A bunch of random thoughts

So I ended up working all last weekend, overnight shifts on Friday and Saturday. Two twelve-hour shifts. Needless to say Sunday morning I was a little zombie-like. I debated the whole way home whether I felt awake enough to go to church, and ended up deciding that I was doing pretty well and that if I went home and went to sleep I probably wouldn't have gone in the evening. So I went, and things were going pretty well until the homily, which ended up being the longest homily I have heard in quite some time. I am certain that, had I been more than semi-conscious, it would have been worthwhile, but in my state at the time I was struggling to keep up and not yawn, seeing as how I was in the third or fourth row. I can't say that I had a *negative* experience, but it probably wasn't one of my most uplifting moments.

Justin picked up an XBox360 one or two weeks ago, and I have to admit that, in spite of my initial misgivings, I have really come to see it as quite a fun device. First off, the graphics are of course stellar, much nicer than my current Playstation 2. The hardware setup with the wireless controllers is excellent - you can use the wireless controller to turn on the Xbox, and if you turn off the console the controllers are turned off as well. The controller isn't turned on until you hit the big button, and the controller then tells you which of the four players you are. I think the clincher is the media center integration. You can stream music from your PC to your Xbox, which is something I had been considering rather than hooking up my iPod to my stereo. (So help me, I don't want to pay $60 for an iPod dock and USB cable so I can have a powered dock connector hooked up to my stereo). One added humorous benefit of this is that you can substitute the music you are listening to from your PC for the in-game music, so you can listen to "Chariots of Fire" for example while blasting your way through a deathmatch. As well, I think Sony has completely shot itself in the foot with its strategy on the PS3, and at this point I would be highly surprised if the PS3 made it to market at all, or if it did make it to market, if it actually took some market share away from the XBox360.

LED Throwies. Saw a link through Digg about these wonderful little inventions. I would like to make some of these some time.

One of my co-workers is getting fiber installed to his house, but in spite of the fact that we live one mile from the Verizon Central Office, FIOS is not available in our neighborhood.