Okay, I promise to keep this update shortish and to the point.  Essentially, this is mostly centred around my 50 Things page and also around the future of this site.  Firstly, I’ve decided that for the likes of the books and movies entries, I’m just going to round up/down to the nearest full unit of 5, for simplicity, though the individual numbers will still be accurate.  Secondly, I’m starting to make plans for a London to New Zealand (via Hong Kong, Japan and Australia) trip using only trains and ships/ferries.  I shall also be doing this with at least 2 friends and although it’s a Xeno Storm project, it will be done in conjunction with Stormhaven Media, where we will have a special blog dedicated to our travels of a team.  Essentially, there shall be episodes that we upload to the show blog (along with other notes), and also as an extra, we shall have our own personal blogs so you can see stuff from our perspective.  There will also be a mirror blog which replicates the content on the show blog, as my plans at present are to have a show blog for use on the Stormhaven Media site, then a blog on the Xeno Storm site, so there’s a bit of crossover between the two sites.

This crossover system will be in place elsewhere too, but this is the most obvious (and perhaps simplest) example of its use.  Additionally, in order to somplify things, Stormkeeper dot Net will be moving to a unified system within the Xeno Storm Blogsite.  Granted, I may have said this before, but it’s worth saying again, for various reasons.  First of all, the reason why I’m doing this is to save myself a bit of space, though less logins to remember is another factor as well.  The other thing about it is that I’ll be linking the blog (and a wiki) to the forums, which will mean a single sign on for everything, which makes things a lot easier in the long run.  Additionally, I’ll also be looking at putting an addon that ties in domains to a WordPress account, which means very little overall will change, though in the early days, I may use my other personal domain to test things out while maintaining this concurrently.

Eventually though, I’ll be moving the blo over, and pointing my other personal domain to Stormkeeper dot Net.  I will also be removing all the games related tags (that I haven’t used) and the projects tags, though the games-related posts will stay put.  The reason for this is that my games blog is now going to be elsewhere, albeit temporarily, but games related posts will mostly be there now, unless there’s crossover.  The projects will be moved to a dedicated projects blog, along with the majority of my portfolio as well, which will free up space on my personal blog to do more personal stuff.  But yeah, there shall be a lot of reshuffling.  Additionally, I will have my own travel blog, which will both detail my mini and personal trips, but also will deal with my side of a team trips.  My projects blog will deal only with my own personal projects and tutorials, with my “travel blog” (which will probably get renamed) also handling my part of team projects, so I need to give a rethink of the blogs being called travel blogs.  Additionally, I think my projects blog may be more of a portfolio than anything else, so I may just rename it to that instead.  Even if it is a single sign in system, I still don’t want blogs all over the place, so will have to give stuff serious thought!

As well as domains though, I hope to use subdomains, but more on that later, once I’ve gotten a handle on things.  The first thing I intend to put up for XS is the forums, just so I can start getting stuff ready to deploy.  The next things I’ll be putting up are the FSIRC forums and also the pilot episode of the DiggerFeast and while not strictly XS related, there is some connection.  Either way though, I have a lot of plans for XS and will hope to carry them out this month, thus makingmy life a bit simpler.  I do feel I should inform people that I need to deploy ads on my blogs now as well, to help pay for server costs.  They were planned for any forums I run, but the blogs until now had remained ad free.  This will change over the next couple of months, though I’ll assure my readers that the ads won’t be intrusive or be the least intrusive out there.  Either way, these ads will help keep my sites active, or at least allow me to expand my operations.  I do have other plans for revenue generation as well, but they might apply more to my other websites more than here, possibly.

I’ll leave it at that for now.  Watch this space for details as to updates with this site, and also when the XS forums will be relaunched!

Between looking at my blog, and also the email asking why I haven’t updated, I’m now very much aware that I kinda disappeared for the past 4 months! Unfortunately my first trip to the USA wasn’t really all that good on the whole, but I did have a few nice moments and while it wasn’t all gloom and doom, I ended up having to write it off. Still, I’m better prepared for when I next go there. Anyway, because of all my hiccups across the pond, I was unable to do any episodes of the DiggerFeast like I planned, especially given the aftermath I was trawling through right up till late last month. However, I have at least managed to make preparations for a pilot episode, though whether I am doing it solo or with others is currently dependent upon whatever happens over the coming weeks. The DiggerCast was subject to a similar fate, but rest assured, now that I’m back home, and in (somewhat) of a right mind, I can continue the DiggerFeast and DiggerCast soon.

However, given that I’m going forward with my Stormhaven Media idea, it is very likely you won’t see a DiggerFeast episode for a few weeks, at least till I get the blog setup there. As for the DiggerCast, expect a new episode in the middle of October. Why then, you say? Well, the idea is to release eps every first and third week(end) and I need to focus on getting the team back together, as well as a couple new additions, plus given I haven’t worked on it for a while, I need to update the site list and also setup a page template! Rest assured though, the final format is nailed, and thus is the most complete show. Coincidentally, the DiggerFeast will likely follow a similar skeleton framework, for the reasons of consistancy at least. I am wondering at present as well if it’s a good idea to put everything in a single blog, although that said, WordPress is powerful enough to be modded for multiple purposes, so I think it would be the best option, in all fairness, especially once I learnt how to sort the domain stuff out. I’ll think of something eventually.

Read the rest of the entry »

I’m just showing people a possible look for the reviews system on Gamed Up, although admittedly, I think I have an idea as to how I’ll be changing the images…

What's the score?
Presentation
How the game itself is presented, i.e. the story, plot, design, and the ideas the developer was trying to convey. Also covers how well everything is implemented.
Audio
Covers sound and music.
Visuals
How everything in the game looks.
Gameplay
How the game is to play, such as the controls and how everything interacts together, as well as how fun it is to actually play.
Value
Is the game worth buying at its current price? Also, will you be able to play the game again or is it basically going to be thrown away after completion?
Overall
This is the overall score of the game, which is NOT calculated by average

Here is a list of the descriptions of each score as well, to quantify the numbers in words:

0 – Non-existant (Features*) / Don’t bother (Overall)
1 – Terrible
2 – Awful
3 – Bad
4 – Below Average
5 – Average
6 – Above Average
7 – Good
8 – Very Good
9 – Excellent
10 – Outstanding (Features*) / Must-Buy (Overall)

* Features is defined as Presentation, Gameplay, Audio, Visuals and Value.

I just thought that I’d announce that I’ve knocked off 2 movies from the IMDB top 250: The Kings Speech and Inception.  Granted, I haven’t seen all of The Kings Speech, but it’s enough to say I watched it all the same.  I shall be finishing it off on my way back home, or I’ll watch it after I get home.  Suffice it to say, at least I’m making progress somewhere  I have also updated other parts to reflect my goals being even closer, such as the wolf one and the company one.

Warning: This post contains some mild profanity.

This is just an short update while I work on my main post (which should be out over the next couple of days), but there’s an article over on ZDNet which  essentially states that the 3D TV “revolution” is a waste of time!  I could have said that ages ago, but yeah… 3D TV is totally pointless.  I’m actually even wondering if the 3DS might be a bit giimmicky, but I’m gonna let it slide for now.  3D TV itself is rather pointless as a technology, but then the companies seem to expect (or rather hope) that we’ll spend money on a technology that at present is nothing more than a gimmick, especially when we’re barely taking advantage of HD at present!  Yes, I’m all for innovation and all that, but honestly, 3D TV is pretty much just a fad at present and I don’t see it becoming any more than that considering we’re still trying to get used to HD, which as of yet still isn’t a standard technology.  The ZDNet article implied that instead of adding a new gimmick to TVs, they should focus on making HD TVs more affordable and available to the masses.  And given in the UK there’s a Digital Switchover planned over the next couple years, I do think this is more important.  Admittedly though, where I live has no digital coverage at all, and only poor analogue coverage… I wish that were sorted out.  So, instead of fixing present tech, people seem more focused on “The Next Big Thing”, even though in this case, what’s being touted as such is just a gimmick.

Okay, maybe I should go back to the 3DS; I had a chance to play one for a little while, both at the airport before flying to the States and also in a local Walmart, so I am at least reasonably well informed about the 3DS.  I have also glanced at the 3DS Wikipedia article, and while I’m intrigued by the majority of the 3DS’s specs, I’m still not 100% sure about the 3D aspect.  Even more amusing is the fact that the cameras haven’t even been upgraded from the 0.3MP!  It’s not like I’m expecting something like 16MP with the cameras, but the least they could do is increase the sensors to 1 or 2MP; those are cheap enough to at least provide decent resolution on a larger monitor; consider the fact that the SD Card can be used elsewhere, like for printing pictures to paper… also consider that a picture resolution that is over 3-6 times larger than the camera of the DSi, which means sharper pictures.  There has already been comments (based on what has been said in the article) that 3D versions of movies look worse than their 2D counterparts, but then again that is to be expected given the way the films were initially filmed.  I suppose though, to give Nintendo its due, it did at least stick 2 camera sensors on the front so the 3D effect would probably look better than what you see in the movies.  Ironically, I was actually thinking Anaglyph 3D was cool (and still do to an extent), but I really don’t know how 3D adds to movies… sure, it looks good with a still image, but when it’s done with an entire movie, it starts to lose its appeal.
Read the rest of the entry »

I’m totally aware it’s been almost 3 months since my last blog entry.  I keep on forgetting to update the blog, although admittedly, I do have a couple expansions planned for this very blog.  First of all, I’m gonna be setting up a travel blog in anticipation of my 2 months in America, which will also (hopefully) have accompanying vids and pics.  I’m also planning a projects blog and a few other things, although they’re very slow in coming.  And I’m totally aware I’m supposed to be doing that Pocket Games video… I haven’t forgot at all, it’s just that it’s very hard organising a weekend of filming with friends at times, given when we finally do meet, we usually end up going out, but I haven’t forgotten!  There’s also the fact that a few unexpected circumstances occurred, which didn’t help things either.  If needs be, I’ll do it when I’m in America!  Other than that though, a new DiggerCast episode is up, with another to come in 2 weeks, and hopefully a pilot of a show called the DiggerFeast.  I’ll update with more details later on as this is more a post to say I’m still around, and I’ll write something more substantial than just tweets soon.

I’m doing pretty well this month… two three posts!

Anyway, I figured that I’d give a little update on things.  First of all, I’d like to make a couple of announcements, one of which affects this site directly, and one which is to do with a related website.  The most important announcement is that over the next few days, I’ll be moving all my websites over to a new web server, which means that some of the sites I own may be down for up to a couple of says (in rare cases, it may be longer).  Additionally, I’m doing a reshuffle of the structures of some sites, so you may find that even after the move is completed (it will be announced), some sites may be down while they’re moved to their new homes.  I’l post up more about this at a later date.  Additionally, I’m hoping to upload a new DiggerCast episode either before the end of this year, or not long after New Years.  Yes, I’ve been a bit slow with it, but I’ve been having issues with the recording software which caused a lot of recording to not be saved!  I need to record the final few minutes of this episode and upload it.  There will be a special episode recorded this month as well, but it isn’t due for release until after New Years.  I’ll make a post on the DiggerCast website in due time elaborating on all this more.

Now, another thing I have to mention (and this is quite big) is that the Pocket Games Review will be done in multiple parts, starting from this week.  I’ve finally managed to organise someone to film with, so we can play the games and give a better review of  the game, seeing as playing them alone is no way of reviewing them!   Also, seeing as Gamed Up won’t be up for another month or so (though it does have its own blip.tv and YouTube accounts), I’m both announcing it on here and posting the videos part by part on my personal YouTube account (TheStormkeeper for those who don’t know – though I don’t think anyone did!), then I’ll post up a more combined video up on the Gamed Up accounts.  Admittedly, this means that the videos may still actually be split up into parts on YouTube, but at the same time, they’ll be a little more coherent in some ways.  I can’t tell you what I’ll do yet, but rest assured, I’ll sort something out.

If any of you have been following my tweets over the past 2-3 weeks, you’d have noticed that I have been in touch with the lovely people over at pocketgamenews – who are a part of Cadbury, who set up a pocket game competition a few months ago as part of their new chocolate bar Spots v Stripes, which was created to commemorate our winning of the Olympic bid – and they are eagerly awaiting the video which I said I’m going to do!  So first of all, seasons greetings go out to the Pocket Games team and secondly,  I hope to have the first part of this video series recorded and uploaded by Tuesday, with a blog entry on here following not too long after the next videos are to be uploaded.  As for what’s in this first video, it’s essentially going to be me introducing the games, showing each of them off (and avoiding touching the chalk if possible!), then talking about them a bit, and essentially giving my first impressions of them.  Due to the fact that I’m using my laptop’s webcam for this, I won’t be able to show off how everything works with them in this video, but that’s why I’m doing it in multiple parts!

The following part will be myself and my friend Ollie (who some of you will know from the DiggerCast) demonstrating the games better, then playing each of them and giving them a verdict at the end.  This ensures that we give each game a fair amount of playing time and makes things easier  in the long run.  And of course, in the great Spots v Stripes tradition, we’ll each be either supporting Spots or Stripes.  As for who will be which though, all will be revealed in the next video!  In the meantime however, I need to get myself a haircut, to prepare for my video début as I need to make myself look reasonably professional, though I have no idea how I’d manage that overall… though I can but try.

A bit late for many of you, but I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a great (and safe) New Year… I know mine will be better this time round!  I’ll see you all next blog entry.

I imagine that these ones will be shorter than usual as I’m adopting a drip-feed stance at the moment, for some reason. This will essentially mean more posts, but smaller ones. Anyway, I have a few things I want to mention. First of all, there will be an important development from next Monday. I’m going to be moving servers, so the site may be down for a few days, though this also means I have the opportunity to implement new things, although admittedly, the things that get priority are existing concerns, as while I do have websites to start up, I think the existing ones need more attention first. I do have a few projects planned though. First of all, I have found a way to keep track of my top 250 movies list with an app on Facebook called Twofifty, which I saw a friend of mine add, so it shold be a bit easier for me to keep track of what I watched now, although I may have to keep in mind that the top 250 on that list are going to be in flux at the bottom, though at the same time, there shouldn’t be too many changes given a lot of the films are classics; I’ll just have a buffer of 10 and then essentially make up the 250 from the combination of the moving movies. Additionally, I signed up to a website that does book stuff, but the name escapes me at present although it looks like I’ll be switching to allconsuming.net, as I just signed up to its sister site, “43things”… after much hassle in getting my username and linking it to Facebook properly! Thank god I won’t have to do that again!

Actually, it seems my hassles won’t give up, as even though I deleted my accounts, it still thinks it’s linked into Facebook on those accounts. I’m not happy, but not much I can do at present… at least I have the nickname I want. I’ll sort out FB integration later. Anyway, after that exercise in frustration, I figured I’d also mention that I’m going to be making a couple YouTube vids and a blog entry related to the Matterbox, which I just received in the post today. There was a chocolate bar in there (emphasis on was) and also 2 games there which people are asked to review, so what I’m going to do is make an entry, and using pics that someone else has taken (properly attributed of course) write a bit about it, then the first video will talk about the stuff in it, and the second one (possibly a pair) will be with a person playing both games. It’ll make a change from the DiggerCast, which coincidentally is moving home, but the domain will still point to the DC’s current location, and in the future, it’ll be like it is now, although for the foreseeable future, the blog will get moved into its own space, till I work out how to move stuff into a multi-blog and put a domain on top of it. Of course, that’ll happen after everything has been moved over. Oh, additionally, I will be using the Rating WP plugin on the current DC site and future Podcasts website, so people can rate the episodes (be gentle!). It goes without saying that the Gamed Up website’ll use it too for its reviews system, though people will be able to give the game their own score..

I’m also hoping to gather a team of people for the DiggerCast, so we can make sure it sticks to the new pattern I’ve planned out for it (once every 2 weeks is an episode). I plan on uploading the 2 episodes I have recorded soon, but the new eps recording this coming weekend won’t be up till Xmas Eve; I will upload the 2 outstanding eps that weekend though just to have them sorted. There will be one ep in January which will be a farewell episode with regards to the Phase designation, meaning it’s going right into production! Regular series episodes will start in February, and will be uploaded once every 2 weeks, recording the weekend before, giving time to edit the episode and eventually transcribe it. Either way, with the server move happening, it gives me an opportunity to integrate stuff better and get a decent system going. Hopefully by the start of next year, everything will be sorted, and I won’t want to tear my hair out >.>

I’ll add more updates in due course. Oh, and before I forget… I’m not playing Guild Wars for a while now, given I’m getting into Lord of The Rings Online, and hopefully will be setting up a kinship (when I have enough people to). I’ve gotten myself and 2 other friends addicted to it, so we’re gonna be travelling Middle Earth for some time. If anyone is actually interested in joining us, let me know here and we’ll see about questing together. Additionally please note that we’re on the EU version of LoTRO, so US people can’t join us, but I will at least make inroads to have an equivalent US version of what we’re doing.

Watch this space for updates.

Edit: I’ve just made progress with my 250 movies goal, although admittedly I’ve seen them in the past but I’ve seen them so much, i want to take them off the list so I can focus on other movies instead, especially ones I have but haven’t seen in a while. or even haven’t seen at all!  Still, progress is progress.  I can also update the entry regarding podcasting, seeing as the DiggerCast is going into a proper production phase which I”m going to dub G2, given that There was a G1 ep posted (under Phase 1), and phases 2 and 3 were planned with a few test recordings (but never released), so the 3.5 phase is the true G2.

I could have sworn it was longer than a month (no need to get nitpicky!) since my last post, but it appears that I am roughly within the threshold of a month. I have a fair bit to write, but I can’t fully go into anything now, as I’ve got a concert to go to. I sadly haven’t won a Wonderborg as of yet, but the search will go on. I have lots of plans for the new year as well, although again I can’t go into them. One thing I will mention though is that the DiggerCast is finally going out of its test phase and into a proper one, although this won’t happen till February. It also got mentioned on someone’s podcast, although at present, I’ve no idea what podcast! I will find out though. I’m also tightening up my website structures and bringing in AdSense across the board on my sites from next year, although I can’t do much at the moment apart from add another forum, as after that, everything else is in lockdown until I move stuff to the new server, though updates will still occur as it makes things less of a headache to sort out.

Either way, 2011 is looking like a good year… well, better than this one in any case

Which means eventually I’ll be making one of my customary huge posts again soon. I plan to do a report of sorts on the Dublin Paranormal Convention this Friday. Additionally, I should mention that I lost the bid on the Wonderborg, which is unfortunate, but it does happen. I am currently looking for other ones as I really want a second one to play with to further my robotics stuff, which may end up gettings its own blog at the rate I’m going, or rather an A.I. and Robotics blog, in addition to coverage on a future projects blog.

Anyway, the main reason why I’m making this short post is because I stumbled upon this interesting post on someone’s blog (which was linked from a chat site I frequent,  named UKCB): National Novel Writing Month 2010, but given I’m still trying to get things sorted out, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to participate in this year, though I will however be committing myself to it next year, especially as I hope before the end of the year to take up writing again in some form… most likely with a new Forum Sim (Roleplay) I’m working on with a friend. as part of Xeno Storm, so watch out for that, and the addition of a wiki.

And also, I managed to find a full copy of my detective/comedy novel from 2004, although admittedly I’d end up rewriting it from scratch (though would keep a few elements) if I were to look at redoing it these days.  I’ll upload it in its current state soon (and update this post when I do) as a scrap to my DeviantArt, as well as to the XS Wiki, when it’s up and running.  Given it took me years to find the document, I want to have it in a safe place that’s not on my desktop, which is deciding to act up.  Just keep in mind that if you do read it, I know it sucks… it was written by me when I was younger and had certain things on my mind at the time.  I think the premise could still have merit, although I’d rather get myself into the Forum RP before I take that on as a project for NaNoWriMo. Admnittedly, I may just decide to develop it away from it instead and run with another idea; I can’t predict that far ahead though. In the meantime however, I have a lot of stuff to work on with websites, most notably a client’s site, followed by the XS RP forums and the wiki, then I’m going to look at other sites that may need attention, though I think I might spend this month focusing on XS entirely, with the exception of the client website.

I nearly forgot… I’ve now officially cancelled my ST Online subscription for the time being, so I’ll now have more money to invest, though with Lord of The Rings Online now becoming free to play, I’ll be focusing on tht a bit more. I’ve also been busy with Bush Whacker and Backyard Monsters on Facebook and I’m hoping before the end of the year, I’ll have a proper gaming blog to work with! I’m also off to Ireland on Friday for 2 weeks, so I’ll be writing a bit about that, no doubt, in addition to the Dublin Paranormal Convention, and also a security conferance I’m going to be attending towards the end of my trip.

It’s going to be a busy couple of months either way by the looks of it!