Shrieking was long overdue for a bit of maintenance, and it's finally got it. My old hosts refused to upgrade my server to MySQL 4 or PHP 5, which I think is a fairly basic duty of a webhost (For the non-techheads, you can do this in about 20 keystrokes - it's not hard) so I've moved on to the rather excellent SliceHost, who just give you a virtual linux box to play with so you can update the software yourself. About time I found myself something like this. I'm now up to Worpdress 2.6.1, and it's very nice. Well done you guys at Wordpress. Along with Shrieking's update has come a wave of new ideas, creativity, and motivation. I've recently been edging in on the Rails community and it's made me remember what I love about computers. Slowly, all the stuff that I always thought would be cool but never managed to express is becoming a reality in the computing world and finally I've got the means, time, and expertise to get stuck into it. I've got a few projects on my mind and I'm looking forward to getting on with them now that Shrieking's admin is all done and dusted. Everyone, programmer or not, needs to read Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby. This is how books should be written. This is how people should think about programming. My job's been pretty hectic lately but last week we released the alpha, which is very good news indeed, and explains why I'm sat in a coffee shop in London at 5:30pm on a Friday instead of crying into my aluminum keyboard in the office. I'm really enjoying the job: it's nice to have something to do with my days. I find it helps me to focus my free time. My house is also lovely. it feels like a real person's house, and I'm living with some awesome people who are doing a fantastic job of acclimatising me to life back in England. I suppose I should probably also mention that my girlfriend is briliant. She'd tell me off if I didn't. Overall, life's pretty awesome. I promise I'll get back to writing stuff that's not just about me now that I have ubiquitous net access again.