Silly Reasons

Once again, I find myself updating my blog for no other reason than I like typing on this laptop.  Similarly, I’m using Windows Live Writer, for no better an excuse than it’s shiny.  Of course, this means that any attempt to change the font from the default results in horrible, horrible failure, usually followed by the deletion of 90% of what I’ve just typed.  So I’ve decided to make it a distinguishing feature – I’ll be able to tell which posts I did from my laptop as opposed to my PC.  Suck that, formatting.

You won’t be surprised to find out that nothing much happened in the last 24 hours.  My last day of placement at ReBOOT went pretty well, with lots of cleaning.  A customer who got a new PC from us came back in because the graphics card was causing it to crash – likely a power issue, but since it wasn’t an ATX PSU (and the only replacement we had that could pump out more wattage was borked), we had to pop a smaller card in.  The chronic lack of PCI cards meant that we ended up replacing a 512MB card with a 128MB one, but the guy got a refund.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to bring one of my old 6600GT’s in to replace it.

Looking forward again, I’ve started what must be my four billionth alt on WoW, and will probably spend a decent amount of my weekend on levelling him.  Will try playing silly buggers in the Barrens this time around, since they put a ton of new graveyards in the place.  I’ll be making a start on the list of games that need playing – might expand it a little to encompass all of my games.  Having a catalogue will only serve to prove how much of a gaming geek I really am, but I’m OK with that.

Filled in my Volunteer Application Form for ReBOOT earlier today as well, which means that I’m now free to show up at work whenever I like… within reason.  To be honest, I’ll probably end up spending quite a bit of my time there, since I do have a lot of fun.  Plus, I actually feel needed and valued, which is a first for any job.  Just a damned pity that I don’t get paid for it.

Speaking of money, I’ll have to remember to visit the Job Centre soon, to get my arse back on the dole.  Apparently, the government is all too happy to cut off my cash, glibly assuming that I must have found work now that my placement is over.  Make a point of going there this weekend if it’s open, and Monday afternoon if not.

Hell, might as well update my Twitter while I’m here.  More to follow.

Two Thousand and Nine

So updates.

Not posted here for a good long while now, so I figured I'd update things a little, more for my own sake than anything else. My memory is becoming more and more sieve-like as time goes on, so it's probably best that I try to document things as much as possible.

Still unemployed, as most people will already know. Went on a two-week course with a place called Support Training in Elgin last year, was alright. Started a placement via the Job Centre at ReBOOT back in November: tomorrow (i.e. today) is my last day, but I intend to keep volunteering. The place is a lot of fun, and I get to spend time doing what I like most - tinkering about with computers, fixing computer-based problems and helping people. That's right, Vertex didn't totally destroy my affinity for customer service.

Of course, I'm still playing WoW and loads of other games. I've got such a backlog right now it's not even funny. I know for a fact that I have at least 6 games sitting on my shelf that haven't even got the wrappers off yet, and countless others that have been partly played, but not completed. Constructing some sort of list / timetable for working through them is on the agenda. Tried, liked, but stopped playing WAR - what was a good game just wasn't as good as WoW, and I couldn't really afford to finance two MMO's.

Keeping up on the best of U.S. television as well - pretty sure I was watching Heroes since the last blog post, and definitely Scrubs, but I've also taken rather well to House and CSI (particularly NY). Not watching Mythbusters as much as I used to, mainly because I don't watch Sky that much anymore - Freeview has just about all I need in terms of TV.

Aside from the aforementioned... nothing's really changed in the last nine or ten months, which suits me just fine. Looking forwards, I have sent a few emails to Moray College to check when courses are starting for Computing, and what funding I'd be entitled to - they tell me to come see them in April or so and then apply. In the meantime, I'll keep gaming, searching for a job and making vague promises regarding attempts to update this blog regularly.