The FNG-Spot: Personal

When real life gets in the way...

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:33:33 GMT

Hello everyone. I thought I'd take a moment and apologize for the lack of updates on my MSN Space.

I don't mean to make excuses, but I do have reasons for not posting as frequently as I used to.... The first and foremost reason I haven’t been posting is simple… “real life”. I have a great deal going on at the moment and it doesn’t seem to be calming down at all. Between finding, meeting with, and hiring an attorney to assist me in maintaining custody of my son, dealing with day-to-day chores, and work, I try to spend my down-time with my wife. When I do find the time / get the urge to post something useful, I’m immediately reminded that I now have to post a blog entry on Codejunkies.com. ( us.codejunkies.com/blog to be more specific.)

Hopefully, once the ‘personal issues’ have been resolved and I take care of the stack of work sitting on my desk I’ll feel a bit more motivated to post here and play on Xbox Live.

Until then, take it easy!

- Jay "FNG"

Christmas

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:47:18 GMT

Hello all, I hope everyone had a safe and happy holdiay..... Did Santa bring you what you asked for or did you find a lump of coal in your stocking this year? What was your biggest surprise, favorite gift, etc.? (I know it's not all about the gifts, so feel free to share your favorite holiday moments too.)

My wife surprised the heck out of me yet again this year.... I NEVER expected to see this bad-ass Master Chief under the tree, that's for sure.

Getting gifts is great and all, but I REALLY get a kick out of seeing the reactions / expressions on the faces of my friends, family / loved ones when they open something special.

I finally got the "OMG WTF?!?!!" reactions I've been trying for from my son and wife.... My son flipped out when he opend his Nintendo DS Lite Gold with Zelda, and my wife nearly wet herself when she tore the wrapping paper off of a new "Quad Core" PC. (She's been complaining about our PC for over a year now.)

Christmas COPS

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:13:31 GMT

Guess Who's Back...

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:32:43 GMT

Hello all! I'm sorry that I haven't been around lately; I've been extremely busy. Man, so much has been happening, so much has been keeping me from my MSN Space... I have absolutely no clue where to start. Uhhhh.... Hmm.... let's see now.... OK! I've got it, Forza Motorsport 2... That's a great place to begin.

Forza Motorsport 2:

I picked this one up the moment it was released, but I find myself spending more time trying to learn how to customize cars, create 'custom paint jobs' , and trying to earn in-game money in the online auctions FAR more than actually driving. I'm addicted, what can I say? I thought I was doing a pretty good job when I made my first few custom cars..... until I saw the stunning creations that some people had up for sale online. (Leave it to the internet to show someone just how untalented they are.)

My first set of cusom cars......

I even spent a few hours 'painting' a car for a local radio show...

Some cars that proved that I have no talent....

Let's see.... What else has been keeping me away from posting?!?! Ahh yes, being out of the country.

Working from the UK offices:

Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time in the Datel UK office. The 8 hour flight combined with no sleep and a +5 hour time zone change made my first day or so rather difficult. Once I straightened out my internal clock, and got 12 hours of sleep, it was great!
I always enjoy getting the opportunity to visit my UK co-workers. I love chatting with the engineers about [inside information], and seeing how everyone deals with the high pressure / fast approaching deadlines.... The stressful workday makes a pint of Stella or Guinness at the pub taste extra refreshing!

When not at the pub or in the office, I found myself watching an unusual amount of English television. I'm not quite sure why, but I accidentally turned on channel 4 one evening and found myself horrifically fascinated by the UK version of Big Brother. Instead of paying a monthly fee to view the live feeds on a website, folks in the UK just turn on channel 4 and watch the ‘uncensored’ antics of the housemates. (To anyone in the UK right now reading this; I, like many of you, cannot stand those ditzy little twins!)

If I wasn’t watching Big Brother, I was always able to find something just as odd to watch… The best show I had the privilege of watching was called “Keith Allen is Going to Hell”. It was an uncensored “documentary” about religion… Well, it was more like a show about an atheist comedian who flew from the UK to Topeka Kansas to argue with the family, friends, and congregation of Fred Phelps. (If you don’t know who Fred Phelps is, you’re probably better off.)

What else have I been up to? Ahh yes... I've been busting my butt trying to finish up content for a new product that we're about to launch for the Nintendo Wii... When I say 'busting my butt' I really do mean that. I spent 32 hours STRAIGHT at the office last Thursday / Friday just trying to make the deadline. I'll explain what it is, what it does, as well as post a video of the product in action very soon.... that's all for now. It's time to get some sleep, then it's back to the office bright and early for product testing!

Tomorrow night I'll be relaxing in my local movie theater watching Transformers.... If it's a good movie, I'll probably see it again on Tuesday at the iMax theater in Tampa!

- Jay

"F" Dr. Phil and "F" Jack Thompson!

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 04:37:35 GMT

Sorry about this everyone, but I feel the need to get up on my soapbox for a moment....

On Monday (April 16th, 2007), as the majority of you know, an absolutely horrific situation unfolded at Virginia Tech. As most people mourn for the friends, families, and students affected by this tragedy, there are a few people using the event to fuel the fire of their own agenda......

Breaking: IDIOT Thompson Blames Va Shooting on Games

Dr. Phil's Comment on Larry King Live:
MCGRAW: ..."The question really is can we spot them. And the problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me -- common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they're on a mass killing spree in a video game, it's glamorized on the big screen, it's become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high. And we're going to have to start dealing with that. We're going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murders of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose."

KING: "Well said."

- CNN.com (transcripts)

Hold on a second Jack & Phil.... Did you read / hear about this tid-bit of information?

Bush marks ‘day of sadness’ for the nation

"In Centreville, a suburb of Washington where Cho’s family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse, people who knew Cho concurred that he kept to himself.

“He was very quiet, always by himself,” said Abdul Shash, a neighbor. Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him. He described the family as quiet."

- www.msnbc.msn.com

Does this mean that we're to blame the NBA or its players for the actions of this sub-human pile of maggot feces? What about the comments about the "morbid and grotesque" plays that shooter had written? The one about a boy suffocating his stepfather with a Rice Krispy Treat?!?! Does this mean that all drama students or teens who read horror/suspense thriller novels will grow up to massacre people? Get a f**king life!

When will people stop looking for someone, or something, to blame? When will people be forced to be accountable for their own thoughts & actions?

I find it disgusting that the actions of a psychotic individual are being used to fuel the crusade against video games. How dare these pricks attempt to overshadow the excruciating pain and loss that the students, friends, and families of Virginia Tech are now forced to deal with!!

Jack Thompson, I believe that you sir, are an @$$hole! (Dr. Phil, I think that you're a perfect match for that narrow minded d-bag!)

- Jay

UPDATE: OH CRAP..... Check out the garbage the Washington Post has posted. I guess now it's all Microsoft's fault!

"Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns."

-Washington Post

It's 2007!!!!!

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:00:42 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

- Jay

Christmas '06

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 01:18:29 GMT

Man, it's almost 2007 and I haven't even had the opportunity to post about Christmas... wow.

Well, first my Mother, Father, and Sister-in-laws came down to Flordia and stayed in Orlando for a while. We spent a weekend over there with them and went to an amazing ice sculpture exhibit at the Gaylord Palms hotel. It was 80 degrees outside, but only 10 degrees inside the show.... THANK GOD they handed out parkas on the way in!! All of the sculptures were stunning, and it really made me realize how much of a wuss I've become when it comes to the cold. (Florida has thinned my blood badly.) We also played a few games of miniature golf... the 1st time we played I whooped some ass, so my mother-in-law made sure we played again so she could exact her revenge... she did.... she beath me by 1 STROKE!!! (I'll get you back Janet... trust me!)

The following week everyone came to the Tampa area to stay with us. We had an early Christmas with my son becuase he left for Canada the following weekend; he's with his mom for his Christmas break. We had a great time watching him open his gifts and playing with all of his new toys.

We played quite a bit of Wii Sports while the family was here... I'm absolutely amazed at how quickly my wife's parents picked it up. The were so good at it by the time they left that they were thinking of picking up a Wii when they got back to Maryland. (AWESOME!)

On Christmas we all opened our gifts, played Wii Sports, ate, drank, watched movies, and generally had a blast.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday... Bring on the New Year!!!!!

- Jay

I thought I'd share with all of you some of the 'geek' stuff I got for Christmas...

Click to Enlarge:
Zelda: Twilight Princess soundtrack
with Die Cast Sword & Shiled (From Nick):

Contra Eternal T-Shirt & Rayman Raving Rabbids (from my sister-in-law):

Several bad-ass 'geek' shirts from my loving wife!!!

When Will Superman Return?

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:40:07 GMT

I was reading through Echohammer419's latest blog entry today, Wal-Mart customer annoyance #1.0000239875987243-2, and I must say that I found it quite hilarious! People are dumb... not all people of course, but it sometimes it sure feels like it. After reading his blog entry I was compelled to share my story about the flip-side of retail frustrations.

When Superman Returns was released I thought I'd just stop by Best Buy and pick up a copy... until I saw the price tag. $34.99 for an HD DVD?!?! I don't think so. If I had to replace all of my DVD's with HD DVD's at $35.00 a pop I'd be furious, and broke.... so I'm not. When I left the store my wife assured me that I could find it cheaper online or at another store.

The moment we got back from the store I began my mission to find Superman Returns for $24.99 or less. The 1st stop my Amazon.com, then Deep Discount DVD, and a few other online shops. The majority of the places I checked were sold out, or the price came out to almost $35.00 with shipping, so I decided to head off to Target. (Here's where the fun begins.)

I stop into my local Target, about 2 miles from my house, and notice that they have an extremely small section of Blu-Ray & HD DVD's. I easily found Superman Returns on DVD & Blu-Ray, but there was no tag on any of the shelves for an HD DVD version... strange. I decided to ask the Target employee, who was stocking new DVD releases at the time, if they carried the movie on HD DVD. I said; "If you do, did you know if you have any copies in the back or in an overstock area? I've looked everywhere in the HD DVD section and there's no tag for it anywhere." The young man looked at me like a deer caught in headlights, said "uhhh, let me check." then proceeded to walk towards the HD DVD section I had just finished searching through.

Employee: "Uhhh.... I don't see it, so I guess we don't have any."; he said.

Me: "I already checked there sir, do you have a back room, a computer system, or any other location newly released HD DVD's are kept? "

Employee: "Uhhh.... If it's not here, we don't have it."

Me: "Never mind... thanks."

Now, did he really need to walk all the way back to the exact spot I just told him I searched to tell me that? Did he tell me if he had any way of checking their inventory? No, I don't think so... now off to Super Wal-Mart.

Upon entering the electronics section I saw that Super Wal-Mart carried roughly two times the number of HD DVD's Target did... that excited me... yet they were arranged via some hapazard 'throw them at the shelves and if they stick that's where they go' method. I slowly scanned back and forth tag by tag, row by row, with the slight hope of noticing a pattern to thier stocking method... that's when I saw it...

SUPERMAN RTNS HD HD DVD $19.96

(Sorry for the poor photo quality... I took it with my phone.)

WOO HOOO!!!.... wait... the shelf is empty... OH NOOOOOOESSS!!!!1!!1!

I immediately went in search of someone who worked in the media / electronics department for assistance.

Me: "Excuse me... I noticed that you have a spot on your display for Superman Returns on HD DVD, but there doesn't seem to be any left. Do you think there may be more copies of this movie in another location; possibly in the back, or maybe in an overstock area?

Employee: "......" [slowly walks over to the DVD section]

Me: "I know that you have several copies on standard DVD, however, I'm looking for the High Definition DVD."

Employee: "....." [slowly turns around and heads for the HD DVD / Blu-Ray section].......... "It looks like we're all out"
Me: "I see that, but is there a computer you could use to check if there are any more on-hand that may be hidden behind another movie? I don't mind looking through them if you can tell me there's at least one available."

Employee: "It looks like we sold out of 'em."

Me: "Do you have any idea when you'll be getting more in stock?"

Employee: "Naw.. you just have to keep coming back and looking."

Me: "So you have no idea how often you get new shipments in?"

Employee: "Naw.. It's pretty random."

Me: "Is it possible to get a rain check?" (I've never actually tried to get a rain check in my life, but it was worth a shot.)

Employee: "...................................... doubt it."

Me: [refraining from knocking out his remaining 5 teeth] "Thanks for your time."

I left the store empty handed and went in search of another Wal-Mart...... The employees I spoke with at the next store I found had absolutely NO CLUE what an HD DVD was, and the other store didn't carry anything close to High Definition.

DAMN YOU WAL-MART!!! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE SUCH GOOD PRICES?!?!

That was all back on November 28th, when the movie was released. Needless to say, I still don't own it.

Oh yeah, just so we're clear... it's not just Wal-Mart or Target employees that walk me back to the EXACT spot I was looking in, only to tell me "sorry we must be out."... even after I just told them, not more than 3 second prior... "I JUST LOOKED THERE!!!!!!!" It happens on a regular basis at numerous stores... I just want to find the 1 employee that can look through their friggin' computer system and tell me if they have anyhting in stock / when they'll be getting more in. If the retail company doesn't have the ability to look up their inventory and tell you if they have a product in stock, they should be shut down or be forced to update thier damn system!!!!!

- Jay

What Wii've been up to...

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:35:36 GMT

Tonka watched the dog show on the new 60" after the Macy's Day Parade…
(We had to turn it off because he felt threatened by the life size dogs on the 60".)

Nick smacked a few out of the park…
(The wrist strap is MANDATORY in my household.)

I beat the tar out of my buddy Wayne…
( I would have done it outside of Wii Sports Boxing if punched TV screen! )

Then we all did a little Wii bowling…
(My Wife kicks our @$$es at this one; just like in real life!)

Disinformation!

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 07:11:51 GMT

Allow me to start from the beginning... It’s a long story, so allow me to start by apologizing if I bore anyone into a coma.

My wife and I had been looking to purchase a nice HD TV for roughly 2 years. There were a number of reasons it took us so long to find the right TV; first and foremost was price! Second was technology (DLP, LCD, 3LCD, Plasma, etc.), which was directly related to picture quality; features, inputs, size, weight, etc were all huge factors as well, but we had to narrow down our search before we began worrying about all of that.

In March of 2005 I attended the Best Buy Achievers show in Orlando Florida as a vendor, and during one of my ‘breaks’ from working our booth I had the opportunity to visit with several of the companies that make HD TV’s & HD disc players (Blu-Ray & HD DVD). The chats I had were quite informative, and the information I received from a Mitsubishi representative regarding the difference between native 1080i & 1080p HD TV’s was great… The Mitsubishi gal also let me know that native 1080p HD TV sets would be available VERY shortly so I should hold off on purchasing a set until I got a chance to see them in action; so that’s exactly what I did.

The following month I was in Colorado visiting my friends and relatives and got a chance to speak with a very good friend of mine who works at an Ultimate Electronics store. After a lengthy chat about what we’ve both been up to, he said “Jay, you’ve got to see this!”, and took me into a room full of HD TV’s. (If anyone could point me in the right direction regarding an HD TV set, it was Mikey!) He showed me the Sony KDS-R60XBR1; a 60-inch Grand Wega SXRD Rear Projection HDTV. I was immediately impressed by the picture quality, but my jaw hit the floor when he turned on Discovery Channel HD; I was in love! As he was going on and on about Silicone X-tal Reflective Display (“X-tal” stands for “crystal”), how it’s a new take on the current LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) display technology, and other technical tid-bits, I was busy drooling over the idea of something like that sitting in my living room with the Xbox 360 running my games in 1080i!

When I returned home to Florida I kept going on about the TV to my wife and begged her to look at the TV with me at one of the local shops. Once she finally agreed to “look” at it, we stopped into Best Buy to check it out…. Then we went to Circuit City to look at it again… then to a third shop. (I wanted to compare the prices and get a good idea of how many years we were going to have to be in debt for if we got that TV.) The prices were all close, but the third shop had a better “satisfaction grantee”, warrantee / service plan, and financing…. The TV was about $4000.00 everywhere we looked! We returned home empty handed, mostly because the sales guy was a jackass, but we seriously discussed purchasing it within the next few months.

In February we went back to look at the TV and compare it with all of the other models that were now available. A salesman, not the same jackass who we spoke with before, approached us and we discussed all of our HDTV options. There were new HDTV’s by Mitsubishi, SONY, Samsung, etc. that we had never even considered before and they were all on sale!! I explained to the salesman that I played video games frequently, which was an understatement, and that I wanted a 1080p set that had a cable card slot. I told him that the last thing I wanted was another device that required yet another remote to control it, so in my opinion, a digital cable card was the only way to go; and since I eventually would be purchasing an HD DVD player I wanted full 1080p support. He looked at the tag, and showed me that the SXRD had a cable card slot, that it was a “1080p True HD Display” and that it could display in 1920 x 1080 lines of resolution; I was elated!

Now we had to make a decision; we could either purchase an English bulldog, which we've been wanting for a long time, or get an HDTV. (It’s crazy, I know, but they were roughly the same price and we're not rolling like Ditty or anything.)

After about 30 minutes of discussing it with my wife, I had talked myself out of spending that much money on a TV… Oddly enough, she was pretty excited about getting rid of our entertainment center and replacing the 27-inch SONY Wega with a 50-inch HDTV, so she proceeded to try and re-convince me to get it. She explained to me that the price and financing were a good deal, it had all the features I had been looking for, and it was 1080p! As I sat there contemplating everything it dawned on me; how many wives out there had to convince their husbands to buy a 50-inch HDTV?? Of course I immediately said “Let’s do it!”, purchased the TV, then called our neighbor to help us get the monstrosity home and into our living room. We made a pit-stop at Circut City on the way home so I could make absolutely sure we got the best deal possible... They had the TV for nearly the same amount, so I snapped a pic with my camera phone for future refrence.

(Surprisingly, the TV was only about 100 lbs and was easy to get into the house!)

Since we purchased the TV we’ve enjoyed every second that we’ve spent watching it… well, except for when we’re watching shows on our non-High-Def TiVo; that’s like watching a show on a VHS tape that was filmed with a Vaseline smeared lens. At any rate, I was counting down the days until I picked up a true high-definition source, then I found 1080p content that I tried to run off of my laptop to my TV. Every time I tried to send a 1080 x 1920 signal through the VGA input of the TV it would freak out then display the message: “Signal out of Range”. Of course I thought it was odd, but I chalked it up to the possibility of the TV not accepting that signal through the VGA port… Maybe if I sent the same signal through the HDMI or component connections it would work… Yeah, that HAS to be it!

The following day I decided to drop by the store where I purchased the TV and speak with a salesperson to see if there was anything I may have missed to get it running in 1080p… Upon entering the store we were greeted by the new sale price of our TV, nearly 1/2 the price in only a few months!!! (I took a picture with my camera phone to remind me why being an early adopter is not always a good thing) A salesman approached us shortly after I picked my mouth up off the floor and I proceeded to explain the situation. His response was that I was connecting the HD source incorrectly. I disagreed and explained that I pride myself on being the biggest geek that I know & then explained, step by step, all of the methods I used to display the HD content. He proceeded to blame the video card, then the cable, and then said that it wouldn’t accept an HD source through the VGA connection. Needless to say I became quite agitated at this point. After several minutes of going back-and-forth about what sources were compatible, connections, and all the technical babble associated with HD signals, encoding, etc. he struck a nerve by saying the following. “Oh, well… that TV can’t accept a 1080p signal. It merely up-converts each signal to a 1080 x 1920 display resolution.” I said, “What are we going to do about this? I paid for a full-HD 1080p TV, and that’s what I want.” I was then told there was nothing more he could do for me and I’d have to come back tomorrow to speak with my original salesman.

That evening I found my original sales receipt stating that the TV was a 1080p set, then I thumbed through the owners’ manual looking for any information about acceptable HD signals and which inputs would accept them. The only information I could find was regarding the HDMI input, and only commented about resolutions of up to 1080i.

After reading nothing about 1080p, or up-converting a signal to 1080p, etcetera I decided to call Sony. The Sony representative I spoke with was pleasant, and fairly knowledgeable regarding the TV, but was unable to find ANY information regarding 1080p and that specific television, so she kindly transferred me to their technical gurus. The person I spoke with after being transferred understood the entire situation and said; “I’m sorry sir, but your TV is not 1080p compatible at all. The individual or store you purchased this TV from misinformed you.” After explaining that I purchased the set from an authorized Sony dealer the representative said; “Do you mind telling the name of the company you purchased this TV from, where they’re located, and the salesperson you spoke with? I'm extremely sorry that you were lied to, sir.”

The following morning I returned to the store and found the salesperson that I purchased the TV from. He was expecting to see me and acted quite defensive; almost as if he expected me to return with a firearm. I explained the entire story regarding the 1080p source, the double-talking salesperson I spoke with the previous evening, the call to Sony, how there were NO 1080p sources on the market when I purchased the TV, and how I had planned on getting the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 when the 1080p dashboard update was available… I then asked the same question I had asked before; “What are we going to do about this? I paid for a full-HD 1080p TV, and that’s what I want.” He simply responded with, “I’ll tell you what… sell the TV and I’ll get you a great deal on the model that accepts a 1080p signal.” (I’ll bet you could imagine now happy that made me.) He then went on to say that MAYBE the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive would display a 1080p signal properly on my TV, and that I should let him know how it worked out for me. Before leaving I explained that next step I would have to take would be to contact the Better Business Bureau, then an attorney. He responded with a smug; “Well, you do what you have to do.”

Although I was furious at the misleading sales practices, the lies, and the double-talk I had endured, I patiently waited for the fall dashboard update & the HD DVD add-on for the 360… I was holding onto a thread of hope that the TV would actually display a 1080p signal... but that didn’t last too long!

I ended up writing quite the lengthy and extremely detailed complaint to the BBB just before the 1080p / HD DVD launched. In the letter to the BBB I explained EVERYTHING, and looking at the length of this blog entry, you can get a pretty good idea of how long the complaint was.

After the Xbox 360 dashboard update I tried setting the resolution to 1080p and the TV went berserk! Watching the TV flicker, scroll, flip, and convulse, I smiled knowing that I didn't wait to file the complaint. I've been waiting for almost a month to hear something from the BBB or the store I purchased the TV from.... the wait ended last week.

I received a call from the manager of the store last week… He apologized for everything that I had gone through, the confusion over 1080p native and 1080p upscale (a.k.a. “wobulation”), and the lack of judgment on the 2nd salesperson. He proceeded to ask me if I was “set” on the XBR technology, and if I’d like to look at another HD TV that was native 1080p. When I said I was extremely pleased with the SXRD / XBR television sets I was immediately informed that a 50” version was no longer produced by Sony, but he’d be happy to swap my 50” set for this years 60” model that was “Full 1080p” (KDS-R60XBR2)... Once I caught my breath, wiped the drool fromy my chin, and could form a complete sentence, I agreed to stop by over the weekend and look at my options. (What I was really thinking was, "10 more inches of screen and full 1080p native resolution?!?!? Man, I hope my wife's ok with this, because I'll TAKE IT!!!!")

This past Sunday I went to the store and looked at the TV.... it was monstrous!! My wife wasn't too thrilled about the size; considering that our sofa is a mere 9 or 10 feet from the screen, I really couldn't blame her. Well, she left it all up to me, and since I couldn't imagine what a 60" TV would look like in my living room, I agreed to take it and it was delivered at 12:20 PM yesterday!!! This baby may take some getting used to.... maybe I'll have to get rid of our dining room table and move the sofa back another 4-5 feet.
(Who needs a dining room when you have 60 inches of HD eye candy??)

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the old 50" KDS-R50XBR1 and the new 60" KDS-R60XBR2..... That 60".... she's a big one!

So, what's the moral of my long winded story kids??

Take your pick:
1. Sony appears to mislead consumers with not-so-factual technical specs on MANY of thier products; not just the PS3... so don't trust 'em!
2. Don't p!$$ off a geek who actually knows how to use a camera phone for something useful, spends a load of cash on your product, and won't hesitate to tell the world that your company / products / service SUCK!

- Jay

The Big Three O!

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:45:42 GMT

Last Friday was my birthday... I'm now 30!!! (I can't friggin' believe it!) I'm now officially ready for my midlife crisis.... where's my Viper, crotch-rocket, Porsche, or Corvette!?!

Once I left work, my birthday was great; I traded in every PS2 console, game and accessory that had been sitting in my garage for the past 3 years and I got a little over $600 in store credit at my local EB Games!!! What did I do with all of this credit you may ask?!?! Well, I paid off my Wii pre-order, picked up Call of Duty 3, Tony Hawk's Project 8, Viva Pinata, the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, and the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on; I still have some credit left, but I'm saving that for Wii games! (NOTE: I made a promise to NOT play, open, touch, or look at Viva Pinata before my wife had a chance to play it 1st.... Now I'm afraid I'll never get my Xbox 360 back!!!!)

I know what you're saying; "Holy CRAP!" or "What?!?! No Gears of War?!?!??!

Nope, I didn't pick up Gears of War... not exactly. I received a package at work on Friday, and when I opened it what was inside?!? You guessed it; G.o.W. Not just the regular old G.o.W. either; a friend of mine was generous engouh to hook-a-brutha-up with the collectors edition! (I refuse to let myself become addicted to it just yet! Luckily I'm able to limit my G.o.W. play time to whenever my wife isn't playing Viva Pinata.) I do have to say that "Gears" is one of the best looking, most immersive, and not-to-mention intense games to be released on the Xbox 360 to date... who in the world would want a PS3 after playing Gears of War and knowing that Halo 3 is just around the corner?!?!

I have no idea how she does it, but my wife always manages to get me a kick-@$$ gift.... for Christmas, Birthdays, whatever... she always manages to get me something that I've been wanting, but forgot about, or something I may have said was "cool" at some point in time. This time she got me the Logitech Harmony remote for the Xbox 360 and a copy of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" on HD DVD!

She knew I'd pick up the Xbox 360 HD DVD dive when it came out, and I completely forgot about the remote because of other 'geek gear' that have popped up over the last few months... I'll post more info about the remote once I get a chance to familiarize myself with it, and my opinions about all the new 'toys' I picked up, in the near future.

Look at the pretty box..	What you see when you 1st open it...
Warning label...	After connecting the Xbox 360 WiFi adapter...
After Removing the warning sticker...	Updating the dashboard with the supplied DVD....
Xbox Live updating my 360 for the 2nd time...	New dashboard... looks almost the same..
Now the eject button looks like one of those "Pokéballs" from Pokémon. The top 1/2 ejects the 360 DVD tray and the bottom 1/2 ejects the HD DVD drive!

On Saturday night, the 11th, my wife and a few friends went out to dinner and then to a local comedy club called Coconuts. The first comedian was amusing, the second one used lame jokes about pot for 15 minutes to get some forced laughs, the third comedian was funny, and the headliner had us ROLLING! (I laughed so much my head was throbbing for about 45 minutes after we left the comedy club.) The headliner was a comedian named Joe DeVito; he wrote for MTV, FUSE, Stuff Magazine, and the movie "Super Size Me". I've never seen his stand-up before, but I'll definitely be looking out for him in the future!

After the show my buddy Wayne and I wanted to see if he had any CD's for sale, so we waited in the lobby for a bit; when we see comedians live we like to buy CD's from them if they make us laugh until we ache.

Unfortunately he didn’t have any discs for sale, but my wife, friends & I all got the chance to chat with him for a while instead… He was extremely friendly, and was really cool about answering questions about his comedic inspiration, blah blah blah.. it was pretty cool!

(He let us know that he should have a CD available by next year; you can check out a clip from his stand-up on JoeDeVito.com.. he's also got a schedule of upcoming shows on his MySpace page.)

Overall my birthday & the weekend following it were pretty damn cool!!!!

SPCIAL NOTE: Hey Ben, if you're reading this I wanted to let you know that your package hasn't shipped yet. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you. I managed to get caught up in all kinds of stuff around the office at the end of last week, and the same thing seems to be happening this week! (Hopefully this note will also serve as a reminder for me NOT to lose track again this week.) October / November are always CRAZY!!!

- Jay

Happy Hallowiin!

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 03:05:19 GMT

My Alpine headunit and I wish you a......

It's good to be back, but I miss not being here.

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:47:27 GMT

Wow... it's been over a month since my last blog entry. (Time really does fly when you're having fun.... or going insane.)

As you know from my last entry, I was married on September 15th & off to St. Lucia for a week shortly thereafter. The wedding was wonderful, it felt a bit rushed, but I’m extremely pleased at how well it all went. My wife wasn’t too pleased at the fact that it rained and the ceremony had to be moved inside, but I think it actually made it feel more intimate.

I got to see people that I haven’t seen in MANY years, and the most impressive part was realizing how many friends and family traveled all the way to Maryland to attend…. Some were local, but the majority of them traveled a good distance; they came from Florida, Colorado, Massachusetts, Missouri, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and even Australia!!!! Every time I looked around the room I kept thinking of Dana Carvey in Wayne’s World; “We’re not worthy… We’re not worthy!”

Some of the people I haven't seen in forever looked almost exactly the way I remebered them; but my jaw hit the floor when I saw the "kids" that were invited.. they weren't "kids" anymore. (I know, "DUH"... but seriously... I can't believe how much they've grown.) My cousin Maura, she came down from Massachusetts, is now a young woman and ready to start driving; I haven't seen her since she was somewhere around 7! My closest childhood friend, Dianna, has a little girl named Kayla and the last time I saw her she was about a year or two old... now she's 8 and she's one of the most outgoing, energetic, hillarious little girls I've ever met. She had us all rolling when she wsa out on the dance floor doing the robot.

(Man, I feel old.)

The honemoon was wonderful... lots of sun, fun, and drinks by the pool.....

Well, now that I'm back I'm playing 'catch-up' at work, I missed the EB Games / GameStop trade show, but I recuperated just in time to attended the this years Best Buy Achievers show last Friday. (I attend these events as a vendor, not a Best Buy employee.) October & November are the craziest months at work due to the number of games being released for the 'holiday season'. This holiday season is going to be especially hectic due to the release of PS3 and Wii… (My fingers are crossed that the Wii ActionReplay will be ready as quickly as the GameCube or DS Lite ones were.)

Well, I’m going to cut myself short… I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m still alive and kicking... I’m just EXTREMELY busy! (which is a good thing in my line of work!)

- Jay

Just Married...

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:15:41 GMT

Just in case anyone was wondering where had disappeared to.....

I GOT MARRIED! (Meet Mr. & Mrs. "FNG")

I just got home yesterday, the underwater case for my digital camera has arrived, now we're off for St. Lucia!!

I'll see you all next week with some REAL pics!

- Jay

Watch out.. I'm on my soapbox! (People Suck)

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:29:04 GMT

(Hold the SHIFT key down while clicking on links to open in new window.)

People suck!

Yes that's quite a generalization, but it's pretty much true when referring to the 'unwashed masses'.

It seems that people today care less and less about anyone, or anything, other than themselves. You all know what I'm talking about; whether it's the annoying cell phones going off during a movie you paid $9.00+ to see, parents allowing their children to run amok in a store unsupervised, avoiding the oblivious commuter who would rather look in the mirror and chat on their cell phone than keep there eyes / car on the road, coming out to your vehicle to find a nice big dent / scratch in the side of it, or simply watching your Xbox Live Gamer Rep go down the toilet because some loser thinks that leaving negative feedback as revenge for losing badly to your phenomenal Street Fighter skills is "k3wl"... it all boils down to the fact that people seem to suck more and more each day.

I'm not quite sure what it is... Could it be the fact that we try to 'over protect' our children from any and everything that may bruise their fragile sense of self worth? For example when a kid does something like smash a car window out with a baseball bat, or put the family cat in the dryer.... parent's are encouraged to say things like, "Now what better decision could we have made here?" C'mon now... we put our children in 'time out' rather than giving them the swift-kick-in-the-ass they may sometimes need, and that just doesn't seem to cut it. (Especially when this isn't the cat's 1st trip through the fluff cycle on high heat.) We use Nick Jr., the Disney Channel, PBS Kids, Cartoon Network, or a video game system as our "21st century nanny", yet we overreact when a fictitious pixilated character being controlled by our child isn't covered by enough clothing textured polygons. (FYI: I've seen some pre-teens at the malls that wear clothes that would make the girls of DoA or Rumble Roses blush... I believe we call them "Prostitots" around here.)

Now I'm not saying that I'm a perfect parent, or that parents should act out scenes from Mommie Dearest or Flowers in the Attic, but I remember what a backhand from my mom feels like, and whatever it was I did to deserve said "@$$ whooping" never happened again. (I'm also 100% sure that I never spoke to my mother like some kids talk to their parents today.)

I understand that times have changed, that 'positive reinforcement' is good and that capitol punishment isn't the only / best method of discipline, but what I am saying that something seems to have changed in our society and it's not working.

Anyway, I'm sure you get the picture... now on to what I really wanted to write about before I got carried away...

When my job relocated me to Florida, my fiancé and I decided that living in an apartment for a year or so would be better than purchasing a home. We thought that if we found an apartment, in a nice area, that we'd be able to get to know the neighborhoods and surrounding areas before purchasing a home. (The last thing we needed was to invest in a house before finding out what the area, and the people in that area, in which it was located were like.) So when we moved down here we found a nice-looking apartment complex in an area we heard great things about... oh yeah.. and I purchased a new car when we moved here too. (That piece of information comes into play a in a moment.)

So, apartment living was pretty good for a while, but leaky ceilings / windows, loud neighbors, people running up and down stairs, and bass thumping home theater systems at all hours of the night got to be quite annoying... Then one Sunday my fiancé and I were heading out to do some grocery shopping and almost had a heart attack.... Someone had stolen the factory rims off of my car and left it up on blocks. (Yes, the FACTORY rims, nothing fancy, just the rims that came on the car!!)

As if the initial shock wasn't enough, there was a notice from the apartment complex management glued to the window notifying me that my vehicle was illegally parked and that it was going to be towed. (LOL Yeah, I really parked my car like that on purpose!)

As it turns out, several other vehicles would 'lose' their rims to the same people over the course of the next few months. (I'm extremely thankful that I have full coverage insurance on my car because new wheels & tires aren't cheap... I made sure to get wheel locks this time!)

You see what I'm getting at? People suck!

Roughly 2 years ago, after getting to know the area, my fiancé and I decided that the area where we were currently in was actually pretty nice, and apartment living wasn't for us, so we went house hunting. (Missing wheels aside, the crime rate in the area was low, and people that we've met were all extremely friendly.) The house we purchased was only a few blocks away from our old apartment, in a small neighborhood with plenty of kids for my son to play with, a cute little park just around the corner, and the previous owners had nothing but nice things to say about the area.

> >
Here are a couple of pics that were taken of my son,
his friend, and me playing LazerTag at the park around the corner.

All has been well at our new house. We still love the area, our neighbors are friendly, and we really feel at home here... However...

Recently there have been some issues with a few punk-ass kids that have broken into houses and stolen various items out of several cars on our street... [knocks on wood] We've been extremely lucky, nothing has happened to our home or vehicles, but then again, we've been keeping a CLOSE eye on our area and have invested in a few things to make our possessions a bit more secure. We thought this crap was all over when one of the kids spilled his guts about a couple of the home invasions. Nobody pressed any charges because they knew the kids and thought it would be better to give 'em another chance.... I'm not that nice, and neither are the people that live in the homes around ours, so I hope the other home owners were right about this not happening again. (Apparently the police officer even told one of them that they were lucky that nobody shot them while they were in the process of committing the crime... I love those laws!!)

Just when we thought it was over, people prove yet again how much they truly suck! You know the park in the pictures I've posted above? Well, apparently someone felt the need to set it on fire and burn it to the ground last Tuesday.........

I just don't get it... Why would someone feel the need to destroy something that the kids in the area loved?

Did you fall off the monkey bars and bump your head? Did you burn your fanny on the slide that's been sitting in the hot afternoon sun? Maybe your mommy and daddy never took you to the park when you were little, so you felt the need to make everyone else suffer! In any case; YOU SUCK !

Ok, now that I've got that out of my system I can go back to my life... sorry for the rant, but writing this was quite therapeutic.

- Jay

I hate traveling... WHAT?

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 21:33:12 GMT

I just got back from Maryland last night. (My fiancé and I went up there for our wedding shower and hang out with friends / family.)

The time spent up there was wonderful; we both had a blast!! As always, the travel portion sucked a$$!!

[rant]

The airline we flew is probably the worst airline I've EVER dealt with in my life. So far every time I've flown this airline, let's call them "SouthernWesterly", either one, or both flights were late... this time our departure time was 4:15 and we didn't actually board the plane until 6:20!! The 'flight attendants were rude, and the people working at the gate were incompetent morons. Lickily I was able to sleep from the time we took off until the time the wheels bounced off the runway. Apparently it was the pilots' 1st time using the breaks on an aircraft... we were hauling ass when we landed and when the pilot finally found the breaks, everything that was loose went soaring towards the front of the aircraft. (We made it in 1 piece, so I guess it was a successful trip.)

On the way back the flight was a bit better; it was on time for once, the flight attendents were pleasant, and the pilot didn't slam us onto the runway during the landing, nor did he have to use the termanl at Tampa International to stop the aircraft. The only truly negative aspects of the flight home were:

1. We didn't get in until 12:10 AM
2. My ears failed to pop during the descent.

I'm not sure if any of you have NOT had your ears "pop" on an aircraft, but it pretty much feels like someone is stabbing you repeatedly in the eardrum with an ice pick. My ears didn't pop at all last night, and I can barely hear a thing today... I'm going to take massive amounts of decongestants and hope that I can hear tomorrow.

[/rant]

Ok, like I said, other than the traveling portion of my weekend it was absolutely wonderful. We even had the opportunity to stop by the jewler where I got her engagement ring and pick up a wedding band for myself. (We're also having the store owner give us a quote on having a wedding band made for my fiancé so that it'll match the engagement ring.)

Today I'm playing around with the 360 and the XSTAT by making game saves with 1 xbox console / xbox profile and moving them to another console / profile to make sure everything is working... so far, so good.... I finished up Cloning Clyde then decided to boost my gamer score wtih the semi-simple NBA 2K6.

2 More Perfect Achievements!

Cloning Clyde is a great game, I may even keep playing it just to beat my old times... NBA 2K6 is just like every other NBA game... It looks great though. The Achievements for NBA 2K6 weren't all that difficult, but "Grab 20 Rebounds With Any Player" & "Get A Triple-Double" took some time. (I got lucky with the 20 rebounds, the Triple-Double came shortly after.)

If you're not familiar with basketball, a "Triple-Double" is when 3 of a player's stats get into the double digits... 10 points scored in a game, 12 rebounds, 10 assists... etc. ( Don't feel 'dumb' if you didn't know that... I didn't. )

Anyway, had better get back to doing something productive... I'll be back soon with a blog post that's a little more informative.

- Jay

All quiet on the Xbox front.

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:17:54 GMT

Wow, there hasn't been much activity lately. I've been playing a game that nobody seems to have purchased, or even seems to care about, called Over G Fighters. It's a mediocre game with a simple achievement list, but I used my 'Best Buy rewards' to pick it up; so it only cost me $20.00. (I needed something to keep me occupied until Street Fighter hits the Xbox Live Arcade.)

Prey came out yesterday, but I'm not too sure I want to drop $60.00 on another game that looks like Quake... I'll try to free up 2 gigs on my Xbox 360's HDD so I can download the demo and play it for a while before I pass judgement. (Hopefully it'll live up to all the hype.)

If any of you own the game, give me your honest opinion of Prey...

On the other hand, I think it's a good thing that there aren't a slew of killer titles on the 360 right now.... I'm absolutely addicted to the Nintendo DS now that I'm using it at work every day. [hint hint] I can't say what I'm doing with it at work, but I can say that I'm having an absolute BLAST!

Anyway, I just wanted to post something to show everyone that I'm not dead.

Speaking of not being dead; my buddy Nick that ate the mushroom from my front lawn is fine. (He didn't remember doing it until he saw my blog entry and pics.)

- Jay

A good 4th of July...

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:08:21 GMT

I hope everyone in the USA had a good Independence Day, and for all you folks outside of the states, I hope your normal day was good also.

My day started out with some simple errands that needed to be run, and when I jumped into my car I was greeted by my Alpine head unit with a special message; "Happy 4th of July"

Needless to say, I was quite amused... I must have turnd it off and on about 40 times just to show everyone my 'smart' stereo.

Once all of my errands were run, the rest of the day was spent relaxing, playing with my puppies, cooking out on the grill, having a few drinks, playing a little Xbox 360, and watching people waste their fireworks in the middle of the day.

As the sun went down the fireworks being launched by the folks in my neighborhood got bigger, louder, and far more fun to watch. My buddy Nick, my fiancé (Kim), my puppies, and I all wandered down the street to hang out with the neighbors. We all had a blast (pardon the pun) blowing stuff up, watching the kids play, and having a few more adult beverages.

As the fireworks ran out, and the neighbors called it a night, we all just hung out in front of my house watching the 'young punks' launch bottle rockets until the wee hours of the morning. Just before EVERYONE called it a night Nick showed us how much he really had to drink by eating a mushroom that I found in my front yard..... I snapped some pics just in case he got sick and couldn't figure out why. I was rolling with laughter the entire time... he kept saying "Your mushrooms are delicious! You need to stop buying them from the store and eat the mushrooms you got in your yard.. THEY'RE [explitive] DELICIOUS!" (I'll take his word for it.)

The whole thing reminded me of the "Samuel Jackson" skit that Dave Chappelle did.... "MMM MMMMM B**CH!"

Anyway, I had a great 4th and I hope you all did too.... I'll leave you all with the pics of my buddy Nick enjoying my front yard fungus.

Name That Puppy

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 14:23:34 GMT

Wow, what a strange weekend... I meant to spend the weekend getting things done around the house that I've needed to do, run some errands, and spend some time playing Oblivion or Over G Fighters; both of which I haven't even opened yet... What did I do instead? My fiancé (Kim) and I took our dog, Tonka, to the pet store for a few things. When I got there we saw a load of people standing around 2 pens full of rescued puppies; I fell in love with one in particular. I held the puppy for about a 1/2 an hour while Kim took Tonka through the store to pick out his treats, and then get his nails cut.... During this 1/2 hour the puppy fell asleep in my arms while I was petting her... I then started thinking about how it would be pretty cool to adopt this puppy / give her a good home, and how much fun it would be for Tonka to someone to play with. So, after talking it over with Kim we decided to take her home. WOO HOOO!!!!

So far, the puppy has been EXTREMELY attached to me, crys / barks for hours when it's time for 'bed', and she doesn't really seem to want to share any toys with Tonka. (Tonka seems to be intimidated by her.)

She's a VERY well mannerd dog, extremely affectionate, cute, and semi-playful.. I hope she and Tonka start getting along, because I'm quickly becoming attached to her and I don't want to have to give her away. (Tonka is the 'big dog' of the house, my first puppy, and there's no way I can ever let another dog make him miserable; no matter how cute the other dog is.)

So, I'm sure you've noticed that I've referred to the puppy by everything OTHER than by name... that's because I haven't picked on out yet; this is where YOU come in.

Please take a look at the pics I've attached and give me some suggestions... So far we've tried Zelda, but end up forgetting and calling her Zoe, my fiancé has called her Muffin, and I was calling her Asia for a while.. (Since she was going to be 'put to sleep' I came up with Asia... short for eeuthanasia.. but that seems too cruel.) I've suggested Cortana, but that was quickly overruled. Kameo was a pretty good one too, but I'm not sure she looks like a "Kameo".

Anyway, please give me some suggestions.. it doesn't have to be video game related, I was just trying to think of good 'geek pet' names for fun. (My fiancé is partial to Zoe, but I think we can come up with soemething more suitable... don't you?)

- Jay

Happy Father's Day

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:03:18 GMT

To all the Dads out there.....

Happy Father's Day!

My son is in Canada with his mother for the summer.... I hope I get to talk to him tonight.