The Fun World of the Cooks

The 2011 Recap post

2012-01-04T15:45:00.000Z

2011 was a crazy crazy year for the world, and for me and Becky, there were quite a few changes to our cicumstances! When last I blogged (March 2011? Seriously??) We were both in the planning stage of what was to come. By the end of July, our big plans had come into fruition.

March all the way through to the end of June were spent knuckilng down and earning cash which we'd need for the first of our big plans for the year- moving house. Tired of living in our grotty little flat for the past five years or so, we found ourselves in the position to actually do something about it for the first time in ages. By August it was farewell to our naff old residence and hello to our new house in Sandwell. It's much nicer, in a great location and is everything we need for our future plans.

Another big change that happened in August was an opportunity for Bexs to move to a job in a renowned school. We both felt it was a good move, so that was big change number two for us last year. Since then we've been trying to generate a new style of status quo.

My personal projects are a mixed bunch to say the least. Moving house is disruptive! My games blog has a few posts on it, and now we're mostly settled in our new place I'm planning on launching a new webcomic, one which hopefully I'll stick with. Christmas was a rather busy affair for me this year, but it was ok. Now squarely into the new year, me and Bexs are anticipating another interesting new year. 2011 was a year of great change, I'm hoping 2012 will bring just as much exitement!

2011: The Story So Far

2011-03-11T13:30:00.000Z

Well, here we are squarely into 2011, and so it's time for another update on what the Cooks have been up to.

2001 started on a somewhat downbeat note, as I attended three funerals within the space of a few weeks. One of them involved a trip to Lincoln to say goodbye to a very close friend of Becky's family. They will all be missed.

This year was going to be a about creativity, supposedly. All I seem to have done is tidy up instead. This is not a bad thing however. Now me and the lady wife are in a stableish place, we've decided to take the plunge and save up to move house. So out with everything I don't need, replacing things and so on. Wading through 5 years worth of stuff is an arduous task, so I decided to get a headstart on it so we don't have to worry about it when it's moving day!

Speaking of creative things, soon I'll be launching me new blog. My graphic novel is proving hard to begin as I can't quite figure out a starting point. The gospel tract thing is still in the pipeline somewhere too. The biggest problem I've had if I'm honest is a touch of apathy, fuelled by long shifts at work. Still, I'll get there eventually.

Other than that, we've been quite busty. February was 'birthday month' as all my nephews and my niece all got a year older. I even gained a new nephew too! Now the dust has settled from that, it's back to business as usual. There's much to do!

2010: Not Exactly A Good Year For Blogging

2010-12-17T12:54:00.000Z

Well, the year of 2010 is slowly winding down and preparing to give way to 2011. As is becoming customary at this Decembery time of year, I figured I'd write down how this new decade has treated the Cook family.

Well, the year began with us both in work and hopeful for the year. It's been a pretty interesting one too. Me and Bexs are still working away and that's going quite well for us. Well enough that the bills are getting paid and we're in a place where we can save up and get the things we want. For the first time in about five years I've been able to look at our finances without releasing a worried 'Hmm' at the figure. I mean, we're not gajillionaires or anything, but at least I don't have to panic when the gas bill shows up. For me personally it's been a bit weird having things so stable, but I'm glad it's finally working out for us two. Only took us five years.

Speaking of which, a few weeks back me and Bexs celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Here's hoping that this is one of many, many milestone years! I'm glad to see my friends are also enjoying new and exiting things such as having kids, new jobs and houses and so on and so forth.

The year hasn't been without it's downsides mind. My little Ka finally gave up the ghost on that fateful M6 trip, and I'm having to get rid of it. It's going to a good home though. After a month of cycling, buses and taxis to work I managed to get my mitts on a very well looked after old Rover, which I've become really fond of. Annoyingly, some yob smashed one of my rear windows a short while after I'd paid for the thing. It looks like that will be fixed in the new year though, so it's not all bad.

When it comes to leisure, it's been all right. I haven't really spent a lot of cash on games this last six months, just playing through some of the ones I already had and borrowing the odd game or two from friends. There was one recent big purchase for me though- Fallout: New Vegas. I really enjoyed Fallout 3, and this is more of the same, but better. Given I've spent the best part of a month wandering the post-apocalyptic Mojave Desert, I think it was a good purchase. The story I was working on fell by the wayside, and the reboot of my cartoon has also undergone some changes, so neither of those went anywhere it seems. The MMO, Final Fantasy 14 I was expecting got delayed until March 2011 and then delayed indefinitely for PS3 until they sort out a whole mess of issues.

So, what's to look forward to in 2011 for the Cooks?

Well, if 2010 was the 'Year of Just Getting On With It', then 2011 will be 'The Year of Creativity'. Now that things are stable, I want to get back to some of the stuff I really enjoy- doodling and writing. I'm planning on releasing a new blog in the new year, in a similar vein to my old Journey of The Christian Gamer blog I wrote a few years back. I've been planning on doing something like it again for a while now, but this time around I'm doing a lot more planning. I'll probably get that kicked off in the new year. My much planned cartoon should be ready to be scrawled out next year too, as well as a project my church has given me- a gospel tract in cartoon form. As for that story started writing this year, I realised that more work needed to be done on fleshing things out a bit, so I might work on that and go back to it. It could be said I've an exiting new year ahead of me!

Well, that's me for this year. No doubt I'll put digit to keyboard in the new year. Part of next year's creativity drive will be writing of course, so I expect I'll be blogging a bit more than once every six months.

So until 2011, have a Happy Christmas and a fab New Year!

Good Grief!!

2010-07-06T16:20:00.000Z

My my, the time sure does whiz past doesn't it? Here I was typing away at the excitement of a new decade and suddenly it's six months later! Shocking!

Well, I'll be honest and say that a lot of my six months absence has been spent working hard and just getting on with the day to day stuff that needs to be done. Oh, and playing games and stuff. But I expect you guessed that part.

When it comes to my creative side I do read in my last post that I mentioned I was doing a reboot of my comic, and that is going well. The reboot is near done and I'm drawing the new panels slowly but lovingly. Woo and indeed Hoo. I've also pounded out a good ten thousand words or so on a story I've been writing. Come to think of it, I haven't actually touched that in a month or two, so I should get right back on that particular horse.

Part of the reason for that is the aforementioned 'getting on with it' of work coupled with a few annoying problems that have headed my way over the past few months. Most of them were expensive and involved my car breaking in some manner. A few weeks back the head gasket decided to go whilst I was whizzing up the M6. Not fun. The Cooks once again find themselves Without Car. One thing I am glad of is that we had managed to secure Bexs a shiny new telly just before this annoyance. Looks like I'll have to wait a bit for mine as my saving goal is now clear.

The problem of getting to and from work has been solved by a bit of good old fashioned Cook resilience, an awesome boss who has let me borrow her car occasionally, and a pink racing bike with only two gears. The bike was meant to be a back up plan when I fixed it up, and it serves it's purpose of getting me to and from work adequately. It's not the easiest of ways to get around, but until I own another car it will have to do. Cycling the seven-odd miles to work a few times has made me realise I'm in pretty good shape, considering.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the last six months though, they've been quite decent. Some good news from friends such as wedding bells, pregnancies and so on, despite the stupid stuff. My job is still going very well and I've past the one year mark of being there. I have to admit, I didn't think I'd like to do pub work again, but this job has been great. Good people to work with and decent customers make for a brilliant place to work. Unlike my last employment, I don't dread going in but instead I enjoy being there. Praise God for blessing me with such a workplace.

Now things are stable for us Cooks we've sat down and had a few discussions about our future. We actually sat down and had a sensible conversation about having kids the other week. Two days later I was still asking Bexs if it had actually happened! The answer was 'Not yet, but soon', as there are certain things we would like to see change before we become a family of more than two. These things will take a little time so organise, so until then we'll carry on as we are with a view to working towards the goals we have set.

Sorry for not having scribbled on this thing for a while. I'll try and write again before December. Heh.

2010

2010-01-13T11:19:00.002Z

So, here we are then! Twenty Ten. So far this new decade has been defined by a ridiculous amount of snow. Heck, I'm looking out of the window and it's still falling. I thought Climate Change was supposed to be melting our faces off or something? Anyways, have some news.

We had a fun Christmas this year at my sisters, and although I was at work on New Years Eve it wasn't too bad a night. Not too busy, and Bexs tagged along to join in the festivities. So all in all, a really nice chilled end to the last decade.

What with us only being 13 days into the new decade and all, I can't really say that I've got that much to report really. I have a list of a few games that I've been playing, such as Brutal Legend, Metal Gear Solid 3 and more recently I picked up Borderlands, which is an excellent little title. Similar to Fallout in that it's a First Person Shooter crossed with a Role Playing Game, but presented in a cel shaded style (So it looks like a cartoon basically) which has nabbed a lot of my time over the last few weeks. I might even try to get all the trophies for it too. Just before Christmas I picked Up Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP for me and Bexs, which occasionally throws a good old fashioned hack and slash element into my currently gun based forays into other worlds.

This year is going to bring forth a lot of good games, so you can expect to hear me babbling about titles like Bioshock 2, Dante's Inferno, White Knight Chronicles and most likely you'll be sick of reading the words 'Final' and Fantasy' at the end of this year.

As for my plans for this year? Well, there aren't that many really. I've begun to write a story which I'm hoping will become a novel. There are also some other bits and bobs I'm working on but there's not much done on those, like my re-boot of my cartoon and another project that is too early to talk about. Other than that, work hard and buy a decent telly.

So, that's enough of my waffle for a bit. I'll write about summat else soon I guess.

Onward!

2009-12-02T10:31:00.004Z

Ah, December. For me it means three distinct things.

First, Becky's birthday.

Second, the juggling act that is figuring out where I'm supposed to be going for Christmas and when I can actually go. When you work in hospitality, you work all the hours people don't. The Christian part of me doesn't really care for Christmas anyway, Easter is more where it's at. I don't recall Jesus commissioning any national holidays anyway. Would have been nice though.

Finally, the financial juggling that has to occur this time of year. Sure, I can spend some cash but I know that January has 'pay your energy bills' written all over it. Woop.

Anyways, the reason I'm scrawling is that I realised that during the chaos that is December we are on the verge of a new decade, and that is exiting. This last decade will probably be remembered for a lot of negative things; Violence, War, Financial market crashes. But for me, this closing decade paints a different tale.

For me, the first ten years of the 21st Century was a time of great change for the better. I got a degree in a subject I really enjoyed, I met and married my wife, found a great church, changed jobs a few times. I spent 2 years playing Final Fantasy XI, a game I have fond memories of. I joined the next generation of consoles, went through a few cars. My sisters brought some awesome kids into the family. Even had some dentistry done.

When I think about it, quite a lot of good stuff went on in the Noughties, and it leaves me hopeful for the next ten years, whatever we decide to call them. Who knows what I'll get up to now I'm in my thirties? I expect it will involve tea.

Well, Final Fantasy XIV comes out next year, so that's my MMO sorted out at least. But in ten years time will I be in the same job? The same house? Who knows, and that's the best part about this December. In the midst of all the chaos of trying to figure out which house I'm at on Boxing day, and trying to remember if I bought so and so their present I can look toward the future and dream.

This next decade should be excellent. Bring it on.

Matt's Blog- The Reboot edition

2009-11-17T13:16:00.004Z

Hello! Regular visitors may have noticed one or two changes to my ol' blog. A change is as good as a rest and all that. There'll be a few changes to the way I blog too. Today's entry is just a quick update really, so here goes.

Things are still plodding along at Cook HQ. All the usual stuff getting done. However, it is the run up to Christmas and wouldn't you know it, all sorts of car related stuff has decided to rear its head. Woop. This time of year is always expensive and I'm mostly prepared for it.

Work is still going well for both of us. Enough said, I guess.

Since my last update, I've been playing Fallout 3 pretty solidly, finally got all the trophies for it last night. I got it in October, so two months later I'm thinking it was money well spent. I'm not sure what I'll be playing next. Maybe I'll look into my older games and have a replay before I trade 'em.

Finally, I've been doing some writing and drawing in my mini office. Good stuff. Actually I'm off to do a bit of drawing now. See you later.

Whoa!

2009-09-23T17:02:00.002Z

Hey, did any of you lot see where September went? Seems like I'd only just started it and now it's almost over!

Well, things are slowly ticking along at Cook HQ. The bills are getting paid, the washing up is getting done, the nights are drawing in and I'm totally out of whiskey. I should sort that out. Truth be told, the reason this month has gone real quick for me is the fact that I've just got my head down and got on with things.

Everything is running as it should be right now. The car is working fine, our finances are ok, work is good and I'm even remembering to put the bins out each week. I know that there may be some challenges ahead, but they aren't for a few months and I'm taking steps to make sure these challenges are met and conquered.

The only thing I'd change is that I actually sit my butt down and do something creative instead of saving the world on my PS3, but there are a few things I have to do before I can do that. For instance, I'm out of paper. Oh, and arty pens. Mmm, pens. I have taken one pretty good step though. I finally got around to turning the Dining Room into a sort of mini office, as I mentioned last month. Just gotta wait til payday and then I'll go buy me some stuff and use the dark nights to come as my cue to get drawing and writing.

Gaming wise, there's not been much new on my PS3. The last game I bought was Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, which I finished ages ago. I did replay Bioshock and I've been ploughing through some unfinished buisness on Oblivion. Talking of unfinished Buisness, I'm still working on Sacred 2, but taking a break.

However... I've recently borrowed Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. It's a shooter set in the Wild West. Yee-haw and all that, what? I suppose once I'm done with it it'll be back to Sacred 2. Time will tell though.

So then folks, that's it for now. More news as and when.

Attack of the BBQ Summer

2009-08-31T21:58:00.003Z

So then, how about that BBQ Summer? Yeah, right. Although having said that, I have been to the odd one or two meat burning events. I sure have left it until the very end of August for this month's update, it's only August for another hour or so at the time I write this!

Work and general life type stuff

Well, nothings really come of that incident at work. Not an awful lot the police can do really. But at least the guy is barred. Work is going fine. I'm doing more hours and doing a spot of re-training on some stuff I'd forgotten. It would also seem that my shifts are settling into a pattern, which would be nice.

The car is still going strong, and a few of the cosmetic bits are fixed. Apart from a little bit of drama on the way to a wedding, it's doing exactly what I need it to.

August is always an interesting month. My church stops it's regular services and exchanges them for different sorts of meetings, such as a picnic or a charity fun day and whatnot.

Becky's job also takes a sort of break. She does a few holiday clubs and has had most of August off. She's managed to accomplish some cool bits and bobs around the house, and thanks to the extra cash from her holiday clubs she now has her own shiny PS3, which she's been using to watch movies and play online co-op games with me. Bexs will be going back to work again soon. I have to admit I'm going to be glad when she does, as I've been pining for a bit of time to myself recently.
This August also saw her best friend from way back get married. It was a cool day, and we both wish Beth and Ali all the best on the crazy journey that is marriage.

I'm still working on my creative projects, nothing on paper yet. I'm trying to create a place in the house where I'll be able to just let rip and type or draw or whatever and get a move on with them. Originally I'd thought about turning the spare room into an office space, which worked while I was looking for a job but now it seems it's only really become a dumping ground for officey stuff. Thanks to Becky's efforts with her tidying spree this month I'm considering the dining room as a potential creative space, where no distractions can get me.

Gamez

Turns out that Sacred 2 was an awesome choice for a game. It lasted me through all of August pretty much! I've been working on getting all the trophies for it, which is a long term job but doable. This last couple of weeks I've taken a break from Sacred to concentrate on some games I've borrowed.

inFamous is an open world game where you play as a free-running gent who after a disaster discovers he has mastery over electricity. It was a heck of a lot of fun climbing up buildings and zapping the bad guys.

Ghostbusters the Video game.. well, you can king of guess what that one was about. Having watched the two movies before playing I found this game a lot of nostalgic fun. Just don't cross the streams!

I recently bought Bexs a copy of Saints Row 2, which has an excellent online co-op mode. No doubt we'll be plugging through that in the months to come. I also bought her a set of Rock Band drums, so she's also enjoying rocking out with her husband. :D

There's been a few large games industry meetings the past few months, revealing what's to come to those who like me enjoy a spot of digital entertainment. Digging into the archives here will reveal my love of the MMO Final Fantasy XI, and so it was with great glee I discovered that Final Fantasy XIV will also be an MMO. Expect me to be yakking about it a lot next year when it's released!

Currently I'm playing though Bioshock again before I get back into my Sacred 2 groove. I've still many a trophy to get on that game...

Anyways folks, I'll see you at the end of September for another update.

Living in 'Interesting' Times.

2009-07-24T15:17:00.002Z

More Ups and Downs

Well, a month has been and gone and there's been a lot of stuff going on. Some of it's been good, some of it's been bad. I suppose I'd better blog about it then. To get it out of the way, I'll do the bad news first.

Well, that thing with my friends came to a head eventually. On a particularly fateful Saturday night, I received a text to say one friend had decided to call it a day with the other. Sad times. I was at work at the time, which meant I had to stew a bit. ut this was not the worst part of the evening. That same night, a drunken customer took um-bridge with me, came behind the bar and decided to lay into me. Thankfully my boss was in hot pursuit and managed to get him off me. I have contacted the police about this individual. Especially since I was just doing my job.

A few weeks later, my friends were no longer friends. These are indeed sad days. I can't help feel that this was an attack of the devil. They are both still friends with me, so here I am stuck square in the middle. No doubt God will give me the wisdom to deal with this situation.

Oh yeah, I'm skint. That's a bummer.

Bleh, enough of this. To the Good News!

The car is working fine, which is awesome. All it needs now is some cosmetic stuff done to it and then it'll be almost as good as new. Shame I haven't the funds at the moment to get it all sorted. Ho hum, eh?

Other that that incident with me being attacked, I'm still liking my job. My cellar duties keep me busy. I get to use brooms and buckets and stuff. It's fun.

Bexs is still enjoying her job, which is cool. She's still plugging away on that NVQ of hers. So far she has a paperwork folder the size of a small car, but it's very organised. And uh, yellow.

My creative streak has not gone away, which is nice. I've begun writing a short story and I'm ironing out the creases of a plot for one of my cartoons. There's a couple of other bits and bobs I'm working on too.

Gameswise, I picked up a game called Sacred 2 on my last payday. It's a bit like Diablo 2, and has so far kept me very entertained. Bexs is also liking this game, especially the co-operative play feature. So far I've clocked up about 100 hours smiting monsters in the face.

So there you have it folks. My month in a nutshell. I expect I'll see you lot in August.

Right, if you'll excuse me, I have to go eat beans on toast and go to work.

..and swimming...

2009-06-15T23:00:00.002Z

This past month has had some interesting ups and downs for me. I'm still working at the same gaffe and have been given some extra responsibilities to do with the cellar work, which is nice. Bexs is still plodding her way through her NVQs, which is progressing nicely. I knew she could do it!

However there have been a few low points recently. The first isn't actually THAT bad, but certainly put a dent in my finances for a bit, which was getting some work done on the car. Turns out the alternator we'd had replaced only 6 months ago was duff and needed to be replaced again. It's put a hold on me putting a few quid on the side to save up for some stuff we need, but at the very least I have a working car now.

The other downer is a lot more complicated and involves my oldest friends. An incident occurred early on in May between us and it caused some serious tension between two of my best friends. The problem is, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. I'm kind of in the middle and it's no fun. Should I feel guilty for talking to them both? Probably not. But I do. If I talk to one, I feel like I'm 'taking their side' against the other. What's a man to do? So far the only solution I have is prayer and the hope that time will heal us back to where we were before. But right now, it's playing on my mind because I don't enjoy feeling bad for being a good friend.

Other than that, my life is OK. Just started a new house group tonight, should be quite fun, in a spiritually challenging kind of way. I'm playing through some games I bought a few weeks back and I'm ready to do some serious tidying of the house because well, it needs it. My imagination is up and running again and I'm hoping to sit down one of these days and actually draw a comic or write a story or something. I can feel my life slowly getting back on track.

Just Keep Swimming...

2009-05-13T17:03:00.002Z

Well, time for another update. Just a short one this time around, as not much is going on.

Things are just plodding along for the Cooks right now. My job is still cool, Bexs is finally doing her NVQs for work and in general there's not a huge amount of stuff going on. Me and the wife aren't fully out of our awful financial position, but we're darn near close. Which I have to say, feels awesome. More awesome news than that is that my friends who have been looking for work have snagged themselves interviews and jobs. God is good.

This past month I've spent getting back into the swing of things and putting things in order. Not exactly exiting news, but it's better than all the worrying I've been doing previously. I know I may not be in some glamorous employment earning megabucks but I'm not fussed. Who knows, that may yet still happen. What I can do now is dream and consider the future, which is not a bad thing.

Looking Up

2009-04-20T23:49:00.002Z

Psh, I'm useless at updating, huh?

So, it's quite obvious that I haven't updated this bloomin' thing in just over a month. There's some good reasons for this which I'll sling your way very shortly.

You may note that the title picture is gone. I've done that as I believe it was preventing some folks from viewing my lovely blog. Going to look at a few settings too. On with the show!

All Change!

Well, the biggest reason I've not updated this thing is that I've finally snagged myself a job! Woohoo! It's a bar work job in a busy local. I've been there three weeks now and I'm really enjoying it, even though when I left the trade I wasn't sure I wanted to go back into it again.

One of the things that made me consider it was a sermon given by a chap called Jim Munson who was visiting our church. Part of his message was that we should look for provision in these crazy times from an 'unclean bird'. When Elijah ran off to hide, he was fed by ravens, who to the Jewish people were unclean. But yet there was Elijah being kept alive by creatures God had sent who were regarded as something to be avoided! Keeping this in mind I applied for jobs I wouldn't normally have applied for. If I recall, one of them was for pest controller.

Then out of the blue I get a text from my old boss in the trade who I'd chatted with last year sometime. It was a message to say someone might be getting in touch with me. A week or so later, they did, and after popping into the pub for a chat I went away to think and pray about it. I'd been saying I didn't want to go back into my old trade, but then keeping in mind unclean birds I thought this might be my particular raven. I took the plunge, accepted the position and I can honestly say I don't regret doing so. I'm on a full time contract and I'm really enjoying myself. Nice.

As for my other job, well sadly I really couldn't get away with doing both. After trialling both jobs at once I decided that I should leave my retail job. It was quite tiring! So last week I worked my last shift there and said my goodbyes on good terms. I don't regret my time there, it's helped me to realise a few things about myself and I've learned a whole bunch of stuff. Sometimes it's good to try something new. In this case, I don't feel that particular job was one I could ever truly feel comfortable in, but hey, we live and learn.

So.. where next?

Well, that's the big question, huh? Both me and Bexs are very exited now, as things are definitely starting to look up for us. Our priorities are simple really, pay off all our bills and debts by the end of the year and then start saving up for some fun things like holidays and the like. We know that we are not out of trouble just yet, but give it a few months and we're confident things will be Ok.

Onward!

The Busy World of Matt Cook

2009-03-13T21:08:00.002Z

Cor blimey crickey-trousers-O'Reilly I've been a busy bunny this week. Today's the only day I've had where I've not had to do anything! So, how have I been busy you ask? Read on.

Job hunting Busy

Yup, that's right, I've been job hunting. This week has been about preparation for interviews. This week I've had two, one actual face to face one and one via the phone. Sadly, I didn't get the job but I'm encouraged that at least I'm getting somewhere with all this. I'm praying this continues!

At the very least, this is great experience for me.

Oh, and as for that other suspicious job thing last week.. verdict: avoid.

Family Busy

My lil' sis Ruth has another baby boy as of a few weeks back. This week I finally got to see the little mite. Bless him, he slept for most of the day. I did get to have a hold for a bit. I also spent some time with my sisters other little son, and we spent some time hunting monsters on my dads stairs, with the aid of my dad's loopy dog. If he's anything like his uncle he'll have a big imagination.

Other.. um.. er.. busy.

Last Saturday I attended a reuinon for my old College. It was an interesting day, although sadly I appeared to be the only one from my year to turn up. I did see a few familiar faces though. They've had a very trying time, and it's still going to be trying. My prayers are certianly with them, as it was thanks to College that I got a degree and learnt a lot more about myself and my faith.

So, that's it for this week. Looks like Friday is a good day to update this thang, so that's when I'd check in on the site.

The Awesomeness Commences!

2009-03-06T11:20:00.003Z

So...

It's been a week since my last post. Anything interesting going on? Sure, a few bits and bobs. Read on for more.

Visits

Me and Bexs were blessed by a visit from her family over the weekend. We spent most of the day in town. The Boys and Girls split up. The Girls went off to do girlie things like looking for clothes or whatever it is they do. Meanwhile, me and my Father in Law went to some manly places like Game Shops, Book Stores and The Pub. Sadly I couldn't join in with the last one, my tooth gap is still healing. Picked up a copy of Killzone 2 though. Been looking forward to that game for a while.

Overall we had a good day. Bexs even got to have a tickle fight with her youngest niece.

Job Hunting

Well, the job hunting continues, but at least I've had a spot of good fortune. On Tuesday I had two phone calls out of the blue, both about potential employment. One led to me arranging a telephone interview, the other for a meeting at some place in town. Not too shabby! This is the best I've been doing with my job hunting for a while, most of the time I've been sending off CV's and getting no reply.

The Interview I had yesterday, and although I wasn't too sure of how it went I received a phone call to say I'd been successful! Yay! It's not a done deal though, there's a face-to-face interview to do still. That's not til next week though.

The other meeting went.. well. But I left with a feeling of suspicion. What they were offering seemed far too good to be true. So I said I'd think about it and went home. I also asked some advice from some folks at Church who might have heard of this company. When I explained the situation, they too had similar suspicions. Jury's out on that one.

Killzone 2

Finally a note on Killzone 2. It's pretty good. Never one to believe the hype when it comes to games, I always maintained I'd be happy as long at it was at least as good as Killzone 1. Which it is. The Online mode seems interesting, but it seems to be that just like Call of Duty 4's Online mode it will only get better the longer you play it, as you'll unlock more stuff as you go. Should last me a while. Next game on my Radar is Uncharted 2.

Well, that's me for this week. I'm going to celebrate a good week with a few cups of tea, some PS3 and maybe a nice walk in the sunshine.

The Next Decade

2009-02-26T12:10:00.003Z

I'm back!

It's been a while, no? Well guess what kids, I'm back and with a vengeance. Read on to see what I've been up to recently. Prepare yourself for a big post!

30

Last week I hit the big 3-0. Many folks fear getting near to these milestone ages, but I wasn't to bothered about it. In fact, I was looking forward to it! My twenties were pretty cool, so this next decade should be something special. Me and my buddy Chris had already decreed that 2009 would be 'The Year of Awesome' but I thought that I'd start my new year in February, since you can never get anything done in January.

The week of my 30th really showed how awesome things can be. My excellent wifey managed to organise me not one, but two surprise birthday parties! One with some friends and one with my church. I had so much birthday cake! It felt like a week long party, it was a fantastic week.

So, what is to come? Well, a year of getting my life where it needs to be, that's what! I'm kicking off Decade No. 3 in style, with a positive attitude and a smile on my chops. This year I'll get that job, pay those bills and then some. I'll spend more time focusing on spiritual things. Plus, I'll be getting off my butt and using these creative gifts I've got. Oh, and I'll be blogging a bit more. I fully expect that my blogs in December will be lengthy waffle about how great life is. So, let me fill you in on how that's been working out.

Teeth

So, back in October last year I mentioned two health based maladies- a gash to the knee and a painful back tooth. Now then, the knee is fine and still has a wicked scar on it, but my tooth.. is another story. Eventually the pain went and I carried on as normal, ever planning on getting it sorted but never having the time and other such excuses.

However, it came back to haunt me on the week of my 30th birthday. During my parties my tooth began to ache and by the weekend I was popping paracetamol to get rid of the spiky pain. The worst part was that I couldn't get to a dentist because of all the frivolities! I soldiered on and managed to get to a dentist recommended by my work colleagues, but again there was a snag- he couldn't see me until next week! A week of paracetamol seemed to be on the cards.

There was one other thing to try though. Both a colleague at my workplace and at Becky's had mentioned a Dental Hospital in town, which apparently was free. Having the day off, I figured it was at least worth a look in. So yesterday morning I tootled down there. I felt a bit cheeky actually, as the pamphlet I was given at reception said it was like an A and E for teeth, and for once my tooth was not giving me any gip at all. However, a two second look at my tooth told the dentist that the tooth had to go, as soon as possible. I was told to go eat and come back later.

This is where the day got fun. Since I'd a few hours to kill, I thought I'd wander around the shops. Who should I meet but my pal Tim, who was nabbing lunch with another friend! So I ended up having McDonald's with Tim and Steve. Then me and Tim wandered about town for a bit, which helped take my mind off things.

The rest you can kind of guess. I'm drinking tea through a straw and I'm on soft foods for a bit. Had to do a saltwater bath on my gap this morning... not a very tasty experience. But hey, at least I got my tooth sorted out at long last. Plus.. I came home with a few cheap games to soften the blow. ;)

Creative Vibes

Blogging again is only the first part of my creative thang. I think Journey of The Christian Gamer has run it's course for now, but I'm thinking of starting a new blog on which I'll plonk reviews of games I've been playing. I'm also working on a story and of course, I'll be getting back on track with my webcomic. Just gotta get my butt off of my PS3 and grab my pencil.

See ya Soon

Well, I guess that's it for me now. I'm planning on updating this thing at least once a week with pretty much anything I can think of. Brace yourselves, this year is gonna be awesome!

MOT

2008-11-27T14:54:00.002Z

Well, not much to say really, as my situation hasn't changed all that much. The car however, passed it's MOT. Which was nice.

The Crunch

2008-11-17T16:05:00.002Z

May you live in Interesting Times

Well, things have begun to get quite erm.. interesting for me. For all my effort I'm still looking for another job, but so far I've had no callbacks or interviews, and the only one that did get in touch with me turned out to be an online scam that I had to report to the Job Centre. Me and Bexs are pretty close to the wire when it comes to money, we can just about keep our heads over the water but the sooner I find something the better.

I've begun to meet with some other gents in my Church who are having similar trouble to me, and I must say it's really helped with my morale, as well as my motivation. We meet once a week to pray for each other and tell of our progress and share advice. It's because of these great guys that I went to a graduates job fair I knew nothing of and obtained some advice on which job sites are reliable and which ones are a pile of poo. After writing this I'm going to re-jig my CV again.

There may Be trouble Ahead

The Car goes in for it's MOT soon. I'm praying it passes, because if it doesn't it'll mean that a lot of stuff suddenly becomes more difficult. Meh. Plus there's the whole Christmas thing around the corner too.. I pray God does something soon! I was counting on using the car to visit relatives over Christmas. Heck, I'd like to visit them now but I can't afford the petrol.

Hope

Although my situation seems a little dire, and appears to be a re-run of what happened when me and Bexs were first married I'm actually not feeling too stressed about this situation. At least, not as stressed as I think I should be. Last time around God really helped us out and I'm sure that we won't be left hanging this time too. I'm certain that somewhere out there is a job for me, but which one it is has yet to be revealed. I trust God will get us through this mess, I see it as a merely temorary setback and I'm sure my next job will be a gereat big bag of awesome. I'm just put out that it happened at this time of year, when life suddenly gets very expensive. STill, it'll all turn out right in the end I'm sure.

Same old..ish.

2008-10-20T14:17:00.002Z

The Knee of Doom

Well, the stitches came out last Monday and all that's left of my accident now is a red scar, the colour of which fades a little more each day. My teeth aren't fixed yet, and research into Tax Credit shows that I'm not eligible for them at the moment, because you have to work X hours to get them and me and Bexs fall short of this. That said, Bexs is getting more hours soon, which might swing us into the right bracket.

Work Life Balance

My hours are very low at the moment. In an agreement between me and my boss, he's lowered my hours so I can get a new job but still have something in the week to do so I don't go insane. It's been quite good actually, I've used all this extra time to research a lot of stuff, apply for jobs and so on. Has left me a wee bit skint, but I'm sure this is just a temporary blip while I get sorted.

That's about it for now. Time to go do some stuff.

Erm..

2008-10-02T13:23:00.002Z

Wow, no postage for a month, how silly of me. Allow me to bring you up to speed.

Work

Well, I'm still working, which is nice. My search for a new job has led me to the doors of a few agencies. I must admit, I've not been overly impressed, so it's almost a 'back to the drawing board' for me. Still, gotta keep flinging out them CV's, somebody might take notice.

Health

I popped this section in because two health related issues are on my plate. First off, one of my back teeth hurts when I eat, so it's time to seek out a dentist. I expect it will not be cheap. Hmm.

Then there was today.. had to visit A&E, because an accident gave me a gash just above my knee. So the order of the day was three stitches and a tetanus jab. Knowing the wonderful power of regeneration the human body has, I'm sure I'll be running, jumping and climbing trees within a few weeks.

FFXI

After a good leave of absence, I re-activated my FFXI account. Because well, I fancied a spot of MMO goodness Sometimes I just get the urge to explore vast worlds.. and hit things with an axe. Dunno if I'll renew the account in November, that will depend on some stuff.

The Car

Is still running. Cost a little more than I thought, but thanks to a donation by my Church everything was covered. Man, I love having a car again. It's one scratched off my 'To Do' list, and will help so much in the coming months.. and hopefully years.

So that's it for now. I'll try to post a bit more often. :P

Hyperactive Go Go Go Go Go!!!

2008-08-28T09:52:00.002Z

Yay!

It's an exiting time for the Cooks, and as the title suggests, I'm well exited. This is mainly down to two things occurring, one tomorrow, one next week.

Tomorrow I'm going to see all my pals at a BBQ over in Coventry. I haven't seen my friends in ages, so I'm psyched up and slightly crazy for it. Happy Happy!

Secondly, the big news for the Cooks is that The Car is Being Fixed Next Week. This is a majorly awesome thing to happen, as we will be able to reap the benefits of being actually able to do things and go places without having to plan. Now, buses are great and all, but given the choice of 'Leave 20 minutes before the bus arrives, wait 5 minutes, get on bus for 10 minutes, get off, take 10 minutes to walk to destination' or 'Get in Car. Drive for 10 minutes. Park. walk 3 minutes to destination' I think I prefer the latter.

Having a car back will make life soooo much easier for us. We can pick up where we left off a few months back. We can actually visit people without it feeling like a chore. Visiting relatives won't be like travelling to the North Pole. We can go to nice places and do stuff. Or at least we would if we had any dosh. Sadly getting the car done has wiped out all my savings. *Sob*

Actually... I'm not too fussed about that. My calculations included bills. ^_^ However, it is going to be tight until the cash rolls in again. It's going to be tough for a while, but totally worth it.

These two things have made me more hyper that a kid with a box of blue smarties. The original ones that is, not the silly new ones that don't contain hyperness.

I'm off to go and do hyper things. Woooo!

Dull

2008-08-12T14:28:00.002Z

As you've probably guessed by the title, there is not an awful lot going on with me right now. I'm still working at the usual place, but I'm still slinging the odd CV out here and there. My car is still isn't roadworthy, but I'm slowly working on it.

This seems to be the case with a lot of things lately. Life is not 'sorted out' but the only way to get things sorted is the slow way. /sigh. Still, once it's all sorted I can look back on it all and laugh. Or something.

When it comes to my little projects, I've closed down my Christian Gamer blog for a while while I decide what to do with it. I feel that I may have been overburdening myself with things recently, so I'm trying to cut down on stuff. I wasn't sure where I was going with the blog anyway.

My cartoon on the other hand I've had renewed interest in, so I've been putting some thought into it recently. I've even put a bit of work into my book. Managed to write down a few pages too. ^^

I've been reading a blog recently that's decided to go 100% philanthropic. I've popped a link to PS3Attitude so go visit if you're a gamer.

Well, I suppose that's as good an update as any. I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

Moving Onward

2008-07-18T15:35:00.003Z

I've had an interesting month. Some of it geeky interesting, some of it just, well.. y'know.

Work

The big news from the work side of things is that I have decided to move on from where I am. It's not that I dislike the place, or the people there. Now Bexs has settled into her new job, I was thinking about it and have decided to make the change. In this job I'm not fulfilling my full potential so I think it's time to try something new. I believe it's what was planned for me, but unfortunately I'm not quite sure where to go next. Still, I've slung out a CV here and there and will continue to do so until something happens.

It's also worth a mention my hours have been reduced, for a few reasons. I'm seeing it as more opportunity to go out job hunting, but it does mean money may be a little tight for a while. Still, God has gotten us through worse situations than this.

The Car.

Well, it's still broked. A good motivation to get a job if ever there was one, it does my head in a little not being mobile like I was. Still, that year without a car has shown us that we can cope in a pinch.

My Projects

The two people that read my Journey of the Christian Gamer blog may have noted that I've started posting a bit more regularly. So obviously the change in direction from 'Highbrow discussion' to 'I was playing this game and thought...' has been beneficial. I might still stick in the odd 'serious' post.

My last post was about our Linux Laptop, and I'm glad to inform you that it has been good for work. I'm starting on the outline to my fantasy book now that I've my new 'To Do' thing in place. Another bit of interesting news is that I'm also working on Astris Bandit again.

One of my problems with Bandit was that I'd never sat down and thought about where it was all going. I'd not thought out a story arc, nor even the plot for the episode I was working on. In retrospect, a daft idea. So while I was working on my book, I started writing down the details of the plot for episode 2, starting to flesh out the story from where I had left off. Once the plot for episode 2 is sorted out, I'm going to plan out the main story arc and get some concept artwork done. After I post this I'm planning on tweaking the Astris site a little, updating archives and so on. I'll probably delete my Drunkduck Archive as I only managed to get 5 pages on it before it became a nightmare.

So well, that's me for now. I'm considering putting all my entries about what I get up to in Games on my other blog, since it's all about games anyway it would fit right in.

Well, ciao for now.

Sorry Bill

2008-06-27T17:01:00.002Z

I've had a fair few days off lately, so I decided to buckle down and finally sort out Becky's laptop, which has been in dire need of a good kicking since about 2004. To this end I did the sensible thing and tried to reinstall Windows XP on the thing, which went about as well as can be expected from the lil' machine.

However, as with all things computer, I faced a problem the product key thing Microsoft ask you for. I put it in. Apparently, it was wrong. So I tried the one on the bottom of the laptop itself. Also wrong, the blue screen told me, and if Windows could smirk.. it would have been. So, firing up the PC I knew worked fine (Yup, mine :P ), I went off to internetsville to find a solution. Find it I did, and it involved ringing up Microsoft to get a new key.

Now, apparently this is a painless procedure, but knowing what I know about ringing people up to sort out something simple, I know for a FACT that I'll be stuck in 'Hold Please' Hell for 3 hours after pressing all sorts of buttons to tell them what I'm after. When I finally get through, they'll ask me what the problem is, negating the whole button bashing thing I did in the first place. All of this adding up to a £30 phone call I could have done without. Plus, I had a sneaky suspicion that this key was going to cost me. Selling Microsoft stuff at work, I knew that was not going to be cheap either. I pondered my situation. I was stuck either way. What could I do?

So, I did some more research. Then a bit more. I thought about what we use the laptop for, altering my search accordingly. Then it hit me. I'm a rocker. Rockers stick it to The Man. Bill is The Man.

I'm posting this on my rejuvenated, quicker than ever Linux laptop. Yup, this week, which I've nicknamed 'Linux Week' has been all about figuring out the whats whys and wherefores of Linux. It's a bit different to Windows, but then I expected as much. I'm still figuring stuff out on it, but so far I've managed to find all the stuff I was using on Windows anywhoo, such as Open Office and the Gimp.

I'm actually quite geekilly exited about the whole thing too. I reckon it'll be good for my book writing, since I know none of my Windows games will work now, making it a dedicated work machine. It's running rather nicely too, unlike my car, which sits still in a sorry state in front of the flat. That's for another day though. For now, I think I might start writing up some of my book notes...

Ups and Downs

2008-06-14T13:56:00.003Z

UPDATE!!

Yep, it's about time for another update from the Cooks.

Bad Badda-boom

First up, some bad news about the car. It's.. conked out on us. The head gasket has blown, leaving me with the choices of either new car or new engine. I'm still debating and researching which might be the best option, and seeing what funds I have available.

Jobs and the like

Bexs has begun to settle into her new job now. She's getting all that preliminary paperwork waffle done. Soon they'll be setting her up with training courses and the like to get things going for her. It's an exiting time for her.

My job is well.. the same.

Home

My new regime is going pretty well. I've done some good work on my book and I'm feeling good about it. One of the reasons my blog is being updated is because of my new little 'to do' chart. There's also some sections on there for some of my other projects, such as my gaming blog and Astris Bandit.

Recently I formatted Bex's lil laptop to help it work a lot smoother, but I've hit a snag. I managed to put Windows on it, but it'll expire soon because the product key is already registered to my PC. I'm not too sure I want to spend 16 hours on a phone to Microsoft, so I might bite the bullet and install a version of Linux onto the lil laptop. It won't make too much difference to us as most of the programs I use are open source bits and bobs like Open Office. Still researching that one.

Games

Monster Hunting

I've chilled out on Monster Hunter for a bit. I was gettin' a bit *too* addicted. Took a week off from it which did me good. Not really much to report really. Just hunting a few beasties to get materials that will help me improve my weapons and armour.

FFXI

Well, I've made some interesting progress on FF. My linkshell had a big drive on missions, and now me and a fair few others are now Rank 8. Not bad considering the Ranks go up to 10.

I did the Genkai quest, and now I'm at the lofty level 53. Also, I've managed to nab another piece of my job specific Artefact Armour, a pair of furry boots. When I hit level 55, I have to do a second Genkai quest to allow me to reach level 60, plus I get to go hunting for more pieces of my Artefact armour.

I've put some effort into my sub job too, which now lies at level 30. I hope the next time I level it up I'll get it to level 37, at which point I can put it to bed, because it's then half of 75, the maximum level. All in all, some good progress this month. ^_^

So, that's us Cooks for a bit. Stay tuned for the July Report. ;)

I'm not dead or anything

2008-05-21T18:52:00.005Z

Its True! I'm not!!

Well, it's been a busy ol' time for me, so it's time for a blog post. So, What have been up to? Allow me to educate you...

Work and so on

Yes, I'm still going to work. Hehe! As much as being a gajillionaire would suit me, I'm certain God has other plans for me. Anywhoo, I'm still at work and things are ok. I've been away from the store recently, doing training and a study for The Company. The sunshine has finally arrived in England, which means I'm of a sunny disposition. I'm sure I've got a mild case of that that SAD or something. It's been tough at work recently, but I'm still chipper. Partially because of the sun, partially because of some stuff I'm about to mention.

Home

Things at home are good. The most exiting bit is that Bexs has managed to nab herself a kids work job! Bexs has always wanted to work with kids and get paid for it, and she's getting exited about this opportunity. It was actually partially to do with me- I got chatting to a lovely lady at work and it turned out she worked in kids work. She gave me a number to give to Bexs, one thing led to another and.. w00t! Bexs got a new job.
Because Bexs is finally getting to do the kind of job she's always wanted to do, it's made me a bit cheerier knowing that at least one of us is sorted. I guess I'll have to put some thought into what I want to do with myself.

So, with that in mind, I've decided to discipline myself a little more. I've made meself a special list of certain thing I wish to achieve each month. I've been woefully behind on a lot of stuff like my cartooning, writing and all sorts of stuff like that. As soon as I get paid I'm going out and buying stationary to aid my cause. I could do with a new bookcase too.. oh, better stop before I get carried away. :P

Games

Final Fantasy

Well, first off, a level update. My Beastmaster job is now riding high at level 50. 25 Levels seperate me fromt he top level of 75, but there is much to be done before I can progress. First, I have to get that silly sub job of mine to level 30.. secondly, there's a bunch of quests I need to do, the first of all being my Genkai Quests.

Basically, it means this:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Genkai

The quest I'm doing is fairly simple- travel to three places, kill certain monsters who drop certain items, give them to the old guy. Easy. But I've also been putting in some effort in some other quests. The most notable of which is getting Rank 6 for my nation. Once it's all done, I'll be able to progress. Here's a pic of me and my linkshell, Devotion, kicking the Shadow Lord's butt. The Shadow Lord is kind of mean.

Once again, Devotion saved the day. ;)

Monster Hunter

I thought I'd pop a bit here about my jaunts into Monster Hunter, as I've been playing it a heck of a lot. I've been ploughing through tons of nasty monsters ranging from great Wyverns to Giant Crabs, with the occasional giant Gorilla thrown in. I think the summer seems to have fed my addiction to this game.. hunting monsters seems to go well with sunshine. It was the same when I had the first Monster Hunter on my PS2.

Whooo!!

2008-04-10T17:34:00.004Z

Lyfe

It's time to let you know what's going down in Matt and Bexs town.

Right, first off slap the light from your screen into your retinas of this!!

Yeah, that's right, this is the new Cookmobile. We've had it for a month now and it's pretty awesome. I'd not realised how different life would be with a car. It's suddenly got a *lot* easier for us. Church, visiting friends, going to work, all easy now.

Wurk

Yup, work is still bobbing along. I'm going to have an interesting week next week, as I'll be in a different store for some sort of observational thingy. Other than that, I'm just turning up and getting it done.

Gamez

Whew, I've been playing a lot of games and stuff. I bought my buddies PSP, and managed to nab a copy of one of my fave games franchises, Monster Hunter Freedom 2. I've been stabbing a myriad of monsters and strange creatures on my lunch break. The ability to stream music from my PS3 to my PSP has been invaluable in certain washing-up-ironing-plus-general-kitchen-stuff situations.

Final Fantasy wise, I've raised my Beastmaster job to the lofty level 45. Only 5 levels til 50, a significant point in any Final Fantasy XI Career. Level 50 means a load of quests to be done, to unlock the ability to go higher than level 50, and to go forth and do some seriously cool stuff. A lot of the 'expansion pack' stuff is level 50 or above. Yup, in 5 levels I'll be catching a boat to the far off shores of the Aht Urghan Empire, a city that has a Middle Eastern feel to it set in some of the most beautiful places I've seen in Vana'diel so far. I can't wait!

I've had to work on my - ugh- White Mage sub job, but not too much thankfully. It's now at level 26, so it'll be all good to be a Beastmaster until level 52. I'm going to make some gil to renovate my gear for this leg of the journey.

Well, that's me for now. I'm going to update all my stuff soon, so Bandit will be getting a new page, as will my JOTCG blog. See y'all soon. ;)

Slow times

2008-03-01T11:07:00.005Z

My Week back at Work

Thought it might be time for another post. Yeah, I know, I'm getting quite regular at this whole blog thing.

Work

Last week I had a glorious day off where I did pretty much nothing for a whole week. Which was sweet. This week, the week I've returned to work, has been very similar. There have been very few customers throughout the month, but this was just daft.

In pub work, there was always a constant stream of punters who would turn up and buy stuff. Then there were your regular customers who you could set your watch by. Come rain shine or atomic war they'd be there. Retail it seems is a different animal.

Back in the pub, January was quiet, period. February was back to business as usual. So it's been a little odd to me that the shop is so empty. Some of my colleagues reckon it's down to this whole 'credit crunch' thing that's been going on, and that I can see being a good cause of it, since 98% of all our transactions are done with some sort of credity card thing or credit agreement. I hope it changes soon, 'cos it's getting a little tedious.

The Car

Not long now.... Been researching prices of things like petrol and de-icer and oil and tow ropes and such. I'm chuffed because the weather is getting better and cruising is *always* more fun in the sun. Plus it gives me a valid excuse to wear my prescription sunglasses. Hmm, best dig out my insurance stuff again.

Astris: Bandit

For once, I'm actually ahead of schedule. My decision to make the comic monthly for a little while has given me some time to sit down and think out Bandit's next steps. I've also made the decision to send the archived material of Bandit to an external site, since my hosting site kept crashing.. :P So for the new stuff, head to:

http://astris.moonfruit.com

for the old stuff,

http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Astris_Bandit_Archive/

Both have a link at the side.

My Gaming Exploits

Well, what with me being off for a week, I've done a fair bit of gameage. I've completed two of the five games in the Orange Box on my PS3, Half Life 2 and Portal. Portal is short, but it's a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Half Life , although it had some quirks, was fun too, and didn't disappoint. There's two more episodes to it on the Orange Box, which I'm working through now.

Well, when it comes to Final Fantasy, there's a few things to tell. First of all, Check out this scary looking place.

This spooky looking zone is Prommivion: Mea, and the gangly thing in the middle is it's boss monster. Kill the three boss monsters in the first three Prommivion areas and you get a prize- access to new areas. Well, at the end of last week, me and my linkshell buds went and decimated that big gangly thing, so now I have new areas for my Beastmaster to explore. Just a word to say thanks to Leelu and Krysalyn from Devotion for helping me get this finally done. ^_^It's likely that I'll be going to the new areas to level up, so I'll take a few snaps.

Although I'm done with Summoner, White Mage is far from done. My goal is to get it to level 30, and it currently sits at level 23. I'm also working on my other big goal, which is to earn money for spells, and new equipment for when I go back to Beastmaster. To do this I'm putting some effort into Woodworking, levelling it up to make things that sell well. I'll soon be able to make a ninja tool called Shihei. Now those things are worth a few bob, because every ninja above level 12 uses them. A lot. So when I get around to being a ninja, I'll make my own. I'll also give a few to my linkshell pals when I'm feeling a bit rich. ^^

Well, that's me for now. Post again soon. Honest. ;)

Booya!

2008-02-20T19:02:00.006Z

Hello! In do believe it is time for an Update of the Fun World of Matt Cook!

Look, it's got pictures and everything!

Birthdayz. w00t! ^^

On the 18th of this month, I hit the ripe old age of erm.. 29. The celebration of this event happenned a few days before at my good buddy Ceejays, where there was pizza, coffee and games.

To further make turning 29 awesome, I booked the week off, so I'm not back to work 'til next Monday by the look of it. Woo-ha! Thankies to all those who sent me cards and stuff. ^^

Car- no worries.

Yup, a car is in the bag and it'll be arriving about March time. The excitement is building.. ;)

Work

Well, as I've not been for three or four days, it's hard to write about it. But last time I was there it was all good. However today I've been catching up on home work' if you will, which entails trying to sort out the spare room, doing the dishes.. y'know, boring housey stuff. So far so good. I've blitzed the Dining room and Kitchen, but it's going to be a loooong time before the spare room is sorted. There's gotta be 2 years worth of junk in there, if not more. >.>

FFXI- A milestone

And by milestone, I mean a good one! My Beastmaster job has hit level 40! Oh yeah! Level wise, that's more than half way to the top level of 75. But it ain't over 'til it's over. However, my road to level 40 has left me a bit worried that I was getting too addicted.. Whenever that happens I stop playing for a few days. Haven't played since Monday. But then.. I did get The Orange Box for my PS3 so it could be argued I swapped one addiction for another. It's my plan to use the Orange Box as an opposition to FF to keep my addictions in check. But I digress.

With Beastmaster at 40, my sub job now need work, so it's back to White Mage for a little while. But the sub job I use for White Mage, Summoner, is now in need of work. /sigh. This will also help to kerb my addiction. Summoner I can Solo, but a White Mage only really shines in a party. Since the job is past the horrible teen levels it'll be better this time around. I'll have to take some more snaps and post 'em here.

Astris: Bandit

With this week off it's time to play catch up. I should be posting it up sometime soon. I should be plonking something on Journey of the Christian Gamer soon too. Busy Busy!

Well, that's me for now. I'll post something again soonish.

Me again.

2008-01-30T15:25:00.000Z

Wow, time off!!

Yup, you heard me. As I write this I'm on day #2 of a 2 days off. Nice. Yesterday I spent all day on FFXI, today I've spent cleaning the house, planning the revival of JOTCG, adding the finishing touches to Astris Bandit, which I'll post sometime today, jotting down a few notes for a potential book I want to write... later I'm going shopping.. busy day.

Carz

No car yet. But working on it. Soon...

The Awareness Course

Still going. ^^ I tend to spend my time not saying much, as I've seen a lot of this sort of thing at college, but it's still good to go as a refresher to the ol' memory is not a bad thing. Plus, it's good to see where some of my fellow Church Alive brothers and Sisters sit on some of the issues. Myself.. I'm kind of in the middle on a lot of the issues. It's still cool though, as I am learning stuff. Most of my knowledge of the way Christians have dealt with other faiths has been to do with the early Church, so it's nice to get a modern spin on things.

For those wot wanted to know (Kawaii lol) , the course was designed by a Catholic Priest guy. The course is quite biased toward the Middle East because that's where his interests lie, but that's not too bad a thing because it seems most of the tensions that seem to crop up are between the West and the Middle east.

Work

Is also still there. There may be a few changes as I've heard some folks may be leaving. I'm quite content to stay there for now, as I said earlier. I looked at my posts for this time last year about work. Boy, was I unhappy! Well, I'm glad that changed. I've no desire to leave right now, but I don't want to be there forever. But considering I've given no thought to where I'd go, I can't see the status quo changing for some time.

FFXI

Back to Beastmaster as I got White Mage to level 20. Currently at level 32 and saving up my in-game pennies for some things I've had my eye on. Plus, with every level things get more expensive. I'm considering taking a break from experience points hunting and working on a craft in order to make some dosh.

JOTCG

I've re-jigged the site to become a site about gaming issues and Christianity. I might do some reviews of games, but I definitely want to pick topics as I go along and see how my Christianity affects them. And yes, Kawaii, Girl Gamers are on that list. ;)

Attack of the Update

2008-01-19T11:03:00.000Z

So 10 days have flown by, and we're now solidly into 2008. So what have the Cooks been doing?

The Awareness Course

Instead of House groups during the middle of the week, my church has started to run a course called the 'Awareness Course'. It's basically a load of sessions that help us as Christians to live in a multi culture, multi religion society. It aims to help us live and work with people of other faiths but not compromise our own. So far, we're only two sessions in, but they've been quite interesting. Certainly work the trek across the city.

Journey of the Christian Gamer

...is a website I haven't touched since November, neglected much like my Astris comic. I've decided it's time to yell 'Clear!' on the site and bring it back to life, with a new look. I think I'll take a less scholarly look at things as well and just talk about gaming issues. I'm going to sit down one day soon and write down a load of topics to chuck on there. I'm thinking of turning into more of a 'gaming diary' than anything else.

Astris

Speaking of my Comic, I'll be updating that today sometime. I appear to have lost track of time a little with this, I'm supposed to have at least a few pages pencilled, but I haven't done that yet. Hmm. Well, I have a wee bit more time for that sort of thing.

Work

The crazy period has gone, at work now. I'll never get over how different their Christmas is different to the ones I was used to as a Barman. It's still a bit of a mad time, but it's a different kind of mad. But then, it's a different kind of trade. Still, I'm happy enough and I hope I can improve on last year now I appear to have got the 'hang' of things. This year I'm keen to learn some new stuff and carry on where I left off. I'm quite happy where I am at the moment, so I've no thoughts of leaving. My hours have gone down a bit too, which is a bit of a mixed blessing. Bit less cash, but more time to myself. Doesn't affect my dreams of getting a car this year though. ;)

Final Fantasy

Since I play a bit, here's what I've been up to. I did indeed, get my Airship Pass. My Linkshell has undergone a bit of a change. I'm not sure of the circumstances, but the decision was made to merge with another Linkshell to form a really big Linkshell. This new Linkshell is very similar to the last one in feel, as it's quite social, but the goal of the merger was to help create an environment to do a lot of the 'questy' aspects of FFXI. I've helped with a few myself, although the fact that most events are held midweek on American time means I miss a lot of them. Also, a lot of the stuff they're doing is mostly for higher level folks, which my little 37 Samurai is no good for.. yet. But then, I've put Samurai on the back bench for a bit because I've rediscovered an FF love of mine.

Beastmaster! I love it. It's generally regarded as the only 'solo' job in FFXI. The life of a Beastmaster is their own, no relying on parties, just you, your skill and a pet against some mean monsters. I enjoyed Beastmaster the first time around and with some recent additions to the job from Squeenix, I'm enjoying it still. It's *rapidly* catching up to Samurai because I recently hit level 30. In fact, I've levelled it up so quick, I've had to put it on hold as well!

So currently I'm levelling the sub job for Beastmaster, the White Mage. It's party based and is basically about one thing- Healing people. In a party it basically means that I make sure no one dies as we fight big scary monsters. My aim is to get it to 20, and I'm at 18 right now. Once it's at level 20, I'll be able to go back to Beastmaster and level it all the way to 40. ^_^

So, basically, that's what's going on right now. Updates later, I'm sure!

2008

2008-01-05T18:39:00.000Z

A Very Cooky Update

Well, I suppose you lot will be wanting to know what I've been up to, so here it is.

Christmas

So, this Christmas went really well. Me and Bexs managed to get over to see my family at least, and had a lot of fun, and I managed to get to see my friends a week or two before. It's times like this you really miss your car, I tell you. It was good to see the clan and of course, my fab lil' nephews who get more awesome every time I see them. My only regret is that I didn't see much of my Dad this year, but I'm sure I'll remedy that sometime with an impromptu visit or something.

New Year

Well, we didn't do much this year. We stayed in and watched 2008 in with Jools Holland. I drank whiskey. Bexs had a squash. It was ok.

Other Stuff

With the celebrations gone and 2008 in full swing, I'm starting to do what I've coined 'pressing the reset button'. After the festive season I lost track of the days and dates and so on, so this weekend off will be handy in returning things back to normal, or whatever passes for it. I've tidied a bit of the house, posted the first page of Astris Bandit up for the year and I've written a To Do list for the coming months. On said list is putting some effort into Bandit, as well as my neglected Journey of The Christian Gamer blog. In fact, I've been quite concerned over the past few months that I'm losing who I really am, because all I seem to have been doing is going to work, coming home, playing games for a few hours, going to bed and repeating this cycle. Still, I have ideas of how to return myself back to my former glory.

My resolution, if indeed it could be called that, is to obtain a car by the end of the year, so that'll be my reason for going to work other than to stop people sending me red bills. It's been an interesting year not having a car, and I've realised just what exactly I've missed. That's my only goal for 2008, but who knows what may lie around the corner?

2007-12-17T18:11:00.000Z

Wow, I'm really sucking at updates. Heh. Well, there's not been much to tell.

The Birthday Girl

Bexs birthday went off quite well. It was good to see all our buds in one very crazy, action packed day! Bexs had soo much spent on her by her loving hubbie. The day after we went to town and I spent more on her. Our ol' pal Bob stayed for the weekend too, which made the weekend a lot of fun.

Dull

Other than Bex's do, life has been pretty much the cycle of work, chill, sleep. Not an awful lot going on for me at the moment. This week was our annual get together, which was a lot of fun. Drinks, fun, and mini pizza.

Christmas is around the corner and I'm not ready for it yet. Most of the shopping is done, the tree is up, but I'm yet to realise that Christmas is here. Maybe after my second drink at my mums or something I'll think 'Ooh! it's Christmas!'.

2007-11-24T11:41:00.000Z

Yup, I'm still around. Time to let you know what little has been going on in my world.

Life

Well, first up, there's still not much happening in my life. I'm still working a lot of hours, still trying to save for a car, and me and Bexs are preparing for the onslaught that is Christmas shopping. The best bit about work right now is that my shifts have been fixed to 9-5 for most days to help my boss organise Christmas rotas easily. I'm not complaining! Does kind of suck that I have to get out of bed earlier. At the very least I see the appeal of the 9-5 routine. It's all part of the Cook master plan, which God doesn't seem to object to. Although we're open to him destroying all our debts overnight for us and giving us a car. I don't really see that happening though Haha!

Videogames

Been playing a bit of both my PS3 and FFXI recently. I have one or two games I'm borrowing form my good bud Ceej, so I've been shooting a lot of stuff. There's still a few PS2 games I'm playing through as well. Glad I got the 60gig version so I can play my PS2 games on my shiny wonder machine.. otherwise I'd be reduced to only a few shooty games. :(

When not killing monsters with a 12-gauge, I've been running around the fantasy world of Vana'diel a fair bit. I've mostly been working on a few things. Firstly, I've been working on 'Crafting'. Crafting for the uninitiated is making stuff out of the raw materials you get from killing monsters or finding out in the big wide world. I've been working on being a Blacksmith and doing a spot of Fishing on the side. This is in aid of making money, of which I need a fair bit of at the moment. I've hit level 37 as a Samurai, which is halfway to the top level of 75. Those that have the tenacity to go on past level 37 soon find that things start getting pretty expensive if you haven't the time to do a lengthy quest or invest a lot of time in crafting. So, since I've reached a sticky point I've decided to invest in a few crafts that will help me raise cash to buy all the new gear I'll need from 37 to 75.

Also, my Linkshell buddies Leelu, Ladywisk, Lande and Levvin have been helping me achieve Rank 5 this week. Rank 5 is a big deal for an FFXI player.. because when you hit Rank 5, you get to use the Airships to travel the world, cutting down a lot of travelling. If all goes well, I'll finish it tonight.

There's also been a bit of a buzz in the FFXI community recently. The new expansion disc, Wings of the Goddess came out this week. They've added all sorts of new areas, missions, items, and monsters. Might be a while before I see any of it, I haven't seen much of the other expansions discs yet. Still, I expect I'll get there slowly but surely.

Love

There's been a lot of birthdays and stuff recently. First was my friend Helen, who had an awesome party at Quasar. We shot lasers at each other for an hour, great fun! Then me and Bexs celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a pizza and a movie. We'll do something special later. It was my sisters birthday the day after. Shame I wasn't able to go and see her but I gave her a call to wish her well. Up and coming is Bexs birthday in a week or so. We're having friends visit and throwing a wee shindig. Hmm.. I should really pop out and buy Bexs a gift...

A little Updatey type thing.

2007-10-27T08:31:00.000Z

Huzzah! I'm back, and with another slightly wacky post about my average life. Whoohoo!

<<Rest>> <<Can I Have it?>>

The above title's comedy value will be lost on anyone who hasn't played FFXI. But needless to say, I'm feeling the need for a break! Since last posting, I've chucked myself into work with a fair bit of gusto, which seems to be paying off a little. They're chucking me onto some more training, this time for Miele, who expensive but top quality stuff. It's a trip to Oxford and free lunch at the very least. ;) If it's anywhere near as good as the last course I went on I'll be happy.
Because Christmas is around the corner somewhere (at least in a business sense I'm guessing) I've suddenly found myself doing 35 to 39 hour weeks. Not that I'm complaining, the money is good for the coming bombardment of birthdays and national holidays. But I'm quite a stickler when it comes to my free time. Well, can't win it all.

Carz

Now I have my lovely PS3 I've had to pick a new thing to stick on my "Saving up for" tin. After some consideration, I've decided the next step for the Cook family is to get a car. Partially because I hate buses, partially because all my friends and family live absolutely ruddy miles away. In fact, apart from my workplace and the local pizza place, EVERYTHING seems to be miles away. Don't even get me started on the monthly shop. Me and Bexs look like those crazy homeless folks you see in movies trying to lug a shopping trolley back to our place. Gyaaah! Therefore, Car. So far I have £30. (Or around $60 for all you lovely American folks.)

A Bitter Blow

The lovely PC that is whirring away happily as I jam letters into this blog suffered a blow this week, and so did I. The little 2gig drive I stored all my "important" stuff on made a horrible noise and refused to work. I'm no expert on Hard Drives, but I'm guessing they shouldn't squeak or make a noise like a cat being run over. From my analysis, it's innards have completely collapsed. That I wasn't too fussed about. After all, I'd nabbed it from a *very* old computer. What did make me go "AG!" was the fact that all my drawings for Astris:Bandit, and pretty much everything I've ever written into a computer were stored on that little drive. Oops. Knowing me I'll have made backups somewhere on discs, but finding all the stuff I've lost is going to take a looong time. Plus, all my college stuff and my Bandit stuff I have hard copies of, so it'll just be a case of fishing them out and re-scanning or typing or whatever. Either way, it still sucks.

Astris: Bandit

Talking of the above cartoon, a busy life has not been good for it's update schedule. What with losing my drive too I'm a wee bit loathe to update it until I have some proper spare time to do it in. After finishing this post I'll be updating the site, if only to say it won't be updated for a bit.

Trundle

Well, other than those exiting little bits, much of my life is the same old trundle. Which is not a bad thing at the moment. Usually I'm not sure I'm in the right place, but recently I've come to accept that this is where God wants me for now until the next bit comes along. Knowing me the next bit has already turned up but I failed to spot it. Good job God is patient. ;)

Well, I'll see you all again soon. ^_^

Bittersweet

2007-10-13T10:28:00.000Z

Yup, still alive.

Been a while since I last updated this ol' blog of mine. There's been a bit of good and bad going on in my life recently, so I'll chuck em into two sections, Bitter and Sweet. Clever, eh?

Bitter

Ok, lets get the bad stuff out of the way. First of all, work. This week I've had a cold and I've felt rough. Couple that with a review on my bad performance and Boom! bad week. In fact, this very morning I was in a meeting on how to improve. Yay. It's not something I've been ignoring though. This week I actually wanted to go in and shake it up a bit, after all, I'd had a good couple of days off, (More about that later) and I'd had a rather pleasant surprise. (Again, later.) But it was not to be as I contracted that stupid bug, and so the week that was meant to be the turning point ended up being the week 'I felt rough and got told off'.

Second, I had a cold. Wait, I already told you about that. Hmm.

Next up, because of work and being ill and lots of jobs and stuff I've been doing, I haven't had any chance to update either Bandit or Journey of the Christian Gamer. Which is annoying.

I haven't been to church in weeks. Not my fault either. I can't make it because people at work are on their hols and someone has to fill in the gap, being me. Meh. It's starting to affect me a bit. I know that being a Christian isn't about going to church, but I miss my friends, the support they give, and basically it's ruining my weekly routine. I've been going to church properly since I was fifteen, nigh on 13 years or so. Not going is a bit like not eating. It's starting to make me a bit miserable if I'm honest.

Sweet!!

Ok, enough misery. Time to tell you about the good stuff. ^_^

First of all, the weekend away at the in laws went really well. As always, it was a bit of a shame to come back. I got to spend the day with my lil' niece Caitlyn at a farm, and even had a ride in a tractor. We also caught up with some friends while we were up there. Nice. Plus, before we went, I managed to completely blitz two of the rooms in the house, and fill up all those redundant rat holes.

Secondly, my pleasant surprise. My tax code was finally sorted out and I had £300 odd quid dumped into my bank account. Plus, now it's sorted there'll be a few extra coins in my pay packet, since I'm paying what I'm supposed to be now. This got me thinking a bit. Which leads to the next cool thing in my life.

I am now a Seventh Generation Gamer. Lot's of people have now gone 'Huh?'. Simply put, with my boost of cash I bought a Playstation 3. Got a decent deal on it too. I've not had it long, but I have been downloading stuff and playing games and so on. My Linkshell buddies on FFXI now understand why I've not been on this week. ;)

As for Sundays? A quick chat with my boss has sorted that. He's rearranged some of the shifts to accommodate me. Which is nice. Hopefully I'll be back to my old self again soon.

Last night me and my friends celebrated my ol' pal Ceejay's birthday. There was pizza, good company, games, and it was a whole lotta fun. Happy Birthday Ceej. It was a good night.

In Conclusion

Well, there's been highs and lows to the last week or two. I'm looking forward to next week. After all, it can hardly get worse, can it? I'm going to be spending some time sorting out all the things that bug me about my life right now. One of which is updating stuff like this. *sigh*

See y'all soon!

Some more insights into the life of Redlac, also known as Matt.

2007-09-26T18:20:00.000Z

Whoo-sha!

It's finally confirmed that our rodent problem is over, so I can go about filling up holes, tidying up, and returning the house back to the way we wanted it in the first place!! This ol' place of ours has needed some work before we moved in, and now I can get around to doing something about it.

Work is, well, work and I'm not particularly bothered by it at the moment, although the amount of hours I'm doing is starting to grate a bit. I could do with a holiday, a week off where I can just play games, catch up on stuff and generally rest up and take a week off. Looks like I'll be having the week off alone as Bexs has used up her holidays on an upcoming trip to her parents in a few weeks. Today I went on a fun training course to learn about range cookers. I cooked some cakey things, went on a tour of the factory and even won a branded apron. Even got a mug too. Gotta love freebees. Shame I had to get up at 6:30am for this thing.

Talking of said holiday involving in-laws, it looks like I'll be joining Bexs for the last part of the week in order to wish her mum a happy birthday. Oh, and while I'm at it, a happy birthday to my sister Sarah!!

Gameage!

My Online shenanigans are going quite well. I've not played Phantasy Star Universe much, as it's begun to get a bit stale. I'm hoping the release of the new expansion pack in the next few months will stir it up a bit. It looks good and it seems all the bad points of PSU are being cleared up. Well, only time will tell.

Now Final Fantasy, that is a different story. Since my last post I'm now a level 34 Samurai. I've been working on making a bit of cash with a spot of Crafting, or for the uninitiated, making things and selling them. To this end, I've created a mule, or storage character, where I can store resource materials and finished products and so on.

The other big news regarding Final Fantasy is a) that there is also another expansion set coming out for it in November and more importantly b) That I achieved rank 4.
So what? You ask. Well, in Final Fantasy you can become famous in two ways. The first is to do odd jobs for the citizens of the cities which will give you a good reputation amongst the common folk, who will in turn give you discounts at stores and will trust you with more taxing errands. The second way is to raise your Rank. Rank is to do with you're actions on the Political scene, and is determined by doing missions for your country. These missions are usually quite tricky and can require help from other adventurous folk. Raising your Rank can bring some sweet rewards. For instance, if I raise myself to Rank 5, I'll receive an Airship Pass which will allow me to travel from city to city in minutes, not hours.

Anyways, I teamed up with my two Linkshell pals Leelu and Mantra, and together we stormed a monster infested tower to find a missing ambassador. It wasn't difficult but was time consuming, so thanks to those two for sticking with me for the three or so hours it took. >.>

On another note, my clan has returned from their hols and whatnot and it's time to return to them. Tonight will be the first night we've met up in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to it. On tonight's agenda: Shooting things and making them explode. Also, some light Bad Guy exterminating. Nice.

Updating stuff

As mentioned above, I've had some trouble updating stuff. Astris: Bandit has taken an unfortunate back seat and I'm hoping I can get that updated as soon as possible. I'll probably put some work into my gaming blog too.

2007-09-06T14:49:00.000Z

Ding Dong The Rat is Dead...?

Well, for some time now me and Bexs have had to put up with the creepy fact that a rat has been a regular visitor to our kitchen, and all my efforts to stop it getting in have met with stiff resistance. Having enough, I finally went out and bought some poison to stop the blighter for good. It was freaking Bexs out and with good reason! Since my last post, the rat had been eating the blue corn of death rather happily, and I was merely waiting for something to happen.

This morning I discovered our unwelcome guest on the floor of our dining room, and apparently it had been injured, as it's back legs were skewiff. Normally when I approach it scurries into a hole, but this time it just sat there. Utilising a broom I bundled it into a mop bucket and placed it outside in the grassy area, where it lay as it had done before. I could see that something had happened to it's legs, as it was dragging them around. It certainly looked like it was not long for this world. So I placed it in a nice spot to await it's fate. I've been checking throughout the day, and it's vanished from the spot I put it in. So I'm guessing either a cat has got to it, or it's tougher than I thought it was. I'm rather hoping it's crawled into a shady spot to live out it's last moments. But only time will tell. In the meantime, I suppose I'd best make a start bunging up the rat holes...

Time for Justice!

One of the things God has been speaking to me about recently is his concept of Justice. Now, when we hear the word Justice, we think immediately of Police and jails and so on. Scripture on the other hand, paints a different take on this word. In fact, it has more to do with 'Putting Things Right' than it does crime and Punishment. God has been putting this idea in my brain for a while now, so I figured He must be doing so for a reason.. so this week I've been searching through old records and such to see if there was anything I needed to sort out. Lo, and behold I found something quite disturbing.. I hadn't sorted out my Council Tax in a while. Given that this had been brought to my attention, I thought I'd best sort it out, especially since I'd read a scripture in Romans about debts and how Christians should pay people they owe, especially the authorities who were put there for a good reason.

So, I've demonstrated some Justice by putting it right, and me and Bexs are now paying back everything we owe to the council. It's going to be a bit of a tough slog for a few months.. but it'll be worth it in the long run. I have to tell you, since I've sorted this out, I've felt as if a burden has been lifted off me, which was probably contributing to my 'bland' outlook on life. Ok, so doing this has made us technically worse off, but I'm positive about it because it was the right thing to do. Besides, clearing it up means I won't leave any mess behind in the future.. which is what I can think about now. If all goes well, we might have this all sorted by March 2008.

Geek-o-riffic

For the longest time, I've been a big fan of the music found in video games. Today I've spent the best part of two hours searching out original game music from fab games from my past such as Final Fantasy Tactics, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and but of course, FFXI and Mario. I've now crammed Winamp chock full of these tunes to listen to while I tidy up and so on. shame I can't port them onto a CD, oh well. Still, I'm happy that I did. My current Videogame collection needed a good re-vamp anyways.

Blandness

2007-08-27T18:09:00.001Z

Not much going on. Again.

Well, I'd like to tell you that life has been amazing, but it's still pretty dull right now. Life is continuing on it's 'Bland' theme. Yawn. However, all is not lost. I've *finally* got off my butt and got hold of a 'How to program in C++' book, which is nice, because I've always wanted to learn a fairly new computer language. Back in the day (Which is approximately 10 years ago now) me and my buddy Ceej used to program in BASIC on the C=64, and it's nice to see that a lot of themes within BASIC can be found cropping up in C++. I just hope I have the ability to get to the end of the book and start doing my own programs! Who knows, might lead to a new career one day.

The Cook's War on Annoyance

With this weeks paycheck I've declared WAR on the rat that's been having the gaul to try and live in our kitchen. I've shown it that we Cooks don't approve of vermin by laying down some innocent looking poison which will hopefully put a stop to all this nonsense.

My Virtual Life

The Way of the Blade

While not much has been going on in the real world, there's been a fair bit of activity in the virtual world of Vana'diel, in which Final Fantasy XI Online is set. My character has reached the lofty heights of a level 28 Samurai, not much of a jump since my last post, but I've been doing other things to offset the monotony that levelling up parties can bring. I've been trying out some of the various crafts in the game, such as Woodworking and Fishing in order to make a wee bit of cash. Also on the cards have been a spot of levelling some other jobs such as Warrior and Thief, two jobs which compliment Samurai. Warrior is now at level 19, so I'll be using it as my support job until Samurai hits level 38. Thief I can't really use as a good support job for Samurai until Samurai hits level 60, but it will certainly have it's uses when Samurai hits level 30. Then I can take advantage of Thief's Treasure Hunter ability to help me obtain items from monsters that I can use when I'm trying out new crafts- one of which is Leather Working.

In other games news... I've been having fun on Kingdom Hearts 2. So far I've met Captain Jack Sparrow, Mickey Mouse and even Tron. Next stop it seems I'm up for a bit of a battle.

Updating joy

I'm feeling satisfied with Astris: Bandit today. Managed to do some updating on the site, including updating the home page (at long last) and updating the archive. I appear to have lost page 13 though.. spooky. I think I know where it got to. Guess I'll have to fish it out next update.

As for JOTCG though.. that's still a work in progress at the mo, might spend some time on that this week too. I have at the very least begun the draft of the next post though.

Well, that's me for now. Peace!

10 Days on and all's Well

2007-08-14T21:26:00.000Z

Update!

Well, it's been 10 Days since my last blog update and well, not a lot has really changed. Work, sleep, repeat. However, the past couple of Sundays have been fab, what with a BBQ and a Picnic organised by housegroups. Our church takes August 'Off' because of holidays, but we still find time to hang out. First of all we held a 'communtity BBQ' for the residents of the area by our church, with games for the young 'uns. Very nice. This Sunday was a Treasure Hunt around Edgbaston Reservoir organised by our house group. Nice weather too, which complimented the picnic that followed.

Work still brings mixed feelings for me, although I seem to have drawn in some good sales which have bolstered my numbers and even helped me to meet some targets I'd been given. I've a bad feeling that these targets will just get worse rather swiftly. Hopefully God will help me to achieve these. The good sales were achieved with help, so I don't really feel that responsible for them. I spotted that I'd got no passion about the fact I'd done so well. That might be worth thinking about.

I've been feeling that life has become a little bland lately. Might be because I've been working lots and just 'going through the motions.' Work, games, sleep. Meh. I've decided to reduce the amount of gameage I've been doing in order to spend more time pursuing other things and getting on top of some others. I need some time to get out of this blandness I've been in.

Where'd July go?

2007-08-04T07:56:00.000Z

Life

I'm serious. What happened to July? Where did it go? I think maybe I missed it because of the constant downpour of rain that the UK has had. I really feel sorry for all those folks who have had their homes and stuff flooded. Thankfully in Brum everything was just greyer and wetter than normal.

Truth be told, I think the whole month vanished because I've basically been working, and when not doing that, doing something else like gaming or housegroups or something. Busy busy. Although for all my busyness, I've been getting in trouble at work for not performing as well as I could do. This made me reconsider whether or not I'd made the right choice being there. It came to a head when I'd got two of my bosses giving me a lengthy talk. Upsetting and annoying as it was I tried to carry on regardless and prayed for clarity over the situation. Stay, or go?

This week my numbers for certain targets have zoomed off the scale! This at least ensures I'm not in trouble this week. I'm not sure if this implies I should stay there, but I think it's a fairly good sign. If this continues I can take it that it's meant to be. However, even after 8 or so months I get mixed feelings about working there. I know I don't want to be there forever, but a job's a job. I'll still be updating my CV just in case, since I don't think an electricals salesmans fits me in the long run.

So, what else have I been up to? Well, I went to see Transformers on the day of it's UK release. As I predicted, big robots fighting was very cool. It wasn't the movie I was expecting, it was better! It does have its bad points too, but there are too many good ones to counteract them. Whoohoo!

In other news, me and Bexs are in our second month of trying out a new financial system. So far, it's working really well and I'm hoping I'll be able to start saving up for nice things soon and pay off some debts. Saving is good. It means nice things like PS3's. And holidays, and so on.

Videogames

I've been getting quite into a few games recently. The first is obvious- Final Fantasy XI Online. A few weeks back me and some linkshell (or guild) buddies went on a drive to unlock some of the trickier jobs, such as Ninja and Samurai. I've always had a soft spot for Samurai since trying it last time as my Tarutaru character, so I gave it a go once more. I'd forgotten how much fun it was! I think I'll be sticking this job out, unlike some of the others I've tried. I've currently got it to level 24, which is now my second highest job after Monk, which is 30. I have a feeling Samurai will overtake Monk to become my 'main' job. Which is fine with me. Katana are awesome!

The second game I've got quite into is Kingdom Hearts 2. It's very cool, mixing Disney visuals with Square- Enix twisty plot. I've not too far into the game but Methinks it's going to be a fun ride. ^^

Well, that's me for now. I'll try and update this again soon, for the benefit of all you lot. Byee!

Rumbling along as usual...

2007-07-14T10:32:00.000Z

I really should update more...

Yep, I really should. It sure has been a while. Well, there hasn't really been much to tell. Work has been plodding along and my hours seemed to have settled down and have almost become stable. I've even managed to get a few Sundays off. Whoohoo!

Me and Bexs have started a new financial system this month, and so far it seems to be working. ^_^ I've managed to sort out bills and even managed to get myself a new pair of specs, which is awesome. I'll have to change my piccie.

I've recently acquired a new racing bike thanks to some friends at Church. It needs a little work, such as some new tyres, some other little bits.. plus it needs a respray as it's a very pink colour. I'm hoping once it's all fixed up it'll be a nice little runner. Hopefully it'll make me a lot more mobile.

I've not really been too busy out of work hours, partly because I've been really tired. My month off from FFXI helped me to catch up on some other stuff like Phantasy Star Universe and even gave me time to do other bits and bobs, such as fix up my bike.

Not a lot on the horizon at the moment. Just work and stuff. Oh wait.. there's the Transformers movie this month. Man, as a kid of the 1980's I must admit that I'm a little exited. Nope, scratch that. Very Exited. Big Robots fighting? When is that NOT COOL?

See you all soon. ^_^

An Update

2007-06-28T09:18:00.000Z

Weekend Away

So, the weekend at the in laws went fantastic. Apart from a few train based dilemmas involving floods. Other than that it was a fantastic weekend and I came back very chilled. Wish I was still there!

Updating Stuff

Life seemed to have settled down a bit, and I'm looking to update everything as soon as I get some spare time. Astris: Bandit took a blow as after my card cloning, the account was deleted due to non payment. Out of sight out of mind I guess. Still, it's back up now, and I'm going to try and return it to it's former glory. I've also picked a topic for JOTCG and will update that too once I get the time, which seems to be the big issue in my life right now.

Ok, gotta go, will update soon. ^^

Where have I been?

2007-06-14T21:15:00.000Z

Life

Great biscuits, it's been a while since I updated this! Well, I'd best fill you all in. Basically I've been working a heck of a lot due to the loss of a few members of staff at work. It hasn't been too bad actually, but it has robbed me of valuable free time with which to live my crazy life in. However, there is light at the end of this heavy workload tunnel- me and Bexs are off to Lincoln this weekend to celebrate her dad's birthday, which will be cool. I anticipate drinking. And fun. Bexs is currently more hyper than a kid that's eaten 300 blue smarties.

Some things that have taken heavy blows thanks to my long hours are my Astris Bandit comic and my Journey of the Christian Gamer blog, both of which I've been meaning to update but have been too tired or busy to do. Now we have a new sales guy on our team at work I might be able to give them some much needed attention.

Love

My church has recently been painting our only building, a small office space. Me and Bexs helped out tonight, and it was cool to see everyone again. It kinda sucks that I can only get the occasional Sunday off nowadays, and it's usually for a wedding, christening or some other thing like it. One of the reasons I'm looking forward to going to Bex's parents for the weekend is that I'll actually get to go to a 'proper' church service.

Videogames

Cutbacks. Meh. I've knocked Final Fantasy XI Online on the head this month due to a lack of available funds. I've played a bit of Phantasy Star Universe though and made some good progress thanks to the event quest going on at the moment. Incidentally, did you know it was Sonic the Hedgehogs 16th birthday this year? Scary. Stuff likes that makes me feel old. O.o

Anywhoo, hopefully after this weekend I'll be aiming to update stuff a bit more, including my Journey of the Christian Gamer blog. I'm already working on updating my Astris: Bandit cartoon and trying to get ahead of myself. ^_^

Quick Update

2007-05-29T09:58:00.000Z

Stuff!

Well, Westies wedding went fab. Congrats to Westie and Lydia! Plus, the day went off with no fighting, which is nice. However, due to a free-wine-and-dancing incident, I lost my specs. So now I have to save up for new ones. ^_^ So Now I cant see too well. Although Ben, a friend from church heard about my plight and gave me some spare specs of his which work. :) Although they're kind of sunglasses.. so I can only use them at home practically, but hey, it means I can continue living normally. Well, normally for me.

Other than that, I've not really been doing much. Again, I've been trundling along going to work and stuff. Not much to tell, but when something happens, I'll pop it on here. been considering the next post for JOTCG, which I think I'll do next month, as well as going crazy mental on Astris: Bandit, my neglected comic child. I'm thinking I'll ditch the ink and do it in pencil, which will allow me to just go crazy!

Anywhoo, that's me for now. Peace.

2007-05-15T22:25:00.000Z

Tootling along

Crikey, 15th May already? Well, here's what's been going on.

First of all, I've been busy writing for JOTCG, the first post of which is now up. I've not been up to much, generally tootling along, going to work, looking after the wifey and doing the odd bit of housework. My Astris website has admittedly fallen by the wayside, but I'm planning on updating it as soon as I can.

Mitchell

Well, my lil' nephew Mitchell got Christened last Sunday. Bless him, he's fab. He behaved for the whole day too, which was nice of him. Maybe he had an idea that it was a special day for him or something. Or, it could be that he was shattered. ^^ The do afterwards was fun, a good chance to hang out with my family. It's not often I get to do that now. We kept ourselves amused watching the antics of my eldest Nephew Conal, who currently believes himself to be Spiderman. His interpretation of webslinging is pretty accurate for a 3 year old!
Going back home brought back a few memories. All good mind.

Westy-bazely-boo-woo

An age old friend is getting hitched this Saturday. Congratulations, Westy. It's about bloomin' time. Known him since, well, ages. Not seen him for a long time, so it'll be good to see him again. Hope it all goes well, I'll be seeing a lot of faces I've not seen in a long while.

My new Blog

2007-05-01T09:57:00.000Z

I've decided to make a new blog for my fellow gamers, entitled Journey of the Christian Gamer. It's a blog dedicated to something I've been trying to write about for a while, how to have a Faith in Christ and how to merge it with a passion such as Video games. I've plonked a link in the links section, check it out if you like. It's not intended to be updated as regularly as this blog, as it's more of a recource.

Productive

2007-04-28T08:57:00.000Z

Attack of the Clones

Odd title, real life event. I had my card cloned this week, and I'd just like to say my bank were fantastic about the whole thing. They've responded really quickly and sorted out the mess in just under a week, plus taken measures to ensure if it happens again I won't get beaten up by my bank manager. However, it has led to some money trouble, but nothing I can't handle. Besides, I never have any money to spend anyway. This should change as of this month as me and Bexs have juggled some money about. Starting in May I'll actually have money to spend... whoa, that's new.

Productive

Because of the stuff that's gone on this week, it's empowered me to sort out a few things that needed doing that I've been putting off. Unfortunately my cartooning got put aside in order to do so, but I still have a few days of April left to plonk another toon on the site.

Now I've decided to stick with my job, I've started to add structure and routine to my life. I like routine. The schedule isn't super-rigid, it's more of a guide, depending on the shifts I'm working are, but it's nice to know it's there. I've been feeling a bit lost in it all because of my job hunting, even to the point where I'm not sure what day it is. I'm hoping the new structure to my evenings will help me to get back on track and start to 'settle in'

Stupid Kids

There have been some teenagers hanging outside our door of late. I can see why, it's an out of the way place they can smoke or grab a beer away from prying eyes, but the problem is the graffiti and general mess that has started to appear in the area. I'm going to investigate getting a new padlock for our gate. I'm getting a little sick of finding junk on my doorstep. I mean, how would you feel if you found condoms on your doorstep? Exactly.

Sicky Poorly

Lots of illness going around at the mo. Not only are my friends Ceej and Neleh sick with flu, but my big sis has an infection in her leg. I've been praying for all of them this week, as illness sucks.

A Change of Heart

2007-04-18T16:43:00.000Z

So what is it then?

The change of heart I'm on about is my decision to give up looking for another job. Its been what, three months now? In all this time, I've had *no* luck whatsoever with either agencies, internet or actually going into places and asking for jobs. So, I reassessed my situation and came up with a few surprising realisations.

a) I don't actually hate this job. It's not THAT bad. Sure, there's pressure to perform but generally, it's OK. I walk around and help people to make a decision in a confusing field. So I am actually genuinely doing some good, even if I don't feel like I am. I realised that I have moved on in life, and that this place is merely the next step in a longer journey. I'm not there forever.

b) All the goals I wish to achieve in this lifetime involve money. Which Part Time work doesn't, sadly give. If me and Bexs are to plan a buying a house, getting hold of a car, doing qualifications or having kids, we'll need notes with HRH The Queen on them. Preferably the Red ones. ^^

c) I feel the need for stability in my life about now. I'm getting no younger and it's about time I learned to 'settle down' and all that stuff. I do crave a bit of stability which a constant jobhunt does not give. Heck, it's put both me and the guys I work with in a state of Limbo. Frankly I've had enough. It might not be the best job, but thinking about it, it's better than where I've been. At least in this job I don't have to clear up the vomit of folks whose birthday it was the night before. Woohoo.

FFAddiction

Well, my return to FFXI has been glorious it must be said. In a few short weeks I've chalked up Warrior to Level 15, Unlocked the Sub Job quest, Levelled Monk up to 20 and now I'm the proud owner of a Chocobo Licence. I'm thinking of raising Monk to Level 30 and then use it to unlock some of the stuff I'll need for later, such as the Kahzam Airship Pass, and some of the Advanced Jobs. I'm unsure of my final plan, but I'm considering taking up life as a Bard, a support character, which is something I really enjoyed my first time around as a Red Mage. Heck, I might even stay a Monk, as they are simple enough to play as. Basically, when you're in a party, you stand there and punch the monster. A lot. That's about it, actually. Bard I'm well aware will take me a bit of getting used to, and I'll need to prepare a lot more for it. After all, I'm supposed to be playing the long game this time around... lol

Astris Bandit

Easter has been a hectic time, and I've kinda lost track of a lot of stuff over the past few weeks, including Bandit which I intend to have begun again by the end of the month, which should appear on the ol' website after I post this. To all three of my fans out there, I'm sorry I've let you down, but I'm hoping to rectify this in the near future.

2007-03-27T19:00:00.000Z

Decisions, Decisions

It's been an interesting week so far, and it's brought with it some decisions that will affect me a lot in the coming new month. The first is that I need to get out of my job ASAP. I've got an idea of the sort of thing I'd like to try next, and that's something in an office, even if it's a bit of data entry. If anything it will help me to decide if that's for me or not. Besides, if an office job suits me, then I have an idea of where to go with it. In any case, i'm thinking of doing some more learning, perhaps some sort of computer qualification. After all, if I can sit in front of a PS2 or my PC all day, something like that should be a doddle, right? I really have to sort this out, since I made my decision to leave in January! I've totally re-jigged my To Do list in order to fix a lot of things this year. I'm stuck in a sort of limbo job wise and it's making me restless.

Bex's parents visited yesterday. It's always good to see them, and they brought some Christmas gifts that we had'nt had chance to go and fetch. Nice. This sort of thing really slams home the need for a car in my life. Well, maybe sometime soon. Cars=money and I'd rather keep the cash we have coming in right now. Especially since it's all part of my Evil Plan to Save the World.

Goodbye Ivalice, Hello again Vana'diel

It's odd, but I'm getting quite exited about my return to Final Fantasy 11. I guess every gamer needs his hobby. I guess the fact that Final Fantasy 12 was very similar to FF11 didn't help. I have now finished FF12, which made me happy, and made Bexs happy because she got her husband back. I've decided that I'll be playing the Long game on FF11- that is to say, not to do what I did last time around and try to do everything all at once. I'll set certain goals and then set about achieving them.
For instance, my first goal as a Warrior will be to get to level 10 and to obtain level 10 armour, and an Axe. A Warriors skills lie mainly in Axes and Great Axes apparently, so that'll set me up nicely for when I have to join parties and hit things.

Stupid Kids and Spring Blues

2007-03-23T12:54:00.000Z

Stupid Kids

Oh! I forgot to tell you what happened whilst I was stuck without an internet: I no longer have a car. It turns out that some kids had noticed our secure little corner of the world wasn't THAT secure, and they've been sneaking around. I returned from work a few weeks back to an agitated neighbour who informed me that a group of kids had been smoking an non- legal looking set of ciggies in my little hunk of junk. I locked the car but later that night, I heard some noise and when I went to look, my car had gone AWOL. Which was odd considering it hadn't worked in three months and there was no battery.
As I went to investigate, a few teenage shapes legged it past me into the streets. They'd moved my car from it's dingy spot and rolled it further along into the garages. A closer inspection revealed the back window had been smashed in so they could continue to use it as a drug den. A short while later there were a lot of rowdy teens outside, and given by the racket they made when they saw me looking at them, it was probably the same kids that had trashed my car. Of course, I can't say it was those paticular kids with any degree of accuracy- it was dark y'know.
Still, I rang the police at work and got a crime number, so at least they know what's going down in my corner of town. Bexs has since found some teens on our doorstep doing graffiti and smoking summat or other, but after politely asking, they vanished and I haven't seen any of them since.
I'm just glad the car was mouldy and not working. I was meaning to scrap the thing anyway, but those youngsters merely sped up the process. My car is gone, but at least it's not being used as something it shouldn't be. Heck, why anyone would sit in a mouldy tin box with a puddle in it and a leaky roof is beyond me.

Jobs

I hate job hunting. I've mentioned this before, but I really do. I've handed out a fair few CV's and not one reply yet. Looks like I might have to bite the bullet and do some agency work. A spot of Data Entry, anyone..? I'm off to my pal Ceejay's tonight, via Brum centre. Gonna scope out some agencies while I'm at it.

Videogames

I've found myself at a sticky point on FFXII at the moment, and with the return of my internet connection I've managed to cut down on my FFXII fixation and play some other stuff, like Phantasy Star Universe. In April I'm intending to return to the world of Vana'diel, or Final Fantasy 11 Online to give it it's full title, after a three month period of rest. It's a little treat for myself that comes out of my pocket money each month. The good thing is, if I'm strapped for cash, I can choose not to play for a month or so. I'm having a little debate as to whether or not I should cancel my PSU subscription for a little while... but that's a decision for another day.

Writing is Tough ( This is the Spring Blues bit)

As some of you may know, when I'm not playing games, working, drawing a web comic or doing my husbandly duties (ie the washing up) I'm an aspiring writer who has been trying to write a book about how a Christian might go about playing video games in a Christian manner. It's been tough, and it still is, but I think I may have finally nailed (no pun intended) how to do so. All I have to do is get it out of my head and onto the paper....

The Return

2007-03-17T11:43:00.000Z

I'm back

Well, you may have noticed that I've not posted for a little while. This is because my phone, internet and TV suddenly died. The cause? Well, at first we thought it might be the builders who had come to fix our ceiling in the spare room. However, it turned out to be a bit stranger than that. An engineer from from our service provider was supplying our neighbours with net, cable and TV, spotted our cable and thought it would be good to save time and use it, not realising that that it was being used. The result: we lose, our neighbours win. However, the mess has been fixed now and I've got me internet, and Bexs has her TV back. Looks like I've got some catching up to do with Astris: Bandit.

Jobhuntin'

Basically, no luck. I've applied for a few places but no joy as yet. Gotta keep on keeping on!

Final Fantasy

Well, because there was not else to do at home after job hunting, I've spent a LOT of time on FF XII, and I've nearly finished it by the look of things. The week I had four days off in succession didn't help.

2007-02-24T10:32:00.000Z

The week that was..er..is..err...yeah.

So, what's hip and happening this week? Well, not an awful lot. Monday I was back at work and then had two lovely days off in which I applied for some jobs. Yay! Thursday yielded an unscheduled day off in the form of feeling very ill. Bleugh. I'm all for extra days off, but only if they're on my terms. Still, there's been some shift switcheroo going on so my pay remains the same. ^_^
Hunting for jobs sucks by the way. But then, anyone who's ever looked for a job knows this fact. One of these days I'm going to head to the nearest Job Centre and look for stuff. that is, once I've given all the likely pub candidates a ring... ;)

Playstation Widow

..a term for those women whose partner vanishes to play PS2 a lot. I can't really say that this applies to me and Bexs all that much, cos we try our best to make time for each other, but the next few weeks may be tough on Bexs. You see, Final fantasy 12 has finally come out in the UK. So it looks like Bexs won't be seeing me until August. LoL! I'm not THAT bad.

Astris: Bandit

Whilst chilling, I've taken the time to plonk Bandit on a webcomic list site, so that it will encourage folks to come visit more often. I doubt it'll be an amazing influx, since Bandit is only 10 pages long, but I live in hope. I also found a freakin' awesome new webcomic to read too. There should be a link to it somewhere.
I've done a lot of 'background' stuff for Bandit recently. Once this episode is done, I'll be experimenting more and taking more time over the strips general appearance. I've been reading over some of my earlier work, namely the stuff I did when I was 15-18. I'll be skimming through some more stuff later this week I imagine. It's always good to revisit stuff, as I see what I can keep and what should stay buried.

Anywhoo, I'd better go- work callls me to go and sell stuff to people. Dang, I need a new job.

Musings on 1979 - 2007

2007-02-17T10:52:00.000Z

1979

1979 was a legendary year. It was the year of the Sony Walkman. The year that the Sahara desert saw 30 minutes of snow. The year Pluto baffled science by travelling inside Neptune's orbit. It was the year that China implemented it's One kid per Family thing. And on the 18th, I was born. Whoo-hoo. 28 long years Have I walked this little ball of rock this Sunday. And I'm actually quite looking forward to it. Not like stupid 2006.

2006 was in comparison to many years I've had, naff. Most of it was spent worrying and being more emotional than a Goth kid on Emo pills. But me and Bexs pulled through at the end and it seemed like the world was OK again. 2007 threatens to be a bit more of the same.. but not quite. 2006 had very little hope in it. 2007 is ripe with it.

Yeah, so I'm not too happy about the job I'm in. But that will soon change when I find something again, even if it's a job behind a bar. I'm slowly starting to realise that there is no 'rush' any more. Last year I was desperate to change things to make it better, which I did. But this year, and if I'm honest, the years to come do not have this attached to it. I guess it's a leftover from the rush-around life that was my degree years. I guess I just have to learn to slow it all down. I'm only 28 for goodness sake.

I've allowed myself to dream a bit more, because dreams are important. And I've decided that life is actually OK. After all, I follow a God of Love, I have a wife that loves me, awesome friends, and that's before I get to some of the cool stuff I've collected. Life is Good. 2007 will be the year I decided to chill out a lot, the year I played Final Fantasy XII, the year I saved up for a new car, the year I got a job I enjoy, the year when I learned to live life rather than trundle through it. At least, that's the plan. Hope it works... my plans don't always work out as I want them. But heck, at least I'll give it a damn good go.

Stuff sucks

2007-02-12T10:40:00.000Z

Suckyness

Today I'm feeling a bit sucky, because I seem to have gained a load more hours this week, and I was really enjoying being part-time again. I'm a bit put out because I can't look for jobs or anything. Still, I guess it won't be forever. But it still sucks.

Feeling Like Tom Cruise

..or to be more precise, like Tom's character in the film Cocktail. In an odd way, I had an epiphany while me and Bexs watched it yesterday. Recently I've been dreaming a lot about how 'things will be better when X Y or Z happens' and generally living without any real goals to achieve other than my odd ideas of becoming a billionaire and saving the world and so on.
It occurred to me that I was forgetting something- there's no rush to get anywhere! Patience is the lesson I must learn. I guess I've achieved some of the big goals in life I had, and now I'm wondering what's next. I've figured it out- what's next is learning to 'settle down' and NOT plan or do anything, since the plans I had in the first place were fine! I just need to chill out.

The Sims: Busting Out

Having reached the lofty level 50 in Phantasy Star Universe, I've decided to chill out on it a bit. I've been playing The Sims and forgot how much fun it is. Whoever invented this game rocks.

The Attack of Organisation

2007-01-31T10:41:00.000Z

Huh?

Yeah, I understand your confusion about the title. Anyway, to explain. This week has been very different for me. I talks with my bosses, I've reduced my working hours to an amount that will cover the bills but not much else after that. This might seem an odd move, but it's not. For one, it means that I get a shedload more of free time to spend with the wife, chill out but most importantly, look for a new job. My new shifts are short and sweet and allow me ample time to go about sorting out my next step in my employment history.
So this week I've started to really organise myself. I've been writing lists of things that I need to achieve in a day and then actually doing them. So far I've done really well. I've written a new CV, and tomorrow I'm meeting with a friend who can give me some careers advice. Because of the reduction in work hours I'm actually doing quite well at work, which is also cheering me up. Life is good. I've always enjoyed working part time. And I'm going to use all this time to actually do something, not just sit around playing games all day. Well, I might schedule in a day of gaming to relax from all that stuff I've been doing. ^.^

Bandit Stuff

My lovely little Webcomic is now fully updated, thanks to all this new time I have. I'm even getting ahead of myself at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to get ahead by a few pages so the updates will be on time for a change. I have an idea where this little introductory story is going to go, so I'm going to finish it off as soon as I can so we can hit Episode Two. There's lot's of stuff to do for Bandit and well, I want to show the world a much larger universe than the one I've presented. It will all arrive in time.
On a side note, Astris Bandit is now 9 pages long, which is a bit of a record for me. Normally I get to about page 3 and decide to scrap the whole thing. Hopefully this time around, Bandit will have a long and fun future.

The New Beginning Kicks Off

2007-01-22T11:08:00.000Z

Going for it

I awoke yesterday with a feeling I've not had for a little while- the feeling that I'd like to go forth and kick some ass. Unfortunately, me and the wife had slept in over church (whoops!) but to make up for it I went for a prayer walk in the park. Over this weekend, a lot has become clear to me.

On Saturday my excellent friends Bob, Chris and Helen popped over to Bexs and to watch a film at our local cinema, and it was a fun day. (marred by one incident which I won't mention here) Bob is currently undergoing a very cheerful stage it would seem, and his cheerfulness has become very infectious. He was up for anything. This made me realise that I'd put my dreams and aspirations to one side, and that I'd been running on automatic for a while. When I returned from my prayer walk this became clear, and now I'm starting to dream again. There's so much I can offer this little planet, and gosh darnit that's what I plan to do.

So basically.. I tidied my Dining Room. Ooh, big wow. But there's more. It's now the room I'll be writing and drawing in. I'm going to use the room as a place away from all my entertainments and the internet, and do some drawing and writing, and let my natural talents flourish as they should do. I've drawn up a new list of things I need to do and I've let myself dream about what I'd like to do. Like live in the country. Go to Japan. Buy a shiny car. There's been a lot of people around me following their dreams, and it's about time I went and did it myself. And my first goal: get a new shiny Job. Financial stability is what will help me and Bexs live the dream.

Work, work

As for work, there's been a lot of changes. There's a new manager and a more chilled out vibe while I'm there. (after all, I'm not gonna be there long) My new manager has been very supportive of my decision.. but has requested I take a cut in hours. I've worked out that it is possible for me and Bexs to do so, and the benefit of less hours will be more time to do all the aforementioned stuff I wish to do, as well as look for my new employment. God will see us OK.

A Final Farewell..?

Yesterday was quite a momentous day for me. Yesterday I typed /shutdown for the last time on Final Fantasy XI. I'd not been playing it for a while because of my new found love of Phantasy Star Universe, so I figured there was not point paying for something I'm not going to play, especially since money will be tight over the coming months. So, I returned little Redlac the Tarutaru to his hometown to live a quiet life of fishing and painting. I felt a twang of emotion knowing that this would be the last time I'd see him. But it was a good send off.

However... this is not the last I've seen of FFXI. You see, although I play PSU an awful lot, and there's not enough cash to spare for FFXI, I'm still intending on playing it again someday. When all my finances are in order, and when my interest in PSU wanes (which is happening slowly- I've kind of played it non-stop since it came out!) then one day when the sun is shining I shall return to the world of Vana'diel. Not as Redlac the Tarutaru, but as a new character with a fresh start in this ever-expanding world. One of my dreams has always been to get to level 75 in that game. So maybe some time toward the middle or end of the year, I'll boot up my PC and go kill some monsters, Final Fantasy style.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

2007-01-16T11:03:00.000Z

Work

After some discussion with my managers, my wife and a few others, I've come to realise that my sales job is not exactly the job for me. This weekend me and Bexs have talked it over a heck of a lot, and after some prayer I've decided to move on now and admit it's not my thing rather than struggle on in the next few months and make things worse for myself and the folks I work with.
So as of erm.. today I guess, I'm going to be looking for something new. Tonight I'm going to be digging out my CV, and giving it a tweak. I'm also going to meet up with my friend from church Jenny, who is a careers advisor and might be able to help me figure out what I'd like to do. My own feelings are that I should try to get back into the Hospitality Industry, possibly Bar Work (for a short period of time) or maybe something like a hotel. After all, it would be a shame to waste my skills I've acquired over the years.
My managers at work know of my intentions, and support my decision, since they had noticed I'd been struggling to settle into this new trade. Which is fair enough.

Bandit

Because this weekend has been a bit crazy, with my friend Mim stopping over for a few nights and the serious consideration of my future, I've not got around to posting Bandit up yet. I'm aiming to rectify that as soon as possible, probably tonight as I've got a load of stuff to do computer wise anywhoo.

Brief Update

2007-01-06T14:17:00.000Z

Days off

Not a lot has being going on really if I'm honest. The new year is all settled in now, and work has settled down to what is 'normalish'. Now all the holiday dust has gone, I'm on a mission to sort out all the stuff that got put on hold over the last month. Today I'm planning on doing some cartoons for my site, as well as a few housey things.

A few days off

2006-12-28T07:43:00.000Z

Christmas Cheer

Well, I'll be honest- I wasn't feeling very Christmassy at all until Christmas eve when we finally got the train to my dad's house. We were a bit worried about the train strike that threatened to stuff it all up, but in the end it turned out to be only local trains, not international ones. Huzzah!
We both recieved some good stuff, not going to go into detail but it was all good. For me Christmas has been more about getting the presents to their recipients, not getting them. In fact, I usually end up forgetting that it works both ways. I had a great time hanging out with my big sis and her hubby, as well as me dear old Dad. I also got to see my little sis and her two fellas, one of which is the latest addition to our fold, who is growing up fast and is a cheeky little fellow. Boxing day we spent with my mum and her husband, a nice relaxed day with no worries. They even gave us a lift home, which was much appreciated since Bexs had to work the next day.

..And the New Year...

Next up is new year, which If I'm honest about, I'm not too bothered with. I'm back at work today after a day of slobbing around . I'm not really looking forward to it, but who does look forward to work, really? In my devotional time I've been going through Ecclesiastes, one of the more philosophical books of the Bible, and is actually a mine of wisdom. It's certainly helping me think about my life and where I'd want it to go. But I digress.
Hopefully this next year will bring new things for both me and Bexs. Who knows what they might be? A new job? New car? New shirt? I believe me and Bexs have finally come through the murky waters of our first married year, and the next year should be a lot more fun. Heck, we might even get some cash to spend on DVDs or something. Well, time will tell.

That time of year again...

2006-12-20T08:01:00.000Z

Work, work
Well, work hasn't been nearly as bad this week, partially because I came to an interesting conclusion. It's only a job. Get over it. So I did. The next day I took more than ever because I was relaxed and in control of things. I'm interested to see how retail deals with Christmas... I've been doing a few shifts and I'm still not sure about my Christmas week hours.. they seem to good to be true in my opinion. Bleugh, got work at 9 today. It's only just getting light as I prepare to leave..

Astris Bandit
Thanks to my life being busy with work, games and the whole 'it's Christmas so see everyone' thing you may have noticed that the scheduled bandit ep did not appear. This is partially because I didn't get the time to do it!! Also, the next update I wanted to do was a biggie, with a new section on the locations Bandit visits. The latest episode should appear by the end of the week since I nabbed some time to do it.

Addiction
I've had a bit of a blowout when it's come to Phantasy Star universe too. As of after Christmas I'll be cutting down my playtime, because it was starting to affect things like Bandit, and other important things like Christmas shopping and spending time with the wife. But then, all RPG's grip me for a while before I realise I've played over 70 hours already... so time for a bit of restraint methinks.

Happy Chrimble
Anywhoo, I might not post for a little while now, so have a fab Christmas and I'll see you all soon. ^_^

Musings

2006-12-15T08:15:00.000Z

More stuff about work

As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm having mixed feelings about my job. The past few days I've been thinking about why this is the case, and in conversations with my best buddy Ceejay I think I've come to realise one or two things.

First off, I've come from a job that I'd been doing since I started work all those years ago. The trade got into my veins and I knew pretty much everything there was to know. I was the guy who could sort out the problems, handle disputes and work alongside the manager, doing admin and all that. I've come from this elevated position that I'd worked many years on getting to to a place where I know nothing and I'm at the bottom of the pile. Instead of being the Helper I'm now the one in need of Help. How the tables have turned! So I guess it's only natural for me to get frustrated.
Second, because I'm not sure what I'm doing, and I make the odd mistake, and inevitably get told off, I'm quite concerned that I'll get the sack, and have to find a new job in the new year or else. This also adds to my frustrations at work, which are amplified by the fact that I'm not entirely sure who I actually answer to. Three Managers is a bit too much for me. I'm used to the hierarchy of Manager>Assistant Manager>Me. All three expect different things and sometimes they tend to contradict each others commands. Would someone please tell me what I'm meant to be doing!!?? Hahahaa.
Third- I've realised that as things such as targets go, I don't really care. If I actually cared about the place, I'd do my absolute best. As it is, work is 'that place where I get told off a lot' so I really couldn't care less about the place. in my old job I strove to make it succeed because I knew the people I worked with and what was needed and how do do it. This new job is a bit of a swirling vortex to me at the moment- I've been there two months and I'm not entirely sure what I'm meant to be doing.

So this morning I've awoken with a different mindset. (And also a slightly dodgy gut from that Homebrew I had at my Housegroup social meeting) In talking with my friends and my brothers and sisters in Christ I've realised something: I rock. With God's help I've survived the Pub Trade, and with his help I'll survive this retail job. I'm not stupid, I have a degree. Those guys are darn lucky to have me on their team! Yeah, so I don't know much about stuff- but I will do. Yeah so I make mistakes. But I'll get there. And if I'm still not happy with this job, I can just go get another one. 'Cos I'm ace. So with that in mind, I'm gonna go prayerfully into work knowing that it can't hurt me. Bring it on.

Meh, glad that's over

2006-12-11T08:33:00.000Z

A sucky week

There's nothing worse than waking up, motivating yourself to do really well today, to get out there and stick it to the man, only to have it all demolished within 20 minutes of you getting to work. Which is what happened last week. Last week was really tough for me work wise. Nothing seemed to go right, I got told off a coupla times, gah, it sucked. My reason for not flagging this up on here was because I'd go straight onto Phantasy Star Universe with the direct intention of killing anything that moved. Heh, who says I don't deal with my anger? Hopefully this week will go well and nothing will go majorly wrong. I've got real mixed feelings about this new job of mine at the moment. But I'm going to give it at least 6 months before I decide what I want to do. Heck, I might even get promoted to MD.

Christmas and the cycle of Skintness

I often wonder why Christmas always seems to fall at the one point in my financial dealings where my cash flow is zilch, and that I owe out lots of money anyway. It was the same last year.. although last year me and Bexs were in a much direr situation than today. With my new job comes a new concept, monthly pay, which has caused all my financial planning to go all over the place. I'm not entirely sure of what day I get paid on, so I can't really plan anything. And it would seem I'm on Basic rate tax so I'm not entirely sure what my pay packet will look like. Still, I can't complain I guess, at least God is providing something, even if I'm not sure of it.

No car- No fun

Now then, to save some cash I've decided to declare my car off road for a few months until I can afford to get it MOT'ed and Taxed again. This does however have a knock on effect- public transport. I can't say I enjoy being packed into a bus like a battery hen. The trains are OK though. The only problem that comes with no car is not being able to do a lot of things I took for granted, like whizzing over to Coventry to see friends or even whizzing round Brum to visit friends or house groups. I think I'll make it one of my priorities in the new year to at least get it an MOT to see how bad things are. It sorta sucks not having a car, because journeys take forever!

Books and Bandit

I'm determined this week to do two things not related to my PS2: Do the next Astris Bandit page and make a start on a book I've been brooding over for a while. After all, the reason I went to college was so I could write books. Time to get down to it me thinks. I've made a few failed attempts, but this time around I've been setting it out like one of my old college essays, doing spider diagrams and all that crazy stuff. Might even set myself a word limit. It's been something that's been on my mind recently, and it's about time I got around to doing it justice.

2006-12-04T09:19:00.000Z

Astris Bandit.. missing..?

As some of you may have wisely noted, Saturdays toon did not appear. This is for a few crucial reasons. First, It was Bexs birthday on Friday, Second, I had my Christmas do to attend on Saturday and Third, I was working on Sunday. Which didn't suck as much as I thought it would. Needless to say, I'll be popping the next page of Bandit on the site as soon as I can, probably tonight if I get the chance.

Ug

I think my body clock is *finally* getting used to all these early morning things I have to do. Which is good. The evenings off are certainly welcome though- they add a whole new dimension to my week. My 'To Do' list has suddenly got very large all of a sudden though. Not sure I like that. Especially since a lot of it means leaving the house. I don't like leaving the house in December. It means crowds. And I hate crowds with a passion.

Well, I suppose I'd best get ready for work again. It takes me an hour or so to truly prepare if I've not already done so the night before which is not the case today. *sigh*

2006-11-29T22:58:00.000Z

No Pressure, just crazy people.

Well, my trial month at work is over now, so now I have to meet targets and things. It's certainly going to get interesting from now on. Apparently my targets are easy for me to manage but I'm not quite convinced myself. I guess I still need to believe I can do it in myself... I'm still a bit unsure on my feet. After all, it's only my second ever job type. :)

An interesting story for you. Sometimes we get disgruntled customers in. it's natural in any job. This one lass came in with a sour mush, and when I asked if I could help she muttered something at me. I asked her to repeat again, and she muttered again, this time, something about a battery. I asked her to repeat it one more time, and this time, in clear English she snapped at me to get someone who could help her with the contents of the plastic bag she was holding. So I directed her to the Customer Help desk, and went about my daily routine of trying to help people choose between products.
I was helping a chap with a laptop (I think I was.. it was in that section.. lol) and we were heading back to the sales desk, when I noticed we'd got interesting visitors- the police, who had come to escort the lady I'd greeted earlier from the premises. My colleagues informed me that she'd come in, started off with talking angry and then exploded into a stream of abuse. It had got so bad that the manager had called in some back up. She'd given the usual threats that she'd be back, and had been escorted away.
Next day, I turned up to work, thinking I may be a teeny bit off schedule. However, I was greeted with an interesting scene- all the staff outside the building, including the manager. During the night, someone had super glued the doors and locks shut, and covered the doors in shaving foam too. The chaps from Homebase, our neighbours in the retail park tried to help, but to no avail. Eventually a locksmith turned up and got us in.

Fun. ^^

Me and Bexs have been playing Phantasy Star Universe a lot this week. It's a lot of fun. Personally I've gone for a big blow-out this week to get it out of my system, and to purge my initial MMO addiction, to which I'm prone. It looks like it's going to be just as good as I was hoping it would be. Next week I'm going to set aside a day to get back on FFXI though- heck, I'm still paying for it, and I'm still enjoying it. It's my 'thinky' MMO as opposed to PSU's lighter 'Kill anything that isn't human' vibe. Either way I doubt I'll buying any new games for a while... ;)

Bexs @23

It's Becky's birthday on Friday. Just thought that was worth a mention.

2006-11-27T08:56:00.000Z

Bob

Well, the Bobster has gone and I'm missing him already. It was really fab to hang out with him for a weekend and to catch up with him. I'll be praying for him lots because of various things going on in his life at the moment. And I'm glad he got the chance to worship his lungs out at our church. ^_^ I think this weekend has done him some good, by the sounds of things he needed a break from it all. heck, who doesn't nowadays?

Work

Work is going OK. As time goes by I'm feeling more and more confident about how to do my job and in return that makes me kick more butt. Heck, I took the second largest amount of cash on Saturday. Go me! I think my body clock may be realising it needs to adjust to a new time-scale too, so that's fab as well.

Phantasy Star Universe

Well, me and Bexs had a good bash on this yesterday. And lucky me, she enjoys it. Yay! I met all my Dawntreader buddies on there last night, and visited their online houses. Nice. I think I'm gonna enjoy this a fair bit myself- it's a refreshing change from FFXI. But that's not to say that I'll be abandoning FFXI in any way. Oh no, I'll be popping back onto that every now and then. I might take my Beastmaster job higher- but in order to do that, I have to level up my White Mage job.. sigh. Sometimes, FF can get so complicated. PSU is a good remedy, as it involves lots of mindless destruction of hostile aliens. Anywhoo, me and Bexs will be playing it tonight when I get in... ;)

Looks like it's gonna be a good Weekend.

2006-11-23T09:48:00.000Z

Hardware and the Languages of Gaming

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. but in fact, it's actually one of the first of the PS2's online games. it's a fully online explosion-a-thon, where you pick either a Tank or a Jeep and drive around one of about six arenas trying to blow the living snot out of each other with various weapons. It's fab. I haven't played it in ages, but last night I was on there with my clan buddy Urshulgi, and we had a blast. (No pun intended) Shame the turn out to last nights Clan Match was poor, but it was fun nonetheless. We had a load of Dutch guys join our room. They had superior skills to us, but we were in it for the fun factor.

And it actually got me thinking too. I started to compare the different sorts of people I've met online from around the globe. hmm, lemme see...

Americans- Fall into four categories.
1. Annoying 12 year old who won't shut up.
2. Annoying adult who swears a lot and won't shut up.
3. Adult gamer who talks a lot, but is actually cool.
4. As with all gamers, the quiet ones who just get on with it.
Of course, I generalise here. UK gamers could also be bunched into the above four two. Except No. #1. there's something about a high pitched 12 year old American voice that makes me insane. In fact, many is the time me and my clan buds have booted such a player.

Then there's the European players. For the most part, they can speak a little English and hang around in English speaking servers, possibly for a sense of community. Hardware is a good example here. Although there are several servers for English, Dutch, German and French speakers, they always gravitate to the English speaking server. Rightly so, they tend to hang out with those that can speak their own language so they can make themselves heard, but are not so language snobby that they won't play with an English chap. Some of my best Monster Hunter sessions have been with Spaniards, Germans and Frenchmen. Generally if I know there'll be European players on an online game my name will have the suffix _UK on it, so they instantly know where we stand. What does make me laugh is that when a European player feels the urge to swear, they always do it in English. I can't for the life of me see why, I'm sure their language has much better swearwords than ours. Ours are rubbish if you really think about them. But I digress a little.

Finally there's the Japanese players, who I've only really met on FFXI. They don't tend to associate with anyone else except other Japanese folk, which is fair enough, but this makes the American and European players consider them snobby. However, this is similar to the European play style- they stick to those who can speak their language. Time zones also make the difference too, which is why you don't see them with Europeans and Americans so much, but I have had the odd crazy Japanese chap who had stayed up til silly O Clock playing and had got a spot in my party. He had to speak to us using the Auto Translate feature so his conversation wasn't compelling, but he got on with his job like the rest of us and is therefore cool by me. Plus, extra points for being Hardcore and playing when everyone else in his time zone was in bed five hours ago.

Good grief, that was a bit of a digression wasn't it..? Hahaa!!

There's a Hairy Man in my house

This weekend me and Bexs are having one of my long standing friends Bob over for the weekend. He needs to 'get away from it all', so what better way to do that than to travel 40 miles away from where you live. He arrives tomorrow, so much fun and blokeyness to be had! man, it'll be just like when we lived together. Awesome!!! He's even staying until Sunday so he can see how our church gets on. Magic. ^^

Phantasy Star Universe

Oh yeah, I mentioned this one didn't I? hopefully Bexs will be able to nab our copies of it. Yeah, that's right. OUR copies. Bexs is also gonna join me on PSU. We plan to play it as a couple, so we can spend time together. Sweet, huh? Of course, with Bob being around we may not get a chance to play it, so I'm gonna need to have a lot of resistance.. nah, it'll be fine. I've waited this long and besides, it's not like it's going anywhere. But still, it's *very* exiting to get a new game. What with all my financial troubles this past year, new games are always welcome. ^^

One Year, lots of love.

2006-11-22T10:55:00.000Z

One Year Anniversary

Last Sunday was the 1st Anniversary of me and Bexs' exiting jump into this thing we call 'marriage'. We decided to have a nice chilled day together, and we did. I had a stupid meeting at work, while Bexs had to pop to church and do kids work. Afterwards we met up at home and decided to go for a meal and then a movie. It was a fair old trek to our chosen eatery now I'm car less, but it was worth it because the food was fab, as was the company. ;) We than managed to catch a bus into town to watch The Prestige, which was a fab film that both me and Bexs enjoyed. It was a fab day, commemorating a year that's had a lot of ups and downs, but as a couple we've come through for each other, and I now know that whatever life throws at us we should be able to weather it. Here's to the next however many years!

Work Based Training

The chaps at work have sent me on a couple of course this past week or so. They've been OK. I think the most difficult part was actually getting there. My car has now given up the ghost- well, the battery has at least. This means I've been using public transport for getting to and from places. My verdict: Going by Bus sucks. Going by Train is OK. Still, its all over now and I'm richer (??!!) in knowledge about things that I need to know in order to do my job. Plus, I won some Monster Scart cables worth about £40. They're very whizzy.. but I don't have anything to use them with. Heh, typical.

Phantasy Star Universe

The much anticipated PSU comes out in the UK on Friday. Well, much anticipated by me and my clan at least. Since we've heard about it we've been intrigued by it's premise- a magic and sci-fi online role playing game. This of course means that FFXI will be put on the back shelf a little. but probably not a lot. I like that game too much to just ditch it, and besides, there's still stuff I need to do on there. Anywhoo, PSU will probably affect a big part of my life, so expect to hear about it on this little blog. :)

Ah yes,

2006-11-17T22:05:00.000Z

Astris Bandit Updates

Those of you who frantically pop onto Astris may have noticed that I've been updating a little early, sometimes plonking a page of Bandit on a Friday instead of the advertised Saturday. This is because sometimes I need to get the update out of the way because I start early on a Saturday morning. Anywhoo, the new page is up and ready for viewing. One of these days I shall actually get my act together and do a few pages in a day, so I don't have to rush.

Training Day

Tomorrow I have to get up *ridiculously* early in order to attend a day of training. Urk! But at least once I'm done I get to head over to Coventry and wish my friend Helen a very happy birthday. Whoohoo!!

Gaming Philosophical

2006-11-14T09:35:00.000Z

Brain Meltage

For a long time, my buddies Ceejay and Bob have told me of a webcomic that was fun called CTRL-ALT-DELETE. So last night I decided to look it up. I then spent the rest of the night reading the entire archive, which went back to about 2002 or something. I haven't done that in ages, not since I discovered Little Gamers and Kevin and Kell a few years back. No wonder I need to wear glasses.

Gettin' Philosophical about gaming

I've woken up today feeling in quite a philosophical mood. I often refer to myself as a 'Christian Gamer', and most of the time, rightly so. I love God and I play a lot of games. But I've come to realise recently that since getting my new job I've played less and less games. There's a few good reasons for this.

Firstly FFXI. More often than not I play a big chuck of it on the night before my day off so that it doesn't mes me up for work. So tonight, I'm planning some FFXI. :) But my hours dictate that I only get two days off- one of which is Sunday, which is *almost* like a workday now I don't have a car. (I mean, I need to get up early and go somewhere so playing til 1am- not an option.)

Then there's my days off. Because I only get one mid week day.. everything that needs to be done for the week gets done on that day. So I'm running around doing housework and shopping and a squillion other things. There's no time.

Also to consider is the Bexs factor. I've realised that I'm not not playing games in order not to disturb Bexs. All our entertainment is in the one room. The PC, the PS2's, the TV's. We did this so that we could be toghether when I was gaming or surfing the net and she was watching TV or planning her kids things. Recently I've not played because I didn't want to disturb Bexs watching TV. And she watches an insane amount of TV. So instead of playing games, I end up surfing the net or just slobbing in front of the TV, so as not to disturb her, all the time adding a little bit of resentment that I can't do what I want. Which is stupid. And it's all in my head for the most part. This one is the biggie. I think I've been a bit over-zealous with this one. I know for a fact that she wouldn't care if I went online and blew some stuff up- just as long as I have the sound at a level that won't disturb the TV. We've been here before and talked about it before and she's told me that I was being dumb.

Conclusion

Actually.. just putting my thoughts down has really helped me to understand that once again I'm being daft. There's other reasons that I've not been gaming. They include stuff like having a game library that I've played to death and so don't grip me as much. And besides, at the end of the month I'll be getting Phantasy Star Universe, which is an Online RPG that will probably grab me as much as FFXI did. Plus, this time around both me AND Bexs will be playing it. And once cash starts rolling in properly, and I finally work out when I'm suppsed to go to bed nowadays, I'm sure things will return to what feels normal. right, with that in mind, I'm off to nab a cuppa and chill out a bit before work.

Stuff

2006-11-13T19:32:00.000Z

Oops!

I walked into work last week and the duty manager asked for a word. Nothing serious- they just wanted me to be in on time. This retail stuff has some odd ideas.. the rota says I'm supposed to be in for 10, so that's when I turn up, right? Wrong. I'm supposed to there 10-15 minutes earlier. Nothing personal, just a daft rule. No probs. This week I've written down my rota with adjusted hours so that I'm not 'late' again. Weird rule. The rest of the week went ok.

Arnold Rimmer, 2nd Technician.

This Red Dwarf character was into a good game of Risk. And until yesterday I'd never played it. But at an evening get together with my church pals was to change my perspective on the game. Especially after nine hours of it. :P It sure is a very interesting game. A little geeky perhaps, but that's fine with me. My team consisted of me and my good pal Mim, and our mission was some serious domination. Our finest hour was when we'd conquered most of North America and Australia. It did not last too long though. Eventually the powers of South America managed to conquer Africa, and flexed their muscles north, to annihilate us. That and the blues mission to destroy us made sure that although we had enjoyed a mighty empire for a while, it quickly crumbled.

Anywhoo

Well, it's a new week. I hope it turns out well. With FFXI on maintenance, looks like tonight I'll have to think of something to do. hmm, I think I could catch up with some Astris stuff...

Day Off

2006-11-08T22:59:00.000Z

Errands

Well, it's been nice to have a relaxing day. it started late, (as all the best days off do) and when I got up I had a nice chilled time surfing the net and using up the last of the teabags and milk. Once I'd done that, I set off on a mission to get some more. On the way, i decided to scope out a local garage- for MOT purposes. I have all the info I need, I just need to find a decent time to organise taking the car in. After that, I tootled down the road to Sainsburys and got me that milk and some other bits. Walking uphill with shopping is not fun.

Lazing Around

Most of the rest of my afternoon was spent in the Dawntreaders chat room, and then I got some pizza and pottered about the house a bit, which included connecting every device that needed internet access to my router thing. The rest of today I've spent playing the odd game, watching TV and a movie with Bexs, since we were due some quality time together. With the film now finished, I thought I'd blog today before I hit some last chores and head off to bed. I have a late start tomorrow, but I want to be ready for it. :)

Weekends and stuff

2006-11-06T08:07:00.000Z

Given a nudge by God

I can always tell when God needs me to do something not covered by scripture, because people will come up to me and start talking about the subject that's on his heart. Yesterday two folks at church discussed my car, and it made me realise that I'd completely forgotten about the MOT on my car, which should have been sorted.. well.. ages ago really. Out of sight, out of mind I guess. But without an MOT my insurance could be null and I'm being a wee bit illegal. After these discussions, I had a bit of a chat with Bexs about it, and I'm seriously considering the following.

First, I'm going to get my car taken for an MOT at the soonest possible date. Pass or fail, it needs to be done. I can at least afford the test.
Second, if it fails and we can't afford to fix it, I'm going to declare it Off-road at the end of the month when the tax runs out, and keep it there until we have enough money to fix it or buy a new one, whichever is the more valid option.
Third, I'm going to keep the car off the road so no little oik will vandalise it or some resposible (but annoying) citizen reports it as stolen or something. This means that me and Bexs will have to use..public transport. Eww.

Work, work

It's my second week at my new job, and I must say all is going well. The overall manager is back from her hols and so it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out. So far I'm enjoying the job, especially now I'm getting into the swing of things. A change is as good as a rest and all that. It's a totally different vibe from being a barman! :P I'm not too sure about everything yet, especially stuff about the products we sell, but this will come in time. And I'm loving the new hours. Evenings off rock!!

Ubergeek

My geekiness continued this week as I continued to tweak my PC. I spent the better part of Sunday after church trying to fix the monitor, which led me to realise I needed a graphics card driver, which led me onto several other problems. I stumbled upon a download for Windows Security Pack 2, which was a golden find. I installed the pack, and lo! All of my problems were fixed. My monitor and graphics card both work fine. I then decided to figure out why my DVD drive wasn't running anymore, so I tore my lil PC open to discover the simple truth.. it wasn't connected. I must have pulled out the connection when I changed the hard drive for the first time.
With my problems now solved, I bit the bullet and tried to install FFXI again. I'd tried using my CD-Rewrite drive to install them, but for some reason it's always hated me and never done as it's told. This time around I used my faithful DVD drive, which happily installed everything with no fuss whatsoever. Huzzah! Last night I left it updating, and FFXI is now ready for me to play again. Whoohoo! Tonight I'm going to install the Treasures of Aht Urghan disk, which is again going to take a little time. But no nasty surprises this time around.
Next on my geek list- learning about partitions...

Not the best day off..

2006-11-03T18:32:00.000Z

Ouchie

Well, I woke up this morning with a neck that had at some point in the night gone 'twang'. The result: Matt is 78% less maneuverable. Anything which involves moving any part of my right side results in a paralyzing pulse of pain. Great! Just what I wanted. I've pulled out all the stops to aid this painful time, including a nice warm bath (which really helped) and copious spraying of Deep Heat. I've had this sort of problem before, so I knew that the only thing that would sort out this thing properly is the most annoying way to fix it: give it time. Thankfully over the day it's been reduced to an annoying twinge, and hopefully tomorrow it will become a bog standard stiff neck.

Annoyance with drivers and FFXI

Today I decided to install FFXI on my new hard drive, since I had the whole day to do it in. I inserted all the disks, installed the software, then set it off to download updates for 6 or so hours. And just when it had finally downloaded all the updates needed.. it decided to disconnect itself and say 'Ooh, sorry, you'll have to do all that again.' I must admit, I was not that pleased with the thing. Plus, I'm having trouble with my monitor too.. think I might need to try and find the drivers on the web for it. Well, soon Phantasy Star Universe will be out so I'll be able to get my MMORPG fix. Heck, this whole mess almost made me want to buy 1. A new PC or 2. An XBox 360... hey, almost.

Well, got work again tomorrow. It sucks, but at least I'm only there until 5.30. ^_^

ASTRIS BANDIT UPDATE

Well, one good thing came of today. The Astris site got a real re-jig and no mistake. I had to use Becky's laptop to get todays cartoon onto the site, because I can't find my scanners installation disk anywhere. At least it's there now. I also had a wee tweak with one or two things, and to make my site more interesting, it now plays a tune as you browse!! Cool, huh? The tune is from Runori Kenshin, a fab anime series. Don't take my word for it, go see!!

Strewth! 120gig Madness

2006-11-01T23:40:00.000Z

Swapsies

Well, I finally bit the bullet and just swapped over my hard drives. So Now my PC is full of odd little glitches That I'm unsure of how to change. *sigh* For instance, my keyboard is set to *American* so my keys are a little odd.

Ho hum. Nothing I can't fix. Eventually. I intend to re-install FFXI on Friday.. because it takes almost a whole day to do! Last time I installed it, which was something like last July, it took around six hours. Well, I got Friday off, so I reckon it'll all work out fine.

Work Stuff

Well, I think I'm getting used to work now. I'm growing in confidence, and today I got my very own name badge. Even sold an LCD telly. ^_^ I'm feeling quite good about this job. So far so good!

Day Two in the big Comet House

2006-10-31T09:51:00.000Z

Bewilderment

Well, it's day two of my new job. So far, so good. After yesterday being a traffic disaster and actually costing me time rather than saving it, I figured I'd leave early and walk to work, which I can then time and figure out when the latest is that I can leave. Once again, I have no idea to expect. Everyone seems friendly enough though. Even the scary looking ones. Today will be a little longer than yesterday, as I'm on from 11 until 8. Which for a grizzled pub veteran is nothing.

FFXI

When I got in Bexs graciously allowed me some FFXI 'celebration for my first day' time. I made good progress, getting my little taru Samurai to level 12, which meant I could use a brand new shiny sword.Level 12 was a bit of a landmark because of this, so I was chuffed. My next goal is level 15, because I have a shedload of cool stuff left over from my job of Beastmaster that will greatly affect my performance.I had a good FF day, even though I did go to the Valkurm Dunes...

The Valkurm Dunes are normally a horrific experience for low level people, because for every step forward you take, you usually take seven back. that place is just... evil. But last night was OK. The party was only wiped out once, and I think we all managed to level up at least once, which in the dunes is a great achievemnet. Huzzah! Looks like I'll be taking an FF break, what with the new job and all, so the time on it was welcome. I love my little wifey. ^_^

Work Update

Well, today was meant to be more dull learning... but the PC at work decided to give up any ideas of running CD's today. So, I ended up getting chucked in at the semi-deep end. After all, I knew in theory what was meant to happen.
So, how did my first day on the floor go? Not bad. I took well over £1000. With a little help from my colleagues, I managed to sell a washing machine, and even a freezer. Nice. Things are slowly starting to slot into place, but there's soo much more work to be done. It'll come, with time. Looks like it's the same again tomorrow. Still, loving finishing at 8. ^_^

Job Update: Day One

2006-10-30T19:00:00.000Z

So, I suppose you'd all like to know how the new job is going? Well, here goes. Today I've spent my time cooped up in the training room, learning about the company and it's many, many procedures. My brain feels like it's been turned to mush. Hopefully I'll get plonked on the shop floor soon so I can find out what actually doing the job will be like. Looks like I'll have to pluck up my courage and just go for it!!

"And so it begins"

2006-10-29T23:10:00.000Z

The B5 Quote we can all relate to

Yep, as in Babylon 5, the Scifi TV show. It's said at the end of series one, by a character who knows whats about to go down in the galaxy. I always remember it when I'm about to do something new.

So what's beginning?

My new job of course. My last day as a barman went quite well. I had to hang around for a while after my shift so that I could say goodbye. It would have gone a lot better if the Dj wasn't messing about with vocal effects. >:P

Still, everything else went fine. My mum and sister came to see me off, since they won't see me much now I'm living totally in Brum. No doubt I'll be popping back sometime next week to pick up my last wage slip and stuff. It's been a pretty weird week, i can tell you. For 10 years I've done nothing BUT Barwork.. and now I work in retail. In an electrical store. Man, I feel like Shaun from Shaun of the Dead, only without the red on me. Or the whole zombie thing.

Yum, hospitality

Today was a good day at Church, and the message was different, because we were split into groups to discuss some key points. Afterward me and Bexs headed to Kevin and Jenny's for tea, which was fab. ^_^

A bit later me and Bexs played Monster Hunter over the 'net with me good bud Ceej and his lovely wife Helen, in order to a). Kill Monsters and b). get me and Bexs to certain levels whitch will bring a sense of closure to the game. When Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) hits the UK shelves in 21 days we doubt we'll have any time for Monster Hunter, as we have decided to both play PSU as a couple.

Anywhoo, it's getting late and I think my bed is calling me to an early night, ready for the challenges of tomorrow. Hope all goes well....

White and Nerdy

2006-10-27T10:59:00.000Z

The best glass I've ever collected

Wednesday was fun day at work. It was the night of the Crossed Keys MCC meeting, and I went upstairs to collect some glasses in their clubhouse, which is a room we let them convert. Anywhoo, they'd all had a whip round and I was presented with a glass stuffed full of dosh and given a round of aplause, because they were sad to see me go. I was a bit speechless (for a change) But I was really touched by their gesture. I shall remember them in my prayers. Plus, well, I like 'em. They're a good bunch.

I AM a GEEK!

The title of todays post is because my geekiness has shot up through the roof this week. Not only did I spend 5 hours yesterday playing Monster Hunter on my PS2, but after I'd come hom from small group I bit the bullet and swapped my hard drive in my computer. Then I installed Windows. Then I swapped my hardrives again (I have 3 you know) to my current settings so I could do everyday things again. This means that on my next day off, I'll be downloading, swapping and generally customising my PC. Again. It does mean I'll have to re-install FFXI again though... which if the last time is anything to go by... WILL take all day.

Feeling good

It's been a weird week knowing that the next two shifts at work will be my last. It's scary, but I'm trying not to think about it. I'm generally feeling quite positive though. I'm not worried about making new friends or anything like that, but the uncertainty of my new job is a little unsettling. I've only ever worked in pubs, so I'm seeing this as a fresh new challenge. I'm sure God has some plans for this new chapter in my life but who knows what they are?
Still, the best thing is I'm feeling at ease with the whole thing. The only reason I spent 5 hours on Monster Hunter yesterday was because I felt all was well with the world, and I haven't felt like that in ages. Since about January I haven't been able to play games all day without a feeling that there was something that needed doing- the something was to get a new job. My To Do list now looks a little wimpy, because it's starting to fill up with everyday things, andnot big life altering decisions. Could it be that finally I live in Brum without a sense of chaos? I just hope this feeling stays, because not worrying is awesome.

Fun with forgotten passwords

2006-10-25T08:04:00.000Z

I'm dumb

Well let's start with the first bit. I'm dumb because I forgot to write down my blogger details and accidentally erased them from my computer so I could'nt log in. I am dumb.

Fun with passwords and stuff

One of the reasons I couldn't get into my accout was the forgotten usernames and so forth. The funny thing is, that I discovered this:

Http://www.redlac.org

It turns out that My online username, based upon one of my cartoon characters, is also a conglomerate of conservation companies in Latin America and the Carribean.

What I did while I was ill

2006-10-24T01:00:00.000Z

A very weird day

Today I handed in my notice to work proper. It was so weird. But while we were there me and Bexs decided to have some pepper steak. Mmm, tasty! The strangest thing of all was knowing that this week will be the last week I will be a barman. It's strange because I've been in the pub trade since I was at school, so to think of myself doing something else is really odd. But hey, at housegroup on Thursday my friend Simon told me that God had made known to him that this was a new chapter in my life and it was all in the big plan. So I don't feel so freaked out about the change of career. In fact, its realy odd how un-freaked I am about such a big thing in my life. Heh, God is Good.

FFXI Addiction

Because I was ill on Saturday, I spent most of my evening playing FFXI. I finally managed to unlock the Samurai job with the help of a linkshell buddy and a player who had a soft spot for people that played as Tarutaru. I was really chuffed, since I've wanted to try out the Samurai job for ages. I was still a bit poorly on Sunday, so I tried out the new job and discovered that it's fab. (As if hitting things with a Katana would be dull hahaha!) This might be bad news for me trying to quit.

(Explanation: My character on FFXI is a Tarutaru, who are small cute halflings who excel at magic. Now then, unlike other MMOS, you can change the job of your character to any of the jobs you have unlocked via quests. So one day I could be a White Mage, a caster of healing spells who ensures everyone in the party doesn't die. If I get bored I could switch to a more hands on job like Warrior, which involves hitting monsters and making sure they stay away from my teammates. The Samurai job is similar to a Warriors, in that I get to hit things. But a Samurai's speciality is in their ability to use their Katana to inflict large chunks of damage to those evil monsters. They are also able to cause even more damage though devastating special moves.)

Astris Bandit Updates

The third page of Astris Bandit has been pencilled and I've done most of page four. I plan on inking and scanning them both soon so I can upload them to the website ready for the next update. You'll note theres now a link to the site on this lovely blog of mine. ^_^
Once Astris Bandit gets truly going and I get into a rigid creative schedule, I'm considering plonking some background stuff on here about the Astris galaxy. We're talking about why the characters look as they do, who I based them on, where I got my inspirations for my designs, that sort of thing. I think my aim with Bandit is to a) create a series of comics that are cool with a spiritual leaning and b) Get a mention in Wikipedia. Yep, it's nearly that shallow. I just hope God can use it somehow. Which reminds me, I really should think about writing one of these books in my head.

Bluegh. And Updates!

2006-10-21T07:56:00.000Z

Bleugh

Well, it has to be said. I'm feeling rough as anything. I felt wierd yesterday, but today I feel like a big mish mash of jelly. Also known as a cold. Still, we Brits must soldier on and get on with it. I'm packing Beechams and getting on with it.

Astris Bandit Update

Yep, that's right. Today I've updated Astris Bandit with page two of her story. Which now means I have two weeks to get offa my butt and get the next few pages inked in and scanned. Now, if only I could find where I left all that stuff...

Work, work

Truth be told I don't want to go to work today. But I've often found that the excersise I get from wandering around for a few hours has done me good before. It still sucks though. Ho hum. At least it's only around 5 hours instead of an all day shift. I hope I recover soon, i have to be up extra early to set up all the PA equipment at Church tomorrow.

The 'Evercrack' Effect

2006-10-20T10:18:00.000Z

A quick explanation of the title

For those of you non gamers out there, let me explain. There are certain games, like Final Fantasy 11, World of Warcraft and so on that allow many, many players to go online at once and go around killing monsters together. In short, we call them MMOs. Everquest was one of the first ones to hook many many people, and it was nicknamed 'Evercrack' because it was so addictive. There is SO much to do in these games, you will never, ever, finish them. But because there is so much to do, you keep playing, because it's fun to smite monsters in a fantasy setting. Or make clothes to sell. Or go fishing. Or go exploring the huge virtual world, with friends, or on your own.

Where I come in

For just over a year I've been playing Final Fantasy 11. (or FFXI for short)
Being a big fan of the Final fantasy series I really enjoyed it, because everything was familiar and it was generally a lot of fun. A month or so back though, I decided that it was time to quit. Money restraints prevented any further play and so, it had to go. But with me now having a job 3 minutes away from home, we'll now have a fair bit more dosh. Which makes me wonder if I should go back on my decision to quit and carry on, since I'm still enjoying the game.

Hmm. It's a dilemma. Probably more financial than anything else. There is the fact that there is a new game that both me and Bexs will be playing together soon called Phantasy Star Universe, which will cost us a little each month... Meh.

Basically I'm wondering if I can get away with having both. I might see how it goes with both for a few months and if it's too much, I can always quit then. But for a gamer, it's a tough decision ot stop playing a game you've spent a year working on.

*Sigh* I guess time will tell.

OMG!!! (Oh my Gawrsh!)

2006-10-19T12:36:00.000Z

Jehovah Jireh- God is My Provider

Ok, here's some big news for you all. On the 30th October, 2006 I will no longer be a Barman. That's right folks, I got the job!!! I'm the happiest Christian gamer in town right now. I have finally fufilled my career long dream of a 9-5 job. Awesome. I am soooo hyperactive at the moment. I'm fairly certain that if I drank a can of Red Bull I'd have an out-of-body experience. I'd like to thank all those that prayed for this over the many years it's taken. And for the first time in 10 years, I'll have *sociable* hours. How cool is that? I'm sure it's going to be a hard graft, and I'll need to adapt my skills to a more ruthless environment. But it'll be worth it I think. maybe I'll even get a managers job at some point... who knows. I'm feeling really optomistic and well, happy if I'm honest. I can't wait to tell my housegroup tonight- I've already told all my friends .^^

A tale of an idiot in my car

Allow me to spin a yarn about what happened to me after work last night. I was just getting into my car when a local guy approached me and asked if he could get a lift to Holbrooks. For those of you not savvy with Coventry, it's not too far from Bedworth, where I (tee hee used to) work. So I thought I'd be a good Christian and take him. After all, it only added 5 minutes to my journey home. Or so I thought. Meh.

He needed some cash apparantly so we stopped at a cashpoint, only for it to tell him his wages hadn't arrived. No big deal, time to drop him off. So I asked him to take me to his destination. he led me down some windy streets to a house. Our destination? No. It was his friends house. he wanted to see if he was in so he could borrow some cash. No luck. In bed. Off we go again.

He led me down some roads and I began to think, "You know, I'm sure Holbrooks was back there somewhere" as he ranted about not being able to get his cash and how he'd worked so hard for it. I'd come to realise that he'd been on the strong stuff. Whatever that was tonight. it was then that he decided to tell me our destination was Hillfields. Again for the non Coventrarians, I'll explain. It's nowhere near where I was going. M6= North Coventry. Hillfields=Middle of Coventry. This agitated me somewhat.

We drove to his location (Which I wished would hurry up) but no! the location was.. another bank. He managed to get a light (He'd been asking me if I'd got one for the whole journey. i gave up saying 'no' after the 12th time.) , and once again discovered... his money wasn't there. This time I told him that I was agitated and wanted to go home, and that he should take me to his destination, since I was meant to have been home an hour ago.

And so.. we drove around Hillfields again. We drove past some ladies that he leered at and were convinced were prostitues, and even accused me of gawking at them. Well, prostitutes apparantly look like a tarmaced road nowadays. Because that's where I'd been looking the whole time. He directed me around to some very familiar surroundings. And then he said to take him back to where we'd seen the two ladies. But as it happened, we were nowhere near there. He then told me to stop at the side of the road, which was... next to the bank that had refused his money 10 minutes earlier. I had seriously had enough now. I felt a bit guilty for what I did to him.

After he'd got out of the car, and had taken two steps, I hit the gas and left him there. I was very aggravated by now, but I went straight home. It probably was'nt the most Christlike thing to do, but theres asking a favour, and there's taking the mickey.

Can you drop me off? = A favour

Wanting me to drive you around after an 11hour shift til 2am looking for prostitues= Taking the mickey.

Conclusion

It's been a fab wek so far, and I've lots to do to prepare for my change in employment. I feel sorry for dumping that guy, but later I realised I'd dumped him in Hillfields, so I did actually drop him off where he wanted. I'm thinking it may have been more than a chance encounter, and had the enemies' stench about it.

Still, I got the job ^_^ Man, this is so exiting!!

A Quick Update

2006-10-17T09:33:00.000Z

Ok, so I'm supposed to be leaving for work right now.. so Here is a swift update on what's been going on.

I had an interview for a job yesterday. Praise God, it went brilliantly. (I think)
I'm in danger of getting hooked on FFXI again, after I said I'd quit.
Life is...ok. I have nowt to complain about.. except that I might be late for work. O.o

A crazy week and a houseful of towels

2006-10-12T10:21:00.000Z

Ups and Downs at Work

This week at work has been full of odd little things. The biggest down point being that my friend Lucy heads off to Bounemouth this week, which will change things somewhat. I felt a bit out of it on Tuesday, what with all the hubub of my bosses leaving... until I found out that they hated the pub they were going to and decided to stay put. Because everyone's been rushing around organising stuff I've felt a bit out of the loop (or at least, moreso than usual). However, my boss sat down with me whilst I was on my break and told me how much all the work I'd put in over the recent months had been appreciated. Which kind of humbled me 'cos I was a bit annoyed with them that day (LoL, isn't it alays the way?)

When a Stranger calls

No, not the film. Which I have'nt seen. (Doubt I will.) Because of a shift-switching operation I got to leave work early yesterday. I'd just got onto the ever-clogged up M6 motorway when my phone went off. Not wanting to arouse the suspicion of the police, (who were behind me..gulp!) I hit the hard shoulder and answered. It was a nice lady who I'd spoken to before, from a place that I'd submitted a C.V. to a few weeks back. Basically, the last bit of the conversation ended in me getting an interview on Monday. w00t! as we gamers say. (Or if you prefer, whoohoo!) If it's any good a job, I'm going to jump for it, because it'll cut our costs down hugely. Looks like I'm gonna be praying a lot this weekend...

Hairy Men with no beards

My good buddy Bob rang me too on Tuesday. Due to the nature of his theology and youthwork course he needs someone to be a spiritual advisor, and asked if I was interested. I said yes. So I'm like, all important now. Whoa. Better crank up my spiritual life to the next level ha ha ha! Well, as scripture says we should sharpen our faiths like iron sharpens iron, so I'm guessing it will be good for both of us.

Towels

As any Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan will tell you, a towel is THE most important thing you can take with you on a long intergalactic journey. Keeping this in mind. I have systematically washed and folded all of the towels in our house, ready for the End of the World. it had nothing to do with the fact that we'd used them all. I think the socks will be next.

Basically, it sucks.

2006-10-10T09:22:00.000Z

Agencies

So, I finally plucked up the courage to go to an agency. I went past my fear barrier, stormed in there with CV in hand... and it turns out they didn't take people on without a year's office experience. Bum. Needless to say, it put a right dampener on my day. I went home in a bit of a strop, it had to be said. But God has used this to make me think about stuff, as he often does when things go wrong.

Anywhoo, It's not a total defeat, right? There's still plenty more jobs out there, I'm sure theres one that's begging for someone like me to turn up. I certainly know how Bexs felt when she was doing this. I guess I should redouble my efforts and expand what I'm looking for.

New Folks

Apparantly theres this new guy starting at work soon. It's good news for me for two reasons: 1. He's an extra pair of hands and 2. He's got a licence which means I'm free to go any time. So I guess things aren't too bad after all. Mind you, it's not that hate my job, it's just... too far away.

A thoughtful week

2006-10-07T11:43:00.000Z

Bad Stuff

It's been a tough week. One of my best buds and his wife split up, which can be only described as a bit of a shock. I've been asking a lot of questions this week. Some I've asked God, and others the rhetorical ones you ask when crazy stuff like this happens.
One thing is certain though, I can sure see how far God has brought me. The things God has been teaching me recently have also helped a lot too.

Getting Motivated

One of the big problems I've had with looking for a new job is that I've not been very motivated when it came to finding one. This week has made me realise some things. I'd best get my butt in gear! Yesterday's shift was very annoying, but it reminded me that I can cope. I've looked at a few agencies, and I've picked one that looks good. Yesterday was spent filing and tidying my important paperwork in order to find certain bits and bobs I'll need when I go in and talk to them. Basically I have to go forth and make the next step, or I never will. Bexs has offered to join me on Monday to visit the agency.

Astris

And finally.. I'm going to grab my pencils and pens and do the next page of the cartoon I've been working on sometime soon. I was also commisioned long ago to do a gospel tract in cartoon form.. I've asked a friend to do the words for me but I think he's vanished to do one of his many trips abroad for work. It's been on my heart to get it done recently, so I might start by doing some preliminary sketches until I can get the words to go with them... well, we'll see what happens.

UPDATE

Oh, what the heck I thought. So I've finally re-released Astris Bandit. My webpage is now updated with the new stuff. Go see! ^_^

Two day gap in reality

2006-09-28T09:02:00.002Z

Oddness

The past two days have seemed a little odd. I've really not been with it at all, even though I do what I do usually. Glad they're over if I'm honest. Gah. I hate it when life goes all wierd on me. But some fun things did happen.

Rev. Matt Black

The bikers in my pub have given me a new nickname. Those guys love me so much, they want me to join them on one of their bike rallies, and one of them even said he knew of a bike that would suit me. To this end, they've even given me a nickname, The Rev. Matt Black, after a discussion about what colour my bike (when I finally get one many moons from now) will be. It's cool how those guys want me in their club and I'm not even a biker. ..yet. I do plan to get meself a bike once I get a job closer to home, to get to work and so on.

A Day of silly stuff

Well, today is a long anticipated day off, and unfortunately I can't go ahead with my plan of sitting in the corner playing games all day, because there's silly little things to do, like pay the rent and buy loo roll and so on. I never do like it when my plans go skewiff. Still, my Dawntreader pals are assembling tonight for some Online Gaming, which should be a whole lot of fun. I could do with some shotgun based action. I think I'll give the jobseeking a miss this Thursday, I could do with some relaxation. Hmm, I guess I should sort out some things over the phone too. Bum. Well, maybe I can spend some time on Final Fantasy XI for a bit.

Prayer Walk Imminent!

One of the things I've been thinking about recently is going on a prayer walk. There's something about going for a nice walk in some woods, or someplace nice and green that really helps me to touch base with God. I've been feeling the need to do this recently. I find it helps me out when I've a lot on my mind, or if there are big changes ahead, helps me to come to terms with them. I think I'll go explore the park down the road from me. Nice.

Anywhoo, I know that's a lot to sink in, but that's where I'm at. I'm off to play FFXI for a bit.

I am job.

2006-09-25T17:22:00.000Z

Well, today me and the wifey went to town. And I handed in a few CVs and visited a few places. At long last, I have my art pens to draw my cartoons with, and as a bonus-impulse-buy, a copy of the fab anime Howls Moving Castle.

All in all today has been quite productive, and I haven't wanted to kill anyone in town at all (crowds annoy me. It's a pet hate of mine), so life is good. I've done at least 3 things on that long to-do list of mine. Always good. It feels kinda wierd that I've finally gone out to get a job with the ACTUAL intention of geting one. Before I've not been too fussed, but nowadays I see it as the next step in my marriage. A job in brum would kill off a lot of money issues, so I'm hoping God will be kind enough to provide one for me.

As I said before, conditions at work are good for me to go. As one of the licencees, it's always been a bit of a bother to want to leave because it would cause some thorny legal problems for my boss. Heck, the last time I talked about going the Area Manager came to visit us to ask me not to go just yet. And me being nice and thinking of others I said I'd stay a little while longer. But with the imminant departure of my boss, she told me not to worry about leaving this time, because measutres were in place to provide a replacement for me when I had gone, and he starts in a few weeeks. Awesome news, and it pretty much gives me the go ahead to bog off someplace else.

Anywhoo, I'm a bit tired now, so I'm gonna go relax by playing games and spending some time with the missus. See y'all soon.

Still not finished

2006-09-22T09:40:00.000Z

So, after nearly three months in our new house, me and Bexs are nowhere near making it look less like a bomb site. It's crazy. Lets just put it this way- the spare room has no room. Although thankfully, we finally got hot water and an oven yesterday. Just in time too- it's starting to get cold.

So, what's going on in my life then..? Well, here goes. At work I've recently learned that my boss is being transferred, and it looks like most of the staff are going to scuttle off too, myself included. Yeah, I know, I'm always talking about leaving my job, but this time the conditions are actually favorable. Again. So I'm buying the paper regularly and starting to update my C.V. Heck, I'm even thinking about walking into an agency and seeing if they can sort me out with something.

I forgot I'd made a pact with my friend Lucy at work a few months back- when she left, I'd have to. It came at the end of a conversation about how much life sucked at the time, and how both of us were far too qualified to work there. (It's true y'know. Heck, I've got an honours degree and she can drive almost any vehicle known to mankind.) Lucy is off to Bournmouth soon anyways, with a shiny new job in the place she's wanted to live in since she was 15. I'll miss her, cos we had some fab conversations about books and movies and stuff. She sure has helped me out a lot.
Things at home have been fine, and apart from the house looking like a strange sort of UK clothes mountain me and Bexs have been tootling along fine, although theres still silly bits and bobs that need sorting out, and unfortunately require money that we don't have, so me getting a job closer to home would be a great boon to the both of us.

It's been quiet on my videogaming front- I returned to the world of online gaming just as all my buddies went on hoiliday and had housing crisises. I'm slowly working towards my Final Fantasy goals, which need to be finished in November when I've decided to give it up. After playing 10 days of World of Warcraft I've returned to playing Warcraft 3, because I'd forgotten how much fun it was. WoW was fun, but my PC didn't like it, amongst other things. Besides, I'm going to be spending my pennies on Phantasy Star Universe for the PS2 if it's any good.

Finally, I've got my drawing bug back again and I'm hankering for some art pens so I can relaunch my webcomic in a way that will do it justice. I've tweaked the site ready but the cartoon won'tbe ready for a little while.

So, that's me in a nutshell about now. I guess I'd better get ready for work and such, so I'll see you all soon.

Blog addiction

2006-09-18T10:09:00.000Z

I know. Another one of these darn blog things. With a bit of luck, this will be the last move. If you're here, then you've probably been redirected from http://Astris.moonfruit.com, my cartoon webpage. So stay, have a coffee, and learn more about the guy behind the cartoon. (which as I speak... isn't readly.)