I hate myself so much right now.

Not really, but I'm very annoyed.

You know how I said my Xbox broke again? Well, it was still under the warranty they giveyou when you get it back from RRoD. It had 8 more days under that warranty. I've only just got my act together now.

So I have three options, a) ring up and try and convince them that it should have been an extra year's warranty- likelihood of succes little to nil. b) pay $100+ for a repair. c) try and force a RRoD, and tell them the ethernet port's also buggered.

I've already managed to RRoD, but when I turn it off and on again, it's back to normal. And I don't really want to melt the insides at all with towels/hairdryers etc.

I'll probably just pay, but that's the situation.

I joined up at Giant bomb, because my RL friends have, but I probs won't be active. My username is stair, if you want to add me.

I bought an external hard drive with my K.Rudd money... or rather the $900 that my Grandma said she would have given me if she was eligible but took from my Grandpa instead. It's a Western Digital 640GB with two firewire ports as well as eSata and USB2. It looks like a hardcover book.

And my Dad got a new laptop through his school's wholesale order, (paying $600 less!), so I get the 2006 Intel macbook that he's replaced with a new one. Unfortunately, it has some massive problem with the motherboard that will cost lots to fix, so I have not much more than an hour of doing anything more strenuous than word-processing if it isn't plugged into the wall. But I'm never that far from a powerpoint, and I do most of my other stuff on my iMac.

That's all. I'm way pissed at the Xbox, and myself, and it's almost the end of term and revision time.

Til next time, Stair.

I have no idea what, but I can't connect to XBL. It just doesn't recognise it's plugged in to the modem, or that the modem is there... before that, it was connecting maybe for five minutes and then dropping out. I tested the connection a bunch of times, but I've had responses ranging from connected to the internet but not XBL, to the modem but not the internet, right down to not even finding the modem, which is where I'm at now.

This is major ball suckage. I only got it back probably not even two months ago after it RRoDed. I have no idea if it's a problem with the Xbox, or the modem, although the internet and wireless are working fine so I don't think it is the latter.

It really sucks, because I wanted to get the Lost and Damned, and the new Puzzle Quest soon. I have no idea whether or not I should send the Xbox away, or if I do, whether it will be covered by warranty (seeing as it just got fixed), or if it is, whether I will have to pay if they find nothing wrong with it.

That's all. I'm thoroughly dejected when it comes to gaming. At least I can still play offline, but I get bored doing that. I got a bunch of achievements in Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise and in GTAIV because I had no distractions. I might go for the ones I need in Dead Space. But they aren't real if they aren't on the internet...

Oh, and uni goes back for the second half of the semester this week, which is also not so good.

Stair.

Hey everyone. Time for your periodical report.

I've been listening to the radio a lot, so the song of the week is: Triple J.
Ie. the radio station. I've discovered I can stream it through itunes, so that's what I've been doing. If you don't know, then Triple J is pretty much the best station on radio in Australia. It's a public-supported youth station that plays a lot of non-commercial stuff. And they have no ads, except for their own and other ABC stuff.

Anyway, it's pretty good. I never used to listen to the radio except in the car, but now I can all the time. I was listening in the car on the way home this afternoon/evening, and they had a live set they had recorded in the studio with Lily Allen. It was pretty good... I'm not a big fan, but her voice was good with just the piano and a guitar playing all the stuff that is so over-produced in her songs. They've also been playing a lot of stuff they recorded at the Falls Fest.

What else? I have not really got any gaming news, except for that I'm thinking of buying Peggle on the XBLA. It's kinda addictive. I still need to get the GTA and Fable content too... I haven't made much time for games recently.

I'm on my mid-semester holid... sorry, my mid-semester "break from formal teaching". So I've got a fair bit of work to do, which is no good. Work was alright today, but terrible last week, when nothing went right. Today was pretty easy though, until the cleanup, when the dodgy newbs had no idea what they were doing.

Anyway, I've droned on. Next time, I promise, I will have some gaming news. Lost and Damned, maybe, next week. I shall do a write up.

Smell ya later, as a little douche once said.
Stair.

Hey there.

I had my first shift back at work today. I work at the football, catering for the corporate boxes. I'd like to know, whose smart idea was it to have football in March? It was 31C!

Ok, so that doesn't sound that hot, but when you're walking who know how far for five hours, and you're wearing black trousers, black shoes, a business shirt and a waistcoat, it's bad. The A/C in our... back-of-house? Staffroom?... does't cool the place down, so there isn't even any respite when you go in there. And at the end of the day, drying loads of glasses with steam coming out each time the dishwasher finishes a load...

That's enough of me complaining. It was a good shift. Three of my customers said I did a good job, two said goodbye when they left after the game, and several seemed happy I was back this year. So I don't really mind about the rest.

I'm basically writing this because I haven't anything else to do, apart from finish the reading for a tute paper so I can write it tomorrow.

I saw The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. For a film about the holocaust, it was pretty light most of the way through, then it slugs you with the ending. And don't you think someone ought to give the Pussycat Dolls a slap? I do.

Anyway, cathcya next time for some more pointless rambling.
Stair.

Hey everyone.

I saw Adam Hills tonight. It was the best show of any type I've ever been to.
He's a comedian, host of a really good music quiz show on the ABC, and only has one foot.

It was really good. I've seen Ross Noble, who's crazy, and Dylan Moran, who in person is just fair, but Adam Hills is far funnier than on TV. He played at the Thebarton Theatre, which is this massive 20s art deco place seating like, 2000 people, and he sold out three shows for the Fringe. There are balconies along the sides, and at the very front on either side, royal box type things. So Hillsy was saying hi to the parts of the theatre at the start of the show, and some guy right up the back in the last row stood up and cheered and waved his arms. Adam Hills asked him his name, and he couldn't hear what the guy said, so he walked up the aisle through the stalls till he got to the dress circle. He still couldn't hear, and the dress circle isn't that far from the floor of the stalls, as they slope. So he climbed up onto the dress circle, and walked up the aisle, (I had an aisle seat so he walked right past me), up to say hi to the guy. They hit the house lights so everyone could see. Adam Hills asked them if they wanted better seats, offered them one of the boxes, saying the management couldn't kick us all out, and then walked them down to the box along the balcony, and dropped down from the box on to the stage.

It was so so good. It wasn't laugh-til-you-hurt stuff, a lot of the time there was more clapping and cheering to be heard than laughter, but that doesn't mean everyone wasn't having a great time. He sang Bon Jovi in one story, Bohemian Rhapsody (with audience participation) for a woman in the front row's birthday, and at the end did his party piece, which is singing the National Anthem to the tune of Working Class Man.

Seriously, I feel sorry for you if you aren't Australian and so don't know him, and I feel sorry for you if you haven't seen him live. It was Excellent.