Thoughts of a Dork Stormy Knight

I find it weird that only 2 people who listened to the show when it actually went out complained about the incident..the numbers now in the 10s of thousands , so surely the majority of the people who have since complained knew they may be offended

or does this kinda defy the point

Attempts by supermarket chain J Sainsbury to boost sales by selling Wii and Xbox 360 game consoles at a loss have backfired after store managers from a rival retailer hijacked the promotion by buying nearly 1,000 of the discounted consoles.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/3224650/Sainsbury-not-consoled-by-Wii-hijack.html

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/31985/GAME-in-Sainsburys-stock-swoop

so if you missed out on this deal...now you know why. I'd say more but my brains dead...and fable 2 is here

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3170818

stories like this is why I wanted to have a blog, unfortunately if I have any hope of progressing at university I have no time for anything else so that and many other stories go uncommented by someone far from qualified to do so

who'd've thought it http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/3762835.Arms_factory_protest_turns_violent/

I've not posted for a while and certainly not in the manner I'd like to for even longer. Between Uni, the supermarket and the cinema my brain is fried. However after the events of trying to get home today I thought it was worth mentioning and I'll follow up if it makes the local papers and I see more details. It'll undoubtedly be in the uni paper next week anyway.

So I finish my lectures at noon and wander on down towards the falmer bus stop as per usual. Anyway warning signals started firing off when I heard someone on what sounded like a mega phone and then there was one police car, followed by maybe another 8 vans. Turns out as I was getting to the university entrance that there was an anti-arms protest going on, nuclear weapons that sort of thing (yes I am very ignorant of student protesting issues), what also amused me was the fact that there was one policeman filming all the students, and another student filming likewise...for a while it just seemed like they were filming each other...Anyway it seemed to be a peaceful protest and my opinion, politically incorrect it is, that they were most likely vegetarians so unlikely for the most part to put up much of a fight. The police seemed to outnumber the students, and had others posted checking id's coming under the bridge and more vans posted at both the bus stop and the train station with yet more officers. My first thoughts were naturally that this was an over reaction, and this would be true on the face of it. I mean I've seen much fewer police on a friday and saturday night. However halfway through the journey home - just getting into moulsecombe as me and a couple of others were talking about the massive over-reaction to the situation, we noticed around 6-7 people who I could only describe as gangmembers, wearing clothes etc in such a way to hide any identifying features other than the eyes all moving in the general direction (albeit 20 minute walk easy) from the protest. The police were also doing a good job detaining buses from entering campus, which I can only assume to verify all those getting off..Bizarre situation though and it'll be interesting to read/hear what goes on through the rest of the day

I'm feeling a lot older than my years, and not in the good way. My right knee has been clicking and causing me discomfort most of the weekend and my left has started to ache. Weird thing is this would normally be explainable, I've been out 3 times this week so normally a drunken stumble wouldn't be out of the question - but that has definately not happened. Strange. Anyhoo I have my first christmas related item, I bought some 'extra special' handcooked crisps - Roast Turkey and Onion Gravy Flavour. As it turns out they're delicious, not worth the £1.20 I paid, but that extra was worth induldging a curiousity

Well in an attempt to stop the run of video game related posts I thought I'd post a little on football. Now I would never class myself as a real fan, full 90 minute games bore me unless spent at the pub with friends, I've only been to 3 games. I do however keep up with the news, watch match of the day every now and then and the only pc game I ever really play is whatever Football Manager incarnation is out that year. So with the latest 'crisis' I feel I have at least a little insight.

Finances in football have been getting increasingly ridiculous over the past 2 decades. Going back these 20 or so years you'd struggle to find players earning £20k a week, but thats the average wage for a premiership player these days. This seems to be the main reason, and of course the insane transfer fees but how did things get to this stage?

West Ham are apparently in danger because of the collapse of their chairmans icelandic bank, assuming no knock on effect this basically means there'll be no more investment and they'll have to be a self sustaining business - which is surely half the point of running a club in the first place. I mean since the takeover a little under 2 years ago now, reports say he's pumped in £30million. But what I don't understand is how this is a good thing just pumping money in, because regardless of how generous a person you are, this 'pumping money in' is very rarely as a gift, and more often than not as a loan so its yet more debt the club is saddled with.

As a Leeds fan - if i'm ever going to affliate myself with a team - I've seen what debts can do to a club. Chasing glory and heavily overspending on transfer fees and wages, borrowing money that relied on everything going right and falling short. At the time of their fall, the debts of Leeds Utd were somewhere in the region of £100-150million, which set off a firesale of the players and when you're desperate for money its impossible to get market value (see stock holders or property owners at the moment..). The FA however estimate that the 92 clubs that make up the football league owe around £3billion in debt, with the big 4 clubs making up a lot of that.

According to the latest end of year financial reports, Manchester United are £764million in debt which is tied into their takeover - i'm not entirely sure much if any of this money actually did much to help the club, despite their massive outlay on players its conceivable that this came out of their annual turnover as they are the richest club in the world. But their income is still only in the region of £250million a year, and at a conservative estimate of 10% annual interest on this debt (cheapest rate for me is in the region of double this) thats £77million a year just to 'service' this debt, that doesn't actually pay off any of the debt, thats just the amount needed to keep the debt at this level, which is ridiculous, thats the same amount as biggest spenders of the summer (yeah and it sure helped them) Tottenham spent on players.

Next up are Chelsea, who unsurprisingly rank up very high on the debt list and I'll be shocked if they're not top of the list come May 2009. According to their records, their debt level is at £736million, the majority of which is undoubtedly owed to their deep pockets owner Roman. Now most of this has actually gone on building the club at a heavily accelerated rate than should have been possible, overpaying for players in fees and wages. But what happens if their owner decides tomorrow he wants to pull out and wants his substantial outlay back (albeit over time) , the richest club in the world would take 3 years with their existing income and no other outlay to pay off their debt, but Chelsea really lag behind the facilities of Man U. They have a limited income as their ground only has a capacity in the region of 40000 , in other words just above half of Manchester United and 2/3rds of Arsenal. Gate receipts, prize money, television money and sponsorship are the only major revenue streams I can think of, so they're already way behind with the first one. When they were taken over they had debts in the region of £80million and were in danger of what is now known as 'doing a leeds' and as a club they're around the same size as leeds were before the disaster in terms of facilities. Sometimes I almost hope Roman gets bored and pulls out as the fall out would be both catastrophic and strangely amusing to watch.

The only other club featured within the article with a confirmed debt level provided by the clubs own financial reports was Arsenal with debts of £318million. They recently reported record levels of profit, in the region of £60million , meaning theres enough cash to both pay the interest and reduce the level of debt (again assuming 10% interest rates) and unlike the other 2 clubs this debt was mostly if not fully incurred moving stadium containing 20000 extra seats, potentially increasing their gate receipts by 50%. This level of debt is also less than the actual value of the club which is a debatable point with Man United and Chelsea.

Along with these clubs, Portsmouth were also featured in the paper on some kind of financial crisis. Portsmouth are a small club living big at the moment, they have ambitious plans and for the most part it seems to be working on the pitch. It is however coming at a price, and one rumoured to be too big for their owner. According to the report their annual income is in the region of £65million, while their wage bill (including all background staff etc) is £60million. This sort of spells out the entire problem with the premier league. Unless i'm wrong, in recent years guidelines were brought into the lower leagues capping wages at a set percentage of a clubs projected income , and I believe this is somewhere in the region of 60-70% which in my opinion is still an absurd amount. Whereas Portsmouth are spending over 90% of their income on wages, leaving only £5 million for transfer fees, admin costs, stadium upkeep, taxes, and all those other lovely club outgoings.

I can only go by what video games teach me, but given the global climate the long term plan seems smarter over time and success will come if the patience is there. One of my favourite games at the time was Premier Manager '98 and then '99. Now like most games I'd suck if I just stuck strictly to the football side, however how it differed - and I still don't understand why some games haven't tried this as well - was that you could really get involved in the financial side of things. As well as finding the money to work on the stadium to expand your capacity, you could decide where to build cafes/restaurants and other facilities within the ground, buy stock for them and set the prices along with selling the sponsorship spots pitchside. So even if I couldn't do things how I wanted to from the off, through a sound financial plan I was able get the business side healthy which quickly sped up me getting things pitchside successful. At the end of the day this can surely be the only way to run a succesful club, the age of the sugar daddy chairman may only just be getting into its full swing the Manchester City now joining the club, but its surely only a matter of time before the walls come crashing down.

Now I've spent most of my leisure time today listening to the 3 Black Mages albums and unsurprisingly it got me wanting to play the various final fantasy games their remixes are from. Thankfully I've managed to quell the urge because I don't wanna waste another 50 hours of my life replaying a game I've had enough of, at least for the moment. But it did get me thinking...

I once considered myself a fairly big Final Fantasy fan, a close look around my room could quickly lead you to the same conclusion, I have statues of Rinoa (FF8) Angelo (FF8), Cloud and Sephiroth (FF7) along with one or two others, along with other bits of less conventional memorabilia as well as a number of the games. However looking back I can see that I've clearly just been sucked into the hype for the most part as I often do, I mean I do like the figures, the chains etc but the games are often hit and miss. For me it started off on the PC with Final Fantasy 7 after hearing a lot about it around school. Unfortunately my PC at the time sucked and wasn't really capable of playing the game and ran at around 5fps so was incredibly slow. Somehow I made it through the opening bombing mission, godknows how I managed to beat the normal speed countdown, mostly through pigheaded 'I paid for this I will enjoy it' rather than actually having fun, and it soon was sold on and the series temporarily forgotten about until my sister, incredibly kindly, bought me a Playstation along with Toca Touring Cars and yes, you guessed it, FF7.
I spent my entire first day playing it, racking up 8-9 hours easily, getting into the first jenova battle and to the new continent before saving and going to bed. As often did at the time however, the excitement of having such an amount of new equipment meant I got little sleep, so I woke up during the night and decided to resume playing, on mute of course to avoid annoying my parents and getting caught. However on firing it up and loading my saved game, my tiny little mind was blown into a thousand pieces when the 3rd party memory card claimed it was a corrupt file and I lost all my data. Over the years I think I lost around 150 hours (not just on this game I hasten to add) before I learnt my lesson about 3rd party accessories (much less of an issue now I'd say, but back then it was fairly commonplace that there'd be issues). Needless to say I eventually progressed with the game, it becoming the first in my remaining memory to make me cry with that disk 1 ending, and eventually progressing to disk 3. This is where I met what has always been an issue for me, the inevitable level grind. I'd gotten to disk 3 all well and good, exhausting all the story based play I wanted to, but due to my lack of skill (as I realise there are FF obsessives who try to complete the games without in any way leveling up so in theory it is possible) I wasn't levelled high enough, and would have to spend a good chunk of time in repetitive battles without anything to really to motivate me to do so, no interesting side quest left that I wanted to do, and after a number of game overs trying to get where I was supposed to I gave up on the game. Over the years I went back and tried, even the odd occasion with a cheat cd to erase the level grinding problem however I always lost interest before the end, and its only thanks to internet video that I've ever seen the ending of the game.

7 did do something however, it made me preorder its sequel, Final Fantasy 8, which I did enjoy but encountered the same problem with. The story I enjoyed even more, but when I reached disk 4, I had the same issue and its only been in recent years that I finally completed the game. Firmly sucked into the Final Fantasy community however, even though I had sorta liked the games they caused me equal frustration and joy, I went ahead and bought 9 which I hated and no longer possess, and 10 which became the first one in the series that I actually completed after sinking in easily over 100 hours on various play-throughs. I also acquired 3/6 on the snes somewhere in there on another hype induced purchase.

12 has also entered my collection but I've barely played it as I'm slowly waking up to reality (even though I still hand over the cash for them at least I'm learning, X was bought for £40 at its release, I was able to hold myself off for XII till it was a much more reasonable £10, though so far X has proved much more valuable for my money), that for one well, I'm an idiot, and two that these games while good, aren't always my kind of game.

For the overall record, 6,8 and 10 are my favourites in no particular order and they've all been completed. 7 while I would like to finish properly will only ever happen if theres a remake, I just can't play it anymore, and 9 I hated. 1,2,3,4,5 all got attempted but I quickly realised they werent for me. 4 and 5 are the only ones from those I still own as 4 came with Chrono Trigger, and 5 I had on some misguided collectors item as at the time it had never been released in english, now of course it has that cart is pretty much worthless..go me.

Anyway I will eventually get to a point here, feel free to skip on down to what I was intending to write without so much info. Given the atmosphere and enthusiasm that surrounds Final Fantasy, its hard sometimes not to get swept up in it, as for some reason I tend to believe a game that has sold millions of copies and has a whole bunch of people on the number of gaming forums I visit all shouting its praises. This isn't the only series that I've been sucked into like this, Zelda, Mario, Grand Theft Auto. 100s of pounds down the drain, and less than their moneys worth wringed out of them. But now getting around to the point...almost

Among all the Final Fantasys, number 7 more than any other is likely to get people crazy. From the number of Aeris resurrection cheats, to the constant demands for the PS2 and nowadays PS3 remakes, and the fact a game company actually listened to its fans and realised how much of a license to print money it is with the straight to dvd sequel Advent Children, the mobile subscription game (only in Japan) Before Crisis, the horrid (so i've been told) Vincent (who was only ever an optional character in the original game) spin off Dirge of Cerebus on the PS2, a definitive Blu-Ray version of Advent Children that is being bundled with a demo of Final Fantasy XIII, and finally the reason I started this post and in fact sadly the reason I actually bought a PSP - Final Fantasy Crisis Core.

As I said in recent times I've been realising I don't enjoy the series as much as I'd like to believe, I still spent a little north of £100 primarily to play this prequel to FF7. It was sold as much of a hack and slash action game rather than the grindathon JRPG so I was much more looking forward to the game as while I never finished the game, I have enjoyed the story - hence why I own Advent Children.

The first thing I have to say its very bizarre playing a game where you already know the outcome - if you make much progress with the original you find out what happens to the main character Zack - but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of how the story progresses. Its always weird to be going through a prequel, be it a film, a book or a video game as if you've already played part of the series its almost the ultimate spoiler. Visually I would say this game definately wouldn't look out of place on the original Playstation, and thanks to the knowledge gained by the programmers over the years its not got nearly as many glitches or horrible awkwardness of the original (which bare in mind was the first 3d ff game) and is easily the prettiest handheld game I've played. Also due to the UMD format over the DS carts there is enough storage room for a limited amount of voice acting to fill out the cutscenes.
There are a few different modes on this game, well 2 (3 if you count new game+ which is just restarting the game with your completed games character and equipment). Theres the main game, which comes in at around the 10 or so hour mark, and theres the missions (if I remember correctly theres 300 of these) which are small side well missions that will gain you more powerful items, give you something to do to help advance your character level without feeling like grinding for no benefit and also has the benefits of little tips of a hat towards the original or other spin offs from 7. The missions is what really turns this game from one that belongs on a home console to a more portable game, they're only a couple of minutes long so can easily be played on a short public transport trip on the way to work, or however else you wish to use your portable console.

The fact is however this isn't really a game for anyone other than fans of Final Fantasy 7. Its a fun game regardless, but only someone who has played the game to which this is a prequel to will be able to enjoy all the small references in the story which is really the whole point of the game. Its just pure fan service. It worked for me especially when its style and presentation and its basis in a bit of a more realistic universe (when you get to the end of the opening section you'll see what I mean) compared to the original , and it is a game I've already completed 4-5 times. The story I feel also works quite well, and a lot of the same strings the original does...and yes, I also cried during this game as sad as it is to admit that.

If you had some time off with nothing else to do, then you could quite probably finish this game with just a rental, but its a fan service game so chances are if you're interested in the game, you're going to want to come back to it. You also have to consider its a portable game, so they're a lot cheaper than those on home consoles, I mean this only set me back £18 and that was on a preorder..so I'd say its almost definately worth sacrificing a night out for.

Well thats it for now, that definately could've been written better but well, I don't like to edit. Enough rambling from me, I'm off to cook dinner

So I've not been here for a little while, a long while by the standards I had been setting. I'd decided to take a bit of a break from the virtual world and spend a bit more time in the real one as I panicked about my return to university. What this basically consisted of was a lot of alcohol meaning a lot of stupid/weird/hearing too much information/departing too much information type conversations with people who have my sympathy and apologies, fulfilling my obligation at both jobs aka working my ass off, and a llot of time spent on G1 Jockey 2008 on my wii as stupid panicky thoughts ran through my mind. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, and still don't know when my student loan will arrive so perhaps some tought times are on the immediate horizon, hence the majorly working ass off part...I still don't know but truth be told I don't wanna use this as too much of a personal blog. News items and things have been catching my eye, so hopefully I can start up doing those again. One that seemed appropriate considering my state of mind was the recent school story.

Now often considering my educational situation I think back and consider what I might have done differently and naturally what may have happened if I was able to transport the knowledge I have now into my 7-8 year old self. Of course aside from winning the lottery several times over and amazing betting results theres another thing I'd consider in light of an article in todays paper, I'd purposely get injured and claim against it. I found it ridiculous some of the things that were in here. One kid got £5000 for SLIPPING ON SOME LEAVES. Another - for hurting his finger swinging on a security gate and therefore clearly his own fault - got £13700, thats more than I've earned since I've moved to Brighton (3 Years ago) and something i'd be happy to earn if given a proper full time job, I'd deem it a decent starting wage for sure, so hell you could break my finger for that amount. Other amounts £500 for falling off a space hopper , £14k for an elastic band in the eye and nearly £50000 for some kid who was stupid enough to touch a hot radiator pipe. Even if I do graduate decently I doubt i'd earn £50000 in less than 3 years, so I'll touch a hot pipe and get badly blistered for that amount, probably less. The thing is, this money comes from schools who are already insanely in debt, much like hospitals, who are funded by a government who are heavily in debt (if someone can explain to me about government debt and who exactly is owed please let me know as I hear America is several trillion or several thousand billion, in debt) which at the end of the day helps no one especially as the government is funded by taxpayers, and well the circle continues. A circle which is breaking in the current climate. I dunno though, I mean I loathe these ambulance chasers who have got this no win no fee compensation culture - much an extension of the something for nothing culture - and its very easy to get on your soap box, or your high horse when you're not directly involved - other than being a taxpayer. But confronted with the chance myself and being involved in the real thing, I'm not sure I ever could - if, god forbid, I'm ever responsible for another life, and they get hurt and I get the chance to profit from it, I'm not entirely sure I could say no, at least on my own, I mean if the mother opposed and she (as she more than likely will) scare the living daylights out of me if I got on her badside, I'd have no problem then, but if it was my decision I might just have to take advantage.