However, when I do have a day where I don’t really need to do anything and have the time to spare (like today) I inevitably end up wasting it through watching TV/films, playing on the XBox, or writing blogs like this. I’ve convinced myself that the main problem is that I spend 40+ hours a week in the office looking at one project or another there. This might involve writing actual code (as most of last week did), integrating various components to solve problems that way, performing analysis on what we need to do or any number of other activities, most of which are things I’d need to do on the personal projects. Given this, I guess I’ve been subconsciously avoiding doing anything on them as it seems too much like work.

Of course, by being apathetic in regard to these projects, they’re ever growing in number as I come up with an idea for something that I (or others) might find useful, and therefore add it to the list. A prime example is the Choob functionality I mentioned in passing in my previous entry about Code Style last month (which was a lot of hot air, and no real action), but there are also a whole load of other things that I’ve been thinking about for a while and should probably do something about.

So, what do I do about this? Well, I guess it all comes down to forcing myself to sit down and write some code, rather than wandering off and parking myself in front of the TV for an entire day. With this in mind I’m going to try and set aside a couple of hours each week (be it at the weekend, or one evening), where I can get something written. This will mean that I need to actually think about what needs doing, and break it up into suitable chunks – but that’s something that would need doing anyway if the projects are to avoid spiralling out of control.

I guess if I can manage that, then I should also be able to keep this blog a bit more up to date, especially with progress, so I may even start updating this more often. Of course, it could all fail miserably, so I guess we’ll just have to see!

In the year since I started work I’ve experienced a wide variety of aspects of the business, doing development work for three separate groups – each with their own individual quirks and ways of doing things. I’ve also spent time in the US with the training programme, where I learnt a whole host of new skills, and expanded upon some existing ones. Finally, I’ve also got to know a whole host of other people and have thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout the whole thing.

Going from doing nothing to working an average of forty five hours a week was a bit of a jump, but now it seems like the norm. Sure I’m not averaging a huge amount of sleep during the week, but I’ve got the weekend to relax and get stuff done in, so I don’t actually feel like I’m missing too much – especially as I still find time to see my friends and do things outside of work. Of course, some days drag and it seems like it takes forever to get to 6:30 (when I usually leave) but then there are those that fly by and I find myself confused when the automated e-mails just after market close start arriving.

All in all I’m still enjoying work, and I’m glad that I can say that. It’ll be interesting to see where I am in a year’s time, and what I’m doing, especially given the rapid nature of the industry and the change that the dynamic economic climate often results in.

Of course, with the Blackberry comes more than just another device to receive text messages on, as I can now use it to keep up on my work e-mails when not in the office/at my PC. This I’ve found to be a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand I can read the important messages on my way into the office on the train in the morning, allowing me to hit the ground running when I do actually get to my desk. On the other hand, however, is the bit where the Blackberry gets its “Crackberry” nickname – it’s addictive; the little blinking light telling me that there’s another message for me to read.

Still, I’ve had it for just under two weeks now, and it’s proven useful with keeping on top of work stuff and also having other useful features. As I’ve got the 8800 it has GPS, and combined with Google Maps this can be quite useful for finding places and getting directions when you’re not too sure where you’re going. I’m not going to bother going into the features of the phone, as I’m sure this has been done to death elsewhere on the internet; Google Maps is just one thing that I find myself using occaisionally.

All in all though, as far as devices go it’s pretty good. I’m just having to be careful to stop it slowly taking over most of my life as it starts to weld itself permanently to my hip.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite glad for the opportunity to relax and do next to nothing – it’s just somewhat of a shock to the system. I’m used to getting up early (and my body still hasn’t adjusted to the fact that I don’t have to) and then having to go to work, not getting up and pottering around the flat for however long I feel like. I guess part of me still wants to be in work, as I still have a strange urge to check my mail there.

Still, in a week I start with my new team in European Trading Renovation and I’m quite looking forward to it. In the meantime, I suppose I may as well put my feet up and relax.

Working from home is an interesting experience for a number of reasons. The most obvious is the difference in surroundings, which brings about a whole different mindset. I found that it was a lot more relaxed working at home, and despite the distractions (such as the xbox and my DVD collection) remarkably productive. Perhaps this was because of the lack of other distractions (workmates asking me questions), or perhaps it’s just because I knew I needed to get stuff done.

Due to my desktop being hooked up to my TV, I actually decided to use my EeePC as the thinclient through which I would remote desktop into my machine in the office. This works remarkably well, especially once an external monitor and keyboard are connected, as I’ve just plugged in the Eee, removed the battery, and have a near-silent machine to use for work.

Unfortunately remote desktop, especially over Citrix, isn’t the best thing in the world; especially not for programming. A number of issues seem to be prevalent, especially with modifier keys such as shift. This doesn’t make things particularly easy, although I am getting used to using caps-lock again for writing things where capital letters are required. The latency on the connection isn’t always great either, with a noticeable lag between hitting a key and it appearing on the screen.

Of course being in the office has the advantage that you can more easily communicate with the people you are working with. Sure, I may have listed the lack of distraction from them as an advantage above, but there’s a bigger one in being able to quickly chat with someone and draw a diagram on a bit of paper – as opposed to either trying to describe it over the phone, or find some software to sketch it out on the PC with.

All in all, being able to work from home is a fantastic tool – especially in IT where things can go wrong at any time of night, and getting into the office might not be so easy. Of course, I’m hoping that that I won’t have to do that any time soon, but it’s always a useful ability to have. Admittedly living twenty minutes from the office means that I can get in quite comfortably, and for the majority of situations I’ll prefer to go into the office and use a real machine – if only to get around the aforementioned problems with latency and RDP over Citrix. I’m equally sure, however, that this weekend won’t be the last time I do a decent amount of work from home as something will inevitably come up that will ensure I need to.

This has resulted in a strange situation for me, where I’ve found that I’ve become addicted to doing the work. I spent the majority of this bank holiday weekend either in the office or working from home, and I have absolutely no problem with this. I even went so far as to be working at 1:30am on Monday morning, purely because I was awake and in the mood to do some work.

Now, some people would see this as being rather wrong, especially as I don’t get paid any overtime for doing this work. On the other hand, I have no problem with it, as I actually enjoy it (especially with the challenges involved in the project) and I knew what I was getting myself into when I applied for the job.

As the project deadline draws ever closer (the code freeze is in less than a week now) I suspect that I’ll spend even more time working on it, striving for perfection; and I have no problem with this. I’m not sure why I’m so keen at the moment, maybe it’s because I’m enjoying the project more because of the pressure, maybe I’ve just gone insane… who knows. All I know is that I’ve got a week off after the project is out of the way, and then I go into my job for the foreseeable future, where I can only hope that I retain the same enthusiasm as I currently have.