It's been a while

    This isn't quite what I had in mind when I said I would post when I could.  However, it seems that this time of year is still stacking up against me when it comes spending time the way I would like to.  Add on top of that I was sick again.  This time for close to two weeks, with Thanksgiving right in the middle.  I was pissed.  I missed out on two of my normal three really good meals this year.  C'est la vie.  Another fine addition to the pile of things against me would be the things my 15-year-old step-son is doing, or not doing in the case of school work.  Oh, the joys of family life.  Don't get me wrong, things can be great at times, but at his age, those times seem to be growing sparse.

    Then, as if the normal load just wasn't enough, Microsoft decided to give me a swift kick last Monday night.  My 360 crapped out on me on a clan night.  Right in the middle of a match-making game on Halo 3, the display went wacky.  I use the component RGB cables, and the "red channel" flipped out and went florescent "Xbox logo" green.  I was able to finish the game, but couldn't tell who i was shooting at.  SO, I tried composite connections, and another set of cables, component and composite, and even both cables and all connections on another TV. By the time I got to the second TV, my 360 wasn't outputting any video or audio at all.  Next step- the dreaded call to Xbox support.  Once I'm on hold, what music do they play for me?  The Halo theme music.  It's like they knew already, and were taunting me.  They said they would fix or replace it, and would send a box for me to ship it in.  I still have yet to get it, so hopefully in the next day or two.  I can now say without any question what-so-ever, video games are as addicting as drugs.  My wife has poked so much fun at my Halo withdrawls over the last week.

    On a brighter note, a fellow clanmate has come up with a basis for what I think could be a good machinima series.  This is good for me for a few reasons.  I get to work on some writing skills (or actually, I get to hopefully acquire some), and the best part, I get back into video editing work.  It's been almost a year since I had a project to work on, the last one being a buddy's wedding video.  Not really my first choice for a project, but it was a challenge with the source material I had to work with, which made it fun.

    For anyone with a little money to spare for yourselves during the holidays and find that you're near a CompUSA store, watch out for some store clearance sales.  They will be closing ALL of their stores.  Here's a link to the story.  Now, if I didn't do that right, the story is over at cnnmoney.com and just search their site for "compusa".


truktrix