Hizang's Highpoint's and not so Highpoint's of 2012.
By Hizang 16 Comments
Since 2008 I have done my own 2012 awards, this year I decided to start a new trend and just say fuck it. This is the place where I talk about what happened in 2012, the good, the bad and the ugly. These are not just about video games either, this is about anything that I found to be quite important this year.
I Platinumed my first Platinum and that will be my last Platinum.
I've had a PS3 since 2007, it's strange how it took 5 years to actually get my first Platinum trophy. Since trophies launched I really did care about trophies, so much so that they changed the way I played certain games. I played Dead Space with just the Plasma Cutter because there was a gold trophy that i could get if I did that, some may see this as a waste of time but I really enjoyed my time using it. In Dead Space 2 there was no trophy for just using the Plasma Cutter, but I ended up just using it anyway, which gave the game much more tension.
Ever since I played Saints Row The Third I really wanted to play it again, so i went ahead and beat it a second time through. After I beat it I still wanted more, so I went and played so much Saints Row I was near the end of getting 100%, so I went and got myself that trophy. It felt really good after I got it, but then when I looked at my playtime and what else I could be doing I felt kind of stupid. Sure Saints Row the Third is an amazing game, but towards the end I spent 10 Hours doing all those stupid missions, which could have been time spent elsewhere. For what? A silly blue icon that nobody os going to bother to look at anyway? Since that day I never gave a fuck about trophies, I hardly ever look at them anymore and I think I'm better off because of it.
The Apple Fanboy in me screamed and I jumped.
I was coming hot off the heals of Apple's shoe last year, I got myself an iMac and dreamed up an entire list of Apple related products that I wanted. Around February and March i picked up both an iPhone 4S and an iPad 3, I went out and bought them both outright without having to do a contract. I always laugh when I do this because when I say I just want to buy one, the people in the shop look at me like I'm some crazy person, nah son I'm just LOADED!
The new iPhone was not a big change, my past one was the iPhone 3GS so although it's a bigger upgrade its still just an iPhone. The better camera was cool and the screen just looked so nice. But it's not that much different from the 3GS. The iPad was a different story though, I wasn't sure I would need one, but the Apple fanboy in me screamed so I bought one. Now that I look back I kind of wish i got an iPad 2, sure the screen looks a little bit nicer, but it's a whole lot more heavier and it was way more expensive. Other than that it has been awesome, it allowed me to watch the entire Giant Bomb Endurance run (Via the cool Giant Bomb Video Player App) without leaving my bed. Each night I would watch one or two episodes and that continued for months, I had already kind of watched it before but when I originally watched it I skipped around alot.
One step closer to the digital future.
Netflix has been in the United States for years, when I visited there as a child I saw Netflix vending machines, Netflix would never come to the UK. But early this year Netflix did in fact come to the UK, I wasn't too interested. I was proud of my Blu Ray and DVD collection. But when I got a free month I decided hey thats cool, man this is really cool, oh my god where have you been all of my life, lets fuck already! It's low low price of £5.99 a month VS one DVD of a TV series costing £20 really could not compete. I managed to get rid of so many DVD's and clear up so much space, and with that I was able to watch some amazing shows and movies. Breaking Bad and LOST are some of the biggies but there have been plenty, I haven't really bought any DVD's this year and about a handful of Blu Rays.
Gymness!
If you told me, a year from now I would be a regular at my local gym, I would insist you have the wrong person. I never really enjoyed P.E in my school and I never really desired to be a muscle man. But midway in the year a friend of mine joined a gym, not the one I ended up joining but a gym. She always talked about how good it was and she told me I would never keep it up. At the time I was having breathing issues, I've always been quite slim but this year I kind of got a bit bigger. Sure I'm still slim/average but i knew it would just get worse. So I bit the bucket and popped down to my local gym, I got the full package and well four months later I am still there where as my friend is not.
I love going down the gym, the people, the atmosphere, the fact that I know it's better than sitting around and the fact that it's also pretty fun is just amazing. I've pretty much stuck to similar things throughout the four months, but I'm still throughout enjoying myself. I stuck with Boxercise, Spinning and the actual Gym since I started. Swimming only lasted in the summer and fall, now it's so cold Swimming doesn't seem all that fun. I also took up cycling down, but again the drop in temperature and increase in rain has encouraged me to job.
The friends I have made there is pretty crazy, I didn't think I would ever make friends outside of work, but there are some people I have met at the gym that I know rather well. I even convinced my friend from work to come and join, she is still going too so it must be good, The gym is no longer the place I go to get fit, it's part of my life now, I wouldn't want to give it up for anything.
Start those butt jokes up again.
So I found out I had an STD this year, me also being gay didn't make me a stereotypical fighter. It sucked, for 6 months I went back and forth getting lasered and frozen and examined all in the butt area. So many times did I had to expose myself to a team of medical doctors and nurses and on one occasion a room full of students. It did't feel like me, I always felt like I shouldn't have been there. Now I'm in the all clear, I look back and I accept what happened and who I am. If anything it made me a stronger person, I kept it all to myself up until the end, I booked all the appointments myself, traveled there by myself and just delt with the fact that I had a Disease alone. Once I opened up I felt better, but then felt worse...
The Depression story.
I broke down, one day in October I just collapsed, I had a panic attack and contemplated committing suicide. I was unsure why I felt so shit but i did, now that I'm on the road to recovery I can look back and analyse my problems. My problem was a mixture of loneliness, uncertainly and I was bored. I have fixed all of these problems now and addressed them, I go out with my friends a lot now, I have more friends as I go out more and I make myself interact more. I give more rent to my parents now, I help around the house more and I'm forcing myself to save for the future, I accept that not everybody knows what they want to do with there life. I should not stress that I'm still in the same job that I have been since 2008, I should just embrace it and feel grateful I have a job and that I have money. I have learnt to feel happy again, the road to happiness is acceptance, yes I have an STD, yes I stutter, yes I'm shy, yes I don't have a clear idea about what I want to do with my life but god damn yes I'm going to be happy about it.
The year of the backlog.
Late last year i took a look at my PS3 collection, I had a lot of PS3 games. Right now I have a staggering 158 PS3 games in my collection, this is just retail copies so thats not even counting downloaded games. But yes that is indeed a large collection, I decided this year to really pound out these games I have, so yes I still bought new games but early on in the year I missed out on so many 2012 games because I as too busy having fun with older games. Brutal Legend, Darksiders, GTAIV, Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed, Borderlands and Super Mario Bros are just a few of the highlights.
Bricked!
Late last year Tested's started discussing LEGO on there podcast, they continued to talk about it up until the announcement Bricked. Bricked was a race between Will and Norm to see who could build there LEGO structure the tastes, I couldn't take anymore and I went and bought Luke Skywalker's Speeder. Ever since then I have been picking up LEGO models and really still enjoy building shit. I'm not as hot on it right now, but only because I have built so much LEGO that there is no room for anymore. I have always built all of the cheaper sets that I'm interested in so all I have left now is the expensive shit, so wish my wallet luck next year.
2013?
I don't know what lies for me in 2013, 2008,2009, 2010 and 2011 all had there ups and downs but 2012 has been the craziest year yet, I would not change anything about it. I do have a few things I would like to accomplish though.
- Keep the gym up.
- Learn to cook more,
- Learn to drive.
- Look for a new job.
- Take up a musical instrument and stick with it,
- Beat 40 more games.
- Enjoy life.
Thanks guys for sticking with me for another year, I know some people hate me and some people love me, but hey, I'm always going to be Hizang!
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