gaming system. Why? I have no idea. The game was fun, at least. |
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I just ordered another 500 GB hard drive for my computer, bringing the total space on that system to roughly 1.4TB (closer to 1279GB or so of real space). Closing in on 2 TB across my computers around here :) I should really build a fileserver at some point, and upgrade to gigabit ethernet.   While I had my case open to check on available connections and drive bay space, I noticed that I don't even have the 120mm fan on the back of my case plugged in. I don't recall now if I ever did... My system runs cool enough though, so I never bothered to hook it up just now. Cutting down on noise is a good thing - I can barely hear my computer as it is. My digital cable PVR is louder. |
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Tabula Rasa didn't come today, like it should have. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow. At least I had Call of Duty 4 (PC) and six new Guitar Hero 3 songs to play :) (haven't been able to get two of those done on Expert yet, they're tough). |
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I have entirely too much stuff on my belt and in my pockets at work... I have three keychains - my house keys, a keychain for the Wave and electric pallet jack, and keychain for the walker stacker and various other things in the warehouse, my cell phone, either a phone or two-way radio for work, 5 or 6 pens and markers in my pockets, my knife, various pieces of paper and cardboard with notes of things to do... and of course my wallet and a pack of gum. |
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I haven't really played much WoW in the last month. Getting bored with it again, I guess. I've been playing a lot of Guitar Hero though, which is fun. And I should have Tabula Rasa in a couple of days to try out. Hopefully that's enjoyable for at least a little while. |
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I just made myself a tasty casserole dish. Cooked a box of whole wheat penne pasta, stirred a generous amount of shredded cheese (cheddar and mozzarella) in with it in a casserole dish. Added diced ham, a can of mushrooms, a handful of sliced black olives, lots of pepper, a few chopped chipotle peppers, and a jar of pasta sauce. Mixed it together, and topped with more shredded cheese. Put it in the oven at around 300°F for 20 minutes, and it's feeding time! I like how creative you can get with this sort of thing, using whatever is available. 
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