World Cup Woes

Ok, so I was just as excited about the World Cup firing up as the next person.  I will be the first to admit I haven't been the biggest follower of soccer since about after 6th grade, but for some reason Olympic Soccer and the World Cup seems way more intriguing to me.  Living in the USA doesn't help in trying to follow soccer.  Recently, however, I have been able to follow what is probably one of the "best" leagues competitive wise in the English Barclay's Premier league via a channel on satellite dish plus XM radio for my listening pleasure.  This has helped me learn a tremendous amount about the world of football in quite a short time.  It really can be very intense, and lots of action can happen.  It is quite amazing when a goal is scored, there are so many ways it can happen.  Kind of like snow flakes, no 2 goals are the same.  But I digress...

The World Cup fired up last Friday and I was ready for hours of intense action.  These are the best footballers in the world and the action was going to be intense from beginning til end of every 90 minutes!  Maybe because I thought this way, I let myself down a tad.  It's now the end of day 4 and 11 games have been played.  That's 22 teams that have competed.  Out of those 22 teams, exactly 3 teams have scored more than 1 goal.  As stated previously, I am not the hardened soccer viewer, but that seems a little low to me.  I know most of these guys just kind of joined together and haven't gotten a chance to gel in the matter of a month or so since most leagues just ended across the world.  I have watched parts of at least 4 or 5 games over the weekend, and the action seems to be less than stellar for the most part.

I'm starting to have flashbacks of the 2004 men's "dream team" disaster that happened in the Olympics.  All of these guys get together at the last minute, practice a couple of times, then go out and try to dominate the world.  We all know how that ended.  They were almost dubbed the "disaster team".  No one will deny the NBA has some of the greatest talent in the world against most of the other countries as far as American players go.  If you can't be committed to playing as a team and practicing together and getting into a flow, it's obvious you can be beat.  As we've seen so far in the World Cup, a lot of world powers are struggling out of the gate.  It turns out there's not enough time in the tournament to bond as a team because if you lose a game in the pool play, you might be done before you can get started.  Heavily favored teams are getting by by the skin of their teeth in these matches, some are losing.  If you're not at peak performance come day 1 of the Cup, you could be hosed.

Do these guys need more time to bond together before they hit the pitch in the tournament?  If you watched any Friendlies before the tournament started, there were quite a few head scratchers that left you wondering how well some of the better teams would do.  I didn't know what to expect from Team USA, as the English were heavily favored.  The effort put forth by the English, however, was less than stellar.  Dang near all of these guys play in the "NBA" of soccer over in Europe.  They are the best of the best.  They looked like they hadn't played a match together in their life.  You may have seen my bold statement on Facebook about whoever won that match would get my loyalty throughout the tournament.  After that it was impossible to show loyalty.  Yes the English were heavily favored and walked away with a mere tie, USA looked to be playing lights out but really couldn't get much done.  And let's be honest with ourselves, that goal the Americans got was all but gift wrapped.  It seemed the Americans had 1 legit shot in the 2nd half that was about ten times harder to defend against, and England's goalie did a pretty good job of shutting it down.  After that performance, it was impossible to pick a team to support.  Don't get me wrong here, I'm American through and through, but I am also a realist and know that in the end good soccer will prevail and that's what I want to see.  I thought I was positive that the red coats would be a dominating force and be easy to root for as when was the last time USA came home with a trophy?  I'm just setting myself up for heartache rooting for them aren't I?  Now only another match will tell, so I have to hold off until Friday to see if a real team shows up.

I know not all of the best teams have played yet, but come on.  Germany scored 4 goals in a match!  They're not the powerhouse of this tournament are they?  Maybe as of teams that have played so far they are it.  I just don't know any of the players on Germany, so I find it tough to root for them.  It's kind of like rooting for team Slovakia in Olympic basketball.  Who plays for them?  Even if they were on fire, how fun is that?  Do people really live in Slovakia?  Oh wait, is Goran Dragic from there?  He's cool.  South Korea scored 2 goals.  I'm surprised they were allowed to play in the tournament.  And the Netherlands scored 2 this  morning against Denmark.  Not 2 countries that come to mind when you think of a football powerhouse.  

Italy won the 2006 Cup if I do recall, and they barely squeaked out a 1-1 tie against the awesome country of Paraguay!  Paraguay?  It took me a minute to remember that country is actually on the South American continent.  I know there's some stellar South American teams out there, but Paraguay doesn't come to mind in the top 2 or 3 countries from there.

I'm not sure what the remedy is here, but maybe the World Cup is too soon after most seasons end around the world.  The players keep complaining about how exhausted they are.  That's never a good sign.  You have to exert a little energy while playing soccer, and when you're exhausted it's no fun.  Tomorrow we have Brazil playing, they're bound to take it to North Korea, right?  Well maybe Kim Jong Il will have the crazy Koreans fired up tomorrow, but Brazil should have the ways & means of thoroughly spanking them.  If that ends up 1-0 or 1-1, I may just throw the World Cup in the toilet.  Please don't make me go back to watching the Diamondbacks, because that's the only option I have left right now.  Maybe the College World Series, that would work better.  Time to get it fired up World Cup!!!!

Most Excellent Chain of Events In A Long While

You know how you have one of those days where a lot of actions take place that tend to revolve around a certain person/object/place, whatever?  One of those times where things start out so high and end so low or vice versa?  No?  Just me?  Well today was one of those days for me and a certain object of mine.  The highly coveted (NOT) Xbox 360 went from good to worse as they day progressed, leaving me with no choice but to voice my opinion to my trusty followers.  I know, it sounds kind of lame, but bear with me as I'll try to make it slightly entertaining.  The overall goal here is to show you how awesome Microsoft (maker of said Xbox) really isn't, and hopefully help you avoid problems like this in the future.

So I purchased my Xbox 360 in February of 2007.  No I did not retain that in memory, I was told that by the lovely Microsoft support agent I talked to on the phone.  The original purchase including another game I wanted at time of purchase came out to roughly $400 when it was all said and done.  The 360 itself I believe was $299 plus tax, but a couple of games I had to have were tacked on at $60 a piece.  You get the hint here, not a cheap investment for something that could keep me entertained with awesome gaming while doubling as my DVD player.  It was thought that it would last me for years!

About a year and some change later, I began experiencing problems with the machine, it would not be able to read discs randomly to the point where I couldn't watch a movie or play a game, it would just lock up on me.  So I called Microsoft support only to find out that the Xbox has a 90 day limited warranty and my issue was not covered, but if I sent it in to get repaired for $100, that would get me a new 1 year warranty and an awesome 1 month subscription to Xbox LIVE! Gold account.  Xbox LIVE! is where you can go online and play against others out on the interweb.  Not something I was too keen on doing, but I finally gave in and sent the machine in to be repaired for $100.  One other note about Xbox LIVE!, this is not a free service.  In order to play against others online, Microsoft charges you a measly fee of $50 for a year's worth of access.  Not too bad you think until you realize Sony's Playstation 3 and Nintendo's Wii will let you play games online free of charge.  Microsoft at its finest.  I'm still not sure to this day what Microsoft thinks their competitive advantage is that lets them think they can charge people for online access, but that's Microsoft.  They don't really need a reason.

About a week later I received my "repaired" Xbox, which in doing some quick investigating, I was dang near positive they just sent me a refurbished unit as the very next day after they received my unit, another one was promptly shipped back to me.  This after being told it could take 2-4 weeks to diagnose the problem and figure out what was wrong.  Thanks for the prompt service Microsoft!  You look like heroes!  All the while sending out someone's previously broken hunk of garbage that you dolled up to be in working condition with a couple new parts in it.  I didn't care, I was just glad to have the console back and working.  Total price to own this machine now $500+.  But I have a new 1 year warranty, sweet!

Fast forward to early 2010.  The wonderful invention of Netflix has just given me the ability to watch movies streaming online.  If only I had an Xbox LIVE! account Gold subscription for the $50/year price tag.  I'm already paying for Netflix, and on top of this I need to pay Microsoft $50 of access for a year so I can access my Netflix account.  Oh, and I don't have an internet connection at my TV which means I need wireless capability.  Oh wait, the 360 doesn't come with wireless capability.  I have to buy the Microsoft wireless adapter, retail value is about $75 these days I believe.  It used to be $100.  I finally break down and buy a gently used one on ebay for roughly $50 to get internet access.  Once again, PS3 and Wii have built in wireless connections.  Microsoft being Microsoft part two.  Ok Microsoft, you win in the nickel & dime game, I will buy this dongle, but I'll show you!  I won't buy it brand new and save some money and the proceeds will go to some 15 year old who got grounded and his mom forced him to sell his adapter on ebay and go outside.  Thanks childhood obesity nightly news reports!  New cost of owning said 360 now a whopping $550.

Upon arriving, I promptly plugged in my freshly purchased wireless adapter and found that sweet ticket Microsoft sent me for my $100 contribution to their fund.  The 1 month Gold LIVE! account, to try out all of the sweet amenities they had to offer.  I would be watching Netflix and gaming online with FIFA 10.  How sweet life is...  This was about the end of April.

About 2 weeks ago, I was playing in the middle of an intense FIFA 10 match (not online), when all of a sudden the TV made a god awful noise and froze up.  I wasn't quite sure what happened, but I thought nothing of it and rebooted the machine, it's Microsoft right?  Just reboot.  Upon rebooting it did the exact same thing making the same awful noise dang near deafening me.  Being in the computer industry somewhat, I knew something was instantly wrong.  My heart sank a bit, I knew my 1 year renewed warranty had expired.  What do I do next?  Google it!  Heck yes!  Instantly found my problem online and was told the hard drive might be going bad, and to try and reformat it.  Now if only I could boot it up and let it last long enough to reformat without freezing up on me.  After a couple of tries it was success!  It was fully functioning again!  Although, I lost every game I had ever played and saved progress in.  That was a little disheartening, but small price to pay for said investment.

Everything worked great, for about a day.  Then the same problem again, I had come to terms with the fact the hard drive was probably shot and would need a new one.  Ebay never looked so good.  Again...

Today was the day, it turns out a new hard drive with the same capacity as my old one runs about $25 used on Ebay.  No problem, I won the gem and instantly paid for it.  With shipping, $27 running my cost of the 360 to a tad shy of $600.  What we won't do for entertainment...  I also acquired a year of Xbox LIVE! activation card today and was ready for the hard drive to arrive.  I would be watching Netflix and gaming with that kid who was no longer grounded in no time!  Hopefully he found another wireless dongle somewhere...  Sucker.

So today I get home and decide what the heck, I'll fire the 360 up and see what happens.  Everything worked normally for about 5 minutes and then I got the deathly screech and freeze up again.  Game over, man....  I try the trusty Xbox trick of removing the hard drive and seeing if it works normally, which would confirm the rumors of the hard drive going bad.  I remove it and turn it back on.  Xbox 360 fail...  This time it didn't even boot, it made the awful noise and I got the infamous Red Ring of Death.  Long story short, that means the hardware inside the Xbox is shot and it needs to be repaired.  Don't pass go, don't collect $200, you get the drift.  I also knew that this problem is an issue they've been fighting since the 360 came out a few years back and Microsoft had been so generous to give an extended warranty for this exact problem.  Awesome, call them up!

Before I could dial the phone, I got an email from paypal stating the payment I made to the person for the new hard drive was refunded with the seller comment "Item is broken."  Awesome, thanks for the heads up!  I thought to myself, 'I'll deal with that later, now I need to get this piece back to Microsoft.'  Once on the phone with Juan, I was promptly informed that the extended warranty was only good for 3 years from the purchase date which was Feburary 2007, which means my extended warranty expired February 2010!  I said, "But Juan, I sent my machine in about 2 years ago and you sent me this handy dandy refurbished unit the very next day.  This isn't my original machine!"  Juan promptly replied, "Yes sir, but it is 3 years from the original purchase date, that is all I can do.  I can submit a repair request and for $120 we will do the Microsoft dance on your hunk of junk and send you another crappy refurbished unit with a 1 year warranty and 1 month of Xbox LIVE! for free."  Price of Xbox would push it up over the $700 mark.  At this point I bow out, "No thanks Juan, you just lost a Microsoft customer for life" and hung up the phone.

In the blink of an eye I lost my gaming system, my online access to Netflix, and my DVD player.  Now I have no way to watch Netflix, guess that means I have to cancel my Netflix account! Done and done.  Thanks for nothing Microsoft.  I always thought that whole joke of "you buy something and it breaks the month after the warranty expires" was only a joke.  Well this one made it approximately 3+ months before it decided to give out.  So I'm sorry Netflix, but I had no choice but to get rid of you.  Microsoft, if you're listening, I'm not sorry and I'd love to see the numbers of lost sales due to your crappy products.  Or how about the numbers of people who bought your products then promptly switched to the alternative?

To everyone else listening, my advice is don't buy Microsoft.  They nickel & dime you to death for crap that's already outrageously priced.  This pretty much rings true in their software world as well as their hardware world, and no one should have to go through this.  Sony, you just won yourself a new customer.  Now I just need to be able to afford you...