Kate's guide to cheap video game thrills

Until recently, Paul and I operated on a much less restricted budget; that is, we thought nothing of buying a new video game once in a while (especially if they were on sale!). Now that we've gone into one-income mode, our entertainment budget has dwindled to next to nothing. We've had to become a lot more creative about how we satisfy our inner geeks.

I know we're not the only one living on the cheap right now. Plenty of sites have great tips for free or low-cost entertainment, such as going to museums on free or pay-what-you-can days. (This guide is a good starting place.) But there are quite a few ways that bored geeks can get a cheap video game fix, too.

It's important you notice I said "cheap," not "free." That's because there aren't too many ways to keep your budget truly at zero without leeching bandwidth from your neighbors or pirating things online. And since those aren't kosher, we're not going to talk about them here. Instead, these are ways to get a lot of bang for your buck:

• When buying games, consider their replay value. I've bought plenty of games through the years that were fun to play the first time ... and only the first time. One franchise that comes to mind is the Pokemon series. After you beat it, the biggest thrill is "collecting them all" – and that can be tedious. It's all subjective, but a couple of franchises I could play over and over include the Castlevania series and the Super Mario series.
  
• Get an console network subscription. Xbox Live Gold is $9 a month; the Playstation Network and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (for both the Wii and the DS) are free. These subscriptions allow you to play with others remotely. Xbox Live makes up for its $9 fee; the system runs smoothly with few connection issues. I've found Wi-Fi for the DS to be much spottier ... but then again, it's free.
• Choose single-cartridge multiplayer games if you have more than one controller or handheld. Among DS games, Tetris DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and New Super Mario Bros. have single-cartridge play. But make sure you check the box for details; other handheld games, such as Animal Crossing: Wild World and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl require each player to have their own cartridge to play. It's easier to pick out multiplayer console games, but if you need some hand-holding, try Wii Sports, Mario Party, Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
• Check for used games. A lot of websites, including eBay and Gamestop.com, sell used games at decent prices – sometimes lower than new-game prices at big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart or Best Buy. Just make sure you add in the cost of shipping before you snag that "great deal" online. If you're into instant gratification, you can buy used games at Gamestop stores as well as locally run game/movie resellers.
• Trade games, and I'm not just talking about with friends. There are plenty of online forums in which members can trade games already in their collection, which means you're essentially paying only for shipping. This can be a much better deal than selling your old games online or to a reseller. One caveat if you're trading games online: Be careful about the people with whom you trade. Use common sense.
• If you knock out games quickly, try Gamefly, which works much the same way as Netflix does for DVDs. The upsides are that the selection is good and the monthly fee is fairly low ($16/month to have one game out at a time, $22/month for two games) – certainly cheaper than buying even one game a month. But there are a couple of big downsides. One is shipping time, which is dictated by how close you live to one of their warehouses. Another is that you lose value if you play games slowly (like me!). While you can knock out a Netflix movie in two hours and pop it back in the mail, many video games have play times between 10 and 20 hours, which translates into fewer games a month unless you sit on your butt all weekend to finish a game.
• If you're into PC games, look for ones with no monthly subscription. A few of these games, such as Maplestory, are free to download and free to play. Other games, such as Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4, are free to play but require the initial purchase of the game.
• And here's a bonus tip: For movies, check out Netflix for its instant queue feature. My Netflix subscription is $9 a month – which allows me to have one DVD out at a time – and most Netflix subscriptions come with instant queue. More than 12,000 movies and TV shows are available to stream over your computer, and if you own an Xbox, TiVo HD DVR, or some Internet-connected Blu-Ray players, you can stream them to your TV as well. We actually get more use out of instant queue than the DVD service.
  

If you know of any other free or cheap geek thrills, post them in the comments. I'm always looking for new ways of getting my fix for less.

25 Random Things About Me (because I'm too late to re-meme this on Facebook)

I was tagged on Facebook with the "25 Random Things About Me" meme and put my list together while I couldn't sleep last night. My original intent was to post it over there, but I think I was tagged so late that the bandwagon probably can't handle one more person. So I'll stick it here instead. I tried to keep it short.

If you're on my friends list and posted over there, I've read it ... but I think you should repost to your blogs. And if you haven't put one together yet, please do. It's more fun than you think it will be. :)

Now, without further ado:

25 Random Things About Me

1. I have an extra bone near my Achilles tendons in both feet. I’m lacking part of a bone in my wrist to make up for it.
   
2. I love coffee, but I’m fiendish about tea.
   
3. Music is a vital part of my life. When I’m not listening, I’m playing or singing.
   
4. Before I go to bed, I play video games or work a crossword puzzle. Every night.
   
5. Paul and my girls, Fred-Kitty and Joe-Kitty, make all this worth it.
   
6. I’m addicted to cartoons; Spongebob is my crack.
   
7. I’ve suddenly developed an affinity for black olives and onions.
   
8. However, mushrooms are still a no-go. I read Oliver’s Picnic too many times as a child.
   
9. I listen to Coast to Coast AM. And I believe.
   
10. I am deeply, personally affected by pain and death. This makes it hard to work in news.
    
11. I won a Crayola state crayon-naming contest with my entry, Tennesienna. It’s framed on my mantel.
    
12. My Myers-Briggs personality type is INFJ (The Protector). (Free test here.)
    
13. I was diagnosed with major depression in 2001 and with bipolar type II in 2005. I am not at all ashamed of this. Fight the stigma.
    
14. I drive a Saturn Vue Green Line hybrid. It’s really more of a closet on wheels.
    
15. I’m my own toughest critic …
    
16. ... Which means I’m partly to blame for my horrible self-esteem.
    
17. I’ve had insomnia since I got married. I don’t think they’re connected.
    
18. I compulsively buy lipstick. It’s my shop therapy.
    
19. I talk in my sleep.
    
20. I write well but barely can hold a verbal conversation.
    
21. Because of this, I rarely answer my phone and only return urgent voice mails. E-mail, IM or text me. I get all three on my phone … and I usually reply.
    
22. My most crippling Scrabble defeat was in 1999, when I fell to a well-placed “vapid.”
    
23. I can’t roll my R’s but still made A’s in my college Spanish classes.
    
24. I lived in Memphis for 28 years. I miss a lot of little things.
    
25. I’ve lived in Charleston for five months and every day still seems like vacation.
    

Now you.

Inauguration gaff(e)

Have you guys seen the Gigapan pic of the Obama inauguration? Pretty darn cool. To demonstrate what's visible, the front page of Gigapan.org has a zoom on some Secret Service dudes on a rooftop Far, Far Away. Some eagle-eyed folks have spotted this punchline-less joke in the pic:



I hear the joke goes "Two stagehands walk into a bar. ... The second one had gaff tape."

I'll be honest: I don't get it. I know, I know, a joke loses some of its glory when you have to explain it. But I'm open to explanations ... or a better punchline if you've got one. :)

Tomorrow: ACES regional conference, a chance to get together with other copy editors and brandish red pens with wild abandon. I'm attending a track called "Life After Newspapers." (Surprise, surprise -- it appears I'm not the only one in my situation.) I'm just bummed I can't find my Weapon of Mass Correction mug!

Not nervous anymore! :D

Thanks bunches to all the people who saw my away message asking for "happy energy" and sent me notes of support. I really, really appreciated it. Here's one note I got on my phone (and I reprint it here because the guy hates blogs and will never see it):

I was going to pick you up some happy energy, but Convenient only had morose energy and apathetic energy. Well, the guy said they had apathetic energy, but I couldn't see it anywhere.

Hey, any other Ohioans out there who can dish on Convenient? That's the most generic name for a convenience store ever! And it's a chain of generically named stores! When I lived in Memphis, there was a shopping center near me whose tenants included "Cafe," "Podiatrist," and "Pianos." Nearby was a smaller center with "Nails" and "Insurance." So much for branding.

I asked for the blast of happy energy because I was nervous about my lung recheck today, but it went fine. The diagnosis was bronchitis and "uncontrolled asthma" (which isn't true; it is controlled when I'm not sick!). They set up an appointment for Friday with a pulmonologist for a lung function test and a chest x-ray, but I'm not nervous at all about those. I've had both done before and they're painless. Then it's back to my regular doc in two weeks to hand over the last remaining contents of my wallet. The whole reason I put off going to the doctor was because we're on one income. Big mistake!

No, I'm not going to stop playing Rock Band. You know that generic Fall Out Boy song that sounds like all the other Fall Out Boy songs and has the line: "Sing until your lungs give out"? Yeah, that's me. In all seriousness, I'm hoarse (neeeeigh!) and can't do many songs in a row -- and I'm rarely hitting 100s right now -- but I'm still hitting in the high 90s on Expert. So hit me up if you want to play.

Oh, I'm on my nebulizer indefinitely, which means I get to keep breathing through a tube three times a day. I think I've already heard all the salty one-liners related to that, but by golly, keep 'em coming.

On going out and staying in touch

Tonight was the first night in more than a week that I've spent more than half an hour outside my apartment. In fact, I went a week straight without seeing the light of day. My best excuse is that my lungs have started a revolt that's put me on antibiotics, narcotics, and a nebulizer three times a day. My second-best excuse is that I'm depressed as hell. ... And it's not even a good reason to be depressed. Plenty of people breathe through a tube more than three times a day without complaining.

I'm great at kicking myself when I'm down.

Anyway, tonight was the last night of the Charleston Comedy Festival, so Paul dragged me to a show. We had half an hour to kill before the doors opened, so we booked it a few blocks away to Starbucks. And that's where I saw Seth. Or at least I think it was Seth. We made eye contact, then he took his grande whatever to the condiments station, and that was that. I saw him again as I was leaving but didn't have the guts to stop and say hello.

Memphis is the biggest small town on Earth. If you've lived there, you know what I mean. You run into people you know everywhere you go. I've left Memphis ... but that mentality has stuck around. I swear I've seen a dozen people I know since I've been here. And deep down, I know there's a 99.9 percent chance it isn't them, and that sort of makes me sad ... but it's sort of a relief, too. I can be a lot choosier about the people with whom I stay in touch. (Oh, I guess I should mention that I would stay in touch with Seth if I knew how to reach him anymore. It's not like I was avoiding him or anything, just too shy to brave a case of mistaken identity.)

It's on my list of resolutions to answer my phone more often, listen to voice mail, and return more phone calls. Not exactly my strong suit, as you know if you've ever tried to call me. But it's a work in progress. We'll see how it goes.

I say the word "poo" 11 times in this post

Let me preface this post with a PG rating because it's about Doggy Poo. I don't mean the stuff that comes out the back hatch of your Jack Russell Terrier, but rather a movie called Doggy Poo. So if you're offended by the word "poo," or the word "doggy," or the concept of movies, or anything that actually does come out the back hatch of a Jack Russell Terrier, then scurry along until I have a more appropriate post.

Now that I've weeded out, oh, absolutely none of my audience, let me set this up a bit. Mom and Dad came to Charleston the day after Christmas bearing gifts — including a six-month subscription to Netflix. Our only experience with mail-order media was a blessedly short subscription to Gamefly, which I didn't blog about then and probably won't blog about later. Just trust me when I say it sucked.

Regarding Netflix, I wasn't so much interested in the movies-by-mail aspect, but rather the Instant Queue feature that lets me stream something like 12,000 titles through my Xbox 360. And it's free in conjunction with my regular Netflix membership. As of right now, I have seven movies in my mail queue (not including Stranger Than Fiction, which has been sitting on my coffee table for two days). On the other hand, my instant queue is up to 26 titles, and I've convinced myself that if they stay there long enough, I'll watch them all. (Okay, I haven't really convinced myself of that, but it sounds good.)

I've got to admit I'm fascinated by the choice of movies available for instant viewing. Some of them are pretty obvious: Pirates of the Caribbean, Ratatouille, classics such as Singin' in the Rain and TV series such as "Beverly Hills, 90210" (which, ahem, I've never seen). But there are plenty of really obscure titles also available for streaming, including the short-lived "Dilbert" TV series and the even shorter-lived, live-action series based on "The Tick." (I love Patrick Warburton!)

We've now reached a logical point in this post for me to make a confession: I have a relatively short attention span. I don't have ADD or anything like that, but I get antsy at the thought of sitting still for a two-hour movie — or any hour-long program that's not "NCIS." So most of the movies in my Instant Queue — Earth Girls are Easy (100 min.), Across the Universe (133 min.), Ladyhawke (120 min.) and Dan in Real Life (98 min.) — are going to sit there until I delete them or get the flu and have nothing better to do. Corpse Bride and Superman Doomsday each weigh in at 77 minutes, so I guess they have a chance.

We found Doggy Poo on a user-created list of movies "for the supremely baked." (We don't indulge in that, but the list was funny anyway.) Also on the list: The Cheese Nun and The Life of Birds. Supremely baked, indeed.

The 33-minute Doggy Poo is a dubbed Korean stop-motion film about a piece of, well, doggy poo that's unceremoniously dropped on the side of the road. He spends his days searching for the meaning of life ... and gains valuable insight from a pile of dirt and a passing leaf. The poo cries a lot. And I mean a lot. He's kind of whiny, as far as poos go.

It does have a happy ending, which I'm not going to spoil on the off-chance that you, too, have 33 minutes of your life to spare watching sad poo grapple with life's tough questions.

If you don't have Instant Queue, you're still in luck: The DVD also includes a behind-the-scenes documentary, a music video and alternate endings. The only alternate ending I can imagine involves the bottom of somebody's shoe, and I have no idea what a sad-poo music video would be like.

So there you have it. My movie review has nothing on De's new Best Picture Derby project, but then again, he can't say he spent his evening watching a movie about poo. Hmph.

Happy New Year

Happy 2009, you lovely folks. I rang in the new year chillin' at home with Carrie and Paul -- and that was just fine with me. Paul's parents come in town tomorrow. After all the guests are on their merry way, I'll be back in the blogging groove.

Sending much love to everyone far away. <3