Blackwalt's blog

I have two magazines that I read regularly. I subscribe to both.

OXM: the Official Xbox Magazine and PCGamer.

Just a quick comment about the impact of Halo 3 on magazine production. Read more

Making natural hazards look good

So Stormblade(Colossus) and I (Spiderman) entered into Atlantis last night to save Namor, accompanied by AI Invisible Woman and Captain America.

It did not go well. Read more

So Coxxorz (Deadpool) and I (Captain America) went into Marvel Ultimate Alliance once again last night and discovered that Mysterio wasn't the second coming of Galactus. We also saved the world's mutant population, a large Dam, a five storey mobile lab and discovered that M.O.D.O.K. is a sore loser at Trivial Pursuit. I think it was the two AI characters that made us so effective: Luke Cage and Human Torch. Read more

**Update**: Sensationalism is still alive and well. Not surprising when you consider where I work. Security reports: stolen car, plain clothes cops, the police report "no gun".

In all seriousness.

SWAT has just pursued and taken down an armed gunman in our lobby and parking lot.

Complete with running screaming bystanders, a stolen car and a chase.

True to my HoC camping style. I stayed(hid) in my office until it was over...

This was way better than last year's car bomb

Xbox video games vs Education fund. With $165.0486850176726614176093708922016 to spend, what to do becomes a great debate.

"Daddy, Daddy, I need to be edumacated!"

"No, no, no, lots of time for that. Give me my money, I need to play Orange Box and PGR4."

"EdumacatioN!!" Read more

Okay so when my 360 core died I delayed a bit before calling Microsoft but...

**cough, cough**

What is it? Halositis something or other...

Symptoms? uhh... red blurry eyes, dry mouth, I can't seem to sleep and my thumbs are sore...

What? Yes, thumbs... and I think one of my legs is asleep...

"Get into the office you f****** lazy ass..." Sorry, boss I think my phones dying, I'm losing you....

Not with Rainbow Six Vegas anyway.

So I have used HDMI on my Xbox Elite before. To watch DVDs, not play games. I used it this weekend to watch Casino Royale and was impressed by the quality of the picture. It was sweetness and light and I stared at the TV mesmerized.

The TV in question is a Viewsonic 37" LCD 1080i with a resolution of 1360x768. With HDMI in case you were wondering.

I couldn't wait until I tried gaming through HDMI. Couldn't wait.

Until I tried it that is. Read more

The Xbox hardware just pisses me off sometimes.

Damn stupid Wireless headset.

Last night going in for an HoC grenade fest in Rainbow Six Vegas I finally get the headset fully charged as it ran out the previous night.

Let's turn it on. Hey, the lights are flashing and its not syncing with the 360. Dammit. Okay. Off and on. Not resyncing.

Fine push resnyc button on Headset, push resync button on 360. Ah hah. There we go. Synced.

Although Pebbles may deny Q-Bert's parenting experience, technically, he has been a parent longer than I.

I got to watch in awe as he taught a valuable life lesson to his four year old daughter.

Q-Bert very careful, patiently, and with great skill showed his daughter how to properly hold a shotgun. "One hand here for reloading," and the "other one here under the stock to reach the trigger." Read more

So last night, realizing that I had been playing a lost of Xbox live recently I ran a quick question past Guba before the gaming began.

"Did you want to do anything tonight?"

She looked at me like I had grown a third eye. A glowing bright green third eye, smack dab in the middle of me forehead.

Chastened, I slowly slunk backwards out of the room until I could safely turn and run for my Xbox 360.

You think I would have learned by now.

And my 3RLoD Xbox 360 is now in Microsoft's hands.

Four days to get to me and one day to get to Microsoft. I guess they do have more pull.

Date Scan Time Status Comment
2007/09/06 08:55 Delivered to ALISTAR at SHIP DOCK of CELESTICA 844 DON MILLS RD M3C1V7
2007/09/06 07:43 On vehicle for delivery
2007/09/06 07:23 Shipment In Transit
2007/09/06 03:48 Left TORONTO SORT CTR/CTR TRIE, ON
2007/09/06 03:42 Shipment In Transit
2007/09/05 19:25 Shipment In Transit
2007/09/05 14:29 Received at Reception from XXXXXX

Stormblade may have his own take on our evening of Rainbow Six coop.

But my version is slightly different.

Its a good thing that Rainbow Six Vegas only supports four players in coop because I would hate to see what more of us could do. Read more

It doesn't look like a coffin.So my original call to MS Xbox support was Tuesday August 28th.

I received the "coffin" for shipping my 3RLOD Xbox 360 yesterday, Tuesday September 4th. And while it seems like a week (exactly a week) it was within the 3-5 business days promised. Four in fact. Read more

Rolly loves machines - dump trucks, buses, trains, any of them.

And he is addicted to Might Machines.

We indulged him this morning after an Ikea and Chapters run by taking a picnic lunch out to a construction site.

The recreation complex at the end of the street is repaving their parking lot. Periodically over the past few months we have taking Rolly over to check on their progress.

Today was our first chance to see the construction site in full operation. They are just prepping for final paving tomorrow. Read more