Week 847

What’s this? I’m blogging about my work on a weekly basis – a simple way to track and archive whatever it is I spend my time on.

Despite the extended Easter weekend, I still managed to work on the Geometry Girl project last week, especially its design document and the hybrid writing research structure around it. I want to shift to the story soon, making a detailed outline to gather feedback, and writing on a close-to-daily basis. Now and then I suddenly see glimpses of some of the scenes, which makes me eager to put my fingertips to the keyboard, so to speak.

On Wednesday I met up with Janina Sommerlad, a student at the University of Amsterdam, who’s researching the ‘aesthetics of e-books’, which seems highly relevant for my own research. She knows a lot about the electric publishing scene in Berlin, something I should definitely dive into. (I totally dig the word ‘electric’ in this context. Those Germans with their techno-slang.)

On Thursday I taught my third practical writing class to Games & Interaction students at the HKU. It went well, though I feel I have a bit of a problem with giving the same class twice, sequentially. The second time I’m way too self-conscious (‘How did I say this last time?’ ‘Didn’t I already mention this?’). I’m hoping this is just me getting used to it.

Finally, in the ‘random’ category, I…

• Hoped I’d be able to finish and upload my Arnon Grunberg podcast, but failed. Partly because of other obligations, partly because it’s more work to edit and narrate the thing than I’d expected. It should be ready this week, though, and I’m doing the next interview tonight, with Auke Hulst.
• Worked on my isometric crane game during #hobbydev, my weekly game development get-together with Hessel. I’m redoing the inner workings of the on-screen tiles and the crane’s magnet, and the way the two interact. On Wednesday night I pretty much just broke everything, so I continued on my own on Saturday night, and fared a bit better. It’s weird to spend all this time retooling while not having much of a clue about the gameplay.
• Found a weird issue with the WordPress install on this site, so I deleted everything and started again, which seems to have done the trick. It did make me wonder how much of a 2015 thing it is to manage my site myself like this. (Not having a ‘responsive’ design is another reason for doubt; I really should tackle that, though it’ll probably take a lot of time. Should I just switch to a service like WordPress.com or Squarespace?)
• Ordered a MacBook online, with a delivery time of 4 to 6 weeks. Perhaps it’d be faster to go to a physical store, but hey, I already clicked the button and it’ll probably be educational to be all zen in the meantime.
• Crashed Two Tribes’ RIVE party on Friday. Nice to catch up with some folks, including ex-employees. And: amazing how it never ceases to be interesting seeing others play our game.

Average step count per day: 8.038
Average staircase count per day: 11
Average sleep per night: 6:03
Average weight: 89,6 kg