In which my X-Box dies a messy death...

...finally succumbing to the Red Ring of Death.

After a work day I won't go into details about here, I came home, got ready to sit down and game, fired up Mass Effect (which I'm trying to finish so I can play ME2), and the screen goes all wonky. I'm a little concerned, but I figure no big deal. I turn it off, turn it on...

...and proceed to watch in horror as the console powers up and gives me the infamous ring. I wanted to cry. I settled for sitting down and reading instead. I might've used the time to write, but I was way too aggrivated to try and work on the novel. The roomie and I are talking about plans to replace the console. I've got to get a couple price quotes, and decide how best to approach the issue. In the meantime, I can probably talk my mom into letting me use her 360. Warranty isn't really useful at this point, we've had the console too long.

Ah well, maybe this is the Power That Be encouraging me to get back to work.

All in all, I'm in a lot better spirits about this than I was when it happened. I know it's not the end of the world. The timing was just awful.

In completely unrelated news, I have been making progress on the novel, and my work in DAZ has been steadily improving, I think. I'm trying to push myself just a little with every render I do, and once I've got those renders where I want them to be, then it'll be down to playing with Manga Studio and seeing if I can maybe get a comic of some sort up and running.

But, with that, I should go try to put some wordcount on the novel tonight. Later, y'all.