Come Pop With Me

In between an early morning shop and continued work on Louis vegetables, I endeavoured to cook stovetop popcorn for the first time. A few weeks ago Mum revealed that she may well have trashed my old popcorn machine. A shame, but the thing was from the 90's and was a glorified hairdryer with a spout. The advantage of that thing though was ease of use - just switch it on and let it do its magic. On the stove you gotta be more vigilant, keeping a close eye on the cooking and shaking the pan. Though there is one big draw, you can flavour your corn in the pot, so I rustled up some salted popcorn and to my delight, every single kernel was seasoned after cooking. It was such a reveluation, I don't even mind not having the old popcorn machine! 

Northern Slopes

Since I'm growing increasingly conscious that my little furlough holiday is drawing to a close, I set up a meeting with Louis to discuss dialogue for his vegetables. I wanted to get a hefty chunk of the work done before my start date so he had some more stuff to work with, so we chatted about what stuff he considered imperative to the game's release. We chatted about the goals of the game briefly too and it was good to know I was already working towards his brief without him explicitly telling me. I just know his vibes so I ran with it. Upshot of it was I got plenty to keep me busy now and a clearer direction of what to write over the next few weeks.

Just before 8:30 this evening I was struck with a sudden realization: I didn't want to do anything. No games, no books, no TV. I just really fancied a big walk. So I slipped on some shoes and my headphones and I went out with the intention of 'getting a bit lost' - and that's exactly what I did. After going on auto pilot I walked to a nearby vista then spotted a bizarre looking stairway way off in the distance. I made it my mission to get there and see what was at the top. A short trek later I found myself at the foot of the steps, and at the entrance to The Northern Slopes, a nature reserve that I never even knew existed. It was vast too! Sometimes the walkways were paved and street lit, other times I was walking through waist high brambles and disturbing nesting birds. Every so often though I came upon a clearing that offered unadulterated views of Bristol as the sun was setting.

I hasten to mention that all the while I was listening to an album Louis recommended to me and it was appropriately creepy. The sun started to set just as the final track came on, which is quite literally an 18 minute long recording of a piano on fire. Hearing the sounds of crackling fire, snapping strings and the hollow clanks of gnarled wood I decided it was time to head home. But what an experience!   

Reforging Concepts

Continued to reforge my work today, still very much in the mind-mapping phase while I marinate myself into a working headspace. I've been letting my thoughts run loose with generally positive results, think I've also better honed in on my desired tone a bit more. It'll need more work for sure though but I'm very glad I'm reworking it all.

I've pencilled in a meeting with Louis to finally chat about his vegetables. Progress on his game is accelerating rapidly and I want to catch up on my side of the work. Just need a little more direction from him to seal the deal.

Kill Your Babies

Squealed with delight this morning as I spotted my chili pepper tree had at long last produced a bright red little chili. When a few more are ready to pick I might just have a good excuse to brew up another big bowl of Pho.

When I wasn't dreaming of broth, I was further refining some ideas. I chatted with Rebecca about some of my thoughts and it felt good just to verbalize what was in my head. The deeper down this rabbit hole I go the more I want to re-write what I've got at the moment. 'Kill Your Babies' is an idiom often associated with writing and editing, it's where you splice out big parts of your story, even if you have a soft spot for certain elements. Though I'm happy with what I've written, a lot of metaphorical babies are about to get plucked. 

Over the course of last week I've been chipping away at Final Fantasy 6 in my spare time. It's one of the only Final Fantasy game I'd never even played before but it was a delight. At long last I crawled through the final dungeon this evening and watched the credits roll. Something about 90's games credit sequences are so nostalgic to me, be it the style, music or vibes, it all just took me back to my childhood. Which is crazy considering I'd never even played this game before. It had me grinning from ear to ear once it was all over and in truth, I'm a lil' sad it's over.

Unceremonious Phonecall

Made the tricky phonecall to my boss at Coffee #1 yo let them know that I would be moving onto greener pastures. For almost two years I've been bigging up that moment in my mind, how incredible it'll be to drop the mic as I walk out the cafe, you know, dreams like that. In reality though, it was unceremonious. It was a five minute chat and that was that. Before I leave I do want to meet everyone one last time, at the pub or something easy going like that. Naturally the pandemic makes things tricky but be great to make it work for one last hurrah.

I took my great American novel out of the drawer today to re read and edit. To my sort of delight, it was better than I thought, at least from a mechanical perspective. Once ai took a step back from it though I noticed I made a cuddly thing, instead of an important thing. Its back to the drawing board for a bit I think so I can distil my vision a little bit more - that's the job on the cards this week.

Nestled in Nettles

Took a little day trip to Newbury today to drop off Mum's Birthday presents (some local honey, chocolates and a nice cordial). Dad treated us to a really excellent alternative Sunday lunch of chicken legs in a super garlicky sauce, it was so good I kinda want the recipe now so I can impress guests somewhere down the line. We waited for the rain to die down before going on a little stroll along the river, all while I weaved my bare knees around stinging nettles - a childhood pastime so I'm an expert but Rebecca got unlucky. Some cheese and biscuits was all we needed before heading off back home to Bristol, shame we couldn't have stuck around longer but we all have jobs and obligations. In just under two weeks we'll be back together in Bournemouth anyway so we have that to look forward to in the meantime.  

Plants Like Water

Almost forgot what rain looked like, to remind myself I thought I'd go for a long walk in it around a garden center. Rebecca fancied some new houseplants and I fancied a change of scenery so it was a nice jaunt out in fairness, plus we got this adorable lily pad type plant plus a great pot - Rebecca just needs to settle on a home for it now. Once all the jobs were done for the day I put my feet up and switched off for a few hours while I listened to the rain patter on the windows - just felt good.

She's Back in the Office

Rebecca headed back into the office for virtually a full day for the first time since lockdown started, so I had the whole house to myself for a change. It was a luxury at first, but I quickly ended up missing out little coffee breaks and hourly catch ups. Still, it meant I could crack on with some work and I managed to bash out a decent chunk of writing for another article. I'm looking forward to the weekend though, feels like I was mentally being pulled in a lot of directions this last week and I still don't really know why that is. A bit of rest and relaxation though will certainly help the cause.

Joker Stream

Jumped back on some Sick Critic work today, figured I owe them one more bigish article before I start my new job and luckily I have a real doozy for them. I'll be keeping my head down and try to finish it tomorrow so I can do other things by the beginning of next week.

About half an hour before my stream this evening I ran into some really bizarre audio problem with my microphone. I was using Google like a madman trying to figure out the problem, but in the end some trial and error on my end seemed to mitigate the problem. The stream itself went pretty badly in my opinion, for the first time ever I tried playing through a game for the first time with a small audience. I pretty quickly realised that I had nothing to actually give to the audience minus some unique gameplay footage. In previous streams I knew the games and had a clear goal set. Here I just fumbled around and flailed around while trying to make the livestream vaguely engaging. Learnt a lesson from this though, I'm likely never going to do a 'first playthrough' style stream again. I'll stick with the games I know, that way I can offer insights and some engaging footage.

Cat in a Flat

Got to 250 vegetable lines today, that's a happy milestone I'm glad to get under my belt. Think I'll take a small break from Louis' game to work on some other projects now, trouble is deciding which to do first!

Rebecca recently signed up to 'Cat in a Flat', a catsitting app for people who love cats. She landed a catsitting gig the other day to look after a deaf cat called George. I escorted Rebecca to their home for the meet and greet, mostly because her parents thought axe murderers use the app to bait unsuspecting victims, but it turned out George's owners were upstanding citizens. They even offered Rebecca some home-grown courgettes so they can't possibility be evil.

Tomorrow night at 7:30pm I'll be going live on Twitch once more to look at a demo for a game that I think looks kinda neat. Gloomwood has got those Resident Evil style survival-horror mechanics I love plus a cool Victorian/Steampunk look. Ticking a lot of boxes so far.

Cheeky Crumble

Hit 240 unique lines of dialogue for Louis' vegetables today, looking back on everything I've written so far, I'm pretty pleased with how it's all shaping up. We went to visit Louis and Rachel too this evening at their home for the first time since lockdown started. Felt good to go over to someone's house again and have a meal together, especially when Rachel's cooking. Felt a bit bad I didn't prepare a bespoke, homemade pudding. Just had to sheepishly hand over a Tesco apple crumble but that seemed to go down well.

Discovery and Loneliness In Outer Wilds

Kickstarted the week with a bit of writing for Louis' vegetables and a bit of gardening. Our turf lawn seems to have taken root already which is wonderful, another week or so and we'll at long last be able to walk freely around our back garden again without fear of trampling grass. My lemon tree has also bounced back by the looks of things, it shed plenty of leaves on the lower levels but some new bit of life are poking out at the corners.

I'm also stoked to share my latest video with everyone here. It features a new intro graphic, an introspective look at space exploration and even a tasteful bit of Monty Python. Had a good time making this one and hopefully it'll make your day a little brighter.

Mary Poppins

Saddled up for a great big walk all around Bristol first thing today, so much so that I even ended up with blisters on my feet. Rebecca's parents saw the whole South side of the city by lunch time and we were all out of puff by the time we got home. We enjoyed a brief lunch in our garden before they had to head home, afterwards Rebecca and I felt like we had earned a well deserved lounge on the sofa.

Which also presented the perfect chance to watch Mary Poppins, what might have been the most famous film I hadn't seen until tonight. Even at my age I could sense its magic, while light on story, it had plenty of fun moments that make your heart smile. It was like the best piece of candyfloss I'd ever had.

Finding My Early Morning Zen

Willed myself out of bed super early this morning bso I could enjoy some unadulterated 'me' time. Played some games and rustled upna little breakfast at my own pace while finding a lovely zen place, set up the rest of the day nicely. We took Rebecca's parents out for a picnic/hike around Blaise Castle which they really enjoyed. But not as much as they liked my dinner! Home made burgers and tiramisu, both of which came out beautifully (thank goodness). Think they had a really nice day, in fact I know they did because they kept thanking us for everything which was very sweet.

Try Again Tiramisu

Immediately after my breakfast I was licking the whisks after whipping up a batch of tiramisu. Rebecca folks are in Bristol this weekend so I'm treating them to a class-A pudding, just hope this one doesn't turn out really watery like my last one...

I finished my latest video too although I'm just waiting on Louis to do a tiny bit a art work for me before I put it up. Rebecca's seen the final cut and she gave it the thumbs up, if that's not a glowing endorsement I don't know what is.

Photoshop Mario

Finished up what should be my next paid article for Sick Critic. I racked my brain to think of five funny(ish) changes I'd make for some of the older Mario games if they remade them in this day and age. Though the writing had been done well in advance, I still had a lot of pictures to collate. Many of which turned into Photoshop jobs so it took a bit of time, but it also let me flex a bit of my creative juices. My favourite picture is just this one I very cleanly managed to make Mario look like he was holding a camera - it just came together so perfectly I couldn't stop laughing at it for some reason:

Still chuffed just looking at it now. Anyhoo, if you want to read the piece then you can do so here.

My latest video is also coming along very well, in fact it's almost complete. Just need to do one last pass and ask Louis for a small art favour and it'll be good to go! 

Offer Accepted

In between editing my next video and collating pictures for my next Sick Critic article, I got a call back from the folks I did the interview with on Monday telling me I got the job! As ofbmid-August I'll be a Production Assistant on an upcoming project. I'm as pleased as punch in case you can't tell, it feels like my ship is at long last coming in.

Still need to tell Coffee #1 I'll be signing off and moving on to brighter things, hopefully we can all go to the pub or do something together, they're a good bunch and it'd be a shame to leave them without a proper send off.

Pocahontas

Set up my impromptu voice recording studio, recorded my voice over and started editing together my next video. I thin kit shaping up to be a slightly more sombre piece than I originally expected, that's not necessarily a bad thing but it's got slightly more existential vibes than I was planning. That'll be more for tomorrow too I reckon, tinkering away until I deem it fit for the world.

In the meantime, I've been catching up on some of the animated Disney films that slipped between the cracks, at least according to Rebecca that is. Pocahontas was a little drab in all honesty, I was actually shocked to learn it came out as late as 1995 because it plays like much more classical Disney feature. Unremarkable tunes and, frankly, animation hold this one back from even the middling echelon of nostalgic animated films.

New Week, New Interviews

Monday morning started off with a delightful bang. An online friend recently made a little game they wanted people to try out so I threw my hat into the ring. It was a charming arcade style game where you play as a dog with a sunflower strapped to its back while you move it towards the sun and the rain. I gave them my thoughts on it and they were very grateful, had a good deed under my belt before 9:30 this morning which is always a good way to start.

After lunch I prepped for a video interview for a very hopeful sounding Production Assistant role. The interview itself went really well, it was more of a meet and greet then a formal interview which was a nice way to play it, with any luck I should hear as late as the end of the week but possibly as early as tomorrow. Jolly funny having a potential new colleague seeing my dining room (I have no art there, hopefully they won't judge), but I guess that's how interviews are being conducted during these times.

What Sundays Are For

Even though I'm one furlough so technically everyday is like a holiday for me, I still got the Sunday blues. I've enjoyed my time off the past two days but knowing I'm back at my desk tomorrow makes me a bit mopey, as I'm sure it does for millions of others. It's never as bad as I think it's going to be though and once Monday gets into full swing I'm right there with it. I did nothing remarkable today, but that's ok. That's what Sundays are for.

Hamilton

Too much of my morning was spent queuing inside of Wilko. No queue to get in, instead I was sidewinding across two aisles because my local branch only had two tills in operation. Though I can generally sympathise due to the pandemic, my fondness for Wilko wanes every time I visit a Wilko.

Returning home Rebecca and I cracked on with a big tidy up which was a little overdue. Her parents are down next weekend so we got the drop on some of the bigger jobs so there wouldn't be a mad rush this time next week. Rebecca pushed the boat out for dinner and prepped some homemade pizzas with, wait for it, cauliflower bases. No bread at all, just blitzed up cauliflower and a bit of cheese pressed into a pizza base and topped usually. Sounds bizarre, tasted like pizza - wins all round.

Speaking of wins, we watched Hamilton while leeching off Mark's Disney Plus account (thank you Mark if you're reading). The first half of the show was sensational, great tunes interwoven together, meshing fun tunes with themes and character motivations. There's a lot going on under the hood and the more you think about it the more you mind begins to boggle. The second half didn't quite carry with it the same momentum, while the rap battles were entertaining, they came across a little gimmicky, especially when the rest of the songwriting was so confident. I can see why its so cherished though, Daniel has long been an advocate for the show and I'm glad I can finally chime in on the jolly vibes he exudes whenever he chats about it.

Lawn Rollers

Though I had plans to start recording voice over for my latest video today, I got swept up in a few activities that made today a bit more interesting. I woke up to a message from my editor about my spiders in video games article, I've never seen him so impressed with one of my pieces. He had a few notes but I tweaked it up and it went live just a few hours later. I'm immensely pleased with how it came out too, in theory it should read well for anyone who doesn't play games too. Read it here!

Secondly, we at long last got our garden turfed! A bloke turned up to drop it all off for us and after carefully walking several rolls of dirt and grass through the house, Rebecca and I got to un-rolling. This was a job neither of us had tackled before, at one point I was worried we bodged the whole job, but the moment I stood up and actually looked at what we did I couldn't believe how good it looked. Here's the before and after so you can see for yourself.

We gotta wait around 3 weeks until it's ready to walk on, but we can admire it from afar in the meantime.

Mounting Up for Recording

Had a mini-breakthrough with the piece I'm currently writing so it's currently sitting at 95% completion. Just got to tidy up my intro and I'll start recording my voice over immediately afterwards. I'm oddly excited about saddling back up to make another video, I'm not expecting this one to do much better than my other ones but I have a good feeling this one will turn out pretty well.

I came to the conclusion just before going to bed last night that I've probably not been watering my lemon tree enough. So I leapt out of bed and started spritzing it like crazy and this morning it looks like it's perked up a bit. Shame the weather has been so drizzly here over the past week, if the Sun had been beaming I'd have put it right out there to soak up the rays. We'll be finally getting our lawn turf sometime tomorrow so the final phase of our garden transformation will be complete - can't wait to no longer have a huge patch of dirt out back.

Lil' Lemon Tree?

Still pecking away at my next video idea, for no discernible reason this piece is taking longer than I would have liked it to. Just as I think I've gotten into the groove of writing recently, this script has really knocked me back a little bit. Little by little though it's coming together, and hopefully it'll be worth it.

Spent a good chunk of my evening stressing about the status of my lemon tree. It's leaves have started to feel a bit dry and many have started curling inward. Googling this gives me conflicting messages too, I'm not sure if I've given it too much or too little water? If the sun's out tomorrow I'll stick him out there, otherwise I guess I'll just have to wait and see. The plant wasn't cheap so I'd be gutted if it gives up the ghost less than two weeks after buying it.

Peculiar Pierogis

In between bouts of writing I did chores aplenty - the good kind fortunately. Got around to re-soiling the back garden in preparation for our lawn turf which is arriving on Friday. So I laid out two whopping bags of pooey-smelling lawn soil and raked it across the top of our existing stuff, Rebecca and I then did a little garden march across it all to level and tamp it down. Its looking real good right now, might give it one final pass before we lay the lawn but I'm immensely chuffed with how it looks.

Then I did the shopping and the cooking. We had some pierogis left over so I dared to spruce them up with a little white sauce. For the first time ever, I added onions to the sauce as I cooked it and I inadvertently created a drizzle that took me right back to my childhood. They say smell and taste is closely associated with memory and this sauce reminded me of every meal I used to abstain from eating when I was 6 years old - and tasting it again now, I still don't like it. But I suffered through it tonight, now I know what that taste is I know how to avoid it for next time. 

A Puzzling Distraction

Saddled up back on my office chair to get cracking on a new project. I think I've got an idea for another video but I'm still trying to put my thoughts into words for the script. Rebecca joined me downstairs to work, but mostly to do more of the jigsaw Mum lent her over the weekend. Perhaps she was a bit of a distraction from my today, but she was so content doing her puzzle I didn't want to say much.

Did an online gaming session with some friends tonight, whittled away the hours playing a big game of Civ 6. To this day I've never finished a round of civilization, imagine the longest board game you've ever played then double it and you'll be in the right ballpark. Still, we carved off a good chunk and had a gas in the meantime, ain't that what it's really all about?

Campus Trail

Just before leaving Bournemouth Rebecca and I took a little stroll over to our old uni campus. I hadn't really walked around there since graduating in 2016 so it was a bizarre yet humbling experience, magnified only by the fact the pandemic meant the whole campus was a ghost town. There's a few swanky new buildings and a bit of landscaping had been done, but otherwise it was just how I remembered it.

We drove back to Newbury for lunch plus a long-overdue haircut for me. Although I spent the whole weekend with my parents, I could've easily spent a few more with them. Having not seen them both for a while it was lovely just to be around them again and just enjoy their company. Lots of creature comforts have been withheld during the pandemic, but luckily I got to experience a smidgen of the oft sought after 'normality'.   

Mudeford Chippies

Took a short walk along the coastline with Mum and Dad along to Mudeford and saw the ocean for the first time this year. Didn't dip my feet in though since it was pretty drizzly and naff, but not naff enough to indulge in some fish and chips (another 2020 first). Heading back into Winton we saw how the high street had changed since I was a student. Many places have closed but new places have taken their place. A surprisingly robust Korean supermarket opened up which was a delight to trawl through. But when you walk along Winton high street all roads eventually point to G&T's, which has been an institution for Mum ever since the early 2000's - always nostalgic heading in there.

Taught Mum and Dad how to play the board game Mysterium this evening and I reckon it went down pretty well. It really is the perfect mix between Cludeo and Dixit, two of their favourites, not sure it'll overtake Codenames in the Durrant household but it was a good time.

Escape to Bournemouth

My hay fever unfortunately returned in full force this morning as I blew out what felt like my bodyweight in snot. I couldn't believe how badly it effected me after I thought I was coming out of the woods. Only way to escape hay fever is to up and run to another part of the country so Rebecca and I did just that. After work we headed down to drizzly Bournemouth to spend some time with my Mum and Dad. Haven't been to the south coast for two years so being back here is really lovely, just being in the house is filling me up with warm memories of the good times.

Distanced Co-workers

For the first time since March I walked to work. Felt almost nostalgic taking that route again and walking back into the shop was a pseudo homecoming. Was good to see my co-workers again though, they all seemed to be in high spirits, each had a creative lock-down project to discuss or a fun anecdote to share. Our training session was fine too, we just all need to be mindful of contact points and social distance mostly but nothing we can't handle. No real word on when I'll be brought off furlough so far, 'not yet' was the general line but no one knows when more people will get put back on rota. Guess I'll just stick to working on my own projects in the meantime.

COVID Training

May have an idea for a new video brewing at the moment. My workload feels a little slow right now so I might change it up a bit and do some good old fashioned YouTube stuff. Starting brainstorming for the time being and started giving it some legs and a reason to exist, should be a nice one.

Gotta try and get a good night's sleep in because I'm back in at the cafe tomorrow for two hours of COVID-19 training. With any luck they can shine a light on how much longer I'm expected to stay on furlough, I know our place is opening this Friday but I'm not part of the initial skeleton crew.