The game that broke the resolution? The Binding of Isaac as part of the latest Humble (Voxatron) Bundle.

The toughest part of the resolution? Having to turn down $1.50 Rainslick Precipice games during Steam sales. Those Steam sales… so tempting all year long. Speaking of which, Steam should be doing a Black Friday week-long sale here soon. Just a guess.

Did I learn anything? Heck yes, I did. Right now the Magicka series is on sale at Steam for less than $7 and it seems like a heckuva deal. Last year I would have jumped all over that. Not now, no way. I learned to appreciate my current library of unplayed games. I look at Magicka (and also Oblivion currently on sale) and think to myself, “When will I play this game? Is it likely to go on sale again, perhaps even cheaper, before I actually have time to play this game?” and the answer is a most definite, “Yes, it’ll be cheaper and no I’m in the middle of 10 other games right now so I don’t need to add this one regardless of how affordable it seems to be.”

Speaking of Oblivion, I already own the game on DVDs. $6.49 for Steam cloud support (saved games stored online, accessible from any computer) sure is tempting, but what are the odds that I’ll play the game again in the near future? I’m playing the game right now using the physical media I own just so I can finish the expansion pack and the quests I had not yet finished. After that, it’s not likely I’ll want to continue by using the saved games I already have. Plus, I can just back up the saved games to a portable hard-drive.

So, yes I learned stuff. I appreciate my games. I’m not likely to add any new games to my library unless they’re games that don’t require a large time investment. In the foreseeable future I expect I’ll be “living” on a diet of quality indie titles while shunning the expensive triple-A titles that suck up too much time. I’ve got enough of those unplayed in my library already.

Of course, it all worked out well in the end. Reid James Newton was born at 9:33pm last Friday. He suffered a little from bilateral pneumothorax, a condition where a pocket of air forms between the body wall and lungs. He was monitored over night, and again periodically throughout his stay at the hospital. We were home 3 nights later.

I’ve taken some time off work to get used to having a baby in the house. I’m trying to not worry about my work and I’ve managed to not check my work email since my wife and child came home from the hospital. That’s stressful in itself I don’t want anyone to break anything while I’m gone but at the same time I hate to think I’m holding anyone up.

Thinking that two weeks off work would be a sort of vacation was a mistake! Up to last week I had managed to read 5% of a book every day (the Kindle app shows percentages). I’m reading The Return of the King in preparation for the BluRay release at the end of June. It’s the 9th today (I think) so I should be at 45% completion. Nope, I’m 8% in. Reid is taking up a lot of time. When he’s awake, and he seems to be awake in the middle of the night, then I’m awake. When he’s sleeping I’m sleeping.

We’re learning. And I’m sure eventually things will be relatively back to normal.

It was a long day today. And uneventful so far. We’re back home for the evening, waiting on “true labour” to set in.

After the baby monitoring this morning, and then the induced labour (contact hormones), followed by 30 minutes of walking up and down the maternity hallway, we were allowed to go home. Our doctor, the one we got to know over the last 3/4 of a year, said she’d meet us back at the hospital at 8pm (approximately 12 hours from being induced) if full-on labour hadn’t started yet. If it had, she’d of course meet us at the hospital sooner.

We arrived at the hospital a little sooner than 8 expecting to meet our doctor. Nope. Nurses monitored the baby again, did their diagnostic stuff on Crystal. Her Mom and sister arrived soon after as we all expected our doctor to move on to the next step. She sent us home. Over the phone. So we’re bummed about that.

I’m a big planner. When I have a plan, I stick to it. She said she’d meet us at 8pm and she didn’t. So 7am tomorrow she’s no longer the doctor on call and we’re going to be stuck with some strange doctor.

Life gives you lemons, right? So we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I’m just looking forward to being able to give that birth announcement and we really thought our baby’s birthday would be June 1st.

June 2nd isn’t so bad

On to the details, the only allowable ‘new’ games that I can add to my collection are:

• Gifts — but I am not allowed to prompt the purchase with, “Hey, I’m not purchasing any games in 2011 but if you buy me X then I’ll buy you Y in 2012,” because that is cheating.
• Board and card games — they are not video games.
• Game demos, trials, and ‘free’ games — XBoxLive Indie Game trials, Steam demos (and mods and free games), etc, so long as they are freely available for download by the developer/publisher.
• Code giveaways — kinda sorta the same thing as ‘free’ games
• Borrowed games

If the game doesn’t fit the criteria above, I can’t add it to my collection.

Why? Well, this is where the benefits come in. See, I went kind of crazy with game purchases starting at the end of 2009. My Steam collection ballooned to a crazy size over the course of the last year. I don’t think I could possibly complete all the un-played games in my Steam games list if I try all next year, and an un-played game is an unappreciated game.

Why else? I’ve got a note taped to my monitor that says, “Why are you sitting here? Spend some time with your wife.” I put it there, and it’s pretty self explanatory.

I expect to enrich my personal life by putting less emphasis on video games and more time with family and friends (non-gamers). I expect my wallet to thank me. I expect my productivity to increase as I will cease to compulsively check Steam Game Sales and Cheap Ass Gamer throughout the day. I expect to spend more time reading through my neglected bookshelf. I’ll never make it as a game designer & developer if I spend more time playing games than making them.

Wish me luck in 2011. I have no doubt this is going to be a hard habit to break. I’ll post throughout the year under the tag #stateofthepenny here on the blog and twitter.

Did I mention it’s free? It’s currently in open beta, anyone can sign up so long as there is space.

The following is a mock-up of what I’m aiming for one of my cities to look like. The layout was created with the City Planer tool (yes, planer, not planner), created by LoU player Nova.

That was the original plan. Here’s the updated city, using the existing resources.

Here are some resources for free and legal entertainment. You won’t find any pirated works here, because the authors give it away free.

Books

• MCM – A Canadian author with everything from children’s stories to adult humour and science fiction. He’s also insane.
• Cory Doctorow – Another Canadian author of science fiction with a focus on freedom.
• Many Books – Where you can find books by the likes of MCM and Cory Doctorow and many many more authors.

Video

• Waaay too many to list, seriously. Here are a few.
• Revision 3 – Internet television hub that offers tech shows, bar tricks, stand-up comedy… and more.
• Miro – An internet TV client, like satellite for your computer.
• Public Domain Torrents – Old movies and TV shows that have passed into the public domain.

Music

• Beefy – Nerdcore artist.
• Jonathan Coulton – Geek folk-singer. Songs about vampires and scary dolls and robot friends (and overlords).
• Brad Sucks – Canadian musician and one man band (with no fans).
• MC Frontalot – Nerdcore’s originator. May not give albums away but he’s got a bunch of singles for download.
• Rhyme Torrents – 8 volumes of music, in addition to multiple halloween albums. Yes, I like Nerdcore.
• Hipster Please – DJ of Radio Free Hipster.

Games

• Newgrounds – Could almost fit into all the above categories. Flash games.
• Puzzle Pirates – Is a subscription service, but you can play for free as well. Puzzles… with pirates.
• Runescape – It’s a role playing game, and like Puzzle Pirates, you can play for free.

Now you can be poor and keep entertained at the same time, just like me!

Not very much in the way of paying work. I’m unemployed, and I have been since June 30th. There’s not a whole lot of work around here for someone with my abilities. Erm… I mean, for someone who wants to limit his job search to those that use his abilities.

I’ve had one phone interview with Ogopogo Media, but that didn’t get very far. Tip: Do not offer honesty in an interview. Answer only what they ask.

Huh? That means don’t be too honest (like I was). When asked about my PHP skills, I said they were “hobbyist”. That I did not have “professional” experience with PHP… and that I have never finished any of my PHP projects. Come to think of it… why am I writing that here for the world to see?

So while I’m waiting for employers to find me (because I’ve got no luck finding them) I’m working on what I like to call my “Creative Juices“. That is, one haiku, one 50 word story, and one image, every day. All original.

By today that should total 18 of each. Every day means Monday through Friday, by the way. I don’t work weekends (at least not yet).

So what does a broke-ass guy do to keep entertained on the cheap? I use the internets. It’s an endless source of entertainment. Free entertainment… after you get past the $50 a month charge for broadband internet. Hey, there’s some things a geek just won’t give up.

Legal entertainment. Legally free. Have I made my point? Here are some resources for free and legal entertainment. You won’t find any pirated works here, because the authors give it away free.

Stay tuned for free entertainment. I’ll post what I have to say about it fairly soon.

I ordered a Dell Mini 9 in December of 2008, as did many people. As of this writing, the product is still sitting in “in production” limbo. My expected delivery date has developed a personality of its own and, unfortunately, I expect it to pull a “fast one” on me again (http://consumerist.com/5133860/dell-no-longer-believes-in-compensation-for-the-purpose-of-customer-satisfaction). What I mean is that my expected delivery date is approaching again (January 22) and that means when the date comes it will most likely be pushed back by yet another week.

I only ask for an explanation. I understand that you may be protecting your business partners’ interests and for that I applaud you and understand it may make the situation difficult. However, we customers, or at least myself particularly, grow weary of waiting. There is rumor going around that the Mini 9 production is running a low supply of chassis, as per this article (http://www.liliputing.com/2008/09/dell-inspiron-mini-9-facing-shipping-delays.html) from September 2008.

I do not want to have to wait much longer to receive my purchase. Sorry, purchase isn’t the word. I understand it is Dell’s practice, and a good one at that, to only charge when the product has shipped. What I mean to say is that I grow anxious waiting for the product to ship and for the moment when my credit card will be charged.

Thank you for your consideration.

-Kyle Newton
Customer Number: xxxx
Order Number: xxxx

Update

I’ve since canceled the order. I did not hear back, either in email form or web, that Dell was going to solve the problem of Inspiron Mini 9 shipping delays. Call me impatient… I’ll call myself the new owner of a 42″ LCD Television. I’d have loved the Mini 9 but my wife would love the TV more.

Update #2

Dell Corporate just phoned me back. It wasn’t Alex Gruzen who I had addressed the email to, but a representative. As I wasn’t expecting a phone call, I was quite surprised (and happy). It was explained to me that there is a shortage of components (the LCD screen and the CPU) needed to build the Mini 9. My order would not have moved into the delivery stage for another 3 weeks. I asked about preference and delivery and was told Dell does not show preference over business or home orders but deliver on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Unfortunately, I was not talked into re-ordering a Mini 9, though I told the representative, “I am sad that I canceled the order but I just couldn’t wait any longer”. I suppose at that point I was secretly hoping to be given “incentive” to purchase a Mini 9 to endure the long wait for delivery. Edit: I take that back. The whole point is for Dell to help everybody, mainly in the form of alerting customers about delays and potential shortages. Public awareness, so you know what you’re getting yourself into.

When asked if Dell would be releasing any information to the general public regarding the manufacturing delay, I was pointed to the Dell Blog, Direct2Dell. I was told that information regarding the subject may be appearing there, and to make use of the search feature for the keyword “mini”.

I’ve left a comment on the Consumerist article with all that I’ve written here.

I doubt I’m going to get much done in the way of… well, anything at all in the next couple weeks. Pictures will be taken, micro-blogs will be written, and much tequila will be consumed. We’re heading south to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a little honey-moon bliss.

I know this is old-hat but I still enjoy watching it on occasion. Presenting Connected Venture’s Lip Dub of Harvey Dangerfield’s Flagpole Sitta!

Lip Dub – Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.