I love my new Axe

Man...

I really love this thing to bits. So comfy, crazy sustain, distorts real well, sounds real good clean. Makes you want to just play all day (which I pretty much did - trying to figure out this one song).

I thought Vs sucked in the past but man I really love mine!

Welp, back to playing.

Choice has been made!

And the winner is......

The Dean Dave Mustaine VMNT1!

The Dean Dave Mustaine Signature VMNT1

Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaine Livewire

Dave Mustaine Signature V

Man this is such an awesome axe! The action (distance between the strings and the frets) is real low and it has a very slim neck. A real shredder's guitar right here.

The pickups are nice because even though they are active pickups, the range is very good (so it can play more than just metal!). :)

The sustain is GODLY! Man! I can just hold a power chord and it could go on almost forever (well good enough LOL!). I think it's a glued/set neck. Not a bolt on. It has a Mahogany body and neck and an Ebony finger board (real premium woods right there).

It comes with a very nice case (a case that I think is heavier then the guitar itself... o_0), strap locks (it has flush mount straplocks - so no pegs), and the latest Megadeth CD, United Abominations.

Me likies... Very appropriate for me to continue learning my favorite song - In My Darkest Hour (another favorite is A Toute Le Monde).

Rock on!

Choices!

Which guitar hero of mine should I pick?!

Dave Mustaine and Slash are my two Guitar Gods. They both have signature guitars that I can afford.

Should I go Dave Mustaine? Or should I go Slash?

Dean Dave Mustaine VMNT1 Signature Guitar.

This bad ass axe uses Dave Mustaine's Seymour Duncan Livewire Active pickups. From what I have read, this is a 'Active' version of the Seymour Duncan 'Hot Rodded' pickups (that I have installed on my Ibanez RG). The guitar is super light and somehow, playing with the 'V' design by holding it in between my thighs is remarkably comfy. The action is SUPER LOW!

Epiphone Slash Signature Les Paul.

This equally awesome guitar was built to Slash's exact specs. The maple top is always a nice welcome thing for me (I love the finish). It uses Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups and with gain and some Overdrive, one can replicate the distinct Slash sound. This is a limited edition Les Paul and the local GuitarCenter has two of them.

Both of these bad-ass axes come with a case, straplocks, and a strap. Both cost $999. Dilemma!

But in all honesty, I am leaning heavily towards the VMNT1. I promised myself that I would buy a 'Gibson' Les Paul. The Epiphone Les Pauls don't use the Gibson pick ups. The Slash Signature is an exception though because it uses the awesome Seymour Duncan pickups.

I guess I will find out on Monday (when I sell of Ms Ibanez for either one of these - Memorial day sale?).

Argh!

Updates updates!

First and foremost, I have been away for the past 5 days visiting the family in KS. Good times. Did some DIY crap, gamed a lot, got a brother a new guitar (a freaking Les Paul at that - God dammit!), and bumpy flight back.

Let's start things with a bit of gaming.

GTA IV
I finished the 100% completion on Saturday. Did not sleep that night at all. I arrived at 2am Saturday, bro's graduation started at 8am so we had to leave @ 7:15am (aka 7:30am Scott Standard Time), so I hooked up the Xbox 360 and started playing at 5:30am and I started. At 7am, I achieved 100% completion! Just in time for me to take a shower and get ready! Needless to say, I was a zombie but I have met the contest requirement. I rock! I have no life! WEWT!

Guitar
I now have this impeccable urge to buy a new axe... My youngest brother just got an Epiphone (Gibson's budget brand) Les Paul Studio. DAMMIT! I played on that awesome axe all weekend and weekdays (that I was there). Now I am dying for my very own Gibson/Epiphone. Though I am abandoning my previous desire to get a Floyd Rose equipped guitar (I down tune far too much and it would be a royal Pain In The Ass).

Lexus GS450h
My oh my. I love that hybrid. I drove from the airport. First thing I did, flip it on to 'Power' hybrid and 'sport' suspension (I know my way around the car as I have test driven the GS430 and IS350 previously). Needless to say, I floored it (aka Pedal to the Metal) onto the highway. WHOAH! Thats FAAAAST for a luxury sedan. Good job Toyota utilizing the 100% torque of an electric motor in conjunction with a V6! And just think! The cars I want to get have faster 0-60 times! I can't wait!

So yeah, I'm going to the guitar store....

Will it be an Epiphone Slash Signature or a Gibson Explorer or an Epiphone Les Paul?!

Who knows! Gonna bring Ms Ibanez and her coffin along for a possible trade in. Stay tuned!

GTA IV 100%

So yeah, Rockstar games had this one contest that initially ran the course of the first week following the launch. Whoever beat 100% of the game would get a custom made key to the city.

I gave up and didn't play the game at all for 5 days. Last monday (6 days after I gave up), I found out that it was extended.

DAMMIT! 5 wasted days!

Now I am rushing to complete crap. Might not be able to finish it tonight so I will have to lug my console with me to Kansas to finish (flying there tomorrow for my brother's graduation).

Boo...

I better get this...

GOING TO SEE NIN!!!

WOOOOHOOOOOO!

First concert ever in my life!

And I HAVE TICKETS!

Not one BUT TWO!!!


Venue is @ Key Arena. Date is July 26, 2008.

I took the Lower Reserved ticket and not the General Admin floor (kinda like not being squished)...

Nick wanted to get floor but he lucked out and couldn't get one through the pre-sale for NIN members. :(

Hope he can score one through ticketmaster or through key arena. :(

TT or VT?

Which car should I chose? (bear in mind I want a "bachelor's" car - or a sports car - not just a dinky old two door sporty looking wannabe)

I have pretty much made up my mind to probably not buy a Lancer Evolution X MR. I mean dropping $40k right now. Probably not a really good idea (unless if like 0% interest LOL!)

So now I have relooked back on my dream cars of yester-year. Namely the Nissan Z32 300ZX Twin Turbo.

I can't say how much this car gets my juices flowing. I love it to bits. And the noise that the VG30DETT makes will make you drool.

While browsing around, I found one that I really really like. Great deal. Lovely interior. Low miles (though bear in mind, the car is 16 years old). They still turn heads and say what you want but it is still a 300hp twin turbo 3L V6. Cost? $16k. Very do-able (maybe even cash - or 1 year loan). Still would have to take a small loan (but will wipe it out by end of the year easy).

Now I figured, let's bump it up a notch.

How about a Honda (Acura) NSX? It costs a bit more (~$30k or so) but affordable when I factor in monthly payments (definitely need a loan lol).

Now thats a fully fledged exotic car. It was so good that Gordon Murray put the NSX as one of the cars to beat in terms of ability to live with it while developing the McLaren F1.

This car is all aluminum. From the body panels, to monocoque, and suspension. It truly is an automotive feat. Ultra tight tolerances too. Suspension was developed with the help of the legendary late Aryton Senna. The chassis was so rigid that a mechanic that I knew who had one said when it was jacked up on the shop hydraulic jack, the car would slowly teeter as the chassis refused to flex and 'rest' on the jack points. Though a good friend of mine just told me he knows of a mechanic that had to spend a whole afternoon on his belly changing an NSX's timing belt. :o

This car is an MR (Mid-Engine, RWD) and ultra light (though I would probably weigh it down some LOL).

Pros and cons below.

Z32 TT pros:
- Cheap - less debt.
- FORCED INDUCTION!
- Able to tweak more (boost controller, programable ECU - the one I'm looking at has one anyways).
- Cheaper to maintain maybe?
- I could park it on the street and not worry (not too much at least - just hide all the toys inside).
- One of my favorite V6 engines of all time.
- Spare parts a plenty (still great after market support).

Z32 TT Cons:
- Maintentance? Turbos (needs replacing at intervals)? - Ultra crammed engine bay.
- More stuff to tweak = more stuff to go wrong?

NSX Pros:
- Exclusivity. You don't see a lot on the road.
- A 'real' exotic car for relatively cheap.
- Ultra good handling.
- Renown reliability (provided out of snap ring failure range).
- N/A VTec powah!
- Superb engine note.

NSX Cons:
- Would have a hard time parking it in the street (or a car lot) without checking on it every other minute.
- Maintenance could be even more expensive?
- Fully expect insurance to be killer (though will ask for a quote for both soon).
- Repair costs are supposed to be very expensive.
- No stock forced induction.
- More money.

It's a tough one. I really don't know which way to sway. I can definitely afford the monthly payments and the costs to maintain it (I will DEFINITELY baby which ever one I end up with). For the NSX, its the non-monetary cost of owning it (scared shitless to park it in public). Both are reliable enough for daily driving. Both will definitely be dollops of fun. Both are ultra reliable if maintained properly (I am religious in this aspect).

And no I will not pick up chicks in it (I'm not that shallow mmkay?). Well at least not actively. LOL!

NIN

Nine Inch Nails. They are the massive driving force behind Industrial music.

And they are one of my favorite bands of all time (well I guess Trent Reznor as he is pretty much a one man band - apart from his live band - kinda need that for concerts).

NIN caused some heads to turn as Trent was always critical of the music industry. He later managed to leave the labels and immediately followed up with Ghosts I-IV. Ghosts is a 36 track instrumental and it took a different departure from Radiohead's In Rainbows. It gave the a few tracks for free and offered to sell the album in whichever format the customer/fan would like it (from virtual MP3 copies, to CDs and virtual copies, to some Vinyl, cds, and virtual copies). This sold real well and I personally have never seen a site go down faster short of a DDoS attack (NIN became overloaded with the amount of people wanting to download and order stuff).

Today, they released The Slip through multiple formats. I personally downloaded the FLAC for my music player and 24/96 WAV for listening at home.

He also left a comment on their front page.

"(thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me)"

Right on! Keep sticking it up to the recording industry!

They also have a concert in July here in Seattle @ Key Arena. Tickets go on sale on the 7th. Needless to say, I am very inclined to go. I promised myself that I only really have the desire to see two bands in my whole life. Megadeth and NIN.

Hopefully one of them will be fulfilled real soon.

Dual Monitors!

Yes!

I am back on two screens!

One of my 19s died a while back so I was relegated to a meager single screen. For those on single screens who can't comprehend having two, all I can say is you will not know until you have two, and once you have two, you can never go back. ;) Multi-tasking made easy pretty much.

I finally made the jump to some bigger (and higher quality panels).

Behold! The dual HP w2207s (thats right bishes, 22 inches!). Do pardon the clutter (haha my guitar slide is still there btw).


Muahahaha!

And what would new dual monitors be without a new wallpaper? :o


That picture is the Epiphone Prophecy Futura FX (basically a Gibson Explorer with a Floyd Rose Tremolo and EMG active pickups) of which I fully intend to utilize my second tax rebate (the $600 'stimulus' one) on. Should be 'injected' into my account on May 9 (based off SSN). Guitar comes out this month so it should all be good. And no, I didn't finish my first rebate (all of it has been put towards "PsY's Evo X MR & Education fund").

Grand Theft Auto IV - a week in

Boy oh boy oh boy!

I finally beat it. Has to be the longest GTA thus far! :o

Already dumped 42 hours this week into it. So I had no life this week. :p

My Analyst (Brian) at work was surprised I actually held down my work (and was productive too LOL).

I'm pooped. Finishing up the side missions though I doubt I can make the 100% contest that ends tomorrow night. The rest of the world gets an extra day (LIES!). My completion rate is at ~70% right now and thats with the main story down. Seems the last 20+% is the hardest to earn (stupid 200 pigeons, unique stunts, etc etc etc).

Blah.

But I had fun.

I'll post more about GTA IV but it's attention to detail was mind blowing. Thank you Rockstar Games. The small things do add up.

Finally pics of my Special Edition GTA IV (with awesome license plate)!