Because the term working would imply that it's not firstly for enjoyment. (And that you're getting paid for it !) Don't get me wrong there, it's awesome to have a job where your work brings you genuine enjoyment. I've definitely had a lot of Good Times over the years in my various projects. I tend to get that as a result of seeing something awesome and knowing "I MADE (a bit of) THAT!"
Definitely if you see your stuff on the news.
Work's been fairly hard lately though. I'm keeping up with what needs to be done, it's just ... maintaining the energy is a struggle at the moment. It's as if I'm having trouble unlocking the potential energy that's within me. I know it's there (wiggles tummy), it just refuses to unlock itself.
Next break for me will be Easter and I'm seriously considering having the week before Easter off instead of my more traditional Easter week. Not long left now. There is an ulterior motive for switching the leave date ... Voyager challenge !
But first ... before I talk about that potential Voyager challenge ... thumbnail pic time !
I have more nanoblocks to build after they arrived today. But I wanted to practice with something simple and small and the pack above was effectively thrown in free with the other two kits.
I've been enjoying the construction hobby. I'm finding a certain catharsis from putting the blocks together, whether it be Lego or now Nanoblocks.
You're probably wondering what the difference is ? First one is size. I left a 1x1 Lego block off to the left for a scale comparison. Oh there's also the Tie Advanced off in the background but ... there's that foreshortening and scaling effect that comes from a camera lens that close to the capture object. The 1x1 Lego brick is just smaller than 2x2 on the Nanoblocks.
They're about as small as they could be and still be manipulated with fat(ish) fingers like mine. Actually, I don't think my fingers are too fat, although they are thickened up more than average due to all the cricket. Gripping the handle and all that. I have some old tweezers in reserve.
It's much cheaper than Lego. The TIE Advanced was £40 for 355 pieces. The XWing was £70 for 717 pieces. The snowman and tree were £4 for "over 170 pieces". The next kit I do (reveal will come with the pictures !) has 540 pieces for £12 (down from £16) and the one after that is 780 pieces for £23. That said, there's some nifty discounts on the nanoblocks.
So the cold hard "how many kits can I get for my money ?" is vastly in favour of the Nanoblocks. They don't attract the Lego premium and also don't attract the Star Wars premium.
I'm going to enjoy building the next two kits ... and I need to find the ones after that (Pokemon avatars coming soon !)
I don't think they do moving parts though, just the basic bricks. Still gotta go Lego or K-Nex or Meccano for things that move, like engines and wheels.
Here's the thing though. I have a few construction games for PC and I've never really got on that well with them. I think I'm much better when I have a template to work from. I should really open up From The Depths and have a good go at that, I have a series of ship designs in my mind based on the Trimaran hullform :
A trimaran has 3 hulls. One long thin one in the centre, with an outrigger either side. It opens up a lot of deck space, although it can make the internals a bit cramped. It gains you a tonne of speed and efficiency. And the outriggers make it look like it has wings. Dragon theme ! Just need to get with the mouse and clicking and they could happen. Yep - trimaran with lots of guns, missiles and lasers.
Although there's that Tired thing again. I'm feeling really beat up at the moment. Physically, I'm fairly ok. My outsides continue to heal (slowly) and my insides are sore ... but doing ok. It's keeping the energy levels up that's hard at the moment. It means I throw everything I have into work ... and crash when I get home. It's one reason I'm not learning the new games, because I don't really have that mental energy to invest in them.
I do enjoy watching the videos of other people playing games though. When they're good games and interesting presenters. I've changed who I watch lately, as I got bored with some (most of Yogscast) and found some others to watch (Heychrissa, Enter Elysium). But that's when the games are interesting.
But those are negative thoughts. Wait, curious that I've been enjoying building stuff with the lego and nanoblocks but I've been finding the Minecraft gaming video stuff to be creatively dead and utterly boring. And Minecraft is building stuff with blocks !
Oh back to gaming to finish off. I mentioned the Voyager challenge ... This is a combination of Star Trek and Elite. The premise of the Star Trek Voyager series is that they get grabbed by a being called the Caretaker, who pulls them 70,000 light years away to the other side of the galaxy. And it'll take 75 years to get home. The Voyager challenge is to get an Elite Dangerous ship to the same system ... and race back.
Nah. I won't do 40 hours of Elite straight but I may well make my out to the Gamma quadrant wormhole (as seen in Star Trek Deep Space 9) before heading across to Voyager's spot. And then I'd head back, probably on my own time. Cos 40 hours of anything straight is a bit silly, games especially.
Unless it's sleep. I feel like I could do with 40 hours straight of sleep at the moment !
Cya next time and hopefully I'll think of something to post (another A to Z coming "soon"). Been having a bit of blog block lately I think ...
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