Randy

Melted Banana Hand – Rocking out with Rock Band

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Rock BandWhen Rock Band came out a few weeks ago I was excited to try it out. Luckily my good friend Brian bought it and invited me to try it out. Ever since we’ve been meeting once a week as Melted Banana Hand. My impressions?

It’s more of a game than any of the Guitar Hero’s. Rather than a playing a list of songs and then being done, the idea is that you tour as a band. You will end up playing the same songs more than once but that’s ok because of how it’s done. Instead of finishing a song, your objectives are finishing a set list or finishing a venue. Because of the structure of the game it is also able to incorporate downloaded songs into the game itself rather than just adding it to a list of playable songs in quick play mode like in Guitar Hero.

The Guitar is only O-K. It looks great and I love the addition of the lower fret buttons I just wish they were used more. The game doesn’t force you to use them it simply increases the bonus you get when applicable. It would add even more depth to the game if it were to force you to use the lower frets during solos.

Solos are new to the game. For guitar this simply means added points and most likely faster sections with more notes. For drums this means you can play anything you’d like, which means a lot of fun. For vocals you can say anything you’d like. The solos in the game create a new and very dynamic musical environment.

The drums are impossibly hard. The guitar in Guitar Hero wasn’t easy to begin with but with some practice it got much better and was completely playable on hard. The drums on Rock Band are a completely different story. It’s hard on easy and insanely impossible on medium. Anything beyond that is just crazy talk.

Melted Banana Hand is still meeting once a week and the vocals are always up for grabs considering my friend Brian and I can’t at all. If you’re interested just let me know and I’m sure we can find a spot for you.

Mike Merryfield the Comedian

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Stop it or I’ll give you a knockin’ ullllllright?

We saw Mike Merryfield at Comix Cafe last weekend and he was one of the funniest comedians we’ve seen at Comix. His style of humor reminded me a lot of Brian Regan my favorite comedian of all time. I found one of his recorded shows on his website and I’ve included it below for your listening pleasure.

[audio:https://aldrichfamily.org/2007/12/mikemerryfield.mp3%5DHe’s also available on youtube as MikeMerryField and I’ve included his best video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5193mwKS3-w

Social Network Update Overload

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Social Network GraphDifferent Audiences see you in different places. I use lots of different services and for different reasons. For the purpose of this post I’ll use only Twitter Facebook and my blog. The number of people that see my ‘tweets’ on Twitter is significantly less than the number of people who see my blog posts. The number of people who see my blog posts directly is significantly less than those who see my Facebook updates. For this reason I have created synchronization points.

Facebook automatically imports my blog posts whenever there’s a new one. At the same time I use TwitterSync to synchronize my twitter updates with my Facebook status. The number of people my posts reach is far greater on Facebook than it is on my blog alone. Many of my friends on Facebook are not tech savvy and therefor are not into feed reading yet. In fact many of them rely on sites like Facebook to get them updates.

You probably think (like the Technology Evangelist) that this means that the people that subscribe to all these services are suffering from Randy Aldrich information overload. If you’re subscribed to each of the 3 different services without any modifications you’re probably right.

I suffered from the same problem. Some of my friends have many services and end up duplicating their content in more than one just like I do. Unfortunately sites like Facebook do not allow you to ‘ignore imported posts’ from certain users. Until that ability exists in the services which you use I suggest making use of Yahoo Pipes.

What I did was create a Pipe that imports my Facebook notes as well as several friend’s blogs. I then use the unique operator to weed out the duplicated posts and that’s it. It is really that simple. Simply combine all the feeds you need to filter through, and utilize the unique operator to filter out the duplicates.

Spring Lake Park

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Denver at Spring Lake ParkA few weeks ago I discovered an excellent new park only a few miles from our house. Spring Lake Park is not a dog park but it certainly seems like one. I love exploring new places to take our canine friends as I get sick of walking the canal path every day. Our first trip to Spring Lake Park gave us an unexpected gift. Dogs dogs and more dogs.

As it turns out other locals take their dogs there to run and play. And all off their leash. This couldn’t come at a better time as I’ve been trying to find a place closer to home than my parents to let them run.

At first glance the park is relatively small. The real gem, the place where the dogs run and play free is in the back. After you park your car you have to walk back along a gated roadway until you get to the second field.
We’ve now been to the park 6 times in the past 3 weeks and we plan on going every time we get a chance. If you have a dog and live in the area I would highly recommend it. Letting them run and play with other dogs is great (for them and you).

Hollywood Sucks but Beowolf Rocks

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We saw Beowulf tonight at the IMAX in 3D. Wow. I think any epic movie must be seen at the IMAX and if possible in 3D. It added a whole other level to the movie experience. Until now I had never seen an entertainment movie in an IMAX (I have seen some short educational specials at different times). Adding the 3D effect to Beowulf was simply incredible.

Beowulf the movie itself was okay but without the graphical eye candy it’s nothing special. However; it’s still a must see especially in 3D at the IMAX. The story was changed quite a bit from what I remember of what I’ve heard before. I only have two real complaints. The first is the lack of a fight with Grendel’s Mother. The second is the ending which is horrible and typical Hollywood bull.

Can’t they just let a story be? It’s bad enough that every movie these days is either a sequel, prequel, remake or based on another piece of entertainment(book, comic book etc). Why do the stories of our times need to be left unfinished? The songs of old (such as Beowulf) were never sung until after the story itself ended. Why are today’s stories any different? Isn’t it better to know the ending than to be left in suspense?

Trailer below. (High quality Trailer from stage6 here).

[metacafe]http://www.metacafe.com/watch/920271/beowulf_trailer_2/[/metacafe]

The Mist

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Last week at bowling The Zone was giving away prizes for strikes in the 9th and 4th frames. We didn’t get either but figured we’d try our luck with The Zone anyway. As luck would have it they weren’t checking and we walked away with a book (Gone Baby Gone) and free movie tickets for The Mist. I had wanted to see it anyway and this was the preview showing. Great!

I haven’t read any of Stephen King writings yet, but thus far every movie has been awesome. The Mist did not disappoint. I particularly loved the ending. I will have to read the short story now though to find out if it ends the same. I have a hunch it’s at least slightly different. That being said if you like scary movies I’d recommend it.

The only thing left for me to say is “man that bitch was crazy!”

Trailer below.

Ratatouille

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We’d been trying to rent ratatouille from redbox for a few days but it was out literally everywhere in Rochester. Finally I found one available at the Perinton wegmans on Wednesday so I rented it online. Yep Redbox now allows you to rent movies online. Well, not streaming or anything unfortunately, but you can reserve it at a Redbox location online.

Ratatouille was a great movie. There was more humor in it than usually is found in the new animated movies. I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. The trailer is below.

[metacafe]http://www.metacafe.com/watch/663432/ratatouille_trailer_tv_spot/[/metacafe]

Some Hope In Todays World

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Hoover DamSomething reminded me today of a story from when Rachel and I were at the Grand Canyon. Well, actually this particular story is from the Hoover Dam.

The parking at the Dam sucks. If you want to visit you need to park along the east side of the canyon. I’m sure you’re aware that the Dam is pretty large and as such, getting to the entrance (which happens to be on the west side of the canyon) is quite a hike from the parking lot(s).

We’d been camping in Williams Arizona for roughly a week at this point. I’d been faithfully (like the good ol’ boyscout I am) carrying my knife the whole trip. This particular day was no exception. As we walked up to the entrance there was a sign that stated, among other things:

No Knifes Allowed

Well crap. As I shuffled my way back to the walkway to take my knife back to the car, one of the many vendors setup outside the entrance called me over. She darted her eyes around to check if anyone was looking and said:

Act cool, just hand me your knife. When you come out give me 5 bucks and it’s yours again.

Thoroughly puzzled (and entirely not cool) I said “you mean you can’t just hold it for me.” After some more quick glances around she told me that this is government property and they’ll fine you if they catch you with them. She could get fined simply for holding them if they find out. “Ok, $5 is worth saving the walk” and I handed it over.

It’s a good thing I did. There are metal detectors right inside the entrance and we would have been up a creek. A gentleman got pulled aside ahead of us and shown a knife he had placed in the bucket before going through the machine. I’m not sure what happened (they were still there talking with the security guards as we left the room) but I’m sure it wasn’t good.

I paid my 5 bucks when we got out and the government was non the wiser.

Originally I was writing this thinking about the helpful actions of the woman vender. After writing it though I also realize that I’m also thankful for the actions of the security guard and their no knife policies.

Chase Cafe

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Chas Building in Rochester NYToday while debating where to go for lunch my good friend Randy T mentioned a place I had never been before. The Chase Cafe. Its on the 2nd floor of the Chase building (pictured) in downtown Rochester. It reminds me of a smaller version of the Bausch & Lomb Cafe. A very nice thing about it was that it was quiet. It was completely out of the way, not very well advertised and practically hidden. Because of all of that, while the eating area was relatively large, there was only maybe 3 or 4 other groups there. The prices were decent too. I had Some sort of Mexican Tilapia with a side of vegitables and mac & cheese and a chocolate chip cookie all for $5.75. I think the Chase Cafe might become a new regular stop.

We’re always trying to figure out where to eat downtown and there’s really not that many good places. Some of our usual stops are:

  • The Pizza Stop – easily the best pizzaria in Rochester
  • Galleria – Chicago style pizza shop which serves wings and subs as well
  • The Stock Exchange – bar & gril
  • Wild Bar & Grill – chinese buffet
  • Dinosaur Barbequeue – A real honky tonk rib joint
  • Grill and Greens – wraps, salads and other sandwhiches (great chicken tenders)
  • Bausch & Lomb Cafe -lots of different food stations
  • Subway – sub shop

If anyone has any other ideas please let us know. We’re always looking for some new ones.