Like used! Slightly shotgunned!

It's dead, Jim.

I declared my PC dead this evening. Got 5 years out of it, having purchased it used for $50. So I certainly can say I got my money's worth, and then some.

It was getting a bit senile anyway--it had been reaching the point where every time I had plugged my iPod or a flash drive, it would always think it was new hardware.

I think the final straw came just after the move...while installing my wireless network adapter, the thing froze during installation. When I went to reboot it, the computer would not boot up again, and I had to break out my XP disc to get it going again.

Over the weekend, the computer froze once again, and once again, the computer just would not boot. This time, the XP disc would not get it going, which left me with the only option of re-installing Windows.

I had done a virus scan, routine maintenance, cleaned up the thing right after I got the machine to boot up again the first time. No viruses, nothing. Even ran a boot-time virus scan. Clean as a whistle.

So, I figure, if I was going to lose everything anyway, I might as well take it apart--for all I know, something might've been jostled loose during the move or something.

Took it apart, blew the air out, put it back together, and the machine decided it didn't even detect the hard drive. Just saw the IBM logo and it began to perpetually restart.

At that point, I realized that it wasn't worth it anymore. The machine is at least 9 years old, and so what I plan to do is get an external hard drive enclosure and turn the hard drive into an external, so I can, at the very least, get anything important off it before formatting it completely.

Then comes the fun of selling the important parts, and begin to use that to save up for a new PC. I've decided on a PC over a Mac--for one, it'll be several hundred dollars cheaper (whether I choose to build it or buy one right out of the box), and secondly, my 1 TB external hard drive is already formatted for a Windows OS. That hard drive contains all my music, and every single photograph I've taken. I don't want to have to format it before plugging it into a Mac. So there.

Computer over. Virus...not really. Still, it's not a good prize.

Announcing: first recording day/episode topics for DLC Season 2!

With the holidays now over, I hope that all of my listeners and past guests had a break filled with gaming. I didn't do as much of that as I would've liked, since I spent all of December moving, but I'm now getting back into it.

And with everything settling down, I can now announce the topics for discussion for the first 3 episodes of the 2nd season of Downloadable Content!

The episodes will be recorded on Saturday, January 28, starting around 1 PM ET.

So, take a look at the subjects below, and let me know if you are interested in being a guest on any or all of them. The order you'll see is the order they'll be recorded in.

Episode 1: Skyrim. To open the season, I want to spend the episode talking about a game that has taken the industry by storm--The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Having now been out for 2 months, I want to talk about why this game is so damn popular, why it's eaten half my Facebook friends list alive, and what makes it so appealing. What has made this game so good and so popular so quickly?

Episode 2: Motion Gaming--R.I.P.? With the Nintendo Wii having dropped off the universe, the PlayStation Move following suit, and the Kinect not quite as popular as Microsoft would like, is the idea of motion gaming dead in the water? For a revolutionary idea that was so heralded when the Wii was released, has it really run its course, or does it just need some tweaking to be relevant again?

Episode 3: MMOs--what's the deal? The idea of the Massively Multiplayer Online game (be it RPG, action-based, co-op play, etc) is not a new idea. Having its origins on PCs, this genre has expanded to include consoles as well. However, what makes a good MMO? Why are people willing to shell out money for monthly subscription fees in a game that has no end? Why is it that games like Warcraft, EverQuest, and Starcraft are successful when other attempts like Final Fantasy 11 and 14 crash and burn? What's the appeal?

If you'd like to record with me, just let me know. I look forward to discussing these subjects with all who may be interested!