McWilliams’ World

My band - Straight Jack and the Ettes covering “Little Wing”

My old band’s one and only real music video. Shot during the recording of our second album “Spring Catalog” in 1997.

Straight Jack and the Ettes covering SRV’s “Going Down”. Feb 21, 2009 at the Algoma Club, Oshkosh, WI.

Man.. I’ve neglected this blog for a while. I’ve been busy with a number of things:

1. Finally finished Oblivion + Shivering Isles. I got all achievements except one in Shivering Isles – don’t feel like going back and getting it either. I had close to 140hrs and over 1100 saves. I really enjoyed the game, but stopped exploring about 80hrs in and just wanted to get it done – so I jumped from point to point. I think I ended up with my character on level 41.
2. Been working on my drums a lot since joining a blues band (working name; Straight Jack and the Ettes). Playing along with the set list, buying PA speakers (JBL EON 15 G2), new parts, new triggers, etc… getting things ready to start playing out. First gig should be Feb 21.
3. Letting my Xbox Live subscription expire and roll back to a Silver account. I just don’t play on-line enough to justify it right now. I have a literal ton of games that I have to play through and multi-player isn’t feasible right now. I’m too competitive and don’t like loosing. Plus I never seem to have enough time to devote to it. (Yes… I know Amazon and others are selling the 12+1mo sub for $30).
4. Been having fun on FaceBook.
5. Life in general has been challenging.

So there you have it. I’d like to think I’m going to pay more attention to the blog here; maybe update the site, but we’ll see.

My bud Jake is giving away a monster HP machine. Check it out below.

Jake Ludington’s HP Magic Giveaway

At least till the 19th I have one before you due to my involvement with the New Xbox Experience beta.

If you want to check out my avatar, check out my 360Voice blog here. Thy guys at 360voice.com are really doing a great job churning out the new features.

I’ve stated before, the family has been having a blast with the new Xbox dashboard. The kids love messing with their avatars, I’ve taken advantage of the Netflix streaming, and I really like the full dashboard available from the guide button.

You’re going to love the NXE when it hits’ your box on the 19th.

[UPDATE] Looks like the Xbox folks are rolling it out to everyone else that signed up for the beta… have fun!

Just got an email from Microsoft stating that I got in on the New Xbox Experience (NXE) preview program.  Should be available to me by Nov 8th.

Sweet!

I’ll be sure to test out streaming from Netflix too! Unfortunately I just don’t have the HDD space to install games to my 20gb hdd (thanks a lot Rock Band!) . I’ve been looking around for deals on a 120gb upgrade… but that’s not in my plans at the moment.

I’m just excited to get in early and try out the new dashboard!

Just pre-ordered Gears of War 2 at BestBuy.com. Why there? I have some gift certificates from BB that I need to burn plus the last time I used their pickup in store for my pre-order of Ninja Gaiden 2, I managed to score $10 off since they couldn’t get my in-store pickup to me within one minute. So I’m banking a bit on that.

I’m still working off my $1000 in gift cards I got a few months back. I’m pretty much down to nothing. Just enough to cover the last of this year’s video games (Fable 2, Fallout 3, GOW2).

What happens next year? Not sure. I’m tempted to jump back in the freebie scene with some $500 gift cards, but I don’t feel like dealing with the hassle. They’re increasingly hard to finish the offers. Maybe it’s that time to finish the games I have and work the deals as games begin to drop in price three to six months after release.