I've alluded before to the fact that it's a little difficult to hold a 9 - 5 job -- well, in my case, an 8 to 7 job -- and still review games. The obvious results of this are that reviews for long RPGs take longer to post, and perhaps more importantly for the sake of the world, I get less sleep and thus start to go insane at random points during the day.

Ok -- that very last part's not true; I don't go insane due to lack of sleep. Would be cool if I did, though, right? Some dumpy Asian dude rampaging around the city of Pittsburgh, causing death and destruction en masse and leaving smoldering rubble in my wake. All imaginary, of course. Kind of like The Incredible Hulk, but I'm not green, and I'm certainly not incredible.

One side effect that it does have is that I find myself unable to shake the games from my head while at my day job. I just caught myself mentally humming the Guild tune from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon for DS, a game I reviewed over a month ago. While I was washing my hands in the office kitchen, I randomly started thinking about alternative weapons to use in Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer, a game that I reviewed in April. On and off, while I'm typing out an email, I'll be thinking about how the hell I'm supposed to beat an FOE in Etrian Odyssey II. None of my daydreaming, by the way, has ever included a game that I'm not reviewing or haven't reviewed while I'm reviewing a game -- only ones that have and will get reviews posted online.

The good thing is that, well, when people say they get worn out on marathoning through a game, I don't feel it as much. It's there, certainly -- playing one game until the end that could potentially frustrate you (if it's a poor title) will wear you the hell out. But given that my day job is certainly not as entertaining as playing even a terrible videogame, playing a sack of crap is actually like a little vacation when I get back from the office. At the very least, I'm not putting up with said game for 17 hours straight.

I said a while back -- I can't remember if it was here, or in a podcast -- that playing games for review might start making me a little more weary of game-playing in general as a fan of games. It's one of the first things that's likely to hit you when you go from just enjoying your games to having to marathon through one for a review. Thankfully the Growing Weary part has happened only a very tiny, tiny bit -- and oddly it's thanks to my day job, which I otherwise don't necessarily have the kindest words for. I shouldn't even be complaining about my damned job -- I'm lucky to have it, especially in this economy, and especially when many of my friends are struggling and working hard for their paper while I sit in some air-conditioned office and accumulating mileage and hotel points. So, thank you, day job, for helping to keep games as a "job" as fun as they used to be.

Oh, and I saw Wanted. Kind of a dumb film, but I somehow enjoyed it quite a bit. It was between that or Hancock this past weekend. You can tell me whether or not I made the right choice.