When Halo freezes over

Check out this video of a ninety five year old japanese woman playing Halo 3 - online in a deathmatch, no less. She's having more fun than I am, for now I am a victim of the Red Ring of Death. Xbox 360s are fairly vulnerable to completely failing months within purchase. Which seems all abstract and vague when you read about it since the company doesn't release figures, until it happens to you. Your $400 gaming console goes kaput and the company is writing off a billion dollar loss in expected maintenance to fix them. The picture above is what your Xbox shows you when it's dead. The Xbox 360 is really cool, but I don't think Microsoft is capable of launching a bottle rocket these days.



I spent last week helping someone move in New York, which is always such a pain in the ass in this city. My apartment is a disaster as they've had to break open the concrete floors in my living room to fix the perennial flooding issue. I've had a shoot delayed twice now. So I was looking forward to sitting around with a headset on a sniper rifle in hand tagging people with grenades and shooting EvilVader1137 through the eyes. But I must leave that to granny. My advice as far as gaming goes: get a Nintendo DS. I'm learning a valuable lesson right now with my dead Xbox: reading is fun and I'm more productive without one anyway.

All the fun of gaming didn't match for one second anyway the odd elation of sitting in a crammed moving van crossing the Williamsburg bridge on a nigh perfect New York day, helping a friend out - off FDR looking down upon the entire east side. I may be cursed when it comes to gadgets, but it's good to have reminders that my vices aren't as thrilling as wonderful prosaic life.