First real entry in a LOOOOOOONG time, so what went on then?
Quite a lot actually.
Late July I started temping at a local choclate factory(you Yanks might have heard about it, they are called Guylian)to add a bit to my depleted bank accounts and in preparation for moving from home to a big house where I would be living on my own.
August came along and I had a week off from the choclate factory in order to go to Leipzig for LGC where I had a MUCH better time then I did last year(read up on that clusterfuck here: http://fishie-flop-oog.livejournal.com/72055.html )
September however would prove to be disastrous.
Rest behind the cut:
After coming back from LGC I started preparing for the move and continued to work at the choclate factory between freelance work.
Early September I stopped temping to move and continue to freelance, moved and did some preliminary work for the upcoming games silly season and started some research for some articles.
Right after moving on the fifth of September when I picked up a box no more then 20 pounds I felt a horrible pain in my lower back.
Ambulance came, I was heavily sedated at the emergency room and was told to come back asap in the morning to get a cat scan.
The cat scan showed that my lower vertrebrea as a fetus had never grown closed so instead of having bone encircling my spine I have 5 seperate pieces around it.
The specialist explained to me that up till now that never seemed to have been a problem because my back muscles took the flak, but as one ages(sheesh, just go straight out and call me old why wont ya) muscles get weaker and because I lifted the heavy box the wrong way my spine was in danger so the nerves send out that pain signal.
It took several months of physio therapy and a Lumbar injection to get rid of the pain.
The first month I had trouble sitting upright, sleeping and even going to the bathroom.
Every movement hurt like hell.
To make matters worse, it was during the games silly season and I was unable to go to the presentations and game events so the money I was counting on wasnt coming in.
I am rid of the pain now but will have to be carefull with my back for the rest of my life, yes it can be operated (and every doctor I asked advised against it)but its a risky operation and I have been told that revalidation would take between one and two years.
So fuck that.
While this was going on in late october my sister Zeynep who lives in Portugal with her husband and who was just under 6 months pregnant decided to say hey, what my sister Meyrem can do I can do better.
So she had a baby several months early as well.
His name is Lucas Almaci Santos and he is doing quite well.
When I heard the news I went: What, AGAIN?
Early November Sven van de Perre , the EIC of the official Playstation magazine over here got fired.
There is a lot going on behind the screens there including a lawsuit but I am not at liberty to talk about that at this point so I wont mention it further.
What I will mention though is that yes he was the EIC and as such had the power to buy content from me from time to time, something he off course did.
With him gone it would be harder for me to pitch my articles to OPM but off course not impossible as long as I had something they wanted.
In December then during full Gerstmangate my oppinion as a semi insider who works mostly out of traditional PR/Press relationships was asked left and right so I decided to write my thoughts down as they came to me and post it on a local forum, I mentioned in the post that fair use policy applied and anyone could post it anywhere they liked as long as I was credited and the text was posted in its entirety without any changes and with proper creditation.
Gamed.nl was the first site to do so shortly before the thread I started and posted the text in was removed: http://www.gamed.nl/view/35218
What started out as a simple thread on a forum ended up being over 4200 words long chronicling a history of problems with the dedicated games press and PR and comercial departments at videogame companies and publishers.
I named a few names, blamed consumers, gamespress and PR equallyy etcetera.
The reactions came in thick and fast with a lot of people inside the games press praising me for having the balls to say what needed to be said and PR companies going, mweh this will blow over.
For OPM it didnt however since at the moment it does rather look like I will never work for them again.
They took offence to the single line I mentioned them in.
Thats one less outlet to sell my scribblings to.
GDC next month then, to this date I still have not been confirmed for my press badge.
There were some hiccups with their website when I registered in December and all of a sudden I received an email saying my credentials were not enough so I wouldnt be getting a press badge.
Funny considering at no point did they ask for credentials and at no point did I send any.
So last week I called em, they asked me to put in an email what happened.
Did so, called em again tonight and they said they are running behind on their registrations and it might take a couple of days to sort everything out.
So thats where I am at right now.
Had a bunch of miserable months right after moving.
The house where I live right now is BIG.
Two garage, three bedroom house, big livingroom with half open kitchen.
Fully furnished and I live here alone so if any of you peeps feel the need to visit lil old Belgium you have a place to stay at if you want.
It belongs to a friend of mine who moved to Hungary to live with his girlfriend so now I live at his place for the price it costs to upkeep the house.
He comes here for a week or two every couple of months and I pay the bills and biweekly maid who cleans up the place.
All in all it ends up being around 300€ a month.
Incredible deal I am sure you will all agree and incidently the best thing that happened to me the last 5 months or so.
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that I am suffering from arthrosis as well, my body doesnt appear to be making enough liquid to grease the joints in my arms and fingers so if I play VF5 for extended periods my elbows and fingers hurt.
Apparently this can be remedied without injections these days so I have to investigate about that if things get worse.
Until I do, no more 12+ hour VF marathons.
Late July I started temping at a local choclate factory(you Yanks might have heard about it, they are called Guylian)to add a bit to my depleted bank accounts and in preparation for moving from home to a big house where I would be living on my own.
August came along and I had a week off from the choclate factory in order to go to Leipzig for LGC where I had a MUCH better time then I did last year(read up on that clusterfuck here: http://fishie-flop-oog.livejournal.com/72055.html )
September however would prove to be disastrous.
Rest behind the cut:
After coming back from LGC I started preparing for the move and continued to work at the choclate factory between freelance work.
Early September I stopped temping to move and continue to freelance, moved and did some preliminary work for the upcoming games silly season and started some research for some articles.
Right after moving on the fifth of September when I picked up a box no more then 20 pounds I felt a horrible pain in my lower back.
Ambulance came, I was heavily sedated at the emergency room and was told to come back asap in the morning to get a cat scan.
The cat scan showed that my lower vertrebrea as a fetus had never grown closed so instead of having bone encircling my spine I have 5 seperate pieces around it.
The specialist explained to me that up till now that never seemed to have been a problem because my back muscles took the flak, but as one ages(sheesh, just go straight out and call me old why wont ya) muscles get weaker and because I lifted the heavy box the wrong way my spine was in danger so the nerves send out that pain signal.
It took several months of physio therapy and a Lumbar injection to get rid of the pain.
The first month I had trouble sitting upright, sleeping and even going to the bathroom.
Every movement hurt like hell.
To make matters worse, it was during the games silly season and I was unable to go to the presentations and game events so the money I was counting on wasnt coming in.
I am rid of the pain now but will have to be carefull with my back for the rest of my life, yes it can be operated (and every doctor I asked advised against it)but its a risky operation and I have been told that revalidation would take between one and two years.
So fuck that.
While this was going on in late october my sister Zeynep who lives in Portugal with her husband and who was just under 6 months pregnant decided to say hey, what my sister Meyrem can do I can do better.
So she had a baby several months early as well.
His name is Lucas Almaci Santos and he is doing quite well.
When I heard the news I went: What, AGAIN?
Early November Sven van de Perre , the EIC of the official Playstation magazine over here got fired.
There is a lot going on behind the screens there including a lawsuit but I am not at liberty to talk about that at this point so I wont mention it further.
What I will mention though is that yes he was the EIC and as such had the power to buy content from me from time to time, something he off course did.
With him gone it would be harder for me to pitch my articles to OPM but off course not impossible as long as I had something they wanted.
In December then during full Gerstmangate my oppinion as a semi insider who works mostly out of traditional PR/Press relationships was asked left and right so I decided to write my thoughts down as they came to me and post it on a local forum, I mentioned in the post that fair use policy applied and anyone could post it anywhere they liked as long as I was credited and the text was posted in its entirety without any changes and with proper creditation.
Gamed.nl was the first site to do so shortly before the thread I started and posted the text in was removed: http://www.gamed.nl/view/35218
What started out as a simple thread on a forum ended up being over 4200 words long chronicling a history of problems with the dedicated games press and PR and comercial departments at videogame companies and publishers.
I named a few names, blamed consumers, gamespress and PR equallyy etcetera.
The reactions came in thick and fast with a lot of people inside the games press praising me for having the balls to say what needed to be said and PR companies going, mweh this will blow over.
For OPM it didnt however since at the moment it does rather look like I will never work for them again.
They took offence to the single line I mentioned them in.
Thats one less outlet to sell my scribblings to.
GDC next month then, to this date I still have not been confirmed for my press badge.
There were some hiccups with their website when I registered in December and all of a sudden I received an email saying my credentials were not enough so I wouldnt be getting a press badge.
Funny considering at no point did they ask for credentials and at no point did I send any.
So last week I called em, they asked me to put in an email what happened.
Did so, called em again tonight and they said they are running behind on their registrations and it might take a couple of days to sort everything out.
So thats where I am at right now.
Had a bunch of miserable months right after moving.
The house where I live right now is BIG.
Two garage, three bedroom house, big livingroom with half open kitchen.
Fully furnished and I live here alone so if any of you peeps feel the need to visit lil old Belgium you have a place to stay at if you want.
It belongs to a friend of mine who moved to Hungary to live with his girlfriend so now I live at his place for the price it costs to upkeep the house.
He comes here for a week or two every couple of months and I pay the bills and biweekly maid who cleans up the place.
All in all it ends up being around 300€ a month.
Incredible deal I am sure you will all agree and incidently the best thing that happened to me the last 5 months or so.
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that I am suffering from arthrosis as well, my body doesnt appear to be making enough liquid to grease the joints in my arms and fingers so if I play VF5 for extended periods my elbows and fingers hurt.
Apparently this can be remedied without injections these days so I have to investigate about that if things get worse.
Until I do, no more 12+ hour VF marathons.