I'm not dead

It's been a long time since I've gotten around to updating the site. Long enough for me to grow a beard, hate it, shave it, then wistfully pine for it again.

Still, I've not been idle; just preoccupied and stranded in computer limbo. Among the intervening changes was a change of occupation and scenery.

I'm now in the employ of Stainless Games, based on the Isle of Wight, and dealing with making games for Xbox360 Live Arcade and PC. We also develop on the PS3, PSP, and Wii, but I haven't seen any of that action yet. I'm currently working on Happy Tree Friends, which should be sent for its release candidate pretty soon, hence the lack of time to do anything. Not so much thrown in the deep end as submerged carrying a bag of cement and your ears popping long before you realise that you haven't hit the bottom yet. Still it's all experience, and everybody working here's pretty cool.

Having, naturally enough, declined my offer to work from the sunny hill of Monaghan, that meant I had to move to the island, and come face to face with possibly the worst renting market ever. My new house was perhaps described best as "barren". Amongst the possessions (rigorously recorded in a lodgers manifest - to be signed of course), were an oven (not connected), radiators (dutifully located and ticked), light-bulbs (noted), and a fireplace (check). Then a large amount of suspiciously blank space. I wonder did the person that made the list have the decency to look ashamed when he handed it over. God forbid I should run away with the skirting boards when I moved out, but I suppose you can't be too careful in the UK's lowest crime area ^{[citation needed]}.

Cue a few months of buying the necessaries - a fridge, a washing machine, a bed, a new poker set - and the house is just taking on that "lived-in" feel. I should probably add a vacuum cleaner to the list.

As for the dissertation, I finished with an overall of 72.1 and a very nice distinction, which meant I got to say a few words to the Chancellor of Hull University, a Baroness, who quite humorously (for me), didn't know Hull had a games course. We had the graduation in January, and it was good to get back to Hull and see everyone again. You don't notice how much you miss the nightlife until you come back to it. I like living on the island, but sometimes you just need a bit of a club / available pool of single, attractive, intelligent women. Ah, Italians are wonderful people.

In any which way, I'll see about putting something on this site to make it worthwhile paying the hosting fee. When I get a bit of free time, I want to get into applying some of the things I've learned to make a kick ass Flash engine and then leave it before it's finished for something else.