The last few weeks have been an absolute blur with the Lan Party weekend merging into Thanksgiving festivities. The Lan Party was an absolute blast, we had around 20 guys show up, getting as many as 18 people into one game. Team Fortress 2 was the game de jour. We filled in the down spots between long gaming sessions with Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii, Ping Pong, and huge meals provided by our hosts. I am fairly confident that everyone went home having had a great time.

Tuesday after the Lan Party I picked up Rock Band. Its the next iteration of rhythm games building on the success of Guitar Hero. Rock Band adds drums and vocals to the mix allowing you get the “full band” experience. Unfortunately my Xbox was still at the service center so it sat there quietly in the box until the weekend. Thankfully the spirit of Thanksgiving overcame Aaron and he loaned me his Xbox 360 for the weekend. If you liked Guitar Hero at all, then don’t play this game, because it will suck you in and completely take over your like. This is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. The vibe you get when you and your “band” are rocking out is fantastic. The guitar and bass is almost identical to that in Guitar Hero, its not surprise the new instruments are the most challenging. On Friday Steve, Melissa, KG, and myself played for about seven hours, and we weren’t at all bored. The song list ranges from Nine Inch Nails to Weezer and all the way back to Molly Hatchet and Rolling Stones. Some of the songs are more fun that others, and its definitely easier to sing on the ones that you actually know.

Last night I went back to Guitar Hero 3 to try out the Halo song that was available free on Xbox Live. The first thing I noticed was the differences in difficulty between Rock Band and GH3. Medium on Guitar Hero 3 is on par with hard on Rock Band. Guitar Hero is definitely a much more difficult game on the guitar. I can’t normally play on the hard difficulty on Guitar Hero, but on Rock Band I’m able to beat most songs, it pretty interesting.

Here’s a photo of my band The Acorn Explosion, we’re available for parties and bah mitzvahs. Featuring Aaron Holmes on drums, Steve Slotten on bass, and myself on lead guitar.

Digging around in my Grandma’s attic I found this self portrait my brother did when he was in Jr. High. After a laughing fit that probably lasted 20 minutes, I was able to photograph the proud artist with his work.

First it was William Shatner, now Blizzard has Mr. T as their spokesman. Its not like they need to advertise anyway, with 9 million subscribers the game is by far the most successful computer or video game of all time. This commercial is an instant classic with T touting the virtues of his Night elf Mohawk which to the non-WoWers is not a real class.

That’s our manager! The Smoking Gun has acquired videos of the Tony Larussa drunk driving arrest from last year’s Spring Training. Some pretty funny stuff, especially the part where they wake him up at the stop light, and realize “oh crap, thats LaRussa.”

Possibly the coolest music video you’ll see all week, definitely worth a click.