Impulse Buying

I don't know whether this actually covers Project Management or not but in terms of games I've become somewhat of an impulse buyer lately. Once upon a time I had no money and no job (OK I had that one job for six months but I didn't even work the full hour so got like £2 a week), but here at Uni I've been given about £60 a week to live off. And when I don't drink and food stuff costs less than £20 then I'm getting £40 spare, a tenner of that at most being spent on going to the Student Union bar thanks to cheap drinks.

So Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 were recently part of a Steam sale and I got them both for under £8 together. Instant grab, even though my brother has the Xbox versions. Gears of War, preowned without a single scratch or mark on the disc - £3. Final Fantasy XIII - £20. All pretty good deals. And this final one was when I went into Manchester today.

After finishing Programming and making a Pokémon card for Ziga Zigha, I went into the Manchestershire in search for a sci-fi shop. Since I don't know the area well I checked on Google Maps before hand to be sure of where to go. I went to the ticket office at the station but it was shut so I had to travel the whole 5 minutes and pay over double of what I would have paid just because some guy decides 2.30 is a good time for a lunch break. Walked for another 15 minutes and I end up in a rather rough area of Manchester, the shop has closed down, some Spanish kid tries to mug me so I do the typical English thing and shout loudly before punching his 14 year old face in (I kid, but he did try to mug me) so I quickly nip back to Primark where I'm nice and safe apart from the calling voice of the gaming T-shirts. "Come and buy us Dan. We're really cheap. Bow-ties are just £2 and you know that bow-ties are cool." But I don't want a bow-tie and besides I can't see them. "Oh. Look at these retro gaming shirts then." That's me £6 out of pocket just because I like the look of a Pacman shirt.

So the conclusion of this little trip out saw me head into HMV where I go downstairs to find what is essentially Game or Gamestation and then an area dedicated to customers to play games. I managed to pull myself away but instead ended up in the Xbox 360 aisle where Saint's Row 2 stared at me. I stared back, then looked over to Fable III and Rock Band 3. Then over to Pokémon on the DS. Then back at Saint's Row 2. Yes I bought it. Call it impulse.

In Soviet Russia, impulse buys you.

Dan