So I did the unthinkable over the weekend...I forgot my mother's birthday on Sunday. This is going to probably hang over my head for a while. I feel like such a mook and I really have no excuse for not even calling. I did absolutely nothing this weekend. And this is a week after having to ask my parents for some money to help me pay for my bills this month. The worst part is, she called me this morning to ask me why I didn't call home yesterday, and my response was "Why did I need to call?" My foot was in my mouth before I knew what was going on...I couldn't even make up an excuse to buy me more time at that point. She sounded so disappointed and I really feel like ****. So now I don't know how I'll get out of the crapper but I really need to do something to make up for it.

So we have some good news regarding the chat feature for E3... It's Back!!! If you have a moment to give a big thank you to JodyR for fighting the good fight on our behalf, please show her your appreciation. Keep in mind, this chat is not going to be advertised on the E3 pages. It's enter by link or miss out on the chatter. And yes, this is for subscribers only. Also, make sure you advertise the chat in your sig, your blog, your union, wherever you need to let other subscribers know "Hey! We have a chat room over here with cake, pie and punch!" I'm looking forward to seeing everybody during E3 and talking nonsense during some of the more questionable game announcements :P

This has recently come to my attention thanks to Skyline Pigeon and Caddy. Apparently the subscribers here will have to go without the chat feature this year for E3. That just doesn't seem right. The past couple of years, I have enjoyed watching the shows on my computer and having the ability to chat with some of my fellow forumites. Now they are saying this year that it wont be an option? OK granted, I understand that they are still working with only one leg after going through the whole economic layoff thing...taking away all but one community manager will usually cripple almost any forum...but it seems like the fine folks out in the GS offices could come up with some way to provide us with a chat feature again this year. I would even go so far as to offer my technical knowledge to help them pull this off. So here's the deal. Caddy has been nice enough to provide us with a post on the forums to bring back the chat feature to E309. Please go over and show your support, put in your sig, post it in your union and just make it known in general that you want to bring back the chat feature for E3 this year. Hopefully the people at the GS office will listen to us and find a way to incorporate this into the show again this year.

Sorry for the Jill Scott reference...but yes i have gone gold on XBL and right now I'm playing the hell out of Castle Crashers until the rest of my impulse purchases arrive next week. It seemed like a good transition game to hold me over and right now I am loving it. Don't really enjoy playing with teh random people online since they have been taking advantage of an XBL newb :cry: but learning the ropes by myself has been just as rewarding.

Anyway, i thought i would just give a quick update on the situation so feel free to add me and I will probably be adding some of you all. I have the headset set up and everything ;)

Soooooooo...i'm sure most of you have noticed but for those of you that haven't yet, i broke down and bought a 360. For those of you that have talked to me on messenger, you know that i've had my issues with the system for a while mainly because of the potentially faulty equipment and the FPS heavy game list. Don't get me wrong, 360 has had a slew of non-FPS games come out that i had been literally drooling over ever since it came out...hell, there are games that are going to be released down the road that i am drooling over now. I just couldn't bring myself to part with $300 - $500 in one hit (that is not including sales tax and warranties) only to have the system decide that it wants to flake out on me at the most inopportune time. My income was just not to that level of disposability...not yet.

So what made me break down and finally go purchase one? Tax season baby. Uncle Sam was good to me this go around and i figured i have the right to spoil myself a little bit. I ended up purchasing a used console for really cheap and in great condition and bought a 60G hard drive to go along with it. In addition to the hard drive, they included 3 months of free XBL Gold so i think i fared pretty well. The only thing is, i haven't activated my XBL yet because i don't really have any Live worthy games now. Spazz mentioned Scene It as being a good Live worthy game, so I plan on picking that up sometime towards the end of next week (I want a match Andy ;)) and i REALLY want Castle Crashers, but beyond that i'm not really sure what i should get especially considering i'm not a FPS player.

So here's the question: What Do You Think? I want to get out there and play with you guys on XBL but obviously it would be kind if hard if i don't have any games.

Lately my blogs have been to serious in my opinion. I don't like being too serious. So now for a bit of an up beat entry this time...I am having a wine and cheese party at my house tonight topped off with a little Mario Kart and possibly some Rock Band. Anybody want to join me? You are welcome to drop in ;)

Slowly but surely, the old school folks are clearing out their lockers and emptying from the hallways to make way for the new school folks. Not to down the new faces coming in to GS, but sometimes it feels a little hard to settle into new personalities when you've built up such a natural feel with the old personalities. Many of the people i met on here when i first started 4 years ago were seemingly their own universe of interest and it was often difficult to feel any kind of ill will towards them. Now many of those faces have faded away like the morning fog leaving behind a new batch of energies and attitudes. Not to say that it's all bad or anything, but after spending years with certain people and seeing them mature (in most cases) as time progressed, it just makes it that much harder to see them depart.

 

I don't want to make this too personal or sentimental, but i have to say that i am missing and will miss all of my old friends that helped me to ease into this thing we lovingly refer to as GS. I hope all of you forumites have been able to form at least one relationship on here that you will appreciate for a long time. And to all my departing friends, please take care of yourselves.

 

Stay cool people ;)

Hi everybody. Please allow me a moment to make amends with you all for being so out of touch. I really need to apologize to everybody for being so anti-social lately. I had to take a look at myself and see that I haven't taken time to play any games with folks, I haven't been keeping up with folks' blogs and personal lives, and to the people on my messenger list...yeah i've been pretty bad. My fault. With that said, i would like to start doing better with my social interactions. Anybody on my messenger, i will do better about simply saying hello. Any Wii gamers, i am giving an open invitation to throw down the gauntlet and challenge me online. Any of my forum friends, holler at me so we can collaborate on some virtual hijinx. It's a new year and I'm ready to start acting like it :D

Wow, i can't believe another year is coming to an end. There are so many things to be thankful for: good health, friends, family, peace of mind. Not everybody can say the same thing unfortunately. So many things and people have been lost this year, but i am thankful that i can still come to a place like GS and interact with a rainbow of wonderful and caring people.

Happy Turkey Day to all my US friends, and Happy Thursday to all my UK, Canadian, and Aussie friends. I hope yours is a great one ;)

So i just took a step back last week and started to really evaluate my new game:completed game ratio and i've noticed that i am buying more and more new games before i finish my older games. So i've decided to keep a track of games that i purchased that i have not completed here and mark them off as i complete them because i almost got caught in the loop again over the weekend. I was going to purchase Guitar Hero but realized the games i had bought the previous weekend were slated to be forgotten and tossed aside as a result. So lets go ahead and put a halt on things now and get some of these games out from under my belt...

Dragon Quest 8
Metal Gear Solid 3
-X- The Sims 2: Castaways
Mario Kart Wii
Persona 3:FES
Final Fantasy 12
GTA3
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Xenosaga Episode 3
Trauma Center: New Blood
The Legend of Dragoon

I also got a chance to try out Guitar Hero World Tour and the new Rock Band 2 over the weekend...i must say i was pretty much turned off from Guitar Hero after playing Rock Band. Rock Band definitely made me feel less stupid when i failed on expert level so it looks like when i do finally break down and get a new rhythm game, i'll be going with Rock Band. The visuals were better to me and the musical instruments were more distinct and easier to pick out. I still have love for all of my Guitar Hero followers but it just didn't sit well with me. I am officially claiming my house as Rock Band territory.