Beckerhead Mon/Wed Alternate-side Snarking

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@oxide... so basically you're asking us to chose one for you cuz you have some extra cash to blow...

if you were somewhere other then florida I may opt to choose the xbox so you may prep for winter:)

but your winter is like 68 and the other 364 days its hot so I'd say get something "outdoorsy"... :D
 
I'd say go for the climbing equipment oxide. If it were me I'd choose outdoor adventure over couch activities any day. Although it is nice to unwind and chill sometimes doing something sedentairy and in that case I'd go with a computer (lots of different uses for a computer as has already been pointed out).
 
The Xbox 360S(lim) starts at about $180, plus the games and other gadgets brings it up to about $490 assuming I buy a disc for everything instead of DLC.

The computer has to be able to run the games at least as well as the standard 360.

The other thing I should have noted above is that the climbing gear has a maximum life span (well, except for the gloves) of 2-10 years, in the case of the harnesses that I'm looking at, 7-10, assuming they are stored at ideal conditions (fat chance of that seeing as I live in rope's and webbing's natural enemy, hot, humid, sunny, and very very very wet at the moment) and only used on occasion.

Thank you Chameleonbear for your answer, but I have one question about it: Can I assume those are in order of priority of purchase?
Actually, I was assuming (bad idea I know) that if you can afford the xbox you can get the moab and the climbing gear.

I'd also suggest though that if you are really looking for climbing gear, talking to Unc E. He has a bit of experience on that matter.

Well, it's morning again. Which one of you reprobates let that happen? I was sleeping really well too. Dammit.
Screw all that! Light negating drapes and a sleep mask along with a white noise generator. Means I can sleep through a frickin' hurricane.
 
Oxide,
I'd say stay away from the gaming system.
Outdoor gear is a better investment imo.
Sitting inside wasting time playing videos or enjoying the great outdoors with some very cool gear? Hmmmm.
You seem like the outdoorsie type. I'd say this one's a no brainer!
There are things to see and do outside that can never be seen or done if you're sitting on the couch!
 
Well, it's morning again. Which one of you reprobates let that happen? I was sleeping really well too. Dammit.

Sorry, I know my snoring until noon is a little loud, but I'm getting better, I didn't wake up anyone north of NYC this time.

@Oxide: computers are better than game consoles because they're useful.
A modern MB won't run an old IDE drive, most likely. SATA is the way to go. Besides, if you want a gaming rig, you don't want to be slowed by VM swap drive I/O to an old/slow controller.

I know SATA is the way to go, but if I temporarily cut the price of it by using some of the old computer junk my Dad has lying around, I don't mind it. As for the computers being more useful than game consoles, all I have to say about that is (aside from being an accurate statement): You sir have never become addicted to Halo.

Climbing gear is good. Add shoes if you don't have 'em. Gloves? are you ice-climbing in florida? howzat work? If you need gloves you're probably rappelling too fast.
Harness, large locking 'biner, belay device (ATC or some such), chalk bag, shoes. That's the minimum for indoor climbing or riding along on someone else's top-rope outside.

I was looking at just the helmet, harness, and gloves (I worked at a BSA high ropes course all summer, if you where touching a rope for anything other than active climbing or bagging of said rope, you wore a glove) because there is no way in hell I'm gonna get to do natural rock instate, except for maybe caving, so all the places I can go already have belay lines set, so I opted out of the 'biners and ATC (or I prefer Gri-Gri's, both a mechanical lock and the ability to manually break a fall), shoes I decided against altogether, A. because it's damn near impossible to find them in my monster size (12 4E, which means extra wide), and B. because for the price I would pay for those, I like 8" duty boots better, mostly because if my foot doesn't fit on something bare, I might as well be comfortable when I can't put my foot on something.

@oxide... so basically you're asking us to chose one for you cuz you have some extra cash to blow...

if you were somewhere other then florida I may opt to choose the xbox so you may prep for winter:)

but your winter is like 68 and the other 364 days its hot so I'd say get something "outdoorsy"... :D

That's why regardless of what else I buy, I've budgeted for at least 2 more Beckers. :D

I'd say go for the climbing equipment oxide. If it were me I'd choose outdoor adventure over couch activities any day. Although it is nice to unwind and chill sometimes doing something sedentairy and in that case I'd go with a computer (lots of different uses for a computer as has already been pointed out).

That's what I was thinking too, my only reservation, and I stated this earlier, is that everything that has a huge price tag also has an expiration date.

Actually, I was assuming (bad idea I know) that if you can afford the xbox you can get the moab and the climbing gear.

I'd also suggest though that if you are really looking for climbing gear, talking to Unc E. He has a bit of experience on that matter.

I can, I was just wondering which one first. *gets in car with pages full of different gear I'm looking at and drives to TN*

Is anyone playing guild wars 2?

I want to so badly! But my original GW account belongs to my older brother, so if I want any of the bonuses I've earned then I need to wait for him to start playing it.

Oxide,
I'd say stay away from the gaming system.
Outdoor gear is a better investment imo.
Sitting inside wasting time playing videos or enjoying the great outdoors with some very cool gear? Hmmmm.
You seem like the outdoorsie type. I'd say this one's a no brainer!
There are things to see and do outside that can never be seen or done if you're sitting on the couch!

I do enjoy spending time outside.

So it looks like I'm going to get the MOAB 10 and try to narrow down what I want and how often I can use personal climbing gear, I just really don't want to spend that much money on it and never have the chance to use it.

Now, for the MOAB 10, black with a black/silver flag, or "flat earth" with a normal flag?
 
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I know SATA is the way to go, but if I temporarily cut the price of it by using some of the old computer junk my Dad has lying around, I don't mind it.

I dunno what you're thinking about building, but I bought a new MB and there were NO IDE interfaces on it.

oxide said:
As for the computers being more useful than game consoles, all I have to say about that is (aside from being an accurate statement): You sir have never become addicted to Halo.

You're right. I was addicted to Zelda (the first), Gradius, Marathon, and Area-51 (double-fist, single play to the end screen, thank you very much).


so all the places I can go already have belay lines set, so I opted out of the 'biners and ATC (or I prefer Gri-Gri's, both a mechanical lock and the ability to manually break a fall), shoes I decided against altogether, A. because it's damn near impossible to find them in my monster size (12 4E, which means extra wide), and B. because for the price I would pay for those, I like 8" duty boots better, mostly because if my foot doesn't fit on something bare, I might as well be comfortable when I can't put my foot on something.

Rule of thumb in climbing is never trust anyone else's gear if you can help it. I'd own my own 'biner and belay device no matter what. As for shoes, that's too bad about your 'squach feet. I could smear right up a shear face in my 5.10's. They are an incredible tool.

-Daizee
 
Choose for me: Xbox 360S (plus a controller, headset and chat pad, halos 1, 2, 3, odst, reach, anniversary, 4, and maybe halo wars), or 5.11 Rush MOAB 10 (with 6x6 and bottle pouches, in either black to "flat earth", and a flag patch), or climbing gear ($200+ harness, gloves, $100+ helmet), or new computer (probably parts to build a desktop totaling at max $500).

The Xbox 360S with everything included comes out at about $490.

The 5.11 Rush MOAB 10 with everything included comes to about $150.

The climbing gear starts at $250 if I skip the helmet and rely on helmets provided by the location I use the rest at.

The new computer needs to be capable of playing games such as Shadow Run on decent graphics settings, and will be a desktop with most of the money going towards the CPU and GPU, being as those are the most critical things in a gaming rig, followed very closely by memory which will start at 4GBs, the hard drive for all I care can be an old IDE hard drive I have kicking around my house, the mother board will be matched to my CPU and GPU respectively, as for an optical drive, so long as it's decent and doesn't break itself or my discs I won't care.

I know this is a totally random post, but this is a totally random thread as well.

By the way: Snark!

The 360 has been around for a while (2005), and while it is still going strong, I would not be surprised at the next gen unveiling within the next couple of years (unless it's already been announced, I may be out dated). Granted, that's 2 years of gaming you can have, but with 2 of the 3 other choices you gave, you can have more real life adventuring.

I don't know too much on PC gaming rig pricing these days (I want to say 600ish for decent performance), but same reasoning to skip on the major gaming and focus on real life adventures.

Of course, this advice is given to you from someone with a former PC gaming MMO addiction and current owner of 2 Xboxes, 1 Wii, and 1 PS3. Once I had kids, however, I had to sacrifice some activities because I no longer had the free time as I did before, and I would much rather have physical activities over the gaming.

YMMV :D
 
I dunno what you're thinking about building, but I bought a new MB and there were NO IDE interfaces on it.

My dad has adapters for everything, he even has a USB to IDE cable with the power connector on the IDE end, so it's like charging your phone on your computer.

You're right. I was addicted to Zelda (the first), Gradius, Marathon, and Area-51 (double-fist, single play to the end screen, thank you very much).

Then you know how I feel about Halo, I played every Halo game from beginning to end in one sitting on legendary (except wars and anniversary so far).

Rule of thumb in climbing is never trust anyone else's gear if you can help it. I'd own my own 'biner and belay device no matter what. As for shoes, that's too bad about your 'squach feet. I could smear right up a shear face in my 5.10's. They are an incredible tool.

-Daizee

I would love to have people use my gear, but since most of my climbing/repelling opportunities are at BSA camps, I'm not allowed to use anything the camp doesn't own other than helmet/harness/gloves/shoes, and even those have to be inspected on site by the Director of that area or their designee. If you ever wanna hear the horror story that is BSA C.O.P.E./Climbing policy, I'll tell you what we need to do for repelling.

Edit: missed this:

The 360 has been around for a while (2005), and while it is still going strong, I would not be surprised at the next gen unveiling within the next couple of years (unless it's already been announced, I may be out dated). Granted, that's 2 years of gaming you can have, but with 2 of the 3 other choices you gave, you can have more real life adventuring.

I don't know too much on PC gaming rig pricing these days (I want to say 600ish for decent performance), but same reasoning to skip on the major gaming and focus on real life adventures.

Of course, this advice is given to you from someone with a former PC gaming MMO addiction and current owner of 2 Xboxes, 1 Wii, and 1 PS3. Once I had kids, however, I had to sacrifice some activities because I no longer had the free time as I did before, and I would much rather have physical activities over the gaming.

YMMV :D

The 360 Slim (original black 360 on some serious steroids) came out 2 years ago (or there about).
 
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Then you know how I feel about Halo, I played every Halo game from beginning to end in one sitting on legendary (except wars and anniversary so far).

Yes, and from my experience, video game addictions are things to be avoided, not planned for and enabled.
With Area-51 I had a rule, which I maintained with strict discipline: I only played with both guns at once, only one play per hand ($0.50ea in 1996, as I recall), and only once per day.

-Daizee
 
I dunno what you're thinking about building, but I bought a new MB and there were NO IDE interfaces on it.

You're not going to find a new board with IDE, it is a dead technology.

The 360 has been around for a while (2005), and while it is still going strong, I would not be surprised at the next gen unveiling within the next couple of years (unless it's already been announced, I may be out dated). Granted, that's 2 years of gaming you can have, but with 2 of the 3 other choices you gave, you can have more real life adventuring.

I don't know too much on PC gaming rig pricing these days (I want to say 600ish for decent performance), but same reasoning to skip on the major gaming and focus on real life adventures.

Of course, this advice is given to you from someone with a former PC gaming MMO addiction and current owner of 2 Xboxes, 1 Wii, and 1 PS3. Once I had kids, however, I had to sacrifice some activities because I no longer had the free time as I did before, and I would much rather have physical activities over the gaming.

YMMV :D

You can get a very capable rig for $800.
 
My dad has adapters for everything, he even has a USB to IDE cable with the power connector on the IDE end, so it's like charging your phone on your computer.



Then you know how I feel about Halo, I played every Halo game from beginning to end in one sitting on legendary (except wars and anniversary so far).



I would love to have people use my gear, but since most of my climbing/repelling opportunities are at BSA camps, I'm not allowed to use anything the camp doesn't own other than helmet/harness/gloves/shoes, and even those have to be inspected on site by the Director of that area or their designee. If you ever wanna hear the horror story that is BSA C.O.P.E./Climbing policy, I'll tell you what we need to do for repelling.

Edit: missed this:



The 360 Slim (original black 360 on some serious steroids) came out 2 years ago (or there about).

I feel left out.
 
I built an outstanding computer for 1400 bucks that four years old and still an outstanding computer, if that puts it in perspective.
You can build a very nice computer for 500-800 bucks that will still be a good computer for a year or two, and it will be upgradeable component by component.
A computer can be a game console, aaaand good for schooling or work related tasks as well.
My vote would be build a computer if you need one, since your getting to climb without buying the gear anyway.
 
The 360 Slim (original black 360 on some serious steroids) came out 2 years ago (or there about).

Yes, but it's basically has the same gaming capabilities as the first 360 of '05. I was talking more of the next gen system, but again, that may take a couple of years to even announce, let alone release.

Listen to us grumpy old men and go play outside, young whipper snapper. Why, back in my day... :p
 
Yes, but it's basically has the same gaming capabilities as the first 360 of '05. I was talking more of the next gen system, but again, that may take a couple of years to even announce, let alone release.

Listen to us grumpy old men and go play outside, young whipper snapper. Why, back in my day... :p

Yeah, the 360 Slim isn't really on steroids. It added HDMI and wireless, but it's no faster.

I agree, get the outdoor gear. We've got a 360 slim and a WII in the house and we never use them, except maybe for netflix and the occassional Rock Band playing when people with kids are over. Electronics devalue fast and the 360 is going away next year. Get yourself a nice pack and then decide if you actually have the time / places to climb.
 
So I woke up this morning to find fresh bear poo in my driveway and as a courtsey everybody who lives in my area lets each other know when there are sightings. Upon contacting my neghibor he informed me that earlier in the month his game cam on the side of his barn caught something else entirely and he emailed me the pic:

image002.jpg


For some reason I'm less concerned about the bears now. It's a young one but still that is one large kitty cat!
 
Great pic !

Not so great it was near your neighbor's barn, but still a cool pic. And rare too.
 
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