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Library Summer Reading Club Party/Lock-In (8/15-8/16) |
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It was... well, tiring. Let me explain.
So it first started with my arrival to the library; I brought my Xbox 360, BioShock, and my GHII controller for use in Rock Band... and two boxes of Rice Krispies treats, but those didn't get eaten until late into the bloody event. The library wasn't quite closed yet, so I joined the group of other Lock-In participants in the Children's Storytime Room... where I was happy to see that the library had gotten a new RB drumset (about that... I accidentally broke the foot pedal on the old one on Thursday, and I had modded the set itself with the Sock Mod to make it work better). Sadly, I can't mod this new drumset as well without taking it apart, but if anything, it works a helluva lot better than the old one, Sock Mod be damned. Anyway, after some conversing (and attempts to pull the box for BioShock away from my friend Noelle [my Rock Band team's vocalist], whom I have no doubt will read this and make some kind of BioShock-related comment on it), then came the setting up of the event, which involved moving furniture, setting up televisions, projectors, and gaming consoles, and various other rushed tasks. When everything was finished, then the fun started.
... and it first began with my friend Stephanie straightening my hair (who may also read this but may instead make a comment about how much my hair looks like Ozzy Osbourne and smelled like the mixture of "pot spray" and citrus when the deed was done). I had people petting the resulting puff-ball all bloody night... but anyway, after an hour or two of playing Rock Band (and owning the hell out of the downloadable Red Hot Chili Peppers songs on vocals), eating pizza, and conversing with my friends, everyone was called for the raffle; those who took part in the Summer Reading Club and read and logged six books were eligible for the party/lock-in and the raffle. Somehow I was one of the raffle winners, my prize being the first 14 volumes of Naruto manga. I doubt I'll read them, but I'm sure 14 manga are worth a pretty amount on eBay. twisted
So when that was over with, it was back to Rock Band for me, and, at one point, BioShock (and some fun with Dr. Steinman... by killing him with a corpse, and then using his corpse to kill others!), until the time the party itself came to a close and a headcount was in order for those staying for the lock-in. When the riff-raff that weren't participating left, the lock-in began... and with a bang: Monster Slushies! Yes, the library made slushies with Monster energy drinks for people to stay awake with! I'll have to give thanks to Noelle for giving the library the idea (which she got from Warped Tour, I believe). So anyway, after the getting my slushie I went back to BioShock and showed the people who decided to watch why it is easily the best game of 2007, if not one the best games in existence... they agreed. twisted At one point, the whole Children's room turned into a mosh pit; heavy metal music was played, and people were ramming into each other at high speeds... being it was my first time in a mosh pit (although this one was small in comparison to how real mosh pits must be)... it was a lot of fun and really painful at the same time. When it ended it was back to BioShock, but after a while, though, as people wanted to use my 360 for other purposes (Dead Rising, Halo 3, etc.), I went back to Rock Band... or so I thought. What happened instead was a series of sparring matches (5 point matches) with the uber-awesome Paul (also known as Sempai or Stevie, he's in charge of majority of the teen events... and did I mention he's uber-awesome?)... sparring with cali sticks (well, I'm figuring they're cali sticks; they look like them). Everyone had a turn to go up against him... though as far as I know nobody actually beat him. The two times I went against him (had to wear hand and head padding because apparently it's a rule that those under 18 need protection, even though I'm a bloody blackbelt and can take a hit) I lost, but I did get some good hits on him; in the first match I hit him in the finger, and though I wasn't pointed for it, I did leave a scratch on him, and then second round I got three points on him before he won by poking me in the chin. So after that, me and my friend Elisha (my Rock Band team's drummer) decided to finally take on Rock Band's biggest killer: The Endless Setlist.
Now, we had tried it earlier in the night with another person playing bass, but we went off to play BioShock. I'll say now I regret having left so early, but I digress. I took guitar, Elisha took drums, and the both of us played on Hard (on the off-chance that we'd win fans for actually beating the setlist; we didn't dare try playing on Expert because we knew there were songs that would MURDER us on that difficulty). Now, for those of you who don't know, the Endless Setlist is a 58 song setlist, consisting of every song in the game (not including downloadables, thankfully), and overall takes anywhere from 4-5 hours to complete... it's literally a test of endurance. The first 20 songs me and Elisha were doing quite well; I FCed (FC=Full Combo, basically getting 100% notes hit on a song, gaining a full multiplier on your respective peripheral and keeping it for the duration of the song) about 6-10 of the songs on Hard, and we both only had slight trouble on Brainpower by Freezepop (it's annoying, let's just say). As we reached the 30s songs started getting more difficult: our first real "oh s**t" moment came from Dead On Arrival by Fall Out Boy... which anyone who plays RB on drums knows is a b***h of a song to play. Somehow, Elisha survived (I believe he didn't fail, either), and we continued. Our next "oh s**t" moment came from Blue Oyster Cult's (Don't Fear) The Reaper: on Expert I own the hell out of this song (Hard was considerably easier, although I did mess up a few times because I strummed Expert notes where they weren't), but Elisha had difficulty doing many of the drum rolls involved in the song (it's his big Achilles Heel on the drums), and because of it he failed twice; I was able to save him the first time, and the ending of the song saved him the second time. As the time passed and we kept playing songs, we gained a crowd, including my Rock Band team's bassist CJ (who was loving how well me and Elisha were doing, as all the flattery let on), and so we had support to keep on going through this. I'm glad we had all that support, too, because our next big "oh s**t" moment came in the form of Next To You by The Police, and true ******** of a song on drums. This is the song that we would've played (and failed miserably at) at the Rock Band tournament two months back... and we knew it was hard. As the song began, Elisha already began choking, eventually failing about 10 seconds it... yes, it's THAT hard. At this point I was nervous out of my goddamn mind; my only hope of keeping us going through the setlist would be to hit both of the incoming Overdrive phrases so I could save Elisha. Somehow, I hit both OD phrases, THRUST my guitar into the air, and got the save in JUST before we failed. I saved every other OD phrases I got throughout the song in case saving was needed again, but Elisha really stepped it up and we survived. Everyone frickin' cheered after we beat it, and I nearly fell on the ground because I felt winded. The next few songs weren't that bad, but then we ran into my worst nightmare: Green Grass and High Tides by The Outlaws. Thankfully I was playing on Hard, but that is still a difficult song. Me and Elisha switch out (both of us could play every peripheral of the game), and for the first half of the song I drummed while he played guitar. Halfway through the song we switched back (the guitar was a nice break for him... and I can't do fast, repetitive drumming worth half a s**t) and completed the song. As the lock-in's ending time of 8 AM neared, the tension was so thick you'd need a chainsaw to cut through it; we had about 10 songs to go and an hour to do them! Our next real "oh s**t" moment came in the form of Boston's Foreplay/Longtime... an epic song in its own right, but ******** hard to play; Elisha failed twice IN THE INTRO, and I could barely save him both times. However, the rest of the song went off without a hitch, and we survived to the end. Eventually, we had about 25 minutes left and 2 songs to go: Run To The Hills by Iron Maiden and Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who. By now the room was full of people watching us play and cheering us on... and then it happened: we had to play Run To The Hills. Elisha knew he could beat The Who, but Iron Maiden? Even I was sure he couldn't do it... so the song started. Immediately he had drum rolls to do; he failed, in which I had to quickly deploy OD to save him. And then came something neither of us expected: quick triple hits, something he hasn't done, as far as I know. The massacre began; he failed fairly quickly, and so I saved him again. At one point he had enough OD to keep himself alive, but as it ran out he began failing again... eventually failing the third, and final, time. I couldn't save him, and we didn't want to lose any of the progress we gained throughout the Band World Tour mode, so I leaped at the controller port, unplugged my controller and went to the main menu.
... and then it was kind of quiet... until Elisha and I yelled a resounding "********" and he threw his drum sticks at the screen (we played Rock Band on a projector). I lay on my belly on the ground, tired beyond belief. I was on the brink of tears, and he was already letting on tears. For those who think we were over exaggerating, think of it like this: we spent 4, count 'em, 4 ******** HOURS playing through 56, count 'em again, 56 ******** SONGS OUT OF 58 ******** SONGS only to fail on the second to last song! It would be more understandable if we failed on the very last song, but the second to last?! That's just as painful as a kick to the balls! It's just bloody sadistic! If anything, I'm glad we had the crowd; after the failure, me and Elisha were praised for having gotten so bloody far in the first place, we were given assurances that we were going to be the best there at the finals tournament (8/30), and various other uplifting comments. Noelle even offered us a can of Monster... which I chugged half of. CJ kept a smile up and told us we were the best at the game that he knew of and various other flattering comments. Didn't make us feel that much better, though; Elisha was especially down because he was the one who had caused our failure. Can't say it's his fault, though, as he was playing drums on Hard for 55 1/2 songs; his arms ached, his fingers got swollen, his neck hurt, his foot went numb at one point... all I got from playing guitar was my neck aching a bit and my fretting-fingers hurting some. I was playing on Hard, too, and I'm more than capable of playing on Expert... if I did, though, it would've been me who failed us on Green Grass and High Tides; I've still yet to see how that second solo is doable FOR NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS... WITHOUT FAILING. But nonetheless, we failed at playing the Endless Setlist, and the chances of us getting enough time to play it again is very slim... until the next Lock-In, I suppose.
Even with the disappointment of the end, I still had a helluva lot of fun at the Lock-In. I got to spend a good deal of time with my friends before school started up again. If anything, it's because of my friends that I didn't go completely insane when it was all said and done. All in all... mah peeps, Monster-slushies, moshing, Rock Band, BioShock, sparring... I'd rather not start off the new school year any other way. cool
Oh, here's a funny little bit that happened when my mom picked up me and Elisha (who needed a ride home). She went to Walgreens to get some milk... but because she came in her pajamas, I was sent to get it, Elisha coming with me. I got the milk, and then began walking to the exit when I heard him say "dude, did you pay for that?" THEN I noticed I had a gallon of milk in my hand and I was nearly out of the building; the group of employees talking ONLY THEN noticed how close to the exit I was... and everyone in the vicinity, including me, were laughing our asses off. I nearly shoplifted and got away with it! rofl
... I BLAME ROCK BAND!!! rofl rofl rofl
Die The Shisno · Sun Aug 17, 2008 @ 04:17am · 1 Comments |
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