Alan Kleymeyer

The vital, successful people I have met all had one common characteristic. They had a plan.  – Marilyn Van Derber

A leader takes people where they want to go…A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go but ought to be. – Rosalynn Carter

A mediocre idea that generates great enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no none.  –Mary Kay Ash

A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success – Dr.  Joyce Brothers

The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie. – Ann Landers

The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason. – Marya Mannes

The true way to  soften one's troubles is to solace those of others. – Madame de Maintenon

The verb "to love" in Persian is "to have a friend." "I love  you" translated literally is "I have you as a friend." and "I don't like you"  simply means "I don't have you as a friend." – Shusha Guppy

There are two ways of meeting difficulties.   You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them. – Phyllis Bottome

You must learn to say no when something is not right for you.  – Leontyne Price

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling – Margaret B. Runbeck

I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. – Martha Washington

The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging. – Molly Ivins

The longer we listen to one another–with real attention–the mroe commonality we will find in all our lives.  That is, we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not simply questions. – Barbara Deming

The best of us must sometimes eat our words. – JK Rowling

The child becomes largely what it is taught;  hence we must watch what we teach it, and how we live before it. – Jane Addams

There is always sunshine, only we must  do our part, we must move  into it. – Clara Louise Burnham

Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt

I don't know who is spoiled more, David or me.

I justify the PS3 purchase because I'm a high definition snob and I want to watch everything I can in HD.  Netflix still has HD-DVD movies that they will send if available but of course new releases are only available in Blu-ray.  So last week, in my mind, I bought a new Blu-ray player!  Most Blue-ray players cost $400 anyway!  So for an extra $100, I got a new game console.  Do we need a new game console?  Of course  not.  I bought the new PS3 80g model with the new DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller and the much anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4 game bundled.  At Best Buy, I was able to negotiate an in store $100 gift card and I used a $50 gift card I already had, so for me, that made for quite a sweet deal.

The console is attractive and a bit heavy.  Since I used an HDMI cable setup was simple.  The console has wireless built-in and I was able to get it on the Internet without any problem.  The wireless USB dongle for the XBOX 360 is extra and lists for $99 but you should be able to find it for less.

So far, David and I are enjoying the game.  The out of box experience was not that great since it had to "install" to the hard drive a portion of the game before we could start and it took about 10 minutes.  We tried multiplayer and were not very impressed.  You have to jump through a lot of hoops before you are allowed to play.  You have to sign up for a Konami Id, then a MGS4 Id and they must be different and they each have different password rules.  Then you have to create yet another id to serve as your profile for the game on your PS3.  This is the only one that can  go online and you must purchase another id if you want to play  online with a second profile.

"MGS4, although it has a FPS mode is NOT an FPS game. It’s a third person stealth game."

If you've never played a Metal Gear Solid game,  I recommend reading about them before trying MSG4 for the first time.   This will set your expectations appropriately.  I didn't understand  why the cut scenes were soooo  long.  The GameSpot review explains:

Fully realized, lengthy story sequences will come as no surprise to anyone who has played a Metal Gear game. You'll spend a good half of MGS4 watching cinematics, but it would be a grave misinterpretation to assume that great gameplay takes a backseat to the story. Rather, these two elements are tightly intertwined…

By lengthy they're talking about sitting through 20 minutes or more of video at a time!  Sure it looks great but that's too much.  If it were just a movie or show and not a game I would STILL find them too verbose  and boring.  They could have edited them more tightly.  That's my only big complaint.   The process for getting online is bad but you only have to do it once.