The Prodigal Son Has Returned
Three weeks… Three weeks without my Xbox. Red ring of death is now officially my worst enemy.
Anyways, the Xbox is back and so far it works just fine. Microsoft sent me a replacement unit and I am pretty sure that it is one of the new units. It is super quiet and runs much faster with no slowdown jerks like before. I just really hope it works for a long time.
I had been waiting for the last three days, expecting it to come in the mail. I never received any updates over email or phone like I was told I would by customer support. I called to check on the status on Saturday and got the message that my case was repaired and was being shipped back to me. Expect it in approximately five days yada yada yada. No tracking number. No idea if it was being shipped by UPS or FEDEX. Just clueless and hoping that it will come on a day where I can come home early enough to sign for it.
Fast forward to yesterday. I have already come home early just to check for the last three days. Every time getting excited that I will hear the doorbell and be greeted with open arms and be handed my gaming toy. Getting more and more pissed each day. Finally last night I came home and saw the UPS truck parked outside my apartment complex. I rush over with groceries in hand and call to the guy I can hear shuffling in the back of the truck. I ask if he had any deliveries for my apartment and he looks at me crazy and tells me no. I swear the guy was on crack. Crazy eyes he had. No big surprise where I live though
I then decide to walk up to the apartment and unload when I see a door tag hanging off of the front of my door. I grab it and start reading when I get inside. FED EX… That explains why it took so much longer. I had heard that it would take forever if they were shipping it. Damn. Okay well, they tried to deliver it about 15 minutes ago. Son of a… Don’t they realize that most people work a 8-5 job and aren’t home by 4:45pm. Why the hell do they try and deliver something that requires a freaking signature when they know we’re not going to be home. I digress. No location number to call for pickup just a promise that they will bring it by tomorrow and if you leave your signature here we will leave your $350 brick on your doorstep in one of the worst neighborhoods in Charlotte. Screw that.
I call up the 1-800 number and get about as much assistance from that as I do from calling the Microsoft help line. They give me three addresses of drop boxes but it takes me talking to my wife to find out that there is a FED EX location right down the road. So, drive down there and find out that they aren’t a FED EX Ground location. I had no idea there was a difference. The people there are new and tell me that and they don’t know much about how the system works. The lady tell me that she knows of the main distribution plant on CSX Way off of Freedom Drive. Half way across town from me. I explain how important the package is and is there anyway she can find out if my package is there. I don’t want to drive 15 minutes and find out its at another location. I guess she thought I had some important documents or something to deliver so she took pity and called the same 1-800 number I did and punched in a number to talk to a live person. Son of a bitch. I wish I would have watched what she punched in. I could probably sell it and make some money from other disgruntled customers like me.
Anyways, she talks to the lady on the other end and hand me the phone. I give my information to her and she says its there and they allow pickups until 8pm. Its 7pm now so I get the address from her and thank the people there for helping me out. I plug the address into my phone and hightail it out of there. 20 minutes and a 1/4 tank of gas later I am standing in front of a huge warehouse with trucks buzzing by everywhere. I find a guy walking around the parking lot and ask him where I am supposed to go and he points to a guard shack on the lot. I go in and tell the guy I need to pick up and he calls someone and has me give him the DT number and my name and address and 10 minutes later the guy shows up carrying my package. He laughs and asks if its an XBox. I say yeah and he tells me about 2 other people that had come to pick theirs up in the last couple days. One guy had been there four times already. He tells me that he and his wife were wanting to get one for the kids and that after seeing all this he is going to get a PS3. I talked about how that has its own problems but if he wants to he can. I wish I had written down his name because he was a really nice guy and I wish I could have given him a recommendation.
So, I have my box in hand and drive home. Figure out that my GPS thing took me through Downtown for no damn reason and all I had to do was I85. So, I get home and start making some Miso soup while waiting for Sarah to get home. When she does she takes over and begins making our tofu stir fry I found a recipe for and I go to start plugging in the Xbox. I get everything plugged in and turn it on and it powers up with nothing on the screen. I try it four more times and I am starting to get worried. I check all of the connections and everything is fine. Finally out of desperation I push the eject button and everything springs to life. Damn, they should put that on the box. Please press eject button. Please do not throw Xbox just because it won’t turn on.
So yeah. Sarah and I ate and I let her play for the majority of the night while I played Roller Coaster Tycoon III. I had bought this hoping that it would come in time to fill the gaming void I had been having. Just so happened to show up the same day as the Xbox. I played that for awhile and liked it but got frustrated and went to lie down on the couch and watch Sarah play some Viva Pinata. Finally around 11pm I got on and played some and then we went to bed.
So, hopefully it will keep working. I am really wanting to fill out the survey on my experience with Microsoft Support when I get home. I just hope I don’t have to deal with them ever again.
Alas Poor Xbox, I Knew You a Little
I just thought I would add my experience to the long list of others who have had their favorite consoles pass on to the Great Red Ring in the Sky. (By the way I’m trademarking that so don’t steal it) 
Anyways, My wife and I decided to buy the Xbox from my friend for a decent price. He wanted to upgrade to an Elite and I just wanted to play Oblivion and Mass Effect so I didn’t care what kind I had. I had played on his several times. I even got to watch his house for two weeks so I got to play tons then. The Xbox was perfect. That was a big selling point. I was tempted to buy another used one instead but decided to go with his since I knew it worked well.
So, my wife buys it for me for Christmas and gives it to me while we are at her family’s house. I had to wait a day to get it home and play with it. A long wait I know but it was worth it when I turned it on for the first time saw that glowing green orb. I tried out Viva Pinata first since we only had two games, Viva Pinata and Crackdown (Mercifully lent to us by her brother). We both worked on our gardens for a good 6 hours and during a long save on her garden it froze. It was late so we decided to just turn it off and go on to bed. Next day I got off work a bit early to play some Crackdown and start it up. I put in the disk and it freezes at the developer’s screen. I try it 12 more times (No joke, I’m thorough) and it does it every single time at the same spot. Okay, so Crackdown is a loss, I will try Viva Pinata. It gives me the error message about putting the disk into an Xbox 360 five times out of ten. Rinse and repeat.
Fast forward about a week and I have had it with this thing failing on me. My mother in law found a code to clear the cache and that made it work for a few days but then it all starts up again. I keep getting the errors and it just wont read disks anymore. I had already called support and they had me go through the little dance steps of taking out my hard drive and such. Then they told me that the warranty was expired and that I could send it in and have it fixed for the low low price of $90. I barely have enough money to make rent and they want another $90 to send me a furby? Crap…
So, I tell them I will hold off on sending it in. I want to search and see if I can figure out another way of doing this. Not having the internet at the house really messes this process up a lot. The only way I can access the internet is through work and the filters there block out just about every gaming site I can look up. Anyways, it doesn’t matter because the next day I try and fire it up and it gives me the disk read error again. I try to reset it and blink blink blink I see three flashing red lights. This my friends is called the “Red Ring of Death” or RROD. I turn it off really quick because I’m thinking it is over heating and wait a few minutes and try it again.
Blink blink blink…
I’m pretty pissed because I had the night planned and now I have nothing to do. I look up what to do when I get to work the next day and find out that Microsoft has extended the warranty to three years in RROD cases. Sweet. Now I just have to listen to Max for another hour before I finally get to talk to a human being who can’t speak my language.
Overjoyed am I.
So, I go about calling support again and tell them that I have the ring now and they say that they will cover the cost of shipping and send me a box and fix it for free. Pissed that I don’t have a working Xbox but happy I will be getting a “New” one soon. Now, it has been five “business” days (actually a full week) and no coffin (sorry shipping box) in sight. Every day I come home and have my hopes dashed as I see no box. Then I check the mailbox to see if maybe the postman didn’t deliver it because no one was home. He seems to do that a lot.
*Side Note* What the hell? I order a package and they deliver it while I am at work. They leave me a not saying they tried to deliver it and its now at your local post office. First off, who is home at 2:30pm when they try and deliver it. The only person I know who would be home is my brother in law and that is because he works 3rd shift. Secondly, if they have it at the post office make it so the post office doesn’t close at 5pm when everyone is getting off work. I have to wait until Saturday before I can even pick up something that was supposed to be delivered on Monday. That is, if they haven’t sent it back to the shipper. Geez.
Anyways, I eagerly await my box so I can actually ship the Xbox off. Then I just have to wait, what people say on average will be 6-8 weeks, for it to come back. Then I have to pray to the gaming gods that the one they sent me back was repaired correctly and doesn’t spontaneously combust the second I turn it on. All I want is to be able to play Viva Pinata. Is that so bad?
Dave
Time is Ticking Away
Yeah, I definitely forgot to change the blog time to EST. So, just subtract 5 hrs from anything I posted and it will be correct.
My bad.
My Hat, My Sad Sad Hat
So, my nice green hat that I had posted about a few days, I mean months, ago is kaput. I finally finished it. I was so happy. I loved the way it looked and had stayed up an extra 30 min while trying to finish it. “Just a couple more minutes,” I kept telling my wife. Finally I stitched the last bit together with my needle and yarn. Then I tried it on. Snap! The cast on thread snapped and unraveled. I knew that the thread was thin and it had snapped a few times while I was making it. I didn’t expect it to break when i was finished and everything was so neatly stitched together.
I was wrong. My eyes went red and I just tossed it away. I had been working on an off for a couple months and all that was gone. I had no idea how to repair it so I just frogged the whole thing an left it as a learning experience. If I ever do use that type of yarn again I will definitely use a second strand to back it up.
So, now I will be setting my sights on a a nice cabled scarf as soon as I can find the wool yarn I need.
(#242) 365 Days – Day15
Just a quick picture of me. I finally got my long-wanted glasses. My wife says they remind her of Clark Kent. So, I am now “Superman.”
365 Days – Day14
365 Days – Day 13
So, I haven’t been very good about posting my daily shots. Mostly because I haven’t had any to post. Been in a bit of a slump recently. I was perusing my Flickr page and saw this though. I had apparently forgotten to post it back in August. So, here you go. I really like this shot. I wish I had realized that my headphones were on though. Not that they destroy the shot, but I think it hurts it a bit.
Stage 1 of New Hat
This is a new hat from the same design as the last one. So far I think I am doing much better at keeping to the pattern. I am using a great squishy avocado chenille yarn by Yarn Bee. I love the feel but the yarn itself is very weak and has snapped on my twice while starting. I decided to change the pattern a bit and start with 90 st instead of 100 because the previous hat was a bit loose.
Pattern by Stephanie can be found here.
My First Hat
So, I started knitting awhile back and finally got the needles I needed to start making hats. Here is my first attempt. It got royally messed up. It is supposed to be ribbed and is on the top half. I was completely distracted so I kept miscounting and forgetting where I was.
I really liked the pattern though and I will be making more.
The pattern can be found here.
A Little Bit of Literature
So, for the past two years (More off than on) I have been trying to put together a fantasy novel. It all started with a two week D&D session with my friend Ryan and a year later we both had the idea or writing a book based on the story we had in the game. So here for the first time is the first chapter of the novel. I have a lot more done than this and even the first chapter is still up in the air and needs a lot of work but i felt like I should put it up here. So, without further ado I present Chapter 1.
Chapter 1:
The Birth
Thump! For a second time the baby sent an aggravated kick inside her stomach. Felicia rubbed her round belly and hummed a soft melody trying to calm the child inside of her.
“The little one must be getting as tired of this ride as we are.” Demidas said, looking at his wife.
The newly wed couple was on their way to the city of Silvergleam. Felicia was near the end of her pregnancy and feeling every bit of the bumpy ride in the covered wagon. They had asked a caravan leader if they could ride with the next caravan out of their hometown Jethton Falls. After a bit of negotiating on a fair price for the trip they set on their way.
Now, on their fifth day of traveling, the couple was beginning to feel the pain of the road. After opening a skin of water, Demidas ran his fingers through his wife’s long brown hair. He handed the skin to her and she drank until the parched feeling in her throat subsided. When she finished Demidas drank and stowed the skin back in his bag.
Despite winter being a few months off, a chill ran through Felicia. Something seemed different today. The last few days of travel had been uneventful, sometimes even boring. They had left the farmlands surrounding Jethton Falls and were now in a thick wooded area that, according to the driver, was only a few days from their destination of Silvergleam.
Night was beginning to fall around them as the couple decided to go to the back of the wagon and settle in for another rough night’s sleep. Demidas laid out the furs and blankets they would sleep on and helped his wife over onto the makeshift bed.
“Just a few more days and we will be at our new home,” Demidas said. “Just a few more days and all will be fine.”
♦♦♦
“I don’t understand this.” Lian muttered to no one in particular. “Why would they have so many of us commissioned for such a boring ride?”
Lian was riding in the second in the long line of wagons headed to Silvergleam. He scanned the wagon and saw four other men also hired to protect this train. Two were asleep and the other two nodded their head with a mix of agreement and boredom.
“I’ve heard that Humphry is one of those nervous types.” Jore, the closest guard, said. “Seems he’s had a few too many encounters in this part of the world and doesn’t want to have his train taken down again.”
“True, but I still don’t understand why so many of us have to be here. A train this size could do with only half the number we have.”
♦♦♦
The wagons pulled down the well-worn path leading to the city of Silvergleam. Several trains had passed through here in the last few days. Up ahead a small group of humanoid figures ran towards the head wagon and then broke for the forest.
“Keep your heads up fellas,” Humphry, the lead wagon driver, shouted back to his guards. “It looks like we have ourselves some unwanted guests!”
As if answering his call two arrows thudded into his chest driving him out of sight behind the wagon flap. His horses spooked and began driving down the path in an uncontrolled fury. The steeds, now catching speed, hit a curve in the path and tried to turn, snapping the lead and freeing them from the yoke of the wagon. Humphry’s body flew out of the wagon with his hands tightly clenched around the straps. The horses, now free of their load, ran full speed down the path dragging the lifeless corpse behind them.
The remaining drivers called for a halt as the lead wagon flipped and skidded to a crashing stop in the middle of the path before them. Arrows began thudding into the sides of the following wagons. Some tore through the cloth tops and screams pierced the air as they met with the passengers inside. Once the wagons stopped, the guards rushed out and grouped behind whatever cover they could find. Without warning, a new terror struck the hearts of the guards. Man-sized boulders were raining down from the sky all around them. One rock slammed in to a wagon and splintered it as if it were a wall made of glass. The driver inside was flung out of the wagon and landed hard on the ground. Dazed from fall, he stood and collected himself. Suddenly he jerked and staggered as an arrow sunk deep into his neck. He grabbed at the crude shaft now spilling blood onto his chest and a look of anger came over his face. Spying a small crossbow on the ground next to him he stooped down to pick it up. With his last remaining strength, he pointed the crossbow towards the trees and pulled the trigger. A bolt flew from the device as his body slumped and a loud chorus of grunts came from the forest around them.
♦♦♦
They were stuck in a clearing no more than fifty yards square. The wagons had stopped in as straight a line as the drivers could muster. On either side of the wagons was deep forest so thick the men could not see more than a few yards in.
“How many are there sir?” Jules asked, attempting to peer around the edge of the wagon he was using as cover from the hail of arrows.
“I can’t tell from where we are.” Keldge, the second in command, replied to his head of guard. “We need to get over to the other wagon if we’re gonna even try and count. You signal the men to cover me and I’ll make my way over.”
Jules looked over at the small group of hired men huddled behind the third wagon checking their weapons and preparing for battle. A smaller man named Lian looked up from the huddle and caught his commander’s eye. Jules wrapped one hand over his fist and pointed to Keldge. Lian yelled at the men around him to spread out and begin their return fire. Each man went behind cover and cocked his crossbow waiting for the signal to fire.
An arrow shot out from trees behind them and rammed itself into one man’s head pinning him to the side of the wagon behind which he was hiding. The surprised guards turned to see several humanoid figures stepping out of the woods behind them with bows drawn, each with a single man in their sight.
♦♦♦
The men sat with their backs to the wagons as they stared across the open space at the twenty orcs standing before them. Death was in the orc’s eyes as they loosed arrows at their targets. The arrows found their mark sending several guards flailing to the ground. Those that survived the first volley aimed their crossbows and let fly the return fire. Several orcs fell as the bolts pierced their thick skin. A few looked at the protruding bolts, shrugged off the pain, and began their charge.
The remaining men reloaded their crossbows and took aim one more time. The orcs rushed the wagons dropping their bows and brandishing crude spears and axes as they ran closer. The guards loosed their bolts once more and many more orcs dropped to the ground clutching their fatal wounds.
Without alarm, the volley of rocks came again from behind them. A few missed their mark completely and bounced over the wagons into the line of orcs. Several of the orcs were smashed flat as the rocks rolled over them. One rock dropped from the sky smashing through a wagon and slammed into a guard taking his life with a sickening crunch. The previous occupants of the wagon flung out into the air and landed hard on the ground before the orcs. One, a woman named Sharene, painfully brought herself to her feet and seeing the orcs near her began hobbling back towards the wagons seeking the safety of the guards. After a few steps she toppled face first to the ground with a spear sticking out of her back. The orc who threw the weapon laughed and strode forward to retrieve his weapon. He calmly placed his foot on her neck and wretched the stick from her struggling body. The woman lifted her head and stared at Jules pleading for help before finally going still.
Jules’ face twisted in a way that his men had never seen before this day. His knuckles turned white as his clenched his hilt tight and with a guttural roar he drew his sword and charged towards the orcs.
“Join ranks and run ‘em down men!” Jules barked at his men. “We’ll make these beasts pay!”
♦♦♦
There were now seven guards and just as many orcs left on the area between the tree lines. The guards drew their swords and followed their leader in the charge. The battle was quick and the orcs fell by the hands of the well-trained men in a matter of seconds. Jules called for his remaining men to hide behind the wagons once again. He signaled for Lian to come close and calmly told him his orders.
“We have a few passengers on this train left.” He said tying off a wound on his arm. “I need you to take them into the woods behind us and find a safe place to hide. Make sure they are safe and then come back here and fight.”
“Yes sir!” Lian answered, patting his commander and friend on the back. “I’ll be back in a wink of a mage’s eye.”
♦♦♦
Inside the last wagon, Demidas heard the call for the passengers to come out of the wagons. He helped his wife out of the wagon and around to the side opposite the rain of arrows and boulders.
“You find out what the guard wants,” he said to her as he retrieved his swords from the wagon. “I’m going to see what I can do to help out.”
Felicia quickly grabbed her husband’s arm and gave him a disapproving stare.
“Why must you do this?” She said tears building in her eyes. “I need you herewith me. Not out there getting killed.”
“Felicia, if you haven’t noticed we are ‘out there’. They need my help and we won’t be any safer if I just stand here doing nothing at all.”
With that, they embraced and Demidas ran off to find the man in charge, if he was still alive.
♦♦♦
Lian called for the few remaining passengers to come out of the wagons and to follow him into the woods when a man of no more than thirty came to him with two swords in his hands.
“Sir, name’s Demidas and I’d like to help with the attack if I can. I’m pretty good with the sword and wouldn’t mind getting this trip back on its way.”
“Aye, I remember you from the cards game last night.” Lian said with a hint of a smile. Alright, get over there with the rest of the crew and see where they can fit ya.” “Just don’t get yourself killed. I need a chance to win back the coins you took from me.”
With that said Demidas smiled and ran towards the other men preparing for the coming attack. Lian shook his head slightly and began walking towards the group of passengers waiting to make their way into the woods.
“What in the world is he going to do?” Lian thought to himself. “We have four men left besides Keldge, Jules, and myself. They are going to get themselves run down. Who knows what is in those woods throwing the rocks down on us.”
Lian surveyed the group in front of him and sighed heavily. “This is just wonderful, four women, one of which is pregnant, three men, and two kids.”
“Well folks, let get this started.” He said with a new determination. “I want you three to get over there with the fighting crew,” He said pointing at the men, “they need all the help they can muster. To the rest of you, follow me into the woods so we can keep you out of harms way. Please, keep your children with you at all times.
I don’t want to go racing through the forest looking after one of them because you decided to get lazy about it.”
Lian walked over to the pregnant woman and gave her a knowing smile.
“Are you up to a bit of running?” He said.
“Do I have a choice in the matter?” She replied with a smirk.
Lian smiled once again and noticed her eyes leave his and wander over to the man with the swords who spoke to him just a moment ago.
“Don’t worry ma’am he’ll be fine. If the fight gets to hairy Keldge will pull em out and follow us in the woods.”
He put a comforting hand on her shoulder and turned to speak to the rest of the group,
“Alright, enough chit chat lets move out!”
♦♦♦
The battle came quick like an assassin’s blade homing in for the kill and the men huddled together, after Keldge made sure everyone was armed and stood in as tight a formation as they could muster. Ahead of them coming out of the woods was a massive force of roughly thirty orcs and two huge creatures; the likes of which no one in the crew had seen before. They were human in appearance, heavily scarred and tattooed, and much larger than the six foot tall orcs in front of them. They towered at least eight feet tall and looked like they could crush a man’s skull in one blow. The nine men looked around and spied their leader shaking his head slowly.
The mass of orcs gained speed and instead of coming straight for them, turned slightly to the east headed straight for the fleeing women and children.
“They’re after the women! Keldge called out. Cut them off now!”
♦♦♦
Keldge half ran and half dove into the foray swinging his sword into the readied axe of a heavily scarred orc. A quick dodge to the left gave him the opportunity to miss the axe and he thrust his sword through the beast’s chest and into its heart. The orc still stood but Keldge did not have time to finish the job, as another orc was coming in fast with its spear held out ready to skewer him. A blade flashed in front of him and the man named Demidas caught the shaft of the spear splintering it in two before it could run into his leader. Demidas flashed a quick smile and a wink at Keldge and lunged for the next orc in the line.
Sparks flew as Demidas caught an axe swinging towards his head with his sword. He turned and kicked the beast, sending it tumbling backwards into another orc’s spear. The orc flashed a surprised look to Demidas as the spear tore out of its chest carrying with it a fountain of blood. The orc holding the spear struggled to kick the corpse off the weapon and finally let go in anger. It quickly picked up the fallen orc’s axe and ran towards Demidas swinging wildly. Demidas flung one of his swords at the flailing beast and caught it square in the chest. The orc gasped and fell forward driving the blade further into its heart. After a few quick spasms, the orc lay still and Demidas flipped it over and retrieved the blood-covered blade. Suddenly a massive fist threw Demidas to his back. One of his blades flew from his hand, and everything went hazy. Shaking cobwebs from his head, Demidas looked up and saw another fist rapidly coming closer. He rolled and the hand crashed into the ground where his head had been a moment before. Demidas leapt to his feet and brandished his remaining blade. In front of him stood one of the giant beasts, he had seen charging down the hill. Its eyes set on destroying the human before it.
♦♦♦
Demidas grasped his blade tight and slowly backed away trying to think of a way to attack this beast. However, before he could even take his third step back, a stray arrow thudded into the beasts left thigh, enraging it, and sending it charging forward towards him. The ground shook as it ran forward and tried to flatten him with its fists. Demidas leapt to his left and flung himself around stretching out his blade and catching the giant’s knee in a quick stab. Demidas felt his blade sink into the tough skin and heard a grunt of pain from the still-charging beast. Demidas positioned again and swung his sword drawing a thin red line across its back. The beast turned around with outstretched arms and caught Demidas in the chest smashing him to the ground. Demidas’ mind scattered as the ground reached to embrace him and the world darkened around him. The last thing he saw before going unconscious was a vision of his wife holding their newborn child in her arms.
