Before Ava was born we went to get a 4D ultrasound done and I was really excited to see not only my at-the-time future daughter but also the tech aspect of how we were going to be seeing her.  4D ultrasound is one of the neatest of what I would call "layman technologies" that the general population has access (in which of course you pay for, but at least can schedule almost any time) to from the fairly sophisticated devices most cities have, but that you generally need a Doc to 'ask' you to get examined by.   If you have ever seen a 4D movie or played with an image, it really is just absolutely jaw dropping the amount of detail that you can see.    When we went to get a 4D taken of Ava we were very lucky to have a good technical op in the room with us.  The appointments can cost anywhere from $300+ and 'generally' when you schedule one, you are paying no matter how the pictures come out.  With Ava her placenta was actually at the front of Lindz's stomach which did not allow the 4D device a good view.  The tech noted this very quickly and gave us the option to back out (saving our $300) because she felt like we were not going to get a good view of Ava.   Regardless, while we sat there I remember thinking to myself, "I wonder if any of the Doctors (male or female) ever get a wild streak and get their significant other into this room to 'make a movie'.  I don't mean that in the erotic sense, but just for the purposes of seeing what it looks like from the 'outside in', for both the sake of curiosity and to see if the tech would actually record it.    The device was a little handheld device that looked just like a normal ultrasound device, so I figured it wouldn't be too complicated if not just a little weird and cold (both device and people), but still it would be pretty cool to see it in 4D.

Low and behold Mary Roach had the same idea, and I am sure there is probably a chapter or two dedicated to it in her new book Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.   As soon as I finish Love and Sex with Robots, this is on my reading list and I am sure will spawn multiple blog posts.

Books @ MaryRoach.net

Monday night was a good night, we got our xbox360 back from the Microsoft repair center. Around the end of January I received the dreaded Red Ring of Death and was really bummed when I had to send it back to MS. The previous 3 months before it died the wife and I had playedRockband for at least 2 or 3 songs every other day or so. We slowly both became consistently good at it. I had already played Guitar Hero 2 and 3 was proficient enough to "get past" the expert mode guitar on most of the songs on Rock Band so I decided to try my hand at the drums. I had played drums some in high school at a warehouse behind a friends house but never on a consistent basis and to be honest I really could never hold a beat worth a shit for an extended period of time. If you added in a bass player I could keep it pretty steady, but never to the point where I felt as comfortable playing drums as I did guitar. So I decided I should try out the drums and build myself up slowly. To be honest, playing the guitar on Rock Band is extremely fun, but it really doesn't get anywhere near the skill of playing a real guitar. The hand eye coordination is a big variable in both, but that is about the extent of it. The drums I have found are slightly different. I started out on Easy finished all songs, went to medium, progressed through all songs, and have been attempting hard on solo mode and I have pretty much wrapped up all on hard mode with the exception of a few songs (Green Grass & High Tides, etc).Lindz had always been doing great vocals, so we decided to start an entirely new band with her on vocals and myself on drums about 2 months before we had to get the 360 fixed. We had been playing about fairly constantly up until the red ring. Fortunately, we got back the 360 on Monday and dove back into "returning to stage" with band on Tuesday night.

Since we had not had the 360 for a couple of weeks, MS/Harmonix had released a bunch of download-able songs (DLC) for it. I had some points and first picked up the NIN pack (I was salivating to attempt March of the Pigs on Drums) and Roam (B-52s), El Scorcho (Weezer) and another STP song (Interstate I think? I forget which) and set to playing. We aced 5 stars on Hard with Roam and the STP song, then attempted El Scorcho (the half Japanese girls didn't do it to us) but the wife didn't have the lyrics down so we kicked out on that one. Then attempted March of The Pigs which I failed within the first min or so drumming on hard mode.

So we tour on.

Rockband isn't a game per se, it should be viewed as a platform. Harmonix/MTV planned the game brilliantly and it is ripe for the money making. I could even see them selling the actual Rockband instruments at a loss in a few months as more people pick up XBL just because I think they are going to make so much money on the DLC.

Regardless, me an the wife were talking about what songs are perfect for the platform so we decided to each come up with our own Top 10 Songs We Would like to see on Rockband. Neither list is done in a particular order (ie #9 is just as good as #1), and I posted the imeem songlists of each underneath in case you are not familiar with the song, and/or just want some musak to listen to at work.




So without further ado:


My Top 10:

1. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin 

    Come on You knew Zep would be here, I bet you just didn't know which song. Besides the "moaning", I really like the appeal that screaming 'A big legged woman ain't got no soul' into a microphone has.

2. Like a Vibration - The Whigs

    This just has such a killer hook at the beginning of their latest album that I catch myself singing it when i don't even realize it.

3. Gypsy Eyes - Jimi Hendrix Experience

    So I was tore between adding Axis Bold as Love and Gypsy Eyes to the list. I wanted to only have one song per artist. The drumming at the beginning of Gypsy Eyes won it out. I was thinking Axis had an advantage as a lot of the color imagery in the song played with the whole "play by color" theme of Rock Band. But Gypsy takes the position.

4. Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers

    Hello Mr. Bass Player. No One forgets about you and your 'blue groove'.

5. Jellybelly - The Smashing Pumpkins

    There are soooo many pumpkins songs I wanted to put on here, Today, Where Boys Fear To Tread, Everlasting Gaze. This game was built for people in my demographic that grew up wearing out Gish and Siamese Dream.Jellybelly won out because I think it   encompasses a lot of different aspects of what a good pumpkin song was. Great vocals, steady drumming, biting guitar.

6. Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel

    Guitar good, drums good, people seem to know the lyrics to songs like this even when they don't think they do. Peter Gabriel is a genius in my book, and Sledgehammer has to many horns, so I went withSolsbury.

7. Slippery People - Talking Heads

    This song is what got me thinking about a list like this. I love singing to this song, and this is a very FUN song to play I would think on any instrument.

8. Stockholm Syndrome - Muse

    Another band, like Pumpkins, whose songs this game is built for. There were tons of songs from them I could have chose, this is just my favorite personally.

9. Two Step - Dave Matthews Band

    This would be one of those longer songs (think Foreplay/Longtime - Boston) but it would be a blast to play. I personally have heard so many variations of it I don't know which one I like best. I think this one (from Red Rocks) is my favorite.

10. Day Tripper - The Beatles

    Guitar Intro get everyone pumped to play. Great Song.


Playlist:

UPDATE:  So There are tons of blog authors who I read that I know play Rock Band so I decided why not make this a mem?  Most of the people we play with in our bands (The Cyanettes/The Fluffy Camels/Bangers & Mash) don't have a blog (or either don't update it on a regular basis) so I figured I would tag 3 people whom I know play.  Tipa, Cuppy, and Blackguard.  So guys/gals, if you are reading this, post yours on your respective net homes and pass this on.  I would love to write a spider to crawl all this one day and aggregate the results somehow, so if you do your Top 10 and decide to pass it on please ask for a linkback to this blog or just have the people you pass it on to link to "Top10RockBandWishlist" as a Technorati tag so I have a centralized place to go back and aggregate the results.

Technorati Tag: Rock Band,  Top10RockBandWishlist

Anyone who reads this blog and has been in my office at home knows my obsession with Lego's Star Wars, I may try to get around to photographing my collection. I came across this today that was very impressive though.  This guy has takes some of the minifig sets and expanded the universe to include a bunch of models of his own creation (really good I might ad) and created some pretty sweet battles.  I wanted to play around with a new Prototype.js script I found, so here is his set with the slideshow.  You can also view this set here on Flickr.

Season 4 begins tonight.  I am pumped.