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LORD OF THE RINGS: THE THIRD AGE

lordoftheringsthirdagegamecube

We never had a Nintendo GameCube, but our Wii is GameCube play-able, I picked up the above title at 2nd and Charles sometime last year, but didn’t have controllers, so later got them, then couldn’t find where I’d put the game, so time went on and OMG look there it is in the stack on my dresser, it blended in so well with movies: DVD, Blu-ray, UMD, LOL.

So I ordered a Gamecube Memory card on Amazon and it should arrive in the mail today. Wii is setup with disc 1 in, controllers just awaiting the U. S. Mail.

This is a game we played on PlayStation 2 back in the day. We don’t have a PlayStation 2 anymore, and none of our PS3’s are phatty’s so we haven’t been able to play it in a long time.

lordoftheringsthirdageps2

I really liked it, I never played any of the movie versions, just this odd side game just appealed to me (as does War in the North, which I still have to finish on PS3 (for all the trophies.) Of course I also bought the newest LoTR game on PS4, played it for 10 minutes and never played it again. [Made too many nemesis enemies right off. Maybe one day I’ll try it again.]

Anyhow it just seems so unlikely that Lord of the Rings: The Third Age would ever get PS2 Classic status to be resold for PS3/PS4 I mean, no way. It’s EA for one thing. Just forget it.

 

 

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Forge TV means “Netflix isn’t my favorite” and Razer better fix it sooner than later.

#Netflix #Razer #ForgeTV #AndroidTV

“Razer Forge TV has Google Cast built-in so you can cast your favorite entertainment from your mobile device to your TV.”

–Razer makes it sound good, until you don’t see the obvious missing tile … no Netflix, none, and not good ways of using it. []

[www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-forge-tv]

 

Favorite entertainment, except for Netflix. Can’t have it native nor cast it properly. I can cast my entire screen on my Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Tablet, Netflix plays on my Forge TV connected to my 50″ Plasma, but it is not the same form factor as the TV, so not very compelling, not very awesome looking.

My phone, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ can’t cast Netflix to the TV, same Razer Forge TV. I can download Chromecast app on my Samsung and cast my phone screen, and then Netflix fills the ENTIRE TV screen, but the moving picture isn’t there, subtitle on a black screen, touch the device playback pull it along, you’ll see thumbnail pictures of the movie/show on the TV, but then hit play again, back to full black.

Forge TV and Vudu, I CAN Cast VUDU no problem. Neither Vudu nor Netflix will run natively though. <– That is not the case on other major devices. So Forge TV isn’t major, at least it does have YouTube and Google Play apps, Disney Anywhere, you can download so many other video providers, but not the major two that I use. Figures.

This is the beautiful photo I took with my tablet when trying to Cast Netflix, same screen happens from my phone too.

Netflix won't run Cast from any device.
Netflix won’t run Cast from any device.

 

This is nothing new. I know Forge TV has been out for awhile. Thing about it though, they only recently re-released it, that’s what I have. It’s about time Netflix is usable on it. Native or Cast. No need to “CAST WHOLE SCREEN” junk.

Netflix runs on my PS4, PS3, Phone, Tablet, even Wii, Wii U, good casts to any of my simple Chromecast dongles, my other Android TV’s (Sony 2015) have native Netflix including a button on the remote.

So is it money that keeps Netflix from Razer’s Forge TV? It can’t be hardware only, I mean there’s a solution, or a reason why. It’s just time for this to break. Oh of course, uh, Netflix works on my PS Vita and 3DS too. Hmph. But not on PS TV … there’s something going around. Not freedom, that’s for sure. So I have two nice little devices, and no way of putting Netflix on the big screen with them. Forge TV is my best, as PS TV doesn’t do video exept for PlayStation stuff. My stuff is in UV, Vudu/Disney/Google. Why did I get a Forge TV then? It was value priced, but value just isn’t truly value these days.

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Guitar Hero Again – Dongle fix

(Dongle fix story, and Dongle Fix Directions at the bottom.)

Lately I’ve felt like revisting Guitar Hero. It’s been a long time. We first finally bought into the franchise on the Wii with Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock. I really liked that game.

We got GH World Tour next.

Then we got heavier into PlayStation than Wii, got the whole band kit for GH WT PS3 … and within a month the drums died and DH promised to bring it back to BB and exchange it, but never did, and I have no idea what happened to that, and the microphone eventually fell apart from little kids banging on it with no use for it but that (I couldn’t stand singing with GH WT, it wouldn’t give me points for doing it even one iota different from what was the original singer, so my own style was poo-poo’d and that sucks since sometimes even it was just MY OWN VOICE replicating the original singer but with my own voice, not a style, just copying “their way” and it would deduct points … ick. Forget it. I’m a great singer and since it wouldn’t recognize me … what’s new? Nothing.

Anyhow, forget WT I didn’t like the whole game anyhow, I really liked Legends of Rock. We picked up a used copy of PS3 GH III Legends of Rock a couple of years ago. I also have the Aerosmith GH but haven’t actually played it (as far as I can remember, like I may have … but not more than put the game in …)

So the other day we pulled out PS3 GH III and the WT Guitar and dongle for it. Plug the usb of the dongle in and … nothing. Par for the course. It always was trouble after not very long of having it.

So the first time anyone played in this session, it was my 13 year old daughter, she used a PS3 dualshock controller to play the songs. She didn’t like it, but got better at it soon. Later I had batteries finally useful for the guitar, and I gave it another go with the dongle. Miraculously it finally turned on. My daughter played with the WT guitar and it worked for her.

So yesterday I finally got my chance to play, felt like playing too, so I got out the dongle and … nothing. I #%#@!!@%!$%@$%&!!!!! with it for hours it seemed. All in all I think I did indeed wasted nearly an hour before I got it to light up. I had trouble with the guitar then, finally found the right battery stuff and had it linked. Started the game and found I only had named my band “BAND” ha ha ha. Must have been a frustrating day those long years ago. So I crank it up and start with Slow Ride. I didn’t do so swell. Lets put it this way. I wasn’t that bad, only had lost my “Medium” edge, just need to re-tune it. Long ago I started GH and used EASY, and got through the game. Then I started over perfecting each song (nearly each song) on Medium, and loved it that way. I intended to go to HARD but didn’t (for whatever reason) and then WT came about and that whole game was like a joke to me, I liked some of it, but man …

So that’s when we also switched to PS3 with GH WT and left the Wii behind. Left GH behind mostly too. Resurgence of GH III later, but not for too long, then we just let it all sit and gather dust.

So there I was playing GH III on my old GH “BAND” profile and with one song under my belt I moved to a second song in the first sections, a few notes in, my guitar was unresponsive, totally …. what??????? Both dongle and guitar were lit up like connected.

So I wasted a bunch more time, fiddling with it all. If I unplugged the dongle to reset the connecting, guess what? It wouldn’t turn back on. I go so sick of it. I had been blowing into the usb ports to warm it up, used my scrapbooking heat gun too. It didn’t work, or did, eventually I got it back on. And my guitar still was unresponsive.

I took it all downstairs to my “office” then. Get away from the Wi-Fi signal that was right there in that other room, and try it on a newer PS3 (like mine in the office is.) Trials galore, no dongle light. So I started more searching online than I had been doing already and found a video of a guy folding paper and cutting it to fit inside the Guitar neck. So I ripped out a piece of notebook paper and folded it up and got the neck of the guitar off, put in the paper and re-inserted the neck. Really tight, but it all went back together. OK, would that fix it? Who knows. The Dongle was still not working.

I put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Nothing. Heated it. Nothing. Let it sit plugged in for 15 or more minutes. Nothing. Restart PS3. Many times. It was so testy, it was simply more than a pain in the.

Dongle Fix: the Story

Finally I did the only thing that I could figure out. OK, where are the screws. I’m taking this thing apart.

I did.

With the case off of it I looked at it, looked fine, smelled fine. Nothing lose, worn, or anything. Plugged it into my PS3 downstairs like that, the light was part of the button, loose in the case, just held in place, I couldn’t tell if it was connecting without it, so I carefully put the top onto it and voila! It instantly lit up! Yeah! So I had the top on, little poles slide into the circuitboard, so it’s held on secure enough. Anyhow, So now I played through GH III the first two sections and lost my battle against Tom M. Yes, I don’t care. I was able to play, the paper in the guitar neck seems to have worked. I guess I need to test it all without the paper now.

So I played a whole new game, never had played GH on that machine and I didn’t even think to put my save file in the cloud. All in all it’s OK since I really don’t mind beating it again. Not that I beat it already. No. I’m two sections in, just need to beat Tom M. and then I’ll have my more favorite songs to practice on.

So I played the two sections with no hitches. Then I quit, brought the dongle and guitar upstairs and asked my daughter if she wanted to play then. Yes. OK, let’s see … yes, instant dongle light up. Guitar worked. Awesome!

I had her unplug the dongle when she was done and put it in a drawer. This morning I pulled it out and quickly plugged it in, it lit up right away! I brought it down to my other PS3 and repeated my success.

I decided to put the bottom and screws and feet back on it. I didn’t over tighten, just enough. Sure enough, it still works. I tried it on both machines … instant light.

I didn’t do anything but take the feet off, take the screws out, take the bottom off, pry the circuit board off the poles in the top of the dongle case. It wasn’t anything about taking it apart that needed to be done. I’m guessing it’s the button, maybe it sits funny and that’s why, but simply replacing it makes it work solidly again. Works for me.

I have nothing against taking things apart (love doing that anyhow!)

Directions to fix GH Dongle to light up every time you plug it in!

So if you have a GH dongle and it won’t light up, try taking it apart. Pry off the sticky black dot feet, I used a T6 screwdriver to unscrew the 4 screws. Take the bottom and top (case) off. The circuit board is on poles connected to the top, just wiggle the board up to get it off. The button fits into a slot there, it’s easy enough to put it back together. If the dongle works when opened up, it just may work when put back together, as it did for me. Reverse the process to put it back together.

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Wii Power Cord Freezer Trick

Our Wii system was working fine since I last wrote about it not working: hyperthinking.us/weblog/2009/03/02/wii-power-none-then-yes/ until I discovered it wouldn’t turn on after I moved some things around yesterday. It either wasn’t working beforehand, since we did have a sudden house power down then on again Power situation on Sunday, or that didn’t affect it and it was my turning the power surge power strip off …

In any case I tried waiting and waiting and nothing worked. So I took out that battery, that did nothing in any configuration-al way I tried (amounts of time waiting with everything unplugged, or the battery in or out …) so I waited overnight with it unplugged. That should do it.

Not. Didn’t work.

So I searched online again and found someone referencing how the ‘freezer trick’ worked with her Wii power cord, so that sparked my mind to recall that’s one way to reset some other things, and I put the entire Wii power cord into a gallon-size Ziploc bag, and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes or so. When I took it out it was very cold. I plugged it in and voila! It worked again!

Next time this happens I’ll try that freezer trick with the little battery first, to see if that affects it or not.

I never did find an actual description of what the freezer trick was in the case above that I saw the reference to, I only imagine it must be similar to what I did.

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Wii power – none – then yes!

We had a lot of rain the past few days, and then snow, 5″, yesterday (Sunday, March 1, 2009) and during the snow storm on Sunday the power actually went out a few times, just for a couple of seconds, and a flicker or two here and there. All worked fine with our electronics, they are plugged into surge protection strips, not expensive ones, but decent ones. We did notice though that the Wii system wasn’t powered on (red power light on, meaning it’s plugged in, and also the cooling base we have has blue lights and the fan running all the time … all was silent.)

I wasn’t told this all until this afternoon, but I didn’t have a chance to look at it until we got back from running errands this afternoon/evening. So I checked the plugin area and all was plugged in, so I unplugged and put the plug into another outlet and still no power. I tried holding this button down, that one, leaving it a few minutes, changing outlets again … nothing.

I searched online, and found other people complaining of no power and some answers to leave it unplugged for 30 minutes, or 2 hours, etc. They’d say that worked for them. So I didn’t have the patience to wait that long at that point, and had seen someone mention the fuse going bad on their Wii system and that they just replace it and it works fine, but no mention of where that fuse is located.

So I searched that information out and still didn’t find anything, but I put the computer down and picked up the box and looked around the Wii case and saw one external spot with a little phillips screw and a place to open it up, so I unscrewed it and took the piece out and it was a battery, a flat round one, like a cmos battery in a desktop computer, or in a flat remote. I looked at it and put it right back. Screwed the screw back in. Went to tell my husband what I had done so far, went back, plugged it in and voila! The power red light was on, and it powered up fine. I put it back by the tv and hooked it up and it works fine and all the Mii’s and stuff are there.

So, I think it was the battery that reset it, since I didn’t leave it alone for more than a few minutes at a time, and that’s the thing I did last, before it worked. FWIW.

So try that, if you can’t get your Wii system to power up.

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PS3 early Christmas

We were going to buy a PS3 system for Christmas, but yesterday after getting paid for the last time before Christmas we were out doing some shopping and DH decided “let’s just get the PS3 today, and a game for the children, and one for you, and one for me” and then not wait until Christmas, but “open” it right away, not wrapped it up or anything, no surprise, except for in the aisle at Best Buy.

I had kind of suggested that already, before we left for the shopping trip, but he didn’t seem to take me seriously as I was “complaining” about how Christmas was going in our house thus far, seeing as I got us the Christmas tree early, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and it’s still not in the house, and it just doesn’t “feel” like Christmas to me, and I can’t get it in by myself and don’t feel like doing it alone anyhow. We have to clear a space for the tree, my idea of that is to move stuff over, get the tree in, then sort out the re-organization.

DH is opposite of what I am, so we are at impass. He was traveling this week, and last week it was … I don’t know … DH isn’t big into Christmas. Big into buying things for us, but not the decorations, the traditions … he could do without. So it takes massive energy on my part to make Christmas into the magical thing it can be in a family, and I haven’t had what it takes every year since moving to Georgia, living without any friends or relatives nearby, and not having a Christmas supportive church.

I had traditions of how decorations went, having special ones purchased each year to add to the tree, and reducing the “generic” ball decorations, going for a special look of a year marking ornament, silver bell, or pewter something, or a porcelain star, the current year dated things by big household fine dinner placings manufacturers … one every year, then also getting a series from Hallmark, like cats, bears, one every year marked for the year, special, a series of 5 or whatever the number. I didn’t start that the first year we were married, but did after we went to Gatlinburg for our anniversary in 1994, and found something to start with in an outlet shop, and that went on fine until my children got old enough to rifle through my stuff in the garage and ruined my things one year, many things broken while they were looking for toys that were put aside, and they weren’t supposed to be in that stuff at all, and they found my stuff and messed it up, and that was that. Some things survived, but to this day I don’t know what didn’t exactly, it makes me ill inside to think of it.

Anyhow, the other day I found a small tote with some of that surviving stuff inside (DH had transferred some stuff sometime this past year) and miraculously a Wedgewood 2002 snowflake ornament was laying naked in the bottom, whole and pristine. I took it out, and some other things in the box and put them on top of the DSS box for a short time.

That short time was way shorter than I figured, and after putting them there, putting a CD on to play, and picking up the baby to start nursing, all of the sudden “CRASH!!!!” and the stuff fell off of where it was directly onto the floor, the Wedgewood snowflake in several pieces.

I was quite disgusted with my choice of placement and mad at myself, but ultimately I felt it the children the ultimate reason for it, since it was safely stored in the right place until they displaced everything, being there to do so illegitamately one day here and there some years ago.

I did try to put the snowflake back together, it’s all there except for one small section of which I can’t find, and I have 5 or so tiny flakes that are impossible to put together, but wouldn’t even equal what’s missing if they could go somewhere. I looked high and low, and that shard is just fully missing. I could possibly super-glue it, but what’s the point, with that missing part and anyhow, my hold on “Christmas Energy” fell apart.

I’m totally offline about it, so that’s what the “just get our presents now” idea I had was about. DH took that and decided about it along with some other plans we have for traveling North right after Christmas, to just make the plan to go earlier, and we could have the Playstation 3 right away and also do the rest of Christmas next week instead of waiting for the 25th.

I don’t know, oh well, it’s OK, just not my true desire. I want a nice Christmas, the environment, the timing the mystery, fun, beauty, awe of it. I mean for me it’s all the way through Christmas Eve and is pretty much putted to nothing by Christmas morn. I have come to terms with having the most of my “christmas feeling” imbued in the evening by the fire the night before, and having us open something that night, and the rest the next day.

A few years ago we began a Christmas Tradition of going to a movie on Christmas Day. That year it was the new Peter Pan film. I want to continue it this year, even if we aren’t home … where we will be might be fine to exit for a few hours in honor of our newer tradition … we’ll be at DH’s father’s … we think. Well, it’s the current plan.

So to get back to the PS3, I have it set up, last night connected it and watched a new Blue-Ray in true HD. Ah, how nice. We saw HD in the summe of 2007 for the first time for real, in a new hotel they had a lovely large wide flat screen HD tv connection, a baseball game was it, and it was WOW! So now we have gaming and movies in HD at least 🙂

Yes, we have four Blue-Ray movies. 3 games for the PS3.

I connected to our wireless network with the PS3 today. I also got my PSP registered with the PS3 and that will make my PSP so much more worth it … it’s kind of cool. Anyhow, we looked at some of the pictures that are on one of my computers, via the PS3 and also fooled around with some music. Oh, we have a 160 Gig PS3.

We watched “Enchanted” last night. We didn’t own the DVD, just had rented it several months ago. We liked it then, but just didn’t “buy” it, but did last night at CD Warehouse (where we get a lot of our movies and CD’s of late) as one of our Blue-Ray movie purchases. It was fantastic to see it again, and I dreamed the music of it all night, literally. To see it so spectacularly made turning our standard DirecTivo on horrible ever since.

Today I played my new Prince of Persia game, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s a great version. I have PofP Sands of Time for PS2, and PofP Rival Swords for Wii, as well. I haven’t finished either of them, but jumped right into each when I had them and never went all the way. I love the format for the new PS3/XBox version, it’s thoroughly just what I want to play.

The children have the PS3 Wall.E game. And the DH game was bundled with the PS3, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. He’ll play that soon. Wall.E has been played by all three older children and I’m sick of the sounds already. 🙂

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Non-inspirational Life

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Sometimes I feel like writing but don’t have the opportunity to do so. When I do have the opportunity, like now, I just can’t think of anything to write any more. It’s the thing, probably, since I have a toddler now, and not much chance to be on the computer at all, since the toddler is very busy and into anything I’m doing, and with a “newer” laptop I am not wanting him to ruin it, and if I’m using the old laptop he’s pulling on it and it was just “fixed” with a new screen not long ago, and it’s just a pain to do anything “personal” with a toddling baby again.

Seemingly long ago I had my first laptop, and I didn’t have a little baby then, my babies were all a bit over toddler stage. Then years went by and I had a baby again. My first laptops suffered from little children antics, but then things were fine for the next few years. That last laptop had some self-problems and with a nice warranty from Best Buy was mostly fixed up, but we got me a nicer laptop meanwhile, since that one was 2 years old and a bit behind the times 😉 and I wanted something smaller with bigger innerds as well.

So I sit here on my bed with the children all downstairs fooling around, and I have the time to write something. So this is it.

It’s nearly the end of 2008, and I’ve felt rather bad about how I’ve treated my websites, blogs, photos, this year. I’ve wanted to do more, but haven’t been inspired to do so, and with little alone time, that non-inspiration has just flourished.

My dear baby loves me more than anything and is so very attached to me, unlike how any of the previous lilttle ones were. They each were different from one another, but this baby now is so very different, so very lovey and close and I’m enjoying that, but then having so very little me with music, books, computer, etc.

The good thing with my baby is that he does like music though. He dances and loves to hear music, loves watching me play guitar hero, and listens to music in general, when I play the radio or CD’s or digitalized (mp3 player or computer) music.

So there is where my “time” has gone, my “creative time” my “personal time” — to my baby, and guitar hero and music listening.

I’ve had TV shows that I’ve liked and then found that they’d been cancelled, like The 4400 and Moonlight, the most resent that bothered me. I have new ones that I really like now, and worry partially that THEY will be cut off in their Prime as well, The Mentalist, In Plain Sight, for my favorites … and there are a few other shows that I like now too, but the above are the new faves I have, and favorite above others.

I wish those other two that were cancelled would be picked up and started again somewhere, but oh well. Stuff like that over the years, shows with good stories and characters that you follow cut down before their time, before the story goes far enough … it happens and will happen again and again. I just hope, right now, that it won’t be my favorites anytime soon.

I nearly hesitate to even write about it, but I am. I was happy about Moonlight returning before and had a post about it … and it came back shortly, then !!!Capluy!!!!!

We got a new TV last week. Costco had a Vizio 42″ on sale, we were not planning on getting one, but ended up doing so. We have talked about a new TV for a while, and had decided to get something bigger in January or February at the earliest, a Sony 46″ or bigger, 120mhz. That is costly. We had an Emprex 32″ that developed a vertical double line on the right third of the screen, and we had an old tube TV that stopped working a couple of months ago. We have two DirecTivo DVR’s and only one was being used, but both in “service” (monthly charges for service) and so we saw the TV on sale, a way lesser model than we wanted, but better than our Emprex and well within reason price wise, not settling, but giving us a better thing for our family area, and now we have that older Emprex in our bedroom again (it was there a long while ago for a bit) I am a “no TV in the bedroom” person, but have given into it here and there, and don’t mind it as much sometimes, like in the wintertime, or now as well, when I have less chance for “personal time” and can get some personal tv time at least, in the bedroom, here and there.

So then with that happening just this past week, I finally had the chance to see something I’d wanted to on FLN, “Whatever Martha”. I watched 2 recorded episodes last night, and laughed my head off. It’s adult stuff, not everyone’s style, but it hit my laugh meter spot on. That felt good. The first time in a long time. My husband was laughing too, but he “said” it was because I was laughing, he was laughing at ME finding ME funny because I was laughing at the show, not that he thought the show was funny or anything really. I don’t know that I believe that … but whatever …

Seems rather stange, to me, it’s TV that has finally been an inspiration for me to write something in this post. I must stop writing and publish, since my baby is now running all over the bed and well, that’s the end of my ‘personal time’ !

Oh, the other thing about the Vizio is that we got a cheap ($14.99 Best Buy) Component cable for the Wii System and hooked that up and WOW! It was way better than the RCA connections the Wii System comes with. Too bad Wii didn’t go for HD with their first model. Sucks actually, but at least the component cables make it look better.

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Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock: My Career on Easy

Before our last trip, which we took in the beginning of September, been back less than a week, thus far …, I had finally started using my Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wii game that I had gotten for my “birthday” in July. I hadn’t ever played any Guitar Hero or that sort of game, just was very interested in it with the newer version of it, and it being available on Wii, which is our main console right now.

Basically I was inspired to start using it when we had just been to Best Buy and the Rock Band game was setup there and my daughter started doing the drumming for it, but the guitars wouldn’t work. So after she tried it some I tried the drumming too and found that it would be fun if it worked right, it wasn’t doing things right, in our estimation.

Even with that not so good experience, it made me hungry to just hook up the GH and jam. In 3 days I beat the Easy mode in career. I played a lot, but not all the time, mind you. I got pretty good with Slow Ride in practice, so then I started my band in Career and off I went.

After that win, we went on our 10-day long trip and my fingers were crying out for my “guitar” the whole time. We got back on Sunday, Sept. 14th but I didn’t do anything with Wii at all until last night. I played a bunch of songs in Quick Play, re-practicing basically. After I had beat the Easy mode before our trip I did a lot of Quick Play just for fun, and let my children do it too. The older two are begging to start there own “careers” and I said they could sometime, just haven’t opened the starting gate for that yet.

I was a tad rusty last night, but it was like 2 weeks between gigs, and no practicing except for air guitar interpretations of GH to songs on the radio in the vehicle on our way up North. 🙂

Next on the agenda then is Medium mode with my career. I’m not sure I’m up to the challenge yet, but maybe I am, just have to try it. At any rate, I have enjoyed the Easy mode and would love to do more songs in that mode, FWIW. I want the Guitar Hero Aerosmith game, but thus far hubby doesn’t seem to understand all the fuss, or why one would want another game … and add to it the fact that I was talking about getting the Rock Band game, and then nixed that when I found the information about Guitar Hero World Tour upcoming game … He’s either overwhelmed, or underwhelmed, maybe both. FWIW.