A cat's life

12/01/2019

This lazy brat didn't move from this position nearly the entire day.

I switched to using Gboard as my phone's keyboard. Apple's swipe keyboard is OK but the fact that they censor swearing is so Apple annoying.

It has all sorts of things a teenage boy such as myself wants in a keyboard: GIF search, emoji search, it predicts what I'm going to say but it's hilariously wrong 100% of the time.

Previously I didn't want Google to have access to everything I type in my phone but they're going to get it one way or another so I might as well have a half decent keyboard.

This website is, and always will be, a backup to my advice to clients to just get something live. For some people, Getting It Live is such a huge blocker, psychologically, that projects can drag on for months before going live. Everyone ends up frustrated at trying to tweak something until it's perfect but guess what! I have put well over 100 websites live and they are never perfect. But. Guess what number two:

It doesn't matter.

  1. Websites aren't carved in stone. That's one of the best things about them
  2. Software is never perfect
  3. You will never trust something that is perfect first time

Number one is obvious. If something is broken; push a fix. Easy. Number two is a little more nuanced. But look at your app store updates; Facebook pushes an update every other day. They have some of the smartest minds in the world (I know; what a waste) working on that software, but it still needs updates?! Because software is made by people, and people aren't perfect. If Facebook is willing to accept that, it's probably fine for you to, as well.

And finally, and most importantly. So important that it gets its own paragraph. It is impossible to trust something that is right first time. I have been making software for nearly two decades, and if something works first time, I break it just to make sure it actually ran. Read that again. When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all. If a tree falls and no-one's around to hear it, did it make a sound? I'm serious here; it's impossible to trust something you haven't seen fail first. It's the fundamental principle of test driven development. If you didn't watch your tests fail before you started work, why did you write them in the first place?! Invent scenarios to break your ideas. You are your harshest critic, and that is a huge asset. Scrutinise your ideas, and try to defeat yourself.

Get your thing live. Above all else. Get it live. I cannot stress this enough. Get it live. Just do it. Get it live. It might feel wrong, and you might be worried, but it will help you realise that "done" is better than "perfect". "Perfect" is unattainable. Strive for it, but don't be imprisoned by it. You will know if it could go live. If it can do the one thing you need it to do; get it live.

The best piece of advice my dad ever gave me was that you start learning to drive after you pass your test. To contrive that to serve my point: your software can only reach its potential when it's live. You are not your users, so don't pretend you know what they want/need. Give them the best thing you can make, then let them tell you how to do it better.

Today is our eleventh wedding anniversary. Charlotte's currently asleep because she's had a brutal headache all day. It's payday so my being sat here alone has lead to buying games and planning mechanical keyboard builds. Nintendo has a pretty decent sale on Switch games at the moment, so I got:

  • SUPERHOT this has been in my backlog for so long. I was right to be intrigued by it - it's very satisfying to play. Thought it'd be good on Switch but the gyro controls aren't that great. Breath of the Wild's are better. Even Ocarina of Time on the 3DS is better. Still fun though. I think it'd be better with a keyboard and mouse but it's 2019 and KBM is no longer cool.
  • Shantae - Half Genie Hero I've wanted to play these games for ages. They remind me of Aladdin on the Mega Drive, but they always seem to be quite expensive.
  • OlliOlli these are the best skateboarding games (outside Skate 2 which is just ridiculous. Skate 4 is when?). Platforming, skateboarding, twitch controls, big combos. Yes please.
  • Jamestown this is one of my favourite games of all time. I love SHMUPs and Mars as a British colony being contested by the Spanish is a ridiculous setting for a SHMUP.

I also ordered one of these RG350s. I am an absolute sucker for the games of my youth, and I'm constantly in search for a console that I can throw in my bag to pick up and play them whenever I want. Basically, Streets of Rage is the best game ever and I want to always be able to play it.

This week's been rough and I'm glad that it's over. It's not thanksgiving here, but I don't need a colonialist holiday's permission to be grateful, and I am very grateful for friends this week.

I always eat worse when I can't exercise

11/28/2019

I am dreadful at taking a break from exercise, the older I get. If I even do it at all, I start to eat terribly.

My current YouTube obsession is videogamedunkey. Here are some videos that you might like:

But I love all his videos. Whilst I have you here I also love NakeyJakey. Go and watch his videos, too. Particularly Rockstar's Game Design is Outdated.

I decided to reinstall my computer's OS afresh for the first time in maybe 10 years, and I have a newfound appreciation hatred for software onboarding processes. Special mentions for just how dreadful people can be at designing software go to:

Shelter

11/23/2019

I love this bus shelter. I've taken so many photos of it, but never this one.

There is no-one more misguidedly optimistic than me when I'm seriously considering buying some sort of multiplayer party game.

Every day, Charlotte gets in and cooks for everyone. Today she has a meeting so after work I got in and reheated something she'd made and I felt like absolute hero. Talk about a low bar.

Today, after around three weeks off, I tried a 2km cycle and I don't think I've ever felt so depressed and old in my life. How happy I was to complete a 2km ride without unbearable knee pain to add to my collection of inconvenient reminders that all of this is fleeting.

The new jasper.tandy.is

11/17/2019

Removing features, trying new things, improving old skills.

Clouds

11/14/2019

One good thing about living by the sea is unobstructed views of clouds. We get some crazy clouds round here.

I've wanted to light a match under this site for a while, and Craft CMS going headless is the kick up the ass I needed. So we have a Next.js frontend with Craft behind it, deployed with Gitlab CI and Docker. I had a lot of fun making this. It's rough as hell but I've learned a lot. And I built a new site in like 5 days. I love being my own client.

Now I have to refactor all this junk and figure out why Server Side Rendering isn't working.

Edit: Server Side Rendering is working, and guess what. I was doing something stupid.

I never care about celebrities or their net worth, unless Charlotte puts Architectural Digest on. Then I simply must know Mark Ronson's net worth. His house is so nice, did Valerie really make him enough money for this house?

Everything I read about Death Stranding makes me less interested in it, but the same writing seems to have the opposite effect on everyone else. This happens for me literally every game Kojima releases.

DSA Scientific/Lubed Sakurios/DZ60 Build

11/09/2019

I built a keyboard. I like keyboards, OK? This is the first time I've ever soldered. It was fun. I w

Rainbow!

11/04/2019

I like a nice rainbow. What I wanted was a shot of it coming out of someone's chimney or somethi

Wakehurst

11/03/2019

If you like trees, boy have I got the blog post for you. It's this one right here:
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