IRL

I find it consistently surprising how interesting real life is.

I mean, until recently I sorta figured real life was what you had to do so you could have leisure time without the electricity being cut off, whether your 'leisure time' entails watching the footy with a beer in one hand or playing Go against Deep Blue or whatever. I started to learn to cook because I figured it'd be nice not to have to live off ramen and pizza when I move out; I found I actually enjoy cooking, especially when I manage to get it right once in a while (frying, you are my nemesis). I started to take an interest in people outside my circle and found that being outgoing and (dare I hope) charismatic is a lot of a better deal than sitting in the corner alone. I discovered a like for tasteful shirts instead of t-shirts with 'witty' comments on them. Today I had my first driving lesson and am already looking forward to next week's - a few months ago I figured that I'd just take public transport everywhere. I'm looking forward to my TAFE course starting in a couple of weeks, both because it'll be interesting to learn new things and it'll be interesting to meet new people.

It's odd, I guess. At any rate, now that I'm actually doing things almost every day I'm starting to find I have less and less time for the vidya - when I feel like playing at all. Red Alert 3, which I was quite into recently, pushing my ranking on the ladder up to maybe #800, is slowly falling by the wayside. WoW I don't log onto except to raid or if someone wants some help doing something - I've even missed two full seasonal events, though I was all for a purple proto-prake when Hallow's End finished. I played the Dawn of War II beta maybe twice even though I enjoy the tactical perspective it's taken. I haven't opened TF2 for ages. Left 4 Dead is really the only game I'm playing at the moment, and that's mostly because it's what my friends are playing - and I suppose it helps that it plays completely differently to traditional, symmetric FPS games, an emphasis on fun rather than competition.

Ending note: God cars are sensitive. I guess 'cos it's a ton or two of metal you'll be moving you want to apply a little strength to it, but it seems that more than a feather's weight is far too much. I guess I'll get better with practice, but still.