Slept through two alarms. Luckily I didn’t actually need to be anywhere in the morning, I was just trying to correct my body clock somewhat. Ah well. I got up and did some admin on my computer, had a shower then head in to Computer Vision. Reasonably interesting class, looks like it’s going to be time to get stuck into the first assignment for that class soon. After that I had a chat to my Graphics lecturer for the quarter about what was going to be in the class I’m missing tomorrow to go the SIFE regional competition. I also talked to him briefly about Brian’s not getting back to me about my research options, but he didn’t have a lot to say.

I came back to my apartment and did a bunch of emails and more organizational crap (there’s a lot of that). I had originally planned on going back into my office to do some work there. I decided against that and did some work from my apartment. I even did some relaxing work. What’s that? It’s work on pet-projects, things I’ve been wanting to do for a while but usually don’t make any time for. After all, I started doing programming and this insane business of mine because hey, it’s what I enjoy doing! Deadlines and too much pressure I don’t enjoy so much. Anyway, today I did some designs and basic layouts for LeithList, an online wish-list system which I’ve been meaning to start for ages. It came to me as an idea when Anastasia and I were putting our heads together for ideas of stuff we can get each other when we feel like it, or for birthdays, or whatever.

People always bitch about how they don’t know what to get me, even though I’m one of the easiest people I know to buy for. Year after year of making lists of things I want (usually books, I’ll grant you) and having people almost see the list as a “what not to get me” list does make me doubt this system somewhat, but I’ll be making it none-the-less. The idea is simple – it’s a list you add things to that you want. You’ll also be able to determine who can see which items (just you, you + select few, the whole world, whatever) in case there are some things you don’t want people knowing you want! That functionality might take a little longer to get working, so initially (well, at first ‘release’) it’ll just be a simple list system. I don’t know if anyone wants to use the system or not and really I don’t care (although more users means a more robust system) because it’s something I’m writing that I think will be useful to me.

There are a bunch of other little applications I’ve been meaning to design and develop for a while now… one for my personal accounts system (which is a monolith spreadsheet at the moment) which I was thinking of calling LeithBank, one for managing my Spider-man Card Collection (yes, I am that geeky) which I was thinking of calling LeithCards, maybe one for managing my books and manga (although that’s at the bottom of the list), perhaps called LeithLibrary, and also doing more work on LeithClub, a member management system I wrote ages ago and have slowly been improving every now and again. I tried to get some of the clubs at Canterbury I was involved in to use it, although I can’t say that it really took off because I left the country before I could press the issue at any meetings. I sometimes worry that my work and my fun are essentially the same thing, only with different projects. At the end of the day though, I think that’s a good thing. It means I know I’m doing something that I enjoy, even if I don’t enjoy some of the managerial pressure or handling of the clients sometimes. Study tends to get in the way of my work, and vice versa.

Balance in my life is, as ever, my problem.

Oh, and happy birthday to Richard! ^^