shrieking.net - new and improved! - Mac's old blog in a new place

29 Aug 2010

A new home

Hello! Shrieking's been running on Wordpress for a long time now, and it's been good, but to be honest, I don't look after it enough, and I know that Wordpress can be a security risk if you don't keep it up to date, so I think the time has come for me to move to something hosted and easier to manage. Enter Posterous, a lovely little site that seems to do everything I want a blogging platform to do. Hopefully it'll all work out.

I think I will miss my old design, but it doesn't really work on today's monitor sizes (a sign of how long I've been blogging!) and it was looking rather dated. This one is easier to read, I think. Hope you like it.

26 May 2010

Achiever: a Done List

I like the idea of making a list of stuff you've done rather than stuff you have to do, but no website I've tried out does a good job of just letting me list things I've done. There are a million list sites out there and the internet doesn't really need another one, but for the sake of practice and portfolio, here's my take on the 'To-Done' list: Achiever. It has no features yet really, but if you want something done to it, let me know. If it's a good feature, chances are I'll make it.

4 May 2010

Spotstock

Spotify's new features, combined with the onset of the gorgeous British Spring, inspired me to run a tiny little virtual festival. If you'd like to come, it's running this week, on the internet, and it's called SpotStock. There's some good music going on already, so if you use Spotify, check it out.

23 Apr 2010

Work

What is your dream job? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. In High Fidelity, Rob compiles a list of his five dream jobs and, although he is reluctant to add it, he is forced by his girlfriend to admit that his current job of owning a record store is up there in the top five. I feel a little like that right now - it feels like there's a lot of stuff I'd rather be doing, but for the life of me, I couldn't name it. In fact, I can't remember a time I've ever not wanted to be a programmer - I chose my GCSEs with college in mind, and picked the college courses I needed to get into computer science. My dad first taught me to write code at around 10 or 11, I guess, on our old BBC, and I've never really stopped. The idea that I've always wanted this job, and now I'm doing it, is a little hard to process. Surely this 9-5 grind couldn't have been my dream all along? The reality is, my job's pretty damn good. Most of the time, I love it. I don't think that humans cope well with long-standing routine, and as such, we are always prone to grow tired of anything we do day in, day out - that is what makes work seem so dull sometimes. I guess the challenge is finding enough variety in your life to keep your employment interesting. So, top five, all time, desert island perfect jobs? It's hard to say, but programming is definitely in there. I think I'd like to work for myself, some day, coding something that I want to make. Writer would be up there too. Apart from that? Maybe shopkeeper; I think that running my own shop would be a rewarding job, in a weird way. DJ'ing would be fun. The fifth is tough; maybe events promotion. Tough call.

12 Jan 2010

2009 in Retrospect

Well, that was a year, apparently. I'm always shocked by how fast these things roll around. Last Winter is a blur, now, but I'll do my best to recap. First up, of course, are the New Year's Resolutions. I like making these, and I do try to stick to them. Last year, apparently, I chose these three things:

Go out more
Learn about whisky
Get more things done

Read the rest of this post »

10 Nov 2009

Wow

(Regarding NaNoWriMo, in case you've lost the plot) 1,667 words a day is actually quite a lot. I'm currently at 10,023 words, and I'm running 3,000 behind. Hoping I can make that up over next week. I'm really enjoying it actually - this is the longest bit of fiction I've ever written, and I've never even attempted to explore a character this far, outside of roleplaying games, so it's been very educational. The story I'm writing is really, really bad, but if you're interested, it's available online here. Please, no constructive or nonconstructive criticism: I know, it's bad. There are a million things I would change about it. It's just about getting the words out. Can't blog. Too busy writing.

17 Sep 2009

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo approaches and I have, perhaps foolishly, decided to join in. I've never written anything of length before so I'm quite sure that I'll fail, but I'll give it a shot. I'm going to write a trashy cyberpunk story about a badass guy and his efforts to generally be awesome. It's going to be terrible but I'm really looking forward to writing it. Of course, this means that November is approaching. That, and the conkers that litter the floor on my way to work, remind me that Winter is coming once more to ruin my fun and leave me wishing I could hibernate for 3 months. My employer tells me that hibernation is not an option, so I'm going to try my best to motivate myself through the season. NaNo is the start, but I'm hoping that I can follow it up with some other projects to keep me enthusiastic. I always come through Winter wondering what I did with my time, and I don't want that to happen again. Summer was good this year. Not as much sitting in fields as past years, but there was plenty of fun to be had all the same. My one gripe is a tricky one to pin down: it is that although I have my usual Summer anthems from the year, I didn't get out clubbing at all, so I never had the chance to share them with others. That's kind of a shame, and I guess it's the way things go as you grow up.

31 Jul 2009

Moving House

Time to move house again. This time is always a little bit strange: no-one ever warns you that starting university actually commits you to moving more or less every year, seemingly inexplicably, for the foreseeable future. Maybe most people avoid this and my friends are the exception, but it seems that the majority of my friends (myself included) can't stick in one house for more than a year. Renovations cause us to be evicted, people leave, people join, requirements change, and we remain nomads. 2 years is the longest I've ever lived in a house since I left my family home, and I don't really remember one of those due to my workload and a healthy dosage of white Russians made with Finlandia. Since I went to university, I've called around 45 different beds around the world mine, and as such, I find myself in a weird state: on one hand, I never quite feel settled, but on the other hand, the sofa I'm curled up on now feels as much like my own bed as any other has ever been. I am in our lounge, wrapped in my duvet with my laptop, surrounded by boxes and bags of all the things I've grown used to having around over the past year, and I'm more than a little bit nostalgic. It's been an amazing year, Oxford is beautiful, my friends are awesome, and the next year promises to be even more exciting. I do love moving house. There's something about the chance to begin anew that I am utterly addicted to. I am watching Spaced again. It never, ever gets old. I thought I was bored with it, but it turns out that I'd just forgotten how brilliant it is.

28 Jul 2009

Lazy

This weekend was a lazy one. There were tons of things available to do but Kristy and I both decided to write it off and do as little as possible for a change. In Winter, I worried that I wasn't doing enough, but now it seems that I can't find a quiet weekend! I guess I am back to my old ways. Can't complain! I did get to see the latest Harry Potter movie. I confess to being a bit of a Potter fanboy, so I was always going to like it, but I was very impressed. It's a well put together film with impressive effects and, as always with the Potter movies, the casting is spot on. I haven't read the book in a while and this one didn't really stick in my mind so I can't vouch for its faithfulness (something that people seem to be complaining about) but it's certainly a good addition to the series. I'm not looking forward to the final film - the book was a bit of a departure from what I enjoyed about the series and got a bit too serious. I am currently in the middle of packing to move house. I hate this stuff - putting my life into boxes is something that I would very much like to be rid of. Sigh. At least the new house is nice. Can't wait to get it over with!

25 Jul 2009

Meanwhile, Back in Southampton...

Last weekend I headed back to Southampton, the city of my university days, for a housewarming. It was awesome to see everyone again and see Sina and Al's new flat, which is super sexy (I am most jealous), but it was very odd to see Southampton again. When I was in Soton, I knew a lot of people, and chances were good that I'd recognise most of the faces I'd see walking down the road. the student areas where pretty small places, y'see. 3 years have passed since I was there, so people have started and finished their degrees in the time that I've been away. What really grates is that the people still essentially look the same - students never change - the crowds look the same, but all of the people are different. It's unnerving. Seeing my friends was the same as it's always been though, which is wonderful. I live in fear of meeting up with old friends and finding that what brought us together has faded but our bunch always seems to hang together. We're all doing different things and we'll often go months without seeing each other but when we do it's always awesome. I have massive love for all those folks for not changing too much and keeping it all together. I also bought some running shoes last weekend. Let the getting fit commence. Maybe.

shrieking.net - new and improved!