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Finally made some serious traction on the game I'm working on.
I'm over the hump with working on the mac - I still don't find it to be preferable to working under windows in terms of the OS, but I've sorted all of my problems, so I can simply get on with my day. This is GOOOOOOD.
The magical time when people decide the apple way is better still hasn't happened. Perhaps it will! But I'm quite happy just being able to dev all day without wanting to kill things.
Absolutely A-number-1 productivity increaser I found was buying a 3rd party mini-DVI to VGA lead, so that I could use my normal monitor with the macbook.
Sitting the macbook beneath the monitor and using dual screens has meant that my need to use Spaces has decreased substantially, I have enough screen real-estate for the dev environment and everything else I want to do (x-code on the big monitor, chat / mail / etc on the laptop monitor below), and no tedious constant screen-flipping.
And yes, this is a good dev environment and I'm happy now, but I *don't* need two monitors under windows. The lovely, curvy, sexy widgets that every app is made of waste screen space as far as I'm concerned. The cumulative effect of a few lost pixels on every widget means that with the 20 odd apps I run all day, the screen's a mess. It is less so under windows, even if it looks a bit 90s. I'm OK with that. I'm OK with the mac approach if I have a bigger rez than the macbook comes with.
Anyhooz. Today, I got the prototype of the game to about 50%, I'm finally happy reading and writing objective-C without it feeling like a foreign language, and I'm back to bashing out code like I would in my more-recently-native java environment.
Have to say that x-code is indeed good, and the integration with the emulator is great. reliable, FAST (god, so much faster than java!) emulation is a joy. Immediate deployment and debugging on-device is also a joy. These are things you SHOULD be able to get right with a closed platform, and yep, Apple have nailed it.
So, slowly, I'm becoming a convert to iPhone development. The OS, not so much.
Just to fuck all of that into a cocked hat, we've been informed that our game should get featured by Apple, but to do so will require a 4-week turnover, so my deadline has been slashed from 6 weeks to 3.
This next month is going to suck all sorts of cock, but regardless of if we make it or not, December will be relatively quiet. If we hit it, we'll sell more, if we don't, everyone will hate me, but there won't be a blind thing that can be done about it by December.
Working over the weekend for the next month... back on a calorie-controlled diet, back on anti-depressants (both of which are actually working WELL), drinking way less (because of being on happy pills and because I literally don't have the time - I've always been able to clamp down because of work - alcoholic, moi?) ... things ain't so bad.
Had Corben over last night, have spent the last few weeks spending WAY more time out and about so that he gets more crazy-time and I get more exercise, we're both loving it.
He's started a playgroup where we actually leave him there for a few hours, and basically hasn't given a flying shit. I've been a bundle of nerves about leaving him alone, said goodbye, he's kissed me, smiled and waved "byebye, daddy!" then just dived back into play like a good 'un. Fucking amazing little bastard.
In a bittersweet moment, Liz said that when she picked him up, he went "mommy! mommy! ... daddy! daddy?" (I drop him off, Liz picks him up).
He seems to be doing that quite a bit now, which is quite heart-rending. She's also said he obviously does enjoy staying over with me, which is wonderful, but it tears me up quite a bit to know that he's asking for me when I can't be there. He's always asked after his mom at various times while with me, which totally makes sense, it's kind of nice that he obviously wants me about, too.
Be that as it may, he doesn't seem to be suffering separation anxiety from either of us (or both - he's chilled with adults he's been introduced to after a pretty short time), I think he knows that the days pass from mommy to daddy and back again and has a sense of routine and security.
On a very soppy level, his level of demonstrated physical affection toward me, and verbally involving me in stuff has continually increased.
He's asking for things by sticking "daddy" into the sentence, cuddling up to me at night, waking me more gently and paying attention if I show that jokey stuff has upset me (like a playful foot in the groin). The level to which he slaps me in the eyes or genitals tends to be on a "hilariously playing with daddy's nerves" rather than "attention-seeking" basis.
Literally couldn't be more happy with the guy. While it doesn't erase it, his company goes a good distance to ameliorating the acute loneliness of Kirsten's absence to the point where I wonder how well I would do without him.
In fact, today, he was a total moody fucker when I took him out to the park, as he'd fell asleep on the way there and spent an entire hour crying and sulking while I sat on a cold park bench trying not to look like I'd just beaten him in front of the other parents (to a background of sobbing) - for literally the first time for me.
We pushed through, I bribed him with a Peppa Pig football, some Quavers and a bottle of fruit juice and eventually had a good play anyways. If anything, it was a reminder of how often I've smirked at other parents suffering the same situation while smugly beaming at Corben, who's never That Kid. I guess they're all That Kid sometimes, and I normally get off very, very lightly.
Roight. Time to shut down the Big iPod and move into Windows territory for the evening.
Up yer arse, universe, today could have been worse!
I'm over the hump with working on the mac - I still don't find it to be preferable to working under windows in terms of the OS, but I've sorted all of my problems, so I can simply get on with my day. This is GOOOOOOD.
The magical time when people decide the apple way is better still hasn't happened. Perhaps it will! But I'm quite happy just being able to dev all day without wanting to kill things.
Absolutely A-number-1 productivity increaser I found was buying a 3rd party mini-DVI to VGA lead, so that I could use my normal monitor with the macbook.
Sitting the macbook beneath the monitor and using dual screens has meant that my need to use Spaces has decreased substantially, I have enough screen real-estate for the dev environment and everything else I want to do (x-code on the big monitor, chat / mail / etc on the laptop monitor below), and no tedious constant screen-flipping.
And yes, this is a good dev environment and I'm happy now, but I *don't* need two monitors under windows. The lovely, curvy, sexy widgets that every app is made of waste screen space as far as I'm concerned. The cumulative effect of a few lost pixels on every widget means that with the 20 odd apps I run all day, the screen's a mess. It is less so under windows, even if it looks a bit 90s. I'm OK with that. I'm OK with the mac approach if I have a bigger rez than the macbook comes with.
Anyhooz. Today, I got the prototype of the game to about 50%, I'm finally happy reading and writing objective-C without it feeling like a foreign language, and I'm back to bashing out code like I would in my more-recently-native java environment.
Have to say that x-code is indeed good, and the integration with the emulator is great. reliable, FAST (god, so much faster than java!) emulation is a joy. Immediate deployment and debugging on-device is also a joy. These are things you SHOULD be able to get right with a closed platform, and yep, Apple have nailed it.
So, slowly, I'm becoming a convert to iPhone development. The OS, not so much.
Just to fuck all of that into a cocked hat, we've been informed that our game should get featured by Apple, but to do so will require a 4-week turnover, so my deadline has been slashed from 6 weeks to 3.
This next month is going to suck all sorts of cock, but regardless of if we make it or not, December will be relatively quiet. If we hit it, we'll sell more, if we don't, everyone will hate me, but there won't be a blind thing that can be done about it by December.
Working over the weekend for the next month... back on a calorie-controlled diet, back on anti-depressants (both of which are actually working WELL), drinking way less (because of being on happy pills and because I literally don't have the time - I've always been able to clamp down because of work - alcoholic, moi?) ... things ain't so bad.
Had Corben over last night, have spent the last few weeks spending WAY more time out and about so that he gets more crazy-time and I get more exercise, we're both loving it.
He's started a playgroup where we actually leave him there for a few hours, and basically hasn't given a flying shit. I've been a bundle of nerves about leaving him alone, said goodbye, he's kissed me, smiled and waved "byebye, daddy!" then just dived back into play like a good 'un. Fucking amazing little bastard.
In a bittersweet moment, Liz said that when she picked him up, he went "mommy! mommy! ... daddy! daddy?" (I drop him off, Liz picks him up).
He seems to be doing that quite a bit now, which is quite heart-rending. She's also said he obviously does enjoy staying over with me, which is wonderful, but it tears me up quite a bit to know that he's asking for me when I can't be there. He's always asked after his mom at various times while with me, which totally makes sense, it's kind of nice that he obviously wants me about, too.
Be that as it may, he doesn't seem to be suffering separation anxiety from either of us (or both - he's chilled with adults he's been introduced to after a pretty short time), I think he knows that the days pass from mommy to daddy and back again and has a sense of routine and security.
On a very soppy level, his level of demonstrated physical affection toward me, and verbally involving me in stuff has continually increased.
He's asking for things by sticking "daddy" into the sentence, cuddling up to me at night, waking me more gently and paying attention if I show that jokey stuff has upset me (like a playful foot in the groin). The level to which he slaps me in the eyes or genitals tends to be on a "hilariously playing with daddy's nerves" rather than "attention-seeking" basis.
Literally couldn't be more happy with the guy. While it doesn't erase it, his company goes a good distance to ameliorating the acute loneliness of Kirsten's absence to the point where I wonder how well I would do without him.
In fact, today, he was a total moody fucker when I took him out to the park, as he'd fell asleep on the way there and spent an entire hour crying and sulking while I sat on a cold park bench trying not to look like I'd just beaten him in front of the other parents (to a background of sobbing) - for literally the first time for me.
We pushed through, I bribed him with a Peppa Pig football, some Quavers and a bottle of fruit juice and eventually had a good play anyways. If anything, it was a reminder of how often I've smirked at other parents suffering the same situation while smugly beaming at Corben, who's never That Kid. I guess they're all That Kid sometimes, and I normally get off very, very lightly.
Roight. Time to shut down the Big iPod and move into Windows territory for the evening.
Up yer arse, universe, today could have been worse!
