You are Young, and Life is Long.

Good Evening, good evening, Good Evening! It's been a while, hasn't it? I believe the last time we spoke, all 4 Bee Gees were alive, and Jesus was hosting sermons somewhere in Nazareth! I'm not entirely sure where, but I've heard they were good.

Right, so it has been a while hasn't it? Deary me, I've tried coming back to write a post for so long, but I keep getting withheld by something or other. Never mind, because tonight is the night. The Bitch is back, and there ain't nothing you can do about it.

I wish I could say it's been a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions since I last posted, but if I did, I would be lying.

Screw it.

It's been a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions since I last posted. Chicks have been falling at my feet left, right and centre, I've been out getting pissed every night, and just last week I took a ride on a large firework as it propelled into the sky.*

In other, more mundane news (Just so you simpletons could perhaps associate with me on a personal basis), I've been doing very little lately. The main thing I suppose for me at the moment is the upgrading my PC is currently undergoing, so I'll touch on that.

I've always been interested in PC gaming. PC gamers are always on about how PCs > Consoles, and yet I've not yet had ample oppurtunity to give my distinct impression. PC's are fiddly, of course. They can constantly be upgraded (and generally need to be) to perform the best they can. This is fair enough, once you have a decent setup, then run with it.

People are always going on about the precision a Mouse + Keyboard set up offers, but at the moment, I can barely feel it. I've been practising for a long time with the Dual Analogue set up, and that comes so naturally, so perhaps I just need time to get used to it.


Why am I saying I need to get used to it? Because I just spent £150 upgrading my PC to be of a decent gaming standard (Visuals wise, I'm still waiting on a pro Keyboard + Mouse). Unfortunately, that leaves me little money to spend on games. In fact, I have enough money for about 1 game until Christmas. Shame there's so many to choose from :P

Far Cry 2

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Tomb Raider: Underworld
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

I could go on, but then this post would just be one long list, and where's the fun in that? Suffice to say, a lot of wallets will be crying come Christmas, mine included!

Regarding my new upgrades, I've had to send the Power Supply Unit back, as it was making a nasty rattle when stood upright, and I decided to spend the extra and have it swapped for a bigger better one. Never mind, as long as it all works when I want it to, then I'm happy. The other thing I need is a way to cool down my PC. It seems to be getting exceptionally hot, and I need to find a way to cool it. Once I've done that though, I'm alright :P

Whilst I remember actually, do you remember I once said that I was going to complete The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by the new school year?


It never happened! School starts on Monday, and today's Saturday. It's definetely not going to happen unless I start now, and don't stop till it's over. And that's definetely not happening.


Moving onto the subject of school;

:G

I suppose you could I'm anticipating it. After all, after this year, that's it for compulsory education! No more! Zilch! Nada, zip, nothing! Of course after that is College, but that's supposed to be awesome, so I'm looking forward to that.

Unfortunately though, I'm still at Bishop Wand for the time being, and I've got to make do with it's bells and whistles for the time being. I've received my new timetable, which is adequate enough. Strangely enough, I'm looking forward to this year, but I think that's mainly because I know it's my last!

I do feel sorry for the new generation of students though, as the government has brought in a new plan to keep students until they're 17.

Meh, fuck 'em!

*Note, these events did not actually happen, apart from the girls part. They just can't resist me!

Second Guessing

Bloody hell, an interesting thing happened to me today.

I logged onto my STEAM account for the first time in ages, and I find an old friend has gifted me Unreal Tournament 3. Bugger me sideways if that's not the luckiest thing you've heard all day! Shame I can't remember for the life of me who 'Smithy' is!

Under Pressure

It's 22:44 on Saturday evening, and yet I still have no idea what this blog post should be on. I'm beginning to think that perhaps I ought to give up the romantic fantasy of a post every day, and instead of doing some short and shitty ones every day, do some long bastards every so often. In case that notion becomes a reality I suggest you subscribe so that you never miss a post!

First off, I submitted the CVG application thing today. Apparently I should receive a reply, so whether it's positive or it's negative, the worst they can say is No, right? I think it was all alright, but of course I've never had to write a Covering Letter or anything like that before so let's see how it pans out. I know some people (I'm looking at you Ooks) didn't like my Opinion piece, but screw it, I got 10x more love for it than I did hate, so I'm-a work with that.

Next up, I've been getting more into Pure Pwnage lately. It's a mockumentary about the life of a Pro Gamer, and it's bloody hilarious. Just soo funny.

I'm over halfway through Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox now, and it seems to be getting better and better. It's still funny, still got plenty of twists and turns and the action isn't letting up. Great book.

Main topic I suppose of today's post is about Money, or my current lack of it. Unfortunately, I don't have some rich uncle who'll give me £x00000's when he dies, and I need to be wiley if I'm going to get any money on my own. Unfortunately, the other day I lost a fiver, which was a bitch, but never mind. I have about £60 it seems, but I rly need more. My original plan was to trade-in my DS games (and then just download them onto my R4 if I wanted to play them), but I've found that my Mother had the fantastic idea of throwing away most of my DS game cases. And unfortunately, only 2 are English, the others are American, so I can only trade-in two of them. Still, that's an extra £30, but when the oppurtunity was for over £200, you can understand why I might be annoyed xD I'll have to see if I can figure something out. Perhaps I'll just sell via ebay. Should still manage to fetch a few bob that way. Perhaps even more, who knows?

It's just that there's so many fantastic new games coming out, it will be hard to pay for them all, and although Christmas is coming, I'm not under the delusion some fat guy with a particular likening to red is going to fall down my non-existent chimney with a bag of games over his shoulder. Something WILL turn up!

As well as that, Im looking at putting my old MP3 player on ebay. Perhaps get about £25-£30 for it? Again, more money in my pocket!

I've been watching more films lately, with the most recent being Saturday Night Fever, Zoolander and Get Shorty. God knows how I'm going to complete any coursework if I keep getting distracted like this! Especially now that swimming has started up again.

On the topic of Swimming, Jesus Christ, yesterday's training was so hard I felt sick about halfway through. I haven't been through such pain and torture in a long time. Never mind, I'll get back into it!

Is there much else to say here? I don't think so to be honest.

Fun fact: This post was originally going to be called "Must be funny in a Rich Man's World" due to the money aspect.

Thank You for the Music...

First off, sorry about not updating yesterday, I felt truly bad :G But I do have a good excuse, as I was nowhere near a PC for most of the evening!

Alas, today will be a short one, as it's mainly my happiness at the fact I've got me a ticket to Video Games Live :D Yesterday, I chose myself a great seat, and I've just looked now, and the entire section has now been booked up. Good thing I got in early eh? Only thing I dislike now, is the possibility I'm sat next to someone fat old sweaty geezer xD

Never mind, it should be awesome, and hopefully it will be a seating close to a friend!

"Ah Music. A magic beyond all we do here." - Dumbledore

Comfortably Numb

My mind is blank, there's nothing to see here. It's mildly annoying, because I promised to update every day, and whilst I haven't failed that promise, it is becoming increasingly harder to do so.

Let's go Diary-style then.

HOME LIFE

It turns out that trying to get back into Swimming after almost 2 months off is a lot harder than I originally thought it would be xD
I'm currently atm in a debate with Rex McPwn about Michael Phelps actually, and I think I'm holding my ground quite well. There's another reason why I can't be arsed to write so much here :P

I'm getting there with Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox, and it's brilliant. It really is. I'm about 1/3 of the way through, but it seems as fresh as the originals did all those years ago.

Erm, my Mums now got 12 days off, so I suspect I won't be online as much (except in the evenings) so expect to see these posts in the evenings!

The Olympics are going fantastically well, and I truly love watching the sportsmen and women doing their thing. It truly is amazing to watch.

Bugger it, I've run out of things quite quickly xD

Oh, I've been watching some films on my iPod recently, The Longest Yard and Batman Begins being the most recent. Both were pretty awesome, even if TLY was quite hard-hitting for a comedy :G


If any of you were wondering what yesterday's awesome post (Although not so awesome if you ask Ookami lol), it was for the CVG Job application thing, just wanted to see what people thought. I got mostly positive responses, but Ookami really thought it was terrible xD Never mind, I shall send it in anyway, and see what happens. Obviously I'm too young to work there, but it would be interesting to get some kind of response!

Right, I think that's it for today. I'm shattered xD

"It just goes to show, never stick your dick in a pudding. It might still be good pudding, and you can spend all afternoon explaining that, but no-one's going to eat it because YOU STUCK YOUR DICK IN IT."

An Opinionated Piece on The Casual/Hardcore Split

We’ve all heard it – “Casual Games are killing the Gaming industry”. Wherever you go, whoever you talk to, ask any gamer and they’ll most likely tell you the same thing, that gaming is dying due to the new demographics being brought in. Now, this is strange, as casual games have existed since the very beginning, but it’s only now that people have become aware of it.

Picture the Scene. 2009, a game is released in which you play as an overweight carpenter, and the main point of the game is to climb ladders. This game would most probably win the award for “Casual game of the year”. However, throw the timeline back to 1981, and you have an instant hit, which only the most elite would play. However Donkey Kong (In case you hadn’t already guessed) is widely held as one of the more hardcore gaming titles, and yet the premise on which it operates shares some frightening similarities with the “Casual” gaming genre.

It is after all, devastatingly easy to pick up and play, with two simple controls – Move and Jump. The idea of the game is to save your beautiful girlfriend, and avoid simple obstacles. Nothing else to it.

And it’s strange, because every iteration of Mario since Donkey Kong has had the same basic elements - Colourful scenery, easy to pick and play, and a simple storyline. Yet this 1000x more hardcore than, say, Ninjabread Man (Bear with me, please!). So whilst Ninjabread Man is happily toted as the casual trash of the year (And I’m not denying it is trash), Mario lives on happy.

So am I saying that Mario should be publicly bastardised and made to admit his faults at the gallows? Or am I saying that the line divide between casual and hardcore is a blurred one, and that people should begin to realise that casual gaming is no different to hardcore gaming?

Well, as far as I can remember where I was planning to go with this, the answer is neither. Perhaps Mario isn’t a casual game, and perhaps there is a difference between “Casual” and “Hardcore” games. But the ultimate bottom line is this. Games were invented as a pastime to take people to a different world, where an ordinary person wearing a t-shirt and slacks could be a warrior, and a space that appears empty could hold a secret door to an alternate world. Gaming was invented to be fun, and if the player is having fun, then who the hell are we to judge?

It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Want to be a Swimmer!)

More of an Home life post today, simply as there isn't much to say about t'internets lately :G
Oh, one thing. I do believe that there very well could've been cheating in yesterday's iSketch heat, especially during that first point, and perhaps during the last as well. But never mind, it's only a game!

Swimming

As some of you will know, I'm a swimmer. Not a particularly fantastic one, but I make regional times etc. Also as some of you will know I've been taking a break from swimming, purely because I've been doing it for the past 7 years, and it was getting incredibly frustrating to do the same thing every night.
So, I stopped swimming at the end of June, and tonight is my first night back to training :G Luckily, it's reduced training for the next couple of weeks (Ie. Only 3 sessions this week, compared to the usual 8), and hopefully I'll start to get into it again.


It's strange, because I love swimming. I love watching it, I love taking part in it, I just love the sport. These Olympics so far have been fantastic, and I'd love to be a part of that. But I just find it so hard to take myself to the trainings. Once I'm there, I'll do the set to the best of my ability (obv) but it's the getting there, the motivation to get there that's the problem.

I don't know why this is, perhaps it just because I've been doing it so long I've grown to dislike it, but it could also be down to the fact that at the moment, we don't have a proper coach :G

I'll tell you the backstory, make what you will of it.

*Flashback Babe*

*Cyprus - March 2007*

The whole top squads in the club went to Cyprus for a training camp, and we had a fantastic time. The training was bloody hard, but damnit it was fun :) Incidentally, I won trainer of the camp there, and you have NO idea how awesome that was to me. I've always had insecurity issues, but to be recognised in such a way :G :D

Anyway, main point here.

Our head coach is quite young for a head coach, being only 24. She's also pretty good looking, but that's besides the point.

She has been suspended from coaching us due to an alleged incident which took place in Cyprus. Namely that she "took advantage" of one of the swimmers. The swimmer was above the legal age of consent, but that's not the point, the point here is that the head coach had relations with someone in her care, which is completely wrong.

Oh, and the swimmer was female. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

But yeah, about 6-ish months ago, she was suspended from coaching us, but hopefully she should be back soon. Hopefully. She's still being questioned and court hearings and all that shit. Personally, I'm not sure if I believe it, but it doesn't make a difference to me. We just need our coach back!

So yeah, back to training tonight. Should be interesting to see how unfit I am after all this time off xD

A small bit on money now, as I have just under £90 (From Paper round and other various exploits) and I plan on spending it on games until the year's out, but I'm not sure which ones are worth my money!

Any help?