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.

We’re on day six of Dad part 2 and after a tired day from hell, mainly down to me waking up on the wrong side of bed and staying there until we had a break from the house at Grandma Elaine’s new bungalow (a lovely family meal to celebrate mine and Rach’s 5th Wedding anniversary), I find myself happy with the role that I’ve cast myself. I think I shouted ‘Hey every thing’s back to normal’ too quickly at a stage where I’m not 100% what ‘normal’ is, and paid the price as a result. Felt massively swamped and heading straight towards the Big Black Pit of Despair as a result. Fortunately someone in here likes me and at this moment stuck in the the Total Perspective Vortex, I got the overwhelming peaceful feeling that everything is alright. My mind tired as it was tried to argue the case against this happy state of harmony, but what ever force was at work was far too strong for my deep rooted pessimism. So mind gave in and all was good

I think this is going to be my personal motto from now on in “Everything is alright”, not in a fluffy over optimistic way were I can bum my way through life, but in a life affirming negativity busting way. I’ve been making vast headway recently changing my life for the better (through the power of AWESOME and WIN), but there always remained a deep seated nagging fear that Everything was Wrong on every level conceivable. Its now time to chuck that out that attitude and move on

Everything is alright

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce

Henry Brian Newport

Extra information for Women:

Weight 7 lb 12oz, born 10:30pm, mother and baby fine.

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Very quick update.  We now have a date for the c-section Monday 14th September, so things are moving towards that momentous day.  On a personal level I’ve been busy getting my head clear and ditching any apprehension and fear I may have.  Its very likely that the next post will be a pictorial one of the new baby

Rach is fine as is Evie, who despite a quick cold with fever continues to bounce around and talk us to death.  The middle bedroom finally got done last weekend when with the help of  Yann, the 15 year old son of a friend of Elaine’s we pulled apart the remaining fitted wardrobe.  I’ve also cleared out the remaining bits and pieces, which is just as well since the baby gear (seat, moses basket) is now coming down out of the attic.

Work is getting nicely wrapped up, with all remaining bits getting finished off and handed over to a colleague to support during the three weeks I’m off.   That’s right folks THREE WEEKS (2 weeks paternity +1 week hols).  Its going to be fun but hard work. I have foolish ideas that I will get some writing done during that period.

Which brings me onto D101 stuff.  Savage North continues apace with John finishing off the art and me the writing. Prepping a Demo scenario, The Beast of Ravenswood, for Furnace that Neil Ford is going to be running. With any luck we’ll have a preview of The Savage North in the con book.  I’ve also got a mystery 10 Day Writing project, which I started to break a writers block I had. I think that with all the recent ‘do or die’ release deadlines of OpenQuest and Hearts in Glorantha 3 I got so worried that I froze up. Fortunately the 10 Day Writing project has started me flowing again. I’ll be letting you know what it is on Friday

So in short we are fine, slightly stressed with anticipation of the coming new addition to our family. Here’s a pic of me and the ever impish Evie at a recent trip out to a local pub/restaurant.

Mirrored from Newtworld.

Is how I feel at the moment. Flowing towards the birth of my second child at great speed it feels, a date only three to four weeks away. Its dizzying the rate at which things are happening and my slow dreamy brain sometimes has trouble taking it all in. Overall I’m very happy in an ordinary contented sort of way, with occasional bouts of panic and terror at the realisation that everything will never be the same (again). I’m erring on the side of rock solid calmness through and I’m beginning to see where my 40+ friends get that from.

Specifics

Rach – is holding up well. She’s got gestational diabetes much earlier than last time, but is coping with it and getting on as best one can when you can no longer bend down. She’s finished work and definitely in the final run up to Newtlet#2

Evie – has hit the terrible twos head on! Lots of loud shouting, running around and constant talking. A joy to be around and this gives me a reason to get me sorted out so she stays that way.

Office to Bedroom conversion – Nothing has happened on this for a good month. Good Lady wife, visibly concerned. Mr Newt will have to get his shit together on this and quick. Especially since young Evie has been introduced to the idea this is her new room (another great idea of mine come back to bite me on the ass) and has started to complain that she wants to move in!

Garden – Back still a jungle and a sustained hack and slash campaign will have to be conducted into the Winter, with hostilities resuming in early Spring. Recent Battle of the Upper Garden halted due to rain, will recommence this weekend. Weeds have sneakily taken opportunity to grow back.

D101 Games/Roleplaying Games writing – This has been going very well recently. Got out OpenQuest finally to much praise and over a thousand downloads of the150 page Pdf. Hearts In Glorantha #3 is out in a couple of weeks. Currently working on the Savage North , a Conan with serials filed off setting/adventure book for OpenQuest, with my friend John Ossoway who as well as writing 90% of it is doing some lovely art for it. After ten years of dithering I’m in the final straight towards getting a complete draft of Monkey. I’m hoping a quick bit of editorial will get it sorted for publication, since art is already sourced, for an October publication (i.e. just in time for Furnace) of the game I formed D101 to publish. However can’t help the ominous feeling that I’m suddenly going to have to have a break from D101 to look after family. Definitely a reduction in activity is on the cards.

Work– Fine, exactly where I want to be at this point with people I like in a nice relaxed environment Mustn’t get complacent though

Mirrored from Newtworld.