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Dean
I play video games, watch Star Trek, listen to British punk and drink Guinness.

Age 32, Male

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Scotland

Joined on 2/16/08

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August: A Travelling Month

Posted by Dean - August 1st, 2011


[ My Video Game Collection ] - [ Previous Month ] - [ Following Month ]

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Probably the most significant thing about August is that I will be travelling down to England for four days to meet up with some friends. This has been planned for a while now, so it's good to know that it's only a couple weeks away from actually happening. All I have left to do is get my bus tickets bought and then I should be sorted.

This is also the last full month that I have left before going back to university. I still have a little under two weeks left in September, but after that it's back to a constant schedule of waking up at 6:30am and not getting home until about 6:30pm. I'm really not looking forward to it, but I guess I still have a reasonable amount of time left yet before it's back to that.

Once again, there isn't really much else exciting happening this month that I know of but my trip to England should make up for that.

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Trip Sorted - 08/08/11

Trip to Manchester is all booked and all sorted. I'll be leaving this Friday early in the morning and returning on Monday night at about 11:30. I should be meeting Fim again for the first time since January so that will be cool and I'll also be meeting Tony and Jordan for the first time.

It's quite strange to think that if it weren't for Newgrounds I wouldn't know any of these people. Now they've become good friends of mine. Remember when teachers always told you not to speak to people on the internet? What a load of bollocks that turned out to be.

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Manchester Riots - 10/08/11

Seems pretty typical that something like this would happen just days before I'm due to visit the city. These little retards better not keep this up and make me have to decide on whether or not it's worth going. The main problem is that when rioting breaks out in Manchester City Centre the bus station is closed and I'd have to walk over 4 miles to get to the new pick up point, which would take over an hour.

Song related:
Combat 84 - Whatever happened to my country?

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Manchester Trip Write-Up - 15/08/11

I had been waiting for this weekend all summer and now that I'm sitting here about to write up my memories so that I can make them last a little longer, it's just a shame it's over already. The weekend was great fun and it was the most fun I've had in a long time, but then I realised that it's back to my shitty, mundane life again when I wake up tomorrow morning.

Friday
After a four and a half hour bus ride I made it into Manchester city centre and took a short walk over to Piccadilly Station where I was met by none other than Toast-Tony. I'd never met Tony before, but he'd already become and damn good friend of mine prior to this. One of my best, in fact, so it was awesome to finally meet the man.

After a shaking of hands and a quick greeting we set of to kill ten hours of the day. First objective, at the request of Tony, was to hunt down a Barburrito. I'd never been to one before, but apparently it's one of his favourite places to buy food, so the hunt began. It didn't really take long to find it although I think we ended up stopping off at a Weatherspoons first because it was closed when we arrived. It didn't take too long before Tony got his beloved Barburrito and the world became round again.

After aimlessly wandering around for some time, looking for something to do, we ended up in the Arndale Centre. I'd been here before but this was the first time I'd actually had a proper look around. It was also the first time that I realised Tony cannot walk into a store without buying something. Well, more specifically a game store. After plenty rummaging he must have left with around 5 new games, which is an impressive day of shopping in my books.

More aimless wandering and a second trip to Wetherspoons made us realise that there had to be some other way to kill the time, so the internet came to the rescue in the form of Tony's iPhone. It seemed quite certain that the city library was our best way to spend time, but not surprisingly we didn't go there. Instead we ended up going to see Planet of the Apes at an Odeon cinema. Good film and a good way to take 2.5 hours from a long day.

A little more wandering and then we met up with Jordan and his sister. Jordan is someone else I'd known fairly well prior to this weekend but had never actually met. From there, it was straight to a Chinese buffet for a while and then over to Jordan's other sister's house, which is where we were staying for the first two nights. Some Xbox was played and laughs were had. Tony fell asleep fairly early on the floor and after a long day of travelling, I wasn't too far behind.

Saturday
I woke up on Saturday morning and found myself playing Halo 3 with Tony. I guess this is where it only just struck me what the situation currently was. I was playing Xbox with someone who I've been playing with for months, only this time when they spoke, I wasn't hearing it through an ear piece, the voice was right beside me. It's a strange realisation, but pretty cool at the same time. I was already aware the person (Tony) I'd been playing with for the last few months existed, but up until now he had really been nothing more than a voice. Now, he was officially a person.

It was then decided that we were going to the Trafford centre with Jordan and his sister. We'd sort of had this planned in advance and I was quite excited to see how big this place was, because I'd been told it's quite impressive. More browsing of shops was done and shockingly, I don't seem to recall Tony buying anything. Anyway, we went to Nando's for lunch which is again something I'd never tried before. It was pretty nice, but as someone who can eat spicy food, I was surprised to find myself unexpectedly being caught out by the heat of a 'medium' sauce. They all claim it wasn't that hot, but I call bullshit on that one.

I think after some wandering around a Legoland store and making comments about some weird statues, we headed to Tesco to look for a DVD that would keep us amused for the night. Although when we got back, I remember literally crying from laughter after Tony introduced me to this video. From there, it just stemmed to maybe an hour or so of watching retarded things on Youtube. Great fun though. We did eventually watch the DVD but myself and Tony did both end up falling asleep at various points throughout the movie and I'm not even sure if Jordan stuck around to watch it all. Didn't seem like such a bad film though. It was The Taking of Pelham 123 if I haven't already mentioned.

Sunday
Again, we woke up and ended up on the Xbox whilst waiting for everyone else to wake and get ready. Then, when everyone was sorted we headed to a sushi bar, which is something I'd never tried before and I was slightly sceptical of, but I figured I'd just go ahead with it and give it a chance. The salmon (or whatever it was) that I ate was nice enough, but it didn't take long before I was struggling to make use of chop sticks and confirmed that sushi just isn't for me. It's just too different to what I'm used to which is a typical Scottish diet of junk food.

We went back into town and had a look around some stores. One memorable store being the one which sold a whole load of t-shirts with amusing captions on that and a whole variety of other stuff too. Tony even managed to find some kind of crazy Captain America hat that doubled as a face mask. I don't think I've been in a similar store that one before. Then it was back to the Arndale centre, where again, I don't think Tony bought a game although I could be mistaken. Pretty sure Jordan bought a Naruto game though (or was that from the Trafford Centre the day before?).

It was back to Jordan's sister's house for a short while again before it was decided that we were going to have a game of LaserQuest. Again, something I'd never tried before but it turned out to be really quite fun. I think I won from what I was told but I'm not sure how my 'score' was considerably higher than most of the other players since I seem to recall getting shot loads at close range. I'm still not sure I trust that I won that game, but if they said I did then I guess I really shouldn't complain.

After a couple games of pool, it was then time for me and Tony to depart company with the others and check in to Premier Inn as we were sticking around for another night, which turned out to be awesome. The only downside to it all that this was the last I saw of Jordan, his sisters and Tom. We met up with another friend of mine, Sam, who I had met before, but this was the first time him and Tony had met. Sam then tried his hardest to find some pubs that were still open (as it was now around midnight) as I refused to let him take us to the 'Gay Village'. I still wont understand why any straight guy would even consider going there but whatever. Thankfully Sam did find some bars in the end and it was cool to catch up with him. He's a good laugh and a good guy. It was also pretty cool to see two of my friends who had never really known anything about the other become friends themselves that night. We ended up in a few pubs and Sam kicked my ass at pool, but we pretty much stayed out until closing time.

Tony and I then departed company with Sam (which was sadly the last I saw of him) and pretty much just fell asleep since we had to be up fairly sharpish for Tony to get his train and another god damned Barburrito.

Monday
Like I just explained, we got up earlyish and then set off into town. To be honest, it was quite a saddening realisation that within a couple hours I would have departed with the last of the people that I'd met over this weekend. Still, Tony did get his Barburrito and then we set off got Piccadilly where after a short spell of lingering we shook hands and our goodbyes.

Effectively, that was the weekend over but I still had seven hours to pass on my own, which was done by walking around Manchester and sitting in either Piccadilly Gardens or outside the big TV by The Triangle for long periods of time.

Now here I am, sitting at home in Scotland, typing this up in the hope that my memory of this awesome weekend doesn't dwindle. There's no denying that the weekend was the highlight of my summer. I got to meet some people that I really do think the world of. People that I do consider to be amongst the best of my friends. People that I sure as hell will be making efforts to meet with again. People that I will sincerely miss being able to hang out with on a regular basis.

To those who I met this weekend with NG accounts and may read this:

Sam: it was awesome to see you again. I once again apologise for the delay in meeting with you and I hope you know it was never my intention to do that and I did feel pretty terrible about it. Still, you got a birthday drink from me and you even got to finish those my empty stomach didn't feel like drinking. Both times I've met you now it has only been for a few hours, but damn, you know how to turn a few hours into an awesome time. This is not the last you've seen of me. I'll be back and because of a proposition that I have for some people, it might be sooner than I realised.

Tony: I guess the whole reason that this weekend actually went ahead was because I wanted to meet you in person, so I should really say 'thanks' to you for actually coming and making the weekend what it was. Oh, and even though you may have thought I'd duped you and was in fact a 40 year old, fat, bald headed Motorhead fan, hopefully you enjoyed the weekend. I'm not lying when I say it was the highlight of my summer and again I feel like you deserve a 'thanks' for that too. I guess now though it's back to communicating through a Microsoft headset, at least for the time being. We will sort out another weekend, or something longer, in the hopefully not too distant future. The Scotland offer still stands and always will do. I just really hope we don't have to wait six months before we can get something sorted again. I guess the one and only downside to these kinds of meets is that I go from spending 24 hours a day hanging out with people that I do seriously rate highly as friends to sitting at home doing very little. It has only been 14 hours since I said goodbye to you and already I'm starting to wish that I was hanging out with you guys again tomorrow. Oh well, it can't be helped. Thanks again for the awesome weekend man! Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up again before the end of the year, even if it does mean just the occasional Saturday spent kicking about Manchester as oppose to whole weekends at a time.

Oh, and it's only fitting that I should put up some kind of image related to this weekend, but I never took any and I think everyone else was basically the same, so this is all I found. Tony sleeping through the DVD and me managing to remain awake:


Comments

Fucking travellers

OH GOD WHY IS YOUR WEBSITE ORANGE NOW D:

I dunno lol. I was just tinkering with it a while back and tried a new colour scheme. I'm shocked anyone has even visited that thing.

OH but I visit your site religiously.

It's about as good as any religion.

Or at least it was until you made it orange D:<

I changed it back in 3 seconds, just for you

It's still orange for me D:

never mind, just cleared my cache

<3

Good job I still have a copy of the black and green CSS file

ORDER HAS BEEN RESTORED!

I visited your site when it was orange.

You're one of a lucky few then.

I visited your site when it was black and green

it's cosy in there, formatted like a very early NG

Formatted as simple as I could make it.

Look at you all, commenting about some shitty website that I used to tinker about with.

some would say i've compled a story for you

some would say I read it and was most impressed. I liked the part about being Scottish best.

Others would say I've *completed a story for you

whey, typo!

DEAN!

BINNY BOY!

Post in General some, it's not the same without good ol' Dean.

Wait, people know me?

Also, hello good sir. Been a while.

Sounds like a pretty fun time. :D

It was indeed. I can only wish events like that happened more often for me.

you look badass in that pic

I'm a big softy really.

Also that video you linked to is the funniest shit I've seen in ages.

Tony gets the credit for showing me it, but I have to agree. I hadn't laughed like that in a long time.

Only a few more days until you have to make a new post.

OMG CANT WAIT

TROLOLOL

I have no idea what I'll write about this time. Probably some boring shit about having to go back to uni. Don't tell anyone though, it's a surprise.

I thought you were a mod

did you step down or something

Thought I was a mod? You must be mistaken. I've never been a mod.

Have you ever worn a kilt?

Two or three times. Each was a wedding.

your header is great

dogs are cute

That's Kia, my dog. She's a boxer :)