So I didn't get the job on Tuesday. Apparently it was between me and one other guy but they eventually went with him because he had *slightly* more experience. *Slightly*, but enough. I then also didn't get the GAME job the day after but I was expecting that from the start. Being inflexible with my second job and having transport issues probably did it. Otherwise I think they liked me. :) 

NBA Showtime didn't work on the Dreamcast but at least I got to have quick gos on Crazy Taxi, Chu Chu Rocket and House of the Dead 2 while the DC was out. It's back in it's hole and I'm now playing No More Heroes. NMH is an extremely impressive game to start with but there are so many ways to kill people in this game and there are so many enemies coming at you at once that you often find yourself repeatedly pressing A thinking, "I'm sure there's a more interesting way of doing this". When you do eventually pull together a sense of control over Travis (the lead character) it's a deeply entertaining game and it's these bits that will keep me playing. My only reservations at the moment (and I've only really been playing it for 2 hours so far), are the evasive maneuvers that if done too many times can often throw you right back into the path of whatever it was you were trying to get away from, and the town - Santa Destroy - which appears to be absolutely soulless. It's not a fun place to be but at least it gets you to the next boss fight without too much dallying. Ultimately I think this is a necessary addition to the Wii gamer's collection if only for the novel way in which its world is presented and what is an entirely engrossing fighting system.

I'm off to San Antonio on Monday and that should get my head sorted. I'm helping my cousin with her stats homework (she's studying Criminology at university, clever little thing) so I need to look at that again before I meet her over there. Don't be fooled, I actually like maths; it's nice to know sometimes that I'm actually good at something! I have a telephone interview with Customer Systems when I get back from Texas (£35,000 starting salary!) so hopefully that will be the job I get.

All the best and don't forgot to sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/chrishemmens!

Yes, the Ides of April. Never had quite as much literary press as the Ides of March but as the day I post my first blog entry, that'll have to do.

Despite this also being the day I start this blog lots of other interesting things are happening, themselves almost certainly the reason I'm initiating this. I'm waiting hear back from an online auction company in Richmond to see if I've got the job and they should be getting back to me today as they didn't respond yesterday. I have that feeling you get where you've bought a lottery ticket and you start thinking about all things you'll do when you win the jackpot: buy a house, build an egregious games' room and give the other half to family and friends. You know you have a chance of winning but you also know you're just going to be disappointed when only 2 of your numbers come up. I don't play the lottery very much any more (despite my comprehensive background in probability I really shouldn't play at all, I actually find it quite exciting), but the last time I played I won a tenner so I'm hoping that's a sign for better things to come.

I also gave my first negative feedback on ebay today. The guy was selling NBA Showtime for the Dreamcast (still a great machine and I relish any reason to get it out every so often) and described it as being in "exellent condition". I should've seen the warning signs there but I went for it anyway. Sure enough it came "scratched to buggery" (that's the technical term) and crashed continuously. My comments on the feedback said: "When a game's scratched and doesn't work, it's NOT in 'excellent condition'". I try to get my point across as succintly as possible but 80 characters really is much more stringent than you'd think. Never mind; I took the disc into town today and used the disc fixer in Gamestation. If it doesn't work after that at least I'll have only lost a £5 but it's still bloody annoying.

Finally, my rider pack for the London to Brighton Bike Ride came through yesterday so you can start sponsoring me from today. It's brand new so don't be surprised if no one's sponsored me yet. I'm not a bad person. The whole thing takes place on June 15th and should be a lot of fun.

That's it. It's only my first blog and if I ever post again I want to be funnier but I just don't have the energy at the moment. I leave you with a quote from Charlie Brooker's G2 column in the Guardian yesterday:

On May 1 London chooses its mayor, and I've got a horrible feeling it might pick Boris Johnson - or to give him his full name, Boris LOL!!!! what a legernd!! Johnson!!!

What would we ever do without Charlie Brooker, eh? As well as testing that Dreamcast game I also managed to pick up No More Heroes for the Wii today from Game for £24.99. A good price from what I've heard.

Will let you know about my job and don't forget the new chapter from We Tell Stories starts today: www.wetellstories.co.uk. It's quite late in the run but you still have time to catch up if you weren't there at the start. This week's story's got a lot to live up to compared to last week's live story-telling feat but I'm casually optimistic.

I never realised how much I've got to talk about but I've now started and this blog can only improve from here, probably. Currently ripping Spaced to my iPod. Good times.

All the best. :)