I know everyone has been concerned about my Xbox, I know I have been. It has been nearly a month since my Xbox 360 was stricken with the dreaded Red Ring of Death. The flashing red lights mocked me while I was trying to watch some Netflix streaming.
For those who don’t know, the flashing Red lights on the Xbox indicates a hardware problem, a frequent problem for 360 owners. I had mine for a little more than a year before it went Red. That seems a little quick in my opinion.
It has been shipped and Microsoft has confirmed that it’s on the way back home. In fact according to UPS it should be back here Monday.
I know I’m not alone in the whole loss of my Xbox 360 for a long period of time and in the pantheon of problems this isn’t really a big problem but I do miss the ability to pop in a new game and have fun.
I have been playing my original Xbox off and on, going through some of the games that don’t play on the 360 but it just isn’t the same. Come home soon Mr. 360, we have missed you.
As I am sitting on my sofa watching some television, I have a box sitting next to me that should be a part of all those nice shinny electronics near my television. Today my Xbox 360 finally succumb to the RRoD.
For those who don’t know, the RRoD (Red Ring of Death) is a problem the 360 has been known to have for quite some time. It’s a hardware crash that requires repair. It is supposed to be a easy fix, but for some reason it doesn’t feel as painless as Microsoft would like us to believe.
I got my Xbox 360 last February. I’m disturbed that only a year and change into the console’s working life it would fail like this. If it had a couple years under its belt I would feel better about the whole thing.
Microsoft had been spending the last few months gaining some good will from me. Windows 7 was looking good, the new Zune HD was a compelling product and everything they were showing at E3 with the 360 was looking exceptional.
I’m not ready to give up on the 360 as a platform. I have put a lot of money into games and the service in general, but it is disheartening to have these kinds of problems in what could be a all in one movie/game/television/music device. Shame on you Microsoft. You could have spent a little more time early on and addressed these problems before they ever were problems.
My repair request is in and I just received my confirmation. It shouldn’t cost me anything which is nice, but it’s still a major annoyance. At least I’ll have it before Halo 3 ODST comes out. This just reminds me why I find Microsoft’s products to be less than some of its competitors (cough Apple, cough).
I have spent the last few days fighting the flu for the year. It seemed to make its first strike on Tuesday which was problematic. See my Tuesdays are now spent laying out three newspapers. I of course have help along the way, but the point was in the midst of a late winter snow blast and an attempt to redact two pages out of each paper I was fighting to stay contentious.
I can’t thank my team enough for the hard work they’re doing. Newspapers often come under fire for missing something or an error here and there. Trust me folks, this is not easy work and the people who do the work care deeply about what they are doing.
The industry is facing some difficult times. For those who think we’re blind to this fact, trust me – we know we need to change. There are constant conversations going on behind the doors of newspaper offices around the world. I’m trying to take a proactive approach and I plan to work on looking at possible avenues for the three papers I work on.
There are no simple answers here, but there is one undeniable truth. Local news comes from your local newspapers. While radio and television do a fine job delivering small chuncks, it is ultimately up to the newspapers to produce in depth and well thought out coverage of the events that affect you directly. I encourage you to continue supporting your local newspapers while we move into this transition period. It’s going to happen faster than some people want, but it is going to happen.
I’ll post some of my views on how this is going to shake out from time to time. For now, go pick up your towns paper and give it a read. You might learn something you didn’t find online.
After a major snow storm on Thursday I wasn’t sure if heading to St. Paul for the Jonathan Coulton show Friday was really going to happen. Of course the weather held out so Derek and I decided to brave the drive (with the aid of a nice new GPS unit).
I have been listening to Coulton for a few years through various sources (starting out with podcasts, youtube and random Mp3s). His shows are pretty unique simply in the volume of fan knowledge of his catalog. Zombies anyone?
Paul and Storm opened the show and nearly gave me a head ache – from laughing so much. Amazing job from them. Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, the robots from Mystery Science Theater 3000 showed up to add a little “ARRRRRR” to the show.
Coulton wouldn’t be outdone with special guests with author, artist and all around awesome dude Neil Gaiman showing up on stage to help out with “Creepy Doll.”
Most of the favorites were played and everyone geeked out. Great time had by all.
P.S. If you don’t know who Jonathan Coulton is, educate yourself, you’ll be a fan soon enough.
I am nearly a month into my new job as managing editor for the Tyler Tribute and it’s sister papers but I have to admit my touch on the pulse of pop culture around the world has been a little weak nearly since day one. I’m working to correct that, but it’s going to take time.
This all happened during the Oscar time. Normally I have a pretty good pulse on things, but this year I had a few misses including best actor, actress and director. I really shouldn’t be surprised by the out come. The word on “Slumdog Millionaire” was nearly deafening. I did have it up for best picture, but I wasn’t expecting our old friend Danny “Trainspotting” Boyle would come up with best director.
The man who gave us “38 Days Later” was not someone I expected the film industry would recognize. He is an amazing talent and I’m glad to see he got some props for his work. I can’t wait to see “Slumdog,” it’s going to be on DVD so my wait is a few months longer I’m sure.
On a completely different, non-Oscar related kick, it now looks like “Fanboys” is finally coming to Minnesota. For those who don’t know about the flick, it’s the story of a group of friends with the goal of seeing “Star Wars: Episode I” before it was released back in 1999. One of the characters has cancer and wants to see the flick before he dies.
I first heard about this movie years before it was green-lit for production. To see it made, knowing the saga it went through – one that rivals that of THE SAGA – is impressive. I’m planning a trip to the cities this weekend to see Jonathan Coulton and I might try to slip into a theater to see the movie before hand, not likely but I’m going to at least tell myself I’ll try.
Around this time last year discussions started about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” The discussions generally centered around the fact that ledger had recently passed away. While I had expected great things from Ledger in the film based on short clips and photos, I was a little apprehensive about the way people were talking in light of his passing.
Months after Ledger died “The Dark Knight” was finally released and it turned out, the hype surrounding Ledger’s Joker wasn’t all hot air. He delivered an amazing performance that truly deserves recognition during this years Academy Awards. He is up for supporting actor and it seems he is a lock in for the win.
Ledger’s role in the latest Batman flick isn’t the only transformative performance to hit the silver screen this year. Mickey Rorke’s performance as “Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson” in “The Wrestler” has become an obvious choice for best actor.
While I haven’t seen The Wrestler myself, nor the apparent shoe in for best picture “Slumdog Millionaire” but both films feel like true masterpiece work for the film makers.
Here are a few of my picks for various categories:
Picture: Slumdog Millionaire Director: David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Actor:Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler Actress: Meryl Streep – Doubt Supporting actor: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight Supporting actress: Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler Animated: Wall-E
Sure there are more categories, but that’s where I’m looking at this point.
I won’t be watching the Academy Awards live this year but my TiVo is set, with an additional hour for the obvious long speeches, so we’ll see what happens with this years show.
A few weeks ago I posted a cryptic post about how I had some sort of big news coming, but I failed to follow through with what exactly that was. A little over one week ago I started a position as managing editor for the Tyler Tribute, Hendricks Pioneer and Lake Benton News newspapers.
At some point I will expound on all of this, but I haven’t really sat down to think about what it all means myself. My team helped push out three quality papers last week and we’re preparing to set out another group of papers in the next couple days.
I worked for the Marshall Independent newspaper for more then five years. I enjoyed nearly every moment of my time there and I can not thank those i worked with enough. I will continue to read the quality work done by the writers and editors of the Independent. They do a lot with limited resources and continue to produce strong content.
