After like a couple of years of Steam being out I finally downloaded and installed it. Sure I've never actually got around to playing Half-Life or Counter-Strike but I did buy them long ago. In fact the only thing related to Half-Life I've ever played is the old Team Fortress based on Quake, back in '98.

Of course a small thing like never having played a game doesn't prevent someone like me from purchasing the sequel. So tonight I bought the Half-Life 2 silver package. While I've been extraordinarily busy this evening drinking strawberry margaritas and reading a month and a half worth of web comics, my Windows box has been busily downloading the latest updates to all of Valve's games via Steam. Not only that my laundry is going at the same time. I feel so productive.a

And on the subject of strawberry margaritas; Here is a koan (unsolvable buddhist meditation puzzle) for the reader. If a person gets lit on two margaritas they are ordinarily considered a cheap drunk. What if said margaritas were made with $30 a bottle tequila?

I thought about trying something new this evening other than a margarita. I seriously considered mixing an Elements energy drink with Grey Goose vodka. But just in case that was a bad combination I decided to play it safe and went with margarita, the happy cactus god of all alcoholic beverages. To appease my thoughts of becoming stuck in a rut I did go for strawberry for the first time in like 6 months though.

Anyhoo, back to the subject of Valve Software's Steam service. I'm kind of glad I waited so long to try it out. It seems pretty painless to use. That's far different from the stories I heard when it first came out. I do like the download feature for games rather than trying to find some damn CD that you left who knows where.

Maybe I'll even get around to playing some of the games to see if Valve is any good. Stranger things have happened. Odds are I'll probably never finish any of them though.