I Want to Take You for Granted

November 26, 2006

The first week of the Christmas break is over and I have set up a good foundation of the labour to come. Infact this last week feels like an eternity, I have accomplished so much and yet I feel as though I have wasted so much time. There are still a few things bugging me that I need Chris to fix which I’ve been waiting for weeks for him to do, being:

  • set up my new email account(2 weeks)
  • code the new PrimeScape(4+ weeks)
  • remove the Ubuntu partition on my hard drive
  • fix up the wireless network so that I can listen to the latest podcasts(1 week)

I’m starting to get really fed up of this.

I’ve also had to work both days this past weekend. It was actually quite enjoyable, I spent the whole weekend with Aaron whom use to work with Chris this time last year. The best part about working is dealing with the digital cameras. I love talking to customers about which camera would be right for them. Trying to suggest something ideal for their tastes and also explaining the features of the respective cameras. I get a sense that they are really appreciative of me taking the time out to help them. I not only talk about the cameras, I base what I say around the audience. So if I was dealing with a new camera user then I would explain things simpler and also provide a few tips on how to overcome most of the difficulties that new users have with the digital camera. I really enjoy it.

Something else thats been on my mind is gaming as a culture. Watching Pure Pwnage during the week got me thinking about the types of people who play games, people loosing interest in games and the culture of gaming. One question that I asked myself was: Can someone’s social life be totally based on video games?

When I say this question I should also mention that I mean a significant social life. Significant being (at least) above the norm for the age group of well anyone. So I then thought of all of the social events that would be classed as game based that would make up a social life:

  • LANs
  • playing games with your friends
  • game expos
  • game torunaments
  • online discussion of video games(forum, IM, Skype, IRC, etc.)
  • game events/parties(eg. Launch parties, DDR/Singstar party(???))

Thinking about it, I reckon that it would most definitely be possible. The difficulty would also be based on where you live as well as here in South Australia we don’t get many expos, tournaments or launch events and also less LANs. But in an area where this is so I think that it would definitely be possible.

Saying all of this probably makes me look like I want to get into this and well I’m too honest to lie to you folks. So I think that it would be nice to have a social life based on games alone. But my interests extend beyond games so that isn’t the case and most people(me included) aren’t that game crazy to only do social activities that are game related.

I think that all I really just need more competitive gaming sessions. I haven’t entered a tournament at all this year or had a LAN. Now lets not even start on expo’s here.

On a final note, when I mention online activity I mean one that doesn’t override the normal social life.

Whenever Chris gets this PrimeScape template coded I shall have a series of indepth entries up, I might do one on gaming as a culture. I have a few finished so far. I also want to do 2 on digital cameras.

-DP


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1 Minute

November 24, 2006

Most listened: Gravity Grave (Live Glastonbury 93) : The Verve

Current longing: The Australian Wii launch

Life’s been rolling along nicely in this first week of the holidays. Its been fairly significant. Everyday something new seems to be accomplished which is very pleasing.

I’ve been working on clearing out my list of 35 unfinished games. I’ve finished Mario Tennis for the GBA this week, really powered thru that. Got my Winamp codecs all working. Yesterday we had the first of our anime sessions(Wicked Good Anime, WGA) which went rather well. We may even have two of them next week which is great.

I’ve also been working on setting up a nice base to work from for my continuing study of chinese and also for digital design. I need to set up my workspace, fonts, brushes and custom shapes for my laptop. And I have gathered most of my resources for Chinese. I’m just picking up some more Chinese podcasts now. If you are learning Chinese then I recommend checking out the site as everyday they release a new podcast.

ChinesePod

Chris and I have also started(and finished) watching the first season of an internet series called ‘Pure Pwnage’. Its a gaming/comedy based series about the lives of afew gamers. I think that it started off a little slow but gained momentum quickly. The last episode was released a few weks ago so I recommend having a look.



Chris and I also bought the domain names for our new graphic/design website. It should be great. I’ll talk some more about it later. Also on a last note Chris has finally decided to code my design for PrimeScape. I had to pump out 5 different designs to show him that I can make quality templates for him to realize that I wanted the original template as it fits the feel of the site that I want.

-DP


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Let My Days Light Up My Night

November 20, 2006

Most listened: MatchBox 20

Current longing: The Australian Wii launch

Well, schools over for me. Man there’s one thing I just gotta say I’ve been bloody tired. Haven’t gotten much sleep over the last few days. Couldn’t sleep before the Maths Specialist exam, Mum’s friends were down on Friday night and Mum was showing them some pictures from the laptop and then we had John’s birthday on Saturday night which was really awesome. It was especially great as we haven’t had many of our smaller parties this year. Everyone was really talkative which I thought was very pleasing.

I also had work for most of the weekend so I was rather tired for Sunday, which was a 5hr shift. But (imo) my best ever shift. It was such a good shift as I didn’t have the opportunity to put up any signs or do anything like that. The whole store was flooded out with customers and had a lack of staff. So I basically served customers all day. Which I really enjoyed. Helped out many people with digital cameras and other goods. They left the very pleased. But boy the whole day was so busy. Had to work extremely hard. But it was rather rewarding. Infact it was basically the same for both days.

Right now I’m not sure what to do. Just prepare a bit more for the holidays. Play some games, do some more design(I’m getting so much better at web templates, its pretty cinch now) and figure out how to approach Chinese. We’ve got our first ‘Wicked Good Anime’ session on Thursday, I said that Matt can come around beforehand and John and Cam want to have another gaming session so I’d better make use of my free time now.

I also thought that I’d show off my new dock, its replacing my Windows start bar. I’ve downloaded a few icon sets for it as well. Its fantastic so far but it seizes up every 45 minutes or so and takes up a bit of ram. Here’s a screenie:

PrimeScape should be up soon. Sorry guys

-DP


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"We can tell other people about - having faith. What we had faith in. What we found important enough to fight for. It's not whether you were right or wrong, but how much faith you were willing to have, that decides the future."
Solid Snake
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