Two two nine nine nine

Thus stands my Gamerscore. A not so nice and round number no thanks to a couple Xbox Live Arcade games that give out weird number achievements like 4, 6 and 7, etc. Can we keep to 5 as the smallest and go in increments from there please?

Currently enjoying Lego Batman. Those that say it is not much of a leap from Lego Star Wars or Indiana Jones are very mistaken. I found a lot of innovation and change in this game. The puzzles are super easy, it starts at a 10+ age rating, but they are definitely different. The one knock is no Xbox Live co-op, especially with a co-op achievement in the mix. That means I am going to have to work two controllers at once to get it.

It appears I will have no trouble getting to my 24k goal for the end of the year. You know, unless both Xboxes RROD on me.

Ill communication

I just listened to Ill Communication on my way home from work tonight. I left at 9.00p. I realized that it would be a great title for a blog post, so…

I was at work for the second night in a row until 9p, so that’s ill. I have gone just over a month without posting, so that’s ill. If I went a calendar month without a post, that would be ill… therefore, here’s your fluff piece to put a stop to that.

Seriously though, I intimated in the last real post that I’d fill in blanks later, so I guess this is it. I think that blogging during the summer can be a bit tough when you don’t have some regular topic to shout about. I definitely have never had that, so it is here and there. Well, weekends are straight out because the last thing I want is to be in front of a keyboard on a weekend. Weeknights have also been straight out because I have been getting home late most nights and since those are due to work, I have had enough of the keyboard for a day. When not, I want to spend it on the couch in front of the 360 for a game or catch up on summer shows.

Now, I am not complaining about work in any shape or form. I am very much enj... Continue reading »

Lego vault

This link made my day and I found it quite by accident on the del.icio.us homepage this afternoon. I was grabbing the del.icio.us Firefox extension at work and happened upon it. (I’m an Engadget guy, not a Gizmodo guy.)

Anyway, the story is cool, but the really cool and happy part is the Lego set that set off the author. I think that was my second Lego set ever and the one I thought of as soon as I started reading the article. To my surprise as I continued to scroll down, there it was. What are the odds? The first one I had is also featured in the gallery.

Blocks from those sets are still in my possession. They make up a small bit of the helicopter I still have… the last original Lego creation of mine before I retired. I dontated all the leftover blocks, a crapload of them, to a friend’s little brother my freshman year of college.

Year in consumables: 2007 games

Time to finish this series off for 2007. The first two parts were music and movies. Also, I just read my 2006 games post and damned if I wasn’t entertained by it. Maybe you should read it (again?)… for added incentive, I make fun of Mookie a little bit.

Speaking of which, I heard via Ed that his 360 finally red-ringed him. (Did we have a pool somewhere about this?) Well, I’m actually sorry to hear that. I thought it was going to beat the odds, but it might have finally succumbed after being subjected to the indignity of the Bee Movie game. I mean, a 360 that thinks it is owned by a man can only take so much girl/kidz games over the course of a lifetime, right?

(I kid ya Mook, you knows I luvs ya!)

Back on track, the good news of the year was Ed got back into the 360 fold and we did a lot of good co-op gaming together. As I referenced in last year’s post, we did play Gears of War together, twice, so that was fun. Insane was… insane, but utlimately beatable. Anyway, that game doesn’t count for this list.

The bad news of the year was my 360 red-ringed me having just broken the 10k Gamerscore boundary. That put me out ... Continue reading »

A toy story

I have been a little behind on posting a link to this, but I was happy to do a “5 Questions with…” over on Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation.

That’s because I was helping him sell out by putting up ads within that snappy-ish blog I helped him build. It’s now an “ish” because it has been compromised by ads. I kid of course, but when you get over there, click some to make the guy some extra bones for his wedding.

It was fun to both build the site and do the interview, although it took a long time to answer. Brought back some good memories (outside of the petty theft).

Update: I should have added that Ed has his own “5 Questions with…” over on PGPoA too. He has now done a write up of his own on The Ed Zone which incorporates some thoughts on the topic and site as well as the text of the interview.

Fourteen K

Well, I had to do some marathon gaming over my vacation, but I just got over my goal of 14k for the end of the year. Of course, trying to do so while playing Mass Effect will cause you to spend a lot of time getting points, but at least it is fun. I had to bust out Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga today to get 80 points to put me over the edge.

Anyway, both Ed and I busted over the 14k mark for the year, which was about an 11k (or so) increase for the year — probably really 10 months — and that is pretty awesome. Actually, I did it in less than that given I was sans 360 for about two more months due to being red ringed.

So, Ed’s goal is 20k by the end of 2008, which is very doable given what we did this year. I’m setting mine at 24k, which is a bit more aggressive, but then, I don’t have a Wii (or a life for that matter) to take away any time from gaming.

Red ringed

Well, it finally got me. I am now a victim of the so-called Red Ring of Death.

Of course, this has already happened to both Ed and Jason, so it is not exactly new, just new to me. Kind of funny that it would happen just after I posted about going over 10k with my gamerscore and so did my Xbox. Of course, one wonders how it continues to post blog entries.

Perhaps it is when I can get it to run for a about a minute before it freezes. You see, after getting the ring, it hasn’t happened again, but it will freeze almost exactly a minute after booting up. I have tried the suggestions on support page for both issues with no joy. I am going to have to finally contact Microsoft about this as my hopes that it will go away on its own don’t seem to be working out. I figured I’d wait a few days and keep trying it to be sure. I thought maybe it was just the heat we’ve had recently, but I don’t think so now.

Anyway, I figure this is just karma coming back on me. You see, it failed the same night I busted on Mookie for being, well… here just read it:

He has a commitment to playing more [kid] games on his 360 while leaving... Continue reading »

Ten K

Just a little celebratory aside for breaking the 10k barrier with my Gamerscore. Ed and I both set goals of reaching 9k by August 1st. Well, we have both already reached that and I continued on to 10k last night after getting the 180 pt. achievement in Lego Star Wars II for completing the game 100%.

I think we both believe that 12k is well within reach by the end of the year.

UPDATE: My 360 blogged a special post for itself as I hit this milestone.

Ketchup

So, I just wanted to post a little quick hit about not much of anything. Feel free to read anything about nothing.

Let me start with last weekend’s Sox and Yankees series at Fenway… our Sox dropped two of three to the Limping Empire. In case you missed it, that means they have dropped four of the last six, even before Roger rockets in to save their season. True enough, the Bombers — hey… Bombers and a Rocket… never mind — were still twelve and a half out at the end of that, but it has to have boosted their morale, yeah? The good news is we are still up on them seven to five for the season and we won’t meet again until August. Tough for them to make up ground on us if we aren’t playing against one another (and we don’t tank).

Anyway, dropping the first two to a decent Oaktown team — Haren? Yes. DiNardo? Really? — doesn’t have me brimming with confidence. I guess it is just losing the last three in a row is tough to take. Wonder if they’ve done that this year (I’m not checking)?

Speaking of Sox, I’ll get more photos up from the Braves game at some point this week. I also... Continue reading »

Ignoring it is bliss

Oh little blog, how I have ignored you these past couple weeks… and boy has it been great. Not feeling pressured to write a damn thing to bore the masses with endless drivel, just like this post.

Are you bored yet?

Don’t worry, you’ll get there. I already am, but reflect on the fact that blogging is now 10 years old. Consider how many boring blog posts have been posted over that time! See my latest aside for more.

Of course, there are numerous reasons I haven’t blogged lately, the first being the continued drama of being a fantasy baseball league commissioner, especially when said league includes a Mookie. I have spent many a late night over the past week tending to my little baseball league that barely can. However, light is at the end of the tunnel now, so time is freed up to blog a bit.

So, continuing to riff on the baseball, and real quick mind you as many of you care less, I just want to point out a couple things. One, no matter how old men get, they are still big babies and will gather up their toys and go home when things don’t go their way. Two, men define fairness for what backs up their point slash opinion and eve... Continue reading »