After my oh so lovely response to Microsoft, I think it's safe to say I'm left having to look elsewhere for portable media. Unfortunately, my capacity demands are more than many players hold and, based on the direction my tastes will be heading, the minimum requirements are looking to be larger before long. What makes this especially frustrating is that I've only found two to three devices that can meet this, one of which I refuse to go for (hint: look in previous rant). In other words, it's between these two:

iPod Classic (160 GB)

iTouch (64 GB)

Given the storage and price, it's pretty safe to say that I'm stuck going for an iPod. However, my current college semester hasn't exactly left me open to many hours of work (two nights a week translating to just over $100 per week which, after car and gas payments, only leaves me $100 to currently spare). Needless to say, I'm hoping to get money to give an iPod a shot since every person I know personally who have owned an iPod have had little to no issues (only one has and it was a year before he got an issue). So I'm now setting my personal gripes with the iPod (small screen, dull looks, the click/touch wheel and unintesting menus) and aiming to buy one. Though I'm trying to get some money for it ($250) about the only way I could possibly get that is by selling my PS3 (which I barely use) and everything I have with it. However, since it's one of the many discontinued models and I own stuff that I haven't bothered to check prices for, coming to a fair amount of dollars to pay is tough.

So my question is essentially how much should I charge for my PS3 products (or how much you'd be willing to pay)? Here's what I have and am trying to sell:

PS3 System (80 GB, nearly 2 years old, haven't had any issues, one of the last generation of PS3's that's backward compatible, providing the power and A/V cables obviously)

Two Sixaxis Controllers (giving my only USB cable to charge them)

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Resistance: Fall of Man

Metal Gear Solid 4 Collector's Edition

DBZ Budokai 2 & 3

Metal Gear Solid 3

NFS Underground

NFS Hot Pursuit 2

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

Right now I was thinking offering it all for about $300 ($200 for the system, $35 for MGS4, $15 for Uncharted, $10 for Resistance, $25 for all the PS2 games-or $5 each and $20 for the extra controller), but you tell me what you think would be a good, ideal price for it all?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I don't give two ****s if my entire account gets banned for this senseless rant I'm about to post. After the way I've been treated I honestly could care less how stupid I sound and where I do it, I have to get this off my chest. With that out of the way, let me just cut right to the point:

F*** YOU MICROSOFT!!!

Seriously, I have had it up to here with your BS. In less than three years I've gone through five Xbox 360's and now five Zunes. I have been treated like a moronic terrorist by those **** who keep releasing their defective **** for products that only contribute to ****ing over the economy. At first I was able to tolerate one or two defective 360's and Zunes but I've hit double digits for those **** filled bricks in four years. I don't care what anyone says and what defense they have, there is no reason I should go through even three of the same product in three to four years, let alone ten in that same time span.

All this time I've been a patient, tolerant customer who's only wanted convenience and tried to treat his products to the best of his ability (every time I got a replacement Zune I put it in a sturdy case and I would always try to keep them clean and avoid any physical damage to them). Yet if I had known I'd have gone through this much bull then I would've said, "I'm better off gathering a bunch of a people to parade down the streets saying, 'F*** MICROSOFT!'"

A big reason I'm very upset now isn't just the numbers showing how frequently these ****heaps have ****ed over on me, but because Microsoft had the nerve to send me defective replacements and expect me to just take it. That's right, twice they sent me replacements that were no better than the ones I had sent to them to be replaced or repaired (one Xbox and now a Zune). What's worse is that I could tell the Zune I received was broken right when I hooked it up because I could hear what sounded like twitching coming from inside of it. And while we're at it, I think I should also note that when I held the device outside of the case I bought for it I could actually feel it twitch whenever syncing or processing anything (like playing or shuffling songs). This is how Microsoft decide to treat a loyal, patient individual. This is how Microsoft thank a paying customer. This is what those lazy dip****s think of me and any other customer. If this isn't how they feel then tell me why it's bluntly happened to me ten times. I'd love to know a single reason why I should be given this kind of BS.

An Xbox 360 shortly after launch? $400. A Zune 30? $250. The Zune 80/120? Another $250 (Zune 30 warranty expired by the time it broke). That's just short of $1000 that those wealthy ****heads have cost me and for what? Four years of inconvenience with the longest stretch of good, legitimate fun being just short of a year (a year for the current record-holding Xbox 360 life and a year for the Zune 30 before getting defects). Similar to how a freshman boy in high school can only think about getting it on with the curviest girl in each class, all Microsoft seem to care about is masturbating to their cheap**** ways to milk money.

Just like one of the commissioners in the first live action Spider-Man film, nothing would be please me more than to see Microsoft out of business. Add dirt kicked to them, spitting in their faces and a stoning and I just might be inclined to say that justice is finding its way back to them.

Anyone can do or say as they will, I honestly don't give two ****s right now. Microsoft have only proven they're a bunch of low, greedy, despicable, lazy, corporate dip****s who have only gained my utmost disgust. To Hell with sending civilians to war, send the defective robots at Microsoft to war, at least then the right people will be out of the picture.

Since I've had to learn the hard way that Microsoft don't give a flying **** about me, I'm just going to take apart and demolish this wretched Zune they sent me, doesn't put me in any different of a scenario than I was before and, quite frankly, saves me even further inconvenience of sending another pile of **** back only to get the same dung-spawn back.

This college semester has proved to be cluttered, chaotic and basically overwhelming/over-demanding. The only class I'm taking that's fully enjoyable is Creative Writing, mostly since I enjoy writing stories for it (unfortunately, my drive to write stories down only comes when I take a class like this). Though Journalism is the degree I'm shooting for the class has been bittersweet mostly for the feature story we have to do (though it's not directly related to what I aim to do for a career). American History started off horribly with it being the first class I was failing since second grade (yeah...professor isn't exactly selfless or logical-60-70+ question study guides with branching questions on each one for 22 question quizzes), though I managed to pull of a 95 on our most recent so if I can keep that up and do well on our in-class essay I should pass it. Life Science has been a tease since our lowest exam grade is dropped and I've got a 72 and two 78's (back-to-back). I hate how one question kept me from a B twice in a row.

Then there's my Web Site Development class which might just be the most uneven class I've taken. One class I feel stressed and behind and the next is as if I'm doing perfectly fine. What sucks though is that my mother payed for the software (Adobe Creative Suite) which was $200 but since the trial for Fireworks wouldn't install since I had Firefox running I can't install it to our laptop (Dreamweaver came on fine though). We keep talking about getting another laptop but when we actually look it becomes a different scenario.

Fortunately, I've had experience with Dreamweaver, Photoshop and (to a lesser extent) Fireworks throughout high school (good times) so I still have the fundamentals. Though I've made some sites in the past I never got any published but since this has been emphasized continually by our professor mine should at least be updated weekly from now on. Since I love the music, it's on metal and, as of now, I've only got one semi-complete page and another that I'll need to update to come close to the home page (using blank template which is why it has a random bunch of text yet to be filled in). Here's the home page if you're interested:

http://student.irsc.edu/~K05003348

Oh, and if you're like me and you use Firefox, I am aware of the text on top of the banner (doesn't show up in IE though). If you're experienced with Dreamweaver and know how to get rid of this without screwing up the rest of the site I'd very much appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction.

But yeah, just though I'd bring this to your attention in case you might be curious. The site isn't much now and though I don't think it'll be nearly as good as some other productions it's something.

Alternating between Easy and Medium on NFS: Shift has reminded me of just how atrocious the AI in some games are and has made me want to make a list of the worst game AI I've ever had to deal with. The sad part is that close to half the list would likely be NFS games. And knowing me (whenever I get the time), I likely will make that list. From the get-go I know that these are almost guaranteed inclusions:

NFS: Shift

NFS: Pro Street

Burnout 3

Midnight Club 3

DBZ Budokai 3

Come to think of it, I've only seldom played any games that have been legitimately challenging with frustrations being kept at a minimum. Halo, Halo: ODST (for what I've played), Uncharted, Forza 2, FEAR (speaking of which, I must be the only one who thought the sequel was just lousy-I didn't finish it but that's because it was so bland and unremarkable) and Call of Duty 2 are the only games I can remember playing that had AI that put up a legitimately tough but fair fight.

I guess that's a big reason I usually prefer goal-oriented games and modes like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and drifting in Underground 1 and (generally) Shift.

If only Rock Band 2 had the note detection of Guitar Hero...

If only Rock Band 2 had the amount of hyperspeed/Breakneck Speed options of Guitar Hero...

If only I wouldn't have to pay and swap discs to play other Guitar Hero songs...

If only current Rock Band/Guitar Hero guitar controllers were compatible with the first Guitar Hero games...

If only I could swap the Rock Band strum bar for a Guitar Hero strum bar while keeping the rest of the controller the same...

If only the fret buttons for all guitar controllers didn't suck (Rock Band for being too easy to wear out your fingers, Guitar Hero for poor press/hold detection)...

If only the games would tell you what you played compared to the actual note chart (to make it easier to do better and figure out what you did wrong)...

If only...

Yes, I'm having a Rock Band/Guitar Hero depression late at night while unable to sleep between a horrible college semester and a lousy job that actually feels closer to a vacation than my classes (save for Creative Writing and Journalism until the assignment we have now)...and I hate it!