So yeah, it’s nearly the end of August and being completely honest, I haven’t had a lot to write about up until now.   For starters, I’ve finally managed to pick up DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 3, Lego Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band, all of which I’ve been wanting for ages.  The Rock Band games were brand new though the DJ Hero was second hand (and much cheaper than anywhere else!).  where possible, I am trying to buy second hand, but the issue is that sometimes brand new is cheaper than second hand, so I have to save my money.  Rock Band 3 is on the horizon, and there will be no doubts as to me getting it, especially with the fact it now includes a keyboard controller, which quite honestly has me drooling like a hungry dog in a butchers.  It’ll be great to be able to play another game that lets me learn on a keyboard, given I have plans to learn it.  Synthesia is a good thing, but I do think I might need something a little, well… easier to start with, plus I think I need some additional support, though that said having a 25 key keyboard is a good thing on the basis that I can start off with a handful of keys, then work my way up.  Besides that, I also have plans to start up a band with a friend of mine, though it’s not likely to take off properly for some time; more details on this later on.

I did also manage to pick up a few PC games as well, for quite cheap.  I got myself Evolva, Mass Effect, Star Trek: Borg and Space Empires V and with the exception of the ST game, they were all new!  I ended up spending a lot on games the past week or so nut they were so cheap I couldn’t help myself!  Staying on the subject of PCs, my desktop has developed a slight issue where one of my SATA power connectors has broken so I can only have one hard drive going at a time, which quite frankly sucks.  Thje laptop isn’t fareing well either, given that the screen has gone all funny on it.  I do hope it’s just a loose connection because otherwise I’m going to have to shell out for a new laptop, given the gfx card replacement is a good 200-odd Pounds!  Thankfully, my desktop problem is only a couple of quid to fix, though I might get a spare one, in case it falls down again.  In case you’re wondering how it fell, it was simply a case of me getting tangled up with my mouse lead and pulling on the desktop and knocking it down.  Thankfully, it was just that which was damaged… the hard drives seem to be fine which I consider a small miracle.  Not that I could afford to replace them at all.  Not the best week for my computers, is it?
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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.

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 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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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 >.>

Just a few minor updates for now. I added in some new pages, or combined some. Additionally, I added 2 more friend’s blog links. With any luck however, I should soon have something to blog about. But for now, I’m content in making the site look nice and accessible.