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Lost screenshots

BabyBear — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:24:09 GMT

Sorry for the not updating my blog, but I lost all my lineage screenshots when my laptop got taken during a burglary in my house.

As for the 100 bronze pumpkins... i remember the result, 0 skeleton grails :(
Rest was all pots, spirit gems, magic gems,... (standard consumables) AND
1 n-zel. So I got really unlucky with that.

Oh yeah, I got more luck with fishing though and obtained a rare turtle after 14 baits.

New updates will take some time again until I got everything sorted out.

Haunted House

BabyBear — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:22:19 GMT

Hi all, as said in my previous blog post, I'm currently working on obtaining a Doll in the game. Dolls can provide certain benefits to your character like more carry capacity, extra mp regen,...
To obtain this doll, you need to complete a quest which contains 4 mini-games. 1 of them is the Haunted house. In the rebuilded town of Gludio go to the Haunted house manager Duo and compete in the game:

First you will be placed in a little cage until all players that want to compete entered. (max 10). After some time the game is started and everyone is changed into a pumpkin costume.

And the gates will open. What you need to do is run as fast as you can to the Fire of Soul. The first that extinguish the Fire of Soul is the winner. Offcourse a haunted house is not a haunted house if there aren't traps or any kind of ghosts. While you are running towards the Fire of Soul you will need to open certain doors:

Hit some blue teleport spots to proceed to the next part of the haunted house:

Trying to avoid the traps (which isn't easy as you can't see them :P) Or you will be slowed down, or even blinded, paralyzed:

Also watch out for the wandering souls as they will haunt you down!!!

As a side note, they only run in your way, slowing you down, so you actually don't need to be scared from them ;)

If all goes well, you will be the first to extinguish the Fire of Soul:

As winner you get a pumpkin of brave man. Depending if the game is played with 1-3 (bronze), 4-7 (Silver), 8-10 (gold) players, a different pumpkin is obtained.

Since I read somewhere you have 1/100 chance to obtain a skeleton grail from a bronze pumpkin, i'm now trying to obtain 100 bronze pumpkins of brave man... This is how far i'm currently are:

I'm getting there slowly, so hopefully soon I will be able to tell you all what I get from the 100 pumpkins :D

Finally level 52

BabyBear — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:54:53 GMT

I did like 80% during the last exp event, but since I only started from 14%, my character was still not lvled :(

After the exp event, I couldn't be bothered leveling my character at that time, I got a little bored of it. But now:

I finally got to level 52 :D
In lineage it is possible to add a stat point to your character for each level you done after level 50. For my elf I picked DEX:

Next to the new stat point, level 52 is also a great level looking at polymorph. Most characters look out for the Death Knight polymorph (close combat weapon) at level 52. Since I use a bow on my elf, I now use the Dark Elf poly :

I'm not able to hunt the Land of Abandoned with my elf as i'm not really on a newbie level anymore. But i'm not planning to level my elf much more at this time. I'm now working on getting my mage to level 49 before christmas and to obtain a skeleton grail in my quest to get a Doll in the game. More on that in my next blog entry.

Dragon Valley 6f

BabyBear — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:13:40 GMT

I'm still on my quest to get a Holy Walk book drop. Last time I hunted within the underground looking for this drop from Dire wolfs, now I went to Dragon Valley dungeon 6F.

I took the easy way through Elven Dungeon 3f and then worked my way down to 6F. When I reached 6F, I got attacked by a Succubus Queen:

I thought HELP... a boss monster i'm not prepared for... and I even haven't killed any bossmonster yet on my mage...
I fought the Queen of all succubus the best I could... and was able defeat her. I got a normal scroll of Enchant armor from her... an ok drop I thought. After running around 6F a bit more... I even encountered another succubus queen and another... and another... Apparently this isn't some kind of boss monsters I first thought, but one of the normal mobs roaming around there :P

Offcourse I'm not really intrested in the queen, but in the normal succubus:

From my source (Lineage Library - Home) they are also able to drop the holy walk book :P

But until now, still now success...

Ok, now I talked about the complete Dragon Valley 6F except for the Ettin:

So now you have a complete overview of the monster to hunt on Dragon Valley 6F. They are ok to kill with my mage with 2 King BugBear pets. Only I need to wait from time to time for my mp regen...

Also the monsters down there drop quite some adena... so if i'm more experienced in hunting there, I think this is a nice place to make money :mcool:

First Ifrit

BabyBear — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:58:14 GMT

After the event, I got really bored of hunting for experience, so i been running around looking for some bosses I can kill.

I even tried to kill a boss I never killed before... Ifrit.

I ran around Firevalley when I found him:

His name looked green, so I thought this will be easy.... NOT. I first attacked him from a distance, but his ranged attack was really hurting me :(

Then I went in close combat (still using bow offcourse :P) and this hurt me less and I was able to do a fair amount of damage and could control the damage i received.... until that silly lava golem came close and also started hitting me :(

I ran away and killed Ifrit on the spot you see in the screenshot above... He was not able to hit me, while I was able to kill him... In the end the resulted in no drop :(

Next to it I found Caspa group... they dropped quite a lot compared to other times, but still crap:

Now I need to finetune my combat skills looking at Ifrit to kill him easier from close. Atleast I got some experience with him now and killing him can only get easier from now on :)

Double Exp/Poly Event + Death Drop

BabyBear — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:50:09 GMT

Hi all,

it's a while since I posted on my blog as my account was inactive. Currently I activated my account until the christmas period to have some fun in Lineage. A little after my account was activated an event started. This event included Double Experience and all poly morphs unlocked.
Here you can see me with a level 70 archer polymorph:

Yeah I was hunting land of the abandoned with my elf. It was fast experience for me with around 4% each hour. I was first thinking of leveling my mage, but the Killglance ring effect of the event week gave much more benefit to my elf... and why not get him as close to lvl 52 as possible.

While running around, I saw a mage death on the ground... one that dropped a piece of his armor. The armor piece as you can see in the screenshot is worth around 50m on Dep server. I was really tempted to hold it myself, but as a good guy I returned the armor piece:

Being the good guy really isn't worth much... only a thank you. Now I hope if something like that ever happens to me, someone also returns my hard worked item.

Since I been leveling hard with my elf to reach level 52, nothing much happenned in the meantime... only that i'm on 96% at the end of the event.

Hopefully more exciting things will happen in the coming days except for exp grinding

Busy and bored

Tagred — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:54:57 GMT

16th September 2009 i'm busy and bored!

since the joint venture with rolls-royce things got hectic, lots and lots of things to change, from the name right up to how the business is run.

Im charged with helping to plan and implement the safety strategy for the next 3-10yrs.

all very interesting and gives me something to do. Im in my new place now , been here since January 2009, its not bad, theres less grief here but i got my own office and stuff to go with it so its cool.

Been to Belfast a few times, it's weird, i always expected to see roads with big metal walls, paintings of various terrorist organisations and a continual feelilng of dread.

But not so, Belfast is a beautiful city, it's a shame that because of religion and some stupid hold on history, these guys want to kill each other. Everyone i have met in Belfast have been really nice, it just goes to show you dont really know until you have experienced something. Like with America my view of the place has changed, and for the better, not that i had much against Northern Ireland anyway.

Anywho, my girlfriend, has now moved in with me and has a job as a teaching assistant, shes the total opposite of the pig i was seeing before, i still feel odd though, it still doesnt feel quite real yet, but im sure ill get used to it. also inhereted 2 cats and have got 6 fish in the tank. The house and garden are coming along and its feeling like home.

I thought i made a few more blogs than this but i guess obviously not :P.

Off to swindon for the weekend to see the outlaws (gf parents) probably spend some money on stuff i dont need. Then to derby next week for work.

i start my NVQ4 at the end of the month, I thought that i might as well get some more training while im here, another degree equivalent would be nice on the old CV.

anyways, hope you who read this are ok, hope to hear from you, and keep TFing

All Associations Resistance Region

BabyBear — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:56:44 GMT

I been trying to switch between certain hunting grounds with my mage. One of them is the All associations Resistance Region. This is the map between Diad fortress and the beginning of the Lastavard.

Here you see me on that map with 2 of the monsters I can summon since i'm level 48 and a ring of summon control (gargoyles)

The reason i'm hunting this ground is that I'm trying to get a spellbook for my mage named 'Holy Walk'. This is a spell that can buff my character for a certain period of time, so I can move faster then I'm used to now... Handy to apply the tactic hit and run ;)

Unfortunately I haven't got the spellbook dropped yet :( but I'm able to give you some scenerie screenshots of the place I'm hunting now :)

The monster I really like to kill here is the Dire Wolf... as I know they have a chance of dropping me that holy walk spellbook ;)

Just wish me luck on my quest for my holy walk book ;)

My account is expired, so it could be that the next blog entry will take some time before it is posted.
Also my playing time in the coming weeks is very limited as I'm looking with my wife for a plot of land to build ourselves a house. (our current house is just not 100% what we want ;))

Glarielle and other bosses

BabyBear — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:29:59 GMT

Just been hunting with my mage, nothing special to say about that ... only maybe that I reached level 48. So an update to my blog of some of the bosses I hunted. Currently I check 3 easy bosses from time to time (ones I have experience in killing). These are crocodile, glarielle and caspa group.

I was able to find Glarielle on Elven dungeon 3F:

I was actually rather stupid... I only had 1 orange pot on my (to recover hp)... Forgot to stock up. So I had to practically kill it without pots. To avoid the tornado spell she is able to cast, I killed her from a distance. This results in the drops going to the ground instead of directly into my inventory, so I had to pick up everything:

After scanning through the items in my bag it seems the best drops are n-zel and Top Quality Saphire and as usual a lot of elven ingredient items. This is an ok drop from here :jig: Not the best drop, but also not the worst.
After killing glarielle, I stocked up in town (this time buying pots :P) and I went to check for Caspa group.... This was the result:

This time I didn't forget to screenshot them all :P As you can see on the screenshots, I took the easy way to kill them by waiting on the otherside of a door. This way I could only be hit by 1 of the group and I was able to save on pots to kill them all at once :). First time that I didn't had to tele away to regen some hp/mp and get in for a second round.
As you can see, nothing good was dropped again from the group :(. Oh well, better luck next time :mcool:

Land of the Abandoned

BabyBear — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:03:21 GMT

Completely in the north part of lineage you can find a special portal called Twisting of Space. This portal can be used to go to the Tower of Shadows and to the special leveling spot for level 45-52 players.

I haven't really explored the Tower of Shadows yet, but I have been hunting the Land of the Abandoned a lot lately to gain experience on my mage.

The land of the abandoned is an open outside area with all undead monsters. Most monsters in there have a ranged magic attack like the undead demon (fire attack):

With my mage, I can turn undead most of the monsters in there except for the ones that look like a lesser demon (wings seems clipped):

I always run away from them or when there are too much following me, I just teleport away. I do hunt without polymorph there, as the monsters there see through it. It's one way to save some adena as the drops in the land of the abandoned really is bad.

Next to the lesser demons which are hard to kill for my mage (actually don't want to waste my mp on them). There is also an annoying monster that looks like a succubus. They are not hard to kill with turn undead, but they are just annoying as they have the ability to teleport you next to them. So first you sit on a safe spot on the edge of the screen and 1 second later you could be in the middle of the action:

While i'm hunting there, I just enjoy the scenery of the snowy landscape:

So this is the land of the abandoned I'm currently hunting with my mage, so if you need me, you now know where to find me ;)

Caspa Group

BabyBear — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:25:23 GMT

Aside from leveling my mage, I sometimes wander around certain places in lineage to find some special monsters. Most people call them boss monsters as they are stronger as most other monster in their area, they have a higher chance to drop something nice, but are harder to find.

Few days ago I went to mainland dungeon. There are several boss monsters you can find in here depending on how deep you go. On the 3rd floor of the dungeon (there are 7) I found the caspa group. This is a group of mages trained in their own elemental line (fire, earth,...). You have Caspa:

Merkyor:

Baltuzar:

And I forgot to take a screenshot of Sema :( The reason for this is that I encountered the group directly when going down the stairs to 3rd floor and killed Sema immediately before taking time for screenshots.

I'm not able to take them all on at once with my elf, it is still to weak, but I try to seperate them from eachother and kill them 1 by 1. In the end I didn't get any drops that are worth to mention, but because I did take a screenshot of it, this is what I got:

Since my characters are still rather new to the game, I'm actually not yet a boss hunter type of player. So maybe next time I will try to post some story about me leveling my mage in THE level-spot for level 45-52 characters. The land of the abandoned (noob ToS)
But offcourse it is always easier to make posts like this, as it is a special event for me and my characters that I don't accomplish every day :)

Wanted Criminal Kuzak

BabyBear — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:36:19 GMT

I been lucky this week to find this monster within the game. I was working on some bookmark for my mage around the mainland of lineage when I encountered Kuzak. This monster is very hard to find, but on the other hand, drops very nice things and is easy to kill.

Offcourse I did take a screenshot of it's drop this time :)

The scroll of enchant armor was cursed. Not that bad to get a cursed scroll now after the boss island event ;)

Lvl 45 Mage Quest

BabyBear — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:39:10 GMT

The boss island event is over and I didn't got any drops anymore that are worth to list :( I did picked up on my leveling with my mage and I reached level 45 a few days ago :D

For those familiar with Lineage know that on level 15,30 and 45 there are quests for your character. These quests are different for each class in lineage. After reaching a safe exp level I started the quest with my mage. What is safe exp some might ask? Well in lineage you lose experience points when you die. This could even result in you downgrading a level and I wanted to prevent that from happenning :)

Ok forward with the quest. For the level 45 Mage Quest you first need to speak to Talass who can be found in the Ivory Tower. I put on my new robe I could wear on level 45 (Ancient Robe) against the cold and I went north to the entrance of the Ivory Tower

After entering the Ivory Tower I moved up to the 3th floor and searched for Talass. He told me about a surprising creature which I need to find. Some kind of talking Rock

So I went to the forest of Mirrors as Talass told me to find the strange Rock. After finding the Rock he told me that he was actually a mage before, but got cursed by the Elf people as he was seen as an Invader of their land.

The rock asks me to find a special Doppelganger, feed him a bless of Eva potion (same potion you use to breath under water) and that the doppelganger will regurgitate, which is what I need to collect.

Ok now to fight those doppelganger. There are different kind of doppelgangers, some will just walk around, others will turn into the first playable character they seen. The doppelganger which we need to find is one of those polymorphing ones.

The only difference you can notice between the one you need to find and the normal doppelgangers is that the one you need hits harder and takes longer to kill.
What I did is just fed every morphing doppelganger a bless of eva and killed them. Once I found the right one (around location 33765, 33237, type /loc to find your location) it gave me the doppelganger regurgitation

Next I also needed an Ancient Magic Crystal (and I am playing Depardieu server). I got mine from taken a book of Cancel Magic (I still had one in store) to Orim. Orim can be found on the Mainland Cave 7f. The easiest way to get there in my opinion is by using the underground passage between Talking Island cave and Mainland cave. So this is the route I took. Once at Orim, I asked for the Ancient Magic Crystal in exchange for the Cancel Magic book

Once I had both the doppelganger regurgitation and the Ancient Magic Crystal, I went back to the mysterious rock (I did bookmark it, so just needed 1 blessed teleport scroll :)) and he gived me the Record of the Ancient Devil

Now I needed to get back to Talass and give him the Record of the Ancient Devil. In return I got Magic bag of Talass

After opening the bag (just double click) I got the Wisdom of the Ancient People (needed for the level 50 group quest) and a mana cloak

This mana cloak also has a hidden +5mp regeneration each tick. So certainly an ok cloak for a mage :)
With the reward gotten, I finished the level 45 Quest and can start leveling again to higher levels ^^

Boss Island Event

BabyBear — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:08:06 GMT

As promised, I'm going to show you some screenshots of the current ongoing event. The boss island event.

First you can see the group i'm currently hunting with, all from my pledge the XRated :hail:
We are currently killin a Knight Vald (named "The Leader" on the boss island):

The Knight Vald is the one with the red eye :P

For those not familiar with lineage, the icons in the top right hand corner are called buffs. It are special effects currently affecting my character (for example haste, extra strength, extra bow damage,...)

Next we have a Grim Reaper. In lineage you have all kind of bosses with all special effects as you can see.

An Ice Queen. The bear you see in the screenshot is a Dire Bear. This is a beast a level 60 mage can summon to help him during hunts.

Iris using a Tornado spell. She looks nice though with her whip and leather outfit

If you didn't noticed yet, my character is that red looking archer (fire archer). This is not the standard looks of my character, but in lineage it is possible to polymorph you in different monsters within the game. The higher level you are, the better polymorphs are unlocked. The fire archer polymorph is the best one I can get on level 51. These polymorph have next to their looks also other benefits. For example moving faster or faster shooting.

Next we have a Beleth, I like this one. Depending on my position, this mob isn't able to hurt me. So it's an easy kill for me :P the most annoying about this one is that he spawns skeletons to aid him.

The bossmobs most characters in the game are able to solo is the mambo rabbit:

Offcourse we don't always kill them nicely one by one. Sometimes there is also chaos. Spot the 4 bosses within the next screenshot:

Last but not least, I was lucky today to get a very nice item of the game. I was killing a mambo rabbit and was running out of pots. Since I do ranged damage I ran away from the rabbit and started shooting, run, shoot... and it dropped me a kaiser claw. I was so excited with the drop that I forgot to even take a screenshot of it :(
Oh well this is a screenshot of it in my bag after I allready enchanted it to +7

Yes in lineage it is possible to upgrade your items (both weapons and armor pieces). You do this buy using special scrolls within the game. The Kaiser claw can be safely enchanted to +6 without it breaking. It is now +7, so if I try to enchant it further. There is a chance the claw will just evaporate away.

I hope you enjoyed my first screenshots. And wish me luck so I can get another good drop from the event that I don't forget to screen :sssh:

The beginning

BabyBear — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:15:18 GMT

This is the first time i'm writing a blog, so it will be something to get used to for me.
As writing about myself would be boring, I picked a topic for my blog which is Lineage 1. This is a mass multiplayer online game I'm currently playing. I hope you will like it :sssh:

The start off, I would like to give an little introduction to lineage and my place within it. I don't got any screenshots yet, but I will try to make some for future posts within my blog.

Lineage 1 is allready an older online game. This can be seen by looking at the graphics of the game itself. When I had my first internet connection back in the year 2000 my bro introduced me to lineage. It was an online game he found on the internet which was at that time free to play (beta). Once the beta was over, I didn't play lineage again for quite some time. 1 year ago I couldn't find any good game to play until I thought, why not try lineage again. The game evolved a lot in the past years so it felt like I never played the game before.
There are currently 5 playable classes within the game (Royal, Knight, Mage, Elf, Dark Elf). Yes Elf and Dark Elf are classes and not races within this game :smart:
In the beginning you need to get used to the gameplay and the playing style. Once this is done, you can start to enjoy the game. The game is 10 years old, but it also got the content to show for it. There is a lot to do within the game. After 1 year of playing, I haven't seen everything yet within the game. (I play average of 2 hours a day)

Now to get to my place within the game. I got 2 characters I currently play. I got a level 51 elf (my starting character) and a level 43 mage (only playing for a few weeks now) In the beginning I hunted alone or with my brother, who also rejoined the game. But my bro allready took a break from lineage few months ago. After that I joined a pledge within the game named XRated.
So in my future blog posts you will find things back from my 2 characters and maybe together without some of my pledge.

Currently there is an event ongoing in lineage named 'Boss Island'. This is an event with an island inhabited with bosses from around the game. And like in the normal lineage world, they also drop nice items. (Special drop rate is created for the bosses on the island). So I hope to provide you some screenshots and my ingame experience from this event in my next blog post. I hope you will enjoy reading it

Other People's Children

Laz — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:55:34 GMT

Have you ever noticed that children behave differently when they are away from their own parents? And usually for the better.

I have been a soccer coach and a parent volunteer for the school drama productions, both for several years. These activities allow me to work with lots of kids aged 10-15. I know that there are problem children out there, and I haven't really had to deal with them yet, but most kids have been polite and attentive, and have focussed on the tasks at hand. Plus, I make sure we have fun.

Eventually, the parents come to pick up their kids, and some will say "I hope Johnny wasn't too difficult today." I'll reassure them that Johnny was fine, and then wonder what happens at home, and how much of any bad behavior is driven by the family dynamic. But their parenting can't have been too bad, as Johnny is well behaved around me.

Back before there was a USA, "fostering" was a common practice. And of course, back when debts could be inherited, running away from home at a young age was a good idea.

Today, parents seem to be very reluctant to let their children go out and explore the big bad world. I wonder if this is a good thing.

Of course, in my case, I wish my kids would stay home a little more..:doh:

24th August: Work is a four letter word

Tagred — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:28:59 GMT

24th August 2008

Been a few weeksa since my first blog entry so i though i'd do some more. Theres been a few changes in those weeks.

Changes at work, Rolls Royce have decided to partner with my company to create a joint venture. This means that there my part of the business will be owned 50-50 by Rolls Royce and Goodrich aerospace, so it means that i will be part of a new company with 2 owners. Most people don't know what this will mean, who is actually going to own us, whose procedures do we work to? No question of redundancies yet as we are going to incorporate about 500 engineers into our part.

On the plus side it could mean that i can finally make our systems work and that we will have more autonomy
and get things done the way we want them to be, simple and efficient with less beaurocracy. Who knows until it happens? I have been told that i will be looking after another site, not 8months after moving to the one i'm currently in, but that's ok, its only about 300yards from where i am now, and means that i have been running health & safety in all the 3 local sites, more money? Probably not but heres hoping.

Right now i'm in New York state in a place called Rome, nice place, great room even better air conditioning as it's hotter than hell outside. I got a week's worth of auditing to do, but when this joint venture comes about i might have to give it up, which means no more travelling the world. Oh well, it was great while it lasted and has given me a great deal of knowledge about business and how it works on an international scale, a great addition to my CV if nothing else, it means that if i move on, i could probably get a decent paying job fairly easily.

My house is pretty much finished decorating wise, the girlfriend decorated top to bottom, and for some strange reason was more than happy to do it while i was at work, a good thing since im too much of a lazy git to do it, but shes helped me out of my melancholy and i can see a future now both with my house (if things dont get more expensive) and getting what i want out of life. All i need now is to start saving again so i can get the things needed and to help the family out.

Anyway, things are steadily working, though my problems arent as bad as anyone elses as old Thom Sawyer once said, "the grief and pain of a small child who has lost her doll is as bad as a king grieving at his lost kingdom" or words to that effect. Basically just because my problems arent as bad as most people, it doesnt mean i feel any less as someone who has had a really bad time of it. Think about it, it works, it will help you to understand others.

Right time to bugger off and watch a little american tv with all those too good to be missed offers and adverts that appear from nowhere in the middle of a programme.

Take care all

Moving is not fun.

Laz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:56:57 GMT

If you've been following along, you know that I/we have just moved from Westport Connecticut (1 hr east of NYC) to West Chester PA (1 hr west of Philly).

We had lived in Westport for 12 years, and Connecticut for 20. We went from a small house to a bigger one, a small property to a bigger one - all for much less money. Escaping the NYC metro area has its advantages.

Anyway, packing and moving is a terrible chore, and then unpacking takes forever (years!). The kitchen layout is different, so which drawer does the silverware go in? Registering our new address with everyone is annoying. How come they can't figure this out on their own? Hmmm, maybe we just won't tell them we left.

The worst part has to be making new friends. We had the most wonderful goodbye parties before we left (why is that?) Our kids are mostly grown (16 and 20) to there are no playdates. We don't have time yet to start up volleyball and music jams (ref unpacking above). And our neighbors all seem to be on summer vacation.

So why did we move? The Wife got a fantastic job that acknowledges that she is really good at what she does. The past 5 years have been very tough, as her boss really didn't understand the situation he was putting her in, and himself as well. I was able to find a new job as well, which is similar to my previous place, so not too bad.

Stay tuned - hopefully happier stories soon.

Change is change

Laz — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:42:07 GMT

My family is moving for the first time in 12 years. My wife has accepted a new job about 200 miles from where we live now. We've bought a house, and are trying to sell this one. I just got a new job, which is a big relief. I've been the "trailing spouse" for 25 years.

We hate to move, which is why we have done it only a few times. In fact, my wife stayed at her current job about 2 years too long because she loves it here, and she hates to move. But her job was really making her miserable, which makes us all miserable, so away we go. Her new job is fantastic; she can already tell that it's going to be a lot better, and she hasn't started yet. We will miss being near the water, but we'll soon be up in the hills with a wonderful view.

I also tend to stay in one place. It takes a lot of effort to get me to leave - I've only quit on my own once in my entire career. Both of us are loyal to a fault.

But sometimes change is good. We don't really have many close friends here, and my daughter hates the school she is in. My current employer is going through some really tough times, while my new employer is still growing.

And soon we start the really tough part - sorting and packing. What to keep in, what to leave out. Arrggh!

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

Quiting Smoking Diary

Detomah — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:57:20 GMT

Ok, it's been planned for a few weeks now, but the day itself is now upon me.

30th May 2008 = Quite Smoking Day for me...

To catalogue the feelings I go through and struggles I endure to make sure I actually quit properly this time and don't give in the cravings and so that I have something positive to look back at, I will be doing a daily diary of my quiting, so each day I will come back and add a new section to this as I progress.

Yes I am scared, i've been through this before and as such a heavy smoker, I know what the first three days will put me through. :eek2: I can do it though!

Anyway, to start, here is the day before process i'm going through...

The Day Before Quiting - 29th May 2008

I have 1 packet of papers, 1 lighter and enough baccie left for 5 more roll-ups, once that is gone, every single cigarette and smoking related item is going straight into the bin, including the ashtray.

All clothing that smells of smoke is getting washed.

Desktop wallpaper is changed to a help quit smoking desktop, together with changing my avatar on TF and adding a positive siggy banner.

My new desktop is:

Robyn has been prepared and knows what needs to be done to keep me positive.

I have my Nicorette Inhalator ready, i've already tested them to make sure they are suitable and they are, they work a treat and with no nasty side effects for me luckily.

So, as the evening passes, I will slowly smoke those last 4 roll-ups, making sure I remind myself as each one passes, why I am quiting and what I stand to benefit by quiting.

So why am I quiting?

Well... there are a whole bunch of reasons, including the normal smelling, health and finance ones and the biggest of all, I want control back, I am sick of little white cancer sticks controlling what I can do and the cravings ruling over me.

My dad had a heart attack a couple of year ago, it's acted as a very big kick up the arse for me. Not only with the smoking issue, but with my diet, exercising and generally every single aspect of my life. When I went for a health check up 2 years ago and was warned about my blood pressure and cholesterol and that i'd be lucky to get to 50 if I didn't start changing things, I knew I had to get real and do something about it if I want to live to a decent age. Quiting smoking is the single biggest part of making sure I give myself every chance of living a much longer and enjoyable life and of course, with a lot more money too.

So, tomorrow evening, I will add to this how the first day has gone, if i'm not climbing the walls too badly that is, otherwise it may have to wait a couple of days until I am coherent again.

Oh how I wish i'd refused that very first cigarette that was offered to me.

Quiting Day - 30th May 2008

Woke up at 8am this morning, last cigarette was at 11:50pm last night, so the urge is already strong, using that to my advantage though, I twist it and call that not bad an 8hr head start for me.

Breakfast was a struggle last time, well actually the post eating breakfast cigarette was the actual struggle, but i've quickly got past that this time by taking a quick shot on the inhalator.

Decided to have a slightly early lunch, knowing full well that food is a great side track, of course the after lunch cigarette was replaced by a shot of the inhalator again, great way to kill the craving on the spot, whgile still allowing the tar and crap to start clearing.

By 3:00pm it's getting a little difficult to concentrate, the throat has started going through it's restriction phase and all the other major withdrawel symptoms are kicking in. I know the key time for me is making it to bedtime today, I don't have a single doubt in my mind at all that I can get there though, every single bone in my body is completely commited and determined to be successful.

Ok, so made it to midnight without breaking down, it's been tough, but that's the whole 1st day done with, so that's the first mile stone achieved. I'll make this a little more coherent at some point once i'm feeling a bit more sane, as it really is tough to concentrate right now.

Day 2 - 31st May 2008

24hrs have now past and I have managed to resist tempation. I am feeling really motivated about this, but the cravings when they come are really strong, so it takes a lot of effort to keep on believing and a lot of concentration to stop it getting the better of me.

The first major signs of irritation and not being able to settle kicked in through the night. I went to bed aorund 12:45am but was back up at 5:50am having had a really restless night. Fortunately I already know from past experience that this bit gets a lot lot easier over time.

Fast forward to midnight. Today has been a big struggle. The body now knows it's not getting any more cigarettes and it's started fighting back. I've managed to survive the day without buckling, but it's been really tough. I'm really glad it's over with. My weakness today has been food, but I have deliberately made plans for that and made sure certain food stuffs were in the house, but i've kind of pigged out today to break the smoking cycle and to also give me somehting else to focus on, aka not sticking to my current diet means I now have to focus double as hard on that, which should mean I will forget about smoking much quicker.

Smoking for 18yrs and smoking up to 30 a day at times has been stupid, but it's only when you quit or at least try to quit that you ever think that, the rest of the time you consider it as part of normal life. Just think though..... 18yrs of smoking equates to around 130,000 cigarettes, 6500 packs of 20, or around the �25,000 to �30,000 spent buying them mark. I really have to stop and think to myself, how much i've poisoned myself for 18yrs, taking in crap like cyanide and carbon monoxide voluntarily. I mean, I wonder just how much tar i've got lining my lungs and insides right now and how long it's going to take for that to clear up?

The one thing I think I can say for certain... The Nicorette Inhalator works a bloody treat for me!!! Ok so i've not completely got over the nicotine addiction itself just yet, I am pretty damn certain that even at this very early stage in the proceedings, I am not craving for cigarettes at all, what I am craving and need is the actual nicotine itself, but the little plastic replacement is working great in giving me that and in a much reduced but sufficient level. I really shouldn't speak too soon though, I'm still getting hot and cold flushes at the moment, together with stomach cramps, lack of concentration, irritability, blurred vision and all the other normal quiting smoking type symptons.

The last time I quit I was successful for 3 months, but at this stage I was under a constant state of siege mentality with myself, I seriously wanted to go to the shop and buy cigarettes and it was continuous, right through to the point were I did actually fail at the 3 month mark and went and bought myself a packet. This time, even after only 2 days, I don't have anywhere near the same kind of urge to go and buy more. The only possible answer I can give for this, is that last time my heart wasn't really in it, I wasn't really wanting to quit for me but more because of being nagged at, this time it is 100% for me and I am damn determined this time.

Day 3 - 1st June 2008

I honestly thought i'd have something much more interesting to write, but things have gone very quiet for me, it's almost being TOO easy to quit this time, I don't know if i'm going to get some kind of delayed reaction and some nasty side effect or something, but so far, it's been all very straight forward and a hell of a lot easier than I was expecting.

Anyway, 3 days have passed so far and I can honstly say, I don't need or want a cigarette and i'm not just saying that to try and sub-consciously convince myself, I actually feel like i'm a none smoker, for the first time in 18 years.

Day 4 - 2nd June 2008

Hmmm, frankly I'm thinking about not bothering writing up this blog after the first week of this, because if anything, this little exercise has proved a damn sight more boring and less eventful than I suspected it would. Saying that, I never suspected it would be so damn easy to turn cigarettes away when quiting this time either.

So me and Robyn wandered into town to do a bit of shopping, I thought this would be a test, coming face to face with smokers and cigarette selling shops and smoke being blown straight at me, but instead of wanting to grab the cigarette out of the first person I saw smokings hand to smoke, I actually found my first thought was that of an 18yr old me who was a serious anti-smoker, in that I wanted to go up to the smoker grab the cigarette off them and stomp on it, the smell of the smoke repulsed me and for the first time in 18 years I realised just how bad smokers actually smell. Walking into the super market, this fat woman with stained yellow hair was stood right next the doorway, making it completely unavoidable to get a full on waft, but rather than the smoke itself getting to me, what hit me was the pungent smell of the woman herself, it smelled like she had been bathing in an ashtray and to me, something i'd taken no notice at all of for 18yrs, suddenly it was like being hit by a sledgehammer, I obviously used to smell like that myself, I was a pretty heavy smoker. What I don't get though, is why nobody besides Robyn ever told me about it, yeah sure these books all say about smoke smells, but nothing like as powerful smelling as I found out in the supermarket. Walking down the aisles, it was as easy as seeing who was white, black or asian, smelling who smoked and who didn't. What really made me laugh though, was that it seemed that a heck of a lot of the people that I smelled smoked on were either office workers or looked like upper management type people, smart suits, neat hair and all that kind of thing, yet I'm pretty sure the one thing they are completely oblivious to and that makes the effort they put into their appearance completely futile is the overpowering smell of smoke radiating from them like some real cheap and overpowering aftershave.

I don't really know why quiting smoking has been so easy for me at this time, maybe it really is down to motivation and determination, maybe I have had the willpower to do this all along and the only thing that's stopped me succeeding in the past has been my own state of mind and my only trying to convince others I wanted to quit and not actually convincing myself. Whatever it actually is, I can genuinely and confidently say I will never smoke a single cigarette ever again and the simple thought of it seriously repulses me and I am so SO happy that I have finally seen past the nicotine addiction.

The only thing nibbling at me now with this, is the damn cravings. They are completely managable and are getting easier to control each time it happens, but every time it does happen it catches me off guard just for a moment. I can quite easily see how without serious concentration this kind of thing catches people out and makes people grab a cigarette and ultimately meaning failure with the whole quiting project. I don't know whether my working from home is a curse or a godsend with this, in a way it's like being in a cell, I can lock the world out and maintain complete control over everything, yet at the same time, the lack of stimulating conversation means that my mind finds it very easy to wander back onto the subject of smoking and my having quit. There is no fear at all of me needing or wanting a cigarette, but the craving thing does bother me slightly and I wish it would hurry up and subside enough to be forgotten about completely.

Another thing that is helping me I believe, is that before I quit smoking, I cut down my caffeine intake dramatically. I went from around 20 cups of coffee a day to 3 cups, 4 on a long day, with half the amount of coffee and sugar in the cup too. From every guide i've read, caffeine when trying to quit smoking, is an absolute killer of stamina and abilty to control the situation.

Just one more thought for you for now.... Remember I posted on Total Format about my superb experience and results of Yakult and how well it has benefited me. Well.... I honestly think I can attribute the ease of which i've quit smoking to Yakult too, which if proved fact would make the stuff a serious miracle for me. The reason I think it helped me quit, is that as soon as I started taking Yakult, I replace my first cigarette of the morning with my Yakult and I think it may have helped break the repetitive daily routine that i've had in place for as long as I can remember. I also think that the Yakult improving my feeling of health and well being has made me feel better about myself and made me feel more self confident and with that it's given me a much stronger level of self belief in that I could beat smoking and so far it's clearly proved to be the case.

Anyway, I've still not touched a cigarette and with each passing day, I am more certain that I never will again, but at the same time I am chuffed that my first test of seeing and smelling others smoking had no kind of effect over me at all, other than to think that those people who smoke really stink very badly of smoke. All it says to me is that smokers obviously lose a hell of a lot of their sense of smell and become oblivious to how terribly bad the smell is to non smokers and I know I certainly don't ever want to smell like that again, knowingly or otherwise.

For all you smokers out there... If you are planning on quiting, I really reccomend getting a huge jar, half filling it with water and then tipping all of your full ashtrays into it, putting the lid on and letting it all soak in for a few weeks. Then after a nights sleep, go out into the garden with this jar, before you have your first cigarette and take the lid of the jar and take a deep lung full of the smell of whats in the jar... That's what you smell like to non smokers. That's what i've smelled like to non smokers for 18 years and obviously most people are either too polite or simply not ballsy enough to tell you just how rediculously revolting you smell and i'm not talking about dirty people who wash once a week and stuff like that, i'm talking about clean looking people, people who have a lot of pride in their look and appearance. The moment you put that lit fag in your mouth, you turn into a walking ashtray and smell as bad as that too. I am so very glad i've finally woken up to it.

Day 14 - 12th June 2008

Ok, we've fast forwarded a few days, as the last few days have generally been pretty much the same thing day after day. Get the odd craving, fight it, beat it, have the occasional little struggle to concentrate, get over it, get on with normal daily stuff.

The hardest time to fight is after an arguement. Of all the cigarettes throughout the day that could be missed, it appears that the grab a cigarette quickly due to getting stressed due to arguement type thing. Which isn't much fun when quiting smoking makes you very easily aggitated for the first few weeks as it is, meaning pretty much anything can trigger an abrupt eruption.

What I do find annoying, is that just cause a few days have passed, people aren't bothering to offer any kind of support like was offered during the first couple of days any more. Don't people realise, that quiting smoking is bloody tough and reassurance is needed for a damn sight longer than the first 7 days.

I think at the moment i'm actually going through the most difficult patch so far, which i am pretty certain has been triggered by a domestic between me and Robyn, which is seriously annoying, considering it's Robyn that has nagged at me about smoking for the last 9 years and Robyn who bought the Alan Carr books, etc, etc.. Clearly she hasn't bothered to read the information regarding being supportive and what a quiting smoker goes through, otherwise she would have known that by knocking me out of position and putting me on a downer about it all, she has seriously made it 10 times more difficult for me to focus and a lot harder to concentrate on anything. I really hope this passes and that I can get back to how I was feeling last week very quickly, because this little phase is very much NOT fun.

Day 24 - 22th June 2008

Ok, so we are now into the 3rd week of being an ex-smoker and the novelty of being quit has really warn off, leaving the standard daily grind of overcoming cravings and trying to concentrate on other things, while at the same time trying to resist these over powering hunger moments. I can seriously see why they warn that you have to allow for weight gain when quiting, cause the nicotine cravings are seriously replaced by bouts of real hunger.

There are two types of days generally at the moment. The first type is when Robyn is at work and I am home alone working on TF. Its pretty hard going at times, especially when the work being done is so boring, like uploading pictures to the gallery, or doing news stories, it's hard to concentrate at times. I am managing though, it's not something I feel will ultimately make me fail at this, it's just annoying that it happens. The second type of day is when Robyn is off work and I take a few hours during the day off myself to go out shopping or for a long walk or something. During those days it is a real doddle and it takes absolutely no effort at all and I don't have to concentrate or overcome cravings at all, much nicer days really.

Oh and the bonus... Look at my siggy.... �160 less spent so far... That's a big BIG saving already.

7 Weeks - 21st July 2008

Well, thought I should give a little update... I'm still very much quit and have no doubt at all that I will remain quit. My big problem right now is not smoking though, it's food. As time has past, i've started feeling hungry more and more and at the moment have a bit of an issue trying to control it. I will get on top of it, it's just going to take a little while.

One annoying aspect is this money saving business. Yes I have saved over �300 since quiting smoking, problem is, is that with this damn credit crunch and the prices of everything going through the roof, I'm not noticing any extra money in my pocket and it's doing my head in.

Was nice that when I went to my parents, they did notice that i'd quit smoking and that was a big moral booster.

Oh and if you are thinking of or planning on quiting, be warned that one thing none of these so called "quit smoking" guides bothers to warn you about is the micro management of your life once you have actually got cigarettes gone from it. They all say keep busy when you get cravings, relax when you get stressed, go for a walk when you can't concentrate, etc, etc, yet they don't actually follow it up with the actual ins and outs of what the hell you should do post 3 weeks type period and no matter how positive you are about quiting smoking, it is absolutely impossible to remain permanently positive about quiting and if like me , I found it was after the high of visiting my parents that i've now hit a kind if a natural post holiday low and as a result motivation and moral is really low, yet nowhere can I find the post quit smoking "pick me up" type guide. I won't go back to smoking, that would be plain stupid, I just hope my weight don't go through the roof with the confort eating thing.

Anyway, I'll probably update this next when I get to the 3 month mark, that's a pretty big marker. Hopefully by then i'll have got the eating under control again too.

Politics

Laz — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:04:13 GMT

Here in the USA, we're in the middle of the presidential election race. In November, we will also elect all of our Representatives (House of Commons?) and a third of our Senators (House of Lords?).

When discussing almost every election, people always ask: "Why do we have to choose between these candidates? Why don't better people run for office?"

Well, being a politician is like being a B-movie actor. You work hard, you're underpaid, people think they might know you, and if you're recognized, people usually want something from you. Only a handful of these "actors" become A-list performers. Except that when you're a senior Senator or even the President, you get to work even harder, earn less respect, have a lot more stress, and then have to go out on the campaign trail to get re-elected. At least real actors have agents to campaign for them. On the plus side, eventually the money gets good, but not from your primary job. You earn extra cash from book deals, speaking tours, and insider knowledge.

Almost always, the best and brightest stay out of public office. Unless they're a Kennedy or Bloomberg, and have already made their fortune, smart and talented people go into business and make lots of money. Why didn't Colin Powell run for the presidency 8 years ago? He was smarter than that.

So next time you have the urge to complain about how the town/state/federal government doesn't get things done to your satisfaction, ask yourself: Would you run for office? I know I wouldn't.

First Blog Post

Laz — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:52:15 GMT

OK, this is cool.

It's been a crazy Spring, with our trip to Manchester UK, my 30th high school reunion, 25th wedding anniversary, and moving the family 180 miles to Philadelphia.

I'll try to post once a week about a specific topic.

Another MMC

Cintaria — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:03:24 GMT

So I finally got my menubar into the main menu bar :P Need to put in a keyboard shortcut so people don't have to just use the mouse >.>

Got the add button checking that the city isn't already in the local file, then it tries to check that it is an xml file. Having problems getting that work. I've given up trying to work out it's file-type as it reads the file - the server generates the file on-the-fly. Lord knows what the starting page type is? Atm I'm trying to take the returned file apart and read the first line, or at least the first word or two, so I can check if it's an xml file or not. This checks if the city exists. If a city does not exist you get forwarded to a page that lets you create the city. So, I want to check that the city already exists before saving the city to the local xml file...
Got the view button as a sub-menu with the cities in the local xml file being loaded as menu-items :) What I want is for them to be loaded as sub-menus themselves. Then I can go about extracting their xml details and showing THEM as the menu items =/

Made a post asking Det if he wants a link in the menu to TF. I plan on spamming mmc 10 or 15 times telling them about it. They then tell their friends, they tell their friends and so on and I think there'll be a push in activity for TF. Not that it needs it. According to Det we're getting a lot of traffic. Still, every little helps :)

mmc-w update :)

Cintaria — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:53:23 GMT

so I've got the program reading from my local xml file and the xml files of specified cities :)
I've changed direction atm. I was focusing on viewing the xml file and creating the links. Now I'm focusing on adding a new city to my local xml list, and from there, to a drop-down menu where the user can select the city and it's available links :)
What I've got atm is a script that will add items to a drop-down menu, but not to a sub-menu of that drop-down menu :( THAT is what I'm working on atm - getting my menu sorted :) Then I'm gonna work on getting the city's xml file taking what needs doing and dumping that in a sub-menu of that city. Then I'll head back to adding the city to the list. And THEN I'll work on taking the item OFF the list >.<

I've also got two pieces of coursework to do (one for today and one for the coming Wed), and my final year project to do serious amounts to >.<

Mmc-w

Cintaria — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:33:36 GMT

Programming of my extension goes on. The main problem I have atm is getting the extension to read/write from/to a local xml or txt file. I have found a link and after my two current courseworks are done I'll take a look at trying that. After that, I'll need it to read an xml file from my minicity as a proof of concept. THEN I need to find a way to do a while loop so that the extension loads each city stored in the local file, fetches it's xml file, sorts out what links it is allowed, and makes those links.
My idea atm is to have a drop-down menu which allows the user to add, view or remove a city (can you guess what add and remove do? ;) ), with view listing each city as a sub-menu. Selecting a city will load a sub-sub-menu listing the links that are available.

Sod knows what advertising I'll put in next to the drop-down menu? Perhaps have it search all <15 rated adverts limited to the country that the minicity is in (so if it's in the uk, you get adverts from the uk, if it's in france you get french adverts and so on). The info is available in the city's xml file.

Something I am interested in, is that the xml file has a 'signature' tag. What the holy hell is THIS used for?

Right, I got coursework to do, so I'm gonna go do that for two and half hours :)

ciao

MyMiniCity Watcher

Cintaria — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:39:48 GMT

I've decided to write an extension for firefox. The idea is fairly simple, yet I've not found an extension for it.
Summary:
A drop-down menu that allows the user to add, view, and remove cities from a list. When a user clicks on a city (from the view command) the extension will get the city's myminicity xml file and determine what properties are required (ind, env, etc). If nothing is needed, it'll just show the pop option.

What I've got atm is a drop-down menu that spawns prompt-boxes saying 'this is the view option', etc.

Atm I'm trying to find out how to use javascript to write to and read from these .xml files (the list of cities that the user creates will be an xml file as well as the city properties files from myminicity.com).

Once I get it working, then I have to work on a logo for the toolbar, then find a way of distributing it to the masses at myminicity.com. I think I might also pop an advert in next to the toolbar icon? Try and get some revenue coming in?

MyMiniCity

Cintaria — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:50:12 GMT

Have created a minicity - http://cint.myminicity.com.
Using proxies I have beefed up my population to 53 people. This may be constituted as cheating, but having found no instructions or terms & conditions I don't feel guilty :P I went to over a hundred proxies and only got 30 of them to work... It is my conclusion that most of the proxies are on the same server. This is rather irksome >.<

I've tried to alter my userbar in my signature, only to find that it is not there. It appears that Detty has removed it. Probably because no-body was using it. I would of had it scrolling through my minicity addresses - one for the population and one for the industry - and just add each new link as it became available. Oh well, will need to find another solution.

My new find

Cintaria — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:26:48 GMT

You'll never guess what...
I found a blogging tool on TF :P
I'm using it RIGHT NOW!!!

I'm so pleased with myself :)

OK, that's it.

toodles ;) :wave:

A Normal Working Day For Detomah

Detomah — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:34:10 GMT

Ok, so as a first entry, I thought i'd use a little bit of time to share with the world the kind of things I get up to on an average day, so over the course of today I will update this entry to reflect anything that I actually get up to.

So... Today it is 21st May 2008

6:50 am
Well, i'd set my alarm for 8am, as I had quite a late night last night, but living above a veterinary practice in the center of town kind of makes it tough to ever get a decent sleep, as there is a constant flow of traffic first thing in the morning and with Robyn unable to sleep with windows shut, at times it feels like it's driving right through the bedroom. Anyway, on Wednesday mornings it's rubbish collection day and without fail that always wakes me up long before my alarm ever gets chance to go off. By the time I am awake, Robyn has already long since left for work, so I always wake up in bed alone, which even after 9 years i've never quite got used to.

7:00 am
Crawl out of bed blurry eyes and stagger into the bathroom to wash and do the normal bathroom stuff, including swilling out with mouth wash, which is normally enough to well and trully wake me up as I hate the taste of the stuff, but hey it's doing me good so i'm told.

7:10 am
First port of call is the kitchen, but while on my way, I go past the computer, so flick the monitor on and set my email program start downloading the emails that have accumulated overnight, which is normally around 500 or so. So then it's kettle on, coffee in cup, yakult from the fridge, surprising, but even after a month of having a yakult, i've already slotted it into my routine and instinctively take it now without even needing to think about it. While in the kitchen, which is the size of a shoebox, I check the draining board to see if there are dirty dishes needing washing, thankfully today Robyn has already done them, so all I need to do today is put the clean dishes away. As I walk out the kitchen a quick look down to make sure the dogs have fresh water is normally in order.

7:20 am
So the flat we live in is a none smoking accomodation, which in itself is playing hell with me as a smoker, but suffice to say i've managed to locate a nice window in the corridor that if I hang out of, I can consider myself smoking outside, although Robyn really dislikes me doing it, something inside me keeps me on doing it regardless, that's smoking for you. Anyway, coffee in hand I make my way to the window and light up a cigarette and spend the next few minutes staring out of the window, pondering my thoughts and plans for the day while enjoying that special feeling that the first coffee and cigarette of the day gives. Unfortunately recently my thoughts have been more on the fact that I am planning on quiting smoking again and every cigarette I have at the window ends up with me trying to convince myself that one of these days one of these things is going to trigger some kind of nasty cancer and will eventually kill me, so I must quit "I must quit, I must, I must, I must", I guess i'm trying to actually convince myself that I do actually want to quit, which is really hard, as I genuinely get pleasure from smoking.

7:40 am
Ok, now feeling properly awake and able to focus, I sit down at the computer and open up a window on each monitor, on the left is my emails which by now have finished downloading and on the right is my tabbed browser, which normally has BBC News, BBC Sport and TF in it. A few hundred clicks later and normally the crappy spam is gone and so Outlook can go into minimized mode again until the next batch arrives. So, first business of the day, check out the football rumours on the BBC Sport site, lets see what kind of crap if any is being written about Sunderland. Followed swiftly by going straight onto TF to check how many new posts there are and is there any spam advertisers to get rid of. Pretty much the boring routine of first sitting down at the computer and pretty much the same thing every single day.

8:00 am
Once done with the BBC Sport page, that tab is closed and swapped for a Reuters news page, so that I can compare the stories that are currently running between the BBC news page and Reuters to see which ones are least biased and most worthy of posting on TF, if any at all... For the most part the BBC comes out on top virtually every time, especially seeing as they update their stories constantly to reflect any changes to their stories. Mostly Mondays seem to be hectic with this as there is normally a weekends worth of entertainments news having collected and needing posting. Otherwise it's a case of generally needing to post a couple of news items to each of the news sections and then that's it for news for a few hours. At the same time, normally i'll log into my gaming press accounts and check out the gaming news, it's a bit of a mixed bag really, sometimes like yesterday there are dozens of good stories and I can spend most of the day posting them, some days it's all rubbish and I end up posting nothing. It's only really the last few months that i've tried to keep up with posting the gaming news, previously i've let it build up and build up until i've ended up not having enough time to post it all.

8:30 am
Ok, having done that, the next thing is to check whether there is any feedback that needs actioning, any PMs that need replying to, any bugs that have turned up that need fixing and various general TF stuff like that. As you can see, right from the start my day is occupied by TF and sometimes it really is a strain to keep up with all the administrative type stuff that needs doing in the background. Fortunately most of the times things seem to work as planned and so very little in the way of bugs need fixing. I prefer doing my bug fixing a little later in the day.

9:00 am
Once 9am comes, then I go into proper working mode, as although I work from home and have nobody nagging at me during the day to keep me going, I am pretty self motivated and so like to have a properly structured working day which is set out officially as 9am to 5pm, although yeah, normally i'm on TF from when I wake up right through to bed time most days. Anyway, once 9am it's pretty much a case of being in full on TF mode. What can I do today to try and make things interesting on the forum? What area should I work on today? Should I add pics to the gallery? Should I add reviews to the review section? Should I work on some of the scripts I am building? So, this morning, I have initially decided that for today, it is an individual game screenshot adding day for the gallery, so my first port of call is to login to my Games Press Pro account too look at what games I can get official screenshots for direct from the gaming companies, which having done is around the 200,000 game mark, so plenty to keep me going and the thought going through my head right now is, "how the fek am I ever going to get through that lot", when each game has around 20-50 screenshots and they all need their own section making in the gallery and they all need descriptions and all the images need renaming to search engine friendly names, etc, etc, etc...

9:40 am
Damn, remembered that yesterday i'd contacted TFs server hosts to bitch at them about the email on the server not working 100% and that I needed to chase it up. So before i've even got started in the gallery, phone the hosts and moan at them to hurry up looking into the email configuration for me. While doing it, put the kettle back on and make another cuppa and go for a quick cigarette at the same time. Also check emails again, to find another 84 emails waiting for me, of which 82 are spam and get instantly deleted. No matter how good the spam filters I use, these gits always find a way through, it's unbelievable just how many different ways people have found to spell viagra.

9:50 am
Right, into the gallery to check out the game screenshot section HERE and luckily i've already changed the section to alphabetically named categories, I thought I may have to do that before I could begin adding new games and new screenshots. That's saved me a heck of a lot of work. The unfortunate part is looking through the section and seeing how many games are already listed that don't already have screenshots added to them. So I guess my initial mission is to make sure all the existing games have screenshots in there as I know there is nothing worse than looking at something on the net and finding it is empty. It's a sure fire way for me to be certain I won't bother going back to that site again and that's the last thing I want people thinking about TF, people not wanting to come back is bad for income and bad for TFs long term, so I really need to make sure visitors get enough to make them want to return. So, clicking HERE I see that there are only 2 games listed under the category 0-9 which is 80 Days and 1nsane. I know there are more games for that category, so my next task is to go hunt down my huge list of games which is somewhere on my computer and then add a load more games for the category, then I can go and grab some screenshots to fill the category up. Kind of annoys me in a way though, because I know the community plays games, but for the most part nobody bothers to add screenshots to any of the sections. I wish they bloody would, it wouldn't half help me out and give me more time to get on with other stuff, but oh well, seeing as nobody else seems to want to help me out with this, as always it's down to me to do it.

10:25 am
Not bad, 35 minutes and that category has gone from having 2 games listed to having 36 games listed. It takes a while to add each section as permissions have to be set and a variety of little fiddly backend bits need sorting out, such as making sure they are listed in proper alphabetical order and the likes. So having done that, another check of emails (yeah emails get checked dozens of times a day), this time it reveals I have 102 new emails, a few are actually genuine important things that need actioning, so get set as requiring further action with the little red flag thingy. Anyway, before I go further, time for another cigarette, adding sections is pretty boring work and as sad as it is, I force myself to finish things like that before I allow myself my next cigarette. It makes me work harder and faster, but I know it's bad using cigarette based bonuses. After that, then it's time to go hunt down screenshots for some of these really old and bizarre games that i've found to fill the 0-9 category. Give the dogs a treat, they find the whole key tapping experience very boring, so I have to bribe them with treats otherwise they'd have me out walking them already and I don't do that till lunch time. Ahhh, as I get up, I realise i've got pins and needles in my right foot cause i've been sat on it while i've been adding these categories.

10:40 am
Damn McCafee, while having my cigarette, it's installed an update and has auto rebooted my machine, meaning i've got to reopen all the stuff I had open. Turned TV on, I like having BBC News 24 on in the background, kinda helps when it comes to getting hold of breaking news stories, as they always appear on there before hitting the website, it also works as a good distraction when i'm doing something really boring. Right, now the nasty task of hunting down screenshots for these 36 games, can see that taking me a couple of hours, as I like to at least have 10 images in every category in the gallery, some weird little thing I can't explain.

12:15 pm
After a phone call from my dad, needing to respond to some posts on the forum, needing to reply to 3 emails that came through and getting hold of a simple set of instructions for the new Triple Triad card game thats on TF, that pretty much slowed me almost to a halt. I've managed to get hold of around 70 images for the first 5 games on the list, not as easy as I would have liked, especially considering 007: Licensed to Kill is such an old game. Time for another cigarette and coffee me thinks. That'll make it 3 coffees today so far, my limit on coffee is 5 a day, so best I slow down otherwise i'll be in the shit tonight. Not having had breakfast i'm also bloody starving already, not lunch time till 1pm though and with trying to stick to my diet I can't just go to the kitchen and snack.

12:55 pm
Now i've managed to get screenshots for the first 10 games in the category. I've not counted how many, but there's a good couple of hundred. Hunger has taken over though, so it's time to stop for lunch, which involves me not only making a sandwich for myself, but also means feeding and walking the dogs, so normally it takes me around an hour or so, which means htat kind of time spent away from the computer, because I refuse point blank to eat meals at the computer, it would defeat the whole point of having a dining room table and besides, it's really not very hygienic.

1:50 pm
Dogs fed, lunch had and while eating lunch watched the latest episode of Moonlight, I love that show, another cigarette had, emails checked again and forums looked over. Now back to the horrible task of trying to find screenshots for another 26 games, before I can even begin renaming and uploading them to the gallery. I'm really not too sure i'll get even that one category finished today, but still a fair few hours left to give it a good go.

4:15 pm
The last 2 and a bit hours has been a bit of a slog, i've found some nice screenshots for another 10 games, but during the last 2 hours, i've been contacted by two of Total Formats advertisers, curious as to why their traffic levels have suddenly jumped, so have had to explain TFs downtime to them. I've also had TFs server hosts in contact with me and have had to go in to detail what the email problem has been. They think they've found it and fixed it now, but there has been a draw back to it, in that they've had to put a mail sending cap on the server, which is actually common practice, it does mean sending out newsletters in future is going to be a right pain in the ass now though as it'll take around 5 hrs to send out a newsletter, but hey i spose at least i'll be able to send one out, now that the email is once again functioning properly. Also just been and had a ciggie, first one since lunch, quite a while between those two. I'll be quite pleased to get the 0-9 section finished with, most of the games listed are fairly old and finding decent screenshots for them has been a lot more difficult than it would if they were new games. Also made sure my email box is empty, because 5pm always starts a kind of email rush hour with a whole variety of official type emails being sent at the close of business each day, I try to get them all sorted before Robyn gets home, as i like to sit down for a bit then and eat my tea and watch a bit of TV for a bit and generally relax for a bit with Robyn, so it gets a bit hectic for me soon.

5:50 pm
The final count for games in the 0-9 category turned out to be 42 which i've found good screenshots for, although I have found a more comprehensive list than the one I had for games, so it looks like the category could be breaking the hundred mark, which means at least another 2 days just on this one category. It will be fantastic once it's done and I have to keep reminding myself of that. A lot of these other sites have massive teams and massive financial backing, I am just 1 person, so obviously it will take me longer. So, having finished downloading the games for the intial 42, now I can go and have a cigarette. I think this writing a kind of blog diary could be good for me, because i've smoked way less than I normally would today. Robyn phoned me about 5 minutes ago to tell em she'd be home around 6:30 pm, so that means I have about 35 minutes to cook us something and get the table set and that kind of thing, so it looks like it will be around 9pm tonight before I start uploading the images. But by that time of night i'll have a few news stories to upload too and i'm bound to gather a good couple of hundred new emails in the next 3 hours, so once again it looks like it's going to be a busy night. I really need an assistant. I could do with having a couple of dedicated screenshot gatherer's, but nobody seems over willing to help with that one. If your reading this, fancy becoming a screenshot gatherer for TF???

11:30 pm
It's been a strange evening, by the time me and Robyn had eaten and taken the dogs for a walk the football came on and there was no way I could allow myself to miss such a massive match. Unfortunately it went into extra time and penalties, so that kind of scuppered the plans I had for TF for the evening. At the end of the day, I too need to sit and have a bit of me time. Anyway, back at the computer one final check through the hundreds of emails that have accumulated again, check the various advertisers TF uses to see how the stats are looking for the day, check PMs, check the forums, check the various dev forums and scripts that I use and the next thing you know it's almost midnight. that's it a whole day gone by and so damn quickly. Just reading this back to myself and it's hard to imagine that the day goes by so quick, it seems that i've really not managed to get a great deal of work done today, but looking at the behind the scenes stuff, it's hardly any wonder really, I end up dealing with an awful lot of admin stuff that is gradually taking longer and longer to deal with each day. Anyway, as it's late, now i'll sit and have a look round various sites I frequent and see what is going on, I tend to use this time of night as research time, checking out the competition and looking for potential new features for TF and the likes. Normally sat here with my final coffee of the day, which i'm well overdue actually, i've not had a coffee since cooking time which was like 6 hours ago, as I don't want to break the 5 cups a day mark.

Anyway, although this isn't the greatest of reads and is certainly not going to inspire anyone to take up a more active lifestyle, at least now you will have a rough idea of how my average daily week day type working day pans out. In honesty i've actually taken it quite easy today with it being footy night, normally I work far longer hours and normally I also get a heck of a lot more done.

Tomorrow is another day, but I must crack on and get those gallery sections filled with screenshots.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.