So I got an Xbox 360. I know, I know. I’m a Wii fanboy, what the heck am I doing!? Well, the Wii is in a dry spell right now— I am fully convinced it’s a spell, and will not be forever— and I’m needing some FPS actiony type fun after a 3 month stint of nothing but Vanguard. The PC is on the back burner because of its proximity to Brody (i.e. not in the living room). Besides, there’s nothing I want to play on my PC right now, and I’m in serious need of some Halo practice if I’m going to be worth a flip on 9-25-07 when Halo 3 hits the shelves.

Birthday = gift cards (thanks Mel/Rev & Gam) = another wireless controller. I’ve finally gotten the opportunity to swing by Best Buy and get one. While I was there, I opted to burn up the majority of my lunch break scanning the aisles and later scarfing down a burger on the way back to work.

While gawking at far more accessories than I could ever afford, the Plantronics GameCom X30 Headset caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, THE EAR PIECE WAS COVERED IN BLACKISH BROWNISH FUNK! Absolutely disgusting. Whoever returned this thing needs to go to the ear doctor or something, because I think he craps out of his ears. Seriously. To top it all off, however, it was listed at full price. No open box sticker. No extra shrink wrap. Nothing. Disgust-o. I snapped a couple of pics of it as I headed to the customer service counter. They turned out terrible, but you can see a brownish blur in the pic. I’m posting them just for the heck of it:

I had less than 10 minutes to get back to work, and there was only a teenage-ish customer service rep to be seen, so I gave her a stern “That’s absolutely disgusting.” and left it with her. I really wanted to complain to a manager. I plan on making a follow up trip on one of my traditionally boring & uneventful lunch breaks to see if it goes back on the shelf.

Sorry for the blurry pics, but trust me that it was funky.

Brody Ashton Gholson

Born: 5-7-07 at 9:31

7 lbs 11 oz.

20.5 inches long

Never has any day brought about as much respect for women in my mind as today. To any of you ladies reading this, I humbly bow. You truly are the superior sex. I am forever in debt to my wife Jen for the 12 hour day she worked today to bring our adorable little boy into this world. It was a long hard road beginning at 6 AM when we arrived. A couple of hours in the doc broke her water and shortly thereafter began what seems to be long term bruising to my hand. She worked hard all morning long breathing through contractions. Not once did I hear a four letter word. In fact, rarely did we even hear a peep from her. She calmly took each contraction at a time one by one with hardly the slightest utterance. For that alone, I’m beyond proud of her. It wasn’t until almost 2 that afternoon that she received the magic injection. The true impression was made beginning around 8 PM when the real pushing could finally begin. Hooray! It’s almost over– or so we thought. This girl pushed, and pushed, and pushed for an hour and a half. By golly I’ve never counted to 10 so many times, so hard, or so loud as I did tonight. I was exhausted. I was exhausted… from counting… to 10. How she felt afterwards, I will never understand. We should all pat her on the back for a job well done the next time we see her. I’ll be doing so for years to come.

I suppose most of you would like to see the little fruit of her/our labor. I’ve created a photo album on Flickr. The link is below. I don’t think any of the pics have caught it yet, but he has a well defined dimple on both cheeks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gholson/sets/72157600190539898/

^ This link goes to the specific album for “Brody’s birth.” I’ll be updating it more as I get more people’s cameras from them.