So, today mark’s the first birthday (such as it is) of voo-du.net, that’s it, not really anything else to say.
hēg denu
The old english words from which my name is derived, hēg 'hay' + denu 'valley'.-
Recent Posts
Christmas and all that
So it’s Christmas time again, and for the first time in five years or so I’m not working between Christmas and New Year, well, there’s an article to finish, but that’s possibly a little more flexible. I’m relaxing, catching up on some of the obligatory viewing from my multimedia course and a bit of knitting as well.
I left my original scarf on the train after the Navidad Caótica, I stuck it behind my head and fell asleep, then when I woke up at Catalunya I quickly grabbed my bag and jumped off the train, realising what I’d done about twenty seconds later. Unfortunately no one was nice enough to hand it in, I hope whoever has it uses it well. So I’ve started another, it’s a little more complicated and I wish I’d thought the physics of knitting with five balls of wool at once through a little more before starting, I have to stop every few rows to untangle everything.
I had a couple of celebrations for Christmas this year, eating too much as always. I’ve got some photos up too – the previous links and one of the christmas cake below.
Fiesta de Casa
One thing I really missed when I lived in London was house parties. So common in Melbourne, at least amongst my friends, I don’t think Londoners were ever really comfortable enough with other people in their house to mount really extravagant ones. Barcelona is different, or at least it can be as we saw on Saturday night with a big house party at Guido’s place.
Preceded by dinner at La Paradeta for Claudia’s birthday, a group of us then headed up to Gràcia for the party. There are, of course, photos.
I was not there to hear it (there were multiple witnesses, so it must be true anyway), this conversation took place at some point reasonably early on in the night (translated from the Spanish).
[Enter youngish woman]
woman: What time does the party go until?
[Guido gestures extravagantly]
Guido: Until the Police arrive!
[Pause]
woman: I’m the neighbour…
Bufanda
It’s Friday night and I’ve been knitting. I’ve just finished my first project, a scarf I started about a year ago, but did most of in the last few weeks. In fact I took so long to get back to working on it that the shop where I bought the wool seems to have closed and I couldn’t get the same colour, so it’s a somewhat uneven collection of greens. Here’s me modelling it (in the mirror).
With that done, I’m off to a gay bar.
Jeiden Tssteinsbi
Yesterday Gonza and I were talking about pronunciation in English and Castilian after the multimedia classes, one of the things we tried to work out is how you’d spell my name to have it pronounced correctly (Elisse once said that she knew she was adapting to Spain when she found herself looking for my name under ‘J’ in her mobile).
Gonza came and stuck this on my desk today after I came back from lunch.
The W Files is “New and Noteworthy”
Sorry for almost only posting updates to do with how awesome our iPhone applications are, but that’s exciting and between going out on the weekend and my average 13 hour working days I just haven’t got around to writing anything else.
Right, that rubbish out of the way. Issue #1 of the Wallace and Gromit digital comics (which is still topping the free book apps chart) has made it into the New and Noteworthy section of the UK iTunes app store. It’s right there on the left in the second row, no scrolling required to see it, it’s right there. If you look at the New and Noteworthy listing, apparently this puts us in second place (right after Monopoly). That’s right, Wallace and Gromit is more popular than Liverpool FC – in number three position.
We’ve also made it up to number 29 on the free app chart (not just the books category, all apps).
So, if you’re looking for a kick arse iPhone app developer, well, I’m kind of busy at the moment, but let me know anyway, I’m sure I kind cut a little further into my sleeping time.
How to lie
This week my masters in multimedia design started in earnest, for the first third of the course (which goes from now until June/July) is from 19h to 22h, Monday to Thursday. Given I’m normally at uni from 9 in the morning until the time I’ve got to leave for my multimedia classes, I’ve now got pretty full weeks.
Our class in Audiovisual communication on Wednesday seemed pretty much concentrated on how to lie. We were given a specific situation which involved infidelity and told to put whatever moral aspects existed to the side and focus on the best response to a confrontment that gave our protagonista time to think (e.g. leave husband not suspicious and jilted friend in a state where she wouldn’t make things any worse). The class itself was taken by a psychologist (not something us computer science students come into contact with on a regular basis).
Things we can take away from this. If you get married, don’t marry a psychologist, they’re so far ahead of you it’s plain unfair.
#1 Free App in the Books category
The first issue of the Wallace and Gromit digital comics, The W Files, is currently ranked as the #1 free app in the Books category. I am, as they say, stoked.
Wallace & Gromit digital comics in the App Store
The Wallace & Gromit applications I wrote for Titan Publishing (that’d be where I work) are now available to download for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The first one is free and currently ranked number 2 in the Free Book rankings on the UK store, I’m quite happy with that.
W&G #1: The W Files
W&G #2: Parts and Labour
W&G #3: Big in Japan
W&G #4: Where There’s Muck, There’s Brass
(Fashion) victim
I thought those of you not on the peninsula would find it amusing that after my Wolvie make-over for last weekend’s Halloween party I am now sporting a half-decent mullet. Well half decent in Australia, here in Spain it barely rates a mention.