Happy Hallowe’en!

It’s been a busy day, despite the fact that I didn’t get out and about to the various things I’d planned! The deadline for the game jam was extended by a day so I’ve been doing a lot of extra playtesting – plus of course there was a pumpkin to carve and a lot of horror films to watch in honour of the day 🙂

I feel I’ve been so busy with the game that I’ve not really had the chance to relax and enjoy Hallowe’en yet, so I’ll be extending it over the weekend!

Pumpkin carving
Not really an OOTD ’cause you all know that jumper: I finally got to carve my pumpkin today! Normally I do them so early they’re already squishy by Hallowe’en 🙂

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – Ordinary World
John Carpenter – Laurie’s Theme
Duran Duran – Hungry Like The Wolf
Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man

Hallowe’en is almost upon us!

Just got off the treadmill, having done my nightly ninety minutes to get my steps in. It’s a good thing I decided to set my daily step goal as an October target, because I’ve been so busy with my text adventure this week that I doubt I’d have got any exercise in otherwise! Didn’t even make it to ukulele class this evening, although I will be back with a vengeance next week.

Eight and a half hours to go until the jam deadline – and I expect I’ll be up for quite a few of those hours getting everything finished off!

Busy day tomorrow too…

Pixel lantern
Not an OOTD: I’m still loving making my pixel turnip lanterns! Much easier to make on the computer than hollowing out the real thing…

Today’s earworm playlist:

Michael Land – Lucre Island Lawyers
Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
Fleetwood Mac – Big Love
Duran Duran – First Impression
Michael Land – The First Church Of LeChuck…Orthodox
Duran Duran – 911 Is A Joke

Still tapping on

Just under thirty-three hours to go until the text adventure jam deadline. Up early tomorrow for one last push to get it finished!

Pixel lines
Not an OOTD: the base of a graphic before I start colouring it in.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – A View To A Kill
Duran Duran – Secret Oktober
FM-84 – Bend And Break
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John – You’re The One That I Want

Counting down

Last few days before Hallowe’en. I’ve still got a lot to do, the main thing being to get my text adventure game finished! It’ll be a bit of a squeeze but I’ll get it done. I’ve also got an article to finish, some editing to do for a client and a poem or two to write – not to mention a lantern to carve and a lot of TV and films to watch! Going to be a busy few days.

I’ve mainly been coding and walking today (still getting those steps in every day). Up early tomorrow to get started again!

Hallowe'en paraphernalia
Not an OOTD: my pumpkin is still uncarved, and Geth has put some boardgames on the table that we will probably be selling next year, including Fury of Dracula (the cover of which is now annoying me because I’ve only just noticed that despite the game’s title, Dracula actually looks really happy on the box artwork!).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Michael Land – The Smugglers’ Cave
Michael Land – The Scumm Bar (MI4)
Blancmange – Living On The Ceiling
Squeeze – Tempted
Duran Duran – Secret Oktober

Tabletop spookery

Today was mostly taken up with Hallowe’en boardgaming – Geth and I had some friends round and we played a couple of seasonally appropriate games that I’d been wanting to try for ages.

The first was Last Friday, which is a hidden movement game that…let’s say ‘pays homage’ to summer camp slasher movies such as Friday the 13th. In this regard, it has the same theme as Camp Grizzly, another favourite among my collection, though they’re very different games – Camp Grizzly is a simple and not-very-replayable Ameritrash game, and while it’s thematically brilliant (and hence will always have a place on the game shelves), Last Friday is so much more in-depth and long-lasting as a game.

The second game we played today was Ghostel, which is a nice short dice placement game where you control ghosts competing to scare off the most hotel guests! Very easy and fun.

After the boardgaming guests had gone, I started the annual Hallowe’en TV-watching traditions with a few ‘Treehouse of Horror’ episodes of The Simpsons. Looking forward to a few nights of this!

Ghostel
Not an OOTD: the Ghostel board. The plastic ghost pieces are so cute!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – 911 Is A Joke
Duran Duran – Secret Oktober
Duran Duran – White Lines

Extra time

It’s been a pretty busy day (and this will continue for the next several days until…um…Christmas, maybe? The non-stop time of year has started!).

I did Jesmond Dene parkrun again this morning and took more than three minutes off my time from a fortnight ago – knowing the course makes a huge difference! I then spent a bit of time sorting out the house this afternoon as Geth and I are hosting a Hallowe’en boardgaming session tomorrow, and since then have been working on an article I’m writing for a website.

I’ll be mostly boardgaming tomorrow, but will also be squeezing in a bit of time for working on my text adventure game!

I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful for the extra hour you get from the clocks going back…

USB sticks
Not an OOTD: just some of my collection of USB sticks. I carry them every time I leave the house, even when running, because I’m paranoid that the house will burn down and I’ll lose my entire life’s work of writing and other computer files (I don’t store stuff on the cloud ’cause I don’t trust it). Carrying them while running is a bit of a pain and I’m hoping to find a better way of doing things at some point.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Michael Land – Lucre Island Lawyers
Marc Almond and Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart
Ultravox – Hymn
Duran Duran – Secret Oktober
Duran Duran – 911 Is A Joke

Inside

I’ve had a day in the house today (meaning a treadmill walk this evening to get my steps in!). I’ve mainly been working on my text adventure – the end is in sight in terms of the actual programming, but I’ve still got quite a lot of graphics to create.

I’ve also spent a bit more time looking into job opportunities. There’s a few different things I could do and I’m going to spend a bit more time researching them this weekend.

Looking forward to having another go at Jesmond Dene parkrun tomorrow morning!

Pixel turnip lanterns
Not an OOTD: some more pixel details, this time of turnip lanterns.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Jon & Vangelis – I’ll Find My Way Home
Michael Land – Inside The Governor’s Mansion
Squeeze – Up The Junction
Duran Duran – Secret Oktober

Onwards to tomorrow

I had a good walk this morning, but otherwise it’s been a bit of a frustrating day as I’ve not been able to concentrate or get everything done. Hopefully I’ll be a bit more with-it tomorrow.

I’m tentatively jobhunting at the moment, as business has been slow recently and some additional financial commitments mean that I really need to find some extra work. Will be sending out a lot of applications this weekend.

Jars of pesto
Not an OOTD: on the plus side, at least my pesto stocks are looking healthy.

Today’s earworm playlist:

New Order – Temptation
Gomez – Whippin’ Piccadilly
Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett – The Monster Mash
John Lennon – Woman

Phone Box Thursday: High Street, Edinburgh

Some more of the phone boxes I photographed on the day of the EMF 10k. Here’s a nice duo that stand next to a bus stop on the Royal Mile.

Red phone boxes
Red phone boxes, High Street, Edinburgh, 25th May 2019.

(Coordinates 55°95’04.4″N, 3°18’55.6″W.)

(I’m not sure why, but it seems that Google Street View has started blurring out the word ‘Telephone’ in images of red phone boxes for some strange reason! Maybe they consider it to be the phone box’s ‘face’.)

These two have succumbed to a certain amount of graffiti and flyers – as expected given it’s the centre of Edinburgh – but on the whole they’re still in fairly good condition.