I can’t help but notice I’m really popular with spammers compared to actual users (as indicated by the comments on my disclaimer, though I may disable comments on that page)… if the spammers were actual users, I think I’d be reasonably popular, lol. That would actually help out the cause I’ve been promoting recently as well, thinking about it… and mentioning that, I have an update on that below which is quite important.

It’s come to my attention that the link for The Mental Health Struggle has been updated and moved to Indiegogo. I’ll be changing the link on my last entry too (read that towards the end if you want to know what I said about it first), but if you get to it before I do, but after reading this, the new link is here. I also tweeted the new link when I made my pledge, so use that link as well. I’ll also be tweeting a new link to be retweeted after I finish this post, using the hashtag #TMHS and also/or #TheMentalHealthStruggle (for tracking purposes; don’t be surprised to see one or the other, or both). The reasons for this change of link are threefold; first of all, the £8,000 goal wasn’t going to be reached in the time given, so the organiser asked for the deadline and goal to be increased and decreased to £5,000 respectively. Secondly, it seems that Kickstarter doesn’t allow causes or charities to be funded, which seems a bit bizarre. It does mean though that I’m gonna have to pester those I told again and remove links to the old address, so if you see this, and then see a Kickstarter link to this project in my blog, don’t click on it!

Lastly, they have a website as well which is here. I do hope to remove all the Kickstarter references by this weekend, but this post is partly in case I’ve either missed some or I’m still working on it when you read this. Unfortunately, they’ve had to start from scratch, so be sure to make a new pledge! There are also some new goodies, so check it out before pledging your original amount, or your original level. I should mention that there’s a possibility that you’ll be paying instantly via the Indiegogo link (through Paypal), so this is unlike Kickstarter where you pay after the goal is met. This is just a heads up, just to make you aware of the difference. I can luckily take the hit, so it won’t be too bad, but still, it’s something you need to know.

Anyway, if you have contributed via this blog post, or even if I directly mentioned it to you, please leave a comment below. Additionally, please do tell your friends if you think they’ll be interested in this project… you know I will be!

P.S.: I’m sorry for harassing people again, but you’d rather be kept informed, right? Especially those of you who made a pledge.

P.P.S.: I’ll soon be making another blog entry, only it will be about my experiences with podcasting. Additionally, I don’t expect my website to move now till at least the middle to the end of February, because I’m a terrible procrastinator, and also need to see what I need to move over, as well as set up the stuff on the new host to be ready to transfer over. In the meantime, please check out this project if you haven’t already, it means a lot to me.

Edit: It appears that I had a lot less links made than I actually thought… I think they’re on Facebook more though probably.

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?
Read the rest of the entry »

I figured that I’d do something different than just talk about something to do with technology or gaming or the like.  I’m essentially just musing somewhat, but for some bizarre reason, I thought this would make a good blog post.  Granted, the life being talked about is mine, but I’m sure everyone can appriciate these.  Anyway, on with the show…

Certainties in life

• Life itself – Kinda self-explanitory.  Life, we live it…. it’s the beginning of a cycle.
• Death – We all gotta go sometime… the end of a cycle, but not the end of this post.
• Taxes – They’re everywhere and you can’t escape them… VAT, car tax, Council Tax… you’re bound to have at least one of those, if not all 3.  And there’s not just those.
• The Sun & The Rain – Sometimes together, sometimes apart, but always there.  According to Madness, it’s what life is about; they’re cycles, and life is a cycle.
• Things are always further away than you think. – Oh, I learnt this the hard way.  You think something is just up the road… then you forget how long the road actually is!
• They’re even further with a heavy load. -  Dragging something a mile up the road is not my idea of a good time…
• It is possible to get lost on a straight road – If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll never find it.
• You’ll find things when you don’t need them. – I know I have.
• You lose them again soon after. – “Oh yeah, I do actually need it… crap, where’d it go?!”
• You can’t find something you really need. – I know it’s here somewhere, I remember seeing it here yesterday!
• You can never have too many kettle leads. - You always seem to have less than you think.
• Upturned plugs are bound to be stepped on. – They’re gonna hurt like hell too!
• If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. – Something’s broken, you’re not eligable, you can’t afford it, it’s too far… and they’re just the main ones.
• They’re not out to get you. – You’re not that important, get over it.
• Computers – Yes, they’re here… yes, they’re annoying… but we need them.
• Some of the best, closest friends you have you may never have met – The internet… it’s more important than you realise.
• A really good friend is someone you can talk to again after weeks, months or even years and it was like you just talked to them yesterday. – Treasure them. (I know it’s not in the usual format, but it’s damn hard to word that right!)
• Time isn’t always that straightforward – Just because time can be measured, it doesn’t mean it can be valued.
• Days can go by as fast as hours, minutes as slow as hours. – Perception of time is different for all… days can meld together; hours can separate and feel like days… minutes and seconds can pause.
• The infinity of human stupidity – This one is kinda obvious.  Just when you think something is the height of stupidity, something raises the bar, sometimes a little but often a lot.

I plan on adding to these gradually, but if you want to suggest your own, then please do so in the comments.

Warning, this post is huge! If you don’t like reading large blog posts, you’re advised to avoid this!

The past half hour or so, I’ve been looking at many things… things mostly to do with how the human mind works and percieves things. I have to say, there’s quite an interesting amount of stuff there, and I haven’t even scratched the surface. First of all, we come across this article, which talks about the fact that schitzophrenics are not fooled by the “hollow face illusion”, with an included video. Essentially, the “hollow face illusion” involves — as you may have guessed — a hollow face. The article describes it as:

In the hollow mask illusion, viewers perceive a concave face (like the back side of a hollow mask) as a normal convex face. The illusion exploits our brain’s strategy for making sense of the visual world: uniting what it actually sees — known as bottom-up processing — with what it expects to see based on prior experience — known as top-down processing.

Anyway, it has been shown that those with schitzophrenia are not fooled by this illusion and see the concave face as what it actually is. The rest of us (including myself, which is interesting) see the conclave as a convex face, to the extent the nose sticks out! And even if you know this already, it doesn’t matter; your brain will still percieve the back side as a normal face. I found it interesting that I saw it like most “normal” people do, because I have a type of Autism known as Asperger Syndrome (AS). Now granted, I have been taught to act somewhat normal, but I do wonder if anyone else on the Autistic Spectrum will see things like normal people, or schitzophrenics.

Why I say this is because AS was once considered to be a form of schitzophrenia… see where I’m going with this yet? Good.  Anyway, if those on the Autistic Spectrum see things like a normal person, it would mean that Autism Spectrum Disorders affect different parts of the brain to schitzophrenics. That said of course, those who are drunk and under the influence of drugs see through it too, which makes you wonder what parts of the brain intoxicating substances hit, doesn’t it?

Post continues after the break… get a cuppa, you’ll need it!