The Odyssey Begins...

There are moments in our lives where we must take a large step to change the direction our lives are headed. Sometimes this step is into the void, an action with no clear outcome.

On Thursday 21st of February, I made just such a step. With a beating heart but clear head I resigned from my position of senior developer at Quickflix, a role I have been in since the company was founded in 2003.

It is important to note that I am not leaving Quickflix for any other reason than I need a change. I have seen this company from inception through to where it is today. I have had a hand in nearly every part of the behind the scenes systems driving the company (hell, every DVD that gets scanned in or out, or is entered into the inventory is still done through applications I built nearly 5 years ago). I have designed and built (almost always from scratch) each of the 3 major redesigns of the website. I am proud of the work I have done for Quickflix and I think the company has a bright future ahead of it.

I have no jobs lined up for when I finish in March, no idea of what I will do. I need nothing more than enough money to pay my bills so I am not too worried about finding work, in fact I will be actively looking for work in areas like hospitality. I need to interact with people again, to build my confidence and use my hands again.

The one thing I am sure of is that now I can dedicate myself to chasing my dream (even if it is somewhat misguided) of doing a world trip that encompasses the worlds biggest gaming expos. TGS, GDC, PAX, Leipzig, you name it I want to visit it. An Odyssey if you will, a Gamer's Odyssey. I will blog this entire adventure from my last day of work here at Quickflix to returning to Perth sometime either 2009 or 2010. It will require a lot of planning, gaming and determination, but I am sure, now that I will have time and (slightly) less stress I can see this adventure through.

Keep checking back here, or at a Gamer's Odyssey soon to see when the site goes life and the Odyssey begins.

Side projects are GO!

Side projects are a funny thing. They are usually more interesting and exciting than the other projects that overshadow them, and yet they receive very little attention.

Today marks the day where I begin a concerted effort to bring some of the side projects I had on the boil to the fore. Hosting has been purchased, and discussions have begun to finally let my ideas out into the wild.

Stay tuned to couch-review.com for more exciting developments.

News just in...

Colin is a wanker! In other late breaking news: The sky is blue and fish swim!

How do you like that for an update Col? Maybe now you wont hassle me about the post frequency on couch-review.com :)

Trouble on the couch

For some reason blogger (the application that powers the mighty couch) and my hosting service (uplinkearth, for all your hosting needs) are having trouble communicating. As such parts of couch-review.com have fallen off the interweb.

I've contacted the technical people around the shop and hopefully something will be fixed soon, but in the mean time, please don't start emailing me saying "where the hell is some random post from 3 weeks ago?", basically: the files gone, its just fucking gone. Hopefully back soon though.

In better news: 3106 is on tonight. ROCK AND ROLL! See ya soon everyone who decides to brave the 41 - 42 degree summer heat.

UPDATE : All fixed now. The couch should be back completely now.

couch-review.com is back baby!

After quite the extended hiatus I am pleased to announce the return of couch-review. Sporting a new design and running off blogger the new couch is going to be a dedicated trove of info on what has been going on lately with me.

I managed to get my flickr account hooked in with this puppy too, so blogging of some of the better photos of my holiday should be easy.

I was quite surprised how flexible the Blogger API is, and over time I will create some of the cool ideas I had planned writing in my own blogging tool using this API.

Anyways enjoy and keep coming back for updates on my trip to Japan.