Penultimate day of Christmas and we have begun to transition back to normal in our house! We have nearly eaten up all the seasonal goodies and my TechUp course has started again after the Christmas break. However, neither Geth nor I are back at work until next Monday, so we’ve still got a bit of breathing room before total normality resumes.
Between work, studying and marathon training, I’m about to head into a fairly intense few weeks. Nevertheless, I would much rather frontload the year with all the busy stuff in January and February (and hence be distracted from the rubbish parts of winter: bonus points). It looks (at the moment!) as though things will gradually get less busy throughout the course of 2022, which is the good way round.
Just need to avoid taking on too many new projects. Easier said than done!
Last tube of Pringles for this Christmas. The aim is for them to be gone by tonight… I suspect between the two of us we should manage it.
I always intend to post lots of blogs at the end of the year with lots of big lists of all the things I did and the media I consumed and my highlights… but December is always so insanely busy I never get round to it. Maybe in 2022 I will write them as I go along haha! It’ll just have to be one megapost this year…
This year’s big resolution was to sort the house out. I did not do that and now it is one of 2022’s big resolutions. Other things have just taken more priority.
Business exploded in a good way this year, which means that I’m now working a lot more hours. It’s taking a while to adjust my life to this, and I’m beginning to realise that I can no longer just plan a trip away midweek on the assumption that I won’t have much work to squeeze in. 2022 will be a lot stricter in this regard.
I continued writing and coding text adventures and being involved in the wider interactive fiction community, and managed to release four games for various competitions. My highlights were winning the Scott’s Choice Award from legendary text adventure game creator Scott Adams for Barry Basic and the Quick Escape, and winning PunyJam #2 with Morris, my first ever PunyInform release. I also enjoyed making a short game for ParserComp based on photos of the beautiful area around Causey Arch after visiting it with Mum and Dad, and my first ever attempt at speed IF for EctoComp!
Since October I’ve also been very busy with studying for the TechUP Software Development course. I have learnt a lot of Python and other very interesting things that I will be taking forward as my career gradually transitions more towards tech. (The Python knowledge will also enable me to do some very fun stuff with my game development!)
Running has continued on a more positive trajectory this year, with races and parkruns returning. I am nowhere near as fit as I was in March 2020 when everything shut down, but I have still managed two important PBs in 2021 – I took nearly five minutes off my 10k PB at the Sunderland 10k, and more than 45 minutes off my marathon PB at the London Marathon. I have also completed the second year of my daily run streak today and am hugely proud of that, as it’s been very difficult at times. Finally, parkrun-wise I have visited two new-to-me parkruns (Girvan Prom and Southwark) and earned my V25 t-shirt with my 25th volunteer stint!
As usual, I didn’t listen to much new music, but I absolutely loved the long-awaited new Duran Duran album Future Past, and I was over the moon at finally being able to see them live in Birmingham in September. Geth and I then saw Andy Taylor the very next night back home in Newcastle, and we had a great time seeing Soft Cell in Leeds in November. Lots more COVID-postponed gigs to come in 2022 (and some reviews of the ones I’ve recently attended!).
I watched pretty much zero new TV shows and films this year, though there were a few I added to my ‘buy the BluRay at some point’ list. I did record a lot of stuff on my digibox though! Geth has watched thousands of hours of YouTube channels about gaming and running, and I’ve enjoyed those by virtue of being in the same room. I did enjoy the Strictly series in the autumn, as ever.
I didn’t manage to find nearly as much time for videogaming this year as I would have liked, but there have still been a good few games to enjoy. In addition to playing all the other text adventure games in the jams and competitions I entered (see above – and also finishing off the Adventuron Christmas jam games from last year in January!), I finished Bravely Second in time for the much-anticipated Bravely Default II coming out, played Bravely Default II on and off from February but have still not made much headway ten months later, played the interesting demo of Project Triangle Strategy (set for full release on Switch in 2022 as just Triangle Strategy), finished Final Fantasy I (finally! I will be moving onto FFII for 2022), got very freaked out by Return of the Obra Dinn, got most of the way through The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, played about ten minutes of Pikmin Bloom before deciding it wasn’t for me, enjoyed a couple of old ’90s platformers for Christmas that I’ve loved since childhood, started Braid again (will actually finish it this time!), continued enjoying the lovely meditative filler game Link-A-Pix Colour, and COMPLETED EVERY SINGLE DEMO ON THE NINTENDO 3DS ESHOP (a project I’ve been working on for years). Watch out for next year, when I will be putting some serious effort into finding a lot more time for games!
I have lots of plans and resolutions for 2022, but I’ll talk about those tomorrow…
Snowflake leggings and new silver nails – all ready for New Year.
I’ll do a separate earworm playlist post soon…. maybe (I’m considering starting to log that separately from the blog and doing a yearly chart instead). So far it’s three weeks’ worth of Christmas music and Disney/Pixar soundtracks. I must admit I am looking forward to listening to something else in January in order to clear it all from my brain.
I’ve got two more work weeks to go before I can take my Christmas break, but I’m hoping there’ll be a gradual wind down now after a very busy year. Business has picked up over the course of 2021 in a way that I couldn’t have imagined at the start of the year, which has been amazing, but I’m still getting used to the vastly increased workload and will be having a bit of a rethink over Christmas about better ways of managing it all. My hours are much closer to full-time now, which has become very apparent as I’ve tried to fit my TechUp studying around work over the last couple of months, and next year my life needs to be planned accordingly. I can no longer just arrange midweek travelling on the assumption that I’ll only have to fit in a couple of days’ worth of work over the course of the week – I need to be at home so that I can get everything done. As such, it’ll be weekend travelling only in 2022, especially as I expect to be fairly busy with taking the first steps towards a career change post-TechUp.
It’s a bit daunting but it’s also exciting. I wonder what things will be like this time next year.
It’s been a busy week for me with work and my wee trip to Edinburgh. Some work things now coming in for next week but I’m really hoping to get the last of my pre-Christmas TechUp modules done as well!
In the meantime, though, I’m looking forward to a quiet-ish weekend. Geth and I are volunteering at parkrun tomorrow (doing a new role!) and then possibly doing a run outside once we’re back, but after that I will be getting my weekend hibernation on.
Dad found me another old computer book! This one belonged to Grandad and came out in 1984, so it’s an interesting historical read.
Cast of Yanomamo! – ‘Burn Them Trees’* Cast of Yanomamo! – ‘Forest People’ Cast of Yanomamo! – ‘The Jaguar’ Amilcare Ponchielli – ‘Dance Of The Hours’ The Beatles – ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
Monday
911 – ‘Party People… Friday Night’ Duran Duran – ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’
Tuesday
The Carpenters – ‘Rainy Days And Mondays’ Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston – ‘It Takes Two’ Perry Como – ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’
Wednesday
Geraldine McQueen – ‘Once Upon A Christmas Song’
Thursday
Eartha Kitt – ‘Santa Baby’
Friday
Sia – ‘Cheap Thrills’ Chris Isaak – ‘Wicked Game’ Cream – ‘White Room’ Mika – ‘Grace Kelly’
*The Yanomamo! tracks were a bit of a flashback to a primary school performance. Apparently there was also a TV version shown in 1988, which I need to track down.
Friday evening is here, and so we move from weekday busy to weekend busy. A nice change of scenery!
It’s been a really busy week with work and so I’ve not had time to do any studying. Hopefully I will be able to fit that in next week. The course organisers have just released three new modules so there’s plenty to get on with between now and Christmas.
Geth and I were meant to be volunteering at Jesmond Dene parkrun tomorrow, but unfortunately they’ve had to cancel. Under normal circumstances this would mean I’d be scrabbling around trying to decide on a replacement parkrun, but there’s an all-day TechUp online event tomorrow and it’d be nice to attend all the sessions for that, so I think it’ll be another week with no parkrun. I definitely want to get back to it next week though!
On Sunday I’ve got my last race of the season. A bit late this year – next year I’ll definitely be ending the season with the GNR in September! But it’ll be nice to tootle along for 10k and get some fresh air, assuming the weather’s not awful. We’re then seeing Mum and Dad later in the day, which will be lovely.
The weekend after should be a lot quieter… which will be a well-timed lull before the busy Christmas visiting period!
Same new hair as on every haircut day, but this time with bonus tree lights.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’ The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’ Celine Dion – ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me’
Sunday
Bing Crosby – ‘White Christmas’
Monday
Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’
Tuesday
Herman Hupfeld – ‘As Time Goes By’
Wednesday
Elton John – ‘I’m Still Standing’
Thursday
Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’
Friday
Masashi Hamauzu – ‘Thunder Plains’ Boyzone – ‘A Different Beat’
It’s been a really productive week! Lots of work and game creation done and another interesting TechUp module finished. I also have a giant pile of parcels from various postal services that need to be opened and wrapped in Christmas paper this weekend!
Next week, if all goes well, I will be taking a bit of downtime. I’m well caught up with work and studying and will be blitzing as much housework and Christmas admin as possible over the weekend. My game is also now drafted and in the testing process, meaning I just need to finish tweaking and finessing it before the jam deadline on Sunday evening.
The main reason I’m going to be trying for a quiet week is that December is going to be non-stop. Mostly in a lovely way (proper Christmas celebrations with family etc.), but I get a bit unsettled when lots of non-routine things are happening, so it’d be good to have some mental recharge time beforehand.
Geth and I have both had head colds this week. I shook it off fairly quickly, but Geth has been feeling fairly rough and has decided on a strictly-indoors weekend in order to try and shake it off before Monday. This means that if I’m parkrunning tomorrow, I’m doing it by myself, and I still can’t decide where I want to go. Might end up making a very last-minute decision!
Some of the framed pictures in last weekend’s hotel room (it’s all super art deco in there).
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Duran Duran and Chai – ‘More Joy’ Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ Soft Cell – ‘Sex Dwarf’
Sunday
Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ Soft Cell – ‘Bedsitter’ Duran Duran and Tove Lo – ‘Give It All Up’ Irene Cara – ‘Fame’
Monday
Roger Miller – ‘King Of The Road’ Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ Duran Duran and Tove Lo – ‘Give It All Up’
Tuesday
Roger Miller – ‘King Of The Road’ Soft Cell – ‘Sex Dwarf’
Wednesday
Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’
Thursday
Arcadia – ‘Lady Ice’ Traditional – ‘Deck The Halls’
Friday
Dr Hook – ‘When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman’*
I was panicking a bit last week because I felt like I was really behind with the TechUp course (I was a week behind the advertised schedule). I knew from the online course forum that most people were in the same boat, but it still felt like it was taking forever. However, once I’d finished the huge beginners’ Python module, the next few course modules turned out to be much quicker and easier and I’ve been able to get through them in the space of a few days. It means I’ve got some time to have another look at the Python projects I had to rush through in order not to fall further behind with that module.
In hobby coding this week, I’ve now got the skeleton of my short PunyInform game and am gradually ‘painting the walls’, i.e. adding colour to the game by coding examine responses etc. I’m hoping to have a first draft by the end of the week.
Some exciting retro computer news to talk about in the next few days too…
An old favourite, and something to investigate again soon.
The to-do list doesn’t really stop at the moment – I’m back and forth between work and studying and house tasks and running and all the other stuff that seems to come out of nowhere… but it’s making life very interesting, as I’m basically doing something different every day.
Geth and I are doing our weekly parkrun volunteering slot tomorrow as he’s got a race on Sunday. The rest of the weekend will be spent doing all the stuff I didn’t have time for during the week!
It’s certainly a lot fuller than last year’s version.
Two weeks’ worth of earworm playlists:
Saturday 23rd
Ray Parker Jr – ‘Ghostbusters’ Edison Lighthouse – ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)’ Bee Gees – ‘Stayin’ Alive’ Radiohead – ‘No Surprises’ Tracey Ullman – ‘They Don’t Know’ Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’
The Power Station – ‘Some Like It Hot’ Dead Or Alive – ‘Something In My House’ The Beatles – ‘Drive My Car’ Revo – ‘Battle Against The Ones We Inevitably Confront’
Wednesday 27th
One Direction – ‘Little Things’ Rockwell – ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’ Shakira and Wyclef Jean – ‘Hips Don’t Lie’
I am still making my way through the TechUp course and learning a little bit more about Python every day. It’s a gradual process and some days I feel like it’s going in one ear and out the other, but I know from experience that it will sink in with practice! We’re moving onto testing modules this week and there was a really interesting lecture on it this evening. I still think I prefer the development side of things, but it’s given me some things to think about.
I’m still buzzing from making my four-hours-to-code-it Petite Mort game for EctoComp. It was so much fun to be able to squeeze in a bite-size piece of Adventuron coding in the middle of everything else that’s going on at the moment! I’m getting some nice feedback and some useful reports of bugs to fix for my post-competition release. I’m now hoping to do the same with a small PunyInform game for the jam they’re holding this month – I’m getting a tiny bit done every day and counting it as my NaNoWriMo this year! It’s so important to be able to spend a bit of time with my creative projects even when I’m super busy with other things.
As is standard for the autumn, day job work has quietened down a bit recently – which is absolutely fine by me, as I wouldn’t be able to fit all my studying in if business was as manic as it was in the summer. I’m still getting a chunk every week, but it’s at a nice manageable level.
Next door’s cat has been visiting us a lot recently. We think he just really likes our cosy sofa throw!
