so i bought an xbox 360

i’ve been holding out from buying a new console since i was perfectly content with my ps2. (and by content i mean i had a way to play guitar hero). even when i got a little antsy, i could go buy a game like GTA: san andreas, since i hadn’t played that yet either. but after i really couldn’t do any more with GH2, (like i’m gonna be able to beat jordan…) and then my PC died so my hopes of getting back into FPS gaming stalled, i decided to bite the bullet and buy a new console.

what i really wanted was a Wii, but since they are still impossible to find (and all i really wanted was wii sports which would get old after awhile) i decided on the 360. the ps3 wasn’t even on the list since it costs too much just isn’t worth it. now i am worried about getting the “red ring of death” but since i won’t have to pay to get it fixed, and since i’m just buying it now, the newer hardware is out which hopefully helps out a bit. i made sure to get the HDMI version also.

so now i have this new toy, and all the time in the world to play with it. there’s the obvious omg buy halo 3 but other than when we used to have those halo parties on pecan tree, i didn’t really play that game. and now that i’d have to rely on playing online to get some multiplayer action, it just wouldn’t be the same. :[ so i decided to buy skate. and holy crap, this game is awesome. part of it is just getting used to playing games in HD, since i’ve never done it before. but after i got used to the awesome graphics, i realized that this game is way better than the Tony Hawk games from PS1/PS2. and if you know me, you know how much i played those games.

one of the cool things about this game is how you can upload video to their site directly from the game. check out me getting hit by a car.

do any of ya’ll back home have a 360? add me as a friend, my name is ‘afexTW’.

looking for top-down map of LSU

so here is some background. every 3 months, yahoo has a “hack day” where instead of working you spend 24 hours on a hack. a hack can be a new product idea, a new feature for an existing product, whatever. afterwards you showcase your hack (you have 90 seconds) and a panel votes on the best. well one of the hacks from last hack day just went live in yahoo maps, but i need some help finding something. (i didn’t make this, b/c if i did, i would be pimping it 10x harder :P)

http://maps.yahoo.com/mapmixer

mapmixer lets you take a 3rd party map (such as… a map of the LSU campus? :]) and overlay it on top of the global map. but in order to do this, the map needs to be a 2D, top-down view otherwise it doesn’t make much sense. all the campus maps of LSU i can find either have an angled view, or are too ugly to use. ideally it would have all the buildings labeled, since that is kinda the point. this is the best i could find, but the building names are un-readable :[

if you find one, you can post here or if you want, just post it yourself to mapmixer.

here’s an example: (don’t forget to play with the opacity)

if you can’t see anything, stop reading this from facebook and come to my site! :P

so i’m not a hippy yet…

but i am officially a bike commuter now.

i’ve been checking craigslist for awhile now, but most of the stuff there are mountain bikes. i guess the fact that mountain biking started around here skews the market a bit. so after some yelping for bike shop reviews, i headed over to pedal revolution and saw just the bike i was looking for. not a mountain bike but also not a lance armstrong racer. i think the technical description is “performance hybrid”. basically it’s meant for people riding around on city streets. hey sounds useful!

after riding around for fun on sunday, and to work and back today all i can say is… my ass hurts. it’s been like 10 years since i’ve ridden a bike regularly. maybe i just need a squishier seat.

work is rockin. we are looking to launch the internal alpha for our product next week, so i’m in deploy mode. releasing used to mean “upload to a server” to me, so working at this scale is pretty cool. automated processes are your friend. learn to love the shell.

in other news, pepper attempted to travel to the moon, but was unsuccessful.

if 8-bit were an STD, i’d have chla-mario

title runner-up: “my nintendo gave me goomba-rrhea”

i have officially caught the retro fever.

maybe it’s the lack of stellar titles out right now (currently waiting for quake wars beta 2) or the fact that i’ve kinda plateaued with guitar hero. whatever it is, i am totally addicted to the old school again. i picked up nestopia, zsnes, and gens along with a “few” roms to play. it’s amazing how much an 8-bit theme song can stick with you. i was geeking out, big time.

yesterday’s playlist includes:

• excitebike (NES)
• california games (NES)
• chrono trigger (SNES)
• sonic spinball (Genesis)
• phantasy star 4 (Genesis)

soon a nice playstation-to-USB converter from ebay will be making its way to my door and i’ll be playing in style. playing with a keyboard just doesn’t cut it for me. you’re supposed to play with your thumbs! now i just have to think of a more permanent way to play all this on my tv instead of my computer and i’ll be set. it’s a shame my xbox bit the dust on pecan tree, since i know you can use it to do a similar setup.

this has even spilled over into the physical realm. i’m seriously thinking about doing some apartment decorating with pixelblocks and taking one of these big, empty walls and turning it into space invaders. terri isn’t too keen on the latter, but she’ll come around. :]

so what is everybody’s retro “must play” games? i’m looking for suggestions for tonite. :]

view from the roof

but to be honest, i’d rather have a roman candle duel with tyler. there’s no danger just watching them :[

full set here on flickr