The Professional Gamer

Hi everyone, Proteus here.  In the midst of our rush to publish our coverage of NDK, I wanted to discuss something else with you.  I have not posted much to the website (apart from the podcast) for a considerable period of time.  Largely this is due to the time commitments that I have outside of playing games and writing about geekiness.  For a little background, I’m an engineer working a full-time job (sometimes with well more than the typical 40 hours per week) and a substantial commute.  I have numerous activities that I enjoy, but only a limited amount of time per week that I can spend on them.  And that is the essence of this new column that I am launching today: how can a professional still find time for his or her various hobbies.

In this column, I will discuss the various choices in terms of leisure time that I make during the week, in hopes that my decisions and behavior may provide some insight to other geeks.  I find that most of the geeks my age struggle with similar problems.  Due to a lack of free time, we want to do the things that will give us the greatest amount of enjoyment.  In my case, this often leaves me somewhat disillusioned with games.  I get so overwhelmed trying to make a decision about what to do, that I tend to run out of time to actually do it.  For the next few weeks, I am going to make an effort to spend as little time as possible deciding what to do and spend more time enjoying myself.  I’ll report back on the results as I have time.  Afterall, playing games typically trumps writing about games in my fun-o-meter.