As I sat down last night for the first time with my new game, Halo 3, I was immediately blown away. The new environments are perfect place to drive around in the new chopper vehicle, which literally eats anything in front of it. The ability to rip gun turrents off the ground and turn them on the enemies made the giant scarab battle on the beach an amazing victory. The improved Jeep physics allowed me to tear across the countryside while my fellow marine on gunner tore through the enemies. God only knows what I haven’t seen in this game yet.
Only problem is, as I’m laying on the couch playing in my state of euphoria, I couldn’t help but think about all the various freelance projects I had upstairs sitting on my computer. All the different people waiting on, and expecting, some sort of T-Shirt design or logo done ASAP. How am I going to balance my time effectively post 9.25.07 A.H., or “After Halo3″?
I had NO problem sitting at my computer working diligently pre 9.25.07 B.H. As long as I had a few cigarettes and I-Tunes, I could work until the wee hours of the morning no problem. That all changed for me, and millions of other people yesterday. At least I went to work yesterday. I know a few people who didn’t… and I’m sure somewhere out there a freshly dumped girl is crying herself to sleep while her now single boyfriend is playing a 50 man slayer game in the rumble pit. I can’t blame him.
So.. as I sit here at work, doodling Master Chief shooting GraveMinds with various weapons in my notebook, I began to think of some ways to keep myself on schedule with my freelance artwork and in touch with the real world. I will list them, in hopes that maybe you can take something away from this post, and get your life “sort of” back on track.
1. Remove the cord that connects the controller to the XBox 360. This will give you roughly 5 to 6 hours of playing time before the controller runs out of juice. I know this will be EXTREMELY difficult, but promise yourself that when it dies, you quit playing.
2. Establish a “Three Text” rule regarding your girlfriend, Mom, Jesus, or whomever is trying to get ahold of you. You can’t just stop talking to these people, but you also can’t just stop playing Halo to talk to them either… Instead, reply after every third text. This will make you look like you care, but at the same time, let them know you don’t want to get into a long drawn out text conversation about that mean professor that is hitting on your friend, or Aunt Shirley’s foot cancer. Here is an example of a conversation I had last night:
Girlfriend: 7:20PM :”Hey Baby! What are you doing?”
Girlfriend: 7:49PM :”Are you busy?”
Girlfriend: 8:32PM :”You’re playing that god-damned video game aren’t you”
Me :8:41PM :”Can’t talk. Halo”
3. Although forgoing the morning shower to get in a quick game of capture the flag before work seems like a good idea, you’ll regret it about two hours later while sitting here typing this blog post.
4. “Because I was on Google looking for Halo easter eggs” is not an acceptable thing to tell your boss when he asks why you sent out the 10AM Punctuality Report thirteen minutes late.
Hope these help.
