Looking Up

Everyone has ups and downs in his life, and in my life, things are looking up. Today I went downtown to my job at Sound Times, and it looks like I may have a new regular client, a beginner from Guyana. Also a previous regular client was off sick but has returned. So in the future I might be a lot busier, with up to 3 regular clients in a 4.5-hour shift. My current regular I just saw briefly today, and will be in next in 2 weeks from now. I was worried that I might be expected to develop the Activity Database I originally offered for Sound Times, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can avoid that project.

Yesterday my boss at APROM returned from a month-long trip to China. Most of our programmers work in an office in Shenzhen, in southern China. I was worried because for the past week I've been almost out of work to do, but it looks like Arvin my boss will find more work for me. He wants to convert our Guard Scheduling application from Delphi 4 to 6, which will involve lots of testing work for me to do.

Also yesterday I bought 2 programming books online, as I need to research my Pyxelation project. I will receive those books in 3 to 9 business days, and I'm looking forward to devouring those books; it's been a long time since I bought any computer books. I will be contacted sometime in the next 2 weeks by Teen Challenge; they're going to tow my car away (permanently). Tomorrow I might risk driving it home, even though it's leaking engine coolant. It's at work, and I worry that my employer's landlord's property management company will tow it away.

Last week I had a nice visit with my former supervisor, Diane Duhamel, at Fred Victor Centre. She will be off work for 3 months, as she's having a knee replacement. On the weekend I helped my brother put a new roof on an addition to his house, on Sunday and Monday, and had Thanksgiving dinner there on Sunday. Next month I'm inviting him and his son and partner over for lasagna and salad (and some kind of dessert). I must fast tonight, as I intend to get blood work done tomorrow morning.

Today at Sound Times I did some Pyxelation-related market research, and learned that BYOND, the primary competition of Pyxelation, is not insuperable. One web site said bad things about BYOND, and they still charge members $18/year (non-members play for free). I also discovered lots of other game-creation systems (at least 60 of them), which will also be competitors of Pyxelation. Only one of them appears to have Python as its scripting language, and is open source and doesn't appear to be a potential major competitor. I still feel that Pyxelation has the potential of grabbing a large market share (probably not as large as BYOND, which is a lot more established of course). You can duplicate my research by googling byond.com (the critic of BYOND and a list of game-creation systems).

After I read those 2 computer books, I might write up a Pyxelation.com business plan and submit it to Arvin. I would give him 3 options: 1) APROM owns Pyxelation.com and hires a Chinese C# web/games programmer to develop Pyxelation; 2) we both share ownership and the paying of the salary of the web/games programmer; 3) I team up with a Chinese C# web/games programmer, and Arvin helps me manage Pyxelation.com in return for a modest share of its gross income. With all 3 options, I get paid royalties in the form of a modest share of the gross income of Pyxelation.com.

I woke up very early this morning, couldn't sleep, and did some work on the computer. I might get depressed on Saturday or Sunday (more likely on Saturday). I was planning on upgrading my home computer from Windows XP to Windows Vista, but it turns out that's not possible (I wanted to install Windows 7, but now I won't bother). I discovered my anti-virus program was the culprit in slowing down my computer, after I uninstalled it. I will ask Prak, my co-worker, what brand of anti-virus he recommends. I bought groceries this morning, but I still need to buy 4-litre bagged milk on Saturday morning.

I will sure be glad to see the last of my car get towed away for good. One less thing to worry about, and I'll save a lot of money. Some day I hope to actually earn more money than I spend (counting my investment income). So like the guy with the accent says, save (your) money (I have some money in an ING savings account, which I've been whittling away at, but most of it's in mutual funds). Why would AIM Trimark invest your money here? Crumpet shops? Come now. At least crumpets are biodegradable (you're soaking in it -- Palmolive softens hands as you do the dishes). And I'm not only the President of Hair Club for Men, but I'm also a client. That's enough TV commercial references now, Harold, it's time to say bye-bye to the nice blog readers. It's bad enough my going on and on for 8 paragraphs, on top of that subjecting you to crumpets and other atrocities. That's all for now, gentle reader.