Xbox 360 the gift that keeps giving

One of the problems with owning a gaming console is that there are a LOT of accessories that you end up buying plus the games you need to keep buying in order to enjoy the whole thing. So recently I have been on a used game buying spree. Thank goodness for Game Crazy. I bought Orange Box so I can play Portal on the Xbox. I bought Overlord which is a great adventure style game like Fable but with evil minions. I got Laura Croft Legend which has great graphics and fun puzzles. I got Burnout Paradise so I can crash stuff in HD. I also got Legos Star Wars since the Indiana Jones game was so fun. I have ordered a replacement for Indian Jones Legos which should be here soon. I just need to get a copy of Halo 3 and Fable 2 and I will be set for a while. I think I will stick with buying used games and returning ones I don't want anymore for credit for buying more games.

I exchanged my new copy of EndWar for a rechargeable controller battery and one extra and a charger.

I got a Dlink wireless client that I can connect to the XBox 360 to download demos and free stuff. It also installed a whole new interface that is pretty cool.

I need to get another controller so I can play along with someone else on some games.

Hopefully there are no other parts I will need or upgrades to purchase for a while.

A new toy for Christmas

I got a Xbox 360 over the Christmas holiday. It came with 3 games. A two pack that had Indiana Jones Legos and Kunfu Panda. Both were fun. The other game was Tom Clancy's EndWar a RTS that uses the headset to give commands to move your players around. Not my type of game and haven't spent much time with it.

I ruined my Legos game by leaving it in the Xbox while moving the box and then turning it back on. The disk was off center and spun and made a racket and when I took it out it had a HUGE scratch in it that made it unplayable. Darn I was only about %25 through the game. I did play Kungfu panda all the way through though. Jack Black is always funny.

I rented Fable 2 so Chris and I can play together. We liked Fable on the Xbox. Since I have been sick since Christmas Chris bought me a used copy of Gears of War which I have partially played on the PC. It is a graphic war game that is intense and a lot of fun to play.

I love the graphics of the Xbox 360 on my new 42" LCD TV. I am going to get a wireless connection hooked up soon so I can download demos etc.

Where is my watch?

For as long as I can remember I have worn a wristwatch. I think it started when I was about 10 when my parents gave me my first watch as a gift. My Dad showed me how to wear it on my left wrist since I am right handed and wearing on my right hand would get it much more banged up. Not sure if that was lifelong advice or just what you tell a kid that you want to have the watch you just gave them to last longer than a few months. From that day on for over 40 years I wore my watch all the time. I took it off when I went to bed and put it on when I got up. I took it off to take a shower and put it on when I got dressed. I felt naked when I didn't have it on my wrist. I had many a summer with a watch tan.

Most of my watches lasted for a long time. I usually had 2 watches at any given time. My nice watch and a working watch. I wore my nice watch when I wasn't doing physical labor or things that could mess up the watch. The work watch (usually a much cheaper watch that I replaced more often) was one I didn't care about as much. I have had calculator watches, cheap digital Casio watches, nice Seiko watches and several other nice brands. Nothing expensive just functional.

Well recently since my last watch I bought (with a JC Penny gift certificate from my Grandmother over 10 years ago) had the batteries run out I stopped wearing my watch. Since I started working from home a few years ago I always started carrying my cell phone with me everywhere I go and when I was home I am surrounded by clocks (at the computer and all over the house) so I never needed a watch. Sometimes though I don't bring my cell phone with me and I find myself looking at my bare wrist. I need to get my watch fixed or buy another, I'm just not used to having nothing on my arm and knowing at any given moment what time it is or how much time I have left. I know it is supposed to be freeing to be unleashed from our time pieces but for me it is a part of me that seems missing.

By the way this watch is WAY to big but it sure is cool!

Interesting way to get out of the house

A friend of mine who shall remain unnamed. Uses Dial-up for Internet access (I know, can you believe it!). He says that when he needs the bandwidth he takes his laptop to a hotspot and uses the free Internet. I should probably mention that my friend is also VERY cheap. To his credit though he is much more financially secure than I will ever be. Me and money have this love/hate relationship. I love to spend it and hate it when I never seem to have any.

Anyway, my friends comment of using a public wireless access point for broadband internet made me think that would be a great way to get out of the house more often. I have been cooped up here for a couple of months hardly leaving once a week if I am lucky. If I loaded all my work on a nice laptop I could go to a different public space each day and work all over the city. From Starbucks in the morning to public buildings and other fun areas in the afternoon. I could even meet people and become a regular at certain spots. Problem is I don't drink coffee or tea (never acquired a taste for either). I'd probably spend too much money at all the locations out of guilt for using their free internet. There goes that whole money issue again. Still sounds like a cool idea. Of course I'd have to buy a laptop beefy enough to do my work on first?

HD TV is pretty cool

The DirectTV guys came by a couple of weeks ago and replaced our dish with a HD version and gave me a new HD DVR. It is something else watching HD shows on the TV. BIG difference from normal TV. I setup all the shows to be recorded in HD. Something I learned though...shows you didn't like in regular TV even if they look better in HD still aren't good shows. And it's also funny how some shows aren't HD? For example David Letterman is in HD but the Late Show with Craig Ferguson which is on right after is NOT HD? I prefer Craig over David. Too bad the show isn't in HD.

Also FX, SciFi, TBS are all in HD but Comedy Central isn't? I like John Stewarts Daily Show but it isn't in HD?

It actually been more fun watching shows in HD that watching movies on the new TV.

Now all I have to do is get a Xbox-360 and see what 1080p video games look like. I'll keep you posted.

We got a new TV!

On our way home from the coast we stopped at Video Only and looked at TV's. The talk we had in the parking lot was something like this. We can spend up to X$ if it goes over that we will have to wait a few weeks. So we go in and the 42" LCD 1080p Toshiba TV that was much more earlier this year was exactly X$. So we bought it. I quickly came home unloaded the lugage and brought the TV box into the living room we finished painting the weekend before. The TV was the reward for me helping with the painting and not being a grouch about it. We spent the evening watching movies and TV on our new flat screen. My only complaint is that we don't really have anything to show off the higher resolution. DVD's look pretty good but they aren't HD. The Digital Satalite looks good too but it is still only 480i (4:3). And regular TV programs seem pretty lame at 4:3 on a wide TV. So I ordered a HD DVR and HD service for our digital Satalite. I am also getting a used X-Box 360 which does high res output of games. Still working out all the connection issues and figuring out the best way to set things up but this is a LOT better than our 10 year old 32" tube tv we had.

I love my new TV.

Funny thing happend at the office

I got an email from a friend the other day that was one of those joke emails. It was about the 6 levels of hangovers. It was well written and very funny. In fact, half way through reading it I busted out in a hearty laugh that made my eyes water. Afterwards I thought about it. If I were in an office instead of working from home someone probably would have noticed and maybe even came over to my cube and asked what was so funny and I would probably have been embarased a little. But no one noticed when I laughed because no one was home but the cats and nothing I do seems to phase them. So I wondered if I laughed even more freely because I was at home or if I would have even laughed at a cube? It now also seems a little weird that I did laugh so hard with no one around. But I did enjoy the email.



The 6 levels of hangovers

* 1 star hangover

No pain. No real feeling of illness. Your sleep last night was a mere disco nap, which has given you a whole lot of misplaced energy. Be glad that you are able to function relatively well. However, you are still parched. You can drink 10 sodas and still feel this way. You are craving a steak bomb and a side of gravy fries.

** 2 star hangover

No pain, but something is definitely amiss. You may look okay but you have the mental capacity of a staple gun. The coffee you are chugging is only exacerbating your rumbling gut, which is craving a rootie tootie fresh and fruity pancake breakfast from IHOP. There is some definite havoc being wreaked upon your bowels.

*** 3 star hangover

Slight headache. Stomach feels crappy. You are definitely not productive. Anytime a girl walks by you gag because her perfume reminds you of the random gin shots you did with your alcoholic friends after the bouncer 86'd you at 1:45 a.m. Life would be better right now if you were in your bed with a dozen donuts and a meatball hero watching the E! fashion awards. You've had 4 cups of coffee, a gallon of water, 3 Snapples and a liter of diet coke - yet you haven't peed once.

**** 4 star hangover

Life sucks. Your head is throbbing. You can't speak too quickly or else you might puke. Your boss has already lambasted you for being late and has given you a lecture for reeking of booze. You wore nice clothes, but that can't hide the fact that you missed an oh-so crucial spot shaving, (girls, it looks like you put your make-up on while riding the bumper cars.) Your eyes look like one big vein and your hair style makes you look like a reject from the class picture of Grover Cleveland HS, class of '84.

***** 5 star hangover, aka "Dante's 4th Circle of Hell."

You have a second heartbeat in your head, which is actually annoying the employee who sits in the next cube. Vodka vapor is seeping out of every pore and making you dizzy. You still have toothpaste crust in the corners of your mouth from brushing your teeth in an attempt to get the remnants of the shit fairy out. Your body has lost the ability to generate saliva, so your tongue is suffocating you. Death seems pretty good right now. You definitely don't remember who you were with, where you were, what you drank, and why there is a stranger still sleeping in your bed at your otherwise empty house.

****** 6 star hangover, otherwise known as the "Infinite Nut smacker"

You wake up on your bathroom floor. For about 2 seconds you look at the ceiling, wondering if the cool refreshing feeling on your cheek is the bathroom tile or your vomit from 5 hours ago. It is amazing how your roommate was as drunk as you, but somehow managed to getup before you. You try to lift your head. Not an option. Then you inadvertently turn your head too quickly and smell the funk of 13 packs of cigarettes in your hair. Suddenly you realize you were smoking, but not ultra lights...some jackass handed you Marlboro reds, and you smoked them like it was your second full time job. You look in the mirror only to see remnants of the stamp "Ready to Rock" faintly atop your forehead......the stamp on the back of your hand that has magically appeared on your forehead by alcoholic osmosis. You have to be to work in t-minus 14 minutes and 32 seconds and the only thing you can think of wearing is your "hello kitty" pajamas and your slippers.

Yet drinking SEEMS like a good idea...