Do What? There is nothing quite like Las Vegas. Between its mob past, the all night casinos and the women in skimpy clothing, there's always something to do (or see) in Vegas. Perhaps that's why it's always exciting to go there ... even if it means driving. At a short 17 hours and 56 minutes (according to Google Maps) you will be able to drive from Seattle, Washington to Las Vegas, Nevada. Your trip will consist of going through four states and dozens of area codes. It also means that you're going to be sitting in one place for 18 hours straight, which is no fun. It's even worse when you have to put up with other people's driving habits and a lot of country side that feels like it goes on forever. But still, the point is that you can do it, not that you want to do it. Hopefully you brought enough gas money and plenty of CDs for the road.

Is It An Upgrade? I'm sorry, but an 18 hour to Vegas is a really long time to wait ... even if it is THE Las Vegas. This is especially true when you could just as easily catch a 90 minute flight from Seatac to Las Vegas. And let's not forget about the price of gas. No matter what kind of car you drive, you're going to need to fill up that gas tank more times than you would like. In this day and age there's no reason to drive to Las Vegas, especially from Washington State. Of course, at the same time I would argue that in this day and age there's no reason to play an 18 hour boss fight.

Do What? I don't think anybody can argue that this has been an amazing month for the Xbox Live Arcade, and clearly Microsoft knew it because they had a special name and logo all ready to go. Between Braid, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 3, Castle Crashers, Galaga Legions and Bionic Commando: Rearmed, the XBLA titles proved to be some of the most compelling games on the console. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is because they don't overstay their welcome. For example, Braid only takes four or five hours to complete, while Bionic Commando can be beaten in 5 to six hours. And those are the long games, both Galaga Legions and Geometry Wars 2 can be "completed" in a mere half hour, though you'll spend the rest of your life trying to get high scores. And Castle Crashers ... well, considering that we're only up to 10 hours, I guess you have another eight hours to get your friends together and beat this old school brawler. Whatever you do, don't confuse quantity with quality. These games may be short, but they are worth every penny that goes into Microsoft Points!

Is It An Upgrade? I can think of no better way to spend 18 hours than to play through all of the single-player modes in these five games. Even if you completely ignore Geometry Wars 2 and Galaga Legions (which you shouldn't, they're great), you're still left with three of the best games available on the Xbox Live Arcade platform. In fact, I would argue that Braid is one of the best games ever made. On the other hand, Final Fantasy XI is not one of the best games ever made, so you definitely shouldn't spend your 18 hours playing that crummy MMO.

Do What? It's PBS's highest rated show of all time and one of the longest documentaries Ken Burns has directed. It's Ken Burns's The Civil War, an 11 hour documentary that looks at, well, the Civil War. It features real letters from the soldiers, a complete timeline and the top quality that you have come to expect from a Ken Burns documentary. And with all that time left over you'll be able to also watch Ken Burn's Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery and Ken Burn's Thomas Jefferson. Who knew that you could watch three Ken Burns movies in less than 18 hours? So pledge now or we're going to force you to play an 18 hour boss fight in Final Fantasy XI!

Is It An Upgrade? If you love Ken Burns's style of filmmaking, then this is going to be a fantastic day. However, there are times when this Civil War documentary feels like it's longer than the real Civil War. The good news is that you can break it all up with his Lewis & Clark and Thomas Jefferson docs, neither of which are as interesting as The War or Jazz. Who knew that the story of Jazz would be so damn interesting? But I digress, spending 18 hours with Ken Burns sounds like a great idea, especially when the alternative is playing Final Fantasy XI.

Do What? Maybe it's just because we're in the middle of a "historic" Presidential election, but it seems like everybody on MSNBC is doing nothing more than citing daily opinion polls. Although they have 24 hours to fill up, MSNBC is really only "live" for 15 hours. They have their morning shows (where they repeat the same news every fifteen minutes), their afternoon pundit shows and then their late-night talk shows. All on all it's a balanced schedule, but that doesn't change the fact that there's a poll referenced at least once every five minutes. And that's a conservative figure; there are some nights when the only thing they talk about is the polling. It's not like there are more interesting things to talk about, but for whatever reason these "reporters" seem to only care about that particular snapshot, even though it's flawed in a number of ways. But maybe that's what people are into these days, so if you're the kind of guy who wants to sit there and hear the same Pew Research Poll results twelve times an hour for fifteen hours then you go right on ahead, but the good news is that there are only fifteen hours of new content every day on MSNBC.

Is It An Upgrade? As a news junkie I almost hate to admit that I spend so much time listening to people talk about polling data. It's usually something that is just brought up in passing, so it doesn't feel like it's repeated that frequently. But there's no doubt about it, the drumbeat of the polling is certainly apparent. And not just on MSNBC, but also on Fox News and CNN. And that's just on a normal day, this week the Democrats are having their convention in Denver, Colorado, so the pundits and hosts have increased the number of times they bring up a different poll. Still, I would rather hear the news tell me all of the terrible things that are happening in the polling than have to play Final Fantasy XI for 18 hours. The fact that there's only 15 hours of new content on MSNBC every day means that you can detox afterwards by watching something completely brainless, like a Hannah Montana marathon. T he polls show that she's really popular.

Do What? Since you have 18 hours to waste, why not spend a good chunk of it watching one of the greatest (and longest) film trilogies of all time? I'm of course talking about The Lords of the Rings, Peter Jackson's film adaptation of the popular fantasy book series. The nice thing about this set of films is that you have an option of watching the theatrical releases (which run around 9 hours) or the longer 12 hour extended cut of the film. Either way you're going to have plenty of time to throw in the original 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which runs just over two hours. Heck, with that much time on your hands you may just have time for the upcoming Guillermo del Toro movie, The Hobbit. I don't think I need to tell you, that's a whole lot of Middle Earth and second breakfasts.

Is It An Upgrade? Look, I'm a big fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but even I have my limits. 12 hours is a lot of time to be watching tiny people try and deliver a ring to a volcano. Surely there was a faster way of going about this. And even if there wasn't, does it really need to be 12 hours long? Then again, at least it's not like Final Fantasy XI where we just watch Gandalf the Grey and the Hobbits battle the Balrog creature for 18 hours. And you know what, that 1978 animated film is a lot of fun, especially after you've watched the much longer version of the trilogy. The 1977 TV movie, The Hobbit, is also a good time. In fact, I think you'll probably have a lot of fun revisiting Middle Earth and spending the day with Frodo, Bilbo and Saruman. It's not something you'll want to return to any time soon, but there's no denying that it's fun to do every so often.

Do What? In the time that you could be fighting a boss for 18 hours straight, you could also be reading an absolutely wretched list about other things you could be doing. The truth is, you could really be doing anything for 18 hours. It doesn't need to be just one thing for that amount of time, you could be out there living your life or playing a bunch of cool games, or going to work. Heck, you could try sleeping for some of that time. There's no reason you have to do it all in that amount of time. And there's no reason why you should have to fight a boss for 18 hours straight. Even if that boss exists and it was done on purpose, that doesn't mean that you have to defeat it. Maybe you should just let bygones be bygones and everybody can live in peace. That way you can go on having a good time and not let it cut into your social life.

Is It An Upgrade? Compared to Final Fantasy XI, this article is short. You can bust this article out in just a few minutes and then get on with your life. And isn't that the point? Why not read this silly article and then go off and do something better? Even if it's nothing more than watching reruns of Charles in Charge or trying to argue the merits of Too Human, at least you'll be doing something more productive than playing Final Fantasy XI. Life it too short to battle boss for 18 hours. You're a real person, not a robot. You need food and water to live. You need to take rests away from the TV. You need to socialize with other people. And most importantly, you need to be able to go to the bathroom on your own schedule. Ignore Final Fantasy XI, it's only a burden on your life. Just say no to 18 hour boss fights!