The 1:1:1 Challenge

Starting Monday, March 6, 2017, I am embarking on the 1:1:1 Challenge. No, this isn't the Catholic 1-1-1 Challenge, although their challenge is pretty cool. The 1:1:1 Challenge is one that I created on my own to pursue my interests and to do the work necessary to build the expertise I want to have. According to my challenge, every week, I will complete the following:

• one video game
• one book
• one craft

The challenge does come with a few rules and caveats:

1. Completing a video game means reaching the credits and/or end screen. It is up to my discretion whether or not to 100 percent a game.
2. Completing a book means reading a book from start to finish
3. Completing a craft means creating something from scratch into a final, new product or form
4. I am allowed to repeat video games, books and crafts. It doesn't have to be "new" to me to count toward the challenge.
5. If a game video game will take longer than a week to complete (I do still need to eat, sleep and work), then the challenge can be extended to two weeks for the completion of that game only.
6. A "craft" is defined as "an activity involving skill in making things." Crafts include, but aren't limited to, paintings, mixed media art, jewelry, blog posts, papercraft, textiles, text-based video games.

Why Video Games, Books and Crafts?

Video games and books are chosen primarily to build my repertoire. My vision is to be an expert in post-escapism, which is the field of understanding "games by placing them in social, political and cultural context. It finds value in what game says about the world around it." Post-escapism combines my love of gaming with my interests in activism, human rights, public police and the like. Playing video games will build my repertoire of games to analyze and place into context. Books will build my repertoire and understanding of past and present social, political and cultural contexts.

Crafts are the synthesis of the first two, since there's little point of building repertoires if the actual analysis is never completed. It's the chance to connect what I've learned, played and read so far. Although I am a writer by trade, writing isn't the only way to practice post-escapism, which is why I defined it to include so many different mediums. Craft is also defined as a trade or a handicraft, and I liked the idea of creating crafts while also working on honing my craft.

Why Do This Challenge at All?

I am embarking on this challenge and creating it for myself as a matter of discipline. I feel I need to double down on my strengths and interests and this challenge is a great way to do that while also pushing myself to execute and to create, whether that's through writing or painting or a household good or what. It's good to play video games and to read books and to think about their contexts, but that alone isn't going to make me a post-escapism expert or build my credibility as said expert.

Also, now that I have the language of post-escapism, I'm excited to explore it and perhaps define its study and some its major theories. It's a rather new field within video games analysis, culture and "new games journalism." I think it'll be really cool to be a part of this evolution within video games. I need a way to get started and embarking on a challenge is the perfect way to get started!

When Does the Challenge End?

Hopefully, the challenge never ends. There will always be new video games and new books to discover. The political, social and cultural contexts in which these media exist will always be changing. The artistry and creativity needed to create great crafts are boundless. Ideally, I could do the challenge forever and tweak it so it includes more types of media. Eventually, I could make it harder by increasing the quantity per week or decreasing the amount of time to take on all three items.

What video games, books and crafts are you doing first?

The video games I am tackling first are Democracy 3, Shovel Knight, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Hand of Fate and Cook, Serve, Delicious. All of these games are titles I've already started, so they are first on my list so I can finish them. GTA Vice City may take me longer than a week to finish, but I think I can do it. I'm about halfway through the game if I remember correctly. I do have a full list of video games I plan to tackle, which is ever-changing as I complete games and own more titles and consoles.

I also have a list of books I plan to read. The first eight books on the list are the first eight I will read because I either own those books or I have them in my possession from the library at the moment. After those eight books, I will read books in any order based on availability and/or interest at the time. Like the video games list, the books list is also ever-changing as own more books or discover new titles that'll provide great information.

As for crafts, I do have projects I need to finish as well before starting on anything new. I do have signs and coasters I need to make since I already have the materials to do those. I also need to make a present for a wedding reception coming up later this year, and have just the canvas for that present. Besides those, there will be plenty of ideas for blog posts, ZEEF lists and other artistic endeavors.

What I Need to Be Able to Play Skyrim

I want to play Skyrim, the fifth game in the Elder Scroll series, so badly! I've been watching Sips play Skyrim for months and months now, and once you see the graphics and game play in Skyrim, it's hard to go back to Oblivion or Morrowind. I've already watch Sips play a lot of Skyrim, and I can only imagine how much he hasn't done yet and how many places he hasn't explored in the world yet. It's makes me so excited to play the game! I want to see all the places I haven't seen yet! I want to build my own house! I want to do all those open quests that Sips hasn't touched yet, even though he keeps picking up more and more quests! However, I might need a whole new computer to play it. My fiance also needs a new computer, and I know that he's planning to get a computer that can handle Skyrim, but I might be in a better position to get a new computer or to get an upgrade first. Here are the minimum system requirements needed to play Skyrim:

• Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
• Processor: Intel Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor (AMD Sempron @ 2.4 GHz)
• 2GB System RAM
• 6GB free HDD space
• Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM
• DirectX compatible sound card
• Internet access for Steam activation

The video card and the sound card are the only two things I don't know how to confirm, unless I can dig up my owner's manual and review the information. I don't really know where that is, and I might have actually thrown it away because my cat peed on it. Although, the fact that I have everything else makes me wonder if my computer can handle Skyrim. I bought it about five months prior to when the game was released. Although, what I could do is perhaps just purchase the right cards, and then get them installed into my laptop.

But, I am Able to Play Hearthstone!

I received my beta invitation to play Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft yesterday, and the game is absolutely amazing! This is another game that I watched Sips and the rest of the Yogscast play, and it looked so much fun even though I don't play World of Warcraft. I only played Magic: The Gathering once in my life, so I know how but I'm not an avid player by any means. I love Hearthstone because there's so much strategy to it, but it's not boring because there's fun sound effects and characters to play.

Right now, I'm still in practice mode trying to beat the AI on expert level. I need to level up each the classes to earn more cards. Then, I'm going to try the Arena and try to play actual people. Once I get some experience playing actual people and choosing cards to play (in Arena, you have to create a deck prior to the match. The cards you have to choose from are giving to you randomly) then I'm going to try to create my own deck. Since I'm not choosing any of my own cards right now, I'm certainly not ready to do it on my own. I only have a faint idea of what needs to be in my deck in order to have something versatile and well-rounded.

Overall, video games are awesome and it's really nice to play a critical-thinking game again. Game Dev Tycoon was the game I was playing before this, and it requires a lot of thinking, but there isn't too much strategy to it. It's just a matter of managing resources and trying to squeeze in as much as possible. I think I might need to play a few more rounds of Hearthstone now.

4 Video Games I Want to Play Next

Rogue Legacy: completed, with longings every now and then to do another run through. Don't Starve: back in it, with goals to kill a Koalaphant, find the Pig King, and descend into the caves. The Caves: fun, but I'm having trouble with the controls. The characters seem to just keep running. I haven't played it in a while because of that. Grand Theft Auto III: started, but I need to fix my controller. I can't target anybody if I need to shoot them because two of the buttons on the top are broken. Of course, there are still four Grand Theft Auto games that I haven't even tried yet. A bit unwilling to considering that I don't have a fully-functional controller.

With the status of my current games out of the way, I want to start thinking about some of the games I want to purchase and to play next. I have the points accumulated in my inferno of productivity, and although I have more than enough games to play right now, there's always new games to look at and to add to the collection. It's like books. There are always new books to read, even though there are plenty of old books to read already. So, I'm going to suffer from the "new and shiny" syndrome and think about these four video games that I want to play next (besides the four Grand Theft Auto games. It's already a given I want to play them next):

Hearthstone

I have seen so many videos of others playing the beta version of this game, and it looks so much fun! It's a card game like Magic: The Gathering, but the characters and creatures are based off the World of Warcraft universe. I've never played World of Warcraft before, and I've only played Magic once, but this game just looks it would be great. I really want to build my own decks and to play against other people online.

Folk Tale

I saw Sips play 30 minutes of this game several weeks ago, and it looked like a really great game. It's a strategy game where you're a village of elves, or dwarfs, or something and you have to build up the town and rescue a few villagers who were kidnapped. Although I only got to see a small glimpse of it, Folk Tale looked like it had a lot of story and game play to it, and wasn't a game that was just an adventure or just building up a town. Plus, it's a little cartoon-y, and I'm all about the cartoon-y, animated games.

Knights of Pen and Paper

This game moves with the format of Dungeons and Dragons, where you create a team of characters and move through the map doing quests, all the while a Dungeon Master (an NPC in the game) reads aloud the dialogue of the bad guys and other narration. However, there aren't any dice to roll, but you do get to pick how many bad guys you want to face at a time. For example, if your quest is to kill 10 rats, then you can choose to fight all 10 at once, or you can do them two or three at time. I think there's a lot of creativity and originality to this game.

Ittle Dew

This game is very reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda series, but it's another strategy/adventure game that just looks like a ton of fun. I've seen several videos of other people playing it, and I like how the puzzles work. I also like that there's a story to it, but it's also kind of an RPG where you don't necessarily have to do things in a particular order. It helps if you do it in the right order, because you get items that help with the next world, but you don't have to do it that way.

50 Topics to Write about for the Next 50 Posts

My brain has been mush for several weeks, putting this blog in jeopardy and any other chance I have to build a substantial, professional, worthwhile online presence that could lead to something better down the road. I need to stop dragging my heels when I'm staring at the blank screen, have my mind together, and get to writing. After all, I've written several posts about blog post ideas, such as this one, this one, and this one (all taken from one piece of lead generation content, if you wondered why many of the ideas were similar). Therefore, I'm preparing ahead of time by coming up with 50 topics to write about for the next 50 posts. Of course, if something cool came up that's worth writing about in between post one and post 50, I'll write about that. This isn't meant to be a restrictive list. It's meant to help me stop wasting time, to stop thinking that I don't have anything to write about, and to prevent myself from spending six hours on a blog post. It shouldn't take me six hours to write a blog post, unless I do extensive research prior to the post. Hopefully, this list won't take me six hours to put together, but here are my 50 topics:

1. How I Would Fix Gender Pricing
2. X Empowering Songs for Kicking Ass and Taking Names
3. If I Were the CEO of AOL, What Would I Do to Make It Relevant Again?
4. Should India impose mandatory death sentences on those convicted of rape?
5. X Job Hunting Statistics You Wish You Knew Six Months Ago
6. Embracing Being a Night Owl
7. Why I'd Love to Run a Food Bank
8. 15 Things I Am Horrible at Doing, and Why
9. Will You Be My Accountability Buddy?
10. My To-Learn List
11. What I Learned About X
12. Why I'm Going to Start Taking People Out to Coffee
13. Why It's Important for Me to Excel at Poker
14. Why I Love Poker
15. How I Can Be a Better Half the Sky Ambassador
16. Why Blogging is Crucial to Your Personal Online Reputation
17. What I Would Do if I Won the Main Event of Poker
18. What reforms should be made to U.S. surveillance efforts?
19. Will the newly signed student loan rate legislation make higher education more affordable?
20. Does Bill Gates have the right ideas to reform American education?
21. Should there be an increase in the federal minimum wage?
22. What should Russia do with Edward Snowden after his one year asylum expires?
23. Are European governments too lax in their protection of the Roma?
24. Is time running out for the Israelis to make a suitable peace with the Palestinians?
25. Has Venezuela’s international profile taken a serious hit since the death of Hugo Chavez?
26. Why is South Africa supporting Robert Mugabe?
27. Is an Egyptian government led by its military better for the West than a government led by the Muslim Brotherhood?
28. Is nuclear power the key to China’s economic future?
29. Are Afghanistan’s security forces strong enough to contain the Taliban?
30. Would a government shutdown over funding Obamacare hurt the GOP in the 2014 midterms?
31. How can President Obama get his economic agenda through Congress?
32. Why You Should Hire Me to Write Your Content
33. Why You Should Hire Me to Manage Your Social Media
34. Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America Review
35. Collision 2012: Obama Vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America Review
36. Act of Congress: How America’s Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn’t Review
37. X Things I Could Do to Come Out of My Comfort Zone
38. Will attempts to unionize America’s fast food industry succeed?
39. Is America’s housing market on the road to recovery?
40. How should the Brazilian government deal with rising illegal immigration?
41. Will recent revelations about radiation at the Fukushima nuclear plant doom attempts at reviving nuclear power in Japan?
42. Do European governments need to take stronger actions against neo-Nazi movements?
43. Will the release of Hosni Mubarak make Egypt’s interim government extremely unpopular?
44. Is America’s housing market on the road to recovery?
45. Will privacy rights be a major issue in the 2014 midterm elections?
46. Is America winning the fight against obesity?
47. How can the U.S. make itself less dependent on foreign oil?
48. The First Few Steps to Creating a Wiki
49. X Video Games I Want to Play Next
50. What I Need to Be Able to Play Skyrim

I Have Better Things to Do Than This Blog Post

I know I put a picture there of a fuzzy bear being smart and getting things done, but I could have come a lot closer to that bear today. I certainly didn't spend the entire day goofing off (and I have several hours of my day still, so I may be a bit quick to judge), I definitely got my game time and my reading time in. At the very least, I am as cute as that bear.

I Don't Know if I'll Finish My Summer Reading List!

I only have one book left on my summer reading list: Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play, and summer ends in a few weeks. However, I really don't know if I'll get to it before the beginning of September. I'm currently reading Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield as part of my Amnesty International's chapter book club reading, and this book is about 600 pages long. I certainly won't finish it by the time I have to return it to the library since there's a waiting list and I won't be able to renew. I also need to read Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, which I've already missed once since I didn't realize that I only had a week to pick up a book that's on hold from the library. Lean In should be an easy read, something that I can finish in a couple of days. Harrington on Hold 'Em should be the same way. Perhaps I just need to commit and to do some power reading! Once September hits, I can work on my fall reading list, which will probably be twice as long as the summer reading list because there are so many awesome, informative books to read in the world.

Video Games are Amazing

Been playing lots and lots of Rogue Legacy. I've beaten the game once and I have two more achievements left: finding all of the blueprints and beating the game a second time (the second go-around is much harder). My original plan was to beat Rogue Legacy a second time before moving on to any other games, but I couldn't wait. I started playing Grand Theft Auto III again, and it's just as amazing as I remembered. Although I've only done two missions, I want to get all the other side quests out of the way, like collecting the cars and doing the obstacle course. Those things only get tougher as you progress through the game because the rival gangs are after you and will shoot at you as you walk or drive by.

I probably won't be buying any video games anytime soon. Don't Starve just went through an update and has an update every three weeks, so the next time I play that there will be a whole bunch of new things to try and to explore. By the time I do play it again, I have a feeling there will be about six or seven updates and all sorts of new creatures, characters, items etc. Perhaps I need to remind myself (and show all of you) the awesomeness:

Tomorrow's Friday, although I don't really deserve any Friday. I need to be doing my work and getting more things done. I have a coffee review site that I need to make happen. I need to think about the next question I'm going to answer, and what that answer is going to be. I need to do better at eating healthier. I need to come up with a new goal and action steps so that I keep everything moving in the right direction. There's a hell of a lot I need to do.

In Need of Practical Brain Stimulation

New research published today suggests that brain-stimulating activities such as writing and reading books slows down our cognitive decline as we age. The sooner you start, the better, as cognitive decline can begin as early as 27. Also, some reading and writing is better than none at all. It looks like I am in an excellent line of work, where I am easily writing 1500 words a day. I am currently working on my summer reading list, and am forcing myself to read one chapter per day so I can get through the book I am reading now (and can move on to other interesting books that I've been wanting to read for some time). Once I finish this book, I'll only have one more book left to read. Once I finish that book, I'll create my fall reading list.

About Those Findings

I would be interested in seeing if there would be difference in cognitive decline among reading paperback/hardcover books, reading eBooks, and reading articles and blog posts online, with all else being equal and accounted for. I would think there would be difference, as I would presume that someone using an electronic device to read something will be much more prone to distractions than someone with an actual book. I mean, email notifications don't pop up in those hardcovers. I also think that because of the versatility, those reading on the electronic devices might also be much more likely to multitask, which has to affect our brains somehow. Then again, I am just taking a few wild guesses here. I am not an expert in neurology.

Speaking of Brain-Stimulating Activities

I need a lot of good ideas for a lot of things coming up, primarily good content and article ideas for my clients, my blog, Stirring Media, and Gateway Grounds. The end of the month is coming up, which is when I put together my editorial calendar for the next month, or several months, depending on how often the blog publishes. You need to do these things ahead of time, so that you aren't stuck the day of or the day before trying to come up with something good to write about.

One of the most pressing ideas is content for Insight2Incite Magazine, a St. Louis up-and-coming publication. They need a lot of help, and one of my ideas for creating content on a regular basis is start a column of my own (I know that the last thing I need in my life is more commitments and more stuff to write, but this is a good opportunity to build my personal brand.) I have no idea what this column would be about, which is where I need to spend my time first. I have other options and ideas on how to fill in what's missing, but the column takes precedence since I have the most control over the column.

Rogue Legacy is So Awesome!

In the meantime of all this important thinking stuff, I think I will play some Rogue Legacy. It's a really awesome game that you should get if you haven't already. It's available on Steam, or you can get it directly from them for the PC. It's a pretty straightforward game, but what makes it fun is that every time you play is different. You have a choice of characters, but your choices are always different because different classes and abilities are offered to you. The castle changes every single time you die, so it's not about memorizing the level but on memorizing how the enemies attack and on how rooms are set up. I seems easy, but it's not. Fortunately, you get stronger each time you die.

5 Top Priorities in Life Right Now

For today's SuperBetter quest, I am to list the three to five top priorities in my life right now. There are things that, today, are the most important to me in the world. So, I'm doing that, and here are my top five life priorities right now, in no particular order.

My Business

This is a top priority (and the top time suck) in my life right now, if not the number one priority. Every day, I am doing one thing to continue moving Stirring Media into the direction of a digital media company. I finally ordered a few roasts from my affiliate partners yesterday, so once those come in and are reviewed, I can finally open up that avenue for income. My goal is to be ready for August 22. There's an amazing networking event happening that night, and I've already bought my ticket, so my plan is to make that the first night that I network and present Stirring Media in person as a digital media company.

Eating Healthy

Naturally, this is a huge priority right now since I am doing my daily quests to get better at eating healthier and to knock two things off of my life goals/bucket list. I am currently focusing on abstaining from eating out for an entire month (eating out includes restaurants and fast food as well as frozen dinners. It does not include buying a coffee). I am a week into that one and still going strong. I have tons of food ready to be made into meals, and it's going to be delicious and exciting. Once this month is over, I'm going to then focus on going vegan for an entire year. Part of the reason why I didn't commit to both at the same time is that I needed to eat all sorts of meat and dairy products that were already in the house. Since they will be gone by the time the month is over, going vegan will be easier and I won't have to waste food to do it.

Human Rights Activism

Twice a month, I meet with the St. Louis Amnesty International chapter to plan events, to write letters on issues, and to build awareness for human rights issues. Three times a week, I write a blog post for the chapter's blog covering chapter activities, the latest human rights news, and tips and tricks on how other human rights activists can be more effective activists. I am also currently reading the book Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor (It's a good read, but not an easy one). My human rights activism is my way of helping others and giving back to the community. It also can be very marginalized and stigmatized work, which means that it's work that needs to be done but that few people want to take the initiative to do.

Poker

Poker is a definite life priority, as once I finish my current goals in SuperBetter I'm going to set a few quests, bad guys, and power ups to help me get better at poker and to commit to building my bankroll. Once I finish the healthy eating bucket list goals, I'm going to work on the poker ones on the list. I think these goals will take the longest and the most work to accomplish, as no one gets to play in Bobby's Room or win a World Series of Poker bracelet over night. That level of skill takes a lot of time and discipline.

Reading Books

I'm making it a point to finish my summer reading list and to continue reading books on topics that interest me. It's been a LONG time since I've read for fun regularly. I am pushing myself to finish Pathologies of Power, since it is a long book that's very dense and somewhat long-winded. The content is interesting, but the book is designed to be a college textbook and not a good old non-fiction book that you can get through in a few days. I have tons of books waiting for me, and I'm pushing myself to get through this book so I can read all my other books. There are so many things I need to learn!

Bonus Priority: Playing Rogue Legacy!

As I've been saying this whole week, I finally purchased Rogue Legacy today! I redeemed my points and was able to get it, as well as The Cave and the Grand Theft Auto pack. I was able to get three games instead of two (well seven games instead of five since the pack came with five games) because the pack had an additional discount today on Steam. This made enough room in the budget for one more game. I have enough gaming to last me the rest of the year. So, I'm going to get to work on that gaming and play more Rogue Legacy!

Anyone Know Anything About this Wiki Stuff?

Last night, I was looking at the Rogue Legacy Wiki and the Plants Vs. Zombies 2 Wiki when I wondered if there were some awesome wikis on things other than video games. Are there wikis on politics and/or current events, so that it's a lot easier to keep up with what's happening, to sort fact from fiction, and to learn the back story behind what's happening? Are there some good wikis on business and/or marketing topics, so there's something neutral and definitive on how marketing is changing and how to use those marketing tactics effectively? I did a little bit of research, and I didn't find much at all. Most of the wikis are about video games, TV shows, movie franchises, and other pop culture things. Although, the coffee wiki only has over 284 pages. It could use a lot more.

I Want to Create Wikis Now

I want to fill in all those gaps, but I have no idea how! It's one of those things where the idea is lofty and complicated, so it needs to be boiled down. It needs to be taken one page at a time. What you probably have to do is come up with your Wiki topic, and then come up with the first 20 pages that you are going to create. As my former business coach suggested, what you have to do is make it incredibly simple. Boil the idea down into 10 action steps, and then it's not so difficult and overwhelming.

I also want to become one of those editors/contributors to Wikipedia. There's the Wikiproject Globalization that needs lots of help. If anyone needs a resume boost and wants to position themselves as having expertise as well as great communication skills, then I think becoming a Wikipedia contributor and/or part of Wikipedia project is a good idea.

Has anyone tried to do the wiki about wikis? It would be a wikiwiki :)

Full of Ideas

My fiance told me today that I am full of ideas and that I am difficult to pin down because I am very creative person who just shoot from one idea to the next. My former business coach would agree with this statement, except that she would push me to choose just one idea and to stick with that. This is very practical advice, and its advice I'm struggling to follow as I commit to the coffee review site and turning that into something special. My fiance says that because I am a lateral thinker, choosing one idea and sticking with it is nearly impossible. It's almost always going to be five ideas going at once. I wish there was a way I could just do everything in the whole wide world and help the world and all that good stuff. I wish I could do all the things that I wanted so I wouldn't have to choose; I could do it all while doing what suits my fancy.

I Looked Up Lateral Thinking

And this is what I found on the Wikipedia page:

Random Entry Idea Generating Tool: The thinker chooses an object at random, or a noun from a dictionary, and associates it with the area they are thinking about. For example, if they are thinking about how to improve a website, an object chosen at random from the environment around them might be a fax machine. A fax machine transmits images over the phone to paper. Fax machines are becoming rare. People send faxes directly to phone numbers. Perhaps this could suggest a new way to embed the website's content in emails and other sites.

Does anyone if this random entry idea generating tool exists somewhere (I Googled the search term "random entry idea generating tool and just go more about the idea and about the Edward de Bono guy)? Is there a website where I can type in my problem, and then it gives me a random item, and then I can come up with a solution based on that item? That would be so cool and if this website exists, then it would be the coolest tool ever. Is there a way I can make it if it doesn't already exist?

I also like the idea of solving global problems with fax machines. Is there a way to send faxes to a mobile number? You know, kind of like a text except you can fax a document, photo, or something larger? This might be very helpful in developing nations, where many people might have mobile phone access, but those mobile phones aren't necessarily smart phones. This method could also circumvent the need to connect to the Internet, where sending something via email or posting it online could still be difficult to access in developing nations, whether it's accessed with a smart phone or a computer (because Internet connection isn't as consistent and/or prevalent).

I'm Back into Playing Poker

And Other Things that Are Happening This Week

I feel like I don't have one big thing to talk about today, but several little things. As I write this and prepare to do this blog post as a weekly roundup, I also feel like this post will also end up as one big post about how a lot has happened this week and there's no way I can talk about just one single thing. I think all those previous words are just a long-winded way of saying I am very crazy.

About the Poker

I have played four nine-top sit-n-gos over the past week. I have made the money in three of them, and in all four of them, I got my money in with the best hand only be to be outdrawn by my opponent. It happens. It's only a matter of time before my hand holds up and that I win a sit-n-go. I've won them before, don't get me wrong. It's just that the trend for me lately has been to do real well, only to lose it all (or most of it) in one key hand where my opponent gets there by the river. It's really the reason why I haven't taken a first place yet. I haven't made any huge mistakes. I will play three more sit-n-gos tomorrow and see if this changes.

I Need a Dining Table

My next quest for SuperBetter is to commit to eating at a table for the next two days. No eating in front of the television. No eating in front of the computer. No eating in the car (although I don't have a car so I can't ever do this). I'm supposed to help myself by making this table more inviting. The only problem is that I don't own such a table, unless I want to eat outside in the summer heat, quite possibly with Oden.

There is some decent patio furniture on our porch that was here when we moved in, which I could theoretically clean up, move into the apartment, and use as a dining table. The only problem with that is that I don't have anywhere to put it. There's no room for it. I might have room for it in my office if I didn't have half an l-shaped desk (kind of a long story on that one). There's also no place to make more inviting as each room has a computer and/or television. I could eat in the bedroom, but that's kind of awkward. I don't know what I'm going to do for this quest.

Two More Days Until I Can Redeem Points for Video Games!

I am so excited! I really want to get Rogue Legacy, and I saw on Steam that there is a Grand Theft Auto pack that has four or five of the Grand Theft Auto games! I have a $30 budget for the video games, and those two things might take up the whole budget. That's okay though, because that will be five or six new games that I can play, and that's plenty to keep me occupied. I've been really productive this week too, earning about 12 points each day. This will put me in a good position to continue for my file cabinet after I redeem the points. I think I'll break even once the week is over, the points are tallied, and I redeem the 60 points needed to purchase video games. I might even be about 10 points ahead of last week. I'll take it for the sake of a few new games, especially since Rogue Legacy and Grand Theft Auto are awesome!

OMG, I'm Going to Go Hog Wild on Video Games

I know I'm supposed to be working toward that file cabinet, that really awesome $25, $50 file cabinet that's going to cost me 300 productivity points to get (see, I redeem the points so that I can spend the money on the file cabinet. The idea is that by earning 300 points, I would have also earned enough money to reward myself for my hard work. It's also good to set goals, and with these sort of goals, I can be conscious of them and save the money as well. Plus, I really need that file cabinet. I've been putting it off for about a year. I probably could have bought it earlier, but never made any solid plans to buy it and to get it back to my apartment.

But, Steam is Having a Summer Sale

Steam is having a summer sale! So, tons of games are anywhere from 30% to 85% off! There are now TONS of games that I want to get, not only because they are on sale but also I now know of games that I didn't know existed. For example, I can get several of the Grand Theft Auto series for maybe $15 or $20. I can also get really cool games like Rogue Legacy, Trine 2, Spore, Orcs Must Die 2, The Cave, Evoland (this list could go on FOREVER). Since Steam saves games to the cloud and delivers them digitally, I don't have to worry about them running out. However, I do need to worry about the prices going back up once the sale is over.

I already had to take a huge hit to my points because I needed to eat out. I recovered most of those points last week, but I still have less than half of the required 300 points. It will cost half of what I have to buy one video game, and the summer sale ends in one week. Perhaps I could consider this extra motivation to get as many points as possible over this week. If I get at least 11 points each day (including today), then I could 77 by Sunday, which would allow me to get a couple of games with the $20 budget allotted in the reward.

Decisions, decisions. I need to sort out my priorities over what to do with the points, as well as what games I want to play first. The latter will be in a future post. But, I do need a file cabinet really bad. My files have been piles on the floor ever since I brought them home when I moved offices.

By the way, if anyone else if on Steam, then please add me as a friend! You can find me under my (not so) secret identity, Pocket Aces Agnes!

So, About that Meal Plan...

I still haven't finished it (I've started), so I've turned it into a point and I'll get it done tomorrow/today (I am writing this after midnight). I really don't need more to do, but I'm going to keep forgetting about it or pushing it back if I don't turn it into a point. So, I've turned it into a point, which are badly needed now so I can get video games and/or a file cabinet. I also need to stay productive and to stick toward my goals. Right now, I'm not doing too good a job with my SuperBetter project, primarily since there is meat in the apartment again and I need to get rid of all the meat. I will be better! Things will be awesome!