Dubya Comes to Jackson

Last night the wife and I drove to Jackson to hear "Dubya" in concert.

No, not the Pres.

I'm talking about Michael W. Smith. We sat right on the second row, where we had an excellent view of the performance, which was what he described as stripped down, where he could change songs or directions mid-set. He brought with him only two instrumentalists, Christa Black on violin, guitar, and vocals, and Jim Daneker on keys and vocals. Smitty surprised Christa mid-concert by requesting she play a tune she wrote, which is nearing release. You can find her myspace page here. Michael also has a blog, which is here.
Michael and company are playing predominantly churches on this tour. He took the opportunity to plug his forthcoming album, Stand, which will be on shelves November 7. You can hear samples from the album here. I'll definitely be buying this. Of course, my wife will be taking it away from me as soon as I get it, and it'll never find its way out of her CD case again, but she'll at least let me listen to it when I ride in her car.

We managed to squeeze in next to Samuel and Jennifer, a couple of friends from church, which was an unexpected treat.

Exit from Star Wars Galaxies at Light Speed

My last post details how I started playing Star Wars Galaxies again after a long hiatus. Those of you who actually read that post may have gleaned from it that I was a little disappointed in the changes that had been made since I last logged off. Incidentally, the reason I quit playing the first time around was because all of a sudden my frames per second dropped to 1 or less and stayed there, and customer support was less than supportive. I wasn't actually ready to drop SWG just yet.

This time around, nearly two years later, I dropped SWG like a hot potato. What was once a fantastic MMOG has turned into a mediocre experience, due to changes in the way the skill system works, nerfed professions, and a gimped combat system.

I quit playing about a week ago and haven't looked back.

Currently, I'm filling my MMOG void with the Matrix Online. Ya can't miss me: red baseball cap, black shirt, black pants, and the totally lost look.