So I Am At A Crossroad...

[Havok]

Tonight, when I went to turn on my XboX, it started flashing 3 red blinky lights at me. I have come to find that this is very bad, and almost certainly spells doom for my trusty entertainment box.

Now my initial response and thought was about how much it is going to cost to replace the system (if at all, since it may be under some sort of extended warranty for just such an occasion, but I have yet to verify that) and that it would be about $400. I was close, as the Elite, which is what I have, runs about $300 in bundles with crappy games I don't want and an extra controller I will never use and don't need, but I will get to that in a bit.

I have come to realize that my video game time, which has basically become from when I get home from work (about 7:15ish) to when I go to bed (around 3 AMish) and is only interrupted for sex, when Jenn is home (she works nights until about 2 AM) has completely dominated my free time in the last 6 or 7 months or so. Unfortunately, this has come at the cost of two things; drawing and associating with a certain motorcycle club that may or may not want me around on a more permanent basis.

Up until tonight I was content with this, as as much as I like drawing, forcing myself to do it leaves a bad taste in my mouth as well as causing the final product to suffer. I hate to sound like a pretentious twit, but I need to be inspired to draw for the most part and that fact has, more than anything, led to why I have not tried harder to pursue it as a career. Now the MC is a different issue. It is TIME FUCKING CONSUMING, and at times can be quite expensive and absolutely not a commitment to be taken lightly. Having just bought a new house that I find I really like, I almost don't mind not hanging around as much as I should and as much as some people would like. However, there is a shelf life on the position I am in now and it may be getting close to it's expiration date.

So this leads to the crossroad (completely over dramatic by the way, but nonetheless, accurate) Do I get or fix my XboX and continue on with my video game work week (seriously, like 7 hours a day... really? ) which I have no problem with at all, or do I just let that go and make a commitment to one of the above mentioned options, both potentially life changing?

I come to my fellow nerds for some outside opinions on this situation.

[Resinence]

7 Hours is a long time, even if not spent on the two things you mentioned you would find that without games to fill time (and as long as TV doesn't replace it) you will somehow find productive things to spend your time on. I used to do the video game work week thing and honestly, it's... fun I guess but really it's not fulfilling and you never accomplish much. Same goes for people that spend the same amount of time on TV, it is a recipe for mediocrity.

Don't replace it imo.

[Phantasee]

Real life is way more interesting than vidjamagames.

Get a Nintendo. I guarantee you will almost never touch the thing, and when you do somehow find the time in your newly enriched life to play video games, you will look like a complete fool doing it have some fun with your friends in the same room instead of crazy people halfway round the world.

Plus Mario Kart > Gizza. Can you pop a wheelie in Madden? No? Can you pop a wheelie with your MC/Wario Bike? Yeah? I rest my case.

[Darth Fanboy]

Madden 11 is going to be out soon Hav and I hear they haven't changed a fucking thing except updated the roster as usual made lots of great improvements!

[Stark]

The third option is just replace your xbox (and don't leave it on 24 hours a day this time) and have some self-control. Your obsession with Madden season mode isn't Bill Gates' fault, and you play more Xbox than me and I work part time, which is fucking insane.

Then again if you have a compulsive personality I'm not sure if you're safer in a desk job playing Xbox or rolling with some kind of gang...

[Simplicius]

I hear you can not buy a new console right away and see how living without one works out for you before you ultimately decide.

(You might find yourself more inspired to draw if you get away from games, especially if you put some of that time into activities that give you ideas. You'll be out of that supplied-entertainment frame of mind, at least.)

[Akhlut]

Well, if you call the XBox service number and give them your XBox's serial number, they can tell you if it is on warranty or not, so you can at least save money on it.

As far as the video games/MC debate: do what you need to do. Although, you might take the 3rd option, and do something different from either option. If you have 7 hours of time to kill in that part of California, you can probably find other things to do, should you be so inspired. Museums, hiking (even if it is a 2 hour drive both ways, and even if it would be dark during some/most of it, depending on time of year), researching the occult, you know, whatever. I'm just saying that you have plenty of options aside from MC and XBox to go with if you want to.

[aerius]

Get your ass off the couch and head outside, you live in the state of sunshine and perpetual good weather. Cruise your bike to a park, run around, do outdoor workouts, chill on the beach, join a fight club, whatever, it's too nice outside to be sitting on a couch all day.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Draw more pictures of the Hulk raping people.

[Rye]

Xboxes have a 3 year warranty from when they were made for the three red lights.

As for the rest of your conundrum, as your fellow worthless fucking artist who deserves death for not being an engineer, yeah, internet and tv and computer games are fuckers for eating time that you used to spend drawing and writing. I'd give the 360 a rest before you got another, see if you'll open the drawing floodgates now that you're not playing. I know that while I've been tanning Red Dead, my guitar playing and songwriting has suffered, but I'm sure when the TV once again becomes communal that will sort itself.

[Kanastrous]

I think that - if you want to advance a career as a professional artist - training yourself to produce even when you don't feel like it is crucial. Remember the words of the great musician Gurney Halleck, regarding the kind of people and the activities they undertake, when motivated by "mood..."

And while I do own an XBox, I find it such an increasingly unsatisfying time-waste (thought the games sure are cool) that I actually do not recall the last time I played anything on it (yeah, *there* was some money, well-spent...) of course YMMV, on that, and from your post almost certainly does...

And riding a motorcycle is better fun than any video game I've ever played - at least riding around here is, since you don't get more than one life and the Level Bosses are really impressive things like SUVs and semi-trucks coming after your ass - plus it's good for your eye-hand coordination, kinesthetic abilities and exposes you to some amount of fresh air. Not to mention that practice always makes for a better rider...

I've come to see video games (along with tv watching and a number of other pastimes) as being rather like sitting around the house smoking dope. Is it fun? Sure. Can you do it endlessly without feeling like checking the clock? Also, sure. Will it ever do anything to advance your position, to improve your life, to teach you useful knowledge or skills, to make you better-looking or healthier, or give you any lasting pleasure? I kind of doubt it.

A cow in a stall may be content, but I sincerely doubt that it's happy. And a couch/tv setup can be nothing more than the human analog to the cow's stall and feed bin.

Happiness is a by-product of function, purpose, and conflict: those who seek happiness for itself seek victory with war. While there may be function in pressing game-controller buttons, there's very little purpose, and the conflict is entirely artificial. I can't see it as a recipe for any kind of lasting happiness or satisfaction, but as noted above YMMV.

[Stark]

Man, pop psychology and it misses the essential 'he plays 7 hours a day' issue.

[Oskuro]

Darn, get a gaming PC so we can get some optimum drama going!

[Kanastrous]

Man, pop psychology and it misses the essential 'he plays 7 hours a day' issue.

I'm not sure that it even rises to the level of pop psychology.

[Havok]

That is probably an exaggerated amount of time and it is obviously not every day. Keep the discussion going though. I am building a consensus.

[Stark]

That is probably an exaggerated amount of time and it is obviously not every day. Keep the discussion going though. I am building a consensus.

Is the consensus 'take up punching people for a living'?

[Stofsk]

That is probably an exaggerated amount of time and it is obviously not every day. Keep the discussion going though. I am building a consensus.

Is the consensus 'take up punching people for a living'?

Don't forget the meth labs.

[Stark]

Then we'll be able to call him a bikie. He HATES that.

I'll know what to send him next time he helps me with logistics; a tyre iron.

[Havok]

You guys watch too much TV.

[TheMuffinKing]

I found myself in a similar situation. I got tirwed of unsatisfying gaming ang decided to do tgwo classes online at once, this combined with the absurd amount of overtime I've been working has made me feel much more productive. Apologies for the spelling, I'm typing from my droid, it rocks, but the spell check is weird.

[Stark]

I found myself in a similar situation. I got tirwed of unsatisfying gaming ang decided to do tgwo classes online at once, this combined with the absurd amount of overtime I've been working has made me feel much more productive. Apologies for the spelling, I'm typing from my droid, it rocks, but the spell check is weird.

Once learning spell checkers decide a bad word is 'correct' it takes ages to convince it otherwise.

And sorry guys, you can have a job and study and a relationship and hobbies and own an xbox. You just can't if you're like Hav and obsessively play one game hours a day for a year. He's better off drilling a hole in Madden.

[Flagg]

Dude, you know what this calls for? A contemplative montage of Hav riding his hog (bike not wife) down the street with something 80's playing in the background!

[Stark]

He certainly needs to find himself. And maybe an underground pirate ship like in Goonies.

[Flagg]

And maybe an underground pirate ship like in Goonies.

I love how the poor latina maid finds the jewels and everyone just says fuckit and takes them from her at the end.