Selling a bit of old hope...

trading up for new.

So, the XL1s sold on Sunday. I packed it up and shipped it out yesterday. I have to say, once I handed it over to the post office, once I would never see it again, a little pang of sadness hit me. It's rare that your emotions surprise you. Usually I'm pretty good at preparing myself for what I'm supposed to feel.

I mean, rationally, it was just a camera. It served its purpose at the time I needed it. It was a good camera. I made some good films with it. My life has changed, my needs are different now. I guess, as with everything else, I'm out-growing a lot of things.

I'm reminded of that Ikea commercial with the old lamp sitting outside the house by the trash, unplugged, with the arm tilted downward in a weeping position, cold and in the rain. The new lamp highlighted in the house window, inside, dry and surrounded with warm light. Maybe I do feel sorry for that lamp. Maybe I am crazy.

Needless to say, the whole ordeal has been more emotional than I expected.

As if I bubble-wrapped and package-taped -- sealed and mailed off a little piece of myself. A piece of my past, of my old-life. Maybe a few dreams and aspirations thrown in there for extra padding.

The plan is to take the money and invest in a new camera. Something not as pro-sumer as the XL1s but definitely not your grandma's camcorder either. I'm looking at a Sony HVR-A1U. Seems like a nice middle ground with some nice options. 3lbs is a great weight as I plan on taking this thing out. The 1080i resolution is also nice. It should make Japan and PAX look amazing.

In sixteen days I step on a plane to leave the country. The excitement of which is overwhelming. I do well at hiding my anticipation. I keep busy and try not to count down the seconds but inside, I am bursting. I can hardly keep a thought in my head that isn't over-powered by "JAPAN! JAPAN! JAPAN!" A trip that has been in planning status for close to two years, gone through all kinds of changes and has been the root of a lot of my emotional roller coastering, is finally coming to fruition.

When I come back, things are going to be different.

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Gonna be into Bill for a bit.

So, yeah, here is the Xbox 360 release schedule through the end of the year. I'm pretty much going to be gang-raped in the wallet until late January/early February. I've put a yes, no, maybe, or rent/borrow next to the items listed. You're smart, should know what that means.


June:
____________________________________________
Call of Juarez - NO
Fantastic Four Rise of Silver Surfer - NO
Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia - RENT/BORROW
Tenchu Z - NO
Ratatouille - NO
DiRT - RENT/BORROW
The Darkness - RENT/BORROW
Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix - RENT/BORROW
Hour of Victory - NO
The Bigs - NO
Transformers The Game - RENT/BORROW
Overlord - MAYBE


July:
____________________________________________
NCAA Football 2008 - NO
Vampire Rain - NO
Project Sylpheed - NO
All Pro Football 2K8 - NO
Two Words - NO
NASCAR 2008 - NO


August:
____________________________________________
Moto GP 2007 - NO
Too Human - MAYBE
Stranglehold - YES
Madden NFL 2008 - NO
BioShock - FUCK YES
Stuntman: Ignition - NO
Tiger Woods 2008 - NO
Medal of Honor Airborne - NO
Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions - NO
Blue Dragon - RENT/BORROW


September:
____________________________________________
Mass Effect - FUCK YES
Unreal Tournament III - MAYBE
Blacksite: Area 51 - MAYBE
Jericho - NO
Project Gotham Racing 4 - RENT/BORROW
NHL 2K8 - NO
Skate - NO
NHL 2008 - NO
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - MAYBE
Turok - NO
Eternal Sonata - FUCK YES
Timeshift - RENT/BORROW
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights - RENT/BORROW
Hellboy - NO
CSI Hard Evidence - NO
NBA Live 2008 - NO
Half-Life 2 Orange Box - YES
Halo 3 All Edition - YES
Sega Rally Revolution - NO


October:
____________________________________________
Lost Odyssey - YES
Looney Tunes ACME Arsenal - NO
Heist - NO
Virtua Fighter 5 - NO
The Club - NO
Crash of the Titans ‘07 - NO
NBA 2K8 - NO
Bladestorm: Hundred Years War - NO
Beautiful Katamari - YES
Fatal Inertia - NO
FIFA Soccer 2008 - NO
Conan - NO
Grand Theft Auto IV - YES
Naruto - NO
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames - RENT/BORROW
Simpsons: The Game - NO
Need for Speed: Pro Street - RENT/BORROW
Guitar Hero 3 - MAYBE


November:
____________________________________________
Assassin’s Creed - YES
Rock Band - YES
Super Street Figher HD Remix - YES
Alone in the Dark - MAYBE
Turning Point - NO
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - MAYBE
Army of Two - FUCK YES
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway - NO
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - MAYBE
Ace Cobmat 6: Fires of Liberation - RENT/BORROW
WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2008 - NO
Left 4 Dead - FUCK YES
Splinter Cell: Conviction - MAYBE
Golden Compass - NO
Devil May Cry 4 - MAYBE
Haze - MAYBE

I wish publishers would stager the release schedule so we don't get bombarded with A-list titles all at once. I realize this is the lord-high-shopping season but sheesh, can I breathe please? Keep in mind, these are only the games coming out for the 360...

So yeah, through September, October, and November, I'm gonna want to die.

*Deep breath*

BioShock, Mass Effect, Halo 3, Eternal Sonata, GTA IV, Beautiful Katamari, Rock Band, Assassin's Creed, Left 4 Dead, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Half-Life 2 Orange Box, Lost Odyssey, and Army of Two are all must-haves. I mean, I've got a reputation to uphold here.

Unless I've miscounted, that's 13 games I have to buy. Let me say that again. Thirteen. I don't need this shit right now. I hope some of those titles get pushed back to '08.

I also hope no one wants Christmas presents!

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An open letter.

To: People who like strawberry ice cream

Stop fucking up my Chocolate and Vanilla.

That is all.

Sincerely,
Paul Petyo

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My Xbox ♥s me...

Or, rather, Jess' Xbox ♥s me. You know, since mine is in the freakin' MAIL and all. Anyways. It blogs about me. My 360 has its own blog over on 360voice.com Here's a little snippet:

Tenebrous ReX's Xbox - 6/8/2007

Tenebrous ReX decided to ride the gamer-train yesterday. I will admit it... I was happy. What is the gamer score? 5045 is what it is! That is an increase of 50 points over last time! We have now entered the 5,000 GS club! He rocked out to Pac-Man C.E., Mad Tracks picking up 4 achievements, and loved every minute of it in high definition glory!

It's nice to be loved by anthropomorphized inanimate objects. Let's hope it doesn't watch me sleep.

[EDIT] Yes, I re-title my posts a lot. I edit my entries six or seven times before I'm done. Even the posts -- like this one -- that don't much matter. Thusly screwing those of you on RSS feeds. Welcome to my perfectionist brain. You can send your psychiatrist bill to my ass, care of my middle finger. :)

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Shark's teeth & red rings

Let me start by saying memorial day weekend was awesome. Regardless of my neck being stiff the whole time and my 360 taking a shit it really was the most fun I've had in a few weeks. Relaxing, doing a little photo-trip to the beach, playing games and having a party was, well -- more weekends should be this good.

At the beach Jess and I dug for sharks teeth. There was a downed tree laying across the sand. It's bare, broken branches serving as sort of a sieve, separating sand from shell and tooth as the tide came in. It stretched out into the Bay for a bit and Jess said it resembled a boardwalk of broken limbs. She climbed all over it, searching for teeth. I mainly stuck to my own small corner of sand with my t-shirt on and my towel around my neck.

It's kind of peaceful out there at Chesapeake Beach. Quaint in a way.

Before we left, a man came up to us with a very large tooth in his hand. His body was tanned and he was super excited that he found such a large specimen. (Mah sharksteeth! Let me show you them!) He told us he was down a ways from us and he found this thing just washing around in the tide. As he went for it, a barge almost collapsed on him. His sunglasses were covered in sand as proof. He'd been coming here for 10 years and this was the first time he'd ever found something of this size. On his tanned back there were large dark spots like the kind you'd see in a Gorbachev caricature. His hands were hard and calloused. He was excited the way I'm sure archaeologists get excited. We entertained him for about 5 minutes until he moved on down the beach, showing his tooth to some other family.

When Jess and I got home we counted our teeth and decided we wanted to watch a movie. We would brave Blockbuster (bloodsucker) and rent The Fountain. It was good. Not the best, but good. There is a lot more meat in there I'm sure. It might take a few more viewings to get all the gristle out of it.

We also rented Pirates of the Caribbean for the Xbox 360. This is the game that killed my box. It probably wasn't so much the game as it was the fact that we didn't have the AC on and it was like 94 degrees in the apartment. Regardless, I have now earned my Red Rings. Microsoft is in the process of sending me out a prepaid RMA box and I should be back and gaming in a few weeks. No biggie really, I mean, it's not like it's the only 360 in the house.

We had a party on Sunday with a good turn out. I hope everyone had fun. 360 Guitar Hero 2 was cool and the fact that everyone was playing under my tag was even funner. Nothing like throwing a party and achievement-farming at the same time! Beer was had. Burgers, dogs and dirt-cake were consumed. And the whole thing wrapped up before midnight. That's how we old people roll!

Monday Jess and I just relaxed. I finished God of War 2 and picked up Odin Sphere which is freaking beautiful! A Sopranos marathon was running on A&E-HD and I think I watched 6 episodes before I noticed it was past bed-time.

Like I said, it was a great weekend, even if my neck was stiff the whole time.

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Another one down.

Just paid off another bill today. Gone.

So, that leaves two credit cards and a student loan. I'm pretty proud of myself right now. Gonna have some more money coming in that doesn't have to go directly back out. In two months I'll be in Japan and will hopefully have enough money to enjoy myself. After that, I can start saving and contributing to my retirement fund.

It's gonna be kind of a celebratory vacation.

I'm right on track to have the next bill paid off by early next year. Then it will be one credit card and a student loan. The concept of which seems so foreign to me that I might as well have just typed that in another language. One in which I am not fluent.

I've been in debt since I was in high school. I got a credit card and a job and I went a little crazy, as I'm sure a lot of people do. I'm sure there are Christmas presents for Kelly-Number-One in there that I am still paying for.

I can't wait to be done with it all. To finally cut the tether of my financial past. It's almost like being born all over again.

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I'm your Check Engine Light.

I'm on now.


Get pissed!

Edit: Kinda fixed it myself. *crosses fingers* Looked up how to pull the trouble codes online then went and put it into action. It's really not that hard. Then, compared code to code-database online. Trouble code 67 or P0420. Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold. Something to do with the catalytic converter. Directions said first step should be to reset the check engine light and see if it comes back on. It's been a week or so now and it's still off, so, maybe it was a false positive. Maybe my gas-cap wasn't seated properly or some nonsense.

Whatever. Fuck cars.

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