Diary of a Ledger

Final Fantasy XIII-2 - 20 Hours In

2012-02-15T19:07:00.001Z

Final Fantasy games were always pretty reliable: confusing story, random battles, hours of side quests, engrossing character development and Chocobos. That was until the last iteration, Final Fantasy XIII came along and threw some babies out with the muddied bath water. The gaming public did not approve. Where were the side quests and the twee villages free from monsters but full of interactive NPCs? Well they weren't there. Instead there was a linear path through one brilliantly realised location after another and a battle system that didn't get going until you'd ploughed twenty hours into hitting the action button half a zillion times.

Story wise though, XIII was strong. The best since FFIX and as engrossing as FFVII. Personally I really enjoyed it and the way the game opened up after it finished was a great incentive to get to the end of the story and then really test yourself against some huge monsters in, y'know, hour long battles. Maybe it was too westernised, too slick, but on lots of levels, if you had the patience, it was a great game.

Now I'm deep within the sequel. It's set three years after the end of XIII, focusing on Lightning's sister Serah and new character Noel. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a time travelling mini opus with Lightning trapped in an unknown era and it's up to Serah and the her new companion (who's from the future) to find her. Story wise it's lighter than FFXIII, but not as silly as FFX's sequel. Graphically it's as breath taking as its predecessor and full of beautiful touches. Rushing through areas is possible but more often than not you'll want to just stop and look.

Square have clearly listened to the gaming public and right from the off, after the quite stunning opening sequence, there are NPCs aplenty to chat to. Some will even give you the odd fetch quest, or even send you off to kill a monster. After Skyrim, initially at least, the freedom feels a bit superficial, but it doesn't take long for the cleverness of the time travel element to reveal itself. Every time you complete an area in one time zone another is opened up. Sometimes it's the same area in a different era or even the same area at the same time but with a different history. Brilliantly you can close an area off and go back and play it all afresh again. Apparently once the main story is completed this becomes a necessity to get a full complete.

The battle system borrows much from XIII, although randomness is back, but it is slicker and much faster. There's masses of stuff going on while the battles take place and the ability to collect monsters and add them to your party is a nice, Pokemonesque, touch. Levelling up is pretty simplistic and as per usual for the first hour you lament the changes made to the system from the previous game before realising that this is much much better after all. Probably.

XIII-2 is going to do much to bring life back to the series even if the story feels like it is, at times, taking a back seat. There's enough crowd pleasing elements, including Chocobo racing and gambling, to warm the heart of Sephiroth.

Walk Alone

2012-02-11T20:08:00.000Z

My Twitter bio, for a long time (although not currently) said, 'I forgive slow or not at all.' This evening I've been forced too look at an institution I've loved for the best part of three decades and apply that truth.

Today was always going to be a difficult day for Liverpool Football Club. However it was also one full of opportunities to put things right but I'd been fearing that it would fall into the traps before it and it did.

Liverpool are a club with a rich history, full of ups and downs and no one has been prouder than me to support them. I mean that. Liverpool will always be a part of me, they picked me up at the lowest point of my life when we lost dad and I will never be able to forget that. Ever. But loving something doesn't mean being blind to its faults or never admitting it's in the wrong. The Liverpool fans who booed Evra today and during the FA Cup tie, or supported Suarez and his appalling decision to not shake the hand of Evra need to take a look at themselves. Kenny Dalglish, a man who's integrity I would never have dreamed I'd be questioning, needs to take a look at himself. I don't for a second think that he's a racist and the KKK tag being bandied about on Twitter was as unhelpful as anything I saw, but his naive support for one of his players needs to stop now. I fear that it will not, because it is born from the belief that Liverpool are better than that. Except suddenly we are not better than that and the only way we move forward from today is to accept it, deal with Suarez and move on. Continuing to defend him is not an option.

Football is supposed to be my distraction from the real world, the bit of my week where I can be passionate about something and forget about all the crap we all have to deal with. But for the last few weeks I feel like I've been taking punches to the gut because the side I love employs a man like Suarez.

It breaks my heart, but for now, I withdraw my support. I'll continue to watch games, I'll probably watch more Spanish football than anything else to be honest, but this season is over for me.

I hate how Suarez has made me feel about my club. And I promise you, I will never forgive him for that.

Drive - Review

2012-01-31T20:20:00.001Z

Has there ever been a cooler movie than this? I DO NOT KNOW. But fuck me, this movie is cool. Proper cool, cool with substance and style. Not throwaway cool. (It is a bit violent though, I'll come back to that.)

Ryan Gosling is the 'driver'. Never named, beyond being called 'the kid', which is, I think you'll agree, pretty god damn cool. And of course he looks cool. I'm not going to go on and on about the jacket, but it's so cool that it dripped some cool on the floor and made the floor cool.

Gosling is ace as the man who can do one thing. Drive a car. That's it, that's his purpose. Sure he sort of falls in love with his married neighbour, has a pang of guilt that sort of kills his.... well that's saying too much, but essentially he's all about cars. He seems to have a bazillion car related jobs, mainly driving them about and that, but also fixing them and stuff. Aces. Man's man. Well sort of. That's the thing, there's this weird child like thing about him. He's sort of angelic, despite the get away driver sideline and it's not until the final third that we see him emote. It's a very understated performance, every blink feels like it's been dripped in minimalism, every line of dialogue feels weighty because he doesn't say much at all. But when he does there's a sense it matters.

The credit goes to director Nicolas Windin Refn for making a movie where every shot feels like it was crafted in a the coolest thing you could craft something out of. Even the scenes where it explodes into violence don't derail you from how good this film looks. But boy, does it explode into violence. For some it'll be too much. Too graphic, too eeuughhhhh! But it plays it's part in bringing the central character to life and makes him more than just a man with a gift for driving cars really quickly. Ok, it makes him someone with a penchant for killing with his feet (and driving cars really quickly) but hey, it's nice to have strings to that bow, right?

Drive is what I expected. Beautifully made, brilliantly acted and with a soundtrack to die for. What I didn't expect was a throwback to Eastwood and McQueen. An anti-hero that as a bloke you wanna be like and as a woman you wanna sex with. Apparently.

A visual treat. Watch. It.
★★★★★

100,000

2012-01-28T16:37:00.000Z

On February 19th 2009 I joined Twitter. Nearly three years later I'm approaching, as I write this, my one hundred thousandth tweet.

It's worth pointing out that I actually passed that amount sometime ago as my original account (@Gray333) has 4989 tweets to its name. @diaryofaledger started later in 2009 but because I'm all about things feeling proper, the 100,000 is up when I reach it on the account that you all know and the actual number appears.

How do I feel about it? Well clearly I spend far too much time on Twitter...

Except I don't. It hasn't cost me any relationships that existed prior to it, it's not prevented me, frankly, from doing anything. In fact, it's done nothing but broaden my horizons.

It's easy to jump on the 'hive mind' band wagon, the, 'Ohhhh ffs everyone just makes puns,' bollocks, but frankly you can solve that with the unfollow button. I think people forget that. Twitter is a circle, find yours, find a few circles and then shut the fuck up about how people should or shouldn't use it. And then, if you genuinely find you don't like it, leave. And stay left.

Here endeth the lesson.

Gray x

PS. I love it as much today as I did on the 19th Feb 2009.

KDR 1.15

2012-01-15T19:56:00.001Z

I'm supposed to be a bit shit at Call of Duty. The first Modern Warfare, despite my noble efforts and fourteen days (yes, in total days played) of my life, was a frustrating experience. World at War, the WWII set follow up, was mildly better, but only just. Then came Modern Warfare Two. I died a lot. Bazillions of times. You see the thing we live by is not winning matches, no, we give not an ounce of fuck about that, it's our 'kill death ratio'. Our KDR.

Suddenly, however, 2010's Black Ops was a different experience. For once my KDR crept into the positives. Not spectacularly by any means but never the less it was an improvement. It took me fucking months. I'd stay at around one hundred kills off, get close and then go on a spectacular streak of dying more often than plankton. Then I'd pull it close again and eventually, sometime in 2011, I got over the line and stayed there. I never got above a ratio of 1.11, but I can remember the punch the air moment of getting to 1.00, me and the cat leaping from the sofa etc.

I stayed away from Modern Warfare Three, not because I was still loving Black Ops but because I was consumed by dragons and that on Skyrim. It was a pretty decent excuse for not dipping my toe in the water but it was never going to last. Well it could have gone on forever, but the lag on PS3 and my silly 'it's nearly over, I don't want it to be over' brain malfunction bollocks meant that I asked for MW3 for Christmas and my lovely sister dutifully complied.

And so here we are, two or so weeks on from me first slipping the disc in the PS3 and I have a positive KDR. It's not just sitting still either, it's getting better and I have no idea why to be honest. Map wise it's the best of the Modern Warfare franchise, there's not one where I think, 'Oh shit balls, I'm gonna die horribly here.' Well unless I'm playing with @blindfumble and @maverick99sback, but that's a whole other story. The kill streak rewards feel a bit less ridiculous too. My KDR is 1.15 at the mo which by my standards is mentally brilliant. By most other people's it's pretty average, but fuck it, I'm polishing my virtual medals. SO THERE.

As a footnote to end on (and this will make no sense to anyone who's not played COD in the last few years) the FMG9 with akimbo will fuck you right off until you start using it and you become a killing machine. Well a virtual one. War is bad. Etc.

The Suarez Thing

2012-01-06T19:06:00.001Z

Most of you will know how big a Liverpool fan I am. One of the things I've always loved is the way the club conducts itself. The quiet dignity, the knowledgeable fans (the envy of other clubs), the way Liverpool has always felt like the 'right' top club to support. We accept bad decisions, don't see conspiracy when players get sent off and we take our knocks, get back up, heads held high. Until now. Now we can't accept the FA making, somewhat surprisingly, the right decision over the Suarez incident and we look awful because of it.

I see tweets everyday from supporters blinkered by their love of the club and I've seen 'fans' replying to the likes of Stan Collymore with the kind if racist bile that makes my blood boil.

The fact is what Suarez did was wrong. In any other form of employment he may well of had private support from his bosses, but he almost certainly would've been suspended pending an enquiry. Instead the club went on the defensive, attacked Evra and have damaged themselves and an institution that I love as a result.

That Kenny Dalglish, one of my heroes as a kid, has been the spokesman for most of that has been distressing. He looks out of his depth to be honest.

It's not too late to put things right and it's time to publicly admit they've got it wrong.

In a season where the Premiership has been more watchable than ever, my love of the game is on the wain. Spoilt by a young man who should learn to say sorry and then leave my club. You can be as great a footballer as you like Luis but I for one don't want you at Anfield anymore.

2011

2011-12-31T09:27:00.000Z

In a year of news, a year of unrelenting change, two stories, both personal, although one more public than another, intertwined. The King returned to Anfield and although it may seem trite in a year that saw so much change around the globe, seeing him lead the side out at Anfield felt like a step back to a time when things were simpler. When Liverpool's result defined a week rather than my actual life. It came at the right time, that jolt back to the past.

There are lots of positives to focus on, lots of things I could talk about that, on reflection, would make the year sound like a good one. 2011 is forever tainted by the second story but it's not in my gift to tell you why. In a lot of ways that awfulness has fuelled the positive: the giving up of the ciggies, the savings account, the photography and of course Tweetathon. Obviously there have been good times this year, Bestival and Festival were both brilliant weekends and Twitterpubnic was a great, great day. It just doesn't feel right to dwell on them.

I've met more and more of my friends from Twitter, lost a few along the way (because you really can't keep them all happy) and got better at just saying 'Fuck 'em,' when the unfollow button gets pressed, both by me and by others.

I think I'll look back on 2011 as the year I finally started growing up a bit. It'll always be a year with a cloud over it but the person most affected by that cloud inspired me to get off my arse and sort my life out. I was never more determined not to be a fuck up. I think I did ok at that.

So rather than bang on about it for too long here's my best 'things' of 2011 in pictorial form.

At and I took the new camera out

Mike found a new home

Cowes Week

Isle of Wight Festival

Bubbles

Lego Club

I met Tippers!

Twitterpubnic

Zoo

Bestival

Tweetathon starts

And ends with a house full three days later

Christmas with family

Goodbye 2011. In many many ways you shall not be in the least bit missed but you were a corner turned.

Happy Christmas

2011-12-25T12:14:00.002Z

Prometheus: Trailer

2011-12-24T09:14:00.000Z

Fucking hell!

The Hobbit: Trailer

2011-12-21T08:23:00.001Z

Only a year to wait....

The Dark Knight Rises: Trailer

2011-12-20T10:00:00.000Z

Bring it on...

Final Fantasy XIII-2: A Guided Tour

2011-12-13T10:00:00.000Z

Despite being derided Final Fantasy XIII was one of my gaming highlights of 2010. Yes, it was linear, but the battle system, once the game let you off the leash, was quality. The sequel, likely to get an early 2012 release in the west, looks interesting with what sounds like a lot being crammed in.

This new trailer shows some of the gameplay elements, which if you're a fan sound brilliant, but if not will have you running back to COD's aprons.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Review

2011-12-12T13:56:00.000Z

Skyrim is all about freedom. When the game begins your character is a blank canvas, a blank canvas that you paint all over for the next two hundred odd hours. Of course there's a story here, a good one at that, but Bethesda aren't telling just one tale with Skyrim, they are telling many. Some are more compelling than others but nearly all include some form of choice, sometimes impacting on how the story plays out but more often than not the choice is how to approach the tasks the story includes. As your character progresses, those choices become defined by your earlier decisions, your skill sets developing as you use them and thus becoming more powerful.

For those who enjoy getting lost in the heady numbers of a traditional JRPG Skyrim won't necessarily appeal immediately. The stats stuff is there but it's in a beautifully designed development system that hardly uses numbers at all. Your character grows steadily, the hard part is choosing which perk to unlock each time you level up.

Character progression is one thing, the world that character inhabits is another altogether. I've never played a game that feels this alive, looks this beautiful or that feels so cohesive. I tried to love Oblivion, but it wasn't like this. Skyrim is a world you want to see every bit of because you're never sure what lurks behind the next hill or over the next river. Its vastness never feels entirely over whelming although there are times when being attacked by a dragon and then being immediately set upon by a Wisp can feel a little unfair. But that's the wilds of Skyrim: beautiful but unpredictable.

Playing the PS3 version of Skyrim has not been without its problems. The lag/frame rate issue, which wasn't properly cleared up by the latest update, has been a niggle rather than a game breaker and the odd graphical glitch usually brings a wry smile rather than a fling of the pad. A game this big, this detailed, was always going to ship with some bugs not getting spotted but kudos to Bethesda for being upfront on their blog about what they're working on to improve the experience.

For the most part though the problems are forgiven because the game, overall, is a stunning achievement. Everyone playing it is having a different experience totally defined by their actions within the game. It is perfectly possible to ignore all the story stuff, after the opening sequence and go and become a blacksmith.

You make your own stand out moments in Skyrim: time a walk at night just right to catch the northern lights, climb one of the mountains on a clear day and just breathe in Skyrim, creep up on a sleeping dragon and sneak attack with your elven dagger. Whatever you do in this vast open world, wherever you go, it keeps giving.

Game of the Year? No question. Best game ever? Yes... (once those flaws are ironed out completely).
★★★★★

Blood in the Snow

2011-12-10T18:35:00.001Z

Top Ten: November 2011

2011-12-03T13:11:00.001Z

The Top Ten people I tweeted @ the most in November.

Skyrim - 80 Hours In

2011-11-26T20:35:00.001Z

I should be bored by now right? But I'm not. Not even close. The more of it I play, the more of Skyrim I see (even with the lag causing occasional irritation), the more of it I want to play and see.

I've been thinking this week, 'Is this the best game ever?'

I wondered that at the end of my Uncharted 3 review but that was a bad shout. Not because it wasn't an amazing game but because Skyrim has spun what I thought made great games on its head. Uncharted took away my ability to choose, Skyrim has given it back in spades.

'What weapon shall I carry? What magic shall I focus on using? Where the fuck shall I go next? What skill set shall I level up? What perk am I really going to benefit from? Shall I do some mining? Maybe I should chop some wood? Or cook a stew? Or make a dagger? Or kill that dragon? Or sell that diamond ring? Could I get married? Do some pickpocketing? Learn a new shout? A new spell? Or.... or... just go for a walk.'

On and on it goes and it feels like it'll never stop.

The amount of decisions should be overwhelming but the game never punishes you for going off and doing your own thing, it's quite possible to semi complete a quest just by wandering into a random dungeon and finding a random object. You'll only realise it was important when you speak to character later on. Or maybe you won't ever speak to them and you'll just keep that lute in your inventory forever...

Honestly, I've not been hooked by a game like this since Final Fantasy VII. And that was a long time ago, in a universe far far away. 80 hours into this and I feel like I've only started to scratch the surface of it, with FFVII I was off searching for the KOTR* by then riding a big golden bird.

Skyrim isn't perfect, no game is. But it's the best RPG I've ever played, which for me, makes it the best game I've ever played.

*KOTR: We're not really on the same page are we?

Why Skyrim is Eating My Life

2011-11-19T20:06:00.001Z

With some games the addiction comes slow. You barely notice that you're playing it at every opportunity after months of it slowly getting under your skin.

It wasn't like that with Skyrim, from the moment I killed my first dragon I was gone. I didn't start work until 10:45am today so I got up early and spent an hour doing quests for the Thieves Guild. Break into this house, change a ledger at this business, pickpocket this guy etc etc. Now that might all sound quite normal(ish). But re-read that last sentence. I GOT UP EARLY. TO PLAY A GAME.

I think what it is is this: I've always liked an RPG: I've fallen for Final Fantasy, swanned off with Zelda and run amok with Deus Ex, but Skyrim is the RPG I've always wanted. The one I've dreamt of.

To say there's a lot to do is the biggest understatement ever. It's insane. But crucially it's also fun and engaging and insane. But what I absolutely love is how random it is.

Example of Random

Earlier this week I went into a tavern in the far north of the map. There was a bloke in there so I went and chatted to him and he challenged me to a drinking game. So I said yes, because he said if I beat him I would get an awesome staff or something. I drank three drinks and blacked out. The next thing I woke up in a temple being told off by a priestess and when I went outside I was in the far west of the map in some city or other, somewhere I hadn't even been. After a bit of digging it turned out I may have stolen a goat and asked someone to marry me when drunk. Anyway, this morning I went back to the same city to do some of the previously mentioned breaking and entering and a fucking dragon turned up. And then, beautifully, the local guards took it out with arrows and that. I didn't even have to raise a finger. I just watched it land on roofs and stuff, firing flame from its gob as the local guards took it out. Then I absorbed its soul. Like a mother fucker.

It all just feels so... ALIVE.

End of Example of Random

Every time I turn off the PS3 I feel like I've paused a world. GTA4 felt a bit like that, FFVII felt quite a lot like that but this is on another level.

When I'm away from the PS3 my mind will wander back to Skyrim, to a view, a quest completed or a quest yet to be tried. Once in a while I'll pause and consider how this game got made and I can't get my head around it. I love a labour of love, where you can feel or see every bit of effort and heart and soul given, even if it makes the system running it creek. Skyrim is that and then some. The more I play, the more I love it. And I've been playing it a lot. And I can not stop. At all. It has me in its dragony clutches and it isn't letting go.

I'm ok with that. It's geek heaven.

12 Hours into Skyrim

2011-11-13T19:29:00.001Z

After the initial, 'Oh the graphics look shit compared to Uncharted,' and the, 'fuck me the map is sixteen real miles across!' shock wore off, I started to love Skyrim in a way I'd never loved Oblivion.

It is tough jumping from a game like Uncharted to this. Everything about the Drake titles are polished, the character animations, in particular, put nearly everything else to shame. They make the characters in Skyrim look like awkward robots. But you get over it and then forgive it. Why? Well because something had to be sacrificed to make something this big. This interesting. This enthralling. This non linear.

It's not going to be to everyone's tastes, the open world really is an open world. You can go where ever the hell you like right from the start (although it pays to play through a few of the games main plot objectives before branching off). Today I went for a couple of walks. One was story driven and one was a just for the hell of it side quest where I've ended up joining a college for magic. Like Harry Potter but with a bigger sword. Both trips lasted a good hour and a half each and suddenly I have a sense of scale to the game map. It's stupidly big. Honestly. If GTA4 was too much for you don't go near this. Oh and you can get inside every building, talk to every NPC and kill enormous dragons. And you sometimes kill them by jumping on their necks and sort of slitting their scaly throats. You don't get that on the bus.

For some though it's going to be overwhelming. I found that with the predecessor and gave up, but that feels less likely here. I want to see what happens with the Companions. I quite fancy being a lycan. I really want to go back and stick that pesky vampire with my sword so he can't resurrect his little mate who keeps stabbing me in the back. Oblivion felt like hard work. Skyrim is fun.

Character development works sensibly without a totally overwhelming stats system. 'This sword hurts more? Cool I'll have that one then.' Third and first person both work which is a big improvement on Oblivion, but best of all, the game world looks incredible.

It has its foibles, it's funny little glitches, but to be honest they add to the charm. Nothing so far has had me hurling the controller at the cat at any rate.

If you played Uncharted, graphically, Skyrim hurts for the first hour. Once you've been hooked by the story though you remember that graphical shine is cock all compared to game play.

Skyrim is a monster of a game. In a good way.

12 hours down. 188 to go.

Shit.

Official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - The Vet and The N00b

2011-11-07T10:57:00.001Z

Brilliant video re-imagining Call of Duty as if it was, y'know, real.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Review

2011-11-06T14:57:00.000Z

There's a moment in this games predecessor where you walk through a remote mountain village. It's a quiet, almost serene level that gives you a break from the mayhem. The closest you get to a pause in Uncharted 3 is a walk through a desert. Drake stumbling and desperate for water as sand slowly coats him and hope seems lost. Apart from that Uncharted 3 is the most relentless action movie you've never seen and is, for the most part, quite wonderful in scale and application.

Naughty Dog are one of the few game developers to make games for the PS3 that outstrip anything on the 360. Graphically it is, quite simply, breathtaking. From the environments to the motion captured character animations, it just shines. If Drake's running a little to close to a wall or a pillar he'll bump against it, stumble and steady himself. As smooth as silk. Sand and water have never looked or behaved this realistically in a game and although the sand has had all the pre-release hype it's the water effects that will have your jaw scraping the floor.

Story wise it's incredibly close to Uncharted 2, all be it with a slightly extended cast and an undercurrent of wondering throughout whether Drake's obsessions are going to cost him everything. Despite the apparent repetition, it's still enthralling and there are some nice touches, including some backstory to Drake and Sully's relationship. It's their friendship which dominates the story from start to finish as we are taken across the globe in search of a lost city in the sand.

If you've played the first two titles the gameplay is not going to come as a shock. Climb, shoot and brawl (hand to hand combat has been brilliantly over hauled here). Gunplay is solid and satisfying although the enemy AI still feels weak occasionally. What defines the Uncharted games is how the elements combine to make the set pieces such an incredible experience. And they are arguably the best thing this generation of consoles have offered us. Arguably they're the best thing any generation of consoles have offered us. Action sequence follows action sequence with you at the heart of it controlling Drake as he runs from fire, water and ridiculous amounts of spiders, usually with gun in hand taking out waves of enemies. You feel Drake's panic, the voice acting and camera all adding to the games cinematic qualities.

There are two moment in Uncharted 3 that will be hard for anyone, let alone Naughty Dog, to top. The wander through the dessert wouldn't be out of place in a huge summer blockbuster. The plane sequence directly before that takes gaming to another level.

Uncharted 3 isn't flawless, there are occasional control issues with too many actions given over to the face buttons, but frankly it feels like nitpicking to even bring it up. For the first time in a very long time we have a game with genuine replay value. Not because there's more to see or alternate paths to take but because every second of it is a joy.

Best game ever? Maybe. Game of the year? No question.

If you have a PS3, you need this game.
★★★★★
(Multiplayer review soon.)

The Top Ten October 2011

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000Z

The Top Ten people I tweeted in October.

Tweetathon3: The Stuff You Might Have Missed

2011-11-01T19:00:00.003Z

@FliesOpen came to visit.

Us Against The World by danbeames

Dan recorded this for us on the final night.

@timepoorgamer put his baby to good use.

The lovely RB and @emilynia got involved.

Blue Riband challenge http://www.justgiving.com/tweetathon3 (mp3)

@eatmyhalo attempted to eat a Blue Ribband in ten seconds.

@wo0 got whole packet of Monster Munch in her mouth.

My amazing support team @KyeLani and @twosoups took some time out to get some dancing in.

Tweetathon3 The Mother Ukers

2011-10-31T10:00:00.000Z

The last three songs from The Mother Ukers gig at mine during Tweetathon3.

Tweetathon 3: Another 64 Hours

2011-10-30T12:42:00.000Z

Picture from @sadiexport

Where do I start? The first Tweetathon in 2009 was special, the second was a personal mission but the 2011 edition was something else entirely. All that emotion of the first was back, that feeling of Twitter being so much more than the some of its parts and the result is £4500 for Chapter 1 a charity who are not used to that kind of cash injection.

For the first time I had a wing man/woman for the whole time I stayed up. @KyeLani gave up four days of working to join me for the whole thing. She didn't sleep a wink either. Sarah you are just an amazing friend, without you here at the heart of it all Tweetathon would not have been the same. Thank you so very much, love you loads mate.

On the second day we were joined by one of my first follows on Twitter. I can't quite believe that @twosoups was here really. Mate what can I say, you cooked, you cleaned, you kept us going that first morning before you even arrived and between you and Sarah you kept me thoroughly entertained. Thank you for being here, it meant so much, love you loads mate.

So many of you sent me stuff, recorded AudioBoos or took silly pictures and every single one of those random acts of kindness helped to keep me and the team going. Loads of you came to the house to be part of it and that meant the world to me. Friday night was just amazing fun with my house more full than it's ever been, thank you all so much.

The live gig on Thursday night was brilliant to be a part of, go check out the Mother Ukers website for more on the band but massive thanks to @mashupsoldier for organising, it felt like the Tweetathon came to life for everyone else that evening. I have the videos now and I'll get them posted up on here over the course of this week.

For those of you into the stats stuff, the @diaryofaledger account got over 10,000 interactions over the course of 64 hours and over the two accounts I tweeted 3,174 times. That's around 50 tweets an hour. I have no idea how you put up with that in your timelines but thank you so much, I honestly didn't see a single grumble.

Social Networking gets so much stick. As per usual it is so easy to blame the worlds ills on what you don't understand but Twitter has changed my life, changed me if I'm honest and broadened my world like nothing else ever has. Like real life, friends come and go, but at the heart of Twitter for me are a group of people that I genuinely love with all my heart. I think you know who you are without me listing all your names and without you there could be no Tweetathon.

Thank you all for giving your time, your money and your support. You have made me a very proud man.

Much love,

Gray xxx

Tweetathon3: 24 Hours to Go

2011-10-25T08:00:00.000+01:00

At 8am tomorrow morning I will start tweeting and won't stop for 64 hours. There will be no sleeping at all. Not even one of my legendary naps.

Why? To raise money for Chapter 1. You can find out more about them and donate here.

The aim is to raise £2000 although I'll consider raising that depending on how we get on.

I have two Twitter accounts because history tells us I'll get locked out for over tweeting. Chances are you know all about @diaryofaledger but my older and less well know account, will be dusted off for when the inevitable happens. You can find that account here @gray333. You can unfollow it straight after, my previous self really won't mind. If they both get locked out... well we'll cross that bridge if we get to it.

There will be one webcam running constantly throughout, it will be embedded on this site. I'm also going to have a second cam going for most of the key stuff, the start, the end, if anyone interesting pops round... I'll be embedding that one here as well.

There is loads planned, loads not so planned, it's me, you should know not to expect organised. I'll have @kyelani with me for the duration, making sure I eat and drink etc so the webcam won't just be me typing. Although there will be some of that... probably.

Thanks in advance for your support and donations.

Retweet the hell out of me for three days. The hash tag is #tweetathon.

Cheers,

Gray xx