The older I get the more I want nothing to do with scary rides at amusement parks. This summer has done nothing to
persuade me otherwise...
The only time I watch Fox (blech) News is at the gym and then it is only glances here and there while I'm doing cardio. I have noticed that they spend a lot of time talking about Rosie O'Donnell. Consistently. Almost every time I am there. Yesterday it was for almost 15 minutes in a segment called Rosie's Rants. Interesting.
I still don't feel 100% after coming back from Germany. The jet lag has left me tired and happy I didn't have to travel this week.
I think my chances of seeing the Spice Girls in concert are pretty bad. Evidently 1 million people have signed up for 11 concerts so far.
Don't freak out but I'm going to say something nice about Microsoft. My XBOX 360, built in 2005, had the dreaded 3 red rings of death meaning the hardware failed. I called to get it fixed and they told me it was out of warranty so it would cost me $140 to fix. Well Microsoft has admitted to production problems with consoles made in 2005 so why should I pay for them to fix their mistake? I waited about a month, called back and asked again that they fix it for free since it was their (admitted) issue. The lady tried to tell me that I had bought the console in May 2007 (2 months ago) when I actually bought it in November of 2005. OK so that wasn't the nice part. I told her about the 2005 issue and after doing some research she told me that the offer to fix 2005 consoles was a limited time offer. I explained that I travel every week and therefore don't play it nearly as much as these young whippersnappers these days and that's why it took so long to break. She didn't budge. I told her she had lost a Microsoft customer and I was just as happy with my Wii and I would obviously not be buying any more 360 games or accessories. She asked if she had satisfied me and I said, "well no, if you had wanted to satisfy me you would have made me an exception to your limited-time rule and you would fix my console which was clearly manufactured in a period where you were having production problems." "Well sir, I'm not authorized to make that kind of exception." "You could talk to your supervisor and get an exception if your goal is truly to provide exceptional service as you have told me." So a few minutes later after talking to her supervisor (or not?) she approved the exception and in a month or so I should have a fixed XBOX 360. OK so only the very last part was nice, for the rest she was just an idiot.
Speaking of gaming, check out
Overlord. Or at least check out the
demo. Having your minions kill rabid flesh eating unicorns? HIlarious! Really, it's a very funny game.
Microsoft has actually listened! Due to an amazing hardware failure rate (a recent survey of console-selling companies lists the XBOX 360 failure rate at about 37%, the PS3 rate at 1% and the Wii rate at 0%), Microsoft has agreed to extend the warranty for all XBOX 360s to 3 years. Here's betting their next console goes through a more rigorous testing process.
Skip and I finally got to play ExciteTruck last weekend (fun, but not enough depth to buy). Yesterday I was in a mall that had a huge kiosk with five different systems for use. Four were devoted to different Wii Sports games (it comes free with the system, Tennis, Boxing, Bowling, Baseball) and the last one was for the new Legend of Zelda game. Now I have never played a Zelda game ever but I can't wait to have this one. It used the Wiimote and the numchuck and was just so easy to pick up and play. I played more than 10 games of tennis. Tennis is amazing fun and I can't wait to start refining my shots so they go exactly where I want. I was lucky enough to get a preorder in with Amazon (I'm not crazy enough to wait in these long lines) but god only knows when Amazon will actually ship.
