In which I contemplate an old project

I have been attempting to learn Java, in some vague and undefined way, because the company is looking to the possibility of moving to more modern technologies, because it would be useful to have some broader professional skills, and because learning things is always cool. Like many things that are done in a vague and undefined way, I did a whole bunch in a great rush of enthusiasm and then other things got in the way and I ceased having the time to work on it.

But while I was in that rush of enthusiasm, I set myself a project. Nothing too fancy, just reading an input file and choosing a line at random to output. Like so:

If you can't read it, it says: You totally know how to code in Java!

A little silly, perhaps, but it was a good way of practising working with files, building array lists, working with individual rows in the array list, and even messing around with interfaces using Swing. It was cute, and I was pleased with it.

I had vague thoughts of turning it into an Android app, just to play with making an app rather than because I thought it was something the world needed. Though it would have been fun to have it on my own phone. But instead I got distracted by a friend challenging me to have it generate the encouraging phrases at random, using separate files of different sentence components.

I achieved that, but not in a way that felt satisfying. The encouraging phrases were all too similar, restricted by the need to start from pieces that could work with any other piece. It felt flat, and less encouraging than the original. Maybe that's a failure on my part, either failing to feed it sufficiently interesting components or failing to code it in a sufficiently flexible way. The possibility certainly niggles at me.

So, as and when I finally come back to this instead of putting it off in favour of editing (Words of Power is officially into its second draft now!) or crocheting or Pokemon (Ultra Moon, right now), do I go back to the app idea or do I work on trying to improve the text generator? My feeling is that the app is closer to the idea that got me excited in the first place, but maybe the text generator would be more of a challenge. And I do love me a good challenge...

In which I distract myself with yarn

Yes, just like a cat.

This week mostly revolved around getting the boiler replaced, less than a month after getting the hot water tank replaced. Turns out it's been dripping for some time and completely soaked the carpet in the room it's in. So now that room is a sauna while we try to dry it out. Sigh.

The trouble with having stuff go wrong around the house is it leaves me anxious right where I should be most able to relax. Every little noise has me convinced that something else is broken. But rather than talk about that, I'm going to focus on the cheerful and share the baby blanket I made for my nephew for Christmas. It's...

SPACE INVADERS!

It's entirely built out of small granny squares in two different colours, as you can see. We've established in the past that I like making geeky things out of granny squares so this was really a no-brainer. I used a blanket I already owned as a size guide, because it's easy to make a blanket that's far too big to be useful for a newborn. Smaller can be better.

And then it was just a matter of churning out the squares and stitching them together. It was originally meant to be done in time for the birth, but he came two weeks early and I missed it entirely. So instead it was finished on Christmas Eve, with me frantically weaving in the loose ends before we could drive off to the family. I hit deadlines. I just don't always hit them with much time to spare.

Next up is the similarly geeky Manic Miner filet crochet, for which I have finished the design and just need to do the actual work. And I've finished the first draft of Liquid Gravity, so I'm going to get started on the second draft of Words of Power later this week. Yay!

In which I remember to come back

Hey! I'm posting again!

Exciting things that happened this week include the boiler breaking less than a month after we had to replace the hot water (I love having no central heating in the middle of winter! It's the best!) and finally getting back out running thanks to a good friend (if we run together then neither of us can back out, because we both have a mortal fear of Letting People Down).

As for the list of goals I made last week, I'm making good progress on the horror novella, Liquid Gravity. I should have that finished by the end of the week, and then I can start looking at Words of Power.

I've also started plotting out the sprites for the Manic Miner filet crochet, having decided that it needs more than just a repeating border of Miner Willy (or a row of Willys, if you will). This shawl will have beautifully crocheted barrels and telephones and toilets(!) because who doesn't want to wear a beautifully crocheted toilet?

And because I never need an excuse to read more books, I thought I'd sign up for this SFF-themed bingo challenge. I'll be starting by reading the books that are already in my TBR pile and seeing which squares I can assign them to. Then, if I ever reach that magical place where I've actually read everything in the pile, I'll look at what I can pick up to specifically hit the squares I haven't already managed. I elected not to count the book I was already reading when I heard about the challenge (Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, which I absolutely loved) but I finished that last night so everything from here counts. I may even try to post reviews here, at least for the ones I enjoy.

In which I look forward...

*blows away the cobwebs*

Apparently I neglected this place for the whole of 2017. That's quite impressive, even by my standards. Still, this is me attempting to get things going again with a quick spring-clean, a bit of a redesign and a tie across to my Twitter handle so that everything works together in perfect harmony. Or something.

It's not like I did nothing at all last year. I had Iron and Gold rejected by a number of agents, some of whom went so far as to read the whole thing before deciding it wasn't for them. I wrote a couple of new drafts based on their feedback, so it's now officially on version 7. I wrote the first draft of something new in November (currently titled Words of Power) and was quite pleased with how it came out. I started writing a horror novella when I had a couple of spare days at the end of November, though it stalled a little as soon as NaNoWriMo was over. I crocheted a Space Invaders themed blanket for my newborn nephew and finished it just in time for Christmas. All in all, things were pretty busy.

But that was last year. It's time to make some rash declarations for this year and see if I stick to them. So what's on the cards?

• Keep plugging away with Iron and Gold. There are still agents who haven't seen it, and others who maybe need prodding to get it out of the slush pile.
• Finish the horror novella and see about editing it into something worthwhile.
• Edit Words of Power and throw it at beta readers to see what happens.
• Keep collecting short story rejections.
• Pick up the Manic Miner-themed filet crochet that I set down in order to make the baby blanket.
• Finally get around to taking some measurements and having a go at drafting sewing patterns from scratch.
• Remember to update this blog more often (hahaha, yeah, we'll see...)

That seems like enough to be getting on with for the year. There are other things in there that don't need to be rash declarations, like finally going to see Hamilton in the West End next month (so excited!), but from a creative standpoint if I can hit all those goals I'll be happy.

Why not check back here from time to time to find out I've not bothered to update again?