topham

So recently theres been a lack of playing runescape on my part, with the Nechraels task taking forever to complete. However, I feel cheap because with this lack of playing I still had membership and managaed to get to 86 herblore with the bonus xp. I really want to get back into playing, but I'm currently trying to 1000g Dark Souls, which is quite difficult really. I've also just got a PS3, so I'm spending a lot of time playing that too. I now have a lot more free time as I've finished my fitness instructor work and So work has been weird recently, and people have been constantly complaining, about seemingly trivial stuff, which gets on my nerves profusely. Product development is going well, and I've had some pretty awesome ideas, which I'm excited about implementing. Outside of work, I'm not sure when I last posted, so since then I think, I've got my yellow stripe in Tae Kwon Do, and began gymnastics as well. I've been working hard at gymnastics, and am working on front tuck full twist. I've been getting the front tuck half twist and thought I'd try the next progression. I think soon I'm going to try front pike to half twist as well. I've also been working on high bar as well, mainly as a way to increase my body control, and overall strength. I can still back tuck on the floor, which made me very happy, as well as being able to round off back tuck. I have also tried side tuck to 3/4 twist just as something to try, but I'm not able to land it, so it still needs some work. This weekend I'll be training hard hopefully, and I plan to have a fast run through of my triathlon training, hopefully going 1.5 times the distance on each discipline and completing in about one hour 5 mins (it's not a very long one) I really wish I had more motivation to play runescape, but I'm sure it'll pick up soon, if not, I'm not sure I'll be too bothered. It kinda irks me that I'm at 98 strength tho. Peace -x-

Hello everyone. Yesterday I went to London for my fitness instructors theory test, but I took it as an opportunity to have a day out in london and do some nice things. I didn't really make it complicated. I went to my favourite place for food in London, which is right by the London Dungeon, and then got the train to south Kensington to visit the Science Museum, where I nerded it up for an hour. I can't say I had a wonderful time at the science museum, but it certainly wasn't boring. I then took a long walk through Hyde park, and just relaxed as I knew I'd be stressed worse if I didn't. From Hyde park I went to the top corner of the park, which is by the Marble arch Station, then walked all the way along Oxford Street, stopping at occasional shops along the way. I was kind of surprised about how busy it really was, but altogether it seemed alright. After walking past Bond Street Station, then Oxford Circus station I made it to the part of the road I was looking for, by Tottenham Court Road station. Once there within a 2 minute walk was Denmark street, which is a street with a lot of music shops in it, and I went looking at guitars. This was disrupted when at the end of the street a demonstration was being held by Unite, and there were a lot cars and busses held up and a lot of unhappy faces. I then went to the gym where I was taking my tests and had a look around. The gym was huge, I walked in expecting it to be open and there to be a lot of equipment, but I was overwhelmed with the size. I mean, I walked in at the ground floor, there were 4 floors visible beneath me, and on just the first one down there was a swimming pool, and 2 floors beneath it there was an open space for training. I also had a look round and there were so many studios for different things, dance studios, pilates studios, normal gym floor, badminton courts, open areas for circuits sessions. I was spellbound. Then I had my 2 exams, and both were relatively easy and took me about 35 minutes each, and so I left earlier and wandered off back out into london, looking for food. I decided that as I've been good recently with my diet a Pizza Hut wouldn't go a miss so went for it, had a small pizza and salad. Next door to Pizza Hut was an american sweet shop where I got me some Smores Pop Tarts and a peanut butter Twix. I love Pop Tarts but the Twix was wholly underwhelming. I then got on the train and headed home for some well deserved rest. There were some things during the day that I noticed, and that irked me slightly. As I was on my own, I had nothing to really do while walking down long streets than people watch. Firstly is the amount of people and their attitudes when using their phones for everything. I like technology, and I like how usable it is when your out and about, but I don't think I've ever had my phone in my hand for more than a minute while walking along. People seem over reliant on the technology, and also, if I'm walking around with someone thats talking to me I get very frustrated if they're constantly using their phone. 'Really? Your spending time not paying attention to me? I might as well have come on my own!' Thats my opinion, and it might not be fair but really, I see my friends to chat and do things, not avoid talking to one another. It was watching two people walking, one of which was talking away and the other concentrating on their phone, being dismissive about what the other was saying, exemplifying my point. Another part of this is if people are at a party and they're on their phone, and using it too much, kick them out, I'll have no one of my friends sitting on their phone, nor will I use mine at a party of mine. If the party is boring, or they're not participating, they won't be missed if they aren't here. Secondly was the lack of formality in places. Like when I arrived at pizza hut, instead of being greeted 'Good evening' I was greeted 'Hello mate, how are you doing?' While I know its only Pizza Hut and I know its not important but it kinda portrays the whole atmosphere I'm feeling about a lot of things, things seem to be getting more modern and with it seem to be lacking in formality. I was, however, treated to some excellent customer service, the only kind I've experienced in recent memory, and the one thats stuck in my head since I had Pizza Hut in the USA about 12 years ago. The rest of my week so far has been fine and work is going well. Now that I've got all my studying out of the way I'll have a bit more time to relax and won't feel compelled to spend as much time in the gym, but I'll still be going to keep up my fitness. I'm aiming to keep my rest heart rate at the level its at now, I don't think it will get much lower if I'm honest. I haven't had any time to play runescape at all. Not a single minute played this week. That should change tonight as I'm on an embargo of my Xbox until my addiction to dark souls fades, and I've only got an hour of stuff to do tonight as well as listen to the latest roosterteeth podcast, so playing Rs then will probably suit me fine. So I realise the middle section is a massive rant on my opinions about current social activities, but the rest of the things are fine. And I feel everything is good for me. Peace -x-

Hello, So I've had a crazy week at work, studying outside and mentally preparing myself for my Tae Kwon Do grading. At work things have been weird, I got very angry on thursday when my boss who notoriously spends too much time getting distracted and is continually complaining about not having enough time to do her work, started looking for something I knew someone else was looking for and was going to sort out. I even mentioned this and made it clear that thats what was happening, and still she wasted 20 minutes afterwards. The rest of the things that I've been doing have been relatively low importance, but one product that I've developed I tested last weekend seems to be working incredibly well. My studying is hopefully about to pay off this week as I've got my exam and I'll finally get to have a lot of guilt free free time. Time this weekend that was spent playing Dark Souls. I got to the end of the game with one character, but still need to beat the final boss, I'm really just going through the end of the game stuff, like collecting embers and making sure that I can advance well on NG+. My TaeKwonDo grading went well, I passed and got my next belt, which is great, but I got nervous when it was actually time to be tested. It went well so now I know where I'm going with it. So, this weekend, I've been writing a lot of music and looking at chord voicing. This Haunted Shores song really pushed me to look into complex chords. Yes I know periphery recorded this song as scarlet, but this as far as I'm aware is the original. http://youtu.be/SSUjs1fqm0s At home things seem a little hostile so I'm still stepping gingerly around, hoping that everything gets resolved soon. So I've been nice and helping out, with the garden mostly cutting down trees and cutting the grass. Peace -x-

I find myself this week having spent very little time playing runescape at all. I think I might have killed 10 Nechryaels, and then done one clue scroll. easy (hard) clue scroll, got about 100k reward, was pretty good for the amount of effort I put in really. So I've been so hopelessly addicted to playing dark souls this week. I've absolutely beasted the game this weekend and built an insane character. I started from scratch, and made a sorcerer, and put most of my levels into intellegence. I managed to get the lordvessel and defeat the 4 kings, and meet Darkstalker Kaathe, I've been really interested into the Lore around the whole story and game world. I've put a lot of hours into this this weekend and its been hilariously addictive. Also this weekend I restrung my guitar for the first time, which was interesting. And I also tested my triathlon time, with the 2.5km run, 10km cycle and 400m swim, in that order. A weird order I know, but I manage 41 minutes. Hopefully I can train hard and get the time under 40 minutes, which is likely. Next weekend is my first TaeKwonDo grading and I'm excited about that. This week I've got to try and study more as a week on wednesday I have a theory test. I've gotta study loads, I've still got a few sections still to go. So I've been trying to get some recording done, but I keep getting distracted with other things (like dark souls) And again, I've been hectic and my mind is everywhere, I think again this makes for horrible reading. There should be a more coherent blog coming along any time, but where it is I have no idea. Peace -x-

So I worked hard this weekend and got 98 strength. It was awesome, I was doing nechryaels and I knew it was coming up. I was excited, and now I'm close to 99. woohoo. So the note thingy that we got for exp I used for dungeoneering and runecrafting. I realise immediately that I should have put some into herblore. oh well, the end of september is for that. Runescape is currently fun for me and I'm enjoying it, I really like the BTS they just released, and am looking forward to most of the content. What I've realised is that I need to do the latest penguin quest soon, but I don't really have any motivation to do it. So thats an epic goal for me that I completed, and i'm happy that its done. So elsewhere in the world work has been going well, and I'm feeling that I'm starting to really understand what I'm doing. I've got a grasp on how things are, and finally understanding the business as a whole. In non work news I've been working hard on Tae Kwon Do and had a 6 hour training session yesterday and am prepared for the upcoming grading. While I'm physically ready, I'm not sure about the mental and theory side of it. Hopefully i can get around that in the next 2 weeks. I've also been studying for my theory assessment for my fitness instructors qualification. Its 2 and a half weeks away and I don't think I've got too much left to learn. Its not really difficult, its just quite a bit to learn. I'm struggling at the moment to fit in everything I want to do. I've got a tendency to use the time immediately after I get home to either practice guitar or learn theory, then go out, to the gym or tae kwon do, and use the early time efficiently, but then once I get back I only tend to watch crap or play dark souls. I feel like instead of just practicing guitar I need to schedule some time in somewhere to record all the ideas I've got so that I can get some decent songs out and get an idea how to compose a lot better than I have been to really develop my song writing style. Things at home are a bit weird at the moment, and I'm not going to go into that here, but it is the reason I'm spending a lot of time out doing things that take up a lot of time and doing a lot of things that are to be done on my own. Peace -x- (so I've read this through and it makes no sense, but its whats on my mind)

Easy tasks for me this weekend. Next one will require a bit more concentration. So slayer is going well, this weekend was pretty good for me, steel dragons was a bit tight at the end, but managed to get it done. I still need to get a better set up, I miscalculated slightly. Oh well, the abyssal demons was pretty good, and it was a decent amount. The exp for these tasks was decent and I'm getting closer and closer to 98 strength. Neither task afforded me any significant drops, I've got a clue scroll to do. Yay. Next up is abberant spectres. This should be an interesting task, I haven't done them for a long time. Luckily this weekend has been pretty great. I've had time to do everything that I wanted to, so I'm finally on top of everything I'm trying to do. I've been working hard on my guitar work, and I now understand how to use garageband better aswell. Yay!! So I've got another day off tomorrow so hopefully I'll be spending more time in the gym, smashing things and getting a beasting. Today I ran my best 5km, and cycled a good 10km as well. Indoor reverse triathlon training is going well. I've not got much to say. Tomorrow is a day off. Here is a video of Alan Rickman making tea, in slow motion. http://youtu.be/eob7V_WtAVg Peace -x-

Whats happened to this week? So I've had no real time to play, its taking me forever to do my 240ish bloodveld task, but due to the free time I have available. The problem is, this week I've been completely in charge of me, and I've been planning all my time meticulously, and not had time for scaping. I've been ensuring that I've got to work on time or slightly early, and then once finishing knowing exactly whats coming next, whether it be going to the gym, or home to practice guitar. It's been a strange week, but theres been myriad things to do with my parents being away. My runescape goals are still the same, work towards 99 strength, and then complete other goals. Work this week has been sucky. I don't think theres another word for it. Its not been too bad, but its by no means been good. We have had a few complaints about some product that went out, and then other things have got caught up. One person who was on holiday last week and who has had a shorter week this week has been complaining more that is imaginable. They've been complaining about everything, and announcing everything but everyones been ignoring them so they've been getting louder, when its clear no one gives a crap because they're not improving in their job and is reliant on everyone else to do their work for them. Its also painfully obvious to me why they've been married and divorced twice now. I'm waiting for this week to be over so that the long weekend coming up can be appreciated. This weekend I'm going into the apple store so I can learn effectively use my macbook and garageband. I'm looking forward to it because I'm sure theres loads of cool little things I didn't know about. I've also decided that on top of everything I'm doing at the moment that I'm going to train for an Indoor Sprint Reverse Triathlon. I'm just going to incorporate it into my workout plans and hopefully get it done in a decent time. I've booked my theory assessment for my fitness instructors qualification which is the 19th September. I've also booked my first Tae Kwon Do grading on the 15th September, and a week on saturday there is an all day long seminar so I can practise everything for the grading. When will I have time to play runescape??? This blog has been written while listening to Diablo Swing Orchestra, which, if you like metal, is some of the best avant-garde metal. Its so strange, but their name gives a clue to how they're influenced. Peace -x-

I've had various tasks for slayer this week, but nothing compares in ease to the Iron Dragons task. I set up earlier, and just went through the task like it was nothing. I had about 94 and I felt like it didn't take much time at all. I'm getting closer towards 99 strength. I'm probably gonna keep going with slayer for a while. I might invest in 85 prayer, and then work on woodcutting... possibly. So this week has been weird. I've been working hard, but theres been loads to do, but very little real development work, so I've been a bit frustrated at work. I also spoke to someone who is looking at assisting the company re-organise so that we can be more efficient. I told her a lot of my opinions, and how I see the company looking at it from being the freshest face. Outside of work, I bought a new guitar. Its so awesome. I'm so happy with it. However I haven't done any recording, which I need to try out. I've been working hard at the gym, and its really been paying off. I was down to 65kg last week, this weekend has barely helped but I needed time to recover, and if I'm not training I'm way more likely to eat crap food. This week I've got a full week plan, and a weekend plan, as its a 3 day weekend coming up. Well excited about that. I've had a lack of creativity recently and would like to kick that habit and come up with something amazing, so I'm going to try and spend 30 mins a day with a pen/pencil and paper, and a guitar with no distractions or my computer and try to rediscover what ever creativity I have. Right, my brain is fried due to me not doing anything stimulating, and the shocking heat, so I'm gonna leave it here. Peace.

Hi Everyone. So, I've been doing an aquanite task and I did used to like doing them, and enjoyed the task, but this task just felt so long. I don't think that it helped that I've had a complete weekend off playing, and haven't really gotten into playing today. But I used to be able to beast through them and get it done in 2 or 3 trips, but now I'm not able to get my set up right, and end up making 6 or 7 trips to complete the task. I'm sure before I was using a similar set up, but I just can't get to grips with it. Anyway, I finally finished the task then got a dust devils task and started getting going on that, then I watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Me and my sister are currently working through watching them all, just for the sake of it, as neither of us particularly enjoys watching television, as there isn't much original stuff on there. Anyway, I'm planning to do the latest quest later this week. It looks good, and everyone seems to be positive about it. I should have a guitar lesson tomorrow, which will be good, but I've not been able to really practise. I spent a little time today playing, I even went out to the guitar shop to try out some different guitars and now I know what I'm going to be getting soon, if I can ever sell the one I put up on ebay. So the weekend we just went through, I was at Bloodstock Open Air, and it was awesome, although it has made me realise a few things. Firstly, some bands are exceptional live. Some bands are not, and some bands might be incredible on record, but due to the nature of their music should never play festivals. While I've seen some of the metal hammer reviews about certain bands, I disagree with them about some very fundamental sets that they said were great. Which brings me on to my second point. Black Metal... Atmospheric and pure black, never really comes across from a festival stage, and the intense atmosphere that should be associated with it cannot be conveyed under these circumstances. Symphonic (and Blackened Death in Behemoths case) work well because of what they are, and the sound that the band portrays lends itself to grandiose sounds. Another point is: Alice Cooper. This was the highlight for me and maybe one of my favourite things I've ever seen. I love the stage show that comes along with his music, and I just adore everything that the he does. And finally, I don't understand the amount of bands using blast beats in their music nowadays. I understand that you might have a technically proficient drummer, but that doesn't necessitate using blast beats as and when you please. The Headliners: Behemoth, Machine Head, Alice Cooper Behemoth rocked, and there was one moment that resounded with a significant amount of poignancy, when Nergal shouted out the crowd 'It feels good to be alive'. This was more than inevitable, but it something that will stick with me for the longest time. Machine Head were asked to play 5 tracks from Burn My Eyes on the day that was the 20th anniversary of their first gig. The set was outstanding, and in my opinion the best track they played, which also happens to be my favourite Machine Head track, was 'Darkness Within'. I was very close to the front of the crowd, and everyone was into it, and the crowd was so loud during the whole set, it felt great to be a part of it. Alice Cooper. I love Alice Cooper. Theres no denying it. This set really was a collection of his greatest hits, and the stage show was so perfect. Me and the people I was with had a mini bet on how he was going to be killed during the set, I called guillotine, and was luckily right, which completely made my day. The whole festival weekend was a lot of fun, but there was some serious disappointment in some areas, but thats what I was expecting. I'm tired, and I've got work tomorrow. I've got a lot of stuff to type up, a review of the concert to do, guitar practice to do, tae kwon do to train, I don't know if I'll fit in much scaping this week, but if I do, i'll be putting maximum effort in. Peace -x- (Just re-read this, its incoherent and crap but eh)

So I'm currently working on my 241 Fire Giants task, and have been since the beginning of the week, but I've not had enough time to play much, due to being busy with fun stuff, which I'll get to later, and epically busy at work. And also, the olympics are on, and I'm a massive fanboy of any team GB achievement. Pretty proud to be British right now. In my fire giants task, I feel I started the task wrong, and went with a full invent of food instead of taking Guthans, which was probably the worst decision I've made in game recently. After filling my inventory after about 120 I banked and switched my approach. I'm currently 700k...ish off 98 Strength, and I think I've just crossed to be into the last 2mil xp to 99. I'm getting close, but its still a lot of work to do. Hopefully I'll have some more nice fast tasks that aren't difficult, however I'm fully expecting some weird ones, like metal dragons, which I prefer to range. I've considered investing in Dragon Bones to burn on my altar so that I can level prayer quite rapidly, but I'm not too sure it'd be a wise investment right now. Maybe I'll sink money into herblore for now, as I originally intended. So, at work I've been having a difficult time as I've been doing someone elses job all week as they're away on holiday and I'm unfamiliar with what they're doing, pushing me out of my comfort zone. Luckily today all my work came together and I finally started seeing the results that I've been looking for. Unfortunately yesterday and earlier in the week I was getting frustrated and was feeling pretty crappy about work and my attitude in work was suffering. I don't feel like I was working effectively, and its clear that there are some massive gaps in my knowledge of how things work, and how what I'm doing directly relates to what we are trying to test. It's been a stressful week, but as of today I've got the most important parts done and am finally happy with my understanding of the work I'm carrying out. (sorry about the vagueness) So the olympics is going quite well for Team GB, and this makes me happy, as well as a great sense of national pride surrounding all the coverage. Its pretty cool to see sports not normally seen, and as I've somehow taken part in a lot of the disciplines I can relate to how hard these athletes are working and how good they are. Now I don't claim to be good or have much experience in any specific sport, but having any fundamental knowledge helps me really appreciate the sports. Keeping on the topic of sports, I've just restarted doing gymnastics, with a session that I think was about as good as I've ever been able to do. I managed to front pike on the floor, after just going for it. I hadn't done one for about a year and a half or more, and I managed to land on my feet comfortably, and it was an awesome feeling to be able to pick up right where I'd left off before. Hopefully I'm going to start trying to front tuck to 1/2 twist next and then vault to 1 and a 1/2 back tuck. Another sport I've been doing is Tae Kwon Do, which I've recently kinda restarted but its different style wise and its interesting. My interest in combat sports is beginning to help me, and I've been speaking to the instructor about competing and he seems keen to help me to get into some competitions as soon as I can, which will be once I've done my first 2 or 3 gradings. So, then my other nights, monday, ran my personal best 2km, in 9 mins 21 seconds, which made me immensely happy, after a crap day at work, and then on last night went to a box fit class which was difficult, and I'm still unsure of, but anything to help bring my weight down and increase my striking proficiency must be a good step forward. On tuesday night I had a guitar lesson (that was also the night I went to gymnastics), and I'm trying to learn some simpler songs so that I can get some decent recordings done to really find confidence in recording and writing my own tracks. I've also been working on increasing my finger speed and the coordination between my fingers and picking, as at the moment they're all over the place and not coordinated at all. So, tomorrow I'm going out to dinner with friends, and over the weekend I plan to do some studying, and watching the olympics. I don't really have much planned, so that should lead to some significant progress towards 98 strength. Gonna write a decent gym plan for the next few sessions I'll be doing, as I'm away next week. More on that on sunday. Peace -x-

I went to a spin class today, which was tough, but not too bad apparently, as I ran my personal best 2km time on a treadmill at 9 mins 21 seconds afterwards. Then did some tabata style training, with pull ups and press ups for my first set, then clean and press with 20kg and burpees. I had to leave as I wasted a lot of time talking after running and needed to pick my sister up from elsewhere. I've never done any clean and press before and was pretty stuck at the weight once I'd started due to lack of time between exercises, will go for more next time, but this was a sighter to what I should be able to do.

This week has been really weird for me. Theres been so much to do, no time to really get a lot of useful stuff done that I wanted to do. So on runescape I've been doing lots of slayer, yet again changing my goals. Woops. So I had a living rock monsters task, which was pretty easy, a gargoyles task which i destroyed, and then a hellhounds task. I'm now on a fire giants task and its going pretty good. I'm on a bit of a strength beasting. I really want to get 99 Strength before the combat update goes live, and everything changes, but I don't really know the time scale on all of that. After getting 80 prayer I'm looking to get more, but I don't have enough to invest into the skills right now, so slayer is going to have to be my main source of income for a while, which, unsurprisingly is ok with me. So I went down to Southampton this weekend to catch up with everyone and party. It was awesome and we enjoyed the Olympic opening ceremony. So I'm absolutely ruined right now, am totally knackered and kinda need a rest, but no rest for the wicked. Hectic week ahead, with no sight of any rest or relaxing time, as at work I have a million things to do all week at work as half the lab is on holiday. So one of the reasons I'm so tired is my workouts at the gym this weekend. I've been trying to figure out all my training weights for every conceivable exercise and my maximum reps that I'm able to do. Now having never lifted weights until only 2 weeks ago I've got no base to work on, so I've been trying to develop a worksheet of what I can do, with the only exercise I really know I can do being the deadlift, which I'm proud of. So I've been going for full body approach both yesterday and today, rather than targeting one area of the body, which has led to this massive fatigue. What I've been trying as well is working on kettlebells with a tabata approach to increase my cardio than really the weight that I'm lifting. I've been working on finding out how much I can bench press safely, and how much I reckon my absolute max is, and its a bit lower than I was expecting, but I think I was expecting too much of myself, given I know most of my power is in my legs. I've been trying to set reasonable goals as well, so my first main one I guess is be able to to 10 perfectly well controlled underhand gripped pull ups. My second is to deadlift double my body weight. My main problem with deadlifts and other exercises and bars is that I don't like using the weights areas when they're busy, so i can only really develop these at the weekends when the area is very quiet. I've also go some insane cardio goals as well. I plan to be on a spin bike for an hour tomorrow during a class and then hopefully going to run 2k in 10 mins. Thats my first aim. I also want to be doing more swimming as well. And on tuesday I plan on going to do some gymnastics, I'll see how that goes and make a decision on that as well this week. Right, enough of me babbling. I'm not even sure what sports to follow at the olympics this week. I'll probably post my views on the Hungarian Grand Prix on thursday. Peace -x-

So now its on thursdays its a lot easier for me to write, and I've done more stuff. In runescape, i've changed all my goals now i've got 97 strength, and I'm aiming for more things to do, but I'm focussing on herblore. Today I got 80 prayer, which made me happy and helped me feel like I've actually achieved something. I'm slowly prioritizing my goals. Yesterday I began cleaning all my herbs, and by today I'd got all 6000 clean, and now I'm going to pot everything up except the avantoes, so that once I hit 88 i can make extreme attacks. Although I have a feeling it'll take forever to get there. I'm aiming for 84 herblore soon, and finishing of my slayer task, and really just aiming to get everything done that I've started. I've started and got to the boss fights in both Love Story and Nomads requiem but to no avail on those battles, so i'm going to attempt them again soon, i think i only made 2 attempts on the love story boss battle before i got distracted. I've also organised my bank to the point where I realised how much I've got of various raw materials for skilling, which was actually the precursor to all the herblore. I want to catch up with all the higher level quests, but the effort to put in to do them seems like too great for what i'll be able to manage for a while. So this week, on monday, I passed my practical assessment for my fitness instructors level 2 qualification, now I've only got the theory to do, and that shouldn't be too difficult. I've also had dinner out on Monday... and tuesday... and wednesday, and I've had enough of eating out for a while, except that I have to get take away tomorrow night because I'm visiting people in southampton, and am getting there too late for food. I also saw The Dark Knight Rises on monday, i thought it was great, and I love Bane as a villain, especially as well executed as it was. My friends opinions on it seem split, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I can't really understand where they're coming from when there is criticism, and I reckon it'll require another watch to really appreciate it. I also know the ideas behind the story and characters, and was really kicking myself at one point in the film, due to missing a big plot point, which I guess I have to give credit to how well the misconception was done, as it caught me out. So as I've not really done anything significant this week, all I've done is Tae Kwon Do tonight I have nothing of note to mention. I think that next week I'm going to check out a gymnastics club nearby and have a guitar lesson, probably on the same night. Next week should see a return to normalcy for my gym routine. Hopefully I can rework off the weight I've put on this week, due to all the meals out and no time to exercise. I plan to go saturday and absolutely beast myself. Feel free to add me on runescape, as I've only got one person in my friend list, and I he doesn't seem to play much at all at the moment, and herblore is mighty boring. My RSN is Punk Man666. Peace -x-

I got 97 Strength today!! This was after quite a bit of hard work. It really is the first significant level I've obtained since I started playing again. I've done a lot of slayer recently, but it is going to be forever until I'll get the next level there. So my next plan is to finish my task and do the clue scroll, then dungeoneer for a bit to get to about level 70 I think. Then I'll probably go for 99 strength, and hopefully get 94 slayer, and hopefully 99 Constitution. Tomorrow I have my fitness instructors level 2 assessment. I'm kinda looking forward to it, but am feeling a little nervous. This week is going to be weird. Recently I've been on an epic health kick, and have been really strict with my diet and my gym regime. This week I'll be out for a meal tomorrow, tuesday, wednesday, and I'm going to southampton to visit people on Friday, leaving no real time to either go to the gym, or eat decent/healthy food. I hope this week work goes alright, I'm can't really look past tomorrow so I have no idea what I'm going to be doing once I've done my assessment. I got Circus Maximus' Nine this weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. Its sort of a mix between Dream Theater and Kamelot in my opinion, and I think that it is very good. I've only listened to the full album once, but it was exciting and well structured as an album. My time in the gym this weekend involved me trying to find my limits to what I can do now, and setting myself goals for what I want to be able to do. My weight is now down to 66.5kg, which is great for me, but I feel that theres more to loose, but I think my weight will hit a plateau soon where I'll be putting on muscle at the rate the fat is burning off. I managed to Deadlift 120kg, once, and 6 rep maxed 80kg, although the 120 was first so I think I could probably 8 rep 80kg. Now that I've lost a lot of weight too I've been working on being able to do 10 unassisted pull ups and I think my training right now is accommodating that. For the cardio and strength side of things I've been combining tabata sets, and one of the 5 that I did this weekend were Pull Ups and Press Ups, so working antagonist muscle groups to so tabata style super sets. I also, foolishly, tried to find my 6 rep max Bicep Curl and Tricep Pulldown in the same session, and super stetted 4 sets of each, which ruined my arms. Spoilers for the German Grand Prix and UFC 149 ahead. I've been keeping up with the F1 this year and am really enjoying the racing. It has become clear to me that Alonso really is one hell of a driver, but only half way through the season its still hard to see where the teams are going and who is actually going to be on top at the end of the season, unlike last years total domination by Vettel. The driver I'm still hoping to pull through is Webber, I feel that he's doing the right things, but was slightly unlucky this weekend. I'm also rooting for Button to find more form like he did today throughout the rest of the season. I'd like to see the end of the season end more like it started and while not be wildly unpredictable, to be exciting and thrilling all the way to the last race. This year has been a phenomenal year for F1, and I hope it continues. As for UFC 149, I had a real concentration problem today. I didn't find many of the matches enjoyable and the commentary seemed a little lacklustre. Joe Rogan did make some excellent mentions of positioning, and the first fight on the card was probably the best one on the main card, although I feel the ending could have come earlier. Once I saw the main event start, I knew what was coming, despite wild head kick attempts from Barao at the beginning, Faber was moving well, a better strategy would have been to move quick, attack the legs from the outside, and once Faber had slowed sufficiently go for the head kick. That clearly is just my opinion, but hearing early in the fight that he'd be training with Aldo, its clear what tactics he would employ. Also there was one section of the grappling that irks me slightly, and it really is the lack of dedication of people going for submissions in dominant positions recently. Now there have been some mighty good submissions recently, but no real stunners from unexpected positions. While I absolutely adored the end of the first fight on the main card, that submission was fantastic, I want to see more of that. I saw a position during one of the fights that screamed out to me as a decent position for an arm bar set up, and the way the lower fighter was trying to sweep would lead to an easy set up. Anyway, I could rant about the UFC and the intricacies of ground fighting/Brazilian Jiu jitsu, but I don't want to get too technical or boring. This week in scape I'll be just trying to do my clue scroll then back to slaying for a while, hopefully getting on to dungeoneering by the end of the week. New blog schedule of thursday, as it both fits in better and allows me time to get things to write about. Thanks for reading. Peace -x-

Next week I'll change my blog schedule so that I'm posting on thursdays and sundays, as wednesdays aren't the best for me, and not much happens monday-wednesday. Anyway, this week, I've started my Iron Dragon task, and so far have got a Dragon Plateskirt drop, and thats about it. Thats about all I've done. I found out I'm 465 days from getting the 10 year cape. Pretty unexcited about this weeks update, only really cosmetic updates, which don't excite me at all. I've been working hard on a script for my fitness instructor, which turns out its a lot of work. I'm kinda drained today, something seems wrong, but I'm alright. I think work has taken an epic toll on my energy this week. I'm pretty excited for the next few weeks, I'm getting the Muppets movie on Blu-Ray this week, as well as another album, Circus Maximus - Nine, which I'm very looking forward to listening. This weekend I'm gonna be spending a lot of time in the gym, and by monday next week I'm going to be wrecked. On monday, as a reward I should be going to see The Dark Knight Rises, which should be cool. Also, next weekend I'm visiting Southampton, for an epic party, and I get to see so many people I haven't seen for a long time. Right, I'm ruined today. This is all I can write. Peace -x-

I'm looking forward to them at Bloodstock, and I have a feeling I'm missing some depth from the album, so am due to listen to it again soon. I'm not sure if I want to hear the new Agonist album or not, theres been some strange mixed reviews of it, but I loved their first 2, so I should enjoy the latest.

Yeah she is... I've got Epitaph and Planetary Duality, Omnivium is on my list of albums to get too. Yeah, I think the Bloodstock line up for this year is incredible. There are bands on the support stages that I wanna see, and I really hope there aren't any timing conflicts. Not sure if this is metal, mainly because its a mad mix of so many different things: I've been impressed recently with the strength of the Basick Records line up, and the bands they've signed, and also Sumerian Records. I'm awaiting the debut album from The Haarp Machine, based on the one video I've watched, and the other tracks that were available to listen to, I've got something very decent to look forward too, although there hasn't been any substantial updates about the band really. Is it just me or was Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Ame really over hyped and reviewed too positively? Maybe I've not listened to it enough times, but nothing really stands out to me as incredible and worthy of a place on a top 10 or so list of the year...

I've had an alright week, lots of stuff has happened, none of which seems related (apart from me being apart of them all). (warning: there is some whining) So after Wednesday passed, I was awaiting an order I'd placed. I've received everything I ordered (29 CDs), and things are great, kinda. I've had crap food all weekend and now I'm paying for it as I feel terrible and slow and tired, which I know is a consequence of my lack of strictness of my diet. Yesterday I went to the gym and absolutely beasted myself. I was working on 6 rep maxing out to try and find where I'm at now, and set some goals for where I want to be. I want to roughly be able to lift my bodyweight with most exercises that I do. It should be good target. I've finally found someone to go with me to my assessment a week on monday. This makes me feel good. Hopefully everything will be good. Work tomorrow and the rest of the week should be interesting, I have no real plan as to what I'll be doing but I've got to order a new part for a machine before I do anything else, and I kinda need to use it tomorrow morning. At taekwondo on thursday I got to work with a lot of the group and am starting to fit in and get along with everyone, which is cool. On Runescape, I've been slaying. Oh god, so much slaying. So I finished my gargoyles task and got an aquanites, did that, and then got a greater demons task, which was awesome, then got an Iron Dragons task, which I will be starting and doing this week. I'm hoping to get 97 Strength this week, and maybe get another Dungeoneering level. I don't know how much time I'll have to play this week as I've got gym time, 3 days, TKD 2 days, I'm supposed to have a guitar lesson this week, but my guitar teacher has just moved so I guess I won't have one this week. I've been working on speed on guitar, but it takes so much time, and theres so many different little things to change and do, it'll be a while before I see any significant progress. I've still done barely any theory for my fitness instructor qualification, and I've also had no time to record anything either. I'm getting frustrated with my apparent lack of time. This blog is moony and annoying and I apologise. Sorry. Peace -x-

Yeah, I've got both of Peripherys albums, not the Icarus lives EP though, and 2 of Chimpspanners albums. I got Skyharbors album this weekend and its very good. I also purchased Uneven Structures album Februus as well. I think it's the better of the two albums I got. Recently I've also got really into tech-death, well more so than usual. I got the latest Nile release, At The Gates of Sethu, but missed the previous one and am intending to get it soon. Gorod put out one of the best albums I've heard this year with The Perfect Absolution. I've also been looking forward to get Allegaeons latest, but accidentally ordered there first CD, although thats ok, because that album is incredible too. Last month I went to Download festival. It was pretty cool. I got to see Furyon do an acoustic set, and it was wicked. Also, got to see Jesse Leach back with Killswitch, which was awesome. Periphery also kicked ass, but Black Sabbath were just so Awesome, even better than 2005. I really want to go to Bloodstock this year, but I'm not sure if anyone I know wants to go at all. Has anyone heard any Sigh? Crazy Japanese band. Very good album out this year, In Somniphobia. Did anyone hear Slash's latest album? I think it was pretty cool, and Myles Kennedy gives the vocals a beasting. Does anyone check out any Podcasts or read any decent blogs? I listen to the metal cast, which is interesting, but I don't know of any others. I also read things like Heavy Blog is Heavy and Angry Metal Guy. Peripherys latest album caused quite a stir on AMG. Peace -x-

...is Dark Souls. Yes, I find the game incredible, well designed and have an insane amount of fun playing it, despite dying a lot because I'm terrible at it. The game drew me in with intrigue and after I got it, it got thoroughly under my skin. I've been recently experimenting with different builds, but I've only completed the game once and am currently working on getting that character through new game plus. I really haven't spend much time playing it recently as I've got so many other things going. Hectic I know. I completed the first run through after trying good strategies to defeat the bosses and using a ridiculous OP weapon and set up. I was using the Fire Man-Serpent Great Sword +9 and the Hornet Ring, and only took 3 counters to take out Great Lord Gwyn, which was some how incredibly difficult for me, but I think its because I didn't actually build the character right from the beginning. Hence trying out different builds and not getting too far through. I also love the online features, while being minimal, they are incredibly effective, and I think help a lot to the atmosphere of the game. I really enjoy in co-operating with people, and have no problem with people invading, but I don't enjoy as much as Jolly Co-Operation. I could completely talk for hours about the game, but I won't. So far this week I've been working hard, things at work are getting to a point where I'm learning a lot still, and am able to resolve most problems that arise with things in the lab. I'm enjoying it, but I feel I could still do more. I've been interacting with more customers this week, where as usually I just resolve any problems that come up and then hand a report to my manager to get in contact with the customer. At the gym I haven't spent enough time working out, and haven't put enough effort into my Fitness Instructor training, which is bugging me a lot. I also haven't managed to get a definite answer from any of the 10 people I've asked to help me with my assessment. I've somehow put on 1.5kg since last Friday, which I kind of understand, the cinema had something to do with that, but don't think it is actually that much, but I'd like to shift the weight again, probably will by being strict with my diet and shredding it at the gym by the end of next week. In Runescape I've been Slayering. Gargoyles are an alright task, I'm enjoying it, I've got a clue scroll to do, which I'll do next time I'm on as I've just had to bank on my trip. As it had been so long since I actually last played I had no idea what prices items were, or what was new. I've discovered theres something for the whip that makes it better, which I'll be getting, and then Godswords are ridiculously cheaper. Like the Bandos GS was 18m when I last played, and now its only 3-4mil. This is craziness in my world, kinda turns my whole idea of the RS economy upside down. I'll probably look into it more soon, as I've also got to re-organise my bank epically, its a total mess. I've got a physio appointment tomorrow, so should be told I'm ok, and then I'm at TKD tomorrow night, Boxing Friday, and meeting a friend on Saturday. Pretty excited for the next few days. I'm trying to record an albums worth of riffs and ideas, but it's a lot of effort and I don't seem to have grasped all the concepts of recording. Hopefully once I've completed my Fitness Instructors course I'll have a lot more free time to focus on record, as for the qualification I need to do a lot of theory, which takes up time. However I suspect that I won't have much extra time, as I'm trying to fit all my normal life in, and while I think I'm doing ok, in a few weeks I'm kinda expecting to fall apart. Peace -x-

It has been a while since I posted, and a lot has happened in the world of heavy metal. Now my favourite albums recently have been very varied. Woods of Ypres - Woods V: Grey Skies and Electric Light. I absolutely love the album, but theres such a tragic story behind it. http://youtu.be/nQMvL-ZoZXU World Under Blood - Tatical. Insane speed Melo-Death. Pretty amazing and technical, great CKY vibe to it, probably due to Deron Miller being the frontman. http://youtu.be/C-0n5JQvbHc Tesseract - One. Yes, such awesome rhythms and incredible music really. Shame that Dan Tompkins left, but that just lead to him singing for Skyharbor. Who also I enjoy listening to. http://youtu.be/MTwXgfJklfg Theres so much more but got things to do. Who likes Steel Panther? Peace -x-

Hey guys, Today I went to see The Amazing Spiderman. I annoyed my friends at the end by giving my rating in the form of the title of this blog, and the film. It was hilarious how mad they got at me... after the 4th time doing it. Anyway, the film was pretty good, I enjoyed it, and by no means was disappointed with it. So, I've been playing a lot of runescape, although I don't think it shows. I spent the last few days really trying to do a lot. I did most of the easier quests that I'd missed out, but never got round to doing any more difficult ones as I wanted to try out some slayer and have some fun doing about 6 clue scrolls. The quests seemed relatively easy and I didn't really have a problem with any of them. Was quite disappointed in Elemental Workshop 4 though. I thought that the first puzzle was far too simple, and the second puzzle was simple once I got the hang of it and came up with a decent strategy. This week I went to the second of the sessions for ITF style TKD and am definitely going to be carrying on with it, as I enjoy it. I'll still be keeping up with going to the gym, especially after all the crap food I've eaten this weekend. My plan for wednesday is to write about my current favourite game (hint: it's not runescape), and some other things that are going on. As for the actual real world, in sports, UFC 148 was interesting, probably the most hyped card ever, but I think they had no way but to oversell it. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and was surprised and excited by the main event, however the rest of the card seemed lacklustre and none of the matches aside from the co-main event didn't help prove anything, apart from where people stand in their relevant divisions. The F1 was a good race, and I'm so glad that the weather was dry, and very happy that Webber won. From the beginning of this year I've been hoping of all the racers that he would do well, and hope that he continues with his form and maybe picks up the championship that he deserves. One persons views from yesterday on the news made me furious about how they didn't care about the fans and that it was all about the money, despite the news reporting that the people that didn't manage to make it for friday and saturday would get a refund. The tennis - Interesting eh? but I think Murray played well and don't like how negative people were being about him loosing. This is pretty much the story of my life. There's not much else going on, I'm running some trials on a moss killer I've developed, hope to get some promising results this week if it doesn't rain too much. No specific plans for this week, should have my first guitar lesson in 3 weeks, hopefully, but if I don't I won't feel too hard done by considering I've barely practised. This is a crap version of Bachs Prelude in C minor that i'm working on. It's currently too slow, there are a few missing notes, the levels are weird, the drums are too repetitive, but I'm re-recording it faster and in larger sections. http://soundcloud.com/destroytopham/bach-prelude-in-c-minor-1st Peace -x-

Hey everyone, Thanks to you if you read my previous blog, the epic long post that it was. My plan for this blog are much like they were previously, updating twice a week, with both my real life stuff and runescape stuff updates. These will be Sunday and Wednesday. Here goes to my first standard blog. I recently started playing runescape again and I've been focussing on dungeoneering, went from 63 to 64 over the weekend, and have been enjoying it. I was going to today, but took a shot at the new quest, which was interesting and fun. While I was intrigued by the voice acting I feel that I've been without it this far, no point adding it in now, and so listened to some Uneven Structure and Visions while I was doing the quest. I enjoyed the quest, although its been so long since doing a quest it probably took twice as long as it should have. As I didn't realise there was so much stuff I missed I've been trying to understand all the new terms and things that people are using, and am still thoroughly lost. Fortunately I now know about the new royal dragon hide armour so bought a set of that and am happily using it for wandering around. If you're unfamiliar with me and my character, I have a level 131 (i think?) character with a 2124 total, so I'm fairly experienced in all areas, with dungeoneering being my lowest level by 11. I really want to focus on that until it is at least 75 to bring it into line with all my other skills. Also, my time in dungeoneering will be mostly looking for the shadow silk hood, and until then low amounts of xp will be gained. While my total might seem quite high, I've only got 2 level 99s, attack and fletching. Attack came first. I have no desires to intentionally grind to get my next 99, which I'm hoping will be constitution, which is 98 at the moment, I hope it comes naturally, and its low on my priorities. As for my real life, this week is my third week in a row where I haven't had any days rest, and it's mentally getting to me. I'm hoping that I get a decent rest this weekend and that I can recover well. My job is intellectually demanding so there isn't a break during the day, and I'm working on a fitness instructor qualification so my time outside of work is primarily spent doing that. I've also been playing a lot of guitar and recording recently. I hope this weekend to get my recording of Bachs Prelude in C minor completed at a faster pace. I've already got it recorded once, but I'm not happy with it at all. Last night I began ITF style Tae Kwon Do, which is interesting and is leading to some new approaches for me for training, and hopefully will help me develop better foot work for boxing class. Tonight I went to a boxercise class where someone I know turned up for the first time in month and we caught up and trained hard. I was also thinking about how I would run the class if I were given the opportunity. As for runescape, I should be playing tomorrow night, might do one or two dungeons, or hunt down Philipe for bonus xp if it isn't too time consuming, I think I can easily get to all the places he is. Lets hope Sundays blog is more coherent and has a much more fluid flow to it than this atrocity of a blog here. Peace -x- 7748

Hi everyone, It has been over a year and a half since I last posted either a blog or on a thread, and I've actually neither been playing runescape nor have had time to keep up on here. So, here is a general summary of what I've been upto, and my reasons for returning. I'll start backwards with my reasons for returning. Having recently had a lot of spare time I decided to return to runescape after getting fed up with many many xbox 360 games that just have no depth to them and one that I absolutely adore (which will be addressed at a later date). I always wanted to get back to playing but was never in a position to, but now I've got a lot of things sorted out and I really wanted something that I'd been working on before to try and improve at, so I've got back into runescape, its changed quite a bit, but I'm mostly dungeoneering for now, so not much has changed there. The last time I blogged I was living in Singapore and was about to return back to the UK, having completed a placement out there at NTU. I returned and immediately started work on completing the dissertation that was due in for the placement, so my runescape goals were put on hold. Not to mention that once I returned I had a whole list of games to catch up with. So I returned, and had a lot of work to do with university and a lot of people to catch up with. Things went well in the first term and I'd moved in with some fantastic people on my course. I was working hard but also was keeping up with everything and was generally having a great time. Then when I was in the second term back it was the last section of my degree and everythign was hectic. I managed to pass my degree and complete my masters in Chemistry, and then from there I went looking for work. Once I'd left university I realised that I was not prepared for the real world, and while I left everyone in Southampton behind, they had all planned for things to do, where as I was just going to wing it, which took me on a real journey of how different things can be. I spent two months looking for jobs and spent a lot of time travelling around to interviews, when I eventually got a job, albeit the worst job I've ever had, working at Silverstone catering for the British Grand Prix. The job only lasted 3 days, but the experience was one I won't forget, and would never willingly rush into doing again. But from that job I was asked to work at a warehouse repacking phones for Orange, and I spent 4 months there where I met some fantastic people. However, clearly this job didn't satisfy me on an intellectual level, it was for the best that I got this job because it really showed me a lot about people in general. During that time I was constantly seeking for jobs that I'd be trained for but to no avail. I'd go to interviews but be rejected consistently, but never for similar reasons, which made me get incredibly demotivated about find a new job or even going for interviews. I remember one friday morning before going the the warehouse (my hours were 2-10pm so my social life suffered), I received a call from a temp agency saying that I'd got an assignment and could I start as soon as possible. I said yes, and carried out my last shift at the warehouse, and unfortunately had to say goodbye, but it was for the best as the warehouse staff were being relocated 3 months later. The new job was working as an admin/planner for a logistics company dealing with foodstuffs and beer. Mainly sugar and beer. This role was a real test for me but was intellectually demanding as there was a lot to remember and a lot to do, and gave me a begrudging respect for drivers out on the road. Only begrudginly I respect them as some of them were fantastic but others were incredibly whiny about what we were asking of them. I spent a month and a half there before getting a call about a chemistry job located not far from where I live, and went along for an interview that seem very strange. They initially only wanted a temporary member of staff, which was fine for me because I wanted the experience, and there was wide scope with what to do from the experience gained. I got a call the day after the interview and was elated to hear that they liked me and wanted me to work for them. I immediately accepted and left the job I was working at on the 23rd December last year. I had the whole week between christmas and new year off for what seemed like my first real break in half a year. During all this time I kept my activity up by playing football with my friends in their league, however I'm still unsure of many of the rules and don't really like football that much. I also spent a lot of time in the gym, working on getting back into the shape that I'd got to in Singapore, however that really didn't happen until this year. This year, I started the new job in January asa technical chemist working in a lab doing product development and quality control and analysis for outgoing products, in the Agriculture and amenity turf (football pitches, golf courses, etc.) markets. The job initially took up a lot of time as I was learning a lot, and getting to know all of the staff. During the second month, february one of the lab staff announced that he was leaving and the company asked if I'd like to stay on. I obliged them and have continued to work there permanently, doing a job that I enjoy. Also this year, I changed my diet, I completely cut out bread, stopped drinking, took a new approach to exercise and have tried to be as healthy as possible. Since the new year I've gone from 84kg to 70kg as of last week, but the initial 10kg went in about 2 months. I've recently been doing a lot of things, I've taken up guitar lessons, I plan on taking up Tae Kwon Do again, I've been doing a lot of boxing at the gym and I've been doing a fitness instructor course so that if cover is needed for a class I can cover the class and help people out. So, how has everyone been? Its been a while, but to be honest I've only just found free time to get back to somewhere I'm comfortable to play games and not feel bad about it eating in to the other aspects of my life. Thanks for reading, I plan to post a lot more, but hopefully no where near as long. Peace -x-

I just bought tickets to go see CoB in london in april with Ensiferum, Amon Amarth and Machinae Supremacy. It'll be amazing. Anyway, been a while since I posted, or had access to the internet, probably one of my favourite bands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL2Nzvh67XE Also, Nevermore were confirmed for Bloodstock, so I'm going there instead of seeing them supporting symphony x. Nevermore!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVwNkVKx74