Seven Minutes Wasted

Blog posted by Ste Pickford on Mon, 18 May 2009
Subject: Sketches

This is a wonky little sketch of the most important event in my daily routine - making coffee.

To improve my drawing I tried to sketch something every day for a while last year (2008), so ended up drawing daft things like this all the time. The sketch took exactly as long to draw as the coffee took to boil. Seven minutes. It's rubbish because I hadn't had my coffee when I drew it.

Since I started working from home my morning routine has settled into getting the kids up and taking them to school, coming home and making my first coffee of the day, then starting work. I usually sit down at my desk, coffee in hand, at exactly 9am, just like most office workers, although the end of the day is not so clearly defined. After picking the kids up from school in the late afternoon, sometimes I have another long work session into early evening, or sometimes chip away at what I'm working on all evening. Other times I don't do anything more after coming back from school at about 4pm.

The morning coffee is a big deal though. I can barely do anything that involves thinking without it, and pretty much everything to do with video game design involves thinking. I reckon I'm probably addicted to the stuff, although I've stopped drinking it completely a number of times in the past. I could probably stop again if I wanted, but I really enjoy it.

I only usually have a single big cup in the morning though. I don't drink it all day any more, like I used to. All the offices I've worked in since I was 16 have had filter coffee machines on the go all day, so I got into the habit of being a terrible all-day coffee drinker. It took me years to realise that was the reason I couldn't think straight in the afternoon, why I got snappy with people in the evening, and why I couldn't sleep at night. At Software Creations we even challenged each other to coffee wars (basically chain-drink coffee and keep refilling the filter machine until somebody wusses out), which were fun, but rendered us completely incapable of working.

I've learnt that one big mug in the morning is enough for me on a regular week day.

Tags: sketch, biro, coffee, home, indie

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