A Normal Working Day For Detomah

Ok, so as a first entry, I thought i'd use a little bit of time to share with the world the kind of things I get up to on an average day, so over the course of today I will update this entry to reflect anything that I actually get up to.

So... Today it is 21st May 2008

6:50 am
Well, i'd set my alarm for 8am, as I had quite a late night last night, but living above a veterinary practice in the center of town kind of makes it tough to ever get a decent sleep, as there is a constant flow of traffic first thing in the morning and with Robyn unable to sleep with windows shut, at times it feels like it's driving right through the bedroom. Anyway, on Wednesday mornings it's rubbish collection day and without fail that always wakes me up long before my alarm ever gets chance to go off. By the time I am awake, Robyn has already long since left for work, so I always wake up in bed alone, which even after 9 years i've never quite got used to.

7:00 am
Crawl out of bed blurry eyes and stagger into the bathroom to wash and do the normal bathroom stuff, including swilling out with mouth wash, which is normally enough to well and trully wake me up as I hate the taste of the stuff, but hey it's doing me good so i'm told.

7:10 am
First port of call is the kitchen, but while on my way, I go past the computer, so flick the monitor on and set my email program start downloading the emails that have accumulated overnight, which is normally around 500 or so. So then it's kettle on, coffee in cup, yakult from the fridge, surprising, but even after a month of having a yakult, i've already slotted it into my routine and instinctively take it now without even needing to think about it. While in the kitchen, which is the size of a shoebox, I check the draining board to see if there are dirty dishes needing washing, thankfully today Robyn has already done them, so all I need to do today is put the clean dishes away. As I walk out the kitchen a quick look down to make sure the dogs have fresh water is normally in order.

7:20 am
So the flat we live in is a none smoking accomodation, which in itself is playing hell with me as a smoker, but suffice to say i've managed to locate a nice window in the corridor that if I hang out of, I can consider myself smoking outside, although Robyn really dislikes me doing it, something inside me keeps me on doing it regardless, that's smoking for you. Anyway, coffee in hand I make my way to the window and light up a cigarette and spend the next few minutes staring out of the window, pondering my thoughts and plans for the day while enjoying that special feeling that the first coffee and cigarette of the day gives. Unfortunately recently my thoughts have been more on the fact that I am planning on quiting smoking again and every cigarette I have at the window ends up with me trying to convince myself that one of these days one of these things is going to trigger some kind of nasty cancer and will eventually kill me, so I must quit "I must quit, I must, I must, I must", I guess i'm trying to actually convince myself that I do actually want to quit, which is really hard, as I genuinely get pleasure from smoking.

7:40 am
Ok, now feeling properly awake and able to focus, I sit down at the computer and open up a window on each monitor, on the left is my emails which by now have finished downloading and on the right is my tabbed browser, which normally has BBC News, BBC Sport and TF in it. A few hundred clicks later and normally the crappy spam is gone and so Outlook can go into minimized mode again until the next batch arrives. So, first business of the day, check out the football rumours on the BBC Sport site, lets see what kind of crap if any is being written about Sunderland. Followed swiftly by going straight onto TF to check how many new posts there are and is there any spam advertisers to get rid of. Pretty much the boring routine of first sitting down at the computer and pretty much the same thing every single day.

8:00 am
Once done with the BBC Sport page, that tab is closed and swapped for a Reuters news page, so that I can compare the stories that are currently running between the BBC news page and Reuters to see which ones are least biased and most worthy of posting on TF, if any at all... For the most part the BBC comes out on top virtually every time, especially seeing as they update their stories constantly to reflect any changes to their stories. Mostly Mondays seem to be hectic with this as there is normally a weekends worth of entertainments news having collected and needing posting. Otherwise it's a case of generally needing to post a couple of news items to each of the news sections and then that's it for news for a few hours. At the same time, normally i'll log into my gaming press accounts and check out the gaming news, it's a bit of a mixed bag really, sometimes like yesterday there are dozens of good stories and I can spend most of the day posting them, some days it's all rubbish and I end up posting nothing. It's only really the last few months that i've tried to keep up with posting the gaming news, previously i've let it build up and build up until i've ended up not having enough time to post it all.

8:30 am
Ok, having done that, the next thing is to check whether there is any feedback that needs actioning, any PMs that need replying to, any bugs that have turned up that need fixing and various general TF stuff like that. As you can see, right from the start my day is occupied by TF and sometimes it really is a strain to keep up with all the administrative type stuff that needs doing in the background. Fortunately most of the times things seem to work as planned and so very little in the way of bugs need fixing. I prefer doing my bug fixing a little later in the day.

9:00 am
Once 9am comes, then I go into proper working mode, as although I work from home and have nobody nagging at me during the day to keep me going, I am pretty self motivated and so like to have a properly structured working day which is set out officially as 9am to 5pm, although yeah, normally i'm on TF from when I wake up right through to bed time most days. Anyway, once 9am it's pretty much a case of being in full on TF mode. What can I do today to try and make things interesting on the forum? What area should I work on today? Should I add pics to the gallery? Should I add reviews to the review section? Should I work on some of the scripts I am building? So, this morning, I have initially decided that for today, it is an individual game screenshot adding day for the gallery, so my first port of call is to login to my Games Press Pro account too look at what games I can get official screenshots for direct from the gaming companies, which having done is around the 200,000 game mark, so plenty to keep me going and the thought going through my head right now is, "how the fek am I ever going to get through that lot", when each game has around 20-50 screenshots and they all need their own section making in the gallery and they all need descriptions and all the images need renaming to search engine friendly names, etc, etc, etc...

9:40 am
Damn, remembered that yesterday i'd contacted TFs server hosts to bitch at them about the email on the server not working 100% and that I needed to chase it up. So before i've even got started in the gallery, phone the hosts and moan at them to hurry up looking into the email configuration for me. While doing it, put the kettle back on and make another cuppa and go for a quick cigarette at the same time. Also check emails again, to find another 84 emails waiting for me, of which 82 are spam and get instantly deleted. No matter how good the spam filters I use, these gits always find a way through, it's unbelievable just how many different ways people have found to spell viagra.

9:50 am
Right, into the gallery to check out the game screenshot section HERE and luckily i've already changed the section to alphabetically named categories, I thought I may have to do that before I could begin adding new games and new screenshots. That's saved me a heck of a lot of work. The unfortunate part is looking through the section and seeing how many games are already listed that don't already have screenshots added to them. So I guess my initial mission is to make sure all the existing games have screenshots in there as I know there is nothing worse than looking at something on the net and finding it is empty. It's a sure fire way for me to be certain I won't bother going back to that site again and that's the last thing I want people thinking about TF, people not wanting to come back is bad for income and bad for TFs long term, so I really need to make sure visitors get enough to make them want to return. So, clicking HERE I see that there are only 2 games listed under the category 0-9 which is 80 Days and 1nsane. I know there are more games for that category, so my next task is to go hunt down my huge list of games which is somewhere on my computer and then add a load more games for the category, then I can go and grab some screenshots to fill the category up. Kind of annoys me in a way though, because I know the community plays games, but for the most part nobody bothers to add screenshots to any of the sections. I wish they bloody would, it wouldn't half help me out and give me more time to get on with other stuff, but oh well, seeing as nobody else seems to want to help me out with this, as always it's down to me to do it.

10:25 am
Not bad, 35 minutes and that category has gone from having 2 games listed to having 36 games listed. It takes a while to add each section as permissions have to be set and a variety of little fiddly backend bits need sorting out, such as making sure they are listed in proper alphabetical order and the likes. So having done that, another check of emails (yeah emails get checked dozens of times a day), this time it reveals I have 102 new emails, a few are actually genuine important things that need actioning, so get set as requiring further action with the little red flag thingy. Anyway, before I go further, time for another cigarette, adding sections is pretty boring work and as sad as it is, I force myself to finish things like that before I allow myself my next cigarette. It makes me work harder and faster, but I know it's bad using cigarette based bonuses. After that, then it's time to go hunt down screenshots for some of these really old and bizarre games that i've found to fill the 0-9 category. Give the dogs a treat, they find the whole key tapping experience very boring, so I have to bribe them with treats otherwise they'd have me out walking them already and I don't do that till lunch time. Ahhh, as I get up, I realise i've got pins and needles in my right foot cause i've been sat on it while i've been adding these categories.

10:40 am
Damn McCafee, while having my cigarette, it's installed an update and has auto rebooted my machine, meaning i've got to reopen all the stuff I had open. Turned TV on, I like having BBC News 24 on in the background, kinda helps when it comes to getting hold of breaking news stories, as they always appear on there before hitting the website, it also works as a good distraction when i'm doing something really boring. Right, now the nasty task of hunting down screenshots for these 36 games, can see that taking me a couple of hours, as I like to at least have 10 images in every category in the gallery, some weird little thing I can't explain.

12:15 pm
After a phone call from my dad, needing to respond to some posts on the forum, needing to reply to 3 emails that came through and getting hold of a simple set of instructions for the new Triple Triad card game thats on TF, that pretty much slowed me almost to a halt. I've managed to get hold of around 70 images for the first 5 games on the list, not as easy as I would have liked, especially considering 007: Licensed to Kill is such an old game. Time for another cigarette and coffee me thinks. That'll make it 3 coffees today so far, my limit on coffee is 5 a day, so best I slow down otherwise i'll be in the shit tonight. Not having had breakfast i'm also bloody starving already, not lunch time till 1pm though and with trying to stick to my diet I can't just go to the kitchen and snack.

12:55 pm
Now i've managed to get screenshots for the first 10 games in the category. I've not counted how many, but there's a good couple of hundred. Hunger has taken over though, so it's time to stop for lunch, which involves me not only making a sandwich for myself, but also means feeding and walking the dogs, so normally it takes me around an hour or so, which means htat kind of time spent away from the computer, because I refuse point blank to eat meals at the computer, it would defeat the whole point of having a dining room table and besides, it's really not very hygienic.

1:50 pm
Dogs fed, lunch had and while eating lunch watched the latest episode of Moonlight, I love that show, another cigarette had, emails checked again and forums looked over. Now back to the horrible task of trying to find screenshots for another 26 games, before I can even begin renaming and uploading them to the gallery. I'm really not too sure i'll get even that one category finished today, but still a fair few hours left to give it a good go.

4:15 pm
The last 2 and a bit hours has been a bit of a slog, i've found some nice screenshots for another 10 games, but during the last 2 hours, i've been contacted by two of Total Formats advertisers, curious as to why their traffic levels have suddenly jumped, so have had to explain TFs downtime to them. I've also had TFs server hosts in contact with me and have had to go in to detail what the email problem has been. They think they've found it and fixed it now, but there has been a draw back to it, in that they've had to put a mail sending cap on the server, which is actually common practice, it does mean sending out newsletters in future is going to be a right pain in the ass now though as it'll take around 5 hrs to send out a newsletter, but hey i spose at least i'll be able to send one out, now that the email is once again functioning properly. Also just been and had a ciggie, first one since lunch, quite a while between those two. I'll be quite pleased to get the 0-9 section finished with, most of the games listed are fairly old and finding decent screenshots for them has been a lot more difficult than it would if they were new games. Also made sure my email box is empty, because 5pm always starts a kind of email rush hour with a whole variety of official type emails being sent at the close of business each day, I try to get them all sorted before Robyn gets home, as i like to sit down for a bit then and eat my tea and watch a bit of TV for a bit and generally relax for a bit with Robyn, so it gets a bit hectic for me soon.

5:50 pm
The final count for games in the 0-9 category turned out to be 42 which i've found good screenshots for, although I have found a more comprehensive list than the one I had for games, so it looks like the category could be breaking the hundred mark, which means at least another 2 days just on this one category. It will be fantastic once it's done and I have to keep reminding myself of that. A lot of these other sites have massive teams and massive financial backing, I am just 1 person, so obviously it will take me longer. So, having finished downloading the games for the intial 42, now I can go and have a cigarette. I think this writing a kind of blog diary could be good for me, because i've smoked way less than I normally would today. Robyn phoned me about 5 minutes ago to tell em she'd be home around 6:30 pm, so that means I have about 35 minutes to cook us something and get the table set and that kind of thing, so it looks like it will be around 9pm tonight before I start uploading the images. But by that time of night i'll have a few news stories to upload too and i'm bound to gather a good couple of hundred new emails in the next 3 hours, so once again it looks like it's going to be a busy night. I really need an assistant. I could do with having a couple of dedicated screenshot gatherer's, but nobody seems over willing to help with that one. If your reading this, fancy becoming a screenshot gatherer for TF???

11:30 pm
It's been a strange evening, by the time me and Robyn had eaten and taken the dogs for a walk the football came on and there was no way I could allow myself to miss such a massive match. Unfortunately it went into extra time and penalties, so that kind of scuppered the plans I had for TF for the evening. At the end of the day, I too need to sit and have a bit of me time. Anyway, back at the computer one final check through the hundreds of emails that have accumulated again, check the various advertisers TF uses to see how the stats are looking for the day, check PMs, check the forums, check the various dev forums and scripts that I use and the next thing you know it's almost midnight. that's it a whole day gone by and so damn quickly. Just reading this back to myself and it's hard to imagine that the day goes by so quick, it seems that i've really not managed to get a great deal of work done today, but looking at the behind the scenes stuff, it's hardly any wonder really, I end up dealing with an awful lot of admin stuff that is gradually taking longer and longer to deal with each day. Anyway, as it's late, now i'll sit and have a look round various sites I frequent and see what is going on, I tend to use this time of night as research time, checking out the competition and looking for potential new features for TF and the likes. Normally sat here with my final coffee of the day, which i'm well overdue actually, i've not had a coffee since cooking time which was like 6 hours ago, as I don't want to break the 5 cups a day mark.

Anyway, although this isn't the greatest of reads and is certainly not going to inspire anyone to take up a more active lifestyle, at least now you will have a rough idea of how my average daily week day type working day pans out. In honesty i've actually taken it quite easy today with it being footy night, normally I work far longer hours and normally I also get a heck of a lot more done.

Tomorrow is another day, but I must crack on and get those gallery sections filled with screenshots.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.