Okay then, so March; number 3 month of the year, beginning of Spring (second-best season of the year), and a nice tidy reminder that the year is once again GOING TOO BLOODY QUICK. It was an eventful month for yours truly, starting off with a trip to London! Naturally, a good number of you live in the capital, so this'll seem like a snooze for you guys, but I've only been a handful of times, and this one was the first on my own, so its a little different from the norm. The trip was planned, albeit with a purpose in mind that no longer applied, so I thought of the visit as more of a spontaneous thing, see where my legs take me, you know?
Well, I'll tell you where they took me, to getting lost. It started well, though the train was packed I had a good book to draw my imagination away from clobbering the noisy brats next to me. Got off at Liverpool Street with absolutely no idea where to go, so I took the tube down to the area I was originally going to visit; Oxford Circus. Was disappointed that there weren't any trapeze artists or elephants about (jk), but the bloody humongous Apple Store somewhat made up for it.
Anyways, after swiping a bit of their wi-fi to check my emails, and buying absolutely nothing in return, I headed off towards a place I saw on the maps dotted around, and one I'd heard of previously; Regents Park. Made it there okay, sat around for a bit as it was a nice clear day minus the roadworks nearby, and after looking at another map, wen in search of the British Museum. This is the lost area of my trip; must've spent the good part of an hour trying to get my bearings.
I eventually ended up at Kings Cross, and the awesome British Library that on any other day I'd have loved to explore more thoroughly, alas I had to keep my return ticket set for a few hours later in my mind. What a place though, holy moely.
I got back on the tube after that and went to somewhere me and my good brother had previously visited; Convent Gardens. Had a drink in the Starbucks there whilst finishing off my book, then after that I headed back to Liverpool Street to wait for the Train.
All in all, not exactly an eventful trip, but t'was fun, and with more time and planning for the next visit, and a comic convention to possibly go to, it'll be more eventful for then.

Most of the rest of the month was non-eventful, except for a couple of things. You lot can probably guess one of them, on the 25th. I had previously debated whether or not to pick one up, but as release day drew near, I couldn't resist.
And what a beauty the 3DS truly is. It looked bulkier from screenshots, that's for certain. I was amazed by the 3D; to be honest I was expecting more of a pop-out effect like at the cinema, but the pop-in is equally as good. The friend code system is certainly an improvement, and I like the inbuilt applications and games, but I'd be fibbing if I said I wasn't curious to see what that big May update has in store for us. Good purchase, but the really compelling stuff has yet to materialize, despite how great Super Street Fighter 4 is.

The second big event, was my tooth removal.
Earlier in the month, I had gotten fed up with waiting for my current useless dentist clinic to call me back and arrange the consultation appointment I badly needed (as of writing, they still haven't called), so I looked around for a private clinic that would do it sooner. I found a great one called Treetops Dental Practice, who got me in posthaste, arranged everything, and gave me some set dates. True, it might all cost a bit more in the long run, but the results so far have been worth it.
Had the tooth out two weeks ago, and aside from all the blood I lost (and the subsequent periods of illness since then), it's all been dandy. I do have pics of before and after, but trust me, you don't want to see them. Right now I'd say they're in the worst shape (from a physical perspective) now than they've ever been, but the ball is in motion, and my Implant commences next month. Cannot wait.

Woah, rambled a bit there. I'll make up for it with the Staff blog I'll start on in a minute, which is entirely devoted to games and not to me, promise.

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Right, mainly owing to the fact that I've just consumed some anti-depressants (don't worry, it isn't for depression), I'm feeling a little hyper and daring right now, and I'd like to try something a little different with this entry. I'm going to try and position it as a 3rd person account, as I'm not keen on talking about myself in the first person too much, or over-reliance of 'I', 'Me', 'Myself' and all that pretentious bollocks, plus it'll be far more entertaining this way. You can thank me later.

That was the primary thought on the bloke's mind, but other notable things had happened on this 4-week wonder. After being informed in no uncertain terms of how little a few of his so-called buddies back at Argos gave a damn of the minimalistic opportunities he had to hit the clubs, he accepted the invite of someone that actually gave a damn, and had a good time out, bumping into ex-colleagues that had the good sense to bail on Argos a while back. At one point he had to roll his tongue back in when two hot Chinese chicks went to sit with him and gave him a peck on the cheek, but at that point he could barely be understood anyway, with all the WKDs becoming accustomed to his liver.
The gym was going well too. Very much used to his 2-month old regime, the giant among men decided to shake things up a bit, and got in a Personal Trainer session to change the Stamina/Endurance boosting, to all-out Muscle-Building. Oooh, did it hurt. Never had a treadmill seen such a panting Behemoth crawling over it after a mile dash. And it wasn't over yet, next were the weights! Here's where he felt the right signs; muscle pressure, progress, and a good laydown whilst lifting dumbells that threatened to flatten his face with one good slip. Coupled with stretching exercises that wouldn't look out of place from a ballerina, and you have a new session to contend with. 'Totally worth it.' he thought aloud whilst seeing the emerging muscular figure in the changing room mirror after every session. 'Fuck steroids, this is where it's at, bitches!' he said to no-one in particular, except maybe the beefy bastard in the corner stuffing salad that always hogged the good machines.

So these events, and many more minor ones aside that involved shitloads of travel, anime watching, web surfing, and games playing, the month was up, he was officially on holiday (fuck yes!), and his trip to London that he couldn't get his travel money back on, was looming just into the new month.

What new adventures will our hero face?

Will he finally use some of that money he's got stashed away like Scrooge McDuck?

Will he ever give his Evil-Brother the ass-kicking the ugly tosser so richly deserves?

Tune in next time, on 'Tales...of...Reading Material!'

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He he, that was fun.
Gifless, I know, just reads better that way. But here's one for you swines that clicked just to see them;

So, start of the year, the moment the clock chimed 12, and the moment the New Years Resolutions began to take priority. I posted mine up in a previous thread which I'm too lazy to hunt down right now, but many of them were ones that I'd been preparing to achieve for a good long while already, and January was when things got kicked into gear considerably in some aspects, if not all.

Major Goal Number One: Restoration of my teeth, and quite possibly the most important target of my life right now. Most would say that self-image belief is only reliant on personal confidence, and that boosting the later will aid the former; I agree to an extent, in that it differs from person to person. Most wouldn't give a crap if the insides of their mouth resembles a graveyard, they'd laugh it off and grin regardless. Me, I'm not that lucky. For myself, it's less to do with belief, as the anti-depressants I was on last year dealt with, but the knowledge that the condition of my chompers is entirely of my own doing, albeit indirectly.
I admit it, I was an absolute retard as a kid. I was greedy, inconsiderate, bossy, lazy, and to my eternal shame, hooked (with zero relent) onto videogames. No doubt that caused my anti-social nature, and made me a very small fish in a giant High School pond. It was then I began to neglect my teeth, not brushing them properly, or taking good care of them for months at a time. As a result, they turned yellow, and weren't strong enough to support braces at the time, so they ended up crooked too. I'd like to place the blame of this neglect on some of the arseholes I went to that school with, so-called 'friends' that would sell you to slavery for a quid if given the chance, but that would be dishonest and an unfair split; I'm as much to blame. Oh, and my shithead oldest brother too; thanks to his special needs he's been hogging attention since the moment I was born, and looking back from an outside perspective most of my actions would have been from trying to get noticed, and shutting myself away when i can't stand him anymore, whether I was aware I was doing any of this at the time or not. Still, most of the fault is mine, can't deny that.
That's why I've been saving for dental operations for the past year, as I feel a shining straight set is only justifiable if it comes from my own pocket (plus the NHS won't cough up unless I'm unemployed, and I resolved NEVER to go back on Jobseekers ). Well, I've been close for a while, even though the fee was quite hefty (clue, take a popular DragonBall meme, and halve the number), but then my respectable, slightly older brother got me looking into treatment abroad, which is significantly less. Which, considering the savings, I'd be insane not to do, as I can afford everything I need right at this moment, instead of waiting until summer. So, an appointment is booked with their London Branch early next month, and we'll see how it goes from there.
I'll be doing a special set of blogs documenting what happens for anyone looking into doing the same (pictures too, so heaven help me :/), and to help bring closure to an aspect that has held me back for so many years.

Major Goal Number Two: To rid myself of my unfit lanky exterior. This one got off to a bad start, as all the food from Christmas slowed me down a bit, plus the holiday time I was (forcibly) having from work stopped me from actually getting to the gym in the first place, as I can't get there unless I travel to work (a real catch-22 situation). So it was a fairly uneventful month in that regard; though I did get a swollen wrist out of it which was an absolute BITCH. I'm actually about 1-2 stone heavier than before I joined, though that can be attributed to muscle weight, thank god.

With all that travel time (2-3 hours a day roughly), I've been watching a fair bit of anime on mah iTouch; have branched out a bit a found a fair few good ones. Started off with a series called Black Cat; great music, fairly good character and plot, and buckets of style; a short series so I'm saving the last 10 or so episodes for when I buy the boxset. Next up was D-Gray Man, which didn't really float my boat all that much; interesting premise, but the voicework was kinda weak, and the main guy just seemed a bit one-note. Case Closed however, I am really enjoying, it reminds me of Phoenix Wright in some bizzare way, and I love how varied the cases are despite regular use of the same cast. Pity they didn't dub all of the episodes, but oh well.

The rest of the month just flew by really, much like they seem to have been doing for a few years now. I spent most of January just getting to and from work, gym-ming it up, researching in my time off, and generally not doing too much that would involve money. Oh, I did gear up for a night out at the end of the month for a few weeks beforehand, was really looking forward to it and all. Then, naturally, someone bailed out, and for some reason I couldn't even begin to contemplate, the whole group wasn't going because of it. I'll understand that person's circumstances, but when you're looking forward to meeting people you consider as friends on your first night out in over 6 months, one person out of a whole group stopping everyone else, is just utter bullshit. I have gone out since, with someone that actually invited me without my nudging, so I'm over it.

Of course, this is naturally a Gaming Website, and I can see one of my reviews headlining the site up there as I type, so I really should chat more about them. But to be honest, another one of my resolutions plays relevance, as I'm trying to play less, and delve into other interests. Investing so much time into travel, work, and working out, helps a lot, though I try to keep some hours free to help with reviews for C3, I'm staff for a reason.

Anyway, I'll end things here, with a synopsis planned for February on my week off at the beginning of March (can't wait! ), and I'm also planning a special blog with the 3DS playtest not long after that piece, so please look forward to it (and I promise that one will be far less about me, and much more about the machine in question). Hmm, lots of activity from this dozy fool in the coming months it seems then.

So, who else loves this time of year? Nah, not for the snow, which has already outstayed its welcome, and which needs to quickly vanish and not cost me any more work days. Nope, its for the spirit of the holiday season, a feeling that the endless 'Christmas Carol' remakes and re-imaginings over the years finally drummed into me a few years back. Presents are great and all, but at the end of the day they're just material goods you can buy at any point of the year. It's the feeling of being together with those you care about most, sharing a laugh, pulling crackers and watching that small screwdriver set you wanted fall out of one and into the gravy bowl. Like finding a good movie to watch on the small screen when soaps aren't hogging the time slots, or busting out a board game (Monopoly! Damn, haven't played that in years. :/). Christmas is more about these things now, for me personally at least. Younger minds may disagree, and rightfully so, though I can assure you when you're on the purchasing side of things that will change.
So yes, my posting here over the next week will unfortunately be quite erratic (when has it ever not been? ), so if I don't say it between now and the big day, I'll say it here; Merry Christmas Cubed3 and all of its great members, and a big F U to the spammers.

Why erratic, you may wonder? Well Dawlish, Mr Lanky Bastard here has a job in the city. A night position 4 to 5 days a week, with 8-10 hours of heavy manual labour, and about 2 and a half hours of travel to get to and back. Oh, and an hour at the gym after each shift, just for good measure. Yes, I'm batshit insane, and the men in white coats haven't found me yet, so don't go giving me away just yet. Nah, as crazy as this schedule no doubt sounds, it works, and leaves me with enough time to sleep, minus any real social or web-social interaction between the days, but hey, the paypacket makes up for it, and it's an okay job too. Would write more about it, but my bosses would probably tip me off to the white coat men, so best not.
Ah yes, the Gym, wanted to emphasize more on that. Guys, a good workout at an adequately-equipped gym, coupled with a program to follow that actually works, there is no better feeling on Planet Earth. My neckline has increased, my arms and legs have grown much stronger in both ability and appearance, I've got much more energy when I'm not tired from regular work, and I think my chubby cheeks are finally starting to slim down. Admittedly, the slight stomach fat hasn't budged yet, but considering I've had that all my life, its not surprising; just more time needed. Seriously though, if you're feeling down or unmotivated, get to a gym, its like the ultimate anti-depressant (and considering the 8+ months I was on them, I should know )

Of course, gaming website needs some gaming content, so here's a section for that. Those non-nerds directed here from Facebook, feel free to skip it, else be drawn into my witty retorts and informative conjecture regarding blips and blops on a TV screen (as the uninformed would see it anyway).
One name: Final Fantasy VII. A name many of you have seen me use so much, that you might have had an overwhelming urge to give your computer screen a brand new giant speaker by now. Yet, ah can't deny, people, it's my favourite. And after initially planning to skip my yearly play-through of it this year in favour of activities that wouldn't force me to sit in front of a TV for hours on end, I've got it on the PSP. Loving it, as always. Still discovering new things about it, as always (did you know enemies strike one another on purpose to knock off the effect of Manipulate? I didn't until now. ). Every year I try something new with the playthroughs; this time its achieving all Limit Breaks with all characters. Yup, even Aerith. And I gotta say, using Great Gospel to rip that git Demon Gate a new one? Sweeeeeeeeet. At this point, I've just acquired the airship, so I'm making good progress, and once that game is done, I've got a strong urge to try game number 9. We'll see.

Hmm, okie dokie. Time for me to beat a hasty retreat for now, lest my fingers get too tired from typing and decide to find a new home around my throat, so I'll call it a day. Have a great Christmas everyone.