24 hours a day.

I haven't slept in several days. I have no idea why. There is a feeling I get, it's hard to explain.

Not wired, and not tired. Somewhere in between. Not well rested or necessarily alert. I do this a lot, actually, so I'm not shocked. I write here to get things off of my mind, and lately I haven't found the time to write about anything in particular. Whenever I sit down and try to throw something onto the keyboard, my mind goes blank. Like a damn Etch-a-Sketch.

That can be very frustrating. No sleep and a mind full of vague ideas and unfinished thoughts. Some people say this requires medical help. But I say games are my medicine. I've finally figured out why I play games so much. Specifically games that don't require TOO much thought. Racing games, RPGs, FPSs. They all cater to the part of me that wishes I could turn my brain off. To end the constant thinking that happens inside my head. I play racing games because they are time consuming, and require little to no thought, just gut reactions. I play RPGs because questing is like an endless grind where I can sort my head out in peace. FPSs are for when my head is full of stressful things. 

I've got it completely mapped out now. My habits are formed as part of some method of procrastination tied into my NEED to stop the internals of my brain from working too much. Games give me something to occupy the part of my brain that encourages thought, while the other part that does the thinking sorts itself out. And I need a lot of that sorting out. It also gives me a way to somehow CREATE obligations to put before the real ones in my life. 

Depressing much? Not really. Simply an interpretation of myself. People say that's good. If you can't laugh at yourself, you know? Think of it as constructive criticism. Time to go level that warlock some more, heh.

It's quad core from here on out.

And let me tell you why.

I'm a multitasker. I NEED four cores, really. At any given point of my computer usage, which is running near 24/7 (seriously), I have more than 3 programs I'm cycling through constantly. And I'm not talking about browser windows here. Although, I usually keep at least two or three, each with several tabs, open. I'm talking about hard hitting programs. Visual Studio 2008 is running nearly all the time, along with WoW, and VLC playing some video file. Add to that my browsers, Digsby, Steam, and other random programs, and you've got a computer that's utilizing its maximum 4gb of DDR2 on a regular basis.

Why do I do this, you ask? Well, like I said, multitasking. I'm always doing something in WoW, so that one is pretty much a given these days. Whether I'm questing or farming or just chatting, it's always running and I'm always logged in. I keep Visual Studio 2008 open at all times in case I get a bit of inspiration for a project I'm working on. Like my computer, my brain never stops working, so having it close by is essential. And VLC is another given. I like movies. And animated shows. Easy enough.

The ability to have all that crap open is not entirely why I feel a quad core is necessary, however. It's the speed at which I can access each individual program. Alt-tabbing needs to be instant and stutter free. Lag kills me. Waiting for something to render in a window is unacceptable, especially if it's in RAM. When I alt-tab to VS2008, it needs to pop up instantly. On my Phenom, it does. On my Athlon X2 box, it doesn't.

Don't get my wrong, my Athlon X2 box (the one I just built and made a custom case for) is plenty quick. It plays games very well, but it isn't a workhorse like this one. I don't leave many programs running on that box, simply because it can't handle that many things. Partially the 2gb of RAM to blame there. I have noticed that recently I've WANTED to stay at school simply so I could keep using my Phenom box that's parked on my desk here instead of the Athlon X2 box at home. Even though my Athlon box has a better graphics card.

Therefore, I have to agree with nearly all internet tech writers for once.

Once you go quad core, you can't go back.