I played Santa to myself this year, which means my gifts come earlier. I'm back from school but my mom is out of town taking care of my grandmother, so she didn't have any time to do holiday shopping. Instead, I turned to Amazon to pick out a few things for myself and found a copy of Rock Band in the store the other day. BTOWWWH!

Oh, you mean to say that I don't need to make a crazy noise every time I progress? Rock Band teaches otherwise. As you navigate the menus of the game it makes guitar sound effect. Though Guitar Hero did the same thing, it wasn't quite to the extent of Rock Band. As my friends and I play we just scream "BDTOW!! BRRDOOOWWW! BDTAA!!" It's a little annoying, but it's the price you have to play if you want to rock. Jeff Gerstmann was right when he said that Rock Band is this year's Wii Sports: the game that people come over and can play even if they don't play video games regularly. Well, Wii Sports is really this year's Wii Sports still, but Rock Band is a close second. BPTWAAAOWW!!

Now, you might be saying, "but, Bobby, you said you wouldn't be buying Rock Band." I did. And if you weren't saying that, you're now thinking, "Bobby, why did you just admit that you said that when you just as easily could have fooled us?" Touche. But technically I'm not buying it because it is a Christmas gift... Though, in reality, I've decided that life's just too short. I was playing Rock Band in the video game lab at my school during Finals and really fell for it. It's fun, as those of you who have played it know. So I kicked my convictions to the curb and that's the end of that. One thing that sold me on it is the potential for DLC in the marketplace. I'm hoping a lot of bands hop aboard the Rock Bandwagon (HA!) and start submitting stuff to Harmonix.

I'm also playing that game where Mario goes to space and the New York Times Crossword Puzzle game that one Rich Gallup loves so much. I can understand why, since it's all the fun of crosswords without the inky smudges. In fact, I even got some multiplayer going last night as we were watching the Redskins beat the Vikings. My friends girlfriend, who never touches video games, got really excited about NYT Crosswords and helped me to victory. She was also in an acapella group in college so when she sang in Rock Band our ears didn't bleed. It was a refreshing change of pace.

I wish you all a Happy Christmas and hope that your days are filled with family, friends, cookies, and games.

PS: BRGTDDOWW!!!

It was easy to jump off the ship when somebody told me it was sinking. Little did I know that somebody just put the captain on a rowboat and sent him off. We just assumed that we needed to be in those rowboats as well. Little did we know that maybe the ship had just sprung a leak. The other crewmates were told that they couldn't talk about the crack in the hull. Needless to say, everybody was in a bad position. Little by little the crewmakes started reassuring passengers and each other that they could take care of the vessel. They still couldn't talk about the damage to the ship, but other news sources came in and the passengers started putting things together.

I'm a passenger that has a theory, which I will elaborate on in a forthcoming telegram. It absolves the captain and the crew, and instead focuses on the shipping line company.

I'm tired of this metaphor, but to let you know, I'm sticking around to see where things go. GameSpot is good people and I have faith.