Fall is here, and it’s my favorite time of year. I’m less self-absorbed and am becoming more outgoing. Fall is the time for football, dating, and media consumption. The Redskins are doing well. I’m hanging out with various folks and going on “dates.” And the new season of television shows has arrived.

Last Thursday night, I went to the 9:30 Club to see Metric play. My new friend from Croatia, Edita, came with me. We both enjoyed the show, and I became a new fan of the opening band, Crystal Castles. Metric was fantastic, and the crowd was really into it. Edita, who is unfamiliar with beers in America, was jubilant over the Miller Lites we were drinking, so she kept going back to the bar for more. I definitely drank more than I should have and regretted it the following morning.

On Saturday, I got up early so I could learn how to use my new HD camcorder. (There’s nothing like waiting ’til the last minute!) I rushed over to the Dulles Sportsplex and conducted a short interview with Harley Quinn. I hooked her up with a wireless mic, and it worked really well for most of the shoot (although it became muffled towards the end—I think it was under her shirt or something). The shoot was fun, but tiring. That “hand-held” camera is heavy, and there wasn’t a comfortable way of holding it without supporting my arm with my other hand. I can’t use a tripod either, or the shots will look too still & boring. I guess I just need to pump up my arm muscles.

I spent Sunday morning and afternoon with Edita in D.C. It was absolutely wonderful outside. We sat outside at a café and on a bench on the Mall and relaxed in the warm breeze. We had planned to visit several museums, but ended up only going into the Natural History Museum. We saw two 3-D movies at the IMAX theater. The one on lions was excellent. The one on sharks…not so much. I fell asleep during the shark movie and wasn’t too keen on the heavy-handed “save the sharks” message of the film.

That evening Edita and I went to the Frontline service at McLean Bible Church. They were having a communion service, so it was an interesting first visit for Edita.

Since Edita is only going to be in the States for three more months, I’m definitely going to hang out with her as much as I can. I’m taking it upon myself to show her everything D.C. has to offer! I think we’re going on a boat ride to Mount Vernon this coming weekend.

Hopefully, in the coming weeks, I’ll organize a tennis outing with some pals. And go biking with Keith. And grab some Coldstone ice cream with Laurel.

Oh, last night was my first voice class. I had totally forgotten about it until I was in Chantilly after work, preparing to get a sub at Jerry’s. I ran back to my car and booked it over to Oakton High School. Luckily, I arrived in time for class. The two-hour class was informative. I learned about how the voice works and discovered I had the wrong idea of how to improve it. The biggest lesson… Resonance is not in your throat, but behind your nose.

I’m feeling pretty settled right now. I’ve gotten all of my big expenses out of the way. I’ve gotten some big projects up-and-running. And I’ve made some big decisions regarding what my life will be like for the next six months or so. All the big-ticket stress items are now out of the way. I can start to take it easy and pick up some of the pieces that fell off my schedule this year.

One of the biggest things I’m now ready to tackle is my health. Yeah, I keep bringing this up, but now’s the time to do something about it. The weather is fabulous, so I’m ready to do more things outdoors. I have the proper motivation to get fit this fall.

The first lifestyle change I made today was quick and easy. I simply decided to take the stairs. Instead of using the elevator in my condo building and at work, I’m now walking up & down five flights of stairs at home, and four flights of stairs multiple times a day at work. I’m also parking at the top of the parking garage at work, which adds another five flights of stairs twice a day.

All in all, this simple change has added 32 flights of stairs to my day. It’s definitely a start—and possibly enough motivation in itself to get me back on a regular workout schedule.

At home, I’ll be less likely to sit in front of the computer in my bedroom all night, because I’ll have my new Xbox 360 in the living room and my workout equipment in the sun room. I’ll create some sort of workout/reward system, where I get to play video games only after I’ve finished my daily workout.

Another small, but significant, step towards a healthy lifestyle? Tossing all my bad food in the garbage. Something I’ll do tonight, when I get home.

I love fall.

I’ve finally picked a side in both the next-gen video game console and HD movie format wars. In the end, content was king. And I returned to an old friend.

Last May, I was excited to get a Nintendo Wii. I thought the motion control was innovative and lots of fun. After a couple months, however, I became bored with the simplistic graphics and childlike games Nintendo had to offer. Ultimately, I wanted more adult games and better graphics.

The decision between Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 was largely dependent on which high-def DVD format I wanted to go with. Blu-Ray (Sony) looked to be the heavy favorite to win the format war, so I didn’t want to commit to HD-DVD. However, in recent months, HD-DVD has gotten a lot of traction. Paramount joined Universal in exclusively releasing their movies in HD-DVD format. Also, the price of stand-alone HD-DVD players dropped below $200, which will make them the favored purchase by consumers this holiday season.

Aside from the hardware issues, HD-DVD had the best movie selection (in my opinion). Not only is the television show Battlestar Galactica going to be exclusive to HD-DVD, but many of my top movies (Dawn of the Dead, Batman Returns, Blade Runner, Transformers, Indiana Jones) will be HD-DVD exclusives, as well. (I know the Lord of the Rings trilogy & Harry Potter franchise will be on HD-DVD, but I don’t know if they’re exclusive.) The only movies I would miss out on would be the Spider-Man series and 28 Days/Weeks Later.

When it comes to games, the Xbox 360 was way ahead of the other consoles in games that appealed to me. And since it’s been a while since the Xbox 360 debuted, many of the games I craved early on now only cost $20. I don’t believe there’s a single PS3 exclusive I’m interested in.

So my final decision was to sell my Nintendo Wii and buy an Xbox 360 Elite. I went to Best Buy yesterday and picked one up, along with the following games: Gears of War, Dead Rising, Top Spin 2, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. When I got home, I basked in the amazing HDMI-enabled 720p graphics on my HDTV (the Xbox 360 supports up to 1080i). It looked way better than the Wii. And my game selection was TO DIE FOR! I couldn’t decide which to play first.

Since I have other things to worry about this weekend, I was only able to play a small bit of Dead Rising and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The graphics blew me away, and my interest in playing both games is super high. I’m saving Gears of War for a free weekend.

I can’t believe it took me this long to choose Xbox 360. I guess I had to wait and see if the other consoles were any good—which they weren’t. Nintendo Wii is for kids or beginning gamers. Playstation 3 is for graphic junkies and Blu-Ray consumers. Xbox 360 is for adult quasi-gamers and HD-DVD consumers. I fell in the latter category.

I’m very pleased with the Xbox 360. And since Halo 3 is coming out on Tuesday (and Conan next month), I think I’m going to be spending a ton of time in front of the HDTV this fall.

The Washington Post reported today that Microsoft demonstrated their upcoming, highly-anticipated Xbox 360 game Halo 3 for Washington Redskins wide receiver Brandon Lloyd at his home in Leesburg, Virginia. Joining Lloyd were fellow Redskins players Ryan Boschetti, Mike Sellers and Nehemiah “Nemo” Broughton. Using private servers, the ‘Skins took on players from the Bengals and the 49ers, who were simultaneously playing online in Cincinnati and San Francisco.

…Oh, and by the way, the Redskins won 6-to-nothing.

Halo 3 will be hitting store shelves on Tuesday, September 25, and is anticipated to be the biggest video game launch ever. Stay tuned to AOL Shopping for some great launch day deals on Halo 3!

Morgan Webb Reports on AOL’s Move to NYC

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This week, AOL announced that they will be symbolically moving its headquarters to New York City. This move only affects senior management, who will be moving offices to NYC (most of them are already there). This has no affect on me personally, since my overall group Commerce & Marketplace will remain in Dulles, Virginia. It does, however, strike a blow to Northern Virginia and its image as a high-tech corridor.

Now, our biggest tech claim to fame is Sprint, which will be releasing its WiMAX mobile technology very shortly. I would like to see AOL Mobile partner with Sprint as a WiMAX content provider.