Guitar Hero Domination

Yet another thing crossed off my list of things to do in 2009!

Yes that’s right, I have competed in a competitive gaming event. And totally dominated it I might add.

The event: Guitar Hero 5
The place: Sandton Convention Center at the Audio-Video and Appliance Expo 2009
The date: 30 October – 1 November 2009

I wrote my first exam on Friday 30 October, and decided that I needed something to do afterwards for fun. Destress and all that kind of stuff. So I organised to go with George to the Audio-Video and Appliance Expo (AVA). I was intending to go anyway sometime that weekend, just for the Guitar Hero 5 stand that was going to be there.

So we went through to Sandton, which I’ve never been to before, and parked in the Sandton City parking lot. We walked across to the Sandton Convention Center, (which is huge btw) and wondered through the expo for a while. It was rather specialised, so we weren’t that interested in all the stuff; and we ended up at the Guitar Hero booth.

The way the competition worked was that anybody could come by and play the game on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and the top 8 scores would be called back to play competitively on Sunday. I picked up a random song and played it, and I got a fairly decent score on Expert. I only missed 1 note I think. There was this other guy on Friday as well at the same time as me, I’ll call him Brown Shirt.

Brown Shirt played a random song, and then, not being happy with his score, went back and picked another song to play, in order to get a higher score. The song he picked was a 16 minute long monster by Peter Frampton (Live), so obviously he was going to get a high score. Cheater. But anyway, I played and was reasonably confident about my score.

Saturday night I got a call from the guy, telling me to come back on Sunday to play. I thought cool and we (me and my ever-supportive and enthusiastic GF) went through to the expo for the competition.

Now, this was the top eight of the expo, so it wasn’t just a bunch of randoms. Well that’s what I thought anyway. My first round, which was the third match of the first round of the competition, was against a Medium player, who got through on his score. Usually the difficulty is fixed in these competitions, and so I was a little anxious that there was a Medium in the competition. Indeed, while we were playing I noticed that discrepancy in the scoring system. We had both hit all the notes given to us and he had more score than me! (For those who don’t know, Medium is much slower, has much less notes and only uses four of the five fret buttons on the controller).

The two songs we (and everyone else in the first round) played were Sultans of Swing by Dire Straights and Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones. Not too hard, but its always nerve-wracking playing songs you’ve never played before in front of a crowd. I eventually prevailed over him, winning both songs by a comfortable margin. There was no need for a third song tie-breaker.

Round two I played Mr. Bye, who skated straight into the semi-finals by virtue of his designated opponent not being able to make it to the tournament. However, he really wasn’t up for playing with the big boys, and I totally outclassed him on our Semi-Final songs: Sweating Bullets by Megadeth and No One To Depend On by Carlos Santana. The other Semi-Final, between Brown Shirt and Surfer Guy (so named because he had bleached blond hair like a surfer), was tied after these two songs, and therefore they played 2 Minutes to Midnight by Iron Maiden as the tie-breaker, which Surfer Guy won.

This left the final between me and Surfer Guy, and the 3rd place play-off between Mr. Bye and Brown Shirt.

For the final, they switched it up and surprised everybody by putting in the Guitar Hero: World Tour disc. The two songs they chose were basically the hardest available on that game: Hot for Teacher by Van Halen and Scream, Aim, Fire by Bullet For My Valentine. Intense solos on both songs, and lots of hard, fast notes to strum.

Ultimately, however, I prevailed, bringing it back from some shocking openings on both songs. Once more, there was no need for a third song, as I had won two of three, but we would have had to play Satch Boogie by Joe Satriani, arguably the hardest song in World Tour.

The final standings of the tournament, as well as the prizes the top three received:

1st – Michael – A Band Hero super bundle, consisting of a set of the “new and improved” drums, a new guitar, microphone and of course Band Hero (R2,340).

2nd – Surfer Guy – DJ Hero plus turntable controller (R987).

3rd – Brown Shirt – Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar bundle (R987).

So yes. I totally dominated the competition and walked away with a rather valuable prize. Here’s the tournament progression for those who are interested, skilfully made from scratch and memory in MS-Paint.

The Guitar Hero Tournament Progression

Monthly

What’s this? A new post? On Michael’s blog? No … can’t be. Must be some sort of mistake. Or maybe my eyes are deceiving me? Or I’m going crazy.

No friends, its none of those things. You really are reading another post, right here on Bet This Is Original.

Yes, yes, I know that it has been exactly a month since my last post, and quite frankly, that is shocking. No reason for it, except lack of motivation. So while it may seem bad that I only get around to posting every month, it probably is.

Now, I could go on and say that I’m going to try and post more regularly, but honestly, I don’t think it is going to happen. I mean I will try, but no promises, and history would seem to be against me anyway. Lol.

So, once more, let me fill you in on the latest happenings in my life.

I’m currently writing my final exams for my degree. And I mean final, final … like final. Ever. No more exams after these 4 brief ones. Hahaha brief, when in reality each will probably have me desperately scribbling nonsense on paper for three hours.

After I finish my exams (I am quite confident that I will pass them), I will be unemployed. Lol, strange to say it but it’s true. I have applied for an internship thing, and it would be awesome if I got it, but I am trying not to get my hopes up in that respect. I don’t want to be disappointed.

I’m not even sure when I will know if my tentative plans for next year will happen or not. Some person who came to pitch it to us at varsity mentioned something about mid-January? But they still have to do interviews etc. and the thing starts in February, so that might be wrong.

Anyway, the internship will comprise 3 months in Cape Town, doing some kind of classes, I think they said. And then after that 7 months will be back in Johannesburg, where we will be working at either The Star or The Pretoria News. Could be interesting.

Hmmm … what else is news? Oh I am apparently part of the management now over at NoMoreGameBlogs. I’ve got a meeting at 5am this morning, where my boss will be showing me how to use the new features that I will be in charge of. <rolls eyes> I’m sure a Powerpoint slideshow via email would have worked just as well.

So yes. That is a brief update on my life. I want to say tune in again soon (not another month’s time) for more thrilling posts, but I don’t want to be labelled a liar when I don’t deliver. So! I guess I’ll see when you I see you (metaphorically speaking of course).

Far too long

It’s been over a month since my last blog post. I have no idea why that is … but I would take a guess by saying that I have nothing important to say? Or maybe I do, but I can’t conceptualise them into words needed for a post. Or …

Anyway, today I procrastinated so badly. I have a 2,500 word research report due by midnight tomorrow, and I only carried on with this evening. Like after I had coffee at 8 or so. Luckily, I had gotten about 1,518 words done before the long weekend started, so it’s not really in crisis mode just yet.

Tonight I managed to knock out another 1,000 words or so. So I am actually over the word limit already, even if I have not yet finished the assignment. I actually had to remove a sub-heading that I was planning on doing, because I could see that I was going over the word limit.

But enough boring assignment talk. Let’s go over the long weekend. International readers (hahahah yeah right), we had Heritage Day on Thursday 24th September, and most places decided that Friday would be wasteful and not productive (well, universities anyway). Therefore, long weekend.

Anyway, Wednesday night (because the weekend always starts the evening before the conventional weekend) the GF came over and slept over. Not exactly sure what we did on Wednesday night (I think we played Scrabble and watched How I Met Your Mother?).

Thursday morning I had a stupid information management group meeting. Yes, on a public holiday. If any of you guys are reading this, I think you’re all stupid. Stupid people. We wasted like 20 minutes discussing something so ridiculously small and trivial, and something that I feel isn’t even part of the project. So I wasted 2.5 hours of my public holiday wishing I was back home and still asleep. After that I came home and we had boerewors rolls for lunch. I think we may have played another game of Scrabble (me and the GF), but I’m not sure.

Man my memory is bad sometimes. I can’t even remember what happened like a few days ago. Anyway.

Friday was project day. Nothing exciting, just worked on the information management project. Well, aside from a brief-stop over from the GF again (she dropped off the most amazing present: a whole big tin filled with sweets chocolates and other incredible stuff) she left again.

Saturday, I went to Clearwater Mall and traded out my inFAMOUS rental copy at BT Games. My new game is FEAR 2: Project Origin. It’s not that great a game, decent enough but I’m not going to get the platinum because the online trophies are crazy hard. Long and basically impossible because there is not enough of a community still playing the game. Oh well. Oh, I also went and surprised the GF with a bunch of flowers at her work.

Saturday afternoon me and Brian went to a hardcore/metal concert thing. It was pretty good, some decent bands played like Hammer of Redemption and Chromium. We also listened to Agro play and they are not entirely as bad as we thought they were. I still think they would be much better without the synthesizer though. Oh and they are so lame. Their one song is about how drugs are bad and the other is about binge drinking in excess. Hahaha.

Sunday was such an amazing day. I woke up early, and me and the GF went to watch Sri Lanka and New Zealand play cricket at the Wanderers. The sun was hot and the food/drinks were expensive, but it was such an amazing experience, especially since all the live cricket I’d seen prior to that was from a box, which is way far removed from the actual proceedings.

We got back about half an hour after New Zealand won, and watched South Africa lose to England in Centurion (on the TV though).

All in all a pretty good weekend. What did you guys do?

Audi Driving Experience

Wow this is a really late post. Sorry for that. But it’s on my list of Things I want to do in 2009, and as such it needs a blog post about it.

So, on the 24th of July, 2009, I set off in peak hour traffic on the way to Kyalami Racetrack, where 4Rings is situated. 4Rings is of course, the event organisers and the people who run the Advanced Safety Driving Course. Traffic was a bitch, but I still managed to get there in time, so all was well.

I met my brother, Geoff, there, and we did the course together, although we were put into separate cars (more on that later). Anyway, we got there, signed in and had some breakfast (sausage rolls and croissants and coffee. Wow it tasted good). Since we were a little late we didn’t have much time for breakfast, and we had barely finished before we were called into a room with chairs set up for the theory part of the day.

It was basically a lecture on the theory of road safety. We covered the grip circle of cars: which is the theoretical area around each tire that you still have grip, influenced by acceleration, braking and turning. It was quite interesting in retrospect, although at the time I was scratching my head and wondering what was going on. We also do weight distribution, and how it affects the handling of the car; in addition to the ideal way to hold your steering wheel (hands at 9 and 3 respectively) and the correct ways to react to under and over-steer situations.

From there we went outside into the freezing cold wind, where we were split up into groups of 3 and assigned a car each. I think there was 8 cars, so there must have been about 24 people there that day: the maximum I think that they allow. We drove to a place called Gerotek, which is a military owned testing facility, and where they have, among other things, the only Aquaplane facility in Africa. Pretty cool. They’ve also got an awesome banked oval race track, but we weren’t allowed on that.

Anyway, so the first demonstration was held on a flat track, and we were first shown the correct way to sit and to hold the steering wheel. Then we were shown exactly how long it takes a speeding car to stop from various speeds (about 15m at 60km/h, 40m at 100km/h and about 100m at 160km/h). It was a real eye-opener and highlighted the need for a good following distance, as well as the benefits of having ABS on your car.

From there we were divided into two groups and did two different exercises (although we all got the chance to do all exercises. It just determined the order which we did them in). Our group was first up on the ESP (Electronic Stability Program) exercise, which basically corrects over and under-steer situations by automatically applying brakes or power to specific wheels or cutting brakes, steering and power if the user is engaging them incorrectly. Pretty amazing all in all. I took a video in slow motion, but you can’t see much of anything (and WordPress won’t allow me to host a video without paying them money. Maybe one day I’ll throw it on YouTube and post a link Decided to upload them now. Enjoy).

Oh, I forgot the thing we did before the ESP exercise. It was basically a slalom that tested the correct way to hold the steering wheel. Nothing terribly exciting but quite informative on the benefits of the 9 and 3 approach.

Basically what we did in this exercise is accelerate to a certain speed (can’t remember exactly what speed) and then slam the steering wheel hard left and hard right, to avoid the obstacle that had been set up (traffic cones). It really got the adrenaline pumping, and when in the back seats we got thrown around something crazy. It was awesome

The way each exercise worked was that the instructor (we had one instructor per car) would first do the exercise with us in the car, as a demonstration. Then he would talk us through the actions required, and do it again. After that we would take turns doing the exercise, until all three people in the car had completed each exercise.

Afterwards we went to the aquaplaning station, which is pretty cool. Aquaplaning occurs when the car’s tires can’t displace water fast enough, and the holding grooves can’t carry anymore water. What basically happens is your vehicle is floating on top of the water, resulting in absolutely no response to any control from the driver’s seat. The best way to handle this is to straighten the steering wheel and apply brakes when you get control again. Anyway, we went around this rather sharp corner at 90km/h and aquaplaned over the specially designed feature, before straightening out and coming to a stop. Again, really cool to do, and scary and awesome to watch and experience.

From there, we all came together to have lunch, which was the usual buffet style stuff: potatoes, rice, meat, chicken etc. It was pretty good, but they were pretty stingy with the servings (one potato, one piece of meat) and they hustled us out of there pretty fast that I couldn’t even finish my after-lunch coffee.

After lunch we split up again, and our group went to the  skidpan, which is basically a painted (I think?) circle of tarred area with a sprinkler in the middle that wets the entire surface. We did some exercises on ESP and under-steer, which was basically taking a long corner on the skidpan at speeds, and seeing the difference between taking it with the ESP on and off, as well as how to handle under-steer without ESP (gently straighten wheel until grip is regained and resume turning).

We then swapped with the other group and went aquaplane station, where we did a more advanced ESP control test (the water wasn’t turned on for this exercise), which involved swerving around two obstacles, first to the right and then to the left. Most people hit at least one cone, and I knocked my first (and only) cone down as I pulled off from a stop. Pretty lame, but better than the woman in the car in front of ours, who knocked down like five and got one stuck underneath her car. Haha, I laughed so hard.

We then went back to the skidpan, and joined the other group for a few practice runs on the benefits on ABS on a wet surface, basically just to experience it. It wasn’t the most exciting exercise but still pretty fun jamming on the brakes and skidding and feeling the ABS kicking in. There were two different types, the straight stop, where we simply jammed the brakes as hard as possible, and the swerve, where we steered the car around an obstacle while braking as hard as possible.

After everybody had completed all the exercises, the instructors set up a series of cones for the gymkhana. One at a time, everyone went through the course, which consisted of a whole set of challenges: a slalom, cornering, braking and stopping in a set area. Everybody was timed and the results were announced back at 4Rings, where we returned to after everybody had finished.

Back at 4Rings, we had a debriefing, where we all had to give feedback on the day, and the winners of the gymkhana were announced and given prizes. We also all received our certificates. Then they had drinks and snacks available to enjoy, and we all left to face the traffic once more.

All in all, I’d say it was a really amazing experience and a great day. I’d highly recommend it to anybody interested or thinking about it.

Oh, before I finish up, here’s some pictures I managed to take of the cars we drove in.

This is the BIG version

This is the SMALLER version

This is the BIG version

This is the SMALLER version

This is the BIG version

This is the SMALLER version

This is the BIG version

This is the SMALLER version

This is the BIG version

This is the SMALLER version

Hope you enjoyed that! I enjoyed going on the course and telling you all about it. What’s next on the list? Who know!

Urban Dictionary Meme

Ok you can clearly see that I have an assignment to do, and hence you all get another meme blog that I ripped off a friend’s Facebook.

Rules: Go to www.urbandictionary.com and type in your answers to the following ten questions. Post the first definition it gives you.

1. What is your name?
Michael

A very cool guy who makes everyone laugh. Once you meet him, you will want to be his friend right away. He is super cute and very good-looking. He has amazing taste…in music, clothes, food, everything. Every girl secretly wishes that he could be her boyfriend…mainly because he recently broke up with his girlfriend…mainly because everyone knows that he likes commitment…mainly because he is sweet and knows how to treat a girl…mainly because however strange and wierd he may be, he’s perfect. In his own little way, he is perfect. Michael a very cool person.

2. How old are you?
22

1) A .22 caliber handgun 2) Any rim that measures 22 inches in size 3) Slang term used for women to let you know they are prostitutes. 1) Don’t tote no 22’s 2) Magnum cost me 22, sat it on them 22’s 3) Lil mama super thick, she say she 22 (All examples from Rick Ross’ Hustlin)

3. What is one of your friends’ names?
Brian

1. A guy who’s heart is captured by the same girl always yet lives his life as if she didn’t exist when she’s not around. 2. Term for the best guy friend conversationalist. Someone you can vent to an actually get feedback and opinions. 3. A reliable “lean on me” kinda friend 1. “God, he’s really in denial about that girl—he’s acting like a Brian.” 2. She thanked him for listening and named him her Brian. 3. “You’ve been such a Brian to me since I met you. Thanks for always being there for me.”

4. What should you be doing?
Assignment

A piece of work you cannot be botherd to do Fuck it, it’s just another assignment.

Although I preferred the third definition:

Something that is relatively important, but you will still leave it till the last minute and complete it the night before it’s due in, armed with dangerous amounts of caffeine and sweets, in a major panic. However, you will still feel cheated if you don’t get an awesome grade, although you may pretend to be fine with it. They usually have word limits, which are a total bitch to adhere to – if it isn’t too short it’ll be miles too long. They will produce much bitching and complaining and procrastinating (bubbleshooter.net is a particularly good tool for this). The one positive thing about them perhaps, is the sheer feeling of relief that occurs when the last word is typed and all word counts are adhered to. Who cares if it makes sense or answers the question?! It’s finished. The only feeling quite like it is that wonderful feeling that occurs when you finally go to the toilet after being desperate for ages. 1. “OH SHIT! MY 2000 WORD ESSAY IS IN TOMORROW AND I HAVEN’T EVEN LOOKED AT IT YET! OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT WHERE IS THE COFFEE PEOPLE?!” 2. “This assignment is a total bitch! I mean seriously, what the hell?! It’s not even useful!” 3. “I deserved a better grade than THAT!!!” 4. I am procrastinating right now, as I have a 1500 word assignment due in in about 10 hours, and I’ve only written 250 words. I have a massive mug of coffee at the ready!

5. What is your favourite colour?
Blue

The hue of the portion of the visible spectrum lying between green and indigo, evoked in a human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 420 to 490 nanometers. The sky is blue

6. Where were you born?
Joburg

Biggest city in South Africa. The economic hub and boasts the highest GDP per capita in South Africa. Friendly people and great shopping. It is NOT the capital of South Africa, Pretoria has that honour, but is the capital of the Gauteng province. It doesn’t have the worlds highest crime rate, even Cape Town has a higher murder rate. PS, Sandton is part of Johannesburg. For brilliant nightlife, Joburg rocks!

7. What month were you born in?
April

the month were the sexiest bitches are born april is the month were the most beautiful,sexy girls r born lol

8. What day were you born on?
Monday

a word that can be used to describe a black person without insulting them with them knowing. This word is relativley close to n****r. I fucking hate monday

Harsh I know. Hey I didn’t write that definition!

9. Who was the last person you talked to?
Mother

Random word when someone says something random and annoying Annoyance: “Ewww, What’s that” You: “Your MOTHER!!” Annoyance: “Miss,What are we doing 2day” You: “Your MOTHER!!” Annoyance: “This work is so easy, Miss” You: “Just like…your MOTHER!!” Annoyance: “Peanut” You: “Your MOTHER!!”

10. What is one of your nicknames?
Mike

To do something incredibly stupid. To be retarded and look like an idiot at something. He mike’d it up again. DOH!

Third definition is also good

The most amazing boy in the world. He is quiet around the masses but he opens up around the one he loves. He is extraordinarily protective in the best of ways. Mike can and will make you laugh harder than anyone else. He is the most adorable, cute, nice, sweet, kind, generous, loving, caring, genuine, funny, considerate, awesome person I have ever met. Every moment of my life would be better if I could spend it with him. I could talk to him all day long and we’d never run out of things to say. His smile can make my day; even if it’s from across the room. I love him more than the sun, I need him more than breath it’s self. I can’t imagine my life without him; it scares me more than anything. I will spend the rest of my life in his arms. Me: Mike bought me a dozen roses for my birthday! Best Friend: JEALOUS! Me: What can I say, he’s Mike.

Also, Mikey

sweet and swoll, often essential to people’s lives; often likable and personable me: Wow, that kid has a lot of great qualities. you: Oh, you mean like a mikey?

Well that’s that. Back to work I guess. Wish me luck.

Target Audience

In all things, one must identify one’s target audience, and then appeal to that audience. This is the way that everything works, from business to charity. Businesses would wither if they simply provided their product without having any idea who was buying and who they should be appealing to and persuading to buy. Those begger children/women with children/blind people at the intersection have to have a good idea of what makes people give them money, or they would starve.

It is thusly that I have come to a conclusion. This blog is never going to be popular. It will never have enough visitors that I will be able to write a book (see: MushyPeas) or even enough to earn me money. This blog that you are now visiting will primarily be a way for you (my loyal readers) to hear my rantings, ravings, theories, observations and anything else I care to post here.

And I’m fine with that.

If you guys are willing to keep on reading my nonsense, I’m going to keep on writing it.

Something Silly to Make you Laugh

When I was younger, I thought that the flying squad (you know the police?) was gonna come in their planes and drop bombs and what not when they got a call.

Lame hey?

Hope you got a laugh or two out of that

The Gillette Advantage

Shaving. It’s kak. It’s ok to admit it, although sadly it is a neccessary part of everybody’s day to day life. Luckily for me, my facial hair is not yet advanced enough to require me to shave every day. Every second or third day for me personally will ensure a smooth face.

The worst part of shaving is the cuts. Aside from stubbing your toe, paper cuts and getting hit in the testicles (for guys), cuts from a razor on your face is the worst thing in the world. It hurts like hell, bleeds like hell for about 15 minutes and looks like you put your face in a blender. And if you’re really unlucky, they leave unsightly scabs on your face for the next week or so, that just screams to everybody “Hey look! I don’t know how to shave!!”

My personal experience (only using disposable razors), is that Gillette really does make the best. I’ve tried no-name brands, I’ve tried Bic. I’ve tried two blades, I’ve tried three blades. The only razor that I’ve found to consistently NOT cut my face to shreds is Gillette razors. No matter the brand or number of blades, there is just something about Gillette that just works for me. Maybe it’s the tilting heads or something, I don’t know.

Now, before this starts sounding like a Gillette advert (no, I’m not getting paid: I wish though!), let me point out some things. I don’t think we need 5 blades on a razor, Gillette, so please stop pushing your Fusion down my throat. I don’t see the point of a battery powered manual razor: what’s the pulsing going to do except cut me? I hate your “precision trimmer” concept on your Fusion: You know what we used to call “precision trimmers”? Razors! Finally, your products are such a rip off. I am not going to pay R200 (or whatever crazy price they are asking nowadays) for three blades; especially when you are putting a 4,750% markup on them (check this article for more info on that one).

In short, I like your razors but you are crazy. Thank you.

Oh, and please comment on this story and share your best (or worst) shaving stories. I for one would love to read them.

100s club and Guitar Hero

So two more things crossed off my list. Host a 100s Club night and a Guitar Hero night. Strangely, both happened on the same night. Haha.

100s Club

Friday, June 19. Me, seven friends and a lot of beer. Me and four other people had a goal: to consume 100 shots of beer (25ml by our estimates) in 100 minutes. One per minute. You throw up, you’re out. You miss a shot, you’re out. For me, it didn’t go great. I got to 34, and felt sick and stopped. How lame. Another friend went out on 52, and another friend had dropped out before me. The last two contestants went on to the magic 100, and are now proud members of the 100s club. Congratulations Greg and Matthew!

Guitar Hero

Well, after the revelry of much drinking, we all went inside and played Guitar Hero: World Tour. It was pretty fun: Greg had brought his drumset so we had two different drums and could play versus drumming. It was pretty awesome. Otherwise we all took turns playing various instruments and singing, which was all good fun (especially the hardcore songs which I screamed my voice out to).

So there you have it. Another two things to cross off the list. It’s really going quite quickly now. Until next time…

The Dearth

So it’s been a while since I last posted. Sorry about that, my whole loyal (?) readership of three people. I’m going to blame it squarely on exams … I don’t know what everybody else’s excuse is, because there seems to have been a general lack of updates from most of the blogs I follow. Yes, you know who I’m talking about … *cough* *cough* *cough* *cough*

But, exams are now over. Finished this past Friday, and man am I glad to be on holiday. All pretty tough exams, but I’m fairly confident that I passed them all, so that’s good.

Sorry this post isn’t very exciting. It’s 01:30, and I’m a little tired. I do have some interesting news that you may or may not find interesting.

I am now a contributing writer / editor for a small American based gaming blog called “No More Game Blogs“. Still getting started, but there’s some interesting opinions posted already, and I’ve got two articles posted. So go check that out if you get time.

Otherwise, I’m thinking of starting something new on Bet This is Original Reviews. It’s basically a limited word review, like maybe 10 or 20 words? The point is to get the post count up and ensure more regularly updated content. What do you good people think about that? Would you care? Does it affect you?