Bits & Bytes

So, lots of stuff piles up when you don't write for a while. Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed. I've got a lot in my head.

I got a new Android phone and one of my favorite apps so far lets me be an Xbox Live voyeur. It's got the unfortunate name of 1337pwn but it lets you add anyone's gamertag and see their online status and recent history. Sure you can do that all on the xbox.com site but this app uses the Android notifications to let you know when people sign on in more or less real time. Do I really need to know when people sign in? No, but it's sort of neat. Also, since you can add anyone (even people you're not XBL friends with) I added stephentotilo and giantbombing, two of my favorite game writers from Kotaku and Giant Bomb, respectively.

I've noticed lots of bloggers cheating by reposting stuff they've seen on Twitter and thought I might do a bit of the same. Oh, and I got on MTV Multiplayer again. I think Russ Frushtick over there must have a similar sense of humor as I do.

Speaking of Twitter, here are some of my thoughts from there on Guitar Hero: Metallica

• In case you're wondering, Guitar Hero: Metallica is about 100 times more awesome than the Aerosmith one. Now back to rocking...
• Odd that my favorite part of Guitar Hero: Metallica so far is PLAYING SOME SKYNRD! ...(man)

And really, this game is pretty cool. I'm almost finished with the guitar career, I may play around with the drums or vocals. It's nice to have that option since I have the original Rock Band kit that works with it...I think. Come to think of it, I'm not sure.

I also briefly played Pikmin for Wii. This is a remake of the original Gamecube game that adds some new Wii-specific controls. Since I never played the original, I can't say how much it added. It seemed like a neat concept and nice art style. I actually felt like I let the little guys down when it told me I lost a few pikmins in battle at the end of the day. Maybe I just didn't give it enough time, but the game didn't really grab me. So I sent it back.

Speaking of disjointed, the reason I'm writing tonight is because the wife is using the game TV to watch the So You Think You Can Dance finale. I will never understand why this show is on two nights a week. For an hour or two. Every week... It's not that I hate the show or anything. There just seems to be way too much TRL-style Woooo!!!-ing.

I took a trip recently and played a bit of DS. I'm stuck on the fiend lord in Chrono Trigger so I played a bit of Geometry Wars: Galaxies. I think I like that game. To paraphrase a friend: "Get these shapes off my Euclidean PLANE!" The worst thing about it are the controls that make my hands hurt. So I may need to get one of them on the Xbox.