Geek Hang-over

"So if you're wondering what separates a hobby from psychosis, the answer is about 600 bucks." -- Lore Sjöberg

I'm supposed to be a grown up, according to my driver's license. The mirror shows me gray hair. I have responsibilities like work and kids and a house that simply refuses to keep itself clean. But in one respect, I'm no more mature than a middle-schooler. Given even a little time to myself, I'll indulge my love of my various pastimes with abandon. Next thing I know I've overdone it.

It's one thing when you're a kid on summer vacation. You can bounce up and down the level trying to get it just right for just as long as you keep your eyes open. You get no interruptions except whatever social minimums you feel you have to maintain, the house rules, and your Mom insisting on you being the one to take out the garbage. When you're a grown-up with a mortgage and responsibility, finding a balance point where you can keep your life in order on one hand and still scratch your itch for your favorite games with the other is a delicate dilemma.

It's a common story. Think of a Friday night/Saturday morning. It's at that point where it's so late the distinction is just semantics. The kids are all off practicing their own strange hobby -- a social life. I'm in my living room surrounded by toolboxes, my whole Dremel setup and my sewing machine, working on some armor.

An acrid tang underlays my air freshener from the acrylic parts I'm laminating onto the sword armature in the corner and the pile of shavings and worn-off cutter blade bits swept together on the hearth. A pair of freshly-dyed leather gloves and Sharpie ink from the design sketches scattered all over the place add their own pungency.

A wifebeater that I had been wearing when I cast the mould bases for the gorget and pauldrons is puddled on some newspaper by my feet, soaked with water and drying plaster. I'm still in the costume pants and boots that I'd finished earlier, but on top I'm wearing my Megatokyo t-shirt with three partially-finished parts of the left shoulder assembly strapped on over it. I need it all to settle and make sure nothing folds or drifts or pinches anything interesting when they warm up during wear.

All the normal accoutrements of the living room have been pressed into some service. Part of the sheath/holster assembly is clamped to the mantle so the edges of the layers of leather dry straight. It's being watched carefully by the row of capsule figures the girls keep up there.

In the small clear space on my coffee-table, I've got five different types of pliers and two kinds of wire-cutters (all of which are necessary) scattered among three Pokémon cereal bowls with different sizes of jump rings and a tackle box full of different sizes of washers and other jewelry findings. I'm bending a complicated wire part on a jig for a complicated leather and maille gauntlet. I don't remember going to bed.

The next morning I was pulled awake by the shrieking of the alarm clock and the sting of catching my bandaged fingertips on the nap of my comforter. I lay there for a muzzy-headed second and it all washed over me in a queasy wave. I levered myself into a slump on the edge of my bed and just sat there with my head in my hands and thought, "Oh my Gawd. I really am a heinous geek."

I can hear you chuckling to yourself and thinking, "Oh man. She really is bad off. But I'm fine."

I doubt it. Be honest with yourself. How many mornings have you trudged into the office blinking blearily after a night of kicking sparkle bunnies in Azeroth or blowing your buddies to tattered stains from atop that little floating platform in Epitaph?

You'd think we could figure out some good strategies for dealing with this. This is far from a new problem. I remember a conversation back in '94 (or was it '95?) with my ex at some stupid hour of night. I patiently explained that yes, the Doge of Venice is a calculating bastard and it's too bad he's got your whole caravan of salt blockaded there. But you know as well as I do it'll be dawn before you oust him with the way the Prince of Naples hates you; he's still in a snit over those trading rights you "appropriated" in last night's all-nighter. And it's Tuesday -- you've got to be at work early tomorrow. He went to bed with a sigh.

I wasn't mad. Mrs. Pot was calling Mr. Kettle black here. I don't even want to try to count how many times my own Resist Pixels saving throw failed miserably when I had Kilrathi to kill and I knew the kids wouldn't be up until at least 6:30 in the morning.

And with the recent resurgence of the RTS genre and the heavily anticipated Starcraft II, I expect to hear a growing chorus of groans from frustrated wives and bosses. I can't even estimate how many hours were spent on the first version in my house between me and the boys. And it's not announced, but I bet we're about due for another installment of that turn-based time vampire Civilization.

I can hear it now. Yeah. You're fine. You can quit anytime. One more turn? Just one, huh? I'm going to bed. I think we all know how that one goes.

Comments

I have no recollection senator.

You are clearly an addict in need of intervention.

What? Yes, I have sunk 200 hours into Fallout 3. How does that have any bearing on the discussion?

I blame the west coast L4Ders who think it's funny to keep east coasters up until 3 in the morning.

Pictures of cited armor needed!

Clemenstation wrote:

Pictures of cited armor needed!

Hear hear.

Also on the article, which I imagine speaks quite well for all of us. Most recently for me it was Trine - 3AM was really, really sneaky the first night I had that game.

Hahahha, way too true. And your mention of armor makes me realize I really need to get to work on mine...

I got 50 hours in on GTAIV in just over a week. I was not proud.

EDIT: Oh yeah, it was Christmas too.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I blame the west coast L4Ders who think it's funny to keep east coasters up until 3 in the morning.

I've stopped clicking on invites after 11 PM. It takes a lot of willpower.

Ah, Kilrathi....

I remember the evening I got Wing Commander 4 (and it still boggles my mind how Cris Roberts was able to create such a briliant interactive movie and then came up with that peace of junk for the big screen), I was in the Army (well, Bundeswehr), had a full bottle of Baileys on the table and started playing. I hadn't played long, realy, when I noticed two things. First, the bottle was empty. Second, the sun was rising.

I was tired, slighly drunk and supposed to report for duty in 45 minutes. Needless to say, that my superiors were not amused.

It was so worth it.

So I feel you, totaly. Sometimes I wonder if this is the right way to spend my life, whether there might be another way with more meaning to it. But then I fling myself into the yellow portal, cannonballing out of the blue and accept that this is me, this is my life. Bugger meaning, games are art! I'm a connoisseur!

My life wouldn't be complete without all this, and if that makes me an addict, well, therapy is for quitters.

Giftzwerg76 wrote:

So I feel you, totaly. Sometimes I wonder if this is the right way to spend my life, whether there might be another way with more meaning to it. But then I fling myself into the yellow portal, cannonballing out of the blue and accept that this is me, this is my life. Bugger meaning, games are art! I'm a connoisseur!

My life wouldn't be complete without all this, and if that makes me an addict, well, therapy is for quitters.

QFT

GalCiv2 eats my time in three hour chunks. My time doesn't come in three hour chunks anymore, so I have to avoid playing it. And if Starcraft 2 re-ignites the long doused RTS flame, I'll be in real trouble.

Kudos on another fine piece.

I'll be remembering this article when Diablo 3 comes out I think.

I find myself in a lucky sort of seat right now. L4D isn't installed, TF2 isn't installed, all I have going is Diablo 2 and Fallout 3. Civ 4 hasn't bitten me yet, although I rue the day when it does. I can almost imagine that it'll be something akin to FFXI biting me to the tune of 60-70 hours a week. Man, that was something else.

But for now, I suppose I'm a quitter, down to around 20 hours per week of gaming and whole lot of sitting around and doing nothing. Diablo 3 might have something to say about that, or perhaps SW:ToR.

consciousness wrote:

GalCiv2 eats my time in three hour chunks. My time doesn't come in three hour chunks anymore, so I have to avoid playing it.

You are hereby banned from this site. You don't have time, you make it.

I hear you. Totally.

Thanks, gang.

And as for pics of the armor and the sword, if I get them done in time for PAX you can see them live there.

This hits home right now--of course it was posted the exact weekend I have a big project come up and can't work on anything else. I turned off Steam two days ago so I wouldn't see the invites.

momgamer wrote:

Thanks, gang.

And as for pics of the armor and the sword, if I get them done in time for PAX you can see them live there. ;)

You should take 1 shot every day and timelapse it.

Dr_Awkward wrote:

I'll be remembering this article when Diablo 3 comes out I think.

Same goes for me.

Switchbreak wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I blame the west coast L4Ders who think it's funny to keep east coasters up until 3 in the morning.

I've stopped clicking on invites after 11 PM. It takes a lot of willpower.

This East Coast Night Owl laughs at you and your silly girly-man bedtimes. What's that? An invite to a Vs game at 4am? Why, yes, I'd be delighted.

Switchbreak wrote:
momgamer wrote:

Thanks, gang.

And as for pics of the armor and the sword, if I get them done in time for PAX you can see them live there. ;)

You should take 1 shot every day and timelapse it.

That would require me posting pictures of my mad scientist lab, uh... I mean workspace.

I am going to put together a DIY thing, once I finish working out the quirks of the techniques. And I just discovered I have more time than I thought because they pushed out Arkham Asylum which I had scheduled into next month.

Could I bollocks quit at any time.

Imagining a situation where my consoles all simultaneously melted into puddles of slag, as did the internet, I'd survive. Sure, I'd be playing a lot more boardgames instead, like some kind of methadone for gamers.

As for staying up until the wee hours, I have learnt the lesson. I'm no good for anything the following day if I don't get my beauty kip. It's naught but a wee shred of self-control, but it's enough.

momgamer wrote:

Thanks, gang.

And as for pics of the armor and the sword, if I get them done in time for PAX you can see them live there. ;)

I can't wait to hug you in it!

Another very relatable article, momgamer! I think anyone who calls him/herself a gamer but hasn't been in this situation, isn't. Not seriously anyway. Maybe one of them newfangled 'casual' gamers perhaps...

Anyway, any chance of posting pictures of said armor after PAX for those of us who live in foreign climes and won't be able to make it there?

great article

Jonman wrote:

beauty kip.

I'm stealing that expression from England for use over here.

Switchbreak wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I blame the west coast L4Ders who think it's funny to keep east coasters up until 3 in the morning.

I've stopped clicking on invites after 11 PM. It takes a lot of willpower.

It's all your fault for living in the wrong time zone. Move out here and you get hours of extra sleep a night!

Rallick wrote:

Anyway, any chance of posting pictures of said armor after PAX for those of us who live in foreign climes and won't be able to make it there?

Yeah - it'll be in my PAX article, if nothing else.

momgamer wrote:
Rallick wrote:

Anyway, any chance of posting pictures of said armor after PAX for those of us who live in foreign climes and won't be able to make it there?

Yeah - it'll be in my PAX article, if nothing else.

I could help you take pictures of it. If you wanted.

momgamer wrote:

Yeah - it'll be in my PAX article, if nothing else.

Woot! I look forward to living vicariously through you!

Rallick wrote:

Another very relatable article, momgamer! I think anyone who calls him/herself a gamer but hasn't been in this situation, isn't. Not seriously anyway. Maybe one of them newfangled 'casual' gamers perhaps...

Anyway, any chance of posting pictures of said armor after PAX for those of us who live in foreign climes and won't be able to make it there?

Just moved in and the internet is about a week away. A very dark part of me is looking towards Jack Nicholson for inspiration:
IMAGE(http://illhuffandillpuff.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/jack-nicholson-shining_l.jpg)

A happier, more social and all-around healthier part of me is enjoying the 7+ hours of sleep per night that I know will disappear as soon as log into steam and start building sentries, healing heavies (plus the occasional soldier) and then do my part in the Zombie Apocalypse.

great read momgamer!