(I posted this over at My 1UP also.)

It's all about networking. :)

Yesterday, a friend of mine here at work IM'ed me - he was heading over to play some Halo 2 with a friend of his, a friend who happens to actually work on the Xbox itself. Did I want to go along? Well, duh! Hell yeah!

So I got to spend an hour and a half playing Halo 2 with a bunch of Xbox and Xbox Live guys. We actually played over Live, though since I don't have a memory card with my Live acct on it, I was under someone else. That time playing was on a nice large widescreen hi-def TV - which was in the guy's office! Seriously! There are a LOT of people there with them in their office, there are lounge areas with multiple widescreen TVs and beanbags, and all sorts of stuff. Heck, the lights in the wall sconces were Xbox green! There were also signs up all over the place talking about "Xenon", which was the code name for the 360. It was a VERY geeky environment - I loved it!

Even better, I got to see an Xbox 360 in someone's office. I think it was a pre-production case, as it looked to all be white plastic, none of the details. But I can say after seeing it in person that the size and shape is really nice, much much better than the current Xbox. I also got to hold an Xbox 360 controller. It's a bit smaller than the Controller S, and I found that I liked the size of the S better. The thumbsticks feel just as good, and I think the shoulder buttons are going to be much easier to use than those damn black/white buttons that are too hard to get to. They're also wider and have a better feel than the PS2 shoulder buttons.

I was hoping to have a chance to play the 5 upcoming Halo 2 maps, but no go - at least not this time. Perhaps next time.

Yes, there's likely to be a next time. And this next time, I hope to get advance warning. Because I really want to wear my clan shirt over there, and make sure to get a picture taken with the big Master Chief they have in the building lobby!

People there are definitely major gamers - wow, I just loved hanging over there!

OK, this weekend, I finally got around to getting a PS2 (I had borrowed a friend's in the past, but she took it back). Along with that, there was a game I had heard so much about and had to buy.

Katamari Damacy.

Yeah, it's old news to a lot of people. Been there, done that, so on. Well, I never even had a chance to see it before, and since it was only $20, it was worth the money to check it out - if I didn't like it, well, not a problem at that price.

OMFG I love it! This is easily one of the strangest, most amusing games I've ever played. While we're at it, it's also insanely fun! I'm already certain I'm buying the sequel when it comes out, just for more Katamari fun - and I've got plenty more to do on this one.

I don't know which I found the most fun - the first time I rolled up a cat (*meow*), when I started rolling up people, or the latest levels where I've actually gotten big enough to start collecting the buildings from an entire town! I've already heard about building the moon, and I can't wait to see just how big I can get and what all I can roll up!

If you have a PS2, and haven't played this game, go get it. Now. Really.

In case you haven't seen it yet, and the story submission isn't accepted (which is the way it usually is), I thought I'd post this here.

A Gamers' Manifesto.

(Oh, and totally irrelevant, but since I still felt like pointing it out, here's my 1UP page)

YAYAYAYAYAY! I made it! As of Saturday night, I recieved my Halo 2 clan invite to join PMS Bravo - the second tier clan of PMS! They didn't need to ask me twice. :)

See me in the list!

Now it's time to get to know some of the other gals, and become a full part of one of the best known all-female gaming clans.

(And, as with all the other PMS gals, I now have a 1up profile if anyone wants to check it out)

Update: I'm now in the list on the website!!

This article went live and had at least 34 comments before being deleted. Doesn't look like a dupe...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Posted by Hemos on Monday May 09, @12:02PM
from the the-end-of-the-road-for dept.
MrToast writes "It looks like Arben Kryeziu has finally given up on Cherry OS. All I can say is "good riddance"."

( Read More... | 29 of 34 comments | apple.slashdot.org )

Earlier, I wrote an entry in my other blog about blogs in business. Tell me what you think.

Perhaps you guys remember the story about MS changing their position on a state gay rights bill. Especially since it's been big news in a lot of places - much bigger than I would have expected.

Well, we've just received a company-wide email from Steve Ballmer. The email states that the company has thought about the situation, and decided that their commitment toward diversity in the workplace will be greatly aided by laws helping to protect people from discrimination. The company has realized that it'll be hard to attract employees if those employees face discrimination in the communities they'll be living in while working in Microsoft.

So, while it's too late for this year, they've affirmed a commitment to support such bills in the future, both at state and national levels.

This is great news! It's hurt a lot of us to see them pull support from the bill this year, and I know it's been a big PR hit for the company, and cost them employees and prospective employees. This isn't going to fix the PR hit, but it should help in the future.

It also makes me feel like the company is still committed to their diversity policy and supporting their GLBT employees.

UPDATE: They've made the email public. Here it is.

last night, i had a wonderful reminder of just how much i suck at halo 2. i'm attempting to join the pms clan - the most well-known all female clan (which i've found out is not actually related to the original quake pms clan, just continuing on in the same spirit)

well, part of getting in is spending time playing in clan practices, getting to know the other girls and such. sounded great, but the actual games aren't quite as fun as expected - i found out really quickly that they're all considerably better than me. out of 13 games played while i was on team with some of the other gals, i think i managed to avoid being in last place on the team a total of 3 times - and one of those was a tie for last.

i found that even a huge win over another team isn't much fun if you only contribute 5 of the 50 kills, and have more deaths than anyone else on the team.

i had to go play with another group of people for a bit to remind myself that i can actually win some games against other people, as i was so discouraged from how things went.

i'm not certain if i'm going to even bother trying to get involved with the clan at this point, maybe i'll wait, see if i get any better at the damn game first, and try again when i might not embarass myself as much.

(oh yeah i'm feeling discouraged... can you tell?)

Well, it finally happened. It was just a matter of time. Inevitable, really.

I bought an iPod. Actually, techincally, we bought iPods. My other half and I each picked up a 30-gig iPod (photo). We had been talking about it for a while, and just suddenly had the urge to go do it. Sort of early anniversary presents for each of us.

I have hardly ever messed with them in the past. I've seen people with them occasionally, and briefly played with both another color iPod, and an iPod mini in the last couple weeks. So I can't say I was totally familiar with them, just enough to know that it was the portable music player of choice for us. We wanted space, so a flash drive wasn't going to work. And every review I've seen has pretty much stated that the iPod has the best interface and controls out there - besides the cleanest look.

So yesterday was spent playing around with them. Installing iTunes on the PC, getting some file tags cleaned up, and loading music onto iPods. Unfortunately, we don't have any USB 2.0 ports on the computer, so the transfers were nice and obnoxiously slow. But we still got all the mp3s that were on the computer transferred over (I did some at work today, since I have a large library here after bring in music to rip), most of the time spent now will be ripping CDs to mp3, and copying to the iPods won't take nearly as long in comparison.

Anyway, I already love the little thing, and now it's time to start picking up accessories. The big things to get at first are covers to protect them, and armbands so they can be taken to the gym. I've already browsed the iPodLounge a bit, and will be spending more time there to look for the useful things to get. But I'm open for suggestions!

I would have taken some time to make some guesses, but I just kinda avoided the whole thing cause I was upset at the way I just gave myself away while trying to have a little anonymous fun. I don't know what's more embarassing - the inability to handle a simple checkbox, or what I said when I gave it all away.

So nobody even guessed me as anyone else, which was totally unsurprising.

Well, I've relinked to my Flickr stream, so those who want to see the NEW hair color can just hop over there and view it. You'll have to go back a couple pages, or just tag search for "hair".

Just a couple days ago, it dawned on me that I didn't need to buy the starter kit to get on Xbox Live - since I have DSL, all I needed was to hook it up, and use the free 2 month trial included with Halo 2. So I did just that, and have joined the ranks of Xbox Live.

So, I figured I'd ask if there was anyone else out there amongst my Slashdot fans who are Xbox live players, so I can find some more people to play alongside in the future and hunt down for games.

Right now, I'm only playing Halo 2 on Live, but I've also got Crimson Skies that I can pop in.

I just wanted to say that I am very excited - my birthday this year is going to be most wonderful. I just bought tickets to the Dead Can Dance show at The Paramount here in Seattle, which is on my birthday!

I never thought I'd get the chance to see them live, but the reunion tour they're doing has given me the chance! I've got Toward the Within, and watched the DVD in the box set, and I can tell the energy live is amazing - and I'll get to experience it firsthand!

The following information was passed on to me via a GLBT mailing list that I was on, and it's very distressing. It makes me worry about the direction this country is headed under the current administration.

From: Reid Vanderburgh < mailto:ReidPDX@toast.net
<mailto:reidpdx@toast.net>
To: ReidPDX@toast.net
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 6:23 PM
Subject: Who's next?
 
Hello colleagues and friends,
 
Recently, I was asked to help present a workshop on suicide prevention among GLBT individuals, at the third in a series of five regional conferences on suicide prevention in the U.S. This particular conference covers Public Health Regions 9 and 10 (basically, the entire west coast). Following is a statement my co-presenters and I have prepared outlining recent chilling events surrounding our workshop. One interesting thing to note - the two previous conferences, one in New Orleans and the other in Denver, contained workshops very similar to ours and were not a problem. The difference? Both were held PRIOR to the last election. We give permission to forward this to whoever you believe needs to read it:
 
Statement of Concern and Protest
 
Government funders within the Bush Administration at SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) notified the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) that SAMHSA Administrator, Charles Curie, would not be allowed to attend a SPRC regional conference on suicide prevention if conference organizers went forward with a workshop title that included the words "gay", "lesbian", "bisexual", and "transgender". The conference is scheduled to take place in Portland, Oregon, February 28-March 2. The original title of the workshop was "Suicide Prevention Among Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgender Individuals."
 
On January 31, Lloyd Potter, SPRC Center Director, contacted workshop presenters Ron Bloodworth, Joyce Liljeholm and Reid Vanderburgh and requested that we come up with alternative wording for the workshop so that the words "gay", "lesbian", "bisexual", or "transgender" did not appear in the workshop title or descriptor.
 
We worked with SPRC to create alternative wording so that the workshop could continue to be offered but we expressed deep concern about government intrusion to remove any reference to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the workshop title and descriptor. After agreeing to the title "Suicide Prevention in Vulnerable Populations", we were told that the new title would be acceptable to SAMHSA and that we could use the term "sexual orientation" in the workshop descriptor but that the term "gender identity" would "not fly with SAMHSA".
 
We are still planning to offer the workshop as originally planned even though the workshop title and descriptor had to be changed but we will not be quiet about the heavy handed efforts of SAMSHA to render gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender people invisible. The action of our government in this regard is the very reason a workshop on suicide prevention with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender individuals is needed. How ironic! The discriminatory and intimidating actions of SAMHSA and the Bush Administration should not go unchallenged and should be of concern to all Americans.
 
It's important to note that Oregon Senator Gordon Smith is scheduled to attend the conference as part of his support for suicide prevention efforts in the U.S. We urge you to use the attached contact information to express your concern to SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, and other members of Congress from your state that represents you.
 
Thank you for your concern and support.
 
Ron Bloodworth, MA, LPC, Portland, OR
Joyce Liljeholm, MEd, Portland, OR
Reid Vanderburgh, MA, Portland, OR
 
Contact Information for Government Officials:
 
Charles Curie
Office of the Administrator
SAMHSA
Rockville, MD 20850
Tel: 240-276-2000
charles.curie@samhsa.hhs.gov
 
Mike Leavitt
Secretary of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, D.D. 20201
Tel: 202-690-7000
Fax: 202-690-7203
 
Senator Gordon Smith
404 Russell Bldg
Washington, D.C. 20510-3704
Tel: 202-224-3753
Fax: 202-228-3997
http://gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm
 
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
president@whitehouse.gov
 
Reid Vanderburgh, MA
Holistic Psychotherapy
1020 SW Taylor, Suite 630
Portland, Oregon 97205
(503) 341-7001
www.transtherapist.com

It's hard to believe it was only three weeks ago that I threw my first 700 series. And that I did it again last night, this time a 741.

246, 216, then a 279! I left a 10 pin in the seventh frame on a beautiful shot. Everything else was a strike. It's so frustrating to be so close to a perfect game, yet so far away. Oh well, I know I'll do it eventually. I just set a new personal high game and high series, so I can't really complain. I also took over high average in the league, which I'm enjoying a lot. :)

"I just read about Ashlee in us weekly. Those guys at the football game were total jerks."

*sigh*