The Professional Gamer - July 13, 2013

This past week was certainly a hot one, and therefore mostly spent hiding indoors.  Through this, I've had three main companions.

First, I finished off the book I Am Legend.  I'm not sure if my intense feelings about this book are related to its actual quality, or more for the significant amount of time that I've spent without a new piece of fiction to read.  Regardless, I generally enjoyed the book, even though I felt that the ending fell a little flat.  I'll have a more detailed review up later this week.  My new read is Letters to a Young Scientist by E. O. Wilson.  I know, I'm back in the realm of non-fiction, but I heard an interview with Wilson on Science Friday, and I had to give the book a read.  There is a part of me that still hopes to be a serious researcher someday; however, reading this book has made me doubt whether I really have the sort of curiosity and drive necessary to succeed in that field.

 

Second, I have continued my play through of the original Final Fantasy GB:A remake.  This last week, I stumbled into one of the bonus dungeons that were added for the remake.  Everything was going fine until I met one of the bosses.  In spite of this set back, I earned a lot of XP and found some cool treasure.  Since then, I've gone back to the main storyline quest, such as it is.  The guideposts in the plot are few are far between.  I'm glad that ZeldaQueen saved her old Nintendo Power Strategy Guide, if only to help me find where the next part of the quest takes place.

Third, I decided to finally set up the XBox360 that Assimilator had kindly loaned me after mine was stolen last year.  After some awful frustration trying to get the XBox WiFi adapter to speak with my network, hardwiring the XBox, running all the updates, and reconnecting the WiFi, I was ready to play some Rock Band.  I pull out the drums and grab a chair from the kitchen, only to find during the first song that one of the pads was non-responsive.  My gaming was definitely not off to a good start.  I search the web for some tips to fix this problem and learn that sometimes just pulling the pad off and replacing it can help get it to respond again.  I do this, find it responsive for about two or three hits, then lose it again.  At this point I give up, because this is obviously not something that I'm going to be able to both fix and play tonight.  I dig through the cabinet where we keep our games and find a copy of Fable 3 still in the shrink-wrap.  First, I feel shame for my terrible habit of buying games and never playing them (in this case, literally), then resolve to give the game a shot.  I end up playing for about an hour.  Seems good so far, and I hope I can find some time to monopolize the television and play some more.

The article is late this week due to a rather full weekend. Until I write about that in next article, does anyone out there know anything about fixing electronic drums or have a set of XBox drums that they don't need anymore?  I'm willing to pay a fair price.