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ticking over
Sep. 20th, 2009 05:59 pmStill not much going on in the world of Ben. I've been out quite a few evenings of late and I expect that will continue until the winter with all the extra people who show up once the academic year is back in progress.
Music stuff is moving along slowly but surely with another song almost finished, bringing things up to 2 hours of material. Having said that, hearing samples of the forthcoming Swallow The Sun album makes me wonder whether it's even worth writing that genre of music with that calibre of competition. I keep meaning to work on other types of music but never quite manage to put enough time into it. Seeing other people on Facebook be more productive in that way recently is an incentive to me to get working, though.
Work is ok with me lost in the realms of C++ template metaprogramming at the moment, which swings between fun and frustrating in equal measure. It's definitely stuff which is far suited to a different programming language, but that isn't an option.
My computer game playing has almost completely died off at the moment in favour of either socialising or working on music. I suppose that's not a bad thing, but I do miss having time for games. I still need to finish Deus Ex / Thief 3 / Oblivion / Fallout 1 / etc....
Gig season looks like it'll be starting with a whimper rather than a bang due to me deciding that I probably can't be bothered to go and see Primordial and Swallow the Sun next Saturday after all. It would involve booking a room overnight, getting train tickets, and taxis to and from the venue, meaning an extra cost of about £75, all for just 2 or 3 hours of entertainment. It doesn't seem like a sensible use of money. I'll make a decision in the next couple of days I suppose.
The garden outside my window is a veritable nature reserve at the moment. The landlord finally stripped away all the ivy that was allowed to overgrow and destroy all the flowers so it's a lot barer than it used to be. As a result someone's cat has taken to coming in and hunting the birds and squirrels, with zero success so far. I always think it looks a bit ridiculous when a vivid black and white cat is trying to look inconspicuous in a completely green and brown garden.
Music stuff is moving along slowly but surely with another song almost finished, bringing things up to 2 hours of material. Having said that, hearing samples of the forthcoming Swallow The Sun album makes me wonder whether it's even worth writing that genre of music with that calibre of competition. I keep meaning to work on other types of music but never quite manage to put enough time into it. Seeing other people on Facebook be more productive in that way recently is an incentive to me to get working, though.
Work is ok with me lost in the realms of C++ template metaprogramming at the moment, which swings between fun and frustrating in equal measure. It's definitely stuff which is far suited to a different programming language, but that isn't an option.
My computer game playing has almost completely died off at the moment in favour of either socialising or working on music. I suppose that's not a bad thing, but I do miss having time for games. I still need to finish Deus Ex / Thief 3 / Oblivion / Fallout 1 / etc....
Gig season looks like it'll be starting with a whimper rather than a bang due to me deciding that I probably can't be bothered to go and see Primordial and Swallow the Sun next Saturday after all. It would involve booking a room overnight, getting train tickets, and taxis to and from the venue, meaning an extra cost of about £75, all for just 2 or 3 hours of entertainment. It doesn't seem like a sensible use of money. I'll make a decision in the next couple of days I suppose.
The garden outside my window is a veritable nature reserve at the moment. The landlord finally stripped away all the ivy that was allowed to overgrow and destroy all the flowers so it's a lot barer than it used to be. As a result someone's cat has taken to coming in and hunting the birds and squirrels, with zero success so far. I always think it looks a bit ridiculous when a vivid black and white cat is trying to look inconspicuous in a completely green and brown garden.
Work are trying to get us to book our holidays now as they need to schedule around them to plan a product release in September. This is probably easy if you've got a family and typically plan these things months in advance, but there's never been much point me doing so. I should try and have a proper holiday this year though since I have plenty of days to use, and I rarely do anything. I think I've spent a total of 10 days abroad and 6 days elsewhere in the UK for recreational purposes in the last 15 years, fewer than quite a few people manage in one year. Any suggestions on where to go and what to do? Anybody want to subject themselves to travelling with me? :P
incomprehensible
Nov. 12th, 2008 05:22 pmWhat's the point of having a recruiter who talks so quickly in a South Asian accent that you can't work out what the hell she's saying? I could hardly get a word in edgeways, such was the lengthy rehearsed speech she entered into almost immediately. I did ask 3 or 4 questions, mainly to try and work out what the hell she was talking about and where she got my work contact details, but I couldn't work out anything apart from "software engineering", "want to call you back later", and "long term relationship". Er, no. Also, don't lie to our receptionist, because your name sure as hell isn't Jennifer.
the heat is on
Jul. 26th, 2008 03:53 pmIt's 27°C in my room, and about the same outside. Finally, proper summer weather! Unfortunately, it's arriving just as I'm about to leave the country for a week, and specifically today when I needed to go and do a lot of shopping. I'm going to the Wacken festival on Tuesday, which is in Germany and requires preparation, which I am ill-equipped for as I'm not much of the travelling type. Last time I went abroad was just over 5 years ago to the Graspop festival in Belgium, and my then-girlfriend did most of the organisation that time. So everything is likely to go wrong this time.
Anyway, having exhausted the local shops, I had to go to the next city over for some stuff. Derby is a very pleasant-looking city, and now that I no longer work there, I can go there to do some shopping without the feeling of dread that comes with being trapped somewhere for 9 tedious hours every weekday. One bad thing about Derby is that it's a lot more religious than Nottingham. I've never been there on a Saturday when there wasn't some sort of loud preacher on the main street. This time though, it was a FREESTYLE RAP PREACHER, which makes it... actually no, it's no better at all. I also got lost in the new extension to the shopping centre which makes it a thousand times bigger than it used to be, though I'm glad they kept the underpass that leads into it. I was annoyed when Nottingham blocked up all its underpasses; quite a backwards move if you ask me.
Work's progressing as usual. We got the first set of feedback from beta users, and most of the criticisms are things a few of us have been pointing out for months. Hopefully some time will be budgeted for fixing them now. I've been working on fixing some frustrating network code, written in what appears to be some ancient Sumerian dialect of C++ with no regard for proper software engineering practices. I also borrowed a book which shows that one of our very complex, intricate, and difficult-to-use base libraries can be implemented in about 2 pages of Python script. *sigh*
What else? I've been writing music, slowly as usual, but it's really good so that's ok. I've also been playing Football Manager 2005 quite compulsively, partly because it's one of the few games you can play while chatting on MSN and checking email. I'd rather be outside playing real football, but that's not practical when you have no friends. ;)
Anyway, having exhausted the local shops, I had to go to the next city over for some stuff. Derby is a very pleasant-looking city, and now that I no longer work there, I can go there to do some shopping without the feeling of dread that comes with being trapped somewhere for 9 tedious hours every weekday. One bad thing about Derby is that it's a lot more religious than Nottingham. I've never been there on a Saturday when there wasn't some sort of loud preacher on the main street. This time though, it was a FREESTYLE RAP PREACHER, which makes it... actually no, it's no better at all. I also got lost in the new extension to the shopping centre which makes it a thousand times bigger than it used to be, though I'm glad they kept the underpass that leads into it. I was annoyed when Nottingham blocked up all its underpasses; quite a backwards move if you ask me.
Work's progressing as usual. We got the first set of feedback from beta users, and most of the criticisms are things a few of us have been pointing out for months. Hopefully some time will be budgeted for fixing them now. I've been working on fixing some frustrating network code, written in what appears to be some ancient Sumerian dialect of C++ with no regard for proper software engineering practices. I also borrowed a book which shows that one of our very complex, intricate, and difficult-to-use base libraries can be implemented in about 2 pages of Python script. *sigh*
What else? I've been writing music, slowly as usual, but it's really good so that's ok. I've also been playing Football Manager 2005 quite compulsively, partly because it's one of the few games you can play while chatting on MSN and checking email. I'd rather be outside playing real football, but that's not practical when you have no friends. ;)
general stuff
May. 6th, 2008 08:29 pmMy Bank Holiday weekend was a lot tamer than I had hoped for, with me finding myself indoors doing nothing most of the time. Saturday night in Sheffield was a good exception though, and apart from the organisation getting there being a bit of a shambles, everybody seemed to have a good time. The highlights for me might be that I nearly injured one of the myriad of Other Bens with an elite karaté move, I met up with Internet Friend Dora briefly, and I managed to survive spilling a fair bit of Lucozade on my trousers with no hope of being able to wash it out. Ace. Chris also had to fend off an over-amorous girlie between necking about 15 alcoholic milkshakes, which was funny.
Our current project at work is on the front page of Eurogamer at the moment; the article itself is here. It's been quite interesting to see how people in the office see what they want to see in that preview - the optimists see a good write-up, and the pessimists see the opposite.
I am very much enjoying the nice weather we're having at the moment. Such a shame I'm stuck indoors almost all the time though. No doubt it'll start snowing again soon, just as the social invitations ramp up again.
Anybody had much experience with trying to teach themselves languages? I'm finding that the 'Teach Yourself Whatever' books don't really work for me, possibly because the emphasis there seems to be on hearing and speaking and I am useless at remembering sounds and even worse at trying to verbally reproduce them. I think I fare a lot better with the writing and reading approach with verb lists and conjugations and so on, but even that might not work when I don't have actual lessons, tests, and the like. Hmm.
Our current project at work is on the front page of Eurogamer at the moment; the article itself is here. It's been quite interesting to see how people in the office see what they want to see in that preview - the optimists see a good write-up, and the pessimists see the opposite.
I am very much enjoying the nice weather we're having at the moment. Such a shame I'm stuck indoors almost all the time though. No doubt it'll start snowing again soon, just as the social invitations ramp up again.
Anybody had much experience with trying to teach themselves languages? I'm finding that the 'Teach Yourself Whatever' books don't really work for me, possibly because the emphasis there seems to be on hearing and speaking and I am useless at remembering sounds and even worse at trying to verbally reproduce them. I think I fare a lot better with the writing and reading approach with verb lists and conjugations and so on, but even that might not work when I don't have actual lessons, tests, and the like. Hmm.
the news in brief
Jan. 20th, 2008 11:29 amNot much to report at the moment, but report I shall.
Work this week's been ok. A lot of the project is a lot worse than it ever needed to be, and it was even compared negatively to a previous project that got canned, which isn't good. And some of the guys seem to have discovered a competitor that seems to do most of what our game does and a whole lot more besides. So things are going to be interesting as we approach the end of the project, probably along the lines of "we need to add about 10 new features". It could have easily been foreseen, but the people who should have done the foreseeing are sadly not experienced enough to have done so. Still, my side of things is going ok.
At home I've done very little but play Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. It's an interesting game, with some frustratingly hard bits. No match for Thief in the stealth stakes however. When not computer gaming I've been reading a short book on Logic, which is slow going at times. I disagree with some of the stuff the author says, but I suppose that's to be expected when I approach it from a mathematical point of view and the subject is equally applicable to philosophy.
I've said it before, but this weather is just like summer: temperatures mild, rain 20 hours a day. It's a bit tedious really. Still, I prefer that to snow. It seems like when I was little, we had snow every year, and it sometimes lasted a few days. Now, it seems rare for it to settle on the ground at all, never mind remain overnight. Still, I suppose I am 0.7° of latitude further south than I was back then.
I got tickets for Primordial in London yesterday morning, so I'm looking forward to that in a few weeks' time. Anybody else going? (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
erishkigal?) I'm still half-contemplating seeing them again at Ragnarök Festival V in Germany, but I doubt that will happen.
Last night, I went to the pub to meet up with various student types before relocating to Rock City. Rock City was dead until about midnight; 12:00 is the new 10:30, apparently. The music in the mainstream room was surprisingly good compared to usual - as Allan said, "where's the emo?" Downstairs was a bit of a mess as they had the classic rock room mixed in with the metal and hardcore, so nobody really knew what was going on. And there's always at least one moron dressed in a basketball top and long shorts (sic) who needs to pace menacingly back and forth across the dancefloor. How on earth is that dancing? Did he see it on a video somewhere?
Anyway, I think I might have also got zapped by some sort of spooky EMP last night, as my phone lost half of its settings, and my key fob to the security gate stopped working. The second problem involved me having to kick it open, as I was toodrunk lacking in agility to get over the wall. I may have to resolve this problem quite shortly.
Oh, and I still don't have any extra shelving. I think I need to get some better cd storage and throw some other stuff away first, instead. I found out that the tip over in Lenton takes electrical goods for recycling/proper disposal, so at some point I need to send my TV and 15" CRT monitor over there (unless someone wants the latter, which I doubt). Maybe I'll throw in a couple of spare PC motherboards while I'm at it.
Work this week's been ok. A lot of the project is a lot worse than it ever needed to be, and it was even compared negatively to a previous project that got canned, which isn't good. And some of the guys seem to have discovered a competitor that seems to do most of what our game does and a whole lot more besides. So things are going to be interesting as we approach the end of the project, probably along the lines of "we need to add about 10 new features". It could have easily been foreseen, but the people who should have done the foreseeing are sadly not experienced enough to have done so. Still, my side of things is going ok.
At home I've done very little but play Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. It's an interesting game, with some frustratingly hard bits. No match for Thief in the stealth stakes however. When not computer gaming I've been reading a short book on Logic, which is slow going at times. I disagree with some of the stuff the author says, but I suppose that's to be expected when I approach it from a mathematical point of view and the subject is equally applicable to philosophy.
I've said it before, but this weather is just like summer: temperatures mild, rain 20 hours a day. It's a bit tedious really. Still, I prefer that to snow. It seems like when I was little, we had snow every year, and it sometimes lasted a few days. Now, it seems rare for it to settle on the ground at all, never mind remain overnight. Still, I suppose I am 0.7° of latitude further south than I was back then.
I got tickets for Primordial in London yesterday morning, so I'm looking forward to that in a few weeks' time. Anybody else going? (
erishkigal?) I'm still half-contemplating seeing them again at Ragnarök Festival V in Germany, but I doubt that will happen.Last night, I went to the pub to meet up with various student types before relocating to Rock City. Rock City was dead until about midnight; 12:00 is the new 10:30, apparently. The music in the mainstream room was surprisingly good compared to usual - as Allan said, "where's the emo?" Downstairs was a bit of a mess as they had the classic rock room mixed in with the metal and hardcore, so nobody really knew what was going on. And there's always at least one moron dressed in a basketball top and long shorts (sic) who needs to pace menacingly back and forth across the dancefloor. How on earth is that dancing? Did he see it on a video somewhere?
Anyway, I think I might have also got zapped by some sort of spooky EMP last night, as my phone lost half of its settings, and my key fob to the security gate stopped working. The second problem involved me having to kick it open, as I was too
Oh, and I still don't have any extra shelving. I think I need to get some better cd storage and throw some other stuff away first, instead. I found out that the tip over in Lenton takes electrical goods for recycling/proper disposal, so at some point I need to send my TV and 15" CRT monitor over there (unless someone wants the latter, which I doubt). Maybe I'll throw in a couple of spare PC motherboards while I'm at it.
recap of last several days
Jan. 7th, 2008 01:05 pmLast Friday I went out to Damage Inc. Yet again I didn't really enjoy it, though that's nothing to do with the night itself, which is fine, but that I think I'm not really the type of person to appreciate "nights out". I think I talked briefly to a maximum of 4 or 5 people, and left early to go and play Splinter Cell at home instead.
On Saturday afternoon I agonised over whether to go and buy myself a graphics tablet, given that I work on artistic things about once every three years. After having decided to do so, I got to PC World to find out that they'd sold out of the ones I wanted, so I came home empty-handed as I do almost any time I attempt to purchase goods. I did however manage to buy a couple of cds from Selectadisc. Surprisingly they managed to give me the correct cds. Unsurprisingly, one of the digipaks is damaged. But I suppose I should have noticed that myself.
Saturday evening saw a visit tojen_whitewave's underground base flat where munchies were consumed, amid episodes of Eerie Indiana and the first Highlander film.
On Sunday I had a long overdue lunch with_arnamentia_ at the Trip, where I had 'Hunter's Chicken', which is essentially chicken, bacon, and bbq sauce. I like the idea of a human hunter, the most cunning and advanced predator ever known, going into the forest to hunt its prey, and only managing to catch a chicken and a pig.
Today I'm back at work, getting electric shocks off my recharging phone. Ace. We have a new guy starting today, who's yet another male-programmer-with-long-hair. This one's from Sweden though, for bonus points.
This week I have virtually nothing planned. So, more Splinter Cell and Oblivion, I expect.
On Saturday afternoon I agonised over whether to go and buy myself a graphics tablet, given that I work on artistic things about once every three years. After having decided to do so, I got to PC World to find out that they'd sold out of the ones I wanted, so I came home empty-handed as I do almost any time I attempt to purchase goods. I did however manage to buy a couple of cds from Selectadisc. Surprisingly they managed to give me the correct cds. Unsurprisingly, one of the digipaks is damaged. But I suppose I should have noticed that myself.
Saturday evening saw a visit to
jen_whitewave's On Sunday I had a long overdue lunch with
_arnamentia_ at the Trip, where I had 'Hunter's Chicken', which is essentially chicken, bacon, and bbq sauce. I like the idea of a human hunter, the most cunning and advanced predator ever known, going into the forest to hunt its prey, and only managing to catch a chicken and a pig.Today I'm back at work, getting electric shocks off my recharging phone. Ace. We have a new guy starting today, who's yet another male-programmer-with-long-hair. This one's from Sweden though, for bonus points.
This week I have virtually nothing planned. So, more Splinter Cell and Oblivion, I expect.
(no subject)
Sep. 12th, 2007 09:11 pmI like my doctor. He prescribed me some sort of gel to apply to the affected area, and like any diligent medical practitioner, was quick to warn me of the critical side-effects - "it's like a bleach... that black t-shirt you're wearing now, it'll turn white". I also got some powerful anti-biotics, which will be fighting it out later with the pro-biotics in my yoghurt. May the best biotic win!
lost_in_moose helped me find an obscure bug at work today. Text that was too big for the buttons wasn't being rendered at all, when it should have been clipped short instead, and it wasn't immediately easy to see why this was the case. It turned out that aligning text that was too big involved placing it negatively offset from the original position, but the numbers we were using didn't allow for negative values, changing them to massive ones instead. The end result was that the text was rendering, just roughly 660 kilometres away, which in this case is a spot in the North Sea east of the Orkney Isles. And not on-screen. I will be fixing that tomorrow.
Also at work,fiendil came in for an interview, which seemed to last for about seven hours, and ended up with the boss showing him the small soundproofed room, which is where I think we should keep him if he ends up working there.
My friend Susan moves to the UK next week, in anticipation of her studies at Nottingham Uni. If her boyfriend lets me borrow her for a bit, I'll try and introduce her to some of you local types. Don't think I'll bring her out to Full Metal Racket though; much as I usually enjoy it, it's not how I'd like to introduce someone to England. It's bad enough thatspurnnedhistory had to suffer Those Toilets.
My latest piece of music - the innovatively-named "Track 11" - is nearly done, despite Sonar screwing up and starting to take 7 minutes to save or load the project, doing absolutely nothing useful for the middle 6 minutes and 50 seconds. There might even be vocals on this one. It depends how sober I can get to write lyrics, and how drunk I can get to perform them.
I am also looking forward to the results ofspazzhammer's Livejournal Post Rating. I have always been a fan of quantitative measurement of things, especially those which some claim cannot be measured so easily. Still, I have doubts about the validity of his methods.
lost_in_moose helped me find an obscure bug at work today. Text that was too big for the buttons wasn't being rendered at all, when it should have been clipped short instead, and it wasn't immediately easy to see why this was the case. It turned out that aligning text that was too big involved placing it negatively offset from the original position, but the numbers we were using didn't allow for negative values, changing them to massive ones instead. The end result was that the text was rendering, just roughly 660 kilometres away, which in this case is a spot in the North Sea east of the Orkney Isles. And not on-screen. I will be fixing that tomorrow.Also at work,
fiendil came in for an interview, which seemed to last for about seven hours, and ended up with the boss showing him the small soundproofed room, which is where I think we should keep him if he ends up working there.My friend Susan moves to the UK next week, in anticipation of her studies at Nottingham Uni. If her boyfriend lets me borrow her for a bit, I'll try and introduce her to some of you local types. Don't think I'll bring her out to Full Metal Racket though; much as I usually enjoy it, it's not how I'd like to introduce someone to England. It's bad enough that
spurnnedhistory had to suffer Those Toilets.My latest piece of music - the innovatively-named "Track 11" - is nearly done, despite Sonar screwing up and starting to take 7 minutes to save or load the project, doing absolutely nothing useful for the middle 6 minutes and 50 seconds. There might even be vocals on this one. It depends how sober I can get to write lyrics, and how drunk I can get to perform them.
I am also looking forward to the results of
spazzhammer's Livejournal Post Rating. I have always been a fan of quantitative measurement of things, especially those which some claim cannot be measured so easily. Still, I have doubts about the validity of his methods.(no subject)
Sep. 10th, 2007 01:05 pmOne advantage of working in the city centre is that I get to do much of my shopping during my lunch break. Today, this primarily involved slumming it in Poundland. Once upon a time such a shop would be an important source of household goods for me in my impoverished student or unemployed state, but now it's primarily a case of looking round and saying, "oh my god, people actually buy this stuff?" I was only there because I couldn't think of anywhere else to find superglue. While within, I was nearly compelled to buy a "Mulit Tool" because no fan of 80s metal should be without a Mulit. Unfortunately it was actually a mere 'Multi' tool, made by some foreign company that lacked anybody with enough English proficiency to spot such a blatant error on the packaging.
One disadvantage of working in the city centre is that sometimes your office doorstep is covered in vomit when you come to work. Ace.
The weekend was mostly fun, somewhat confusing, and just a little headache-inducing, both metaphorically and literally. Still, among all the madness I managed to get most of my latest song recorded. Just lead guitar, samples, and mixing to do now.
The next week will see me doing... very little. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday - yay, fun. I think Turisas are playing at the weekend, but I doubt I'll go. They're a good band but there's no doubt the gimmick has firmly taken hold there. On a related note, it was quite disappointing how almost everybody on the Bloodstock campsite was playing the same 2 or 3 albums. Viking/folk metal is the new Nu-Metal. Yeah, I said it.
One disadvantage of working in the city centre is that sometimes your office doorstep is covered in vomit when you come to work. Ace.
The weekend was mostly fun, somewhat confusing, and just a little headache-inducing, both metaphorically and literally. Still, among all the madness I managed to get most of my latest song recorded. Just lead guitar, samples, and mixing to do now.
The next week will see me doing... very little. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday - yay, fun. I think Turisas are playing at the weekend, but I doubt I'll go. They're a good band but there's no doubt the gimmick has firmly taken hold there. On a related note, it was quite disappointing how almost everybody on the Bloodstock campsite was playing the same 2 or 3 albums. Viking/folk metal is the new Nu-Metal. Yeah, I said it.
(no subject)
Aug. 15th, 2007 07:14 pmI'm almost ready for Bloodstock tomorrow, although the weather is not looking too positive. Not that I actually mind the rain per se. It's just the mud I'm concerned about, and perhaps having to sleep in the damp. Oh well. I'm not convinced that having a half-empty Thursday lineup was a good idea for the festival either, but I suppose it allows them to ease into everything.
Bizarrely, on the walk back from work just now I encountered one of my old colleagues from when I worked for Roscom in Derby. He now works somewhere near my house, and was on his way down to catch the bus that used to bring me back from Derby. That means my old supervisor has lost his entire 3-man team since he was assigned it about 14 months ago. It's not his fault though, as he's a decent guy. It's just not an incredibly fun place to work, so it's not surprising that people move on after a while.
Today I bought 'Death's Design' by Diabolical Masquerade from Selectadisc. I expect they just gave me the same cd as when I attempted to buy 'Nightwork' that time. I also bought an album by a band called Apocryphal Voice, because it said something about "black metal" and "doom" on the front. It had better not let me down.
Now, I should probably go and run 50 miles or something to counteract all the cider and takeaway food I'll be consuming between now and Sunday (when I'll just move straight onto barbecued food at Stu's place).
Bizarrely, on the walk back from work just now I encountered one of my old colleagues from when I worked for Roscom in Derby. He now works somewhere near my house, and was on his way down to catch the bus that used to bring me back from Derby. That means my old supervisor has lost his entire 3-man team since he was assigned it about 14 months ago. It's not his fault though, as he's a decent guy. It's just not an incredibly fun place to work, so it's not surprising that people move on after a while.
Today I bought 'Death's Design' by Diabolical Masquerade from Selectadisc. I expect they just gave me the same cd as when I attempted to buy 'Nightwork' that time. I also bought an album by a band called Apocryphal Voice, because it said something about "black metal" and "doom" on the front. It had better not let me down.
Now, I should probably go and run 50 miles or something to counteract all the cider and takeaway food I'll be consuming between now and Sunday (when I'll just move straight onto barbecued food at Stu's place).
How -not- to make an impression
Aug. 9th, 2007 10:48 amSomeone phoned the office at 10:40am today, asking for directions on how to get here. He had an interview for a job here at 10am. W.T.F.? How do people expect to find employment with that sort of complacency? Use a map, be on time. Surely this much is obvious.
(no subject)
Jul. 30th, 2007 08:05 pmWow, two days of sun in a row - this must be summer, right? Looks like it might stay clear until Friday, which will be good. I always planned to make the most of this summer, after having failed to do so for the last few years, but obviously Mother Nature has seemed keen on giving us extended Autumn and Spring but barely any Summer or Winter these last 12 months. I can't say I support this.
Who's going to Bloodstock? I need to start making decisions about how to travel there and whether to camp or not.
We had a woman in to interview for a position at work today; probably the first female to have been interviewed there in the year or so it's been open. I say probably, because there was a transsexual once and whether he/she was pre-op or post-op, who can say?
I started playing Civ 4 last night, and that was a lot of fun. I forgot how engrossing the Civ games are, even compared to my other favourites. I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more esoteric civilisations to play though; I ended up as the Romans since I didn't fancy being Queen Elizabeth or Victoria.
Who's going to Bloodstock? I need to start making decisions about how to travel there and whether to camp or not.
We had a woman in to interview for a position at work today; probably the first female to have been interviewed there in the year or so it's been open. I say probably, because there was a transsexual once and whether he/she was pre-op or post-op, who can say?
I started playing Civ 4 last night, and that was a lot of fun. I forgot how engrossing the Civ games are, even compared to my other favourites. I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more esoteric civilisations to play though; I ended up as the Romans since I didn't fancy being Queen Elizabeth or Victoria.
(no subject)
Jul. 18th, 2007 03:59 pmI may stop posting deep and meaningful entries since 90% of you miss the point when I do so. :P
Today at work I've been wrestling with the horror that is the GUI code for our game. It's all XML driven, so that form can be altered independently of function, but there's about 50 levels of indirection between them which makes it very hard to tell why something won't work, or in this case, why removing an XML tag makes the code crash.
At home, I've nearly finished arranging another song, have started reading "Game Architecture And Design", am about 2/3rds of the way through the main storyline in Oblivion, and have escaped the citadel of the amphibian-men in Thief 3.
That's about it.
Today at work I've been wrestling with the horror that is the GUI code for our game. It's all XML driven, so that form can be altered independently of function, but there's about 50 levels of indirection between them which makes it very hard to tell why something won't work, or in this case, why removing an XML tag makes the code crash.
At home, I've nearly finished arranging another song, have started reading "Game Architecture And Design", am about 2/3rds of the way through the main storyline in Oblivion, and have escaped the citadel of the amphibian-men in Thief 3.
That's about it.
(no subject)
Jul. 7th, 2007 11:16 pmToday, after over 11 months of living here and not having enough shelf space, I bought a new bookshelf. It was only after carrying it up the Mansfield Road hill to my home and opening it up, that it became clear that it was of the wall-mounted variety and not the free-standing variety. Since I'm not allowed to fix anything to my wall, this is therefore useless to me. Arrrgh!
Work on Friday was funny. Often we have to work with placeholder art taken from another game until the artists can create more appropriate stuff. This meant that when I finished coding my current task, the football game waits for you to score a goal, and instead of popping up the word 'GOAL' in impressive lettering as is required, a grizzly bear appears in the middle of the screen and dies, before disappearing. Win.
In other news, it's been good to seenjaard around recently, even if he does insist on wearing a skirt. We went round on Wednesday to lost_in_moose and gloomie_cookie's place where he's staying and drank dubious beverages while playing with robot dinosaurs and listening to Iron Maiden.
And Damage last night was enjoyable, though I think I spent most of the night being talked to by other people's girlfriends, which will probably get me beaten up one day.
I also seem to have lost 8lbs, which is also good. Not sure how I managed that. I should check behind the sofa to see if it's there.
Work on Friday was funny. Often we have to work with placeholder art taken from another game until the artists can create more appropriate stuff. This meant that when I finished coding my current task, the football game waits for you to score a goal, and instead of popping up the word 'GOAL' in impressive lettering as is required, a grizzly bear appears in the middle of the screen and dies, before disappearing. Win.
In other news, it's been good to see
njaard around recently, even if he does insist on wearing a skirt. We went round on Wednesday to lost_in_moose and gloomie_cookie's place where he's staying and drank dubious beverages while playing with robot dinosaurs and listening to Iron Maiden.And Damage last night was enjoyable, though I think I spent most of the night being talked to by other people's girlfriends, which will probably get me beaten up one day.
I also seem to have lost 8lbs, which is also good. Not sure how I managed that. I should check behind the sofa to see if it's there.
take a walk on the mild side
Jun. 22nd, 2007 05:17 pmThe CEO is playing Motley Crue's "Wild Side" on his laptop. I think I preferred it when he was shooting at me with a toy crossbow.
UPDATE: He just came round asking if any of us had any 'classic rock on our hard drives' that he could grab. I don't have any, but Gaz has some stuff he's sharing across the network. I advised him to perhaps delete the Vomitory albums from there first though...
UPDATE: He just came round asking if any of us had any 'classic rock on our hard drives' that he could grab. I don't have any, but Gaz has some stuff he's sharing across the network. I advised him to perhaps delete the Vomitory albums from there first though...
(no subject)
Jun. 16th, 2007 12:02 pmWell, I certainly didn't expect to see spurnnedhistory out last night, especially when I thought he was still in Texas. I half feel sorry for him though, coming all this way and ending up upstairs in The Old Angel, a pretty dire venue if ever there was one.
We moved into our new offices last Wednesday; and by yesterday night we'd encountered the first major problem with the place, ie. a significant leak in the roof of the server room. Nice. This was discovered during the storm that everyone else seems to be freaking out about. I've got virtually no work done this week as a result of the office move. Oh well.
I also have a 'red card' telling me that Royal Mail have tried to deliver a letter that requires a signature. Except I've not ordered anything recently, so I've no idea what it is. And the only time I can conveniently collect it is 7:30-10:15 on a Saturday morning, which I've already missed for this week. Do I really want to pay £3 to get a bus to go and collect something that is probably useless? I hate Royal Mail.
In more postal news, I have now received well over 10 separate letters telling me to get a TV licence. I wonder how much it costs them to send out all this rubbish. 8 of those have been telling me that my address is now on an enforcement list and that they're going to come and check on me. I just wish they'd get on with it and stop trying to intimidate me, because it's just a waste of time and money.
spurnnedhistory out last night, especially when I thought he was still in Texas. I half feel sorry for him though, coming all this way and ending up upstairs in The Old Angel, a pretty dire venue if ever there was one.We moved into our new offices last Wednesday; and by yesterday night we'd encountered the first major problem with the place, ie. a significant leak in the roof of the server room. Nice. This was discovered during the storm that everyone else seems to be freaking out about. I've got virtually no work done this week as a result of the office move. Oh well.
I also have a 'red card' telling me that Royal Mail have tried to deliver a letter that requires a signature. Except I've not ordered anything recently, so I've no idea what it is. And the only time I can conveniently collect it is 7:30-10:15 on a Saturday morning, which I've already missed for this week. Do I really want to pay £3 to get a bus to go and collect something that is probably useless? I hate Royal Mail.
In more postal news, I have now received well over 10 separate letters telling me to get a TV licence. I wonder how much it costs them to send out all this rubbish. 8 of those have been telling me that my address is now on an enforcement list and that they're going to come and check on me. I just wish they'd get on with it and stop trying to intimidate me, because it's just a waste of time and money.
Weekend events
Jun. 11th, 2007 06:30 pmI must remember to post about events rather than just feelings and impressions, otherwise this won't serve as much of a reference in the future. Speaking of which, is anybody exporting theirs and taking a backup? I need to do that at some point but haven't found a simple tool for it yet. The web-based facility seems to require that I do it month by month, which is tedious.
Anyway. On Friday I went to the student rock night "Assault", which was mostly as expected (average music, lots of student types there), but was fun for a change as I hadn't been in a year. The main event of note, as previously alluded to, was that a couple of members of the band Hellyeah were in attendance, including Vinnie Paul, previously of Pantera.
On Saturday I went over to West Bridgford to helpogly celebrate leaving the country. markachu did a much better job with the barbecue than the last time we left him in charge, and everybody seemed to have fun. I ducked out early before the real shenanigans began, such as the Chair of Doom which I have since heard about.
On Sunday was the yearly BBQ that the people at the Other University hold, and which is always worth attending. I went to meet people in the pub beforehand, but due to being unable to read the previously issued instructions, I was in the wrong pub. Ace! Still, not a problem as I know the way and was quite enjoying a quiet drink anyway. I arrived at the traditional bbq site - now defiled by a path through the middle, sadly - at about the point the food started being served (denatone delivering the comestibles with perennial aplomb) and proceeded to consume it, washed down with free cider. A small amount of football was played, some people hit each other with bits of bamboo, and I think we managed to convince some friends visiting from Germany that duct-taping gay people to trees is a perfectly normal pastime here in England. (It's not.) I had a good time, though I'm sure it has got more subdued every year over the 3 times I've attended. Maybe my 3 years are not a representative sample though? And maybe coinciding with the Download festival this year wasn't good for it. Oh well.
Today I was back to work, in the sweltering hothouse that is the 3rd floor of Clarendon Chambers, near Nottingham train station. Tomorrow is our last day there before relocating further into the city centre, which is good for my laziness but probably bad for my health, as it cuts 15 minutes off my daily walking distance. Maybe if we get regular football sessions going (a slight nudge towardsmetal_rob there) I might not weigh 300lbs by the end of summer.
Anyway. On Friday I went to the student rock night "Assault", which was mostly as expected (average music, lots of student types there), but was fun for a change as I hadn't been in a year. The main event of note, as previously alluded to, was that a couple of members of the band Hellyeah were in attendance, including Vinnie Paul, previously of Pantera.
On Saturday I went over to West Bridgford to help
ogly celebrate leaving the country. markachu did a much better job with the barbecue than the last time we left him in charge, and everybody seemed to have fun. I ducked out early before the real shenanigans began, such as the Chair of Doom which I have since heard about.On Sunday was the yearly BBQ that the people at the Other University hold, and which is always worth attending. I went to meet people in the pub beforehand, but due to being unable to read the previously issued instructions, I was in the wrong pub. Ace! Still, not a problem as I know the way and was quite enjoying a quiet drink anyway. I arrived at the traditional bbq site - now defiled by a path through the middle, sadly - at about the point the food started being served (
denatone delivering the comestibles with perennial aplomb) and proceeded to consume it, washed down with free cider. A small amount of football was played, some people hit each other with bits of bamboo, and I think we managed to convince some friends visiting from Germany that duct-taping gay people to trees is a perfectly normal pastime here in England. (It's not.) I had a good time, though I'm sure it has got more subdued every year over the 3 times I've attended. Maybe my 3 years are not a representative sample though? And maybe coinciding with the Download festival this year wasn't good for it. Oh well.Today I was back to work, in the sweltering hothouse that is the 3rd floor of Clarendon Chambers, near Nottingham train station. Tomorrow is our last day there before relocating further into the city centre, which is good for my laziness but probably bad for my health, as it cuts 15 minutes off my daily walking distance. Maybe if we get regular football sessions going (a slight nudge towards
metal_rob there) I might not weigh 300lbs by the end of summer.(no subject)
May. 25th, 2007 02:42 pmToday I got a new motherboard; my 4th in just over a year. The process will be to back everything up on my current machine to my external hard drive, pull everything apart, put it all back together with the new motherboard installed, and probably perform a repair installation of Windows XP, followed by downloading the thousands of updates and service packs. Anybody got any suggestions for how I can ensure that goes more smoothly? It's likely to waste an entire evening or more as it is, and knowing my luck, leave me with some broken stuff anyway.
If I can't play Thief 3 and Oblivion after all this shit, I may just give up computers and get a job in the hospitality industry or something.
At work, our project went public today, with articles on various gaming sites. It'll be interesting to see if that translates into pressure on us in any way. The closest I've come to having my work publicly exposed before was when I wrote the graduate/sandwich/summer placement online registration stuff for Boots PLC and it nearly got shown onscreen in a lecture when I went back to uni that year. Not very comparable.
Not much else to report. There's loads of stuff on this weekend but whether I go to any of it is debatable (and likely to depend on whether I get Oblivion running or not...)
If I can't play Thief 3 and Oblivion after all this shit, I may just give up computers and get a job in the hospitality industry or something.
At work, our project went public today, with articles on various gaming sites. It'll be interesting to see if that translates into pressure on us in any way. The closest I've come to having my work publicly exposed before was when I wrote the graduate/sandwich/summer placement online registration stuff for Boots PLC and it nearly got shown onscreen in a lecture when I went back to uni that year. Not very comparable.
Not much else to report. There's loads of stuff on this weekend but whether I go to any of it is debatable (and likely to depend on whether I get Oblivion running or not...)
(no subject)
May. 18th, 2007 05:55 pmThe guy who runs the company is shooting people's monitors with a sucker dart fired from a toy crossbow. I think it's time to go home.
