Time off is great. Or is it?

So I was laid off way back in mid April and I have had a lot of time off. It's been weird for me to have so much time off because of the nature of my old job. Since I worked at a data center, we never closed during the holidays or for bad weather. So the only time off I had was my vacation time (about 3 weeks at the time of my layoff).
Now that I'm coming up on my 2 month anniversary of being let go, I think that all this time off is starting to be detrimental. As nice as it was to hang out with my friends again and visit family, I think that I am ready to get back to work.
Yet I find it hard to get motivated to look. I really am dreading going back to work at another company just to get involved in more petty office politics. Just what I don't want.
Or maybe it's just an excuse to just screw around and do nothing. More like probably. It seems the more I'm off, the lazier I get. Once of these days I'm just going to stay in bed.
Being unemployed sucks.

Hardcore no more.

It's pretty much official. It just took me a while to admit it to myself. I am no longer a hard core gamer.
Not really sure why it pains me to say it but it does hurt a little. And yes it is a pretty stupid thing to fret over. Oh no!!! I just lost my gamer cred!!! Whatever will I do now? I guess I'll just have to live with one less label to my name now.
Because it really is a stupid thing to fret about. I'm sure there are gamers out there (you?) who are fretting over the same thing. Worried that if they don't keep up with every bit of gaming news their hardcore label will begin to peel. Worried that if they don't get every XBL achievement they can their friends and strangers will mock them to no end. Worried that if they do not remember every useless bit of gaming trivia their gaming phallus will shrink.
I didn't worry about all those things exactly, but I still worried. And that was a colossal waste of time and energy. I essentially took a hobby that I have loved for more than 20+ years and turned into a job. And I'm guessing that it's the reason why I have been gaming less and less. Sure some of it was due to work (though not these days :P) and just life in general but I think there was more. I think that my yearning for hardcore actually killed my gaming habit.
And here is the funny thing about all of this; I was doing this to myself. I wasn't being harassed on message boards or by my friends. I did this to myself. I really need to learn that its ok to just enjoy your hobbies.
Well I am slowly learning to dial it back a notch and seeing if that will reignite my gaming passion. When GTA 4 came out, it was the first triple A title that I knew nothing about. I didn't follow the game at all during its development. I also stayed away from previews and trailers. And now that the game is out, I am really enjoying it. I am actually playing a game and I know nothing about it. Everything is a surprise and its enjoyable. It's kind of like playing NES games way back when there wasn't the previews and coverage of games today. Kind of old school. :)
It should be interesting to see how my gaming habits will change in the next few months. Will I start to game more, stay about the same or regress more? We shall see.

Its funny what one finds in the break room

A Personal Computing mag from Dec 1981. How did it get here?

Found this via Deadspin. It made me laugh.

:(

Well it looks like I wont make it to the Pinball festival this weekend. Just feeling a bit too lazy. And also, everyone I know is busy. Oh well.

Arm assembly from STK silo

What does a STK silo look like when its boxed up?