I'm just distracted. The past week has been… a little different.

The Chicken has been home for school for the holiday break, so he hasn't going to bed quite so early. Since I haven't had to get him to the bus stop, I've had extra time to sleep every morning, so I haven't been going to bed so early. Bunny has been home from work with a tweaked lower back. It's definitely out of the norm for us to have so much together time in the evening. It's been a lot like being on vacation, except I'm still going to work. So… not like a vacation at all, I guess.

Usually my blogging times are in the morning, after Chicken is on the bus and before I go to work, and in the evening after Bunny has gone to work. Neither happened all last week, so my blog has been very neglected. Whenever I've had time to blog, I've instead chosen to focus on my newest obsessions, Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II.

These two games, along with two super cool video game chairs, are the Princess Sparkle Pony I'd been teasing Chicken about for a month or so before Christmas. Chicken definitely likes the games, but I'm the one who's really hooked on them. On Christmas day, I started out on the easy difficulty level. I've played so much in a single week that I'm almost ready to move up to the hard difficulty.

Aside from the fun of actually playing it, I'm having a blast just getting into the music. Before this, I'd listened to Incubus, but I'd never heard their song "Stellar." Now I can't get enough of it.

Before this, I'd never known the artist or title of that Pulp Fiction song that was raped so badly for that Black Eyed Peas thing. (Note to Fergie & Co.: your namesake legume is the black-eyed pea. Note the dash. Ignorant Philistines.) It turns out it's an adaptation of a Greek song named "Misirlou" and it's by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones. Hm. Nope. Didn't know that.

And before this, I'd heard of Buckethead (mostly because of his time with Guns 'N Roses), but never heard any of his music. His bonus track on the second game, "Jordan," is absolutely hypnotic. I tried to find an mp3 of this one because I imagine it's obscure enough that no one has heard it who hasn't played the game, but it turns out the version of the song I like was dramatically rewritten just for the game. If you're feeling adventurous, you can go LimeWire it or something. The first 90 seconds of the version I downloaded are very similar to the game, but everything else is completely different.

What's the deal with Buckethead, anyway? His public image is downright freaky. The Mike Meyers/Halloween mask? The KFC bucket?

I think it says a lot that the guy was too weird for Guns 'N Roses.