I remember the good old days when all that troubled my mind was completing my chores, running around outside, and playing video games. I never really had to worry about money or deadlines (except mowing the lawns every Saturday and any homework I may have had). Nor was I greatly concerned with the newest games coming out, as I was content with what my brother and I could finagle our parents into buying us. I did not even care about computers then, either.

Ah, but now I have to work, pay bills, take care of errands, find out about the newest and best games, resurrect my computer (I am using my parents' computer at the moment), and squeeze in play and excercise. This is part of everyone's adault life and I am not really complaining, merely stating the facts and making the oh-so obvious observation that life was so much easier as a kid. We didn't have to worry about the weight of the world bearing down upon us.We didn't know what global warming was before we were ten. We didn't really care what happened overseas before we were, again, ten. However, we also did not realize how hard our parents worked to raise us, feed us, and shelter us until we tasted adaulthood. So, while I certainly miss the past (or, more precisely, my youth)for its carefree attitude and fun, I appreciate the now for teaching me life is not always easy and fun and for revealing how hard my father and his father before him and so on worked to raise a family.

On a lighter note, I am starving. Time for some breakfast. :D

Well, my elbows, knees, knuckles, head, and pretty much all of my muscles hurt, but I feel GREAT :lol: ...I just finished working out and doing some mixedmartial arts training. I got my head smashed into a wall on accident by my sensei :? and all of the other pains are just normal training aches...except for my left knee, which I messed up running a couple years ago :cry:.

I have today and tomorrow off (8th and 9th), so I am relaxing, playing games, working out...getting beat up by my sensei :D, but he seriously did not mean to hurt me...just show me who's boss...and that's the wall :lol:.

My plans of grandeur include watching 300, playing Shadow Hearts and Fable The Lost Chapters, and putting ice on my head for tonight.

WOOHOO!!! I got a raise!!! :D A very small one!!! :cry: YEAH!!!:lol:

Well, I have gotten back into a work-out routine and I have put on five pounds of muscle in two weeks. I can't run any more because that is how I lost 50 lbs from ages 14-18, and I only ran on asphalt, which led to my knees not being teh best pair in the world.

I am already becoming anxious to move to Illinois. I need to save up a little money first, but I can do that in a couple months so long as no games that I haveeluded my grasp suddenlysurface at my store. I have already planned my spending on games, fuel, etc for the next few months, being cautious to make conservative calculations. According to myplanning and the most conservative of my calculations, I will be ready to move no later than the end of October, possibly by the end of September. I will probably move in early or mid-October since I have Eternal Sonata and Soul Nomad pre-ordered and have included the cost of both games into my pre-moving expenses.

In Chicago I will work towards a BA in History while working full time AND play games with my brother and brothers-in-law (his wife's siblings). I will most likely persue either a MA or MS in History, or obtain and BS and then MS in Arhcaeology after completing my BA in History and (hopefully) obtaining employment as an associate history professor at a university.

Ultimately, I think that I want to do archaeology...but I sure do enjoy just sitting on my bum and playing video games. I also enjoy learning about past cultures and concepts and how those people lived and how their cvilization eventually melded with others and ultimatelyprogressed into our current civilzation. Maybe I will just teach English in Japan once I receive my BA, and I am sure I would enjoy that about as much as I would anything else...and I would be in the heart of the video game market.

All I know for certain about my future is that I am going to go eat some lunch right now becuase I feel famished. ;)

I have noticed that I have become far more critical of games and how I rate them in the past two years alone. I have only aged from 18 to 20, but there has been a definite shift in the strictness of the guidelines I use to evaluate games. I still place tilt, just having fun, above everything else, but I am much harder on everything other aspect of who games perform.

I don't really know why this has happened. Perhaps I simply noticed that life isn't alwyas nice to me, so I should not sugar-coat anything and face down the facts head-on...not that stuff that you place directly on your forhead with the annoying commercials. I suppose I have matured in life as an individual in society as well as a gamer and game-reviewer.

First of all, I wish I made more money so i could buy a Wii.

Second, I wish that here were more RPGs for the Wii.

Third, I wish I had A LOT more money so I could buy all RPGs EVER MADE.

Fourth, I wish I won the Lottery and that PowerBall so I could buy every game system and every game, with a few exceptions, ever made.

To sum up; I wish I had more money so I could own more games, including a Wii, third parties like Atlus and the Sqaure would make more RPGs, and that I had so much money that I could simply buy and play video games...but Utopias never come to fruition.

So, I finally got a job in a game store. I work at the Game Crazy in Waco, TX. It IS awesome because we get free rentals at Hollywood video (which rents movies AND games) and i, of course, get a discount on games. Not to mention that i get PAID to play video games and know stuff about them, which i do anyway.

All in all, it's a pretty sweet deal. Now if only i could get paid more, i would have ZERO worries...