Heya Paulvette - make sure you get some downtime as well.
Seriously.
The X-series of games are very cool, and chew up a lot of time. It is so easy to get lost in a virtual world. While very entertaining, this can be a bad thing, and have ramifications on your real world health, and relationships with other people (flatmates, partners, family, workmates, etc).
As an experienced gamer, the most important lessons I've learned have been -
To eat breakfast in the morning, after a good night's sleep, followed by lunch in the middle of the day, and a dinner before 8pm. This goes for shift-workers too.
To not be agitated when the real world encroaches on my valuable gaming time (eg ringing phones, people at the door, the necessity to go to work after a sufficient sleep on a 3 square meal diet). That phone call could be important and change your life.
To exercise regularly, and be a member of a real world community. For me, it's Tai Chi, and I practice Tai Chi with a group of people at the local park every Sunday morning and Wednesday afternoon. You don't need to aim to be Mr Universe, you just gotta keep the blood flowing.
To monitor any "negative" habits (such as alcohol, nicoteine, and drug consumption). I was drinking more at home in front of the PC than when tieing one on in town.
Not to discuss the nuances of the games I play with people who aren't gamers. Seriously, they just aren't interested.
You know how you look at the clock, and you think, "Damn, I've been here absorbed in my own little virtual experience for 14 hours!", and you wonder what that strange light is outside, and realise it's the sun coming up, and prescription sunglasses become a reality, because you spent too much time in a dark room sitting less than a metre from the PC monitor, and you eat way too much take-away instead of taking the time to cook a decent meal, sitting in a PC chair for way too many hours in succession day-in day-out, cholesterol silently building up to dangerous levels, and your wrists start to hurt, the lower back starts playing up, and you think where did the years go, because all those herculean gaming sessions added up to a lot of lost time, time that could have been spent learning skills, spending quality time with older members of the family (that may not be around for too much longer), travelling the real world and not a virtual universe, and being a part of the human race?
This is just a quick bit of advice, from a recovering alcoholic ex-pot addict ex-shift worker who DID sacrifice nine-going-on-ten years of real-life for an intense absorbing virtual experience
Balance is important dude; this is just a friendly reminder to somebody who I see is just as passionate as I am about working out the nuances of the X Universe. I wish someone had left a message for me like this a long time ago.
Slake.