It seems like forever since I've written anything on here I guess I never really have much to say. Life is going OK. I spend most of my online time on Facebook and Twitter, but neither of them are very good for doing good chunks of interesting content...

My Ph.D ( jevon-phd) is stressful and busy and awesome, as always. My last entry said I'd be finished by May 2010 -- that date has long passed, and now my submission date has been extended to September 2011. Depressing, but at least I will finish it -- that is, unless there is just too much work left to do. Right now I am working on the proof-of-concept implementation code for two weeks, trying to get lots done before I have to go back to the thesis.

Music-wise, I've started singing and guitaring at the same time, and having a stupidly fun time doing that. I've also started to learn the drums -- I had drumming practice this evening, and it went really well. I've continued to learn how to write and compose music, and I've written a few good tunes in the last year or two. I guess I should post some online on  soundasleep. Solfonic is on indefinite hiatus, as Josh moved way, way up North. I'm looking for some new bands.

Game-wise, I've been playing a bit of Starcraft 2 recently, and last night I finally hit the Gold League, thanks to the lessons I've learnt 2v2ing with Graham. Yesterday I was also writing the skeleton of a new game as well, sort of a Simcity-style game in Java.

It's my 26th birthday soon. I didn't have a party at all last year and it was very dumb. I've got a few ideas for this year, but I'm quickly running out of time and options, so I'll announce whatever soon

And of course, in case you didn't hear about it on Facebook, me and  krissi have been engaged for a month or two now <3

So things are getting kinda chaotic all of a sudden. I wasn't expecting Winter to be so harsh or sudden. I still haven't adapted to the lack of sunlight or the cold, and it's taking forever.

I struggle to wake up before 9am, and I run out of energy by around 5pm in the day. I'm used to Summer and being able to do stuff 8am-1am. For quite a few days in the last month, I simply haven't gotten out of bed until 2pm, by which time the sun is almost gone.

Tomorrow I have to take two cars to get fixed, and give a presentation on my work at Massey (I haven't yet practiced it). I also have to drive down to Wellington in the evening for the weekend. And somehow I need to mark nine 40% assignments by the end of this weekend, before a long band practice on Sunday. Our new flatmate is moving in this weekend. Hopefully I will receive my new power supply tomorrow, so I can fix my desktop PC before next week and get my Subversion server running again.

Next week I need to practice lots for our next Solfonic gig at The Station on Friday, before driving down to Wellington Saturday morning to catch a flight over to Sydney. But before I do that I have to write two short (2-3 pages) papers for a conference in Auckland later this year.

I don't like Winter. Everyone stays indoors and goes to bed before 11pm. Nobody is online to chat to lol.

I suppose right now I'm mostly just stressed about the marking. I don't know how long that's going to take. And also stressed at myself for not adapting to Winter yet. I've still got a cough from two weekends ago which is also bothering me.