I write this post through a mixed haze of sleep deprivation and caffeine-induced twitchiness, at 1:30AM on satur- err, sunday the 23nd, at what will possibly be the last GateWayLAN I attend, thanks to the chief organiser moving on. On my left, I have two empty bottles of raspberry V. On my right, I have my razer diamondback gaming mouse (shut up, i used to have a copperhead but it broke). And at the front, behind my keyboard, I have a half-eaten box of arnott’s “cheds”. And whats more, I am still wearing my waistcoat and tie, and wearing them well I might add. I have just gotten “yakety sax” off youtube and into MP3 (and subsequently windows media player) using Audacity, set my audio input to “stereo mix”, and gleefully typed “+voicerecord” into counter-strike:source’s console window. Somehow playing such a boring game is made 100 times more enjoyable than anybody could ever expect simply by knowing that everybody on your team is participating in your own world of saxophone-induced madness. I just thoroughly lost to my arch-nemesis, Stoodley, in a game of counter strike, but then won back my self-esteem by running 42 kills to 8 deaths in a game of team fortress 2 directly thereafter. I still haven’t managed to convince the other participants to play a game of FEAR combat, and my empty drink collection of 2 V bottles is feeling intimidated by the 5-pepsis and 3-solos collection on my right, and the 1-ice-break, 2-V-cans, 2-pepsis, 2-solos and 1-energy-drink-that-is-unidentifiable-from-this-distance-at-1:30-in-the-morning collection on my left. In comparison, my consumption is humble. I have a third bottle of V to come, as well as seven hours of gaming. 
I better get cracking.
– James