Colin Doncaster » nz

Guy Fawkes

colin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:58:03 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

An older video from a few months ago, shot with my HF10.

Changes…

colin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:16:12 +0000

I’ve packed in writing my website by hand and reverted back to the bog simple Word Press – this new fan-dangled version is pretty slick and as I’d prefer to work on content then the ‘back end’ as they say, I’m happy to be in a simple CMS land.

There’s some great themes available also – so I imagine I’ll spend the next year playing with those before chucking it all in again.

In other news, in less than 2 weeks we’ll be living in Australia again – Sydney to be exact. The plan was to return to Toronto but work didn’t pan out as rapidly as I had hoped thus we are going to hit the beach and sun for at least the next year – sounds terrible, doesn’t it?

I’ve a week left at Weta, and although it’s going to be a lot of work I wish the team well with their current project. As of March 16th I will be gleefully employed at Animal Logic – the studio behind Happy Feet.

Until next time – enjoy the rest of summer for those in the southern hemisphere – roll on spring for those in the north!

Nom nom and house cleaning…

colin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:09:00 +0000

We’re off to a foodie night tomorrow at a local eatery called Elements Cafe in Lyall Bay. A while ago I noticed that they were holding Slow Food demonstration nights and inquired but it’s taken a few months to follow up – I’m not too sure if it’s still related to Slow Food or just a cooking demonstration. Either way, it involves eating and wine – so I’m happy.

The two development projects that I’m now focusing on are underway and I’ve happily set up a local SVN repository to make sure they’re both managed correctly. My first introduction to some form of source control was when I was developing Liquid many moons ago and I used a rudimentary RCS system. From there I was exposed to more professional and production proven forms of source control while working at EA using Perforce which seems to be one of the more popular commercials packages. I’ve now moved into Subversion territory, I know that git exists and is apparently better but there’s no x-code integration as of yet and I’d prefer to work lean and mean.

Happy Monday!

Move, Reinvent and Live…

colin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:37:00 +0000

We’ve become masters of moving, in the wake of the burglary we quickly decided that we didn’t feel comfortable in the house we were in and hit the market. We landed a new house on day one, back on the water and closer to friends. I’ll post pictures soon enough.

As with every major event you always take stock and try to look at how you’re enjoying life and whether it’s been maximized to the utmost. When you’re unhappy at work and see a different life it’s easy to be consumed by money making investments in the evenings and forget to take advantage of what you do have.

I tripped, and started to feel like I was falling into a rut – projects consuming, can’t waste time on life. I’ve stuck my hands out now and caught myself on the way down, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the last few years is that even if it all changes – it’ll all be the same, it’s just a matter of adapting vs. loosing out.

The bike has been carrying me to work more often lately, it helps that I don’t have to navigate snaking thin side streets first thing and the drive around the coast is a rather Zen experience. We’ve got a good sized garage now too, both bikes and the car now take residence there though something is going to have to give – I need somewhere to set up my foosball table.

Feeling a bit violated….

colin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:04:00 +0000

Our house was broken into yesterday, in broad daylight. Laptop, cameras and other gear, all 300 of my DVD’s and various other things are now no longer ours. All materialistic, everyone is safe, but now we’re both feeling rather dissilusioned and violated. It was as if we were in a movie, everything thrown about the house – ransacked.

We’d like to move now… ah, moving… life can be a bitch, but these help build tolerance and helps put things into perspective.

Self Publishing and Bruce…

colin — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:51:00 +0000

Soon I will be gripping a throttle and motoring through town on my very own motorcycle. Over the last few weeks I took a basic handling course ( required in NZ but also very helpful to build my confidence handling a bike ), studied the road code, nailed the written test to acquire a learners license then bought a bike!

I’m a fan of the classic looking bikes and found a fun Yamaha SRV 250 that was in need of a home! I’m hoping to pick it up from the shop tomorrow and will post photos asap.

I’ve also picked up my investigations into Self Publishing and it seems likw Lulu is a good option for a first timer such as myself. Now I just have to finish my manuscript!