I guess that's what it's like to be a non-gamer. Hmm.. I remember those days.

I haven't even been able to get on on XBL in about 3 weeks... haven't missed it too much.

Maybe you could play with your Wii?

Haven't played any Xbox for a while either. My Xbox's blog is crying every day. It's a little annoying.

Just got my 360 back and it's working good as new. Microsoft was also kind enough to throw a free month of XBL into the shipping box (redeemable card). One interesting thing to note is that the MAC address changed from the old 360 while the serial number on the case and system blade stayed the same. I noticed this while getting connected to XBL because the new MAC was not on my allowed list, but a similar MAC (the old 360) was. Oculus and I developed a theory that they replace the mobo as a fairly routine repair and then flash the console serial number to memory. This is also supported by the fact that the system clock was set to GMT and started close to 12:00 AM when I booted the box. By the time I got around to setting the time it said 12:23 AM. I am unsure if I had been working on it for less than 23 minutes or not (implying it was booted for the first time at the test facility). I also had to reset the HD settings, my account's auto-login setting, and even my default control preferences (inverted, sensitivity, etc).

BTW, if you're an inverted player and you've never set your gamer profile preferences to inverted then you really should. It saves me a trip through the menu on every shooter I put in the tray.

Anyway, I finished Shivering Isles tonight, downloaded Shadowrun Beta, completed the training, and then played some matches to cut my teeth. I think I will end up enjoying the game immensely if THX widely adopts it. Halo with magic...I'm not so sure...but it's very good. I also downloaded the C&C demo and a lot of trailers. It feels good to be back.