Simon Plumbe - Personal Diary!

This is an idea I have "borrowed" from a friend of mine, Wally Wingert, who has been writing a regular weekly diary on his website about all his latest activities and I thought that it might be interesting to get my own thoughts written down. I might not always put something here on a daily basis, but it might shed a little light into what I usually get up to..! I've decided that I won't be updating this page anymore (although I haven't updated it for a long time anyway!). Instead, check out my blog over on my myspace page here. I should be posting there every day or two. Sunday, 11th April 2004 Quiet again in terms of updating my diary, but I've been keeping busy. Just had the first of a two-part feature printed in Micro Mart (issue 794) regarding Legal Emulation. It was pretty cool writing for them again after a prolonged break even though I still don't enjoy the deadlines! Saturday, 10th April 2004 It's hard to believe, but it's only 4 weeks to go before Auto Assembly 2004 takes place and we're still nowhere near ready for everything! It's going to be good meeting up with some old friends and making new ones though and I can't wait. Friday, 13th February 2004 Been fairly busy the last few days. As well as overloading eBay with items last night, I've been doing a lot of negotiating for Auto Assembly again, as well as trying to co-ordinate artists and writers to work on a fan comic to produce for the convention. At the same time, we're moving into a fairly busy phase in terms of bookings so that means publicity work, ticket designing, mailings and more. My PR work has been doing well over the last few days. I signed a client for the gaming PR company a couple of days ago, and issued the first press release on their behalf today. It's already prompted a response from magazines, so I think it's been a successful start. Friday, 23rd January 2004 Another quite couple of weeks. Well, I've been trying to recover from Christmas, and then I've been working pretty much completely on Auto Assembly. I'm involved in a lot of heavy negotiating and publicity, so it's taking up more time that I expected. Then I ended up buying a Commodore 64 again. It's great to relive those old memories, but it's a little too compulsive...! Thursday, 1st January 2004 It was a fairly low-key New Year's Eve for me, doing very little apart from catching up on watching some DVDs, doing some writing and web design, and spending time online chatting to friends. The only downside to the day was having to take a website offline that I had been doing on behalf of a client. He hadn't paid for the design/hosting costs for his site for 2004, and despite constant emails, hadn't even acknowledge the impending demise of his site. I hope everyone else had a great time with their New Year celebrations though! Today's CD: "Back In Time" - Chris Abbott Friday, 26th December 2003 Most people would use the holiday season to spend time with their families, or avoiding the endless repeats on television... not me though! I've done a few updates on a couple of websites, mainly to promote a sponsorship deal we have just arrange for Auto Assembly 2004. Keeping myself occupied like this is also having the effect of stopping me from over-eating! I think I might actually be in the minority of people who actually LOSES weight over Christmas. Today's CD: "Master Of Puppets" - Metallica Today's Game: "Star Wars: Rebel Strike" - Gamecube Wednesday, 17th December 2003 It's been fairly busy for the last month. I've been doing a lot of work on Auto Assembly 2004 negotiating for all manner of surprises for the attendees, doing some web editing and loads of other things in between as well as preparing for Christmas. Just finished a website for a client about the Crimean War and a rather unique and personal diary from an officer serving in the war. I'm quite pleased with the overall feel of the site, although it's more functional than flamboyant. You can see the site here. Been applying for a few full time writing positions, but not had much luck lately. However, I have now joined a small fledgling PR agency working in the computer games field, and I should be signing my first client in the next 48 hours, so it's an interesting diversion. Other than that, I've been having a house clearance on eBay, and I think I've spent most days either listing new items or preparing parcels to send. Almost makes me feel like Father Christmas...! Today's CD: "S.P.O.C.K 1999" - S.P.O.C.K Today's Book: "Tietam Brown" by Mick Foley Saturday, 15th November 2003 Major updates all round for various websites. I'm trying to pace myself throughout the weekend with this, but I'm expecting to add a lot of written content to the Infinite Frontiers and Auto Assembly sites, some updates here, and updating and minor adjustments to at least two other sites I'm assisting with. Hardly a relaxing weekend... Today's CD: My entire S.P.O.C.K collection to preserve my sanity! Today's DVD: More Transformers - only another 19 episodes to watch... Friday, 14th November 2003 Great excitement today - the Transformers Season 2 Part 1 box set arrived from Metrodome as there was footage from this year's Auto Assembly event. Luckily I wasn't anywhere to be found on the disc, but it was great to see something you've worked on to be a DVD special feature. Today's DVD: Transformers Season 2, naturally! Wednesday, 12th November 2003 It's been a busy day over on the Auto Assembly forum. I don't know why, but a lot of the members decided to become very active and ended up posting a couple of hundred times throughout the day. It's great for the forum, but extremely time consuming to administrate, having to read every single post! Monday, 10th November 2003 Oh well, so much for this being a daily diary! Seriously though, I've been working over the last few days writing reviews and doing some web design for about 5 different sites including this one so things have been a bit busy. I had my review copy of the latest Smackdown! game for the Playstation 2 arrive last week so I've been playing that extensively. I manged to get the finished review online at the weekend, but I still keep playing...! I do need to put it to one side for a bit though, as I'm going to be starting some DVD and film reviews for another website soon. I've got some ideas for what I want to write already, but I've just got to find the time. Not easy when I've got to do a bit of scriptwriting for a couple of actors as well! Today's CD: "Alien Worlds" - S.P.O.C.K Today's Game: "WWE Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain" - Playstation 2 Wednesday, 5th November 2003 It's far too noisy outside to concentrate on writing. Fireworks are exploding every few seconds and it's enough to give a guy a headache! Made some alterations to a few websites though before preparing for a massive sell-off on eBay on Thursday. Today's TV: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Tuesday, 4th November 2003 Well, I decided to give myself a push this week and I've been approaching a number of editors with a view to pitching some article ideas. I've been developing ideas for several one-off pieces as well as at least two ongoing features so it's just a case of playing the waiting game. Monday, 3rd November 2003 Been a crazy weekend. Spent Saturday in Cardiff with my fiancée (where she lives) and the rest of the weekend filling in job application forms! Managed to bring myself up-to-date with all of the forums and websites, handled some email and then realised I needed to do a bit of scriptwriting for a couple of actors... but I'll save that for another time! I realised that I needed to do some work on several of my websites as well, so I managed to update a few of my sites, with more to come later in the week. Today's CD: "Queen Of Space" - S.P.O.C.K Today's Game: "WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth" - Playstation 2 Friday, 31st October 2003 Screaming kids everywhere and fireworks going off... not the best of environments to help me concentrate! I've been busy putting together a package of article ideas that I'm hoping to pitch to a few editors next week. Most are one-off pieces, but one is potentially an ongoing feature. I should have these off next week assuming I can find the time to write them up! I've been nearing the end of another personal project. For the last few weeks, I've been designing a table top strategy battle game, and it's approaching completion. All it needs now is some extensive playtesting. I was mainly designing this for fun, but who knows where it might end up! From the early playtests, it seems to work really well though, so I might have problems meeting a few deadlines...! Today's CD: "WWE Anthology" Today's TV: The Osbournes Monday, 27th August 2003 A fairly quiet day. Spent the day at the "day job", before devoting half the night to sitting in front of the keyboard working. Made a couple of updates to some websites I'm designing for a couple of clients (one involving some irritating menu buttons that took far too long to update!), and working through the final stages on the Crimean Diary site preparing it for it's official launch in about a week's time. Made some progress with Auto Assembly 2004 as well. Managed to talk to Hasbro UK with a view to them making an appearance. It's looking promising, and I think they'll make a great addition to the planned activities for the weekend. Still managed to keep the forum updated and reading all the posts on there, and avoiding all of the awkward questions we're being asked about the event. Well, we don't want to give too much away at this early stage...! I was a bit concerned after hearing about the raging fires in California, so I made sure I had emailed a few friends to make sure they were okay. Everything seemed fine, so I was able to sleep without worrying too much! Today's CD: "Where Rockets Fly" - S.P.O.C.K And what have YOU been doing lately?!