Fresh Start

 Something I've been planning for a while but never really had the time to get around to starting was Gare. Whilst the idea started as its own business, and more specifically, for video games, I'm far from the point where that will happen, so I planned to blog about all those nerdy technological things in the mean time. Now I'm actually starting it.

 I don't do an awful lot in my spare time. It usually involves sitting at a computer or playing video games. Else I'll be playing piano. Sometimes I fiddle with gadgets or build models, and I love trying to make things do something they were never meant to -I constantly am trying to find ways to improve things. However, being good at dismantling something doesn't make one good at putting it back together, especially after (heavy) modifications.

 If you haven't seen my ugly mug all over YouTube, then feel free to check out my channel. I'm your classic definition of nerd. I like video games. Too much. I really hope to design my own some day. I'd like to head up a team, write a ground-breaking story, and deliver some of the best material ever. Some time in the future, I'll definitely talk more about this.

 :I actually don't watch a lot of television, but that's because I'm usually sitting at the computer or piano. Instead, I do make use of the internet or even DVDs to watch the classic nerdy things. I generally enjoy movies, as long as they're well-written. I'm pretty critical about everything I play and watch, so if it isn't good, I don't care about it.

 Anime is another one. I never really gave much thought to anime. Like a lot of people my age, I grew up with those well-known classics such as Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon, but no one seems to care about those any more. I definitely believe that Pokémon has gone on far too long, but The Pokémon Company and Nintendo will keep milking it for cash. Just last year, I discovered some more anime that I enjoyed, and started to explore new genres through anime, which is slowly expanding my tastes, so it's quite helpful. I really do like good mysteries, but it seems every different type of mystery has been exhausted, and they're becoming more and more predictable, so it is rare and exciting to see something so different. I also discovered a passion for fantasy over the past few months. I'll admit that I'm not way into it, but some fantasy-based stories that aren't too extremely farfetched can be enjoyable. Most notably, I bought Final Fantasy XIII - because I'd never played a Final Fantasy game, or at least not properly and I wanted to try one out - for Christmas.

 Music is another huge part of my life. I don't intend - at least at this stage - to study music at university, but I love it all the same. I play in a brass band, although I don't play any brass instruments in it. I used to. I still play the instrument outside the band - the cornet, which is kind of like a trumpet. I'll talk more about that some other time, too. I actually play percussion for this brass band, which I just started last year, so I'm also learning how to play the drum kit, as well as everything from the timpani (kettle drums), glockenspiel (which is simple, because I play piano, but the hand-eye co-ordination involved can make it harder to play), and even the triangle. My main instrument is, of course, the piano. I started playing it about seven years ago, around when I was ten years old (right now, I'm seventeen). It was my very first musical instrument. About two and a half years into playing the piano, I started playing the cornet, and therefore eased off of the piano, and stopped playing it. Approximately three years ago, I started playing the piano again, and it's really helpful to all my music, but most importantly, I enjoy playing it.

 At the end of this super-long blog post, I want to talk a little about "Gare".

 Basically, I found an image (my image, that red cog thing) on the internet, when I was looking for.... well, cogs. I was making a plan for a video game at that point, and I wanted a good-looking cog picture, from what I remember. This was about three or four years ago. I came across a good-looking one, and decided to edit it. I believe I rotated it a little, and I inverted the colour, then changed the hue so that I got a nice, deep red colour. I have tried with no success to find the original image again. One day, if I ever officially use the image, I will definitely get it redrawn to look more appropriate and avoid any copyright issues.

 If you have a good imagination (something which I have way too much of), you might be able to see the letter "G" in the image. So, "Gare" came from the word "gear". Okay, kind of obvious. A cog --> a gear. Same thing. But I also thought more about the meaning. Gears/cogs work together. That's part of what the name "Gare" implies. The ironic part is that I'm not as much of a team player as I'd like to be.

 Something you may notice is the name "Gare Works". Sticking with the 'working together' theme, I added "Works" to the end, as kind of a pun. See if you can figure that one out for yourself. But the main reason I added that extra word is when I was checking to see if the name "Gare" was already in use. Yes, it is. Some ancient, foreign pottery shop. Great.

 That's all for now. Readers can finally take a breath and breathe a sigh of relief. But from now on, I'm going to do my best to post regularly. It'll be nerdy, techie, and extremely long, but I can assure you it's worth it. I hope.

~Thomas