…because the storm hasn’t arrived here in Newcastle yet, even though it was supposed to this evening. I’m feeling a bit disappointed now! Hope we still get some impressive thunder and lightning by the time I go to bed (and preferably not in the middle of the night, thank you).
I spent the bulk of today getting my day job work finished for the week. All done now, so I can get back to my game over the weekend! Hoping I might get some actual playing of games done as well if I have time…
A non-parkrun three-miler to do first thing tomorrow though. That would be a good time for a storm not to be happening as well!
Today’s postal haul. I heard about the text adventure t-shirt on one of the text adventure Facebook groups and somehow managed to yoink the last one! I also completed my ‘seven of each running item for seven days’ shorts collection with the Tikiboo Run London shorts in yet another colourway 😀
Today’s earworm playlist:
Melanie C – ‘I Turn To You’ Queen – ‘Somebody To Love’ Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian – ‘Atlantis’ Last Moments’
…and then I spent most of the day doing day job work again. I’ve broken the back of it now and am hoping to finish early tomorrow so I can get back to my game creation!
Geth and I are semi-celebrating tonight, because his academic project bid is very nearly ready to send off (he just needs one last letter from a collaborating party). As we also both did well with our weight loss this week, we are treating ourselves to takeaway pizza as a bit of an early weekend treat. Waiting on it now and getting a bit impatient 😀
Another hopefully early start tomorrow before the storms arrive, and then I can settle in for the weekend…
The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days, but sadly I’ve been too busy to spend much time outside!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Carter USM – ‘And God Created Brixton’ Andy Taylor – ‘I Might Lie’ Carter USM – ‘Glam Rock Cops’ Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ Manami Kiyota – ‘Satorl Marsh’ The Weeknd – ‘Blinding Lights’
…and then straight into work, as it’s been one of those ‘clients are like buses’ weeks with everybody sending projects at once! I’ve been keeping an eye on my hour-by-hour time management today and making notes, as I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated recently by busywork taking up more time than it deserves. Hoping to be able to streamline things a bit over the next few weeks, as I’ve got a lot of projects to be getting on with and I want them all finished by mid-July so that I can start getting some day-long videogaming sessions in! Might as well make the most of not going anywhere for summer holidays this year 🙂
Looking forward to an evening of graphics creation, and hoping for another earlyish start tomorrow so I can get another good chunk of work done.
Geth’s new diary for academic year 2020-21 arrived today. He ordered it early so that we can start planning out CoronaYear 2: The Rescheduling. I LOVE the colour so much that I might be adding a red diary of my own to my Christmas list this year 😍
Today’s earworm playlist:
Melanie C and Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes – ‘Never Be The Same Again’ Yoko Shimomura – ‘Colony 9’ Daniel Bedingfield – ‘Gotta Get Thru This’
…which was fine with me, because I had a lot of things to get on with today!
The day job work is continuing to trickle back in, which is great. I’ve also got lots to do on the text adventure front as mentioned yesterday, and because I’ve obviously not got enough projects on the go at the moment, I decided to start revamping my business website today! This was a planned thing for this summer, because from August I’ll be updating my terms and conditions and putting my prices up for the first time in a few years. However, the website revamp is going to take me a few weeks, I expect, because between the running, work and game creation, I don’t have an awful lot of spare time right now!
I’ve not been at all successful at dragging myself out of bed early in recent weeks, but I really am going to try tomorrow as it’s meant to be quite hot and my four-mile run could end up being a bit miserable if I leave it too late.
An in-progress scene from my latest game. For games with non-goblin settings, I always end up writing in a ton of cars for some reason, and then massively regretting it when it comes to doing the graphics. Drawing cars is tough!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Yoko Shimomura – ‘Colony 9’ Duran Duran – ‘Late Bar’
I didn’t get out for a run until nearly mid-afternoon today…
…as I wanted to get some work finished first. By the time I went out, it was actually really warm and sunny, and I regretted wearing leggings instead of shorts! The sun has disappeared again now though. Hopefully it’ll make a reappearance before too long.
Looking forward to settling down with my game coding again tonight.
That awkward moment when you realise that prom night was eighteen years ago this month. Still glad I went for a flamenco dress rather than something that would date in pictures. The same can’t be said for the Olympus camera (already eight years old at that point) and Nokia 3310 that you can see in my hands!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Heaven 17 – ‘Let Me Go’ Chas & Dave and The Matchroom Mob – ‘Snooker Loopy’* GRL – ‘Ugly Heart’
…because I managed a fairly long run (well, long in terms of my recent efforts!) yesterday, which I was quite pleased with.
The weekend was really good. I spent most of it curled up on the sofa working on my latest game, with Geth playing Xenoblade Chronicles in the background. Today was more weekday-like though – I had a bit of day job work to do, and quite a lot of admin to catch up with. I’ve been neglecting the ‘coronawall’, which is basically a giant display of multicoloured lists pinned up on the living room wall, keeping track of all the stuff we were meant to be doing this year that got cancelled, and what’s happening with rescheduled dates and refunds and so on. After a bit of work this afternoon, it’s now up to date as far as the Great North Run, which was announced as cancelled this morning.
I still find it strange that back in early March I was still living my busy normal life, with races and parkruns and social running groups and family visits and gigs and boardgame meetups with friends and ukulele classes, and wondering why I never had time to get anything done, and then suddenly it all just… stopped. I find it even stranger that I still feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day!
I don’t really see my own life going back to the way it was, either, even if the world does eventually. The occasional event will be nice, but this year has proven to me that I need to spend the vast majority of my time at home, just me and Geth. The improvement in my mental health over the last three months has been absolutely immeasurable, despite the situational anxiety of COVID and everything else that’s happening.
Another nice productive day tomorrow, I hope.
It was a bit misty over the weekend! The Town Moor always looks more beautiful and atmospheric in non-ideal weather, though.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Yoko Shimomura – ‘Colony 9’ Pet Shop Boys – ‘On Social Media’
…as when I first stepped out the door it felt like it had gone from summer to winter in the space of twenty-four hours! I did warm up while running, though, so there’s no need to pull out the winter gear again just yet.
It’s super grey and dark out there today, which is sort of okay with me as it feels like the weather’s gone back to normal. I’ve just been getting on with work and admin and housework so far – hoping for a bit of time to work on my coding this evening.
THE BLANKET IS BACK. Basically any time it’s not boiling hot outside I have this with me on the sofa. I think it’s a comfort thing more than anything else.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – ‘Mêlée Island’ Michael Land – ‘Slappy Cromwell Juggling’ Elbow – ‘One Day Like This’ Hiroyuki Sawano and Gemie – ‘Ashes Suite’
…before the sun disappeared this afternoon. Looks like we’ll be having some cooler weather for a while!
I’ve been making a few test minigames in preparation for the next game jam today. I’ll be working on those for the next couple of days just to make sure I know what I’m doing, as there are a few limitations that need to be worked around this time.
At least the sunshine disappearing means that I don’t feel guilty for not being out in it!
The telltale silhouette of next door’s cat, who only just realised today that we’ve had our windows open. Always desperate to get in!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Levellers – ‘Julie’ Michael Land – ‘On The Hill’ Michael Land – ‘The Barbery Coast’
…and then I had a fairly light day workwise, as I’d worked quite hard over the weekend getting Goblin Quest finished and released, and there was a lot of stuff going on today. Geth had some highly-anticipated (and highly-worried-about) work meetings related to his upcoming career trajectory, and we were also waiting to hear about some important news from his side of the family. I can’t talk too much on here about what’s going on, but I am ending today with a hopeful feeling, which is about as much as I can ask for.
I’ve been doing some initial prep for the next game I’ll be working on, and will hopefully get some more done tomorrow, but on the whole I’m having a (deliberately) slow start to the week. I’ll get back into things properly in a few days’ time.
I find myself woefully unprepared for the hot weather we’ve been having over the last couple of weeks, so I’ve been lounging around in the sarongs that I’ve had since my teenage years.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Lady Gaga – ‘Bad Romance’ Ta Mara & The Seen – ‘Affection’ Michael Land – ‘Monkey Island Main Theme’ Michael Land – ‘LeChuck’s Theme’ The Wonder Stuff – ‘Don’t Let Me Down, Gently’
…but given that today I also did a RingFit Adventure level, a YouTube yoga session, and a long bank holiday walk, I feel I’ve been quite active, really!
I also spent a couple of hours enjoying the sunshine in the back garden, keeping Geth company while he was doing his tree-hacking. The trees are growing quite quickly at the moment, but Geth is doing a good job of keeping them trimmed back. The grass in both gardens is a bit parched, though, so we need to get a sprinkler attachment for the hose next time I take the car for a spin to B&Q!
After all of that, I’ve not had time for much else today. Will get back to the coding tomorrow.
I know very little about plants and so I’ve no idea what this thing is called, but the flowers on it are very pretty.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Alvin & The Chipmunks – ‘We’re The Chipmunks’ Henry Mancini – ‘The Pink Panther Theme’ Ollie Wride – ‘Back To Life’ Tyler Lyle – ‘Lost And Found’ [The Midnight Remix] RingFit Adventure – ‘Warmup Theme’ Sesame Street – ‘Sesame Street Theme’ Duran Duran – ‘White Lines’
