STUFF that is going on in my life and head.
[EDIT]: fixed me link to the book!
Soooooo recently, I have...
* Survived Christmas actually quite well. My family is a bit fighty, so a 'quiet' Christmas is a bit lack-lustre, but also refreshingly lack-punch-up. More importantly, I got to see my son loads and he got to see his grandparents loads. Relations with his mom are still really good, which makes me immensely happy and life a lot easier than it could otherwise be. Family stuff: All A-OK! Also didn't really eat tonnes of shit food that much more than usual, so didn't put on a fuck-tonne of weight for a change. Leading onto...
* Started a 5:2 diet using a Very Low Calorie Diet plan for the 'fasting' days. I've not done this sort of thing before, but it seems to be going OK. The 'spacefood' as I now call it is fairly rubbish, but acceptable and I have found I can get through a day on its meagre fayre. Helped enormously by knowing that I can eat normally the next day. There may be something to this whole 5:2 thing. I've lost a few pounds, and have a lot more to lose. My unhappiness with my increased weight has become too much of a burden, so along with getting back on the exercise kick (using my FitBit again more solidly), I figured I would try a diet. Cross your fingers for me. Hopefully there will be a lot less of me to love, in due time. (And yes, I'm being careful about my health, and will stop this if it doesn't suit me or has poor side-effects - I'd rather be healthy than slim).
* Published a book. My Horrorscopes can now be bought around thee worldz. Sold a nice smattering of them over the holidays, as I rushed to get it out in time for Christmas. I shall try to ramp up promoting it a little bit in the near future. Very happy to have achieved this (something I started writing on LiveJournal, in fact). It's cool to find out how you become 'full stack' at something and take it from concept to real thing in peoples' hands. Very proud of this :)
* Royally fucked up my shoulder. Not the comedy one! The other one! Managed to pull some muscles at the gym before Christmas, and when I returned to work, it came back in full effect. So obviously there's a work association. I can't do much about the work stress, but I'm being careful about my posture and ergonomics of my desk. Got myself some head-pad things and generally looking after it until the muscles all calm down. Got a doctor's appointment on Monday. This is rather positive as I'm sometimes a bit of a twat about doctors, so it made me sign up with a new local doc and get myself booked in. This is good, generally. It will pass in time, but it's made me fairly fed up for the last week or so.
* Got a game about to be finished, should be published on the various app stores in the next month or so. This is always a great moment in game dev life, am very proud of my team and what we've made. More on this once it's OK to link to it.
* Took our "Teach kids to code" game "Hakitzu" to a facility for kids who've been excluded from school and got an amazing reaction from them. A room full of kids who don't generally dig the education thing were all playing and enjoying (and learning!) - The staff told us afterwards they were gobsmacked and had never seen them engage so well at ANYTHING before. Really proud moment, great to bring something positive into the world and show that our company is doing something very worthwhile.
* Really cranked up my music output. A big part of this has been due to getting my little studio room in my house sorted, so I have all the things I need to make filthy sounds in their right places, so that when the mood strikes, I can do good work. I had missed being prolific and the wonderful feeling of flow while I do that, and of success in finishing new sounds. Currently finishing off work on a remix project for a dear friend, which I'll be able to tell you all about soon. In the mean time, check out my SoundCloud, and in particular, I'm very pleased with a few covers I've written, of Single by Everything But the Girl and Milk by Garbage. Please do give them a whirl and please share 'em out if you enjoy them.
I've had a few too many socially unpleasant situations lately with Facebook, which has prompted me to come back here at least for a while, where my friends are actually people I at least once had grown a connection with, and where I'm not yammering on to an overly-large audience of people I don't know, workmates (who I do love a whole bunch but have come to understand do NOT need to read my late-night drunken screeds) and extended family, who frankly cause too much drama.
It's nice to come back here and remember that I do still have friends here from back in the day, and from a frankly different era of social interaction (remember when the internet was mostly people QUITE LIKE YOU and not just EVERYBODY? so odd...).
Thank you lots to those of you who still take the time to reply and say hi, it's lovely that you're still here and still reading.
Probably the most un-DeathBoy post I've written in a good long time, but hey, I've got older and if not wiser, then at least fractionally less fucking ridiculous ;)
(Now, sit back and watch me put the lie to that last sentence when I've got nicely toasted and unleash all my mind-weasels upon you all in about six hours time...)
In the mean time, hello, you lot. Hope you're all fantastic ;) X
Soooooo recently, I have...
* Survived Christmas actually quite well. My family is a bit fighty, so a 'quiet' Christmas is a bit lack-lustre, but also refreshingly lack-punch-up. More importantly, I got to see my son loads and he got to see his grandparents loads. Relations with his mom are still really good, which makes me immensely happy and life a lot easier than it could otherwise be. Family stuff: All A-OK! Also didn't really eat tonnes of shit food that much more than usual, so didn't put on a fuck-tonne of weight for a change. Leading onto...
* Started a 5:2 diet using a Very Low Calorie Diet plan for the 'fasting' days. I've not done this sort of thing before, but it seems to be going OK. The 'spacefood' as I now call it is fairly rubbish, but acceptable and I have found I can get through a day on its meagre fayre. Helped enormously by knowing that I can eat normally the next day. There may be something to this whole 5:2 thing. I've lost a few pounds, and have a lot more to lose. My unhappiness with my increased weight has become too much of a burden, so along with getting back on the exercise kick (using my FitBit again more solidly), I figured I would try a diet. Cross your fingers for me. Hopefully there will be a lot less of me to love, in due time. (And yes, I'm being careful about my health, and will stop this if it doesn't suit me or has poor side-effects - I'd rather be healthy than slim).
* Published a book. My Horrorscopes can now be bought around thee worldz. Sold a nice smattering of them over the holidays, as I rushed to get it out in time for Christmas. I shall try to ramp up promoting it a little bit in the near future. Very happy to have achieved this (something I started writing on LiveJournal, in fact). It's cool to find out how you become 'full stack' at something and take it from concept to real thing in peoples' hands. Very proud of this :)
* Royally fucked up my shoulder. Not the comedy one! The other one! Managed to pull some muscles at the gym before Christmas, and when I returned to work, it came back in full effect. So obviously there's a work association. I can't do much about the work stress, but I'm being careful about my posture and ergonomics of my desk. Got myself some head-pad things and generally looking after it until the muscles all calm down. Got a doctor's appointment on Monday. This is rather positive as I'm sometimes a bit of a twat about doctors, so it made me sign up with a new local doc and get myself booked in. This is good, generally. It will pass in time, but it's made me fairly fed up for the last week or so.
* Got a game about to be finished, should be published on the various app stores in the next month or so. This is always a great moment in game dev life, am very proud of my team and what we've made. More on this once it's OK to link to it.
* Took our "Teach kids to code" game "Hakitzu" to a facility for kids who've been excluded from school and got an amazing reaction from them. A room full of kids who don't generally dig the education thing were all playing and enjoying (and learning!) - The staff told us afterwards they were gobsmacked and had never seen them engage so well at ANYTHING before. Really proud moment, great to bring something positive into the world and show that our company is doing something very worthwhile.
* Really cranked up my music output. A big part of this has been due to getting my little studio room in my house sorted, so I have all the things I need to make filthy sounds in their right places, so that when the mood strikes, I can do good work. I had missed being prolific and the wonderful feeling of flow while I do that, and of success in finishing new sounds. Currently finishing off work on a remix project for a dear friend, which I'll be able to tell you all about soon. In the mean time, check out my SoundCloud, and in particular, I'm very pleased with a few covers I've written, of Single by Everything But the Girl and Milk by Garbage. Please do give them a whirl and please share 'em out if you enjoy them.
I've had a few too many socially unpleasant situations lately with Facebook, which has prompted me to come back here at least for a while, where my friends are actually people I at least once had grown a connection with, and where I'm not yammering on to an overly-large audience of people I don't know, workmates (who I do love a whole bunch but have come to understand do NOT need to read my late-night drunken screeds) and extended family, who frankly cause too much drama.
It's nice to come back here and remember that I do still have friends here from back in the day, and from a frankly different era of social interaction (remember when the internet was mostly people QUITE LIKE YOU and not just EVERYBODY? so odd...).
Thank you lots to those of you who still take the time to reply and say hi, it's lovely that you're still here and still reading.
Probably the most un-DeathBoy post I've written in a good long time, but hey, I've got older and if not wiser, then at least fractionally less fucking ridiculous ;)
(Now, sit back and watch me put the lie to that last sentence when I've got nicely toasted and unleash all my mind-weasels upon you all in about six hours time...)
In the mean time, hello, you lot. Hope you're all fantastic ;) X