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I have so many games that I have: only played once, played a lot but never finished, or never played at all. I decided to come up with a plan to work my way through some of these games. I started by compiling a list of all the Xbox games that I hadn’t completed yet. I picked the Xbox because the Xbox 360 will probably be the first next-generation system that I buy. I figured I could just retire my Xbox if I play all of the games that I want to.

After I made the list I ordered the game in the tentative order that I want to play them. That order is very tentative. Then I went to Gamespy.com, Gamespot.com, and IGN.com in order to obtain estimates on how long it would take to beat each game. For games that I had already started, I tried to estimate how much longer I had to play the game to finish it. Of course I used a spreadsheet for this because I have no life. I know this makes it sound like work, but it’ll be fun. I’m already having fun working my way through KOTOR II. My total estimate for Xbox games is 143 hours. At my rate it’ll take me about 6 years to finish them. The third Xbox and the PlayStation 4 will be out by then. The list and estimates are below. Some of these games I don’t even own yet. Some I may not like and decide not to play anymore. We’ll see how it goes.

There’s a ranking on MSN.com of the 100 angriest cities in the US. The factors that were considered are:

• the percentage of men with high blood pressure
• the rates of aggravated assaults
• the number of workplace deaths from assaults and other violence
• traffic congestion data
• the number of speeding citations per state

My hometown, Jackson, MS, is number 13 on the list. The obvious joke would be for me to say that I’m angry to see Jackson on the list, but I can’t say that. Other southeastern cities and their ranks are: Orlando (1), St. Petersburg(2), Nashville (5), Miami (7), Memphis (8), Jacksonville, FL (9), Birmingham (21), Atlanta (24), Baton Rouge (28), Montgomery, AL (46), and Little Rock (72).

The top two angriest cities are in Florida. I guess I would be angry too if I lived in Florida (just kidding).

Update:
I accidentally left Tampa (12) off the list of southeastern cities.

Over the past week or so I’ve been watching the first season of an HBO series called Rome. The twelve episodes depict the period from Caesar’s victory in the Gallic Wars to the time of his death. Although it focuses on Caesar’s rise to power and death, it also focuses equally if not more on the lives of two Roman soldiers: Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. If you’re like me and like to watch shows and movies based on historical events, then this show is definitely worth checking out.

Yes, there will be a second season that will air sometime next year.

After a recent Sprite spill on my laptop, I got it into my head that I wanted to clean the laptop’s keyboard. On Saturday I finally got around to doing it. I removed the keyboard from the laptop, removed each key, and then cleaned everything with Q-tips and water. I even made a diagram beforehand to show me where all the keys should go once I finished. It took a LONG time. If my warranty hadn’t expired a long time ago, this probably would have voided it. I think that next time I should just buy a new laptop instead.

I was asked to participate in a 14-day study that ended yesterday. I had to keep track of what of beverages I was drinking each day. I was even given a Palm Zire to record all the beverages that I had each day. I tried to record them as soon as I drank them, but that wasn’t always convenient. They asked for information such as: the size of the drink, the time of day, the type/brand of drink, the type of container it was in, what I was doing while drinking, if I drank alone or not, etc. I’m being paid enough to make this worthwhile. I probably missed a couple of beverages here and there, but for the most part I was pretty diligent about recording them. I wonder if I ended up drinking less because I knew I would have to record a lot of information into the PDA every time I had a drink. I wish I could keep the PDA.

Participating in this study made me realize that I drink way too many carbonated beverages. At least 75% of what I recorded was some kind of carbonated drink, with a few waters and 2 sweet teas in there somewhere. There was no alcohol, however. I used to drink a lot more water and I need to get back in the habit of doing so. I’ll be sure to start that…tomorrow.

As I was falling asleep last night I was watching something on TV that had skaterboarders in it and it brought back a vague memory of some game that I played long ago on the NES. I remembered skating on a halfpipe and doing tricks for points. It seemed like there were other events you could compete in, but I couldn’t remember any of them. Of course I was going to go crazy if I didn’t figure out what that game was. I was too lazy to get up a look it up last night and didn’t want to take the time while I as at work today.

Using Google I was easily able to find out that the game was California Games. I probably played it some time around 1989 or 1990. Check out the Wikipedia article for more info. and some pics. I remember not being any good at the surfing event, so I didn’t really like it. I think the rollerskating event was pretty fun though. Nostalgia is great.

I read last week that 37 degree programs at Mississippi’s state universities are being put on probation because they are not producing enough graduates. The programs that were put on probation at Mississippi State (my alma mater) are:

• Trade & technical studies, bachelor’s
• Manufacturing technology, bachelor’s
• Political science, bachelor’s
• Computer science, PhD
• Computer engineering, PhD
• Environmental toxicology, PhD
• Veterinary medical science, PhD

I thought this was interesting because I got my master’s in computer science last year. I thought about the possibility of pursuing a PhD while I was in graduate school, but it was only for about a split second. I have a vague memory of hearing that the PhD program in computer engineering was in trouble when I was in school, but I didn’t know about the one in computer science. It looks like they might be merging the computer science and computer engineering PhD programs in the future.

Every once in a while I listen to music on Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast Radio or AOL Radio. The selection on AOL seems to fit me better, but Yahoo does allow you to skip a few songs every hour. AOL Radio offers many XM Radio stations in addition to their own stations. The 90’s Alternative stations on both services have been my favorite so far.

I’ve probably used Yahoo! more because I started out with it and I tend to think of it first. I may be listening to AOL more in the future. I found out last night that they have an All Pearl Jam station and an All Final Fantasy station, among other good choices. Just hearing the music from Final Fantasy again was fun and it’s no secret how I feel about Pearl Jam.

I may not have total control over what I’m hearing in either case, but the variety of music is good enough that I can always find something that suits me. And it costs me nothing to use them. It’s hard to beat FREE!

I’ll be starting my new job on August 1. I have this week off.

Over the weekend I started playing Star War Knights of the Old Republlic II: The Sith Lords. It’s been sitting in my collection for over a year and a half now. Better late than never. It’s a fun game so far. It’s a lot like the first game, and that’s not a bad thing. As much as I’m trying to go to the dark side, I keep getting light side points. I guess it’s just in my nature to be a good guy.

Over the past few months I’ve been slowly making my way through the complete series of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ve seen all of the episodes at one point or another on TV, but now I can watch the whole series all the way through on DVD. I just finished season 4. The show started getting really good in season 3, but season 4 is even better.

My roommate and I are almost finished with our second helping of Tales of Symphonia. The sidequests are what’s keeping us from finishing the game. I’m going to try to make Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks our next joint project.

I’ve pretty much completely made the switch from eBay to Amazon.com for selling all the old games and DVD’s that I don’t want anymore. I mostly use the money to buy new games and DVD’s. I get more money than I would if I traded them in to GameStop or Sam Goody, I just have to wait before I get anything. When an item is sold, Amazon.com sends me an email with the name and address of the person that bought my item, how much I’m getting, and other useful information.

I’m at the point where Gmail is becoming my main email service. As most people with Gmail accounts probably know, they scan your email and deliver advertisements in the right side of your browser area based on what’s in that particular email. I like the way Gmail handles tracking numbers and street addresses. If Gmail sees a tracking number (UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc) in your email, it’ll give you a link that you can click on to track the package. It saves me the trouble of having to go to the individual websites and going through the steps to track packages that I’m expecting. If Gmail sees a street address in your email, it’ll usually give you a “Map this” link that allows you to map that address using Google Maps. So, if a friend sends me his address in an email, all I have to do is click on that link to see where he lives and possibly get directions.

I get the “Map this” links with the emails that come from Amazon.com telling me that my items have sold and where I need to ship them to. If I notice the links and I’m bored when I’m scanning the emails, sometimes I’ll click on the links just out of curiosity. No, I’m not going to stalk these people. I just think it’s interesting to look at satellite imagery of their neighborhoods and their houses. It may give me an idea of the kind of person I’m selling my stuff to…or maybe not. Oh well, it helps pass the time.