JD's Webby Log of Fun Times

Late Lunch

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:42:00 +0000

I've been trying something new and have started eating my evening meal much later (around about 9pm). I have been trying to save some money and have buying the 3 for £10 gammon from Sainsburys. Yes I know, it's probably not the best thing I could be eating but it's cheap and fills a hole. I'm still recovering from Christmas fallout plus badly timed expenses such as the cost of a crown on my tooth, an upcoming eye test which will no doubt lead to new glasses being purchased. There's also me being a little silly and getting the new iPhone 4S - that one's on me but hey my old 3GS was really beat up and the home button was not consistently working, see I can rationalise it away. I was noticing that when I was eating straight after getting in from work I would end up getting peckish before I went to bed, eating far too much cheese etc and then feeling bad for having a weak spirit. So that's the main motivation of eating later.

As a desired by-product of eating later, I'm trying to spend the 2-3 hours from getting in from work to eating being productive as is one of my new year's resolutions. This has meant that I've got back into my online programming course that I neglected for long (embarrassingly long) periods of last year. In less than 2 weeks I've effectively coded the final assignment and am getting back to the previous assignment which I hit a roadblock a long time and left.
I'm also putting aside at least one night in the week to write on my blog(s) like now! I aim to write a number of posts and then schedule them across the next week or so. Nothing I write is truly that topical so it doesn't matter if there's a 4 day lag from when I wrote something to when it appears on the Internet. So if I get inspiration for a post I can choose to take a night away from the programming and get the idea down on paper, so to speak.

The above usually takes me up to about half 7, 8pm so that's when I go out for a walk. I take a 40-50min walk doing a circuit round the streets of Bridgnorth usually clocking in around 3 miles. My good friend Rob has become infatuated with the Appalachian Trail - the longest trail in the US I believe and he has (hopefully not so serious) designs on us walking in a few years time - a feat that takes good hikers approximately 6 months. Even if that never happens, walking is very good for you and primal for those interested. I usually pick a route that has a gradient and good ol' hilly Bridgnorth does not disappoint in that respect.

I think it's been going well so far (and even longer by the time this post appears) and I'm pleased at how productive I've managed to be. I have of course let myself have the odd day off from this routine, usually round the weekend but this is more recharging the batteries...

Smooth move

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:16:00 +0000

In my continuing quest to eat healthier and more primal, I finally pulled the trigger and got myself a smoothie maker machine.
The aim is to get myself eating more fruit, particularly those that are considered more primal. These fruit are generally berries and not the high-sugar citrus fruits.

Yeah, so I want to eat more strawberries, blueberries etc but I'm not a huge fan of the texture. Now that would probably go away with time but it's difficult to get into new habits if the journey isn't very enjoyable.
The solution (at least for me) is to make a smoothie containing these desirable fruits. So I'm now in the process of working on a good recipe(s). Currently I can't be bothered with taking exact measurements - I don't have a beaker etc to easily measure 200ml of apple juice or scales to weigh 80g of raspberries so right now we're just throwing stuff together to see what works. Maybe I'll have to get to that point but for now we'll see how it goes - would ideally not want to make further purchases.
I'm taking inspiration from the awesome Innocent smoothies that give a breakdown of their ingredients on the side of their cartons. I've learnt pretty quickly that banana is a good base to get a thick smoothie - my first effort was sans banana and it was more bitty juice.

The ultimate aim is to get down some tasty smoothie recipes with which I will make smoothies to have for lunch at work. Personally I find it the hardest to stick to a primal diet if I'm away from home where I can't control ingredients, hobs to cook with etc. Right now, I feel that my lunch could be improved to make another step to a balanced diet. If I have a smoothie for lunch every day then it's going to be very easy to hit the recommended 5 servings of fruit and veg a day.
I welcome any recipe suggestions; I'm doing some Internet searching and trying some experimentation, hell if I arrive at a recipe that works for me I'll probably post it here.

I heart my Kindle

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:12:00 +0000

Reading is something I used to do a lot. I would always read before going to bed, but I guess when I got a TV for my own room and then after moving out whether that be at University, or post-Uni and all the media that the Internet can offer, meant I was more likely watching some right before bed, and often in bed.
Now Amazon's Kindle had been out for a while and I had been tempted by it for a while. The year previously I had made an effort to read more books and had bought some paperbacks but having space-saving digital e-books that can often be cheaper than their paper based siblings was very attractive. I went for it late Jan/early Feb last year and have not looked back!
There are those which say it's not the same as holding a real book. Well yes, they are right, there aren't physical pages to turn but the counter to that is that instead it's super thin, lightweight and with the e-ink, there's no glare on your eyes and it's effectively like reading off paper.
I do all my reading in bed pretty much and sometimes I will read whilst lying on my side. With a book I have to crane my neck to read both pages, a little awkward especially if the book is large. With the Kindle, this is not a problem.
Reading the Game of Thrones books in particular has meant I've made good use of the dictionary function. I simply hover over an archaic word and get an immediate definition - it's fun to learn!
Battery life is also very good, page turning is very fast and it can even display web pages and play mp3s if you so desire.
It's awesome and as in the title, I <3 my Kindle, plus they've recently released a new version which drops the keyboard for an even smaller form factor which is dirt cheap. If you like reading, just go and buy one. I didn't go for the 3G one as I'm happy to do any purchases or transfers off my Mac over the Wi-Fi. If you travel a lot then the 3G connection sounds good for purchasing books whilst out and about.
Click for a list of books that I've read since getting my Kindle.

In no particular order: (only because I can't remember the chronological order :S)

The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett
Mort - Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter and the Philiosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling
The Primal Blueprint - Mark Sisson (not on my kindle)
A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords (part 1 and 2, so that counts as two books :p) - George R. R. Martin
The 4 Hour Body (parts of it) - Tim Ferriss
In A Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson
The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko (not on the Kindle)

and I am now currently reading Soucery - Terry Pratchett (on the Kindle) and re-reading The Primal Blueprint - Mark Sission (not on Kindle)

The Prescription Challenge

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:46:00 +0000

For those not in the know I am a coeliac - gluten intolerance to not use the medical term. So that means I can't have regular bread, flour or any dough based foods (e.g. pizza) etc. Getting special "gluten-free" products is available to me on prescription which I have got in the past, and still can in the future which brings me to the challenge.
When I was first diagnosed I was still at school so I got my prescriptions for free on the NHS. That extended to age 18 I believe as I carried on with further education but following that I would have to pay. Now I was getting the prescription of bread, bread rolls, crackers, pasta etc on a pretty regular basis so it made sense for me to get what they call a pre-payment prescription certificate - pay so much up front, and get as many prescriptions for the period.
Now that I'm eating a lot less (if any) of the gluten-free bread products, I'm throwing down the gauntlet - can I go without the certificate and try and save a bit of money?

So, I believe the Prepayment Prescription certificate costs something around £110 for a year , maybe a little less. Now before I decided not to renew I enquired about the regular cost of getting my prescription. I didn't get an ultimate answer but I believe it's around £7.40 per item so if I opt for the bread loaves and the bread rolls - the usual - then we're looking at £15 a pop.
With the power of a bit of Maths, it means that if I get a prescription 7 times of less over a year, then it will actually work out cheaper!
My old certificate expired at the end of November and here we are in the first week of January and I've not ordered a single prescription. I ordered one just before it expired so I could give some of it to my family to freeze and then thaw out for when I visit. As mentioned previously on the blog, I'm trying to adopt a primal diet and a big part of that is avoiding grains. Obviously having the gluten intolerance means I'm not living off pizzas and sandwiches but I believe that the gluten free alternatives can't be any better, especially bearing in mind the number of ingredients that are contained within - yum! A simple hack for starting any kind of new diet I've found is to simply avoid keeping the "forbidden" foods out of the house. If you don't buy them in, then you won't crack and give in.

My Nan likes to bake me quiche and while I did put in an order for the flour there hopefully should be enough to last her a long time. I say this is a challenge but I think it will be rather easy, we'll see how it goes but I actually don't foresee any problems. Just letting the Interwebs know what's going on.

New Year Resolutions

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:07:00 +0000

Just like everyone else it seems, I'm penning some new year resolutions to attempt to improve myself. Now generally I'm not one for saving all these changes for the new year - if you truly want to make a change, then start doing so tomorrow, or better yet, later today. Ignoring that here are some resolutions for the coming year, not necessarily every one I will start acting on immediately, but will definitely aim to at some point.

Be better at becoming primal
I've mentioned here on the blog before and over the past 9 months or so I've been on and off the Primal lifestyle, although not really at all by the end of last year. Now when I was following the blueprint I was seeing some of the benefits, weight loss, improved energy and I want to return to that so we're going to make a renewed effort. The main goal is the weight loss, and leading on from that I would like to sort out a new wardrobe, by which I mean clothing etc I don't want to buy things which will be too small, although that might work as motivation.

Stop drinking on my own
Pretty self explanatory this one. Too often last year I got into the habit of getting the beers in and drinking in my own company. Of course it's always better to be able to unwind after a tough week at work but emphasis on the word "habit" in the last sentence - it got all too routine and I would even be drinking on school nights. Never to excess but still it was a cycle I wasn't happy getting into - "addiction" is a dangerous word but I may have been flirting with the concept rather worryingly. If I didn't feel the urge to have a drink (or two) then I will of course not be spending the money and will be able to spend it more wisely.

Be more productive in the evenings
A lot of these resolutions are linked. To the above I was never really that productive in the evenings during the week. If I had a beer then the TV shows would be queued up or I'd be on the 360. I still have my home programming course to work on and that has been heavily neglected for the last half year or so.
I am pleased that I have a board game night on Thursdays to get me out of the house although it could be interpreted as another side of the coin of my gaming habits. I would like to have other nights to break up the above routine. I've always wondered about maybe picking up a martial art, or at least something active. I've been curious about ping pong following watching the Penny Arcade videos where they have ladder tournaments with game developers.

Read more (or at least match 2011's level of reading)
Probably my most useful single purchase last year was my Kindle. I used to always read in bed before going to sleep and my Kindle has got me reading again. Not watching TV/being on my Mac immediately before bed with all that blue light has meant improved sleep as well. I have been meaning to do a post where I gush about my Kindle. I've read quite a few books this year and I want to keep that up, maybe even read more.
An extension of this is to read more self-help books. A lot of the writing is very obvious when you actually think about it but spending time to be reflective and analytical of your actions can only be a good thing right?

A new job
Probably the biggest one of all. I've talked the talk for a long time about not enjoying my current job and would like to find something new, something better. I won't repeat thoughts on the job, I'm sure I've said enough before but what I would like to do is to finish the programming course and get that qualification to help bolster the CV. I have some years of programming experience now so it hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to get interviews he says. It almost certainly means that the future job will be much closer, if not within the City of London so moving too but then again I've moved a few times in the last couple of years so I like to think I've got quite good at that.

Well, that's enough to work on for now. As I said before making changes, mixing things up shouldn't be limited to the start of the new year so there's bound to be other things to work on and improve.

Here's wishing you all a prosperous 2012 (or twenty dozen as I saw written down which I quite like...)

History Repeating

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:01:00 +0000

So fairly recently I had a problem with a neighbour which led me to moving shortly after moving to Bridgnorth. Currently I live in a 3-storey block of flats, with one flat on each floor. For the longest time it has just been me in the top flat, this guy in the bottom flat and the middle flat has been unoccupied and up for sale.
Well, eventually the flat got sold and people moved in. Now, when I was looking at this place I met the previous tenant and I asked specifically can you hear the people below you? To which she replied no. Based on that I put in the application and the rest is history, here I am.
Now that people have moved in to the middle flat I can indeed hear them. Slamming of doors, footfalls, even voices which is technically worse than where I was with the terrible neighbour. Luckily (for now) there's been no banging on their ceiling complaining of noise but the feeling is that if I can hear their noise, then they can hear mine, but if I've got that in the back of my head, I will (and already am) start censoring myself - which I really hate to have to do. When I got home, I close the door on the world and then I'm free to do whatever.

It all feels like a bit of history repeating but maybe that's just how flats are. Here's an idea how about they make the floors/ceilings a little thicker? I mean, I can undestand the problem at where I was before - it was a house that was converted into 2 flats but where I am now is a purpose built block of flats.
Here's hoping that my next place won't suffer from this. Or alternatively I find a house for rent like the one I lived in at Kidderminster - no noise problems there...

Christmas Concern

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:47:00 +0000

It concerns me that come Christmas time and thinking about what gifts to get my family and I often draw complete blanks.
I don't want to give gifts that people don't want or will never use but it feels a little pathetic to ask what they would like for Christmas although to me it seems to be the safer of the two options.
Does it feel this way for anyone else? I fear I'm not as connected to my family as perhaps I should be.

That being said, no-one has asked me what I would like for Christmas so by my logic they must all know what to get me...

Anxiety (verbal diarrhea)

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

I've been struggling to come up with a suitable name for this post.
A post of which is going to be a back-to-basics post, more in line with the spirit of the blog at the start - that's right, I'm going to talk about my feelings.
I probably have teased it a little too much, but I'm going to keep all this stuff behind the "Read full post" link so if you wanted me to say something about video games or something on TV, then come back next week (although I haven't been posted enough to guarantee there will be something then, but you get the idea...)
Yeah, I want to talk about a few things which I'm quite sensitive about and this is why I decided on "anxiety" as a title. I was going to write this last week but often I'd rather watch TV or go to bed early and read Game of Thrones books but this stuff needs to be discussed, it's a problem that literally lives inside your head.

The subject I specifically get sensitive about is dating. Pretty much every time I see my good friend Wilson he asks if there's anyone I'm interested in, to which I get uncomfortable and explain that I don't really meet anyone so no - and then I feel sad. Possibly even worse is when my family joke about all the girlfriends I'm keeping secret from them, again to which I reply there isn't anyone, I don't get to meet people and then I feel sad. I will also get sad when people think I'm gay, and then I get stuck in a downward spiral where I replay my actions around said people and over-analyse and fret, what was I doing/saying that made them them think I was gay? - but that might be a post for a different day.
So I have dabbled in some of the online dating sites. I am always very reluctant to part with my money to unlock all the site's features - sending messages to other users, seeing photos etc, so I guess that makes me a window shopper (which I believe is the technical term).

Sometimes I feel the urge to have a look on these dating sites and think about saying hi to some of the ladies on there. Strangely enough I will take a look and rule myself out immediately, thinking to myself, "oh well they're too attractive, why would they be interested in me?". That's a failure right there. I can't remember the exact words from the A Song of Fire and Ice books (read: A Game of Thrones) but Arya's dancing teacher tells her something like "fear is the enemy of the mind" (ed: "fear cuts deeper than swords" is the phrase from the book) or words to that effect. I guess, that's all Anxiety is really, it is all in my head and it's not really real. I have recently downloaded a ebook about combating anxiety which I'll have to stick on my Kindle and read sometime. That being said, I can only read fiction in bed before I sleep. I've read self-help books in the past and my brain is still whirring when I put the book down and then it's hard to get to sleep.

I sent out the expected introductory message; "how are you? I like your profile" blah blah to a couple of girls I liked and amazingly she responded - I guess everyone just wants to be noticed and get recognition for their actions, or at least that's a mantra I hold when trying to understand people's actions. Yeah, so we send a few messages back and forth but at this rate it would take several weeks to have a 10min conversation so I threw it out there about meeting for a drink - nothing crazy. Quite a few personals I read say they would be interested in a surprise or something original for a first date, but I doubt they would actually want to go skydiving or paintballing or zorbing etc. No, it may appear uninspired but really the act of sitting opposite another (perhaps with a drink) and zoning out the rest of the world is really the way to go.

There's always the thought that even though you've arranged a time and place together they may just bail or that classic where they get a look at you and then decide not to show up. Fortunately she did indeed show up, my punctual self meant I was a few minutes early to the agreed meeting place of outside the Spoons named The Penny Black in Kidderminster - Kidderminster deemed an equidistant location between me in Bridgnorth and her living near Worcester.
I'm not sure why I was so nervous, after all I'm just meeting another person who probably is just as nervous, and it turns out she is a big nerd so it's not like we wouldn't have stuff to talk about, hopefully she didn't notice my hand shaking when I paid for the drinks.
After that I calmed down and believe it went well, we talked about nerdy stuff, board games, tv shows, video games etc and after that she said she had a good time and would like to do it again sometime.
Great I thought, I had a good time too but was she just being polite?. I think back to the Friends episode where Chandler can't break up with Rachel's boss where he ends every date with "Well I had a great time. I'll give you a call, we should do it again sometime".
I remember a time when I was sorting out an extension to my loan with the bank (for reasons I will not go into here) and after sorting it all out, signing papers and all that, the woman I had been doing this with said something like "it was nice to meet you" and that literally stopped me in my tracks. Did she actually mean it? Or was she just being friendly and polite. Working in a customer facing environment I can appreciate that you must always appear friendly and polite so I'm leaning towards that rather than she had a genuinely positive experience helping me. I think it would be great to tell people what you really think and not be afraid to curse.

So following our short talk over a drink I asked her out again, this time to go watch a film, pretty standard stuff, but following that message I was worried that I might not get a response - I would be checking every couple of hours or so each evening for a couple of evenings untils he replied - brilliant! We had planned to go bowling the following Saturday but a couple of days before she messaged me to cancel that she couldn't make it - she was moving that weekend, she has a show later on and then she's off to China. Now I'm really hoping it isn't just a big list of excuses. She did say to pick up things in November but I went to anxiety overload. Perhaps she took a moment to reassess and had second thoughts and decided it was best to quit while she was ahead. Honestly I think I would much prefer a genuine sincere rejection rather than some bullshit lines to put things off until so much time has passed that it's no longer a thing. I've never got why people feign interest and pretend they're having a good time

Again, it's all in my head and (hopefully) her reasons are genuine and we can indeed pick up things in November. To repeat myself it is all in my head but I'm worried that come November maybe nothing will come of all this. I sent a message with the usual "that's ok" and "enjoy your holiday" etc leaving the door open for her to get in touch. All the pretending that I could take it or leave it is bullshit but it's how best to act it seems. Right now I feel I have a lot in common with this girl, I think we could get on great and am really hopeful - basically I'm all in, to use a poker term, but you can't tell that to someone for fear of scaring them off. So if we do even meet up again, I'll have to be content saying "I had a good time" and "I like you/your company" for a little while longer.
The people that say "I need to get to know you more" are again being too polite to say I'm not interested or they're confused. My retort is if you don't know enough about me already to be interested then I'm the fool to think that I could convince you. This happened to me with Victoria, a very pretty cool girl that didn't seem immediately resistant to my charms and tolerated my company but she did say "I need to get you know you better" to which I should have got out then when I still could instead of getting hopelessly infatuated with her and then having my hopes dashed. It never would have worked out, she is/was very much into her poetry, spirituality, all that good hippy shit.

EDIT: I spoke with Jo, the girl from above, and the reasons she gave for postponing were legitimate and we finally got to go bowling together so it's all good. I think I will still post this here, reading it back and I like the stuff here but any future posts on the subject will be posted somewhere else (I wonder where that will be...)

Chickened out

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:56:00 +0000

I thought I could happily post the dating kind of stuff here but I'm chickening out and going to put in a separate blog, most likely this one. I have lots to say and it's probably better if that kind of stuff is all found in the same place, so go check it out if you're interested...

Interesting reading

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:44:00 +0000

A quick post here after some interesting reading. So to carry on the Dating themed posts, I was reading the blog of one of the sites I have a profile up - OkCupid - which is actually the site I met Jo through.
Anyways, they have a cool blog where they analyse trends in people's profiles and their behaviour and actions on the site. That analysis of social behaviour is fascinating to me plus things like what to put in a first message is certainly useful.
One of their posts was a generation of a flowchart that someone can follow to see if they would date me or not. I have included mine after the read more link. Give it a click and see what you think...

Time to share...

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:42:00 +0000

Time to share indeed. I've been putting this off because it's something I don't really talk about with others, either it never comes up in conversation or I just get uncomfortable and look to change the topic. That is of course dating.

I was thinking of separating these kinds of posts into their own blog but I've written about personal things here before and I'm always saying to myself that I need to post more.
Like most times, I have blog posts swirling around in my head but am either away from the computer or lack the motivation to get the words down.
Anyways, after going on a date recently, well not that recently any more which is one reason for blogging (but we'll get to that later).

Expect more in the future...

JD's Footy Gambling Adventure

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:15:00 +0000

Some self promotion here so I'll make it quick. With the eve of this season's Premiership upon us I've decided it would be fun to have regular wagers on the weekend's matches with the fortunate side-effect of making a pretty penny. I present to you JD's Footy Gambling Adventure, a new blog I've set up where I will post my bets and then the awesome (or maybe disappointing) results. Head over there for more information. I could have made this adventure part of this blog but because it's such a bitesize idea I felt it best for it to be its own separate thing.
Here's hoping I pick well...

My Next Car...

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:01:00 +0000

Is going to be a Mini Cooper - I'm 90% certain of this. This past weekend, my Uncle finally pulled the trigger and bought a new car. He traded in his 11 year old Focus - a car that is literally falling apart now and would certainly fail its MOT and just in time as well because in a couple of weeks he would have to renew the tax which is what he has been continuously doing for the last couple of months.
He went for a Renault Megane in the end although he had his eyes set on a Mazda 5 (?) for a long time. Whilst I was waiting for my Uncle Geoff to barter with the salesmen I asked someone there about how they put a value on the car you trade-in. I was most interested in whether the mileage of the car comes into play or whether it's just down to the age and model of the car. Turns out (for at least this dealership) that mileage does come into play which is great because my 10 year old Fiesta has not done 60,000 miles and that's even with me greatly increasing the mileage since I've had it.

I had pretty much mapped out to get at least 3 years out of my Fiesta and while I haven't even been driving for 2 years, I've already started looking ahead. I got chatting with my good friend Wilson about what future car I would want. I did reply that I wasn't sure, haven't given it much thought but I've always liked the new Minis. In fact, The most recent (and successful) lessons I took in a Mini One and then later a Mini Clubman (the Minivan one). Of course, if money were no object, then I would probably go for something a little more expensive, but a decent second hand Mini could well be in my price range, and it would totally be a car I would be happy to own. I have a tiny concern that Minis can be considered "chick cars" but if I go for the sporty model I can win back some Man points...

The guy at the Renault dealership did mention that the amount of time left before the car's next MOT will affect how much they offer. If the car needs to be MOT'ed then they're going to want the owner to MOT the car first, or knock that off the offer price. So bearing that in mind, October is the anniversary of my car's MOT so I should probably look for a new car around August time next year. The intention is to start putting some money away right now and then when it rolls round next year, I can put down a healthy deposit.

Of course, I have this year's insurance, MOT and tax disc to pay for in the month of October, so I'm starting to cut back on the spending now so I can afford all of that - the pay raise following this year's annual review will certainly help! (more about that in a future post). One they're out of the way, I'll start saving for the Mini - I would love to have one that has a checked or Union Jack on the roof but will happily have anything within reason. My crazy theory is the colour of my Fiesta seems to attract birds and even when I don't park directly under trees I still arrive at the car daily to find new birdcrap. To this end, I will be avoiding the colour red where possible, probably go for a blue, or maybe racing green.
The insurance may be higher for the Mini - ideally I'd like to get a Mini Cooper S which generally has a 1.6 litre engine versus the 1.25 I drive now. From my next car I really want the better acceleration and less of the body roll which the Fiesta is very guilty of - attacking roundabouts can be scary. Yeah, so the insurance may go up but then, I would have 3 years no claims under my belt (touch wood) and I will be past the age of 25 (I already am lol) so hopefully it won't be too bad. I'm hoping that the insurance for the Fiesta this year won't be too bad. It was Approx £950 the first year, £750 the second year - If I can get sub £600 then that would be great.

What I'm planning to do is sit down and do some proper budgeting, have a look at what I'm spending now and see what I can put aside - it's far enough out I feel that with some proper planning I should be able to afford the Mini of my dreams...

Here's looking forward to a new car...

Put rest of story here...

Man's Best Friend

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:59:00 +0000

My Mum has recently been on the lookout to buy a dog. Our dear Jacob passed away early this year and now she is looking for new companionship - something I can completely understand.
Because my Mum works awkward, generally long hours it''s not very sensible for her to get a puppy - she simply isn't about to train it properly. So that means she is looking at older dogs and rescue homes seem to be the way to go. I've been going along with her, my birthday gift to her is to help with the purchase (I like to protect my investments hehe, which translates to telling my Mum not to get a "yappy" Yorkshire Terrier-type dog.

We've pretty much visited every rescue home in North Shropshire and seen many a dog. You may (or may not) be surprised at how many Staffys (Staffordshire Terrier) or Staffy-cross dogs there are. A lot of the dogs we saw have been large and the ones that my Mum has been interested in cannot be separated from their sibling, or people at the rescue home strongly suggesting that she couldn't (or shouldn't) leave a dog on their own for 8 hours. Sounds like a bit of cock to me, true some dogs will chew up the place out of boredom but our belief is the people at these rescue homes only say these things as they don't want people returning the dogs after a week or so when it doesn't work out.

One place we visited had 2 springer spaniel brothers, which luckily could be separated but unfortunately they've never been inside a house and therefore have not been house-trained. I'm sure they would eventually adjust but my Mum doesn't have the time unfortunately to ensure a smooth transition. My Mum is ideally after a dog and not a bitch, she doesn't want to have to deal with a bitch being on season and all that. We saw this beautiful Corgi-cross at the last place we visited but as it turned out, it was a she and couldn't be separated from her sister. My Mum did talk the talk about having 2 small dogs but I kept pointing out the obvious that that she would have to feed 2 dogs, walk 2 dogs, look after and watch 2 dogs.
The crazy thing when you visit these places can be the continuous ear-deafening barking. In the smaller homes, the dogs have their own runs/cages but it seems because they can see each other, they often bark at each other, especially when someone in present. I'm convinced that it's the case of the odd bad apple and then the other dogs barking only because others are barking. When it's like this, it's difficult to gauge how loud the dog would be in your own home. A lot of the dogs are very friendly, coming up to the bas and very keen to lick the fingers you put through the bars even when you're not supposed to. A couple are genuinely aggressive, one which went for me, treaded on their water bowl and kicked up a load of water all over me - suffice to say we weren't going to adopt that one...
In other places, like the Dogs Trust, the runs were set up so the dogs couldn't really see each other and there was no barking at all. They were also playing classical music which I joked that the dogs at the other places were just pissed at the pop music har-de-har!

It's really bad to visit these places in one way. I now would love to own a dog of my own. I am of course a renter so that generally means no pets - I also live on the 2nd floor and have no garden to speak of, so it would be pretty tough to have a dog right now. There were several dogs I saw that I liked the look of and if I really could I would probably have tried to adopt there and then. I've noticed that a lot of dogs I liked were scruffy looking terrier-type dogs - not sure what that says about me, but the longer coat looks pretty cool if you ask me.

Anyways, thanks to my family, I've been a Dog person all my life, and am almost certainly destined to have my own dog at some point - it's only a matter of time and circumstance.

Here's looking for a best friend...

Fine + 2 pints

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:29:00 +0000

A song by the pretty awesome Minus the Bear, and right now, after having a few beers (umbrella term for any kind of alcohol) it seems fitting for the post.
It's weird but I get some small enjoyment from drinking alone, getting merry, watching some shows and laughing in my own company.
I find it strange that I feel more like myself, even in my own company, after a couple of beers, hence the post title, but I feel it's true.
I've always held the opinion that drink doesn't truly change you as a person, your inhibitions will drop, your reactions will slow but you're still essentially the same person that you were at the start of the night, with all the same wants, needs and drives.
I will admit that I've driven home with probably too much alcohol in my system - an illegal amount, but guess what, I never crashed and I never got close to crashing because I am a careful driver, I don't tailgate and I like to think that my anticipation is very good, I'm always scanning the road ahead, slowing in time and like my driving instructor said to me, making the task of driving as easy as possible.

Anyways, I feel like I'm getting away from the point. That's the danger of these "free writing" style posts. I sit down at the keyboard with a great idea, a hollow structure of a post and hoping that my fingers will be able to fill in the blanks.
I always held the opinion that drinking alone was a very sad venture but I've been doing it more and more recently and for the short-term it feels good to get a little more mouthy and animated at the TV. I haven't watched any tennis for many a year, but I tuned in to the last 6 or so games of the Nadal vs Murray match and was applauding great rallies and winning passing shots.
But then comes the outer body experience, and you notice yourself during the evening. What have I been doing this evening? I've had a few drinks and watched a load of TV all on my lonesome and in that moment of reflection I am saddened by how I may have wasted the evening, and there was probably something more productive I should have been doing.
It is good to let off steam every now and again, and I'm going to make the excuse that I "pretend" to be someone else at work which covers the majority of my week so maybe this is the only way to uncover my true self.
I am the only person that knows myself the best but obviously the only version that others see is the one expressed through my actions, my words and my body language (yeah!). I would be encroaching on the aforementioned "I need some new friends" post I was planning, but probably like a lot of people, an alcoholic drink can help you feel comfortable in an uncomfortable situation. That makes it sound like I'm uncomfortable in my own home but I will protest that I only drink for that feeling of "power" you get (or at least I get) after a few. It is the reason why I started another can after midnight, and also why I'm contemplating starting another at this late hour - if I can maintain this feeling then I should do it no? I made that argument to my casual drug experiences - I was having/had a good time so I don't see why I wouldn't want to repeat that if the opportunity arised.
I'm trying to think or rather focus what this post was about. To sum it up I like to have the odd drink, and I need to validate this as a good thing - oh dear not sure where I was trying to go with this...
I think to sum up, if you want to know my true opinion, nothing held back, then buy me a pint or two and I'll tell you what I really think. With 0 pints I would most likely lie to your face and say "yeah that's great..." or something similar because I'm naturally a coward and wouldn't want to tell you what I really think for fear of you not liking me. After a few drinks, the same is still true, but I'll get to that happy plateau where I don't care if you don't like my opinion.

Here's hoping someone will buy me a drink and ask for a story (and really mean it)...

Community

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:42:00 +0000

Community is a show I've started watching thanks to the endorsement by the Totally Rad Show and after a slow start where it looked like it would be pigeon holed as a B-List Comedy but getting into the second half and it has established itself as a very good show - one I will definitely continue to watch after I have exhausted the first season.

Just like all comedies, it stars a bunch of misfits, of all shapes, sizes and creeds and because of this it takes a while to establish a unique voice for all of these characters and get them gelling together. The comedy is based around a community college and these group of people meet through an arranged study session for their shared Spanish class. You wouldn't believe it but the community college is a little weird and full of odd characters, in particular Professor Chang who always threatens to steal the scene.
A pretty funny show and I do enjoy the Abed and Troy scene they append to the end of the show.

But of course, no good show would be any good without a bit of eye candy. That's probably very sexist of me, but I think there's something for the female audience too.
Just like Scrubs is centered around the character of JD, I feel the show is presented through the eyes of Jeff Winger (What a name!) so the main love interest is the corresponding lead Character Britta. Now, don't get me wrong Britta is very cute, but unfortunately for her, my show crush goes to Annie, played by Alison Brie.

Annie is the "goody-two-shoes" girl and I'm a sucker for that - I literally can't stop myself fawning in my own company when she is on screen. Apparently she is Scream 4 - maybe I should watch that. As I have alluded to on this blog about Scarlett Johansson, I am attracted to the character they play as the actress in real life is probably nothing like that (if they are a good actress) -That being said, have you seen Scarlett in Iron Man 2?! Daaammmn!
I remember thinking that Battlestar Galactica didn't have much eye candy but of course there's No. 6 but because of her character I wasn't into her that much. That being said, the "human" version of her that turns up in the fleet (the one with the glasses and the ponytail) was pretty hot lawl.

The bottom line, Community is a pretty funny show, go watch it and thank me later. If you don't like it then don't bother me with your problems.

Here's thinking about going back into education and hopefully meeting a girl like Annie...

Primal Board Games!

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:16:00 +0000

The only one that comes to mind is Stone Age - a pretty cool game. Anyways that's not what we're here for. It's been quiet here since January and well I've been meaning to get back to it but I (for the short time at least) have the time, the motivation and something to actually blog about!

Yes, my twitter bio claims I am a blogger so I should either become one again, or change it - urgh, online profile updates are so lame...
I'd say there's been two big changes for me so far this year - a change to primal living and a dive into the hobby of board games.
Both kicked off at around the same time, late January and for the most part it's all gone very well and I will probably share more of these stories in the future.

I have my good friend Wilson to thank for introducing me to Primal Living. He suffers (or maybe it should be suffered) from arthritis and discovered that if he excluded grain, processed sugar etc and just ate more natural, organic meats, vegs and fruits that not only did this mean he didn't have to take injections to relieve pain, but he lost weight, full of energy, felt great and didn't have to worry about portion sizes etc. It all sounded great so naturally I was intrigued - my diet was not great but being a coeliac (gluten intolerance) - I was almost half way there (In fact, we all have a natural gluten intolerance).
I won't break it all down here, that may come later, but basically around February time I went all in and tried to move to a Primal diet. It's not perfect and sometimes I slip up but most of the time it's not that challenging to keep it up. In fact I'm coming up to the 6 month anniversary of this change and I think I will have to take some progress pictures to go with the "before" pictures I've already snapped. I can confirm that progress initially was very good, but the last 4-6 weeks it feels like I've been away most weekends and so I have slipped but still am happy with how far I've come and the progress still to make.
I was hoping to be in better shape by the time of my birthday which is in a couple of days but I'm going to readjust my goals and aim to be happy with my image by the end of the year.

The other thing mentioned above was the new found interest in Board Games. I've dabbled in some board games before and no I don't mean the more mainstream games such as Monopoly and Risk etc but encouraged by Jeff Cannata's insistence of bringing up board games on the VIDEO game podcast Weekend Confirmed I tried to find people that met up to play board games.
To my luck, I found a group in nearby Telford and that's pretty much where I've found myself most Thursday evenings. My aim has always been to try new games and I've even starting to build my own collection and get my friends to give them a go, share the wealth and whatnot. The people I meet up with on Thursday are much older than me but that hasn't really been a factor - it feels like they're a generation that grew up with board games where I'm part of a generation that has grown up on video games - what I'm trying to say is they're just as nerdy about board games as people my age are about video games. The board game night is run by Paul who runs a board game shop so he does pretty good business off us guys buying games directly from him.
I may mention more board games on the blog but I don't want to turn into review posts. I got stuck in that rut before as I felt it would be something to encourage people to keep coming back to the blog but I simply don't have the readership plus I ended up getting burnt out - The pressure of writing a video game review, film review etc every week just became too much of a time sink that it stopped being fun.
No, what I plan to do is to make the blog more personal like it was during its early years. I went back and read some of those early posts and I was surprised and pleased at the "voice" of the posts (but I may just be biased). I'm not sure I am able to write with that same voice any more but I'm going to give it a go.

Bottom Drinking Game

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:52:00 +0000

With the holiday festivities came the idea of playing drinking games to our favourite TV shows. First up was Red Dwarf and a debrief of all the clauses, requirements and a hastily drawn "H" on the forehead and we were having fun.

Next show up was Bottom and a quick search on the phone resulted in no matches - it seems no-one has thought to knock together some rules for the game. We took 5 minutes out of the evening to come up with some rules and I am penning them here in a hope that someone in the future will not be out of luck like we were...

Now the thing that miffs me about TV show drinking games is where they have added additional rules that only apply to a specific episode - The Red Dwarf game we looked at was particularly guilty of this.
These rules avoid specifics although this is not an exhaustive list, feel free to expand when it comes to your next viewing.

Ok, so take one swig (or one shot if you're adventurous) for the following:

Riche's manic laugh Ha-ha-HAAA-ha!
Eddie takes off his hat.
Richie rubs himself in delight.
Any mention of girls, birds, ladies etc
Eddie or Richie shout at someone off camera i.e. out of the window or down the stairs.
Emmerdale Farm is mentioned.
Eddie speaks directly to the camera.

Fights!
Pick either Richie or Eddie as "your" character, and take a swig whenever "your" guy hits the other - this counts for punching, kicking, eye-poking, breaking TV over the head, any violent act really. Drink double if the hit manages to make the other guy break through a wall, breaks stair balusters, anything broken really.

Cut to the end... So I'm moving out

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:21:00 +0000

Or it could be named "The tale of me being a coward in my home". It's sad to see that the previous two posts here were about my move to Bridgnorth with all the promise that went along with it, and now I am having to uproot again - not really what I want to do, but down to the jerk-of-a-neighbour that lives below me.

The first month or two were great. No problems with the neighbour and gorged myself on the world cup in HD, rent was really cheap, things were going well. But then the banging started.
To help you picture it, I live in a house that has been effectively converted into two flats, mine being the top flat. It's all a learning experience and know now to stay clear of houses that have been converted. We share a flat/ceiling and it's not like the brick that separates the houses to the left and right - it appears to be just wooden floorboards. Some creaky ones as well.

So it's understandable that sound may translate between floors but the thing that really peeves me is that this guy has not had the common decency to come to the door and have a chat about the noise. I think I could try and accommodate the guy but that being said, I have the TV to a minimum and rarely play any music at the computer any more. I was driving back from work this afternoon and had a good sing song to the music turned up and suddenly realised that I've not had the chance to do this at home.

Most advice from people has been to bang back, but I'd rather not escalate the situation - I'm trying to be the better man, although I'm slowly learning that isn't as rewarding as being lazy and having others take the fall. It's good job I have never banged back as a few weeks back it looked like the troll downstairs (geddit, cos he lives underneath... oh screw you) was taking to banging first thing in the morning in a clear attempt of waking me up. Well it worked twice (at least, I may have luckily slept through other attempts) and that is really too far. To be honest, showing me no respect and not speaking to me like an adult would be too far. A quick Google search reveals some horrifying statistic that a surprisingly high percentage of people have problem neighbours. Anyways, not to be caught out by morning banging, I now set my alarm to before he wakes up so there's no way he can wake me. With the floor/ceiling being as thin as it is I can hear him moving around in the morning.

The banging is terrible, but the fact I can hear door slams, the tap running etc means that even if this jerk was to hurry and sell his flat, I would still hear the person(s) downstairs so the move is a good idea. I really hate having to censor myself in my own home. I have on numerous times had to turn in for fear that if I stay up with the TV at the same volume then I may enrage the nobend to bang in the morning. I wouldn't risk having guests over - my family visited one Sunday and this guy was literally banging all afternoon. My Nan was getting flustered and started to bang her feet back. It at least proved I was being paranoid and that this guy was flipping out with a broom, or something, at the mildest of noise.

My landlady has been very understanding and has said that they can have a word with him, but to be honest there's not a lot she can really do to control this guy, and it seems the sort to be spurred on, especially if he knew he was getting to me. I don't feel like attempting to speak to him, I can't see any way that this will be resolved. Apparently this guy has an attitude problem and shouted at the last tenants who accidentally dropped something in the kitchen - I mean WTF?! right?

Anyways, looking to positives it's time to get away so I am moving and think I have somewhere sorted and will look to hand in the application very soon. The landlady did say they were looking to buy this guy's flat but I see little, if any gain from being stubborn and trying to wait it out - I just want to get away and fast.
My first choice was a similar layout to my place in Kidderminster although a little bigger, carpeted living room, shower in the bathroom this time, plus radiators. Unfortunately that one went really quickly and apparently these properties don't hang around long so I'm getting in there quick to secure this 2nd floor flat I went to see. An actual building built for flats and having been shown round by the previous tenant who confirmed that they could not hear the downstairs people, nor do they have any complaints of noise on their part. Also the place has larger rooms than here, 2 parking spaces, and no garden which suits me perfectly.

So that'll be going down in the next few weeks. In the meantime I need to start planning horrible things I can do to piss off the guy downstairs. I'm thinking anything which is near impossible to attribute to me, preferably a slow burn. I can't get beyond rotten food left somewhere. I'm also thinking of making a load of noise here and then driving off to the new place during the time of limbo when I will have keys to 2 places. I really want to teach this guy for showing me no respect.

The New Place...

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:21:00 +0000

So I picked up the keys for the new place on the 1st and it all felt a little odd. For two more weeks I am technically renting two places until I "flip" to the place in Bridgnorth, and strangely I had what can only be described as a moment of renter's regret. Looking around the new rooms, the thought crossed my mind that I've made a mistake and should perhaps have chosen somewhere else.
It is ultimately too late to change now but in fact it should be better - there are a handful of things which I will not be missing from Kidderminster.

As I said last time, these months are a transistion so not really a chance to make some new positive habits. This post is just an excuse to show some snaps I took of the empty house when I picked up the keys.

The big move is happening this weekend, which means I'll probs miss the FA Cup final. My new place has a sky dish just like my current place in Kidderminster. I didn't get Sky when I was in Kiddy, but I am very tempted to get my Sky HD on - the way I see it new place rent + sky is actually less then my current place's rent, so I may treat myself.

I've also got to swap my address over and get things like my driving licence updated. I am also taking some time off work to get registered with a new doctor for my prescription. I feel sorry for those ringing up the Practice as I clearly asked one question too many and she lost her patience with me, either that or I simply have lost the ability to hold concise conversations with people - might have to get that looked at...

Moving on up

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:21:00 +0000

I was going to reference the "Rawhide" song as a play on words against the fact that I am officially moving soon - plus name dropping as I did achieved the same effect, the Blues Brothers version of the song is awesome.
Enough swooning over songs, I am indeed moving very soon, May in fact, so these next few months are all about cutting back and counting those pennies...

It's pretty lame timing that the remaining balance I need to pay against my (still shiny) new iMac is due in May, and the deal with dropping a huge amount of money on deposit and the 1st month's worth of rent means that anything like new non-essential purchases and travel need heavy consideration and most likely vetoed.
In that respect I am thankful that I set aside the time to manage my spending. So no real big changes in April unfortunately, although new surroundings offer a perfect opportunity to start new productive habits before I slip into the old groove.

In other news, I started doing some programming at work and coupled with the home study course I'm working on means an upturn in my prospects. At some point this month (or perhaps the next) I will add these programming feats to my CV and start the job search again, although I'll probably start to concentrate on that again after the move. Spending is going to be tight for the next 2 months, but the rent of the new place is a good chunk cheaper so should work out in the long run (we hopes)

Sorry this post doesn't hold the promise of change the others have, but I feel it necessary to do these posts each month. A thought went through my head about turning this post into a podcast episode, but thought better of it. That being said, I have yet to record a podcast on my iMac so I will have to give it a go - the problem is having a subject to drop a monologue on, and at times of inspiration when I construct a convincing narrative in my head, I am elsewhere so it never really comes together.

The next chapter...

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:02:00 +0000

I've been wanting to write this post for a long time. My days in support may be coming to an end. Since the turn of the year I've been concentrating on landing a development role and it looks like my current employer may help realise that.
Earlier this month, I did receive a job offer but decided to turn it down due to it just being too far. I am, of course, still looking for fresh pastures but following a chat with my boss on Monday, it looks like my fortunes may be changing for the better.

Having expressed my general discomfort and unhappiness working in support, and a desire to get into development, my boss and I talked about creating a new development role, and how the timing would be really good.
So, the role would generally be fixing bugs in the current version of the software which is in vb6, but could develop into more .net development - the software is currently being rewritten. To be honest, I can't imagine visual basic 6 skills to be in much demand these days, so the sooner I can be doing vb.net stuff the better.

As mentioned earlier, I am due to start a home-study course in vb.net with the final outcome being the qualification to put on my cv. It's great to say you 1, 2, 3+ years experience but I feel that is really cemented with a qualification - at least to prove you can cope with demands of a different position, and not just set in the ways my current employer operates.

Unfortunately, the transition to the programmer role could take some time, and my boss would still like me to do some support, at least for the short-term on appointment of the position. There is of course the time it will take to train who will effectively be my replacement and get them up to speed with the software. That process takes several months, so it may be a while before I truly leave the whole damned support thing behind.

I had come to the conclusion that whatever happens with my future employment, a new support person will need to be hired - if I was to leave in a month's time then someone new would be needed straight away. If I were to stay, but become a programmer, then as I said a replacement for my old duties will be needed. It's just a case of sooner or later for the new hire, and I felt some comfort that my boss reasoned the same.
I did express that I was concerned of "rocking the boat", you know upsetting the natural order etc but he corrected me and said that you cannot run a company and work for a company. I work for a company, so the running of the company should be no concern of mine. I'm not sure this role change will be a popular decision in the office, but then again I'm not really that popular at the moment, it's unlikely that it will get worse.

So, it doesn't stop me looking elsewhere for employment, there's still the issue of wanting to live closer to friends, and also not enjoying the company of my work colleagues - I am an introvert and for the most part I'm content with the person I am. I'm never usually the person to make the first move, say hi to strangers and start a conversation, so the fact that no-one reaches out to me doesn't incline me to reach out to them. It's become a status quo which has been in place for too long that it feels even more difficult to disrupt that. A new employer would be refreshing to swap out the regular faces and offer a chance to start over.

At any rate, the future is looking a little brighter and that makes me hopeful.

Getting Slack (March)

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:22:00 +0000

This month I intend to make the obvious improvement/change and write these blog posts either before the start or at the very start of the month, not halfway through like this time.

I'm only half-joking with the above statement - I think it's bad that this is late but it has been a bit of a crazy start to March, so not many changes planned here. Just like one of the "downtime" 24 episodes, this month feels like it's time to reinforce and reflect on what's already past, and then make a proper push next time round.

Man, 3 months in and this "resolution" is falling apart - pretty lame, no?

This month kicked off with a bang, or more accurately an interview for yours truly. A promising position but the long and short of it is that I had to turn it down. I have gone on for far too long on how I'm not really happy in my current location/employment and well moving down to Buckinghamshire and knowing how easy I make friends by imposing myself on strangers, I foresaw myself feeling in a very similar position 6 months down the line. I spent the first week of March trying to weigh up the opportunity of doing work I really want to do (Programming, yes it's what I want to do...) versus being even further away from my family and the friends I see most often currently.
The whole experience took a lot out of me, but I am now starting to get on the job search again, plus after having a few chats with my boss, keeping him up to date with interview and offer etc, there may actually be a chance to do some programming at my current employment - we'll have to see how that pans out. In related news, I'm speaking with someone next week about starting a vb.net course, to do in my own time to help bolster the cv - as long as it doesn't prove too expensive I will go for it. I hear ya, if it gets me the job I want, then it's paid for itself surely? Well, I am working with a budget.

Speaking of budget, and the main change for this month is finally taking proper account of my spending. Over the last weekend, I worked on totalling all my regular expenses and intend to track my irregular expenses going forward. As long as I keep it up for a few months (continuing on for at least the medium-term future) I should be able to see where I'm spending too much and help get my finances in order. The Car loan I took out to buy, you'll won't believe, my car does make a fair dent against my wage - it will be cool when that's paid off.

I have been a little slack with my intended "read a book a month" aim, but I have cancelled my games^TM subscription (again saving a bit of money) so that should clear my bedtime reading. I am working through World War Z, and will reset for this month, starting a new book in April.

Gym attendance has been really bad i.e. non-existent, but at least the days are getting longer and it is getting warmer so hopefully I'll start up before the month is out.

#18 It will be my final fantasy

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Full disclosure up front. Having never owned a Sony console before the PS3, I have not played a Final Fantasy title before but with Final Fantasy XIII finally being released after something like 5 years in development, I felt a curiosity, almost a duty, to give the game a go.

Now I was originally going to play it on the Xbox 360, but with a slightly iffy port resulting in badly compressed cut-scenes and drops in resolution and graphical fidelity, as outlined in this in-depth article over at Eurogamer, meant that I would opt to go for the superior PS3 version instead - it's great that I at least have a choice. From what I understand there are no problems with the gameplay in the 360 version, so if that's your only console that by all means, knock yourself out.

I should also note that I have not really played any JRPGs - it's something I would like to try more but some of the quirks of Japanese games I find a little hard to swallow. Final Fantasy XIII is no different in that respect, continuing Japan's seeming obsession with young girls. I couldn't help but feel uneasy watching a 10 minute cut scene where this young girl accepted this man's marriage proposal - it just didn't sit right.

Leaving this baggage at the door and I'm feeling grateful that this is a rental for me. I am a couple of hours into the game and it's all terribly linear. Currently, the game consists of loading a level which amounts to the perfectly straight corridor where I run from one end to the other and fight enemies that are littered on the way. Eventually I hit point where a (sometimes quite long) cut-scene will trigger, and the whole process will repeat again.
One definite plus for the game is that it sure is pur-dy. Character models are well detailed, animations are good and environments are stunning, if somewhat limited in scale. The cut scenes are incredibly detailed and you'll need to get used to them, they are many and often quite long. Watching them reminds me that I really need to go back to Metal Gear Solid 4 and get through it.

Final Fantasy XIII is still trickling out the combat mechanics - I am reaching the point where combat is asking a little more of me than hitting the "X" button ad nauseam until the fight is over. The mechanic works with time slots, each attack takes up a number of slots and these can be queued up and then executed generally when your time gauge is full. Generally there are 2 or more in your party at any one time but you can only control the leader in combat. The other members are AI controlled and generally do their own thing - this works fine but having recently played the magnificent Mass Effect 2 it feels odd to relinquish control.

Another issue I take with the game is the storytelling. I was left scratching my head going "wha?" a lot for the first hour. Explaining the majority of the backstory through walls of text buried deep within menus is not the way to do it - hell, it wouldn't be half as bad if I could have my Mass Effect 2 narrator back. Having read through this text and further expository cut-scenes, the story is starting to make more sense - although the world "cocoon" where these people live on inside of its shell and there being the world of "Pulse" outside of cocoon, which is presumably larger? I'm probably better off not understanding.

In fact Brad Shoemaker summed it up well on the latest Giant Bombcast (an awesome gaming podcast - very funny) and I completely agree with his remarks on how the linear the game is and holding back the more open world part of the game till the end - the game is not doing itself any favours saving the "good" content for the last 10%.

I was initially looking forward to going through the whole 40+ hour adventure, but there is so far nothing to grab me, the characters are mostly annoying with their all their gasps and grunts and I'm finding myself pretty bored mashing the one button to get through combat - time to send back the rental. I think I really have been spoiled by the aforementioned Mass Effect 2 - why am I not writing a review for that?

1 month down...

jimiminar@googlemail.com (Jimiminar) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:00:00 +0000

January is over and February is already moving through. It's time to have a look on "how well" I did at January (post can be found here) and set some new Desired Changes-of-the-month for the month of February.

Let's start with a look back, and then set out changes for Feb.

January
More gym attendance is an easy one. Thanks to the poor weather, my attendance has been pretty shocking, so that's an immediate goal for the continuing months - that never was going to be a one month fix, a lot of these will be things I'll start (or stop) doing and continue to do so. The weather is getting better, plus the days are getting longer, so here's hoping to make an improvement over January.

The job focus was also big for January. I have had 2 career advice sessions with a 3rd one to happen in a week or so (with any luck), and I couldn't expect a quick fix, but hopefully they'll help me refocus of my job search. In my 2nd session, I did a questionnaire like Kudos - you know the software which you answer questions to and it uses the answers to suggest a list of suitable careers (and dancer is always on the list). Well, my answers pointed to a strong computing/technical foundation - something which happens a lot I was assured. There was no mention of the support roles which again is no surprise as I both dislike that work and believe that my skills aren't biased towards it. What it did point to was a developer role - something which I initially was looking at doing, plus a big motivation for specialising in computing/computer science throughout college and university.
The problem which I raised was that I haven't been doing any development, it's very difficult for employers to find my CV attractive, but we're going to work on that in the 3rd session - plus do something about my confidence. I do believe it to be a vicious circle - confidence and motivation will come from higher self-esteem but it's so hard to find from my current work, so we'll see about breaking the cycle.

In more positive news, one simple success of Jan was me trying out contact lens. 2 appointments later and I have updated my prescription and had a lesson on putting them in and taking them out. That was a fun experience, and even though I am a lot more practised, it still looks like I've been crying a little immediately after putting the contacts in.
I was told to wear contacts for 6 days straight in order to become familiar with putting them in/taking them out and also for my eyes in general to get used to something literally in my eye (or upon, perhaps more accurately).
Because my prescription has got a little "worse" since Summer 2008, I can actually see better with my contacts vs my current glasses - plus, my bridge doesn't get itchy with contacts, nor is it possible to get finger prints on them. I wore them at work, but it's not something I'll be doing in the future - staring at a monitor means you blink less and this dries out the contacts so they were getting a little irritable towards the end of the day. I have dailies at the moment, but may switch to the monthlys but happy I can tick that off.

And finally a potential move has been a bit on/off. I've had a look at a few places but so far haven't found anything which is both good value and a nice place with all my criteria ticked. Recently I've been applying for jobs in the Telford area so if one of those were to work out then that would be ideal. Note: I am not interested in a renting a room for the cost of an entire apartment - that, is just silly.

Goals for February
e-book readers seem to be the "in tech" these days, and it was interesting to see what Apple's tablet would turn out and all the rumoured promise of how it will revolutionise ebooks, magazines etc. I, personally, was left a bit deflated when the iPad was shown as a jumbo iPod Touch, plus alternatives like Amazon's Kindle seem an expensive way to get myself to read more books.
Instead, let's stick with the paper variety so starting this month I intend to read more books. I used to always read before bed when I was younger and even when I worked part time at TJ Hughes, I would take the earlier train and read in the library. Lately it seems like I don't do much reading at all - I have a couple of magazine subscriptions so February is the month to change that.
I'm thinking a book a month is a pretty safe goal, I will be starting a little late in February but I'll order a couple of books soon - I've definitely decided on getting World War Z plus a few others, and I am accepting any recommendations of course.

Another change would be to move my drinking habits away from my long-time safe bet of Cider to other poisons. I still need to lock that down but moving over to spirits + mixer is a pretty safe option. Another option would be wine - I've said many times that I'd like to get into wines and become a bit of a connoisseur so that would be cool. Ordering things online usually give me a Virgin Wines voucher for what is essentially a subscription to wine. They send you x amount of bottles for an ongoing charge, or something - more research is needed but could be interesting to explore.

I bought a set of clippers last month with the aim of cutting/shaving my own hair, so I'll take the plunge this month as long as the weather gets better. In fact, I may go for it this weekend so look out for some pix.

And to round off the Desired Changes, continued job search and more gym attendance is a must. If the weather continues to improve, I will hopefully scout out a cool route to go on jogs, so look out for some published activities thanks to the RunKeeper iPhone app I got a long time ago.

Ok, so there's the lookback on Jan, a look forward to Feb - perhaps in the future I'll break it into two posts, we'll see.