links will be here

01.11.08

Short hair (with added pic)

Posted in Home at 4:53 pm by guy_simmons

I’ve just had the lot whipped off.

At 12:50, out of the blue, I thought “My hair has to go”, & by 14:30 it was :)

I now look like John Goodman as Fred Flintsone.

johngoodman.jpg

 
Edit: Me today, & yes I do have curly dollops on top of my head.
skinhead.jpg

11.13.07

Bloganory

Posted in Home at 6:43 am by guy_simmons

I’ve been meaning to post something here for ages, but after reading Kirsty‘s most recent entry I’ve decided to actually put fingers to keyboard & finally put something out.

Right, where to begin…well since my last decent entry Dom bought a shop, this one in fact. The web site’s under construction but pretty soon you’ll be able to click on there & buy lots of lovely stuff :)

Kal had his 5th birthday last month, we had a bouncy castle in the garden & 30 kids + parents running around laughing & screaming. We were so stressed out we didn’t even think to take any pics, but here’s a recent one of the little fella on sports day during his last week at nursery:
kalsports.jpg

There was a 10 year anniversary Lionhead party late summer, which was a drunken giggle. Unfortunately the battery on my camera ran out before things really went downhill, but here’s a pic of Gary Carr & Stu Whyte taken while things were still civil:
gazandstu.jpg

[Resuming after the wireless died (a frequent event here nowadays) & half a night’s sleep (it’s 4:18am atm)]

In between those two events was a work trip to Vienna to meet a lovely bunch of people, accompanied by another lovely bunch of people, some of whom are pictured here:
mspeeps.jpg

Let’s see, I had another project canned & my manager (mentioned in an earlier entry) got the boot, which wasn’t a great loss to be honest on either counts. I’m working on something new now, it’s very different & therefore on very shaky ground, but if we can maintain the current blistering progress & get the concept through greenlight then we could be onto something. I have to say though that for the first time in a long time I’m really enjoying working on something again :) There are the usual politics to steer around though, but Lionhead wouldn’t be Lionhead without ’em 😉

Home projects continue to slowly grow, SPOOGE (the Several Platform Object Oriented Game Engine) grows by at least one new member function a week, sometimes two, sometimes a whole new module! It continues to be nothing more than a hobby, but a really enjoyable one all in all, & one of these days I’ll post some pics of the various bits & pieces I’m working on.

Eurodisney was mentioned further down although I never actually reported back on it (Doh!). It turned out to be a great few days, the kids absolutely loved it & still keep asking when they’re going back to see “Mitty Mouse”. Here’s a pic of me & Poppalina, with “princess beauty castle” in the background:
meandpops.jpg
…& my favourite pic of the whole trip, an uber confident Kal & a terrified Poppy clinging onto Dom for dear life 😀
sullyandco.jpg

Oh yeah Dom & I went to Finland back in February for a friends wedding, which I didn’t mention anywhere, but it was totally brilliant! In summary; Snow, reindeer(delicious!), huskies, cold, log cabin, sauna, elk(delicious!), glass igloo, ice chapel, snow, glass tee pee, northern lights, midnight snow mobile safari, skiing, ice restaurant, snow, drink, abba & snow.

Way too many pics to post, & I don’t have a fickr account or anything, but here’s a pic of Dom & I wearing our finest cold weather wedding outfits:
domme.jpg
Ah wait a sec, I don’t have flickr, but I do have .mac where there’s a small selection of pics :)

Erm & that’s about it I think, loads of other stuff like 40th birthday parties I should have blogged about (all full of old fat bald people looking vaguely like people I used to know, & in fact turning out to be people I used to know, & all without exception turning out to be brilliant fun!), meetings with old friends, weddings, summer barbecues in the rain, autumn barbecues in the sun, work piss ups (honourable mention to Tim Swann), in, out & generally shaking it all about.

I’ll try & do more frequent ones in the future, & focus in on some of the comedy detail, but I’ve bored you enough for now & I need to get myself off to bed to finish my night’s sleep.

Night.

09.13.07

Underpants!

Posted in Home at 2:41 pm by guy_simmons

Dom thought it would be a great idea to throw away all of my old pants with holes in them.  Great plan, until I discovered afterwards that I only have three pairs of pants without holes, two of which no longer have any working elastic.

If anybody needs to find me, I’m the one with knee level vpl.

 

06.13.07

00101000

Posted in Home at 7:10 am by guy_simmons

…& just like that, I’m 40 tomorrow!

Where did all the time go? Blowed if I know, but it’s scary how time seems to be accelerating with each passing year (it feels like it should only be March at the moment, but somehow it’s June already!).

Am I where I hoped I’d be? Mostly yeah, I think I am. I mean I have Domini, a beautiful, caring, understanding, amazingly patient wife (in all but name ;)) who I’ve put through the wringer during our many years together, but somehow we got through all the crap & now things just could not be better! I have two lovely, lovely kids; Kal, creativity, smarts, cheek & charm, in equal measure; Poppy, frighteningly clever, hands of Houdini (quick, amazingly dextrous & an ability to unlock anything, as opposed to fat & hairy) & so cute that she could wilt concrete with her little doe eyes (I can hear her in bed now singing a song about “dolly” pocket :)). I have a half decent roof over my head, 4 wheels (actually I have 8, but it’s best if we don’t mention the other 4), & not too much debt at all. Career wise I’d love to be further down the road, I’d love to have put out more games in recent years, but then I do work at Lionhead… 😉

It’s funny, but I remember an arrogant 15 year old me declaring to his computer studies class that he hoped to be dead by the time he hit 40, as he assumed he would be old & knackered & life wouldn’t be worth living by that point. The “me” today however is very happy to be alive & is very happy with what he has in life. He loves his wife, his children, & is very much looking forward to spending many happy years ahead with all of them. In fact, he can’t wait for retirement when he can sit down in front of his computer & start pootling away writing exactly the games he wants to write.

Anyway today Dom, the kids & I are all off to Eurodisney for a few days of sugar coated grinning, & I can’t wait to take Kal through Pirates of the Caribbean (please let them not have changed it to reflect the films, please let them not have changed it to reflect the films…) & Star Tours! So happy birthday me, & fingers crossed life will see fit to grant me many more birthdays to come!

05.19.07

Children say the funniest things #1

Posted in Home at 8:09 am by guy_simmons

We all just sat down & watched the Ratatouille trailer.

Afterwards
Me: “How cool is that? Another Pixar hit!”
Dom: “Yeah, but I don’t see how they’re going to sell toys off the back of that”
Kal: “I wanna buy a rat”

😀

04.15.07

Happy Birthday Poppalina!

Posted in Home at 8:32 pm by guy_simmons

poppybirthday.jpg

2 today! Here she is just before heading off to her princess party 😀

03.09.07

It’s a mug’s game

Posted in Home at 11:44 am by guy_simmons

vivamug.jpg

03.08.07

I just typed…

Posted in Home at 6:48 pm by guy_simmons

…”Health is a buffer between life & death!”

& it sounds oddly sort of profound 😀

 

 

02.16.07

Wow!

Posted in Home at 12:20 am by guy_simmons

Once upon a time there was a ‘me’ that studied HCI & cognitive psychology as part of a degree course. This gets that ‘me’ unbelievably excited!

02.01.07

Memories #1

Posted in Memories at 3:32 pm by guy_simmons

I remember a most distressing period of my life, notable for the fact that I started periodically producing stunningly green poo, I think I was about 10 when it first started & it carried on ’til I was about 13 or so.  It was really worrying, I’d glance down the toilet & soylent green would stare back at me.  I never told anyone about it, but I secretly stressed that I had something seriously wrong with my innards until it just stopped one day, never came back & I forgot all about it.

Years later I wandered into a news agent & upon buying my copy of 2000AD I noticed the slush puppie machine behind the counter & thought to myself “golly, I haven’t had one of those in years!” & so I purchased a small raspberry slushy beverage for myself.  Now the odd thing about the raspberry flavouring was that it was bright blue & the next day I produced the oddest bluest shit known to man.  Suddenly all those years of anxiety came flooding back & at the same instant melted away, as I remembered my favourite drink as a nipper was slush puppie & that my “thing” was always making sure I got one squirt of raspberry (blue) & one squirt of orange (orange) which produced a scarily green conconction that I could wave under my friends noses to gross them out.

Food colouring is a wonderful thing.

 

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