Hello again!
Hello internet, how’s things? Things with me are good!.
My work life has been hectic these past months - leading a small but great team to ship a new project that’s gone down a storm with our clients!. I’ve also been busy doing other more ‘mundane’ dev things at the day job - including a refactor of a very large project. Obviously this has been pretty “hands-on” work for the past couple of months, so, lack of updates here - apologies to my millions of adoring fans.
I’m still trucking along outside of that and things are good. My weekends are spent digging through vinyl crates, exploring new places and working through games I’ve been meaning to finish for years. I feel like I’m in a really good place at the moment as we head into my favorite time of year ( cold wet and rainy days! ).
WaxQuest
Waxquest is a project I’ve just started over the past week. Two of my passions in life are music and video games ( though the time for the latter goes down with age… ). I decided I wanted to start a new hobby project that combines them both, coming up with the idea for ‘WaxQuest’ - a site that catalogues releases specifically in the genre of Video Game Music.
Video game music often doesn’t get the respect it deserves, rather it’s overlooked and even turned off by some people playing the games. However for me, music can make or break a game. It’s one third of the experience to me - such amazing works of music like the Eve Online Soundtrack or the Defcon soundtrack elevate great games, into works of art. Being able to put that music on a physical record and appreciating it as it’s own thing elevates the music and makes for the perfect evening of a good book, good music and a good glass of scotch ( My god, I am getting old )
The site will be a basic user driven information site - essentially a Discogs but for Video Game Music only. Focusing on upcoming releases, a DB of existing ones and the ability for users to track labels / wishlist games they’d love to see on vinyl.
It’s powered in the frontend via Astro - something I’ve not used before but so far I am am absolutely loving!. The reason for Astro over Vue is mainly SEO. I think SEO is going to be really important for WaxQuest longterm and Astro allows me to do SSR out of the box - whilst also using ‘Astro Islands’ to make Vue Components where needed. It’s also just so much fun to pick up a new tech for a hobby project, I think learning something new is an addictive and productive things to do in general.
The backend will be pocketbase ( for the MVP at least ) - I’ve documented my love for Pocketbase, especially for MVP projects. It’s just so easy to hit the ground running with all the features you need. Long term I do think I’ll need to migrate and add in a node middleware for custom functionality ( especially integrations with Discogs for additional information on releases ).
I’m including it in this blog because I’m passionate about the idea - but I’m also really hoping having this written somewhere ‘public’ will shame me into working hard and getting something visible as soon as possible.
Long term I think I’d really really like to give publishing some soundtracks on vinyl a shot. I’ve no experience in the production of such things - just a burning passion to learn. It’s a pipedream at the moment, but something I think I would absolutely try my hand at. If I could take one soundtrack and have it pressed to vinyl and released - I would be extremely content.
Other Stuff
I continue to look at buying my first property and moving back to the glorious city of Manchester - again a reason for not being online as much. It’s a long process of finding a property, organising a viewing then heading over there. I’ve found a few I like - but none I love. I’m luckily in no rush as I do love living in Newcastle, I just want to be a bit closer to home!.
I’ve all but given up smoking now - other than the occasional smoke when out being social at the pub here and there ( no one’s perfect! ) - I’m keen to completely kick it on the head in the new year - and would love to test out my improved lung health with some long Hikes.
I’ve been making an effort with video games to play some of my back catalogue and finish experiences rather than hopping between them. I’ve managed to finally finish off the Diablo 4 campaign ( loved it !) - replay Final Fantasy X ( and nearly get all those achievements ), replayed Disco Elysium ( an absolute masterpiece ) and played many more.
It’s been a long time since I’ve made any new music - again it’s just a time thing. I really want to spend some time over the festive break off work trying to make something. Some small scale electronic EP, just a couple of tracks, again the whole learning thing with music is almost as addictive.
In more boring stuff I’ve gone back to a vegetarian diet - no real reason other than it feeling like the right thing to do. I was previously vegetarian for two years and vegan for around one. I’m not here to preach, you live your own life. For me however I feel better about what I’m putting in my body and I don’t miss meat at all.
So that’s me really — things are good, and the future looks bright. I feel content with life at the moment and I’m looking forward to the months ahead. Wishing you all the best until next time — your friend, Allan.