THE "Benners' World"

Turkey Enchiladas

XBox 360 - Don't Waste Your Money

The CONS

The core system selling @ $300 but the real system is selling @ $400. Its the old Bill Gates upgrade trick already and I'm tired of it.

The core system comes with wired controllers while the real system comes with wireless controllers and headsets... but not sure what technology they are using for that.

The core system does not come with a hard drive and the hard drive that comes with the real system is only 20GB which is way too small for it to also house your video and music on it as well. Its like the smallest Tivo... just not big enough. They couldn't spend an extra $50 and get you a 120GB? At least make it upgradable?

If you are planning on loading your music into this system... tough. Microsoft made it only for their own proprietary music format. So sorry, iPod.... um.... you cannot connect... you being the most used and most cross platform music machine to date. XBox users will need to buy another $300 gadget just to load the music?

The Ethernet connection does NOT support Wi-Fi??? Wha???

NOT BACKWARDS COMPATABLE TO THE ORIGINAL XBOX GAMES??? WHA???

LAME ALERT! LAME ALERT!! LAME ALERT!!!


Looks like this gaming multimedia player was put out too early and too thoughtless of what people expect today. I am patiently waiting on Sony.



The PROS

The games... all 16 titles.... (wha???).... do look amazing.

If you have not clicked on the "Bitchin' Pods" links yet.... click on that G4: Cinematch right now. XBox 360 previews in iTunes.... hilarious!!!

Call to Duty 2 is harsh and sadistic on how realistic it all has become. The first person shooter has you gnashing your teeth and growling as you gun down the aweful Nazi's that have the most creepy AI I have ever seen to this day. Graphics with actual focal length instead of the goofy distant fog they have used for the last 10 years.

Condemed. Though not as good because you can finish it within the day you have bought it... its the bloodiest horror game I have ever seen in the United States. Go beat felons with hammers and axes and stuff... in almost complete darkness. Real fleshy damage. Yikes!

Quake 4. They decided to have actual solo levels with this one AND online theatres. Is this Raven Software's answer to Halo? It certainly looks like it.

Thats all I got for the PROS.... then again, I can be patient and buy the Playstation 3... with Wi-Fi and bigger hard drive.... and not embattled with Apple.... get all those same games I listed above!!!.....bluetooth technology wireless controllers that come with EVERY system....AND get all those same games listed above on a more superior platform.

Sorry Microsoft, you may have the moron and kiddie domographic but you still have not given any of the hardcore gamer market anything to grasp on to. Plus you have NO clout in Japan, therefore your titles will continue to suck and be censored by our fanatical religious government.

The Rules We Live By, But Ignore.

2329.04 Unlawful spitting.

(A) No person shall spit, excrete or expectorate saliva or sputum upon any sidewalk, or in any church, theater or public hall.

(B) Whoever violates this section is guilty of unlawfully spitting, a minor misdemeanor.

(C) Strict liability is intended to be imposed for a violation of this section. (Ord. 2535-94.)


I thought this was kind of funny when I ran across it today. This law actually exists in my city.

So Fucking Cool........?

They own 3 old Dodge Caravans. A tan one, a blue beaten up one and the forest green one. Then there is usually some type of 4 door sedan parked in front as well... that tends to change one a month though. These vehicles usually clog the street in front of my home on a regular basis. Forbid they ever take advantage of the parking spaces allocated to them by their landlord.

As the war continues against 4825, they continually find new ways to annoy this shit out of everyone on the street. An old past-time they have is to park their 4-door sedan in their designated parking spot, open all the doors on the vehicle and blast the stereo. Then they vacate the car and go inside their residence.... with the stereo still blasting. This sometimes continues for hours. While you would think it would be "noise pollution" or "menacing". But its not.

According to the city, the ordinance that used to govern how much noise someone could make in a residential area was found unconstitutional. So, at the moment, there are no ordinances controlling this issue. The law used to be that any noise that can be heard more than 65 feet from the edge of your property could result in a fine. This obviously excluded lawn mowers and power tools during the daytime. Still, this did empower people to be able to have a nice quiet area to live in.

Now, its a free-for-all noise atmosphere. And lately its gotten worse from 4825. One of the bigger trouble makers that "went away" and/or "went to jail" for some time is now back. He has taken control of the forest green dodge caravan (CNX-9399 OH) and filled it with subwoofers. The he would parking it on the street in front of my residence, open the back hatch and sliding door and crank it. Sometimes he just sits there rocking back and forth like a complete moron. Sometimes he leaves it and goes inside. Sometimes he struts around it like he has taken control of the street.

Little does that jackass know, I've been gathering information and evidence on him. Secretly videotaping him from my backyard and front window. Though his actions are loosely protected by the law, I have been trying to figure out how to solve this continual issue anyway. The music is played maybe 1 to 5 hours everyday and sometimes continues through 8pm. Dumbass cranks the music louder when I walk outside but he also constantly watches for other cars and nearly turns off the music when another car passes. The one time I went to approach him, he tore off down the road, only to return 10 minutes later to keep on annoying everyone.

Personally I wish the overgrown dork would just get a job. Its obvious from his actions that he finds it enjoyable to be the center of attention and he really does nothing constructive. From the actions I have taken against the occupiers of 4825 (calling police for: trespassing, fighting, flinging trash everywhere, excessive speeding, aggravated menacing by using their vehicles, verbal threats... and more) its apparent they are not going to leave me alone until SOMEBODY moves away. I am going to stand my ground.

In all reality, I have done nothing against them, I have never spoken to them, I have never walked onto their property or touched any of them. The only thing I am guilty of is caring about my neighborhood and calling the police on suspicious and/or lawless annoying activity. I have also tried using the police community liaison, contacting the mayors action center and city counsil. It sucks to know nobody cares.

After dealing with the loud fucking asshole for a couple weeks I finally spotted my chance. He was out there again blasting his car stereo to the limit.... its so loud, I couldn't tell you what kind of music it is! He was sitting out in his prideful van on the street for about two hours. Then he went indoors. The car was empty and appeared to be "running". This does break a city ordinance. The police actually responded with two cruisers but not in time to see the vehicle vacant. It was enough to scare the shit out of the punk for the time being. During the couple of days after that incident he would momentarily blast his stereo if he saw me outside, but it would be off within five minutes. Since that time I have not heard the booming blasting sound.

I can only hope that the rare response from our crappy police force has left an impression on him.

Bitchin' Pods

Listed on my sidebar are a couple of free podcast subscriptions.

Google current_ is an actual digital cable station I discovered that I had only a couple of months ago. These pods pretty much play what's popular on that station. Go ahead, broaden your horizons. current_

WILLWOOLF.COM is a mirror of what gets posted on his blog. This offers a quicker way to his "must have" ingenious posts. WILLWOOLF.COM

You will need to have the latest free version of iTunes.

I will be continually be looking for more podcasts to alert you to. Someday I will get my shit together and be able to share some type of video feed as well.

Whatcha Gonna Do?!

Leaving work has been an experience lately. The main highway that I usually take has sometimes been blocked off by orange barrels. Of course, with no warnings... I'm usually routed directly downtown whether I like it not. When this happens I try to take a new route to keep it interesting and keep myself from getting too pissed off about it.

Last Sunday night, meaning a week ago, I knew that there would not be too much traffic down one of the most cultural diverse and interesting roads in this city. It passes through many different communities and the shops that line it range from weird art galleries to gay male stripper joints to some of the most expensive restaurants and clubs in town. It runs through ghetto, campus and elite neighborhoods. If you ever drive down this road, you are bound to see something cool.

For the most part, the drive was quiet and slow going. Being the night before Halloween, I knew better than to speed through the area. I was delighted to see that some of the road was actually repaved and the ride was not as bumpy as I expected. Red light after red light, I passed a minimal amount of cars.

At any ordinary red light, I drove up on a yellow sports car with a cop sitting behind it. So I drove up slowly into the parallel lane so that the yellow car was next to me. I noticed that the cop was stopped extremely close to the yellow cars' rear bumper. I figured... drunk driver about to be pulled over... no big deal.

The light changed to green and all the vehicles started to moved accordingly. I stayed at the posted speed limit and I kind of fell behind the police car... which was still closely following the sports car. Suddenly I notice two small red and blue lights dimly light up and the cops light bar. I backed off a little in case something weird was about to happen.

As soon as I was one car length away from the police car... the light bar lit up... and I let my foot off the gas pedal.... just in case. I looked into my rearveiw mirror and I could see many dark black shapes charging towards me. The police cruisers were coming in from all directions without headlights or lightbars on. As soon as about 5 police cars were there, the police exited their vehicles with guns and rifles drawn.

I was stopped and stunned, I thought I was watching COPS on Fox for a second... then I realized I was in my car... and I was kind of in the line of fire. I started to backup and go into the curb lane but I didn't get too far because the police cars kept coming in. I did not want to cause a pile up. The driver and passenger of the yellow sports car were ripped from their vehicle by the police and thrown to the ground with guns to their heads. Shouting and speakers barking orders blared into the night. By now the street was filled with about 20 police cars and they were blocking the road completely.

So I sat there and watched. I could see in my rear view that people were stopping and turning around several blocks behind me. The suspects were handcuffed not more than 20 feet from my car so I got a pretty good look at one of them. I think I may have seen his mug shot on the news for some plasma TV burglaries that have been sweeping the city. But, really, I'm just not sure what the whole deal was. I took a couple shots of the area with my camera phone... but those cameras suck and it came out blurry due to all the flashing lights.

I sat there for about 25 minutes when I realized I could use an alleyway to go around the horde of police vehicles. I was so jumpy and excited while driving home that I missed my turn and I ended up having to turn around 2 miles off course in order to get home.

A drive home that I least expected.

Sorry for not Blogging.

I'm in a ton of pain today.