March 2010
Posted: 27th March 2010
The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur which probably explains why I haven't posted in a while. A fair few things have happened but I've been preoccupied with living on my own in a big house as my parents are away on a cruise in the Caribbean. The only company I have at the moment is my elderly cat who has a habit of getting under my feet for most of the day which is incredibly infuriating especially whilst trying to cook dinner. He also craps a lot so there is the weekly ritual of emptying his litter tray on the weekends (most unpleasant).
In an attempt to escape this predicament I have been climbing a lot recently. Every Wednesday is spent at the Edge with the Sheffield Hallam Club and for the last two weeks we (Will Ceuppens, Jamie Shaw and I) have been popping over to the Foundry on Friday mornings to try something different. The added practice is clearly paying dividends as I am getting considerably more confident and, I think, skillful (I pretty comfortable completed a 6b+ top roping last week and lead climbing is not as big of a deal as it used to be). For my birthday last month I was given £200 with the explicit instructions of spending it on something and to not let it sit in my account as beer money. As a result I bought myself some new boots (Scarpa Force) as my current (Scarpa Vantage), whilst extremely comfortable, I think are perhaps too big or have stretched - as a result I'm not connecting with the wall or rock as well as I would like. The new ones pinch a bit but they are already conforming to my foot shape and they feel great. I also bought myself a bouldering mat (Metolius Stomp) and a book on bouldering in my area (Peak District: Bouldering - Rupert Davies & Jon Barton). This will now allow me to take advantage of the climbing areas very close to me and give me an excuse to go outside on the weekends. Hopefully soon enough I'll have improved by bouldering and consequently my technical climbing skill dramatically. I was planning to go bouldering today at Burbage South but I seem to have done something to my elbow yesterday at the Foundry - weirdly enough it was a strange blesssing as I realised I would have double booked myself as another friend had offered roped climbing in another (nearby) area. As such, no climbing today but provided my elbow has recovered by tomorrow I'll try out the new mat at Burbage (I want to start ticking off the problems as soon as possible)!
We have now submitted our applications to Dare to be Digital. I am part of a team called Heavenly Duck Studios (the name came from six clicks on a random name generator) and we are pitching a game called Ark!, an Xbox 360 game with a twist on the traditional tower defense game. We should hear early next week if we are to attend a selection event in Wolverhampton at the end of April after which they will decide whether or not we are going to Dundee in the summer. Exciting times all round!
As a result of our concentrated efforts on the above competition university work has been somewhat kicked in the head for the time being. Thats not to say I haven't done any work: I just haven't been able to give it my total focus. Our management module has been put on a short hold as our (very lucky) lecturer went off to attend GDC in San Francisco. In multi-processing we've been grappling with SIMD and most recently had a go with the transputer language occam which seemed surprisingly simple. My flocking application has received the most attention thus far - I have created an application which allows the user to toggle certain behavioural rules and observe the effects. I am currently working on an additional program that demonstrates a predator and prey situation - I should hopefully be able to have something to show at the end of the weekend. I've also been teaching myself a bit of XNA when the time allows - very simple in comparison to what I am normally doing.
Finally as Easter approaches the university is halted for a two week holiday. Rather than make use of the two weeks off my former employer (Rare Creative Group) have asked me to do some freelance work during this time - certainly makes the recent climbing purchases more pleasant to enjoy. Met with them yesterday for a quick catch up and explanation as to what I'm working on.