November 9, 2010
50,000 words of madness

I’m participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The annual event challenges budding writers to create a 50,000 word novel (or something that closely resembles a draft of one) in the month of November. That’s an average of 1,667 words a day.

Currently I’m on track, however November is shaping up to be a busy month. I’m hoping to stay ahead of my targets and fully intend to reach the 50k by midnight on November 30th.

My subject matter is quite straight-forward; a group of friends who go out, drink, date and balance growing up together with the threat of growing apart. It will be complete bobbins of course - I’m trying to write a novel in 30 days. But that’s not the point of NaNoWriMo. The point it for people who have talked writing but never done it to put their money where their mouth is and finish something. Even if it’s rushed and a total rubbish. I’m hoping there might be something in there worth editing or rewriting to a more complete draft though.

This year, the lovely people at GIST in Sheffield have organised a series of workshops called Write! Lab which have been a great support. The lab is not only great for NaNoWriMo authors like me but also anyone who wants to commit to writing anything in any format over the month of November. I’ll be recording my progress in the challenge on the GIST Write! blog as well as on Twitter.

Only 35,458 words to go…

10:35am
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Filed under: writing NaNoWriMo 

November 9, 2010
I recently designed and built a web site for Absolutely Sales, a training consultancy in Oxfordshire. Chris Burch, who runs the company, sent me a few kind words of recommendation: “Matt was responsible for designing my new website… I found him to be extremely knowledgeable and professional at all times. He has a very good eye for design and I was particularly impressed by how quickly he understood and interpreted my original brief.” It was great working with Chris too! You can check out the site at http://www.absolutelysales.co.uk.

I recently designed and built a web site for Absolutely Sales, a training consultancy in Oxfordshire. Chris Burch, who runs the company, sent me a few kind words of recommendation:

“Matt was responsible for designing my new website… I found him to be extremely knowledgeable and professional at all times. He has a very good eye for design and I was particularly impressed by how quickly he understood and interpreted my original brief.”

It was great working with Chris too! You can check out the site at http://www.absolutelysales.co.uk.

10:15am
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Filed under: work web design design 

October 24, 2010
After Burner: Retro games-inspired, Saturday afternoon noodle. The shapes are designed to echo shapes found in the F-14 Tomcat, featured in the game.

After Burner:

Retro games-inspired, Saturday afternoon noodle. The shapes are designed to echo shapes found in the F-14 Tomcat, featured in the game.

12:20pm
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Filed under: work design graphic design typography 

October 21, 2010
Put another record on: I’ve started recycling some old lyrics by using them as inspiration for some typographic bits and bobs. This is a work in progress but I think I’ll leave it alone for now.

Put another record on:

I’ve started recycling some old lyrics by using them as inspiration for some typographic bits and bobs. This is a work in progress but I think I’ll leave it alone for now.

11:46pm
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Filed under: work design graphic design typography 

September 12, 2010
"Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.” That sounds sort of naive but it’s true."

— Paul Rand (paraphrasing Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

11:58pm
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September 9, 2010
Oh, and here’s one of Stonehenge while I’m at it. It was more than 18” tall by the way - that’s just perspective. There was no Spinal Tap-style mix up! :)

Oh, and here’s one of Stonehenge while I’m at it. It was more than 18” tall by the way - that’s just perspective. There was no Spinal Tap-style mix up! :)

7:36pm
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Filed under: history photos stonehenge 

September 9, 2010

I took these when I recently visited Avebury in Wiltshire, the site of one of the oldest and largest stone circles in Europe. The complex of circles, banks and avenues dates back 5,000 years to the Neolithic era (or New Stone Age), and it’s a little bit older than Stonehenge. It’s also a short walk from Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in prehistoric Europe.

The site has suffered damage from both natural erosion and deliberate destruction; local farmers broke up a large number of stones during the 14th - 18th centuries. However, many stones still survive and the scale of the construction is still apparent, with several stones having been re-erected and markers indicating the position of those that have been permanently lost.

I also visited Stonehenge on the same trip - we were passing through Wiltshire and decided to break up the journey north. With the purpose of both monuments long forgotten, they give an incredible and intriguing glimpse into ancient Britain and it was great to see them both.

6:56pm
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Filed under: history photos stonehenge avebury 

August 28, 2010
Getting into Objective C for iPhone

Recently, I’ve started programming a bit of Objective C for iPhone. Historically, I’m an HTML, PHP and Actionscript kinda guy, so moving into a lower level, C-based language has been a bit of a challenge.

Other than the differences in syntax, one of the main hills Actionscript and web developers have to face is memory management. Although automatic garbage collection is used for some objects, anything you want to keep in memory you’ll have to manually get rid of later. It’s not as bad as it first looks though, and running the app with Leaks module of Instruments is a key to spotting errors here. In fact, it’s so easy to forget to release variables of forget to autorelease returns from functions that doing this regularly during build is invaluable. Don’t wait until the end of development to fix your memory leaks.

Another interesting thing you’ll have to eventually contend with is possibly the least helpful error message in the world: “Confused by earlier errors. Bailing out.” This can be easily got rid of when it appears alongside the said “earlier errors”. However it will occasionally appear on its own and can take a bit of detective work to fix. This is where you need to get the breakpoints and the debugger working for you!

When you’ve got used to the basics and the workflow in Xcode, you’ll find Interface Builder easy to pick up and have basic, working apps in no time.

It’s a satisfying language to program in. Quite verbose, but if you like object oriented programming and enjoy the level of detail required you’ll be fine.

Oh, then you’ll have to deal with code-signing and certficates to get your app on devices. This is a bit of a art but, usually, following the instructions on the Apple Dev site does the trick. Ironically, the process to upload the thing to the App store is involved but fairly painless. As long as it gets accepted in good time! Apple publish an estimate of review wait times in their developers portal, so while not a guarantee, you’ll at least get an idea on how long it will take for them to pass verdict.

I’ll try and post something more than just general ramble soon - especially when I start making proper apps!

12:00pm
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Filed under: iphone programming objective c apps 

August 23, 2010
Songs to listen to #7

“Boom Boom” - John Lee Hooker (via Spotify)

There’s a lot of background music, but some songs are there to be listened to.

Legend - The Best of John Lee Hooker on Amazon.co.uk

11:20am
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Filed under: songs 

August 22, 2010
I thought I’d share my custom Epiphone Dot I put together last year. I was fancying a semi, and a Bigsby, so thought I’d combine the two. I bought the guitar brand new and used pictures of Gibson ES 335s from the early 60’s as the reference for the mods. I added: Bigsby B70 and roller bridge Grover Vintage tuners to replace the chrome ones Gold reflector knobs and steel pointers Cream switch tip A pickguard that’s a bit closer to a ES335 Gibson-style “custom made” plaque The guitar plays nice and it looks great. The Epi Dots really are a bargain, and I’m happy with it for the money. The one thing I’d consider adding are Gibson 57 Classic/57 Classic Plus pickups, but that would add a big chunk to the overall cost - especially as I’d get that done professionally. It’s never going to be a 335, but they cost well over a grand more. This will do me for now! Epiphone Dot 335 Vintage Sunburst Electric Guitar on Amazon.co.uk

I thought I’d share my custom Epiphone Dot I put together last year. I was fancying a semi, and a Bigsby, so thought I’d combine the two. I bought the guitar brand new and used pictures of Gibson ES 335s from the early 60’s as the reference for the mods. I added:

  • Bigsby B70 and roller bridge
  • Grover Vintage tuners to replace the chrome ones
  • Gold reflector knobs and steel pointers
  • Cream switch tip
  • A pickguard that’s a bit closer to a ES335
  • Gibson-style “custom made” plaque

The guitar plays nice and it looks great. The Epi Dots really are a bargain, and I’m happy with it for the money. The one thing I’d consider adding are Gibson 57 Classic/57 Classic Plus pickups, but that would add a big chunk to the overall cost - especially as I’d get that done professionally. It’s never going to be a 335, but they cost well over a grand more. This will do me for now!

Epiphone Dot 335 Vintage Sunburst Electric Guitar on Amazon.co.uk

8:15pm
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Filed under: guitars epiphone projects 

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