guitar hero and pinkie strength

alison — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:19:17 +0000

my neighbor across the street just broke up w/ his live-in girlfriend, which means she took her stuff, which includes a tv, which means he has all these video games that can’t be played. long story short, i now play guitar hero III every day.

in my rediscovery of guitar hero, i am revising what i’ve always said about the game and its relation to past experience with a musical instrument. i still believe musicians have a slight advantage, but not for the reason i first thought.

i assumed musical training instilled a better sense of rhythm, making the dots easier to follow. but i’m pretty terrible at the rhythmic sections, and the loud clicking of the paddle actually overpowers the rhythm of the music. even if i were fantastically rhythmically inclined, i still listen to the guitar clicks (which are a fraction of a second ahead of the beat), not the music.

where i totally rock are the sections that depend heavily on pinkie use and left-hand shifting. i’d guess guitar players are naturally good at this, as are people who can play stringed instruments (holla, cello). i don’t know enough about woodwind and brass, but i imagine there’s some benefit (especially w/ constant pinkie use, but perhaps not with the shifting). the same goes w/ piano.

obviously slavish dedication to the game and hundreds of hours of practice will overcome any pinkie disadvantage one might have, but i’m sure my 7ish years of intense cello-play has enabled me to find great success in impressing boys with my virtual shredding skills.

if i were on that episode of gossip girl where serena and vanessa play guitar hero at some lame party, i’d f’ em both up.

my christmas vacation

alison — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:02:00 +0000

with a week to reflect upon my time at home, i can definitively say this is what i did over the holidays.

1. went to my palace, somerset mall. almost every day.

2. played guitar hero 3. until my wrist and fingers hurt.

3. watched movies
national treasure: so bad, it’s still bad.
enchanted: the excellent moral to the story was don’t get married after a day. or 5 years.
sweeney todd: if you like/tolerate musicals and excessive/gleeful blood and gore, this is excellent holiday fare.

4. hung out with babies. lots. of. babies. a small sampling

5. ate a lot

6. drank a little, mostly this:

7. played pictionary. can you guess what these are?

what are these scribbles? from left to right.
1. two interpretations of an ostrich.
2. next was “stake,” which was only guessed (by me) after the fangs were drawn in. big surprise there
3. let’s just say i froze up after the artist drew water, then a stick figure with huge boobs, then violently circled the crotch area. it’s obviously a bikini.
4. other attempts: wolverine, pacman, and the 7yo guessed spider. correct answer = crab

Too Much Skunk In Your Junk » guitar hero

guitar hero and pinkie strength

my christmas vacation