The Paradox of Gainful Employment

Before, I had all the time in the world but literally no income. I played games I already owned, but was unable to justify the purchase of new games at full price. I was like a miser, eagerly awaiting Steam sales and price reductions.

Now, I have a great job that gives me a decent amount of disposable income with which I can purchase all the games my heart desires. (And I have a big heart, which has an equally big appetite for games.) Of course, this disposable income is due to my working all the time. In other words now that I have the money for games, I don't have the time!

Life is so paradoxical.

I finally finished playing the first Bioshock. It took me forever to finish it, but this was not by my design.

First of all, let me say that I purchased the original Limited Edition version of Bioshock for one reason, and one reason only: the Big Daddy figurine. I mean, sure, I had heard all the excitement behind the upcoming release and I love me a good FPS game, but (as previously noted) I tend to not purchase new releases.

Since I had it, though, I figured I'd go ahead and play it. Yadda yadda yadda, a few years later it was finally working... but after I had played a few hours I got side-tracked and it was another two years before I could finally revisit the game and put it to rest. I happened to beat it while Bioshock 2 was on sale, and figured that was a pretty good opportunity to continue my adventure in Rapture seamlessly.

Of course, I immediately had issues with trying to get Bioshock 2 working. This time, however, instead of a DRM issue the culprit was Games for Windows Live.

In theory, I like the idea of GFWL. Achievements are fun, and now that I own an Xbox 360 (yet another sacrifice I've made to help fight the recession) I enjoy the integration between the PC and the console.

In practice, however, more than 50% of my experience with GFWL has been with it as a gatekeeper, jealously preventing my access to the games I've paid good currency to obtain. But maybe that's a topic for a whole 'nother day...

Long story short: it took multiple reinstalls (which, in one of the few downsides to digital delivery, means several hours a pop) in addition to hours of consulting The Oracle, and finally an entirely separate download of the GFWL client prior to installation of Bioshock 2 before I could finally get it to let me play the damn game.

All I'm saying is: Anyone else nervous about problems getting Bioshock Infinite to install and run properly?

B-1: First Impressions

There are plenty of hardcore reviews out there with benchmark results and the like. Though I'm an avid gamer, I don't usually bother with that type of stuff. I prefer to focus on the more practical matters... I don't ever monitor my frames per second. I don't overclock my processor. I could go on, but you get the idea.

It isn't for a lack of knowledge, but more a lack of reward compared to time invested. I just want to play games, you know?

So, with that introduction, I give you my casual-user's first impressions of the Asus G73JH-B1.

The laptop is sleek and a pleasure to use. I'm not a big fan of mousepads, never have been, and as I've said previously this is my first laptop. I haven't quite gotten the hang of using it yet, but I won't hold that against this particular laptop.

One of the soft rubber supports that is glued onto the under-side of the laptop was apparently loose and came off the first time I set the laptop down. That was disappointing, though not a big deal by any means.

There are no lazy or dead pixels. Windows 7 is a bit of a learning curve, and already I've ran into some compatibility issues with older games. Bioshock (with the 1.1 patch) in particular seems to be unresolvable; after countless hours spent consulting The Oracle, I failed to find a single effective fix that didn't involve downloading and running myriad third-party software.

Still, that's an OS issue and is neither here nor there... Though I can't say I'm entirely surprised by Bioshock's cantankerous nature.

Windows 7 - early verdict

I hate this shit. It's not just that I loath learning new OSes, which I do, but the simple fact is a lot of my bread-and-butter games/programs are running into issues with Windows 7.

The Oracle suggests that I'm not alone, but surprisingly has no solutions that don't involve running a passel of third party apps and software suites just to get your games to work. I'm not trying to play dos games here, this is stuff from as recently as two years ago!

I'm exhausted, I worked all day today, I work all day tomorrow, and I'm officially giving up on the laptop until the weekend. When I next have free time, I shall spend it playing fun games on my old, slow yet stable Frankenstein rig.

Why is it that I'm always shocked when I pay for a "gaming computer" that can't play games? A bit unfair to Asus perhaps, but there it is.

Consumer Market

Youtube needs to enable a play-all function that just lets a user begin a continuous stream without being in a "playlist". I'd use it over Pandora sometimes if that was possible, but alas...

Reaping My Reward

Since I began my job, I've received two items paid for by my Unemployment Benefits. (That is to say "my pay-check".)

The first item was long overdue, seeing as how my last camera quit working about a year ago and I've been without one since then.

My second purchase was a bit of an indulgence, but seeing as how I'll be staying in hotels for a few weeks and then head down to Florida until Christmas, I felt like it wasn't a hard decision. I purchased the Asus Republic of Gamer G73JH-B1, which is a fancy shmancy name for "powerful gaming notebook", though its size and weight make it a "desktop replacement".

Indeed, my own Frankenstein PC cobbled together from cheap Chinese hardware purchased piece-meal in Den-Den Town was in vast need of replacing. It even lags when playing Bioshock 1!

Expect first impression reviews on the new stuff here in a few weeks, and more thorough reviews later on.

Meanwhile, I relish in my ability to join the ranks of the consumer. Spending money to help fight off the evil recession while simultaneously earning experience towards Journeyman Rank IT-guy; life is good.

Hiatus

It occurs to me that I must announce a hiatus. I'm going to hit the ground running, starting tomorrow. I'll be working locally for a few days, then off to Cincinnati, and after that I'll be down in Florida for eight weeks! Busy, busy!

Unfortunately, I don't yet have a laptop (though I plan to remedy that eventually,) so I suppose I shall have to cease updating for the time being.

I must pack, pack, pack!

Ciao, my friends.

The Process

I sit here in amazement, remembering what I felt after first hearing about a job what is, for this point in my life, literally a dream job. After applying for the position, I was so excited about the possibilities. I looked out the window and imagined how wonderful it would be if I could actually manage to get it.

Throughout the process of applying, interviewing, and verifying my employment history, there have been lots of ups more recently followed by lots of downs.

I'm incredibly happy to say that I managed to get the job. My dream job.

I am going to keep this short because there is a celebratory filet mignon that has my name on it.