So, it turns out I won some passes to G.A.M.E. . . Unfortunately, I have not yet received them. Disappointing.

I'll need to find them and round them up so I can big G little O to the show. . .

Zelda will be playable there!

So, it turns out that once the baby comes the desire for game consumption decreases dramatically. It is true, at least initially.

The child is so adorable, and the paternal instinct to hold and protect this little life is quite strong. I am grateful for the child, and for the responsibility I have to be a provider, protector, and partner in her development.

4pm my wife has contraction pains

6pm arrive at Cisco for MBA meeting.

9pm meeting adjourns and my wife is more contraction feeling

10:30pm we check in for delivery.

1:30am it could come at any time

7am I go to sleep so I can get some sleep.

12:36pm Baby arrives after being extricated from womb by giant salad tongs. . . daddy falls in love with his little girl.

The idea of playing hundreds of games from my broadband-connected PC for $14.95/month is not a bad idea. The Christmas-themed, game-FX-laden radio commercial was a modest effort to provide relevant advertising. Unfortunately hearing it 5 times in 20 minutes gets downright annoying. Especially so when I hear it twice in a row on my Launchcast radio station!!!!

Other than paying another monthly fee, is there no way I can at least get some diversity in my advertising? I am about ready to get a job at Yahoo just so I can get some variation on the advertising I am forced to hear.

:x

Back in the day (today) I played a bit of Halo 2. Yesterday I played a bit more of Halo 2 too.

When I signed up for my two-month Live account, my wife mused that I may get just enough to be hooked. Thus far, it is just enough to remind me that the best multiplayer experiences are those had in the presence of one's friends.

My friend Chris came over and played on Live with me. Then another friend, Paul, came over and we finished tha campaign mode of Star Wars Battlefront II. That was after I taught my wife how to play Crimson Skies.

I didn't think she would ever do something like that. But lately she has been trying my games (except for violent, 1st-person shooters) to better understand what interests me.

I love my wife. I appreciate her and the small ways she shows interest in my interests, though they are not her interests. That is something that makes for a beautiful relationship.

Y'know what is better on Thanksgiving than Turkey?

Sushi!

Mmmmmmm.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

. . . for a holiday.

Where we can do nothing but play games and study and eat and. . .

Waitasecond, it IS a holiday. Perhaps I will log some more Live time.

Most games have some form of quantifiable measure on opportunities. In the early days of gaming you had a number of "lives" which reflected attempts to complete whatever task was set before you. Additional lives were earned by reaching a certain scoring benchmark.

Today's games (particularly MMORPG) do away with many of those conventions. However, the current limitation is time. Not necessarily that a Tekken match only lasts a specified time, or a race has some clock you need to beat, but life seems to only hold so much time for recreational endeavors. I can burn hours playing Halo 2 matches or studying Accounting for an impending final, but time is a finite measure used to uantify opportunities.

The decisions of life have of late been more pronounced, and--in all honesty--self-inflicted. Not only am I active in the Gamespot community, for all that is worth, but also active in a number of other areas. In an effort to track my time I have allocated my time to the following commitments/activities (in no particular order):
Work
MBA
Halo 2 Night
Finishing Final Fantasy II
Preparing for the advent of my first child
Attend church
Scritpure study
Date night with my wife
Sleep
Reviewing games on Gamespot
Beta Testing new games as available
Offering creative direction for a new Divided Kingdoms server
Looking for a new job (including interviewing)
Networking to improve professional contacts
Participate in Sony's Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP)
Pondering
Driving
Eating
Playing Lumines as a relaxing "chaser" for other more intense games
. . .and the list goes on.

Unfortunately some of these activities are mutually exclusive. In order to do what I want I must then sacrifice something else. The problem is that the things I need to do in order to support the things I want, or value, most are the activities I am most inclined to cast by the wayside.

What would be really beneficial would be to get extra lives to do everything I both need and want to do. Unfortunately the indicator at the top of the screen says I only have one, and that one has had more close calls than the player who made it to the end of Life Force.

Just a thought . . .or more.

Reflecting upon Saturday's gaming spree and Saturday's service during Sunday's worship gave me a few real-world applications for future implementation.

Matthew 16:25
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

Like most of my gaming experiences, when I game I am free of cares and concerns. I am in a zone, full of emotional white noise to clear away the din of distractions. When I finish, I find myself no better, and my concerns ever present, or even more pressing. 

When I dedicated myself to lending a hand to a friend of a friend on Saturday I found my own cares were gone. I gave of my time, energy, and strength to help individuals who may not have had others to aid them. I came away feeling good, not just about myself, but in general. I had a lot of other things going on and needed to be about my business, not just my Father's.

After my to-dos got done, I settled down for a 12-hour gaming marathon.
Did I study for my finals? no
Did I help my mom with things around her house? no
Did I help my *pregnant* wife do laundry at my parents' house? no
Did I get enough rest for a respectable Sabbath? no
Did I play a whole lot of Battlefront II with my friend Paul? Yes, to the point I said, I can't play this anymore!"
Did I stay up until 3 am playing Halo 2 on Live? Yes, because I am a nut!!!

What the heck?!? I was astonished to find people on Live to play with. Astonished. What was more astonishing to me was the intense desire to keep playing more. I can deal with sleep loss, and I can deal with getting things done at the last minute, but indulging in something and still wanting more is something I have a hard time with.

All day yesterday I just wanted to be left alone an back on Live. It was a particularly disturbing inclination. What is the point? How is this making me better, like I felt when I gave my time, talents, and energy for the benefit of someone else?

Just to add another anecdote to the mix of moral reasoning. . . when I was in my meeting on Friday with the Stanford professor most of those in attendance had played games of some sort before, but either no longer played or did not think of themselves as a "gamer". They cited time and relevance being the contributing factors. I thought this was due in large measure to the fact that I was in a room full of well-educated individuals bent on productivity and professional accomplishment in a technical area led me to dismiss the wholesale rejection of my favorite pass time.

Perhaps I stay only because I lack the strength to leave.

Last night, after a marathhon session of Battlefront II, and Halo 2 with some friends I signed up for my Xbox Live account. It is free, and . . . fun?

As a testement to the addictive ideology, I was up until. . . 3 am. Live usually isn't the only gaming that keeps me up until all hours of Sunday mornings, but that doesn't change the issue.

I was ready to skip meetings this morning, get more sleep, and say whatever to responsibilities, but my wife asked, "What would you do if your teenage son did the same thing?"

I didn't respond, because I knew the answer.

She kindly pointed out I would suspend such activities if it interfered with his responsibilities.