General Update

Sometimes this blog goes quiet for a bit, but the last couple of months have been more quiet than most, as I've been a bit busy; not with anything big and important, it's just that generally there's been a lot to do and I haven't had the time to spare for blogging.

I've more or less recovered from the trauma of reorganising the house to accommodate msinvisfem, and one of the things that's kept me busy is introducing her to aspects of British televisual culture such as Doctor Who and The Prisoner. On Thursday we start to catch up on The Avengers, as they begin repeats on BBC4.

Hobby-wise, I've not achieved an awful lot, though I have painted a few more figures. I discovered that Games Workshop have a decent set of "jungle foliage" scenery which I've invested in to scatter across a gaming table. Now of course, I have to build a whole lot of bases to stick the foliage on, so I visited a model railway exhibition in Dundee a couple of weeks ago to buy plastic card and Das modelling clay. I could have bought the clay in St. Andrews, but it was worth going to the exhibition to see what the scenery experts are using. I was tempted by a waterfall modelling kit, but managed to remind myself that I wouldn't have any use for it. So, maybe next year then...

Another "highlight" of the last few weeks has been visiting the dentist for a root treatment (last appointment will be this Thursday). The tooth in question has been under threat for a few years; I guess I've been lucky that it hasn't really given me much serious trouble, but it was showing signs of becoming a problem and the dentist didn't seem in any doubt once she'd opened it up. For my part, I do feel more comfortable now - I guess I'd become used to it being a low-grade nuisance.

At work, things feel positive as we're starting to get involved in the more practical and productive aspects of software design and coding, having spent a lot of time in the lead-up to getting the "real" work started. Of course, it's all real, but actual coding is more enjoyable. We can also switch to the release version of Visual Studio 2005 having downloaded it last week; all I have to do is carefully remove the beta bits from the build server (according to the instructions) and hope it doesn't go pear-shaped. Our production machines can go straight to VS2005 without the need for an uninstall, as we've been running the betas in Virtual PC.

We've also had a new developer join the team, which should make a significant difference to how much we can achieve - we've been a bit light on manpower since tobyaw left a couple of years ago.

Yesterday was qidane's annual fireworks party, with the theme of conspiracy theories. Few people dressed for it this year - maybe because it's a difficult theme? - but having an old Ferrero Rocher pyramid lying around, I was able to cover it in kitchen foil and the foil wrappings from some Hallowe'en chocolate eyeballs to make an Illuminati tin-foil hat. Some badges given to me earlier in the day by silverwhistle allowed me to claim to be both The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and one of the S.M.O.F.s. While a velvet jacket may not exactly be classic Men in Black, I also went for an overall black motif.

The new icon is a Lego-block version of my features from the Block Head iconizer. Sadly, it's been commented that it is a better likeness of me than most icon programs achieve!