A few things to address ...

1) The new look. Hell, everyone else was doing it. I figured the place needed a face lift anyway. Who knows, it might actually get me in Blog mode again and cause me to write a few things ...

2) Speaking of which, I havn't completed The Birth of a Defect yet. If memory serves me correctly, that's the only outstanding project I currently have. You have my genuine apology for not having it completed, but Tacer's story is an important one for things to come and I have to tell it write (get it?). Also, I was suddenly inspired a while back to start in on another story that I'm currently working on. So the little time I've been putting into writing has been focused on that one. At the moment though I'm inflicted by a number of distrations. And that brings me to ...

3) I play way too many video games. I mean, I love the fucking things and I think it should be mandatory by law to devote some time from every day to electronic entertainment in one form or another. But I've been home for many a month now and (mainly) because of video games and beer I havn't really accomplished anything of note. (I cut myself really good a few days ago though, if that counts). So I've decided to cut back on them a bit. My current video game intake comes 100% from WoW and I'm sure that if you're able minded enough to find this blog then you've heard of that by now.

During the time after christmas when I was unemployed and sitting in this town, for about 5 months there was an ungodly amount of the game in my life. However, nowadays I've got it down to a few hours a day for the most part, and I think I'm better off for it.

I heard about this law in China, that they just introduced that only allows chinese citizens to play for 3-4 hour periods. After that they have to log off the game for at least 5 hours. See, getting gold in WoW is a pain in the ass. In fact, it can be such a pain in the ass that nerdy, well-to-do assholes in the U.S. will sometimes just buy the virtual game-world money from people in the real world, with real world currency, to cut down on the slow, laborious task of "farming" gold. Don't believe me? Try it. Go to Ebay.com and run a search for "Warcraft" and you'll get a bunch of returns for warcraft money at the going rate of about ten american cents per in-game gold point.

Now if you were a young, poor chinese lad or lass, wouldn't YOU want to take advantage of this entrepreneurial opportunity? There is an unsatisfied market for sucking american money from america, if you've got the correct mentality to sit and mine thorium ore and kill slimes and rock elementals for countless hours. So I guess, thinking about it from the perspective of one of these people (Who seem to have infinite patience), it's a good idea. At least, that's what I thought until I realized that THEY MADE A FUCKING LAW TO STOP CHINESE PEOPLE FROM PLAYING A VIDEO GAME SO MUCH. You know it's time to go for a walk or wash the damn car when the government says "Ya know, you've been spending an awful lot of time in front of that box, I think it's time I turned it off."

But, cheers to the short little bastards. They're my new guard rails, keeping me from tumbling back down the shaft of addiction. I just have to picture a 28 year old virgin with huge teeth, covered in computer sweat and stinking like 5 day old body odor, left clicking over and over, and I suddenly want to go for a jog. Hell, I even got a full post up here. What are the odds eh?

Step 2: Finish the damn story. Terry, I saw your well timed little comment there, I'm working on it. Oh, and on that note, posting pictures of your deck doesn't count as an update. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Right now however, It's 3:24 am and my eyes hurt.

I'll write. I promise.

Nick