I’ve been waiting a while to for the updated edition of C# in Depth by Jon Skeet which is now on sale and covers C#4. I’ve read the first couple of chapters and would really recommend it regardless of how much experience you have with C#. It’s already helped me with some very clear explanations for concepts that can be a little tricky to express even if you understand them already. One particular explanation that I liked was to distinguish between delegate types and instances, and to think about a delegate type as an interface for a method – so a contract that the method has to fulfil. I’m quite sure that there will be a lot that I’ll get out of reading the rest of the book.

CSS3 For Web Designers by Dan Cederholm

This is the second book to be published by A Book Apart and should definitely be worth checking out. I think it will really help to provide practical advice about where you can safely start applying elements of CSS3 right now. I’ll post more when I’ve got hold of a copy.

Anyhow, most of the learning that I do is very familiar and basically revolves around academic cramming, and rapidly absorbing information. I’m quite surprised to learn that this also works with totally unrelated skills – I’m finding that I can pick up the skills on the course quick rapidly for the same reasons that I’ll learn a new technology quickly.

The part which I really shouldn’t mention is that I’m making a blouse in class at the moment. It’s stripy. It was either stripes or birds, and the birds were brown. Now I wouldn’t say that brown birds are bad, but the stripes were better in my head. The part which is even more amusing is that I’ve already made a miniature blouse to learn the various skills involved and to practice.

Right, now that I’ve covered one half of my brain, I should briefly describe the other. I’ve been hanging around with Dan recently and I’m seriously considering returning to Wing Chun after realising how much I seem to love going on about Kung Fu without having actually returned to training. I’ve had a little time to recover and come back to myself after a few years of heavy commuting, and it seems like a suitable time to cut the excuses and make a comeback. I might have a slaparound with a few familiar faces before heading back, but the whole thing is starting to seem quite appealing.

On a totally unrelated note, the next book I’ll be reading is Bulletproof Ajax by Jeremy Keith which came out recently. I would have already been stuck in, but the old, faithful technical section at Folyes came up blank. I would imagine they have good enough taste to have ordered some stock, so might check back again in the next few days.

I know It’s all looking highly amusing – living on Old Compton street, shaved head, piercings, likes to sew. I suppose I could make a little badge of Grace to wear around the place as evidence, but then again I’m not sure I really care that much what people see when they look at me.

I used to look great in trashy alternative wear when I was younger, but as an adult man it’s not really an option… any time I’ve tried, I just look like a wanabe 16 year old. I think the other main option is high end designer clothing – often this is quite unusual and distinctive. The problem is that every time I find something I love, the price tag reads £600.

I think it should be quite fun to dream up an idea for a design and be able to make something physical that matches. It’s not like I’ve taken up knitting or crochet. Yes, you can laugh at me now.

Conversly I find that cramming and pushing my own learning makes me feel amazing. Treacle goes out of the window, and I feel sharp and active. I enjoy my work much more, because the cogs are whirring away at a much faster rate. Strangely I also require less sleep and generally feel more awake and alert.

So basically, if I’m looking sleepy or stupid just slap me and get me to read something new. At the moment I’m reading CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd, Cameron Moll and Simon Collison.

Although I’ve encountered most of the material elsewhere, I believe the book is intended to consolidate all of the modern CSS development techniques that are spread across a number of different sites into a single volume. I think this is a great resource if you already have a good grounding in CSS. This will probably become the reference book that I leave lying around on my desk (although Eric will still get a lookin).

I also decided that I wanted to brush up on my pure programming skills a little, as I’ve spent most of my energy pursuing web development and graphic design for a while. I’m also reading C# Design Patterns with this in mind. Again I expect that I’ve covered a lot of the material in the book already, but it helps to be humble if you want to excel at something.