It crept up on me this year because I’ve been so preoccupied with marathon training and coding stuff since January. But it’s now warm-ish, I’ve not slept well for a few weeks because of the light, the spring marathon is done and I have a packed couple of months of mini-trips lined up. Including going abroad for the first time in four years! It’ll be really strange to be on planes again.
However, for the moment, Geth and I are back home in Newcastle after a nice few days in Edinburgh recovering from the marathon. A quiet-ish weekend beckons if you don’t count the jubilee stuff going on in our street and at parkrun and on the TV!
Out and about a bit more than usual for a Sunday today. In addition to my recovery mile, I went out for a nice walk in the sunshine as I needed to drop off some extra water for Geth on his long run. It was warm out and lovely to mooch along in shorts and t-shirt – it feels like summer is beginning.
Geth and I are back in Newcastle after a few days in Edinburgh visiting Mum and Dad. It was so good to be able to wander around my home city again! I was still fairly busy with day job work, but I was also able to get some running in, including a long run along the Union Canal accompanied by Dad on the bike. The company and extra water (and choice of out-and-back route) meant that I actually finished my planned distance this week! I will be running along a totally different canal next week, but hopefully it will give me a similar boost.
Other than a bit of parkrun volunteering tomorrow morning, I’m planning a very quiet weekend!
Some beautiful aqueducts along the Union Canal! Photo (c) John Cooke 2021.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘The Place I’ll Return To Someday’
I didn’t have much of a weekend last week because I was too busy with work, and I’ve been working every evening till late this week as well. As such, I have zero brainspace left and I need some time off. Part of the reason I worked evenings this week was because I wanted today off so that I could have a three-day weekend, as I knew that the first day would just be a ‘staring into space’ recovery day after the last few weeks. I also aimed to do my weekend long run today in order to get it out of the way early. However it’s been really, really hot today – too hot for running comfortably – and I ended up cutting the run short after halfway, as the heat was making it unsafe. Next week I’ll get up really early so I can get out and back in before the heat gets too bad.
I’m really looking forward to the rest of the weekend now. Brain rest will be amazing.
Laptop, loungewear, sofa. It’s been that way for weeks, but this weekend it will be that way in a non-work way.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Dragon Quest Town Theme’ Duran Duran – ‘Invisible’
Sunday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Chocobo Jam’ Paula Abdul – ‘Straight Up’
Monday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Yuna’s Theme’ Duran Duran – ‘Give It All Up’ Simply Red – ‘Something Got Me Started’
Tuesday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘To Zanarkand’ Cast of The Sound Of Music – ‘Edelweiss’
Wednesday
Duran Duran – ‘Pressure Off’
Thursday
Robbie Williams – ‘Time For Change’ Duran Duran – ‘Winter Marches On’ Duran Duran – ‘My Antarctica’
There’s been a lot of rain this week, but the temperature has not lowered and sleep has been difficult due to the muggy night-time atmosphere. I’ve also had so much day job work I’ve not had time for anything else. I’m obviously thrilled that business has been booming recently, but I’m looking forward to a bit of downtime soon!
Not much else to report this week as a result. Hoping to be able to squeeze in some game creation as well next week.
(It’s hibernation except in the summer rather than winter, and is how I would quite like to spend my July.)
As mentioned yesterday, I released a new game this week: Waiting for the Day Train, a submission to ParserComp. I’ve got all sorts of feelings about releasing this game. As I’ve discussed over the last few weeks, the plan was to submit my work-in-progress Marie to the competition, but I’ve realised it will need a lot more development (to the tune of the better part of a year), and so Waiting for the Day Train, which I had vaguely conceived in my head while visiting Causey Arch when Mum and Dad were visiting a few weeks ago, became my last-minute replacement for this particular competition. It’s shorter and simpler than a lot of games I’ve made recently, but that meant I was able to have it tested properly and polish it up quite nicely, and I’ve become very attached to it over the last couple of weeks. I’ve also realised the importance of having short, fun game projects on the go as well as big ones. Big games are important to make as I’ve got big stories to tell, but it can be hard to keep the momentum going over the course of a project that takes a couple of years. Short games always feel fresh. I’ve got a lot of them I want to make now.
I’ve also been very busy with day job work over the last few weeks. This is great, as it’s a continuation of business really picking up this year after last year’s pandemic-induced slump, but during busy times it can be a lot of work for one person to do.
I’m still going to be working on the aforementioned short game projects during July, but I’ve done some careful scheduling to make sure that, like day job work, it all gets done during the week. I need to start switching off my brain at weekends again, as I feel like I’m burning out a bit.
Today’s postal arrival. Not books. T-shirts 🙂 A present to myself for releasing another game.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Duran Duran – ‘Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)’ Shaggy and RikRok – ‘It Wasn’t Me’*
Sunday
Dee Cooke – ‘Waiting For The Train’**
Monday
Dee Cooke – ‘Credits’** Elton John – ‘Crocodile Rock’
Tuesday
Lucy Spraggan – ‘Lighthouse’ Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Dragon Quest Main Theme’ Dee Cooke – ‘Credits’** Dee Cooke – ‘Waiting For The Train’**
It’s not been the most straightforward of weeks. I’ve had a uveitis attack for the first time in two years, so I spent half of Wednesday in the hospital waiting to be seen. I’m on the usual course of eye drops, which as usual provided almost instant relief when I started using them, but they are making my vision very blurry so I’m having to take a lot of screen breaks.
There have been good things happening this week as well, though. I’m still buzzing from the big PB I got at the Sunderland 10k on Sunday, even though it really took it out of me and I’m still not fully recovered yet! I’m also in a really good place with the short game I’ve made for the current competition after putting my big work-in-progress on hold for now. I’ve just prepped it for testing and am hoping to hear back from some potential playtesters soon. My chief playtester (Geth) has promised to have a good go over the weekend as well!
Summer, such as it is, is starting to wear on me now. I always feel really uncomfortable at this time of year. The endless daylight makes me feel a bit ill, and the whole season feels a bit strange and otherworldly to me. We get (occasional) hot weather! That’s not supposed to happen in this part of the world! Also, I sort of feel like the season lacks a focused celebration. Autumn has Hallowe’en, winter has Christmas, spring has Easter, summer has… your summer holiday? Which I haven’t felt I’m in a position to take properly for well over a decade, as it’s a busy time for my business, so even when I do travel in the summer I’m usually still working from wherever I am in the world. It’s a bit of a dragging time of year, and I generally spend most of it trying not to wish time away and get too excited about the autumn. Especially when they keep releasing news about the upcoming series of Strictly!
On the whole, then, it’s probably for the best that this is an especially busy summer (well, by pandemic standards), meaning I’ve got lots of things to keep me occupied. I’ve got quite a few ongoing clients booked for over the next month, and I expect the Masters dissertations will start to arrive in August, so there’ll be no shortage of day job work. I’ve also got a lot of games to make, and a lot of games to play… and a marathon to train for!
In short, the summer might not feel as long as it usually does…
Another picture from the Causey Arch trip a couple of weeks ago. I took a lot and have used some of them for graphics in my new game!
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Eric Hammond – ‘Berlin (Königgrätzer Marsch)’
Sunday
Michael Land and Clint Bajakian – ‘The Crab Raft’
Monday
Dee Cooke – ‘Outside Building’ Duran Duran – ‘Ordinary World’ VNV Nation – ‘Genesis’
Tuesday
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Dragon Quest Town Theme’ Andy Taylor – ‘Night Train’
Wednesday
Roxette – ‘Fading Like A Flower’ Laura Branigan – ‘Self Control’ Alice Cooper – ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’
Thursday
Michael Land – ‘DeSinge’s Theme’ Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – ‘Locomotion’
There’s been a lot to adapt to over the last few weeks. This weekend will be the fifth in a row where Geth and I have something on, which after a year of nothing at all has been a bit overwhelming at times. I’m going to enjoy my race on Sunday (it is really nice to be racing again!), but I’m already looking forward to next weekend, which is nice and empty now that the parkrun return date has been delayed by another month due to the government roadmap.
I made the decision this week to delay the release of the big game I’ve been working on for the last three months. I wanted to put it into the currently-running competition, but it would be a rush job to get it finished in time for the deadline and I’ve worked so hard on it that I don’t want to put out a rushed, substandard, buggy release. Delaying it to the next big competition gives me an extra three months to get it perfect. In the meantime, I’m having a great time making a fun little game for the current competition instead – I coded the entire game in a few hours yesterday, and now have another twelve days for bells and whistles, polish and playtesting! It is really nice to feel ahead of the game rather than stressfully behind.
Work is still fairly busy too, so life is a bit of a balancing act at the moment.
The weather has been fairly glorious recently so it’s been nice to enjoy the garden. Geth has worked hard on it recently and it’s a lovely place to sit.
Two weeks’ worth of earworm playlists:
Saturday 5th
Liam Payne and Quavo – ‘Strip That Down’ Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’
Sunday 6th
Howard Jones – ‘Like To Get To Know You Well’
Monday 7th
Duran Duran – ‘The Seventh Stranger’
Tuesday 8th
Duran Duran – ‘The Seventh Stranger’ Duran Duran – ‘Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)’
Wednesday 9th
September ’87 – ‘Bad Dream Baby’ Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Dragon Quest Main Theme’ Duran Duran – ‘New Moon On Monday’ Duran Duran – ‘Too Late Marlene’ David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida – ‘Where Them Girls At’
And a bonus track Geth was humming that day:
VNV Nation – ‘Genesis’
Thursday 10th
Duran Duran – ‘New Moon On Monday’
Friday 11th
Apoptygma Berzerk – ‘Eclipse’ Alexandra Burke – ‘Broken Heels’ Duran Duran – ‘Save A Prayer’ Duran Duran – ‘New Moon On Monday’
Saturday 12th
The Wonder Stuff – ‘Welcome To The Cheap Seats’ VNV Nation – ‘Beloved’
Sunday 13th
Mabel and Notes – ‘Fine Line’ VNV Nation – ‘Fearless’
Monday 14th
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Dragon Quest Main Theme’ ATB – ‘9pm Till I Come’ Duran Duran – ‘Invisible’
Tuesday 15th
Duran Duran – ‘Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)’ Duran Duran – ‘Girls On Film’ Metallica – ‘Enter Sandman’
Wednesday 16th
Duran Duran – ‘New Moon On Monday’ Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – ‘Locomotion’ Duran Duran – ‘Come Undone’ Andy Taylor – ‘Night Train’
Thursday 17th
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Dragon Quest Town Theme’ Duran Duran – ‘Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)’ Kuana Torres Kahele, James Ford Murphy and Napua Greig-Nakasone – ‘Someone To Lava’
