I paid off all of my credit card debt today, and now I'm poor again.

Poor in the twenty-something sense, obviously: most actual poor people probably don't have Fallout 3, a month's supply of beer, and a freezer full of venison.

Did I tell you I'm getting half a deer now? No one shot anything the whole time I was up north this year for hunting, but my dad and uncle had more luck once we left on Sunday.

This was my first time deer-hunting with snow on the ground, which meant that I couldn't hear anything, which meant that instead of just shivering and reading, I had to spend 10 hours a day staring at trees and snow, occasionally imagining that this swaying branch or that misshapen log was actually a deer.

It seems like each year I either have to listen for deer, or I have to watch for them. And I'm fine with that, as long as I get to use one of my senses to entertain myself. If I go next year I'm bringing headphones in case it snows again.

I am also seriously contemplating rigging up some sort of luxury heated hunting stand as well. You know what I like? Room temperature. It's fantastic.

I finally broke down and bought Fallout 3 last night after an interlude at the Flat Earth Brewery with Barry. (About which more here.) The game is enjoyable, but it hasn't really drawn me in yet. Maybe I need to go exploring...

Also: I'm increasingly impatient with Western RPGs that haven't learned anything from the interactions in Mass Effect. Last year's big RPG.

It might have been a bad idea to spend money on a game right now, but the cost probably works out to $1/hour of entertainment, and I thought it would be good to get set for December before forcing myself back to fiscal discipline.

Back to the budget! In a week I should be OK again. I can do basically everything I want to do on the budget, anyways — and why not? I've lived on much, much less — it's just a matter of paying attention, which I'm apparently unable to do during a credit card's no-interest trial period. Curse this pretend money.