So pleased with my sons choice in early morning activity, I stopped mid-shave to lend him a hand in powering up the console, setting the HDTV inputs, etc. He specified what game mode as the menu screens loaded. I went back to finish my routine. As I left for work awhile later he was happily planted on the sofa with controller in hand guiding Spiderman around the rooftops.

My oldest son and I went to the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Science Center in downtown Los Angeles, CA. Only 3 words can describe our experience: A-freakin-mazing! The only issue was I forgot my camera! So sorry, no photos :-(

The exhibit was a first-of-its-kind that combines costumes and props with real-life technology, video interviews with the filmmakers, scientists and engineers. Displays ranged from engineering design labs (where you can build and test speeders and control a robot's walking behavior) to props from all six Star Wars films.

For the 3rd time my Xbox 360 has broke – now I’ll be playing on my 4th console since it launched. What makes this even more upsetting is I just got a malfunctioning unit replaced 8 days ago! Fortunate for Microsoft I’m a big fanboy of their console, operating systems, games and online services (i.e. Live). With that said, the option of switching camps to Playstation 3 is not even a considering factor (maybe if I didn’t want to stress over which games to purchase out of the large selection of AAA titles coming out for the 360). To top off my frustration, the GameStop extended warranty I’d have to repurchase each time I’d return a unit at $50 a pop now requires the hard drive to be included with the exchange. That means everyone in my family loses all their saved games. My son would cry if his 80+ hours invested in Viva Pinata was lost, and I probably would too. Also, transferring saved game data to a memory unit does not work for all games since some data is DRM protected (like Forza 2 and Viva Pinata).

The issues with the GameStop warranty are 1) you have to buy a new one each time they replace a console since it’s tied in with the unit’s serial number and 2) you now have to exchange the entire package (hard drive, controller, cables, etc). The advantage is you get a brand new console and its same day service. The issues with the Xbox warranty are 1) more than likely they send you a refurbished unit and 2) it’s about a 2 week process. The advantage is it’s free for 1 year and you only have to send the console in, not your hard drive (unless they determine it’s a hard drive issue). So which one?

Fortunately, GameStop will refund my recent warranty and I will start to use Xbox support instead. It’s not nearly as convenient but I’m tired of spending $50 on warranties especially with the new policy in place to return the hard drive. I’ll be sending my console in after this weekend so I can get some time with The Darkness which just came out yesterday. Hopefully my console will last that long.