Tag Archives: creative

Crumbs of 2012

Humour, Life, Personal, Random, , , , , , ,

Crumbs

So 2012 has been and gone, and the New Year is here. Huh-flippin-rah . I’m sorry to say this but, quite frankly, you 2012, were somewhat of a let down. Don’t misunderstand, we did have some good times at the start; we had some fun, did stuff together, had a few laughs. But then things started to turn sour, didn’t they. And by the end you were pushing my buttons on a daily basis. In short, you turned out to be a bit of a git. And after such a promising courtship… so sad.

Perhaps that’s why I’m a little delayed in posting the round-up of my year; I needed some time to pick through the bad bits and find the good bits (they were there, they were just squashed between the rubbish stuffs). Or perhaps it’s because I’m still in a post-Christmas lull, and have been making the most of having my brain switched off for a while. Either way, I’m here now, and ready to get this round-up under way :) .

So, about this time last year, I embarked on my challenge for 2012 – my year of ‘somethings’. Each month I was going to try something I’d either a) never done, b) always wanted to do, c) wanted to work on, or d) that scared the cupcake out of me (check out my blog post Up to Something for full details of how it all came about). I had a list of ideas, some leads, and 12 months ahead of me, so seemed feasible that I could at least achieve some of them… right? The 12 months is up. Did I pull it off? Well, if you’ve been popping into my blog during the year, you’ll already have a good idea of the answer :) . But shall we see how well I did? Sure, why not. My ‘Somethings of 2012′, in Chronological order. Drum roll please. Here we go…

January: 

Watched some ‘classic’ movies: After years of shocked faces when I reveal I haven’t seen apparent classics, I kicked off the year by watching four: It’s a Wonderful Life, Singin’ in the Rain, Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version) and An Affair to Remember. I really enjoyed them all :) .
Went to the cinema: Only the oldest working cinema in the UK I’ll have you know! The beautiful grade II listed Duke of York’s Picture house in Brighton. And what a gem. If you haven’t been, and you’re ever in Brighton, go visit. You won’t be disappointed. And they have the comfiest seats ever!
Attended a launch party: After being invited to the launch of the London office of hugely successful internet holiday home rental company AirBnB. Fun night, if a bit random! And I did get some freebies…
Trialled a fitness bootcamp: This seemed like a good idea at the time. A few days later, it seemed less like a good idea; so much pain! But it was a no-obligation free trial day, so it totally counts :) .

February:

Registered as an Organ Donor: Probably the greatest thing I will ever do. If you aren’t registered as a donor, do it. Do it now: Organ Donor Registration.
Joined a weekly yoga class: This started as a bet with a friend, but I hoped it would help with my insomnia & stress. And I think it did. Sadly, the class was cancelled in September, and I haven’t found a new one yet :( .
Went on a jewellery making course: Using magical clay that turns into sterling silver! And my finished article? A pretty little necklace that I made all myself – yay!

March:

Went on a CreativeJS coding course: Run by my talented friend Seb Lee-Delisle, I tried my hand at being a nerd for a few days. I didn’t get round to creating his trademark particle systems like the rest of my class mates, having spent the entire course making this slightly wobbly bunny. I’m not sure that’s exactly what Seb had in mind after two days of exhausting teaching, but at least I can say I coded it myself. Sort of :) .
Made-over my website: Probably as a result of the above geekery, I spent a few days tweaking my website, and launched this shiny new version at the end of the month.

April:

Went to the theatre: Not so much of a big deal usually, but this was the first time I had gone to the theatre by myself (in London no less), which, for me, was kinda huge! I even splashed out on a pre-theatre dinner at a very swanky restaurant, which seemed very extravagant, and unnecessary, and therefore completely awesome. And the show, “All New People”, was excellent. Could my enjoyment of it possibly have been influenced by the writer and star of the play, swoon-worthy Scrubs actor Zach Braff? Um, maybe. Just a little… :) .  

June:

Went on a professional massage course: Something I’ve always wanted to do and, thanks to a one-day course from The College of Classical Massage, I finally did. And it was brilliant! Have even been considering going on their full diploma course, and getting qualified as a practitioner of massage :) . 

July:

Went llama trekking in Surrey: Yup, it’s exactly as it sounds. I found a place tucked away in the Surrey Hills that takes people out llama trekking. It was ridiculous, but really a lot of fun! Check them out if you fancy doing something a little bit different: Surrey Llama Trekking.

October:

Had an operation: Ok, yes, going in for surgery was not on my list of things to do when I first drew it up last January. At that stage I had no idea that I’d even be needing an operation! But as it was something I’d never done before (and, as it turned out, scared me witless!) I think it’s earned the right to go on the list. And I’m recovering well, thanks for asking :) .

November:

Had play dates with cats & dogs: In an attempt to help me face my longstanding fear of these furry critters, I arranged play dates with some friends pets. It went much better than I expected, I even pet all the terrifying blighters, right on their faces! How brave am I?! :) . More dates are on the horizon this year, with even more cats and dogs. Watch this space!
Climbed the O2 Arena: Having spent a month on rest duties (courtesy of my surgeon) I was itching to get out and move. So I did. 52 metres skywards – and at angles of 30 degrees in some places! – over the top of the O2 Arena. It was exhilarating, and breathtaking, and bouncy. Very, very bouncy. And I looked amazing in my climbsuit :) . You gotta do it: Up at the O2.

December:

Went open-air Ice Skating: Having wanted to do this for years (but always chickened out because I can’t skate!), I decided I wasn’t going to let a silly thing like that hold me back this year! So I booked up a session at the stunning Somerset House in London, and with much support from my lovely ice guide Steve, I effortlessly glided round the rink for an hour. Well, ok, not quite effortlessly, but I didn’t fall down once :) . Not bad for a newbie.
Went on a Spa weekend: Just the ticket for a pre-Christmas, end of year treat, particularly as the last 6 months have been pretty difficult. And if you’re gonna Spa, do it right (especially if you’re a first timer like me). So there was only one place to go; Thermae Bath Spa. And it was bliss. Getting away distracted my brain, and the spa soothed my body. Exactly what I needed. The yummy food treats I had were pretty ok too…
Rode a horse: I’d planned to do this in the summer, but for one reason or another it didn’t really happen. It was pure dumb luck that I found a pony trekking farm just outside of Bath when I was booking up my Spa weekend. And even more dumb luck when their trekking times fit around my other plans. I found being on a horse a very weird experience, not one that I can easily put into words. But I kinda liked it :) . I wonder how I’d feel if I was actually in control of the horse? Perhaps that’s the next step..!
Had a haircut: Yes, this can’t technically be considered a ‘something’, because I’ve had haircuts before, obviously. And although some trips to the hairdressers can be scary (Supercuts anyone!?!), I have finally found a great hairdresser and colourist who somehow manage to make me look incredible (until I step out the salon door, typically). So, New Year, new do. And it’s my list, so I can put on it whatever I want :) .  
Watched some classic movies: I ended the year – and my ‘somethings’ – as I had started, by watching some more classic movies, this time going for Gone with the Wind, Casablanca and Miracle on 34th Street (1947 version). And they were all really great! Who knew?! :) Next up, a friend has recommended some Hitchcock thrillers (no shower scenes and swarms of birds for me thanks!).

And there we have it. My ‘somethings’ of 2012. Quite a diverse little group of things, huh? Sadly, I didn’t quite manage something every month – thank you stupid illness – but I did nearly everything from my original list, with some extra’s throw in along the way! That’s pretty good going I think :) .

So, 2012, once the New Year dust has settled, will I look back on you and remember you fondly? Hmm. No. For a lot of reasons, I can’t really shake the feeling that you have been one huge thorn in my side from start to finish, and I am positively giddy to see the back of you. But I won’t let 12 crappy months diminish the ‘somethings’ I’ve achieved. Or stop me looking at things I’d like to do this year. I may have already started working on a new list…

New Year. New hair. New start… But same stupid face :) . Deep breath, here we go…

Going geek

Course, Life, Personal, Random, , , , ,

Q1 of 2012 down, and my list of  completed ‘new somethings’ is looking quite impressive already: fitness boot camps, yoga classes, attending trendy launch parties, jewellery making, becoming an organ donor, even mentoring someone in running! Phew! It’s no wonder my posts have been getting few and far between; I’m too busy doing stuff to be writing about the stuff that I’m doing. Oops! Some balance is required in this respect I think… Anyway, it’s all been great fun and, without wanting to sound smug, not too taxing (although some of the yoga positions I’ve attempted defy gravity!). But all this was about to change. It was time to take things to a new level. It was time to engage my brain. That’s right people; I was gonna go geek.

I have the right genetic make-up to be a nerd. I’m whiter than Casper the Friendly Ghost. Dressed as a sheep. In a snowfall. Covered in talcum powder. And at the first hint of sunlight I burn redder than the sun. I can’t even sit under a 60 watt bulb without my factor 120 on. I’m as blind as a bat without my geek-chic specs on. And I was always hopeless at sport. Except running, which I’m quite good at. But that makes sense. Nerds should be adept at this, you know, from all the running away from bullies and stuff. Anyway, I digress.

Last week I made good on a threat I’d been holding in reserving for a few years, by popping along to a course of unadulterated geekery run by my friend Seb Lee-Delisle. I’ve been wanting to attend one of his courses for a while – they always sound so cool – but the content has always been way too advanced for my teeny little brain to comprehend. So when I found out he was putting together a creative JavaScript course for complete noobs, and realising this would fit in rather nicely with my ‘ new somethings’ plan, I signed up. Two birds, one stone. Nice.

I was apprehensive in the days leading up to this nerd-fest, being that my only attempts at anything vaguely like coding were the two frenetic weeks I spent teaching myself basic HTML and CSS last year, to get my website up and running. And this didn’t really give me an edge. It’d be like attending a course to learn Spanish and saying “well, I kinda know some French”. Yeah, really not very helpful. The ‘creative’ element – given top billing in the course title – was giving me the heebie-jeebies too, cos I’m about as creative as a stick. So the prospect of spending 2 days blinding tapping away at my hefty laptop, employing my patented ’nod-and-smile’ technique every time something was said that I didn’t understand (I anticipated having a major case of neck ache and face freeze by the end of the course!) and trying to cover up my lack of creative prowess by using the brightest colours I could code up, to cause temporary blindness, was a little unnerving. But as I’m always being told, particularly by said teacher of this course, “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. Ok fine. I’ll feel the fear and do it anyway. Times 100! Bring it!

The dates rolled round, and suddenly here it was, Geekment Day. Or Geekment Days; it was a 2 day course after all. And what a fun couple of days it was! The class were a lovely bunch of fellow noobs from all sorts of backgrounds, all eager to learn this weird JavaScript stuff. The girls outnumbered the boys 4:1, which I hadn’t expected, and it was pretty cool to see so many girls interested in learning programming :) . Day 1 kicked off with Seb showing us some basic drawing commands, and how we could use these to make shapes, dictate colours and even move stuff around the canvas! Cool! Check out some of the pretty stuff I made:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After we had these basic commands down, and we’d stopped sniggering at the slightly rude sounding terms we’d been learning all morning –  ”Now remember, it’s really important that you stroke your Rects before you fill your Rects…” (snigger) – we were tasked with creating a little critter with wobbly bits and everything! Here’s my offering: click on the bunny then watch him wobble as you move your mouse across the canvas!

Kinda cute, right? And I almost understand how I put him together, which is pretty cool!  The rest of the class made awesome creations too, from wobbly aliens to grinning faces to a hilariously rude body part. I won’t mention exactly what it was (where would be the fun in that), but will say that, when it came to Day 2 and particle systems, the owner of the anatomical graphic wasted no time in working on an eruption of particles to ‘finish off’ her work. Nuff said. Needless to say, immature as we quite clearly were, we all had to have a sneaky look at her laptop, laughed like naughty school kids and collaboratively decided that her offering won the entire course.

Day 1 completed, pretty stuffs coded by yours truly, so onto Day 2, with gusto! Well, I started with gusto. It soon petered out when Seb started schooling us in while loops and for loops and arrays… What the flip?! Queue all manner of confusion and brain-frying and frustration, admittedly mostly from my corner of the room. We were now into scary territory. The bit I’d been dreading. The moment where I’d found myself staring at my screen, fixated with wide-eyed gormlessness and not understanding even a hint of what I was looking at! Oh how I longed to go back to stroking and filling my rects. Reassuringly though, this stuff seemed to be a bit of a stumbling block for everyone. But we were lucky. Seb is an excellent teacher, and talked us through this terrifying world of unfamiliar terminology, happily answering all our “um, I may be being really dumb here, but…” questions. And it started to sink in. Well, for the others perhaps. As for me, I was still clueless! But I bluffed my way through until the afternoon, chomping at the bit for the exciting culmination of our 2 days of coding – PARTICLE SYSTEMS! Ooo particles, you’re so pretty. And so impressive looking. Shapes that appear from nowhere in an explosion of awesomeness. Aahhhhhhhh! Ones that are glued to your mouse and whizz across the screen, following your every whimsical move. Weeeeeeeee! Who knew that after such a short space of time, complete JavaScript novices could be creating such visually stunning effects. What a brilliant way to end 48 hours of nerdy wizardry :D . It’d be rude not to share some of my particle examples, so here you go. Click on the images to see them get animated…

       

That’s some pretty awesome stuff right there!  And after only two days. Amazing!!! So I’d like to say a huge thanks to Seb for running a brilliant course for us coding virgins. I’m always blown away by the stuff Seb does, so getting to see the mechanics of how he can create visually beautiful things with code was really eye-opening. Understanding it (for the most part anyway…) was even more amazing! But being able to type some gobbledygook that can barely count as English into the notepad, and instantly see it come to life in the canvas – wow. That was so cool it almost hurt a little. As expected, the anticipation was way more painful than the actual act, but we’ve all come away, Javascript cherries popped, feeling nicely sated thank you very much ;) .

And that’s it, my first Creative JS course completed, and I’m actually feeling a little impressed with myself – yay! So am I now a fully fledged geek? Um, probably not. But this has definitely gotten me a few steps closer. And seeing as I’ve now become inseparable from my laptop, playing with the variables in my examples from dusk till dawn, I think it’d be acceptable to declare my status as nerd-in-training. I’m now the proud owner of a big orange book, which professes to be able to learn me in the ways of processing. Hmm. We’ll see… I’m still tweaking the stuff I created in class, and if any of my random changes result in something mind-blowingly gorgeous (it could happen, right?) I’ll definitely be posting them. But for now, it’s glasses on, curtains drawn, laptop launched, and brain engaged. All systems code!