The Lost: me. (I need GPS!)

Oh, I got REAL lost on the way home from my friend Ben's house last night (I had to give his new HDTV a work out). I was going to go to Wal-Mart to see if they had a Microsoft Points card (they didn’t have it or I didn’t want to wait for someone to ask), then go to either Taco Bell or McDonald’s in Medway before going home.

I found my way to Wal-Mart easily enough, but when I took I-70, I missed my exit and was trying to find an exit to turn around. I knew not to take 675 (maybe I should have); I took the next one, 4, instead. Now, I was thinking it might be a normal exit that I could turn around on, but it was another road like I-70 (only smaller) and was planning on finding an exit to turn around on there, but it was confusing and the other direction was closed.

So, I got off 4 went around looking for a way to go the other direction on 4 (not knowing that it was closed). Finally, after driving around for a bit got back on 4 in the direction I was going and took the next exit, 68, and, knowing that road meets with I-70, took it South, hoping that it was the right direction. It was and I found I-70 West and went back to, what I thought was the exit I was supposed to take, 675 N/Spangler Rd, but missed it (not knowing that the exit for 675 South was the same off-ramp for Spangler, which was the road I thought I was supposed to take). Then, I kept traveling and took 235 N (the next exit) and I finally realized this was the exit I wanted all along.

I went to McDonald’s (open 24-hours) and got some food. Then, knowing the quickest way back home was Palmer Rd. I went south on 235 and found Palmer and then mistaking the next crossroad as being 40, took a left (it was actually Bellefontaine Rd. and was now heading south). I passed under I-70 (without even knowing it) and drove by Taylorville Rd., knowing that by now I took a wrong turn. I took a left on Taylorsville because I thought I was still heading north and I knew that met up with 201. DOH! I was heading the wrong direction.

Taylorsville dead-ended into New Carlisle Pike. I took a right. It took me to 4 (South). I thought I knew where I was (I thought it was Spangler Rd.) and continued heading south. I passed a couple of exits not knowing which one to take until I saw Harshman and knowing that road very well took it. I took it north and took a right on 201.

Now I knew my way home. After driving around for an hour and a half to two hours.

This is another good argument for GPS that I was telling myself I seriously need. Oh, did I mention I suspect I have ADD. ;)

GOT ONE!

Got one! That was the taunt that we (my friend, Ben, I and about 45 other people) heard twice battling the cold outside Best Buy in Beavercreek, OH Monday night through Tuesday morning. 2 cars drove by while we were waiting for the store to open and for the tickets to be handed out. The funny thing is: they were proudly holding Core systems (dumbasses!). I could have gotten a Core system easily hours earlier and wouldn't have been waiting in line for anything other than the Premium package.

Remember when I said a lot of waiting? (check 2 posts down) Well, I wasn't thinking 15 hours! Our original plan was to wait in nice warm Wal-Mart (which opened at midnight). We showed up around 3:30PM, which was 1 hour too late to get the Premium system (the only option IMO).

After the initial despair of being 1 hour too late (damn punks showed up as early as 8AM Monday, WTH!), we decided to check out Target, my next planned stop if the Wal-Mart fell through. Well, as usual the Target knew shit and were opening at 8AM, which was different from I read on the internet (supposedly they were going to open at midnight, too).

Well, we could have waited at Target, but if we did, we'd need to get some nourishment (which meant a quick stop to my local Buffalo Wild Wings; yummy!). I figured we should stop by Best Buy first because I knew they'd be getting more units in stock than Target and if they were opening at the same time, we'd have a better chance of picking one up.

Ben was going to go to the Springfield one, but I knew that the Fairfield Commons location was getting more units (stock was divvied up between retail chains and individual stores based on previous sales numbers). So, we headed over there after eating some boneless wings and were shocked to see that a line was already formed in front of Best Buy.

We hurried inside to take a leak and checked out the stock of the games and get some info: namely how many units they were getting and what time they were opening. Ben bought a Play & Charge kit (for his wireless controller) and Condemned. I bought Project Gotham Racing 3.

We headed outside to grab our spot, though we were absolutely unprepared to wait outside in the cold (and it was very cold: Low 27° + Wind Chill). We called my little brother, Dan, who without his help (a heavy blanket, a pair of wool socks, my beanie, 2 chairs [Ben's broke on him :)], my gloves coming hours later) in addition to his monetary donation, I would not have gotten one.

Another essential benefit to surviving that night was that I had my friend with me. I even made some new friends, who without them (Sean, you are absolutely hilarious!), I would have been bored to death. Thanks everyone for the help and support!

I don't have pics, but there were other people in line that were taking some (I'm probably floating around the net somewhere). There are also many reports on the web involved personal struggles and celebrations during the Xbox 360 launch (links from IGN):

• This is a rather strange story about a wait in front of Target (poor guys).
  
• A survey of the situation in Colma, CA by IGN.
  
• Did You Feel Lucky, Punk?: More tales from Xbox 360 launch day.
• Flickr database of Xbox 360 launch photos

Lastly, this link makes me feel better about spending $400 on a video game system. ;)
Top 10 Reasons to Buy an Xbox 360: Here's why you should jump in now.

More updates, Audioscrobbler/Last.fm

I've created images (I love transparent PNGs! :D ) and edited the code for my links.

Oh, and I've finally found a way (other than XBMC) is compatible with my music format (APE and/or FLAC) and supports Audiosrobbler/Last.fm: foobar2k. I've used it a while ago, but was turned off by the really barebones UI, and after trying it out for a bit, went back to my favorite player: XMPlay.

Well, now that I've been trying to fill up my Last.fm profile, the only way I could do that was with XBMC, but I don't always want to turn my Xbox on just to play music, or my TV/Entertainment Center's already being used. I'd been looking for a compatible plugin for the myriad of players Last.fm supports, but I'd had trouble with Winamp, foobar (previoulsy using the 0.9 beta mainly to add ReplayGain tags to my files); I even used Windows Media Player (which I actually sorta like as a movie player).

I finally got foobar (the current official build) to work with the Last.fm plugin (the 0.9 beta doesn't support it :-/ ) and I'm finding out I kinda like it. The audio quality is just as good (if not a little cleaner and sharper) than XMPlay w/ the Izotope Ozone Winamp DSP plugin), and with a few UI plugins, foobar is pretty usable.

I still like XMPlay, but I've been using foobar2000 exclusively to play my music lately (now if only XMPlay had a Last.fm plugin ;)

Update to my site template

I just updated my site template and added my Xbox Live Gamercard to the sidebar in my pre-release excitement buildup for the Xbox 360 (just one more week, and a lot of waiting in line :( ).

Since I didn't pre-order one (not that a pre-order is even a guarantee to getting one), I'm going to have to wait in line at a couple of places with my friends in the hope of snagging one for me and one for my friend, Ben. We're planning our night out, but a couple of weeks ago, I didn't even think I'd have enough money to even buy one, so I wasn't really excited. Now, thanks to my surprisingly generous donation by my brother, I should have enough with my next paycheck.

Currently, my brother and I are looking for jobs right now, so pray for us. :)