Where I am, have been, and will be...

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Hi guys! My name is Gemini-Phoenix. You may have heard of me...

I've been away for a little while (well, two years actually! Did anyone notice?), but I haven't actually been too far away. Let's say I was just on hiatus and taking a bit of "time out" to deal with some RL issues and didn't feel I could give my all to the CE community during this time. However, I have still continued to perform my role as Social Network Liaison, and have actively maintained the Twitter and YouTube accounts during my time away from the forums


Short story long...


The Year Of Hell

2012 was the year of hell. We had some noisy & abusive Portuguese neighbours move in next door, who would argue and shout at their kids every single day, & beat each other senseless every evening. We felt like we were the ones being abused having to listen to it all. Needless to say, our efforts to get them evicted from the rented property were fruitless, so we decided that we would move house instead.

Now anyone who has ever moved house will know what a stressful experience that can be. Not only did we have to find somewhere new which was suitable, but we also had to show people around our property to find a buyer. I also had to pack up my entire video game and Dvd collection, and in such a way to avoid any casualties. The latter process took me the best part of four to five months to complete! Everything had to be wrapped carefully and packaged to avoid damage! I ended up renting a self-storage unit for nearly a year and I would make regular trips there to stash away box after box. I moved around 140 large boxes in total (each held around 65 Dvd-size games / films), and there it stayed until about three months after we had moved into the new place when I moved it all back again!

That was just the half of it. The new property needed a lot of work doing to it. Rewiring, plumbing, drainage, insulation, the works! It also needed a new kitchen and bathroom, which between them took us the best part of six months to finish! Other rooms also needed work doing to them, taking a good three or four weeks each between three of us working on them on our days off from work.

18 months later we are now in a comfortable place!


Hard work & dedication to the cause

I haven't stopped collecting throughout this ordeal. In fact, I probably collect more now than I ever used to, although my collecting habit have changed over the last two years. I now mostly collect video game CE's and Blu-Ray SteelBook releases, with the latter practically taking over my life as I am trying to maintain a complete set of UK SteelBook releases! It has become quite a chore to keep track of everything coming out, let me tell you! I currently have over 500 Blu-Ray SteelBooks!

I have cut down on the CE collecting a bit lately though, mainly due to not yet deciding which next-gen console to back as my default console of choice. I have neglected all multi-format releases so far, and the only next-gen CE's I have been buying have been console exclusives. That said, I find myself buying more PS3 CE's now than anything else!

It also goes without saying that this stuff is expensive! If G-P wants nice things, G-P has to earn them! Between August 2013-January 2014 I was working soldily for 6 days / 65+ hours per week just to keep on top of my pre-orders! I barely came out of it alive, but now we are approaching the same situation again where I will now be called to do the same in order to buy everything I want this holiday season!


Other collecting projects

As many of you already know, I have my thumbs dipped firmly in many different collecting pies! I haven't got time to keep on top of everything on a daily basis, so something usually has to give. I try to spread myself across all forums equally, but sometimes things don't quite work out that way. During the last few years I have cut down on my internet time considerably due to having to work so hard, and have only really managed to keep on top of the SteelBook collecting sites. Things aren't really any better now, but at least I am gradually trying to make more of an effort to find the time to get back into the swing of things!

My collection comes first though. If it's a choice between sitting at the computer all day talking about collecting, or going to work to afford something new for my collection, I will always choose the latter every time! After all, what's the point in sitting around talking about something unless I have something in my collection to talk about?


The G-P collection

The G-P collection is currently still sitting in packing boxes all around my house! The rest of the new hosue needed so much work doing to it, my new collection room had to wait until last, and will probably not be done up for a long while yet! However, the new room is much arger than the previous one, so I will be able to display things properly in an orderly manner!

The collection has also grown exponentially since the last time any of you guys saw it! New things come in all the time, and I now have so much that I don't even know what I have! Lol! We've all been there, right? Right?

Anyhow, here's a glimpse of some nice pieces of the collection, and also a set of how the old collection room used to look about a week before I started packing everything up to move house:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/xynthymr/sets/



Where I will be...

I hope that my schedule isn't going to be all that busy over the next few months, but of the last two holiday periods are anything to go by, I will be working all hours God gives me to be able to carry on being a consumerism sheep.

I plan on sticking around as much as I can, but unfortunately I am a very busy collector and cannot be everywhere all at once!




I will just say that although I may not always be around very often, I am usually not very far away! I am always lurking around CE.O and other collector's sites, and can always be summoned via the CE.O Twitter account. I can also be reached directly via eMail (ask a Mod), or via one of my secretaries: Vhal_x or SquirrelRaper, who can relay any messages to me!