Dear Jane Letter Part 2

It’s hard to judge someone when you know them, but we all do it. And often times it’s really hard to say “I told you so” to someone you like as a person and you want to continue a dialogue with, but...

Dear Jane: I told you so!

Last July, Jane Wells of CNBC’s Funny Business posted something on her blog about how the PS3 will win the console because her son wanted one and traded in his Xbox 360. Link. I went off on her. Link. I then had her on Geezer Radio and apologized for my rude comments. Link. Well, perhaps the final chapter in this interesting saga has finished. Link.

She made some interesting points and I’d like to talk about them. In her lessons learned section, she said:
1-the gaming experience is more than a few games and cool graphics.
I can agree with this completely. Let me list every game that I have purchased this year. Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2, Guitar Hero 2 & 3, GTA IV, Viva Pinata: TiP, and will be getting Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, and Fable 2. What do these titles all have in common? Multiplayer (mp). Not one of them is solely a single player game. The one game that I considered to purchase that didn’t have mp was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, but as the game came nearer to release, it was discovered that it just had too many bugs and it wasn’t worth putting up with since you couldn’t play with friends.
I really think that the one thing that has completely changed my perception of gaming are my friends on Xbox Live (XBL). If I had to choose between a sole single player game with AWESOME graphics, and a multiplayer game with decent graphics, I would choose the mp game in a heartbeat just in case my friends get the same game and I can play with them. Great graphics pale in comparison.
Something else in that sentence: few games. The reason the PS3 is not the console of hard-core gamers is because of the lack of games. The PS3 has some cool games coming down the pipe, but they are 3 to 4 years in development and the ones announced in 2005 have still yet to come out. The reason for this is the processor that can create those cool graphics, takes forever to create code for. It’s just BAD.

2-repeatedly doing trade-ins at Game Stop is a money losing proposition.
Sad and Bad. A sad fact that is GameStop. And a bad lesson to learn by doing something like this.

3-PC games like World of Warcraft can actually MAKE you money.
Are you sure? How many months was he spending $15 to $20 to keep the account going?

4-don't talk to your mother about these things.
Being 30-years-old, that’s something I don’t do.

In closing, let me ask you this, Jane. Now who’s going to win the console war? I couldn’t find the answer in your article. Does your son switching back mean the 360 is going win the console war? Is this “ultimate proof”? Did you know that the 360 outsold the PS3 in August by 10,000 units? Did you know that Microsoft (so take this for what it is) is reporting that 360’s are “FLYING” off the shelves? Anyway, it looks like the console war not over yet.

Next SkypeCast

I just wanted to let everyone who reads my blog (yes, both of you) that the next SkypeCast is scheduled for next Monday (9/29) at 9 pm EST over Skype. We will be discussing the recent Halo 3 news. Please, if you can make it, I would love to hear from you. If you need my Skype Id, send me a PM through GeezerGamers and I will send it to you. I hope to talk to you there!

New Halo Campaign Experience

One of these day's someone will have to explain why Halo 3 announcements happen on September 25th of all days. I know that Halo 3 was released last year on this day, but did they ever consider my feelings? I mean it's my birthday and they are overshadowing it with their announcement of a new campaign part of Halo 3. With that narcissistic rant out of the way, OMFG!!! I loved Halo 3's campaign and loved the 4-player co-op so I am VERY hyped about new campaign for the game...if that is what it is.

Link

And just to let you know, I'm not really narcissistic, I just think the world should revolve around me!! ;~)

Just In Case...

You didn't know, a new Episode of Geezer Radio is ready for everyone to download.

Didn't Mean It

When I said "I do hope that King Wulfgar will not mistake our conversation on Thursday for what it actually was: a friendly debate and that I agree to disagree." I really meant to say: I do hope that King Wulfgar will take our conversation on Thursday for what it actually was: a friendly debate and that I agree to disagree.

For one reason or another, I can't type today. And that was a BIG typo!

Doomsday, Congrat's, Politics, Podcasts

Doomsday
First, let’s get this out of the way so that my worried wife will rest better tonight. The world will not end before my 30th birthday. The Large Hadron Collider that could potentially destroy the world is offline and will be for two months. So, doomsday has been postponed.

Congrat's!
I hope that King Wulfgar and his wife are doing well after their baby was born on 9/21! Congratulations! Here is a link to his post.

Politics
Last Thursday, I think that in the middle of a spirited debate some feelings may have gotten hurt, and by that I mean that the person I was talking with (King Wulfgar) and I came to the conclusion that we do not see eye to eye on the state of our economy. Now, normally I don’t talk politics for just this reason. But I would like to say a couple things in hopes of mending that broken fence. First, I think that two people should be able to disagree on a subject and still have a spirited debate. Two, I think that two people can and SHOULD agree to disagree when they reach an impasse. Not everyone will agree 100% of the time and that is the whole fundamental purpose of the First Amendment. Third, I shouldn’t have started talking about politics in the first place because religion, politics and the economy are three things that garner most of the ill when debate becomes an argument.

That being said, I will be voting on character and not promises. I think the economy will recover (I don’t know how to run’s the United States economy, but I do know that there is someone in a position higher than me that does and I have to trust that they know what they are doing. What else can I do about it at this point, anyway?) And that is all I have to say about that!

I do hope that King Wulfgar will not mistake our conversation on Thursday for what it actually was: a friendly debate and that I agree to disagree.

Podcast
Spark and I recorded a podcast and I will hopefully be putting it up online sometime today for everyone to listen too and download.

So Cute

Last weekend was a GREAT weekend. My wife, the wonderful, beautiful, hot, sexy and outstandingly outstanding, JedisPadme, planned a surprise birthday party that was a 90% shock. I knew that something was going on because she wasn't acting in a way that made me suspect something was up. But, I was completely shocked to arrive at my sisters house to be surrounded by my friends and family. I think close to 20 people were there, including but not limited to: SparkStalker and his wife, Nate H and his wife, Ben M and his fiance, Mildred the woman I adopted as a mother and her husband, my mother, my sister and her husband, Julie J, who I've been friends with since I was 3-years-old and my grandmother-in-law and grandfather-in-law. We had a fun time joking and laughing and having a fun time trying to get the dogs to play fetch with complete strangers. Ben was having a heck of a time trying to getting Alex (my sisters older child [Dog]) not only fetch the ball, but bring it back to him.

We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, with beans and potato salad. I was outside joking with my friends from work and social life, my wife, then opened the patio door to ask me whether I wanted to eat cake next or open presents. Now, I was taught that you always eat first and open presents last. So, I said, "Cake." And no, the cake was not a lie. My wife said okay and closed the door. Less then a minute later, my wife opened the door and said, "Let's open presents next." With a confused, but accepting face, I said, "Yes, dear!" Spark looked at me and said, "Good job. Don't ask, just agree. First lesson in marriage." So I opened my presents, and then we actually did have cake and ice cream. Overall, I had one of the best birthday's I have ever had and I can't thank everyone who attended enough.

The next day (yesterday), I sorted out my gifts and put things together. One of my gifts was a statue of Boba Fett, my favorite character in Star Wars. I thought that it came put together, but I was wrong. Once I finished putting it together, it looked like this. I showed it too my wife and she squealed and said, "How cute!" HOW CUTE!?!? (Rolling my eyes) Anyway, with my favorite sports team improving to 3-0 with a big win yesterday, it was perhaps the best birthday weekend in a LONG time.

Freaking Out

Why is everyone freaking out about the economy? I just don’t understand it. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s not the first time that we have had a financial market crisis. Do we not remember the Enron scandal? How about the first day the Stock Market opened after 9/11/01? What about Black Monday? Every time something “horrible” happens, people panic and the stock market goes down. Does anyone know what happens after every one of those incidents?

THE MARKET AND ECONOMY RECOVERS!

I just don’t see why people right now are selling their stocks in a panic. And just because the stock market is going down, doesn’t mean that the economy is in trouble. My mother and I have close to 35 years combined in the investment/banking industry, and the one absolute fact that every time there is a financial crisis, our economy recovers. But people don’t see that.

What they see is the financial managers (I’m talking about the investment managers that manage mutual funds) holding all those individual stocks in their mutual funds selling those stocks and everyone says, “OMG! I have to sell before my paper gain becomes a paper loss and when the sell, their paper loss (a loss only on paper) becomes an actual loss and they blame the economy for loosing money on their premature sell.

The media is the one to blame for over-hyping this “crisis” just the same way that they over-hype the price of gas in the summer months. I recall one outlet (I don’t remember who) predicting that gas will go to $7.00 a gallon...the closest it came to that was $4.05. That’s $2.95 off from their prediction. And there was a reason that I never mentioned the price of gas on my blog...that reason, I didn’t want to fuel the fire (no pun intended).

So this is a message to all those people panicking out there: GET OVER IT! IT WILL RECOVER!

Ahoy!

Arrgh!

The Nature of Politics

I don’t understand why I am caring about this issue, so please hear me out and let me explain myself before jumping on my back. But before you read the full post, please follow the link. LINK... Now, let’s begin.

What do celebrities and politicians have in common? No privacy. Now, I understand the concept that people want to know juicy details about famous people’s lives, but come on. Celebrities deserve some kind of privacy. Politicians deserve privacy but for reasons, don’t get it. Now this thing about Gov. Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account being hacked has me on both sides of the issue.

On one hand, I think that Gov. Palin should have the freedom to send out private e-mails to family and friends. If she used a government e-mail account to send out personal e-mails, people would be calling for her head. So, what does she do? She gets a yahoo account and sends them from there. I send out private e-mails through my Gmail account from work and one time it was about a job offer (which I turned down). Is what she did so different? Private pictures of her family were exposed. That, to me, is unacceptable. What if that e-mail account didn’t have anything wrong in it at all? That would be a complete and total invasion of privacy! And it is.

On the flip side, it appears that she did government business from that same account. What kind of business is still not known by me at the time of writing this, so I’ll reserve judgment, but is this a crime? Is this something that should disqualify her as a Vice President? Well, that remains to be seen, but I doubt it.

Another question we should be asking is: should we even know about this? McCain supporters would say no. Obama supporters would say yes. I don’t know who I’m voting for, but I will say that I am glad this leaked out. My reasoning for saying that is that even if we like the Governor from Alaska, we have a right to know if an elected official that could hold the second most powerful office in America is capable of doing something illegal.

With all that is at stake in a presidential election, things like this happen. On the one hand I’m glad it leaked out so that I can see what she is REALLY like. On the other hand, doesn’t she deserve any privacy at all (especially in regards to her personal family photos)?

I hope that nothing harsh comes from this and that the authorities look into this matter with the full weight of the Justice Department (and I think it is). And if anyone in Obama’s campaign is responsible for this, then he has officially lost my vote, because what was done is ILLEGAL!

Other political outrage for today:
Lindsey Lohan is getting political and then get's turned down by Obama’s campaign. A plus for Obama in my eyes. She said on her blog, “According to this Associated Press story, the church of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is hosting a kind of conference devoted to the "conversion of Gays" -- no kidding.” Where was her outrage when Sen. Obama’s pastor said disparaging things? Listen, Miss Lesbian Lohan, stop telling me how to hate someone for being a part of a political party that you’d never vote for.

It’s The Character, Stupid

I was talking with the King yesterday, when I expressed my opinion about who I was voting for this election, and something that I have been saying for weeks now, became even more evident in my eyes. So, I thought that I would share it with you.

So much is made every election cycle of who can do what for the average American. Promising to lower taxes is a big one and both Presidential candidates have already done that while mentioning that they will not cut government spending and in Obama’s case, promising every special interest group that he will continue to spend or in some cases start spending money on them. I ask this of both candidates: How can you do that while lowering taxes?

If all it takes to get elected is to make promises that someone doesn’t intend to keep, even I could run for President...hey wait, I can do that too!

I promise to lower taxes. I promise to bring the troops home. I promise to be bi-partisan. I promise to bring America together.

You know what...I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States of AmeriLies. My running mate will be my wife! Try to impeach her character, I dare you! Her character is unimpeachable (unless you mention her cooking).

The real thing that people should be looking for in the candidates is Character (hence the title). I am so tired of slinging mud (Obama’s lipstick on a pig comment comes to mind) and hearing the other side point fingers. I am also tired of the promises. I would love to hear one of them say, “You know, I can’t promise you that things will get better and you’ll get more money in your pocket, but I’ll do my best to make your life better.”

I also don’t want a president who will do something because a poll says he should (Bill Clinton, I’m looking at you). Isn’t that the same as making a promise? I think it is. No, I would rather have a president do something very unpopular because he absolutely believes what he is doing is the right thing (here’s to you, G.W.B.). That takes character. And character is what I am voting for!

Need Sleep

Tomorrow, I will be making a post about Star Wars. Today...I'm sleeping.

I Heart Football

I love professional Football. I love it so much in fact that I somehow manage to convince my wife that I NEED the NFL package from DirecTV. So far, I have been successful in getting for the second straight year. Yesterday, though, I didn't watch a single game. I turned on my 360 at 1:30, and played Viva Pinata until 7. Is that wrong of me? Well, not really. You see, my one and only favorite team of ANY sport is actually playing tonight against a division rival, so the way I see it. I haven't missed a thing! But I do wonder, would the games have turned out differently if I had watched them? (...twilight zone moment?...)

Fantasy DVR

I had a unique experience last night. SparkStalker, his wife, my wife and I all went out to dinner and Spark picked the place. As it turned out, the place we went to was a Caribbean eatery, named Fantasy Island, that apparently had some of the best and ONLY Caribbean style food in Richmond. When I first arrived, with the ball and chain in tow, I marveled at the place. It was fashioned in the style of a little hole in the wall that the wife and I encountered in St. Maartin on our honeymoon. They had a bar, numerous tables, a stage with wicker leaves rounding the top and about 5 LCD TV's that had live looped (I think) scene's of Caribbean beaches. It was a great, and small atmosphere and for that place, it worked.

Spark and his wife had yet to arrive when the wife and I got there, so I sat down in the front and just waited. I was asked whether I wanted to be seated several times, but instead of being annoying, they were very nice about it. Once Spark arrived the four of us got seated and we were handed menu's. Now, I have never been to a Caribbean style restaurant, so I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, but for appetizers we ordered something that escapes my mind at the moment, and some fried Calamari. Now, I must say that the Calamari was THE BEST I have ever had in Richmond. While we were eating the Calamari, the bartender came over and asked me how it was. When I told him it was the best I've had, he beamed said, "Thanks. That's what I wanted to hear" and walked off. I didn't think too much about it, but later was told by our waiter that that was the owner and he liked hearing things like that.

I ended up ordering Jamaican Mahi Mahi which tasted FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, I also ordered a side salad, and that wasn't delivered until after the main course, but in the long run I didn't mind because up until then everything had been perfect. I will say that the Pina Colada wasn't that strong or that good, but that was the only negative. After dinner, the fun started.

Karaoke is something that I tend not to do. Not because I hate getting up in front of public, but because I can sing just about as good as Mili Vanili. Anyway, my wife LOVES to do karaoke, especially Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive". Well, the good news was that my wife got to do karaoke. The bad news was that we had to go through four others (two okay, two bad). (As an aside, the second person to go onstage sang song that I don't know the name, but it started off, "Short people..." When that song started I looked directly at Spark and he said, "Shut UP!" The inside joke was that he's 5'4" and I'm 6'4".) Anyway, my wife got up on the stage and rocked the joint! She did a FANTASTIC job doing "I Will Survive". I was so proud of her!

Overall, my experience at Fantasy Island was 9 1/2 stars out of 10. I loved it and will probably be going there again in the future.

Well, we paid our bills, and left for the night. Me and my wife then went to another store, which we promptly left when my wife HAD to get home. So, we left and I gunned the engine and rushed home. As soon as we got there, my wife grabbed my keys from my hands and ran to the door. I casually collected our left over dinner, pound of sugar that I picked up from the grocery story and casually got out of my can and walked to the door. By the time that I got to the front, my wife was putting the key in the door. But wait...it get's better! As soon as the door opened she rushed through, and once she was past the door, she started to close it...with me still in the middle of the door frame. The door hit me squarely on the forehead and nearly knocked me backwards. My wife, who was in a hurry, casually said over her shoulder, "I'm sorry honey, but I have to check something."

So let's summarize...

Speed home risking accident and a speeding ticket, had the keys snatched out of my hands for no reason, had the door shut on my forehead all because she needed to check something. What was so important that she need to check immediately? The DVR!

Day of Rememberance

I would like to say that instead of reading this blog today, please take the time to have a moment of silence for the people that lost their lives seven years ago.

Thank you.

Another Day...

Another insult to Sarah Palin and her candidacy...

And the response...

Playing Together

My wife and I played Viva Pinata last night together for the first time. I went to the trouble of transferring all my saved game data, profile and controller to her 360 and what do I get for my trouble? Within 2 minutes of playing in my garden, she sold one of my two Preztails!

But in reality, local co-op for VP:TiP is not fun. If it were split screen and not shared screen, then it would be okay.

New Person to Dislike

I have a new person to dislike. His name: Russell Brand. If you (are one of the two that) follow my blog on a regular basis, you'll remember last week's post about how I'm now energized by the Vice President pick of Sarah Palin. Also in that post, I mentioned that I absolutely hated how celebrities went into a public forum and announced how their choice was the right one, well, Russell Brand did it on Sunday.

At the MTV VMA's, Russell Brand went off into a tirade about how bad the past eight years have been in the United States and that we should elect Obama to right the wrong. Well, first of all, who knows that Obama would be better? Second, Russell go back to Hampstead, you former heroin addict, sex addict and alcoholic! THIS ISN'T EVEN YOUR COUNTRY! You live in a monarchy and you call us evil? If you want to rant about how bad the past eight years are, please tell it to the cops that arrested you all 11 times! If he were a US citizen, then fine, your opinion counts. I thought we went to war against England so we wouldn't have to listen to those people! (Sorry Ben)

This is exactly what I talked about before. Someone with the morals of a squirrel is telling me how to vote. No. That's not how it's done. Go on Meet the Press and then talk about why you think the way you do. Or converse with me in a calm and polite debate. I like those.

And even if you are a US Citizen, please, leave you politics OFF the stage and microphone. I don't want to hear it, and I'm not going to listen to you. Had I been watching the VMA's I would have turned it off almost immediately after hearing that.

Otherwise Shut Up!

Geezer Radio Explination

I just wanted to let all of you know that Geezer Radio Episode 10 was posted over the weekend. If you get a chance download it and let us know any feedback. Thanks.

Football is Back

It's that time of the year again! Yep, it's FOOTBALL TIME! I want to know, who's your favorite team?

Here we go...

Let me preface this next post with I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat. I’m not even an Independent.

I used to love politics and in a way that only the obsessed could understand. I used to follow the news very, very closely and debate the issues with the “miss-informed”. But this election, I couldn’t help but feel un-inspired for just about everything. From the candidates to the issues...I just didn’t care. Nothing and I do mean nothing has inspired me to care. Why? Because neither of the candidates for president have caught my attention as someone who will be a good president. They both have made promises, but what presidential candidate hasn’t? I don’t care if I can have 3 apples instead of 2 in the new administration. My question is who has the better character? Again, I was stumped by the two presidential candidates.

But when the VP picks because official, my thoughts on this years election has changed. Now, let me again say, I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat. For one reason or another, I can’t explain it or understand it at this moment, John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate has energized me and made me want to pay attention. I had never heard of her until last week, and now I can’t get enough of learning about who she is and what she stands for. But for some reason, everyone is attacking her.

These kind of attacks put me off. I don’t get it. What is so threatening about a female vice president? I would think that in today's society that they would see that as breaking a barrier. In 2004, Hollywood celebrities tried to tell me and the world that their morals where the morals of America. So, they were in effect telling me that people who drive drunk repeatedly, snort cocaine, and marry 5 times are the morals of every person in the US. Those aren’t my morals. So when someone calls Sarah Palin a MILF instead of the Governor she is, that insults me and puts me off the candidate they say is all that and a bag of chips.

These days, though, I hate politics.

Extra Life

Sarcastic Gamers is now looking for a group of individuals to play for a full 24 hours for charity. Here is a link to their site. Please go there and if this is something you might be interested in as a Geezer Gamer, please go here to sign up. It’s for a good cause and I think that it will help. I don’t think that I’ll be in town for that day, and I’m sure I don’t have the stamina to play all 24 hours. But this is a good cause and I beg for someone to please sign up and lead Geezer Gamers for charity!

Long Live Pinata!

(In my best Wayne and Garth imitation) "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!"

No Podcast Tonight

Spark is sick and won't be able to do it. (Insert sad face here)...

New Geezer Radio Tomorrow....Hopefully

Spark and I were going to get together last night to do an episode of Geezer Radio, but we felt that we needed one more day to find out is someone wanted to be interviewed for Geezer Radio that night. It didn't work out for this week, but we decided to get it done tonight and forgot the interview for this one. Don't worry, a special interview from a person from HIGH-UP in Geezer Land will be doing an interview with us soon...can't tell you when (because...not even we know)...but soon.