Stormkeeper's Blog
Random randomness you can understand!

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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So yeah, been no updates for ages, sorry about that! Even then, this isn’t a proper update, more to let people know I’m still alive (though I imagine some people won’t be happy at that) and that I restored the domain, which went down for about a day. I’m still getting stuff in order, and hope that over the next few months, I’ll be simplifying a lot of my websites, even here. As it stands, I’ve been doing some reshuffling though I won’t bore people with the details… however, I do eventually want to maybe get a retro games post out soon. I’ve been playing about in YouTube as well, uploading a few videos to do with the DiggerFeast (which has about 4 episodes with outtakes I have to edit) and also a test with my C64 and my Wii on my USB composite (red, white and yellow )  cable. I have plans as well to check out my PS2, SNES (with Super Game Boy) and recently aquired Gamecube (with Gameboy Player) and Dreamcast systems to see how well they record. Unfortunately, the C64 has a few recording issues, such as some artifacts on the top of the screen when I use the composite mode to connect it via my composite splitter. if I use S-Video to link it up, the screen is clear, but it’s in grayscale instead… very frustrating! I’m hoping with the addition of my new SCART stuff, I should be able to hook up the C64 through the SCART port, then route the picture out through S-Video… well, that’s the plan anyway!

I have a successful Wii recording, so that means I’ll be able to play both GameCube and Wii games with ease and record if needed. I do need to give the other systems a test-through as well, through composite, though my PS3 will be though component, and even nicer is the fact that because I ordered a HDMI to component splitter to use with the PS3, I won’t need to fiddle about with the settings, although on the flip side, I do have a PS2/PS3/Wii/Xbox 360 component cable if I really need it, which is always handy to have, especially as it means I can record everything in higher definition if needs be, although PS1 games seem to refuse to run on my PS2 when it’s in composite mode, oh well…. there is always the PS3 for that.

Anyway, all things considered, when I’m done, I hope to be able to record PC (both native and emulated), PS1/2/3 (PS2 & PS3), Wii/GameCube /Game Boy Advance/GB Colour/GB Classic (Wii & GameCube w/ GB Player), SNES/GB Colour/Classic (SNES with Super Game Boy), C64 (Tape & Disk and Cart – if I can afford them!) and Dreamcast games for the purposes of review, and also demonstrations. I do also have access to a 360 via my friends if I really need to use that, meaning I can use Xbox 360 and also most classic Xbox games too. Either way, with things well under way, I hope to see some great progress made this year… although I do need to buy some extra cables too, I think… I’m not using my own personal cables on a ‘work’ game system as it means both more weight to carry, plus they’d be potentially be exposed to more damage. Anyway, I’ll try to update more over the coming weeks to show off more of my stuff.. and rest assured, the DiggerCast and DiggerFeast will be getting updates soon, along with other sites!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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I 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.

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

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

This pretty much means that I’m going to spend a lot of time in Guild Wars (GW), hunting for treasure and also collecting copious amounts of grog, go me!  On a related notw, I’ve also gotten myself a second account, which works out cheaper than buying 4 more character slots, especially given that I got Guild Wars Prophecies (Prophecies) for 99p, after my Reward Card discount, which was quite nice indeed.  I coincidentally, by sheer luck managed to get a copy of Eye of The North cheap (second hand with an intact code) off Amazon so I can bring my characters up North and get them reserved for Guild Wars 2 (GW2).  Unfortunately, this means I’m only limited to the entire Tyria continent, which is by no means a bad thing, but I tend to like exploring the whole world.  All that said though, I’ll most likely get the other campaigns over the next while, when they are cheap enough.  I’m working on a few different title tracks for all the characters over two accounts at present, most notably Survivor (as the name suggests, it means you are not to die), of which I have 4 characters over all 3 campaigns marked for.  I also have a couple of characters going for Defender of Ascalon (reaching L20 in the starting area).  Before I continue, I’d like to reassure readers that this isn’t just going to be about GW, I just want to mention it now, as I’ve never really mentioned it before and it ties in nicely with the grog and loot collecting!  Anyway, with that aside, I’ve been working on all of this for quite a while now, though the second account only has been around the past month.  Still, there’s plenty to keep me going till GW2 comes out.  Coincidentally, if anyone ever wants to ever hang out on GW, let me know and we can do so.
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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.

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Jun
15.

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!

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

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


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