Well, I’ve had this for a few days now and, after 3 attempts, think I finally have my character set up the way I want: female Dark Elf Melee Mage (custom class: Blade, Block, Destruction, Restoration, Mysticism, Conjuration, Light Armour) born under The Lady.

Overall impressions are listed below:

Good

Works far better on lower spec PCs than I thought it would

The character creation really is as detailed as the previews made out - you could spend hours tweaking your character’s appearance. My Dunmer looks like a human/Dark Elf hybrid which I think is neat

The ability to change anything about your character before leaving the tutorial - not only can you rectify any silly mistakes, but if you make a save before the window pops up, you can start any new characters you want without having to go through the rather long (if Patrick Stewart heavy <3) tutorial again!

Really interesting quest lines and complete freedom to do whatever you want

Not so good

It’s not essential, but in order to really get the most out of levelling up, you need to make sure you don’t do it too quickly by having “incidental/out of combat” skills level you up in order to get the best modifiers possible in the things you want to focus on. You only have to level a major skill 10 times to level - a few conversations can do this so if speechcraft is a major, you will have levelled up and not gotten anything to help your mana pool/health total/dodge ability/whatever you rely on in combat. In Morrowind you could work on these things before you rested (and thus attained the level) but this time round once you level the modifiers are locked.

The difficulty is insane - it can be adjusted but the smallest tweak makes it almost too easy.

Despite these things, as Brucie would say - good game, good game! Something else to share my free time with for a while…soon to be joined by Guild Wars: Factions and (best of all!) the new series of Doctor Who

Categories: Games
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Just as I was getting into the swing of my exercise regime, I got out of bed last Sunday and managed to tweak/pull something in my calf, causing exruciating pain whenever I did anything involving bending my leg such as using stairs or getting into/out of the car I was going to start going to the gym again today but it happened again when I was walking to work this morning - not to the same extent as last time but still hurt climbing the stairs to the office although it doesn’t seem to be as bad now. Not sure whether to hang it all and go to the gym anyway or not atm.

On the plus side, I had lost a few pounds when I weighed myself at the weekend and my jeans are loser on me I shouldn’t really look at this week as a setback but more a decrease in pace I guess - I am sticking to the diet so can’t put any weight back on at any rate!

Categories: Diet and fitness
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I’ve pretty much stopped playing WoW now completely, to the point that I shall probably cancel my account and maybe revisit the game when the expansion is released. Speaking of expansions, I’ve been giving Guild Wars another try lately and am finding it a lot more enjoyable than I have done in the past. The Guild Wars Factions expansion is out at the end of April so we shall probably get that - there’s a preview event this weekend that I shall maybe try out on Friday evening, as we’re away this weekend (Mothers’ Day), although by then I might also have Oblivion (the long awaited Elder Scrolls 4) at my disposal, and I am really looking forward to playing that - it looks amazing!

Changing the subject somewhat, the last couple of weeks have been both good and bad in terms of my diet and fitness. The bad news is that my shoulder/collar bone area popped out of place twice in TKD last session and once for no reason at the weekend. I went to get it seen to and apparently it could happen again any time over the next week or so until it’s fixed itself and it twinges when doing things like getting changed or moving my arm in certain ways - no holiday training for me for a few weeks then.

The good news is that I’ve gripped the bull by the horns as it were and am in full on calorie counting and exercise mode, both of which are oddly addictive when you want it to work badly enough! My new (and ongoing) “diet” revolves around not having more than my daily allowance of 2000 calories a day - I’ve found that just by reducing portions and omitting some things makes achieving this fairly simple and I’m averaging at about 1700-1900 a day at the moment. Combined with this I am also making sure that I exercise every day during the week - I walk to work and also go to the gym/do TKD daily and that way I am burning off at least 400 calories a day - making a total loss of at least 400-500 a day, which should work out at about 1 lb a week or thereabouts.

I’ve found dieting and exercise are much easier if you accept one thing - it takes time. I used to get frustrated and lose motivation if I didn’t notice the difference after a couple of weeks. Now, I know that as long as I keep exercising to burn those 400 calories, and as long as I don’t go over 2000 a day, the weight will take care of itself, albeit slowly. One day, maybe not for another year or two, but one day, I will be who I want to be in terms of weight and fitness

Categories: Diet and fitness, Games
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It’s official - I am now an 8th gup, or Yellow Belt in TKD. I’m obviously pleased to have passed but I don’t feel I did as well as in my last one and am starting to feel like a blimp in a dobok struggling through at the bottom of the class. Some of my techniques just seem to be so bad compared to everyone else’s, especially where balance is required, which is becoming more and more frustrating :/ Really want to get a lot lot better for my next grading if I can.

In other news, spent a very pleasant time with Kev’s family last weekend (once the grading was over) to celebrate his dad’s 50th - the Ashoka and homemade Beef Wellington, what more could you want?

On a sadder note, RIP Uncle Dave who passed away recently…

Categories: Family, Important events, TKD
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