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.

This entry is the first (of many) that I have made on WordPress 3.x.  In the near future, I’ll be adding a reviews (not games) blog and a projects/experiments blog to reside off this domain.  I’ve given up on the idea of having this site reside off another one, especially considering this domain has been around ages, plus has the most recognition.  What I’ll now be doing instead is not using a subdomain setup with this blog at all, and instead sticking to directories.  The domain associated with my real name will be on a separate website, so I can practice my website skills.  It’s likely however that I may implement a blog on here for use with that site to handle stuff that cannot be done with what I’ve planned, as for all intents and purposes the other site will be static.  I have started to implement Analytics into all my currently active websites and in the near future, I’ll be implementing AdSense into the majority of my websites.  Notable exceptions will be my personal (named) website and a couple of other sites where I feel AdSense would not work.  It will however be going on this blog and also my reviews blog.  My projects blog is 50-50 at the moment, as I fail to see what benefits it will offer if I put AdSense on it.

With the advent of WP3, I’ll be seeing what I will be able to accomplish with it, seeing as my radio/podcast site and the Xeno Storm website will be using their own WP multi-site setups in addition to here.  However, this site will have the least amount of development on it, as the level of development that the other sites have planned are more in relation to having multiple people aboard with that blog, whereas this blog is a one-man ship for the most part.  The ultimate aim I have for AdSense (which is admittedly some time off) is for through all the ads I have placed on my sites, I can get them to pay for themselves.  It is perhaps a little over-ambitious on my part, but even if it partially pays for itself over the year, then that’s good enough.  While I may be wrong in this assumption, I do think that AdSense is the least intrusive ad system out there and placed correctly, people barely notice the ads.  I mean “barely” in the sense that they’re not overly intrusive, but they do grab one’s attention if the topic of the ad interests them.  Granted, not all of the ads are perfect, but at least there’s some relevence.  I am also hoping to pimp out the Xeno Storm store on Zazzle as well, using it for stuff such as pictures I’ve taken or made (albeit not completely in some cases), among other things.  The proceeds would go towards funding the sites (and associated domains) as well, but I need to actually get some decent stuff out there as well.

On the subject of domains, I’ve traditionally taken the view that I should just let any domain I’m not using just lapse out and fail to renew it.  Now granted, I’d love to sell domains I aquire, but I have no idea how of how to do it.  And in a way, all this chopping, changing and thinking over the past while has been a precursor for me to get myself into gear for the future.  Out of a total of 30-odd domains (yeah, I have a lot of ideas), I can honestly say that 5 (3 of them being mine) domains are developed into active websites, though 2 of them are aliases for the same site; 1 of those domains is owned by a friend and another is owned by a client, so has very little to do with me, except where I’m required to change stuff.  Suffice to say though, the remainder of the domains are deadwood (as in waiting to be dropped), are waiting to be deployed or just hanging around while I think of a purpose for them, which I will eventually.

I’m gonna stop it here for now, so I can get on with other things, but I hope to sort out a few ideas for my websites soon, as well as getting the two other blogs for here up and running.  As always, watch this space.

First of all, I’m aware that I’ve not been updating at all this month!  I’ve been a bit busy at some times and other times I just haven’t been in the right mood to write!  Anyway, given the new WordPress 3.0 is out (and most likely has been for some time now), I will be upgrading the site to the new software (which also means I can implement a multi-site system).  In addition, after looking at the way a friend of mine has done his sites, I have decided to keep Stormkeeper dot Net where it is, and put all the additional blogs off here instead, leaving my other personal site to be me playing with HTML and having it be pretty basic overall.  I realised that in some ways, I was just complicating my setup.  This site will not be using any subdomains, for the simple fact that it requires a complete redevelopment ad honestly I’m not willing to do that for here as subdomains here, as there really is little point, as although this is listed as a prime domain to me, it’s all me, so there’s little need for a separate identity on any of the blogs at present.  I’m gonna be setting up a projects blog and also a reviews blog off here.  It’s important to mention at this point that the project blog is for my own personal projects.  While the On Yer Bike and Hop On Hop Off projects are indeed spearheaded by me, they aren’t personal, as they’re a collaborative effort, plus my personal projects do not have anything to do with the Xeno Storm topic of travelling, which was always going to be a team effort.

I’ve been busy implementing Google Analytics into all my websites, as unfortunately, my site statistics are broken, meaning I have no indication of search statistics at present, but I intend to rectify this soon.  Additionally, as of the start of August, I hope to have Google Analytics running on many of my websites so I can better analyse the website statistics.  Anyway,  all that aside, there are other features in WP3 that I like the look of, and I’ll be putting them to good use in the Stormhaven Radio and Gamed Up (games website I have been planning for years) blogs at least.  Additionally, after much rummaging around, I also managed to find my uni (PSD) files for the original Gamed Up website I planned, which was strongly based upon vBulletin and Invision Power Board.  Well, one of my friends did say there’s no original ideas any more!  I do beg to differ somewhat though as although ideas may not be completely original, there are at least a few concepts that may be original, eithe rin their use or the way they were designed, but I digress.  I plan to have most of my websites up over the next few months in at least a basic framework, if nothing else.  The more developed sites will of course see a much more mature progression, although admittedly, you could argue that this site is pretty much complete, apart from needing software upgrades.  The reviews and project blogs are essentially the icing on the cake to make things look better.

I should also mention as well that the reviews blog will not be covering games except for a very special occasion, as that what the Gamed Up site is designed for.  I also plan on using YouTube to post up reviews, videocasts and other stuff later, but that’s some time off yet.  I have Flickr groups for projects as well, but again, that’s some time off yet.  Eventually, everything will have a proper place, meaning there will be a lot of organisation sorted.  I may even consider making my personal website a sub-site of the new multi-site system here instead, which I suppose is an inversion, but that remains to be seen, as it may be that I might just use the site as a practice run for HTML.  There’s loads of directions I could take, but I’m more concerned with stabilising foundations first… especially if I can make things simpler for me later on.  Don’t expect to see too many visible changes to my sites, although you may find things work a bit better than they used to!

I’ll post again soon.

Oh, before I forget… I’ll also be using AdSense in many of my blogs as well, so you will notice that.  Also, I’ll be giving this site a lick of Analytics paint before the end of the month, while trying to see if I can analyse my site logs.  I really ought to sort out my desktop though…

I haven’t updated in over a month, but I have been pretty busy, that said!  First of all, I’ve been setting up Google Apps with my domains and working on a few backends for other sites.  Additionally, I’ll be starting a definitive layout for each of my sites; I plan to merge Stormkeeper dot Net into my personal domain and do it as a subdomain with the domain redirecting there.  Unfortunately, it means that the links to the post I’ve made in the past will probably be broken, but I’m willing to take that in exchange for less logins to remember!  That said though, if anyone knows how to slot a domain on top of a subdomain (i.e.: stormkeeper.net/post123 going to stormkeeper.domain.com/post123), I’d be very appriciative for any assistance.  Additionally, I plan to put AdSense on every one of my sites and blogs where possible now, as I frankly need to generate an income of sorts from the sites so I can achieve my ultimate aim of having the sites pay for themselves.  While I won’t indicate it in this post as I still have a few things I need to sort, I do plan on showing rough layouts of how the sites will be in the future, though I’m also doing some experimentation.

First of all, I’ll be trying to see if I can get subdomains working with WordPress MU and if that’s successful, I’d be deploying it out to a few other sites as well.  Secondly, I’ll also be experimenting with a simple(ish) multi-wiki setup.  I plan on using at least 3 wikis as well, but all this is just a bunch of incomplete ideas in my head at present.  As I said before, I’ll explain better in a future entry but for now this is just an update to say I’m stillabout, just that I’m busy and haven’t been focused enough to blog about anything.

I will soon though!

I really need to give my LiveJournal some love at some point, seeing as it’s supposed to be a more personal blog, as opposed to this one which is more for sharing my views, insights and generally having a rant. Anyway, I spent Saturday and much of Sunday at my friend’s house, where we played Rock Band 2. And I have to admit, I’m pretty hooked on the game now! I also got to play quite a few songs on there including Color Theory’s song If Not Now When and some other songs such as Attack and The Kill from 30STM. I was really impressed with the game to be honest, as you could really get into it… I certainly found it easier to play the bass or guitar standing anyway! I was so into the game, that I started dancing while I was playing! And thinking about it, playing the guitar in any of these games, be it Rock Band, Guitar Hero or even Band Hero, no matter what the format, is a great way of learning to play the proper thing. Why do I say this you ask? Well, I have some books on learning how to play the guitar and from what I recall of them, you’re to hold an actual guitar a certain way and with the guitar controller, it works best if you hold it the same way. Playing with the controller (GH controllers are more durable) gives you a great start with playing an actual guitar because you have to hold the controller like you would a normal guitar, so it gets you used to the awkwardness of your hand being put into and awkward position when fretting.

Admittedly though, it won’t help your fingers get used to pressing on the strings… that’s something you’ll have to face later on and they do tend to make your fingers hurt for a while because the strings are pressing into your fingers. I haven’t played with an actual guitar long enough to be able to get protection from the strings as of yet, although the guitar isn’t my instrument of choice at present; that honour belongs to my keyboard (the piano type), which I’ve decided to learn first as it’s a little easier to get into. I’ve actually paid for the learning pack for Synthesia to help me in this goal. It’s much like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the like, but it uses a keyboard or MIDI synthesiser instead. Admittedly, I’ve not touched it for a while now, but my Rock Band jam session has both rekindled the interest and also made me want to get Rock Band as well! I’m looking at getting the Band Hero Super Bundle, which is 100 quid in HMV at the moment, seeing as it has all the instruments I need to get me started, although the drums are a concern; would they be compatible with Rock Band? I know the guitar is compatible, and the mic should be as well, but I’m not sure about the drums. As for why I’m worried about this, I really don’t want to get another set of drums just so I can play all the games! One thing I noticed though that one of my friends would be happy with is the fact that the Band Hero drumkit has 3 drums, with 2 cymbals, I think they are those anyway. It still has the pedal, but that said, I don’t think it would be used as much in Rock Band, so his foot won’t hurt so much!

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I figured that I should probably get this post out there before it’s more or less been a month since I last posted! I swung round here to see when I last posted and I was a bit surprised that I haven’t been posting for longer than I initially thought, or perhaps it was about three weeks since I last posted… I’m not too sure on dates, but I suppose that’s besides the point now. This posting frequency is kind of a bit my sleeping patterns: can be consistant for a while, then goes all over the place. But I’ve been thinking. Seeing as I obviously can’t post regularly for too long I may as well play upon the random randomness a bit more… the random rendomness initially pertained to the fact that I could write about anything, but I may just apply it to posting frequency too; I’ll aim for at least 2 posts a month, in keeping with some consistancy, although when they will be, I’m not totally sure. Helpful, I know but considering I flopped at doing consistant updates for more than a month and a half, I figure that the consistant date thing isn’t working for me. There;s also the fact as well that I’m terrible at making note of things, so if I get a burst of inspiration for writing, I have to put it down ASAP, else I forget the initial thread, which means I have nothing to write about and being totally honest, I’d rather have a semi-consistant amount of content with random updates, as opposed to having a less consistant amount of content and regular updates.  How do you guys deal with updating regularly?  I know you’re meant to, but do you even bother to update on a pre-defined day, or do you just write whenever the mood takes you?  I’m clearly the latter, rather than the former… and I finally understand the difference between latter and former, properly so yay!

Anyway, Even though this blog is more about what I’m thinking, I figured I should at least start doing a cursory glance at what I plan to do over the next month…

First of all, I decided in the interests of putting less strain on this PC, I’m using a spare one that I have for music production and programming/development.  Of course, what I’ll be doing webserver wise is using a USB server on a stick, to make sure stuff such as Apache and MySQL don’t take up system resources, unless I need them to.  Of course, that being said, I may end up using the PC for internet radio as well seeing as it requires MySQL to run.  I guess this then means that this PC will be my PC only for entertainment and downloading.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just realised that most likely anything involved with multimedia production and programming will be on the second PC now, with this essentially being mostly for games.  I shelled out 40 quid on a few bits for both PCs to help facilitate some of the above…

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I need to consider having some consistancy with my blog-posting frequency. So, to this end, I’m gonna try post an entry once every two weeks, even if it’s only a short post. The idea is essentially to get me posting on a consistant basis. I might even try posting once a week down the line, but I think once every two weeks is a good way to start. On the next post, I’ll mention about my new projects in more detail, the first being the games blog and the second being yet another revamp of the DiggerCast, albeit with a new name. It’s also about this time that I’d be back from Ireland, so I should have something to talk about on that front. All the more because my friend Sean will eventually be coming aboard with the “DiggerCast 3″ (DC3) project, once I have it sorted. Despite the fact the proper launch will be in the first or second week of January, I’ll be announcing the details of the site proper sometime next month. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll have things ready for the next entry, but I will try.  I do think my games blog/site may need longer than I think, however.

At the very least, I’ll have some updates regarding both projects, even if there’s no link to either site.  I want to get DC3 up and running ASAP for the reasons listed above.  Without giving too much away, this one is going to be more active than the past two versions.  Additionally, I’m moving all the older content to the new site and closing down the blogs on the Stormhaven Radio blog site.  I’ll also be posting up 2 rough drafts of Version 2 of the DiggerCast, so you can see the sort of stuff we were working on.  Call it a possible taster of what is to come, as well as a gift to the loyal fans… oh, and an apology for having to wait so long!  I would post something else up, but at the moment I’m not 100% with it so it would be a bit pointless, especially as it’s so late!    I may actually consider writing something this coming Saturday, as I do have a few things to write about, especially given how crazy things have been recently.

After that, the next post will be on the 14th of November, then there will be one every two weeks, on a Saturday, eventually expanding to once a week when I can keep that pace.  Additionally, I haven’t set the clock back, so this is actually being posted at 5-ish as opposed to what the time says now.  I’ll be fixing that after the post as I only just realised it now, whoops!  At least I did notice it though, that said.  Last time I noticed the clocks went back was at my graduation ceremony, when the bar stopped serving alcohol!  That’s a story for another time though.  What I will do in the following entry though is start to talk about stuff I’ve heard about and read over the past couple of weeks.  When I get into the swing of things, it’ll be a bit more consistant as I’m still experimenting with things.  When you consider I’m also gonna have a separate gaming blog and a couple of podcasts, I’m gonna have to be more consistant with posting.  It’s likely that there will be crossover between the two blogs and podcasts, which wouldn’t be surprising, especially if the topics being covered interest me and are within the scope of this blog and the games one.  As for the DSi review, that will be taking a little longer to publish, as I have been unable to aquire a DS Lite, in the interests of proper reviewing and comparing of all the features of 3 consoles.  I wish I were doing this professionally, then I’d get free games and consoles!  Well, one can dream…

While I’ll try to stick most of the games content on my games blog, I may actually post a few choice articles here too.  It makes sense to, as I get the impression that not everyne who reads this blog will be a gamer; that’s the main reason why I’m having a separate games blog, as I don’t want this to focus on gaming and the games industry.  Yes, there’s stuff related to it now, but that’s because my games blog isn’t up yet.  Like I said as well, I do intend to have some games stuff on here too, but I want this mainly to focus on stuff apart from gaming.. stuff like science and technology, stuff relating to Autistic Spectrum Disorders and similar conditions (I’ve got Asperger Syndrome), politics (the odd time), posts about things that interest me, as well as the odd rant (well, it is my personal blog – trust me, eventually you’ll have a rant about something that really annoys you on your blog, it’s inevitable).  I also eventually want to use this blog to show off my projects and experiments… something tells me that I should really consider WPMU, on the basis that eventually WP will become something like WPMU anyway.  Certainly having a projects and experiments blog would mean that I can take a completely different direction with that blog… admittedly though, what I may do is just do that for my portfolio website instead… it makes more sense.  It’ll save me having to reshuffle the setup of this site, as to be honest I really can’t be bothered with the changes required to make a single blog into a multi one.

Am I lazy?  Perhaps I am, but I don’t see the point in complicating something that is essentially just meant for my writings.  I do think my portfolio site is the perfect place for my projects and experiments anyway, seeing as I’m trying to market myself with it.  This is essentially the site where I discuss my thoughts; the other site was really only going to be a sort of CV, or rather it wasn’t gonna change a lot.  Seeing as my projects and experiments are likely to be ongoing, with no idea as to when the next post is, it makes sense to put them on that site, with me mentioning here when I’ve updated.  It’s the perfect setup really.  The site isn’t set up yet, so it’ll cause me no grief whatsoever to actually implement the idea, plus it also shows the site is active.  The main blog (the root one) is essentially just a place for me to mention news updates regarding my professional life.  I will also be linking my Twitter to the main blog on there, so there will be some overlap; the idea is to get the two sites to compliment each other.  I’ll need to work on a category system and tags for my projects though.  I might actually put my Warhammer 40k army up as a project, seeing as it is a big one!  Another one I want to look into is AIML, some more photography, and playing with the robotics kits I have.  I would also like to convert a camera to infrared at some point as well.

All my videos would be linked into the same YouTube account, as there’s not a lot of point in having a separate account, seeing as it’s all me.  I will, of course tag everything relevent to each site.  My Flickr account will be the same, including the plugin that displays some of my pictures, although I’d increase the amount of pictures shown to 6 or 8.  I would also be making use of embedding in the project blog, as well as the post cut feature, as make no mistake, the blogs are going to be larger on average than what I post here, seeing as I’ll have to make some notes… well, I don’t necessarily mean larger as in written content, it’s more related to the fact there’d be a lot of pictures and videos within the post.  I do hope to eventually post a few vids here, be they of me or something that interests me.  Once in a blue moon podcasts may also be on the cards, but don’t expect anything on that front for a while.  What I may actually do is do a podcast accompaniment with each entry.  It wouldn’t be exactly the same content as each post, but I would at least cover the subjects I covered in the entries I wrote.  More than likely, I’d do them once a month, solo, though that’s not to say I wouldn’t have guests, but it’s not really a podcast per say, it’s more a verbal transcription and summary of my blog entries for the month The only problem though is that I’m not sure when I’d actually do it… I’m thinking the week after the last blog post, again on a Saturday.

This way, I can collect any comments I recieve for the month and talk about them.  I’d most likely allocate 30 minutes to talk about the month’s posts; anything longer and I’ll most likely bore people.  It doesn’t help that I write out stuff, then I get inspired to continue the blog more.  Inherently, this is by no means a bad thing, but it does mean that I’ll have to stick to the main points in my blog as I can’t cover everything at the end of the day.  One thing I am thinking of for a future blog post is regarding games that can elicit emotions from the player; I thought about this due to a reaction I had in Bioshock regarding the Little Sisters.  Yes, I know Bioshock’s been out a while, but the game made me think about things… I could never harvest (kill) them; in fact, it upset me the way they reacted when you rescued them, and even before you decide what to do.  It’s a harrowing thing watching them cower as you step towards them in order to rescue (or harvest) them.  I don’t think I could harvest them, as it would upset me.  I consider this an amazing thing for a game, to be honest.  Granted, it’s controversial, but at the same time, it’s well-done.

I’m not going to discuss this further here, but I felt it needed to be mentioned as it affected me so deeply, and was the inspiration for a future article on my games blog/site, as well as here.  Anyway, I’m gonna stop it here for now, as I want to keep this as short as possible.

I’ll post some more on Saturday.

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.

As many people have rightly pointed out, I’ve not updated properly in ages.   This is mainly due to the fact that I haven’t come up with anything to write about solidly, especially with regards to my new style of writing that I’m starting to adopt.  Anyway,  I do one day hope to show off my Warhammer 40k models when I have them all properly assembled, but on that front, we’re looking at a few more weeks work.  I also have to upload some photos to Flickr relating to when I went to Holland, and also the first lot of pics in the photo competition I failed to enter months ago now, whoops!  I have earmarked some other locations in Southeast London to take pictures of as well, but I imagine it’ll be a while before I can actually upload those too!  It’s all a case of eventualities really.  I also finally got myself a Wii, so eventually, I’ll be playing about with the experiments that Johnny Chung Lee has put up.  All the more now that I got myself a second controller, and got myself a Bluetooth “nipple”, which is essentially a really tiny Bluetooth dongle that sticks out just a little, much like a nipple.  My laptop has the device installed and set up, so I can eventually play with it.  My laptop will more than likely end up being the main platform for using the motion detection as it’s handier to use with.  The only issue though is that I need to have Vista drivers.

I’ve also managed to get myself a T-Mobile USB Wireless Share Dock and a pretty nifty USB stick which also accepts a Transflash (Micro SD) Card, which impressed me.  Though at the moment, I haven’t tried it out yet properly.  However, I am hoping it’ll mean I can start doing more stuff outside as a result, such as live updates but I imagine realistically that’s a while off yet.  Anyway, I also have got myself a copy of the new version of  Space Hulk.  Those of you who both had the money and listened to those at the Games Workshop likely have 2 or 3 of them now; one to play, one to sell on (they could easily increase in value by 3 times in a couple years, meaning their value would be about 180, going by the standard pricing) and one for… erm, I’m not sure actually.  Anyway, the reason why they’re so valuable is because of the fact that the current run is the only run, and also it’s been 20 years since the anniversary of the last one.  There more than likely won’t be another one for a good 30 years or so now so this one will shoot up in value.  Getting 2-3 copies does hurt the wallet a bit though.  All the same, it is a worthwhile investment… it does way a bit though, but you do get a lot in it.  I’ll post up pics when I’ve finished assembling the figures… keep in minf they won’t be painted just yet though.

Moving into the educational sphere now, and I’ve been looking at returning to education at some point.  Despite the fact that there’s the strong chance of fees increasing next year, I  sill want to get myself a BSc.  Amusingly enough though, I was looking at a games design course somewhat local to me, just outside of London, but unfortunately for me, it doesn’t have anything to do with programming, which was the main area I failed in.  Not only that, it’s also a level 3 certification, whereas right now, I’m at level 4, so I’d be declined based upon the fact I know what is being taught… hell, I could most likely teach the students if I were actually able to focus enough!   Not to sound too cocky about it, but my design skills are pretty much beyond what my certication (Certificate of Higher Education) is, and my graphics skills are sufficient enough as well, as is my hardware knowledge.  My essay-writing skills are alright as well and would pick up when I actually commenced study again.  What prevents me from actually being able to use the CertHE to start at the second year of university is the fact my programming skills are teh suck atm, both in Java and Flash.  Granted, like the essay writing, I’d pick up a lot if I got a chance to refresh myself, but I’m so out of touch with both, I’d really need to go somewhere that allows me to refresh my Java knowledge, and teach me Flash (I never got a good grounding in it – perhaps one day I’ll tell you why I had such an aversion to it), while at the same time, helping me to progress past my CertHE.

Something tells me though that I may just have to teach myself Flash and Java to CertHE standard, if not beyond, which is by no means a bad thing.  It does mean that I’ve got a little extra help to rely on if I’m stuck when getting back into study.  And speaking of that, the one that takes my fancy is the one offered by Qantm; their Games Design & Development diploma course, as it enables me to do a diploma in 1 year,  as opposed to 2.  I could also do a BSc. the year after that meaning I could effectively get my degree in 2 years.  Best thing there is that I wouldn’t have wasted so much time trying to get back to my previous level.  I was going to start it next year, as I’d need tome to build myself up for full-time.  While I’m waiting, I can re-teach myself Java and Flash and anything else I need to do to make sure I’ve got at least my CertHE standard polished up.

Still focusing on games and in particular the industry, I’ve reserved my place for the AdventureX event in London, which looks to be pretty cool, as the main bloke from Revolution Software will be there, along with a few other guests, including the creator of Loom, Brian Moriarty although this depends on the interest in the event.  They also plan to show people how to use Adventure Game Studio (AGS), and DOG 3D, which I’ve never heard of.  There’s also a buffet there, although it costs extra.  The event itself is 20 quid for the 2 days, and honestly, it looks like a worthwhile investment, if even to make some games industry contacts.  On that note, I also plan to bring forward an idea I’ve had at the back of my head for a while now, ever since I was at university in East London.  In some ways, it’s a continuation of a site I used to own called Emulation Storm, and its (very) distant cousin, Game Phreeks.  While GP wasn’t mine, at the time it was owned by a former friend of mine, and ES was essentially the retro version of it.  Along with a couple of other sites – one of which still exists with its original name, the other has a slight change of name – formed Storm Netwerks.   At the height of Storm Netwerks, we managed to score a lot of press material for use in the site while we were at the Game Stars Live event in 2004, although admittedly, at the time I was more interested in the freebies and booth babes!  That event is actually why I’m in London in the first place, but more on that later.

Anyway, things happened, and GP lapsed into obscurity, while I did keep Storm Netwerks and ES running for a bit longer, before I dropped ES entirely and renamed Storm Netwerks to Stormhaven Networks.  Yeah, I know… similar names, but it’s different enough to consider it a new start.  That said though, there are still references to Storm Netwerks out there, especially as I used it in 2005 or 2006 for an event, so any references you do see to Storm Netwerks are more than likely me.  Xeno Storm started out as Storm Rain, before also getting a name change although StormRain Paranormal still used the old name, so I haven’t removed it entirely.  I’m very much connected to my past in some ways, to the extent that I’m still trying to gather up all the sites I was ever involved with, which I’ll eventually list on a site somewhere as I’m wanting to look back on how far I’ve come from the early days.   Anyway, moving on… Gamed Up, as I called it at UEL was initially started as a project for my Introduction to Graphics course when I was studying my BSc. in Computer Games Design(This is its current name, and pretty much exactly what I studied as well – I do hope that the module I failed has been improved!).  It was heavily influenced by vBulletin’s default template design, although instead of becoming a games blog and podcast like I intend it to be now, it was going to be a site aimed at education relatijng to the games industry, including How Tos, hints and tips with programs, interviews with figures in the games industry and a listing of courses, universities and games companies, as well as news relating to careers and education within the games industry.  As I put it at the time, Gamed Up was just a play on the term “clued up”, meaning that a person would be clued up relating to the games industry.

I may consider going down that route someday, but for now, I’m going through with the more recent idea I have; seeing as I have a few willing people to help me with it.  I’m also merging the forum of my games clan, the XSG into the forums as it makes perfect sense.  Seeing as general games were to be talked about on the XSG forums anyway, and Gamed Up is about gaming in all forms, the decision to combine them was done to reduce resources used.  I understand that some of my ideas may be a little abstract right now, but this is because I have a tendancy to write off the cuff at times, a practice that I will be cutting down on as part of my improved style.  I’m going to be using my academic writing skills to help with more coherance on stuff, and also some research.  That’s not to say that I won’t stop writing off the cuff entirely, but I do want to make my factual bits more seriously, so I can be taken a little more seriously when it comes to blogging.  Another reason why I’m being deliberately abstract is to protect my ideas in development, as I share specifics with only a handful of people.  Of course, that said, I usually have the domains for my ideas registered before alluding to them, so there’s already some protection in place for me!

Another couple of my ideas, which I’ll mention for the above reasons are the Techie Guild, which is a website for discussing current technology… or it could be a social networking site for the technical field, not sure yet!  One idea I do want to experiment with (and I am keeping this one secret till it’s up!), is that of a redux of the DiggerCast and although I’ll keep the name, I’m renaming it mainly to the Jammed In Podcast.  You’ll eventually find out why I named it that, but for now, everyone is going to be left in the dark, except for the people I want to talk to about it.  Lastly, I have an idea which is essentially a spinoff of the Techie Guild and also a development site for the Wii, inspired by what Johnny Lee has accomplished.  It would also handle development with the DS and GameCube (they do have a direct connection to the Wii) and also the GameBoy Advance.  The spinoff of the Techie Guild site is something called Passed the Present, where future technology will get talked about.  Why the odd name?  Well, for starters, Past the Present was taken and secondly, the idea still works because in talking about the future of things, we have “passed the present”.

Get it?  No?  Oh well, I tried.

Anyway, I do have other sites that I need to give attention, so don’t expect the above ideas to come to fruition just yet, especially as I need to reshuffle the existing sites a bit.  Such as proceding with the development of the new Therians dot Net site, the redevelopment of Stormhaven Radio’s site and the deployment of my portfolio site.  I’m debating deploying my blog site Altered Awareness now, sans sub-domains as it’s an idea that can be readily deployed, save for that issue and really the lack of providing subdomains is the only reason the site hasn’t been put up sooner!  I’ll eventually find a way to put in subdomains, but I think it’s just as important to get a userbase for the site up!  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Stormhaven Radio, when it comes back up, will be at the centre-side of all the sites that I’m developing, as I’m going to be offering a player for the station with as many sites as I can although that may take a bit for some sites.

Either way, I think for the forseeable future, I’ll be pretty busy with my ideas, although I’ll have the assistance of others too; consolidation of my ideas was also another way to make things simpler.  I do have the plan to make a multi-wiki website, but that’s again a while off, although keeping all my wikis in the one place with a single login will bring in many benefits.  However, I only have plans to do that with 4 wikis atm, as the other wikis that I’d have planned need either site integration, or do not fit into the theme of the “WikiNet”.  I could go on and on about my future plans, but really, I should just do them and then write about them when I have them up, so people can go look.  I do plan on making a mini-site for all my projects, or rather pages of all the  websites I’ve ever done, provided they’re still online as otherwise I’ll just leave a name up.  I also plan on linking together all my image galleries as well.  It’s no small task, sure but it’s worth doing, so I don’t have to keep on Googling all my sites!

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I’ll be back next month with a thought-provoking entry, albeit with some proper research, as opposed to research as I do it!

After a rather frustrating couple of hours, I finally got the original theme back and fixed and also translated some of the German as well!

I also added a disclaimer page as well, so read that when you get a chance >.>