I bought a Xbox 360 Premium recently and did some research. I'd like to share the tips with you.

• Xbox 360 Premium has two versions in the stores. They both cost $350. But the new one comes with an HDMI port. Also, people believe that the new one does not have the same hardware issue that the old one had. Microsoft extended the warranty to 3 years, and you can get the console fixed if there is such an issue with it, but of course, we don't want this kind of hassle. To sum up, go for the new one with HDMI port.
• The only difference between Xbox 360 Premium (with HDMI port) and Xbox 360 Elite (priced at $450 currently) is the 120GB hard drive, a converter cable and a HDMI cable. Read on if you don't have a AV receiver that has multiple HDMI ports while you still want to enjoy both HDMI quality graphics and digital 5.1 audio.

You thought you can use the HDMI cable for graphics and the AV cable (which has a digital audio port) for digital audio. You are wrong. Microsoft used an evil trick here trying to force you into buying either the Elite console, or the $50 converter cable+HDMI cable bundle. What they did was to put the AV cable port and HDMI port so close to each other, while providing you a AV cable with a huge case so that you can never plug in the AV cable and the HDMI cable at the same time. The converter cable however, does not come with the big case. Now, if you are ready for some DIY work, here is how you can save $40+ bucks. Yes, you can remove the casing of the AV cable yourself. Here is an example.

Regarding the 120GB hard drive, yes, right now it costs $80 more than 20GB hard drive. However, I believe the price will drop in the future. So, if you don't need a huge disk space right now, I would suggest go for a Premium. 

• There is no difference between Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition and Xbox 360 Premium (with HDMI port) except you pay $50 more for the special orange-green finish.
• You don't need to spend a lot of money on HDMI cable and digital audio cable, because they both carry digital signal which is much less likely to degrade over a short distance. There are less than $2 cables on Amazon.com, and they deliver same signal quality as $30+ cables or even $100+ cables.

Hope that's helpful to you.

父母的家，对于每一个人来说都是有着特殊的意义的，因为那里有沉淀了十几年的儿时的记忆。我的这些记忆被封装在斑驳的铁盒子里（记得《Amelie》？），被写在发黄的书页上以及笔记本里，被保存在黑白照片里，被录制在5寸的计算机软盘里以及音质已经开始走样的磁带里。所有的这些零碎，母亲都保留着，占据了书房和杂物间的不少地盘。这次回来正好可以整理整理。

女儿病好了，我们就带她在小区里散步。她向我们演示从爷爷奶奶那学来的东西，铁树，风车，在沙子上涂鸦--就象录像带重放似的，向我们展示这几个月没有我们的生活。我们也终于有机会亲自教她点新东西。

出门除了领教国内的哥的高超车技，就是温故一下挤公车的“乐趣”。过马路的技术也已生疏，左顾右盼不敢上前。开车的不怕走路的，走路的也不怕开车的，只好两军相遇勇者胜。福州夏天的潮湿我已经不适应了。崭新的毛巾，过了几天就开始有点发黑。小区里才下了一场雨就开始积水。久违了七年的蚊子们可来劲了，在俺身上大开杀戒。也许是水土不服，也许是这天气，女儿病才好，我自己也发起了高烧。西药不管用，最后还是靠咱们老祖宗的中药退的烧。

父女俩的病让我没有什么机会出门访故友，也没有时间下馆子腐败。下次吧，福州小吃！不过书城还是去了一趟--挡不住的诱惑。表兄弟姐妹们在表妹开的咖啡厅聚了一下，当年只知道到处找乐子玩的我们现在也有各自的事业了。遗憾的是在家里的时候，所有注意力都在Emma身上，都没有好好坐下和父母唠唠家常，叙叙久别之情。

相聚总是短暂的。假期不多，没几天我们就要返程了。从母亲手里接过Emma小小的身躯，却觉得格外的沉重。抚养女儿的担子又落回了我们的身上。母亲在机场伤心落泪，但Emma并不知道这是怎么回事，她不知道要有好一阵子见不到这些日子来朝夕相伴的爷爷奶奶了，就象当初在SEA-TAC机场离开爸爸妈妈时一样，我们为离开女儿而伤心，更让人伤心的是女儿连哭闹抗议都没有，因为她还不懂。她在机场里四处张望，还在和爸爸妈妈做游戏，冲着爸爸笑，却不知道一会就看不见爸爸了。

最后拿那首古诗来做本文的结尾吧。“离别家乡岁月多，近来人事半消磨。惟有门前镜湖水，春风不改旧时波。”

我的心思早就已飞到了阔别已久的福州老家，飞到了女儿身上，可是慢腾腾的飞机费了好些功夫才将我滞后的身躯运到。

在南昌才见识了国人排队意识的缺乏和混乱，到了福州也是一样。记得北京的秩序还不错，美国佬做得又更好些，这个咱不能不承认。老爸奋力抢下一辆的士。俺当年写的童年的《黄昏小巷》已经被碾成一条直达小区的康庄大道，片刻之功，我又站在了自家门前。平静的铁门，似乎昨日才向我关上。

飞机上，我在脑海里无数次的排练和女儿团聚的场景，是欢笑的，也许是笑中带泪的，但万万也没想到现实是这样的--可怜的Emma无力的趴在老妈的肩头一动不动，我试图上前安慰女儿，女儿却哭泣起来。毕竟小孩是没有长期记忆的，Emma已经不记得爸爸妈妈了，何况正在病中，她不想有任何人的干扰。妈说，平时Emma笑得可多了，一点不怕生。这段经历，我不想再多写了，总之小家伙遭了好几天的罪，医院跑了很多次，终于才退了烧。渐渐的，才恢复了食欲和精神。一个星期后，她又活蹦乱跳了，终于可以把她抱在怀里，逗她开怀大笑了。我向自己发誓，再也不离开女儿，在她上大学之前。

这么多天，我基本都呆在小区里，Emma病好了，带她在校园（小区是所大学）里走走。福州的变化巨大，校门口当年我连人带车落水的池塘已经盖起了居民楼，小树林那肯定也是保不住的了，茶亭街--拆了，诸多变化。唯独没怎么变的是小区，就像风暴中心那个平静的一点似的，任凭周围翻天覆地的变，它静静的伫立在那，见证这一切。只有在这里，我还是可以说出这个或那个的掌故，在这里，我才是原来的我。

回乡偶书（完）