Xbox 360 way better than Wii, imo

A couple months ago I traded my coveted Wii for an Xbox 360.  I found this really nice kid on Craigslist who wanted one so bad.  I could tell he’d get more use out of it than I would, because the games he actually bought for his 360 were in the “E for Everyone” rating.  Luckily, Nintendo makes shitloads of happy, cutesy games that I can only play through once.

He said he was a “retro gamer,” and I guess that makes sense for him.  I personally like newer games that have new stories and new ways to complete them (Bioshock, Assassin’s Creed, Gears of War, etc).  On the Wii I had all the staples — Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Smash Bros Brawl — but I got very sick of these games very quickly.  Add to that the novelty of the Wii remote, which I got sick of very quickly, and my Wii had been gathering dust for months.

There were a few shining stars, though, so it wasn’t all bad.  Resident Evil 4 and No More Heroes were both a blast, and more along my line of play.  I guess I just want to leave the retro games in the past.

So upon trading for this 360, I immediately purchased games that I knew were must-haves — Grand Theft Auto IV and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  I’ve added quite a bit to my collection since then, keeping my eyes open for deals online, as well as backwards compatible Xbox games like Ninja Gaiden Black.

The Xbox 360 is such a better console, in my opinion, because of the total experience it offers.  There are the games themselves, which are visually amazing and skillfully challenging;  there are the Achievements, which adds an entirely new level of gameplay and replayability, something that is very important when you’re spending $50 per average game; the console plays DVDs, which is a major downfall of the Wii — how do you have a “next gen” system that doesn’t play DVDs? — and lastly, there’s the awesome ability for it to network with your home computer.  I have tons of movies and TV shows downloaded onto my home PC, and now I don’t have to sit at my computer desk or take forever burning them to DVDs to watch them.  I can access all of the files, no matter which codec they were coded with, and watch them straight from my TV.

For me, the Xbox 360 is the total package.  You can see the gaming industry is picking up on the 360’s lead too, since Playstation 3 just recently added a “trophies” element to their gameplay, which is a direct ripoff of Achievements.  The online community is much easier to set up in Xbox Live, as opposed to Playstation 3’s account creation for each game.  The Wii’s online “community” is a joke.

While the Wii may garner to a larger audience because of it’s group gameplay mechanic and humor factor when playing with others, Xbox is geared more towards me as an individual user and one who wants to experience fast-paced games alone or with others online.  With that said, I don’t miss my Wii one bit.

Got my Coffee, got my Radiohead

Yeah, Radiohead was the shit.  An amazing show, all thanks to the wifey :)  I put up some photos on my Flickr page, so bounce on over there to see their setup.  All pics were taken with my iPhone, so the quality is as good as Mac allows ;)

So other than that, I’ve been busy with work.  Gotta promotion a few weeks ago, then was moved territories, so I’ve been mega busy with all that learning and re-learning.  On the plus side, things are going well at home, saw the fam for mother’s day, and I’m planning my buddy Josh’s bachelor party.  Gonna be a busy couple months!

Traffic rants are on hiatus, I’m thinking something else up.  I have a neat idea in mind that would take some creative thought, much more than griping about traffic morons (although that’s a great stress reliever).  Keep an eye out!

Birthday is over, my Luck is gone

The traffic gods are spitting on my existence already.  With my birthday over, I had a crappy drive into work this morning, picking all the wrong lanes and being stuck behind all the mentally challenged drivers.  I’ll stay away from racial stereotypes, as I hate to further that sort of hate, but damn people, RTFM.

Twilight in Athens this Weekend

I’m headed to Athens this weekend for a multitude of reasons.  First, it’s Josh and Cheryl’s wedding shower.  Second, it’s Twilight; that’s the big bike race downtown.  The best part about Twilight is watching bikers spill and scrape their knees in front of you.  Dangerous!  Third, it’s my birthday weekend.  I can’t wait to par-tay on down in my old hometown.  Fourth, we’re gonna have helluva time playing Smash Bros. Brawl.  Apparently I suck, so I look forward to getting my arse handed to me.  Pumped!

Traffic Rant 4/23/08 - Sons of Bitches on their Cell Phones

Probably the most annoying sight on the road is to be stuck behind someone on their cell phone.  There’s been a study that concluded that using a cell phone while driving is worse than driving drunk (is it just me or is that basically permission to drive drunk?  Come on Uncle Sam).  Many cities have banned cell phones in city limits, and every time I see someone on their cell phone holding up traffic, I want to throw Molotov cocktails at their car.

Cell phones have ruined communication, in my opinion, by making it constant.  Who the hell wants to talk to someone all the time anyway?  Even those people who have a bluetooth headset cemented into their ear don’t use it all the time.  Do they?  Speaking of those morons, they look like total idiots with pieces of metal and plastic flashing in their ear.  They look like they’re getting ready for a rave.

The on-phone-while-driving offense is possibly the worst.  I’d give it a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “I would like to put nails through all of your toes.”  It’s worse than the women who can’t get up early enough to put makeup on, so they do it in the car; it’s worse than the Asian guy or the Michiganite who won’t get out of the left lane even though they’re doing 40; it’s worse than old people.  That’s really saying something.  Driving while on a cell phone is worse than old people.  If you’re driving, on a cell phone and old then you better do a 180 next time you see me coming, because I’ll plow into you.

The sheer inconsideration of a driver blabbing on their phone is infuriating alone.  They’re blatantly ignoring all other drivers, the road, brake lights, signs and Martians.  They’re saying “I’m way too involved with myself and my personal life to give you the courtesy of me paying attention to my four tires, two of which are in your lane.”  If I had a ray gun that gave people cancer, I’d use it on the fingers of people I saw cell phone-driving.  Finger cancer is not only shitty because you have 10 fingers, it forces you to stop using a cell phone.  For that matter, it forces you to take the bus, which is probably safer for us all.

Travis Barker Remixes “Low”

Yeah he did it again. He remixed Soulja Boy a few months ago and now it’s Flo Rida’s “Low” that gets the drum and bass treatment. Sounds good, but I would watch the video just for watching him play it instead of listening to it.

Traffic Rant 4/16/08 - The Nose Picker

Hell I’m guilty of this one.  I’m a sniffler and a picker, not really a nose blower, but it’s still laughable to see the Atlanta folks driving in the morning with their coffee/cellphone in one hand and their other hand busy with a finger jammed up to the bridge of their nose.  

They don’t even bother to hide it; it’s like they take the security of being inside a car for being invisible.  Their windows aren’t even tinted, but they usually don’t look around too much while digging for snot prizes.  When I see someone picking, I always take a really long stare to see if they notice me noticing.  So far I’ve never been caught catching someone, and of course I always get separated from their car in just a few quick seconds.  

There’s different versions of pickers too.  There’s the “I’m just scratching” picker who looks like he’s just trying to scratch something at the base of a nostril, but then you see him grinding his fingers together and you know something’s up.  

The “blow and pick” is probably the grossest because even though they blow their nose first, they stick their finger under the tissue and go dig with that, which makes their boogies visible, even at a distance.  

There’s the standard pick, which is more my style.  Jam my finger up there and work around until I can breathe freely.  I was always griped at when I was a kid for doing this instead of blowing my nose, but honest to science, blowing my nose doesn’t work unless it’s running snot.  If it’s boogers I’m after, they’re stuck up there well enough to where the lung blast of air won’t dislodge them.  Therefore, I go diving.

The “pick and eat” is clearly nasty, something I haven’t done since my single-digit years, and something I haven’t seen since about 7th grade (I believe her name was Jenna Williams, a bookworm and booger hound).

Last is the “rocket shooter,” which could be dangerous to others in the vehicle.  These assholes close one nostril and blow a sickening gust from the other, sending stringy ropes of phlegm, boogers and sometimes blood in whatever direction they’re aiming at.  If you ever see your coworkers come in with dried goo on their pants, you might have a wandering rocket shooter on your hands.  Either that or they recently received a lapdance or a visit from Bill Clinton.

Final warning: if you’re driving a friend’s car and there’s dried grossness on the steering wheel, better bring rubber gloves next time.

 

Pownce - All the Cool Stuff on the Internet

I recently joined Pownce, another social networking site in the vein of Facebook.  So far I like it a lot.  It’s tailored for the geek who finds all kinds of interesting things on the internet and wants to post them for all his/her friends to see.  

The basic idea is to add friends on the site, post cool and interesting things all while updating your friends of what’s going on with you. You can also send files to friends (up to 100 mb in size).  So your recorded mp3’s, photoshop docs you’re working on, pictures, videos, whatever you want.  I like the setup and the integration into Facebook.  I’m trying to get the word out there and get some like-minded people on it from the blogsphere.  

It’s very interesting and extremely real time when you can take a pic or record video from your cell phone and upload it to Pownce.  I don’t think there’s integration of Pownce into cell phone browsers yet (maybe Safari for the iPhone), but it’s definitely something they should work on if not.  

So far my biggest challenge is actually finding people I know who are into it — there aren’t many.  It was created by Leah Culver, a San Franciscan who’s heavy in the tech world like lots of the San Frans over there (or so it seems), so a lot of the people center in that area.  I was never big into meeting online pals, so right now it’s a hindrance as I try to build my network in the blog world.

Anyway, it’s free to sign up (you can upgrade to the “pro” version for $20 a year; a worthy investment if you use it daily), so if you’ve got a few minutes, jump over to Pownce and add me!

Traffic Rant 4/10/08 - That Slow Fucker in the Huge SUV

Traffic jams are bad enough.  It’s a pain in the scrotum for me to move slower than my pet turtle (his name is Shelly, get it?).  Obviously I expect to trickle my way to and from work.  But if you know shit about traffic, then you know the way to advance is to keep as little space between you and the car in front of you.  The more space you leave, the more cars fill that space and that keeps your ass at the back of the line.

So you can imagine my seething, molten anger when I get stuck behind that slow fucker in the huge SUV.  You know which one I mean.  It’s got tinted windows, those stick-people family stickers and a boat propeller on the back.  As I ride this person’s ass I’m thinking how I’d love to push a button and have fire and swords rip out of the front of my car like some souped up spy car and really put her in a bind with her insurance company.  Good luck explaining that one.  “Well the car behind me just started shooting out swords and fire!”  Sure lady.

Anyway, this driver can really ruin your commute, which can really ruin your day.  Traffic is moving by on both sides, yet you’re still stuck at 10 mph.  You can’t see in front of this giant economy buster, so you don’t even know what the problem is.  Finally you’re able to find a gap and whiz by this moving mountain only to find that there’s about 40 yards of space between it and the car in front of it.  You could parallel park a train in there.

I mean, what is this idiot’s problem?  Is she purposely going slow to piss you off because you’re riding her so close she can tell what species of bird shit is on your window?  Is she just that dumb and unaware of the surrounding traffic?  I’m sure you noticed I’m assuming it’s a woman.  Congratulations.

It’s bozos like these that really ruin traffic, yet they don’t realize it.  They aren’t the sole reason traffic exists, but they’re certainly not helping.  What’s worse is they’re oblivious to the problems they’re causing.  They can’t think past their front bumper.

Now I know not everyone is willing to ride 3 inches from the car in front of them.  That’s what the right lane is for.  But you know lanes don’t mean shit in the middle of a traffic jam.  That’s another subject.  I’m working on my “Rules for Navigating Heavy Traffic,” and when I’m done it’ll sell billions.

JJ Abrams Talks About Mystery, LOST

Earlier this year JJ Abrams (writer/director of LOST, among others) spoke at TED about his fascination with mystery and the unknown and how his passion relates to his writing.  His humor and charisma really come out in this presentation, and it gives insight into his process for creation of his kickass stories.