No Skillz

Well, I learned something new about myself last night--I have absolutely no skills whatsoever when it comes to playing Guitar Hero II. Or any version of Guitar Hero, for that matter.

After I got out of work, I headed over to a friend's house, where an all-day/all-night birthday party was raging for one of the girls on my crew. It was a helluva party--they had a poker game going, a blackjack table, a kitchen full of food and booze, several coolers full of beer, and in the living room, they had an Xbox hooked up to the 60-inch plasma, featuring Guitar Hero II.

As far as I'm concerned, video games reached their zenith in 1981 with Asteroids, so all this stuff they have nowadays is a complete and total mystery to me. But I gave it a try. Hell, I used to play guitar all the time, and was even in a band, so how hard could it be?

But I'll be damned if I didn't fall flat on my face and completely embarrass myself a few times. I seriously had the worst success rate of anyone at the party. I suck. And it was set on 'Easy' for me, requiring the use of only three buttons on the controller. Still, it's a fun game, and if I were into video games, I'd totally get hooked up with Guitar Hero.

Oh well, aside from my getting booed off of the virtual stage, it was a pretty good time for a few hours with all of the other buffoonery going on around the house. There was silly string involved. And shot glasses. And remote control toys. Sharpies. Party hats. Noisemakers. And that was just the tail-end of the evening. It started around noon on Sunday, and I didn't get there until around 2:00 am this morning.

But I tempered my enthusiasm, knowing I had to drive home at some point, and I got here just ahead of the sunrise. I didn't sleep too well, but it's been a relaxing day.

I was dozing in the magic sleepy-time chair in the living room until the doorbell rang. The UPS man showed up again about an hour ago, delivering two more packages, but they were addressed to Rob. Bastard. As much as I want to have all the toys, I'm guessing these packages were full of subversive Ohio State merchandise or Star Trek action figures, stuff I have no use for...

Mikey