David: Dear Brandon,

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I think comments are broken.

Warm Regards,
David

P.S. Build a lumber mill and upgrade your mine as soon as is possible.

David: Addendum on Destiny

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I played it. It was as expected. A fairly tight shooter, but one where punching someone in the face does damage akin to a half dozen bullets to the chest. There's a lot of unnecessary loading (leaving the map only to select a new quest and go back to the same map). The MMO hooks will grab a lot of the CoD audience, but it's not for me.

David: Video Games

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I still don't own a PS4. There hasn't yet been a compelling reason for me to pick one up. I'm receiving conflicting reports on Destiny, but it sounds suspiciously like an FPS MMO which is, like, no thanks. Shadow of Mordor does look interesting. I've derisively referred to it as Assassin's Creed: The Hobbit based on footage I've seen. Same footage has shown it to be not great at anticipating player behavior though. Metal Gear, as always, will probably be the series that sells me a PlayStation. Not that I'm dying to play it or anything, but at this point it's kind of tradition.

The biggest game purchase I'm eyeing right now is Disney Infinity 2.0. The current bundle I'm considering stickers for about $170. I pity parents that have kids into both this and Skylanders. It's clever and cruel.

As for myself, it's plenty of WoW. I've been kicking around in the beta for the next expac for a few weeks, and tomorrow the pre-expac patch goes into effect. Time to get back over to the live game and hit some dungeons with my little warlock in preparation I guess.

David: Apple Watch

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I don't know what I expected, but I'm not blown away by what was shown.

The main problem I have with the wearables market is the planned obsolescence of a fashion accessory. I don't have to worry about the movement of the watch that's currently on my wrist not being able to keep up with time in the future or the lenses in my sunglasses not being compatible with 2016's sun. Of course, they don't talk to my phone, show me text messages, or offer wireless payment solutions.

What I want is a standardized gold outer case that they will design future internal upgrades around.

Oh shit, that's funny. I just realized I'm taking the PC side of the PC vs Mac argument over a watch.

David: Paul

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So...I saw Paul McCartney Wednesday night at the Sprint Center.

I knew he was coming a couple months back, but I didn't try to get tickets. There were three great songwriters in The Beatles (sorry Ringo, I still love you), but for my personal tastes Paul was number 3 on that list. That's not to say I didn't like any of his songs, but I do dislike what John Lennon referred to as his "granny music". While I do like a few of the songs he's written post-Beatles (I love the "if I ever get out of here" section of Band on the Run and listen to it weekly) I wasn't interested in attending a concert full of these songs.

Then my Mom called on Wednesday afternoon. Would I be interested in going to see Paul McCartney with her that night? Well, yes, I guess I was. So I went.

And it was probably the best concert I've ever been to.

The majority of the songs were from the Beatles catalog, with a good mix of Wings and current era stuff thrown in. His voice, I don't know how it's possible, is still amazing. I'm trying to think of words to describe it and I can't. Part of it is the obvious gravity that comes just from it being Paul, but that only goes so far. He also delivers to that expectation and perhaps exceeds it. From the 3 hour show (including the 2 encores) three songs stand out in particular. Yesterday, Helter Skelter (which didn't just seem hard in comparison, there was so much energy in that one), and a rendition of George's Something, begun on ukulele.

I maintain my earlier assessment on songwriting, but I'll add that Paul McCartney is also the greatest showman I have ever seen. I'm sure I'll go to many more concerts in my lifetime, and I'm sure I'll enjoy many of them greatly. I'm not sure if any of them will ever be this good again.

And if Paul ever comes back to KC, I'll be sure to get my tickets.