Will

Wanted to watch the Daniel Craig Bond films again before I see the new one, but realized the collection wasn’t that much more expensive so I bought them all: Good background movies when you’re doing something else IMO.

Looks like you did a great job on it! Would love to do something similar in the future.

It’s the whole thing, I’m actually impressed they’ve managed to make something that runs so badly. The slowdown in the main game can totally break a run. If you’re into a particularly fiddly or tight section of a level and it hits (it doesn’t seem to be related to anything particularly happening on screen) then, for me at least, it was most likely to mean game over. It could just be the PS5 version I suppose?

Well I have to say I’m quite disappointed from my quick try. I’m playing on PS5 but it runs like crap. Numerous slowdowns during regular gameplay and I’d totally forgotten pop-up was a thing until I was playing Monkey Race, it was honestly like something on the Saturn. Monkey Fight doesn’t seem to play quite right and you can’t punch the camera after you win which was a great little touch in the originals. Monkey Target just seems completely broken. Not their fault but definitely miss the notches of the Gamecube main stick. So yeah, not great so far which is a real shame.

I’d somehow totally forgotten about this until now. Absolutely loved the original game and was pretty damn good at it back in the day. Should be downloaded soon, looking forward to giving it a go.

I feel like I’ve made a fair few big decisions in my time, and I have a very easy way of evaluating them. The way I do it is to imagine myself in the future, say 5 or 10 years down the line, and evaluate what I’d think of the good/bad of each option and try to see where the balance lies - it usually comes down to will you regret not trying the “change” part of the decision you’re making vs. will life actually progress if you stay as you are. For me, this has served me well in every big change I’ve thought about. In your situation I’d weigh it up as if I move and the whole thing fucks up what do you do? Probably move back and within a few months be back to where you were before you left, but with the experience of trying it. If you don’t move, what will you think in 10 years time? For me, at least, I’d probably be incrementally better off than I was before but always wondering what might have been - this might be different for you, but it will give you a pretty good indicator of what you want to do. We really only have so many years to do things like this, if you have the chance, it’s really something special to do. I moved away ten years ago now and I’ve not once regretted it - experiencing new places/people/things as something more than a holiday is honestly life changing. If I were you I would 100% do it.

Bad managers ruin everything. Pretty much everywhere I’ve worked have had Scrum as the base methodology used. I’ve definitely seen it used badly but the last really product related role I had it really worked amazingly well. I think if you actually have the right people on the management/product side Scrum can be one of the best things to keep everyone locked together and working towards the same goals. My current role is about as far away from product as I’ve ever been and I’ve semi-implemented some Scrum stuff into how my team works and it’s worked well even outside of development imo. Disclaimer - I am a manager type and you are free to discard everything I said.

Wow, that’s quite a difference! We wouldn’t be able to have any sort of life but that sort of difference would push us up into the next bracket of property if we maxed out.

Yeah it’s what I always hear, and mostly agree with it. I guess it’s just kicking the pain further down the road and potentially in a bigger manner. We’ve been looking at some online mortgage calculators and seems we can afford the type of place we’d like to live in pretty easily. Did you all find much change when you started speaking to proper advisors? I don’t want to get excited because a website tells me I can live in a great place only to find that the reality is we have to move into a shared studio in the basement.

What framework were you using before? I feel like the whole point of scrum is to cut down things like that so not great if it’s adding more time you’re not being productive.

If you’re having a set meeting with the whole team for backlog refinement then it almost certainly will become a total waste of time, just as you fear. It really shouldn’t be something you need to do if you have a decent product owner imo.

The hassle of all of this really does sound like a nightmare. We’re currently looking into places and I’m really steering towards just buying a new build to avoid all of this chain nonsense. Seems like there are some really good options in the exact place we want to be so it might actually work out.

After a lot of back and forth (mostly from my side) I finally accepted the offer. Still really not sure about being in the UK given everything we see on the news, but the job seems so much better than what I’m currently doing I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t at least give it a try. Will be starting remotely from Singapore while we figure out our move back. Will use it as a bit of a trial run and if things don’t work out at least we haven’t moved back for nothing. Excited but very nervous is probably how I’d describe things right now.

Bought some more toys:

Supper happy to see Ricciardo take the win, would love it if they can continue their upward trend next year and mount a serious title challenge. I think with the sprint races they still have some work to do on the format, but I do like there being something important each day of the weekend. At the moment it’s some weird thing that is not quite qualifying and not quite the race. Hopefully they can work out how to make it it’s own nice thing and I reckon it will be a welcome addition to the weekend.

I’ve bought a few toys recently:

I was just last night saying to a friend I hope this gets announced soon as it’s one of my most wanted games. Really looking forward to it, just wish it wasn’t so far away.

Oh man that’s fantastic! I know what (one of) my Christmas present is!

It took a bit longer than I expected but I got the job! They offered me everything I asked for with a crazy good bonus scheme. Trying to figure out if we really want to be based in the UK now. Not at all sure what we will do but definitely leaning towards coming home.

Need to try and catch up as I’ve seen nothing so far due to a bit of a weird week. Unfortunately, after amazing coverage of the Olympics, they’re only showing stuff that has Singaporeans competing for the Paralympics. Is the UK coverage BBC or someone else?

That sounds like such a weird IT policy to me. I assume you’re allowed to do whatever you want with it given that you’re sharing in the cost of it? Can you stick with your current machine and they’ll pay you more?

This all makes sense, and gives me confidence the Sony route is a good one to go down. The Fujis look nice but those models are 2 to 3 times as expensive as what I’m looking at and I think a bit beyond what I’d like to spend. This looks like a great setup, but again that camera and lens would be going way over budget for me. The A6600 seems to me to be the next step up in equipment, not really entry level as I’m going for. Definitely tempted to go body only but… This probably makes sense. Buy the camera with the included kit lens and just use it and see what I need/want to buy next. The Twitch/streaming thing is definitely a try it out in my setup and see what works, I’ve tried a ton of webcams and other solutions since working from home and none have quite got it right for me. The family picture thing is definitely more in-the-moment action shots than formal portraits, have never really liked pictures like that. For sure. To me, as a total newbie, it looks great and has a lot of features I’d want to play with as I learn more. The mic thing is definitely a good point, I’ve basically been thinking I’d see how the camera on its own goes and then maybe buy one of the Rode wireless systems or a more permanent mic for my desk dependent on what the needs are. Thanks for all the comments and advice, I kind of feel comfortable picking one of these up now and seeing what happens with it. Just need to find one in stock.

Should hear back on Monday on whether I’ll be offered a position back in the UK. It’s something far more aligned with what I want to be doing that what I am now, and with a lot of scope to build a team and strategy as I see fit. Not totally sure if coming back is what I want to be doing but they have said they are embracing flexibility and if I want to work remotely for a few months a year it shouldn’t be a problem. Really not sure what I’ll do if they offer it to me.

Yeah the Twitch/Vlogging side of things is definitely a smaller priority right now. I guess it’s mainly that this seems like a good entry-level interchangeable lens camera that has some nice features to ease into having something more than a smartphone. I don’t think I’m too interested in spending more than this costs, it’s more is this worth it as an upgrade from the smartphone really. Still not sure what to do, I hover between definitely don’t do it and buy it with a load of extra lenses immediately.

I've not owned a camera for quite a while as, generally, I find my phone OK for most of what I do. I've recently been thinking of picking up the Sony ZV-E10 but I'm not sure if it's just a waste of money. Generally, I want it for better family pictures and would probably use it as a webcam too. I might at some point use it for twitch streaming but given I've never really gotten into that too much it's definitely a lower priority. Any thoughts on whether it's worth it?