Thoughts of a Psych/Code Monkey/Guitarist

It came to my attention not all that long ago that, 10 years ago today, the first ever padsterprogramming blog post was made! It's really weird to think I've been recording thoughts in here for the last ten years, and all that has happened in that time (Blogger looks different, for one, as does my blog template...). I read through all the posts last night in order to catch up with what I was doing over the last decade; apparently there was a time before I was doing TopCoder designs and ACM contests - the first post is from first year uni, so I was still into coding, but with a lot ahead of me yet... Amusingly, there was quite a bit similar - apparently I was  watching survivor  (and it was already season #10: Palau. it's still going, now up to #30). I was planning on getting a 'proper watch' - which I recently just did again, upon leaving Zurich (Aerowatch this time, not Rado though). I was s tarting at Uni (oooh, so many posts about uni...), which will happe

I recently found out it's possible to make a cheesecake in ~10 minutes with only four things to clean and not much to throw out - a pretty good combination! This is mostly a note for my future self to remember how to do this, but it might be of interest to anyone who (a) likes cheesecake, and (b) likes quick and simple cooking - which is most people, right? I had bookmarked a recipe a few years ago for microwave mug cheesecake, but I didn't have a microwave at the time (whoops...) - having moved recently I now have access to said equipment so decided to give it a go for a mother's-day dessert. Step 0: Prepare Above is all you need, really! Full list: 1 egg white 125g cream cheese (exactly half the tub above) ~60ml sour cream (not sure exactly, I used ~a third of the tub, about three tablespoons) 2 teaspoons of sugar 5 teaspoons of raspberry pulp/jam (either pre-pulped, or mash it yourself).   1 biscuit (Butternut snap is perfect if you can get it) Ther

This post is from a series of review posts - for the whole list, see my  Kindling page . There's a bit of a short lull while I work out how to write the next few posts and what exactly they should be about, but I've been doing a lot of reading recently due to travel/leaving work; as I was about to clear some books off my Kindle I figured it worth reviving an earlier trend of mine and captured notes for what I made it through recently for those interested now or in the future. So, to summarize my thoughts for the novels just removed: Dark Places ( Gillian Flynn ) - Having seen Gone Girl and immediately thinking it'd be awesome if it were a Palahniuk book focussed on Amy, it seemed a good idea to read another from the same author. Dark Places is Flynn's second novel (before Gone Girl) and already is being turned into a movie, which surprised me a bit as it's a lot less marketable than first movie. The characters are certainly strange enough to be from a Pala