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September 01 Windows Live WriterI just downloaded Windows Live Writer, a publishing tool for MSN Spaces. It seems pretty cool so far. Basically, it's a WYSIWYG editor for your spaces. It reminds me of the old FrontPage express. I'm typing this in Live Writer right now. When I'm done, I hit the "Publish" button and then it's uploaded. I'll keep checking this out, I'm just scraping the surface of it right now. March 18 Guitar Hero II for XBOX 360 Guitar Hero II is on it's way to release next month!I've only tinkered with the Playstation version but I plan on going in heavy and hard with this one. Any product that has an Iron Maiden tune in its advertisement is a must buy for me! I can't wait to jam out to some awesome tunes. It doesn't look like the graphics have been upgraded that much from the Playstation version...it basically looks like the same game from the screenshots I've seen. Achievements? (ahem...SFViper...ahem)  ...here's a rundown of the XBOX 360 Achievements for Guitar Hero II:100K Club Get 100,000 points in a song (10) 200K Club Get 200,000 points in a song (10) 300K Club Get 300,000 points in a song (30) 400K Club Get 400,000 points in a song (30) Champagne Room V.I.P. Get 500,000 points in a song (30) Roadie Unlock Rat Cellar (10) New Kid Unlock Blackout Bar (10) Young Gun Unlock RedOctane Club (10) Axe Grinder Unlock Rock City Theater (10) Shredder Unlock Vans Warped Tour (10) Rock Star Unlock Harmonix Arena (10) Guitar Hero Unlock Stonehenge (10) Dimebag Darrell Award Get a 100 note streak (10) Eddie Van Halen Award Get a 500 note streak (30) Yngwie Malmsteen Award Get a 1000 note streak (30) Easy Tour Champ Beat the Easy tour (10) Medium Tour Champ Beat the Medium tour (30) Hard Tour Champ Beat the Hard tour (30) Expert Tour Champ Beat the Expert tour (30) Sandbox Hero Award Earn five stars on all songs in the Easy tour (30) Most Likely to Succeed Award Earn five stars on all songs in the Medium tour (30) Guitarmaggedon Award Earn five stars on all songs in the Hard tour (30) Start a Real Band Already Award Earn five stars on all songs in the Expert tour (30) Rock School Grad Complete all tutorials (10) Scoremonger Award Get an 8x multiplier (10) Perfectionist Award Get 100% notes hit on a song (30) Rock Snob Award Refuse to play an encore (10) Long Road Ahead Award Fail a song on Easy (10) Hendrix Award Beat a song with lefty flip on (10) Teacher's Pet Award Practice three different songs (10) Saturday Morning Award Beat Trogdor and Thunder Horse (10) Kick the Bucket Award Beat Jordan on Expert (30) Gear Head Award Buy all guitars (30) Fanatical Completionist Award Buy all guitar finishes (30) Record Collector Award Buy all songs (10) Life of the Party Award Buy all characters (10) Fashion Plate Award Buy all outfits (10) Extra Credit Award View the credits (10) Big Spender Award Spend $10,000 at the store (10) Scenester Award Beat all the unlock songs (10) Joan & Lita Award Get a 100 note streak in Cooperative (30) Joe & Steven Award Get a 500 note streak in Cooperative (30) Keef & Mick Award Get a 1000 note streak in Cooperative (30) Lennon & McCartney Award Get an 8x streak in Cooperative (10) Page & Plant Award Get 100% notes hit on a song in Cooperative (30) 200K Pair Get 200,000 points on a song in Cooperative (30) 400K Pair Get 400,000 points on a song in Cooperative (30) 600K Pair Get 600,000 points on a song in Cooperative (30) 800K Pair Get 800,000 points on a song in Cooperative (30) Millionaire Pair Get 1,000,000 points on a song in Cooperative (30) December 22 Life While In The AcademyHello all, I haven't written in a while so I thought I would check in!
As most of you know I've been busy with studies for my new job. My week consists of:
Needless to say I have very little time for anything, including my family. I'm tired most of the time and it will be like this until April. It's not anything that I can't handle and I'm actually having fun. How many people get paid to go to school and get in shape? Hopefully after April I'll be back into XBOX Gaming. Maybe the good games will be on the used rack by then! Merry Christmas, Everyone!
November 22 Happy Thanksgiving!With starting my new job, I am finding that I indeed won't have much time to play on the 360. I'm only in pre-academy now and my time is already scarce. It gets worse after December 4 when I go to the real academy. I'm having fun and enjoying it, but it is and will be tough work for the next 4 months.
It's 5:45 AM now and I have to get the kids up soon to get them to the babysitter's house. It's not just me making sacrifices, my entire family is and that is definitely something to be thankful for!
With Gears of War and Rainbow 6 Vegas out now I'm kind of bummed that I don't get to enjoy them with everyone else. On the flip side of that, I can get my copy cheap after 4 months after everyone's finished theirs!
I will continue to check in at Virtual Toxicity as often as I can. If you haven't been to Virtual Toxicity, go there now or the bunny gets it! November 16 The Launch of the Playstation 3 People are already standing in line days before launch reminiscent of the Halo 2 release. Except this time it has nothing to do with the XBOX, it's the Sony Playstation 3. The Wii is about $200 more than the XBOX 360, but people are still lining up for it.I don't know anyone personally who is anxiously awaiting the PS3 since most of the people I know are XBOX and XBOX 360 gamers. If you're getting this at launch, please leave a comment. I would like to know what advantages the PS3 have over the XBOX 360. I highly doubt my mind will be changed about getting a PS3, but I'm interested in hearing the other side of the story.
It will be interesting to hear the news from users after the launch about its reliability and just what exactly it does. Can it really compete with XBOX 360 and XBOX Live? November 13 Police AcademyThis is my last free week as I am starting my new career next Monday, November 20. I will start pre-academy with the Gilbert Police Department and then head off to the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy. Needless to say, you won't see much of me on XBOX Live due to the fact that most of my time will be devoted to studying. There are a lot of great games coming out prior to Christmas, but they will still be there when I'm done.
To my XBOX Live friends, keep in touch! I will still be here and may pop in from time to time! October 12 Misc UpdateI haven't updated this blog in a while, and I'm not sure if anyone is even reading this. Nonetheless, I thought I would post something.
Last year, we moved from Arizona to Georgia (my home state) for a job. We stayed for a few months, but it just didn't work out for us as a family. My wife then got a great job offer back in Arizona where she worked previously. It's a high-level nursing supervisor position, so it was fortunate so that I could resign from my job and focus on getting us moved again.
Now we're back in Arizona and I'm thinking hard about my career goals. I know that I want to continue my education, but I am thinking that I will not be working in the corporate world. It's too...corporate! I really do not want to divulge too much information on my prospective career path until it's a sure thing. I'll just say that it's a huge departure from Web Design and it has nothing to do with digging ditches! However, I can say that it's a huge pay cut...but worth it if it all works out.
 Iron Maiden have a new album out, and I have to say that it RULES! Unforuntately, they're playing only a limited number of USA shows and the closest to me is Irvine, CA. I guess I'm not as hardcore as I used to be to make the trip. Either that, or adult life has gotten the best of me!This is very heavy and progressive album. If you've ever liked Maiden, you should really check this out!
I'll update the photos section with some recent pictures of our new house and such. If you're reading this, thanks! Leave a comment and let me know you were here!May 26 GRAW TournamentThere is an upcoming GRAW tournament between Virtual Toxicity and Five-Hole. It will take place in late June or early July and we need more players!
If you're interested, please go HERE and put your name in! WE NEED MORE PLAYERS!
 March 29 Got my XBOX 360!I finally jumped on the XBOX 360 bandwagon! I received my 360 yesterday via UPS. I found it on BestBuy.com and bought the package where I got Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW), an extra controller, and the XBOX 360 with the hard drive.
Setup was pretty simple. My only snag was getting it connected to my wireless network. It was just cumbersome putting in my connection key and everything involved with adding a wireless device, but nothing at fault of the XBOX 360.
Once I got connected, transferring my XBOX Live account was a breeze. I've been a subscriber for a few years so I was automatically added as a Gold account. Of course the 360 offers Silver accounts for free, but Gold is the way to go!
The first game I played was GRAW, which was astounding. The sound and graphics are incredible, especially during explosions! I have been playing Ghost Recon since it came out on the PC and GRAW is the first complete makeover ever done. The controls are slightly different, and I'm still getting used to it.
I spent at least an hour just browsing the dashboard seeing what is available to me. I downloaded a couple of trailers and some demo games. What really impressed me is that the XBOX 360 is both a digital audio stream AND a Media Center Extender. By installing Windows Media Connect 2.0 on your PC, you can easily stream your photos, music, and video to your 360. At this time I am not certain if it will stream video encoded in DivX. This is the way to go if you're using a 802.11B or 802.11G wireless network. The Media Extender is recommended to run on a 802.11A wireless or an ethernet wired connection. From my experience with the first-generation XBOX Media Center Extender, this is true. I could not get music to stream smoothly on a 802.11G connection. Perhaps it's time to upgrade!
I also spent time in the XBOX Live Arcade. It was a blast playing Joust again, one of my childhood favorites at the arcade! Now I understand the importance of Live Points...looks like I need to go buy some to beef up my account!
I am now in the 360 world and loving it so far! For a while I wasn't eager to get on XBOX Live with the first-generation box because almost all of my friends had moved on to the 360. Now it's back to where I can't wait to get home to play games again!
Did you read this?
Well, please leave a comment so I knew you were here!!  March 21 Attention MSN Space Users!MSN Spaces are secretly launching cool new features for users! After looking at some of them I can see why they're not available to the general public. Only power users who know basic HTML can really use these PowerToys.
Please keep in mind that these PowerToys are NOT supported!
Tweak UI PowerToyThe Tweak UI Power Toy is available for you to be able to fully customize the look of your space. Keep in mind that you should probably know about basic HTML to get this working.
I have only begun to play around with this PowerToy. It's really great for customizing your look without relying strictly on the themes. One thing that I've noticed that I do NOT like is that the styles do not carry over to the other tabs. The styles created with the Tweak UI powertoy only seem to apply to the home page of your space.
Follow these steps to add this Power Toy to your Space:
Windows Media Player PowerToyThe Media Player Power Toy allows you to add video or audio to your space. Of course there are the warnings about not playing copyrighted material. You need a place to host your media to link to. It also comes with options such as auto play, repeat, etc. A great place to host your files is a service called File Lodge. You can 500mb and there are NO bandwidth restrictions! I'm not using this PowerToy at this time on this space, but you can see it in action on my other space. Follow these steps to add this Power Toy to your Space:
Custom HTML PowerToyThe Custom HTML Power Toy allows you to insert custom HTML into your space. I think this is the most important PowerToy because it allows you to have almost limitless types of content in your space! I am using this in my "Now Playing" area.
Follow these steps to add this Power Toy to your Space:
These are pretty cool little additions. You can keep up to date by going to the MSN Space developer's space. January 17 XBOX Live DiamondThanks to my friends at VirtualToxicity.net I have signed up for XBOX Live Diamond. What that means just yet, I'm not sure. Diamond is currently at pre-launch and there only a few retailers involved at this point. Still, it's always cool to have a card in your wallet that has your gamertag on it and the XBOX logo. Perhaps eventually it will serve has valid ID at security checkpoints at the airport.
This is all obviously a marketing campaign with Microsoft providing the platform for retailers to reach customers. I think of it as having a grocery store card and you get a discount at the checkout on certain items. It's basically the same concept and I hope it becomes beneficial to US the XBOX Live community.
At the time this was written there are offers such as a free game rental at Hollywood video, 10% off CDs and DVDs at Sam Goody, 20% off of skate shoes, 15% off of Cambridge sound equipment, and a free sandwich at Carls Jr and Quiznos.
Cards have not been printed and sent out yet so there is really no real deals going on with it right now. We're probably looking at a February/March timeframe to receive the cards, and I'm sure the spam and junk snail mail will follow soon afterwards.
I hope that this program does not forget the ADULT gaming community. Sure we like free burgers and such but let's get some great offers on tools, sports tickets, airlines, hotels, etc!
So what do you think? Is it really going to be a Diamond or just cubic zirconia? December 14 Trans-Siberian Orchestra Live in Phoenix My wife and I saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra live at the Glendale Arena this past weekend. I am part of the fan club so I was able to purchase early-released tickets which put us in the 11th row on the floor. These were definitely great seats!In case you're not familiar with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, here is a brief background. TSO's roots are in rock and metal and was formed by rock producer Paul O'Neill. He is credited with Aerosmith's platinum "Classics Live, Volumes 1 & 2," Savatage's critically acclaimed "Hall of the Mountain King," "Gutter Ballet," the rock operas "Streets," "Dead Winter Dead". Paul wanted to apply his style of music to our beloved Christmas classics, and the mixture was an instant success. Now TSO's tours one of the top 20 highest profitable tours in the world!
 What stood out immediate were the lighting effects. They had huge lighting rigs that hung by wire and changed positions between songs. We were blasted with Christmas colors as the band struck up "Boughs of Holly" at the beginning of the show. The intensity of the show continued through the rest of the night.
What was strange to me is that most of the musicians on stage have metal and rock backgrounds, but the audience seemed to be more of the "Soft Rock" crowd. There were children, grandparents, middle-aged people, and so on. There were very few people there who stood out as those who knew who bands like Savatage were.
 For me, it was very difficult to just sit down and watch this concert. I realize it is a more refined audience but I just wanted to stand up and start yelling and waving my arms just as I do at most of the concerts I go to. I just wondered, "How do these people sit so still during this intense show?". These musicians were really jamming!This was the most amazing concert I have ever seen. It looked like a heavy metal concert (and often sounded like it) and it was very high-quality. It felt more professional than most shows I've seen. For instance, and most metal shows you see stage hands all over the place and even hear them tuning guitars. No big deal, that's just how metal shows are. However, at this show it felt more like a broadway production because you just did not see the people running the show in the background.
 This is THE Christmas show to see and I definitely plan on making this a yearly tradition as long as TSO are touring. TSO's albums have already been considered essential Christmas music in our household, but now I cannot imagine a year going by without seeing TSO live!I was able to find a set list from KNAC.com (different city, but the set list is the same):
Boughs Of Holly November 25 XBOX 360...what do you think?So now the new XBOX 360 is out now! A friend brought his over to show it off prior to eating Thanksgiving dinner (and afterwards too, of course!).
We played Call of Duty 2 and Need for Speed. I was impressed with both games. The graphics seemed more clean and crisp. I was also impressed with the plethora of options in the XBOX 360 Dashboard. Yeah, from what I saw it's a sweet system!
I'm sure that if I had my own and used it every day I'd find annoyances with it. If you're reading this and you've made the jump to 360, what are YOUR annoyances and complaints about the new system?
We all get the good brainwashing from Micro$oft and OXM, but I'm interested to know what you all think from the user perspective.
Yes, I realize that I could search the forums for these answers, but the people who read this are my XBOX friends and whose opinions I trust.
With all of the hoopla going on right now, I can't even go out and get a 360 even if I wanted one. It will probably be after the first of the year. In the meantime, I'll be sitting and drooling at the sidelines...and playing the old faithful XBOX!
What do YOU think? Leave a comment! November 10 Happy Birthday Marines!Today is the 230th Birthday of our beloved United States Marine Corps! Here's a Happy Birthday to all of our former and current Marines who will always follow in the footsteps of those before us!
Always remember those who sacrifice so much to serve our country. All give some, but some gave all. Don't forget them, and thank a Marine next time you see one.
Semper Fi, Marines! November 03 I'm Moving! Hello everyone! I have BIG news from the personal and real life of Static Acts!As most of you know, I currently live in Phoenix, Arizona and I'm originally from Georgia. Just last week I have received a job offer in Atlanta! It is with a company I have worked for before.
Gaming on XBOX Live in Phoenix can prove to be challenging when trying to schedule game times with friends. Arizona does not observe daylight savings time so people get easily confused. Most of my XBOX Live friends seem to live in EST and they're usually signing off by the time I get online. Now I will be close to or within the same time zone as most of my online friends. Except for our Aussie friend Digger!
This news obviously means that I'll be very busy in the next few months. I have a house to sell and a family to move. I start my new job on November 29th and the company will be flying be back-and-forth between Phoenix and Atlanta until we get moved. Unfortunately, this means that I won't get much game time on the good old XBOX. It turned out to be a good thing that I didn't pre-order the 360 since I wouldn't have time to enjoy it just yet.
I picked up Battlefield 2 a couple of days ago but still haven't played it! If you're reading this and have played it, please let me know how it is! I'm trying desparately to find time to play, but time is short these days.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this news with my friends! As always, feel free to spam my blog!
- Static Acts (Michael)  September 02 Star Wars Battlefront II Star Wars Battlefront II is looking to be a great sequal from Pandemic Studios! It is apparently scheduled to be released in conjunction with Revenge of the Sith on November 1.The maps are supposed to be large and expansive, which will give us a lot of room play. Let's not forget, PLAYABLE Jedi! Finally, we can hack and smash our way through. I do wonder if the Jedi will be as semmingly invincible as they were in Battlefront I.
So what do you think? Will this be a good game? Chime in and SPAM my blog with your opinions! August 01 Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike Ghost Recon 2, Summit Strike is coming out shortly and with some of the bad things I've been hearing about Black Hawk Down I'll probably just buy this one and rent the other.I've always been a Ghost Recon fan ever since it came out on the PC. I love the game play and the wide-open spaces.
I really hope that this is not a let down like Rainbow 6: Black Arrow was. I don't think it will be, primarily because of the price of $29.99. What really disturbed me about Black Arrow was that they were charging full price for the game when it was a repackaged version of the original. It only contained upgrades that could have easily been downloadable content via XBOX Live.
I hope my buddies at VT.net get this game because I'll be on it! This will hold me over until Battlefield 2 comes out! I have a Best Buy gift card burning a hole in my wallet and this may be what I'll use it for. July 28 Battlefield 2 Demo / Black Hawk DownI haven't updated my blog in a while, so I thought I should write something. For my XBOX gaming buddies, you'll be happy to know that my wife has started working days like a normal person! This gives me more time to play on Live and hook up with my buddies!
Right now I'm enjoying the hell out of the Battlefield 2 demo! I can't wait for this game to come out, it's great fun! I'm curious about Blackhawk Down, but King Kobra didn't seem to care for it. If anyone has anything to say about Black Hawk Down, please leave a comment.
Thanks for looking!
 April 27 Welcome to My SpaceI just started using this My Space service, it looks pretty cool. I've never really started my own blog, but I'll give it a go. I am Static Acts (Michael), which is my XBOX Live gamertag. I am normally playing Tom Clancy games and Halo 2 online...when time will allow! Between work, family and running a side business it's difficult to find the time.
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