This originally started as a FB status, but has become so much more now… I can’t honestly keep it on my status now, and will be cross-posting this to all the relevent places. That said however, I can’t really change the start, but let’s roll with it. I understand you might not agree with what I have to say, but instead of outright disagreeing with it, please tell me why you disagree. I occasionally get things mixed up and will be more than happy to clarify, although I understand that people have expressed disagreement with my comments about people not voting not having “the right” to complain. Note that this is more to do with the situation in the UK right now, but parts may apply to your country. I have a tendenncy to ramble and repeat my points, but that’s how my mind works… hopefully it is coherant enough to be understood; any doubts, please just ask.

You know, given how poor some hourly rates are for where people live, I’m not surprised that people need benefits to supplement their income.

The sad thing is though that with the exception of the ‘bad examples’ you see in the paper, or occasionally hear about, those on benefits are truly getting persecuted, for simply choosing to live, and from that standpoint it’s absolutely sickening! I did some calculations for my average monthly wage, though admittedly I can’t actually do that properly, but the fact is that what I get paid in a month, for what I’m able to do at present (I’m trying to ease myself into a routine) varies from 30-130 quid short in a month. In this instance, those 2 figures I quoted at either end are literally what I’ll be short for next month (plus, there’s the fact my travel costs have tripled past what I would whilst on benefits).

Lastly, as I’m on a Zero Hour contract, my hours aren’t set, so technically, the average doesn’t exist… I’m just basically extrapolating from 2 months of work (both what I have done this month (and will do) and will do the next. When you really think about it, actually experiencing it from this end of the spectrum, you realise why a lot of people stay on benefits. Sure, you could cut them in order to “make work pay”, but then the issue is, how will it affect those already in jobs… will they get their current rate still, or will they get more or less? Either way, no matter how you look at it, whether you work and don’t earn enough from the job (which stands for ‘Just Over Broke’ btw) or simply claim benefits without working, life will get harder for you, especially when the government is insisting on marking everyone on benefits as scroungers!

I have to wonder though, since when in this country has it been okay to demonise people simply for trying to live? Do people have no heart any more? Are people now that greedy as to think that so long as their needs are sorted out, what happens to everyone else is irrelevant, as long as it doesn’t negatively affect them? People are becoming as short-sighted as this government is, standing idly by while these savage cuts are made, while people simply just trying make a living are being negatively affected, people that are otherwise law abiding citizens; people who have to take pay cuts in order to keep their jobs, people who have lost their jobs due to the current economic climate (which is dire, I might add), people who are clearly unable to work yet are being forced to breaking point by the government; people like you and me.

And in light of these cuts, the MPs don’t sit up and say “let us help our country and take a pay cut, just like other civil servants have had to!” No, instead they consider giving themselved (and maybe have even passed through) a 30% pay increase! How is it that we allow this?

How is it that we allow the government to invest the minimal amount (or even below) needed for this country to get back on its feet, thus stifling growth, and will making people worse off in 2015 than anyone ever was in the 2010 recession! How is that right?

How is it we allow the government to paint everyone on benefits (working or not, deserving or not) as scroungers, and telling them they must get a job, despite there being at least 2.5 million people out of work, and only around 500k jobs available? Better yet, what about those who are becoming unemployed due to redundancies made? It’s not only the high profile ones that make the news that are making them. This adds thousands more to the unemployed list, and also lessens the chances of anyone getting a job. It’s now at the stage where those who have a job (no matter how good or bad it is) are lucky to have one! The problem is though, not all of them pay enough, so we go back to the issue at the start.

The point is, we’re in a very vicious cycle here, and with each full revolution, things get progressively worse. This needs to be stopped, or we’re heading towards this ‘”Lost Decade” the papers have mentioned, which means it’ll take a very long time to recover. We all need to stand together and say to the government that we’re sick and tired of being treated like this, rather than just standing by and letting it all happen. This is what they call the Divide and Conquer approach; the bottom line is, no one is safe from the government cuts, and activities, unless you happen to be rich! I haven’t even mentioned what they’re trying to do to DLA or the NHS, but the point is, they’re trying to make it more difficult to live in this country.

I could go on and on like this in all honesty, but at the end of the day, things are happening that can be stopped, we just need to d something about it, even something as simple as signing and sharing an e-petition can help in a lot of cases, especially the ones that the Number 10 website; those that get enough signatures MUST be debated in Parliament! But, not only those petitions work, some of the ones on other sites work too; educating others about what is going on, and even educating yourself about the situation is important, read blog posts, newspaper articles and anything that discusses the current situation.

You may not do politics, but it is about time you started; politics is what this entire mess is about, and the more you distance yourself from it, the less chance you have to change the situation you are (and everyone else is) in. Look, I know you’re likely fed up with politics (at times, I am too)… but apathy towards politics is partly why we’re in this mess in the first place. If we all genuinely want to make this country better, we need to all be politically aware and make sure we make the right decisions; even a basic understanding of politics will help, because then you know what exactly you’re getting into when you vote, and honestly, you should be voting (at least where it matters).

If you didn’t (or don’t) vote, you have absolutely no right to complain about the situation we are in now. Sorry to break it to you, but it’s true. I voted at the last GE and I’ve been rather… vocal with my opinions as of late. Sure, the party I voted for didn’t win (that’s a discussion for another time), but at least I voted. By voting, you have basically ‘purchased’ a stake in the welfare of this country, and therefore have every right to complain about it going downhill. Now granted, I may not agree with your opinion (how would the world be if we all agreed?), but I accept you have one and strongly believe in it; that’s what tolerance is, that is accepting that people are different, have differnent ideas and different opinions, yet still accepting them as a person. Anyway, the bottom line is that in this day and age, it is possible to do life-changing things, simply by sitting down at your computer.

Now granted, not everything can be done this way, but some of the major things are promoting awareness (blogging or telling others, or sharing posts/articles) putting your signature to something or even funding a cause you believe in… changing the world can be that simple at times. Even still, if you want to gather for a protest or other cause, you can find like-minded souls in order to help facilitate that. We’re only as strong as we think we are, and if we think we are strong, and we come together with other strong people, we can use that combined strength to make things a better place. Admittedly, it is very possible for one person to make a difference, but at the same time, there is strength in numbers. And now, this doesn’t mean gather together to cause a riot… we had enough of that last year, but certainly, we need to come together to make things happen… let’s come together and try to make this country great once again.

And in some cases, all you need to do is spend a few minutes (or more if you can spare it) of your time doing it, fancy that… a few minutes of your time, and you can help improve life for yourself and many others.

Surely that is something worth being a part of?

I think it’s about time for another post. Admittedly, I haven’t really been averaging a post a fortnight, but equally, I have been diversifying my blogging topics a little more, which is a trend I hope will continue. I am looking at having categorised blogs though, which I have mentioned before, and I think is best because I ultimately want to have this centred around a select few topics, namely stuff I haven’t  covered elsewhere yet. As far as blogs go, I’m thinking about having the following:

• The Sciences, Technology, Mental Heath/Disability, Business/Entrepreneurship, Projects and general ramblings: This blog.
• Portfolio: Andrew Kennett (this clears up some space pages wise, and also will provide a timeline of sorts with my projects; it is mainly a dynamic CV of sorts).
• Current Affairs & (some) Politics: A Right State!
• Gaming (computer gaming and other sorts): Gamed Up (personal blog for personal stuff and site for reviews, news, previews, etc)
• Travel (Personal): Stormkeeper @ Xeno Storm.
• Travel (Group Projects): Individual dedicated project blog with links to category of personal blog associated with that project.

And that’s just for starters, to be honest…. or maybe it’s the end, I’m not sure. Either way, I’ll be looking at where stuff goes. I did have a site called Geeked Up planned as a sister site to Gamed Up initially, but I’m realising I’m spreading myself a bit thinly now, so therefore Geeked Up will be put on the back burner for now, plus there was very little I could put there, except for maybe stuff on Warhammer (that can go to Gamed Up anyway, maybe Geeked Up later) and Wrestling (the FB group is kinda dead). Ultimately, I’m gonna be spending this year sorting stuff out more, and also trying to make more posts where possible, though there will be some overlap from a couple of the blogs; the SK travel blog however will be dedicated to travel specifically, although I’m 50-50 on where the projects go; either they stay here or go to their own dedicated blog, suppose it depends on the format I make the projects, but for now I lumped them here…. it may just be I separate the project section into a separate blog and do it day by day. It would certainly make a lot more sense in all honesty, so I’ll do that when I move over to the new system I have planned.
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Edit: I’ve amended the The Mental Health Struggle link because the project has been moved. See next entry for details.

Well, it looks like we’re back to once a month posting again. On the plus side, at least I’m updating, and on that subject I have many updates, which is where the “going forward” comes in. As for the first part, it’s relating to the fact that I’m looking at getting 2 new hard external drives to back some important stuff up I realised just now that there’s certain rare, irreplaceable things I cannot afford to lose so I thought it best to get a 2TB HDD, mostly for software… but then I realised that given I’m getting more into multimedia, such as podcasting and recording videos, in addition to my regular photography, I need a safe place to store my media stuff too (especially the stuff that will either have a delayed release or never released). Thing is though, I’ve realised that the hard drive would fill up quite fast, given the volume of my downloads lately, and with the move to HD video (and also pending a few other videos I want to do that’ll take up a lot of space), I need to get 2 hard drives. In addition to that, I need to keep copies of the original video, and also copies of the edited and/or converted videos. So, I decided that 2 hard drives are best.

Granted, I may not fill them up right away, but it’s best to have all the extra space there just in case. With this in mind, I expect to be a little more prolific with recording, both with the DiggerFeast and other projects I have yet to organised, such as my Let’s Play series which I’ll discuss another time. Ultimately, I have a lot of ideas I’m considering at the moment, although I’m holding off on them for now as I need to flesh them out first. One thing that really struck me though (and why I’m even looking seriously now at backing up) is how easily data can be lost. Most notably, I’m thinking of older versions of games, such as development/pre-release versions of games, although I do also mean when developers EOL their products and make them available for free download, a lot of which can just disappear after a while. My own experiences in trying to get a copy of X-Com: Alliance have been mixed. I won’t bore you with the specifics, but the bottom line is I have a dud copy of one of the 2 files I download (also the biggest ones), and now it’s a pain to find! This makes it important to keep priceless files backed up in a very safe place, or rather in 3 diferent places!
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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.

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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And you wonder why I need a games blog? 

This blog isn’t supposed to have anything to do with games, but I managed to get myself addicted to Bejewelled Blitz and yesterday was by far my best score; I scored roughly 308k in that game, though I’m wondering how people can get scores of 500k plus in 60 seconds!  Anyway, that aside I’ve also signed up to a new browser game, much like Lord of Ultima (LoU), called Might & Magic: Heroes Kingdoms (MMHK).  It’s quite similar to LoU, except it reminds me more of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, except it’s in real-time.  Sadly, all games of these nature I end up dropping after a few weeks, sometimes months, so I’m likely to get back to Guild Wars and Lord of The Rings Online.  I might have to play a bit of Star Trek Online at some point soon too, seeing as I haven’t played it in a while and I pay for it monthly!  Anyway, still games related but in a different vein, I attended a Joystick Junkies (JJ) party for the first time in at least 3 years!  It was great to go there, although the venue was extremely posh… read that as I’d never be able to go there under my current, normal circumstances!  All that aside though, it was good to get back in touch with Chris as I hadn’t seen him since the second JJ party, the first being back in September 2004 after Game Stars Live… oh, those were the days.  I have pictures up online somewhere of the GSL Event, but damned if I know where they are on Fotki!

Of course back then, I was more obsessed with booth babes and freebies!  Oddly enough though, I was kind of working on stuff back then what would have fit into my current game site project; I still actually have some of the promotional materials from that as well.  This reminds me that I really need to get myself some business cards.  Anyway getting back on track, at the JJ party, I had the pleasure of meeting Ian Livingstone, the guy regarded as the father of Lara Croft (you may recognise him as being involved with Eidos, Fighting Fantasy or the Game Workshop).  Admittedly, I didn’t actually know what he looked like, which happens a lot with me.  I know of people, but don’t necessarily know how they look!  That said though, I imagine I’d have recognised Peter Molyneux and I know for a fact I’d recognise Jon Hare given I’ve met him a few times now!  Anyway, I asked him if I’d be able to interview him for the Gamed Up website and he said yes, so I’m happy about that.  I actually haven’t contacted him since then as I amn’t sure of what to say at present, though I might just send him an email to explain more about Gamed Up.

Given I want to have some features up for the site which will be sometime within the next couple of months (properly), I’m going to approach industry people and ask them if I’d be able to interview them sometime.  I eventually hope to do this on the Gamed Up site proper, even if it’s just a temporary blog on there – indeed I’m putting up the multi-blog system so I can start blogging about games somewhere; given that my games blog will take a different format to the rest of the site, I should be able to get away with using it while the site is still being built! – but for now, I’m going to field interview questions here, so if anyone reading has a question they’d like to ask Ian Livingstone, please comment below, or if you have my email address, you can send questions that way.  Please do title it “Re: Interview Questions” though so I know what it’s about.  In the future I’ll have a dedicated interview email address, but that’s a little time off yet, same for the other email addresses.  Please keep in mind though that I may choose to combine, rephrase or even not use questions to help things flow smoothly.  Lastly, if anyone is interested in Gamed up and either wants to know more about it, or sign up to it, they can comment here or email, and I’ll answer what I can.

I eventually plan on writing a nice long blurb about it, but that’s not going to be for a while yet as I need to think about how to word it, although admittedly I may have to come up with it sooner, so I have something to show people when they ask about it!  Watch this space for details and I’ll get back to you.  At the very least, I hope by the start of November to at least have my WordPress installs in place.  I will eventually be adding my project blog to here as well, but I need another few weeks to sort that out.  It’s becoming increasingly likely as well that this will be my only personal site for a while!  I do also plan on getting back into writing, but for now, that’s limited to games design documents that I’m preparing seeing as Notepad doesn’t quite cut it, no matter what I’d like to think!  I would love to code some sort of reader thingy though, so people can read what I write in a more linear format.  Anyway, that’s something that can be worked on in the future.  I’m going to let people in on a little secret though… I’m designing an RPG with a friend of mine of which we’re using RPG Maker 2003 (it’s simpler to use!) to design a concept with; it’ll be a fully playable game, though the full game mechanics won’t be present, due to the limitations of RPG Maker.  Also what won’t appear is the entire story, given we’d save that for a more professional release.  Still though, it’s better to have something basic down before taking it further… it’s a given the planned mechanics won’t work too well, but at least if nothing else the story, characters and maps can be fleshed out in this manner; it provides a means to see how well the basic components work.

Of course, the issue is that we need to work out how RPG Maker 2003 works although we’re making progress in that regard but we’re gonna make something basic first before expanding upon stuff, so we understand how the engine works and such.  I’ll eventually start a blog with regards to it going but again that’s a while off.  I imagine though that the independent (yet related) blogs will take off sooner than the main site will, which is by no means a bad thing… may as well get something started with it, right? Part of my plans though is to get a blog up for every section I have planned for the site, so there’s at least a placeholder, which saves me from doing anything later, plus has the added benefit of making sure that everything works correctly.  I’ve always been more about function over aesthetics, but in the case of Gamed Up, I really want to site to look professional and have something to show for when it’s up and running, hence why I’m gathering up staff atm, and preparing for interviews early as well.  Indeed, the sections are still being planned but I at least have a small idea of what I want to get on the site, although the list gets bigger as I realise the scope of what I’m doing.

I can’t really say anything else at the moment with regards to it, but I do hope that when it does finally get up and running, it’ll be something amazing… although given that my sites tend to have a slow takeoff, I’m going to have to accept that there might be a small userbase at the start; of course, it will help if I can start tying the site into other sites on my network and also places like Steam, Mypace, Bebo, Tagged, Facebook, etc. just to have some sort of presence there.  I do at least plan to have the site’s internal backbone working soonish, though there is already a clan presence at least; it’s all about the small steps.

I figured now was a good time for me to update my blog, although really I should look at giving my LiveJournal some attention at some point.  As many of you already know, I’m a subscriber of Star Trek Online, only right now I can’t play it because the server’s full, which is rather amusing.  At the time I was player number 719/719 wanting to play but I exited the game.  Upon further reflection, this perhaps wasn’t such a hot idea.  I did get in eventually, so it’s all good.  Anyway, I’ve been playing it for about a week now and I’m rather surprised about the game to be honest… I do like it although admittedly, the ground sections are a bit dodgy… but the starship bits are pretty nice!  So far, I’ve been to Earth, Risa, DS9 and K7 which as many of you who watch Star Trek know are some of the more major areas in the universe itself.  I’ve also played the Command & Conquer 4 multiplayer beta, although quite frankly I don’t get it at all.  It doesn’t feel much like C&C and even the music, which at present I barely remember what the music sounds like, although it’s rather Star Trek sounding, ironically.

Unfortunately, I can’t take screenshots of C&C4, though I can of STO, and expect some in my Flickr gallery soon.  And just to talk a little bit more about C&C4, I’m honestly not sure if I like it, but it’ll be released next month, so we’ll have to see what happens then.  There’s noconventional bases in it and it sems rather remensicent of Dawn of War without the building options… actually, those of you who remember the game Z, it’s more like that.  Other than that, I’m having to wait for stuff regarding my new house and I’m hoping to record a DiggerCast pilot episode either tomorrow or next week.  I also plan on going to see Assemblage 23, which are pretty damn good.  I recently managed to properly listen to all their music and I do quite like them, so I’ll be seeing them next week.  I’ll post some more here later, although I think my LJ needs to be updated some more, seeing as it’s swamped with Tweets.  Realistically though, unless something significant happens between now and my next post on here, it’s likely that the aforementioned next post will be a better opinion on STO, which should really be put onto a games blog, but at present I have none so here will have to do.  I really need to give Guild Wars some attention too; although in a way I’m glad there’s no monthly fees as like I said in the past, it doesn’t feel like a chore in that I have to play it.  It also means I can save money.  Either way though, I’m going to start balancing it out.  Heh, I might even consider playing WoW again, just to use the trial time I have.

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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 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.