I have an xbox console that has turned into a money pit. And it's really ticking me off.
To make a short story long, I'll start from the beginning. I bought an original Xbox 360 - console only - off of the web. Knowing the mortality rate of Xbox 360 consoles, I wanted a spare console just in case mine went belly up and had to be sent in for repairs. Paid about $80 for it at the time, freight included (Pay attention - these numbers will mean something later).
A while later, I had a disc drive issue with my original console so I switched to my spare one and decided to keep the other one - which was off warranty - as my new back-up. The console I bought online worked for a few months and then red-ringed on me. Typical. I took it to the local fix-it place where I was dinged almost $120 (with taxes) to get it fixed. Had I known that it was going to come to that, I would have scrapped the thing. What really added fuel to my flame was the fact that no sooner had I sent it in, the arcade console went on sale for $129. I had seriously thought of pulling the console out of the repair place and buying a new one with controller, memory card, and three-year warranty for only a few bucks more. I didn't do it because the repair place would have charged a hefty penalty, so I stuck with the repair. Kinda burned my a$$ when the guy at the repair place handed me my console, my bill, and asked me "Hey, aren't 360s on sale this week?"
I used this console for a couple of months with no problems. Then I bought a slim model and put the repaired console back into storage as a spare. I passed on the other console (with the disc drive issue) and all applicable components. Cost invested in this "spare" console so far: approx. $200. That was a little over a year ago.
This week, I had the itch to get this thing up and running. We had cut back on our TV service at home so I wanted the spare 360 for a media extender. Between movies on the PC and Netflix, I could hook it up and we would still be well entertained for a considerably lower monthly cost. Sounds good to me. Now all I need are all the components to hook up the console.
Upon first glance, piecing it together seemed a little expensive. But my search led me to a kid who had a complete RRoD system that he wanted to sell for $50. Came with the cables, power bar, one wired controller, and a 20 GB hard drive. That was enough to get me up and running. I pounced on the deal and proceeded to start setting things up at home. About 10 minutes into my test run, THE DAMN THING RED RINGED ON ME!!! It had barely been used since it was fixed and it was well beyond the warranty period to have any type of recourse. I still have nothing to show for the approx. $250 total shelled out so far.
But wait - it gets better. Everytime I touch this thing, hardware seems to go on sale. This week, 250 GB slim consoles can be had for the amazing price of $197 plus tax. That would be $50 less than my total investment so far, and it comes with all the goodies and a three year warranty to boot. I just can't catch a break.
I'm cutting my losses with this thing. I'm scrapping this demon console and I'm going to try and re-coup some of my expenses by selling the components piece by piece. I'm considering grabbing a bat and going all "office space" on it. If you've seen the movie then you know what I mean. And if you've ever had a RRoD issue with an Xbox 360, then you know how good it would feel.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
The List
I made a pact with myself this summer - "work hard, play hard" I told myself. Well, I'm definitely working hard. In no small part because of "the list".
"The list" is my list of tasks that I wanted to take care of this summer before September when I'm back in school and hockey season starts again. Once those two things happen my free time fills up really fast. The list helps me to stay focused. I've been able to remind myself from time to time of the things that I have accomplished - feels good to cross something off, keeps me motivated - and of the things that I have meant to do but forgot about. Some things were simple but I just kept putting them off. Some things were just about biting the bullet and paying for them to be done. Some things are small goals I've set for myself. Some things are big projects so I'm stretching them out and working on them a little bit at a time with the hopes of finishing them by the end of the summer.
The one over-riding problem with the list is that it's not exhaustive. As I keep thinking about things that I want done, I add them. This means that it never seems to shrink. It almost seems to be a bottomless job jar. A moving target, if you will, as the end never seems to be in sight. We are in a long week-end here, and I spent almost all of today either working at one of my two jobs (see next blog) or working at home. Tomorrow looks bad too. The day after - not much better. So much for a long week-end. Productive? Yes. Relaxing? Not in the least.
My new plan is to stop adding to list and try and catch up with what I have. I keep being reminded of the other half of the promise to myself. Mostly by others, but sometimes by me. I've made a conscious effort to do a few things this summer, but it's not at the level I was hoping for. Maybe I'll add "do something fun" to the list. Then I just might do it.
"The list" is my list of tasks that I wanted to take care of this summer before September when I'm back in school and hockey season starts again. Once those two things happen my free time fills up really fast. The list helps me to stay focused. I've been able to remind myself from time to time of the things that I have accomplished - feels good to cross something off, keeps me motivated - and of the things that I have meant to do but forgot about. Some things were simple but I just kept putting them off. Some things were just about biting the bullet and paying for them to be done. Some things are small goals I've set for myself. Some things are big projects so I'm stretching them out and working on them a little bit at a time with the hopes of finishing them by the end of the summer.
The one over-riding problem with the list is that it's not exhaustive. As I keep thinking about things that I want done, I add them. This means that it never seems to shrink. It almost seems to be a bottomless job jar. A moving target, if you will, as the end never seems to be in sight. We are in a long week-end here, and I spent almost all of today either working at one of my two jobs (see next blog) or working at home. Tomorrow looks bad too. The day after - not much better. So much for a long week-end. Productive? Yes. Relaxing? Not in the least.
My new plan is to stop adding to list and try and catch up with what I have. I keep being reminded of the other half of the promise to myself. Mostly by others, but sometimes by me. I've made a conscious effort to do a few things this summer, but it's not at the level I was hoping for. Maybe I'll add "do something fun" to the list. Then I just might do it.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
A Trip Down Memory Lane
This week-end was to be a productive one. I had places to go and people to do. Err... things to do. In particular, things around the house. I had a light bulb to change, a speaker to fix, a minivan to get running again,... The list of things in the job jar was growing. Included in that list was the chore of emptying my old computer. We got a new computer three years ago and we never transferred any of the movies/music/pictures/office documents/etc. over to our new system. In hindsight, this was good because we had a hard drive crash about a year ago that would have wiped it all out. But we wanted to set the old system up for the kids, so it was time to get started.
There were some early pictures of the girls, some pictures of a very pregnant Rhonda, some music that I forgot I had, and a few things that should have been cleaned up years ago. Once anything and everything of any value on the hard drive was transferred over I realized that my job wasn't done. I had about a dozen or so 3.5" Floppy diskettes (Yes, you read that right) with stuff on it that I had to get things off of. Since my old system was the last system that I would probably have with a disk drive in it, I thought it best to do it now and get it done. I seemed to remember saving goofy emails and funny things that I came across in my early years of web surfing. But I soon realized that I had found something more important that. It was my "virtual shoe box".
These diskettes contained memories of the period of my life between my two big relationships, with a little overlapping. What should have taken about 15 minutes to simply transfer took over an hour. Things that were erased from my memory suddenly came flooding back as I poured over the disks one by one. The first disc had pictures of a girl that I had met over the web years ago. Her name was Theresa. She lived in Ohio. She was married with two boys. I had forgotten how cute she was until the pictures surfaced. We never had an online affair or anything like that. We were company for each other. She used to tell me that she and her hubby didn't talk much. We used to chat for hours until one day she just stopped coming online. I never did find out what happened to her.
Then there was April, a full of life, hockey-loving Texas girl that had a huge crush on Boston Bruins forward Joe Thornton (now on San Jose). I found a few pictures of her on a different disc. She was fun to chat with. We lost touch years back and it had been a long time since I had thought of her. I tended to socialize online a lot then, perhaps more so than I do now. Between a full-time job and my MBA studies, I didn't get out much.
I found pictures of the waitresses at the local Hooters washing my car, as a couple of buddies and myself went for their annual charity car wash. My car looked worse after the wash than before it but it didn't matter. We all know it wasn't about the wash itself anyways. I found a picture of the team I played for in the Western Canadian Ball Hockey Championships, the first and only time I played in the tournament. We lost all three games, but fought hard in all of them. I found some of my old MBA coursework. I opened up some of it just to see if I could still follow what I did. Damn. It's been so long that I forgot how good I was. I used to be able to make Excel sing. I'm not sure I could do anyhting that intense now. I thought about some of the good people I had shared that experience with, most of which I've lost touch with years ago.
And I found pictures of Baba, my Mom's mom and the only Grand-parent I ever really knew. The pics were of her on her 90th birthday. She was already pretty blind and her memory was starting to fade, but she always had a smile for us. She had passed away before the girls were born. She had lived a good life. It had been a while since I had thought of her too.
I wasn't prepared for all of the feelings to come back. It caught me by surprise. I started to feel sad about all of the good people that I've lost touch with over the years, as that seemed to be the one common thread. If life is the sum of our relationships, then I think I'm a "C" student at best. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, how I'm going to end it, or why I wrote it in the first place. I felt compelled, as if writing it might help me to sort things out. Maybe I was just always too busy to keep in touch. Maybe they were too. Maybe in the long run those fleeting relationships didn't mean that much to me. Or them. Maybe. I don't know. I need to think about this one.
There were some early pictures of the girls, some pictures of a very pregnant Rhonda, some music that I forgot I had, and a few things that should have been cleaned up years ago. Once anything and everything of any value on the hard drive was transferred over I realized that my job wasn't done. I had about a dozen or so 3.5" Floppy diskettes (Yes, you read that right) with stuff on it that I had to get things off of. Since my old system was the last system that I would probably have with a disk drive in it, I thought it best to do it now and get it done. I seemed to remember saving goofy emails and funny things that I came across in my early years of web surfing. But I soon realized that I had found something more important that. It was my "virtual shoe box".
These diskettes contained memories of the period of my life between my two big relationships, with a little overlapping. What should have taken about 15 minutes to simply transfer took over an hour. Things that were erased from my memory suddenly came flooding back as I poured over the disks one by one. The first disc had pictures of a girl that I had met over the web years ago. Her name was Theresa. She lived in Ohio. She was married with two boys. I had forgotten how cute she was until the pictures surfaced. We never had an online affair or anything like that. We were company for each other. She used to tell me that she and her hubby didn't talk much. We used to chat for hours until one day she just stopped coming online. I never did find out what happened to her.
Then there was April, a full of life, hockey-loving Texas girl that had a huge crush on Boston Bruins forward Joe Thornton (now on San Jose). I found a few pictures of her on a different disc. She was fun to chat with. We lost touch years back and it had been a long time since I had thought of her. I tended to socialize online a lot then, perhaps more so than I do now. Between a full-time job and my MBA studies, I didn't get out much.
I found pictures of the waitresses at the local Hooters washing my car, as a couple of buddies and myself went for their annual charity car wash. My car looked worse after the wash than before it but it didn't matter. We all know it wasn't about the wash itself anyways. I found a picture of the team I played for in the Western Canadian Ball Hockey Championships, the first and only time I played in the tournament. We lost all three games, but fought hard in all of them. I found some of my old MBA coursework. I opened up some of it just to see if I could still follow what I did. Damn. It's been so long that I forgot how good I was. I used to be able to make Excel sing. I'm not sure I could do anyhting that intense now. I thought about some of the good people I had shared that experience with, most of which I've lost touch with years ago.
And I found pictures of Baba, my Mom's mom and the only Grand-parent I ever really knew. The pics were of her on her 90th birthday. She was already pretty blind and her memory was starting to fade, but she always had a smile for us. She had passed away before the girls were born. She had lived a good life. It had been a while since I had thought of her too.
I wasn't prepared for all of the feelings to come back. It caught me by surprise. I started to feel sad about all of the good people that I've lost touch with over the years, as that seemed to be the one common thread. If life is the sum of our relationships, then I think I'm a "C" student at best. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, how I'm going to end it, or why I wrote it in the first place. I felt compelled, as if writing it might help me to sort things out. Maybe I was just always too busy to keep in touch. Maybe they were too. Maybe in the long run those fleeting relationships didn't mean that much to me. Or them. Maybe. I don't know. I need to think about this one.
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