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!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Good Grief!!
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
2010
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.
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.
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