Totally Awesome Dude!!!

It must be over 6 months now since I last went snowboarding, and a little while ago I hurt my knee at work which started to hurt at home only when I walked downstairs (nowhere else), so it was putting me off a bit going in case I made it worse. My knee started to get a lot better so I thought I'd go again, which I did today.

Thought I'd just do 1 hour, but they had an offer on so it was cheaper to pay for 2 hours than 1. I could still finish after 1 if my knee wasn't upto it. I was so excited I couldn't wait to get on the slope, a bit nervous too cos I'd been away for so long and hoped my knee would be ok, but my excitement easily outweighed my nervousness lol

I walked to the slope and they have 2 drag lifts to get you to the top, one on each side of the slope. I like to use the first lift cos when you get off at the top you have to turn to the right, which for me is a heelside turn cos I ride in a goofy stance (that's right foot forward) but they only had the far lift working which means I have to turn to the left at the top using a toeside turn (a lot harder for me). Instead of turning I just went straight forward and hit my board into the bumpers on the wall (well that's what there there for lol).

So there I was, at the top of the slope 170m all the way to the bottom, top half has a gradient of 1 in 5 while bottom half is less steep at 1 in 10. All strapped in and ready to go for the first time in 6 months, I set off down the slope and hit my first turn and it all came back like I'd never been away :) Did a few more runs getting faster each time until I was back to my normal riding speed woohoo and my knee felt good too.

My friend Jody who works there was setting up the boxes, rails and kickers for the freestyle night on the slope (thur & fri). We had a chat about why I'd been away for so long and he told me he had an interview tonight about getting the job as the freestyle slope designer full time and this layout was his trial (good luck Jody - I hope you get the job!)

I carried on riding for the first hour just taking it nice and easy but was feeling really good now and confident. Started trying out some gentle tricks to see how it felt and was really enjoying myself. Another rider was commenting on my different coloured bindings (the bits that attach your boots to the board). Mine are made my Flux and I have a green one and a purple one ;) We got talking (he was called John) and he'd been a skateboarder for 10 years until he started snowboarding about 3 years ago.

I taught him how to do some flatland tricks like 180's (jumping off the snow and spinning half a turn) and buttering (lifting the front of your board up and spinning in circles as you ride down the slope) and he taught me how to turn to get off the lift I didn't like :) Once I'd mastered how to turn off that lift without bumping my board into it made it even more enjoyable. We rode together and practised tricks until it my time was up to leave the slope :(  a full 2 hours later!

As it's my birthday soon, Andie was thinking about buying me some new snowboarding trousers cos last year she bought me some impact shorts to protect me when i fall when learning new stuff, and they made my trousers a bit tight when I wore them, but I needed to know if my knee would be ok or if my snowboarding days were over. Luckily my knee was fine so I went shopping :)

This time of year is out of season, so most shops are selling off this years stock at sale prices to clear it to get ready for new stock which usually comes in around September, so it's a good time to buy, but they only have what's left on the shelves. Unfortunately in Ellis Brigham they didn't have any at all but in Surfanic they've got quite a few in different colours/styles that I like, so it's gonna be a trip back with my gear on for a fitting :)

I'm so happy to be back riding again :)

This day has been totally awesome dude!!!

Website to host my games

My new website is up and running yay Just written the code and uploaded it tonight.

It's where I'm going to put my games I develop so they can be downloaded by anyone wanting to play them.

There's no games on the site right now, but I've been working on the graphics for my first new game which is going to be based on a matching game like pairs but with a few more options and it'll keep the record for the lowest number of turns to complete it.

You can find my website at: http://www.gamecoder.comze.com/

Making games again on my PC

I've made a decision to start making games again on my PC. It's been quite a while since I did any coding, thinking about it probably over 2 years ago now. I've always liked programming but for no particular reason I just got out of the habit of doing it. Anyway that's going to change now, game progamming is something I'm going to start doing more often.

I just make games up for myself to play, sometimes I see another game which I like and I try to make something similar, or just make them up out of my imagination. The types of game I like to play are games that you can start playing straight away, very simple to learn (you don't have to read an encyclopeadia and remember it all to enjoy the game), and you don't need 3 hands to be pushing loads of buttons either lol.

Simple games that you can just play for 5 minutes if you want to pass a bit of time, that's what I'm going to make :)

Now for the technical bit:
Programming Language: C
Game Library: Allegro

Starfish Wars - Episode II - Return of the Squid

Here are the next 4 pages of Starfish Wars - I hope you enjoy them :)

After these theres another 4 pages to complete the story - should be finishing them soon

Starfish Wars ep II

That's it - the drafts are finally completed - all 8 pages of em :) phew

Just got to draw them nicely now and ink them before finally getting them all on here

Starfish Wars - Episode II - Return of the Squid

Well on it's way now :)

Lots of new characters gonna be in this episode and just finished the practice sketches for them and had loads of fun again thinking up fishy names for them too.

Next job is to rough out the panel layout and sketch in the characters :)

Think there's definitely gonna be more than 2 pages to this episode :)

Starfish Wars - My current arty project

After drawing on and off for a few years now I've decided to become a bit more organised and dedicate some quality time to my artwork.

I love manga artwork and that's really got me back into drawing, but I do like to draw other things too. Hopefully now I'm trying to be a bit more organised about it I'll be able to do more artwork :)

My latest project is called Starfish Wars which as inspired after watching all 6 episodes of Star Wars over a weekend with andie and my mum in law. Star Wars IV is my all time fave as I actually got to see the original back in 1977 when I was only 8 years old with my mum n dad and younger sister Julie (only 6) who must av wondered what they'd took me to see. Anyhow I loved it and it sort of put me on the road of enjoying all things spacey.

I've drawn single pieces of art before but this is my first attempt at sequential art (ooh sounds posh - really means a comic to me) where it tells a story and you can recognise characters throughout.

I did these 2 pages in an afternoon including dialogue, drafts and then final drawing and inking. It's done in a manga style and me and andie had loads of fun coming up with the characters names lol

You don't av to av seen Star Wars for it to make sense I hope, but if you av then it should.

It made me smile and I hope it makes you smile too :)

I am working on the next episode n I'll post it when its finished :)