On the plus, I’ve discovered Smashing Magazine and it’s a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to design or develop websites. I’m really enjoying messing with some of the new HTML5 and CSS3 features.

So yeah, I’ve been playing a hell of a lot of cricket this week. Essentially from when I get home until when it gets dark every day after work, it’s great. Except we keep losing all of the windies and we broke the ball that swings. Darn. Tennis balls are rubbish to bowl with >_>

My bowling has been good though, I’m in really decent form. And bowling fast really needs some level of fitness. At the moment, I struggle to bowl more than a spell of four or five overs at full pace. And the last couple of such a spell would be pretty inconsistent anyway.

I ordered a DVI-I Male to VGA Female adapter the other day, and it arrived while I was at work today – using two monitors is brilliant. I’ve been asked why, and having used two monitors previously it’s almost impossible to go back: You just don’t have enough space on one monitor!

I mean, look at it – If you’re coding, you can’t have your code up and your preview up at the same time (this applies to both programs and webpages) and if you need two bits of code open at the same time it’s just awkward. Then we can consider that I’m currently trying to learn XNA Game Studio stuff from tutorials, and now I can have the tutorial open and my code open at the same time and not have to alt-tab between them.

Anyway, I intend to go sort out my music (I’ve bought five albums recently that I’ve still not stored on my pc haha), I know this is quite a short entry but I’ve really not got a lot to say.

~ Godders

Having my own business is one hell of an attractive idea, and being able to earn money from using my personal programming and designing skills would be absolutely amazing. These two ideals, in my opinion, go hand-in-hand. I could draw you out an idea of what I want the website to look like, and even how I would begin to go about making the thing, just from my brain refusing to let me sleep last night.

But it begs a few questions:

1. Is it worth the time effort? Especially over the next year when I should be working hard to make sure I get my grades for University.

I think it is. It’s not like I do a whole lot of homework anyway – any work I do tend to be in topics where I don’t know things and hence for interest as much as for my teachers.


2. Would I actually have the capabilities to run a business? And isn’t it cheating calling a one-man-band a business?

Any business requires an idea, and I have that. Ok, ideas for what products I’d actually make aren’t quite specific, but it’d be making video games: In all probability, these would be flash-based games that earn revenue from advertising; cheap windows-based games that people would buy online (emphasis on cheap); or Xbox 360 games distributed on Xbox Live Arcade. The second question is beyond my scope to answer, but it would be adding a whole new level to anything I produce – would you rather buy a product from John Smith, or from his company that has a flashy website and no mention of the fact that it’s him on his own?

3. Would I make any money out of this at all, or would I be wasting my time?

Well, the advertising idea would certainly make money – no matter how little – and more importantly, any of these ideas would make money after the games cease being useful for me. Let me clarify: once they’re finished and I’ve learned any techniques that I’m going to from making them, they then start earning me money. The way I see it, that’s the perfect way to have it working until I finish University.

But yeah. All of this is summed up in an article I was just shown: Ramen Profitable, but I was thinking of it anyway. It’s certainly an idea, and I can just do what I normally do: Make programs and learn new techniques. The fact that I’d be earning money on the side is honestly just a bonus. It could well be a good experience for me, though I’d certainly not be starting until I’d produced a couple of games that I consider web-worthy, and messed about with a website until I had something that looks great.

But I’d be interested to know what you think: If you just read this, tell me. I don’t care if your comment says I must be off my face to think of this, or if you think I’m less skilful than a dead rat – I’m asking for you to think of the cons that I’ve mostly neglected to cover, and whether or not you think they outweigh the advantages.

~ Godders.