the_eggwhite (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_eggwhite) wrote2009-07-03 08:59 pm
the_eggwhite) wrote2009-07-03 08:59 pm
First update in a while...
A proper update? Well, it's been a while and my life has been leaning towards "more of the same" for a some time now... But it occurs to me that I've been gradually building up my repertoire of "same" and might not actually have mentioned it. There's also been a web conference, and then last night I also had a crack at something I'd not done for about eight years, which I'll come on to in a bit.
First, the "same" side of things. Probably my most time consuming hobby of late has been my involvement with the St Jude's Players. I got involved with them just over two years ago, getting back into stage lighting after a pretty long gap. Since doing that I've done the lighting design for all of the shows, done most of the rigging and run several of the shows... generally staying clear of running the desk for the pantos because it'd eat too much of my life.
I do enjoy being involved with the group, but there are times when it's starting to feel like a bit of a chore, so I'm seriously considering scaling back my involvement a bit for a while. I'll probably sit out the panto entirely (rather than my usual "say I'm not involved, but then do the lighting design anyway"). As I say, I enjoy being involved, but I don't want to risk getting burned out on it - I'd rather take a break and come back refreshed and with some new ideas. As it is, I'm trying to show my face at one rehearsal a week, which will go up to two a week in the near future.
The next "weekly event" is swimming. I've managed to start again, and I'm going to keep it up for as long as possible. Wednesday evenings weren't working out for me, so I've switched to Sunday mornings, which have been good so far. I'm not a particularly fast swimmer, but I'm getting better at keeping a pretty steady pace and gettings some distance in. The past few times, I've actually been focussing on certain aspects of swimming. So far I've mostly been working on my kick, my shoulder movements (minimizing the amount I push up, maximising the amount I pull forward) and my breathing. I'm getting better. Last time I stopped because my parking was running out rather than because I was tired, which was nice.
As well as that, there's the monthly Mortals game. Having decided to quit the Cam when the old games ended, I decided to rejoin again when I heard about the quality of the Mortals game. Without having even played in the national chronicle, I leapt straight in to running our local game.
This is turning out to be a not insignificant amount of work, but a lot of that is entirely my own fault. I was determined that we'd have set dressing for each and every major scene in the game, and props for anything that people might choose to interact with. I think the first two games worked better than the next couple, but I've been happy with all of them so far.
I've got a month off from that this month, though, as I'm going to be away at my mums on the day of the game. Still need to sort out what's happening in my absence, but we'll probably arrange for something to take place.
Then there's the various websites I've committed to working on, including the St Jude's Players one linked to above. I've got a bit of a backlog of these, including rebuilding and relaunching my own site at some point.
But the thing I did last night that I've not done for about eight years was soldering some electronics. I went along to a London Hackspace, and bought a couple of simple microcontroller based kits to play about with. I've not finished building the first one yet, as it appears that a) I now need my glasses to be able to clearly see what I'm soldering and b) I've forgotten how to solder! I sincerely hope that none of the students I helped teach how to solder ever see the soldering on that board! I have soldering shame...
In my defense I'm pretty sure that my solder and soldering iron are both made of suck anyway. I had discovered this a few months ago when making up some cables for the SJP, so I can probably legitimately get away with blaming my tools. I'll replace them soon, and will get a soldering iron with the kind of tip I prefer and some better solder.
Still, I enjoyed the night a fair bit and spent some time talking to several people who's names I have totally forgotten (as I tend to do - I suck at names), but whose faces I'll remember when next I see them. I plan to go back, but it really is a slog to get to and from them, especially if I'm taking kit in with me as I have to lug it into work, then across london after work and back afterwards...
It's good to start getting into making gadgety things again - I had become quite good at it when I was a teaching assistant for the interfacing module when I was a postgrad... I plan to try and pick up some Arduino kit and a few bits of electronics gubbins so I can start making some gadgety things. I just need some inspiration!
First, the "same" side of things. Probably my most time consuming hobby of late has been my involvement with the St Jude's Players. I got involved with them just over two years ago, getting back into stage lighting after a pretty long gap. Since doing that I've done the lighting design for all of the shows, done most of the rigging and run several of the shows... generally staying clear of running the desk for the pantos because it'd eat too much of my life.
I do enjoy being involved with the group, but there are times when it's starting to feel like a bit of a chore, so I'm seriously considering scaling back my involvement a bit for a while. I'll probably sit out the panto entirely (rather than my usual "say I'm not involved, but then do the lighting design anyway"). As I say, I enjoy being involved, but I don't want to risk getting burned out on it - I'd rather take a break and come back refreshed and with some new ideas. As it is, I'm trying to show my face at one rehearsal a week, which will go up to two a week in the near future.
The next "weekly event" is swimming. I've managed to start again, and I'm going to keep it up for as long as possible. Wednesday evenings weren't working out for me, so I've switched to Sunday mornings, which have been good so far. I'm not a particularly fast swimmer, but I'm getting better at keeping a pretty steady pace and gettings some distance in. The past few times, I've actually been focussing on certain aspects of swimming. So far I've mostly been working on my kick, my shoulder movements (minimizing the amount I push up, maximising the amount I pull forward) and my breathing. I'm getting better. Last time I stopped because my parking was running out rather than because I was tired, which was nice.
As well as that, there's the monthly Mortals game. Having decided to quit the Cam when the old games ended, I decided to rejoin again when I heard about the quality of the Mortals game. Without having even played in the national chronicle, I leapt straight in to running our local game.
This is turning out to be a not insignificant amount of work, but a lot of that is entirely my own fault. I was determined that we'd have set dressing for each and every major scene in the game, and props for anything that people might choose to interact with. I think the first two games worked better than the next couple, but I've been happy with all of them so far.
I've got a month off from that this month, though, as I'm going to be away at my mums on the day of the game. Still need to sort out what's happening in my absence, but we'll probably arrange for something to take place.
Then there's the various websites I've committed to working on, including the St Jude's Players one linked to above. I've got a bit of a backlog of these, including rebuilding and relaunching my own site at some point.
But the thing I did last night that I've not done for about eight years was soldering some electronics. I went along to a London Hackspace, and bought a couple of simple microcontroller based kits to play about with. I've not finished building the first one yet, as it appears that a) I now need my glasses to be able to clearly see what I'm soldering and b) I've forgotten how to solder! I sincerely hope that none of the students I helped teach how to solder ever see the soldering on that board! I have soldering shame...
In my defense I'm pretty sure that my solder and soldering iron are both made of suck anyway. I had discovered this a few months ago when making up some cables for the SJP, so I can probably legitimately get away with blaming my tools. I'll replace them soon, and will get a soldering iron with the kind of tip I prefer and some better solder.
Still, I enjoyed the night a fair bit and spent some time talking to several people who's names I have totally forgotten (as I tend to do - I suck at names), but whose faces I'll remember when next I see them. I plan to go back, but it really is a slog to get to and from them, especially if I'm taking kit in with me as I have to lug it into work, then across london after work and back afterwards...
It's good to start getting into making gadgety things again - I had become quite good at it when I was a teaching assistant for the interfacing module when I was a postgrad... I plan to try and pick up some Arduino kit and a few bits of electronics gubbins so I can start making some gadgety things. I just need some inspiration!
no subject
Is it the same soldering iron that evilly snuck up on my hand and burnt me many years ago as I leant on your desk? If so I could tell it was tricksy and evil back then, so you'll be well rid of it!
no subject
Can't even find my breadboards and stuff, which is kind of annoying.
Incidentally, if you like the instructables stuff, have a look at places like Make magazine (you can subscribe to make online, btw, if it's not available over there) and Hack-A-Day too.
no subject
no subject