Now to beat Transformers...

I finally finished Call of Duty 3 last night on the 360. I didn't realize I was so close to the end, and suddenly I had one the war! Woo Hoo! Now, I just have to go back and finish COD 2. Maybe I'll do that this weekend with another ice storm moving in tonight. C'mon SPRING!!!

I got the 360 back last night from UPS. I took it out of the box and let it warm up for about 30 minutes. I fired it up and it started beautifully. Despite the fact that I think I received a refurb (born on date of 4/10/2006) everything seems OK.

I did notice one thing--when I went to open the disc tray, it wouldn't open!! I pressed it about 3 times and it just would not pop out. I figured it was broken and was afraid I'd have to re-live this nightmare all over again. Then, I thought maybe it just had something to do with the faceplate, so I took it off and replaced it. That did the trick and it is working like a charm now. Other than the annoyance of having to reset all the default settings (display, audio, wireless settings, etc.) everything seems to be working just fine now. While I haven't played any purchased games yet, I downloaded the demo of "Crackdown" and it is freaking fun. I'm looking forward to some COD3 and maybe even Gears of War this weekend. Woo hoo!! Maybe Rhonda will stop being mad at me for obsessing over it now.

Well, yesterday I was bashing Microsoft for their (lack of) support. But, I did get my box yesterday from UPS. I'll be shipping it out this morning. Now, the real test will be to see how long it will take to get it back! I'll be counting the days on this one.

OK, so as many of you know my Xbox blew up last weekend. I called them on Sunday. They said they'd have a box from UPS to me to send it back to them asap. It's STILL not here.

I've waited patiently for almost a week now, and still nothing. I'm so irritated that my Xbox died in the first place, and now getting any help from MS is like pulling teeth. If this process drags on for months I might just scream.

I woke up bummed this morning, after finding out last night that my Xbox 360 has bit the dust. I turned it on to play some COD 3, and got the "flashing red ring of death." I spent the next two hours searching the forums for some answers. Unfortunately, the code I kept getting was the one everyone said was a hardware failure, and a sure thing for sending the box in for maintenance.

I had heard the stories of the box just crapping out, and now it finally happened to me. Not much I can do about it, so I'll have to wait for customer support to send me a box to ship it in, then send it to them to fix, and pray they get it back to me fast. This really sucks, because I have virtually no homework this weekend, Rhonda is busy, and it's supposed to snow us in tomorrow. Guess I'll be cleaning the house instead of shooting Germans or racing my Ducati. Depressing.