So Awesome

I'm feeling extremely good right now, for a couple of different reasons.

One, RedOctane shipped Guitar Hero 2 on Friday, so if I don't get it tomorrow, I'll get it on Tuesday. That is going to rock the whole entire house. If I can tear myself away from it for long enough, I'm definitely going to throw up impressions and a full review later this week.

I've already played the 4 song demo that was with last month's issue of OPM. I actually payed 10 bucks for a magazine I have no intention of reading, just because it had the demo for GH2 in it, so that tells you how much I'm anticipating the game. The demo has Shout At the Devil by Motley Crue, You Really Got Me covered by Van Halen, Strutter by Kiss, and YYZ by Rush. I've played it both single and co-op, and done both lead guitar and bass/rythym guitar in co-op on all four songs. I like Shout At the Devil and Strutter the best. I would have liked another Van Halen song, really, because You Really Got Me, while good, isn't very Van Halen-y. And YYZ is damn hard.

Some early impressions based on the demo: three note chords are devious. They're a serious curveball at first, and it's going to take some practice to get them down. They're all over the place on Strutter's rythym guitar. It's way easier to do hammer ons and pull offs in GH2. I couldn't do them to save my life in GH1, and would just have to hit the strum bar like a maniac and hope I hit the flurry of notes. Now, though, I can hit it once and do a whole scale of hammer ons and pulls offs up and down the fretboard. Well, not really, but I can see how it would be totally possible with practice. Finally, I like playing the bass with my finger (upstroke strumming) rather than my thumb (downstroke strumming). I wanted to do it two finger style, but the strum bar isn't that responsive, so I just play with my index finger. It's still awesome, though, and really captures the feel of playing bass.

Two, I was offered the position that I had previously written about today. I accepted after hearing what the payrate would be (although I probably would have still accepted even if there was no increase at all over my current rate). Not only will it be full-time (a 40 hour week as opposed to my current 25), I'll be making about $1.50 more an hour. Ultimately, it works out to almost 40 grand a year. That's still not quite the goal I had in mind after college (I was told an Econ degree could net at least 40 grand a year right out of the gate), but I'm almost there, and only 2 and a half years off schedule. Even being conservative as to what the tax rate on a salary like that is, at my current rate of expenditure, I'll be free and clear of all my debt (credit card and student loans) in 12 months. That's some hot shit, right there. Not too many people are free of their 4-year college debt before their 26th birthday. I will be.

Not only that, but once I'm free, I'm never going into debt again. Expensive home electronic or other purchases? If I can't write a check for it, I don't need it. New car? I'm paying for that shit cash. Buying a home? Fuck that, I'm renting instead.

My next goal: get out of Stockton. The home offices are in Oakland. Season tickets for Raider games, here I come.