My sister is usually pretty good when it comes to buying me gifts, but like the rest of my family and friends, few of them try to satisfy my nerdy tendencies, so it was a real surprise when she got me this late birthday gift...

An old 1975 Star Trek annual in almost perfect condition. As customary with these old annuals, it has been autographed by the previous owner. Sorry Ashley House, but I own your book now!

What's that? You want a sneak peak inside? Well sure!

Moving on...

My PS3 is off being repaired and so far Sony have failed to contact me (as promised) to say they've received it. I'll have to assume it has either been

a) Lost in transit
b) Stolen by the weird looking Australia Post dude
c) Sony did get it and haven't contacted me because they've been super busy

To fill the PS3 gaming gap, I went and got Borderlands for the 360 last week. I've been playing it a bit over the weekend and so far it has been quite impressive. The RPG elements have been the drawing card for me.

To wrap things up, I guess G013M is ticked off with me over something and took it out on me by tagging me with one of those annoying blog things. So here it goes, 5 things you probably didn't (or want to) know about me:

1) My Maths scores in school were very ordinary, yet I'm now a bank manager and studying physicist (By the way, I've lost your money and my calculations for this nuclear weapon will kill us all)
2) I was recently very happy to discover that my Blackberry will hold its charge longer than a day. All I had to do was turn off the twitter program. So sorry all, no more tweets from me. (You can stop cheering now)
3) I let my wife buy $10 boxes of blueberries for the damn guinea pig every few days. Soon she'll want to take the cats out fine dining.
4) I recently acquired an autographed copy of Ashley House's cIassic book from 1975. (if you don't know what I'm on about, it's your own fault for not reading my blog in full)
5) I have holidays in 4 weeks time but only have 4 days. I'm thinking a few nights at the casino with some dining and shopping.

That's all from me. Take it easy.

Last month my ageing 360 passed away and I decided it was time to upgrade to a later model with a HDMI and bigger HDD. I waited a couple of weeks for the price drop and picked up an Elite at a decent price. The old 360 is sitting in the garage open and exposed hoping that the electronics part of my uni physics course I did 3 years ago taught me enough to fix a console (I doubt it).

Apparently the drive killing disease that infected the 360 was contageous and spread to the PS3. Last night I had happily kicked off a session of a new game when it froze. Upon rebooting I discovered that it no longer wanted to detect any type of disk. When the 360 died I had just started Batman and ODST. Last week I had just started Demon's Soul and Uncharted 2...life is not fair.

My interest in consoles has been waning lately. They are a huge investment money wise and time wise. I've been finding that the handhelds are satisfying my game craving. This generation of consoles has been dissapointing as far as reliability goes. I only hope that what ever comes out next gets a little more attention to its workmanship so it lasts longer that a day over the warranty period.

Everyone usually has one of those times during the year where everyone's birthday, anniversary or some kind of event falls due within a short space of time. The end of September is that time for me. Multiple birthdays and functions are just around the corner and my wife and I just celebrated our wedding anniversary last night. Nothing overly special this year though, I got her some jewelery and we spent a nice evening out for dinner.

A couple of weeks ago my 360 gave up on me. I opted for a replacement as it was out of warranty and the hard drive had a mere few mb to spare. I picked that up last week and also a copy of Batman. I had no real interest in the game, but as usual I gave into the hype. I'm only 2% in, but it seems like a solid title so far. I look forward to unlocking some more of the special moves which I'm keen to give a try.

Finally, I'm going to use this last part of my blog to give a plug to the awesome Astronomy Union. Whether you are a pro star gazer or have an keen interest in the planets, stars and other celestial wonders, the Astronomy Union is the place to discuss it all!

Welcome to the second part of Screenshot Scrapbook. This time I've gathered even more screenshots of games you don't want to play with captions so unfunny you'll probably cry. I hope you enjoy.

Tales of Monkey Island

Rome Total War

Dark Messiah Might & Magic

Left 4 Dead

Guild Wars

Hope you enjoyed part 2!

"Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever"

Halo Wars...I quit.

If there were a save feature mid-mission it may have been on my top 10 list for the year. Instead it's now shelved and destined to be forgotten forever.

What's next...

The path is now known.

I was offered a promotion Monday and accepted it yesterday. It is another step up the management ladder and will see me enter a secure position which is safe from the possible retrenchment I faced in the other role. HOWEVER, the positives and negatives are not quite as I expected. Here are the revisions:

Positives - Secure position, challenging work, an assistant and SOME flexibility for study.

Negatives - Cut back in studies.

I've had to reduce my uni hours from two to one subject per semester for now. This one subject only takes 2 hours every week. While I'll be 104 by the time I finish the course, it is a hobby after all and I'm just happy I've got the opportunity to keep doing it.

Most of the focus will now be on the new job and it will be pretty full on. My new title is also a mouth full. I don't know how I'll fit it on a business card.

With all the talk on banks and what not, I expect you've all fallen asleep at this point. I just wanted to thank everyone for their helpful comments in my previous blog. It certainly played some part in helping me reach a decision.

Edit: I decided to change the avatar. Go Calvin!

My Current Situation:

I'm an analyst employed at a bank that has drastically reduced its operations and staff over the past year due to the changes in the world's economy. I'm also completing a physics degree part time after hours and am now half way through with 3 (part time) years left to go. In 18 months the work I'm doing will dry up and I will be made redundant and issued a severance equal to about a years salary.

Path 1:

I accept the severance and go complete my degree full time in an effort to turn my degree into a career. While it was never my intentions to get a job in this industry, it is something I'd love to try.

Positives - An industry and field I am passionate about which would certainly see me entertained and challenged daily.

Negatives - It would be many years before I hold a role which would pay me anything near what I'm currently on. A large impact on lifestIe.

Path 2:

I am shortlisted to be offered a new role at the bank which will see me promoted and offered a secure position.

Positives - Increased pay, secure position and work I am familiar with and find challenging.

Negatives - I would have to cease my studies and give up the cool avatar I'm currently using.

So that's where I'm at. Path 1 or Path 2. It would be disappointing to give up my studies after investing so much time and energy into it. But given the current economic environment, a secure job with good pay is critical (mortgage payments, investments, future children?). It's almost like one of those scenarios, Take the safe road or follow your dreams. Except now may not be the time for risk.

I expect to be offered the position in the coming week and will have to make up my mind soon after. Anyway, I'm just regurgitating my thoughts. I'd love to hear what anyone thinks though.

My holidays have come to an end. Thankfully it went for long enough so I don't feel that bad about going back to work on Monday. The first half was spent enjoying everything that our local area has to offer. Lots of functions, theatre, fine dining and shopping. The last half was unfortunately made up of chores such as house repairs, garage tidy and (too many) medical appointments.

I've just had a peak at the work BlackBerry and thankfully things don't look too bad for Monday. The bad news is that there is obviously a bucket load of work I'll need to catch up on. But the good news is I've scored a new corner office with twice the space as previous and I nice view which overlooks Brisbane city hall (which unfortunately has lots of construction work going on in front of it at the moment). I'll have to take a happy snap next week after I've unpacked everything.

While there wasn't a lot of free time for gaming over the holidays, I did manage to squeeze some time in for inFamous and Red Faction. Both have been quite entertaining though I look forward to knocking them over to get back to finishing Lost Odyssey and The Last Remnant.

I also managed to watch Appleseed, a DVD movie I picked up a few months back. While it wasn't quite as exciting as I hoped, it certainly was a very pretty movie and managed to keep my attention most of the time. I've got the sequel so I hope to watch it either tomorrow or Sunday before I get back to work.

Anyway, I must make the most of my last two days....sleep!

EDIT: Yes, I did change my profile avatar after a number of years with Squall. I thought I'd mention it in case you are all wandering who I am

Work has been hectic and home life no better, so a holiday couldn't have come at a better time. My wife doesn't have too long, so we decided to do something local. I booked a few nights out at the Brisbane Marriott, a nice 5 star hotel located in Brisbane City. Some of the activities we got up to included,

The Charles Darwin display at the Queensland Museum

I was impressed with the collection of original books the museum was able to secure for this display.

The Da Vinci Exhibition at South Bank

This was an impressive exhibition of hand crafted machines based off the drawings of Da Vinci. An excellent display and well worth the $.

The Brisbane Ferris Wheel

OK, perhaps not as grand as the London Eye, but it is the best we have. It reminded me that I get squeamish at high heights.

The Story Bridge Climb

Apparently 1 of only 4 bridge climbs in the world. It was a long 3 hour trek, but well worth it for the city views. The ferris wheel heights certainly prepared for for this!

The rest of the time was spend dining and shopping. We head back home today to recover, and thankfully I still have a couple of weeks to myself for rest. Must resist the urge to check the work blackberry...

After that chocolate filled weekend and week of catered meetings at work, I best jump on the ol' treadmill today. That pic of choc is actually what's left over. I think I may have to dispose of it though. It teases me every time I open the fridge door.

The improvements to portable technology has come inleaps and bounds in the past few years.

Whether it be for the office or home, there are portable devices designed to help you with all aspects of your busy life.Office mobile, home mobile, iPod, portable games, netbooks...these are all the things you shouldn't leave home without. I know I don't...

How convenient!

Earlier last year, after hearing the news of Metal Gear Solid heading to the iPhone and Touch, I was finally convinced I needed to get one. I've enjoyed many months of crappy little micro games and would prefer not to look back to see how much all those $1.99 games have accumulated to. But the day has finally arrived, MGSTouch is finally available.

I ignored the complaints in previews, I ignored the poor reviews and let fanboyism take its toll on me.

The result?

It's not a bad game.

Not great....

But still not bad.

It may not be a system seller (can you say that for an iPod?) but it does a pretty good job for what it is. I've heard it is pretty short and that alone is the big killer on the price. Hopefully Konami release some free expansions for it in due course to make that price tag a little more fair.

Oh, and if you were worried, I got that scratch out of my wife's car (previous blog). Good as new

People warned her about choosing a black car, but my wife just wouldn't listen. Just over a month old now, I don't think the car could have gotten any dirtier over that time. It's like birds have been aiming at it on purpose Anyway, after getting it cleaned up we noticed a scratch. While I'm sure it will be buffed out quite easy, the mystery remains where it came from. We are yet to ram it into anything (despite my impressive record of rolling and demolishing my wife's cars) and we haven't seen anyone hit it. What I did notice is that our neigbour's car is white and they'd have to be the worst parkers in the universe. However I am not ruling out that this is retaliation for playing Killzone 2 at maximum volume the past few evenings.

On the subject of Killzone 2, boy is it a great game. I've been a tad too busy to sink my teeth into it but I hope to give it some good attention over the weekend. One thing I need to work on are the controls. While I think they are a change for the better, every time I go to play after having a short break, my brain resets and I forget the control scheme. I'll regularly shoot or punch my allys while I undergo the learning process again.

But it is a small price to pay for such an epic title. I just need to get some study and work out of the way and I'll be plopping my self in front of the PS3 very soon. If you are reading this Mr Neigbour, get your ear muffs out now

While it was sad to see more than a couple hundred of my work colleagues retrenched over the past few months and lose my management position and team as a result, it has given me the opportunity to squeeze university back into the schedule.

In 2006 I started a physics degree as a hobby. I suspended it a year ago as work and home life became hectic and are ultimately more important. But with the way things are going at the bank at the moment, my boss has once again agreed to be flexible and allow me to maintain my responsibilites as an analyst and complete my part time uni studies. It eats into about 5 hours of work, so that is just 5 extra hours I need to make up with overtime. Quite a bit to juggle, but very much worth it.

Phoenix Wright, Street Fighter 4 and now Killzone 2 are eating into my gaming time. But I have to give a shout out to this title as it is proving to be one of the most pleasant experiences in gaming I've had in quite some time.

Zen Bound for the iPhone was just released this week. The goal? Use the motion controls to wrap a paint colouring (limited amount of) rope around objects in order to cover them completely. Sounds pretty mundane, but it is actually very stimulating. Oh and if you want to know, hold down the sleep button and press the home button to take screenshots on your iPhone/Touch. Just learnt that today!

Late last night my blog managed to acquire a DeLorean DMC-12 and enough plutonium to generate the 1.21 gigawatts required to jump 10 years into the past. Of all the interesting periods in history it decided to visit me and take a blog entry.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Dear Diary,

I have been a fully fledged member of the working force for over two years now. The freedom of work is amazing and I couldn't be happier to have escaped the shackles of school life. [Note from future me – I was very naive back then].

This weekend I plan to see the new Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace! Guaranteed to be awesome. [So naive] I'm hoping it will be as awesome as The Matrix. Boy I can't wait for its sequel which is also guaranteed to be awesome. [So so naive and I seemed to use the word Awesome quite a bit].

When I'm not at work, the movies or entertaining my girlfriend [Future wife], I am battling my way through the 4th disk of Final Fantasy VIII. It is such an awesome game. [Again with the awesome] But while I am having a blast with it, I can't wait to finish it so I can give more attention to my sparkling new Sega Dreamcast. Soul Calibur! OMG. How can a game look this good? Sega and the Dreamcast will finally reclaim the throne of gaming systems for sure! [sob sob]

Thinking back, this year has been quite epid (epic for you modern day folk) for games. Metal Gear Solid, Super Smash Bros, Counterstrike, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and even the new online game, EverQuest. One thing bugs me about it though. I'm not too happy about this monthly fee thing though, It is something I don't think it will catch on. [um...]

Anyway, that is enough from me. I need to go stock up on baked beans and switch of all appliances in the house. The year 2000 people! The end of the world is upon us! [I didn't really believe this...well perhaps a little...OK I hid in the basement for the whole day]

HOME TIME!

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So that was my blog's trip into the past. Hope you enjoyed it. He is out sourcing some more plutonium for a planned trip 20 years into the past. I'll be sure to post you the results!

I continue to be surprised by the quality of the games that are being released for the iPhone/Touch. The latest title I downloaded from the App Store was Hero of Sparta.

This hack and slash game has a surprisingly flawless on screen control system. The left green blob is your directional pad and the two right blobs are your block and attack buttons. It has a great little story and fantastic cut scenes. Perhaps a little short but well worth the $8.

Some others I have my eyes on are Prey, a FPS and Time Crisis.

But its not all mobile gaming! I managed to play through the Halo Wars demo tonight. I had low expectations for this title and after a couple of hours, I am sold. I'm a big fan of RTS games, but I had never played one on the console that controlled well...until now. I found it easy to play, extremely fun and certainly a title that lives up to the Halo name.

Ten bucks! Yep, after a dig at my local GameTraders I came across this pristine Sega Saturn wheel for only $10. I'm not the biggest fan of racing games, but it was for the Saturn and it was $10...sold.

I rushed home and threw in Daytona USA, my only racing game for the Saturn. Before I had realised it, I had blown almost 2 hours on it. Never satisfied, I decided to rush back to the store to see what other racing games I could find. I only stumbled across one, but it was Sega Rally. It is one of my favs for the Dreamcast and I can happily say the Saturn version didn't disappoint. I sank another couple of hours into it after getting home.

$10 well spent.

While also at the store, I decided to finally pick up a camera for the 360. I thought it might be fun to make my own avatar pictures. After setting it up, I had difficulty managing to find anything other than a big blurry shot of my head. I played with image settings, camera location and spent the better part of an hour trying to get the image sharper. Eventually I read the manual and discovered the adjustment knob....

Tip of the day: Read the manual.

My gaming world

The other two worlds have been a tad busy lately but thankfully the convenience of handheld gaming was there to rescue me. I decided to get back into Phoenix Wright and Chains of Olympus. I managed to knock the later over last night and must say it was a very satisfying experience. I'll probably pop Crisis Core back into the PSP now but will focus on solving the murder mystery in Phoenix Wright first.

My home world

We picked up my wife's new car this week. The brand new Dodge Avenger replaces her 10 year old Nissan Pulsar which served us well. We managed to get $2k more for the pulsar than we thought and a cool $7k discount, free alloy wheels & fog lights for the Dodge. Very happy.

In other home world news, my lawn looks like I've neglected it for months. I will no doubt be mowing today. Joy.

My work world

OK, I wasn't technically laid off, but of approx 150 people in my division including the team I manage, only 6 remain. The rest are gone. From May 1st my job title - Credit Analyst - remains unchanged but I will have new duties and responsibilities. What they are remains a mystery at this time. But hey, that's the world now, full of uncertainty. I am at least happy that both my wife and I still have reputable jobs and can enjoy the home world (and game world!)

January. It is done. Time to move on. Unfortunately it wasn't the best start to 2009 for me (The blame lays primarily with work issues), but hopefully things can only improve from now. Next month looks like a pretty packed months for games with titles like Killzone 2, Street Fighter IV and Halo Wars all on my radar. But let's take a look back over January and my pathetic attempt to complete some of the titles released during the month, or the pile left over from the year before (and sadly, before that as well)

The first game I managed to complete was Enduro Racer. This was an old favorite from when I was a tad younger. I know I sunk hours and hours into it, so I was a little disappointed to purchase this on the Wii only to find it took me 15 mins to finish and there was no urge to replay. The nostalgia hit alone made it worth the small price tag, but not as satisfying as some of the other cIassics I've grabbed off the Wii shop. I managed a review if you'd like to know a little more.

After only finishing Gears 1 late last year, I was left wanting more so it was quite my luck to have Gears 2 being released around the same time. I can be a little slow finishing games, but managed to knock this one over within a couple of weeks. A very satisfying experience and I'm still left wanting some more.

The most recent and final game I managed to complete during January was MGS The Digital Novel. Ok, so it isn't really a game, but I'd like to count it. This would have been perfect if it weren't for some instances where the speech bubbles appeared and disappeared a little too fast for me to read it. You can go back to read what you missed, but the load time doing this really spoils the experience. I see the MGS 2 story is in the works, can't wait.

Some others that I started in January but didn't quite to finish include Valkyria Chronicles, Persona 3, Banjo Kazooie N&B and Secret of Mana. Two others I grabbed but didn't start this month are The Last Remnant and Persona 4.

So that wraps up my month gaming wise. Work wise was pretty eventful as well with my job being made redundant and having to accept a new position at work (more later) and on the home front, a new car for my wife which we hope to pickup next week (more later as well!) I hope you guys had a great start to 2009 and hope it continues.