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My roommates asked me recently if graduates focusing in game studies can claim videogames as an expense on their taxes.  It is a good question. I've certainly claimed textbooks before, and I've certainly bought a lot of games, and spent a lot of time doing some rather close analyses of them. It's especially of interest to me of late because I recently made a rather expensive purchase: I bought a PlayStation 3.

And my reasoning--or at least my justification--was based mostly on academic reasons.  Considering what I'm interested in in game studies, the PS3 has the most attractive exclusive games: Uncharted for the cinematic storytelling, Heavy Rain for the same, the procedural rhetoric of Tokyo Jungle, Ni No Kuni, which looks absolutely beautiful, some Atlus RPGs, for their game mechanics... It was definitely a purchase made with the question "what do I need to be aware of in game studies?" in mind.

The unfortunate consequence is that, as a direct result of purchasing the thing, I've staying up relatively late.  (On the upside, I've unlocked the Pig class in Tokyo Jungle.)  And because of meetings this week (which seem to keep popping up despite my personal commitment to hermitdom), I've had to be on campus very early. The result is that I'm in sort of a fugue state.  And, being an academic, my first response is to analyze it. I can still think, I can still do my readings and writings and so forth, but it all takes a lot longer.  And there's a weird pause whenever anyone tries to get my attention, though once I'm in the conversation, I'm mostly fine. But at the same time, I get the feeling I'm saying things slightly differently, that the thoughts are coming out a little more confused than usual, that I'm saying a bit more than I would otherwise.  Maybe that's why I don't have many "personal" tagged posts these days--I was sleeping too well to be un-circumspect.

Part of what's been keeping up and trying to focus is a proposal for a book chapter, which forced me down some scholarly channels this month that were a little upstream. I don't know if it'll be accepted--I feel I went a little too light on the sources--but I think the idea I came up with is worth writing, even I need to do it on a different venue.  For a little taste, it was going to be a paper that combined a close study of Catherine for the Xbox 360 and Planescape: Torment for the PC, one of my dream pairings.

I'm rambling a little tonight.  Think I'll turn in.

Later Days.