Now that the images have returned to Gamespot.com, I am far more inclined to keep them turned off. It was a lovely week (or so) without all of the visuals. I can think of some other websites that could go without pics as well.

Perhaps the time has come to revisit my signature and either delete the odes to interests or make something off-the-wall.

Adobe has this deal where you can try Photoshop for free for 30 days. Very cool. My test copy arrived last week, and I have been debating whether or not my home computer can handle it. Otherwise, it is time to get that new laptop I've been needing for grad school. Either way, it is shopping time!

Now back our regularly scheduled job and E3-ticket search!

I haven't chatted online since. . . I guess before I got married. Yeah, it has been a while. The opportunity to hob-nob with the Gamespot staff was neat.

That said, the association with other interactive media aficianados around the world was quite fun. I chatted with someone from Norway, from England, from somewhere else, and just bunches of people. We laughed, we cried, we shared our horror stories. That is what games do, they bring people together. It is good to play together.

I think I will go home and work, since I really am not getting anything done at work. Even if bigethan doesn't like working from home in the long run, doesn't mean I can't.

Today I haven't much to say

Only that I have Bill's toupee

No games, no games in sight

Not even one look at a sprite

So I concede my night

Three things occupy the lion's share of my time these days:

1. Work
2. School
3. Games

Work is currently project management for a Silicon Valley company. You know how it goes, with great pay comes great responsibility. . . or was that power? Nevertheless, all the fringe benefits don't offer compelling commitment to something you don't necessarily believe in. No matter how high you are in the organization, you still report to someone.

School to continue to learn, grow, and develop, I am getting my MBA through the University of California system. They have a working professional program which allows me to go to school part time and still perform my labors. This quarter is Statistics and Economics. . . or pain and probability as I have come to refer to them.

Games have been relegated to another spot in the trilogy since school started. Nevertheless, I have found a great deal of time allocated to following games I'll never have time to play. Currently I am in the midst of a battle against Raven in MGS:TTS. I also have MGS2:Substance waiting for me, along with more time on about five other games I am interested in. My two-month, free subscription to Xbox Live has also come to an end. Which reminds me, I need to cancel my probationary account. I wasn't able to spend much time with it, outside of the holidays.

Ultimately, I'd like to work in the games industry, along with everyone else who visits this site. The only hesitation: Gaming isn't a stable profession. Right now the industry is topping out of a growth cycle. As disposable time disappears from someone's life (like mine), gaming becomes irrelevant. Same thins happens when money dries up.

Why is this important to know? If I worked in the game industry, I will have a job only as long as people have money, and time to spend on entertainment time sinks. Thus, if individuals reallocate their time to work, school, or family, fencing, or something else. . . gaming becomes moot, and gaming companies lay off employees, which means I will not have work, or money to play games.

However, if I work in a more stable industry (not semi conductors) than I can guarantee myself a job. A good example is food. Chances are, unless leaders make flagrant errors, General Mills, Safeway, and other food-related companies will be in business. A good example of companies gone bad, is Albertsons. . . they are currently shopping for someone to take them over.

So, which of my time sinks provides the greatest returns on investments? School. Does that mean I cut out everything else and focus on school? No. Could I conceivably work less and focus more on school to maximize my returns? I could. But that is the whole trick. Finding a challenging, rewarding, and sufficiently paying job is difficult in today's market. Not because jobs are out there (which they are) but because doing what I love seems to be at a premium. Believe it or not, business is good and the market is at a strong level.

In an economic situation this good, it is an employee's market. If the economy were to take a downturn, like it did five years ago, we would be back to an employer's market. Thus, if ever there was a time to make the big switch . . . the time is now. 

I have added Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance to my collection. The rereleases of games are, by far the way to go. All of the extras packed into the MGS special editions make them the obvious choice.

Perhaps I will wait for my MGS 4 limited edition PS3 before I buy. Heck, if I didn't already own a PS2, I'd buy the Final Fantasy XII box set slated for release in Japan!

Truly new editions of old systems or games are the way to go. Early adopters suffer so much for good products.

Last Saturday my undefeated streak was halted by one of my friends. Tonight, the friends responsible for introducing me to Mario Party put me back on my winning streak. It was Mario Party 4, and we had four people playing. Unfortunately not all of us at the same time. My wife and my friend's wife swapped play time. Playing Mario Party 4 with my wife was a lot of fun. Hopefully we can continue that practice when time permits between school, work and raising a child.

It had been a while since my friends and I played Mario Party. We also played Super Mario Strikers and I introduced them to Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Very cool. That was the first time I played Strikers; it was a lot of fun when we were playing cooperatively against the AI . . . the cheater.

Today, I was not the party star. That was my baby. She was definitely the party star. All sorts of people came over to pay her respects. Today she was blessed in church. She is not only a cute thing, but cagey too!

I am a fan of medals. As a matter of fact, I was elated by the Top Reviewer award I received. Unfortunately, that means I am being rewarded, or ranked, based upon either the sheer volume or the quality of my reviews.

If I am being recognized for insightful, independent evaluations of games, then I think the ranking has great merits. That means those who are awarding the medal are reading what I write, critiquing the content, and providing feedback. Following that line of business would be a lot of work for them.

If the top reviewing award is determined by sheer volume (quantity) of reviews submitted (regardless of length, quality or grammatical accuracy) then there is a problem. I can see rabid, medal mongering members submitting 120-word, or 10-word reviews offering nothing more than "THIS G4M3 RU13Z! If u don git dis, ur stupid!"

Not the quality community reviews I look for from the Gamespot community. Plus, that offers negative feedback to those of us who try to honestly evaluate the content of games, and provide relevant evaluations. To see game reviews gone wrong, one needs only reflect upon the entries in most of the Halo games . . . or perhaps Final Fantasy VII.

Irrelevant.

So much for the 20-minute break I was going to use to post here. . .

Economics is back on.

We voted on how long the break was going to be . . . in the end we decided on 15 minutes instead of the 10- or 20-minute options. Now we are starting five minutes early.

:cry:

Excuse me while I cathart. . .

In an instance of real-time confluence, many aspects of life have come together at the same time:

People are coming to see the baby
School is starting (Microeconomics & Statistics)
Crazy work
The hassle of a new year

Forget anything?

No.

Complaining? probably.

Offended? no.

All this good stuff reminds me of my senior year of high school. . . so much good stuff:
Newspaper staff
Student government
Cross Country
Every school play
Early-morning classes
AP classes
Art
Photography
College Applications

. . . so good!

It is a delight to have my wife and child back with me.

Unfortunately both of them are sick with a cold. Hopefully that will repair itself soon. . . otherwise, I will take them to the doctor myself.

School starts on Friday. Not looking forward to that. I am still working on some additional game reviews. I used to be able to finish them within an hour. Now, for some reason, writer's block is setting in. Perhaps it is because I am playing so many games. Before I didn't have time to play, only time to write on what I had previously played.

Either way, I need to do Tetris 2 for NES, maybe SuperC for NES, and complete my Drakan: Order of the Flame review. Deep down the only thing I want to do any more is play MGS:TTS.

Funny how that happens.