I know this is supposed to be a gaming-centred blog – and I will mention some gaming somewhere – but I thought I’d update you on how things are in my world at the moment.
Despite being unemployed for the past five weeks (did I tell you that I took voluntary redundancy from my newspaper employer after they restructured our department and “disestablished” my job?), I’ve actually been darn busy lately so sorry for the lack of blogs over the past few weeks.
I’ve been riding my bike quite a bit – two two hour rides in three days this week – and playing a bit of Grand Theft Auto V, as well as doing some freelance work for gaming blog NZ Gamer (which you can find here). And in something that’s completely out of character for me, I emailed off my CV to Snap, an internet service provider in Christchurch asking if they had any work going as a communications or social media specialist.
I wasn’t expecting a response but, luckily for me, Snap’s GM of retail got back to me and he offered me three weeks of contract to generate new content for the company’s new-look website. So for three weeks, I was gainfully employed, arriving at Snap’s offices at 8.30am Monday to Friday, leaving about 5pm. It made me feel like I was part of the employed again. I absolutely loved the work and the Snap crowd are a great bunch of people but it was only temporary contract work
Since Monday I’ve been re-evaluating where I want to go with my life – and after getting another job application rejection letter: I’ve applied for so many jobs both in NZ and in Australia that I’ve lost count – I’ve decided that I might look at re-training, but as what, I’m not sure.
I’ve thought about maybe doing an adult apprenticeship as an electrician, or some form of tertiary training, but I’m actually contemplating heading back to “school” next year and doing a Diploma in either Web Design or Software Engineering and Design. As a tech journalist I’ve always enjoyed the technical aspect of gaming and app making so perhaps this is where my future lies.
Of course, I’m not sure whether we can survive on one wage so if I were to do full-time study again, I’d have to find some part-time work to supplement. It’s worth thinking about, though.
In terms of gaming, I was going to post some thoughts on David Cage’s PlayStation 3 game Beyond Two Souls – my daughter asked me while I was playing it: “Are you playing a game or watching a movie?,” she said. “There’s too much movie and not enough game” – but after spending literally hours on deciding what to write about it for this blog, I decided I’d just link to something I wrote for the Media Design School in Auckland’s gaming-centric blog, the Pick & Shovel. Have a read & let me know what you think about the game.

Would you like to fly in my beautiful, my beautiful … blimp?
I’ve played a fair bit of GTAV lately but I’m starting to feel a little “burned out” now and might just leave it for a few days, recharge my GTAV batteries. I actually spent most of the last couple of sessions driving cars or motorcycles up mountain tops and the driving them down again. I also ordered a blimp and drove (can you drive a blimp?) it as high as I could then parachuted out. That was pretty great.
I’ll come back to it in a couple of days. Maybe I’ll feel like playing it then.
I promise the blog will be back to normal in the next post.