Red Ring Of Death

Red ring of death
Originally uploaded by Gemini Ace

I get home yesterday and have the house all to myself, so you know what that means. No, not porn and kleenex. Games!

I borrowed a few games from Alana and figured I would start slogging through them. Plus, I like the juxtaposition of playing a game like Jumper while everyone else is playing Fallout 3 or Fable 2. Gives me a couple of lulz, which is what I generally go for.

Anyway, I threw in Jumper and it froze at the title screen. When I restarted my 360, it gave me the Red Ring of Death. I, of course, said "shit". I tried restarting again and the same thing. So, I popped the disc out and my 360 booted just fine.

So, I decided to try Hellboy. Well, I got past the title screen, but not by much. I didn't get a red ring when I restarted, so I figured I would try a game that I knew worked. I spun up Halo 3 and it worked fine in matchmaking. I was shooting somebody in Cold Storage when it froze on me. Not good.

I guess my only option is to get it to red ring consistently so I can call Xbox support and get it replaced. The three year warranty is almost up, so I'm going to have to get it done quick. Otherwise I may be S.O.L. for a while.

At least I have my beloved PS3. Oh, and my Wii.

Excitement Is Building!

Yesterday was pretty cool. Aside from the fact that I had to work overnight, everything else was awesome. I can't talk about all of it here because it's personal. I'm sure you're asking yourself, "then why have a blog if you're not going to spill the beans?", to which I answer "suck it!"

Anyway, the giveaway we're doing is going well. Quite a few entries have already come in, and we're only on day 3. I also got an e-mail from someone at Nintendo PR. They're going to send me an early copy of the game for review. You know, since I'm cool. I've never had that happen before, so I'm really excited.

I'm still hoping that NintendoWiiFanboy picks up the story so we can get that coverage. Our buddies at Platform Nation have graciously allowed me to post a story about the giveaway. I know it's not that big a deal for a podcast to give away a game, but it's a first for us, so back off willya!

Speed Racer And The Contest

We watched Speed Racer this weekend. Well, I watched it and Rhea fell asleep. Then I had a seizure and went to bed.

Now, I didn't hate the movie. The action and CGI were impressive. The fight scenes and other parts were pretty atrocious. Especially when they focused on Spritle and Chim Chim.

Honestly, I'm not sure how so many people can work on a movie and not realize it's going to be bad. But, like I said, the racing was pretty sweet. Not believable at all, but sweet.

Also, on the show, we're giving away a copy of the new Animal Crossing: City Folk game. You have to take a listen to the show and find out how to enter. It's a pretty funny episode if I do say so myself.

Meat Cuts

My wife and I were coming home from visiting Ethan and eating at Cozymel's when we passed a place called Knockouts. She told me it's a place where hot chicks cut your hair in bikinis. Kind of like a Hooters for hair. I immediately realized that I was in desperate need to get my herr did. She immediately hit me.

So anyway, I started thinking of a place like that, but for women. The guys would be hunky and wear a speedo or something. I'm not sure that women would flock to such a place, which makes it such an interesting dichotomy. I would go get my hair cut by a scantily clad chick and not even care if she had her barber's license or even a driver's license. Hell, she could be an illegal trying to make enough money to send back home so her family can have shoes.

I believe a place like this would live or die on its name. Of course, I have come up with a few.

• Meat Cuts
• Sack N' Shears
• Cock Cuts
• Banana Hammocks
• The Tea Bag Salon

And, just to show you that I can come up with some less penis-centric names...

• Trim
• Cut And Buns
• Blow And Go
• Pec Clips
  
• Shear Beefcake
  

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Ethan would be three years old today. I love you son, and I miss you.

Christmas Wishlist

I've created my Amazon.com Christmas wishlist. I also accept cash.

Tipping The Stripper

I got to spend some time with my beloved Rock Band 2 this weekend, as well as Duke Nukem 3D. I have to thank the guys over at SFX-360.com for hooking me up with a code to download it. I wouldn't have paid for it, both because I don't have the points and because I'm still not buying XBLA games. Not sure if using a code goes against my boycott, but I think it's ok. ;-)

I made a little progress in Rock Band 2. I had to play that goddamn Tangled Up In Blue song by Bob Dylan. WTF is that doing in RB2?!

The Nirvana track pack is coming this week. I have 300 space points to spend on tracks, so that's almost 2 tracks worth! As long as I've been bitching about when these songs are coming, now I can't vote with my wallet and buy them all. I will when I get some points. Probably for Christmas.

We are starting our diet this week. I think we will do well. I'm going to the doctor this afternoon for a check up, so I will know my exact weight and where I'm starting.

Voting With Your Wallet

Does this actually work? I've been thinking about this a lot lately, wondering if it's actually effective. It occurs to me that it's pretty much a boolean type of thing. Either you buy something (yes) or you don't (no). The problem with this begins when you realize that one "yes" answer outweighs one"no".

For example, if a game ships based on a movie. The game sells a million copies. That is enough to prove to the publisher that it was a worthwhile investment and do it again. Meanwhile, several million of us ignored the game altogether. The fact that it sold that many means they made money and will shovel more of the same crap onto shelves.

The question then becomes, why do you care? If a million people bought something, then that's their loss. They're spending their own money for crap and who am I to complain, right?

What bothers me the most is the message this kind of thing sends to the content makers. All of the movie studios, record labels, and game publishers know that they can push out crap and it will sell. Then, of course, they decide that making X amount of money on this content isn't good enough. So they up the price. And it still sells. And they up the price. And so on...

The long and short of it is this. We as consumers should hold these people responsible for making high quality entertainment. And we should let them know that we're not willing to pay more for something just because they want fatter wallets. I want a fatter wallet, too. I also don't want to ever see another movie as bad as X-Men 3 or Epic Movie.

And this doesn't even begin to cover my issues with some of the DLC news that's come out lately. I will get back to you on that after I decide what I'm going to do.

Sex In The City

We watched the Sex and the City movie last night. I owed it to Rhea since we didn't see it in the theater. It was on Blu-Ray, so it was probably better than in the theater. At least that's what I'm telling myself to alleviate my guilt.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but that doesn't mean my genitalia didn't run back up into my body like a frightened turtle. It was a lot longer than I expected considering it was about a bunch of chicks talking about their feelings. Oh who am I kidding. I'm surprised it wasn't four hours. Ba dum bum!

What concerns me is how the movie paints women and how they should react to things that happen in their relationships. Basically, as a woman, you should (spoiler alert):

• Forgive being left at the altar because, in the long run, you're not going to be able to find another man, so why try?
• Forgive your man for cheating on you because, in the long run, you're not going to be able to find another man, so why try?
• Leave the one guy that can stand your annoying ass just so you can bang a bunch of random guys. Classy!
• Wear the ugliest thing you can find. Match it with the second ugliest thing you can find. Put on some heels. Make sure your bra straps are showing. Go out on the town.

It's great that you gals should feel empowered to get out there and "have it your way", as it were. Bang away, I say. You should just be careful so you don't catch the AIDS. Or end up looking like Sarah Jessica Parker.

Playing Spore

So I'm up to the tribal section in Spore. Hasn't taken me very long to get there, either.

Making The Band

I finally landed on a new band name and now I can play challenges and make merch! My new band name is No Pants Till Monday. I think it's funny and representative of my desire to create not just an identity, but a brand.

I can see it all now. T-shirts, posters, shoes, Zunes, etc. All will be sold next to the small one-inch buttons we will create. They're gonna be huge...not size-wise, just in the terms of sales. And by sales I mean giving them out to homeless people.

Picking A Band Name

The story thus far is this...

I've tried to enter the challenges in Rock Band 2 with my band, VaJayJay 5000. The game tells me that I can't enter because my band name isn't "classy" enough. I say to myself (and everyone in earshot), "Fuck you, Harmonix. My band name is my identity and I will not be swayed!"

Fast forward a few weeks.

Now Harmonix has given us the ability to buy band merch like pictures, shirts, and even figures. Ok, so you got me. I'm willing to sell out my name...no, my very identity as a band. Where do I sign?

So this is how it feels to be a rock star.

So now the arduous task of picking a new band name. The qualifications are simple, yet extremely hard to fit. First, it has to be funny. I'm not a member of some serious rock outfit, here. We're all about fun and partying. And dick jokes. Second, it has to meet the criteria of "classy".

Shit.

Spore!

I got my copy of Spore on Saturday, courtesy of the GameHounds podcast. Installed it and made Landfall that night. So far I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm actually surprised how well my pc is handling it. I have a grade of 3, and the minimum requirements are a 3, so I figured it would be kinda sluggish. I've seen some pop up here and there, but nothing game killing. I'm just evolving my little Geminisis creature on the planet Vaginosis.

Friday

In my quest to try to post on my blog on a daily basis, I've been having trouble coming up with topics. That being said, how 'bout them Cowboys?

But seriously, this week has taken forever to get to Friday.

Peace out!

Twittelating Apps

I've been test driving a few of the Twitter apps that were recommended to me and I think I've picked my favorite.

I started out with Twitterific, which isn't that terrific. Nothing bad about it, but it just didn't stand out to me as the defacto app.

So, I loaded Twittelator, Twinkle, and TwitterFon. Twinkle was the early front runner because you could see people near you and what they were saying. The deal breaker was when I tried on multiple occaisions to send a picture with the app and was either kicked back to the "desktop" or given a server error. FAIL.

TwitterFon was good, but it doesn't have the added features like location and pictures. That leaves me with Twittelator which only has one issue. It only shows me so many tweets and won't load anymore. I'm sure this would be fixed by paying for the Pro version, and I might do that soon. Otherwise, everything works just as promised. Even pictures!

Idiots In The Workplace

I am blown away every day at some of the idiocy that I encounter here at the workplace. I think I've twittered (tweeted?) about the two guys up here that constantly burp and fart as loud as possible in their cubicles. They honestly have no regard for anyone around them. My buddy Dave drew a sketch of one of them when he used to work here. It's a fairly accurate depiction of the guy.

What really grinds my gears (hehe) is the fact that I'm sure he makes a lot more money than I do. I know he's probably got some fancy degree from some fancy college, but who cares? Does that excuse the complete lack of hygiene, manners, and respect?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the burping and farting. That's a staple of my comedy and I would be loathe to ever give it up, but I do that stuff at home...or at the store...or outside...or...

What I'm saying is I don't really understand: 1) how someone like that is able to make it through the interview and 2) how you actually get the job. Who offered these slobs a job?!

"Welcome aboard! As you can see, we place the trough within walking distance from the giant hole we all shit in. You'll be sitting here. We've replaced the cube walls with barn doors so you feel right at home. Someone will be by once a month to take you outside and hose you off."