Donuts n Drifts

What a fun weekend! I had a chance to catch up on loads of movies, gaming and most importantly had a real blast with the kids. Saturday morning saw the three of us head to the shops where my daughters proceeded to buy their own choice of Christmas trees and decorations. I had told them that this year they get to make their own Christmas trees up, being able to choose everything. The results were surprisingly good their choice of colours all matched and were actually quite tasteful. The trees they decorated look fantastic! My house is starting to feel very Christmassy indeed and we are all getting in the festive mood.

Gaming wise saw some real progression in DIRT3 and I’m pleased to say I’m getting offers left right and center from racing Teams to join their squads. I am having some problems though. The Gymkana stages are a huge amount of fun, but I have to say I’m distinctly average at it. I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. Yes, I can do the donuts and spins and drifts, but not with the precision required and it does take me a few precious seconds to get a donut or spin started in the correct zones. When you’re doing a time trial run those seconds are incredibly important. The highest medal I have achieved so far in those stages is a Silver. If you know me and driving games, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and my inability to grasp the intricacies of this particular part of the game is driving me round the bend! (excuse the pun). Practice makes perfect. I’ll get there I’m sure. 

Free Weekend

There are plenty of negatives to it, but I'm a glass half full kinda guy. One of the bonuses of having my marriage break down is the spare time I have all of a sudden been gifted. I'm sharing custody of the kids, and that means every other week I get a free weekend. Totally free. No one to please but me. It's been years since I have had that kinda freedom. So, what did I do with my free weekend?

Normally such freedom would mean me heading out on my motorbike to enjoy the stunning scenery and mountain ranges in the general locale, but that's not possible since someone knocked me off it a couple of months ago and she still sits on my drive with a hole in the side of her engine waiting for the Insurance company to pull their finger out. There is another reason I didn't do that this weekend, but that's down to me being a wuss. It's bloody cold here. Especially in the mountains. Well, relatively. I have been in the south of Spain for 6 years now and my blood must have thinned enough for me to start feeling the relative cold. It's only about 10 degrees here, which isn't 'too' bad when in the UK, but here, it's nippy. So that kind of confined me to the house aside from a couple of strolls down to the port to grab some take away food.

In order, my weekend went like this. Friday evening it started with the gathering of munchies, collation of booze and tabletop Call of Cthulhu roleplaying. A really fun session that saw the return of my burly woodkeeper ' Cutter' to the fray. Although he didn't actually get up to much as he is very much more the brawn than brains of the group and it was a particularly cerebral session. He seemed to be in the background a bit as a result, but he'll get his time to shine again soon I am sure! He did get to use some of his legendary tracking skills though up in Derbyshire, where he was hunting what we think may turn out to be a Werewolf. I'm sure there will be some chances for him to get physical though soon, the session was left in a real cliffhanger! That session ended late (I'm an hour in front of the rest of the players), so I logged in to EQ2 for about an hour, then watched some TBBT and went to bed.

Digital Buddy

So, I have this habit of logging in to EQ2 just after I have made the kids their dinner and going /AFK until I then get them settled in bed later. Just me being lazy really so as soon as the little ones are asleep I can get straight in to the action. But I'm very happy that last night I did that.

I was walking past the computer and saw in the chat box "Naadir has logged in". I couldn't hardly contain myself. Naadir is Jahf, an old friend from way back when in EQ2 history and we have stayed strong buddies ever since. He's a sterling fella and I have a great fondness for our friendship. So, after not seeing him for so long online (it's been, well it's been bloody ages!) it was wonderful to be able to chat to him again and catch up. Really made my week that did.

He's digging out his mic so tonight we can chat away the evening just like old times, putting the world to rights and generally having a right old laugh. That's what I love about EQ2 and online gaming in general, especially MMOs where the community is central to the game. I've tried explaining it to folks who look at me like I have just been crowned the 'King of the Nerds' when I tell them I indulge in a bit of online role playing in a Massively Multiplayer Online game. But what they don't realise is that whilst they are sat on their couch watching Coronation Street, that I am reaching out around the world and making new contacts and feeding existing friendships. That's right you don't have to have physically met someone to be their friend!

I'm Back?

Well, it looks like I'm back! Well, until I get too bored or busy again.

Quite a lot has happened since my last post way back when on Thursday November 10th 2011.

My real life has been chaotic, crazy, heartbreaking, joyful, and in some circumstances, very lucky!

My wife of 13 years left me, but we're still good mates and are sharing custody of the kids. All is happy in that arena now. I also got a new job. A pretty well paid one with quite a lot of responsibility and that seems to be going well too. My youngest daughter hit 4 years old, my oldest will be 11 in January.

Gaming wise, I am still dabbling in EQ2, but to be honest haven't done anything constructive really in either the Age of Discovery Ex-Pac, or indeed the new one, Chains of Eternity. I have them both, but just seem to dabble in the quests or mentor down helping folks when I log in. A couple of nights a go I took part in my first raid for an age! It was fun to see Volt way down the parse with the healers after a couple of years of top end hiatus. I certainly have a lot of work to do in exploring the last two ex-pacs and getting the old codger up to speed. 18 months ago I was used to seeing him near the top of the parse always. It's nice to have a challenge.

On Hold...

Well, try as I might, I just can't seem to gather the time or enthusiasm to get blogging at the moment. Things haven't stopped for me in life or EQ2 and all is still progressing nicely. It's just that when I find I have time to write, I am spending it writing my book and not my blog. So, I'm not abondoning ole bloggy, just putting her on hold for a while. I'll say "see you soon", although to be honest, I'm not sure how 'soon' that will be.

Be well.

Back to the Future

It’s not unexpected (to me) that I’ve been away from blogging for a while. Of all my non essential duties in life, sadly it’s one of the first to get the ‘heave-ho’ for a while if things get busy for me. It’s simple really. I can’t shirk on time with my family and my other hobbies (like spending time with Ema, and gaming) takes up the little spare time I get at home and when work is busy, there is no chance to do anything other than that. But by the same fact I actually get a little frustrated if I cannot find the time to post.  I guess I have got used to, over the years, being able to vent my frustrations, share my funny stories, or simply just to type and empty the mind, and when that conduit is taken away from me, I think poor Ema get’s it in the ear as I discuss my thoughts with her instead. So, without further ado, in the interest of giving Ema a break from my ramblings, here are some updates.

I’ve been playing EQ2 pretty relentlessly when I get spare time. I’ve continued raiding and Volts equipment is not starting to look something like it should be. There’s some pretty large and important gaps though, such as my leg and head pieces. The leg pieces mob goes down at least once a week for us, and yet I still am waiting to be lucky enough to see them drop (always seem to be mage and scout legs when we kill Proto-Exarch Finnrdag) and when it has dropped I have never won the roll. As of yet the only head piece mob I have killed is in the x2 and I’ve only ever seen the fighter head piece drop once. Yes I lost that roll too. Aside from my unlucky rolls on those, I really have been doing quite well with drops. Fully fabled apart from my Legendary BP, with only two armour pieces to upgrade and a charm slot. So I’m pretty pleased. 

I know! It's been a while..

And it's likely to be a while longer. I have so much going on at the moment in real life, I simply do not have the brain space to think about what I am going to write and although this may come as a surprise to some, I do actually consider my scribings before they are posted. This does not mean I won't be back regularly blogging, it just means I have to get all this RL crap outta the way first.

I know it's not MMO based, but there is one thing close to my heart I wanted to touch upon quickly before I head off to do more work, and that is this weekends British Superbike Chamionship final three races this weekend at Brands Hatch circuit (awesome place! It's where I cheered Colin Edwards to his second World Superbike Championship win).

The racing this weekend was spectacular to say the least and after a whole seasons worth of racing across 26 races throughout the UK, the Championship was won by six thousandths of a second! The finish had to be confirmed by timer and a photo finish. There was literally a wheel in it. That's some damn close racing. Sadly the fella I was supporting, John 'Hopper' Hopkins for the Crescent Racing Suzuki Team was the one to lose out in this battle to Tommy Hill. Hill was just as deserving of the Championship as he rode amazingly this year especially when you consider the difficult injuries he has comeback from and not to mention he nearly quit racing back in 2003 (I think) when his funding ran out.

So, a heart felt set of commiserations for Hopper who did an absolutely stunning job riding at the front for most of the season, especially when he had never ridden at over half of the tracks, and congratulations to Tommy Hill. Both amazing riders and ideally, they both should have won. I know it's not possible, but come on...six thousandths of a second after a whole seasons racing!

The below video (click through to watch in a better size) is well worth a look. One of the best final laps I have ever seen in motorcycle racing. Hopper is on the blue & white Suzuki #21, and Hill is on the Yamaha R1 in Yellow #33. Amazing stuff. Hats off to these riders. Apologies to any F1 fans out there or even MotoGP fans (yes I am one), but this ferocious battle is what motor racing is all about, not a procession. The size of the cajones on these guys...phenomenal.

The photo finish! This race decided the whole championship..after 26 races, this is how close it was..

Be well.