Ty’s Weblog

Went out about noon today to exchange my PSP at Target. They were wonderful about it. No problems at all. They even let me borrow the battery from the one I was returning to check the new one out before I left the store. I don’t see any dead pixles on this one at all.

Pretty good luck on my part, considering the stories I’ve read on the net of people have to try 5 or 6 different times to get a good one.

It’s charging up now, and I’ll most likely give some games a whirl this evening.

I’m a little down this morning.

We’d planned to head down to Topsail Beach this morning. My niece is graduating from high school and we were going down for the party they are throwing. The whole family (plus a lot more apparently) is going to be there.

I was sick last week starting on Friday and lasting basically through Wednesday. I missed two days of work because of it. It looks like Kate has picked up the bug that I had. She’s upstaris sleeping right now, which is something I did a lot of the last week as well.

I know we are doing the right thing staying home, and it’s not like Kate is really up for travelling anyway, but it’s hard. I’d been looking forward to this trip for a while. I keep reminding myself that my first obligation is to this part of my family, but I still can’t help but be sad.

I picked up a PSP today. We had an All-Hands meeting at work, and I got a $500 bonus for some work I’d done over the past year. (I also won an iPod mini for Kate!)

We decided I should get myself a PSP with the money. I’ve not played it yet. It’s still charging up at this point. I think I’ll be taking it back to Target tomorrow (since our trip to the beach likely been canceled because Kate is sick, more on that tomorrow) though. This one has lots of dead pixels on it, and I’m just not happy with it. I’ll make a trip out there and I’ll be testing them till I find one that is acceptable.

I’ve got to admit, I was impressed.

I got to see Revenge of the Sith at 10am this morning. Juniper Networks treated my department at work to a showing this morning. I went in with low expectations.

For Episode I, I had very high hopes, and I was very disapointed. It seemed like a special effect fest, with a plot wrapped around it.

Still, my hopes for Episode II had still been pretty high. I figured that Lucas would do a better job this time. It was better than Episode I, but I was still disapointed. I never even saw it in the theather, I was it of DVD after it came out.

So Episode III rolled around today, and I wouldn’t even have gone to the theather to see it either, if Juniper hadn’t been taking us. I’m so glad they did! It was an awesome movie worthy of the name Star Wars. The special effects (for the most part) didn’t look like special effects. I never felt like I was looking at a CGI of a ship or a clone trooper or really anything. Ok, the whatever it was that Obi-Wan rides is kinda weak, but other than that the special effects were dead on. And they were in service to the plot, instead of in place of it. Oh, and the plot. The plot was excellent. Anakin’s fall from grace is handled very well and fits nicely into the story as a whole.

It was a great movie, and it brings a nice closure to the story as a whole. The six movies together now have really become the story of Anakin Skywalker.

I’d hate to be the only blog on the web that didn’t mention the Xbox 360 today.

There are lots of new articles up about it.

I TiVoed the MTV show that was the official revelation of the system. It took me about 3 minutes to view all the useful content in it.

I like the standard wireless controller, and that it does have a place to plug in wires when needed. The new design looks pretty nice, but isn’t that big a deal to me anyway.

Overall, it looks pretty good. I’ve not seen any games yet that will make me buy it at launch, but that could change. E3 could bring some new information that would change that.

GameSpy has up a brief preview of We Love Katamari, the sequel to one of Xander and my favorite games, Katamari Damacy.

Xander and I both love playing this game, and I’m really looking forward to the sequel, since it appears to have a true multiplayer mode (even a co-op mode) so Xander and I can play it together instead of taking turns.

We had a visit from NASCAR here in Leesburg today.

Nextel had a car out at one of the wireless stores around here, so I took Xander out to check things out.

He, of course, loved it. They had a mock up of a Dale Jarrett car there. It had a video game inside it which Xander and I played once. My time on that entered me into a drawing for a trip to the Richard Petty Driving Experience, which would, of course, be awesome.

They had an actual car on display as well. I’m not an expert, but if that wasn’t a real car, it was an amazing mock up. I’d expect it has a cheap engine in it, but everything visible appears to be authentic to me. Xander loved walking around the car and asking me questions about different pieces and parts. He was just amazed by the whole thing.

To tell you the truth, so was I. The last time I remember being up close to a NASCAR car was when I was a kid. Terry Labonte was making an apperance at the Lowe’s in Fayetville. This was back when he drove the Piedmont Airlines car (another picture from a different year, since I can’t remember which year this happened), which is who my dad worked for at the time. So we headed out there to see it. I remember how excited I was at the time. It was a lot of fun to get to take Xander to see a car today.

I’ve added a gallery with the pictures I took.

The first thing you have to do is go watch this music videoo by Laurie Berkner that plays on Noggin.

Xander, loves this song (and her other songs as well).

So today during his quiet time, while he was playing with his cars, he made up a new song. I leave it to you to fit it to the music.

I was singing in the audience.
When I saw some cars vroom by.
They said their names were
Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Matt Kensith, Carl Edwards, Jeff Green and Jeff Burton and they said
Vroom vroom vroom vroom
vroom vroom vroom vroom
vroom vroom vroom vroom
vroom vroom vroom vroom
vroom vroom vroom vroom
vroom vroom vroom vroom
Vroomy cars, can’t you see,
it’s just you and me
a one, two
a million and three!