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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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4y 26d

January - A Fresh Month

Posted by Dean - January 1st, 2013


Hope you guys had a good Christmas and a happy new year! Looks like you're being treated to a third year of these monthly blogs from me.

I don't really have a great deal that I expect to happen this month so instead I'll waffle on about some other things.

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NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS
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I'm not really someone who sticks with new year resolutions because I can never think of anything that will benefit me or is realistic to stick to. I don't smoke, drink excessively or eat a load of junk food so none of those common resolutions apply to me. I honestly can't really think of anything.

I guess I'll just be a bit vague and make my resolution be to have a healthier lifestyle. I'm not really sure what that will involve doing though. I guess I could try to eat less junk, although like I previously said I don't actually eat all that much junk. I've gotten into the bad habit of drinking Pepsi when I'd usually drink water, so that will have to stop. I'd try joining a gym or something but I was discussing this with Ejit and I still don't think I like the idea of a gym. Doesn't really seem like somewhere I'd fit in. We'll see though. I definitely wont be signing up to a gym while I'm still at uni though. I don't have the time.

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CHRISTMAS LOOT
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First off, Christmas. Christmas was pretty great and I got some cool loot from it, so I guess I'll start with that. I'll just list some of the more interesting/useful things I got.

Persona 3 FES and Persona 4
The complete Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD
The complete Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD
A new electric shaver
Some Diesel aftershave, which I actually like
Slippers

Why am I telling you I got slippers? Because slippers are great. I've never really had any before so I used to either walk about my house in socks or wearing my trainers (sneakers, to you yanks) which wasn't ideal. Slippers are perfect though. They make things so much better. That electric shaver is so much better than my old one too and the Diesel aftershave actually smells pretty nice, which is cool, because a lot of the aftershaves I have are pretty meh at best.

As you could probably guess, there's also a lot of Star Trek there for me to get through. I just started on season 2 of TNG last night and it's pretty great. I miss Spock though :( Then if all that Star Trek wasn't enough I have those Persona games to play at some point and they'll take forever to beat as well but they're meant to be fantastic games, so I thought I'd recommend them as gifts.

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NEW GAMING COMPUTER
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Okay, so I don't actually have a new gaming PC yet but I reckon that in a few weeks time, I will. I'm hoping to have it sorted by the end of January. It's my 21st birthday on the 17th and apparently that's quite a big deal, so I might be getting a decent amount of money (by my standards) thrown in my direction. I'll be combining some of that with the money I have just now to build a PC that's actually capable of gaming. I've never owned a decent PC and given how much time I spend on computers, I think it's about time I got myself something a little better. Not to mention I don't think the next gen of video game consoles will interest me, so this will be what replaces them.

Really excited to get this new PC but I'm still working on putting together a list of parts. I've changed my mind several times. I still don't know whether to go with one of Intel's shiny i5 processors or whether to just save myself some money and go with the AMD Phenom II 965. I'll be adding 8GB RAM to the list and I think I might go for a Nvidia 660 GTX but I've not really done too much research on graphics cards. If you have a recommendation, let me know.

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BACK TO UNI
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Unfortunately, I have to go back to uni on the 8th. I'm fed up with it now to be honest. On the plus side, I'll be done with it by Easter and then I get to move on into the real world. I still have no idea what I'll do after I graduate. I don't even know if I want to bother looking for a job that's related to my computer science degree (assuming I get the degree) such as working as some kind of software developer. It would be hard to find work like that in my town I reckon, so who knows what I'll end up doing. I'll just be happy to have an income and eventually think about getting my own place. I'm not sure how far into the future I'll have to look before that happens though.


Comments

SO DEAN'S A DONUT PINCHER AGAIN

A donut puncher?

Oh yeah, this Christmas I got nothing but cash so I used it to get a new 1920X1080 HD Monitor and Windows 8.

During the winter sale on Steam I also got Arkham City GOTY, Mass Effect, L.A. Noire and Deus Ex Human Revolution.

That's pretty cool. How do you like Windows 8? I'm a little hesitant to consider using it.

I've also played all of those games you mentioned and it's money well spend. They're fantastic. LA Noire and Deus Ex being my favourites of those games.

WHO DARES TO REMOVE MY SOPHISTICATED COMMENT?

Not me, good sir.

It's essentially 7 but with an oversimplified interface that seems more appropriate for tablets and touchscreens but the internal workings are the same with a couple of components installed, you can get the start button back easy, something a lot of people had a difficult time adjusting to.

That being said, fewer crashes and faster load times are nice but I hate having to open up an entirely new program just to view photos, watch videos or listen to music because the windows for some common accessories have been ditched.

So, which do you prefer, 7 or 8? It was my intention to install Windows 7 on this new PC I plan on building, but if enough people seem to think that it's worth going with Windows 8, I might go with that.

I initially would've gone with 7 because it has a more familiar interface and 8 doesn't. But it can be solved if with a few adjustments found on cNet.com. We only installed it because the starter pack was up for $40 and like I said, the internal workings are all pretty much the same so worry about supported OS hasn't been too much of a problem so far. Hotline Miami is the only game in my library that doesn't run anymore.

I have legal access to free copies of Win7 and 8, so right now I'm thinking it might be best to stick with 7 for a while and then upgrade once Win8 has been around a little longer. I just can't help thinking I'll prefer 7.

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