Watching my coworker play The Old Republic throughout a six-hour shift really gave me the itch to get back into Star Trek Online. Now that it's gone free-to-play, that productivity-killing decision was all the easier to make. And man! does that game only barely resemble the one I left two Augusts ago. Once I'd installed it yesterday and downloaded the .5 gig patch, in rolled the accolades that come with any long time away from that game. I haven't yet done much more than fly back to Earth Spacedock and take on a few of the missions designed to introduce players to the new mechanics. Until the server comes back up, I'll be reading for my U.S. History course. Once it's back, I'm going to Mars to check out the new cruiser they're giving out to celebrate the game's two-year anniversary. That is actually the thing that got me to check back into the game. And speaking of ships, the game seems to acknowledge that I have other ships (which I do), but I've not yet figured out how to get them back. I apparently have a lot left to learn about the new STO, so either I'm in for some fun times, or I'm going to regret not unsubscribing to Cryptic e-mails sooner.

On an unrelated note, I got a new phone recently - a Windows Phone. I like it. I get achievement points for playing sudoku.