The Silent Rainbow of Lil Cipe

Wow, it’s been forever since i’ve been here. Almost feels a little nostalgic

I’m baaack, some of you will have missed me but most probably haven’t felt a big loss having me not natter on every week (or month as I became infamous for). I’m not even sure where to start, a lot has gone on since July of last year. I’ll kinda summarize as I go along but  i’m gonna try and leap forward to current stuff because I really can’t pinpoint most of the details.

So current stuff. I’m working (i’d like to say hard but that would be lying) on my FYP and finishing up Uni these days. Come May i’ll be a free man and enjoying the life of…wait, probably not enjoying anything as I have to do that whole “get a job” thing. Uni is tough, living my upside-down sleep pattern and overdraft-ridden lifestyle doesn’t do anything to improve this but it’s seemingly the only way I can function these days. As tough as it is, it sucks to know I have such little time left here when looking at the big picture and i’m gonna miss a lot of it when it’s gone. Right now though, i’m living it.

So what else have I been doing? Well there’s been 2 expos since I last posted and October was amazingly awesome. I cosplayed Kirito from Sword Art Online and had a blast hanging out with friends who I hadn’t seen in a while. We’re all planned up for May already and it’s gonna be super exciting having a long weekend in London geeking out with my homies. Other than that it’s mainly been Uni related stuff, back to running SOS and spending my money on occasional meals, the carvery, and  takeaways that are probably dissolving my stomach from the inside out.

So since I last blogged, i’ve been more active in my interests regarding K-Pop. Infact, you might say it’s quickly becoming my main hobby. I bought several albums since I last blogged, including SNSD’s 2013 release “I Got A Boy” which was probably the one thing i’ve been most excited for in a while. I loved the absolute crap out of it and have played it pretty much everyday since it was released on January 1st. Got into so many more artists in 2012 as well such as Hello Venus, Fiestar, Rainbow, Sistar, IU and Secret just to name a few. Just this minute been chatting with several K-Pop fans from the UK and it’s awesome hearing people so close to home feel the same way about what’s a fairly obscure thing to enjoy over here. I mean everyone knows Gangnam Style but, it’s not exactly painting a clear picture of what is to me and lots of other people an overly addictive experience and somewhat of a lifestyle. My #2 group Girl’s Day bought out their first album too recently and it’s friggin amazing! Waiting for it to arrive in the post and spend the early hours of the morning supporting my girls via music show streams and the awesome fansite Girl’s Day Daily!

I love my Soshis <3

Another part of my life musically was seeing Anberlin live in Birmingham in January. Anberlin and probably one of my top 5 bands and had been ITCHING to see them since the gig got put back from late last year. Unfortunately the friend who I was originally meant to go with was unable to make it, so I found a new gig buddy and experienced one of my favourite bands play a plethora of their tracks from all of their albums. Was an amazing gig and will never forget it.

So gonna move onto gaming which is pretty much a big chunk of what I do these days. Since I last posted, i’ve played so much more League i’m almost incomparable to the player I used to be. I have a pretty vast champ pool, have dabbled into ranked a few times and learnt to play so many more champions. My favourite champions to play right now are Caitlyn, Lulu, Akali, Elise, Orianna, Anivia and Katarina. The League of Warmogs has been tough but building tanky does allow for some prolonged teamfights which are more fun to watch but definitely not fun to be a part of at times. It can be super sucky throwing all your DPS down only to watch a million bars of the opponents health maintain through it. Still, lots of love for League and the amazing distraction it provides to the dull working days As a longtime AD player, I looked forward massively to Quinn but feel some changes are in order to make her a little better. She’s a decent pick no doubt but, feels like she CAN be lacking in damage vs other carrys.

Quinn!

Other than League, i’ve been playing a tiny bit of Osu! here and there, mainly because multiplayer is really fun if you find the right people to play with. Luckily SOS provides said right people, so we have some good laughs and enjoy some good (questionable) music while we do. I spend odd moments of the day just playing Gee on it to relax and K-Pop spaz out.

Onto animu, right now i’m kinda behind a few episodes on stuff but here are the series i’m currently watching:

• Bakuman S3
• Haganai NEXT
• Jojo’z Bizarre Adventure
• Little Busters!
• Robotics;Notes
• Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
• Tamako Market
• Vividred Operation

Also watching Fate/Zero S2, [C] and Zero no Tsukaima. Enjoying all of these right now and hoping to catch up the few episodes that i’m behind on my airings. My picks of the bunch are Haganai (what can I say, i’m a sucker for Sena), Bakuman S3 and Sakursaou. Sakurasou is really great and heartfelt, though I feel it kinda got overshadowed a little for me last season when it started airing by the amazing emotional roller-coaster known as Chu-2. The point is that there’s some really cool shows this season and i’ve been lucky to discover them. I also picked up Strike Witches Season 1 on DVD which totally filled my ecchi bodily requirement for a while.

Lovely ladies of Strike Witches

Oh and I watched Clannad…wow is all i’ll say on that!

In the realms of normal TV, I picked up One Tree Hill over the Christmas holidays for something to watch and 7 seasons later, i’m still watching. Although the post-Lucas and Peyton seasons aren’t as engaging, they’re still pretty good to watch so i’m keeping at it and may eventually finish it. Also been watching a tonne of reality TV shows with SNSD on and have watched most of them now! Currently on Dangerous Boys and it’s really interesting stuff even when you put the fact SNSD are in it aside for a minute.

Anyway it’s been a while and just wanna get this out

Ciao, Cipe out~

Bet you thought i’d disappeared huh?

Well i’m still around, just found it really hard to blog recently. June was a pretty quiet month for me but July has been really busy so I haven’t sat down and said anything here in a while. Thought i’d give it a go now though

So June was quite lazy after the excitement of expo and stuff quickly gone. Went to the cinema quite a lot in the past couple of months however and here’s what I have seen:

• Avengers
• American Pie
• Prometheus
• Snow White and the Huntsman
• Friends With Kids (With my Ma and sister, man points disappearing I know…)
• The 5 Year Engagement
• Men In Black 3

All the films delivered on what I expected them to. As hyped as Prometheus was, I still thought it was a pretty good film and can’t wait to see what/if they’re gonna do following on from it. While Snow White was probably the weakest of the bunch, i’ll gladly spend an evening looking at Charlize Theron if you know what I mean

So my only real event over June was my trip down to Oxford for a friends birthday. Was pretty awesome seeing friends as usual and dressing up for a pretty good meal. Never thought i’d like salmon in any capacity but turns out I was pretty wrong. It was damn good, as was the whole event so i’m glad I had something to get me out the house to see some of my favourite people.

Moving swiftly on to more recent events. July has been a pretty good month so far due to the frequency of stuff to do popping up very quickly. Had several LANs with the crew and we’ve had an awesome time playing Street Fighter, FIFA, League and several other games while chugging endless bottles of pop and eating takeaway until the sun comes up. Used to look forward to these so much when I got home from uni in the last 2 years but this year it’s been even more appreciated with the severe boredom and lack of anything to do in recent times. Nothing quite tops out the geek levels when someone makes a big play and people start hyping up like they’ve just won the lottery

Even more so the Street Fighter was kicked up a notch due to Evo 2012 being the other weekend so I was really excited to start playing again after watching it. It was a really good Evo in the other games I don’t usually watch but the AE was pretty one-sided in the finals. Infiltration stepped over all competition with little opposition which was quite anti-climatic. The pools were really good though and very enjoyable to watch. Floe’s play of the new IWBTG was absolutely hysterical too and probably my favourite moment of the entire weekend. Thanks Evo for once again making me love Street Fighter!

Love him or hate him, the new world champ of UMvC3! (photo stolen from Karaface, go look at her awesome pictures!)

For the 2nd time, I went to see the awesome Lights perform live. This time it was in Birmingham so required a lot less travel than last time. She was as amazing as the first time, if not more than before. Had some really good crowd interaction this time as the place was a lot less crowded than when I saw her in Manchester. Always have preferred quiet gigs compared to bigger ones because they feel a lot more personal and the songs reach you more (sorry if that sounds a bit gay). Someone uploaded a video of bits of the gig they’d recorded put together, check it out if you fancy it. Promise you she’s really good! (not my video btw)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3hFZW-3f4w

Had the pleasure of one of my best buds Dave come up to stay with me for a few days. We had lots of jokes, lots of food, a trip to the pub and he was even lucky (or unlucky depending on how you see it) enough to be able to attend the Rock Cafe Reunion hosted by Uprawr with me. For those unfamiliar with Cafe, it’s where a lot of us spent our teens on a Wednesday night getting drunk and moshing out till late then had to go to school the next morning. Dunno how we ever did it because I felt crap the next day but it was an awesome night and almost felt like we were all kids again. Just felt weird legally being able to buy alcohol and the fact the room didn’t look like a dump like it used to.

Last few days i’ve had my bestie staying with me which always makes me happy because with no one else can I be a lazy git for several days and not feel horrible. Wake up -> eat -> game, game, game -> eat -> game, game, game -> bed is the usual order of business and is the best way to spend a day when you’re absolutely broke and just wanna do nothing for a while.

So onto le gaming section. Been playing lots of League still. Picked up all the 450 champs and started buying the 1350s. Got Pulsefire Ez and added Shyvana to my jungle roster. Slowly improving in other areas, while losing my flow completely as an AD carry. Sacrifices have to be made eh? Been running a lot of intermediate bot games sharpening up my positioning and stuff with champs I don’t play a lot. Also picked up TF the other day and he’s really fun so might learn to play him a bit online and see how it goes. The new champ Zyra looks pretty cool too so might grab her when she comes out. Miss 101, here I come!

Dat Zyra

Managed to play a bit more D3 since my last blog post. I finished a normal difficulty run with my Wizard and started a Demon Hunter for a bit of fun. Haven’t played in a while though now, been busy messing around with other games. It was a really enjoyable run though and hoping the next difficulty up is really good too (hopefully not too soul destroying).

So i’ve finally taken the plunge and gave World of Warcraft another go. I can hear you all groaning already. It’s been pretty good, I played to level 20 on my Blood Elf Paladin and decided to invest in a month of game time. Had a good time so far, got her to around level 40 now and she’s lots of fun. Have been levelling her solo and still having a good time. Also got a level 30ish Undead Warlock i’ve been levelling with with a friend and that’s been fun but think I prefer my pally at the moment. I guess it’ll come down to late game and which role I decide to fall under when doing dungeons and stuff. For the time being though been levelling in a Holy build. Was advised to do a Retribution build by the internet but after talking to a friend about it I changed my mind. Apparently holy levelling isn’t too good but i’ve been having next to no problems with it as I don’t die at all and Exorcism does a decent amount of damage to level.

Moving on to anime now. Sankarea and Kore wa Zombie have finished but Hyouka and Accel World are ongoing into the current season. I also have picked up Yuru Yuri S2 and Kyokai Senjou no Horizon S2 this season as sequels and Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai as a new show. Haven’t watched too much of any of those yet so i’ll save my judgement. Last seasons shows though i’m happy to give my opinion on. While there was nothing really bad about this season of Zombie, there wasn’t really anything outstanding about it either. I feel it lacked it strong content in about 70% of the episodes. I really like the characters in the show but they can’t carry enough interest just being themselves every episodes without stuff really happening. This changed towards the end of the season but I would have liked more story throughout if possible.

Sankarea I really liked. I felt it was a strong show right up until the last episode. The last episode was pretty anti-climatic but i’m not letting it get down my opinion of the whole show. As far as i’m aware it was a pretty unique concept for a manga so I really enjoyed seeing it in animated form and Rea is an absolute cutie.

Zombies never looked so good

Managed to finally start what i’d been waiting about a year to do but kept getting delayed. Yes guys, Clannad is a go! I’m watching it at a super slow rate right now but I’ve got through the Fuuko arc and it was awesome! I teared up a few times throughout and from what i’ve heard i’m gonna need a whole box of tissues to cry through by the end. A couple episodes into the Kotomi arc and absolutely adore her. She’s so cutie and clueless and have a feeling i’m gonna really like the rest of the arc too. Time will tellll

:3

Think that’s all I got right now. Be back sooner than last time! (I hope)

Cipe out~

I am once again SUPER sorry it’s been so long. In all honesty all I did since the last post was game and hang out with friends so I thought I’d sit tight until after MCM Expo and then write up some nice stuff. So here I am, let’s go!

So Expo weekend is behind us and everyone returns back to the reality that stings so bad afterwards. I had an amazing weekend with some of my favourite people ever, all on 10 and a half hours sleep over the entire thing. Picked up a new bag, plushie and a commission drawing of me that a few of us had done (which were all amazing) but kept my spending to a fair low amount. Still didn’t keep me out of my overdraft but meh, memories cost money I guess.

So I stayed with a few of the guys (and gals) in a hostel in Deptford. Was a pretty good hostel with all the stuff you really need it to have (bed, shower, bar ). Hopefully it won’t come to staying away from the ExCel next time though. Had a really good time there anyway and lots of laughs Friday night when no one could get any sleep.

(she tastes like bacon!)

The group cosplay I was part of went REALLY well. We did 4 Sword Links with a Dark Link and Vaati. Had some good pictures taken of us outside (when they finally managed to get us all together for 5 minutes) and all in all was a really enjoyable experience. I enjoyed wearing a wig for the first time, sadly I can’t say the same about the tights that were fairly uncomfortable all day.

The Linkus!

The cosplay standard was pretty good too as it usually is in May. Some crazy cool stuff and some very awesome LoL cosplayers that I was really impressed with. Excited to see how far everything comes along by October.

So a weekend of Wagamas, cosplay, insanely good weather and time with my friends was just what I needed. Can’t wait till next time!

So my current plans are cinema tomorrow with my good friend Matt and that’s pretty much it for a while. Oxford on the 5th of June for a friend’s birthday and off to see Lights in Birmingham at the beginning of July. Other than that lots of lazing around and playing games I guess. Here’s hoping I survive it.

Recently picked up this little gem too finally, she’s friggin delicious!

Char has landed!

Little annoying thing that happened recently. Facebook disabled my account for apparently breaking the rules. They haven’t told me which rule(s) I apparently broke but i’m really annoyed by their lack of communication on the matter and how many things I have lost due to this. I have since made a new account so i’m slowly repairing the damage but a lot I feel is lost for ever. Sucks.

Reading my last post is really depressing me with how long i’ve been away from this blog. My League of Legends career has changed so much since then. I’m now Level 30 and have developed much more as a diverse player since last time. My top 5 champs would be something like this at the moment:

1) Caitlyn

2) Ashe

3) Nocturne

4) Soraka

5) Sivir

As well as these i’ve worked on my Ahri and my Akali quite a bit and they’ve been coming on fairly well recently. I’m looking forward to purchasing a tonne of champs when I finally can but for now i’m happy to keep working on what I have. Hopefully my farming and positioning can keep getting better and better with my AD carrys. Invested in a few new champs like Varus, Garen, Jax and Nidalee and quite enjoying them. Also loving the new Ashe art, she’s stunning!

Phwoar!

Some more love to my other game, Katawa Shoujo. Finally got the 100% after finishing all the routes and all the branching dialogue. So happy with this game and the fact that it was free I still find unbelievable. FLS probably felt they made a decent game but i’m sure many other plays like me fell in love with the story and the characters from this amazing masterpiece. Emi is still my favourite girl closely followed by Hanako but Lilly had a really good story too so it was all around good fun on each and every route.

Hanako <3

Other than these 2, I managed to pick up the amazing D3 which sadly I haven’t had much time to play yet but having fun with it already in the early hours. Used to play quite a bit of D2 as a kid so been waiting for this game for a while now. I infact waited in a shop for over an hour close to closing time for a few copies of it to arrive so I could take it home and play it. I play a female Wizard called Tamashii.

Anime time? Ok thennn! Shows i’m watching this season are Zombie Desu 2, Sankarea, Accel World and Hyouka. All really enjoyable shows for really different reasons. Zombie is hilarious, Accel World full of action (and a very cute girl ), Sankarea very unique and Hyouka amazing art and work by KyoAni. Kuroyukihime, Rea and Eru are really cute which means i’m having quite the nosebleeding season here and the Zombie girls are as lovely as always. Hoping to see some great finishes to these shows in the coming weeks.

KuroyukiHNNG

As for normal TV, all my shows have finished for now but I picked up the insanely good Game of Thrones currently airing on HBO. Next Sunday is the Season 2 finale and i’m all up to date. Gotta say it’s one of my favourite shows ever. The action, romance and the whole general feeling the show gives always has me excited every time I hear the opening music start up. I’m considering reading the books after I finish Season 2 so if anyone would recommend that let me know. Suits Season 2 and the new Season of True Blood to start soon so i’ll have more to watch then. I did poke a couple of episodes of 24 the other night. Maybe…

So I feel that’s all I have now. Gonna watch the rest of this IPL5 qualifier then hit the sack for my double header cinema trip tomorrow (Avengers and American Pie woo!).

Until next time homies

Cipe out~

So i’m back again with this apparent weekly section. I thought i’d let it rock until I next felt like typing and it seems like it’s right now.

I finished my job recently. I’m some ways i’m happy as i’ve just had a really free week during which my parents were away so I had lots of time to play games and enjoy myself for a bit. The money situation isn’t too hot right now so that’s one drawback but i’ve got a bit in the bank so i’m sure i’ll be ok for a bit.

Since it’s been a few weeks i’ll highlight the major points of the last few weekends. Firstly MCM weekend! MCM Birmingham was the first time they’d took the actual expo their as opposed to the usual Memorabilia. It was really good to hang with my Uni friends for the day and trawl through the amazing stalls selling all the usual snaz. I managed to avoid spending for the most part but picked up a sweet Yami figure from To Love-Ru. Dave also caused his usual chaos with the boombox so had an awesome time. If anything was a downer, it would be that it just didn’t seem to compare to the longer established Telford and London MCM expos. Hoping it picks up next time!

So I returned to Stafford with friends after and had a small hang on Saturday night for Trishul’s birthday. The night after though was probably the 2nd point of the weekend…Wrestlemania! Wrestlemania is the biggest event of the year for WWE fans of past and present. It had been hyped up for weeks so I was really excited to sit down and crack open a big bottle of Dr Pepper for the late night ahead.

On a whole, it was pretty good. I wouldn’t say it was a GREAT event but it was certainly fulfilling on a few levels. Taker and HHH put on an amazing performance which was only fitting for 2 of the oldest WWE still has with them and I was so pleased that we got to see it. The main event (after the terrible music performances before it) took off pretty slowly but hyped up to a finale of The Rock popping up for a Rock Bottom for the 3 count. As a Cena fan I was still really happy with the match as a whole so i’m glad it ended on somewhat of a good note

The end in sight!

After Wrestlemania I began lazy week of stuff. This led to the weekend just passed and the amazing IPL4 League of Legends tournament. I had some friends over for a good team session during the night while we whacked the stream up on my 40 inch TV downstairs and enjoyed the competition. This was my first proper pro LoL stream and I really enjoyed the weekend as a whole too. Aside from a certain family issue occurring on Saturday afternoon everything was dandy. Shout outs to my friends who came and TSM for proving their awesomeness in the IPL4 Grand Finals.

On another note I chose my university options for next year and i’m excited to jump back in actually. Need to focus on my future right now because in all honesty it’s all I have keeping me from becoming a geek in a hole sitting at his PC all day…

People looking for my nice stuff skip the next few paragraphs, it’s gonna get a bit soppy :3

So now my parents are home and life is back to normal right? Well after the unfortunate news about returning to single city for the first time in pretty much 5 years I bet many have questions and/or are concerned on how I was feeling right after? Well it all depends on the time.

I’m also suddenly finding this really funny I can just press and press and press and pour my feelings out on here like a soppy git yet if someone asks me i’d probably struggle to answer.

Well we met up after probably the hardest week of my life and talked. It was nice, it made me feel a fair bit better and I was glad to know I could still have a friend after hearing what essentially turned my world upside down. We joked, we laughed, everything was the same as always while at the same time, it wasn’t. If this proved anything it’s that I guess life still goes on after these things. We still text, almost every day so she’s still really always going to be here for me when I need her…I hope .

How do I feel about it weeks after? Good I guess. I still miss her every now and then, little things appear and make me sad. I hate dwelling on times gone by but sometimes they just crawl in and you can’t get them out. I have a terrible habit of listening to songs with lyrics which now actually mean more to me than they ever did before. Films that make a lot more sense than they did before and now even Vis Novs where romances blossom and mine did not. I will always have some feelings which I don’t think will ever go away but I hope someday I find someone else nice who can enjoy the company and terrible humour of a little guy from Smethwick. Lots of love Zo

Right so back to business! These few weeks have been lots and LOTS of League of Legends. The little things in my game are improving so i’m hoping I can keep pushing and get a lot better filling my AD carry role on the team. Recently purchased Caitlyn and Corki to add some diversity to my play and Cait is fast becoming my new main. Dat range bro!

Another game I gotta give a shout out to is Katawa Shoujo! For the people who don’t know what a visual novel is, it’s essentially an interactive story game. You read mainly while selecting a few options which later dictate your story and your potential love interest. Yes guys, you go after girls!

Anyway Katawa Shoujo received a lot of criticism due to the subject matter of this VN, the setting being a school for the disabled. I’d like to throw my 2 cents in. Although the girls have some form of disability in this game are not made to be points of affection for people with sick tastes. This game is heartwarming, in a way i’m sure other games are for the pure reason is that the girls are infact, normal girls. They have hopes, dreams, fears, feelings and most of all, the desire to live as normally as they can (except for Rin, she has an odd outlook on everything lol). So thank you Katawa Shoujo for putting a smile on the face of a man who needed to feel warm and fuzzy again.

First route was Emi! I shall start another tomorrow (or today as it’s past 3AM atm).

Lovely Emi's smile!

Also played a bit of BF3 and Halo Wars again with my good friend Tipper.  Good to get back into some games I haven’t played in a while, Halo Wars a bit longer though obviously. Looking forward to getting more slithers of time invested in these 2.

What anime have I been watching you ask? Well I finally finished Bleach and Beelzebub and both had fairly good endings. Bleach I was pleasantly surprised at because it had such a drawn out anime which got very disappointing and had fans calling for it to end a long time before it did. They tied up the end really nicely with Ichigo retaining his powers and defeating Ginjo in dominating fashion. It had a very final feel to it and in some ways i’ll be sad to see it go.

For this season so far i’ve only started Zombie Desu S2 and the first episode was hi-larious! The magical girl transformation infront of the school had me cracking up and Mysteltain breaking was the icing on the cake. Such a good episode. Hoping to pick up Accel World too!

Will we find more out about the newbie?

So Gossip Girl’s back! Starts the episode with Blair in some tasty lingerie which of course, had me interested for the rest of the episode. Not a bad return to the season, and about time too! 90210 slyly goes back on break, surprise surprise. Not coincidence these 2 keep dodging each other surely? I started re watching Big Bang Theory from the start as well and bringing back all those good memories and quotes from when I first watched all these hilarious episodes. There’s also the fact us big geeks can relate to half this stuff!

So i’m done dribbling on for now. It’s now 4AM and i’ve just finished watching Raw. Lesnar back, match with Cena on the horizon…hype! Anyway enjoy my lovelies, i’ll be back soon…. I promise! I’m considering a run tomorrow, I could do with getting out of the house and working up a sweat. We’ll see I guess…

Cipe out~

I should change this category to monthly. I’m such a bad blogger.

Back again I am. So let’s jump right in.

So work is probably at an all time low at the moment. Struggling to find any motivation to go and do stuff despite being pretty broke right now. Managed to save £100 so far which isn’t a lot but it’s something. Luckily I can’t imagine buying much now as i’ve covered a lot of bases so hopefully I can save some more.

A chunk of my money is going out onto the house the guys and I found for next year at Uni. It’s really good, on a good road in relation to where most people will be presumably living and the room’s are so spacious in comparison to everything else we’ve seen. So excited to move in come September!

The past few weekends have generally been good. Went out for my sisters 18th which was a pretty fun night after things got going and also popped to Stafford for another friend’s birthday gathering. Managed to squeeze a hang with my good friend Matt in too which is always a good way to blow off some of the week boredom and have a good old gaming sesh.

Unfortunately, things quickly rushed to a all time low. On Sunday evening I separated with my girlfriend of almost 5 years. A lot of people have sent their love and support and i’m very appreciative of anyone who did. I haven’t talked about it a lot and i’m not sure I really can yet but things didn’t end too badly and in a few weeks I hope I get my best friend back when she’s ready to be.

So I haven’t watched a huge amount of TV recently due to a couple of my shows going on break. 90210, which has only recently come off break, has started to annoy me a little with the continual use of similar ideas again and again. I know a lot of TV shows recycle storylines but it feels a little too obvious and annoying while doing so.

I did however rewatch Suits last week, masterpiece of a show! Season 2 is gonna be oh so sweet.

I won’t really talk about Wrestling and Anime because although it has been really good, Raw is just in it’s Wrestlemania buildup so most things are quite similar week in and week out and I don’t want to bore with you with comments about how i’m excited for it again and again. Meanwhile, i’ve watched barely any Anime due to what you’re about to find out in my next paragraph.

My gaming can be summed up in 2 words this month.

Mass.

Effect.

So with the arrival of Mass Effect 3 oh so close, I unplugged my internet from my Xbox to avoid distractions and grinded out Mass Effect 2 at a tremendous pace. It was an amazing game, easily one of my favourites on the Xbox 360 so far. Much love for Thane who was one of my favourite characters. Drell are so badass!

Thane so badass

I moved immediately onto 3. The new Femshep model, war upon the galaxy, everything was so hype coming into it! I feel the game delivered on so many fronts except one of the most important ones; the ending.

The end of such a powerful and story driven emotional roller-coaster certainly shouldn’t have been like that. Won’t ruin it for anyone yet but it wasn’t to a lot of people’s tastes. I don’t think it was as bad as the internet is making out but it wasn’t good either. Word is Bioware have something planned so let’s wait and see shall we?

(PS. I chose the middle for anyone who cares)

Femshep up in yo grill!

I really decided to gear up with my One Piece reading this month and pushed quickly into the 200s on chapters. The Alabasta was so long but also really good. I know One Piece is a keeper if length and quality can be sustained throughout and that’s exactly what it managed to do. Hats off to Oda-san, you absolute friggin legend!

Friends forever and all that!

So not much else to say really other than this has been really therapeutic in many ways to sit down and type out some of my life. I hate the fact i’m so terrible at keeping up with blogging because I really enjoy doing it, no matter how few people actually read this (show me some love in the comments if you do!).

So peace out my lovers, until next time…

Cipe out~

So yet AGAIN, i’m late. So here I am again apologising about my terrible blog schedule and how i’ll do better next week when I clearly can’t.

Work is….meh. I haven’t actually done a lot this month due to lots of travelling and general laziness. Lots of time spent out and about, here there and everywhere though which makes is all better. Got to see my lovely girlfriend which is always a pleasure and managed to survive the terribly cold weather we were on the receiving end of for a couple of weeks. Had a super busy weekend in Stafford/Telford doing MCM Midlands Expo and the monthly CFC at Chips.

Expo was so much fun, as usual, as I get to see all the Stafford people and hang in the midst of some of the UK’s geekiest people! Didn’t spend as much as I usually do which is always a good thing and had an awesome time.  Highlight was Dave’s boombox causing a large percentage of the food hall to start a giant Caramelldansen rave. SUch an epic moment!

MCM Midlands Expo 2012

Also another amazing moment was getting my copy of Blue Dragon signed by the amazing Hironobu Sakaguchi. Life making moment right there!

Purchased the Chobits boxset and a Lucy keyring and all was quickly over as we departed for McDonalds and eventually home. Next expo stop, Birmingham in March!

So the next day, slightly overtired, I made my way to Chips for my 3rd CFC. Managed to go 1-2 this time round which is better than last time. My first loss was to a solid Balrog player who kept me out of the air with good headbutts and played a good keep away which is a instant loss for Cammy. My 2nd loss was to a Gen player, which I felt a bit bad about because the loss was caused due to my inexperience in the matchup. Played a few more games with the guy afterwards and felt I learnt a lot about it and hopefully will do better next time. Looking forward to Street Fighter x Tekken now!

Another thing I got up to a few days ago was travelling with my good friend Lee to see the amazing Lights perform in Manchester. She sold out Birmingham and I was super gutted, so we decided it was worth making the extra effort and money required to haul ass to Manchester to see her. She was absolutely incredible, playing a good selection of material from both her albums and retaining her awesome voice. So glad I got the chance to see her! Here’s someone’s cam video from the night, hope they don’t mind me using it

Lights – Second Go live Manchester Sound Control 23-02-12

So I haven’t been watching too much TV or anime recently. I’m still just as behind with anime as I was before but managing to keep up with GG, Hart of Dixie and 90210 as well as Raw. Wrestlemania buildup is getting pretty good now so i’m really excited for when it finally comes around and we get to see The Rock vs John Cena.

HYPE!

One anime I did finish this month though was Mashiroiro Symphony which was a truely beautiful VN adaptation with one of my favourite cute characters in a long time, Miss Miu Amaha

Cutie!

So my gaming of the month has generally been on League of Legends. I’ve been playing almost everyday, which doesn’t bode well for the stack of games I have that i’m yet to complete (or even start with a few). Been playing lots of Ashe as always, even bought 2 more skins for her and finally got to level 20 so I could start working on her rune page. Also got lots of love for Lux who is super fun to play as, albeit a little squishy on her own without a big burly champ to protect her. Tried a bit of Rammus yesterday and he may be the first tank i’ve really enjoyed playing so far. Power Ball is a really fun ability in itself for movement and for chasing, but also just to be generally annoying and roll into a mob of enemy champions to knock them all back and slow them. Hoping I can get the chance to play him some more and develop my playstyle as a tank.

Dat Rammus!

Also pretty much finished Super Mario 3DS which is an awesome game and i’m really pleased I decided to get it as it was a lot of fun. I also bought One Piece Unlimited cruise for my 3DS which may actually get some play time now i’m done with Mario. What I played of it was really good and I liked getting to play with all the Straw Hats. Hoping I can bash out some more Super Pokemon Rumble too as I really liked what I played of that.

My manga reading slowed down quite a bit this month, as I only managed to get to chapter 160 of One Piece before forgetting to put more on my phone, which I still am yet to do. I will give shoutouts though to Fairy Tail and Bakuman, who are both in the middle of some really good arcs and I can’t wait to see how they will both develop.

So that’s all for now my readers. I am away for the next 2 weekends so I hope I will find chance to blog before the end of March hehe.

Until next time…

Cipe out~

So once again it’s been terribly long since I posted here so i’m back to give you another post about the crap i’ve been getting up to this month.

So been working as usual which keeps my weekdays quite busy. I have however, managed to get myself up to Stafford to play some good old Street Fighter and see my homies. Had a pretty good time seeing who I could see and having a good old drinky and stuffing my face with fast food. My performance at Chips however this time was a little less satisfactory than last time. Unlike the 2-2 I put up in my debut, I went out quickly 0-2, losing to the Blanka that originally put me into losers last time and the Chun-Li I took out. Mixed feelings, but a positive must be taken from this and I learnt a lot playing casuals and chatting with the guys so thanks a bunch Chips for another great CFC and i’ll be back next month, stick in hand (that’s what she said)

Earlier in the month, shortly after student loan dropped into some very empty bank accounts, the usual Birmingham outing was a go after a very drunken night out in Stafford and very little sleep for me. Hit up the usual spots with the guys, had lots of laughs and pokes (at Andy) and enjoyed a traditional Big Wok before hitting the cinema and waving goodbye. Always enjoy a good day with good company so thanks to everyone who spent the day out with me and i’ll eagerly await our next one.

Was also lucky enough to spend a couple of days with my lovely girlfriend this month despite her being a busy bee with all the Uni work she has. Love you Zoeee <3

My little Nephew is also growing up so quickly, he’s a month old now and is getting cuter by the second (if that’s even possible). Lots of love little one!

Got a little hang time with Matt again where we played the usual Halo and Battlefield but now with some Street Fighter which he’s learning at a decent pace (despite a 14 second perfect from my Cammy tearing out his soul). Looking forward to having another person to play with and hopefully he’ll be as good as me soon (if not better, because everyone knows I SUCK)

TV this month has been…wow. While in Stafford I watched the first episode of a show starting on Dave called Suits. It’s a fairly popular show in the U.S. about a college dropout who through circumstances is hired by a law firm, posing as a Harvard alumni to get in. So I picked it up and knocked out season 1 in a few days. It’s a really clever show with some good twists and great characters. Very easy to get because Mike Ross purely because of how nice of a guy he is and how much s*** he gets put through during the course of the first season. Apparently it’s due for a second in the summer and I can’t wait to see how things go on. Urge everyone to check it out, it’s well worth your time.

Go Go Go! Watch it

As for the other shows, I have to say i’m a little disappointed with how Gossip Girl and 90210 resumed after the end of year break. Both cliffhangers were followed by fairly rubbish followup episodes and i’m hoping the last season episodes for both shows get a lot better. New Girl has been paused on episode 10 for a while so haven’t watched any of that in a while and Hart of Dixie is still it’s usual pleasant self. All is good but i’m hoping for some good stuff to drop after watching an insanely good show like Suits.

WWE just had it’s 25th Royal Rumble which, despite lacklustre PPVs recently, really delivered in the magic Royal Rumble always brings to the table. It had some good matches throughout the night and some amazing moments with a few entrants we didn’t really expect to see. Really happy I stayed up to watch it live and looking forward to seeing how the Road to Wrestlemania unfolds. All the best Sheamus!

Winner of the 2012 Royal Rumble, Sheamus!

So onto gaming. Haven’t been playing a lot of Xbox really other than Street Fighter in preparation for CFC and stuff when Matt came over. Took a bit of time to sit down with Skyward Sword which is a brilliant game. My only regret is that I really have to sit down with it to get the most out of the experience, which leaves me very little playtime with work and other obligations popping up left right and center. I am really enjoying it though and want to take a lot of time doing all the little things I can to get the most out of my first runthrough. Really impressed with the dungeons and the bosses for them so far and every little bit of the combat system for it. Enemies are now a fair bit of a challenge more difficult than the old swing and kill tactics that got me through every other Zelda game.

SS Zelda is too cute

I picked up Mario 3DS yesterday which I had a little chance to play and i’m really impressed with it. The use of 3D is actually really clever and i’m a little let down that Nintendo didn’t use this as a release title. Would have been a strong enough title to carry some really good early sales for the 3DS. Looking forward to getting a good play on this in my free moments at work and when i’m out and about.

The other game that has had a lot of love recently was my last post favourite, League of Legends. I’ve been playing a bunch more over January and tried a few more characters. Found I enjoy ranged carries a bit more than I did jungling as i’ve been playing Ashe and Ahri pretty much all month. Ashe is constantly a thorn in the other team’s side and Ahri has some great early game harass with her orb which make them 2 really good characters to play. I also purchased Lux the other day so hoping to play her this month a bit more as she has the most fun Ultra in the game in my opinion.

Not gonna write too much about anime as I haven’t been watching that much this month. Still behind on last season’s shows and a little behind on Nisemonogatari too. I will however send some love to Beelzebub that had some really good episodes recently which were both hilarious and action packed, with a crazy transformation to boot. Expecting big things from this show from now onwards.

Got up to chapter 130 of One Piece before I decided to take a short break before I jump back in. Still as happy as ever with it, probably even more so than before. To keep a story so fresh after the run it’s had is an incredible feat and i’m not even close to being up to date yet. Looking forward to the many chapters ahead of me in my quest to catch up with One Piece!

Until next time readers…

Cipe out~

Hiiiiiiiiiiiii guys (and gals). I apologise for fulfilling my usual reputation of being a terrible blogger and leaving pretty much a month empty. Making it December, I have a lot to catch up but i’ll see what I can do.

So it was a pretty good month for me. I had my awesome Birthday weekend (4 days long of celebrations) which began with a hang out and an Ali’s with the homies in Stafford followed by a mental night out at the SU on Friday which I concluded by going home in a pretty amusing choice of transportation. Even managed to drag a little Brummy out who was supposed to go to work the next day (no names…). Saturday I finally had my long awaited Nando’s birthday meal with the family and Zo which was just as delicious as my mouth remembered from the last time I had been. Did get embarrassed by a very embarrassing cake, depicting me as a child on my…toy tricycle donned in full protective gear. As you can imagine it still scars me to this day. Nonetheless, a very good meal which gave me the best chance to show everyone up by dousing my stuff with Xtra Xtra Hot Peri Peri sauce, awh yeah!

The Sunday after (my actual Birthday) was spent having a nice Carvery and a big laze around before I got back to work the next day. Was the perfect way to spend a Birthday and wanna throw a big shoutout to everyone who spent a bit of it with me. Love you all!

So during the rest of the month was a fair bit of working, spending time with my family, friends and Zo and just enjoying a bit of time off work. I had a really good Christmas which was a lot lazier than past ones (if that’s even possible) but I felt it was very well deserved after my super boring job almost drained all the excitement out of me in the build-up.

My haul consisted of:

• Usual smellies (Shower gel, Body Sprays, Aftershave etc.)
• DVDs (Inbetweeners Boxset + Movie, 5CM Per Second)
• Game (Just one yes, Skyward Sword Limited Edition!)
• Chocolates (from work, d’awww!)
• Money (yet to spend but, Fightstick anyone?)
• Mug
• Socks
• Scarf
• New Razor (thank the heavens)

and maybe something else i’m forgetting but I think that’s it. Good haul!

My New Years was also pretty lazy, sat in with some buds and watched a film and had a few drinks. Wasn’t what most do on NYE but I enjoyed it and followed it up with a wake-up KFC the next day. Thank youuu Supercharger Meal!

The best part though was the news that my tiny little Nephew had popped out about a month too soon! Luckily everything went ok and I’ve since been to see him and have a quick hold. He’s adorable!

Ickle Tyler, how cute!

So since the year began I managed have a quick LAN with the crew (who I missed mid December) which involved a good amount of beer, Inebetweeners, Halo, Street Fighter, Marvel, Fifa and of course….a guitar battle! Overall it was a pretty hilarious night, especially when I fell asleep mid match on Street Fighter and woke up after having a weird dream I was Cammy doing a Spiral Arrow to the top of a hill to attack someone. Yes, it was as odd as it sounds. Was good to teach a little more of the game to Matt and play a little Rufus who I really enjoy playing (despite him being an ugly fat git). He has some really easy ways to get Ultra out and some good ground and air pressure and was a much different experience than I get with Cammy.

TV pretty much died over December for the usual end of year break but both Gossip Girl and 90210 went out with mid-season cliffhangers which I can’t wait to see the aftermath of. I did however pick up New Girl over the holidays which is a sitcom starring Zooey Deschanel as a new girl moving in with 3 guys after a break-up. I initially watched it purely for Zooey but i’m definitely enjoying it for more than that now. It’s got a good few laugh-out-loud moments and a lot of cringe worthy ones than make you want to cover your face with the duvet (I did, several times). So thank you for brightening up my December Zooey!

The lovely Zooey and Co in New Girl!

Enter geek stuff!

Gaming has been a lot more active this month. As sad I am to say this, I do own both Skyrim and Skyward Sword and have finished neither! I’ve been finding it hard to sit down for a big chunk with both which is really disappointing but I definitely enjoyed the few hours I have put into them. Both brilliant games which have only further developed the amazing reputation they have set in front of them.

I have however been playing a chunk of Street Fighter because of the 2012 update which everyone was really excited for. My Cammy got her HKSA back from Super and a change to Spin Knuckle, which hasn’t really made it viable but i’ll take the SA! Brings back some more combos and has made it a very useful combo ender AGAIN. I also bought UMvC3 and Super Pokemon Rumble so been dabbling a little bit on both of those (Marvel I still suck at though…majorly). SPR is a really fun little game I like to play in bed just before I doze off because of how easy it is to just pick up and play and have a bit of fun with.

My big gaming shoutout definitely has to go to League of Legends though. My interest has picked up majorly and have played it a lot more since November. I took a liking to Nocturne so purchased him and haven’t stop using him since. He easily has one of the coolest character designs in the game with some scary jungle potential and some crazy damage late-game. Got a couple of friends into it too so we’ve been playing a lot together and I hope I get better the more we play.

B**** be trippin!

(Also little shout-out to Matt who gave me a bunch of MS points for my birthday. Purchased Banjo Tooie on XBLA today and I nostalgia’d everywhere!)

So as for my anime last month it’s been very hard to keep up with stuff due to the whole Christmas business but hopefully I can get some stuff watched now. I managed to keep up to date with Bleach and finish Working!! (which was oh so sweet). The rest are kinda trailing by a few episodes but I should manage to be all caught up by the end of the week. I did however start watching Nisemonogatari, which is the sequel to Bakemonogatari. As Bakemono was one of my favourite shows ever and definitely my favourite by SHAFT I absolutely had to check this out. It definitely has all the flair, the humour and cute little adorable characters Bakemono had only know we’ll see a bit more of Karen and friend. Looking forward to it!

Gonna be one heck of an anime!

Manga, manga, manga…how we have grown to love each other. It’s been a huge progression since the last update. I managed to get completely up to date with Fairy Tail and moved on to….One Piece!

(wow Grimoire Hearts arc….wow!)

Yes I decided to tackle the beast. I always wanted to watch One Piece but clearly have no time to watch an anime that long so I decided to chuck chapters onto my phone and read the manga instead. So far i’m 40 chapters in and i’m really enjoying it and looking forward to when it starts majorly kicking into gear. The characters are fun and have that lovable shounen flair to them while not making them too annoying. Shoutouts to Buggy, who has probably been one of my favourite villains for a long time. Some hilarious moments and ending to the arc was the icing on the cake. Chibi Buggy anyone? I hear he becomes a recurring character, which I’m definitely looking forward to!

So that’s all I got this week guys. Catch you soon for some January lovin’ (probably)!

Cipe out~

SHOUTOUTS:

Everyone who had anything to do with my Birthday weekend!

Matt – Thanks for the Birthday stuff and being my hang buddy

Rest of the LAN Crew – For another good LAN and some good LoL sessions

Andy T – For being my best bud and seeing me when you could <3

Zoe – For being my love <3

My Family – For a lovely Xmas and a lovely little Nephew!

Heya guys. Sorry I’ve been off the track a bit. Been a bit busy of recent now everyone is home from university and wants to see me.

I’ll have a full update soon but for now, have a happy holidays and take care of yourselves!

Cipe out~

Have a good un!

So it’s been over a couple of weeks but i’m here again to bore you with senseless crap and stuff!

So work has continually been a game of try not to fall asleep. Luckily my aunt is back from her holiday so I get my morning lifts again and my hours have returned to normal after my very lazy 2 weeks of late starts. I’ll be getting paid sometime this week and I really need it as i’m back in the overdraft already. Doesn’t help i’ve been away a lot…

Where you might ask? Stafford of course! I’ve spent the last 2 weekends chilling with the homies and stuff in the place where Ali’s means EVERYTHING. I went up on the weekend of the 18th to see some friends before I went to a Street Fighter and Marvel tournament at Chips (awesome shop). Was real fun to play SF against some good people and funny to get my ass handed to me on Marvel. Finished in the top half of SF4 which was awesome, despite me having to put a friend out in my first match of the loser’s bracket. Sorry Robbie!

Last weekend was my good friend Dave’s birthday so I hit Stafford again for a good night out to get drenched in foam. Got rather (very) drunk and had one of the best nights in the SU in quite some time which was awesome. Just generally being with everyone over the 2 weekends was worth every moment. Love you guys!

So Survivor Series was a hell of a PPV for WWE, despite the obvious being-so-far-up-The Rock’s-ass-ness that the WWE love to do. Personally, i’m kind of annoyed how The Rock made a genuine claim to return to the WWE this year and he’s only showed up 3 times so far, how is this every different from when he wasn’t here promoting his naff movies? Luckily he’s still got every bit of it in the ring and had an amazing match with Cena against Miz and Truth. Punk back as champion was also a HUGE sigh of relief for me, Del Rio is so boring!

Awesome match!

TNA i’ve slowed down my watching to almost a halt. I don’t have too much time to spare these days with everything going on, so i’ve taken to reading the results for Impact and just watching the PPVs when they come.

My usual thoughts of my shows generally remain the same. Looking forward to the wedding storyline coming to a head on Gossip Girl and what’s gonna happen with Navid and his uncle on 90210?

Games for the last few weeks have been in very small doses. I was introduced to League of Legends by Rich and have played a bit of it for a few days now. I’ve never played a game like this before so it’s a pretty new experience but i’m really enjoying how everything comes together in it and it’s real good fun. The characters are vibrant and funny or huge and scary, which makes for some fairly funny confrontations.

My biatch of the week, Tristana

My Street Fighter play has been non-existent since CFC other than a few casuals at Dave’s house. Skyrim I managed to get a little bit of time on but nothing serious, when I have a free weekend it’s gonna get beasted ALL DAY LONG!

So anime, where do I begin eh?

• Bleach has actually got a nice storyline going on, which is a nice surprise.
• Managed to stay up to date with all the new airings I started but still haven’t started Persona or Boku wa Tomadachi. Hope to eventually, but the shows i’m watching at the moment are all really good and worth every minute.
• Mashiro-iro may be my personal favourite despite it being the slowest story. Miu is my moe girl of this anime seasion!
• C3 is a really powerful and gorey piece with lots of confrontations with Fear being moe every episode. Hunter x Hunter has probably the pacing a shounen anime has EVER had with a really good story and fun characters.
• Horizon and Shana 3 seem to have stories which are a bit EH??? at times, but still really good shows to watch if you can keep up with them.
• Bakuman and Working 2 are proving to be just as good, if not better than their first seasons so far. Looking forward to my favourite section from the Bakuman manga to show up in the anime.
• Bit behind on Beelzebub but looking to catch up soon!

Miuuuuuuuuu

Return of the reading section! No wait…it’s just manga. I’ve been power-reading Fairy Tail during free bits at work and i’m at about Chapter 140 right now. Hoping I can get caught up as I seem to have no time for the anime at the moment and don’t want to be behind with the story any longer than I have to. I personally think the anime is better (don’t kill me please), but the manga will always be ahead so makes more sense as it’s quicker to get through.

Despite this, it's a shounen. I promise!

Plans for this weekend (Thursday to Sunday) are to get my mop chopped and immediately get to Stafford to party for 2 days straight before my long awaited Nando’s birthday meal (woo). Gonna be another awesome week with awesome people (and a certain very pretty lady I haven’t seen in several weeks).

Have a good one everyone

Cipe out~

RETURN OF THE SHOUTOUTS SECTION:

Chips – Amazing tourney which I thoroughly enjoyed

Dave – For putting me up for what will be 3 weekends in a row right now, love you man

Trish, Scott, Dan, Jamie, Nick, Barnaby, Andy, Jon, Dean, Matt, Carina, Shag, Rich, Lee, Nath and (last but not least) Demi – For making my weekends worth it, even having to sit on a train next to the toilet every time.

Daughtry – For releasing possibly your best album so far, I can’t stop listening to it. Check it out everyone, I URGE you.

Andy T – Come see me bro, I MISS YOU

My lovely girlfriend Zoe – Can’t wait to see you!