From Australia, please let me be the first to wish you all a prosperous and successful
*throws confetti and streamers around everywhere*
On behalf of Rick and all the team here at Housepets, thank you for all your support and contributions to the forum and the comic and this community in 2014 and we look forward to enjoying all the wonders, delights, excitement, fun and HOUSEPETS! that the new year can bring!
Feel free to extend your Happy New Year messages here as the clock ticks over in your respective timezones.
A doctor would tell me to cheer up, since I'm a bit depressive. ¿What do I think? I don't need that #&@%, I have been under heavy stress for 5 years, I'M SUPPOSED TO REACT LIKE THIS.
Spargo, what are you doin' here? I didn't call you, leave before I ban you
jk
Still 5 PM here...
A doctor would tell me to cheer up, since I'm a bit depressive. ¿What do I think? I don't need that #&@%, I have been under heavy stress for 5 years, I'M SUPPOSED TO REACT LIKE THIS.
Amazee Dayzee wrote:It's 4 PM here. If I were to hop on a plane and got to Australia would it be 2015 and if you were to come over here would it be 2014 again Hlaoroo?
Now I want to travel through every timezone on New Years so I can see the year change 24 times.
Deske wrote:It's not even 6 PM in Americaland. But happy new years anyway.
Whoa, hush, it's 8:30PM here.
A doctor would tell me to cheer up, since I'm a bit depressive. ¿What do I think? I don't need that #&@%, I have been under heavy stress for 5 years, I'M SUPPOSED TO REACT LIKE THIS.
Welp... When it does happen for me in about an hour and a half... Happy New Year to all of you guys in the forums. Enjoy it, and use the blankslate that ensues, because tomorrow is not only another day... It's another year! (Excluding those of you who are already in Tomorrow-Land... It will just be another day in 2015 for you.)
Feel free to call me Czu for short. The games on this forum are pretty neat.
So what kinda year was 2014 for me? Well, it was an interesting one to say the least. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
I think it passed by at a sort of steady pace…not particularly fast, nor particularly slow…though I kinda feel November, specifically, came and gone in a flash.
Alright, let’s go through the list;
1) Lose weight by eating more healthily and excersizing daily. Keep a food and excersize diary to help you with this. Begin as soon as you ditch this bout of the sniffles you’ve acquired. May be a good idea to go fetch some diluteable OJ to help fight it.
Status -Fail
This is an obvious fail. I don’t even need to explain it. I gave up on monitoring my weight weekly to keep an eye on my progress because it was still ballooning despite the fact that I was being at least somewhat mindful of what I eat, trying to keep to healthy choices, I’m pretty sure I eat at least two portions of fruit and/or veg a day. I have vegetable soup for lunch literally daily, which I feel in itself should count for two. My real problem is excersize, I just can’t keep myself motivated to stick to a regular regime of excersize because it feels like a lot of work for little reward, and even still gaining weight on top of what I’m trying to lose, and the laziness in me kicks in and says “Why even bother if it’s not gonna work?”
But I think 2015 is the year I’m finally gonna get a handle on my weight and make some real progress. I’ll get to that in a bit.
2) Buy a new computer. The HP Pavillion you saw for £570.
Better get some good software too…Microsoft Office, and a decent anti-virus/internet security other than Norton…
Norton’s okay at eradicating viruses that get in, but apparently not so good at keeping them out in the first place…you need something that’s good at both.
Status -Fail
Okay I can explain this one. This, together with this next one;
3) Buy the PS4. Hopefully the price will have dropped a bit later on in the year.
Start your PS4 game collection at the same time too, with Watchdogs and Infamous Second Son or Tom Clancy’s The Division.
Status -Fail
…were actually shelved in favour of focusing my efforts on fulfilling this;
4) Finish the animation you’re throwing together for your Scotland trip videos.
Pretty much all the hard work is out of the way…this shouldn’t be too hard to complete pretty quickly.
Status -Succeed
I decided to prioritize finishing my Scotland Trip Video over everything else because I thought I’d be able to get it done quickly…however, I underestimated my tendency to procrastinate, and I didn’t actually 100% complete this until September. The animation I wanted to do for the intro took a lot more work than I expected. But I finally did it. However, I think I’ll have to forget about adding custom animated intros to my videos for now, until I have gained some experience on how to get them done quickly and with some level of good quality, coz the animated intro for my Scotland vids didn’t quite turn out how I envisioned. It’s pretty close, but I imagined it to be a bit smoother. Still, it’s very good considering I have very little prior animation experience.
5) Figure out how to create multiple YouTube channels.
I’ll need one for my fursona for animated furry related shenanigans and arty speed-draws, one for MLP-related stuff with Typhoon, one for gaming videos so I can do lets plays and whatnot, and I’ll keep my current one for my real life videos.
Status -Fail
I don’t really need to do this just yet. This was more for after I got my new computer. Then I could get the multiple accounts set up ready as I try to go for becoming a famous Youtuber delving into everything that interests me.
I’ve decided to reduce the number of accounts by one, Typhoon is gonna have is shenanigans mixed in with my fursona’s semi-animated furry shenanigansns on the same channel, and still have real life and gaming on separate channels.
6) Visit The Blue Planet Aquarium.
I know this is on a low light right now…but who knows? Maybe we’ll get a chance to go sometime during summer.
Status -Fail
You know what? I think I’ll just stop including this. It’ll happen when it happens. No need to say I’m gonna do it and not do it. I might as well not mention it at all and then, if I do end up doing it, I’ll definitely post about it.
7) See if you can tick off some of the other items in your “to buy” list.
Status -Fail
I didn’t get any of the items I listed on last year’s new year post. But I did get a new digital camcorder, which we kinda needed. So I guess that’s something.
Okay now that that’s done, let’s go over what actually happened this last year that I recorded in My Online Blog
The first thing that happened was that whole mix-up with Seetec and B + M’s…
Dang, that was this year? That feels like it was at least two years ago now! I pretty much completely forgot about both B + M’s and Seetec!
Man, I still say that whole business with that random manager was fishy to say the least. And yeah, my time at B + M’s is just not even worth mentioning on my CV. Let’s just forget about that whole sorry chapter and move on.
Let’s see…what else we got? A whole lot of stuff about Assassin’s Creed…
That hilariously surreal upside-down car incident on the A6…
Still complaining that I keep seeing too many funeral hearses…
Learning something new about Graphite…and learning how to clean the contacts on my PS3 controllers…
That trip to Higher Poynton. Heh, that was fun.
Oh yes, those pictures from my local nature reserve. Those are some pretty sweet pics if I do say so myself.
Ahh, my friend Luna…why do you hide away so much? I really must try to get her to hang out with me in real life again.
Heh, our Minecraft escapade sure was fun, even if I did die a lot. LOL! Just wait till I get my own copy.
Oh yeah! That new Second Life club that I instantly got a job in!
It’s shut down now. Apparently the main owner wants to go pursue a career in real life as a DJ.
But man, oh, man, was he a bad club boss. He outright stonewalled something that was so OBVIOUSLY a good idea.
Two of the staff managers pretty much had the same idea at the same time…to have a schedule for the staff so everybody knows what everybody is doing.
At the time, I was doing a trail period to see if I would make a good euro head host, so I saw these two doing this and I thought it would be a good idea to have them talk to each other and merge all the staff schedules into one schedule for everybody, so we all know who’s available when, and so it would improve communications.
But nope, he just wouldn’t have it. No idea why not. Urgh. I’m so stealing the idea for my own club if I get the chance to make my own again.
Speaking of my trial period…yeah, I got a chance to experience being a Euro Head Host. First I was asked coz the previous one wasn’t doing their job…and I was like heck yeah…but then they started doing their job for a bit and everybody kinda forgot about me until I asked if I was still in the running…and they were like “well, it’s open now…if you wanna have a go, we’ll hook ya up!” and so they did.
Now from what I can remember from the initial explanation of my duties, I was to spend at least one hour per day physically in the club and I was to do everything in my power to fill those early morning shifts with hosts. Seemed simple enough.
And I felt I was doing okay, and for a good couple of weeks everybody was happy, UNTIL…they arranged some kinda re-opening event for a new club build they came up with…
And the GM poked me in IMs and was like “Why aren’t you here? You’re supposed to be here all afternoon until 4 PM Second Life Time!” (Midnight my time)
And I’m like “Wait a sec, you didn’t tell me that, you told me I only needed to do one hour!”
And she was like “No, we specifically, clearly told you your duties, I clearly remember telling you ‘you have to commit a full afternoon until 4PM SLT!'”
…well I knew I just couldn’t do that. Luckily as I was still in a trial period, I was free to leave and there would be no hard feelings. But the GM did admit they were “Disappointed”.
I’m a bit disappointed myself. The club had a lot of potential but it was just squandered. It didn’t pull the crowds I thought it would. It just bombed pretty much right from the word go.
I’m gonna have to try to get re-hired in the club I was in before that. I lost my job there because I kinda lost my drive to be an epic host there. They were asking me if I needed a break…I shoulda taken that as a sign that yes, yes I did.
But I was too stubborn to see it. I feel should tell ‘em, “Hey, next time you feel the need to ask me if I want a break, just TELL me I need a break, okay?”
Oh yeah, and finding SL love in the form of the lovely Lavander. Heh, we’re just so right for each other. We’ve picked out our song. It’s Kiss’s “I Was Made For Loving You”. Probably a popular choice but when it comes to how this relationship feels, nothing fits quite as perfectly as that song. Plus you really can’t go wrong with such a classic, can you?
Moving on…Oh that whole escapade with the switch and the router. Hey, at least I know now! And hey, it got me some extra ports for all my technical doo-dads that require internet!
And the 2014 MCM expo, that was a lot of fun.
And yes, the final completion of my Scotland Trip videos in September. Oh, the relief.
Oh, the fox sighting. Yeah, that was something special. You know, one of these days, I’m gonna see a fox and I’m gonna have a camera on me and that’ll be the best day of my life.
Oh yes our trip to Rochdale. That was interesting.
Oh I already explained my short-term as a trial Euro head host in that post. Oh, well.
And then I talk about wanting to do a video tour of where I live.
And then I have that trouble with Videopad and accidentally deleting it without checking to see if it did it properly.
And finally we get on to my GP recommending I get in touch with Healthy Stockport. Okay.
So first thing I need to let you guys know about, is I got to re-finish editing together the tour of my house, and this time make sure it publishes the whole thing. There must be a publish whole video button somewhere.
Then I just have one quick artistic endeavour to finish up and a story to finish writing, and THEN, FINALLY, I’ll be able to get a new computer.
Second thing I need to let you guys know about is what happened when I got in touch with Healthy Stockport on the advice of my GP.
So what happened was, I filled out the application online, because I kinda mucked it up on the leaflet, as you do.
Then about a couple of days later I got a phone call from a lady, pretty much asking all the questions that the online application asked, probably just to verify I was the one that filled it in. She then said she’d send me some Weightwachers vouchers, which I received…I think it was either a Wednesday or a Friday, a couple of weeks before Christmas Eve/Day.
Anyway, she then explained that an advisor would contact me and arrange an appointment to see me and arrange a plan of action to help me get into shape.
And that’s exactly what happened, a woman called Michelle rang me and set up a meeting on Wednesday at midday at the local library, which was perfect.
So me and Michelle talked and I explained I tried doing things on my own and I didn’t get anywhere coz it’s hard to keep motivated on your own. She and I basically set up an action plan that I would do a walk, 30 minutes, 5 days out of the week, and then come back to see her the following Wednesday.
Well the day after I talked to Michelle was miserable and rainy. I didn’t fancy going out in that.
Then Friday started out fine, so I set out for a walk that day to head down to Vernon Park, which was easily a half hour walk away in itself, but then about halfway to Vernon Park, it started to rain, and when I was four fifths of the way there, it got to the point where it was bucketing it down…so I was like “bunk this” and just went home.
Then on Saturday my mom was like “Do you want to go to Lyme Park?” and so we went to Lyme Park. We did around about 3 hours of walking in one day, give or take 30 minutes.
I skipped Sunday, then on Monday I went down Reddish Vale and had a walk round there with my camera, snapping some birds.
I don’t remember what I did on Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday I had to walk down to the jobcenter, and then walk to the library to see Michelle again to tell her what I did. I didn’t exactly follow her plan, but hey, Lime Park was in itself a whole week’s worth of excersize in one day!
So then we agreed we would meet again in the new year, keep up the good work.
It rained all day on Thursday again,
Then on Friday it was nice so I took my camera down Vernon Park and got this
A Greater Spotted Woodpecker. That’s pretty special. There were actually a couple of them flitting around…one of them flitted off, but this one was obviously very obligatory. I got fiveverydecentpictures of it.
Then before we knew it, Christmas Day rolled around. Now normally my parents and I don’t really bother doing anything special for Christmas, so I was honestly very surprised when my mom gave me a bag containing a long t-shirt (because both she and I are sick of short t-shirts and low-slung pants exposing my tumblebumble all the time. [she got it from Topman, who it turns out were doing a sale on them, so I got a few myself the other day]) and a pillow with a picture of a fluffy fox in snow on it. Brilliant!
We then had a Christmas Day walk down Reddish Vale, and I took my camera again…and not only did we see a Kestrel perchingon the viaduct, obliging very nicely...
…We also saw an honest-to-god Kingfisher!
Now, I did attempt to take a picture of the Kingfisher, but it was way on the other side of the pond from us, and despite using all the zoom my digital camera had, the blighter still looked like a little blue and orange dot on the view screen. I was literally seething under my breath “My kingdom for more zoom!!” at the time.
I was hoping maybe I could get it up better on my computer, but no luck, it’s all pixellated. I’ll have to remember to ask my dad to see if he can do anything with it.
Really, these appointments with Michelle are just a bit of a failsafe to make sure I commit to daily excersize. Walking is just a starting point coz it’s fairly easy, and some experts say it’s the best excersize you can undertake.
I’ve also decided that I’ll take my camera on each walk I go someplace with some greenery, and each time I get something rare is a reward for getting out there…and it is a reward, I wouldn’t be getting shots like those if I hadn’t taken time to experience real honest-to-goodness life!
I really must remember to look up local Weightwatchers meets in my area to see when and where the next one is so I can join up and use those vouchers. Maybe my diet isn’t as healthy as I think, and they can point me in the right direction.
One last thing. At some point between my last blog post and this one, I paid a visit to PC world to see if the HP Pavillion I has my eye on is still there…but I couldn’t find it…however I did see much better HPs…ones with 3 terrabyte hard drive, a 8 gig memory and various numbers of core processors.
Price? Higher than ONE. THOUSAND. POUNDS.
Jumping jehosaphat…I don’t think I wanna pay that much. Not unless they can put me on some kinda payment plan to spread the cost over a period of time, rather than sink that whole load in one go. 500 or so quid is one thing, but over a thousand? Dang.
Maybe I can find something going for a much more decent price when it finally comes time to buy it. We’ll see.
So here we go, my list of things I’d like to do during 2015;
1) Go for a walk at least 5 days a week. Don’t get so nitpicky about going the same places over and over in rapid succession. You never know, you might see something rare.
2) Join Weightwatchers. Pretty self-explanatory.
3) Buy a new desktop computer. Whatever they got that you can afford without too much hassle that’s still decent. And yeah, decent software to go with it.
4) Buy a PS4 and some games to go with it, such as Watchdogs, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Infamous Second Son, Destiny, and Minecraft PS4 version.
5) Look into how to create multiple YouTube Channels. You already got one for real life. You also need one for general internet shenanigans with your fursona and pony shenanigans with Typhoon, and one for gaming, doing lets plays and whatnot.
I reckon that’ll do it.
I got a feeling 2015 is gonna be a good year…the year I finally get my life in order. Then I’ll really be motoring, just so long as nothing catastrophic happens to prevent it.
So until next time,
Ciao for now,
Cordially, The Blue Fox Thom
Last edited by The Blue Fox on Thu Jan 01, 2015 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
Amazee Dayzee wrote:So far nothing seems different except for a calendar that now says 2015. xP
The only thing I have noticed different was the calendar in the bottom right of my screen, that surprised me a little when I first saw it. The year does seem to be going well so far though.
Sorry I haven't been on the forums much, a lot of stuff has been going on lately.
