Castle Mooch

Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

Bit late this, as it’s about the walk that Gill, Peggy, and me went on last Sunday. Continuing on from my run on Saturday, I embarked on a 3.5 mile walk on Sunday to keep up my quest for fitness and weight loss. I want to lost a tad more weight before my most excellent wedding on the 25th February this year.

It was excellent weather for walking, being bright and clear and cold. In fact, it was so cold that I even wore a scarf. It was a pretty nifty scarf though, so that’s ok. The route took us past a few places where anglers were freezing themselves whilst watching their rods catch nothing. This meant, of course, lots of water around that had partly frozen. And so, in true childish Mooch and Gill fashion we threw stuff – stones, not people or anything – through the ice so as to make nice noises. The best noises were when the ice was thick enough that the stones just skittered across the top. This made a great noise, which echoed around the bare tree branches.

I should point out that we were throwing the stones into areas of water not populated by anglers, little puddles and the like. We weren’t being hoodlums out there, peeps!

So, yeah, great walk, fun, and it meant that Peggy Dog was quiet for the rest of the day which is always good. It’s good because she doesn’t go back-and-forth to the kitchen searching for food and thus opening the lounge door letting all the cold air in. It may be thought that just drugging Peggy or shutting the door properly would suffice, but that’s just silly.

Thanks to the kindness of my family at Christmas I received a lot of vouchers for Up and Running. I’d asked for them, because I wanted to purchase some new running shoes. Specifically, I wanted some shoes that were more “minimalist” than I am used to.

I’ve been running in Inov-8 trail shoes for a year now so my first thought was to try out their new(ish) range of road shoes: Road-X. Basically, these are shoes designed for road running, but without the excessive cushioning/motion control “technology” of more traditional shoes. I bought the Road-X 255, which are the closest to traditional running shoes, and so the perfect introduction to a more natural running shoe and style.

I used them for the first time today and I love them. The lack of bulk and therefore lightness make them a nice shoe to run in. I do think the fit is a little snug compared to other Inov-8 shoes of the same size, but in use this was not a problem. I ran 3 miles and they felt great.

Now that I have Inov-8 trail and road shoes, I have left behind my old stalwarts Saucony Grid Omni. They did well for me over the last 8 years, but I now prefer the feel of the lighter, more natural shoes. Of course, this sort of shoe isn’t for everyone, and I’m no zealot. I firmly believe you should run in what is comfortable for you, and only consider a change if you suffer from repeated and similar injuries.

Now to kick my training up a gear and enter a race or two to test my new shoes.

Thanks to Up and Running for the excellent service in getting the shoes to me so quickly.

Followers of this blog will know that I don’t really update it very much, but today I have momentous news!

I’ve been developing apps for iPhone all this year and today, finally, our (yes, our, more on that in a moment) app is ready to hit the App Store. It’s currently “In Review” with Apple, so hopefully by tomorrow morning it’ll be approved and on sale in the App Store.

The app is called Super Smoothies and it’s a fruit-mixing puzzle game, developed by me with graphics and sound done by my good friend, Nofi. Together we’ve called ourselves Touch Junkies, and we’re pretty excited that all of our hard work has finally paid off.

And it has been hard work. It’s about 4 months effort on this game, but before that we tried two other games which never quite made it. We got started by using the excellent Corona SDK from Ansca Mobile (thanks, guys!), and once I’d got my head around the coding we started in earnest.

This is a major achievement for me personally. To complete a project such as this after many years of false starts is something I am very proud of.

Please follow us on our journey over at Touch Junkies, and let us know what you think of the game. If you buy it. Which you will. You will, won’t you?

Hurray for the end of the week.  The end of the working week, I suppose.  Although given my current level of work apathy my working week usually ends at about 8:30 am on the Monday that it typically starts.  This end of week is better than most because it signals the start of an extended weekend.  Firstly, it’s Bank Holiday time – which means, no doubt, rain – and it’s also my birthday soon – Tuesday, Star Wars Day – and so I now have four days off work.

Right now though, it’s Friday Night!  Which means, in typical Mooch fashion, a can of Coco-Cola and some chocolate.  Now, I know you were no doubt hoping for tales of wanton debauchery and the like, but I am as likely to indulge in such shenanigans as Gordon Brown is to indulge in being Prime Ministerial.

So, some sugary water, some sugary chocolate, and I’m all set.  For what?  Well, writing this blog, of course!

Today’s blog was going to be about some serious stuff.  I have forgotten what serious stuff though, so instead you’ll have to make do with the above blog about chocolate and Coca-Cola.

I apologise: And now to enjoy my Prime Minstrels.

I can’t even blog once every other day.

Oh wait – I just did.

Phew!

Seriously though, I’m finding this difficult.  I don’t seem to be able to find anything I feel strongly enough about to write about.  Except for running with the dog.  And the odd TV show I’ve watched on box set.  I don’t know if it’s just laziness (likely) or apathy (as in, I am so apathetic about things that I don’t feel inspired or passionate to write about them) or what.

Anyway, before this gets too EMO I am going to finish it here and head off to sleep.

I was supposed to be blogging every day.  But that lasted about a week and then it became once every other day.  And I was about to blow that goal too, but here I am writing some boring, mundane words describing nothing of interest just so I’ve written something.

Today started well enough.  Up at 6 and out for a run with Peggy-Dog.  Then off to work and the utter, crushing tedium of doing something that interests me not one jot.  I don’t mind the problem solving side of things as at least my brain gets a vague workout, but in all honesty for the most part I just sit there thinking about getting home.  If you knew me, like properly knew me, you’d know that I can’t do anything about it because I’m a hopelessly apathetic…ah, jeez I couldn’t even be bothered blogging once a day, right?

So, anyway, one good thing at work was that Gillibobs sent me a genuinely beautiful email that made me smile.  Inside and out.

Once home I had another nice surprise because Gillibobs had ordered me some breaded chicken when she did the online shopping yesterday.  Total result.  I love breaded chicken.  It’s just the best.

Then I sorted out TSA Times, the weekly newsletter of TheSixthAxis, before watching Liverpool get a decent enough first leg result in the Europa League of UEFA Teams Challenge Trophy Cup semi-final.

And now to bed.  Because tomorrow, at 6 am, it all starts again.

Oh.  Almost forgot.  I made friends with a Husky today.  I love Huskies more than breaded chicken.  I’m not saying I’d eat one, mind.

It’s General Election season at the moment and the recent televised Leaders’ Debate was something I had been looking forward to for a while.  I must say now that I don’t really know much about politics and haven’t really cared to find out.  My level of knowledge can be summed up as follows:

Labour: Socialists and therefore they want me to live in the North (where it’s grim) and be as poor as everyone else.

Conservative: Capitalists and therefore they don’t care where I live as long as I believe in free market ideals and making the rich richer.

Liberal Democrats: *shrugs*

I was interested in the debate because I wanted to hear what the leaders had to say and I also wanted to see how well they said it and how they coped against each other.  For me, Nick Clegg clearly came out on top in terms of his delivery and how he coped against Cameron and Brown.  I’m not suggesting his policies are the best, but after watching the debate I’d be more inclined to listen to him than the other two.

So, what do I actually believe in?

That people respond to incentives and that government has to find the right ones to make society move in the right direction.  Pity we all have different expectations of “right” though.

That there must be a “best” way of running the NHS, so we should work out what that is and not let a new government change it.  Hint: the best way isn’t to continually let new governments change it.

I joked on Twitter that I’d vote for whichever party would enable me to more easily afford an iPad.  A Twitter-buddy of mine – cc_star - gave me the following advice: Labour will give one free to low income families; Conservatives will cut taxes to enable people to buy their own.

That’s my level of political knowledge right there!

Train spotting isn’t a subject that I thought I’d be tackling.  I won’t be tackling it in any depth though, more of a passing observation.

My drive to work takes me down some quite nice, countrified roads.  I also drive very close to a railway track for a few minutes, and this morning as I neared an area that doubles as an impromptu car park for train spotters I realised it was full of cars.  In fact, the impromptu car park had grown an overspill car park this morning, such was the volume of cars.

There was a large crowd of spotters – easily identifiable by their beards and spectacles, vacuum flasks and notebooks – all waiting for something.  I mean, I presumed it was a train, but as the site is also near a field full of horses, maybe they were just there to horse spot.  As I drove on I saw that more spotters were in the field with the horses, and one man was stood on top of a metal case to get a better view.

I was thinking that it’s great that these people were out doing something they loved to do.  We only get one shot at this life thing, so why not do what you enjoy?  It’s easy to say “Train spotters!” and roll your eyes, but as a gamer I’m used to people doing that to me so I try not to judge the pastimes of others.  Not too much anyway.  Those synchronised swimmers are mental.

I drove past the golf club and stables and as I turned onto the next road on my journey I saw what the spotters were obviously there to see: A magnificent steam engine pulling about fifteen carriages.  The steam was billowing out of the chimney, and folding back on itself as it spread along the length of the engine car.  It looked fantastic.  I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of seeing it by design, but it did make for a pleasant start to the day all the same.

I didn’t catch its number though.

A couple of weeks ago I went to have my eyes tested. Eye tests fill me with dread because I’m scared of needing glasses.  It’s not the glasses themselves that I object to, it’s the fact that they signal my body is finally giving in to old age and I am kaput.  I’m not even 37 yet – but I will be in May, feel free to send gifts – and my body is done for.  Now, obviously that’s a bit melodramatic, but it’s the thought that goes through my head and so I end up desperately hoping I won’t need glasses.

Unfortunately, at my latest eye test the optician said that although my eyes were fine and dandy he thought that glasses for VDU work would help me stop getting tired eyes.  So, today I went to pick up the glasses and I’ve been trying them out to see how well they work.

Initial findings are that they are ace.  Images on the monitor seem a little bigger and brighter, and presumably that’s easier on my eyes because they’re having to work less hard to see those images.  The really strange thing is that when I remove the glasses it takes my eyes a couple of seconds to refocus, during which time everything is a tad blurry.  It’s a little unnerving.  If I’m looking at the screen and then I move my eyes down to look at the keyboard, so that I’m not actually looking through the lenses, the keyboard appears blurred until my eyes refocus.  I know I’ll get used to it, but right now I’m nervous that I will break my eyes!

I’ll get a really good idea of well they are working when I use them at work next week.  An eight hour stretch in front of a monitor will be a great workout.  If I can say goodbye to tired eyes then I’ll be happy.

Plus, I look great in my glasses.

And the dog won.

Not that it was actually a competition, but I can’t say “Walking the dog” without thinking of Beavis and Butthead saying “Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law!”  And I can’t think of that without thinking of “I fought the law and the law won.”

A small insight into what it’s like inside my head, all day every day.

Back to the dog walk.  Possibly the best way to start a day is to take Peggy-Dog out for a walk.  The joy on her face when the poo bags go into my pocket and I pick up the lead – yes, dogs can show joy on their faces – never fails to tug at my heart.  Sometimes I grab poo bags just to see the look on her face, and then quickly put them back and hope she doesn’t realise*.

This morning I decided to go to the local park, mostly because I can let her off the lead there, but also it’s not as muddy as the field I usually go to.  Although I’m not rolling around in the mud, Peggy does get a tad mucky and the extra five minutes it takes to clean her up before going to work is five minutes I’d rather not have to make up in flexi-time.  Sounds a bit pernickety, but that’s the way it is.

The park was quiet as usual, as not many people are out and about at 6 am, but after the walk was almost over Peggy did meet a couple of doggy friends and they had a quick play.  I love to watch her play with other dogs, although she’s not a fan of the boisterous stuff and usually gives up after a few seconds if it gets rough.  Still, it adds an extra spring to her step, and it means she isn’t pooing which is always a bonus.  Unless it’s really cold, then picking up a good poo is like heating for hands.

Next week I may take her running in the morning.  It gives me some much needed running exercise, and it tires her out like nothing else.

Talking of which, I think it’s time for bed.

* I have never done that, but am now thinking I ought to give it a go.