Blog a Day 28 of 365 – Back in the good old days
It was back in 1991, and I was about 13-14 years old. I loved my trusty Commodore 64, I used to spend my pocket money every week on a new game, buying a budget title I’d probably never even heard of before, just because I liked the look of the box. This was back when budget titles could be picked up for £1.99, and there was a game shop only about a 5 minute walk from my house, so I was in there all the time, and my collection of C64 games easily went into the several hundreds.
Around about the same time, the film Hudson Hawk was released, starring Bruce Willis and Andie MacDowell. It got pretty much panned in the media, but I liked it because of how silly it was. A tie-in game was released on several platforms, with the C64 being one of them, and because I liked the film, I bought the game as well. It turned out to be a very enjoyable platformer, and I completed it several times, learning the game inside and out. It probably only took a few hours to complete (like a lot of games back then) but I remember enjoying it a lot.
You may be wondering where this randomness came from. Well, I was just browsing a site called Lemon 64, which has listings of a ton of games released on the Commodore, and often links to reviews from Zzap 64, the main C64 magazine from the time. I remember I used to buy the magazine every month, taking it into school and reading it with friends and sharing it around. Then a random memory hit me – I actually had some tips published in the magazine, and unfortunately never kept the issues I was in, something I always regretted. After a little searching on the Zzap 64 website, which seems to contain scans of all the magazines, I was able to find the 2 issues which contain my tips. As you may be able to guess from my paragraph above, the tips were for Hudson Hawk, lovingly drawn maps that showed all the information in each level. If you’re interested, you can see my tips here and here.
Looking back, I can’t remember why I actually drew the maps and sent them in. The game wasn’t particularly hard or challenging, so while the maps were hopefully useful to some people, they weren’t really necessary for most people. I wonder if I just wanted to see my name in print. I remember being so excited when I saw myself in the magazine, I showed everyone in school who was willing to look, some of whom had no interest in games at all. Things aren’t really like that any more, and I kinda miss them. With the amount of information available on the internet for a game, from official websites to countless reviews, FAQ sites and message boards, there is always somewhere to go if you’re stuck or just after some info about a game. Back then, there was nothing like that. If you wanted to read about a game, you had to buy a magazine, and if you were stuck, you had to hope you had friends who could help you out, or you hoped someone would print some tips in the magazine. I remember reading virtually every issue I bought from cover to cover, devouring all the information I could about what was available. Nowadays I’m much more selective over the information I read (as a gamer, on the writing side I have to know as much as I can), and I do sometimes miss those old days, the feeling of excitement when the new issue hit the shops and you’d rush out to buy it. And even now, with over 40 published reviews online, I’d still love to get my name in a print magazine again, even if it is for submitting some guides for a game. If I could manage it, I think that same excitement would hit me, and I’d show everyone willing to look, even those who weren’t interested in games. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll manage it again.
Blog a Day 27 of 365 – Mass Effect 2 completed
That’s Mass Effect 2 completed then, in roughly 48 hours or so. I have to say that it pretty much surpassed the original in every way, even with the story which I found really surprising, considering how much I loved the story in the first game. There were a few things I didn’t like, such as the forced scanning of planets for resources, though it was quicker and easier than driving in the Mako, and infinitely less annoying as it was impossible to get yourself stuck going up the side of a bloody mountain.
For me, one of the best parts about the game was discovered everything for myself. I’m a bugger at times for preparing myself for games before I get them, reading as much as I can about them, knowing what the achievements are, and knowing how best to handle different things. Here, I knew pretty much nothing about the game, staying away from all reviews, previews, forums, news that I could find. It made the game much better for me, as some things happened in the game I wasn’t expecting, appearances from long lost friends and the like, and the game was able to surprise me from time to time.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about the game itself, as there may well be people out there who’ve not played or finished it, but rest assured that if you loved the first game, then you’ll completely adore the sequel. Oh, and Miranda may well be the most attractive video game character ever.
Blog a Day 26 of 365 – John Terry and the England Captaincy
I forgot to get this blog post done in time yesterday. I’m really annoyed with myself over this one as I had a good post planned (the one below), and through a combination of forgetfulness and tiredness, just didn’t get chance to get it done on time. When I realised this at 2am, I decided to leave it to today as I didn’t fancy staying up any later on a Sunday evening. This will be the first of two blog posts today to make up for it.
So, on Friday John Terry was stripped of the England captaincy as a result of his alleged indiscretion with the ex-girlfriend of Wayne Bridge. I didn’t have a huge opinion on the whole situation to start with, and then a few thoughts started to come to mind over the past few days. I’m not going to judge John Terry for what he has allegedly done. I’ve never been unfaithful to a partner before, but I can’t imagine it’s always as cut and dried as some people seem to think it is, and while it’s not something I would ever condone, I started to wonder whether it was something serious enough to lose his cherished England armband.
One thing most of the media seemed to focus on was whether John Terry was still the right man to lead England on and off the field given what’s happened. While I understand that football is now more than just the 90 minutes on the pitch, I would always place emphasis on the ability to lead the team effectively above any off the field issues. If the player inspires others around him to give more than they thought they could, if he can wring every ounce of blood, sweat and tears out of his fellow players in the battle to win the match, that’s the main thing that matters to me.
Still, I decided to look back over some of the other recent England captains to see if they’re the shining lights of virtue our media would have you believe they need to be in order to lead our national team. The most famous of these captains is none other than David Beckham, a man who wore the armband with as much pride as anyone, who would run himself into the ground for his team, and who in 2004, while England captain, was alleged to have an affair with Rebecca Loos. Tony Adams, one of the best England centre-backs of the past 20 years or so, was made England captain in 1996, despite serving 2 months in jail in early 1991 for drink driving offences. Steven Gerrard, England’s new Vice-Captain and a man who has taken the armband on several occasions, has been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray (though he was later found innocent). And we now arrive at our new captain, Rio Ferdinand, a man who has been banned from driving 4 times due to various driving offences, and who was banned from football for 8 months in 2003 for failing to attend a drugs test.
All of a sudden, John Terry doesn’t seem so bad.
Blog a Day 25 of 365 – Not what I was hoping for
Not the result I was hoping for today in the Merseyside Derby. Given Everton’s recent good form, I was hoping we could go there and claim a draw at the very least. From what I’ve read, it doesn’t sound like we really deserved anything from the game, and I can accept that. Derby games are never really about form anyway, it’s often about who wants it more, who gets the luck, and who takes their chances. Today that was Liverpool, unfortunately for me anyway.
As suggested above though, I didn’t actually watch the game. That will probably come as a surprise to some, especially the ones who know how much I love football. For me, Derby games are the hardest to watch. As I mentioned in my last blog, Everton’s results can really affect my mood, and that’s made even worse if I watch the game. If I watch a Derby game and we lose, I’m like a bear with a sore head for the rest of the weekend, and given the fact we’ve not won at Anfield since 1999, going there and getting the win was a hope more than an expectation. If I don’t watch a game and we lose it, I can switch off from it and it affects me much less. Given my crappy week in work, coupled with the car accident yesterday, I didn’t fancy risking that kind of mood for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully our next match will bring a better result, and as it’s home against Chelsea, I imagine fans from Manchester, Liverpool and North London will be cheering us on. Fingers crossed we get the result that makes them, and me, very happy.
Blog a Day 24 of 365 – Car accidents suck!
Yup, they really do. Not me in a car this time (though I’ve had a few of them over the years), but my wife this time was unfortunately involved in a car accident this morning. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad, with some cosmetic damage to the car (front bumper and grill will need replacing, perhaps the driver side front tyre as well), and most importantly my wife is pretty much okay. She’s a little stuff, which is to be expected I guess, and no doubt she’ll be feeling a little worse tomorrow when it all kicks in.
It does show just how dangerous cars can be though. It was a pretty low speed collision by the looks of the damage to both cars (I arrived not long after the incident occurred, still trying to wake up), yet she is sore in several places. I don’t want to think about how bad the injuries could have been if either party was travelling much faster. I’m obviously just very glad and relieved that she is pretty much fine. Cars are just “things”, and things can be repaired or replaced. People aren’t so easy to fix, and often irreplaceable.
I was going to make a longer post about it all, but I’ve been with the wife all day, keeping an eye on her to make sure there are no after effects, and I’m tired. She’s finally ready for some proper sleep, and I think she needs to some proper cuddles to make it happen. Be safe out there everyone.
Blog a Day 23 of 365 – A quick one before bed
I was planning on making this post much earlier today, but after my work rant yesterday, things got even worse in work today and my post would not have been a particularly nice one to read. I might have also said some things about people I work with that may have gotten me into trouble if they’d read them. So I decided to wait until now, when I’ve greatly calmed down and can post something a bit more relaxed.
As the title suggests, I’m just about to go off to bed. I’ve had several late nights in a row (up till 2am, getting up before 7am for work), and with the weekend approaching, I always like to try and get the occasional early night on a Thursday to make sure I’m nicely refreshed for the weekend. With Mass Effect 2 to finish, and hopefully Bioshock 2 arriving tomorrow (unlikely, but it’s already been shipped, so you never know), I’d like to be awake enough to enjoy the weekend properly. With the way work has gone the past couple of days, I need a nice relaxing weekend hopefully filled with lots of fun gaming, enjoyable time with the wife, and some wins in poker wouldn’t go amiss.
The thing that would really make my weekend would be a win for Everton in the Merseyside Derby on Saturday. I don’t post about sport here much (if ever, before now), but it’s one of the things that is a deep part of my life. While I enjoy watching all sports, and partake in a few of them, nothing affects me more than football. A good result for Everton can make my weekend, while a poor performance can ruin in. As we play Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday, I’m not actually bothered about the performance, only the result matters. As some of the more honest Liverpool fans will admit, we outplayed them for long portions of the first Derby early in the season, but they scored twice and came away with the win. In football, you don’t always get what you deserve and that was one of those days, as we at least deserved a draw, if not more than that. So come game time on Saturday, all I want is an Everton win. I don’t care if Liverpool dominate the game for 89 minutes and we score the winner in injury time thanks to an own-goal, all I want is those 3 points.
Of course, if we could go there and outplay them completely and beat them 5-0, I wouldn’t pass that up either 
Blog a Day 22 of 365 – Oops, and a rant
Whoops, looks like I fail the challenge already, a combination of lack of sleep and poker distracting me enough to forget to do this yesterday. I obviously suck! I’m still going to carry on though, hopefully the good people out there will forgive me for my lapse. I shan’t let it happen it again.
After my post the other day saying that I quite liked my job despite some of the problems, I’m back to hating it again today. I wasn’t going to get overly specific, but I’m currently highly hacked off about it and I’ll happily say this and explain myself to anyone I work with if they happen to read it. We (myself and the other IT technicians) found out yesterday that we had to move offices. I won’t go into the whys and wherefores of why we have to move, but I agree with the decision to move us. We had no say into where we were moving to, as office space in the school is limited, but the one we’re due to move into is fine with me. There are a few problems with the room and the location of it, but the positives of the move more than outweight the bad.
Unfortunately we found out today that certain people in the school have made decisions regarding our room and how it will be used, all without even so much as discussing it with us. Now, I know we’re lowly IT Techs, we have no power in the overall scheme of things, but when the office is meant to be OUR office, surely we should be included in any and all discussions relating to the room and how it will be used? Whether that’s to do with the layout of the room or particular things that are going into the room, it’s meant to be our workspace for the next several years, so wouldn’t it make sense to actually speak to the people who will be in there, to see what we think about it all, rather than just telling us that this is the way it will be, and there’s nothing you can do about it? Not a lot in life gets my back up, but this really rankles me. It’s meant to be our office for the love of god, at least have the common courtesy to run these things by us before they get decided on and we have to live with the consequences.
Thankfully, after speaking to one of the people involved in one particular decision, we’ll at least get to discuss it later on, and maybe change a few things. Unfortunately though, I think a few particular issues that I have the most problems with will go ahead despite our reservations. I’ll still bring them up and see what people say, maybe they can convince me it’s a good idea. I doubt it though 
Blog a Day 21 of 365 – Sleep is for lesser mortals
I’ve never really been one for sleeping too much, at least not that I can remember. Ever since I hit University at 19, I’ve been pushing my body, surviving on an average of about 6 hours a night, or less. I don’t really recall why it started, whether it was a conscious decision or not, but it’s something that has stuck with me ever since, even now at 32 years old. People have often asked me how I can manage to function on 6 hours or less a night, and that they’d be half dead if they had done the same. The only answer I can give is that I’m just used to it now. With the exception of a few points in the day when I feel like I could use a power nap, I can function remarkably well on very little sleep. It’s a handy trait for a gamer, especially when I get a game I love and I just can’t put it down. I distinctly remember when Bioshock came out, I had it finished the first weekend it was available (on the Monday evening I think). I stayed up virtually all the Saturday night playing it, eventually breaking for a nap around 7am when I just slept on the couch for a few hours. After waking back up again, I just carried on going through the game.
There’s only so much any body can take though, and there are times when I push myself too far for too long. When that happens, I tend to find myself going to bed around 2am on a Friday night, and not waking up until lunchtime on the Saturday. I’ll feel really energised after a good sleep like that, and it’s often enough to keep me going for about a month or so before I need another night like it. I reckon I may need one of those lovely long sleeps soon, especially with Bioshock 2 due out next week. As mentioned in a previous post, the weekend after it comes out I have a 4 day weekend, which should definitely be enough for me to go through and finish the game, especially if my body is ready for a few really long sessions that last until the sun comes up the next day. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that the game is as good as the original was. I’ve stayed away from a lot of the news about the game, as I’ve done with Mass Effect 2, simply so I can go through it all and experience it without having any ideas in my head about what to expect. Bioshock was easily Game of the Year in 2007 for me, and I can only hope that the sequel matches the supreme quality of the first game. If it does, I’ll definitely be expecting a few sleepless nights.
Blog a Day 20 of 365 – Where does the time go?
I’ve only just realised that it’s the 1st February today. I’m not quite sure where the last month has gone, and why I appeared to miss it. It only seems a couple of weeks ago that we had the Christmas decorations up, and enjoying a lovely 2 week break from work. Now we’re already into February and the year is flying by faster than I thought. I don’t mind too much, as it just means that it won’t seem as long until I get time off work in the school half-terms.
I don’t recall time ever going this fast when I was a kid though. When I was in school, time between half-terms when I could have a week off playing football and computer games just seemed to drag on interminably. I never hated school as a kid, relatively enjoying lessons and playing football at every break and dinner time, but I always enjoyed being home more (and nothing has changed in that respect as I’ve gotten older). I was lucky to have various game-playing friends when I was a kid, so school holidays would often end up around each others house playing games like Kick-Off 2 and Sensible Soccer. I also remember one summer where a friend and I would play Championship Manager 2 on his PC for virtually all of the 6 week break. With him taking control of Liverpool and me managing Everton, we dominated the league for years. They were good times, especially the 6 week holidays in the summer. I do miss them, they seemed to go on forever. Now when I get a 2 week break in the summer it seems to fly by, especially if we go away anywhere.
I wish I still got those 6 weeks holidays now. I always seem to have so much I want to do outside of work but never seem to get the time, whether it’s completing old games I’ve not gotten around to, playing some poker, getting some writing done, going out to various places with the wife, or any number of other things. Having a few hours spare in the evening never seems enough to get everything done. It’s one of the reasons I stopped playing poker for so long, just nor having the time for it. Hopefully I can carry on managing my time well enough to keep all three hobbies going, I don’t want to have to pick between poker and writing as it would be a very difficult choice (gaming is in my blood so that will never get dropped). Let’s hope I don’t have to make the choice any time soon!
Blog a Day 19 of 365 – I hate Sundays sometimes
I suppose the title is slightly misleading, as I don’t strictly hate Sundays themselves. What I hate is the feeling on Sunday evening when you realise your relaxing weekend is about to come to an end, and you have to go back to work in the morning. I know there are several million people in the country unemployed, and millions more worried about their job security, so I feel a little shitty moaning about my job, but this is my blog so I’m allowed to vent as I see fit 
It’s not that I particularly hate my job, far from it at times. There are some parts of my job I really enjoy, such as some of the people I work with, and the challenge the job can represent occasionally. There are some things about it that I despise though, and as this is a public blog with my name on it, I’ll refrain from saying too much about it. Suffice it to say though, there are some parts of my job that I really dislike and would change in an instant if I had the power. These are both from a personnel point of view, and an actual part of my job I have to do every week. Even though direct interactions with these personnel can be very rare, they have the ability to completely screw up my day, and often my entire work week. I’m quite thankful though that I’m an easy going guy, and even when things at work get me down, I tend to bounce back from it quite quickly. I know that on a whole, my job could be a lot worse, and it’s thoughts like that that make sure I never feel too annoyed for long.
Still, in 2 weeks time I’ll likely love Sunday, as the following week is half-term which means there are no kids in school, and I have the Monday and Tuesday booked off as holiday. With Bioshock 2 released the Tuesday previous, I can spend my 4 day weekend playing through that, assuming I have nothing to work on review wise. Going back to work for the short week will be fine as well. Working in school in half-term is generally much more relaxed as there is enough work to keep me going, but not enough that I’ll be ran off my feet, and without kids and teachers around it’s so much easier to get things done. I can often just plod around the school with my headphones on listening to music, and I find the days tend to fly by.
Another good night for me in poker again, winning just under $30 after finishing 3rd in both tournaments I played, and winning another $12 in a cash game (mainly thanks to winning $28 in a single hand after someone with pocket Kings went all in against me, and I had pocket Aces). I’ve now already doubled the money I started with on Friday evening, in just 3 nights of playing. Considering I said I’d be happy to just break even the first week, things are going much better than I planned, but I know enough to know things could turn around very quickly. All it takes is a few poor tournaments in a row, along with some bad play in the cash games, and I’m right back where I started, if not lower than that. Hopefully I can keep this good run going for a little while yet, it would be nice to win this much every night as it would certainly make for a nice amount of extra money each month!
