Game Systems

I must admit that I have a weak spot for gaming systems. I love playing them, I love looking at them, but I especially love looking at them when they are fancy editions. "What does that even mean?" you ask? I'm glad you asked, invisible person.

I ordered two special edition gaming consoles this month. One of them was a limited edition from a while ago, and another is a limited edition that comes out on November 22.

The first one is an Xbox 360 that came out last year. I realized that I needed more hard drive space in my Xbox, and started looking for a new hard drive, when I discovered the R2D2 Xbox. It has a 320 gigabyte hard drive, looks like R2D2, makes R2D2 noises, a C3P0 controller, a white kinect, and a Star Wars game.

That's right, it makes R2D2 bleeps and bloops!

The other gaming system comes out on November 22nd. I had wanted to trade Pokemon with myself, and the new Legend of Zelda game comes out for Nintendo 3DS, so it is Zelda-themed. It comes with a copy of the new game (electronic download, not physical copy), and is gold. Even the face is gold. It shines.

Shiny!

Now, while these are both merely pictures of the boxes, my excitement for both is immense.

We will be able to put my first Xbox 360 in the living room, which will look good in that room and enable us to move our DVD player from the living room will move to the bedroom. We haven't been able to watch DVDs in our bedroom without shuffling a DVD player between rooms. The new R2D2 Xbox 360 will go in the study!

The Legend of Zelda 3DS XL and my old 3DS XL will still both be used. I will have different save data and games on each, so both will still be used.

This is why I've been saving my spending money up for a couple months. Worth every penny!

Today was just not my day

Every once in a while you just have a day that won't give you an inch. Today was that day for me.

We had an event for work (main stage music event on Tuesday - VERY successful, main stage theatre event started on Wednesday that I haven't seen yet but still had a very decent bit of prep work, this was the third event), and crazy complications reared their ugly head... yesterday.

Months ago, I cleared with the Office of the Dean of Student Life and building proctors, etc. about having a band in our courtyard. At least 1.5 months, maybe 2. Still, much planning went into having this event in the courtyard of our building. Yesterday we found out that the building doesn't have any AC power outlets. Yesterday.

So we move the event to another space we control, which is (thankfully) free. Free both in availability and price. Massive overhauls are required to make this work, but it works. I'll take it.

The downside is that the new space has a capacity of 72. The faculty host of the event has invited her students from multiple classes... some 600 students. Now, we know that not all are going to show, but many of them need extra credit (this event gets extra credit in her classes).

I laid the groundwork to have the event stream to the monitor outside the small theatre... and found out today after lunch that the person I contacted about that (and the only one who knows how to do this) has left the university. For Dell (a fantastic career move on his part: go Jason!) in Austin. We try to hook a projector up... less than an hour before the event starts. Can you see where I'm going with this? That solution isn't going to work. Now it's 3:30pm (event starts at 5pm).

It doesn't work. Either the camera isn't sending (the bit plug/cable was one significant variable), one of the multiple RCA video cables we have chained is inoperable, a connection is loose (it's not, I checked), or the projector isn't liking the signal, or SOMETHING, but the projector doesn't work. Now it's 5:05. The event has started.

The overflow students (and there were at least 100 of them) have to listen to the band, but can't see anything. We establish an intermission where students switch out.. Leftover students got extra credit for coming and putting in an effort, and  promptly left.

The band was FANTASTIC, and those who get to see them are thrilled. The space worked (for the 72 who could fit), and all is going OK. No one is mad at me (I've tried ridiculously hard to make things work), but I'm still unsatisfied. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I like things to go well... this event has gone horribly (in my eyes, and pretty objectively as far as I am concerned).

Then I go to my office to pack things up. I pack up my things and get ready to go...

And my keys are locked in my office. I have no way to get into my car, I have no way to get back into the administrative suite, better yet my office. There's no way to get those back until Monday (without calling facilities services on the emergency line, waiting for hours to have them break into the office, and getting my keys out; a coworker and close friend of mine gets in at 7:30 every morning, so I'll be able to get in on Monday, I'll have keys on Monday). I call Alli to see if she can pick me up.

Allison hardly EVER has anything to drink, but tonight she drank a Smirnoff. She doesn't feel ok to drive. So I walked home... luckily I live close.

My lovely wife had dinner prepared for me, and I mixed myself a Margarita. The band from tonight and former guest of the department are playing at Revolutions tonight, and I really want to go... but after the ridiculousness that was this day, I think I'm done. I'm out.

I've been listening to the band from tonight (who was AMAZING live) on Spotify. I highly recommend them. They are both The Invincible Czars and Invincible Czars on Spotify: check their entire discography out for free!

Music Faculty Recital

Last night, the Music Faculty Recital (that I've been helping with for a little while at work) took place.

There were 650 people there, largely due to my publicity. My hard work has been recognized today by my coworkers and supervisors.

It feels good to have a job well done recognized by my peers and supervisors. It truly does.

The venue had 750 seats available, and we filled up 650 seats. Multiple people have mentioned hearing about the event through avenues I've explored with this event. It was a case study... and it worked! Now I know what to do to get people to fill seats.

I think that honestly, more people were there because the end of the semester is near, and they needed extra credit/credit for class. But multiple people said that they saw the event via places I've advertised at that we weren't exercising before. So that feels like a major accomplishment.

And people at work have recognized that my efforts have translated into real people coming to our events. That is worth every bit of effort that I have put into my job. And I work very hard. 

My supervisor recognizes my hard work, but this is the first time that my hard work has gone almost universally acknowledged. It feels good. 

I spoke with my college friend Thomas tonight. He's one of my closest college friends. He and Reed are my closest, but none of us talk much together. I have a bond with them both that's kind of... close, despite a lack of consistent communication.

Every time I talk with them, it's like we continue conversations that we had the last time we spoke, no matter how long ago those were.

It is nearing the witching hour, so I am going to go to sleep. I must be up by 6:30 am tomorrow, because I am slow to warm up in the morning, and must be at work by 8:00 am.