Sierra Kilo

…before jumping into things at work:

Laura broke my XBox 360 by trying to watch Disney’s Enchanted (now with “FastPlay” technology). A few seconds into the movie, it froze up. Subsequent reboots resulted in the dreaded “Red Ring Of Death“. Microsoft support was very eager to send me packing supplies, repair my problem, give me a month of XBox Live, give me another 90 day warranty on the repaired box, and give me a 3 year warranty against the “Red Ring Of Death”. So, we’ll be without a downstairs DVD player and no CoD4 or Rock Band for 3-4 weeks as we wait for the repair. I guess we’ll have to live with the Wii for games. I’ve been enjoying some Super Mario Brothers on 50 inches, though. It’s amazing how much you remember from back in the day. My brother-in-law remembered more than I did, though. He made it to the last level thanks to the secret warp zones.

I’m still waiting for that Mac Mini update to come along. It has been 281 days since the last update and the average time between updates is only 188 days, so it’s due. A processor, memory, and hard drive bump are all I’m asking for. A graphics bump that allows dual screens wouldn’t be bad, either. I’m anxious to set one up to handle podcast viewing, torrent downloads, webcam monitoring (I know that dog has parties when we’re not there), some DVR functions, checking weather, browsing the web, and handling some server-type tasks. Eventually, I’d like to set up some home automation functions for scheduling exterior lights and remotely controlling other lights (like turning on entry light via instant messenger so we don’t walk into a dark house). It’s always fun to tinker with stuff like that and it seems to be much easier on a Mac thanks to AppleScript.

I haven’t been playing much of Mythos, but I read the other day that they’re going to make it more MMORPG-y than it currently is. This might be to help differentiate them more from Dungeon Runners. There will be less instancing in common areas, allowing for players to interact more. I also hope they put some downtime activities in such as fishing, mining, farming, etc. As fun as it is to loot dungeons, I’d like to participate in the economy and display trophies (largest fish caught, largest melon grown, etc), too.

We’ve also been busy with Eleanor’s implantation. Research, tests, meetings, therapy, etc. She’s a smart little rascal and she’s a handful. We are usually running around chasing her, playing, learning, or feeding when we’re not working. We’re hoping all goes well with insurance and we can do the implants in August after our family reunion. Fingers crossed.