The Xbox One

To be completely honest I missed the 1pm (est) announcement of the Xbox One, I had my hands full at that time.Well actually I was cleaning a toilet. Lots of toilets. I'm kind of like toilet boy at... toilet man at my workplace. But anyway, that's for another time.

Last night I had heard that the Xbox One would be released in two phases one now and second at E3 (I believe) so I wasn't expecting much. I was most certainly not expecting to see a console. But low and behold a console was shown, and I must admit I am thoroughly impressed with the aesthetics. I'm glad Microsoft didn't take the Sony approach by showing nothing at the first conference  and then a blurry black box in their trailer for the PS4 that came out yesterday.
 It appears they may have actually planned for over heating by incorporating large vents, but we'll see. There are so many connections on the back It's actually pretty nice to see. Especially the HDMI port I like that quite a bit.

So some of the specs that are pointed out are it has an 8-core x86 processor, the HDMI pass-thru, 8GB of Ram, and a 500GB Hard Drive. Oh and did I mention the Blue Ray player? (The first one I'd ever own, I like DVDs because I'm cheap and they work well enough for me).

It sounds like they may have made a sturdy machine capable of next gen games - whatever games those may be. I wish they would have shown multiple games so that we could check out the game-play and more importantly graphics. I really want to see these graphics (in multiple instances since each developer has their own style), but alas there was no major release on that.

But... in the darkness news arose that was trending on twitter almost all day meaning it was big news: A Halo TV Series directed by Steven Spielberg is set to release on the Xbox One (how is it a TV series then?) If you read my Halo 4 Review then you know that I am a die hard fan of Halo. I own and had read every book, played every game for days and days. Yeah, so this TV series is a terrifying topic for me. Forward Unto Dawn was enough of a terror. I thought overall it was good, I liked the story and some of the scenes were comparable to high quality acting, but others were greatly lacking. They got lucky with that one, but two times? Probably not. I will watch it, but I seriously doubt it's going to make sense to the rest of the Halo Universe. But anyway.

I'm sure many of you were talking about the "always on" rumor for this new xbox. I've been actively attempting to find out if this would be true in the past few months, and with no luck in sight I decided to wait like every other person on this planet. It doesn't help the Microsoft let those rumors run rampant for months before quietly addressing them online today. And what was there response? The worst kind of response possible, next to no response:

So it very clearly states No it does not have to always be connected. Whew dodged a bullet, I thought we were going to have to worry about the internet when playing games, guess not... Hey wait what does that next sentence say? BUT....But what? "But Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet" So it does not have to be always connect, but you have to have internet connection. If we're talking about multiplayer that is fine. I mean that's how it basically works now unless you are at a LAN party. But what does that mean if it is not connected? It does end in reassuring us that they have a system if we lose our connection.

So judging by the wording and through assumptions it seems that in order to start using the console you must have a stable internet connection, and do whatever it is that they have you do before you are secured to "lose" connection. And lose obviously (oh lord I sound like a CNN reported) implies that we can only have a no connection for an undefined period of time before the gates of Hades open allowing all of the evils of hundreds of wasted dollars on this Xbox One as it goes from home entertainment to a brick.

 In fact you know what I did? I stole an Xbox One and tested it out to see how it ran with Bioshock Infinite. The internet in my house is near caveman, and has troubles steaming a standard edition movie, so you can understand my concern. Well I fired up the Xbox One with bioshock only to find out it would do absolutely nothing. It was truly a brick.

So I fought with the internet monster to give me more power (that's actually how it works) and wallah the internet worked excellently. I fired up the One and put in Bioshock infinite only to find out that it too was a prettier block of crap.

Why did this not work you may ask? Well this leads me to my final comment about this information release:

That's why the Xbox One in it's glory cannot even play the Xbox 360 games You know, the ones you spent seven-ish years on? The one you have invested countless hours and money into? Yeah none of those games are going to work for this new console.
I do get it, it's a future looking console, not a past dwelling one. But if you're expecting me to shell out money on a new product with a weak beginning game line up, then you'd better think again. Unlike every other console this has no huge blockbusters that I'm aware of that are being released essentially along side of it. Especially since they are bundling the Xbox One with the Kinect for all consoles. We know that is just going to drive the price up for a couple of cheap tricks that will never be used by me or a majority of people I know. Rather than stealing my money, why not work to help out the gamers that have backed your business all of these years?  Because one day you're going to be broke and begging for money, Mircosoft. Probably not any day soon, but as sure as the turn of the worlds you will lose your support. And when you do, remember the people who stood behind you that you ended up screwing over in the name of money. Remember us.

I guess for now I'll just wait and see if Mircosoft can salvage the damage it has done to my loyalty. But for now I'll stick to shooting up people on Halo because I love 343 industries.


I found a use for The One..

So which will you choose? Bird? Or Cage?

Millennials

Many of you may have seen the TIME Magazine cover about the Millennials. Well if not here is an image off to the right. It calls us lazy, entitled narcissists, and says we still live with our parents. I am here to review the cover only for I have not purchased the magazine yet. Though I am sure it is somewhat redeeming inside, I will circle back to it later in a later post.

By the way don't you love that in order to read an article bashing so many people my age we must pay a couple of dollars to do so? Wonderful. .

Get this I took TIME Magazine's Millennials quiz and only got a 35%. Bah.

So to address the title page before I even get started on the article. I am not narcissistic I can guarantee that. I even took a narcissism test (I hate spelling that word) and got a low score. You can check yours here. I mean I do have my bouts of I will conquer everything, but it's not like I actually think I am going to rule the galaxy one day... probably. 

Next! Or rather first... Lazy.. am I lazy? I am not going to lie I have been staring at a wall, not a TV, not a laptop but a good old wall for a solid hour debating on taking a nap or not. Now this does sound lazy, but I just ended my College semester and have now begun working. I clean apartments after the college students move out for summer. That invloves cleaning their rooms, tiling, carpeting, carrying furniture from one floor to the next, landscaping, and so on. You want to know what I cleaned yesterday? Sewage. Today? Vomit. I think I deserve to take a nap considering I am off work. Don't get me wrong I have bouts of laziness  but who doesn't? Is that not what society as a whole has been working towards?

~Fun Fact time! Products such as vacuums were invented to decrease the time spent on cleaning the house or properties, but it had the opposite effect resulting in more time spent on cleaning. Crazy right? ~

Finally, the big one. Do I live with my parents like Joel Stein says I do? Well... that's kind of a complicated answer. I live in my family home by myself. So no I don't live with my parents, or anybody for that matter. My parents divorced and both got a place, and one wants to screw over the other and thus kept the house that I now live in. Do I pay for anything? You're dang right I do. I buy a lot of my groceries, cleaning supplies, pet foods you name it. I even get my bank account raided by my parents at some points so all in all no I don't live with my parents.

That's 3 for 3 Joel Stein. You were wrong on each. I guess you would say I'm a "special case" but we all know where you pulled that answer from... Your butt. I said it.

 Maybe Mr. Stein you would be a little more understanding if you didn't have job security in this economy why my generation has been passed a dying torch. Maybe you would be a little more understanding had your childhood be infinity linked to everyone everywhere with an internet connection. Maybe you would be a little more understanding if your generation was taught by broken hands and blackened hearts.

The ascension of my brothers and sisters of my generation should not be plagued with a line of bodies behind, but with justice and a world of good heart ahead. Our generation should not stand upon the shoulders of crude corrupt men and women who have spent the world to save a measly buck. It should not stand on the shoulders of broken governments and broken people. But that is the card we have been dealt, we stand upon the shoulders of filth and stolen opportunity as all have before. 

You say we are narcissistic? Maybe your generation should not have spared the rod as so many have. Beatings are not what I call for to my generation, but a stern and steadfast system of morals which lead us to a more peaceful and pure society not founded on religious judgement or atheistic liberties, but on an accepted moral code allowing for the co-existence of all who which to continue forward in a quasi-harmonious states (as much as there could be one). Your generation failed to instill the moral codes of decent   a decent mankind. You failed to pass the torch and left us to fend on our own thinking we could control you, and if we could control you, then all would probably fall beneath our charm. With your high divorce rates, children of broken hearts rose from the ashes. You created the beasts that some of us are today. You were Frankenstein and we are your monster.

We are products of our pasts transgressions, of their failures, of their weakness, and you and I should all be afraid of what is to come. Like a breeze striking the dimming flame upon the torch we pass, our society can only be strong if the torch is rekindled and strengthened. 

You entrenched yourselves in the present, Stein. You failed to realize the present is ever fleeting, and the future is where we must live. Your generation was greedy like the rest, and have given us a broken world with a system full of kinks and knots. Do not excuse yourselves from the part you have played in the shape our lives. 

You call us out on living with our parents? Have you seen the economy? My generation has stepped out into a world where unless you have a pieces of paper saying that you have survived and education system, and that a university vouches for you, then you have a very little chance in succeeding. Those degrees take massive amounts of time and effort to get. It is no walk in the park, and the system has grown much harder since your day, Stein. A college degree is no longer a luxurious item. It is a requirement. 

These people living with their parents, many have few choices. 

The classes I have seen, many are designed to make you fail while robbing you and you blind. I attend a course where the professors tell you that there is a 40% fail rate as if we are only a statistic and not individual people hoping to achieve a dream and pursue a life of greatness. Meanwhile TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS are being taken from our pockets a year and placed in a broken system.

Those that do survive and exit college in hopes of finding a job, only realize that economic conditions will not allow for such things at this time. So these now out of school, in MASSIVE debt men and women are forced to find smaller jobs that in no way can pay for the debt that they have fallen into. AT THE SAME TIME the elder folk as well as the rest of America have to take those same jobs because they are now falling to unemployment. So these out of school, in debt young adults must compete for jobs with an outrageously large amount of people. So many turn back to their parents, for many these were steadfast rocks that seemed fool proof to the economy. And thus they move back in to minimize the increase in debt. How can you make that sound wrong? That they are trying to stop the break future piece by piece. By moving in with their parents they are setting themselves up for the future. They are planning for the future, and not staying in the present. The sure as heck is better than half of you Stein folk.

My generation is so young and has yet to show what it can do. Before judging and condemning us, why not wait and see what we have for you? You see those problems happening with our world and our politics? That's your generation, and while your generation screws around and flounders in constant repetitive lapses in judgement mine is growing. Try not to screw that up. 

So excuse me Stein if I got your message wrong, because I am responding to what you put on the cover. But I don't have 5 dollars to spare. right now, as many of us are, I am low on money. $5 dollars doesn't seem like a lot, until you have to decided between dinner or clothing. And that's where I'm at. So sorry I couldn't spend a quick buck on your magazine article to see what you really meant, but I better things to spend my money on than you.

Welcome to the real world. This is our world, and I hope and pray to god and all things that are good that we do not leave our children in the pit of hell that our mothers and fathers have left us, for it inexcusable and evil to be so caught of up the present that your children must mop the world of your mess. 

Live for the future, for that is all we have. The past is behind us, the present is ever fleeting. But the future always looms ahead, never ending, never relinquishing it's might. 

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2013/05/03/3603311/body-found-in-south-atherton

~I have not edited this version yet but I still wanted to share it so I hope you don't mind. If you do, oh well.~