That awkward moment when you check the other blog

The toast is in the oven.

Sent some overseas mail today, here was the fun conversation I had with the post office lady.

Me: Whats the cheapest way I can get this to Estonia
PO: uhhmm... well... 2 day delivery is around £50
Me: ........ no
PO: or theres 5 day recorded for £6
Me: Is there nothing cheaper?
PO: Can just send it by mail, 88p


Like.... I realise that because you work in a Post office your first language probably isnt English (British Joke right there), but jesus fuck is it that hard to understand that I want the cheapest delivery method?

Nonetheless. Toast is in the oven. Now I just have to play the waiting game.

Speedboost get

Granted i can't tell how fast it'll run when everyone in my house is streaming, but for now.... not bad.

I actually ordered a new wireless card as well because I think my current card is pretty old and holding me back (example - It doesnt have wireless N)

update:
Bought and installed one of these - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006PMX964/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Set up our second router to Wireless N @ 5ghz,  this was the result.

Side projects... side projects everywhere...

Somehow, despite being unemployed I still feel like I have no time to do anything.
Heres some life updates:

Job Hunting: Going meh, sent out a fair few job applications and CV's but haven't received anything solid yet.

Job application log. Yes my handwriting is horrific.

Piano: I feel like im getting better, im starting to get more used to the black notes and stuff now. I still need to find some time to try and learn how to read proper sheet music though.

JET Programme: Finally got the health certificate sorted out (£180 and 5 trips to the GP later mind you.) , in addition my police subject access request form arrived today and says they have no records of me in the police database - so that's always good.
Im going to submit the police form today and then its just the waiting game of seeing if they decide to upgrade me from reserve to shortlist - they say its highly unlikely to be upgraded after end of June, and deadlines for forms are on the 16th May and 17th June, so i'd imagine if I was to get upgraded it would be shortly after one of these dates due to candidates not being able to get their forms in on time.

Japanese Language: Up to 270 Kanji now, have started working through 'basic kanji book vol2'. The way they have done it kind of annoys me, as they are teaching Kanji in order or relevance - good for practical aspects I suppose, but annoying if I intend to try and learn each tier and take the japanese proficiency tests. Also, every character after the 150th is starting to look the same, and its bullshit.

Javascript: Coming along okay I guess, I spent a few hours the other day summarizing everything i've learnt onto paper, because apparently that helps me learn (or at the very least its nice to have something to fall back on)

VG Project: Some friends and I have decided we are going to attempt to make a video game, in hopes of learning lots of stuff. Im actually pretty excited at the prospect of being able to learn so many new things, from what I hear we'll be using Unity 4 and some 3d art tools and stuff (maya or blender apparently). I am for now essentially creative lead on the project, and my vision is perhaps overly optimistic of what the finished product will be - that said, if we can make the game that is floating in my head right now, we'd actually be able to sell it for £20 or so (we wont, because its going to end up being a bunch of stick figures on an MS paint background with characters that clip through everything).
I dont want to give away much yet, but im thinking it'll be like Contra + Gundemonium + Ikaruga + MVC3.... Yeah I know.

VG Journalism: Something i'd quite like to try getting into, but the current drought of games kind of isn't helping, and I have no intention of reviewing Slender the Arrival soooo...
Have submitted a few applications though just to see if anything happens.

Video Games: Black ops 2 free weekend was a lot of fun, its a shame the game is so expensive (even when its on sale), if it was in the £20 range i'd probably buy a copy for the multiplayer.
Aside from this, i've been playing 'You have to win the game' which may get a short review.
My latest minecraft town is on old for now due to creative block and time constraints.

Other stuff:
- Stateside skates/Anarchy skates were kind enough to send me some extra skateparts even though I bought my skates about 10 years ago. Shoutouts to their customer service team.
- Did I mention Im going to see Perfume Live in July? I cant wait!
- I'll likely be going to MCM expo (weekend of the 25th), if anyone else is going, let me know! I probably won't be dressing up, but who knows?

The Shake Up

So, I feel like a new subchapter in my life will be starting soon, those who vaguely follow my life will know that I have been working in a restaurant for the past year or so part time, and work at an Payroll/Bookkeeping agents.
I'm about to quit both jobs.
Not particularly because I hate them both (though I do) but because I am terrified of being stuck in a dead end job which I dislike, particularly true for my waitering job.
I do not have a job in reserve, or any form of backup, other than my own personal savings, I hope my JET application will be approved and hopefully that will give me something to occupy the next 1 or 2 years of my life (and i'll be hearing back from that in early April), however should I fail this, I may indeed be in some trouble.
This isn't really made much better by my mum apparently wanting to kick me out of the house soon because i'm not taking work seriously.
*sigh*

1998

I remember when I was young, around 1998 (which would have made me around 9 or 10) I would need to go to work with my father sometimes as there was nobody at home, My dad is an accountant, and let me assure you, there is fuck all for entertainment in an office other than paper, pens and thankfully, computers.

I had an old PC games magazine demo disk, I only really remember 2 games that were on the disk - 'Baldurs Gate', which would go on to become somewhat of a PC gaming bioware classic (The same people that now make Dragon Age, Mass Effect and KOTOR), and 'Commandos', which - in retrospect, is a fucking absurd game for a 9 or 10 year old to be playing.

It was no surprise then, that I hold fond memories of both games to this day, even though, when I think about it, I made little to no progress in either of them. My memories of Baldurs Gate consist of (and this will be hilarious to anyone that has ever actually played Baldurs Gate) getting to the inn at the start of the game [Which you spawn outside of] and then trying to burgle the place, getting caught, and then dying to a watchman, I think once, I maybe actually made it out of the city and partied up with the girl, thief and necromancer, however I am 100% sure, I never saw the Friendly Arm Inn.
Im playing through Baldurs Gate enhanced edition, and the first 5 minutes of the game are a complete nostalgia trip - because the starting area is the only bit of the fucking game that I know, Im pretty sure 10 year old me didn't know how to save the game, or equip items/weapons (because even today, as a grown ass 24 year old, that shit is complicated as fuck to figure out).

I don't even want to try installing commandos, because I can already tell im not going to be able to beat the first level. Those older style games are so ridiculously difficult that playing it today will only make me realise what a crazy child I must have been - but then hey, I guess these things build character.

Random Stuff - Feb

My JLPT N5 Certificate arrived today :D

No Words.

Why im not going to survive past May

So, my JET application went through to interview stage, which is on Monday. This is great because it means i've made it through stage 1, but also I suppose kind of bad because it means I likely wont survive past half way through 2013.
Heres why:

Scenario: Interview
a) Anxiety attack on way to interview -> Death
b) Anxiety attack during interview -> Death
c) Flop interview -> Seppuku aka. Death
d) Everything goes okay -> Live to see next scenario

Scenario 2: Interview results
a) Failure -> Suicide aka. Death
b) Success -> Die of happiness

Best Before Date:

<<<< Warning: Depressing IRL Post >>>>

My life is going to shit and im beginning to lose all hope of it ever picking up.
A Depressing summary of my current life situation:

- I work 2 seemingly dead end jobs, as an accounts assistant and as a waiter. Shit pay at both
- Live at home, not enough money to move out
- No girlfriend, no hope of getting one because the girls I work with arent my type and I rarely go out
- Rarely go out because my primary friend group are all fucking useless at keeping in contact or doing anything, even playing or chatting online is too much effort for them
- Uni friend group are spread too far and too thin to do anything
- Restaurant friend group are too different (raised on drugs and alcohol rather than books and vidya)
- Can't find a 'good' job, so many applications declined i've lost the motivation to continue trying
- Distract myself from how shit life is by playing video games and learning to play the piano, though recently even my online friends seem to be disappearing
- Way worse at Japanese than everyone believes
- Write a blog that nobody ever reads

Lets put it this way, if the mayans are right, fuck yeah.

I need to get my life back on track, I just don't know quite how ._.

I feel like my time is rapidly running out, nothing seems more pathetic than a 23 year old Biomedical Science graduate (from a National top 5 University) who is working as a fucking Waiter.
If anyone fancies chucking a £20k job and a wife my way, that would be awesome.


ps. Its sort of crazy to think how much this JET programme would change my life around if I got a place, fingers crossed.

Mengs Bizarre Adventure - R.I.P 2007-2011

The time to renew my domain and stuff is coming up, and though the cost of it wouldnt be that bad or anything - i just feel theres little point in keeping the blog up anymore. Its not something that people read and its not something I have much spare time to currently write, I felt it was pretty useful during university when stuff would actually happen on a regular basis, but at home its pretty much going to work and coming back home to play vidya and watch anime, I have no friends at home to go out with so its not even like i can run into adventure through that route.

If the situation calls for it, i may restart a blog on the free wordpress domain but we'll have to wait and see if that is necessary.

Twitter will likely be my new output medium, as its lightweight and i can easily update from anywhere via my phone - So i guess i'll try and use that more often.
aka. Make sure you're following http://twitter.com/#!/mengplex

Site fixed... Again.

Lets hope that error doesnt come back again eh.

Stuff on my agenda...

19th- Graduation

23rd - Holiday in Mallorca for a week

Burning time

Uneventful day

Started playing Assassins Creed brotherhood, which is pretty much exactly what I expect from Assassins creed at this point im time, the game does do some things differently but for the most part its just a refined version of Assassins creed 2, not that I have any problems with that, because its a great game - If something is a winning formula, why change it - although I do feel like the games are coming out a little bit too quickly, id hope AC:Revelations is the last in the series, the last thing we need is another overmilked franchise.

I also had a look at mobile phones, im considering going contract just because i'll (hopefully) have a full time job soon, which means more time spent out the house and away from a computer, the last thing I want is to become like one mythical Sean Penney, so a good phone with mobile internet and a fuckload of free minutes and texts will be useful for keeping in contact with everybody. Godknows I have a pretty small circle of friends already, I dont want that getting any smaller.
Thanks to a family friend, i'll probably end up getting a 50% contract deal, letting me go for a pretty outrageous £30 a month deal and only paying £15.
Strongly considering getting the Samsung Galaxy S2, which seems to be getting amazing reviews everywhere and is supposedly the best phone on the market right now, £15 a month is the minimum they let you get with the family/friends deal, so im thinking if I get the £17.50 a month deal, on a 24 month contract - I get the phone free and the total price of the contract over 2 years is £420, considering i'll get 900 minutes, infinite texts and unlimited mobile internet as well (per month obviously) and the fact that the free phone they give me is worth £475 on amazon right now... Id say it sounds like a pretty good deal. What the fuck im going to do with 900 minutes and infinite texts when I have about 6 friends is fucking beyond me, but at least i'll be ready should the txt-pocalypse occur.

Finally, given the possible buying of smartphone and jobsearching and stuff starting, I thought i'd clear out my email inbox, it had around 3000 unread messages in, so looking at the MSN 'new messages' notification was anyones guess.


I'd say that went well.
Also uncovered some super retro emails from up to 7 years ago, including some nudes of a girl I dont know

The lull

So ive pretty much finished writing my dissertation, going to print it and everything tomorrow and then hand it in... (deadline is on weds)
Havent been doing a whole lot other than that, casual relaxation and such...

Gaming :
Replayed Resi5 with a friend (god that game is so much fun on a clean playthrough with no guns), Played through LEGO Batman because I had nothing better to do, League of legends as always, Downloaded and played some of Duke - but it runs really ass on my PC so it kind of kills the enjoyment a little

TV:
Southpark this season has been pretty disapointing on the whole, there was that huge err.... twist... or... something... at the midseason though, which has gotten alot of discussion going....

Anime:
Aside from the regular shows ive been following this season (Click Me), I recently picked up the somewhat now infamous 'Mahou shoujo Madoka Magica' along with 'Kimi Ni todoke 2'.
Whilst the latter is kind of whatever, Madoka has been very very interesting, Its bizarre in that it doesnt really fit the genre/tags it bestows upon itself, I actually gave it a miss in the spring season just because its a fucking Mahou shoujo anime (Magical Girl), y'know... one of those shows where teenage girls transform to fight evil and have a transformation sequence where they get pretty little frilly clothes and shit [see also, Cardcaptor sakura, Sailor Moon....] .
The show is however, anything but cute girls running around with bows in their hair, this is some serious shit, a dark plot and kind of twisted characters make for a bit of a sinister take on the cutesy genre, I zerged through 9 episodes in about 3 days because its really one of those anime that you want to keep watching once you start... Give it a try if you have nothing to do.

other:
This reddit is kind of fucking amazing.... http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ca4bl/time_to_get_classy/

-insert betus blues here-

Not a huge amount going on at the moment, Feels like im essentially working already with all these 9-5 days. Its annoying because I cant really stay up late for gaming without seriously fucking myself over the next day.

Have been playing alot of Super Meat boy, trying to grab all the bandages and finish off the Dark World (and finish off the cotton alley of the light world :/ )

After asking my supervisor for some additional reading material he basically printed off a review paper (for non academic people, basically a summary paper which compiles information from about 80 journal entries) which was published in January 2011 by people in the group - And its pretty much my lab project in a nutshell, so it should hopefully let me write up the entirety of the introduction with minimal hassle.... In theory anyway.

In other news (i mean you'll already know if you follow my twitter or even just look at the right of the webpage at the twitter feed) - We're going to Ibiza! Booked the holiday last week, we're going there for 4 nights, So probably lots of faffing about in the sun, at the beach and then getting drunk as fuck at night. Will take my phone and hopefully take lots of pictures for you to all see.

Ok, I've seen a bunch of speculation of why people think PSN is down, and I thought I should just post what the community knows in comparison to what Sony is telling everyone. The truth is, there was a new CFW (custom firmware) released known as Rebug (http://rebug.me). It essentially turns a retail console into a dev console (not fully, but gives you a lot of the same options that usually dev's only have access to). Anyway, this new CFW was quickly figured out by 3rd parties (not Rebug) to give CFW users access to the PSN network again via the dev networks. With a little manipulation of the URL's through a proxy server you could get your hacked console back online. Not that big of a deal, right? Well, it also turns out that some people over at NGU found out that you could provide fake CC# info and the authenticity of the information was never checked as you were on Sony's private developer PSN network (essentially a network that Sony trusted). What happened next was extreme piracy of PSN content. Sony realizing the issue here shut down the network. Now, before you go freaking out about the latest information posted about Kotaku, no ones personal information was accessible via this hack. Not to say they couldn't get it, but no one is admitting to it being available. Anyway, that's the real reason for the PSN downtime. Sony is now rebuilding all of it's PSN servers to be more secure and (hopefully) make sure the CFW users cannot get online anymore.

Edit #1: To those of you saying that this is speculation, you are correct. But, it is speculation based on a lot of facts and the outcome seems to make the most sense.

• Rebug was released on 3/31/11.


• First guides of how to use the dev network to get back on COD games on 4/3/11.


• Word of NGU users finding a way to pirate PSN content via the dev networks on 4/7/11 (basing this on posts I had to delete on the website. Update: Users have pointed out to me that these posts existed on NGU as of 4/2/11).


• PSN goes down on 4/20/11

Now, you can believe Sony's PR team which has kept you completely in the dark, or you can see the list of events above and come to your own conclusion. Now, this isn't the first time Sony has fought back against the PS3 modders from getting on PSN. A couple of months ago we had a utility called f*ckPSN that changed the necessary header information that was being sent to Sony to allow modified consoles back online. We were able to use it for about a month. Then came the new TOS, the mass e-mail to PS3 customers, and software update 3.56 and 3.60. So, once again, yes this is all speculation, but it is speculation based on previous actions and known facts.

Edit #2: Mathieulh just mentioned that he has been in contact with someone that has official access to the SCE devnet servers and it was posted to them today that only 3.60+ debug firmwares will be allowed on the dev network anymore. All earlier versions will be cut. If you want to retain your access you need to contact Sony and upgrade to 3.60 debug firmware.

Edit #3: Ok, it looks like some various news sites have picked up this story and taken it out of context. Once again, this is all speculation and information gathered from various devs in the PS3 scene. It might very well not be the real reason PSN is down, but as the timeline fits, it's a reasonable explanation. Now, as to Rebug directly allowing this to happen, that's not the case at all. Different CFW's have had access to the dev network the whole time. This is not new news for people in the PS3 scene. It's what people have figured out what to do with the said network that has caused all the recent issues. Saying that Rebug is what did this is like saying a gun manufacturer is responsible for every death that happens with a gun.

nothing much to report...

Literally nothing happening in my life anymore

Revision is going bleh, past exam paper questions that i managed to find are bleh, gaming is bleh (decided to stop league of legends for a while, only playing the occasional Pop'n music and started final fantasy IV on psp)

ETA to first exam : 1 Week

Things i look forward to nowadays : Washing dishes, eating, anime, sleeping [ie. all the time spend which doesnt involve studying]

The progress..

Revision update 30th march

Have successfully skimmed through all 6 of the modules im studying for, highlighing key points and making sure the material makes some level of sense.
Ive only actually learnt 2 of the modules, and those are both of the easy ones. The rest of the information I need to learn involves maybe 120 pages at standard font size.
Particularly bitchy is Integrative Neuroscience, which is just fucking ridiculous. Im not sure how im going to handle it when it comes to the exam :< The material barely makes any sense.

I dont think anyone else is in revision stages yet - Our exams this year are super early because we do our final year laboratory project afterwards - but if you are, good luck and dont burn yourself out! D:

Countdown : 4 weeks (28 days left)

Random lookback at Meng's early gaming days

So most of the consoles I had were modded in some way, I had a modded saturn, PSX, PS2.... And a gameboy which used carts so that could just read whatever anyway.

Anywho, my parents or uncles/aunts used to just buy me shit loads of asian pirate games, I distinctly remember , whenever my mum or dad would go on holiday - to malaysia, or hong kong - they would come back with a huge stack of CD-R's in a little plastic sleeve with some squished artwork printed on a piece of paper.
I still actually have alot of these, maybe when I go home sometime i'll take some photos so you can all get an idea.
But pretty much...I had maybe 80~ saturn games, 150 PS2 games, 100's of GB games...
And probably the majority of them werent in english, which - surprisingly, didnt really faze me much.
I'd imagine the average teenager that puts in a game, RPG's or turn based strategy, action, whatever... and see's a flood of moonspeak - would probably give up and just not bother playing.
Never seemed like that much of a big deal to me though, I played through alot of them, maybe not to the end but a fair amount for sure, just trying every option, clicking everything i possibly could, seeing what happens, seeing what doesnt happen...
"oh, this is save" , "i guess this means attack?" , "what the hell am i casting? why is it not doing anything (probably casting esuna on self in jappo FF game)"
Sadly, the occasional game would be unbeatable, specific victory conditions, or needing to get something specific from a specific place etc - Super Robot Wars was one of my favorite games on the sega saturn, kind of comparable to Advance Wars- but with robots and shit.
That game was the fucking worst for it, jesus, so much text, you can swap out robot pilots and weapons, skills, more stats to look at than your average level 85 WoW character... And then dickbag victory conditions like 'protect this unit' and im sitting there making that unit be the leader of the suicide attack army and stuff.

I wonder if those experiences changed my character at all, I wonder if i'll intentionally do the same to my children in the future and be like 'DEAL WIT IT.' Im sure it must have taught me something, im just not sure what that something is yet.
(also, i wonder if i could go back now and be able to understand it any better, given ive aged 10 years and can read a little japanese)

So im 22 now

-_______________-"

Had a sort of interesting birthday day i guess, had an awesome dream (So much party and fun that MVC3 was on in the lounge but the xbox had gone into standby mode because there was so much fun to be had elsewhere)
Woke up at 2, did abit of work, watched some anime, then went to the girls house for 'Oscar night' which was basically just watching the oscars and realising that I havent seen hardly any of the nominees or know any of the actors.
I also realised one of my friends has tits which more or less come out of her stomach

The only presents ive gotten so far are from the girls (because its tradition in our house to give birthday presents late i guess) , they got me a pendulum T-Shirt and the book '1001 video games you must play before you die' which is pretty interesting. Ive already started ticking off the stuff ive already played in the contents page.
The only absence ive noticed so far is 'Ristar' on the megadrive, I feel thats a game which should be in a list of games to play before you die, certainly more than... uhh.... *flipflipflip* 'Maximo' on the PS2 (the spiritual successor to Ghosts and Goblins)

In the book though I found out about the game im about to link below, 'Cursor*10' , and after a little play, its short but definitely something which should be experienced. its very unique :)

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html

If i find any other internet based web games mentioned in the book, I may forward the links to y'all if i deem them worthy.