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September marks the end of my summer break and the start of my third year at university. It has been a long summer, seeing as I have had nothing of real significance to do since the start of April which was essentially six months ago. However, now that I'm at the end of summer, it feels like it has flown by. As much as I look forward to having something to do with myself again, I also dread the thought of having to go back to completing coursework and meeting deadlines.

It must be noted that Newgrounds plays an important role for me over the summer months as it is one of my main sources of entertainment. There are also a select few Newgrounds users that keep me amused during the summer, but are also users that I consider to be my friends. Since I don't have a great deal to write about this month, I figured I'd use this space to thank them. They are not the only Newgrounds users that I'd consider to be friends of mine, but they are the users I remain in regular contact with and consider to be amongst my best friends.

This is not intended to be some circle jerkery list. This is simply an acknowledgement of my good friends from Newgrounds and what they have done for me over the summer months and in general since I got to know them. The list is in alphabetical order to avoid any favouritism or whatever:

Ejit: This is a user that I have spoken to on essentially a daily basis for over a year now. I first got to know him at the start of 2010's summer and have considered him a good pal of mine ever since. I bore him with my problems and tell him pretty much everything that is going on in my life. Of all the Newgrounds users, Ejit probably knows me better than any other. The only downside of knowing Ejit is that I occasionally have to listen to his terrible music or watch clips of sporting events, but I guess that's the cost for sharing my troubles with him :P I still haven't actually met Ejit, but I'm sure that day will come. Hopefully he is able to make it to the 2012 NG Manchester Meet, but with it being held during term time, it's doubtful :(

Fim: I met Fim at the NG Manchester Meet back in January of this year. I only spoke to him for a few hours but he was one of the users I got along best with. He helped a slightly drunk me find my way to a cash machine so that I could get more beer money but took me on an extra long route only to discover there was a cash machine right outside the bar. Since then I have remained in regular contact with Fim and even met up with him again at the start of last month, making him the NG user that I have met up with the most. Again, it was only for a few hours, but those few hours were once again a good laugh. I look forward to the next time that I get to hang out with Fim because it's fair to say, he's a pretty cool guy.

Toast-Tony: I encountered Tony posting in a thread back in March of this year and for some unknown reason I decided to send him a PM. From there we basically got to know each other better, ended up regularly playing Xbox together and he became someone that I consider to be a damn good friend of mine. He introduced me to some friends of his and after a short while I guess it's fair to say they also became friends of mine. I met up with Tony and his friend Jordan for a four day trip to Manchester last month and it was without a doubt the highlight of my summer. It's really cool finally meeting someone you've been in regular contact with online in person, especially when you think so highly of them. I think it's safe to say we shall be meeting again, whenever that may be, and I look forward to the laughs that will no doubt follow.

Tramps: I got to know Tramps at the start of 2010's summer and he is the NG user that I have been in regular contact with for the longest period of time. We just generally have random conversations about all kinds of stuff and occasionally we talk to each other over a game of Call of Duty, but not so much these days. Tramps is the other user that I consider to be a good friend yet have not actually met in person yet. All that should be about to change though as he claims he is going to be attending the 2012 NG Manchester Meet but I remain sceptical. Only time will tell I guess.

So yea, basically those are the guys that help to keep me amused over the summer months and I felt it only appropriate to thank them and show my appreciation.

For anyone interested I also started up a Explorers & Adventurers Club. It's basically aimed any anyone who travels or enjoys exploring random places. If it interests you, feel free to post stories, discuss your findings and share pictures of all the cool stuff you've seen.

News post title was inspired by this song:

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Final Day of Freedom Update - 11/09/11

Well, tomorrow is my first day back at university and I'm not particularly looking forward to it. I'd say I've been quite active on the BBS this summer but my levels of activity may well plummet from this point. It's also possible that there wont be a difference as I have a lot of gaps between classes that I need to fill, which may be spent browsing the BBS if I have nothing better to do.

Oh and a few days back I got my first ever filling. Well, two of them to be more accurate and apparently I need to go back for a third. I was not expecting to be getting fillings, but apparently this new dentist of mine thinks it will save me some bother in the future. I was more pissed off that it cost me £30 and I'm still going to have to pay more when I go back for the next one. Also convinced that I've already broke part of the filling.

My brother bought himself a laptop which meant that I could take the desktop from his room. It's less powerful than my MacBook Pro, but this thing has a pretty big monitor and it's far nicer to be using that than a 13 inch laptop screen.

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Back to University - 18/09/11

Well, I've been back to university for a week already and I've been given assignments to do. Nothing too taxing just now but I'd still prefer to not be writing a short essay on the history of logic. I don't even see how that helps us in any way on a computer science course or more specifically, in the artificial intelligence module.

I've also been introduced to my group for the year long project. Thankfully we seem to have a good team and there doesn't appear to be anyone that I have reason to dislike or wish was in a different team, so that's all good.

I'd still prefer it to be the summer holidays right now, but who wouldn't? Not a fan od the 6:30am wake ups and all the sitting around that I have to do on Tuesdays. At least I have something productive to do now.

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Now, here is a charming picture of Scotland. I encounter this every day when I take my dog out a walk, although once university starts up again I'm only going to be able to see this on weekends :(

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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:

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I really don't know what this month has in store. There are three birthdays in my house this month, so that means I have to buy presents. How annoying and expensive. Time to head on over to the DVD bargain bin at Tesco I think.

I'm meant to be going down to Manchester next month, so I'll have to get that sorted out sometime soon. Hopefully this little trip actually goes ahead, because I need at least one exciting thing to happen this summer. Not that I've been particularly bored I guess, but I've not exactly done much. It sucks when most of your friends are in full time work.

Basically, I have nothing else to say about this month, so I'll leave you a video of Toy Dolls doing what they do best, making music fun:

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Exams are over, I didn't bother looking for a job, so now I have nothing of importance to do. I guess in a way I should be quite excited and in some ways I am, but at the same time it also means that I have to keep myself occupied. Most of my friends are in full time work, so I don't really see much of them, meaning most of my time is spent at home. The lack of job means I have little in the way of disposable money, so I'm having to make do with the stuff I already own to amuse myself.

I finally finished reading The Hobbit, after owning that book for around 2 years and having already attempted to read it once but left it for so long that I decided to start again. I have now moved onto reading 1984, but there is always a gap of several days between reading, so who knows when I will get it finished.

My trusty Xbox is another form of entertainment for me right now, although I have grown used to playing as part of a party, so when there isn't one available I tend to lose interest quite quickly. I guess this is the part where I give a big shout out to Toast-Tony, since he has provided me with many hours of laughs and entertainment on the Xbox. Hopefully I'll get back to playing Bad Company 2 with PhrozonFire, warshark, Snuff and H-A-X-O-R-Z (and anyone else who wants to join) when their exams and whatever else are out the way.

I was also meant to be meeting Black-Ops and LazyPint in Edinburgh on the 9th of this month, but Black-Ops was unable to make it and because of my tight budget (downside of not having looked for a job) and other inconveniences, I too will probably be unable to make it. Sorry again, Kieran.

So yea, it's going to be a potentially boring month for me. Probably about as boring as this news post will have been to most of you, but it was the first of the month and I had to write something. I guess my time will be spent reading, watching DVDs and playing video games.

I guess the other way to kill time in Scotland is to get out walking more and admiring our wonderful country in its full glory. I take my dog walks every day and enjoy trying to find new routes, but it's quite hard without venturing too far. Anyway, I guess this is one of my favourite local views. Shame about the camera quality though:

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A New Pastime - 09/06/11

A few days back I decided to order Volume 1 of The Walking Dead comics and it arrived this morning in the mail. It was quite convenient timing to be honest, because I finished reading 1984 this morning which meant I was able to start reading The Walking Dead right away.

First off, I was never much of a reader in the past. I read on a rare occasion and usually finished one book during the summer, but now I'm finding it to be more and more interesting. This is also the first time I have ever really read a comic book or graphic novel since I was a kid. It's really interesting and I prefer viewing the scenes and just reading conversations. The only downside is that I've gone through the entire volume in a couple of hours. There's still a little to go, but not much. I think I will order the next 3 volumes and then from there on, keep buying one or two volumes when I have the money to spare.

They really do make an interesting read, and the comic book thing is a new experience for me.

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Exam Results - 22/06/11

Today my exam results for the second year of my Computer Science degree came in the post:

Foundation Mathematics A - C
Data Structures and Algorithms - B
Interaction Design - C
Internet and Communications - A
Foundation Mathematics B - A
Database Management Systems - A
Programming Languages - A
Software Design - B

I'm really please, especially with the last four seeing as my revision didn't start until two days before each exam.

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The month I have been dreading for a while now. May means exams. Four of them to be precise. At the time of writing this I have still done absolutely nothing in the way of revision for any of my courses and I will most likely regret this. It must be said thought that I have been like this all through education and I have always managed to pull through, so fingers crossed it will be the same this time.

The four courses that I have exams for are Database Management Systems, Programming Languages, Software Design and Foundation Mathematics B. The first exam is on the 12th and the last is on the 20th. I'm not looking forward to waking up at 6:30am as it has been a while since I was last up so early and these days I've found myself waking up after midday so I need to get some kind of regular sleeping pattern again in preparation.

Once the exams are over though, I'm officially finished all university related stuff until mid September and since I don't currently have a job that means I get to sit around and do whatever I want. I got to do the same thing last summer and I must confess that after so long it does get extremely boring and with my friends all in full time work, it also gets rather lonely.

I'm also still a little undecided on the NG London Meet later this year. If I decide that I definitely want to go I will really have to limit my spending, as I have no idea how much the trip will cost me but I am expecting it to be a fair amount. All that money being spent on a single weekend does seem a little unappealing as it will leave me almost penniless until Christmas time. What the decision basically comes down to is either spending my money regularly for the rest of the year and missing out on London or keeping hold on my money until August, spending most of it on the trip but getting to see some people I met earlier this year that really were great fun. I guess it all depends on who is definitely going. We'll see.

Oh, and I recently took a photo of most of my video game collection, so I might as well make use of the image and leave it here. I really do love this collection, so picture whoring it won't hurt. The full list is linked at the top of this post.

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First Exam Down + Reward! - 12/05/11

About half an hour ago my first exam came to an end. It went better than expected, I think. I obviously won't know for sure until I get the marks at some point in July. As a nice reward for completing my exams, I notice that I had levelled up on NG today, to level 32. I've been waiting a while for this, as it is one of my favourite level icons and I'm glad it's finally here. I get to stare at its beauty for a whole 2 months and 9 days, assuming I don't miss a deposit, which is unlike me.

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Exams Are Over - 21/05/11

Today was the first day that I didn't have to worry about revision or an upcoming exam. All that is over and I'm now a free man until September. It was nice to just lounge around all day doing nothing in particular, but I'm sure it will get boring soon unless I start finding things to do.

I'm off to a car boot sale tomorrow morning in the hope of finding some old consoles (especially Nintendo) to add to my gaming collection. Hopefully I'll get lucky and find something decent, but I'm almost expecting to come home empty handed.

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Car Boot Sale - 22/05/11

Was terrible. Compared to when I went last time, there was nothing. All I found of slight interest was a PS1 and a PS2, both of which I already have.

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Today marks the last day of the semester for me, meaning I'm now a free man. Well, sort of anyway. Technically I have nothing to do for the next month and a half, aside from the occasional spot of revision for my exams which will take place in mid-May. This means that I don't have to wake up at 6:30am any more and that I'm not out of the house for eleven hours a day.

There is a downside to this though; my Xbox is still broken. Thankfully I can play my brothers whenever he is out of the house, but I'd still like to get a new one of my own sometime soon. It's just not the same, sitting in your room without one of the vital methods of entertainment. Ah well, maybe I will finally get around to finishing off reading The Hobbit and make a start on 1984.

I have something else to look forward to this month. Something a little more exciting and a first time experience for me. I get the house all to myself for a whole week. I've lived away from home in the past, but I was in catered accommodation which made things a whole lot less exciting. This time, I will have to fend for myself. Nobody will be around to help me do anything. I will officially be the man of the house. I just hope it doesn't turn out like Home Alone, because I really can't be bothered to go around setting up traps throughout my house.

I guess that pretty much sums up my plans for April. I can't imagine it being a particularly exciting month but at least I get a chance to chill out for a change, as oppose to trying to complete coursework on time.

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Home Alone Diary
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Day 1: Today I almost died from electrocution. I also polished my boots. Oh, and why didn't anyone tell me that one persons worth of washing up was still a considerable amount? My new Xbox came today as well. Hoorah!

I tried to make Chinese food for dinner and it was disgusting. Now my kitchen smells of China and all I had to eat was a slab of ice cream. I'm considering making pizza later. Wish me luck.

The pizza worked and it was delicious. I am satisfied... for now.
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Day 2: Today I had a visit from my grandad. He stuck around for about an hour and a half and we spoke about everything and anything. It got me thinking, if it wasn't for him coming round, how many people would I actually speak to during the week?

Then I went to Wetherspoons (pub/restaurant thing) for some gammon stake and a Guinness. The taste of Guinness made me buy more from Tesco. While I was there I also got my mum some sweets for her birthday, only to get home and find some fucker had already opened them. So I'll have to go back and get something else now.
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Day 3: It has been a pretty uneventful day. I went for a walk around a local pond and then later I took another walk down by the river. On both occasions I was with my dog. I'm not really the kind to just randomly to walking on my own.

I played Bulletstorm for the first time today and I have to say, it's nothing special. It just felt like a generic shooter to me with nothing exciting about it at all. Whether I'll go back and finish off the single player remains to be seen.
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Day 4: Aside from this being the first day of the year that I wore shorts outside, nothing eventful happened. That is all.
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Day 5: Today was really warm. Probably the warmest day we've had so far this year and I decided to make the most of it by going for a couple walks with my dog and then again later into town.

I went out to the pub with my dad to see some live bands playing. They were pretty good actually and overall it was a decent night. Got talking to some people I loosely knew from a few years back and met some new faces. I guess it's nice to see that there are still young people in my town with an interest in punk. Was almost under the belief that I was the only one.

Video of the lead act, although that's not from the gig I was at. He seems like a decent guy. Never spoke to him much, but still. He's called Billy Liar if you're interested.
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Day 6: Uneventful day. Woke up feeling a bit dodgy from the night before, but nothing that wasn't to be expected. Aside from that, there is nothing note worthy.
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Day 7: My last full day of being home alone. Everyone comes back tomorrow around 6pm. Looking back I guess the week wasn't as eventful as I was expecting, but I don't really know what I was expecting to happen anyway. It will be nice to have people around the house again, but at the same time I think I might having the place to myself. I won't get to choose what I do and when I do it any more. I won't get to choose what and when I eat. I'm sure there will seem to be a big difference in the smallest of things.
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Day 8: Everyone is now back home. I am home alone no more. These daily updates have become irrelevant. Have a pleasant evening.
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[ My Video Game Collection ] - [ Previous Month ] - [ Following Month ]

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The month has only just started and I've already burnt £70 on a new pair of boots, but I have been needing them for a while. I decided to be a little more adventurous than usual and went for a colour other than black because I already have two pairs of black boots. I opted for some really old school skinhead looking 'cherry red' Doc Martens. I already have a black pair (which are becoming too small and are a little messed up) so I figured I should try something different.

Buying new boots also made me realise that I need a new jacket as well, because it's getting too warm for my usual MA-1 flight jacket and my current Harrington jacket is a little too big for me after dropping a couple of stone in weight since this time last year. Again, I wanted something different than my usual black, so I'll probably try a maroon one (again, it's pretty old school skinhead style) this time. That will be another £30 gone when I order it.

This led me to wanting a new pair of jeans, because again, I need some smaller ones. This then made me want some new shirts and who knows what else I'll decide to purchase. I planned to keep as much money as I could in preparation for the NG London Meet in August which I plan on attending and I apear to be off to a pretty bad start.

I'm sure this news post was highly interesting to you and if you made it this far you deserve a pat on the back. People have requested that I start blogging (it seems to be a new trend amongst my friends) but a newspost like this only makes it clearer to me how dull my life currently is.

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Dead Xbox 360 - 17/03/11

St. Patrick's day. A day where I'm meant to go out, buy Guinness and drink as much of it as possible. However, my Xbox decided to die and because of it's age (it's an old Core model) I'm not going to bother sending it for repair, but instead I'll buy a new one. This means I can't afford to be spending money on Guinness. What a crap St. Patrick's Day this has been :(

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Tribute To A Friend - 26/03/11

Today I got news that one of my old high school friends has passed away. It was really unexpected and a great shame because he was a genuine nice guy. I don't think I ever saw him hurt or offend anyone. The world needed more people like him and yet it decides to take him away.

RIP Bruce

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

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Introduction

After having so much to look forward to in January, February doesn't seem to have much for me. It's looking to be a fairly quiet month. However, I am starting to notice all the coursework and lab work that I have to do for uni catching up on me. It's possible that I've left some things later than I would have liked.

For my Programming Languages class, we basically get given weekly exercises to complete, most of which I've done but there's a few I still need to have signed off. So far it's been nothing too challenging but it's been hard adapting to programming in C as oppose to Java. I'm getting there though. Soon we will be coding compilers for our own programming languages and towards the end of the month we will be learning how to program using an assembly language. It's probably going to be quite hard.

For my Database Management Systems class, we have a group project to do. It's basically to design and implement a database for a system of our choice. We're still in the design phase, but we've not actually done a whole lot of work yet. Thankfully all the people in my group are friends of mine, so it's not like I have to chase down random people to get some work done. We just seem to have been rather lazy up to this point.

For my Software Design class, we've been given a piece of coursework but it's not something that I find all that interesting. There's a lot of diagrams and charts that need to be drawn for our ideas on how to best set up a system to perform a specific set of tasks. I was never a fan of these planning type stages which is why I'm not so fond of the class. It's probably the least exciting piece of coursework so far.

For my Maths class, we've just been doing some simple work with vectors and are about to move on to matrices. I've actually done most of this stuff in the past while I was in school, so it's more of a reminder than learning new material which does make things a little easier.

If you've made it this far without me boring you to death, I can tell you that I have Rock Band 3 on order, along with one of the drum kits. I've played Guitar Hero 3 to the point where it's just repetitive now, even though I've not been able to finish the final few songs on expert yet, but I don't think I ever will. I'm quite excited to mess about with the drums on Rock Band. They seem like they'll make a fun change. If you're interested in playing with me at some point and I'm not already on your XBL friends like, just leave your Gamertag at the bottom of the page or PM me.

So that pretty much sums up February. There's not a great deal going on and definitely not anything exciting. I guess it's the clam before the storm. I imagine that by next month I will be swamped with coursework and assessments.

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Minecraft - 14/02/11

So, something I never though would happen happened. I bought Minecraft. I've been sceptical of this 'game' for so long now and always refuse to buy it when asked, but Tramps convinced me to buy it. It's totally pointless but I still feel compelled to build things. Seems to be worth the money.

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My Third Birthday - 16/02/11

Today is the three year anniversary of this Newgrounds account. It feels like I've been here a lot longer, but apparently not. Feel free to send me cake, cards and gifts. I will accept all with open arms.

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Ubuntu - 19/02/11

Last night I went back to thinking about installing Ubuntu on my MacBook Pro. It's something I've thought of doing in the past, but never actually gone ahead with it for a few reasons. Firstly, it's meant to be a pain in the ass to install, with driver issues and who knows what else. Secondly, I'm already dual booting with XP, so I didn't think a third partition would be the best idea.

However, I downloaded a copy of the install disk and thanks to a guide shown to me by deckheadtottie, I went about installing it. I can honestly tell you that it is now my favorite operating system. The only reason that I will go back to Windows is for its ability to game and the only reason that I will return to OSX is if I need the long lasting battery life.

There really were no major issues getting it working. I just needed to download a driver for my wireless card and I had to do some minor tinkering to get the sound working.

[ My Video Game Collection ] - [ Following Month ]

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Introduction

It's only just the start of 2011 and already January is looking to be a busy month. The first major thing to happen will be my return to university on the 10th. I've had a fun few weeks with no work to do and no deadlines to meet. Sadly all the fun will soon be coming to and end and it will be back to work as usual. The very first week back and I have an exam which was delayed from mid December because of bad weather. I'm really not looking forward to it.

Next up comes the Newgrounds Manchester Meet, starting on the 14th and ending on the 16th for me. I've never been to a Newgrounds meet before and it should be an interesting experience. It will be nice to finally meet some of the people behind the usernames and hopefully make a few new friends. Downside to all of this being the four and a half hour bus journey but I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end.

The day after I return from Manchester, it will be my 19th birthday. As of yet I don't have anything planned. I may possibly try to go out on the weekend with my old school friends but I'm really going to consider Manchester as my birthday weekend. Nineteen is a pretty boring age and indicates the end of my teen years. It's not really like I'm leaving anything behind.

Busy month, should be good fun.

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Manchester Meet

So I actually went and attended my first Newgrounds Meet. It was a great experience and if you ever get the chance to go to one in the future I don't think you should turn it down. I'm pretty sure I'll be showing up at more in the future.

Day 1

When I first arrived in Manchester, I was there pretty early to decided to be brave and go exploring on my own for a bit. I didn't go particularly far but I was able to work out where a fair few things were located.

I eventually found my way to Piccadilly Station and met up with my good friend Jawdyn for the first time. It was a little weird finally meeting the person behind the user name even though in a way it felt like I'd already met him. He's someone that I'd been speaking to for a few months before hand, so I think it's fair to say that we already knew each other fairly well.

We made our way over to the Premier Inn which was actually a pretty decent place to stay. It was a lot better than I had anticipated. Pretty soon after dumping our bags in the room we found Sequenced sitting in the lobby and got talking to him for a while before then finding citricsquid.

Since we were a little hungry we headed to a Mexican restaurant where we met up with Luis and quite a few others for the first time. I forget who we all met there because I wasn't really all that familiar with anyone at the time.

Not long after that quite a lot of the NG users ended up in me and Jawdyn's hotel room playing Jungle Speed with Bezman. It's a pretty awesome game and Bezman just dominates it. He's become pretty much unbeatable. I met a lot more people here as well. Too many to list but you all know how you are. I recall this being the first time I met Bahamut, who I spent a lot of time talking to over the weekend.

Later that night it was time to hit the karaoke bar, which was one of the highlights of the meet. I seem to recall introducing myself to Simon and Fim quite well. Both are really awesome guys as was Fim's friend Matt who came along. I spent quite a bit of time that night talking to those lot. I also seem to recall Fim helping me find a cash machine which was apparently 'near by' and actually miles away only to discover that there was one right where we set off from. It was a good adventure none the less.

Day 2

The main event of day two was supposed to be the Chill Factor, but after a lot of walking in the pissing rain with Oliver and bus journeys we discvered that not many people had actually booked their session, so most of us ended up sitting in Wetherspoons an chatting for a few hours.

After that we headed back into town and ended up at this awesome place called the Kyoto Lounge. If you're ever in Manchester you have to go and visit it. Think games consoles and PCs mixed with alcohol. It was just fantastic fun. I spent some time playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero with a few people which was pretty amusing. I definitely want to head back there at some point in the future with Newgrounds users. It was the most fun I've had for a while.

Day 3

It didn't take long for the last day of the meet to come around and it was a pretty sad though but we still had a pretty good time. I went wandering around the Arndale Centre with Bezman Black-Ops, LazyPint, Ockeroid and Ragnarokia before heading over to Luis' place where we just spent some time playing games.

It was then that we sadly had to depart and head out separate ways. I met a lot of new people at this meet, many of whom I do plan to remain in contact with and I've already made attempts to add people on Facebook and such. Those of you who I spoke to at one point or another can probably expect PMs from me soon.

I had a great time and I have to thank you guys for that. I was treating this weekend as my birthday night out as well and all of you lot made it awesome. I'll definitely be making attempts to attend future meets. I made too many friends for me not to come and say 'hi' again at some point in the future.

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Sorry if I've not linked you in this post. I was in a rush to write down as much as I could before I got some well needed sleep. I'll be updating this at some point in the future. Excuse all the typos and stuff. I'll get that sorted too.

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Me and Fim. That guy is brilliant fun.

This page is no longer being maintained as it was too much hassle and became out of date. Fear not though, for there is a complete interactive list of my games here. It is formatted far nicer than this list was and I keep it regularly updated! It also allows you to see which games I have or (more likely) haven't beat.

If game collecting is something that interests you, check out my YouTube channel. Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoy watching this kind of thing!

Click here for a playlist in which I cover my game collection in more detail.

Photo of my game collection as of 24th of April 2011: