JJ Weatherman's blog post on RB3 can be found here.  It was a well-written informative blog post.
 
Keyboard/ Pro-Keys
 I was right there with you on Pro Keys vs. Regular Keys.  When I really took a look at the peripheral, I knew there was no way I really wanted to play regular keys, because it  just seemed like it would be boring as all get out.  That being said, I wish I hadn't taken keyboarding so long ago... and that I hadn't stopped going and failed out.   
 
Also, basically the keyboard is the equivalent to something like C1 through C3, for people who know their keyboard/piano.  Though one thing that bothers me is that you can't use ANY octave while playing.  If a note shows up as C2, you must play it as C2.  C1 won't cut it.  I was fairly disappointed in this.   
 
The Pro Keys trainer was also great, actually.  Some of the scales were actually kinda difficult to get through - it really WAS like my old keyboarding class.  I haven't messed with Pro Keys during many songs at the moment, so I can't really say which songs have been fantastic for it, though I have definitely heard potential in some songs that we've played so far. 
 

Pro Drums 

Vocals 

UI and Gameplay 

Rocker Customization 

Career Mode 

  TL;DR 

 Nowadays everyone's got their own little rewards card/program.  My keychain has a separate section just for all those little keychain cards you get.  And I actually use a good chunk of them. Every time I have to add another, I'm simply amazed by all the places that have these.  So here's the crap my little reward keychain is full of.  What does yours have? 
 

• GameStop Powerup Rewards Pro 
• Best Buy Rewards Zone 
• Office Depot Worklife Rewards 
• King County Library System 
• Petco P.A.L.S. 
• RiteAid Rewards 
• Hot Topic HT+1 
• Albertsons Preferred Savings Card 
• OfficeMax MaxPerks 
• PetSmart PetPerks 
• Borders Rewards 
• Tacoma Public Library (mine) 
• Tacoma Public Library (daughter's) 
• Auto Zone Rewards 
• Titus-Will Ford Owner Advantage Rewards 

Everyone has their stories.  Some people just don't get the simplest things.  This comes up though, because currently, I'm stuck with someone nearby who is one of those technologically inept people.  I'm supposed to have my own office, but I'm still somewhat new here (almost 3 months).  So I'm in a "workstation" for now.  Next to this lady who's like... at least 50something.  Our firm is big enough that we have our own "help desk" that you call whenever you need some help with anything tech-wise.  I swear this lady calls them every day, and she always wants them to take remote access of her computer and do whatever it is for her.  It could be the simplest thing like doing something with a footer in Word, or it could be something like today's - someone else has this doc open but I need to use it.  Well fuck, either open it read only, or get on the phone with the other person and ask them to close out of it. 
 
Honestly, I've seen worse than this lady.  My first career boss was so awful... her personal assistant used to turn on her computer for her every day.  After she had fired the assistant, one day she came in and no one had turned her computer on for her.  She buzzed me freaking out - and had absolutely no idea how to turn her computer on.  Literally! 
 
Course, then I wonder if people my kid's age will feel the same way about me when I'm older.  I sure as hell hope not.

RB nights used to be a great source of fun for my husband and I and our group of friends.  (An example of this can be found at this youtube video).  But over the last few months it's simply become a headache.   
 
Guy A and Guy B don't get along anymore because Guy B told Guy A how to raise his kid.  Guy A refuses to come over if Guy B is going to be there.  All the more difficult now since Guy B is currently rooming with us.  
 
Guy C and Girl A broke up.  They're usually still ok with being around each other, though not always.  More recently she wants to bring her new bf to RB nights which obviously won't fly with Guy C. 
 
Guy D doesn't even really care for RB much and just hangs out hoping he'll get to play some MW2 (or any other shooter for that matter) afterwards with the guys. 
 
Then there's me.  Considering that the hubby and I rarely play RB together anymore unless there's company over,  and also taking into account that I'm a fairly social person, I don't really want to just cancel our RB nights, though it's starting to seem like that may be what we do after the first RB3 party. 
 
Why do adults have to act like little kids?

Education & Professional 

Relationships & Family

Hobbies & Extracurricular 

Other... 

So admittedly, when I was younger and heard people talk about LAN parties, I thought, "what a bunch of nerds."  I didn't realize that when my husband and I (and occasionally friends) played Diablo over TCP/IP, that was basically the same thing.  Or played other games over our local network rather than playing online.  I guess because we didn't fit the impression I always got of what a LAN party was.  Even when we had about half a dozen of us all set up on our rigs in the basement...  
(Before there are any basement jokes, this is OUR basement as in, my husband and I, as in we own the house.  The computer room had gotten too small for myself, him, our kid, and the occasional guest.  That and the basement doesn't get anywhere near as warm as the old computer room.) 
So anyway yeah, like half a dozen of us, maybe more, all playing our rigs, WAAAGHing in Warhammer Online when it first came out.  Tons of fun. 
Borderlands, playing that on local network on the PCs, or playing split screen with the hubby.  
Split screening CoD, Halo, GR with some friends. 
Is all this dead?
 
When I see people talk about playing with others, it's always online.  People don't talk often about playing split-screen with their buddy.  Even less often do we hear people talking about playing over local networks.  It just seems to be a shame.  This was brought to mind by the Borderlands on PC thread, because people were complaining about playing online through Gamespy.  I wouldn't know.  If I played, it was with the hubby over local network.

So I'd like to rant in my blog here because apparently ranting to the offending party did jack shit. 
 
I have this family member.  Calls himself an evangelist.  Fine, whatever.  I don't care what people's religions are.  My best friend considers herself Wiccan, my husband found out a few years ago that he's part Jewish, and I was brought up Catholic.  Big deal.  I do, however, kind of have a problem with the people who "find God" every couple years or so.  But still, I normally keep it to myself. 
 
Lately though, this family member who calls himself an evangelist... he seriously uses Facebook as a pulpit.  At least a few times a week, he creates some Note on Facebook... Alright, so I get notice that he's created said Note.  Then he tags me in said Note.  So I get notice that he tags me in said Note in addition to the first notice.  Then he tags the other 20 family members we have as friends-in-common, and I get notices that he's tagged them.  It's a lot of spam.  And personally, I'm tired of being spammed with stuff like Are you lost? basically a big old thing on being lost from the church and how people should come back because obviously they've lost their way. 
 
I even tried to return the favor... I created my own big ol' note about how I am not lost, how I know exactly what I believe and how I believe, and that my right to that should be respected.  It didn't seem to matter.  I've even tagged him (and only him) in it.... that doesn't seem to matter either.  So now I'm stuck ranting elsewhere because I don't want to piss off an entire side of my family by being any more blunt than I've already been.

It's hard not to think about WoW when there's all this talk of 4.0 out, and Cata coming very soon. 
 
My history with WoW is a long and sordid one.  Back before WoW I was an EQ player.  Given that EQ2 was coming out at about the same time as WoW, I kind of expected to be going to EQ2 instead of WoW.  I actually had it preordered.  But it turned out that my husband, and a fair amount of our RL friends were all going to WoW.  In fact, we had gotten into the beta shortly before it went open.  So I turned my EQ2 preorder into a WoW CE preorder along with my husband's CE preorder.  We played beta and release, then took a break.  Then came back and played and took another break.  Rinse repeat, a few times over.  But suffice to say, we've gone back to WoW at least half a dozen times so far.  Like many others, we've made friends and lost friends over the game.  We've also (multiple times) swore off playing with RL friends anymore.  
 
As I mentioned, when we bought our original copies, we preordered CE's.  We did the same for BC.  We were on one of our breaks during the WotLK release, so didn't even buy the expansion until our return about 6 months after the expansion's release.  We had kicked ourselves for it.  So now I've been wondering (and here's one of my guilty admissions):  Even though I'm (we're) not currently playing the game... should I preorder CE's?  I don't want to miss out again like with did with WotLK.  But I'm not sure if I can justify 2 CE's for a game we're not currently playing.
 
Our last break from the game was sometime around May or June of this year.  The causes varied.  We were tired of the game being more work than fun.  There was too much guild drama.  Our guild collapsed.  Etc.  So here's my other guilty admission.... my account is still open.  Why?  Well, I don't want to miss out on the anniversary pet this year (I have missed out a few years in the past).  I haven't decided if I'm through with the game for a longer period of time or not. 
 
And all this damn talk of Cataclysm and all the info on 4.0 that's been pouring out... I've actually been trying for me and the hubby to decide if we want to go back anytime soon.  Ugh what to do.

Dear Bioware – You had that really awesome elusive thing… Don’t let it go!

There is something out there that all game developers seem to try to capture, and it’s as elusive as a unicorn.   In fact, it’s their unicorn.   At home we talk about a song in Rock Band that we can never complete on solo/expert…. My husband’s unicorn is GGHT.   The game industry’s unicorn… are you ready?   Is the female gamer.

How often at gaming conventions do we see panels about female gamers, or marketing to females, or how to get girls to play?   It seems like all the time.   Apparently the game industry is still trying to figure out how to market to females, how to get females to play their games, how to get females excited about their games.  

One thing is quite obvious though:   You can market to females, as an entire group, about as well as you can market to males as an entire group.   Just because you have the next awesome CoD game doesn’t mean that the guys that only really play sports games are suddenly going to come over and check out your new CoD, just as not all girls are going to rush to check out your new Sims or WoW.   The only thing you can possibly use to try to market to guys, as a whole, is a hot chick.   But that doesn’t work the other way around.   Many female gamers don’t care about the hot guy.   Some are just as interested in the hot chick.   Some don’t associate hot guy or chick with “gotta have that product.” So first and foremost, the game industry needs to accept that.   There is no marketing to females, as a whole.

What does this have to do with Bioware?   I’m getting there.   Walk with me.   We’re walking… we’re walking….   Inside joke, sorry.

I’m not your typical girl.   I’m married, in my 30s, with a kid and a career, yet I’m a total gamer.   RPG’s, MMOs, the occasional shooter.   Just keep away with that Sims or Farmville garbage.   I certainly don’t consider myself a girly-girl either.   I’ve only just started wearing pink over the last few years.   I don’t think I own a single romance novel.   My “chick flicks” consist of stuff like Coyote Ugly, Phantom of the Opera, and When Harry Met Sally.

Lately I haven’t been playing anything in particular.   Some GH:WoR here and there.   RB when friends are over.   That’s about it.   I’m back to looking for something to pique my interest again.   Last night I was considering my search.   And I considered just curling up with a good book.   But I wanted something, well I’m embarrassed to say now, with a bit of romance to it.   Not some Harlequin romance novel.   Something along the lines of Raistlin and Crysania in the Dragonlance books.   Or Alistair and the main female character from Dragon Age…. Wait a second!   That’s it!

That was the moment of my epiphany.   I realized that Bioware had created something so awesome.   They had created a game that gamers enjoyed playing, and they created a game that girls and women alike gushed over.   God knows I even gushed for a little while and I’ve NEVER done that with a game.   Never in my life had I had a video game crush until Alistair came along.   And the character interaction in that game (not just with Alistair, but with your whole party) really just fulfilled something.   It was like reading a good book, only better because you took part in it.   You got to be a gamer, enjoy a very well put together game, AND get the interaction that many females enjoy (without dealing with arseholes like on WoW).   Now granted, the Mass Effect games were pretty damn good too, but they just weren’t quite to the same level, in my humble opinion.

So Bioware, for a time at least, had caught that unicorn.   They almost let it go.   Dragon Age 2 was starting to sound much less appealing than the first.   I was quite disappointed when at first, we were told we’d only be allowed to play a male.   I’m glad that’s been changed.   I just truly hope that the game captures the essence of the first, and captures the female heart the way the first game did.   Boyfriends and husbands and guys in general probably weren’t too thrilled about their sisters, girlfriends, and wives flocking to Dragon Age fansites, but look what Bioware did – something that may very well be unprecedented in the gaming industry.