Well as you know, I've been spending a lot of time trying to better my guitar playing. This means solos. And lot's of 'em. Really I've been able to hold my own playing rhythm for quite some time now, and frankly, I'm starting to get bored with it. But all this lead work is a whole new beast. I'm working with a lot of Metallica songs currently, and for a few reasons:

1. Kirk Hammett is the man. And his solos are totally bad-ass.
2. I'm already super familiar with their guitar style; I'm already an expert on their whole rhythm catalog.
3. Playing the solos at regular speed can't be any tougher than playing the rhythms at 120%.

I'm now comfortable playing through Fade to Black, Orion, and The Unforgiven. But I'm not perfect on any of them yet. So, periodically, when I feel I've made some vast improvement on one, I'll probably put up a new video. We'll see though, once I start to get more songs down pat, It'll be an awful lot of videos.
The goal for now is to be able to play those 3, plus 3 more by this time next month. I know, I know, that sounds like a long time, for someone who sits home and plays so many hours a day. But that's a lot of notes to learn. Three whole solos? And to get these 3 down perfect? I think a month may actually be optimistic.

This past Saturday I went ahead and purchased a FlipUltra. This thing is pretty sweet. The plan was actually to get one of the new ones, the Mino HD, but since I had some gift cards to spend, I only spent like $12 on this one. Today I plugged it into my computer for the first time. I haven't edited anything yet, but I've put together a few clips of me sitting around playing guitar. Since I've recently started trying to play some solos, It's nice seeing my progress, and how my fingers look while I'm playing. I'll try to get something put together I can share online.

Well it's been a week now. I feel like things are starting to fit. I'm getting along with my roommates, Ryan and Jon, quite well. I've gotten to see Dave now a few times, and have been tearing my fingertips to bits playing so much guitar.
Jon and I went out Sunday night and had a blast. Went to one bar for some live music, and got to see some pretty incredible music. One of the drummers put Danny Carey to shame. he was really that good. We then moved on to a new location, and by this time in the night, I've realized I'm going to get along really well down here.
I went out job searching Monday afternoon, but no winners yet. I hit up several restaurants in the area, but I'm thinking now of maybe checking out somewhere other than a restaurant.
Well enough for now.