Had lunch and basically completed (and combined) my Gamification articles. 1800 words! Just need to ensure all the links work and then post.
Had lunch and basically completed (and combined) my Gamification articles. 1800 words! Just need to ensure all the links work and then post.
Finished one gamification article, now working on a comprehensive overview of transferable game elements.
Another year and again I have been vanquished by hayfever. It seems that the only solid way to prevent sneezing is to have no summer.
Sitting in bed whilst listening to choral pieces on Radio 3 and writing about gamification.
What a bizarre day. Too much adrenalin in my bloodstream and now I am going to play tennis. Hope it doesn’t undermine my game.
About to do something momentus. Feel sick with anxiety. Nobody seems to notice.
The thing that was working has stopped working now. All I have left is a mild bemusement.
The thing that was working has stopped working now. All I have left is a mild bemusement.
Finally managed to work out how to create a popup that is visible on pageload and sets a cookie so that it doesn’t keep annoying the user.
Finally managed to work out how to create a popup that is visible on pageload and sets a cookie so that it doesn’t keep annoying the user.
The carrot and stick approach doesn’t work on creative people. It doesn’t matter how big the carrot, how sharp the stick.
Excitement in the office at the possibility of a big announcement. Fight or flight chemicals, a big yawn, tension in the shoulders . . .
Today is the day that I cast aside all distraction, pierce the veil of maya, and focus on what is important.
Today is the day that I cast aside all distraction, pierce the veil of maya, and focus on what is important.
Some people live in and are defined by fog. But the fog is not real, it is in their heads. When you get clarity, the light is amazing.
Wondering, idly, if you can combine a mindfulness diary like this with the pomodoro technique.
Mouthwash causes mouth cancer, deoderant causes armpit cancer: vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
If you can obtain clarity through thinking, everything else becomes clearer, even your sinuses. Cognitive dissoance causes illness.
Exhausted from sore throat. Don’t think I’ll be able to go to the quiz tonight, despite there being £150 and me being Triv champion.
Eating apples in a bid to save my vocal chords for this Wednesday’s Postcard vs Factory Records open mic night at the 13th Note.
Podcast has its moments this week, I particularly like the weltanschuung of Jay Kowalski.
Reading K-Punk on Basic Instinct 2 and A History of Violence. I really should subscribe to Sight and Sound, shouldn’t I.
Throat shredded by some infection, brain is spiky with the irritation that comes from illness.
Lovely text from my wife: “Been reading your tweets and almost crying. You are such a John Berger of the 140.”
The baseness of human nature is barely credible. What do you do when somebody is determined to fart next to a colleague?
Hot in my jumper that I am wearing solely to cover a toothpaste stain on my shirt. Vanity of vanities.
It is imperative to occasionally use words that people don’t know as a way of expanding vocabularies. Today’s words: chutzpah & assiduous.
The world is my oyster: squidgy, salty, and is something that makes me violently ill.
Going to put together a list of top five podcasts. For times like this, when I’m vulnerable and tired, they are great background listening.
There are some terrible human beings in the world, many of whom seem to enjoy hacking wordpress and profiting from drugs.
Heartburn, brainfuzz, eyestrain, lipcrack, fingertingle, tootache, mouthdry.
Looking at the photos of my dead colleague in happier days, wondering what photos people will use to represent my life.
Coming in an hour early is so much better. It’s quiet, you can get things done quicker, and by the time people do come in you are on a roll.
Back from a great weekend in Belfast, happy, even if I do feel a bit windswept and rained upon.
I always want to see what the inner pages of great Swiss designer’s books, not just the cover. Web design is not posters.
Compelling listening to Judd Apatow on Marc Maron’s WTF interviewing Leno and Seinfeld.
Imagining what life would be like if I was an SEO professional. Horrible visions of staring at stats all day.
CSS3 is even more tame than HTML5. I love it.
If I was a vulgar person, I would say “HTML5 is my bitch” but I’m not so I won’t. Instead, I’ll say: HTML5 makes sense.
Picking carefully around a rotten apple to get the good bits before realizing that there are no good bits.
Rested well last night, full of will and energy to do something really good today.
Taken aback by the fact that a famous Scottish radio presenter would deign to respond to Antony’s slagging on the Spirit of the Staircase.
Interesting to hear how much I have improved at speaking on the podcast. Far fewer umms and ahs these days.
Feeling ill, weird aches in my throat and head, unbearable tightness in the eyes.
Donating money to various causes at work and feel the warm glow of benevolence. The more you give, the more you receive.
Redesigning Neilism and really really excited by how it is turning out.
Just had the least salady salad I’ve ever eaten. It was half chorizo, quarter rice, and then rest was sun dried tomatoes.
Listening to the forthcoming Spirit of the Staircase podcast. Sounding good: http://spiritofthestaircase.co.uk
We are the backbone of the nation, keeping the wheels greased, whilst a train of fools, decadents, and exploiters march over us.
One thing at a time. Cut a little piece, put it in your mouth, chew it thoroughly, then swallow.
Dark and wet outside, like inside the body. Probably colder out, though.
Worried that I might reply too quickly to internet missives. It’s efficient, but maybe makes you look needy.
Sometimes listening to podcasts is just perfect. Particularly enjoying Marc Maron’s interview with Jonathan Ames.
The reason I delete my internet history is because there are so many ghosts of time wasted on there. It’s like wiping a blackboard.
When I tried to update my Neil English site yesterday, Dreamhost completely crashed. Try and keep up this time, Dreamhost!
Beautiful quiet day, calm after the hedonism of last night, I suppose. Currently putting together a daily drawing blog.
Used my bonus hour to repair stupid security flaws in stupid software. Nice to be up early, though.
Gran is dead. Wish I could have seen her once more. She wasn’t happy towards the end, but she was alive. And now she isn’t.
Saw Shrink, the Kevin Spacey film last night. It was good, but I especially liked seeing Gore Vidal look so healthy.
I love designing websites. There’s nothing like it in terms of challenge, pleasure, and engagement.
Death is beastly, but such a small part of the life. Focus on the life, their life. Focus on life now.
Woke up early after reading the House of Sleep last night. Jonathan Coe is now my favourite contemporary bourgeois novelist.
Worried for Gran who is undergoing a big operation, hope she pulls through and gets to full strength, suspect she won’t. Bloody mortality.
Drear Glasgow, so benighted and rain-sodden, you make staying in and watching DVDs so compelling.
Death is an extreme form of entropy. Hair is the most obvious source of personal entropy. Therefore, shaven headed people are most alive.
Two types of personality: anaclitic and introjective. We all veer between the two, but it makes sense not to be ego reliant on others.
New glasses prescription but no new glasses due to rude Specsavers employees. Now for the fortnightly cleaning.
Resolve not to eat pasta at lunch time. Too heavy.
Do less. Do nothing. And when you’ve done nothing, do it all over again. Do it!
Unaccountably grumpy this morning with a strange sickliness in my belly. Nietzsche thought all ideas originate in the stomach.
Will do a tumblr theme one of these days, but … not today. Need to get coherent first.
Watched 2001 last night. It’s impressive, but completely cold and, for me, rather unaffecting.
The silence before the storm of feet tramping out of the office and out onto the world.
Thinking about going to Pecha Kucha in Glasgow tonight, but it’s cold and I’m busy and I’m tired.
3pm eye strain means it’s time to stop staring at the screen, get an optician appointment, and have a cup of tea.
The Hawthorne Effect prevents us ever being sure of productivity gains, but I’d be interested in seeing the effect of coughing on workers.
Sleepy, despite the bright morning, looking to take things slowly but deliberately. One thing at a time.
The more mysterious ellipses you see in others, the worse your own self-confidence in your abilities to function normally.
After four years service I have been given an extra day holiday. This pleases me greatly. Thanks work!
Thought about publicizing this little space amongst my confreres but I shrivelled up as soon as I was exposed.
Got asked if I was growing a “Dali moustache”. I’m not, it’s just I’ve given up shaving and my facial hair is naturally perky.
Bike was stolen this morning.
I love the feral display of teeth you see when people get angry about stupid arguments.
The difference between what people want and what people need is never so stark as when you start discussing action films.
What would Neil Scott do? That’s the question I ask myself nowadays.
Finding it difficult to listen to anything else apart from Somewhere in my heart by Aztec Camera.
A dash (–) is far superior to a colon, but a colon is superior to a minus sign (-) used as a dash.
Cheese and piccalilli sandwich for lunch – glorious.
Gallows humour in the kitchen, to be expected I suppose. Selfishly want to know what happened so I can avoid a similar fate.
Distressed to hear that my former colleague Ewan Lawrence has died. Not sure what to think about it all but RIP Ewan.
Unbelievably cold this morning, thought I would have to operate on my frostbitten fingers. Office unbelievably warm. My time of the month?
Cold house, bleak even. Sunday is evaporating before my eyes, another day gone to oblivion.
Rangers fans in Annie Millars are happy, whilst I am hollow with an entirely different problem. My wife reads her PhD monotonously.
Think I’ve just made a complete mess of a very important website with a WordPress backup. Gah.
Been listening, helplessly, to the Old Firm aftermath. Feel sorry for the Celtic, but can see how much stronger Rangers are.
Have done almost everything that was giving me cognitive dissonance and feel the burden lifted.
What would Steve Jobs do? He wouldn’t ask what Steve Jobs would do. He’d do Jobsian things, like popularizing a paradigm or something.
Italian filter coffeemakers with their aluminium (?) elegance and stately charms are a miracle of physics. The coffee tastes great as well.
Life is easy when you just do what needs to be done without fussing.
What I want is one inbox for everything. I hate the way I have to check so many places.