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So back on the 14th of the month my Xbox 360 Elite decided that it would be fun to read every disc as a DVD movie–I however did NOT think so and sent for a label from Microsoft to get it fixed at an out-of-warrantee cost of ~$90. I didn’t really mind that I would be without it for a week or two since I had a backup–or so I thought.
My backup was my 20GB pro system that I had fixed last time back in May of last year. The pro was fine for a few days, then on this past wednesday when I went to pickup Mirror’s Edge, I got home and decided not to skip the tutorial even though I’ve run through the tutorial a million times now. I got through most of the tutorial and then the system suddenly shut off, I look over at it and see what every 360 owner dreads to see–the Red Ring of Death (officially known as 3 Red lights), and so it’s back to Microsoft with that one, too! They should be getting it the same day I get my (hopefully fixed) Elite back.
Another cruelly ironic thing with all of this is that over the weekend they announced that they were letting some more people in the public preview, and I was one of them, except with NO WORKING 360!!!

(rambling review mode)
Well on sunday I went and saw City of Ember with my bro (and his GF). Simply put, it’s a pretty good movie. To be true, there are parts that drag on a little bit, and you never really get answers to some questions that pop up. Really though, the movie does have a set focus and keeps to it admirably more than most movies in recent memory).
If you haven’t heard what it’s all about, City of Ember is about–naturally enough–Ember, a city that was built underground to save humanity from a never expounded terrible fate. A box was passed down from one governor to the next, eventually getting lost and forgotten. 200 years later the box pops open and the adventure begins. The box contains the way out of Ember, So our intrepid youth find the map and go from there. Anywho, see it.

So I originally meant to write my review of the Amazon Kindle about a week after I got it. Instead its about a month later, but that just means there’s been more time to solidify my opinion of it. And my opinion is that it is really good.

To start out–as already said–the Kindle is the wonderful ebook reader from Amazon. This little oddball looking device has gotten me reading more than I had been recently, almost as much as in the past (which was considerable). Easily the first thing you’ll notce (aside from the look of the device you superficial person you), is the screen. The display being used is an E-Ink screen (from a company named E-Ink no-less), what’s so special is the way the screen works by using tiny little balls that are half white and half black. To minimize ghosting of the image there is a brief all-black flash to clean the screen, which doesn’t take long to get used to (unless your anal). When I’m reading a novel on Kindle it really does disappear as when you’re reading any good paper book.

In the spirit of truthiness, I have not used any other ebook reader myself, however the reviews I’ve read all point to the Kindle being the best, to which I concur. To be true, there is some room for improvement, such as the screen refresh and why they only use 4 grays when the screen can do 8, but there will likely be a hardware rev down the line. Anywho, If you don’t get what I’m trying to say it’s this: If you love to read and don’t care if it’s not on dead trees, get one now and enjoy!

So quite a few things are coming out soonish, and me being me, I pre-ordered them, almost all on amazon. For shame, I’m weak, I know. So without further ado my voyeurs, here’s where I’ve been spending my monies as of late:

Firefly (Bluray) - Sweet mother of Murgatroyd! Yes, we finally get a High-Def release of one of my all-time-favorite shows! I already have the show on DVD, but it’s a show that deserves to be owned in any format that it comes out on. I only wish I actually watched more TV when it was on, then Fox might not have canned it… Oh and if you haven’t seen the movie for it, Serenity (DVD, HDDVD), you should.

Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season (DVD, Bluray), I’ve been meaning to get my post up about this. If you haven’t seen this yet, do yourself a favor and get it any way you can (eg iTunes, Unboxed, the upcoming DVD/Bluray releases, bittorrent). And of course, it’s got Summer Glau from Firefly.

Stargate Atlantis Season 4 (DVD) - The latest season of Stargate Atlantis, including the the wonderful Jewel Staite from Firefly. If you like Stargate SG1, you’d like Atlantis, but you probably already knew that…

National Treasure 1&2 (Bluray) - And finally we have the National Treasure movies now on Bluray in High-Def. Honestly, you should have seen these movies by now, they’re good flicks, kinda “Who can get to the goods first” movies. I love ‘em both.

Witchblade - The Complete Series (DVD) - Finally they (TNT) realize that people want to see Witchblade again. It was awesome, and I can’t wait to sit down and watch it straight through when it ships. If you don’t know anything about Witchblade, check the Wikipedia pages for the comic and the TV show.

Happy Birthday to me! For my voyeurs out there I’m officially 24 now… and that’s about it. Still working at Qwest, so that means two things: I have not quit yet (though there have been multiple times where I’ve wanted to), and secondly that they have not fired me (yet, though they have a tendency to fire people whom businesses would normally keep, but that’s another subject for another post). For anyone actually wondering why I haven’t posted anything in a few months, I’ve kinda taken to just making posts over a long (or short) period of time in MarsEdit, and not just hammering them out willy-nilly. So be patient voyeurs! the posts are coming.

With the 2.0 (”Take 2″) update to the AppleTV you can now rent HD movies directly from your TV (admittedly I could already do this with my Xbox 360 but have not yet done so). So for my first rental I went with Live Free or Die Hard.
Die Hard 4.0 as it’s known in the rest of the world, is the story of a new-age terrorist attack and John McClane must stop it. Basically since everything’s done by computer now, the terrorist try to take everything (utilities, all communications) down and hold the country ransom, and it’s up to John to stop it. Overall the movie was great, 4/5.

So I got The Kingdom through Netflix the other night. It’s a great little action movie with some CSI-like extras thrown in for good measure. The Kingdom is about an FBI Evidentiary team that gets sent to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist attack on the American housing complex. Needless to say they get there and all hell breaks loose. What follows are some great chase scenes and crazy firefights. As much as they try not to let it, the story does feel secondary to the action in the movie. Throughout the movie you definitely get the feeling that this is a real team that has worked together for a long time, and see how they befriend their Saudi-cohorts to save the day. Definitely worth a check out if you haven’t seen it already.

Just a quick note to wish all my voyers out there a Happy New Year! Now on to a sucky day at work because everyone frakking decides to call the gorram phone company on the first and last days of the year for gods knows why… I sure don’t.

Preface: I had originally started writing this post back around the beginning of September, but finally bothered to finish it and post it now…

Yay I finally got my new TV. I got a 32″ 1080p Sharp Aquos LCD, and in a quick 2 word summary it’s frakking awesome.
I have to say that after upgrading from my older HDTV that only did 1080i and 480p, the difference is night and day. The Aquos does a pretty good job of displaying regular TV and not making it look too out of place compared to newer HD stuff.
I love the full 1080p display on this beauty though, and with my Xbox 360 Elite having HDMI on it I get FullHD out of it, playing on anything less seems weird after a while though…
Now I just have to get a better sound system…

Woohoo, I finally got to pickup Halo 3!
I started playing through the campaign mode so I can finally finish the damned story! Frak cliff-hanger-endings! Anywho, I got the Collectors edition (the special edition without the helmet model), and I have to say the extras disc is nice, too bad I have to work so damn much this week, otherwise I’d be playing it a hell of a lot more than I’ll be able to for now. I do have to say though that it’s awesome playing it in full 1080p, the game is frakking gorgeous. But that’s all for now, time for bed.