About three months ago, my PlayStation3 broke my heart, and almost made me contemplate on getting an X-BOX 360 Elite.

What happened was simply this… I was downloading content from the PS3 store (Kung Fu Panda trailer—please don't ask, I implore you) and it suddenly froze at 99% completion. Now me—being a stupid and naïve individual, didn't think anything of it- at first. It wasn't until a week later, that I decided to delete it once and for all (it was taking up bandwidth on my blue-tooth, it had to go) and that's when it happened.

My PlayStation3 froze. For a whole hour. Damn-it, even my controller didn't work… Then, I decided to just unplug it and try again.

That was probably the worst thing I could have ever done.

I went to bed, and left it off until the following afternoon, when I wanted to watch "Day After Tomorrow" on the DVD/Blu-Ray disc player. And that's when I noticed I had problems. My XMB menu wasn't showing up, on top of that—it sported the following message.

"You have experience error code 800******* (sorry, I was a little pissed to actuall read all of the numbers, mind you). Please refer to usDOTplaystationDOTcomSLASHps3 for assistance or reconfigure hard drive for factory settings."


I tried everything the website gave me, I tried calling in for a response (which even until today, NEVER came) and I was beginning to reel because I had about 36 games saved on that system… and only thirteen of them have ever been won. I was hours away from beating Kingdom Hearts on expert mode, had just taken up Kingdom Hearts II on "proud" mode, and was inches away from beating Final Fantasy X and Zone: of the Enders the 2nd Runner. Of course, I decided to wait a week with the system off.

But I wouldn't have that luxury.

My dad then invited his friends and business friends over for dinner (hey; living at home during college can slash the cost of living expenses—meaning more money for better things!) and wanted to show off that snazzy Blu-Ray player to his partner. I said it wasn't working. My dad, being the overconfident Raytheon Chief Engineer and Leading Architect, said:

"Let me take a look at it."

He didn't hesitate. He showed no mercy. Without even consulting me, when that stupid option popped up (I suppose wishing it would just go away after four days would have been just too good to be true) he wiped out my hard-drive completely.

And with that, my very childhood itself— was destroyed.

Besides the fifteen PS3 brand games saved on it, it also had a bountiful amount of PS2 games, (transferred from a memory card which I had foolishly forked over, along with my old PlayStation2 to a poor overly religious family (who had connections with my mom's friend) who believed that gifts should only be acquired out of the goodness of other people—damn it all~~!) as well as my treasured PSone games from almost a decade ago, where titles like Digimon Rumble Arena and Spiro 2 were practically dictators of my seventh grade parties with some of my dearest friends.

All of it destroyed within a second with a single touch of a button, and my dad's carefree smile.

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

So, my summer ends within nine days and so far, I've only managed to replay four PS3 games (although one doesn't count, seeing as Soul Calibur IV wasn't released until half a month ago) Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts (I hate Destiny Islands!!! Damn you, Riku!) with Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria for my PS2 slots, and last but not least, Digimon World 2 and Final Fantasy VIII for PSone … (fumes)

Also, seeing as how I am taking 14 units of college (5 ****s total sigh) its gonna be Christmas until I can play again. Which prompts me to wonder why I am wasting my time writing this blog. (laughs)

…

Now the moral of this story, kids… is that Kung Fu Panda (particularly the trailer) is not- worth anything. Period. So don't download it. Ever! Because then your summer will be repetitive and boring, and no one wants that. No one.

But at least I got to E3. (shrugs)