Between our dog being sick and applying to grad school, I still have a lot of time for gaming.  I'm now hoping/planning to find a semi-permanent position at Piggly Wiggly, down the road, so I'm not broke.  Money helps grease all the wheels in life, when applied correctly, but can't be a substitute for doing something for yourself.

Hoping that everything works out in the long run for me; in the short run it's not been going as planned.  As long as I eat every day (usually multiple times a day), it will be difficult to complain too much.

I've played a number of games lately: Alien Swarm, Transformice (a flash game), and a few other, smaller game demos on Steam.

I'm surprised by Steam.  When I originally looked at the service, I thought it offered me nothing, because I strongly prefer to buy things in a store.  I get a social experience in doing so, usually talking to another game enthusiast who is able to basically advertise products for free.  I also like being able to browse, and I further like having a physical disk which I can hold onto in a library of my own for years (I still play old games like Lords of Magic once in a blue moon).

The thing I forgot about Steam was that I only use it when I want to.  I can buy games super-cheap when they're on sale, which happens often enough to let it start on start up.  As much as I like the in-store experience, when I can pick up a game for as little as 25% of the normal cost, it's difficult not to use an online service.