Happy holidays! Award time!

Hopefully everyone is having a good holiday and if you're celebrating Christmas have everything prepared and ready for it. Or more accurately, I hope you had a good Christmas, since this post took me a bit longer than expected with all the things to do over Christmas. I recently finished my exams and was working a late shift yesterday, but thats me free for the next few days until my next shift on Sunday 30th. Time to relax! =)
Anyway, I have a bit of a different post today-its an award I was nominated for by my girlfriend (biased slightly hehehe.) Her blog is getting an awesome amount of attention because its becoming more and more professional in my opinion. Its over here if you are interested in nail art and drugstore/high street hauls. I understand that a lot of my readers will not know what the hell that is about though hehe =p

Anyway, the way the award works is kind of like the "tags" you might see on youtube or some blogs. I've to answer a set of 11 questions and put up 11 random facts about myself. After that I am to tag 11 bloggers who each have less than 200 followers who I think are interesting bloggers in the community.

So here are the 11 questions:

What are you looking most forward to at Christmas?
- I'm looking forward to getting some time off from university, relaxing with my friends, family and awesome girlfriend =) Oh, and how could I nearly forget the Christmas food? Eating way too much of that!
What are you looking most forward to for 2013?
- Hmm this is a difficult one...I'm a bit nervous about 2013 because I'm going into the more difficult half of the university year, where we'll be getting real patients coming in to get their eyes tested. So perhaps I'm looking forward to some time off in summer and relaxing whenever I can!
Classic Disney films or newer Pixar films?
- Classic Disney films are far better in my opinion. The animation and imagination put into films like Aladdin, The Lion King and Fantasia are amazing. Thats not to say I don't like the newish Pixar films, there have been some really good ones like Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Up, but they just don't quite hold up to the old films I watched when growing up. It seems they weren't as scared to make films back then a bit grittier and darker.
Are you at University/College at the moment and what do you do?
- I'm at University at the moment, studying Optometry in my 3rd year out of 4.
Iphone or Blackberry? Or neither?
- Blackberry are much better for me, I couldn't carry a phone around that is worth more than my PS3, Xbox 360 and 3DS combined. They are really good quality in terms of the touch screen, but I'm fine with my (old) Blackberry Curve (and iPod touch if I want IOS apps.)
Favourite animal?
- Not sure exactly...I have lots I like, but might just go with cats of some kind, because I really like having them as pets =p
Favourite beverage?
- Ummm...Tea? Being BritishScottish I like my tea.
Pet peeves?
- I don't like it when people talk in lecture theatres way too loudly, screech cutlery across plates or bowls...and I'm sure there are some other ones. Oh! When people crunch or eat ice cubes..Thats like my weakness...I hate that noise and everything about it
Best/worst moment of 2012? Can be personal or in the celeb type world type thing :p
- I'm really terrible at these...I can't pick one single moment out for my best of 2012. The worst moment? Juggling a job, coursework and studying for exams? It sucks the amount of stress that piles up near exam time.
Most overhyped nonsense of the year?
- The apocalypse? Of course the world wasn't just going to spontaneously end when there was no scientific evidence behind it. No approaching asteroids or alien motherships were to be seen.
Favourite nail polish brand? 
- ... I'm not too qualified to answer this, even though I have picked up a lot of info here and there hehe..

 Right, so I think I've answered everything well enough =) I'll leave the tagging for now or this will take ages to publish. I'm going to try and do an impressions or review post of Crimson Shroud or Inazuma Eleven next.

Hallowe'en 2012!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! Hopefully you're enjoying it! I've not posted on here in absolutely ages so let me brush some e-cobwebs off the site and do a little blog post once again! I've been quite busy at university, now into my 3rd year of the Optometry degree I'm doing, so its getting more intense now. Getting close to the stage of having real patients in for eye tests...I've also been doing one day a week at work back with Boots Opticians back home. I've been playing the odd game, but not really focussing on any one thing... I've got Durarara that I need to get back into finishing, I got about 5 or 6 episodes in and got a tad sidetracked by other things like podcasts, reading the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (its taken me ages to get through, but its a good series) and the odd bit of gaming.

Ill just quickly run through some of the games I have been playing, and some impressions before I get onto the main idea for the post. Last year I tried to play a couple games with creepy atmospheres or themes (it turns out I don't really have a good selection of horror games)

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS) - I picked this up cheaply and was really impressed with it. I put a fairly large amount of money into the DLC as well...I think I got about 15 or so songs, out of the 50 odd they have available...there is way too much there, at a £1 each. Anyway, the game is really fun, especially when you get to the Dark Notes and can do some multiplayer with friends (they are quite fun single player too actually) I was definitely happy with this game though, a fanboy's dream, even if you aren't the kind of fanatic SE fan who buys all the OSTs. I thought it would have more content, similar to the Dissidia games (forget about 100%ing them, seriously..)

Dark Souls (PS3) - turns out trying to get back into this after ages of not playing is pretty difficult...I wanted the DLC but want to get to the stage where I can actually try it out before I buy it. So I had the option to either continue on with my NG+ playthrough (I'm just finished Blighttown, but even getting out of there is difficult...) or carry on with my save files at the start of the game. One is right at the start just at the first  bonfire in Firelink Shrine and the other is at the Undead Parish. Its bloody difficult to progress without putting in a lot more time than I did though, so I didn't really get far...the DLC can wait unfortunately...I'd wanted to try it immediately =(

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) - Me and a couple friends in uni got back into playing this for the first few weeks of the semester, and picked up from where we left off at the end of High Rank. We worked some of our friends who were further back in the game up towards High Rank, and did quite a few Alatreon quests one of the days (we don't have the quest unlocked, but one of us not at uni does, so when he came up, we could do that quest) and got some of the endgame equipment. Really fun game, but I still think I prefer the content and brutal difficulty of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. I mean, my first time fighting Alatreon went really really smoothly. That kinda shit doesn't happen against Fatalis XD

This year we've decided to have a kind of October Hallowe'en horror movie marathon. Not exactly like a non-stop sort of marathon, but just a selection of good horror/thriller films over the course of today (30th) and tomorrow (31st) as I write this.

Tuesday 30th
Severance
Saw

We watched these ones, me and my girlfriend had seen both of them before but ages ago, and we thought these would be some pretty good starting points. Starting off with Severance, that one is a really weird movie, its got a kind of dark British humour to it, and its got its brutal parts in there. There are some pretty nasty scenes, like the bear trap bit XD you'll know what I mean if you've seen it. Its filmed quite well in places.. we picked up on stuff this time that I hadn't noticed at all first time round. Like the relevance of one of the characters eating cheese just before he went to sleep. Anyway, its a pretty good film if you liked stuff like Dog Soldiers and Shaun of the Dead (kinda british 'zom-com'/horror-comedy type films)
I really liked Saw the first time I saw it (urgh, how to reword that...) It has its good share of twists you just really don't see coming...It started a whole wave of similar uber violent films from what I remember, with stuff like Hostel and Untraceable taking a lot of ideas from the Saw films. I don't really want to get into the whole sequel thing with Saw but...I watched the first few and then fell behind a bit because it seemed like they could only do so much, they all start to blur together when I try to remember them. The first one really has some surprises though, check it out!

Wednesday 31st ~ Hallowe'en
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Saw II-VI
Shaun of the Dead
Dog Soldiers
Se7en
Paranormal Activity
Beetlejuice

I would normally finish early on Wednesdays, but this week I'm in till 5 I think, so it'll be a small selection of those films above, thats what we're picking from. I've seen a good few of them, so we know some on there are good films =p

A couple more that we don't have immediately but might be able to get before tomorrow evening;
The Alien series
The Thing (although we watched this recently)

If theres time, I might pick up some of these games for a bit;
Limbo (Steam)
Binding of Isaac (Steam)
Plants vs Zombies (IOS)
Persona 3 FES (PS2)
Shadow Hearts (PS2)
Dark Souls (PS3)
They have some pretty interesting dark themes and game worlds, and should be good games to play on Halloween =D I'll post a bit more tomorrow when we've watched some movies and played some games. Totally boring, I know! =p Next year I will make an effort to make a costume and go out for Halloween!
However you're spending it, have fun!

Update-ahoy!

Its been a very hectic and busy couple weeks for me. I had recently sent off a lot of letters and made some enquiries about jobs, and got offered an optical assistant position at Boots Opticians in Edinburgh (where I stay) over the summer and was offered a start date of a day or two after the first call came through to me. So it was quite the jump from doing my own thing, relaxing and enjoying the summer from going straight into a full time job with 5 days a week. I started on Wednesday the 20th of June, and have been doing 3 days a week in one of the Flagship stores (Princes St, Edinburgh) and 2 days per week in a quieter store in an out of town retail park-type place called Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh (or the Fort as its to referred to here...having stayed in Glasgow for too long, I was not aware of this fact...which in fact led to a lot of confusion on my part. I thought they had meant the Fort outside Glasgow when they first informed me about the job...)

So I'm still getting used to the routine now, after a busy week or two. At first, the pre-screening techniques seemed really intimidating and hard to control. The things we have to do are Tonometry (non-contact) for finding the pressures inside the eyes, rough Autorefractor measurements of the prescription, visual field screening on Henson 3000 or 6000 machines and Fundus photos when applicable. So things have been slightly different to what I've been used to at uni, but after doing a lot of shadowing and supervised training, I finally got the hang of things and got signed off by one of the optoms which means I can do pre-screening of patients on my own (unsupervised) now. They have to make sure the optical assistants know what they are doing, otherwise its their job on the line at the end of the day and they dont want inaccurate results or anything showing up.

On the admin side of things in the job, I've quickly had to get used to the filing systems, and the paperwork which needs done for each day's appointments. After a week and half or two weeks into the job, I was getting used to the computer system's programmes for booking appointments, putting orders through for patient's glasses or contact lenses etc, and the new upgrade went through, changing the look of the till's computer and the programs on the computers. So I had roughly a day to pick that up, and it was going quite well..,I was told that day (by the Fort branch manager) that the Princes St branch was closed due to flooding. Over the past week or so, the UK has had a ridiculous amount of rainfall, and a lot of it got into the basement and first floor of Boots in Princes St. That meant the branch was closed as the electric was knocked out, and something happened to the server connected to the Optician's computers. So after one day closed on Thursday 5th, we reopened on Friday to find there were no computers up and running. Apparantely its been quite a serious thing, and theyve had to get parts flown up from England, but everything wont be back to normal until sometime this week coming. D:
Very problematic when we are so dependent on the computers for so many aspects of the practice operation...There is a growing pile of stuff to be done when the computers come back on.

The rain has made a lot of other chaos as well. Bus routes have been diverted today, Bus tracker things looked like they had been damaged by the rain in places. And a lot of trains, houses and other businesses have been affected as well. I woke up this morning to a drip coming through the ceiling in my room, flooding in the garden and street, and a wall mounted light having somehow ripped its way out the wall. Perhaps this is down to the fact that my house is so damn old, I dunno.

Hopefully the rain goes away and things return to normal sometime soon...

/Long post of rambling-ness

3 Exams down, 1 more to go!

I'm writing this as one last bit of procrastination as I need to spend most of the day cramming as much Binocular Vision information into my head as I can. Its my final exam of 2nd year tomorrow morning...and I feel least prepared for this one... Then again, I was dreading the other ones and they seemed to go ok.

Recettear is difficult...I actually failed to pay the money back at the end of my first week...Valkyrie Profile Lenneth is kinda difficult as well, but I don't know what else I can do to prevent myself getting owned in battle. Anyway, I've not been playing much of them, just a little bit during the evenings. Perhaps a few hours more in, I'll get into the swing of them..

Hopefully it goes well. I'll get back to posting a bit more regularly after tomorrow as I'll be free for summer!

Upgrade get!

I've added a Blog List gadget to the blog layout now, and will periodically rotate in and out some blogs I think are good reading material. Its in an effort to get to know more people in the blogging community spread some awareness of different blogs I think people should be checking out.
I'll also be a bit more active on various forums and things like Backloggery when I have time to. I think I've had this blog for long enough now to make more of an effort with it. =D

Wtf is going on?

Last week we had the hottest weather on record for this time of year in Scotland. This week we have snow? 0_o

Anyways...it doesn't really matter, I've got a lot of work to do for uni so I doubt I will be going out unless I have to. Yesterday I had nearly finished a lab report that needed to be handed in by thursday, and I was about to get back to studying for the final exams. What do they do? Throw us a curveball by letting us know a log book needed to be handed in by Thursday as well (as it is the last day of term.) Throughout the semester, we had been told that we didn't really need to hand these in as they weren't assessed unless it was a borderline pass/fail thing, then they might take the clinic log books into account. Now we apparantely have to hand them in with whatever we have in them. This kind of threw my planning off, so I'm headed back into the clinic for (hopefully) the last time this semester to get some readings with some of the tests I didn't fill into my log book...

This course is pretty terribly planned out sometimes...why give us only a few days to sort out our log books? I suppose I shouldn't worry about it too much, they probably won't use most of them in the marking...

Back to finishing up my lab report and studying I suppose =p

Its ALIVE!!!

Wow, I've been away from the blog for what seems like ages. I'm not ready to let the blog die yet. Time to start posting more frequently on here I think. I've been mostly busy with daily life, mostly consisting of my rather busy university schedule. I'm now in 2nd year of my Optometry course and I've just started my exams for the first semester. Pathology exam=done, Ophthalmic Materials and Introductory Diagnostic Techniques still to do at the start of the week. After that, I'm done for Christmas! =D (Well once I finish off my Christmas shopping for people)

So hopefully I'll have some time to get some posts done on here and play some of the games that have unfortunately become added to my long list of games which I have backlogged over the last few months. Some big titles in there that I picked up but didn't get a chance to play include;
Dark Souls (PS3, 360) I really, really enjoyed Demon's Souls so want to play this when I have a decent amount of time and concentration to devote to it, to really enjoy it and progress through it. Maybe over Christmas I'll get a chance to play this one. I got it on PS3 but I now realise its on the 360 as well. I kind of wonder if the community has taken to this game.
Xenoblade Chronicles (You Americans can now rejoice that it is coming to you/mutter under your breath about the high import prices you payed to import.) It seems the Wii is coming to the end of its lifetime, which is a bit unusual...I don't normally like to see consoles fade away or developers leave them alone because a newer console is on its way out as it usually means we miss out on a lot of good games. I will need to do some reading up about the Wii U (I'm still not too sure whether its a new console altogether or some kind of Wii peripheral...I watched the videos of it initially but didn't really do much investigating into what it actually is. I did a similar thing with the PS Vita, I still don't fully understand what it does and how it integrates with back compatibility and PS3 games.) Even though the Wii looks to be getting close to the end of its lifetime (it hasn't been that long has it?) there are still some good games coming out. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) got some really good praise and reviews when it came out recently. I'll only be picking that one up if I can cheaply find the special edition with the Wii Motion Plus bundled in with it (because I hate to buy peripherals and don't have that thing yet) Dragon Quest X: Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online or Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online (Wii/Wii U) should definitely be interesting. People are finding it fashionable to hate on this one and its not even out yet. I'm optimistic about it-I had some good fun with Monster Hunter Tri recently. I mean, the devoted Capcom servers are not ideal (they kicked me off more than a few times, although I don't know how much that was down to my router being kind of far from the Wii) but they did the job. For a free online game (it had a subscription fee in Japan), it was a lot of fun and done quite well. So...after that long winded aside.. Xenoblade is one mammoth game from what I've heard, so I really want to have some time available to really enjoy it. I've only heard good things, and for me (if I'd played either), this or Skyrim would be my game of the year. I expect these 2 games to do well this year in terms of awards.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim (PS3, 360, PC) is the next one that everyone has been talking about that I've not played yet. I don't mind though (even though at every moment people have been inadvertently trying to spoil the game for me) as I've had a lot of studying to do for the past few weeks, plus I've got millions of games to play in the meantime. It will be in my possession at Christmas (Thankyou to my awesome girlfriend!) Not too sure what kind of character I'm going to play through as when I start the game up over the holidays yet. I'm thinking Dark Elf (like I normally end up going in Elder Scrolls games), Khajit or Argonian (the cats and lizard characters always look quite cool!=p)

Theres quite a lot of games that I've played through recently actually...

I finally got some games on Steam, and got my account upgraded fully. Damn steam sales finally made me give in. Despite the fact that there were so many games on sale in the Autumn sale, I only picked up the Zeboyd games double pack of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves The World. I've played through Breath of Death so far and found it pretty fun actually. Its got a lot of old school references and throwbacks. Check out my screenshots for some of the ones I noticed. Not too sure how to link to them exactly, but have a look on my profile;  http://steamcommunity.com/id/berserkalucard/


I got The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D on my birthday from 'Ms Planet Hell' I suppose you could call her hehe =p So I finally got a chance to play this game again after absolutely ages! I never originally got an N64 so didn't get to play what some people have called one of the best (if not the best) games of all time. I saw it occasionally at my friend's house and on the Gamecube collection thing that had it, but was always put off by the horrific N64 graphics...They just made me really nauseous and scared. Ironically, the game was to be released when the 3DS came out and it was able to give people headaches for different reasons =p I was really impressed with the graphics they did for this version. The 3D was a lot better done than the previous 3D game I played, Monkey Ball. I think the 3DS is starting to get some decent games coming out now, its starting to become a system people are wanting to play now. Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land (or some stupid name) are two that seem good so far. I've picked up the 2nd half of the Ambassador programme games now, and there are some quite decent games thrown in there for the GBA!

I got really into the Monster Hunter games over the space of a few months (read: 500+ hours into MH: Freedom Unite) so I picked up Monster Hunter Tri after ages of deliberating (putting off buying the game). It was nowhere near as long to finish as Freedom Unite (which has the most content of the MH games to come out in English) but it does have a lot to do in the online quests. I finished that one in about 40 or 50 hours. I also found a good price for Portable 3rd shortly after Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD ver. was released so I imported the original one on psp (actually I got the best sellers edition.) and really enjoyed that. It has a really nice feel to it, the graphics are amazing for a psp game =p Jinouga is a really nicely designed flagship monster, and I'm definitely looking forward to picking up Monster Hunter 3G even though that will take me out of my current MH-free period...seriously, those games are like crack in game form XD

I was in quite a mood to play old school feeling dungeon crawling games, and I got through Etrian Odyssey and Orcs & Elves. One is huge, long and difficult (nearly went to a thats what she said moment there) and one is short and unusual. Both are really good fun though with a lot of nice quirks and throwbacks to older games, and I'm looking forward to playing more dungeon crawlers soon. Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard is in my list of games to get through, and I'm really wanting to pick up Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls. It looks really tough but good in terms of gameplay and artstyle, all for a budget price on PSN.

There are a few games that have been announced for English audiences that I'm definitely looking forward to. Some I never thought would come out over here. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3) has recently been announced for America and Europe (on my birthday!) Yeah, I know this is quite old news, but I've been away for ages, and I'll get to the newer stuff eventually =p

Ni no Kuni should be really good! I'm hoping that it sells well over here, as it kind of flopped when it came out in Japan. They need some kind of special edition to get people interested I reckon =p Either way, I'll pick it up to support Namco Bandai in localising similar games.




The Last Story is another one that I was pleased that it would be coming out to Europe, but I thought it wouldn't be a definite (and would somehow depend on how well Xenoblade did, even though I'm pretty sure they are in no way connected) release. Europeans have a release date for this one now, which is super good news!

Tales fans are getting quite a lot of good news as well recently. Tales of the Abyss came out here, so I picked it up but didn't start it right away like I had wanted to. I was too busy finishing off Tales of Phantasia (and studying mostly). I'll get to Tales of the Abyss soon though, I'm glad us PAL gamers got a chance to play that finally without importing. Not sure if I'll fall into that game's hater camp or appreciative camp. Tales of Graces f has a few release dates. America first and then sometime Summer 2012 for us lot in Europe. Hopefully Tales of Xillia ends up coming over, or at least Innocence R on the Vita =p

I could go on for much longer, but I'll leave it at that! My exams are looming, but that means I'll be done soon at least... =p

Extra Life 2011!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaages since I last posted...I feel really bad that I've been neglecting this blog for so long now, but it won't disappear completely!

So I'm posting this because very soon I will be participating in Extra Life 2011, a charity that raises money for Children's Miracle Network hospitals. It is an American charity, but it is open to people all across the world, and I was able to donate to my local hospital (very near my house in Edinburgh.) So I decided since this was near my birthday and I'd always wanted to take part in it, to make a team from friends and people I know at uni and play video games for 24 hours on the 15th of October.

Our team name is Dr. Octagonapus and this is our team page. http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&eventID=501&teamID=5582

What we will be doing is playing Monster Hunter games for 24 hours on a sponsorship basis to raise $500. There are 5 of us involved and we are all looking for donations, as are the children who go to the Royal Sick Children's Hospital in Edinburgh, which I can definitely vouch for as a hospital!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you can donate, however little!

Exercise overload...

I just got back on home today after doing a rather intense cycle from Edinburgh to Glasgow along the Union canal and Forth and Clyde canal. The trip was around 55 or so miles which we did in one day. It took us about 8 or 9 hours including stops if I remember rightly.

We set off from Edinburgh in the car to get dropped past the busiest part of town around half 9 or 10 on Friday morning. The weather was quite good for the morning, but the canal paths were a bit more uncomfortable than the ones later on nearer Glasgow. But by the end of it, it didn't really matter, because I was really not enjoying it...the weather turned bad, with quite strong winds coming our way as well as constant drizzly rain which got heavier and heavier as the day went on... We had a few stops along the way, in Linlithgow for some lunch around 12ish and then through a 620m long tunnel (apparantely) in nearly pitch black alongside the canal to the Falkirk wheel (which I didn't realise was such a tourist attraction.) It is the only one of its kind in the world I think, but don't quote me on that, I'm far from an expert on rotating boat lifts XD To be honest, its probably the only reason anyone would want to go to Falkirk, no offence to people from there but its a bit of a shithole...actually, not as much as some of the parts of Glasgow we went through :p

So once we got their eventually, cycling through the rather annoying rain and wind, we only had about half an hour to get a shower and a bit of a rest before we had to get a taxi. My dad had already booked the taxi to take us up to the west end for a meal and stuff. So we were going to meet my cousin at the Ubiquitous Chip, a bar/restaurant in Ashton Lane in the West End. I knew this was bound to happen, but we got ID'd trying to get in and I hadn't thought of bringing my passport at all, it was back home...my brother James was the same, he didn't think it was necessary to bring it. After all, if it got lost or wet, we'd have to shell out for a new one. Yeah, so it was news to me that we were going out for a drink before the curry in Ashoka just across the wee lane. So I was pretty pissed I'd got ID'd, but after a minute or two, it was rather funny because my dad somehow managed to get us in by leading the bouncer to believe we were booked in for a meal upstairs. Silly people...this was an expensive bit of town, so a group of people with a dinner reservation was quite a lot of money they would be missing out on (if we had indeed been eating there..)

So once we had got across to the restaurant and started eating, I remembered how good the curries there can be (particularly the Peshwari Nan breads :D) so I ate lots of that and somehow started to feel really light headed and sick, dont know if it was because I had too much to drink on an empty stomach, it was too hot in the restaurant or if it was because of the exertion of cycling all that way and then eating, or some combination. I went and got some air and was feeling slightly better after that though.

So once we eventually got to the hotel, I was looking forward to getting a good sleep. I couldn't get to sleep for bloody ages, it was too hot and uncomfy in the room and the walls were really thin...eventually got to sleep after putting my ipod on to cut out the snoring and other noise (I'm a light sleeper.)

We could have cycled back half of the way, but I took the train back from Glasgow, I was feeling too achey to do much more cycling to be honest.

My computer is no longer blow'd up...

Gah...my laptop is still broken and its not even put in the shop yet..Its either just that I was bringing into uni without a proper laptop back and it got damaged, or more likely, the fact that it got tea spilt over it in uni...

Its got some kind of hardware problem, I think the RAM like last time, but not sure..

1st May: Yay! I got my laptop back a few days ago and it was indeed a problem with the RAM again. It cost me £85 to get a new stick put in now, and its working fine. I was a bit worried at first because it actually smelled of burning plastic, but that was probably just some initial crap inside, as it doesnt do that so much now.

Hopefully I'll be posting some more now! I've got my final exam for first year on the 4th of May..,that doesn't seem so far away now :'(

Today...*sigh*

Today was the most bullshit day I've had in quite a while now. Its not just me being an emo bitch either, a lot of the class were in foul, depressed moods as well. We were in uni 9-5 with 1 hour free..thats not the worst part though. We had 2 seperate 2 hour labs, one for Applied Optics, and one for Visual Optics. We also had an Anatomy Class test which I had only started revising for the night before (thats my fault, I know). The exam questions were fucking hard, and I was backed up on that by people who had studied a lot. Apparentely it didn't matter how much you studied, because some of the questions were worded in ways which made them trick you, or even fail to understand what is meant.

I got home at like 7ish and worked until midnight as well, in an effort to make up for my lack of work at the weekend, and guilt at not doing enough of my uni stuff. See the last post for some of the shit I've been putting off for a while.

A whole bunch of other stuff wasn't going for me either today. Hopefully tomorrow is better. Urgh...I really don't want this blog to turn into something I use solely to bitch...I just needed somewhere to vent the recent pressure. I seriously think something is wrong with me, both physically (I've got some illness, probably stress induced) and mentally.

Way too much stuff to do....

Just to say I won't be posting anything about what I've been playing during the last week. I had some time for games, but from Thursday-Sunday I ended up staying at a friend from uni's house and drinking, playing a few multiplayer games, pool and other stuff. So while it was pretty awesome and seemed like a good idea, it left me with a big backlog of uni work to do. I've only had a couple hours to study for my Anatomy class test tomorrow, finish the Visual Optics lab report, catch up on the lectures I missed, the tutorial I left early from today, the Applied Optics lab writeup I still haven't finished from last week, write and email the minutes for the last Cali-Otaku commitee meeting, phone the uni eye clinic to book a second appointment and a whole load of other stuff.

Bleh...all that added to the depressing day that is Valentine's day (if you are single) plus the rain made today pretty shit. At least I had fun slacking off during the weekend with some friends.

Hopefully I'll get back into my normal rythm soon.

Time eater..

Seriously, there aren't ever enough hours in the day when you are working or at university. I try to have a list of main things somewhere loosely in my mind each week or day, and I usually get the main priorities done in time, but I never seem to have enough time to put in time to smaller things like a bit of studying each day, reading my notes, watching tv, playing games or writing here. Those things seem to get kicked down a couple notches when I have other stuff like lab reports to do.

I'm in uni 9 to fuckin 6 tomorrow...wtf...I'll need to study throughout the day at uni and some tomorrow night as I've got a Test on Tuesday which I've not started revising for... T_T

I need a hyperbolic time chamber. Cookie to whoever knows what thats from.

2010's gaming progress

Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully you've all been having a good holiday season so far, and I hope you have a good year of 2011.

In my eternal quest to finish my backlog of games, I've been tracking my progress on the backloggery, a site designed for people to record their collections and get to know other people with similarly perilous amounts of unfinished games. I'd say that using the site has definitely helped me stop buying so many games actually, as I can actually see in terms of numbers how many games I have, instead of just having a stack of games on the shelf. I've taken a note of the games that I've finished and 100% completed in 2010, and I'm quite pleased actually. I've kept my amount of games unplayed in check and finished up many RPGs and other games that I'd been meaning to play for a while.

Finished (ie. finished the main story)

Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Halo 2 (Xbox)
Final Fantasy IX (PS1)
Castlevania: Judgment (Wii)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
Dragon Quest: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2)
Dragon Age: Origins (360)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
Flower (PSN)
Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
Blazblue: Calamity Trigger (360)
Mass Effect 2 (360)
Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PSP)
No More Heroes (Wii)
Suikoden Tierkreis (DS)
Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days (PSP)
Final Fantasy X (PS2)
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)
Sakura Wars: So Long my Love (Wii)
Tales of Eternia (PSP)
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS)
Demon's Souls (PS3)
Ys Seven (PSP)
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP)
Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)
Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? (PSP)
Half Minute Hero (PSP)
Bayonetta (PS3)
Blazblue: Continuum Shift (PS3)

100% completed

Flower (PSN)
Golden Sun (GBA)

Master runs/challenges

Pokemon SoulSilver (DS)

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I'm still taking part in RPGamer606's RPG marathon, even though my progress has slowed due to university starting up. I'm aiming to finish up Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Dragon Warrior Monsters next, and then go onto Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

The year has actually gone really quickly...being at college or uni really takes a lot of time. Still, I've enjoyed the year for the most part. Some gaming highlights for me have been the talk of the 3DS, Demon's Souls release in PAL regions(its one of my favourite games this generation) and experiencing some rather awesome RPGs I missed out on at release-FFIX for one.

I've got a few ideas for a some features coming soon, some Game of the Year lists, and some retrospective playthroughs of old series. I will see what I can do. Currently it feels like I am cursed with technology: things seem to break when I even go near them.

Computer problems...

My laptop has been acting up, it refused to start for a few days, giving me a checksum error and not going past the first few scenes of the windows startup.

I was about to reinstall windows today, turned it on and it gave me a new scene, Windows recovery manager or something similar. I had tried System Restore before, but this time it appeared to work.

So I am back on my laptop now, but rather sceptical...this problem has been going on for a few months, at varying levels of regularity..It might need to go into the shop to see if anything is still wrong.

So if you see a lack of updates or my presence online, it will most likely be due to my laptop having exploded or something.

Rehaul of the blog

Blog redesigned-changed it to a lighter theme and a template behind it. Looks slightly cleaner and more professional. Only thing is, things seem more crunched together into the centre.

Let me know what you think on here, or wherever you see me.

Aneemayz

So I'm now part of the Anime society at my Uni, Glasgow Caledonian's 'Cali Otaku' society.  I've only been to the first 2 meetings of the year but I'm somehow already the club's Secretary. It was more or less down to me knowing the president from last time I was at uni in Glasgow. I met him through Glasgow Uni's Anime & Manga Society and mentioned to him the other week that I might be interested in either of the current commitee positions if he needed someone. The Uni's student association requires commitees of all it's societies and clubs it seems, at least if they wish to be funded by the association. So getting the positions filled was essential to the survival of the club.

There weren't that many people interested in being on the commitee, leaving me and another guy to get the 2 free positions, secretary and treasurer. We weren't really bothered about which position we each got, so I got given the secretary position even though I don't know that many people in the club yet. 

I think I'll be quite good at the position though, as I am fairly organised with my notes, timekeeping and writing. 

Anyway, they have series which run for the entire academic year (one screening per week) as well as some series which were decided upon today. Its something they've been doing for a few years from what I've heard. The members bring in 2 pilot episodes of anime or other shows like live action stuff. After they've all been shown, the members vote on what shows they would like to see shown throughout the year.

We ended up deciding on High School of the Dead (which I just finished on my own the other week) and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. I voted for Railgun as well as Pani-Poni Dash. My choices after that would have been Hellsing (which I've seen, but is pretty damn awesome) or some Live action thing that was about a guy whose thoughts can be heard out loud. It was a cool idea, I can't quite remember the name of it right now...

Anyway, I don't know what the purpose of this post is. Just a bit of what is going on. I might post some more about uni stuff and how the club goes, as I'm slightly skeptical whether I will enjoy it or get on with people there. I may rant about stuff in the future.

Also, I may do an Anime Impressions post on High School of the Dead, as I'll end up seeing the first 12 episodes twice overall it seems... sigh T_T I dunno, I did enjoy it but at the same time I didn't like the way the story slowed down and ended rather dissapointingly. Edit: I forgot I did an early impressions post of it already a while back. 

Pain...

I had to go for my check up and appointment with the dentist and hygienist on Friday. I've known for a few months or so that I would need to get 1 or 2 of my Wisdom teeth out as they were growing in at the wrong angle and would cause pressure on my other teeth. So I had to get 1 taken out on Friday. Its sore, and a strange pain...kind of comes and goes in dull waves. I don't like it... T_T

And I still need to get the other top one out next time I go along...no fair! 

I put some time into Ys on the Friday as I had most of the day on trains getting to and from my dentists, so I'll probably hit my aim of finishing the story by Sunday. I'll post some impressions in Sunday's Now Playing post.

Anyway, I need to catch up on sleep now. ~o~ *ZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Woohoo!

Yay! I got into the course at uni I had applied for! My appeal must have gone through successfully =D

After all that stress, emailing, phonecalling, finding certificates, jumping through hoops it paid off! Good times! So I'll start work on my 2nd degree on the 13th of September I believe. I'll have less free time from then on, but I'm back on track again at least. =)

Back from holiday!

I'm just back from holiday today. Will perhaps edit this post, or if not, post more in the next few days. Might post a bit about what it was like. 

And some gaming content, no doubt. I got a few games and played quite a couple as well. [Gotta love Cubone]

Hope everyone has been having a good summer!