I have been wanting to write about my experience about living downtown for a while, but I never really had anything too important to say. I still really don’t so this might seem like I am rambling.

Overall, my experience has been very good. All of my fears about living downtown were wrong. That doesn’t mean everything in hunky dory.

I will first go over the advantages

1. I love being so close to the action. I had no clue how many different events are held downtown. There is almost something going on in Memorial Park every weekend. This summer was ever more exciting since Live on the Levee was moved from the riverfront.
2. One of the main goals was being close to the bars. I want the ability to go out and meet up with people if they are out and about. Its even getting better as I make more friends who live downtown or have moved downtown. Plus, I rarely pay a cab fare which was a staple every weekend when I was living at past places.
3. I really like “loft”  living. I love the openness of my place plus I think I have a pretty good view of the City Museum so it makes my place feel more like adventurous. I also just like looking out my window and seeing tall buildings.
4. I like the ability to walk out my door to go to the gym even though I haven’t worked out in a while.

There are disadvantages.

1. My area specifically has a real problem with homeless. I don’t think the people are dangerous like depicted but they definitely do harm to the area. I have been told by many, especially ladies, that they would love to live downtown but deem it as too dangerous. I think the constant viewing of bums and being panhandled has to play a major role in their view. I personally think it is safe but I can see their reasoning. I like the recent work that a group completed to help improve the area, specifically Lucas Park.
2. I really miss having a pool. I grew up with a pool my whole life and I have lived next to a pool the last 3 years before I bought this place. I do have hot tubs but they are not a good substitute.
3. I can not understand why my place seems to have lower prices than other lofts. There are features that we are missing but we offer a lot features that others don’t. I really wish we had a roof top deck. This would be great for entertaining, sun bathing, or just getting a good look on the skyline. My condo fees are also higher than I would like. We do have a good size gym, two elevators, and two hot tubs so I can see why it is costly. But my utilities are dirt cheap since a majority of the cost are tied in the condo fee so that makes up for it. The one major plus with my place is the layout of my unit. I have yet to see a place with my openness and great layout for under $250k. Noise is starting to be a problem for me. The walls do not have sound deadening material like advertised unless my one neighbor plays his music incredibly loud. I can’t hear my other neighbor but I assume they can hear me. They probably hate me. I would like a place where I could yell and listen to music as loud as I want.
4. I miss having my own grill. We have a shared grill but I do not feel comfortable with it. My next place, if it is a loft, will have some kind of private deck.
5. I also hate the fact that we can not “buzz” people in the front door nor will we ever have the option since the majority of the people I talk to like the added layer of security. I think it makes it impossible to have a party or family gathering because of this. I can’t constantly keep running to the main floor. I don’t even like it when I have a couple people over.

Things that I thought were going to be a problem but really are not

1. I was concerned about parking for my friends since I have a garage spot. This hasn’t really been a problem. There is plenty of parking around my building and on Wash Ave.
2. I was concerned about not having a major grocery store. This is not a problem at all. The Schnucks on Clayton is actually only 5 minutes away plus I have recently been going to the City Grocers which is more expensive but worth it for picking up last minute items.

Overall, I love my new life downtown. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone but I think a majority of my friends would like it. I think it is only going to get better as the area builds up and more people move downtown.

I absolutely love the new Rock Band 2. I have been reading a lot of bad reviews with the most complaints in the category that they didn’t change much. The other complaint I hear is that the vocals are way too easy to get 100% on expert. I think people are totally off base for the following reasons (1) the game is supposed to be fun and can almost be seen like an expansion pack. It is surely cheaper than buying 80 songs through the marketplace (2) they did make changes that I really like. The most notable change is the ability to play World Tour with only 1 person. I really enjoyed World Tour mode in the original but rarely had people over enough to get far in it. (3) I like that you now can see the song difficulty when choosing a track in quick play. (4) this release has better online play and abilities. You can have a World Tour with one of your friends online and you can more easily challenge a fellow online gamers plus you can try out daily challenges that Harmonix posts … very similar to what EA did with Tigers Woods 2008. (5) I found the vocals to be hard on medium and I sang throughout all of high school. I think making it easier wouldn’t hurt but not as easy as people are depicting which I actually don’t believe. I will check this out at a later time (6) Last but not least, they greatly improved on what people are calling “party” features. These features include quicker and easier navigation to get the band setup plus enabled an option to make it so that the band can not fail. I think all of these options are huge. I didn’t even mention the fact that you could copy all the Rock Band 1 song over and play them in Rock Band 2 which is worth the game in itself.

My only complaint is that they did not add a counter for your successful notes streak. Guitar Hero has it and I think it is a good feature.

Overall, I think the game kicks ass. I really am enjoying the songs that are on this album. Harmonix did a great job securing these artist. I can’t wait to get the Foo Fighter and Red Hot Chili Peppers albums when they come out. Also, people are acting like the original game was bad but it wasn’t even close. It served its purpose of being a fun game. I don’t think you need to add all these other bells and whistles like avatars and character appearances. People are there to play the songs on the game. So all Harmonix needs to do is improve the gameplay and come out with more songs. They did this and it is greatly appreciated.

P.S. I had no clue there was a code to unlock all the songs in Rock Band 1. From what I saw in other articles, the code in Rock Band 1 had to be entered every time the game started. Rock Band 2 remember the codes for this people that do not want to go through the World Tour part. For me, I would rather go through the process. I already have about 50 songs unlocked … I am mega star.

I just recently stumbled on Microsoft’s HD View when MSN.com posted HD pictures of the devastation left over from Ike. I don’t know if anyone has used this before but it was pretty amazing. According to Wikipedia, MS HD View is “an image viewer to aid in the display of very large images. Advances in techniques for stitching digital images together has led to the creation of images of gigapixel size.You could zoom in to see very good detail”. I did not even realize that gigapixels even existed so this blew me out of the water. The Ike slideshow pictures that MSN posted did a great job at showing the devastation. Another good product from Microsoft.

Wow … I totally guessed wrong what this episode was going to entail. I had not heard how well the show was doing this season or talk about another season of Weeds so I was expecting Nancy to die. I was totally wrong … I think. The show in itself was sorta boring. I did like the scene with Doug (Kevin Nealon) where everyone thought he was going to hang himself … needless to say he didn’t … and it was very funny. The show setup a new season to be entirely in Mexico. The kids were even talking about moving to Mexico independently of their mom to start a new life. In the end, Nancy was about to be condemned to die when she shows Esteban that she is pregnant. Maybe that spared her life. Maybe we will find out next season or never find out. What do you think?

On one side note, what was the scene about where Celia went to meet her daughter in Mexico? Was this totally out of the blue or did I miss something? For one, I didn’t even know she has a hot older daughter. Second, all of a sudden (or at least to me) she was going somewhere in Mexico. No build up at all to me. It seemed really out of place.

Well another weekend has passed that went by in a blink of an eye. It was a fun weekend filled with sports and a lot of fun.

Friday night started the weekend with a good KU game vs South Florida. The Rengler made an appearance to watch the game and play some Rock Band afterward. It was a fun time. The game was pretty exciting with South Florida winning the game on a late field goal.

Saturday was Jim Hedges bachelor party. Amazingly enough, the night did not end up on the Landing. We started the day by going over to Jim’s house in Benton Park to watch football. Mizzou won their game easy. They have serious national championship aspirations. Jim has quite the nice setup. He is right next to Lemp Brewery and the new bar, Stable. He has a huge yard (for the city), a big house, and the inside is pretty nice. It even had me rethinking about buying in the area. The night concluded with a fun time at Harry’s and then the bachelor party staple of the East Side. We ended up at Pops. Those guys love that place. The band that was playing was pretty good. I was also glad to see a bunch of other people made it out too like Chris, Hoff, and Ann.

Sunday was my day to lay low and do some homework. Instead, I watched about 5 minutes of the Rams game then went to pick up Rock Band 2. The rest of the day consisted of playing Rock Band 2 and watching Entourage and True Blood. I will do a complete review of Rock Band 2 later once I check out some of the other new feature like the online band mode.

Here is some of things I am thinking about.

• Why did the city plan the Tour of Missouri to get into downtown the exact same time the Rams game was getting out? It made it a logistics nightmare since some street were closed. I personally had to go the long way around to get to my house.
• Did it rain a lot some time this morning? I got home pretty late and did not see any rain but it some how down poured enough to close parts of 70 down. It also some how caused the Jack in the Box on Hampton to close down due to flooding. No clue where that water would have came from.
• Does anyone else hate how Hardees does not show any of their promotional items on their menu or anywhere on the counter. You basically have to look around at the deals that are on the outside windows. Not sure if this is smart marketing because it get people to come into the store and lower their chances of their customers purchasing the deals which I would assume the company has a lower margin on. Or maybe they are just stupid.
• Rock Band 2 is awesome. I loved the new features. They improved on almost all the flaws of the orginal Rock Band. I also love all the songs they have. I liked the songs even more after I got a chance to play them.
• I am really not looking forward to my weekend HR class next weekend nor am I prepared for it yet. I am going to have to do a lot of catchup Monday and Tuesday night.
• The Rams players can’t even walk. How are they expected to win a game?
• MIZ-ZOU. Great Game! Chase Daniel was good as always. I think that was Maclin’s best game so far as a wide receiver. Both players are going to make a run at the Heisman.

I don’t know how often everyone goes to eat at fast food establishments but I go through streaks where I eat a lot of fast food. I have been getting more and more frustrated with the increase in pricing in respect to different stores in one area. Now I know that the different stores can have different owners so some can choose to run the special pricing or not but it is starting to get a little ridiculous.

For example, Taco Bell came out with 79¢, 89¢, and 99¢ value meal. It had all kind of new items and prices within this menu. Taco Bell ran a huge ad campaign promoting the new menu and prices which still run today. I fell in love with the Cheesy Double Beef Burrito. It has everything I liked in a Burrito; cheese and meat. It first was at 89 cents like advertised. I went to the same Taco Bell by my work a couple days later and it was 99 cents. Now, it is all the way up to $1.59. Not only is it $1.59, the past couple times I got it, it had barely any cheese or beef; it was like a rice burrito. Now, if you look at their “value” menu”, it is basically blank. Why not get rid of the campaign if that is the case? Why do some stores think it is profitable while others don’t? Taco Bell either needs to start enforcing their promotional prices or stop running the same ad that is showing cheap items that do not exist.

The same thing goes for McDonald’s. They advertise the 99 cent double cheeseburger everywhere. They have generated enough buzz that most fast food hamburger chains offer a 99 cent double cheeseburger (even Wendy’s though some of my friends won’t admit it). The problem is that this “99 cent double cheeseburger” is impossible to find. Many times it is priced between $2.20 and $2.50. It is hard to price a double cheeseburger at 99 cents when the single burger is more than a dollar. But you still can find them. I know the McDonald’s by my work has them. In the end, McDonald’s and all restaurants need to quit promoting prices that a good majority of the stores do not recognize.

What does everyone else think?

The second installment of Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates commercials was released yesterday. It is a long 4 minutes and 30 seconds. It was again funny but not nearly as funny as the first one. Bill does the robot at the end which is always classic. I am pretty sure that the two could have their own sitcom and it would be a massive hit.

These are some thoughts going through my head right now.

• Do the rules for our fantasy football league change every year plus do the changes negatively affect me every time? I can swear the person with the 1^st waiver priority has the opportunity to pick up everyone they choose. Albeit unfair, I though this was the way. I finally have a horrible team (in last place) plus I also had the last pick in the draft order so I thought I was going to pull a Mike Hoff and cleanup in the 1st week of waiver …. I guess I was wrong. In the end, I wanted Royal and I didn’t get him because I did not have him set as my number 1 waiver priority.
• On one more fantasy note, I am pretty positive I would have won fantasy baseball if I would have made the playoffs. My team was on fire; winning the past 3 weeks. My final week I won 12 – 0. I missed the playoffs by 3 wins.
• I am really excited about the different release for Xbox 360 coming out this month. One, I can’t wait for Rock Band 2 this Sunday. I am going to be rockin out to some Livin on a Prayer every night. Two, I am super excited about the new Dashboard for 360 that is rumored to be released in the next 30 days. I am most excited about the Netflix option since I have been a Netflix member for the past 5 years. I also like the rumors floating around about it having a Sirius radio streamer plus that Microsoft is going to do some giveaway in some massive PR campaign to gain back consumer confidence.
• Why is Sirius’s stock going so low? Mel Karmazin had to give the worst speech of his life earlier in the week. He is supposed to help the company and the industry; not drive it into the ground by saying there is virtually no growth. I again reiterate that buying this stock was my worst financial decision ever but I am going to go down with the boat and continue to buy more as it goes lower and lower.
• It seems like I missed the opportunity to buy foreclosed garage spaces in my building for a huge discounted price. I am still exploring some opportunities but it looks like they were all sold in a recent city auction in August. It would have been a really good financial move to improve the value of my condo since there are so few opportunities in downtown to have a condo with two individual garage spots.
• Last but not least, I absolutely love the new Microsoft commercial with Jerry Seinfeld. I think it is hilarious and is a very good move towards improving their brand strength and combat those stupid Apple commercials. I laugh every time I see it. The portion with the leather comment is hilarious. It is a very “Seinfeld” moment just like the tv show. Bill plays the part tremendously. His facial expression match Jerry’s to a T.

The pilot episode of Fringe shown on Fox last night was pretty good. I did have pretty high expectations for it since there was so much hype and so much comparison to Lost. I was really disappointed with the opening scene being on a plane that seemed like it was going to crash. It was too much like the pilot intro for Lost. I am not sure if J.J. Abrams does these kinds of things to mess with us true Lost fans or if he is just not creative enough.

The ending was really good. I was wondering the whole time how they were going to make this into an actual show if they solved the issue right off the bat. It is very much like X-Files so I was thinking they were going to solve the mystery in which a new mystery appeared right after. I think it is going to be very much like this but where there is an overall “big” mystery to solve … the same as in X-Files. Its a show where you don’t have to watch episode 1,2, and 3 to be able to understand 4 according to Abrams. Because of this, I am not sure it will have quite the cult following that Lost does but maybe it will have better longevity.

Here is my quick summary:

The show starts out with a plane being infected by some kind of bacteria/organism that basically eats the flesh off the all the people on the plane. The planes has some kind of crazy autopilot feature so it lands themselves.  The two lead FBI characters investigate a lead at a storage facility where they find all these tests being done. The agents stumble onto the “bag guy” in which he then blows up the units leaving the male FBI agent covered in chemical. Somehow these chemical are turning the guys skin into a clear plastic looking material that is going to kill him in a couple days. The female FBI agents in charge of the investigation makes a couple discoveries in doing research that links similar studies to this “insane” professor in the 80′s. The FBI agent then pulls the “insane” researcher out of the mental institution and begins working in his old lab. Without getting into the exact details, the story line was actually pretty hard to believe up to this point. For one, the guy (Dr Walter Bishop) seems totally loopy at the start of the show but seemed totally coherent at the end … didn’t make too much sense.  The other thing that bothered me with the storyline is how the female FBI agent got whatever she wanted. The whole idea that they were able to get the lab from the University, that the equipment was still there, and the fact that it still worked blew my mind. I guess it is TV. The third problem was the timeline. It didn’t seem to add up. They accomplished a lot of things that seemed like it would take weeks but it was only a day or so. In the end, they were able to bring the male FBI agent back to life but it turns out he was part of the whole plane incident in the first place. He gets in a car chase with the female agent in which we he dies. The end scene is showing the dead FBI agent on a gurney at Massive Dynamics. One of the characters that we previously saw in the episode (that everyone thought was just an extra) asks the paramedic how long he has been dead in which he says 5 hours. The lady then said to question him. Wow … I guess that was supposed to blow our mind but they mentioned earlier in the show that the Dr Bishop was working on reanimation so I guess they are going to bring him back to life.

The thing that actually bothered me the most was the use of floating 3D text to introduce a location. It just seemed really cheesy and totally out of place. Not sure what they were thinking.

I will have to wait and see about the other episodes. I am not at pumped as I was before I saw the pilot.