15,000

While playing Resident Evil 5, I managed to get my XBox Live Gamerscore over 15,000. Despite my early struggles with the game, a look at an on-line walk through helped me realize where I was making my mistakes early in the game. As of now, I am halfway through the game. I would at least like to get through one play through of the game before I return it on Tuesday evening.

There is really no specific benefit to getting 15,000. If anything, it just feels good to be playing video games again. Lately, I have been so busy with work and other obligations that I have not had much time to play anything. Christa and I haven't played Rock Band in weeks. That should change after June 5, when she is done with student teaching and I am done with the 17-week semester's obligations.

Here's to 15,000...a geek milestone.

A Gaming Break

For the first time in...well, weeks...I think I might have a few days to bust out the XBox 360 and play a few games. In fact, I may rent a game tonight and get a few hours in. That's if I don't crash early. May Godfather 2?

Needless to say, this week has been crazy for both Christa and I. We have been driving all over the place and haven't had much time to rest. We are both looking forward to a weekend where we can go home and visits the moms for Mother's Day.

Peggle

As with many things in life, I am late to catch on to the latest trends out there. If there's a new video out there on YouTube that is all the rage, I am the last to know about it. One of my staff members let me know about Kittens Inspired by Kittens. Apparently this has been popular for months...guess I missed out. I must say that I caught on the Susan Boyle phenomenon quicker than many, but that was because of my dad.

Just last night, I downloaded a new game for the XBox 360 called Peggle. This game came out for the PC in 2007, and several other editions have come out in the last few years. I finally caught on and started playing the game. It is addictive. Again I miss out on the latest trends ;).

The Spring Break Agenda

As I stated in an earlier post, I will be attending a mediation training during the day Monday-Friday next week. That still leaves two weekends and some evenings without the normal evening routines. So what's on tap with all this free time?

• Christa I will finally be able to watch The Watchmen. Our weekends have not lined up very well, so without class we will have the chance to see it. There are so many people to talk with about it once we have seen it.
• We were sent Munich through the mail for Netflix, which Christa and I both want to see. Depending on how quickly we get to it, we could get the last episose of Planet Earth before spring break is over.
• I purchase Left 4 Dead, a game that Christa and I both enjoyed playing. When you combine that with the new songs we downloaded for Rock Band 2, we should have a good time gaming next week as well.
• Hopefully, I will have a chance to work ahead on some stuff for gaming. We only have so many weeks left in the spring semester to play.
• Our church will be having a long term ministry planning meeting on Tuesday. I am excited and intrigued to hear from my fellow parishioners about their ideas for the church.

Alas, all of that awaits once we have closed the building, which occurs at 8:00 PM tonight.

Resources Utilized

Tomorrow, Christa and I will be traveling to the New London United Methodist Church to preside over their two morning worship services. With Christa at her parent's house for the day, I have had some quiet time to pull everything together. What was most moving today was seeing all of the resources that I have gathered over the last year putting put to use. I was able to use the Interpreter's Bible that I received from Harry, the Book of Worship I purchased for licensing school, along the Concordance of the Bible I recently purchased. To see all these books laid out was really neat to see.

I feel as though I did a pretty decent job of bringing together all three scripture lessons together into a compact, but meaningful service.

Other News:

1. I finished a run through of Fallout 3. I didn't realize that the game was going to be over until the last mission started. It seemed abrupt. Apparently, there is a lot of game left to explore that I missed.
2. Christa realized that with her needing the car for student teaching I won't have a way to make it my Disciple bible class. We'll need to think of a solution :(.
3. It's amazing how much more free time is available when the football season is pretty much done.
   

Some Serious Rock Band 2

Last night, a group of folks gathered together to tackle the 84 song Endless List on Rock Band 2. It took us 6 hours and 45 minutes, but we got through it together. We completed the set list on the hard difficult with all instruments.

Thank you to the following folks for helping out:
Tony Bushner (designated drummer and guitar help when the going got quite rough)
Isaac (my little brother, played guitar and bass)
Mark Medinger (provided vocals, guitar and base help)
Robbie "Poptart" Last (drum support)
Kim Hansen (vocal support and drum help)
Christine Bono (who helped on vocals and guitar)
Ryan Demmon (who helped on vocals, bass and guitar)
Pat Hager (who rocked out a little on bass)

Darci Wildermuth, Argelia Velasquez, Jacey Holcomb & Molly Kopplin for offering moral support through the evening.

I had the chance to rock out on vocals for a good majority of the songs, and got to play one song on drums, a few a guitar and a few on bass. Christa sang one song and played bass on several, including the last few songs at the end....yeesh!

We generally did very well! Ace of Spades gave us some trouble. We failed that song three times before we made it through. We had to distribute out star power carefully. There was one song that had such tough parts we had to split the drum set into one person doing bass pedal and one person doing the top set. It worked out great!

My sincere thanks to everyone that helped out with the experience. I had a lot of fun and hope that you did, too!

Final Thought...
It's just Facebook, right? It's hard to believe something like that could actually happen. People do take Facebook that serious.

Mequon Update

I write to you from Mequon, WI. I am hanging out at my parent's house for the weekend! The Christmas celebration was great, with three meals of great food:

1. Breakfast in Oshkosh (eggs, bacon, hash browns and homemade waffles :) )
2. Lunch in Mequon (prime rib!)
3. Dinner in Sussex (ham, pot roast and lots of other food)

I did get some wonderful gifts (and many gift certificates). Christa and I are also proud of the gifts that we got for others.

My mom had an avulsion fracture on her foot. The swelling had gone down, but it is still pretty painful and she will have more tests to find out exactly what is going on. Prayers would be appreciated so that her recovery might be as quick as possible.

I have appreciated the time to relax, with some reading and video game playing sprinkled in. My Dad ran an internet cord into the guest room, so I am able to use XBox live while I am at home. That is pretty cool!

The Post Semester Report

Hey folks! I know it's been awhile. The 14-week fall semester is over and UWO students now have a three week break until the three week fall interim. If they don't have an interim class, they have a seven week break! As a 12-month employee, I need to take vacation to have any time off. I will be taking the next two weeks off, but decided to do some work this week.

I would definitely say that motivation has been a struggle as there are no students around, but I have been productive in working ahead in working ahead on items that would have otherwise needed to be taken care of during interim.

Christa and I have officially signed up for Netflix as our two week trial has run out. I think being members of Netflix will allow us to watch more movie for less money. We really enjoy watching movies and we appreciate the flexibility Netflix offers. also having the option to watch movies instantly with the XBox 360 only sweetens the deal.

This Sunday, I will be participating in the performance of a Bach Cantata at our church service. I will be performing the bass solo and singing with the choir. Even though I haven't been able to sing in the choir throughout the semester, I was able to make the last few rehearsals because school being over. It has been nice to be back with the group. If my schedule isn't quite as crazy on Wednesdays, perhaps I can sing with the choir in the spring semester.

When I got the red ring of death on my XBox and had it fixed, they gave us a free month of XBox Live with it as well. I attempted to use it for Christa's account, but her original account got corrupted. We created a new one and we have been able to play Rock Band 2 on-line. She is going to rent a few games and try them out on the 360.

Having the next two weeks off will definitely free up some time to play some games that have come out recently. On my to play list:

1. Fallout 3
2. Call of Duty: World at War
3. Grand Theft Auto 4
4. Left 4 Dead
   

It's Fixed!

I received an E-mail early this morning letting me know that my XBox 360 has been repaired and it is on its way back via UPS. So...my guess is that I make its way back just a few days after I leave for two weeks. Funny how these things work. Regardless of the timing, it will be nice to have it back when I return from Dubuque.

Other News:

• The Brewers swept the Cardinals! They have one eight in a row and went 7-0 on a road trip. It's really unbelievable. Hopefully Brewer fever will draw folks away from all the Favre nonsense.
• I am looking forward to watching The Dark Knight tomorrow! Word is that this movie is amazing...I am curious to find out for myself.

A Mid-Week Update

I thought I would let everyone know the news at the middle of the week. As I have mentioned several times already, I leave Sunday for License to Preach School. The weekend was busier than I anticipated, but I got a lot of work done. Other this week in the evening, I am reading my last book and putting together the final drafts of my papers. I should be able to have everything done and still be able to spend some time with Christa, including seeing The Dark Knight.

The Brewers have won their first two games against the Cardinals and are only one game behind the Cubs for first place in the NL Central. Let's hope they keep this up. The last two games against the Cardinals have Sheets and Sabathia pitching. We should fair well!

My XBox 360 made its way to Mesquite, TX and is currently sitting in the customer service station waiting to be fixed. From this point, they say it will take 2-3 weeks to be fixed. No matter what, I will be sitting in Dubuque when it finally gets fixed.

I found out today that I will be representing the Oshkosh Placement Exchange along with a A/RHD to be determined. We will be traveling to North Carolina A&T to present about OPE along with job searching in the field of student affairs. I am willing looking forward to this trip!

The "Red Ring of Death"...

I mentioned yesterday that my XBox 360 is broken. *sigh* Over the last few weeks, Christa and I would be playing Rock Band and our 360 would just freeze up. Every once in a while, this might happen throughout my ownership of it, but they were becoming more frequent. In the last week, it froze up every time we played a game. While I was playing AD&D downstairs, Christa was trying to play Rock Band and it froze up not too long after she started. On Sunday, we got the urge to play and a few freezes later, the red ring arrived.

My 360 was originally only under warranty for one year, but they make an exception for the red ring problem and extended it to three years. The process to have it fixed is by no means quick, but the Microsoft website laid out the procedures fairly well. Microsoft will be mailing me a box that I will send by 360 in. When it arrives at Microsoft, it will take 2-3 weeks to have the machine fixed and sent back to me. They will only fix the red ring issue.

It is a bummer that I can't play games. It is probably for the best right now as I do have a lot of work to do before I leave for Dubuque.

Shadowrun

In addition to renting Bobby, I also rented Shadowrun for the XBox 360. When Nick brought his XBox 360 over for the bachelor party, I had the opportunity to watch him play the demo for the game. From what I saw, it looked pretty cool. Before jumping in and buying the game, I took the opportunity to rent the title. I have played through the six training sessions and have played a few multi-player games with computer bots. So far, I would submit the following thoughts:

Pros

• While not role-playing, it has enough elements to be passable.
• I appreciate the magic/tech enhancements and how they make combat fun. Nothing like having a machine gun, but also having the ability to fly and pass through walls. You don't usually expect that.
• Races allow you to pursue RPG-like classes. Elves make good healers, Trolls good fighters, Dwarves actually have some thief-like abilities.
• Matches consist of a series of games, so one match can take some time. You earn money for doing good stuff and you can buy enhancements. It's a unique system.

Cons

• As many folks have commented, there is no campaign mode. Given the deep RPG background of the Shadowrun game, it would seem to cater itself to a campaign mode.
• For $60 new, you don't get a whole lot of variety. Nine boards, 4 races, eight weapons and various enhancements. I can see this game getting old after awhile and it doesn't seem to warrant the price tag.
• Switching between magic and tech enhancements can be confusing and time consuming. You also only have 10 seconds between rounds to buy enhancements. I wish you could modify this.

Overall, this is a game that I might buy when it comes down from its initial price tag. I can see paying $30 for a used copy, but not $60 for a new copy.