Hello fellow Giantbombers, I have rejoined you once more ! It feels good to be back in the nurturing bosom of my own kin, video game players. Well, maybe it's more of sarcastic and argumentative bosom then nurturing, but I love it all the same. Plenty of tough love. Of which, I have probably gotten enough of these last couple of months which neatly brings me on to the topic of why I'm actually back. Although that still doesn't give this blog any worth or import,  I was a fledgling chick when I fell out of the nest, who among you would a)notice or b) care ? I am not so egotistical as you suppose anyone would, but I figured I might as well make a mountain out of a molehill and lend my return a little gravitas. Besides, I would feel like a bit of a creep just randomly popping my head around the door by posting on some random topic one day after nearly 3 months. So on to the explanation. 
 
School work. Wow, that really doesn't sound that big does it ? Kind of pathetic actually, mind you  - so is asking rhetorical questions.. Hmm. Spin on little brain, get back on track. Basically, I'm in my last year of school and in rainy little Ireland that can only mean one thing, the mother of all exams. The Leaving Certificate. I'm tested on my seven subjects on exams each of which take 3 hours each over the course of June. The results of said exams, determine whether you go to University or not. Ireland has decided to give constant assessment the fingers. It's all down to knowing as much as you can until the 6th month and then ink-vomiting as much of that knowledge onto the page as fast as possible. I shouldn't really be moaning, if I do well and get into University - it's free. While free in monetary terms, I have still had to pay a high price. Bye bye video games. Sayonara Giantbomb. My darling, and I use that word with extreme contempt, parents decided to pull the plug on my Xbox and hide it for the past 3 months. It was only for the past 3 months because I technically have two sets of Leaving Certificate exams, the real thing in June and then mock exams in February. The mocks don't count at all, they are basically just lessons in shitting yourself. Getting that adult diaper nice n' warmed up for you until June. But, mock or not I hadn't done a tap for them. A little circle of green kept telling me to play on, to leave my studies a little bit longer while an X happily blinked at me. Then January came and hit me like a ton of bricks. I was utterly fucked for my impending mocks. So my lovely parents became the Vegeta to my Trunks and tore me to shreds. (Hence, tough love. See ? I don't ramble that much...) Except, you know - we weren't in a hyperbolic time chamber. (Ah, straight back to rambling time.) Although, you could call my mock exams the cell games. Hmm, yeah nice and illustrative. So in an attempt to get me to study, albeit more panicked, gibberish cramming ; they took away my lovely Xbox and games and put them in the attic and also severely restricted my time on the computer. I was caught 4 times lugging the ladder upstairs .. I was close to getting the shakes. But the mocks came and went and I went Super Saiyan 2 on their ass (Okay, I'll stop with the rambling Dragon Ball Z metaphors, it just seemed fitting.). My parents promptly returned my Xbox back to it's rightful place and once more gave me free reign on the computer. Until you know, May when yet again they realize I still haven't done a tap and they take it away. My parents are old school, they keep it cyclical.  
 
So that brings us bang up to date. I've returned to Giantbomb. Well, I've never really left. I kept downloading the podcasts and watched the videos, I occasionally scanned the forums. I just didn't have the time to get drawn into the lengthy debates so characteristic of Giantbomb. But now, I can ! Shake your heads in despair if you must, but baby is right back out of her corner and ready to .. ramble ?  
 
Shazam X