I wanted a place to bring all my projects together and I also wanted to create a small web application in ASP.NET. So, I'm starting this blog using a blogging package I'm creating called gBlog. It would have been easier to use someone else's, but I wanted to learn something from doing this.

This blog will be about all my projects, plus other stuff I'm up to. Some of my projects are quite geeky and some are more arty. This brings them all together.

I'm also going to add some of my old projects that I'm pleased with. Anything you find listed before this post was added later really, but with the …

For a long time I've felt the Easter eggs you buy in the shops were missing something. There's never enough chocolate, and when I was a kid, the chocolate treats used to be inside.

This year I decided to make my own. I made a mould out of paper mache and cling-film and coated the inside with chocolate, a lot of chocolate. The finished product was fantastic. It looks a bit like a dinosaur egg, which wasn't quite what I intended, but I think it adds to its charm.

Next year, I might try and perfect the mould to get a smoother outside. I might also try and make it twice as big. Mmmmmmmmm, …

It's six years since I did my university final year project, but I'm still quite proud of it. I've meant to get around to publishing it online for a while. There is a copy in Leeds University Library, but I thought this would improve my readership.

I might put up my source files at some point, but for now I'm just including the report.

I developed a genetic computer algorithm that mimicked evolution to evolve small virtual robots that chased each other.

Summary

This report details the methods and results of a set of experiments into evolving virtually intelligent agents capable of displaying …

I've always been careful not to give too much away online. It's not like I have dark secrets, but I do want to control the information that exists about me on the Internet. I want to protect myself against those cyber-stalkers I've been hearing so much about. This used to be simple and easy, but the Internet is changing and people are sharing more. I might be paranoid, but what if people are talking about me?

My friends know lots of information about me. Do I have any rights to protect this information? When a company holds information about me, there is normally a formal agreement to protect …

The guide to Leeds Film Festival is huge. You better get it way before the festival begins or you don't stand a chance. Luckily I did and I've been reading it on the bus. Here are my first impressions and recommendations so far.

To amuse or confuse the films are split into six categories with fun sounding names. Some of the names are more meaningful than others. Here is my run down of the categories and my chosen few films based on my first impressions.

Official Selection

This section aims to highlight some of the best new films of the year. They've been selected by the festival organisers …

Leeds International Film Festival is the biggest cultural events in England outside of the capital. For two weeks every year, Leeds is overtaken by a frenzy of film and cinema. Hundreds of films are shown that you might not otherwise see. By the end, you feel like you've experienced the best that cinema has to offer and maybe you've even learnt something. At least, that's what I've heard.

I've never been. I've lived in Leeds for the past eight years. Every year I get really excited about the approaching film festival. I get the brochure, and try to pick which of the hundreds of films deserve …

Virtually everyday I get an email that promises to make me rich. Sometimes I read it to amuse myself, but it always goes in the bin. These emails normally come from a stranger. Today I got one from a friend. I was surprised; doesn't everyone know these things are always rubbish?

The email I received had the subject 'seems viable??' and after my friends greeting spoke of the wealth I would receive if I would give the scheme a go. It claimed to be a Multi Level Marketing scheme, but was really just a Pyramid Scheme.

This email had five names on it. The one at the bottom was my friend's. All I …

todo: Insert video

This was another part of our fair ground exhibition. The kids from Pyramid helped me make a fantastic stop frame animation of us all on a roller coaster.

We started off by making a roller coaster car and photographing ourselves in it. We then took those photos and made cut-outs from them. The group had painted a wonderfully chaotic looking roller coaster ride and we places the cut-outs on this.

It took about a hundred photos to do this animation. I had a little team of people in a corner doing this in shifts while the rest of the group got stuck into the rest of the project. …

Today our interactive ghost house went on show, and the public loved it. This is the first art project that I've run and I'm so pleased with what we've done and how well it has gone.

I've volunteered with Pyramid of Arts for a while. They run art groups for people with and without learning disabilities. Running the group brings a lot more responsibility, but the ideas themselves come from the group. I was working with the Youth Group. The kids were fantastic and full of ideas. The difficult part was choosing the best ideas.

I started this project with the idea of creating a musical sculpture, …

I loved working on this project. There's something about having a impending ministerial deadline that gets everyone focused. It's one of the few times I get to concentrate on one project and can do it really well.

John Hutton, Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions was holding a series of debates and discussions around the country. This was to be backed up by an on-line consultation survey asking the wider public's opinion.

The questions had been prepared for us and it was down to my team to present them in the best way possible. I designed the survey interface and pair …