The xmas period just gone was slightly bizarre, but very cool in its own way.

Started with the annual trip to Centre Parcs, this time the Sherwood forest one, where we got trapped under the snow. But a it was a good place to get trapped under the snow Lots of quality time with the family as well as quite an active schedule of activities.

Next was back to work for the first week of Dec. I had planned a nice end for the year, get various loose ends tied up and end up with a clear intray. What I got instead was a revisit of the skin infection (cellulitis) on my left leg which had me laid off work in May/June earlier this year. Not that I fully realised until I laid in the bath on Friday evening and saw my leg all swollen and red! Up until then I thought I just had a particularly grim cold!  This week was also notable since it was my first week working four days a week, since I’ve dropped one day to help with childcare now that Rach is doing her online Masters in Clinical Research. Wednesday is going to my general ‘not-at-work-day’ , as opposed to ‘day off’ because with Henry and Evie to look after that would be a misnomer, and it was good, even though I felt that I was ‘sciving’ and expected a phone call from work any moment.

So the run up to Xmas saw me laid off with this skin infection, which to be honest was a bit of a blessing in disguise since it helped Rachel who was finishing off her first assignment in the first week I was off. The drawback was that I didn’t get to fully focus on getting better until she had submitted.

Thankfully Xmas itself was pretty chilled for our annual family get together. After three years of holding them I reckon every-one’s got the hang of what goes on the big day, including the 3-4 hours of present opening! (which was split into various manageable chunks this year).

The following week, saw me and family potter around whilst fighting cabin fever due to the continuing cold spell.

All in all a relaxing time, which has seen me develop a more chilled out attitude towards life. The challenge now is to take that into the wacky world of work and into a very hectic year ahead.

I don’t do resolutions, but as a Taoist I do do balance.  There’s a couple of life-balances that are out of balance at the moment ; health is a big one that I started on meekly last year but must be intensified this year, social life is virtually nil so plans are about to get out and about and work needs further er well work. My plans this year are not to engage upon a mad dash for expansion, but consolidate, solidify and improve upon my lot. That way lies true advancement.

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Last train to Newtsville, all change!!

Been a busy period of my life since my last proper post here and the changes sure are ringing in my and my family’s life. I was 39 a couple of weeks ago and it suddenly came crashing down on me how things are moving out of the rather numb and tired post-birth period of Henry, with all the pent up desires for change coming into reality. Lets just say sometimes I’m slow to realise

Rach is now doing an online MRes Clinical with Manchester University. As usual she’s going hard at it with dedication and focus that is admirable. Its been difficult juggling her doing 5 hours on it, going to work, housework and childcare. We reached a crisis point a couple of weeks ago, sat down and had a rejigg and refocus and are now settled into the routine.

My work is moving me on from being a Junior Developer/Programmer to something that better reflects my ten years in the Software Development game, which over the last six months definitely has taken me out of my comfort zone. However it was long on the cards and a source of great frustration, that basically I put my career on hold while we had Evie and then Henry.

Talking of which. Evie is now moving towards being a little girl, who chatters intelligently constantly and who has her own opinions on things. Henry is can no longer be called a baby, and is becoming his own little man with expressions and personality. He’s now fully mobile and will be walking very soon. Its something he’s wanted to do from being 6months old and I think it will be a rude awakening when one morning he cracks it and he’ll be off!

D101 Games remains a delight and joy to be involved in. Its now completely broken out of the tiny small press where its just me working on it with a couple of helpers popping in to add bit and sales via lulu, to small press with regular contributors, fans, and shops to be supplied. The amount of stuff I’ve put out this year is staggering and I’m keeping a careful eye on how it grows in the future. Not going to reveal my plans here but D101 takes a big step forward next year.

And of course the I’ve left the biggest change to last. We are finally going ahead with a big house extension. Basically we live in a 1930s Semi-detached in a leafy suburb of Oldham. We inherited it from Rachel’s Grandma and its a bit of a squeeze for our growing family. Also some of the wiring is very old and very dangerous. Think rubber clad copper wiring, which would disintegrate if you touched it.  So were shorting out the gremlins and doubling the size of the house while we are at it. The architect is currently finalising his plans, so I reckon sometime next year we’ll be moving out for a good nine months while the house is done.

With all this happening I’m firmly resolute not to react with grumpyness or fear.

Expect updates

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Since the birth of my second child – Henry back in Sept its been like all the Slack ™ I’ve taken in the past (and man oh man has there been lots of that) has been repaid in full and with interest.  This of course has caused me no end of freak out and stress , but I think this week I’ve finally gottne on top of it all. I am master of a my own Slack ™ once more. As a result I shall be visiting Planet Freak out less and enjoying Ranch-Relaxo more.

Updates

Evie is  now a bubbly and excitable three year old.  Rach is a domestic goddess on a keep fit regime lossing weight at truely terrifc rate that puts me to shame. Henry is 9 months old and a happy smily chap who now has his first couple of teeth

Gaming is still quite a large focus of my life, but I’m going to be taking steps to do other stuff along side it. Personal Exercise and Gardening particular spring to mind.  Just returned from a truly triumphant Continuum convention in Leicester a couple of weekends ago.   I released Monkey , a long term project of mine, which sold out its initial print run

Work has become more intense recently, but despite a few tense moments I’m enjoying the change in pace and the learning curve. Planning on doing more web-programming in the coming months, and really making my skill set much more robust for big changes in the coming months.

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Yup I’m still here in Interwebsland.

Just been a bit busy of late.

Full update to follow.

For now here’s a picture of Henry (6months) and Evie (3 years this Sunday)

Mirrored from Newtworld.

This is just a test post to see if Twitterfeed works. Move along nothing to see here

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Winter blooz really hit me hard last week, with the tiredness really catching up with me and bringing me low.  Fortunately the Universe was looking after me with lots of good stuff coming my way to cheer me up and keep me afloat.

Good stuff

Henry smiling! He’s still a bit thrashy, windy and crying but its all normal baby stuff. Over the colic and the series of colds and beginning to settle into a regular pattern.  After a month of my son doing nothing but cry and look worried he now smiles a big gorgeous smile

Evie loves play school. Evie started playschool two days a week and loves it Lots of singing and painting. Its tempered her manicness at home and really brings home what a joyful if slightly spirited girl she is

Computer fixed! Godzilla, my uber gaming desktop, is now fixed after a month of being broken. The sad thing it was my top end (well as of 1.5 year ago) graphics card (a duel Nvida 9800GX) that went The happy ending was that I got a mid range Sapphire Radeon 5770 which is just as good, and being a new card is future proof for Direct X 11 games, giving me a possible extra year on its life.  Much Crysis, that never ran smoothly on my old card, was played to celebrate!  Seeing this is also the machine I do my layout for D101 games, this is good news for that venture as well.

Newtbook. The netbook I got for my birthday continues to inspire and be a lovely bit of kit.

Work. Finally refocused at work. Will continue on the path of WordPress guru, but also got some ASP.net coding projects on the horizon.

Visitation from brother. Two visits from younger bro George in as many months.  Good to see he’s sorting himself out and on the right path for him. Went to the pub on Saturday night. Also now have complete run of MASH, 11 Seasons of TV + Movie. Much medical chortles with Hawkeye and co await.

Holidays. Traditional two week break at XMAS is booked as is a week off for Centre parcs at Winfell first week of Dec. A double blow against the winter blooz!

TomCon. It was great to go over to Tom’s last Sunday. Caught up with the Furnace gang and had a cracking game of Cyberpunk using Wordplay

Monkey. Its coming. A mater of pages to write, all the art is done, Prof Mark Galeotti on standby for editing at the end of this month.  Its so close I’m pinching myself

and last but not least……

My Wife. Continues to be lovely, despite tiredness and me being a bit of an idiot recently.

So that’s me at the mo. A nice refresh and refocus over weekend sees me move on. Still a case of slow and steady, but there’s a real sense that I’m getting there on a number of fronts

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Us Newts are prospering at the moment.  After a week or so everone is finally over our colds, which is especially good news for the children. Poor Henry has had a cold of some discription virtually since he was born, plus a dose of the collic.Evie was temparorilay turned into a snot monster from a John Carpenter film.  All that is left to do is for us adults to catch up on sleep.

My birthday was the win. I took last monday off (it will be a dark day when I have to work on my b’day) and we all went for a pub lunch at the ace Turks Head. Goto a copy of Andrew Marr’s Making of Modern Britian from my mum which is good timing since the series started this week. A good narrative political history, which is interesting especially in light of recent events, such as the ‘rise’ of the BNP and such nonsense as the British Citezan Test. The rest of the family chipped in for a Acer Aspire One 531 netbook, which is the awesome bit of kit I’m composing this post on.

BTW I’m back on Skype as mrnewt if you want to contact me.

To Finsh off here’s a picture of me and the children, taken using the new ‘Newtbook’ ’s webcam.

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Well Henry’s now a month older and things are returning to normal. On my part a more ‘adult’ normal. Its a bit like all the enormous amounts of slack that I took earlier in my life is being paid for in full, with running around doing stuff for someone else. Me time is at a premium and rather depressingly people tell me this is how its going to be for the next eighteen years at least! This means that I’ve not got time to procrastinate like I used to and once I’ve got over myself I’m finding myself more productive than ever I’m still adjusting and its making me a bit snappy at time, but strangely its also making me more chilled overall. Less Motorhead more Brian Eno and Robert Fripp

Still bloody tired though.

Things I like:

• OpenQuest: Chuffed to bits that I finished this and its been a source of constant delight over the last month or so.
  
• Off to Centre Parcs in Dec!
• Ubuntu 9.04 which is all kinds of shiny, only just got round to upgrading and next version is out the end of this month
• Its my birthday soon!

Things I don’t like

• 101 other D101 projects call my name like lost children!
• That I’ve not been to a con all year Just missed Furnace 2009 and Game 09. Will have to see if next year is better.
• Henry’s not settled into a regular eat-sleep pattern yet and is stressing his mum out.
• My uber gaming PC has decided to die on me and flatscreen monitors don’t seem to be all that robust

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Had a good run recently in the long nights alone waiting for Henry to arrive.

The Watchmen. Loved it. From reviews I read both here and there I didn’t expect to but I was serious eye candy that was a decent adaptation of the comic imho. Bear in mind I’m quite forgiving when it comes to movie versions of comics and books, being quite willing to accept changes and that somethings don’t make it in the transision. That said nearly lost me with the new ending, but I eventually settled down and realised that the comic’s ending would not have worked on the big screen the same way.

No Country for Old Men One of the Cohen brothers’ thrillers and boy did it not dissappoint Slow burning is an understatement, but it was worth it as a very detailed study of villiany (the main character is the killer of the piece) and the lawmen who opposed him (Tom Lee Jones at the height of his powers). A haunting film.

Mirrored from Newtworld.