A somewhat belated update

Holiday Season
Thanksgiving was good - lots of food, good company and a generally fun time. I missed Mel (she was out of town), but overall: very high marks. My mince pie was really yummy, too! I've managed to find a source of suet, and will be making real mincemeat pie and Christmas pudding soon. I can hardly wait!

My One Month Game
My one-month game has 5 days to go, and is in surprisingly good shape. You can play a basic game of football (soccer), players roughly keep their formations, and the basic rules are in place. Graphics are cheesy but work, and I like my alpha-blended pitch radar. There is currently no sound at all - I may manage to squeeze that in, but I doubt it. I'll settle for a playable game without niceties!

Quitting Smoking
I've concluded that I need to quit smoking. I was planning on gradually cutting down, but extensive research shows that cold turkey and cutting down have identical failure rates - and withdrawl tends to be about the same. So, my plan is to gradually reduce my smoking (yes, that's inconsistent) until Friday (5-10 per day max)- and then quit cold-turkey. I anticipate some crankiness, sleep issues, and other withdrawal symptoms, so I'd very much appreciate support from friends and loved ones in this endeavour. I've seen a bunch of specialists recommending keeping a quit-smoking blog, so my efforts will be documented here!

Why am I quitting? First, I've never wheezed before in my life, and now it happens after a hard day. I don't like it, and I want to stop before I really mess myself up. Second, it's expensive. Finally, I'm fed up with addictive symptoms: feel crappy? Smoke! Feel good? Smoke! Work break? Smoke! Etc. Etc. Ad Nauseum.

My research shows that there are a few things I need to do to pull this off:

• Drink bucketloads of water. Apparently most cravings are caused by toxins in the blood resurfacing, and your body knowing that if you smoke the toxins' effects will be suppressed. Water helps flush it out.


• Don't guzzle quite as much caffeine for a month. That will be hard, but nicotine withdrawl significantly enhances the effects of caffeine - and I'd like to sleep.


• Don't be too harsh on myself if I slip up and smoke once or twice - just try not to do it again. Apparently getting into a state about it doesn't help!


• Take breaks whenever I would normally smoke.


• Keep myself occupied.


• Have friends willing to put up with me (and talk to me!) when I feel crappy*.

Doesn't sound like fun... but it needs to be done.

* - Any volunteers?

Mood: awake
Music: None

The game, bloody noses

I took Friday and Sunday off from game writing (I need time off from programming, nano or not!). Saturday, however, I managed to get all the players to start in roughly the right place, kick the ball, and put in a sembleance of early AI. It's getting there.

I have a nosebleed. It's cold. I hate nosebleeds.

Mood: cranky
Music: None

November 11th

This post is a little late, for which I apologize. November 11th is Remberance Day, in my opinion one of the most important holidays on our calendar. While I'm largely anti-war, the importance of some conflicts cannot be understated: without the sacrifices of our forefathers in some past conflicts, we wouldn't enjoy the lives that we have now. We should bow our heads and remember those who gave their lives (both literally, and those who returned broken) for what we have today.

My great-grandfather (on my father's side) fought through most of World War I, in the thick of the fighting. WWI may have been largely preventable, unnecessarily bloody, etc. - but it laid the backbone for the transition to the modern system of European organization. His sacrifice (he survived, with only minor injuries - but even sixty years later his anguish when remembering the war was evident) is one to remember with pride. My grandfather (on my mother's side) was Royal Air Force ground-crew in Africa, World War II. He had many fond memories of events in the war, but nobody could deny what he went through to defeat the Axis.

Noncombatants deserve recognition, too. My grandmother served in the Land Army A friend of my mother's told me harrowing tales about surviving Auschwitz. Their contributions may have been small, but were also important. We should remember both the tail and the teeth.

Unfortunately, none of the people I've mentioned in this post are still with us. Increasingly, there are very few veterans of either World War to share their experiences. That places a responsibility on us to share the memories, good and bad, with the younger generations. It also leaves us with a deep responsibility to enjoy the freedoms we have by voting, campaigning, and continuing to work for a better world.

Mood: tired
Music: New Model Army - Family

I knew it!

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Mood: accomplished
Music: Arnold Rimmer Song

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The Classic Lover 40% partner focus, 47% aggressiveness, 50% adventurousness

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Link: The Lover Style Profile Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Mood: crappy
Music: Tori Amos - Everybody Else's Girl