It's Almost Time!

It's nice to get a suit, shirt and tie every year - I've got a bit of a collection going since last year and one day I may hope to use them to entertain a member of the female persuasion in a shared moment of face scoffing at a fancy restaurant. A man can dream, can't he? A malformed myopic man? Actually, I've cut down a bit on chocolate bars and candy and I feel slimmer although it's a bad time to start this kind of crusade - especially with Christmas around the corner.

Is This PC Finally Fixed?

I'm not sure. Or maybe I am. After all the crap I had to put up with getting this computer working as it should have been, I decided to e-mail HP Total Care after a programmer mentioned that my laggy mouse and keyboard could be down to a dodgy BIOS. He was right! Total Care agreed and pointed me in the direction of a BIOS update which was a lot less hassle than it should have been. Last night the symptoms were still there (although Vista loaded up quicker) though today it's much better. I am typing this with the flap of the Connection Center open as I'm charging my iPod so that might have something to do with it. I've had zero blue screens since moving from Explorer to Firefox (hmmm.. telling) and I've been slowly grabbing back things which were second nature to me on XP. Should I have got an iMac? It's debatable, though now I think I'm ready to rock and roll so I'm ready to begin crafting 365 proper in InDesign when I come back from home home! No, not this home. Home home. The home that matters.

Some Interesting Facts About My Home Home

I live in a place called Hoylake which recently hosted The Open Golf Tournament. It's on the Wirral next to Liverpool, though many people still consider Hoylake to be part of Liverpool. This is wrongness. It has gone through a huge upheaval due to The Open so that one part of Market Street (the main road which runs through Hoylake) has been transformed into some kind of mini-mecca of posh bars and restaurants. Olde Hoylake is still as it ever was. The telling thing is that New Hoylake has all the fancy Christmas decorations, while we get tat. There's a tangible class divide which is unsettling. It's also unsettling that I never really feel safe walking around Hoylake at night whereas (rather comedically) here in Gateshead I've had no issues at all. I grew up in Hoylake and yet it feels like an alien place. Every time I come home I walk down Market Street after getting off the train to see what new sights and shops have cropped up.

Yes, I Was Working Class

I come from a family which was very deprived and although we worked hard to make ends meet, it felt like we did lead wholesome happy lives. In my early years I was a member of a large family of two brothers and two sisters. I think I was always considered the favourite of my Mum and Dad - the golden boy who did no wrong. Did I ask for that? Nope. Still, I didn't ask for the outside toilet either. That's something - having a shit in Winter while you're sitting on a cold toilet seat. We had no warm running water and we also had a tin bath which was dragged into the lounge and filled with water boiled on our stove. I had friends who had hot running water and proper bathrooms... it was a revelation to visit and see how the other half lived.

Nothing Changes.

Home home still has a problem with hot running water. We had some Scally builders in to renovate our bathroom - though they managed to make it worse with a plastic sink (!) - and the bath has cold running water too. So to fill a bath I have to chuck a load of water in there from the kettle. It's quite astounding that in this day and age I have to do this. Not only that, but also the boiler - also installed by those wacky Scally builders - is courtesy of Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw have been cited by my old plumber when I lived on my own as being the company responsible for the worst boilers ever concieved. So no heating at home even though there's radiators everywhere now. It's stupid because Mum thinks it's a blessing that her bills are lower because of it. It's no way to live though, really.

Did I tell you she also has thirteen cats? Maybe it all makes sense to you now.

The thing I don't look forward to on the way home is getting to Liverpool. It's not I don't like Liverpool, just a lot of the people who live there aren't the nicest people. There's a world of difference travelling on a Virgin Train from Newcastle to York and travelling on Merseyrail from Liverpool to Hoylake. This may sound a bit crazed but if you've travelled on Merseyrail, you know what I'm talking about.

Working For The Weekend

Work on Wheelman is progressing although it still feels like we're in the middle of the development of the game rather than the last third. I've been busy putting extra hours in to get the work done and although I love doing what I do, it's hard to keep the faith when you're tired. I've had arguments about scheduling and the company fascination with outsourcing - although I know that the company needs a percentage quota so they keep the outsourcers in a job. When I worked at Jester on TT Superbikes, the outsourcers ended up getting paid more and delivered work which was badly done and had to be fixed at our end as well. So I'm not too fond of outsourcing from personal experience. We are slowly progressing though and the game still amazes me about how lovely it looks - we're using the Unreal Engine in a way it wasn't designed for - a high speed racing game. We just need a game to match the looks.

Sod it. I'll go home on Friday and say the reason why is because of my fear of the Haunted Bathroom.

A Christmas Wish

Well, this is time for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully you'll find someone to hug and be in the company of loved ones. I'm lucky to have this opportunity to go home and see my folks and see friends and loved ones. It must suck for those who are alone. I bet it sucks almost as much as me trying to grab The Duper Sessions with Sondre Lerche on UK iTunes only to discover it's available on US iTunes but I can't download it. I've e-mailed the record company and I know the album is rare - but it's a stunning album. Below is a promo for the single called Minor Detail - it's a fantastic tune which puts me in a special place and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Merry Christmas!!