: Bursts and breaks. And YouTube.

About two weeks ago I had a sudden burst of energy. I was done dealing with my wisdom tooth, my new computer was finally up and running, I had began doing something I'd been wanting to do for a very long time, making gaming videos, and I just generally felt re-energized. Then about a week ago I had a break caused by something completely unrelated to anything that I was doing at the time, and something that I didn't think I'd have to worry about for quite a while; Money. I'm not gonna go into details about it, but in short; Due to an error in communication somewhere, the type of financial aid I'm supposed to get was stopped in the middle of December, and since then I have only gotten some temporary aid from NAV that is barely a third of what I should have gotten. This was not related to my tax return, it was pure coincidence that it happened at almost the same time. 

I haven't really suffered much directly from it, because of my tax return and the temporary aid from NAV, but this was not supposed to happen, it shouldn't have happened, and it feels like, in the long term, an opportunity to make some progress in my life (in this case, getting a driver's license) has been pushed back. Back when this happened I was told it was just a minor error and should be fixed pretty quickly. But the longer it's been, the more it has chipped away at my driver's license money, and it's been significantly reduced at this point. I definitely do not have enough to finish it at this point. Of course there's still the hope that I'll get a similar tax return again. But that is not a guaranteed thing, and I had really hoped to get as much as possible done on what I had.

It wasn't until today that I found out what had happened, and I was assured that my financial aid would be resumed as soon as possible, maybe as soon as after the weekend, but I have no idea if I'll get back any of the money I've lost during the last month and a half. I was also told today that this won't happen again, that when my financial aid is resumed there are only two things that can take it away again; Either getting a job, or getting on disability. Until either of those things happen (or I win the lottery and become a millionaire, I guess) I shouldn't have to worry about this anymore. I hope that's true. I am so tired of money problems, particularly when it's due to someone else's error.  I envy people who are able to work and have jobs that keep them independent. Well, as independent as you can be, at least.

Well, enough about that.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been making and uploading some gaming videos over on my YouTube channel. I'm still learning how to best do this, and I have no prior experience talking into a microphone when there's no one on the other end while I'm playing games, so the quality of my commentary isn't that good yet. But I hope to keep doing it and make something of it down the road. When I had my "burst of energy" I made a lot of videos in a few days, and I uploaded at least one video a day for a week. So head on over to my channel if you want to check that out. There will be more soon, but at the moment I still don't feel too good, and I'm finally playing through Skyrim for the first time, which is not the kind of game I want to record.

: It's my life!

This past week I've basically done nothing but play Diablo III. I'm not gonna write about that here, though, as I'm in the process of writing a post about it over on Eqagames. Although, you probably don't want to read that when I publish it if you don't want to diminish your enjoyment of the game. I'm pretty much just going over everything that I find disappointing about the game, compared to Diablo II.

Other than that, I've been working out quite a lot recently. I'm not sure what's going on, but for some reason I actually want to do it, which is a really, really... Weird feeling for me. I've always been the kind of guy who've shunned any kind of exercise, and up until recently all the exercise I really did was walking, which I've done very little of lately. But I've started using the exercise bike a lot more recently (although I wish I had one that was better, if anyone knows about one I could get cheap).

I'll admit that the first few times I really hated it, my legs really did not want to cooperate with me and started hurting almost immediately. But I've managed to push through that part and while it still feels a bit uncomfortable after a while, it's a lot better than it was. To compare; Back when I wrote this post I could only do 5+2x10 minutes. Two days ago I did 5+4x10+15 minutes. Today I did 5+3x10+15, one less 10min set than two days ago, but faster than before. It feels pretty good. I'm a bit curious if this has translated into any improvement in my walking, so I think I'll go for a walk out towards Odnes again sometime in the next couple of days.

My push-ups have also improved, although I'm a bit inconsistent in how many I do. Two days ago I did 5x7, today I did 4x8. But whatever, it's definitely an improvement over the 3x8 I wrote about last time, which was my absolute limit at that point. I've also started doing sit-ups, but again I have no idea if I'm doing it right. The description over at Fitocracy says I have to anchor my feet under something, and I don't have anything I can properly anchor my feet under. I tried using the exercise bike, but it's a bit too light, I keep lifting it with my feet. It also says I have to be "fully upright", but I just can't do that yet. Either way, I feel it in my abs, and I guess that's what counts. Isn't it?

The most amazing part, to me, is how much better I feel, mentally, when I do work out. After about four days of gaming Diablo III, and one 17th of May eating lots of stuff I shouldn't, I was feeling rather crappy, both mentally and physically. Then I got on the bike and when I was done I felt great! Again, I've always stayed away from exercising, but looking at it now I can't understand why.

Oh, and I've gotten a couple of questions about the girl I wrote about in my last life-update, and, well... I still don't want to talk too much about it, as there's not too much to talk about yet. I will say this, though; I like her more and more the more I interact with her. And as far as I can tell, the feeling is mutual. But yeah, I still haven't actually met her. I'm hoping it wont be too long until we do meet, but it'll happen when it happens. 

And... Yeah. That's about it.

Btw; Give me song-titles with the word "life" in the title, that are appropriate for blog-posts about general life-updates. Like, last time I used "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra, and this time it's "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. I just thought I'd make that a thing. =P

: Friend-zone.

So... Yeah. I've been sort of caught up in someone else's drama this weekend. I did it because I care, but the feeling I'm left with isn't too good. And the reason for that is simple; I care too much. I don't want to go into details about what the drama was about and who it involved. It's not really for me to talk about, and it doesn't really matter anyway. I just wish this wasn't the feeling I'm left with...

As for the LAN this weekend, I still have the same problem as back in January; There's really no games that I want to play on a LAN at the moment. I'm still waiting for at least one of these games (except Starcraft II) to be released. Gief!

Oh, and I finally wrote a new post over at Eqagames as well.

: Ugh.

I woke up this morning feeling really, really... I don't even know. Just completely indifferent about everything. I woke up first at 9am, when my alarm went off. I've started to have an alarm every day now, to try to regulate my sleep pattern, but so far I haven't been too good at obeying it, so to speak. But today I just didn't care. So I went back to sleep instantly. During the next four hours I woke up and fell asleep several times, and finally, at about 1pm, I decided to get out of bed.

I was starving, but didn't have any food in the house. I really, really didn't feel like going to the store either, I didn't want to leave the house at all to be honest, but I eventually pushed myself out the door. And that's probably the best thing I could've done. After walking down to Dokka, having a 333g burger, and walking back up after buying some groceries, I feel a lot better. I still don't feel great, but it's definitely an improvement.

During the weekend I've been playing some more Star Wars: The Old Republic. I got invited to the last beta test weekend, after playing in the previous beta test weekend. I might go write a follow-up to my last post over on Eqagames about it, but I don't feel like doing that now. I will say this, though; I'm surprised by how poor it runs on my computer when I get to the bigger areas. Skyrim runs better on my computer than SW:TOR... I don't know, maybe it's just not optimized for laptop graphics, or something.

: Hazy days...

As I wrote in my last post, I got sick several days ago. And I still am. So the last few days have been pretty uneventful. I've pretty much been completely drained of energy, so I've done next to nothing, except sleep and sit on the couch in front of my computer. I haven't even really felt like playing any games. Still, I had the opportunity to participate in the SW:TOR beta, so I played it a little. You can read about that over at my gaming blog.

I think I've been a bit too passive the past few days, though, and I think Wenche might be a bit annoyed at me about that. Not that I've been completely passive, I've done the dishes a few times and helped a bit with the laundry, but it's less than I usually do. I guess I should remedy this tomorrow. I'm feeling better than I have been, and I really hope it's even better tomorrow. Knowing my luck, though, I'll probably wake up tomorrow feeling worse than ever. Heh.

To be honest, the last few days is more or less a blur to me. I guess that's what happens when you're barely doing anything for several days. What I do remember, though, is that Wenche went out to a job interview on Monday. And she got the job. It's not much, just something through NAV again, but it still means more money, and it's on a farm that she describes as her dream place. So she seems happy about it. If the issue of transportation gets sorted out, that is. But she says NAV is going to figure something out, so hopefully that wont be a problem this time.

: Potential job?

There's some talk about me trying to get some sort of job again. Just like last time it will most likely not be a full-time job, but something through NAV, as that gives me more freedom and flexibility, and also enables me to learn while working. There's one job in particular that I'd like to try to get, as it is one of the few potential places in the area that I think I'd like to work. I might not be able to get that particular job because of the location (both because of problems getting there, and possible restrictions with NAV), and I haven't even contacted them yet, but I hope something can be worked out.

Yesterday I finished my first real "review" on my Eqagames-blog. It would be nice if people gave me some feedback on it, particularly on the structure of the blog. I've already gotten some "constructive(?) criticism" (his words) from my friend Terje, I'd like to hear other peoples opinions as well. It's my first review, so I don't really know what I'm doing. I mean, I've read other reviews and stuff like that, but it's still a bit difficult to structure it in a way that makes sense, and feels natural. I'd also like to hear from others who've played Dungeon Siege 1, if they feel I've forgotten to mention something about this game.

: Slow

The last few days have been really slow. Mainly because Wenche got sick with whatever I had as well, and has been slightly knocked out because of it, although not as bad as I was, but also because I'm still not 100% myself again either.

I have been trying to work on my other two blogs a bit during the last few days, though.

I wrote a (rather poorly written) "review" of Klaypex on Eqamusic. It turns out that even though I'm very interested in music in many ways, I really suck at writing about it. I'm gonna keep writing, but I think Eqamusic will be my least active blog.

I'm also working on a three-part "review" for Eqagames, on the Dungeon Siege series, that requires that I play through the first two games again (not that I've actually ever played through any of them, I think, but I've gotten pretty far), and start playing the third game. So that's what I'm currently doing.

And that's about it for the last few days.