That's right. I have gone from neutral to Microsoft fanboy. Still like the other companies, but as of now, I'm sticking with MS. Why? I just got my 360, bay-be! That's why! The games are awesome and there are PLENTY of them. I ordered Burnout Revenge and Oblivion. YES! I was so excited. I got XBL Gold for a year, so be sure to friend me so we can race together. Who knows? I may be getting GeoW not too far from now. Well, that's enough for today...Oh yeah! The hotel was decent. Didn't do much, but I DID try paintball. It was okay, but I'm not the violent shooting type. I'll stick to shooting in video games. Whatever.

That's right. I'll be at a hotel for the holidays, so no internet. Yes, not having a laptop bites. So, once and for all, farewell, fellow gamespotters!

I got 4 nice emblems in the past 24 hours:

These are all hard to get, and one of them (Avatar in a bottle) is no longer available even. Yay!

...Not much else. ****load of homework: 2 quizzes, 2 tests, and 2 essays (damn that number 2!) And that's all thrown in with the standard homework I always have to do. Nuts! Ah, well. Thanks for reading.

No, this is not my last post. However, I was extremely lucky to have posted last in the avatar thread. A few hours after I submitted my 6 avatars, a Gamespot admin locked the thread, so no one could post anymore. Anyone who submitted 3 or more, regardless of them being accepted or not, will receive this:

Yup. I feel extremely lucky. The only reason I was up at 2 o'clock that night (that morning?) was to finish a paper. I finished, and thought, "you know, while I'm up, I might as well get to finishing that avatar. They might close the contest." Wow, am I lucky. I guess my luck is turning for the better, you know? 

EDIT: Everyone got the emblem, except me! I'm looking into it. Hopefully they'll read my posts and add the emblem.

EDIT2:Just checked back (10:40) and they added the emblem to my profile! Whew

Also, today I received this:

Anyway, not much has happened in my life recently. Next week I'm off, but I'll be unable to go online for most of the week :( . Whatever. Thanks for reading :)

No joke, Life Cereal is terrible! :P

Yes, that was an attention getter. Did it work? Anywho, read on: 

I'm trying to get the Biological Warfare emblem. I can't do it without your help. That's right! By simply clicking here you will have done a guy a favor. When you post your badge on a site(^^^) , and when a certain number of people from different computers check out the site, you get the emblem. So, again, please click on the link. I'll greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much.

In other news, I was lucky enough to have seen the Scaventor feedback section the soon after it was released. I tried out the game, and posted honest feedback. Based on checking out the forums later, I saw that most of the people gave feedback after the deadline. I have mixed feelings about this: I am really psyched about getting a rare emblem. And yet, I can just imagine how frustrating it must be to have missed out on the opportunity. They gave you 3 hours notice and wasn't visible on the home page. There were a lot of complaints that emblem was given out on such short notice and in such a limited time period. That's understandable. It would really stink if I didn't see it.

My prediction on what gaming will soon be like.

People were saying the iPhone was just waiting to happen. Heck, when the Video Plackback feature came, people wondered why it hadn't happened yet.

And soon iGame will meet the same reaction.

Apple has been pushing itself into many more markets recently, trying to become a part of the average home. It thought cheap and sleek was the way to go. Apple was right. Just take a look at MP3 market: 80% of MP3s sold so far have been all iPods. Think about it. 80% of the market. And iPod didn’t win because of power; many MP3’s have more memory and bigger screens. iPod won simply because it is sleek and sexy.

Seeing how they dominated the MP3, Apple took a shot at making a phone. The reaction was terrific, and reception wasn’t just from Apple fanboys. Once again, Apple has revolutionized a market with one product. With its sleekness, touch screen, and 200 patents, the iPhone redefined inventive. And there’s no question it will sell more than the Wii, DS Lite or PS3 have—it’s priced the same as the PS3, yet no one complained about spending $600 for 8GB. It’s got a touch screen, and it senses your hands’ movement, yet no one screamed “Bloody Plagiarism”.

Apple sees that it could be successful even when their products are no longer simple and cheap. With that in mind, Apple will try to cross the “final frontier”—video games. Apple knows people love playing video games, and the Wii and Lite have proved the market is bigger than it seems.

People are most comfortable purchasing things online; take a look at Amazon, XBL Marketplace, eBay, and of course, iTunes. In fact, the download sites like iTunes was one of the things that pushed the CD off its throne.

Apple already has a ton of retro games available online for the iPod using the Click Wheel. But with the iPhone, Apple will take a bold new step. Apple’s touch screen, internet, camera, and motion sensing will make it the king of portable gaming. One might be skeptical about the games that would be made for the iPhone, considering Apple’s previous lineups were weak, but fear not. By the time there will be enough Gigabytes to hold several full-length games on the iPhone, iGames will fly into the market of portable gaming, and will change on the industry forever.

For one thing, it will make all DVD, UMD, etc. formats obselete. By next generation, all companies will have adopted to iGames' style of direct-downloading full length games.

Sony’s innovation was the PSP, portable gaming with a bit of multimedia on the side. Nintendo’s innovation was the Wii—its gyroscopic controller was a real attention-grabber. Microsoft’s innovation was Xbox Live—playing and having fun with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

But these are small potatoes compared to what iGames will bring. iGames will roll it all into one. Using the gyroscope, you’ll hold iPhone like a small steering wheel. Its screen can serve as the visual aid, presenting the view of a race course from the perspective of the racer. You’ll be “racing your iPhone” against some pen pal of yours in India.

And this is just one example of a potential iGame. The possibilities are endless.

In conclusion, iGames may not exist yet, but knowing the success of Apple products, and knowing the features of the iPhone, one can be sure it will make its show stopping premier quite soon. If not this year, then perhaps next year; when Apple releases an iPhone with sufficient memory, be sure to look out for iGames.

Yup, since yesterday I gained 20% in my level, and am now on level 16. It is EXTREMELY rare to see someone on this level, as you'd normally level up to 17 in like one day. So if anyone is wondering what exactly level 16 is called-just know, it's "MAGICIAN LORD".

I was looking into getting a laptop with my dad on ebay. I asked the seller a question, and the next thing I know he responds via EMAIL. So he goes on and offers to sell me a laptop off ebay for real cheap. So I'm getting suspicious. I play along, pretending to accept, then he sends an "ebay" confirmation. I wrote ebay in quotes because that's not the origin, it was a fake email trying to get me to give away personal information as well as money to West Union Wire Transfer to pay for the laptop. That was all I needed. I reported him. That's it. I'll check in two days to see if he was suspended.

I'm glad I knew in advance that this dude was a scammer, but the sheer thought of coming even remotely close was spine-tingling. Share your thoughts and woes. It'd be a help to know whay y'all think. Thanks.