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Jan. 19th, 2008 05:46 pmAs I was telling ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mocha_mephooki today, I have a new reason to avoid spending money on things I don't really want. When Andrea and I were at Mitsuwa, I looked at prices posted in the travel agency there. I realized that I could get round trip tickets to Japan for about twenty dollars less than I had to pay out of pocket for the dentist to put a crown on my tooth. That was when I realized that, if I really planned it out in advance, I really could go to Japan someday. I may make it a gift to myself if and when I manage to become passably fluent in Japanese.
Having that figure in mind also makes me think more about other purchases. For instance, I would really, really love to go out to Best Buy and pick up an Xbox 360 and a copy of Rock Band. Right now. But that would cost about two thirds of the price of round trip tickets to Japan. Tickets would be around $540 and the toys ('cause I have to admit that that's what they are. Unlike Dance Dance Revolution, I don't even have the [viable] excuse that this is exercise equipment) would cost about $300 if I remember prices right. I ask myself which one I would rather do. Now, admittedly, this is kind of moot because I'm not going to Japan until I can avoid looking entirely like a stupid American gaijin (which I'm sure is a special breed of stupid to most Japanese), plus the cost would be a lot more than that since I'd have to pay for lodging, transportation, all that sort of thing. But I'm sort of realizing for the first time that it is an attainable goal.
But I have to admit, I'm really, really hooked on Rock Band. Especially the drumming part. I'm not going to make an impulse buy, but I'm going to save up the money I allow myself as discretionary spending every month. If in two months I still want it as much as I do now, I'll have mostly guilt-free money set aside to buy it with. And tonight, since it's in my head and I have nothing else to do while sitting and waiting for programs to run on the computers I'm prepping to go to Ebay, I started looking at costs online. I looked up Xbox 360s, I looked up Rock Band, and, just for fun, I looked up the cost of real drum sets.
I used to think that, if only because there was so much stuff in one, drum sets were by far the most expensive instrument that a band had to buy, and that they were really out of reach for anyone who wasn't a serious musician. I figured it was something that it would never really make sense for me to spend the necessary money on to have one. Since, back in the day, I paid about $500 for my guitar and amp, new from a store, I figured a drum set would be in the $800 to $1000 range.
I guess I was wrong. Ebay has full kits, full kits with four drums, a bass drum and pedal, a couple of cymbals, and a stool, for Two hundred dollars! New! With a warranty from a brick and mortar store! I had no idea they could be that affordable. I even talked to Andrea about the idea of buying a set. I mean, for less than it would cost to be able to play a virtual drum set in Rock Band, I could have the real thing!
Now, again, I'm not going to make any impulse purchases. In fact, it may even make more sense to spend a while playing Rock Band first (if I was going to buy real drums at all) because, unlike the guitars, the skills playing drums in Rock Band would actually transfer over, more or less, to a real drum set. To my untrained mind, Rock Band gives you a lot of practice in playing real riffs and patterns and helps you learn by giving you instant feedback about how well you're following the notes. But it's just weird how looking at prices for the first time brought the concept of a real drum set down from this pedestal of lofty unattainability down to a real world I-could-reasonably-buy-this-some-day concept. That's really neat.
By the way; I have downloaded a bittorrent stream that contains the entire play list of Rock Band (downloadable content excluded) so I can learn the songs and sing/play them better.
mocha_mephooki today, I have a new reason to avoid spending money on things I don't really want. When Andrea and I were at Mitsuwa, I looked at prices posted in the travel agency there. I realized that I could get round trip tickets to Japan for about twenty dollars less than I had to pay out of pocket for the dentist to put a crown on my tooth. That was when I realized that, if I really planned it out in advance, I really could go to Japan someday. I may make it a gift to myself if and when I manage to become passably fluent in Japanese.Having that figure in mind also makes me think more about other purchases. For instance, I would really, really love to go out to Best Buy and pick up an Xbox 360 and a copy of Rock Band. Right now. But that would cost about two thirds of the price of round trip tickets to Japan. Tickets would be around $540 and the toys ('cause I have to admit that that's what they are. Unlike Dance Dance Revolution, I don't even have the [viable] excuse that this is exercise equipment) would cost about $300 if I remember prices right. I ask myself which one I would rather do. Now, admittedly, this is kind of moot because I'm not going to Japan until I can avoid looking entirely like a stupid American gaijin (which I'm sure is a special breed of stupid to most Japanese), plus the cost would be a lot more than that since I'd have to pay for lodging, transportation, all that sort of thing. But I'm sort of realizing for the first time that it is an attainable goal.
But I have to admit, I'm really, really hooked on Rock Band. Especially the drumming part. I'm not going to make an impulse buy, but I'm going to save up the money I allow myself as discretionary spending every month. If in two months I still want it as much as I do now, I'll have mostly guilt-free money set aside to buy it with. And tonight, since it's in my head and I have nothing else to do while sitting and waiting for programs to run on the computers I'm prepping to go to Ebay, I started looking at costs online. I looked up Xbox 360s, I looked up Rock Band, and, just for fun, I looked up the cost of real drum sets.
I used to think that, if only because there was so much stuff in one, drum sets were by far the most expensive instrument that a band had to buy, and that they were really out of reach for anyone who wasn't a serious musician. I figured it was something that it would never really make sense for me to spend the necessary money on to have one. Since, back in the day, I paid about $500 for my guitar and amp, new from a store, I figured a drum set would be in the $800 to $1000 range.
I guess I was wrong. Ebay has full kits, full kits with four drums, a bass drum and pedal, a couple of cymbals, and a stool, for Two hundred dollars! New! With a warranty from a brick and mortar store! I had no idea they could be that affordable. I even talked to Andrea about the idea of buying a set. I mean, for less than it would cost to be able to play a virtual drum set in Rock Band, I could have the real thing!
Now, again, I'm not going to make any impulse purchases. In fact, it may even make more sense to spend a while playing Rock Band first (if I was going to buy real drums at all) because, unlike the guitars, the skills playing drums in Rock Band would actually transfer over, more or less, to a real drum set. To my untrained mind, Rock Band gives you a lot of practice in playing real riffs and patterns and helps you learn by giving you instant feedback about how well you're following the notes. But it's just weird how looking at prices for the first time brought the concept of a real drum set down from this pedestal of lofty unattainability down to a real world I-could-reasonably-buy-this-some-day concept. That's really neat.
By the way; I have downloaded a bittorrent stream that contains the entire play list of Rock Band (downloadable content excluded) so I can learn the songs and sing/play them better.
