Decided that as soon as I’ve got a hankering for a new game, rather than purchasing it, I’m gonna start up a GameFly account. I get a lot of games for cheap through the Want Ads at work, but despite most games being on the order of $5, it’s costing me money that I don’t really need to spend, as most of the games end up being purchases mostly out of curiousity, just to see the mechanics of a particular game. GameFly’s got an interesting setup, in that if you like a game, you can keep it at preplayed prices – and as such, you can see the condition of the disc in your own house, and the instructions/case are *new* because they never send them out.

So, working on Knights of the Old Republic II and GTA:SA now, so it’s not like I need to start it up now, but in a month or so, rather than buying a new game, I’ll start up a GF account. I want to break the “collector” mentality, where I’m in the habit of buying games. It’s an expensive hobby, and a sort of stupid habit, as I doubt if I play more than 25% of the games I’ve got on any sort of even remotely regular basis.

New Year’s Resolutions:

1.) Lose 14 lbs. – reasonable, but would definitely make a big difference

2.) Undertake one large creative project, such as NaNoWriMo, the GBADEV competition, or a 24 hour comic – something like that.

3.) Take, or make opportunities to contribute design input at work, and work towards achieving a game design position at work.

That’s it. In terms of the losing weight one, I didn’t want to make it too ridiculous, but rather, what I hope would be the result of actually developing, and sticking to a regimented workout routine. I felt somewhat of a lack of a creative output this year in some fashion, which is sorta strange, ’cause I worked on the GBADEV competition, which involved some drawing (mangling sprites) and music composition, which was sort of a novel endeavor for me. Still, I hope to up the ante a bit next year, and ideally, would do both the GBADEV thing and NaNoWriMo, somehow.

Anyway – I think the biggest hurdle to achieving my goals is figuring out a way to not feel exhausted at the end of the work day. Every day, I come home, and almost regardless of what I’m doing at work, I’m really tired. Gotta change that, and the few days I’ve worked out in the early afternoon, I’ve felt a lot more energized when getting home.

Right. Happy New Year, all – may 2005 be the best one yet.

Apparently, aid to the areas affected by the earthquake/tsunami is about to increase from $35 million to $350 million. If that’s the case, I’d like to say, “Good job, George.” You really fucked up the initial response to this tragedy, but I’m glad to see you turning it around.

Random crap:

www.frontalot.com

www.cheapassgamer.com

Repaired my AKG headphones (ran over them in my chair, and cut through one of the lines)

GTA: San Andreas

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

The Dante Club, by Michael Pearl

Cleaning up, slowly

So Rod & Rick, two guys who have recently been taking a look at the window leaking problem swung by today, and they’ll be back this weekend to tear out the interior of one of the windows, to see what they can see. Fun fun. And by fun fun, I really don’t mean that at all. But I’m hoping it’s not gonna cost *too* much more, though it’ll almost definitely incur another expense of some sort.

*sigh*

Wouldn’t be a proper storm without some of it inside to keep us company. Bunch of water dumped out of the sky, then promptly stopped. Same old leaks still there, but at least one good thing – we now know for absolutely sure that there is a leak in the roof. Saw water seeping into the drywall at ceiling level. Not a lot actually getting to the drywall, but enough to show that there’s definitely something up on the roof. I’m thinking I might be able figure out who redid the roof, and get them to repair it, provided I can find some sort of documentation.

I also filed an official complaint with the Better Business Bureau regarding the crap work the general contractor did on the house. I doubt anything will come of it, but it’s nice to have officially lodged a complaint with some sort of authority.

Well, unfortunately, it’s expected to rain quite a bit over the next few days. As long as no *new* leaks appear, I’m good, but I’m not gonna hold my breath.

Finally crawled out of bed at 12:35. Ei-Nyung made me breakfast at 9:30, which was the sweetest thing, and quite delicious. But I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Awful, and exhausted. It’s not even like it’s for any good – aside from potentially keeping *new* leaks from damaging the drywall too badly, and unplugging the street level gutter drain (which was vital, and quite good that I did), my paranoia-induced inability to sleep is only hurting me. At least I have this week off. Whee.

Yay. It’s 6:14am, by my computer’s clock, and I woke up to the sound of rain, and of course, the accompanying dripping. It’s kinda fortunate that I did, though, ’cause the outer drain under the driveway had gotten plugged up with leaves, and was running over, and down the street. So, since that’s clear now, things are better. But damn. Four hours sleep? That’s it? *sigh*

Ah, defective house – how I love thee. Not to mention your ability to make me completely unable to get to sleep. *sigh*

Ah, delightful. The windows still leak. Fortunately, the rain has stopped as well.