World of Warcraft and a helpful hand from Hoji

This game...has pretty much taken over my life at this point, and not in a bad way either, I freaking love it. Even my Xbox360 Elite is unplugged...srsly, parents said to take it out of the living room, I did, and I never plugged it back in but I promise I will eventually.

Even with my gaming habit, I've started eating better, so that's a start at getting to a healthier lifestyle, I'd like if possible to be able to still play WoW a lot seeing as I get a great sense of satisfaction and a lot of joy out of running around killing things and other players and such. I think I will be toning down my gameplay all around and I've already started in my opinion (Xbox is unplugged need I say more?). Anyways, going to start walking laps at the school with my mother and her friends who work there, they're a good bunch. Hell I might even start counting points on the weight watcher scale, though I think that would just depress me seeing as I'll still eat out occasionally even though I try to make better choices when doing so now, smaller portions, less fattening items, etc.

Another Day at Work

Head hurts, copier is going nonstop for printing out our copies of todays shipments, sitting in my chair writing this and all I want to do is hide back in my corner and fall asleep...

If anyone comes to wake me up, I'm giving them rabies, I've already started to foam at the mouth, see?
@__@
  /vv\
  \^^/
   "
    "
   "
    "

Working, Slowly and at a distance.

Work has been sporadic lately, some days extremely busy, other days I flat out read books, no joke...

Anyways, when not at work I've been spending a lot of time on my online games (PC, sorry Hoji!) and have been taking things very slowly with a certain friend of mine, she and I are at that "Hey...what's up?" point in our life. You know what I mean...where you're sitting around, looking around doing what you feel is just about nothing besides working, eating, sleeping, etc.

I guess I'm stuck in a pretty awful routine because I've become something of a recluse, only talking with a few select people, even at work I haven't been talking or emailing much, keeping to myself (or at least my department of 3 people including myself) unless it explicitly involves work.

Maybe I just fail at life :P
I'm not unhappy though I may be depressed.
Maybe I'm just bored and possibly a bit lonely but I'm not sure.

Yay! I think I'm gonna be sick! *blargh*

From the Vault of GIR!

"I'm gonna sing the doom song now!"
"You gon' make biscuits! Yooou gon' make BISCUITS!? yoou goonnnna make biscuits.....!? "
"I miss you, cupcake"
"Why? I lov-ed you, piggy! I lov-ed you!"
"I love the little tacos. I love them good."
"I saw a squirrel. He was goin' like this."
"And then the squirrel ate Dib's greasy head."
"Yes, wait a minute, no."
"I must have them or I will explode. That happens to me sometimes."
"Let's make biscuits!"
"It's just a baby. HI, BABY!"
"I want to be a mongoose. Can I be a mongoose dog?"
"Yay! We're doomed!"
"Yay! I'm gonna be sick!"
"I'm running! I'm running!"
"I gotta go pig. I'll see you later."
"I'm gonna roll around on the floor for a bit, 'k?"
"Okey dokey"
"I am not a squirrel."
"I do."
"Why?"
"Where did the last piggy go?"

Doom doom doom...the end!

A Week Off

As you may know, I run this Blog while at work and pretty much only at work to pass the time when I'm not busy running around fighting the fires of corporate IT. (No, we don't do prevention, we'd have to hire more people for that.) Anyways, this...is supposed to be my week off, but apparently someone's child is let's put it nicely and say...creating a new form of astroturf on mommy's shoes so here I am heh. Honestly, I don't mind coming in at all, especially not when someone's child is sick I mean sheesh, got to deal with that first of course. What I do mind however, is that someone can't manage to type their password in correctly and I reset it to our "default" and then they can't seem to change their password from the default....to what they want.

All in all, I gave him a big ol'"Pandaeye08" as his password for now seeing as he just can't seem to understand...well...anything, especially why I have to scrounge up a working computer (which we had only one, a laptop which was to be used for guests ONLY) whenever his department has 3 laptops just sitting around not being used.

Engineers of the world, you guys must really SUCK.

And to quote Clerks, which I must do of course, "I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

Seen it all before...

Now I'm sure you've probably all seen this before, but...I wanted to have them on my blog anyways so deal with it! Some of my favorite youtube videos!

FOUR WHEELS OF FURY! (toyota commercial)

Maybe Mr. T Hacked the game! (WoW commercial)

Carameldanssen...seriously don't ask me why I just think it's cute.

Evil Car...don't watch unless you have a strong stomach, I throw this one in for it's disturbomatic rating, no I don't enjoy it, I just scream "OH MY GOD!"

Rabies, Anyone? (EDIT: Breakups, FTW!?)

First off, the title is just random, just like my password reset of a friend of mine here at the plant to "Poodle9000" which she got a kick out of.

Just making the rounds, saying hey. Honestly though, I need some advice on something... Ex-girlfriend, is, and will remain ex-girlfriend so this post is going to be about another girl.

A friend of mine I rarely see or talk to has over the past...3 years, mentioned that I'm NOT her boyfriend...and not in that "Ew that would never happen." way, but more with disappointment, and I've always felt bad that I couldn't at least let her down more easily (well I was in a relationship albeit on again off again, give me a break >_<).

Anyways, now that I'm single she's sent me a few messages, haven't talked on the phone yet but our conversation went kind of like this...

She: Hey, long time no see, still in (City)?

Me: Yep, still working at (Workplace) too, trying to get salary still.

She: Well, did you hear, I'm single again.

Me: Oh? What happened? Every time we talk you're always breaking up with somebody heh (Yes, I know, I have no tact whatsoever)

She: Well he (goes on to explain, not going to broadcast the dirty laundry online of course), maybe I should try and be with someone I wouldn't normally get with.

Me: What do you mean?

She: (Honestly, I can't remember wording, but it was something to the effect of "Well, I've never been with you." Not a certain type...but flat out pointing me out.)


Now! For the advice part, what...in the world does this mean, other than perhaps that she wants to try dating me. Isn't there more to this than that? We've always been "ok" but never extremely close really, we've snuggled but mostly as friends besides (and yes I'll admit it) a bit of a fondle... or two.

I'm just confused right now, she's a good person and all but, there are some things about her I just don't like. Where as I have (and yes I'll admit to this too, proud of it even) remained a virgin, I don't know what in the world she's been up to with her numerous boyfriends, she always seems to be with someone new each time we talk, who she is usually in the process of, or has just broken up with... Another thing, I don't drink much whatsoever, and I don't smoke or do drugs though she has done some drugs, marijuana and such, drinks (as far as I know), and smokes.

Flat out, I don't want to have to deal with drug problems, or the smell of cigarette stench on my clothes, and I'm fearful that she might be "damaged goods" though she has always seemed to generally care for me. If we did date, and it got serious and then fell through, I wouldn't want to regret what might have happened in that time.

What do I do!? Usually I pride myself on being able to give good advice on relationships but I have no clue what to do with this one.



P.S. I need to clarify something for possibly Hoji if he reads this. Me being a virgin and not drinking/smoking/doing drugs is not about being a good christian, I'm agnostic, it's just about trying to be a good person and keeping clear of addiction. Don't give me kudos/props in this situation based on what should be a normal thing.

Switcharoo!: Times two!?

Another little IT tidbit of information for everyone.

If IT has to come by and set up a program specifically for you at your computer... you better not be switching seats with a coworker the next day, the office is no place for musical chairs.

My first "unpost" I figured this one was a bit too angry considering all the crap that happened yesterday so I decided to undo most of it.

By the way....

Yeah I had to add that one in hehe, I love WoW...*le sigh*

H3 (TGWSNBN for long..)

Well, this post goes out to Hoji.

I totally missed last night.

I got to confirm that I'm not all that bad at Grifball, I feel as if I "almost" beat your friend there but well..you know how that goes. I still can't believe I got a melee kill with the ball, he's really good heh.

I've been playing WoW a little bit, helping a friend get started actually, so that's going to take up quite a bit of time this weekend but I'm moving the Xbox back into my room so I can at least see who logs in if/when they do.

Ah, random thought!

My dad, after seeing and getting to know my computer, appropriately named "Gaming-Dream-01" has decided to get one as close to it as possible without breaking the thousand dollar mark. He ended up getting a decent computer, a little slower than mine at 2.2ghz dual core (amd) instead of 2.4ghz quad core (intel), and other than that "about" the same... at least we both have 2 gigs of ram, are running Vista Home Premium, and have GeForce 8800GT's as our video cards.

The Joys of IT

I love my job, don't get me wrong, but when so many problems end up simply being the result of a user who refuses to read what the monitor has to say, things get downright idiotic.

Though most questions seem to be valid when look at them from one perspective, very few actually are. With all the "user-friendly" aspects designed into programs now, why are people having more trouble than ever?

Not to sound like an elitist, but the problem is simple and so is the answer... Now that computers and other tech gadgets are so mainstream, so "easy" to use, the IQ of the average user has been allowed to plummet beyond reason. This reminds me of the Geico commercial "So easy a caveman can do it." which has practically become a reality. Instead of IT being for the intelligent few who explore and research, and play; it's now simply for those with enough money to afford it.

Et tu, IT?

IT for the Masses = Good
IT for those who can't use it and lazily rely on others to just do it for them = Bad

It's been a bad day so far if you couldn't tell heh. I think this was sparked by a "How do I get PIC on my desktop?" Which after 15 minutes of frustration means me running across the plant ordered around by lazy supervisors that can't right click, and then left click on "Create Shortcut"...

Precious Moments

WARNING!
This post is going to be very disorganized.

You know those special moments in your life, the little stuff, the stuff your spouse or friends would most recognize you for?

Well, I wish mine were more ....appropriate? At least interesting?

I feel like an 8 year old sometimes because quite frankly at the moment, I'm having one of those 'special moments' and my special moment is the fact that I just can't seem to get the song "I'm not wearing underwear today!" out of my head.

:3 I FAIL!

From the broadway play: "Avenue Q"

Brian:I'm not wearing underwear today,
No im not wearing underwear today
Not that you probably care
Much about my underwear
Still none the less i gotta say
That im not wearing underwear today

Christmas Eve: Getta Job!

Brian: Thank you..hunnie?

Avenue Q has also brought great hits like the well-known "The Internet is for Porn" and "What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?"

What do you do with a B.A. in English,
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree.

I can't pay the bills yet,
'Cause I have no skills yet,
The world is a big scary place.

But somehow I can't shake,
The feeling I might make,
A difference,
To the human race.

Influences of the blog kind.

Well, after reading a post over at Gdad's blog cranialhyperossification.blogspot.com I've decided to go on a little rant about all things racist/sexist/intolerant.

I for one, don't consider myself racist, or at least not "too" racist because everyone really IS a little bit racist according to Avenue Q, but there are some things that just irk me.

1. African-Americans calling themselves "Niggas"
When the hell did this become so darn appropriate? The term is "Nigger" Oh my, yes I just typed it, I must be racist. This word...commonly known as the "N" word, is a real word and has a real meaning just as any other word of course, it means by the way, in short, "Dirty Person" which then came to be known as anyone who was simply dark skinned, it has been used by multiple authors in non-derogatory forms referring to much more than just blacks but has almost always been taken (as of recently) as offensive.
My question to this whole subject here on rant number one, is that...if it's so damned offensive, why do you continue to say it, or "change" it, so that it's somehow appropriate for you, the fact is they're not changing it at all, "dirty people", are dirty people no matter how light or dark their skin and no matter how you might pronounce it, it's still the same word. Ever heard of the term "white trash"? It's not like intelligent people go around embracing that term saying "Ooh yeah, I'm white trash." then why in the world are african-americans allowing the "Ooh yeah, what's up my nigga." continue? Talk about your double-standards...

2. Equal Rights, specifically Gays/Lesbians and people with different preferences, be it sexual or otherwise.
Why oh why has it come to this? Why is it that America is now turning back into what we left so long ago to come here in 1492? Is history really doomed to repeat itself, or are people going to wake up to the fact that we left to "worship how we wished" only to end up where we once were, where people with certain socially acceptable beliefs (the majority) now controls the lives of people who think differently, act differently, do differently (the minority). No man has the right to tell any other how to live their life or how/who to love. Bans on gay marriage, overturning in the fight for equal rights for all, and not just hardcore a.k.a (Insane/Fanatical) Christians and others with similar beliefs.
I'd go on and on on this subject but I believe that's better left unsaid. By the way, no I am not gay though I believe they should every right to love (AND be married, recognized by law) just as much as the rest of us.

3. Illegals...
Alright, back to this subject, and yes I know it involves more than just Mexicans though that is the main source so that will be the main topic, if you think about it it's logical, not racist, so don't even go there though if I were racist towards any group of people, I believe it would have to be Mexicans, I'll admit that right now.
As you may or may not know, I am originally from Texas, I moved to Indiana just before third grade and have stayed ever since (except while in college). I know that illegal immigration is a real problem, and I don't think giving them the opportunity to have a "get out of jail free" card or a driver's license a very good idea, let alone giving them the same rights as we have, but without all the responsibilities of being a citizen who is not leaching off of our society in general (taxpayers) seeing as how they are most often paid under the table or given false information in order to work.
Every so often I go back to my home state of Texas, a place which I still feel is my home. My grandparents who lived in Odessa lived in a very nice neighborhood, until something started to happen there in the town. Crime rates skyrocketed, the demand for cheap housing went through the roof and there were more apartment complexes than you could shake a stick at going up all over the town. The building of all these new apartment complexes was not caused by an increase overall in development but a need to cheaply house Mexicans (illegals or not, I'm not stupid enough to think all of them swam across the rio of course). Now, there are always two types of people to any society, the good and the bad, and I'll be as "black and white" about this as I want in those terms but still here is a definition according to yours truly.
The Good: Upstanding members of the community, helpful or at the very least law-abiding. (This includes some illegals! People who came here because of the american dream and not because of the american government giving them everything they could ever need.)
The Bad: People who have chosen to be indigents (not the victims of circumstance), people who don't work and expect things handed to them simply because they can get away with it.

Every time I go back to Texas, my heart sinks, I see apartment complexes with small children running wild as if in some Mad Max film. I see a 3-7 year old child on a stairway crying after having fallen down it, with no one of a proper age to take care for them. I see the toys of children strewn about the "lawn" of an apartment complex, litter everywhere. I see 8-10 people living in a one room apartment wonder how healthy that can actually be for them and those around them.
In a world like that, can you now see why the crime rate would rise as well? Illegal immigration will be the downfall of the southern states...it has already come to Indianapolis in force and there is now a "black side of Indy" a "spanish side of Indy" and all the affluent white people live on the outskirts of Indianapolis in places like Caramel and Fishers. Compare this situation to your own, do you see anything similar?

Sorry I haven't really followed an outline on this, subject, body, conclusion and all, but there's not much more to say than that for anyone to realize how I feel.

Again, I'm sorry if I came off as racist in this post, but I'm merely intolerant of stupidity and well...I'm intolerant of intolerance, so sue me.

In the words of Austin Powers, "I for one choose love baby, yeah."

Oh No!

Well, it's my first stumble with my blog, I actually forgot to post anything almost all of this/last week. To those who might actually read this, Sorry!

Anyways, time for some updates hm?

1. New cable is in! I had a line ran for my computer from the router and a new cable line ran to another wall in my bedroom, 20 bucks for each run, the cables alone cost about that much, let alone if you had anyone else do it besides myself it would've cost a lot more.

2. No new tv yet, turns out I want to get new tires for my car first, I hate being so darned responsible... bleh.

3. Not sure what's going on with the girlfriend honestly, haven't heard from her for the past couple days even, guess I'll have to call her up and get her attention sometime this afternoon.

4. Our IT dept. now has a "work order" system for internal purposes, not in use yet but it looks like it will work out just fine, I just got done making the instructions for it.

5. Haven't played Xbox much lately, I actually went out and bought Age of Conan...and...it's good, suprisingly good.. Note: Slow down, read the text and savor the story because it's a good one.

Some of the coolest things about AoC though have to do with the fighting, everyone gets mortal kombat style fatalities (on chance), set someone aflame and watch them crumble to the ground screaming in pain, take a swing at someone's crotch and as they fall down bring your sword around in an arc, cutting off their head, swing left, taking out the left arm then right taking out the right arm and finally the head, crazy stuff like that.

Also, it actually matters WHERE you swing your sword, you have options for directions and even when doing a "special ability" some spells and abilities make you swing in certain directions, which can mean more damage if they're not actively guarding the side that you're swinging at.

Guarding: Everyone has three "defense points" or shields, default is that one is in front, one is to your left, one is to your right (can only swing left, right, forward so that's all you can block from). You can change these shields around (not suggested) and so can your enemy, sometimes you can fool an enemy into guarding one side heavily by focusing your attacks to that side of them before then switching sides to a completely unguarded side of their body, this works with combos too and can be VERY deadly. I haven't done PVP yet so I'm sure that's freaking crazy with people moving shields all the time, but in PVE, simply trick them into going 2 shields left, 1 shield up, and then lay into them with combos that make you attack their right side, boom, they're dead in no time.



Hoji, if you have a computer that meets minimum requirements, I'll buy you this game just so you can see it for yourself, it's cool. If you're interested email me at jihalizad2004@gmail.com

Minimum configuration (1024x768, detail reduced)
OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent (Any dual core)
RAM: 1GB (Hopefully you have 2?)
Video card: NVIDIA Geforce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800 (Would suggest at least Geforce 7000+)
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
Hard drive space: 32GB

A So(m)bering Effect

Well...I learned why she broke up with me, the girlfriend of 7 months.

A lot of crap seemed to have rained down upon her and she felt that she should protect me by pushing me away, rather than letting me to endure it along with her for support. We're thinking about getting back together but honestly I don't fully trust that she won't do this again, I've told her plainly that "Hey, I'm not a child anymore, I can take care of myself and if I won't be dragged through the "mud" as you say by the problems in your life, I'll be helping you of my own free will."

Even so, I think with how messed up she feels she is and how things went near the end of our first relationship together, I don't hold much hope for this one. I'm not going to linger on the past, but I am going to learn from it and go into this expecting nothing but to make her smile even if it can only last a moment.

I'm at a moment in my life right now where I've been changing things around and within me, hopefully for the better. I have to not look at this as a stepping stone to a good thing but merely more of a "What happens will happen" situation else I might get depressed go back to my old ways of doing things. One of her friends has already warned me of her strange behavior lately and how she might be indecisive and fickle.

I might just be setting myself up to fail, but I'd be happier failing at this than succeeding in a lot of other things.

Oh no, I've gone cross-eyed...

Well, strange things have been happening last week and the following weekend... Want to guess what? No? Fine I'll just tell you.

I've been reading a book series of 25 books, I started late last week either thursday or friday and so far I'm done with two of the books. I'm kind of tentative about reading this next one seeing as it will blow the whole world of the books apart in my opinion (I've skimmed it).

It's very...strange to say the least and there's a crazy cult following, and not in the good way either like Rocky Horror O.o

Anyways, if you really want to know what books they are you're going to have to ask, they have a bad reputation, they've been around for a while, and I've been wondering what in the world all the kicking and screaming was about.

Overall I like the books though they're completely unbelievable as far as the main character goes, he's freaking invincible, which REALLY bugs me. Other than "Superman" being the lead, it's an interesting read to be taken as FANTASY, some people just don't realize that...


(Sarcasm Alert)
The above being said...
*dons robe and pointy hat, rolls up a piece of paper into a makeshift wand and points it square at your face while shouting, "Avada Cedavra!"*

Damn...that never works. XD

What have I created...

Although at first my father had given up trying to learn the controls of the xbox, he's been watching me have too much fun trying to kill the flood... So he's back at it! My father is a bit weird, he started my gaming habit at the age of four fighting the british, spanish, french in the original, Pirates! for Commodore 64 (We still have the console, and yes it still works!). Now, on top of what I've already said, he's also played the Call of Duty series religiously, at least when I actually buy it (skipped number 3).

He's come a long way, from Commodore 64, Atari, NES, SNES, Gameboy, PS1-2, PC, Xbox, and I've followed him for the most part, leading him back to consoles with the Xbox, I can't wait to play Gauntlet with him in fact, we used to play that all the time to the point where I would just stare at him funny if he started running off to kill some ghost monster thing while I was waiting for him to come unlock a door, eventually it would end up getting us stuck.

Update on the Greenville LAN Queue messages: I logged in this morning, and found that three issues had been escalated and issued to me from Greenville, South Carolina. I'm sorely tempted to tell my boss (The plant controller [head accountant, deals with all the money]) that I need to take the company van and drive down to South Carolina to go fix a printer apparently, since I'm not hired yet though, I think I'll just keep that to myself and as a joke to my co-worker Jerry.

Our Corporate Support Desk...

Well, I just got an interesting email.

Dear Greenville LAN Queue,
The Request# XXXXXXX has been opened and assigned to you. The Contact is XXXXX XXXXXX and they have been notified that we have received their request for location Greenville. The contact can be contacted via email at XXXXXX@XXXXXXX or by phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX. The end user has included the following details: Customer says network printer GVLlWA103 is down.
For more information you may view the request using the Incident Monitor Web Client
To acknowledge and take ownership of this request click the following link: Aknowledged
Thank you, XXXXX Support Services

Alright, beyond my X'ing out of anything that could remotely be deemed sensitive, email address, phone numbers, request numbers etc., you might look at this and go "Well...why is that of any significance?".

Here's why...and this has been happening for quite a while now and we here as local IT are PO'd

"Dear Greenville LAN Queue,"
I DO NOT WORK IN GREENVILLE! I have absolutely no access there beyond the basic user, my access is limited to my plant, and for some reason they have seen fit to assign someone from their Greencastle plant, to a Greenville issue.

Now, mistakes happen, and no I wouldn't be so upset if this were the first time. Just for example though, here's another mistake they've made...

Co-worker sends in an account creation request (must be done by corporate IT) the issue, is then assigned to another co-worker here at the local plant. Thank you Corporate IT, thank you for the help... (This has happened numerous times.)

Update: Since writing this post, the issue has been reassigned to my coworker, she told them she knew no such person and of no such printer and that this was not a Greencastle issue. Afterwords...they reassigned the issue back to me!?

The Delay!

Sorry for the delay, long weekend and all combined with no work on monday means that I didn't have all sorts of time to kill at work. My job, while a good one, can sometimes get boring... Sometimes I'm working on a project, and that is time consuming leaving me a bit frazzled with no time to spare for a deadline or the like and sometimes...well sometimes I'm just kind of waiting for something to break so I can go put on my cape and mask and fly to the rescue like Freakazoid... Yeah, that's right... I said it.

Anyways, this means I have time for a blog...you got it, I write this thing in my spare time at work. Sometimes I wish I didn't have any spare time while at work, but I'm glad that I get to read other people's blogs and keep up to date on a few choice pieces of work, namely...

www.hojimoto.com <- Funny guy, who still owes me some skulls in Halo 3 XD lawl..

http://cranialhyperossification.blogspot.com/ <- Also funny, both him and Hoji work at some...megacorporation one... sounds like OCP to me. At least they have air freshner (ours are always out or broken, don't ask me how).

http://www.elfination.com/ <- You know that one person, who can always come right back with a quick comeback that seems perfect for the situation? I think it's her... not like I can be sure though, it is a blog. Overall she's quick and at times a bit...angry, but everyone gets that way sometimes, I hope things change for the better for her, moving again or something? I haven't kept good track.




Btw Hoji, I was doing the highway and got through the portal, getting a pickup to attack the towers, I died SO MANY TIMES it was pathetic, and on normal too, here's my death equation.
(Me + 3 sniper rounds - second weapon ammo + 3 grenades) X (2 wraiths [anti-air with gunners] + 2 ghosts) = Me + DEAD D E D DEAD!

The Good Ol' Days

Thinking about things lately, and doing my daily check of ICHC have really led me to believe there is no time like the present. I'm going to look back and say "Ah...those were the good ol' days." I just know it.

Between Kangaroo's getting fed while in...compromising positions, and seeing Leeroy Jenkins remixed into all sorts of settings (including Jeopardy) there's really too much funny with the world for things to seem all that bad.

On a side note, I need to play WoW more... and see if anyone wants to join me on there.

Surgeon General's Warning: It can get addicting if you simply can't manage your time, but honestly, I don't think I have any friends who would hop on it at some internet cafe and play nonstop until death like those weirdos in china, no wonder why they added "anti-addiction" code to their video games, guess life over there is just that bad that they'd rather play a game till they die than get up to get a drink and a sandwich or something.


Oh oh, update on the TV front!

The parentals...who have decided I cannot put the 42 inch flatscreen in the living room, have now hijacked my xbox and planned out the next few weeks of movie watching using dvd's that my dad burned off of all sorts of movies. You heard right people, the reason why they don't want me hooking the tv up in the living room (because I'd want my xbox on it), might now be null and void with the fact that they're wanting my xbox on the living room tv for their movie watching pleasure. We even watched "In the Name of the King" (awful in my opinion, very gimmicky, like watching a very very bad kung fu film) and "Music and Lyrics" (great movie, funny, and usually I hate that guy from some sort of strange...instinct)

Windows Media Center Extenders!

Well, judging by the title you probably wouldn't have guessed this post was about an Xbox huh? huh?

Anyways, for the past few days I've been experimenting with my router(Belkin), my pc(Vista), the family pc(XP), and my Xbox(Guess...). What for you might ask...well...to play all my favorite tv shows and movies over my tv via wireless link to my Xbox that's what for! I didn't even know this when I purchased my Xbox360 but it doubles as a "Media Extender" what that means is supposedly you can use it as somewhat of a tivo with playback from your PC that you connect it to.

After 5 hours of talking with both Belkin and Microsoft, I finally gave up trying to use it as an extender and settled for being able to have it look through My Documents, find videos, music, pictures, and display/play them on my TV. Sure I lost some functionality, but at least it works darnit! (By the way, as a Media Extender the Xbox can only hook up to ONE pc, but as just a normal Xbox, it can view and play any files in any shared folders on ANY computer in your network!)

What this Means: I can now download my favorite anime from www.dattebayo.com (Currently Bleach ep. 170) and play it over my TV (or any tv in the house) using my xbox while I'm on the PC doing other things, chatting it up with friends, grinding/fishing in WoW, all that good stuff.

Also, no Blu-Ray Drive on your Xbox? No big deal! You can stream HD content EASILY.

Basically, I'm getting a 42" Toshiba LCD here in...about 3 weeks, I can set that tv up in my room, hook my xbox up to it, and play anything I want on it from my computer Note: I'm buying a DVI to HDMI cable as well ($35) so I can play PC games over it if I want.