But getting back to the more physiological issues you can have. Personally speaking I tend to hunch up when I’m in the zone. My mind is relaxed when I’m gaming but my shoulders are just one big lump of tension and it can take 24 – 48 hours for that type of pain to go away. So I went looking around for something that would help out with these aches and pains I was having and came across a service offering a tantric massage in London and I was intrigued. I’d never really had a massage before so a tantric massage sounded even better to me. The fact that my massage was going to be delivered or whatever by one or more very beautiful young women was enough in and of itself to kinda sway my decision. Stay posted for updates on this one guys.

So anyway my buddy who we’re going to refer to as Ken was moving into his own place and asked me to come around and make some suggestions about how I could improve the place. When I first walked in there the first thing that popped into my head was “Probably some petrol and a match mate” but that was just because the place was really messy. Typical of a landlord to do this to a first time renter who didn’t know any better.

So after a quick look around and binning most of the crap that was left there and stuffing anything that looked remotely useful into the existing wardrobes we had something that looked like an apartment except for the street lights shining in from outside. Now that was going to bug him when he was gaming and I knew he’d need some blinds and the best place for blinds in Windsor was the same crowd I’d bought mine from – Blind Inspiration. I didn’t even need to think twice before I mailed my buddy (even though he was standing beside me) their telephone number. They’d never put me wrong I knew they wouldn’t put him wrong either.

Now buying a French vineyard isn’t cheap and it isn’t straightforward but it is entirely possible. For me it put the thought into my head of an investment that I could seriously consider for later in life, if I came into money, made my fortune or just plain old won the lottery. Like I said vineyards aren’t cheap – most of the entry level ones are several hundred thousand Euros – but they are something that you can plan towards as you get older. Or maybe even split the investment between a few friends and share both the cost and the running of the place and get a holiday home included for the same price?

So that whole idea created the right buzz for my trip because I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer and the idea of owning my own vineyard has appealed to me ever since that European summer. And if you take the time to pay these places a visit I’m sure it’ll appeal to you too.

I’d spent a long time building up the cash to actually buy this rig so the idea of coming home to find it soaked and totally fried wasn’t something that appealed to me – I know you know what I mean. It’s funny how attached you can become to a piece of computer hardware but when you’ve worked hard to get the cash to buy it and spent time customizing it then you don’t want anything stupid like a water leak ruining your buzz right?

So like a good nerd I just called somebody in to fix the problem for me. I do games and nerd like stuff. I don’t do crawling around in attic spaces looking for leaks and then trying to fix them. It’s not me and it’s probably not you either – it’s who we are. We’re gamers and that’s what we’re really good at and we can kick your ass online while eating some kinda snack. We just don’t do DIY stuff right?

Halo changed all that and created the type of avid fan base that had never really been seen before. The Quake series of games had enjoyed a very strong following for several years but the following that Halo developed went above and beyond that – the Master Chief was going to become more iconic than anyone in Bungie probably ever thought possible. The range of Halo toys and even costumes tells you how popular this game is with the public….I don’t ever remember a Quake costume do you? (Btw I really, really want the Deluxe Master Chief costume. Really).

So that’s why the original HaloBB forum was setup in the first place – to promote the original Halo game and of course Halo 2, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Reach and the upcoming Halo 4 game too of course. We aimed to be a home for everything Halo for fans from all over the world and to grow a community that loved “Noble Team” and Spartans as much as the rest of us. We wanted to keep Halo as fresh as the very first time you played it way back in the early days of the original Xbox.

We also wanted to customize the phpBB forum script as much as we could to provide as user friendly an experience as possible for our forum members and of course to have the best phpBB tweaks that were out there so we used the phpbbhacks website a whole lot over the years to make this forum the place that it was.