Crazy experiment in trying to earn more income

Now that I have my own house, I have a little less each month to spend/save so I have been investigating ways to earn money in my free time, preferably at home and substantial (at least minimum wage equalivant). So far, I haven’t been able to find anything that generated enough money for time spent. Examples of these include Mystery Shopping and earning tiny amounts for writing reviews/filling surveys.

I did contemplate about writing games or applications for XNA and the iPhone but my current work contract doesn’t allow it and there is an upfront fee to become a developer for either of these two platforms for something that isn’t guaranteed to generate a profit. However, with some negotiating on the part of the contract and making sure I have a viable idea to develop, market and sell before putting any money down, this path may still be an option in the future.

This left me with the idea that I am currently trying and been thinking about for several years now however, the reason why I consider it ‘crazy’ is because it involves gambling and we all know how this could end up once you are on this path.

Holy crap, haven’t been writing in here for a while…

I have been ridiculously busy over the last month especially with my recent house purchase. Going from a fully furnished flat to a empty house is stupidly expensive (of course, it doesn’t help that I seem to be sticking with ‘if I am going to buy something, I might as well buy it to last’ mentality). Even the little things such as pots and pans, cutlery, etc mount up to a unexpected healthy sum.

Which brings me onto my problem, buying a TV. I have two in mind, the Samsung LE40A557/8/9 at £540 and the Sony KDL40W4000 at £750, the Sony model is definitely better but I can’t work out/decide if I will notice and/or if it is £200 better. I am going to hop out tomorrow to a couple of shops and see if I can notice any difference.

I also caved in brought an iPhone and it isn’t a bad piece of kit. The whole thing works pretty well as you expect from Apple but it is the apps that really defines the platform. Unfortunately, there is quite a high signal to noise ratio in the App store but there are truly some excellent apps to download. Qype Radar is my current favourites, using the iPhones GPS it finds points of interest that have been entered and reviewed on their website. These include pubs, restaurants and the like.

Finally, I have been trying out a interesting at work and at home called F.lux. All it does is adjust the temperature of the colours on the screen to match the lighting at the current time of day. In the day, it will be what it looks like normally but after sunset, it makes the colours warmer to match artificial lighting to reduce eye strain. It is an interesting concept and personally has worked really well especially in the office. Give it at try, I am interested to see what other people make of it.

Quick fire update

Finally got the keys to the house mentioned earlier (took long enough) and it is a little smaller then I last remembered but I finally have my own place . I haven’t yet settled in due to a complete lack of furniture which is next on my agenda list. Later in the year, I am planning to put some effort and money towards fixing up the place.

Work is going pretty well despite all the doom and gloom with recent layoffs and studio closures. Currently working on frontend for a handheld platform which is a change of pace for me.

Still eagerly waiting for the Open Pandora and now a Streetfighter IV Fightstick which I can’t seem to preorder .

Not much beyond this I guess. Oh, I do have a personal project in the works but not yet ready to be mentioned yet.

Blog update

Its been quite a while since I last wrote here mainly because I been stupidly busy between work and property hunting. The good news is that I have found a property that both my parents and I like a lot and currently in the middle of all the legal paperwork and processes involved. I can now appreciate why house buying can take such a long time and understand why people say it is one of the most stressful things you can do in your life.

At work, as most of you probably know that the Harry Potter game and film have been delayed till next year which was a bit of a shock to the team.

Finally, the Open Pandora handheld pre-order date (30th September) is literally just round the corner. Personally, I am very excited by the handheld and already put money aside a long time ago to buy it and will be pre-ordering myself and look forward to developing for it (as soon as I get some ideas for games).

So I ordered a Moleskine notepad…

… and feeling a little underwhelmed. It is hand made decently but for £12.50, I can’t shake off the feeling that I overpaid somewhere along the line. Of course, I then find out that Rhodia do a smiler pad for £4 cheaper. Ah well, considering my last pad lasted for almost 2 years, I doubt I brood about spending a little.

On a side note, a colleague recommended me a decent site for property hunting, Globrix. It has some decent interactive features such as showing all search results on a map which is incredibly handy.