Just got back from Gamestop. I brought a bunch of Xbox 360 games to trade-in with me to see what I could get out of them (12 to be exact) and I ended up getting over $60! Seeing as how God of War Collection is only $40, I put the rest towards Modern Warfare 2 so I finally got my copy, and I ended up leaving with two brand new PS3 games and only spent #35.83. Woo!

Cooking dinner and then getting on some God of War!

Today's when I start the process of making good on my promise to myself to make the God of War Collection the last game purchase I make until Christmas (for myself). Got my direct deposit, account's back in the positive, took a lot less damage than I expected, and I've actually gotten comfortably accustomed to spending a lot less money daily. Turns out what's really been draining my bank account has been food more than anything else. If I cut down on eating out like I have this past week, I'm going to be in much better shape. So this whole experience might be a good thing in the grand scheme. One thing that I shouldn'tbuy that I'm going to have a really hard time avoiding is the UFC 106 PPV on Saturday. Wish I had enough local friends that were into MMA enough to come over and pitch in, because whenever I have people over for it, I'm just footing the bill. And that sucks.

On a similar line, I've been meaning to downgrade the heck out of my cable subscription. I ended up doing the Comcast Triple Play thing and now that the deal expired, I have seriously way more that I'm paying for than I actually use. I don't use my home phone at all, but I think I'm going to keep it regardless because #1) it's cheap and #2) it's still convenient to have fax capability handy. The one or two times a year that it's used, it's usually used for something very important like insurance info. But other than that, I also have Showtime, HBO, and Starz, and the only show I use anyof them for is Dexter on Showtime. And frankly, I'm against pirating, but I also don't like spending loads of subscription money for one show. Even if I avoid downloading Dexter, I can wait until it comes out on DVD and then Netflix it. On top of all of that, I have two HD DVR cable boxes, and now I live by myself. I have a nice little flat panel HDTV in my bedroom that I'd like a box for but I really don't need two DVRs. And now I'm actually considering getting rid of that second HD box altogether... that little TV is nice to have but living by myself, it seems seriously pointless to have two TVs, and at least I can still hook up my PS2 and a DVD player to the small TV. Why pay more monthly for a second cable box for just me? There's just no reason for me to be paying for all this crap. I should actually use my lunch break today to call and cancel stuff. There, it's decided. On my lunch break, I'm going to call Comcast to eliminate my premiums and get rid of one of the two DVR boxes. The only thing that could change my mind would be if they decided to seriously dock my monthly fee instead, and that's not completely out of the realm of possibility... My friend recently called Comcast to do the same thing and instead they knocked off $100 from his monthly fee. That's a hugediscount, and if they did that, sure I'll stick with it, but only if it still wasn't significantly higher than just eliminating those extra services.

I think I got a little spoiled... I have a pretty good job and I've lived with roommates all my life, so I'd become accustomed to having a decent amount of extra money sitting around, and I wasn't shy in spending money a bit carelessly and having some extra unneeded monthly charges to my bank account. Living by myself now is forcing me to reevaluate what I need and what I don't need in small ways here and there, and it really adds up. I think the whole experience is just creating better habits that I'll surely benefit from in the long run. I won't be comfortable until I can stop the trend of truly living paycheck-to-paycheck, and barely at that.

The only game I'm really, really dying to get other than the God of War Collection (and woo for $40 new games) is Mass Effect 2, and that doesn't come out until January. But the one game that's out right now that it's going to be tricky to hold myself back from is Dragon Age: Origins. But I figure, I have games that I'm playing right now that I'm quite happy playing. Currently, I'm enjoying a little personal Team Fortress 2 resurgence, and I finally decided to hook up a headset mic to use while playing, and it seriously changes and improves the experience much moreso than I expected. Working together with the team is so much easier when I can run around and ask if there's a better place they'd like me to have the teleporter and let everyone know when I've got a little base set up in the enemy's sewer. It's starting to make me wonder how I got by withoutthe mic for that game. The one thing is that I know my mic sounds like crap, so after Christmas, I'll probably invest in a nicer, higher-quality USB headset. So while that game is keeping me plenty busy (and GOWC shortly), by the time it's appropriate to pick up Dragon Age, chances are pretty good that Steam will run some deal like they always do and I'll get a better value of it anyway.

I have another friend, George, who happens to be quite good at video games, and he's been playing Demon's Souls a lot lately. He's definitely echoing the general sentiment I hear about this game in that it's extremelydifficult. But at the same time, he can't seem to stop playing it. I'm just waiting until he's done with it because I'm definitely gonna borrow it from him. Too much intrigue surrounding this title.

Ok time to get back to work

So it's Tuesday. It's Tuesday November 17th. The God of War Collection comes out today.

[sigh] I'll live.

With all the bank crap, at least I know that the big bills this month are done with, and I'm all caught up. Come Friday, I can cook up $40 to pick up the GOW Collection, and I'm going to continue to let Modern Warfare 2 sit on the shelf. I'm having way too much fun with COD4. Dragon Age is a game I'd like to get sooner than later, though.

Do they sell Steam gift cards?? Christmas list!!

Speaking of which, I need to promise myself that the God of War Collection is the last game I buy until after Christmas. It's time to buy gifts for otherpeople. That won't be difficult, though. Mass Effect 2 doesn't come out until January, and that's the next game that I'm dying to get.

This is gonna be a tough week financially, though. I have three dollars in my wallet and 9 quarters and I gotta make that last until Friday. Though, I may need to use all of it today to put as much gas as possible in my car to try to last me until then. Kills me that I had this all figured out last week until my bank's "scheduled payments" put the unexpected smack down on my balance. Typically, when you "schedule" a payment, you expect it to be deducted the day you schedule it for, right? Apparently wrong! FML

So the Flyers game was awesome last night, and my buddy hooked me up with train fares and food (thanks Erich!). It's always a good night when the Flyers beat the Devils, let alone when they're halting an 8-game winning streak while doing it. It feels nice.

Played COD4 for about an hour last night when I got home and managed to level up again and complete three more challenges. I love how there are so many challenges that you don't even notice you're close to accomplishing one until you realize that you'd just accomplished it. It's very satisfying, even though more often than not, I'm well into the lower half of my team. I'm slowly getting better, though.

I've got some games to play, but they're all gonna take a backseat to the GOW Collection when I can pick it up. I've been very excited to finally get into this franchise.

This weekend I'm going to clean up my Xbox, take some pictures, and put it up on the Internet for sale. Since the web is flooded with banned consoles right now, I'm hoping that maybe my un-banned console will shine through a little and help me out!