According to USA Today, the scarcity of Xbox 360s will likely continue through Spring, just in time for the release of the Playstation 3.

Fine, then, Microsoft! I don’t want your damn computer box anyhow! I’d pretty much resigned myself to getting one, since I’ve got more discretionary income than common sense or time. I end up buying videogames I never actually play and feel a void in my soul if I don’t have The Latest Thing. It’s not so much I wanted an Xbox, I just didn’t want to not have one.

So I’d been saying that it’s inevitable I’d get one, and as soon as it’s possible to just walk into a Best Buy and pick one up without pre-ordering or tackling some overprivileged child to the ground, I’d do it. But every week of super-exclusivity is another week for me to ask myself whether I really want to get one.

The only game I’m interested in is Oblivion, and that’s coming out for the PC as well. The only other reason to get one would’ve been to replace the 10-year-old DVD player I’m using now, but it still works like a champ, and the PS3 is going to be better anyway.

So it seems to me that the analysis in that article is actually correct — having an Xbox 360 shortage was good for the initial launch, because it drummed up demand. But how many of us are going to be patient enough to keep up the demand once they get the supply in place? I’m thinking I’m better off not having another time-waster in the house.

Today (or I guess, yesterday) was the first day in a long while I’ve made real tangible progress with my work, instead of just doing research or clerical and maintenance work. So instead of downloading and installing and re-installing and reading documentation and uninstalling and re-re-installing, I actually wrote a good bit of code.

About 12 hours’ worth of code, by my calculations.

Now, while I’m pleased that I actually have something to show for my work, it would’ve been nice to see some daylight today other than the bits and flashes I got while out smoking. This was pretty much my M.O. at my previous jobs, too — long periods of brainwork (which looked to the casual and ignorant observer like inactivity) followed by a consolidated way-too-long chunk of work time that actually gets results.

Do normal people grow out of their college work schedule, or am I doomed to cram sessions for the rest of my life?

(Incidentally, my friend and once-again-coworker Chris reminded me the other day about my last project at LucasArts, which was a total failure of a scripting language that was supposed to be a combination of lua and C++. Turns out that JavaScript is exactly what I was trying to make, but I didn’t know that at the time. My version was still a failure, but it’s nice to see that I was on kind of the right track at least.)

One of the sites I’ve been reading a lot lately (other than the java online documentation) is Lifehacker. It’s a blog that’s filled with tips and recommendations that will supposedly make your life more organized. For me, though, it always ends up taking up more of my time. They’ll recommend some huge time-saving new application, like Path Finder or Quicksilver or Yojimbo. I’ll download it and install it. I’ll try it out, add my stuff to it, get a feel for how it works.

I’ll invariably fail, and go back to doing things “the old way.” But not just the old way, I’ll go back all the while knowing I could be doing things more efficiently. So every one is like an added weight.

I think what I really need is a true personal organizer — not some PDA or desktop widget or does-everything organizer app, but a real organizer. Somebody who’s really on top of things and can make sense of the 48 hours worth of stuff I want to do in the 12 or so hours I’m actually awake each day. Somebody who’ll pay my bills, get caught up on my e-mails and personal obligations, point me to the internet stuff I’m actually interested in and filter out the rest, who’ll teach me how to play the banjo and speak Japanese and draw, all while I’m playing World of Warcraft or getting caught up with my Netflix queue.

ASIMO, I’m waiting for you, buddy.