So I just dropped off my XBOX 360 at UPS today to be shipped back to Microsoft for repair or replacement. I'm kind of hoping they end up giving me a new version of the 360 as a replacement. The new chips run cooler and of course with the new ones, you get HDMI output as well. Looking at it from a business standpoint it makes sense as well. The new systems have a lower failure rate which would mean having to replace fewer systems. It's gotta be cheaper then sending out more of the 1st gen 360s that are said to have as high as a 30% failure rate.

Either way, it does kind of suck and I'm hoping I get mine back soon, I want to play some Vegas, COD4, and I definitely want to start up Mass Effect. In the meantime though I have plenty of other options. I still need to beat Uncharted and of course Super Mario Galaxy, and of course World of Warcraft. But even outside of gaming world, I got other stuff I would like to work on. I'm looking into redoing my blog manager for this site, I just sstarted setting up my media database and web portal for my games, movies, music, etc. I decided for that I'm going to use ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server to switch things up as well as delve more into the technology. I'm also going to be delving a bit into game design so even without the 360, I'll have plenty to do.

Tags: thoughts, xbox, rrod, projects

I got back today after camping with my Boy Scout Troop up at Camp Trexler in Jonas, PA. It was a lot of fun, but very icy. I kid you not when I say that the entire camp was pretty much a giant sheet of ice. People and cars were sliding all over the place and even I had trouble maintaining my footing when I stepped out. Hurt my hip too trying to balance myself when I slipped once, but I was able to stay up. I'll be fine though, nothing serious.

I left straight from work Friday, picked up my Dad and headed up. Weather Friday was lousy, rain rain rain. Roads weren't too bad until we got to Camp Trexler I start going up the hill and think "hey, they paved this!" That thought was cut short when my Dad said "no they didn't". I quickly realized that the road up was a thick layer of ice. I managed to get up the hill simply by keeping my momentum and just going.

Friday night we just hung around in the cabin, Memorial Lodge, played cards, RISK, and had a dessert competition.

Saturday was the big day of events. In the morning we had a scavenger hunt set up for the scouts where they had to find playing cards scattered around the camp. In the afternoon there was a competition set up with events ranging from log throwing, caber tosses, a compas course, log splitting and others. I helped my Dad run the compass course and pretty much took over once he went off and ran the stations himself. Saturday night, there was a firebuilding contest which was pretty cool, scouts had to build a fire, and then transport the fire to another location (a 3-5 minute walk away) and restart the fire and burn through a dowel. 3 out of the 5 patrols were able to do it successfully so good for them.

Sunday wasn't much of an events day, just had breakfast, packed up, cleaned up, and hit the road.

Saturday also brought the fun of trying to get my parents' van back down the road after Eric (my brother) didn't heed the warnings and tried to drive up the hill, needless to say, he got stuck halfway up and we all had the task of bringing the van back down safely. The ice had re-frozen and it was almost impossible to drive up the hill, it was so bad there was a slight fender bender earlier in the day. Fortunately the van made it down without any damage.

Eric, the senior patrol leader for Troop 72 did a great job at setting up and planning the weekend. He organized all the events and really did a good job mixing in various different activities for the scouts to participate in.

Here are some links to the photos and videos of the weekend:

Winter Camp 2008 Photo Album

Tags: camping, life, bsa, fun

I've been keeping busy over the last couple weeks doing this and that. Last thursday was the normal poker night which went well, ended up breaking even so I can't complain about that. Was a big turnout too...6 people, Bailey, Kat, Brian, Rachael, Cass, me. I had a good time so I can't complain about that. I'm hoping I can sort things out with Steve, had a little squabble with him over a game of poker a couple weeks ago. It sucks but in the end, I still feel I was right and I have corroborated that as well.

Weekend was rather lazy, sadly I got the Red Rings of Death for my 360 which sucks, but I can survive for a couple weeks without my XBOX. I look at it this way, it will give me time to play other games, as well as working on other things that I've been putting off. On another note, if you have a PS3, make sure you pick up Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The game is amazing, graphics-wise, gameplay-wise, and story-wise.

Monday night I went to the scout meeting, helped their fire building competition. Went well, I'm glad I'm getting more involved in it. I know I'm going camping this weekend so that should be a good time. Eric's running it too so it'll be fun to see what he can do.

I found a bunch of tutorials on game design so I think I'll spend some time reading over those and see if I can't get something started. I think I have an idea of what I want to do, so hopefully the tutorials could help me out. Here's the link if anyone's interested: http://gpwiki.org/. Not sure how good they are just yet, but so far it seems to be a good start.

I got my subversion repository set up on my server for my code for my website and should be able to use it for anything else as well. I created a new tree last night for a version 3 of my site, not sure when that's going to get any real progress. I know what I want to do, just trying to figure out how to do it. Will have to read up on things to get it done.

Tags: poker, xbox360, uncharted, rrod

So my new case and power supply arrived on Friday and my server is now set back up. It should hopefully be a lot faster as it now has better hardware. I ended up upgrading the OS as well. Instead of Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake, it now runs Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. It is a tad bit louder than my old one but runs well so who am I to really complain. Besides, new server maxes out at 7 hard drives instead of 5.

Old Specs:
Intel P4 2.0GHz
768MB DDR PC2100 RAM

New Specs:
AMD Athlon64 2.0GHz
2GB DDR PC3200 RAM

Tags: server, ubuntu, linux

As some know, I was in Boy Scouts growing up, and attained the rank of Eagle Scout, one of my parents' proudest moments. During college, I was unable to stay as involved as I would have liked to be, if involved at all. Now being out of college, I find myself wanting to get back involved in the program, and my Troop. Troop 72, the troop I was involved with, gave me a lot my 7 or so years I was there for. My Scoutmaster in particular was key in me getting Eagle. He, along with my parents, pushed me, and inspired me, and did everything he could to get me into the program as well as get my butt in gear when I was slacking off and really disinterested. I thank him, my parents, and of course all the leaders who were there helping me. I guess part of me wants to pay them, and the new scouts, back for everything they did for me...hell, not part, most if not all of me wants to.

I went up to one of the bigger events, Snowbound this past weekend, which is pretty much a big scouting competition the District runs. My brother, Eric's patrol placed first, as they did last year, and as the troop tends to do to begin with. I helped out, walked around, and I want to get back to being involved. I'm still a registerred leader there so I think I'm going to actually get involved as one.

Eagle Scout is not easy to achieve and the last number I counted was that 1 out of every 100 scouts attain the rank. Several US Presidents are Eagle Scouts, and one of my personal heroes, Jim Lovell also achieved the rank. Eagle Scout can show a lot about one's character and I would suggest the program to almost anyone.

Despite some of BSA's criticisms, the Boy Scouts teach young men many important life skills and is a great program. The most important of which I believe, is leadership. Leadership is actually the primary basis of the Eagle Project that is one of the bigger requirements for Eagle Scout. A good leader is not always the easiest thing to find nowadays and the program is set to help inspire young scouts to grow and gain leadership skills.

Tags: bsa, boyscouts, thoughts