Striking A Balance

First some disappointing tidbits: I haven't heard anything back about the article publication in the Yes magazine, the freelance journalist seems to have vanished without trace. There's a good chance it won't be published, if this ever was the intention to begin with. Secondly, I haven't heard back regarding that new website job yet after a week. It's less disappointing, but it would have been very nice. Hopefully I'll hear something about it later next week.

In more joyful news, I have today published a short story ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/34113235/%E7%B5%82%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8B%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C-Owaru-no-Sekai-The-World-Which-Has-Ended ) titled Owaru no Sekai, or in English The World Which Has Ended. It is inspired by scenes from an anime series called Clannad, which I have watched last year when it aired on Japanese TV.

On which note, I just started watching one of last year's series, namely Valkyria Chronicles. It starts off pretty much like the similarly titled game and seems interesting enough so far. It's a nice replacement for a series I finished earlier this week called Minami-ke (original plus sequels including Okaeri and the final OVA, Betsubara). Maybe I'll one day work through the 200+ anime episodes and movies I still have left to watch on my HDD alone. I remember a time when I was up to date and had time left to check out new series :P

Work-wise I have somewhat grind to a halt again. My cold still isn't fully gone, my left ear is nearly constantly plugged, the wait for a response from the UMCG hospital has increased the rate of PTSD flashbacks and paralyzation events and I have in general had trouble finding my balance again.

Today I got an email from the UMCG informing me that they'd be willing to entertain a visit from me next week Thursday. I guess it'll be the day when they finally inform me that they can't do anything I need and are willing to do everything I don't need, much like the VUMC did last year. If I was religious I'd be praying fervently that I'll have the strength to survive this day and those following it.

What I have accomplished the past few days is to finish a few small tasks which kept distracting me, including writing that short story, and putting the LDSS draft specification document together. LDSS being Layout and Design Style Sheets, the document for which can be found at www.mayaposch.com/ldss.php. It is intended as a successor or replacement for CSS, with a simplified box model, proper layout system and more styling options missing in even the upcoming CSS 3 standard. My hope is that it'll be accepted as a web-wide standard and implemented in browsers. I do need feedback from professional and experienced web designers for it, however, plus some support from people at the companies and organizations which decide which standards to include in their browsers.

This coming weekend I'll attempt to get the Wild Fox project back on track again. It'll use the Firefox 4.x code branch and once I get it to compile with the GStreamer libraries it should be smooth sailing. Or so goes the theory at least :)

I got the VHDL '87 through 2002 standards from Pieter earlier today and I hope to start work on the VHDL compiler for the Lilium project next week. I really hope it won't be as tough as I think it's going to be.

Also on the planning is to get levels designed and more elements modelled for the ECD game. Trevor has been working the best he can, despite some personal problems which have unfortunately slowed down the project. It's going to be a huge relief once we get the first level done. I think we're reaching the point where a project is just taking too long, and the fun is quickly evaporating. It's never a fun point, and I hope that some quick progress will rectify it.


Maya