40 by Forty

So, you're a day late and you seem to be doing the talking to yourself shtick again. I presume this means that you've got some quality excuses lined up? I have no idea what you mean! Uh-huh... Look, it's been a hard week. Renae was away in Turkey for a week, leaving me with a number of children that varied from 2 to 6 in a confusing and complex pattern designed to drive men mad with arcane, forbidden angles. Sure... Plus, we've got visitors! And...? And... *mumbles* Sorry, I didn't quite hear you. Fine.  I said "And I've just got Red Dead Redemption 2".  Happy now? Delirious. So what challenge are we looking back on? Well, given I've been gaming this week, it seems a good time to look back on how designing a board game for grown-ups is going. And how is it going? Not great, to be honest. This one has proven to be unexpectedly difficult and unenjoyable. That's not to say I expected it to be easy . I've made a game for the...

Bonjour! Salut. Comment ca va? Bien, merci. Est-ce que vous parler Francias? Je parler un peu Francais. OK, I'm out. Oh thank god.  (Dieu merci!) I'm out, too. I'l be honest, I reckon even some of those few lines are wrong. So, not so much with the French then? Well, I'm still plugging away at it but I'm not sure how much is sinking in.  You see, this is my issue with learning French.  There's a LOT of work before you get to any level of competence.  I was kind of hoping that, as an adult with a genuine desire to lean, I'd make better progress than I did as a teenager with a genuine desire to be anywhere other than French class. This has not been the case. I do wonder how much this comes down to my mode of learning (an app).  Looking back, I can now appreciate the sheer power and generosity of face to face lessons, provided free at the point of use that I used to get at school.  I'm pretty tempted to look into taking a French class once I...

Hey!  You!  You need to write a blog post! No.  No.  You can't make me! No, but you can... I don't follow. You committed to doing a blog post a week, remember?  And you've kept it up. Are you really going to fail now, with only 8 more weeks to go? ... You bastard. Hey, I'm just you writing in a different font. OK, OK, I'll do a damn post. Good.  So what are we covering this week? Err... How about the eating and exercising one? Alright, so how's it going? Mixed. I'm doing pretty well on the eating side of things. My snack consumption is down significantly and the frequency of giant, comedy puddings has dropped to almost nil. But...? But, if I'm honest, the exercise side of things is pretty shocking.  It's been the one challenge I've never really gotten to grips with. Maybe it's because I don't like exercise? You don't like learning French either, though. This is true. Maybe it's that I've seen pretty...

Previously on 40 by Forty... (Neer-ner-nerrr, ner-ne-ne-ner-neerrrr! NEER-ner-nerr, ner-ne-ne-nernerrrr...!) Renae and I were away in Perth last Sunday and Monday taking a very early opportunity to celebrate our anniversary. Plus, at least one (count 'em, one) person has asked how I'm doing on my goal of ticking off 40 arbitrary and slightly random challenges before my forthcoming birthday, so I'm going to jump on this chance to declare this week a holiday week and churn out one final checklist on what's been accomplished so far. Brace yourselves, people, it's going to be... Pretty.  Fucking.  Mundane. Long-term challenges New year, new spirit of long-term challenges?  Well, sort of.  I've got back into the saddle for most of these at least, if not quite with the burning fire that I started the year. As before, each one is linked to its respective blog entry. Learn French (me) - Still going. Still not sure anything is sinking in. Certainly sure ...