To all my fellow Americans.... Happy 4th of July, and to my other friends in other countries, I hope you have a good day as well :) .

*Note, for those who don't know what 4th of July is in the U.S.A., it's our Independence Day.

What a long day, another in a series of long days, short nights and early mornings, x5 lol. A brief but accurate summation of events that lead to me not haunting the site regularly as I normally do is just- a series of serious events with my family and some more personal that basically steam rolled me and required the bulk of my time. Most my free time when it happened in crazily random moments I was pretty much useless from exhaustion, both physical/mental that if I had access to the net, I was too wasted to care. lol. Things are slowly getting back to a more normal roar. (NORMALCY! I was starting to wonder at the meaning :) ).

I have so much to catch up on, it's ridiculous. Gaming news for example. I have a gap in my head, it spans from about Nov.1 - Now. lol. I don't know how long it will take to catch up with all that, I'm not used to feeling so out of the loop!! Oh, and get this- I'm using one of my other gaming rigs right now- becaues the one I'm usually on has to have the hard drives replaced. Yep, you guessed it, I have to dl all those programs, games, music etc. back on there- why? because I procrastinated and didn't get the external hd's I've been 'meaning' to get for who knows how long and do the backup. UGH! I had such a cool high level character on Skyrim too, and close to 100 mods lol. Start all over now, oh well- serves me right.

I also have to get a new TV stand- I got one right before the world went sideways for me but didn't put it together yet, box was just sitting in my floor, well, recently my mother's TV finally kicked the bucket so naturally I was the one who had to pick out a TV to bring her into the modern era lol. Well, the stand I bought for my soon to purchase TV I gave to my mother for her new TV so I put it together w/her assistance (all blk.metal/tempered glass), and then set up her new HDTV/players/satellite, gave her my nice new surge protector and my snazzy hdmi cables for her hookups, so now I have to replace these things lol.

Well, this week I'm going to work on replacing those things and get my stand put together while I still remember it fairly well (it was 'fun' enough getting the box in my car the first time- rain didn't help either!). The HDTV I'm getting is 1080/120hz/3D/Internet/PC connectable/47" -I couldn't go any bigger than that because I'm setting it between 2 long windows. The windows in the front of the house are maybe 3" from the floor to almost 1.5ft. to ceiling. My baby blues are very sensitive to light so I got some of those black out liners to go under the curtains and they're great, I could make it dark in the middle of the day, plus they're also helpful with privacy and cutting your a/c bill. Also have some bd/dvd stands to put together, will be getting the hard drives dealt with & probably get the ext.hd next month. It also wouldn't kill me to detail my car, it's under that pollen somewhere lol.

When I'm not doing one of those things, I'll be trying to catch up on gaming/PC news. I tried to pick up a PC Gaming mag. when I could but it's not enough here and there to stay in the know. I did buy a few games and look forward to trying them but the first thing I'll probably jump on, that I've had an itch for is Hard Reset Ext.Ed. -after I first played that, I replayed it again when the ext. ed. came out, and then replayed it all over 'again'. Also been wanting to play the first Witcher E.E. (I like to play it with the music cd that comes with it with songs by different bands -anyone else do that?). Those 2 popped in my head and won't go away. They're a good starting point.

Anyhow, I need to get going. Picked up a little bit from my local electronics store today -love getting new hardware/software. :) Got a new HD camera at the beginning of the year on sale that I've not had time to use- I have a lot to do and look forward to. **Well, what are the rest of you playing when it's game time?

**Who played Bioshock Infinite and liked it? Disliked it?

**Who wants to list maybe the top 5 gaming/PC stories from Nov. to now? LOL ouch.

O.K. I'm out of here. Brain's fried, I've about had it for the day. If I'm reallllly lucky, maybe I'll get in bed before midnight. (doesn't happen a lot lately). Game On.

please stand by. Thanks to all that have written, got a quick peek at those. I'll write a blog when I'm back. Take care and game on :) *Reallly missed talking PC with my PC people, who always get special props, and my new Mac friend :)

NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, CHECK OUT MY LATEST REVIEW- SPEC OPS: THE LINE (PC). :cool:

I've been spending a lot of time on Steam these days, with having more free time than I'm used to and curtailing my activities, I've managed to log quite a few hours on a semi-regular basis on Steam. (*Note- you don't have to be 'logged onto' Steam to enjoy your Steam purchased games).

I got quite a few nice deals on the recent annual Steam Summer Sale- titles purchased listed below:

• Torchlight $3.74 (-already had a physical copy as well).
• Project Aftermath $5.00
• Dreamkiller $2.49
• Sniper Elite v2 $33.49
• Deep Black: Reloaded $7.49
• Exodus From The Earth $5.99
• Max Payne 3 $29.99
• Still Life $2.49
• Still Life 2 $2.49
• A Stroke of Fate: Operation Valkyrie $2.99
• Divine Divinity $3.99
• Eschalon Book 2 $3.74
• Tropico 4 $7.49 (already had physical copy).
• Dear Esther $2.49
• Men of War: Condemned Heroes $7.49

Also occuring each year is Killing Floor's Summer Sideshow Event which consists of free content and a new free map as well (and achievements too), the sideshow lasts about 2 weeks and they also repeat this later in the year with Twisted Christmas and there's Halloween content too- it's all free and it's every year. If you're not familiar with Tripwire Interactive's Killing Floor (available on PC/Mac ONLY, hard copy or Steam download) then take a minute and look it up and watch a couple videos. It unfortunately always gets referred to as 'a poor gamer's Left 4 Dead'.... Killing Floor plays differently (and to be technical doesn't have zombies- they're 'failed experiments') and isn't as polished as Valve's zombie shooter. The things they do have in common are an active community (can always find a game), dev. support years after release, and gameplay centered around co-op and single player respectively. If any of this interests you, check them out over on Steam at www.steampowered.com . (To the ladies and other interested parties, there is, as of today, 1 playable female character- purchased as dlc or in the Gold Edition of the game which has all dlc).

Left 4 Dead 2 also had some free content to grace my PC recently, Valve officially released the Cold Stream campaign (even though most of us already played the beta- was interesting to watch all the changes and then the end result, which isn't exactly how I would've done it but I never complain over free content!), and Valve also released a big patch of their own for the game.

Sticking with Valve/Steam, they recently got together with the good people at Overkill and released a Mercy Hospital mission/campaign set right before the zombie outbreak that was L4D for Overkill's game Payday: The Heist. This is/was free content. It's a good mission as well. One of my favorites. (Payday The Heist -available digital only- Steam or Psn-only). Payday also just released their first paid dlc Wolfpack (to my other single players out there, you can play Payday as sp).

Also for you arena fps lovers, Nexuiz is having a FREE WEEKEND ON STEAM- THROUGH MONDAY 10AM PST. It's also 75% off if you try it and like it, and want to buy it you can do so significantly reduced this weekend(this game uses CryEngine3). Nexuiz is also now a part of Steam's Workshop -where you can create maps of your own or just use other gamers' creations.

Speaking of the Workshop, my Skyrim/Dawnguard game is very happily modded. :) I've said it before and I'll say it again, but if you're playing a large open-world game -like Skyrim- and you're not playing it on PC, then you're only getting part of the game. This isn't a system wars thing at all, but missing access to all that free content and the ways it picks up the slack the dev. left and enriches it (yeah some mods are just silly and don't interest me, but it's the exception) then you're just playing a shell of the game I'm playing. You can't make someone that's never played a modded game understand, but trust me, it's true, and if at some point in the future any console players get the chance to play on PC with mods, you'll understand then. Any Skyrim is better than none and I'm glad consolers can play it too, we're just playing different games.

A few notable games on Steam on Sale:

• Binary Domain (don't even bother if you're playing m/kb) $9.99
• Jagged Alliance- Back In Action $13.59
• The First Templar Special Steam Edition $9.99
• Grand Ages Rome -Gold $7.49
• ETC -Steam has 3 PAGES of sales to check out, plus daily deal etc. Check it Out.

That's enough rambling for a while :) For those that have kept up with my medical situation- test came back (finally), didn't show what they wanted and now I have to do another that reveals with more detail. She won't talk about it much, just kept saying, 'I want you to do another one'. :question: Oh well, will jump off that bridge when I come to it :) Thanks to all that have sent uplifting messages to my inboxes and my blog. It's appreciated.

Be Good, Be Courteous, Be Victorius, Game On :)

P.S. WHY ISN'T THERE A 'FOLLOW' FOR 'HUMAN ELEMENT' (coming out on PC, next gen. and tablet) ON GS???! CHECK WWW.GAMEFRONT.COM FOR INFORMATION/INTERVIEWS RELATING TO IT!! (AT LEAST UNTIL GS GETS IT ON THIS SITE BETTER!).

Hey Everyone! :)

Just a quick note- I don't have much time left, need to get going- I have a test (another) this morning, not really looking forward to it, it will be painful but I can handle it, not over quickly, but it should be very telling- I just have to be prepared to potentially hear the word 'cancer' today. Some won't tell you even if they see it, they make you wait and pass that dirty work onto your doctor.

Anyhow, that's what I'm looking at today, I wish I could leave from there today and go jump back into the warm waves like a couple days ago. Time in the sea = fixes all ails :) -does for me at least. When I get home, I'll probably hide under my rock for a while, lick my wounds and the rest will depend on what information I get today.

I need to get going! Take care all. Wish me luck. *waves*

These changes suck, it almost feels like they're going out of their way to drive me from this site. If this becomes a site that's just 'facebook for games' you can count me out. I'll leave. I've left sites before, it's not that hard after they've pulled the last straw and gs is getting dangerously close to that for me. The last site I used and left before I came here was ign.

I don't really have enough concentration right now to do a 'real' blog -this is just me venting because it was quite a bad shock this evening peeking in on the site, got p*ssed quickly to be honest, I'll go into details of what I see as wrong or suckish about the site later, I'm tired of repeating myself on it tonight, perhaps tomorrow I'll have more patience.

What are YOUR thoughts on the commenting/blog changes? Am I the only one here HATING facebook??! I'm going to take a smoke break, then play some Half Life 2 Episode1 -it won't disappoint or p*ss me off further lol. Take care all.

Hey Everyone,

First let me say, to those who have sent messages to my inbox- please be patient, it's going to take some time to get through it all! Anyhow, been a couple weeks or so- some of you may remember me mentioning my ailing family member and me talking about making time count, well, she passed last week. She had it very rough before the end -it's very hard to watch someone you care about suffer so much and you're powerless to help them. I would just brush her hair for her (she always liked that) and sometimes she'd stare deeply into my eyes (but was unable to speak, though I'd talk to her as I brushed her hair for her, she looked at me like she wished she could say something to me) but at the end, she was oblivious. I was a paul-bearer, was all that was left that she needed.

Enough of that.... I got my PC up and running, just didn't bother to hook it up because I was too exhausted living on the road since January! I have a lot of things I have to catch up on. Like washing/vaccuming my car, gaming news for the past 2 weeks, I see the site changed some, my inboxes lol.... whenever I get the rest of my life caught up where it belongs, I'll probably check out some more of the Skyrim mods, was having fun with that right before my hiatus. What about the rest of you? Anything intersting in life? What games are you all playing, anyone want to tell me what I've missed in the gaming world in the last 2 weeks other than Witcher2 Enhanced?

Hey Everyone!

In a few days I will be getting some parts in to replace some that were damaged in shipping, but after that I will be back to normal. Won't take too long. With this, the weather (rain/storms from Maine to Florida this weekend!), and my level of exhaustion, my online time isn't too reliable right now. I'm kind of frazzled lately -I can't even decide the type of game I'm wanting to play -I'll play a bit of this one, some of this other one, download another couple- I hate when I get like this!! Fortunately, there's always a few 'old reliables' :) (The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, Morrowind goty, Stronghold free build mode for my inner architect, etc.).

So, what about the rest of you- everyone's machines running well, games going well, the rest of life treating you o.k.?

• What are you all playing in your free time?
• What's coming out that you're looking forward to?

When I get my parts replaced I'm going to jump into "Yesterday" -Anyone else get that -it just recently released (PC). I'd love to read a review on it.

Well, that's it for me for now- about all the concentration my brain has left for the moment! -and I shared it with you all here - lol.

Be good, be courteous, be victorious. Game On.

P.S. Catch some of the MLG StarCraft2 ProCircuit this weekend on gamespot! IT's been Awesome!

What a long couple months... Anyhow, it's good to be back here, still busy overall but I will be able to be on here more often, which is good, I enjoy reading the site and others as I try to stay in the know and keeping in touch with certain users who thankfully always seem happy to talk PC to me :) *Special thanks to my PC people, you know who you all are*. In all honesty, I'm so fried I can barely think right now but I plan to be around this weekend and try to rest up and maybe then I can say something worth reading!*

I got my new PC running last night, was working on it late, fell asleep sitting up with my head hanging down- rough on the neck! So, I went to bed, was after 3- close to 3:30a.m.(EST), got up late 5o'clock hour- I can manage on a couple hours. This coming week, I'm considering doing a blog that's been requested a few times. To those requesting, I can't give a solid answer yet, because I'm still on the fence about it.

It's a nice dark rainy day here:), nice day to put my feet up, light a candle on my desk and put my new beast to a test.

What are you all playing in your free time??

Hello Everyone!

Been a while, I know, but I've been on the road a lot, going from rehabilitation facilities to hospitals to business offices, occasionally I can get into my very nice, comfortable bed, but not enough it seems. Sometimes I'm doing stuff in town one day, out of town the next- many days I'm both in and out of town in the same day and am barely functioning by the time I pull into my driveway. Been going on fumes and running on auto-pilot. All that said, things could still be worse. They always can, no matter how bad things in your life suck right now, trust that it can always get worse. Just be happy it's not :) (I try to remind myself of this regularly).

Anyhow, my family member is stable for now, but we got some bad news the other day about her, she's got level3 renal failure, that along with some of her other problems doesn't give her much of a chance at living more than a few months. She's not a candidate for dialysis, so when that becomes a need, it will just be a couple days- you can't live without kidneys working, not more than a day or 2. So, this sucks but you just have to make the time you have left with the person count. I also spend a lot of time letting my mother cry in my arms. I've never been much of a crier, I was brought up by my father to be the strong one others leaned on for support. I don't even cry at funerals. I bottle things and later, they usually eventually come out as rage.

O.K., now I'm going to point out the obvious..... I MISS MY PC TIME!!!! :) My PC is- an addiction. (My new one should be complete soon). What I wouldn't give lately to just prop my feet up (I have a cushioned top ottoman under my desk I prop my feet/legs on while I'm here :)) and pick a game to escape into for a while and relax.

Well, speaking of relaxing, I don't have much time left. I might still be on spotty for a while but soon (couple weeks or so) I should be on more often, but not quite 100% yet. I've missed talking with my Gamespot contacts and reading the site. Take care everybody and *Tell me what you're playing! (*If you're not gaming, what are you up to lately- I told you, now it's your turn!:) ).

(Recent game purchases: Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition, Men of War Gold pack, Darkness2, PrankT.V., something else-? can't remember -ALL PC!!!!).