When I was in middle school, I was, for some reason, placed into the “gifted” student program. (Yup, sure putting that to good use.) Long story short, the program granted students one period a day to pursue independent academic pursuits with minimal supervision and no real culmination requirement. I, of course, used this as an excuse to play SimCity obsessively. I suppose what I’m getting at here is that I’m having a tougher time than normal condemning Virginia Department of Transportation employee Matthew Bolick, who was recently caught spending about 30 hours of on-the-clock time playing Civilization IV. Sure, it’s wrong to waste money, but, I mean, who am I to judge?

It also gets a little easier to scoff at the whole situation when you learn that the state spent about $3,500 investigating Bolick, who cost the state $1,117.20 in wasted time during the period he was being observed by investigators.

And hey, if Bolick’s looking for a place that won’t mind him playing games for money, I hear the Navy’s looking for a few good men.