Who Would Jesus Punch For an Xbox?

Seattle Weekly: Bankruptcy of Spirit – Who would Jesus punch for an Xbox? – The holiday season has officially begun with widespread reports of near rioting at various big-box retailers, including the Wal-Mart in Renton, where the police had to be called in to quell crowds driven to a frenzy over the chance to buy laptop computers at a deep discount.

I encourage you to click through and read the article. I expected a good chunk of hippie tree hugging, considering it’s a free local newspaper, but he actually makes a lot of the same points that I would have here…

…if I wasn’t spending most of my free time playing with my 360, that is.

Luck and Foresight

“You mean you got a 360? You bastard!” I’ve had this comment shot in my direction at least once every day over the last three… meetings, office visits, lunch, dinner – even at bars. On November 22nd, I had it at least a dozen different conversations that started with this comment. Know what’s funny? It’s usually from a fellow Microsoft employee, who didn’t think to pre-order – or worse – didn’t pre-order until September or October… I pre-order the weekend after I read about the 360 release date in IGN and saw that ebGames was selling out of pre-orders.

To those of you in gaming press that think that employees were given special consideration for consoles or that we’re miniacly twirling our mustaches while there’s a holiday shortage, re-consider it and call it bunk: there’s a whole bunch of people on the Redmond campus that are in the same boat as the rest of retail America.

And we make the freakin thing and yet a lot of people have no choice but to watch sites like Xbox 360 Tracker – go figure.

WTF: Forbes Edition

What the bloody hell is Forbes Online thinking? I once worked for a company that partnered with Forbes, in an effort to deliver their content to mobile devices… pre-RSS days, I was required to parse through their HTML pages for content and I remember thinking “what a mess!” at the time.

Has anyone seen Forbes’s online site lately? My God…
Continue reading WTF: Forbes Edition

Xbox 360: The Headset

I’ve never cared much for the original Xbox headset. What’s the point of playing a game on a 5.1 equipped system if one entire ear is plugged with a headphone speaker? It annoyed me enough to look for an alternative about a year ago: I found a Sanyo universal cell phone headset for $9.99 at Target. It is an in-the-ear bud design and allowed external sounds through; it also has in in-ear microphone, so I don’t need a big boom thingy in my face.

What about the 360, then?
Continue reading Xbox 360: The Headset

Second Chances?

MSNBC: N.C. carries out nation’s 1,000th execution

Convicted killer dies by lethal injection; death penalty reinstated in 1976 […] “He made one mistake and now it’s costing him his life,” said Kenneth Smith, 35, who visited with his wife and two children. “A lot of people get a second chance. I think he deserves a second chance.”

He made one mistake? One?!
Continue reading Second Chances?

Red Sox Nation: Two Drink Minimum

FoxSports: The Red Sox have filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to keep the ball that Doug Mientkiewicz caught for the final out to clinch Boston’s 2004 World Series title, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.

Words still fail me, on this one.