A Window, A Light...

Speaking as someone who was previously burnt out on politics by somewhere around year 6* of the Bush Administration, I'm starting to wonder if my stomach has mostly dropped out of my ability to deal with politics. In terms of being able to hold my proverbial political liquor, I have to remind myself, for my own ego gratification if nothing else, that I started very early in the race and even though the race has hit its fever pitch, I feel that there's not a lot that's going to get done by me continuing to type on about it. There is more to say, but it's the sort of meta-look at the field that I just don't have the energy for. It's ugly, people. It's a battlefield out there.

I will talk about it later, because something drives me to. Just not now. Instead of political warfare, I am going to talk about some gamin'.

This is my gaming overview, because there are a lot of things I want to do at the moment and haven't been able to. Dead Space, I hear, has been out for a little while, and I'm lamenting a little because I really don't think I'm going to get to play it any time this year. You know, there are just a ton of great PC games out there, and I don't think I've played a game that was current since Unreal Tournament 2. I've tried to keep up by playing on other people's machines (I played BioShock on Violet's computer) or by playing the most recent games I could find for older gaming platforms (Playstation 2 games were coming out as late as earlier this year). When the movie rental place I visited in O'Fallon went under, Violet and I picked up a bunch of movies and games for cheap - we couldn't really afford them, but the price was literally impossible to beat.

So, those and recent Diablo II plays (and replays) have been holding me over, but I've been wanting a modern gaming machine. If I prioritize it highly, I can actually afford an XBox 360 or a Wii, or something right now. Or I can try to hold out for a platform which my roommate informs me might cost between 1-and-2k. Does anyone know if that's an accurate price for a decent PC that will run up-to-date games at not the highest quality play, but acceptible? My standards are not that high; I just don't want Dead Space to freeze up on me. The ability to play games on a PC is tantamount to magic, at this point.

As an aside, this really goes against my really long-standing support of financial responsibility. On the other hand, it's just so rediculously tempting to invest in an up-to-date PC or gaming system. Machine purchases will in no way effect my other plans, such as travel obligations I've already made (thus far, only the one, but it's a big one) or fundimentals I've been working for (no matter what else I do, reliable transportation is on the list). The money, really, is most likely to come out of the funds I'd typically pay towards Student Loans in order to knock them down at faster the the minimum rate. Nobody needs to tell me how important this is, but there's a certain amount of instant gratification that I've been craving because, honestly, things have been shitty for a few years now. XD

I wanted to talk about role-playing, too. Really. I mean, I played a Savage Worlds pirate game on Sunday, and I keep seeing an ad for Banishers for Mage that I've been wanting for a while. I plan on running an Exalted game next Sunday. So, my gaming cup runnith over, and that's not even all the stuff on my mind (Cam and Burning Wheel both come to mind.) It's probably going to have to wait until tomorrow. So, spoilers, I guess.


* I believe it's called Outrage Fatigue.

My computer, which is a laptop, has been doing this thing lately where it'll just spontaniously shut itself off in the middle of a game. I think the key point is how hot it's getting, which isn't being solved with the computer cooler anymore, or just blowing air into it. I might have to open the sucker up and clean it out, or send it to be repaired. Since I can do the former and don't want to pay for the latter, I guess I've got my options open to me.