Tough Week

Ed McMahon - from Johnny Carson to Alpo to Star Search to the MS telethons and Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.
His infectious laugh propped Carson up many times when a joke or gag was otherwise faltering.

And then Farrah Fawcett who captured every guy's imagination in the late 70's with this poster:



I personally know several women who were teenagers during that era who STILL sport the famous Farrah hair!

And then a guy not much older than me, who completes the trio. I admit that I lost track of him as he got wierder and wierder. But after looking at some of his later material, it was obvious that he was still as talented as ever. (Tough finding worthwhile video that can be embedded.)




These were all folks I sort of grew up with or grew up with me in an odd sort of way. Tough to believe these folks are gone just like that.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sorry my screen capture crapped out, but this is the best I could do at the moment. No green socks, sorry!

I did try to keep my hands down in a sort of Irish dancing style, but I'm no Micheal Flatly...thank goodness!

The song is Rockhill by Beltain.

Changing it up...

Here's a slight departure from the DDR/Stepmania theme. Over Christmas, my boys got the PC game Guitar Praise, which is the Christian version of Guitar Hero/Rock Band. The oldest is only ten, and I'm thinking that I don't need Ozzy Osbourne raising my kids (no offense) so the nice Christian lyrics work and my youngest is totally into the contemporary Christians music. I went through that back in the '80's briefly. Remember Stryper? I have no idea how Guitar Praise even created this game without including them.

Once the kids are on bed or otherwise occupied, Daddy can use the wireless guitar controller and corrupt it with more secular music by Ozzie Osbourne or AC/DC. The game is Frets on Fire, and is free and open source. If one knows where to look (and I do) one can download every colection from GH and Rock Band plus some other people have made. Plus you can make your own. Disadvantages include limited game play options (so far) compared to the commercial games but the price is right.

The major victory with this video is that I was able to make it using one machine, unlike my Stepmania videos which in the past involved two machines, one doing screen capture and the other with the webcam. This was all filmed, captured and played on a single machine, which is why the screen capture is a bit choppy. It is also out of sync by a couple seconds.






Now I KNOW most of you can beat this. Maybe we could do some sort of mashup video with one person doing GH and I could do Stepmania.

BTW, I thought *I* was the oldest mat player. Check out these guys! Gotta make you feel a lot better, eh, FADkOG?

Merry Christmas!

Until my YouTube channel updates, I guess I can just load the 'ole video into here like I've been doing. This is one of my busier times of the year as I'm trying to roll out baked goods, video goods and assorted other Christmas stuff for friends and family.

This one was fun to make as I liked the song and the steps..at least on the standard level. Being the gambling fool that I am, I decided to go for a second helping on the hard level. What's one more foot, right? I survived. And that's all I'll say about that.

Feeling Nostalgia-Like

A couple of years ago, I was sharing a fantasy kiss in a hot tub with a couple of hot bloggers. You can check out this year's RWB at FTN's place, but while you are waiting enjoy the hot tub flashback or at least the song going through my head at the time:

Stepmania: MAX Forever

I love making these things, and I've discovered that I actually do better with an "audience" as this video demonstrates. However I usually work out in front of the fan, which gets turned off here so I have decent sound. Which means I overheat!

I use Camstudio for the screen capture and then just used the webcam on the laptop. There is a cool PIP feature for Movie Maker that allows for both videos to be rendered together.

I've been working on this song for about a year, as it was one of the last of the "light" songs for me to master. It is the most difficult and longest song that I do, with over 1,000 steps. I finally went from a 'C' to a 'B' a month or so ago, and today...well, you'll just have to see. I like the music and the steps, but it really does feel like it lasts forever! DDR players will recognize this song, by DM Ashura, as it is an original DDR song but I'm pretty sure the stepfiles are different here. This song is like my Mt. Everest. I also struggle on another of DM Ashura's, Klungkung 2004, (not my video) which I recorded right before this one and would have to be massively persuaded to post. But I was already tired going into this one, which is always my last song. By the end of it, I could barely move my feet!

There are a number of YouTube videos of people doing better on this song, but I'm probably the oldest person to ever do it on the step mat at near 45.

A Tribute to Bunni and Paris

I have been reading Ms. Bunni Speagelman's blog who has spent the entire spring and summer writing about Paris. She has gone on and on and on about how fabulous and wonderful and magical Paris is. Having only spent a couple of days there, I couldn't share her enthusiasm for the place and from her own blog she had been near death, practically raped and dumped there. She could have saved a buck or two and done all that in New York, but to each their own!

Actually, I decided that I would try to be more positive about Paris and perhaps make her feel a bit less lonesome. i think I might have found a way to feel a bit better about Paris. Indeed, I feel a lot better about Paris now especially I AA'd this song right here for your viewing pleasure!

The Black Socks return for a Paris Tribute!