age difference

Current Mood: monetarily conflicted

Financially, I've been trying super hard to save money and budget really well this semester. I've quit my job and haven't had as much student loan funds, plus it's always good to work on saving money. One of my key...reforms, if you will, is not eating out in lieu of buying better groceries and eating almost entirely in house, cooking more, and saving my rare dining experiences outside the apartment for special occasions like date nights with Jenny and gatherings with the Ship of Fools. Eating in this manner has an added benefit of being (somewhat) healthier.

This, of course, means now I see a ton of things I want to buy. Two of my biggest contenders:

1. Tickets to the Purdue vs. Ohio State game (October 6th)

This is a matchup of two favorite Big Ten Conference teams, both of which I root for. I of course go to Purdue, but I have many close friends at OSU, it's an Ohio team, and there's a lot of history and that sort of thing there. Last time they played here, I was a wee freshman, and we won (something I made sure to mention to Eric). I still have the program, and remember the halftime show that featured music by Queen. How can we top that? This year, both of our teams *should* be undefeated (especially if we stop first-time-in-school-history-starting-0 and 4 Notre Dame this weekend). I've not been to a Purdue football game since Freshman year because - here comes some irony - I worked on weekends to try to make more time for homework. Perhaps best of all, this time our halftime show will be a presentation of some NASA gifts, and the music is selections from The Right Stuff and Apollo 13, two of my favorite films. October is shaping up to be a sweet ass month.

Still, I don't have student tickets. All the other tickets are sold out, so I'm going to have to eBay or StubHub or Facebook marketplace these tickets, which is gonna cost a lot (like, half the cost of season tickets). 1 game? I will probably bite the bullet and get tickets- this is going to be an incredible game.

Edit: people on Facebook are pitting people against each other, and I'm not going to play that game. I heard today Purdue may be releasing some reserve tickets at the last minute, and John suggested I get some scalped tickets before the game. The plot thickens...

[Tangentially related via football: I am so pissed at Donovan McNabb for doing so well this week. I did not play him on my fantasy team, but I still won without him.]

2. Computer upgrades

When I say "upgrades", I think what I really mean is a new computer. Current Roommate Alex has gone completely gay for BioShock and I can't say I blame him. This was made possible by his new computer purchase, which upstaged my recent monitor/mouse/mp3 player upgrade, and even Other Roommate John's new computer purchase (mainly because Alex paid for it himself - John did not). I should stress that I'm content with my current computer - I don't really game on it much anymore, at least not anything current, and my new upgrades make things more comfortable. And I would hate to think that I only want to "keep up with the Joneses", so to speak.

Nay, this burning desire for new computer parts came from my inquiry into the requirements to run BioShock on my own machine. Last time I was seriously playing computer games (read: WoW), I had to turn all the graphics down to the bare bones minimum, and even then I crashed regularly in the larger zones/cities. Alex informed me playing BioShock on my current computer (the guts are "ancient", dating back to 2004 when I got my then state of the art Dell for my first year of Purdue) would roughly equate to playing...um...Halo 3 on a single line graphing calculator. I've got half a gig of RAM (his has 2), my video card is the slowest of the 5 in the house (yes, we have 5 - that includes John's old and new computer, and Alex's old and new one), and my processor is outdated in that it's not dual core or even quad core. My printer has long since died, and I've still got a floppy drive on the tower. The power source rattles and only stays quiet with a high-tech sound dampening device that carefully manages adequate tension between the case and the frame (read: a balled up sock).

I hate to feel like such a materialist. I already have a personal PC in my bedroom that works perfectly fine, does what I *need* it to (internet, school papers and projects, ancient games that are still amazing, jukebox duties, and movies). I don't *need* any upgrades. I already have a computer some people would kill to have.

But...but...BioShock! WoW! Spore! Starcraft II and other games!!

Alex told me that financially, it'd be more cost effective to buy a new computer rather than upgrade the guts. Seeing other computers in the house blow mine out of the water makes me feel inadequate, but I think the financial reality is that I just have to suck it up. New computer isn't gonna happen anytime soon, SC II or not. Realistically, I think a new computer would make a great "you're finally done with school" gift to myself for (hopefully) landing a real job.


I guess that means I need to play a little less video games, and study a little more.