Wow! What a week, only the second one of this year and man, it’s been eventful. Pull up a comfy chair, put your feet up, and let me tell you all about!
I’ve managed to either stick to, meet, or make serious progress towards some of my goals for this year, which is fantastic. Straight off the bat, one of the most important ones has been nailed, and that’s going to Hong Kong. Let me tell you how this veritable miracle occurred.
Last week I got a phone call from my girlfriends mother, who I affectionately call Lychi. She got this nickname after I picked up some post from the front door one morning, and it occurred to me in a sudden spark of daftness that Lai Chun Lee, her name, when read quickly, sounded like Lychi, a small and sweet fruit. I pointed this out to my girlfriend, who immediately commented that that was appropriate as her mum was small and sweet. The nickname stuck from then on, it was distinctly better than ‘Mrs Lee’ or ‘VIvs Mum’. But back to my story.
So I received a phone call from Lychi, asking how I spelt my name. This is an issue that occurs frequently as I have a penchant for spelling my name differently to how it is legally recorded. According to the law, I am David, but I greatly prefer the aesthetic of Davyd, with a ‘Y’. I was curious and she informed me that she was reserving seats for the flight to Hong Kong as even though payment wasn’t required, the seats would still need to be booked. This put a pit in my stomach as it meant I was under even more pressure to somehow find the funds for the holiday. But this worry was to be short lived, as I found out when I spoke to Viv on the phone that night. You see, Lychi had not only booked my seat, but she was covering the cost of the ticket, until I could pay her back. This was amazing and mind blowing news, as it guaranteed my first intercontinental holiday, the only time I have ever been so determined to go on holiday (I am not normally one for holidays). As soon as I could, I phoned Lychi up to thank her profusely! I am now going to Hong Kong! I still have to find money for passport and spending, but that will be covered as you will find out if you continue to read.
That was what I presumed to be the high point of my week, which was pretty accurate, but also that it couldn’t get any better. In that regard I was very wrong. Under the not inconsiderable pressure of my mother, I ventured into ‘town’, I use the quotes because having lived in Birmingham, to which I have oft referred to as town, calling Bicester’s high street ‘town’ seems demeaning to the word. But I ventured none the less and went in search of the fabled temp agencies. Having had an interview for one to put me on the books, I received a phone call scant hours later asking me if I was interested in a 3 month assignment. It was basic work, checking paperwork, but I could listen to my music and, most importantly, they would let me have the time over February off that I had booked for seeing Viv and going to the MCM Anime expo. I accepted and the guy, a lovely chap by the name of Bruce, told me I’d start on Monday! Epic win! I now had a temporary job which meant I’d have money to save for Hong Kong, get my passport and take Viv out for valentines! Plus it will count as office experience which will most certainly help me in getting a job in Birmingham and moving back.
Fingers crossed this won’t be me!
Speaking of moving back to Birmingham, I have decided to revaluate one of my goals, getting back to Birmingham by April. At the time of writing that, I wasn’t too sure I’d be going to Hong Kong, so the least I wanted was to be in Birmingham for my birthday. Now that I am going, it is more logical that I leave trying to get a job and a flat until after I get back from Hong Kong. I don’t know if I will mark this as a failure to complete a goal, we’ll decide on that later.
I’ve made progress towards four other goals; redesigning my blogs, blogging once a week, producing a game concept item for my portfolio and reaching 25k gamerscore. As you can see, I have chosen one of the default blog styles, as it was distinctly more aesthetically pleasing that then red nightmare I was using before. Also, if you’re reading this, you will see that I have blogged constantly for two consecutive weeks. Yay me!
With regards to the game concept item, as I consider level design one of my main skills, I have decided that I am going to work on a level design, probably one of my most in depth and comprehensive designs to date. I don’t want to give to much away as I am as of yet undecided if I’m going to blog the complete design and development process, or keep it under wraps. But basically I’m going to try and design an immersive and plausible space ship, featuring holographic interfaces, variable gravity, differentiated environments and an overall plausible feel. I think it will be a good exercise and I’m going to commit myself to the process.
As for my 25k gs goal, well I managed to hit 20k. This may not seem like a big deal, but I did it without breaking out a new game. I scoured all my old games, finding incomplete achievements so I could make my score up to exactly 20,000.
Add me if you have an xbox
This satisfied my OCD side, as I like reaching the 5k multiples exactly (on my facebook I have pictures of 5555, 10k, 15k and now 20k). Now I have to complete just five games to my goal gamerscore, which I’ve started with Grand Theft Auto IV, a game I’ve never been interested enough in to commit money to, but my brother has a copy, so I’ve nicked it off him. I think Portal 2, Dead Space 2, Mortal Kombat and Mass Effect 3 will most certainly help, but I will probably need a few more games to get the five thousand points I need. I’ve only got two full games at 100%, out of a total of 40+ games played.
Well, that’s everything for this week, I doubt next week will be as eventful as I will be entering the daily toll of full time work. Well, it’s money (a large cut of which my mother has her eyes on) and it will be nice to be able to buy things for a change. Ta ta for now my lovelies.
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