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.

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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

It feel like it’s been ages since I last had a blog entry…. actually it has!  As you might have guessed, a fair few things have happened.  I’m gonna do them in random order, because right now I forgot a few things, due to being ill for the past week, though the past 3-4 weeks haven’t been great, but that’s not a topic for here.  Anyway, first of all, I have recently discovered The Oatmeal, with the help of a few friends and the wonders of Facebook and I had to admit, it’s quite good.  Hell, I even got a few questions answered, such as ones regarding i.e., e.g. and apostrophes.  I also learnt about how Anglerfish mate, which was fascinating in a crazy way!  I’ve also been reading about how unethical Internet Brands/vBulletin have become, helped in part by their announcement as to their taking legal proceedings against a start-up known as XenForo, formed by two ex-vBulletin developers (one being the former Lead) and also another former member of the vB staff, whose position there I forgot, though he acts as the XF business manager.  I’m not saying a lot about it, save for the fact that as soon as it’s feasible, I’m switching to XF and selling off my vB4 Suite licence, if anyone is interested in one, although admittedly, I can’t sell it off till my requirements in XF have been met.  I plan to buy a copy to play with the API, and am opening up the opportunity to play with it to members of my sites.  This is actually the first time I’ve felt really motivated to learn the API for something, especially as it’s in PHP, meaning I can learn some transferable skills!  And frankly, I need to learn something as I’ve had bad luck with finding jobs, and locally there’s no more jobs going at the moment!

I was planning on doing something with the WonderBorg and seeing if I can recode the programming application into something that supports both serial and USB infrared transmitters, but I amn’t sure if it’ll work now, but I might wait till I have a look at the application before I give up.  The WonderBorg is a nice piece of kit though if you’re into robotics, but they’re hard to locate now and are usually quite expensive; mine cost me £4.99 and they usually retail for £100+!  I want to get a second one at some point, but they may be hard to source.  I promise that I’ll talk about more later, but I’m really finding it hard to focus for now, but rest assured when I’m better, I’ll be able to focus more so I can type about more… still this is as much a little update as it is a reminder for me to type more and type up a little of what’s been going before I forget (yes I’ve been that bad)!  Still, it’s only a matter of time before I get better and will be going back to my few thousand word count essays XD

Until then, I’ll see you lot later.

Before I begin,  I’ve noticed that Twitter now has an apps system, which surprised me at first but I guess it was to be expected.  At least it might make things a bit more secure anyway.  I’m going to have to apply the same modification to the DiggerCast as well, I think and also the radio site, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.  Moving onto WordPress 3.x, which is the reason I am even aware of the new Twitter Apps system, I’m impressed at how much easier it is to update everything and also how much clearer the update information is displayed.  I’m not sure if it’s necessarily faster or anything, but it feels, well better.  I’m certainly looking forward to using it in my current and new site deployments anyway.  Although thinking about it, updating the DiggerCast seems a little redundant, given I’m folding it back into the Stormhaven Radio website, in order to have a podcasting platform to work from; I’m finding it a tad annoying at the thought of setting up a separate single blog site and domain for every podcast I have, so I’m just going to put them all within the radio blog as it’s cleaner.  If I want a domain, I can just tack it onto the WordPress blog url somehow, which might take a little tweaking, but it’ll be worth it in the end.  I really should learn more about webservers and HTML/CSS and PHP though.

One thing I’ve also started to do is with the help of my server provider is install AWStats, in order to process server stats locally, although unfortunately it appears I cannot access any of my past site access logs, if any were ever kept.  Shame that.  At least I’m using StatCounter to keep progress on my sites; one of my sites (Therians dot Net – TdN) actually surprised me by indicating I’ve had over 1300 visitors to it in the past month, which isn’t bad going!  This site is a little lower on the scale, but hey at least it has exposure.  This site and TdN are the only active sites on StatCounter, though I do have more planned.  I would be putting the DiggerCast in as it is an active website, but it’s moving soon and I don’t fancy complicating matters with it just yet.   Besides, I’m still testing stuff out and it’s doubtful the stats would be all that impressive anyway.  At least though I have the groundwork sorted for when I do start it all, which I should soon.  I also need to sort out my IRC network’s website and plan out a prototype chat site, which should be fun.
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So, yeah first post this month and it’s been more than 2 weeks since my last post!  I could has sworn it was at least a mont, but there you go.  Anyway, I guess I should be mentioning that’s been going on in my world since I last updated (though I really need to start writing in my LiveJournal again instead!).  First of all, I’ve been looking for a job, and out of the 3 places I’ve applied to, I’ve gotten 2 rejections so far.  The third company (which coincidentally is the first one I applied to) has yet to respond to me, but I’m told by my employment advisor that’s a good thing, so I’m going with that now, even if I am a little on edge over the whole affair.  Oddly enough, the last company I applied for is actually the first to give me a response, which is quite amusing.  The second one has had the most progress, but alas I didn’t get an interview.  I’m gonna start looking for more work opportunities when I’m next out, so it should be interesting to see what comes up.  Just as well I’ve a handful of CVs to give out now as well.  Anyway, with all that out of the way, I’d like to mention some recent things I’ve noticed.  First of all, as you may have noted by the random word placement, this weekend is the one which International Speak Like A Pirate Day will occur on, tomorrow in fact.

This pretty much means that I’m going to spend a lot of time in Guild Wars (GW), hunting for treasure and also collecting copious amounts of grog, go me!  On a related notw, I’ve also gotten myself a second account, which works out cheaper than buying 4 more character slots, especially given that I got Guild Wars Prophecies (Prophecies) for 99p, after my Reward Card discount, which was quite nice indeed.  I coincidentally, by sheer luck managed to get a copy of Eye of The North cheap (second hand with an intact code) off Amazon so I can bring my characters up North and get them reserved for Guild Wars 2 (GW2).  Unfortunately, this means I’m only limited to the entire Tyria continent, which is by no means a bad thing, but I tend to like exploring the whole world.  All that said though, I’ll most likely get the other campaigns over the next while, when they are cheap enough.  I’m working on a few different title tracks for all the characters over two accounts at present, most notably Survivor (as the name suggests, it means you are not to die), of which I have 4 characters over all 3 campaigns marked for.  I also have a couple of characters going for Defender of Ascalon (reaching L20 in the starting area).  Before I continue, I’d like to reassure readers that this isn’t just going to be about GW, I just want to mention it now, as I’ve never really mentioned it before and it ties in nicely with the grog and loot collecting!  Anyway, with that aside, I’ve been working on all of this for quite a while now, though the second account only has been around the past month.  Still, there’s plenty to keep me going till GW2 comes out.  Coincidentally, if anyone ever wants to ever hang out on GW, let me know and we can do so.
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So yeah, it’s nearly the end of August and being completely honest, I haven’t had a lot to write about up until now.   For starters, I’ve finally managed to pick up DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 3, Lego Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band, all of which I’ve been wanting for ages.  The Rock Band games were brand new though the DJ Hero was second hand (and much cheaper than anywhere else!).  where possible, I am trying to buy second hand, but the issue is that sometimes brand new is cheaper than second hand, so I have to save my money.  Rock Band 3 is on the horizon, and there will be no doubts as to me getting it, especially with the fact it now includes a keyboard controller, which quite honestly has me drooling like a hungry dog in a butchers.  It’ll be great to be able to play another game that lets me learn on a keyboard, given I have plans to learn it.  Synthesia is a good thing, but I do think I might need something a little, well… easier to start with, plus I think I need some additional support, though that said having a 25 key keyboard is a good thing on the basis that I can start off with a handful of keys, then work my way up.  Besides that, I also have plans to start up a band with a friend of mine, though it’s not likely to take off properly for some time; more details on this later on.

I did also manage to pick up a few PC games as well, for quite cheap.  I got myself Evolva, Mass Effect, Star Trek: Borg and Space Empires V and with the exception of the ST game, they were all new!  I ended up spending a lot on games the past week or so nut they were so cheap I couldn’t help myself!  Staying on the subject of PCs, my desktop has developed a slight issue where one of my SATA power connectors has broken so I can only have one hard drive going at a time, which quite frankly sucks.  Thje laptop isn’t fareing well either, given that the screen has gone all funny on it.  I do hope it’s just a loose connection because otherwise I’m going to have to shell out for a new laptop, given the gfx card replacement is a good 200-odd Pounds!  Thankfully, my desktop problem is only a couple of quid to fix, though I might get a spare one, in case it falls down again.  In case you’re wondering how it fell, it was simply a case of me getting tangled up with my mouse lead and pulling on the desktop and knocking it down.  Thankfully, it was just that which was damaged… the hard drives seem to be fine which I consider a small miracle.  Not that I could afford to replace them at all.  Not the best week for my computers, is it?
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Yes, it has been a while since I’ve updated, hasn’t it?  I don’t have anything to blog about in particular but figured it’s always good to at least check in.  Most recently, I’ve managed to get my desktop back up and running, so I’m rather happy about that although on the flipside, my laptop has a problem with a URL filter, which I didn’t install!  Additionally, I seem to have issues with my router crashing occasionally, which leads me to believe someone has been DOSing my router and has hacked my laptop somehow!  Additionally, I have hadmy WoW account hacked, and thus I’m locked out from it.  Granted, I’ve not touched it in ages, but it’s the principle of the thing!  Not only that, someone hacked one of my GMail accounts!  I feel quite violated actually and becuase of this, I’m tightening up my security across the board.  Seems like a good opportunity to install Windows 7 while I’m at it as well.  Other than that, I’ve built myself a new computer (for the first time ever I did it all by myself!), which I’m proud of.  This now means I can save myself a few quid by building my own PCs instead.

All that’s missing on this new PC is an internal speaker and a couple of hard drives; my system has always been to have a smaller drive for the OS, then at least one larger drive to install games, put downloads on, etc.  I have some spare drives for the job, but one which was connected to the board I’m using in the “new” system has a corrupted partition, which is a bugger.  I’m working on fixing it and downloaded a utility to help me recover the bad sectors, if possible.  The worst thing is that I might have to just give up on the drive and get a new one, which isn’t cheap, especially as it’s an IDE drive.  And when I went looking on the Maxtor site (it’s a Maxtor drive), I found out that Maxtor and Seagate have merged!  That one completely passed me by!  Anyway, another problem with my laptop, coincidentally is that the speaker wire’s become loosened while it was bieng fixed, so I no longer get sound from it, apart from the sub.  However, this issue is easily repaired by the tech, but I figured I should add it as it’s leading to something and related to PC issues.  My laptop also now has a fly lead in place of the DC jack (though the DC jack is a part of it), which makes it a lot more resiliant and robust (do they mean the same?).  I was told that not everyone likes it as it doesn’t look as good (costs the same price as a replacement, which are rare for Acers I might add!), but as I value function over looks, it was perfect for me.

Oddly enough, it seems that the DJ jack gets the most strain of laptops and I can see why!  I was told my DC jack was cracked and that luckily I nipped it in the bud… even though I had to be creative till I could afford to get the repair and even then the contacts were a bugger, I smelt burning and the unit heated up round the DC jack.  It sucks when you can just about afford to do it… fact is, it needed to be done, so I did it.  Anyway, I hope to get all my PCs up and running properly again soon, so I can finally start on my websites.  I have a new idea for the radio site I want to implement and my Gamed Up project now has a look, but I can’t afford it, and need sections to come up with.  I’ll mention some stuff I’ve done in a later blog entry and where possible, even without the layout, I’ll be adding in a games blog to write to, so as always watch this space.

And lastly, before I forget, I’m gonna be using Google AdSense on this site.  I’m hoping to make sure it doesn’t get in the way, but I’ll have to see.  I also plan on opening up 2 more Zazzle stores as well; one is for the Radio site(s) and another is most likely for the paranormal group I’m setting up.  I may actually set one up for Gamed Up as well, but we’ll see what happens.  I have somany ideas, I find it hard to focus on just one, lest I forget about the others.  I’ll get something sorted eventually, but I’ll take things slowly.  I hope to have things mostly run themselves eventually, which is why the DiggerCast is being moved back to the Radio site, as it cuts down on multiple logins.  One day soon though, I plan to sit myself down and dedicate a whole page to each site and domain so I know what is going where, as frankly I need it!

Anyway, I’m just rambling now, so I’ll stop.  I’ll try to have an update on my sites for the next post, though it depends on what else comes up between now and then.

From Monday afternoon, it’ll be about a week since I’ve moved from my flat in Bexleyheath to a terraced house in nearby Erith, nearly at the edge of the Kent fringe; despite where I live being a London Borough, it still is considered Kent. In some ways, it’s the end of an era, given I may no longer just walk down to Bexleyheath’s Broadway and do shopping; though I do have 24 hour access to the place by bus which somewhat makes up for the lack of instant access. Needless to say, I had better not be in a hurry to be there! I do have easy access to the pier however, which can’t be a bad thing though I had learnt something about terraced houses in that the stairs are rather tight, so it’s likely that the next place I look for will have a lot more thought put into it. Additionally, at present I’ve not got the space for everything or so it seems; everything is a bit tight at the moment, though I’ve yet to unpack everything. Things are slowly slotting into place now though. My arm’s starting to heal up nicely now as well, which is a good thing although it’s not 100% of the way there.

To take a departure from what I was talking about, seeing as I have no idea how to contiue the above, one of the reasons that made me start this entry (yesterday) was that I was reminded of Bloomsday and that I was attending college at that time. I even got to hear some readings of Ulysses while sitting on Sandymount Green, which was nice. Of course, I got in trouble for being late back to college, but hey… 100 years since Ulysses was written was more important than a day in class… or so I’d like to think. Well, it’s my excuse so I’m sticking to it! Anyway, it’s amazing what can be learnt sometimes just by doing something what seems so minor at the time.

Heh, I did think I had more to say than this, although I’m realising that once everything round here is sorted out better, I’ll be able to take better advantage of things. My finances aren’t gonna be healthy for another few months, although as far as the Thame Cycle trip goes, by moving to where I am now I’ve made it easier to do the cycle a bit, because this town was on the itinerary. Of course, I do need to get a bike as well as a shed. I’m still trying to get this place sorted, but I’m beginning to think that it’s likely I’ll either have to have 3 bookcases in the dining room (study) or 2 in my main bedroom. It is a pain really, but I’ll need to give it more thought. Luckily, I do have space to move about, which is good. My computer desk is a bit screwed though unfortunately, meaning I might need to get a new one at some point soon… unless I can fix it. I’ll have to see what I can do, given I don’t have much space in the new place as I did in the old, which frustrated me. At least it’s warmer and cheaper which means I’ll have more money to do stuff.

I should really look at my 50 Things list to see what I can do in the near future. My finances percentage most likely can do with being put up a few notches…

Oh and before I forget, I added a FormSpring widget thing to my blog and also to my FB, so people can ask me questions >.> I also plan to completely redevelop FSIRC over the next few months, now I am in a position to be able to.

Oddly enough, I’m not actually sure what exactly to talk about for this entry as I haven’t thought about any specifics.  I expect it may not be till near enough to the New Year, or after that I get to keep some consistancy.  Either way, it won’t hurt to mention any stuff I’ve seen, done or are going to do.  I’m also thinking that I may end up keeping my random style of writing to a degree, as it wouldn’t be random randomness if I didn’t!  Anyhow, I went into Central London yesterday to pick up a lab coat (I’ll explain later) from Foyles bookshop and ended bup buying a few books too!  This is by no means a bad thing to be honest, as the books will have some benefit.  Two of the books are talking about games design or project management regarding games projects.  I figured that these would be good for me to get so I can brush up on this subject in preparation for university/college.  Granted, design is my strongest skill, but it never hurts to get help with improving techniques.  I also finally managed to get a book on wolves; this too was one of my medium-term aims along with the lab coat.  I had to aquire an extra large one because of my broad shoulders, although that said, I could do with a little toning round the stomach, so it’s a good thing I’m going to the gym!  As for why I wanted a lab coat… well, I’ve always wanted one and I think it completes the scientist look although there’s the practical purpose that it keeps my clothes clean!

I also paid Maplins a visit as well and got some books on robotics, soldering and electronics, as well as a book on oscilloscopes, which sparked my interest since I studied at Greenwich.  I also got another set of LED Safety Glasses (which are gonna be modded, leaving the first ones I bought intact) and also an Audiophile 2496 audio card, which I was hoping to use for helping me with music composition at a later date, although it would be more nice just to have something professional to use with MIDI.  The problem is however that it needs audio cables, and while I do have them, I don’t have the space for them, so I’m either going to have to locate an external version of the card or make the space.  It’s occurred to me that I have also lost my reciept so I need to goo looking for it, damn.  That aside, I may have to just accept that this may be the best card for my price range (I don’t want to pay a lot more to be honest) and get a Game Port to USB adaptor, which to be honest may not be a bad idea, seeing as they’re cheap enough at 8 quid each!  I really only wanted that expensive card for the built-in MIDI port, and considering I can have a decent audio card with a cheaper separate bit, it may be best off just going down this route.  I have too many game controllers that require Game Ports to just drop the idea; I didn’t realise till much later that I had no MIDI port on my soundcard!  Another bonus as well is that it has some composing software with it, as well as some loops, so that’ll help me some more.

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For once, this month I actually have a lot of things to choose from to write about. First of all, a friend of mine has compiled a list of 40 things he wants to do he’s 40, and I’m half-tempted to do one or a similar one myself. Apparantly, they’re all the rage at the moment, which makes sense, seeing as though it’s something to attain for. I’ll touch upon this subject again a bit later, as I just want to dedicate a few lines to each topic for now, so I can write up a short entry before working on a mega one! Anyway, I’m also thinking about writing up about politice in the UK, as I’ve been spurred on some recent events, or rather a single recent event, that being my telling off a Labour politician via Twitter. I’m really beginning to appriciate the power of Twitter, so I may just actually talk about that too! Another thing I should talk about is Autism, seeing as I have Asperger Syndrome. I’ve never been sure of how to approach the subject to be honest as I haven’t researched it in-depth as I’ve been usually focused on other things. One thing that has grabbed my attention most recently is the relation to mould exposure and ASDs.. granted, I don’t think it actually causes it, but it’s possible it may make some of the symptoms of the condition worse, so really I should research into it more.

Lastly, I was gonna try out AION, although it seems that it’s been released now, soI can’t do a first impression of the beta, meaning that I have to purchase the full copy, dammit. Apparantly it’s not terribly good though, but I’ve not been given reasons as to why at the moment… however, I’m kinda wary of spending 35-45 quid on a game that may not be all that good. Again, more research is required into it. I may just buy it to test it out, although I’m wary of a monthly fee. I’m still playing Guild Wars due to its lack of monthly fee and I recently got back into Second Life because I finally got my account unlocked, so w00t!

Er, anyhow… I’ll update with a larger post next time, covering one of the above topics. I’ll more than likely try out AION anyway, so I can see what it’s like, but that impressions thing is going to be shunted to my games blog, which I’ll be getting up between now and the end of the year. I have other projects that need more immediate attention first, so the sooner they get sorted, the sooner my games blog will be up. I also hope to have a podcast started within that timeframe too, so watch this space for updates.

But for now, that’s all folks.