Bringing you up to speed...

I haven't written in a while, so I thought I would update you all on the latest achievements in my life:

1. Got a new PDA phone - the Sprint 6700. A nice review is here:

I chose this phone for several reasons. First, I wanted to ensure that I had a keyboard of some kind. I could have gone with the Motorolla Q or one of the older Treo-style keyboard devices, but without exception those PDA phones sacrificed some screen pixels to provide me with the keys. The slide-out form-factor of the 6700 allowed me to keep my precious pixels and get a better-sized keyboard to boot. The only cost was the thickness of the phone, which I must say is rather unweildy at something like 2-3" thick...

2. I bought an XBox 360.

Being a game developer by trade, this was an easier purchase to justify than it would be for ordinary mortals. ;) My fiance doesn't particulary believe that I really bought this for "research" purposes, and neither do I to be honest, but the bottom line is that I need to keep up on the latest gaming platforms and if that means iH ave to suffer through endless hours of exciting gameplay, well... so be it.

3. I bought 3 or 4 new hard drives.

I can't seem to stop buying hard drives. Every weekend some store is selling some hard drive for a rediculously cheap price. My last purchase was a 400GB hard disk for a measly 120 dollars. Whoa. How can I possibly pass that up? The result of purchasing several new drives is that I have displaced several smaller, older drives that had previousy been in my USB encolsures (of which I have four). I am getting to have quite a stack of hard drives on my computer hardware shelf.

4. I bought 2 new network-storage "units".

I bought a netgear network drive that can hold two separate hard drives and present them as a network share on your local area network. This was a good way to let me use some of those new hard drives I had purchased without displacing existing drives. I also bought a DLink network storage device that only holds one drive but can daisy-chain 2 additional USB enclosures shoudl I so desire.

5. I bought a Nintendo DS Lite

This little bugger is great! I don't know why I waited os long to get one - because it is a great handheld gaming platform. I just wish that they had used one large touch-screen instead of two separate screens. Whomever thought that was a good idea should be taken out and shot -- umm... unless it was the same bloke that fought for the use of the stylus and the touch screen - in which case he/she should just get a stern talking to.

6. I bought oodles of PSP games

I bought a PSP a long time ago, but I keep buying new games even though all I ever seem to really play is Untold Legends 2 (or whatever the second one is...)

7. I bought a room air conditioner that doesn't work.

Damn thing. I'm taking it straight back to Home Depot as soon as I get around to it....

Well, that's about all the major purchases I made. I am hoping to buy, in the future, the following:

1. A PSP LocationFree unit - to let me record, view, and manage television programs from my PSP or PC.
2. A PS3 when I can mortgage my home (I'll need a home to mortgage first).
3. A Nintendo Wiiiiiii (how many i's are there in that stupid name?)
4. A new PC - at least parts of one. My current PC seems to feel the need to reboot constantly and to turn off all my USB hubs and lock up. Annoying!
5. Get a media PC set up in the living room so that I can watch all those divx recordings of my DVD collections that I have gathered through my use of newzbin, giganews, and newsleecher.

That's all for now. Tune in for more frequent updates - after all there are at least 3 people that read this blog ... and for that mighty readership I must make certain sacrifices and keep things updated regularly.

-Michael Moore (Seattle, WA)