Some famous person once said something about small steps and giant leaps...  I think something similar should apply here to my Journal, and the whole Ranking process here at Gamespot.

(Confused yet?  Read on.  *grin*)

Day to day, those of us who are fairly regular here at Gamespot perform our usual tasks.  We log on, check our messages, browse through our Friend's Journals (and occasionally make some noise there), make a new comment in our own Journal, check some updates on Games we're interested in, perhaps even watch some video reviews or something similar...  and then we move on, to do other things.

All Small Steps in their own right.  Each action adds in some small increment to that lovely percentage bar you can see underneath the word Profile but above the words About Me.  Once a day or so, the Great Gods of Gamespot update our percentage bar, and we inch our way forward towards a new Rank.

But sometimes, things occur a lil' differently around here.  Some of you may recall the weirdness of earlier this month, when I think nearly everyone here at Gamespot leapt up at least one Rank, for no particular reason that I am aware.  Somewhat of a Giant Leap, wouldn't you say?  Now, a lot of people had their theories (including myself) as to what had happened, and I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find an answer in one of the Forums - but that would involve looking, and it's more fun to guess, don't you think?  :)

Point is, from time to time we make much larger jumps in our percentage bar - much more than we might on a normal day.  And the reason I bring this up (finally...  :-P) is because it's happened to me again.  Yes, I've had a sizeable jump in my percentage.  Earlier today?  Rank 17 - 97%.  Right now?  Rank 18 - 31%.  Now, I was reliably informed by several Friends of mine (who shall remain nameless - *cough* Vash *cough* Cantius *cough*) that after Level 17 I would be jumping straight to Level 20.  Which seems to have not happened - instead, I'm merely Level 18...

(So yeah, this is another one of my Rank Up type entries.  Just thought I might put a bit more thought into this one than most of the previous ones...  *grin*)

You may now refer to me as WerePaladin, the...

Flicky

Erm...  What's a Flicky?  Is this another one of those weird Gamespot Rank names that I don't understand?  I kinda liked Magician Lord, and I didn't quite get Minus World...  But now I sound like a horse - wasn't it My Friend Flicky or something?  :)

NEhow, hopefully I'll bounce my way up to Level 19 soon, and lose this Rank name as well.  Let's see what tomorrow holds, eh?

Have fun out there in Gamespot Land, people!  Chat to you again another time...  :)