So this time my title was chosen just because it had "break" in it, which is relevant to this blog. Yes, that means I'm going to be taking a break from GameSpot, even though I haven't exactly been spending a lot of time on it anyway, haha. Lately it just seems like all of its appeal has been fading. OT hasn't really been interesting the few times that I've been on and neither have the PC forums, a lot of the unions have either been somewhat the same as the forums or have even been dying and my favorite bloggers have either stopped blogging or their blogs seem pretty few and far in between. I actually considered leaving, but I thought "Nah, I'll just take a break for about around 2 weeks (though maybe it'll be longer, just depends) and then see if I can rediscover my interest in GameSpot," so that's my plan. If I'm still not feeling it when I return, my next blog may be a goodbye blog, so we shall see.

Before I end this, I just want to give a short update on what's been going on with me in several categories for those that are interested.

Games

Not too much to say here other than I'm really starting to lose interest in videogames. This may be a big factor as to why GameSpot isn't really as appealing anymore. I'm not totally giving up yet, as I still have not started on Fallout, Fallout 2, Company of Heroes Gold (thanks to the annoying patches) and Baldur's Gate II, nor have I finished the StarCraft, WarCraft 3 and Crysis campaigns, so the plan is I'll try to finish up some of those campaigns during this break from GameSpot and see if that renews my interest in gaming. But if you guys think I should try some of those classics first, I'll consider that.

Music

The latest music purchases I've made are:

• The JV Allstars - Take Me Back To Spectre
• Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
• Katharsis - VVorld VVithout End
• Negura Bunget - Om
• Born of Osiris - A Higher Place
• Suffocation - Blood Oath

All of them are really great albums so far, and I haven't regretted getting any of them.

As far as music in general, I've been really getting into the whole pop-punk thing lately. The JV Allstars, Blink-182 and Green Day have all been dominating my listening time lately. Also, an exciting thing is that yesterday my friend and I decided to start a Green Day cover band (nothing too serious of course), so we each got a music book for their album 21st Century Breakdown (I got one for the guitar, he got one for piano/keyboard). It's already fun and probably really good for my guitar playing as it's getting me to play something other than metal! Heh.

Life

Life has really been great lately, and this summer has definitely been the best one I've had so far. I've been getting out of the house way more, have actually gone to a party and tried new things and have been doing well in my 2 cIasses (psychology and sociology; finals are coming up in the next 2 weeks!). This weekend I'm leaving early Friday morning to go on this religious retreat thing to Arizona (as you probably all know, I'm not religious, so I'm doing this with my friends as a kind of "old time's sake" thing, haha) and I'll get back Sunday night, then next weekend I'll be going to Indianapolis for the Denker Tournament of High School Champions to compete with other K-12 state chess champions for the second time, so I'm very excited!

Now I know in my last blog I said if I got a request, I'd give an update on the girl situation, but just give me until my next blog on that one, haha.

So that's about it! I hope everyone else has been having a great summer too! And maybe if I learn a full song from that 21st Century Breakdown album by the time I do my next blog, I'll post a video or something.

Peace.