Surviving the Server Maintenance
Major Nelson warned us, thrice, in fact, about the scheduled Server Maintenance today. When I first read about it, I wasn't too concerned, as most were only 12-18 hours long. I would just get my achievement late in the evening, or shortly after that day had started (I seem to recall previous ones starting at 2:00 AM PST). This one, as the screenshot above would suggest, was different. 24 hours?! That puts me in a precarious position with regards to unlocking an achievement on Oct 17th.
So, yesterday I shoot Sir Larry an email asking that if the workforce behind the maintenance is local to Redmond, that he suggest they don't shut the service down until, say 12:10 AM so I can grab a quickie after midnight. Surprisingly, I get a response in less than 90 minutes, which is pretty good considering the amount of email he gets. (Mind you, I was sending it to a different address than major@xbox.com, which jumps the queue, so to speak.) Unfortunately, he reminds me that this particular maintenance, like previous ones, requires many MS employees around the world to be coordinated, and changing the start time by 5 minutes isn't possible. I reply with a thanks for the relative hasty response, and give him a glimpse of my back up plans, and he replies again within the minute with a "No problem!" and the subtext of wishing me luck.
Later, at home, I play through some Saints Row, finish up the racing activities, and grab my achievement for Monday. I've got a few more achievements lined up for my "Plan A":
I'm currently have 49 helicopters destroyed. But that requires me to spend time raising my wanted level.
I'm 1 hit away from completing the hitman level, and my last guy is the SWAT with the McManus, which requires me to go buy the gun, and then raise my wanted level.
I've got to get the Quota delivered to the Downtown Chop Shop to finish that activity, and it just so happens to be sitting in my garage. Bingo.
But, as they say, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." So, I try to kill time by watching The Brothers Grimm in HD, and watching American Chopper on Discovery HD (If I hear this "Paul Sr." guy pronounce "idea" like "eye-deer", again, I swear...), and it hits 11:50 PM. First, I go to timeanddate.com and my Saints Row achievement summary page on my laptop, to confirm that the site's clock, my laptops clock, my cable box directly under my HDTV's clock, and my 360's Live clock are all relatively synchronized. I turn on my 360 and it boots to dash, double check the clocks, and they all are within 3 seconds of eachother, which is good.
I check my friends list, and seeing iEyeCaptain on, send him a video and private chat invite, telling him that this is his last chance to go on video chat until the 18th, and he got his camera just a couple days before. He and I talk for a bit, but he still doesn't come to the video chat, despite my consistent insisting. 11:57 PM hits, and I'm like 'Screw it, I'm going to play Saints Row, I don't have time for this." As soon as I finish loading my save to get positioned, he's like "Fine, let's video chat, right now." and sends me an invite. I hesitate, and check the clock:
11:58:05
I mutter some expletives to myself and accept, because he knows I don't have time for this. So, as the video connection is established I pose for flipping him off with both hands, and tell him to take a good hard look. I then jump back to dash, load the game, and the save.
11:59:20 flashes on timeanddate.com's page as I gain control of my in game doppleganger. I'm in the Red light district, and need to hit closest crib, grab the quota and go to the Chop Shop. I sprint to a nearby parked Shogun, and gun it to my 3rd Street crib. I grab my Quota just as 12:00 o'clock strikes. My palms start sweating as I floor it, and b-line for the chop shop across town. Damn, that car is slow. Pedestrians pass me as I closely watch the top of the screen, hoping that a notification of being disconnected from Live doesn't appear. I'm crossing the bridge and I hear that familiar beep. I look and breath a sigh of relief as it says "iEyeCaptain wants to chat". I ignore it for the time being and am thankful that I still am connected to Live. I get to the chop shop, stop right in front of the drop off point, go to my guide and accept the chat invite, if only to confirm I was still connected at 12:03:18 AM. I immediately drive forward upon hearing the voice on the other end, and drop off the car.
Achievement Unlocked
I repeat those words an an excessive volume and immediately look to my xbox.com Saints Row Achievement Summary, reload the page, and see "Scavenger - 10 G - Acquired 10/17/06". Sweet. I got it, and not a moment too soon. I go to start up a video chat with iEye, who's playing Geometry Wars, and get disconnected from Xbox Live at 12:05:00.
I call iEye's cell, and he tells me my cell call disconnected him from Live. Stare blankly for a second, then tell him that Xbox Live is down for a Schedule Server Maintenance.
"Really?"
"Yeah, for twenty-four hours."
"Xbox Live's down for Twenty-four HOURS?!"
"Yeah," Jeez, he didn't even know about it, no wonder he didn't understand my reasoning for wanting to be on Saints Row before, at, and shortly after midnight. " I guess now you know why I needed to get an achievement just now? Even if Live's back up in time, it's not worth running the risk."
"Uh, I guess your flipping me off was valid."
"Shyeah. So, I'll talk to you later, I've got to get up for work in 5 hours."
So, I went to bed and left Jester a 3 minute voicemail detailing the complete rundown of the last 10, and tried to calm myself to sleep.
So, yesterday I shoot Sir Larry an email asking that if the workforce behind the maintenance is local to Redmond, that he suggest they don't shut the service down until, say 12:10 AM so I can grab a quickie after midnight. Surprisingly, I get a response in less than 90 minutes, which is pretty good considering the amount of email he gets. (Mind you, I was sending it to a different address than major@xbox.com, which jumps the queue, so to speak.) Unfortunately, he reminds me that this particular maintenance, like previous ones, requires many MS employees around the world to be coordinated, and changing the start time by 5 minutes isn't possible. I reply with a thanks for the relative hasty response, and give him a glimpse of my back up plans, and he replies again within the minute with a "No problem!" and the subtext of wishing me luck.
Later, at home, I play through some Saints Row, finish up the racing activities, and grab my achievement for Monday. I've got a few more achievements lined up for my "Plan A":
I'm currently have 49 helicopters destroyed. But that requires me to spend time raising my wanted level.
I'm 1 hit away from completing the hitman level, and my last guy is the SWAT with the McManus, which requires me to go buy the gun, and then raise my wanted level.
I've got to get the Quota delivered to the Downtown Chop Shop to finish that activity, and it just so happens to be sitting in my garage. Bingo.
But, as they say, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." So, I try to kill time by watching The Brothers Grimm in HD, and watching American Chopper on Discovery HD (If I hear this "Paul Sr." guy pronounce "idea" like "eye-deer", again, I swear...), and it hits 11:50 PM. First, I go to timeanddate.com and my Saints Row achievement summary page on my laptop, to confirm that the site's clock, my laptops clock, my cable box directly under my HDTV's clock, and my 360's Live clock are all relatively synchronized. I turn on my 360 and it boots to dash, double check the clocks, and they all are within 3 seconds of eachother, which is good.
I check my friends list, and seeing iEyeCaptain on, send him a video and private chat invite, telling him that this is his last chance to go on video chat until the 18th, and he got his camera just a couple days before. He and I talk for a bit, but he still doesn't come to the video chat, despite my consistent insisting. 11:57 PM hits, and I'm like 'Screw it, I'm going to play Saints Row, I don't have time for this." As soon as I finish loading my save to get positioned, he's like "Fine, let's video chat, right now." and sends me an invite. I hesitate, and check the clock:
11:58:05
I mutter some expletives to myself and accept, because he knows I don't have time for this. So, as the video connection is established I pose for flipping him off with both hands, and tell him to take a good hard look. I then jump back to dash, load the game, and the save.
11:59:20 flashes on timeanddate.com's page as I gain control of my in game doppleganger. I'm in the Red light district, and need to hit closest crib, grab the quota and go to the Chop Shop. I sprint to a nearby parked Shogun, and gun it to my 3rd Street crib. I grab my Quota just as 12:00 o'clock strikes. My palms start sweating as I floor it, and b-line for the chop shop across town. Damn, that car is slow. Pedestrians pass me as I closely watch the top of the screen, hoping that a notification of being disconnected from Live doesn't appear. I'm crossing the bridge and I hear that familiar beep. I look and breath a sigh of relief as it says "iEyeCaptain wants to chat". I ignore it for the time being and am thankful that I still am connected to Live. I get to the chop shop, stop right in front of the drop off point, go to my guide and accept the chat invite, if only to confirm I was still connected at 12:03:18 AM. I immediately drive forward upon hearing the voice on the other end, and drop off the car.
Achievement Unlocked
I repeat those words an an excessive volume and immediately look to my xbox.com Saints Row Achievement Summary, reload the page, and see "Scavenger - 10 G - Acquired 10/17/06". Sweet. I got it, and not a moment too soon. I go to start up a video chat with iEye, who's playing Geometry Wars, and get disconnected from Xbox Live at 12:05:00.
I call iEye's cell, and he tells me my cell call disconnected him from Live. Stare blankly for a second, then tell him that Xbox Live is down for a Schedule Server Maintenance.
"Really?"
"Yeah, for twenty-four hours."
"Xbox Live's down for Twenty-four HOURS?!"
"Yeah," Jeez, he didn't even know about it, no wonder he didn't understand my reasoning for wanting to be on Saints Row before, at, and shortly after midnight. " I guess now you know why I needed to get an achievement just now? Even if Live's back up in time, it's not worth running the risk."
"Uh, I guess your flipping me off was valid."
"Shyeah. So, I'll talk to you later, I've got to get up for work in 5 hours."
So, I went to bed and left Jester a 3 minute voicemail detailing the complete rundown of the last 10, and tried to calm myself to sleep.