JamesX

After a reasonably good long weekend catching up with everyone I don’t usually have a chance to catch up with, it wound up with a rather spur of the moment Monopoly night. Now I have to admit I love Monopoly, and I’m pretty damn good at screwing people with deals to win the game so I was all too happy to oblige when Stu, Abba and Owen wanted a game. Only problem was that after two hours, Owen and Abba needed to leave so we didn’t get a chance to finish - isn’t that always the way! So I’m sure there’ll be a rematch sometime soon.

Which reminds me. I really should be on the lookout for more Monopoly boards. :)

Oh and for those who are interested. I scored 6 in the footy tipping again this week. That’s three 6s in a row which puts me equal first with Lauren at work on 18. The pressure is on now to maintain the lead!

Okay so it’s almost been a month since my last post which is quite a dry spell. Quite frankly there’s been so much happening I’ve been too tired to bother posting anything. So rather than try to catch up on everything, I’ll just do a quick recap and then get on with it…

• Work
• Played poker with Chris and Mel for the first time (Mel won!)
• Caught up with Stu C at the river
• Went up to Bright with Richard and Jan
• Dealt with Commonwealth Games traffic restrictions
• Actually went to uni during the Commonwealth Games (albeit only twice)
• Got my full licence (finally!)
• Kept playing Travian
• Rehearsals for Romeo & Juliet
• Designed a website or two
• AFL came back
• And other crap I can’t think of right now…

So there you have it. Maybe I’ll start posting properly again now.

Whilst on the phone to London last night organising a copy of Grumpy Old Men on DVD, Alex told me about a new online game he’s been playing. It’s one of those web based ones where you build a village, gather resources and attack your enemies. It’s sorta like Age of Empires, only not as fast. It’s called Travian.

So what is it? Well, Travian is a browser based MMOG where you can compete with thousands of other players by taking control of a small village and leading your people to glory and victory. I suppose the main drawing card for me is that it doesn’t really need much of a time investment. You can just logon and ponder around for a little while and then leave it for a while. It can pretty much take care of itself (as long as you defend while you’re away!).

There’s lots of different resources, buildings, units and tribes to try out so the combinations are endless. Best of all it’s completely free and all you need is a web browser! So sign up today. I’m on server 4 with a village in the North East.

Visit the Travian site for more information.

Today was quite an exciting day. I decided it was time for a break and my mates wanted me to go to Crown. So I took the day off work (thanks Dean) and spent most of the afternoon shooting craps in the casino. For those who don’t know or understand craps, I’m not going to try to explain it because it’s so vastly complicated. But I will say it involves dice, is fast paced and generally a lot of fun.

While I was there I also tried my hand at roulette, which is usually one of my favourites, but after losing $100 in just under three minutes, I decided it wasn’t my day on the roulette wheel. Richie and Addo joined me for a quick stint on the pokies (gotta earn free parking!) and Richard prooved lucky when it came down to choosing red or black. I kept picking red and after 11 blacks in a row, I started to let him play for me and my luck turned around! But as usual, I didn’t take the $40 while I had it and it slowly withered down to $0. But I got my free parking, and a free snack so I was back out on the gaming floor to find the others.

By the time we finished, I was about $170 down overall, which wasn’t bad going. Abba managed to win $1000 by playing $100 hands of blackjack and hit a winning streak. I think he owes everyone a drink but it was his birthday yesterday so we can’t be too pushy! And well the rest came out under as well. But who cares, it was a fun day and I’ve certainly lost bigger amounts than that before.

We had dinner on Southbank before heading back home. Work again tomorrow, but at least it’s a four day week. :)

This post is a continuation of Happy New Year…

July
War of the Worlds and Live 8 were making headlines in July and semester 2 and GigManX continued to roll along. Around mid July, grandma returned from the UK and Richard and I began to move into the Widget arena with the new assortment of ISP Usage widgets. Stu M managed to injure his back (obviously *cough* working too hard!) and Muppets Inc. was born in my Organisational Behaviour class. We celebrated birthdays for Ed and Gronow and capped of a relatively busy month with System Administrator Appreciation Day.

August
Uni was powering along well and my results were higher than ever. Podcasting was starting to make it’s debut and the ski season provided a perfect opportunity to get away for a weekend. Houses were burning down, the weather was crazy and the WordPress Tiger Style caught my attention.

September
September was a time for many developments. JamesX 5.0 was launched and rekindled the blogging spirit. September also saw the return of The Bitch Box and the surprise release of the iPod nano. eBay acquired Skype and my thoughts turned to how much snow would be awaiting me at Perisher. Returning just in time to expand my gadget collection with the Harmony 880 and RAM upgrades on the table.

October
October was quiet as the uni year ended (for RMIT anyway :)). James Blunt was in our ears and we had new iPods to listen with. Addo’s blog made a comeback along with my gallery. And that was it for October, but not before the clocks went forward and my new office was ready.

November
Spring Carnival fever hit Melbourne in November and it was Cup Day and Stakes Day that kept me busy this year. Dennis got older and I finished exams. The question now was what to do next. Two days at home and I had my gadget fix - TomTom GO 500 was here at last! Of course, November is always an exciting time for me, but this year was extra special for it was my 21st!. The party was huge and is still a fun topic. But it was tiring and some serious resting was in order!

December
December was seemingly busier than most with enrolments and concerts, birthdays and Christmas it was as packed as it could get. But I did get some toys along the way, new plates for the car and iPAQs for work. Then came the K600i to wrap up season, just in time for organising Boxing Day, it seemed it would never end. But it did, and it was time for a break, escaping to Bright for the last few days of 2005.

And so there you have it. The whole year in one (well two if you want to be picky) little package. For those who were here for the journey, thanks for your support. 2006 looks to be a promising year.

2006! Happy New Year!

It’s time once again to look back upon the year that was 2005…

January
Work started early on in January in preperation for the new school year and it wasn’t long before the heatwave hit Melbourne. January saw the least blogging by people and it was time for me to rant about it. It was also the month when I finally managed to get my eBay blue star, we celebrated Marc’s 20th birthday, and that horrible deer roadkill was unleashed upon the world. We continued to slug through the mountain of boxes at work and it’s also the same week that the RodentJet was born.

February
By February, uni was starting to appear on my radar and the timetabling gods seemed to be on my side. Either way, it didn’t phase me much as before long, the great South Pacific adventure had begun. It was one of the best, if not the best, holiday I’ve been on and by the end of it, I had taken almost 1,100 photos! The AFL footy tipping season was about to begin, Richard finally cracked the RMIT wireless problem and a new game was on the horizon…

March
Yes March is where it all began, World of Warcraft was taking centre stage at it began to occupy more than a little of everyone’s time. Our family friend Jean was over from England visiting and in between all of this, work and uni were plodding along nicely. As if it wasn’t already enough, No Worries, the latest play at work was a huge success.

April
It was a time for new things when April came around the picotux, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the list of 200 things, “never have I ever”, and the release of Tiger (although I didn’t get it until later) were enough to keep me busy. I also got to celebrate Oscar’s birthday and I uncovered the mystery behind the Graphinc Calculator application.

May
May Day was when Tiger arrived on my Powerbook and brought with it a host of new features to help convert those who still believe Windows is a better OS. Hitchhikers hit the movies, and a day later it was Andrew’s birthday. Then came Remember Ronald Ryan and the fifth season of Big Brother began in earnest. It was also the time to launch the new backend on the site. It would still be some time before it all tied together, but having grandma away for 7 weeks was sure to help.

June
It was semester one exam season around the time that my relations were visiting from England. I took them to the football and showed them around Melbourne - including Phillip Island. June was also the month that GigManX was born. It had been a long while since my last gadget purchase and it was time for something new. FOXTEL iQ entered the household and it hasn’t stopped recording since! Exams were over and reports were printed just in time to finish the month with dinner at Han’s.

So that’s the first half of 2005. The second half can be found in Part 2.