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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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February - A Wealthy Month

Posted by Dean - February 1st, 2014


As I mentioned in my last post I accepted a job offer recently and I've now been working there for almost a month. Time has really flown by and the people I'm working with are all good fun. Had my first pay day a few days ago as well, which was never going to be a bad thing. It's nice to finally have a proper income for once. There was also a works night out last night which I went to just as a chance to get to know some of the people better. Was a good night but I'm not looking forward to seeing some of the photos on Monday.

Something else that I've started recently is making the switch to Blu-Ray. Prices seem to be a lot more reasonable than I remember them so I figured it'd be worth a shot. I have a small stack of films that I plan to watch in the near future but so far I haven't started any of them yet. I got: Alien, Aliens, An American Werewolf in London, Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, Forbidden Planet, Mars Attacks!, The Thing (1982) and the Universal Monsters box set which has 8 horror films from the 30's onwards. Stuff like Dracula and Frankenstein. Hopefully I'll get a couple of those watched this weekend. I've always felt like I don't fully appreciate media as much as most other people seem to. I watch something and then generally forget about it. It's not very often that I think about what I watched or the message it was trying to convey so I'm toying with the idea of writing "reviews" after I watch a movie. Not with the intention of having other people read them, but just so that I'm required to think about the films.

I'm still gaming fairly regularly too. At the start of the year I got a PS3 with The Last of Us and Arkham Origins. I've already beaten The Last of Us and thought it was a pretty interesting game. It wasn't particularly challenging but it had a nice story and atmosphere that made me want to keep playing. On my 22nd birthday I also received a copy of Symphony of the Night from my brother which I was not expecting. This is without a doubt the most sought after / valuable game in my collection now and arguably one of the best. Haven't finished it yet but I'm probably not too far away from the end. Also currently trying to play through the Uncharted series when I get a chance but so far I'm a little underwhelmed by it. I expected more, but I'll stick with it. Other than that, I'm probably just going to be trying to get more of the PS3 exclusive games that I've been missing out on over the years. I've put a little list together so I'll just get them when I'm in the mood for them.

Ever since I graduated from university I've also not done much in the way of programming. That's something I'm hoping to change but realistically I don't know how much of my free time I'll want to invest in it. My free time is obviously a lot more limited now than it was so it can be hard to do all the things I'm wanting to do. Probably going to get myself a Raspberry Pi, just as something to keep me interested I suppose. It's not really a necessary purchase but I'm interested in trying to write some client/server applications so the Pi could easily act as a cheap server machine.

Oh, I've also taken to reading manga again. Not that it's something I have much experience of but a while back I ordered the first two volumes of Magi. Read the first and some of the second before I just stopped and left them. Started reading it again and I'll probably try to stick with it. Also considering getting back into the Walking Dead graphic novels. I have the first 4 volumes which I read a while back and then never got around to getting the 5th.

Anyway, you guys been up to anything exciting?


Comments

i have been on the job hunt for the past two months, a call back here and there, the occasional interview, though nothing has come through. soon as i get a source of income i plan to purchase music equipment to play and record with: synthesizers, fl studio, macbook as a workstation, so much more.

i have been eying this guitar as well, actually a couple. at my guitar center, which for a uk equivalent i would say pmt, i have interest in acquiring either a gibson es-335 semi hollowbody, or a gibson sg. both have great sounds for me and i would love to not only play them but add them to a guitar collection i wish to have.

i do not game as often as i used to. most games i play today i play on my 3ds. been slowly making my way through pokémon x, and i mean to get my hands on the latest zelda, a link between worlds. there are many games i would like to have that are currently out, if funds were not lacking.

things sound good on your end! good to see you with income and some nice purchases. i will admit to drifting away during a movie and not remembering nor appreciating it. the idea of writing reviews seems like a good idea to focus on the movie.

the last of us was a great game, though i was torn at the ending. as i played it i was thinking i would have done the opposite, for the greater good. in his shoes though, i prolly would have felt what he was going through and done the same. arkham origins is a good one, but the best one is definitely symphony of the night. score on that one!

i have little to no knowledge of programming, so that lingo usually flies over my head. it is a valuable skill indeed, so do what you can with it.

most of my manga reading is off my phone, though i would like to start collecting physical volumes to set on a bookshelf or two, particularly the death note series which i loved. the anime was great too.

s'bout it. cheers!

Job hunting isn't fun, so hopefully you find something soon. I didn't think I was ever going to find a job then got offered three. I imagine it'd be really easy to just blow all your income as soon as you get it, which is something I'm trying to avoid.

I enjoyed The Last of Us but I had mixed feelings about the ending. No so much because I particularly liked/disliked the ending, it just felt a bit too abrupt to me. It didn't really feel like the game was due to end when it did, or the ending came about too quickly. I'm not sure but something just felt a little off to me.

As for reading manga on your phone, I'm not sure that's something I could do. I've tried reading some Marvel comics on my phone before but it just wasn't the same. I'd prefer to have a physical book any day. Downside is they're not exactly cheap and if you get enough of them they start to take up a fair bit of physical space.

Started watching Netflix's House of Cards. It's good!

I was considering watching that back when I was using the free Netflix trial. Maybe I'll need to sign up for Netflix again.