The Holtonian

Xbox 360

Time for my obligatory video game update: So crabby get ready to read as you're the only one who reads these posts.

I got my xbox this weekend. I got Halo and that's about it. I wish I could've afforded an actual 360 game, but alas they're too $$. Eventually I'll get one, hopefully Halo 3 when it comes out. I may go get another game though, I bought Tony Hawk 3 for the xbox and Madden 2004 both at garage sales but they're not one of the games that work on the 360. I didn't really know that Xbox 360 only has select games it plays from the xbox. So i may go trade those in and get a game that I can actually play. We'll see.

The 360 is a pretty cool little thing and I pretty much bought it to entertain me when janelle goes out of town (she's going to texas for a few days in June) THe Gameboy ds had run its course so I traded it in at best buy with the product replacement plan i had on it. I also got the plan on the 360 so if in two years something better comes out i'll get that or if i get tired of playing games and want to grow up maybe use it to buy a dishwasher or something fun and grown up like that.

And I don't know what it is but halo looks better than last time I played it. EIther its the HD or they updated the game, there are a few cut scenes I don't remember in the original, but that could be my bad memory.

Microsoft, stealing Mac's ideas for over 20 years

So the new computer came yesterday Vista Premium package and all. All I gotta say is Vista is the biggest rip off of Apple since windows 95. I'm suprised its not called Windows Panther or something. Just the way the whole thing works is reminescent of mac, but for some reason I feel dirty for using it... like I've stolen something just by using stolen ideas.

THe new IE is also a rip off of mozzila/firefox tabs and all. I'll eventually get firefox running again as its superior in just about every way.

The computer's fast which is good, hopefully i can get some stuff off my old hard drive, but its not looking good. Luckily we uploaded most of our pictures to snapfish and I can get them off that.

Computer Decision made and How I'm getting an Xbox360

Well I made a computer decision, went with a combination of price and speed. I got a Dell 3ghz dual core proccessor with 2gigs of ram for 500. Got Vista home premium and then everthing else was vanilla aka what it comes with. No monitor to speak of, ours should work for now but I'll keep my eye out for a nice lcd.

I wanted a mac, but didn't want the price. I got 7 to 8 years out of my last dell and plan on getting as much out of this one. Janelle is the primary user of it so it won't affect me all that much.

I had priced a kickin dell for around 800 bucks (lcd included) but realized the only reason I would need a 'kickin' dell is for gaming, and I'm not into computer gaming that much anymore....

That being said... I'm still into videogaming, which brings me to Janelle's Deal or no Deal moment.

A week ago or so Janelle and I were watching/babysitting Adam Crabb while his parents went on an overnight to celebrate their 4th anniversary. I came home early that day to help janelle manage the two children. It got to be about 4 PM (I'd been home since 3:45 or so) when she turns to me and says, "Babe... I really want a pedicure."

"Well ok, you can use your allowance and schedule one for this weekend I guess. (we do an allowance system each month where you can spend your allowance on whatever you want no questions asked, you want magic beans go for it)

"Babe, I was kind of wanting one now..."

I look at the kids playing, look at her, look back at the kids and give a big old... "humph! We have two kids right now and you want to leave me with them?"

"Please babe?"

So here's where the gears started to work in my old brain, and I proposed a deal.

"OK here's the deal, you go get a pedicure right now. But as you know I have been saving my allowance and am half way to my goal of buying an Xbox360. Basically if I continue to save my allowance for the remainder of the year I will have enough to buy it by December. Allow me to take an advance on my allowance for the remainder of the year right now. And guarantee me that I can either receive one game for my birthday (8/20) of my choosing or take some of the money I may receive on my birthday to go purchase one game... the remainder of the money will be put into our general checking forever being lost to bills."

She pondered her desire to leave the kids with me and go get a pedicure. She looked at me with a big grin on my face.... i knew what she would deside. I started laughing maniacly, "Mooo ah ah ah..."

She shook my hand and the deed was done.

So this weekend I will purchase an xbox 360, in perfect timing. She is leaving me with Anna-Kate saturday night to go to an overnight bachelorette party. So Saturday night the mood will be right for Halo. Plus she's going to texas in a week or so to see a friend for a few days... so that time will also be right.

Snow Patrol Spiderman 3 Video

Ok, my kids are so going to this school.

How awesome would it be if your grade school actually put on a spiderman play??? Way better than the crap we did at my school. Musicman... that's lame, Spiderman that's cool!

I love the little Doc Oc kid, he's so enjoying it and frankly he's got the awesomest costume. And the poor little spider kid... all he wants is Mary Jane... he just wants one last dance with her.

My Dell died, now the great Mac vs Dell Debate

Well its official, Time of Death: This past weekend... patient: my old dell. My old computer finally passed on. COD: I think the power went out while we were in Macon this past weekend and jacked the thing up, crabby called it last night and said its time to move on. AGE: A good 7 years....

So now I'm scrambling to find a computer for home. One of the agreements wife and I had was new job = new computer for Chris. Granted when work gave me a laptop my desire for a computer dwindled to little. That and on top of it I don't play computer games anymore so I really don't see a need for a computer other than to give janelle access to one as well as have something that can store my photos, music, and videos.... hmmm... that sounds like a perfect job for a mac.

I've priced Dell's and pretty much to get an adequate dell you're looking at 600-700 bucks. The 350 one they advertise isn't worth anything. Its so barebones you'd be lucky to run the internet.

Mac's are a bit more but would probably work better (no crashing or blue screens) and is designed for what we need it for.

I wish I could borrow a mac for a bit. I want to borrow the 17 inch iMac to see how I would like it. Granted they don't have a borrow program. I may hit up the store in Lennox but everything I've heard on the web says they're incompetent as all get out.

My problem with PCs is they're getting more and more complicated. I feel like an old man now when I try to do something on a PC b/c I have no clue what I'm doing... "Dang! Just deleted some program that was vital.... do not pass go do not collect 200 dollars... and wish you knew something about computers"

House, Vacation, Job

So I've been off the blog radar for a while, kind of got tired of people using it as a means to keep in touch with me. Basically I'd call someone/email them telling them what's new and the typical response was, "Yeah i know I read the blog..." so I went on strike in order to give people a reason to email me or call me... well after a few months and about oh... no calls or emails, I figure I'd just blog.

Also another reason me not blogging is I guess I should be on Atlblogs since I'm no logger a chattian. Though as Josiah pointed out I technically never was a chattanoogan.

Life's been good and busy down here in Mableton. Our house has been a lot of fiascos after another. Anyone who thinks new construction equals no problems has another thing coming. Though I've talked to most of my neighbors and we pretty much are the only ones on the block to have the amount of problems we've had. And two of our problems have been with our Kenmore applainces, so that's really sears not our builder... granted he bought them from sears.

The biggest problem was our downstairs turlet was clogged with a big ball of concrete. Thus anytime a number 2 commenced we had a nice bit of a surprise in the tub downstairs... But the fixed that a few weeks ago and now number 2 can begin to flow freely without impediment... unless its a huge load or something, but at least now concrete stopage.

Other than that a lot of little things here and there that the builder will fix via the home warranty, but its still a hassle to deal with it all. Though in the end for all our hassles we coaxed the builder to upgrade all our faucets and bathroom fixtures to a nicer brand which in the end is huge. We were going to do it after market when we bought the house but I soon realized how much it would cost and how much of a pain it'd be and regretted not paying the upgrade cost.

Other than that, I put in a garden in the back yard for janelle. One of the stipulations we agreed upon when we bought this house is I would turn our hill in the back into a garden. So 1.8 tons of Middle Tennessee River Rock later, janelle has a garden as well as our house having a cool back yard that our neighbors don't. I'll have to put up some pictures some time, but as its dark now it will have to wait. It was a grueling project that took a good whole day but so far the garden looks great and hopefully the wall will hold. Its only about 2 feet tall so there's not too much pressure behind it, and that pressure is mostly Georgia clay which tends to stay put. I've noticed some settling here and there so I may have to go back and fix it here and there, but so far so good.

Other than that we just got back from a vacation to Destin with the crabbs. A good time was had, much seafood was eaten, but I must say traveling with children is very tiresome. The best part of the trip was getting to spend a lot of time with Janelle and Anna-Kate. The very close second best part was getting to play golf for free. the Condo we stayed at had free golf every day, so one day I played, the next crabb, and then we played together and split the cost one day. It was great, though my game is in dire need of work and practice. I've been hitting plastic golf balls in my backyard some to help with my swing, but my main problem as always is my short game. 3 putts killed me on every hole. Especially the second day out I had a few shots for par, 1 or 2 for birdie that were ruined by 3 putts.

We also had free putt putt where janelle mastered the hole in one, she sunk about 4 of them. Though I got her back at go carts by taking her out of the track. She tried to cut me off so I took her out Jeff Gordon style and proceeded to jam us both against the wall. Luckily we were the only ones on the track so the guy who freed us didn't care that much. I then took the checkered flag, did donuts in the middle of the track, and chugged a pint of milk.

We had some amazing seafood. My favorite was probably the Back Porch, mainly because they had the most amazing crabb cakes as well as fantastic shrimp and scallops. Pompano Joes was also awesome and across the street from where we stayed. I got an ok dish of seafood pasta and firmly established that I do not like Mahi Mahi. The pasta was good but I just don't like fish, too bland. We also found some good italian place, which was ironic. The clincher for them: They bring out an entire roasted garlic and smush out all the good stuff and put some olive oil in it and seasonings and you slop it up with bread... they had me at garlic, and then the baked seafood manicotti sealed the deal.

Anna-Kate loved the beach, though she tried to eat a lot of sand.

As vacations go it was a great time though its good to be back home and adjusting to a bit of a routine again.

Adjusting, because I was on a business trip the week prior to the vacation so I felt like I'd been gone for nearly two weeks. I'm on a new project and learning new things that will help me in my career. They're keeping me busy and I'm still enjoying it, the sumatra helps. I've been to two other Deloitte offices though and ours by far seems to be one of the best. We're the only one that I've been to that has free diet coke/soda. Also we're the only ones with good coffee. Though other regions have free parking at least in Texas they do, which would free up an extra 100 bucks a month which could buy me tons of coffee and diet coke.

Other than all that, Anna-Kate's big 1 year birthday is coming up in two weeks. Should be fun, I'm going to dress up like a clown and make baloon animals... yeah right. No daughter of mine will like clowns... i'll see to that. Evil It....

anyway, to bed i go.