Until Thursday

My fellow Ronsters,

Just letting you guys know that aside from an early morning fb post, you won't be hearing from me until after Thursday afternoon. Why? I'm getting away with Michelle to the wonderful world of Atlantic City! I honestly haven't felt this exited about getting away in a long time and to have my partner in crime with me to get away with is absolute bliss.

Thought I'd also update you guys in terms of writing. It's mostly on pause for now but as it is, by a commendable request by my long time and great friend Bryan, I'm considering to fuse all three books into one. Granted, they will all be considered three separate (albeit big) chapters but all into one. Why this change?

1. It's cost-effective. It'll definitely be cheaper for everyone to buy one big book at a good price.
2. More enjoyment. It's certainly a pain in the butt to reach for the next book -- unless it's right in there!
3. Less work. Yep, less proofreading separately and it'll be all right in there for a good edit before it goes to print.

So consider this next book part re-release and part new release altogether.

Lately, I've been freshening up my music playlist. It always helps to refreshen your musical inspiration by listening to something a little different from the norm. For me, I've been tuning into some Lifehouse (No Name Face, Who We Are, Smoke & Mirrors), The recent Kirk Franklin release (Hello Fear) and especially some Joe Satriani (Flying in a Blue Dream, The Extremist). Who knows what else I'll be checking out next month. It's a slight change given that I was usually listening to a mix of Red, Decyfer Down, Michael Jackson, Skillet, Killswitch Engage and Demon Hunter within the past five months.

I've also fallen in love with Daisy Rock guitars. Yeah, I know, this is coming from a guy who loves Paul Reed Smith and Ibanez guitars over any other brand. Why? I recently jumped on one of their single cut models and was surprised at their tone. It had a very solid Ibanez sound to it and this is given that I had it plugged to a Peavey amp with the settings on Tubescreamer and JSX amp head model mode. I would have no shame in parting with my Epiphone LP Special II at this point. Of course, this goes without saying that I finally got to try the Paul Reed Smith SE Single Cut with trem -- it is still the only guitar that trumps that Daisy Rock single cut I latched onto during my visit to Guitar Center.

Now here's a better question you might ask -- Ron, what is it with you and single cut guitars? It's simple, who doesn't love a guitar with an hourglass type of body? I always consider other model types akin to Strats, Explorers, double cutaways, Telecasters and even SG models in the masculine light. I grab one of those and always call 'em boys. When I jump onto single cut type of guitars, I always call 'em my babygirls and always use the term, "she" on them.

Now for my first brief review, Mortal Kombat. Yes, the reboot. I'll go off initially saying the following -- it goes up with Super Street Fighter 4, Tekken 6 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as one of the best new fighting game releases of this current console generation. My biggest joy about it is how it sets the record straight and streamlines the story in a way that makes a world more of sense in contrast to before. You discover how Cyrax and Sektor came to be, how the Lin Kuei turned into an army of cyborgs, why the Outworld Invasion had happened in MK3 and even why MK3 even happened. I won't ruin the ending nor most of the story but I will say this -- you don't bypass Quan Chi. He is a far bigger threat than Goro, Shang Tsung and even Shao Kahn. Graphically, it runs on the Unreal engine just like Gears Of War and Unreal Tournament. The controls are probably the more awkward part of the game. For the most part, everything moves smoothly but when it comes to some characters and their combo's button input, it could've used a little tweaking. Raiden has a nice five hit combo and yet the input is just awkward. Character-wise, Rain and Motaro were left out, which may cause a stir with people who loved him in MK Trilogy. Additionally, Motaro is not only unplayable (like Kahn, Goro and Kintaro) but only makes a brief appearance in the game. You don't even fight him. As I did once for a few music review, I'll do the pro/con rundown on this game.

+great visuals
+almost all MK Trilogy characters
+story is simpler to understand
+fatalities are awesome
+lots of unlockables
+multiple modes to keep you busy once you're done with story mode
+Downloadable Content consists of retro costumes and fatalities for Scorpion, Sub Zero, Reptile,
Ermac, Kitana and Mileena

-Rain, Goro, Kintaro, Motaro and Shao Kahn are unplayable
-button inputs to some character combos are awkward
-you may complain if you miss the old fighting engine from Deadly Alliance and Deception.

So until my return from Atlantic City, blessing and peace be upon you all.

Love,



Ron Gunz