Colts Playground

I am retiring this blog

2010-07-10T07:46:00.002+01:00

Since my move to the countryside and considerably improved health, I am launching a new company called LoveFre.sh. I have decided to stop blogging as Colt - in fact, I'm only using it as my gaming name now - as it began - because I don't want to be annonymous anymore.

I will start my new blog soon but in the meantime, I am using my Tumblr blog http://spoff.tumblr.com.

Incidentally - the same good health and start up plans have forced me back on to Facebook.
Feel free to 'friend' me :) I'm on there under my real name, Mark Spofforth.

Audioboo / Milestone

2010-06-04T09:40:00.000+01:00

Listen!

Small holding.

2010-06-01T18:34:00.005+01:00

Currently making plans for a small holding. This would be a dream come true. It's complicated by a fear of recurrent illness - but the fact remains, I am far more fortunate than many who suffer from Depression or anxiety related illness. I have a supportive family and opportunity to work again - doing something that fires a passion in me. I have asked myself whether I'm rushing forward into something I am not fully recovered enough for - and frankly, the answer is, I am really in need of purpose beyond recovery, rushing or not, I want to take the opportunity while it presents itself (the farm next door has just vacated). It seems like this planned element of our future is one worth accelerating to reality.

Listen!

And so Cameron's first victims are... an excellent piece by Johann Hari

2010-05-28T13:28:00.002+01:00

Not usual for me to post politics. However, Johann Hari writes with such clarity and sense that I wanted to record it here. Recommended reading. Especially if you remember the 1980's! I worked in mental health services back then - for 4 years at Mind. If you think mental health care is underfunded and badly organised now ... just you wait. It's going to get ugly.

And so Cameron's first victims are... : Johann Hari

Goodbye Facebook

2010-05-14T12:31:00.014+01:00

I am no longer on Facebook. Well, strictly speaking, I'm no longer 'activated' - Provided I don't log in again for 14 days, my account will be deleted. I suppose it's their idea of a cooling off period. It would make sense if this was a decision made in a moment of rage. It's not though. It's something I've been considering since I took a new look at my use of social media and decided to close all those services that I don't really use.

Sick and tired of having to keep an eye on my privacy settings - and concerned by their use of data mining. The only thing stopping me was the possibility of losing touch with people. However, there is a contempt for users becoming apparent, as the zero's after the dollar sign mount up.

I don't particularly like the service, and find twitter and my tumblr blog serve my needs well - social and media. Audioboo covers my audio needs nicely. YouTube, Flickr...they are all great tools for their jobs. I see the Web as my social network - not one particular corner of it.

If you wish to delete your facebook account, click here.

Finally, here's a message supposedly from Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, back when he started the site.

Installing Steam on my MacBookPro

2010-05-12T19:44:00.000+01:00

Portal is the first game available to download. Unfortunately, it's sooo good, the whole world is doing likewise. Expect slow download times as steam servers struggle to cope with demand.

http://store.steampowered.com/public/client/steam.dmg

Claudia Spofforth: Friendly Northerners

2010-05-11T07:02:00.000+01:00

Claudia Spofforth: Friendly Northerners

Bye Bye Buzz #gFail

2010-04-26T04:20:00.004+01:00

Google Buzz didn't work out for me. I've packed up and deleted my account.

It's appeal - a forum without portfolio, was eventually it's downfall.
Seldom moderated threads turned easily into flame wars.
The loudest opined with startling arrogance. Trolls roam unchecked, usually justifying themselves with some bollocks about free speech or their horror that 'lilly livered liberals' dare to tolerate and accept, rather than rage against those with different views.

It's vaguely possible to ignore the idiots. You can block them from your own Buzz. However, you are guaranteed to run into them on another thread, since the 'block' feature is really more of a 'try to avoid' feature. Ill thought out and poorly implemented. I'm really not about to start sending PM's to others on Buzz bitching about someone they are allowing to troll their thread. That's effort that shouldn't be needed. Social tools are supposed to be easy.

For me, when earlier today I had personally offensive bile spat in my face, it was a simple decision. There are far better social mediums, where I can concentrate on being social without having to stumble across ignorant, racist, homophobic bigots with a very twisted, aggressive take on the world. Actually, I don't mind stumbling across them - they can be mostly ignored. However, I very much mind when they launch personal attacks.

I don't come on line to be anti-social. I want to engage with people, positively and with respect. I take care to moderate what social media I consume. When a service fails to provide the tools to do this, it stops being social and becomes an irritant.

The Drugs Don't Work

2010-04-23T12:51:00.003+01:00

A subject too complicated and personal to be served by text. Here's an audioBoo I recorded to pose a question. If you can be bothered to listen to it all, then I value your opinion.

I'm not proposing the drugs don't help - or that I stop them without doctors guidance. I'm just suggesting that daily thoughts, weekly appointments and monthly reviews, along with CBT and CAT can only really guarantee one thing - that my life remains full of reminders that I have suffered a mental breakdown and am considered mentally ill.

My new life, away from the stress of London living, in peace and with no urgency at any point, is anxiety free, stress free, depression free....and currently Psychiatrist free. I'm due to sign up with the health service....and frankly, I've found my closer proximity to family, fresh air, exercise and quiet are doing more for me than any of the 'mental health services' I've been offered could.

I'll leave the rest for the recording. I don't want to feel like a victim / patient any more. I want to move on. I'm not 'in denial' - I know i'm suffering from a mental illness and will go straight to the doctor if the panic attacks return, or the self isolation,....or depression. I'm not stupid. What I am sick of though, is having a life dominated by a kind of 'patient psychosis'. It's made worse by the shoddy state of mental health care provided by the NHS. I can do without it I think....and if I get a little low, there's always my vegetable patch to talk to ;)

Listen!

One Man and His Dog

2010-04-13T19:51:00.000+01:00

......or 'Caught Napping'!

Claud snapped this after I'd finished 2 days hard work on the garden in our new house.
Thought I'd post it - it's significant because it sums up our new life. I'm relaxed and exercising loads - gardening, running with poppy, lifting stuff, and going for walks. I'm outside, alot. I spend my day whistling rather than trembling, as I did for the last two years in our London house.
I am even relaxed enough to just sit back and snooze outside. It won't mean so much to anyone reading - but for me, it's a marked change! I'm loving it.

My New Vehicle : local market stall here I come!

2010-04-12T19:23:00.001+01:00

With a two seater car, Poppy doesn't get out much.

Waving goodbye to my agoraphobia, I have today purchased a 15 year old Land Rover with only 76,000 miles on the clock. It will get us out and about in the Countryside - and it will be perfect for the small amount of stock I will need to start my new Market Stall in the village.

The engine was rebuilt 2 years ago by a good friend of my Dads, so all is sound! Very excited! Should have it by Saturday, with 1 years Tax, for the bargain sum of £1800.
It's in mint condition and future repairs will be done by my Dad's mate - who is a Land Rover mechanic :D w00t, is all.

Listen!

1 Week In

2010-04-08T10:14:00.011+01:00

View from Studio, 7am today

I thought I'd post a quick update for friends and family, since I haven't been online much due to lack of broadband. Using my iphone tethered to my Mac to post. Works well, but had limits so i'm being careful how much I use it. Having said that, I appear to have just uploaded 2 AudioBoo (1 from 1st day, one from this morning) accidentally using the tethered connection - so I must be getting near my limit. Hopefully O2 will switch broadband on soon. Slightly confused why it's going to take them another week to do, when all the kit has arrived here. I find it hard to believe it's not a simple matter of them flicking a virtual switch - it would seem very antique if someone had to physically plug a wire in!

Arrival

Listen!

We've finally got heating, refrigeration, a freezer and washing machine - and a hoover.

Listen!

Right. My new lawnmower has just arrived - very excited. My first lawnmower and it's a beauty :) Must dash -- having measured the lawn areas at 300 meters square, I have work to do!

The Move Up North

2010-03-30T12:11:00.003+01:00

*Leaving London after 20 years for life in the countryside*

Wow. Unbelievably nervous and feeling the need to write it down. If I ramble, it's because I have had to medicate. Bloody nutter. I guess my agoraphobia is doing me no favours over this move! I haven't driven in over 4 months - but will have to on Thursday. Only about 150 miles but still....I've not been much further than 1 mile from my home for some time.

Still, I've enabled tethering on my iphone, so I will have laptop access to the net while waiting for my broadband (limited at 3Mb due to remote location :/). Going to be a change from my current Cable internet 20mb! Running my game community will be a challenge but there's a good team of peeps there who'll keep it all smooth. I reckon my tethering should allow me to blog and keep up with Buzz. I'll probably stick to my iphone for twitter and simple surfing and save the tethering bandwidth. Looked at MiFi but too extravagant for a temporary need.

Boxes are arriving soon so we can pack up some stuff. The removals company arrives tomorrow and they do all the packing...then we leave on Thursday morning. It's definitely freaking me out. I'm leaving behind a kitchen that looks out on Prostitution and Crack activity, nightly - but we built this house from a shell - and I'm attached to it!

Claud is going to love it. Poppy is going to love it. I am too - once I'm there.

Since I've been recovering from my stress induced breakdowns, I've been under strict instructions not to tax myself. So, I'm kind of trying to float through the whole experience as much as possible. I pick small jobs. Do them. Then pick another. Everything seems to be going smoothly. If I'm honest - if my wife wasn't so superb and organised, we'd be in chaos now. Makes me feel useless - and my depression of late is not welcome. Still, whatever happens, I know that in a few days I'll be surrounded by fields and farmland, and I am certain that will do us all a world of good.

I'll be leaving my 'control room' - ideal for any hermit / agoraphobic geek. It's like a comfort blanket of tech.

It's been intense living in London. From the early student days, DJ'ing and living it up, to my most active studio recording times - 10 years of them - to a stressful period in my career and 8 years of IBS...all the while in a day job that involved face to face negotiations with FTSE 100 CEO's at it's worst. I lost 3 cases in the Court of Appeal before having my breakdowns - and I'm absolutely certain that where I'm heading, that life is going to seem a world away. Forgetting about money, career and socialising, there really is nothing about the move that I should fear.

I wish I could convince my nervous system of that!

Fresh Coffee : Micro Mix I - Saturday Specials

2010-03-27T07:25:00.016Z

Well, I've been up all night fretting about 350+ lost comments on our 'petition' blog - Time for a distraction.

I've been working on putting together some music for the fashion label HOSS. I've loved every minute of it. Marathon listening sessions - and being paid - you couldn't dream it up! Anyway. I'm up and awake now. This tweet brought a huge smile to my face, and my mood is good. loudmouthman is a legend for his 'Morning' tweets, amongst others - highly recommended follow!

I thought I'd throw together a quick 'micro-mix' to share some of my 'top choices' with you. 10 minutes of musical head strokes, followed by some fresh air, to go with your coffee. Just the job on a Saturday Morning.

Fresh Coffee : Micro Mix I - Saturday Specials

Listen!

Leave a comment if you enjoy - I may make this a regular thing.

Our Ofcom Complaint relied on Disqus comments system: were we foolish?

2010-03-27T05:09:00.010Z

As you know, I have been putting alot of work into getting my Game Community's voice heard, following an outrageously ignorant broadcast on ITV's The Alan Titchmarsh Show.

We submitted a complaint to Ofcom, the UK regulator, and created a blog specifically for people to sign their support.
The complaint blog is here. Here's a screenshot I've just taken of it,

We had already had great support, over 350 people had signed or commented on the blog, using Third Party comment system Disqus . As you can imagine then, I was pretty horrified to log in tonight to find all the comments had gone. I contacted Disqus and they claimed to have fixed it - but the comments are still not there, so I have informed them and await their response.

Here's a picture of my in box - evidencing 380+ comments

We'll see how this turns out - but it makes me think. Should we be using third party content management systems on our blogs, when we lose so much control? We had the resources to host our own word press blog - but the easily plug in nature of a Tumblr blog and Disqus appealled.

It's been a long night of frustration over this. I'm waiting to hear from Disqus on Twitter - but they don't appear to be in any rush to fix. Meanwhile, my Game Community is full of frustrated members who don't quite know what just happened.

I'm discussing this on Buzz also - feel free to join in!

When will you abandon books?

2010-03-26T02:31:00.004Z

I was just participating in a Buzz discussion about whether people bought newspapers still. I had some thoughts about my reluctance to buy an e-reader, over the pleasure of a book. I'm sure one day soon, a gadget will come along that persuades me otherwise. If it fits my criteria below, I'll be buying one for myself and one for each member of my family!

I will abandon books when I am able to purchase a device with a nominal amount of pages, 10 minimum (I enjoy turning pages, so what), made of electronic paper with typographically perfect electronic ink fonts, a moleskin or soft leather bind, and the ability to reproduce the smell of a database of book types. That would see me happy to find something else to fill my bookshelves.

I can imagine picking up my reader and selecting an old encyclopaedia, and it responding by stiffening it's cover, softening it's pages, and exuding that 'old library' smell that brings back so many comfy childhood memories for me :)

Until then, I'll continue to get my news from my computer screen and RSS feeds and my fiction from chunks of paper with ink filled pages.

Join the discussion on Google Buzz

Building favour on the Social Web

2010-03-24T11:50:00.004Z

No, not another blogger guide to 'networking' - not my area. This is about a simple Buzz I posted in this morning - what I posted - and who posted next.

You'll want to click the image and read to properly understand this post.

Sometimes, it's easy to forget the Open Social Web is, well, open and social. I guess you never imagine the 'big players' will ever read anything you write about them. I'm sure he didn't take any notice of it - but it made me think that I need to be careful what I say. From a 'no reason to go pissing people off' point of view.

Then again, I've been openly talking about my mental illness online for over a year. Hardly the best CV. I guess I'll just continue doing things because I enjoy them and have passion for them. The business can build itself around that :P Epic fail possible!

I often worry about saying something anti-social. Maybe I should worry more specifically, about the fact that I plan to launch several web applications in the next 12 months and will need friends....

Social Media madness

2010-03-22T11:25:00.002Z

If you know me, you'll know i'm a sociable geek who's been active in online communities for years - forums though. I've also built a fair few social based mashups,.....you may call me a nerd. Think of me as the friend who lives online. Worry that I don't interact with real people in real life due to agoraphobia and mental illness. You would definitely not describe me as a Social Media expert - in fact I have some concerns over the very terms - Expert and Social Media, and the way they are bandied around these days.

Against this background - WTF am I doing ranked at all in this Twitter Chart : Titled 'Social Media Guru's' ..... I mean...they have me there at number 62/100.

Does anyone have any insight into the bizarre algorythms that lead a 38 year old vaguely mental geek to find himself on such a list?

We are what we eat

2010-03-22T09:55:00.006Z

It's about time we all thought about what we eat - and what we want to be eating in 20 years time.

I have all sorts of possibilities for a future, more balanced, less stressful career. One dream I have lies in agriculture. Small scale, local and specialist. It's kind of matured these days to a Bookmarks list full of Aquaponics and Hydroponics references, British Cheese makers, and organic Carp farming. We'll see. I'm on the right path at least - moving to a part of the country both laden with farms, and famous for it's cheese (Cheshire).

I have always been keen on gardening, particularly for the kitchen.
I lived on a farm for a while and it was one of the most inspiring periods in my life.
I guess the magic of helping to deliver a Foal at 4am probably contributed to that but, the most inspirational part was the family spirit (which appeared to be fed by hard work and feasts), their relationship with their land and livestock, and their farm shop.

All the food it sold was local. Without exception. A good chunk of it from their own herd, crops and processing (Cider, Cheese, Jams). If it couldn't be produced locally, it wasn't sold. (anecdotally, this was a philosophy my wife and I employed for our wedding 3 years ago - allowing a 50 mile radius for all produce except the champagne....which was understandable when your sister is a Pol Roger rep ;)

This was 20 years ago. The family worked exceptionally hard running their farm - each was ruddy faced and fit as a fiddle. It seemed to me that whatever madness was going on in the outside world, they lived in a self sufficient nirvana of hard work and reward. Most obvious was that every mealtime was a very special time - a celebration of life at it's best. Centred around gloriously loved produce. Pigs that we'd all rolled in the mud with, made the sausages and bacon for our breakfasts, Beef roasted and delicious was often commented on with sentences like 'You see gang, I told you 531 was going to be a beauty"... It was, however, apparent that they would all be alot richer if the large supermarkets weren't making such effort to undercut cost of produce with full on mechanised intensive food production. It didn't make sense to me that their main worry was money - when their produce was so popular and so amazing when set next to supermarket junk. It was apparent that the Supermarkets agenda was simple, force as many farmers as possible to produce food as cheaply as possible, then process the hell out of it, to ensure it remained valuable to them once delivered to their distribution centers.

Jamie Oliver at TED:

It seems unbelievable that it's taking so long for us to wake up to the fact that you get out of something what you put in - food being one of the best examples of this, and shocking it's taken 20 years after my small revelation about food, where it comes from, what it really costs and what it means to our lives (not just health but social and family), for a public 'movement' to start gathering real momentum.

I hope that this revolution builds and that tools like the social web can open up a whole new market place for agriculture. Not just because I'd like to be part of it in some way. No, I hope it grows because now I'm painfully aware of the harm we're doing to future generations health, not to mention our intensively farmed agricultural lands, and I'm also an uncle 4 times over. I want my nephews and neices to grow up respecting food, glorious food...and appreciating how much the stuff of life it is.

edit: this Blog has provoked an interesting discussion on Google Buzz http://www.google.com/buzz/twitamp/HgaPdv8DTB6/We-Are-What-We-Eat-Its-about-time-we-all-thought

Buzz-Statistics

2010-03-21T17:31:00.006Z

Buzz-Statistics

What a coincidence. First time I check my Buzz stats and I notice i've just hit 100 Buzzes.

This is an interesting new app. that provides data on your use of Buzz - or others use of Buzz. It gets beyond Follower count and into engagement - which I like alot.

I can imaging it will expand it's scope hugely, once the Buzz API is out. One to watch for sure.

http://buzz-stats.appspot.com/

My First month - Google Buzz Wordle

2010-03-21T13:21:00.003Z

To create your own Wordle. First grab a feed of your Buzz. Then paste it in Wordle. Then save to public and grab the embed code. Pretty easy stuff. You can radnomise your Wordle until you get something you like the look of.

Wordle, of course, will work with any RSS feed. Give it a try.

Thanks to Dr. Matthias Thorner for the tip.

AudioBoo / Brainspill

2010-03-18T01:46:00.009Z

A long free flowing ramble this morning at 6.30 in the park. I don't recommend listening. I have a head full of thoughts at the moment and needed to spill them out and archive them - something an AudioBoo is perfect for.

AudioBoo / Brainspill

Listen!

Leaving Hackney : walking the dog 1

2010-03-17T09:12:00.000Z

Just a few photo's taken on a typical Park walk with Poppy

Life 2.0

2010-03-07T15:10:00.003Z

Life 2.0 moves to Beta

So excited to have found ourselves a new home to move to the countryside and begin our new life.
Claud will be commuting to BBC Manchester initially, then move to the new Salford Media City in 12 months.
The commute is about 60 minutes by car, but it used to take her that amount of time to get through the traffic across London to Shepherds Bush, so she is relaxed. Besides - the house is literally in the middle of a farm - so it's almost too good to be true. It's modest and compact - but neat. Anyway, my criteria was easily filled by a tent in a nice field - so you can imagine how pleased I am.

Here's our, soon to be, local village, Sandbach, complete with Saxon Cross

The view from our new house (front)

The view from our new house (rear)

Update 16/3/2010 We have had confirmation of the rental and are set to move in 2 weeks!
I can hardly wait - although I will of course miss London in many ways - having lived here for 20 years!

750words follow up

2010-03-03T10:58:00.002Z

Well, I've done 2 entries now. One thing i've noticed is I am fairly slow until about 400 words - then the next time I stop typing, I'm on about 900! I think this proves to me that I'm not as comfortable writing as using AudioBoo, or rather, my thoughts don't flow as freely.

That said, some pretty heavy stuff is coming out. Stuff that i've spoken with my Psychiatrist about but not really thought about afterwards (denial is a comfortable evil). Anyway - here's the site's 'emotion' stats for today. There are more detailed stats available to me privately.

Now, it definitely took me a while to get going as I've said. So long in fact, that I'd been at my PC for 4 hours since the reminder I'd last night set flashed up saying 'write 750 words'. In the end I did what I often have done in the last year, recorded an AudioBoo, to get me focussed on what I was planning next - and to spill out some free flowing thoughts - about free flowing thoughts... and 750words.com.

Do I feel better for all this outpouring? I guess so. I feel like i've put my head in order (well, sort of messily pushed it into a corner - but that's my heads fault not the concept of free flowing brain spills. I will be continuing throughout March. Heck, I need all the help I can get - and if typing pages and pages about life as I've seen it and see it in the future is going to help in any small way - and it is - then I think it's worth adding into my daily routine.

Here's my Boo, made just before I started typing.

Listen!
http://audioboo.fm/boos/102009-my-750words-com-a-daily-private-journal.mp3

750words.com - the private online daily journal.

2010-03-02T13:01:00.004Z

So, I've started filling in a daily mind dump at http://750words.com. The challenge is to ensure every day I write 750 words of free flowing thought.

Most interesting site that promotes free flow thought to aid creativity and focus. I'm hoping it can offer me all sorts of benefit.

It's private text - but it's a clever tool that analyses the discourse of your text and gives you stats - like the ones linked here. A tag cloud of most common words and various other tools are also available - I've just chosen to hide mine.

Check my stats out - it'll give you a better idea what i'm talking about.

Mark Spofforth wrote 853 words on Tuesday March 02, 2010 - 750 Words

I'm not going to be reading my entries back until this month is over. Lets just say with a life changing move up north with associated house hunting and all the other things that can challenge a person, due to occur imminently, I hope a little routine - writing a journal - will help me spill out all the junk filling my head and keep me calm, optemistic and relaxed. It's a new life. In the countryside. After 20 years in East and North London. It should be great. Poppy will love it. I should just get a move on with a few essential plans, rather than feeling like i'm sinking in tar!

A Ripple from the Wave : Is Google Buzz a fall back option to ease us all gently into Wave

2010-02-27T13:13:00.003Z

This article appears on Google Buzz - please click to read.

A Mental Geek (or 'To my friends')

2010-02-23T15:25:00.008Z

Well, since we're going to be friends, I recorded a 'Boo' to introduce myself to you....and get the awkward stuff out the way. I tend to post about my mental health and like people to realise I'm perfectly comfortable talking openly. I wish more people did - it can often feel like a lonely thing to be mentally unwell, yet all the stats show there is probably someone going through identical challenges just around the corner.

Listen!

I graduated in 1992 in Psychology - the irony - but went on to a career in the city of london Lloyds Insurance Market, as a negotiator. It was extremely stressful, and when I lost some very large cases in the English Court of Appeal, I suffered a mental breakdown. It was not to be the last.

I had suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome for 8 years or so. It is now clear, from the medical help and advice I received, that this was directly caused by a combination of a trigger - Chronic food poisoning when I was in Thailand - and I mean Chronic! - and the stress my career was already causing.

To cut a long story short, those 8 years were full of anxiety - not professional anxiety, I was good at my job - but IBS related anxiety. My IBS 'profile' was one of extreme diahorrea - needing to pass anything between 6 and 26 times a day. This could occur in a meeting with a FTSE 100 CEO, during a trial, sitting on a bus in a freshly laundered suite, whilst pretending to enjoy a nice meal with clients (I couldn't eat most things - but was always to keen to please to refuse them, so I continually made myself ill).....and it really took over my life. I grew to think of a Saturday night in, with food and not too many toilet visits, was my idea of heaven. I craved to not have to excuse myself throughout the day, to run to the nearest toilet. I even have an ID card from the health service which requests access to Any toilet in the UK - it saves having to explain each time....you basically flash it at a train station attendent and he rushes and unlocks the nearest toilet. Very convenient. Hugely embarassing. Every time.

So, anyway, without getting sidetracked, all of this led eventually to my 2 breakdowns. 6 months apart. The second on Christmas Day at my Parents home. That was December 2008. I haven't worked since. I have however taken every opportunity to learn. I have always been a geek - I began machine coding on a Vic20 and never looked back. However, due to a love of making music, I tended to stick to using Sequencing software to power my home studio, and tweaking my PC as little as possible, for stability.

This last year I have learned lots about various platforms and languages. I am a big fan of Drupal, having tried most of the open source CMS products, it's the one with the modular, truely forward thinking and flexible architecture. Plus with my limited php skills, some CSS and HTML, and mySQL knowledge, it's a mighty powerful tool for mashups. I've built many with it - and then lost them due to being ridiculously bad at nuts and bolts - much better at chaotic creation!

My plans now involve a pending move to the countryside (April 2010), slow and sure development of some of my more interesting ideas for web-apps, and continuing Game Level design, and my role running my Game Community - Playstuff.net. I'm under strict instructions from the Psychiatrist not to challenge myself - but i'll be damned if i'm going to sit around watching daytime TV when I could be learning and creating.

So, that pretty much brings you up to date on me ;) Feels odd saying that and of course I don't expect you to be interested in the slightest. However, if you notice the odd personal, life type thread appearing here, now you'll have somewhere to find out what the hell i'm on about.

Oh, and i f your interested, here's my Gowalla entry (i talk about it in the Boo) - how tragic that the only spot i appear to visit regularly is the compost heap on Hackney Downs :) http://gowal.la/s/45HH

http://audioboo.fm/boos/100167-colts-playground-a-mentalist

A sensible precaution : my Creative Commons license.

2010-02-22T12:21:00.000Z

It looks like I'm going to be using ColtsPlayground/GoogleBuzz and Tumblr, as my publishing platforms and personal spaces on the internet.
I'll be using them to release game levels i've designed, music i've produced, audioboo podcasts, along with articles, viewpoints and photographs.

As advised by @http://www.google.com/profiles/dclinton#buzz , I am posting this here - though goodness knows why anyone would want to nick my stuff :P Here is my Creative Commons license, applicable to anything of mine, published on the internet.

Except as otherwise noted, the original content of all my personal updates on Google Buzz, spoff.Tumblr.com, Colts Playground blog, and Playstuff.net are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License [1].
You are free:

- to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit my updates
- to Remix — to adapt my updates

Under the following conditions:

- Attribution — You must give attribution to me by linking back to the original update. When giving attribution, please use the phrase "reproduced from work shared by Colt Seavers" if you copied the text verbatim, or "modified from work shared by Colt Seavers" if you made adaptations.

Please see the Creative Commons license itself for the full extent of the rights granted by me to you to share and remix the original content of my personal posts.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported

Scratch My Back

2010-02-22T11:53:00.000Z

spoff - Fiverr – The place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5 noting this in my personal blog - as it's a personal matter. as the sole director of scratchmyback ltd. my idea is solid and exciting. I wish I could say the same for my implementation. http://scratchmyback.org.uk hasn't been touched by me since the night i set it up as a test site - just to get the social side sorted and develop a quick API of basic content and people information.

I know my idea is solid...and I continue to improve my mental health. I'm optemistic that a move to the countryside will be hugely beneficial and my plans are becoming clearer.

I have a Life2.0 folder on my bookmarks bar - it's a bit cheesy I know, but it illustrates the point very clearly to me - and only important stuff goes in there. http://ScratchMyBack.org.uk, http://GeekWee.com, http://Playportal and http://AudioBooth will all be launched fresh before the year is out. Each one will also be scrapped as soon as I know it was an idea fail :) That's something I learned the hard way in the summer when my dedicated server was completely corrupted. I lost 9 sites. Audiobooth and uBoo.tv sadenned me most. All were entirely imperfect and i'd developed them in a slap dash way. Losing them was hard - but the feeling of refreshed enthusiasm was worth the wait! I'm sure we all know change, if embraced, is good. I wish the marketeers and corporate employers hadn't high-jacked the concept for their own needs ;)

My Team Fortress 2 maps : CTF_FLAKEY

2010-02-22T09:08:00.001Z

I will be using this blog for all my creative output.
I began learning game level design in November 2009.
I absolutely love it. It combines 3D modelling, Architecture,
gaming experience, psychology, and graphic design - with
a healthy spoonful of computer geekery.

This Capture the Flag map, is based in the Alps, at Christmas.
It's compact design ensures fast paced games.
A variety of routes make for interesting, varied play.
An organised team, using voice comms to work in harmony,
will always shine on Flakey - since defending your
'Intelligence' - or Flag, is very difficult by design.

As I design and build game levels, I will post 'Work In Progress'
entries to this blog. For now, I shall simply add small posts like this
to introduce you to my projects.

Download Flakey Here

Poppy the Viszla

2010-02-21T17:22:00.001Z

Poppy The Vizsla
Originally uploaded by ColtSeaversPS

Here's my dog, Poppy. She's a Hungarian Vizsla. Tough as nails but with a huge heart and not an aggressive bone in her body. She loves to work - which in London means alot of retrieving and increasingly obedience training and hide and seek with scented objects.

Best friend. Exercise Guru. Devoted and obedient worker.

Brings me the mail each morning, without making a dent on it.
Comes when called. High Fives. Dances - I kid you not. Generally Ace!

She's been in my life exactly 1 year tomorrow - and so is now 1 year and 8 weeks old. Love her to bits.

Magic Moss

2010-02-21T17:14:00.001Z

Magic Moss
Originally uploaded by ColtSeaversPS

Seemed an appropriate first entry to my creative output blog.

As well as using this blog to store my photography, I'll be posting about Game Level Design, Techy Geeky stuff, Web Development and quite possibly Mental Health. Welcome.