Hey Back again !!! the Shinedown show was awesome !!!! I couldn't believe how small the Tabernacle was, I guess it holds maybe 2000 people, but it totally rocked !!!! we saw Number one contender, Halestorm, and of course, Shinedown !!! NOC is a band from Charleston, and they were pretty good, the lead singer came out with no shirt on from the beginning, so the girls were with him from the get go. They also had a guitar player who wore a shirt and tie and a sweater vest and looked like Lance Armstrong, we called him the professor. !!!! Then Halestorm came on, and they totally rocked !!! my wife was not a big fan, what a shocker since Halestorm features Lzzy Hale as the lead singer !!! her brother is the drummer, and the band did something I have never seen- the drummer (Arejay) did a solo, and really got the crowd going, and then when he had 'em going good, he pulled out a pair of drumsticks that were like 3 feet long, and he kept playing with them !!! THEN, the rest of the band came out and set up a set of 4 drums in the front of the stage, and the whole band played drums together, Lzzy and her brother and the 2 other guitar players, all together, VERY COOL!!!!!!! PLUS , when Lzzy came out, she had a white Flying V, and she later also played a explorer guitar, and I think she really sings very well, she also gets the crowd into it, which is VERY big !!! i just checked out a youtube video of halestorm , in a radio station, Lzzy sang Heart's All I wanna do is make love to you, one of my favorite all time heart songs, in an acoustic version, also super cool!! Watch for Halestorm, they will be big one day !!! Then, Shinedown came out, no pyro, no big intro, very litttle lights, they just kinda showed up: Barry the drummer came out and took his spot, and then Brent and the guys came out, and they just started playing and rocking, and the whole place was really INTO IT , ya know?? I LOVED IT !!!!! they rocked the place, we were on the second floor, and we could feel the floor bouncing up and down, A LOT, we were a little worried, but we just said, screw it and we had a fantastic time !!! I would easily say it was one of the best concerts i've seen yet, (EVER!!!) just from the energy and the love for the band, it was something special being in an old building that now just lives to rock it!! I truly hope the belugas and the rest of the fish at the georgia aquarium were at least feeling the music and , Iknow they would enjoy it !!!! the belugas love to dance, you know ?? we got a Halestorm cd, and I got the wife a Shinedown t shirt, and she had a really great time, maybe even more so than the Nickelback concert!!! my wife made friends with a woman behind us, and she didn't know Shinedown before, but she likes them now !!!! SD didn't play Simple Man, which was a letdown, but I watched some stuff on youtube where Brent said they basically said they just didnt feel the same playing the song now without Jasin, and that it was kinda a tribute to Dimebag Darrel when they did it. I can understand that, and I think it's so cool they are a band that actually has that much feeling and attachment to their songs and the music and the people who inspired it, to them, ya know ??I would easily pay to see the show again, tomorrow, a month from now, a year from now,whenever!!!

ps , Shinedown announced they are touring this summer with Halestorm,Chevelle (another very cool band) and Staind !!

pps ROCK SO LIVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

listening to : Audioslave, right this second!!! ( so awesome!!!) also, Halestorm (duh!!) (I GET OFF !!) and Seether (check out the videos, they have some awesome ones, a great use for youtube, Seether is really great !!!!) as well as metallica, Kill em all and Death Magnetic !!!! both are awesome

lifelong shooter, dr pepper's biggest fan, Jack Reacher fan !!!

ok so it's been a bit of a while since the last update, so here it is!!

I am within an eyelash of level 20!! woo hoooo !!!!

went to a BIG concert with the wife last week, Saving Abel, Seether, and Nickelback, and it was awesome !!!!

that was thursday

went to a LITTLE concert saturday with Eleven Standing Still, and it was also Awesome. Check them out at myspace.com/elevenstanding still

the lead singer, Johnathan, came over and said hi and spoke to me and my wife for a few minutes between sets. we were very happy to see them, I had been a fan since I heard about them in the summer of last year, and now my wife is a big fan too. we will probably go see them again tomorrow at a different bar. it was actually a benefit concert, and the band is a really cool bunch of guys.we bought a cd sampler and 2 t shirts, and the guys played like 30 songs or so-- their own stuff as well as other stuff, one nickelback song, a Bob seeger song, 3 Metallica songs, and some I dont even remember. But we enjoyed it a lot. we also met Jamie the lead guitarist. The nickelback show was very cool, the loudest concert we've been to yet, and they had tons of pyro, 5 different colors of flame thrower, huge video screens, fireworks, and a extra guitar/keyboard player named Timmy who was awesome!!!he played a 12 string acoustic guitar with a single neck !! Seether and Saving Abel were also great, and Shaun from seether came out and did a song with Nickelback!! very cool.. I think Seether could headline a concert themselves, and they probably will sometime soon !! Seether didnt do my favorite song tho, fmlyhm...... look it up if you don't know it, gs would kick me out if i told you all the words !!! :)COOL FACT: during the Nickelback show, Chad, the lead singer, pointed out a guy who was fetching beers for his friends, up near the front, and it turned out, we found out 2 days later, that it was Johnathan of ESS that he was talking about !!! cool huh ?

So, tomorrow night is more ESS, and on Cinco de mayo, we FINALLY get to seeMY favorite band, Shinedown !!!! (We saw the wife's favorite band , Three Days Grace, last year- they are my second fave !!!) I can hardly wait !!! .45, Devour, Save me, Sound of Madness, and more, and I heard on the radio that this show will be Shinedown's next live DVD !!!!!!!!!!! woo hoooo ps i am a bit excited

on the game front, i preordered and finally got guitar hero Metallica, and I am thoroughly enjoying it !!! I also recently found GH: Aerosmith with a wireless guitar new at Best Buy for $31.99, but it actually rang up for $23.99, so I got a new GH game and a new wireless GH guitar for $25 bucks and change , with tax !!! the guitar is a Kramer Striker wireless, and it works great !!! my scores are going up already with a new guitar that has all the buttons working !! they also had the guitar alone for $15 bucks, which is pretty good also !!! One of my favorite songs, which is badly overlooked by radio, Albatross by C.O.C., is on the Metallica game -- awesome !!!

til next time, War Eagle, and oh yeah SHINEDOWN !!!!!!!!!!!!

ps I hope to go see Metallica in October, should be a helluva show !!!!

I am still playing the first God of war, and I still Freakin love it--- not as good as RE4 was in it's time, to me, but it's still a freaking awesome game !! I'll beat it soon, but I hate those freakin medusas !!

I'm still kicking myself for not buying the RE4 chainsaw controller when I had the chnace, that thing is freakin awesome !!! i can get the ps2 version for $25 bucks, but then I also hafta buy the PS 2 game...............

also- I was thinking about buying a used orig XBOX, just since I never had one, and since I have never really played halo, and since the games ofr it are pretty cheap, and I really liked the original big controller, WHATCHA THINK ?

Well hey kids !!!

sitting here in the wife's snuggie, and it's not a bad item when its 20 degrees outside and the heat pump can't keep up, not bad at all..... the dogs LOVE it since it's soft and all---

I am listening to Eleven Standing Still right now, which is my Favorite Band You've Never Heard of--- they are from the Atlanta area and they rock !!! I currently have tickets to see Nickelback,Seether and Saving Abel April 23rd, and I can't wait!!! 3 great bands in one night !! (gee, ya think there might be some sex -related songs sometime during the evening ??? ????)

And speaking of the snuggie, in case you haven't heard , we had a SNOW event here in the south a couple day ago , and I would hafta say it was the most snow I have ever seen actually fall, having lived south of Atlanta my whole life!! The really shocking part was that it was like 66 degrees the afternoon before, and I and everybody else was kinda like Yeah right, sure its gonna snow in the morning, but ya know what?? it frakkin snowed like crazy, which was really bad since it rained REALLY FRELLIN hard for the 2 days before!!! I mean Friday it rained so hard I was thinking Ishldve built a freakin ark, and then it was still raining Saturday morning early and then by 10 am it was snowing like crazy, and it kept snowing until like 6pm or so, and so I had a solid 4 inches of snow on top of the Tbird and my truck, and a big frakkin slush puppy everywhere else !!!! I was not amused !!! it was quite a mess but we managed ok, except that my truck doors were frozen shut the next morning !!!!

OK so I currently have the Wii, 2 ps2's a gamecube with game boy player, a DS lite and a PSP 1000. the first ps2 still works somewhat, its a first gen model so the blue discs are not a great idea. I also have 2 NES's, a Dreamcast, and a Super Nintendo , all with games and accessorie, and all not going anywhere. Also have a game boy micro I like a whole lot. I really really wanna play little big planet and MGS4 and Resistance and afew others, but I dont yet have a HDTV, so I cant really see me plunking down the bucks for a ps3 until i have the HDTV, know what I mean ?? But then, Guess what I found? the MGS 4 ps3 bundle, NEW, for $500.00!!!! I kinda want it, ya know ?? I love MGS, there really isn't a game experience anywhere to rival it, but I can't really justify $500 when I know it won't have much value beyond an amazing single player, after I play it a couple of times, ya know ??? what do you guys think? PlEaSe let me know ok ??

Also, I still wanta copy of Baldurs gate, Dark Alliance 2 for the ps2, but can anybody explain to me why it costs $40 bucks used ?? I have the first baldurs gate, and champions 1 and 2 for the ps2, which are all very similar games, so I dont see why BD:da2 is like the most expensive used PS2 game ever made ???? anybody know ??

ok so I have this game I love, it's an old game, called Nox, and it's kinda like Diablo, but to me it's easier but has a lot more personality. I played through it once, and then my old computer, which had windows 98, died. I bought a brand new computer with windows xp, and ever since, I can install Nox, but it refuses to run or play. ANY HELP anyone can give me would be much appreciated, since I really liked the game, but I only completed it with one of the 3 characters. I should say that my new( 4yrs old) computer is a Dell, and that i have the service packs, and am now running Zone alarm for antivirus, and I have all the service packs and stuff, but I am also not very good with computers. Anybody got any ideas? the help would be much appreciated... Nox was made by wastwood, the guys who once did redalert and C&C and I like it !!!

TIME FOR A SEMI- ANNUAL BLOG POST-

whether you like it or not--

I actually haven't been playing games a whole lot lately- I just don't seem to have a whole bunch of energy for it- I dunno if I am getting old or depressed or what- I kinda wanna play games- but I just can't get into it very much- Whatcha think ?

on the games front, I really haven't bought anything new much- I got My Aquarium and wild west guns and Pop on wiiware, and I am enjoying all of them pretty well, and I want to get a whole bunch of old games on the VC, but I dont wanna fill up my Wii and hafta take stuff off and reload it later, it's just not ideal, ya know ? so far on VC i have: Super Mario Bros 3, wrecking Crew, Ninja Spirit, Devil;'s Crush, Super Contra, and 1 or 2 I dont recall right now, but so far I would say the Wii is so very very worth it-- I love being able to download the games and play them, and also love the other channels you can play with, the Nintendo channel, internet channel, weather, news, DS download samples, etc.. And I have had exactly 0 problems with the Wii, it works great nd I completely recommend it!!!

on the music front, which I think is important, I have some new cd's from : foo fighters( ok but mostly it's the wife's band) Avenged sevenfold, Seether (an older one), Soundgarden (Love it) Saving Abel (pretty awesome also) and I also got the faNCLUB EDITION OF sHINEDOWN'S NEW ONE, what the heck is going on with the caps button?, Sound of Madness!!!!

Also, we are both pretty stoked about going to see 3 doors down, Hinder, and Finger Eleven later this month- I got what looks to be pretty awesome seats-- and we may even drive all the way down to South Georgia next month to go see 3 days grace !!!!

Listening to Soundgarden right now !!

Oh Yeah-- I also got a copy of the Dragonforce Cd with the dvd, Inhuman rampage, and watching those guys play guitars is something else-- It is hard to imagine a human being even able to play a guitar that fast and well, much less 2 guys doing it at exactly the same time!!! they are pretty awesome !!!!

til next time, play all you can and ROCK IT !!

gee whiz? i left this a blog on a week long soak, and I got no bites whatsoever?? that is concerning.. especially since I left a very pointed and accusatory note about a frakkin; us congressman who said some terrible and awful and reprehensible things, on camera, about the victims of child rapists??? the guy basically defended child rapists, and nobody frellin' asked me who the guy was , or what the heck I was talking about?? I am not just a pO'd guy, I happen to have some first hand knowledge, as an adult, about how ridiculously hard and nearly impossible it is to get a conviction, or even a freakinj' charge, against an accused child molester, and this nutjob senator in MA says he will go out of his way to wreck a child's life in order to defend a child molester, and not even one frelling person or friend or contact of mine on frelling GS says a word about it?????? that is truly sad, friends, and let me tell you, I hope none of you ever has to live through that hell, but if you do, then you will know too well what I am talking about. and the Supposedly Supreme Court decided that putting child molesters to death is cruel and unusual???????? its a screwed up world out there, kids!!!!!!!!!!!!! hey- I know, child molesters are not fun to talk about or think about , but it needs to be done, and it needs to be handled by decent civilized society, and it hasn't been. It has been swept under the rug for a long time, and the thing isnt going away, or getting any better-- we have to face it and deal with it and put it away, and I really don't feel there is a punishment too cruel or unusual for these POS's !!!!!!!!!

on the game front, I now have rock band, and tho it is fun , I still feel Guitar hero is a better game and is generally a better game overall-----

hey hows it going kids??? I am back, still gaming, and still rockin'!!!!

I bought the new Shinedown CD the day it came out, and IT ROCKS !!!!!!!! I am really kicking myself for not trying harder to go see them in concert here at the tabernacle last week, partly because I couldn't get the day off, (thanks, Delta, you bunch of jerks !!!!! ) and partly because I was a bit , uhhh, apprehensive about maybe being the oldest guy in the joint, but Shinedown is totally my favorite band, and I don't think there is a better singer anywhere in rock than Brent, he could sing anything I think!!!! He is an awesome singer!!! I will soon get the limited edition of the sound of madness, and the title song is my favorite so far............. but 10 bucks at best buy for 11 songs is VERY worth it- that cd will soon be worn out I am sure--- And i will not miss shinedown in person again !!!!!!!

on the game front, Best Buy also had ROCK BAND for $99 and so, ya know what? I bought that sucker, and it's pretty good, and fun, and all, but it ain't no guitar hero!!!! it's easier to play guitar on the whole, i think, but the drums and vocals just dont seem to work right, and I STILL CANT GET OVERDRIVE/STAR POWER to work right!!! I like the new guitar better, but the new buttons are confusing to me , the drums are distracting to everybody else, and I totally dont know what the heck i did wrong on the mike parts.

PS i totally hate the beastie boys!!!!!!!! they are NOT a rock band, i just dont care who likes them or not-- ANY of the other songs is cool with me -- especially the Deadliest Catch theme --- Bon Jovi's classic "Wanted Dead Or Alive" from 19 FRELLING 86-- THAT is a good song-

i also like the yeah yeah yeahs, and miss Tom Morello, guitar hero is still a better game by any stretch-- Axel is my character--

I saw Iron man, which was pretty good, and the new hulk, which is also pretty good, better than the one from a few years ago-- I still can't talk the wife into going see the new Indiana Jones movie, and I even offered to go see the sex in the city movie in exchange-- so what's up with that ??????

i also have downloaded Ninja Spirit and Wrecking crew on the Wii, NS is ok , but wrecking crew is a weird mix of elevator action, burger time and mario, and it is ok but certainly not great--- also got atari classics evolved for PSP, which is ok, but I REALLY wanna unlock the 2600 games, which takes all the special accomplishments, which I ain't gonna ever get, so I am hoping for a code soon!!!!!!! i wanna play combat and red baron on psp, i think that would be too cool---

i rented super smash bros brawl like 5 days ago, and i haven't even put it in the Wii yet, i just am not crazy bout that series.... I did move it and put it closer to the wii tho.........

I think something is seriously wrong with the world that I do not have a PS3 yet, because I bought the PS2 when it was new, and i got an original first version ps1 from the girl i was dating at the time, and i wore out the controller that came with it playing MGS 1 when i was recovering from a surgery. I REALLY REALLY want to play MGS 4 now, but i dont wanna play it without an HDTV, and i dont want the 40 GB PS3 that doesnt play PS2 games because i think that's an insult, but WOW does MGS4 look great, and after having played the first 3, i kinda NEED to play #4, ya know ???

I blame Sony for making the thing so doggone expensive, and I blame microsoft for sticking their big greedy nose in where they werent really wanted, thus forcing sony to make a bigger better more expensive console to beat MS !! the wii is cool, but it just plain ain't the machine that the PS3 is, that's obvious!!! same goes for the PSP vs the DS, both are great systems, but the PSP obviously has far greater power and applications and way more stuff !!! the new God of War psp is very cool !!!

oh yeah, I got mediated last time for making a reference to a feminine hygiene product, even tho i obviously did it in a veiled manner. which serves as even further proof, as if any was needed, that there is truly no such thing as freedom of speech in the home of the (supposedly) free!!! You see, if there was someone reading my blog who did not know what i was talking about, then they are way too young to be on the internet to begin with. this would be the yu-gi-oh and pokemon crowd. their freaking parents should handle this, not GS. and for those who are old enuff to know what i was talking about, i can practically guarantee this was not the first time they had heard about it---- ever heard of South Park, Gamespot???? Obviously not, you dummies!! but hey, I'm not bitter !!!!

'til next time, keep gaming, keep rockin' and have fun when you can !!!! Steve

meat eater, hard rock lover, gun owner, hunter and fisherman, truck driver, terrible typist, BIG Shinedown fan, and freedom lover

ps representative Fagin of Massachussets, u totally suck !! don't think you are not on the list -- cameras were rolling, you inhuman t*rd !!!!! lie all you want, judgement comes to us all sooner or later !!

blog post , and now it aint frakkin here !!!!! what the f ?????

anyway, short of rewriting the whole frelling thing, here's a quick recap:

I got a WII !!!!! and it rocks, it took a bit of work to get the wireless internet setup, and I had to go buy a $40 wireless g router from ****** (****** guys rock!! even if they dont speak English very well)

I finally got a DS Lite, and it too is very cool, I NEED reccomendations about games to gte for it, so far I only have mr driller drill spirits, PLEASE PLEASE nobody tell me to play pokemon or yu gi oh anything, I am over 10 years old, and I don't think those age 10 and younger should be playing that crap either. I got the blue/black ( or onyx and cobalt if you prefer) version, and I also had a star wars lego kit i bought months ago, which has a metal starwars lunchbox and extra stylus's , headphones, screen protectors, and a wrap with the lego star wars scene on it- i thought it was pretty cool .

either I am a crappy typist or i have mild dyslexia ( i looked up the spelling) cause this ain't easy for me to do- the last post i wrote, which didnt show up, took me like an hour!

anyway, i have tried several wii games so far, and none of them has really grabbed me except for mario kart wii, which is awesome even tho the wheel is almost un-usable.

i am currently listening to : Seether- finding beauty in negative spaces, which is awesome, not a bad song on the cd, my fave is FMLYHM listen to the song if you wanna know what the letters mean, IT Ain't G rated, or PG either, which is probably why i like it

also listening to: Alter Bridge, Three days grace, Opeth, the new Def Leppard, and Alice in Chains 37 years old and I love this music, even tho most my age probably don't!!!! Shinedown is still my favorite band, and I am looking forward to the new 3 doors down this week ---

til next time, Steve

well its been a bit of a while since i wrote a blog, so here it is again.......... since last time, I really haven't bought too many games, but about 3 weeks ago the local Gamestop happened to have a Wii in stock, so I bought it!!!! i figured what the heck!!!! It was the first one I had seen since like last september, you know how they will have a box in the store, and they dont actually have the system, well this time they had one so I jumped on it. I also bought the classic controller and wii play and an extra nunchuk. Getting that sucker online was a bit of an adventure, I had no wireless setup in the house, I had to go buy a $40 wireless router, or i could've spent $25 and used a long phone cable from the room where my computer is into the living room; I ended up buying a $40 router and using that. It's a ******, and I hafta say their tech help guy really helped me a lot, i was on the phone for like 2 and a half hours with him. It would've been like 30 minutes if he spoke English I could understand, but hey- we got it done. Rock on, ******! And the wireless features on the Wii are pretty awesome, along with the downloadable old games.

I also finally got the DS lite, which i had been collecting Coke caps forever for. Coke finally put a $75 Blockbuster card on their POS website, so I grabbed one, and then using that and $50 credit I got from a program from work, I FINALLY got my DS lite. I went for the blue/black version, and it is a pretty cool unit. I already had a lego star wars kit i had bought for it, which has extra stylus's, headphones screen protectors, and a wrap with the lego star wars scene on it. and it all came in a metal lunch box case like a lunchbox from the 70s- I think it's pretty cool. So far the only game i have for the DS is mr driller drill spirits, which is ok but not great- I really need some suggestions from you guys about games to get- I want CONTRA 4 and nintendogs and new super mario bros and a few others. Please please nobody tell me to get yu gi oh or anything pokemon, I am over age 10. The new downloadable demos from nintendo where you can use your wii as a download station work incredibly well, I cant believe how cool it is--- i tried the ninja gaiden game the other day, and some others, and it really lets you play the game and get a feel for it -- way to go big N !! I also have Blazing angels, squadrons of WWII, which is ok, and i bought a rental pass from blockbuster so i could sample some wii games- so far here are the results---

Ninja reflex- pretty fun for like an hour, but there's only like 6 different minigames, and they get repetitive VERY quickly

Battle of the bands- not much fun at all- a guitar hero wannabe

ghost squad- more fun in the arcade- very short game-only like 3 missions and the unlockables are just different skins, the game plays the same every time, kinda boring

RE umbrella chronicles- almost the same game as RE zero, but made into a light gun rails game- kinda boring

medAL OF honor heroes 2- well done online play, decent campaign, crappy arcade section where you cant even move on your own, but I hated the controls on this game, a plain controller would be better, but a lot of fun online, it was my first online multiplayer game- but it gets tiresome to me to have to hold the wiimote up towards the tv the whole time- after 45 minutes of that my shoulders kinda start to burn- a regular controller is WAY better----

Mario kart wii- LOTS of fun- but i dont play it with the wheel- the wheel sucks-- the classic controller or the wiimote and nunchuk are the way to go- also great online play- LOVED it

i have furu furu park, but havent tried it yet.......... also, I just bought Red Steel, since Hastings had it for 20 bucks and a $10 rebate----

Listening to: Seether- finding beauty in negative spaces, and it's really awesome-- they may move into second or third place in my top ten bands, right behind Shinedown, who are at a huge concert this weekend in Ohio, and I didnt get to go.......:( oh well

also in the rotation, Alter Bridge, Alice in Chains, and Opeth , and the new Def Leppard, which is pretty ok- looking forward to the new 3 doors down this week ( they are ALSO at rock on the Range this weekend, what an awesome weekend to be in Ohio!) ok so maybe my music isn't the so called "normal" for a 37 year old lifelong southerner, and most of my friends listen to much different stuff, but I know what I like, ya know? and I like to rock hard !!!!!!!

if anybody has some ideas for my DS and /or WII games to buy, please let me know, k ?? til next time, Steve

ps- just finished listening to the seether CD for the first time, and it doesn't have a bad song on it- FMLYHM is so far my fave, if you haven't heard it, then you have no idea what the title means, but it becomes obvious pretty quick when you hear the song !!!