So last weekend was a 3 day weekend. An old habit came creeping back: Diablo II. I have camcorder footage of me opening that at my birthday party from 2001, and sarcastically saying "Well, it was nice knowing you all!" I already knew first-hand how amazingly time consuming and addictive the first Diablo game was, and knew it was certainly the same for this one. I think I did learn how to pace myself a little better this time around. Still, they're the kind of games where you keep going and going, and find yourself saying "OK, I'll clear this level, then save and quit. Hmm, maybe I'll move my character back to the town and sell stuff there. OK, I think I'll move back to the beginning of the next level and save THERE. Just after I kill the monsters in that room. OK, now...oh shit, it's 4 o'clock in the morning!"

But when I factor in the cost of buying the game with the amount of time spent on them, it means I've been playing those games for less than pennies per hour. Not a bad investment, at least financially.

I'm not sure what to think of it all. In some way, I'm glad I had a nice "unproductive" weekend. Then other times I tell myself that I want to stay away from games. I think a lot of the time people use them as a substitute for accomplishing things in real life. Working for a long time at winning a game does give you the psychological satisfaction of accomplishing something. But especially from a Satanist's stand point -- when it comes to the question of "What have I accomplished this week?", having something tangible to show (learning more stuff about your musical instrument, improving your previous record in an athletic activity, etc.) seems to be much better than saying "This week I, uh...got my computer game character up to level 30".

Or maybe I'm sounding like a hypocrite here. :)

[Please note: the next section is about my co-workers. For those of you reading who are relatively new to my diary, see this old entry for the background story and cast of characters.]

Speaking of vacations and productivity:

Kole, my manager, was out for a long time. She took Thursday and Friday off for vacation, and Tuesday as well. Monday was a holiday for us, so the office was closed anyway. Additionally, her little princess Molly was out for several days near the end of last week. It wasn't until Wednesday this week that we got an email concering Molly's absence. Kole said "Craig informed me that Molly will be out for several weeks." Why? I heard through 2nd and 3rd hand information that it's something medical, but I'm going to prentend to Kole and Craid that I didn't hear that detail. I'm not going to ask them for details; if they want to let me know, they'll let me know.

So what was it like with the both of them gone? I swear, productivity was us. One of my friends said she expected it was going to be a case of "When the cat's away, the mice play." I said "No, it was more like: when the cat's away, the mice get more shit done." I can't remember the last time I was so productive and liking work this much. Now that I'm starting this new project, and doing more work in the secluded server room and not my desk, it's been fun. And I don't have that Molly bitch spying on me. Though I did put up a sign in my cube that says "What are you glaring at? Keep walking!"

Our guess was that Molly was out because of her alleged carpel tunnel. We had guesses of where she got that from. Daisy says it was from always carrying her water bottle as she pointlessly walks around the office. My theory is that it's from patting herself on her own back too hard and too often.