Oh boy. I was SICK.
So I missed 3 days of work, lost some weight, and had a very crummy start to the week. Feeling much better now, actually ate a normally sized meal last night. Things seem to be on the up and up. However, now I am behind on everything important. I have a big assignment due on Tuesday I've barely started. I have to make a Demolition Derby game. Currently it loads and displays the background... Obviously I have a little ways to go. So that will likely take most (if not all) of my time this weekend. Also, I need to get more work done on Project Instant Ramen (one of which tasks should be actually finding a name...). We are setting some targets for full demo versions. To enter for the PAX 10, we need to have a full working demo submittable by May 9th, which gives us just under 2 months to essentially finish. That means a lot more work. We have another one we're shooting for too, IndieCade, with a deadline of April 30th. Once we're closer to that date, we'll see if there is a Beta or something we can make publicly available. Don't hold your breath.
I'm still very very excited for this project. I would love nothing more than to have it play like we want it to. Getting it on XBox Live Arcade, or Greenhouse, or something would be nice, making money with it would be even nicer, but just for the experience and practice it is definitely worth the effort. I'm hoping that I can sink some time into it this weekend, but assignment has to take priority.
But I should get to work here, I'll be keeping you updated.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Summer Plans
So I have been trying to decide what to do with my holidays this year. I've put some aside for the Penny Arcade Expo, as I always go, and it's a great time. This year I may be taking resumes too. But last year I took two full weeks off, and spent 1/2 a month on that coast (and loved it). This year, I don't think I'll be spending near that much time, which gives me a few holiday days to use up elsewhere.
As that was sitting in my mind for a couple weeks, I was contacted by a friend in FFXI, the MMO I play. There is a crew of folks, all of whom I know in game, who all live (somewhat) on the East Coast. They get together every summer for a BBQ to hang out and have fun. I was invited this year. They haven't locked a date in yet, but with some rough estimates I determined that it would be a decently cheap flight ($400 round trip? nice) and I would have no hotel or anything to worry about, as I can crash at friend's places. I think it would be a lot of fun, and a good chance to meet these people for real. So I'm pretty excited for it.
That sort of event always brings up debates. Some people, like my sisters, and parents, think it's crazy that I would have friends that I consider really good friends, that I have never met face to face. They thought it was very weird last time I had some online friends share a hotel room with me for PAX (which was 3 years ago now? And Ruben still owes me money for!). I think many people in our society think along the same lines. Sure, I have never met these people face to face, or even seen pictures of some of them, and constantly forget their real names (I don't even know how many of them know I'm a Cody), but friendship isn't based off that. I DEFINITELY talk to these online friends more than my Parents, and my sisters (likely combined). I know what they do for a living, I know of some of their interests. I know about the good and the bad things that happen in their life. I trust them with things like my account numbers for my game characters, which gives them access to years of effort on my part, and virtual goods worth thousands of dollars. That's more than I trust some of my local friends with.
I just find it an interesting generational divide. Making solid connections over the internet is just a foreign concept to many people. To those of us who have done it though, it just seems natural.
As that was sitting in my mind for a couple weeks, I was contacted by a friend in FFXI, the MMO I play. There is a crew of folks, all of whom I know in game, who all live (somewhat) on the East Coast. They get together every summer for a BBQ to hang out and have fun. I was invited this year. They haven't locked a date in yet, but with some rough estimates I determined that it would be a decently cheap flight ($400 round trip? nice) and I would have no hotel or anything to worry about, as I can crash at friend's places. I think it would be a lot of fun, and a good chance to meet these people for real. So I'm pretty excited for it.
That sort of event always brings up debates. Some people, like my sisters, and parents, think it's crazy that I would have friends that I consider really good friends, that I have never met face to face. They thought it was very weird last time I had some online friends share a hotel room with me for PAX (which was 3 years ago now? And Ruben still owes me money for!). I think many people in our society think along the same lines. Sure, I have never met these people face to face, or even seen pictures of some of them, and constantly forget their real names (I don't even know how many of them know I'm a Cody), but friendship isn't based off that. I DEFINITELY talk to these online friends more than my Parents, and my sisters (likely combined). I know what they do for a living, I know of some of their interests. I know about the good and the bad things that happen in their life. I trust them with things like my account numbers for my game characters, which gives them access to years of effort on my part, and virtual goods worth thousands of dollars. That's more than I trust some of my local friends with.
I just find it an interesting generational divide. Making solid connections over the internet is just a foreign concept to many people. To those of us who have done it though, it just seems natural.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Allergy Season!
Its not here yet. We've been getting quite a bit of snow lately. But I have started my pre-season treatments. They have created an interesting dilemma. They put me to sleep. Something about injecting with pollens makes me sleep. Maybe I just need to time this better. They sure knock me out. Worth it though. I can't imagine doing through a spring without my shots. It's bad enough with my shots. My allergies are definitely one of my biggest concerns about moving to the coast. In more temperate climates, I suspect I will have allergic reactions much more frequently. I'll be constantly on meds. I think it'll be worth it though, for the nicer weather.
Due to demand, I'll look into posting a version of my assignment here for people to try out. It's definitely not perfect. I should have started working on it earlier than I did. I think over the summer, or maybe after Project Instant Ramen (the code name for Monoclesoft's current project) is done, I'll come back to it, and improve it. I'd love to get it more so to a quality product I am willing to use to supplement my resume for job apps to the industry. Although with the economy the way it is, the Games industry seems to be laying people off left and right, so that may hinder my chances there. You never know until you try though.
So I'm in the process of correcting my sleep schedule still. I really need to just buckle down, and re-adapt the the changes I want to make. I'm been getting to work between 7:30 and 9 ish, which takes a lot of the pressure off in the morning, which has turned into me sleeping in more regularly. I really need to be very rigid with my schedule for a bit to correct this. Hopefully as weather warms up, I can go outsied more, which will help provide more tasks I can work on. I'll keep you updated with how that all pans out.
Due to demand, I'll look into posting a version of my assignment here for people to try out. It's definitely not perfect. I should have started working on it earlier than I did. I think over the summer, or maybe after Project Instant Ramen (the code name for Monoclesoft's current project) is done, I'll come back to it, and improve it. I'd love to get it more so to a quality product I am willing to use to supplement my resume for job apps to the industry. Although with the economy the way it is, the Games industry seems to be laying people off left and right, so that may hinder my chances there. You never know until you try though.
So I'm in the process of correcting my sleep schedule still. I really need to just buckle down, and re-adapt the the changes I want to make. I'm been getting to work between 7:30 and 9 ish, which takes a lot of the pressure off in the morning, which has turned into me sleeping in more regularly. I really need to be very rigid with my schedule for a bit to correct this. Hopefully as weather warms up, I can go outsied more, which will help provide more tasks I can work on. I'll keep you updated with how that all pans out.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Holy assignment Batman
So I'm taking one class this term. It's a Computer Game Development course. I'm really enjoying it. It's a very informative. But it is a very heavy class. I just recently finished the first assignment, which was create a version of SpyHunter. It was a touch harder than I expected. As a result, I ended up not getting much sleep (even by my standards) the couple of days before the assignment was due. This was the first time I'd really cut my sleep down further. It was rough. I don't recommend it. I will definitely start the next assignment within a day or two of it being assigned. That said, I think I'll get a decent mark on it. I hit 19 of the 20 main requirements, which I think was the most anyone in the class did. I paid dearly in my sleeping though.
Due to lack of sleep, I slept a lot the day following (like 6 hours at night). It has damaged my schedule pretty good. So I am going to have to work at it this weekend to get everything back in order. I think I'll take this chance to move back up to 3 naps a day, instead of the two I've fallen into. It'll help that the weather is starting to warm up again, so I can start napping in my car if I'm trapped somewhere. I think I'm going to try moving my core. I'm thinking of changing it to 1-4am, nap around 10am, 3pm, 7:30, or 8pm. This means I'll have to find some new good tasks for early AM, as I won't be going into work at 5am, so I have an extra hour to kill. Maybe I'll actually try to get in the habit of a morning workout or Yoga session.
That's my goal for this weekend, and next week. I don't have classes next week, and it is a long weekend, so hopefully it'll work out well as a transition time.
Due to lack of sleep, I slept a lot the day following (like 6 hours at night). It has damaged my schedule pretty good. So I am going to have to work at it this weekend to get everything back in order. I think I'll take this chance to move back up to 3 naps a day, instead of the two I've fallen into. It'll help that the weather is starting to warm up again, so I can start napping in my car if I'm trapped somewhere. I think I'm going to try moving my core. I'm thinking of changing it to 1-4am, nap around 10am, 3pm, 7:30, or 8pm. This means I'll have to find some new good tasks for early AM, as I won't be going into work at 5am, so I have an extra hour to kill. Maybe I'll actually try to get in the habit of a morning workout or Yoga session.
That's my goal for this weekend, and next week. I don't have classes next week, and it is a long weekend, so hopefully it'll work out well as a transition time.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Dreams
Been awhile since I've posted about many of my dreams, and lately they have been very messed up. If you don't enjoy hearing about my oddities, feel free to skip this one.
So a couple nights ago. The dream involved me grocery shopping with my Dad. For some reason, I had to help restock a cooler, because I complained about there not being any bacon. So I got in the cooler and helped this little midget restock the cooler, which ended up taking hours. The store closed while I was restocking the cooler. So when I got out of the cooler, it was all dark. But there was still a ton of people there, just all employees of the grocery store. It was like they all lived there. I got them to let me out, and my Dad was gone. So I started walking home. This was where I realized the grocery store was by itself, miles away from the city. I walked for a bit down the highway, and my Dad eventually picked me up (not sure how he found me). After he picked me up, we drove off the highway and went off roading. And that was the end of the dream.
OH! I should mention the great products that were the main point of the grocery store trip. Apparently aside from the bacon that wasn't there, the main thing I wanted from the grocery store was Ramen (ichiban noodles). But the flavours I was looking for were Fruit Punch Ramen, and Castle Crashers flavoured Ramen. I have no idea what a video game flavour of ramen would taste like. The Fruit Punch Ramen also came with like gooey gel things you were supposed to add that were supposed to simulate soggy fruit rinds.
So yeah. That one was pretty weird.
My other weird dream lately was shorter. Much shorter. It involved my whole family moving into some large castle. It was this huge mansion, but was laid out on the inside much like a high school would have been. We were just moving in, so we were doing some large scale renovations to make it more like a house. This involved converting a lot of the space into bedrooms. Not that weird yet? So the space I end up getting as my room was originally a Men's washroom. BAM! Weird! So I the rest of the dream was about the changes I was making to this Men's room to make it a livable bedroom, and people's reactions to me living in a bathroom. Let's just say non of the changes I made involved moving anything connected to plumbing. So I ended up with this decent bedroom that just happened to have toilets and urinal's somewhat all over the place. The main area the bed was contained shower heads. No idea why I was in the bathroom.
As I remember, we all got our own wings too, so I had a bunch of other rooms in my wing. Not sure if using the bathroom as the bedroom was an order, or my idea. It was definitely the weirdest / creepiest bedroom I had ever been in though. Although there was a bit of convenience in not having to leave bed to have a shower.
And those are my creepy dream updates. Hopefully you found them enjoyable / haven't decided I am a lunatic yet.
So a couple nights ago. The dream involved me grocery shopping with my Dad. For some reason, I had to help restock a cooler, because I complained about there not being any bacon. So I got in the cooler and helped this little midget restock the cooler, which ended up taking hours. The store closed while I was restocking the cooler. So when I got out of the cooler, it was all dark. But there was still a ton of people there, just all employees of the grocery store. It was like they all lived there. I got them to let me out, and my Dad was gone. So I started walking home. This was where I realized the grocery store was by itself, miles away from the city. I walked for a bit down the highway, and my Dad eventually picked me up (not sure how he found me). After he picked me up, we drove off the highway and went off roading. And that was the end of the dream.
OH! I should mention the great products that were the main point of the grocery store trip. Apparently aside from the bacon that wasn't there, the main thing I wanted from the grocery store was Ramen (ichiban noodles). But the flavours I was looking for were Fruit Punch Ramen, and Castle Crashers flavoured Ramen. I have no idea what a video game flavour of ramen would taste like. The Fruit Punch Ramen also came with like gooey gel things you were supposed to add that were supposed to simulate soggy fruit rinds.
So yeah. That one was pretty weird.
My other weird dream lately was shorter. Much shorter. It involved my whole family moving into some large castle. It was this huge mansion, but was laid out on the inside much like a high school would have been. We were just moving in, so we were doing some large scale renovations to make it more like a house. This involved converting a lot of the space into bedrooms. Not that weird yet? So the space I end up getting as my room was originally a Men's washroom. BAM! Weird! So I the rest of the dream was about the changes I was making to this Men's room to make it a livable bedroom, and people's reactions to me living in a bathroom. Let's just say non of the changes I made involved moving anything connected to plumbing. So I ended up with this decent bedroom that just happened to have toilets and urinal's somewhat all over the place. The main area the bed was contained shower heads. No idea why I was in the bathroom.
As I remember, we all got our own wings too, so I had a bunch of other rooms in my wing. Not sure if using the bathroom as the bedroom was an order, or my idea. It was definitely the weirdest / creepiest bedroom I had ever been in though. Although there was a bit of convenience in not having to leave bed to have a shower.
And those are my creepy dream updates. Hopefully you found them enjoyable / haven't decided I am a lunatic yet.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
I have Returned!
So due to various complaints, I figure it's about time to write something here.
First of all, my blog is seeing less activity. If you didn't notice, then you need help. One of the reasons for this is I'm on twitter. I can use twitter from my phone, so I update it MUCH more regularly. Then I find when I get to sit down to write on this, I've already talked about a fair bit of it. I'll find something to talk about though.
So December was hectic. I only had one final (which went well. I ended up with a 90% in the class) but I had a fair bit of work I needed to accomplish as well. For the most part I'm caught up now. Started my new class (Video Game development) which is awesome. At work I'm shifting into testing mode, so I'm writing lots of test apps, and just using the stuff I made last month. Things are starting to settle down.
I had a good Christmas holiday. The whole family thing was a bit weird. My oldest niece was at her father's house all day, and the next oldest (only one old enough to know what was happening) is very resistant to change. She was definitely NOT excited to open presents or anything. So we ended up drinking, Hot Tubbing, and playing Boom Blox on the Wii pretty much all day. My mom was so excited she could beat me at a video game. My parents caught on to Boom Blox quickly, and I''m not very good, especially when I'm drinking.
New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. We ended up having people over. It was good times. Got a loaner projector, as mine was in for repairs (sigh). Played some Rock Band, lots of drinking, and general just hanging out. Had a pretty decent turnout. We even got to count the leap second. We went with counting zero. Then there was a fair bit of drunk dialing a friend in Vancouver. We were calling from the future. It was quite humourous, but I imagine you a) had to be there, and b) needed to know the guy. So I'll save stories about it for others to tell. There might be a video floating around the internets somewhere...
After New Year's (New Year's Day, in fact) I took off to Jasper with 2 friends. Got 3 days of skiing in. Had a ton of fun. Spent maybe a touch more cash than I should have. It was totally worth it though. I had a blast. I realized how much I actually love the mountains though. Now that I have a sibling living closer to them, I might have to start making more trips. Probably not this winter, as I have some debt to clear off now, but next year!
So that's essentially the update for my December, and first 1/2 of January. Eventful, Fun, and great. I'll make another post in a week's time or so to talk about how that month has hurt my sleep program (which I'm slowly getting back on track for) and maybe leak some details on my latest (video game related) project.
First of all, my blog is seeing less activity. If you didn't notice, then you need help. One of the reasons for this is I'm on twitter. I can use twitter from my phone, so I update it MUCH more regularly. Then I find when I get to sit down to write on this, I've already talked about a fair bit of it. I'll find something to talk about though.
So December was hectic. I only had one final (which went well. I ended up with a 90% in the class) but I had a fair bit of work I needed to accomplish as well. For the most part I'm caught up now. Started my new class (Video Game development) which is awesome. At work I'm shifting into testing mode, so I'm writing lots of test apps, and just using the stuff I made last month. Things are starting to settle down.
I had a good Christmas holiday. The whole family thing was a bit weird. My oldest niece was at her father's house all day, and the next oldest (only one old enough to know what was happening) is very resistant to change. She was definitely NOT excited to open presents or anything. So we ended up drinking, Hot Tubbing, and playing Boom Blox on the Wii pretty much all day. My mom was so excited she could beat me at a video game. My parents caught on to Boom Blox quickly, and I''m not very good, especially when I'm drinking.
New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. We ended up having people over. It was good times. Got a loaner projector, as mine was in for repairs (sigh). Played some Rock Band, lots of drinking, and general just hanging out. Had a pretty decent turnout. We even got to count the leap second. We went with counting zero. Then there was a fair bit of drunk dialing a friend in Vancouver. We were calling from the future. It was quite humourous, but I imagine you a) had to be there, and b) needed to know the guy. So I'll save stories about it for others to tell. There might be a video floating around the internets somewhere...
After New Year's (New Year's Day, in fact) I took off to Jasper with 2 friends. Got 3 days of skiing in. Had a ton of fun. Spent maybe a touch more cash than I should have. It was totally worth it though. I had a blast. I realized how much I actually love the mountains though. Now that I have a sibling living closer to them, I might have to start making more trips. Probably not this winter, as I have some debt to clear off now, but next year!
So that's essentially the update for my December, and first 1/2 of January. Eventful, Fun, and great. I'll make another post in a week's time or so to talk about how that month has hurt my sleep program (which I'm slowly getting back on track for) and maybe leak some details on my latest (video game related) project.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
School is Done!
At least for the term. I have another class next term, then it's still unknown if I'm done or not. I'm quite excited though. My class next term is Game Mechanics. I think it should be very interesting. It also lines up with my Nintendo DS memory cart coming in, which allows me to finally start playing with development for the DS. Also, my 3d Artist friend apparently is just leaving his job, to a more part time position, to focus more on getting a portfolio together. Which means I can likely suck an artist into some projects.
My class next term is a good time as well (4-5:30 Tuesday, Thursday) which means if I keep my current work hours, I can bank a lot of flex time. I'm intending to flip that flex time into working on some video game related development. I might talk to my boss to see if I can take a Thursday afternoon off, and just head to the University and do some work on game related code before class. That would give me like 4 hours a week, minimum. That would be nice. I'll have to get a laptop to develop on in that case, but I'm intending to pick up a MacBook after Christmas anyway. (At least after Christmas shopping... So I may end up with one in the next couple weeks)
So video game season is almost done. Tomorrow I can pick up my last pre-order. I've done better than I was expecting at completing a few of them before getting new ones. Not that I'm done them all, but at least a few. I'll likely be slowing down now though, as I want to focus more on programming. I'm hitting the time in my life where I need to start my move to the career I want.
Look at me, all growing up and stuff. Weird.
My class next term is a good time as well (4-5:30 Tuesday, Thursday) which means if I keep my current work hours, I can bank a lot of flex time. I'm intending to flip that flex time into working on some video game related development. I might talk to my boss to see if I can take a Thursday afternoon off, and just head to the University and do some work on game related code before class. That would give me like 4 hours a week, minimum. That would be nice. I'll have to get a laptop to develop on in that case, but I'm intending to pick up a MacBook after Christmas anyway. (At least after Christmas shopping... So I may end up with one in the next couple weeks)
So video game season is almost done. Tomorrow I can pick up my last pre-order. I've done better than I was expecting at completing a few of them before getting new ones. Not that I'm done them all, but at least a few. I'll likely be slowing down now though, as I want to focus more on programming. I'm hitting the time in my life where I need to start my move to the career I want.
Look at me, all growing up and stuff. Weird.
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