My badges have decreased this last week.

Of course, my xbox live points have only increased. Funny how that happens.

Too bad I don't have a hard drive to download more games, trailers, and demos for the 360. Much to our dismay, my father and I discovered XBox games won't play on a 360 withouta hard drive.

No Crimson Skies or PGR2 it seems.

According to game execs, the older demographic isn't too keen on having a system in the front room. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata commented about the intentional design of the Revolution's controller to appear more like a common remote. This is to make the presence of the game system less offensive to the older demographic. Perhaps even entice them to pick it up.

I mentioned this to my father when I was visiting today. He was amused. Dad has his 360 in his living room, sans remote. Ironically, my mother does not approve.

Tron rules, and it belongs with Depeche Mode under great 80s work, often overlooked.

Badger's brother posted this and I couldn't resist. Growing up watching Tron, creates those weaknesses. And since I still listen to 80s music, I couldn't help but enjoy Love You Long Time.

. . . I hope you love them too.

Today I took the plunge. I broke down and added the Kojima Productions Report to my list of podcasts. I was intrigued by Ryan's trip to (undisclosed country). He and Ken seemed to be soaking up the local cuisines and environment.

Kind of reminds me of the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The crew had to pay the people of Cairo to take down all of their TV antennas to create an authentic 1940s Cairo skyline.

Game creation is rigourous work. The idea of sleeping on couches or floors of the dev office is not an attractive prospect, but given my daughters current sleeping schedule, I think I could end up getting more sleep during a dev cycle.

I'm charging down the lane, a breakaway from the tower who was charged with defending me. He is pontificating about his new custom home being built by his wife. Evidently Great Aunt Hoodie granted his wish for riches. Now he is constructing an award-winning mansion.

I get the pass from Frannie Franklin. She didn't pass me the ball, but a sandwich bag with a cut Peanut Butter and Jelly for contents. As my shoes lift off from the bottom of the key, the sandwich careens through the scoring portal, my hands bend the rim down as gravity once more lays claim upon me.

Two points, and the game.

Proof Great Aunt Hoodie is a fickle fairy god mother: even aging white men can get a good vert off her blessing.

Thank you Great Aunt Hoodie.

The Internet seems to be rife with people who take all manner of objects to their high-priced consumer electronics. From the kids using a PSP as a hockey puck in the street, to the Xbox 360 which met an unceremonious end on its ship date thanks to a couple of kids taking a baseball bat to its frame in the Wal-Mart parking lot so many perfectly good units, meet an untimely demise. Thanks to Google's all-seeing eye, I witnessed an XBox withstand a score of blows from a garden pick before finally fracturing.

The idea of selling back systems is baffling to begin with, so the wanton destruction of these gadgets would be the furthest things from my mind.

Tonight I aim to use my Xbox to play some networked, multiplayer matches the likes of which Q1 2006 has never seen. Yup, it's ladies' night, which means it is game night. At 6:30 it all goes down. I suppose Halo 2 will be but one of the flavors on tap. I doubt Crimson Skies will grace the screen, but perhaps we can find a suitable alternative. . . and Ghost Recon is not an alternative.

My father has yet to connect his 360. It just sits there in his living room. I've been trying to encourage him to take it back and see if he can get the deluxe system from one of our retail contacts (on the cheap). He refuses, but does nothing to actually use the one he has. It would've been great to play game night on the 360 though. Too bad he won't let me borrow it.

The only things to be destroyed tonight will be the morale of those who lose.

So I went up to the East Bay for my doctor's appointment today. Gas is 20 cents cheaper there than it is where I live. Amazing how 30 miles can make such a big difference.

The clouds have been generous in the volume of rain they have been donating to the San Francisco area. Everything is green and beautiful when you can actually see out of the windows.

Badger had another baby, and mine came to work with me today after the doctor's appointment. It was fun having her there. My wife and I enjoyed the company-provided lunch pior to their departure.

Turns out you can get $5 from your old PlayStation controllers. I did. Lego Star Wars II doesn't come out until September. Final Fantasy XII? not any time soon. I was about to direct it toward a used game, but my wife called, pleading with me not to give in to the temptation. She is a good influence. I was one trip away from my own copy of ICO.

Now I have five dollars which I may or may not spend someday.

Some years ago a coworker of mine told me of a fellow he knew named "Loof Lurpa." Given his background I figured it was a person with merely a curious name. Little did I know it was Loof Lirpa, which as the astute observer has already deciphered is April Fool backwards.

Amazing what a difference one letter can make. . . and one day.

Wednesday was a clear sick day.

A coworker was kind enough to come into the office when he was ill. Now more than one of us has come down with his cold/flu/whatever.

Regardless of illness, I attended professional training yesterday in San Francisco. I was a mere stone's throw from the CNET offices where On the Spot is filmed. It was tempting to head over, but I was responsible for delivering a new product pitch to various team members during that time. That, and the editors don't take kindly to uninvited guests.

I have a creative brief due in a couple days for that new project I am working on, plus a full day (or three) of work. AMazing how all-day meetings can set back your project plan.

Anyhow, I am rambling. . .

The four-day period following my purchase of Subsistence consisted of watching the movie (part of the highly coveted Limited Edition), finishing the single-player campaign, creating an online account, watching all of the extras, ingesting the saga documentary, capturing all of the monkeys, and even watching the cutscenes I may missed. . . again. Now I can't rally even bring myself to look at MGS3, much less finish my second pass through the game.

Even Thanksgiving is no comparison to how much of an MGS3 glut I am suffering from.

In order to give myself adequate time to digest the game (read: not reject it for life), I have gone back to Substance. My first time through the game I certainly did not cover all of the content, much less understand it all.

I have followed the basics of the story, but I still feel like I am missing the more sublime items to be digested in the context of both current and future MGS releases.

To keep myself from melting down from the maddening content, I am trying to also finish the side missions, and thus finish unlocking various items for later use.

I suppose now that I have finished all of the MGS games I can safely join a veteran's union without encountering spoilers. Or, I could just go to therapy.