The Life of Leivan

Not Quite One Year

2010-08-21T04:48:00.002+01:00

As the title suggests, it's not quite been one year since I posted an update. But it's near enough. Which is terrible, by any measure. Hell, it's not really a blog if it's updated annually. That's an AGM, and I'm pretty sure the one or two people who might actually read this do not qualify as a quorum. Insert pathetic promises to try and update more here.

Work situation first. I mentioned in my previous post about the possibility of a 6-month "placement" via the government. That happened. It was called the Future Jobs Fund, and thanks to my manager at ReBOOT and a bloke named Ivor at my local Jobcentre Plus, I was the first person in Scotland to be on the scheme. It was a great success, and lead to the employment of several deserving people in the same workplace. I even got an impromptu extension of the contract, making it more akin to 9 months of employment.

And then came the UK elections. The Tories won, and one of the first things they did was to scrap the FJF. Because if there's one thing that Tories know how to do, it's cock things up royally. So now I'm a volunteer again, currently battling past a period of prolonged embuggrance. Sore guts, general nausea, exhaustion... nothing very nice. Here's hoping that it disappears and I can get back to the only job I've ever really enjoyed. I'll be fucked if I let the bloody Tories ruin a good thing completely.

Gaming. Aion did not last long, and I'm firmly entrenched in WoW again. It's gotten a lot better since the last time I posted, and the upcoming expansion is looking better every day. Got my Horde characters into the same guild as Dante and Ravus, and my Hunter is pew-pewing through Icecrown Citadel every Monday or Tuesday evening. Lots of fun.
MMOs aside, I'm looking forward to the new Dragon Age, slated to come out in March. Recent purchases have been somewhat scarce, due in no small part to me having no income and the Bank of Scotland deciding that £1 per day is an acceptable overdraft charge (even on arranged, interest-free overdrafts). But hey, this is what my massive backlog of unopened and/or unplayed games is for, right? Some of them are no doubt classics by now.

The only game I've bought in the last wee while has been StarCraft II. Collector's Edition at that. Not opened it yet, of course. Still watching eBay to see if it's worth re-selling at a profit. Couple of months before that, I nabbed Demon's Souls for the PS3, which was fun for a bit. Daresay that I'll come back to it at some point, since it's challenging and fun, but very obscure in terms of storyline and gameplay. I've registered for PlayStation Plus as well, which means I get a steady stream of free PS3 games and PSone classics each month. So far, I've got LittleBigPlanet, WipeoutHD, Destruction Derby and MediEvil. The latter has been the most fun - fond memories of playing that at lunch time in my secondary school years. A friend of mine would bring his copy round and let me play it while he ate his chocolate spread sandwiches. Good times.

Pre-orders? Well, aside from accidentally ordering two copies of StarCraft II (one of which was handily a perfect birthday present for a new friend at ReBOOT), I've got Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep coming in 20 days or so. It should be good, but I imagine it will be shelved. Still haven't played through 358/2 Days yet. Or Dissidia: Final Fantasy... or Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, for that matter. See? Backlog.

Internet next. I'm no longer with O2 Home Broadband, on account of them being massive dicks. They called me in April and said that I was using too much bandwidth. They'd never mentioned anything like this before, and I was under the assumption that my usage had been fairly average for the past 4 weeks (the period they claimed to be analysing). They said that I had used something like 58GB, though, so I took their word for it. Downloaded a bandwidth monitor and installed it on the internet-heavy machines in the house, kept an eye on my usage for another 4 weeks. No call after one month, I figure I'm in the clear.

1 month later (that's 2 months after the original phone call) I get another call telling me that I'd exceeded my usage for March-April. Wait, what? I know that already, you called me in April to tell me. No, sir, that was your February to March usage, and we're only telling you a month afterwards to highlight the fact that you couldn't have actually acted on our one and only warning unless you were, in fact, a time traveller. So they told me I was going to be cut off in one month, but they couldn't even get that right. I was cut off a week too early, and couldn't move over to my new supplier (PlusNet) until the agreed connection date. One week without broadband... dark times. Much Theme Hospital and Final Fantasy VII was played.

Movies! Star Trek was awesome, needed to be said. DVD had this little augmented reality website that you could activate by holding the cover up to a webcam, which was a cool touch. Saw Iron Man 2, which was also awesome. Like the media slave I am, I went and bought the movie tie-in game, which wasn't entirely terrible, to it's credit. Got a hold of several classic movies, and was introduced to several others by PiLoT. Not going to mention them all, but some fun additions to my collection.

Television. The end of Heroes came as a bit of a shock, since it was simply announced that there wouldn't be another season. Which sucks... I feel it could have gotten really good again, instead of the mediocrity we were left with in the last two seasons. But on the upside, there have been some excellent shows to fill the gap. The last season of Lost was fantastic, and if I can afford it, I'll be getting the big six-season box set at some point. It would make a good Christmas or birthday present, come to think of it. Let's hope that it gets released in time. There has also been Hung (funny and sexy, naked redheads are always awesome) and Lie to Me (the Lightman Lean!). House is due back on soon, so that'll get watched. Oh and Fringe... if I didn't mention that in my last blog post, it needs to be said. Fringe is awesome. Recently introduced it to Dante and Ravus, and despite some derogatory comments towards poor Anna Torv's acting skills, they seem to be enjoying it. I can't say enough good about it, and the new season is due out in the Autumn as well.

Speaking of seasons, fuck the Summer. Bloody bees, wasps and moths. Can't escape them. And the heat. Give me a nice, cool Autumn and a Winter with perhaps slightly less snow than December '09 - February '10... that was taking the piss a bit. There is still grit lying around on the paths from that deluge. Though it was sort of cool to see the picture of the entirety of the UK under a blanket of snow.

More TV... got CSI coming back on soon, plus Dexter. PiLoT has also been introducing me to Shameless, which isn't too bad, if only for the hotties in it. Fiona has a bit of a face on her, but that daughter of the crazy bitch is too hot for her own good. Don't anyone have a go at me about names, either; I'm about 5 seasons behind and I don't start remembering names until I've seen about a billion episodes.

The computer is fine; got myself a nice, 26 inch flatscreen monitor. It works like a charm, and gaming on it is lots of fun. Bit big for my desk, since the feet jut out a bit, but it's workable. Think I might have mentioned it previously, but I've got a 9800GTX+ inside it now. My old 8800GTX gave up the ghost with artefacts and all that. But I read an article online about how you can revive them. Thinking it couldn't do any harm, I gave the dead card to PiLoT and told him how to bake it back to life. Bloody worked, too; my old 8800GTX lives once again and it's in PiLoT's machine as we speak. Well... as I type.

Speaking of typing, Dante and I have been working on a new Fan Fiction on FED2k. It's based on the original FED2k Warlords thread started by him and King Sard way back in the day, I may or may not have mentioned it in my various blog posts of the time. It's much more complex, detailed and mature than the original ever was, though, and we've pioneered a new "participation by proxy" method that already has three people being included. Check out the link to FED2k at the bottom-right of the blog, hit up the Fan Fiction board and have a read of "Warlords 2 - Five Years Later" if you want. I won't directly link it... get enough spambots there already.

Not much else to say. Home life has been pretty much same old, same old. No new conquests on the relationship front, but that's hardly news. Not that there aren't candidates for failed advances, I just have bigger priorities now that focusing so much effort on any one person. Better to just test the water with every pretty lady and see what happens. Hell, it almost worked a month or so ago.

That's more or less it. Almost a year's worth of stuff summed up in a few paragraphs. Reading back over the first few posts of my old blog (also linked to the bottom-right of this blog, if anyone's interested) was what inspired me to finally update. It's nice to think that I have some record of what I did and how I felt over 5 years ago. Half a decade of sporadic updates is a damn sight better than nothing at all, and with my memory, it's like a time machine; often can't remember things on their own, but give me a hint - a scene, a word, a smell, etc. - and I'm back in the room. Lots of fun.

No doubt I'll post here again at some point. For now, it's back to my life. Which right now is probably bed. Would you look at the time?

An update? In MY blog?!

2009-09-29T22:52:00.003+01:00

It's more likely than you think, but sadly, there is no free scan.

For those of you that didn't get that joke, welcome to the internet, where the porn is free but the coffee is pretty crap.

So I figured it was probably about time for my bi-annual blog update, which will no doubt cause another financial crisis, flood hapless American cities, incite the Russians to declare war on everyone and ramp up global warming so much that the Earth farts its way into the Sun with a most unsatisfactory 'pfarp'.

Before all that, though, I'll update my rapt audience with the happenings of the past few months. I'm still volunteering at ReBOOT, doing my bit in Workshop 3, where I have firmly nested. Myself and my friend / co-worker PiLoT have accosted a corner of the warehouse and made it our own, complete with tidied and organised boxes full of things. Truly wondrous.

Which of course means that I'm still gainfully unemployed. But the truth is that I can't think of anywhere I'd rather work than ReBOOT. It's also possible that there might be a government scheme where I could get paid a "wage" of sorts for 6 months; a lengthier placement, basically. I don't know all the details, but my fingers are firmly crossed.

Gaming-wise, I've been spoilt for choice. My recent purchases / pre-orders include the new Professor Layton, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Scribblenauts and Aion: Tower of Eternity. The latter of these is a new MMO - while I've not stopped playing WoW, it's a strong competitor for my time. A lot of people don't seem to like it, since WoW has pretty much set the standard for levels of grind and pandering to the masses, but it's definitely a lot better than anything before or since. Except for WoW at its best, of course.

I could talk quite a bit about Aion, but I won't, since I want to keep this entry relatively short. Continuing with games, I believe I am fated to pay the stupid amount of £45 for Modern Warfare 2. Call of Duty 4 is quite assuredly the best first person shooter I've ever played, so a sequel can only be a good thing. I saw the demo earlier this year when Microsoft showed a demo of the ice-cliff climbing / snow mobile escape mission. Sort of set in stone from then on.

I've also pre-ordered the new Star Trek movie on DVD, complete with prequel magazine. It's due out in November, so still a little while to go, but I'm waiting with baited breath.

On the TV side of things, PiLoT has been both a blessing and a curse. He has introduced me to both LOST and Dexter. The former, I am coming to rather late, I realise, but that doesn't make it any less awesome. The latter, I have only just finished the first season of, and it is also awesome. Very refreshing to hear proper, full-on swearing in a US TV series. On a lesser note, he also made me aware of The Big Bang Theory (which I gave as much attention as anything else on Paramount Comedy) and FlashForward (which has just started, and is shaping up to be cool).

I've also been keeping up with my usuals; House, Heroes, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. It's gotten to the point of me having too many shows to keep track of off the top of my head. A bookmark system has been set up, for great justice.

I'm not entirely sure if this is the first blog since my computer decided to take a nosedive... I think it must be, since Dante hadn't gone to Honduras the last time I posted.

So yeah, my Alienware decided to stop working. I think it was something to do with a registry fixing program going a bit haywire. Booting up would only occur under the rarest of circumstances; Safe Mode wouldn't function, but hitting space bar when booting up "normally" would let you see the standard explorer shell. Of course, complex tasks like dragging and dropping, copying and pasting, plugging in a USB stick or burning a CD/DVD were completely out of the question. I found out I could copy files under a command prompt, but only one at a time, and then only to the same hard drive.

I bought a new 500GB Hitachi Deskstar after I stopped wailing and fretting like a little girl, installed it, put XP back on, slaved my old drive, then made the horrible, horrible mistake of turning it off for the night. Idiot that I am, I neglected to remove my other hard drives before installing the fresh XP, so the system partition was called F:. I didn't think this would be a problem, until I tried to turn the PC on again, and it looked for Windows on C:, which was my 80GB storage drive. Another fresh install, after disconnecting some troublesome cables, solved the issue.

Oh, and before I forget, I may be in eternal debt to Dante for introducing me to The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. They top even the Song of Ice and Fire series in my list of favourite books. Read them. Yes, this means you, Ravus.

And here I was saying that I wanted to keep this short. Ah well, an interesting read for some, I'm sure. Now assume the position, the apocalypse is surely just around the corner. Worry not, sinners, for hell is also frozen.

Determination

2009-03-24T00:21:00.002Z

I am of the firm belief that I can do just about anything, should I decide to devote enough attention to it. It requires a healthy dash of me being interested in doing it in the first place, coupled with more than a touch of perseverance. In the case of this blog, I'm most certainly interested. The fact that I keep coming back to it shows that I'm determined. It's just that I so often forget about it, in favour of doing something a lot more interesting at the time. Like gaming.

So nothing has really happened over the last few weeks - still going to ReBOOT more or less constantly, though I did take some time off on Friday last week. All that would have happened is cleaning, and it had been a tiring week. Lots of lifting and wrapping and whatnot. This week is shaping up to be quite busy as well - got a large shipment of equipment to be recycled / refurbished, and we're spending all of tomorrow working on it. Or, at least, some of us will be. I may be drafted into building three identical PCs for a training group in Inverness.

I've slacked off on creating a list of all of my games, though I do have all of the PlayStation ones input. Again, it's something I'll get around to for a certainty; if there's anything I love more than gaming, it's making lists / filling in details. You'd never think it, what with my hatred for all things database related (MS Access, hisssss), but I've always been like that. I assume my room would really piss me off if I actually wanted it structured in the same way, but when it comes to the point that I'm buying games that I already own, it's definitely time to start taking notes. Next up is the PS2 collection, and I dread to think how many I've not completed... hell, never mind that, how many I've never even played.

On the brighter side of things, I've started Final Fantasy XII... again. This must be the third or fourth time now. Each previous attempt has resulted in boredeom with the plot (which is pretty tame, to say the least) or the battle system (which is basically a direct port of Vagrant Story). Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Vagrant Story is even in the same world as Final Fantasy XII...

*Checks*

It is as well! Ivalice gets everywhere - FF Tactics, FF XII, Vagrant Story... makes you wonder if the designers are getting a bit tired of making new worlds. I hear the fjords are particularly tricky.

WoW is coming along nicely - my Druid has some semi-decent healing gear, my Hunter is progressing through Northrend (albeit painfully slowly, much to the despair of my levelling partner), my other Druid is sitting pretty at 58, waiting for the aforementioned levelling partner to run through Scholomance once or twice before I rape Outland. Aside from that, my various other alts haven't budged more than a level or two. Always trying to strike a balance between the games and other pursuits.

Speaking of which, I trudged my way to the end of the Dune "sequels". I now fully agree with the majority of Dune fans in saying that Brian and Kevin have ruined the new novels - they are badly written and replete with plot holes, conveniences and petty storylines. Please, stop making them, or at least hook up a dynamo to Frank's grave so we can use the perpetual rotation as a green source of energy.

I moved from Dune to Pratchett, namely "Nation". Boy, does that start out depressing. Not in a "this is no good" way, but in a "calamity and woe" way. It's all very dark when compared to his other work, but the hilarity stands out all the more for it. A fantastic read - I'm glad I got around to it. Yes, I had a backlog of books as well, argh. Pretty sure it's gone, now. I dread to look in my cupboard, just in case any more jump out at me, demanding to be read. For now, I think I'll go back to one of my favourite trilogies - one that is barely even known: The Sea King Trilogy (Madbond, Mindbond, Godbond). Written in the first person, don't you know.

Another extensive blog! Brought to you by the power of Ye Olde Packarde Belle Keyboarde.

Another Keyboard

2009-03-03T20:02:00.001Z

So I’ve gone one step further in my search for the perfect keyboard typing experience, and my travels have taken me back in time. It occurs to me that the best part of my typing (the majority, if not the best quality) has always taken place on keyboards that are “clicky”. Yes, that’s a technical term. My laptop keyboard is like this to a degree, but not to the extent that I would like.

At work, I’ve come across one of the best keyboards in the entire world – it’s attached to a Dell Inspiron 8000 Laptop, however, so it’s not a viable addition or extension to my own laptop or PC. But it did put me in mind of another keyboard that felt strikingly similar, if not identical – my old, old Packard Bell PS/2 keyboard. It’s been sitting in the cupboard for years, ever since we gave away our old 100MHz Packard Bell machine (huge 1.14GB HDD, massive 32MB RAM).

Now, I’m not suggesting for a second that it’s a better keyboard than my shiny Logitech G15, but it’s certainly much nicer for typing. The G15 is a gaming keyboard, and the keys are designed to be softer and more responsive. When I’m typing, I take a certain amount of pleasure from having to hit the keys properly (another technical term that makes perfect sense). To that end, I decided to take it out of the cupboard and put it to good use.

My quest to type more was cut short when I saw that little purple PS/2 connector – my laptop (like most others) does not possess a PS/2 connection. Of course, there are billions of USB to PS/2 converters in the world, but the reverse of this is not so common. Amazon soon sorted this dilemma, and I’m now the proud owner of a Belkin PS/2 to USB converter. Spent around £5 for it, and while there were cheaper options, they all had complaints about keys not working, or the converter not working full stop.

The end result is one I’m very happy with – I’m typing from my new, old keyboard right now, and I can already sense that this is the solution. Whole streams of thought are becoming easier to put to screen, with my fingers reporting their satisfaction at being connected to an adequate peripheral.

Now if I can just get some of the myriad ideas I have floating around in my head to stay put for long enough, perhaps I can being writing properly again.

Silly Reasons

2009-02-13T22:34:00.001Z

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

2009-02-13T00:28:00.000Z

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.

Waiting for Perfection

2008-04-29T00:03:00.002+01:00

So my pre-ordered copy of GTA IV should be on its way to me. I have high hopes for it arriving tomorrow morning (technically this morning, but I've not been to sleep yet). Everywhere seems to be giving it perfect 10 marks, and you'd be hard pressed to find an online retailer with any stock left. Really looking forward to playing it - what I've seen from sketchy reviews so far has been very appealing. Can't wait to try the multiplayer, especially.

Bit of a ruckus on the World of Warcraft side of things. With Dante down in Stirling failing at having an internet connection of his own, I can't realistically level my Blood Elf Hunter. Dante would disagree, of course, but Celesia (my character) and Meandor (his) have been leveling together since they were Level 1 (aside from a couple of times, but shh). Would be nice for them to reach 70 together as well.

The main issue at the moment, though, is trying to decide what to level next. Right now, I'm having a conversation with him on MSN about who and what to level next. We each have a plethora of alts already created; Dante wants to level them first, but I'm all for the starting of new characters from the beginning again. Might re-capture the "magic" that allowed me to level any other character aside from my main past the Level 40 mark. Right now, we've sort of agreed that my Level 31 Protection-Spec Draenei Paladin will level alongside his Level 33 Shadow-Spec Human Priest (Lumitri and Taraza, respectively). There's been some suggestion of them getting to 40, then switching to a nelf pair... nothing's been finalised just yet, though. It will all work out, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, Jaszon is living up to his bastardly name by playing his Horde Paladin a lot more. He originally leveled it on the same server as Celesia and Meandor, but migrated to our original one... you know, this probably doesn't even make sense to anyone who isn't me, Dante or Jaszon. Since they are the only ones who read this (if even they bother) I do not mind so much.

Outside of WoW and gaming... nothing much happening. Still absent-mindedly looking for a job, to see if I can get some money in, rather than relying on Jobseeker's Allowance. Wondering if the Bank of Scotland will actually remove my Student Overdraft this year, instead of just sending me a letter saying "We're really going to do it this time, honest!" and having nothing happen. Brown trouser time every year, I tell you. Hopefully not this year... if I can stop buying stuff, that is.

I'm semi-writing again, due to the revelation that I have to actually concentrate on the subject for any inspiration to come. I've almost finished a battle scene for a Fan Fiction that Dante would like an alternate ending to (see the FED2k link at the bottom right of this page), and I might even have a few ideas forming for original storylines. I've abandoned the notion of trying to plan ahead with my writing, as I recall that being the point where everything went downhill with my original novel attempt. I'll be sure to mention my progress again in any future blog posts.

Will stop typing now, because my left arm is starting to sieze up. Is most uncomfortable. I'll try and update with my thoughts on GTA IV, possibly with some screenshots (if the Blogger interface allows me to without buggering up the entire post along with it). Ow, ow, arm.

On Unemployment...

2008-04-24T18:38:00.003+01:00

Things aren't so bad when you're unemployed. Of course, there's the lack of money, which sucks. Strangely, this hasn't stopped me buying things. Over the last month or so, I've gone on a bit of a buying spree. To counter this, I also sold a few things on eBay, which netted me about £150 in total. Which was nice.

I've got a plethora of new games, though. Here's a list, which is probably incomplete, but will serve to illustrate just how mad I've gone:

- Devil May Cry
- Devil May Cry 2
- Devil May Cry 3
- Devil May Cry 4
- Sim City 4 Deluxe
- Kameo: Elements of Power
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne
- Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
- Unreal Tournament III
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard
- Grand Theft Auto IV (Pre-Order)
- G-Police
- Wild 9
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Collector's Edition - Pre-Order)
- Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
- Another two games / assorted things, which shall be revealed at a later date.

So yeah, lots of games. I also bought an nVidia GeForce 8800GTX to replace the two 8600GTS's I had in SLI, since they were causing me a lot of trouble. Sold one on eBay, gave the other to my brother. It's causing him a bit of hassle (possibly due to lack of power), so I might have to put his old one back in at some point. Then I get to sell the other one as well. Woo!

I've signed on down the local Job Centre Plus. Getting my £49 a week, or whatever it is. Should be enough to cover me for digs at least. Thinking about going to college to do a Higher Maths course, just so I can have something to do and not feel guilty about being a total bum. It might also help for any Uni courses I might want to do in the future. But knowing me, I'll procrastinate and leave it for a while yet. No rush.

Looking forward to playing a lot of the games I've bought over the last year or so. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I fail at finishing games that I start playing. Some I don't even get around to starting. This will hopefully change. I've also taken a liking to writing a bit more again, but it's slow going at the moment. In the more immediate future, I can't wait for Hereos Season 2 to start on BBC 2 tonight at 9pm - it will be so damned cool.

That's about all for now. I'll try to post again if anything spectacular happens.

Job Troubles

2008-03-03T23:02:00.001Z

Well, it had to happen at some point, I suppose. They've finally decided to let me go. Apparently, Vertex hired too many staff over the Valentines Day / Mother's Day period, meaning that they have to fire around 23 temporary staff from the Forres site alone. A hell of a lot more from the Hale Court site in Manchester, I hear, but I really couldn't care less.

What bothers me is that they're going about it in the worst possible way. They gave us all a week's notice, which is crap. Also illegal, according to the Citizen's Advice Bureau. I went there a few days ago to ask them if what Vertex / Kelly are doing is right; apparently not. They say that I'm entitled to two weeks' notice, as I've been working for the company for two and a half years. I'm also meant to get a letter stating why, and the opportunity to appeal the decision.

When confronted with this, Kelly Services came up with some bullshit reason for my rights not being given - they say that this is an "end of secondment" and not a dismissal. The CAB say otherwise. So does my contract, as far as I can tell. I'll keep this blog semi-updated with the results. Hopefully I can take them to an employment tribunal to get some sort of compensation, but it's still early days. My last day is technically on Tuesday, after they told me to take my remaining notice period as paid leave. Guess they didn't like the fuss I was making.

Wonder if they'll like the email I sent to the BBC?

A Change of Font

2008-02-21T20:35:00.001Z

Alright, so Windows Live Writer works. As such, I'm changing the font that this blog uses to the default. I assume this is Arial or somesuch - I don't own Microsoft Office to check. I don't have any Office package on this laptop, now that I come to think of it. I'll have to grab OpenOffice.org at some point.

So... things to write about. Again, nothing amazing happening - I can assure you that there would be a post almost immediately if something out of the ordinary were to happen. Work is still crap, games are still being bought... I still have to get around to playing most of my RPG's. I'll eventually stop failing so much and get through them all.

Some new games on the way - or just arrived - are Lost Odyssey, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. The latter is admittedly one that won't get played until I get around to completing Final Fantasy XII itself. I've barely even touched the game - don't think I've even got a quarter of the way through. What is the world coming to? I will end this tomfoolery!

Let's see if I can actually play it through. And deal with how the PS2 graphics look on my HDTV. In widescreen. Yeah.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Testing is For the Win

2008-02-20T20:56:00.002Z

Well... this is a test. I'm typing this using Windows Live Writer, which is apparently a fancy tool for updating blogs. Now, by fancy, I simply mean something that I've never bothered using before. It's only installed on my laptop, which I've been playing about with for the last couple of days. I'd like to see if it works before I install it on my PC.

So yeah... testing. Let's see how this works. May even update more of-AH HA HA, I can't keep a straight face when I say that.

Happy New Year

2008-01-05T16:55:00.000Z

Yeah, so I haven't updated for about 5 months. Anyone who reads this should know by now to expect this.

So... the last 5 months. Nothing much happened, I can assure you. Bought a few more games for my 360, played them. Work still sucks. Still playing WoW. Nothing new, really.

Mass Effect is worth talking about, though. Best game for the 360 ever, bar none. Halo 3 isn't worthy enough to even compare to this game. Assassin's Creed can barely fathom the enormity of its greatness. All other games pale in comparison, and I'm being lenient here.

For those of you who have played KotOR (i.e. Knights of the Old Republic), you'll know that BioWare are the undisputed masters of RPG making, aside from possibly Square-Enix. But the two companies have distinctly different styles - BioWare encourages a slew of multiple choice scenarios, whereas Square-Enix has the whole linear thing down to a T. Both have excellent points in favour of their own style, but we're focusing on Mass Effect here.

It's basically KotOR, but without the Star Wars. And with better graphics, sound, and everything. EVERYTHING I tell you. The conversations are involved, rather than a simple talk, respond, talk situation. The lip-synching is the best I've seen outside of a Pixar or Dreamworks film. The graphics are what you'd expect from a 360 - HD and jaw-dropping in their complexity. The gameplay does take some getting used to, however, especially the combat... but once you do, you'll wonder why it was such an issue and oh my God isn't this game amazing?

Here is where I would explain the brief outline of the plot or setting, but it's too huge. At least with Star Wars, you can say "It's before Episode I, about 1000 years or so" or something like that, but Mass Effect creates a whole new Universe. Everything in it has been made from the ground up, a whole new IP (intellectual property) that really has to be played to be understood. The Collector's Edition tin comes with a nifty hand-book that does part of the job of introducing you quite well, but you still feel astounded when you take in the sheer scope of the game.

Top Tip: BUY THIS GAME NOW.

Even if you don't have a 360. Its very presence will exude quality, and the manual alone will compel you to spend £200 on an Arcade version, at least.

Other than that? I've mostly been looking forward to other games due to come out very soon. Army of Two, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Spore... can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

Umm... Final Fantasy XII continues to disappoint; my brother David got a 360 jus recently; my Christmas present was not having to pay my Dad the £400 rent I owed him; Dante got me some kickass T-Shirts for my birthday... everything's ticking over quite well at the moment.

Oh, and I'm cycling to work now. Which is fun. I HATE THE WIND.

Check out my Twitter on the right-hand bar of the blog - that will likely be updated more often than this blog, so it's worth keeping an eye on if you're that interested in what I'm up to. Tally-ho for now.

"Picard to Engine Room... Geordie, what's that bloody racket?"

2007-08-04T00:26:00.000+01:00

So for some reason, one of my PC's main cooling fans decides to start making this godawful clunking / grinding / really-loud-whirring noise. This is not something I'm not used to; every time my PC starts up, one of my video cards makes a similar noise until the fan settles down. But this was different, I could tell.

I checked the fans that could possibly be the cause - the power supply, my two graphics cards, the side fans... nothing. It had to be the main fan, so I took off the side of my Alienware's case for the very first time. After some tinkering about and a quick call to Alienware Technical Support (open 24 hours and great customer service, by the by), I managed to figure out the reason, but not the cause.

The main cooling fan (the one on the back of the PC that extracts the bulk of the hot air) has somehow lost its ability to stay away from the metal grille that stops it from flying off its magnetic centre-point into the workings of the PC. It now thwacks across some part of that grille every single rotation, which is something like 10 times a second.

{Adam from Mythbusters}Well there's yer problem!{/Adam from Mythbusters}

Unfortunately, despite several attempts, I could not fix the damned thing. I verified that it was the ONLY cause by softly pressing the fan back into its housing a little (i.e. more towards the outer case of the PC), which immediately stopped the sound and even made the fan turn faster. Which I sort of expected. Letting it go caused the noise to return. The thing has a spring in it which keeps it a set distance away from the outer casing, but nothing to keep it away from the grille. Removing said spring crossed my mind, but that wouldn't have any effect. So the whole thing has come out.

Luckily, my PC never tends to overheat. The hottest my graphics cards have ever gotten was about 75 degrees. I understand that cooling is no laughing matter, though, which is why my window is open and I have a desk fan blowing cold air into the front intakes of my Big Blue Box. It's just over one and a half years old, so it's about time something went wrong with it. Hopefully there won't be any further problems, and I'll look into ordering a replacement fan to see if that solves anything.

In other news, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage is the best racing game, ever. I would be more detailed, but I honestly can't be bothered. Get the game yourself, or at least download the demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Also, the Ace Combat 6 demo from the very same place is worth a gander. Made me buy the previous two titles for the PS2. Osea, Yuktobania... ah, the memories of my first year at Uni and my wonderful little room.

Anyhoo, that's about it. Will no doubt update sometime in the next few weeks in a bit more detail.

Updating != My Strong Point

2007-07-23T21:54:00.000+01:00

For those of you who don't get the title of this entry, don't worry. It's only meant to be funny to a select few people. It's likely that even they won't read this, though. Basically, it reiterates that I fail at keeping any semblance of an update schedule. I'll try and summarise the happenings of the last two months in bullet point format.

- Got a Wii (with Wii Sports, Zelda, Wii Play, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Resident Evil 4)
- Got a 19" TFT Monitor and shifted my PC out of the cupboard, onto my black desk.
- Played WoW a lot more, leveling my Horde Alt with Dante and occasionally popping onto my main.
- Failed dismally at playing any of the games I intended to, aside from the new ones that came with my Wii.
- Worked, worked, then worked some more. Changed onto 8 hour shifts instead of 10, meaning less days off.
- Helped David buy a PC, which he managed to save up for (via me) very successfully. He's enjoying it right now.
- Went and saw Spider-Man 3 and Die Hard 4.0 with my brother Andrew.
- Played a few games of C&C3 on the internet with Dante.
- Bought another two copies of Emperor: Battle for Dune, just so I don't lose the bloody discs again.

Nothing major, then. Just life as usual. As for right now, I've ordered a couple of games and the entire Red Dwarf "Just the Shows" DVD series. I fully expect more stuff will be ordered very soon.

This has been me, updating you. See you next epoch.

Two Days Off

2007-05-25T21:53:00.001+01:00

It's been far too long a week. I've got two days off work now and by God I need them. Absolutely shattered.

The events of the past week or so have just sort of drifted by. I decided to cancel my PC subscription to Final Fantasy XI, then buy it for the 360 minutes later. It looks to be a lot better, despite being almost exactly the same. This is not to be questioned.

I bought a PC for my brother David. It was from a company recommended by my friend Dante, who I'm sure I've mentioned before. Cost about £450 or so, of which he's paying about £380, the rest being from me as an early birthday present. He's managed to pay quite a bit of it so far, which is impressive. It should be here within the next week or two - I'll be sure to post pictures of the machine when it arrives.

After a lot of procrastination, I hoovered my room. I can now walk around barefoot without accumulating... well, mostly more of me. Old bits of me, like hair and whatnot. It gets everywhere. I realise that none of you wanted to know that, but you don't exist, so be quiet. I also bought Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training for the DS, and have subsequently become semi-addicted to Sudoku. I'd managed to avoid the whole game for so long, too. Now I can't get enough of it.

Been trying EVE again; might even get a subscription this time, although it's seeming less likely now. This is linked to me playing WoW a lot more, with the 2.1 patch bringing some nice new changes. I might spec back to being a Resto Druid from my current Feral build, but only after I've done a lot more quests. Being a healer and trying to grind just don't mix well when you solo a lot. Oh, and I really need to play some more LOTRO. It's sort of lost some of the "shiny new MMO" value and is fast becoming simply mediocre in my eyes. I hope to hell that I find a second wind for it - I'd really like to like it.

In other news, Dante, Jaszon and I should hopefully be getting together for some more LAN Gaming sometime soon. Dante is getting home from Uni in a couple of days, and I shall convince them both that they like C&C3 more than BFME2. Might be able to play some WoW there as well, get my Horde Hunter alt through a couple of dungeons. And of course, I have two days off! Followed by a short stint of work, then more days off!

For the next two days, mornings are what I stay up until the early hours of, not what I get up in.

Semacode!

2007-05-17T02:31:00.000+01:00

Just a very short post to explain the strange new addition to the info panel at the right-hand side of the blog - it's Semacode. It's a new-fangled type of barcode that phones can read by using their cameras and some nifty software. My Nokia N95 comes pre-loaded with Barcode Reading software of its own, but it's available free from here as well (just choose your phone type - Java, for most phone models, I should think).

"Why are you posting this on a website?" you might ask. Well I might ask who you are in retaliation, because no-one reads this, ergo no-one should care by default. My main reason, though, is that I think this might eventually take off and I'd like it documented that I did it early. It's also there just in case anyone wants to use it for linking to my blog. I don't expect anyone will print it out or anything, but someone (again, imaginary readers) might be looking at this blog on a laptop and want to subscribe to its feed on the phone. Easy way of getting straight there without having to bother with typing out the URL on the phone - just point your camera at the screen. Doesn't work so well on CRTs, however.

Those are my reasons and I'm sticking to them. Oh, and I also think they look cool. Yeah, that too.

Mobile Blogging

2007-05-15T23:39:00.000+01:00

This post is the first of hopefully many that I will make from my shiny new Nokia N95. Using the email client, and the handy Moblogging service available on this site, I can just snap a picture and send it to my blog. It might require a bit of editing afterwards (this text, for example, was typed on my PC after uploading). But the theory is that I'll see something, Moblog it, then have an incentive to come back later on and edit it. Let's see what happens.

Also, enjoy this snapshot of Forres that I took earlier today. 5 megapixel cameras win.

Games and uh... More Games?

2007-04-27T23:27:00.000+01:00

It's getting to the point now where I'm really struggling to keep this up to date. I either have too much or too little to write about; the too little comes from not actually wanting to take the time to type up the too much. I'll do my best, though.

In the last few weeks, I've been playing the Beta, then the Early Access, and now (as of about an hour ago) the Full Retail Version of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. At first, I thought it was crap; DDO's gaming engine wrapped up in some shiny new graphics along with the LotR lore. This passed after a bit, and I could only really whine about the gameplay - this may sound tired to non-WoW-players, but LOTRO really doesn't come close to the standard set by World of Warcraft. Having said that, though, it's one of four (yes, four, argh) MMORPGs that I'm actively subscribing to.

World of Warcraft
City of Heroes / City of Villains
Final Fantasy XI
Lord of the Rings: Online

Lots of money. However, I pre-ordered the Special Edition of LOTRO, which (among other things) allows me to have a cheaper subscription for the entire duration of my stay in Middle-earth... works out to be about £5 or £6 a month, which is not to be sniffed at. I'll still try and play the others (CoH / CoV when the next Issue comes out, FFXI when I can get my hand on that blasted third expansion, and WoW any time I feel like it).

In other news, I've bought some more games. Dungeon Siege II arrived, or did I say that already? I also decided to by the original Dungeon Siege, because it is a superior game. Which is sad, really. I've also gone ahead and bought "Hotel Dusk: Room 215" for the Nintendo DS - so far, nothing special, but it looks as though it could be a really good game once I've gotten into it.

I ordered Theme Hospital again - seriously, this must be the fifth time I've bought that game... not just for the PC, either. My copies keep disappearing, but they're only £5 a pop, so nothing to lose any sleep over. I've been trying to keep playing Dark Messiah and/or start playing NWN2 again, but am currently failing to do both (when faced with LOTRO / Theme Hospital / Hotel Dusk, this could perhaps be seen as understandable).

On the console side of things, I've been playing a lot of Xbox Live Arcade as of late; specifically Boom Boom Rocket. This game is amazing; it's clearly meant to be a clone of DDR (hence the name and the gameplay), but instead of dancing, you detonate fireworks of different colours in time to one of ten tracks. One colour for each of the A, B, X and Y buttons on the controller. It sounds really simple (and it is, I suppose) but it's addictive and fun. I'm in the Top 50 in the world for some of the songs, which I'm really proud of. It's not like I'll stay there for any decent length of time, but it's the fact that I was there that matters to me.

In news that is not game related, I've watched all of the Harry Potter movies again, up to The Goblet of Fire. I've never properly watched the first two, I remember liking the third and I had never seen the fourth. They're all a lot better than I remember / expected them to be, with particular reference to the fourth - I actually sat up in bed for the Harry / Voldemort wand-battle-thing. Frankly can't wait for the next one to come out. Oh, and add Spider-Man 3 to that "can't wait to see" list, too.

Hmm... think that's about it covered. As you can see, I really don't do much else apart from gaming. Some LOTRO-related news that may be interesting to my non-existent reader base is that I've joined a guild; The Red Band of Cardolan (will link the homepage at some point). We're based on the Laurelin server, which is the first of the RP servers for LOTRO. I thought I'd try something different, considering that I never really got into RP with WoW. I've also made some videos of LOTRO, specifically bugs and one particular guild event which we're all very proud of.

I'm aware that I'm beginning to ramble, so I think I'll end this post here. Again, this may be updated with links to the items mentioned at some point, but this is best done when daylight has not so long passed. More sporadic updates to come.

Buying Too Much

2007-04-09T23:33:00.000+01:00

Yes, as the title suggests, I am currently spending far too much money on things. I've mentioned this before, but I keep doing it. Not on RPGs this time, though, which is a step in the right direction. I seem to have focused mainly on bargains or things I really feel I require. Granted, I regularly feel that I require a Wii and a PS3, but I have managed to resist thus far.

Nothing spectacular has happened so far in April, with March coming to a fairly uneventful conclusion as well. My friend Dante came back from Uni for the Easter Holidays, so there was some playing of Battle for Middle-earth II at Jaszon's house. I brought a couple of my new purchases (Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe, for example... only £7!), but we didn't end up playing anything else. Aside from WoW, of course, but I consider that more of a life choice than a game nowadays.

I've also decided to order a new keyboard and mouse. I've chosen the same models, however; you can't go far wrong with the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard and the Logitech G7 Gaming Mouse. They're the epitome of current PC gaming input and I love my current ones... except that they're either broken or breaking. My keyboard suffered a shower of Stella Artois and the keys are now sticky as hell. Add to that the strange fact that the 'O' key seems to switch between not working and typing the ¬ symbol, plus some freaky fault with the backlights, and I thought that buying a new one was the best plan. As for my mouse... I think the little sensor underneath the left mouse button that tells the PC you've clicked it has given up the ghost. Or just gone a bit wonky. You click once, you've clicked anywhere between 3 and 8 times. Makes dragging and dropping, or any other task where clicking the left mouse button is important, very difficult.

My new keyboard arrived a couple of days ago, and I'm waiting for delivery of my mouse. I hope the battery life on the new one is a bit better, too; my current ones only last a day or two, depending on how heavy my usage is.

I've pre-ordered the Special Edition of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. FilePlanet offered subscribers the chance to play in the Beta, so I snapped up the offer, having missed previous Codemasters Stress-Test opportunities. After initial impressions of WoW-Clone-Done-Badly-Wrapped-Up-In-Prettier-DDO-Engine, the game began to grow on me. Laggy and spammy as the Beta was, I really think that it has the potential to be a big MMO... the lore alone will see it in good stead for a long time. Because I've pre-ordered the game, I'll get 10 days' early access to the live version and some special bonus items. Jaszon ordered it, too, and seems to be very happy that it includes a hard-back manual. I'll be sure to post my future impressions of the game once it arrives.

Let's see, what else... ah, I've joined the Pure Pwnage Gamer Army. I've got the dog tags and Special Ops access and everything. I've a feeling that I'll wear these dog tags a lot more than I ever did my Griever Ring or NWN2 Ring (though both of those are still cool). I'll eventually post a picture of them, along with a new Phoenix Wright-themed T-Shirt I bought as well.

I'm sure there's more that I haven't mentioned. On retrospect, it might be that March / April was an eventful period, but I was simply too distracted by parcels arriving every morning to take any notice. I'll likely come back and edit this post to have links to important items, but I'd rather get something posted, just to keep reassuring myself that I've maintained my committment to keeping this blog updated. I mean... not that it matters or anything, since nobody reads it, but it's nice to look back and be able to read something and think "I remember doing that".

... I think I may have already said that, though. Hmm.

Quick Post

2007-03-23T00:02:00.000Z

Not been on the internet much recently; darting between playing my 360 and my DS. As predicted, the new Phoenix Wright rules. I've convinced Jaszon to get both games - he will thank me for it.

Decided to start Final Fantasy XII again, since I am FAR too low level for my area and I feel disconnected from the plot. Seems to just be cut-scene, run through enemy infested area, cut-scene, run through enemy infested area, OMG shop, boss, cut scene, etc.

Reading has slowed down a bit. Waiting for games to arrive in post (namely, Atelier Iris 1 and Final Fantasy III). Watched all of Series 1 to 4 of Scrubs and almost all of Black Books. Trying to decide which RPG to start playing again on my PS2 (so many to choose from!). Right now, however, I'm going to bed. Sleep is simple and always enjoyable.

Quite the Shopping List

2007-03-13T23:08:00.000Z

It has occurred to me that I buy a lot of stuff. Not useless stuff, mark you; proper gaming / entertainment supplies, usually. There aren't that many weeks that go by where I don't have something delivered to my door. Normally, the delivery is a game, or several games. Sometimes it might be a DVD. Once or twice I might go crazy and get something like a Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Power Morpher (nostalgia is a powerful thing), but not often.

This Spring is apparently a very busy season, however, as I seem to have an inordinate amount of "stuff" coming to me in the next few days. Lots of stuff. Take a look at this inventory, which I can't be bothered creating hyperlinks for:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (DS)
Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance (GBA)
Atelier Iris - Eternal Mana (PS2)
Atelier Iris 2 - The Azoth of Destiny (PS2)
Scrubs (Series 1) (DVD) (Box-Set)
Scrubs (Series 2) (DVD) (Box-Set)
Scrubs (Series 3) (DVD) (Box-Set)
Scrubs (Series 4) (DVD) (Box-Set)
Black Books (Series 1-3) (DVD) (Box-Set)
Final Fantasy VII Sword Materia (Accessories for my BUSTER SWORD)

Yes, each of the Scrubs entries are individual; they all have 4 discs each. I really like Scrubs. And I've got some more stuff pre-ordered, too:

Scrubs (Series 5) (DVD) (Box-Set)
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (PC)
Final Fantasy III (DS)

I've also just realised how many console RPGs I have lying around that I've still got to play. Ever since I discovered MMOs, my time playing good old fashioned role playing games has decreased. I don't think I can list them all, but I've got at least 6 - old and new - with another load being ordered or pre-ordered. I really need to sit down some time and play through them.

But then again, it's nice to know that I have this huge backlog of games to tide me over should I need them. RPGs are the best games in the world, bar none; I'll play every single one I own, right to the end. You'll see.

Jaszon, stop laughing.

Lack of News

2007-03-10T18:04:00.000Z

Yeah, nothing much has really happened in the last few days. To be honest, this will probably be a recurring theme within this blog. My life is by no means exciting, and the very small number of people to whom I have linked this blog are probably never going to come back to it unless I link it to them directly. Again.

And yet I keep updating it, which is what I've intended to do from the outset; from the very first blog I started. It wasn't about who read it, but that it was there.

I've been playing Final Fantasy XI a lot over the last few days. I'm only a Level 9 Red Mage on the Remora server, but I've read a lot of guides about being a RDM and it seems like it could be fun. I'm having a bit of trouble getting into it in the same way that I did World of Warcraft, but I'm sure that will pass with time. Right now, I'm just leveling up enough to venture into the Dangruf Wadi without those damned Rock Lizards ganging up on me. I can cast Cure, but it's rather ineffective when you're dead in 15 seconds regardless.

Oh, and I've found that it is impossible to buy a copy of the third expansion pack for FFXI (The Treasures of Aht'Urhgan) online. There just aren't any copies anywhere. Seriously, take a look. They're all out of stock. Even eBay has nothing. It's unprecedented.

I've been slacking off a bit in the 360 and PS2 department of late, with no real progress on Crackdown, Dead Rising or Final Fantasy XII. Granted, I got owned pretty hard on FFXII by some stupid flying blotch of red... think it was called a Salamandite or something. It was floating around that sort of oil-rig structure over the Sand Sea. Figure I must have taken a wrong turn or something.

I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things in the next few days. I've been reading Discworld novels more than anything else, with The Last Continent and The Fifth Elephant already digested in a few days. On to The Truth now, which I've only read once before. Then onto Thief of Time, which I'm pretty sure is my favourite Discworld novel, if only because I've read it the most. I'll go and get something to drink now... ran out of Bru again.

Buster Sword Again

2007-03-08T18:59:00.000Z

Couldn't help myself. Here's another picture of my sword. My bed is a standard size single, and this beast is much bigger than that. It is WIN personified.

Well... swordified.

Belated Birthday Present

2007-03-07T19:56:00.000Z

So my friend Jaszon tells me today that my birthday present (from him and another friend of mine, codename: Dante) has arrived at his house. Considering that my birthday is the 31st of December, it is somewhat late. This is alright, though, because there's nothing better than getting a late birthday present that you weren't expecting in the first place.

Well, maybe there are a few better things, but shh.

Anyhoo, I keep pestering both Jaszon and Dante to tell me what it is. Dante just does the MSN equivalent of smirking and says nothing. Jaszon is a little more descriptive, saying that I might want to get a lift there and back, as walking down the street with it would be most amusing. He also said it was a lot heavier than he thought it would be and is well over a meter long. At this point, I'm fearing the worst. But when my Dad got home, I got a lift up to Jaszon's house... and this is what I find there waiting for me:

It's a freaking BUSTER SWORD. I really shouldn't have to explain why this rules so much. The thing weighs a ton, but that's a ton of pure amazingness. It has a leather scabbard and a wall mount, to boot. It's going above my window, because the only other wall big enough just happens to be the one my bed is up against. As cool as this sword is, I don't trust my walls not to let it drop on top of me at 4.30am.

Oh, just a note for those of you who fail at life and don't know what a Buster Sword is, check this link (look under Buster Sword and First Ken) for more information. It's an awesome replica of the Buster Sword used in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children; part of the six swords of the First Ken. The best one, if you ask me.

Rules SO MUCH.

Minor Update

2007-03-07T14:12:00.000Z

Not really much to update on, come to think of it. My earlier post regarding the play time of Crackdown reveals that the critics were accurate; the game really is too short. Whereas before I hadn't even taken down the first "boss", I've now almost completed the thing. Granted, it's on the easiest difficulty setting, but that's how I've always played my games. I start on the easiest, then I move through the difficulties. It adds longevity to any game. Still kicks ass, though.

Work is going well, too. Despite having only ever taken one or two Marks & Spencer calls before (email team, you see) I managed to do quite well on Monday and Tuesday. It's now Wednesday, and I'm on my first of three days off. Then back in for four, which sucks, but at least the calls are only flower orders and stores calling in to check things. I mean, come on... "Do we deliver to Wales?"

We do, in case you're wondering.

Aside from Crackdown, work and sleeping, I've mainly been re-reading some Discworld novels. Started from the beginning and I'm working my way through. It only occurred to me a few weeks ago that I still didn't have Carpe Jugulum, which was both shocking and exciting - I love reading Discworld novels that I've never read before. I'm up to The Fifth Elephant at the moment, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. I seem to be able to forget almost everything that happens in a Discworld novel, so reading them again is almost as good as the first time. That, and the Vimes novels are my favourite.

That's about it, really. Might head down to Tesco for some IRN BRU. Two 2 litre bottles should do me until Saturday, when I can just buy some 500mls from the cafeteria at any time. I'll be sure to post again should anything interesting happen, though.

Games and a Party

2007-03-03T16:50:00.000Z

I've not been online for the last few days - Final Fantasy XII, Crackdown and Dead Rising arrived, and I've been playing those basically non-stop. Three amazing games, from what I've garnered so far.

Final Fantasy XII was always going to be excellent. I've not yet found a Final Fantasy game that doesn't kick ass (quietly ignoring certain spin-offs which didn't quite measure up, in my opinion). Having played nothing but 360 for a while now, the graphics do look grainy and pixelated in comparison, especially on the environments side of things; graphics didn't ever matter to me, though, and Square have really done a god job of pushing the PS2 to its limits.

Battles are a thing that bothered me initially. I mean, yay, no more random encounters, but it just doesn't feel like Final Fantasy without them. This feeling has waned a little now that I'm progressing through the plot; when watching the cut-scenes and FMV, I know that it's a Final Fantasy, but the actual gameplay is missing something. A weird cross between Vagrant Story and something entirely new, the whole real-time / turn-based battling thing doesn't do it for me in the same way previous versions did.

The Gambit system is good; I like not having to worry about healing myself so much, as the battles are far too quick paced for my liking. Even slowing the fights down via the Config menu is far too speedy. The Licences system is, for want of a better word, bad. It's clear that Square have tried to take the best features of Final Fantasy X's Sphere Grid leveling system and apply them here, but they've failed. There's just too much to choose from, and I feel that Square have over-customised the whole character development side of things. They got it right in VII with Materia - go back to that!

Despite it being, so far, my least favourite Final Fantasy in terms of gameplay, the story is what I'm really interested in. It's shaping up to be pretty damned cool. The characters, acting, voices, plot... everything is there, and it is brilliant. I'll give a more in-depth review after completing it, but right now the general feeling is "kudos to the writers, but the game designers need to sit down with FFVII for a while".

Crackdown is equally amazing, albeit in a different way. It takes what I liked about GTA (driving cars about like a madman, basically) and combines that with a really intuitive combat and exploration system. I can't describe how cool it is to jump off a ten floor building, firing an SMG at a perp on the ground, lobbing a grenade at a group of four others, watching them and their vehicles explode and then landing safely.

I've seen reviews that praise the game highly for the gameplay, but criticise its longevity. A lot of people are of the opinion that the game is far too short; I can't really comment at this stage, as I've not even defeated the first gang kingpin yet, but I'll get back to that after I've completed the game.

Dead Rising is a different kettle of fish. It's got what I expect to be a corny storyline, some really poor characters, the on-screen writing is far too small for anyone without a 42" HDTV to read... but I'll be damned if ploughing through a hundred zombies with a lawnmower isn't some of the best fun to be had on any gaming console today. I pick up a bowling ball, and I can smash their heads in with vim. I've taken to shouting "FACE!" every time I do so. It's just good, clean, zombie-killing fun from the masters of survival horror (Capcom, in case you fail at gaming entirely).

Aside from gaming, I got very drunk last night. It was the Vertex "End of Vodafone Contract" party, and it was a lot of fun. I had a very small but very nice meal (I'd eaten not long beforehand) and I imbibed copious amounts of alcohol before making it home at about 3am. Somewhere in there, I also managed to dance with a couple of very lovely ladies and have a very interesting conversation with another. I was a gentleman to the last, though, ensuring that one of the girls got home safely after a taxi or two failed to arrive.

Felt rank today, though. Had to stop by the roadside when I was getting a lift to work to air out my stomach a bit. Feeling just fine now, though... not sure if all of the alcohol is out of my system yet, but I'll live. But the good news is that I have an impromptu day off tomorrow, thanks to the Marks and Spencer training being so damned easy. For now, I think I'll install my copy of Command and Conquer: The First Decade (just arrived this morning) and see about giving one or two of the games a shot.

Version 1.1

2007-02-27T22:07:00.000Z

Well, I've pretty much finished the look and layout of the blog, now. It's blue, has some info and links to the right hand side, shows the entry history and generally looks as cool as I'd like it to. Future improvements may include some sort of witty text somewhere over to the right, or perhaps even a picture. Right now, though, it'll do.

I suppose I should really post something, then. But here's where it all normally falls down; my life is generally boring. It consists mainly of eating, sleeping, working and playing games. Seriously, that's about it. I'll still give it a shot, though, as I would really like to have a blog that I can look at and say, "Damn, that's a lot of posts". I have a habit of forgetting things, so to have my life written down might teach my brain to remember a little better.

Right now, I'm awaiting the arrival of several games. I've ordered a whole heap of them from Play.com:

- Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
- Final Fantasy III (DS) (Pre-order)

These two games, by the by, will make my Final Fantasy Collection complete. You have no idea how long I've waited for FFIII to be released.

- Crackdown (Xbox 360)
- Over-G Fighters (Xbox 360)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (DS) (Pre-order)

The original Phoenix Wright is the single best game on the DS. Ever. Until the aforementioned sequel comes out, that is.

- Command and Conquer: The First Decade (PC)
- Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (PC) (Pre-order)

Just got the demo for C&C3 from FilePlanet, and it rocks quite hard. My expert game reviewing skills give it an 8/10, slightly let down because of the viewing distance / level of detail ratio and that the "this is where you've just asked your troops to move to" icon is white, square and the size of an Orca landing pad. A whole host of other things contribute to the 2 points from perfection, but I can't quite put my finger on them. Still looks like it'll be a kickass game, though.

- Dead Rising (Xbox 360)
- Best of Star Wars Collection (PC)

That about covers it, I think. Other than that, I've had a couple of days off in the last week, during which I've managed to reach Level 70 on my Druid in World of Warcraft. It lacked the sense of celebration that came with Level 60, to be quite honest, and I feel somewhat akin to a lost sheep. More accurate, perhaps, is that I feel like a wolf which has just seen every sheep in a field disappear into nothingness.

Tomorrow is my last day on the Vodafone contract at work (see this BBC article for more info). It's only a half-day, followed by two days off, then some light-hearted training on the Saturday and Sunday. Marks and Spencer is an easy enough contract to do; I was on the email team briefly in December last year, but I'll be doing phone calls, now. So bear in mind that if you need to order anything from M&S (like, say, flowers or a new couch) and the person on the other end says "Good Morning, welcome to Marks and Spencer, you're speaking to Chris", you might be talking to me.

I think that's about it for now. It's certainly been a longer entry than I'd first anticipated. Hopefully it will be the first of many - I'll even add it to my Links bar in IE. I'll be back when something interesting happens.

A New Beginning

2007-02-27T20:43:00.000Z

Historically, I've been very bad at maintaining blogs. I've got several of them now, one of which I created and subsequently deleted no less than an hour ago. It didn't look very good, and was plastered with ads. Another I created here, at Blogspot, back when it was still in Beta. Granted, the switch wasn't that long ago, but it was all but abandoned long before that.

However, having managed to obtain a semi-decent URL for my ramblings to occupy, I hereby renew my ridiculous claim... "I'll try to keep this up to date".

With that out of the way, I'll cut this post short. The entire reason for its existence is to give me an idea of what a proper entry will look like. If all goes well, I should return in the not too distant future to type up said 'proper entry'. I really wouldn't hold my breath, though.