...What's up?

I guess it's time for a new one of these, even though there's not a whole lot of new excitingness going on for me right now. I'm just getting on with university and all the fun stuff that entails. Luckily, I'm still finding plenty of downtime for NG, which is cool, as I was worried that I might descend into the realms of inactivity due to the demand of the university social life... but no; I've found a nice balance between being sociable and internets.

Of course, it does help that apart from Facebook, NG is pretty much the only other site that I frequent.

Some of you may know that I've taken up Tae Kwon Do recently, and I have my first belt grading on December 6th. I have also joined the Territorial Army to gain some soldiering experience for when I do my officership stuff after leaving university, and also to keep me extra fit, and gain some money and a few qualifications in the process. I have my selection weekend for that on the 12th and 13th of December (I hope, depends whether I can get onto that weekend or not), so I'll probably make a christmas news post elaborating on how both those things went, as well as my christmas stuff.

Other than that, I'm simply trying to watch how much money I'm spending, as I've been over-indulging a little lately with all the nights out and takeaways and all that fun stuff. I should have enough cash in the bank to get me through until the new year, though, so hopefully I'll be OK until then.

There's really not a lot more for me to say, other than give a small plug to this thread, which might be useful for you to look over or even bookmark if you're a frequent BBS poster.

Hope y'all are well and enjoying the build up / count down to christmas.

I'm living in West London now at my University, and it's great here. It does mean that I'll be on NG slightly less due to other demands though... but I'm still around every day, so I will pick up any PM's that I'm sent at some point. Responding might be a bit slower though, so you'll have to be a little patient sometimes ;P

Other than the move, there's not much going on for me right now. Just making new friends and enjoying student life really. I joined the Rugby and Sports societies, and I might go and join the gym later today. Only thing is that the gym membership is expensive -- they have three levels of membership: Bronze, which means you can only use the gym between morning / early afternoon hours; Silver, which means you can use the gym any time of the day except about 6pm until 7am; and Gold, which means you can use it any time of the day. Gold would be nice, but it costs £240 for a year... so I might get Silver.

Keeping fit would be nice to maintain though. At some point I'd like to establish a route that I can run around campus, but at the moment I've only managed doing press-ups in my room to keep me ticking over. All the extra alcohol intake makes it necessary to do a little more than I'm currently doing, though.

I can't think of anything else to write, so I think this is where I hand it over to you guys to do your comment thing.

I am now a BBS mod in addition to already being a review mod.

Just so ya know.

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/97 1444/1

I was just checking the backlog of text messages on my phone, when it occurred to me to have a look at the games I had on there. I'm not normally one for playing / downloading loads of games on mobile phones, but I was bored so I thought "hell, I'll give it a go for a few minutes".

After those few minutes had elapsed, I found myself getting more and more into the game I was playing. I remember being a fan of Tetris as a kid, when it first became available for the original Gameboy (the massive brick-sized one back in the late 80's). Incredible how such a simple concept can grab you by the balls and make you want to keep on playing.

So as I was playing and progressing steadily through the levels, I began to wonder how far I could go. When I was a kid I only ever managed level 11 (but then, you can hardly expect a young child to bear the tactical mastermind of a fully grown adult, unless they're one of those weird prodigal child geniuses [or is that genii?])

Anyway, I got up to level 10, at which point things started to get tricky. I think the new versions of Tetris must be slightly faster than the old ones... or perhaps I'm just looking for an excuse as to WHY I haven't improved at the game in just under 2 decades ;P

I managed to get halfway through level 11 before I made my first fatal mistake. I failed to act quickly enough and the block landed on the pile, completely out of formation with the rest; a ghastly statue in complete contrast with the rest of the neatly fitted jigsaw of pieces that I had so elaborately created. After the first mistake, another followed, and another. I managed to squeeze two more lines out of the catastrophe, but didn't make it to level 12.

I am a Tetris failure.

So, I'm a review mod now. This news post is really only here for memorabilia purposes, so I remember what day I was modded for the future, if I ever need to / feel like referencing it.

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/96 1518

If you have trouble with reviews, feel free to PM me about it.

Loading...

Last news post was boring and wasn't really conducive to any quality discussion -- not that that really ever happens on NG anyways.

I've been in a bit of a lull recently with not a whole lot to do. I'm in a transition period between just getting on with my life and starting fresh at university, which leaves me very little to do for the time being. My NG time has vastly benefited from this, but obviously life in of itself requires a little more than sitting in front of a computer all day watching flash cartoons and posting on the BBS.

The only thing I really have to do right now is get fit for rugby season, which starts in September, less than a month away. I'm already in a decent physical shape, but I've been working on my upper body too much, and neglecting the cardiovascular workouts which I should have been balancing with the strength exercises.

I watched a program about SAS (Special Air Service) selection last night, which showed the first 48 hours of the process. It gave me a lot of motivation to get fit, because I know that if I wasn't so fucking lazy, I could probably pass the SAS selection if I worked for it.

The first 48 hours of the process was as follows:

- Point to point: A self-navigated hike over harsh, steep, boggy terrain to several rendezvous points in turn, wearing full gear (combats, burgen, rifle), spanning over a time of about 12-15 hours.

- Long drag: Takes place straight after point to point - again in full gear, each candidate has the weight in their burgon increased to 55lbs (using bricks), and must complete a similar self-navigated distance as in point to point in under 20 hours, through the night.

- Crossing a river: After long drag, the candidates have to strip down to their underwear, store their combats in their burgens, and cross a rapidly-flowing (and likely very cold) river, being careful not to lose balance or drop their rifle in the water.

- Ass kicking by the staff sergeant: After these tests, the sergeant decides who has passed to a satisfactory degree, and who has failed and is to be RTU'd (returned to unit). If a candidate's times were too slow on the first two tests, for example, they will likely be dismissed.

After watching that, the selection process looks extremely tough even compared to the Army officer selection board I attended last November. I need to get off my lazy ass and start exercising a lot more rather than just lifting weights and doing push-ups. I'd love to take up hiking again, though, but I haven't done it properly for a few years since I injured my shoulder doing ten tors training.

TL;DR -- Stuff.

Anyway, give me ideas for what else I can do for the month and a bit until I move out from home and go off to university. If your ideas aren't good you will be be raped -- you've been warned.

Some of you may know that I applied for University this year after a somewhat uneventful year out from education. These same people may also know that I've now been accepted by my first choice University. For those who didn't know that... now you do.

A few days ago I finished all the admin work that needed to be completed before heading off in September. This basically consisted of filling out a big old form to get myself a student loan, contacting my University to inform them that I'm actually taking up the place they've offered me, and applying for accommodation.

The student loan form was the biggest job. Some parts of it were extremely vague, so I needed to contact my local council office to clear a few things up. It's one of those things that you worry about messing up (especially as I'd already messed up the first form and had to attain a second one). Took me ages to do because I did the second form in pencil first to avoid any serious mistakes, and then went over it in ink. Sounds silly, but I was seriously paranoid about messing up a second form and having to start all over again.

Applying for accommodation was fairly easy in comparison. All I had to do was fill a preference form on the University website. There's 3 types of accommodation available: Standard (single room with a sink, communal bathroom for every 7-10 rooms or so); En Suite (single room with a private bathroom); and Studio flats (for couples). I applied for En Suite, as I don't fancy sharing a bathroom with several other people. Can you blame me?

All there really is left to do at this point is wait for my loan to come through, and to find out what accommodation I've gotten. I'm hoping I'll get what I applied for, but I'll have to wait and see.

So yeah, basically. Life is moving on now. Come September, I'll be living in a different place, and generally living a different life. Hopefully it'll all be for the better - I'm sure it will.

I figure it's time for a new news post.

I don't have a whole lot to say this time, but for one thing, I really feel like I need a vacation. My gap year should have served as such, but between holding my family together and not achieving anywhere near as much as I wanted to, it's been much less of a vacation than I'd originally hoped.

After seeing Tom's new thread announcing that he and April are off to Jamaica, I thought about the time I've spent in the Caribbean. It's amazing out there, and even though I'd only ever been there on family vacations, I've always wanted to go on my own, or with a friend or girlfriend. I'd hoped to take my ex-girlfriend there when we were still together, but we broke up, and as I'm not looking for another relationship right now, I guess if I could go, I'd go with a friend.

Unfortunately, Jamaica is a long way from England, and with accommodation expenses, flight costs, etc., it's a slightly unfeasible fantasy right now. My best friend is going out to Spain this summer though, as his father owns a villa out in Murcia, and he's said that I'm more than welcome to go with him, so hopefully that will work out.

Anybody else got any vacations planned soon?
____________________

:::EDIT 5/25/08:::

Finally got my university application sent off today! I'm quite pleased. All that's left to do now is to wait for any offers to be sent to me. It's a big relief to get all this crap finished and done with at last, and now I can go find a job to get myself some cash to tie me over until the end of the summer.
____________________

:::EDIT 6/4/08:::

Got an UNCONDITIONAL offer from my first choice university! It's too early in the day to celebrate with alcohol, but tonight I'll be having one or two drinks to commemorate my ascent into higher education.

HUZZAH!

So, video embedding, huh? I always wondered if this feature would be introduced to Newgrounds profiles, but frankly, now that it's here, I have to say I'm not too fond of it.

For one thing, it seems too much like Myspace, which is always a bad thing. I don't want Newgrounds profiles to turn into a Myspace-like overstatement of one's determination to be an individual (which, ironically enough, seems all too often to be done by copying the masses). Hopefully, though, the Myspace similarities will end with video embedding. I guess the new admin Rob had to introduce some new feature to mark his place in the NG community, and I suppose he could have done a much worse job.

I do hope that some other features are implemented, and/or fixed, though. For example, the little flash animations that used to be shown when the last vote was cast to blam or save a flash need to be restored. They were great, but now all we have are little messages, which is a massive shame. I'm sure there are other little post-redesign kinks that need to be ironed out, too, but I can't be bothered to list them all ATM - it is, after all, 4:30am here in England, so give me a break :P

If you can think of any other little features that need to be restored or fixed, though, leave me a comment, as I'll be interested to hear about them.

As for myself, some of you may know that I'm applying for Law school right now. It's pretty stressful to be honest - trying to find the balance of a good University in a good location that will make me an offer this late in the application season is proving to be somewhat tricky, but I'm persevering. I have to visit my old school next week to see one of my teachers about writing me a reference. He's a nice guy, so hopefully he'll write me a good one, and maybe also help me out with some other parts of my application.

I do feel now that I'd have been much better off doing a serious application in my last year of school, but at the same time I feel that I needed this gap year to clear my head, take some time out, and think about what I really want to do with my life. It's definitely been a success in that respect, which is a good feeling.

Hopefully my application will be finished soon, though, and I can just enjoy the rest of my gap year in peace.

Thanks if you've taken the time to read all of this. :)

~NEVR