I’ve been feeling guilty about letting my journal stand idle for so long, so it’s time for a general update. It’s not as if I haven’t been busy, it’s more an issue of not really meeting any milestones that I felt were worthy of posting about.

Mainly I’ve been writing up my thesis dissertation, which is an exercises fraught with writer’s block and bad grammar. It’s a painful process that’s moving slower than I’d like, but it’s starting to come together. Hopefully it’ll be in a better position by the end of the week.

As a break from writing I’ve started working through some beginner Python exercises. Python looks like a nice language for quick development, and with a Tk library built it it’s probably a good platform for home brew GUIs and tools. I haven’t yet figured out the best way to approach building applications or games in Python; I still haven’t done anything sizable enough to get to grips with the language. I’m puzzling over the best way to get from a Python dabbler through to building proper Python programs.

I’m also chipping away at my webcomic project, which may have come a little off the rails too. I find it a lot of fun developing characters, sketching out what they look like and getting a broad idea of their personality. But I might have reached the point where the combination of what I’ve got doesn’t really make sense. My idea about the whole premise of the comic has shifted multiple times over the last few weeks, and I’m not sure if the stuff I was doing a fortnight ago works with what I’ve been doodling now. I may need to take a step back and ruthlessly prune what I’ve got to something that actually works as a comic premise.

Also, I haven’t got my MacBook Pro back yet; will be picking it up sometime in the next day or two. I think the verdict from the repairers was that there’s some bizarre conflict between Mac OS Tiger and my machine, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. The laptop was working fine with Tiger before the screen blew the backlight, and I don’t know how replacing that could cause a hardware conflict. But if upgrading to Leopard seems to fix the problem (and their tests seem to suggest it does) then it might be enough of a reason to upgrade so I can get my working Mac computer back.

I’m also keen on getting an iMac sometime soon as a desktop replacement, although I don’t as of yet know exactly which hardware configuration is best for me. I mainly would like a second Mac with a better screen on my desk so I can use that when working at home. My current Windows PC is okay for what I used to use it for, but it doesn’t run my Adobe CS3 software or VoodooPad, plus my CRT monitor is positively ancient now. When MacWorld is over I’ll start making the decisions I need to choose a desktop replacement.

For now, that’s all. I’ll post more regularly in 2008 so I can get my money’s worth out of this site. I also need to replace this long running poll with something a bit more topical; first I need to think of what I’d like to ask.