This sucks.  We had 1.5 Mbps DSL service for a few years (I think up to 4-5 years at this point) and I had finally grown tired of the slow speed.  In August I cancelled them out completely and got our local cable company to install cable internet (at 5 Mbps) and digital cable with a Hi-Def DVR.   When that flier showed up about 1 1/2 weeks after the change I was pissed.  Had they just told me I never would have switched.

So I went out to get the mail a couple weeks ago.  Again came the flier from our local phone company that faster DSL was now available in our area.  Ok, time for me to review what we’ve got, and see if I can save money.  We had DirecTV a while back because I slaved in their call center for about 3 1/2 years.  That job sucked.  They payed pretty good for what I did (sat on my butt and answered the phone) and it came with free DirecTV service (top of the line of course), but we cancelled it because I was back in school.  Trying to conserve money and all.  It was cancelled in 2005.  I decided to check and see what it would run for similar service now.

I called DirecTV to make sure I was eligible for the promotions on programming that were currently running, and surprisingly, I was.  So I started calculating.  With the DSL promotion and the DirecTV promotion we could save about $40 a month.  With this we would be getting: more than double the download speed of our cable internet, and getting a LOT more channels.  Wow.  Where is the downside?  Then came the call to get the equipment from DirecTV.  This is where knowing how to work the system comes in.

I call the regular “reconnect” line at DirecTV and get a dumbass (as Red would say).  No really….I haven’t worked at DirecTV in about 4 1/2 years, and I was correcting him on things.  Really dude?  You think you should be doing this job?  He even tried to upsell me on adding Qwest DSL (which I was already doing).  He said, “You can get 1.5 ‘M’ at your house.  Just in case you don’t know the ‘M’ means it is fast.”  LMAO!  Dude, really?  I then spent about 5 minutes informing him what the ‘M’ stood for, and that he was wrong about what the fastest speed available to me was.  Next he pretty much told me what I already knew about the programming costs.  Then I asked about equipment.  I want one HD-DVR and one standard DVR…..free.  ”No, I can’t do that.  Best I can do is HD-DVR free and the other DVR is $99 plus shipping.”  Bite me.  Told him I’d think about it and call back.  I did, too.  I called to see what someone else was willing to do.  Guy number 2 was a little better, but still not willing to eat all the cost on the second DVR.  Ok, I’m done fooling around.  Time to call retention.

I used to work in retention.  I used to joke that the department I worked in was the “Give shit away” department.  Do what it takes to prevent people from cancelling service.  I also did reconnects…guess how those went.  So, I get the “Express line” phone number with pin.  From here I got into CRG and get: $25-32 off of programming for the next 12 months, 6 months of free movie channels, and the HD-DVR and standard DVR for free.  I just paid for shipping.  Then the installer showed up.  CRG guy botched it.  Not only did I get a HD-DVR free, I got 2 HD-DVR’s free.  These are normally $199 a pop.  Cool.  HD-DVR in the bedroom too!  Once it was all hooked up I had to call a couple times to get the programming corrected and discounts applied, but is should be all good now.  And as an added bonus we get $5 a month off because we have DSL too.

Next up was the internet.  Back to what started the DirecTV switch.  Our 5Mb service was $49 a month.  We were getting hosed.  That would get me 20Mb in Portland (where I grew up), but not here.  In any case, we now pay $45 a month (with a free $100 modem) for 12Mb service.  Just got the internet installed today and it is nice.  Can’t wait to see if there is an improvement in Xbox Live….but I highly doubt it.

Moral of the story.  Don’t accept the first representative’s offer.  Work the system.  Learn whom to talk to, and more importantly, how to talk to them.  Never (EVER) be defensive or argumentative.  The saying, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” is only accurate when you are literally talking about wheels.  As Dalton would say, “Be nice.”

I think it is fair to say I’m addicted to Halo.  I’m addicted to Xbox 360 games (and pretty much all video games) in general, but Halo has a special place in my world.  With somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 matchmade games across at least six different gamertags (with my original clocking the highest at 4,449 matches) in Halo 3 alone, yeah….I’m addicted.

So around a year ago Bungie (the company that makes Halo) mentioned something about a new game coming out. We knew it wouldn’t be Master Chief (main character of Halo: CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3) so it would be a new challenge.  Naturally, being the addict I am, I pre-ordered the new game as soon as I could at my local GameStop.  That was back in May.  The game came out about 1 1/2 weeks ago and I was there at midnight, Monday, September 21, 2009, to pick up my copy.  I got the Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Edition.  Same game, but I got a “limited edition” controller.  Also, because I pre-ordered, I got the code for Sgt. Johnson to use in the new multiplayer mode called “Firefight”.  I also picked up Puma’s copy because the bastard was on a cruise in the Caribbean or somewhere.

The game itself is called Halo 3: ODST.  For those that don’t know, ODST stands for “Orbital Drop Shock Trooper”.  I won’t explain everything because those that will read this either already know or don’t care….like Kim doesn’t care.  So, I get home and boot up.  This came with two discs: one is only Halo 3 multiplayer with all the maps that I’ve paid for already in the last couple years, plus three new maps.  I fired this disc up first to find the skull hidden on each map.  The Xbox 360 has this thing called “Achievements” and as the name suggests, it is a “reward” for doing things in the games.  I am addicted to those blasted achievements popping up the notification that I’ve just earned something.  The fun part of finding the skulls was my partner was someone who works at Bungie.  The bad part was he was at work and didn’t have a headset.  Never realized how difficult it can be to try to accomplish something without being able to communicate very well.  Oh well, we got it done.

Once that was done, he took off for the bar (everyone was celebrating from the studio) so I jumped over to the new disc.  I partnered up with another guy and we started the main game on the ODST disc.  The campaign loaded up and was nice.  I was able to set my controls the way I had them in Halo 3 (naturally) and it was second nature.  It felt like I was controlling Master Chief, but I was missing some little things.  Shield regeneration is gone, dual wielding is gone (being able to shoot two weapons simultaneously), but overall it was comfortable.

Before long, my first buddy was home.  Over to Firefight we go.  There are a couple of games that I’ve played that had this game mode where you fight a number of enemies in each round.  Gears of War 2 had “Horde” mode (the only good thing about that game in my opinion).  Call of Duty: World at War has “Zombie” mode; this was a great addition to a good game already.  So Firefight has: Sets, Rounds, and Waves.  There are five Waves to a Round, and three Rounds to a Set.  Supposedly there are infinite Sets, but I’ve yet to make it to set five.  However, I have made it to Set 4, Round 4, Wave 3, and that took just a hair under 2 1/2 hours.  This game is fun!

Overall, the graphics and gameplay are great in my opinion.  Yes, I’m slightly biased, but I still pay for my games.  The Campaign was a bit too easy, even on Legendary difficulty (the hardest).  The fact that I was able to complete Legendary by myself (Solo is the way to go!) in less time than it took for Halo 3 or Halo 2 left me a bit disappointed.  It doesn’t surprise me much since Halo 3 Legendary was easier than Halo 2 Legendary.  The story itself was interesting, or atleast what I watched of it.  I’m known among my co-op friends to skip cut-scenes at every opportunity.  I still couldn’t tell you what happened at the end of Halo 3.

Somebody asked me the second day I had it if I thought it was worth a buy.  Absolutely.  I paid $100 for the Collector’s Edition (and since controllers usually go for $50 on their own, it was a good deal) and I say Firefight alone is worth it.  Factor in a whole new campaign, the multiplayer maps for Halo 3, and the chance for Recon…..well, that’s just icing on the cake.

For the record the night of 9-21-09 went like this:
2230 – Left for GameStop for the midnight pickup
0004 – Got my copy of Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Edition
0017 – Got home and attempted opening of Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Edition packaging
0022 – Finally got game disc out of box
0023 – Downloaded Sgt. Johnson for Firefight mode using code from GameStop
0025 – Batteries in new controller, Sgt. Johnson downloaded, game disc loaded, started play
B L U R
0530 – Was startled by Aiden bursting into my office with his now dislodged tooth in his hand (surprised he didn’t swallow it!!!)
0540 – Got Aiden back in his bed, and went to bed.

So, I got a good 4 hours in on the first night.  Got up at 1100 and went on with the day.  I would also like to point out that as of today, I have not been up past midnight since last Saturday….that’s some kind of record for me!