R.I.P. Xbox 360

Well, my Xbox 360 kicked it today. Dead. Gone. When it went, it went fast. It powered-up, loaded the Laura Croft selection screen and froze before introducing me to the blinking lights of death. Poof. Bye-bye Xbox 360.

Why am I wasting valuable time telling you about what has already happened to hundreds of folks before me? The reasons are two-fold:

1. Never laugh at the less fortunate. I've never had a console problem in my life. I laughed at these stories of people going through 2, 3 and 4 defective Xbox 360s. Laugh I tell you! And not just a chuckle, but a deep, evil genius laugh. Well, who's laughing now? Touche, Mr. Gates.
2. But most important, is that my warranty was expired. That's right, according to my Microsoft operator, my warranty expired 4-days ago. How time flys. And how short those Microsoft warranties really are. Now, by the good graces of Microsoft, I was offered a one-time 10-day grace period because I was so close to expiration. But what if I was 11-days past warranty? I would have been out $399 bucks plus tax!

So, the moral of this story?  Be nice to other gamers and make sure that you are very, very careful when answering questions regarding when you purchased your Xbox 360. My Xbox was 6 months old. It led a short, but full life. It leaves behind a hard drive and 3 controllers, 2 wireless and 1 wired.