I’ve been very busy today finishing all my work for the week and getting stuff ready for weekend adventures tomorrow. I’ll update about all of that properly after the weekend!
The sign is up. It was nice running along the Quayside yesterday and ticking off all the bridges!
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Duran Duran – ‘Astronaut’ Journey – ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ Vengaboys – ‘Boom Boom Boom Boom’
Sunday
Jackie Wilson – ‘Reet Petite’ Public Enemy – ‘Harder Than You Think’ Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’
Monday
Vengaboys – ‘Boom Boom Boom Boom’ Duran Duran – ‘Give It All Up’
Tuesday
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Town’ Madness – ‘Michael Caine’ Kanye West – ‘Stronger’ Apoptygma Berzerk – ‘Kathy’s Song’ Public Enemy – ‘Harder Than You Think’
Wednesday
Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’ Lucas Pope – ‘Soldiers Of The Sea’
Thursday
Public Enemy – ‘Harder Than You Think’
Friday
Abba – ‘Thank You For The Music’ The Sweet – ‘Poppa Joe’ Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’
For today, anyway. Lots to do, despite the fact that my clients are mostly on holiday and thus so am I!
It’s been a busy week. Monday was a big accounting catchup day for my business as I’ve not had time to keep up with it over the last few hectic months. Tuesday was spent in Geth’s office at work, as they’re moving buildings again and we needed to pack up all his stuff so it can be transferred to his new office. Wednesday I had a hair appointment and took the opportunity to run a few other errands while I was out, and yesterday was 18-miler day on my marathon training schedule. I’ve also been doing initial planning and coding for my new game!
I was really anxious about yesterday’s run as my long runs so far this training block have been fairly miserable due to various issues. However, everything (mostly) came together yesterday, and I was able to have a really positive, steady run. I’ve recovered really well so am feeling a lot more confident about the remaining long runs on the schedule!
I know I say this most weeks but next week should definitely be quieter… I hope!
Some of the crates provided to pack up Geth’s office were clearly a few decades old! Loving the ’80s font on this one.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Elvis Presley – ‘Return To Sender’
Sunday
KC & The Sunshine Band – ‘Give It Up’
Monday
Duran Duran – ‘Save A Prayer’
Tuesday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Boss Theme A’
Wednesday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Boss Theme A’
Thursday
Duran Duran – ‘Invisible’ Duran Duran and Chai – ‘More Joy’
Friday
Queen – ‘A Winter’s Tale’ Carter USM – ‘The Only Living Boy In New Cross’ Ultravox – ‘Vienna’ Peter Gabriel – ‘Games Without Frontiers’
Twelve days to go until meteorological autumn begins. I am very excited.
Things have been quite well timed this week. Geth and I returned home from the last of our summer trips away on Tuesday, and I finished the last items for the last of my big summer work projects on Wednesday. Work has been very busy over the spring and summer, which has been great, but it’s starting to quieten down again now. I’ll be taking the opportunity over the next few weeks to get a new game made and to have some downtime with my much-neglected videogame collection. I’m also in the sharp end of marathon training now, so I need to get some rest and relaxation in when I’m not running!
I’m finding it hard to get out of the ‘I should be doing something work-related right now’ guilt and letting myself relax, but that’s sort of understandable after so many months. I hope I’ll feel a bit more settled in a week’s time.
So many pictures from our last trip! This is another one from the Mull of Galloway.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
S-Express – ‘Theme From S-Express’
Sunday
Grant Lee Buffalo – ‘The Whole Shebang’ Shoji Meguro – ‘Heretic Mansion’ Duran Duran and Chai – ‘More Joy’
Monday
Duran Duran – ‘Reach Up For The Sunrise’
Tuesday
The Crüxshadows – ‘Return’ Fleetwood Mac – ‘Don’t Stop’ Duran Duran and Chai – ‘More Joy’ The Corries – ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’
Wednesday
Peter Gabriel – ‘Games Without Frontiers’
Thursday
Duran Duran – ‘What Happens Tomorrow’ Duran Duran – ‘Invisible’
Now that it’s the sharp end of marathon training, I’m settling into a bit of a pattern with my Thursday long runs: run through town to a quiet waterside path and then follow said quiet waterside path for requisite number of miles. This week I was back at home in Newcastle, which does not have a handy canal like Edinburgh and Colne were able to provide the prior couple of weeks. Instead it has a giant old river and a path that runs along it sometimes and sometimes not. As such, it required a bit more mental work in terms of making sure I was going the right way. I’m still having a few issues on the long runs, but gradually solving them one by one.
Work is gradually settling down, which means I can have a proper weekend for the next couple of days. Really looking forward to it!
No swimming! This sign has clearly been around for a while judging by the ’80s-style font.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Alan Hawkshaw – ‘Grange Hill Theme’ Madonna – ‘Borderline’
Sunday
Blondie – ‘Rapture’ Hot Butter – ‘Popcorn’
Monday
Welshly Arms – ‘Sanctuary’
Tuesday
Republica – ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ Leo Sayer – ‘Moonlighting’
Wednesday
Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ Billy Ocean – ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’
Thursday
Shoji Meguro – ‘Heretic Mansion’ Duran Duran and Chai – ‘More Joy’
No pesto post again this week, sorry, there’s too much going on.
I’m very nearly (I think) done with my months-long busy work period! Even if I get the usual amount of Masters dissertations over the next month, it still won’t be anywhere near as hectic as it has been for the entire summer so far. One more day of work and then I can have a bit of a breather.
I’ve been going through a bit of a saga over the last few weeks with my feet really hurting on long runs. This has always been a thing but it’s got a lot worse recently (to the point that I can barely walk, let alone run) and I’m getting fed up. My next long run is Thursday and I’ve got a lot of strategies that I’m going to be using to try and mitigate the pain. I really hope they work, because marathon training has been a bit miserable so far with this going on.
The latest pair of ‘extra wide’ running shoes bought in an attempt to solve the problem. Unfortunately it is apparent that I need ‘extra extra wide’ running shoes, and they don’t make running shoes that wide. I also cannot justify buying any more running shoes (they’re expensive and I’ve bought a lot recently to try and solve this problem), so I’m going to have to think about some other solutions.
The next day or so will involve a lot of Googling for the best ways of applying moleskin tape! And work. Gotta finish the work.
It’s been another busy week at work and I’m really glad it’s the weekend. Geth and I are going to parkrun tomorrow morning! It’s finally back in England for the first time since that strange weekend in March 2020, and I’m very excited to return. Our home parkrun has a new name (formerly Newcastle, now Town Moor due to several other parkruns now existing in Newcastle) and a new course and a mostly-new core team running it, so it’s a bit of a new era all round. It feels very strange that we can finally parkrun again after so many false starts, but it feels like the right time. I hope Scotland and Wales aren’t too far behind.
Other than that I’m going to be chilling out with videogames this weekend, both creating and playing. I have returned to Final Fantasy I this week so I’ll be spending some time with that! I’ve also still got a lot of ParserComp entries to get through before the voting deadline next weekend, and I’m really excited to get some coding done as well.
The weather is still hot and not conducive to long runs. I’ve moved my long run day to Thursday, both because of events happening later in the training programme (to be precise, due to COVID-induced race lag, the rescheduled GNR falls precisely three weeks before the rescheduled-rescheduled London Marathon, and in a marathon training programme you’re supposed to do your 22-miler three weeks before marathon day, and I’m not doing an extra nine miles before or after the GNR! …so I’ll do it on the Thursday and have a gentle plod round the dodgily-rerouted ‘GNR’ three days later, no racing it) and because mental health wise I need FULL WEEKENDS at the moment that are not completely taken up with running, so it’s best to squeeze the long run in on a weekday instead. My last two long runs have ended up being cut short due to heatwave collapse, so next week I’m going to grit my teeth and attempt an out-and-back in the hope that, by the time I’m struggling, I’ll already be ‘on my way home’ and so it’ll be mentally easier.
Lots of groups and classes from pre-pandemic life now inviting me back, but as I’ve always said, these things will need to happen very gradually for me as I don’t want to jump straight back into Constantly Doing Stuff. Ignoring the FOMO and doing my own thing for a while longer.
My favourite tree in the garden. It looks great in the summer.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Yuna’s Theme’ Crowded House – ‘Weather With You’ Don Henley – ‘Boys Of Summer’ Duran Duran – ‘Give It All Up’
Sunday
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Cosmo Canyon’
Monday
Paul Weller – ‘You Do Something To Me’
Tuesday
Calvin Harris – ‘Summer’
And a bonus track Geth was humming that day:
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘To Zanarkand’
Wednesday
Therion – ‘Summer Night City’ Duran Duran – ‘To The Shore’
Thursday
Boston – ‘More Than A Feeling’ Levellers – ‘The Fear’ Duran Duran – ‘Shadows On Your Side’
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’
No adventures in coding to report this week. I would like to have been playing with a few experimental games I want to make and working on my ongoing projects, but I’ve been snowed under with day job work and haven’t had the time or energy. Hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel by the end of the week!
I also need to switch this thing on tonight and check it’s still okay, as I haven’t had time to use it for a few months now. Maybe I’ll actually have chance to play games on it one of these days!
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’**
