You ever have one of those moments where you know exactly where you messed up and wished you could get a mulligan? I had a moment like that about an hour ago. Thankfully it didn't cost me anything but my own pride.

My dad took me out to eat Saturday night after we got back from moving my stuff out of the apartment. While there, I noticed a big banner advertising a Guitar Hero tournament every Tuesday. Down in Kato, my roomates and I got back into playing it. I had manged to become a master of Medium level, and had just begun venturing into Hard. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to go back Tuesday night and check it out. Fortunately I managed to get in, unfortunately it was the last night of qualifiers...which meant I'd only get one shot.

The first round was a breeze. I finished Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend on Medium with 99% and was first place going into the second round. The next round was on Hard, still playing for percentage. I managed a 93% on Thin Lizzy's Bad Reputation, good enough for 2nd overall and a spot in the Head-To-Head.

During warmups, I had watched the guy I was playing nail song after song. He was better than me, I'm not going to lie. Combined with my experience with Hard, odds are I wouldn't stand a chance. The song was Rock This Town by Stray Cats, which I had seen friends go through.

Thankfully he hadn't played it as much either, so it was essentially a level playing field. I was leading through pretty much the whole song. But I fell apart during the final part, missing several chances to get star power.

During the final stretch he activated star power and overcame the deficit. We both finished with a 80% success rate, but he beat my score by 2000 points. If you're not familiar with Guitar Hero, that's a grand total of four notes. I missed out on the finals by four notes, and the qualifiers are over.

It wasn't all bad though. I got some GREAT practice on Hard, to the point where going back to Medium seems REALLY slow. Like, Neo dodging bullets in the Matrix slow. Also, I got a chance to play with Hyperspeed Unlocked. That's basically whatever difficulty x 2. I had to leave after that, as it felt like my fingers were going to fall off.

But oh man...four notes! That's like missing the playoffs because you make the final out at homeplate! But it sounds like I'm considered a standby, as if two people don't show up I'm going to be let in to play. (It's two because the guy putting it together wants to enter the tournament should only one person not show up).

So now I'm wishing illness (nothing serious) upon a couple of people so that I can hopefully get a second chance to try out my shredding skills.