Writing

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There should be a corollary to the old adage “Be careful what you wish for” which is “Be careful what you promise to do”.

Some time back I promised to write some XNA courseware. A whole course worth in fact, based on my XNA book.  This has turned out to be a non-trivial exercise. In fact I’ve been writing pretty much continuously for the last fortnight, around 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. And at the time of writing I’ve reached chapter 12.

Silly me.

The problem is that after a day of writing I don’t really feel that keen to trot out some fun prose about what kind of day I have had because, quite frankly, at the moment I can’t tell them apart. And I can’t even think of novel combinations of the “I have been mostly writing today”.

The good news is that some day soon you will be able to download and use my XNA course material. And I jolly well hope you find it useful.

Happy Birthday Me

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Another year older and deeper in debt. As the saying goes. But at least I got to go to Alton Towers. (being the birthday boy and also the driver means that you do get some privileges it seems).

I’m not a big fan of big rides, I just like the attention to detail and the general atmosphere of these places. Of course Disney do it best, but Universal Studio and Alton run them a close second. Alton Towers doesn’t have a huge stable of TV and film back story to beef up its act, but it more than makes up for this with fantastic grounds around the park itself.

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A good place to be

We had a great time. I went on some of the less demanding rides and the weather was kind to us. What more can you ask?

Oh and many thanks to the people who flocked to my FaceBook page and wished me all the best. It almost makes me wish I posted stuff on there. Perhaps I will one day, just before it goes out of fashion…

Horizontal Rain and Degrees

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Number one daughter got her degree today, so it was off to York to sample somebody else’s degree ceremony for a change. It was a great occasion and a good time was had by everyone although the experience was slightly marred by the cloudburst and he horizontal rain that we got as soon as we arrived which persisted until we left.

The ducks (there are lots of them about at York) looked like they were really enjoying the weather, but I think they were the only ones. After this lot my suit definitely has an appointment at the dry cleaners. In fact, anything with the word dry in it sounds good to me at the moment.

Graze at your Desk

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Number one son is with us for a few days, which is nice. Today he is working from home. In this case our home. In these situations he has his lunch sent in, so today he had it delivered to our house. The lunch itself comes from http://www.graze.com/ who will post you a balanced box of nuts and fruits that is designed to keep you going through the day.

I must admit it looked rather nice, and it is supposed to provide 3 of your five portions of fruit too. Number one son looks quite well on it, and reckons that their delivery is very efficient and the system works well.

Me, I had an enormous cheese sandwich…

It Felt Like a Kiss

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Adam Curtis makes scary documentaries. Not “Man coming up behind you and shouting ‘Boo!’” scary, but “How on earth did we get ourselves into this mess?” scary.

Now he has made something which is a mix of both kinds of scary. In an office block in Manchester. It Felt Like a Kiss is a walk through interactive event with a movie in the middle. Number one son and myself made it all the way to the end and I must admit it was a fascinating way to spend a couple of hours, with some really scary bits here and there. It tells you things you didn’t know about the way the world works and gives you the odd fright, including one bit where a man with a chainsaw chases you down a darkened corridor…