Archive on mattous.co.uk

Black Temple Cleared!

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:04:00 +0000

Well I never got round to saying we downed the Illidari Council (the day after we killed Mother Shahraz) and then Wednesday/Thursday re-cleared up to Illidan again. Sunday we spent pretty much all day wiping on him learning the fight — our best attempt was 8%. Monday one of our fire resistance tanks didn’t show, but Tuesday we had another geared up and after a few more hours of wipes we killed him! Black Temple cleared! Only 6 bosses left in the game that I’ve never killed! We’re not geared for Sunwell yet but in a few weeks we’ll be going and giving it a go. I’m well pleased with our progress — it took the guild about 2 months to clear MH and BT!

Side note: during our Illidan kill attempt, around 32%, my keyboard batteries died. When Maiev showed up I ran to get another to plug in. Thankfully while I was away I didn’t wipe the raid. Also had someone banging on the door while all this was going on — didn’t answer it, still no idea who it was! Even with all that I still managed to come second on the healing meters. Go me!

Illidari Council defeated 12/08/08

Illidan Stormrage slain 19/08/08

Drops:

Black Bow of the Betrayer
Zhar’doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer
Chestguard of the Forgotten Conqueror (x2)
Chestguard of the Forgotten Protector

Illidari Council defeated 12/08/08

Illidan Stormrage slain 19/08/08

Your mother!

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Well it’s been a good week for Antihero! Tonight we killed Mother Shahraz! We only killed RoS yesterday so I’m pretty surprised that we made it so quickly. We didn’t have masses of Hearts of Darkness so could only spare enough to get everyone 3 parts of their shadow resist gear, which meant we were slightly gimped. I had around 254 buffed and there were some people who were a lot less. We wiped a fair bit because of the lack of resist and people failing on getting Fatal Attraction. Illidari Council here we come!

Mother Shahraz defeated 11/08/08

Loots:

3x Pauldrons of the Forgotten Protector
Leggings of Devastation

RoS down! Plus a nice upgrade

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:56:00 +0000

Today I finally got an upgrade for my Red Riding Hood’s Cloak from Karazhan. Gurtogg Bloodboil finally dropped some healing loot! Shroud of Forgiveness is way better looking than my old cape — for one thing — but it also gave me 36 more healing, 120 health and about 1.2 more mana regen! I guess those are the kind of upgrades you get when you go from Tier 4 to Tier 6! Best priest cloak until the twins in Sunwell.

Oh and while writing this post we had 2 tries on RoS and downed him on the second try of the day! That’s 6/9 BT! Time to go farm for Hearts of Darkness! Then it’s Mother Shahraz!

My new cloak — Shroud of Forgiveness

Reliquary of Souls defeated 10/08/08

Magtheridon Rocks!

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:11:00 +0000

It’s been almost 2 months since my last blog post — I’ve just not been able to find the time for it! I’ve got loads of news though on what I’ve been up to since I moved to Magtheridon. Moving server was by far the best decision I’ve made in my WOW career. Magtheridon is such an awesome server — you can guarantee pug Karas will be running any time you need, day or night! They don’t fail. Out of the 5 or so I did, none had any problems doing a full clear in about 4 hours. Pug Gruul’s are just as frequent as Kara — again with no problems clearing the whole instance. Maggy raids also run fairly regularly and SSC/TK pugs do happen, but the ones I went with didn’t do so well! Pug 70 content aside, one of my favourite things about the server is the weekly level 60 content pugs. We’re not talking MC runs here (though they do happen) — we’re talking full Naxx clears, AQ40 clears and BWL. There’s a group of people that clear all the 40-man level 60 content every week. I have my Tier 3 ring from Kel’Thuzad to prove it — that’s something that, when the expansion hits, will not be obtainable ever again. So I’ll be holding onto that!

I spent my first few weeks trying out several guilds, none of which I liked. I applied everywhere I could and eventually found somewhere I liked. The guild’s name is Antihero — when I joined they were 4/5 MH and 3/9 BT. Since joining we have killed Archimonde 4 times now (and I got my T6 head — my first part!). We killed Teron Gorefiend without too much bother with constructs in the raid, and have killed Gurtogg Bloodboil twice and had some decent attempts on RoS (best being about 30% on phase 3). So now we are 5/5 MH and 5/9 BT. MH clears now only take us about 3 and a half hours — and that’s usually with about an hour of wipes on Archimonde because we still seem to have some problems there, and will continue to for a while I expect. This week they decided to make me an officer also, which is cool — all I really do is assign healing targets but it’s nice to be more involved.

So all in all I’m very happy with the move. I’m getting to see and beat content that previously I’d only seen in videos, and if we can clear BT before the expansion is released I’ll be one happy priest! There are still people back on Bladefist that I miss but actually a lot of people I knew from there were already here, came with us, or have moved recently to join us. It’s a great server and anyone looking to find a new place to call home — I highly recommend checking it out!

Naxxramas — the best looking instance in the game

Archimonde Down 07/07/08

So long and thanks for all the fish

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:09:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post I’ve been thinking about a realm transfer and it’s now official. I’m planning on migrating my Priest to Magtheridon. This decision was not one that was made lightly — over the last two years I’ve developed a strong attachment to my current server Bladefist. I made a lot of good friends here but unfortunately they have now mostly all gone, migrating away to different servers over the last 3-4 months. My decision to move to Magtheridon was quite an easy one to make — not only is it one of the best PvE realms in Europe (mostly thanks to Nihilum) but also one of my best WOW mates Krakemake has just started his own raiding guild there. They had their first raids this week — the first instance they went to was Mount Hyjal, completely skipping SSC and TK! This seems crazy to me as that kind of thing could never be done on Bladefist!

This post is really going to be about me saying goodbye to Bladefist. I’ve grown very attached to the place and it’s actually surprisingly difficult for me to leave, even though now it’s an awful realm to play on. I first arrived on Bladefist when my guild British Beef transferred from Agamaggan in early 2006. We merged with two guilds to form United Legions soon after the move and started progressing through ZG and eventually started raiding 40-man MC and BWL. By the time TBC was released we had renamed the guild to Final Formation, cleared ZG, AQ20, MC and were 7/8 BWL. Many of the core members leveled to 70 faster than others when the expansion hit, causing problems with early TBC progression. After struggling to get Karazhan on farm the guild disbanded a few months after the release of TBC. After spending a few months in other guilds I went back to leading British Beef and we got Karazhan on farm but struggled with 25-man progression despite having several guilds join with us. We merged with a guild around Christmas 2007 to form Mental Warfare. In this guild we saw fast progression through 25-man Tier 5 instances, getting 6/6 in SSC and 3/4 in TK in about 4 months of raiding. The guild however was victim of several corrupt officers who stole everything in the guild bank and migrated away — this combined with my 2-month break from WOW to focus on University resulted in the death of the guild.

The rest of my WOW history on Bladefist (the last month) has been told in previous posts on this blog which brings me back full circle. I’m now back in British Beef and preparing to transfer, selling as much as possible before the jump. I’ll certainly miss this place but I’m hoping that I’ll come to enjoy playing on Magtheridon as much as I enjoyed playing on Bladefist.

I want to take some time to say thanks to all the people that made my time on Bladefist such fun:

Mattmpg, Pearshaped, Mortiis, Rembo, Deadrood, Demonfly, Czakky/Ticktick, Garaina, Toots/Toofly, Grimpy, Nilmos, Krakemake, Sunstorm, Althulurs, Oomootwo, Eb, Skaythn, Undeadmage/Starcraft, Boogyman, Darkstorn, Flos, Brumdar, Heidegger, Psyaxe, Miquel, Elderpowah, Gael, Amagaad, Azu, Banamano, Blagdor/Hubie, Cryss, Didz, Hexor, Padington, Schism, Smoken, Marn, Icyone, Ironlung, Sharpeye, Thetroll, Narshe, Smeg, Skemtar, Rozal, Mooncalf, Arem, Aten, Dion, Thugcoolio, Rimos, Mogard, Morogh, Nekronis, Nadir, Spiritto, Bloodash, Galvatron, Corann, Yourepwned, Bloodyfist, Zeloth, Ukar, Vandrake, Sizer, Orit, Jerpa, Walish, Shadowknife, Solfk, Tseng, Hanzi, Darel, Darknessorc, Vitriol, Pog, Doggydogg, Comunero, Urthaz, Fashia, Purepwnage, Loobooja, Exu — and my apologies to anyone I missed!

Thanks to all the members who were ever in any of my guilds: British Beef, United Beef, United Legions, Final Formation and Mental Warfare.

Thanks to Bad News for leading those Naxx raids — because of you I can say I’ve cleared 13/15 in old school Naxx and cleared AQ40. Also thanks to everyone in Khaos Dragons and Megiddo for the raids this past month.

ZG Cleared 16/8/06
Onyxia Down 30/9/06
AQ20 Cleared 1/10/06
MC Cleared 20/10/06

Good luck to everyone that I’m leaving behind and to all those that have moved to different servers. It’s been emotional — so long and thanks for all the fish!

Mattous (level 375 fishing, among other things)

ZG Cleared 16/8/06

Onyxia Down 30/9/06

AQ20 Cleared 1/10/06

MC Cleared 20/10/06

What's been keeping me busy

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:49:00 +0000

Well my first two weeks of being back on WOW have been fairly eventful! I haven’t had much time to blog however as I’ve also started a new job as a web developer for a company in Stockton called TeesWeb!

So here’s a bit of an update of my recent goings on in WOW:

Loot: My Badge Loot Comparison post came in handy — I’ve managed to save up 100 badges and bought my Adorned Supernal Legwraps. When fully buffed this pushes my healing to over 2000 which is a pretty big margin! The best bit of loot I got though was my new Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat from the fishing daily quest — I really do love this thing! The next day I got an Eye of the Sea which sold for a very respectable 350g!

Guild: The guild I applied for a few weeks ago — Khaos Dragons — was a bit of a disappointment. During my 2 weeks of belonging to the guild I only got to see one 25 man progression raid, which really wasn’t what I was expecting. So I’ve left and joined the guild Megiddo who are at about the same level of progression (if not a bit further) and raiding 4 nights a week without any attendance troubles.

Downings: There was a new first for me this week — downing Rage Winterchill for my first time! The fight was fairly easy once we managed to get the waves of trash under control. Managed to reach Friendly with The Scale of the Sands — not a lot of use to me until I get my (now optional) attunement quest done though. The one progression raid I was in with Khaos Dragons was actually very successful, getting two first kills for the guild in one night — we killed The Lurker Below and Morogrim Tidewalker without too many problems. Shame that after that there were no more 25 man progression raids.

Exploration: I decided to get back into a bit of Azeroth exploration this week as dailies were getting boring. I managed to beat the fatigue debuff for long enough to reach the edge of the world and stay there for a bit until I went out of mana. Also took a look at what’s behind the mountain range south of Tanaris, Un’Goro and Silithus. Checked out Ironforge airport and the farm that sits in the mountains in southern Wetlands. I’m thinking up some posts for my WOW exploration discoveries — even if they’re not really breaking news, exploring is still one of my most favourite things to do in WOW.

Reputation: I finally made it to Exalted with Thrallmar and Lower City after doing a string of heroics! Not much useful loot there for me but it’s another few exalteds to add to my collection! My Shattered Sun Offensive reputation is about halfway through Revered at the moment but has slowed down a bit these past few days due to daily boredom and exploring fun!

Others: I finally reached 375 fishing — the new daily quests really gave me more of a reason to get into fishing again and it’s a new way to relax after a hard night’s wiping. I also got my first PvE title: Mattous, Champion of the Naaru — and completed my Black Temple attunement (not that it’s needed anymore), getting my Medallion of Karabor.

On another note, a lot of my long-term friends on my current server Bladefist have been moving to different servers due to a lack of hardcore raiding opportunities. When I say a lot I really mean it — practically all of them have left now and they were pretty much the only reason for me sticking with this realm. I’m strongly considering moving server, but there will be a full post about that sometime soon!

Me in my new Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat

Rage Winterchill defeated

The edge of the World

In the mountains south of Silithus

Badge Loot Comparison

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:37:00 +0000

This post looks at the new healing badge gear available for me to buy. As I’ve been away since before patch 2.4 hit I never really thought about what badges to get. So when I logged yesterday the vendor was already unlocked and I had 165 badges burning a hole in my Traveler’s Backpack. Here’s the comparison of what gear I currently have versus the badge loot:

Boots of the Incorrupt vs Slippers of Dutiful Mending

+4 Stamina, +1 Intellect, +11 Spirit
+1 red socket, +2 Spirit socket bonus
+29 Healing, -8 mp5
Cost: 65 Badges

Trousers of the Incarnate vs Adorned Supernal Legwraps

-12 Stamina, +3 Intellect, +6 Spirit
+1 Blue socket, +1 Red socket, +4 Stamina socket bonus
+26 Healing
Cost: 100 Badges

Robes of Heavenly Purpose vs Gown of Spiritual Wonder

+15 Stamina, +12 Intellect, -5 Spirit
+1 Red Socket, +2 Spirit Socket Bonus, -1 Yellow Socket, -2 Blue Sockets
-9 Healing Socket Bonus, +17 Healing
Cost: 100 Badges

Vindicator’s Band of Salvation vs Anveena’s Touch

-7 Stamina, -1 Intellect, -22 Resilience
+15 Healing, +5 mp5
Cost: 60 Badges

Ethereum Life-Staff (+ Talisman of the Sun King) vs Gavel of Naaru Blessings

+17 Stamina, +10 Intellect, -62 Spirit
+108 Healing, +6 mp5
Cost: 150 Badges

I decided to go with buying the boots first, which are possibly the biggest upgrade I can afford (the legs are better but I have limited funds for an enchant and gems). I also bought the ring because it gives me a nice boost to my mp5 which I lost on the boots and a bit more healing. I’ll be working my way through getting all of these except maybe the Gavel of Naaru Blessings because of the huge spirit nerf that I would take. I have 20 badges left so it’ll be a while before I can afford the next item!

My return to WOW last night went well — I’ve got loads of screenshots that I’ll share in a later post.

My return to WOW — first stop, an old enemy

My First Guild Application

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:46:00 +0000

I’ve been running guilds for so long in WOW now that I can’t remember the last time I applied to join a guild — simply because I haven’t needed to. I did join a guild after my level 60 guild Final Formation fell apart a few months after TBC was released, but I didn’t have to apply to join them, they just took me on my word. This got me thinking — I’ve read literally hundreds of applications over the years but never had to fill one out myself. So I took careful time writing it, making sure everything was answered and made sense. I know Skathyn, GM of Khaos Dragons, in real life but to keep his other officers happy I applied because they don’t know me, even if he does. Their recruitment is closed so I’m really hoping that I get in — I’ve bigged myself up as much as possible!

I’ve decided to move my return to playing WOW forward a bit. I’m hoping to start up again on Friday the 16th which is less than a week away now and I’m excited! I’ve applied early so hopefully (assuming I get accepted) I’ll be raiding with them on Sunday also — it gives them a chance to ask me any questions. They haven’t done yet but I’ve had a couple of their members give me the thumbs up so that’s a good thing! If I don’t get in it’s not the end of the world — I’ll just have to look elsewhere, or will more likely just lay low until Wrath of the Lich King (WOTLK) comes out. The guild isn’t as far progressed as my previous guild but given another month or so I think they’ll be caught up. They are currently 2/4 TK and trying to add a third night of 25 man raiding to their schedule so hopefully I’ll get some good raids out of them!

I’ve started looking at the new badge loot that’s available properly now — comparing it to my current gear, trying to decide which gear is worth getting. It looks like a lot of the gear is well worth it. I currently have about 150 badges so I’ll probably end up getting 1 or 2 items at a push. In my next post I’ll talk about the comparison and work out which items would be the biggest upgrade so I can decide which to buy first.

Blackrock Mountain — 3 days before my last login on WOW, March 10th 2008

Well, I'm back.

Sat, 03 May 2008 23:48:00 +0000

After over a two year break from blogging I’ve decided to make a return to the scene. As for why the blogging stopped in the first place… well I don’t really know, possibly because I had nothing interesting to write about (still true I’m afraid). I’ve been enjoying reading a lot more blogs by other people lately though so I thought I would give it another go myself.

Since I last wrote here Facebook has taken the online social networking scene by storm and I’ll be taking advantage of that. Using the cool import feature which allows RSS feeds to show up in Facebook notes and update without any extra effort on my part. So for those of you reading this on Facebook it originally appeared on my blog site hosted by Google’s Blogspot which I’ve named Mattous Blogous (You see what I did there?). So today I took some time to look through all the old posts fixing the missing images, removing the dead links, adding some new ones and correcting an alarming number of spelling mistakes.

The main reason for starting up this again though is because I’m about to start another blog in a month-ish to share my experiences on playing World of Warcraft (WOW). The blog is called World of Mattous — currently nothing much on it because I’m not playing WOW at the moment. I took a break to focus on my last term of University (which you can see I’m clearly doing, heh). I don’t think I’ll subject the guys on Facebook to importing the blog there — the vast majority won’t care at all. Not that you’ll really care about what’s being said here either, but hey, you don’t have to read it.

As for what’s going on with me at the moment — it’s two weeks until I finish University. I have two projects due (which I have hardly started) and one exam. So I really don’t have time for procrastinating like this. I have a house sorted for when the contract in my current house runs out. I’ll be staying in Middlesbrough, moving back into the house I was in during my first second year. No contracts have been signed yet but just waiting for them to do some background checks (eep) and then it should all be good. After the moving’s done the plan is to find a job and start paying off some serious debt that’s accumulated over the last four years.

Coming Soon

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:03:00 +0000

This is just a placeholder for my upcoming World of Warcraft (WOW) blog, expected to start June 1st. Expect to see layout and style changes as and when I get time. Stay Tuned.

About Me:

I’m a long-term WOW player — my account has been active since the release date in Europe. Since then I’ve had many characters, my main for two years now being a Holy Priest on the Bladefist European server. My time in WOW has been spent leading guilds, participating in and leading end game raids. Currently taking a break from the game to focus on my final term of University. I’m looking forward to playing again and sharing my experiences as a priest, guild leader and raider.

Hyjal, July 2006

Millions of years ago

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:17:00 +0000

Before we could even read we were shown pictures of dinosaurs and were told that they lived 70 million years ago. After we’d learnt to read we read it for ourselves, and if you were anything like me you loved dinosaurs — and let’s face it they are pretty cool. But I was more interested in space. In school we were taught that 20 billion years ago there was a big bang and about 4 billion years ago the earth was formed, and gradually over the last few billion years humans evolved from some kind of soup that appeared when the rocks got rained on.

For years I didn’t have any problem with this until about 3 and a half years ago when I became a Christian. You see, evolution has been a bit of a problem for me these past few years. In the bible it says that God created the earth and everything in it in just 7 days (see Genesis 1:1-2:10). Now I believe that the bible is true but I’ll be honest — this was probably the toughest thing for me. All my life we’ve been taught that the universe is billions of years old and we evolved from some kind of soup which came alive (I don’t pretend to understand it, that’s just what it seems like to me). You see this presents a huge problem for me. The Bible says God created the Universe and everything in it in 7 days but evolution says that 20 billion years ago something exploded and here we are. Who do I/we believe?

One of these must be true unless they’re both wrong. I’ve never questioned the power of God — I believe that for God, making the Universe and everything in it in 7 days is very possible. I don’t doubt that God is capable of that. It’s just that everything that evolution teaches tells us the universe is billions of years old. So could the world really be only 6,000 years old? That’s the number that you get if you add up all the dates in the bible.

Now I don’t really know where I’m going with this — I’m still trying to figure it all out for myself. About a week ago one of the guys in my small group gave us all a copy of some seminars by an American speaker called Dr Kent Hovind. His seminars revealed some very interesting things. Not all the things he talks about are facts but almost all of the things that kids find in their school text books about evolution have been proved wrong, and for some reason they are still in the text books. I’m not going to go through it all — I would be writing all night if I did. If you’re interested then look for yourself and post your comments and feelings about it here.

Yes I’m still playing World of Warcraft (our guild British Beef is going great) but I’m cutting down. University work is going well — got a B in my last bit of course work which I’m pretty pleased with. For those of you down in Kent I’ll be coming back on the evening of the 7th of April and coming back up north sometime around the 19th or 20th. See you soon!

24/7

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:56:00 +0000

Hello blog reading friends! Firstly thanks to those who do read — I’m told that more people read than I thought did, so that’s good! If you read though please post a comment! That way I will know you have read my ramblings and will sleep easier at night.

So it’s been a few weeks since I wrote here. I’ve been enjoying a lazy reading week in which I have done little or rather no reading. Which has been fantastic. Yes I’ve played a lot of World of Warcraft, but not too much. Though just looking at xfire (which records the time I’ve spent playing games each week) I’ve played 40 hours of WoW this week. Which is like a full time job! If only I was getting paid! What’s even more disturbing is that I’ve spent the past year playing WoW and according to xfire I’ve played it for a total of 765 hours! Which if my calculations are correct is 31ish days! So I spent a whole month playing WoW in a year! Amazing really, and I’m sure very very sad!

Anyway, moving on from my geekiness to more healthy areas of my seemingly uncultured life. This week is 24/7 prayer — allow me to explain. Every year the CU (Christian Union) borrows a room from St Aiden’s community church and spends an entire week in there praying! The idea is that there is always someone there, even at stupid-o’clock in the morning. I’ve done a few shifts in there and it’s been really good. We’ve got our Alpha course starting soon so mostly we have been praying for that, but also other things like the local churches, Middlesbrough, the Uni and stuff.

Yesterday night I ended up at The Empire which is probably the best club in Middlesbrough — it was the first time I’d been and it was completely unexpected. We saw three bands, the last being the best by far — called The Infadels. They had one song that I had heard of but they really did rock! The Empire is a lot like Shepherds Bush Empire in London — it’s an old theatre with 3 floors, standing down on the ground floor and seating on floors 1 and 2, all with a view of the stage.

Multipass

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:19:00 +0000

Long time no blog so I thought I would fill you all in on what’s happening right now with me. Despite what you may think I have not been playing as much World of Warcraft as usual — I’ve been trying to do my coursework but am finding many other things to distract me. I am making progress though — it’ll be a tight squeeze to get it all done by Friday but I’ll manage, I always do. Oh and I got another ICA (In Course Assessment) today to model and build a database in Microsoft SQL Server 2003, gonna be a tough one but we’ve got till June to do it so loads of time.

A few weeks back Rachel (Chair of the CU) asked if I wanted to lead the prayer meeting that we have on Tuesday mornings, and this morning was the morning. It’s been ages since I’ve done anything like that so it was good to get the chance. I don’t think I’m very good at leading but it went well this morning I think, and so did the others which is encouraging. We’ve done a lot of praying for Alpha which is coming up at the end of February — not to mention 24/7 prayer week which is the week before Alpha starts, so February will be a busy week CU wise.

I’ve been finding myself very easily distracted as I said earlier. If you are looking for something to distract you from work or whatever then I’ll list a few of the things that I’ve been getting a bit carried away with:

artpad.art.com — Draw whatever you like then send the links to people and they can watch the art being re-drawn the exact same way you drew it.
A few web forums — always good for a read.
Lost has finally started showing again in America which means I’ve been watching it here. These past two episodes have been amazing! I’ve been watching them with Pete now too which is definitely better than watching them on my own.

Speaking of Pete it’s his birthday this Friday which means houseparty! Then we’re off to Walkabout! That’s the same day my coursework has to be handed in so I’ll have something additional to celebrate!

Societies day at the start of the year. Photo taken by Jo.

Ballz

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 01:19:00 +0000

Well I’ve had a break from my normal blog because I’ve been concentrating on my World of Warcraft Blog. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, but today I decided to give it a rest because I was going a little crazy with the amount I’ve been playing.

I’ve been back at uni just over a week now and there’s really not much to say. I’m still good and so is everyone else. During my boredom I decided to go looking for an advert that I’d seen a few times that’s really impressed me. The Sony Bouncy Balls website (or Sony BRAVIA — my name is better) — if you haven’t seen it, check out the video because it’s quite simply amazing.

Sony get 250,000 multi-coloured bouncy balls and start pouring them down the streets of San Francisco. First time I saw it I just thought it was some kind of special effect but when I realised that it was real I got a new found respect for Sony for doing something so crazy. The advert is in slow-motion with José González playing his song ‘Heartbeats’ in the background. The result is incredible and if it wasn’t shot on the streets of San Francisco then you would think it was alien. Beautiful stuff.

New Year 2006

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 14:41:00 +0000

Well 2006 is officially here now as you all know. I’m tired and feeling pretty bored still at home. Tonight I’m off to Leeds and then tomorrow I’ll be back at Uni in Middlesbrough. I can’t wait to get back!

New Year’s Resolutions

Quit Drinking — Just to see if I can
Proper Diet — Instead of just freezer food everyday
Do some work — Because I don’t want to fail my second year
Invest more time in relationships — With God and People
Reinstall WoW — Rejoin British Beef and cause havoc on the Agamaggan server

There they are… How many of them will I keep? Who knows, I’m guessing not all of them but I’m bound to manage to keep a few.

A note on WoW — yes I’ve decided to go back despite the fact that I quit only 6 weeks ago. I miss it too much and really want to get involved in the guild that I started again. I’m gonna roll either a Priest or Warrior because the guild doesn’t have either (not decent ones anyway). I think I’ll start by trying Priest but if it’s not to my liking then I’ll try Warrior. I’m going to be setting up a separate blog on my site for talking about WoW because I don’t want to bore all the people that don’t play.

Anyway happy new year everyone! I hope that you had a good night last night and that this year will be the best yet!

Snow

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:13:00 +0000

A few days late but close enough. :)

Robosexual

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:03:00 +0000

Well Christmas is over for another year! I had a good day yesterday — we had 11 people over for dinner which is a first! We usually don’t do that kind of thing at Christmas so it made a nice change and it was good to see people. I am looking forward to having things get back to normal though. I get bored really easily over Christmas and I’m just looking forward to going out and seeing people again. There’s still a good few of my good mates that I haven’t seen yet and I’ve been back since Wednesday!

Anyway moving on… I have had the chance these past 2 days to spend a lot of time working on my website. I discovered a blog called frostbolt which I found while playing around on Google and I liked it! It’s a World of Warcraft blog but I really liked the look of the site — seemed to have had a fair bit of customisation done to it, loads quick and is even valid xhtml! So I did some investigating and found out what blogging system the author was using and gave it a try myself. It’s called WordPress and it’s pretty sweet — I’ve been fiddling around with the templates and got it all working well enough but I can only do so much on this PC because it’s rubbish. I even managed to import all my old blogs from Blogspot which was a major selling point for WordPress as I did not want to lose the last few months of posts and comments.

You can see the site at www.mattous.co.uk — I’m going to continue to post my blogs on Blogspot and MySpace. I’ve disabled comment posting on Blogspot though, sorry Downs — you’ll just have to come to my site to comment! There’s been a small amount of activity on the forums with 4 members and 11 posts. Pretty pathetic if you ask me so get on the site people! Get involved.

"To the happy couple"

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 19:21:00 +0000

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of going to Matthew Maude and Miriam (Mim) Hilton’s wedding. It was a brilliant day — a big congratulations to you guys. Matt and Mim have only known each other a little more than a year and started seeing each other on January 1st of this year! Which is really cool, kinda puts things in perspective. To imagine that I could start seeing someone on January 1st and be married to them in less than a year… Crazy. Not that it’s gonna happen, I’m definitely not ready for marriage.

I’m back home in Kent now which has been pretty cool so far. I’ve had a bit of a boring day today though — there’s nothing really to do. Yesterday I finished off my shopping when I went into town with Maggie and saw a bunch of the guys at the pub in the evening. We are still in need of a venue for New Year’s Eve — we really need somewhere to have a party.

I’ve been doing a lot of looking around on the web because I’ve been bored and talking to my mates who still play World of Warcraft. Man I miss that game. I’m really tempted to start playing again in the new year. I’ve been saying that I’ll wait for the expansion pack to come out before I install it again but the way things are going now I dunno.

Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you get what you want and enjoy the day tomorrow!

Matthew and Miriam cutting their wedding cake

King Kong

Sat, 17 Dec 2005 13:09:00 +0000

I spent the first part of this week getting my new website up and running. The long promised webspace from xengaming has finally arrived and I have to say that I’m very impressed. Unlimited space and bandwidth for £30 a year is without a doubt the best webhosting package on the planet. It took 6 months to get it all working but I’m a patient man. So go check out www.mattous.co.uk — I’ve set up the forums and gallery again so register and start posting! You can also upload your photos to the gallery now if you want somewhere to store photos or whatever.

I had my interview in London on Wednesday which went ok. I don’t think I’ll get it though. I got to spend the evening in Kent though which was really good — I really miss the south and can’t wait to get home for Christmas. I saw Graham, Lou, Bec and Franko which was really cool — we went to the hop farm and just had a few drinks. Next day I came back up to Middlesbrough with my new phone which rocks. I’ve been taking a load of photos with it and I’m pretty impressed.

The Journey back to Middlesbrough from my interview

Thursday night was our CU Christmas social which was lots of fun — we had a Christmas themed quiz which our team did pretty well in (4th I think). Then on Friday it was the end of term party at the union — 15 hours of Christmas. Went round my mate Jay’s at 9:30am, went to the union to get our free breakfast, hung around for a little while then went back to his and watched some Eddie Izzard. At 1pm went to meet some others at the Cinema and saw King Kong. It’s the best film I’ve seen for a long time with the most impressive special effects I’ve ever seen. It’s long but Peter Jackson can’t make short films (e.g. Lord of the Rings). Definitely worth seeing — it’s a brilliant mix of action and special effects with the strange love story, but it works, you really do feel for Kong. After seeing it you also may have the urge to grab a blonde lass and carry her to the top of some tall building, let out a roar and beat your chest! After seeing King Kong we went back to the union and partied the night away!

Club One at the Students Union 15 Hours of Christmas.

Today I have nothing much to do so I’m having a well deserved rest. I didn’t get in until 3am last night and considering I started at 9:30am I think that’s pretty good going. 17 hours partying at my age takes it out of you!

As promised here’s a photo from house party a few weekends back we tried to get another row of people but couldn’t do it and ended up with a big heap of people on the floor.

"Get a haircut you hippy!"

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 23:20:00 +0000

Well I did! As many of you know I don’t like having my haircut, which is why it’s so long usually! For once I like it though so that’s a good thing! I’ve got an interview for placement next week so I’ve got to look slightly presentable. I would tell you who I’m going for the interview with but I would have to kill you. Seriously… Anyway the annoying thing about it is that I’m going down to London on Wednesday for this interview, staying at my house that evening, coming back up to uni for 1 more day of lectures (which I will not be going to because it’s the 15 hours of Christmas) and more importantly Matt and Mim’s wedding on the following Tuesday. Then the very next day I’m going back down to Kent again! I will have Pete for company though this time which will make the journey much more interesting!

I’m still amazed by the amount of information on Wikipedia — they have everything! Nothing much to say really, had a manic few days so I’m off to bed. Tomorrow night I’m off out to the School Disco that the Students Union is having. Usually everyone dresses up as school girls/boys but this one is special because it’s the Nativity Play theme, so I expect to see lots of shepherds with tea towels over their heads, a few too many inflatable sheep, a few angels and who knows what else! The CU is also doing carol singing outside the Union before the whole thing which will be a good outreach and pretty funny I’m sure because we’ll all be dressed up too!

Information Overload!

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 23:33:00 +0000

Good and reasonably productive day today — I haven’t done any work but it’s been one of those days where I got lots of little important things done. So now hopefully I can concentrate harder on doing some work. I sorted out the tax exemption form (because students don’t have to pay it, woohoo!), set things in motion for getting an interview for placement next year sorted, and ordered my new phone (very excited about that one!).

These past couple of days I’ve had the opportunity to help out my good friend Matt Maude who is getting married in just under 2 weeks now. He’s just moved into his house so has loads of things to do so I’ve been helping him get things sorted wherever I can. I’ve been lifting heavy stuff, making flatpack wardrobes and things. It’s really good fun actually — I haven’t had any real experience doing that stuff and it’s good practice for me when I eventually go down that road myself!

Also if you’re bored (and if you’re reading this you probably are, or at least will be by now) then check out this site I stumbled upon the other day: http://en.wikipedia.org. It’s an online encyclopedia that anyone can add to or change. There is so much information in there it’s crazy — I spent all afternoon reading about Jehovah’s Witnesses, Freemasons and all kinds of other things. I think as a Christian it’s important to know what other religions and cults believe in relation to what I believe — it’s pretty fascinating. This site is really cool because anything you’re unsure of is bound to have a link explaining it, and almost any name or place mentioned will have a whole section of its own too. I could easily get lost in this site for hours!

House party

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 18:40:00 +0000

Once a year the CU goes away together for a weekend and that my friends is where I have been this weekend. We all met outside the union at 4:45 and at 6:00 we left — traffic was to blame but we all knew we wouldn’t be leaving on time and anyway we got to spend an hour in the bar instead. The next 3 hours were spent in one of the 3 mini-buses that took us — it would have been a great journey except Westwood was on the radio for the last half an hour or so… If you don’t know who Tim Westwood is, count yourself lucky.

For the next 2 days we were in Newcastleton, just the other side of the Scottish borders, in a little place called Whithaugh Park. I love the countryside and this place was awesome — miles from nowhere, no TV or internet, just 2 days full of Teaching, Worship and a game or two of Risk.

The speaker we had with us was amazing. His name is Steve Braye and he had his son with him too. He’s an ex-military guy who used to be in the SAS which would have been enough to keep me interested for a weekend but he has the most amazing testimony and his relationship with God really just shines out of him. The teaching was a mix of a lot of things which was actually really good because it just gave God a chance to do more in me. If only the weekend was longer! Now I have to process what went on there and it was a lot — choices, The way of the cross, sexuality, freedom in Christ and a whole bunch of other things. Let’s just say God’s doing a lot — way too much to talk about here — but I’m sure this isn’t the last you’ll hear of it.

This is Newcastleton the somewhere in the background is the place we were staying at, Saturday afternoon a bunch of us walked into town though. I’ll post some more pictures when I get them.

Romans 8:38-39

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:43:00 +0000

Had a pretty good day today. This week it was big group instead of small group — I’ll explain. Basically instead of having small group every week at church we have small group one week and big group the next. It’s a pretty cool idea because it gives all the small groups a chance to get to know each other more. Tonight we were talking about spiritual giftings, something I’ve never really been sure of — what my giftings are. So when they asked if people wanted prayer I was up and had a really cool picture from Matt Maude (such an awesome guy) saying that I would be leading the spiritually poor and seeing them turn to God. I’ve had words about leadership in my life before. I suppose one of my issues is thinking that I don’t have what it takes. That’s not cool though because it goes against what God is saying. I have no problem with having faith and trusting in God to see other people’s lives changed but when it comes to my own life I don’t have so much confidence. Change that, GOD!

Found this while looking though my photos of our outreach in Texas! Very cool it’s on one of Deliverance Bible Church’s walls!

“These are the things that make me free I feel like I’m stuck in ‘stand by me’ This night was too good to be true.”

— The Ataris, San Dimas High School Football Rules

Fable

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:19:00 +0000

I’ve decided that it’s time I started giving my blogs titles. The reason they didn’t have them before is laziness but now that MySpace won’t let me post a blog without a title it looks like I’m gonna have to start using them!

These past few weeks I’ve been playing Fable. I played it last year on the Xbox and when I found the PC version I thought I would give it a go. It’s just as much fun as it was on the Xbox and even more so because they’ve added loads of new quests for the PC version which I didn’t get to do first time round. It’s also helped me get over not playing World of Warcraft anymore. I miss WoW… It was a great game but the trouble is it never ends! That’s the trouble with all MMORPGs — they just never end! I think for the sake of my sanity and social life that games should always have an end! Which is why I picked up Fable — it’s a great RPG (similar to WoW in many ways) but it has an end. When I finish the game I have to stop playing because there’s nothing more for me to do!

Back to Fable anyway — by far the best thing for me in the game is the voice acting, it’s just so funny! Lionhead Studios are really good at this in all their games but in Fable it’s classic — really extreme British accents, not the posh ones but all the other stuff: the geezers, the farmers, the stoned guys at the start! It’s hilarious! The story line is ok, not great — it seems to take big jumps and I didn’t really know why I was doing certain things. It also has loads of mini games like archery competitions, fist fighting, you can buy rent out and upgrade properties to make some cash, you age, you can get married (if you like) or go to the brothel! The big feature of the game is that you can choose to be good or evil. This seems to be happening in a lot of games now — the actions you take during the game govern the way people around you react to your presence. If you’re really nice they will cheer but if you’re evil then they’ll run and hide. Not only that but your appearance also changes over time — if you’re really good then you’ll end up with a halo over your head, if you’re bad then you’ll get devil horns! Of course I went for the good side but I might reload one of my save games and just be all out evil to see what it’s like.

My Character in Fable

“We hung out at the rainbow where we drank til’ half past two. Nothing could go wrong anytime that I’m with you. Like crashing a hotel room or leading up to that first kiss Or searching for a high school that you know doesn’t exist…”

— The Ataris, San Dimas High School Football Rules

Ahhh Blogspot...

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 19:17:00 +0000

Ahhh Blogspot, how much the people at MySpace have to learn. Today I spent a few hours sorting out what my profile and blog looks like over on MySpace — I’m semi happy with it now, happier than I was anyway. Since a lot of my friends use MySpace I’ve decided to start posting my blog there too just so that I get a little more of a reaction. I’m not happy about it but it’s got to be done I guess.

Last night I went to see Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire — overall I would say it’s a good film, nothing to get excited about really. It’s an improvement on the other films (I know that’s not a difficult thing) but it still could have been a lot better. It felt too long for a start, and yet being a big fan of the books I know how much they missed out. The acting… well let’s face it they’re getting better — Daniel Radcliffe does make me laugh sometimes though, it’s just that bad. Did they actually have any lessons at Hogwarts this year? I think there was one lesson in the film. They did do a lot of things well though — the special effects were very good as always, the Tri-Wizard Tournament was very well done, and all the stuff that they really should have got right they did, e.g. The Return of “He who must not be named” was excellently done. The fact that it was a 12A certificate this time really did help, making for a much darker film.

This is my Favorite Picture of me :D On a lake in Canada

“Last night I had a dream that we went to Disneyland, Went on all the rides, didn’t have to wait in line. I drove you to your house where we stared up at the stars I listened to your heartbeat as I held you in my arms.”

The Ataris - San Dimas High School Football Rools

Lost, series 2

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:10:00 +0000

I just finished watching episode 8 of Lost (series 2). I have to say that up until now series 2 hasn’t really been that great. I suppose the first 7 episodes were a big build up to this one episode and now the story can get back into its normal What the hell is going on, Twists every episode and Lots of weird stuff has happened but we won’t explain any of it — but I Love it! I’ve definitely never been this into a TV show before, it’s just not normally the sort of thing I get excited about. Apparently the writers have enough material for another 12 years so if you haven’t started watching it yet then you’ve got plenty of time.

Hurley (the big guy) is definitely my favourite character — he’s a bit of a legend. And Charlie, who is good in Lost, but I think he will always be a hobbit to me.

I’m off to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight — I’ll probably post a review of it tomorrow.

Small group

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 00:19:00 +0000

Tonight I spoke at small group. I’m really not very comfortable speaking in a group setting so it was a bit stretching which was good. I think it went ok — I tried to turn it into more of a discussion which worked well because people were pretty responsive. All in all a good night. We had small group here as well which was really good because I didn’t have to go out into the cold! And I got to be the host which never happens. I spoke on distraction which is a pretty big topic — just talking about the things that distract us from God and how we can deal with them and give more of our time to God. Distraction is something that everyone struggles with and everyone had different ways that they deal with it, so I think everyone learnt a bit from each other. It also gave us a chance to open up to each other which doesn’t normally happen with the whole group — we normally split up into guys and gals.

It’s a good job today was my day off too because I woke up in agony! Yesterday every muscle in my arms and shoulders was seriously hurting! Today it was even worse! I literally couldn’t get out of bed for ages! Hopefully they’ll be alright tomorrow!

I want this phone to have my babies!!! :(

Indoor climbing

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 23:47:00 +0000

Well tonight I went on my first trip with the Mountaineering Club. We went to an indoor climbing wall somewhere an hour out of Middlesbrough (I forget where) and it was really good. I wasn’t expecting to find it quite such hard work but man it was. My fingers and knees ache now from it all — every time I did a climb it took at least 10 minutes to recover! That’s just down to my lack of fitness though. I used to climb a lot with my dad when I was younger, I don’t know why or when I stopped but I wish I hadn’t, because tonight was great and I’ll definitely be going back next week.

(defiantly not me climbing)

Vladstudio Wallpapers

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 00:55:00 +0000

Vladstudio Wallpapers — I love this website. The wallpapers on there are brilliant! One to suit almost every mood and feeling. I’ve been using it for years so I thought I would share it with you. If you’re looking for somewhere to get good original backgrounds then give it a look. I just changed mine — I seem to be changing them with the weather. A few weeks back it was raining loads so I went with a rainy pic, now it’s getting cold I’ve gone for a cold look.

And no, the guy that makes these isn’t paying me, just take a look. I’ve had a pretty good day today — church was very Holy Spirit-y again which I love. Had a great chat with my mate Jo on the way back from lunch at the pub. It’s just good to know that I’m not the only one that struggles with girls and that I’m not the only one that’s trying to just give it all to God. Not a dig at anyone who is dating or engaged, bless you guys.

Look at the lengths men will go to

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:03:00 +0000

“Look at the lengths men will go to find the golden-haired woman. They have fought duels over her beauty; they have fought wars. You see, every man remembers Eve. We are haunted by her. And somehow we believe that if we could find her, get her back, then we’d also recover with her our own lost masculinity.”

— Wild at Heart, John Eldredge

I read this the other night and thought: yeah. Women. Man, how many times have I fallen for someone thinking that I had found “The One” or “The answer to all my problems”. It can’t keep happening. But it does. Why can’t I just be content with having friends that are girls? When I’m not interested in anyone then I feel like I’m missing something. I feel the need to have a woman in my life to think about and worry about. I guess that’s healthy for a guy but I’m tired of getting hurt. Give it to God and let him take care of it I guess.

Anyway. I’ve had a pretty good few days. Friday night went to a prayer meeting for a churches together thing that’s happening around here. I was actually really encouraged. One thing that really annoys me about the churches in England is that they all have something against each other. I don’t know why Catholics, Church of England and all the rest of them don’t like each other. I don’t really care. It all seems a bit petty and childish to me. It’s time to let all that stuff go because if all the churches in the UK would just work together then we would see God move a lot more. Anyway, this meeting I was at was really encouraging. There was about 300 people there from about 15-20 different churches in Middlesbrough and they really seem to be having a go at working together. We’ve got an event being planned for 2007 in the Riverside Stadium and these meetings are just about praying for the event, the area, each other and each other’s churches. I think it’s awesome. Unity in the church is something that I’m really passionate about so it’s great to see stuff like this.

Finally. Today was Matt Maude’s stag do. It was really cool. He kind of knew that something was going on but didn’t know what. He got a bit of a shock this morning when he saw us all standing at the end of his road. We took him off to Newcastle and played laser quest for a couple of hours, then came back to Middlesbrough and had some dinner whilst watching a movie. Laser quest was definitely the highlight of the day. I haven’t played since I was like 12. Running around in the dark shooting people and crashing into walls. It was expensive though — I’m fairly sure it’s doubled in price since I last played and by the looks of it the equipment and scenery hasn’t been updated or had any work done to it since the place was built (which was probably about 10 years ago). It was a good laugh though. Matt is an awesome guy, I’m so blessed to have him here with me. God must have done that for a reason because the chances of us both being at the same University are pretty low.

This is the stadium where that event will be held in 2007! Pray that God will fill it to overflowing!

Happy birthday FFS

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:10:00 +0000

Just a quick post today to say Happy Birthday to FFS — the clan is 1 year old today! They’re doing really well, top of division 4 in the wireplay league. I’ve been watching their matches since they started out and know most of them pretty well. So well done guys, maybe next year you’ll be top of division 3!

Here’s a picture from one of there games a few weeks back against mm. I believe mm got owned.

For after years of living in a cage

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 00:29:00 +0000

“For after years of living in a cage, a lion no longer even believes it is a lion… and a man no longer believes he is a man.”

— John Eldredge, Wild at Heart

I guess this sums up how I feel at the moment. I read this book and something inside me just cries out to be wild. I remember when I used to go to the woods and climb trees, explore, have stick fights, build camps, swing on rope swings, burn things, jump over streams and the list goes on. I guess I just grew up and society tells us that we’re too old for playing in the woods — we should do something useful with our time. We put ourselves in a cage and then later wonder why we feel so depressed, like we’re going nowhere and so unsure of ourselves. I need Adventure and Risk! I can’t keep sitting here wasting my time and regretting it when the day is over. What have I achieved today? I went to the prayer meeting this morning and sure it was good, a great start, but that really is all I’ve done — the rest of the day was just a waste of time.

God has been revealing a lot of stuff to me recently and it’s all pretty deep stuff that I need to do but why can’t I do it? I play computer games because I’m lonely here and there is no one around. What else is there to do though? How do I fill the gap in my life that gaming will leave? What will I do? I know the answer to these questions is God. Spend time with him and let him fill that hole in my life… but that’s a lot of time to spend with God, I’m sure the more time the better but… Man I dunno.

I want to make this work God, I can’t keep going backwards… Help me get it right God, or at least help me do it better.

Wild times in Canada.

This weekend has been awesome

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 16:45:00 +0000

This weekend has been awesome! Had Marie-Claire round since Friday evening and we had so much fun. Friday night we went out to play pool with everyone from CU and that was great — somehow made it to the semi-finals of the tournament. Then Saturday spent the day in town and both of us bought new shoes. Saturday evening went to see Wallace and Gromit — Curse of the Were-Rabbit which I definitely recommend. After that we went to see a gig at the union — we saw The Columbos who are a band we have to design a website for as one of my projects this year. They were pretty good I thought, surfer type music was pretty cool. Then today we went to church and then out for lunch with everyone in the CU. It’s been so nice having company all the time because I realise now that I spend a lot of my time on my own — kinda a bit lonely now.

Also took a bit of a big step today and quit World of Warcraft (or am in the process of quitting) so I won’t be playing it at all anymore. Sounds silly but it will be hard for me — I’ve been playing since last January now and have a lot of friends that play so I’ll miss spending time with them but it’s something I know I have to do. God has been calling me to give it up for a long time and I just haven’t had the guts to do it but last night that kind of changed — I couldn’t sleep for hours. The reason for that is because I’m reading Wild at Heart again. It just stirs something in my heart when I read about it and I know the things it’s talking about. The main principle of the book is that men need 3 things and if they don’t have them then something inside of them dies: An Adventure to live. A Battle to fight. A Beauty to rescue. So I’m trying to get rid of some of the distraction in my life to make room for that stuff.

Another big bit of news is that I’m stepping down as co-leader of FM (our gaming clan). I wasn’t really doing much in it anymore — Watchout has been running it all pretty much. So to let someone else have a chance (someone that actually wants to be more involved) I’m just going to step down to being a member. This will hopefully give me even more free time to do the things that I want to do because playing computer games all day everyday is fun but I need to let go of that stuff and make room for God!

I just want to say big thanks to all the guys that I’ve played with this past year — it’s been great getting to know you and I had a lot of fun. I’m not going anywhere, I’ll still be around on IRC, TS and on the forums but you won’t see me so much in game. No disrespect to any of you either, gaming is great but I need to spend more time IRL.

Civilization 4

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:02:00 +0000

Well it’s been a few days since my last blog so I think it’s about time to post. Had a pretty uneventful few days, nothing really that exciting to say. Yesterday (which is part to blame for the lack of blog) Civilization 4 arrived. Crazy American spellings. It’s a great game, lots of improvements have been made since the last Civilisation game.

For those that don’t know, the Civilisation games allow you to run a civilisation of your choosing. Which for me yesterday was the English. You build cities which grow over time, armies to defend against war or go and start your own, research scientific advances which allows you to improve your cities and armies etc. The games take a long time to play — you start in 4000BC and work your way up to modern times and beyond. The game I played yesterday took 6 hours. It’s good fun though. One of the new things in this game is they’ve put religion in the game so I spent a lot of my time building Christian Missionaries and sending them into other civilisations’ territories to convert them. This got the Spanish annoyed at me because I had “Fallen under the influence of a heathen Religion” — I think they were Buddhist or something. Anyway they eventually started a war with me which they lost. Their musketeers and cannons weren’t much use against my Tanks and Machine gunners, although there were more than a few occasions where my tanks or helicopters were destroyed by guys on horseback… which I think is a little unrealistic.

Another area that’s been improved a lot is the graphics — it’s all 3D now and there’s all kinds of stuff going on all the time that you can see. For example you zoom in on a mine and you can see the little mine carts bringing stuff out of the mountains, you can see the sheep and cows moving around in the fields and you can see your cities grow in size and the improvements and wonders that you build in them. So if you’re looking for a good strategy game then I highly recommend this, no complaints really only that it’s too dammed addictive.

A few days ago I also got my first placement application to fill out. Next year I have the option of doing a year’s paid placement somewhere which I’m hoping to do providing I can find a decent one. The application I got is for the Ministry of Defence statistics department in London. It sounds incredibly boring and I really don’t want to do it. So I’m gonna fill out the application (which we have to do) tomorrow and try to do a bad job of it and just hope that something better comes along soon.

Also tomorrow Marie-Claire is coming to stay for the weekend and I’m excited about seeing her again. We didn’t see each other very much at all over the summer because she was up in Leeds working and I was down in Kent so it’ll be great to catch up. That probably means that there will be no blogging either which is why this one is extra long.

Last day of 6th Form

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:58:00 +0000

Last day of 6th Form — 18th of May 2001.

6th Form was the greatest!

Church today was cool

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 23:47:00 +0000

Church today was cool. Got to see lots of crazy Holy Spirit stuff — people with the shakes, falling over etc. I guess it’s just something that I don’t see that much and when I do see it now it’s even cooler! There’s a lot of new Christians around too and I like to think how much it must freak them out! God’s power is awesome though. I want to get used to seeing stuff like that again because it doesn’t happen enough!

Here’s a picture from the school in Canada of some early morning fire tunnel fun!

November 5th

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:37:00 +0000

I realised today that I have a bit of a problem with this blog. I’ve got at least 4 different groups of people who are likely to read it. There’s people from home, people from Uni, people from the school in Canada and people I know online. I don’t really know what to talk about. I can’t just gear it towards one group of people because then the others will lose interest. So I guess the only way around it is to vary what I talk about as much as possible to try and keep everyone interested.

Anyway it’s November 5th today which means it’s been like a warzone outside all night. Fireworks going off all over the place, thankfully we didn’t get any through our letterbox, but it is still only 12:40 so I guess there’s still a chance but lets hope not!

Also… I keep getting sent these damned invitations to join peoples friends networks and to stop the spam once and for all I decided to join one. From what I can tell it is a spamfest inside too. I sign up to this thing and it’s sent a load of invitations off to people asking them to join my network, people I’m sure I don’t know. I’m beginning to think that it was a bad move! I think I’ll just stick with the blogging.

Today has been rather uneventful

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 02:40:00 +0000

Today has been rather uneventful and I really can’t share anything exciting with you. However I did make it into the top 10 of our new speedrun league on concspeed on our server. Pretty proud of that, ok I’m at the bottom but I really suck at conc maps so to see me in there at all is a real achievement!

Yeah that sadly really is all I have done today… Went to a few lectures, that kind of thing, but it has been pretty dull. Also got a bit pissed off with one of the guys in our World of Warcraft guild basically for getting us all killed a whole bunch of times in SFK but hey it was fun.

I have to leave you with something a little more interesting than that so I’ve had a random scan through some old photos and found some classics. Here’s a blast from the past — it was requested a long time ago by the man himself so here it is: Mike with his Mohawk — enjoy.

Computer free day

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:54:00 +0000

Came across Gretchen’s English Page today by clicking for a random blog. If you’ve never read the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe that this guy is talking about then it’s worth a look. You can find it here.

On a separate note today is my computer free day. Note the my computer there because after all I am a computing student and need to use computers everyday so today I’m posting from University. When I started back at University this year I decided that I would have one day a week where my computer at home will stay off. That might not seem like such a big deal to many of you but I got to the point where I found myself turning the computer on first thing in the morning and then sitting there all day and finally turning it off at night. This is not good. Too much of anything is bad so I quit using my computer on Thursdays and I think it’s done me a hell of a lot of good.

I have a picture for you all too but I’ll have to post it tomorrow see you then.

Well, 3 weeks later...

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 12:47:00 +0000

Well 3 weeks later and I’m back at blogger. Time to make an actual post I think! I just finished reading Joshua Harris’ book “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”. Those who know me well joke about my past relationships and how all my ex-girlfriends have been married within 6 months of breaking up with me. It pretty harsh but I can see the funny side (Thank God!). So reading this book again has reminded me of a lot of things. The main thing being that I’m not ready to get married or even be in a relationship and I’m fine with that… For now.

As always I’ll leave you with a picture (or try) here’s one from Charlotte and Neil Coverly’s wedding a bit later than planned. When I get hold of Graham again I’ll get some photos of the happy couple posted. Well done to Willgoss for not sending me any pictures of the actual couple…

Well here we are

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:35:00 +0000

Well here we are, our new home. Its-all-g00d.co.uk was a wonderful home for my website for many years and I’m sad to see it go but times change and the website had all but died anyway so maybe a clean start in a new place will do us some good!

I was worried about the lack of forums and things for us here but no one was really posting on the forums anyway so this should fit my needs and hopefully everyone else’s.

I’ll bring you a proper blog very soon and have a play around with the style of the site to get it looking a bit more individual so check back soon!